Notable Certificates
A Family (4 Images)
These are three United States certificates required for Chinese — a family documented. They are of Janice Tong's maternal great grandfather, great-grandmother and grandfather. J Tong Collection.
The father and mother's each bear the stamp of "laborer" and the certificate of the 8-year-old American-born child states "Persons Other Than Laborer."
Janice found the certificates among her father's documents after he died. They were precious to this San Francisco family. The birth certificate of her grandfather was the proof of his right to citizenship.




A Builder of the Transcontinental Railroad
This is the Certificate of Residence of Jow Kee of Isleton, California. He was on the Central Pacific Payroll of 1866 listed under the name Jim King. He came from southern China to California at the age of 14 and worked in mining. He was among the first group of Chinese workers in California hired by the Central Pacific After working on the railroad, Jim King was a contractor for Chinese workers building levees in the Sacramento Delta and then was a tenant farmer in Courtland the rest of his life. He rescued a slave girl, married her, and they had eight children. Gene O. Chan, whose mother was Jim King's grand-daughter, grew up in Locke in a three-generation household and became the keeper of his ancestors' memorabilia and documents, including this Certificate of Residence.
The Revolutionist
This is the Certificate of Residence of Yung Wah Gok, Connie Young Yu's paternal grandfather.. He was later known as Young Soong Quong, merchant and a leader of Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary party in San Jose. He came to San Jose's Market street Chinatown California as a 11-year-old laborer in 1881, a year before the Chinese Exclusion Act. After the anti-Chinese arson fire destroyed San Jose's Chinatown May 4, 1887, he fled to San Francisco. Young would return to San Jose years later, becoming a merchant in the Chinatown called Heinlenville. He was able to send for his wife from China and raise a family in America. His son, John C. Young, born in San Jose 1912, kept alive his parents' stories, saving documentation to be passed on the the next generation, such as this Certificate of Residence, given to Connie.
The Resistance
Receipt for a one dollar donation to the
6 Companies to fight the Geary Act.
The Entrepreneur
Lew Kan was one of the wealthiest Chinese merchants in the late nineteenth century. Besides owning Lun Sing, a dry goods store which he started on Sacramento Street in 1867, he owned major shares in Lew Hing’s Pacific Fruit Packing Company and Hop Wo Lung store. The San Francisco Chronicle estimated his net worth at $2 million, an astronomical figure in those days. He and his family have graced several of Arnold Genthe’s famous Chinatown photographs which depicted the opulence of the “High Class.”
A political activist, Lew Kan was a lifelong supporter of Baohuanghui (Chinese Empire Reform Association) founded by Kang Youwei. He served as the president of its San Francisco chapter in 1901 and again in 1917 (name changed to the Constitutional Party.) He also helped organize the anti-U.S. boycott in 1905 to combat the increasingly oppressive Chinese exclusion laws.
He returned to China in 1921 with his family when he fell ill, in accordance with the Chinese tradition of “fallen leaves return to their roots.”
Roland Hui, author of Chinaman Tycoon: The Life and Times of Lew Hing (1858-1934)


The Industrialist
Lew Hing was the first Chinese American industrialist. He first came to America in 1871 at age 12 to work in his brother’s dry goods store in San Francisco Chinatown. Chinese immigrants in those days faced intense racial discrimination and had few choices in employment and businesses, essentially those that did not pose competition with whites. Yet, Lew Hing dared to dream big and challenge the racial barriers imposed by the host society. Having enjoyed initial success with the Pacific Fruit Packing Company in 1887, he embarked on building a business empire the scope of which was unprecedented for a Chinese. Between 1904 and 1915, he founded four large-scale mainstream industrial and commercial enterprises— Canton Bank, Pacific Coast Canning Company, Chinese Mexican Mercantile Company (in Mexicali), and China Mail Steamship Company. He also built two hotels and a dry goods store in Chinatown. A millionaire by 1913, he had attained fame and fortune, well-respected in the canning industry, and counting among his close friends the mayors of San Francisco and Oakland.
Upon his death in 1934, the New York Times published his obituary, calling him “a captain of industry on the West Coast.” It’s an honor rarely bestowed on a Chinese.
Besides his business pursuits, Lew Hing was known for his community and charity work, contributing large sums toward Chinatown’s revival following the 1906 earthquake. He was the largest individual donor in the construction of the Chinatown YMCA, the Chinese Six Companies building, and the Chinese Hospital.
Note submitted by Roland Hui
Certificate submitted by Bruce Quan, Jr., great grandson of Lew Hing, author of "Bitter Roots: Five Generations of A Chinese Family in America."
The Kwan Family
These Certificates of Residence are of three of five children of Quan Ying Nung whose father, Quan Shi Jiao immigrated from Nam Hoy, Guangdong Province to San Francisco in the late 1840s or early 1850s. Quan Shi Jiao prospered in the dry goods business in San Francisco Chinatown and by the early 1870s, sent Quan Ying Nung to open a branch in Fresno, CA. Quan Ying Nung and Tom Shee had five children, Quan Poon, Quan Yeen, Quan Jan, Quan Jwe, and Quan So Har all born in America. When the family left Fresno for the safety of San Francisco during the pogrom of the 1880s, Quan Yeen my grandfather was left in the care of M.K. Harris, later Judge Harris as his guardian. In 1898, Quan Yeen married Lew Yung eldest daughter of Chinese industrialist Lew Hing and Chin Shee.
Submitted by: Bruce Quan Jr.
Sources:
Lew/Quan Archive
San Francisco History Center
San Francisco Public Library



