Seattle’s First Chinese-Owned Cigar Factory
Wa Chong Co. launches a manufacturing venture on Third Street, aiming to keep local profits within the community.
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.
The first cigar factory on Puget Sound has been started at Seattle, under the auspices of Wa Chong Co. The factory and principal place of business is situated on Third street, near Washington. About six Chinamen are now employed in the manufacture of the weed, but the force will be increased as fast as the demands of the trade require. Most of the cigars sold in this city are manufactured by Chinamen, and Wa Chong thinks he might as well keep some of the money at home and reap some of the profits from the manufacture of the 'pure Havanas,' as for the Chinamen in San Francisco to reap it all.
“Wa Chong thinks he might as well keep some of the money at home and reap some of the profits.”
This item highlights the vibrant but vulnerable economic life of Seattle's Chinese community during the early 1880s, just a few years before the 1886 forced expulsions. It challenges the common narrative of the time by highlighting a local entrepreneur explicitly choosing to localize production to resist outside monopolies.
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