by Michael Tan, MD

When we talk about the early days of Point Roberts, we immediately think of the many Icelandic pioneers who migrated here in the later part of the eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds. Those families really created this community and their contributions play a vital part in its development.

However, there was a group of people who also made a significant contribution to the economical survival of Point Roberts� main industry � the salmon canneries. They were the hundreds of Chinese laborers who provided the manual labor so essential to a salmon canning operation. They often spoke little or no English, lived together in the company bunk house and ate together using chopsticks rather than forks and spoons. They were paid on the lowest scale and rarely complained but were the best of workers. Without them, the three canneries in Point Roberts would not have been profitable nor survived as long as they did.

Among these Chinese workers, there was one whose name was known to the early generations around Point Roberts. His name was Ah Fat. No, he was not fat, in fact he was slim and slightly taller than most of his many compatriots. �Fat� (pronounced faht) is a Chinese pronunciation of his given name �Fat,� which is a very common Chinese name, meaning �prosperity.� Ah (pronounced aah) is added before a name to show friendliness or informality when one addresses the person. That was the custom. So he was known as Ah Fat, or Chinaman, which was how many Chinese were addressed by westerners during that time.

Ah Fat was born in a village in Toi-san about 120 miles southwest of the city of Canton in southern China. It is believed that when he was a youngster, he heard of the �gold mountain� in California. Along with many other Toi-san people, he boarded a steam ship and went to California by way of Victoria, dreams of success firmly in mind. Typically, he hoped that one day, he would become rich and could then return to the village in Toi-san, buy some land, have himself a wife, and produce lots of children. Then he would be a happy man. Things did not go as he had expected, however. California gold was nearly gone but fortunately, the Central Pacific Railroad Project had just started and Ah Fat found work there. When the railroad was completed he moved on, finding work in the canneries along the Columbia River in Oregon. There he learned the ins and outs of salmon butchering, starting out at the very lowest levels with fish cutting and washing, and later being promoted to run the can hole punching machine. This would become his regular job in subsequent years when he worked at George & Baker�s Cannery in Point Roberts.

Records show that prior to coming to Point Roberts, Ah Fat worked in Semiahmoo in 1865. There were a number of Chinese laborers in that area at the time enjoying relatively good relations with the community. This peaceful atmosphere continued until shortly before 1885 when anti-Chinese policy promoted by union leaders and supported by local politicians took hold. In 1885, anti-Chinese riots broke out and most of the sizable Chinese population of Bellingham was expelled. Animosity against the Chinese had been particularly strong among members of the Knights of Labor, a nationwide, white union prominent at that time. This opposition contradicted the fact that most cannery foremen voiced a preference for using Chinese workers. Here is one of the testimonials given at the time:

�The Chinese workers, who not only worked diligently worked for lower wages, but also were unwilling to strike. They are essential to the survival of the industry in Bellingham.�� Old newspaper clipping.

Ah Fat must have been a good and loyal worker, liked by the cannery management who perhaps protected him, because he escaped the Whatcom expulsion. The fact that Ah Fat continued to live in the same area and work in the canneries also speaks to his adaptability to the local culture. Unlike many other Chinese workers, who maintained their own customs and kept to themselves, Ah Fat was a pioneer of sorts. He cut off his queue (long braid of hair typically worn by Chinese men of the time), wore western clothes, spoke English, and made good friends at the cannery. He even adopted the western name of Charley.

He was specifically mentioned in the Ellet Report of December 28, 1904 which was the product of an investigation of Point Roberts (then referred to as �the Reservation�) conducted by Ed C. Ellet who was an agent for the General Land Office in Washington DC. Ellet wrote:

�Ah Fat ( Chinaman), came to Point Roberts in the fall of 1893, and built a house on Lot 2 of set.9, twp.40,R.3, West. This is on the light house reserve. Has no family. Improvements consist of the house, out-buildings and garden fence, worth about $300, probably cost more. He came to Victoria, B.C. in 1859 from China. Has lived in the house continuously since 1893; has never been away. Chinaman claims nothing, and is getting old� � Page 113, Point Roberts, USA by Richard E. Clark. Published 1980.

One of the Point Roberts Icelandic pioneer families, the Gudbransons, probably knew Ah Fat better than any one else. They called him Charley and when the Gudbransons first came to Point Roberts, they built their house right next to Ah Fat�s. Of course, Ah Fat had already been there for 20 years. Evidently one of the Gudbranson boys Carl was fascinated with the Chinaman. Carl�s recollection of Ah Fat, included in his family book, is as follows: ��Charley (Ah Fat)�s job at the George and Barker�s Cannery was running a hand-operated machine that made a tiny, pin-size hole in the center of each salmon can, still hot from cooking, to allow the gases to escape and form a vacuum. The hole was then sealed with a drop of solder�� � Local family The Gudbransons historical record. Published 2000.

From this, we know that by this time Ah Fat was considered a �skilled worker,� being allowed to operate a machine. This may have been largely because of his long years of work in the cannery because most of the Chinese workers only did menial tasks like cutting and gutting fish.

Another of the early pioneers who witnessed it recalled how the Chinese salmon butchers worked. She said:

�The smoothness and speed of their work was worth watching. Grab a fish by the tail, two or three flicks with their razor edged 10 inch butcher knife and the fins were off: off went the head; the thrust and the belly open and the guts swept out and blood line inside the spine opened; off the handle (tail) and into the sliming tank 10 or 12 on, going until noon time. As soon as they eat, they take the knife up again, they all work hard with incredible speed without stopping. When they slice through the fish you can hear it, whssst, right through! Hear it sing.� � History of the Chinese canary worker. Published 1988.

Another described the Chinese cannery workers of those days:

�They were by far the best butchering crews, wielding their large knives with incredible speed and accuracy. Many had gained their experience in the salmon canneries of the Sacramento and the Columbia rivers, and had come north to Canada (also ending up in Point Roberts) to find work in the canneries on the Fraser. Their presence was most welcome at a time when most white men were more interested in seeking their fortune in mining or logging, seeking factory employment only in dire need.� � Record from Stevenson�s archive library.

One article stated that :
�As long as hand labor dominated most of the canning process, Chinese contractors and their crews were essential.� � Record from Stevenson�s archive library.

During the hearings on the Royal Commission on Chinese and Japanese Immigration in 1885, the largely white B.C. labor force prompted increased anti-Chinese sentiment. Cannery representatives, however, testified positively before the Commission stating the importance of the Chinese workers, saying:

�They are steady and hard workers.� � Record of Canners testifying before the Royal Commission on Chinese and Japanese Immigration.

These Chinese workers must have been an acknowledged part of life in Point Roberts as there were numerous references to them in local records.These are some of those descriptions:

�I worked at the Alaska Packers Association (APA) cannery at Lily Point, as did a lot of the locals. I remember that the Chinese bunkhouse was the largest there, three stories high, with a lean-to across the back which was the kitchen. The kitchen was equipped with large, table size iron woks which were set on a long brick barbecue type structure. They cooked for themselves and ate their meals in their own bunkhouse� local pioneer Doddi Iwersen.

�I remember that the Chinese, they grew some of their own herbs, etc. close to the bunkhouse and they also gathered seaweed or kelp from the rocks when the tide was out and dried them in the sun to use for their cuisine.� � local pioneer 1983.

�There was a Chinese boss in the bunk house to handle the cannery workers. Most of them came from Portland, Oregon under contract from the Chinese boss. The Chinese cannery workers cleaned the fish and checked the cans with the hummer after processing. If the �tune� was not right, the can was discarded� - local pioneer 1983.

�The APA Chinaman used to come to the farm of Paul Thorsteinson to buy chicken from his son, Arni. The cook would come to the farm to buy them, much to the consternation of Arni�s sister who was a little bit scared of the cook! This was in the year 1921.� � local pioneer.

�After Arni came to know Ah Fat a little better through contact selling chickens to Ah Fat, he used to visit Ah Fat and took an occasional meal with him as Ah Fat had a way of fixing chicken that Arni especially liked � � Reminisce local pioneer Dagmar Thorsteinson.

�Ah Fat kept a very neat garden with flowers by his house, fenced, painted in white and well kept, he had a chicken pen as well. � � local pioneer Dagmar Thorsteinson.

Ah Fat was only one of many Chinese cannery workers but he also happened to be a long-term resident of Point Roberts. There were many �Ah Fat�s during the era when the canneries were the major industry in Point Roberts. Most were seasonal workers, however, who spent up to six months of the year living and working on the Point. At the peak of the salmon canning industry, each cannery had at least 50-60 Chinese workers in its work force and there were three canneries in Point Roberts. This brought the total number of Chinese in little Point Roberts to at least 150-180 every season. In a way, their presence was one of the main factors contributing to the success and profitability of the cannery industry in Point Roberts. We should remember them � these silent contributors to Point Roberts history.

Ah Fat died in 1915. The canneries are long gone. Only some old wooden pilings remain here and there on our beaches. The smoke from the canning machine, once seen in the sky of Point Roberts is not visible any more. Only the rusted hull of a pressure canning machine left laying on the Lily Point beach tells us about the busy days of the canneries.

But, every spring at Lighthouse Marine Park where Charley Ah Fat once lived, you can still find a few chives and some bachelor buttons popping up. That was where Ah Fat�s garden was. He and other Chinese seasonal workers are long gone but their legacy and their contribution to our town�s growth at the turn of the century remain in our history.

(The foregoing article was originally published in the newsletter of the Point Roberts Historical Society.)

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