An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale urora, one of Nevada’s first and biggest mining boomtowns, was founded in 1861 and peaked A in 1864 before its initial collapse. Additional booms and busts occurred throughout the rest of the century, with one of the most successful booms taking place in the late 1870s. Aurora’s last resident died in the 1930s. Notably, the town was made famous by resident Samuel Clemens who created his pseudonym “Mark Twain” while residing in the town. Aurora also contained one of the state’s earliest Chinese populations. Ordinance 32, an 1864 by-law, relegated the Chinese to the northwest side of Aurora, ostensibly creating a Chinatown which was colloquially referred to as China Garden. By combining historical documentation, including plat maps of Aurora, the 1864 tax

Picture 1: Aurora Courthouse in 1864 assessment for Esmeralda County, and reports from local and nearby contemporary newspapers, with the results of a 2010 survey of the town, the author will discuss the presence of Aurora’s Chinese population on the landscape and the historical record and the reaction of Aurora’s non-Chinese residents to their Chinese neighbors. Specifically, the paper will cover the demographics of Aurora’s Chinese population, their location on the town’s landscape, their economic contributions to the town, and non-Chinese reactions to Aurora’s Chinese populace and the Chinese response.

Chinese in the West rior to 1849, less than 50 Chinese people, most of them scholars, merchants, and performers, P resided in the United States (Voss and Allen 2008: 9). But in the 1850s, immigration from China to the western United States grew exponentially. The mass migration was the product of a push-pull dynamic. The push was created by substantial upheaval in China: the instability of the Qing dynasty, the devastation of the Opium Wars with Great Britain, regionalized civil wars, economic crises, and massive flooding all contributed to a desire to leave China for greener pastures. News of gold in California provided the pull (Voss and Allen 2008: 8-9; Rohe 2001: 4). In 1849, 325 Chinese immigrants arrived in San Francisco, 1850 saw the arrival of 450 more, 2,716 landed in 1851, and in 1852 an astonishing 20,026 Chinese men and women disembarked in the Golden State (Voss and Allen 2008: 9). Most of these immigrants initially remained in California, and the first Chinatown was built in San Francisco by 1857 (Ahmad 2007: 9). Soon, though, they migrated across the western United States moving into Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado (Rohe

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1982). Eventually, Chinese appeared in every area of the United States, although their numbers remained much lower than in the American West. Eventually, laws were enacted to stop the immigration of Chinese people to America. The federal government passed discriminatory laws to keep the Chinese from continuing to move to the United States. The 1875 Page Act limited the number of women who could relocate to America (Ahmad 2007: 4). The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 targeted all Chinese immigrants, especially laborers and their families, citing their role in social problems as justification (Voss and Allen 2008: 7). The bill succeeded; the number of Chinese in America dropped by fifteen percent over the next twenty years (Ahmad 2007: 76).

Aurora, Nevada evada’s Comstock boom of Virginia City and surrounding areas brought thousands of people to N the Territory of Nevada. Soon, exploratory parties set off to find their fortune in areas away from the Comstock. “One party exploring the Sierra’s eastern slope discovered gold and silver ledges east of Mono Lake in August 1860. A rush from eastern California and Washoe ensued, and the town of Aurora quickly sprang up one mile west of the mines and ninety miles south of Carson […]” (Moehring 2004: 130). People flooded into the area and “Aurora (Esmeralda) became the center of excitement in Nevada that year. The numerous rich veins that cropped on the surface and the boulders of rich ore scattered about led men to believe that the camp would eclipse the Comstock” (Smith 1998: 25). The town of Aurora, originally dubbed Esmeralda, was platted by civil engineer Joshua E. Clayton and buildings were erected following the spring thaw of 1861 (Stewart 2004: 6). Controversy for the booming mining town appeared that same year. Both California’s Mono County and the Territory of Nevada’s Esmeralda County claimed the town as its own. In fact, both counties made Aurora its county seat and two separate buildings were leased by each entity for use as a courthouse (Shaw 2009: 38-39). California and Nevada disputed for nearly a year as to who owned Aurora and the profits from its mines. In August 1862, Butler Ives, a surveyor from the General Land Office, and his friend James Kidder, resurveyed the California-Nevada border and determined that Aurora lay one mile inside the Nevada border. California refused to accept the findings (Stewart 2004: 17). Another year of doubt and conflict passed before a second survey was commissioned, once again headed by Ives and Kidder. The end date was to be September 2, 1863, election day for both Mono and Esmeralda counties. Unfortunately, the survey team had yet to reach Aurora by then. So, “residents of Aurora trooped to the Armory Hall and cast votes for Esmeralda County officials; then to the Police Station to vote for a full slate of Mono County officials” (Stewart 2004: 23) while “considerable hilarity was exhibited and good feeling prevailed” (Thompson and West 1881: 403). On September 23, the survey team reached Aurora, and, standing in the center of Antelope Street, declared the town to be in Nevada. This time, California accepted the judgment and packed up the Mono County courthouse (Stewart 2004: 23).

2 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

Picture 2: Aurora in the 1860s was a bustling town

Aurora quickly grew into a rather sizeable town with a large population of nearly 5,000 people (picture 2). A lack of readily available and abundant timber forced the populace to construct their houses and businesses from brick, and at least five brickyards operated throughout Aurora’s history (Shaw 2009: 27). Businesses of every type could be found on Aurora’s bustling streets. Saloons, breweries, a dentist, a bath house, a dance hall, a school, and Baptist, Catholic and Methodist churches serviced the inhabitants (Thompson and West 1881: 419). The town even boasted two competing newspapers during its peak years of 1863 to 1865 (The Aurora Daily Times, the Democratic and secessionist-leaning newspaper, and The Esmeralda (Daily) Union, the Republican newspaper). Like all mining towns, Aurora soon suffered a bust. Thompson and West (1881: 418) noted the change in Aurora’s stature: “The height of prosperity was reached in 1863-64, at which time there were twenty stores, a dozen hotels and as many boarding houses, and saloons in great numbers. The population in the summer of 1863 was 6,000. During the summer of 1864 most of the mills shut down, and the following winter half the people left, and the population continued to decrease till 1870.” While “new quartz discoveries in 1862-63 kept Aurora going for another year […], overspeculation and declining deposits ended the boom” (Moehring 2004: 130). In 1864, the ore veins died out just 100 feet below the surface and by that summer, most of the stamp mills shut down (Shaw 2009: 151). The

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next year, the town was all but deserted. As Monday, August 28 1865’s Sacramento Daily Union noted: “Aurora sheds but a sickly light.” The mid-to-late 1870s saw a slight surge in Aurora’s activity as the promise of another boom reopened the mines and the mills. A population of 500 people was served by: “four stores, seven saloons, one hotel, two lodging-houses, four restaurants, one livery stable, one blacksmith shop, one Methodist organization, one telegraph office, one express office, one assay office, one clergyman, four attorneys, one doctor, one dentist, one hospital, one school building, 20x40 feet of brick, one newspaper, the Esmeralda Herald” (Thompson and West 1881: 419).

The high was short-lived, however, and by 1890, only 180 people lived in the town and in 1920 its last residents left permanently (Shaw 2009: 158).

The Chinese in Aurora art of Aurora’s large population was made up of Chinese immigrants, who are quite common in P the town’s historical documentation. Over time, however, the demographics, landscape patterns, role in the economy, and interactions between Aurora’s Chinese and Euro-American populations changed and morphed, often reflecting the social and political atmosphere of the time period.

Aurora’s Chinese Demographics urora had a Chinese population for the entirety of its existence. The earliest mention of a A Chinese presence in Aurora comes from the Sacramento Daily Union of Tuesday, July 2, 1861, less than a year Aurora’s founding. The article mentions that the current year seems much more promising than the last and “that the town will never again be wholly deserted, nor the inhabitants even reduced to three human beings and a Chinawoman, as was the case last Winter.” The final newspaper mention of Aurora’s Chinese population comes from the Esmeralda Herald of Saturday, July 8, 1882, the last month the newspaper was published in Aurora before it was relocated to nearby Hawthorne. The Herald mentions that “Aurora has a number of Chinese” and suggests that a Chinatown still existed in the city limits. The exact number of Chinese residents in Aurora for any given time is unknown. The Wednesday, April 29, 1863 edition of the Alta California newspaper of San Francisco reported that Aurora had a population of “about 30 pig-eyed Chinamen.” Seven months later, the 1864 Esmeralda County Assessment Roll (recorded in November 1863 and submitted May 1, 1864) listed eleven Chinese residents. Through the late 1870s and early 1880s, the population remained large enough to support celebrations of Chinese New Year. The Esmeralda Herald of Saturday, January 25, 1879, Saturday, February 7, 1880; Saturday, January 15, 29 and February 1, 1881; and Saturday, February 18, 1882 all reported on the enthusiasm of Aurora’s Chinese New Year’s celebrations. Aurora’s Chinese population consisted not only of men, but also women. The first mention of Aurora’s Chinese population, as noted above, concerned the 1860-1861 winter encampment of a “Chinawoman,” meaning that Aurora’s first Chinese inhabitant was probably a woman. The 1864 Esmeralda County Assessment Roll records one Chinese man, Wa Kee, as owning “personal property of 3

4 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

girls,” suggesting that the town was potentially host to Chinese prostitutes. Wednesday, January 25, 1865’s Esmeralda Daily Union, wrote about a local Chinese woman’s suicide after two men proposed to her and she couldn’t decide which one to choose. Even after the 1875 passage of the United States’ Page Act, which limited the immigration of Chinese women to America, Aurora was still home to some Chinese women. 1878 saw the attempted kidnapping of a Chinese woman (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, May 18, 1878), and a fight between two Chinese women near Aurora’s Courthouse culminated in a non-fatal stab wound (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, August 17, 1878). A much calmer event took place on November 23, 1881 in the form of a wedding: “Celestial Wedding—On last Wednesday evening His Honor, William McKinlay, joined together in the most approved ‘Melican fashion, Chung Gun and Ging Foy, as man and wife. Quite a number of spectators were present” (The Esmeralda Herald, Saturday November 26, 1881). Their marriage certificate was recorded in Esmeralda County’s Book B of Miscellaneous Records: Caution Notice, Marriage, Assessment Work, Estates, Issue of Bonds, Oath of Office.

Picture 3: The marriage certificate for Chun Gin and Rim Toy (or Chung Gun and Ging Foy). Note the Chinese signature of one of the witnesses.

There is some documentary evidence for the presence of Chinese children in Aurora. In late 1879, “The Real del Monte boarding-house boasts of the smartest China boy in all this country around” (The Esmeralda Herald, Saturday October 4, 1879). The Esmeralda Herald from Saturday November 1, 1879 again mentions “Pete the China boy” who was still working at the Real del Monte boarding-house. His

5 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

age is not mentioned other than that he is a juvenile. Besides these two articles, there is no mention of Chinese children living in Aurora.

The Chinese on Aurora’s Landscape he patterns of Chinese residence varied throughout Aurora’s history. In the early years of T Aurora’s development, there appears to be little organizing factor to Chinese residence. As previously mentioned, the 1864 Esmeralda County Assessment Roll lists eleven Chinese residents along with their residence location. As can be seen from the following table, none of these Chinese residents lived on Spring Street west of Roman, the area of the city which would eventually become Aurora’s Chinatown. In fact, the only visible grouping to Chinese residence is the three Chinese men who resided on the corners of Antelope and Esmeralda Street. Name Value of goods/Other information Location Ah Kee Store with “Stock of goods” Corner of Antelope and Esmeralda Ake Sam $100 Esmeralda and Silver Ah Wen $400 Spring and Roman; the only one with a lot listed under his own name Chu Kwing $430; “house hold. furniture. goods and Mill Block district on Silver and Court merchandise;” possible store owner Gin Chin $100; a “China Doctor” “North side of Spring west of Winnemucca” Su & Op $50; “furniture;” living together Mill Block district on Silver and Court Tee Sing $100 Corner of Winnemucca and Pine Ty Sing $800 Corner of Antelope and Esmeralda Wa Kee $200; with “Personal property of 3 girls” Corner of Antelope and Esmeralda “A Chinaman” Unknown East side of Antelope

In early 1864, however, changes to the layout of Aurora’s residential landscape began to emerge. The Esmeralda Daily Union of Thursday, March 31, 1864, called attention to “a nuisance now inflicting almost every part of this city, to wit: the numerous disgusting Chinese brothels that exist on most of our public streets […] and recommend that some action be immediately taken that will effectually abate the evil.” The 1864 Assessment Roll listing of Wa Kee with “Personal property of 3 girls,” might reveal the location of some of these Chinese prostitutes. One month later, possibly as a response to the public outcry against the Chinese brothels, the Board of Aldermen passed Ordinance 32, which limited Chinese residence to the northwest section of town. The Esmeralda Daily Union ran the text of City Ordinance 32 for a week from Friday, April 15, 1864 until Friday, April 22, 1864. The Ordinance reads as follows: “City Ordinance 32: An Ordinance to prohibit disorderly conduct, protect the city of Aurora from fire and abolish nuisances. The Board of Aldermen of the City of Aurora do ordain as follows: SEC. 1—No building in the city of Aurora, except such buildings as are or may be situated on Spring street west of Roman street, or of the Union Mill, shall be occupied by any person or persons of the Chinese or Mongolian race, unless such person or persons are authorized and licensed to occupy the same by the authority of the city of Aurora, and it is hereby made the duty of the city Marshal to have the requirements of this ordinance enforced. SEC. 2—Any person or persons offending against the provisions contained in the foregoing section shall be deemed

6 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

guilty of misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not less than twenty dollars nor more than fifty dollars for each day that such person or persons may so offend; or be imprisoned in the city jail at the rate of one day for each two dollars of such fine; or shall be punished by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the Police Judge; and if such find not be paid, the Police Judge may sentence the offender or offenders to labor upon the public works of the city, including the streets thereof, at the rate of two dollars per day, until the amount of such fine is cancelled. SEC. 3— This Ordinance shall take effect on and after the first day of May, 1864. Passed April 7, 1864.”

Aurora’s newspapers make no mention of whether any of the town’s Chinese population abided by the provisions of Ordinance 32 and relocated to their new Chinatown, but by June of that same year, the legality of Ordinance 32 was called into question. The Esmeralda Daily Union of Thursday, June 16, 1864 reported: “Many doubt the legality of the Ordinance, avering that it contravenes certain provisions of the Constitution of the United States as well as stipulations in the treaty between this Government and that of China. The first trial for a violation of this ordinance came up before His Honor, Judge Moore, to-day, the prosecution being conducted by the city Attorney, Mr. Seawell, and Mssrs. Kendall, Hayden and Palmer appearing for the defence. The legality of this ordinance will probably be tested during the investigation of this case, but we have not time to-day to report the proceedings of the trial.” Unfortunately, no subsequent issues of the newspaper contain information surrounding the outcome of the trial or its repercussions on Ordinance 32. It appears that the area set aside by Ordinance 32 for Aurora’s Chinatown was eventually populated primarily by Chinese residents. The Tuesday, November 1, 1864, edition of the Esmeralda Daily Union reported on an incident that occurred on Spring Street and implied that Spring Street was occupied primarily by Chinese at the time. The “Times” to which the article refers is the Aurora Daily Times, the Union’s rival newspaper in Aurora. “THE CHINESE FOR LITTLE MACK — The Times, in speaking of the illumination on the line of the Democratic procession on Saturday evening, says: “Spring street was in a blaze of light.” The laugh comes in when we recollect that nearly all the houses on that street are occupied by Chinese, and that most of the very few white people living in that locality are for Lincoln and Johnson.” The 1865 Tax Assessment Roll also suggests that the Chinese population of Aurora relocated, as can be seen from the following table. Name Value of goods/Other information Location Ah Ken $250 South side of Spring Street, same lot as “Ah Wen” in 1864 Chung Lee $400 Spring Street Che Wing “fixtures in China restaurant” Unknown “2 china houses” Unknown Spring Street; living on lot owned by a Policeman

7 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

An archaeological survey conducted in May 2010 by Emily Dale, Nicholas Connolly, and Chelsea Banks revealed that Aurora’s Spring Street displayed the largest number of Chinese-related surface artifacts in Aurora (Picture 4). Celadon ware, brown utilitarian stoneware typical of soy sauce jars, Four Flowers porcelain, hand-painted porcelain with Chinese symbols, and opium tin lids were scattered throughout the district. Previous finds of a Chinese coin and bone toothbrushes were also reported as being found in the area (Cliff Shaw 9/14/2010, pers. comm.) but were not re-located during the May survey.

Picture 4: Chinese artifacts from Aurora’s Spring Street area includes Chinese utilitarian brownware (above), opium tin lids (upper right) and Double Happiness ceramics (lower right).

The map below illustrates the shift of Chinese population from their scattering across Aurora’s landscape in 1864 to their concentration on Spring Street in 1865. It also shows the location of the Chinese artifacts discovered during the archaeological survey. It should be noted that while most of Aurora’s Chinese are recorded as living on Spring Street in the late 1860s, Euro-Americans were also still living there as well.

8 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

9 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

Through the 1870s and 1880s, mentions of Chinatown/China Garden/Spring Garden still occur in the documentary record. The Esmeralda Herald from Saturday, February 16, 1878 reports on a teamster whose mule fell down a well “somewhere near the China gardens below town,” and on Saturday, July 8, 1882, the Esmeralda Herald reported that “Mrs. S. Murphy, of the Palace Restaurant, scoured Chinatown for a dishwasher.” Other evidence from the historical record, though, demonstrates that Ordinance 32 held little sway over Chinese residence patterns, especially later in time. Numerous articles on Chinese activities in Aurora take place near the Courthouse. The previously- cited fight that took place between two Chinese women occurred “on a little level spot just back of the Courthouse” (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, August 17, 1878). In an anecdote from the Esmeralda Herald of Saturday, March 15, 1879, two men started up the cry of “fire” when they saw smoke billowing from the alley behind the Courthouse. When they reached the origin of the smoke, they merely discovered “seated on his haunches, a grim-looking Celestial placidly and unconcernedly smoking a long, black pipe.” Finally, it appears that, like the western portion of Spring Street received the nicknames of Chinatown and China Garden, the section of town above the Courthouse gained the label “China Spring,” both for its Chinese population and the presence of a spring (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, July 10, 1880). The Esmeralda County Tax Assessment Rolls from the 1880s and 1890s also testify to the Chinese propensity to move away from Spring Street and to settle in other parts of town. Two Chinese individuals, Kee Dick and China Jo resided on Pine Street throughout these two decades. Also located on Pine Street was Aurora’s Joss House, a Chinese temple and gathering area. In most cities with Chinese populations, such as San Francisco, Virginia City, and Hawthorne, Nevada, the Joss House was located in Chinatown. Aurora’s Joss House location again points to the Chinese population’s rejection of Ordinance 32’s attempts to create a Chinese quarter of town. In addition to residing on Pine Street, Silver Street was also home to the Chinese. The 1890 Sanborn Fire Insurance (see the map below) records the location of a “Chinese Wash House” only a few lots away from the Courthouse. The Tax Assessment Roll credits “Sam Sing” as the owner of this Chinese laundry (He will be discussed in further detail in the next section.). According to the Assessment Rolls, one Chinese population continued to live and work on Spring Street throughout Aurora’s second heyday, a Chinese Garden run by a company and located across from McLeod’s Toll House closer to the edges of Aurora’s city limits.

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11 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale The Chinese in Aurora’s Economy he Chinese played an important role in Aurora’s economy, both through their purchase of goods T and services, and also by providing goods and services to their fellow Aurorans themselves. The 1864 Esmeralda County Assessment Roll gives some indication of the various jobs and occupations held by the town’s earliest Chinese immigrants. Both Ah Kee and Chu Kwing are recorded as possessing “goods,” indicating that they may have run stores. The town also boasted a “China doctor” by the name of Gin Chin. The town’s newspapers also hint at other ways in which the Chinese made their living. One of their strategies was to go into gardening, which was the probable origin of the nickname of “China Garden” given to Spring Street. Saturday, July 16, 1864’s edition of the Esmeralda Daily Union thanked “Johnny” of Spring Garden “for a dozen bunches of fine raddishes (sic).” The Sacramento Daily Union of May 10, 1867 discusses the abundance of Chinese gardens in Aurora: “An unusual number of citizens are preparing grounds for gardens in the suburbs of town, and the Chinamen are going into business quite extensively, with the intention of supplying the town with all the light vegetables required.” Chinese gardening continued into the late 1870s. The Esmeralda Herald on Saturday, June 15, 1878, reports on the care taken by the Chinese gardeners to protect their crops: “The China Gardens. Below town about 200 yards is what are known as the China Gardens. It is a little patch of ground reclaimed from the rocks and sagebrush by the persevering and indefatigable industry of the heathen. Every year they clear away the multitude of stones that seem to grow up through the ground during the Winter, and, then, adding manure, dig the ground over carefully, lay it off into the little beds and patches, and sow in them onions, lettuce, cabbage, radishes, etc. They are patient and toiling in the application of water to irrigate, and with a favorable season usually produce the earliest vegetables to be found in the market. These gardens below town, although not extensive, produce a great ideal of “garden truck” during a year, which finds ready sale in a locality, like this, so isolated from the general source of such supplies. The storms of the past two weeks seem to have injured them but little, and the tenderer plants are covered at night in such manner as to protect them from the frost.” Aurora’s Chinese also engaged in washing. An Esmeralda Herald article from Saturday, March 8, 1879 locates at least two of Aurora’s Chinese laundries: one on the corner of Antelope and Aurora streets and one on Silver Street. The article tells how “an attempt was made by a couple of Chinamen to set fire to some old buildings […] occupied by two Chinamen as a wash-house.” The Chinese owner of the Silver Street wash-house saw the flames and managed to extinguish the fire before it spread. The motive was discovered when “the other Chinamen in town all combined and asserted the two arrested were the guilty ones and the reason why they set the place on fire was because the occupants of the house were enemies.” The owner of the Silver Street laundry who stopped the fire was most likely Sam Sing. According to the Tax Assessment Rolls, he was in business for over ten years, from 1881 to 1892. A photograph of Aurora taken sometime in the 1890s may have captured the image of Sam Sing’s Chinese laundry (picture 5).

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Picture 5: Aurora in the 1890s. The yellow circle shows two buildings, one of which was Sam Sing’s Chinese laundry. The Esmeralda County Courthouse is the large square building below the laundry.

Scandalous events concerning Aurora’s Chinese laundries did not stop at attempted arson. Oliver Needham, the owner of the Del Monte boarding house, had, for some time, noticed that items were disappearing from his larder. Then, one day, he “had just given the Chinaman that does his washing a bundle of clothes, and had stepped back into the house, when it occurred to him that he had not counted the pieces. In the mean time John had walked around to the kitchen and, though scarcely a moment of time had elapsed, had securely stowed away under the dirty clothes in his basket a large piece of pork, a hind leg of a calf and half a hog’s head” (Esmeralda Herald Saturday, August 9, 1879). There is also archaeological evidence for Chinese laundries in Aurora. The area near the corner of Del Monte Street and Antelope Street was tentatively labeled a Chinese laundry by Gene Hattori on an earlier tour of Aurora due to the presence of a washboard (Cliff Shaw 9/14/2010, pers. comm.) and still contains celadon ware, brown utilitarian stoneware, and one piece of porcelain bearing a Chinese symbol. The washboard had disappeared by the May 2010 surface survey.

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A few individual Chinese residents made a large impact on Aurora. Chee Kwong, for example, was one of Aurora’s most prominent Chinese residents. From Thursday, June 30, 1864 to Saturday, July 30, 1864, he ran an advertisement in the Esmeralda Daily Union as proprietor of the “Pine Street Bakery” which sold the “BEST GROUND JAVA COFFEE […] AT FIVE BITS PER POUND.” He apparently extended his business in late July, as on Thursday, July 21, 1864 (Esmeralda Daily Union) his advertisement indicated that his Pine Street Bakery now offered room and board at $5.50 for the week, $10.00 with lodging, and $1.50 a day. Single meals cost fifty cents. Dinners on Sunday, which consisted of “Oyster Soup, Plum Pudding and Port Wine” cost extra. The exact location of the Pine Street Bakery is unknown as it is advertised solely as being on Pine Street. This location, however, is clearly well outside of the boundaries of the area set aside by Ordinance 32 for Chinese occupation and was in operation only two months after the ordinance was enacted. Chee Kwong must have applied for a license to run a business outside of China Garden or avoided the issue altogether by setting up after the legality of Ordinance 32 was questioned. The Esmeralda Daily Union, in addition to running Chee Kwong’s advertisements, also ran an article about an incident that occurred at the Pine Street Bakery on Wednesday, July 20, 1864: “A Mean Trick, If True – Chee Kwong came thundering into our office yesterday evening, complaining bitterly of a man named Sharp. Chee says that Sharp entered his shop the other day and ordered “The best dinner he could get up.” John prepared a repast which, in variety and style could not be executed in all Chinadom. Sharp ate heartily of the sumptuous meal, but something was wanting to make it complete, and that something was half a dozen eggs. Calling for the hen fruit, it was immediately furnished and devoured. At the conclusion of the meal John naturally asked for his dollar and a quarter, but was told by the healthy eater that he “had’nt any money.” Chee says this was a “Sharp” trick, but a “vely mean one.” Chee’s advertisement appears today under the head of “New to-day.” Advertisements for the Pine Street Bakery, both in its capacity as a store selling Java and as a boarding house, cease appearing in the Esmeralda Daily Union in August of 1864 and it is unknown for what reason. Chee Kwong may have closed the business or simply stopped advertising. In addition to running his own bakery, Chee Kwong also worked in some capacity for the city. On Monday, August 1, 1864, the Meetings of the Esmeralda County Commissioners 1863-1864 record Chee

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Kwong’s name under the heading of “The following bills were allowed” along with jurors, clerks, attorneys, carpenters. He was paid $12 from the General Fund for being “assigner of Manning (?).” According to the Esmeralda County Records: Bills Allowed 1863-1874, Kwong was also paid $60 on November 12, 1864 for unknown reasons.

Reaction and Response to Aurora’s Chinese he non-Chinese population of Aurora was not always welcoming or supportive of their Chinese T neighbors, to which the passage of Ordinance 32 can attest. The presence of Chinese brothels, as reported by the Esmeralda Daily Union of Thursday, March 31, 1864, and the “evil of all evils—an opium den” (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, July 26, 1879) may have contributed to feelings of ill-will and intolerance aimed at the Chinese immigrants. Generally, though, the newspaper articles discussing Aurora’s Chinese population from the 1860s treat the foreigners as a source of amusement and curiosity. The story of Chee Kwong being tricked by a customer into giving a free meal is a prime example of this editorial tone. Additionally, many newspaper articles concerning the town’s Chinese population stereotype their speech patterns. Chee Kwong complains of the “vely” mean trick played on him (Esmeralda Daily Union, Wednesday, July 20, 1864), the marriage of two Chinese residents is celebrated in an “approved ‘Melican fashion” (The Esmeralda Herald, Saturday November 26, 1881), and when a Chinese gardener’s water supply is disconnected due to the shutdown of the Real del Monte mine pump, his complaint about the impact on his income is quoted as “no catchee water, no catchee vegetables” (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, April 2, 1881). Even articles merely discussing Chinese affairs, such as Chinese New Year, but not directly quoting Aurora’s Chinese citizens, would employ stereotypical Chinese speech patterns, such as by substituting ‘r’s with ‘l’s, to highlight the foreignness of the incidents. Closer to the turn-of-the-century, though, newspaper articles shift from highlighting the role of the Chinese as a source of amusement and instead portray them as a menace. The Esmeralda Herald ran numerous articles during the 1870s with titles such as “The Chinese Must Go” and “John Must Go” (Esmeralda Herald Saturday, July 13, 1878; Esmeralda Herald Saturday, July 27, 1878; Esmeralda Herald Saturday, February 8, 1878), giving readers ample opportunity to form their own opinions about the Chinese immigrants living in Aurora and apply them to local news articles. In one particularly violent article, The Esmerald Herald (Saturday, June 18, 1881) hopes for the death of some of Aurora’s Chinese workers. “Chinese Extermination—Vernon, Albright, McKinzey and Davis have been at work the past week putting in a pipe at the Chinese garden. A scaffold about twenty feet high has been erected over the well, for the purpose of taking the water to that hight [sic], on the top of which is a six- foot platform. The pump will have to be operated by two Celestials, and as it is a death-dealing job, it is calculated by our best mathematicians that two Chinamen will faint and fall back twenty feet every thirty minutes. This is one way to rid the country of the hated race.” By 1882, with the impending passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the newspapers took a much harsher stance against Chinese immigration. On Saturday, March 25, 1882, the Esmeralda Herald gave

15 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

the following report: “A dispatch received here yesterday announces the passage, by both Houses of Congress, of the Chinese bill. The people of Aurora rejoiced and the flag on the Court-house was raised in honor of the event.” The following week, “When the news reached here Tuesday that the President had vetoed the Chinese bill, the flag was flung to the breeze at half-mast” (Esmeralda Herald Saturday, April 8, 1882). And the Esmeralda Herald of Saturday, May 20, 1882 opined that “Anti-Chinese Leagues have been formed in almost every little town on the Coast except Aurora.” The anti-Chinese sentiment found in Aurora’s newspaper, however, appears to be a more general one that pervades the political dialogue of the day rather than the result of specific incidences perpetrated by Aurora’s Chinese. In fact, even the newspaper stories recounting less than favorable events relating to the town’s Chinese, such as the attempted arson of the Chinese laundry (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, March 8, 1879) contain no editorial commentary or political agenda calling for the expulsion of the Chinese from town in connection to the events. Moreover, there was no incitement of violence or evidence that anti- Chinese actions were taken in Aurora, as was the case in other parts of the west where individuals boycotted Chinese business, Chinatowns were burned down, and Chinese miners were massacred. And some of Aurora’s residents displayed less xenophobic behavior. Oliver Needham, the previously-mentioned owner of the Real del Monte Boarding House took no legal action when or “Pete the China boy” smashed his dishes while pretending to shoot a gun (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, October 4, 1879) or when his laundryman was caught pilfering from his food stores. Throughout their residence in Aurora, the Chinese were hardly passive to the discrimination leveled at them by their white neighbors. They went to trial to question the legality of Ordinance 32 and, such as in the case of Chee Kwong, continued to live and work outside of the prescribed boundaries of Chinatown. In 1881, when the Del Monte Mine pump was shut off, cutting off his water supply, the Chinese man who ran the garden at the end of town, rode around searching for a spring, but not finding one, considered filing suit, though it is unknown if he did (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, April 2, 1881). And in 1882, the Chinese practically unionized. When “Mrs. S. Murphy, of the Palace Restaurant, scoured Chinatown for a dishwasher, [she] was unable to induce one of the heathen to work for her because she had a white cook. A league had apparently been formed to drive white help from the kitchen.” The attempt was unsuccessful as “Mrs. Murphy declares she intends to stick to her white cook in spite of the whole Flowery Kingdom” (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, July 8, 1882). Nevertheless, the Chinese attempted to stand up for themselves and secure their income and future.

Conclusion he history of the Chinese in Aurora is a complicated one. It spans nearly forty years of time, T from the 1860s when the Chinese were viewed as an amusing novelty, to the 1880s and 1890s when they were seen as a menace and the country was preoccupied with the “Chinese question” (Esmeralda Herald, Saturday, April 29, 1882). While Aurora was consistently home to a Chinese population, their demographic makeup, location on Aurora’s landscape, and economic contributions changed and diverged over the years. Also changing were the Euro-American outlook on the presence of Chinese immigrants in their midst and Chinese reactions to the often discriminatory laws and behaviors instituted by their non-Chinese neighbors. Further research, in the form of both documentary and

16 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

archaeological investigation, is needed to fully understand the role of Chinese immigrants in Aurora’s history, but a broad picture of their role in Aurora has emerged and contributes to our understanding of the larger role of the Chinese in the American West.

Works Cited Ahmad, Diana L. 2007 The Opium Debate and Chinese Exclusion Laws in the Nineteenth-Century American West. University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada.

Kinchloe-Smith, Jessica 2001 The Best the Market Could Afford: Food Consumption at the Merchants' Exchange Hotel, Aurora, Nevada. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada- Reno, Reno, NV. Moehring, Eugene P. 2004 Urbanism and Empire in the Far West: 1840-1890. University of Nevada Press, Reno. Rohe, Randall E. 1982 “After the Gold Rush: Chinese Mining in the Far West, 1850-1890.” In Chinese on the American Frontier, edited by Arif Dirlik, with the assistance of Malcolm Yeung, pp 3-26, Rowman and Littlefield Publishing, Lanham, MD. Shaw, Clifford Alpheus 2009 An 1864 Directory and Guide to Nevada’s Aurora: Embracing a General Directory of Businesses, Residents, Mines, Stamp Mills, Toll Roads, Etc., Including An Account of the Grand Celebration of July 4, 1864, and a Brief History of the Wide West Mine. Clifford Alpheus Shaw. Smith, Grant H.

1998 The History of the Comstock Lode. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology in association with the University of Nevada Press, Reno, NV. Stewart, Robert E. 2004 Aurora: Nevada’s Ghost City of the Dawn. Nevada Publications, Las Vegas. Thompson and West 1881 History of Nevada with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Pacific Press, Oakland, CA. Voss, Barbara L. and Rebecca Allen

2008 “Overseas Chinese Archaeology: Historical Foundations, Current Reflections and New Directions.” Historical Archaeology, Volume 42 (3): 5-28.

17 An Analysis of Aurora, Nevada’s Chinese Population by Emily Dale

Wegars, Priscilla, editor 1993 Hidden Heritage: Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese, Baywood Publishing Company, Amityville, New York.

Other Sources Newspapers: Aurora Daily Times; Aurora, NV The Daily Alta California; San Francisco, CA The Esmeralda (Daily) Union; Aurora, NV The Esmeralda Herald; Aurora, NV Sacramento Daily Union; Sacramento, CA

Historical Documents: Book B of Miscellaneous Records: Caution Notice, Marriage, Assessment Work, Estates, Issue of Bonds, Oath of Office (located in the Esmeralda County Recorder’s Office, Goldfield, NV) Esmeralda County 1864 Assessment Roll (located at the Nevada State History Museum, Reno, NV) Meetings of the Esmeralda County Commissioners 1863-1864 (located at the Nevada State History Museum, Reno, NV) Records: Bills Allowed 1863-1874 (located in the Esmeralda County Recorder’s Office, Goldfield, NV)

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