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Chin Gee Hee (June 22, 1844〔(The History of Xinning Railway ), Bureau of Archives of Taishan City.〕 – 1929), courtesy name Chàngtíng (暢庭),〔Jue 1983, p. 32.〕 Cheun Gee Yee,〔(Peter Crush, Hong Kong Railway Society. Accessed online 22 September 2007. Select :English, Member's Corner, Feature Articles, Sunning Railway )〕 was a Chinese merchant, labor contractor, and railway entrepreneur, who made his fortune in Seattle, Washington〔Scigliano 2007〕 before returning to his native village in Guangdong province, where he continued his successes. ==Life== Born the son of a maker of soy sauce crocks in a village in what is now the city of Taishan, Chin came to the attention of an old man through his calm after some other boys smashed crocks that he was carrying to market. The man brought him along on his passage to America, where Chin worked in a placer mine before making his way to Port Gamble, Washington, where he worked in a lumber mill.〔〔Jue 1983, p. 32 says he was in Port Gamble in 1862.〕 While still in North Kitsap, he learned a reasonable amount of English, and made friends with several Suquamish, including the family of Chief Seattle. He also met and befriended Henry Yesler, owner of a mill in the young city of Seattle, who convinced him to move there.〔 In 1873,〔So say Scigliano and Willard Jue (1983). The (Guide to the Willard G. Jue Papers, 1880-1983 ) on the site of the University of Washington Libraries, accessed July 19, 2007, says he acquired his Wa Chong partnership in 1868, but they give no citation, and Jue himself says he became a partner only after moving to Seattle.〕 he arrived in Seattle, a settlement that was about 20 years old at the time. After meeting Chin Chun Hock (), who was from the same village in Taishan, he became a junior partner in the Wa Chong company (, "Chinese Prosperity"),〔 the city's leading Chinese enterprise of the time. The Wa Chong company imported or manufactured goods including sugar, tea, rice, cigars, opium (legal at the time), and fireworks.〔〔 At the time, there were few Chinese women in America.〔 While still in North Kitsap, Chin imported a wife from China. Their son Chin Lem (), later known as Tew Dong (), born 1875 in Seattle, was the first known Chinese child born in Washington Territory (now Washington State).〔〔 At the Wa Chong company, he acquired labor contracts from coal mines, railroads, farming, and the Puget Sound mosquito fleet. He also placed Chinese house-boys and cooks. His partnership with Chin Ching-hock was somewhat uneasy: Chin Ching-hock was more interested in imports and exports than in the labor contracting that became Chin Gee Hee's specialty.〔Jue 1983, p. 32–33.〕 Chin Gee Hee was a central figure in the efforts at political and diplomatic defense against the anti-Chinese riots of November 1885. During the crisis, he represented the community and exchanged telegrams with Chinese consul general Ow-yang Ming () in San Francisco, California. He kept careful records of damages to Chinese businesses, and, partly as a result, Seattle's Chinese community fared far better than that of neighboring Tacoma, ultimately remaining in the city and collecting $700,000 in damages through a favorable ruling by judge Thomas Burke.〔〔Jue 1983, p. 33.〕 In 1888, he set up independently as a labor contractor, with his Quong Tuck Company〔Walt Crowley, (Seattle Neighborhoods: Chinatown-International District -- Thumbnail History ), HistoryLink.org Essay 1058, May 3, 1999. Accessed online July 19, 2007.〕 (also known as Quong Tuck Lung Company)〔(Guide to the Willard G. Jue Papers, 1880-1983 ) on the site of the University of Washington Libraries〕 or also Quon Tuck Company〔(Summary for 400 2nd Avenue Extension / Parcel ID 5247800980 ), Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Accessed online August 4, 2007.〕 supplying construction workers to railways (the Great Northern Railway, the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad and Transportation Company) and to Seattle's regrading projects.〔 He provided work crews (and was involved entrepreneurially) in rail lines along what are now Alaskan Way (along the Seattle waterfront) and a cable car perpendicular to the waterfront along Yesler Way as far as 14th Avenue.〔〔 He also provided Chinese masons to help build the Burke Building, a full city block at Second Avenue and Marion Street. His own building at Second and Washington, the Canton Building (also known as the Chin Gee Hee Building, now the Kon Yick Building), 208-210 S. Washington Street,〔〔 was among the first brick buildings〔Scigliano says "the first"; Crowley and Jue are more cautious.〕 raised after the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889. It was shared with the Bow Tai Wo Company.〔 (As of 2007, the building is still standing, though much altered; in particular, a 1928 re-routing of Second Avenue S. removed a corner of the building.)〔 He passed his Seattle business on to his son, Chin Lem, and son-in-law Woo Quon-bing ()〔〔Jue 1983, p. 34.〕 and returned in 1904 or 1905〔(The History of Xinning Railway ), Bureau of Archives of Taishan City and Xiao-huang Yin & Zhiyong Lan say 1904; Scigliano says 1905〕 to China, where he was the entrepreneur behind South China's first railway and founded a seaport, while continuing also to have business associations with Seattle.〔 He returned frequently to the U.S. and, in particular, to Seattle, where he retained close ties, and which he last visited in 1922.〔Jue 1983, p. 35.〕 His railway was known as the Sun Ning Railway Company. He raised $2.75 million, mainly from overseas Chinese;〔〔Some sources—Eric Scigliano, for example—say that further investment came from James J. Hill, but others say that he "vowed not to sell shares to foreigners, to borrow money from them, or to use their engineers." Jue (1983), p. 34, says that Chen "traveled all over the United States and Canada with the help of J. J. Hill, President of the Great Northern Railway Co.," but does not speak of Hill investing in his own right.〕 Chin's partner Yu Zhuo (; also variously rendered as Yu Shek)〔Jue 1983, p. 32.〕 or Yu Chuek〔(et al. 2006 ), editors' note, p. 125.〕 raised further funds in China and from overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. The Sun Ning was the Pearl River Delta's first major railway. Its benefits to Guangdong's economy were cut short when it was seized by local warlords in 1926; it was finally destroyed during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938.〔〔〔〔Xiao-huang Yin & Zhiyong Lan (2003), p. 9.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chin Gee Hee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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