The Sugar Industry on St. Croix

© 2014 Karen C. Thurland. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 5/2/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4520-5224-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-5225-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-5226-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013909925

Cover Photo: Bethlehem Sugar Factory circa 1965, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Services, Courtesy of Michelle Thurland-Martinez

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Historical Overview

Edgar M. Iles – Sugar Cane Farmer

Edwardo George – Cane Cutter

Georgiana Clarke – Cook for VICORP Camps

Agapito Ramos – Cane Cutter

Rosendo Rivera Gomez – Cane Loader

Sam Old Timer Garnett – Cane Cutter

James JJ Joseph – Cane Cutter

Women in the Sugar Industry

George Henry – Truck Driver for Diamond Distillery

Fritz Tutein – Engineer at Bethlehem Factory

Vincent Doward – Electrician at Bethlehem

Hortense Milligan Rowe – Accountant at VICORP

Lauritz Blackwood – IBM Supervisor at VICORP

Lemuel Smithen – Sugar Cane Farmer

Glossary

References

About the Author

List of Photographs

1. A poster seeking

2. The Central Factory in Estate Richmond

3. The Bethlehem Sugar Factory, circa 1905

4. The La Grange Sugar Factory. St. Croix Landmarks Society

5. Weighing station at Estate La Grange

6. Carting sugar canes

7. Cane Track at Bethlehem Sugar Factory

8. Hauling cane by locomotive

9. Carrying Canes at Bethlehem

10. The railway loading point at Estate Bethlehem

11. Long sugar cane

12. (FSA) borrower and his wife cultivating sugar cane

13. The Virgin Islands Company (VICO) housing at Bethlehem

14. Inside a VICO house at Bethlehem

15. FSA borrower’s wife cultivating recently planted sugar cane

16. FSA borrowers outside their home

17. FSA borrower and his wife inside their home

18. Sugar workers weeding on VICO land near Bethlehem Factory

19. Transporting cane from the fields

20. The Sugar Cane Growers Executive Committee Members

21. The Sugar Cane Growers Executive Committee Members

22. Map of VICORP Land

23. Supervising cane cutters in the cane

24. Honorable Senator Edgar M. Iles

25. Cane cutters at Castle Burke camp

26. Edwardo George at home

27. The Great House at Estate Slob

28. Georgiana Clarke and Enid Blackburn

29. Agapito Ramos among his guava trees

30. Rosendo Rivera Gomez and his wife Andrea

31. Cattle, St. Croix, V.I.

32. A large cattle farm near Christiansted

33. View of a large cattle farm near Christiansted.

34. Sam Old Timer Garnett in his garden

35. James JJ Joseph with a machete

36. Trucks parked at Bethlehem Sugar Factory

37. Women cultivating sugar

38. On the road to the sugar

39. On the road to the sugar

40. Women putting cane tops in wooden trays

41. A gang of women and men cutting cane

42. A woman cutting cane tops

43. FSA borrower’s wife preparing to plant sweet potatoes on their farm in LaVallee

44. Miss Tippin, FSA home demonstration agent

45. The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp

46. Civilian Conservation Corps members dressed in their uniforms

47. Model of a truck delivering molasses

48. George Henry. Courtesy of Annette Henry

49. The Engine Room at Bethlehem Sugar Factory

50. Evaporators at Bethlehem

51. Fritz Tutein at Estate Bethlehem

52. Getting machinery ready for the grinding season at Bethlehem Sugar Mill

53. Getting machinery ready for the grinding season

54. Bags of sugar at the Frederiksted Dock

55. Vincent Doward

56. A sugar beet lying in a field in Jutland, Denmark

57. The inside of a sugar beet is white and not as sweet as sugar cane.

Photo by K. C. Thurland

58. Hortense Milligan Rowe

59. Hortense’s maternal aunt Rosalia Sackey Williams

60. Frederick and Rosalia Sackey Williams with their grandson

61. The Great House at Estate Golden Grove

62. The Estate Golden Grove Great House

63. Lemuel Smithen peeling sugar cane

64. The Bethlehem Sugar Factory with its two chimneys

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the participants who provided the stories about their involvement in the sugar cane industry on St. Croix. Their stories will help present and future Virgin Islanders understand St. Croix’s agricultural past and the hardships endured by our ancestors.

This book would not have been completed had it not been for the assistance I received from so many people during the research, interviewing, writing and editing process. Thanks to Anne Thurland, Gerard Doward, Josephine B. Hector, Michelle Thurland-Martinez, Celeste Knight Lang, Maurice Thomas, and Carol Wakefield for their review of this manuscript. Special thanks to Anne Thurland for the photo layout of this book. Thanks to the staff of the Caribbean Collection at the Florence Williams Public Library, the St. Croix Landmarks Library, the University of the Virgin Islands Library at the St. Croix campus, and the office of the Delegate to Congress.

Special thanks to Michelle Thurland-Martinez for the translation of Rosendo Rivera Gomez’s story. Thanks to Roberta Knowles, Ed.D. for the editing work on this book.

This project is funded in part by the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Introduction

T he countryside on the island of St. Croix had tall green sugar cane stalks growing on both sides of the road as my father took me, my mother and brothers on our Sunday afternoon drive. The image of sugar cane towering over the car has remained with me since I was a little girl. Sometimes we drove to Estate Rattan to visit family friends who lived in a homestead house or went through Estate Bethlehem where the chimney seemed to be touching the sky. My mother would point out where she grew up in Estate Friedensborg and also talked about her life in Estate Calquohoun, where her father raised goats on their homestead property.

I vividly remember the fields of sugar cane around my house in Estate La Grande Princesse and the mutton cucumber growing in between the rows of cane. Eating pieces of sugar cane was a special treat for everyone, and those little pieces of sugar cane were like candy to us.

As a young girl I witnessed the dramatic change on St. Croix from an agrarian society to an industrial economy and tourist-oriented destination. Island politics were extremely hot, and everyone, even schoolchildren, debated the issues about the phasing out of sugar cane and the coming of industry to the island. Change does not come easy, and there was a tremendous amount of uncertainty about the island’s financial future. The cultivation, harvesting and processing of sugar cane had been the economic base of the island for several centuries.

My first summer job, in the warehouse at the Water and Power Authority in Richmond, the former Central Factory, brought me in contact with former employees of the Virgin Islands Corporation (VICORP) who spoke of bygone days at the Bethlehem Sugar Factory and at the main office at Estate Golden Grove. Always a good listener, I took in all the stories about work at the sugar factory and life on a sugar-producing island.

Years later, as a history major in college, my studies provided a greater depth of understanding of the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the New Deal programs of that era. Many of these programs were brought to the Virgin Islands to rehabilitate the economy, and they had a positive impact on people’s lives during that period of worldwide economic downturn. Upon learning of the oral histories that were conducted throughout the United States during the Depression by the Works Projects Administration, I contemplated embarking upon a similar path of research. The prospect of writing about life in the cane fields of St. Croix, homesteading, and the New Deal era has intrigued me for many years.

When I first taught at the St. Croix campus of the University of the Virgin Islands, my classroom was at the Estate Golden Grove Great House where VICORP once had its headquarters. That building was the home of Folmer Andersen, who experimented with the cultivation of different varieties of sugar cane. He collected Taino pottery and artifacts and took photographs Estate Golden Grove, the Bethlehem Factory, and many agricultural scenes on St. Croix.

This book is a historical reader on the sugar industry that existed for many years on the island of St. Croix. The first section of the book has a historical background of sugar cultivation on St. Croix and concentrates primarily on the ups and downs of the industry during the twentieth century. I relied heavily on the information on agriculture and the sugar industry found in the annual reports that insular governors submitted to the Secretary of the Navy, the President of the United States, or the U.S. Department of Interior from 1917 up to the mid nineteen sixties. The local newspapers also contain a wealth of information on the sugar industry and the last years of sugar production on St. Croix.

The second section consists of oral histories by people who were involved in the sugar industry. The stories include the experiences of individuals such as a sugar farmer, cane cutters, timekeepers, a molasses truck driver, an engineer and electrician at Bethlehem Factory, an accountant and the IBM supervisor for the Virgin Islands Corporation. I also provide a description of the work done by women throughout the sugar industry. The last oral history interview in this book is an interview about sugar cane cultivation today.

More than a dozen individuals were interviewed for this project so that readers can get various perspectives about the sugar industry that once was the economic mainstay on the island of St. Croix. Their stories corroborate and elaborate on what was written in the governors’ annual reports.

Former Senator Edgar M. Iles, a sugar farmer, talks of his experiences working at a distillery, as a timekeeper in the cane fields, and eventually as a young sugar farmer in Estate Lower Love. He highlights his family’s involvement in the sugar industry in Grove Place.

Edwardo George from Tortola, a cane cutter, who worked for Edgar Iles, describes his work in the fields and his exploits around the island. His story is full of the adventures of a young man working hard and then having fun, sometimes mischievous fun, despite the fact that he lived in the workers’ camp at Estate Slob.

Georgiana Clarke of St. Croix was the head cook at the Estate Slob camp and worked long hours preparing and serving nutritious meals for the cane cutters from the British Islands. Her life provides a glimpse of the work women were engaged in other than work in the field.

Agapito Ramos’ story is similar to that of many young men who came from the island of Vieques and worked in St. Croix’s cane fields. He manages to go to school while working to help his family and advances to the position of timekeeper.

Rosendo Rivera Gomez came from Vieques to seek a better opportunity for himself and his family on St. Croix. He loaded cane onto the carts, worked on a cattle farm, did construction work, and was employed at the Department of Agriculture for many years.

Sam Old Timer Garnett came from St. Kitts to cut cane, stayed on the island, and later worked for the Bureau of Corrections for several years. He worked for Frits Lawaetz, who managed Ward Canady’s sugar lands.

James J J Joseph came from Antigua to visit his father and remained on the island. He loaded bundles of cane for several sugar growers and cut cane on weekends. Joseph did carpentry work, worked at Hess Oil Corporation and now has a taxi business.

The role of women in St. Croix’s sugar industry has always interested me. The available pictures depict women cutting cane in the hot sun, but women also worked in various facets of the industry during the twentieth century. Women not only toiled in the fields, but some rented land or became homesteaders while others were employed by the Virgin Islands Corporation as cooks and clerical workers.

George Henry from Frederiksted drove the molasses truck for Diamond Distillery for many years until he went to work at the Department of Health. He spoke of his experience as a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps and recalled the names of most of the young men who were involved in this New Deal program.

Fritz Tutein from Christiansted, an engineer at the Bethlehem Sugar Factory, takes us on a tour of the plant and explains the process of making raw sugar. He participated in the rehabilitation of the Factory and worked there until 1966 when the last sugar cane crop was ground and the juice was processed into dark brown sugar for shipment off-island. Tutein expressed the uncertainty he felt about his future employment and explained how he got a job with the local government.

Vincent Doward from Frederiksted did electrical work at Bethlehem Sugar Factory straight out of high school and then again after completing military service. He reminisces about his part-time work loading bags of sugar onto ships at the Frederiksted dock. Doward also spoke about the different types of sugar cane, and maintenance and weekend shift work at the factory.

Hortense Milligan Rowe from Frederiksted worked as an accountant for the Virgin Islands Corporation at Estate Golden Grove and then was the office manager/executive assistant to the general manager at Harvlan after the closing of the Bethlehem Sugar Factory. She explains the functions and responsibilities of VICORP and also provides the names of people who were involved in the sugar industry. Mrs. Rowe compiled a list of the sugar cane farmers she remembers; their names will not be forgotten or lost to time.

Lauritz Larry Blackwood of Frederiksted, the IBM supervisor for the Virgin Islands Corporation at Estate Golden Grove, describes that operation and also talks about the Harvlan properties. He gives a brief history of the attempts by the local government to regain the Harvlan properties for the people of St. Croix.

Lemuel Smithen, originally from Nevis, cultivates his sugar cane fields and today sells sugar cane, cane juice, roast corn, and other vegetables at his roadside stand. His dream is to build a sugar cane museum adjacent to his fields to showcase the industry.

This book documents an important era in St. Croix’s history and provides a venue for participants in the sugar industry to relate their experiences through which we can visualize how life was in twentieth century St. Croix.

The photographs used for this book were taken by people who either lived on St. Croix or visited the island. Axel Ovesen came to St. Croix as a gendarme from Denmark and took photographs at the La Grange Sugar Factory, where he worked, and of St. Croix and its people until the early 1970’s. Folmer Andersen, a Dane, worked at La Grange Sugar Factory and was a director for the Bethlehem Sugar Factory. His photo collection contains many photographs of sugar cane experiments and Estate Golden Grove, where he lived with his family. Axel Berland worked at the Richmond Central Factory in Christiansted and took photographs around that plant. Allen Rinehart probably worked for the federal government and came to St. Croix in 1935-36 and took photographs of sugar cane workers and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Those photographs can be found at the St. Croix Landmarks library in Estate Whim.

Jack Delano visited St. Croix in December 1941, to