5/25/2016 HistoryLink.org­ the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History Search Encyclopedia Go Advanced Search Home About Us Contact Us Education Bookstore Tourism Advanced Search 7072 HistoryLink.org essays now available Timeline Library < Browse to Previous Essay | Browse to Next Essay > This essay made possible by: Donation system not supported by Safari Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Shortcuts King County Chun Ching Hock opens the Wa Chong Company in Libraries Seattle on December 15, 1868. Cyberpedias HistoryLink.org Essay 10800 : Printer­Friendly Format Timeline Essays On December 15, 1868, Chinese settler Chun Ching Hock (1844­ 1927) opens the Wa Chong Company, a general­merchandise store, People's Histories at the foot of Mill Street (later renamed Yesler Way) in Seattle. Chun (whose name was sometimes written Chin Chun Hock), believed to Selected Collections be Seattle's first Chinese immigrant, traveled in 1860 from China to Cities & Towns San Francisco and then north to Seattle, where he found work in the Yesler Mill cookhouse. Chun Ching Hock's original partner in the Counties Wa Chong Company is Chun Wa (d. 1873); Chin Gee Hee (1844­ Biographies 1929) will become junior partner following Chun Wa's death. The store sells Chinese goods, tea, rice, coffee, flour, and fireworks, but Interactive Cybertours Wa Chong Company storefront (Woo Gen on the company's most profitable business is labor contracting. It left, Chun Ching Hock center, with cane), 406 recruits and places Chinese immigrants in jobs ranging from Main Street, Seattle, ca. 1905 Slideshows Courtesy MOHAI, Wing Luke Asian Museum domestic work to building railroads. Both Chun Ching Hock and Photograph Collection (Image No. COHP/WA Public Ports Chin Gee Hee will survive Seattle's anti­Chinese riots in 1886 and CHONG) Audio & Video the 1889 Seattle Fire, and both will become wealthy. Each will return to live permanently in China in the early 1900s, but the Wa Research Shortcuts Chong Company will operate in Seattle until 1953. The store's final Map Searches location, the East Kong Yick Building at 719 S King Street, will Alphabetical Search become home to the Wing Luke Museum in 2008. Timeline Date Search Topic Search Seeking Gold Mountain Features Book of the Fortnight War and hard times in China coincided with the discovery of gold in Audio/Video Enhanced History Bookshelf California in the late 1840s and numerous subsequent discoveries Advertisement, Wa Chong & Company store, Klondike Gold Rush Database over the next two decades in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Seattle Post­Intelligencer, August 10, 1879 Duvall Newspaper Index British Columbia. Gold­rush news reached southeast China and Wellington Scrapbook thousands of young Chinese men came to the U.S. seeking work in More History a place they called Gim San ("Gold Mountain"). Willing to work Washington FAQs Washington Milestones long hours for low pay, Chinese immigrants satisfied the need for Honor Rolls abundant cheap labor and played an important role in building the Columbia Basin West. Everett Olympia Seattle Chun Ching Hock (whose name is also sometimes given as Chin Spokane Chun Hock or Chin Ching Hock) was born July15, 1844, in the Tacoma Long Mei village of Toisan in Guangdong Province, China. He Walla Walla Roads & Rails sailed to San Francisco at the age of 16, then headed north and in 1860 began working in the Yesler Mill cookhouse on the Seattle waterfront. The 1860 Washington Territorial census lists only one Early Chinese merchant Chin Gee Hee in Chinese person living in Seattle, most likely Chun Ching Hock, who Seattle is considered to be the city's first Chinese settler. The same census Courtesy Wing Luke Asian Museum counted King County's total population at about 300. The Wa Chong Company According to notes Chun made in his will, after working a number of years he had saved enough to visit family in China, where he gave money to his mother and brother, then borrowed from an uncle for his return to Seattle. On December 15, 1868, he opened a general­merchandise store called the Wa Chong Company http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10800 1/5 5/25/2016 HistoryLink.org­ the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History (sometimes spelled "Wa Chung" and occasionally seen as Wa Montlake log canal, also called Portage Bay Canal, Seattle, ca. 1890 Chong & Company) in a wood­frame building located on the Courtesy Lawton Gowey tideflats just south of the Yesler Mill. Wa Chong prospered in this central waterfront location as established settlers, newly arrived immigrants, and local Native Americans all traded at the store. The Wa Chong Company sold Chinese goods, rice, sugar, tea, flour, and opium (legal until 1902), and was a major importer and distributor of fireworks. But the sale of merchandise was only a small part of the business, which became heavily involved in labor contracting. The Wa Chong Company recruited and placed Chinese immigrants in domestic work, logging, mining, construction, and later in fisheries and canneries. Through Wa Chong, workers were hired to build a segment of the Northern Pacific Railroad line between Kalama and Tacoma. One of the company's biggest projects was supplying workers in 1883 to dig a canal ­­ the Montlake Cut ­­ to transport logs between Union Bay on Lake Washington and Portage Bay on Lake Union. Chinese workers also built many of Seattle's streets. Chun was quoted as saying, "I graded Pike, Union, Washington, and Jackson Streets ... At one time, the city owed me $60,000. I had to sue to recover it" (Chew, 130). The Wa Chong company received a commission for each worker placed. If employers could not pay in cash, they often paid in real estate, and Chun's company soon owned lots and even entire city blocks in Seattle. May and Yee Chin, daughters of Chun Ching Hock (Chin Chun Hock), Seattle, ca. 1900 The Wa Chong Company became the largest labor contractor in Courtesy MOHAI, Wing Luke Asian Museum Washington Territory. Its workers required housing, and as the Photograph Collection (Image No. 1991.100.565) company prospered it constructed buildings that included lodging. As early as 1877, the company purchased a Duwamish farm as the site for a large company house, a hospital, and a joss house (Chinese temple). Business Partners Chun Ching Hock's first business partner, Chun Wa, died young in 1873. That same year, Chin Gee Hee ­­ a cousin of Chun Ching Hock from the Toisan district ­­ came to Seattle by way of northern California and Port Gamble and became the new junior partner at Wa Chong. By 1876 Seattle's population had grown to about 3,400, of whom about 250 were resident Chinese. There was also a floating population of about 300 additional Chinese, which included new arrivals and workers from other parts of King County who came into town for supplies. The partnership between Chun Ching Hock and Chin Gee Hee was an uneasy one. Both were good businessmen, but Chin Gee Hee's major interests were developing the labor­contracting side of the business and building an import/export trade with China. In 1888, Chun Ching Hock bought his partner's share in the Wa Chong Company and Chin Gee Hee began his own business, the Quong Tuck Company. The building housing Quong Tuck was destroyed Fireworks advertisement, Wa Chong Store, in the 1889 Great Seattle Fire, and Chin Gee Hee is credited with The Seattle Times, July 2, 1918 constructing the city's first brick structure completed after that catastrophe, the Canton Building located at 208­210 Washington Street. Anti­Chinese Riots While Chinese workers played an important role in the region's early development, they became increasingly resented as providers of cheap labor. When Washington Territory was created in 1853, Chinese were restricted from voting, and over the next three decades numerous laws were enacted further restricting their rights. When the economy tumbled in the 1880s and jobs became scarce, anti­Chinese sentiment increased nationwide, leading to the passage East Kong Yick Building, 719 S King Street, Seattle, ca. 1920 of the federal Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. Two anti­Chinese Courtesy MOHAI (Image No. 83.10.1774.1) http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10800 2/5 5/25/2016 HistoryLink.org­ the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History factions emerged. One, led largely by labor unions, advocated the immediate removal of the Chinese while a second group wanted to proceed more peacefully to the same end. But both wanted the Chinese to leave. Actions against Chinese workers became increasingly violent throughout Washington Territory, and on February 7, 1886, a mob of citizens invaded Seattle's Chinese quarter and 350 Chinese were forced to leave town aboard the steamer Queen of the Pacific. On February 14, 110 more were sent away, with the remaining number told to leave on a following steamer. Chin Gee Hee was caught by the mob, but due to his stature in the community he was released by the Home Guard. He insisted he would not leave Seattle until he was paid money owed to him. While Territorial Governor Watson C. Squire (1838­1926) declared martial law and brought in federal troops to quiet the unrest, Chin Gee Hee sought help with a direct appeal to the Chinese consul­ general in San Francisco. He also kept a record of damage done to Chinese businesses during the rioting and later was able to collect $700,000 through a ruling by Judge Thomas Burke (1849­1925). But when the rioting ended in Seattle, only a handful of Seattle's Chinese merchants and workers remained.