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An interview
with Judge Alfred Marshall |
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"My mother, father and their four small children arrived in Clearwater in March, 1910, coming from Berryville, Va. In some ways that doesn’t seem like 64 years ago." Judge Alfred Marshall spoke with animation as he relaxed in the den of his Belleair Bluffs home. "My father immediately rented a home - it’s still standing at the corner of North Fort Harrison Avenue and Jones Street - then rented a building where Wolf Brothers is now and opened a grocery store. "In June of that year came the big fire which burned out most of the old wooden buildings in that block of Cleveland. While the ashes were still smoldering, Dad got on the "short," the train that ran from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg, in order to catch the boat that ran over to Tampa. In Tampa he talked with grocery wholesalers, and arranged for a boatload of groceries to be shipped over to Clearwater right away. When he returned he rented another store and two days after the fire he was selling groceries again in his new place." Judge Marshall paused only for a moment before going on. "I used to work in the store on Saturdays and before and after school until Dad traded the store for property on Edgewater Drive in Dunedin. Then later on he began to buy grove lands, mostly from Mr. L. B. Skinner, and from Mr. Zimmerman. "We lived about where the Upton house is now, with the A. S. Nelson family next door. There was no one living north of us until you got right into the main part of Dunedin, and there were only two houses between ours and Stevenson Creek to the south. "Then Dad finally sold his groves and bought the old building where the Grey Moss Inn is now. Our home was on the land where the Baptist Church is now, but Dad finally sold it to the church. There was nothing between us and the bay in those days. "When I was married in 1920 (to Jessie Chesnut, sister of John Chesnut, Sr.,) my family was still living in that home. Jessie and I moved into a home at 606 North Osceola Avenue. That was next door to the Reade Tilleys - the nicest people you can imagine to a couple of newlyweds! "After the sale to the Baptist Church, Dad and Mother moved back to Dunedin again. He bought new properties, then began to subdivide in the early twenties, just before things went haywire. Dad came up holding lots of mortgages on lots, unpaid. The city eventually got most of those lots for taxes. "Following the ‘boom and bust’ Dad went into the citrus business, buying from local groves for the canning plants." He paused long enough to step to a nearby desk and bring out a sheaf of business forms reading E.A. Marshall & Son, Developers. "I had to go to work after the ‘bust.’ I went to the university for two years, then started studying law on my own, as you could in those days. I passed the bar exams and was admitted to the Florida Bar in November, 1927, and started my own law practice in April, 1928. "Before that, as a child, I had gone to South Ward School and to high school in the old brick building there. I graduated in 1915. I remember what a fine basketball team we had that year. Five of the regulars, including me, were all from Dunedin. We rode our bikes back and forth to school every day. "I also remember well how ‘Pappy’ Brumby and L. B. Skinner did so much for young people in those days. They did more than anybody I know. "During the summers I worked in Mr. Gilchrist’s grocery store in Dunedin. In the mornings I’d take orders from the residents - always going to the back door and knocking. Then I’d fill the orders and in the afternoon take the wagon and make deliveries. "Washington’s Birthday celebration was a great affair in Dunedin. There were all sorts of contests and races, and everybody had a grand time. It’s nice to remember back to those times." (Alfred Marshall died on April
5, 1988)
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