The Fight for a Son’s Birthright in Pioneer Seattle
A prominent Chinese merchant takes the extraordinary step of filing court petitions to prove his son is an American citizen and thus eligible to own property.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Chun Ching Hock, a Chinese merchant in Seattle—commonly known as Wa Chong—instituted proceedings in the superior court yesterday to officially record facts regarding the birth, parentage, and American citizenship of his son, Chun Lung Coe. In a petition filed by Chun Ching Hock, acting as guardian, he alleges that the boy is 19 years of age, born in Kitsap County on May 2, 1873, to his wife Mary, an Indian woman known as Mary Cary. The legal action was necessitated by the restrictive nature of property laws; because the son, Chun Lung Coe, possessed the appearance and background of a Chinese person, he faced significant barriers to proving his legal status as a citizen. The father sought to summon witnesses to 'perpetuate evidence' of the boy's birth, fearing that if his American citizenship were not recognized, the boy would be barred from legally owning land, effectively voiding titles to properties purchased as gifts for him at Lake Union, Ballard Park, and Maynard’s addition. Judge Lichtenberg set a hearing for May 23 to resolve the matter.
“If the son had not been born in this country he could not legally hold the title to real estate and the deed... would be void.”
This 1892 legal battle highlights the precariousness of property rights for Chinese families in the Pacific Northwest during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Today, the case resonates as a window into the intersection of race, citizenship, and the struggle to secure generational wealth against systemic legal exclusion.
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