In 1961, Rudolph and Anne Rhode, prominent citizens of San Antonio, Florida, offered a variety of old farm equipment to the Pasco County Fair Association. The Association accepted 37 vehicles and tools of yesteryear. This gift provided the incentive for forming the Pioneer Florida Museum Association with 87 Charter Members. The main Museum is housed in a 50' by 100' steel building, with a couple additions over the years, which features a rustic front porch vignette, a medical room, a comprehensive collection of woodworking tools, a unique collection of dolls, representing the first ladies of Florida. Also, on the grounds stand the restored 1860 Overstreet House, a one-room school house from Lacoochee, a church from Enterprise, the Trilby Train depot, and a 1913 Porter steam locomotive, a working Sugar Cane Mill, Blacksmith Shop, Wood Working Shop, Carriage Collection, Blanton Citrus Packing Building, the CC Smith General Store and more. The 16 beautiful wooded acres were a gift from a Museum Association Charter Member. The Association has established a Museum that recalls the basic, simple values of our forebears, asserts the dignity of labor, and emphasizes the value of craftsmanship. On display are tools of the Florida Pioneers, showing how he built his house, made his furniture, plowed his fields, harvested his crops, and performed wood and metal craft. On display in the Overstreet House and kitchen addition, are furnishings which reflect the Florida Pioneer Woman's everyday experiences - churning butter, cooking on a wood-burning stove, spinning, weaving, battling and boiling the family wash and other household tasks with simple primitive equipment. The Pioneer Florida Museum hopes to show that the men and women who were here before us, struggled, sometimes won and sometimes lost their battles with nature. In essence, they were people much like us.
