DISTON, DISSTON, DREXEL of PASCO County, FL Part 3

Headland, Alabama is north of Dothan and home to nearly 5,000 residents. The town was founded in 1871 by James J. Head. The founder however relocated in 1883, settling north of Tampa in Florida’s Hillsborough County. On May 28, 1883, James J. Head was appointed Postmaster of a newly established DISTON Post Office, located on land owned at the time by a Philadelphian Capitalist and saw blade manufacturer, Hamilton DISSTON. Head is said to have named the county’s Lake Magdalene.

(Note the Pasco County map of 1888 above. DISTON, circled in orange, is shown in Hillsborough County, while circled in blue is a town called 'Seminole', which then became DISTON of Pasco County.) 

As mentioned in Part two of this series, Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad was hoping to extend rail service from Ocala south to Tampa Bay. The railroad, among others making plans for service on the Gulf Coast, would improve travel for those desiring to buy Disston properties in west central Florida, including his coastal town of Tarpon Springs.

What all DISSTON planned for Hillsborough County is unclear, but whatever his plan for the lakeside town of DISTON quickly vanished! James J. Head relocated again, and on January 20, 1888, he was again appointed a postmaster, this time for a Pasco County Post Office – a post office also named DISTON.

A likely explanation would be a shift of county lines, but that was not so in the case of Pasco County’s DISTON. Still misspelled, this new post office had definitely moved, a distance of nearly 10 miles. DISTON of 1888 Pasco County was also located on a lake, the north side of Thomas Lake – as opposed to the 1883 location at Lake Magdalene.

Why the move? The intended line of Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad, that proposed train to connect with Tampa, never happened! A train from Ocala eventually arrived at Tampa, but its alignment bypassed DISTON to the east.

Moving DISTON to Pasco County made perfect sense – as this stop would be on the new Orange Belt Railway line, a train providing connecting service from Sanford on Lake 

Monroe to DISSTON’S Gulf Coast development at Tarpon Springs.

The Mary Disston steamboat docked at Tarpon Springs, Florida

Wednesday, June 21, 2017, Part Four of DISTON, DISSTON, DREXEL, Our search for a PASCO County Ghost Town, will pick up right here, at Doctor James J. Head’s new residence and Post office, not in Hillsborough County, but rather Pasco County, Florida.