Tag Archives: Clyde Coutant

Woman’s Club Scrapbook Reveals Unsung Heroes of Stuart’s Black Community

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The Woman’s Club of Stuart was working with Fredericka and Felix Williams and Lizzie Mae Allen, not only in securing the statue “Abundance” but also in improving parks and other facilities in East Stuart.

This photograph of Fredericka and Felix Williams with Lizzie Mae Allen was in Aura Fike Jones’ Woman’s Club scrapbook book. It is important to have a quality photograph of these civic leaders of Stuart’s Black community. I submitted it, along with many other photographs when we were gathering material for theMartin County Centennial Magazine published by Indian River Media.

I was thrilled when Michelle Moore-Burney, the designer, chose to feature the photograph predominantly on the front of the magazine. However, no names went with the people on the cover. The other unnamed people were, John W. Martin, Governor of Florida and Fingy Conners, who built a highway from West Palm Beach to Okeechobee City.

Now our Black leaders, the Williamses and Lizzie Mae Allen can be given their due.

Aura Fike Jones had her son-in-law, Clyde Coutant, photograph the Williamses and Lizzie Mae Allen because they were instrumental in collecting donations toward acquiring “Abundance” from their community. The itemized list of donations was included in her scrapbook.   

These pages list many people who have disappeared for local history because of Jim Crow laws. It is important to have their names and participation in community improvement documented.

Lizzie Mae Allen was a leader who served on a number of boards and was active in her community and church. The home where the Allens lived and raised their children was the first residence in Stuart to receive an historic marker but the emphasis is on Lizzie’s husband, Tom Allen, and the white man who constructed the house. https://www.stuartfl.gov/660/7491/Thomas-J-Allen-Home-in-East-Stuart?activeLiveTab=widgets

Fredericka Williams was an outstanding woman who supported her husband in every way, was active in her community and church and taught six graders for 34 years. Felix Williams had a distinguished career and was more in the public eye. Felix A. Williams Elementary School is named in his honor. https://www.stuartfl.gov/664/Felix-A-Williams

Abundance, the statue for which Stuart’s Black community contributed hard earned cash, now stands in Haney Circle. .

It was the Woman’s Club 2025 tour of homes decorated for the holidays that caused me to revisit Aura Fike Jones’ scrapbook about acquiring the beautiful statue.

MORE ABOUT ABUNDANCE WILL FOLLOW.

Aura Fike Jones and the Woman’s Club of Stuart

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Here I am with my two daughters, Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch and Jenny Flaugh, picking up our tickets to attend the 16th Annual Holiday Home Tour for which I was “Honorary Chairman.” (Entailing zero responsibilities.) This photo was taken by club member Julia Sansevere.

The Woman’s Club of Stuart asked me to be the Honorary Chairman of their 16th Annual Holiday Home Tour that took place on December 7, 2025. This caused me to turn my attention to something I have in my files that few people have viewed. It is a scrapbook compiled by Aura Fike Jones who was responsible for acquiring the statue “Abundance” during her 1948-1950 term as President of the Woman’s Club.

Aura Fike Joes accepted the presidency of the Woman’s Club reluctantly but took on one of the most ambitious projects the club ever tackled.

Aura Jones was the widow of a Washington D. C. lawyer, Franklin Jones, who had homes in Washington D.C. as well as a lovely old home in Port Sewall. (The home was passed to her daughter and son-in-law, Dorothy and Clyde Coutant, then to her granddaughter Norie and her husband, Glenn Neff.)

It was during Aura Jones’ term as president that through of a series of unlikely coincidences the statue Abundance was acquired for the City of Stuart.

Aura Jones’ son, Larry, knew of the statue with a fountain languishing in a warehouse in New York. He also knew it could be acquired by paying its storage bill.

Maya Konolei was the artistic name of Mary Connally who sculpted Abundance.
Created by Manya Konolei in the Paris foundry that produced the Statue of Liberty, “Abundance” once held a place of honor at the Salon of Paris. After it was shown in the U.S. and received high praise, it was purchased by a collector who had grand plans for it. When the collector died, even Konolei lost track of the statue’s whereabouts.

In the late 1940s, the Woman’s Club of Stuart was at a low point and the City of Stuart was too. Everyone seemed depress and angry and people were suing each other for this and that. Aura thought acquiring the statue would be uplifting and would bring people together. A beautiful work of art would be a source of pride and bring attention to Martin County.  

Although the statue was available at a bargain price, the City and County coffers were low and the Woman’s Club had very limited funds. In addition to paying the $2,000 storage bill, there was the cost of transporting and installing the statue that weighed several tons. Few thought Aura would be successful but, perhaps to humor her, the club agreed to pay the last $500 if the rest of the money could be raised.

The enthusiasm of Woman’s Club led the Martin County Commission to agree to pay for the cost of transporting the statue to Stuart. Money for the fountain trickled in from all segments of the community and the last $500 came from the club’s treasury.

Cynthia Burnette Haney was revered locally. Years earlier, Ethel Porter had dedicated a small portion of her land as “Haney Circle” in the middle of Seminole Street.

The original plan was to put the fountain in Haney Circle, a tiny park given to the City of Stuart to honor Cynthia Burnett Haney, an admired newspaperwoman, suffragist, and leader in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This caused an uproar. People did not think a voluptuous goddess of wine was an appropriate way to honor Cynthia Haney.

The amused admiration of the truck driver is enough to explain everyone’s reaction to placing the fountain in Haney Circle..

The women changed their plans and got permission to put the fountain on the east side of the Martin County Courthouse.

This is the original location of Abundance.
A. Feit, the art dealer from New York who facilitated getting the statue, spoke to the 300 people who attended its dedication as did, Mary Hartman and Elizabeth Conrad.

At the dedication of Abundance on July 10 1949, Mary Hartman, Vice-President of the Woman’s Club, read a message from Aura Fike Jones who was at her home in Washington D.C. : “May this fountain become the symbol of the abundance of wisdom, talent and generosity which we claim in the building of our better community is my heartfelt wish.”

We have the photographs contained in the scrapbook compiled by Aura Fike Jones because Alice and Greg Luckhardt scanned them when there was an opportunity. The photographs were taken by Aura’s son-in-law, Clyde Coutant who was a commercial photographer at the time.

TWO MORE BLOGS RELATED TO THE STATUE ABUNDANCE WILL FOLLOW.

George W. Perkins, Associate of J. P. Morgan, Once Owned Today’s Shepard Park

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Before the Shepards owned the house in what is now Shepard Park it was owned by George W. Perkins and his wife, Dorothy. Perkins was an associate of J. P. Morgan and was a powerful insurance executive and industrialist.

This photo of Dorothy and George Perkins, from Wikipedia, was taken shortly before his death on June 18, 1920. The Internet lists him as a victim the flu pandemic.

It is so much fun to research subjects that have been on my radar for years but now I can go back and use the Internet to find photographs, newspaper articles, and fascinating details.

This early postcard shows houses along the St. Lucie River around 1910. (Today they are on Atlantic Avenue.) The house on the left, the residence of Emma and Walter Kitching, still stands as does the Judge and Mamie Hancock house in the center. The George W. Perkins house can be seen at the extreme right.

The Perkins house was built by Hubert Bessey, considered to be Stuart’s founding pioneer. After the house with four acres bordering Frazier Creek and the South Fork of the St. Lucie River was sold to Perkins, Fred Schultz, a German landscaper with a long history on Jupiter Island, supervised constructing seawalls and filling low places by bringing in muck obtained from the other side of the river in lighters. Trees of many varieties were then planted. According to newspaper articles the Perkins Estate was the most beautiful on Florida’s East Coast. Pioneer, Ike Craig was the caretaker.

Unfortunately, the best photograph of the Perkins/Shepard house was taken when it burned on March 4, 1947. (Photograph taken by Clyde Coutant , courtesy of Norie Neff.)

It was the photographs I acquired from photographer, Clyde Coutant’s daughter, Norie Neff, that made me want to create blogs about Shepard Park in the first place.

According to newspaper articles the fire fighters did their best but could not save the building. However, they removed the furniture so it was salvaged.
(Coutant photograph)
William H. Shepard was said to have planted coconuts whenever he could, both on his estate and along the railway tracks through Stuart. (Coutant photograph)
The fire occurred on March 4, 1947.

One of the earliest aerials taken by Arthur Ruhnke shows the Perkin/Shepard residence. Since it is dated August 1948, and articles found using http://newspapers.com, reveal the fire occurred on March 4, 1947, we know the house was already damaged. When the photograph is enlarged it looks like the southwest wing has no roof.

The elder Shepards had died by the time of the fire but their daughters had opened the house for the season. Mrs. Shepard’s sister and her grandson were fishing in the Gulf Stream with Capt. Walter Johns when the fire broke out.

The family offered to sell the estate to the City of Stuart for a park. Thank heaven officials took them up on the offer.

This sunset image of the moth of Frazier Creek with Shepard Park at right was downloaded from the Internet. HDR photography image processed in Photomatix Pro.