Document 8c: Lin Doo Merchant Status
In the matter of the application of Lin Doo for the determination of his merchant status prior to his departure for China, July 23, 1908. Record Group 85, Box 64, File RS2129. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Seattle District Office. Chinese Exclusion Act Files, c. 1882-1920. National Archives and Records Administration: Pacific-Alaska Region (Seattle).
Return to Document Concordance
Ex S/s "KUMERIC", May 11th, 1909; Manifest No. 14; R. S. 2129
Seattle, Washington, May 12th, 1900.
In the matter of the application of
Lin Doo,
for admission to the United States
as a returning merchant, of the
Ah King Co., 217 Washington Street,
Seattle, Wash.
H. A. Monroe, Chinese Inspector,Examiner.
E. E. Buttermilk, Stenographer.
Frank Tape, Chinese Interpreter.
Witness sworn, testifies as follows:
Q. What is your name?
A. Mah Hing.
Q. How long have you lived in this country?
A. Over thirty years.
Q. What is your occupation?
A. Grocery merchant.
Q What is your present occupation?
A. I am at present manager for Ah King Co., 217 Washington Street, Seattle.
Q. How long have you been manager for Ah King Co.?
A. Not quite a year.
Q. Ah King himself is now in China, is he not?
A Yes sir.
Q. Ah King Co. is a partnership corporation, isn't it?
A. Yes.
Q. About how many partners have you?
A. About forty partners.
Q. Have you a partner named Lin Doo?
A. Yes sir.
Q. How long has he been a member of your firm?
A. A year or two.
Q. Where is he at present?
A. He is here, now, in Seattle, just returning from a trip to China.
Q. When did he go to China?
A. Last year some time, in July or August.
Q. What interest has he in the Ah King Co.?
A. I have forgotten, $500. or $1,000.
Q. Do you know how he acquired this interest, did he pay cash or did he buy out some partner?
A. I think he invested cash.
Q. How old a man is Lin Doo?
A. Twenty-five or twenty-six years.
Q. How long has he been in this country?
A. For quite a number of years as far as I know.
Q. Do you know how he acquired his admission first?
A. No.
Q. What did he do before he became a member of the Ah King Co.?
A. I do not know what he did before.
Q. You stated you knew him a number of years, what did he do
before he went into the Ah King Co.?
A. I believe he went to school.
Q. Has he received any profits since he went to China?
A. We have not divided anything at all.
Q. Is this his photograph? (Exhibiting photograph of Lin Doo,
on identification paper No. 2129)
A. Yes sir. [Signed] Ma Hing
Witness sworn, testifies as follows:
Q. What is your name?
A Lin Doo.
O. What other names have you?
A. No other.
Q. Are you married?
A. Yes sir.
Q, What is your married name?
A. Mun Loy is my married name.
Q. How old are you?
A. Twenty-nine years.
Q. Where were you born?
A. In China.
Q. When did you first come to this country?
A. when I was nine years old, I do not remember the year.
Q. As a member of which class were you admitted?
A. My father brought me.
Q. Where is your father now?
A. He is dead.
Q. What was his name?
A. Doo Wing.
Q. When did he die?
A. Over ten years ago.
Q. Do you talk any English at all?
A. A little.
Q. Your father was a member of what firm?
A. Quong Wah Lung Co., the place is burned down now.
Q. When did your father return to China?
A. He died here.
Q, Did your mother ever live in this country?
A. No sir.
Q. And your father brought you here when you were nine years of age?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Did you live in his store?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And who cared for you?
A. I do not remember when I was nine years old who took care of me.
Q. How long had you been in this country when your father died?
A. Three or four years.
Q. And who cared for you when your father died?
A. Hok Hong took care of me in Seattle.
Q. Where is Hok Hong now?
A. He is now at Wah Yuen.
Q. When did you become a member of the Ah King Co.?
A. In 1906.
Q. How much interest have you there?
A. $500.
Q. How did you acquire that interest?
A. I paid $500. for it, out of money that is owing my father.
Q. Who owed your father and turned the money over to you?
A. Some cousins that went home to China now.
Q. What were you doing between the time of the death of your father and your going, into business in the Ah King CO.?
A. I did not do anything for a good many years and then I did a little work in different places.
Q. What was the nature of this work that you did in different places?
A. I was washing dishes.
Q. Who supported you during all those years after your arrival after your father died?
A. Hok Hong.
Q. Is Hok Hong a relative of yours?
A. No sir, just a traveling relation.
Q. What reason can you give for his interest in you?
A. He lives in the same village as we do in China.
Q. When did you become a member of the Ah King Co.?
A. In 1906.
Q. What were you doing the few years just prior to becoming a member in this firm? A. Visiting.
Q. You are how old now did you say?
A. Twenty-nine years.
Q. Wen did your father die?
A. Three or four years after I came here.
Q. You are twenty-nine years of age and your father died three or four years afterwards, you must then have been about twelve years of age, and now what
did you do between that time and the present time, which covers a period of seventeen years?
A. I was fourteen years old when my father died.
Q. What have you done between fourteen years and twenty-nine, a period of fifteen years?
A. I do not remember.
Q. Do you remember being examined last year by Inspector Richardson at this office, just before leaving for China?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Did you tell him at that time that your father was then in China?
A. No sir.
Q. The record shows that you did, how do you account for that fact?
A. I did not say that.
Q. When you tell me that you do not remember what you did between the ages of fourteen and twenty-six, I am forced to the conclusion that you are telling
an untruth, now I want to learn what was your occupation between the time that you were fourteen years old and the time of your first entering the Ah King Co.?
A. I do not remember so long ago.
Q. Did you receive any profits out of the Ah King Co. during your absence in China?
A. No, only the wages I got for work there.
Q Well you were not working there during your absence, were you, and therefore could not receive any wages?
A. No sir.
Q.Have you any papers showing your former admission?
A. No.
Note :- At this examination, this applicant forces a strong presumption that his original entry was not as stated by him; the fact that he is unable or states that he does not know what was his occupation for the ten or fifteen years prior to 1906, when it is alleged he became a member of the Ah King Co., shows plainly a desire of the applicant to conceal something: the record in the case, however, shows that he was a member of the Ah King Co. for one year prior to his departure for China July 31st, 1908, and as, under recent rulings of the Department, we are not permitted to inquire as to the status of merchants previous to that one year referred to, this applicant will be admitted, because of such ruling.
( Signed)
Eng Lin Doo
[Also in Chinese
script]
It is hereby certified that the foregoing is a full and true transcript of the stenographic notes written by me in the above entitled case.
Stenographer & typewriter.