DISTON, DISSTON, DREXEL of PASCO County, THE CONCLUSION

PART FOUR: Our search for a Pasco County Ghost Town

Tracing movements of James J. HEAD has been key in our search for the long lost PASCO County Ghost Town named DREXEL. Beginning at HEADLAND, Alabama, founded by James in 1871, to the remote Gulf Coast resort at TARPON SPRINGS, founded by Hamilton DISSTON, previous installments of this series has led us to the 1883 DISTON Post Office in Hillsborough County. Established on lands owned by Hamilton DISSTON, one can only speculate that one ‘S’ was accidental. James Head then moved, establishing an 1888 DISTON Post Office in Pasco County.

THE TARPON SPRINGS HOTEL, Library of Congress

Philadelphia Capitalist Hamilton Disston acquired four million Florida wilderness acres in 1881, remote lands desperately in need of reliable transportation. By 1883 though, his Gulf Coast properties, including a resort at Tarpon Springs, was still only accessible via steamboat. The planned railroad to Tampa Bay from Savannah, GA, intending to travel alongside Lake Magdalene in northern Hillsborough County, fizzled out, leaving Head’s short lived DISTON Post Office in that County isolated.

But then a different railroad builder started in the direction of the Gulf Coast in 1886. On January 12, 1888, the Orange Belt Railway first arrived at Tarpon Springs, a big day for Florida’s Gulf Coast. Long awaited rail service finally started servicing this remote coastal region, providing access to the growing tourist industry up north. Eight days after that first train arrived at Tarpon Springs, DISTON Post Office, on January 20, 1888, relocated into Pasco County. DISTON became a stop on the Tarpon Route, the moniker assigned to the Lake Monroe to St. Petersburg line of the Orange Belt Railway.

Postal records though show DISTON became DREXEL nine months later, on September 15, 1888, and that James J. HEAD remained on as the Postmaster.

Russian immigrant Peter A. Demens founded Orange Belt Railway in 1886 with $25,000 of his own money, but needed additional financing to complete the line to the Gulf of Mexico. The additional funds were arranged by a Philadelphia banker, a Senior Partner in DREXEL Bank, Edward T. Stotesbury (At that time Drexel Bank was a subsidiary of J. P. Morgan of New York).

Edward T. Stotesbury

Drexel encouraged Herman O. Armour, of the meat packing Armour & Co. fame, to provide funding for the railroad extension. Edward T. Stotesbury served on the board of railway, and twice served as President. As Orange Belt Railway progressed in the direction St. Petersburg, Armour appeared only briefly as a railway stop, located south of Clearwater and north of Largo in then Hillsborough County (now Pinellas).

Like that of the Armour depot, the community of Drexel eventually fizzled out too. Today, long after trains stopped running that once served this region, present day Land O’ Lakes Boulevard, a/k/a US Highway 41, crosses an abandoned railroad right-of-way east of Lake Thomas. In fact, if it were not for Pasco County’s Tax Appraiser, and reference to a once-upon-a-time place called Drexel (Plat Book 3, Page 157), one might never realize the Orange Belt Railway crossed here, carrying 19^th century tourists to and fro the popular tourist destinations of Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg.

Drexel reference (upper left) at Railroad Right of Way (double red line)

Land O' Lakes Boulevard - US Highway 41, Pasco County

DISTON of Hillsborough and Pasco Counties were meant to honor the man who had bailed Florida out of debt in 1881, the man who then paved the way for the building of badly needed railroads. DREXEL of Pasco County honored the bank that provided the additional funding required in 1888 to extend rail service to the Gulf Coast.

Hamilton Disston, Edward T. Stotesbury and Drexel Bank were merely a few of many who altered Florida’s Gulf Coast history, yet memorials meant to remember each have long since vanished. A Drexel Road wanders around the west side of Lake Thomas today, while on the east side, south of the old abandoned railroad crossing, Land O’ Lakes Boulevard intersects with northeast bound Ehren Cutoff Road.

I mention this crossroad because it seems appropriate to end my series with the very individual we’ve tracked from 1871 Headland, Alabama. North a few miles on Ehren Cutoff takes you to the one-time location of Ehren Post Office, of Pasco County, a postal center was established January 17, 1890. The first postmaster at Ehren is also a familiar character in this series, the one and only, James J. Head.

My blog will return in mid-July with the history, mystery and intrigue of yet another fascinating Florida Ghost Town.

For more on the Orange Belt Railway visit my website:

http://www.CroninBooks.com/OBRR.html

References available upon request to Rick@CroninBooks.com