The Laker/Lutz News

Henry B. Plant

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

Memory keeper preserves Trilby’s past

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When Scott Black tools around the community of Trilby in his white pickup truck, the place becomes alive for him with the people and businesses from its past.

As he drives along the community’s roads, he’ll point out where the old railroad depot stood, the bank, the store, the hotel and other local landmarks.

Scott Black, who grew up in Trilby, has such an intense interest in preserving Trilby’s history that it borders on obsession. He has spent countless hours tracking the community’s history through public records and newspaper accounts, and has a large collection of photographs and postcards, too. (B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)
Scott Black, who grew up in Trilby, has such an intense interest in preserving Trilby’s history that it borders on obsession. He has spent countless hours tracking the community’s history through public records and newspaper accounts, and has a large collection of photographs and postcards, too.
(B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)

He also notes the community’s segregated cemeteries — a vestige of the past, and he talks fondly about people who once lived in Trilby and made their final resting place there.

The Dade City commissioner understands that, for those unfamiliar with Trilby or its history, it takes a bit of an imagination to see the place the way he does.

But for him, preserving Trilby’s story, is important.

Black is a native of the community, and his father was born there, too.

He knows the pivotal role that the railroad played in shaping the community’s history.

The people who made their way to this settlement, north of Dade City, and who chose to make their life there, fascinate him.

He finds romance in the sounds of trains rumbling by.

“I did grow up in Trilby, so trains were very much a part of our life. I can remember lying in bed at night and watching the strobe light of the engine, from across the pasture, on the ceiling and listening to the trains,” Black told members of the Pasco County Historical Society in March.

He recalls a time when he was riding with his dad, and his dad had to stop for a train. His dad wasn’t perturbed. “He rolled down the window and said, ‘Isn’t that a wonderful sound?’”

Black said his interest in Trilby’s history dates back to when he was in middle school, and he won an essay contest sponsored by the West Pasco Historical Society.

As he gathered information for his essay, he went around the community, recording interviews with some of its oldest residents.

Black recalls how his mother stayed up with him until midnight, as he made the final touches on his entry.

The interest in community history that was piqued in his youth, lives on.

The railroad played a pivotal role in shaping the development of Trilby, according to Scott Black, who has devoted considerable time to researching the community’s history. (Courtesy of Scott Black)
The railroad played a pivotal role in shaping the development of Trilby, according to Scott Black, who has devoted considerable time to researching the community’s history.
(Courtesy of Scott Black)

He also recalls being inspired by an article he read about a reunion of descendants of family members who had lived in New Salem, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln had owned a store.

He thought it would be fun to do the same thing in Trilby.

So, he began looking for old families with ties to Trilby, and he found quite a few. Then, 11 years ago, the community began having its annual Trilby homecoming that’s held on the third Saturday of March every year.

There was a time when the community was a bustling place, at the crossroads of railroad lines. It had depot buildings, hotels, restaurants, boarding houses, a bank, stores and other businesses.

“As you come into Trilby, there’s not much left anymore, and not too many that remember, either,” Black said.

But, he’s taken on the task of being the memory keeper of the place that was, and the people who once lived there.

Named after a novel?
Railroads played an enormous role in shaping the community’s life, he said.

Peter Demens, who built the Orange Belt Railroad, didn’t initially intend to build his railroad all of the way to St. Petersburg, but he did.

“So, along the path of his railroad was the community of Macon, and that forever more changed what we now know as Trilby,” he said.

“Someone else who came along and changed Trilby was Henry B. Plant. His north-south railroad that came through intersected with Peter Demens’ Orange Belt Railroad. That made Trilby very important as an intersection, in fact, any train that went to St. Petersburg, it went through Trilby. People would make that connection there.

“It helped the commerce at Trilby — restaurants and everything else, of the rail passengers going south.

“Henry B. Plant was a key part of Trilby’s success,” Black added.

It is said that Trilby’s name was suggested by Plant’s wife, Margaret, who asked him to name the next town he platted after a popular novel of the day, “Trilby,” written by George du Maurier.

When Plant platted Trilby, in June 1896, he named the streets after characters in the novel. The depot was built around Svengali Square.

Black said he’s not aware of any those streets ever being built.

Over the years, Black has tracked the history of Trilby and its inhabitants through newspaper accounts, public records, grave stones, census records, photographs, post cards, interviews and artifacts.

“When I was a child growing up, my pastor out in Trilby, we’d plant a garden out there, and we’d plow things. There’s a pond that’s there, and it would recede and things would surface from the old town site,” Black said.

He estimates that Trilby’s population today is around 600 and was probably around the same as its peak.

Black acknowledges that his fascination for Trilby borders on obsession.

“Sometimes my wife wonders a little bit,” he admitted.

But, he feels a sense of urgency to collect as much information as he can, so that the history is not lost to the ages.

“I let so many people slip past me,” Black said.

Published August 31, 2016

Russian politics played a role in San Antonio train depot

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The history of a train depot building in San Antonio is rooted in political uncertainty in Russia roughly 135 years ago.

On Feb. 17, 1880, a second assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander II occurred in the imperial dining room of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Terrorists blew up the dining room, killing or maiming 67 people – but the emperor wasn’t present during the attempt on his life.

The Orange Belt No. 203 was the primary locomotive that was used for the tourist line between San Antonio and Blanton in 1976. It was built in 1925 for the Washington & Lincolnton railroad that ran out of Lincolnton, Georgia. When it had mechanical problems, the railroad was able to lease Orange Belt No. 11. (Courtesy Jack Bejna/railroadpictures.net)
The Orange Belt No. 203 was the primary locomotive that was used for the tourist line between San Antonio and Blanton in 1976. It was built in 1925 for the Washington & Lincolnton railroad that ran out of Lincolnton, Georgia. When it had mechanical problems, the railroad was able to lease Orange Belt No. 11.
(Courtesy Jack Bejna/railroadpictures.net)

The previous year, nitroglycerine was used in a failed effort to destroy Alexander II’s train. And, there was the unsuccessful mission to blow up the Kamenny Bridge in St. Petersburg as the tsar was passing over it.

These events, and the political uncertainty that followed them, prompted Piotr Alexandrovitch Dementieff, a Russian nobleman, to flee to Florida as a Russian exile.

Dementieff, who later shortened his name to Peter A. Demens, would go on to become a co-founder of St. Petersburg, Florida.

And, the city would become home to the southern terminus for one of the longest narrow gauge railroads in the United States at the time of its completion in 1888.

The decision to locate a railway line in St. Petersburg was made during the same time that Henry B. Plant was opening up a rail line near Port Tampa, which had a depth of 5 feet.

St. Petersburg, by comparison, had a harbor with a depth of 18 feet, enabling it to import and export more cargo.

With dozens of railroads competing in Florida, Demens saw an advantage in running a railroad north from St. Petersburg to transport the area’s abundant long-leaf yellow pine and its citrus.

Known as the Orange Belt Railway, the mainline was 152 miles long.

It was the first to cross central Pasco County diagonally — through Trilby, San Antonio, Ehren, Drexel and Odessa.

The Orange Belt Railway also played a role in the development of other towns along its route including Tarpon Springs, Dunedin, Clearwater and Largo.

San Antonio’s historic depot is the last one remaining on the Orange Belt Railway. The railway crossed Pasco County for 80 years, connecting northern markets in the St. Johns River area with St. Petersburg. The depot was completely restored in 1996 with a $15,600 preservation grant from the state, plus a $25,000 contribution from Pasco County and countless hours of volunteer help. The depot currently serves as railroad museum, a community building and a voting precinct location. (Doug Sanders/Photo)
San Antonio’s historic depot is the last one remaining on the Orange Belt Railway. The railway crossed Pasco County for 80 years, connecting northern markets in the St. Johns River area with St. Petersburg. The depot was completely restored in 1996 with a $15,600 preservation grant from the state, plus a $25,000 contribution from Pasco County and countless hours of volunteer help. The depot currently serves as railroad museum, a community building and a voting precinct location.
(Doug Sanders/Photo)

As a narrow gauge (3 feet) railway company, Demens had arranged for some incredible financing — which left him in debt with angry capitalists in Philadelphia.

“At one time, his creditors chained his locomotives to the tracks,” writes Glen Dill for The Suncoast News in August 1988. “At another time, his unpaid track-laying crew stormed after him on a hand car, planning to lynch him.”

The Orange Belt faced many hardships in its early years due to debt run up during various phases of construction.

Frigid temperatures during the Great Freeze of 1894-1895 killed many citrus groves in Florida.

The freeze also ended Demens’ ownership of the Orange Belt.

Within weeks, he sold the Orange Belt Railway to railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant.

Plant converted most of the railway to standard gauge (4 feet 8 1⁄2 inches), which made it more profitable.

In 1902, the Plant system became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Passengers would later ride on that railroad in luxury Pullman railcars with sleeper berths during Florida’s land boom in the 1920s.

As cars, buses and planes took more passengers, the Atlantic Coast Line discontinued its train service in 1970.

The depot in San Antonio was left abandoned and forgotten until 1976, when a group of Tampa residents organized under the name of Robert Most and Associates. They took passengers on a round-trip railroad excursion, typically a 90-minute trip, from San Antonio to Blanton on weekends and holidays.

The last ride took place on Feb. 21, 1978.

Sections of the Orange Belt rail line are now part of the Pinellas Trail in Pinellas County, the South Lake Minneola Scenic Trail in Lake County and the West Orange Trail in Orange County.

The depot in San Antonio is a reminder of the vibrant role that railroads played during the early days of Florida’s development.

The historic depot is the last one remaining on the Orange Belt Railway, which crossed Pasco County for 80 years, connecting northern markets in the St. Johns River area with St. Petersburg.

The depot was completely restored in 1996 with a $15,600 preservation grant from the state, plus a $25,000 contribution from Pasco County and countless hours of volunteer help.

With a history that had its roots in politics, the San Antonio depot also has a connection to political life today.

Besides serving as a railroad museum and community building, it’s a voting precinct, too.

Peter Demens won a coin toss, according to a local legend, and named St. Petersburg, Florida, after his hometown in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Demens was selected as a Great Floridian in 2000 by the Florida Department of State and the Florida League of Cities.

By Doug Sanders

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 December 9, 2015