In the 1850s, Chinese came to work on the railroads or seek gold; some came as indentured serfs, some were “shanghaied.” But 70 years before, they were the laborers at Nootka Sound brought in via the trade route from Cape Horn. One hundred twenty Chinese
laborers arrived at Nootka Sound in 1778 where they built houses, a dockyard, and a sailing ship, the North West America. The next year another 70 Chinese craftsmen were brought over from Canton. Shortly after the arrival of this second group, the settlement was seized by the Spanish who used the Chinese to build a fort (twice), tear it down (twice) and build a village (later abandoned). Some were sent to work in a nearby mine. A 1794 agreement between Spain and England had both countries agree to leave. No records exist as to the fate of the Chinese. 100 years later here at the Farm Chinese were brought down from Canada, to remove fir stumps, build Freeborn Village’s huts/cabins, and tend to its enterprises’ daily chores. What became of these Chinese? This writer’s nearby farm’s grandparents employed 2 men who worked in the chicken houses, a man in the milk barn, and a man in the orchard (end of the English Grade Road). They exchanged money with these grandparents; we know this for certain as my cousins and this writer played with the money found in our Grandmother’s bottom bedroom dresser drawer. The logging companies used Chinese to build their railroads, deconstruct them when the trees were cut and move the rails to other locations. They built railroad bridges with large spans and forged and filled railways still used today (i.e., English Grade Road, the road into the Pilchuck Glass School, almost every straight and true rural road today). The Spanish came and went back to Spain. Did the Chinese leave to return to China? And if many died here building and rebuilding railroads for the English Lumber Co., where are the graves? in 1904 “a man a day died in the woods not counting the Chinese,” where is their graveyard?
https://www.cinarc.org/History.html
https://tacomacc.libguides.com/c.php?g=1138111&p=8305531
https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/chinese-immigration/
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1948.50.2.02a00060
https://www.facebook.com/HistoricPhotographs/posts/chinese-explorer-zheng-hes-ship-compared-to-christopher-columbus-santa-maria-the/2063197513853988/
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/chinese-immigrants-united-states
Click to access Chinese-Laborers.pdf
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