Jew Joe Real Estate Transaction 1901

My late father was a real estate appraiser working for LA County and at one time looked at historic grant deeds archived in the LA county recorder office and saw multiple deeds with the name Jew Joe dating from the time before Jew Joe went back to China in 1902. (Jew Joe  used Jew instead of Jue as the English spelling of our surname at  that time ). My father told me that Jew Joe had told my grandfather,San Tong,that Otto Brant, Title Insurance Company co owner, had Jew Joe sign real estate deeds for him.  I asked my Auntie Soo Yin  about this and she confirmed this and had the following comments:

1.  Squatters and color of title:  My father San Tong told me that in the 1890s title insurance to real property in SoCal was not yet a tradition practiced by landowners; most folks were a bit skeptical about the need to insure.  But Otto Brant was very deep thinking, and seeing far ahead of the curve, he knew that landowners would soon find themselves in great need of insuring their ownerships and clearing color of title.  "During this period of time," said San Tong, landowners were having so much trouble with "squatters" moving onto their property and claiming title.  This is why Otto had his friend Thompson, who was a saloon bouncer and who was a big, rough-looking guy, remove squatters off disputed lands by physical force if necessary."  (Later, Thompson became a partner with Jue Joe in the saloon located at 2nd and Broadway.)  At once landowners made a beeline for Otto's Title Insurance and Trust Co. and his business grew by leaps, as he knew it would.  Otto had the last laugh.   

2.  Straw man:  San Tong had said that Jue Joe's name was used on many of Otto's deeds, but he did not say that Jue Joe had any direct involvement in negotiating the transactions.  Otto handled all the details of land transactions, and it was a win-win situation for both Otto and Jue Joe. Otto Brant and Jue Joe were like equal friends, according to Ah Gung.  I do know that Otto used to ask Jue Joe for loans in order to finance his real estate ventures and to be his "straw man" whenever needed, and Jue Joe was always glad to oblige.  Also, Jue Joe told Ah Gung that everything he knew about American business he had learned from Otto; this good friend was Jue Joe's mentor.  I can see why the two men got along so well, they were both modest men.  (Jue Joe had met Thompson, his partner in the Saloon, through Otto Brant, too).

My son Robert who is in the real estate business had this theory of how Otto Brant used Jew Joe in his real estate transactions.  Robert has a theory that at the time Otto formed the Title insurance company , there were many properties in Los Angeles that had contested title with several  "owners" claiming to have the right to sell the property . Let us say his company was involved in providing potential buyers of the property with title insurance . One of the primary functions of the Title insurance company would be to search records and establish title before sales and  Otto would have found  quite a few of these properties.   The various owners claiming title would not be able to sell the property outright . They could of course sue each other and try to establish who had real title  and be able to sell but perhaps  Otto could offer a much simpler  solution .  These owners rather then fighting about who really owned the property  could all agree to sell out their  title to  one man each  at a percentage of the total  price of the sale .Since Otto would have researched these properties  thoroughly he could  then be sure that he had all the  real possible property owners in the deal . He could then broker a deal , and provide  title insurance to the single new buyer who had clear title .  That new buyer " straw man "  would not be involved in negotiating the deal at all and just  appear in person  to sign documents  and the entire deal could be arranged by  Otto ,  In fact the "straw man " could in fact loan or put up his own money for the deal with the agreement that once the deal was completed  and clear title was established that land could then be sold at a substantial profit to a new buyer  waiting in the wings who wanted to buy the property in the first place . The sale of the land  from the straw owner to the new owner would , promptly by arranged  by Otto  and then the loan would be repaid with interest to the "straw man " quickly ... Such an arrangement would require a "straw man " with whom  Otto had extreme confidence in and  the agreement especially if a verbal one would  really need to be  one of trust and mutual  benefit .

What evidence is there that this arrangement between Otto Brant and Jew Joe actually occurred ?

Rancho Portero de Felipe Lugo was one of the  large Mexican land grants that was located in the current city of El Monte near Los Angeles. The history of this Rancho and it's subsequent sale and subdivision and owners can be found here.   The Rancho was originally subdivided in the Los Angeles land boom of  the late 1880s. Here is an ad of the original subdivision by E. J. Baldwin in 1887 .

Here is  page 14 of the Los Angeles Herald , on Thursday Morning , August 1, 1901 .
At the time family oral history has Jew Joe farming potatoes in Chatsworth on leased land. There is no family oral history that he owned land at this time . Yet on this date on the list of real estate transfers in the paper, Jew Joe is listed as selling land to Sophronia A. Bliss , in particular -Part Lot 2, blk F, of sub. of Ro. Potrero de Felipe Lugo .

Did Jew Joe buy and accept title to this land some time before and then sell and transfer the title to a new owner to help his friend, Otto Brant ? By the way the 10.00 noted after the property is the amount of "consideration"for the property paid by the buyer to the seller and is noted in the official grant deeds. When the number is low such as 10 dollars in this case, this does not actually reflect the sale price of the property which does not have always have to be included in the newly recorded grant deed. "

Consideration

A deed must include a recital of consideration. In most instances, a recital of nominal consideration (for example, Ten Dollars) is sufficient. The actual consideration paid for the real property must be disclosed to local and /or state tax departments for tax purposes. Real property may be conveyed as a gift, in which case no actual monetary consideration is being exchanged for the real property. There are special circumstances in which the actual sales price must be inserted, as in the case of a deed in which the grantor is acting in a fiduciary capacity on behalf of the owner of the real property"

Van Nuys Ranch Memories

A ranch and it's buildings are not just simple wooden structures but repositories of cherished memories held throughout decades of time by those who lived there. Here are just a sampling of some of the rich family memories of this place . Although we no longer live there we are happy that the buildings still stand and help us to remember....

Auntie Soo Jan :

I recall moving from the old farm house that had asparagus pushing up through the floors and termite invasions every spring over to the big house when I was about 9 years old, which would be 1947 or so. The house was built soon after World War Two was over. There were 3 bedrooms downstairs and 4 bedrooms upstairs. Posie, Jack and Joan occupied the downstairs, while my Mom and Dad, Guy, myself had our own bedrooms, then Pingy and Soo-Yin shared the last one. Soo-Yin was just a toddler. I don’t recall Dorothy and Corrine ever living there, but they did come to visit. I thought that Dorothy lived in a house in San Fernando because I remember visiting there and playing with a little girl down the street until her mother forbade her to play with an oriental (remember that this was right after the War). Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that Jack left the big house when he went away to college. Joan moved to her own house when she married Richard. After they left, Guy and I moved downstairs and Pingy and Soo-Yin had their own rooms upstairs. My job was to take care of Posie’s needs, like doing her hair and driving her around for her errands. She loved to go out every day to Van Nuys for shopping and she’d just buy one little thing so that she could go again the next day for her outing

Auntie Soo Yin:
In our new house I remember us kids skating on the flat rooftop above the indoor porch when our parents weren't home. There were no barriers to catch us if we were unable to stop at the roof's edge. Brother Guy would dare us to see how far we could skate to the edge. It was fun and exciting to do something we weren't suppose to do.
 I loved our homestead. Our ranch was self-sustaining. We had our own gas pump, an auto- and repair shop, fruit trees of nectarines, oranges, pears, apricots, lemons, figs, walnuts, etc. We grew strawberries, grapes, corn, and vegetables of all kind. Behind the big red barn that faces Vanowen St. we had a large chicken coop. It was filled with hens and one rooster (probably purchased from Uncle Ed's Holly Hatchery or Albert Zoraster's hatchery). The rooster was a trip. During eclipse he would go to sleep, then wake up to sunlight and crow. When he grew old he got day and night all messed up and crowed at the wrong times. We raised a pheasant in the coop, too. Then San Tong got a bright idea. In addition to fresh eggs and chicken meat, we could have delicious squab meals too. So he threw feed onto the floor of the coop and all the stray pigeons flew into the lair. Immediately he covered its top with chicken wire. San Tong had wooden nests built from floor to ceiling in the coop, the lower half was for the hens, and the upper half was for the pigeons--hundreds.
 As a toddler I would awaken from a nap, then my mother would take me out to see brother Jack's Morgan horse "Thunder," in a stable. I got to pet Thunder's nose and feed him some straw. I loved horses from then on. Each Spring our dog Bingo always found stray kittens born on our ranch. We would carry the kittens home in a field box, then divvy them up--one for each sibling. Brother Jack had a childhood friend, Jack White, with whom he went riding and exploring with. One day Thunder got stuck in quicksand and it took 5 Mexicans to pull the horse to safety.
 I loved Jack White's parents. Mrs. White was like Mrs. Santa Claus. She was plump and jolly, gray-haired, and blew a hardy laugh as she chugged up our driveway in her Model-T truck. At X-mas time she gave us wonderful storybooks, and when we visited her house on De Celis dirt road, she had the most amazing doll collection for you to see. They were a collector's dream.
 David Frazer was brother Guy's childhood friend. And David had a perky horse named "Brandy," which prompted Guy to press our father for a horse too. When he got Senator, he and David went horseback riding together. The Frazers lived across the street from us on Vanowen St., and I loved playing with their Red Settler dog, "Rafferty." Rafferty was so gentle and had the personality of "Marmaduke," a cartoon character. In the evenings David Frazer and other friends came to play football with Guy on our big front lawn.
On hot Summer evenings we'd have BBQ dinner in our outdoor bathhouse, which had a firepit, picnic table and benches, and Leong Shee's original black iron stove to cook on. We'd get our swimsuits out from lockers in the bathhouse, go for a swim in the pool, then shower in the stalls with toilets that San Tong had built. Those were family moments that San Tong enjoyed. He could balance a chair on one leg in his open palm and tread across the deep end of our pool. Jack was a champion gymnist in school, and he balanced me on his open palm, me on one foot with my hands folded across my chest. I liked doing that.

I think Dorothy and Corrine lived with us in the big new house--only for a short while before Corrine married Lansing, and before Dorothy left for school. Corrine had the bedroom next to Posie's because, as a child, I used to visit her bedroom so that she'd dab perfume behind my ears. She always had fancy perfumes. And she would insist that her mother wear silk stockings whenever Lansing came courting. Dorothy lived in the bedroom near Corrine's that was called the "den." When she was in a good mood I would ask her politely for a piece of candy. I knew that she always had candy in her bedroom. Later, her den room became Jack's, then Guy's becroom. And Corrine's room became Joan's, then Soo-Jan's bedroom. I think in the very early years Jack and Joan shared a bedroom upstairs (the one later to be Soo-Jan's, then Pingileen's, in which a window opened onto the roof of our indoor porch). And Soo-Jan and Guy shared a bedroom next door, the one that looked out to the front lawn. After our aunts moved away we got rooms to ourselves like in musical chairs.

Bob Yen ( My cousin and son of  my late Auntie Joan ) who like  me played at the ranch in our childhood:

I remember the excitement I felt every summer when, after a 10 hour drive through the desert, we’d finally arrive at the tall gates to the Ranch: the fence posts made from railroad ties, the smell of tall eucalyptus, the crunch of gravel under the tires as we drove toward the house, past the cottage, the barns, the gas pump and school house-- closer to the weeks of adventure that we had been anticipating all year with our young aunts, uncles and cousins.

 I remember the giant tortoise shell in the pool cabana, the turtles and fish my mother hand painted on the bottom of the swimming pool; climbing the trees on the northern boundary and throwing acorns at passing cars.

 I remember standing at the fence to the west of the house, calling to the black bull as the sun set in the distance and a cool breeze crossed my face.

 I remember the sound of my shoes on the metal grate by the side door--and just inside-- the smell of Ah Gung’s Stetsons and work gloves in the closet; the creak of the wooden stairs that led from the dining hall and its tall black, shaker chairs, up to Ah Gung’s and Ah Po’s bedroom.

 I remember the coolness of the moss by the front door and the smell of summer gardenias; the weight of the front door carved with a Chinese character and the lushness of the wine carpet in the living room.

 I remember the hammered iron rails on the stairway, and the way the banana tree looked through the round window against the blue sky at the top of the landing.

 I remember the rough feel of cracked leather on Ah Gung’s chair in the living room, and how smooth and soft the purple, silk tassels were on Ah Po’s vanity table upstairs as I laid on my back and tied them in knots.

 But as much as anything, I remember the softness of Ah Gung’s voice, and the roughness of his hands touching my face as he called my name. I miss it-- the innocence of that place and time--The Ranch.

Historic Redwood Barns-Jue Joe Van Nuys Ranch

I recently discovered that the  Jue Joe Van Nuys Ranch  has been mentioned as a property eligible for historic preservation in  "Survey LA Chinese American Historic Context Statement,  City of Los Angeles Department  of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources " September 2013
The full text of this excellent survey of historic Chinese American  sites in the Los Angeles area can be found in this  PDF file.
On page 13 there is this statement :
 "Extant examples of Chinese American owned farms are likely to be extremely rare. The sole example discovered thus far is the Jue Joe Ranch (16608 Vanowen Boulevard), which was submitted to SurveyLA‟s MyHistoricLA.org website. The property includes a ranch style house constructed in 1941 with several adjacent outbuildings, consistent with eligibility criteria for the farm house property type developed in SurveyLA‟s Industrial Context."

Our family is extremely pleased that the property's historic significance is being recognized and I wanted to provide some additional  background on some of the historic farm buildings which still exist on the property.

Here is a picture of the main barn of the property , the adjacent car port and packing shed as they exist today.  Click on the picture to enlarge.

And here is a side view.

Here is an aerial view of the farm from the old days where the barn and the car port and  packing shed can be seen circa the  late 1940's .

Here courtesy of  my Auntie Soo Yin is some information about these structures, how they were used , and memories of what life was like on the farm. Thanks so much Auntie Soo Yin ! You have made these old buildings come alive for all of us ! ps. "Ah Gung" refers to  San Tong Jue , my grandfather and son of Jue Joe, and my aunt's father. My grandfather San Tong built the large ranch house in the mid 1940's which is the most modern of the ranch structures and renamed the Van Nuys Ranch the Jue Joe Ranch in honor of his father.

The Van Nuys ranch was purchased in 1920 or 1919. The entire Jue Joe property was originally 300 acres (the old Dickey ranch).  It started from Vanowen Street and ran southward to Haynes Street.  And it ran east to west from Hayvenhurst to Balboa Blvd.  Because the first structure that Jue Joe built on his land was the big barn, according to Auntie Joan, this makes the big barn around 95-years of age.  It served as a stable for Jue Joe's forty (40) working horses.  Inside the big barn, and located to the right side, was a small room with a door that opened onto the stable area (the rest of the interior barn).  This room was Jue Joe's sleeping quarter before he built his cabin with a dirt floor.  This sleeping quarter in the big barn later housed a Mexican family for awhile; not sure if it was Ritchie Valens' family, but I know that they lived on the ranch for awhile, so it could be. 

(Ritchie Valens lived with his father who was a musician until his father died.  At around 10 or 11-years of age he came to live with Connie and Ramon for about 4 to 5 years or so.  One day he threw a rock at a large beehive on the ranch and stirred up wildly angry bees, Ah Gung had to shut down farm operations for 3 days as a result, and Connie soon afterwards farmed Ritchie out to relatives.  Later, they moved to Pacoima, I think, or Sylmar.  I remember that we always hid Ramon in a small bathroom inside our big house whenever the immigration authorities came with paddy wagon looking for him.  Our big ranch house was designed by architect George Chapman and it had 3 bathrooms (the smallest one proved very useful in more ways than one); 

The small sleeping quarter inside the big barn had another door that opened into an even smaller room that Jue Joe used as a kitchen area; it was camp-style:  A hotplate set on top of field crates, very basic and primitive.  This kitchen was later used by the Braceros and their families making tortillas for lunch in the same basic way.  There was a door in that tiny kitchen that opened onto a wide gravel pathway, across which stood the packinghouse.  Later, the tiny kitchen became a storage area where your Dad and Auntie Joan's saddles were stored, and Uncle Guy's too.  This was where Auntie Pingileen and I found your Dad's baby stroller and layette (which was later used for Jimmy and Ming's births). 

The big barn and the packing house are separate structures that are not connected to each other.  All of Jue Joe's original structures were made of Redwood, and this includes the original packinghouse.  This area around the big barn and packinghouse was a beehive of human activity:  You heard chatter in the Spanish language, machines humming as they sheared off stumps of asparagus and as roller belts moved asparagus down an assembly line for sorting and packing; you smelled homemade tortillas and beans wafting from the tiny kitchen in the big barn, and our dog Bingo barking as he went from person to person greeting his old friends.  There were other Redwood structures, too, that were torn down after we moved off the land.  Too bad.  These structures have such stories to tell.       

Uncle Ed's brother Rick had said, "...the big barn is very rare because it is the only original Redwood barn left in the San Fernando Valley, and if it has not yet been declared a historic structure, it really should be." 

 I noticed that the roofs on the big barn and on the packinghouse had been restored using new material.  The original roof covering on the big barn was black-tarred sheet covering.  Not sure whether the original packinghouse had black-tarred sheet covering, too, or had wooden shingles like the carport that it was connected to. 

I do not know whether the packinghouse was built at the same time that the big barn was built.  I can only guess that it might have been built at the same time, or shortly afterwards, as the ranch was intended to be a working farm.  In an adjacent structure that was connected to the packinghouse there were horse's yokes and bridle gear that hung on its tall redwood walls, yokes that Jue Joe's teams of horses wore to haul heavy wagons and farm plows down his fields.  That barn was partially burned in later years, and after we moved off the ranch, it was torn down.   

In your photo the structure to the right of the big barn was a carport.  You could park 2 cars in the carport or drive right through it to park beside Ah Gung's big ranch house; you would then enter the house through the kitchen's side-door.   The carport was actually connected to the packinghouse that is situated to the left of the carport, behind the big barn; the roof of the carport is slightly higher than the packinghouse, too.  And the carport's roof originally had wooden shingles.  

I think the carport might have been added shortly after the big barn and packinghouse was built, but I do not know exactly when, or whether it was built by Jue Joe or by Ah Gung.  The age of the Redwood panels and rusty nails on it looked like it could have been very close in time to the big barn and packinghouse.  I would guess that the carport was built by Jue Joe because Ah Gung was living in Los Angeles and moved to the ranch at a later date.  I remember a telephone pole standing to the right of the carport's side, too.  One day Ah Gung told me not to carve on the pole or paint on the floor of the carport, as I had started to do as a kid, because "...these are valuable Redwood materials, very old, and you will damage them."   

I remember that the door frames of the 3 connecting structures--carport, packinghouse, and barn that stored crates of asparagus ready to be transported to market (this barn opened onto the seed-washing basin)--were built Chinese style, or maybe that's how door frames were built in the late 19th century:  The bottoms of the door frames had a raised block of wood that you stepped over in order to enter the rooms.  It was to keep rain water out. 

On our operating farm some of the families that were not living in the migrant camps, which were spread across the Valley, lived on our ranch: in the big barn, Jue Joe's cabin or Posie's cottage (Auntie Soo-Jan recalled that a Thai family lived in Posie's cottage for short awhile).  There was a gypsy family that worked one or two seasons on our ranch and they set up their campsite on the Hayvenhurst property, according to Ah Gung.  And, of course, wino Mikey lived in the smaller horse's stable that was in a pasture located next to the big house, on its west side.  He worked one season on the ranch and then wouldn't leave.  He was homeless so Ah Gung let him stay so long as he didn't harm us kids. 

The packinghouse was so active.  There was Shorty always working at the shearing blades, cutting stumps off, packing asparagus in crates, and hammering the crates shut almost faster than you could blink, he worked so fast.  It was like watching an artist perform.  Shorty worked for Jue Joe, then Ah Gung, and finally your Dad.  Connie Valenzuela (Ritchie Valens' mother) worked in the packinghouse, too, she sorted and graded asparagus shoots as they moved by conveyor belt down an assembly line.  She always wore a headscarf when she was working.  I don't know where Ramon worked, probably in the produce-storage barn stacking crates from floor to ceiling driving a forklift.  I remember their 2 young daughters, little Connie and Irma, who were very young, maybe 4 and 5-years old, scampering about. 

Farming operations eventually moved from Van Nuys to Saugus in the 1950's . According to Auntie Soo-Yin :
In the 1950s Ah Gung sold 200 acres of the ranch to Southwest Properties for residential development (your parent's first Rubio house was part of that development).  Family farms were giving way to urbanization and Ah Gung could see no future for farms in the Valley.  So he was in the process of moving farm operations to Saugus and training your Dad to take over the reins there. 

Here is a picture of the redwood main barn on the abandoned site of the Saugus farm which was discovered by my cousin Michael. More information about this discovery is here. 

Here is a film made by my late father of the family asparagus farming operations in Saugus in the 1950s. Asparagus farming was our family business since Jue Joe established the business in 1919 until the late 1950s.  

Leong Shee's "Chinese Deeds" 1906

In 1906 when my great grandmother left China to come to America with her two young boys , she brought with her what she called "deeds" to land or houses that Jue Joe owned in China. These documents were preserved by my late Aunt Joan Jue Yen who gave them to my son Robert. Recently with the help of my nephew Nick we have been able to get some of these documents translated and my Auntie Soo-Yin has been able to supply additional commentary as to their meaning.

Here is a translation courtesy of my nephew Nick's friend and business associate in China ... 

"These were written in the vernacular Chinese, so I can not understand what is saying, sorry.

I can only see the main idea:

File 1, can not understand absolutely, it's some kind of blank receipt(proof for receipt of money),without actual amount.

File 2:

A contact of sell house

Zhao Jianxian's father left him a house, and he sell the house to Zhao WeiYue, price of the house is 380.72 silver dollar(old Chinese currency), Zhao weiyue paid

50 silver dollar as deposit, balance amount need to be paid in the 4th lunar month of 1903.

If the seller refused to handle the contract, seller need to pay buyer double deposit(equals 100 silver dollar); if the buyer refused to handle the contract, buyer can not

take back the deposit(50 silver dollar).

The contact was signed on the 10th day of the first lunar month in 1903.

File 3:

A contract of sell graveyard

Ou Tianxi's grandpa left have a graveyard, he want to give it to his relatives, but did not find

suitable relative. He got the information tha Zhao Jiye(live in Shanjiang town) need graveyard. They both agreed the price 15 silver dollar.

Ou Tianxi will clean up the graveyard before handle it to Zhao jiye.

Third party Ou Tianlu written the contract for Ou Tianxi.

The contract date is October 1902. "

Here are my  Auntie Soo Yin's comments 

 Hi Family,

You're all doing such a great job...these documents are a fabulous treasure!!!  I am so glad that Auntie Joan kept them all these years and had passed them on to Robert.  My siblings and I knew that Leong Shee (Posie) had carried these legal papers with her when she left Sum Gong Village for Los Angeles, traveling with Ah Gung and San You.  But I didn't know that there were so many docs...about 100!!! 

Posie was smart to bring these docs to America because it gives our family of today an unbroken continuity of time winging our lives back to Jue Joe's home in China, and to the beginning of our clan.  These Chinese documents are of historical importance to us all.  I'm amazed that they are in such excellent condition, too.  When we moved from the Jue Joe Ranch all of Posie's belongings that had remained with us were given to Auntie Joan,

who was very close to Posie.  And all of Jue Joe's possessions that could be removed from the Ranch were given to Jack Sr. because he was close to Jue Joe; especially, Ah Gung wanted Jack Sr. to have the famous Colt.45 that Jue Joe loved.  My mother Ping and I were removing contents from the iron safe in Ah Gung's office upstairs in the Big House, sorting things to pack for the move from the Ranch. 

I lifted the Colt.45 off a tray in the safe and found the Chinese papers folded up as you all see in the photos.  My mother told me that they were deeds and other transactions, and there were also astrological birth charts that Jue Joe had made back in China for Jack Sr., Joan, Soo-Jan and Guy when each of them were born.  Jue Joe believed in astrology and said to Ah Gung that the Chinese astrologers in pre-communist

China could produce the most accurate; their secrets were passed down from son to son for generations.  I remember seeing Jack Sr.'s Chinese name on his chart, and seeing Uncle Guy's Chinese name, too.  My mother translated Uncle Guy's chart for me, and to this day, I am amazed at how accurate the predictions were!  It said that Guy would experience financial struggle in the early part of his life, he would marry

and have two sons, and at age 50 there would be a widowhood, there would also be a remarriage, and after age 50 he would know peace and serenity.  Uncle Guy died at age 49, but age 50 according to Chinese calculation.  Uncle Guy had one land deed that he had framed in his home; I'm sure Auntie Estelle still has it.  If he didn't have it, then Auntie Soo-Jan might have it.   

File #1:  Jue Joe began to send money to Leong Shee in China when Ah Gung was nine-years old and when Leong Shee discovered that Jue Joe was still alive.  Perhaps this is a receipt for one of the transactions.  Or it could be a receipt for a large amount of money sent to Leong Shee for 1st Class ship's passage to America.  Also, Leong Shee was a smart and capable farmer and she rented portions of the land to tenant farmers who then

paid her in rice yields, rather than pay her in cash...it's like share-cropping.  Ah Gung told me that she grew wealthy by this method.  Zhao Wei Yue might be one of Jue Joe's several names or it could be Jue Joe's youngest brother whom we know as "Jue Yao."  Or it could even be a 3rd person...like straw man...to be a go-between.  Very interesting that Robert's name is also "Weiyue."    

File #2:  This sales transaction made in the 4th lunar month of 1903 could be for the house that San You was born in.  Jue Joe returned to marry in Leong Shee in 1902, and Ah Gung said that his older brother San You was born in Jue Joe's 1st home, not the big house that Ah Gung was born in.  So Jue Joe must have purchased the first house just before San You was born.  Later, he purchased vacant land at the end of a track and built his ranch-style home and family compound in which San Tong was born in 1905 and in which his immediate relatives shared living

space.  The new lot was at the eastern end of the village and the area was pretty undeveloped at the time except for a couple of houses.  When Auntie Pingileen and I visited the home in 1987 it still was located at the eastern fringe, but with a few more developed homes and street-side kiosks.  There was still open space looking eastward toward Kieu Shan (mountain) beyond Jue Joe's home..."4th row in the 4th house from a stone road (now aged and more like a dirt road)."

I don't know who Zhao Jianxian is....I think Zhao Jianxian was probably a seller not connected to our immediate family , but I think Zhao Weiyue, the buyer, is Jue Joe's married name.  I think a lunar month begins in February, if so, then the contract was signed on February 10, 1903, and San You (Uncle Sam) was born on August 17th of that year. 

File #3:  I think this transaction to purchase a gravesite was for the reburial of Jue Joe's father Leong Kao.  He died a pauper and at a young age from diabetes, I think.  Ah Gung had said that when Jue Joe returned to Sum Gong the first matter to take care of was proper respect for father, then mother.  I kind of remember something about a new gravesite, and although Lee Shee (Jue Joe's mother) had died before Ah Gung was born, it is more likely that Jue Joe's father would receive the higher honor of reburial.  In our old family album there is a photo of Leong Kao's gravesite; the picture was deteriorating and very dark, it was a small mound with Chinese characters written on stone atop the mound.  Ah Gung had taken the photograph in 1937 when he returned to China to marry my mother Ping.  Zhao Jiye might be a "relationship name" used to address Jue Joe, showing him respect as an elder distant relative.  The name Jiye might be a form of respect that Tianxi, the gravesite seller, used in deference to Jue Joe's reverence for his father. 

The above comments on the Files are conjecture on my part, so I may very well be wrong.  But I hope that my thoughts give you more leads in solving the mysteries of our Jue family saga.   Destiny is for sure helping us all to develop a full and whole picture of the Jue story for all generations to come! 

Jue Joe Returns to America-Ship's Manifest 1906

Recently  I have been able to locate Jew Joe's record on the ship's manifest of the SS Mongolia on which he returned alone to America from China on January 26, 1906 after staying in China for four years, getting married and fathering two sons.  He was 49 years old at the time .(Jue Joe later changed the English spelling of our surname from Jew to Jue ).
The record states that his surname is Jew and primary name is Joe ,  born September 26, 1856 in Sam Kong, San Ning China . He returns as a laborer . He has an identifying "tumor on right eye".  His destination is Los Angeles, CA.

Click the picture of the record on this link and you can  zoom and manipulate the record . Look at line 29 .
Jue Joe's record on 1906 Ship Manifest

Here is a previous post that explains how  Jew Joe returned as  a "returning laborer" even though his  immigration should have been blocked by the existing discriminatory immigration laws of the time .
He must have had some "friends in high places, " who convinced the immigration authorities to "land him ". Interestingly, after return to the United States , Jue Joe applies and receives a duplicate of his original identification certificate required of all Chinese in the United States that he does not have with him on return . Yet on the ship manifest a return certificate number is listed that does not match the number of his original certificate.  I suspect all these issues would have caused him to be sent back to China and not allowed entry but for the intervention of  his "friends in high places ".

San You Jue's Gravestone -Rosedale Cemetary Los Angeles

Previously in this blog I have discussed the life story of my grandfather's older brother, San You, who was the apple of his father Jue Joe's eye . Unfortunately San You died at a young age of leukemia . This was a huge tragedy for Jue Joe who loved his son. Jue Joe had a beautiful gravestone created for San You at Rosedale Cemetary in Los Angeles. Recently a picture of that gravestone was posted on the internet. Here is a picture of San You Jue as a young man.

Here is a picture of his gravestone.

Tom Stockwell's Articles about Jue Joe in the St. Helena Star

Recently Tom Stockwell a writer for the St. Helena Star wrote a wonderful two part story on Jue Joe in his series "Missing faces of the Napa Valley." Tom interviewed me for the articles and took a lot of time to read and research our family history blog in detail . Here is the link to Tom's first article which discusses Jue Joe's time in the Napa Valley and his second article which discusses Jue Joe's life after leaving the Napa Valley .

Here are some of our family's pictures and a picture of old St Helena Chinatown which Tom included in his articles and Tom's captions.  His articles are an excellent summary of Jue Joe's life as well as the hidden history of the Chinese in the Napa Valley.

"Jue Joe, a Chinese immigrant who spent nearly 13 years in St. Helena, is reunited with his family after a long separation. Pictured are Jue Joe, his wife, Leong Shee, and his two Chinese-born sons, San You and San Tong. Jue Joe left China at the age of 14, returned to be married, re-immigrated to the U.S., and built a business that would allow his family to immigrate to this country. His wife did not hear from him for nine years while he earned enough money to help them immigrate."
 Courtesy of the Jue family

"Jue Joe arrived at St. Helena’s Chinatown at the age of 14 to work in the vineyards. St. Helena’s Chinatown was located kitty-corner from today’s Tra Vigne Restaurant, across the road from Long Meadow Ranch, at the edge of a gravel pit. It was home to 300 workers. Jue Joe spent nearly 13 years here."
 Courtesy of the St. Helena Historical Society

"Jue Joe — once a resident of St. Helena Chinatown — as he appeared in 1918 after returning from China. Jue made a fortune in vegetables, lost it, and returned to make it again. "
Courtesy of the Jue family