An Immigrant Story - Charles Sing

This image was taken by Calumet photographer J.W. Nara, who was active in Calumet and environs beginning in 1892. Is it possible that Charles Sing is among the men pictured?

Photo Courtesy Michigan Tech Archives

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was one of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in U.S. history: it prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers. Nevertheless, the Copper Country was part of #AnImmigrantStory for many Chinese nationals who had immigrated earlier. By 1910, Houghton County had the largest Chinese population in the state of Michigan.

Charlie Sing and his son Charles came to the United States from China in 1882, just before the signing of the Exclusion Act. The younger Mr. Sing came to the Copper Country to try his hand at running one of Calumet's several laundry establishments--one of the few occupations that Chinese people could pursue, given the restrictions of the Exclusion Act. Fifteen different Chinese laundry operations are listed in the 1910 Houghton County Polk Directory. Relatively few Chinese-born women lived in the United States at this time; the Page Law of 1875 was used to exclude almost all Asian women from entering the country, including wives and fiancées, until it too was repealed with other discriminatory laws.

 

Clipping from, "The Pioneer Express" of Pembina, North Dakota, April 28, 1911, page 6

Library of Congress; Chronicling America

Sing married the American-born Sadie Constant in Calumet in 1911.Their marriage was unusual enough to be noted in newspapers, but their marriage record reveals that his name and Sadie's age were reported inaccurately in the article.

See the source: Library of Congress

We don't know where Charles' immigrant story took him and Sadie next. Census enumerators unfamiliar with the Chinese language, dialects, and customs make it difficult to track Mr. Sing through these common sources, but a newspaper article noted that the last of "a small but prominent band" of Chinese immigrants who had operated laundries in Calumet departed in 1943, the same year the Chinese Exclusion Act was finally repealed.

 

Photo Courtesy Michigan Tech Archives

In addition to providing laundry services, other immigrants started businesses such as Hand You & Co Chinese and Japanese Fancy Goods shown here on Fifth Street in Calumet.