The Bayport Cemetery is among the oldest cemeteries in Hernando County, . The Cemetery dates to at least 1857 with the internment of Bayport founder Thomas H. Parsons.


S30 T22S R17E
50W Past Aztec Ave (Driftwood Drive) .1 Mile on left 150'
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You can get to Bayport by taking Highway 50 (Cortez Blvd) west from Highway 19 at Weeki Wachee. You will first pass through the north end (Coogler's Beach) where there are a handful of residences. Once you reach the park at the terminus of the roadway, you will be at the former townsite, which is now primarily owned by SWFMD. Just north of the park entrance, there are a few older houses along Cortez and some of the former streets, which are barely discernible. The former townsite has otherwise been reclaimed by nature and is all but grown over.
REMAINS: Very little to none from the original townsite. A few barely discernible dirt/gravel road and some older houses. The original townsite is mosty grown over.
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Today there are only three headstones that mark the burials of the Bayport Cemetery, these were too big and heavy to steal. Those stones that were stolen were located in a Hernando County pawn shop and court ordered to be given to the May-Stringer Museum in Brooksville where they currently reside today.

On August 12, 1852, Thomas H. Parsons, a Levy County resident and family friend to then State Senator David Yulee, purchased the first piece of property in what would soon become known as Bayport. Thomas Henry Parsons was a nephew to John Parsons who was also the business partner of David Levy Yulee, through the Florida Railroad Company. John Parsons and David Levy Yulee were not only involved with the Florida Railroad Company but they were also engaged in their own business ventures throughout the state, the Yulee-Parsons partnership were owners of large amounts of property and interest throughout the State of Florida.

Ca. 1856-1857 there also came a need to establish a community cemetery. Upon plotting the current location of the Bayport Cemetery as it is known today, it is revealed that the cemetery was located on a portion of property originally owned by Thomas W. Day and purchased by Thomas and John Parsons. The first burial in the Bayport Cemetery is not known but is believed to be a child. It is also believed that Bayport was refuge for troops during the Third Seminole Indian War 1855-58 since the first road built to the area was a military road built by Col William Davenport in 1838. Troops were likely receiving rations through Bayport's port and possibly medical services from the residents of Bayport. It is believed that as some of these soldiers became stricken with illness and died, they were also laid to rest in the Bayport Cemetery. Among the soldiers believed to be buried at Bayport was Robert Daniel Rewis who according to Rewis Family research, died sometime in 1856 of brain fever, while at the Cowart House in Bayport during service the Second Seminole Indian War, however this cannot be confirmed due to vandalism of the cemetery and lack of markers.
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Old Bayport Cemetery Reflects History of the County

This article appeared in the Brooksville Sun on Aug. 17, 1951.
By EDITH F. CRAIGIE

Bayport, long a favorite rendezvous of Brooksville people who like its quiet appeal, has undergone a sort of face-lifting in recent years. But one place which has not changed is the old cemetery on the hill, just this side of the Adrian Bell cottage.

Nobody seems to know much about its history, except that it has been there a very long time. Not far from the road into Bayport, and still accessible by foot, the wilderness is creeping up on it, and some of the tombstones are a bit askew, as the accompanying pictures will show. Huckleberries grow in profusion in the vicinity of the old graves, and no doubt snakes find it a happy hunting ground, for very few sightseers visit the place these days. In the spirit of brooding peace, there is a sense of forgotten people and forgotten times, an eerie, out-of-the-world atmosphere that is almost palpable.

No one knows how the tombstones were transported to Bayport but perhaps they were brought in by water. According to the Hon. H. C. Mickler, a retired Hernando County Clark, [a son of] Maj. Garrason (or Garrison) was the first white male child born in this county. There are said to be more people buried in the Bayport cemetery than are accounted for by headstones, the graves having long since been leveled and eradicated by the inroads of time and nature.