Hacienda La Matilde
Hacienda La Matilde was promoted by Juan Prats Vidal, (1804- ) a Spanish immigrant from Palamós, Catalonia who reportedly arrived in Puerto Rico in 1824, and his wife Enriqueta Hinsch Gonzalez (1819-1896) of German father and Venezuelan mother, born in Martinique. Prats would eventually become the richest man in Ponce and one of the wealthiest in all of Puerto Rico.
Juan and Enriqueta had six children:
Juan Germán (1840-1913) who never married,
Miguel (1842-1890) who never married,
Julio (1860-1903) who married Dolores Labarthe Tirado,
Enriqueta (1861-1901) who never married
Adela (1863-1897) who married Adolfo Labarthe Tirado,
Matilde ( - ) who in 1896 lived in Madrid
Hacienda La Matilde seems to have been established in the 1830s or early 1840s. By 1841 it consisted of 1,233 acres as evidenced by a request of title made by Juan Prats to Governor Miguel de la Torre. According to Franscisco Scarano in his book Haciendas y Barracones: Azucar y Esclavitud en Ponce 1800-1850, in his petition, Prats could only verify ownership of 909 acres and attributed the difference to an error in measurement. In his book, Scarano does not list Prats as a hacienda owner in 1827 but does list him as such in 1845.
In her book De Los Bueyes al Vapor, Lizette Cabrera Salcedo states that in 1846 Hacienda La Matilde consisted of 1,250 acres with 150 planted with sugarcane and its mill was an oxen driven mill. She also states that by 1863 La Matilde already had a steam driven mill.
La Matilde was the first hacienda in Ponce to have a water vapor powered irrigation system installed after receiving Government permission in 1843 to use waters from the Magueyes/Canas River and in 1876 from the Marueño River. In his book, Scarano also states that in 1859 Juan Prats owned three haciendas with a combined labor force of 178 slaves, in addition to owning a propsperous mercantile firm for wholesale trade.
Prats, in partnership with also Catalonian immigrant Gerónimo Rabassa, were involved in slave trade as documented by several deeds dated in 1836 evidencing the sale of 11 slaves to a landowner in Guayanilla. In 1839 Prats appears as consignee in a shipment of over 270 slaves sold to Flavius Dede and Fernando Overman for 54,000 pesos. It is worthwhile noting that Prats was cousin of Juan Prim, whose short tenure as Governor of Puerto Rico included the 1848 "Black Code" which imposed severe penalties on free and slaved Africans for any disciplinary or rebelious act.
In the 1872 Puerto Rico Slave Register, Juan Prats Vidal appears owning 88 slaves, unknown if all worked at La Matilde since he owned other haciendas as well. According to the Ponce property registry, La Matilde was the first rural property recorded in Ponce's Property Registry Section I on May 1, 1880 with a value of 36,000 pesos.
From the road, the only structure that can be seen is the structure that appears to have been a warehouse which is on the south side of the PR-2 just east of where the Expressway (PR-52) ends. Previously unknown to us, the drone photos in the gallery below, which were taken November 2021 and made avaliable thanks to the courtesy of Carlos Alemán, show a remaining standing wall of a larger structure which very well could have been the sugar factory itself.
We do not know at this time the date La Matilde ceased to operate.
