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THE WISE CRACKER !The Society’s newsletter is published quarterly and is filled to the brim with news about what’s happening in the Largo area of interest to historians. In addition, articles are written by many contributing authors about pioneer families, historical places of interest, and exciting events of the past. Tucked inside The Wise Cracker there are also plenty of photos and information about Society events, articles relating to the Society’s preservation and museum projects, as well as some good old-fashioned “cracker” recipes submitted by members of the Society.
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Check out theses excerpts from a recent issue of
The Wise Cracker!
| Largo Area Historical Society News 
The Many Names of Largo…… In big bold letters, the headline of the Largo Sentinel read "YOU MAY LIVE IN 34640". John Hutchinson was Editor of the Sentinel in 1966 when he learned that the U.S. Postal Service was about to introduce something new, the Zip Code. Talk all over town was that city names were a thing of the past. Would Largo lose its name to a number? Now, forty years later we know that didn't happen, but Largo has had many opportunities to have a different name.
Live around Largo for any length of time and you will hear the story of Luluville and how Largo almost had that for a name. Is the story true? Some to this day will say "yes", but most historians now say, "Well, it was a good story". Like any story, some of what you hear does come from truth, but over the years maybe a bit more was added. While to this day we cannot say for certain how Largo did in fact receive the name 'Largo', modern theory uses a few more facts than what was had in previous years . . .
; History of Kramer Groves "The evolution of the citrus business of the Kramer family in the Largo/Seminole area started in the late 1920s and early 1930s," states Jim Kramer. The Kramer family's interest in citrus, however, actually goes back to 1888 when Jim's great-grandfather, Frederick Charles William Kramer, his wife, Adelheid, and young son, Charles Herman Kramer, moved from Mississippi to Leesburg, Florida where Fred began growing Florida citrus. Fred passed his knowledge and interests down to his sons, Fred, Jr., and Charles, in hopes "his offspring would one day blossom into citrus entrepreneurs themselves." Charles H. Kramer, born in Mississippi in 1875, married Amelia May Sawyer Wilson in St. Petersburg in 1912. They soon left Florida and moved to Oklahoma where Charles worked in the oil fields. It didn't take long, however, for them to realize they missed Florida and returned to St. Petersburg where on August 2, 1913, they welcomed Charles Herman Kramer, Jr. into the family. Charles (Sr.) worked as a trolley car driver with the City of St. Petersburg until he purchased a citrus grove in the area of what is now the home of a portion of the St. Petersburg College campus located between Ridge Road and 113th Street in Seminole. Thus the beginning of C.H. Kramer Grove . . . . |