VIOLENCE-2 排华暴力事件-2
This page is an annex of the main page on anti-Chinese violence in North America during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Readers may find that the main page is better for browsing. Or they can consult the following index.
This page was last updated: January 26, 2012
Anti-Chinese incidents in the Pacific Northwest: a new map [posted 08/03/10; updated 10/17/11]
President Taft's list of incidents [posted 10/8/11]
The Anti-Chinese conspirators 1885-1887 [posted 01/20/10]
What did Chinatown leaders do to avert violence? Did they succeed? [posted 04/06/11]
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The Tacoma Method, November 1885
华盛顿州塔可玛排华自成一家
The citizens of Tacoma took pride in their system for expelling all 500 Chinese residents through threats and forcible assistance but with no overt violence. The system, dubbed the "Tacoma Method," was extolled in an article by George Dudley Lawson published nationwide in the Overland Monthly (1886:234-240). A key feature of the method was the wholehearted involvement of the mayor and the chief of police.
It was only because of the active participation of the sober, intelligent, and respectable citizens, whose motives could not be questioned or integrity impeached, that a speedy and peaceful result was reached. The few interested men who would have espoused the cause of the Mongolians [i.e., the Chinese],.were overwhelmed and awed when they saw the class and character of those arrayed against them.
Similar, equally boastful, sentiments were expressed in a letter from one of the ringleaders to the governor in Olympia, the capital of Washington Territory:
Letter from John Arthur to Governor Watson C. Squire, Olympia
TACOMA, November 4, 1885
DEAR GOVERNOR. Fuit Ilium. The Chinese are no more in Tacoma, and the trouble over them is virtually at an end. Yesterday they were peaceably escorted out of town and put upon the freight and passenger trains this morning. Do you recall what I told you as to the method which I understood would be adopted on the last days? It was strictly followed with the exception that the train was not special, the reason for this departure from the programme being that the price asked for a special train was too exorbitant.
The twenty or thirty Chinamen who were permitted to remain a day for purposes of packing and shipping store-goods will leave tomorrow morning; then Tacoma will be sans Chinese, sans pigtails, sans moon-eye, sans wash-house, sans joss-house, sans everything Mongolian... Those who predicted differently were partly swayed by their wishes and greatly underrated the intelligence, character, and resolution of the men who worked up the movement and who were flippantly called a rabble by their moral and intellectual inferiors.
The expulsion, though "peaceful," was not entirely without casualties. Two Chinese died of exposure that night before being herded onto a train the following morning. The wife of one Chinese merchant became insane "from fright and anxiety." The whole of Chinatown was burned to the ground the day afterward.
And it goes without saying that not everyone agreed about the character and respectability of Tacoma's citizens. They were (and still are) called a disgraceful rabble by many non-Tacomans.
Source: Report of the Governor of Washington Territory to the Secretary of the Interior, Government Printing Office: Washington DC, 1886, pp 875, 908)
The Long-Term Cost to Tacoma
Tacoma did not do well after the Chinese were driven out. While it is hard to believe that the loss of a few hundred residents, no matter how enterprising and hard-working, could have hurt the city's economy all that much, it remains a fact that as the decades passed, Tacoma fell further and further behind Seattle in terms of population and prosperity. Today Tacoma is not a wealthy city. It also has a very small Chinese population relative to its size, as the following table shows.
ASIANS IN TACOMA. 2006-2008City of Tacoma Washington StateTotal population 193,830 6,453,083 Asian 14,4877.5%421,402 6.5%Asian Indian 324 0.2% 46,1010.7%Chinese 727 0.4% 84,4001.3%Filipino 3,100 1.6% 79,383 1.2%Japanese 914 0.5% 33,3630.5%Korean 2,329 1.2% 60,075 0.9%Vietnamese 3,344 1.7% 62,848 1.0%Other Asian 3,749 1.9% 55,232 0.9%from ACS (American Community Survey, Dept of Census), Demographic and Housing Estimates, 2006-2008,
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US53&-qr_name=ACS_2008_3YR_G00_DP3YR5&-ds_name=ACS_2008_3YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-_sse=on
Why should this be so? Very few present-day immigrants to Washington State know about the Method and the savage racism behind it, and in any case Tacoma has long since abandoned those attitudes. On a state-wide basis it has more than its share of Asians within its boundaries. Its Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Koreans do not experience more discrimination than elsewhere in the Northwest. And yet Tacoma still has less than a third as many Chinese as it should. Again, why?
The Tacoma Victims - Who Were They? 塔可玛受害者名单
The buildings for business and residence below were burned and everything was lost: nine eateries, two butcher shops, 2 laundries, 1 herbal drug store, and three residences. The majority of owners had the surname Ruan [in Cantonese, Goon], while a few were named Chen [Chin], Wu [Eng, Ng], or Tang [Hong].
-Chong Lung， 昌隆伙食铺。 阮忠-Hop Lee Butchery， 合利剔猪铺， 阮耀章-Jam Kee Chong Laundry， 占记昌洗衣馆。 伍扶0-Mee Nome Low Chinese Restaurant， 美南楼餐店。 陈孔南。阮耀启-Mow Lung Store, 茂隆伙食铺 . 阮桂-Quon Lee Store , 均利伙食铺. 陈柏梧-Quong Chong Yuen Store, 广祥源伙食铺. 陈震华-Quong Mou Chong Store. 广茂昌伙食铺。阮年-Quong Sun & Co， 广信伙食铺。 阮三-Quong Wo Tai Butchery , 广和泰剔猪铺. 阮裕仁-Shue Hing Lung Store of Kwok Sue. 兆兴隆伙食铺， 郭兆-Sing Lee Family, 胜利. 阮毛家眷-Tai Wo Tong Drug Store， 泰和堂药材铺。 陈忠伦等-Wing Sing Laundry ， 荣升洗衣馆。阮培-Yee Chong Lung Vegetables， 裕昌隆瓜菜铺。 汤顺-Yuen Nome Family, 阮南家眷-Yuen Wy Family， 阮槐家眷-Yon Fong Low Chinese Restaurant， 远芳楼餐店。 陈柏梧The following businesses and residences lost their savings, merchandise, furnishings, and belongings: 11 laundries, 4 groceries, and 1 tailor's shop, run by people with the surnames (in Mandarin) Chen, Lin, Wu-ren, Wu-tian, Li, He, Zhou, Luo, Huang, and Ruan.
-Bing Chong Laundry， 明昌洗衣馆。 黄/ 李
Bing Chong Laundry， 明昌洗衣馆。 黄/ 李-Duck Kee Laundry ， 德记洗衣馆。 陈焕国
Duck Kee Laundry ， 德记洗衣馆。 陈焕国-Duck Lee Laundry ，德利洗衣馆。 陈祥谋
Duck Lee Laundry ，德利洗衣馆。 陈祥谋-Foo Tai Laundry， 普泰洗衣馆。 阮松胜
Foo Tai Laundry， 普泰洗衣馆。 阮松胜-Gam Kee Tailor Shop， 金记栽缝铺。 周家-Hong Lee Laundry， 同利洗衣馆。 陈崇语-Hong Sing Laundry， 同盛洗衣馆。 骆发-Hong Yuan Tong Boarding House with 60 residents， 同源堂华人工厂-Jam Kee Laundry ， 占记洗衣馆。 伍如三-Mee Wah Laundry， 美华洗衣馆。 陈练佑-Quong Hing Vegetables， 广兴瓜菜铺。 林启章-Sam Hing Store of Lum Way, 三兴伙食铺。 林蔚-Sun Chong Store of N.W. Gow， 新昌伙食铺， 吴获九-Tai Lee Laundry， 泰利洗衣馆。 李寿-Wing Lee Laundry， 荣利洗衣馆。 陈崇信-Yee Lee Store， 怡利伙食铺。 伍意薰-Yuen Lee Laundry， 元利洗衣馆。何立权plus Kim Lee, Kwong Wa, Hi Co., Yee Fot & Co., Chong Dan, Ng Yot Hong, Ah Dan, Ng Sheow Yan, Wah Lee, Jim Kee.
Sources: List of Tacoma Chinese Business lost in 1885, University of Washington Libraries, Digital Collection.
Names in red also appear in Annual Report of the Governor of Washington Territory (to the Secretary of the Interior), p.56,
Schedule of Claims for Losses by the Chinese, 1886
Tacoma was known as 的钦巴案 in Chinese government documents, the Federal government paid an indemnity in 1888.
"Reconciliation" and the Park
Making very tardy amends, the Tacoma City Council passed a resolution in 1993 stating that the expulsion "was a most reprehensible occurrence." In 2005 the city broke ground for a commemorative space to be named, curiously, Reconciliation Park. On October 30, 2010, a Walk for Reconciliation took place in Tacoma, to mark the 125th anniversary of the driving-out. The park opened officially in September 2011. It featured the moving, bleak landscape shown below plus a colorful pavilion. The latter was donated by Tacoma's sister city in China, Fuzhou. It went into the park even though few if any Fuzhounese (speakers of the Minbei dialects of northern Fujian province) would come to North America until a century after their fellow countrymen (all of them Cantonese, Taishanese, and Hakka speakers from Guangdong province) were expelled from Tacoma
"Flippantly called a rabble": the 27 Tacomans indicted for the expulsion
The Committee of Fifteen. E. H. Bacon is 3rd from left
“At the sound of the whistles scores of men poured into the streets and each knew just what to do. It was a mob but an orderly mob as mobs go. There was excitement to be sure but the raiders did not lose their heads. Perhaps that was because they had already been lost. The first Chinese shack visited was at about where the Massasoit Hotel stands, and the raiders then visited one shack after another all the way from Seventeenth Street to Old Tacoma. One after another of the terrified Chinese ordered express wagons and began loading their plunder. Many of them, however, left behind everything except their money. Several of them [at least thirteen--see "Victims" below] were laundrymen and they departed leaving their patrons’ shirts and collars, some in the tubs and some ready for delivery. Much of the community linen was lost as marauders robbed the laundries. In some instances white women entered the Chinese shacks and procured souvenirs, There are a number of prized teapots in Tacoma cupboards to this day”
Herbert Hunt Tacoma: Its History and its Builders; a half century of activity, Vol. 1 Chicago, 1916 p 373
Profiting from Expulsion: White Ladies and Teapots
Not all anti-Chinese Tacomans were as high-minded as those described by George Dudley Lawson in his Overland Monthly article (see the preceding section). The motives of some were just as questionable as those of Mrs. Scoville in Seattle, who happily remembered getting a profitable laundry at a bargain price when its Chinese owner was driven out. Tacoma examples include the women who, Herbert Hunt wrote, acquired prized teapots from Chinese shacks for free. Hunt thought the story was cute. To us, it seems embarrassing.
The City Council could have chosen a more appropriate name than "Reconciliation Park," implying as it does that both sides were at fault -- presumably, the white Tacomans for driving the Chinese out and the Chinese either for causing the whites to drive them out or for failing to forgive them afterward.
As of now, 2011, no one seems to be objecting to the name. We do not quite understand why. But it seems to us to be in character with earlier efforts by Tacomans to absolve themselves of guilt. In recent years they have no longer tried to excuse their predecessors' actions. And yet they still seem to find it hard to accept that those actions were as one-sidedly vile and demeaning to the city as they seem to non-Tacomans.
Reference: the Chinese Reconciliation Project's website, www.crpftacoma.org/; see also the maps at Tim Greyhavens' http://www.what-you-see.com/washington/Map_of_the_Tacoma_Anti-Chinese_Riot.pdf
For more details of the expulsion and the Chinese Remembrance Project, see http://iexaminer.org/cerp/history-expulsions
The bleak shoreline landscaping of Reconciliation Park, Tacoma
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It was only because of the active participation of the sober, intelligent, and respectable citizens, whose motives could not be questioned or integrity impeached, that a speedy and peaceful result was reached. The few interested men who would have espoused the cause of the Mongolians [i.e., the Chinese],.were overwhelmed and awed when they saw the class and character of those arrayed against them.
Similar, equally boastful, sentiments were expressed in a letter from one of the ringleaders to the governor in Olympia, the capital of Washington Territory:
Letter from John Arthur to Governor Watson C. Squire, Olympia
TACOMA, November 4, 1885
DEAR GOVERNOR. Fuit Ilium. The Chinese are no more in Tacoma, and the trouble over them is virtually at an end. Yesterday they were peaceably escorted out of town and put upon the freight and passenger trains this morning. Do you recall what I told you as to the method which I understood would be adopted on the last days? It was strictly followed with the exception that the train was not special, the reason for this departure from the programme being that the price asked for a special train was too exorbitant.
The twenty or thirty Chinamen who were permitted to remain a day for purposes of packing and shipping store-goods will leave tomorrow morning; then Tacoma will be sans Chinese, sans pigtails, sans moon-eye, sans wash-house, sans joss-house, sans everything Mongolian... Those who predicted differently were partly swayed by their wishes and greatly underrated the intelligence, character, and resolution of the men who worked up the movement and who were flippantly called a rabble by their moral and intellectual inferiors.
The expulsion, though "peaceful," was not entirely without casualties. Two Chinese died of exposure that night before being herded onto a train the following morning. The wife of one Chinese merchant became insane "from fright and anxiety." The whole of Chinatown was burned to the ground the day afterward.
And it goes without saying that not everyone agreed about the character and respectability of Tacoma's citizens. They were (and still are) called a disgraceful rabble by many non-Tacomans.
Source: Report of the Governor of Washington Territory to the Secretary of the Interior, Government Printing Office: Washington DC, 1886, pp 875, 908)
ASIANS IN TACOMA. 2006-2008City of Tacoma Washington StateTotal population 193,830 6,453,083 Asian 14,4877.5%421,402 6.5%Asian Indian 324 0.2% 46,1010.7%Chinese 727 0.4% 84,4001.3%Filipino 3,100 1.6% 79,383 1.2%Japanese 914 0.5% 33,3630.5%Korean 2,329 1.2% 60,075 0.9%Vietnamese 3,344 1.7% 62,848 1.0%Other Asian 3,749 1.9% 55,232 0.9%from ACS (American Community Survey, Dept of Census), Demographic and Housing Estimates, 2006-2008,
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US53&-qr_name=ACS_2008_3YR_G00_DP3YR5&-ds_name=ACS_2008_3YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-_sse=on
The Tacoma Victims - Who Were They? 塔可玛受害者名单
The buildings for business and residence below were burned and everything was lost: nine eateries, two butcher shops, 2 laundries, 1 herbal drug store, and three residences. The majority of owners had the surname Ruan [in Cantonese, Goon], while a few were named Chen [Chin], Wu [Eng, Ng], or Tang [Hong].
-Chong Lung， 昌隆伙食铺。 阮忠-Hop Lee Butchery， 合利剔猪铺， 阮耀章-Jam Kee Chong Laundry， 占记昌洗衣馆。 伍扶0-Mee Nome Low Chinese Restaurant， 美南楼餐店。 陈孔南。阮耀启-Mow Lung Store, 茂隆伙食铺 . 阮桂-Quon Lee Store , 均利伙食铺. 陈柏梧-Quong Chong Yuen Store, 广祥源伙食铺. 陈震华-Quong Mou Chong Store. 广茂昌伙食铺。阮年-Quong Sun & Co， 广信伙食铺。 阮三-Quong Wo Tai Butchery , 广和泰剔猪铺. 阮裕仁-Shue Hing Lung Store of Kwok Sue. 兆兴隆伙食铺， 郭兆-Sing Lee Family, 胜利. 阮毛家眷-Tai Wo Tong Drug Store， 泰和堂药材铺。 陈忠伦等-Wing Sing Laundry ， 荣升洗衣馆。阮培-Yee Chong Lung Vegetables， 裕昌隆瓜菜铺。 汤顺-Yuen Nome Family, 阮南家眷-Yuen Wy Family， 阮槐家眷-Yon Fong Low Chinese Restaurant， 远芳楼餐店。 陈柏梧The following businesses and residences lost their savings, merchandise, furnishings, and belongings: 11 laundries, 4 groceries, and 1 tailor's shop, run by people with the surnames (in Mandarin) Chen, Lin, Wu-ren, Wu-tian, Li, He, Zhou, Luo, Huang, and Ruan.
-Bing Chong Laundry， 明昌洗衣馆。 黄/ 李
Bing Chong Laundry， 明昌洗衣馆。 黄/ 李-Duck Kee Laundry ， 德记洗衣馆。 陈焕国
Duck Kee Laundry ， 德记洗衣馆。 陈焕国-Duck Lee Laundry ，德利洗衣馆。 陈祥谋
Duck Lee Laundry ，德利洗衣馆。 陈祥谋-Foo Tai Laundry， 普泰洗衣馆。 阮松胜
Foo Tai Laundry， 普泰洗衣馆。 阮松胜-Gam Kee Tailor Shop， 金记栽缝铺。 周家-Hong Lee Laundry， 同利洗衣馆。 陈崇语-Hong Sing Laundry， 同盛洗衣馆。 骆发-Hong Yuan Tong Boarding House with 60 residents， 同源堂华人工厂-Jam Kee Laundry ， 占记洗衣馆。 伍如三-Mee Wah Laundry， 美华洗衣馆。 陈练佑-Quong Hing Vegetables， 广兴瓜菜铺。 林启章-Sam Hing Store of Lum Way, 三兴伙食铺。 林蔚-Sun Chong Store of N.W. Gow， 新昌伙食铺， 吴获九-Tai Lee Laundry， 泰利洗衣馆。 李寿-Wing Lee Laundry， 荣利洗衣馆。 陈崇信-Yee Lee Store， 怡利伙食铺。 伍意薰-Yuen Lee Laundry， 元利洗衣馆。何立权plus Kim Lee, Kwong Wa, Hi Co., Yee Fot & Co., Chong Dan, Ng Yot Hong, Ah Dan, Ng Sheow Yan, Wah Lee, Jim Kee.
Sources: List of Tacoma Chinese Business lost in 1885, University of Washington Libraries, Digital Collection.
Names in red also appear in Annual Report of the Governor of Washington Territory (to the Secretary of the Interior), p.56,
Schedule of Claims for Losses by the Chinese, 1886
Tacoma was known as 的钦巴案 in Chinese government documents, the Federal government paid an indemnity in 1888.
Hong Kong Traders' Reaction and Tacoma's Defiance
In 1892, George B. Dodwell, influential owner of the Northern Pacific Oriental Steamship Co., stated that if Chinese were not allowed to come back to Tacoma, "his steamship[s] would be discriminated against by Chinese merchants [in Hong Kong] controlling the flour trade of the Orient."
Tacoma's Committee of Fifteen, which had been organized to oversee the 1885 expulsions, replied, "at a meeting held today, it was resolved unanimously that the committee would not endorse any proposition allowing a Chinese business house, conducted by Chinese, to be established in Tacoma; and will not be responsible, individually or collectively, for the consequences that may ensue should said house be brought here. [Signed] E H. Bacon, Chairman H. C. Patrick, Secretary"
"Flippantly called a rabble": the 27 Tacomans indicted for the expulsion
The Committee of Fifteen. E. H. Bacon is 3rd from left
The Northern Pacific Railroad, which later bought the steamship company, carried large amounts of flour to its terminal in Tacoma. The flour was shipped to Alaska, California, and Japan. While some must have gone to China too, in spite of the Chinese merchants Dodwell mentions, the Committee of Fifteen's threatening attitude must have pleased flour exporters in Seattle, Tacoma's somewhat less prejudiced rival.
Dodwell, incidentally, was also the owner of the Hong Kong trading firm, Dodwell Carlill & Co. He would have known what he was talking about when he said that Chinese flour importers might well boycott Tacoma.
Sources: Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1892-07-20, p 2. On Dodwell, see Victoria (BC) Daily Colonist 1892-06-19, p 6.
“At the sound of the whistles scores of men poured into the streets and each knew just what to do. It was a mob but an orderly mob as mobs go. There was excitement to be sure but the raiders did not lose their heads. Perhaps that was because they had already been lost. The first Chinese shack visited was at about where the Massasoit Hotel stands, and the raiders then visited one shack after another all the way from Seventeenth Street to Old Tacoma. One after another of the terrified Chinese ordered express wagons and began loading their plunder. Many of them, however, left behind everything except their money. Several of them [at least thirteen--see "Victims" below] were laundrymen and they departed leaving their patrons’ shirts and collars, some in the tubs and some ready for delivery. Much of the community linen was lost as marauders robbed the laundries. In some instances white women entered the Chinese shacks and procured souvenirs, There are a number of prized teapots in Tacoma cupboards to this day”
Herbert Hunt Tacoma: Its History and its Builders; a half century of activity, Vol. 1 Chicago, 1916 p 373
Profiting from Expulsion: White Ladies and Teapots
Not all anti-Chinese Tacomans were as high-minded as those described by George Dudley Lawson in his Overland Monthly article (see the preceding section). The motives of some were just as questionable as those of Mrs. Scoville in Seattle, who happily remembered getting a profitable laundry at a bargain price when its Chinese owner was driven out. Tacoma examples include the women who, Herbert Hunt wrote, acquired prized teapots from Chinese shacks for free. Hunt thought the story was cute. To us, it seems embarrassing.
The bleak shoreline landscaping of Reconciliation Park, Tacoma
Notes
1. Report of the Governor of Alaska for the Fiscal Year 1886. Government Printing Office: Washington 1886. pp 38-46
2. San Francisco Chronicle 1886-04-08, p 6
3. Same, 1884-07-14, p 2
4. New York Times 1886-01-29, p 3
5. Report of the Governor ... 1886, p 40
6. Same, p 41
7. New York Times 1886-08-24, p 4
8. Zhang Yinhuan [Chang Yen Hoon], Three Continents Diary, 1896 (in Chinese)
9. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States . . . December 3, 1888. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1889, p 365
10. www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9026; and www.library.state.ak.us/hist/hist_docs/finding_aids/MS141.doc).
11. Joe Tang, “Lonesome Land,” Hypen Magazine, Issue 6
Douglas Island, Juneau, Alaska 1886
阿拉斯加州朱諾地区的道格拉斯島
On August 6, 1886 a mob of 100 American workers rowed across from Juneau to nearby Douglas Island, where John Treadwell’s Alaskan Mill and Mining company had hired 80 Chinese miners through a labor contractor in San Francisco. The mob seized the Chinese, dragged them back to Juneau, packed them onto two small schooners ships, the Nellie Martin and the Charlie, and sent them out to sea with a little rice, no warm clothing, and minimal protection from the rain and wind. It took the schooners, with sails but no engines, between two and four weeks to cover the 150 miles to Wrangell, a small coastal town even more isolated than Juneau. There again they had no shelter and little food. Luckily, a passenger vessel, the steamship Ancon, came by and agreed to take everyone back to Juneau. That return trip cannot have taken more than a day or two, but when they arrived an armed mob refused to let them land. They had to borrow money from their employer to pay for passage back to San Francisco. Amazingly, though completely destitute, none of them died (Note 1).
Treadwell’s mine on Douglas Island was said to be “the largest and most promising property in Alaska” and was already well known in mining circles for its size and profitability (Note 2). Chinese had been working there since 1884 (Note 3). The abrupt demand for their expulsion two years later was undoubtedly inspired by the drivings-out of Chinese in 1885-6 back in the contiguous United States.
That anti-Chinese violence was coming had been clear since January, when a house occupied by Chinese in Juneau was dynamited, without loss of life but extensive damage to non-Chinese buildings nearby. Some townspeople were reported to be outraged and offered a $1,400 reward for capture of the perpetrators. The reward was never claimed (Note 4).
Eight months later on August 5, the anti-Chinese forces were ready for more decisive action. A group of white workers confronted Treadwell in Juneau and demanded that he fire all of his Chinese employees. To his credit, Treadwell refused. But the next day, a well organized mob rowed over to Douglas Island to enforce their demands. Every Chinese they could find was rounded up.
The territorial governor in Juneau, A. P. Swineford, attempted half-heartedly to restore peace and order. No arrest could be made because the Deputy U. S. Marshall in Juneau stated that “he absolutely refused to make complaint against those of the ringleaders who were personally known to him.” (Note 5) Moreover, it was impossible, the Governor claimed, to bring the Chinese back. He had requested a locally based Navy ship to pursue the
schooners. However, the ship’s commanding officer, . Lieutenant Commander Henry E. Nichols, refused. In a series of memos, he wrote that his forces were too limited and anyway that he was due to leave in three weeks’ time for Yakutat to relieve an exploring expedition. The incident led Swineford to conclude that there was no way for the Chinese to be protected even if they came back, considering the hostility of the local population and the unwillingness of the Navy to take action. His own authority was limited. As he pointed out, most of the perpetrators were aliens. “No more than a dozen of the men who constituted the mob in question were citizens of the United States, either by birth of adoption, the very large majority being men who, in a political or any other sense, have no more, if as much, right to consideration as the Chinese themselves.” (Note 6)
… there were 87 of them in all, and they so crowded the boat that there was not even room for them to lie down. To add to the brutality of the expulsion, they were given nothing to shelter them from the inclement weather and barely rice enough to keep them from starving on their four weeks’ trip along the coast to Fort Wrangle. . . it was a most cowardly and inhuman proceeding.”
Hammond also reported a rare reaction from the Chinese, “somewhat to the astonishment of their employers, the Chinamen expressed a readiness to stay and fight, but being unarmed, ….” (Note 7)
Chang Yen-Hoon, the Chinese Ambassador in Washington D.C., was notified of the Douglas Island incident on August 16, by the Chinese Consul General in San Francisco. In February of the following year, Chang received a claim of $13,000 from the Alaskan Chinese, among them one Feng Guangsheng 冯广盛 (Note 8). This Feng may have been identical with Fung Ah Soey, a native of Sun Ning, reported in Chang’s English-language correspondence with Bayard, the Secretary of State, to have submitted the claim for damages. The same letter names four of the ringleaders of the mob in Juneau: Jack Timmers, Patrick McGliney, Frank Berry, and George Wheelock (Note 9). None were investigated or punished.
In later years, Chinese came back to southern Alaska to work in salmon canneries and in mining. Ironically, one of the principal owners of the very successful Chichagof-Hirst gold mine, only sixty miles from the Treadwell mine, was the Chinese merchant Goon Dip of Portland and Seattle. Goon bought a share of the mine in about 1920 and with his son-in-law, Lew Kay, continued to be active in the mining company until the 1940s (Note 10)
Although no loss of life seems to have occurred, the event shocked an eyewitness, J. B. Hammond, to tell his story in Chicago when he returned from Alaska two weeks afterwards. A visiting engineer and contractor , Hammond reported that
Alfred P Swineford, Governor of the District
of Alaska, 1885-1889 (Image from Wikipedia) .
Treadwell Mine in 1896 Image from Wikimedia
One Chinese baker in Juneau, China Joe (or Chew Chung Thui), stayed on after the expulsion of his countrymen. Legend had it that he was so well liked by Juneau citizens that he was saved from any harm. (Note 11).
Goon Dip
China Joe
金山西北角 - 华裔研究中心
The Ironic Fate of One of the Fifteen
The Fifteen were not locally well known before they invented the Method and did not become prominent afterward. Most remained obscure in spite of attempts, as in 1892, to resurrect local anti-Chinese feelings. At least one of the Fifteen left Tacoma to seek his fortune elsewhere In 1909, he was reported to be in Hawaii where, it was claimed, he found himself forced to work for a Chinese employer.
Source: Clinton Snowden, History of Washington, New York, vol. 4, p 345
