June 8, 1869 On this day in 1869, a group of Japanese immigrants arrived at Gold Hill, two miles south of the town of Coloma, and established the first and only silk and tea farm in California. That farm was known as the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony, which is believed to be the first permanent agricultural settlement by Japanese immigrants in North America. In April 1869, John Henry Schnell, a European diplomat attached to the Prussian embassy in Japan, arranged for passage aboard the steamship SS China for himself, his Japanese wife Jou, their daughter, their nursemaid Okei Ito, and 22 samurai supporters of Matsudaira Katamori, who was the leader of the Tokugawa faction that was just defeated during the Boshin Civil War. The Japanese immigrants arrived in San Francisco on May 20, 1869. The Daily Alta California newspaper in that city published their arrival a week later. The Daily Alta reported that the group brought with them 50,000 mulberry trees, bamboo plants, 500 vegeta...