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Century-Old Legacy at Johnston’s Meat Market Continues with New Owners

Johnston’s Meat Market is more than just a butcher shop and retail store in Monticello, Florida: It is a proud local institution with a century-long legacy. 

One hundred years ago, Felix and Alice Johnston founded the market when most families lacked refrigeration. Johnston’s offered meat locker rentals to local residents and quickly became a trusted source for locally produced meat. For more than 98 years, three generations of the Johnston family carefully managed and grew the business, serving beef, lamb, and goat producers throughout a three-state region with USDA-inspected processing.

Not a Usual Retirement Plan

Developing a small meat processing facility probably isn’t what the average person would envision for post-retirement. Dave Endicott didn’t envision it either.

Yet, five years after stepping down from a career in higher education, he is overseeing the grand opening of a new processing facility established by Minnesota Farmers Union Foundation in Staples, MN.

Dave spent 30 years in K-12 and higher education, culminating as the Dean at Central Lakes College in Staples, MN. There, he developed a Meat Cutting and Butchery Program to address the need for skilled professionals to replace the aging butcher workforce in the upper Midwest.