Chin Gee Hee (June 22, 1844
, Bureau of Archives of Taishan City. – 1929),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theob ...

Chàngtíng (暢庭),Jue 1983, p. 32. Cheun Gee Yee, was a Chinese merchant, labor contractor, and

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

entrepreneur, who made his fortune in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, WashingtonScigliano 2007 before returning to his native village in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

province, where he continued his successes.

Life

Born the son of a maker of soy sauce crocks in a village in what is now the city of

Taishan __NOTOC__ Taishan may refer to: *Mount Tai or Taishan (), Shandong, China * Taishan District, Tai'an (), named after the Mount Tai, a district in Tai'an, Shandong, China *Taishan, Guangdong (), a county-level city of Jiangmen, Guangdong, China ** G ...

, Chin came to the attention of an old man because of his calm after some other boys smashed crocks that he was carrying to market. The man brought him along on his passage to America, where Chin worked in a

placer mine Placer mining () is the mining of stream bed (alluvial) deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment. Placer mining is frequently used for p ...

before making his way to

Port Gamble, Washington Port Gamble is an unincorporated community on the northwestern shore of the Kitsap Peninsula in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is also a small, eponymous bay, along which the community lies, near the entrance to Hood Canal. The uninc ...

, where he worked in a

lumber mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. While still in North Kitsap, he learned a reasonable amount of English, and made friends with several

Suquamish The Suquamish () are a Lushootseed language, Lushootseed-speaking Native Americans in the United States, Native American people, located in present-day Washington (state), Washington in the United States. They are a southern Coast Salish peopl ...

, including the family of

Chief Seattle Chief Seattle ( – June 7, 1866) was a Suquamish and Duwamish chief. A leading figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with "Doc" Maynard. The city of Seattle, in th ...

. He also met and befriended

Henry Yesler Henry Leiter Yesler (December 2, 1810 – December 16, 1892) was an entrepreneur and a politician, regarded as a founder of the city of Seattle. Yesler served two non-consecutive terms as Mayor of Seattle, and was the city's wealthiest resident ...

, owner of a mill in the young city of

, who convinced him to move there. Cyx

In 1873, he arrived in Seattle, a settlement that was about 20 years old at the time. After meeting Chin Chun Hock (), who was from the same village in Taishan, he became a junior partner in the Wa Chong company (, "Chinese Prosperity"), the city's leading Chinese enterprise of the time. The Wa Chong company imported or manufactured goods including sugar,

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

, cigars, opium (legal at the time), and

fireworks Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices ...

. At the time, there were few Chinese women in America. While still in North Kitsap, Chin imported a wife from China. Their son Chin Lem (), later known as Tew Dong (), born 1875 in Seattle, was the first known Chinese child born in

Washington Territory The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the ...

(now Washington State). At the Wa Chong company, he acquired labor contracts from coal mines, railroads, farming, and the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

mosquito fleet The term Mosquito Fleet has had a variety of naval and commercial uses around the world. United States In U.S. naval and maritime history, the term has had ten main meanings: #The United States Navy's fleet of small gunboats, leading up to and ...

. As one of the major labor suppliers for Northern Pacific Railway in the Puget Sound district, Chin also helped with payroll and discipline of the Chinese labor. He also placed Chinese house-boys and cooks. His partnership with Chin Ching-hock was somewhat uneasy: Chin Ching-hock was more interested in imports and exports than in the labor contracting that became Chin Gee Hee's specialty. Chin Gee Hee was a central figure in the efforts at political and diplomatic defense against the anti-Chinese riots of November 1885. During the crisis, he represented the community and exchanged

telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

s with Chinese

consul general A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

Ow-yang Ming () in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He kept careful records of damages to Chinese businesses, and, partly as a result, Seattle's Chinese community fared far better than that of neighboring Tacoma, ultimately remaining in the city and collecting $700,000 in damages through a favorable ruling by judge Thomas Burke.Jue 1983, p. 33. Chin Gee Hee - Kon Yick Building 01

In 1888, he set up independently as a labor contractor, with his Quong Tuck Company

Walt Crowley Walter Charles Crowley (June 20, 1947 – September 21, 2007) was an American historian and activist from Washington state. He first entered the public sphere in Seattle through his involvement with the social and political movements of the 1960s, ...

Seattle Neighborhoods: Chinatown-International District -- Thumbnail History
HistoryLink.org Essay 1058, May 3, 1999. Accessed online July 19, 2007. (also known as Quong Tuck Lung Company)Guide to the Willard G. Jue Papers, 1880-1983
on the site of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

Libraries or Quon Tuck CompanySummary for 400 2nd Avenue Extension / Parcel ID 5247800980
Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Accessed online August 4, 2007. supplying construction workers to railways (the Great Northern Railway, the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad and Transportation Company) and to Seattle's regrading projects. He provided work crews (and was involved entrepreneurially) in rail lines along what are now Alaskan Way (along the Seattle waterfront) and a cable car perpendicular to the waterfront along Yesler Way as far as 14th Avenue. He also provided Chinese masons to help build the Burke Building, a full city block at Second Avenue and Marion Street. His own building at Second and Washington, the Canton Building (also known as the Chin Gee Hee Building, now the Kon Yick Building), 208-210 S. Washington Street, was among the first brick buildings raised after the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889. It was shared with the Bow Tai Wo Company. (As of 2007, the building is still standing, though much altered; in particular, a 1928 re-routing of Second Avenue S. removed a corner of the building.) He passed his Seattle business on to his son, Chin Lem, and son-in-law Woo Quon-bing ()Jue 1983, p. 34. and returned in 1904 or 1905 to China, where he was the entrepreneur behind South China's first railway and founded a seaport, while continuing also to have business associations with Seattle. He returned frequently to the U.S. and, in particular, to Seattle, where he retained close ties, and which he last visited in 1922.Jue 1983, p. 35. His railway was known as the

Sun Ning Railway Company The Sun Ning Railway Company, also known as the or the , was a standard-gauge railway in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province founded in 1906 by Chin Gee Hee (, Chen Yixi) and Yu Shek (, Yu Zhuo). It was South China's second railway

. He raised $2.75 million, mainly from overseas Chinese; Chin's partner Yu Zhuo (; also variously rendered as Yu Shek)Jue 1983, p. 32. or Yu Chuek ung et al. 2006 editors' note, p. 125. raised further funds in China and from overseas Chinese in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

. The Sun Ning was the Pearl River Delta's first major railway. Its benefits to Guangdong's economy were cut short when it was seized by local

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

s in 1926; it was finally destroyed during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

in 1938.Xiao-huang Yin & Zhiyong Lan (2003), p. 9. While in China, Chin also served as a connection for the Seattle China Club. Members of the China Club, which advocated for increased trade between China and Seattle, were invited to attend the opening of Chin's port in Guangdong.

Notes

References

* Chin Gee Hee, "Letter Asking for Support to Build the Sunning Railroad" (1911), p. 125–128 in Judy Yung, Gordon H. Chang, and Him Mark Lai (compilers and editors), ''Chinese American Voices'', University of California Press (2006). . * Willard G. Jue, "Chin Gee-hee, Chinese Pioneer Entrepreneur in Seattle and Toishan", ''The Annals of the Chinese Historical Society of the Pacific Northwest'', 1983, 31:38. ** Also
Guide to the Willard G. Jue Papers, 1880-1983
on the site of the

Libraries, accessed July 19, 2007. * Douglas C. Sackman, "Pacific World Passages: The Traffic in Trees and the Transformation of Space in Puget Sound, 1850-1900", a paper presented at the American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting, Victoria, BC, April 3, 2004, especially the section "III. Workers of the Pacific World: Logging and Labor in & around the Mills"
Draft available online
accessed July 30, 2007; there is no formally published form as of that date. * Eric Scigliano, "Seattle's Chinese Founding Father", ''Seattle Metropolitan'', May 2007, p. 48. * Xiao-huang Yin & Zhiyong Lan
Why Do They Give? Change and Continuity in Chinese American Transnational Philanthropy since the 1970s
commissioned by the Global Equity Initiative for a workshop on Diaspora Philanthropy to China and India, held in May 2003. p. 9. Accessed online 22 September 2007. * ''Draft History of the Qing Dynasty''
vol. 150

Bureau of Archives of Taishan City. Undated; the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

shows the page December 10, 2004. Accessed online 22 September 2007.
Page on Seattle’s Chinatown - International District
on cwok.com, content attributed to the

Wing Luke Museum The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience is a history museum in Seattle, Washington, United States, which focuses on the culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans. It is located in the city's Chinatown-Internationa ...

. Accessed online July 19, 2007. * ''Chinese Emigration, the Sunning Railway and the Development of Toisan'' by Lucie Cheng and Liu Yuzun with Zheng Dehua, Amerasia 9(1): 59-74, 1982. * Kornel Chang, "American Crossroads: Pacific Connections: The Making of the U.S.-Canadian Borderlands" Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. .

External links

* David Takami
Chinese Americans
HistoryLink.org Essay 2060, February 17, 1999, includes two photos of Chin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chin, Gee Hee People from Taishan, Guangdong Chinese emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from Guangdong Businesspeople from Seattle 1844 births American people of Chinese descent 1930 deaths