José Mentor Guilherme de Mello

José Mentor Guilherme de Mello (Brejo, Maranhão, September 18, 1880 - São Luís, Maranhão, September 15, 1928) was a colonel of Brazil´s National Guard, an entrepreneur in the waterway transport business and an exporter. Son of Laureano Guilherme de Mello and Isabel Gomes de Oliveira Mello, with roots in traditional families of Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte, particularly of Mossoró, he worked in the boom of the Amazonia rubber extraction business, and later became a prominent exportation entrepreneur of plant leaves, of carnauba wax and of babassu and cotton seeds, and simultaneously a waterway transport businessman, in the Brazilian states of Piauí and Maranhão.
He was respected, not for the money he had, but for his generosity to the poor. With his entrepreneurial spirit, he greatly contributed to the development of the economics of the states of Maranhão and Piauí, in the 1910s.
The exporter
The plant products that were exported by José Mentor were acquired from producers along the Parnaíba River and carried by the steamboats of the Parnaíba Steam Navigation Company (CNVP) to the Tutóia Bar (Maranhão), in the Parnaíba River delta, where he had an operations base, in Coroatá Island, of his property. From there, the export was performed by ships of the Lloyd Brasileiro Navigation Company and of the Booth Line that arrived in Tutóia port.
In 1908, at the Exhibition of the centenary of the opening of the Ports of Brazil, he was awarded a silver prize for his contributions to exports for Maranhão state.
The waterway transport businessman
In 1914, the Parnaíba Steam Navigation Company, which was headquartered at the pier of the city of Parnaíba (PI), and of which he was co-owner, had the following SteamShips: S.S. Barão de Uruçuí, T.S.S. Christino Cruz (the only vessel of the fleet to navigate from the manufacturing site, in England, to Brazil, crossing the Atlantic Ocean), S.S. Igaraçu, S.S. João Castro, S.S. Piauhy, S.S. Teresinense, S.S. Marquês de Paranaguá and S.S. Senador Cruz. During this period, his export activities contributed significantly for the state of Piauí to reach the seventh place in the rank of Brazilian states by amounts exported. Onesy Couto de Mello, Aldy Mentor Couto de Mello, José Laureno Mentor Couto de Mello, Antonio Mentor Couto de Mello, David Mentor Couto de Mello, Seth Emanuel Couto de Mello, Assis Mentor Couto de Mello, Angélica Couto de Mello, Benedito Hugo Couto de Mello and Maria Isabel Couto de Mello, who migrated to different regions of Brazil and staged, each in their own ways, remarkable stories.

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