Brooksville has a quaint picturesque downtown, a place that would be perfect for a stay at a bed and breakfast. It has been several years since the city has had a bed and breakfast. Fortunately, a new bed and breakfast has opened in the downtown area just a stone's throw away from the Historic May-Stringer House and Hernando Heritage Museum.

The Dolan House offers two rooms for rent: the Snow Room and Ederington Suite. The rooms are named after the Ederington and Snow families. The Dolan House was built circa 1895 by Francis Ederington Jr. His sister Charlotte lived in the manor house at Chinsegut Hill with her husband Dr. James Russell Snow. She inherited the house from their parents Colonel Francis and Precious Ann Ederington.

Both of the rooms are for two people and come with a queen bed. They each have a private bath and the Ederington Suite comes with a private balcony. The proprietors Mike and Tina Dolan are a very friendly couple from Washington State. They have traveled extensively and I am sure they have some amazing stories.

Tina is an excellent cook judging by the hors d’oeuvres that were served at their ribbon cutting. This Bed and Breakfast will be a welcome addition to downtown Brooksville and a frequent haunt of visitors celebrating small town life.

You can find more about the Dolan House by going to their web site http://www.dolan-house.com/ or calling them at 352-631-8822.

Address: 701 Museum Ct Brooksville, FL 34601.

Since the Tampa Tribune ceased publication last May, I am reminded of many memories of my newspaper years. I worked for the Tampa Tribune for 39 years from 1975 to 2013. I started as a newspaper carrier, then became a district supervisor, and finally an advertising consultant. I retired in 2013. Here are my memories:

If you asked me in high school about a career, well, a job in the newspaper industry would be farthest from my mind. I had planned to be a school teacher. I was in Future Teacher’s and even did some classroom aide work. But somehow I never went further with teaching. Looking back, much of my later supervisor work was a form of teaching after all, just not in a classroom.

In early 1975 I answered a newspaper ad. They needed another newspaper carrier in growing Spring Hill. It seemed simple enough. I lived in nearby Weeki Wachee and the hours would work out perfectly. I could complete a route in the early morning while my husband babysat our sleeping 3 year old. Paper routes are not the easiest things to learn. Delivery directions were put on a cassette tape. Then you listened to it on a portable tape recorder in your car. The recorder was about the size of a small shoe box. Tapes were good for just a short while. Customers changed daily. You finally had to memorize the route order. Part of my new route territory was from Spring Hill Drive down Deltona Blvd. Houses went up there by the dozens, street after street. People were moving in all the time. New cars. New deliveries. I remember the unpaved roads. The trip from the corner of Deltona and Northcliffe out to Mariner was a dirt road. So was the rest of the way to Springstead High, all dirt in the 1970’s. It seemed like such a long trip in the middle of the night and no houses out there in between!

I enjoyed my route for 2 years. My customer base grew from 144 to 400 papers. I met interesting people. I put money aside. I had both home delivery and single copy. That meant I also filled the news racks in my area. The newsstand price was 15 cents daily and 35 cents Sunday. I rolled the coins and that was my gas money. Gas was under $1 per gallon. Some customers mailed me checks every 8 or 9 weeks. The subscription price was just $1.10 per week. Some people sent their money downtown and I received credit that way. More customers meant more profit. The most memorable night on my route happened near the end of the second year. One night in January 1977 there were snow flurries across my windshield. It was 1 a.m. and I was on the way to my bundle drop. By the time I started delivering there was a layer of light snow on the ground. Newspapers landed with a dusty plop on each driveway! Kids stayed home from school. I can remember making snowballs.

When I left the route I didn’t think I would come back to newspapers. However, my former Tribune supervisor talked me into it. I figured I could do his type of supervisor job for a few years and see how things went. Little did I know that it would be my life career. Each supervisor had a district. My first one went from Hudson to Spring Hill. What did a supervisor do? You made sure the carriers showed up, delivered papers on time, and you handled any customer problems that came along. Back in those early years there were no computers or cell phones. Everyone had a home phone. Notes and carrier mail were handwritten. Route paperwork (hiring a new carrier) could be done by hand on the hood of a car. Later on everything was computerized. It was even later that cell phones became common. Over the years I had several different districts and worked other offices besides just Brooksville. For 6 years I handled some seasonal routes in Zephyrhills. Those routes grew in the winter with “snowbirds” and went down to almost nothing in the summer. It took a special type of carrier to adjust to all the starts and stops. I also saw what it was like to deliver in hurricane season. I can remember flooded streets, pouring rain and no power. Nothing would stop us. I also remember getting stuck in sand or bogged down in mud. Somehow there was a way out and the papers got delivered. Whoever wanted to ride could go along with you on the route. My two children each went with me when they were young. They thought it was an adventure, not work at all. They helped out with papers for a while and then just fell asleep and took up car space. One night we even picked up the dog for a ride!

The newspaper was always big on promoting itself. I remember watching or participating in many Christmas parades. We had big floats including our delivery trucks and a pirate ship. I also worked at the county fairs. We gave away many things including sample newspapers, books, pens, key chains, and other gifts. I helped with other things like Gasparilla and the Super Bowl. The Tribune was a family back then. We had a good time in the bureaus. I can remember big holiday dinners, birthdays, or other occasions. Everyone had a special food they made and we certainly ate well. The main office in Tampa was our hub. Everything started there and came out to us. The Tribune had a big reach. The papers were sent as far as Valdosta GA. They also were delivered to the government offices in Tallahassee. It took a large group of employees to get everything done in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

In the later years things started changing. Papers moved from bundle drops to large distribution centers. Many were big warehouses that could hold 50 or more carriers under one roof! And we delivered a lot more products. There were Wall Street Journals, Investor’s Business Daily, special weekly magazines and other alternate products. To save money some jobs were consolidated. Other duties were eliminated. Newspapers were having trouble meeting budget. The cost of producing a newspaper kept going up. The Internet took a bite out of advertising and news both. In 2005 I decided to change from circulation to classified advertising. I would have a desk job. And for the first time in nearly 30 years I would have quieter holidays, a good night’s sleep, and uninterrupted weekends.

The last few years I worked presented the biggest challenges. The economy was in recession. Real estate and automobile markets took downturns. Less people believed in print advertising. The Internet had taken some of our revenue away. Much of my work centered around legal advertising, especially publishing foreclosures. By April of 2007 we faced company layoffs and employee buyouts. Every year that followed brought still more layoffs. Friends started leaving the company. Products were discontinued and bureaus started closing. Somehow I made it to my chosen retirement date. A year after I left they closed the Hernando Today bureau. That ended the local section. Later I heard that the main office building in Tampa had sold. They would put condos there later on that valuable Tampa real estate. I knew that was the beginning of the end, only a matter of time. But I hated to see the Tampa Tribune close like it did without a final edition or some goodbyes and fanfares. I miss the paper. It had a long run. There were good times and hard times along the way. Good memories come to mind about our days in the bureau and my extended family.

I picked up the Thanksgiving paper this year. It was heavy and I could imagine trying to throw it from a car window. It held pages and pages of those Black Friday ads. I remember what it took to put a paper like that together. I remember the sorting, bagging, loading, and throwing. All that work to get a paper out to the customer. I’m sure many don’t give newspapers a second thought in this digital age. But this former newspaper carrier still does.

Hernando County used to be known as the ‘Home of the Tangerine.’ The soil in Hernando County is said to be well suited to the growing of tangerines. In addition to tangerines, many other citrus grow well in the county.

Hernando County has a long history with oranges. It is thought that the first commercial oranges in the area were planted by Frederick Lykes in 1851. Other settlers had planted oranges in the area earlier, but are not believed to have attempted commercial planting.
The first bank in Hernando County was the Brooksville State Bank and was established in 1890. The bank was highly reliant on the Citrus. Citrus was the area’s major cash crop and at the time had an estimated 300,000 trees planted in the area. The winter of 1894 to 1895 was very cold and much of the citrus was lost. These losses contributed to the the bank closing in 1897.

A few years after the freeze several small groves were started. In 1905, J. J. Bell established a small orange packing plant. In 1908, Bell and other prominent orange growers decided to establish the Brookville Citrus Growers Association. This association built a packing facility on South Main. The marketing and growing of tangerines in the area was pushed by the association. This association lasted until a big freeze hit in the winter of 1984 to 1985.

Oranges were part of the inspiration for the editor of a daily Czechoslovakian newspaper Joseph Joscak, to start a column that advocated moving to warm Florida which led to the creation of Masaryktown. Many of his readers were working in mines and factories in the north and read his column which extolled the virtues of moving to the warm climate and the farming.

He had a number of interested Czechoslovakians and started to look for a spot to start a farming community. They formed a corporation to invest in land. He had found information about land available near Orlando and Brooksville. The corporation elected a committee of five men to check out the land. The Orlando land was found to be swampy, but the Hernando land they deemed acceptable, in part because there were existing groves in the area. The Hernando Plantation Co. as they named the corporation purchased around 10,000 acres about 10 miles south of Brooksville. This area became Masaryktown.

The orange industry has had a great impact on the county. Local historian Frasier Mountain wrote that a local company developed a “technique of sectionizing orange and grapefruit and canned them in glass mason jars.” He explained further, “They had a production line of probably 50 mostly women of the community on an individual contract for pay, by the bushels of oranges they could get done in a day… It was a very efficient and clean atmosphere… the peelings were sold back to the growers as fertilizer for the groves… Some of the buildings of the firm still exist, long since abandoned… the building (existing) on the corner of Main Street and MLK Avenue, is a 5,000 square foot refrigerated Freezing 15 degree warehouse, used in later years for storage of concentrate and fresh juice… F&M Packing Co, (Florida and Michigan) the Family firm also had a large plant to process Cherries in Michigan, so each plant was in production about 6 months out of the year and the Brayton, (McCool) family and some of the hired help made the trip twice a year becoming local city leaders in both places...Brooksville and Traverse City, MI.”

Citrus also acted as an alluring symbol attracting people to the area. At this point there is very little commercial citrus, Hernando is producing half of the citrus that it produced in 2008-2009.

Even though there has been a drop in commercial production, this is still an excellent place to grow citrus. Oranges require a certain amount of cold to develop full sweetness, but cannot be below freezing for a long time, so the best areas to grow citrus is limited. You can buy trees from Lowes, Home Depot, or Boyette’s Grove and try your hand at growing oranges.

This past weekend, shots rang out across the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, in commemoration of the 181st anniversary of Dade’s Battle. The actual battle took place just a little distance away from where The Dade Battlefield Society, Inc. performed the reenactment - the battle which started the Second Seminole War (that lasted 7 years).

On December 28th, 1835, 108 U.S. soldiers, who were led by Major Francis Langhorne Dade, were attacked by surprise by Seminole Indians on their journey to Fort King (now Ocala) from Fort Brooke, in Tampa. After the battle was finished, there were only three soldiers that survived.

The Reenactment and Trade Fair were dedicated to Jerry Robertson and Jerry Vaughn - dedicated members of the Society who passed away recently.

Attending the events on Sunday, before the reenactment began, there was a demonstration which highlighted the various pieces of equipment that both the Seminoles and the U.S. soldiers most likely would have used, as well as the type of clothing they would have worn. Several presenters spoke to the crowd, the Color Guard Ceremony took place, and the audience stood for the National Anthem.

Afterwards, the reenactment transported the spectators back in time, allowing them to hear and see what it might have been like on that day. The reenactors dressed as U.S. soldiers, walked along a path, when a sudden shot was fired, beginning the battle. Audience members witnessed the Seminole reenactors firing while running in and out of sight on foot and horseback, calling to each other, while the U.S. soldiers fired their guns and a cannon into the forest, taking shelter behind a barricade that was built by the reenactors as the battle continued.

Throughout the event, the narrator Frank Laumer, helped to guide spectators through the battle, as Pvt. Ransom Clark. It was explained that he’s been very involved for many years, but that this would be his last narration. He received a standing ovation from the crowd at the end of the battle.

During that weekend, along with the reenactment, there were sutlers and vendors on the grounds as well as military and Seminole camps.

After the reenactment finished, individuals had the opportunity to speak with the reenactors and take photos. Speaking with two reenactors (a Seminole and a U.S. soldier reenactor) it was clear that there is a great deal of dedication and love of history involved in organizing and participating in the events.

The US Soldier reenactor who has been involved in a number of different types of reenactments said that while there might not be a significant difference between doing the Civil War and the Second Seminole War reenactments, there are distinct differences that you have to learn like the way one shoulders, lifts and fires the weapon.

“I don’t consider this a reenactment,” he explained. “This is honoring the dead here. And this isn’t a costume, this is a United States Army uniform that we wear.”
I spoke to a Seminole reenactor, who was working with a horse. He said, “I do this for a living, so I work with this stuff every day… I do school shows, and festivals, historical sites. I do encampments, educational programs on history and culture.”

If you’re interested in becoming involved in events like this, reenactors stressed that it’s important to come to the events, talk to the people and look online to see what’s out there. Experienced reenactors can help you find out how to get started, with things like where to buy or how make the equipment you need.
The Dade Battlefield Society Inc., which is, “a nonprofit citizen support organization,” can be found online at https://www.dadebattlefield.com/. The address for the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park is 7200 CR 603, Bushnell, FL 33513.

More information about the park itself can be found online at: https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Dade-Battlefield

Later this year, other events will be held at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, including a World War II Weekend on March 4th and 5th of 2017, as well as the 7th annual Inter-Tribal Holiday Pow-Wow, presented by Pan-O-Kee Native American Tribe of Central Florida, September 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, 2017.

In recent issues, we’ve been focusing on Brooksville’s historic murals and the history that is behind them. This week we’ll be discussing the history behind the mural, "Early Physicians of Brooksville" located in the SunTrust lot off of Main Street.

In 2003, this mural was sponsored by Victor Heins and the Hernando County Tourism Bureau and was the third mural that was completed. The mural was designed and painted by local artist Diane Becker, and features Dr. Creekmore, Dr. Harvard, Dr. Sheldon Stringer Sr., and Dr. Lykes. The portraits mimic that of old, sepia colored photographs, and depict doctors who were landholders, community leaders, and philanthropists.

Dr. Creekmore - One of the founders of Hernando County Hospital in 1925, Dr. Creekmore started his practice in 1906, and continued to do so until his death at 90 years old. Interestingly, his office was located over what is now the Main Street Eatery.

Dr. Harvard - Dr. Harvard was the son of a doctor and passed away in 1964, but continued to work in the community until that time. He earned his medical degree in 1930, and if you head to the town’s museum, you can find the bag he used when making house calls.

Dr. Sheldon Stringer Sr. - On the tour, Mrs. Rupe explained, “He lived in the house at the May museum, which was once the Stringer House, and he added a room for his medical practice, and if you go to the, ‘Doctors Room,’ at the museum, that was his office at that time.” Dr. Stringer (1834-1903) was a surgeon, druggist, and doctor, and in 1870, he wrote an 80 page speech about local education.

Dr. Lykes - At the age of 15, Howell T. Lykes came to the area and joined the Confederate Army. He handed his practice to Stringer Sr. (his brother in law) and he practiced medicine for two years when the war ended. Dr. Lykes had seven sons and they each joined the family business which was incorporated in 1910 as the Lykes Brothers. The main operations were moved to Tampa and they shipped cattle to Cuba aboard a three-masted wooden schooner. The family business was involved in industries like ranching, shipbuilding, sugar processing, and meat processing. Mrs. Rupe explained, “So the Lykes, a lot of them started here and now they’re all over Florida.” Over the course of 20 years, the family donated over $100,000 to the local hospital. What is now Bayfront Regional Hospital was previously Lykes Memorial Hospital, which had previously been Hernando County Hospital. The Lykes family homestead was the original Spring Hill. The Lykes Home is located on the north west side of the intersection of Fort Dade Avenue and Citrus Way. Most of the land that made up the original Lykes ranch is now part of the Cemex mine.

In Hernando County, there are several roads named for the Camp mining family including Camp Castle Road and Camp Mine Road. These roads led to two mines that the Camp's owned.

The Camp Family came from Franklin, Virginia. George Camp and Sallie Cutchins Camp had eight sons and two daughters. In 1887 led by 3 of the sons Paul Douglas Camp (President), James Leonidas Camp (Vice-president) and Robert Judson Camp (secretary-treasurer) the family purchased a small sawmill. All of the sons were members of the family timber and sawmill operation. This operation grew into the Camp Manufacturing Company, a paper manufacturer. Two of the brothers died young, the rest of the Camp brothers became prominent in the lumber industry of the Southeast United States.

Several of the Camp brothers led by Robert Judson Camp, Benjamin Franklin Camp and William Nelson Camp, Sr., set out to Florida in search of their fortunes. They moved to an area northwest of Gainesville. There is a ghost town in this area named Campville, it may have formerly been named Albion. This town was anchored by a brick factory that was started by R.J. Camp & Bros., Manufacturers, which was led by R. J. Camp, J. S. Camp, and B. F. Camp. In addition to the factory, the town had a Post Office, General Store, and Train Depot.

The brothers were also involved in many enterprises including citrus, cattle, and building a railroad in Florida and Georgia along with the family business of timber and milling.

In 1890, William Camp with the help of the Camp Manufacturing Company started the Albion Mining and Manufacturing Company which produced phosphate. In 1903, William relocated to Ocala to be closer to the phosphate deposits in Dunnellon. William and his sons sold the phosphate they mined to many German firms making them wealthy.

After several years of living north west of Gainesville, the Florida Camp Family relocated to Ocala, where to this day they are considered prominent residents. Their residences in Ocala are on Ocala's historic homes tour.

The Camp family bought large tracts of land in Florida. William Camp purchased Merritt Island for cattle ranching, but sold it for a profit after discovering it was infested with mosquitos. By 1907, William was one of the largest landowners in Florida holding 150,000 acres in Marion, Citrus, Hernando, Sumter and Columbia counties.

William was interested in electricity. In the 1880s, William had created a hydroelectric dam that provided electricity to Roanoke, Virginia. In 1909, William developed a second hydroelectric power plant on the Withlacoochee River in the Inglis area. Inglis is about 20 miles north of Hernando County. The electricity from this plant was used to power the Camp mines in Hernando County. When William died in 1911 his children sold the plant for $1.5 million dollars to Florida Power corporation.

William's sons Clarence and Jack founded the Camp Concrete Rock Company which operated the limestone mines. The abandoned Camp Castle mine and the current Cemex mine were both former Camp Mines. Although the Camps never lived in Hernando County, they shaped its development.

David Levy Yulee is a prominent historical figure of Florida. In 2000, he was named “Great Floridian” of the year. He is inextricably linked to several facets of Florida’s past, most notably the Confederacy, land development, the railroad industry, and our State Constitution. Early settlers of Hernando County have connections to Yulee. For instance, the millwright who built Yulee’s sugar mill in Homosassa was Joseph Hale, a founding member of Brooksville. John Parsons, a founder of Bayport, befriended Yulee in the 1830’s and in 1855 joined the Board of Directors of the Florida Railroad Co., owned by David Yulee.

Yulee’s heritage is as fascinating as his historical significance to the state. The Levy family had immigrated to Morocco from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. The Levys were Jewish and during the Inquisition many Jews were forced to convert to Christianity and others were killed.

It was David Levy Yulee’s father, Moses Elias Levy who eventually made his way to Florida. Moses’ father, Eliahu Ha’Levi ibn Yuli, was a jewish advisor to Mohammed ben Abdallah
Sultan/ governor of Marrakech in Morocco. David Levy Yulee took the name of this grandfather after being elected to the Florida Senate and influenced his older brother Elias to do the same (to the disdain of their father Moses Elias).

During grandfather Yuli’s advisorship, the Muslim rulers of Morocco regarded foreign jews more highly than native jews. The Sultans were also aware that the Spanish Jews were considered outsiders by the native Moroccan Jews and took advantage of this.

Towards the end of Yuli’s advisorship, it is said he discovered an assassination plot on Sultan Abdallah by the Sultan’s son (Yazid of Morocco). While he did save the monarch’s life, he did it at great risk to himself and his family. When Abdallah died in 1790, the Levy family once again found themselves in grave danger. They left Morocco retracing their steps across the Straits of Gibraltar, settling not in Spain (as the Inquisition was still underway) but on the British “Rock” of Gibraltar.

While in Gibraltar, Moses Elias Levy was said to be influenced strongly by the Free Mason ideals, the acceptance of a Universal Creator, but the existence of many belief systems and pathways to God. The family left Gibraltar after the death of Grandfather Yuli in 1800. Yuli’s son Moses Elias was 18 years old at the time.

The family made a new home on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. Moses Elias married into a prominent Jewish St. Thomas family who had originated from nearby St. Eustatius. The Abendonone family supported the Americans during the Revolutionary War, supplying their forces with military and non-military supplies. They were banished when the British gained control of the island. Moses Elias, made many business connections in the Caribbean using both his Jewish and Free Mason ties.

Moses and his wife Hannah had 2 boys and 2 girls, David Levy being the youngest son born in 1810. Sadly, the marriage fell apart and Moses Elias then set his sight on Puerto Rico. Interestingly, the Inquisition was still alive in Puerto Rico, but Moses Elias’ connections helped him to become very successful on the island.

There he befriended Alejandro Ramirez, who was the Economic Director or Intendant of Puerto Rico. Ramirez was given a higher position in Cuba and Moses Elias followed his powerful friend to the island. As a Jew, he had to be given special permission to settle on the island and was even allowed to own land. He started a sugar mill and became a slave owner. Although, he accepted slavery as an economic mainstay, he had moral opposition and later became involved in the abolitionist movement in England and authored a pamphlet (anonymously) illustrating a plan to slowly wean the southern American planter off of slavery. His son David Levy Yulee, on the other hand, became a strong proponent of slavery in the South.

While working with Ramirez in Cuba, Moses Elias realized that his economic future was in land development in Florida. For his performance in Cuba, Ramirez was given hundreds of thousands of acres of land grants in Florida. Moses Elias purchased 53,000 acres in what is now Alachua County from Ramirez’s land grants. Moses Elias eventually came to own about 100,000 acres of land in this area.

He tried to plan his arrival in Florida to coincide with the ratification of the Adams-Odonis Treaty in 1821 in which any person living within Florida when the United States took possession became American citizens. However, the ship he and his sons were aboard stalled within sight of land and they arrived a few days later. It took several years and a court cases to confirm that they were citizens based on their intent to be in Florida at the time.

Moses Elias’ eternal desire for a Jewish homeland influenced his plans for this vast tract of land which unfortunately did not pan out economically. He wished to create a safe haven for displaced Jews, where they would live and work together in a communal fashion. He was unable to convince the city dwelling Jews of Europe to move to the raw untamed Florida wilderness to become planters and farmers. By 1825, the Levy “Pilgrimage Plantation” was 2000 acres, but was far from prospering. Moses Elias decided to go to London to raise funds, where he became very active in the British Jewish Emancipation and anti slavery movements.

Moses Elias sent his son David Levy to a Unitarian school in Virginia, while his other children attended schools in England.

Upon returning to Florida without finding any investors, Pilgrimage Plantation had only 21 Jewish residents. Levy decided to open the colony to settlement by any faith. David Levy came back to farm on Pilgrimage Plantation instead of attending college. The colony lasted seven more years after Moses Elias opened the colony to all settlers. One day in 1835, the Seminoles burned it to the ground. Many of the Settlers sought refuge in Micanopy.

Moses Elias struggled for many years financially, due to lawsuits brought by investors of the colony coupled with the vague title to the land which prevented Moses from selling off parts of it.
He settled in St. Augustine. His son David decided to study and practice law in St. Augustine after the destruction of Pilgrimage Plantation.

After the title was cleared, Moses Elias once again became a wealthy planter as he was able to sell off parts of his holdings. The value of land he still possessed began to increase. When he died, not particularly happy with his sons dropping the family name, he left only $100 to each in his will. The sons litigated over the will for many years and eventually matters were settled outside of court with Moses Elias’ estate being split 5 ways: between the four children and Moses Elias’ sister.

David Levy Yulee was under the tutelage of the future Florida Territorial Governor Robert Reid in St. Augustine. After becoming a lawyer in 1832, he rose quickly in the Democrat party. He pushed staunchly for Florida’s statehood and took part in drafting Florida’s first Constitution. When Florida was admitted to the Union in 1845, David Levy was elected to represent the new state as a US Senator.

Soon after, he changed his name to Yulee and married Nannie Wickliffe, the daughter of former Kentucky Governor Charles A. Wickliffe.

When Senator David Yulee lost his re-election campaign in 1851, he decided to focus on his goal of building a railroad across the state of Florida. He began on the construction of a railroad from Fernandina Beach to Cedar Key, which wasn’t finished until just before the Civil War. David Levy Yulee is referred to as the “Father of Florida’s railroads.” In 1855 he was elected to the Senate again. He was a strong proponent of State’s rights and remained close with many of the Confederate leaders. He focused mostly on preserving his railroad and working his plantations during the conflict. While the North captured both terminal towns of his railroad line: Fernandina and Cedar Key, the South still occupied the land between.

The South wanted to dismantle the rail and use it to service more important parts of the Confederacy, but Levy was adamantly against this and acquired an injunction against the state to prevent this from happening. This move put his loyalties into question, but didn’t prevent the North from burning his Homosassa Plantation where Joseph Hale was hired by Yulee to build the sugar mill. The mill produced molasses and rum as well as sugar. The 5,100 acre Homosassa Sugar Plantation and associated mill which employed 100 slaves in full operation, supplied the Confederacy with sugar. The mill was not destroyed in the attack, but was abandoned and fell into disrepair.

The Yulee family went to their plantation in Archer Florida after their Homosassa home was destroyed. It is here that the Yulees played a part in hiding the contents of Jefferson Davis’ baggage train at the end of the Civil War. After Davis had been captured, his baggage train proceeded to Yulee’s Cottonwood Plantation in Archer, where it is said that official documents on the baggage train were divided up and hidden. To this day there are rumors that perhaps part of the baggage is buried somewhere in Archer. However at least one trunk was found by the Union. Upon questioning Mrs. Yulee on the whereabouts of the baggage, she revealed that they had sent a trunk onto Waldo, Florida where a railroad agent had left it in an unlocked storehouse next to his home. The trunk contained Davis’ guns, personal items, Confederate documents, including the key to a Confederate cipher and instructions on how to use the key.

Yulee was arrested and spent a year in prison at Fort Pulaski in Georgia being pardoned in 1866. While in prison it was rumored that the Federal government was preparing to try him for attempting to convince the State of Florida to seize Federal armaments at the forts in Pensacola. Yulee’s political connections, namely his father-in-law, helped to ascertain his pardon. Only Clement C. Clay and Jefferson Davis were imprisoned longer than Yulee.

Returning to Florida, Yulee then focused once again on his rail line, acquiring and developing property all along it. However, by 1877 the railroad was suffering financially and Yulee sold his majority share, but stayed on as Vice President until his retirement in 1881. He and his wife then moved to Washington D.C. His wife passed away in 1886 and he followed a year later.

Yulee assisted Florida in becoming a state. He helped to open up the new state with his railroad and Homosassa sugar mill. He also worked as a public servant representing Florida in the US Senate. He was a staunch supporter of the Confederacy. His contributions were recognized in 2000 with him being named “Great Floridian” of the year.

The members of Richard R. Crum’s family were prominent early Hernando County residents. He settled near present day Brooksville on land provided under the Armed Occupation Act of 1842. His wife Charlotte Pyles Wynn Crum was killed by Seminole Indians in that same year. His son John Washington Crum was murdered returning home from a meeting. Two random murders hitting the same family is certainly unfortunate.

Charlotte, the wife of Richard was born in 1792 near Savannah, Georgia. She married Col. Samuel Robert Pyles in 1809. They moved to what is now Alachua County in 1824. Col Pyles died in 1837 and Charlotte married Richard R. Crum. In 1842, Richard and Charlotte moved to a homestead near present day Brooksville.

Charlotte was murdered near the Chocachatti settlement. Her party consisted of Charlotte, her daughter Rebecca Harn, granddaughter Mary Catherine Harn and their escort John Francis McDonnell. They were attacked by a group of Seminole Indians as they rode in a buckboard between present day Brooksville and Dade City on September 12, 1842. The Seminole indians had apparently not been informed about the ending of the Second Seminole war on August 14, 1842.

Charlotte’s daughter Rebecca was on a horse and grabbed her child, Mary Catherine and managed to escape. John Francis appears to have been wounded, but also managed to escape. Charlotte was killed. Charlotte was laid to rest on Richard Crum’s land, which later became the Brooksville Cemetery. She is the first known burial at the cemetery.

Following Charlotte’s murder Richard married Christian Matilda and they had two children. One of these children was John Washington Crum. John Washington married Ann Pyles Hope and they had eight children.

John Washington was a significant local leader and was chosen to be a delegate to the Democratic convention of 1896 held from July 7th to the 11th in Chicago. He was murdered on June 10, 1896, so he was unable to attend.

The June 12, 1896 Daily Charlotte Observer reported on his murder “At Brooksville, Fla., . Wednesday night, John W. Crum was shot and instantly killed by some unknown assassin. He was a delegate to the Democratic convention which met yesterday and came to town to meet his delegation, and was on his return home when he was killed.”

It is thought that John Washington’s murder may have been related to the Whitehurst-Whidden-Stevenson Feud which claimed a number of lives in present day Pasco and Pinellas county.

The Tampa Morning Tribune reported that , “Mr. J. W. Crum, a well-to-do citizen of Brooksville, was shot and instantly killed Wednesday night by an unknown assassin near that place. It is thought that Tillet Whidden is implicated in the tragedy as bitter animosity existed between the two. No arrests have as yet been made. The deceased was a son-in-law of Mr. David Hope, of Brooksville, and leaves a wife and eight children.”

An interesting item that came before the Hernando County Planning and Zoning Committee on December 12th, was the rezoning of a .16 acre portion of a 1 acre lot from Agriculture to PDP/NC (Neighborhood Commercial). The property is in the eastern portion of Hernando County in an area called Richloam. It's a few thousand feet south of Cortez Blvd on Richloam Clay Sink Rd.

The property owner, Eric Burkes explained to the Planning and Zoning Committee that his great Uncle Sidney Brinson originally constructed a building in 1920 to serve as both a Post Office and General Store for the Richloam Community.

Fivay.org records a statement written by Jean Brinson Ward that gives some historical background on the area,
“Richloam is in Hernando County and Clay Sink is in Pasco County. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (“The Goat”) ran through Richloam at that time. Richloam even had a depot, grocery store and post office during the 1920’s and 1930’s. The residents of Clay Sink bought their groceries at the store and used the post office. The post office closed the day I was born. The store which housed the post office was owned by my uncle, Sidney Brinson, and the building still stands in Richloam, not in the best condition. My brother, John, bought it from our uncle years ago.”

The building burned in 1928 and was rebuilt that same year. The general store and post office served the Richloam area until 1936. Burkes explained that it is the oldest historical structure still standing in the Richloam area. In 2016 he renovated the building and completely rebuilt it back as it had originally stood. Burke’s goal is to operate it as a general store and post office once again. He would also like it to serve as a community museum, but one that is functional because he explained, “I don’t want you to feel like you are stepping into a museum.”

Burkes reached out to the US Postal Service under a village postal program. He explained they are in agreement with the plan. Burkes stated that he still has the original post office sign and post office window. He explained that it would most likely be a sub-post office off of the City of Webster’s Post Office. He spoke to the Postmaster of the Webster Office and he’s agreed to provide them with a Richloam cancellation stamp. He also has letters from the Richloam Post Office with the cancellation stamps on them.

“The goal is to step into a 1920’s working general store but at the same time try to preserve the history,” said Brinson.

Planning and Zoning Chairman John Scharch is enthusiastic about the idea. “That’s cool, I like that,” said Scharch. “A lot of our history has been burnt down over the years. I know Monroe Station on the Tamiami Trail recently burnt down… It’s really ashame to see stuff like that go away."

Burkes explained that the original 1928 metal structure of the Richloam general store remains, but the wood had been badly damaged by termites so he had to replace the majority of it.

Before the renovation he said, “You could just about push the whole building down with your hands. It underwent a long drawn out process, but we’ve got it restored back to its original state.”

Board Member Thomas Communale brought up the concern of making sure there was adequate parking and lighting. Scharch felt that parking issues are secondary to the historical aspect of what Burkes is trying to do.

In reference to usage, Burkes’ goal is to have sightseers rather than customers. He would like to offer time period products to give the right atmosphere.

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval with some modifications of Burkes’ request to rezone the .16 acres of the 1 acre site from AG/Agriculture to PDP/NC, Planned Development Project Neighborhood Commercial.

The Board of County Commissioners will make the final decision on rezoning at their meeting on January 10th, 2017.

Brooksville has a quaint picturesque downtown, a place that would be perfect for a stay at a bed and breakfast. It has been several years since the city has had a bed and breakfast. Fortunately, a new bed and breakfast has opened in the downtown area just a stone's throw away from the Historic May-Stringer House and Hernando Heritage Museum.

The Dolan House offers two rooms for rent: the Snow Room and Ederington Suite. The rooms are named after the Ederington and Snow families. The Dolan House was built circa 1895 by Francis Ederington Jr. His sister Charlotte lived in the manor house at Chinsegut Hill with her husband Dr. James Russell Snow. She inherited the house from their parents Colonel Francis and Precious Ann Ederington.

Both of the rooms are for two people and come with a queen bed. They each have a private bath and the Ederington Suite comes with a private balcony. The proprietors Mike and Tina Dolan are a very friendly couple from Washington State. They have traveled extensively and I am sure they have some amazing stories.

Tina is an excellent cook judging by the hors d’oeuvres that were served at their ribbon cutting. This Bed and Breakfast will be a welcome addition to downtown Brooksville and a frequent haunt of visitors celebrating small town life.

You can find more about the Dolan House by going to their web site http://www.dolan-house.com/ or calling them at 352-631-8822.

Address: 701 Museum Ct Brooksville, FL 34601.

Since the Tampa Tribune ceased publication last May, I am reminded of many memories of my newspaper years. I worked for the Tampa Tribune for 39 years from 1975 to 2013. I started as a newspaper carrier, then became a district supervisor, and finally an advertising consultant. I retired in 2013. Here are my memories:

If you asked me in high school about a career, well, a job in the newspaper industry would be farthest from my mind. I had planned to be a school teacher. I was in Future Teacher’s and even did some classroom aide work. But somehow I never went further with teaching. Looking back, much of my later supervisor work was a form of teaching after all, just not in a classroom.

In early 1975 I answered a newspaper ad. They needed another newspaper carrier in growing Spring Hill. It seemed simple enough. I lived in nearby Weeki Wachee and the hours would work out perfectly. I could complete a route in the early morning while my husband babysat our sleeping 3 year old. Paper routes are not the easiest things to learn. Delivery directions were put on a cassette tape. Then you listened to it on a portable tape recorder in your car. The recorder was about the size of a small shoe box. Tapes were good for just a short while. Customers changed daily. You finally had to memorize the route order. Part of my new route territory was from Spring Hill Drive down Deltona Blvd. Houses went up there by the dozens, street after street. People were moving in all the time. New cars. New deliveries. I remember the unpaved roads. The trip from the corner of Deltona and Northcliffe out to Mariner was a dirt road. So was the rest of the way to Springstead High, all dirt in the 1970’s. It seemed like such a long trip in the middle of the night and no houses out there in between!

I enjoyed my route for 2 years. My customer base grew from 144 to 400 papers. I met interesting people. I put money aside. I had both home delivery and single copy. That meant I also filled the news racks in my area. The newsstand price was 15 cents daily and 35 cents Sunday. I rolled the coins and that was my gas money. Gas was under $1 per gallon. Some customers mailed me checks every 8 or 9 weeks. The subscription price was just $1.10 per week. Some people sent their money downtown and I received credit that way. More customers meant more profit. The most memorable night on my route happened near the end of the second year. One night in January 1977 there were snow flurries across my windshield. It was 1 a.m. and I was on the way to my bundle drop. By the time I started delivering there was a layer of light snow on the ground. Newspapers landed with a dusty plop on each driveway! Kids stayed home from school. I can remember making snowballs.

When I left the route I didn’t think I would come back to newspapers. However, my former Tribune supervisor talked me into it. I figured I could do his type of supervisor job for a few years and see how things went. Little did I know that it would be my life career. Each supervisor had a district. My first one went from Hudson to Spring Hill. What did a supervisor do? You made sure the carriers showed up, delivered papers on time, and you handled any customer problems that came along. Back in those early years there were no computers or cell phones. Everyone had a home phone. Notes and carrier mail were handwritten. Route paperwork (hiring a new carrier) could be done by hand on the hood of a car. Later on everything was computerized. It was even later that cell phones became common. Over the years I had several different districts and worked other offices besides just Brooksville. For 6 years I handled some seasonal routes in Zephyrhills. Those routes grew in the winter with “snowbirds” and went down to almost nothing in the summer. It took a special type of carrier to adjust to all the starts and stops. I also saw what it was like to deliver in hurricane season. I can remember flooded streets, pouring rain and no power. Nothing would stop us. I also remember getting stuck in sand or bogged down in mud. Somehow there was a way out and the papers got delivered. Whoever wanted to ride could go along with you on the route. My two children each went with me when they were young. They thought it was an adventure, not work at all. They helped out with papers for a while and then just fell asleep and took up car space. One night we even picked up the dog for a ride!

The newspaper was always big on promoting itself. I remember watching or participating in many Christmas parades. We had big floats including our delivery trucks and a pirate ship. I also worked at the county fairs. We gave away many things including sample newspapers, books, pens, key chains, and other gifts. I helped with other things like Gasparilla and the Super Bowl. The Tribune was a family back then. We had a good time in the bureaus. I can remember big holiday dinners, birthdays, or other occasions. Everyone had a special food they made and we certainly ate well. The main office in Tampa was our hub. Everything started there and came out to us. The Tribune had a big reach. The papers were sent as far as Valdosta GA. They also were delivered to the government offices in Tallahassee. It took a large group of employees to get everything done in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

In the later years things started changing. Papers moved from bundle drops to large distribution centers. Many were big warehouses that could hold 50 or more carriers under one roof! And we delivered a lot more products. There were Wall Street Journals, Investor’s Business Daily, special weekly magazines and other alternate products. To save money some jobs were consolidated. Other duties were eliminated. Newspapers were having trouble meeting budget. The cost of producing a newspaper kept going up. The Internet took a bite out of advertising and news both. In 2005 I decided to change from circulation to classified advertising. I would have a desk job. And for the first time in nearly 30 years I would have quieter holidays, a good night’s sleep, and uninterrupted weekends.

The last few years I worked presented the biggest challenges. The economy was in recession. Real estate and automobile markets took downturns. Less people believed in print advertising. The Internet had taken some of our revenue away. Much of my work centered around legal advertising, especially publishing foreclosures. By April of 2007 we faced company layoffs and employee buyouts. Every year that followed brought still more layoffs. Friends started leaving the company. Products were discontinued and bureaus started closing. Somehow I made it to my chosen retirement date. A year after I left they closed the Hernando Today bureau. That ended the local section. Later I heard that the main office building in Tampa had sold. They would put condos there later on that valuable Tampa real estate. I knew that was the beginning of the end, only a matter of time. But I hated to see the Tampa Tribune close like it did without a final edition or some goodbyes and fanfares. I miss the paper. It had a long run. There were good times and hard times along the way. Good memories come to mind about our days in the bureau and my extended family.

I picked up the Thanksgiving paper this year. It was heavy and I could imagine trying to throw it from a car window. It held pages and pages of those Black Friday ads. I remember what it took to put a paper like that together. I remember the sorting, bagging, loading, and throwing. All that work to get a paper out to the customer. I’m sure many don’t give newspapers a second thought in this digital age. But this former newspaper carrier still does.

Hernando County used to be known as the ‘Home of the Tangerine.’ The soil in Hernando County is said to be well suited to the growing of tangerines. In addition to tangerines, many other citrus grow well in the county.

Hernando County has a long history with oranges. It is thought that the first commercial oranges in the area were planted by Frederick Lykes in 1851. Other settlers had planted oranges in the area earlier, but are not believed to have attempted commercial planting.
The first bank in Hernando County was the Brooksville State Bank and was established in 1890. The bank was highly reliant on the Citrus. Citrus was the area’s major cash crop and at the time had an estimated 300,000 trees planted in the area. The winter of 1894 to 1895 was very cold and much of the citrus was lost. These losses contributed to the the bank closing in 1897.

A few years after the freeze several small groves were started. In 1905, J. J. Bell established a small orange packing plant. In 1908, Bell and other prominent orange growers decided to establish the Brookville Citrus Growers Association. This association built a packing facility on South Main. The marketing and growing of tangerines in the area was pushed by the association. This association lasted until a big freeze hit in the winter of 1984 to 1985.

Oranges were part of the inspiration for the editor of a daily Czechoslovakian newspaper Joseph Joscak, to start a column that advocated moving to warm Florida which led to the creation of Masaryktown. Many of his readers were working in mines and factories in the north and read his column which extolled the virtues of moving to the warm climate and the farming.

He had a number of interested Czechoslovakians and started to look for a spot to start a farming community. They formed a corporation to invest in land. He had found information about land available near Orlando and Brooksville. The corporation elected a committee of five men to check out the land. The Orlando land was found to be swampy, but the Hernando land they deemed acceptable, in part because there were existing groves in the area. The Hernando Plantation Co. as they named the corporation purchased around 10,000 acres about 10 miles south of Brooksville. This area became Masaryktown.

The orange industry has had a great impact on the county. Local historian Frasier Mountain wrote that a local company developed a “technique of sectionizing orange and grapefruit and canned them in glass mason jars.” He explained further, “They had a production line of probably 50 mostly women of the community on an individual contract for pay, by the bushels of oranges they could get done in a day… It was a very efficient and clean atmosphere… the peelings were sold back to the growers as fertilizer for the groves… Some of the buildings of the firm still exist, long since abandoned… the building (existing) on the corner of Main Street and MLK Avenue, is a 5,000 square foot refrigerated Freezing 15 degree warehouse, used in later years for storage of concentrate and fresh juice… F&M Packing Co, (Florida and Michigan) the Family firm also had a large plant to process Cherries in Michigan, so each plant was in production about 6 months out of the year and the Brayton, (McCool) family and some of the hired help made the trip twice a year becoming local city leaders in both places...Brooksville and Traverse City, MI.”

Citrus also acted as an alluring symbol attracting people to the area. At this point there is very little commercial citrus, Hernando is producing half of the citrus that it produced in 2008-2009.

Even though there has been a drop in commercial production, this is still an excellent place to grow citrus. Oranges require a certain amount of cold to develop full sweetness, but cannot be below freezing for a long time, so the best areas to grow citrus is limited. You can buy trees from Lowes, Home Depot, or Boyette’s Grove and try your hand at growing oranges.

This past weekend, shots rang out across the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, in commemoration of the 181st anniversary of Dade’s Battle. The actual battle took place just a little distance away from where The Dade Battlefield Society, Inc. performed the reenactment - the battle which started the Second Seminole War (that lasted 7 years).

On December 28th, 1835, 108 U.S. soldiers, who were led by Major Francis Langhorne Dade, were attacked by surprise by Seminole Indians on their journey to Fort King (now Ocala) from Fort Brooke, in Tampa. After the battle was finished, there were only three soldiers that survived.

The Reenactment and Trade Fair were dedicated to Jerry Robertson and Jerry Vaughn - dedicated members of the Society who passed away recently.

Attending the events on Sunday, before the reenactment began, there was a demonstration which highlighted the various pieces of equipment that both the Seminoles and the U.S. soldiers most likely would have used, as well as the type of clothing they would have worn. Several presenters spoke to the crowd, the Color Guard Ceremony took place, and the audience stood for the National Anthem.

Afterwards, the reenactment transported the spectators back in time, allowing them to hear and see what it might have been like on that day. The reenactors dressed as U.S. soldiers, walked along a path, when a sudden shot was fired, beginning the battle. Audience members witnessed the Seminole reenactors firing while running in and out of sight on foot and horseback, calling to each other, while the U.S. soldiers fired their guns and a cannon into the forest, taking shelter behind a barricade that was built by the reenactors as the battle continued.

Throughout the event, the narrator Frank Laumer, helped to guide spectators through the battle, as Pvt. Ransom Clark. It was explained that he’s been very involved for many years, but that this would be his last narration. He received a standing ovation from the crowd at the end of the battle.

During that weekend, along with the reenactment, there were sutlers and vendors on the grounds as well as military and Seminole camps.

After the reenactment finished, individuals had the opportunity to speak with the reenactors and take photos. Speaking with two reenactors (a Seminole and a U.S. soldier reenactor) it was clear that there is a great deal of dedication and love of history involved in organizing and participating in the events.

The US Soldier reenactor who has been involved in a number of different types of reenactments said that while there might not be a significant difference between doing the Civil War and the Second Seminole War reenactments, there are distinct differences that you have to learn like the way one shoulders, lifts and fires the weapon.

“I don’t consider this a reenactment,” he explained. “This is honoring the dead here. And this isn’t a costume, this is a United States Army uniform that we wear.”
I spoke to a Seminole reenactor, who was working with a horse. He said, “I do this for a living, so I work with this stuff every day… I do school shows, and festivals, historical sites. I do encampments, educational programs on history and culture.”

If you’re interested in becoming involved in events like this, reenactors stressed that it’s important to come to the events, talk to the people and look online to see what’s out there. Experienced reenactors can help you find out how to get started, with things like where to buy or how make the equipment you need.
The Dade Battlefield Society Inc., which is, “a nonprofit citizen support organization,” can be found online at https://www.dadebattlefield.com/. The address for the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park is 7200 CR 603, Bushnell, FL 33513.

More information about the park itself can be found online at: https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Dade-Battlefield

Later this year, other events will be held at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, including a World War II Weekend on March 4th and 5th of 2017, as well as the 7th annual Inter-Tribal Holiday Pow-Wow, presented by Pan-O-Kee Native American Tribe of Central Florida, September 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, 2017.

In recent issues, we’ve been focusing on Brooksville’s historic murals and the history that is behind them. This week we’ll be discussing the history behind the mural, "Early Physicians of Brooksville" located in the SunTrust lot off of Main Street.

In 2003, this mural was sponsored by Victor Heins and the Hernando County Tourism Bureau and was the third mural that was completed. The mural was designed and painted by local artist Diane Becker, and features Dr. Creekmore, Dr. Harvard, Dr. Sheldon Stringer Sr., and Dr. Lykes. The portraits mimic that of old, sepia colored photographs, and depict doctors who were landholders, community leaders, and philanthropists.

Dr. Creekmore - One of the founders of Hernando County Hospital in 1925, Dr. Creekmore started his practice in 1906, and continued to do so until his death at 90 years old. Interestingly, his office was located over what is now the Main Street Eatery.

Dr. Harvard - Dr. Harvard was the son of a doctor and passed away in 1964, but continued to work in the community until that time. He earned his medical degree in 1930, and if you head to the town’s museum, you can find the bag he used when making house calls.

Dr. Sheldon Stringer Sr. - On the tour, Mrs. Rupe explained, “He lived in the house at the May museum, which was once the Stringer House, and he added a room for his medical practice, and if you go to the, ‘Doctors Room,’ at the museum, that was his office at that time.” Dr. Stringer (1834-1903) was a surgeon, druggist, and doctor, and in 1870, he wrote an 80 page speech about local education.

Dr. Lykes - At the age of 15, Howell T. Lykes came to the area and joined the Confederate Army. He handed his practice to Stringer Sr. (his brother in law) and he practiced medicine for two years when the war ended. Dr. Lykes had seven sons and they each joined the family business which was incorporated in 1910 as the Lykes Brothers. The main operations were moved to Tampa and they shipped cattle to Cuba aboard a three-masted wooden schooner. The family business was involved in industries like ranching, shipbuilding, sugar processing, and meat processing. Mrs. Rupe explained, “So the Lykes, a lot of them started here and now they’re all over Florida.” Over the course of 20 years, the family donated over $100,000 to the local hospital. What is now Bayfront Regional Hospital was previously Lykes Memorial Hospital, which had previously been Hernando County Hospital. The Lykes family homestead was the original Spring Hill. The Lykes Home is located on the north west side of the intersection of Fort Dade Avenue and Citrus Way. Most of the land that made up the original Lykes ranch is now part of the Cemex mine.

On Jan. 10, 2017, the BOCC approved the rezoning from AG/(Agricultural) to PDP(NC)/Planned Development Project (Neighborhood Commercial) with deviations for the historic Richloam General Store owned by Eric Burkes.

Burkes, a relative to the original owner and postmaster, is requesting to reopen the old country store which he plans to stock with 1 cent candy and items that were available in the 1930 time period. Burkes explained that the store used to be on a state road until 50 came through and the road was moved north.

Parking will be next to the store.

The rezoning, which was needed to reopen the store was unanimously approved.

The grand opening will be held Feb. 25 8AM - 4PM. The address is 38215 Richloam Clay Sink Rd; Webster, FL 33597.

On Jan. 21st, before the skies darkened and winds picked up, the 37th Annual Brooksville Raid Re-enactment took place. The re-enactment was supposed to continue on Sunday, but was unfortunately cancelled due to inclement weather. To coincide with this Civil War Battle re-enactment, one of the largest in the country, this article describes the primary conflicts that occurred in Hernando County.

During the Civil War there were two significant conflicts in Hernando County: the Battle of Bayport and the Brooksville Raid. The Hernando County area had come to the attention of the Union, because it was supplying the Confederacy with needed provisions.

The Battle of Bayport occurred on April 3, 1863. Seven launches and cutters were released from the U.S. warships Sagamore, Fort Henry and St. Lawrence. The four largest of the boats were armed with mortars, with the largest mortar being 24 inches.

Dawn found the raiders two miles outside of Bayport facing offshore wind and an outgoing tide. It took the attackers 2 hours to get through these to Bayport. This allowed the defenders to prepare for the coming attack.

There were six ships in port at the time. Four of the ships were run up into the salt flats and grounded. The Helen was found south of the main harbor and burned by the Union Forces. The remaining ship was a large schooner loaded with cotton, which was burned in the main harbor during the battle (most likely by Confederates to prevent its capture).

The port was defended by three companies of Confederate troops, commanded by Captain J.C. Chambers, Captain S.M.G. Gary and Captain Samuel E. Hope. The troops had built an earthwork battery on the main harbor. There were also rifle pits around. These rifle pits were adjacent to the battery and on a small area of high ground opposite the channel.

The battle between the Confederate soldiers and the Union sailors lasted 25 to 35 minutes. The Union cannon fire drove the Confederates from the battery. Two of the Union mortars had become disabled, because of intense usage, so the Union decided to withdraw.

Again in July of 1864 the Union decided to attack the area, since it was supplying the Confederacy. The idea was if the Confederate soldiers had no supplies, they would have to surrender. This attack would be referred to as "The Brooksville Raid."

The Union sent 240 soldiers by sea to disrupt the supplies coming from the area. They landed near Anclote River and headed north along the path. The troops were supplied by the 2nd Florida Cavalry (Union) and the 2nd U. S. Colored Infantry.

The Union troops burned a swath six miles wide. They confiscated livestock, grain, provisions and other supplies. Sometimes they set fire to barns, smokehouses, and houses. Some of the Union soldiers were locals of the area and knew where things were located.

The Confederate soldiers facing a superior force skirmished the Union soldiers as they advanced attacking and fading. There was no major battle since the Confederate volunteers did not want to directly engage the larger Union force and the Union soldiers were more interested in disrupting the supplies to Confederates than engaging their soldiers.

The raid netted the Union seven prisoners, 15 horses, 13 slaves and disrupted the Confederacy’s supply line. The clashes during the raid resulted in the deaths of five Confederates and three Union soldiers. The homes of a number of residents were destroyed including prominent Confederate officers Captain Hope, Captain Leslie, and Captain Hooker.

The Union saw the importance of Hernando County to the Confederacy as a supplier. They attacked the port and then the source of the supplies. The loss of supplies contributed to the defeat of the Confederacy.

The Whitehurst-Whidden-Stevenson Feud started in Hillsborough (Tarpon Springs) and took place mostly in Pasco County. Although a prominent Hernando Citizen John Washington Crum is thought to have also been a victim of this feud. The feud turned deadly with the killing of Tarpon Springs Marshall William Erastus Whitehurst on July 4, 1893.

The Tarpon Springs Police Department and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office both list Marshal William Erastus Whitehurst as an officer killed in the line of duty. Marshal Whitehurst was hired by the City of Tarpon Springs, but he was deputized by Hillsborough County. The City of Tarpon had requested that the Hillsborough Sheriff permanently station a deputy in the city, but the request was denied, so the City of Tarpon Springs hired their own lawman and had him deputized by the Hillsborough Sheriff. Mr. Whitehurst's father Walton served as a Florida House Representative for Hillsborough County in 1891.

On the Fourth of July, Tarpon Springs celebrated with a festival. Mr. Whitehurst participated in a contest where riders attempted to lance rings hanging from strings while riding at full speed. The marshal was called away from the festivities to deal with a drunken sponger, Bob Atwell, disturbing the peace.

Mr. Atwell resisted being arrested and his friend Constantine "Bud" Stevenson joined him in resisting the Marshal. In the ensuing struggle, the Marshal was shot and killed by Mr. Stevenson and a friend John McNeill. Tillet Whidden was also said to have been involved in the shootout on the side of the Marshal. Mr. Stevenson was severely wounded in the gunfight and passed out at the scene. Bob Atwell and John McNeill fled into the woods. With a posse out to avenge the Marshal, John McNeill surrendered to the Pasco County Sheriff in Dade City.

Bud Stevenson was badly injured in the shootout and was kept in a house in Tarpon Springs while he recovered under guard and protection of a deputy. On July 26, late at night, a large group of men attempted to take Mr. Stevenson. They held the deputy at gunpoint while the rest of the group attempted to enter the house. The Stevenson women who slept on the porch, awoke when the group tried to enter and a struggle ensuded. Two of the attackers went around the house and fired into the window, wounding Mr. Stevenson and killing a cousin of Stevenson, Henry Taylor Osteen.

The first trial of Stevenson and McNeill for the murder of Whitehurst took place almost a year later from May 22 to May 28, 1894. Stevenson was found guilty of murder in the first degree and McNeill was found guilty of manslaughter. On June 8th, Judge Barron Philips declared a mistrial and voided the convictions. At the second trial for Stevenson on December 20 to 22 1894, he was acquitted.

On July 26, 1895 the Whitehurst allies Dan and Crockett Whidden were killed in their camp on the Cootie River in Pasco. A group of men shot Dan and Crockett while they slept in their hammocks. Their workers were roused from their sleep by the gunfire and found the two deceased.

The murdered men were brothers to Tillet Whidden who was accused of a number of murders in the area. On May 29, 1896, The Tampa Morning Tribune reported that Tillet Whidden was found not guilty of murder. "This is the second trial of Tillet Whidden for murder during this session and he has been acquitted in both cases."

On June 12, 1896, the Daily Charlotte Observer reported on another murder "At Brooksville, Fla., Wednesday night, John W. Crum was shot and instantly killed by some unknown assassin. He was a delegate to the Democratic convention which met yesterday and came to town to meet his delegation, and was on his return home when he was killed." The Tampa morning Tribune reported "It is thought that Tillet Whidden is implicated in the tragedy as bitter animosity existed between the two. "

On February 3, 1897, Bud Stevenson was shot from ambush while planting watermelon on his farm near Hudson. Later that same year, William Edwards was shot while eating dinner at his home near Trilby. It was reported that this might have been retaliation for the killing of Mr. Stevenson as it was hypothesised that it was Mr. Edwards who assassinated Mr. Stevenson.

This feud shows how wild the area was at the turn of the 20th century. The number of deaths attributed to the feud vary from six to fourteen depending on the account. Often times men took the law into their own hands to settle their disputes and witnesses knew that the law could not protect them if they testified against them, so the trials often lead to acquittals.

Near where the Western Way Plaza now sits, in Brooksville, there was a replica UFO. It was built by John Reeves who reported that he frequently saw UFOs in that area.

He enjoyed taking walks through the sandy pine covered area around his home. He reported that on March 2, 1965 in the woods he came across a strange object sitting on the ground. The object was disc shaped and held up with four stilts keeping it a few feet off the ground. The disc was 40 feet in diameter and 9 feet tall at the center.

He said he saw strange creatures near the disc, which had a luminous skin. The creatures were tall and thin and their skin was porcelain smooth. The creatures carried a small square object which the creature held at chin level and made a bright flash of light.

John was startled and ran away. He was caught in the underbrush, tripped, and lost his eye glasses. The creature retrieved his glasses and dropped them near by him. The creature then returned to the disc, but dropped two things that resembled sheets of paper with odd writing. The disc then began rotating counterclockwise and ascended at a rapid speed.

Reeves told his story on a local radio station where he showed the sheets of paper. According to John, the Air Force visited him after his interview and confiscated the papers. The sheets were later returned to him, but they no longer had the odd writing and were thicker.

John says he continued to meet with the spacemen over the next few years. During walks he would meet with the spacemen.

On August 6, 1968, John states that space man asked him if he would like to go to the moon.

The trip to the Moon lasted a total of six hours. John said the space men's base was in a transparent dome on the Dark Side of the Moon.

While John was on the surface of the moon he used a medicine bottle to collect gray lunar dust and picked up a rock that looked like a crystal. John would show off the gray dust and rock when telling his story.

John's story and roadside UFO attracted attention. He was willing to tell his story to people that stopped by interested about the UFO he had built. For a while in the 60s and 70s Hernando County was referred to as the 'UFO Capital of the World.'

Brooksville has a quaint picturesque downtown, a place that would be perfect for a stay at a bed and breakfast. It has been several years since the city has had a bed and breakfast. Fortunately, a new bed and breakfast has opened in the downtown area just a stone's throw away from the Historic May-Stringer House and Hernando Heritage Museum.

The Dolan House offers two rooms for rent: the Snow Room and Ederington Suite. The rooms are named after the Ederington and Snow families. The Dolan House was built circa 1895 by Francis Ederington Jr. His sister Charlotte lived in the manor house at Chinsegut Hill with her husband Dr. James Russell Snow. She inherited the house from their parents Colonel Francis and Precious Ann Ederington.

Both of the rooms are for two people and come with a queen bed. They each have a private bath and the Ederington Suite comes with a private balcony. The proprietors Mike and Tina Dolan are a very friendly couple from Washington State. They have traveled extensively and I am sure they have some amazing stories.

Tina is an excellent cook judging by the hors d’oeuvres that were served at their ribbon cutting. This Bed and Breakfast will be a welcome addition to downtown Brooksville and a frequent haunt of visitors celebrating small town life.

You can find more about the Dolan House by going to their web site http://www.dolan-house.com/ or calling them at 352-631-8822.

Address: 701 Museum Ct Brooksville, FL 34601.

Since the Tampa Tribune ceased publication last May, I am reminded of many memories of my newspaper years. I worked for the Tampa Tribune for 39 years from 1975 to 2013. I started as a newspaper carrier, then became a district supervisor, and finally an advertising consultant. I retired in 2013. Here are my memories:

If you asked me in high school about a career, well, a job in the newspaper industry would be farthest from my mind. I had planned to be a school teacher. I was in Future Teacher’s and even did some classroom aide work. But somehow I never went further with teaching. Looking back, much of my later supervisor work was a form of teaching after all, just not in a classroom.

In early 1975 I answered a newspaper ad. They needed another newspaper carrier in growing Spring Hill. It seemed simple enough. I lived in nearby Weeki Wachee and the hours would work out perfectly. I could complete a route in the early morning while my husband babysat our sleeping 3 year old. Paper routes are not the easiest things to learn. Delivery directions were put on a cassette tape. Then you listened to it on a portable tape recorder in your car. The recorder was about the size of a small shoe box. Tapes were good for just a short while. Customers changed daily. You finally had to memorize the route order. Part of my new route territory was from Spring Hill Drive down Deltona Blvd. Houses went up there by the dozens, street after street. People were moving in all the time. New cars. New deliveries. I remember the unpaved roads. The trip from the corner of Deltona and Northcliffe out to Mariner was a dirt road. So was the rest of the way to Springstead High, all dirt in the 1970’s. It seemed like such a long trip in the middle of the night and no houses out there in between!

I enjoyed my route for 2 years. My customer base grew from 144 to 400 papers. I met interesting people. I put money aside. I had both home delivery and single copy. That meant I also filled the news racks in my area. The newsstand price was 15 cents daily and 35 cents Sunday. I rolled the coins and that was my gas money. Gas was under $1 per gallon. Some customers mailed me checks every 8 or 9 weeks. The subscription price was just $1.10 per week. Some people sent their money downtown and I received credit that way. More customers meant more profit. The most memorable night on my route happened near the end of the second year. One night in January 1977 there were snow flurries across my windshield. It was 1 a.m. and I was on the way to my bundle drop. By the time I started delivering there was a layer of light snow on the ground. Newspapers landed with a dusty plop on each driveway! Kids stayed home from school. I can remember making snowballs.

When I left the route I didn’t think I would come back to newspapers. However, my former Tribune supervisor talked me into it. I figured I could do his type of supervisor job for a few years and see how things went. Little did I know that it would be my life career. Each supervisor had a district. My first one went from Hudson to Spring Hill. What did a supervisor do? You made sure the carriers showed up, delivered papers on time, and you handled any customer problems that came along. Back in those early years there were no computers or cell phones. Everyone had a home phone. Notes and carrier mail were handwritten. Route paperwork (hiring a new carrier) could be done by hand on the hood of a car. Later on everything was computerized. It was even later that cell phones became common. Over the years I had several different districts and worked other offices besides just Brooksville. For 6 years I handled some seasonal routes in Zephyrhills. Those routes grew in the winter with “snowbirds” and went down to almost nothing in the summer. It took a special type of carrier to adjust to all the starts and stops. I also saw what it was like to deliver in hurricane season. I can remember flooded streets, pouring rain and no power. Nothing would stop us. I also remember getting stuck in sand or bogged down in mud. Somehow there was a way out and the papers got delivered. Whoever wanted to ride could go along with you on the route. My two children each went with me when they were young. They thought it was an adventure, not work at all. They helped out with papers for a while and then just fell asleep and took up car space. One night we even picked up the dog for a ride!

The newspaper was always big on promoting itself. I remember watching or participating in many Christmas parades. We had big floats including our delivery trucks and a pirate ship. I also worked at the county fairs. We gave away many things including sample newspapers, books, pens, key chains, and other gifts. I helped with other things like Gasparilla and the Super Bowl. The Tribune was a family back then. We had a good time in the bureaus. I can remember big holiday dinners, birthdays, or other occasions. Everyone had a special food they made and we certainly ate well. The main office in Tampa was our hub. Everything started there and came out to us. The Tribune had a big reach. The papers were sent as far as Valdosta GA. They also were delivered to the government offices in Tallahassee. It took a large group of employees to get everything done in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

In the later years things started changing. Papers moved from bundle drops to large distribution centers. Many were big warehouses that could hold 50 or more carriers under one roof! And we delivered a lot more products. There were Wall Street Journals, Investor’s Business Daily, special weekly magazines and other alternate products. To save money some jobs were consolidated. Other duties were eliminated. Newspapers were having trouble meeting budget. The cost of producing a newspaper kept going up. The Internet took a bite out of advertising and news both. In 2005 I decided to change from circulation to classified advertising. I would have a desk job. And for the first time in nearly 30 years I would have quieter holidays, a good night’s sleep, and uninterrupted weekends.

The last few years I worked presented the biggest challenges. The economy was in recession. Real estate and automobile markets took downturns. Less people believed in print advertising. The Internet had taken some of our revenue away. Much of my work centered around legal advertising, especially publishing foreclosures. By April of 2007 we faced company layoffs and employee buyouts. Every year that followed brought still more layoffs. Friends started leaving the company. Products were discontinued and bureaus started closing. Somehow I made it to my chosen retirement date. A year after I left they closed the Hernando Today bureau. That ended the local section. Later I heard that the main office building in Tampa had sold. They would put condos there later on that valuable Tampa real estate. I knew that was the beginning of the end, only a matter of time. But I hated to see the Tampa Tribune close like it did without a final edition or some goodbyes and fanfares. I miss the paper. It had a long run. There were good times and hard times along the way. Good memories come to mind about our days in the bureau and my extended family.

I picked up the Thanksgiving paper this year. It was heavy and I could imagine trying to throw it from a car window. It held pages and pages of those Black Friday ads. I remember what it took to put a paper like that together. I remember the sorting, bagging, loading, and throwing. All that work to get a paper out to the customer. I’m sure many don’t give newspapers a second thought in this digital age. But this former newspaper carrier still does.