Cover features a beautiful painting by renowned Jerry Rose. A Pictorial History of Palm City Florida, by Sandra Henderson Thurlow and Jacqui Thurlow-Lippishch.
Southeastern Printing has a long history in Martin County- over 100 years. Don Mader is the present owner of this excellent company now based in Miami. Long time employee, Darcey McNiff Thompson, informed my mother and I of the win and kindly stopped by mom’s house to share the certificate. Heidi Rich of richworks graphics was the designer of the book, and my brother Todd worked the historic maps on the inside covers. Sandra Henderson Thurlow and I wrote the book, and to this day, this experience has been one of the most rewarding of my life. The book was published in 2024.
Southeastern Printing had its 100th birthday in 2004 and is a product of Martin County. Today it is owned by Don Mader and is located in Maimi, Florida.
Thank you to Southeastern Printing and everyone who loves history! To purchase a book, see my mother’s website here. Photographs below shared by Darcey McGriff Thompson.
Prior to Thursday’s Palm City book launch, I wanted to feature my younger sister Jenny. For my mother she is like that secretary that skillfully, behind the scenes, runs the school (not really the principal.) 🙂 Jenny holds it all together. Jenny helps not only her family but the community as Director, Physician and APP Recruitment, Cleveland Clinic Florida at Cleveland Clinic.
Jenny and her husband Mike Flaugh live next door to Mom and help everyday with organizing, logistics, and most of all bringing high spirts to the book campaign. We could not have written or planned a successful-launch of “A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida,” without Jenny’s constant support and direction.
It has been a life time of books. And though the good times and the hard times Jenny has really been the glue, the spine of the book, holding the pages together.
Jenny, Todd, and all my family look forward to seeing everyone and to supporting my mother and now book partner, Sandra Henderson Thurlow, Martin County’s premier local historian.
A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida
Thursday, November 21, 4-7pm “Book Launch/Celebration Party” at Palm City Social, 3168 SW Martin Downs Blvd., Palm City, FL 34990. Pre-signed books and unopened wrapped books will be available for purchase.
Saturday, December 7, 10am-3pm “Book Signing” at Stuart Heritage Museum, 161 SW Flagler Avenue, Stuart, FL 34994. Sandra and Jacqui will be available to inscribe a book or books as gifts or other.
Saturday, December 14, 1-4pm, “Book Signing” at Peter and Julie Cummings Library, 2551 SW Matheson, Ave. Palm City, FL 34990. Sandra and Jacqui will be available to inscribe a book or books as gifts or other.
Books run $39.95 for a single book and $399.50 for a box of ten book. Plus tax. 🙂
In my option, nothing is more important than knowing the “original lay of the land.” We must never forget Nature’s handprint upon which we stand.
My brother, Todd – attorney and expert technology leader of EYEONLAKEO.com – created the images on the inside cover. They remind us of what Palm City looked like before it was developed- a veritable wildlife and fishing paradise (with maybe a few mosquitoes) 🙂
It’s beauty amazing!
We can see that Bessey Creek, Danforth Creek, wetlands, ponds and prairies dominate the landscape even years after development, farming and channelizing of waterways began: (basis -1940s+/- USDA/University of Florida Collection images/Todd Thurlow).
Click on image for a closer look at “pre-development” Palm City, this beautiful place we call home.
Todd, Jenny, Mom and my father in heaven, to whom this book is dedicated, hope to see you at next Thursday’s book launch and/or events listed below. Thank you for helping us make history!
Back inside cover featuring Bessey Creek. Photographs created by Todd Thurlow, Images from USDA/University of Florida Collection.Front cover featuring St. Luice River near today’s Palm City Bridge.With my awesome “little” brother Todd!
A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida
Thursday, November 21, 4-7pm “Book Launch/Celebration Party” at Palm City Social, 3168 SW Martin Downs Blvd., Palm City, FL 34990. Pre-signed books and unopened wrapped books will be available for purchase.
Saturday, December 7, 10am-3pm “Book Signing” at Stuart Heritage Museum, 161 SW Flagler Avenue, Stuart, FL 34994. Sandra and Jacqui will be available to inscribe a book or books as gifts or other.
Saturday, December 14, 1-4pm, “Book Signing” at Peter and Julie Cummings Library, 2551 SW Matheson, Ave. Palm City, FL 34990. Sandra and Jacqui will be available to inscribe a book or books as gifts or other.
Books run $39.95 for a single book and $399.50 for a box of ten book. Plus tax. 🙂
My entire family invites the you to attend! Happy Holidays & cheers to a Celebration of Local History!
A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida
Thursday, November 21, 4-7pm “Book Launch/Celebration Party” at Palm City Social, 3168 SW Martin Downs Blvd., Palm City, FL 34990. Pre-signed books and unopened wrapped books will be available for purchase.
Saturday, December 7, 10am-3pm “Book Signing” at Stuart Heritage Museum, 161 SW Flagler Avenue, Stuart, FL 34994. Sandra and Jacqui will be available to inscribe a book or books as gifts or other.
Saturday, December 14, 1-4pm, “Book Signing” at Peter and Julie Cummings Library, 2551 SW Matheson, Ave. Palm City, FL 34990. Sandra and Jacqui will be available to inscribe a book or books as gifts or other.
“Meet the authors who will share bits of their incredible journey compiling their recently published book which contains rare photographs and maps that tell the story of Palm City’s land and water. A chance to drop by, purchase books and visit with the authors! A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida focuses on water, its gifts of beauty and sustenance as well as attempts at its management. It honors pioneer families as well as early developers and helps new residents understand and appreciate the place they call home. Sandra Henderson Thurlow has-been collection and sharing regional history of decades and has been joined by her daughter, Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch to produce this book. Jacqui is a political activist for better water management and has become an expert on water issues. Together they know that the environment and history are not separate.”
Books run $39.95 for a single book and $399.50 for a box of ten book. Plus tax. 🙂
Ed and I in the locks, one of over 100 along America’s Great Loop.
If there is a calling one must always answer to, it is the calling of one’s mother… 🙂
Ed and I are taking a temporary break from our Great Loop adventure to be home for Thanksgiving and for the November 21st book launch of “A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida,” a book created by my mother and me.
To my blog readers, I apologize that I have not written since September 11th. Believe it or not, I went incognito by choice. Some of my old enemies were after me…
So now, I’m back, and trying to share where I have been and all that I have seen is impossible. All I can say is that I am more than the person I was when I left. There are so many stories to tell; and so many rivers in need. I will be telling these stories…
Painted Rock, Tennessee River
On a funny note, my husband Ed now has hair longer than mine!
Making sure Ed’s hair is right…
But seriously, I feel that in the past months I feel I have experienced the soul of our country.
And everything, in every place, began along a river. Water is one thing we all have in common and one thing that every one of us needs.
Map of America’s Great Loop. Going counter-clockwise from Stuart, FL to Iuka, Mississippi. Red and black is what has been traveled thus far with rough list of towns, cities, and some anchorages below.
Finito at Joe Wheeler State Park, AL. Great Loop Rendezvous 2024.
Well, I am very glad to be home. I will be settling in and writing more soon. I do hope you can join the book launch!
Invitation, Book Launch, November 21st. Everyone is invited!
Today, I’m sharing a link to my mother‘s recent presentation given at the Blake Library in Stuart. Sandra Thurlow is not only my mother, but also a local celebrity. Her years of research have produced multiple local history books and now she’s working on another of which I am part.
Through stories and photographs, this video gives many insights into the upcoming book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida that will be published by the end of 2024.
Thank you to Barbara Osbourn for her gracious introduction, the Martin County Genealogical Society, and Friends of the Martin County Library System for making this talk possible. Please see link below.
~ A tidbit from our upcoming book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida, Sandra Thurlow & Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
Sailfish Lodge, Palm City, Florida, ca. 1950, was located on today’s 34th Street. (Thurlow Ruhnke Collection)
Its brochure read: “Off the Highway and out of town. Sailfish Lodge. No train noises. No Highway traffic roar. Across the bridge from Stuart’s shopping area, railroad, bus station and theatre. At our club dock, you may obtain boats for river fishing. By the week. By the month. For a joyous season. Vacation in comfort.”
Sailfish Lodge was built by Linwood Simmons. It stood on 26 acres acquired in 1946. The acreage included 300 feet of waterfront with a view over Palm City Bay looking to the Palm City Bridge.
Cottages were built in 1946 and the lodge itself in 1948. The lodge was two story and measured 35 by 155 feet featuring a gigantic fireplace. Visiting sportsmen were offered access to both fresh and saltwater fishing and hunters were provided with a woods buggy and guides.
It was a family affair and just about everything they needed was right there. Pine trees on the property even supplied the building lumber. The Simmons family operated the lodge for 20 years. It was beloved and popular. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons grew old, and their children grew up on this fabulous Palm City property.
By 1969, Mrs. Simmons passed and Mr. Simmons later moved to Winter Haven; the property was sold.
In today’s world where “Brightline trains abound and traffic roars louder with every new commissioner-approved development,” the Sailfish Lodge reminds us of a quieter time, a joyous time, when Martin County’s woods and rivers were unspoiled and everything else seemed so very far away…
Sailfish Lodge looked out over Palm City Bay and the Palm City Bridge, 1951. (Thurlow Ricou Collection)
~Thank you to friend, Brian Sullivan, who shared the historic Sailfish Lodge publicity pamphlet inspiring this post.
~ A tidbit from our upcoming book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida, by Sandra Thurlow & Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
One of early Palm City’s most interesting characters is John S. Danforth. He was a true “man’s man,” kind of like Ernest Hemingway. Danforth was a writer, a hunter, an avid outdoorsman, and really an entrepreneur. Today, there remains a creek, among other landmarks still holding his name.
According to my mother, John Danforth started modestly with a floating cabin that eventually became one of the earliest hunting lodges in the country, “Camp Caribou.” It added to his reputation as a “knowledgeable and charismatic sportsman’s host and guide.” This success led him to leave Maine in 1892 and with his friends bring a “floating hotel” to the shores of the St. Luice River where Palm City would be born.
The floating hotel in Maine as photographed before its journey to the St. Lucie River. Thurlow collection.
Dansforth chose to came to the St. Lucie region for its wildlife, “endless” hunting, and other opportunities lying within an untouched wilderness of slash pine forests, palmetto, river, slough and ponds; a perfect habitat for deer, bears, panthers, turkeys, hogs, raccoons, flying squirrels, birds, small fur-bearing mammals, fish and critters of all kinds!
This 1912 Florida Photographic Concern photo of the pinewoods of Palm City Farms was taken 20 years after John Danforth first came to the area in 1892. West of the St. Lucie River was a remote wilderness full of wildlife.
Danforth made friends with the Seminole Indians especially famous Tom Tiger, leader of the Gopher Clan. They hunted the region of the St. Luice as well as going deeper into the lower Everglades. Danforth wrote about these experiences in widely distributed hunting magazines. He wrote because he loved it and to attract others to this St. Lucie/Palm City paradise and gateway to Lake Okeechobee and the inner Everglades.
Even though as an avid animal lover it breaks my heart, I am going to include Danforth’s article that will be in my mother and my upcoming book because it is important documentation. It is entitled “Two Christmas Hunts.” It is written about Danforth’s hunting experience with the goal to kill a panther as led by Tom Tiger. The article appeared in “Shooting and Fishing” No. 9 on December 14, 1899 and is a testament to those times. A time when South Florida, including Palm city was a wildlife wilderness.
~John Danforth is buried beside his loving wife, Sarah, in Fernhill Cemetery, Highway 76, Stuart, Florida.
~ A tidbit from our upcoming book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida, by Sandra Thurlow & Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
Palm City Post Office in the slash pine wilderness, c. 1914. Thurlow/Ricou Collection.
“You’ve got mail.”
In Palm City, in 1914, no one would have imagined email, texts, or cell phones. “Mail” meant a handwritten letter inside an envelope, one that may have been sent from very far away. One from a dear family member or an old friend. One about business opportunities. Having a post office was very important.
George Washington Jones signed the application for the Palm City Post Office on April 14, 1914. It was located inside his general merchandise store near Palmetto Street that later became Martin Downs Boulevard. Mr. Jones was postmaster, a very prestigious and important position in the growing community.
George Washington stamp, 1914. U.S. Post Office
It has been said that: “The history of the post office is the story of America.” Palm City’s post office played a chief role in bringing more people to the area. Letters from settlers shared information encouraging others to join them in Chillingworth’s remote Palm City Farms. One could call the post office, the “social media” of the day.
Palm City Post Office on the St. Lucie River with arriving horse and carriage, waving of American flag, but no post office sign. c. 1914. Thurlow Collection.
In this plat map from the 1920s it shows the location of the post office marked by a red dot. The St. Luice River and rudimentary bridge would be located to the east. Today we take such things for granted, but not in those days of yesteryear. The Palm City Post Office was a key place, a place where people came to get the “news of the day” or a “letter from a friend.”‘ Now we just look at our cell phones. Personally, I think I would rather sit, gossip, and wait on the porch at the old post office!
Plat map of Palm City, c. 1920s. Red dot denotes location of the Palm City Post Office between Palmetto Road and 1st Street. Today Palmetto Road is Martin Downs Blvd. and the street numbers have been changed. Thurlow Collection.
~ A tidbit from our upcoming book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida, by Sandra Thurlow & Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
~Charles Curtis Chillingworth, 1868-1936, was born in Liverpool, New York and passed away in West Palm Beach, Florida. Pictured below at 45 years old, second from left, front row.
Alligator Smith aside, it is Charles Curtis Chillingworth “distinguished pioneer, citizen, attorney and developer,” who must be recognized as the “father/founder” of Palm City and Palm City Farms. In the early 1900s western Palm City Farms was sold in ten acre plots with a small bonus lot in what was termed Palm City on the St. Lucie. Today I am going to share a bit about Chillingworth the man, and how his development was marketed.
In my reading, I came to especially like Chillingworth because his autobiography notes his appreciation of nature, including the beauty of Florida’s iconic cabbage palm trees.
“As I remember of it, I left Atlanta one evening about the middle of October, 1891, and reached Jacksonville the following morning. Later that day I took a train on the old Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad, now the Atlantic Coast Line, which runs on the west side of the St. Johns River. I changed cars at Enterprise Junction for Titusville. That evening with the sun in the west just before sunset, I saw the first cabbage palmetto trees I ever saw in my life, and they made a great impression on me….”
So how did he come to develop Palm City Farms?
Chillingworth a young, hard working lawyer, eventually learned about lands west of the St. Luice River and wanted a part of development himself.
As he put it:
“In 1909 a real estate boom sprung up in South Florida, especially in the purchase of sale of large tracts of land.”
After much back and forth, Chillingworth took title to at least 12,000 acres from the Florida Coast Line Canal & Transportation Company. He then opened the Palm Beach Land Company in Stuart in 1911, because at that time what became Martin County lie in Palm Beach County, and Stuart had a small downtown area.
Chillingworth’s land office sold Palm City Farms. Historic Society of Martin County.
Chillingworth explains who helped him market the lands giving insight into those times:
“I took with me Miss Reilly, who had been my stenographer in New York during that summer. She was a most faithful and efficient helper and I made her Assistant Secretary of the new Company…”
Years later after Chillingworth’s death, Miss Reilly, now married as “Patsy Reilly McCord,” wrote a 1964 piece for the Stuart News about how Palm City Farms and Palm City on the St. Lucie were marketed. It is fascinating to read her account. Then, like now, it was not just the natural resources of the land, but of course also the beauty of the St. Lucie River that “sold” newcomers.
“Patsy Reilly McCord” was C.C. Chillingworth’s’ Assistant Secretary – here photographed in a beautiful Palm City Farms’ grapefruit grove, c. 1915. She helped organize trips for prospective buyers to see the beauty of the area to sell Palm City Farms and Palm City on the St. Lucie. Martin Digital History.
Patsy (Reilly) McCord wrote::
“The sale of land progressed, and in order to entertain the prospective purchasers, the Palm City Land Company purchased boats and automobiles and mule teams and large comfortable covered wagons for use in displaying the wonders of the rivers, ocean and plantations. The Palm Beach land Company took care of all prospective buyers by entertaining them and paying all expenses of their visit, while here, consisting of boat trips to the inlet, trips out the North and South Forks as well as wagon trips to different points of interest in the county, winding up with a trip to Palm Beach.
In those days, the waters of the St. Lucie were salty, (the inlet had been opened in 1892 and the St. Lucie Canal was not completed until 1924) and at night the water was so full of phosphorus the millions of fish looked like millions of streaks of lighting darting through the water. It was a wonderful sight in those days to be on the river in the darkness.”
WOW! It must have been beautiful!
The maps below will help you see the location of Palm City Farms and Palm City. I hope you enjoyed today’s “tidbit.”
Google maps with Palm City Farms subdivision overlay. Todd Thurlow
My mother’s color coding of township/range map of Palm City Farms – pink. The Hanson Grant is in blue.
Chillingworth offered a lot in Palm City on the St. Lucie to those who bought ten acres further west in Palm City Farms. Note location of St. Lucie River for reference – 1911 plat map.
One of the earliest photographs of “Palm City,” along the St. Lucie River. Florida Photographic Concern, 1912-1913. Thurlow Collection.
In my previous blog post announcing my mother’s and my upcoming book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, I told the story of Palm City’s very interesting early homesteader, Alligator Smith. Today I will share another tidbit – how Palm City’s creation is connected to Smith, and how his 1891 “state of intoxication and drowning” in the St. Luice River inadvertently led to C.C. Chillingworth becoming the known founding father of Palm City Farms in 1911.
In 1891 C.C. Chillingworth was a young lawyer at Robbins and Graham soon to be working in Juno, the county seat of Dade County.
Chillingworth’s second case was civil in the United States Land Office. In those days thousands of acres of land were open for homestead-entry but one had to reside on the land for two years. It was Chillingworth’s job to prove that William M. Smith, locally known along the St. Luice as “Alligator Smith,” had “not abandoned” his 160 acre homestead, on the west side of the river. By law, a six month abandonment caused the homestead to revert back to the federal government.
An antique post card reads,” A Florida Native.” ca 1910.
Obituary of Alligator Smith, Tropical Sun 1891.
Jewelry made from alligator teeth, c. 1880s, Thurlow Collection.
Chillingworth’s autobiography written in his later years states:
“We were engaged about a week in taking testimony at Pottsdam, now known as Stuart and I had been unable to prove that Smith had been spending any time on the homestead during six months. Smith was drunk and fell overboard from a boat in the St. Lucie River on July 4, 1891. However when I began to check on the testimony and prepare a brief for the Register of the U.S. Land Office at Gainesville, Florida, I discovered that Smith had died just one day less than six months after he made entry.”
Smith seemed to have lost his homestead by one day!
The case was appealed to the General Land Office in Wahington D.C. and to the Secretary of the Interior, but in the end Chillingworth prevailed. According to my mother, the Bureau of Land Management documented that a Mr. George Mulligan ended up with Alligator Smith’s former homestead. How, we will never know!
These “coveted and valuable lands” located on the west side of the South Fork of the St. Lucie River are connected to today’s Palm City Farms developed in 1911 by none other that C. C. Chillingworth. Chillingworth’s familiarly with the lands of Alligator Smith inspired Chillingworth to develop Palm City Farms twenty years later. Without Alligator Smith, there would be no Palm City. I think we can say, Alligator Smith is Palm City’s real founding father!
Chillingworth offered a lot in Palm City to those who bought ten acres further west in Palm City Farms. Note location of St. Lucie River for reference – 1911 plat map.
Me modeling alligator hat holder and pin jewelry carefully arranged by my mother.
“And the Palm Tree Nodded to the Mirror in the Jungle.” Ormond, Florida. Stereoscope c. late 1800s, Thurlow collection.
Over the past year, I have been doing something wonderful. I have been working on a book about Palm City, Florida, with my mother, Sandra Henderson Thurlow to be entitled A Pictorial History of Palm City. We are having it proofed and edited now; it will be published sometime in late 2024. In the meanwhile, I am going to share some tidbits.
Have you ever wondered who was the first modern character of Palm City? He was a trapper. An alligator hunter who more than likely, over time, killed thousands of alligators selling their teeth of fine ivory to make jewelry. The trapper’s name? Of course, Alligator Smith!
Apparently, Alligator Smith was very well liked and fraternized with the likes of now famous names of our area such as Bessey, Stypmann and Krueger. However, my mother and I had different feelings towards Alligator Smith. I was really not fond of him and felt like “he got what he had coming to him,” when he died on July 4th, 1891 in a state of intoxication, falling off his boat, Magic, and drowning in the St. Luice River off of Sewall’s Point.
Mom saw him as a suvivalist. My thoughts? Perhaps after killing so many alligators on a river once named “Halpatiokee” which means “alligator waters” in a native tongue,“ the spirit of the river may have decided to take Alligator Smith home.
His real name was “William Smith” and he was working to obtain his homestead from the federal government at today’s Pendarvis Cove. As you’ll learn in the next post, “his lands” inadvertently seeded the creation of “Palm City.”
Stereoscopes became popular around 1850; today, they are considered the first step towards “virtual reality.”
“And the Palm Tree Nodded to the Mirror in the Jungle.” Ormond, Florida. Stereoscope c. late 1800s, Thurlow collection.
