Chin Lee and Exeter’s Chinese Heritage

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 25, 2008

In the postcard collection of the Exeter Historical Society there are a few depicting the  Trade and Carnival Week parade in 1914. Behind the happy throngs of people on Water Street, standing on a lot that is today populated by coffee-sipping patrons of Me & Ollie’s bakery, is the laundry shop of Chin Lee, a Chinese immigrant.

Chinese immigrants first came to the United States during the wild days of the California gold rush. The men who arrived expected to work for a few years, send the money home and eventually return. But the amount of money that could be made encouraged many to stay indefinitely. The gold fields were picked pretty clean by the time most Chinese arrived, but Americans tended to pan only lightly, moving on if they didn’t strike it rich immediately. The Chinese went back to the forgotten streams and panned them again, working tirelessly for even the tiniest bit of gold dust. They didn’t strike it rich, but they made enough to send home. The real money, it turned out, was in the service industry.  Food and laundry were two things the American miners needed. Laundry was sometimes sent by ship all the way to China or Hawaii. It soon became apparent that there was niche to be filled.

The Chinese also worked in heavy labor jobs, building railroads, doing farm labor, or deep sea fishing. But American racism began to shut most of them out of these jobs. The economic panic of the 1870’s brought about unwarranted fears that the Chinese – who were prevented from becoming naturalized citizens or intermarrying with whites – were undermining the job market. A strict immigration law called the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 forbidding any Chinese from immigrating to the United States. To the fanatics, it still wasn’t enough and a wave of violence against the Chinese who remained here followed. There were riots in many cities in the west. 

As the Chinese came east, the laundry business came with them. According to Iris Chang’s The Chinese in America, “Opening a laundry appealed to many immigrants because it was a fast way to establish one’s own business. It required almost no start-up capital – just a scrub board, soap, and an iron – and operating costs were low since the laundry owner usually saved rent by living in his shop.”

By 1900, almost every town in New England had a Chinese laundry. It was a solitary life for the laundryman because he was not allowed to bring his wife or children from China. Denied citizenship they could not vote. Employers wouldn’t hire a worker who was Chinese and without any employment protections it was perfectly legal. 

The first Chinese laundry in Exeter opened in 1888, and was operated by a man named Sam Song.  He sold the business to Chin Han sometime before 1893. The Exeter News-Letter noted, in March of that year that “Chin Han, a local laundryman, has left Exeter this week for a visit to China.” He visited again in 1898, but worried that his re-entry into the country would be difficult, he had his picture taken for his passport, an uncommon action at that time. The News-Letter noted that the photo was taken by Exeter photographer, Newall Nealey.

Han sold the laundry to Charlie Thying in 1910. There is no direct evidence that Mr. Thying was Chinese, but the newspaper published a rather unusual item that, “Mr. Thying is a well appearing person and an experienced laundryman. Any boys or persons ill treating or imposing upon him will be prosecuted by Mr. John Scammon.” On maps of the town, the shop was still labeled “Chinese Laundry.” 

Chin Lee bought the business from Charlie Thying. There were never two Chinese laundries in town, although there were other places to get laundry washed. Many people preferred the Chinese hand laundry system, which used no machinery and was easier on the clothes.

When the 1920 census was taken, Chin Lee told the census taker that he had arrived in 1882, making him one of the last Chinese immigrants to come to America legally. He was now 57 years old and married. He lived alone in his rented shop and spoke, but could not write, English. His was a grueling job. “The work consumed almost every waking moment,” writes Iris Chang, “Breathing steam and lint, the laundryman labored on a wet, slippery floor, washing and pressing, using an eight-pound iron heated over a coal stove, and then folding his customers’ clothes by hand.”

The work eventually took its toll. Chin Lee died in his shop in 1925. A customer found him one morning lying on the floor. The town notified the Chinese Society in Boston, which dispatched his brother and several friends to Exeter to claim his body. Like most Chinese, he was buried temporarily until arrangements could be made to ship his bones home to China, where his gravestone should read: “Chin Lee – respected laundryman of Exeter, NH.”