Guyanese Online

In the previous installment, we noted that, as was the case with Josė Gomes d’Aguiar, Carl Wieting and Gustav Henri Richter, the founders of Wieting & Richter Ltd., were in British Guiana to try their luck. They did not come from Portugal. They came from Prussia.

At the time of writing, there were few details on Carl Wieting’s early years. There is evidence to conclude that he was born in Prussia in 1843. He died in British Guiana in October 1919 at the age of 76. In his obituary in the Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturers, he was described as “a distinguished citizen, a man of ability and enterprise, [who was admired for] the energy with which he carried out his ideas and successfully developed them during his long career in British Guiana.” His first wife, Christina, had predeceased him. She was 34 when she died in 1888.  A plaque in the crypt in St. George’s Cathedral memorializes Wieting for his “many years as Warden of [the] Cathedral.” Also memorialized on the plaque is Martha, his second wife, who predeceased him in 1918.          Continue reading →