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Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

Jeff Miller

Political Agenda 02/19/2020

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Pasco Supervisor of Elections website change
The Pasco County Supervisor of Election’s Office has converted its website from a .com to a .gov Internet address, according to a news release.

The switch was made as a security measure, according to the release.

“Elections security continues to be at the forefront in all that we do, which is why we secured the PascoVotes.gov domain. Only official U.S. government websites will have addresses that end in .gov,” the release says. The switch and other security enhancements ensure that PascoVotes.gov is more secure against hijacking or website spoofing, the release adds.

Visitors to PascoVotes.gov can access voting and election information quickly and easily from any device they choose. They can access information on how to register to vote, make address or name changes, update their signatures, and more, according to the release.

Upcoming political club meetings:

Republican clubs joint meeting
The Feb. 24 joint meeting of the Republican Club of Central Pasco and the Pasco Federated Republican Women’s Club will feature the Republican candidates that have filed for the open District 4 Pasco County Commission seat. The candidates are: Gary Bradford, Jeff Miller, Gabe Papadopoulos and Dan Tipton. The meeting will be a “meet-and-greet” session to get to know the candidates and their stances on the issues.

The event is open to the public and the club encourages anyone that seeks to be involved in the political process to attend.  The club meets at Copperstone Executive Suites, 3632 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., in Land O’ Lakes. The social begins at 6:30 p.m., and the business meeting starts at 7 p.m. For more information, call (813) 996-3011.

Land O’ Lakes Democratic Club
The Land O’ Lakes Democratic Club plans to meet on March 4 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at Brick City Eatery, 16540 Pointe Village Drive in Lutz. The club meets on the first Wednesday of the month in the private room at Brick City Eatery, according to the calendar on the Pasco Democrats’ website.

Young Democrats meeting
The Young Democrats plans to meet on March 10 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Brick City Eatery, 16540 Pointe Village Drive in Lutz, according to the calendar on the Pasco Democrats’ website.

Wesley Chapel Republican Club
The Wesley Chapel Republican Club plans to meet on March 12 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Wesley Chapel Toyota, 5300 Eagleston Blvd., in Wesley Chapel. The scheduled speaker is Alexandria Suarez, according to the club’s Facebook page.

East Pasco Republican Club
The East Pasco Republican Club plans to meet on March 17 at 6 p.m., at the Microtel Inns & Suites, 7839 Gall Blvd., in Zephyrhills. The scheduled guest speaker is Dr. Randall Stovall, according to the club’s Facebook page.

Check out Pasco’s history at Fivay.org

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If you are curious about Pasco County’s history, perhaps the best way to become familiar with it would be to check out the website, Fivay.org.

Jeff Miller, a recently retired high school mathematics teacher, maintains the website and has invested countless hours piecing together Pasco County’s story.

Miller has gleaned information from newspaper articles, old deeds, post cards, photographs, public records and personal accounts to create a repository of information that provides visitors a chance to learn about the history of the county’s geography and its people.

Local historian Jeff Miller shared his knowledge about the origins of various Pasco County place names last week during a meeting of Pasco County Historical Society. (B.C. Manion)

Miller, who is a member of the West Pasco Historical Society, was the guest speaker last week at the Pasco County Historical Society meeting at Pioneer Florida Museum & Village in Dade City.

His talk focused on the origins of names for various places in Pasco County.

For instance, the name Fivay — for which his website is named — is a community in West Pasco that was established by five men whose last names each began with the letter A: Preston Arkwright, Martin F. Amorous, H. M. Atkinson, Gordon Abbott and Charles F. Ayer.

The town, famously, was put up for sale, Miller told the crowd of about 60 people who gathered for his talk. The 1912 advertisement offered 104 residences, bungalows, stores and hotels, electric lights and a water plant, noting it was willing to sell the property “whole or separately.”

A historic marker that helped share Fivay’s story sadly has been stolen, Miller said.

But, the marker isn’t entirely gone because there is a photo of it on Miller’s website.

The local historian traced Pasco County’s place names by sharing maps dating back to 1714, when Florida was still under Spanish rule.

The name Anclote, appears on that map and may have appeared on earlier maps, going back possibly to 1500s, Miller said. “Anclote is apparently the oldest place name in Florida,” he said.

He told the crowd that Fort Dade, the fort, was established in 1837, and was named after Francis Langhorne Dade, who was killed in the “Dade Massacre,” a battle with the Seminole Indians.

A look at the rail yard in Abbott, which later became Zephyrhills.

Other places named for Dade include Dade City; Miami-Dade County; Dade County, Georgia; Dade County, Missouri; and Dadeville, Alabama, according to Miller.

“We don’t know what he looked like,” he said, because no photographs were taken of him.

“On the Internet, there’s a web page about him that has a picture, but it turns out the picture is actually Zachary Taylor,” Miller said.

At one point, Fort Dade was in Mosquito County, a huge county that stretched to where Palm Beach County is now, Miller noted.

Hernando County was created in 1843, he said. The name was changed the following year to Benton County, after residents asked the Florida Legislature to rename the county to honor U.S. Sen. Thomas Hart Benton, for his role in passing the Armed Occupation Act. That legislation opened up South Florida for settlement by providing each settler 160 acres, if the settler lived on the land for five consecutive years, built a home on the land and defended the land against Seminole Indians.

But, the county’s name was reverted to Hernando County in 1849 after Benton came out against slavery.

Miller also noted that the name Tuckertown, which was named for a local family, was mentioned in a newspaper in 1870. It was later changed to Richland in 1886.

Wesley Chapel also known as Wesley on area maps
The name Wesley Chapel was known to be in use in 1877, Miller said. Records show a school at Wesley Chapel for the 1877-88 school year. The community was thought to be named for John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church.

A post office named Wesley operated from 1897 to 1902, and during that time, maps show Wesley, rather than Wesley Chapel, he said.

The longer name was probably unacceptable to officials naming post offices at the time, he said.

In East Pasco, the name Lake Jovita is said to have been named by Judge Edward F. Dunne and Capt. Hugh Dunne on Feb. 15, 1822, because it was the feast day for Saints Faustinus and Jovita, Miller said. The lake also is called Clear Lake.

In 1882, the Sumner Post Office was established. The initial request was to name the post office Clear Lake, but that was denied with the request to use a short name, Miller said. Three weeks later, the name was changed to San Antonio. The name was changed to Lake Jovita on Nov. 1, 1926, and then changed back to San Antonio on Aug. 31, 1931.

Neither St. Joseph nor St. Leo were part of the original Catholic Colonies, established by Judge Edward F. Dunne.

St. Leo was named after Saint Leo University, which was named for Pope Leo I, and St. Joseph was named by the Barthle family, who had lived near a town named St. Joseph, Minnesota.

The Hatton Post Office was established in 1882, but it was moved, and its name was changed to the Dade City Post Office on Dec. 18, 1884.

In 1885, the McLeod Post Office was established. It was sort of the original name for Trilby. The name was changed 23 days later to Macon, and then changed to Trilby in 1901.

Trilby’s name came from railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant, who wanted to name the area around Macon after the heroine in wife’s favorite book, “Trilby,” by George du Maurier.

Even though the name wasn’t formally changed until 1901, there were references to Trilby in the late 1800s, Miller said.

“They platted out street maps showing streets named for characters in the story,” he added, and newspapers around the country reported that a small town in Florida was being named Trilby.

The city of Zephyrhills, originally was known as Abbott, got its name in 1888. It was changed in 1910 by Capt. Howard B. Jeffries, who founded a retirement colony for Civil War veterans. The word zephyr means gentle breeze, and Zephyrhills is known for its hills, Miller said.

The Pasco Post Office, established in 1889, was named after the county.

Pasco County got its name in 1887 when Jefferson Alexis Hendley and Dr. Richard Bankston traveled to Tallahassee to lobby the Legislature for a new county to be called Banner County.

The name did not go over well with legislators, who said “my county is just as much a banner county as yours,” Miller said.

Bankston then proposed the name Pasco County, in honor of Samuel Pasco, the newly elected U.S. Senator. On the same day, in 1887, Pasco and Citrus counties were created, with Pasco coming from the southern third of Hernando County and Citrus coming from the northern third.

The community of Land O’ Lakes got its name in 1949 and was the result of giving the Drexel-Denham area a new name. The following year, the Ehren Post Office was moved and renamed Land O’ Lakes.

Revised on August 9, 2018

Eddie Herrmann, a pillar in San Antonio, was an original

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Edward Joseph Herrmann, known as “Eddie” to most everyone in San Antonio, was an original, and with his passing on Oct. 21, the community paused to reminisce about a pillar of the community.

Eddie wore many hats. He was a father, a son, a husband, an uncle, a former Mayor of San Antonio, an award-winning winemaker, a writer and a respected historian.

His death came on the evening of the 51st annual San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival, an event which he co-founded with Deputy Sheriff Willy Post, as a project of the Jaycees.

Edward ‘Eddie’ Joseph Herrmann died on Oct. 21, on the first evening of the 51st annual San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival, an event he co-founded in the town of San Antonio, in East Pasco County. (Courtesy of Madonna Jervis Wise)

To know Eddie was to appreciate a man who revered his community, and valued the facts and lessons of history.

Local history buffs and museums regularly consulted with Eddie.

“Eddie gave me many photos to use on the Fivay.org website, and he was able to provide information about a number of old photos,” said Jeff Miller, who operates the website and is a respected local historian.

“Eddie knew of the existence of a large collection of high-quality vintage photos of Dade City, San Antonio and surrounding towns. Most of the photos were taken by the Dade City Chamber of Commerce in the late 1920s, and before. He asked Oliver and Barbara DeWitt of Dade City, who are now in possession of the photos, to allow me to scan the photos, which are known as the Helen Eck Sparkman Collection. They can be viewed and downloaded in high resolution on the Fivay.org website,” Miller said.

These photos of public places and historic homes are indicative of Eddie’s zeal to capture accurate information and to share his knowledge, often through anecdotes, about the culture and flavor of a specific time or event.

Herrmann co-authored “The Historic Places of Pasco County,” commonly called “the orange book,” with James J. Horgan and Alice Hall in 1992.

The volume traces the history of the county from 1887 to a hundred years later, in 1987, describing 264 buildings, sites, and homes that were designated as historic. The book also provides a map and guide to the county’s cemeteries.

Compiling the information was a gargantuan task.

And, Eddie told others about a time he once spent 24 hours, without a break, conducting research for the book, along with his great friend, the iconic Zephyrhills activist Alice Hall.

“We spent the night together at the Zephyrhills City Hall poring through records, and they just left us there all night,” Eddie said.

Eddie was a charter member of the Pasco County Historical Preservation Committee, formed in 1977 by the Pasco County Commission.

In his role on the committee, he was involved in the placement of historical markers throughout Pasco County.

His work was valuable in protecting landmarks, said Scott Black, another local historian and a member of the Dade City Commission.

Eddie identified “important sites around the county that were in danger of being forgotten,” Black said, via email.

“I particularly remember how often he would talk about his quest for the ‘26-Mile House,’ which was a stagecoach stop 26 miles south of Chocochattee (present-day Brooksville) on the old road to Tampa,” Black said.

Eddie pinpointed the location so well that he was able to persuade the county to require Lennar Homes to fund an historical marker at the entrance of the Stagecoach Village housing development in Land O’Lakes — as one of the permitting conditions for the development, Black recalled.

Pat Mulieri, a member of the Pasco County Commission at the time, recognized Eddie’s contributions in a proclamation he received in 2014 on the steps of the Pasco County Historic Courthouse in Dade City.

Edward ‘Eddie’ Joseph Herrmann is in the front row on the far left, in this photograph taken at one of scores of historic marker dedications he took part in, throughout Pasco County.

Eddie rarely missed a meeting of the Pasco County Historical Society, and he served the organization in every capacity, from president to board member to program chairman, for many years.

He provided a wealth of information, and was always ready to help others unearth historic facts.

For example, he delved into assisting Eva Martha Knapp and Hernando High School students with documenting the 1944 German POW Camp No. 7 that was operated in Dade City during World War II. During the course of that work, Eddie forged friendships with several former soldiers — hosting them at his home and then visiting them in Germany.

Eddie had the knack of seeing both the forest, and the trees.

He recognized the interweaving of the economy, resources and changing political issues.

For instance, he had extensive knowledge about Florida horticulture, and proved to be an invaluable resource for me, when I was conducting my research for local history books about Dade City and Wesley Chapel.

As an example, he encouraged me to include the impact of a cactus farmer, Anthony Tuzzolino of Wesley Chapel, who raised 15 acres of cacti and imported cacti, and other produce, from Wesley Chapel to Ybor City during the early 1940s.

Beyond merely telling me that, Eddie researched the issue, contacting the Pasco County Cooperative Extension Office, as well as the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences on Opuntia Cactus, and then he passed along several citations to me.

Thus, I wasn’t surprised when I later learned that Eddie himself was an accomplished gardener and grower. As a matter of fact, he won the Florida Grape Growers Association’s first winemaking competition in 1974, and then went on to spend years continuing to hone his skills in growing grapes and making wine.

When gopher tortoises were declared a “species of special concern,” Eddie embraced the opportunity to protect the tortoises — which had been used in races at the Rattlesnake Festival. He spearheaded the design of a large wooden version of a toy that resembled a gopher tortoise to be used instead.

Eddie’s research also helped correct the record on one of Dade City’s most iconic buildings, Miller said.

“It had long been thought that the historic 1909 courthouse in Dade City was designed by a local man, Artemus Roberts, but Eddie discovered that it was actually designed by Edward Columbus Hosford, an architect who designed many courthouses and other buildings in the South,” the local historian explained.

“Eddie’s discovery came about after his brother Gregory moved to Mason, Texas, and told Eddie that the courthouse there looked almost exactly like the one in Dade City, but that it was designed by Hosford. Eddie looked through the old minutes of the Pasco County Commission and found that Hosford did indeed design the Pasco courthouse, and that Roberts was the Superintendent of Construction,” Miller added.

In addition to his public life, Eddie was a man who treasured his faith and family.

Every Sunday, he could be found kneeling in his pew in church at his parish of St. Anthony of Padua in San Antonio. Then, the family gathered for a pancake breakfast at his parents’ home.

He also was an active member of the St. Leo community and participated in St. Leo Abbey events. Articles he wrote about Father Felix Ullrich, former pastor of Saint Anthony Church, and about the history of San Antonio can be found on Miller’s website, Fivay.org.
With Eddie’s passing, San Antonio has lost a man who worked tenaciously for the community’s good.

Those of us who were lucky enough to know him, will miss Eddie’s optimistic outlook and energy.

In his final email to me, he signed off in customary way: “Keep smiling. It looks good on you!”

It was the same kind of upbeat sentiment that he conveyed, in so many different ways, during a life well-spent in San Antonio.

Edward “Eddie” Joseph Herrmann

  • Edward Joseph Herrmann, widely known as ‘Eddie,’ was born to Joe Herrmann and Rose Ullrich Herrmann on July 25, 1936 in the Jovita Building in San Antonio.
  • Eddie grew up in the Jovita Building that was built by his grandfather, Lucius Herrmann, a baker by trade, and Tony Rachel, with help from his father, Joe, and his aunt, Margaret Herrmann Kirch, who were teenagers at the time. The family lived upstairs, with businesses downstairs.
  • Eddie had several siblings: Margaret Herrmann Beaumont, Paul Herrmann, Rosemary Herrmann, Joseph Herrmann, Barbara Herrmann Sessa, John Herrmann, Mary Sue Herrmann Keenan and Gregory Lucius Herrmann.
  • Eddie started school a year early at St. Anthony School and skipped a grade. He graduated when he was 16 from St. Leo College Prep School.
  • Eddie married Mary Patricia “Patsy” Miller on Oct. 19, 1955. Their 62nd anniversary was just two days before Eddie died. The couple’s five children are: Michael Joseph Herrmann, Amy Herrmann Greif, Larry Herrmann, Laura Herrmann Bailey and Eric Herrmann.
  • After finishing high school, Eddie worked for his dad’s Saf-T-Gas Company, but eventually bought the Culligan Soft Water Business from his dad and raised his kids in ‘Culligan Kindergarten,’ with the children riding around with him for years in his big truck, as he serviced his route. His wife, Patsy, was the bookkeeper.

This biographical information was supplied by Margaret Herrmann Beaumont, Eddie’s sister.

By Madonna Jervis Wise

Published November 1, 2017

Pasco’s early law enforcement days were notorious

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Pasco County’s early law enforcement days inspired quite a few dramatic stories.

An illegal killing captured headlines during Henry C. Griffin’s tenure as sheriff.

Built in 1892, the Old Pasco County Jail is the oldest brick structure in Dade City. It had two inmate cells, an isolation cell and an east wing used for the Sheriff’s living quarters. A later addition to the west end was the county’s gallows where the last legal hanging included “An array of picnickers positioned on the grounds surrounding the gallows area,” according to research conducted by local historian Madonna Jervis Wise in 2014. (Courtesy of Norman Carey)

During his second term, a mob killed two black men who were being held inside the county’s first jail located near downtown Dade City.

Will Wright and Sam Williams had been charged in the murders of Dan Childers and J.B. McNeil at Rice & Phelps’ turpentine camp near Dade City, according to newspaper stories published by The Tampa Morning Tribune.

The Tribune reported on Feb. 14, 1901, that Griffin refused to give up the keys and the mob —estimated as being between 30 to 50 men — broke down the outer door.

When they were unable to break down the steel doors of the cells, they opened fire, shooting both Wright and Williams to death, the report said.

The Coroner’s jury determined the prisoners came to their deaths at the hands of “parties unknown.”

Griffin lost his bid for re-election in 1904 to Bart Sturkie, who went on to serve four terms.

Another account of Pasco’s early law days involves the death of a Dade City farmer named Noah Green, who also is the Cherokee great-grandfather of Debbie DeLuca of Land O’ Lakes.

“As it stands right now, the only word I have on his death was the fire in the jailhouse,” DeLuca said.

“I have had cousins try to find his grave over in Linden Cemetery (off State Road 50 in Sumter County),” she added. “We were told it was in the center of the graveyard in an unmarked grave.”

Based on research for this column by Pasco County historian Jeff Miller, four newspapers including The Atlanta Constitution reported on the fire started by Green, who was “arrested on a charge of drunkenness and duly locked up.”

The 1892 cornerstone from the Old Pasco County Jail is currently on display at the West Pasco Historical Society in New Port Richey. (Courtesy of Fivay.org)

With a headline, “Cremates himself in lockup in Dade City,” The Tampa Morning Tribune printed this account on Nov. 23, 1911: “About 3 o’clock this morning, beginning to get sober, Green began to feel cold and scraping what rubbish he could gather on the floor, set fire to it.

“Locked up alone in the place, Green found it impossible to escape and began to cry loudly for help. No one was on the streets at that hour but a citizen who lives near the jail hurried to the place. He arrived too late, for Green was then beyond human aid. The jail was burned to the ground and Green’s charred and shrunken body was found in the ashes.”

Newspaper accounts are clear that Green left behind “a wife and five children,” but not much is known not about the wooden jail facility itself.

That incident offers just a glimpse into the county’s early law enforcement history, according to documents archived by fivay.org, a website that specializes in tracking Pasco County history.

Another vigilante mob stormed the jail in Dade City on the night of Aug. 5, 1915 and took a black inmate named Will Leak, according to the Dade City Banner. Leak had been charged with the attempted rape of a young white girl in Trilby and was hung on an oak tree in front of Hillard’s barber shop in the center of town. Details of the event were published on The Banner’s front page on Aug. 6, 1915.

Sturkie, who was serving his fourth term at the time of the break-in, was defeated in his re-election bid for sheriff in 1916 by Isaac Hudson, Jr., who served two terms as sheriff.

During his first six months in office, Hudson raided 164 moonshine stills, according to his son, Leon, who served as Dade City’s Police Chief in 1951.

Hudson’s family is prominent as the founders of Hudson, Florida.

Sheriff Hudson had a historic role on Dec. 28, 1917, when he released the trap door and executed Edgar London for the murder of his wife in the summer of 1917 at Ehren, near present-day Land O’ Lakes.

This is how the newspaper reported the last legal hanging in Pasco County, on Jan. 4, 1918: “The execution took place at ten minutes past one in the presence of a large crowd of whites and blacks who had come in for miles around to witness the affair.

“The negro was led to the platform by Sheriff Hudson and Deputy Osburn. He was accompanied by Rev. Father Francis (future Abbot at Saint Leo Abby), who had been with him all during the day, preparing him for his death. While the noose was being adjusted about his neck by Deputy Osburn, the negro displayed the utmost composure, never flinching once during the nerve-racking ordeal. He had the side of his face to the crowd and his lips could be seen moving in prayer.”

The account continued: “He never offered to say anything to the crowd, but kept his head well up and an erect position to the last, exhibiting a wonderful nerve. The black cap was placed over his head and the trap was sprung by Sheriff Hudson at 1:10. His neck was broken by the fall, and in six minutes he was pronounced dead by Dr. E. L. Reigle, the attending physician.”

Doug Sanders has a penchant for unearthing interesting stories about local history. His sleuthing skills have been developed through his experiences in newspaper and government work. If you have an idea for a future history column, contact Doug at .

Published Oct. 11, 2017

Dade City star had familiar face, but unfamiliar name

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Imagine this: A fictional round on the popular game show, “Jeopardy!”

The contestants listen closely as host Alex Trebek says:

“During the middle 1960s, he was one of the most recognizable faces on network television.”

A contestant responds: “Who is Roy Barnes Jones, of Dade City, Florida?”

Indeed.

Between takes on the set of Smoky in 1946, Roberts, center, finds time to get a haircut from his co-star, Fred MacMurray. Also starring Anne Baxter, Bruce Cabot, Hoyt Axton, Burl Ives and Slim Pickens, the movie was a drama about the strong bond between a cowpoke and a wild bronco set during the 1940s.
(Courtesy of the Scott Rollins Film and TV Trivia Blog)

Who is this man — whose face was familiar to millions, but whose name remains relatively unknown?

Roy Barnes Jones was born on March 18, 1906.

Records online with ancestry.com show that his parents were married in Dade City, and that his older sister, Nannie Louise Jones, was born there in 1904.

“It might be difficult to confirm that Roy was born in Dade City, but it seems likely,” according to Jeff Miller, webmaster for the Pasco County history website fivay.org.

“Some sources say he was born in Tampa, but maybe that’s because Tampa is better known,” Miller said.

He adds: “Roy’s father was a true Pasco pioneer, shown as living at Cedar Tree in 1870, before there was a Pasco County.”

While those same genealogical records document Jones as the youngest of six children in his family, not even the digital collections of the Dade City Banner— online at the University of Florida — make any mention of Jones’ 40-year career as a character actor. During those four decades, Jones appeared in more than 900 productions on stage and screen.

According to the Internet Broadway Database for theatre productions, Jones began his acting career on the stage as Roy Roberts, first appearing in such plays as “Old Man Murphy” in 1931, followed by “Twentieth Century” in 1932, “The Body Beautiful” in 1935 and “My Sister Eileen” in 1942.

“Roy was a cousin on the Tait side of my family and visited our home here in Dade City for family reunions when I was a kid,” recalls Darwin Croft, co-owner of Croft Farms in Pasco County.

Roy Roberts, with actors Don Knotts (Barney Fife) and Andy Griffith (Sheriff Andy Taylor) on the ‘Andy Griffith Show’ in 1962. In season 2 episode 29, Roberts played the vindictive newspaper publisher J. Howard Jackson, who accuses Sheriff Taylor of official misconduct after he is arrested on a traffic violation.

Additional sources from the Internet Movie Database report that Roberts made his motion picture debut in “Gold Bricks,” a 1936 two-reel comedy short released by the film studios at 20th Century Fox.

By 1943, he had successfully switched to the silver screen, debuting as a Marine officer in “Guadalcanal Diary” with William Bendix. He appeared in 1953 as the crooked business partner (and first victim) in Vincent Price’s “House of Wax.”

When he started recurring appearances on television, he was not known necessarily by name. But, the stocky character — portrayed with silvery hair and a perfectly trimmed mustache — reminded fans and actors of the “Mr. Monopoly” character from the classic board game.

“I remember being so thrilled that Roy was my distant cousin,” recalls Polly Hamm of Dade City.

Roberts made famous a take-charge demeanor when he played the no-nonsense Admiral Rogers on “McHale’s Navy” and the steely railroad president Norman Curtis on CBS’ “Petticoat Junction.”

The same thing could be said when he was cast as Darren Stephens’ father on “Bewitched” and as the father of Rob Petrie on the “Dick Van Dyke Show.”

As John Cushing, president of the Merchants Bank on CBS’s ‘The Beverly Hillbillies,’ Roberts, right, played the rival banker to Mr. Drysdale (Raymond Bailey), president of the Commerce Bank, which had Jed Clampett’s millions.

From 1956 to 1960, Roberts guest-starred in the western series, “My Friend Flicka,” which became the first television series filmed by 20th Century Fox, and as a Texas cattle baron in “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.”

Roy Roberts appeared on four episodes of the CBS legal drama, “Perry Mason,” including the role of murderer Arthur Janeel in the 1961 episode, “The Case of the Malicious Mariner.”

In the 1963 comedy hit, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” Blu-ray editions have restored Roberts’ small role as a police officer that was cut from the original film to reduce running time in movie theaters.

Roberts was the assured banker on both “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza,” but perhaps one of his most familiar roles was as banker John Cushing in “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

Here’s an example of one his gruff reactions when dealing with the Clampett family, from the 1965 episode entitled “Clampett’s Millions”:

Jed Clampett: “Did you get our 45 million from Mr. Drysdale’s bank?”

John Cushing: “Every cent of it.  It’s all safe and sound, right in my bank.”

Jed Clampett: “That’s dandy.  We’d like to see it…in cash.”

John Cushing: (Exasperated) “I haven’t got it!?”

Jed Clampett:  Well, Granny?”

Daisy Moses: “Dogged, if he didn’t go through it quicker than Mr. Drysdale.”

Jed Clampett: “I think we’d be better off, back with him.”

In his last television appearance, Roberts played a veterinarian on the Jan. 21, 1974 CBS broadcast of “Here’s Lucy.”

Although he had a familiar face to viewers, he never had a leading role in Hollywood.

Roy Barnes Jones died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on May 28, 1975. He is buried with his wife Lillian Moore at Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth, Texas. (Lillian Moore had her own film credits. She starred in the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy movies, “Sons of the Desert” and the “Devil’s Brother,” both produced by Hal Roach and released by the MGM studios in 1933.)

Doug Sanders has a penchant for unearthing interesting stories about local history. His sleuthing skills have been developed through his experiences in newspaper and government work. If you have an idea for a future history column, contact Doug at .

Published July 19, 2017

Book captures Dade City’s history through photographs

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When visitors drop by downtown Dade City, its stately historic courthouse, unique shops and good restaurants likely will impress them.

But there’s so much more to Dade City’s story, and Madonna Jervis Wise has captured that through 200 photographs of the people and places in this city that initially was known as Fort Dade.

Downtown Dade City, during the 1940s, was a thriving hub of activity. (Courtesy of Madonna Jervis Wise)
Downtown Dade City, during the 1940s, was a thriving hub of activity.
(Courtesy of Madonna Jervis Wise)

Wise began working on the volume about a year ago. She’d done another book called “Zephyrhills” for Arcadia Publishing, and the South Carolina publisher approached her to see if she had an interest in writing a book about Dade City.

Wise wasn’t sure initially if she wanted to take it on. But her family encouraged her to pursue the opportunity, and Wise decided to meet with some local leaders to see if they’d like to have a book about their community published.

John Moors, the executive director of the Dade City Chamber of Commerce, greeted the idea with enthusiasm and set up a meeting for Wise with the city’s development director. She also met with the Dade City Preservation Advisory Board, which encouraged her to write the book and provided invaluable suggestions, she said.

Wise said her husband Ernie played an instrumental role, too.

The book includes photographs of everything from old railroad depots to stately homes, from ballet dancers to orange packers. It includes photographs of the sons and daughters of Dade City, who shaped the community and played an instrumental role in Pasco County and beyond.

“Dade City is a rich historical hub,” Wise said. “For many, many decades, this county was run by Pasco High graduates.”

The book showcases the community’s diversity, covering the history of the African-American community and its migrant farmworkers.

Wise used information and photographs she gleaned from a multitude of sources. Jeff Miller of the West Pasco Historical Society provided about 3,000 photos for her to consider from his collection.

She also used photos from the collections of Helen Eck Sparkman and of Oliver and Barbara DeWitt, who provided them to Eddie Herrmann, one of the authors of “The Historic Places of Pasco County.”

The Pasco County Genealogical Society and the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System’s Genealogical Collection, as well as the librarians, were invaluable resources for the work as well, Wise said.

She used photographs from The Memory Project, produced by the Florida government.

The book’s photographs convey the city’s history through its people, residences, churches, social and civic clubs, and commerce. It points out that Pasco Packing, later known as Lykes Pasco, was the largest orange packing plant in the world, in the days before freezes, blight and development wiped out much of Florida’s citrus industry.

The photographs also show homes of early residents, with many of the structures still standing today.

“My husband photographed many of the houses,” Wise said, noting some of the photos had to be taken more than once, to be sure that alarm signs and air conditioners didn’t show up in the frame.

When they were out in the neighborhoods taking the photographs, people would approach them and ask what they were doing, Wise said. When she told them about the book, she said, “they would add other pieces to the story. It was great. It was just great.”

The actual work of culling photographs, writing captions and arranging the layout was a gargantuan task. But Wise enjoyed learning about Dade City’s history and spending time with the people who helped on the project.

Besides Herrmann, other primary sources included William G. Dayton and J. Thomas Touchton.

“I probably talked to Eddie (Herrmann) nearly every day,” Wise said. “And Bill is a real storyteller. He can give you the feel for the different eras. He knew a lot of the inside of what was going on.”

Touchton, a Dade City native and leader of the effort to establish The Tampa Bay History Center, also provided valuable insights, she said. Touchton has an international reputation for the collection of maps he’s acquired, and has fond recollections of Dade City.

“He told me the most fabulous stories about growing up there,” she said.

As she conducted her research, Wise was struck by the realization that Dade City remains a cohesive community, something that’s not all that common in the 21st century.

As people page through the volume, Wise hopes it will inspire them to learn more about Dade City.

“The book is intended to be an invitation to learn more about Dade City and serve as an enticement to walk through Church Avenue, visit the historic courthouse, dine in a vintage café, or visit the Pioneer Florida Museum and Village,” Wise writes in the acknowledgements section of the book. “History must be shared to pass it on to the next generation.”

If you go …
WHAT: Author Madonna Jervis Wise will offer some remarks regarding her new book, ‘Images of America, Dade City’
WHERE: Historic Pasco County Courthouse, 37918 Meridian Ave., Dade City
WHEN: Oct. 4, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
DETAILS: Other speakers at the event will include Pasco County commissioner Pat Mulieri, Dade City councilman Scott Black, Trilby historian Angelo Liranzo, and J. Thomas Touchton, founding board member of the Tampa Bay History Center

Published September 24, 2014

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