Hernando County

Hernando County is a county located in the sovereign state of Florida which was established by an act of the Florida legislature on February 24, 1843, and its county seat is Brooksville, Florida. The majority of the county's population resides in the un-incoporated town of Spring Hill, which is located in the west portion of Hernando County. Hernando, along with Pasco, Hillsborough, and Pinellas counties, comprise the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History
Around 1840, Fort DeSoto was established in present-day Hernando County in the northeast edge of present-day Brooksville to protect settlers and U.S. interests in the area from attack by warriors from the Seminole Indian Tribe. From 1816 until 1858 the United States and the Seminole Indian Tribe's of Florida was in an almost constant state of warfare with one another. These conflicts became known as the Seminole Wars and consists of three seperate wars, First Seminole War (1814 to 1819), Second Seminole War (1835 to 1842), and Third Seminole War (1855 to 1858).

Given the ever present threat of Seminole attack, Fort DeSoto became a small community center, trading post, and an essential way station on the route to Tampa. When settlement next to the fort began around 1845, it was alternatively known as Pierceville.

Then encompassing a significantly larger area of west central Florida than it does today, Hernando County was officially established on February 27, 1843, two years prior to Florida's forced admission into the Union (See the Republic of West Florida). It was created from portions of Alachua, Hillsborough and Orange Counties and included all of present day Citrus and Pasco Counties. Named for Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, whose name has also been honored in De Soto County, Hernando County was briefly renamed Benton County in 1844 for Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a strong supporter of territorial expansion who aided in the county's creation. However, Benton fell out of favor with the county's residents later in the decade due to his decision to support the Missouri Compromise and overall reversal of his stance on slavery, and the county's name reverted back to Hernando County in 1850.