Location: Jayuya
Date Established: 1912
Date Ceased Operations: 1948
Annual Production Graph
Average Annual Production: 1,908 Tons
Best Production Year: 1947/4,743 Tons
Family Ownership: Pierluissi, Perez del Castillo, Toro, Ortiz-Toro

 Central Santa Bárbara was located in one of the smallest and most remote towns on the island up in the mountains of the Cordillera Central. The information available regarding its ownership dates back to 1849 when Eusebio Perez del Castillo (1826-1899) married Monserrate Rivera Rivera, daughter of Monserrate Rivera Irizarry and Miguel Rivera Quiñones who had been Mayor of Utuado in 1821 and from 1827 to 1828.  

Monserrate Rivera Irizarry had been granted by the Government of Puerto Rico rights to over 800 cuerdas of wasteland in Jayuya which were inherited by his daughter Monserrate.  This prompted Eusebio, who up to then was a modest retailer, to acquire additional land totaling 31 parcels or farms between 1862 and 1867 becoming one of the most prominent landowners in Jayuya.  His first transaction was the purchase of a 373 cuerdas coffee plantation and sugar mill from Simón Pierluisi in the area called Santa Bárbara about ½ km from town.

Hacienda Santa Bárbara was originally a hybrid operation growing coffee, sugarcane and fruits.  It had a large ground coffee storage capacity giving it an advantage over other coffee growers of the area allowing it to store coffee until prices were favorable.  The diversity of its crops provided stability and allowed harvesting year round.  However, the decline in coffee prices toward the end of the 19th Century and the devastation caused by Hurricane San Ciriaco in 1899 negatively affected the area's economy and that of Hacienda Santa Bárbara as well.

In 1903 Hacienda Santa Bárbara was acquired by Ponce born Maria Toro Labarthe (1878-1962), who was married to Spanish immigrant from Madrid Luciano Ortiz Antón (1866-1910) under the partnership Cortada & Toro with her brother-in-law Juan Cortada Tirado, also owner of Central Cortada.  The new owners began growing sugarcane on the lands where Eusebio had grown coffee.  Given the sugar boom of the early XX Century in Puerto Rico, under Cortada & Toro, Santa Bárbara dedicated its lands to growing sugarcane and the sugar mill was built ready for its first grinding season in 1912. 

In the 1920 Report of the Governor of Puerto Rico, Central Santa Bárbara was owned by The Jayuya Development Co. and in 1912, its first year of operation, produced 375 m.t. of raw sugar. Between 1912 and 1920 Santa Bárbara produced a total 5,506 m.t. of sugar being its best year 1917 when production was 957 m.t.  To the best of my knowledge, The jayuya Development Co. was 100% controlled by Maria Toto Labarthe.

In 1939, ownership of the sugar mill and its lands was transferred from The Jayuya Development Co. to Maria Toro Labarthe and her surviving sons; Antonio (1898- ), Luciano (1900-1956), Sergio (1902- ) and Margarita Maria (1907- ) Ortiz Toro.  Two sons, Federico (1905-1922) and Gabriel (1906-1906 ) were deceased.  As an interesting side note, Antonio was an Engineer in 1929 working at Central Carmen in Vega Alta. 

As can be seen from the production chart, this was a very small sugar mill production wise, the smallest of all those visited due mostly to its location up in the mountains with limited land available for growing sugarcane.  After its closure in 1948, its machinery was dismantled and sold in the Dominican Republic where it was installed at Central Catarey, built that same year by dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. 

Today the remains are only two smoke stacks both of which are right in the middle of town.  The taller one is on the backyard of a small abandoned house and the shorter one is on the yard of a public school.