John King Cheyney (April 1, 1858 – March 19, 1939) was a Sponge Company & Sponge Exchange founder, a local politician and a sponge industry promoter in

Tarpon Springs, Florida Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. Downtown Tarpon Springs has long been a focal point and underwent beautification in 2010. It is part of the Tampa Bay area. The population was 25,117 at the 2020 census. As of ...

. A memorial on Dodecanese Boulevard commemorates his life. He is listed as a

Great Floridian Great Floridian is a title bestowed on citizens of Florida by the Florida Department of State. There were actually two formal programs. The Great Floridian 2000 program honored deceased individuals who made "significant contributions in the histor ...

Biography

He was born in Philadelphia. He died in

Legacy

The John K. Cheney House (1890) at 30 West Tarpon was home for the Philadelphia banker who financed establishment of the sponge industry in Tarpon Springs, bringing Greeks from the

Dodecanese Islands The Dodecanese (, ; , ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger and 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. This island group generally defines ...

. His efforts as a land developer seeking establish Tarpon as a sponging center failed for nine years until the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

caused boats from

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

to shelter in the area. In 1896 the first Greek, John Cocoris, arrived and he brought his brothers in 1901.

References

1858 births 1939 deaths Sponge diving American company founders Businesspeople from Philadelphia 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople Tarpon Springs, Florida Businesspeople from Florida {{US-business-bio-1850s-stub