Breaking Racial Barriers: Wo Kee Company: A Collaboration Between a Chinese Immigrant and White American in Nineteenth-Century America (1) (Editorial‪)‬

Editor's Note: This first manuscript pertains to my great-aunt's father (my great-grandfather) Wen He. (2) To me, his story is intriguing because despite the strong anti-Chinese prejudice and discrimination during the 1800s, he managed to forge a very close friendship with a Caucasian man, Jake Hoyt. They traveled together throughout northern California and Oregon in search of economic opportunities and eventually decided to become partners in a business. In the late 1800s they opened a very successful lumber company in San Francisco called Wo Kee Lumber and Timber. Later on, when Jake decided to attend law school, Wen He gave him financial support. And when Wen He was dying in 1901, Jake was at his bedside. My great-aunt's manuscript required editing because she wrote it in English at a time when she considered Chinese to be her major language. I made some corrections in spelling, grammar, and sentence structure but left the manuscript largely in her own words so that her unique voice could be maintained. She wrote the account largely from stories that her relatives had told her about her father. I tried to verify the relevant facts in the manuscript. After extensive research at the National Archives and Regional Administration in San Bruno, California; the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley; the San Francisco room at the San Francisco Main Library; and the Berkeley Main Library, I have concluded that most of the important facts are valid. In footnotes I have cited supporting information for my great-aunt's account, and where there are discrepancies, I discuss them. These inconsistencies are so minor that they do not undermine the essential accuracy of her manuscript.