Thaddeus Edgar Johnson

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Now, most folks, when the bottom fell out of the economy in 1930, were closing doors, not opening them. But T.

Edgar Johnson was not most folks. This lawyer and World War I veteran, born in 1889, looked at the Great Depression staring him down and decided that was exactly the right moment to open a car dealership. You heard me right.

He gathered resources from family and friends, pulled up stakes with his wife Robbie Laurine, she was a Davis by birth, and their daughter, and the whole Johnson family moved from Breckenridge to Vernon, Texas. Edgar had been a successful attorney back in Breckenridge, so he wasn't a man who made reckless moves. He had a plan.

The result was the Johnson-Davis Ford Company, right here at this location in Vernon. And here's the thing about that plan: it worked. The business didn't just survive the Depression, it thrived.

For thirty years, Johnson-Davis Ford grew into a leading transportation business in the region. Thirty years. Through the hardest economic stretch this country had seen, and well beyond it.

But Edgar Johnson wasn't a man content to just run a successful business and call it done. He served as a board member of the Pease River Flood Control District. He became a longtime board member of the Vernon Chamber of Commerce, and in 1937, he was its president, helping the local economy to prosper even as the hard years lingered.

T. Edgar Johnson passed in 1972. Lawyer, veteran, dealer, civic leader.

He opened a Ford dealership in the teeth of the Great Depression and spent the rest of his life making sure Vernon was better for it. Not bad for a man who simply refused to wait for a good time.

What the marker says

Lawyer and World War I veteran, T. Edgar Johnson (1889-1972), gathered resources from family and friends to open Johnson-Davis Ford Company in Vernon in 1930 at this location. The business thrived during the Great Depression, becoming a leading transportation business in the region for thirty years. T. Edgar, his wife, Robbie Laurine (Davis), and their daughter moved here from Breckenridge, where he had been a successful attorney. Johnson served the community as a board member of the Pease River Flood Control District. He was also a longtime board member of the Vernon Chamber of Commerce and its president in 1937, helping the local economy to prosper. (2015)