The Past

Businesses
Churches
Communities
Community Services
Entertainment
Ethnic Groups
 ~ Chinese
 ~ Czechoslovakians
 ~ First Nations
 ~ Japanese
 ~ Finnish
 ~ Ukrainians
Geography
Heritage Homes
Industries
Organizations
People
Schools
Transportation

Museum page

Chinese Population

Chinese people originally came to B.C. and the Okanagan Valley to work on the construction of the CPR for the B.C. contractor, Andrew Onderdonk. Some fifteen hundred came up from California, where they had finished railroad building. Onderdonk then brought over an additional six thousand from China.

The Chinese were mostly farmers from Canton province, who were told that after a few years of railroad work they could return to China rich. (This dream faded as the Chinese were paid one dollar per day but had to pay forty dollars for their trip to Canada and two and a half percent of their wages to the "labour boss" for his services to them.

There came to be a fair amount of prejudice against the Chinese immigrants in Canada, as can be seen by the statistics shown in Heritage Magazine, September 1989. According to the magazine, head taxes were imposed on Chinese immigrants. At first these were only fifty dollars in 1885, but rose to five hundred dollars by 1904. In B.C. the people felt the influx of "Chinese Devils" would overrun the province. Certainly they were paid lower wages than the "Whites" and were segregated into certain portions of the towns.

Chinese prejudice was definitely evident in Enderby as shown in a 1906 Edenograph newspaper, which was commenting on a failed police raid on a Chines boarding house, where Chinese had been gambling. Examples such as "unfortunately, those engaged in the game escaped" and " Charlie 'Chink' (Chuck) will be summoned for keeping a place of gambling", hint at the racism in the valley.

According to George Green, the Chinese came to Enderby after the completion of the CPR, and worked in the sawmill or as domestics (servants for wealthy families). The Chinese established themselves on Old Vernon Road from the corner of Hubert to Granville Street, taking up three quarters of the block.

The first indication of Chinese in Enderby was the newspaper clipping on the police raid in 1906. In 1909, the Orchard's Guide Business Directory listed three Chinese laundries in Enderby owned by Sing Lee, Wong, and Kwong Lee. And by 1919, according to Wriggley's Guide, there were two laundry-store combinations under the names of Hop Sing and Pow Yeun, a Chinese restaurant owned by Wing Chung, and a General Store owned by Sing Kee. In 1920, a large section of the sawmill employees was of Chinese origin as well.

Chinatown is remembered mostly by inhabitants of Enderby in the time period of the 1930's, when, according to George Green, there were two laundries call the Hop Sing and Wing laundries and a Chinese shoe and horse harness repair shop. The laundries each had a small store that carried candies, peanuts and firecrackers, which cost a nickle per pack. Many of the goods were shipped in from China. There was always a fair number of Chinese men coming and going between Chinatown and Enderby at any one time. They loved to smoke and gamble and were extremely friendly. The children of Enderby would fish for suckers which the Chinese would buy off them for two bits each. They were "happier 'n hell to have 'em", according to George Green.

Bing Chong, more commonly known as "Bang", owned the Hop Sing laundry and was the best-known inhabitant of Chinatown. He came to Enderby originally as a cook and houseboy for Mrs. Harvey (the Enderby Postmistress), and lived with her for four years. Finally he left her, and then Mrs. Harvey helped him set up his own laundry. He would pick up laundry off the train with an iron-wheeled cart which he could convert into a sleigh in the winter. He delivered his laundry in the same fashion, pushing it before him. Bang would wash linen for the King Edward Hotel, businessmen, and wealthy families. According to Bunny Gardner, Bang would fill his mouth with water and spit it out of his missing tooth gaps, instead of using a sprayer for ironing. He had a little stove with brackets on it to hold warming irons. In the front of his laundry, Bang had a little dark corner where he sold candy, firecrackers and peanuts (which he bought green and roasted himself and charged ten cents a bag). It seems that most of the time he gave them away free to the children next door and to his customers, for Dorothy Harvey relates "because I was Mrs. Harvey's granddaughter he would leave me lechee nuts".

There was always a crowd of Chinese at Bang's laundry, who would sit around a pot bellied stove, talking and smoking tobacco till the air was blue with smoke. According to Irma Gillard, (who lived next door to the laundry), the Chinese men would sit about a small round table passing a long stemmed pipe which reached into a pot of bubbling water in the center of the table. This was most likely the drug opium as it must be smoked through water. A permanent resident at Bang's laundry was a Chinese man named Long Louis and nick-named "Little Louis". He was always very quiet and solemn.

Bang was also known for his magnificent garden where he grew beautiful sweet peas. He also gave his customers Chinese lily bulbs at Christmas. Bang belonged to the United Church and never missed a Sunday. He would dress in his fine black suit. Later he moved to Kamloops to retire.

The laundry and store beside Bang's was owned by Wing, who was a "little wee guy" according to George Green. He housed at least ten Chinese in his building. Ted Peel remembers that there was a temple upstairs with a six-foot high Buddha and there was always gambling going on.

A Chinese man named Hong ran a restaurant in the Enderby Hotel and there was always a poker game taking place in the kitchen. Another Chinese man, Chung, was the cook in the King Edward Hotel dining room for many years. He sold loaves of bread for a dime a loaf and he would always give the kids a fritter that he would have cooking on the back of his stove. It was like a deep fried doughnut. Chung then worked at the Enderby Hotel when Hong left and finally operated a restaurant where Elmer's Insurance is today and went into a partnership with Mr. and Mrs. Jeffers.

The only Chinese man living outside of Enderby was Charlie Chong or Charlie the Chinaman, who rented property from Dick Blackburn. He started the first market garden in North Enderby and supplied logging camps in the area with vegetables. These he delivered in an old Model A Ford truck.

In 1934 he left North Enderby and went to Grindrod, where he rented five acres and a house from George Wells, and one acre from the Monks. This was all planted as a market garden. He had his dilapidated truck converted into a buggy which was pulled by Charlie's horse, Polly. He delivered produce door to door from Mara through to Enderby and when he was finished he would throw nickles and dimes off the bridge for the kids to dive for. George Green felt "he must have spent hundreds of dollars" on the kids. Whenever a new baby was born on his route, Charlie always gave it a silver dollar. In the winter time he took the kids on Monk road to school in his buggy, acting as a bus driver. At Christmas he always gave a turkey and oranges to his close neighbors.

Charlie died in Enderby in 1942 and was buried in the Enderby Cemetery. In an interview October 1988, Don Wells said, "they put a duck and paper in his coffin for him to burn so he could get heaven before the devil got him, or maybe they burned the paper first - I'm not sure."

The only mention of any Chinese person in the sawmill, besides the employee list, was in a newspaper from December 21, 1911, which stated "A Chinaman was loading lath at the sawmill when he suddenly collapsed and was dead in a few minutes. Heart disease. He was buried Monday with celestial honors".

In the late 1930's, maybe 1938, Chinatown burned down. The old, dry, clapboard buildings lit up like "match sticks" and after this all the Chinese people drifted away.

There are no Chinese left in Enderby, either dead or alive. For many years Chinese who died in Canada were returned to China for final burial and that is what happened to the Chinese graves in Enderby. According to the newspaper, Chinese ghouls came and dug up the Chinese remains in the graveyard, put the bones in marked sacks and sent them to Hong Kong to be identified and buried by the relatives.

Allison Glanfield, Karen Goebel, Ian Lundman
ALF School 1989