In late May 1879, the Southern Pacific Railroad reached Casa Grande. Because of the lack of supplies and hot weather, construction was suspended until December 1879. During this time some of the Chinese returned to work California, others found employment in Arizona.
Tucson’s first important Chinese businessman was Chan Tin Wo. According to his nephew Don Chun Wo, he supposedly came to Tucson in 1870 from the railroad, where he was a cook, to act as an interpreter in the court case involving the Wongs. There are problems with Don’s version of Chan’s arrival. In Wensheng Wang’s article “The First Chinese in Tucson,” there is an excellent analysis of the story. I believe that an alternative theory is that Chan Tin Wo came to Tucson after being laid off from the railroad in late May of 1879. Wang also places Chan in Tucson in 1878 or 1879 but does not speculate about his early activities.
We can document him in Tucson early in 1880. According to a notice in the Arizona Weekly Citizen, February 21, 1880, freight he ordered arrived in Casa Grande on February 19th and was on its way to Tucson. The freight would had to have been ordered sometime in 1879.
On June 21/22, 1880, a “Woo Chan Ting” is enumerated for the U.S. census in Tucson census District 5 (north of Congress) as a “washer” aged 18 along with 8 other Chinese men on the “west side of Main Street.” The similarity in the names cannot be ignored. Chinese naming convention gives the last name first. His last name was Chan, not Wo. Other names on the page are listed as last name first so, Chan Tin Wo listed “American style” is Wo Chan Tin as in “Woo Chan Ting.” The age is off but that may have been estimated by the census taker based on his appearance not on a direct query. The 1900 census gives his birth year as 1847, making him 33 in 1880.
At first, the number of Chinese men in one location whose occupations were all “washers” told me this must have been a laundry. However, other Chinese men working in laundries in Tucson are listed as “working in laundry” or “working in wash house” as per census instructions. An 1880 census instruction that states “If he can not tell intelligibly what he is, find out what he does, and characterize his profession accordingly.” According to his nephew, Chan spoke English well enough to be used as a translator. He would have understood the question, if it had been asked, and the census enumerator who would have seen them in a laundry setting. Despite all of District 5 being enumerated by one enumerator, S. A. Manlove, I found that the way laundries were listed was not consistent. (Mr. Manlove also misnumbered the pages he enumerated for District 5.) Based on the inconsistencies listed below, I believe Chan was indeed working in a laundry in June 1880.
- In two entries for men whose occupation was “works in wash house” one of the men was noted as “keeps wash house” which indicates he was the lead man. Entries for other laundries/wash houses did not indicate a lead man as was the case for Chan’s laundry.
- One entry had occupations for “washer,” “laborer” and “works in wash house” all at the same dwelling number.
- One entry had one “laundryman” with four men who “work in laundry.”
Chinese laundries of this period were cheap to open and organized much like railroad crews. The Chinese crew chief spoke English well enough to communicate with the American foreman. The Chinese crew chief directed the crew’s work as well as working alongside the crew. Finally, he was responsible for paying the crew. Although none of the men are listed as supervisor, manager or “keeps wash house,” one of these eight Chinese “washers” must have been in charge. They would have interfaced with the American customers and directed the other men. I believe this man was “Woo Chan Ting.” He had the language and business skills to do the job.
I tried to find exactly where the laundry was located. The Dwelling Numbers and Family Numbers are given but no House Numbers are listed. The best I could do was determine that it was north of Congress, on the west side of Main. This was in the same general area where Chan would locate his store. In the 1881 Tucson City Directory, no laundries were located on Main. By this date Chan was fully involved in managing his provision store at “111 Main st. N” and no longer would have had the time to also run a laundry. Within a few years the address of his store changed to 102 to 104 N. Main (east side) which was across the street from 111 N. Main (west side).
In advertisements from the early 1880s Chan includes “Chinese help procured for all kinds of work on short notice.” In other words, he was acting as a labor contractor. Chinese labor contractors were used by the railroads to supply the Chinese workers needed to build the railroads. The contractor was paid, then, after taking their cut, he paid the workers. I believe it is possible that Chan was working as a labor contractor in addition to working in the laundry. He knew of how labor contracting worked from his time on the railroad. He had access to unemployed Chinese men, especially between late May and December of 1879. The men who worked in the laundry could also be contracted for other more profitable work (for Chan) on short notice. It would not be hard to back fill their positions with other “washers” or find unemployed Chinese workers in Tucson to work on short notice. Customers only had to come to the laundry, and later the store, to hire workers.
It’s hard for me to give a definitive answer but, given Chan Tin Wo’s energy, intelligence, ambition, and the available evidence, it is entirely possible that he may have had labor contracting business and a laundry in Tucson as early as 1879. The Chinese railroad workers were very penny-wise. He likely arrived in Tucson with money already saved. The laundry and labor contracting would have given him a steady source of additional funds to purchase the stock needed open his store and he could have converted the laundry he already occupied into his first store. He continued to run his labor contracting business for years after his provisions store opened giving him additional income. In addition, Chan could have been an interpreter in any number of civil or criminal court cases or, other legal matters, involving Tucson’s Chinese residents over the approximately twenty-five years he lived in Tucson.
Resources
See also a timeline of Chan Tin Wo’s life I did for an oral history presentation at the Arizona Historical Society in 2017.