Chinese immigrants entered the United States at major ports from the mid 19th to mid 20th century and many found work nearby. However, it must be recognized that they were often “transient” and moved one or more times to other regions of the country, sometimes to join a family member or friend who offered them work. In other instances, the work they were doing ended and they had to migrate in search of new work opportunities. Some fled racism and violent threats to their lives as in Tacoma, Washington, Eureka, California, Truckee, California, and Rock Springs, Wyoming, to cite a few of the more extreme large-scale instances in the late 1880s.
One example is described in an 1880 newspaper account of the arrival of C. P. Canton and C. Jack, described oddly as “two veritable Chinese” visiting Knoxville, Tennessee, where they might have been the first Chinese ever seen in this town.
Coming from Columbus, Ohio, these Chinese came to assess the prospect of opening a laundry in Knoxville. They probably wanted to assess the size of the population and how many laundries they would have to compete with for business.
A check of the City Directory for the 1880s, however, does not show they opened a laundry in Knoxville. Perhaps they found a more promising town, or simply returned to Columbus where they might have already been running a laundry although it was not listed in the Columbus City Directory.
There is evidence that a few years later other Chinese came to open laundries in Knoxville. It is not known when Hong Lee opened his laundry on Gay Street but it was not a success as it was put up for auction in 1884.
Chung Wo who ran a laundry on Clinch Street had a dispute with Lee Shoo in 1891 that got out of control. A violent exchange between what the reporter called “two almond-eyed celestials,” occurred in which Chung Wo wielded a hatchet and Lee Shoo countered with a knife in one hand and a pistol in the other. Shoo fired at but missed Wo. Both men were apprehended and arrested after the fracas.
Two Chinese laundrymen, described as “two celestial pigtails,” were targets of some local boys looking to make life miserable for them. The newspaper reported that some “bad boys” tossed a big firecracker into a laundry on Clinch Street, where Chung Wo’s laundry was located. This incident was probably not the first nor the last of its kind or worse that Chinese had to suffer in Knoxville and many other communities.
Another Chinese, Wah Lee opened a laundry in Knoxville. in 1890 on Gay Street. There is no evide4nce but it might have been at the site of Hong Lee’s Gay Street laundry that was auctioned off in 1884.
Wah Lee proved to be a better Knoxville citizen than Lee Shoo and Chung Wo, the combatants cited earlier. The local paper applauded his flag flying patriotism in 1889.
Hop Sing in 1895 opened the only other Chinese laundry in Knoxville during the 1890s.
Other nearby towns such as Athens, Tennessee, began to have Chinese laundries as a newspaper report in 1899 indicated.
Chinese Laundries 