HISTORY OF PASCO COUNTY

Port Richey

New Hotel at Port Richey to be Opened (1912)

Flourishing Colony Is Getting a Good Start Here

There is much activity at Port Richey, which, because of the development of the colony lands surrounding it, is beginning to take on a new life. The building of the railroad from Tarpon Springs to Port Richey, a distance of seven miles, also has much to do with the improvements now going on.

The new hotel being erected by the Port Richey company is nearly completed and will be ready for guests about February 1. It is a well constructed frame building with wide verandas, large office and dining room and ten or twelve bed rooms. The hotel will be operated by the Port Richey company, and while it will be kept in the best of style, the price for accommodations will be very low, the idea of the company being not to make money, but to provide a comfortable and inexpensive stopping place for land buyers who may desire to spend a few days looking over the Port Richey company’s lands. As soon as the brick for the chimney arrive the work will be finished.

Mr. McNatt is erecting a new store building and will soon have it filled with a good stock of goods.

The Port Richey colony lands have been open to settlement only a short time, yet a number of ten and twenty acre tracts have been purchased by homeseekers, many of whom have already moved on their lands and are beginning to make improvements. These lands are among the best in Florida, and homeseekers who look them over usually buy, feeling they have found what they were looking for.

No day passes on which one of the Port Richey company’s automobiles does not bring up a party of homeseekers, but Thursday they broke the record by bringing up a party of twenty in four automobiles. These people were from all parts of the United States and had the appearance of belonging to the better class. Many of the party made purchases, selecting orange and truckland.

The recent cold snap was but slightly felt in Port Richey. The temperature in the north was below zero, but at Port Richey the temperature was along in the 40s, and the “spell” lasted only a day and a half. At this writing (January 18) the thermometer stands at 67.

Mr. Horace Everett of the Everett Press company, of Boston, has purchased 25 acres at Port Richey and expects to arrive here soon with a view to erecting a comfortable winter home and planting a large grapefruit grove.

25 Years Free of Debt Marked By Port Richey (1950)

This article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on Oct. 29, 1950.

Celebrating a quarter century of existence, the City of Port Richey, in southwest Pasco County, this year looks back upon an enviable record of public improvement, free of worry over bonded indebtedness.

It is a point of pride with city officials that Port Richey has never, in all this time, offered any certificates of indebtedness although empowered by its charter to do so. According to one village patriarch, main purpose of the original incorporation was to protect local residents from being subjected to a big municipal bond issue, planned by neighboring New Port Richey in 1924.

Many changes have come about in Port Richey since May 18, 1925, when Gov. John W. Martin signed the special legislative act creating the town. In those early days, the city’s only paved thoroughfare was a county road nine feet wide, and such modern conveniences as electric lights, telephones, street lights, water mains and daily mail deliveries were unknown. Live stock ranged freely within the four square miles of incorporated territory.

Today, three of Port Richey’s main streets have been paved by the State Road Department and a fourth, Post Road, will soon be paved under a tri-party agreement between the City, New Port Richey and the Pasco County Commissioners, each unit underwriting a portion of the estimated $6,000 cost. Other streets are now shelled, the city has electric power and telephone service, a system of privately owned water mains using water supplied by the New Port Richey Water Department, and daily RFD mail delivery from the New Port Richey post office.

In 1925, the resident population was less than 100, according to census figures, but 500 according to post office officials. This year, the census gives the resident population as 398, but points out that in Winter, when the tourist population is added, it comes nearer 1,500.

During its 25 years of existence, Port Richey has been able to maintain an exceptionally low tax millage assessment to finance the City government. General operations tax levies, once said to have amounted to five mills, will be only four-fifths of a mill in 1951. The tax levy accounts for one eighth of City funds, the major portion being State cigarette tax, beverage licenses, utility franchise royalties, County road and bridge rebates and miscellaneous municipal permit licenses.

Highly satisfied with the low tax assesses valuations, Port Richey’s citizens have never requested city homestead exemption while seeking greater municipal benefits. No tax lien foreclosure suits have been instituted for many years, and complete tax collection is reported by officials.

Heretofore, under a gentlemen’s agreement, Pasco County Commissioners have collected road and bridge taxes, paying for labor in street maintenance with the City Council supplying materials. This year, starting July 1, county repair crews are confining their activities to unincorporated areas, the City assuming responsibility for increased street maintenance.

The City now maintains only two part-time salaried employees, the City Clerk-Tax Assessor-Collector and the Chief of Police. Special emergency police are sometimes appointed by the Mayor and fire department protection from the New Port Richey Fire Department.

Of the original incorporating officials, only three still live in the city, M. L. Bailey, Victor M.Clark and Henry C. Remling, all former councilmen. Others listed in the charter filed with the Secretary of State, June 25, 1925, were Charles H. Hoffman, mayor; Mrs. J. S. Sheldon, city clerk and tax-assessor-collector; C. N. Daso, marshal, and W. E. Randall and S. J. Ross, councilmen. Ross and Sheldon are now dead, Randall lives south of Tampa, Daso in a northern state and Hoffman’s whereabouts are unknown.

At present, Port Richey is experiencing some “charter growing pains” that promise to present a campaign issue in the forthcoming municipal election in December.

Terming the existing charter a “horse and buggy” document, former Mayor Harry A. Lashua asked the City Council to sponsor three changes:

1. Let the Mayor preside at Council meetings or give him a vote in city legislative proceedings.

2. Establish a police department in lieu of marshal and deputies.

3. Change method of selection of candidates for City office from present method of nomination by public caucus to use of petition filed with City Clerk.

When Council failed to act, Lashua quickly resigned, former Chief Councilman W. P. Stone replacing him as acting mayor.

City officials point out that, according to the charter, the Mayor can vote on City legislation, having the power to veto any resolution or ordinance enacted, with a four-fifths Council vote required to override.

Proposed change in the City police function, they say, would be a change in name only.

The charter provides that “Municipal elections shall conform as nearly as possible to the general election laws of the State of Florida, unless otherwise provided by a special ordinance.” Officials claim the public caucus method of nominating candidates for City office was established by ancient City ordinance, and that the charter does not need changing in this respect. They admit, however, that the city election ordinance needs rewriting.

Two mandatory provisions of the charter are not now exercised by the Mayor or Council, officials say. These are provisions retaining a city attorney, and the levying of an annual street tax up9on all able-bodied males over 21 years of age, unless they shall have paid into the City an equivalent amount of taxes in some other form.

Stone, whose term expires this year, sees the need of an airing of the charter provisions in question and a promise of further City improvements without raising City taxes.

“The charter now provides the Mayor all the power he could wish for,” says Stone.

The Mayors of Port Richey

Note: Hoffman was named Mayor by the charter; V. M. Clark was the first elected mayor. The name Slagle also appears as Slagel.

Port Richey Council Members

Port Richey: “Once Like a Wilderness” (1975)

PORT RICHEY — Try to imagine a time when there were only four houses in Port Richey, the whole area was “like a wilderness,” and cattle-rustling and rum-running were nothing out of the ordinary.

If all that seems a little unlikely, take Mrs. Earl Woodruff’s word for it; Port Richey was a lot different in the old days.”

Mary Woodruff (born Mary Clark) was born in Port Richey 68 years ago, and has lived here all her life. She is related, either by blood or marriage, to three of the first families ever to arrive here: the Nicks, Clark and Hill families.

Her father, David Clark, was a member of both Port Richey city council and the Pasco County Commission, which then met in Dade City on Mondays. “I used to go with Dad to some of the commission meetings,” she recalls.

When they needed food or supplies, they would go by horse and wagon, or by boat, to Tarpon Springs. “That was where the nearest railhead was,” Mrs. Woodruff says. Later, her father opened the first grocery store in Port Richey, and also operated the post office.

She was a graduate of the Gulf High School Class of 1925. “There were only six of us in that class,” she says. “My dad helped build the school, too.” Present-day Pasco-Hernando Community College is located in the old high school building.

“My father moved to Brooksville with his family when he was a small boy,” she recalls. “They moved to the coast, then back to Brooksville, but later Dad moved out here to stay.”

The reason for all the moving back and forth, she says, was “cattle rustlers.” Her family raised cattle, along with a lot of other families in those days, and “the rustlers would kill you for your cattle,” she says. “In fact, they'd just as soon kill you as look at you.”

There were feuds between the rustler gangs, too. One day my father was out plowing in the fields when he heard some shots go by. It was the rustlers shooting at each other, but they missed!

“Then another time, dad said, a wagon came by with the bodies of two men the rustlers had killed. It was their families, taking them home for burial.”

But rustlers weren't the only enemies in the early days. There were natural enemies, like panthers. “We would hear the hogs squealing at night, and we wouldn't dare go out because we knew it was the panthers getting into the hog pen.”

“I remember my grandfather talking about the Indians killing people, too, but that was way before my time, even before my dad’s time.”

Mrs. Woodruff also recalls the days of rum-running and “rum wars.” "It was before Prohibition,” she says. “Rum-running was a big business back then.”

“The men would go out and meet the Cuban boats (called ‘smacks’) and trade sweet potatoes, hogs, watermelons, and citrus for the rum.” she says. “One of the boys I knew stole a hog one night and went out to meet one of the boats. He got a demijohn (five-gallon glass jug) of rum in return for the hog.

“But a Coast Guard cutter had spotted them, and fired over their bow. So they threw the rum overboard and headed back for shore. But the next day they went out to Anclote Key and found the jug of rum, still intact! The tide had washed it up, so they got their rum after all.”

Mrs. Woodruff claims the original spelling of Pithlachascotee was “Pithlachascoochee” and that the old-timers told her it was an Indian word meaning “jug of rum.”

“There were several prominent local people killed in those rum wars,” she says. “The big shots would fight for control of the rum trade.

“Until I graduated from high school, my dad would never answer the door. They always sent a woman to the door in those days, because if it was one of your enemies they wouldn't shoot a woman.

“But they'd just as soon shoot you as look at you,” she repeats.

David “Hap” Clark Remembers (1991)

By STEVE McQUILKIN

It’s not hard for David Clark Jr. to think of Pasco County without traffic and strip shopping centers.

Clark, who was born in west Pasco in 1922, went off to college before U.S. Highway 19 was built and was nearing retirement when Gulfview Square Mall in Port Richey opened.

Clark, known as Hap, remembers when the county consisted mostly of pine trees and alligator-rich swampland and when congestion on U.S. 19 was caused not by cars but by cattle camping out on the road to keep warm. Those were the days of the open range, when fences were used sparingly, and scrawny range cattle roamed freely.

Clark, 69, remembers when most of the county’s leaders, including County Administrator John Gallagher, Tax Collector Mike Olson and former Sheriff John Short, were crank-playing schoolchildren. He remembers coaching Circuit Court Clerk Jed Pittman in football.

So what was it like growing up in Pasco?

“There was nothing to do because there was nothing here,” said Clark, owner of Clark’s Landing restaurant in Port Richey.

In the past four decades, Clark and other older natives have had to make room for Pasco’s 281,000 residents.

Clark’s grandfather, James W. Clark, moved to Pasco from Brooksville in 1880 - in part to safeguard his small cattle operation from rustlers, Hap Clark said.

During much of his childhood, the Clark family made a decent living raising cattle and tending orange groves. The market hubs in Florida were Cedar Key and Jacksonville, and early residents got to those cities by boat or rail. Clark remembers a 9-foot-wide road to Weeki Wachee that was replaced by a two-lane road in the 1940s - U.S. 19.

He spent much of his time fishing around New Port Richey and Port Richey. On the weekends, he and other boys would run into the woods trying to catch cows. “There wasn't a lot to do here except play outside,” he said.

Once in the 1930s, he and a friend shot a woman’s pet rabbit while rabbit hunting. New Port Richey’s sole policeman punished the boys by taking away their shotguns for a day.

At the time, with west Pasco teeming with deer, bears and alligators, no one questioned why two boys would tote shotguns in broad daylight. “You could do anything you wanted to because you never got in anybody’s way,” he said. “Now you can't seem to do anything without bothering someone.”

Clark and his playmates used to make their own versions of baseballs by wrapping string tightly and then using a needle and thread to stitch the ball together.

Clark said his father had his money in three banks that all failed during the Depression. The family was left without any cash but with a 10-acre citrus grove and a 10-acre farm. The older boys fished for food and extra cash.

During the Depression, many people moved into vacant homes in west Pasco until someone forced them to move out. Then they would move into another vacant home, he said.

“Things were much looser then, and people did pretty much what they had to do to get by,” he said.

At the time Clark attended Gulf High School, there were only 125 students in grades seven to 12, and the school’s area encompassed all homes west of U.S. Highway 41.

When he was old enough to drive, Clark and his buddies would race down Grand Boulevard.

“We used to go down Grand Boulevard like crazy people because there wasn't any traffic and no law to speak of,” he said.

Clark, a retired teacher and administrator with Pasco schools, said he can't believe how huge the county’s school operations have grown. Clark said there were only about 13 schools in the county until the early-1960s. Now there are 41.

Clark, who graduated from Rollins College in 1949, started as a coach and teacher, first at Zephyrhills High School and later at Pasco Comprehensive School in Dade City. He moved into administration and served as principal of Hudson Elementary from 1963 to 1979.

Until the late-1950s there were still only a few stores in New Port Richey, he recalled.

“We did most of our shopping in Tarpon Springs because there wasn't much to get here,” he said.

Most of Pasco’s growth came after a developer from Pinellas started building in Holiday during the late-1950s and early-1960s, he said. At the time, the county had no zoning restrictions, and the developer was selling two-bedroom homes with carports for $5,990. Many of the homes are still standing, he said.

Letter to the Governor (November 1935)

I have been Mayor of Port Richey for eight years, and for the last six months the Council have not been functioning, not being able to get a quorum together, and some of them have moved away from here, and nobody has been appointed in their place.

This Fall is time for Election, and I have posted Notice for Meeting or Caucus to nominate Candidates for Election (Councilmen and Mayor), and nobody attended.

Most of the people have neglected paying Taxes. We have no Bonded Indebtedness and no money in the treasury.

The reason for being incorporated is so we would not be taken in by our neighbor City, which has a heavy bonded indebtedness.

What shall I do?

Yours respectfully,
John Nelson, Mayor

The Governor’s reply: “Dear Mr. Nelson: This is to acknowledge receipt of your letter with reference to your City affairs, and to advise you that this is a matter that you should take up with an attorney, as I have no supervision over municipalities in affairs of this kind. Sincerely yours, David Sholtz, Governor.”