Sisal production on East Caicos.

By Jeff Dodge

The last two issues of Astrolabe (Fall 2025 and Winter 2025/26) included articles detailing sisal production on the Caicos Islands. Although perhaps not as dramatic a story as the saga of West Caicos, the vesatile Agave fibre plant was also cultivated and processed on East Caicos. Unfortunately, the lifespan of the industry on East Caicos was similarly short-lived.

Background

In 1871, John N. Reynolds, a salt merchant on South Caicos, purchased 1,288 acres of land at Breezy Point on East Caicos plus a 99-year Government lease for more land from the children of Copeland John Stamers for $1,000. Reynolds raised cattle on the island and mined bat guano from caves located there. 

In 1888, John Reynolds advertised his “Breezy Point” property for sale or lease. His advertisement stated that in addition to land, the sale included about 1,500 head of cattle, a 1 1/2 mile long iron tramway with 9 cars (used to haul guano from caves to the sea), a 5-mile barbed wire fence on the north side of the island, a 6-mile fence in the south and a 250–300 foot long wharf at Jacksonville. Reynolds died before he was able to dispose of his East Caicos property.

Sisal on East Caicos?

Jeremiah D. Murphy and Josiah J. Frith were in the salt business together and in 1873 formed the firm Firth & Murphy Company. In addition to salt, the firm mined bat guano from Conch Bar Cave on Middle Caicos.  

An 1876 article in the Royal Standard newspaper reported that the firm Frith & Murphy were in the fibre business on the Caicos and that agave (sisal) plants were being cultivated by them on East Caicos. That agave plants were being cultivated on East Caicos by Frith & Murphy is supported by the statement in Reynolds’ 1888 advertisement which said his East Caicos property included a 5-mile long barbed wire fence on the north side of the island to keep cattle from damaging the Planters. These Planters were growing sisal plants between Reynolds’ 5-mile fence and the sea. It’s likely this land belonged to the Government and was not part of the Reynolds holdings. That being the case, Frith & Murphy would have leased this land from the Crown.

Josiah J. Frith and his son Marischal died in a shipwreck near Grand Turk Island on September 2, 1888. It was reported that the business of Frith & Murphy “Will be continued in liquidation, until further notice.”  

Property changes hands

John Reynolds died on March 5, 1890 leaving his East Caicos holdings to his wife Elizabeth and their six children. A month later, Elizabeth and her children leased the 1,288 acres they owned outright and the remaining years of the 99-year Government lease for additional land to Jeremiah Dennis Murphy of Grand Turk. Murphy paid $2,500 for the lease. Terms included four quarterly payments of $275 each year for 20 years with the possibility to renew the lease for another 10 years. 

Two major fibre companies formed

In 1890, two major companies were forming for the production of sisal fibre. They were the West Caicos Fibre Company, Ltd. and the East Caicos Company, Ltd. Notice that the word sisal does not appear in the name of either.

There are over 200 species of the agave plant and leaves from all of them contain fibres to some degree, but it was Agave sisalana that was cultivated on East Caicos for the production of sisal (sometimes called pita) because its leaves produced a large number of high quality fibres. Sisal fibres were used to make rope, twine, paper, and other items.

East Caicos Company, Ltd.

On June 20, 1891 Jeremiah D. Murphy sold his rights to the property he leased from the Reynolds family to the East Caicos Company, Ltd. for the sum of one dollar. Most reports and articles about the East Caicos Company, Ltd. say it was owned or managed by the firm Frith & Murphy. However, there is nothing to support this attribution. First of all, the firm Frith & Murphy went into liquidation immediately after Frith’s death in 1888. Secondly, it was Murphy who signed the lease with the Reynolds family in 1890 for their property and lastly, the name Frith & Murphy does not appear in or on any document pertaining to the East Caicos Company, Ltd.

In May 1891, the Memorandum of Association was written and approved by the shareholders of the East Caicos Company, Ltd. Article VIII of the document listed five directors who would remain in office until or unless a successor was appointed at the next meeting. The East Caicos Company, Ltd. was incorporated on June 4, 1892. The capital of the company was $50,000 divided into 500 shares at a par value of $100 per share. A total of 434 shares were held by seven subscribers. The majority of shares were owned by W.P. Clyde, Thos. Clyde, and J. S. Cameron—all three were listed as merchants from New York. William P. Clyde was in fact, president of the Clyde Steamship Co.

Although J.D. Murphy was the first managing director of the Company, he was replaced as manager by C. H. Durham less than a year later. Durham served in this capacity until 1893 when he ceased to be a member of the Company. Alpheus Lewis Jones was listed as the Company’s manager and the owner of two shares in the 1898 shareholder’s report—a manager was not listed in  the 1894–1897 reports. However, A. Lewis Jones may have managed the Company after Durham’s departure without owning shares, which would explain why his name didn’t appear in a shareholder report until 1898.   J.D. Murphy died in 1895. His shares in the Company went to his estate, which sold them back to the Company five years later. 

Work begins on East Caicos

According to a Colonial Surveyor’s plan, the East Caicos Company, Ltd. controlled 9,233 acres on East Caicos and 1,347 acres on nearby Sail Rock Island. By 1904 the East Caicos Co. had about 1,934 acres under cultivation.The Company’s staff included a manager, an engineer, two overseers, one assistant overseer, and two clerks.  In addition to staff, there were about 200 labourers employed—most from Middle Caicos. Men were paid two shillings and three pence a day—women only one shilling for the same hours and the same work.

A visiting school inspector from Jamaica reported in 1894, “The truck system in its most objectionable form seems to be in force at Jacksonville.” He said labourers told him they would be discharged if they declined to spend nearly all their  wages at the Company Store. However, there is no evidence workers were paid with tokens as none have ever been found.

Barracks and quarters for married workers were built at Jacksonville and Breezy Point. There was a building for religious services and one for a “company store” that sold food and clothing.

Processing the agave leaves

The Company built a 14-mile rail system consisting of two branches. Railcars carrying agave leaves from the fields to the two processing stations were pulled along the tracks by mules. Fibre decortication or extraction was performed at processing stations at Flamingo Hill and Jacksonville. Four American-manufactured J.C. Todd fibre-cleaning machines were used by the East Caicos Company. These steam-powered machines could each process over 50,000 agave leaves in a 10-hour day.

In February 1896, a visitor to the West Caicos Fibre Company, Ltd. wrote in a letter to Dr. Morris of the Royal Gardens at Kew (UK), that he had heard the fibre plantation on East Caicos was suffering for want of proper machinery and was replacing the Todd machines with the improved T. Albee Smith machines because they were more durable, simple to operate, less expensive, and could process more leaves. 

Leaves from the Agave sisalana plants were taken by rail cars from the fields to the large processing station at Flamingo Hill or the smaller one at Jacksonville. Each station had one or more J.C. Todd decortication machines—later they may have been replaced by T. Albee Smith machines. Each station required access to water for washing the fibres and a means of drying them such as over a series of low stone walls. Fibres were then baled in 200 pound bales making them ready to be shipped to Grand Turk and from there to America or England. 

Operations on East Caicos

Flamingo Hill was the primary sisal processing station. The rail system brought agave leaves from the largest fields to this station for processing. There was a small fibre processing station at Jacksonville in addition to housing for staff and workers and a wharf. Rail tracks leading from the fields and the fibre processing station at Flamingo Hill terminated at Jacksonville.

Jacksonville, named after Commissioner Henry Jackson, was the center of operations on East Caicos. In addition to the buildings and operations mentioned above, a long wharf was located there that could accommodate the Company’s 50 ton schooner. Supplies were brought to the island and sisal was shipped to Grand Turk from this wharf. The waters off Jacksonville were too shallow to accommodate vessels of the size required to ship sisal to America or England. Therefore, bales of sisal were shipped to Grand Turk before leaving the Islands.

The East Caicos Company, Ltd. maintained their business offices on Front Street, Grand Turk. It is from there they managed shipping and exporting fibre from their fields on East Caicos to the American and British markets.

Sisal economics

The quantity of sisal exported and prices realized depended on such factors as hurricanes, wars, and demand. Not a single bale of sisal was exported in 1913 due to the low prices it commanded that year and the high cost of borrowed money. Prices recovered and the following year, sisal exports were valued at £2,212. 

The 1914 Colonial Report proclaimed, “With the closing days of December, favourable prices for sisal were quoted in the American market, and it is hoped that the year 1915 will see a resumption of work at the factory of the East Caicos Company.” The outlook for the sisal industry was hopeful as prices in America increased in 1916 to a record high of 16 US cents a pound.

The end in sight

The following was published in the 1918 Colonial Report, “The maintenance of high selling prices continued to stimulate the dying embers of this [sisal] industry, and with the contemplated shutting down of the East Caicos Fibre Company next year, it is practically certain that sisal cultivation in the Caicos Islands will receive its death blow, at any rate for some years, since no effort is being made to replant or to open up fresh areas for planting.” It went on to say, “Difficulties of a purely private nature are, it is said, responsible for this action on the part of the East Caicos Company.” 

Why the shutdown?

It is often written that the East Caicos Company, Ltd. ceased operations in 1919 because competition from Manila hemp from the Philippines drove down prices. However, prices for sisal in America were actually high. 

Factors for the Company’s sales problems may actually have been the unfair trade practices by the Yucatan sisal or binder twine monopoly. This monopoly kept prices high, but eliminated competition in the marketplace. Another serious problem was the demand placed on shipping during WW I, making exporting sisal to America and England problematic. However, none of the above explanations reveal what would be considered difficulties of a “private nature” as the cause for the Company’s collapse in 1919. 

On the other hand, the West Caicos Fibre Company, Ltd., which also began sisal production in 1890, ceased operations in 1912 (officially in 1916) due to the lack of funds and the gross incompetence of most of its numerous managers and owners.

The author wishes to express his thanks to Linda Abend for providing copies of original documents from the Bermuda Archives. Without Linda’s help, this article would not have been possible. Also, thanks to John Charles Hopkins and John Adams for providing copies of documents from the British Archives, Agile LeVin for providing photographs and first person observations of East Caicos, Tom Ellis of Grove Grafx design, and Donald Keith Ph.D.