Samuel Zemurray was born as Samuel Zmuri in 1877 in Sharagod, Ukraine.1 The young Sam travelled to the United States with his aunt in 1892 with the hopes of establishing himself and eventually bringing his family to the U.S. After landing in New York, Zemurray made his way to Selma, Alabama and performed odd jobs around the town2. This work eventually led him south where he witnessed the unloading of a cargo ship full of bananas. Around 1895, Zemurray approached the dock with hopes of buying ripe bananas, which he noticed, were commonly disposed of.3 He purchased a few thousand bananas and with about three days to make it back to Selma, he travelled with the fruit by boxcar. On this trip, the train experienced a delay, increasing the time the bananas would have to ripen before reaching Selma. Zemurray offered a Western Union worker a portion of his sales in exchange for the operator to radio the upcoming towns with offers of cheap bananas. Zemurray sold the bananas all the way to Selma, leaving him with a $40 profit. This original trip led Zemurray to seek out more ripe bananas to buy from fruit cargo ships in the future and sell them for profit.4
Zemurray met with Andrew Preston of United Fruit in 1903 and signed an agreement with Preston that any of United Fruit’s ripe or ripening bananas belonged to Sam upon reaching the U.S. With these ripe bananas, Zemurray began to make quick money and he started to make a name for himself.5 Zemurray partnered with a man named Ashbell Hubbard in 1903 so that Hubbard could run the office with Zemurray travelled.6 The Hubbard-Zemurray Company continued to grow and in 1905, they purchased the Thatcher Brothers Steamship Company with the help of United Fruit, which owned a 25% stake in the Hubbard-Zemurray Company.7 The two men also purchased the Cuyamel Fruit Company around this time. Eventually, the Hubbard-Zemurray Company began to be called the Cuyamel Fruit Company.8
In 1910, Zemurray travelled to Honduras and shortly after, bought his first piece of land near the northern coast. This first acquisition spurred Zemurray to begin purchasing as much land as he could get in Honduras.9 Later that year, he opened an office in Honduras and began establishing his own banana plantations. Not only did he plant bananas on these lands, but other crops as well. Zemurray is known to have introduced about 30 different crops to the eastern Caribbean.10 Zemurray was closely involved in the running of his plantations, constantly working in the fields and doing the hard labor that many business owners avoided.11 Around this time, Zemuuray bought out Hubbard in their deal, now owning 90% of the Cuyamel Fruit Company, which left the remaining 10% to United Fruit12. Zemurray purchased this remaining stake in 191313
In 1910, the president of Honduras allotted the rights to build a railroad to the Vaccaro Brothers Fruit Company and stopped all competitors from building railroads in the surrounding areas. In 1912, Zemurray and others overthrew the Honduran president and replaced him with Manuel Bonilla to avoid taxes and duties that the previous president was imposing on companies.14 Business continued as usual until 1929, when United Fruit purchased the Cuyamel Fruit Company from Zemurray.15 Around 1930-1931, Zemurray caught word of a possible United Fruit decline, and in 1931, Zemurray, with his stake in United Fruit as the previous owner of Cuyamel Fruit Company, named himself managing director and eventually took over the company in 1938 as president.16 He continued to run United Fruit with short periods of resignation until his final resignation in 1951, upon which, he sold all of his stock in United Fruit and lived out his days until his death in November 1961.17
1 “Samuel Zemurray,” Encyclopedia Britannica, Accessed February 25, 2020.
2 Cohen, Rich, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 14-15.
3 “Like Bananas? Meet the New Orleans businessman responsible for that,” 300 for 300: New Orleans Tricentennial, presented by JPMorgan Chase and Co., Accessed February 25, 2020.
4 Cohen, Rich, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 21-22.
5 Cohen, Rich, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 25.
6 Cohen, Rich, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 27.
7 Cohen, Rich, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 28.
8 “Like Bananas? Meet the New Orleans businessman responsible for that,” 300 for 300: New Orleans Tricentennial, presented by JPMorgan Chase and Co.
9 Cohen, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 65-68.
10 “Samuel Zemurray,” Encyclopedia Britannica, Accessed February 25, 2020.
11 Cohen, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 71.
12 Cohen, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 74.
13 Cohen, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 100.
14 Terrell, Ellen, “Sam the Banana Man”, Inside Adams: Science, Technology, and Business (blog), The Library of Congress, October 11, 2018, https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2018/10/sam-the-banana-man/
15 “Like Bananas? Meet the New Orleans businessman responsible for that,” 300 for 300: New Orleans Tricentennial, presented by JPMorgan Chase and Co.
16 “Samuel Zemurray,” Encyclopedia Britannica, Accessed February 25, 2020.
17 Cohen, The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, 227-233.