Pieces of the Past
"The Tampa Trubune (Pasco) Jan 29, 2002"
Colony Satellite's Never Took Hold
By Carol Jeffares Hebman "Tribune correspondent"
The rural countryside isn't so rural anymore, with city folks lured to places that still have open spaces and towering trees. But even with development in recent years, the land surrounding San Antonio is much like it was when the city founder envisioned his Catholic colony.
Judge Edmund Dunne chose the land for his Catholic Colony of San Antonio in 1882 while traveling on horseback through the virgin countryside. Dunne, a former chief justice of Arizona, was retained by Philadelphia entrepreneur Hamilton Dission to negotiate his purchace of 4 million acres of land in Florida.
The state of Florida was offering the sale of land to seve it from bankruptcy, Dission pledged to buy the 4 million acres for $1 million or 25 cents an acre. For his efforts, Dunne was paid with his choice of 100,000 acres of land where he planned to establish his Catholic colony of San Antonio.
Dunnie's 100,000 acres sprawled from the Fort Dade region, near today's Dade City, west to Hannock Creek on the Gulf of Mexico in Hernando County. On the first 50,000 acres Dunne Platted his town of San Antonio on the apex of all the high land in the rolling hills.
He had chosen the name San Antonio years earlier after praying to St. Anthony while last in an Arizona desert while prospecting for silver. Catholics believe praying to St. Anthony helps recover lost things and after Dunne found his way, he vowed to establish a Catholic colony in gratitude to St. Anthony of Padua.
Dunne's plans called for San Antonio as the central hub, with satellite communities spoked out from that hub.
In an 1883 pamphlet, Dunne described three of the satellite communities: San Felipe, five miles to the north, named for St. Philip Neri on whose feast day the sub-settlement was located: Carmel, five miles to the south, from the Hebrew word for "a finely cultivated field or orchard:" and Villa Maria, named for the Blessed Virgin, one mile south of San Antonio on the road to Carmel.
But while San Antonio flourished, its satellites weren't as succerssful. In fact, only two ever becane more than a name.
The village of Carmel was actually located four miles south of San Antonio in the area of where the Kerkland and Epperson ranches are located on Curley Road.
In the 1883 promational brochure, Dunne explained that he named Carmel such "not because of its inherent meaning but because the settlement is placed under the special patronage of our Lady of Mount Carmel."
"The lands in this settlement are high but less rolling than elsewhere in the colony. They are suited to oranges and lemons, but also and more so than the rest of the colony to guavas, citrons and other tender plants. The beautiful Lapa Lake is on the western edge of this settlement and Lake Winifred on the east. Lakefronts on both of these lakes will be for sale there this winter, but only to actual settlers or immediate improvers," the brochure stated. By 1892 Lapa Lake was called by its current name, King Lake.
The land for sale in the Carmel settlement started at $5 an acre.
There was a colony story and even a post office, established Nov. 4, 1885. But the post office closed less than a year later, on July 25, 1886, suggesting that only a few people settled in the area. The village of St. Thomas was established near what is today Interstate 75 and St. Joe Road, northwest of San Antonio. St. Thomas also had a post office, opened Jan. 2, 1885. It remained open until Dec. 31, 1907, and St. Thomas was more of a thriving community.
The post office and a church were the centers of activity and, according to an 1887 news account, the posmaster, Maj. Thomas Lucas of Ohio, was "practically the father of this settlement."
St. Mary's Church of Saint Thomas was blessed by Abbot Leo Haid of Maryhelp Abbey, N.C., on Sept 14, 1890, the same day he dedicated Saint Leo College. The college was founded in 1899 by Benedictine monks and priests who had come to San Antonio at the request of Dunne for religious service. The abbey and college were named after Haid who was also the first college president. The Jacksonville Times-Union covered the event and described the area that was being settled by newcomers from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio.
"Many more people are coming good, industrious people who are already Americans with all that is dear to America at heart," the news account noted. "This section of Florida in not in the rear of the army of improvement. A few years more, and the groves of Pasco County will furnish oranges and lemons for thousands in the North. May our brightest anticipations be verified.
The monks of St. Leo Abbey provided religious needs for the 30 people who called St. Thomas home in 1903. They also operated a mission off and on from 1894 through 1909 for a nearby black community
St. Thomas was also noteworthy as the home of Oliver Arzacq, the first student to receive a diploma from St. Leo College. The master of accounts degree was confirmed upon the young student at the first graduation ceremony on June 20, 1893.
Both villages vanished by the early years of the 20th century, probably as a result of the Great Freeze that devastated the citrus industry in late 1894 and early 1895. Many also left San Antonio following the freeze. But dunne's dream of a Catholic colony survived and still remains today as a prospering City.
Although founded as a result of San Antonio, the adjoining town of St. Leo was not part of Dunne's original colony plans. Rather the town developed around the religious order that came to provide services to the Catholics here.
The community of St. Joseph, located 3 miles north of San Antonio, also wasn't part of Dunne's plan. It was founded in 1883 by three sons of Andrew Barthle Sr. who moved to the area from Minnesota and named it for their hometown there. However, the community was also prodominantly German Catholics.
Both St. Leo and St. Joseph remain today as prospering communities. St. Leo was incorporated in 1891.
back to Saint Joseph