Yes , the face of Great grandpa looks familiar, there is a resemblance , those facial features that I recognize in my grandfather, my father and myself . Jue Joe makes his way from China in 1874 to Gold Mountain to find his fortune . He spends time pressing grapes with his feet in St . Helena and then working for the Southern Pacific railroad , finally finding his way to the San Fernando Valley . All the time ,he is making money ,sending it back home , supporting his wife and sons in China , and ultimately paying for his brother's college education as a mining engineer at Pomona College ! He becomes friends with one , Otto Brant ,who later becomes president of a Title insurance company in Los Angeles and in fact Otto helps him buy land under his name in the San Fernando Valley . The Alien Land act prevents Jue Joe from owning land himself . How does a Chinaman who speaks broken English and cannot read or write English becomes friends with a Caucasian who becomes a prominent businessman in Los Angeles. ? Personality , character, friendship , fellow travelers ? He brings his wife and two sons to Los Angeles in 1918 . Successfully farming asparagus in Van Nuys and elsewhere he remains to the end a simple man who sleeps in a cabin with a dirt floor . He originally plans to make his fortune and move the family back to China but the depression dashes his plans . He dies in 1941 at the age of 82 , and the responsibility of steering the clan and the ranch falls squarely on his 2nd born son San Tong Jue who is 36 years old at the time . (His first born son died premarturely in 1933). There is of course much more to tell , a Chinaman owning a saloon and carrying a six shooter . The first Chinese man to farm the San Fernando Valley. He cuts a big swath in a time when the barriers are very high for a Chinaman to succeed :Oriental Exclusion Act , Alien Land Law , discrimination. Many did not succeed. Jue Joe created a legacy for the generations to come .
Monday, June 7, 2010
Who was Jue Joe ?
Yes , the face of Great grandpa looks familiar, there is a resemblance , those facial features that I recognize in my grandfather, my father and myself . Jue Joe makes his way from China in 1874 to Gold Mountain to find his fortune . He spends time pressing grapes with his feet in St . Helena and then working for the Southern Pacific railroad , finally finding his way to the San Fernando Valley . All the time ,he is making money ,sending it back home , supporting his wife and sons in China , and ultimately paying for his brother's college education as a mining engineer at Pomona College ! He becomes friends with one , Otto Brant ,who later becomes president of a Title insurance company in Los Angeles and in fact Otto helps him buy land under his name in the San Fernando Valley . The Alien Land act prevents Jue Joe from owning land himself . How does a Chinaman who speaks broken English and cannot read or write English becomes friends with a Caucasian who becomes a prominent businessman in Los Angeles. ? Personality , character, friendship , fellow travelers ? He brings his wife and two sons to Los Angeles in 1918 . Successfully farming asparagus in Van Nuys and elsewhere he remains to the end a simple man who sleeps in a cabin with a dirt floor . He originally plans to make his fortune and move the family back to China but the depression dashes his plans . He dies in 1941 at the age of 82 , and the responsibility of steering the clan and the ranch falls squarely on his 2nd born son San Tong Jue who is 36 years old at the time . (His first born son died premarturely in 1933). There is of course much more to tell , a Chinaman owning a saloon and carrying a six shooter . The first Chinese man to farm the San Fernando Valley. He cuts a big swath in a time when the barriers are very high for a Chinaman to succeed :Oriental Exclusion Act , Alien Land Law , discrimination. Many did not succeed. Jue Joe created a legacy for the generations to come .
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ReplyDeleteI'm not used to blogging so this is my 2nd attempt at this section: Jue Joe's two best friends were Otto Brant of California Land Title and Trust, and General Harrison Gray Otis founder of the Los Angeles Times. Otto Brant also had a land syndicate in which William Mulholland and Mr. Grant founder of California Bank were partners. Through this syndicate Jue Joe acquired land to farm in Indio, Imperial County, and in SFV because the syndicate owned most of the land in both regions. Also, Jue Joe had financed attorney Oliver's law school education and Oliver married Grant's daughter. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteIn 1893 Jue Joe worked as a house boy for a 160 acre wheat ranch in Chatsworth. The owners of the ranch were: Sam Carson who was the famous Kit Carson's first cousin, N.C. Johnson who was a descendant of the first governor of California, and Mr. Williams. Jue Joe always saved his money and lived a simple lifestyle, so Otto Brant knew who to go to for cash loans as Brant was building up his title company. Otto also used Joe as a "straw man" in order to clear "color of title" for his clients. This is why Jue Joe's name pops up all over deeds recorded in the L.A. Recorder's Office. When Jue Joe farmed potatoes he chose 40 acres of land in Chatsworth, land once owned by Kit Carson's extended family. The reward for being and Indian Scout for the Army was free land grants, so the Carson family dominated that section of the Valley. This was a time when the Indian Wars were ongoing. Geronimo had not yet been captured and sent to Florida. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteThe name of Otto Brant's land syndicate was the "Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company," formed in 1909. It had 30 members all prominent leaders of L.A. (Harrison Otis and Harry Chandler of L.A. Times newspaper, Wm. Mulholland the L.A. Water Commissioner, M.H. Sherman, Grant the founder of Santa Fe Railroad and California Bank, H.J. Whitley the subdivider, I.N. Van Nuys, to name a few). Together the Syndicate controlled Tract 1000. In it Brant reserved 850acres for his Title Insurance and Trust Company and, within the acreage, platted Van Nuys, Marian (Reseda), and Owensmouth Canoga Park). You could buy a small farm 1 to 10 acres, or a large farm 100 to 600 acres. In 1920 he reserved a large parcel for Jue Joe: 300acres of prime property from Vanowen St to Haynes, and from Hayvenhurst to Balboa Blvd. It was segregated from a large ranch owned by Mr. Van Nuys, later was part of the Anderson Ranch, then bought by Mr. Dickey who later sold to Jue Joe. Brant held the Jue Joe property in trust for the beneficiaries of Corrine and Dorothy until they came of age. When they came of age he deeded the land to them. It was Jue Joe's intent that when Jack came of age the Aunts were to deed the land to him. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: Otto Brant held Jue Joe's lands as "Trustee for the benefit of Corrine and Dorothy" (not beneficiaries of) until the sisters came of age, then he deeded to them. They in turn were to deed to Jack when he came of age. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteThere was a buckwagon rusting alonside the big redwood barn that faced Vanowen St. In its youth Jue Joe hitched 4 horses to that buckwagon, and with crates ladened with his produce, he drove the wagon 3 hours each way from the Valley over the Cahuenga Pass and onto the Los Angeles Plaza, which served as a produce mart for "Angelinos." He always carried his Colt.45 for protection. I used to play on that small buckwagon (5'x18') and wondered how he ever made it over the Cahuenga Pass, which was a dirt wagon trail, with such a heavy load come rain or shine. Later, when Leong Shee came to live on the ranch she would rise at 4:00am and cook breakfast for 10 ranch hands and Jue Joe before they hitched their horses to ride to Joe's fields at 5:00am. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteJue Joe preferred a simple lifestyle and independence. My father San tong told us that Jue Joe always wore a khaki shirt and pants, knee high boots, and lots of keys dangled from his waist belt. He fired his Colt.45 once a year to clean its barrel, wore it in a holster around his waist, and slept with a cleaver under his pillow in his one-room cabin with a dirt floor on the Van Nuys ranch. In that cabin there was an indented hole under his desk where he always rubbed his barefeet on the dirt floor. His lawyers came to conduct business with Jue Joe in that cabin, too. There was a pot-bellied stove that served as a heater and on the walls were hung horse's bridles and yokes. When Jue Joe left to work in his fields he always locked his cabin door and never allowed--at any time!--his wife Leong Shee, who on the premise lived in a different cottage with their children, to enter his abode in order to clean it. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: Van Nuys was once part of Rancho Encino in the Mexican Land Grant era. Isaac N. Van Nuys purchased a vast tract when the Rancho was segregated. Mr. Van Nuys then sold a portion of West Van Nuys to Mr. Dickey, and Mr. Dickey later sold his ranch to Mr. Anderson. In 1920 the Anderson beet ranch was sold to Jue Joe, and this became our Van Nuys ranch home. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: Geronimo surrendered to the US Army on September 4, 1886, but he and his family were moved from Florida to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1893-1894. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDelete