Meeting Recap for August 13, 2012
There’s a relatively small piece of land up in El Dorado County that is even more famous outside the United States than it is here—and no, it isn’t Sutter’s Mill.
This place is only about a mile from the gold discovery site and for the last hundred-plus years it has aptly been known as Gold Hill Ranch but it is best known for producing tea and silk, not ore.
And its real claim to fame comes from the fact it was home to a group of 22 samurai who fled their homeland after losing a civil war to become the first Japanese colonists in North America.
It was a tale reminiscent of a James Clavell novel that guest speaker Alan Ehrgott wove for Rotary Club of Sacramento members Monday at the Woodlake Hotel.
Introduced by Chair of the Day Mary Healy, Ehrgott is co-founder and, for 23 years, has been Executive Director of the American River Conservancy.
The Conservancy now owns the 272-acre ranch near Placerville where the former samurai put down roots (so to speak) in 1869 to form the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony.
“The Wakamatsu Colonists were the last of the Tokugawa samurai who were defeated in the Boshin civil war of 1868-69,” Ehrgott said. “They lost everything; all their possessions.
“But they also became the first, the vanguard of Japanese emigrants to arrive in California as skilled workers that advanced American agriculture, medicine, engineering, and other fields.
“They introduced traditional Japanese horticulture here, including silk farming, cultivation of tea, rice, citrus, peaches and other stone fruit varieties, paper and oil plants and bamboo products.
“What they did was quite remarkable,” Ehrgott continued. “Back then, Japan was very isolationist. People were not permitted to leave the country.”
“This group did manage to leave and that is part of why it is so famous in Japan—but hardly known or remembered here.”
How did they manage to do it? They had the assistance of two men who had been friends, trading partners and comrades in arms. The first was John Henry Schnell, a Prussian diplomat who, much like the fictional character in Clavell’s book, Shogun, had himself achieved samurai status among the Tokugawa faction. The second was Matsudaira Katamori, daimyo (lord) of the Aizu Wakamatsu province and leader of the Tokugawa rebellion against the emperor.
Schnell dabbled in selling European-style weapons and Katamori was one of his best customers.
Despite being under sentence of death for his role, Katamori was able to help Schnell finance his plan to take the remaining samurai to California to launch an agricultural empire.
In April of 1869, Schnell hired a side-wheel steamship and the small band of colonists sailed through the Golden Gate about six weeks later.
With them, they brought 50,000 mulberry trees (favorite food and habitat of silkworms) and six million tea seeds.
They journeyed by river boat to Sacramento, then by wagon to a small valley near Placerville that reminded them of home. In June of 1869 they purchased the ranch of Charles Graner and quickly went to work, planting trees, tea plants and other crops. They actually displayed some of their products at the State Fair later that summer.
But the colony was short-lived for a variety of reasons: drought, competition with placer mining for water, pollution and withdrawal of financial support by Katamori.
(Katamori was pardoned by the emperor, but then chose to become a Shinto priest and remain in Japan rather than joining the colony in California.)
It is not known what happened to most of the colonists. In 1873 Francis Veerkamp purchased the ranch and the Veerkamp family operated it until selling it to the Conservancy in 2010.
Though short-lived, the colony was significant not only for being the first, but for beginning the wave of Issei immigration and with this, the rapid spread of agriculture in California.
The ranch is now part of more than 12,400 acres of land owned by the Conservancy, which has as its goal the conservation of areas with significant concentrations of natural resources.
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Bob Daly presented a brief video highlighting the benefits that have been provided over the years by the Golf 4 Kids event. This year’s event will be on Oct. 22nd at Northridge Country Club.
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Past President Brian Van Camp presented President Peter Dannenfelser with a banner from his recent visit to the Johannesburg, South Africa Club and contributed $150 towards his next Paul Harris.
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Larry Booth was sponsor for the day, yielding his time to John McIntyre of Mercy Foundation. Booth has purchased sponsorships for a number of nonprofits this year. Larry also attained Bodhisattva with an additional $500 contribution for recognition of the "Buy-In" article in Comstock Magazine.
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Past President Jon Snyder achieved Grasshopper status with his $100 contribution for his accomplishment at the District Golf Tournament.
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Jan Stohr offered the thought for the day, Dick Osen led the singing of “God Bless America” and Dave Higdon sponsored the wine reception. Pre-meeting music was performed by Paul Stone.
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Sergeant At Arms Rick Davis closed the meeting with a quote from the Cowardly Lion in “Wizard of Oz”: “A vacation is what you take when you can’t take what you’ve been taking any more”.