Federico Luciano Barreda (1827-1883)
Don Federico L. Barreda y Aguilar, of Peru, New York & San Francisco
He was born in Spain and came to Peru aged-13 in 1840. In 1851, he and his brother, Felipe, obtained a lucrative contract to market and import guano (an artificial fertilizer made from fish) into the United States. He paid $85,000 for a 3-story townhouse in New York at 2 West 31st Street on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and built Beaulieu at Newport, today more famously associated with the Astors and Vanderbilts. He was Peru's Special Agent to the United States and their Plenipotentiary in negotiations between Spain and Russia. He was Lincoln's Ambassador to Brazil and from 1864 to 1867 resided in Europe as Peru's Minister to Spain, France and the United Kingdom. He negotiated the Peruvian-Chilean joint bonds and speculated in railroad stock and U.S. Treasury Bonds while trading in shipping and securities. When the market crashed in 1873, he had to borrow money from his brother, Felipe, to stay afloat. He then returned to the States and settled at Drum Point, Maryland. Not remaining inactive for long, he engaged in shipping and trading throughout Panama and Guatemala, setting up offices in San Francisco where he then moved his family to 2121 Buchanan Avenue. He and his wife, Matilde, were the parents of a son and two daughters.
