Collection Guide
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Guide to the Ah Quin Diary Collection
MS 209
MS 209
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Table of contents
Title: Ah Quin Diary Collection
Identifier/Call Number: MS 209
Contributing Institution:
San Diego History Center Document Collection
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.0 Linear feet
(3 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1876-1902
creator:
Quin, Ah
Collection is arranged by series:
Series I: Diaries
Series II: Photocopies and Transcripts of Diaries
Items within each series are arranged chronologically.
This collection is open for research.
The San Diego History Center (SDHC) holds the copyright to any unpublished materials. SDHC Library regulations do apply.
Collection processed by Katrina Oko-Odoi on December 21, 2012.
Collection processed as part of grant project supported by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) with generous
funding from The Andrew Mellon Foundation.
Ah Quin Diary Collection, MS 209, San Diego History Center Document Collection, San Diego, CA.
This finding aid only refers to the English portions of the diaries. The portions of the diaries in Chinese will be addressed
upon completion of the annotated version.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession numbers 861224A, 991104, and 2001.023.
This collection contains ten handwritten diaries of Ah Quin during his years residing in Alaska, Santa Barbara, San Francisco
and San Diego. The diaries date from 1876 to 1902 and are written in both English and Chinese. Also included is a handwritten
English-Chinese Chemicals and Minerals Dictionary.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Several diaries and their bindings are fragile and should be handled with care. Copies of the diaries are available for use.
Biographical / Historical Notes
Ah Quin was born on December 5, 1848 in a small village in the Hoiping (Kaiping) District of Guandong Province of southern
China. He was the eldest son of parents who were farmers. His family moved to Canton when he was young providing him with
an opportunity for an education, which included English at an American missionary school. Like many Cantonese of the period,
his family sent him to California in 1868. The family name was Tom, but as is often the case with Chinese immigrants, government
officials misinterpreted their names, and he became known as Ah Quin. He spent his first six years in San Francisco’s Chinatown,
where he continued his studies at a Christian mission and worked at a variety of jobs including that of houseboy and cook.
Around 1873, Ah Quin moved to Santa Barbara where he began to learn merchandising from an uncle, continued his mission studies,
served as a houseboy, and developed contacts with important men of the area, such as Judge Charles Huse. In Santa Barbara
he decided to sign on for a year as a cook with a company that mined coal in Alaska. While in Alaska he cut off his queue,
which was a demonstration that he was planning to make America his home.
On returning to Santa Barbara, Ah Quin began to survey the job possibilities elsewhere in California. He visited San Diego
in 1878 and established contacts with friends and relatives, and also met George Marston and Reverend Camp. He spent two years
in San Francisco working at a number of odd jobs and eventually he took a job at the Presidio as a cook and servant for two
officers.
In 1880, he received letters from George Marston and Reverend Camp asking him to come to San Diego to serve as labor broker
for the California Southern Railroad. He started a store in San Diego’s Chinatown as a base of operations and worked for the
railroad for five years procuring their Chinese labor, supplying the work gangs with goods from his store. He returned to
San Francisco to marry Sue Leong, whom he had met at the Presbyterian Mission. Ah Quin and his wife, Sue, raised twelve children
in their two story home on Third Street in San Diego. After he left the railroad, he began to expand his merchandising business
and branch out into real estate. He acquired property around the city and county and leased land to farmers to raise vegetables
in Mission Valley and in Bonita along the Sweetwater River. Ah Quin was an influential and highly respected member of the
early Chinese community and was given the unofficial title of “Mayor of Chinatown.” In 1914, he was struck by a motorcycle
near his home and died at the age of 66.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
California Central Railroad Company (1857-1964).
California Pacific Railroad Company.
California Southern Railroad Company.
Camp, Henry J., Rev.
Dyer, H. B.
Gourley, E. T.
Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885
Harrison, Benjamin, 1833-1901
Hayes, Benjamin, 1815-1877
Hi, Wong
Huse, Charles, Judge
Kimball, Frank
Leong, Sue
Mannasse, Joe
Marston, George White, 1850-1946
Monteith, G. W.
Otis, H. G.
Quin, Ah
Quin, Anna
Quin, Franklyn
Quin, Horton Louis
Quin, Lily
Quin, Maggy
Russell, James
Sessions, Frank
Stearns, John P.
Thompson, A. K.
Victor, Jacob Nash
Alaska
Cabrillo National Monument (San Diego, Calif.)
Colton (Calif.)
Fort Point (San Francisco, Calif.)
National City (Calif.)
Presidio of San Francisco (Calif.)
Riverside (Calif.)
San Diego (Calif.)
San Francisco (Calif.)
Santa Barbara (Calif.)
Stockton (Calif.)
Temecula (Calif.)