Graves of Two 1870 Chinese Shoe Factory Strikebreakers Discovered in Hillside Cemetery

By Mark E. Rondeau12:00AM / Wednesday, October 23, 2002

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Their mortal remains have lain in cold graves in Hillside Cemetery for more than 120 years, far away from their homeland and families.

Time and the elements have nearly wiped off their headstones any inscription about their short lives on Earth. They are two young men from China who were among the 95 coolies that Calvin T. Sampson brought into his North Adams shoe factory in 1870 to break a strike.

North Adams historian and researcher Paul W. Marino took a reporter to the plot where 20-year-old Quain Tung Tuck, who died of consumption, was buried in 1872. In 1879, one Chung Thomas, age 22, who died of typhoid was the second and last Chinese to be buried in the plot.

"Ironically, we have the first Chinese to die and the last one," Marino said. "It says Chung Thomas, but the city records say Thomas Chung, and also there's a record that says John Thomas."

"This lot was purchased in 1872 by a Charles Sing, who was the foreman/interpreter, and it was for any of the them that died here in North Adams," Marino said. Sing paid $30 on Oct. 9, 1872, for lot No. 507 in Hillside Cemetery.

The plot will be a highlight of Marino's next walking tour of Hillside on Saturday, Oct. 26, the last one of the season. The walk beings at 2:30 p.m. at the top of the hill off Brown Street. It is free and open to all. Interested persons should dress for the weather, wear a hat with a wide brim and a good pair of walking shoes, as well as carry a bottle of water.

This reporter could only make out the name Chung Thomas during his visit to the stones, though there are indications other inscriptions might be decipherable.

"When the light is hitting it just right — and in August it's about 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. — you can actually see three columns there," Marino said of one of the stones. "In fact, I think I can make some things out. There is something that looks to me like a giant 8 — of course, it's not an 8. And I can see some other things there, and I gather it was not graven all that deeply in the first place." Also, the two stones are facing west, the direction of the prevailing wind.

How did Marino find out Chinese were buried in the cemetery, ironically the same cemetery were C.T. Sampson is buried in a family plot marked by a towering stone?

"It was a recent discovery. I was put in contact by Linda Neville with a man named Ed Rhoads ... who has been doing research on the Chinese, particularly Sampson's Chinese and I believe a group in Pennsylvania. He's going to be doing an article," Marino said. "And he had done some research at the [Berkshire] Athenaeum and came up with seven obituaries, all of which said they're buried in North Adams.

"So he was very interested in finding the Chinese cemetery," he said. "So I did some research for him, and I found the deed that Charles Sing bought in 1872, which was this lot. And the death records listed these two but not the other five."

"The others might have been put over in the Baptist Cemetery, which was where Colgrove Park is now. And if that's true, then they are now in Southview," Marino said. "And I say the Baptists because the evangelistic ladies who went into the mill to convert them to Christianity were Baptists."

 Colgrove Park is at the foot of the lot along North Church Street, down the hill from Conte School. When it was made a park, the graves from the Baptist Cemetery were reinterred in Southview Cemetery on South Church Street.

"Where the other five are, who knows?" Marino said. "They may have been exhumed and returned to China later on. I rather doubt it, though."

With a couple of exceptions, however, most of the Chinese who survived stayed only about 10 years and then moved away.

Marino said it was exciting as a local historian to find something such as the graves of the Chinese. Is this one of his greatest discoveries in Hillside Cemetery?

"Certainly one of them. I think probably the best find was the John E. Atwood, because he was there when Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address," Marino said. "The Haynes marker I kind of already knew about, but that's certainly one of the treasures. The Sullivan monument is another treasure. It's one of the most modern looking stones, probably the most modern looking stone."

Atwood was present at Lincoln's most famous address as a member of the Massachusetts color guard. The Sullivan monument features a 10-foot-tall sexy art deco angel. The monument of archaeologist John Henry Haynes features a depiction of his greatest discovery — the library in the Temple of Bel. All three are highlights of Marino's Hillside walk. Does Marino think there are any treasures in the cemetery he hasn't found yet?

"Absolutely, I find something new every year," he said.