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Pritchard House Gardens
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GARDEN #8
Members of Rodney’s family moved to Florida before the Civil War, and in the 1890’s moved to Merritt Island. In the early 1900’s grandfather James Thompson operated a sawmill near Fox Lake. Rodney was born in 1930 to parents Herbert Thompson and Elizabeth Fay MacPheron. Mary Jean’s father, Herman Wattwood came to Titusville in 1925 and was Postmaster for many decades, and mother Grace Hart came to north Merritt Island in 1926 to teach school at Shiloh. Herman and Grace married and Mary Jean was born in 1932. Grace worked at the Cocoa Cola Bottling Plant and later owned Wattwood’s Dress Shop in Titusville. In 1949 Herbert saved the western span of Walker Bridge when it was replaced by a concrete bridge, leased the old wooden span and built a bait shop on it, advertising it as “The World’s Longest Free Fishing Pier”. Rodney and Mary Jean married in 1950 and had four children; Laurilee, Sherri, Tim and Tom. Rodney owned three boat manufacturing companies; T-Craft and Off Shore 30 Co. produced recreational boats, and Thompson Trawlers commercial fishing vessels. He had vested interests in Sand Point Inn in Titusville, Pelican Point in Cocoa Beach, Ponce Seafood – a processing plant for Rock Shrimp and Cape Canaveral Shrimp Co. at Port Canaveral. Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant was established in 1983, and The Wild Ocean Seafood Markets in 2004, both owned and operated by family members. The Thompson family was named Brevard County Farm Bureau 2010 Farm Family of the Year.
THE THOMPSON FAMILY GARDEN
RODNEY & MARY JEAN WATTWOOD THOMPSON
Sponsored by the Thompson Family
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