John Honc

John Honc, the patriarch of the Honc family, is also a pioneer here on Pine Island, born right here in 1935. This is an oral history interview with John, a lifelong resident of Pine Island, who recounts his family’s immigration from Czechoslovakia and their role in developing the island’s agricultural industry. His father arrived in the U.S. in 1911, sought warmer weather after time in Chicago, and came to Florida to work for Jim Hendry at Everglades Nursery. Initially trying avocados, he became the island’s first mango grower, developing grafting methods that supplied most original groves on Pine Island. John describes early life before roads and bridges connected the island, when fishing and agriculture were the main livelihoods, and his family’s Catholic faith and large household of nine children. He recalls mosquito infestations, hurricanes, lumbering, and supplying cut flowers to the Boca Grande Hotel. Preferring work over hunting or fishing, John helped his father in the nursery. Drawn to machinery, he moved into land clearing, seawall building, and other heavy equipment work from the mid-1950s, servicing both the family’s agricultural needs and the growing demand for land development on Pine Island and nearby counties.