Last Fall I wrote an report entitled The Story A Coin Could Tell. Though fictitious, the four coins could tell real stories. The 1861 Indian Head Cent found under the tree where two Confederate escapees from Fort Brook in Tampa were hung, is at least a 99% exact happening. I am not sure who lost the penny but it had to be one of those soldiers. There is a vital historic link between the hanging and that coin.
How did a 1926 Macy's group Store one-cent weighing scale end up in the "maze" of Tarpon Springs, Fl. The "maze" was a 20-30 acre wilderness area where many dirt bikers and other off-the-road enthusiasts would venture. No homes or structure were ever on this property. I would metal detect that area finding for arrow heads and Indian relics, and one day had the surprise of finding that scale. For some years I tried to find an retort to how and why it was buried/dumped in this maze. Maybe, just maybe, if Al Capone was here he could retort my inquiry. The nearest building of importance was the Anclote Psychiatric Hospital. In the Roaring Twenties, that hospital was a resort hotel where Al was a frequent visitor and believed by locals to be the owner. Research could not prove Capone's possession or that the scale was a part of the hotel, but speaking to a 94 year old previous employee, I found that the hotel had a large scale in the lobby that guests would drop a penny in and weigh themselves. That could be a historic link.
Weigh Scale
I found an Orage Belt hasten lock and every time I look at it, I am drawn to the suicide death of pioneer constructor and developer Hamilton Disston. It has a real historic link for me with the history of Tarpon Springs, Fl. The event that hastened the improvement of Tarpon Springs, as well as the southern half of Florida, was the Disston land purchase of 1881. Hamilton, a wealthy saw constructor from Philadelphia, shrewdly obtained 4,000,000 acres of state land at $.25 per acre from the Florida Internal correction Fund. The fund had been set up in 1855 to administer state lands that were ready for social purchase. The fund became mired in debt after the Civil War and by state statute, no land could be sold until the debt was cleared. Mr. Disston became the largest land owner in America and agreeing to all known records the largest land purchase ever made by an individual. He began to design Tarpon Springs and tried to use his persuasion and financial clout to bring the Orange Belt hasten headquarters to his newly establihed Disston City. The Russian engineer and developer of the Orange Belt railroad, decided to take the rail center to St. Petersburg, a city named after his homeland city.
Disston was devastated as he needed that link for the increase of his city and other local area investments.The panic of 1893, two severe freezes and the passing of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act set him back financially. Hamilton returned to Philadelphia after mortaging his Forida assets for million. On May 1, 1896 he was found dead in his bathtub with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. That Orange Belt lock and other relics from the railway hub in Tarpon Springs remind me of the historic link to the death of a man with the inherent to shape the destiny of Tarpon Springs and all of southern Florida too. I am writing this report at my desk on 207 S. Disston Avenue. Historians say that Disston could certainly have saved his financial empire and taken a place with the great leaders who developed the Sunshine State but his inability to collect headquarters for the Orange Belt Line contributed to his death at young age of 51 and Disston City became a small suburb (Gulf Port) of St. Petersburg.
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