 In 1834 much of west central Florida, including the Pinellas peninsula (then known simply as "West Hillsborough"), was organized as Hillsborough County.The very next year Odet Philippe, a French Huguenot from Charleston, South Carolina became the first permanent, non-native resident of the peninsula when he established a plantation near the site of the Tocobaga village in Safety Harbor.It was Philippe who first introduced both citrus culture and cigar-making to Florida.