Meet the ‘crazy Dutchman’ who modernized Tampa dairies

TAMPA — August Van Eepoel Sr. was initially known as “that crazy Dutchman,” according to news archives, but his nickname was later upgraded to “that Dutchman with a vision.”

Tom Van Eepoel was raised to know Van Eepoel Sr. as a prominent dairy farmer in Tampa in the early 1900s.

But now, after spending nearly a decade researching his family tree, Tom Van Eepoel has upgraded how he refers to his great-grandfather.

“He was a Tampa pioneer,” he said. “And one of the more important men of his time.”

Van Eepoel Sr. owned the largest dairy operation in Tampa, brought pasteurized milk to the city, established a new community and built one of the area’s earliest ferries.

“Everyone should know his story,” Tom Van Eepoel said. “He is part of Tampa history.”

Van Eepoel Sr. was born and raised in Belgium in 1872, studied medicine and then worked as a florist in New York City beginning in 1896.

Two years later, Tom Van Eepoel’s research shows that he relocated to Tampa to raise plants that he could sell to northern markets.

But Van Eepoel Sr. saw more promise in the dairy business and purchased 600 acres in the area located between the Alafia River and Palm River, now also known as the Tampa Bypass Canal.

Only a few fishermen lived in that area back then. A trip by land to the city took nine hours. Van Eepoel Sr. treated his rattlesnake bites by packing the wounds with salt. Fish were used as fertilizer. And Van Eepoel Sr.’s friend from Belgium opened a medical clinic at the dairy.

“Everything was done from pulling teeth to caring for ingrown nails,” reads a Tampa Morning Tribune story from early 1900s about the clinic. “One of the most skilled pieces of work performed was the removal of a man’s eye. There were no chairs, no operating tables. Nothing but in a shed in the open ... Mr. Van Eepoel was the able assistant of the doctor.”

Ticks were a problem for cows, so Van Eepoel Sr. established the area’s first dipping station, an act that garnered him the nickname “that crazy Dutchman,” as in “that crazy Dutchman is baptizing his cows, hoping to get more milk,” Tom Van Eepoel said.

Tired of the long trek into Tampa, Van Eepoel Sr. badgered the Hillsborough County Commission for a ferry across the Palm River. Repeatedly denied, he financed the ferry and a road leading to the dock.

He later sold 150 acres of his farm and used the profit to build one of the largest dairy barns in the state, purchased the first cream separator in the city and established downtown’s first milk depot.

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The name “that crazy Dutchman” was reborn in 1921 when he installed Tampa’s first milk pasteurizer at his operation. Other dairymen called him “that crazy Dutchman who boils his milk,” Tom Van Eepoel said.

His business thrived. In 1923, Van Eepoel Sr. erected the Tampa Stock Farms Dairy building in downtown Tampa to house the city’s first modern treatment and bottling plant for milk taken from 26 farms he developed throughout the county.

In 1925, when pasteurized milk became a city rule and cars commuting daily to and from the area between the Palm and Alafia rivers, Van Eepoel Sr. was seen in a different light.

He became known as “that Dutchman with a vision,” Tom Van Eepoel said.

Van Eepoel Sr. died in a Georgia train wreck in 1930. He was 58.

One final act placed him in newspaper headlines again. He left $5,000 to a Palm River woman who, on his advice, had deposited her life’s savings into a bank that later went bankrupt.

“This way, my mind will be relieved, and I won’t worry anymore on that particular,” the will said.

Hundreds attended his funeral, and the newspapers described the man formerly known as “that crazy Dutchman” as the man who “developed Florida’s most extensive systems of farms and farming interests.”

Tom Van Eepoel is not sure why his great-grandfather’s contributions have been overlooked, but hopes that changes.

“My great-grandfather was really a pretty extraordinary man,” he said. “He should be remembered.”