Individual Details

St. Joseph Retains Traits That Drew Settlers To Area
Published on July 11, 2003

ST. JOSEPH - One of the oldest communities in Pasco County remains virtually untouched by big development. Except for a scattering of new homes, St. Joseph remains much as it did in 1883 when the Barthle brothers came here from Minnesota.

Andrew Barthle was the first to arrive but stayed only three months before returning to his family in St. Joseph, Minn. Barthle's reports of the sun-drenched South were encouragement enough for older brother Bernard to move to Florida with his wife, Agnes, and their family of eight children.. In June 1883 they established the first permanent home of the St. Joseph community. The forty acre site where they settled is located on what is now County Road 578, just west of Scharber Road.

Andrew returned to Florida in January 1885, bringing with his wife, Elizabeth, and their five children. They built their home on the forty acre plot opposite Bernard's. This properiy now belongs to the Frassand family. Andrew, however, soon re-located to the corner tract of land west of Sacred Heart Church

St. Petersburg Times; St. Petersburg; Feb 24, 1993; JAN GLIDEWELL

To get to St. Joseph you first must find the corner of Dade City where the more comfortable homes drape Tank Hill and ease gently into the rolling hills and pastureland where a few walled estates crouch ready to spring into full-fledged mansionhood.

Beyond that you find stolid wooden cracker homes interspersed with a comfortable quilt-work of Mediterranean and Tudor-style homes, concrete block cottages and an occasional mobile home, all surrounded with acres of lush grass where cattle graze placidly next to shining lakes.

You go past the symbols of rugged country determination - orange groves bravely replanted after two devastating freezes turned grove owners into firewood salesmen. You have to know the area well to pick out what passes for industry there, a burial vault manufacturing plant, a kumquat packing house and a cabinet shop.

The second largest sign in town is on the side of its commercial center - the St. Joe Store. The largest is on the racquetball court at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. It reads, "Welcome."

The Rev. Paul Romfh, pastor of Sacred Heart, is charged with the spiritual welfare of many of the community's 1,471 households.

St. Joseph is one of those communities where everybody knows everybody and most residents are somehow related.

It was settled in the early 1880s along with nearby Saint Leo, and Sacred Heart was founded in 1888 when two brothers named Andrew Barthle and Joe Nathe petitioned for permission to build a church for the area's German-speaking Catholics.

A sizable portion of the town residents now are descendants of the Barthle and Nathe families along with Blommels and Gudes and other pioneer descendants.

From School Board Minutes, Pasco County, Florida
On July 6, 1891 a school was granted at St. Joseph, No. 32. Andrew Barthle, supervisor.

Andrew and Berta Homberg were married on 10 June 1873 in Minnesota.

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Birth	December 9, 1848	Waldstetten, Jagstkreis, Wuerttemberg
Immigration	February, 1861	Waldstetten Jagstkreis, Wuerttemberg, Germany
Census	1880	Millwood, Stearns, Minnesota, USA
Census	June, 1900	Farmer, Chipco, Pasco Co., FL
Census	April, 1910	Trucker Fruits and Vegetables, St. Joseph, Pasco Co., FL
Census	January, 1920	Farmer, San Antonio, Pasco Co., FL
Death	May 13, 1923	St. Joseph, FL--he was 74
Burial	May 14, 1923	Burial Place: St Joseph, Fla.

Spouse	Elizabeth Lizzie "Berta" Homberg (1854 - 1947)
Child	Mathias John Barthle (1874 - 1967)
Child	Anne Elizabeth Barthle (1875 - 1878)
Child	Charles Joseph Barthle (1878 - 1963)
Child	Maria "Mary" Magdalena Barthle (1880 - 1914)
Child	Bernard "Ben" Benedict Barthle (1883 - 1959)
Child	Josephine Agnes Barthle (1885 - 1971)
Child	Mary Elizabeth Barthle (1887 - )
Child	Casper Andrew Barthle (1890 - 1960)
Child	John Robert Barthle (1893 - 1983)
Child	Andrew Peter Barthle (1896 - 1983)

Father	Andrew "Andreas" Barthle Sr (1802 - 1891)
Mother	Maria Anna Menrad (1811 - )