3. CHINESE IN EARLY NIAGARA FALLS

Tallying the names and number of Chinese buried in Niagara Falls Fairview Cemetery is simpler than knowing the circumstances that brought Chinese men (mostly) to Niagara Falls and the lives they lived. Each year on the second Sunday in June, a geranium is planted on each Chinese grave in Fairview Cemetery on the occasion of Ching Ming. In 2017, about 125 flowers were planted. Chinese have been buried throughout the cemetery grounds until recently. The Red Maple Tree Garden, located adjacent the Ching Ming Festival meeting area, is a new alternative section dedicated to the burial of Chinese.

Although Fairview Cemetery was established in 1883, the oldest marked Chinese graves date back only to 1920s. An absence of Chinese graves before 1920 may be attributed to economic, social or cultural reasons that can only be speculated on. For example in western Canada, the practice of exhuming buried Chinese and repatriating their bones to China did not cease until the 1930s. But in western Canada, many Chinese had laboured in building the railroad and been killed.

Were Chinese present in eastern Canada?

As work on the Canadian Pacific Railway neared completion in 1880's, Chinese workers likely drifted eastward in pursuit of work. In 1881, even Toronto with a total population of 86,415 had only ten Chinese residents. Meanwhile, Niagara Falls with a total population of 2,347 was more unlikely to have any Chinese.

April 18, 1890 is the earliest found record relating Chinese in Niagara Falls. Lem Sing was one of three "Chinamen" [sic] attempting to cross the suspension bridge (Whirlpool Rapids Bridge) into Niagara Falls, NY. All three were refused and turned back. Two had Canadian customs certificates and were allowed back into Canada. Lem Sing had no papers and no money to pay the "Canadian tax on Chinamen" ($50), and was refused entry. Lem Sing was stranded on the bridge while officials on each side contacted Ottawa and Washington for further directions (Chicago Tribune, April 18, 1890). According to the New York Times (April 19, 1890), Lem Sing was admitted into Canada later that night and "immediately left for parts unknown."At the time, Canada had less restrictive immigration practices than US.

In 1882, the US Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, placing a 10 year moratorium on Chinese labour immigration. Only Chinese who were non-labourers (i.e. certified merchants) were allowed entry. Some Chinese entered Canada first and then attempted to make their way into the US by way of the under-patrolled Niagara frontier border.

Trafficking immigrants through Buffalo became a lucrative and well-organized business. Four Chinese captured in Buffalo in 1900 told the judge they had paid $210 to be brought across the river (Siener, 2008). Clearly in Lem Sing's case, he and possibly his companions lacked the funds to avail themselves of smugglers.

While Lem Sing may have appeared optimistic or very naive, the Pittsburg Dispatch (April 19, 1890) cast his behaviour differently:
"What is Lem Sing to do? The Chinaman proverbially needs very little capital to start a laundry, but the circumstances are terribly against Lem Sing. It is an opportunity to start an international laundry, to be sure, but a bridge sidewalk is not convenient for tubs and ironing boards. The location is a trifle too exposed and breezy" (p. 4).

Perhaps the newspaper was making an attempt at humour or was it ridicule?

By the end of 1908, US officials declared the Niagara border secure against illegal Chinese immigrants. In spite of changes to immigration laws, unsavoury practices continued as they to do along any patrolled international borders.

In 2014, Ross Howell, a long-time Niagara Falls resident, wrote this anecdote and passed it on to Loy Chong, President of Niagara Falls Ching Ming Festival:

I'd like to tell you a story that I heard years ago about Chinese immigrants in Niagara Falls. A scheister would find some Chinese immigrants who would like to get into the USA. But because of passport regulations they could not enter legally. So he would charge them a fee and promise to get them into the USA without all the legal jazz. So when he would find the couple or person who wanted to go, he would take them down to the Spanish Aero Car, buy a 1-way ticket (the Car stopped on both sides then), put them on the Car and tell them when they got off they were in the USA, and run like hell.

You and I know that the Car only crosses the gorge and when you land on the other side you are still in Canada.

What a dirty trick to play on the Chinese immigrants who probably could not speak English and also take most of their money.

Since 1851, the Government of Canada has compiled census records to track population numbers. Census data can include a person's age, ethnic origin, place of birth, occupation, religious denomination as well as other information.

The Town of Niagara Falls was constituted in 1881. Census data for 1881 and 1889 do not indicate any Chinese living in Niagara Falls. However, census records for 1901 report four men: GEOUGH SHING, HING CHARLY, LUNA CHARLY, and LUNG SUCY.

Name spellings are assumed to be transliterations by the enumerator. The occupation of all four men was "laundry". Unlike later census records, those for 1901 do not indicate addresses but since the four names are clustered together in the register, it can be assumed that they worked/lived in close proximity of each other.

In addition, Lung and Hing are listed as "head" under Relationship to head of family or household column. Geough and Luna are named as "helper". Other listed data note Luna immigrated to Canada in 1889 and Hing arrived in 1890.

The next census, conducted in 1911, indicated Hing was the only one of the four who stayed on in Niagara Falls.

Besides the census, city directories are another early record source. Niagara Falls Public Library has a set of city directories for the City of Niagara Falls dating from 1904.

The 1904-1905 directory records Charles Hing as running a laundry at 29 Erie Avenue. At the same time, two other Chinese laundries - JOE SING at 39 Park Street and HI LOUIE at Main & Ferry Streets - operated.