March 1
From The Stuart Daily News

I continue my steady practice of reading The Stuart Daily News forward from its earliest issues. Some editions feel loud with ambition. Others feel procedural and precise. March 1, 1926 manages to be both.

A full-page advertisement reads almost like a narrative essay, describing the delights of the South Fork area known as River Forest. The language is confident and lyrical. It pulls at something familiar. It makes me nostalgic for a Florida I knew briefly as a child, before subdivisions replaced shade and river bends felt endless.

Even the phrasing in the articles carries a tone that feels older and slower. Reading it, I am reminded of sitting in the backyard with a book, tracking the movement of the shade across the grass while disappearing into a historic novel. The paper has that same cadence.

I find I like having that small connection. It allows me to imagine what my friends in the past were doing on the same date that I am moving through my own day. They were registering to vote, attending dinners at the Stuart Hotel, buying lots along the river, debating taxes. I am reading about them one hundred years later, trying to understand the shape of their lives.

It is a simple exercise, but it keeps the distance manageable.

Below are specific facts drawn directly from this day’s paper.

• The front page announced “REGISTRATION BOOKS OPEN IN COUNTY TODAY,” marking the opening of voter registration across Martin County.
• Another front-page article reported, “Building Permits for February Take Big Jump Over Year Ago,” documenting a clear increase in construction activity compared to 1925.
• A statewide report under “Gasoline Road Tax” noted that $1,047,349.20 had been realized in January from the four-cent gasoline tax, with $261,809.80 distributed to the counties.
• “Florida Leads in the Sale of Life Insurance” reported a 106 percent increase for January 1926 over January 1925, with $8,481,000 in new paid business.
• Page two advertised Treasure Island in River Forest with the line, “Where the Gold Will Be Buried for you or someone else to find,” promoted by the River Forest Land Syndicate. Scott Aitkin was listed as Syndicate Manager.
• Florida Power & Light asked readers, “Is Your Town Here?” listing the communities served.
• The “City Clerk’s Office” reported that on February 26, Otis Parker received a building permit for a residence in the L. C. Kickliter subdivision, Eldorado Heights, lot 6, block 9, estimated at $3,500.
• On February 27, an occupational license was issued to Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, merchant.
• A marriage license was issued February 26 to Oliver Coulbert, age 40, of Olympia, and Bessie Myers, age 32, of Olympia.
• The “Social and Personal” column recorded that Mrs. I. M. Howes and Mrs. C. E. Sharon were hostesses at a Sunday dinner at the Stuart Hotel. Guests included Mr. and Mrs. George Backus and Miss Phyllis Ann Backus of Stuart, and Miss Dorothy Davis of Carrollton, Illinois.
• The Florida East Coast Bible Conference re-elected Rev. Neil McQuarrie, Walter Kitching, J. R. Fennery, A. T. Hogarth, and H. E. Downs as trustee.
• At a bridge party given by Mrs. Charles Wales, high score was made by Mrs. E. H. Sealey; second by Mrs. E. J. Ricou; third by Mrs. Herbert Meroy; and consolation by Mrs. Mable Warde.
• Mr. and Mrs. H. Edwin Rogers entertained at a six o’clock dinner at the Stuart Hotel in honor of their daughter, Mrs. A. E. Aronson of Milwaukee. Guests included Mr. and Mrs. Walter Kitching, Mr. and Mrs. John E. Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Bayard Pitts, Mrs. W. P. Flint of Freeport, Illinois, Miss Josephine Rogers, J. E. Limage, Calia, Emmaman and John Taylor, Howard Aronson, and Ted Rogers.
• Page four featured a cartoon titled “Right in the Style,” showing a fashionable woman labeled “Federal Taxes” with the caption, “You can’t reduce your income without reducing your wardrobe.”
• That same page promoted Golfview as “Stuart’s Master Suburb” by Redfern Investment and Development Corp., Osceola Block, Stuart.
• Page eight advertised “Harbrecht Heights – The Heart of Stuart Shores,” stating that W. E. Roebuck had been acting as trustee and that Stuart Bank & Trust Co. would begin issuing contracts March 3, 1926. Owners and promoters listed were W. E. Roebuck, E. L. Clark, R. R. Roebuck and L. Dorsey.

The cartoon “Right in the Style” lingered in my mind.

On page two, readers were promised gold when purchasing a lot on the South Fork. On page four, they were reminded that federal taxes might shorten a wardrobe. The same issue that advertised perceived treasure also suggested that income reduction could alter fashion.

Gold appears here in different forms.

Historically, bullion in the form of coin or ingot was taxed, regulated, and subject to seizure. It could be counted and controlled. Cloth, however, was not taxed in the same way as raw precious metal. Cloth of gold and cloth of silver, woven with fine metal threads, allowed wealth to be worn rather than stored as taxable bullion. Value shifted from coin to garment. The metal remained precious, but its form changed.

The 1715 Spanish fleet carried literal treasure along this coast. Gold and silver were cargo, and therefore part of imperial systems of taxation and control. Two centuries later, Stuart readers were being reminded that federal revenue policy might influence the length of a hemline.

Gold in cargo holds. Gold in land promotions. Gold in tax tables.

The details change. The conversation does not.

Jes Robinson
March 1, 2026