Jeanne Ewert
Kenneth Sassaman
March 17, 2021
4–5:30 PM (EST)
In this joint webinar, Jeanne Ewert and Kenneth Sassaman will present ongoing archival, geneaological, and archaeological research on the fates of once-thriving coastal communities upended by two of the most devastating Gulf Coast weather events of the late 19th century, the 1896 Cedar Keys Hurricane and the 1900 Galveston Hurricane.
“‘I Will Never Move From Texas’: Climate Catastrophe in a Mennonite Community”
Jeanne Ewert
George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida
For three centuries before they emigrated to North America, Mennonites had proven themselves extraordinarily adaptable to climate, as they pursued farming in a slow sojourn from west to east across Europe in response to religious persecution. The Gulf Coast of Texas looked like a promised land from a distance, but they soon discovered that learned climate adaptability is not an adequate response to climate catastrophe. After only three years in Texas, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 dealt a death blow to one such group. Grounded in first person narrative, this presentation looks at climate and resilience in a tight-knit community.
Clockwise, above right: Katharina Ott Kroeker (d. 1900), Sarah Kroeker Andersson (d. 1969), Justina Kroeker (d. 1897), Katherine Kroeker Wiens (d. 1946)
“Hurricane Fetishism and the Vulnerability of Social Memory”
Kenneth Sassaman
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida
The curious case of an 1896 hurricane that is credited with the total destruction of a Gulf coast Florida community and their cedar mill industry exemplifies the vulnerability of social memory in thwarting progress towards less vulnerable coastal land use. Personal accounts of the storm are few and many who survived its wrath moved on, breaking the social links that enchain a lived past with possible futures. In an ongoing intervention, archaeology, archival research, and virtual reality are mobilized for sensory-rich engagements with this storm and its context to expand the horizon of experience for better futures planning.
Above left: Workers and their families outside the Eberhard Faber Cedar Mill, Atsena Otie Key, 1896
How to Attend
This event is a virtual seminar (webinar). To attend you will need access to the Internet and a working copy of the Zoom desktop client, mobile app, or web client. These are available for free from this page. Zoom software is compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, and Linux computers and handheld devices. The Zoom web client is compatible with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Chromium Edge. University of Florida faculty, staff, and students are advised to download the software from UF’s Zoom portal.
Once you have downloaded and installed the Zoom software, when a webinar is scheduled to begin click on the Zoom webinar link noted above. No passcode entry is required to join a webinar. Once you have joined you will be able to see and hear the event speakers and view any media they share with the audience. You may interact with the speakers via Zoom’s Q&A feature and at the discretion of the event moderator.
About the Speakers
Jeanne Ewert is Associate University Librarian for English and American Literature, Film, and Folklore, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. She holds an AM and a PhD in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania. Her interest in the Galveston Hurricane arose out of genealogical research into her Dutch Mennonite ancestors, who lived briefly in Texas, and who trace their sojourn in search of religious freedom to 16th century Holland.
Kenneth Sassaman is Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of Florida Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida. In 2009 he launched the Lower Suwannee Archaeological Survey on the northern Gulf Coast of Florida to investigate the material realities and cultural interventions of climate change and sea-level rise over the past 5,000 years. More recently, his work in coastal archaeology has focused on Atsena Otie, the 19th-century ancestral town of the modern town of Cedar Key. In 1896 a hurricane destroyed two timber mills and many of the homes of this now-abandoned island town.
This event is free and open to the public. No advance registration is required.
“Climate Catastrophe & Social Memory” is sponsored by Imagining Climate Change.