Percy Lindo

Percy Lindo was a Jamaican banker, planter, industrialist and Member of the Legislative Council of Jamaica.[1][2]

The Honourable

Percival Henriques Lindo
Born30 September 1877 (1877-09-30)
Falmouth, Jamaica
Died1946 (1947) (aged 68)
Terra Nova, Kingston, Jamaica
Children4, including Roy Lindo, Blanche Blackwell
Parent
RelativesCecil Vernon Lindo (brother) Stanley Alexander Lindo (brother)

Early life

Percival Henriques Lindo, nicknamed Percy was born on September 30, 1877, in Falmouth, Jamaica, to Frederick Lindo and Grace Morales. He was the youngest of ten children.[3]

Career

He migrated to Costa Rica in 1890 at age 13 to join his older brothers in business.

The brothers had arrived in 1885 to work in for Minor Cooper Keith, who was building a railroad from Limon to San Jose, but quickly went into business as merchants, bankers and banana planters.

In 1907, the brothers purchased Juan Viñas, a vast sugar and coffee farm from Federico Tinoco Granados.[4] They became largest coffee and sugar producers in the Costa Rica.[5][6]

In 1908, the brothers founded the Florida Ice and Farm Company in Siquirres, Limón Province. The company was located at a farm called La Florida and was a major producer of ice and other agricultural produce. The company acquired Gran Cervecería Traube in 1912.[7][8]

In 1911, the Lindo Brothers, in partnership with Felipe Alvarado, purchased the Compañía Luz Eléctrica de San Jose, Heredia y Alajuela and invested in a large hydroelectric power plant in Belén the next year.[9] In 1924 the company was transformed into La Compañía Nacional de Electricidad [10][11]

By 1911, the Lindo properties were producing half of Costa Rica's bananas, and Joseph DiGiorgio, on behalf of the Atlantic Fruit Company, approached Lindo Bros with idea of purchasing all of their banana plantations, although the entire production was contracted to United Fruit Company until July, 1914.

On October 27, 1911, Cecil Lindo gave the Atlantic Fruit Company an option to purchase their banana plantations for $3,500,000 before August, 1912. Cecil was to be the General Manager of the Atlantic Fruit Company in Costa Rica.

The Atlantic Fruit Company could not or would not execute the option, and in 1912, the Lindo properties were sold to United Fruit Company for $5,000,000.[12]

By 1913, the Lindo brothers were owners of vast sugar, coffee and cocoa estates, lumber and flour mills, breweries, ice-making and aerated factories. Their agricultural interests included 1,000 acres of sugar, 2,000 acres of cacao and 7,000 acres of Coffee plantations, exporting three millions pounds of coffee each year, with an approximate value of half a million dollars.

Jamaica

In 1914, Lindo Bros. & Co. Ltd. was formed in Jamaica and Percy became the resident manager.

In 1915 the company began purchasing properties and planting bananas in Jamaica in partnership with their cousins, the deLisser Brothers.[13]

They purchased Appleton Estate in 1916 and J. Wray and Nephew Ltd. in 1917. The Lindo Brothers kept the brand name. They expanded factory and distillery operations, adding two additional warehouses to store and age the rums, a bottle washing machine and an electric bottling line.[14]

In 1925 the Lindo Bros & Co., in partnership with Allan Keeling, invested £1,000,000 in the establishment of the Bernard Lodge Central Sugar Factory.

In 1928, the Lindo Bros sold 56,600 acres of land in Jamaica to the United Fruit Company for £2,000,000, which at the time, was the largest transaction in the history of the Island.[15] That year Lindo Bros. acquired the wharf and office premises of the Atlantic Fruit Company on King Street. [16]

He was an appointed as a Member of the Legislative Council from 1930-42.

In 1939, Lindo Bros & Co. sold J. Wray and Nephew Ltd. and Appleton Estate to Percy Lindo.[17][18][19]

Personal life

In 1903 he married Hilda Violet Lindo in Kingston, Jamaica.[20] The couple had four children: Delores, Roy, Blanche and Frederick Cecil Lindo.[21]

The family lived at Cecilio Lodge, now St Andrew High School while constructing Royston, now Campion College, Jamaica.

References
  1. Council, Jamaica Legislature Legislative (1933). Minutes.
  2. Council, Jamaica Legislature Legislative (1933). Minutes.
  3. Ranston, Jackie (2000). The Lindo Legacy. Toucan Books. ISBN 978-1-903435-00-7.
  4. Murchie, Anita Gregorio (1981). Imported Spices: A Study of Anglo-American Settlers in Costa Rica, 1821-1900. Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, Department of Publications.
  5. Bates, Albert; Draper, Kathleen (February 2019). Burn: Using Fire to Cool the Earth. Chelsea Green Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60358-783-9.
  6. Hidalgo, Manuel Benito Chacón; Flores, Elisa Carazo de (2006). Boletos de café de Costa Rica (in Spanish). Fundación Museos del Banco Central de Costa Rica. ISBN 978-9968-9607-6-2.
  7. "Costa Rica Owned US Brewer Gets New CEO". Q COSTA RICA. 2018-01-19. Retrieved 2023-02-02.
  8. Pan American Magazine. 1913.
  9. Vega, Eugenio Rodríguez (2004). Costa Rica en el siglo XX (in Spanish). EUNED. ISBN 978-9968-31-382-7.
  10. Botey, Ana María (2005). Costa Rica entre guerras: 1914-1940 (in Spanish). Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica. ISBN 978-9977-67-945-7.
  11. Vega, Eugenio Rodríguez (2004). Costa Rica en el siglo XX (in Spanish). EUNED. ISBN 978-9968-31-382-7.
  12. Pan American Magazine. 1913.
  13. Hart, Ansell (1954). "The Banana in Jamaica: Export Trade". Social and Economic Studies. 3 (2): 212–229. ISSN 0037-7651. JSTOR 27850979.
  14. "The History Of Jamaican Rum | Blog | Negril Onestop Jamaica Resorts and Hotels". www.negrilonestop.com. Retrieved 2023-02-02.
  15. Post, K. (2012-12-06). Arise Ye Starvelings: The Jamaican Labour Rebellion of 1938 and its Aftermath. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4613-4101-7.
  16. Stone & Webster Journal. Stone & Webster. 1928.
  17. Delevante, Marilyn; Alberga, Anthony (2006). The Island of One People: An Account of the History of the Jews of Jamaica. Ian Randle. ISBN 978-976-637-212-5.
  18. Post, K. (2012-12-06). Arise Ye Starvelings: The Jamaican Labour Rebellion of 1938 and its Aftermath. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4613-4101-7.
  19. Ranston, Jackie (2000). The Lindo Legacy. Toucan Books. ISBN 978-1-903435-00-7.
  20. Ranston, Jackie (2000). The Lindo Legacy. Toucan Books. ISBN 978-1-903435-00-7.
  21. "Percival Henriques Lindo". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
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