[GEN0031] Saturday, June 15, 1929 ----------------------- Minor C. Keith dies; United Fruit's Head -------- Was One of its Founders- Built International Railways of Central America. -------- STARTED AT $3 A WEEK --------- Largest Banana Grower of Isthmian Republics Thirty Years Ago - Did Much for Two Nations. -------- Minor cooper Keith, Central Amer- ican railway buillder and one of the founders of the United Fruit Com- pany, died of bronchial pneumonia in his eighty-second year yesterday at his residence here, after an ill- ness of several days. funeral ser- vices will be held at his Summer place in West Islip, L.I. at 10:30 A.M. tomorrow. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. Because of his advanced age Mr. Keith last year gave up active man- agement of the International Rail- ways of Central America, which ex- tensive system he had helped to de- velop from several separate lines in Guantemala and slavador. On relin- quishing the presidency, he became chairman of the board of directors. Mr. Keith was born in Brooklyn on Jan. 19, 1848. a son of Minor Hubbell Keith and the former Emily Meiggs. At the age of 16 he began to work in a store in Broadway, Manhattan, at the weekly wage o $3. soon afterward he went into the lumber business, in which his father had been engaged, and in his first year netted $3,000 profit. Finished Railroad Despite Crisis. He sold his lumber business in 1870 and went into catle raising in Texas, which he gave up several years later to join his brother, Henry Meiggs Keith, in building a Costa Rican railway. The first twenty-five miles were said to have cost the lives of 4,000 men. although the govern- ment ran short of funds, Mr. Keith finished the construction on credit. He spent three years in London to arrange the Costa Rican external debt and further finance his rail- way with [pound sign]1,2000,000 ($6,000,000) of bonds. Meanwhile Mr. Keith saw the pos- sibilties of banana raising in costa Rica and in 1872 he started a plan- tation-the first in Central America- shipping to New Orleans and New York. He gradually extended his plantations until he became, in 1898, the largest banana grower in Cen- tral america. He also in the mean- time had acquired a fleet of steam- ships to transport his fruit. In 1899 he organized the United Fruit Company with the late An- drew W. Preston. receiving three- fitfths of the company's capital for his interests. Hw was the first vice president of the coporation's stem- ship line which office he resigned many years ago to attend to his widening intersts. His Many Interests. In 1912 he organized the Guate- malan Railways, which became the International Railways of Central America, a system of some 880 miles, touching both the Pacific Coast and the Caribbean. He also became pres- ident of the Guatemala & Salvador Railway, the St. Andrew's Bay Lum- ber Company, the abangarez Gold Fields of Costa Rica and the Polo- chic Banana Company. He was vice president of the Premier Gold Min- ing Company of this city, International Products Corporation and the Gen- eral Lead Batteries Company. In 1883 Mr. Keith married Cristina Castor, daugter of Jose M. Castro. former P resident of the Republic of Costa Rica, by whom he is sruvived. ----------- Mourned by Panama's President. Special Cable to The New york Times. PANAMA. June 14. -President Arosemena today expressed deep re- gret on learning of the death of Minor C. Keith, for whom the Presi- dent worked as an engineer when a young man. The Panama Star Herald tomorrow will refer editori- ally to Mr. Keith as the best known North American in Central America, "who has done more for the develop- ment of these countries by apprecia- tion of their potentialities and faith in their development than any other single man." The editorial calls at- tention to the fact that the first shipment of bananas Mr. Keith made to the United States consted of 200 bunches purchased in Colon in 1872. "He was the intimate friend of thousands in these coutries", the editorial continues, "and his inti- mates were Presidents and Cabinet Ministers, native peons and Americ- can negros. His good works will live many years after him and will be the finest kind of a monument to his memory and, we like to feel, the kind of monument he would like best." -------------- Trans Halt to Honor Keith ------------- Traffic Pauses 5 Minutes on Cen- tral America Lines He Founded. SAN SALVADOR, June 17 (AP).-In tribute to the memory of Minor C. Keith, American financier, who died on his Babyton, L.I. estate last week, all trains of the International Railways of Central America stopped for five minutes yesterday afternoon. Mr Keith was the creator of the In- ternational Railways plan and was one of the founders of the United Fruit Company. He was eight-one years old. [These articles apparently appeared in the Saturday, June 15, 1929 issue of the New York Times -MRW]