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Johnson family builds community for future generations
By KATHY FERGUSON
| Article published on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/020106_smb-04.jpg) |
| Photo by KATHY FERGUSON |
| Marilyn Mohney, daughter of Jesse Johnson and Marjorie Campbell Johnson, shares a vintage photo of her parents and fond family memories at the Seminole Historical Society’s program at the community library. |
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SEMINOLE – Decades ago at a community meeting, when asked about his accomplishments, Jesse Wilder Johnson said, “I’m the best damn tractor driver in Pinellas County.”
But to the city of Seminole, Johnson is much more. A visionary pioneer. A benefactor for newcomers. A community developer. A devoted family man. And, according to accounts at the Jan. 25 Historical Society meeting, a positive role model for generations.
No doubt, Johnson is the acknowledged founding father of Seminole.
Marilyn Mohney, daughter of the pioneer Johnson family, spoke with affection about growing up with her entrepreneurial father and mother, Sarah Marjorie Campbell Johnson.
While Jesse’s family actually took root in Largo, the Campbell family came to what is now known as Seminole in 1873. Marjorie’s grandfather bought 80 acres and built a log house with a stick and mud chimney.
“Then they built a larger log house,” said Mohney, “but dreamed of living in a home built of lumber.”
The romance between Jesse and Marjorie blossomed at Largo High School.
“They started dating,” said Mohney. “He would walk from Largo to Seminole to see her. Sometimes he took the hand cart that the railroad had part of the way and then walk the rest of the way.”
In college, the young couple married and moved to Gainesville, returning to Seminole in 1929. On property Marjorie’s mother had given them, the Johnsons started Seminole Nurseries.
“My mother helped my dad get started in his business,” said Mohney. “She kept the books and drove the truck to pick up plants.”
Seminole Nurseries stretched across land from where Freedom Square is now to Seminole Boulevard. He owned the land where Seminole Mall and Seminole Gardens are now. Cows, horses and pigs roamed happily in his pasture that now holds Publix, CVS and a Dollar Store.
“He was always a man of vision and could see things into the future,” said Mohney.
Tired of having to drive to Clearwater to buy groceries, Johnson built the A&P Food Store on Seminole Boulevard. Then, Mohney said, he decided the area needed a bank.
“He built the Bank of Seminole that is now Wachovia Bank,” she added. “They had 21 branches before the bank was sold.”
Johnson constructed the boulevard now named after him and saw that a post office would fit nicely on it.
“It is now an air conditioning company,” said Mohney. He donated the land for the first library and Boy Scout District headquarters. “He was a Scout master and stayed in scouting all his life,” she added. “He received the highest awards in scouting, the Silver Beaver and the Silver Antelope.”
The pioneer went on to build the first part of Seminole Mall in 1965 and added the rest of it in 1970. Norm Haddad, whose wife, Jo Anne, is the Johnsons’ niece, remembers visiting with them in Gainesville.
“Jesse said, ‘Let me show you something I’m working on,’” remembered Haddad. On their dining room table, Johnson rolled out preliminary plans for Seminole Mall. “It was really something,” said Haddad.
Johnson also put pressure on county officials for additional roadways.
“He told the county he would give them the land, if they would build 113th Street,” Mohney said. Of course, county officials jumped at the idea.
Supporting community groups was also important to the Johnson family. They were active in the Seminole United Methodist Church and served on many committees. Jesse was president of the Clearwater Kiwanis Club and started the Seminole chapter in his living room. He had 49 years of perfect attendance in Kiwanis when he passed away.
Mohney added that her father started Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park and Sarasota Memorial Park. She remembers when Seminole Elementary was the only school, with two rooms and three grades in each room. “Five generations of my family have gone there,” Mohney said.
She remembers days of yesteryear during a more natural, slowed down environment. The Johnsons traveled to the beach by boat and built campfires.
“Those are some of my happiest memories,” she said. She remembers when Lake Seminole was part of Boca Ciega Bay, until Park Boulevard was constructed. “When it was salt, we could get mullet and oysters,” Mohney added.
“When I was growing up, there were about 12 homes on Seminole Boulevard, and we could ride our bikes to Bay Pines and back without any traffic,” said Mohney. “I have lived all my life in Seminole, not more than three blocks from where I was born.
“He was so happy when Seminole finally became a city,” Mohney said about her father who was the town’s first honorary mayor. But Johnson was always happiest, his daughter added, when outside, driving his tractor in the Seminole sunshine.
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Article published on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006
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