Location: Arecibo
Date Established: 1896
Date Ceased Operations: 1910
Annual Production Graph: N/A
Average Annual Production: 5,112 Tons
Best Production Year: N/A
Family Ownership: Westphaling
Corporate Ownership: Westphaling & Co., Central Oriente Co., Central Cambalache, Inc.
 

Central Oriente was established in 1896 by Carl Westphaling after he left his employment at Central Los Caños where he had worked since 1884 when he arrived from Bremen, Germany.  It was established on the banks of the Santiago River between Central Cambalache and Central Los Caños very close to the latter on what used to be the Hacienda San Gabriel of Felipe Correa.  Central Oriente was the first to contract any of the land recovered by drainage from the five thousand acre tract under reclamation in the Caño Tiburones. 

On September 14, 1897, Westphaling & Co. received permission from the Government of Puerto Rico to use waters from the Santiago River.  According to information provided by Bernhart Westphaling, grandson of Carl, in 1910 Oriente had three mills, one used as a crusher with extraction of 75%.  Milling Capacity was five hundred tons of sugarcane per twenty four hours or production of fifty thousand bags or six thousand two hundred fifty tons of sugar per six month crop from about three thousand five hundred to four thousand acres planted with sugarcane.  Average annual production from 1904 to 1908 was twenty six thousand five hundred sixty bags of two hundred pounds each. 

The original corporate name of Oriente was Westphaling & Co., in 1909 Westphaling & Co. sold all its assets to Central Oriente Co. which incorporators were: Carl Westphaling, David Wilson, a Scottish immigrant from Glasgow and Mendel Donchi, a Russian native educated in Berlin where he received a PhD in chemistry and who later worked at Central Aguirre.  The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer Volume 44 No. 9 dated February 26, 1910, states;

"The latest Central to join the ranks of active grinders has been the recently incorporated Central Oriente of Arecibo, under the management of Mr. F. Ferrer Barreras.  The owner of this Central, Mr. David Wilson, died last year in Glasgow, as advised in the columns of the Louisiana Planter."  

In 1910, a year after the death of David Wilson while traveling in Scotland, Carl Westaphaling and the heirs of David Wilson decided to sell Central Oriente, Central Cambalache came up with the best offer and acquired it for $250,000.  Since Cambalache was only interested in its land, they immediately sold Oriente's machinery to the Oliver family for their new Central Alianza in Camuy. 

David Wilson was a very good engineer from Mirrlees Watson, well known among the sugar men of Puerto Rico at the time and the British Consul in Puerto Rico.  He had previously been an investor and member of the Board of Directors of Central Altagracia in Añasco.  In 1909 the Courts decided in his favor a libel suit brought against him by Central Altagracia, Inc. alleging that he caused significant losses by his statements about Altagracia's President mismanagement and incompetence.  This libel suit was a sequel to a previous suit filed by Mr. Wilson against Central Altagracia in which he requested the Court to appoint a receiver due to Altagracia's President mismanagement and incompetence. 

A big thank you goes out to Bernhard Westphaling of Bremen, Germany who provided valuable information regarding his grandfather Carl Westphaling, Central Los Caños and Central Oriente and who shared the pictures in the gallery below, including that of Carl Westphaling's own painting of his Central Oriente.  It is worth mentioning that the recent photo of remains photographed in the gallery below are not of Central Oriente but of Hacienda Teresa.  A picture of Hacienda Teresa ruins has been included because at one point in time, based on Bernhard’s statement in an an email in March 2023 he stated;

"I often find the name Santa Teresa in the grandfather's balance sheets. I suspect that he rented this hacienda at that time".