Old Chinatown - The First Settlers
 
The first Chinese man to settle in Seattle may have been Chin Chun Hock. Arriving in 1860 he was employed as a domestic worker. By 1868 Chin Hock had founded a general merchandising store, The Wa Chong Co., at the foot of Mill Street. Partners in Wa Chong were Woo Gen and Chin Gee Hee. Wa Chong advertised itself as a manufacturer of cigars, sugar, tea, rice and opium. It was also a major importer and distributor of fireworks together with the Hitt Firework Co. Chen Cheong may have been the first Chinese immigrant to establish a business. He began manufacturing and selling cigars in 1867 from his contracting business, established 1865 on Commercial St. (First Ave.) across from Schwabacher Bros.
Wa Chong was also a labor contractor, acting as the middleman between Chinese immigrants canneries, lumber mills and farms and for labor on city projects such as the regr looking for work and various industries employing them: railroads, mines,ades. Originally located in a row of commercial shops on Mill Street, the Wa Chong Co. was by 1876 in a brick building at the corner of Third and Washington Streets.
 
The First Chinatown in Seattle
  Wa Chong was also a dealer in opium and was issued a special stamp by the U.S. Customs to put on their opium manufactured in Seattle. Other Chinese merchants followed Wa Chong's move to Second Ave. and this area became the first Chinatown. Among the most prominent were Eng Ah Kingand his King Cheong Lung Co.; Woo Gen; Chin Bug Kee and his On Tai Company and ChinGee Hee who founded the Quong Tuck Co.
Chin Gee Hee and the Quong Tuck Co. sold general merchandise, and acted as the general agent for all of the trans-Pacific steamship companies. There was a direct route to China from Seattle established in 1874. Chin was a labor contractor for railroad labor and went back to his home district of Toisan in southern China in 1905 and established one of the first railroads there, the Sun-Ning Railroad
 
From China to Port Gamble
 
Chin Gee Hee, also know as Chang Ting was born in Long Mei of Luk Choon village in Toisan district of Kuangtung province in the 24th year of Tao Kuang, 1844. As he was delivering his father's recent production of soy sauce to a local market, Chin met a man named Hung Bok. Hung told Chin he could take him to America. Traveling together they arrived in Port Gamble, Washington.
Within a short time Chin, working in a lumber mill, had learned some English and had established a rapport with the Suquamish Indians, especially the family of Chief Sealth. He was also able to bring over a wife, who was employed as a cook at the mill cookhouse. Through his friendship with Henry Yesler, Chin was pursuaded to move to Seattle in 1873. There he met Chin Ching Hock who invited him to become a junior partner in a labor contracting firm
 
The First Chinese Americans
  In 1875, Chin and his wife had a son, Chin Lem also known as Tew Dong, possibly the first Chinese American born in Washington state. Ah King, also known by his married name of Hock Moy, was born in Hoi Ping, China in 1863. He came to the U.S. in 1877, landing in San Francisco but soon moved to the Pacific Northwest to work in the logging camps. Saving his money, Ah King came to Seattle in 1897 and opened a restaurant. In 1906 he founded the Ah King Company also known as the King Chong Lung Company.
Ah King was known variously as the "Mayor" or "King of Chinatown." Generous with his wealth he subsidized many through school. He sponsored the "Chinese Village" pavilion at the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition held in Seattle in the summer of 1909. In 1908 he traveled to China to select Chinese curios and goods for the exhibit. He did this on his own to ensure that his country was represented at the exposition. King Chong Lung Co. sold general merchandise, imported goods for wholesale and contracted labor to fish canneries. By the time he died in 1915 he operated six canneries in Alaska, owned his store property at 317 Washington St. and had other real estate holdings valued at $60,000. His death in Sacramento in 1915 may have been a suicide but there was suspicion of murder. His son Yock Fong, known here as Albert King, inherited most of Ah King's property. He arrived here after his father's death and took over the business
 

 

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