History of Tarpon Springs, Florida

Webb's Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida (1885)

Florida State Gazetteer and Business Directory (1886-87)

Population, 300. Edward A. Blum, postmaster. Was first settled in 1882. Situated on Anclote River, 27 miles northwest of Tampa, the county seat and nearest express, telegraph and banking point. Tampa is also the shipping point. Has eight stores, two hotels, the Tarpon Springs and Tropical, steam saw mill, public school, and Universalist and Methodist churches, white and colored. Oranges, vegetables and lumber are the principal shipments. Has semi-weekly stage communication with Tampa; fare, $3; to Bayview, $3. Mails north Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; south, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Land sells at $5 to $25 per acre. This place is located in a fine fruit and vegetable section, and the yield is remunerative.

Blum Adolphus, warehouse and wharf.
Blum Edward A., postmaster.
Blum R., dentist.
Boyer J. C., butcher.
Cannon William, boat builder.
Chase F. C., druggist.
Fernald G. W., prop. Fernald House.
Fernald House, G. W. Fernald, prop.
Fernald & Murphy, gen. mdse.
George A. Mrs., milliner and dressmaker.
Gilmore W. M., barber.
Gleason G. C., blacksmith.
Harlow J., contractor and builder.
Keeney James A., man. Gulf Coast Land Co.
Kendall S. D., guide.
Gulf Coast Land Co., real estate, Howard Duyer, gen. So. man. Jacksonville, Fla. (See cover card).
Lake Butler Villa Co., real estate.
Meres W. F., prop. Tropical Hotel.
Murphy D. J., contractor and builder.
Murphy J. J., contractor and builder.
Patten N. S., saw mill.
Payne Samuel, furniture.
Phillips W. L., shoemaker.
Safford Mary J., homœopathic physician.
Safford & Whitcomb, prop. Tarpon Springs Hotel.
Snyder D. W., books, stationery, etc.
Sweetser A., boots and shoes.
Tarpon Springs Bakery, bakers.
Tarpon Springs Hotel, Safford & Whitcomb, prop.
Tropical Hotel, W. F. Meres, prop.
Vinson J. M., gen. mdse.
Walton T. B., surveyor.
Weber G. F., gen. mdse.
Webster H. D. L., pastor Universalist church.
Whitcomb F. J. M., homœopathic physician.
Whitcomb S. M., real estate.

Sponge Industry of Busy Tarpon (1903)

Tarpon Springs, April 4.—Work is rapidly progressing on the $30,000 residence of George W. Clemson, which is being erected on the north side of the spring. The building is to be a spacious one, two and one-half stories in height, and will be provided with all modern conveniences that go to make up a thoroughly modernized and ideal home.

Mr. Clemson's new house-boat recently arrived from the East Coast via the Strait of Florida, and is now cruising along the coast, near Tarpon Springs. N. A. VanWinkle has been awarded the contract for erecting a $4,000 boat-house, in which this floating palace will be stored during the summer, while he is looking after his manufacturing interests in the North.

The new sponge house of John K. Cheyney, located near the bayou, has just been completed, and will be ready for use during the spring sponging trip, which is expected to begin about the first of May. The main building is 40x80 feet, and will be used for the clipping and packing of sponges. Alongside this are two other smaller buildings 20x40, and 30x40 feet, respectively. One of these buildings is known as the bleachery, and is thoroughly equipped for bleaching the raw product. The other is known as a drying room, and has a glass roof for the utilization of the rays of the sun in drying the product. The building is also steam heated. Some distance from these buildings is located a fire and burglar-proof stock room, 20x30 feet. It is a brick building with cement floor and corrugated iron roof, and will be used for the storage of the baled sponges previous to being shipped. As much as $20,000 worth of sponges is often stored in the stock room at one time.

A sponge house is being erected for W. W. K. Decker by N. A. VanWinkle. The building is 36x100 feet, and will be complete in all its appointments. Another sponge house was recently erected for E. P. Meres. It is of corrugated iron.

Several residences are in contemplation by winter tourists, who have become infatuated with Florida's equable climate, and desire permanent winter homes here.

Florida Sponge Industry (1904)

Few persons not directly connected with the sponge industry are apt to realize the growing importance which this product has assumed at Tarpon Springs, but it is a fact, nevertheless, that from insignificant proportions ten years ago the business here has leaped forward, until now it is the leading centre of the sponge business in the United States and the Western Hemisphere.

The sponging grounds, other than those of Key West, extend from Anclote Keys, a few miles from Tarpon Springs, to Apalachee Bay, and the best sponges are secured from ten to thirty miles off shore, in from thirty to forty feet of water. The sponge industry of Tarpon Springs dates back about twelve years, when the Anclote and Rock Island Company sent out two small vessels to the sponge grounds. The business grew rapidly; other individuals secured boats and crews to man them, until today more than 150 vessels are engaged here, giving employment to probably 1000 men, who, for six or eight months in the year, practically live on their vessels; at other times residing at Anclote, at the sponge kraals near Anclote and at Tarpon Springs. Few of the boats are owned by the people who handle them. The owners of the vessels employ the crews, supply the rations and take as their pay one-half the product. Some owners possess a number of vessels, the business at times proving quite profitable. There are two principal seasons for sponging, the spring or summer trip, commencing in March and winding up in June, the fall or winter trip dates from October to December. During the sponging trip the vessels are at sea six days out of the seven, usually returning Saturday to unload and secure more rations. The life at best is a hard one, with very few pleasures.

The actual sponging is done from rowboats of very small vessels, the hooker, using a three pronged rake thirty or forty feet long, and with the aid of a water pail—an ordinary water bucket with a glass bottom—readily detects and detaches sponges from the bottom—so clear are the Gulf waters and so expert do the men become. The sponges when first obtained are far from what we are accustomed to see at stores. They are full of animal matter, and this must be allowed to die and then be dried and hammered out and finally detached—a process that requires weeks.

Sponges are auctioned off to the dealers during the season at Tarpon Springs who represent northern houses, and from there they are distributed all over the country and even in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

At the present time Tarpon Springs produces three-quarters of the total product of Florida sponges, other than those secured around Key West, and probably more than half of the whole Florida yield. The balance of the sponges produced are sold at Key West.

In 1903 Key West perhaps sold 90 percent of all the sponges produced in this country, the total Florida produce being 366,000 pounds, with a value of $483,000. In 1896 the product was 236,000 pounds, valued at $273,000. In 1899 the product was 987,000 pounds, in 1900, 567,000 pounds. Since then the yield has decreased, but the average total value has remained the same. The number of pounds of sponges produced any year is not a fair criterion of the value of the sponges that year as compared with many other years, for some sponges are worth many times what others are worth, and some years are prolific of cheaper class of sponges; but on the whole, sponges have steadily increased in value. Thus, sheep's wool (the highest class of sponges) prices for the past few years were as follows:

In 1895, price per pound, $1.57; 1896, $1.67; 1899, $2.16; 1900, $2.67; 1901, $1.67; 1902, $2.85; and at the present time they are worth nearly $4 per pound.

The Largest Sponge Market in the Western Hemisphere (1916)

By FREDERIC J. HASKIN

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla., March 22 — This city claims the distinction of being the largest sponge market in the western hemisphere. Over a hundred schooners with their diving boats sail from its little river harbor to the sponge beds in the gulf; and a local colony of 2,000 Greeks are engaged almost wholly in the sponge business. They have imported their native methods unchanged, even employing the same picturesque boats with high-prows and brilliant colors that are used in the Mediterranean.

The Greeks have an absolute monopoly on the business of diving for sponges. They go down into one hundred feet of water in rubber suits and helmets, cut the sponges from the bottom with a knife, and bring them to the surface in nets. Now and again a man gets his rubber lines tangled, and his air supply is cut off, or he remains below too long and becomes paralyzed. Sometimes a big man-eating shark becomes unduly curious, and makes a menacing swoop at the diver. His usual defense in such a case is to open his sleeve and let out a rush of air bubbles, which almost invariably frightens the shark away.

At any rate, these under-sea adventures to not appeal to the Americans. They are willing to take a risk for sufficient cause; but not for a diver's wages, so the Greeks have no competition in that part of the business. Before they came to Florida, sponges were taken only by negroes who went out in rob boats and “hooked” sponges in comparatively shallow water with long poles. It was a primitive and ineffectual method, and all Florida did not produce a fraction of what is now exported annually from Tarpon Springs alone.

The Greeks saw their opportunity, and went first to another Florida town farther south, where they invest six thousand dollars in a schooner and began diving for sponges with great success. The local people held a mass meeting, decided they did not want any “furriners,” ran the Greeks out of town, and burned up their boat. The Greeks then went to Tarpon Springs, where they received a very different reception. The people realized that Greeks could develop the sponge industry to the greatest benefit of the town. So they purchased boats and equipment for these men from the Mediterranean, and set them to work. Both the Greek colony and the sponge business grew apace. The Greeks now own their boats, and about half of the local firms dealing in sponges are owned by Greeks. They also conduct all of the ice cream parlors, barber shops, and pool rooms in Tarpon Springs. They form nearly half of the population and have just about a fair share of the business.

Although the Greeks dwell in their own quarter of the town, and preserve their national customs they live in perfect amity with the Americans. There are very prosperous firms in the sponge business which are conducted by Greeks and Americans working in partnership.

The Greek likes American business methods, American money, American movies, and many other American things; but when it comes to cheese, wine and candy, he insists on having his own. Hence there are in Tarpon Springs many picturesque little shops dealing in these things, and in other strictly Greek dainties which are beyond the appreciation of an American palate. There are also Greek coffee houses, where you may see the divers in from the Gulf, sipping the drink from little cups and smoking water-pipes.

As sponges become scarcer, the fleets have to go farther and farther out into the Gulf to get a good harvest. They now usually remain for two or three months at a time, returning all together at certain times of the year, when the great sales are held. Early fall, Christmas and Easter are the times of the most important sales, and upon these occasions Tarpon Springs becomes one of the liveliest little towns upon the globe. The Greek diver is a daring, happy-go-lucky chap, who makes big wages and does not believe in saving them. When he hits town he usually collects several hundred dollars, and proceeds zealously to spend it all before going to sea again. He is a liberal and boisterous patron of wine-shops and coffee-houses and movies. He decks himself in the gaudiest and most expensive clothes that money will buy. He rather overruns the town, but seldom does any harm either to himself or anyone else.

Easter is the most important occasion of all, being a great Greek holiday. There is much feasting, and candle light processions through the streets at night. At the time of the Christmas sale, the Greek Cross day is celebrated. The whole colony gathers at the bayou behind the town. The young men, all expert swimmers, line up on the bank, clad only in trunks. The priest throws a wooden cross into the water, and there is a race for it, the boy who wins receiving a prize.

When the sponges are brought up by the divers, they bear no resemblance whatever to what you buy in a drug store; for the commercial sponge is merely the skeleton of an animal. In the natural state it is covered with a thick mucous. This is pounded and washed out, the roots are cut off with sheep shears, the sponges are sorted according to variety, and strung in bunches of ten to thirty teach. There are a number of varieties. The wool sponges are the most valuable, others being grass, yellow and wire sponges.

Sponges of all kinds are becoming scare and the prices they bring are surprising. Wool sponges bring from $2 to $4 a pound. A little ragged heap of sponges that you could cart away in a wheelbarrow often sells for several hundred dollars. The sponges grow in banks upon the bottom of the gulf, and the great object of the fisher is to discover a new bank, for a huge one is a veritable bonanza.

When a sale is held, the sponges are carried to the water front, where they form great heaps, divided according to kind and quality. The buyers are Americans, most of whom live in Tarpon Springs as representatives of various northern firms. The Greeks who own the sponges are on hand to exhibit them and extol their value, but there is no haggling. Sealed bids are made upon each lot and the highest offer gets the sponges.

Tarpon Springs is an absolutely complete and independent unit in the sponge business. There is a local supply house which deals in all the paraphernalia of the divers, and the brass helmets which they wear are made by a local machine shop. For the rest, the outfit consists in a rubber suit, iron shoes weighing twelve pounds, rubber hose to connect the diver with the pump on deck, and the rope by which he is lowered.

From Tarpon Springs the sponges go chiefly to New York, Chicago and Cincinnati, where they receive the final process of bleaching, and are then placed on the retail market. In addition to Tarpon Springs, the sponges are taken in commercial quantities at Key West, Miami, and in the Bahamas. In all of these places, however, the primitive method of the long pole and the hook still prevails, and the sponges can only be taken near shore, while the men of Tarpon Springs cruise from Rock Island to the Tortugas, and bring in more sponges than all of these other fisheries put together. Tarpon Springs has been rewarded for giving the Greek a fair deal.

Hurricane Sweeps South Florida (1921)

Considerable Damage to Property; Nobody Killed or Injured in Tarpon Springs.

Wire Connections With Neighboring Towns Cut off;
Rumored South End of County Suffered Severely, with Some Loss of Life.

The people of Tarpon Springs are congratulating themselves today on their good fortune in having come through a severe hurricane without the loss of a life or the physical injury to a single person, so far as can be learned. Quite a number of people suffered considerable damage to their property as a result of the heavy rain which was accompanied by winds that raged from 11:30 yesterday morning until nearly 3 o’clock in the afternoon, attaining an estimated velocity of between eighty and ninety miles an hour.

The principal damage in Tarpon Springs consisted in blowing off of roofs, the breaking of windows, and the destruction of many fine trees. Telephone and electric wires are down in many parts of the city, but a partial service is being maintained by the telephone office and it is expected that lights will be available in certain parts of the city by late this evening. The power plant was not damaged appreciably, and while the poles and wires are considerably mussed up, it is thought normal service can be restored within a few days.

It would be useless to attempt to enumerate the houses that were damaged to some extent by the storm, as there were many. Most of them, however, suffered only slight damage, such as the losing of window screens and small patches of roofing. The business section of the town suffered more from water than from wind. Rain began falling early Sunday morning and continued to fall almost constantly until late Tuesday evening. By Tuesday morning rain was falling in torrents, with increasing winds. The hurricane broke about 11:30 and continued to grow in severity until about 3 o’clock, when the wind began to subside. The hurricane came from an easterly direction, but a strong wind came up from the west shortly after 3 o’clock, bringing in an unusually high tide. The waves broke over the seawalls along the bayous and the water backed up through the storm sewers, filling some of the lower streets near the water front.

The Tarpon Inn and the Hotel Stratford both suffered considerable damage from water. The high school building was pretty badly damaged, though the class rooms are all in condition for use. The cupola and part of the roof were torn away and the ceiling in the auditorium was broken through.

The roof of the big Hawkins house on Spring bayou was damaged by the falling of the chimney tops. The Odd Fellows hall, at the corner of Ring avenue and Lemon street, was blown off its foundation and practically demolished. The boat houses of E. M. Smith and E. Z. Griggs were wrecked and the handsome pleasure yacht owned by Mr. Griggs was badly damaged and sunk. Most of the buildings in the business district leaked badly and mercantile stocks were more or less damaged by water.

Storm Damage Less Than First Estimate (1921)

Hurricane Covered Wide Territory, But Took Small Toll of Life;
Fruit Crop Suffers Great Damage.

The work of cleaning up after the hurricane that swept Tarpon Springs Tuesday in its course across the Florida peninsula is progressing rapidly and, aside from the leaves and branches that still litter some of the streets, little remains to indicate that the town has just undergone one of the severest storms in the history of the lower west coast. An unofficial summing up of the property damage here doesn’t show any great individual loss, though the total probably will run up to several thousand dollars. Everybody is working hard to repair what the storm has torn down, and the prevailing sentiment is gratitude that not a single resident of the town suffered any physical injury.

The heaviest losses were sustained by the Southern Utilities Company and the Peninsular Telephone company, both of which have been at large expense repairing wires and poles. The telephone service is still considerably impaired, but it is expected that full service will be restored within a few days. Manager G. A. Louden of the Southern Utilities company, Chief Electrician R. R. Daniel, and a large crew of men began work immediately after the storm subsided Tuesday afternoon, and at 4:15 Wednesday afternoon the current was turned on in the business section of the city and the greater part of the town had electric lights Tuesday evening. It has been necessary to shut the power off from time to time to make further repairs, but a fair service is being maintained and the company is receiving many words of commendation for the effort made.

Many residences and business houses were slightly damaged by wind and rain, but only a few suffered damage of a serious nature. The firms and individuals listed below sustained more or less serious loss:

Tarpon Springs Furniture company—Warehouse partially wrecked and large stock of furniture damaged by water.

Old Reliable drug store—Large front window smashed.

G. W. Fernald’s Son—Plate glass window broken.

Stratford Hotel—Part of roof torn away and interior damaged by water.

Tarpon Inn—Number of broken windows and some water damage.

[This section of the article is illegible.]

as packing house facilities are crippled and it will be impossible to pack and ship more than a small fraction of the fruit that fell. Elfers and New Port Richey, where citrus culture is among the principal industries, suffered heavily on account of the storm.

According to reports from people who have passed through Oldsmar since the storm, that little town suffered severely. Most of the damage there appears to have been done by high water. Parts of the town are said to have been under six feet of water and a number of houses are reported to be practically ruined. There was no loss of human life, but a number of cattle were drowned. The damage to crops has not been estimated, but is known to be heavy.

The roads between this city and Tampa are negotiated with extreme difficulty, several torturous detours being necessary. One enterprising citizen, living near one of these detours, is said to be doing a thriving business pulling automobiles out of the mud with his tractor.

D. K. Ballard, who has just returned from Fort Myers, reports that the storm was not severe there or at Punta Gorda, but that crops were practically ruined by high water. At Punta Gorda he saw a man drive a motor launch into the postoffice. Mr. Ballard reported that one fisherman was drowned at that place and that ten others were missing Tuesday night.

Tampa and St. Petersburg suffered heavy damage, with a loss of three lives at the former place and two at the latter. The early rumors of heavy loss of life at Pass-a-Grille proved wholly unfounded. The property damage on the island was heavy, but everybody was accounted for.

The following resume o storm damage throughout the state is taken from the Tampa Tribune of Thursday:

The tropical storm which blew in early Tuesday morning from down about the Yucatan channel blew out again early Wednesday morning, leaving a trail of destruction over a considerable portion of southwestern Florida. It was heading northeastward when it left this section and is believed to have spent much of its force before striking the Atlantic coast somewhere between Jacksonville and Charleston. The east coast of Florida was merely “sideswiped“ by gales which “fringed” the eastern edge of the disturbance.

From Punta Rassa on the lower southwest tip of the coast, where the hurricane first struck the state, on up along the Gulf coast of Tampa, and for perhaps fifty miles to the northward, the gale spent its greatest force, the winds at times reaching a velocity of seventy-five miles an hour at Tampa.

The property loss in Tampa is estimated at between one and half and two million dollars, with a total for the entire section of southwestern Florida of perhaps five million dollars.

Much of the loss will fall on the citrus fruit growers, estimates of fruit torn from the trees varying from 50 to 60 per cent in the coastal region of Pinellas county, with 30 to 50 per cent in Hillsborough, down to 5 to 10 per cent in Orange and Polk counties. In some sections of orange and Polk the loss will exceed 10 per cent, and in others fall below. As is the case with all storms, there were areas swept by winds of greater force than others.

Heavy rainfalls which swelled creeks and flooded low areas inland added to the losses. Along the coast the wind out of the southeast, blowing with gale force, at times reaching sixty to seventy-five miles an hour, backed up the waters in the bays and produced near-tidal waves on the gulf which swept inland and flooded vast low areas. At Tampa the Hillsborough river reached unprecedented heights. The greater amount of the actual damage at Tampa was caused by high water.

Loss of life has been small, only five actual deaths being traceable to the storm, three at Tampa and in the vicinity of this city, and two at St. Petersburg.

At St. Petersburg the property loss was greater than elsewhere except at Tampa. Damage to property there is estimated at between $500,000 and $1,000,000. Every pier along the water front there, including the magnificent city-owned recreation pier, was either wrecked or demolished and swept away. The bridge from St. Petersburg to Pass-a-Grille is practically destroyed. Part of the bridge from Clearwater to Clearwater island was swept away. A portion of the Indian Rocks bridge was destroyed.

The long wooden bridge across the head of Old Tampa bay near Safety Harbor was swept away during the gale. It swung along with the current and smashed up against the Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad bridge, carrying away a portion of that structure, and it will be ten days before trains can be run over the T. & G. to Clearwater and St. Petersburg. Oldsmar will be the last station for that length of time.

Little news trickled through from outlying points Wednesday, the first wire service secured being a single wire which the Western Union got about 8 o’clock Wednesday evening. For the greater part of the day there was a single W. U. wire out of Plant City, and messages from Tampa were taken there by automobile and relayed, and a few messages were received for Tampa the same way. It was the only touch this city had with the outside world, as all long distance telephone lines were down, and still are down.

Punta Rassa seems to have been virtually wiped off the map. The storm raged there from early Monday night until late Tuesday night. The gale at that point at times reached a force of 100 miles an hour, sweeping away houses and bringing a veritable tidal wave along with it.

Boca Grande suffered severely, but the extent of the damage is not known.

Fort Myers and the outlying islands were in the path of the storm. There was much damage there.

At Bradentown and vicinity the principal damage was to the citrus fruit crop, but there was some damage to buildings. Anna Maria key was swept by the storm and there was considerable damage to the buildings and to the dock there.

Pass-a-Grille caught much of the storm’s force. Rumors that lives were lost there proved untrue. The pass was cut off from the mainland when the bridge failed, but yesterday motorboats from St. Petersburg reached the island with provisions and clothing for such as were in need. There was much property damage there.

The Gulf and Southern steamship Truxillo is reported to have left New Orleans Saturday with passengers and freight for Tampa, and should have arrived here Monday or Tuesday. It has not yet been heard from. The Truxillo carries no wireless equipment.

The Mallory Line steamship Lake Fillmore was due to arrive here from New York with general cargo Tuesday, but has not yet appeared.

Key West was not struck by the storm, contrary to the wild rumors of great devastation there. The storm merely sideswiped the Island City. A wireless received at the St. Petersburg station from Key West Thursday stated that there was no storm damage there.

Center Hill, in Sumter county, in the middle of the state, reports about $200,000 damage, mostly to crops.

Daytona had a sixty-mile gale for a short time Tuesday morning, but comparatively little damage was done there. St. Augustine experienced high winds and some damage. There is a report that four fishermen in a boat were lost, but this has not been confirmed.

Bartow, Lakeland, Winter Haven, Arcadia and all other towns in the South Florida section suffered more or less, but the inland cities did not feel the force of the gale to the extent that the coastal towns did.

Jacksonville experienced a sixty-mile gale for a time Tuesday, and wires went down. Nearly five inches of rain fell there between 8 o’clock Tuesday morning and the same hour twenty-four hours later.

2 Smacks Are Lost; Probably 15 Dead (1921)

Three Greek Boats, with Twenty Men, Not Heard From;
Masts Found Beyond Lighthouse.

The crew of the Spanish smack Manuel, arriving in port last night, report that the two smacks, Severiter and Espania, were wrecked in the hurricane of last Tuesday, and the battered and deserted hulls of these vessels were found drifting with the tide at a point near the big buoy, five miles west of Anclote light, yesterday. The masts were gone and there was no sign of life on either vessel. While no bodies have been found, it is the opinion of the Manuel crew that the fifteen men who are known to have been on the wrecked vessels were swept away and lost. Only by a miracle could they have been saved. The Manuel lost her masts and was battered severely by the gale, but came through to safety without the loss of a single member of her crew of eight.

There is much uneasiness here regarding the fate of the Greek schooner Aegina and the diving boats Constantinople and Cornelia, which were at sea Tuesday and have not been heard from.

The schooner Aegina, in charge of Capt. Athanasias Stamatis and with a crew of four men, was known to be a few miles west of the lighthouse at the beginning of the storm. Floating masts, believed to be those of the Aegina, have been found in that vicinity and it is feared that the vessel and her crew are lost.

The Constantinople, in charge of Capt. James Melissas, and with a crew of seven men, left Tarpon Springs several days before the hurricane. There is hope that she may have made port somewhere up the coast, although, in that event, the crew should have been heard from before now.

The Cornelia, in charge of Capt. Lambris Skiriotis, and with a crew of four men, was last seen about five miles west of Anclote light and no trace of the vessel or the crew has been found since the storm.

Searching expeditions have gone out from here and are scouring the seas in this vicinity in the hope of finding the missing boats and rescuing the men, if still alive.

[A later newspaper article reported that the schooner Aegina and the diving boats Constantinople and Cornelia were accounted for and no Greek lives were lost.]

How Leader Was Issued Wednesday (1921)

With the Southern Utilities Company electric power shut off until evening on Wednesday last, owing to the demoralized condition of wires throughout the city, those responsible for the issuance of The Tarpon Springs Leader were up against a problem. The office being up-to-date depends upon the electric current not only as power to run its presses and folding machine and linotype, but the linotype itself is equipped with an electric pot. Also, by reason of using a linotype to set up all the ordinary reading matter in the paper, the office is not equipped with type of suitable size nor of sufficient quantity to hand set enough matter for a newspaper.

Such was the condition which confronted The Leader staff on Wednesday morning. Inquiries were made of the Southern Utilities Company and it was found that it would be impossible to secure power from them until late in the afternoon. But Wednesday was publication day and The Leader had a service to render to its readers. It could not wait.

Therefore, all hands got busy. For a time it looked very much like the old days when every news office set its type by hand. Job type was used, and when one size ran out, another was used. The staff was determined to give its readers the news, even if in very brief form.

When the miniature paper had been set up and the forms all made up, the staff was confronted with the problem of running the big cylinder press. This problem was solved by taking the belt off the motor, and then by one taking hold of the belt and pulling on t with all his weight, while another pulled on the fly wheel with his hands, the big press was put into motion—slow, to be sure—but motion just the same. And so, in this manner the paper was printed. The folding machine being out of question, the paper was cut and folded by hand, and the papers finally placed in the mail.

That this was strenuous work, anyone who ever has tried turning one of the big cylinder presses by hand can vouch. Even the Leader staff finally played out, and the services of two colored men was secured to help out. But The Leader did not miss publication, and it was turned out in its entirety in The Leader office.

Because many persons have asked how the paper was issued when the electric power was off, this explanation is given.

Early Days in Tarpon Springs (1928)

Mr. A. W. Ormond and his daughter, Mary, were the first settlers in what was later to be known as Tarpon Springs. They located there in 1876. The next year, 1877, I came up the Anclote River on a fishing trip and by chance stopped off at Mr. Ormond's residence. I built a residence there, establishing my permanent home, and the same year Miss Mary Ormond and I were married. Everything there was ours. The land and the game and fish were as free as air. In the words of another, “we were monarchs of all we surveyed.” Our nearest neighbor was Mr. Asa Clark who lived on the Whitcomb place, a mile away. Our next nearest neighbor was W. B. Thompson, in the Curlieu settlement, four miles distant. There was also the Myers family, three miles down the Anclote River.

The firm of Mayo & Wall did a sawmill and mercantile business at Seaside, about four miles west on the Gulf coast, where we did our trading.

Our nearest postoffice was at Clearwater, 16 miles, which was a tremendous distance in those days over the trails which comprised the only roads of that section. Each and every neighbor, getting his mail at this office, would bring the mail for all of his neighbors.

In 1880 my wife gave the name, Tarpon Springs, to the town. This name was selected because of the great number of tarpon fish that frequented the springs.

In those days I have often killed deer and wild turkeys and squirrels in my yard.

We enjoyed these exclusive privileges until 1880, when Governor W. D. Bloxam sold four million acres of swamp and overflowed land to Hamilton Disston Company of Philadelphia, for twenty-five cents per acre. This purchase money was used in paying off the bonded indebtedness of the state. This swamp and overflowed land was ceded to the state by the federal government. The more valuable high land was retained by the federal government for settlement by homesteaders, except section sixteen of each township which was given to the state for school purposes. As a matter of fact, in surveying this swamp and overflowed land considerable of the high land was included in the survey, to the advantage of the state.

When Mr. Disston had selected his four million acres he formed the Lake Butler Villa Company and his agent, Major M. R. Marks, in 1882, selected Tarpon Springs as the site of the city that should eventually become the metropolis of that section.

The coming of Major Marks and family was quite a surprise for me. He also brought with him his surveyor, Captain John B. Walton and wife. Also his book-keeper, W. N. Conley, and his attorney, John C. Jones, now of Orlando.

Then in 1883, came Governor Safford and family, together with his sister, Dr. Safford, a practicing physician. Governor Safford had been governor of the Territory of Arizona before coming to Florida.

I had to take care of all of these new-comers in my residence until later in the year when two hotels were built, named the Tropical and the Tarpon Springs. These hotels were of sufficient capacity to accommodate all comers.

The first store-keeper was A. Blum and soon after him came J. M. Vinson.

Tarpon Springs post office was established about 1884, and soon after that the town was incorporated, and the rest is familiar history.

At Tarpon Springs (1929)

Sharp official eyes search the gay streets of the Greek quarter of Tarpon Springs, Fla. Alien sponge divers (TIME, Jan. 21) move aside, shift their glance away. Along the waterfront, among the gaudy antique boats, has gone the whispered warning: U. S. Immigration inspectors are about the town to check smuggling of aliens. Every stranger is a suspect.

For 25 years the Greek colony of Tarpon Springs has had the local deep sea sponge diving industry to itself. Americans were not interested. Then came the immigration quota law. New recruits from Greece fell off. The new generation of native-born Greeks would not fill up the ranks. By dint of much bickering with government officials an occasional batch of 50 Greek divers would be admitted temporarily, for six months.

The sponge boats would go out for a month or two and come back with their fluffy treasures of the deep and, some said, with additional crew members. New faces moved against the bright background, new voiced joined in the native songs.

Were these Greeks smuggled in to dive for the sponge industry? Alert U. S. agents are waiting, watching.

A Short History of Tarpon Hi Football (1929)

Ever since that autumn day in 1925 when the first call for football candidates sounded in Tarpon Springs, the followers and supporters of T. H. S. football have witnessed many glorious victories as well as heartbreaking defeats.

Only one of the candidates for that first team had ever seen a football game, the other ten played in the first game they witnessed. Six games were played the first year, the Spongers winning one and losing five. Three of these losses, however, were by the slender margin of one touchdown.

The next season was a more successful one, the home team winning four games, and losing four. One of these, however, was to the strong Green Devils of St. Pete.

The year of '27 saw a decided change in Tarpon Hi football. The Spongers won six, lost two, and tied two. This year will long be remembered as the first year a Tarpon Hi football team defeated their dreaded rivals, the Clearwater eleven.

In 1928 things still improved on the gridiron. The local eleven won eight games, and lost two. The two defeats were at the hands of Plant Hi and Hillsborough I, of Tampa, who possess two of the strongest teams in the state.

In the present year the Spongers have witnessed their worst season since their first, winning only two games, tying one and losing six. The team as a whole, however, was inexperienced and also played only “A” class teams.

Summing up the football games played by Tarpon Hi, it is seen that the Spongers have won twenty-one, lost nineteen, and tied three.

Tarpon Springs (1949)

TARPON SPRINGS - Unless congress hikes the duty on imported sponges and something is done to increase the demand for domestic sponges in the American market, this upper Pinellas municipality will wither and die on the economic vine.

Out of the 85 boats in the Tarpon Springs sponge fleet, only 20 are in service and an average of only 10 are making trips to the Gulf of Mexico sponge beds.

Tarpon Springs has fallen into such a quagmire of utter despair that you hear it everywhere you go and some of the stories would turn hearts of stone.

This writer Howard W. Hartley remembers the Tarpon Springs of the days of World War II when sponges brought fabulous prices and the men of the sponge fleet were literally rolling in “folding money.”

Last night, a shocking picture in reverse unfolded in talks with the few fishermen along the quays and a half-dozen dispirited coffee shop proprietors.

“Look around town,” said a cafe operator. “You will discover the young men are gone. You want to know where? They are up north trying to find work in the steel mills at Gary or the automobile factories of Detroit. They have left Tarpon Springs to the old people, the women and children.”

A sponge boat owner, holding a majority share in two schooners, took this writer to the quay where his craft was moored.

“I am ashamed to show you my boats,” he said. “Look at them. They are dirty and not well kept. We have not been out now in nearly three weeks,” he said.

“There is no use to go out. If we bring back the sponges, we cannot get enough for them to pay the expenses of the voyage. But I am an old man, as far as the age to work in the steel mills is concerned. I am 58. If I go north, the boss will tell me 'Sorry, you are too old to stand the work,” he said.

A coffee shop proprietor nearly wept as he described his personal problem in a community wherein the spark of hope seems all but extinguished.

“It cost me $6 to open my place this morning and operate it today,” he said. “Counting the 10 cents you have just spent for a cup of Turkish coffee, I have taken in a little over $3. The people cannot patronize my place. They have no money. You may not believe this, my friend, but there are women and children who will go to bed hungry in Tarpon Springs tonight.”

When asked how congressional approval of a higher duty on imported sponges might affect the local economy, the merchant said it might help a little, but the real problem is not foreign competition.

“There are too many synthetic sponges on the market,” he said. "The Du Ponts and the big rubber companies have put us out of business with a cheaper sponge that the people seem to prefer to the real article.”

Local Historian Claims Blacks Were First Spongers (1990)

By NICHOLAS W. PILUGIN

TARPON SPRINGS—While official histories date the start of sponging in Tarpon Springs to just after the turn of the century, Ed Dorsett knows better.

“For the (city) centennial, they wanted to know about the old spongers,” said Dorsett, 77. “The old spongers were really the black spongers. We've been here long before they (the Greeks) got here. My grandfather was a sponger.”

Just in case anyone doubts his word, Dorsett keeps the yellowed, crumbling ledger of the all-black Odd Fellows Lodge No. 3116 in his barbershop to back him up.

The battered book's first entry dates formation of the lodge to 1889. Among the many members registered is Robert Russell, initiated into the lodge in 1895. On the line labeled “occupation,” Russell is listed as a sponger.

A look through the book reveals the two most common occupations for blacks at the time were as laborers and spongers.

“That gives you an idea there was some kind of organized community,” said Dorsett, whose parents moved to Tarpon Springs shortly after he was born. “It wasn't haphazard, but organized -- as organized as they'd let you get at that time. It shows there were intelligent people.”

Aside from sponging and having their own lodge, blacks in Tarpon Springs played a role in building the community.

For example, a portion of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral was paid for by black spongers. When the Greek sponge fishermen donated the first four or five sponges from their catch to pay for the cathedral, black spongers pitched in too.

They also donated their labor, alongside the Greeks.

“I mixed the mortar,” recalled longtime resident Samuel Archie. “And that dome on top -- two of us went up and built the scaffold.”

But the blacks also built their own community, which at one time included a black business district on Safford Avenue, between Lemon and Lake streets.

“It started to disappear in the late '30s and early '40s,” Dorsett said. “They had those businesses there before I could remember.”

Among the black owned and operated shops were a cleaner, several restaurants, a pool hall, a barber shop and a jewelry store.

“It was real unusual to have a black jewelry store at that time,” Dorsett said.

And while blacks have long lived in the area east of Safford Avenue and south of Lemon Street, they also once lived near what now is the sponge docks, along Park and Athens streets.

“A lot of that was owned by blacks,” Archie said. “It was two blocks long, from Athens Street to Park Street. During the depression, a lot of people lost (their property) because they couldn't pay the taxes.”

Archie, now 76, came to Tarpon Springs when he was 4. He said many of the black property owners lost their land because of the Murphy Act, which allowed someone to take over a property by paying the back taxes due.

Like other Southern cities, Tarpon Springs had segregated facilities, including a separate waiting room at the old railroad depot.

Segregation led the black community to form its own institutions -- such as the all-black Odd Fellows Lodge and more recently, the Better Boys Club in 1962.

“We applied for membership in the Boys Clubs of America,” Archie said. “They sent us a nice letter saying we couldn't be a part of it because of segregation. So we named it the Better Boys Club.”

The club still exists today, Archie said, teaching young blacks about good citizenship.

Yet despite the South's racial segregation and the presence of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, everyone in Tarpon Springs seemed to get along.

“We had one or two lynchings, but we never had any Klans doing things 'round here,” Archie said. “In Tarpon Springs, we always got along pretty well.”