Alexander Air, a native of Britain, came with his wife to Nagasaki in the late 1880s. He
served as manager of the Sailor's Institute at No. 15 Oura. While Air saw to the needs of
tee totaling sailors, his wife rented rooms at the same address to other non-drinking visitors
to the city. In her ad for such rooms in the local newspaper, she called the facility
Temperance Hall. By June of 1889, however, with the departure of the Institute's founder,
CMS missionary A.B. Hutchinson, the building was put up for sale and the Airs left town.
ANTONIO D'ALMEIDA
Antonio M. D'Almeida was a Portuguese national from Macao. He came to Nagasaki in 1872
and became one of the first employees of Holme, Ringer & Co. He died of a brain disease
on board the ship Asagao on December 31, 1891 while being taken home to Macao. D'
Almeida was buried at sea and the foreign residents of Nagasaki erected a tombstone for
him at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
served as manager of the Sailor's Institute at No. 15 Oura. While Air saw to the needs of
tee totaling sailors, his wife rented rooms at the same address to other non-drinking visitors
to the city. In her ad for such rooms in the local newspaper, she called the facility
Temperance Hall. By June of 1889, however, with the departure of the Institute's founder,
CMS missionary A.B. Hutchinson, the building was put up for sale and the Airs left town.
ANTONIO D'ALMEIDA
Antonio M. D'Almeida was a Portuguese national from Macao. He came to Nagasaki in 1872
and became one of the first employees of Holme, Ringer & Co. He died of a brain disease
on board the ship Asagao on December 31, 1891 while being taken home to Macao. D'
Almeida was buried at sea and the foreign residents of Nagasaki erected a tombstone for
him at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
WILLIAM J. ALT
William John Alt was born April 4, 1840 in Greenwich, England. At the age of twelve he
entered the Merchant Service. Seven years later he joined the Customs Service in China,
but left for Nagasaki later the same year after the port was opened to foreign trade. He
registered with the British Consulate in Nagasaki January 6, 1860 as a general commission
agent. Like his fellow young merchant-adventurer from Britain, Thomas Glover, William Alt
made a considerable fortune in the first decade of the foreign settlement by trading tea,
marine products, ships and weapons.
The headquarters of Alt & Co. was located on the Nagasaki waterfront at No. 7 Oura.
Situated behind this building at Oura Nos. 18, 19 and 20 were the tea firing warehouses
where tea from the neighboring countryside was dried by hundreds of workers on rotating
shifts which operated twenty-four hours a day. The coal warehouses were at Oura No. 45,
along the water below Minamiyamate. High upon the hill of Minamiyamate overlooking the
harbor, Alt built a huge private residence at Nos. 14, 14A and 29. The majestic house still
stands and is one of the great tourist attractions at Glover's Garden.
From early on, Alt was an active member in governing the foreign community at Nagasaki.
In June 1861 he was appointed one of three members of a committee to head the newly
created Chamber of Commerce, and in February of the following year he was elected one
of three original members of the Municipal Council. Alt also provided the foreign settlement
one of its two fire engines -- Glover & Co. having the other.
Although William Alt was the driving force behind Alt & Co. in Nagasaki, he had a number of
partners over the years. His original partner was Herbert M. Wright (1860), then came H.P
Simpson (1862), Walter M. Norton (1864) and John R. Hooper (1867). When Alt left
Nagasaki for Osaka in 1868, Norton also left the firm. By the beginning of 1871, Henry Hunt
was signing for Alt & Co. in Nagasaki and running affairs there. He was assisted by Fredrick
Hellyer, a nephew of Alt who had come to Nagasaki in 1868 to work for the company. In
1872, after Alt had returned to England, Hellyer became Hunt's partner in Alt & Co. In
1881, Alt & Co. disappeared from the roster of foreign companies in Nagasaki. Both Hunt
and Hellyer (joined by his brother Thomas) opened their own companies in town, with the
former taking over all of Alt's former insurance concerns.
We know a fair amount about Alt's private life as well, thanks to records kept by his wife
and presented (in edited form) to the City of Nagasaki by their great granddaughter, the
Viscountess Montgomery of Alamein in 1985. Upon his way home to England in 1863, Alt
met and fell in love with Elisabeth Earl, the sixteen-year-old daughter of George Windsor
Earl, the Magistrate of Province Wellesley at the Straits of Malacca. After completing his
work in England, William Alt returned to Australia, where he and Elisabeth were married at
Adelaide on September 15, 1864. The two newlyweds then proceeded to their new home in
Nagasaki.
William and Elisabeth Alt had eight children, six daughters and two sons. The first four
children were born in Japan and the remaining ones in England. The Alts lived in Nagasaki
until 1868, when they moved to Osaka so that William could pursue business interests in the
newly-opened foreign settlement there. They stayed there only eighteen months before
moving on to the settlement at Yokohama.
Because of William's poor health, in 1871 the Alts returned to England, settling initially in
Surrey. They later moved to London and purchased a house in Kensington. They also had
a villa at Rappallo in Italy, where William went in winter to ease his bronchial troubles. He
died there on November 9, 1908 at the age of sixty-eight.
William John Alt was born April 4, 1840 in Greenwich, England. At the age of twelve he
entered the Merchant Service. Seven years later he joined the Customs Service in China,
but left for Nagasaki later the same year after the port was opened to foreign trade. He
registered with the British Consulate in Nagasaki January 6, 1860 as a general commission
agent. Like his fellow young merchant-adventurer from Britain, Thomas Glover, William Alt
made a considerable fortune in the first decade of the foreign settlement by trading tea,
marine products, ships and weapons.
The headquarters of Alt & Co. was located on the Nagasaki waterfront at No. 7 Oura.
Situated behind this building at Oura Nos. 18, 19 and 20 were the tea firing warehouses
where tea from the neighboring countryside was dried by hundreds of workers on rotating
shifts which operated twenty-four hours a day. The coal warehouses were at Oura No. 45,
along the water below Minamiyamate. High upon the hill of Minamiyamate overlooking the
harbor, Alt built a huge private residence at Nos. 14, 14A and 29. The majestic house still
stands and is one of the great tourist attractions at Glover's Garden.
From early on, Alt was an active member in governing the foreign community at Nagasaki.
In June 1861 he was appointed one of three members of a committee to head the newly
created Chamber of Commerce, and in February of the following year he was elected one
of three original members of the Municipal Council. Alt also provided the foreign settlement
one of its two fire engines -- Glover & Co. having the other.
Although William Alt was the driving force behind Alt & Co. in Nagasaki, he had a number of
partners over the years. His original partner was Herbert M. Wright (1860), then came H.P
Simpson (1862), Walter M. Norton (1864) and John R. Hooper (1867). When Alt left
Nagasaki for Osaka in 1868, Norton also left the firm. By the beginning of 1871, Henry Hunt
was signing for Alt & Co. in Nagasaki and running affairs there. He was assisted by Fredrick
Hellyer, a nephew of Alt who had come to Nagasaki in 1868 to work for the company. In
1872, after Alt had returned to England, Hellyer became Hunt's partner in Alt & Co. In
1881, Alt & Co. disappeared from the roster of foreign companies in Nagasaki. Both Hunt
and Hellyer (joined by his brother Thomas) opened their own companies in town, with the
former taking over all of Alt's former insurance concerns.
We know a fair amount about Alt's private life as well, thanks to records kept by his wife
and presented (in edited form) to the City of Nagasaki by their great granddaughter, the
Viscountess Montgomery of Alamein in 1985. Upon his way home to England in 1863, Alt
met and fell in love with Elisabeth Earl, the sixteen-year-old daughter of George Windsor
Earl, the Magistrate of Province Wellesley at the Straits of Malacca. After completing his
work in England, William Alt returned to Australia, where he and Elisabeth were married at
Adelaide on September 15, 1864. The two newlyweds then proceeded to their new home in
Nagasaki.
William and Elisabeth Alt had eight children, six daughters and two sons. The first four
children were born in Japan and the remaining ones in England. The Alts lived in Nagasaki
until 1868, when they moved to Osaka so that William could pursue business interests in the
newly-opened foreign settlement there. They stayed there only eighteen months before
moving on to the settlement at Yokohama.
Because of William's poor health, in 1871 the Alts returned to England, settling initially in
Surrey. They later moved to London and purchased a house in Kensington. They also had
a villa at Rappallo in Italy, where William went in winter to ease his bronchial troubles. He
died there on November 9, 1908 at the age of sixty-eight.
C. EDWARD AMUAT
One of the Western physicians who served at the Nagasaki Government Hospital was
Edward Amuat. A native of Switzerland, Dr. Amuat was a naturalized U.S. citizen who
arrived in Nagasaki in August 1889. In addition to his duties as Director of the Government
Hospital, Amuat also had his own private practice, which he operated out of his home.
Initially, he resided at No. 11 Higashiyamate, but when this burned in March 1891, he moved
to No. 9 Oura.
In late May 1892, Dr. Amuat became ill and planned a trip to the country to recuperate.
Before he got far, however, his condition worsened and he was forced to return home.
Amuat lapsed into unconsciousness on May 31, 1892 and never recovered. Ironically, he
had been nominated to serve as American Vice-Consul and the notice of his appointment
arrived three days after his death. Dr. Amuat was buried in Sakamoto International
Cemetery.
One of the Western physicians who served at the Nagasaki Government Hospital was
Edward Amuat. A native of Switzerland, Dr. Amuat was a naturalized U.S. citizen who
arrived in Nagasaki in August 1889. In addition to his duties as Director of the Government
Hospital, Amuat also had his own private practice, which he operated out of his home.
Initially, he resided at No. 11 Higashiyamate, but when this burned in March 1891, he moved
to No. 9 Oura.
In late May 1892, Dr. Amuat became ill and planned a trip to the country to recuperate.
Before he got far, however, his condition worsened and he was forced to return home.
Amuat lapsed into unconsciousness on May 31, 1892 and never recovered. Ironically, he
had been nominated to serve as American Vice-Consul and the notice of his appointment
arrived three days after his death. Dr. Amuat was buried in Sakamoto International
Cemetery.
JULIUS ANDERSEN
Captain Julius Andersen was a native of Norway and came to Nagasaki in February 1908.
He arrived on board the Marusan-maru, a whaler that had been built in Norway for the
Marusan Whaling Company. Andersen died on September 11, 1908 at St. Bernard Hospital
in Nagasaki, after a short illness - the cause being ptomaine poisoning. Just prior to his
death, he had left Marusan to work for the Nagasaki Whaling Company. Andersen, who was
thirty-six years of age, was buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery. He had been
married about a year and his widow, who lived in Norway, was left with a child born after
Captain Andersen's arrival in Nagasaki.
WALTER ANDREWS
Walter Andrews was an 1877 graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge. He arrived in
Nagasaki on December 31, 1878 and worked as a missionary with the Church Missionary
Society. In 1879, he rented a building at No. 15 Oura and began a "Reading and Coffee
Room" for sailors. Andrews operated the institution until May 1882 when he asked to be
transferred to Hakodate for health reasons. While in Nagasaki, Andrews and his wife (Helen
Patterson) had two children: Walter Thornton, born September 22, 1879, and Minnie Violet,
born July 5, 1881. Rev. Andrews served in Japan until 1904, when he retired due to wife's ill
health. He came back to Hakodate as Bishop in 1909 after his wife's death. Andrews retired
in 1918 and died in Sussex, England on November 1, 1932 at the age of eighty.
Walter Andrews was an 1877 graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge. He arrived in
Nagasaki on December 31, 1878 and worked as a missionary with the Church Missionary
Society. In 1879, he rented a building at No. 15 Oura and began a "Reading and Coffee
Room" for sailors. Andrews operated the institution until May 1882 when he asked to be
transferred to Hakodate for health reasons. While in Nagasaki, Andrews and his wife (Helen
Patterson) had two children: Walter Thornton, born September 22, 1879, and Minnie Violet,
born July 5, 1881. Rev. Andrews served in Japan until 1904, when he retired due to wife's ill
health. He came back to Hakodate as Bishop in 1909 after his wife's death. Andrews retired
in 1918 and died in Sussex, England on November 1, 1932 at the age of eighty.
ROBERT ARNOLD
Robert Arnold, a twenty-six year old native of Liverpool, arrived in Nagasaki on August 23,
1860 and originally worked as a commission agent for Major & Co. By July 1861, he had
established the trading firm of R. Arnold & Co. at No. 12 Oura. The business did not do well,
however, and it was dissolved at the end of January 1862. Upon its closing, one of Arnold's
employees, Francis A. Groom, went to work for Glover & Co., which took over business
operations of the company. In spite of this setback, Arnold continued to conduct business in
Nagasaki until his departure from town in January 1864.
Robert Arnold, a twenty-six year old native of Liverpool, arrived in Nagasaki on August 23,
1860 and originally worked as a commission agent for Major & Co. By July 1861, he had
established the trading firm of R. Arnold & Co. at No. 12 Oura. The business did not do well,
however, and it was dissolved at the end of January 1862. Upon its closing, one of Arnold's
employees, Francis A. Groom, went to work for Glover & Co., which took over business
operations of the company. In spite of this setback, Arnold continued to conduct business in
Nagasaki until his departure from town in January 1864.
CHRISTIAN AXELSON
Christian Axelson was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on March 15, 1844 and later became a
naturalized American citizen. He was serving as second mate on the U.S. transport
Zealandia when he died of tuberculosis at St. Bernard Hospital on March 11, 1899 - just
four days shy of his thirty-fifth birthday. Axelson was buried at Sakamoto International
Cemetery.
JAMES BAIRD
James W. Baird was born in Ayr, Scotland in 1869. He worked at the home office of the
Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in London before coming to Japan in 1887 to
join Holme, Ringer & Co. Baird had worked for Holme, Ringer & Co. for almost a decade
when he died at the company's headquarters at No. 7 Oura on January 24, 1897 at the age
of twenty-seven. He was buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
FRANCOIS J.B. BALMES
Francois J.B. Balmes, a native of France, came to Nagasaki in 1898 to take over the bakery
and wine store of Jean Salvery. The store, called the Boulangerie Francaise, was located at
No. 22 1/2 Oura and No. 23 Oura. Balmes had been married for years to a Japanese woman
named Yamamoto, who went by the name of Marie Balmes after the marriage. The couple
had a daughter, Anna Louise, who on July 6, 1899 married Jean Sirot. Two days later
Balmes died at the age of fifty-one and was buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
Marie lived at the Hotel de France, originally built and operated by her son-in-law Sirot at
No. 33 Oura, until her death on January 9, 1912 at the age of sixty-three. She was buried
next to her husband at Sakamoto.
James W. Baird was born in Ayr, Scotland in 1869. He worked at the home office of the
Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in London before coming to Japan in 1887 to
join Holme, Ringer & Co. Baird had worked for Holme, Ringer & Co. for almost a decade
when he died at the company's headquarters at No. 7 Oura on January 24, 1897 at the age
of twenty-seven. He was buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
FRANCOIS J.B. BALMES
Francois J.B. Balmes, a native of France, came to Nagasaki in 1898 to take over the bakery
and wine store of Jean Salvery. The store, called the Boulangerie Francaise, was located at
No. 22 1/2 Oura and No. 23 Oura. Balmes had been married for years to a Japanese woman
named Yamamoto, who went by the name of Marie Balmes after the marriage. The couple
had a daughter, Anna Louise, who on July 6, 1899 married Jean Sirot. Two days later
Balmes died at the age of fifty-one and was buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
Marie lived at the Hotel de France, originally built and operated by her son-in-law Sirot at
No. 33 Oura, until her death on January 9, 1912 at the age of sixty-three. She was buried
next to her husband at Sakamoto.
WILLIAM AND JAMES BARRY
The United States Navy twice operated naval depots in Nagasaki. The depots were used to
purchase supplies for the American ships and sailors when in port and to pay the seamen
wages due them. The first U.S. Naval Depot was in operation in Nagasaki by 1875 and
remained open for four years. It was usually staffed by a paymaster, a clerk, and
occasionally a surgeon. The U.S. Naval Depot opened for a second time in Nagasaki in 1881
at No. 3 Oura, which was still the property of Walsh & Co., even though the firm had closed
down its Nagasaki office a decade earlier. The office was initially staffed by William W. Barry
(born 1834 in Massachusetts) who served as paymaster, and his younger brother James H.
Barry (born 1836 in Massachusetts) who was the clerk. They were accompanied during
their two years in Nagasaki by their wives, Ellen and Sophie, respectively. The naval stores
attached to the Depot were auctioned off in November 1884, and the facility closed soon
thereafter. No. 3 Oura was sold by Walsh & Co. to Mitsui Bussan in April 1886.
GERRIT BATTEKE, JR.
Gerrit Batteke, Jr. was born on September 22, 1840 in Breskens, Zeeland in The
Netherlands, the youngest of four children of Rev. Gerrit Batteke and Wilhelmina Hendrica
Grador Landsknegt. Gerrit, Jr.'s elder brother, Petrus Julianus Batteke (born March 4,
1833) came to Japan in the early 1860s and was in Yokohama by November 1861 working
as an agent for Textor & Co. Petrus later transferred to the company's Nagasaki branch,
where he remained until August 1864. Gerrit either accompanied his brother to Japan or
followed him shortly thereafter. Gerrit worked in the port cities of Japan for the next two
decades before resurfacing in Nagasaki in the mid-1880s as the proprietor of the Belle Vue
Hotel. He worked there briefly before passing away on March 17,
BONHAM BAX
Bonham Ward Bax was born in January 1837. He joined Her Majesty's Service at a young
age and in 1858 was named a lieutenant in the navy. Promoted to commander in 1867, Bax
was given command of the British gun vessel Dwarf at Hong Kong in mid-1871. The Dwarf
sailed throughout East Asian waters, visiting Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea and Russia during
its three and a half year tour of duty.
While commander of the Dwarf, Bax visited Nagasaki on three different occasions. The first,
to take on coal for a voyage to Russia, lasted only a week in July 1873. The second lasted
three months from February to May 1874, when the Dwarf was called in from Shanghai to
protect foreign residents of Nagasaki during the Saga Rebellion. During this visit Bax helped
inaugurate the first Seamen's Home in Nagasaki. His final visit was for three weeks from
late August to early September later the same year. This came on the heels of a
devastating typhoon, which had struck Nagasaki.
Upon returning to England, Bax was promoted to captain. While awaiting his next
commission, he wrote an account of his voyage entitled The Eastern Seas. Bax's next
assignment was to take command of the Sylvia in February 1877 in order to survey the
Korean coast. It was while on this assignment that Bax again visited Nagasaki in July 1877.
Here he suddenly became ill and died of dysentery on July 15 at the age of forty. He was
buried the following day at Oura International Cemetery. Bonham Bax was survived by his
wife, Emily Harris (the daughter of a colonel in the British Rifle Brigade), and at least one
son, Robert Neesham Bax. Robert later joined the British navy, where he not only followed
in his father's footsteps, but went on to be appointed admiral.
GEORGE BLYTH
George Blyth was a native of Sheffield, England. An engineer by training, Blyth was
employed for several years in Japanese government service in both Japan and Korea. He
came to Nagasaki from Korea in May 1919 to supervise the installation of an open-hearth
furnace at the Mitsubishi Steel Works. On July 21st, Blyth died of a sudden illness at his
room in the Hotel du Japon at the age of fifty-one, leaving behind a wife and large family in
England. Buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery, Blyth's tombstone was probably
destroyed by the atomic bomb. Later, a new tombstone was erected, but due to a mistake
in terms of the location of the grave, it was placed across the street from the original site.
CARL E. BOEDDINGHAUS
Carl Ernst Boeddinghaus was born in Luttringhausen, Germany in 1834. In 1862, he came to
East Asia, first working as a clerk for H. Bourjau & Co. in Macao. The following year, he
arrived in Nagasaki and went to work for the Prussian firm Textor & Co. at No. 11 Oura. By
January 1870, Boeddinghaus had become a partner in Boeddinghaus, Dittmer Co. at No. 9
Dejima. In 1879, he formed Boeddinghaus & Co. and moved to nearby No. 7 Dejima. He was
an import and export merchant, and an agent for a variety of insurance and shipping
companies. Boeddinghaus remained here for twenty years, before moving to No. 4 Dejima in
1899.
Carl E. Boeddinghaus died at his Dejima residence on December 15, 1914 at the age of
eighty and was buried in the addition to Sakamoto International Cemetery. The fifty-one
year resident of Nagasaki was survived by his German wife and four children, two of whom
were living in Germany, one in Tientsin, and one in Siberia at the time of his death. Another
child had died at the age of six months in 1885 and was buried in Oura International
Cemetery. In spite of the fact that World War One had broken out only months earlier and
that as a German citizen Boeddinghaus was now officially listed as an enemy of Japan, the
Nagasaki governor and a number of Japanese and foreign residents attended his funeral.
Boeddinghaus's wife remained in Nagasaki after his death, but the following November she
was accused of spying for Germany and deported. Thus ended the long saga of the
Boeddinghaus family in Nagasaki. Today, no tombstone commemorates the burial of Carl E.
Boeddinghaus at Sakamoto. It was probably destroyed by a conventional bomb attack near
the end of World War Two.
ROBERT BOWIE
Dr. Robert I. Bowie came to Nagasaki as a surgeon on the steam ship Baltic and in 1897 was
appointed Acting Assistant Surgeon of the U.S. Public health and Marine Hospital Service at
Nagasaki. Born in San Francisco in 1856, Bowie was joined in Nagasaki by a son and
daughter (Claire Roberta, who was born June 27, 1882 in San Francisco. On August 3, 1909
she married the son of Aage L.F. Jordan in Nagasaki) from a previous marriage. In Nagasaki,
Bowie married a Russian woman named Rose Murchovsky, by whom he had a son, Theodore,
in 1905.
Robert Bowie opened a private practice at No. 23 Oura in January 1898. At the same time,
he also founded a Catholic hospital called St. Bernard on a hillside at Kosuge-machi for the
treatment of foreign residents and visitors. The hospital was situated on land owned by Les
Soeurs de l'Enfant Jesus. The French sisters handled the nursing duties at St. Bernard.
In June 1908, Bowie announced that due to ill health he was going to close St. Bernard
Hospital. The following month, a public meeting, headed by U.S. Consul George Scidmore,
met to review the affairs of the hospital and to determine whether it should remain open.
The hospital did continue operating, even for a brief period after Bowie's death.
Dr. Robert I. Bowie came to Nagasaki as a surgeon on the steam ship Baltic and in 1897 was
appointed Acting Assistant Surgeon of the U.S. Public health and Marine Hospital Service at
Nagasaki. Born in San Francisco in 1856, Bowie was joined in Nagasaki by a son and
daughter (Claire Roberta, who was born June 27, 1882 in San Francisco. On August 3, 1909
she married the son of Aage L.F. Jordan in Nagasaki) from a previous marriage. In Nagasaki,
Bowie married a Russian woman named Rose Murchovsky, by whom he had a son, Theodore,
in 1905.
Robert Bowie opened a private practice at No. 23 Oura in January 1898. At the same time,
he also founded a Catholic hospital called St. Bernard on a hillside at Kosuge-machi for the
treatment of foreign residents and visitors. The hospital was situated on land owned by Les
Soeurs de l'Enfant Jesus. The French sisters handled the nursing duties at St. Bernard.
In June 1908, Bowie announced that due to ill health he was going to close St. Bernard
Hospital. The following month, a public meeting, headed by U.S. Consul George Scidmore,
met to review the affairs of the hospital and to determine whether it should remain open.
The hospital did continue operating, even for a brief period after Bowie's death.
PERCY J. BUCKLAND
Percy James Buckland was born in London on September 10, 1875. He came to Nagasaki
in 1897 to work for Holme, Ringer & Co. On October 22, 1902, he married Margaret
Cartmer in Nagasaki. The Bucklands and their two children (Doreen Alcidie, born November
6, 1903, and Harry Frederick, born May 29, 1906, lived at No. 8 Minamiyamate. Percy
Buckland's best friend in Nagasaki was Richard Inman who came to Nagasaki around the
same time that Buckland did and also worked for Holme, Ringer & Co. During his time in
Nagasaki, Buckland also served as consul for Portugal. On November 27, 1913, Buckland's
sister Alcidie married Frederick Ringer's son F.E.E. Ringer in Christchurch, Wanstead. In
August 1915, Buckland left Nagasaki for London. Two years later, he died there at the age
of forty-one. His friend Inman had preceded him in death a month earlier in Yokohama --
also at the age of forty-one. Margaret Buckland died in England in October 1925.
GEORGE BUNKER
George Bunker, an American sailor from the ship Veletta, was murdered by a Japanese
samurai who struck him from behind in the neck with a sword on June 14, 1867. The twenty
-eight year old Bunker was buried at Inasa international Cemetery. Tensions increased
between foreigners and the Japanese in Nagasaki when, in spite of a detailed description of
the assailant, the attacker was not brought to justice.
JAMES AND ALEXANDER CARNDUFF
James B. Carnduff was born in Cathcart, Scotland in 1876. After a brief residence in
Gibralter, Carnduff came to Nagasaki to work for Holme, Ringer and Co. in 1896. On April
14, 1906, while employed in the Pusan office of Holme, Ringer & Co, he married Edith
Margaret Wilson, a British resident of Nagasaki and the daughter of J.H. Wilson of
Mitsubishi. Soon after, while working in China, he developed tuberculosis. After a rest in
California, James Carnduff returned to Japan but his condition continued to deteriorate.
On November 2, 1908, he died at his wife's parents' house at Minamiyamate No. 17 at the
age of thirty-two and was buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery. Alexander Carnduff,
James's younger brother, was born in Glasgow, Scotland on September 15, 1879. He too
was employed by Holme, Ringer & Co., working out of its Seoul office. In July 1912,
Alexander Carnduff married someone whom he had known in Nagasaki for years - his
former sister-in-law, Edith Margaret Wilson. Alexander Carnduff later became the manager
of John P. Carr & Co.
F. CHARBONNEL
F. Charbonnel was a merchant and French Vice-Consul in Nagasaki between World War I
and World War II. Charbonnel, who was manager of Charbonnel & Co. at No. 8 Oura, was
married to a Japanese woman named Mukai. When the Japanese wife of his good friend
Andre Boucly died in 1928, Boucly erected a tombstone for her at Choshoji Temple. At the
same time, Charbonnel erected a tombstone next to it for the Mukai family. Upon
Charbonnel's death in 1934 at the age of sixty-two, his body was cremated and his ashes
were placed in the Mukai family plot at Choshoji.
THORVALD A. CHRISTENSEN
Thorvald A. Christensen was born at Elsinore, Denmark in 1844. He arrived at Nagasaki in
1867 as commander of a Danish schooner. Christensen stayed in Nagasaki for two years
before moving to Kobe where he worked for Mitsubishi Steamship Co. Later, when
Mitsubishi was taken over by NYK, he stayed on to work for that company. He then came
to Nagasaki and spent eighteen years there as head of the NYK branch here. While in
Nagasaki, he married Tsuji Mume, age thirty, on May 14, 1887. The couple had a son, Holger,
who died at the age of eleven later that year. He was buried in Oura International
Cemetery. After retiring from NYK, T.A. Christensen went to Kobe, where he operated a
successful stevedore business for about sixteen years. In 1910, he sold this business to
Helm Bros., Ltd. and went into the import business. For the last two years of his life, Capt.
Christensen was in failing health and he died in Kobe on June 11, 1914. He was buried at
Kasugano Cemetery in that town.
JEAN A. COUDER
Jean A. Couder was born in Quebec, Canada in 1840. His parents were natives of Bordeaux,
France who had emigrated to Canada a few years earlier. His father was attacked and killed
by Indians while on an expedition into an unexplored area with several companions. A search
party was dispatched but only the clothing of the men was found. Mrs. Couder moved back
to France with her son but died when the boy was still only five years old. He was later
adopted by an elderly relative who also died within a few years. Couder then took to sea
and for 11 years made a living as a merchant seaman. He arrived in Nagasaki on September
23, 1862, took his discharge from the ship, and settled permanently in this city.
Jean A. Couder was born in Quebec, Canada in 1840. His parents were natives of Bordeaux,
France who had emigrated to Canada a few years earlier. His father was attacked and killed
by Indians while on an expedition into an unexplored area with several companions. A search
party was dispatched but only the clothing of the men was found. Mrs. Couder moved back
to France with her son but died when the boy was still only five years old. He was later
adopted by an elderly relative who also died within a few years. Couder then took to sea
and for 11 years made a living as a merchant seaman. He arrived in Nagasaki on September
23, 1862, took his discharge from the ship, and settled permanently in this city.
Jean Couder was hired as a clerk by the French shipchandler and general storekeeper
named J. P. Hyver but later opened his own business - a French restaurant and bakery -
at No. 22 Oura. In 1884 he joined R. H. Powers & Co. as a bookkeeper and remained with
that firm for more than 20 years until failing health forced him to retire. Among other social
activities, he served for a period of six years as honorary secretary of the Nagasaki Bowling
Club. Couder died of dropsy on November 7, 1904 at his residence at No.11, Minamiyamate.
He was 65 years old and had been a permanent resident of Nagasaki for 42 years. After a
funeral at Oura Catholic Church his remains were carried to Sakamoto International
Cemetery for burial.
named J. P. Hyver but later opened his own business - a French restaurant and bakery -
at No. 22 Oura. In 1884 he joined R. H. Powers & Co. as a bookkeeper and remained with
that firm for more than 20 years until failing health forced him to retire. Among other social
activities, he served for a period of six years as honorary secretary of the Nagasaki Bowling
Club. Couder died of dropsy on November 7, 1904 at his residence at No.11, Minamiyamate.
He was 65 years old and had been a permanent resident of Nagasaki for 42 years. After a
funeral at Oura Catholic Church his remains were carried to Sakamoto International
Cemetery for burial.
DAVID DESHLER
David W. Deshler was born in Columbus, Ohio on October 10, 1872. In 1923, Deshler retired
to the Nagasaki area. He lived on Mogi Road in Tagami until his death on November 22,
1927 at the age of fifty-five. He was survived by his Japanese wife. According to
newspaper accounts at the time, funeral services for Deshler were held at the Nihon
Kuristo Church in Oura and he was supposedly buried at Sakamoto. There is, however, no
record of such a burial.
WILLIAM H. DEVINE
The Englishman William Henry Devine was an accountant with Mitsubishi Dockyard and
Engine Works. He came to Nagasaki in 1884. During his time in the city, he served as
steward and secretary-treasurer of the Nagasaki Club and later as U.S. Vice Consul from
late 1896 to mid 1898. Devine died at his residence in Akunoura on July 7, 1899 at the age
of 64 and was buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery.
YEEND DUER
Yeend Duer (British) worked for for Henry Gribble & Co., Japan Mail S.S. Co. [Nippon Yusen
Kaisha], and Takashima Colliery in Nagasaki and later became an advisor to the Iwasaki
family. He died in Tokyo in September 1921. Duer came to Japan in 1865 at approximately
age 20 and lived in Nagasaki for some time. He was survived by his Japanese wife
Tsunekawa Yasu and 6 children -- one of whom (Elizabeth Yeend Duer) was born in
Nagasaki on November 7, 1889.
ORESTE DUSSELDORP
Oreste Dusseldorp was a native of Amsterdam who taught at the Nagasaki Higher
Commercial School for 9 years from 1913 to 1922. He received the Order of the Rising
Sun (6th class) in recognition for his service to education. Dusseldorp went to Yokohama
briefly but returned to Nagasaki due to ill health and the shock of the Great Kanto
Earthquake. He died on July 31, 1924 at the age of sixty-nine and was buried at Sakamoto
International Cemetery. He was survived by his Japanese wife Tsuru.
WILLIAM H. EVANS
William H. Evans was born in Linwood, Pennsylvania in 1858. Evans became a pharmacist on
board the U.S. naval steamship Petrol in February 1890. He came to Yokohama on the
same ship and left the Navy there in May 1893. He was employed by Brett & Co. in
Yokohama until the end of March 1895 when he came to Nagasaki. In Nagasaki he managed
the drug and pharmacy business (the Medical Hall) of William Hooper until July 1898 when
he went into the drug and pharmacy business on his own at No. 42 Oura. In November 1902,
Joana Evans died of cancer at the age of forty-one, leaving behind her husband and three
children. She was buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery. In 1904 William Evans sold
the Medical Hall and later went to work for the Mutabe Coal Co. in Karatsu. He died in
Shimonoseki in February 1930 at the age of seventy-one and his body was brought to
Nagasaki for burial next to his wife. William Evans, Jr., who had been born in Nagasaki in
1895, died in December 1950 at Hantung, North Korea during the Korean War.
William H. Evans was born in Linwood, Pennsylvania in 1858. Evans became a pharmacist on
board the U.S. naval steamship Petrol in February 1890. He came to Yokohama on the
same ship and left the Navy there in May 1893. He was employed by Brett & Co. in
Yokohama until the end of March 1895 when he came to Nagasaki. In Nagasaki he managed
the drug and pharmacy business (the Medical Hall) of William Hooper until July 1898 when
he went into the drug and pharmacy business on his own at No. 42 Oura. In November 1902,
Joana Evans died of cancer at the age of forty-one, leaving behind her husband and three
children. She was buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery. In 1904 William Evans sold
the Medical Hall and later went to work for the Mutabe Coal Co. in Karatsu. He died in
Shimonoseki in February 1930 at the age of seventy-one and his body was brought to
Nagasaki for burial next to his wife. William Evans, Jr., who had been born in Nagasaki in
1895, died in December 1950 at Hantung, North Korea during the Korean War.
Like many of the former Jewish residents of Nagasaki, Mary Feldstein was a native of
Odessa - Russia's busy port on the Black Sea. The circumstances of her life before coming
to Nagasaki are unknown, but she arrived here around 1890 with her husband Jacob
Feldstein. By this time, the Jewish community in the foreign settlement was beginning to
take shape and numerous stores, hotels and bars operated by Jewish people had opened
primarily in the Umegasaki neighborhood on the northern side of Oura. Jacob and Mary
worked in establishments owned by other Jewish residents during the first years and saved
up enough money to open their own rooming house. Unfortunately, however, Jacob
Feldstein was struck down by a sudden illness in July 1892 at the age of 42.
Despite the loss of her husband, Mary went through with her plan and opened a rooming
house on lot No.15 Oura on the corner facing the river. The rooming house was very
successful and Mary later made renovations and changed the name of the establishment to
the "Villa Hotel. "
In 1896, glass kerosene lamps were the main source of indoor lighting in Nagasaki. As in
other buildings, these was a special room in the Villa Hotel where the lamps, wicks and
kerosene were stored. On August 19, Mary Feldstein's seven year-old niece and four year-
old nephew Jacob Baidack (whose parents operated a tavern in the foreign settlement)
went unnoticed into the lamp room. One of the children struck a match and touched it to a
half-empty can of kerosene. An explosion immediately occurred and the children were
enveloped in flames. Mary Feldstein heard the noise and ran to the room. She tried to save
the boy from the flames but her own clothing caught fire. Both Jacob Baidack and Mary
Feldstein (36 years old) died as a result of burns and were buried in the Hebrew section of
Sakamoto International Cemetery.
other buildings, these was a special room in the Villa Hotel where the lamps, wicks and
kerosene were stored. On August 19, Mary Feldstein's seven year-old niece and four year-
old nephew Jacob Baidack (whose parents operated a tavern in the foreign settlement)
went unnoticed into the lamp room. One of the children struck a match and touched it to a
half-empty can of kerosene. An explosion immediately occurred and the children were
enveloped in flames. Mary Feldstein heard the noise and ran to the room. She tried to save
the boy from the flames but her own clothing caught fire. Both Jacob Baidack and Mary
Feldstein (36 years old) died as a result of burns and were buried in the Hebrew section of
Sakamoto International Cemetery.
EDWARD G. FURBER
Edward G. Furber was born in Newberry, Massachusetts in 1807. He came to Nagasaki in
1870 and was employed by the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Co., as a barge master. When U.S.
President Grant visited Nagasaki in 1879, Furber acted as a representative of the foreign
community.
In the mid-1880s, Nagasaki was a thriving international port, and one of the repercussions of
this fact is that far too often communicable diseases ravaged the city's population. One
such epidemic struck Nagasaki in August 1885, when a cholera outbreak occurred. "
Commodore" Furber (as he was commonly known) was a victim of the outbreak, as were
1338 others in Nagasaki within a month. He passed away on August 31, and was buried in
Oura International Cemetery. At the time of his death, Edward Furber was living with his
younger brother William, also a retired sea captain, at No. 7 Minamiyamate -- a building that
on a number of occasions also served as the U.S. consulate in Nagasaki.
Captain William Furber, who once served briefly as U.S. Vice-Consul in Nagasaki, continued
to live in the foreign settlement until 1891. William Furber passed away in Rafia, California
on November 7, 1905 at the age of eighty-six.
Caroline Furber, probably the daughter of William, married a sea captain herself. On March
30, 1890, the thirty-two-year-old Caroline married Capt. Richard Swain of Mitsubishi Mail
Steam Ship Co. and NYK. Unfortunately, the couple passed away due to injuries received
from the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
ALFRED GABB
Alfred F. Gabb was born in Middlesex, England in 1876. He worked at the Chinese Marine
Customs in Shanghai until his retirement around 1935. At that time, he came to Nagasaki
with his Japanese wife, Sashikata Teru, a native of the Goto Islands. They lived in a Western
-style house in the village of Muramatsu (the home of Teru's brother) until Alfred Gabb's
death on November 12, 1951 at the age of seventy-five. He is buried in the addition to
Sakamoto International Cemetery.
HAMILTON GARDNER
Hamilton Gardner was a native of Greenock, England who was instrumental in the
installation of steamers on Lake Biwa. He later went to work for Browne & Co. in Nagasaki.
Gardner was married to a Japanese woman named Goto Kane. He went to Shimonoseki in
1893, where he first worked for Sometani Shokai and then Sawayama Shokai. Gardner died
in Shimonoseki on August 3, 1895 at the age of thirty-eight. He was survived by his wife
and one child. The couple also had a son, John, who died on January 30, 1892 (thirteen
days old) at the family residence at No. 25 Oura.
Edward G. Furber was born in Newberry, Massachusetts in 1807. He came to Nagasaki in
1870 and was employed by the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Co., as a barge master. When U.S.
President Grant visited Nagasaki in 1879, Furber acted as a representative of the foreign
community.
In the mid-1880s, Nagasaki was a thriving international port, and one of the repercussions of
this fact is that far too often communicable diseases ravaged the city's population. One
such epidemic struck Nagasaki in August 1885, when a cholera outbreak occurred. "
Commodore" Furber (as he was commonly known) was a victim of the outbreak, as were
1338 others in Nagasaki within a month. He passed away on August 31, and was buried in
Oura International Cemetery. At the time of his death, Edward Furber was living with his
younger brother William, also a retired sea captain, at No. 7 Minamiyamate -- a building that
on a number of occasions also served as the U.S. consulate in Nagasaki.
Captain William Furber, who once served briefly as U.S. Vice-Consul in Nagasaki, continued
to live in the foreign settlement until 1891. William Furber passed away in Rafia, California
on November 7, 1905 at the age of eighty-six.
Caroline Furber, probably the daughter of William, married a sea captain herself. On March
30, 1890, the thirty-two-year-old Caroline married Capt. Richard Swain of Mitsubishi Mail
Steam Ship Co. and NYK. Unfortunately, the couple passed away due to injuries received
from the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
ALFRED GABB
Alfred F. Gabb was born in Middlesex, England in 1876. He worked at the Chinese Marine
Customs in Shanghai until his retirement around 1935. At that time, he came to Nagasaki
with his Japanese wife, Sashikata Teru, a native of the Goto Islands. They lived in a Western
-style house in the village of Muramatsu (the home of Teru's brother) until Alfred Gabb's
death on November 12, 1951 at the age of seventy-five. He is buried in the addition to
Sakamoto International Cemetery.
HAMILTON GARDNER
Hamilton Gardner was a native of Greenock, England who was instrumental in the
installation of steamers on Lake Biwa. He later went to work for Browne & Co. in Nagasaki.
Gardner was married to a Japanese woman named Goto Kane. He went to Shimonoseki in
1893, where he first worked for Sometani Shokai and then Sawayama Shokai. Gardner died
in Shimonoseki on August 3, 1895 at the age of thirty-eight. He was survived by his wife
and one child. The couple also had a son, John, who died on January 30, 1892 (thirteen
days old) at the family residence at No. 25 Oura.
WILLIAM F. GAYMANS
One of the first merchants to establish a business on the bund was William F. Gaymans, a
native of Switzerland originally under French protection. He was in Nagasaki in October
1860 when the assignment of lots within the foreign settlement took place. At that time,
Gaymans was assigned No.9 Oura on the waterfront. Until the lot was ready for occupation,
however, Gaymans set up shop at Dejima. In July 1861 he moved to Oura and established
the firm of Gaymans & Co in partnership with Henri Wachtels. Gaymans remained in
Nagasaki for the first decade of the foreign settlement and by early 1870 the Italian
national flag could be seen flying over No.9 Oura. Even before the Kingdom of Italy was
officially established in 1871, William Gaymans had been named Italian Consul at Nagasaki to
look after the interests of the handful of Italian residents in the settlement. Later in 1870,
however, with the fortunes of Nagasaki's trade in decline, Gaymans auctioned off his
property and left town.
One of the first merchants to establish a business on the bund was William F. Gaymans, a
native of Switzerland originally under French protection. He was in Nagasaki in October
1860 when the assignment of lots within the foreign settlement took place. At that time,
Gaymans was assigned No.9 Oura on the waterfront. Until the lot was ready for occupation,
however, Gaymans set up shop at Dejima. In July 1861 he moved to Oura and established
the firm of Gaymans & Co in partnership with Henri Wachtels. Gaymans remained in
Nagasaki for the first decade of the foreign settlement and by early 1870 the Italian
national flag could be seen flying over No.9 Oura. Even before the Kingdom of Italy was
officially established in 1871, William Gaymans had been named Italian Consul at Nagasaki to
look after the interests of the handful of Italian residents in the settlement. Later in 1870,
however, with the fortunes of Nagasaki's trade in decline, Gaymans auctioned off his
property and left town.
MARCEL GIROIT
Marcel Giroit, a native of France, died in Nagasaki on March 6, 1963 at the age of seventy-
three; he was buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery. He was survived by his
Japanese wife Kuni who died on October 22, 1979 at the age of eighty-one. She was buried
next to her husband.
THOMAS B. GLOVER
A native of Scotland, Thomas B. Glover arrived in Nagasaki in September 1859 at the young
age of 21. The Tokugawa Bakufu had just ended the long period of national isolation and
opened several ports for foreign trade. Glover established his own company in 1862 (Glover
& Co.) and over the next few years made a fortune selling steamships, guns and other
merchandise to the clans of southwestern Japan. One of the ships he imported from his
native Scotland was a 1500-ton, iron-clad warship called the "Ryujo" that he sold to the
Kumamoto Clan in 1870. This ship was later donated to the Meiji Government and went on
to become the first warship of the new Imperial Japanese Navy and Emperor Meiji's flagship
on a tour around Japan in 1872.
A native of Scotland, Thomas B. Glover arrived in Nagasaki in September 1859 at the young
age of 21. The Tokugawa Bakufu had just ended the long period of national isolation and
opened several ports for foreign trade. Glover established his own company in 1862 (Glover
& Co.) and over the next few years made a fortune selling steamships, guns and other
merchandise to the clans of southwestern Japan. One of the ships he imported from his
native Scotland was a 1500-ton, iron-clad warship called the "Ryujo" that he sold to the
Kumamoto Clan in 1870. This ship was later donated to the Meiji Government and went on
to become the first warship of the new Imperial Japanese Navy and Emperor Meiji's flagship
on a tour around Japan in 1872.
Glover also introduced various modern technologies to Japan and arranged for both the
import of related machines and facilities and the employment of British engineers to serve
as advisors. Among other achievements, he helped to establish Japan's first slip dock at
Kosuge near Nagasaki and also this country's first modern coal mine on the island of
Takashima. The shipbuilding and coal mining industries subsequently played a vital role in
the modernization of Japan, and both became core industries in the Nagasaki economy.
Glover also built a miniature railroad line on the Nagasaki waterfront, showing Japanese
people the possibilities of steam locomotion for the first time. Moreover, he laid this country'
s first telephone line between the Nagasaki foreign settlement and Takashima, enlisted a
Scottish engineer to build Japan's first lighthouses, and arranged for the purchase of
minting equipment from Hong Kong to produce the first "yen."
Another important achievement of Thomas Glover was the assistance he provided to young
Japanese in traveling to Britain and enrolling in universities there. Among these young
Japanese was Ito Hirobumi, who would go on to serve as Japan's first prime minister and
who would remain Glover's lifelong friend.
In 1863, Glover arranged with the Japanese master carpenter Koyama Hidenoshin to build a
house on the Minamiyamate hillside, which only that year had been officially designated as
part of the foreign settlement and divided into lots. After completion, the house stood on
the hillside like a new-age castle, a symbol of the importance of commercial wealth and
foreign trade as Japan changed from an isolated feudal country into a world power. As a
building designed for use by foreigners but built by Japanese hands using Japanese
materials, the house also symbolized the earliest meeting of European and Japanese culture
in a new age of globalization.
In 1870, Glover's Nagasaki trading firm Glover & Co. went bankrupt as a result of debts
incurred around the time of the Meiji Restoration, but the Scotsman stayed in Japan and
became involved with expanding Japanese industries. He left Nagasaki in 1877 to serve as a
consultant to the Mitsubishi Co. in Tokyo, and was later also involved in the establishment
of the Japan Brewery Company, predecessor of present-day Kirin Brewery Company. In
1908, the Meiji Government recognized his contributions to Japan by awarding him the 2nd
class order of the Rising Sun, an unprecedented decoration for a foreigner. Glover died in
Tokyo in 1911, a legend in his time, and was buried in Nagasaki's Sakamoto International
Cemetery.
SAMUEL GOLDMAN AND SARAH SPUNT
A prominent figure in the early Jewish community in Nagasaki was Samuel Goldman, who
arrived at the foreign settlement in the mid-1870s and worked as a tavern proprietor and
shopkeeper. By August 1877, he was established at the rear of No. 17 Oura. At one time
or another, he also rented property at No. 35 Minamiyamate (residence), No. 9 Umegasaki
and No. 40 Oura.
Goldman was married to Sarah Devora Spunt, a native of Bardicheff. They had at least
three sons, one of whom, Ramsay, died when he was only a year old in December 1886 and
was buried in Oura International Cemetery. Another son, Meier, married Clara Haikoff at
the Japan Hotel in September 1903.
That same year, the elderly Goldman (who according to accounts of the day was about
sixty years old, asthmatic and blind in one eye) was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a
man half his age. In early 1888, Goldman left Nagasaki due to serious health problems and
traveled to Alexandria, Egypt where he passed away a year later. According to a Nagasaki
newspaper account, "at the time of his departure [Goldman] was in a very critical state,
and was not expected to recover."
Sarah Spunt remained in Nagasaki and ran the family store with her sons. In 1892, she ran
a newspaper advertisement announcing a name change: "The business hitherto carried on...
in the name of M. Goldman, will be conducted in the future with the same proprietorship and
management in the name of S. Spunt." It was signed by S. Spunt (lately known as M.
Goldman).
Clara Spunt, who was probably Sarah's sister, died in Nagasaki on August 3, 1902 at the age
of fifty-five (in the midst of a cholera outbreak) and was buried in the Jewish section of
Sakamoto International Cemetery. Two years later, Sarah Spunt (who was still known
commonly around town as Mrs. Goldman) died at her residence at No. 10 Umegasaki and
was buried next to her sister -- thus ending the nearly three-decade presence of the
Goldman/Spunt family in Nagasaki.
A prominent figure in the early Jewish community in Nagasaki was Samuel Goldman, who
arrived at the foreign settlement in the mid-1870s and worked as a tavern proprietor and
shopkeeper. By August 1877, he was established at the rear of No. 17 Oura. At one time
or another, he also rented property at No. 35 Minamiyamate (residence), No. 9 Umegasaki
and No. 40 Oura.
Goldman was married to Sarah Devora Spunt, a native of Bardicheff. They had at least
three sons, one of whom, Ramsay, died when he was only a year old in December 1886 and
was buried in Oura International Cemetery. Another son, Meier, married Clara Haikoff at
the Japan Hotel in September 1903.
That same year, the elderly Goldman (who according to accounts of the day was about
sixty years old, asthmatic and blind in one eye) was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a
man half his age. In early 1888, Goldman left Nagasaki due to serious health problems and
traveled to Alexandria, Egypt where he passed away a year later. According to a Nagasaki
newspaper account, "at the time of his departure [Goldman] was in a very critical state,
and was not expected to recover."
Sarah Spunt remained in Nagasaki and ran the family store with her sons. In 1892, she ran
a newspaper advertisement announcing a name change: "The business hitherto carried on...
in the name of M. Goldman, will be conducted in the future with the same proprietorship and
management in the name of S. Spunt." It was signed by S. Spunt (lately known as M.
Goldman).
Clara Spunt, who was probably Sarah's sister, died in Nagasaki on August 3, 1902 at the age
of fifty-five (in the midst of a cholera outbreak) and was buried in the Jewish section of
Sakamoto International Cemetery. Two years later, Sarah Spunt (who was still known
commonly around town as Mrs. Goldman) died at her residence at No. 10 Umegasaki and
was buried next to her sister -- thus ending the nearly three-decade presence of the
Goldman/Spunt family in Nagasaki.
JAMES GOODCHILD
James Harrison Goodchild, a native of Charleston, South Carolina and a Japanese woman
named Aikawa Sada were married on October 23, 1877. Their one-month-old daughter
Minnie died on September 10, 1882 and is buried at Oura International Cemetery.
WILTON HACK
Little is known about a small group of Australian missionaries who were in Nagasaki in the
1870s as members of the Australian Baptist Mission. The leader of the mission seems to
have been Wilton Hack, who was in Nagasaki by at least 1874. In March of that year,
various Protestant missionaries, merchants and ship's captains gathered at Hack's
residence at No. 13 Oura to discuss the establishment of a "Sailors' Club." The club would
offer reading materials and non-alcoholic alternatives to sailors who visited Nagasaki, but
were not interested in the diversions of the entertainment district in town. The club opened
on May 9 at No. 26 Oura. The effort turned out to be a failure and the club soon had to
close its doors, but it did serve as the first attempt to establish what would become a very
successful Seamen's Home in Nagasaki.
Hack then turned his attention to operating the English-language newspaper in town, the
Rising Sun and Nagasaki Express. The 1876 edition of the Nagasaki Directory lists four
members of the Australian Baptist Mission as residing in town: Hack (who is noted as being
absent), Alfred J. Clode, John D. Clark and T.L. Boag. It also lists Clode as manager of the
newspaper and Clark as an employee of the same paper. Hack was back in Nagasaki by the
following year, but he sold the newspaper in January to Charles Sutton.
There is absolutely no evidence as to what the Australian Baptist Mission accomplished in
terms of missionary success in Nagasaki, but for a few years in the 1870s, four of its
members were actively involved with two important foreign institutions in town, the Sailors'
Club and the local English-language newspaper.
Little is known about a small group of Australian missionaries who were in Nagasaki in the
1870s as members of the Australian Baptist Mission. The leader of the mission seems to
have been Wilton Hack, who was in Nagasaki by at least 1874. In March of that year,
various Protestant missionaries, merchants and ship's captains gathered at Hack's
residence at No. 13 Oura to discuss the establishment of a "Sailors' Club." The club would
offer reading materials and non-alcoholic alternatives to sailors who visited Nagasaki, but
were not interested in the diversions of the entertainment district in town. The club opened
on May 9 at No. 26 Oura. The effort turned out to be a failure and the club soon had to
close its doors, but it did serve as the first attempt to establish what would become a very
successful Seamen's Home in Nagasaki.
Hack then turned his attention to operating the English-language newspaper in town, the
Rising Sun and Nagasaki Express. The 1876 edition of the Nagasaki Directory lists four
members of the Australian Baptist Mission as residing in town: Hack (who is noted as being
absent), Alfred J. Clode, John D. Clark and T.L. Boag. It also lists Clode as manager of the
newspaper and Clark as an employee of the same paper. Hack was back in Nagasaki by the
following year, but he sold the newspaper in January to Charles Sutton.
There is absolutely no evidence as to what the Australian Baptist Mission accomplished in
terms of missionary success in Nagasaki, but for a few years in the 1870s, four of its
members were actively involved with two important foreign institutions in town, the Sailors'
Club and the local English-language newspaper.
ALBERT W. HANSARD
Albert William Hansard was born in London on January 22, 1821. From his teens he served
as a printer's apprentice. At the age of twenty-two, Hansard married Mary Percival (19) at
Hertfordshire. The couple had two children, a daughter, Mary, and a son, Robert.
Unfortunately, in 1847 both his son and wife died. The following year in November, Albert
and his daughter left England for New Zealand.
Albert William Hansard was born in London on January 22, 1821. From his teens he served
as a printer's apprentice. At the age of twenty-two, Hansard married Mary Percival (19) at
Hertfordshire. The couple had two children, a daughter, Mary, and a son, Robert.
Unfortunately, in 1847 both his son and wife died. The following year in November, Albert
and his daughter left England for New Zealand.
Father and daughter arrived at Auckland on April 18, 1849. Here Hansard served as a
General Agent and Realtor. He married Jane Jennings in October of the following year. In
early 1852, Hansard became a partner in Hansard & Brookfield. Soon after, a son, Albert
Francis, was born. In 1855, another son, Arthur, was born, but this was followed two years
later by the death of his second wife, Jane. Hansard remained in New Zealand until the
summer of 1860. By December of the same year he was renting a lot in the foreign
settlement at Nagasaki.
On June 22 Hansard published the debut issue of Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser,
which not only constituted the first English language newspaper in Japan, but was the first
modern newspaper of any language in the country. His four-page newspaper came out
twice weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays, at a price of $20 per year.
which not only constituted the first English language newspaper in Japan, but was the first
modern newspaper of any language in the country. His four-page newspaper came out
twice weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays, at a price of $20 per year.
Hansard published only twenty-eight issues of Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser (the
final one October 1) out of his offices at No. 31 Oura, before moving to Yokohama, where he
established the Japan Herald in late November. He remained in Yokohama until the summer
of 1865, when he was forced to return to England for health reasons. He died in London of
scarlet fever on May 5, 1866 at the age of forty-five.
final one October 1) out of his offices at No. 31 Oura, before moving to Yokohama, where he
established the Japan Herald in late November. He remained in Yokohama until the summer
of 1865, when he was forced to return to England for health reasons. He died in London of
scarlet fever on May 5, 1866 at the age of forty-five.
JAMES HATTER
James Hatter was born in New York on February 2, 1843. He served in the U.S. Navy from
1869 to 1890. Hatter came to Nagasaki in 1896 and opened a small business. Around 1908,
he became manager of the Seaman's Home at No. 26 Oura. He died there after a long
illness on February 15, 1919 at the age of seventy-five and was buried in Sakamoto
International Cemetery. He was survived by his Japanese widow S. Hatter and a son
David. David later left for Kobe and Mrs. Hatter passed away at her home at No. 26 Oura
on January 30, 1928 at the age of sixty-nine.
JOSEPH HECO [HAMADA HIKOZO]
Hamada Hikozo was born in Harima in 1837. Three months after his small boat went adrift
on a voyage from Hyogo to Edo in 1850, he was picked up by an American ship that took
him to San Francisco. Originally, Hamada was to have been taken to Japan with Admiral
Perry. To this end, Hamada and his fellow castaways arrived at Hong Kong in May 1852. At
Macao, Hamada met an American interpreter who offered him the chance to go back to the
U.S. with him and learn English. The plan was for Hamada to return to Japan with important
language skills once the country was opened. Hamada accepted the offer and arrived back
in San Francisco in June 1853.
After attending colleges on both coasts, Hamada, or Joseph Heco as he was now known,
worked briefly for a company until Senator William Gwin took him to Washington D.C. to be
his clerk in the fall of 1857. Heco, stayed with Gwin until February 1858, at which time he
went with Lt. Com. J.M. Brooke to survey the coast of China and Japan. In June, Heco
became the first Japanese to become an American citizen.
Heco knew that the treaty ports in Japan were scheduled to open on July 1, 1859, so he
left his ship and went to Hong Kong, where he hoped to catch another ship for Japan. Heco
would eventually return to Japan on the U.S.S. Mississippi, which was taking Townsend
Harris back. In Shanghai, Heco met Harris and E.M. Door who scheduled to be the U.S.
Consul at Kanagawa. Door offered Heco a job as his interpreter and Heco accepted.
Heco left Shanghai on June 15, 1859 and arrived at Nagasaki on the morning of the 18th.
Even though Heco was admonished to stay in the background, he ended up interpreting over
an incident that occurred between a U.S. sailor and a Japanese. The Japanese interpreter
did not know enough English to handle the situation, so Heco stepped in. The Japanese
interpreter was dumbfounded and grilled Heco extensively.
The Mississippi departed for Shimoda on June 22 -- without Heco ever leaving the ship.
Heco worked as interpreter for the U.S. Consulate in Kanagawa until submitting his
resignation on February 1, 1860. On leaving the consulate, he became a general commission
agent in Yokohama, pending the arrival of his partner from California. The partnership was
dissolved on March 1, 1861 after doing poorly for a year. Heco returned to the U.S. in
September 1861 and in March 1862 met President Lincoln.
Heco arrived back in Kanagawa at the end of September 1862. He began work at the U.S.
Consulate once again in mid-October. He worked there until September 1863, when he left
to concentrate on his personal business affairs. From 1864 to 1866, Heco helped publish
the first Japanese language newspaper, the Kaigai Shinbun.
On January 3, 1867 Heco went to Nagasaki to take charge of the business of an American
friend, A.D.Weld French, who was leaving for home. At the time, the town was bustling with
agents of western daimyo buying steamers, ships, guns and munitions. On January 5, Heco
registered at the U.S. Consulate in Nagasaki as an American citizen. Later in the month,
the Prince of Hizen asked Heco to serve as his agent in Nagasaki. On May 13, Heco went
to work for Glover & Co. and worked there until the company went bankrupt in 1870. K.R.
Mackenzie, a partner in Glover & Co., asked Heco to help acquire the rights to the
Takashima coal mine from the Hizen Prince. Heco was told by the Japanese that this would
be difficult since the land was owned and managed by a relative of one of the branch
houses of Hizen. Eventually, however, with Heco's assistance, Mackenzie and Glover got the
agreement with the Prince that they had desired. Heco called this the first instance in
Japan of a partnership between a native and a foreigner.
In June 1867, Kido Koin and Ito Hirobumi called upon Heco under the guise of being
Satsuma officials, and asked questions about the United States and England, especially
regarding the U.S. constitution. In October, they called again and asked Heco to serve as
their agent in Nagasaki. He did so for two years without remuneration. Heco later helped
Ito get to England with the assistance of Admiral Keppel of the H.M.S. Salamis.
On January 1, 1868 Hyogo was opened as a treaty port and, according to Heco, "
Yokohama, Nagasaki, and the China ports all sent their quota of bearded foreigners on the
hunt for the Almighty Dollar." Heco said that these early days of 1868 were troubled times
in Nagasaki as well. "Wild and disquieting rumours of the happenings in Kioto and Osaka
were ever arriving."
The agents of Satsuma, Choshu and Tosa first heard that their forces had lost at Fushimi
and Satsuma's agent came to Heco looking for protection. The Nagasaki commissioner and
opposition forces made an agreement that whoever lost would be allowed twenty-four hours
to get out of town unharmed. Eventually, the commissioner and his retainers slipped away
on an American steamer.
In February 1868, the victorious opposition forces announced that they would not harm
foreigners in Nagasaki. The following month, Heco went with Francis Groom of Glover & Co.
to Osaka to negotiate the transfer of the ram Stonewall to the Japanese government by
the U.S. Minister. In July, Heco was asked by Japanese officials to summon a Western
physician for the Prince of Hizen. The doctor he found was Dr. Samuel Boyer of the U.S.S.
Iroquois. Heco returned to Nagasaki in mid-August. Heco went once again to Osaka in
February 1869 and came back to Nagasaki in July. He said their were rice riots in Nagasaki
in August.
1870 was a difficult year for Heco in Nagasaki. In February, the Japanese government
began to persecute some 3000 Christians from Urakami and in the summer, Glover & Co.
Went banrupt.
"In the month of August the firm I had been serving since 1867 [Glover & Co.] failed all of a
sudden. The first meeting of creditors was held at the English Consulate in Nagasaki on the
16th Sept., and on the 19th, the firm laid a full statement of affairs before them."
In October, Heco left Nagasaki for Hyogo and later accompanied Mackenzie to Kobe. Heco
was back in Nagasaki by mid-November, as he leased a house on the bund [No. 1 Oura] and
began a business as a commercial agent. At the same time, he received an appointment
from the Prince of Hizen to look after his interests in the Takashima coal mine.
In October 1871, Heco went to see the Prince of Hizen in Kobe and stayed a month. In
December, he went with Glover to visit Prince Nagaoka of Kumamoto at his castle, but the
prince was out of town at the time. They still, however, received a tour of the castle
before returning to Nagasaki.
In May 1872, Heco received an offer to work under Inoue Kaoru at the Finance Ministry and
left Nagasaki in early August to do so. Before departing, however, he had the opportunity
to witness the Meiji Emperor's visit to Nagasaki on July 19. Heco stayed with the Finance
Ministry until the beginning of 1874, when he left of his own accord. In May 1875 Heco left
Kanagawa to work in Kobe, where he remained until becaming ill in 1881. Heco passed away
in 1897.
[Taken primarily from Joseph Heco. James Murdoch, ed. The Narrative of a Japanese. 2
Vols. Yokohama, 1895.]
ALEXANDER HENDERSON
Alexander Webster Henderson was a native of Scotland who came to work as a clerk in
Nagasaki during the decade of the 1860s. He worked at different times for Case & Co.,
Inglis & Co., and the China & Japan Trading Co. Henderson died on September 4, 1870 at
the age of twenty-seven and was buried in Oura International Cemetery.
SAMUEL D. HEPBURN
Samuel Dyer Hepburn was born on April 9, 1844 in Amoy, China. His father was a
Presbyterian minister first in China and later in Japan who was honored by the Japanese
emperor in 1905 for his work in compiling Japanese language study materials. A long-time
merchant in Japan, Samuel Hepburn was an employee of of Walsh, Hall & Co.'s Yokohama
office in the mid-1860s. He came to Nagasaki 1896 to serve as manager of the Nagasaki
branch of Standard Oil Company of New York. That same year, he served briefly as
American Vice-Consul under Abercrombie. Hepburn and his wife Clara lived in Nagasaki for
twelve years before leaving for Tokyo in April 1908. In December 1910, the couple retired
to California. Samuel D. Hepburn died on January 8, 1922 in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania at
the age of seventy-seven.
Samuel Dyer Hepburn was born on April 9, 1844 in Amoy, China. His father was a
Presbyterian minister first in China and later in Japan who was honored by the Japanese
emperor in 1905 for his work in compiling Japanese language study materials. A long-time
merchant in Japan, Samuel Hepburn was an employee of of Walsh, Hall & Co.'s Yokohama
office in the mid-1860s. He came to Nagasaki 1896 to serve as manager of the Nagasaki
branch of Standard Oil Company of New York. That same year, he served briefly as
American Vice-Consul under Abercrombie. Hepburn and his wife Clara lived in Nagasaki for
twelve years before leaving for Tokyo in April 1908. In December 1910, the couple retired
to California. Samuel D. Hepburn died on January 8, 1922 in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania at
the age of seventy-seven.
HENRY HITCHCOCK
Henry Hitchcock took charge of the U.S. Consulate in Nagasaki in November 1922, ten
months after the death of his predecessor Raymond Curtice. Hitchcock, who had served
earlier in Nagasaki on an interim basis, was a native of Canton Centre, Connecticut, having
been born there in March 1887.
Upon graduating from Yale in 1909, Hitchcock was sent to Japan as a Student Interpreter
with the American Embassy in Tokyo in 1912. In 1914, he was assigned to the consulate in
Yokohama, and in 1915 he was promoted to Vice-Consul there. As mentioned previously,
Hitchcock served as Vice-Consul in Nagasaki from mid-1916 to early 1917. After marrying
in March 1919 in New Jersey, he was assigned as Consul to Taihoku, Formosa, where he
remained until November 1922 and his transfer to Nagasaki.
During his first year in Nagasaki, Hitchcock founded the American Association of Nagasaki
on July 4, 1923. Thirty seven Americans in Nagasaki responded to Hitchcock's request to
organize the group. The Americans in Nagasaki usually gathered each year for celebrations
on the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Memorial Day. On Memorial Day, the
American graves in Nagasaki were decorated with flags and flowers.
In November 1924, Hitchcock was temporarily assigned duty at the Consulate General in
Tokyo. In March and again in May, Hitchcock also temporarily took over for the Consul at
Kobe. This duty lasted until mid-November.
Hitchcock was supposed to return on leave to the U.S. with his family in the summer of
1928, but it was postponed until the following spring. In May 1929, he left Vice-Consul
Whitney Young in charge and joined his family in America. Hitchcock resumed his duties in
Nagasaki in late August.
On February 21, 1933, Hitchcock took a sick leave to go to Yokohama to have his tonsils
removed. Five days later, he suffered a mild heart attack at the home of his cousin in
Yokohama. Apparently recovered, he entered the hospital the following day, and on
February 28 he underwent the operation to remove his tonsils. All seemingly went well, but
on March 1, while talking to his cousin, he was stricken with a sudden heart attack and died
almost instantly. Mrs. Hitchcock, who had stayed behind in Nagasaki, was notified of her
husband's death, which occurred less than a week before his forty-sixth birthday. The body
was cremated March 3, and memorial services were held in Yokohama the following day.
Hitchcock was survived by his wife, three children, aged eight to fifteen, and his mother in
Nagasaki, and three sisters in America.
Henry Hitchcock took charge of the U.S. Consulate in Nagasaki in November 1922, ten
months after the death of his predecessor Raymond Curtice. Hitchcock, who had served
earlier in Nagasaki on an interim basis, was a native of Canton Centre, Connecticut, having
been born there in March 1887.
Upon graduating from Yale in 1909, Hitchcock was sent to Japan as a Student Interpreter
with the American Embassy in Tokyo in 1912. In 1914, he was assigned to the consulate in
Yokohama, and in 1915 he was promoted to Vice-Consul there. As mentioned previously,
Hitchcock served as Vice-Consul in Nagasaki from mid-1916 to early 1917. After marrying
in March 1919 in New Jersey, he was assigned as Consul to Taihoku, Formosa, where he
remained until November 1922 and his transfer to Nagasaki.
During his first year in Nagasaki, Hitchcock founded the American Association of Nagasaki
on July 4, 1923. Thirty seven Americans in Nagasaki responded to Hitchcock's request to
organize the group. The Americans in Nagasaki usually gathered each year for celebrations
on the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Memorial Day. On Memorial Day, the
American graves in Nagasaki were decorated with flags and flowers.
In November 1924, Hitchcock was temporarily assigned duty at the Consulate General in
Tokyo. In March and again in May, Hitchcock also temporarily took over for the Consul at
Kobe. This duty lasted until mid-November.
Hitchcock was supposed to return on leave to the U.S. with his family in the summer of
1928, but it was postponed until the following spring. In May 1929, he left Vice-Consul
Whitney Young in charge and joined his family in America. Hitchcock resumed his duties in
Nagasaki in late August.
On February 21, 1933, Hitchcock took a sick leave to go to Yokohama to have his tonsils
removed. Five days later, he suffered a mild heart attack at the home of his cousin in
Yokohama. Apparently recovered, he entered the hospital the following day, and on
February 28 he underwent the operation to remove his tonsils. All seemingly went well, but
on March 1, while talking to his cousin, he was stricken with a sudden heart attack and died
almost instantly. Mrs. Hitchcock, who had stayed behind in Nagasaki, was notified of her
husband's death, which occurred less than a week before his forty-sixth birthday. The body
was cremated March 3, and memorial services were held in Yokohama the following day.
Hitchcock was survived by his wife, three children, aged eight to fifteen, and his mother in
Nagasaki, and three sisters in America.
WILLIAM HOOPER
William Hooper was born in Brighton, England on April 1, 1852. After studying to be a
pharmacist, he came to Japan to work in Yokohama in 1875. Four years later, he moved to
Nagasaki and took over the Medical Hall (No. 12 Oura) from William Jalland on April 25,
1879. He later moved the Medical Hall next-door to No. 11 Oura. Hooper was also an
active member of the Masonic Lodge in Nagasaki.
Hooper had been ill for weeks and decided to go to Yokohama for treatment. He left
Nagasaki on March 24, 1895, but got no further than Kobe. His illness became acute and he
died in Kobe on April 4 at the age of fifty-three. Hooper was given a Masonic service in
Kobe and buried in the international cemetery there on April 6. A Masonic service in
Nagasaki was also held on April 20.
JEAN PIERRE HYVER
J.P. Hyver, a native of France, was in Nagasaki by at least 1864 when he operated a store
at No. 42A Oura. By 1870-71, he was renting a private residence at Nos. 28B and 28C
Minamiyamate. Later in the decade, Hyver made two brief, unsuccessful attemps to
operate the Oriental Hotel (or Hotel Oriental as it was also called), first at No. 28 Oura and
then at Nos. 7 and 8 Oura. Between these two attempts, in March 1877, Hyver was
attacked and beaten in the foreign settlement. By January 1878, the Oriental Hotel was up
for rent and Hyver had moved on after fifteen years in Nagasaki.
RICHARD F. INMAN
Richard Ford Inman, a native of Britain, came to Nagasaki around 1897 to work for Holme,
Ringer & Co. He became manager of the Nagasaki Hotel in November 1898 and served in
that capacity until the end of 1902. He also served as chairman of the Nagasaki Club and
secretary of the Patriotic League of Britons Overseas. Inman left on a rest trip to San
Francisco but died of heart disease in Yokohama on July 7, 1917 at the age of 41. He was
survived by his wife and 12-year old daughter.
CHRISTIAN AND HERMANN IWERSEN
Christian Iwersen was born in Holstein, Germany on January 12, 1842. He was in Nagasaki
by 1865 and stayed until 1869. Most of this time he worked for the Prussian firm L. Kniffler
& Co. at No. 4 Dejima. Soon after Christian's departure, his younger brother Hermann (born
on April 1, 1844) came to Nagasaki. Hermann went to work for the German firm Schmidt,
Westphall & Co. at No. 4 Umegasaki. In 1874, while still working for the firm, he served
briefly as the Acting Consul for North Germany. After Schmidt, Westphall & Co. went
bankrupt in 1875, Hermann worked as an independent merchant in town. From 1877 to
1889, he served as German Consul in Nagasaki. In February 1878, Christian came down
from Kobe to visit his brother. Unfortunately, on February 27 Christian fell from the
Sagarimatsu Bridge, hit his head and drowned. He was buried in Oura International
Cemetery. At some point during Hermann's stay in Nagasaki, he received the order of St.
Stanislaus from the Russian government. In addition to his work as German Consul,
Hermann also served as Dutch Consul from 1889 until his death at Tokyo in 1895 at the age
of fifty-one.
Christian Iwersen was born in Holstein, Germany on January 12, 1842. He was in Nagasaki
by 1865 and stayed until 1869. Most of this time he worked for the Prussian firm L. Kniffler
& Co. at No. 4 Dejima. Soon after Christian's departure, his younger brother Hermann (born
on April 1, 1844) came to Nagasaki. Hermann went to work for the German firm Schmidt,
Westphall & Co. at No. 4 Umegasaki. In 1874, while still working for the firm, he served
briefly as the Acting Consul for North Germany. After Schmidt, Westphall & Co. went
bankrupt in 1875, Hermann worked as an independent merchant in town. From 1877 to
1889, he served as German Consul in Nagasaki. In February 1878, Christian came down
from Kobe to visit his brother. Unfortunately, on February 27 Christian fell from the
Sagarimatsu Bridge, hit his head and drowned. He was buried in Oura International
Cemetery. At some point during Hermann's stay in Nagasaki, he received the order of St.
Stanislaus from the Russian government. In addition to his work as German Consul,
Hermann also served as Dutch Consul from 1889 until his death at Tokyo in 1895 at the age
of fifty-one.
RICHARD JENKIN AND MARGARET MATHESON
Richard Jenkin was a British national born on the island of Malta on February 5, 1882. He
came to Nagasaki to work for Holme, Ringer in 1905. Margaret L.A. Matheson was affiliated
with the Philadelphia branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She came to Nagasaki as
a contract teacher at Kwassui on November 27, 1916. In January 1921, she left Kwassui to
marry Jenkin. In June of the following year, the couple went home on leave. When they
returned, Jenkin went to work at the Shimonoseki office of Holme, Ringer & Co. In May
1927, Mr. & Mrs. Jenkin left Japan for good.
JOHN J. JOHNSON
John J. Johnson, an African American from Baltimore, Maryland, is said to have arrived in
Nagasaki in 1860, but no official record of his presence before 1863 can be documented.
Johnson probably came to Nagasaki aboard a U.S. Navy vessel and took his discharge here.
In February 1863, he registered with the U.S. Consulate, and in November of that year he
applied for a license to open a public house. This was undoubtedly the Board of Trade
Saloon at No. 36 Oura. In 1866 he is listed as operating the Cosmopolite Hotel. Three
years later he rented No. 26 Oura and became the proprietor of the Pacific Hotel.
Johnson had a son, John F. Johnson, by a Japanese woman named Morita Naka. John F.
was registered at the U.S. Consulate in April 1883. The elder Johnson died on March 28,
1888 at the age of fifty-two and was buried in Oura International Cemetery. His son
obtained the mortgage to No. 26 Oura in August 1890 and tried his hand at operating the
hotel there, which by this time was called the Japan Hotel. The venture was apparently
unsuccessful, and young Johnson was gone from Nagasaki within a couple years.
Whereas J.J. Johnson had managed to carve out a successful living for himself as a hotel
and tavern proprietor for more than a quarter century, his half-Black, half-Japanese son
seems to have found the going more difficult. Where he went after leaving Nagasaki is
unknown, as is the fate of his Japanese mother.
John J. Johnson, an African American from Baltimore, Maryland, is said to have arrived in
Nagasaki in 1860, but no official record of his presence before 1863 can be documented.
Johnson probably came to Nagasaki aboard a U.S. Navy vessel and took his discharge here.
In February 1863, he registered with the U.S. Consulate, and in November of that year he
applied for a license to open a public house. This was undoubtedly the Board of Trade
Saloon at No. 36 Oura. In 1866 he is listed as operating the Cosmopolite Hotel. Three
years later he rented No. 26 Oura and became the proprietor of the Pacific Hotel.
Johnson had a son, John F. Johnson, by a Japanese woman named Morita Naka. John F.
was registered at the U.S. Consulate in April 1883. The elder Johnson died on March 28,
1888 at the age of fifty-two and was buried in Oura International Cemetery. His son
obtained the mortgage to No. 26 Oura in August 1890 and tried his hand at operating the
hotel there, which by this time was called the Japan Hotel. The venture was apparently
unsuccessful, and young Johnson was gone from Nagasaki within a couple years.
Whereas J.J. Johnson had managed to carve out a successful living for himself as a hotel
and tavern proprietor for more than a quarter century, his half-Black, half-Japanese son
seems to have found the going more difficult. Where he went after leaving Nagasaki is
unknown, as is the fate of his Japanese mother.
ISAAC A. KOCH
Isaac Arnoldus Koch was born in Weesp in the Netherlands on October 12, 1845. Capt.
Koch settled in Nagasaki in the mid-1880s and married a Japanese woman named Yoshioka
Hide (28) on July 7, 1886. They had son, J.A. Koch. In 1889, I.A. Koch became a German
citizen and went to work as a Secretary at the German Consulate in Nagasaki. On April 10,
1903, he died at his residence at No. 35 Minamiyamate at the age of fifty-seven. Koch was
buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
F.A. KOFOD
F.A. Kofod, a native of Denmark, and Yamaguchi Take were married at the Japanese
consulate in Shanghai on April 16, 1888. Kofod, who was a retired ship's captain, lived in
Nagasaki for about thirty years until his death on June 19, 1931 at the age of eighty-four.
He is buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery. Take died on June 2, 1943 and is also
buried there. Her maiden name is listed as Fukuda on her tombstone.
HEINRICH LAUGHT
Heinrich W. Laught, a native of Germany, was a pilot for many years in Japan. He had been
a resident of Moji, but came to Nagasaki on March 30, 1920 with the intention of residing
there. He died at the Hotel du Japon three days later (April 2) and was buried at Sakamoto
International Cemetery. Laught was survived by his Japanese wife.
S.D. LESSNER AND FAMILY
The Lessner family, which came from Constantinople, consisted of Leb (Leo) and his wife
Hannah, one daughter and a son, Sigmund. Leb Lessner, an Austrian national, became the
spiritual leader of the Jewish community in town; Hannah was a native of Russia. Sigmund,
who was born in Bukovina in 1858, opened a general store in Umegasaki in 1884. In
September 1887 he married Sophie Feuer at the Lessner family residence. The couple
never had any children of their own, although they adopted a son and daughter in 1893.
The adoption of their son occurred under rather unusual circumstances in 1893. Sigmund
Lessner was informed by a passenger who had arrived in Nagasaki by ship from Shanghai
that also on board had been a Japanese woman accompanied by three European boys___one
of whom appeared to be Jewish. Lessner combed the city and found the woman and
children. The woman claimed that she had bought the children three years earlier, but her
story proved inconsistent when questioned by authorities as to where and from whom she
had purchased them. Upon further investigation, the woman agreed to relinquish her claim
to the Jewish child for a price___originally $300, but later agreed upon at $10. Under a court
ruling, Lessner agreed to support the child, named Pessi Abramovich, for one year, while a
search was conducted for his father. If after that time the father could not be located, or
it was determined that he did not want the child, Lessner would adopt Pessi as his son.
Pessi (Percy) was adopted by the Lessners the following year and raised in Nagasaki before
moving on to Shanghai as an adult to conduct business. Sigmund's sister later married
Jacob Lyons, a prominent French resident of Yokohama.
Another sign of the increased size and prosperity of the Jewish community in Nagasaki was
the establishment on September 3, 1896 of the synagogue Beth Israel at No. 11 Umegasaki
by Haskel Goldenberg, with the cooperation of Sigmund Lessner. Leb Lessner was
appointed a synagogue official.
All the while, Sigmund Lessner's business continued to flourish, and by 1899 he had provision
stores at Nos. 6, 9 and 10 Umegasaki. Increased prosperity also led to the development of
a Jewish Benevolent Association (1901) and an Anglo-Jewish Association (1902) in
Nagasaki. As the uncontested social leader of the Jewish community, Sigmund Lessner was
named president of both organizations. In his capacity as head of the Nagasaki Jewish
Benevolent Association, Lessner organized annual Fancy Dress Balls to raise funds for
charity, and served as spokesperson for the twenty-three Jewish tavern ("grog shop")
owners in town who belonged to the organization. Lessner also led the fund drive to open a
new Jewish cemetery across the street from the old one at Sakamoto after it too had
become full.
In July 1903, Lessner left for a six-month pleasure trip to Europe and the United States --
his first venture back to Europe since his arrival in Nagasaki seventeen years earlier. He
returned to Nagasaki just in time for the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. Because he
possessed Austrian citizenship, Sigmund Lessner was little affected by the war. His
business once again began to prosper after the war, as a new wave of Russian immigrants
made its way to Nagasaki in the wake of the 1905 Revolution. Lessner added auctioneering
to his wholesale and retail provisions business after the war, and continued to acquire
property within the confines of the old foreign settlement. This included the purchase of a
large private residence at No. 16 Naminohira, overlooking the entrance to the harbor.
Lessner also revived the annual Jewish Benevolent Association Fancy Dress Balls in 1907
and 1908, but with the steady decline of the Jewish population in town, these too had to be
abandoned.
By the outbreak of World War One most members of the Jewish community of Nagasaki had
moved on to the more thriving East Asian ports of Yokohama or Shanghai. The serious
decline in the number of Jews in Nagasaki was reflected in the fact that only four Jewish
residents were buried in the large addition to the Jewish cemetery at Sakamoto that
Lessner had helped establish -- and none after 1911. Those who did remain behind were
primarily tavern owners in the foreign bar district along the Oura River.
Although Sigmund Lessner had weathered all previous hardships, World War One
precipitated a series of events that were beyond his control. Like all other Jews who
desired residence within the foreign settlement at Nagasaki from 1859 to 1899, Lessner had
to declare himself under the protection of a foreign consulate. Some Jews chose Russian
citizenship, while others were under the jurisdiction of the American, British, French, or
German consulates. Sigmund Lessner had obtained Austrian citizenship through his father,
and while this helped him in the Russo-Japanese War, it proved to be a terrible burden
during World War One.
On April 26, 1916 the British government prohibited trade with enemy subjects in a
document entitled "Trading with the Enemy" (Statutory List) Proclamation, 1916, No. 2. Of
the names on the original list, only two were from Nagasaki, a German who had died earlier
in the year, and the Austrian citizen Sigmund Lessner. The Japanese government
proceeded to devise a similar list of its own. While Lessner's name was dropped from the
British Black List in February 1917, it remained on the Japanese list and his business
operations were suspended. In December of the same year, Lessner and a Mr. Cohn were
both fined by the Japanese government over a misunderstanding involving the sale of land
to French Catholic sisters in town. Lessner's adopted son, Percy, who had been living
abroad for years, tried to come back to Nagasaki with his wife in July 1917, but was quickly
deported by Japanese officials as an enemy subject.
While life during the war was very difficult for the Lessners, the synagogue at Umegasaki
continued to operate during the war. This can be seen in an ad for Yom Kippur services
carried by the English language newspaper in 1918.
In June 1919, all Black Lists in Japan were suspended, but within a matter of days an
Enemy Property Act was promulgated. On July 3, enemy subjects residing in Nagasaki
(including Lessner) were ordered to report to the Prefectural government offices and
directed to submit an inventory of their possessions. While some of his property was
confiscated by the Japanese government, Lessner was eventually allowed to resume his
business operations. A local newspaper account commented that he was "looking forward
with pleasure to some years of active business life before retirement."
This was not to be, however, as Sigmund Lessner died of heart failure after completing the
walk from his house to his office on a February afternoon in 1920. His funeral service was
conducted by Mr. Cohn at the Beth-El Synagogue at Umegasaki which Lessner had helped
build and he was buried next to his parents in the Jewish section of the cemetery that he
had help maintain over the years through generous contributions.
With the death of Sigmund Lessner, his widow Sophie became the matriarch of the ever-
dwindling Jewish community in Nagasaki. The woman who used to walk her husband home
from work every evening was so grieved by her husband's death that she could not attend
the funeral services. Her life was shattered even further when some of her property was
confiscated as enemy property and sold at government auction within a month of her
husband's passing. More property (including the family residence) was confiscated and sold
at auction in September.
Sophie Lessner did not let misfortune deter her, however, as by March 1921 she was
operating an auction house along Sagarimatsu Creek. In spite of deteriorating health, she
continued to conduct business until July 4, 1923 when she left Nagasaki for Shanghai in
order to receive treatment from specialists for diabetes. She entered the French Hospital
in Shanghai on the 7th, slipped into unconsciousness the following morning, and died on the
9th. Rather than return her body to Nagasaki for burial next to her husband, Sophie's
adopted son Percy, who was residing at the time in Shanghai, had her interred at the
Jewish cemetery on Baikal Road in Shanghai.
For all practical purposes, the death of Sophie Lessner marked the end of the Jewish
community in Nagasaki. The large wave of Russian Jews that made its way to Shanghai and
Yokohama after World War One and the Russian Revolution did not reach Nagasaki, because
business opportunities in the Kyushu port were limited and there were no longer families like
the Lessners to assist new immigrants and hold the Jewish community together.
In late 1923, the final curtain began to descend on the Jewish presence in Nagasaki. With
Mrs. Lessner's death and the departure of practically the entire Jewish population from the
port city, some ex-residents who were at the time living in Shanghai decided to empower
the Shanghai Zionist Association and the Oihel Moishe Synagogue to dispose of the Beth-El
Synagogue in Nagasaki. Acting upon instructions from these groups, the Japanese
government in Nagasaki auctioned off the property and building and sent a check for $2,618
to N.E.B. Ezra of the Zionist Association in Shanghai.
The Lessner family, which came from Constantinople, consisted of Leb (Leo) and his wife
Hannah, one daughter and a son, Sigmund. Leb Lessner, an Austrian national, became the
spiritual leader of the Jewish community in town; Hannah was a native of Russia. Sigmund,
who was born in Bukovina in 1858, opened a general store in Umegasaki in 1884. In
September 1887 he married Sophie Feuer at the Lessner family residence. The couple
never had any children of their own, although they adopted a son and daughter in 1893.
The adoption of their son occurred under rather unusual circumstances in 1893. Sigmund
Lessner was informed by a passenger who had arrived in Nagasaki by ship from Shanghai
that also on board had been a Japanese woman accompanied by three European boys___one
of whom appeared to be Jewish. Lessner combed the city and found the woman and
children. The woman claimed that she had bought the children three years earlier, but her
story proved inconsistent when questioned by authorities as to where and from whom she
had purchased them. Upon further investigation, the woman agreed to relinquish her claim
to the Jewish child for a price___originally $300, but later agreed upon at $10. Under a court
ruling, Lessner agreed to support the child, named Pessi Abramovich, for one year, while a
search was conducted for his father. If after that time the father could not be located, or
it was determined that he did not want the child, Lessner would adopt Pessi as his son.
Pessi (Percy) was adopted by the Lessners the following year and raised in Nagasaki before
moving on to Shanghai as an adult to conduct business. Sigmund's sister later married
Jacob Lyons, a prominent French resident of Yokohama.
Another sign of the increased size and prosperity of the Jewish community in Nagasaki was
the establishment on September 3, 1896 of the synagogue Beth Israel at No. 11 Umegasaki
by Haskel Goldenberg, with the cooperation of Sigmund Lessner. Leb Lessner was
appointed a synagogue official.
All the while, Sigmund Lessner's business continued to flourish, and by 1899 he had provision
stores at Nos. 6, 9 and 10 Umegasaki. Increased prosperity also led to the development of
a Jewish Benevolent Association (1901) and an Anglo-Jewish Association (1902) in
Nagasaki. As the uncontested social leader of the Jewish community, Sigmund Lessner was
named president of both organizations. In his capacity as head of the Nagasaki Jewish
Benevolent Association, Lessner organized annual Fancy Dress Balls to raise funds for
charity, and served as spokesperson for the twenty-three Jewish tavern ("grog shop")
owners in town who belonged to the organization. Lessner also led the fund drive to open a
new Jewish cemetery across the street from the old one at Sakamoto after it too had
become full.
In July 1903, Lessner left for a six-month pleasure trip to Europe and the United States --
his first venture back to Europe since his arrival in Nagasaki seventeen years earlier. He
returned to Nagasaki just in time for the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. Because he
possessed Austrian citizenship, Sigmund Lessner was little affected by the war. His
business once again began to prosper after the war, as a new wave of Russian immigrants
made its way to Nagasaki in the wake of the 1905 Revolution. Lessner added auctioneering
to his wholesale and retail provisions business after the war, and continued to acquire
property within the confines of the old foreign settlement. This included the purchase of a
large private residence at No. 16 Naminohira, overlooking the entrance to the harbor.
Lessner also revived the annual Jewish Benevolent Association Fancy Dress Balls in 1907
and 1908, but with the steady decline of the Jewish population in town, these too had to be
abandoned.
By the outbreak of World War One most members of the Jewish community of Nagasaki had
moved on to the more thriving East Asian ports of Yokohama or Shanghai. The serious
decline in the number of Jews in Nagasaki was reflected in the fact that only four Jewish
residents were buried in the large addition to the Jewish cemetery at Sakamoto that
Lessner had helped establish -- and none after 1911. Those who did remain behind were
primarily tavern owners in the foreign bar district along the Oura River.
Although Sigmund Lessner had weathered all previous hardships, World War One
precipitated a series of events that were beyond his control. Like all other Jews who
desired residence within the foreign settlement at Nagasaki from 1859 to 1899, Lessner had
to declare himself under the protection of a foreign consulate. Some Jews chose Russian
citizenship, while others were under the jurisdiction of the American, British, French, or
German consulates. Sigmund Lessner had obtained Austrian citizenship through his father,
and while this helped him in the Russo-Japanese War, it proved to be a terrible burden
during World War One.
On April 26, 1916 the British government prohibited trade with enemy subjects in a
document entitled "Trading with the Enemy" (Statutory List) Proclamation, 1916, No. 2. Of
the names on the original list, only two were from Nagasaki, a German who had died earlier
in the year, and the Austrian citizen Sigmund Lessner. The Japanese government
proceeded to devise a similar list of its own. While Lessner's name was dropped from the
British Black List in February 1917, it remained on the Japanese list and his business
operations were suspended. In December of the same year, Lessner and a Mr. Cohn were
both fined by the Japanese government over a misunderstanding involving the sale of land
to French Catholic sisters in town. Lessner's adopted son, Percy, who had been living
abroad for years, tried to come back to Nagasaki with his wife in July 1917, but was quickly
deported by Japanese officials as an enemy subject.
While life during the war was very difficult for the Lessners, the synagogue at Umegasaki
continued to operate during the war. This can be seen in an ad for Yom Kippur services
carried by the English language newspaper in 1918.
In June 1919, all Black Lists in Japan were suspended, but within a matter of days an
Enemy Property Act was promulgated. On July 3, enemy subjects residing in Nagasaki
(including Lessner) were ordered to report to the Prefectural government offices and
directed to submit an inventory of their possessions. While some of his property was
confiscated by the Japanese government, Lessner was eventually allowed to resume his
business operations. A local newspaper account commented that he was "looking forward
with pleasure to some years of active business life before retirement."
This was not to be, however, as Sigmund Lessner died of heart failure after completing the
walk from his house to his office on a February afternoon in 1920. His funeral service was
conducted by Mr. Cohn at the Beth-El Synagogue at Umegasaki which Lessner had helped
build and he was buried next to his parents in the Jewish section of the cemetery that he
had help maintain over the years through generous contributions.
With the death of Sigmund Lessner, his widow Sophie became the matriarch of the ever-
dwindling Jewish community in Nagasaki. The woman who used to walk her husband home
from work every evening was so grieved by her husband's death that she could not attend
the funeral services. Her life was shattered even further when some of her property was
confiscated as enemy property and sold at government auction within a month of her
husband's passing. More property (including the family residence) was confiscated and sold
at auction in September.
Sophie Lessner did not let misfortune deter her, however, as by March 1921 she was
operating an auction house along Sagarimatsu Creek. In spite of deteriorating health, she
continued to conduct business until July 4, 1923 when she left Nagasaki for Shanghai in
order to receive treatment from specialists for diabetes. She entered the French Hospital
in Shanghai on the 7th, slipped into unconsciousness the following morning, and died on the
9th. Rather than return her body to Nagasaki for burial next to her husband, Sophie's
adopted son Percy, who was residing at the time in Shanghai, had her interred at the
Jewish cemetery on Baikal Road in Shanghai.
For all practical purposes, the death of Sophie Lessner marked the end of the Jewish
community in Nagasaki. The large wave of Russian Jews that made its way to Shanghai and
Yokohama after World War One and the Russian Revolution did not reach Nagasaki, because
business opportunities in the Kyushu port were limited and there were no longer families like
the Lessners to assist new immigrants and hold the Jewish community together.
In late 1923, the final curtain began to descend on the Jewish presence in Nagasaki. With
Mrs. Lessner's death and the departure of practically the entire Jewish population from the
port city, some ex-residents who were at the time living in Shanghai decided to empower
the Shanghai Zionist Association and the Oihel Moishe Synagogue to dispose of the Beth-El
Synagogue in Nagasaki. Acting upon instructions from these groups, the Japanese
government in Nagasaki auctioned off the property and building and sent a check for $2,618
to N.E.B. Ezra of the Zionist Association in Shanghai.
SAMUEL LORD
Samuel Lord, a native of Boston (born 1836) and a ship's captain by trade, and a twenty-six
year old Japanese woman named Yoshitake (Sashi?) [Satsie according to U.S. records] were
married on March 21, 1889. They already had a son Edward and a daughter Minnie at the
time according to U.S. consular records. The Lords left Nagasaki in 1889.
JOSE DA SILVA LOUREIRO
Jose Loureiro was in Nagasaki by the autumn of 1858, leaving the city for Shanghai on 3
November of that year. On 12 June of the following year, he sailed from Shanghai to
London. By at least 22 June 1861, Loureiro was back in Nagasaki, where he served as
Portuguese Consul. Until late 1862, he also handled consular affairs for the French in the
city. He also seems to have had close contacts with British government officials in
Nagasaki, since he rented the lots that eventually housed the British consulate. In addition
to his consular duties, Loureiro also had business interests centered on the tea trade.
Loureiro's consular duties were conducted at his home at Nos. 8 and 10 Higashiyamate,
while the tea trade took place at Nos. 17, 29, 33 and 45 Oura. Loureiro remained in
Nagasaki until 1870. In July that year, his house and furniture were sold at auction, and on
1 October, he and his family left Nagasaki. He later became Portuguese Embassador to
Japan and resided in Tokyo in that capacity in June 1888. After the Portuguese Embassy
closed in 1892, Loureiro passed through Nagasaki on his way back to Hong Kong. He died of
pneumonia in Hong Kong in August 1893 at the age of fifty-eight.
Jose Loureiro was in Nagasaki by the autumn of 1858, leaving the city for Shanghai on 3
November of that year. On 12 June of the following year, he sailed from Shanghai to
London. By at least 22 June 1861, Loureiro was back in Nagasaki, where he served as
Portuguese Consul. Until late 1862, he also handled consular affairs for the French in the
city. He also seems to have had close contacts with British government officials in
Nagasaki, since he rented the lots that eventually housed the British consulate. In addition
to his consular duties, Loureiro also had business interests centered on the tea trade.
Loureiro's consular duties were conducted at his home at Nos. 8 and 10 Higashiyamate,
while the tea trade took place at Nos. 17, 29, 33 and 45 Oura. Loureiro remained in
Nagasaki until 1870. In July that year, his house and furniture were sold at auction, and on
1 October, he and his family left Nagasaki. He later became Portuguese Embassador to
Japan and resided in Tokyo in that capacity in June 1888. After the Portuguese Embassy
closed in 1892, Loureiro passed through Nagasaki on his way back to Hong Kong. He died of
pneumonia in Hong Kong in August 1893 at the age of fifty-eight.
KENNETH R. MACKENZIE
Of all of the Western merchants who came to Nagasaki in the opening days of the foreign
settlement, by far the most experienced trader in East Asia was K.R. Mackenzie. Mackenzie
had resided in India and China for years before coming to Nagasaki in 1859. In August 1850,
he was working in partnership with his brother C.D. Mackenzie in Shanghai in a company
called Mackenzie, Brothers & Co. K.R. Mackenzie stayed with the company for four more
years, before moving his tea interests to Hankow.
Mackenzie came to Nagasaki as a representative of Jardine, Matheson & Co. of Shanghai as
early as autumn 1858. He was certainly in Nagasaki by January 9, 1859 when records show
him arriving from Shanghai aboard the Egmont. Joining Mackenzie in September 1859 as a
clerk for Jardine Matheson was the young Scotsman Thomas Glover.
Prior to the construction of the foreign settlement, Mackenzie rented a Japanese house
near Myogyoji Temple as his private residence. The building also served as the first French
Consulate, with Mackenzie as the initial French Consul. He also rented No. 15 Oura as an
agent of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. In addition to his business and
consular duties, Mackenzie was also the leader of the foreign settlement's first fire brigade
in 1860.
In June 1861, Mackenzie decided to return to China and was replaced by Glover as Jardine
Matheson's agent in Nagasaki. At the time of Mackenzie's departure, the finishing touches
were being placed on a new building at No. 2 Oura, which would soon become the Nagasaki
headquarters of Jardine Matheson & Co. (and later the headquarters of Glover & Co.)
After great delays, he also managed to rent a hill lot at Minamiyamate, which would later
form part of Thomas Glover's famous private estate overlooking the harbor.
Mackenzie and Glover remained in close contact over the years, and in early 1867
Mackenzie came back to Nagasaki to join Glover & Co. He became a partner in the
company, serving as manager of its newly opened branch in Osaka, and remained in this
capacity until the firm declared bankruptcy in October 1870.
When Mackenzie's health began to fail, he came back to Nagasaki. He died at his residence
at No. 1 Minamiyamate on November 5, 1873 at the age of seventy-two and was buried in
Oura International Cemetery.
ANGUS F. MACINTOSH
In the late afternoon on January 21, 1879, the British barque Star Queen left Nagasaki
Harbor laden with coal and bound for Shanghai. There were thirty-three people on board:
Scottish captain Angus Mackintosh, a crew of Malaysians and Chinese, and several
European passengers. The ship was apparently in the service of Jardine, Matheson & Co.
Around 8:00 p.m., the Star Queen passed the lighthouse on Iojima Island and proceeded
along the usual sea lane that passed south of the Goto Islands. Late that night, however, a
southeast gale sprang up and made the ship unmanageable. Lashed by severe sleet and
rain, the ship was pushed against the rocks on Oshima Island at the southern tip of the
Goto archipelago. The first impact snapped the topmasts and sent them falling overboard,
while the driving waves washed away the lifeboats and inundated the helpless craft.
Captain Mackintosh was killed instantly by a falling mast. Before the night was through,
twenty-two of the thirty-three people on board -- including two women and two children --
were dead. The survivors returned to Nagasaki a week later. They related the details of
the disaster to the authorities and also testified to the great kindness of the islanders, who
took the shipwrecked crew and passengers into their homes and provided every possible
assistance.
SAMUEL MALTBY
Samuel Maltby came from a London family that sent a number of its members to East Asia
in the mid-nineteenth century seeking fortunes. Charles Maltby worked for Rathbones,
Worthington & Co. in Shanghai in 1850. John Maltby was in the same city in early 1859
working with the tea trade.
On July 1, 1859, the day that the foreign settlement at Nagasaki officially opened, John
Maltby set himself up in the Japanese port town. As of September first of the same year,
John Maltby was listed as a tea inspector in both Shanghai and Nagasaki.
On May 7, 1861, John Maltby established Maltby & Co. as a general commission agency in
Nagasaki at No. 23 Oura. Also authorized to sign for the firm was Edward Maltby. Soon
after, John's brother Samuel joined him in Nagasaki, where the two were also on the payroll
of the trading form Fraser & Co. at No. 6 Oura. Fraser & Co. abandoned Nagasaki in
August 1862 and Maltby & Co. took over the prime water front site as its own
headquarters. It also had godowns and tea firing facilities at No.s 9, 22 and 23 Oura.
The firm of Maltby & Co. conducted a flourishing business in Nagasaki for a number of
years, but Samuel Maltby died on September 23, 1875 at the age of forty-five. With his
passing, the business struggled and closed down soon afterward.
Samuel Maltby came from a London family that sent a number of its members to East Asia
in the mid-nineteenth century seeking fortunes. Charles Maltby worked for Rathbones,
Worthington & Co. in Shanghai in 1850. John Maltby was in the same city in early 1859
working with the tea trade.
On July 1, 1859, the day that the foreign settlement at Nagasaki officially opened, John
Maltby set himself up in the Japanese port town. As of September first of the same year,
John Maltby was listed as a tea inspector in both Shanghai and Nagasaki.
On May 7, 1861, John Maltby established Maltby & Co. as a general commission agency in
Nagasaki at No. 23 Oura. Also authorized to sign for the firm was Edward Maltby. Soon
after, John's brother Samuel joined him in Nagasaki, where the two were also on the payroll
of the trading form Fraser & Co. at No. 6 Oura. Fraser & Co. abandoned Nagasaki in
August 1862 and Maltby & Co. took over the prime water front site as its own
headquarters. It also had godowns and tea firing facilities at No.s 9, 22 and 23 Oura.
The firm of Maltby & Co. conducted a flourishing business in Nagasaki for a number of
years, but Samuel Maltby died on September 23, 1875 at the age of forty-five. With his
passing, the business struggled and closed down soon afterward.
J.A. MARSTON
J.A. Marston, a native of Britain, held a number of different positions during his residence in
Nagasaki. From July 1911 to January 1912, he served as an English teacher at the City
Commercial School. He left this position to become a shipping clerk at the British
Consulate. Marston also worked as editor of the Nagasaki Press. He returned to England in
May 1922 and died there at the end of that year. Marston was survived by a Japanese
wife, a son Jack in Kobe, and a daughter.
JOHN MCKEARNEY
John McKearney came to Nagasaki on May 20, 1896 to teach English at the City
Commercial School. Within four months, the twenty-eight-year old native of Wisconsin
(born March 6, 1868 in Prarie du Chien, Wisconsin) married thirty-eight-year old Alice
[Alicia] Nelson, a native of Kensington, England. Alice taught at the Denshin Gakko in town.
On October 1, 1901, a son, John Garvey, was born to the couple, but four months later
Alice was dead from heart disease. She was buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
John continued to teach at the City Commercial School until March 1904, when he resigned
his position there after eight years. He then moved to Kumamoto, where from April 1905
he taught at the Commercial School. He resigned there as well, however, over a dispute
with the American missionaries John and Elizabeth Davison and a few Japanese teachers at
the school.
According to a letter from the Governor of Kumamoto to the American Consul in Nagasaki
dated January 9, 1906, McKearney, on December 30, 1905, put his child in the care of nuns
at a French girls' school and then shot himself in a suicide attempt. Apparently, the bullet
lodged in his ribs and the wound proved not to be fatal, but the Governor questioned
McKearney's mental health and asked for possible future assistance from the Consul, if
needed. What happened to McKearney and his son is unclear, but it seems certain that his
days as an English teacher in Nagasaki were over.
JAMES MCMILLAN
James McMillan was born in Adrossan, Scotland. He served as a chief engineer in Penang
before coming to Nagasaki. He died at the home (No. 81 Uma-machi) of his Japanese wife
on September 13, 1909 at the age of forty-seven and was buried at Sakamoto International
Cemetery. McMillan was survived by his wife and four children. His youngest daughter,
Shigeko Mabel McMillan, married Robert Walker, Jr. in 1937.
JOHAN MERBOOK
Johan Kalfrid Merbook, a native of Sweden, died in Nagasaki in December 1907 at the age
of 51. He was survived by his Japanese wife and a five-year-old child. Merbook had been
working for Urso & Co., but apparently he had not saved much money because his death
left his family in what the local newspaper called "poor circumstances." There is no record
that he was buried in any of Nagasaki's international cemeteries.
NATHAN MESS
Nathan Mess, born in Odessa in 1856, more than likely joined his brother Morris Ginsburg in
Yokohama in the mid-1870s before opening Nathan Mess & Co., Curio Merchants, at the
back of No. 10 Oura (facing Main St.) in Nagasaki in October 1887. At the opening of 1889,
Nathan moved his curio shop two lots north on Main St. to No. 8 Oura.
Nathan reportedly married a Japanese woman named Hana (b. February 1865) in the mid-
1880s who went by the Westernized name of Hannah. They had at least one child, Minnie,
who was born in December 1886. In January 1897, No. 21 Minamiyamate was transferred
to Mrs. Hana Mess, who was listed as a Russian.
By 1898, Nathan Mess had expanded his business to include work as a commission agent
and had taken on an employee, S. Mess. Soon afterward, he moved his business, now called
N. Mess & Co., General Merchants & Contractors, to No. 42E Oura [Sagarimatsu]. By the
summer of 1902, the firm had branch offices at Port Arthur, Newchwang and Vladivostok.
Georg Mess had also come to work at N. Mess & Co.'s headquarters in Nagasaki. Georg
Mess stayed at the Belle Vue Hotel and S. Mess and his wife stayed at the Japan Hotel. In
May 1903, Georg Mess ceased his connection with N. Mess & Co.
On April 6, 1903, according to a local newspaper account, a "Miss Mess" returned to
Nagasaki as Mrs. Stuart Laurance. This was almost certainly Minnie Mess, Nathan and Hana'
s daughter, who would have been sixteen years old at the time. The only "Miss Mess" listed
in the Nagasaki Directory of 1903 was residing at No. 42E Sagarimatsu, the home of Nathan
Mess. Mrs. Laurance also gave birth to a daughter on August 23 of the same year -- again
at No. 42 E Sagarimatsu. Nathan Mess and his wife probably left Nagasaki in the fall of
1903 never to return again. N. Mess & Co. of Nagasaki closed in February 1904 and did not
reopen in the city after the Russo-Japanese War.
HENRY AND ELIZABETH MILLS
The British couple Henry and Elizabeth Mills came to Nagasaki around 1878 and Henry took
over the Falcon Hotel [more of a rooming house/tavern than a hotel] at No. 31B Oura. The
hotel was destroyed by fire in 1890, but soon rebuilt. While in Nagasaki, the Mills's adopted
a Japanese girl and named her Georgina. In October 1884, Georgina married George
Mansbridge, an employee of Mitsubishi in town. The couple had four children. In June 1893,
Henry Mills died after a long illness at the age of forty-nine. Soon afterward, Elizabeth
opened the Sherman House and Bowling Saloon at No. 42B Oura on the south side of the
Oura River, where she too had to cope with a tavern fire in January 1894. She also ran the
Seamen's Home during its first two years of operation from 1896 to 1898. Elizabeth Mills
died in 1907 at the age of sixty-six and was buried next to her husband in Sakamoto
International Cemetery. Georgina died in October 1935 at the age of seventy-two and was
buried in the Addition to Sakamoto International Cemetery -- next to her husband and
across the street from her adoptred parents.
The British couple Henry and Elizabeth Mills came to Nagasaki around 1878 and Henry took
over the Falcon Hotel [more of a rooming house/tavern than a hotel] at No. 31B Oura. The
hotel was destroyed by fire in 1890, but soon rebuilt. While in Nagasaki, the Mills's adopted
a Japanese girl and named her Georgina. In October 1884, Georgina married George
Mansbridge, an employee of Mitsubishi in town. The couple had four children. In June 1893,
Henry Mills died after a long illness at the age of forty-nine. Soon afterward, Elizabeth
opened the Sherman House and Bowling Saloon at No. 42B Oura on the south side of the
Oura River, where she too had to cope with a tavern fire in January 1894. She also ran the
Seamen's Home during its first two years of operation from 1896 to 1898. Elizabeth Mills
died in 1907 at the age of sixty-six and was buried next to her husband in Sakamoto
International Cemetery. Georgina died in October 1935 at the age of seventy-two and was
buried in the Addition to Sakamoto International Cemetery -- next to her husband and
across the street from her adoptred parents.
ALBERT NEUMAN
Albert Neuman, a twenty-three year-old native of Baltimore, Maryland, died in a cholera
epidemic that swept Japan in the late summer of 1885. Neuman passed away in Nagasaki
on September 7 and was buried at Oura International Cemetery. The names of five other
American sailors who died at sea and a sixth sailor who died in the same epidemic at Hyogo
were later added to Neuman's memorial stone.
AVRON NEWMAN
Traveling physicians would usually advertise in the local English-language newspaper to
announce their presence or imminent arrival in Nagasaki. One such traveling physician was
Avron S. Newman, a doctor who had formerly operated a practice in Oakland, California.
Newman, a temporary resident of Moji, was born in Sutter Creek, California on April 22,
1869. While visiting Hiroshima, he died of alcoholic poisoning on November 6, 1904. His body
was returned to Nagasaki and the thirty-five year old doctor was buried in the Jewish
section of Sakamoto International Cemetery.
GEORGE NEWTON
George Newton, a physician with the British navy, was assigned to establish hospitals for
contagious diseases in Japan's major cities. Newton arrived in Yokohama in 1867 and the
following year established the first Lock hospital to help eradicate diseases such as smallpox
and syphilis. The effort proved quite successful, so Newton was assigned to Nagasaki to
build a similar hospital there.
Newton arrived in Nagasaki and established a hospital at the former site of Daitokuji
Temple. After overseeing the opening of the hospital and the initial examinations of Nagasaki
's licensed prostitutes, Newton returned to Yokohama.
In spite of its promising beginnings, the Nagasaki Lock hospital later closed due to a lack of
funds. In June 1871, in an effort to reopen the hospital, Newton once again came to
Nagasaki. While staying at the Occidental Hotel at No. 7 Oura on July 10, he was stricken
with a sudden case of uremia. Dr. Newton died early the following morning at the age of
forty-one. The funeral service took place soon after, and he was buried just inside the
front entrance to Oura International Cemetery. The Japanese government, to honor the
services rendered by Dr. Newton, erected a monument over his grave.
JAMES M. OLIVER
James M. Oliver was born on January 4, 1852 in Rochester, New York. He served in the U.S.
Army before coming to Nagasaki in 1900. Oliver married Yamaguchi Saku of Urakami on
June 16, 1900. The American ceremony was conducted three days later by Henry Stout.
Oliver worked as a hotel keeper in Nagasaki prior to his death at the family home at No. 14
Oura on February 28, 1917 at the age of sixty-five. His wife passed away on October 31,
1936 at the age of seventy-three. They are buried next to one another at Sakamoto
International Cemetery.
JOHN V. PICARD
John Ville Picard was born in New Orleans in 1854. He entered the US Navy in 1873 as a
hospital attendant and later became an apothecary. Picard came to Nagasaki in 1885
aboard the USS Monocacy, took his discharge and later opened the Nagasaki Dispensary at
No. 19 Oura. He lived with a Japanese woman named Kagawa Yu. In 1895, their daughter,
Louisa, died at the age of six and was buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery. Two
months later, Picard applied for a license to marry Ms. Kagawa. On January 30, 1906,
Picard suffered a stroke and died at the age of sixty-two. He left behind his wife and a son.
John Ville Picard was born in New Orleans in 1854. He entered the US Navy in 1873 as a
hospital attendant and later became an apothecary. Picard came to Nagasaki in 1885
aboard the USS Monocacy, took his discharge and later opened the Nagasaki Dispensary at
No. 19 Oura. He lived with a Japanese woman named Kagawa Yu. In 1895, their daughter,
Louisa, died at the age of six and was buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery. Two
months later, Picard applied for a license to marry Ms. Kagawa. On January 30, 1906,
Picard suffered a stroke and died at the age of sixty-two. He left behind his wife and a son.
PIGNATEL FAMILY
Among Nagasaki residents today, one of the most famous romances involving a Westerner
and a Japanese surrounds the Frenchman Victor L. Pignatel. How much truth there is to
the story, however, is open to debate. According to some accounts, the Pignatels were an
old French family that was on the wrong side of the French Revolution of 1848, so they
escaped to London. Eugene Pignatel transferred his business operations first to Shanghai
and then in 1860 to Nagasaki. He was assigned one of the first lots of the new foreign
settlement at No. 10 Oura, but soon established his business headquarters and private
residence at No. 5 Dejima.
In 1863, Eugene was joined by his two teenage sons, Victor (born August 17, 1846 in
Livorno, Italy) and Charles. Together they operated Pignatel & Co., a business which dealt
mainly in food provisions and European wines. The firm also imported some materials used
in the construction of Oura Catholic Church. Eugene Pignatel died on September 8, 1870,
and the company was carried on by his two sons.
According to Japanese accounts, not too long after the death of his father, Victor Pignatel
fell in love with a Japanese woman named Masaki from the Maruyama flower quarter and
got married. After three years of marriage, however, Masaki died of a sudden illness.
Apparently, Victor was unable to forget his one true love and remained single for the rest of
his life -- treasuring a red-lacquer pillow that she had left behind. How much of the story is
true is difficult to ascertain, but it is known that Victor never remarried.
Both Victor and Charles served as acting consuls for France and the Netherlands in the
1880s, but little else is known of them. Charles later returned to France and worked for a
cousin's bank, the Credit Lyonnais of Paris. Victor remained in Nagasaki to run the family
business. Their two sisters who stayed behind in England married into British money: a
younger sister married Sir Archibald Geikie, while their elder sister married the publisher
Macmillan. Two half-sisters married and moved away to other East Asian ports.
Victor Pignatel, who at seventy-five was the oldest foreign resident in Nagasaki at the time
of his death, died at his Dejima residence after a short illness on January 30, 1922. He was
buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery. Upon his passing, the Nagasaki Press wrote
that "For years Mr. Pignatel has lived a very retired life and as he has taken no part in
social life here, very few of the residents knew him personally."
Victor may not have been as anti-social as he appeared, however, because, after his death,
part of his will was contested by his Japanese maid. His estate -- to be divided among the
two sons of his deceased half-sisters in Shanghai and Kobe and Mrs. A.C. de Souza of
Nagasaki -- consisted of bank deposits, the residence at Dejima, the Nagasaki Club land lot
(No. 10 Oura), and the home and grounds at No. 8 Minamiyamate. The latter was contested
by the Japanese maid, who claimed that Pignatel had given the property to her on his
deathbed in the presence of witnesses. The maid's claim was later rejected and the
property went to Mrs. de Souza, who continued to live on the premises.
Among Nagasaki residents today, one of the most famous romances involving a Westerner
and a Japanese surrounds the Frenchman Victor L. Pignatel. How much truth there is to
the story, however, is open to debate. According to some accounts, the Pignatels were an
old French family that was on the wrong side of the French Revolution of 1848, so they
escaped to London. Eugene Pignatel transferred his business operations first to Shanghai
and then in 1860 to Nagasaki. He was assigned one of the first lots of the new foreign
settlement at No. 10 Oura, but soon established his business headquarters and private
residence at No. 5 Dejima.
In 1863, Eugene was joined by his two teenage sons, Victor (born August 17, 1846 in
Livorno, Italy) and Charles. Together they operated Pignatel & Co., a business which dealt
mainly in food provisions and European wines. The firm also imported some materials used
in the construction of Oura Catholic Church. Eugene Pignatel died on September 8, 1870,
and the company was carried on by his two sons.
According to Japanese accounts, not too long after the death of his father, Victor Pignatel
fell in love with a Japanese woman named Masaki from the Maruyama flower quarter and
got married. After three years of marriage, however, Masaki died of a sudden illness.
Apparently, Victor was unable to forget his one true love and remained single for the rest of
his life -- treasuring a red-lacquer pillow that she had left behind. How much of the story is
true is difficult to ascertain, but it is known that Victor never remarried.
Both Victor and Charles served as acting consuls for France and the Netherlands in the
1880s, but little else is known of them. Charles later returned to France and worked for a
cousin's bank, the Credit Lyonnais of Paris. Victor remained in Nagasaki to run the family
business. Their two sisters who stayed behind in England married into British money: a
younger sister married Sir Archibald Geikie, while their elder sister married the publisher
Macmillan. Two half-sisters married and moved away to other East Asian ports.
Victor Pignatel, who at seventy-five was the oldest foreign resident in Nagasaki at the time
of his death, died at his Dejima residence after a short illness on January 30, 1922. He was
buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery. Upon his passing, the Nagasaki Press wrote
that "For years Mr. Pignatel has lived a very retired life and as he has taken no part in
social life here, very few of the residents knew him personally."
Victor may not have been as anti-social as he appeared, however, because, after his death,
part of his will was contested by his Japanese maid. His estate -- to be divided among the
two sons of his deceased half-sisters in Shanghai and Kobe and Mrs. A.C. de Souza of
Nagasaki -- consisted of bank deposits, the residence at Dejima, the Nagasaki Club land lot
(No. 10 Oura), and the home and grounds at No. 8 Minamiyamate. The latter was contested
by the Japanese maid, who claimed that Pignatel had given the property to her on his
deathbed in the presence of witnesses. The maid's claim was later rejected and the
property went to Mrs. de Souza, who continued to live on the premises.
JOHN PIKE
John Pike (56), a native of the United States, and Ikebe Fujie (20) [24?] of Moto Daiku-
machi were married on September 5, 1895. The American ceremony was the following day.
Pike died in Kumamoto in January 1897. In December 1900, Fujie petitioned the Japanese
government in Kumamoto to once again allow her to become a Japanese citizen.
RODNEY H. POWERS
Rodney H. Powers of Williamsburg, New York was born on May 5, 1836. He went to sea in
1863 and fought for the North during the American Civil War. He took his discharge on his
arrival in Nagasaki aboard the U.S.S. Idaho in January 1868. Powers later joined a
provisioner business in town, and upon the death of the owner in 1877 established his own
store -- R.H. Powers and Co. In April 1883, Powers took over the former Holme, Ringer &
Co. property at No.111/2 Oura.
In addition to being a provisioner, Powers was an auctioneer and broker, and for awhile
operated a steam bakery in town. Among his accomplishments, he is remembered for
having played an important role in the popularization of bicycles in Japan, and overseeing
the installation of lights in the foreign settlement.
Although never officially married, R.H. Powers lived for years with a Japanese woman named
Iida Naka. The couple raised two children, a son John (1870-1907) and a daughter Masa
(1891-1976). John became a partner in his father's firm before his early death in 1907.
Masa, who attended Kwassui Jogakko in Nagasaki before continuing her education at Ohio
Wesleyan University, later married the politician Nakayama Fukuzo, a former student at
Chinzei Gakuin. Nakayama Masa went on to be elected to the Diet in 1947 and became the
first woman to hold a cabinet post when she was appointed Welfare Minister in 1960.
Iida Naka died in July 1909 and R.H. Powers passed away the following month (August 9)
after a long illness at the age of seventy-three. Powers spent more than forty years in
Nagasaki, operating the most successful American firm in town. He is buried next to his son
in Sakamoto International Cemetery.
Rodney H. Powers of Williamsburg, New York was born on May 5, 1836. He went to sea in
1863 and fought for the North during the American Civil War. He took his discharge on his
arrival in Nagasaki aboard the U.S.S. Idaho in January 1868. Powers later joined a
provisioner business in town, and upon the death of the owner in 1877 established his own
store -- R.H. Powers and Co. In April 1883, Powers took over the former Holme, Ringer &
Co. property at No.111/2 Oura.
In addition to being a provisioner, Powers was an auctioneer and broker, and for awhile
operated a steam bakery in town. Among his accomplishments, he is remembered for
having played an important role in the popularization of bicycles in Japan, and overseeing
the installation of lights in the foreign settlement.
Although never officially married, R.H. Powers lived for years with a Japanese woman named
Iida Naka. The couple raised two children, a son John (1870-1907) and a daughter Masa
(1891-1976). John became a partner in his father's firm before his early death in 1907.
Masa, who attended Kwassui Jogakko in Nagasaki before continuing her education at Ohio
Wesleyan University, later married the politician Nakayama Fukuzo, a former student at
Chinzei Gakuin. Nakayama Masa went on to be elected to the Diet in 1947 and became the
first woman to hold a cabinet post when she was appointed Welfare Minister in 1960.
Iida Naka died in July 1909 and R.H. Powers passed away the following month (August 9)
after a long illness at the age of seventy-three. Powers spent more than forty years in
Nagasaki, operating the most successful American firm in town. He is buried next to his son
in Sakamoto International Cemetery.
FREDERICK RINGER
Frederick Ringer was born at Norwich in 1838, the second son of an Anglican Church
minister. He went to China at a young age and by the time he was twenty-five, he was a
tea inspector with Fletcher & Co. at Canton.
After a few years as a tea inspector in China, he came to work for Thomas Glover in
Nagasaki. By 1868, however, Glover & Co. was in considerable financial difficulty, and Ringer
left to form his own company. On November 2, 1868 Ringer established the trading firm
Holme Ringer & Co. with Edward Z. Holme at No. 11.5 Oura. Holme left Japan soon after
this to conduct the London end of the business. Ringer's partner in Nagasaki was J.C.
Smith, who had worked with him previously at Glover & Co. In the early days the company
concentrated primarily on the export of tea. Later, coal, marine products, vegetable wax
and tobacco become important items of trade.
By the early 1880s, Alt & Co. had closed down shop in Nagasaki, and Holme Ringer & Co.
moved into its headquarters at No. 7 Oura on the waterfront (photo here). Holme Ringer &
Co. also took over some of Alt & Co.'s agency activities, such as serving as Lloyd's
representative in Nagasaki. In general, the firm began to move away from the import-
export business to banking, insurance and shipping activates. It also began to expand
overseas, with branch offices in China and Korea, as well as conducting extensive trade with
Russia.
From the beginning, Frederick Ringer was an active participant in the political and social
affairs of the Nagasaki foreign settlement. In 1874, he was elected to the Municipal Council,
and in 1879 he served on the reception committee to welcome former U.S. President Grant
to Nagasaki. From 1884, Ringer served as Consul for Belgium, and at various times was
Acting Consul for Denmark, Sweden and Hawaii. He was also a guiding force in the
establishment of the International Club in 1899.
In terms of the local Nagasaki economy, Ringer was a tremendously important figure. Over
the years, he established a flour mill, a steam laundry, a tanning factory, a gas company, a
power station, stevedoring companies, trawler fishing companies, and whaling concerns. By
the late 1890s, Nagasaki was a boom town thanks to the Sino-Japanese War, the Spanish-
American War, and the presence of the Russian Winter Fleet, and Ringer was the most
dominant foreign merchant in town. Reflections of his prosperity included the establishment
of a daily English language newspaper, the Nagasaki Press, in 1897 and the construction of
the fabulous Nagasaki Hotel along the waterfront the following year.
Frederick Ringer remained in Nagasaki until 1906, when he returned to England for health
reasons. He briefly returned once more to Nagasaki, but was unable to stay long. He died
at Norwich on November 29, 1907 at the age of sixty-nine. He was survived by his two
sons, Fred and Sidney, both of whom had been born in Nagasaki. Fred died in Nagasaki in
1940 at the age of fifty-six. In August of the same year, Sidney's two sons, Michael and
Vanya, were arrested as spies by Japanese authorities and forced to leave the country.
Both then joined the Indian Army; Vanya was killed in action at Malaya in January 1942 and
Michael was taken prison of war in Sumatra. Sidney was required to close the Nagasaki
office of Holme Ringer & Co. in October 1940, and soon thereafter went with his wife to
Shanghai. Unfortunately for the pair, when war broke out the following year they were
taken prisoners by the Japanese military. They spent the first half of the war in an
internment camp in Shanghai and were later transferred to a camp in Hangzhou.
After the war, Sidney Ringer tried desperately to restart business operations in Nagasaki,
but this proved quite difficult. He ended up selling off most of the Holme Ringer property in
Nagasaki, before returning to England, where he died in 1967. The only remaining evidence
of the once considerable Ringer presence in Nagasaki is the large stone residence that sits
high above Nagasaki Harbor within Glover's Garden, situated at No. 2 Minamiyamate
between the other two British mansions from days gone by -- the Glover and Alt houses.
[Most of the following information on Frederick Ringer was taken from Harold S. Williams,
The Story of Holme Ringer & Co., Ltd. In Western Japan, 1868-1968 (Tokyo: Charles E.
Tuttle Co., 1968).]
Frederick Ringer was born at Norwich in 1838, the second son of an Anglican Church
minister. He went to China at a young age and by the time he was twenty-five, he was a
tea inspector with Fletcher & Co. at Canton.
After a few years as a tea inspector in China, he came to work for Thomas Glover in
Nagasaki. By 1868, however, Glover & Co. was in considerable financial difficulty, and Ringer
left to form his own company. On November 2, 1868 Ringer established the trading firm
Holme Ringer & Co. with Edward Z. Holme at No. 11.5 Oura. Holme left Japan soon after
this to conduct the London end of the business. Ringer's partner in Nagasaki was J.C.
Smith, who had worked with him previously at Glover & Co. In the early days the company
concentrated primarily on the export of tea. Later, coal, marine products, vegetable wax
and tobacco become important items of trade.
By the early 1880s, Alt & Co. had closed down shop in Nagasaki, and Holme Ringer & Co.
moved into its headquarters at No. 7 Oura on the waterfront (photo here). Holme Ringer &
Co. also took over some of Alt & Co.'s agency activities, such as serving as Lloyd's
representative in Nagasaki. In general, the firm began to move away from the import-
export business to banking, insurance and shipping activates. It also began to expand
overseas, with branch offices in China and Korea, as well as conducting extensive trade with
Russia.
From the beginning, Frederick Ringer was an active participant in the political and social
affairs of the Nagasaki foreign settlement. In 1874, he was elected to the Municipal Council,
and in 1879 he served on the reception committee to welcome former U.S. President Grant
to Nagasaki. From 1884, Ringer served as Consul for Belgium, and at various times was
Acting Consul for Denmark, Sweden and Hawaii. He was also a guiding force in the
establishment of the International Club in 1899.
In terms of the local Nagasaki economy, Ringer was a tremendously important figure. Over
the years, he established a flour mill, a steam laundry, a tanning factory, a gas company, a
power station, stevedoring companies, trawler fishing companies, and whaling concerns. By
the late 1890s, Nagasaki was a boom town thanks to the Sino-Japanese War, the Spanish-
American War, and the presence of the Russian Winter Fleet, and Ringer was the most
dominant foreign merchant in town. Reflections of his prosperity included the establishment
of a daily English language newspaper, the Nagasaki Press, in 1897 and the construction of
the fabulous Nagasaki Hotel along the waterfront the following year.
Frederick Ringer remained in Nagasaki until 1906, when he returned to England for health
reasons. He briefly returned once more to Nagasaki, but was unable to stay long. He died
at Norwich on November 29, 1907 at the age of sixty-nine. He was survived by his two
sons, Fred and Sidney, both of whom had been born in Nagasaki. Fred died in Nagasaki in
1940 at the age of fifty-six. In August of the same year, Sidney's two sons, Michael and
Vanya, were arrested as spies by Japanese authorities and forced to leave the country.
Both then joined the Indian Army; Vanya was killed in action at Malaya in January 1942 and
Michael was taken prison of war in Sumatra. Sidney was required to close the Nagasaki
office of Holme Ringer & Co. in October 1940, and soon thereafter went with his wife to
Shanghai. Unfortunately for the pair, when war broke out the following year they were
taken prisoners by the Japanese military. They spent the first half of the war in an
internment camp in Shanghai and were later transferred to a camp in Hangzhou.
After the war, Sidney Ringer tried desperately to restart business operations in Nagasaki,
but this proved quite difficult. He ended up selling off most of the Holme Ringer property in
Nagasaki, before returning to England, where he died in 1967. The only remaining evidence
of the once considerable Ringer presence in Nagasaki is the large stone residence that sits
high above Nagasaki Harbor within Glover's Garden, situated at No. 2 Minamiyamate
between the other two British mansions from days gone by -- the Glover and Alt houses.
[Most of the following information on Frederick Ringer was taken from Harold S. Williams,
The Story of Holme Ringer & Co., Ltd. In Western Japan, 1868-1968 (Tokyo: Charles E.
Tuttle Co., 1968).]
EDWARD ROGERS
Edward Rogers arrived in Nagasaki in 1876 to become the head agent for the China &
Japan Trading Co. Three years later, he was a member of the reception committee to
welcome American president U.S. Grant to the city. In March 1882, Rogers married Ellie Hill
in Tokyo. In December of the following year, he rented the former Alt House at No. 14
Minamiyamate. In July 1889, he purchased the old Sailor's Institute at No. 15 Oura. On
behalf of the China & Japan Trading Co., Rogers also rented the old butcher lots to use as
kerosene storage facilities and the warehouses at Nos. 29, 30 and 31A Oura. In March
1906, Edward Rogers and his wife left Nagasaki. Prior to their departure, Rogers made
arrangements with Robert Walker to sell his lots at No. 15 and 33A Oura, which contained
twenty-three Japanese each.
Edward Rogers arrived in Nagasaki in 1876 to become the head agent for the China &
Japan Trading Co. Three years later, he was a member of the reception committee to
welcome American president U.S. Grant to the city. In March 1882, Rogers married Ellie Hill
in Tokyo. In December of the following year, he rented the former Alt House at No. 14
Minamiyamate. In July 1889, he purchased the old Sailor's Institute at No. 15 Oura. On
behalf of the China & Japan Trading Co., Rogers also rented the old butcher lots to use as
kerosene storage facilities and the warehouses at Nos. 29, 30 and 31A Oura. In March
1906, Edward Rogers and his wife left Nagasaki. Prior to their departure, Rogers made
arrangements with Robert Walker to sell his lots at No. 15 and 33A Oura, which contained
twenty-three Japanese each.
WILLIAM M. ROSS
William Montague Ross was a native of Canada who while residing in Nagasaki came under
the protection of the British Consulate. Previously a co-proprietor of the Golden Gate
Tavern in Yokohama, Ross was in Nagasaki by January 1870. In Nagasaki, he operated Ross
& Co., Hair Cutting and Shaving Salon at No. 16 Oura, in a building attached to the Bank
Exchange, Billiard Saloon and Hotel. By 1872, he had moved his hair salon to No. 11
Umegasaki and by March of the following year he was operating the Eureka Hotel and
Eureka Shaving Salon at No. 19 Oura. He later had to close both establishments, but
reopened the Hair Dressing and Shaving Salon on the same site in May 1878. William Ross
died on November 18, 1878 and was buried in Oura International Cemetery.
JOHN ROWE
John H. Rowe and his wife Margaret were among the new contingent of missionaries that
passed through Nagasaki on September 6, 1906. After studying Japanese language for five
months in Fukuoka, the couple was assigned to Kokura. Later in 1907, they moved down to
Nagasaki to replace the Walnes who had been assigned to Fukuoka. The Rowes even moved
into the old Walne house at No. 29 Sakurababa-machi.
John Rowe was born on November 13, 1876 in Virginia, the oldest of eight children. After
graduating from Richmond University and Southern Seminary in Louisville, he married Sarah
Margaret Cobb, "a student from Texas who had served two years in New Mexico as a
missionary teacher to the Navajo Indians." Margaret Rowe was physically not a strong
person, however, and almost from the beginning, her health became an issue of concern.
The Rowes returned to the United States in 1912, because of Margaret's poor health, and
did not return to Nagasaki. This meant that for the first time since 1896 that there was no
American missionary in Nagasaki at work for the Southern Baptist Mission. John Rowe had
originally been given the assignment of establishing boys' school in Fukuoka, but in 1913
when his return from America was delayed, someone else was given the task. The school,
Seinan Gakuin, was opened in 1916 and Rowe was elected chairman of the board of trustees.
Margaret Rowe, after suffering with headaches for years, entered a sanatorium in
California. There she had several operations and seemed well enough to consider returning
to Japan. However, suddenly she became ill again and died of cerebral meningitis on April 5,
1920 at the young age of thirty-six. She left behind her husband and four children.
John Rowe married another Southern Baptist worker in Japan, Carrie Hooker Chiles, at
Seoul in June 1921. Rowe was designated founder of a girls' school (Seinan Jo Gakuin) in
1922, and his new wife was appointed principal.
John Rowe died of pneumonia on August 12, 1929 in Gotemba at the age of fifty-two,
having served twenty-three years in Japan. He was buried in the foreigner's cemetery in
Yokohama. Carrie Hooker Rowe left Japan with the Walnes in 1934 and a year later retired
from the Mission. She passed away on September 11, 1966 at the age of eighty-three.
GIUSEPPE SCHILLER
Giuseppe Schiller was a native of Lusk, Russia who was naturalized as an American citizen
in New York on June 24, 1875. He registered with the U.S. Consulate in Nagasaki later that
same year. Schiller came to Nagasaki as sailor, but soon opened a store in the foreign
settlement. He stayed for three years, before selling his stock at auction to Samuel
Goldman in July 1878 and leaving for India.
In 1893, Schiller returned permanently to Nagasaki; this time, he opened a tailor shop at
the back of No. 9 Oura, facing Main Street. For the next five years, he and his wife Bertha
operated the shop, but on April 13, 1898, Giuseppe Schiller died of what was described as
overwork at the age of sixty. He was buried in the Jewish section of Sakamoto
International Cemetery. Nine years later (February 12, 1907), his wife Bertha died of
asthma in Nagasaki and was buried next to him.
JAMES SCHON
James Schon, a native of the United States, was in Nagasaki by at least 1897 as an
employee of Powers & Co. He lived originally at No. 3 Oura. On May 27, 1901 Schon (51)
married a Japanese woman named Shimoda Hisame (20). The American ceremony was held
in September. The couple lived first at No. 8 Minamiyamate and then moved to No. 7
Minamiyamate. Schon retired from Powers & Co. on May 31, 1904 and soon thereafter he
and his wife moved away from Nagasaki. James Schon died in November 1911.
CARL P.H. SCRIBA
Carl P.H. Scriba [also spelled Sciba at times] was born in Heddesdorf, Germany in 1869. He
worked for a time in China as a military instructor before coming to Nagasaki in 1899 and
opening a contractor and provisioner business at No. 15A Oura. In May of the same year,
he married Naito Miwa (19) of Obama. Five years later, Scriba also purchased No. 15B
Oura and made it part of his business operation. Carl Scriba died on May 27, 1912 after a
long illness at the age of forty-three and was buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
He was proceeded in death by a young daughter, Johana [Sciba], who died in 1902 and
survived by his wife, Miwa, and four children: Karl, Adolph, Hugo and Elsa.
Miwa Scriba and her children remained in Nagasaki after Carl's death, but had their lots at
No. 15 Oura confiscated as enemy property by the Japanese government in September
1920. In August 1925 a son Karl (born February 15, 1905 in Nagasaki), who was a graduate
of Tozan, went to the U.S. to study engineering at Pasadena College. Another son, Adolph,
was adopted into the Naito family. He later married a Japanese woman named Teruko and
had a son Tsukasa. A third son, Hugo (born June 18, 1903 in Nagasaki), died on November
7, 1964 at the age of sixty-one and was buried next to his father at Sakamoto. Also listed
on the tombstone but without death dates are Karl Scriba and his wife Pauline. Karl met
Pauline (born Pauline Taber on March 11, 1911 in Evansville, Wisconsin) while he was
studying business at the University of Southern California. The couple immigrated to the
United States after Karl's retirement. Their ashes were never returned to Nagasaki after
their deaths, but instead the ashes were scattered in various locations in the United States.
ROBERT SHUFELDT
An interesting visitor who liked Nagasaki so much that he tried retiring here was Admiral
Robert Shufeldt, the man who "opened" Korea for the United States. Robert Shufeldt first
came to Nagasaki as a crewmember of the U.S.S. Hartford, which traveled to a number of
East Asian ports between February and September 1866. He met the U.S. Consul to
Nagasaki Willie P. Mangum and his wife in Shanghai, while Mangum was temporarily assigned
there in 1867-68.
Shufeldt returned to Nagasaki in April 1880, as Commodore of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga. In
December 1878, Shufeldt had been dispatched on a two-year, round-the-world cruise to
search for new markets for American commerce in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. With
Mangum in tow as an interpreter, Shufeldt went to Pusan in May in a failed attempt to sign
a treaty with Korea to open the country to trade with the United States. Rebuffed,
Shufeldt went back to Japan, where with the aid of the Japanese government, he sent a
letter to Korean officials requesting a treaty. He went back to Nagasaki for sixty days and
waited for the Korean response. The response was again negative, so Shufeldt left Nagasaki
on August 19. After going to China, he returned to the U.S., arriving in San Francisco on
November 8.
On 3 March 1881, Shufeldt received a letter from Charles Fisher, the Acting Consul in
Tientsin (Mangum had been the Consul, but he passed away in February of an illness he had
developed while with Shufeldt in Korea, so his assistant Fisher took over), stating that Li
Hong Zhang was ready to assist Shufeldt in the opening of Korea to the United States.
Shufeldt and his niece/adopted daughter, Molly, sailed for Shanghai, arriving on March 29.
They remained in China working out details of the treaty until May, when Shufeldt finally
sailed to Korea. The treaty was signed on May 22, 1881 (it took another two years for the
U.S. Senate to pass the treaty). He stopped briefly back in Nagasaki, but headed for San
Francisco in mid-July.
In late February 1887, Shufeldt came back to Nagasaki, accompanied by Molly, with the
intention to retire here. He felt that his meager pension would not allow him to retire in
comfort in the United States. While in Nagasaki, he lived in a house overlooking the harbor.
He attended services at the Church of England every Sunday, went riding and bathing two
hours a day, and often visited the hot springs at Takeo. In July 1888, Shufeldt took Molly
on a twenty-eight day cruise to Vladivostok. He left Nagasaki permanently on November
14, 1888. It is not known as to whether Robert or Molly decided that Nagasaki was not,
after all, the perfect retirement spot.
Robert Shufeldt died in Virginia on November 7, 1895 and was buried at Arlington national
Cemetery.
JEAN J. SIROT
Jean J. Sirot was born on the outskirts of Lyons, France in 1869. He worked for about five
years with the Chinese Maritime Customs at Shanghai before coming to Nagasaki in 1895.
He first joined the French trading firm of J. Gaillard Jeune as manager of its Nagasaki
branch. A few years later, he opened up his own small business as a naval contractor and
baker in Oura. On July 6, 1899, he married Anna Louise Balmes, the French-Japanese
daughter of Francois and Marie Yamamoto Balmes. Jean and Anna had two children. In
1903 Sirot built and managed the Hotel de France at No. 33 Oura. Plagued by debts and
failing health, Sirot sold the hotel to his brother-in-law and in 1909 moved his family to
Korea. There he worked for a French gold mining concern until a severe kidney ailment
forced him to return to Nagasaki. On December 6, 1912, two days after returning to
Nagasaki, Sirot passed away at the age of fifty-three.
Carl P.H. Scriba [also spelled Sciba at times] was born in Heddesdorf, Germany in 1869. He
worked for a time in China as a military instructor before coming to Nagasaki in 1899 and
opening a contractor and provisioner business at No. 15A Oura. In May of the same year,
he married Naito Miwa (19) of Obama. Five years later, Scriba also purchased No. 15B
Oura and made it part of his business operation. Carl Scriba died on May 27, 1912 after a
long illness at the age of forty-three and was buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery.
He was proceeded in death by a young daughter, Johana [Sciba], who died in 1902 and
survived by his wife, Miwa, and four children: Karl, Adolph, Hugo and Elsa.
Miwa Scriba and her children remained in Nagasaki after Carl's death, but had their lots at
No. 15 Oura confiscated as enemy property by the Japanese government in September
1920. In August 1925 a son Karl (born February 15, 1905 in Nagasaki), who was a graduate
of Tozan, went to the U.S. to study engineering at Pasadena College. Another son, Adolph,
was adopted into the Naito family. He later married a Japanese woman named Teruko and
had a son Tsukasa. A third son, Hugo (born June 18, 1903 in Nagasaki), died on November
7, 1964 at the age of sixty-one and was buried next to his father at Sakamoto. Also listed
on the tombstone but without death dates are Karl Scriba and his wife Pauline. Karl met
Pauline (born Pauline Taber on March 11, 1911 in Evansville, Wisconsin) while he was
studying business at the University of Southern California. The couple immigrated to the
United States after Karl's retirement. Their ashes were never returned to Nagasaki after
their deaths, but instead the ashes were scattered in various locations in the United States.
ROBERT SHUFELDT
An interesting visitor who liked Nagasaki so much that he tried retiring here was Admiral
Robert Shufeldt, the man who "opened" Korea for the United States. Robert Shufeldt first
came to Nagasaki as a crewmember of the U.S.S. Hartford, which traveled to a number of
East Asian ports between February and September 1866. He met the U.S. Consul to
Nagasaki Willie P. Mangum and his wife in Shanghai, while Mangum was temporarily assigned
there in 1867-68.
Shufeldt returned to Nagasaki in April 1880, as Commodore of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga. In
December 1878, Shufeldt had been dispatched on a two-year, round-the-world cruise to
search for new markets for American commerce in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. With
Mangum in tow as an interpreter, Shufeldt went to Pusan in May in a failed attempt to sign
a treaty with Korea to open the country to trade with the United States. Rebuffed,
Shufeldt went back to Japan, where with the aid of the Japanese government, he sent a
letter to Korean officials requesting a treaty. He went back to Nagasaki for sixty days and
waited for the Korean response. The response was again negative, so Shufeldt left Nagasaki
on August 19. After going to China, he returned to the U.S., arriving in San Francisco on
November 8.
On 3 March 1881, Shufeldt received a letter from Charles Fisher, the Acting Consul in
Tientsin (Mangum had been the Consul, but he passed away in February of an illness he had
developed while with Shufeldt in Korea, so his assistant Fisher took over), stating that Li
Hong Zhang was ready to assist Shufeldt in the opening of Korea to the United States.
Shufeldt and his niece/adopted daughter, Molly, sailed for Shanghai, arriving on March 29.
They remained in China working out details of the treaty until May, when Shufeldt finally
sailed to Korea. The treaty was signed on May 22, 1881 (it took another two years for the
U.S. Senate to pass the treaty). He stopped briefly back in Nagasaki, but headed for San
Francisco in mid-July.
In late February 1887, Shufeldt came back to Nagasaki, accompanied by Molly, with the
intention to retire here. He felt that his meager pension would not allow him to retire in
comfort in the United States. While in Nagasaki, he lived in a house overlooking the harbor.
He attended services at the Church of England every Sunday, went riding and bathing two
hours a day, and often visited the hot springs at Takeo. In July 1888, Shufeldt took Molly
on a twenty-eight day cruise to Vladivostok. He left Nagasaki permanently on November
14, 1888. It is not known as to whether Robert or Molly decided that Nagasaki was not,
after all, the perfect retirement spot.
Robert Shufeldt died in Virginia on November 7, 1895 and was buried at Arlington national
Cemetery.
JEAN J. SIROT
Jean J. Sirot was born on the outskirts of Lyons, France in 1869. He worked for about five
years with the Chinese Maritime Customs at Shanghai before coming to Nagasaki in 1895.
He first joined the French trading firm of J. Gaillard Jeune as manager of its Nagasaki
branch. A few years later, he opened up his own small business as a naval contractor and
baker in Oura. On July 6, 1899, he married Anna Louise Balmes, the French-Japanese
daughter of Francois and Marie Yamamoto Balmes. Jean and Anna had two children. In
1903 Sirot built and managed the Hotel de France at No. 33 Oura. Plagued by debts and
failing health, Sirot sold the hotel to his brother-in-law and in 1909 moved his family to
Korea. There he worked for a French gold mining concern until a severe kidney ailment
forced him to return to Nagasaki. On December 6, 1912, two days after returning to
Nagasaki, Sirot passed away at the age of fifty-three.
JOHN U. SMITH & FAMILY
John U. Smith was born in Cumberland, Maine in 1818. He went to sea at twelve and
became a captain by the age of nineteen. In 1849, he married Hannah Sturdivant; the
following year they moved to California. There, John worked on Pacific and East Asian
routes and did some farming until 1865, when he brought his wife and four children to
Nagasaki. For much of his thirty years in Nagasaki he was a harbor pilot, although from time
to time he helped his wife with the family hotel business. John Smith died in Nagasaki after
a long illness on January 26, 1895 at the age of seventy-six. He was followed seven months
later by his youngest daughter, Ida, who died of heart disease at age twenty-eight.
Hannah Smith for years operated hotels in Nagasaki. Hannah and her husband first took
over the Commercial Hotel at No. 27 Oura in September 1872. While briefly operating the
Commercial Hotel, Hannah's long-term concern was with Smith's Hotel, which opened in
1874 at No. 14 Oura. Hannah continued to operate Smith's Hotel for years, even after it
was sold to outside owners in 1883 and again in 1888.
John U. Smith was born in Cumberland, Maine in 1818. He went to sea at twelve and
became a captain by the age of nineteen. In 1849, he married Hannah Sturdivant; the
following year they moved to California. There, John worked on Pacific and East Asian
routes and did some farming until 1865, when he brought his wife and four children to
Nagasaki. For much of his thirty years in Nagasaki he was a harbor pilot, although from time
to time he helped his wife with the family hotel business. John Smith died in Nagasaki after
a long illness on January 26, 1895 at the age of seventy-six. He was followed seven months
later by his youngest daughter, Ida, who died of heart disease at age twenty-eight.
Hannah Smith for years operated hotels in Nagasaki. Hannah and her husband first took
over the Commercial Hotel at No. 27 Oura in September 1872. While briefly operating the
Commercial Hotel, Hannah's long-term concern was with Smith's Hotel, which opened in
1874 at No. 14 Oura. Hannah continued to operate Smith's Hotel for years, even after it
was sold to outside owners in 1883 and again in 1888.
Hannah Smith died on February 23, 1899 at the age of seventy-three, four days after the
passing of her eldest son, Eugene. On September 28, 1900, the remaining daughter, Abbie,
was killed in a shipwreck in Nagasaki Harbor on her way to serve as governess for a Russian
family in Port Arthur. Thirteen years earlier, Abbie had suffered the tragedy of losing her
three-week-old daughter. Finally, on October 16, 1905, the last remaining Smith, youngest
son Edward, died of liver disease due to alcoholism. He had worked as a clerk with the
China and Japan Trading Co., and later as a compradore for R.H. Powers and Co., but upon
his death, he was reportedly on the verge of insolvency.
SOEUR ST. ELIE
Sister St. Elie reached Nagasaki aboard the Genkai-maru on July 6, 1877 as part of the
first contingent of French sisters to the town. She stayed for more than fifty years.
According to the Nagasaki Press, "[Sister Elie] spent the largest part of her life in Nagasaki
devoting herself to educational and benevolent works and also the creation of Japanese
Sisters." Early on, she was elected Superior Provincial of her congregation. During her
extended stay in Japan, she became the head of schools for girls in Nagasaki, Kumamoto,
Kobe, Osaka & Kyoto.
Sister St. Elie reached Nagasaki aboard the Genkai-maru on July 6, 1877 as part of the
first contingent of French sisters to the town. She stayed for more than fifty years.
According to the Nagasaki Press, "[Sister Elie] spent the largest part of her life in Nagasaki
devoting herself to educational and benevolent works and also the creation of Japanese
Sisters." Early on, she was elected Superior Provincial of her congregation. During her
extended stay in Japan, she became the head of schools for girls in Nagasaki, Kumamoto,
Kobe, Osaka & Kyoto.
FREDERICK G. STONE
Frederick G. Stone was born in Britain on January 17, 1845. He came to Nagasaki on the
British ship Carnarvonshire in 1866 and left the vessel here. Since the early 1870s, he
worked for the China & Japan Trading Co., first in Nagasaki and then later in Kobe and
Yokohama. On March 31, 1882, while still living in Nagasaki, Stone married Ellen Rogers of
Auckland, New Zealand, the sister of his boss at China & Japan Trading Co., Edward
Rogers. In 1892 Stone returned from Yokohama and two years later was managing the firm'
s Nagasaki branch. In addition to Stone's prominent role in Nagasaki's business community,
he was one of the founding members of the International Club and also secretary of the
Freemason's Lodge.
Frederick Stone became ill in August 1903 and was confined to bed at his residence above
the China & Japan Trading Co. at No. 4 Oura. He died on August 21 at the age of fifty-
eight, leaving behind a wife and daughter. He was buried at Sakamoto International
Cemetery.
Frederick G. Stone was born in Britain on January 17, 1845. He came to Nagasaki on the
British ship Carnarvonshire in 1866 and left the vessel here. Since the early 1870s, he
worked for the China & Japan Trading Co., first in Nagasaki and then later in Kobe and
Yokohama. On March 31, 1882, while still living in Nagasaki, Stone married Ellen Rogers of
Auckland, New Zealand, the sister of his boss at China & Japan Trading Co., Edward
Rogers. In 1892 Stone returned from Yokohama and two years later was managing the firm'
s Nagasaki branch. In addition to Stone's prominent role in Nagasaki's business community,
he was one of the founding members of the International Club and also secretary of the
Freemason's Lodge.
Frederick Stone became ill in August 1903 and was confined to bed at his residence above
the China & Japan Trading Co. at No. 4 Oura. He died on August 21 at the age of fifty-
eight, leaving behind a wife and daughter. He was buried at Sakamoto International
Cemetery.
CHARLES SUTTON
Charles Sutton arrived in Nagasaki as a young man aboard the British ship Armistice around
1860. Little is known of his early years in Nagasaki, although at a certain point he did serve
as keeper of the Nagasaki Club. The Nagasaki Club was a social club for Western men who
lived in the foreign settlement. It was established at No.31 Oura in January 1862. When
the old building became dilapidated, Sutton supervised the construction of a new Club
building, which opened in November 1881 at No.10 Oura.
Nagasaki, like other foreign settlement port town in Bakumatsu Japan, was often a
dangerous place to live, as residents had to cope not only with disease but also with hostile
samurai angered by the presence of the Westerners. Charles Sutton became an early
victim of the hostility when he was attacked from behind by a sword-wielding Japanese on
an evening in early 1864 while walking along a road at the back of No.4 Oura. Sutton's left
arm was badly mutilated and he sustained a deep gash on the back of his neck. The arm
eventually had to be amputated to save his life.
The incident caused a major strain in British-Japanese relations, as the British government
refused to accept the professed failure of Japanese officials to find the culprit, especially
considering that they had been provided with a detailed description of the attacker. For his
part, Sutton was not intimidated by the attack and decided to remain in Nagasaki.
After recovering from the near fatal attempt on his life, Sutton went on to succeed in
business as a stevedore and general contractor, with an office at No.47 Oura. On January
31, 1877, he also became the proprietor of the English language newspaper Rising Sun and
Nagasaki Express at No.13 Oura.
In spite of the handicap resulting from the attack, Charles Sutton appears to have lived an
extremely healthy and active life. On the evening of April 18, 1892, however, he returned
from a horseback ride with a severe pain in his head. The pain turned out to be caused by
a brain hemorrhage and he lost consciousness the following morning. Although treated by
Russian, German, British and American physicians, Sutton never gained complete
consciousness and died early on the morning of April 28 at the age of fifty-two.
Charles Sutton's funeral was held on April 29 and he was buried in Sakamoto International
Cemetery. The following year, his younger brother George also died in Nagasaki and was
buried in the adjacent plot. The two Sutton tombstones are among the most impressive of
those remaining today at Sakamoto.
Charles Sutton arrived in Nagasaki as a young man aboard the British ship Armistice around
1860. Little is known of his early years in Nagasaki, although at a certain point he did serve
as keeper of the Nagasaki Club. The Nagasaki Club was a social club for Western men who
lived in the foreign settlement. It was established at No.31 Oura in January 1862. When
the old building became dilapidated, Sutton supervised the construction of a new Club
building, which opened in November 1881 at No.10 Oura.
Nagasaki, like other foreign settlement port town in Bakumatsu Japan, was often a
dangerous place to live, as residents had to cope not only with disease but also with hostile
samurai angered by the presence of the Westerners. Charles Sutton became an early
victim of the hostility when he was attacked from behind by a sword-wielding Japanese on
an evening in early 1864 while walking along a road at the back of No.4 Oura. Sutton's left
arm was badly mutilated and he sustained a deep gash on the back of his neck. The arm
eventually had to be amputated to save his life.
The incident caused a major strain in British-Japanese relations, as the British government
refused to accept the professed failure of Japanese officials to find the culprit, especially
considering that they had been provided with a detailed description of the attacker. For his
part, Sutton was not intimidated by the attack and decided to remain in Nagasaki.
After recovering from the near fatal attempt on his life, Sutton went on to succeed in
business as a stevedore and general contractor, with an office at No.47 Oura. On January
31, 1877, he also became the proprietor of the English language newspaper Rising Sun and
Nagasaki Express at No.13 Oura.
In spite of the handicap resulting from the attack, Charles Sutton appears to have lived an
extremely healthy and active life. On the evening of April 18, 1892, however, he returned
from a horseback ride with a severe pain in his head. The pain turned out to be caused by
a brain hemorrhage and he lost consciousness the following morning. Although treated by
Russian, German, British and American physicians, Sutton never gained complete
consciousness and died early on the morning of April 28 at the age of fifty-two.
Charles Sutton's funeral was held on April 29 and he was buried in Sakamoto International
Cemetery. The following year, his younger brother George also died in Nagasaki and was
buried in the adjacent plot. The two Sutton tombstones are among the most impressive of
those remaining today at Sakamoto.
FRANK TUCKER
Frank W. Tucker, a twenty-five year-old private in the U.S. Infantry died on October 1,
1898 aboard the U.S. transport City of Rio de Janeiro. He was buried at Takenokubo
Epidemic Cemetery. A year later, Tucker's body was disinterred and taken back home to
the United States for reburial. When the Epidemic Cemetery closed, some of the
tombstones, including Tucker's, were transferred to Sakamoto International Cemetery.
WILLIAM THOMAS
William Thomas was born in England and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was in
Nagasaki by at least 1877 when he was a proprietor at No. 31B Oura of the Falcon Hotel,
which, in spite of its name, was more a boarding house and tavern than a hotel. Thomas
died at a hot springs in Shimabara of liver and kidney problems on August 27, 1887 at the
age of forty-two. He was survived by a Japanese housekeeper who lived with him but was
not legally his wife. Thomas is buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery.
William Thomas was born in England and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was in
Nagasaki by at least 1877 when he was a proprietor at No. 31B Oura of the Falcon Hotel,
which, in spite of its name, was more a boarding house and tavern than a hotel. Thomas
died at a hot springs in Shimabara of liver and kidney problems on August 27, 1887 at the
age of forty-two. He was survived by a Japanese housekeeper who lived with him but was
not legally his wife. Thomas is buried in Sakamoto International Cemetery.
RISHER THORNBERRY
Risher W. Thornberry came to Nagasaki in May 1903 to replace John Makins as manager of
the Seamen's Home. Thornberry and his wife came to Nagasaki from the YMCA branch at
Cavite in the Philippines. They returned to the U.S. in 1905. Risher Thornberry taught
jujutsu at Ft. Lewis in Washington during WWI and published on the topic in California in the
1930s. Along with J.J. O'Brien, he helped introduce jujutsu to the United States.
JOHN G. WALSH
The United States Consul at the time of the official opening of the foreign settlement in
Nagasaki was John G. Walsh, the largest American merchant in town. Walsh had been
appointed to his position on May 1, 1859 by Townsend Harris, the U.S. Consul-General to
Japan who had been visiting the Japanese port town.
Walsh was born July 27, 1829 in New York City. He came to Nagasaki with his elder brother
Thomas to establish the trading firm Walsh & Co. John Walsh served, for all practical
purposes, as a merchant-consul; he received no salary from the U.S. Department of State,
but was permitted to conduct his own private business. He was assisted in his duties as U.
S. Consul to Nagasaki by a Deputy Consul (quite often his brother Robert), a U.S. Marshall,
and, at times, an Interpreter -- all selected from the local business community and paid out
of his own pocket.
The U.S. Consulate was a series of makeshift arrangements during Walsh's tenure in office.
The initial building, situated in Hirobaba, burned to the ground in December 1859. The
Consulate was located wherever Walsh lived and worked during the period, which after 1862
was at No. 12 Higashiyamate and No. 3 Oura, respectively.
John Walsh served as U.S. Consul to Nagasaki for more than six years, without pay. He
was, however, allowed to conduct private business in town. As a matter of fact, his
business interests were his primary concern, and his consular duties were performed on the
side. Business often took Walsh out of town during his tenure in office, and eventually he
moved his business operations entirely out of Nagasaki.
While in Nagasaki, John Walsh married a Japanese woman named Yamaguchi Rin. They
moved to Kobe when the foreign settlement opened there in 1868. His firm, called Walsh,
Hall & Co. after 1871, remained in Nagasaki at No. 3 Oura until 1874, but had its
headquarters at Yokohama.
John Walsh spent most of his later years living in Kobe, where he established the Kobe
Paper Mill. He died in Kobe on August 16, 1897 at the age of sixty-eight and was buried in
the city's international cemetery.
The United States Consul at the time of the official opening of the foreign settlement in
Nagasaki was John G. Walsh, the largest American merchant in town. Walsh had been
appointed to his position on May 1, 1859 by Townsend Harris, the U.S. Consul-General to
Japan who had been visiting the Japanese port town.
Walsh was born July 27, 1829 in New York City. He came to Nagasaki with his elder brother
Thomas to establish the trading firm Walsh & Co. John Walsh served, for all practical
purposes, as a merchant-consul; he received no salary from the U.S. Department of State,
but was permitted to conduct his own private business. He was assisted in his duties as U.
S. Consul to Nagasaki by a Deputy Consul (quite often his brother Robert), a U.S. Marshall,
and, at times, an Interpreter -- all selected from the local business community and paid out
of his own pocket.
The U.S. Consulate was a series of makeshift arrangements during Walsh's tenure in office.
The initial building, situated in Hirobaba, burned to the ground in December 1859. The
Consulate was located wherever Walsh lived and worked during the period, which after 1862
was at No. 12 Higashiyamate and No. 3 Oura, respectively.
John Walsh served as U.S. Consul to Nagasaki for more than six years, without pay. He
was, however, allowed to conduct private business in town. As a matter of fact, his
business interests were his primary concern, and his consular duties were performed on the
side. Business often took Walsh out of town during his tenure in office, and eventually he
moved his business operations entirely out of Nagasaki.
While in Nagasaki, John Walsh married a Japanese woman named Yamaguchi Rin. They
moved to Kobe when the foreign settlement opened there in 1868. His firm, called Walsh,
Hall & Co. after 1871, remained in Nagasaki at No. 3 Oura until 1874, but had its
headquarters at Yokohama.
John Walsh spent most of his later years living in Kobe, where he established the Kobe
Paper Mill. He died in Kobe on August 16, 1897 at the age of sixty-eight and was buried in
the city's international cemetery.
N.A. WARE
Some of the mail ships that cruised the waters of East Asia carried their own physicians.
On August 10, 1872, N.A. Ware, the surgeon of a Mitsubishi mail steamer, which ran between
Yokohama, Nagasaki and Shanghai, died while in Nagasaki. The West Virginian native was
buried in Nagasaki's Oura International Cemetery.
WILLIAM WATTS
William Oscar Watts was born on February 10, 1879 in Ash Flat, Arkansas. He resided in
Summertown, Tennessee before coming to Nagasaki on March 20, 1904 to serve as clerk at
the U.S. Army Depot. Watts married Margaret Walker (21) of Nagasaki on June 8, 1905 and
the couple had a daughter the following year. William Watts remained at the Nagasaki Army
Depot for seven years until being transferred to Seattle, Washington in 1911.
W.D. WENTWORTH
W.D. Wentworth, a native of Britain, came to Nagasaki around 1900 to work for R.N. Walker
& Co. By May 1901 he had established his own business, W.D. Wentworth, Landing and
Shipping Agent and Customs Broker, at No. 20 Oura. In February 1903 he moved his firm
to No. 12 Oura. Two years later, he moved to No. 42 Oura (next to the Hongkong and
Shanghai Bank). Later, he changed the name of his business to Kyushu Stevedorage Co.
On June 28, 1913, Wentworth's Japanese wife Miki passed away at he age of fifty-five. She
was buried in the addition to Sakamoto International Cemetery. W.D. Wentworth lived on to
the age of eighty-three. After his death on August 12, 1931 at the family home at No. 21
Minamiyamate, he was buried next to his wife at Sakamoto.
W.D. Wentworth, a native of Britain, came to Nagasaki around 1900 to work for R.N. Walker
& Co. By May 1901 he had established his own business, W.D. Wentworth, Landing and
Shipping Agent and Customs Broker, at No. 20 Oura. In February 1903 he moved his firm
to No. 12 Oura. Two years later, he moved to No. 42 Oura (next to the Hongkong and
Shanghai Bank). Later, he changed the name of his business to Kyushu Stevedorage Co.
On June 28, 1913, Wentworth's Japanese wife Miki passed away at he age of fifty-five. She
was buried in the addition to Sakamoto International Cemetery. W.D. Wentworth lived on to
the age of eighty-three. After his death on August 12, 1931 at the family home at No. 21
Minamiyamate, he was buried next to his wife at Sakamoto.
CAROLINE WICKS
Caroline Wicks (also spelled Wickes and Weeks) came to Nagasaki from San Francisco,
accompanied by her young son Alexander, in 1860. She was among the first to register with
the U.S. Consulate in September, and was on the original list of Americans who applied for
land in the foreign settlement. She was the only female of any nationality to apply for a
land permit. Weeks built a hotel on her property at No. 25 Oura, calling it initially the
Commercial House. In 1866 she changed the name to Royal House.
Caroline Wicks passed away on May 7, 1869 and was buried in Inasa International
Cemetery. Her tombstone is one of five illegible grave markers in the small cemetery. Mrs.
Wicks' twelve-year-old son remained in Nagasaki after her death, but survived her by only
one year. Alexander died of small pox in May 1870 and was probably buried alongside his
mother. Unfortunately, the adventuresome mother and child from San Francisco did not
survive a decade of life in the foreign settlement.
Caroline Wicks (also spelled Wickes and Weeks) came to Nagasaki from San Francisco,
accompanied by her young son Alexander, in 1860. She was among the first to register with
the U.S. Consulate in September, and was on the original list of Americans who applied for
land in the foreign settlement. She was the only female of any nationality to apply for a
land permit. Weeks built a hotel on her property at No. 25 Oura, calling it initially the
Commercial House. In 1866 she changed the name to Royal House.
Caroline Wicks passed away on May 7, 1869 and was buried in Inasa International
Cemetery. Her tombstone is one of five illegible grave markers in the small cemetery. Mrs.
Wicks' twelve-year-old son remained in Nagasaki after her death, but survived her by only
one year. Alexander died of small pox in May 1870 and was probably buried alongside his
mother. Unfortunately, the adventuresome mother and child from San Francisco did not
survive a decade of life in the foreign settlement.
GUSTAV WILCKENS
Gustav Wilckens was born in Germany, but was under the protection of the U.S. Consulate
because Prussia had no treaty with Japan in the early days of the foreign settlement. He
came to Nagasaki around the time of the opening of the port in 1859. Wilckens was a
partner in the firm of Carl Nickel & Co. until his death on January 28, 1869 at the age of
thirty-seven. His tombstone in the Inasa International Cemetery was erected by a geisha
named Tamagiku who worked at the Maruyama teahouse Tsunokuniya.
JAMES L. WILLIAMS
James L. Williams was born in England in 1838 and was in Nagasaki by at least 1877 when he
rented lot No. 28A Oura in the foreign settlement. By the early 1880s, Williams was living
with a Japanese woman named Kono Cho who bore him a daughter (Rita Marie) in 1882.
The couple officially married -- a relatively rare occurrence between Westerners and
Japanese of the day -- in April 1890. Together they operated the Land We Live In
Restaurant at the back of No. 9 Oura facing Main Street.
Williams must have been Catholic, because rather than sending his daughter Rita to either
of the Protestant girls' schools in the foreign settlement (Sturges Seminary of the
Reformed Church or Kwassui of the Methodist Church), he enrolled her at Sacred Heart
Girls School (Seishin Jo Gakko), which began operations in Minamiyamate, but moved to No.
5 Oura in 1889. Rita Williams unfortunately passed away on May 24, 1898 at the young age
of sixteen. She was buried in the Catholic section of Sakamoto International Cemetery.
The tombstone is also inscribed with Rita's Japanese name, Yoshida Tsuta. As a last
expression of their love, her parents engraved a temari and hagoita on the tombstone.
James Williams died two years later on May 22, 1900 at the age of sixty-two and was buried
beside his daughter at Sakamoto.
HUGO E. WORBS
Hugo Worbs was born in London of mixed English and German parentage. He lived in
Yokohama and Kobe before coming to Nagasaki in 1899 as manager of Kunst & Albers and
Ahrens & Co. to supervise the German Steamship Line. He stayed until December 31,
1901, when he returned to Europe to receive treatment for an advanced kidney ailment.
Worbs was told that rest was the only thing that would help. He therefore decided to
return to Nagasaki and arrived in June 1902. He had previously lived in Okusa, but moved
to No.7 Higashiyamate [R.N. Walker's house] upon his return. Worbs died at his residence on
August 18, 1903 at the age of thirty-seven. He was buried at Sakamoto International
Cemetery and a tombstone was erected above his grave by a Japanese woman named
Okabe Tama (Taki).
Hugo Worbs was born in London of mixed English and German parentage. He lived in
Yokohama and Kobe before coming to Nagasaki in 1899 as manager of Kunst & Albers and
Ahrens & Co. to supervise the German Steamship Line. He stayed until December 31,
1901, when he returned to Europe to receive treatment for an advanced kidney ailment.
Worbs was told that rest was the only thing that would help. He therefore decided to
return to Nagasaki and arrived in June 1902. He had previously lived in Okusa, but moved
to No.7 Higashiyamate [R.N. Walker's house] upon his return. Worbs died at his residence on
August 18, 1903 at the age of thirty-seven. He was buried at Sakamoto International
Cemetery and a tombstone was erected above his grave by a Japanese woman named
Okabe Tama (Taki).
