Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 056-2 - April 2002 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 8 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2014-03-12 07:19:28 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:06:01 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:06:01

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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Kentsville—Nevada —~ City’s New Chinatown Part II by W. R. Hagaman IRE WAS A CONSTANT THREAT IN THOSE DAYS IN every community. Fire first came to Kentsville on August 18, 1881. The Transcript gave the following account: CHINATOWN FIRE The Chinese settlement situated in the northern suburb of this City was destroyed by fire Wednesday night. Shortly before eight o’clock, a woman was filling a lighted kerosene lamp at Ah Fook’s place, on the south side of the street three dooors from the lower end when by some means the flame came into contact with the oil. Almost instantly the alarm was turned on and the fire department reinforced by hundreds of other citizens hastened to the scene. So rapidly did the fire spread that in a very few minutes the house where it started and adjoining ones were burning brightly inside and out. The members of Company No. . got their hose attached to a hydrant within ten feet of one of the house, but the stream of water was insufficient and the heat became so intense when the fire swept down that way that they detached just in time to keep the hose from being burned off. The building occupied by Ah See was the only one saved. This would have gone with the rest had not Marshall Baldridge and a number of other gentlemen not [sic] worked vigorously with buckets. Sixteen of the buildings were owned jointly by Phil Richards and Charles Kent, who place their loss at $7,000. Their losses were insured. The Chinamen say that they had about $12,000 worth of property of their own, none of which was insured, They had little chance of saving anything not in the cellars when the fire broke out. Quong Dick, Tin Loy, Quong Hee Kee and Ah Moon owned the building they occupied. Three of the stores had large fire-proof cellars, in only one of which (Ah Moon’s) did the fire injure anything. The iron doors of the latter opened a little and a few articles were charred. As both parties are agreeable, it is pretty clear that a new Chinatown will be reared on the ashes of the old one. The Transcript ended the article by encouraging the city to enforce the necessary ordinances to prevent the Chinese returning to Commercial Street and to encourage those already there to move to the new Chinatown when it was . rebuilt. “If ordinances cannot control them, the citizens should take hold and make a clean sweep of them from the heart of town.” On Wednesday, August 21, 1881 , the Transcript reported the rebuilding of Chinatown had commenced: r > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletin VOLUME 56 NUMBER 2 APRIL 2002 XX Some of the merchants have their structures about completed and Messrs. Kent and Richards will begin putting up buildings on their lots. The street will be made as wide as possible—at least six feet—and more space will be left between buildings. Now is a good time for our citizens to devise some means to compel the Mongolian laundry men who are operating in the corporate limits to move out there. It would be better for all concerned to banish every Chinaman outside the city. Two days later the reporter interviewed Ah Moon. The interview was written in pidgin English, which in those days perpetuated another racial stereotype. Ah Moon said that he lost his his building which, along with his other loses, was eleven hundred dollars, but he saved his merchandise by “shoving goods into the cellar.” He said that he was going to build his new building of stone with a brick front. He was looking for a white man who would work for three dollars a day, not one who charged five dollars a day. Asked about the recent raids on the opium dens on Commercial Street, he said that he paid the fines of several of his friends to get out of iail because they had no money. He said, “make opium dens go out of town, make all Chinamen go. That would be very good for new Chinatown.” A fire company was organized in September. The TranScript reported: New Chinatown is to be better guarded against destruction by fire than its predecessor was. Sufficient hose is to be kept constantly attached to the fire plug to reach any of the houses and is to be arranged as to be stretched at a moment’s notice. A small building will be erected over the plug and hose, and will be dignified with the title of Engine House. The Chinamen propose to organize a fire company of their own. “Tiger Hose Company No.3" has been suggested as a name for it. When the fire broke out there, the Celestials had some hose, but it was stored away in the garret of a house and was therefore not available. The City Board of Trustees at their meeting a few weeks later authorized the fire department to give 150 feet of spare fire hose to be attached to the hydrant as soon as the building to house it was ready. It was further ordered that a “blunderbuss” with a 5.8-inch nozzle be purchased to attach to the hose.