Extensions of Remarks

September 10, 1985 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 23253 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS FRANK TUCK HAS LEARNED tional Institute that was on Waterman "Earlier that same night two other Fresno MUCH IN HIS 76 YEARS Street in west Fresno, dealing with the Chinese were stabbed to death in the tong problems and welfare of hundreds of immi war which had spread to the whole West grants. Coast." HON. TONY COELHO He has crossed every social line, serving as Tuck recalls that Shannon kept his father OF CALIFORNIA president of the West Fresno Improvement under cover for nearly three months while IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Association, the Fresno Zoological Society, negotiations were under way to settle the Tuesday, September 10, 1985 the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the tong strife. Frank and his brother, James, Toastmasters and the Fresno District Fair and their mother would go by streetcar to Mr. COELHO. Mr. Speaker, recently Mr. Board. the Shannon home three times a week to Frank Tuck, a prominent figure in the San He was born 76 years ago today, on F visit the senior Tuck. Joaquin Valley Chinese-American commu Street. And his birthday will not go unre The Shannon and Tuck families had been nity, celebrated his 76th birthday. Mr. Tuck membered, although it will be celebrated a close for many years, and at one time oper was the subject of a recent article describ day late, tomorrow night in the Cathay Res ated the old McCray blacksmith shop at ing the rich cultural tradition he and his taurant at Chestnut and Butler avenues. Millerton. Doctors and lawyers and Indians and The tongs originally were set up as a sort family have maintained in the San Joaquin chiefs, old-time friends and politicians and Valley of California. of welfare organization when most of the some of his cronies will gather there for a Chinese in the West were single men, shang Mr. Tuck is a living example of the suc Chinese birthday dinner, and no doubt some haied for delivery to America to work in the cess that has been achieved by our Nation's reminiscing. mines. immigrant families. He recounts, with One of his sadder observations is of what Tuck's grandfather came to America that amazing clarity, the colorful history of his he calls the degeneration of Chinatown. At way. He was a coolie during Gold Rush days family-their achievements and assimila one time, it was a thriving cultural center, and later owned a general store in Sonora. tion into American society. stores bulging with customers and merchan dise, old China Alley bustling, and a thou Chinese paid monthly dues to their par It is citizens, such as Frank Tuck, who sand cotton-pickers crowding the streets on ticular tong and when they were temporari possess the ability to share with us the con Saturday nights. The community boasted a ly unemployed, or too old to work, the tongs tributions of their own cultural heritage, Chinese opera house, and restaurants com provided food and shelter. and serve as an important reminder to us parable to San Francisco's. Tuck grinned, recalling the myths about El Trocadero tavern at Tulare and F the tongs having a myriad of underground all of the ethnic diversity that makes our tunnels in west Fresno where they allegedly country great. In recognition of his many Streets was one of the busiest in the San Joaquin Valley, folks jammed the Canales smoked opium and dealt in white-shave traf contributions I am submitting a copy of the fic. article as it appeared in the Fresno Bee on tortilla shop on F Street, and Baretta's Beer Garden on Fresno Street was where Fres "These stories," Tuck says, "were fig July 21, 1985. nans danced under the stars. ments of the imagination based on the false FRANK TucK HAs LEARNED MucH IN His 76 That was all 30 and more years ago, when premise of why Chinese constructed their YEARS west Fresno was Chinatown and some of its homes with passageways from their cellars The old ways and cultures of old China most prominent-and many of its non into a common countyard." town disappeared so long ago that fairly a prominent-residents were Chinese. While there were perhaps three or four third of Fresno's population has cause to "The young Chinese have all but discard opium dens in Fresno at one time, there wonder why it is even called Chinatown ed the way of the old culture and become never was widespread addiction among Chi anymore. totally Americanized," reflects Tuck. With nese. And well they might. The "Orientals," as the demise of the first Chinese settlers, the "It is strange how in just one generation the early Fresno Polk directories listed younger ones became "as American as hot the public's image of a nationality charges them instead of by name, have passed into dogs." They belong to the Chamber of Com totally, the old stigmas wiped away," Tuck the beyond. merce, service clubs, and have almost di observed. "Today, the Chinese are the last Their descendants have moved across the vorced themselves from old Chinese ways. people on Earth anyone would connect with railroad tracks, above the Shields Avenue "About the only old-world customs they dope. no-man's land, beyond Shaw Avenue, and retain are a celebration of Chinese New "There is a pride with the Chinese, to spread out in all directions to be assimilated Year and the fall moon festival. I foresee excel, in business and in the profesions. We by the community. the end of the Chinese tongs in a few years have many professional people, doctors and Indeed, the venerable Frank Tuck, dean of because they have outlived their useful dentists and accountants and engineers. the local Chinese community, even wonders ness." "But one profession that the Chinese why the name Chinatown has survived, be He remembers the days when the tongs frown on is that of the lawyer. They do not cause the community makeup many years engaged in wars when a gangster element encourage their young to go into that. Why? ago changed to predominantly black and took over some of them to control gambling It is considered less than honorable. That is Hispanic. and opium trafic in California cities. why there are so few Chinese lawyers." Tuck, a retired tobacco wholesaler, traces On a quiet, June night in 1921, as a boy of The major influx of Chinese into west his Fresno roots back to 1874. That's when 11, he was returning with his mother, Fresno came after the San Franciso earth the county seat was moved here from Mil Becky, from his father's old Lyceum motion quake. And at one time in the valley, says lerton and his maternal grandparents, the picture theater in the 1000 block of F Street Tuck, Chinese laborers harvested most of Ah Kits, moved with it. when a tong war erupted. the farm crops. His eyes seem to ponder the world from "We were about 50 feet from China Alley Tuck's family history is one of California's some other time. His unchanging expres and Tulare Street [a gambling row that oc most colorful. Material ancestor Ah Kit was sion, except for the easy grin that radiates cupied the alleys between F and G streets] the first chinese to join the gold miners at wrinkies like a stone tossed onto a mirrored when we heard pistol shots and saw a man Rootville, a tiny settlement on the south pond, makes him look like some ancient, drop to the pavement dead. He was Fook bank of the San Joaquin River that antedat time-worn statue. Kee, a prominent Chinese merchant. ed the founding of Millerton in 1854. Yet, there is an unmistakable warmth "My mother rushed me back to the thea In 1895, Tuck's father, John Chan Tuck, about him, and a keen sense of perception. ter and a few minutes later Deputy U.S. moved to west Fresno from Sonora, marry Few people in town have touched more of Marshal Sidney J. Shannon showed up and ing Becky Kit. The newlyweds took up resi the flock than old Frank Tuck, and his list told my father [the unofficial mayor of dence in the 1000 block of G Street, where of community services is too long to be Chinatown] his life was in danger and took Frank was born, a half-block from the old chronicled. He is probably best known for 40 him to his home in Divisadero Street by house on F Street where he still maintains years of association with the old interna- Van Ness Avenue. an address. e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member of the Senate on the floor. Boldface type indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. 23254 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS September 10, 1985 He spent a good deal of his growing-up olution urges the President to relay to the vided that each of the "participating states days in the theater that his father operated Soviet Union our strongest concerns about will respect human rights and fundamental from 1916 to 1945, where rode the West's the lack of information with regard to the freedoms, including the freedom of thought great celluloid cowboys-Tom Mix, Hopa whereabouts and well-being of these two [and] conscience . for all," and recog long Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, nized that all human rights "derive from Buck Jones and John Wayne.

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