Tomás Terry Adán (1808-1886) was a Spaniard of Irish descent born in Caracas, Venezuela to Spaniard immigrant from Cádiz José Terry and Caracas native Tomasa Adán. In 1830 he emigrated to then Fernandina de Jagua, city founded in 1819 and later known as Cienfuegos, known in Cuba as “Pearl of the South”. In 1837 he married Teresa Dorticós Gómez de Leys, daughter of Andrés Dorticós y Cassón the wealthy Governor of the province of Cienfuegos from which marriage ten children were born. Tomás’ first job was at a store owned by Martin Irady, a Spanish immigrant from San Sebastián, Basque Country who was a friend of his father José Terry whom he had met when both lived in Curaçao.

Wanting to prosper, which he could not do while on the employ of Irady, he bought a couple of mules and started transporting goods from the port to different nearby towns and from these towns he brought back to the city goods he would sell. This activity allowed him to save money which he started lending to farmers, relationships that led him to the slave trade. He would purchased slaves who had become too ill to work, saw to their recovery and renewed marketability and then sold them back into slavery at a profit. By 1845 his business included a cooperage, wholesale warehouses in the port area, import and export of wood and agricultural products plus the sale of sugar in New York[1] acquired from crop financing activities.

Most of his wealth was made in the 1860s from railroad construction in the US and Cuba, wise investments in the stock market and the production of sugar. He became the Mayor of Cienfuegos, owned a residence at 5th Ave. and 38th St. in New York City and his children owned properties in Europe. He was also a savvy investor having invested important sums in foreign government bonds including US bonds and shares in railroad companies becoming majority stockholder in some of them. He also invested in Cuban railroads including the Cienfuegos-Santa Clara Railroad of which he was sole owner. All these businesses allowed him to amass a great fortune that made him the richest person in Cuba and earned him the nickname the “Cuban Croesus”.

Tomás investments in the sugar industry included sugar mills. Central Juraguá, established ca. 1845 and owned by his daughter Natividad until 1922 when it was demolished. Central Caracas, established in 1854 by Manuel Rodríguez del Rey as Central Santa Sabina and acquired in 1862, was kept in the family ownership until 1920 when it was sold to the Caracas Sugar & Railroad Co. who in the mid 1920s sold it to Edwin F. Atkins. In 1869 Ricardo O’Farrill, mortgaged in favor of Tomas Terry the Central Limones in the amount of $600,000 at the time a huge sum. In 1879 unable to pay the debt O’ Farrill deeded title of the star mill to Terry in lieu of payment. It was later sold to Jose I. Lezama who lost in the 1921 price debacle to the Banco Nacional de Cuba.

An article published by The Princeton & Slavery Project lists Cuban sugar planters that used Moses Taylor Pyne as their brokers in the US. The article lists Terry as owner of Central Esperanza and Central Caridad both in Cienfuegos and states about Terry:

“a planter with so much sugar to his name he did not even always know how much of it was held in Moses Taylor’s warehouse. Terry, who had reportedly made his initial fortune buying sick slaves and then reselling them for profit, first began doing business with Moses Taylor as early as 1838.  By 1865, Terry was consigning over one million dollars worth of sugar and molasses to the firm on an annual basis from his property holdings in Cuba that grew to include seven of the largest plantations on the island”

Tomás brother Antonio Terry Adán married his old boss Martin Irady’s daughter Luisa Irady and had a daughter named Luisa Maximina Terry Irady (1844-1934) who in 1864 married Elías Ponvert Malibrant in New York. Luisa Maximina inherited Central Hormiguero from her aunt Juana Irady who had owned it since 1848 upon the death of her husband Fermín Gorozábal ( -1848) who had established it in 1839. In 1890 Luisa Maximina and Elias relocated from New York to Cienfuegos to manage the sugar mill which in the 1920s was owned by Elias and Luisa Maximina son Elie L. Ponvert Terry who sold it in 1954 to Fernando de la Riva.

In 1884 Tomás and his wife moved to Paris where he died in 1886 and was buried at Père Lachaisse cemetery, his business Tomás Terry & Co. was taken over by his sons Francisco Javier Terry Dorticós and José Emilio Terry Dorticós under the name Cia. Commercial de Cienfuegos until 1910. His name forever will be remembered in Cienfuegos by the Teatro Tomás Terry. Located on the northern side of Parque Jose Marti, the Teatro Tomas Terry is probably the single most impressive building in Cienfuegos. Unfortunately Tomas Terry died before the theatre was completed in 1889 and before the first performance took place on February 12, 1890. Regarding his estate, the Chicago Tribune published the following on November 21, 1886:

A CUBAN PLANTER'S WILL AN ESTATE WORTH FIFTY MILLIONS TO BE DIVIDED. Testament of Don Tomas Terry, which distributes his immense wealth among his children, each of the eight heirs to receive six millions. A copy of the will of the late Don Tomas Terry, the wealthy Cuban planter, was filed today in the Surrogate's office. He was the father of the late Juan Pedro Terry who recently left by will an estate valued at $6,000,000 to his wife and unborn child. A petition accompanied the planter's will from José Emilio Terry praying tor ancillary and letters testamentary signed toy ex-Judge Charles P. Daly. The will was executed in Havana. Terry's estate is valued at $50,000,000 of which $20.000.000 is Invested in this country. Up to 1881 Terry had given various sums to his children amounting to many millions of dollars. Several clauses of the will are taken up in describing in detail when and how these sums were paid, all of the several amounts to be deducted from the final inheritance as per the will. Don Jose Emilio and Don Francisco Javier are appointed executors to distribute and properly administer the vast estate. The house No. 37 West Twenty-seventh street, this city, is given to his daughter Doña Natividad, and No. 4.34 Fifth avenue to Don Francisco Javier. The children have already received these sums: Don Andres, $571,451; Doña Carmen $235,850; Don Edwardo Serafin $671,978; Don Francisco Javier $107,893; Don Juan Pedro, $1,779,421; Don Jose Emilio, $618,658, and the sugar plantation Leonores, valued at $211,570, was given to Doña Natividad. The testator pretty equally divides the vast bulk of his property among his children. Doña Carmen received the plantation Repador; Don Francisco Jarvier, Esperanza; Doña Natividad, the cattle ranch San Joaquin; and Don Antonio, La Caridad. Three hundred thousand dollars was bequeathed to his wife to be employed in a secret work. If any of the heirs contest the will they will be disinherited. Don Dedro O'Rourke. a clerk, received $25,000 in Spanish gold., The will has eighteen or twenty clauses.

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[1] His agent in New York was Moses Taylor