Monthly Archives: December 2012

Greenbank, Halawa, Kohala, Hawaii where Wung Sam Sing grew Taro

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Jean Wung Chang writes in her article that Wung Sam Sing ‘took his bride to Greenbank’.  She was in error when she stated Waipio.  Greenbank is in Halawa, N. Kohala.

The estate was purchased by Dr. James Wight about 1860 where he built his homes, etc.

http://www.greenbankhawaii.com/aboutgreenbank.html

 

Gb_map_1

Media_httpgreenbankho_ghahb

Gbland_2

Jean heard and stated that Wung Sam Sing was a taro farmer for a ‘number of years’ after his contract at the Sugar Plantation as well as number of years before he asked Kong Tet Yin to find him a wife.  Jean also assumed that Greenbank was owned by Father Bond and had worked for Father Bond’s Taro patches.  Greenbank was named by Dr. Wight and purchased in 1860.  So either Wung Sam Sing worked for Father Bond and then moved to Greenbank and worked these taro patches.  I could not find any info that relates Father Bond to Greenbank other than Father Bond and Dr. Wight were the few haoles living in Kohala at the time.

Wong Loi Yu arrives to Hawaii between April & Oct 1883

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Jean Wung Chang in her article in ‘Wung Sam Sing family of Kohala stated a few things.

1.  Kong See Yin, which I believe is Kong Tet Yin, went to Hong Kong to get a few wive’s for Chinese men including Wung Sam Sing.  Wong Loi Yu came back to Hawaii to marry him. and got married almost immediately upon her arrival.

Kong Tet Yin was coming back to Hawaii about the middle of 1883 as stated in this excerpt I found in ‘The Friend’. 

“Chinese Church in Kohala. — Active efforts are now being made to erect a Chinese Church and Parsonage in Kohala. A central and suitable site of land for this purpose has been donated by the Kohala Sugar Plantation. A generous sum has already been subscribed by the Foreigners, Natives and Chinese residing in the district. Still it is hoped that this will be further increased by gifts from friends of the work in Honolulu and elsewhere. The Chinese Preacher, Kong Tet Yin, who has been absent for some months in China, is now on the way returning to this port, with his family. The missionary work among the Chinese in Kohala and elsewhere is constantly gaining in importance. Further particulars in reference to the church, subscriptions, etc., will be given in our next issue.”

The Friend, Volume 40, Number 4, 2 April 1883 Edition 01

Kong was back in June as Rev. Bond states that he paid him 200 dollars in regards to the chinese church in another article July 1883.

The eldest child of Wung Sam Sing, En Kyau, was born June 8, 1884.

Wung Sam Sing looks to have immediately married Wong Loi Yu right after she arrived.  This timing looks right as I assume that Wong Loi Yu arrived mid year 1883 between April and Sept/Oct. 1883

Somelinks for old photographs of the Basel Mission China

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Found some links for photographs:

http://bmpix.usc.edu/bmpix/controller/browse.htm?summary=GEO&mode=search&…

 

 

Kon Lan Hee Pang, Dongguan District, Kwangtung Province

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Kon Lan Hee Pang, where Wung Sam Sing, came from is in the Dongguan District of Kwangtung Province.  Here is the Chinese characters written by a friend.

Hee is village/fair.  and Pang means tent built by either cotton cloth or bamboo with straw.

On Wung Sam Sing(Shin) tomb, En Leong inscribed this home town (Kon Lan Hi Khi Pyan) which must be the Hakka pronunciation.  Jean Wung Chang mentions that the village was a place where they would bring their stuff to ‘sell’, build up the market with tents, and then break them down after- like a farmers market.

Today, I believe the town is Guanlan which is the Mandarin/pinyin spelling.  History says it is in TungKun, Dongguan district but today, it looks to be in Bao’an district of Shenzhen City.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bao‘an_District)

Wungsamsingvillage

Jean Chang got a letter from a Mr. Kong LIU describing where Kon Larn Hee is located.  You can read it here.  The pdf file copied the page in overlapping style.

note_to_JeanWungaboutWungvillage.pdf
Download this file

I tried to rewrite this:

note_to_jean_from_kong_liu.pdf
Download this file

Jean got a old German Map here that shows Kon.  It is marked in pink.

I found an 1878 map that shows Kon Lan:

German Map with Kon Larn

German Map with Kon Larn

Kwang_tung_1878

This army map  1954 shows Kon Lan also spelt Kuan Lan Hsu with the chinese characters above.

Txu-oclc-10552568-nf50-5

 

Presently, this place looks to be Guanlanzhen, which looks to be part of Bao’an, Shenzhen, Guangdong

<br /><small>View Larger Map</small>

 

Kon Lan Hee Pang

 

觀 / 观 

 

Pronunciation: Gun : (Jyutping) ; Guan : (Pinyin)
Definition: {1) [1] [v] see; observe; view; appearance; behold; take a view of; look; inspect [2] sights; views [3] [v] display [4] a point of view; conception
{2) a Taoist temple or shrine

 

瀾 / 澜 

 

pronunciation: LAN : Jyutping and pinyin 
Definition:  Billow or wave
墟  
pronunciation: heoi : Jyutping;  xu : pinyin
Definition:   country fair
棚
Pronunciation:  paang:  Jyutping ;   peng : pinyin
Definition:  canopy;shed;set(of teeth)

 

Book that mentions Wung Sam Sing Family.

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I was searching on google books and found this book that talks about the Wung Sam Sing Family.  Need to locate this book to find full article etc.

Seasons of light: 

the history of Chinese Christian churches in Hawaii

Front Cover
    0 Reviews
Chinese Christian Association of Hawaii, 1989 – Travel – 338 pages

From inside the book

 

2 pages matching Wung Sam Sing in this book

Page 92

Page 92

Page 102

Page 102

 

Wung Sam Sing & Wong Loi Yu Tombstone

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Waianaia Cemetery 

Wung Sam Sing

1841-1895

Kon Lan Hi Khi Pyan Kwong Tung China

Wong Loi Yu

1861-1929

Hong Kong, China

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=29290513

Sam Sing Wung

Waianaia Cemetery

List of Plots in Waianaia Cemetery:

http://archive.is/VtcP

 

Waianaia Cemetery, Waianaia, N. Kohala District, Big Island of Hawaii, HI

The US GenWeb Archives provide genealogical and historical data to 
the general public without fee or charge of any kind. It is intended
that this material not be used in a commercial manner. All submissions
become part of the permanent collection.


Waianaia Cemetery
Waianaia, N. Kohala District, County of Hawaii, HI
Headstones transcribed and submitted by Geoff Stafford August 14, 2001.  

Both above notices must remain when copied or downloaded.

[email protected]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Compiled by your genealogy volunteer, Geoff Stafford.
Images available by email at: [email protected].  

****************************************************
* NOTE: I provide these images free of charge, by  *
* e-mail only.  They are for genealogical purposes *
* only and may not be reproduced for profit in any *
* way, shape or form.  One file per request. I am  *
* a volunteer, doing my part to help people on     *
* their genealogical quest.  Please be patient     *
* while I process your request. Thank you.         *
****************************************************

The Waianaia Cemetery is located beside the Akoni Pule Highway (Rte. 270) near 
Kapaau.  Drive east from Hawi, passing the Kamehameha Statue and the 24 mile 
marker.  The cemetery is on the makai (seaward) side of the road, marked by a
small stone sign.  

Also available: Waianaia Cemetery: 111_waianaia

================================================================================================================
NAME                                    Birthdate       Deathdate       Image No.       comment
================================================================================================================
Ah Sam, Joseph "Umpung"                 07 May 1916     25 Sep 1996     none
Akina, Clement A.                              1889            1953     094_waianaia
Akina, G. C.                                   1838            1913     123_waianaia
Akina, H. Maiaka                               1856            1893     095_waianaia
Akina, Lucy Agnes                              1889            1961     094_waianaia    w/o Clement A. Akina
Banks, John N. C. "Ian"                        1907            1988     027_waianaia    Edinburgh, Scotland
Beers, Sidney L.                        30 Nov 1901     30 Jul 1963     018_waianaia
Bell, Wainee                            none            none            055_waianaia
Black, Alexander                               1866            1929     043_waianaia
Bond, Benjamin Davis                           1853            1930     011_waianaia
Bond, Benjamin Howell                          1890            1966     009_waianaia
Bond, Caroline S.                              1854            1943     011_waianaia
Bond, Charles Hoffman                   23 Jan 1928     30 Aug 1989     008_waianaia
Bond, Eben Steele                       25 May 1861     10 Oct 1861     005_waianaia
Bond, Elias                                    1813            1898     007_waianaia
Bond, Ellen M. Howell                          1817            1881     007_waianaia    w/o Elias Bond
Bond, Emma Renton                              1866            1951     011_waianaia
Bond, George Shepard                           1844            1917     006_waianaia
Bond, Hazel Hoffman                            1897            1982     009_waianaia
Bond, James Douglass                           1899            1958     010_waianaia
Bond, Julia Page                               1857            1938     011_waianaia
Bond, Kathryn Lyman                            1898            1969     012_waianaia
Bond, Kenneth Davis                            1895            1965     012_waianaia
Bond, Kenneth Lyman                     04 Sep 1926     09 Nov 1985     013_waianaia
Bond, Thomas Spencer                           1849            1883     007_waianaia
Brooks, Billie Darwin                   24 Nov 1919     28 Dec 1991     019_waianaia    M Sgt US Army WW2
Brooks, Comel Hartley                   03 Jan 1920     12 Jan 1987     020_waianaia    
Caitano, Baby                           08 Sep 1926     08 Sep 1926     054_waianaia    s/o Delphine Caitano
Caitano, Delphine                       20 Aug 1896     04 Feb 1951     054_waianaia
Caitano, Delphine Kawailani, Jr.        24 Jan 1917     16 May 1989     058_waianaia
Caitano, Mary A.                        none            none            055_waianaia
Caitano, Matilda                        none            none            055_waianaia
Caitano, Susie Sau Kiam                 05 Jun 1888     11 Jul 1972     053_waianaia
Caitano, William                        10 Dec 1927     05 Apr 1929     054_waianaia    s/o Delphine Caitano
Caitano, William Bell                   09 Jul 1921     17 Jun 1922     054_waianaia    s/o Delphine Caitano
Campbell, Emily K.                      18 Sep 1887     24 May 1969     078_waianaia    
Campbell, John                          13 Mar 1884     02 May 1979     077_waianaia
Ching, Len Tai                          25 Mar 1922     17 Dec 1925     124_waianaia
Chong, Ah Kin                           03 Oct 1855     27 Oct 1949     101_waianaia
Chong, Baby                                             30 Aug 1928     102_waianaia
Chong, Hon Chin                         25 Dec 1898     27 Jan 1951     079_waianaia
Choy, Zeilen                            Chinese         Chinese         103_waianaia
Couttie, William                        03 Jan 1894     17 Oct 1971     003_waianaia
Cushnie, George                         24 Oct 1916     16 Dec 1996     030_waianaia
De Mercer, Daisy K.                     01 Mar 1924     26 Sep 1980     056_waianaia
De Mercer, Ellwood Edwin                07 Jul 1949     16 Dec 1955     069_waianaia
De Mercer, Robert Alfred                27 Oct 1943     22 Oct 1980     057_waianaia    HI Police Dept. shield 189
De Mercer, Rose Kapika                  15 Aug 1900     08 Jan 1965     068_waianaia
Ednie, Jean Herd                               1907            1964     004_waianaia
Hayashi, Hatsuko                        05 Oct 1908     25 Feb 1989     064_waianaia
Hayashi, Lois Nobuko                    20 Jan 1942     15 Dec 1942     065_waianaia
Hind, Katherine                                         16 Mar 1890     014_waianaia    age: 22 yrs, 11 mos. 26 days; w/o Henry H. Renton
Hooton, Barbara Leith "Healani"         28 Feb 1921     09 Jun 1973     034_waianaia
Hooton, Philip D.                       01 Feb 1913     28 Jan 1997     033_waianaia    Maj US Army
Ishii, Frank T.                         31 Dec 1915     17 Dec 1995     066_waianaia
Ishii, Jon                                              22 Jul 1951     067_waianaia
Jarboe, Michelle Cecile                 02 Aug 1952     25 Jun 2000     none
Jeffries, John                                 1846            1928     040_waianaia
Jeffries, Kate Vowles                          1852            1929     073_waianaia
Kahn, Yuen Kyau Akau                    03 May 1900     30 Mar 1933     098_waianaia
Kamakaholoi, D.                         17 Aug 1850     20 Sep 1904     088_waianaia    w/o J. C. Aiona
Kawamoto, Hideo                         23 Sep 1912     14 Oct 1999     048_waianaia
Kayatani, Harumi                        22 Mar 1922     13 Mar 2000     024_waianaia
Kelii, John                             unknown         unknown         061_waianaia
Keliikipi, Herman Halemano, Jr.         31 May 1908     13 Jun 1988     none
Keliikipi, Sherman                      09 Dec 1950     03 Jan 1978     002_waianaia    HI Police Dept
Koelling (twin infants)                                 13 Sep 1928     047_waianaia
Kon, En Kyau Wung                       08 Jun 1884     22 Jul 1953     110_waianaia
Kon, Yun En                             02 Jul 1910     19 Aug 1929     108_waianaia    d/o Yun En & Ah Sing Kon
Kon, Yun Yin                            15 Apr 1921     17 Feb 1924     107_waianaia
Lazaro, Vernadette                      16 Feb 1961     21 Oct 1970     052_waianaia
Lee, Ah You                             15 Jul 1875     22 Dec 1967     092_waianaia
Lee, Arthur Yut Sing                    06 Jul 1918     20 Nov 1997     083_waianaia
Lee, Elizabeth A.                              1890     14 Feb 1930     092_waianaia
Lee, Elizabeth Apana                           1890            1930     091_waianaia
Lee, Lawrence Y. W.                     09 Mar 1913     10 Jan 1971     090_waianaia
Lee, Ok Cho, Mrs.                                       08 Jul 1930     120_waianaia    Also 121_waianaia, 122_waianaia"Fusan Cho Lang Kyung Sang Namdo Korea" Husband: Pong Hak Lee, Sons: Harry Hyun Shin, daughters Pong Soon, Hannah
Lincoln, Marian S.                      15 Sep 1912     10 May 1991     062_waianaia
Lincoln, Robert K., Sr.                 26 Jul 1908     28 Dec 1978     063_waianaia
Liu, Chap Sin                           25 Jul 1904     13 Sep 1946     106_waianaia
Liu, En Oi                                     1881            1935     097_waianaia
Liu, Kon Shin                                  1861            1932     105_waianaia
Luke, Betty K. Y.                       09 Sep 1933     05 May 1934     100_waianaia
Ma____, Donald                          17 Jun ____     ___________     045_waianaia
McGirr, Elise M.                        25 Nov 1924     15 Aug 1993     028_waianaia
McGirr, Frederick A.                    15 Aug 1946     22 Feb 1994     117_waianaia    US Navy Vietnam
McGirr, Patrick Brian                   22 Jun 1967     25 Sep 1987     029_waianaia
McLennan, Alice M.                      02 Aug 1888     21 Oct 1932     038_waianaia    Native of California
McLennan, John A.                       04 Nov 1865     09 Dec 1924     072_waianaia    native of Nova Scotia
Mew, Kau Tet                            none            none            087_waianaia    stone partially obscured
Nahuina, Lily Kalouokalani Hew Len      15 Jun 1902     05 Oct 1997     031_waianaia
Newman, Neva                            26 Jan 1872     07 Nov 1921     046_waianaia
Olding, Marguerite                      22 Aug 1901     05 Jun 1904     049_waianaia
Ostrom, Alvin                                  1831            1898     044_waianaia
Ostrom, Frances                                1837            1903     044_waianaia
Pake, Kim Don Kimo                             1843            1924     093_waianaia
Palitang, Bernardo Lacanaria            27 May 1910     23 Nov 1991     001_waianaia
Pasco, Daniel "Danny" Leon              23 May 1983     11 Jul 1994     none
Pasco, Eleonora Fenna Martina Boeve     31 Jan 1943     03 Nov 1996     none
Perez, Charles Nicholas                 17 Feb 1891     16 Nov 1978     075_waianaia    Cpl US Army WW1
Perez, Clarence, Jr.                                    19 Mar 1972     071_waianaia
Perez, Eliza K.                         11 Aug 1894     31 Aug 1972     074_waianaia
Ping, Rev. Yee Cho                      18 Sep 1874     22 Apr 1934     086_waianaia    b. Lin Show Sam-Kong, China
Renton, Helen Hoppin                           1863            1946     017_waianaia
Renton, Henry Herbert                          1861            1919     017_waianaia
Renton, James                           13 Apr 1831     13 Oct 1904     037_waianaia
Renton, James Robert                    04 Jul 1859     27 Dec 1898     016_waianaia
Renton, Jessie                                          13 May 1890     015_waianaia    age: 1 mo. 28 days
Renton, Mary                            24 Nov 1832     20 May 1911     036_waianaia
Rich, William Carl                      09 Aug 1914     30 Aug 2000     118_waianaia    PFC US Army WW2
Sears, Gloria Mei Ling                         1943            1997     022_waianaia
Shin, Kon                               16 Apr 1876     01 Sep 1943     109_waianaia    Kwong Tung, China
Sing, Chow Fook                                1880            1952     096_waianaia
Smith, Martha K.                        23 Jul 1888     01 Feb 1950     050_waianaia    w/o Wm. C. Smith
Smith, William C.                       07 Oct 1872     01 Sep 1951     050_waianaia
Sugata, Ayano K.                        10 Feb 1900     29 Apr 1987     081_waianaia
Sugata, Kameto                          23 Dec 1890     28 Oct 1968     080_waianaia
Takata, Mitsue                          23 Feb 1917     02 May 1983     025_waianaia
Timoteo, Baby                           08 May 1912     08 May 1912     061_waianaia
Timoteo, Charles                               1884     10 Jun 1910     061_waianaia
Timoteo, Joseph Kanaloa, Jr.            15 Dec 1942     26 Jun 1956     060_waianaia
Timoteo, Joseph L.                      20 Aug 1888     08 Jan 1912     061_waianaia
Timoteo, Joseph Luka                    12 Oct 1911     14 Nov 1965     059_waianaia
Timoteo, Mary Ann                       unknown         unknown         061_waianaia
Tock, Yap                               07 Mar 1876     22 Apr 1930     115_waianaia    b. Canton, China
Ventura, Cornelio                       15 Sep 1909     10 Dec 1980     051_waianaia    SP5 US Army
Watson, Brandon Lee                                     27 Aug 1984     023_waianaia    age: 9 days
Weaver, Elizabeth                       26 Apr 1872     04 Jun 1930     041_waianaia    b. Ohio
Weaver, Harley Allen                    02 Jun 1868     22 Feb 1952     042_waianaia
Williams, Charles Theodore                     1874            1957     039_waianaia
Williams, Winifred Jeffries                    1881            1962     039_waianaia
Wishard, Leslie W., Jr.                 02 Jan 1926     05 Jan 1997     032_waianaia
Wishard, Leslie Winstead                04 Jul 1894     14 Oct 1993     035_waianaia
Wishard, Mary Renton                    09 Mar 1897     28 Apr 1975     035_waianaia
Wong, Alice Y. K.                       28 Oct 1908     04 Sep 1929     104_waianaia
Wong, Evelyn Y. M.                      29 Jun 1921     24 Sep 1947     099_waianaia
Wong, Harlan A. L.                      26 Jul 1909     25 Mar 1980     021_waianaia
Wong, Mary Choy                         12 Jun 1902     18 Dec 1988     026_waianaia
Wung, Sam Sing                                 1841            1895     112_waianaia    b. Kwong Tung, China
Yahiku, Jerry Kiyoshi                   28 Jun 1923     28 Nov 1980     076_waianaia    Tec5 US Army WW2
Yap, En Tet Wung                        19 Aug 1885     08 Mar 1958     114_waianaia    b. Makapala, d. Hilo
Yap, Margaret To Ka                            1907            1977     113_waianaia
Yap, Mew Kong "Oscar"                   02 Jan 1912     31 Oct 1999     116_waianaia
Yap, Mew On                                    1907            1993     113_waianaia
Yee, Kui Lan Kau                        11 Nov 1887     13 Jun 1951     085_waianaia    b. Iole, Kohala
Yokoyama, Kimi                          17 Mar 1903     14 Dec 1988     070_waianaia
Yokoyama, Shuji                         04 Aug 1884     08 Sep 1953     070_waianaia
You, Wong Loi                                  1861            1929     112_waianaia    b. Hong Kong
Yuen, Charles Chau Ah                          1883            1959     119_waianaia

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

O Pioneers

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O Pioneers!

Isle families record
their history, culminating in 
“Chinese Women Pioneers in Hawaii”

The Road Home: A Chinese-American Childhood

By Nadine Kam
[email protected]

A newspaper’s No. 1 task is to document its times so that 100 or 500 years from now — if mankind can survive itself — the facts of life of living in Hawaii in 2003 will be accessible to students wondering how we lived in such primitive times.

Those studying the Star-Bulletin archives will discover the foods we craved, how we dressed to impress, the music that brought us to our feet, our love-hate relationship with television, and our desperation to find an idol, any idol, as well as the bigger picture of our politics and our reactions to major events such as that of Sept. 11, 2001.

art

NADINE KAM / [email protected]
Dorothy Jim Luke, left, and May Lee Chung edited “Chinese Women Pioneers in Hawaii,” published by the Associated Chinese University Women. The organization hosted a members’ release party last Sunday with instructions to “dress in your most festive Chinese attire.”

But what is often lost is the minutiae of daily life: the way families relate to one another; and their daily or Sunday rituals — whether it involves gathering at a favorite restaurant, mall or spending the day with a hibachi under the shade of a tree at Ala Moana Beach Park.

Those stories are often deemed too manini for a daily newspaper, but they are no less valuable in conveying a history more intimate and accessible than can be gleaned from reporting “just the facts, ma’am.”

It’s with regard for their own descendants that a number of families have taken up pen or computer keyboard to record their own genealogies. The Associated Chinese University Women have compiled 53 such stories into a 264-page volume capturing the lives of “Chinese Women Pioneers in Hawaii.”

art

“Chinese Women Pioneers in Hawaii”Edited by May Lee Chung and Dorothy Jim Luke

(The Associated Chinese University Women, 264 pages, $20)

May Lee Chung and Dorothy Jim Luke were the two members who edited the works and oversaw the project, the third publication put out by the organization. The ACUW was started in 1931 by 12 women educators — only one charter member, Elizabeth Lam leong, survives — to raise scholarship funds and promote understanding of Chinese customs and folk practices.

“The first two dealt with Chinese festivals and customs, but not the experiences of the older generation, many of whom have passed away,” said Luke. “We thought it would be a good idea to canvas our members and found daughters, granddaughters, sons and relatives who could write down their memories of these women.”

Subjects include Amy Wung Richardson, mother of former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Richardson; Chong Sum Wing, the wife of Wing Coffee magnate Chong Yet You; Florence Young Doo, the mother of Leigh-Wai Doo; Lee Oi Chun Hoon, of Chun Hoon Family Enterprises; and Soo Yong Huang, an actress who began her career on stage, starred in films such as “China Seas” and “Soldier of Fortune” with Clark Gable, “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” and “Flower Drum Song,” in which she played the mother of Richard Soo.

art

COURTESY RICHARDSON FAMILY
Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William S. Richardson’s family, pictured in June 1941, are, bottom row from left, Pearl, mother Amy, father Wilfred and Grace. In the top row are Robert, Arlon, William and Amy.

SOO YONG’S story is told by her niece Aileen Wong Ho, who also writes about her mother, Harriet Young Wong, Soo Yong’s sister.

Their stories begin with patriarch Young Ming, who arrived in Hawaii in 1875 at age 14 to work on a Wailuku sugar plantation. After three years he had earned enough to go back to China to get a wife, but during a stopover in Honolulu lost all his money gambling. It took him 15 years of peddling dim sum at two for a nickel to recover.

He and his bride, Chut Cha, settled in Happy Valley in Wailuku — then covered in taro patches and rice fields — and had six children who grew up attending a missionary school. Harriet was urged to continue her education in Boston, but after her father died, the family lacked the necessary funds. She married Pak Hoy Wong, who worked for the Wailuku Sugar Co. as a clerk earning $60 a month.

Soo Yong moved in with her sister to help her care for her children but was angered when she was scolded after being spotted sipping soda at a drugstore with a Hawaiian boy, which Pak Hoy said was improper for a Chinese girl. Her resentment over being told how to behave drove her to Honolulu, where she found work doing household chores and tutoring children of prominent kamaaina families. She saved enough to enroll at the University of Hawaii and eventually Columbia University, where she worked toward a master’s degree in education while auditioning for theater productions.

Other stories, such as Beatrice Liu Ching’s remembrance of her mother-in-law Ching Lum Shee, offer such details as a diet for new mothers comprising chicken soup cooked with wood fungus, ginger and rice wine, and sweet-sour pigs’ feet with sweet black vinegar.

Grace Richardson Wong’s tale shares the family’s Sunday adventures attending church, then stopping at the Kapahulu Poi Shop to pick up 25-cent bags of poi for her father, Wilfred, or visiting Hind-Clarke Dairy in Aina Haina for ice cream served in sugar cones. Other excursions took them to Squatter’s Ville in swampy Waikiki where the Ilikai now stands, or to the country in Kailua, where the family owned lots in Coconut Grove.

In those day’s Wong wrote, “It was not uncommon for Chinese men to marry Hawaiian girls, but for a Chinese girl to marry a Hawaiian man was never thought of.”

The Richardsons would go on to raise six children while mom Amy worked at Castle Kindergarten, arriving at work in a Ford Model A, and later on, tooling around with her friends in her green Valiant, “a pillow under her, another behind her in order to reach the pedals, going 15 miles per hour in a 35-mile zone.”

art

Soo Yong Huang made her way from Wailuku to New York and Hollywood, starring with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in 1935’s “China Seas.”

 

IN CASES IN WHICH sons, daughters and nieces had to interview their popos, Luke joked: “Senior citizens go by a different schedule. They wake up early in the morning, go out to all kids of events and senior classes. They nap in the afternoon, eat early dinner and are in bed as soon as it’s dark.”

It wasn’t easy to find them or get them to commit to telling their life stories.

So the project took eight years to complete. That means that some of the information is outdated, particularly census information offered in the back of the book, which author Carol Fan, an associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was not given the opportunity to update.

Because the book was a grass-roots labor of love, often dealing with individual memories rather than actual history, there are errors such as a reference to the abolishment of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 1800s, when it was established in 1882. And life itself presented changes. Lara Jean Tsui-Chuan Mui was a college student when she wrote pieces about her great-grandmother Lai Cho Hee Luke and grandmother Jannie Luke Thom, and after marrying three years ago, now goes by her married name, Lara Mui Cowell.

The book was never intended for a wide audience, but for ACUW members and their families and those interested in what it was like to grow up in Hawaii in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

And ACUW’s principal aim was to focus attention on women whose contributions are often overlooked by society.

“Men had all the fame and the women are forgotten, even though they provided all the support that allowed men to achieve.”

While today a lack of a cellular phone might represent a hardship, Luke said: “We forget about the hardship these women went through. They often had several children, 10 or 12. They worked hard all day and night, but they didn’t give up striving for a better life — not for themselves, but for their children.

“We had no deadline. We just worked when we could do a bit here and there,” Luke said. “So many people passed away while we were working on it, but that just shows its value, that their relatives can have these stories in printed form to pass down.”


Copies of the book are available by calling Roanne Matsuura at 596-2668.

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