'Chance of a lifetime': American fur traders in 1900s Korea

Yuri (George) M. Yankovsky and a number of boars he killed in the early 1930s Sten Bergman, "In Korean Wilds and Villages."

By Robert Neff

In the early 1900s, the northern part of the Korean peninsula was the domain of the majestic tigers, sleek leopards, insatiable wolves and unpredictable giant boars. They prowled the darkness and lonely places preying upon the weak and unwary. They also attracted the attention of foreign hunters who came to Korea to hunt them as souvenirs to display in their trophy rooms. There was even a Russian family (Yankovsky) that established a famous hunting lodge on the east coast.

But this region was also blessed with great numbers of fur-bearing animals. They, too, attracted foreign hunters who came not so much for the sport but rather the profit.

Korea was no stranger to the fur industry. Some of the earlier trade reports list tiger, leopard and bear pelts exported from Wonsan ― most likely to Japan. Sable and otter pelts were especially prized and were readily purchased by Chinese merchants. In 1897, a pair of Korean fur dealers claimed they exported $30,000 worth of furs annually to China.

So many furs were being harvested that in 1897, trappers and traders began complaining that fur-bearing animals were becoming scarcer and scarcer as more people sought to profit from them. An unidentified Western resident in Jemulpo (modern Incheon) called for the Korean government to take measures to protect its natural resources.

Yankovsky and two leopards Sten Bergman, "In Korean Wilds and Villages"

The unnamed petitioner would have probably been horrified to discover that some hunters were using unconventional means to get their pelts. In 1904, one Korean hunter in Gangwon Province allegedly used dynamite cartridges to obtain fox pelts. He smeared the dynamite cartridges with grease and then placed them where foxes congregated. When the foxes bit down on the cartridges they exploded, killing the foxes by literally blowing their heads off.

In the early 1900s, Korea was a concessionaire's dream. It was rich with natural resources but still relatively undeveloped. When Clare Hess, the subject of our previous article, sailed to Korea in early 1901 to work as a gold miner at the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company (OCMC), one of his fellow passengers advised him that "a fortune could be made by buying furs and exporting them to America, as the [Koreans] had no conception of the monetary value of such costly skins as sable, silver fox, otter, sea otter, etc., also that the territory had never been opened and that the chance of a lifetime lay before some adventurous and enterprising American." Hess was determined to be that man.

When he returned to Columbia City, Indiana, in the summer or fall of 1903, he established the Asiatic-American Importing Company, which was primarily to sell furs purchased in the Far East.

Columbia City was no stranger to Korea. Leigh S. J. Hunt started the OCMC nearly seven years earlier and many of the miners at the concession were from Indiana ― mainly Columbia City ― and so it probably isn't stretching the imagination to say that many there viewed Korea as a land of opportunity. Especially when they learned that Hess had brought several pelts from Korea and "sold them at an extraordinary profit."

Hess told his friends and neighbors what they wanted to hear ― even if the narrative wasn't supported by facts ― and they believed it.

One of the gold mining camps on the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company's concession in northern Korea, circa 1900s Courtesy of the Diane Nars Collection

He claimed that after completing a two-year contract with the OCMC, he resigned from his position and then spent six months exploring Korea. We know this claim wasn't true because his contract ended in late January 1903 and he was in jail on Feb. 5.

According to a hometown newspaper, "He [understood] Korean, Chinese and Japanese languages thoroughly, and gained passports all over Asia, which [were] of inestimable value." They say that in every good lie there is a grain of truth, and there are a few in that statement. The OCMC employed Koreans, Chinese and Japanese, and most of the Western miners knew some words and phrases in each of those languages, but very few understood any of the languages "thoroughly," let alone all three of them in just two years. As for the passports, his only passports that I know of are one issued in Korea in December 1902 and one issued in Indiana in October 1904.

Hess did manage to establish his company ― with a capital stock of $100,000 ― and departed the United States on Nov. 9, 1904. He and his companion William Socwell, a 49-year-old real estate broker, had provisions to last four months and would "engage in any kind of business" a couple of hundred miles from the coast, deep in the mountains.

They ― and the newspaper ― had great hopes. "The furs will be shipped all at one time to Columbia City where buyers from all parts of the world will come when a big sale is held."

Columbia City, Indiana, in the early 1900s. The library on the second floor was established through a donation from Leigh S. J. Hunt. Courtesy of the Whitley County Historical Museum

They arrived at Kanggye (in present-day North Korea) on Jan. 5, 1905. Their trip from Jemulpo ― first by steamship (a two-day trip) and then 500 kilometers on Korean ponies ― was quite an accomplishment considering it was winter and during the Russo-Japanese War.

Hess described the city as being surrounded by an ancient wall and with a garrison of 400 Korean soldiers. According to him, the city had a population of 30,000 inhabitants who were quite startled with the appearance of the two Americans. In a letter to his parents, Hess wrote:

"Our entrance into the city caused quite a commotion and the narrow streets were fairly filled with a conglomerate crowd and we could hear the questions asked many times, 'Are they Russians?' and I don't wonder at it as we had been fifteen days traveling continuously."

It wasn't so much their filth that startled the residents but the fact that two days earlier, a patrol of 16 Russian Cossacks had entered the city and were then subsequently driven out by the Korean soldiers.

The two Americans found lodging at a small inn and were soon visited by a servant sent by the local magistrate who demanded to know who they were and why they were in Kanggye. After the passports were presented (through their interpreter) a note was received from the magistrate expressing his appreciation for their arrival along with a couple of chickens. Later that day, three high officials visited them and also expressed pleasure with their meeting "but regretted that there were no good accommodations" for the Americans, and instead promised that they would see if they could find a vacant house. The officials kept their promise. "The next day a policeman called and asked us to go and look at a house which had been found and we are now located quite comfortably in it ― guests of the magistrate."

A winter scene from the OCMC circa 1910-1920 Courtesy of the Joseph Lower Family

The Americans soon paid a visit to the magistrate's office:

"[We] were ushered through a large court yard into the audience hall where he came forward to meet us. We found him to be a perfect gentleman and it seemed that he could not do enough for us. After a short conversation he asked our business and when we informed him that we were here to buy furs he told us that there were two hundred hunters in his district and they were at our disposal. He also sent the chief of that department to us later to let us know that they had been sent for and also that a very learned man in the art of tracking wild beasts, who lives one hundred miles from here, had been sent for. We are now waiting for them to come. Several of the high officials call on us every day and seem to enjoy their visits."

On Jan. 11, Hess left his companion in Kanggye and traveled to the Korean-Chinese border. He spent nearly three weeks traveling along the Yalu River, and in a letter to his mother he bragged:

"During the trip I was the guest of a magistrate and while I have seen a good deal of Korea [on] my previous trips and thought I knew their customs pretty well, I saw the 'inside' working power of Korea on this trip and many things which I had never dreamed of before."

A bridge near Kanggye in the 1920s Robert Neff Collection

He returned to Kanggye on Feb. 19 and reunited with his companion. During his time away, Hess ate nothing but Korean food and seemed quite proud of himself for this accomplishment.

He proclaimed to his mother, "I would have staid [sic] longer in the interior but we were out of food," and complained that Socwell couldn't (or wouldn't) eat any Korean or Japanese food. Denigrating his older companion even further, he added that another reason was because Socwell "was getting pretty homesick." With such a burdensome companion, Hess had no choice but to return to the United States.

By March 11, they were in Nagasaki and had arranged to travel to New York via the Suez Canal and London, and arrived on May 19. We know that they were in Columbia City by June 13 because Hess gave an interview in which he claimed to have just returned from Korea, where his company has prosperous headquarters," and that the "[Japanese] are much disliked by American traders in the Orient and [the] Chinese are liked." It is interesting to note that his company's name had changed from "Asiatic-American Importing Company" to "American-Asiatic Fur Importing Company."

Hess wasn't the only one talking. In July, Socwell, who was described as "an interesting talker," gave a presentation at his church "on the needs and conditions [in Korea] as he saw them."

Harvesting ice on the Yalu River, circa 1900-1910s Robert Neff Collection

Despite these men's willingness to talk and their "prosperous headquarters" in Korea, I couldn't find any information to indicate whether or not they succeeded in obtaining pelts to resell in Indiana. Perhaps they did, but the auction did not warrant any mention in the local newspapers. Apparently the company was not as prosperous as he boasted and by 1910, he was living in Spokane, Washington, with his wife and young son and working as a chemist. I don't believe he ever returned to Korea, but, according to at least one account, up until the 1930s, he was still writing to Americans residing in Korea in the hopes of establishing a company.

Columbia City has a long history with Korea ― over 120 years. Photographs, postcards, letters, newspapers articles and even home movies provide tantalizing glimpses of their lives ― stories that need to be told so that they are never lost and forgotten.

I would like to express my appreciation to Diane Nars and Jan Downing for their invaluable assistance, as well as to the Whitley County Historical Museum and its staff.

A Korean hut near the Yalu River in the 1930s Sten Bergman, "In Korean Wilds and Villages"

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books including, Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.