Late Glade Historian More Than Resource
This column lost a great resource and mentor June 7 with the passing of Joseph Orsenigo at 87.
As my colleague Susan Salisbury noted, Mr. Orsenigo was a noted research scientist who also chaired the Belle Glade Museum Board and the Glades Historical Society.
He also was this writer’s primary source for the history of the Glades.
He knew Bean City was named for Arthur Wells, the first to grow winter string beans in the Glades.
He knew Fleming Drive in Belle Glade was named for Fleming “Slim” Rutledge, the father of Glades benefactor Dolly Hand.
He was one of several local and state historians and scholars who, in 1999, helped in the production of “Our Century,” the Post’s special section which later was published as a book. He also was among the group that helped the Post pick the all-time top 10 state and local stories.
His greatest help, of course, was with Black Cloud, my history book on the great 1928 hurricane.
He threw open his files, as well as the collection of “cracker historian” Lawrence Will, housed at the Palm Beach County library system’s Belle Glade branch. (The two of us jointly mourned the fact that many of those files were ransacked over the years and important documents lost to the ages.)
But he was able to provide searing memoirs, important government documents, and telling news articles I never would have found on my own.
Beyond that, he was a constant go-to person, providing insights, correcting misconceptions, and sending me in the right direction for documents, resources and interviews.
And when I challenged, both in Post articles and in my book, the idea that 1,600 victims could possibly fit into the mass grave at the Port Mayaca cemetery, suggesting whoever designed the marker simply picked a nice round number, Mr. Orsenigo opined — in his usual succinct manner — “who kept an accurate tally sheet?”
Lawrence Will Museum: Belle Glade branch, Palm Beach County Public Library: (561) 996-3453.
Tags: agriculture, Glades, hurricanes
