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If you are reading this while enjoying your daybreak cup of joe you can thank Marcellus native Ella Barber deLima (1856-1934) for that delicious morning ritual. The daughter of Gay Barber who owned Marcellus Falls Clock Factory and brought the first Singer sewing machine to Syracuse, and his wife Diantha Clark Barber, she was educated in Syracuse city schools. At Syracuse University she met Jose C. Alves deLima of Brazil and married him in 1878, immediately travelling to his family’s coffee plantation, where they remained for ten years. It was here that their four sons were born. Jose then became Consul General in Montreal and that is where their daughter was born. They travelled extensively because he represented the Brazilian government but Ella found diplomatic life boring and took two of her sons for a visit to Syracuse. She brought coffee beans with her and began roasting them in her kitchen on Highland St., grinding them by hand and using her sons to deliver orders to local businesses, naming it the deLima Brothers Coffee Company. Customers were warned that if they did not serve Ella’s coffee properly, she’d take it away from them, a promise she made good on, more than once. It became one of first commercial businesses developed and managed by a woman. In 1915 her son Paul bought out the business and renamed it “Paul deLima Coffee.” Interestingly enough, she made no provisions for her husband in her will, but left the estate to her daughter Maria and her son Fred. More than 100 years after she started her business the company launched a line named for her to ‘pay homage to women throughout the coffee industry.’ One legend says that she sat atop a bicycle that was rigged to a rotating vat, spinning the beans as they roasted. This is why a bicycle is pictured on the Ella bags of coffee. She is buried in Morningside Section C, lot 46 with 4 of her children. ... See MoreSee Less

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