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By JOSEPH ARNOLD It you were to go down Congress Street coming north out of New Port Richey you would eventually come to Pine Hill Rd. Turning on to this road is almost like taking a trip to a completely different world. The place is Pine Hill, the only black community in West Pasco. It encompasses less than four blocks, and sits just outside the city limits of New Port Richey. When you first come into Pine Hill off Congress, you immediately notice several business etc. on the south side of the road, but the north side is vacant almost. All of the black community is located on the north side of Pine Hill road. The first house on the north side sits quite a ways back from the road. Directly in front of that sits the burned out shell of a stone house built by Charlie Jones. Next you come to a series of small trailers, the second of which is owned by Laura Burch. Her trailer sits next to the church parking lot. The Union Missionary Baptist Church has been here ever since anyone can remember, but it has moved from it original spot. Then crossing a small dirt road which appears to have several homes on down it. This is right next to the Pine Hill cemetery, the only property on the north side of the road in the city limits. It a nice-sized cemetery, quite a good number of people into to. Just to the west of the cemetery is the Arline house, the home of Mrs. Dorethra Arline. It is a plain block house, a relatively nice house as houses go in this neighborhood. A small dirt road next to her house leads back along a fence to reveal the home of the Thomas family, a very nice little house, definitely the nicest around in all of Pine Hill. A little to the north of this house is a pig pen with several good-sized pigs and a strong smell in the heat of the summer. Then finally is one of the Winthrop houses. There are clothes lines strung out all over the yard and trash lies scattered on the ground. The house is wooden, no knob on the door. In general it is in pretty bad shape. The steps up to the house is a good 2 and 1/2 feet and is made of cinder blocks and boards. Back behind it is at least one other home and several sheds. One thing that a person sees throughout Pine Hill is a gang of kids when sometimes they all hang out at various houses in the front yard. One of my motives for working on this was the fact that in studying west Pasco history one finds very little if any information on Pine Hill. Now many of the people who have lived most of their lives at Pine Hill are no longer with us, and it was my hope to capture some of this heritage of this unique place by interviewing the people. I had the opportunity to begin this in a summer class in oral history. Since records and documents about Pine Hill are quite scarce and to be able to meet the requirements of the class, interviews were conducted with those who lived there and people who were familiar with it, both black and white. This history is limited by the memory of the people and their embellishments and to the willingness of the person to discuss this matter. Laura Burch (b., Mar. 13, 1912; d., March 24, 2008) lives next to the church in a trailer. She came to Pine Hill 1925 when she was 13. She came with her parents from Georgia and has lived at various places around Pine Hill since she moved here. Miss Burch is a member of the Union Missionary Baptist church. Ms. Burch was 75 at the time of this interview.
JEA. If you could tell us your name, and when you moved to Pine Hill? LB. My parents moved to New Port Richey in April 1925. JEA. Where did they come from? LB. From Georgia. JEA. Any specific place? LB. Oh, we moved left Georgia, went to St. Petersburg, left there 1925. JEA. Where in Georgia? LB. I don’t remember the town, but it was Lawrence County. JEA. What were your parents’ names? LB. My father’s name was Charlie Jones and my mother’s name was Zenola. JEA. Do you know why they left Georgia and came to Florida? LB. Yeah, he was farming, and he just got tired of farming. He thought it be better to live .... JEA. How old were you when you moved to New Port Richey? LB. I was 13. JEA. Was there a school here when you moved here? LB. Yes, the old school was in that lot right here (behind house). It was a church building. In later years we moved it over here and this was the little building we went to school in. JEA. Do you remember your first teacher? LB. No, I don’t remember. JEA. Was it just a little one-room school house with stove etc? LB. Yes, grades one through eight. JEA. Did you have relatives nearby, other than your parents? LB. A cousin, named Lumbard Fulton (?). [Jeff Miller note: A newspaper article refers to a Columbus Fulwood as the school supervisor.] JEA. When you first came here what did your parents do? LB. He was just a common laborer, anything he could get to do. My mother was the same, working for households. JEA. How many people were living here at that time? LB. Quite a few, couldn’t say how many. JEA. Did you know people who lived outside of Pine Hill? LB. I knew almost everybody. After we lived here a while, I learned the names of most of the people around here. There was not that many. JEA. Was this the only black community around when you came here? LB. When we first came here, it was. In later years, around 1925-27, another subdivision called Booker T. Washington. JEA. Where was that? LB. Up U. S. 19 on the right, about a quarter of a mile. JEA. You had church services in the small school building over here? LB. Yes. JEA. Did you do anything special for church? LB. No, not really. Every Sunday we went to Sunday school and church, nothing special. JEA. Who was the minister or who led the services? LB. At that time I think his name was H. Lee. Lived in Tampa. He used to come over on weekends. JEA. Were there any people you would say were eccentric or different that you remember? LB. No. JEA. Did you have any chores or responsibilities as a child? LB. Just homework, and things around the house, cooking and cleaning. I had to do a lot because my mother was sick at the time and I did most of the cooking at that time. JEA. Did you have a garden? LB. No, but my brother did. JEA. What was the typical meal like? LB. Just common food, vegetables, regular, nothing special. JEA. You cooked it over a wood stove? LB. Yes. JEA. Do you know when the old church was built? LB. It was here when we got here. JEA. Do you know when Union Missionary Baptist Church was built? LB. It’s on there, but I can’t remember what it is. JEA. Were there any special customs that went on a wedding, a funeral, or otherwise? LB. None that I can think of. JEA. Services were held every Sunday? LB. Not every Sunday. Sunday school every week, church twice a month. JEA. The minister, did he come from out of town? LB. Yes. JEA. Is there a regular minister now? LB. No he comes twice a month now JEA. Who is the minister now? LB. Carlton Bennett from Largo. JEA. Were baptisms held in the church? LB. Now they are. Then they were held at the river till we put a pool in the church. JEA. You went to the river? LB. Yes. JEA. Any specific place? LB. Yeah, we used to go over to the landing on the river. JEA. What did you do for entertainment or enjoyment? LB. Just little parties among ourselves. JEA. What was Christmas like? LB. Just like the others, gifts, presents, trees, tree at church. JEA. Where was your first home here at Pine Hill? LB. The first house we lived in was way up U. S. 19, about 3 or 4 miles. It was an old building next to the road and we moved in. There was no houses, just one or two. My dad bought land here and built a house on that street over there. It wasn’t a street then. JEA. Do you know whose stone house this is up the street? LB. That was built by my brother Charlie Jones, and he and his wife lived there till they moved to Tampa. He sold it. Some lady bought it, then it burned. JEA. Did most of the social activities center around the church? LB. Yes. JEA. The house your father built, was it wooden? LB. Yes. JEA. On stilts or anything? LB. No, just on blocks. JEA. How often did you travel into town? LB. Any day. Once or twice a week, we walked. Had no car or transportation. JEA. Did people have home remedies? LB. No. JEA. Was medical care easy to get here? LB. There was one doctor here and he came. JEA. Were there midwives? LB. No, not that I know of. I never had a chance to use any. JEA. Did you attend Booker T. Washington School? LB. Yes. JEA. Who was your teacher? LB. I’ve had two or three. Mrs. Hoskin from Tampa, only had school 8 months. Another, Glubbel from Plant City. JEA. Do you know Mrs. Copeland? LB. Yes, but I didn’t go to school with her. JEA. Do you know when the new school opened? LB. I remember when it was built but not when. When they built it, it was up on U. S. 19, but they moved it down here. JEA. What kind of attitude did the people take to people at Pine Hill? LB. They were just as courteous as they could be. I knew the Greys, the Weiskopfs, all the people. JEA. If there was one thing you could tell someone about Pine Hill, what would it be? LB. I don’t know. |