WILLIAM HOPE (1808-1898) was a son of William Hope (1769-1850) of Georgia. He was born in Liberty County, Ga., on Feb. 10, 1808, and died in Brooksville on Aug. 28, 1898. On April 15, 1832, he married Susan Mitchell Harville, b. 1809, d. July 12, 1836. On June 14, 1838, he married Jane E. Crum, b. July 10, 1814, d. March 14, 1845. Hers is the earliest marked grave in the Brooksville Cemetery. On April 16, 1846, he married Anna J. Wiggins, b. Jan. 18, 1826. In an 1891 interview he claimed to be the first white inhabitant of what is now Hernando County. A post office was established at Melendez on Oct. 4, 1850, with William Hope as Postmaster. An 1867 Freedmen’s Bureau report refers to a "William David Hope," who could be this person.
Mr. Hope’s children included:
Samuel Edward, b. 1833, q.v.
Robert Hodges, b. Feb. 19, 1836
William B., b. Mar. 25, 1839, may have died young
Virginia, b. May 12, 1841, m. W. J. Barnett (1841-1909), d. 1928
Indiana or Indianna, b. June 24, 1843, m. William M. Garrison (1820-1883)
Infant, b. Mar. 14, 1845
Idella or Adala, b. Aug. 14, 1847, m. William Allen (1871-1891)
Christian Ann, b. Nov. 13, 1849, m. William R. Bell
Susan Jane, b. Jan. 30, 1852, d. Nov. 21, 1855
William Eston, b. 1854 or b. June 21, 1841, m. Julia Reeves (b. 1857 in Wisconsin), d. 1932
Mary Frances, b. about 1856, d. Feb. 5, 1909, m1. James Rhodes (d., Jan. 1879), m2. Angus Patterson Nott (b. 1848; d. 1909)
Tululu Victoria or Talula Victoria, m. Frank E. Saxon
Jesse David or Jessy David, b. Mar. 26, 1861, m. Eliza Sharpe, d. Feb. 2, 1948
Lidia Lee, b. Dec. 20, 1864, m. John Steele
Lewis or Louis, b. July 30, 1868, m. Hattie A. Steele
DAVID HOPE (b. Aug. 10, 1819; d. Nov. 1879) was a son of William Hope (1769-1850) of Georgia. He was born in Liberty County, Georgia. He arrived in Hernando county in 1842. He and his brother Henry Hope Sr. voted in Hernando County in the 1845 election. David Hope’s original AOA grant was on the southeast side of Brooksville, but his residence during the Civil War was west of Brooksville towards Bayport. His plantation was set on fire in July 1864 when the Union troops landed at Bayport and marched and burned towards Brooksville. David Hope was appointed Postmaster of Fort Taylor on March 16, 1854. David Hope married Frances Sophia Pyles (b. March 4, 1828; d. Dec. 27, 1875) in 1842.
HOPE, DAVID WYNN (ca. 1866-1940). The twelfth child of David Hope and Frances Sophia Pyles was David Wynn Hope. He was born c. 1866 in Hernando Co., Florida. His mother died in 1875 and father in 1879, leaving the four minor children (Leila Louis G. P., David, and Henry Charity) as orphans. Their older siblings took the four in. Ann Pyles Crum took Matilda (Tilly) and Louis G. P., while William Maxie took both David and Charity (Chattie). They appear in their respective households on the 1880 U. S. Census.
Reaching manhood, David married Gertrude Luella Cooper (1867-1964) on 1 June 1890 and they lived in Floral City, Citrus Co., Florida. Reports are that David was a major citrus grover owner. Their son, William David, b. ca. 1892, m. Elsie B. Allen. Benjamin Aumond, b. ca. 1900, m. Della Whidden.
Eventually the family moved to the Ft. Myers area, settling in the Hawthorne community. A descendant, David Hope, recently told me that Gertrude stayed with Wallace Alderman while David Wynn went gator hunting and fishing in the Everglades. Later, David Wynn Hope owned a fish market in Ft. Myers. Wallace Alderman was the father of Nancy Alderman, a Hope cousin through David Wynn’s oldest sister, Charlotte Cecilia Hoope Seward.
HENRY HOPE (1819-1869) was a son of William Hope (1769-1850) of Georgia. He was born in Liberty County, Ga. His family moved to Alachua County around 1835. Henry served as a lieutenant in the first organization of the Spring Grove Guards and later as private. The 1840 census shows him living at Newnansville with his wife Alatha Frances Garrison.
After the Seminole War ended in 1842, he applied for a permit to settle south of TS’s 9 and 10 in what would become Hernando County. He was assigned AOA permit #411, but it was not used. He purchased his father-in-law’s AOA #441 which covered 160 acres in the Spring Lake area.
He probably arrived in Benton County in 1846. He and his wife and brother David are listed on the 1850 census of Benton County. When the Civil War broke out, Henry and other older men enlisted in a company of Old Rangers. The company lasted abut three months before they were mustered out. At the end of the war Henry was required to sign an Oath of Amnesty to the U. S. In 1867 he registered to vote in the 1868 election. He is buried with a C. S. A. Civil War headstone next to his gravestone in the Brooksville City Cemetery. His daughter is close by. There is no marker for his wife. On Feb. 23, 1870, a newspaper reported that William M. Garrison was named administrator of his estate.
Capt. SAMUEL EDWARD HOPE (1833-1919) was born in Georgia to William Hope (1808-1898) and his first wife Susan Mitchell Harville.
In 1856 Samuel first served in the Indian War as a First Lieutenant. He began his career as a surveyor in 1858. In 1860, he married Mary Henrietta Hooker, the daughter of prominent Florida pioneer William Brinton Hooker.
In 1860, he also entered an unsuccessful race against experienced local politician James T. Magbee for the state senate. Hope served in the Civil War beginning in 1862. In 1864, he was elected to the Florida Legislature.
In 1865, he was elected to represent Hernando County in the Constitutional Convention. In 1872 and 1879 he again served in the legislature from Hernando County. In August 1878, Samuel Hope moved his family to Anclote.
In 1885 Hope was a member of the Constitutional Convention from Hillsborough County. Samuel Hope remained at Anclote until 1905 when he moved to Tarpon Springs, acquiring a home built in 1884 by Nathaniel Stone Patten. He died on June 5, 1919, at Tarpon Springs.