Guide to the Chinese Railroad Work Company Payroll Document MC311

Liz Phillips
University of California, Davis Library, Dept. of Special Collections
2021
1st Floor, Shields Library, University of California
100 North West Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292
speccoll@ucdavis.edu


Language of Material: English
Contributing Institution: University of California, Davis Library, Dept. of Special Collections
Title: Chinese Railroad Work Company Payroll Document
Creator: Virginia & Truckee Railroad
Identifier/Call Number: MC311
Physical Description: 1 item Broadside, folded. Completed in manuscript. 14 x 8.5 inches
Date: circa 1878
Abstract: Payroll document for a Chinese work company on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, signed in Chinese characters.
Physical Location: Researchers should contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.

Scope and Contents

Documentation of Chinese labor on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, comprising a large payroll receipt for work completed by workers of a Chinese camp in January. The upper portion of the document, signed by the foreman George Uttley, states that, "Chinese Camp No. 8, The men belonging to this camp, and known as the Ah Kee Company, have worked 101 days in the month of January 1878." The lower portion acknowledges the receipt of $108.77 by the camp leader in payment for the labor, "at the rate of $28.00 per month of 26 days," and is signed in Chinese by the camp leader, for whom the camp was likely named by the railroad. The numbers suggest a camp that likely consisted of four or five Chinese laborers. The area around Truckee, California, and Virginia City, Nevada, during this period maintained a high population of Chinese who had remained after the construction of the Central Pacific:
"Truckee became the center of life for many Railroad Chinese during the construction of the High Sierra line and then for years after the line was completed. From the mid-1860s until the 1880s, when hostile whites drove almost all of them out of town in what became the infamous 'Truckee method' of expulsion, Truckee had one of the largest Chinese populations in the country.... In 1870, Chinese constituted at least 30 percent of the town's total resident population of 1,580, and 45 percent of its workforce. Other sources estimated the Chinese population as exceeding one thousand" - Gordon Chang, "Ghosts of Gold Mountain" (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2019), p.168.
[Description provided by McBride Rare Books]

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Processing Information

Liz Phillips created this finding aid with information supplied by McBride Rare Books.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from McBride Rare Books, 2020.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Chinese Railroad Work Company Payroll Document, MC311, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.

Publication Rights

All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Railroad construction workers -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century
Foreign workers, Chinese -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century
Chinese -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century
Virginia & Truckee Railroad -- Employees -- History
Michael and Margaret B. Harrison Western Research Center