Showing posts with label Delta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delta. Show all posts

Thursday, November 16, 2017

1920 Census Summarized

1920 Census

In 1920, Locke was still included on the Georgiana Township Census records. It was still a small town and so Ryde, Walnut Grove and Locke as well as Isleton were recorded in the census. There are 36 pages for that particular census, however, based on the names listed on the 1920 voting registry listing residents for Locke I was able to cross reference them along with other names of residents I recognized to narrow down the number of pages in the census that reflect Locke. By using that method of research the residents of Locke can be found between pages 18-23 on that particular census.

Right now I am in the process of making a database of all the residents listed in the 1920, 1930 and 1940 census' for Locke. Once I am done I will be making all this information available. Until then, this is a very basic summarized blog post giving you an idea of the make up of Locke during 1920.

According to the stats on the census, there were:

155- Chinese living in Locke in 1920 (this included listed Chinese-Americans and Chinese Immigrants)

121- Caucasians living in Locke in 1920 (this included Americans (born within the U.S.) as well as European Immigrants from: Germany, Portugal, Holland, Switzerland, Scotland, and Russia.

29- Japanese living in Locke in 1920.

3 - Hindu, East Indians living in Locke in 1920.


As always, this is further proof that shows the Locke was comprised of many different groups of people from its beginnings, and was not "Exclusively built by, for and lived in soley by Chinese" as many people will try to have you believe. Look, I have absolutely nothing against the Chinese people of Locke, in fact, I love everyone who lived there and contributed their culture and heritage to this unique little town. Everyone! I just do not like that a lot of  the history of Locke has been forgotten or purposely omitted. I believe that all of Locke's history should be remembered, from the Chinese to the Caucasian residents, the Japanese, the Hindu, the Italians, Portuguese and even the Russians who lived out on Locke Slough (out back behind Locke; near Snodgrass Slough), which was still considered part of Locke and was part of the Locke family estate. These people deserve to be remembered, too. And this town deserves to acknowledge ALL the former residents of this beautiful Delta hideaway.


(Copyright 2017- J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)


Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Locke's Earliest Inhabitants: Junizumne Plains Miwok

Historical evidence shows the earliest inhabitants of what later would be known as Locke were Junizumne Plains Miwok. This was prior to George Locke purchasing the land in the 1800s. 

Miwok- Paiute Ceremony (example photo; public domain)
 "Sometime during the 1920s and 1930s, human remains representing, at minimum, one individual were removed from CA–SAC–075 (also known as Locke Mound #1, Locke Mound #2, S–76, CA–SAC–047, CA–SAC–076), located a half mile from the east bank of the Sacramento River approximately one mile north of Walnut Grove in southwestern Sacramento County, CA. The human remains were in the possession of Anthony Zallio, a private collector, who posthumously donated his collection in 1951 to the Department of Anthropology at Sacramento State College, CA (now California State University, Sacramento). No known individuals were identified. No associated funerary objects are present. Ethnohistoric accounts indicate that the site was occupied by the Junizumne Plains Miwok. The Junizumne resisted baptism during the Mission period, and were attacked in 1813 and again in 1830, for harboring fugitive neophytes. Historic occupation at the site lasted until at least the Mission period when the malaria epidemic took hold in the region. Archeological data indicating the earliest occupation at the site is currently unavailable."---- Federal Register /Vol. 80, No. 25


---Copyright 2017, J'aime Rubio -- www.jaimerubiowriter.com 

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Life for the Kuramoto's

Locke Boarding House
The Locke Boarding House which sits at the corner of Locke Road and Main Street, in Locke, predates the other structures in town by at least a couple of years. According to the NCCSAH the structure was more than likely constructed in early 1910; However, the State Parks Department's website clearly points out that this structure was actually built in 1909, meaning it predates all the buildings in Locke. 

It's been thought that the earliest use was as a lodging structure for laborers, more than likely accommodating the Southern Pacific workers, and the workers at the G.W. Locke packing shed on the same property nearby. So far, not a lot of information in regards to who ran the boarding house prior 1921 has surfaced besides a few newspaper articles dating back to 1915, that mention "dormitories" on the Locke property that were used for their workers at the packing shed. The first family we are certain that ran it as a true boarding house, with rooms for rent,  was the Kuramoto family.

Almost all mentions of this building include that the house has not been associated with Chinese residents of Locke. 
The boarders typically were Caucasian or Japanese, with occasional Filipinos and Indians (Hindu).  According to Peter Cowan, whose father ran a trucking yard in South Locke in the 1950's, many of this building's transient residents were Oklahoma truckers who worked for his father. Peter Cowan said that he also lived in this same boarding house for awhile. Mr. Cowan owns a large portion of South Locke still today (2016), which was part of the Union Oil Company Railyard in the early 1900's, then a few decades later became his father's trucking yard.

The Beginning of Sam's Rooms

Sukiei Kuramoto, Nobu Kuramoto, their daughters Matsue, Kikue and son Eimi came to the United States and the family eventually ended up in  Locke around 1921, when they bought the boarding house, naming it Sam's Rooms. According to interviews with Sam Kuramoto, he claimed that his father loved the name Sam, and that later when he was born in 1928, that is why his father also called him Sam. They also had another daughter, Haruko who was 7 years older than Sam.

The Kuramoto's lived in the downstairs of the boarding house, on the backside of the structure, while the upstairs had the rooms for rent. While maintaining the boarding house, the Kuramoto's also worked in the agricultural field, traveling to Lodi and Stockton to pick grapes and strawberries, or packing asparagus and pears in the packing sheds nearby. At times the family would be gone all week, so the younger children were at home and learned quickly to run the boarding house if needed, while their parents were gone. In interviews Sam Kuramoto claimed that his mother didn't believe in locking the doors to their home, so many times they would come home to find that their furniture or belongings had been stolen. They blamed it on the Chinese residents.

(There was an animosity between the Japanese and Chinese in Locke, which stemmed from various reasons which I will go into further detail in an upcoming blog post.)

By 1936, the patriarch of the Kuramoto family, Sukiei died, leaving Nobu a widow, with children to raise by herself. She continued to run the boarding house by herself, and managed to work in the fields picking fruit and vegetables to make ends meet. Working as a single mother, during the Great Depression, Nobu still had time to maintain a beautiful garden just behind the house, on the east side. There she grew vegetables with beautiful flowers surrounding it.
 

By the time that the bombing of Pearl Harbor took place, there were rumors that the Japanese might be sent away to camps. According to the interview with Sam Kuramoto for the States Parks, he states that his mother panicked about this, and took everything she owned anyway related to Japan and burned it. She had taught her children they were born in America, and to be proud to be American, so it was apparent that she wanted to prove her loyalty to the country they were living in.


Unfortunately, when the time came in April 1942, the Kuramoto's were forced out of their home and sent to a detainment facility in Turlock. They would spend about three months there, before being sent to the Gila River facility in Arizona.

Gila River Camp

Located 36 miles southeast of Phoenix, sits the ruins of what once was the Gila River War Relocation Center, which once held over 13,000 Japanese-Americans.  Consisting of two separate camps, Butte Camp and Canal Camp, the internment facilities were originally built to house only 10,000 at full capacity.  Despite strict objections from the Gila River Tribe, the site was still used and the camp was constructed over a short two months, and opened on July 20, 1942.

Internees, as they were called, were brought in from as far as the Northern California Delta region, as well as the Central Valley area near Fresno and as far South as Los Angeles. Approximately, two thousand internees from an internment camp in Arkansas were also brought in to add to the population at Gila River. Although it was considered one of the least oppressive camps of its kind, due to the fact they only had one watchtower and the barbed-wire fences didn’t last, it was in no way what you could call “comfortable” living.

Butte Camp had a little over 800 buildings, while Canal Camp had approximately 400. Among the facilities on site were administration buildings, a hospital, living quarters or barracks, mess halls, laundry houses, warehouses, police offices, latrine and shower houses, churches, school houses as well as other buildings to maintain the camp. Shower rooms consisted of a room with a dozen shower heads or so, in a community shower atmosphere. The latrine rooms were just rooms consisting of toilets without stalls or separating areas for individuals. Some living barracks were divided by blankets and sheets or tarps used as makeshift walls that separated one living area from the next.  The term “shikata ga nai”, translated as “it cannot be helped,” was used often to summarize the Japanese internee’s feelings of helplessness in their living conditions.

The Kuramoto's spent 3 years at Gila River until they were able to move to Minnesota to join Nobu's oldest daughter, who had been released and given a job. The family remained in Minnesota until 1949, when Sam joined the Army. They never did return to their home in Locke, although he later recalled driving by on one of their visits to the delta region many years later. 

It is hard to imagine being ripped from your own home and taken to a strange place, and having no certainty of what lay ahead. One can only speculate how difficult it must have been for Nobu to be strong for her family during such a trying time.  It is said that when the Kuramoto's were sent to the internment camps, their neighbor Jack Ross (who lived in the house just north of them) took over the boarding house for them. He also ran the gas station and auto mechanic shop in Locke. Now this building is owned by the Department of Parks & Recreation and is used as a museum. 

Whenever I visit Locke, the boarding house is usually the first place I visit. Now, every time I see it, I will be reminded of the lovely family that made this house a home, and the sad struggle this family faced during such trying times.

(Copyright 2016- J'aime Rubio www.jaimerubiowriter.com) 

Sources: 
Sac Union, July 1915
1930 Census Records,
Family Search
Public Records,
NCCSAH newsletter, 2009
Transcribed Interview of Sam Kuramoto by Dr. Ettinger, Oral History Project (DPR)
Interview with Martha Esch (about Peter Cowan)
United State Japanese Americans Relocated During WWII, 1942-1946 database
Photos: Locke Boarding House, J. Rubio (Copyright 2015)
Gila River Camp - National Archives; photographer Hikaru Iwasaki (1945) 


Sunday, October 25, 2015

Cracking Locke's Secret Past


Something that I found quite interesting while researching Locke's history was the fact no one had written in depth about Locke's history of prostitution . The soiled doves lived in the town, and from my research, the majority were Caucasian. It wasn't until the 1950's that Chinese prostitutes were more prevalent in Locke, but prior to that all the prostitutes in Locke were always Caucasian.

Documented news articles around 1918-1920, reporting court cases against George Locke, (grandson of George W.), show that he was in charge of the area, not only as the owner of the town itself, but as the "Vice King" as one newspaper dubbed him.

I believe that when the opportunity arose to have the Chinese move to Locke, George G. Locke decided that he would make his property into a bustling place to serve the needs of laborers in the area. I also believe that his son, George R. Locke wanted to oversee that town and make money without all the rules and regulations that other Delta areas enforced.

He knew that all Caucasians were banned from gambling in Walnut Grove, and many laborers felt that was not fair. You can find that in several newspapers of the time period.

The Chinese, Japanese and even Hindu could gamble but the Caucasians could not. George Locke saw a need, one that would make him a lot of money, and he was simply filling the need.  So he let the Chinese set up gambling halls in various buildings that allowed anyone to gamble there, but he also had buildings he owned himself (records show this) where he operated houses of ill-repute under the guise of "boarding houses."

The White House was one of the houses of ill-repute located in the Historic District of Locke. One of the earliest Caucasian women in Locke was Grace Melbourne. Voting Registries of the time period going back as early as 1916, has her listed as a resident of Locke.

Although she was the "madam" of the boarding house, she listed herself as a "housewife" more than likely to avoid suspicion.  There is also a record of one Ruby Allen acting as a madam for the White House as well. Hiring her would prove to be a terrible mistake for George Locke in the near future.

Another one of George Locke's establishments was the New Home Hotel, and then of course the Lockeport Hotel, as newspapers confirmed. According to the National Registry for Historic Places, the listing for the town of Locke claims that the "boarding house" located where the Lockeport Hotel stands, was built by Wing-Chong Owyoung and is one of the original buildings constructed around 1912.  That is very possible, but newspaper clippings with legal notices, such as the request for liquor licenses and such, list George W. Locke & Son as the owners and proprietors of both the hotel and restaurant which they refer to as the Lockeport Hotel. There is also a newspaper clipping mentioning the Locke's requesting to have their Lockeport Hotel reopened after it had been closed down for violating the red-light abatement act.

There are plenty of other newsclippings showing other various Chinese merchants "owning" businesses and even houses of ill-repute in Locke, just not the three listed above (Lockeport Hotel, New Home and White House), owned by George Locke. It seems interesting to me that there are two stories going around about the Lockeport Hotel, yet the documented information of the time period show George Locke and family were the proprietors. (I will be doing more investigating into this buildings history in future blog posts).

The Lockeport Hotel (or the Lockeport House) was and is still located on the corner of Levee and River Road. It is the one that is boarded up across from the Chinese Garden Restaurant. When the lighting is right and the weather is good, you can still see an outline of the words "Lockeport Hotel" on the side of the building, too.

At one time, before the levee was raised, this building had a deck that stretched outward west, and a view to the river could be seen from it.  It appears that at some point the levee was raised about 10 feet or so, leaving all the front facing buildings in Locke to appear to be built up on a hillside, having their first floors to appear underground.

(Copyright 2015- J'aime Rubio)

Friday, October 23, 2015

The True History of Locke, California (Part 1)

ARTICLE HAS BEEN BROKEN UP INTO SMALLER ARTICLES--- PLEASE LOOK TO MY LIST ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS BLOG TO SEE INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES----