I made a previous post about finding out the first Asian resident in Ambler arrived around 1910. I did not have much luck finding who it was until the day I solved the mystery.
Who Was Louie Yow?
In order to find information about a person in the past, it's important to think about what terms are appropriate to use. For example, I wanted to find someone who was an Asian American in the 1910s. When useed "Asian" as a search term, there were no results because the term was not popularized until later in the 20th century.
Instead, I thought about terms that were used to describe Asian Americans, and the most popular term used during the early 20th century was "Chinaman." While searching through the results, I was able to find the person I was looking for: Louie Yow.
Who was Louie Yow?
I discovered he began a laundry business in Ambler around 1908 on 13 North Main Street, the street that was considered a commercial hub for businesses. Around 1930, he became ill after running his business for 22 years. He stayed at a relative's house in Philadelphia while his brother ran his laundromat for him. Louie was born around 1880 and was 30-years-old when he immigrated to Pennsylvania from China around 1900. He officially became an American citizen around 1911.
Why Did Chinese Immigrants Run Laundromats?
We have to go back in history during the 19th century when a rise of Chinese immigrants, from the regions of the Guangdong province, arrived in America years after the 1848 Gold Rush happened in California. The Chinese hoped to seek wealth and fortune in the country, but they faced racial prejudice and discrimination when they first arrived. After they worked on major railroads in the West, there was no other work available for them. It wasn't until the 1870s and 80s there was a need for laundry services in the East.
NOTE: Philadelphia was known as the "Workshop of the World" where many factories and industries were built in the city.
"Many factors served to create an increasing need for laundry services in the industrial east, making it possible for the first time in history for laundry to be a business opportunity. In the large cities, crowded housing conditions did not allow laundry to be done easily in city residences, flats, and apartments. At the same time, increased knowledge, awareness, and concern over the 19th century about the diseases caused by germs enhanced the desire for clean clothes as well as bathing as a form of personal hygiene. In addition, being able to afford clean clothes became a maker of higher social standing."
- John Jung, Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain (10)
It was that moment the Chinese immigrants fled to the East to make money as laundrymen. Interestingly, in Philadelphia, they were not living with other Philadelphians to do their work. Instead, they lived in their own community that is known today as Chinatown. By 1910, laundry work surpassed other occupations like merchants and restaurant work in the city's Chinese community.
First Chinese Laundry in America: Chingwah Lee, San Francisco Chinatown (1851)
First Chinese Laundry in Philadelphia: Lee Fong (1871)
First Chinese Laundry in Ambler: Louie Yow (1908)
To read about my research on the Vietnamese history of Pennsylvania with the PA SHPO, click here!
Bibliography
Jung, John. Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain. (2007).
"United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MG4Y-7DM: accessed 22 April 2023), Louis Yow, Ambler Ward 1, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 65, sheet 3B, family 44, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1376; FHL microfilm 1,375,389.
Wilson, Kathryn. "Chinatown." The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Last modified 2015. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/chinatown/.