Ah Quin (1848-1914)
The early immigrant Chinese are usually a nameless group of men who have never been fully acknowledged for their contributions to the development of California and the West, but Ah Quin is an exception. He was a man respected by all, a successful entrepreneur, a community leader and patriarch, who bridged the gap between the Chinese and the white establishment of his day.
Ah Quin was born on Dec. 5, 1848 in a small village in the Hoiping (Kaiping) District of Guangdong Province of southern China. He was the eldest son of parents who were farmers. The family name was Tom which can also be Romanized as Hom, but as is often the case with Chinese immigrants, their names were misinterpreted by government officials, and he became known as Ah Quin. His family moved to Canton when he was young providing him with an opportunity for an education, which included English at an American missionary school. Like many Cantonese of the period, his family sent him to California (Gold Mountain) in 1868. He spent his first six years in San Francisco's Chinatown, where he continued his studies at a Christian mission and worked at a variety of jobs including that of houseboy and cook.
Around 1873, Ah Quin moved to Santa Barbara where he began to learn merchandising from an uncle, continue his mission studies, serve as a houseboy, and develop contacts with important men of the area, such as Judge Charles Huse. While in Santa Barbara he decided to sign on for a year as a cook with a company that mined coal in Alaska. While in Alaska he decided to cut off his queue, which was a demonstration that he was planning to make America his home. It was also upon leaving Santa Barbara for Alaska in 1877 that Ah Quin began his first diary. This is one of the most unique contributions that he made in his lifetime. The keeping of a diary, which was continued intermittently for about twenty-five years, was most unusual for a Chinese immigrant in the nineteenth century, especially when the diary was in English.
On returning to Santa Barbara, Ah Quin began to survey the job possibilities elsewhere in California. He visited San Diego in 1878 and established contacts with friends and relatives, and met George Marston and Rev. Camp. He spent two years in San Francisco working at a number of odd jobs and became frustrated at the lack of opportunities available to Chinese. Eventually he took a job at the Presidio as a cook and servant for two officers.
Finally in 1880, he received letters from George Marston and Rev. Camp asking him to come to San Diego to serve as labor broker for the California Southern Railroad. He started a store in San Diego's Chinatown as a base of operations and worked for the railroad for five years procuring their Chinese labor, supplying the work gangs with goods from his store. At this point he felt he was well situated and wanted to start a family. He went to San Francisco to marry Sue Leong whom he had met at the Presbyterian Mission. After he left the railroad he began to expand his merchandising business and branch out into real estate. He acquired property around the city and county and leased land to farmers to raise vegetables in Mission Valley and in Bonita along the Sweetwater River.
San Diego in Ah Quin's day was a seaport with many ships coming and going; therefore it had its red-light district known as the Stingaree. The Stingaree was San Diego's version of the famous Barbary Coast in San Francisco. The area was characterized by violence and crime with fighting, killings, prostitution, gambling, drinking, and drugs. Chinatown was adjacent to the Stingaree and much of the activity spilled over into it.
In spite of the vice in the area, members of the Chinese community, who had no choice as to where they lived, were able to endure and began to raise families. Ah Quin and his wife Sue in their two story-home on Third Street raised a family of twelve children. Like most of the early Chinese American communities, organizations were created to serve the interests of the immigrants and were their homes away from home in an alien environment. The immigrants were bolstered by a support system including family, district, and business associations, and the umbrella organization known as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA). The San Diego Chinese Mission began in 1885 and became a center where Chinese immigrants (mostly bachelors) could learn English in order to adapt to their new environment. The Chinese Mission School was instrumental in the education of Ah Quin's children.
Ah Quin was an influential and highly respected member of the early Chinese community holding the unofficial of "Mayor of Chinatown." Due to his bilingual capability he became a spokesman for the community and was helpful to others in need. He was often asked to serve the local courts in behalf of other Chinese immigrants. His diary also contained names and addresses of prominent men with whom Ah Quin had contact.
Ah Quin's children made significant steps in achieving acculturation and had American citizenship, which Ah Quin was never able to have because of the exclusion laws. Unfortunately, he never lived long enough to see his grandchildren grow up because in 1914 he was struck by a motorcycle near his home and died at the age of 66.
Ah Quin must be ranked among the prominent founders of early San Diego, not only for his accomplishments as a labor broker for San Diego’s first railroad, but for his leadership and influence among his fellow Chinese, and his ability to develop a network of friends throughout his life from both the Chinese and American communities. When considering the period in which he lived, Ah Quin’s accomplishments during his life were remarkable-- his mastery of English, his Christian conversion, his ability to learn and adapt to his environment, and his keeping of a diary in English. The latter, in itself, is a most unique accomplishment and a boon for historians; and when one considers that he was able to raise a family of twelve children in the midst of the notorious Stingaree District, he must also to be ranked as one of San Diego’s most noteworthy patriarchs.
[biographical sketch contributed by Murray Lee]
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