Railroad worker's names
What were the names of the white (caucasian) and Chinese railroad workers on the Central Pacific Railroad? Is there a list?
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 8:06 PM
Monday, March 23, 2009
About Me
- Name: CPRR Discussion Group
Discussion Group – Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Previous Posts
- Three questions
- Cost per person to take the Central Pacific Rail Road
- Who could have predicted the current economic crisis?
- Mallet Articulated Locomotives
- Where Are You?
- Pony Express Map
- Japanese railroad workers of the early 1900's
- More wonderful (or outrageous) quotations, anecdot...
- Interview for Asian Pacific Heritage Month
- Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Wagon Road
A log of messages discussing transcontinental railroad history and photography. Opinions are those of each person posting. PRIVACY.
SEARCH both the CPRR Museum and its CPRR Discussion Group:
To find replies, look for both comments linked to the original message and also for later messages.
SEARCH Problem
Anecdotes & Aphorisms
Favorite Camera Lenses
19th Century City Views
Railroad History Readings
Railroad Exhibits
Chinese Railroad Workers
Historical Accuracy
Discrimination Myths
Overestimating Mortality
Caution to Students
B&MLRR
Palace Hotel
Progress
Health Care Solution
No Robber Barons
Other Topics
How Not to Be Poor
How to be Rich
DONATE
"Dr. Ben's Kitchen!"
5 Comments:
See the CPRR payroll records, many of which have survived as a result of Lynn D. Farrar's efforts, and are now located at the California State Railroad Museum.
Regarding the Chinese workers, see the study of these payroll records, Nameless Builders of the Transcontinental Railroad by William F. Chew.
See related discussion.
From: Kate Reid
... in January 1864 [Hung Wah] was recorded as one of the first Chinese railroad workers who appear by name. He was a supervisor in charge of 23 unnamed workers (based on payroll calculations). He later become one of the largest labour contractors with the ‘Hung Wah Company’. It is believed he may have been among the few workers who remained to the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
A National Geographic article, These Chinese immigrants opened the doors to the American West, by Philip Cheung names several CPRR Chinese railroad workers and their descendants:
"Christopher Kumaradjaja, the great-great-grandson of the Central Pacific Railroad worker Hung Lai Woh."
"Michael Solorio is a sixth-generation descendant of railroad worker Lim Lip Hong, who fled famine in China and arrived in California in 1855."
"Arabella Hong Young's grandfather Hung Lai Woh came to the U.S. as a teenager in the 1860s and helped blast the path for the railroad."
"Yale University student Naima Liang Blanco-Norberg ... is a sixth-generation descendant of Lum Ah Chew, who worked as a railroad cook and waiter at the summit tunnels ... "
"Connie Young Yu ... is the great-granddaughter of Lee Wong Sang."
"Vicki Tong Chung's great-grandfather, Mock Chuck, was a foreman for the Central Pacific Railroad ... "
Also, "Payroll records from the Central Pacific Railroad show names of Chinese workers."
Post a Comment
<< Recent Messages