The Chinese came to Jefferson County like so many immigrants, to earn money working in the logging camps as cooks, servants, and laundry workers and clearing land, many as farmers. Noted for their dependability, honesty and willingness to work under terrible conditions for low wages they were greatly in demand. Most of them were males hoping to earn enough money to go home to China as wealthy men. Although their pay would be less than whites working at the mills their wages would still be five to ten times what they would have earned in China. The greatest influx of Chinese to the U.S. was in the 1850s from Southern China, from rural areas around Canton. There were some merchants but most were peasants in the middle or lower economic classes. They migrated to California to try their fortunes in the gold fields either as miners or more likely working in laundries and restaurants. It wasn't easy to succeed as they were early hit with a miner's tax but as this tax increased over the years they left the gold fields. These taxes were a boon to California and they were soon lowered encouraging the Chinese to return. Migrating north in the 1860s many ended up in the Seattle area but some ventured into Jefferson County.

The mill at Port Ludlow in 1870 had seven male Chinese working as cooks and stewards ages twenty to thirty two. The names of these men were recorded by the census enumerator who often wrote their names the way they sounded. The Chinese give their family name first and given name second so Gong Sing in English would be Sing Gong, Gong being the family name. When spoken to he would be called Mr. Gong, or on a personal level Gong Sing. There were two men named Gong, then Ling, Kong, Sing, Chong, King. This is how they were written but if they could not write in English it was transcribed as it sounded.

At this same period in Port Townsend there is listed only two Chinese, both cooks.

The opportunities were here, lots of sawmills, farms that needed clearing, and to serve them arrived the early Chinese merchants of Port Townsend. The Zee Tai Company [Greater Harmony Company] whose building is still a part of downtown Port Townsend established a mercantile store in 1879 to serve the needs of the local Chinese population, the store dealt in tea, rice, nuts, silks and Chinese notions among other things. They imported rice in bulk and then cleaned it in a special machine, sacked it and sold it exclusively in the Northwest. The firm's manager was Ng Soon, the Ng family owned the company and in 1890 it was the largest grossing business in the city, clearing more than one hundred thousand dollars. The company also acted as contractor for Chinese laborers. The cellars and back rooms were used for relaxation and for smoking their long pipes full of opium.

In California the Chinese were blamed for the low wage jobs, and anti-Chinese feelings spread across the west. Port Townsend was no different, gangs of local men would break into the Chinese district smashing windows and breaking in doors. Sometimes they would fight back and the vandalism would stop for a short time. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was instituted which stated no laborer who left the country could return, but a merchant could do so. These also encouraged the smuggling of Chinese from British Columbia where high prices were charged by smugglers to bring them, under cover, into the U.S. along with opium, on which the revenue stamps had not been bought. If the Revenue Cutters caught up with them they would simply throw everything overboard, including their human cargo.

During the 1880s many of the Chinese worked on the Revenue Cutters as cooks, stewards, and waiters. They also worked as servants for the officers at Fort Townsend. In Chimacum there were 19 Chinese working as wood choppers. There were a few who had their wives but this was the exception. In Port Townsend a few residents employed a Chinese Servant including the Rothschild family who employed Ah Moo, age 25.

They were thought of as industrious workers, honest and enterprising.

At North Beach where the Chinese gardens were located, vegetables were grown with the help of many Chinese who had been smuggled into the country, and the produce later sold to local residents from a cart.

In 1892 a Chinese Missionary school was started with 27 students. In 1894 the newspaper reported; "The work of registering Chinese in Port Townsend and vicinity was completed...300 applications for Geary Certificate." If they were stopped and did not have the certificate they could be returned to China. There was often trouble over gambling and money between local Chinese but seldom included whites. By 1901 the local canneries were hiring Chinese from San Francisco to work during the fishing season, some as young as fourteen. In 1900 a fire in the Chinese District which was located where Memorial Field is, burned all of the buildings to the ground.

Some local characters, one in particular, Ah Moon, called bones by the locals because of his fan-tan operations and gambling house, ran a big laundry for about forty years in Port Townsend, but eventually his friends left or died and he was left alone. After the 1893 depression many moved away seeking their fortunes elsewhere. A few stayed including Joe Wah, who worked as the cook at the Washington Mill Company, had a farm at Oak Bay and eventually opened the Merchants Café in Port Townsend. There were a few others but by the 1930s most had left the area. Sometimes walking down Water Street I try to imagine what the street looked like with the colorful costumes, the mysterious happenings behind closed doors, and the smell of oriental spices.