Chinese Coffins 1863-64
A little more fodder for the "Chinese Deaths" discussion. Attached are articles from the Sacramento Union in 1863 and 1864 about the shipment of Chinese bodies back to China – these before the Central Pacific employed any Chinese. What it shows is the common practice of shipping deceased Chinese back to China. This suggests that the account of the large number of bones of dead Chinese reported in 1870 are not necessarily exclusively those of Central Pacific workers. —Kyle
Chinese Coffins in 1863
The Sacramento Union Friday, January 1, 1864 summary of 1863
April 3, 1863
Three hundred Chinese coffins and contents shipped to San Francisco.
Sacramento Daily Union, Monday, January 2, 1865 summary for 1864
April 1, 1864
The carcasses of 286 defunct Celestials were shipped to the Central Flowery Land for Interment.
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 1:03 AM
4 Comments:
From: vandtrr@cs.com
Yes, the Chinese of that era believed that if they were to have eternal peace they had to return to China to be buried. Several newspaper articles of the era refer to this practice.
However the Chinamen who were foremen of the various labor gangs were also notorious for running off with the money acquired through the labor of the gang; leaving them without food, shelter or a way to get to the next job. Have to assume that some of these folks got buried locally just just because the funds necessary to get them home were stolen.
—Charlie Siebenthal
Charlie's comment is right on, Read the ELKO INDEPENDENT, Jan. 5, 1870 to wit: "Six cars are strung along the road between and Toano, and are being loaded with dead Celestials for transportation to the Flowery Kingdom......The remains of the females are left to rot in shallow graves...."
As to the foremen running off with the filthy lucre, having spent entirely too many years walking the old CPRR grade in Calif., Nevada and Utah, I would have to note that not too many places available to "run off" to. Helluva long walk, East or West...
Peace. G J Chris Graves, NewCastle, AltaCal'a MP 32
See related discussion.
See related discussion.
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