Site of The Kishi Colony

The colony's ledger shows how fast it took hold. Kichimatsu Kishi brought about sixteen Japanese men to Terry in 1907, and the first winter went to plowing with mules, digging canals from Cow Bayou and building levees. The 1908 harvest from 1,600 acres filled 15,753 sacks and sold for $47,000. Kishi supplied land, water and seed for half the crop. In 1924 he built a small Methodist church for $1,800. After Pearl Harbor he turned himself in to the FBI in Port Arthur and was held two months at Camp Kenedy.

What the plaque says

Site of The Kishi Colony Japanese native Kichimatsu Kishi (d. 1956), a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05, established an agricultural colony at this site in 1908. The first settlers were Japanese tenant farmers. Despite their eventual American citizenship and the adoption of several Western customs, they managed to maintain the traditions of their homeland. Several crops were raised here, but the fertile soil and abundant water were best suited for rice production. Later, workers of Mexican and French Louisiana descent joined the settlement. In order to serve the growing colony, Kishi deeded land for a church and a school. A nearby cemetery was started in 1910 for the burial of a young colonist, T. Toba. Unstable market prices, damaged crops, and financial hardships led to the decline of the colony. The end came as a result of the economic Depression of the 1930s. Some settlers moved to other states, but many remained. Several of the men served with American forces during World War II. The Kishi colony was instrumental in the economic growth of Orange County. Only the cemetery and a few structures mark the site, but descendants of original settlers still live in Southeast Texas. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 9.4 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• McFaddin-Ward House — 11 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 11 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Stark Museum of Art — 12 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.

More markers nearby

• Claiborne West — 3.1 mi
• Orangefield — 4.6 mi
• Peyton Bland — 4.8 mi
• Tex Ritter — 6.2 mi