Cemeteries of Florida presents:

Cycadia Cemetery

Tarpon Springs, Florida

 

Tarpon Springs was already settled in a small way as a fishing resort due to the large numbers of tarpon in the springs in the Anclote River area in the late 1860s. At this time the sponge industry in America was located primarily in Key West. There, the Conchs harvested sponges by pulling them from the bottom with long handled hooks. When war broke out in Cuba, the Conchs moved to the Hillsborough area where a fledgling sponge industry established by John Cheyney was struggling to survive. John Cocoris was sent by a Greek sponge buyer with offices in New York to evaluate the possibilities for their company. Cocoris concluded that while there were rich sponge beds, the old method of hooking sponges had to go. He sent for brothers, divers and equipment from Greece. The Greek method was to dive in a suit supplied by air pumps on the surface and weighted so that the diver walked on the bottom far deeper than the hooking method could reach. This way, more sponges of the highest quality could be harvested much faster. More Greeks came, families begun and the sponge harvest went on. Customs and traditions took root in a new land along with a Greek Orthodox Church. Life had its risks, death was always a threat for the divers, but was sweet. In 1947, the sponge industry was destroyed by a long plague of Red Tide. Tarpon Springs now is primarily a tourist attraction. And life is sweet again.

There is a transcript of Cycadia Cemetery on
Florida - The Tombstone Transcription Project.


HOME
UP to
Cemeteries of Florida
Original posting of this section: December 11, 2002
Cemeteries of Florida
Copyright, All Rights Reserved © 1998 - 2003 Cheryl Alexander
All content (title, code, graphics, text and photographs) by Cheryl Alexander, unless otherwise indicated. Content may not be redistributed or reproduced in any medium without express written consent of the Author.