History of the Mount Zion Cemetery and

Like many other Pasco County cemeteries the Mt. Zion Cemetery, located off of St. Joe Road, predates the formation of the county itself. The Fort Dade Post Office was located nearby in 1884 with Robert J. Marshall as postmaster.

The 1885 Webb's Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida says Newton Carter first settled in Fort Dade in 1869. In 1869 Newton or Nathan Carter moved to what was then Hernando County, from Sumter, and settled on 80 acres of property, which included the property of the cemetery. Newton cleared and cultivated his 80 acres and planted orange groves from wild sour orange trees he had brought up out of the nearby hammocks, he grafted the sour trees to make the oranges sweet. Newton served several years as county commissioner before Pasco was formed. In 1875 and 1883 Newton represented Hernando County as a state legislator. Rev. Munden, a local Methodist preacher, converted Newton to the Methodist religion in 1870. In 1871 Newton allowed for the construction of a Methodist church on his property.

With the help of Wright W. Williamson, Mr. Strickland, and Mr. Lyons, the men hand sawed timbers into rough boards and built a magnificent two-story building which became known as both the Fort Dade Methodist Church and the Mt. Zion Methodist Church. Soon after the completion of the church building in 1872, the first funeral was performed and the cemetery was started. On 12 March 1872 William S. Jackson was laid to rest as the first person to be interred in the new Mt. Zion Cemetery. Like William's headstone there are several in the cemetery dating to the late 1870's and 1880's, many of which read "Sacred to the Memory of." These types of headstones are called "kit headstones" meaning that they were usually made from kits purchased from the local stores. These kits came complete with lettering for the individuals name and the headstone shaped mold; "Sacred to the Memory of" was already a part of each mold, somewhat like a trademark. The lettering and dates, for the individual, were laid in the mold and a mix of concrete was poured in. These types of headstones are examples of the early means of marking graves besides doing so with wooden crosses. These small "kit headstones" usually do not weather very well, typically they are impossible to read and with time they get worse; they are also extremely fragile and many times they lay in pieces. Many of the headstones in the Mt. Zion Cemetery are this type of headstone however they are very well kept; most of the information can still be read. Most of these older headstones lie in a section which appears to be the original

According to a 1928 article, "John Howell located here in 1865 from Georgia settling near the old Fort Dade." He later ran a Grist Mill located at the end of present-day Hudson Road, a short distance from the Mt. Zion Cemetery. According to J. A. Hendley, the Howell Grist Mill was in operation ca. 1875 and was located near the Hudson Farm. There was also a sawmill in operation nearby. On 17 February 1871 John George Howell and a few other local men formed the Fort Dade Masonic Lodge No. 48. After the completion of the Mt. Zion Church in 1872 the second floor was reserved and used by this newly-formed Masonic organization.

According to Pasco County land records on October 12th 1881, 9 years after the church was built, Newton Carter deeded (11) eleven acres of his property to the Florida Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Conference- Fort Dade Circuit Tampa Dist. and the Trustees of the Fort Dade Methodist Church. (click here to see 1881 deed)  According to Pasco County land records, in 1919 A.A. Boone, John Raymond, J.C. Carter and W.W. Slone as trustees of the Fort Dade Methodist Church, sold (5) five acres of the church proprety.  "The trustees had decided that they did not need that amount of land, (11) eleven acres, for purposes at the Fort Dade Church." 

By 1882 this area was known as part of Judge Dunne's Catholic Settlement of St. Joe for which the St. Joe Road was named; the Mt. Zion Church and the Fort Dade Masonic Lodge continued. Sometime during 1885 John G. Howell passed away and was laid to rest in the Mt. Zion Cemetery and his sons went on to carry his honor in the Fort Dade Masonic Lodge. In 1892 several local Masonic Lodges gathered for a meeting in Dade City after which a picture was taken capturing the images of members from the Fort Dade Lodge; this is the oldest known picture of downtown Dade City. The Fort Dade Masonic Lodge still gathers today under the name Dade City Masonic Lodge No. 48.

Among the numerous Masonic Lodge members buried in the Mt. Zion Cemetery, there are also several of those who served during the Civil War. There are at least 28 marked graves of known Confederate soldiers. There is also another organization represented through the grave markers in the Mt. Zion Cemetery and that is the Woodsman of the World Organization. Since Florida was deeply involved in the timber industry, there were several local chapters of the Woodsman of the World Organization in Pasco County, none of which, from our area, survived. The Woodsman of the World markers are very distinct. They stand about 5 feet tall and are made to look like the trunk of a tree. The Mt. Zion Cemetery became the final resting place for numerous Pasco County Pioneers

An early photo of Masons in Dade City dated 1892 is here.

On 20 October 1921 during one of the greatest land booms in Florida’s History, a hurricane was forming in the Western Caribbean.  This was nearly a half a century before the National Weather Service began naming storms and the only thing weather forecasters could do was watch to see if the barometer fell, if so the indication of the hurricane coming was likely.  There were advisories issued the following morning and on 24 October 1921 the headlines read “The Weather Forecasters Say Storm Will Come In 24 hours.”  Residents had virtually no warning what so ever, as the barometer reached an all time low, the indication of a devastating hurricane was on the horizon.  On Tuesday 25 October 1921 the most powerful category 3 hurricane ever documented in Tampa Bay’s history made landfall, forecasters say the storm made land fall somewhere along Pasco County’s coast causing wide spread damage.  As the hurricane pushed ashore it packed winds with speeds more than 100 mph causing 6 deaths and a reported 1-10 million dollars in damage, 10 times that in today’s dollars.  A wall of water 10-12 feet high was pushed into Tampa Bay causing significant street flooding in downtown.  There were rumors that Pass-A-Grille had been completely wiped out.  There were numerous historic buildings across the Tampa Bay region destroyed including the 2-story Mt. Zion Methodist Church.  It was thought that this hurricane would put a damper on the Florida land boom so residents rebuilt as quickly as possible and the land boom continued.  The Mt. Zion Methodist Church was never rebuilt and the congregation began attending other local churches.

Throughout the years the Mt. Zion Cemetery has grown in size and in 1977 the Mt. Zion Cemetery Association was formed for the purpose of perpetual care and maintenance of the cemetery. This association has been meeting on the third Saturday of March and September, for a planned workday, ever since the association was formed in 1977. The cemetery is approximately 6 acres in size with a newly added section. The Mt. Zion Cemetery has grown to accommodate close to 1000 burials many of which are pioneer families of Pasco County; the cemetery still remains active today. As the numbers of those interred here continues to grow so will the history of this one time small country cemetery.

Typical Woodsman of the World headstone. This headstone marks the grave of J. D. Morgan Nov. 27, 1868 - Mar. 11, 1918. Morgan was a member of one of the many local chapters of the Woodsman of the World Organization here in Pasco County. A larger image is here.

This article and photos were contributed by Jeff Cannon. It was last revised on Oct. 16, 2005.