Quinn Porter Miller and Stephanie Black shared amusing and poignant stories about their families, steeped in Wesley Chapel ranching history. James Touchton showed off a few of the jewels of his massive collection of Florida maps. And, on a night devoted to local history, librarian Angelo Liranzo showed how to find out even more about it by searching the internet.
If that wasn’t enough to satisfy the taste buds of the 50 or so history buffs in attendance in the conference center on Mar. 31, local author Madonna Wise brought homemade cookies for those who attended.
Wise was the inspiration for the first annual Pasco-Hernando State College (PHSC) History Fair, a successful event at the school’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch on Mansfield Blvd.
Wise, the first speaker of the night and author or Images of America: Wesley Chapel, originally approached new PHSC Porter Campus Provost Bonnie Clark about launching her new book on campus. From that idea sprouted an even bigger one.
“When we saw what was in the book and the amount of history she had dug up…we thought we should wrap it around something bigger,’’ said Clark, who is already looking forward to the second History Fair next year.
Wise began the night by sharing some of the history she uncovered in writing her book, a 128-page collection featuring hundreds of photos and stories shared by longtime local residents whose grandparents and great grandparents helped settle the area.
She told the audience, “When my publisher (Arcadia Publishing/History Press) first asked me to write a book on Wesley Chapel, I said, ‘I don’t think there’s any history to write about.”
But, Wise found there actually was a lot of history to write about, and the families of Miller and Black lived through much of it. Miller, whose brother and founder of the Wiregrass Foundation J.D. Porter was in attendance, shared a handful of anecdotes about her grandfather, James H. “Wiregrass” Porter, and talked lovingly of his generosity and care of Wiregrass Ranch. (Wise notes in her book that James H. Porter got the nickname “Wiregrass” from Dade City Buick dealer Ed Madill, who would send him a box of matches every Christmas to burn the wiregrass on his ranch.)
Miller choked up when telling the story about her father Don attending the University of Mississippi on a baseball scholarship, where he was an All-American, and how after he graduated, “Wiregrass” Porter paid the university back for Don’s scholarship.
She said the quickly growing developments on her family’s land, where she grew up, is sometimes a bittersweet thing to observe, both “wonderful and sad at the same time.”
Miller also said that she wishes her grandfather, who passed away in 2003, could have seen what his land, and the surrounding Wesley Chapel area, has become.
“I don’t know that anyone could have known how the area would grow,’’ she said.
Black’s grandfather, Lonnie Tucker, was a close friend and hunting buddy of “Wiregrass” Porter. For those who called Tucker, “the meanest man in Pasco County,” Black quipped, “they should have seen my grandmother.”
Tucker apparently did have a soft side, however. Black said when she was in the fourth grade, she volunteered to bring food to a school function, and she asked her hardscrabble farer of a grandfather if he could give her two large watermelons. He asked what time she needed them, and showed up to her school with two large watermelons…and a truck loaded with smaller ones for anyone who wanted one.
Considering the theme of the night was mostly frontier-era Wesley Chapel, the internet connection failing during Liranzo’s presentation was cause for a few chuckles. But, once connected, Liranzo showed the crowd how to access, as an example, digitized versions of Dade City going back to 1912.
Summing up the night perfectly for many of the older members of the crowd, Liranzo said, “It’s history for me, but these are all memories for those who grew up in Pasco County.”
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