This photograph shows J. Everett Baughman standing in his store, Peninsular Net & Twine Co., at 306 W. Fortune St. in Tampa, Florida.
Here is a cropped version and a closeup of the name inscribed at the bottom.
The earliest newspaper mention of the Peninsular Net & Twine Co. was from 1941. According to this notice, J.E. Baughman (713 Bungalow) and two others, A.J. Nathan (1511 Georgia Avenue) and F.R. Herberg (216 West Woodlawn Avenue), were operating a commercial fishing supplies business at 306 W. Fortune under the name Peninsular Net & Twine. Less than one month later one of the owners, Albert J. Nathan, died suddenly.
My brief research suggests the Baughman family tree looks like this.
Baughman Family
John Everett Baughman (1885-1976) had an older brother, George B. Baughman, and a younger brother, Charles W. Baughman (1894-1967). I found a 1931 advertisement for a G. Norman Baughman Co. It was “South Florida’s Pioneer Auto Parts Equipment and Supply Jobber”.
Here is a cropped version of the group photo with the list of identifications below it.
In the second row is listed a J. Everett Baughman who is third in from the left (assuming the man wearing a hat on the far right is considered in the second row). Listed in that same row are the names of his brothers. I believe there may be one name missing from the identifications of that row. Regardless, here is a side by side comparison of the two photos I believe to be of the same man, J. Everett Baughman.
It is of course hard to know for sure, but the circumstantial evidence and the VERY similar and distinct eyeglasses leads me to believe that it is indeed the same person.
So, the timeline seems to be that J. Everett Baughman worked with his brothers in 1931 at the auto supply store, started the fishing supply store with partners in 1941, at some point became the sole owner for Peninsular Net & Twine Co., which was then passed on to his son (John Everett Baughman Jr., born in 1922).
As far as I can tell Peninsular Net & Twine operated from 1941 into at least the 1980s (though later the address changed to 3642 Cypress). Here are a few newspaper mentions of the store.
The elder Baughman died in 1976. His son died in 2004. Here are their obituaries.
