Natural Disasters and Family Misfortunes 13: 1789-93 El Niño Event

El Niño events have been more studied in recent decades as their regularity and disruptive character has devastated areas around the globe. Such events are new or restricted to modern times but have been part of the Earth’s climate history for many millennia – at least. The most recently reported-on El Niño years are 1997-98 and 2015-16 when temperatures soared, droughts were widespread and calamitous weather was experienced. Readers will find many reports of the damage wrought by these two storms online and in news accounts.

The history of many regions is being re-examined with respect to El Niño and La Niña events, specifically, to see whether these weather conditions played a negative or positive role in their exploration, settlement or development.

As described on the Live Science website, “El Niño is a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean with a global impact on weather patterns. The cycle begins when warm water in the western tropical Pacific Ocean shifts eastward along the equator toward the coast of South America. Normally, this warm water pools near Indonesia and the Philippines. During an El Niño, the Pacific's warmest surface waters sit offshore of northwestern South America. . . There is also an opposite of an El Niño, called La Niña. This refers to times when waters of the tropical eastern Pacific are colder than normal and trade winds blow more strongly than usual. Collectively, El Niño and La Niña are parts of an oscillation in the ocean-atmosphere system called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO cycle, which also has a neutral phase.”

More detail about El Niño and La Niña, along with pertinent references can be found at the end of this post.

Prior to the 18^th century, there was little documentation for El Niño events, at least is defining them as such. Many regions certainly suffered droughts or exceptional rainfall in similar patterns to what we recognize as El Niños today, so there seems to be no doubt these extreme weather conditions did operate and had severely impacts on communities.

One major El Niño event that affected most parts of the civilized and developing world, perhaps serving as a great example of how ancestral communities and families were affected, occurred during the Northern Hemisphere winter of 1791-92. This was in the late part of the Little Ice Age, a time when most settled areas had already undergone deprivation with cold, drought, famine and disease for many decades. Such events will have exacerbated the harsh living conditions extant during this time period.

An article by Richard H. Grove (2007) describes the effects of the extended 1789-93 El Niño in areas around the globe very succinctly for the regions of:

·         Australia (drought, rivers dried up, crop failures)

·         Brazil (drought, cattle industry disseminated)

·         Caribbean Islands (drought)

·         Chile (drought)

·         East Indies and South Pacific (cold and drought)

·         Eastern North America (high temperatures, heavy rainfall, leading to rise in mosquito population and spread of diseases like yellow fever)

·         Egypt (low floods in successive years, poor crops, famine, social unrest)

·         England (unusually high winter temperatures)

·         France and Western Europe (unusual and extreme weather possibly resulting in the social unrest that was part of the French Revolution)

·         India (see below)

·         Mexico (drought, major lake levels dropped)

·         Peru (exceptional and prolonged rainfall, flooding)

·         Russia (drought)

·         South Africa (drought, military conflict with migrating people)

·         Southwest USA (excessive rain, flooding, cropland and infrastructure destruction)

India was among the regions hardest hit. The widespread drought over several years created famine almost unprecedented even for that country. In many regions, communities lost half of their populations to starvation and associated epidemics. The famine was so intense that bodies remained unburied creating a spectre of rotting corpses along roadways and in fields. The abundance of bleaching bones resulted in the famine being called Doji bara, or the skull famine. Cases of cannibalism were reported. Millions are reported to have died between 1789 and 1792.

 

Map of India (1795) shows the Northern Circars, Hyderabad (Nizam), Southern Maratha Kingdom, Gujarat, and Marwar (Southern Rajputana), all affected by the Doji bara famine (retrieved 3 April 2018 from Doji bara famine Wikipedia)

And the list goes on! Many areas hit were newly-established colonies such as those in Australia, India and South Africa or developing communities such as those in North America.

Family historians my find, on closer examination, that El Niños were perhaps responsible for problem their ancestors may have had in food production or other employment. Such events may possibly have been behind their reason to migrate to areas where they thought a better life and more opportunity might be found. Whether they found those improved living conditions might well have depended on the weather or climatic conditions in their new homes.

How El Niños and La Niñas work

Understanding how El Niños and La Niñas work will give a family historian a better idea of whether their ancestors might have been affected in their normal lives or following migration to new regions. The following descriptions are taken from El Niño: The weather phenomenon that changed the world by Ross Couper-Johnston (2000):

“Typically during El Niños, rainfall is greatly reduced over much of Indonesia; the Philippines; northern and eastern Australia; the populated Pacific Islands; New Zealand’s North Island; India; southern Africa; Ethiopian highlands; Ghana; Nigeria; Sahelian Africa, most of central America extending into central Mexico, Colombia and northern South America; the Caribbean; northeast Brazil; and the Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia. Most of the major droughts in these regions have occurred during El Niños. The Sahel receives a moderately strong El Nino signal but is also markedly affected by longer-term fluctuations. On the other hand, heavier rain and increased probability of flood conditions are found over much of southern USA and the Great Basin, northern Mexico; the Peruvian and Ecuadorian coastline; central Chile; southeastern and northern Argentina; Paraguay; Uruguay and southern Brazil; the islands in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific such as the Galapagos and Nauru; New Zealand’s South Island; the very southern tip of India and Sri Lanka; central China to southern Japan; Vietnam; the western
cape of South Africa; Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda; and much of western Europe. There are many other regions such as central California and northern Europe, that experience significant impacts, although the nature of the anomalies is somewhat inconsistent.” [page 44-45]

 

Trade winds during an El Niño year from Thomson Higher Education website

“Broadly speaking, the pattern for La Niñas is the reverse of that of El Niños. Excessively wet or flood conditions are experienced predominantly over the continents bordering the Pacific and Indian Oceans – in particular, Australasia, northern China, India, southern Africa and parts of north-eastern South America. Dry or drought conditions tend to occur most commonly in the Gulf states of the USA, south-eastern Argentina, central Chile, central China, South Africa’s western Cape, eastern Africa and much of western Europe.

Unusually colder temperatures are commonly experienced across northern South America, the Caribbean, Alaska and north-western Canada, Japan, South-East Asia, India, southern Africa, Sahelian and north western Africa, and western Europe. North eastern Australia and central south-western Pacific tend to experience warmer conditions.

The poleward shift of the sub-tropical jet streams in La Niñas increases the probability of stronger and more frequent tornado activity in the USA in all tornado prone areas – particularly in the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys – with the exception of the Florida peninsula

One of the most dramatic Impacts of La Niña and El Niño events on people is the reshuffling of likely tropical storm formation zones. . .

During La Niñas, high pressure cells in the sub-tropical Atlantic tend to be weakened and displaced off North and South America, creating warmer waters than usual. This has the effect of extending the hurricane season. The frequency of hurricanes occurring during La Niñas is approximately double that of normal years.” [page 46-47]

 

Trade winds and rainfall during a normal year, from Thomson Higher Education website

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3%B1o

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ni%C3%B1a

Couper-Johnston, R. (2000). El Niño: The weather phenomenon that changed the world. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Davis, M. (2001). Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño famines and the making of the third world. London-New York: Verso.

Fagan, B. (1999). Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Niño and the fate of civilizations. New York: Basic Books, Perseus Books Group.

Grove, R. H. (2007). The Great El Niño of 1789-93 and its Global Consequences: Reconstructing and Extreme Climate Event in World Environmental History. The Medieval History Journal, 10(1&2), pp 75-98.

Grove, R. & G. Adamson. (2017). El Niño in World History.  London: Palgrave Macmillan. (also in Kindle version)

Sandweiss, D. H. & J. Quilter. (2008). El Niño, Catastrophism, and Culture Change in Ancient America. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University.

The future is in good hands

Recording the past is mostly in the hands of the elderly, people like me who are involved in genealogical pursuits. The future is in the hands of youth.

When I see children in Florida, and elsewhere around the continent – and the world – rising up to protest the proliferation and acceptance of the use of guns, pleading for more protection, demanding more responsibility from their leaders, my confidence and hope for the future of our civilization is raised. The massive March For Our Lives this past weekend was heartening! These important demonstrations across the US were supported by young people from around the world.

In Canada, gun violence is not the problem it is in other parts of the world but we are not immune. The proportion of crimes involving guns is much lower here, as is the number of guns on a per capita basis. Guns are more controlled but still they find their way into the country by illegal means and the use of them in violent encounters is increasing. We in Canada, as in other countries, need to become more aware of this escalating trend.

It feels shameful to be part of a generation that seems to have come to believe the answer to conflict, of any size and in any place, is more conflict; the answer to gun violence if more guns; the answer to hate is more hate; the answer to distrust is more distrust!

This is not an indictment of all gun-owners. Many members of my family have been responsible hunters, educated from a young age on the safe use and storage of firearms. Certainly farmers and ranchers may have a need to protect their property and livestock from potential perils. But there are many types of weapons designed only for killing people and far too many of them have ended up in the hands of criminals and unstable individuals. That cannot be justified under any circumstances.

Prospects are beginning to look brighter as we witness teenagers with more apparent common sense than that of their parents and grandparents. They may also have more compassion for their fellow citizens, in their own country and around the world.

Wish your children and grandchildren luck and give them all the support they need to build an even better world!

My Mother’s Autograph Book

My mother kept an autograph book, Schoolday Memories, when she was very young, that appears to have notes from all of her classmates from May 1928, when she lived in Oregon, USA, to 1937, after she had moved to Alberta, Canada. The book is in the possession of my older sister.

The note on the front page indicates contributions span the years from grades six to eight. But the names actually include grade five friends and go into her high school days.

Now you would not think you could learn a lot about families from such a memento. But this one has a great deal of interesting information, about Mom and her friends.

One of the early pages shows the names of Mom’s teacher and her best friend, her interests in playing piano and picnicking and favourite flower, while attending Kenwood School in Bend, Oregon. It appears she added to the items after she moved to Canada: a sweet pea under flowers; swimming and hockey games under sport. The latter was certainly a new Canadian activity to her, although I am sure she only watched others play.

You can tell from the dates, names of people and the schools she attended just when she came to Canada. Many of the comments are precisely dated and I recognize the names of some of the people.

The first people to sign lived in Bend, Oregon, and attended Kenwood School with Mom. Altogether 24 schoolmates left some very nice messages between 10 May and 15 May 1928. The tone and words indicated that they seemed to all know Mom was moving away at the end of the school year:

·         May your memories of me be pleasant ones. Lotus M. Wilkinson

·         Remember, the world will make way for the girl who knows where she is going. Don’t forget me, for I won’t forget you. Kathleen Duffy

Many wrote short poems, like the first entry:

May 10, 1928

Dear Norma,

A place for my name in your album,

A place for my love in your heart,

A place for us both in heaven,

When true friends never part.

La Vena Conover, Bend, Oregon

Some words written by 10-year old children 90 years ago still ring true:

May 10, 1929

Dear Norma,

For whatever men say in their blindness,

In spite of the fancies of youth,

There’s nothing so kingly as kindness,

There’s nothing so royal as truth.

Your friend forever,

Beulah Vaughan

This poem was from Nobility, written by Alice Cary in 1849, and obviously well-remembered and deemed appropriate to pass on, by a grade-school girl. Beulah went on to marry a soldier, Emmit Neal Weatherly. She was living in Georgia, USA, when she died in 2010. I do not believe she and Mom ever corresponded after their school days together. I am sure Mom would have been interested to learn what happened to both La Vena and Beulah.

Mom’s teacher at Kenwood School was 25-year old Miss Esther L. Rebstock. She was born in Oregon of German and American parents. On the 1930 census, she was recorded as single and rooming with several other teachers, very possibly also working at Kenwood. She had some sage advice and even wrote in her address in case Mom wanted to send her a letter down the road.

I found quite a few students on the 1920 and 1930 Oregon censuses which gave me an idea of the makeup of Mom’s community of friends. Most lived in the city of Bend but a few, like my mother, were bussed in from rural areas. Some were born outside of the state; some parents had emigrated from other countries. From the census data it appears some of the children had moved to Bend before 1928 and then away before 1930. La Vena Conover, whose poem is quoted above, was one of those who moved to Bend from California before becoming a classmate of Mom’s. She moved to Portland, Oregon, before 1930.

Friends in Irricana and Keoma, Alberta, first signed the book on 8 January 1929. All her friends in Canada had the same feeling for her as a happy, engaging and wonderful person. Here is what Hazel Lester said:

This may have been paraphrased from a Hungarian proverb or wedding toast, although I have no idea where Hazel found it.  Hazel was my Dad’s cousin and the one that introduced my parents to each other.

The comments in the book started on the first page and continued every other page (right-hand sides) until 14 November 1929. Then she reversed the order and people signed the left-hand pages, starting on 25 March 1931 and worked backward to the front of the book. The last person to sign the book was Connie Neufeld on 18 June 1937. By that time, Mom was attending Normal School in Calgary.

Mom was not through with her autograph book when she finished school, though. She went back to pages signed by friends and classmates in later years and added notes about them, such as on the note from Hazel Lester above and Harvine McCune below: where they attended post-secondary school, what they trained in, where they travelled, who and when they married and whether they had children. Incidentally she did the same thing with her yearbook – adding notes about people she had attended school with.

Harvine was Harvine Zelda McCune, daughter of a local farmer and preacher. She married another farm-boy, Arvid Gilberg, who had come to the area with his family, from Sweden, in 1924. Harvine was also a close neighbour of Hazel Lester. Mom’s notes indicate she knew Harvine well and followed her family’s events.

Interestingly, in a book about the Kathyrn-Irricana-Keoma history, KIK Country, there is a photo of a class at Irricana School which I believe was taken in 1929 and has my mother with many of her friends who signed her autograph book. The people are not identified, but I am sure Mom is the little fair-haired girl in the middle of the third row holding the flowers. I am trying to track down some people who may have more information about the picture, the school and the area to see if I can tie the photo to the autograph book and hopefully get a better copy. I do know who some of the children are, having got to know the people in later years.

The things people said about and to Mom gives a very clear indication of the kind of person she was and what her friends thought of her. Their comments are no surprise to us as she was a warm and loving person, one who greatly valued family and friendships her entire life.

The principal of Irricana School, T. A. Bickell, shown in the class photo, wrote in Mom’s book, “I wish you every good gift that you may aspire to in life. ‘There is no one that the world needs so much as a cheerful human’” We were blessed with having that lovely, cheerful lady as our Mom.




Addendum: Here is the autograph book mentioned in the comment from Alick, below.