863-04 Land Use Amendment for Jeter Property

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r OR BK 5910 PG 1458 11 of 25 The early 1880s provided Florida a population growth of 25%between the years of 1880 and 1885. Responding to significant growth in Hernando County, in 1887, the Florida Legislature carved up the county into Citrus County in the north and Pasco County in the south. Most of the area within Zephyrhills was purchased by Simon J. Temple who registered the plat for the Town of Abbot in 1888. Temple had served the Confederacy as recruitment and conscription officer and was associated with the Florida Railroad and Navigation Company(FR&N). Station and section houses for the railroad were built and a post office opened. Temple initially sold 23 lots then sold the remaining area to Lydia Marvin of New York. Abbott Station store was sold to William Mote and the Abbott home bought by Dayton family. The Tampa Bay area was further opened up when the Orange Belt Railroad from Sanford to St. Petersburg was built. The completion of the Florida Railway and Navigation Company(FR&N) also provided the necessary means for a boom to occur. Sawmills and turpentine stills came into the general vicinity prompting the opening of flagstops along the railroad. A sawmill was located at the juncture of Highway 301 and Geiger Road and sawmills and stills operated by Mr. Phelps were opened. Agriculture during this time consisted mainly of citrus and watermelons. The freeze of 1895 and another in 1899 ruined much of the citrus crops. This was devastating for many new settlers who had put much of their resources into the cash crop. New industry continued to come to the area, which in turn prompted settlement and opened up a market for the agricultural crops. By the 1890s the Consolidated Naval Stores Company of Jacksonville came into town providing another boost for employment. Consolidated Naval Stores began buying and leasing land around Abbott Station and the mill was built at present-day 7th Avenue and Gall Boulevard. The head of the company was C.W. Downing and B.W. Blount who continued to buy and lease land for gathering pine resin until 1904. Turn-of-the-Century, 1898-1916 In 1900 the Greer Brothers from Georgia began buying land in Pasco County to expand their timber business. The Greers worked out an agreement with the Consolidated Naval Stores whereby the brothers would receive the lands once the resin was harvested. The Greers moved near Abbott and built a town and railroad line which crossed the FR&N on the Fort King Road. The flagstop became known as Greer Crossing. Greer's Road would later be the route followed by Highway 301 from Dade City south to the beginning of Wire Road. In 1905, the Greers sold thousands of"cut-over"timber lands for grove and home sites. The exhausted timber lands forced Consolidated Naval Stores Company to move to San Antonio. The Greers advertised their lands in the National Tribunes a Washington,D.C. newspaper devoted to the interests of the approximately 25,000 remaining Union veterans. Captain H.B. Jeffries, a journalist for the paper,had promoted the idea of a town in Florida where veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic(GAR)might live on their small pensions and enjoy Florida's warm winter. The newspaper printed articles about the idea and donations of$200,000 were received from Union veterans who supported the project. Jeffries and Raymond Moore, a New York investor and Jeffries' son-in-law,visited several sites in Florida including lands in Alachua, Lee,De Soto, and Sumter Counties. They chose the site at Abbott by February of 1909. At this time there were 21 registered voters in Abbott. The plat of Zephyrhills followed that of the Abbott plat of 1888. The town encompassed one square mile of Colony land(Section 11) which included the small town of Abbott. Lots along Fifth Avenue and several streets to the east and west were 25-foot lots. All others were 30-foot lots. All lots were 140 feet in depth to the alleys. The colony land extended far beyond the immediate town core. The initial offer included five-acre tracts outside of town for$50 with an additional Colony Townsite lot given to the buyer without cost along with$50 of the Capital Stock of the Zephyrhills Colony Company. The second offer involved the sale of a five-acre tract for$55 to be paid in 11 installments with the same bonus of a‘town lot and stock. Other plats were filed shortly after the original. In 1910, Raymond Moore platted an addition which included property south of South Avenue and Mr. Yingling filed his addition east of 20th Street in 1911. An advertising sheet devoted to promoting the colony was called The Zephyrhills Colonist. This eventually grew into a newspaper of the same name started by George Gibson, a native 5