Yearly Archives: 2016

Mrs. Charles Tigard’s Witness Statement for Mark T. Lee

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Mark T. Lee photo
“Lee Tong Wing, M143 photo” Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Lee Tong Wing (Mark T. Lee) file, Seattle, Box 468, Case 7030/1769.

Lee Tong Wing (Mark T. Lee) was the son of Lee Loy and Chuey June Ho of Tigard. Lee Loy was a well-known Chinese hop grower in Greenburg, Washington County, Oregon. Mrs. Charles Tigard a former neighbor of the Lees testified favorably for them. The Tigards had been living in their home for 55 years, her husband owned a grocery store, and the area was named after them. Mrs. Tigard identified photos of the Lee parents and several of their eight children, including Mark Lee. The Lee children went to school with the Tigard’s daughter. E. A. Dueber, Immigrant Inspector in Portland believed Mrs. Tigard to be reliable and trustworthy.
Lee Tong Wing’s American name was Mark Lee. He was born at Guild’s Lake, Portland on 8 December 1893 before birth certificates were required. He obtained a delayed certificate in 1931. Over the years the family lived in Guild’s Lake, Tigard, and Graham’s Ferry before settling in Portland in 1905. Mark Lee graduated from Portland Trade School in 1915. Mark Lee registered for the draft [for World War I] when the family was living on a farm between Butteville and Champoeg, Oregon.
He went back east several times and worked as a mechanic at Northway Motor and Manufacturing Company in Detroit and was a head waiter at several Chinese restaurants in Chicago. He returned to Portland in 1930. He was applying to leave the U.S. for his first trip to China.
Mark Lee’s parents and his sister, Yettai Lee Young, were interviewed. A family photo was shown to the interrogator but it is not included in the file. The information given by the three family members was compared and it all agreed.

Mark Lee’s father, Lee Loy, marriage name Lee Wun Ung, was 86 in 1931. He was born in Pok Gai Shan village, Sun Ning district, China and came to the U.S. in T.G. 11. He had only been back to China once. Mark Lee’s mother, Chuey June Ho was born in San Francisco about 1858. She and her husband married in Portland in 1879.
Mark Lee application was approved and he received his certificate of identity. By that time he was a restaurant manager in Portland. After he was approved he went to China, married, and returned to Portland alone, as was the tradition, and was admitted on 8 March 1932.

[Charles F. Tigard (1862-1942), for whom the town of Tigard (originally Tigardville), Oregon was named, operated its first store and post office and was later president of its First National Bank.]1

(1) Charles F. Tigard papers, 1888-1926, Finding Aid, 2012, Archives West, Orbis Cascade Alliance, (http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv52230 : accessed 23 December 2016.)

Holiday Greetings from 1936

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“Advertisement on Telegraph,” 1936, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Ng Quock Ping file, Seattle, Box 457, Case 7030/1446.

The 9 December 1936 telegraph in Ng Quock Ping’s file says, “Telegraph Your Holiday Greetings” [Notice the variety of prices.]

Mrs. Kenneth S. Wang (Dora Brandenberger)

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Photo of Mrs. Kenneth S. Wang (Dora Brandenberger)
“Photo of Mrs. Kenneth S. Wang (Dora Brandenberger),” 1932, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Kenneth S. Wang file, Seattle, Box 161, Case 2355/7-25.

[Date and place the photo was taken are not listed.]

Dora Brandenberger was born on 30 November 1903 in Baretswil, Switzerland. She arrived in the U.S. at New York City in November 1922 on the S.S. Adriatic. She married Kenneth S. Wang on 30 June 1932 at Jamestown, Chautauqua County, New York.
Kenneth S. Wang was born in Tang Shan, China on 2 November 1903. He came to the U.S. through Seattle in September 1924. He was here to attend pre-medical courses at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. After three years he transferred to the Medical College at University of Buffalo, New York for three and one-half more years. He was living at 24 High Street in Buffalo. Before he arrived in the U.S. he attended two years at the Chinese German School at Tientsin and four years at the Peking Academy. His father paid for his education.
At the completion of his studies Dr. Kenneth Wang, a non-quota immigrant student (Section 4 (e) of the Chinese Exclusion Act), and his wife Dora Wang left for China in July 1932. There is no indication that they returned to the U.S.
[Dora Brandenberger Wang does not have a file since she was not a U.S. citizen. There is no mention of how or where Dora and Kenneth met. Miscellaneous information found on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org: Dora was the daughter of Alfered [sic] Brandenberger and Lina Miller of Switzerland. She was a 17 year-old student when she arrived in the U.S. Kenneth Wang was her second husband. Her first husband was Ture Verner Wennersten. They divorced in 1929. Dora was a teacher and residing in St. Petersburg, Florida when she married Kenneth Wang. Kenneth lists his residence as Bemus Point, Chautauqua County, New York on their marriage license. One of the witnesses to the marriage was living in Orlando, Florida. ]

Pearl Y. Hom – Anonymous letter about Portland teacher

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Photo of Pearl Y. Hom, 1929
“Photo of Pearl Y. Hom” Form 430, 1929, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Pearl Y. Hom file, Portland, Box 92, Case 5017/501.

[After an anonymous letter was received at the Immigration Office saying that there was a rumor that Pearl Y. Hom had married a Chinese citizen on her recent trip out of the country, an investigation was made and it was determined that the information was incorrect. [Her 1929 trip was to Vancouver, B.C. In 1909 Pearl and her family visited China.]
Transcript of the letter:
Portland, Oregon, April 10th, 1930
Dear Sir,
This is just to let you know that it has been said that Pearl Ham [sic], the woman who teaches Chinese in the Chinese School which is located on Davis street near 3rd street, was married to a Chinese before she returned to this country. She has told people that she is still a girl. She was born in the United States and is a citizen. But I should like to ask you to see if she is still a citizen, if she was married to a Chinese. It is up to you to investigate this matter. As far as I am concerned, I have nothing against such woman. But I just want to let you know if it is lawful for her to stay in our country, if she was married to a Chinese before she came back to the country where she was born. Of course, you know what to do about this case.
Yours very truly
No need to be mentioned

On 23 July 1929 Pearl Y. Hom (Mon Hom Ying) applied for a Native’s Return Certificate. She was born in Portland, was not married, and had been teaching at a Chinese public school in Portland for four years. She was living at the Baptist Mission on Broadway and Couch.

According to Pearl’s application she had four brothers and one sister: Thomas S. Hom (Hom Mon Sing), working in a cannery in Alaska and off-season living in Seattle; Charles C. Hom (Hom Mom Chow), Alice H. Hom (Hom Mom Hong), and Amos G. Hom (Hom Mon Gum) living in China; and George Hom (Hom Xow) living in Portland. [Sometimes “Mon” is spelled “Mom” but “Mon” seems to be correct.]
Pearl’s 1909 application included affidavits from C.R. Levy of Levy Spiegel & Co., Dr. C. E. Cline, Mrs. E. B. Kan, Yee Mow, and Rev. Moy Ling, all of Portland.

Maggie Lyle Jeu – Lost U.S. citizenship when married Chinese citizen

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Photos of Maggie Jeu and Itoria Ding

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“Photos of Maggie Jeu and Itoria Ding” 1921, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Mrs. Jeu Ding (Maggie Jeu) and Itoria Ding files, Seattle, Box 1395, Case 41560/4-6 & 41560/9-3.

[The file is listed as “Jeu” but the surname is frequently spelled “Jue” in the file. He signed his name as “Jeu.”]
Maggie Lyle Jeu was a Caucasian American who lost her U. S. citizenship when she married a Chinese citizen. She needed to apply to the Chinese Consul-General for a Chinese passport before she could travel to China with her husband and two children. Her husband Jeu Ding, a Chinese-born merchant of Osceola, Arkansas, was exempt from the Chinese Exclusion Act because of his merchant status. He had made two previous trips in China as a merchant while doing business in Inverness and Benoit, Mississippi. He was the sole owner of his grocery business. He used his marriage name, Cheu Wah or Cheu Wah & Co., in his business. Jeu Ding’s first wife died in China. On 10 January 1918 he married Maggie Lyle, in Memphis, Tennessee. A copy of their marriage certificate was reviewed by the interviewer and returned to the applicant. Jeu and Maggie Ding had two children, Mary Ding, age 22 months; and Iteria Ding, age 4 months.
The 1921 White witnesses for the family were V. M. Rives, age 39; and Fred G. Patterson, age 50, both residents of Osceola for many years. Patterson testified that Dr. Dunnavant attended the home births of both children.
[Mrs. Jeu Ding was not interviewed.]
[Out of curiosity, I checked Ancestry.com for additional information. This is a summary of the mostly undocumented information I found: Their daughter Mary died on the return trip from China in 1923. They had several more children. Jue [sic] Wah Ding died on 10 September 1929 in Arkansas. Maggie remarried William H. Bourne in 1931 in Tennessee. They had several children. William died in 1953 and Maggie died in 1990.]

Kaju Yamauchi – Statement of Medical Detainment Expenses

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Kaju Yamauchi Detainment Expenses 1919
“Statement of Detainment Expenses for Kaju Yamauchi,” 1919, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Kaju Yamauchi file, Seattle, Box 1264, Case 36403/20-2.

[Why is a Japanese citizen included in the Chinese Exclusion Act files?
The Chinese Exclusion Act did not exclude Japanese citizens. Kaju Yamauchi was detained because he could not be admitted with trachoma and hookworm. According to the immigration authorities hookworm would affect his ability to earn a living and trachoma was a dangerous contagious disease.]

Kaju Yamauchi, age 13, arrived in Seattle, Washington on 26 April 1919 on the S.S. Fushimi Maru. He was born in Aichi-ken, Japan on 20 January 1906 and his last permanent residence was Sofuei-cho, Japan. He was going to live with his father, Karoku Yamauchi, San Joaquim #5 Tract, Stockton, California. When Kaju arrived he had trachoma and hookworm. According to the Assistant Commissioner-General of Immigration, Kaju’s father, a prosperous farmer, would pay for his son’s treatment. Kaju received hospital treatment, was cured, and admitted to the United States 110 days later on 16 August 1919. The charges on the statement were for 333 meals: $78.26; charge for hookworm: $17.60; charge for trachoma: $50.00; and a telegram: $1.30; total: $147.16.

Jung Ah Can – 1879 San Francisco Birth Certificate; 1904 copy

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“Certificate of Birth for Jung Ah Can,” 1904,
“Certificate of Birth for Jung Ah Can,” 1904, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Jung Ah Can case file, Seattle, Box 1264, Case 36414/1/5.

According to the 1904 certified copy of Certificate D27299, Hall of Records, Office of the County Recorder, City and County of San Francisco, California, Jung Ah Can was born on 4 June 1879 at 745 Clay Street. His father, Jung Chong Ping, was a manufacturer of cigars. His mother was Jung Shee. On 25 May 1904, Edmond Godchaux, County Recorder, certified that the certificate was a true and correct copy of an original record as it appears in Book 6 of Register of Births, page 75. Affidavits were sworn by Lai Young Kow and Jung Book Sang.
Attached to the certified copy in Jung Ah Can’s Exclusion file was a current photo of Jung Ah Can and a stamp that is only partly legible. “from Malone, N. Y. [???] 16, 1907, signed F. M. Berkshim {???], Chinese Inspector.” Handwritten across the certificate in red ink,“Canceled May 2/19; C.I. 30663, signed G. H. Mangels, Inspr.”
Jung Ah Can went to China in 1907 and returned via Malone, New York in 1908. Jung was re-admitted in 1908 by Inspector in Charge Sisson using his birth certificate as proof of citizenship. At some point Jung moved to Cleveland, Ohio and from there he applied to visit China in 1912.
A 31 January 1913 memorandum in the file regarding an appeal for the case of Jung Ah Can, alleged citizen refers to the “utter worthlessness of the ‘birth certificate,’ is not an impressive one…” It notes that there was no evidence that a fraud had been perpetrated and Inspector Sisson in Malone was a careful officer. It states that there was no indication that Sisson made an error in his decision. The appeal was sustained. Jung’s application was approved and he received his certificate of identity. He made one more trip to China in 1919 to visit his wife and their four children in Mong San Village, Sun Woy District. Jung Ah Can died at Cleveland, Ohio on 8 March 1926.

Chu Yong – Reprimand to the Seattle Office from the Bureau of Immigration, Washington, D.C.

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Chu Yong Bond in Transit
“Bond for Chinese in Transit, Chu Yong,” 1923, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Chu Yong case file, Seattle, Box 1375, Case 41010/3/4.

On 27 April 1923, U. S. Department of Labor, Immigration Service, District No. 16, sent a letter to shipping companies in Seattle and Tacoma: Blue Funnel Line, Admiral Oriental Line, Osaka Shosen Kaisha, and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, reminding them that the last paragraph of Section 7 of the 1888 Exclusion Act stated that a “Chinese laborer shall be admitted to the United States only at the port from which he departed…”
For some time the Bureau of Immigration had been having a problem with this on the East Coast until two returning laborers were deported. After the deportations the practice was discontinued. Leo B. Russell, Special Immigrant Inspector, ended his 1923 letter to the Commissioner of Immigration in Seattle with this sentence,
“Each case of this kind should be brought to the Bureau’s attention, and if it appears that the warning given to the steamship companies is not being heeded, the Department will be asked to direct exclusion.”

Chung Yong (Chu Yong), a Chinese laborer, departed for China in 1921 via Boston and was landed at Seattle on 23 February 1923. He had a $500 Transit Bond stating he would proceed across the country to Boston. Chu Yong spent more than a month visiting friends in Seattle, Chicago and New York before proceeding to Boston.
In 1921 Chu Yong was 47 years old, a laundryman, living at 71 Manhattan Street, Stamford Connecticut. He was born in Har Look Village, Sun Wuey District, China.
After being interrogated on 29 March 1923, the Chinese Inspector, W. P. Callahan, recommended that Chu Yong be admitted.

Chung Hing Sou – Family Portrait

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“Portrait of Chung Hing Sou family,” ca. 1920, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Chung Hing Sou (William) case file, Seattle, Box 1377, Case 41093/4-2.

Front row: Ah Jung (Chung Hing Jung b.1917), Hom Shee (mother, b. ca. 1872), Chung Don Poy (father, b. ca. 1850), Ah May (Chung Yut May b. 1913), Ah Joon (Chung Hing June b. ca. 1882), Chung Yut Sim (Rosie Chung b. 1900)
Back Row: Ah Lun (Chung Hing Lun b. 1909), Ah Ming (Chung Yoot Ming or Pansy b. 1902), Ah See (Chung Hing See b. 1907), Ah Hom (Chung Hing Hom b. 1904), Ah Fay (Chung Hing Fay b. 1895), Ah Sou (Chung Hing Sou b. 1893), Ah Ngo (Chung Sou Ngo or Violet Chung, b. 1897).
[Certified copies of Oregon birth certificates were presented for all the children except Ah Joon. They were all born in Portland.)
In 1922 Chung Hing Sou was applying for a Native’s Return Certificate. We wanted to visit China, get married, and bring his bride back to his home in Portland, Oregon.
Chung Hing Sou produced a certified copy of his Oregon birth certificate for proof of his citizenship. He was born on 16 August 1893 but the certificate was not filed until 13 October 1921 so he was required to show more evidence of his birth. His parents, several of his siblings and two Caucasian witnesses testified in his favor.

Hom Shee, Chung Hing Sou’s mother, age 50, testified that she came to Portland from China as a merchant’s wife when she was 20 years old. She and Chung Don Poy had eleven children together; ten were living.
Chung Don Poy testified that he had been married twice. Ah Joon (Chung Hing June) was his son from his first wife who died in China. Chung Don Poy was a merchant at Yuen Hop Company, Quon Yee Yick Company and the Gum On Wo Company before he retired.
Chung Hing Sou was known as William or Willie Chung to White people. As a child he attended Park School (later known as Ladd School). His teachers were Mrs. Sloane and Ella Ross. His report cards were used as proof of his attendance. He lived in Montana for a couple of years and registered for the draft in Flathead County in 1918. He and his brother Chung Fay were supporting the family so they were classified as Class 3B. He was a registered voter and voted in Montana once and two or three times in Portland.
William Chung’s half-brother, Chung Hing June, was a farmer in Cherryville, Clackamas County, Oregon.
(William or Willie) Chung Hing Sou’s Caucasian witnesses were George W. Wilson, a lawyer, and L. A. Pike. Wilson knew the Chung family for many years. He first met Willie about 1905 after the World’s Fair in Judge O’Day’s office. The family was purchasing a home on Lake Street. Although Willie Chung was a minor, the deed was taken out by him because he was an American citizen. About 1914 Wilson sold a house and lot at 527 Greenwood Avenue to the Chung family and William signed the deed.
The other Caucasian witness, L.A. Pike, was a Deputy Collector of Customs in Portland and worked for the Customs’ Service for thirty-one years. He was well acquainted with the parents in the family portrait and knew William and most of the other children.
H. W. Cunningham, Chinese and Immigrant Inspection recommended that Chung Hing Sou be adjudicated as a genuine native-born citizen of the United States and Chung’s application was favorable recommended by R. Bonham, Inspector in Charge.

Woo Bing – Qwong Tuck Company, Seattle

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Woo Bing Photo
Photo of Woo Bing, manager of the Qwong Tuck Company in Seattle, Courtesy of the Wing Luke Museum, http://www.wingluke.org/

Woo Bing, manager of the Qwong Tuck Company in Seattle, was a witness for Bertha Hoy when she returned from China in 1923. [See 24 October 2016 blog entry for Bertha Hoy.] Woo Bing showed the interrogators a departure book with the names of hundreds of Chinese departing for China. It listed the Hoy family’s departure on 30 August 1908 and was the proof Bertha Hoy needed to be admitted into the U.S. The Wing Luke Museum has materials from the Quong Tuck store but the departure books are not among them. This photo of Woo Bing is courtesy of the Wing Luke Museum.