| Notes |
Mott was an astute businessman who was known widely as an automotive pioneer,
industrialist and philanthropist. He gained a deep appreciation of farming from his
ancestors, who came to the United States in 1645 and farmed the land. Those farming
roots led him to arrange the purchase of land and other assets of a failed sugarcane
farming and processing company in Florida on April 29, 1931, even though the country
was in the midst of the Great Depression. That company, Southern Sugar Corporation,
was located in the tiny town of Clewiston on the southern tip of Lake Okeechobee. Mott
became its Chairman and renamed it United States Sugar Corporation. |