Category Archives: Chinese interpreter

Lee Wing Hing – Wife of Mar Hing, Seattle Merchant

Affidavit, Alien Registration Act of 1940, Chinese interpreter, Group Photo, Photographs, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In March 1908, Mar Hing was about to go to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to get married. James Shea and Frank Jobson, both residents of Seattle for more than five years, swore in an affidavit that they knew Mar Hing more than two years. He was a merchant, partner, and cashier for the Ah King Company who performed no manual labor. A photo of Mar Hing was attached to the affidavit and signed by affiants.

"Mar Hing Affidavit," 1908,
“Mar Hing Affidavit,” 1908, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, Record Group 85, NARA-Seattle, Lee Wing Hing, Box 1007, file 7032/3680.

According to Mar Hing’s 1908 affidavit he had been a resident of the State of Washington for more than twenty years and was currently living in Seattle. He had a $500 interest in the Ah King Company where he bought and sold general merchandise and was a cashier. He was visiting Victoria to marry Lee Wong Hing. They would be returning to Seattle in a few days. He attached a current photo of Lee Wong Hing.

"Lee Wing Hing Affidavit," 1908,
“Lee Wing Hing Affidavit,” 1908, CEA, RG 85, NARA-Seattle, Lee Wing Hing (Mrs. Mar Hing) file 7032/3680.

Lee Wong Hing was interviewed when the couple arrived in Seattle. She had been living in Victoria for nine years with her parents. Her father, Lee Hong Gue, was a Chinese interpreter and merchant. Lee Wong Hing and Mar Hing were married according to Chinse custom and English law. The certificate was inspected by the inspector and approved but not included in the file. Lee Wong Hing was admitted to the United States as a member of the exempt class, the wife of a domiciled Chinese merchant.

The following year, Lee Wong Hing and her infant son, Gim Wing visited Victoria in July for a few weeks, returned, and were admitted on 21 August 1909.  Daniel Landon, Frank L. Mitten, and her husband, were witnesses for her

"Lee Wing Hing Application," 1909,
“Lee Wing Hing Application,” 1909, CEA, RG 85, NARA-Seattle, Lee Wing Hing (Mrs. Mar Hing) file 7032/3680.

[About this time Lee Wong Hing’s started appearing on documents as Lee Wing Hing.} In the summer of 1917, Lee Wing Hing, now twenty-nine years old, and the mother of five children, ages one to nine, applied to visit her family in Victoria. The children Harry (Mar Wing), Clarence (Mar Lun), Howard (Mar Shew), James (Mar Gum Shu), and Myra (Mar Saung Gew) were all born in Seattle. Their family physician, Dr. U. C. Bates, identified the family from their photo. Miss Won Mee Menie, age eleven, accompanied them on the trip.

"Lee Wong Hing Family photo,” 1917,
“Lee Wong Hing Family photo,” 1917, CEA, RG 85, NARA-Seattle, Lee Wing Hing (Mrs. Mar Hing) file 7032/3680.

Lee Wing Hing made a few brief trips to Victoria and Vancouver from 1943 to 1944. By then she had eight children, five were living in Seattle and three were in the U.S. Army. Harry was working in a mine in Oregon, Clarence was working in a shipyard in Seattle, James and Howard were both in the Army, and Howard was stationed in Alaska.  In February 1944 Lee Wong Hing and three friends applied to go to Victoria for a weekend to attend a wedding. She registered under the Alien Registration Act of 1940 and renewed it when it was about to expire. When asked why she was getting her card revalidated, she said she “may want to visit Canada again.” Her file lists another trip to Canada in May 1944.          

Lee Wing Hing’s Reference Sheet lists the file numbers for four sons, one daughter, and her children’s helper in 1917, Won Mee Menie. One son and one daughter were born after the 1917 trip are not included on the list.  [These file numbers would be helpful for anyone researching the family.]

[Additional information not included in the file:
Lee Shee Mar Hing died 18 January 1946, age 56, Seattle, Washington.1
Mar Hing died 10 October 1939 in Seattle, Washington.2

  1. “Washington Deaths and Burials, 1810-1960,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/Entry for Lee Shee Mar Hing and Lee Mar Hing, 26 Jan 1946. ↩︎
  2. “Washington Death Certficates, 1907-1960,” FamilySearch, Https://familysearch.org/,Henry Maary Hing, 10 Oct 1939. ↩︎

[Thank you, Hao-Jan Chang telling me about this file. thn]

Tye Leung Schulze – 1912 – 1st Chinese American woman to vote in U.S.

Chinese interpreter, photo, , , , , , ,

Tye Leung Schulze NAPAWFNational Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)

Tye Leung was born in California in 1887 to a family of Chinese immigrants. At 14, she escaped an arranged marriage in Montana by joining a Presbyterian Mission in San Francisco. There, she learned English and became an interpreter, helping the mission rescue trafficked Chinese women from local brothels.

In 1910 she was hired as a translator at Angel Island Immigration Station; Leung was the first Chinese American to pass the civil service exam and become a government employee. Here, she met Charles Schulze, an immigration inspector, and they fell in love.

Charles Schulze was white. At the time, interracial marriages were illegal in California. They went to Washington state to get legally married, knowing that the intense racism and prejudice from their coworkers would force them to lose their jobs.

To support their family of four children, Tye worked as a night shift telephone operator. Charles was a mechanic and repairman until he died in 1935. She was also the first Chinese woman hired to work at Angel Island. Tye continued to be an interpreter, social worker, and an involved community member in San Francisco’s Chinatown until she died in 1972.

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Quan Foy, Chinese Interpreter

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Quan Foy photo 1908
Quan Foy, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Quan Foy file, Box 925, Case 7032/1398.

Quan Foy’s uniform cap says ” U.S.I. S. Interpreter” [United States Immigration Service]. He is also wearing a badge.

On 12 September 1908, Quan Foy was advised that on 8 May 1908, the Bureau of Immigration with the approval of the Department of Commerce and Labor he was granted thirty days annual leave of absence and two hundred and twenty days leave without pay to give him the opportunity to visit his former home in China. After his return he would resume his duties as Chinese Interpreter in Sumas, Washington. He left Sumas on 27 October 1908.

A letter dated 11 July 1908, stated that he would be entitled to bring his wife into the U.S. when he returned from China at the expiration of the leave provided his status remained the same. The letter was signed by H. Edsell, Chinese Inspector in Charge at Sumas. 

In August 1931, Quay Foy and his wife applied for immigration return permits. They had not been to China since 1909, and Quan Foy’s employment records was above reproach.. The immigration inspectors had a hard time deciding if he should be classified as a traveler or a laborer. Their permits were denied, but they were granted laborers’ return certificate. The leave was for seven months without pay.

The next item in Quan Foy’s file is a 1941 letter from R. F. Bonham, District Director of the Seattle Office to Mr. Thomas D. Shoemaker, Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington, D.C.  Bonham writes that in 1933 Quan Foy lost his job because of reductions in staff. Bonham didn’t know why Quan was let go instead of someone else. He thought he “should have put up a battle royal to keep him in the service.”

After Quan Foy was let go, he went back to China, leaving his family here. His children were all born in the U.S. He came back to San Francisco in 1939 as a visitor and in 1941 asked for an extension. Bonham wrote to Shoemaker, “I earnestly hope that this very deserving gentleman may be from time to time granted an extension of his visit, so that he may spend his declining years with his sons and daughters. As you know, there are very few people in whose behalf I would write this kind of a letter, and I do it without any mental reservations whatsoever.”

“Correspondence, Wixon: Bonham, re: Quan Foy,” 1944, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Quan Foy file, Box 925, Case 7032/1398.

[Even though everyone thought very highly of Quan Foy, and the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, he had to apply for an extension every year to stay in the U.S.]

His last extension was granted until February 18, 1947. He would be required to leave the U.S. if his next extension was not granted.

The last document in his file is a letter stating Quan Foy died in San Francisco on 3 January 1947.  “Quan Foy was Chinese Interpreter at Seattle for very many years and was one of the most respected employees of this Service on this coast, of acknowledged and exceptional integrity.”

Updated 26 May 2024