Prospect School, Church, and Cemetery History
Sec. 18 - Twp. 25 - Range 21
This
is a current photo of the Prospect Cemetery. The Prospect
Cemetery lies on private property and upon my examination of this
loaction I was able to find the grave of
Eugenia Osborn Howell, damaged but still in tact. I was able to
locate this grave using information written by the Osborn Family and
cited in this writing.
As I began to
research the history of the Prospect Cemetery it seemed that there was
very little history on the small Prospect Community and it’s
cemetery. There are a few references made in the book Historic
Places of Pasco County. The majority of the information in this
history was taken from personal information from the Osburn Family
who's settled in the Prospect Community c.a. 1853. Most of the
information is hand written and contains personal correspondents and
recorded phone conversations between family members. Much of the
Osburn information and history was written and recorded over 20 years
ago by the family.
The Community
of Prospect is one of the oldest known communities in Pasco
County. The comunity was originally settled sometime c.a. 1770
by a group Eufaula Indians, which was a sub-group of the Seminoles;
during this time period the community was called
“Toadchudka”, which means muddy water. The Eufaula
Seminoles located to this area from the region around Eufaula,
Alabama. The “Toadchudka” village thrived until c.a.
1836 when the outbreak of 2nd Seminole Indian War completely destroyed
the village. According to "Like Beads on a String: A Culture History of the Seminole Indians in Northern Peninsular Florida"
by Brent Richards Weisman: "The most informative account of these
villages appears in a letter sent to Territorial Governor William P.
Duval by Horatio S. Dexter in 1823. Dexter, by vocation a trader and
merchant and one-time representative of the speculative Alachua
Company, was also something of a frontier diplomat and was employed by
Duval to inform the peninsular Indians of an upcoming council at
Moultrie Creek. ... Leaving Pilaklikaha, Dexter traveled twenty-eight
miles southwest to the settlement of Chukochatty, variously spelled,
also known as Red House, Red Town, or New Eufala (near the present city
of Brooksville, Hernando County), settled by migrants from the Creek
town of Eufala in eastern Alabama as early as 1767 (Swanton 1922:403).
At the time of Dexter's visit, Simaka was the town chief and owned 3
slaves, 160 head of cattle, 90 horses, and a number of hogs. The
prosperity of this settlement was so marked that two years prior to
Dexter's visit 60 black slaves residing there were lost in a Creek raid
from the north. Twelve miles south of Chukochatty, Dexter entered a
village on the border of a lake where corn, pumpkins, and watermelons
were grown [Toadchudka]. Four miles farther was the settlement of
Tomahitche, a series of dispersed hamlets situated so as to take
advantage of the savanna pasturage in the area. The hamlets shared a
common field planted in corn and rice. These settlements were just
southwest of present-day Dade City, Pasco County, on the highlands west
of Lake Pasadena." After the 2nd Seminole Indian Wars the Armed
Occupation Act of 1842 was enacted and opened the Florida Territory to
settlement. This Act lead to the settlement of what would become
the Prospect Community. Among the areas first settlers was Jacob
Wells who located to the area from Madison County in 1842. There
was also George Dyke and F.W. Riggs who brought their family and
settled in the area. On March 03, 1845 Florida received statehood and was no
longer considered a territory. At that time the Government started
surveying the new state, on April 6th 1845 the area known as the
Prospect Community was surveyed and the property of Wells, Riggs, and
Dyke was recorded as a part of that original survey. (Click
here to see original
survey) According to the original survey
notes all three of these families had built homes and established farms
with crops ranging in size from 5-acre fields to 20-acre fields.
Also noted on the original survey maps in the immediate area are
what surveyors referred to as "Indian Old Fields". These fields
were places where the Indians had planted crops.
In the 1850’s other families began moving to the area.
Elizabeth Wells Osburn, Jacob Well’s sister, and her husband
David Osburn with their seven children relocated to the area from
Madison County in 1853 and settled on a 160-acre homestead; David had
previously worked on a slave plantation in North Carolina and moved to
Florida to escape what he thought amounted to cruelty. Lybron
Kersey also arrived to the area in the 1850’s and he built a home
on the lake that is now called Kersey Lake located near St. Leo.
Between 1853-55 Lewis Gaskin’s and his family settled on the
south side of lake that became known as Buddy Lake or today’s
Lake Pasadena. These settlers arrived on one of the only roads
through the community at that time, this road was called Hand Cart Road
because it was only wide enough for a hand cart to travel until it was
widened in the 1850’s to accommodate the newly arriving settlers
who arrived by wagons much larger then hand carts.
In the same
year of 1855 about one mile southwest of the south end of Buddy Lake
the first Prospect Methodist Church was constructed from logs, this
church also served as the first school for the community. This
church and school stood at the center of the Prospect Community.
During the 1850’s the community also went by the name of
“The Buddy Lake Settlement” named for nearby Buddy
Lake. The first Prospect Church did not have a cemetery and the
community’s people used the nearby Williams Cemetery. As
other families such as the Barnes, Hodson, Kernnerly, and Ticnor
Families moved into the area the church and school became too small for
use and by c.a. 1868 the community was so large that it was necessary
to construct another school and church. The church closed and the
children began attending the Buddy Lake and other area schools.
By the
1870’s Benjamin Baisden, an African American man, moved to the
area and settled on property which he had homesteaded, this is the
first African American to settle near the Prospect Community. As
Baisden settled
other African Americans moved to the area and began settling, some
acquired their own
property built homes. The area the African
American’s settled became known as “Freedtown”
although it is not known if this name was used during the time
period. In a 1963 article an Aunt Jane and Uncle Ben were early
members of the Prospect Methodist Church, this is beleived to be
Benjamin Baisden. By the 1890’s the African Americans built
an African
Methodist Church, cemetery and school. (click here for the "Freedtown" Community and Cemetery History)
As more settler
moved to the area some became interested in the Baptist movement.
Three miles to the South of the Prospect Community, on Hand Cart Road,
a Baptist Church was built on a portion of Jack Childers property, Mr.
Childers would neither sell or donate the property but rather entered
an agreement that stated as long as the church was actually there they
could have legal authority concerning all affairs. The Baptist
Church, called the “White Temple” by the locals, joined the
Southern Baptist Conference; this new church not only caused a split in
the Prospect Methodist Church’s congregation but it also caused
some families to become divided between either the Methodist or Baptist
movements.
According to early Prospect Church records there were members of
the Childers family who were attending the Prospect Methodist Church,
next to their name is says "Gone to Baptist."
The Prospect
Methodist Church joined the Methodist Episcopal Church South conference
and on April 28th 1888 the Prospect Methodist congregation acquired two
acres on which to build a new church. This property was located
only 2 miles west and a bit north of the original Prospect Methodist
Church site and was donated by David and Sarah Kersey Osburn. The
trustees of the Prospect Church, David Osburn along with Wright
Williamson and T.C. Wells, received the deed on behalf of the Prospect
Methodist Episcopal Church South. (Click here to
see 1888 deed)
Lead carpenters Jack Gaskins and Jack Osburn built the new Prospect
Church by using pine lumber, likely produced from one of the nearby
sawmills. The Prospect School received it’s own building at
this point and it was built next to the new church, school was no
longer held in the church building. The members also wanted a
cemetery next to their new church. According to the Osburn Family
“Early Osburn’s body was moved to the Prospect Cemetery
when it first opened, his grave was the first in the Prospect
Cemetery.” Most of the original members of the Prospect
Church had loved ones interred in the Prospect Cemetery. The
Prospect School, Church and Cemetery all three stayed together at this
location until c.a. 1900 when the school was relocated. To the
left is a 1975 real estate map published by the Rockford Map Co.
showing the location of the Prospect Cemetery indicated and marked with
a cross.
This photo shows the
original Prospect School located next to the Prospect Methodist Church
est. ca. 1850. It is believed the building to the left of the
photo is the church. Date of photo unknown. (Photo courtesy
of Florida Pioneer Museum)
About
a miles
and a half south, on Hand Cart Road, William “Bill” Guy
homesteaded land c.a. 1880. At the turn of the century William
Guy and his wife gave the southwest corner of their property and the
Prospect School was relocated from the Osburn property to this
location. Pictured left is the second Prospect School as it
looked in 1905 when it was located on the property of William
Guy. The Prospect School continued from this location until
the building caught fire and was completely destroyed. The
community rallied together and built the third Prospect schoolhouse,
which remained on the Guy property and flourished until the early
1940’s when the school was closed and the children were bused to
the central location of Dade City.
The Prospect
Methodist Church remained active until the 1940’s. According to the Osborn Family and the Gaskin family the
church building was sold to Meadow “Med” Gaskins who had
also purchased the Sand Pond Schoolhouse named for the Sand Pond on
Fort King Road where it was located. Med Gaskins turned the Sand
Pond School into a home for his family; he used the lumber from the
Prospect Church to add a kitchen and porch to his Sand Pond home.
According to the Osburn’s after the church was closed in the
40’s “the cemetery was always kept in order and clean by
Reese Knapp (1879-1970) until he died, usually Austin Smith was helping
Reese.” “Melvin Gaskins (1887-1973) and his sons
Earmon and Lewis were care takers by choice.” Among the
families that were buried in the Prospect Cemetery were members of the
Knapp, Osburn, Gaskins, Hodson, and Howell families; these were not the
only families to have loved ones buried at Prospect. Resse Knapp
was buried in the Williams Cemetery among the graves he relocated.
The Osburn
family had several loved ones buried in the Prospect Cemetery. In
a documented phone conversation with Eugene Jones very detailed
accounts as to how their family plots had been maintained and what they
look like was recorded in this documentation. The conversation
included a letter written on August 29th 1924 by Eugenia Osburn Howell
wrote letter to family members giving details to the plans for her
final resting place in the Prospect Cemetery.
Eugenia passed
away in February 1925 and was laid to rest between her two children
that were at rest in the Prospect Cemetery. In the phone
conversation Eugene Jones proceeded to give details as to what the
family did to Eugenia’s grave plot after her passing he said,
“Uncle Wiley and grandpa together put the cement slab over
grandma (Eugenia). Uncle Wiley put bricks of four on the little
ones, two x two, length and then there was six marking where the vault
like top was. There was no date nor anything on any of
them. There was just six reddish colored bricks piled on grandmas
slab. The two little boys, Eugina’s children, are buried
between Eugenia and the cedar tree.” According the Osburn
information the cedar tree had been planted along the west side of the
cemetery near where Eugenia and her children were buried.
According to
the Osburn information “Eugene Jones visited the Prospect
Cemetery in the summer of the 1939 with his mother, father, aunt, and
uncle. Eugene was only eight or nine at the time but could
remember that a fire had destroyed the white picket fence around the
two children’s graves and the ashes were there by the cedar tree,
aside from the fire the cemetery was very orderly and kept. In
the summer of 1951 Eugene visited the cemetery again, this time with
his great uncle and great aunt. It was on this occasion where
Eugene was shown the grave of his grandmother, Eugenia, and her two
infant children; again the cemetery was in great condition. In
the summer of 1957 Eugene visited the cemetery again, this time with
his new wife Lucille N. Jones, all the tombstones were in place and all
was clean as usual.” This visit was the last time that the
Osburn family would ever see the Prospect cemetery.
After the
Prospect Church closed the property changed hand several times.
According to the Osburn information at some point Melissa Price
acquired the cemetery property from L.C. Hawes. According to the
Osburn information and several other individuals I have spoken with, in
1961 Mrs. Price decided she did not want the Prospect Cemetery on her
property, up until this point the cemetery was well maintained and
marked. According to the Osburn information Mrs. Price contacted
only certain families with loved ones buried in Prospect and informed
them to move their loved ones and their headstones; the Howell's,
Osburn's, and Gaskin's were never contacted. According to the
Osburn information some graves were moved by Resse Knapp and according
to individuals I have spoken to about Prospect, but wish to not be
identified, say that a representative from Coleman Ferguson Funeral
Home, in Dade City, was present and assisted in the relocation of
graves from the Prospect Cemetery to the Williams Cemetery
nearby. However it was also stated that the few graves that were
relocated had very little to exhume, few personal effects such as a
comb made from turtle shell were found but very little bone or human
remains were located. It was at this point that I was told there
was a couple of 5 gallon buckets of dirt were re-interred at the
Williams Cemetery since little could be found.
Among those relocated was the grave of Prospect Methodist Church
trustee, Wright W. Williamson. According to Williamson's
obituary, which appeared in the Dade City Banner on Nov. 2, 1917, under
the heading "Wright W. Williamson Dies at Ripe Old Age":
"Mr.
Wright W. Williamson one of the oldest settlers of Pasco County passed
away Tuesday at the sanitarium at Chattahoochee after having been
confined there about a week. Mr. Williamson had been in good health up
until a few months ago, when he began to fail, and about two weeks ago
became mentally unbalanced. The body was brought to Dade City Wednesday
and taken to the home of Mr. W. W. Guy where funeral services were held
Thursday. Burial was made in the Prospect Cemetery Thursday afternoon
at 2:30. Mr. Williamson was born in 1836. He came to Dade City in 1856
and settled on a farm in the Pasadena neighborhood. He was one of the
active pioneers of this county and was prominently identified with the
early development of this section. He was known far and near as a man
of good repute and could always be depended upon to lend a helping hand
to any honest enterprise. He is survived by three children, Mrs. W. W.
Guy, and Mrs. Willis Dormany of the Pasadena section and Mr. Giles
Williamson of Tampa. Besides these he leaves a host of friends
throughout the county who greatly regret his departure."
Today Wright W. Williamson's headstone is located in the nearby Williams Cemetery. After a few
choice graves were relocated to the Williams Cemetery, Mrs. Price
demanded the remaining headstones to be buried. A large whole was
dug near the cedar tree on the west side of the cemetery and the
headstones remaining were removed from their graves and pushed off into
the whole, which was then covered over.
According to
information obtained from Pasco County Mrs. Price didn’t even own
the Prospect Cemetery property free and clear in 1961 when she had it
destroyed. The Methodist Conference of Florida still had an
interest in the property since those interest were never
relinquished. On February 19th 1985, the same year the
Osburn’s
began investigating, the Methodist Conference finally Quit Claim Deeded
the property to Colonial South Grove Inc. with the registered agent of
the Inc. being M.E. Price, she was also the acting agent for Fort King
Acres Inc.
The Osburn Family never
knew of any of these events, the family discovered what happened during
a 1985 trip to the cemetery. They were completely distraught and
disgusted to find that there was no cemetery. In the year or so
that followed this trip the Osburn’s documented and located as
much information as they could. There were several letters
written to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and the County
Attorney’s Office, neither one of these offices did
anything. In a letter from the County Attorney the Osburn’s
were directed to contact the Sheriff Office. I have also the
letter that the Osburn’s sent to the Sheriff’s office and
in fact the letter has “NO RESPONSE” written at the
bottom. In a separate letter to Sheriff Gillum the Osburn Family
writes that “Eugenia’s grave is still in tact but the other
family’s plot were gone”, they had taken a hoe and shovel
to the site and discovered the grave 5-6 inches below the soil.
As much information and as many County offices the Osburn’s
contacted it seemed no one wanted to act upon the destruction of this
cemetery and unfortunately much of the same response is still given to
these issues today. To this day no one was prosecuted for the
third degree felony of destroying the Prospect Cemetery.
To this day Eugenia
Osburn Howell's grave is still in tact at the
Prospect Cemetery just a few inches below the dirt. This photo
taken in June of 2006 shows Eugenia's grave, which was located by using
information from the Osburn Family. It appears that the grave may
have been desecrated at one time. On the back of Mary and David
Osburn's headstone at Williams Cemetery a memorial was engraved
in Eugenia's memory.
The memorial reads Grandchildren at Prospect Cemetery, Eugenia
Osburn Howell 1870-1921 and Early Osburn. No dates listed for
Early, he was the first burial in the Prospect Cemetery.
Through my
research I have located numerous cemeteries just like the Prospect
Cemetery. It seems that in Pasco County there is a major problem
with the destruction of the final resting places of our dead.
With development at an all time high some of these sights are having
homes built on them. Many of these sites are handled the same way
the Prospect Cemetery was, the headstones are removed along with any
visible evidence of the cemetery. Typically these properties sit
idle for a while until it is thought everyone has forgotten about the
cemetery, then it’s put on the market and sold where the buyer
then builds a home on the site; it’s as simple as that.
This has even happened to cemeteries that are marked on Government
Survey’s and maps. Keep in mind it is our county who issues
the building permits for the construction of homes on properties
containing cemeteries they know about. The laws that are written
today are very vague and until new laws are written this crime will
continue likely with no repercussions or response from County officials.
This article was contributed by Jeff Cannon.
It was last revised on June 24, 2007.
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