FORT PIERCE — Rollins Brown, a fifth-generation Floridian and descendant of local pioneers Annie and Benjamin Hogg, will discuss his family’s history in trade and its role in shaping the American food system at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at St. Lucie Village School.
The Florida Remembered Society (FRS) is hosting Rollins’ program and a series of other America250 public programs “Feeding the American Spirit with 250 years of Florida’s Homegrown History” through a grant from Florida Humanities, the Jacarlene Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Brown’s great-great-grandparents, the Hoggs, established one of Fort Pierce’s first trading posts in 1879 with $100 of goods. Their customers included pioneers, Seminole Indians, and occasional travelers and tourists.
The Hoggs’ business grew from a palmetto shack and a trade boat along the river to the large general store the Hoggs built in the 1880s which still stands today in downtown Fort Pierce, the PP Cobb Store.
Presenter Rollins Brown, 52, is a local rancher, attorney, and entrepreneur of one of the nation’s largest farm-to-table food shipping companies supplying specialty fruits, beef and produce.
His program will explore how “The more things change the more they stay the same” as he compares and contrasts the Hogg/Brown Family’s diversity of trades from the pioneer trading post to modern technology and shipping.
The program complements the current “Red, White and FOOD” exhibition at the St. Lucie Village School, which is presented through a partnership of FRS, Florida Humanities and Jacarlene Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street.
The St. Lucie (Village) School is located at 2501 North Old Dixie, Fort Pierce, Fl 34946. Seating is limited; call (772) 267-4873 to reserve your place.