DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Mayumi Legacy, out of Jefferson County. Now, rice had been growing in Jefferson County since the 1840s — but just barely. Decades rolled by, and production stayed low.
Plenty of folks believed the crop could do better with the right know-how, the right hands. They just had to find them. In 1902, that search took an interesting turn.
Japanese consul general Sadatsuchi Uchinda came to a Beaumont meeting of the Rice Growers Association of America — and that association extended an open invitation to Japanese rice farmers. Word traveled. Two years later, a banker and landowner named Yoshio Mayumi, from Mie prefecture on the main island of Honshu, made the trip to see this part of Texas for himself.
What he saw, he liked. He came back in 1905 and purchased more than seventeen hundred acres near Taylor Bayou. That's not dabbling.
That's a commitment. Yoshio didn't arrive alone and make do. He brought fifteen workers from his hometown.
And what they built out there near Taylor Bayou was a genuine community — a three-story house for the Mayumi family, a separate building for the workmen, and a community dance hall. A dance hall. You don't build a dance hall unless you're planning to stay a while.
Yoshio's only crop was rice, but the operation ran deeper than that. He owned and raised hogs and cattle, and kept mules and horses for the farm work. The whole enterprise showed early promise.
Things looked good. Then came the complications. Yoshio returned to Japan in 1915 and left the operation under the management of his brother Yasuo.
Economic difficulties settled in. Repressive immigration laws tightened around the family's options. By 1924, the Mayumi family sold the land.
But here's the thing about a legacy — it doesn't always announce itself while it's happening. The Mayumi family was remembered fondly by the rural community around them, remembered for their many contributions. And what they had planted, literally and figuratively, pointed the way toward something bigger.
The Texas rice industry eventually became an economic mainstay of the upper Texas Gulf coast. The Mayumis got there first, on seventeen hundred acres near Taylor Bayou, with a three-story house and a dance hall and a belief that this land could do what so many said it could. Turns out, they were right.
What the marker says
The modern Texas rice industry was shaped in part by the Mayumi brothers, who arrived here from Japan in the early twentieth century. Rice had been grown in limited quantities in Jefferson County since the 1840s, but production remained relatively low for decades. Many believed that with improved agricultural practices the crop could become successful in the region. In 1902, Japanese consul general Sadatsuchi Uchinda attended a Beaumont meeting of the Rice Growers Association of America, who offered an open invitation to Japanese rice farmers. Yoshio Mayumi, a banker and landowner from Mie prefecture on the main island of Honshu, visited this area in 1904 and returned the following year to purchase more than 1,700 acres near Taylor Bayou. Mayumi brought fifteen workers from his hometown, and the farming community included a three-story house for Mayumi's family, another building for the workmen and a community dance hall. Although Yoshio's only crop was rice, he also owned and raised livestock, including hogs and cattle, and to help with farm work, mules and horses. The agricultural experiment showed early promise, but several factors led to its eventual decline. Yoshio returned to Japan in 1915 and left the operation to the management of his brother Yasuo. Economic difficulties and repressive immigration laws led the Mayumi family to sell the land in 1924. The Mayumi legacy, centered on a family fondly remembered for its many contributions to the rural community, is important because it presaged the success of the Texas rice industry, which is today and economic mainstay of the upper Texas Gulf coast. (2006)