The sun had just risen over Myakka Prairie, bathing the wire grass and saw palmettos in a vibrant orange-gold light. As the sun peeked through the scattered slash pine hammocks, 9-year-old Gib Johnson rode his horse alongside his father, a seasoned cattleman.Their days on the trail were fueled by the hardy bacon and stale, hard biscuits his mother had packed for the journey. To most, it might seem a grueling way to grow up—but for Gib, it was paradise.
Gib, short for Gilbert E. Johnson (1900-1984), proudly called himself a “Florida cracker, in his interview with the Manatee County Historical Society. Born and raised in the area, he reached adulthood in an era when Florida’s landscape was still largely an unfenced, sprawling expanse. Cattle left over by the Spanish conquistadors grazed freely across this vast open range, and pioneering individuals built their livelihoods by herding these animals and driving them to market in Tampa, Braidentown, or Charlotte Harbor.
His father, Morgan Jackson Johnson (1861-1943), namesake of Morgan Johnson Road, was one of the last of the old-time cowmen in the lower Tampa Bay region. The family homestead, including a sturdy two-story white house, was nestled along the banks of the Braden River…