The Collection

Yung Kai

1894 - San Francisco, CA

This is my paternal grandfather, Yung Kai. He was a cook at the Crocker Estate in Burlingame.

Submitted by Laurina Young

Mary Wong Ching

1894 - San Francisco, CA

Wong Ching was my great-great-grandmother Mary Wong Ching. She was born in 1861 and came to the US in 1874. Mary married Lee Bo Wen in 1875 and had five children. The family lived in SF until the Great Earthquake, at which point they took refuge in Oakland along with their children and grandchildren. For several years Mary lived apart from her husband who was 19 years older than she. During this time, she was purportedly affiliated with the Hop Sing Tong and owned a pistol. Mary helped raise her eldest son's children when their mother passed away at a young age. Mary herself died in 1927.

Submitted by Linda Wing

James Bowen

1894 - San Francisco, CA

Lee Lin was my great-grandfather James Bowen (Lee Quoon Lin). He was born in SF in 1876, the eldest child of Lee Bo Wen and Mary Wong Ching whose certificates I have also uploaded. James married Susie Wong (Wong Choy Kiu) in 1896. She was born and raised in the Chinese fishing village of Point Alones. James and Susie had seven children, including my grandmother Mary. James was bilingual and biliterate in English and Chinese (Sam Yup). He hold jobs as a cannery worker, a janitor for Bowerman's Pharmacy, and a kitchen helper at the Cliff House. James commuted to SF to work, after making Oakland the home of his family after the SF Earthquake. By all accounts, James was a loving father and grandfather. He died in 1931 and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.

Submitted by Linda Wing

Chue Wong See

1894 - Bakersfield, CA
Wong Yet Gow, named on the certificate as Chue Wong See, was the wife of Choo Ly, a pioneer resident of Bakersfield, CA, and a prominent merchant and landowner who had come to the U.S. from Panyu County, Guangdong, in the 1850s. Born in San Francisco, Wong Yet Gow was just a teenager when she married the sixty-year-old Choo Ly not long before this certificate was issued. They went on to have two children, Charles (Choo Way Ping) and Rose (Choo Mon Lung). Following the death of her husband in 1908, Wong Yet Gow had to manage her husband’s many property holdings in what is now downtown Bakersfield.

Submitted by Gregory Kimm

Lee Sam Fong

1894 - Helena, MT

I write about the history of Chinese communities in Montana. I have an extensive chapter on the implementation of the Geary Act and how Chinese Montanans resisted its implementation. The attached certificate for Lee Sam Fong is housed at the Montana Historical Society. The information I have on Lee is below. It does seem that he had merchant status by the 1890s as he was able to bring his wife to the U.S. and start a family in Montana: While many Chinese throughout the state suffered persecution with little assistance from the surrounding non-Chinese population, some had enough ties to the white majority to proactively seek support, hoping to solidify their claims to residence and to allow travel between nations. For instance, Lee Sam Fong support for his need to travel to China on family business from the Episcopal Bishop of Montana who wrote: “Lee Sam Fong is a reputable resident and property holder of [Helena]. He is married and has three children. He has a good business . . .” Lee knew the need for white allies and had made a history of proactively seeking support. An 1890 document attested to the opinion that “Lee Sam Fong is an old time Chinese resident of this city and a taxpayer and real estate owner. He is a square Chinaman, straight in all his dealings and perfectly honest.” Twenty-two prominent Montanans signed the document, including both a sitting and former supreme court justice, a former governor, police chief, and the bishop. That Lee felt compelled to verify his good standing in the community two years before the mandate from the Geary Act required such certificates attests to the idea even longtime residents realized their precarious status. Lee relied on his standing in Helena society and his numerous connections outside the Chinese community; most Chinese in the state did not have similar networks to call on for support. … In Helena, the family of Lee Sam Fong exemplifies Chinese American families taking root and exercising rights as American citizens, yet seen as forever foreign in the eyes of many due to their ethnicity. As noted in Chapter 3, Lee obtained extensive documentation, with testimony from twenty-two prominent members of Montana society, to visit China and re-enter the United States. With this documentation in order, Lee travelled to China in 1890, married, and brought his wife to Montana. In 1893, the Lees welcomed a daughter. Helena newspapers reported it was “the first Chinese baby born in lawful wedlock in Helena.” Lee sought the help of local firemen to summon the doctor and to assist in delivering the baby. The article joked that the firemen “fear[ed] that the United States marshal will be after them for having assisted in bringing a Chinaman into this country.” Yet, the article acknowledged that birth in America equaled citizenship, not available in any way to the parents: “she can go to China and return as she pleases, being an American citizen.” American citizenship conferred far more rights than being able to travel back and forth to China. Lee and his wife went on to have three more daughters. When they exercised their rights as American citizens, Montana newspapers took note. As the nation changed in the early twentieth century, Progressive Era trends impacted the Lee family as well, though their ethnicity was always more noted than their status as citizens. Montana newspapers took pride in the accomplishments of the Lee sisters. Countering an assertion that Cincinnati “claim[ed] to have the only Chinese typist in the United States,” an article proudly announced that the Lee sisters of Helena were remarkable for their role in the workforce. The article noted with pride that Helena had “two Chinese girls who are typists and stenographers. They are sisters, the Misses Ruby Lee and Jennie Lee, daughters of Lee Sam Fong, a merchant, who died there 12 years ago. There are two other Lee girls, Miss Lilly Lee, a photographer, and Miss Mamie Lee, a bookkeeper.” With Montana as a leading force in women’s suffrage, Montana women earned the right to vote in 1914. In 1916, the Lee women gained attention by exercising this right, but not without questions about the legality of their doing so. Upon applying to register to vote, the clerk at the county office “was not sure that they were entitled to registration,” due not to their gender, but their ethnicity. Elevating the issue to the county attorney, it was finally determined that they were “qualified under the law to have all the rights of other women in the state.” Asked for whom they would vote, “each sister said she was going to vote for the best man.” In fact, in the election of 1916, they had the opportunity to vote for a woman. Montana’s Jeannette Rankin had worked to gain the right for women to vote and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916.

Submitted by Mark Johnson

Mar You

1904 - Kalispell, MT

I research the history of Chinese communities in Montana and I've written extensively on the Geary Act's implementation (and resistance to it) in Montana. To date, I have only found two Geary Act certificates for Chinese Montanans. This one for Mar You is held together with tape, clearly indicating it's vital important to the man it allowed to stay in Montana and work to support his family back in southern China. I recount all that I found out about Mar You here (https://www.bigskychinese.com/kalispells-chinese-cemetery). The original certificate is housed at the Northwest Montana History Museum, who controls whether it can be shared publicly.

Submitted by Mark Johnson