WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
YEE SAM WING
(Mayor of "Chinatown" in Silver Reef)
BIOGRAPHY
There was quite a population of Chinese in silver reef. They came to this and other mining camps after completion of the transcontinental railroad. They ran businesses including laundries, meat shops, drug stores, and maybe even sold some opium. Sam Wing ran a laundry, "The First Wash-house" on Bonanza (lower Main Street).The Chinese were not well accepted by the townsfolk and they congregated in the south end of town. Sam Wing was the mayor of this "Chinatown".
When the mines closed, Sam Wing, the former Mayor of the Chinese community, called upon the conscientiousness that conceivably got him elected. Using his own personal funds, he built new caskets and paid the freight costs to ship all of his dearly departed countrymen back to their homeland.
Later, Sam Wing moved to Mercur (Tooele County) and was known as "Doc Chinaman" to his fellow townspeople. Besides practicing Chinese herbal medicine, he was the proprietor of a laundry.
After leaving Mercur, he ran the Chinese Herbal Medicine Store near the Salt Lake railroad terminal.
FAMILY
TBDPHOTOS
REFERENCES
Yee Sam WingA Research Report by Elaine Young, PhD.
Silver, Sinners & Saints: A History of Old Silver Reef, Utah
By Paul Dean Proctor and Morris A. Shirts
Palmer, Inc.
1991
Page 110
History to Go article on the Pioneer Chinese of Utah