According to José Ferreras Pagán in his 1902 book Biografia de las Riquezas de Puerto Rico, Hacienda "La Fortuna" was a coffee plantation belonging to a Monsieur Milet.  Ferreras Pagán states that it was Eugenio Aler (sic) who first planted sugarcane in part of its land and installed an oxen driven mill.  Ferreras Pagán also states that upon the death of Eugenio Alers the year of the French Revolution, the hacienda was inherited by his son Ramón Alers and ca. 1880 consisting of two hundred ninety seven cuerdas, was purchased by Emilio Vadi Benelli (1837-1887).  He further states that after Vadi, its successive owners were Guillermo Sobto (sic) and Schnabe (sic) & Co. who in 1892 sold to Pedro Amador who was the owner in 1902 when it consisted of four hundred fifty cuerdas.

Haydée E. Reichard de Cardona in her book Haciendas Agricolas del Triangulo Noroeste de Puerto Rico...sus dueños e historias has a more thorough history of Hacienda La Fortuna.  She states that by 1820 Monsieur Eugenio Alers Despessville (1788-1871) was one of the Corsican immigrants established in Aguada.  She states the Alers family arrived in Puerto Rico in the early 19th Century from Sainte-Domingue.  The death certificate of Eugenio's son Carlos Alers Larruoy, states that Eugenio and his wife Isabel Larruoy (spelled Larroy in the document) were born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.  Angel Luis Santoni Damiani ( -1864) was a Corsican immigrant from Sisco who married Maria Alejandrina Alers Despessville ( -1833) the sister of Eugenio.  In 1840, brothers-in-law Angel Luis Santoni Damiani and Eugenio Alers Despessville established a sugar hacienda and an agricultural partnership which was known as Hacienda Caño Las Nasas.  By 1847 Alers had relocated to Isabela where he owned one thousand six hundred fifty acres of land, and in 1850 decided to dissolve his partnership with Santoni.

Reichard states that ca. 1857, Alers bought a coffee plantation in Barrio Guerrero of Isabela that had been owned by a Frenchman known as Monsieur Millet and converted half of it to a sugar plantation he named Hacienda La Fortuna.  Upon Monsieur Eugenio Alers death in 1871, the hacienda was inherited by his son Ramón Monserrate Alers Larrouy.  She states that in 1880 Ramón sold the two hundred ninety seven cuerdas hacienda for 28,000 pesos to Emilio Vadi Benelli, the son-in-law of his father's old partner.  Vadi was married to Maria del Rosario Santoni (1843-1907), the daughter of Angel Luis Santoni Damiani and a slave named Enriqueta.  

Reichard continues by stating that Vadi sold Hacienda La Fortuna to Teodoro Guillermo Ernesto Maximiliano Schömburg Bercedoniz (1845-1912), the son of German immigrant Karl Frederich Schömburg Bergman (1816-1873) who had arrived in Puerto Rico in 1835 and Maria Monserrate Bercedonis Arce (1816-1905).  Maria Monserrate was the daughter of Spanish immigrant from Cádiz Guillermo Bercedonis who in 1848 had established Schömburg & Cia. in partnership with Karl Frederich.  According to Reichard, in 1882 Maria Monserrate then a widow and her daughter Elisa moved to San Juan.  She also states that when the Schömburg family decided to move to San Juan, they sold Hacienda La Fortuna to Schnabel & Cia. of Aguadilla.  It is reasonable to think that it was sometime after 1882 that Teodoro Guillermo followed his mother and also moved to San Juan.  There was a relationship between the Schömburg family and Schanbel & Co. as Bremen born Juan Federico Von Uffel Schömburg (1865-1940), nephew of Carl Frederich, was a Director of Schnabel & Co. while living in Aguadilla before moving to San Juan.

Schnabel & Co. consisted of German immigrants Robert Schnabel and August Gansland.  Michael Julius Robert Schnabel Spethman (1854-1903) was a German immigrant from Hamburg  who married Elisa Ignacia Ruiz Rodriguez (1872- ).  Elisa's sister Carmen, was the first wife of Arturo Hau Salguero (1859- ) owner of Hacienda Sábalos in Mayagüez.  In 1903 then a widower, Arturo married a second time Robert Schnabel's sister Teresa Agnes (1866- ).  

In 1893 Schnabel & Cia. sold Hacienda La Fortuna for 10,000 pesos to Spanish immigrant from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Pedro Amador Pérez (1843-1902) and his wife and cousin Demetria Machado Amador, who had arrived in Puerto Rico ca. 1860 and 1858 respectively and since 1880 owned Hacienda Monserrate in Camuy.  By 1901 Pedro and two of his ten surviving sons, Pedro Gerónimo (1879-1930) or Perico as he was known and Demetrio (1886-1939) Amador Machado, improved the two hundred ninety seven cuerdas hacienda installing a steam powered steel mill, boilers and an Egrot still from the former Hacienda Plantaje in Arecibo.  Hacienda Fortuna was located near the railroad tracks making it convenient to transport sugarcane grown in its land to Central Coloso where it stopped processing at the hacienda.  

In 1929, Pedro Gerónimo Amador Machado, as representative of the Sucn. Amador Machado, sold sixty eight cuerdas of Hacienda Fortuna to the Colegio de Agricultura y Artes Mecánicas (CAAM) of the University of Puerto Rico, where the Agricultural Experimental Sub-Station named “La Granja” was established.  In 1946, the CAAM acquired by eminent domain the remaining two hundred forty three cuerdas of Hacienda Fortuna. The remains on the sugar factory and manor house are still standing and are located on on PR-2 Km 114.7.  Pictures in the gallery below were taken by Carlos Alemán in April 2023.