A Chinese Mission School Opens in an Old Olympia Schoolhouse
Eleven Chinese men attended the first meeting of a Presbyterian Sunday-school mission on Fifth Street, where, according to the Church News, several quickly learned the alphabet.
The Church News tells of a Chinese mission which has been started by members of the Presbyterian Sunday school, in charge of Mrs. Smith, Will Smith, Charles H. Koontz, D. R. McQuarria and Mrs. W. B. Hanna. The first meeting was held Monday night in the old school house on Fifth between Quince and Eastside streets. Eleven Chinese men were present. Before the evening had passed several of the Chinese men were perfectly familiar with the alphabet. Those present say the intelligence displayed was remarkable. The intention is to have the class meet Monday and Friday of each week and Sunday afternoon.
“Before the evening had passed several of the Chinese men were perfectly familiar with the alphabet. Those present say the intelligence displayed was remarkable.”
The mission appeared just six years after the 1885-86 anti-Chinese expulsions that drove many Chinese residents from Washington towns. Its existence is a reminder that Olympia's Chinese community did not disappear, even as the press often treated it as a curiosity or a problem.
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