1936 - 2 letters written by King

1936

Dear Lucille [Mardock, a cousin in Tyler, Texas]

I have wrote you a letter about four week ago.  I suppose you received the letter.  Now I am stay at old village in the new house on second floor from room at the [?] side window.  Please see the photo [don’t have the actual photo he sent, but below is how the house looked new].  
The new house my mamma build it cost about nine thousand dollars Chinese money.

[and on the back side of the  letter to Lucille]

Dear

Thought I’d drop you a few lines to try and send it by the China Clipper in [my] second trip on her way return from Macau China.

I am stay at the interior country.  No electric light, no radio, a fine motor car.  Road bad inconvenience for every thing.  I prepare to take the trip to Canton City and Hong Kong.  I will stay a few weeks and back home again about few months.  I will go back to the U.S.A. about October.  Please answer.  Best wishes.

                                                                                                Your friend
                                                                                                        Mar King
                                                                                                        c/o Mo Do Drug Store, Baksha, Toysan

I Got a Kick out of Languages

King and Me.
Today a little about me - and languages.

Sue Atkins asked to see my calligraphy since we both had taken Chinese language courses at one time.  Working on the Mar Wee family tree I wanted to included the Chinese names for those who had them.   You can see what I have so far at: www.myheritage.com.  I can make out typeset or written Chinese calligraphy but have trouble with other people's handwriting - same as deciphering some people's writing in English.

I took Chinese at KU after I finished my undergraduate degree (B.A. in French) during my graduate school years. Flunked the first course because I didn't complete the course because I was too busy according to my instructor Grace Wan "making protests instead of studying."  Those were the protest years on college campuses.  Then an opportunity came to take an intensive summer course in Chinese to really immerse myself in the language.  The East Asian Languages and Cultures Department offered intensive summer courses in Chinese and Japanese.  After that summer, I took more courses and practiced writing Chinese.   Eventually wrote a few letters to Mom and Dad who were pleased I tried to learn.

So, here's a sample of my calligraphy from a lesson in 1971.  I can't read this anymore.  Use it or lose it.

King was adept in using the traditional calligraphy brush held upright instead of angled when writing with a fountain pen.  His penmanship in both languages was very good.  In fact, I asked him to write the Chinese for the wedding invitation for Dee and me.

Our friend Alynn Jackson designed the cover artwork and I wrote the English calligraphy.  I used the AB Dick office printer so you can see the invitation wasn't the usual Hallmark quality.
 
I became interested in calligraphy and practiced enough to also pen a retirement certificate for Frank Burge, the former Kansas Union director.

I also took Norwegian after quitting Chinese because I discovered the sport of orienteering.  Skogssports was the Swedish magazine I wanted to read (mostly their maps and photos).  KU didn't offer Swedish at the time, so I took Norwegian. It was close but no cigar, but I got better at reading maps.

To better train myself in the sport, I also took cartography courses and made maps.  The training involved not only the physical running and strengthening workouts but also map reading skills. Making maps is really good since you have to slow down to walk around the woods to draw in the details.

So, this map is a combination of my cartography (an early two-color work) and calligraphy (not my best job) and a little fun labeling the map in Norwegian.

My academic college career veered off course from high school plans to go in math or a science.  My freshman year I decided I wanted to work on my weakest strength and ended up majoring in French.  It led to a summer in Paris and a year in Bordeaux. I do not have a knack for language learning as my overall undergraduate grade point average was higher than the GPA in my major.  But, I liked language learning.  Before going to Bordeaux I had also taken a course in German and Italian, partly in hopes I would get degrees in linguistics and French.  It helped to get around when I traveled.   

I had a bad experience hitchhiking (hey children, as a parent I would NOT suggest hitchhiking.  Oh boy, one of those do as I say and not what I did.) in Portugal I asked the driver to let me out in a small town before my destination that day.  I felt the situation wasn't right. My hitchhiking partner and I went into a bar where we got out, I paid the driver just to get rid of him - the guys sitting outside the bar had noticed that and wondered why.  I didn't know Portuguese but some older man spoke German, so I explained in German what had happened.

When I took Chinese I was sharing an apartment with Mike Sheahon and Eddie Wong.  Both were the owners and instructors for the Lawrence Karate Institute.  I was busy with my bicycling (touring and racing) at the time, so I didn't learn karate.  But, sometimes while studying the next day's Chinese lesson, they would practice kicks to my head.  They were good and never knocked me out or even touched me.

Here's the two of them having fun before retiring for the night.

Antes de ir a Cuba en 2017, pensé que aprender español sería útil. Así que ahora estoy en mi cuarto año estudiando español de la Iglesia Congregacional de Plymouth y en Duolingo. Nunca aprenderé el idioma, pero es divertido aprender y salgo de casa.
Google translate

Hasta de luego. 

Feb 13, 1936 - J M Newman - Snow, dust, stamps, Jolly Cafe

And a handwritten note on the back, dated Feb 17:

It was 2 below zero Sunday and again today (Monday).  Now clear but thermometer going down fast and another blizzard on the way here from the north.

Everyone at Pan American fine.  We had breakfast there this morning - and Henry says he will write to you soon.  Bernice has your letter and she will write soon too.

                                                                        Sincerely -
                                                                        Mrs Newman

R.E.M. Porter (Commodore Hotel) letter to King in China in 1929; Weekday Bible School

King had arrived in Wichita to help run the Pan American Cafe in 1923.  By 1929 he was financially able to make a trip back to China, so the 1936 trip wasn't the first.  Working in the U.S. and having a family in China was typical of many Chinese American men - split households or trans-Pacific families.

The Commodore Hotel was just north of downtown Wichita and not far from the Pan American and from our house at 350 N. Topeka.  It had just opened when R.E.M. Porter wrote King.

From the Kansas Historical Society:

• The Commodore Apartment Hotel is located at the north end of Wichita's downtown commercial district [222 E Elm Street / 601 N Broadway Avenue].
• The rapid development of multiple-family housing in Wichita was essential in the 1920s, when the city's population nearly doubled. Local leaders attracted the attention of the Hurley-Park Investment Company of Tulsa, a partnership of Secretary of War Patrick J. Hurley and builder and realtor Robert R. Park. Soon Hurley-Park, which was simultaneously developing Tulsa's Ambassador Hotel, was making plans to build the Commodore Apartment Hotel.
  
• They hired Kansas City-based architect Nelle Elizabeth Peters, who specialized in apartment buildings and hotels, to design the Commodore Hotel. It was completed and opened in 1929. At nine stories, it is the tallest building in this part of downtown and is constructed of reinforced concrete with brick and terracotta detailing reflecting the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The building is identified by a prominent rooftop sign that reads "COMMODORE." The building was nominated as part of the "Residential Resources of Wichita" multiple property nomination for its local significance in the area of architecture. 

Another side note: Just south of the Commodore Hotel is the First Presbyterian Church.  That's where I went to weekday Bible school - a voluntary program in the Wichita public schools that bussed children to a nearby school once a week.  I remember one year only one child in my class did not go to weekday Bible school. I don't think the program lasted the whole school year.  Those were the years just before Madalyn Murray (O'Hair) fought the courts for  separation of church and state.

Letter from Uncle Sam Mardock before the 1936 Trip

Tyler Texas
                                                                    Dec 2 – 1935

Dear Nephew
       Mark Ken [King Mar],

       I wish you would come over to see me before you leave.  I have something to tell you.  I wrote a letter to Wichita but I forgot to tell you about the Railroad stock there. Get the book and bring it back to me, see all the land taxes been paid.  But now have contracted for 18 houses in Pecan Orchard.

       Be sure to come to see me when you come back.  The children is all grown.  Jack is 5 feet 4 in. tall, Julian 5 feet 8 in. tall.  Lucille is about the same you saw her last.  She has a good job make over 100.00 month.  Julian will finish school this term.  I got my farm on the market for sale, have been offered 10000 want 15000.00.

       If I could get it would come to see you in airplane.

       Uncle Sam Mardock

The Cotton Belt Restaurant was perfectly located across from the railroad station.  Sam MarDock opened the restaurant in 1897.

That Guy at Pan Am in 1920s, may be . . .

I did the (May 3rd) story on the Pan American Cafe and included the earliest photo from the 1920s of the restaurant.
Compare the guy behind the counter to this portrait of King Mar's father, Dune Toi Mar.  I make a case that it's probably my great grandfather behind the counter.

King's parents portraits still hang in the Baksha home.  This photo was taken in 1985 when Kim visited Baksha.

How Dad, Chin Wee, Got His Name

Notes about Chin Wee's name that were assembled by Kim, Don and Gene, Jan 7, 1996.  Explanations (indented) of paper sons are from Benson Tong (American Paper Son).

He was the “paper son” of “Wee Chin.”   [not sure if this is Lee Chin or Wee Chin]

“Chin” was Dad’s uncle-in-law, though the uncle-in-law’s real family name was “Lee.”

Papers said Lee/Chin was a U.S. born citizen and had four sons.

Many Chinese brought to the U.S. by a General Lee during the Mexican-American War.

Ever since the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, only the exempt classes (merchants, diplomats, teachers, students, and travelers) could enter the United States.  The entry of Chinese laborers was barred. 

Because of the Chinese Exclusion laws and the loss of birth records in the San Francisco earthquake, many Chinese immigrants claimed to be descendants of native borns.  

The earthquake destroyed the county courthouse then the rapidly moving fire burned all of the birth certificate records.  Any Chinese who could bring two witnesses (Chinese witnesses were acceptable) to verify that they were native born were issued a birth certificate stating their native-born status.  As native borns, they would not be subjected to the rigorous system that force merchants to maintain their mercantile establishments or risk being deported from the country, and not forced to provide detailed information about their business, families in China and the United States, and testimonies from non-Chinese witnesses.  Such onerous paperwork was repeated during each trip abroad.

By early 20^th century, Chinese Americans discovered that U.S. laws granted derivative or statutory U.S. citizenship to children of native-born citizen fathers (but not mothers).  U.S. citizens of Chinese ancestry exploited this by reporting the birth of their children to the authorities in order to create “slots” that could be sold to those who were not their sons.

Lee Chin claimed he was native born.

Papers said Dad was the second son of Lee Chin.

Draft board reversed the name order; made “Wee” the family name and “Chin” the given name.

After serving in the U.S. Army, Dad asked to be a naturalized citizen.  The request was denied since he already was a citizen.

Other paper sons of Lee Chin:

• Chin Hong was listed as the first son who also served in the U.S. Army with Chin Wee.
• Chin On was listed as the third son.
• Chin Jeng would have been the fourth son, but the paper was never used.

King Joins the Midian Shrine Temple, 1954

King was active as a member of the Midian Shrine Temple for many years.  Attached is his membership application and a photo of him in 1954.

 

1952 Pan American Lease with J.P. Weigand & Sons

Here is the lease agreement for the Pan American Cafe with the realtor J.P. Weigand & Sons from 1952.  The address was 150 N. Market, Wichita, KS.  Th cafe building is long gone.  Today 150 N. Market is the address for J.P. Weigand & Sons,

This is what 150 N. Market looks like today

compared to 1962.