The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 81, July 1977 - April, 1978 Page: 8
521 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
With the Chinese "bachelors" gradually dying off or drifting away
either to return to China or simply to go elsewhere, but also because
the end of Reconstruction eliminated the demand for Chinese as sub-
stitutes for blacks, who were again coming under white control, the
Chinese population in Robertson County steadily declined after 188o
until it disappeared from the census enumeration around 1940 (see
Table II). Since the few who had settled down had had no alternative
but to intermarry with local residents, their offspring were not classi-
fied in the census as Chinese but, depending on the mother, as either
"mulatto" or "white." Consequently, when the Chinese progenitors of
such mixed families died off, so apparently did the Chinese of the coun-
ty. But some of their descendants, such as the Yepp family of Calvert,
did in fact remain, even though they had been largely absorbed into
the local population. Therefore, the decline of the Chinese in Robert-
son County was not quite so complete as the census would suggest.15
In 1881, as the first group of Chinese immigrants to Texas began to
pass from the scene, a second contingent of several thousand entered
the state. Like the first group, they arrived as railroad builders from
the west. This time they came with the Southern Pacific Railroad,
which, threading its way from Los Angeles, reached El Paso in May,
i881. From El Paso, the road continued eastward for another 460 miles
to the Pecos River, where on January 12, 1883, it joined tracks with the
Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway to become the nation's
second transcontinental line. The vast majority of the Southern Pacific
work force were Chinese. As they neared the end of the line, the Chinese
accounted for some 2,6oo of approximately 3,000 laborers; moreover,
they did "all [the] work except to drive the big teams ... ."16
For the Chinese rail hands, life was difficult in the desolate and
rugged trans-Pecos region of West Texas. Their supervisor was "burly,
veston, Grayson, Harris, Kaufman, Tarrant, Tom Green, Travis, and Washington counties
(microfilm).
15Dallas Morning News, June 25, 1972; Mr. and Mrs. Johnnie Yepp to E. J. M. R.,
February 22, 1974, interview. See also the file, "Robertson county: Chinese farmers of
1870's"; Doris Black, "The Black Chinese," Sepia, XXIV (January, 1975), 18-24.
16San Antonio Evening Light, August 15, 1882 (quotation); J. Morgan Broaddus, Jr.,
The Legal Heritage of El Paso, ed. Samuel D. Myers (El Paso, 1963), 134; S. G. Reed, A
History of the Texas Railroads and of Transportation Conditions under Spain and Mexico
and the Republic and the State (Houston, 1941), 197-198. Although it is frequently said
that the Chinese also helped to build the Texas and Pacific Railroad, there is no hard
evidence that this was in fact so. See Velma Barrett and Hazel Oliver, Odessa: City of
Dreams, a Miracle of the Texas Prairies (San Antonio, 1952), 18; Brutus Clay Chrisman,
Early Days in Callahan County (Abilene, 1966), 166; Betty Orbeck (ed.), "Moving West
with the Texas and Pacific: From the Pages of The Dallas Weekly Herald," The Permian
Historical Annual, XIII (December, 1973), unpaginated note 12 (following p. 51).
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 81, July 1977 - April, 1978, periodical, 1977/1978; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101205/m1/26/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.