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| Country: Jamaica Clear Subject: COVER with STORY Clear | Sort: Newest listed first |
;) | MAIL TO CO-FOUNDER OF THE UNITED FRUIT COMPANY, Jamaica postal history 1891 cover with U.S. 5c with SWAMPSCOTT MAY 13 1891 to Capt. L.D. Baker, Port Antonio, Jamaica with Boston (MY 13), Kingston (MY 23) and Port Antonio (MY 24 91) b/stamps, reverse stained. The actual history of the UFCo does not start until its foundation in 1899 but the “legend” of the Company goes back to May 1870 when Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker, a well-known Yankee sea captain and owner of the two-masted schooner “Telegraph” arrived in Jamaica from his home port of Wellfield, Massachusetts and filled spare deck cargo space for his return trip to New Jersey with 160 stems of bananas purchased at 14 cents each. On arrival in Jersey City he found they readily sold on the quayside at $2 per stem, and so began Captain Baker’s interest in the banana industry. Six years later in 1876 Captain Baker joined forces with Andrew W. Preston to found the Boston Fruit Company. Some 20 years later forces were joined with Minor C. Keith who had built a railroad in Costa Rica and was using it to transport bananas from the plantations. The three men, each giants in their own field, evolved plans to form a new Company, and on the 30th March 1899 co-founded a new firm, to be called the United Fruit Company, with assets of some 213,000 acres of land in the Central American Republics, some 110 miles of railway, a small fleet of ships and approximately $11,000,000 in capital. Captain Baker’s initial 160 stems of bananas turned into 17,000,000 stems being shipped annually for consumption in the USA by 1899. £140 |
;) ;) | The GHOSTS of POINT ELLICE HOUSE, the most haunted house on VANCOUVER ISLAND 1898 cover to Mrs (Caroline Agnes) O'Reilly (1831-1899, thought to appear as an apparition in the grounds of her house) at Point Ellice, Victoria, Vancouver Island pmk'd KINGSTON AU 10 98 and then mysteriously spirited some 4,432 miles to DUBLIN (AU 24 98, husband Peter originated from Ballybeg, Co. Meath, only 45 miles from Dublin) before travelling a further 4,502 miles to VICTORIA, B.C. PM/SP 6 98 per b/stamp) with I/SP 7 98 and "10" cents tax due handstamp added the next day, some soiling. Husband Peter, former Indian Reserve Commissioner, is the subject of supernatural investigations at the house which went live on a YouTube video October 31 2020. Visitors and volunteers have had spooky encounters with lights switching on and off, a piano playing on its own, and apparitions chasing them away. In later years "a nice young lady in a blue dress" had shown visitors around the house giving many previously unknown facts, when questioned they went back inside the house and pointed to a blue gown lying across a bed, "that's the one she was wearing" in daughter Kathleen O'Reilly's bedroom. Kathleen had returned! For many years the whereabouts of the grave of Caroline Agnes was a mystery, but in her final year, being so ill, she made a last visit to her family in England, dying only a few days after arrival. Her remains lie in the cemetery at Cheriton, Folkestone (only 2.1 miles down the road, a 39 minute walk, from me!). £475 |