Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Maynard Horiuchi Interview
Narrator: Maynard Horiuchi
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Sonoma, California
Date: November 20-21, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-hmaynard-01-0002
   
Japanese translation of this segment Japanese translation of complete interview

<Begin Segment 2>

TI: So let's get closer to, to today in terms of, how about your grandfather?

MH: My grandfather, actually, I think he trained as a lawyer, and he later became the mayor of Fort Smith, Arkansas. And then he ran a dairy there in the Fort Smith area also. Now, his, his wife was a Luce, and the Luce family is important in our family because her uncle, I guess it was, was Admiral Luce, who started the Naval War College. And also, I think it was her father who was an Indian agent. He was a lawyer, and this, he was, he went after a trader who was supplying the Indians with liquor, and he went and emptied all the liquor this guy was going to transport into this, into the river. And the man came to his office with a gun to shoot him, and he threw a bowie knife at him and killed him. And was later put on trial for it, but exonerated completely for doing this.

TI: And again, what was the relationship of this --

MH: I think this was my, my grandmother's, my grandmother's uncle, I think.

TI: Okay, so your great grandfather's brother, that'd be the Luce connection?

MH: I guess that, yes, that must have been it, uh-huh.

TI: Okay. So very, very long, colorful family histories.

MH: Yes. And also, my... let's see now, my Great Grandfather Cooke -- no, my Great Grandfather Luce, excuse me. This is my Grandmother Cooke's father, Great Grandfather Luce, was on the, on the Southern side in the Civil War. And at that point, the other family, the family that lived up north, the rest of the Luces up there, ran him out of the Navy -- I mean, ran him out of the family heritage.

TI: Because he was on the Southern side?

MH: Because he was on the Southern side.

TI: And it's interesting when you say that, I mean, the South lost. And why would they run him out?

MH: Because they were against slavery, and he being on the Southern side, they couldn't stand that.

TI: And this was the same great grandfather that they named the college after?

MH: No. That was the great-great uncle.

TI: Got it.

MH: There was no college after Luce. There's a building in the Naval Academy in Annapolis that is named after Admiral Luce.

TI: Okay. And then one more time, so Admiral Luce was, how was Admiral Luce related to you?

MH: He was the great-great-great uncle, I guess, I'm not quite sure where it ties in.

TI: Good, okay. So, again, what I'm just curious about is you have this long lineage. It's almost like in terms of, through your family's lineage, you could trace American history. From the Mayflower, you talked about the Civil War, and then all these great events in American history. And as we'll go through, it goes through World War II also.

MH: Yes, indeed.

TI: So very interesting.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.