PHOTO CREDITS
Part One — Chinese girl with bound feet. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library.
Part Two — Chinese slave girl in a Chinatown bagnio. From Pigtails and Gold Dust by Alexander McLeod. Courtesy of the Caxton Printers and the San Francisco History Room, San Francisco Public Library.
Part Three — Warrens, Idaho. Courtesy of the Idaho Historical Society.
Part Four — Lalu/Polly Nathoy’s wedding photograph.1 Courtesy of the Idaho Historical Society.
Part Five — Polly Place, the Bemis ranch. Courtesy of John Carrey.
Part Six — Polly Bemis, Grangeville, 1923. From The River of No Return by R. G. Bailey. Courtesy of the Idaho Historical Society.
Part Seven — Polly Bemis. Courtesy of the Idaho Historical Society.
1. According to Gay Carrey Robie, Polly referred to this picture as her wedding photograph. Hence the citation above. It has since become clear to me that this is the same photograph that is on Polly’s certificate of residence, so it was most likely taken by Hanson, a newspaper photographer who went to Warrens on May 4, 1894, to “(shoot) celestials for registration purposes.” (Idaho County Free Press, May 4, 1894.)
Mining For Gold
Lalu Nathoy/Polly Bemis left no written records. Neither did the person closest to her: Charlie Bemis. So I looked for the two in pioneers’ recollections, newspapers, photographs, and documents. Sifting through my findings, examining, reexamining each fragment for value, I always feel like a miner panning for gold.
From the start, Polly’s Certificate of Residence and marriage certificate shone bright. These papers, having survived a devastating fire, must have been important to Polly and Charlie. Why?
The 1892 Geary Act required each Chinese laborer living in the United States to register and apply for a Certificate of Residence within the year. Those who did not would be presumed to be in the country unlawfully and, therefore, subject to arrest and deportation—unless a white witness swore that the failure to register had been due to illness or accident. Protests and legal challenges by Chinese failed to overturn this law but did extend the period for registration.
On May 4, 1894, the final day for registration, a photographer arrived in Warrens to take the necessary photos. But no official came, and two years later, Polly was one of fifty Chinese in Warrens prosecuted by the United States for failing to register. All fifty, represented by the same attorney, pleaded not guilty due to roads being rendered impassable by snow and rain.
In The United States vs: Polly Bemiss [sic], In the Matter of the Arrest and Deportation of said defendant, a white character witness corroborated that the roads had been impassable, and the judge granted Polly a Certificate of Residence.
The headshot affixed to Polly’s certificate is from a full-length portrait she gave Gay, the little schoolgirl who boarded with her in Warrens. When Gay showed it to me, she said Polly referred to the image as her wedding photograph, thus firmly linking her 1894 marriage to the couple’s hopes it might prevent her arrest and deportation.
Idaho’s First Territorial Legislature (1863–64) had prohibited the marriage of whites and Indians, Chinese, and persons of African descent; even their cohabitation. So it should have been impossible for Polly and Charlie to marry. But A. D. Smead, the justice of the peace who had issued their certificate of marriage, was himself illegally married to Molly, a Lehmi Shoshone from the Sheepeater Band.
Similar instances of officials flouting unjust laws abound, lending credibility to the multiple written and oral sources alleging Polly gave her neighbors a deed to the Bemis Ranch despite an Alien Land Law prohibiting Chinese from owning property. Yet I could find no record of a deed.
Then, a group of pioneers gathered to reminisce about Polly digressed into talk of mining, including how a mining claim entitled the claimant to the property so long as he continued to mine it. As they spoke, I flashed on Charlie’s uncharacteristic diligence in mining Polly Place every spring, the threat of losing their home during the Buffalo Hump Rush. Charlie owned other property and could easily have purchased the land. But the U.S. government had made emphatically clear that neither marriage to a white man nor the esteem and affection in which Polly was held by so many could protect her from the long, relentless reach of anti-Chinese laws.
So I looked for a mining claim—and found gold.
The three documents cited in this essay, a teacher’s guide, classroom materials, a reading group guide, and a complete analysis of all sources can be found at www.beacon.org/ThousandPiecesExtras.
To see additional source materials, go to http://www.mccunn.com/TPOG.html.
Acknowledgments
For their help while I was researching and writing Thousand Pieces of Gold, I am indebted to the following: Lalu Nathoy/Polly Bemis, for her inspiration; Don McCunn, without whose contributions at every stage this book would still be a dream; the pioneers who cared enough about Polly to record her story in private papers, newspapers, journals, and oral histories; Sister Mary Alfreda Elsensohn, for introducing me to Lalu/Polly and directing me to numerous sources; all who agreed to give interviews, provided additional leads to other persons and source materials, and continued to answer my questions via correspondence, especially Jim Campbell, John Carrey, Mary Long Eisenhaver, Marybelle and Paul Filer, Denis G. Long, Verna McGrane, Gay Carrey Robie, June Sawyer, Vera Weaver Waite, and Inez Wildman; Nellie McClelland at the Idaho County Free Press; Bob Waite at the Idaho County Recorder’s office; M. Garry Bettis, Jim Davis, Karin E. Ford, and Kenneth J. Swanson at the Idaho State Historical Society, for uncovering critically needed information; Bob Hawley at Ross Valley Books, for introducing me to books about the real West; the librarians at San Francisco Public Library’s Interlibrary Loan Department, who never failed to obtain the books and papers I requested from libraries all across the United States; the many friends who gave their time and talents to the critical reading of my manuscript, especially Beverly Braun, Hoi Lee, Ellen Yeung, and Judy Yung, whose insights and specialized knowledge contributed largely to the final form of this book; John Carrey and Bob Hawley, who read the manuscript for historical accuracy; Lynda D. Preston, whose editorial skills gave my prose needed polish; and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, James D. Houston, Joan Levinson, Diane Levy, and Alice Van Straalen, for their early support.
In the years since, I’ve accumulated a host of additional debts that have been acknowledged elsewhere. But I would be remiss if I did not reiterate my gratitude to Don McCunn for helping me realize my dreams; Tsoi Nuliang and Huang Youfu, for further research into Lalu’s origins; the Inner Mongolian Writers Association, for a visit to the grasslands that deepened my understanding; Terrie Havis, for the chance to return to the Polly Bemis Ranch; the directors and staff at Beacon Press, in particular Tom Hallock, for their unflagging support since 1988; and Lalu Nathoy/Polly Bemis, for still holding my hand.
This book is for Lalu/Polly and Don.
Ruthanne Lum McCunn has published eight books on the experiences of Chinese people on both sides of the Pacific, including Wooden Fish Songs, Sole Survivor: A Story of Record Endurance at Sea, Chinese American Portraits: Personal Histories 1828–1988, The Moon Pearl, and, most recently, Chinese Yankee. Her award-winning books have been translated into thirteen languages, published in twenty-two countries, and adapted for stage and screen. A former teacher, she currently resides in San Francisco and lectures extensively at universities, schools, and community organizations.
Beacon Press
Boston, Massachusetts
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press Books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
©1981, 2004, 2015 by Ruthanne Lum McCunn
First published as a Beacon Paperback in 1988
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-
in-Publication Data
McCunn, Ruthanne Lum.
Thousand pieces of gold : a biographical novel /
by Ruthanne Lum McCunn.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8070-8326-0 (paperback : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8070-9374-0 (ebook)
1. Bemis, Polly, 1853–1933—Fiction.
2. Chinese American women—Fiction. 3. Women immigrants—Fiction. 4. Women ranchers—Fiction.
5. Women slaves—Fiction. 6. Idaho—Fiction.
7. China—Fiction. I. Title. II. Series.
PS3563.C353T5 2004
813’.54—dc22
2004047691
Thousand Pieces of Gold Page 19