Spanish

Marcelino “Bob” Patricius Perez Jr. (June 9, 1895–May 8, 1960)

Chief Yeoman, (USS Druid)

By Brendan Jordan

Early Life

Marcelino “Bob” Perez, Jr. was born in New York City on June 9, 1895 to Bridget (née Grady) and Marcelino Perez, Sr.¹ Originally from Meredo, one of six parishes in the mountainous province of Asturias along the coast in northern Spain, Marcelino Sr. born in 1864. He frequently traveled between Spain and Cuba as an adolescent to familiarize himself with the cigar manufacturing trade. Notably, he apprenticed at the Flor de Murias factory in Havana, a prominent habanos or cigar manufacturer in Cuba.² Cigars became a profitable industry in the late nineteenth century as US markets began to increasingly demand Cuban leaf for both its quality and its association to elite society during the Gilded Age and after.³

Marcelino Sr. and his family likely understood the potential within the market, sending their son to Cuba not many years after the Ten Years War – a major conflict between Spain and an independence-seeking Cuba between 1868 and 1878 – which failed, in the short term, to bring Cuban independence, and instead brought continued political strife, with Spain not enacting sufficient reforms, and economic turmoil for many struggling industries. As a result, numerous tradesmen fled the island and established themselves in nearby Florida where many other Cubans had escaped the political tumult at home.⁴ The loss of many cigar manufacturers in Cuba left room for a young man like Marcelino. As a result, he opened his first factory in Havana at nineteen years old in 1883, appropriately named ‘Marcelino Perez and Company.’ Four years later, he expanded into Manhattan, NY, establishing his business while living across the bridge in Brooklyn.⁵

Around the same time, Bertha “Bridget” Grady, born in 1867, arrived in the US from Castlereagh, County Roscommon, Ireland.⁶ Bridget and Marcelino shared the familiar story of European immigration to New York City in the late nineteenth century, looking to start a new life in the land of opportunity.⁷ The two eventually met one another and married, welcoming their first son, Manuel, in 1891, followed by two more children Joseph (1891) and Dorenda (1893). The youngest, Marcelino was bestowed the honor of carrying his father’s name even though he went by the nickname Bob later in life.⁸ The next year, his father, Marcelino Sr., officially became a naturalized US citizen.⁹

When Bob was just four years old, tragedy struck the Perez family. Eleonora, his youngest sister, passed away on June 28, two months after her birth due to a host of complications associated with Cholera.¹⁰ In December, his mother Bridget followed, succumbing to tuberculosis and leaving Marcelino a widower.¹¹ Tuberculosis remained a leading cause of death at the turn of the century– a devastating illness that had no effective mode of treatment.¹² Left without their mother and sister, the family relied on one another and on Bridget’s sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, both widows, who, along with Elizabeth’s son John, moved in with the Perez family.¹³

The Perez Family in the 1900 U.S Federal Census, lines 1-8

Despite devastating personal losses, Marcelino’s career as an entrepreneur in the cigar industry allowed the family to remain financially stable at the turn of the twentieth century. He owned the family home at 434 Herkimer Street in Brooklyn. In 1900, the older Perez children attended school, as we see on the federal census.¹⁴ Marcelino’s success in his career likely allowed his children to remain in school. Bob graduated from Commercial High School.¹⁵

In 1902, Marcelino remarried to Matilda Gestal.¹⁶ The couple may have met through work, as Matilda’s father was a cigar manufacturer originally from Spain just like Marcelino.¹⁷ Matilda gave birth to the couple’s only son, named William, in 1902. By 1910, the intergenerational family resided in a rented home on Sterling Place in the affluent Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn with one servant – a woman named Filmina Facto.¹⁸

For much of their childhood and early adulthood, Bob and his siblings likely enjoyed traveling back and forth between Cuba and the US, accompanying Marcelino on his business trips. In 1914, Dorenda and Manuel married Jose Gestal and Isabelle Gestal, their step-uncle and step-aunt, respectively. This further unified and consolidated the two families, most likely for business.¹⁹ By 1917, Bob worked as a newspaper reporter for Queens County News in Jamaica, Queens.²⁰

Military Service

Bob joined the Naval Auxiliary Reserve at twenty-two years of age on June 14th, 1917, just two months after the US entered the First World War on April 6.²¹ The Naval Appropriations Act of 1916, which provided means and funds for the US to begin constructing a more formidable navy as the war intensified in Europe, allowed Bob the opportunity to join. Entering the Naval Auxiliary Reserve as a Yeoman First Class, his responsibilities primarily involved administrative and clerical work while stationed at the Third Naval District in New York City. To become a Yeoman, Bob had to meet a number of requirements, including passing a mandated stenographer’s exam. Bob’s experience as a journalist before his enlistment likely provided him important skills to fulfill his role within the Naval Auxiliary Reserve. Given that the New York Navy Yard had a yeoman’s school may mean that Bob also trained there.²²

Bob was assigned to the USS Druid, a refitted yacht commissioned on September 17, 1917.²³ The ship left the US in November 1917, sailing from Newport News, VA, alongside the Cythera, the Lydonia, and three French submarine chasers.²⁴ The Druid primarily functioned as an escort and towing service, in addition to hunting German submarines that led to the occasional close encounter.²⁵ Captain Leroy Reinburg, a crew member of the Druid, earned the Navy Cross for his service – demonstrative of the bravery required of the men aboard the ship when conducting their tasks and duties.²⁶

Within a year, Bob received a promotion to Chief Yeoman. The crew traversed the Mediterranean, the Straits of Gibraltar, and the coast of Portugal during their time in European waters.²⁷ In December 1918, his older brother, Joe, a lieutenant in the Army, was honorably discharged following the culmination of the war and headed to Tampa to fulfill orders for the family’s company. Before his sons returned from war, Marcelino had relocated most of the company to Ybor City, the heart of the cigar rolling industry. Even though the sons continued to live in New York, they began traveling between New York and Florida in 1918.²⁸ A month later, the Druid and its crew returned home to the US.²⁹ The Navy discharged Bob on February 11, 1919.³⁰

Post-Service Life

Bob was back with his family by 1920, living with his sister Dorenda, her husband Jose, and the couple’s two young sons, Joseph and William, on Park Place in Brooklyn, NY. Marcelino, Matilda, Joe, and William also lived with them in the same home. Manuel, Bob’s other brother, lived across the river on St. Johns Place with his wife, Isabelle, and their daughter, Rita.³¹ In 1920, Bob worked as a stenographer for a store factory – that factory likely being ‘Marcelino Perez and Company.’³² Unfortunately, in September 1920, Marcelino passed away from an illness stemming from a tooth infection at the age of fifty-five.³³ Bob, Joe, and Manuel took control of the company after years of direct involvement.³⁴

A year later, in 1921, Bob married Ruth Tucker and moved into a new home on 625 Eleventh Street.³⁵ Ruth was a lifetime resident of New York, and worked as a bank clerk in 1920.³⁶ Two years later, she gave birth to their son Robert Marcelino Perez.³⁷ The couple relocated to Hillsborough county Florida, where the family business thrived, at some point before their divorce in 1927.³⁸ By 1940, Bob served as secretary and treasurer for ‘Marcelino Perez and Company,’ with his brother Joe in the role of president.³⁹ Manuel and William were involved as well, working in additional positions within the company.⁴⁰ By this time, Bob had also remarried again to Inez McInerney, a nurse from New York.⁴¹ His son, Robert, lived with his mother Ruth and his grandmother Margaret back in New York.⁴²

The 1940s brought much change for not only Bob and his family, but for the US as well, with the world falling into global conflict.⁴³ In 1941, the same year the US officially entered the Second World War, the ‘Marcelino Perez and Company’ cigar factory in Tampa closed after nearly sixty years, voluntarily liquidating its assets.⁴⁴ Its demise is just one example of the end of Ybor City's reign as the ‘cigar capital of the world’.⁴⁵ The Great Depression in 1929 may have been a key obstacle the industry faced.⁴⁶ Cigarettes also became direct competitors to cigars with substantial spikes in popularity during both world wars.⁴⁷ These factors most certainly delivered a hard blow to the cigar factories in Ybor City, including the Perez company.

At some point in the 1940s, Bob became a park patrol officer for US Customs, and Inez restarted her career as a registered nurse at a hospital in Tampa – possibly Tampa Municipality Hospital, which has since been renamed Tampa General.⁴⁸ Bob’s son, Robert, enlisted in the National Guard at seventeen in 1940.⁴⁹ At this time, he and his mother Ruth lived as lodgers with the Ernst family on Foster Avenue. Ruth was employed as a clerk.⁵⁰ Robert graduated from James Madison High School before attending the US Naval Academy.⁵¹

Robert served in the Navy throughout the duration of World War II. He became a crewmember on numerous ships and finished his service as an Senior Chief Electrician's Mate by the end of the war.⁵² In 1944, Robert married Bernice King in Brooklyn, NY.⁵³ He remained with the Navy after the conclusion of the war in 1945. By 1950, Robert and Bernice had two children, four year old Catherine and two year old Robert Jr.⁵⁴ Bob was now a grandfather. Robert continued his career in the Navy, serving in the Korean War before he retired.⁵⁵

Veteran Headstone application for Marcelino Perez, Jr.

Unfortunately, Bob passed away on May 8, 1960 after a long illness at the Bay Pines Veterans Hospital. He was survived by his wife, son, four grandchildren, sister Dorenda, and brothers Manuel and William. Joe had preceded him in death four years prior.⁵⁶ Additional surviving family members included his step-mother Matilda, three nephews, two nieces, and a slew of extended family. Two nephews through Dorenda, Williem Joseph and Joseph Salvadore, fought in World War II in the Navy and the Army, respectively.⁵⁷ A year later, the Department of Veteran Affairs processed Bob’s family’s request, as seen here, for Bob’s burial in Bay Pines National Cemetery. He rests in Section 34, Row 1, in Pinellas County, FL.⁵⁸

Marcelino “Bob” Perez Jr. and his family remain important figures in the extensive history of cigar-making in Florida. In addition to their contributions to the industry, the family story highlights the legacy of military service that immigrant communities gave to their adoptive country throughout the twentieth century. Well into the twenty-first century, members of the family continue to be named Marcelino Perez, carrying on the traditions and memories of the past. Conversations over what should be done with the defunct factory in 2007 further illustrate the mark Marcelino and his family left on the area – a legacy certain to linger for decades to come.⁵⁹

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