WHAT’S IN A NAME
By Kyle LoJacono
This week’s addition will look into how Blanton, Dade City, Darby, Denham, Drexel and Ehren go their names.
(1) BLANTON is located north of Saint Leo and Dade City and includes the area between St. Joe, Lake Lola, Blanton and Ramsey roads. It is named after Jesse Blanton, an early settler from Georgia. He moved to the area with his wife Martha Howell and built a log cabin east of what is now Blanton Lake.
(2) DADE CITY’S name came from Fort Dade, named after Maj. Francis Langhorne Dade, who fought in the U.S. Army and was killed by Seminoles at the start of the Second Seminole War. The fort was located near the center of the city today in east Pasco County along US 301.
(3) DARBY is in the area around Darby Road on both sides of I-75, north of Wesley Chapel and just west of San Antonio. The area is most likely named after an early settler in the area, John W. Darby. He moved to Pasco with his wife, Olinda Bradley. The area is sometimes called St. Thomas and Amelia.
(4) DENHAM is now part of Land O’ Lakes and Lutz and includes the area around Denham Oaks Elementary. It is named after a black fireman who worked on the same train line as William P. Lutz, an engineer with the Tampa Northern Railroad whose family lent their names the town of Lutz.
(5) DREXEL, located in the area around where Drexel and Tower roads cross west of US 41 in Land O’ Lakes, was named by Edward Stotesbury to honor Anthony Joseph Drexel, a financier and philanthropist who lived in the area from 1826-93.
(6) EHREN includes the communities around Ehren Cutoff in Land O’ Lakes east of US 41. At one time the area included what is now Connerton. The area was named by Frederick and Louis Müller, who owned a local sawmill. The German immigrants named the area after the word in their native language that means place of honor.
For additional information on these areas and how they got their names, visit www.fivay.org.
*The Laker and the Lutz News series on how historic places were named will continue throughout the summer. Information is provided by interviews with Pasco County historian Jeff Miller of Fivay.org and the West Pasco Historical Society and Susan MacManus. If you know the history of an interesting place, call us at (813) 909-2800. See how Fort Broome, Gall Boulevard, Gower’s Corner and Jessamine got their names next week.
