The Riverview area was also called Peru?
By PENNY FLETCHER
It’s hard to believe I’m already writing the second column in 2017 and that it’s been four months since the automobile accident that put me in a wheelchair, followed by braces on both legs. So instead of running around photographing and writing your local news and features like I have done since 1984 when I moved from Bradenton to Ruskin to marry a second-generation Ruskin native, I’m writing a column from the comfort of my living room couch.
Each week I receive e-mail from a reader — or readers — about some long-past event that took place somewhere in South County that opens another whole new idea for what I write next, so please keep up the good work.
Today’s subject is Riverview; the town that is a combination of two former towns, one on the north side of the Alafia River and one on the south.
For the benefit of newcomers to the area, the word Alafia comes from the Native American term “Alafeah” which in their language, meant “river of fire.” This is because the water had phosphorus in it, and at night would sparkle with bright flecks of light that appeared to them to be “fire-like.”
I know, having boated the Alafia at night, that this still appears, although with less and less frequency and brightness every time I see it.
Jill Tucker-Smith, who co-owns The South Shore Shabby Shack LLC & The Marketplace in Apollo Beach, (one of the most unusual home goods stores in the area) wrote me that her family was one of Riverview’s early founders, settling in what was then called Peru (pronounced P-ru).
“I’m from the Tucker, Murphy, Barnes and Whitt clans,” she said. “My great-grandmother, Mary Lillian Murphy-Whitt, told us stories of being a pioneer to Peru, Hillsborough and Manatee counties. The curves on Balm-Riverview Road were literally horse and buggy trails, Tucker Road, Whitt Road, and yes, Uncle Tom Road in Riverview were just a few of the roads named after my daddy’s family.”
Tucker-Smith’s maternal great-grandmother was Mary Lillian Murphy-Whitt, daughter of John Murphy, who was the son of Thomas James Murphy, a member of Ybor City’s earliest lawmen.
The Murphys originally came to the United States from Ireland about 1835 as recorded in the Tampa-Hillsborough County census files.
Tucker-Smith said that Thomas J. Murphy is buried next to his mother, Jane Murphy-Richardson and his three brothers, in Tampa’s historic Oaklawn Cemetery.
Tucker-Smith’s dad still lives on property at the end of Tucker Road where he and his children all grew up. This area later became Tropical Acres, where homes are still zoned agricultural, so people may keep horses and other animals and choose either houses or mobile homes.
When I moved to Summerfield (which abuts Tropical Acres on the west side) from Ruskin in 2003, Tropical Acres was still a lazy community off by itself. Since then, developments fronting U.S. 301 have crept eastward to its entrances which all are on or near Balm Riverview Road.
Tucker-Smith said when she was going to the Riverview Elementary School, children used to cut through woods just south of their house. That area was still all woods as recently as the millennium.
“When he was younger my dad and his brother Jerry used to jump off the wooden bridge on U.S. 301 over the Alafia to go swimming,” she continued. “The water was so clean and clear back then.”
It would be impossible for anyone to jump off that bridge now without being honked at by a dozen cars.
That has just happened in the time since I moved to Riverview, so I can imagine all the changes Tucker-Smith’s dad has seen happen. Maybe another day I’ll talk about what it was like living on the southern-most street in Summerfield before they built houses behind it.
Meanwhile, back to the history of Riverview and Peru, the area that is now all called Riverview.
The first-known written account of its history is found in the Tampa Hillsborough County Library Historical Record Section, in the form of a seven-page letter written by Norma Frazier on July 4, 1976.
It can be found online at digitalcollections.hcplc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15391coll2/id/5729 and is an interesting read, telling the story of how the natives named the river Alafeah and how the towns of Peru and Riverview were connected by ferry until the first bridge was built.
Peru is believed to have been first settled in 1856 and named for the Peruvian Mining Company that drew its resources from the surrounding land at that time.
Mail was sent to a post office on the south side of the river in Peru and was distributed by horseback.
The story of how Peru was gradually blended into Riverview and finally lost its identity with the county in 1984 is for another time.
It would be good to hear from some more of the descendants of the early settlers of that area like the Moody, Simmons, Saffolds, and others whose families settled the land that is now Riverview, and have had so many streets, bridges and other things named for their efforts.
Thank you, Jill Tucker-Smith, for the small peek into your family’s past that initiated the research for this column.
Come on South County, let me hear your stories. Mine only goes back to 1984, so anything before that is especially appreciated.
Until next week, thank you for your readership and please keep writing. You can send your e-mails to penny@observernews.net.