~ 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 ThurlowMy 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.-writing on back
