HISTORY OF PASCO COUNTY

Anclote

The Beginning of Anclote

Shortly after the close of the Civil War, Frederic Meyer came from Marion County in 1867 and settled at Anclote about one and one half miles north of the river, about 100 yards west of the Anclote cemetery. He was followed by his brother, Franklin B. Meyer, a few months later.

In the meantime, F. B. Meyer had purchased an interest in a sawmill at Cedar Keys and for temporary use he had built a log house on a beautiful site overlooking the river. Mr. Meyer, the writer's grandfather, went to Cedar Keys with the intention of getting lumber to build a better house. But he contracted yellow fever, came home—and died, in a short time. This left my grandmother, a delicate woman, to rear a large family in the wilderness. Later, Mr. Cobb and the Harrisons moved in, which added some population to the neighborhood of Anclote.

Obtaining the staple foods was quite a problem. Tampa was about 32 miles distant and there was no way of transportation except riding through the forest. Cedar Keys was about 75 miles by boat. The nearest store was a log house on the bay, 18 or 20 miles by water—the spot where Clearwater now stands. Obtaining meat was no great problem as the woods abounded in game—deer, turkey, squirrel, and quail, which afforded the young men a lot of sport. My mother had a pet deer. The soil was very productive.

News of this growing settlement began to spread and soon others were added to this little village. As the sponge industry expanded in Key West, the spongers went out in quest of other fields and discovered that off the coat of Anclote and Rock Island there were beds teeming with sponge of different varieties.

A large fleet of vessels began to appear, bringing men from the British West Indies and Key West. Over 90 per cent of these men were of English extraction and as they made frequent visits ashore they soon became acquainted with women of different backgrounds. In the course of time, many unions took place between these hardy men of the sea and gentle ladies of southern plantations. This combination of sailors and farmers produced the strain of citizenry that settled this party of the country. ...

In 1878, Captain Samuel Hope came to Anclote from Brooksville, and as he had large family of boys and girls, who were fond of music, and a wife who played the piano, their home became quite a social center. Captain Hope, who was an ex-Confederate officer, was wounded on the battlefield during the War Between the States. Mrs. Sarah Meyer, my grandmother, left her piano on the plantation as there were no roads in her time—or suitable means of transportation. Later, Allan Hill came with his two daughters, so with the young people of the two Meyers families, life became more interesting for them. ...

The historic Spanish Well was a familiar spot to the settlers of Anclote. Supposed to have been dug by the Spaniards, it was about one half mile west of the village near the mouth of the river. It was used for many years by spongers and other boatmen. Many pioneers have drunk water from it numberless times. It has long since disappeared from view, covered by erosion, high tides and mangrove bushes. How interesting it would be to have a marker on that historical spot, to commemorate the activities of the Spaniards and sailors of bygone days.

The Beginning of Anclote

In 1867 two men with their families and livestock left their plantations near Ocala and plodded down the primitive road to the north bank of the Anclote River, about three miles west of Tarpon Springs. They were the brothers Frederick and Ben Franklin Meyer; each of the wives was named Sarah. The Meyers obtained land from Captain Hope; they built log cabins, put in their first crops, and planted seeds of the oranges they had brought with them. Before long, however, both brothers died of yellow fever.

The widows and their half-grown children persevered in country so wild that they could hear wolves howl at night—and they never forgot it.

Although Ben Franklin Meyer had fought for the Confederacy, his widow received a small pension from the United States government because as a youth he had fought in the Mexican War. Although Mrs. Meyer had brought her sheets of piano music from Ocala, she was to be an old lady before she had a chance to play a piano in her new home.

Gradually a settlement grew up around the Meyer cabins and was called Anclote—centered on today's Wacassassa, Seminole, and Osceola Streets. Traders, fishermen, and Key West spongers, many of them British, liked the friendly little homes and dropped in whenever they could. Soon there was a school, a ferry, a post office, and a general store.

Several well-to-do English families came to Anclote as part of a colonization scheme; they planned to drain the marshes and grow sugar cane. The ditches they dug are still there, but the cane was not successful. ...

In 1887, however, it became evident that Tarpon Springs, not Anclote, would become a city, for the railroad went to Tarpon Springs. Anclote did share in the hustle and bustle of the sponge boom at Bailey's Bluff during the 1890s, and the big W. W. K. Decker sponge house on the waterfront was a busy place.

During the Spanish-American War, Green Meyer became locally famous by getting pierced in five places allegedly by the same bullet, which he survived in excellent health.

Today the little community of Anclote has an abandoned chemical company on one side and an electric power plant on the other, but it remains tranquil and modestly residential.

Village a Memory of Days Gone By

By CHARLES McKINNEY

ANCLOTE VILLAGE—Gone are the big commercial fishing ships, old stores, a post office, spreading farms, and most of the old-timers.

Small frame houses, shaded by giant oak trees, line winding streets. No signs announce the village. Folks around here simply know about this community tucked away in the extreme southwestern corner of Pasco County just across the Pinellas County line.

The small houses and the cemetery remain. And memories.

“There were 14 houses when I moved here in the early 1900s,” recalled Edgar Sapp, 87, who retired after 70 years as a commercial fisherman. He came from Port Richey—there was no New Port Richey back then—where he said he and his bride lived in the vacated family residence of A.M. Richey, the town's namesake.

According to local historians, there was no Tarpon Springs until about 1875, and the closest town, accessible only through the forest, was Tampa. There was a store made from logs that offered staple food items. The store was in what is now Clearwater.

Progress in Anclote Village, population about 500, “has been good, for the better,” Sapp says. “Money isn't worth a lot today, but you get more of it,” he said, after telling of bygone days when the going wage was a dollar or two daily.

He doesn't go to the Anclote River anymore, he said, because commercial fishing “is gone. Just two part-time fishermen still try around here and they don't do it regularly.”

Born in Bradenton, Sapp and his wife, who is in a New Port Richey nursing home, observed their 68th wedding anniversary in October. A brother and daughter are buried at Anclote Cemetery.

Another longtime resident, Henry Dix, 84, Sapp's brother-in-law, lives right across Hickory Lane from Sapp. Down the lane about two blocks, lives another old-timer, Harry Johns, 72.

Johns, who was born in the house next to the one he lives in now, also is a retired commercial fisherman, an occupation he described as a “cruel, hard life.” His father was also a commercial fisherman.

Johns, too, said life today is better than what it was years ago. He spoke of two factors which, he believes, brought about the demise of the local fishing industry: the exodus of the big fish marketers years ago, and the reduced caused by dredging.

Like the Sapps, the Johns' wedding anniversary is at hand. They will observe 50 years together Nov. 16. Again like the Sapps, the Johns have relatives at Anclote Cemetery—his father, mother and three brothers.

The cemetery is at the end of Cemetery Road. To residents of Anclote Village, burial there is free; others are asked to pay what Johns called a “donation” to help pay for cemetery upkeep. Village resident Rudy Jacobs maintains the cemetery.

Names of some original settlers are on tombstones: Tongay, Goethe, Thompson, Meyer. Fredrick Meyer, 1819-1869, was among the first to settle in Anclote, moving here in 1867. His house was about 100 yards west of the cemetery. His brother, Benjamin F., 1826-1871, arrived soon after.

Sounds of birds and crickets and, in autumn, a wind break the silence in the cemetery.

Encircled by a fence, the well-kept cemetery is surrounded by woods. And on a metal gate at the entrance is a sign that says “Keep Out.”

Group Is Preserving Old Anclote Cemetery

ANCLOTE VILLAGE—A group of concerned residents who live in this small community near the Anclote River have formed the Anclote Cemetery Association to preserve and care for the burial ground of their ancestors.

William Meyer and his sister Hazel Meyer Anderson say they are probably the only two direct descendants of the founders of this community who still live in the area.

Mrs. Anderson says the property where the cemetery is located belonged to the Meyer family. “Our father William Meyer died first so his brother Green Meyer gave the property for the cemetery. Our grandfather Frederick Meyer was the first person to be buried here back in 1869.”

The oldest date on an existing headstone is 1871. B. F. Meyer, born March 27, 1825, died Sept. 11, 1871. His wife Sarah A. Meyer is buried next to him. She was born June 14, 1831 and died April 15, 1892. The inscription on their stone reads, “Dear parents though we miss you much we know you rest with God.”

Meyer explains that his great uncle B. F. sailed his boat to Cedar Key to pick up bunding materials. At that time the railroad only came as far south as the key. “There was a yellow fever epidemic in Cedar Key when he got there and he contracted the fever,” Meyer said. “They say he kept saying he wanted to get home before he died and he made it home. This was back in 1871.”

Another stone of note is that of W. E. Weller, 1859-1936. Meyer says Weller was a captain and owned several ships that sailed from Tampa and New Orleans. “When his son Hiram was here putting up this monument to him, copied from the Washington monument, our house caught fire and my momma called and called, he heard her and ran over and put that fire out or we would have lost our home,” Meyer recalled.

“The cemetery was surveyed in August 1913 under the direction of the late L. D. Vinson who was the funeral director in Tarpon Springs. Originally there were about three acres.”

Through the efforts of Wayne Carey, trustee of the association, the deed for the cemetery was filed and recorded last year in Dade City. The association was formed with Gary Parnell as president; William Meyer, trustee; Hazel Meyer Anderson, vice president; and Alfred Lang, treasurer.

Carey says the association intends to continue taking care of the cemetery and plans are under way to put up a fence. “Anyone who lives in Anclote Village can be buried here, if that is their wish,” Carey said.

For the past month association members have devoted each Saturday to a clean-up campaign taking time out at noon for a picnic lunch under the ancient spreading oak trees.