Tag Archives: Florida History

Dr. Anna Darrow

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Anna Darrow and her husband , Roy, graduated from the Kirksville School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri in 1905.

Anna Darrow, the second female physician to be licensed in Florida and who incidentally received the highest score ever theretofore recorded, once lived in Stuart. Her story is amazing. Anna and her husband, also a doctor, left a background of big cities to move to Okeechobee City in the summer of 1912. Just getting there from Ft. Pierce was an ordeal.

This photograph was used by Greg and Alice Luckhardt who inserted the text.

She treated pioneer settlers, Seminole Indians, and outlaws, setting broken bones and delivering babies including four sets of twins, in the crudest of circumstances. She traveled by horse and wagon, Model T Ford, by boat and ox cart as well as on foot along primitive trails . She often had to wade.

The Darrows had two children, Richard, born in 1897 and Dorothy, born in 1903. Richard, after developing tuberculosis, practiced law in Arizona. Dorothy was a teacher and librarian at Horace Mann High School in Miami for many years. Both children attended Rollins College.

This photograph was used by Greg and Alice Luckhardt who inserted the text.

The Darrow building adjoined the Raulerson Department Store overlooking the broad park, that is a predominant feature of Okeechobee City to this day.

I recently reread Lawrence Will’s Cracker History of Okeechobee. It includes a long chapter on” “Doc Anner.” Lawrence Will was the historian of the Glades who published six books. His text is in “cracker dialect” and is a far from being politically correct. However, his books contain an amazing record of a pioneer era that is long gone. His books impart an understanding of the transformation of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades during its so called reclamation.

Here is a link to the Museum of the Glades.

Below please find the chapter of Doctor Anna Darrow.

Lawrence Will's chapter on Amma Darrpw om Cracker History of Okeechobee

Although it was Lawrence Will’s information packed chapter of Dr. Anna Darrow that made me want to share her story in a blog, I found that since I had learned about her years ago, she has gained acclaim.

In 2011 she was featured an article n the National Endowment for the Humanities, magazine entitled “Swamp Doctor. ” Actress, Carrie Sue Ayvar, portrayed Anna Darrow as a Florida Humanities Council presenter throughout the state.https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/mayjune/statement/the-swamp-doctor

In 2016, Greg and Alice Luckhardt published a lengthy and information packed Vignette in the Stuart News with Dr. Anna Darrow and her family as subjects.https://www.tcpalm.com/story/specialty-publications/your-news/martin-county/reader-submitted/2016/12/20/historical-vignettes-anna-darrow-stuarts-first-female-doctor/95651344/

It makes me proud that this amazing woman came to Stuart for a time, as can be proved from the page of the Stuart directory when the town was still within Palm Beach County.

Anna Darrow was an artist whenever she had a time for art. When she retired, she took up painting again. She even won a prize for a painting of herself doctoring in Okeechobee. Her painting is humorous. It shows Florida Wood Storks delivering one of the four sets of twins she delivered while she was in the Glades.

Dr. Anna Darrow with her prize winning painting.

Celebrating Martin County’s Centennial in Many Ways

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I must be forgiven for worrying about Martin County’s 100th Birthday being properly celebrated.  Initially, I thought my blog would be the best way for me to share our county’s history.

Then, Gregory Enns said his Indian River Magazine would publish a special Martin Centennial edition and asked me to join Donna and Rick Crary as a writer. My ability to access historical photos was more than helpful.

Michelle Moore-Burney, Indian River Magazine’s design editor, created a charming collage of historic photographs for the centennial cover. The magazine is available at no cost at the Stuart Heritage Museum while they last.

Shortly after the Indian River Magazine came out in January, Stuart Heritage had a change in plans and asked me to present a program on February 11th. It provides a perfect opportunity to share a PowerPoint presentation “Celebrating Martin County’s Centennial.”

The program will take place in the Flagler Building, 201 SW Flagler Ave. at 7:00 pm, February 11, 2025.
Stuart Heritage has this notice on Facebook. http://Stuart Heritage on Facebook

Yesterday, David Yankwitt, of Indian River State College, asked me to give a centennial presentation at the Chastain Campus for his history students and the public at large.  It is tentatively scheduled of March 7th at 11 o’clock in the Susan Johnson room in Clare and Gladys Wolf Center.

Additionally, Martin Digital History is going strong. Georgen Charnes is doing a wonderful job. She has “Martin County is turning 100 years old!” on her publicizing bookmarks. 

Georgen Charnes selects photos of interest for bookmarks. I shared this one long ago when Robert Crowder ran for Congress. http://Martin Digital History

Robert Crowder, an officer in the Stuart Junior Conservation Club, and Robert Routa, also an officer, release Green Turtles nurtured at Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge in Ross Witham’s sea turtle “Head Start” program in October of 1961.  

I looked in my “Sheriffs File” and thought his image illustrates the historical importance of Robert Crowder.

With all the activity launching and selling my daughter, Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch’s and my Pictorial History of Palm City, and preparing for presentations, I have let my blogging lapse.

Now I must be forgiven for promoting the ways I am helping to celebrate Martin County’s 100 years!

Back to the Beginning

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My first blog was about compiling A Pictorial History of Palm City with my daughter Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch.  The books have arrived from Southeastern Printing, now located in Hialeah. It is time to get them in the hands of those who want them.

Southeastern Printing delivered our books on October 3, 2024

We are having a launch party on the patio of the Palm City Social, a trendy new restaurant in the location of the former Palm City Grill in Martin Downs Village Center on November 21 from 4:00 -7;00 pm. Everyone who wants to buy a book is invited.

Since I had never visited Palm City Social, I drove by and peaked in at the patio after the books arrived. It does seem like a perfect place for our book launch.
A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida
Beautiful coffee table display.

The beautiful coffee-table style book with its watercolor of palms by acclaimed artist Jerry Rose on its cover should in every Palm City home after Christmas.

Jerry Rose painted the scene soon after he and his wife bought waterfront property from Val Martin, Martin County’s first real book merchant. The painting was a “thank you” to Val.

Jerry Rose

In 1972, Val Martin sold his bookstore in Stuart located across from Memorial Park and founded Florida Classics Library. He began publishing many valuable out of print books, beginning with Jonathan Dickinson’s Journal. When he died in 2021, at the age of 89, his niece, Julie Alexander took over Florida Classic Library located at 11300 SE Dixie Highway in Hobe Sound.

https://floridaclassicslibrary.com

The painting that graces the dust jacket of A Pictorial History of Palm City was on the wall in Florida Classic Library. Realizing it would make a beautiful cover for our Palm City book, I asked and received permission to use it from both, Julie, the owner, and Jerry, the artist.

Fifty Beautifully Preserved Photographs More Than a Century Old

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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 Titusville Herald, 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.

Regional History Center

Billy Bowlegs’ Family Portrait taken in Hill Studio

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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.

Another Hill Photograph Dust Jacket

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I used this antique postcard for the dust jacket of my third pictorial history book. Just as was true of Stuart on the St. Lucie, I did not realize the image was the product of the Florida Photographic Concern.

At the time I published my books I did not understand that postcard publishers, like Hugh C. Leighton, secured their images from the Hill family’s Florida Photographic Concern in Fort Pierce.

For this blog, I found the postcard I used and was shocked to see that the postcard had been cropped for the dust jacket. Below is the complete postcard. The Alfresco Hotel that appears at right was cropped off when the dust jacket was designed.

The Alfresco Hotel that appears at right was cropped off when the dust jacket was designed.

This Hugh C. Leighton Co. postcard shows the fine quality of printing done in Germany during the “Golden Age of Postcards.”

The Al Fresco Hotel, designed by Louis F. Kwiatkowski for John Jensen in 1893, burned in 1911 after being purchased by R. R. Ricou.