22 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN March 2026 PEOPLE THE MATSUTANI FAMILY JAMES W. GRIFFIN | DIRECTOR/ CURATOR, LINCOLN COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM Brothers George and Jack Matsutani came to America seeking opportunities not available in their native Japan. They arrived in San Francisco, Calif., around 1898 and began working there, but they knew America offered more. So, in about 1906, they moved east to Nebraska. They came to the Sarben neighborhood and immediately took up farming beets and potatoes on rented land. By 1911, they had purchased their first land and George was also feeding cattle. Soon, train car loads of cattle fattened for market were leaving the brothers’ combined farm for the Omaha Stockyards. George even received an award for a sugar beet crop from the Grand Island Sugar Company. Things on the farm looked good, but disturbing political winds were blowing. In 1920, during the Nebraska Constitutional Convention, North Platte delegate Joseph Beeler introduced the first Alien Land Law proposal. This measure was defeated after the Nebraska Japanese community, led by Reverend Hiram Kano, appealed to the convention. It was a victory, but a short lived one. The following year, a bill was introduced into the Nebraska Legislature by North Platte’s Edward Davis. It forbade any person who was not a United States citizen from owning land in Nebraska. It was obvious the bill was intended for the Japanese as they were the only sizable immigrant group in Nebraska that could not become citizens. Though opposed vigorously by Nebraska’s Japanese communities, the bill was passed and first-generation Japanese could no longer buy the farming land they needed to grow. They would have to settle with the land they already owned and rent what they needed to grow their operations. How this changed the Matsutani brothers’ plans is unknown but, despite this setback, the brothers pushed forward. They sought more land to rent and eventually operated on a section and a quarter. Together, they grew a fine cattle herd, fed hundreds of cattle and harvested thousands of bushels of potatoes each year. George even found it necessary to purchase two Chevy trucks in 1927 so they could transport their potato crop and animals. George was always thinking of ways to improve the brothers’ business. He planted early- and late-season potatoes to take advantage of both markets, and he investigated a labor-saving harvester that would both top and dig sugar beets. When his cattle needed feed, he planted oats with clover and alfalfa; the oats growing with the benefit of the nitrogen from the clover. Then, after harvesting the oats, he cut the alfalfa five times and plowed it under to capture all the nutrients he could get for the next crop. He even kept potato seed he had grown, because he found that these produced potatoes earlier than the seed he normally purchased. This allowed him to capture the market a week before other growers. When it came to his cattle feeding operation, George learned to fatten his cattle on grains, hay and other supplements Masa Matsutani’s Grand Champion Steer. Pictured, left to right, are Roland Kinzer, American Hereford Association; Professor W.L. Blizzard, judge; and Masa Matsutani. CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
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