Hugh Kelly (1858-1908) was born in Chicago but a year after, his family relocated to New York City where he was raised. Entering business he was in the successive employ of a number of firms of commission merchants. He then got involved in the West Indian sugar trade as a partner with Manuel Rionda in the New York firm Rionda, Benjamin & Co. In 1880, when Manuel and Joaquín Rionda moved to Cuba, Manuel to take charge of the Matanzas warehouses of Polledo, Rionda & Co. and Joaquin to take charge of Central China, management of Rionda, Benjamin & Co. was left in the hands of twenty two year old partner Hugh Kelly. In 1883 when Rionda, Benjamin & Co. was declared insolvent, Manuel returned to New York and attempted a new partnership with Kelly, but that lasted only a year. In 1877 Central China, burdened by excessive debts, was sold to the New York Sugar Manufacturing Company, established by Franklin Farrell (1828-1912) owner of Farrel Foundry and Machine Co. of Ansonia, CT, Hugh Kelly and Lewis Cooke.

In 1883 American Joseph Rigney-Norton established a small sugar mill in Manzanillo, Oriente Province, Cuba he called Ingenio Cupey. In 1895 the Central Teresa Sugar Co. was incorporated in New Jersey with a paid-in capital of $300,000 by Franklin Farrell (55%), Joseph Rigney-Norton (40%), Hugh Kelly (4.9%) and James B. Bill (0.1%). The company was established to acquire and operate Ingenio Cupey and exploit approximately eighty one thousand acres of land planted with sugarcane many through the colono system. Initial total investment to buy the land and upgrade the old sugar factory to a central sugar mill was calculated at $1.565 million in 1902, the single largest investment of American capital in the sugar industry in Cuba since the acquisition in 1884 of Central Soledad in Cienfuegos by Edwin F. Atkins & Co.

In 1884 Kelly established the House of Hugh Kelly, sugar merchants of New York and Havana, which in 1903 became Hugh Kelly & Co. established in New York by Hugh Kelly and Joseph Rigney-Norton. This firm provided essential merchant and management services to various sugar estates, including those owned by the New York Sugar Manufacturing Co. Kelly was recognized as an expert in sugar mill design and production and designed important sugar mills including the Guanica Centrale. His expertise also served him to testify before government bodies on the profitability and output potential of American-owned mills in Cuba. 

In addition to his involvement in the sugar industry, Kelly was president of Oriental Bank in New York, a bank established in 1853 that operated until it went bankrupt and closed in 1908 after paying all of its depositors. Oriental Bank was reorganized and in 1909 merged with the Consolidated National Bank of New York, organized on July 1, 1902, with capital of $1 million. The new institution named the National Reserve Bank, combined aspects of both banks. and operated until acquired by the Mutual Alliance Trust Company in 1914.

In addition to ownership of Central Teresa in Cuba, Hugh Kelly & Co. were owners of two sugar mills in Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic; Ingenio Ansonia and Ingenio Porvenir. A at the time of his death in 1908, Hugh Kelly was president of of all three sugar mills owned by Hugh Kelly & Co.

• Ingenio Ansonia - located in Azua, was acquired in 1893. Ingenio Calderón was established in 1878 by the merchant firm A. Ricart & Cia. In 1885 John Hardy Gresham (1834-1923) was appoint US Consul in the city of Azua in Santo Domingo. Hardy was a naturalized US citizen of British origin. In Azua, Hardy bought Ingenio Calderón which he renamed Carlota in honor of his wife Charlotte Trask, of Watertown, Middlesex, MA. Hardy personally operated the sugar factory until 1893 when due to the fall in sugar prices was forced to sell to a partnership formed by Hugh Kelly and Franklin Farrel while maintaining its administration. The sugar factory was then renamed Ansonia, Farrell’s native city in CT. In the 1940s its lands were distributed among local people by dictator Rafale L. Trujillo and the sugar mill ceased to operate.

• Ingenio Porvenir - located in San Pedro de Macorís, was acquired ca. 1907.  Ingenio Porvenir was established in 1879 by Cuban immigrant and naturalized US Citizen Santiago W. Mellor. Mellor established his sugar factory, considered at the time the second modern sugar factory in Santo Domingo, in a place known as “Vega”, then in the outskirts of San Pedro de Macorís. It was acquired in 1905 by Hugh Kelly and after his death was managed by his son Hugh Kelly Jr. (1887-1960) and then by his grandson Hugh Kelly III ( - 1996). In 1949 Hugh Kelly III was getting ready to sell the sugar mill and 566 hectares of land to the Government, however it was not until 1954 when it was acquired by dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.

Hubert Edson in his book SUGAR - From Scarcity to Surplus states that his first job at the West India Management and Consultation Co. in 1913 was to personally inspect the properties of the family and associates of Hugh Kelly consisting of Central Teresa in Cuba and Ingenio Porvenir and Ingenio Ansonia in Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. He states that regarding the financing previously provided by the West India Sugar Finance Corporation, officers of the Kelly company had represented Central Teresa as their most valuable property, the one most likely to produce low-cost sugar. Upon his inspection of the three properties Edson concluded that only one of the three, Ingenio Porvenir, would be able to repay the loans made to them.

When WWI broke out in Europe creating a complete unbalance in the world’s sugar market. The decimation of the sugar beet industry created a sudden increase in prices that created a rush to get new investors and new capital in the sugar industry. Existing sugar properties that could hardly be given away suddenly became valuable and were sought after by buyers. All three Kelly factories benefited from this, successfully harvesting their crops for the higher paying market. An offer to buy Central Teresa was made by a syndicate headed by a New Orleans machine manufacturer and the sale made for $800,000 as Edson puts it, “near twice the price at which I would have still urged its sale”. The syndicate rehabilitated the factory, operated it for a short time and then resold it.