Chinese Puzzle 1

Chinese in San Angelo

The following is a newspaper article found in a library file. The article is not dated, nor is the name of the newspaper known. Yet, from internal evidence, it is probably from the San Angelo Standard Times and published in the 1940s or 1950s. No other newspaper would have made a casual reference to the famous Ragsdale picture studio, and Chinese Texans and their local stories were in the news every year after China went to war with Japan in 1937.

A photograph was found in the file with the article. It, also, is not identified but could have been taken in San Angelo.

These two items are examples of how fragmentary historical materials may be. Yet a historian must interpret the materials to write a story consistent with literally everything else that is definitely known. One simply cannot make up a story about the man in the photograph—unless one is writing a novel.

Considering what you have read about the Chinese in Texas and assuming that the guesses above might be good ones:

1. Whom might the person in the photo be?

2. Is he Chinese?

3. Why is he holding a fan?

4. Were the occupations of the Chinese in San Angelo typical?

5. What do the following words mean?

notions, Ben Ficklin, irrigated farm, truck farming, chop house, patronized, picture gallery, widely heralded

6. Was the article written when Chinese operated businesses in San Angelo?

7. What is the last paragraph talking about?

8. Where did the newspaper reporter get information for the article?

Angelo Once
Had Colony
Of Chinese

In the early 80's, perhaps even earlier, a number of Chinese, some with families, settled in and near Ben Ficklin and San Angelo. They were attracted by the irrigated farms and, no doubt, were made welcome as their success with truck farming was widely heralded.

Later they ventured into business in San Angelo. In 1885, Sing Kee presided over a shop opposite Ragsdale's picture gallery. He sold, according to advertisement, both Japanese and Chinese notions, but specialized in tea.

Sam King at the same time operated a chop house on Oakes St.—how successfully is not now known—but in all probability everybody visited it at least once.

Wing Sing in 1887 maintained a laundry next door to Dressler's Bakery on Concho Ave. The laundry was well patronized, and Wing Sing himself was generally liked. Customers saw to it that he and his family were remembered at community Christmas gatherings, and Wing Sing out of gratitude to his American friends gave them no doubt what they most desired-—precious lily and narcissus bulbs obtained from his native land.

That the Chinese did not continue to live in San Angelo has been somewhat of a mystery. All suddenly left about the same time. Some oldtimers have advanced the theory that an act of violence committed somewhere put them in jeopardy, and, as any alien would have been suspected, they must have concluded that safety lay in flight.