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

Van Nuys Ranch 2014

The history of the Jue Joe Van Nuys Ranch has fascinated many people including residents of the local community, and fellow online bloggers and I have received many comments , emails and pictures sent by people who have discovered my family history blog and who are interested in the history of the property. Part of the old property has been developed as a public tennis facility and the other part of the ranch including the main property that includes the historic barns and older buildings built by my late great grandfather Jue Joe, and the main house and swimming pool built by my late grandfather San Tong have been preserved intact. The buildings are not part of the tennis facility and the only part of the old residence being used by the public is one bathroom. Here are some recent pictures of the ranch property taken from the public areas of the property that were forwarded to me for my blog. I will include some of the pictures of the property from the old days for comparison sake. Here is an aerial view of the property surrounded by farmland circa 1947.

Here is a view of the front of the main house circa 1949.

And here is a view of the main house in the early days after an unusual winter snowstorm . Snow is unusual for the San Fernando Valley !

Here are some recent pictures of the property . Part of the property is being used as a public tennis facility.

Here are some views of the main house and side house that are not part of the tennis facility but can be seen from inside the tennis facility.

Looks like a lot of clean up or other work has been done to the main house or is in progress. Here are some views of the back of the property.

I remember the back of the house from my childhood. There was a large solarium with multiple windows that could be opened to let the breeze in . You can see the windows in the current picture above as well as in this family photo of my mom and dad's engagement party at the ranch circa 1950.

The big pool was a central area for family gatherings in the old days. I had a lot of fun swimming in it as a child . Here are my Aunties Soo-Yin and Pingy as hula girls by the pool when they were kids.

Here is a view of the pool in 2014.

The inside of the house which I remember as quite grand as a young boy is not open to the public and the only part of the main house open is a small bathroom .

Here is a picture from the interior of the house in the old days. On the couch are my Dad's stepmom , my mom and my Dad's grandmother and sisters.

Recently the "San Fernando Valley Blog " did a nice piece on the Jue Joe Van Nuys Ranch . The blog has some additional current pictures of the property including this nice picture of the historic redwood barn which I think is one of the last such barns left in the San Fernando Valley.

Here is video of our family during the Van Nuys Ranch days Here is a hand drawn plan of the Jue Joe Ranch Property circa 1947 courtesy of Auntie Soo-Yin 

First is the ranch buildings and layout of the ranch property and then the interior plan of the main ranch house. 

Rev. Wai Shing Kwok and the Locke United Christian Center

My maternal grandfather's history has been documented in a previous post.  Rev. Wai Shing Kwok was the pastor at the Chinese Christian Church in Sacramento and head teacher at the Kwai Wah Chinese language school after emigrating to the USA with his wife and son in 1920.  In the  late 1920's through the 1930's  and until the early 1940's he was also a visiting minister at the United Christian Center in  the town of Locke in the Delta south of Sacramento.  During this time the Locke Christian Center did not have a regular minister of Chinese descent and my grandfather often travelled to Locke to officiate at marriages at the Locke Christian Center as well as perform other pastoral services at the request of the Locke center.

Here is a favorite picture of mine of my grandfather Kwok and I after he retired from his ministry.

The history of Locke and of it's Christian center is fascinating .  The town  has been preserved as a historic landmark as has it's buildings including the building housing the Locke Christian center and is well worth a visit .

Here is a brief history of the town from the Locke Town website  :

"Locke was founded in 1915 after a fire broke out in the Chinese section of nearby Walnut Grove. The Chinese who lived in that area decided that it was time to establish a town of their own. A committee of Chinese merchants, led by Lee Bing, Chan Hing Sai, Tom Wai, Chan Dai Kee, Ng So Hat, Chan Wai Lum, Chow Hou Bun, and Suen Dat Suin was formed. They approached land owner George Locke and inquired if they could build on his land. An agreement was reached. The town was laid out by Chinese architects and industrious building ensued. The founding of Lockeport, later 'Locke', was a reality. By 1920 Locke stood essentially as you see it now. Levee construction originally brought the Chinese to this area, but by the time Locke was built most of the work was in farm labor. Locke had many businesses that catered to the farm workers and residents of this region. In the 1940's restaurants, bakeries, herb shops, fish markets, gambling halls, boarding houses, brothels, grocery stores, a school, clothing stores, and the Star Theatre lined the bustling streets of Locke. At its peak 600 residents, and as many as 1500 people occupied the town of Locke. On August 2, 1970, Locke was added to the registry of national historical places, by the Sacramento County Historical Society, because of its unique status as the only town in the United States built exclusively by the Chinese for the Chinese.Locke is no tourist trap, nor is it a ghost town. Its unusual, out-of-the-way charm is genuine. Perhaps it is this authenticity, without any hypocritical overtones, which brings so many out of town visitors to its doors. "

 My grandfather and grandmother were from the Heungshan ( later known as Chungsan and then Zhongshan) district in China as were most of the inhabitants of Locke. "Locke was built by a "secessionist" group of immigrants from Zhongshan district in Guandong province, who had originally settled in the Chinatown of Walnut Grove... The other Chinese residents in Walnut Grove came from the neighboring region of Sze Yup " the Four Districts.. When the Walnut Grove Chinatown burned down in 1915, several Zhongshan merchants decided not to join the Sze Yup residents to rebuild it.  Their decision reflected age-old social cleavages brought over from their homeland.
Although Zhongshan and Sze Yup are situated relatively close by, dialects in China are so finely differentiated that people living in adjoining districts who spoke slightly different dialects looked upon their neighbors as virtual foreigneers. Chinese immigrants often accentuated such dis-similarties in overseas settlements by sticking to their own dialect group through memebership in the same district and or clan associations, and by following the same occupations. Zhongshan emigrants to the United States specialized in fruit growing and congregated along the natural levees of the northern Sacramento Delta; Sze Yup peopole tended to go into potato cultivation in the back swamps further south." Suchang Chang Ph.D., "The Significance of Locke in Chinese American History", in "Remembering 100 years 1915 -2015, Locke Centenial Book.

 The Locke Unit of the United Christian Center  was established in 1920 by Dr . Charles Shepherd who had been a baptist missionary in Canton China.
Here is some information about the Christian center movement taken from the United Christian Center web site :

" The Christian Center movement, of which we are a direct descendant of, had it’s beginning over 100 years ago, when various church related centers came into existence to meet some human needs. The early Baptist Christian Centers had their inception in the efforts of the American Baptists to minister to the waves of immigrants just prior to, and following, the turn of the 19^th to the 20^th century. This work was known as Christian Americanization and was carried on in bi-lingual churches. As the workers became more aware of the many needs of the new comers, the programs expanded, and many of these churches became known as Christian Centers and some still exist in the Christian Center program. (United Christian Centers has continued this tradition to this day, assisting specifically with the resettlement of Hispanic and Slavic immigrants that were arriving in West Sacramento and the Sacramento area in general.) A decision was made in 1918 that they be planned along the line of social settlement houses such as Chicago’s famous Hull House.

The first two Baptist Settlement centers were founded in 1919 in Hammond Indiana. Over the ensuing 50 years many different types of center programs developed, but all represented the same Christian Center philosophy of acceptance of people on the level which they live and approaching individuals and families through meeting their felt needs, and then moving to their deeper needs. This philosophy led the centers to the use of group work methods, extended weekday activities, and became involved in community organization with a focus on community growth and development. The United Christian Centers of Greater Sacramento in it’s current corporate form, was formed in 1958 after a merger of three separate Centers operating in the Sacramento area. The oldest of these centers was the Chinese Christian Center in Locke California. The Locke Christian Center was organized in 1920 under the leadership of Dr. Charles Shepherd to serve the Chinese Community. This Center continued operation until 1966."
Here is a picture of  a teacher and students at the Locke Christian center.

 This history of the Locke Christian Center is from  the following PDF document
Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service Department of the Interior Washington, D.C. 20243

"On the east side of Key Street stands the original Chinese Baptist Center, established in 1919 by the Reverend Charles R. Shepherd, a former Baptist missionary to China. Shepherd had worked for the Baptist Foreign Missions in Canton where he was a professor of Church History at Canton Baptist College, and an English teacher at the Canton Baptist Boy's Academy. At the time he was asked to visit Chinatowns in the Delta, Shepherd was director of Chinese Missions of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, based in SanFrancisco. His and other Christian missionaries' motivating objective in working with Chinese people was to bring them out of ignorant "paganism." By the early 1890s eleven Christian denominations were involved in converting the Chinese in America. The initial result of Shepherd's efforts in Locke in 1919 was the founding of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society.

 The first religious services for adults and classes for children were conducted in a laundry. In a few years, efforts to raise money for a mission building began. Ironically, the "bulk of the funds were solicited from Main Street gambling house owners. By 1922 the Locke Christian Center on Key Street was completed and occupied for Sunday services.

Sunday school classes and weekly clubs were attended predominately by young girls who were instructed in music, sewing and cleanliness.

 In the summers, a joint program with Walnut Grove's Japanese Methodist mission was created. The Reverend Shepherd wrote that during the first summer
"50 (were) enrolled, 23 boys and 27 girls, and an average attendance of 38; 182 articles were made, and the little folks did splendidly in the Bible and song work The collection amounted to $ll. The girls made sewing-baskets, jointed paper dolls, rag dolls, aprons, wallpaper beads, purses, etc. The boys made small tables, broom holders, wagons, toy animals, flower stands."
The impact of the mission upon Locke1 s Chinese community was never as great as Shepherd had originally hoped. The Baptist mission saw its plight in terms of an uphill battle that could only be successful with the leadership of a Chinese pastor. The Baptist mission1 s inability to retain a Chinese pastor in Locke resulted in minimal support among the local people.
(note :In the 1940's Rev. Edward S. Yook did serve as a resident pastor .  I am not sure how long he was retained as pastor. He is pictured below with his wife and three of his children in front of the Locke Christian Center)

 General lack of interest in the mission and the declining population in the Chinese community contributed to the mission's slow decline. In 1934 thirty-five boys participated in mission activities. By 1965 the school had been closed, and the building was given to Walnut Grove Church. "

Pictures above were obtained from :
Library of Congress 
and a wonderful  new book in the Images of America  Series
Locke  and the Sacramento Delta Chinatowns  by  Lawrence Tom , Brian Tom and the Chinese American Museum of Northern California

Edited 5/24/2014
Current picture of the Locke Christian Center Building which has been nicely painted and restored as an artist's workshop ....

Locke has a nice memorial park honoring Chinese pioneers in the Delta ...

There is a memorial pillar that honors these early Chinese settlers.....

Families and others can buy memorial tiles for the walls around the park to honor relatives who lived and worked in Locke or in the surrounding communities .  Our family installed a tile honoring my maternal grandfather who served as a visiting pastor at the Locke Chrisitian Center.

Jack L. Jue- Remembering my Father

 

 

I had the great honor to spend the last 10 days of my father Jack's life constantly at his bedside. In those 10 days my father continued to teach me how to live life , how to care for others, and how to face adversity as he has throughout my life. One evening at the hospital when we were alone , it was my task to tell him that his doctors had determined that there was nothing more they could do to treat his invasive bladder cancer and that his life was most likely to be numbered in days rather then weeks, months or years. He calmly asked me the particulars about what was most likely to come and then fell asleep. He slept straight through the night like a baby. It was the first night in the hospital that he had a good nights sleep . When he awoke he told me that he thought that it was pretty bad and scary story that I had told him the night before but that he was very comfortable that I was sleeping by his side in the recliner chair and joked with me that if I wanted I was welcome to sleep by his side every night , although he was quite concerned about how uncomfortable I looked in that chair !
 After that evening , we spent very little time talking about that bad and scary story and instead shared other stories of my Dad's full and eventful and exciting life and of the many people he had known . My Dad had a gift for what the Hawaians call “talking story”. and he did that for the next 10 days when we were together . I will share just a little bit of that story . Dad was born to a Chinese immigrant family that had a sucessful asparagus farming business in the San Fernando valley. He went to UCLA and then finished his education at UC Davis. He met and married the love of his life ,my mother , Alice starting a family that would ultimately grow to 5 children , 10 grandchildren and 2 great granchildern. After college he joined his father in Asparagus farming for a number of years. . Later due to forces beyond their control , my father and his father lost their Asparagus farming business and were forced to remake themselves completely from scratch . My father tried a number of jobs including gardening running a toy store( I liked that one) , selling Christmas trees and other odd jobs . Eventually he settled on Real Estate as a career, taking classes and becoming a salesmen and broker. Later he began working for the County of Los Angeles and was trained as a Real Estate Appraiser by the county . He worked for many years in the Capital Projects department . After retiring from the County he started his own successful Real Estate appraisal business which he operated until his retirement . In 1982 he and others formed Standard Savings Bank which became very successful serving the Chinese community . Later in life my Father discovered Christ and the Church and the Church community became a large part of his life.
Those are the bare outlines of my Dad's story . But the bigger story is the story of how he lived his life. He was always a humble , and unassuming man , who cared deeply about his family , and friends . He was a good listener and always wanted to hear your story and what you were doing . He was funny , and was endearing to all who knew him making you feel comfortable in his true warmth . But the secret was that he was not just this way with family and friends but with everyone . The nursing assistants who cared for him in the hospital during the last days of his life would come out of his room laughing and amazed at how my Dad had joked with them in Spanish . Woken up at 430 in the morning by a nursing assistant to bathe him and change his bedding ..he complimented her profusely on her skill at getting the job done all by herself without him even getting out of bed .. Although in dire straits and very ill , he did not dwell on his condition but  instead wanted to know all the details about how she had learned how to do her job so well! That is the way Dad was ... He was every one's good friend .. even strangers, waitresses at restuarants , car mechanics... nurses and nursing assistants who cared for him , new parishioners in his church ... It didn't matter who you were or what your station was in life , he wanted to connect with you and hear your story.  In the last 10 days of his life although very weak he pulled himself together to share time and stories with his large extended family and many friends who came to visit , holding forth from his hospital bed in the living room of his home.
 . ... He is gone now and we all , family and friends, miss him terribly. But I will speak for my father .. He would say , please go on with those family celebrations to come , the small group Church meetings to come , the cruises to foreign lands, the parties with friends, and those noodle lunches he so loved to share with you . He is very sorry he will not be there but will be there with you in spirit , sharing together with you the good times. But he would also say , that he will be with you as well through the difficult and not so good times, his spirit will be with you always comforting you when you are in need.

Jack Jue Jr.

1928 Baby Book -Jack L. Jue.

My grandmother Rose kept a beautiful little book during my father, Jack's first year of life. I discovered this treasure tucked away in the pages of one of my Dad's scrapbooks. Dad was born on June 10, 1928.  If you look at his weight records , he actually weighed less at 2 months of age then at birth . He had a condition called pyloric stenosis that causes narrowing of the outlet of the stomach. This condition gets progressively worse in the first few months of life and can cause the little baby to starve to death.  It is easily corrected by sugery, but in 1928 operating on infants was certainly touch and go . My father's grandfather strongly opposed any medical intervention but as my Dad looked weaker and weaker , finally relented to pressure from my grandfather , San Tong.  The operation was done and a success and my father rapidly gained weight and became a healthy baby. In the book are pictures of my Dad growing up and his mother Rose , as well as the list of presents for his first birthday party !

Click on photos to enlarge.