By Stan Lau
. . . . . The 1850 Los Angeles Census contained the name of “Ah Fu, Chinaman, 28 years old”. (p. 657, Ref. *)
. . . . . In 1854 the Joseph Newmark family arrived in Los Angeles from San Francisco with a Chinese servant who was paid one hundred dollars a month. This is the first documented Chinese arrival in Los Angeles. (p. 123, Ref.*)
. . . . . In 1860 the Chinese vegetable men started the celery industry in Los Angeles. (p. 125, Ref. *)
. . . . . In 1860 there was a considerable departure of white laborers from Los Angeles County to Texas. Their department was attributed to the difficulty in getting work since most of the vineyardists employed Indians and Chinese. (p. 99, Ref. 1)
. . . . . In 1875 Chinese railroad workers digging for gold in Placeritas Canyon found a three-ounce nugget. (p. 72, Ref. 2)
. . . . . On May 22, 1876, the Chinese Mission House in Los Angeles was dedicated on Wilmington Street by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. Meetings were held each night with the average attendance being thirty
persons. Services were in Chinese. Subsequently, fourteen Chinese were baptized and admitted to the church. (p. 121, Ref. 3)
. . . . . In January 1875, Henry M. Newhall, early southern California pioneer, acquired the Rancho San Francisco, the present site of the town of Newhall, 35 miles north of Los Angeles. During the construction of the San Fernando
Tunnel, which linked northern and southern California by rail (1876), the bones of Chinese laborers who died in that period were temporarily interred in a cemetery on the Newhall Ranch, and later shipped back to China. (p. 50, Ref. 2)
. . . . . In 1878 Newhall hired Chinese, Mexicans, and Indians to farm his land. Wheat, barley, corn, alfalfa, sugar cane, bamboo, citrus and other fruits were grown. (p. 51, Ref. 2)
. . . . . In the 1880’s Chinese grew sugar cane in the San Juan Township, which is now the San Juan Capistrano area. (p. 169, Ref. 3)
. . . . . By 1888, Los Angeles had a Chinese population of almost 3,000 persons. Many were employed as servants for general housework. A large number raised and peddled vegetables. Hundreds were in the laundry and restaurant businesses. (p. 255, 256, Ref. 1)
Ref. * – Sixty Years in Southern California, Harris Newmark, published by Zeitlin & Ver Brugge, 1970.
Ref. 1 – History of Los Angeles County, Lewis Publishing Co., 1889
Ref. 2 – The Newhall Ranch, Ruth W. Newhall, Huntington Library, 1958.
Ref. 3 – History of Los Angeles County, Thompson and West, 1880.