Americas rise to power in the nineteenth century was the result of the efforts of many gifted men and women. This book chronicles the achievements of one of these Horace Capron who at age sixtyseven agreed to travel to Japan as an advisor to the government on the development of the large northern island of Hokkaido.Russell traces Capron through the early years of the nineteenth century to his marriage into the influential Snowden family and his building of the town of Laurel Maryland where he made and lost a fortune in cotton milling and farming. Commanding a cavalry regiment in the Civil War brought him the rank of General and led to his appointment as the second commissioner of agriculture under Presidents Johnson and Grant.