Pasco County, Florida
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

VEIW FULL SIZED D.O.T. COUNTY MAP OF
Pasco County

Pasco County was created in 2 Jun 1887 and was formed from Hernando County. The County was named after Samuel Pasco, who served as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War and then in the United States Senate from 1887 to 1899. The County Seat is Dade City. See also County History for more historical details.

Counties adjacent to Pasco County are Hernando County (north), Sumter County (northeast), Polk County (southeast), Hillsborough County (south), Pinellas County (southwest).

Pasco County Cities and Towns include Dade City, New Port Richey, Port Richey, San Antonio, Zephyrhills St. Leo. CDPs Include Bayonet Point, Beacon Square, Crystal Springs, Dade City North, Elfers, Holiday, Hudson, Jasmine Estates, Lacoochee, Land O' Lakes, New Port Richey East, Odessa, Shady Hills, Trinity, Wesley Chapel, Wesley Chapel South, Zephyrhills North, Zephyrhills South, Zephyrhills West

The Pasco County Official Government Website
Pasco County, Florida History Books at Amazon.com
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Records at the Pasco County Courthouse

Pasco County Vital Records

Pasco County Census Records

Pasco County Maps & Atlases

Pasco County Military Records

Pasco County Tax Records

Pasco County Genealogical Addresses

Pasco County Church & Cemeteries

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Pasco County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Pasco County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Pasco County, Florida Family Books at Amazon.com

Extended History

The first residents of Pasco County were Indians. Authorities agree that the peaceful Timucuans may have lived here in the 1200's. Indian mounds and traces of artifacts near fresh water springs seem to bear out this theory.

Around the year 1750, fragments of tribes from the Southwest migrated to Florida and became known as the Seminoles. The French settlers at Fort Caroline on the east coast of Florida generally enjoyed good relations with the Indians, but the Spanish were not so lucky. By the time the Spanish sold Florida to the U.S. in 1819, adventurers, run-away slaves, and renegade Indians sparsely populated the territory.

The Indians were aggressive during this period, and Andrew Jackson led soldiers into Florida to subdue them. As a result, a series of forts were established to protect and settle the area in Tampa, the north Pasco-Sumter area, and Ocala.

In 1835 the Seminoles massacred General Dade and his troops and the Seminole war began in earnest. It lasted seven years and hundreds of settlers and Seminoles were killed. In 1837 General Jessup may have had as many as 2,000 soldiers and dependents living in the vicinity of Fort Dade, north of the present site of Dade City.

Florida became a state in 1845, and activities at the fort began winding down. In about 1849 a dozen families were living on plantations in the area that later became Dade City. Florida had been admitted as a slave state to the Union. But in Pasco, ownership of two or three slaves qualified a farm as a "plantation".

Pioneer life in Pasco was a struggle. The climate, mosquitoes, and yellow fever were enemies. But the farmers persevered, cleared land, and managed to provide for themselves and their families. In 1855 a stagecoach line operated between Tampa and Palatka along the old Army trails.

The Civil War began in 1861. Although Florida as a Confederate state, Pasco County was too far away to be much affected. Men from Pasco served on both sides. Bayport, in Hernando County, was shelled during the war and a skirmish with the militia was fought. After the war the population began to increase in all directions.

In 1887 Pasco County became a county carved from the larger Hernando Territory. It was named in honor of Samuel Pasco, a U.S. Senator. About 1890 several things happened to change the economic future of Pasco County.

The Spaniards had brought citrus to Florida in the 1500's. Indians were fond of the sour orange and cultivated them in a limited way. Because of the casual manner of cultivation, the fruit grew in groves. Citrus was enjoyed locally but limited transportation facilities and the lack of refrigeration made the citrus industry unprofitable. When the railroad came to Pasco County all that changed.

While Dade City was a thriving community at the turn of the century, life on the west coast had not come so far. The earliest settlers we know of lived in the Seven Springs area from around 1830. These brave people struggled through many hard times including the Seminole War years.

In 1878 the first families settled in the Hudson vicinity and a community in Sampling Woods (Elfers) began to thrive. In 1883 Captain Richey and his family resided at the south of the Pithlachascotee River. He ran a mail boat to Tarpon Springs and freight service from Anclote to Cedar Key, an important port on the west coast. In the first census of 1890, 3,872 whites, 376 blacks and one Indian resided in Pasco County.

There are six municipalities in Pasco County

DADE CITY, County seat, Incorporated in 1889 In 1887 when Pasco County was formed from Hernando County, Dade City was named temporary county seat. There followed a hotly contested battle between other towns for the honor. According to courthouse records, the bitter battle ended when 765 voters turned out and Dade City became the permanent county seat by a vote of 432.
SAN ANTONIO, Incorporated 1889 Founded as a Catholic Colony by Irish and German immigrants. Four Benedictine sisters from Pittsburgh, five Benedictine priests and four brothers from North Carolina established St. Leo Abbey that is now St. Leo College.
ST. LEO, Incorporated in 1891 St. Leo was also founded as a Catholic Colony by a small order of monks who arrived to establish a monastery and Catholic elementary school.
ZEPHYRHILLS, Incorporated 1914 First established as a colony for Civil War Veterans, it was considered an ideal site because the land was fertile, there was an abundance of water and the rolling hills were cooled by 'zephyr-like' breezes.
NEW PORT RICHEY, Incorporated 1924 In 1882 a Captain Aaron McLaughlin Richey came to Florida from Missouri. He built a house on the west coast of Pasco Co at the south of the Pithlachascotee River and named the site Port Richey. Other settlers soon followed. They planned and developed a city they named New Port Richey.
PORT RICHEY, Incorporated 1925 No one seems to know why the two towns bearing Captain Richey's name were incorporated separately. One story goes that despite their proximity, an impenetrable thicket separated the two towns.

THE HISTORY of PASCO COUNTY By J. A. HENDLEY
I was born, at an early period of my existence, in Farmington, Kentucky, a small town in the western part of the state, known as the Pennoroyal district. Farmington was noted for some of the bravest men in the Civil War (most of them never came back), nice farms, fine women, good horses, and cattle. The Home Guards and Gorillas—they were called—made a football of that part of the county during that terrible war of bloodshed. It was a divided country, feuds caused by the war arose and many were killed and property destroyed, but the younger generation have inter-married until the feudal days have been forgotten, let them rest.

I was always a lawyer, such as I was. At fourteen years of age I was practicing in the courts presided over by esquires, same as justices of the peace in this state. My first case was one in which I defended a boy friend, Joe Bridges by name, who was charged of fraudulently beating another boy in a horse trade. I stood before the jury barefooted, with pants rolled up to my knees. Dozens of boys rigged just as I was came to court to hear Jeff defend Joe for his alleged misdeeds. From that day until I retired a few years ago I have been at it most of the time. I studied law at Washington and Lee University, graduating in 1878.

In this large farming community we had only three months school. In 1879 a young man by the name of H. L. Finney and I came home from High School, built what we called the Farmington Institute. We issued great circulars describing the school building, and offering the young people a high school education. The response was overwhelming and our school was a grand success from the start. I sold my interest to another school teacher and went to western Texas.

There I organized Mitchell county and was elected to first prosecuting attorney. The adjoining unorganized counties were attached to Mitchell county for Judicial purposes, thus giving me a territory as prosecutor as large as Florida south of Dade City to Key West.

Later on I wanted to see my father and mother who still lived at Farmington, where he practiced medicine for fifty years. In 1881 I went home and found quite a number of young men planning to come to Florida. I sent in my resignation as prosecuting attorney to the governor of Texas, and joined the boys in the trip to Florida.

We all settled in that portion of Hernando county, now Pasco county, on the hills north of Blanton. The following named persons were the first new comers, as we were called, with the exception of the Ravisees, McCrays and Cochranes, to-wit: R. L. Seay, Charley Seay, H. L. Anderson, Robert L. Anderson, Charley Wray, W. L. Hendley, J. A. Hendley, M. L. Gilbert, William Sherill, Jacob Sherill, James Black, Dan Boone, Bill Kemp, A. A. Boone and Dr. Thomas Seay and family. Dr. J. F. Roberts and family came later on. The boys all engaged in orange culture. William Sherill and J. A. Hendley planted orange groves and operated a saw mill, about the first circular saw mill brought to this country. Our saw mill was located on the Levi Eiland farm about three miles west of Dade City. Hutto hauled the mill for us from Wildwood through the deep sand, with eight yokes of oxen.

Our end of the county was represented by J. A. Hendley in the constitutional convention of 1885. Pasco county was at one time a part of Hillsborough county. Later on the territory comprising Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties was cut off from Hillsborough and made a new county called Hernando. This end of Pasco county east beyond San Antonio was called Fort Dade in honor of Major Dade, who with his entire army was massacred by the Indians near Bushnell, Florida. This part of the county was called the “clabber end,” for what reason I don't know unless it was because clabber milk entered so much into the diet of the people in this part of the county.

We had two water mills that ground our meal and grits. One of these mills was located a little south of Chipco—now called Blanton. The other was farther south near the J. W. Hudson farm. Levi Eiland built these two mills in 1874 and 1875. One of them was operated by John Howell, who later sold to L. Fortner, who was running the mill when I came to this country. Columbus Gant owned the other mill. Gant's mill ground corn meal and grits, and he also had a cotton gin and press where the farmers had their cotton ginned before taking it to market. The power of these mills was furnished by dams fed by springs and high water level ponds. Before these mills were established the old-time cracker had a steel mill something on the order of an old-fashioned coffee mill on which he ground his dally bread and hominy. He had no money but always had something to eat. Commercial fertilizers were unknown to the citizens of that day. They had a few orange trees planted around near their houses and in the yard and used cattle to fertilize their orange trees and potato patches. They made the finest vegetables and oranges that the heart could wish. Many of the blighting insects of today were practically unknown.

Political subdivisions of that time were Hudson, Anclote, Hammock Creek, Darby, Wesley Chapel, Wake Forest and R. M. Wilson's store, called Fort Dade.

Courthouse History

The county’s first courthouse was Pasco County was created from parts of Hernando County in 1887. The name honors Florida’s United States Senator, Samuel Pasco. A temporary county seat was located inDade City (originally Hatton),renamed for Major Francis Dade, whose troops had been massacred not far from here by Seminoles in 1836. A referendum was held in 1889 to select a permanent site, at which time Dade City prevailed over Gladstone (San Antonio), Pasadena, and several other locations.

The county's first courthouse was built by H. W. Coleman and W. A. Ferguson, who donated space to the county until a permanent structure could be erected. In 1909James Lee and H. C. Griffin constructed a frame building at a cost of $7,000. This was replaced in 1909 by the structure depicted here, which was designed by famous courthouse architect, EdwardColumbus Hosford of Eastman, Georgia. (Mr. Hosford designed many other county courthouses for Florida, Georgia and Texas.) The courthouse was built by Mutual Construction Company of Louisville, Kentucky. The Pasco County Commission minutes reflect that it was accepted for use by the county on January 3, 1910 after they had previously refused acceptance on December 16, 1909 "on grounds, not fully completed." The commission plans to honor the architect by placing a historic marker on the grounds of the courthouse. It was long thought that Artemus Roberts was the architect, but in fact he was the Superintendent of construction.

Pasco County, Florida
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Records at the Pasco County Courthouse

See Also Florida Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

Pasco County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Florida

Pasco County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Florida

Pasco County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Pasco County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Florida

Pasco County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Pasco County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Florida Genealogical Addresses

Pasco County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Florida

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Pasco County, Florida History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Records at the Pasco County Courthouse

See Also Florida Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

Pasco County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Florida

Pasco County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Florida

Pasco County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Pasco County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Florida

Pasco County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Pasco County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Florida Genealogical Addresses

Pasco County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Florida

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Pasco County, Florida
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy