Vicente Martinez-Ybor
| Vicente Martinez-Ybor | |
|---|---|
Vicente Martinez-Ybor circa 1890
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| Born |
Vicente Martínez Ybor 7 September 1819 Valencia, Spain |
| Died | 14 December 1896 Tampa, Florida, United States |
| Citizenship | Spanish |
| Occupation | industrialist, cigar manufacturer |
| Known for | founder of Ybor City, Florida |
| Spouse(s) | Palmia Learas, Mercedes de las Revillas |
Vicente Martinez-Ybor (7 September 1818 - 14 December 1896), was a Spanish entrepreneur who first became a noted industrialist and cigar manufacturer in Cuba, then Key West, and finally Tampa, Florida.
Martinez-Ybor is best known for his founding the immigrant-populated cigar manufacturing town of Ybor City just outside Tampa, Florida in 1885. It was annexed by Tampa in 1887 and was a major factor in the community's rapid development from a small town into one of the largest cities in Florida and, for a time, the world's leader in cigar manufacturing. In addition to his Principe de Gales line of Cuban cigars, he founded many other businesses in Tampa including an insurance company, street paving, gas stations, a streetcar line, and Tampa's first brewery. For his workers, he built and sold hundreds of affordable homes, brought doctors to the area, and converted his original cigar factory into a social hall and theater for Tampa's first mutual aid society, El Centro Español de Tampa. His business interests were integral to the rapid expansion of the Port of Tampa and Tampa's overall economy.
When Martinez-Ybor died in 1896, much of Tampa closed down to attend his funeral. His has been honored with a statue in Ybor City and a bust on the Tampa Riverwalk.
Martinez Ybor was born in Valencia, Spain in 1818.
In 1832, at the age of fourteen, he moved to Cuba to avoid the military service then mandatory for all male Spaniards, and took a job as a grocery clerk before learning the cigar business. In 1848, Martinez Ybor married Palmia Learas, and they had four children before her death.
In 1856 Martinez Ybor founded his own company in Havana, Cuba and began manufacturing his El Principe de Gales ("Prince of Wales") brand. The brand quickly became popular, and Martinez Ybor's factory was soon producing 20,000 cigars a day. In his personal life, Martinez Ybor remarried in 1862. He and his wife Mercedes de las Revillas would have eight additional children.
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