Won Alexander Cumyow was an early Chinese Canadian public servant and community leader. Born 1861 March 17 or February 14 in Port Douglas

Port Douglas, British Columbia

Port Douglas, sometimes referred to simply as Douglas, is a remote community in British Columbia, Canada at the head of Harrison Lake, which is the head of river navigation from the Strait of Georgia...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 (at the north end of Harrison Lake

Harrison Lake

Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada, being about 250 square kilometres in area. It is about 60 km in length and at its widest almost 9 km across. Its southern end, at the resort community of Harrison Hot Springs, is c. 95 km east of...

, at the start of the Douglas Road

Douglas Road

The Douglas Road, aka the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior...

 to Lillooet, British Columbia

Lillooet, British Columbia

Lillooet is a community on the Fraser River in western Canada, about up the British Columbia Railway line from Vancouver. Situated at an intersection of deep gorges in the lee of the Coast Mountains, it has a dry climate- of precipitation is recorded annually at the town's weather station,...

 during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush

Fraser Canyon Gold Rush

The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River. This was a few miles upstream from the Thompson's confluence with the Fraser River at present-day Lytton...

), Won Cumyow was the oldest son of Won Ling Sing, a store and restaurant owner who had emigrated in 1858 from Canton, China to San Francisco and later to Port Douglas. Won Cumyow was the first person of Chinese descent known to have been born within the boundaries of present-day Canada (British Columbia

Colony of British Columbia

The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony in British North America from 1858 until 1866. At its creation, it physically constituted approximately half the present day Canadian province of British Columbia, since it did not include the Colony of Vancouver Island, the vast and still largely...

 being a colony in 1861). He attended high school in New Westminster

New Westminster, British Columbia

New Westminster is an historically important city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and is a member municipality of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. It was founded as the capital of the Colony of British Columbia ....

 and became a court interpreter (1888) and labour contractor. He was an interpreter in the Vancouver police court from 1904 to 1936, speaking English, Cantonese, Hakka, and also the Chinook Jargon

Chinook Jargon

Chinook Jargon originated as a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest, and spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to other areas in modern Oregon and Washington, then British Columbia and as far as Alaska, sometimes taking on characteristics of a creole language...

 which he had learned as a child at Port Douglas. He studied law, even articled, but was not permitted a license because, being Chinese, he was denied the vote.

Cumyow voted for the first time in 1890 but provincial legislation in 1895-1896 stripped Chinese (and Japanese and First Nations) voting rights in elections in BC (though his name still does appear on the 1898 BC

British Columbia general election, 1898

The British Columbia general election of 1898 was the eighth general election for the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.-Party politics:...

 voters list). The voters' list in federal elections came from the provincial election's voters' list, and so the federal franchise was also blocked. The federal Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, was repealed after World War II on 1947 May 14, and he then voted again in the next federal election in 1949

Canadian federal election, 1949

The Canadian federal election of 1949 was held on June 27 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 21st Parliament of Canada. It was the first election in Canada in almost thirty years in which the Liberal Party of Canada was not led by William Lyon Mackenzie King. King had...

 -- making him the only Chinese person to have voted both before and after the disenfranchisement. A photo of him voting has been reprinted many times.

Active in the Vancouver's Chinese community, he was founder of the Chinese Empire Reform Association (an organization of overseas Chinese, active mostly between 1899 and 1911, made up of mostly the older, more prosperous Chinese merchants in Canada, and supporting the modernization of China through progressive reforms within the framework of a constitutional monarchy rather than by armed revolution), and a president of the Chinese Benevolent Association. Chinese merchants had formed the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, with the first branch in Victoria in 1884 and the second one in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 in 1895. The Association was mandatory for all Chinese in the area to join, and it did everything from representing members in legal disputes to sending the remains of a member who died back to his or her ancestral homeland in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.

Won Cumyow married Ye Eva Chan 1889 November 29. A Chinese Methodist missionary family had adopted her and brought her to Canada from Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 in 1888. Together Won Cumyow and Ye Eva had ten children. Their third son, Gordon Won Cumyow, took over the position of court interpreter and became the first Chinese notary public in Canada. Won Alexander Cumyow died 1955 October 6 in Vancouver.

External links

• Won Cumyow & family in 1881 Canadian Census
• Won Cumyow & family in 1891 Canadian Census
• Won Cumyow & family in 1901 Canadian Census
• Won Cumyow & family in 1911 Canadian Census
• Won Cumyow registered as first native-born under 1923 Chinese Immigration Act
• PDF - Biography on SFU site
• http://data.library.ubc.ca/spcol/servlet/EadXSLTServletV2?xml=fall02/Won_Alexander_Cumyow.xml&xsl=eadfinal.xslList of fonds at University of British Columbia
  University of British Columbia
  The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
  
  ]
• PDF describing fonds at UBC
• PDF file containing relevant source documents