In an earlier blog about the South Florida Developer, I credited Martin County’s creation to Edwin Menninger. My history colleague, Rick Crary, has educated me about the impact Major Shuman, a new man on the scene in the early 1920s, had getting Governor Martin to support the creation of a new county and financing the building boom associated with Martin County’s creation.
This photograph of Major William Irvin Shuman was cropped from a group photo of local men with Governor John W. Martin in Tallahassee . (Courtesy Ashley Family)
Major William Erving Shuman’s Southland Bond & Mortgage Company financed numerous local building projects.
The Post Office Arcade on Osceola Street was financed by Southland Bond & Mortgage Company.This photograph of Harry Lyons as he looked in 1925 was recently shared by his grandson William Lyons.
Harry Lyons featured in my last blog was certainly in the thick of things. With all of the Lyons generated publicity for Stuart Shores, the big development on land on either side of the Welcome Arch, I began to suspect he was involved it the plans for Stuart Shores. Research, using newspapers.com, proved this to be so.
Harry Lyons and Major Shuman were quite a team when they focused their energies into planning a two day event celebrating Martin County’s creation. Dignitaries were invited, bands played, a lavish dinner was held, and a parade, the likes of which was never been matched in Martin County, took place.
Stuart Shores, the planned subdivision that would have surrounded the Welcome Arch, won the prize for best decorated open car.
There was a great deal going on behind the scenes when the Stuart Welcome Arch was built in 1926 with great haste. The real estate boom that caused the creation of Martin County also caused local communities to puff up their egos, incorporate and expand their boundaries.
Map of expanded limits of incorporated cities of Stuart, Jensen and Palm City published the the South Florida Developer on January 18, 1926.Jensen ( the Beach was not added until 1943) was and is on the Welcome Arch as you head northeast.
During the boom, the boundaries of the incorporated cities of Stuart and Jensen met each other as shown on the “Three Cities Map.”
The Welcome Arch was not completed in time for the huge Martin County Birthday Festival that took place on January 28 and 29 1926.
The Three Cities Map was printed in the South Florida Developer as part of an advertisement for St. Lucie Estates. Some of the men who were developing St. Lucie Estates were also the men who pursued the creation of Martin County and were promoting the establishment of a deep water commercial port.
Many advertisements for St. Lucie Estates were published in both the Stuart News and the South Florida Developer. This one was published in the Stuart News on July 30, 1925. The Osceola Block still stands on the northwest corner of Osceola and St. Lucie Avenues.
Lyons. Atkins & Innes were exclusive sales agents for St. Lucie Estates, subdivided in phases in differed numbered sections on what was once the pineapple fields of Stuart pioneer Carroll Duncombe. The Lyons in the name was Harry Lyons, the father of beloved Stuart News editor Ernest F. Lyons.
Harry Lyons, a self-educated former journeyman printer turned real estate salesman, was constantly submitting articles, letters and advertisements to newspapers. He promoted the formation of Martin County as well as the building of the Welcome Arch. He knew it paid to advertise and worked closely with Edwin A. Menninger..
This tabloid size booklet is a time capsule of Martin County’s creation.
Harry Lyons worked with Edwin Menninger owner of the South Florida Developer to publish a tabloid size booklet memorializing the celebration.https//www.martindigitalhistory.org
A copy of the booklet has been preserved and can be viewed on Martin Digital History. You can find it by entering “birthday” to search items.
“Stuart, Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico.” How is this so? The first water from Lake Okeechobee came into the South Fork of the St. Lucie River on June 13, 1923. The Caloosahatchee, already partially channelized, led to Ft. Myers. Hence there was a cross-state waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. The men who promoted the formation of Martin County thought this gave our region great advantages. Products from the interior of the state could be brought to the coast inexpensively by water. Pleasure yachts could and would use the canal.
Local boosters considered the cross-state canal, our “Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico,” would give us the upper hand when we appealed to Congress for federal money to improve the St. Lucie Inlet and establish a deep water port for ocean going vessels.
They say “be careful what you wish for.” Martin County’s greatest blessings are the result of unfulfilled dreams. Luckily, we did not always get what we wished for. We DID NOT get a deep water port. However, we wished for the St. Lucie Canal that connects with the Caloosahatchee and leads to the Gulf of Mexico and we GOT IT. We have had to deal with its consequences. The Stuart Welcome Arch is a monument to the Florida Real Estate Boom that brought Martin County into being. It has been preserved and put on the National Register.
Martin County Commissioner Doug Smith and volunteer Julie Preast pose with the Stuart Welcome Arch historical marker during its installation celebration on August 27, 2004.
The restored Stuart Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico arch was dedicated on November 21, 2006.
The restoration of the arch and getting it placed on the National Register seemed like an impossible undertaking. We should have known not to underestimate the determination of Commissioner Doug Smith and super volunteer Julie Preast.
Just as Heidi Rich had almost finished designing and assembling A Pictorial History of Palm City Florida, serendipity came into play.
Josh Liller, Historian and Collections Manager of the Jupiter Lighthouse and Museum, is a Martin County boy and Martin County High Schools graduate. http://Jupiter Lighthouse and Museum
Daughter, Jacqui Thurlow Lippisch, and I attended a meeting of Southeast Florida Archaeological Society at the Hobe Sound Library on January 13, 2024. Josh Liller, the Historian and Collections Manager of the Jupiter Lighthouse and Museum, sat next to us. We talked about our Palm City book project. The following Monday morning I received an email from Josh alerting me to early photos of Palm City being sold on eBay.http://Southeast Florida Archaeological Society
This is what was posted on eBay.
I was amazed when I checked them out. They were the work of Florida Photographic Concern, the main subject of my previous blog posts.
The photographs were found in a flea market near Detroit, Michigan by John Monaghan. They were in a booth selling records where John noticed a stack of photographs for sale. Some of them were identified as Palm City in 1912 and 1913.
Josh Liller’s computer is set up to notify him when something pertaining to Palm Beach history is for sale on eBay. There was one photograph of the Royal Poinciana Hotel in the batch. He already had the Royal Poinciana photograph but he knew Jacqui and I would be interested in the Palm City photographs. We certainly were.
Sam Matthew, the builder of many structures in what became Martin County came to Florida to work on this hotel. The Palm Beach County School was constructed “way out of town” when William Dyer, who left the St. Lucie River Region for West Palm Beach, was Chairman of the School Board.
When I contacted John Monaghan, he said that he had just picked out what he thought were the most interesting photographs and he would see if the rest of the photographs were still there when the flea market opened again on the following Sunday.
The photographs were still there and he let me purchase them for what he thought was a fair price. There were 35 photographs in all and I was delighted to obtain them.
The Stuart School was built of blocks crafted by pioneer Frank Frazier. In 1925, the former school became the Martin County Courthouse..
I am going to share only one of the Palm City photographs and take this opportunity to share ones that will not be published in A Pictorial History of Palm City.
Yesterday, July 30, 2024, the Southeastern Printing proof of A Pictorial History of Palm City. Florida was signed and submitted for print. What a feat.
We think those who open the cover will pleased with what they discover.
Unlike when our other books were printed and we saw the big presses running and watched as book designer, Heidi Rich, approved each press sheet, the new book is out of our hands.
Twenty years ago Sandra Thurlow and Heidi Rich check print sheets at Southeastern Printing in Golden Gate.
Southeastern Printing is no longer in their plant in Golden Gate on A1A, near the Yacht and Country Club of Stuart. The 100 year old company founded by Edwin Menninger has relocated to Hialeah, Florida, adjacent to downtown Miami.
This shows a press operator in the Golden Gate plant.
Printing has changed dramatically since 1992 when my first book was printed. The quality diminished so slightly when the presses changed to digital, it was hardly noticeable
A metal printing plate for one side of a sixteen page signature for Stuart on the St. Lucie.
No longer are large metal sheets required. The process was so interesting to me that I kept one of the metal printing plates and a number press sheets.
The blank side of the metal plate looks like shiny aluminum. The antique Bill Greene Chevrolet yardstick shows the plate’s size.
When I pulled the big metal sheet out of the back of a closet so I could photograph it, a sound like thunder erupted. (Something like this must have been used to produce thunder in the era of radio dramas.)
Rolls of stored press sheets from books printed long ago.
Someday, I will throw out the paper and metal trail of book production but some copies of our books will endure long after I have to say “goodbye.”
Since this ad says “85 years,” this ad must have been published 15 years ago.
My latest book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida authored with my daughter, Jacqui Thurlow Lippisch, has been submitted to Southeastern Printing.
Don Mader, owner and CEO of Southeastern Printing Company,
It is such a blessing that the best printing that money can buy is available through a printing company established in Stuart by Edwin Menninger. I say “Stuart,” rather than Martin County, because I learned yesterday from Southeastern’s owner and CEO, Don Mader, that the printing company is celebrating its centennial this year. It was established before Martin County was created. I am so happy our Palm City pictorial is being printed by the company.
The employees of the Stuart News and Southeastern Printing Company pose in downtown Stuart in December 1955. Edwin Menninger is standing second from the left.
I am so happy our Palm City pictorial is being printed by the company that printed my other pictorial history books. The books are exquisite. When my first book Sewall’s Point— The History of a Peninsular Community on Florida’s Treasure Coast was first printed in 1992, Southeastern’s printing process was quite different. The world had turn to digital by the time my other books were printed.
My customer service representative , Bill Kuhn, and my book designer, Heidi Rich, look on as my book is being printed in the Southeastern plant in Golden Gate.
As I study Edwin Menninger’s contribution to the establishment, survival, and beautification of Martin County in preparation for the county’s centennial in 2025, I am truly amazed.
This is an early ad for what became Southeastern Printing.
As soon as Edwin Menninger set up the South Florida Developer, formerly published in West Palm Beach, in Stuart, he founded the printing business that became Southeastern Printing Company, Inc.
Edwin Menninger actually DID make Martin County. Without his newspaperman’s knowhow, Martin County could not have been created. He was a very smart man from a very smart family. His physiatrists father and brothers founded the world famous Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas.
Edwin Menninger was only 18 years old in this family photograph.
Rather than psychiatry, Edwin chose journalism. After graduation from Washburn University he studied and taught journalism at Columbia, University in New York City. He came to Florida to recover from the aftereffects of flu and bought the languishing South Florida Developer in West Palm Beach and brought it to Stuart. His arrival coincided with the movement for county division.
Ed Menninger knew how to stoke the fires. He knew what was going on behind the scenes because his host when he came to Florida, Henry Newton Gaines, whose daughter was married to his brother Karl, was a Palm Beach County Commissioner who became chairman of the first Martin County Board of County Commissioners.
My husband and I were thrilled when he succeeded in purchasing an album filled with Harry Hill’s photography in an eBay auction in 2006.
The album was sold by Robi & Aundra-Antique Doctors in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, I called Aundra to see where they got the album but she could not remember.
Perry Corell photographed Indian River Drive when it was little more than a trail.
I was surprised that some of the photographs in the album had “Corell” imbedded in them rather than Hill.
During my Hill research I contacted the Benson Memorial Library in Titusville, Pennsylvania where the Hills had lived before they moved to Florida. I asked the librarian if she could supply information on Corell. She shared clipping from a September 1, 1904 TitusvilleHerald, that told of Perry Corell an experienced photographer who selling his shop and moving to Ft. Pierce Florida, to join Harry Hill. Both were “Titusville boys.”
Example of photographs in the album purchase in an eBay action.
The photograph on the left is the Planters Security Bank founded in Jensen in 1904. Today it is the location of Lure’s Bar and Grill. Some of the bricks from the old bank were used in the construction of the building that became Lure’s.
The photograph at right is pioneer home of George A. Saeger on Indian River Drive. He was a director of the Planters Security Bank so maybe that is why the photographs are beside each others. The home still stands at 4511 S. Indian River Drive.
The photograph at left was used for on a postcard.One of the photographs in the album showed the desk in the Hill Studio.
The Hill Studio has been reconstructed in the St. Lucie County Regional History Center.
One of the most important postcards in my collection is of Billy Bowlegs with his sister, Lucy Pearce and her daughters, Ada and Annie. I knew the portrait was the work of Harry Hill because his name is on another version of the postcard. The group portrait also appears on page 100 in A Portrait of St. Lucie County, Florida by Lucille Rieley Rights.
This full color postcard was published by H. & W.B. Drew Co. of Jacksonville, Florida.
Imagine my delight when among the images in a photo album my husband, Tom Thurlow, purchase on eBay in 2006 is one showing the Indians walking down a road after their photo session.
The Indian River can be seen in the distance.
I will write more about the album that contained the photograph of the Seminole Indians in Ft. Pierce in my next blog.
