HISTORY OF PASCO COUNTY

Wesley Chapel

The historic marker at Wesley Chapel reads as follows:

Wesley Chapel is named for John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. According to one account, Methodists began meeting across the road from the Double Branch Baptist Church about 1892 and the name of the chapel was adopted by the community. However, the name Wesley Chapel as a name for the community dates back to at least 1877, as shown below.

A list of Hernando County schools in 1877-78 shows school No. 10 at Wesley Chapel with G. Godwin the teacher. However, opening and closing dates are left blank, perhaps indicating that no session was held that year. Another list shows D. Godwin as the trustee. The school may be older; school board records before that time were lost in a fire.

On June 2, 1878, the Double Branch Baptist Church was constituted, with 24 adult female and 10 adult male charter members. The church is said to have been named by founder Thomas Ashley Boyette for two landmark branches of water converging on the property line along nearby Boyette Road. The branches are now said to be channeled into culverts that run under Boyette Road. Ordained ministers T. H. Jaudon and R. T. Caddin were at the founding of the church to witness the Constitution. The church met at Matchett (Magic) Lake, off Elam Road near Holton Cemetery.

The first pastor of Double Branch Baptist Church was Benjamin L. Ray 1878-1879. Henry D. Ryals was pastor in 1880, 1888-89, 1898-99, 1905-07, 1914-16, and in 1920. J. Irvin Spivey was pastor in 1882, 1891-94, and 1900-01. J. T. Pittman was pastor in 1884. J. W. Giddeons was pastor in 1902-1904.

Minutes from 1883 indicate that Thomas Boyette was appointed Superintendent of the Sunday School at the church.

An 1883-84 list of Hernando County schools shows teacher B. L. Blackburn and trustees J. A. Boyett, W. R. Smith, and J. J. Gillett. Information on the Wesley Chapel school is here.

In 1885 Double Branch Baptist Church became a member of the Hernando Baptist Association and the Florida Baptist Convention. R. T. Caddin was the pastor at that time.

In September 1887, voting precincts were established for the newly-formed Pasco County. Wesley Chapel was designated Precinct 4.

On Mar. 15, 1888, a post office named Godwin was established, with Jacob Godwin the first postmaster.

On Jan. 27, 1890, Jane Godwin deeded two acres on State Road 54 to the church and according to the historic marker at Double Branch Baptist Church and Cemetery.

Church minutes have: “April 1, 1893, Double Branch Baptist Church met at the church on Saturday. Preaching by Brother Jerry Hayman and preached the dedication sermon dedicating the house to the service of God. Motion to adjourn was in good order by Brother J. W. Tucker. Jacob Godwin, Church Clerk.” Information about Jeremiah Madison Hayman is here.

G. A. Bryant was pastor in 1895.

A post office named Wesley was established on Sept. 15, 1897, with Elisabeth F. Smith the first postmaster. Perhaps the U. S. Post Office Department rejected the name “Wesley Chapel,” but accepted “Wesley.” During the period that the post office was in operation, maps show the shortened name “Wesley,” as do some school board minutes.

On Jan. 13, 1898, Matilda M. Godwin became postmaster of the Godwin post office.

In May 1898, the Precinct 4 inspectors for the upcoming election were D. H. Smith, L. M. Strickland, and J. J. Gillet.

On May 12, 1899, Jacob Godwin became postmaster of the Godwin post office.

On Oct. 17, 1900, Abraham L. Godwin became the postmaster of the Wesley post office.

On March 25, 1902, Ephraim B. Cooper became the postmaster of the Wesley post office.

The Wesley post office was discontinued on Sept. 30, 1902.

On July 31, 1906, Abraham L. Godwin became postmaster of the Godwin post office.

On Jan. 30, 1908, James Strickland died. His is the oldest marked grave at Double Branch Cemetery.

On Oct. 24, 1913, William P. Smith became postmaster of the Godwin post office.

The Godwin post office was discontinued on May 31, 1915.

On Sept. 9, 1921,. the Zephyrhills Colonist reported that Fritz Boyett of the Wesley Chapel neighborhood was appointed to the county commission by the Governor, replacing W. H. Mayo, who resigned to move to Tampa.

On Sept. 5, 1935, a replacement frame building for Double Branch Baptist Church was dedicated.

In 1971 a new sanctuary for Double Branch Baptist Church was built and the old worship building was removed.

In recent years Wesley Chapel has experienced phenomenal growth.

The Saddlebrook golf course, part of a golf and tennis resort, opened in 1982.

In 1998 Sand Pine Elementary School opened in the Meadow Pointe subdivision. Other elementary schools followed, including Seven Oaks, Double Branch, Quail Hollow, Wesley Chapel, New River, Veterans, and Watergrass. John Long Middle School was also built.

In 1999 Double Branch Baptist Church was renamed First Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel.

In 1999 Wesley Chapel High School opened. To relieve overcrowding, in 2006 Wiregrass Ranch High School opened.

In 2003 a Committee to Study the Incorporation of Wesley Chapel was chaired by Russ Miller.

The Shops at Wiregrass, an open-air retail and entertainment destination located on the corner of State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, opened in 2008.

The Rich Trucking Land of Wesley Chapel (1922)

This is part of an article which appeared in the Dade City Banner on June 30, 1922.

By C. B. TAYLOR

About eight miles west of Zephyrhills and the same distance south of San Antonio is the somewhat scattered but thriving community known by the various names of Double Branch, Gatorville, Godwin, and Wesley Chapel. The last is the official name. The settlement is located on some of the finest farming land in the county, most of it being low and flat, holding moisture well and adapted to almost any kind of general farm crop as well as truck growing. On account of the remoteness of the place and the bum roads over which it is now necessary to transport crops to market, very little trucking has been done but those who have ventured to overcome these handicaps have not only been well repaid for their efforts but have demonstrated that this region is as well adapted to trucking as any other in South Florida and it only needs the building of one or two decent roads so that crops can be carried to market or to a shipping station for Wesley Chapel to come to the front.

While farming is the principal industry, two saw mills are busy cutting up the timber blown down by the storm as well as some of that which is still standing. A general store attends to the physical needs of the community and communication with the outside world is maintained by means of a daily R. F.D. service from Zephyrhills.

Pioneer Church Gave Area Its Name (2003)

The following article appeared in the Tampa Tribune on Sept. 19, 2003.

By CAROL JEFFARES HEDMAN

WESLEY CHAPEL — It was nicknamed “Gatorville,” and it wasn’t because residents were University of Florida fans.

Gatorville was one of several early names of the area that today is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state.

Some historians believe the area was called Godwin, then Gatorville, Double Branch and Westley before being named Wesley for the founder of Methodism, John Wesley.

In the 1840s, pioneer families including the Boyettes (or Boyetts), Gilletts (or Gillettes), the Godwins and Kerseys received land grants. More settlers followed about the time of the Civil War when the Stanleys and Coopers arrived.

Edward Boyette Sr. and his four sons settled on land granted to them in the Armed Occupation Act in the mid-1800s. In the years that followed, Thomas Boyette, Edward’s grandson, named the area Double Branch after the twin creeks that flowed across their land.

As more pioneers came to settle in Double Branch, a Methodist chapel was built on the northwest corner of what is today’s State Road 54 and Boyette Road. And the area came to be called Wesley and then Wesley Chapel.

According to records gathered by Margie Partain, a member of the Pasco County Historical Preservation Committee, the name already was Wesley Chapel in 1888. It was listed as such in county commission records when mapping out election districts the year after the county was formed in 1887.

No To Prohibition, Post Office

Noteworthy was a poll in October 1888 to decide whether liquor could be sold in the county. The majority was against it, but voters in Wesley Chapel and St. Thomas favored sales. Despite public opinion, the county wasn’t dry until Prohibition in the 1920s.

The area also applied for a post office, originally under the name “Lemon.” That was denied, but a post office was established at Wesley Chapel on Sept. 15, 1897. It closed Sept. 30, 1902, with service continued from Abbott, which became Zephyrhills in 1910. A post office was again opened in Wesley Chapel in recent years.

Across the road from the first Methodist chapel, a Baptist congregation constructed Double Branch church.

It was built on property settled by Mary Jane Godwin, who had applied for homestead by 1884 on 160 acres along S.R. 54. She didn’t receive the certificate until Aug. 26, 1891, but a year earlier she donated an acre for Double Branch Missionary Baptist Church and another acre for a cemetery.

Now called First Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel, the congregation - led by the Rev. Frank Scott - will observe its 125th anniversary at 11 a.m. Sept. 28. The celebration correlates to the dedication by the county commission and Pasco County Historical Preservation Committee of a historical marker at the site of Double Branch Baptist Church and Cemetery at 11 a.m. Sept. 27.

A Tale Of 3 Buildings

The congregation of Double Branch Baptist organized in 1878 and the church has had three buildings since then.

The first church was built in 1880, with Henry Ryals as pastor. Deacons were Robert Cason and Daniel Smith. Other early pastors included John Spivey in 1890.

As the membership dwindled, the church fell into disuse, and the building deteriorated until 1914, when the congregation regrouped under pastor O.N. Williams. In 1919, he built Williams Department Store in Dade City. His grandson, Phil Williams, still owns the business, which he transformed into an upscale clothing store and French-style cafe called Lunch on Limoges.

After dwindling again, the congregation of Double Branch Baptist was revived in the early 1930s by Willie Neil McCloskey. He began holding Sunday school at his house because the church building was in disrepair. He recruited others to help build benches for Sunday school beneath the trees on the Double Branch grounds. During bad weather, McCloskey moved the classes into the nearby one-room schoolhouse.

McCloskey’s Sunday school evolved into services every other Sunday. As attendance increased, a new frame church was built and dedicated Sept. 5, 1935, with Ed Bryant as pastor. Deacons were McCloskey, James Hill, Luther Smith and Albert Godwin. Dick and King lakes were used for baptisms.

The third Double Branch Baptist church, which stands today as First Baptist of Wesley Chapel, was constructed between 1970 and 1972 during the pastorate of Lynn Foster.

Offshoots from the historic Double Branch Baptist Church are Westside, Calvary and Charity Baptist churches in Zephyrhills.

Pioneers’ Resting Place

The Double Branch Cemetery is used by church members and immediate family. The oldest marked grave is that of James Strickland, who died Jan. 30, 1903. The cemetery also is the final resting place of Abe Godwin, son of the woman who donated the land for the cemetery, as well as other pioneer families.

By the late 1800s, the practice of burying family members on their homestead gave way to cemeteries, many established in the church yards of pioneer houses of worship.

Holton Cemetery, four miles north of S.R. 54 on McKendree Road, is also the burial grounds for many of the pioneers of Wesley Chapel. Julia Elizabeth Holton donated about 2 acres for the cemetery in the 1880s.

The Wesley Chapel public school stood east of the Double Branch church. The one- room, two-teacher school was on 3 donated acres and was first mentioned in the 1888 minutes of the Pasco County Commission, according to Partain’s information. Enrollment was 32, with average attendance of 25.

Minutes from the Pasco Board of Public Instruction on July 6, 1948, referred to the Wesley Chapel school when Isabel S. Barnes was appointed a teacher there. But by the April 4, 1949, minutes, when principals of public schools were appointed, the school no longer existed.

In the 1951 minutes, B.V. Lyons, a San Antonio real estate broker, offered $450 for the schoolhouse and 1 acre of land. But the bid was rejected in favor of one by Ed Madill of Dade City, who bid $805 for the building and $200 for the land.

Industries in the early days of Wesley Chapel included turpentine stills, with numerous trails running between stills at the communities of Ehren, Nowatney and Stemper. The carts hauling resin to the stills wore paths and wagons often followed those routes, carrying lumber and turpentine products from the sawmills and stills to the railroad line.

And thus the first roads were created. Denham-Dade City Road, now S.R. 54, remained dirt until gravel was put down in the 1920s. When it was paved, old-timers called it a “2-2-20” road, meaning it took two years to build, two years to wear out and 20 years to pay for it, Partain’s information stated.

A 1935 map shows the road as County Road 209. It then became County Road 9 until it was renamed S.R. 54.

Other early industries included cattle ranching, hog farming and growing citrus and other crops. When times were hard, people made charcoal and moonshine.

The area also was known for a 10- to 15-acre cactus field planted by Anthony Tuzzolino of Ybor City in 1940 and 1941 between state roads 54 and 52. The field became a garden of bright yellow flowers when the cacti bloomed. The 1962 freeze killed the cactus field.

Although the cacti stopped growing, the Wesley Chapel area was ready to blossom into the thriving community it is today with the construction of the Interstate 75 system in the late 1960s. The opening of Saddlebrook Resort in 1979 greatly attributed to the growth that hasn’t stopped since.

Wesley Chapel Becoming Pasco’s Hub (2011)

This article appeared in the Tampa Tribune on March 17, 2011.

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

WESLEY CHAPEL - Over the next few weeks, road crews will put the finishing touches on the intersection of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and State Road 56 in southeastern Pasco County.

Ten lanes on a side, the intersection is the widest in the Tampa Bay region – and a testament to how the last decade has changed the area. In 2000, neither the intersection nor most of the development around it even existed.

The opening of State Road 56 in 2003, with its link to Interstate 75, set in motion a wave of development that continues to transform Wesley Chapel. Since 2000, the population center for Wesley Chapel has shifted south from its historic center three miles north at I-75 and State Road 54.

S.R. 56's quick interstate access lured thousands of commuters to Seven Oaks, Meadow Pointe and other subdivisions. Between 2000 and 2010, more than 32,000 people moved to Wesley Chapel – a 267 percent increase.

The road also opened the way for major retail projects, including the Shops at Wiregrass mall.

The mall, which opened in 2009, sponsors a monthly farmers' market, a Christmas tree lighting and other community events throughout the year. It has given an identity to a community that lacked one, said Meadow Pointe resident Tim Koralewski.

On the horizon for Wesley Chapel are a hospital and a branch of Pasco-Hernando Community College. Both promise to expand the realm of local employment, giving some commuters a reason to stay closer to home.

Long-term, Pasco County leaders envision a transit link tying Wesley Chapel with Tampa and Hillsborough County to the south.

The Porter family, Wesley Chapel's largest landowner, has plans for a large athletic complex that could attract hockey, softball and other tournaments.

"I think it's coming together," Koralewski said.