The story
Countless sons and daughters from Martin County have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, in times of war as well as peace, some making the ultimate sacrifice, to ensure the rights and freedom enjoyed by all Americans. The World Wars produced many heroes, but unfortunately, also much grief for those families who lost a loved one. The soldiers, who have fought so valiantly in all the conflicts and wars suffered by the United States, must not be forgotten!
The American Legion Post in Stuart was named for Harold Johns, the first soldier from Martin County to die in the Great War. To remember and honor Johns and the other two men from Martin County who died in that war, Warren H. White and Charley Albert Michaels, three royal palm trees were planted in the new Flagler Park in downtown Stuart in 1927, as a memorial. The park was located just south of the Lyric Theatre in a portion of the undeveloped block between Flagler and Osceola Avenues. Sponsored by the Harold Johns Post, the three trees, each encircled by a wrought iron railing and with a secured inscribed tablet, were grown at the Backus Plantation and were known as the Legion Memorial Trees.
In May 1939, before the U.S. entered WW II, Jack R. Matthews, son of Allen and Margaret Matthews and nephew of Stuart’s legendary building contractor, Sam A. Matthews, decided, as did many young men, to join the U.S. Navy and see the world.
Jack had attended Stuart High School and had been an altar boy at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. After Naval training at San Diego, CA, Jack served on the U.S. Destroyer Rathburne until America entered WW II, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. He then requested an immediate transfer to convoy duty and joined the crew of the USS Peary. On a furlough in Stuart before leaving for overseas duty, he told his family that if he was killed in action, he wished to be buried at sea.
On Feb. 19, 1942, the USS Peary was attacked about 10 a.m. by Japanese airplanes dropping five bombs on the ship while it was refueling in the harbor of Darwin, Australia. An estimated 188 Japanese planes attacked the harbor, which was destroyed along with seven other ships. The courageous crew of the USS Peary retaliated, its deck guns continuing to fire, until the Japanese planes retreated. With the ship in flames and sinking, crew members attempted to swim ashore through wreckage and burning oil, which covered the water’s surface. The vessel sank stern first as it broke in half, but it was reported that the heroic crew never abandoned ship until it sank under them.
Jack had somehow managed to escape and was taken to the Australian hospital ship, ‘SS Manunda’ in Darwin, but as a result of extensive burns, he died Feb. 22 and was buried at sea as he had requested. Eighty-nine of the Peary’s crew had been killed and 20 wounded.
Jack Matthews, however, had the unenviable distinction of being the first resident of Martin County to die in World War II. The ship still remains on the ocean floor in Darwin harbor. A memorial plaque with one of the 4-inch deck guns from the ‘USS Peary’ points toward the site of the submerged shipwreck.
Although Matthews was the first serviceman from Stuart to be killed in the war, Paul Homer Witham was the first airman to perish on active duty. Born in Stuart on Dec. 2, 1915, his family lineage were all pioneers in the region. Paul joined the Navy in 1933 and served on the USS New Orleans. About 1940 he transferred to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, where he remained until March 1942. As a Naval airman he was sent to Alameda, California to serve with the Patrol Squadron 62. On a mission over Alaska, the radar equipment of his plane failed and he crashed into an Alaskan mountain in the Aleutian Islands on Aug. 8, 1942 and was killed. It was not until Oct. 1, 1948 that he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
In February 1942, the U.S. Navy had taken over the Stuart (Krueger) Airfield for the war effort. At the request of the veteran organizations of Stuart, a petition was submitted to the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, to rename the Navy airfield Witham Field, in honor of Paul Homer Witham. Permission was granted in February 1943, whereby the name was officially changed.
In 1945, The War Memorial Tree Club in Stuart organized the planting of hundreds of trees along Stypmann Boulevard and within the Fourth Street Park by the families of veterans who served during World War II, making it a true Memorial Park. Cement markers with bronze label plates inscribed with a veteran’s name identified each tree. In 1946 additional trees were planted and so marked, bearing the name of an honored one.
In 2011, although the markers and no doubt most, if not all, of those trees are gone, the park, which includes a Veterans Memorial, was refurbished, becoming a beautiful tribute to those who have served the Nation.
