Moy C. Winn was born on the 15^th of February 1864, at 710 Commercial Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown to Chinese-born parents (fig. 1). He evidently received a good education – in 1895, Edith Eaton reports that he is a graduate of an unspecified “American college” and that he is “singularly intelligent and prepossessing” [1].

In 1886, then aged 22, he married Eng Shee (alternately spelled Ng, Ung, and Young), who was 19 years old and living in China. Eng Shee was born in September 1867 in China and arrived in the United States in 1894, eight years after the marriage [3]. By the time she joined Moy C. Winn in America, he had settled in Boston, Massachusetts, living at 11 Oxford St [3]. There he was a merchant in what Edith Eaton refers to as the “Moy Company,” although in the 1900 census his company is listed as W.G. Lung & Co [3]. Passenger lists and records of entry to Canada and the United States from the 1890s and 1900s show Moy C. Winn travelling numerous times between China and the United States [4] [1]. In 1895, he applied for a US passport [5] (fig. 2). Moy’s entrepreneurial spirit also saw him seek business opportunities outside the Moy Company. By 1901, he was reported as a “passenger agent” for the “Chicago & Northwestern-Union Pacific-Southern [railway] route” [6] [7].

Beyond his role as a successful businessman, Moy was a prominent and well-connected figure in Boston’s Chinatown and became involved in local politics. In December of 1892 the Boston Globe reports that he cast an electoral ballot in Boston’s ward 10, a newsworthy event as he is said to be Boston’s first ever eligible Chinese voter [8]; in November of 1896 he cast a vote in Boston’s ward 7 [9] [10]. Newspaper reports of these events savour of racism and condescension, mocking Chinese voters, including Moy, for their accented English and affecting surprise that they did not require assistance in choosing a candidate or filling out a ballot. In September of 1896, Moy is selected as a councillor delegate for ward 7 [11]. In 1895, local politicians and real estate developers began agitating for the removal of some residents of Oxford Street in Boston’s Chinatown. When a Boston Globe reporter visited Chinatown to seek the local opinion on the matter, the subsequent article referred to Moy C. Winn as the “kingpin” of Chinatown [12]. Moy is said to be reticent at first, but opens up and defends the right of the Chinese community to remain in their homes when addressed by a white man known to support the “Chinese cause” [12].

Despite racist treatment, Moy and other prominent members of the Chinese community continued to assert their claim to the city’s political and social life. In 1899, Moy sat on a committee of Chinatown leaders to set up a merchandise booth at an outdoor fundraising festival for Boston’s Carney Hospital [13]. A card on the booth announced Chinatown’s contribution “in return for services rendered to their countrymen in the Carney hospital” [13]. Moy’s charitable activity was not limited to Boston; in 1900, he led efforts to raise money for the people of Galveston, Texas, after that city suffered a devastating hurricane [14].

Moy was also connected to the Chinese Freemason community. In 1907, the deaths of several local Chinese Freemasons caused a public stir. The Boston Globe reports that Moy sat on the committee planning the funeral ceremonies of Masons Wong Shee Chung and Leong Quen [15]. The presence of non-Chinese American Masons, the hiring of an American band, and the thousands of Chinese Americans expected to attend attest to the ways in which Masonic membership linked the Chinese and white communities of Boston in this period. Freemasonry became a family tradition; years later, one of Moy’s sons registered for Masonic membership [16].

Moy C. Winn and Eng Shee’s first child, a son named Harry, was born in August 1895 [17]. He was followed by sons Willie in September 1897 [18], Walter in September 1900 [14] [19] [20], and Quinn in around 1904 [21]. The children’s English names and the report that newborn baby Walter will be dressed “like an American baby, all in white” rather than in the customary red of Chinese babies suggest the family’s desire to set their sons up for success in the face of the racism and intolerance of the wider Boston community [14].

Birth records and newspaper articles note another son born to Moy C. Winn, named Jones Sing Moy, in 1896. Unlike articles announcing Walter’s birth, which mention Eng Shee, Harry, and Willie, the article introducing Jones does not mention a wife or brothers, and indeed on his birth record, he is marked as “illegitimate” and the space for the mother’s name is left blank [22] [23]. Furthermore, on a passenger list of a ship returning to the US from China in January 1903, Moy C. Winn is seen travelling with his wife and children, named as “Jones Sing Moy Wing or Winn,” “Willie Moy Wing or Winn,” and “Walter Moy Wing or Winn” – the manifest indicates that while Jones is the son of both Moy C. Winn and his wife, listed as Young Shee, the other two boys are only the sons of Moy C. Winn [1]. Given the evidence in newspaper archives, birth records, and census data from 1900, 1910, and 1920 [3] [24] [21], it seems likelier that this is a recording error and the reverse is true: that Willie and Walter, along with their brothers Harry and Quinn, are in fact the sons of Moy C. Winn and his wife, while Jones’s mother remains a mystery. Perhaps Moy had an affair or a second wife he wished to hide from US authorities due to American laws against multiple marriages. There is no trace of Jones’s mother in the historical record. In the 1900 US census, taken before Walter’s birth later that year, Ng Shee is noted as having given birth to two children [3]. Eng Shee may have lived in China for a time, possibly with some of her sons; in the 1910 census Moy C. Winn and Harry, then aged 14, are living at 4 Oxford St. with three lodgers and no other family members [24]. Moy is marked as “married” rather than “widowed.” In 1919, Willie, then aged 20 and marked as a “student”, applies for, and is issued, a passport for the purpose of visiting his mother in China [25]. In 1918, Jones, Willie, and Walter all register for the US draft [26] [27] [28], though it is unclear whether any of them saw combat in the First World War – if they did, they all survived, as their paper trail continues. Quinn only ever appears in the 1920 census, while it is possible that Harry appears in the historical record under different versions of his given name and surname. Spellings and name orders shift across documents; Willie is marked as “William Moy Wing” at least once.

Moy C. Winn continued to live at 4 Oxford St., Boston, until at least 1920 [21]. In that year, the death of an Eng Shee Wing is recorded in Boston [29] who may be Moy’s wife. In February 1921, he sells some Boston property [30]. Here his paper trail ends. Given that his children, and later his grandchildren, eventually took “Wing” as a legal surname, with “Moy” tacked on as a middle name – originating no doubt in clerical errors by officials misunderstanding Chinese naming traditions – it would not be surprising if Moy’s own name had metamorphosed in the eyes of the US government by the 1920s, making him difficult to trace. His son Jones eventually became an interpreter for the US immigration service [16] – working for the very government which had sought to keep families like his out of the country and demonstrating how far his own family had come since his grandparents first arrived in California before Moy C. Winn’s birth.

Sources

[1] Registers of Chinese Laborers Departing from San Francisco, California, October 20, 1882–October 6, 1908; NAI Number: A4134; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Record Group Number: 85.

[2] Unsigned. “A Chinese Baby. Accompanies a Party Now on Their Way to Boston.” Montreal Daily Star, 11 September 1895: 6.

[3] Year: 1900; Census Place: Boston Ward 7, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 678; Page: 7; Enumeration District: 1245.

[4] “Mr. Moy C. Winn.” Canada, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.

[5] “Moy C. Winn.” U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925. Volume: Roll 435 – 16 Jan 1895-31 Jan 1895.

[6] Unsigned. “Chinese in Railroad Business.” The Indianapolis News, 18 April 1901: 2.

[7] Unsigned. “Short Lines.” The Buffalo Times, 23 April 1901: 5.

[8] Unsigned. “Boston Has One Chinese Voter.” The Boston Globe, 15 March 1894: 8.

[9] Unsigned. “A ‘Democlat’ Voted. Light Beginning in Ward 10 – Women Are Doing Their Share.” The Boston Globe, 13 December 1892.

[10] Unsigned. “Chinamen as Voters. Interesting Scene in a Ward Seven Precinct While Three Celestials Marked Their Ballots.” The Boston Evening Transcript, 3 November 1896.

[11] Unsigned. “Delegates Chosen.” The Boston Globe, 12 September 1896: 7.

[12] Unsigned. “Chinese Wail Over Threatened Move on Oxford St. Afraid of Scheme to Deport Them. Think it Means Ruin to Their Business. Always Pay Their Rent When it is Due. Considers Themselves as Good as Their Neighbours. Peaceable if Allowed to Keep to Themselves. May Hire Counsel to Oppose Their Ejectment.” The Boston Globe, 10 January 1895: 5.

[13] Unsigned. “Large Sum Realized. Festival in Aid of Carney Hospital a Success. Chinamen’s Booth Well Patronized and Reaps Harvest. Ball Game and Electric Light Athletic Meet Prove Big Attractions.” The Boston Globe, 14 July 1899: 2.

[14] Unsigned. “Youngest Chinaman in Town.” The Boston Evening Transcript, 17 September 1900: 6.

[15] Unsigned. “To Bury Two High Masons. Wong Shee Chung and Leong Quen. Chinatown Preparing for Funerals Sunday. Victim of Feud was of Exalted Rank.” The Boston Globe, 15 August 1907: 7.

[16] “Jones Moy Wing.” Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Masons Membership Cards 1733–1990. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

[17] Unsigned. “New Baby in Chinatown. Moy Wing the Happy Father of a Boy—Is an American.” Democrat and Chronicle, 15 August 1895: 5.

[18] “Willie Moy Winn.” Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

[19] Unsigned. “Moy C. Winn’s Third Son. His Advent the Cause of Rejoicing Among the Local Chinese.” The Boston Globe, 17 September 1900: 12.

[20] “Walter Moy Wing.” Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

[21] Year: 1920; Census Place: Boston Ward 5, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_731; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 157.

[22] Unsigned. “Feast for Moys. Music in the Air of the City’s Chinatown. Five Weeks’ Old Boy the Cause of the Celebration. Name is Jones Y. Moy, His Weight Ten Pounds. All His Father’s Friends Were Invited. Happiness Marked the Festivity of the Day.” The Boston Globe, 7 September 1896: 1.

[23] “Jones Wing Moy.” Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

[24] Year: 1910; Census Place: Boston Ward 7, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_616; Page: 5a; Enumeration District: 1349; FHL microfilm: 1374629.

[25] “Willie Moy Wing.” Passport Applications for Travel to China, 1906-1925; Volume 30: Emergency Passport Applications: China.

[26] “Jones G Moy Wing.” World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.

[27] “William Moy Wing.” World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.

[28] “Walter Moy Wing.” WWII Draft Registration Cards For New York City, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947. National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147.

[29] “Eng Shee Wing.” Massachusetts Vital Records Index to Deaths [1916–1970]. Volumes 66–145. Facsimile edition. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

[30] Unsigned. “Real Estate Transactions.” The Boston Globe, 23 February 1921: 3.