Yesterday's Print

Showing 9 posts tagged chinese canadian

A collection of old photographs, historic newspaper clippings and assorted excerpts highlighting the parallels of past and present. Featuring weird, funny and baffling headlines, articles and advertisements! Visit www.yesterdays-print.com 

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Eva Onderdonk, Ottawa, Ontario, ca. 1893

The second picture shows Eva in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader in December 1891, in an article titled Fair Chicago Maidens, an article that ran in many different newspapers across the country.

The third picture shows Eva in the Inter Ocean, a Chicago newspaper, in 1894, shortly before her wedding.

The fourth picture shows a clipping from the The Decatur Herald on February 11, 1892, in an article describing Chicago debutantes who were interested in charity work, another girl showcased was Florence Pullman, heiress of George M Pullman.

The fifth picture, again from the the Inter Ocean, shows Eva after her marriage, published on June 3, 1894.

The sixth photo, taken around 1885, shows a private passenger train car named after Eva, used to show visiting dignitaries and other VIPs the railroad while it was being constructed.

Eva was a daughter of Andrew Onderdonk, an American contractor who had a hand in building the seawall in San Francisco and the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. His role in the construction of the CPR is rather controversial, he “imported” thousands of Chinese workers from China and California for work on the railroad, giving them substandard shelter, pay and medical care while they did highly dangerous work, and then left them without help to either settle in Canada or move home, some living in caves with little food or water, when the railroad was complete.

Eva, at 19, married Percy Leroy Fearn on May 29, 1894, in Chicago, where her family had settled soon after the completion of the CPR railroad in BC. Her society debut took place in 1893, amid much fanfare. At the time of their marriage, Fearn’s father was a judge on the International Commission in Cairo. As far as I can tell, Eva and Percy had no children. He died in Texas in 1916.

Front page editorial cartoon, Los Angeles Herald, September 15, 1907 From the UBC library: In 1907, an anti-immigration rally exploded into violence and vandalism in both Chinatown and Japantown in Vancouver. What began as riots in Bellingham as a...   High-res

Front page editorial cartoon, Los Angeles Herald, September 15, 1907 

From the UBC library: In 1907, an anti-immigration rally exploded into violence and vandalism in both Chinatown and Japantown in Vancouver. What began as riots in Bellingham as a movement to drive Punjabi Sikhs out of the lumber industry had eventually spread to white supremacist marches to Vancouver city with demands for a “White Canada.”

The riots were not only a landmark in the rise of racism in Canada, they signified the commencement of systematic federal intervention to prohibit Asian immigration to Canada through the imposition of quotas on Japanese emigration, continuous voyage regulations those from India, and the enforcement of laws against the Chinese.

The 1907 Riots were advertised in news reports, and by the time the parade arrived at city hall, a huge crowd had gathered. Crowd estimates vary between four thousand and eight thousand people. As rioters attacked Chinatown, the angry mob eventually turned toward Japantown or Nihon Bachi, around the Powell Street grounds in what is now Oppenheimer Park.

Although news of the riot flashed reached different corners of the world, appearing on front pages in Ottawa , New York, and London, only three people were charged and only one person convicted of any offence. Not only had newspapers openly mocked the efforts of the court and police, few injuries were reported. All levels of government in Canada made vague apologies.