Terry Kline showed Kathryn Starkey around the museum today (8/10). Mrs. Starkey is one of the Pasco County commissioners.

Our next presentation which will be in the beautiful Peace Hall, next to the museum in Sims Park. Jeff Miller will show high-resolution old maps of Pasco County and nearby areas and discuss the origins of the names of the various towns. We hope you can attend. There is no charge for admission.

The July 2018 quarterly newsletter, a printed copy of which was mailed to members on July 18, is available here.

Jim Daniels and Jeriah Sykes of Microimaging Source were at the museum on June 20, boxing up old issues of the New Port Richey Press for digitization. Earlier this year, the historical society arranged to have the company digitize our oldest newspapers, the ones on microfilm, from 1918 to 1947. The New Port Richey Public Library has decided to fund the digitization of the remaining newspapers, which are at the museum (1948-1955) and the city library (1956-1979). The New Port Richey Public Library will make available on the Internet the entire run of the newspaper from 1918 to 1979.

Here’s a rather obscure item, but perhaps some will be interested. It is the New Port Richey Volunteer Fire Department log of fire calls from 1927 to 1949. Thanks to Adam Darling and Scott Burford for making this book available to us. A few pages seem to be missing. Each entry goes across the left and right pages, which are photographed separately, in order. You can download a page by clicking on the down arrow in the lower right corner and you can download all of the pictures into a ZIP file by clicking on the down arrow at the top of the opening page. The link is here.

Stephen Perenich was a visitor to the museum on June 9, 2018. He is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for U. S. representative from District 12, a position currently held by Gus Bilirakis. Mr. Perenich grew up in Tarpon Springs. (Note: any other candidates for this office who visit the museum will also receive a mention on our Facebook page and web site!)

Our own Terry Kline, who is the museum administrator, was the speaker at a meeting of the West Pasco Historical Society today (6/9). He gave a most interesting presentation on the topic “The True Story of the Florida Native Americans and Chasco.”

Photo above: New Port Richey Mayor Rob Marlowe swore in the new board members and officers of the West Pasco Historical Society at the meeting on June 9. Photo by Kayla Kuni.

Photo above: Jeff Miller was named an Honorary Member of the West Pasco Historical Society at the meeting today. Pictured with him are David Prace, past president of the WPHS and Bob Langford, current president. Jeff (on the right) is the digital archivist and librarian for the historical society and maintains the web site and Facebook page of the WPHS, along with a web site about Pasco County history at http://fivay.org/. Previous Honorary Members named during the historical society’s history are Julie Obenreder, Norma Nelson, Sheila and Alan Parry, Dorothy Acey, Jessie C. Hyde, Harry Hall, Sam Eaton, Edie Hempel, Frances Mallett, George Brandli, Audrey O’Neil, Elsie Coy, Terry Kline, David Prace, Dannee Brooks, and Midge London-Prace. Photo by Ann Rusaw James.

Richard Michaels of Hudson was a visitor to the museum on June 8, 2018. He donated this framed aerial view of Hudson, which he estimates might be about 20 years old. Thanks, Richard!

Thanks to Ridgewood High School for donating to the historical society a set of 22 old school yearbooks.

The yearbooks go back to the year the school opened, in 1978-1979, when Ridgewood was a junior high school.

The first yearbook to refer to the school as a high school is 1984, although in 1983-84 Ridgewood only taught grades 8 to 10. A grade was added each year.

Except for summer school, Ridgewood High School has closed, to become Wendell Krinn Technical High School in August.

Combined with the four Ridgewood yearbooks we already had, we now have 1979-1985, 1987-1994, 1999, 2001-05, 2007, and 2011-13.

Our other school yearbooks are:

Bayonet Point Middle School: 1986, 2000, 2001, 2005

Cotee River Elementary School: 1997

Gulf Middle School (top shelf): 1984, 1987-2008, 2010

Gulf High School: 1963, 1965, 1972, 1973, 1974-with Hudson, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1983-87, 1989, 1994, 2000-02, 2006-2015.

Hudson Middle School: 1999-2003

Hudson High School: 1974-with Gulf, 1975, 2006

Land O’ Lakes High School: 2008

Mitchell High School: 2006

Pasco High School 2006, 2009

Ridgewood High School: 1979-1985, 1987-1994, 1999, 2001-05, 2007, 2011-13

Schrader Elementary School: no date

Shady Hills Elementary School: 1996-1998

Zephyrhills High School: 2006

Our nascent collection of school yearbooks are the most popular books in our library. We do not check out books in our library.

Thanks again to Ridgewood High School for the great donation!

Visitors to the museum on May 19 were Tim Richey, his father Wallace Pat Richey, and Tim’s wife Pamela Richey. They believe they are related to Aaron McLaughlin Richey (1837-1912), for whom Port Richey and New Port Richey are named.

Aaron Richey settled at the mouth of the Pithlachascotee River in December 1883 and soon after was granted a post office with the name Port Richey. The family moved to Tarpon Springs in 1891 to be near a doctor, and Mr. Richey later became Mayor of Tarpon Springs. Family members are buried in Cycadia Cemetery.

We looked at census records and were not able to confirm a relationship, but Pamela believes family members do have documentation that shows how they are related and she is currently working on obtaining the records. Tim is probably not a lineal descendant because it appears that Aaron Richey’s only son did not have any children.

If you’d like to work on this, here is some basic info we think is correct. Wallace Pat Richey (pictured) is a son of Rudolph Ray Richey (1892-1942), who is a son of Oren Richey (b. 1868), who is a son of John L. Richey (b. 1827). Aaron Richey’s brothers were William, Llewellin, James, and Peter.