Lina Nissley
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Samuel Pasco likely did not expect to have a county that he never visited named after him.
Pasco was born in London, England June 28, 1834 - later immigrating with his family to the United States to settle in Charleston, Mass. He later attended Harvard University and moved to Jefferson County after graduating.
Pasco served as the principal of Waukeenah Academy in Monticello from 1860 to 1861, but left his position in education to join the Confederate Army, where he served until 1865. Pasco was eventually wounded in battle and captured by Union forces in Mississippi, where he remained in prison for the rest of the war until he was paroled in March of 1865. He then immediately returned to Jefferson County, where he resumed his position as principal of Waukeenah Academy.
After his time in the war, he continued to serve as the academy's principal for a year, until he resigned from that position in 1866. He remained in the county, though, and took the position of Jefferson County Clerk of Court – a title he held until 1868, then becoming an attorney and practicing law in Monticello.
He became a well-known and respected lawyer in the area and the following year, on October 28, he married Jessie Dunham and together they had two daughters and three sons. One of their sons, William Denham Pasco, would go on to serve in the Spanish-American war as a lieutenant.
In 1887, Pasco was elected to a seat in the United States Senate, where he served as one of the Democrat senators, and he continued to serve his county and county as a senator for the next 12 years. During his service as senator, Pasco County was named in his honor, despite Pasco never having stepped foot in the area, according to local records.
Pasco was a prominent politician in Florida as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, where he briefly served as a speaker, and president of the convention which wrote the Florida Constitution of 1885. Most notably, Pasco was a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, which decided on and oversaw the construction of the Panama Canal. Shortly after the construction began in 1905, Pasco retired from public life and moved back to Monticello, where he chose to reside in a home located on 710 W. Washington St.
Pasco eventually died in 1917 in Tampa, Fla. at the age of 86. His remains were transferred back to Jefferson County, where they remain buried in Monticello’s Roseland Cemetery.
After his death, Samuel Pasco was fondly remembered as a reputable source of historical information about Jefferson County. In 1910, as part of a dedication ceremony for the opening of the Jefferson County courthouse, (which still stands today), Pasco gave a speech recollecting his knowledge of Jefferson County’s history. His lengthy historical speech is still considered valuable documentation of the county for subsequent research by Floridian historians.
(Source: Familiar Faces and Quiet Places by Dee Counts)
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