In 1912, Fong Get photographed the Ng-Lee School teachers and students in front of their building at 941 Clay Street in San Francisco, California. The photograph is at the National Archives. The address of this location and others are in the Chinese File 52753/13-B at the National Archives.
A copy of Ida K. Greenlee’s 1912 compliant to Department of Labor’s Bureau of Immigration said:
A copy of Ida K. Greenlee’s 1912 compliant to Department of Labor’s Bureau of Immigration said:
… In December 1909 I returned to Seattle bringing with me twenty-three Chinese boys to pursue their studies in this country. We established a little school at 4210-Fourteenth Avenue, Northwest [sic] incorporated under the name of The Ng-Lee School. ...
4210 Fourteenth Avenue Northwest was in an industrial area by Salmon Bay. 4210 Fourteenth Avenue Northeast (blue dot on the 1918 map inset) was next to the University of Washington.
Greenlee’s Complaint
Below is a transcription of the December 14, 1912 notarized letter by Ng-Lee School teacher, Evelyn M. Burlingame, who wrote:
Miss Ida K. Greenlee’s school, known as the “Ng Lee School”, and formerly located at 941 Clay St., San Francisco, Cal., is now located at 14th Ave & E. 28th St., East Oakland, Ca. It has been in regular session since July, 1912. ...
Blue dot is 941 Clay Street on the 1929 San Francisco Chinatown map.
Below are letters dated February 22, 1913 by A. E. Carleton, Vice Consul General in Charge, American Consular Service, Hong Kong, who wrote:
... Miss Greenlee has established a school at No. 33 Queen’s Road Central in this city under the name of the Ng Lee School and another school under the same name at 14th Avenue and E. 28th Street, Oakland, California. …
33 Queen’s Road Central is the blue dot on the inset of the Victoria, Hong Kong 1909 map.
In the postcard, the Lock Hing Building, with a sign for Dr. M. H. Chaun, is 33 Queen’s Road Central.
The 1913 Polk-Husted Directory Co.’s Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda Directory listed Evelyn M. Burlingame and Ng-Lee School.
Ng-Lee School used one or more buildings of the former California College at 14th Avenue and East 28th Street in Oakland. Below is a 1937 map. Besides learning English, math, penmanship, etc., the students probably went on field trips and attended church services.
In late July or early August 1913, Rev. Matthews informed the Seattle immigration office that Miss Greenlee was going to close the school in Oakland. Acting Secretary J. B. Densmore replied in a letter dated August 7, 1913.
An excerpt from Ida K. Greenlee’s March 10, 1914 letter, to Commissioner General Backus, said:
In March of 1913 the following list of thirty one boys came with me on the S.S. “Minnesota” thru the port of Seattle. These boys were paroled to the Rev. Dr. M.A. Matthews of Seattle in lieu of a bond asked for by the Department. As these boys have been attending school in San Francisco, I have been asked to render a report as to their school work. I therefore submit the following for your consideration:—
The boys began their school work in the Ng Lee School, which had been in operation for nearly one year, on the last days of March 1913. During the month of June I distributed the 78 Chinese youths I had brought thru the port of San Francisco in June of 1912, but these 31 boys continued in the Ng Lee School until November, 1913, the 28th day. In September 1913 I enrolled them in the public schools of San Francisco and Oakland in order to see if they would be able to carry on the regular grade work without being burden to the teacher in charge. The boys went to the public school from 9 to 12 and from 1 to 3 every day. Then from 3:15 to 5:45 or later they came again to the Ng Lee School which in the meantime I had moved from Oakland where it was formerly located to a store room on Stockton St. San Francisco. We observed no holidays, having school on Saturdays for those who desired to attend. The boys were under the tutelage of two of the best teachers I could hire. Besides the two, Miss Burlingame and Miss McCauley, I also taught every day from the last of March until the last of November, 1913. ...
The school may have been on Stockton Street in San Francisco Chinatown.
(On March 18, 1929, Yook Yee Wong, who was planning to leave with his family for China, was interviewed by an immigration official. Wong recalled his time, from 1913 to 1914, at the Ng-Lee School: “I went to Oakland, for about six months, attending the Ng Lee School then about six months in San Francisco, to which the Ng Lee School moved; then came to Boston, attending the Quincy School until 1917 …”)
History of Education Quarterly, Volume 58, Number 2, May 2018, published “Immigration Restrictions and International Education”, by Krystyn Moon, who wrote about Ng-Lee School’s problems and closing.
People Associated with the Ng-Lee School
The Ng-Lee School was founded in 1909 in Seattle, Washington. I believe the school was named after Ng Niehong and Lee On Lai.
Ida Katherine Greenlee
November 23, 1856 – April 28, 1943
Find a Grave
Reports of the Department of Commerce and Labor 1910
November 23, 1856 – April 28, 1943
Find a Grave
Reports of the Department of Commerce and Labor 1910
Ng Niehong
October 1884 –
October 1884 –
Berkeley Gazette (California), December 21, 1907
Page 2: Local Work of Chinese Missions
Page 1: Chinese Lad Brings 17 Boys for Education
Page 2: Local Work of Chinese Missions
Two to the interesting branches of church work in this city are found in the Chinese missions—that of the Congregational American Board, on Addison street just above Grove, and the other on Regent street just below Dwight way.Seattle Daily Times, December 2, 1909
Every night except Saturday and Sunday about 22 Chinamen gather in the schoolroom on Addison street, where they can study everything from reading to arithmetic, including geography, spelling and other subjects. As teachers there are two, Mrs. Hubbard and a Chinaman, a college student, Ng. Niehong. Mrs. Hubbard cannot talk Chinese, but she is an excellent English student, having taught in the public schools for many years. She devotes every evening to the instruction of these Chinamen, who are anxious to learn more about the English language.
Ng. Niehong is an exceedingly interesting character. He is only 24 years old, and has lived in China all but six years of his life. Since coming to this country he has graduated from grammar school, from Berkeley High School, and is now a freshman in the University, taking his lot with the regular students who have the advantage of being American born. For several years past he has been in charge of the mission, a position which requires a high degree of executive ability. It would seem that the mission work alone would be sufficient to engage his entire attention, but Ng. is ambitious, and is striving for an education. He is in the mechanical engineering department in college, where he is fitting himself along lines by which he can be very valuable in his native land. In fact, Ng. is assured of a position on his return to China which will pay him in the neighborhood of $600 per month, which is an immense sum in China. He speaks good English and sounds very eloquent when talking to his Chinese audience in Chinese. His education makes him very valuable in teaching the students their difficult English lessons.
Page 1: Chinese Lad Brings 17 Boys for Education
Enterprising Youth Leaves University of Washington and Returns with Brothers from Orient
Fulfilling Dream to Aid His Native Land.
In Fulfillment of the dream of N.G. [sic] Niehong, a Chinese student of the University of Washington, to see inculcated in the rising generation of his home province of Quang Tung, China, the progressive commercial ideas of America, seventeen sons of the Celestial Kingdom, ranging in age from 12 to 18 years, stepped off the gangplank of the Minnesota shortly after noon today when the big Hill liner docked at Smith Cove. Every member of the party will spend not less than five years in the various educational institutions of Seattle.
Niehong, an alert little oriental 24 years old, entered the University of Washington a year ago last September. A few months later he conceived the idea that his country would be vastly benefited if her younger sons received their education in the United States. The son of a family which controls one of the largest wholesale drug companies in China, maintaining headquarters at Canton and Hongkong, he had at his command sufficient money to put his theory into effect.
Plan Gets Endorsement.
When he received assurances from his people that this money would be forthcoming he consulted the University authorities with the result that last June he sailed to China, with Miss Ida K. Greenlee, of the department of in English at the University, the instructor having been granted a six months’ leave of absence by the board of regents of the University.
Niehong found his people responsive and in a short time had gathered under his wing seventeen boys, all sons of the leading merchants of Quang Tung province. In August the endorsement of the imperial Chinese government was received when Niehong was granted an audience with the prince regent. The cost of organizing the party, it is estimated, amounts to approximately $4,000, all of which is borne by Niehong’s family.
Immediately after the young Celestial observed the formalities required by the immigration service, they were conducted to a residence near the University, which has been leased for them as their home. As none of the party speaks English, the next few months will be devoted almost entirely to instruction in that language. Miss Greenlee, in the course of the next few days, will engage a tutor for this purpose. After the young Chinese become far enough advanced they will enter various Seattle educational institutions, the younger members taking grammar school courses and the older entering high school. Eventually, it is planned, all will enter college. Every member of the party will follow mercantile pursuits in accordance with the Chinese custom which makes the son follow in the footsteps of his father.
The members of the party which arrived on the Minnesota today were Miss Ida K. Greenlee, N.G. Niehong, Yu Sun, Chan Hai, Chan Mui, Tom Yu Shang, Lee Fun Wing, Len Bok Shing, Lee Sik Ling, Wong Ban Yuen, Lee Yok Sun, Lee King Hee, Lee Jim, Ban Yim, Lun Ban, Yip Sak Yuen, Hu Dip and Tak Yuen.
Seattle Daily Times, December 5, 1909
Page 22: China’s Millions Seeking New Light
Page 22: China’s Millions Seeking New Light
Merchants of Quang Tung Determined Sons Shall Receive Education in Public Schools of United States
Native System Now Deemed Inefficient
Man Who Brought Seventeen Youths from Celestial Kingdom Tells What Ng Family Is Doing for Cause.
China’s traditional slavish adherence to custom will soon be a thing of the past if the inhabitants of provinces of the Celestial Empire follow the lead set by those of the province of Quang Tung, from which seventeen youngsters, under the guardianship of Ng Niehong, a Chinese student of the University of Washington, and Miss Ida K. Greenlee, of the English department of the same institution arrived in Seattle Thursday on the Minnesota.
Within a comparatively short time largely through the efforts of the Ng family, the leading merchants of the province of Quang Tung have been convinced that the Chinese educational system is obsolete and inefficient and have come to the conclusion that the future welfare of their nation depends upon the substitution of the educational methods of the United States.
Old System Obsolete.
Niehong, in an interview given to The Times yesterday, tells what brought about this sudden change in his home province and what his family did and still is doing to introduce modern methods in business in the Sunflower Kingdom. He said:
“I was born in the southern district of Quang Tung twenty-six years ago. My family, the Ng, was and still is engaged in many business enterprises, chiefly specializing in the wholesale drug trade. Like all children of my country when I became old enough I studied the Chinese language. That was the only branch taught in the Chinese schools, and in order to master even fairly the Chinese tongue—there are, you know, more than 300 characters in the Chinese alphabet—one had to spend eight or ten years. No other branch was taught. Mathematics had to be picked up in the business houses. Any other branch could be mastered only by employing special tutors.
Friend of Fellow Countrymen.
“That was the condition that obtained when I was a child and still prevails in the country districts. My family for years had realized that the system was woefully inadequate. Consequently in 1900 I was sent to San Francisco. I attended several grammar schools at Berkeley and finished the elementary courses. Then I entered the Berkeley High School, completing my course in 1907. The fall of that year I entered the University of California. I studied a year at California and always interested myself in the welfare of my young fellow countrymen who were attending the university, tutoring those who found their studies difficult to master and lending financial assistance to those temporarily embarrassed.
“Believing that I would learn more of American methods by attending more than one university, I left California at the end of my freshman year and entered the university of Washington in the fall of 1908. In the meantime my younger brother has been sent over from China and was held up by the immigration officials at San Francisco. It was not until six months after he landed that he was allowed to enter. It kept me busy corresponding with the San Francisco authorities and my home government to unwind the red tape of departmental procedure before he was allowed to pursue his studies at Berkeley.
Family Establishes Schools.
“The same convictions that caused my people to send me to the United States to get my education led them, about the same time, to establish in two villages in the southern district of Quang Tung modern up-to-date schools conducted under the American plan, but with native instructors. These schools were built at a cost of not less than $30,000 each. All the common branches, as well as several foreign languages, are taught. I have not heard what the total enrollment of students is in each, but I understand it is not less than 200. My family bears the expenses of maintaining both institutions.
“So gratifying were the reports received in China from the young men studying in America that last fall letters began to pour in on my older brother at Canton from merchants in every quarter of the province of Quang Tung asking whether it would be possible for them to send their sons over. My brother got into communication with me and after a few months I was able to report that I believed matters could be adjusted with the American government so as to allow a party of youths from my native land to obtain their education in Seattle. Funds to finance the scheme were placed in my hands by my family. I consulted several members of the faulty of the University of Washington and obtained their hearty cooperation. Miss Ida K. Greenlee was allowed a leave of absence by the university regents that she might accompany me to China and assist me in organizing the party.
Discard Oriental Customs.
“It was necessary for every member of the party to undergo an examination conducted by Leo Bergholz the American consul at Canton. It was originally planned to bring over about forty. Owing however to the fact that the consul subjected the boys to an examination so rigid that failure to pass would have been excusable even in a Chinese university student, only twenty came out with flying colors. Of these seventeen made the trip, the other three being detained until they convinced the authorities there was nothing the matter with their eyes. I expect them over on the next boat.
“As guardian of the boys I have leased a house at 4210 Fourteenth Avenue Northeast, where we will make our home. In compliance with the expressed desire of the boys’ parents they will adopt Occidental manners of living, discarding their native apparel and living every minute of the day as their white bothers do.
Cold Spell Felt by Boys.
“During the first few months of their stay here, they will be drilled in the English language. After they are sufficiently versed in that they will enter the grammar and high schools of Seattle. How long they will remain here depends on how they take to the climate. The weather right now is pretty chilly and they complain that they find it difficult to become accustomed to it. However they will stay here a year, at least, and by that time they ought to be acclimated.”
Niehong says he will continue his studies at the University of Washington until he takes his degree. Then he plans to take a post-graduate course at Yale, where he hopes to take a doctor’s degree. His education completed he will return to his native land and identify himself with his family’s business interests.
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Seattle Daily Times, October 12, 1910
Page 11: Chinese Students Sent to Clansmen
Page 11: Chinese Students Sent to Clansmen
Oriental Colony Near University Learns Rudiments of English and Leave to Finish Work.Ng and his wife, Yin Moy Wong, had at least three children. On July 6, 1910, their first daughter was born in Seattle, Washington. In 1913, they sent an announcement of their son’s birth in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Their second daughter, Wai Ping (Ng) Wu, was born on September 4, 1914 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She passed away on February 14, 1993. At Harvard, Ng earned his degree. His name appeared in the Boston Globe, June 18, 1914 (near the bottom of the third column). After the birth of his daughter, Ng returned to China. In 1923 Sun Yat-sen appointed Ng as district inspector under the Salt Administration.
Because difficulty was encountered in teaching the Orientals the English language where so many were living together, the sixty-three Chinese students who since last fall have been studying near the university under the tutelage of Miss Ida K. Greenlee and Prof. Ober, have been dismissed and will go to various parts of the country, where “clansmen” will care for them.
The discontinuing of the [Ng-Lee] school does not mean in any sense that is has been a failure, but rather on the other hand that is has performed its service of teaching the boys rudimentary American customs and a little of the language. The change was planned from the beginning of the school, say the instructors.
“In three months Ng Nihong [sic], leader and teacher of the students, has transformed them from through Orientals to fairly self-reliant American boys.” said Prof. Ober. “As the boys, mostly sons of wealthy parents, have plenty of money, many of them will probably enter private schools, where they will prepare for college work. They wish to learn American business methods.”
Caroline Haven Ober
May 3, 1866 – June 2, 1929
May 3, 1866 – June 2, 1929
Women of the West (1928)
Ober, Caroline Haven (Miss), born May 3, 1866, in Beverly, Massachusetts, daughter of Andrew Kimball and Sarah A. Hadlock Ober, a resident of Washington for thirty-one years, formerly living in Nevada, Montana, Colorado, California and Argentine. Professor of Spanish, University of Washington. Has been instructor in several other states and was Regent and Vice-Directress of a Normal School in Argentina. Member: American Ass’n of Teachers of Spanish, Washington Education Ass’n, N. E. A., China Club of Seattle, Ass’n of University Instructors, Modern Language Ass’n, Faculty Women’s Club, American Philological Ass’n, Alumnae Ass’n of Wheaton College, etc. Home: 4558 Thackeray Place, Seattle, Washington.
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1900 Tyee, University of Washington
Reverend Mark Allison Matthews
September 24, 1867 – February 5, 1940
Wikipedia
Seattle and Environs, 1852–1924, Volume 2 (1924)
September 24, 1867 – February 5, 1940
Wikipedia
Seattle and Environs, 1852–1924, Volume 2 (1924)
The Mathews (Mathes) Family in America (1925), page 84
Who’s Who in the Clergy (1935)
Reverend Mark Matthews (2000)
Who’s Who in the Clergy (1935)
Reverend Mark Matthews (2000)
The Literary Digest, June 7, 1913
Lee On Lai
In Chinese File 52753/13-B, Ida K. Greenlee filed a complaint, in 1912, about her students’ treatment on Angel Island. She also explained how her school came to Hong Kong.
In Chinese File 52753/13-B, Ida K. Greenlee filed a complaint, in 1912, about her students’ treatment on Angel Island. She also explained how her school came to Hong Kong.
... Acting upon my own initiative I decided to open a school in Hong Kong as most of Canton was, during the trouble, living in Hong Kong. The idea of bringing the boys here, to the United States, to take up the preliminary course was the natural outgrowth of the chaotic condition then existing in China. I organized a school, calling it the Ng-Lee school. This school was in session from November, 1911, to the middle of May, 1912. I was personally in charge, teaching from eight to five, having with me as Chinese teacher and interpreter Mr. Lee On Lai, an earnest Christian Chinese born in California. ...
Evelyn May Burlingame
November 22, 1856 – May 6, 1928
November 22, 1856 – May 6, 1928
Beloved Missionary’s Work to Win Tributes at Funeral
Generals fighting China’s wars, scientists harnessing her natural forces, ministers preaching a Christian belief, persons in all walks of life in China remember Evelyn May Burlingame, who for 25 years fought to instill ideas of righteousness and truth within the hearts of Chinese she served. But they do not know that their beloved American missionary is dead.
Miss Burlingame died yesterday at her home, 758 West Montana street, where she had resided in retirement for the past five years. She was 71 years old and had been an invalid for some time preceding her death.
For 25 years Miss Burlingame had been engaged in missionary and educational work in China. Most of that time she devoted her activities exclusively to the boys’ high school Canton, of which she was principal. It was here that she came in closest contact with the persons for whom she was so unselfishly working.
Funeral services will be held tomorrow at 2:30 o’clock in the Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian church. Rev. R. L. Evans, pastor of the church, will conduct the services.
Surviving Miss Burlingame are her two sisters, Mrs. Alice Brunt Vallejo and Mrs. Susie Wilson of Portland, Ore.; three brothers, George Burlingame of Houston, Tex., and Charles and Will Burlingame, both of Illinois, and several nieces and nephews in Monrovia, Van Nuys and Long Beach.
Passport photograph, 1916
In August 1909, Caroline H. Ober and McCauley,
both teachers, were aboard the steamship Minnesota when it departed
Yokohama, Japan. They arrived in Seattle, Washington on September 1,
1909. In the 1910 United States Census,
Ida K. Greenlee and McCauley were roommates in Seattle at 4337 15th
Avenue Northeast. The 1912 Seattle city directory said McCauley was a
teacher who resided
at 4541 14th Avenue Northeast which was next to the University of
Washington. In History of Education Quarterly, May 2018, Krystyn Moon said Greenlee hired McCauley to teach at the Ng-Lee School. On November 14, 1919, Greenlee witnessed McCauley’s marriage to Nathaniel R. Hudson.
Ancestry.com family tree photograph, no date
The transcription of Burlingame’s December 14, 1912 notarized letter misspelled Bankes as Baukes.
Honora Kathleen “Nora” Bankes was born in England. She immigrated with her mother and three sisters in 1885. They settled in Los Angeles, California. Her father passed away in 1892.
Honora Kathleen “Nora” Bankes was born in England. She immigrated with her mother and three sisters in 1885. They settled in Los Angeles, California. Her father passed away in 1892.
The Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Twenty-Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Managers for the Year 1908-09 said:
Miss Nora Bankes is our missionary to the Chinese women and children in Los Angeles. Miss Bankes’ regular visiting list includes forty-six families, in which there are 114 children. These include both heathen and Christian families, and they look to her for help when they are in trouble. Miss Bankes spends many days during the year in court, at the call of the immigration officers. She has been ably assisted this year by her sister, Miss Mary Bankes, who is a returned missionary from China and speaks the Cantonese language.Woman’s Work, June 1912, said Bankes moved to San Francisco to fill in for Nora K. Gorham, a substitute for Donaldina Cameron who was on furlough. The 1913 Oakland, California city directory listed “Banks” as a teacher who resided at 2605 19th Avenue. The 1914 San Francisco city directory said she was the Assistant Superintendent of the Presbyterian Mission Home. In the 1916 Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley directory, “Banks” was Superintendent of the Presbyterian Mission School for Chinese Girls. Bankes was mentioned in Chinatown’s Angry Angel: The Story of Donaldina Cameron (1977). eBay
Wong King Yat
1884 –
Seventy-seven students traveled with Greenlee on the steamship Mongolia which arrived in San Francisco on June 17, 1912. One student, Jung Shun Lok, was accompanied by Wong King Yat aboard the steamship Tenyo Maru which arrived on July 1, 1912. Wong King Yat’s Chinese Exclusion Act case file number was 11067/31799, box 00613. He was named in Burlingame’s December 14, 1912 notarized letter and profiled in Who’s Who of American Returned Students (1917).
1884 –
Seventy-seven students traveled with Greenlee on the steamship Mongolia which arrived in San Francisco on June 17, 1912. One student, Jung Shun Lok, was accompanied by Wong King Yat aboard the steamship Tenyo Maru which arrived on July 1, 1912. Wong King Yat’s Chinese Exclusion Act case file number was 11067/31799, box 00613. He was named in Burlingame’s December 14, 1912 notarized letter and profiled in Who’s Who of American Returned Students (1917).
Wong, King-Yat.—born in Sunning, Kwangtung, 1884. Married, 1903. Studied at Mrs. Falconers School, Hongkong, 1899–1900; at Queen’s College, Hongkong, 1900–3; at Peiyang Medical College, Tienstin, 1903–6; at Hongkong Technical Institute, 1909–10. Arrived in America, July, 1912. Private support. Studied Medicine at Tufts College, 1912–1916. M.D., 1916. Returned to China, August, 1916.
Detail
Based on the teachers’ names in Burlingame’s letter, they can be identified in the photograph.
(Next post on Wednesday: A Chinese School in New York, 1905 and 1909)
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