Director

Website

Other

"On November 3, 1885, a mob composed of several hundred men expelled the Chinese community of Tacoma, Washington Territory. Like other acts of anti-Chinese violence in the late nineteenth century, the expulsion was a highly-coordinated act of violence that was led by city leaders and other white residents. Writing for the Overland Monthly, George Dudley Lawson later lauded the event as the “Tacoma Method” and argued that this type of expulsion could serve as a forceful example to other cities wanting to rid their communities of Chinese inhabitants." 

This tour recounts the history of the expulsion and provides a broader context to the places and people associated with activities leading up to these events.

The 1885 Forced Expulsion of Chinese from Tacoma 

Institution

This tour takes you back to the places and people associated with the 1885 expulsion of Chinese laborers and their families from the city of Tacoma. This event came to be called, "The Tacoma Method." [This tour was produced by staff and volunteers from Tacoma Historical Society, in association with the Chinese Reconciliation Park Foundation, and with the support of Tacoma Creates.]

The Hatch Mill was located approximately on the site where Thea's Park and the Dock Street Warehouse is today. The area which was referred to as "Chinatown" is called out on the 1885 Sanborn Insurance Map. Along with the Hatch Mill, lower Chinatown was just south of and adjacent to the mill towards downtown. A photo of this area and the shanties which made up Chinatown can be viewed in an 1885 photo. The Northern Pacific Railway completed its Tacoma terminal on December 27th, 1873 and a large number of Chinese workers remained in the area as there were more railroad projects to be completed. The Northern Pacific Railway leased the land near the railroad tracks to the Chinese workers which became Tacoma's Chinatown. The Chinatown remained until 1885 when it was burned down after the expulsion.

Lower Chinatown was located adjacent to the Hatch Mill on Half-Moon Bay. A small bay that was eventually filled in for a railyard for the Northern Pacific Railroad, Half-Moon Bay was where many Chinese laborers lived in makeshift homes. At the time of the Chinese Expulsion, that area was sometimes referred to locally as Chinatown. The shanties there that the Chinese lived in were burned down to the ground.

Chinatown / Half-Moon Bay

The railroads that powered U.S. territorial and economic expansion during and after the Civil War drew heavily on Chinese workers, especially in the western states and territories. A handful of Chinese companies facilitated workers’ travel from China to the U.S. and managed the contracts between Chinese laborers and U.S. employers in the mid-19th Century. The Northern Pacific Railway Company, which had chosen Tacoma as its western terminus, was no exception. And because Chinese residents were largely prohibited from buying real estate in Tacoma proper, most Chinese residents leased or rented from the railroad. Prohibitions on Chinese land ownership and employment were features of 19th century western U.S. politics. By the 1880s, fears that the availability of Chinese workers would either drive down wages for white workers, be used to break worker strikes, or both, coalesced with anti-corporate activism of the period to produce strong anti-Chinese movements across California, Oregon, and the newly created Washington territory. Not hiring Chinese labor and prohibiting saloons were equally good railroad public relations campaigns by 1884. In that climate, a series of renegotiated treaties with China allowed the U.S. government to heavily restrict Chinese immigration to the U.S. for the purposes of finding work. Tacoma was a railroad town. But it had been built on the anticipation of the completed Northern Pacific railway, not the finished product. As national economic trends and local negotiations downshifted Tacoma’s prospects, many residents became frustrated with their dependence on the railroad’s influence. In Fall of 1883, construction began on a passenger train station, on the lower side of the tracks just below Seventeenth Street. Locals called it "Villard Depot," named after the newest president of the railroad company, Henry Villard, who Tacomans considered insufficiently attentive to Tacoma's growth. The station was significantly smaller than the one they had initially planned, but the smaller station suited the passenger traffic that could be expected in the near future. Villard employed 17,000 Chinese laborers in the completion of the Northern Pacific Line. When crews completed their work grading the wild terrain, laying railroad tracks, and constructing stations, however, railroad companies like Northern Pacific terminated those jobs. U.S. immigration policy restricted new entry for Chinese workers, but those already in the country could remain. These newly unemployed men found other forms of work on this side of the Pacific, including in Tacoma’s mills and the surrounding hop farms. They also started new businesses, first catering to the needs of their own community and then providing goods and services, most famously cheap laundries, to the general population. In 1885, Tacoma’s Chinese community was growing. Tied to the railroads by economic circumstance as well as public opinion, that growth was met with hostility by a significant and vocal segment of Tacoma’s population. On November 3rd of that year, a large group of men acting in concert with regional anti-Chinese activists evicted between 125 and 200 Chinese from their homes and businesses across Tacoma. This was all that remained of Tacoma’s Chinese community; many others had fled, boarding trains at the Villard passenger station in the preceding weeks as calls for their departure mounted across the region. The refugees’ final moments in Tacoma were spent marching down Pacific Avenue, past the home of the city’s Mayor and finally past Villard Depot. Instead of waiting there for the next train they were turned south towards Lake View, the first station beyond Tacoma’s borders. Arriving at Lake View station that evening well after dark, they crowded into the station and several nearby sheds. Those with money purchased tickets on the next morning's passenger train to Portland, OR; those without funds boarded a 3AM freight train going in the same direction that station agents flagged to stop for them. One week later, troops stationed in Seattle arrived in Tacoma, making camp near Villard Depot once they disembarked. They were there to guarantee the successful arrest of 27 Tacomans charged in federal court with violating U.S. law during the November 3rd expulsion of Chinese residents. Captain of Tacoma’s Home Guard Albert Whyte accompanied U.S. Marshal J.W. George to serve warrants on the men for insurrection against the U.S. government and hold them at the local courthouse until they could be put on a train to Vancouver, WA for arraignment. The next morning, a crowd of locals accompanied the Tacoma 27 to the passenger station. In Vancouver, a District Judge heard their pleas (not guilty), scheduled trial for early the following year, and set bail at $5,000 per man. Then he released them to return home. An exultant crowd met the men at Villard Depot and escorted them to a dinner and a reception celebrating their safe return. The station remained in use until it was moved across the street in 1892, then demolished nearly two decades later to make room for the much larger Union Station in 1909. Tacoma’s population had reconciled with its railroad dreams; it would take decades longer to reconcile with its anti-Chinese actions.

Chinese laborers helped build the railroads that brought people and goods to Tacoma and other towns in the western U.S. after the Civil War.  Chinese men and families built homes on property owned by the railroad when Tacoma landholders refused to sell them residences in town. When members of Tacoma's Chinese community, fearing anti-Chinese violence, began fleeing the city in the fall of 1885 some departed from the passenger train station, Villard depot, built in 1883.  Those that remained were forced from their homes the afternoon of November 3rd 1885, marched past Villard Depot to a station outside the city boundaries, and put on trains to Oregon.

Villard Passenger Depot, 1883-1892

When the Chamber Building was demolished in 1950, the National Bank of Washington took its place. Not long after, the entire block was razed in 1967 as part of that era's urban renewal efforts. In 1970 the 289.5-ft 1201 Pacific Building was completed and it is safe to say that it will be around for a long time. Tacoma's tallest building was designed by the architecture firm of Skidmore, Owings &amp; Merrill (SOM), known for having designed some of the world's tallest buildings.

The Tacoma Chamber of Commerce opposed the violent removal of the Chinese from Tacoma. Their building, designed by Farrell & Darmer, was demolished in 1950. The lead architect Carl August Darmer designed a statue at the top, based on his wife. It was called the "Goddess of Commerce." The building was completed in late 1885, and the first meeting of the Chamber in its new building took place on January 1, 1886.

Chamber of Commerce Building

A photograph of the Committee of Fifteen was taken in 1885 by photographer William P. Jackson. His photography studio was located at 1101 Pacific Avenue according to the 1888 City Directory. The studio's large windows seen in the 1888 photo of the building provided the natural lighting for the photo of the Fifteen. The names of the individuals are listed below the photo. The full names are: <ol><li>Adelbert U. Mills</li><li>Meyer Kaufman</li><li>Eli G. Bacon</li><li>John Budlong</li><li>Jacob Ralph</li><li>H.A. Stevens</li><li>James Wickersham</li><li>Charles Johnson</li><li>John Forbes</li><li>Marion F. Brown</li><li>Henry S. Bixler</li><li>John A. McGoldrick</li><li>William Christie</li><li>Dolphus B. Hannah. </li></ol> Photographer, William P. Jackson, 1885.

"The anti-Chinese Committee of Fifteen, an unelected group of white men, were appointed to carry out the ethnic cleansing the town's people desired. Days before the expulsion the city made the Committee a permanent sitting body, ensuring the exclusion of the Chinese would continue. Between 1885 and 1895 the Committee impacted the growth of Tacoma and continued the exclusion of the Chinese by their interference in elections, confronting the Chamber of Commerce and mayor, and denying the basic rights of citizens."

Committee of Fifteen

By 1885, the three-year-old Alpha Opera House was a fixture in the social and political life of Tacomans, serving a variety of community needs. Pacific Railroad Company Presidents Charles Wright and Henry Villard were both received there on visits to the growing city. Tacoma's Presbyterian congregation called it home while waiting to build a permanent site. In 1883, Abigail S. Duniway, a prominent women's suffrage activist from Oregon, spoke at the Alpha in support of pending legislation to extend voting rights to women in Washington Territory. That same year, part of the building was leased for a popular roller-skating rink; in the next year it hosted a boxing exhibition. And in April 1884 Tacoma voters held a nominating convention at the Alpha Opera House where Robert Jacob Weisbach, a prominent figure in the growing political coalition organized around opposition to Chinese labor and residency in the Western U.S, was nominated for Mayor. Weisbach went on to win the election. Following his election, Weisbach presided over surging Tacoma support for driving the Chinese community out of Tacoma. Support was inspired in part by a series of violent acts directed at Chinese neighborhoods and workplaces from California to Wyoming. The sense that Tacoma might soon erupt in violence of its own, and the Mayor’s obvious sympathy for the movement’s more radical proposals, provoked a number of prominent figures in Tacoma’s business and political community to request a public meeting where they could advocate a more subtle approach. Weisbach agreed, calling a meeting at the Alpha Opera House for 7:30pm on Saturday, February 21st, 1885. The meeting was the largest public gathering in Tacoma's history up to that point - 900 people attended, mostly white property-owning men, representing roughly half of Tacoma's voting population. The pro-subtlety businessmen argued that any extra-legal activities would reflect poorly on Tacoma's reputation, damaging the city’s ability to attract new residents and investments, and embarrassing it in the national press. The city could, however, pass new sanitation laws - laws which, everyone agreed, would lead to citations for Chinese neighborhoods and businesses. These would justify legal proceedings to remove the Chinese. Rev. Ward, a prominent Tacoma clergyman, made an additional suggestion: he thought that local landowners and employers might be pressured to stop employing Chinese workers or renting to them. New health and safety regulations were drafted at the Alpha that night, and a social campaign to boycott businesses or landowners supporting Chinese residents was launched there as well. The new health and safety regulations led to inspections of Chinese homes and shops - inspections which found much to criticize. A final report from the investigative committee condemned the Chinese population as unsanitary and socially undesirable. It was read aloud to an audience at the Alpha Opera House during a June 3rd meeting covered in detail by local paper The Ledger. Instead of waiting for the legal consequences, however, Tacoma's citizens concluded that the situation needed more immediate popular action. As the political slogan of Mayor Weisbach and many others had proclaimed for several years, the "Chinese must go," and average Tacomans would make them. Representatives from Tacoma were subsequently sent to a regional meeting on that topic in Seattle where attendees, dominated by the Tacoma delegation, resolved to expel the Chinese community on Nov. 1st, 1885; then all returned home to plan accordingly. On October 3rd, Tacoma’s anti-Chinese forces converged on the Alpha for a meeting to elect the "Committee of Fifteen," whose job it would be to make sure every Chinese person had been notified of the Nov. 1st deadline and was preparing to leave Tacoma. A week later, the Opera House hosted another rally where leaders of the anti-Chinese movement in Tacoma roused the crowd. Speakers emphasized the necessity of doing everything short of outright violence or obviously breaches of law to expel the Chinese. Three weeks later on Halloween, the eve of the scheduled expulsion, Tacomans were joined at a final Alpha rally by a delegation of anti-Chinese activists from Seattle. The visitors from a city not known for its friendly relations with Tacoma congratulated their rival city on its move to free itself from both the Chinese workers and the railroad interests allied with Chinese labor. Two days later a mass of white Tacomans descended on Chinese residences throughout the city and forced nearly all those who had not already left to abandon their homes and property and march, under guard, out of town. After the events of Nov. 3rd, 1885, the 27 Tacomans charged by the federal government with illegally removing Chinese persons and property were taken to Vancouver for arraignment. Upon their return, these men were greeted at the train station with a parade that brought them to the Grand Army of the Republic Hall for a celebratory banquet, then on to the Alpha Opera House for a civic reception. At the Alpha, the events of the past month were institutionalized, presented as legitimate political acts upheld by the politest elements of Tacoma society. The Alpha retained its role in Tacoma politics and culture for several years after the events of November 1885. It hosted Tacoma’s celebration of Washington statehood in 1889. Its role in Tacoma's cultural and political life diminished when the more architecturally impressive Tacoma Theater was built one year later; the Alpha was torn down two years after that. The memory of Tacoma's anti-Chinese actions lasted far longer, however, than the building that gave those actions their most impressive stage.

Before the Bank of California building was erected at this location, the Alpha Opera House stood here. The Opera House was one of the more impressive spaces available for public events in New Tacoma, and from the early 1880s locals hosted receptions for visiting dignitaries as well as special events and political meetings inside.  Several well-attended 1885 discussions about driving Tacoma's Chinese residents out of the city took place at the Alpha, and periodic rallies there kept the anti-Chinese movement at a fever pitch through November of that year.  After the events of November 3rd, 27 prominent Tacomans were arraigned in Vancouver on charges of insurrection for the expulsion of the city's Chinese community; a reception celebrating their return to Tacoma was also held at the Alpha. 

Alpha Opera House, 1882-1892

The violent expulsion of Chinese in 1895 was not the last time anti-Chinese sentiment was promoted in Tacoma. In 1892, it happened again.

"According to the Tacoma Ledger, very few people attended and this second attempt to expel the Chinese failed. See Tacoma Daily Ledger, 23 July, 1892 Tacoma's second try at expelling the Chinese. The meeting was poorly attended and the movement failed to gain any traction." (Edward N. Fuller ephemera collection, Washington State Historical Society)

Anti-Chinese Rally (1892)

The other Tacoma newspaper of note, the Tacoma News was a daily paper. It was also virulently and vocally anti-Chinese. The Tacoma News editor, H.C. Patrick, was a member of the Committee of Fifteen, later charged with crimes. With his assistance, the Tacoma News served as a platform for stirring up and organizing anti-Chinese sentiments.

Tacoma News

Jacob Weisbach arrived in Tacoma in 1881, having achieved some political and economic success in the U.S. already. Born in Germany nearly fifty years prior, Weisbach had been briefly imprisoned as a young man for his involvement in European revolutionary movements and was later deported. He spent several years in China before arriving in the U.S. in 1859. After serving in a variety of political and military positions in Kansas, including Mayor of the town he helped found, Weisbach moved on to the Pacific Northwest, where he lived for under a decade. In Tacoma, Weisbach joined the large German community already residing and doing business there by 1881. He opened a shop on Pacific Avenue that sold food and dry goods, installing his family in the upper rooms. After Old and New Tacoma merged in 1884, Weisbach ran and won for downtown alderman with Tacoma’s People's party (which stood against the interests of railroad owners and stockholders). The next year, he was elected Mayor. When William Christie, Weisbach's friend and fellow Tacoma elected official, returned from a trip to Eureka, Californa, Weisbach and several others gathered in the mayor's rooms to hear his news. At this meeting, Christie reportedly described the Feb. 1885 forced removal of Eureka’s Chinese population by its white residents. Everyone then joined in for a discussion about how similar results might be achieved for Tacoma. A community-wide meeting on the same topic was held at the Alpha Opera House on February 21st, 1885. Speaking to the crowd, Weisbach linked the Chinese to predatory corporations and he committed to driving both groups out of Tacoma for the city’s self-preservation. On June 9th, the Mayor helped form the Tacoma Anti-Chinese League (which promptly elected him its president) to coordinate expulsion activities; he also submitted an ordinance to the city council, which they approved, requiring 500 cubic feet between sleeping individuals - an ordinance designed specifically to put many existing Chinese homes outside the law. An anti-Chinese Congress was held in Seattle in late September 1885. Weisbach led Tacoma's delegation; once again, those in attendance made him their President. Accepting the position, he repeated his charge that the businessmen who imported Chinese labor were ultimately to blame for the economic dangers confronting local workers. He promised that driving the Chinese communities from places like Tacoma and Seattle would be a strike against corporate interests. Working with the resolutions committee, Weisbach helped settle on language absolving the group of responsibility for any violence that arose from their efforts. Any violence would be the fault of those who refused to comply with the congress' demand that all Chinese persons leave the region by November 1st of that year. Upon his return from Seattle, Weisbach dispatched League members to deliver those demands to Tacoma’s Chinese community. Very soon after, local Chinese merchant Sun Chong visited Mayor Weisbach in the latter's office to ask if the expulsion was avoidable (Weisbach said it was not) and if, in case it was not, merchants like himself could be compensated for improvements they had made and property they would be forced to leave behind (Weisbach said he would look into it, then that there was no precedent for such a thing and he could not offer compensation after all). When news of the Seattle Congress reached them, federal authorities grew concerned at the threats against a Chinese population they were obligated by treaty to defend. Weisbach reassured the U.S. government by organizing a group of Tacoma's business leaders to provide assurances that no violence or illegal actions were being contemplated. Similarly, on the morning of November 3rd, 1885 Weisbach met the County Sheriff on Pacific Avenue and assured him that the day would be peaceful. Soon after the Lister Foundry signaled a crowd of Tacoma's white working men to begin moving through the city checking for any Chinese persons who remained in town after the congress' deadline. When he realized what was happening, Sheriff Byrd hurried to Mayor Weisbach's store and the two men went together to see the events for themselves; Weisbach reportedly pointed out the mob’s orderly procession. One of the Chinese residents appealed to the Mayor for protection; Weisbach said none would come. Weisbach was there as the mob stormed How Lung’s complex in the city's main Chinese settlement and he watched them move through buildings that were shortly cleared of people and later burned to the ground, but not before various objects found their way into white households across Tacoma. Weisbach was also present as the men reached Little Canton, sweeping up every Chinese person they found and rushing them to the edge of the city. As the Chinese were herded down Pacific and then marched out of town, they passed the mayor's home and office. Observing their final moments in Tacoma, Weisbach reportedly declared with satisfaction that there had been no disturbance of the peace and his duty as Mayor, therefore, had been fulfilled. Following the events of November 3rd, Weisbach was celebrated by Tacoma and its local press. But regional and national forces condemned Tacoma’s methods and Weisbach's part in them. He was indicted by a Grand Jury meeting in Vancouver, WA along with 26 other accused conspirators and insurrectionists. As one of the Tacoma 27, Weisbach spent the night of November 9th under arrest in Tacoma’s small courthouse. He marched at the head of the group as they were put onto trains to Vancouver for arraignment. After being released by the judge pending trial, Weisbach and his companions were greeted back in Tacoma with a parade, a banquet, and a reception at the Alpha Opera House celebrating their release. The Mayor spoke to the crowd, expressing gratitude for their support and praising their peaceful, humanitarian actions of the last few months. Papers in Portland, Seattle, and the cities of the East disagreed forcefully with the Mayor’s sentiment, citing the city and its mayor for barbarous, criminal, and reckless behavior. But Weisbach was never brought to trial; charges against him and other Tacoma citizens were eventually dropped completely. While Weisbach declined to run for re-election that spring, other anti-Chinese candidates dominated the vote in Tacoma, extending the legacy of politicians like Weisbach who had made the Chinese expulsion an essential part of Tacoma's history.

During his time in Tacoma, Jacob Weisbach was an enormously successful businessman and politician who leveraged his position and authority to direct and protect Tacoma's anti-Chinese efforts throughout 1885. This was the year he served as Mayor, presided over rallies and organizational meetings in Tacoma and Seattle to coordinate anti-Chinese activities, and ultimately watched over the November 3rd expulsion of Tacoma's Chinese community from his home and office at 9th and Pacific.  Weisbach was on of 27 Tacoma men charged with insurrection for their role in the ant- Chinese Tacoma riots, but like his colleagues he was never brought to trial.

Business and Residence of Jacob Weisbach, Mayor of Tacoma 1884-1885

According to Sanborn Insurance Maps from 1885, Commerce Street as we call it today was then known as Railroad Avenue (south of 9th Street) and Rainier Avenue (north of 9th Street). In the affidavits of Lum May and Tak Nam, they wrote about the business they owned there which they lost due to the expulsion. From Tak Nam's affidavit:"We had a very large business, dealing in China goods, Teas, Rice, Medicinal supplies, and contracted Chinese Labor. Our store was on Railroad street north of south ninth street. " This location can be seen in the 1885 Sanborn Insurance Map. The business that was owned by Lum May and Tak Nam was located approximately where the Winthrop Apartments (formerly the Winthrop Hotel) now stands.This was a new building for the store, the proprietors had built it the year before. The business itself was not new, having started around 1876. As you step through the front doors into the long building you smell the pungent scents of the tea, spices, and medicines sold there. The large business was run by partners Tak Nam and Lum May. In addition to the tea, spices, and medicine, the store also sold dry goods, provisions, and general merchandise. They also contracted Chinese labor. A few weeks prior to November 3rd, the Committee of Fifteen, a group of 15 unelected white men appointed to take charge of the forced removal of the Chinese, went from house to house ordering all the Chinese to leave town before November 1st. After the Chinese were ordered to leave town, they were afraid, and many rumors circulated as to what would happen. In Lum May’s affidavit he says, “I asked General Sprague and other citizens of Tacoma for protection for myself and the Chinese people. The general said he would see and do what he could.” No help came for the Chinese residents.Tak Nam describes the events of the forced removal in his affidavit. He says:“In the morning of the 3rd of November, 1885, a crowd of several hundred white persons came to our store and broke open the door and many of them ushered in. I remember Jacob Ralph being inside. They were angry and excited. They roughly caught hold of one or two Chinamen and shoved them out the door on to the street…In the crowd of those I knew, I saw Mayor Weisbach, Sheriff Byrd, Mr. Jacob Ralph, there were a good many faces I knew, but I did not know the names…About 2 o’clock the crowd came back with wagons. I was driven from my store and home along with other Chinamen. Those who held back were pushed along. The crowd who drove us out numbered several hundred. Some had clubs, some had poles and they used these to drive us like so many hogs, if any us had slowed or stopped. I saw several guns among the crowd – some exhibited pistols, others had clubs or big sticks. I was very much afraid. We were obliged to walk out to Lake View Station on the Railroad where we stayed all night in a drenching rain without any shelter. The next morning I went on the train to Portland. There were about one hundred who had enough money to get to Portland on the train. The rest started walking to Portland. There were two Chinamen died from exposure of the crowd driven away from Tacoma, before reaching Portland. One of them was named, the other man, I do not remember the name of.”Lum May describes the forced removal by saying,“About half past 9 o’clock in the morning of November 3, 1885 a large crowd of citizens of Tacoma marched down to Chinatown and told all the Chinese that the whole Chinese population of Tacoma must leave town…They went to all the Chinese houses and establishments and notified the Chinese to leave. Where the doors were locked they broke forcibly into the houses, smashing in doors and breaking in windows. Some of the crowd were armed with pistols, some with clubs. They acted in a rude boisterous and threatening manner, dragging and kicking the Chinese out of their houses. My wife refused to go, and some of the white persons dragged her out of the house. From the excitement, the fright and the losses we sustained through the riot she lost her reason, and has ever since been hopelessly insane…The outrages I and my family suffered at the hands of the mob has utterly ruined me…A few of the Chinese merchants, I among them were suffered to remain in Tacoma for two days in order to pack up our goods or what was left of them. On the 5th of November, after the burning of the Chinese houses on the wharf I left Tacoma.”Lum May returned to Tacoma in April of 1886. He needed to get a letter from Mayor Weisbach to ensure his safety during the visit.

This business was owned by Lum May and Tak Num. Both of them were forced out of their business and later gave in-depth testimony in the form of written affidavits about what happened to them. Their experience was typical of many of the Chinese-owned businesses that operated in downtown Tacoma, in an area that was sometimes referred to as "Little Canton."

Sam Hing Ho Shop - business of Lum May & Tak Num

U.S. officials signed a series of late 19th Century treaties with the Chinese government promising to protect the persons and property of all Chinese residing within its borders. New Chinese immigration, especially by laborers, was gradually blocked; but the rights of any Chinese person already on U.S. soil were guaranteed by law. All through the fall of 1885, Tacoma’s former mayor and prominent members of the business community assured the local Chinese population that the city would uphold these federal commitments. China’s ambassador to the U.S. sought the same assurance from the U.S. Secretary of State. Anti-Chinese agitators across the U.S. West Coast in the mid-1880s often claimed government, as well as corporate, tolerance of Chinese workers was a powerful threat to the economic well-being of white settlers. Attendees at a Seattle meeting to coordinate anti-Chinese efforts for the region condemned a recent effort to repeal restrictions on Chinese immigration. At various anti-Chinese meetings in town and in the pages of their local papers, Tacomans called for U.S. government intervention to exclude Chinese workers from employment and residency; they then excused their own use of force by citing government inaction on those points. Those most responsible for U.S. governance did not act to stop them on November 3rd. Washington governor Watson Squire could have called in the United States Army to suppress anti-Chinese violence in the territory. But Squire spent the weeks leading up to November 3rd failing to resolve the gap between federal and local definitions of “violence” - if forcing Chinese from town was an act of violence (the position taken by the U.S. government, at least initially), or if violence could be avoided where the Chinese left peacefully (the position of authorities in Tacoma up to and after charges were brought against them). Earlier that fall, Squire reached out to Pierce County Sheriff Lewis Byrd and Tacoma mayor Jacob Weisbach for some indication of Tacoma's plans; Byrd, Weisbach, and a group of local business leaders promised there would be no need to bring in troops. Just to be sure, Squire spoke in Tacoma shortly before the November expulsion, publicly stating that the Chinese should go but only within the bounds of law. He was back in Olympia on November 4th when Tacoma papers celebrated the nonviolent departure of Tacoma’s Chinese community on the previous day; from Puyallup, refugee Goon Gau wired the governor “I am notified that at 3PM tomorrow a mob will remove me and destroy my goods. I want protection. Can I have it?” Squire's response was a telegram to the U.S. secretary of the interior reporting that Sheriff Byrd had failed to protect Chinese residents from “intimidation and forcible removal,” but that they had suffered no bodily injury. On a November 3rd 1885 morning walk through the Pacific Avenue business district, Sheriff Byrd realized that a mob of Tacoma's white men was rounding up its Chinese residents for forced removal that afternoon. Byrd sent word to his staff at Tacoma’s C street courthouse to prepare for some response while he went in search of Mayor Weisbach. Together, Byrd and Weisbach accompanied the mob as it moved through the city. Affidavits from Tacoma businessman Lum May and other Chinese merchants suggest that visible violence against Chinese persons and property did take place, but neither Weisbach nor Byrd reported observing it. In the midst of their observations, a member of Byrd’s staff called the sheriff back to the courthouse to meet with the prosecuting attorney. In their official capacity, they decided neither to call in federal troops nor to deputize locals; no opposing force would be assembled. After the mob completed its work, Byrd informed the Governor what had happened. Squire expressed immediate regret to hear there had been violence, and asked whether Byrd would need government forces to protect the Chinese. Byrd declined. He explained that no bodies or property had been damaged, adding that government forces would not arrive in time to be a factor anyway. In 1885 Albert Whyte was organizer and captain of the newly formed Tacoma Home Guard. Amidst growing anti-Chinese sentiment, he announced his intention to obey any orders from the U.S. government to meet Tacoma’s anti-Chinese movement with military force. But neither Governor Squire nor Sheriff Byrd, recently made Whyte’s immediate superior, gave those orders. Whyte watched from his office at 9th and Railroad (now Commerce) as a mob of white men moved through the city, hurrying hundreds of Chinese residents before them. Whyte explained his inaction in two ways: he had received no orders from his superior to impede their progress, and he had feared that intervention might make them violent. Whyte did however speak against those men when summoned to give evidence before a grand jury, and jurors were convinced that the expulsion had been unlawful. They issued indictments for 27 prominent figures in the Tacoma riots of 1885. Whyte accompanied U.S. Marshal J.W. George to serve warrants on the Tacoma 27 for insurrection against the U.S. government. He also stood guard over them that night at the courthouse before they left for Vancouver, WA to be arraigned.The Tacoma 27 pleaded not guilty before the Vancouver District Judge, who set their bail at $5,000 per man, scheduled trial for the Spring, and sent them home. Tacoma papers took turns celebrating the men who returned and condemning those who testified against them. Several grand jury witnesses tried to repair their standing in town by bringing bail contributions to the city courthouse. None of the men were ever convicted. The trial, originally set for Vancouver, was delayed for a year and ultimately moved to Tacoma. The indictments were then dropped due to a technical irregularity. A second grand jury indicted 10 of the 27 on new charges, but these too were dismissed – in the intervening year, the territorial supreme court found against the constitutionality of women’s suffrage, and thus the fact a woman had served on the previous jury invalidated its work. In March of 1887, a third grand jury refused to indict any of Tacoma’s citizens for crimes against the Chinese or the U.S. government. In 1888, the U.S. Congress passed the Deficiency Act, paying the Chinese government more than $275,000.00 for damages to Chinese persons and property across the western U.S., including but not limited to the November 3rd expulsion of Tacoma's Chinese community. Restrictions on Chinese immigration remained in place, however, as did a nationwide distaste for Tacoma and its methods.

The federal and territorial laws of 1885 depended on those who worked at or through Tacoma's small wooden courthouse at 9th & C (now Broadway).  Territorial Governor Watson Squire, Pierce County Sheriff Lewis Byrd, and Tacoma Home Guard Captain Albert Whyte monitored the events of November 3rd 1885 and coordinated their decisions in the courthouse rooms.  Those decisions did not prevent the expulsion of Tacoma's Chinese community; they did instigate legal proceedings against the ringleaders of the Tacoma Method mob that ultimately ended without a single conviction.  The courthouse was built in 1882 when the county seat was moved to Tacoma; an expanded courthouse was built on South 11th Street in 1892, and the old building was destroyed during the first decade of the 20th century.

Pierce County Courthouse, 1882-1892

At the time of these events, the Tacoma Daily Ledger was located at what 928-930 C Street, what is now called Court C. The Ledger moved its offices in 1890 to the newly-built Fidelity Building, which was demolished in 1949.

The Ledger was very vocally anti-Chinese and racist, especially its publisher, Randoph Foster Radebaugh. There were also many articles written opposing the presence of the Chinese by its editor, J. A. Comerford. Comerford was supposed to have been arrested with the other Tacoma 27, but was run out of town prior to the arrests, and possibly even before the forced removal. Literally standing in for him in the picture of the Tacoma 27, Comerford's wife and child can be seen in the photograph. His wife also was selling pictures of the 15 and 27 after the forced removal and put an ad in the newspaper.

Tacoma Daily Ledger

The location of Pastor McFarland's home remains to be fully determined, however it is presumed to be a dwelling adjacent to the church at the corner of C Street and S 11th, just up the hill from the Alpha Opera House. It is reported that the Committee of Fifteen stopped by Pastor McFarland's home to demand that he fire his Chinese servants, but he did not employ any. Angry at about the confrontation, Pastor McFarland began to sermonize on the issue which led to him being targeted by the publisher and editor of the newspaper. As a result, the level of community anger about his sermons were such that he began carrying a gun to protect himself and his family.

Rev. McFarland was vocally against the forced removal of the Chinese community. He is mentioned in the Weathered Diary and there are articles about his opposition in the newspaper. Pastor McFarland was relatively new to Tacoma, having arrived in August 1885. Prior to the events leading up to the expulsion, he'd not had any dealings with the Chinese community.

First Presbyterian Church (Pastor Rev. McFarland)

Because of a slowdown in the economy and the large-scale cessation of railroad building, large numbers of Chinese workers were let go and migrated to the cities. While the Chinese had been brought to California beginning the late 1840s, mainly to help build the railroads, many Chinese also worked as servants and farm laborers. Many started businesses. By the mid 1880s, 500 or more Chinese lived in Tacoma.  Anti-Chinese sentiment was high all over the west. The contention was that Chinese were taking jobs away from whites by being willing to work for paltry wages. Anti-Chinese fever rose in Tacoma to a very high level in 1885. Tacoma's Mayor Weisbach was the leader of the conspiracy to drive the Chinese out of the city.  He had plenty of help from the Tacoma Daily Ledger, whose editor, Jack Comerford, supplied a steady stream of virulent articles. In January, after a brothel burned down, the property was leased for a Chinese laundry. The Ledger published a diatribe under the headline, “Chinese Invasion of Tacoma” and alarmingly asserted that allowing a Chinese laundry on Pacific Ave. would lead to a “contagion of their filthy numbers” that would rapidly result in the Chinese occupying the whole street.  Mayor Weisbach called meeting to deal with the “Chinese Problem.” On the night of September 7, several Chinese workers were killed in an ambush as the Chinese were driven from the hop fields at Issaquah. That same week, the Chinese workers were expelled from the coal mine at Coal Creek. Tacoma sent a large delegation, headed by Weisbach, to Seattle to participate in anti-Chinese rallies. On October 3, 500 anti-Chinese citizens paraded in Tacoma, and a “Committee of Fifteen” was organized to tell the Chinese that they must leave by November 1.  Many of Tacoma’s “Better Element” argued against expulsion, including George Atkinson, manager of the Tacoma Mill; Rev. W.D. McFarland, pastor of First Presbyterian Church; Gen. Sprague; Isaac Anderson; and Skookum Smith. From Puyallup, Ezra Meeker, pioneer settler and major hop grower, argued strenuously on behalf of the Chinese. To no avail. The Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution in favor of expulsion. On the morning of November 3, a whistle sounded at 9:30 a.m. and a large group of several hundred armed men began marching through the city telling the Chinese to pack up and get out of town.  Mayor Weisbach was a prominent member of the mob. So were the sheriff, a judge, and a member of the city council. By five in the afternoon, more than 100 Chinese had their goods put on wagons and were marched south out of town to the Northern Pacific station at Lake View. Seventy-seven tickets were sold for the morning train to Portland. Those who couldn’t afford a ticket rode in box cars. The Chinese shacks were burned.  Finally taking action, Gov. Squire asked that government troops be sent to Seattle to prevent the imminent forcible expulsion of Chinese from occurring there. Condemnation of Tacoma came from far and wide, including President Cleveland, the New York Times, the New York Herald, and the Portland Oregonian. Just a few days after the Chinese expulsion in Tacoma, a federal grand jury met in Vancouver, took testimony from witnesses (including Gen. Sprague, Rev. McFarland, and Ezra Meeker) and handed down indictments for conspiracy and insurrection against 27 men.  Those indicted included Tacoma Mayor Weisbach, two members of the city council, the fire chief, and a judge. Federal troops appeared in Tacoma on November 9 to make the arrests. The 27 were put on the train and taken to Vancouver, WA. Known as “Tacoma’s Twenty-Seven,” the 27 men are pictured and named in this group photo. Mayor Weisbach is seated in the middle of the front row. No one was ever prosecuted.

"Ultimately, twenty-seven individuals were arrested and stood trial for the events. Among them was the Mayor of Tacoma, Jacob Weisbach. Weisbach led the anti-Chinese movement in the city. In the end, the twenty-seven did not face punishment for their horrific actions. In many ways, the city thought of them as heroes." [The Tacoma Method]

According to a letter sent in 1916 to historian Herbert Hunt by James Wickersham (one of the Twenty-Seven), this photograph of the 27 was taken at the corner of 11th and C Street (now Broadway). 

Tacoma's Twenty-Seven

The History of the ProjectWhen Dr. and Mrs. David Murdoch moved to Tacoma in 1982, they sensed something was amiss. After learning about the Chinese expulsion, Dr. Murdoch said, “Then it clicked because…if a family member has been hurt, ostracized or embarrassed, that has an effect on the family for years.” In his submittal of the Citizen Suggestion Award Program application to the City of Tacoma on August 22, 1991, he proposed that “since the eviction [of the Chinese populace] was from the Old Town waterfront, it would be appropriate to set aside an area of reconciliation (small park with a Chinese motif) and a monument acknowledging the incident, noting Tacoma’s regret and desire to move ahead in unity and respect.” Dr. Murdoch joined with City councilman Robert Evans, former State Representative Art Wang (D-Tacoma) and community activists in 1992 to initiate the reconciliation process. They formed a citizens committee which included Suzanne Barnett, Bob Evans, Lorraine Hildebrand, Yuen Hi Ho, Theresa Pan Hosley, Bob Mack, Dr. David Murdoch, Dr. George Tanbara, Jim Tsang, Art Wang, Sulja Warnick and Lihuang Wung, assisted by the City’s Planning and Development Services Department staff Bart Alford and Martin Blackman. They spent 14 months planning, making community contacts and creating a preliminary design about the historic event in a Park setting. On November 30, 1993, the City Council unanimously approved Resolution No. 32415 to acknowledge that the 1885 expulsion was “a most reprehensible occurrence.” The City Council recognized the efforts of the citizens committee and endorsed the concept of building a Chinese Commemorative park and international pavilion at the former National Guard site on Commencement Bay. Appropriately, the property is near the site of the early Chinese Settlement called Little Canton. The City Council authorized the expenditure of $25,000 for preliminary site plans, preliminary cost estimate, and project programming for the project. The Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation was founded in Spring, 1994 to continue the reconciliation process. A Walk Through the ParkThe Tacoma Chinese Reconciliation Park has been designed as a place of healing and harmony. As you walk along the interpretive pathways, through the sculptured landscape of Chinese gardens, and enjoy the natural beauty of Commencement Bay, this park will provide you insight to reflect upon the past, ponder the present, dream of the future and celebrate our cultural diversity and common humanity. Visitors enter from the far west end, so that the experience of the park unfolds as people move through the park from west to east, creating the illusion of a larger site. The story of the Sojourners’ journey to America, work and lifestyle, tragic expulsion, and opportunities for reconciliation are all explored within the context of the Chinese garden. One important part of the park is a structure that in itself is a landmark, the “Fuzhou Ting.” This is a small pavilion, or open-walled building (ting in Chinese), that is a gift to the City for the park from the City of Fuzhou, Fujian province, China. The Fuzhou Ting is an act of friendship between Fuzhou and Tacoma in recognition of their Sister City relationship and grew from a meeting in Fuzhou between a delegation from Tacoma and the Deputy Mayor of Fuzhou. Chinese engineers constructed the Ting in Fuzhou and then disassembled it for shipment to Tacoma. With leadership and hard work provided by a team of three senior construction engineers and an interpreter sent from Fuzhou in summer 2010, the reconstruction of the Ting on site in the park is a particularly vivid representation of the park as a significant space of commemoration and reconciliation.

The Tacoma Chinese Garden and Reconciliation Park is a joint project of the City of Tacoma and the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation. It was created to commemorate the tragic 1885 expulsion of Tacoma’s Chinese citizens led by the Mayor and civic leaders of that time, to express Tacoma’s commitment to end racism and hatred, and to promote healing, reconciliation and a peaceful, multicultural community. The Chinese Reconciliation Park is a critical component of the community-led reconciliation process.

`←`	Move left
`→`	Move right
`↑`	Move up
`↓`	Move down
`+`	Zoom in
`-`	Zoom out

1885 Chinese Expulsion: Places & People

The 1885 Forced Expulsion of Chinese from Tacoma

Introduction

Images

Cite This Entry

Sources

Additional Information