The Laker/Lutz News

West Pasco Historical Society

Correcting an error that’s gone unnoticed for 60 years

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In one of downtown Dade City’s most visible places, there’s a historic plaque commemorating the establishment of Pasco County.

The problem is — that celebrated memorial, located in courthouse square — contains an inaccurate date.

“Pasco County was created from Hernando County on May 12, 1887,” the sign reads.

Some errors can go a long time before anyone notices. In this case, the historic marker erected 60 years ago reports an incorrect date for the formation of Pasco County. (Courtesy of Doug Sanders)

On the face of it, that seems like an important thing to remember.

However, the historic sign perpetuates the wrong date.

It turns out that the separation of the counties was signed into law by then Gov. Edward A. Perry on June 2, 1887.

The document he signed was titled, “A Bill to Divide the County of Hernando and make therefrom the Counties of Citrus and Pasco.”

In a way though, it’s almost fitting that the marker is wrong because it serves as a reminder of the many challenges that arose, during the naming of Pasco County.

It took much compromise to arrive at that name, according to Jefferson Alexis “J.A.” Hendley.

Hendley wrote about the efforts in a work published in 1943 that chronicles a gathering of residents of southern Hernando County, who met in May 1887, with the purpose of forming a new county.

“We agreed in convention assembled to make an effort to get away from Brooksville,” Hendley writes, in an account he dedicated to the schoolteachers of Pasco County.

J.A. Hendley, shown here, and Richard C. Bankston lobbied in Tallahassee for the formation of Pasco County. Hendley later wrote that it took Gov. Edwin A. Perry only a few hours to approve the new county. (Courtesy of Jeff Miller/fivay.org)

Forming counties in Florida during the 1800s was nothing new.

Hernando County, itself, was part of Hillsborough County before it was separated, and became its own entity, on Feb. 27, 1843.

Writing in a letter on Nov. 25, 1927, Dr. Richard C. Bankston, recalled that at the time of Pasco County’s creation, there was “unanimous sentiment” to support it.

“We all were weary of traveling the sand trails of Brooksville, the county seat, to attend court, or transact other business of varied nature,” he wrote.

Bankston and Hendley were selected to lobby for the change, in Tallahassee.

Bankston was a member of the Florida Legislature, from Tampa; Hendley was a Blanton lawyer and a member of the Florida Constitutional Convention of 1885.

Hendley knew it was not going to be easy based on his own experience in west Texas, where he helped to organize Mitchell County.

Plus, both men had already read “a very discouraging letter,” from James Latham, a Florida House of Representatives member, from Hernando County.

Pasco County is named after Samuel Pasco, who had recently been elected as Florida’s representative to the United States Senate. He was at the height of his popularity when the county was named. (Courtesy of Doug Sanders)

Latham’s letter said it was too late in the session to accomplish anything.

The subsequent reply from south Hernando County was a political threat to “split the county right in the middle of Brooksville,” if the suggested new county was not formed.

The group also suggested three names for legislators to consider for the new county. They recommended: “Tropic,” “Banner” and “Emanuel.”

Bankston and Hendley preferred the name, “Banner,” for the new county.

That was a problem.

“As we learned that nearly every member thought he came from a banner county,” Bankston wrote.

They knew they’d have to come up with a less-objectionable name.

It so happened that the state’s lawmakers were in joint session that week voting for Florida’s next U.S. Senator.

In those days, senators were elected by state legislatures and the decision was rarely made in a single vote.

It took 89 ballots for Florida’s state Democratic party to choose Judge Samuel Pasco, of Monticello, as their compromise candidate.

It took another 25 ballots for the full legislature to elect Pasco, with a vote of 87-17 on May 19, 1887.

This photograph of the Historic Pasco County Courthouse was taken in 1909. (Courtesy of fivay.org)

Pasco was at the height of his popularity — and, Bankston and Hendley were inspired by these events.

They figured if they wanted their new county, the best way to get it done was to garner the support of the English-born Pasco.

He was a Harvard graduate, a Civil War Hero, a lawyer, a Baptist, and, above all — a Democrat.

“It struck me as an inspiration to call our county ‘Pasco,’” Bankston wrote.

Finding a committee room with a desk, he immediately changed the name on the legislative documents from Banner to Pasco.

Bankston recounts: “We gave the finished bill to Sen. A.S. Man, who at once introduced it in the Senate, and it passed unanimously. It was expedited to the House and sponsored by Frank Saxon, where it passed unanimously. The governor was favorable and signed it. Having accomplished all we proposed, we returned home, able to report the complete success of our mission.”

The governor approved the formation of Pasco County within four hours, according to Bankston’s account.

Nearly 20 years after Hendley’s history of Pasco County was published, the state posted the marker on the west lawn of the county’s red-brick courthouse, with its neoclassical dome and clock tower.

Flash forward to the present.

Even though the historic marker was erected in 1963, the Pasco Historical Society in Dade City and the West Pasco Historical Society in New Port Richey are interested in making a joint request to the Pasco County Commission to put the correct date — June 2, 1887 — on the marker.

Stay tuned, to this column, to see what happens next.

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 01, 2021

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

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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