The Mayumi Legacy

The Mayumi family's own history says Yoshio Mayumi bought 1,734 acres near Fannett in December 1905 for $35,000. In 1908 he planted 705 acres in rice and harvested about 680 tons. He had hired eight farmhands on three-year contracts when he needed thirty; most left once their contracts ended. A freak cold spell killed his tangerine saplings. After the 1921 alien land law and the 1924 immigration ban, his brother Yasuo sold the farm. In 2004 the county renamed the road whose name had been an ethnic slur; it is now Boondocks Road.

What the plaque says

The Mayumi Legacy 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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 14 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 — 16 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.
• Sea Rim State Park — 17 mi
  Texas's far southeast corner: nearly two miles of Gulf shoreline backed by 4,000 acres of marsh, reached by boardwalk or paddle trail, rebuilt after Rita and Ike.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 17 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• Town of Winnie — 10 mi
• Winnie-Stowell — 11 mi
• Beauxart Gardens — 13 mi
• City of Beaumont — 13 mi