Seffner was first
established in 1829 by a Baptist minister name Rev. David
Simmons ministering to the Seminole Indians. After being warned
by Indians fond of the minister, an Indian war forced the few
new found neighbors to Ft. Brooke (now Tampa). The town
temporarily took on a different name of Lenna City during the
construction of the Florida Central and Peninsula Railroad, but
was renamed for its first postmaster, F.P. Seffner. One notable
resident that made his homestead around the lakes in Seffner is
Thomas Weeks now known as Lake Weeks. Early Seffner gained some
its population from the yellow fever epidemic that hit Tampa in
the fall of 1887 where people fled for safety of the sickness.
Seffner suffered losses in population in 1894 and 1895 due to a
hard freeze. Among the growth in population, a large number of
poultry, truck farms and citrus farms grew demanding more roads.
Seffner’s population grew substainably in the new miliemum
starting in 2000 at 5,467 growing to over 21,000 people in 2005
and reaching nearly 37,000 in 2007. Seffner’s median income is
$52,400 and the average age is 37. Seffner’s has an abundance of
affordable country houses and planned subdivisions.
