RECENT RESEARCH: Doris Ray I’m not seeing any results for that name in 1918, Toronto. He may have had a different name.

I did locate this: Vancouver Daily World
Thu, Dec 28, 1916 ·Page 16
Empress of Asia departure for China

Passengers included a man named “Ong Wah”

RESEARCH (as of  October 2000 – this is from preliminary reseach for my book COMMON THREADS now out of print.

 

My grandmother’s name was Clara Helen Haynes. She was the daughter of Charles Holland Haynes and Agnes Lavinia Louise Blount who were married in Upper Teddington (near London England) on December 11, 1886. Charles was 33 (he was a widower) and Agnes was 21.  The couple had 6 children, the eldest being Marion Agnes who was born November 12, 1887. William Henry was born in Kensington (London) on July 1st 1889, followed by Clara, my grandmother (later known as “Nelly”) who was born in Teddington, on July 4th 1891. Winifred Holland (nicknamed “Freda”) was born in West Derby, Lancaster County on November 21, 1893, followed by Charles Holland Jr. born in Liverpool (Lancaster County) on January 16, 1896. Phillip Blount (the youngest) was born sometime between October and December 1901 in Blean, Kent County.

 

Great Grandmother Agnes was musically inclined (she may have been a singer before marrying?) and very interested in the opera. Daughter Clara accompanied her sometimes during visits to the opera houses. Agnes was a knowledgeable critic who particularly enjoyed the comic operas that were popular at the turn of the century. Agnes may have had money of her own because she made sure that Clara, and perhaps others of her children? were educated properly at private schools. Husband Charles was not a wealthy man, although from a fairly well-known English family. At the time of Freda and Phillip’s birth, he worked as an accountant, possibly for a ship building firm. He may also have been a notary public at one time?

 

Some friends and acquaintances of the Haynes family were emigrating to the colonies – particularly to Canada. By 1911 the Howard family – who had lived next door to the Haynes for years, and whose son Paul was Marion’s childhood sweetheart- had moved to Vancouver, B.C. The Howards had previously resided in Canada; in fact Paul’s birthplace in 1891 had been Winnipeg, Manitoba. His parents were Rice Meridith Howard and Louisa Wynyard Hurd. Both of Paul’s parents were Canadian born.

 

In Paul’s letters home to his sweetheart, Marion, he most likely described his job as an assistant to the “Superintendent of Chinese Immigration Inspection” in Vancouver which was part of a bureaucracy that had been set up by the government because of public opposition to the numbers of Chinese people immigrating to Canada. Despite the imposed Head Tax of 500 dollars each, numbers of Chinese entering Canada were still perceived to be high. An investigation into how these “illegal aliens” entered the port of  Vancouver had begun in February 1911.

 

It was around this time that Agnes either divorced Charles, or perhaps became a widow?  (On daughter Marion’s marriage certificate, dated 1913, the space under “brides mother” was left blank?) Agnes may have already been involved with the Australian she later married? She once told her daughter Clara that she would rather be married to “an Australian bushman” than to an Englishman who had an illustrious “family tree”.

 

 

 

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Late in 1911 Agnes bid goodbye to four of her children when they left on a boat for the long journey to Vancouver, Canada. ( this may have been in 1910?)  (no, as December 1911 was the date William Henry – Clara’s brother – arrived in Canada and apparently the 4 siblings had traveled together.)

 

Louise Howard, Pauls mother, had written Agnes and assured her that the young people would be welcome to live with her in her home. They would be “safe” residing with her, she wrote. In Vancouver William worked at several places of business before being hired on July 2, 1912 as a “Contract Clerk” by the B.C. Telephone Co. A few weeks later he was promoted to “Chief Contract Clerk”. In the 1912 Vancouver Directory, Marion’s Haynes’ address was listed as “1888 Georgia St.” Also living there was a “C.H. Haynes” (either Clara Helen or Charles Jr.) who worked as a “clerk” at the Hudson Bay Company- perhaps the retail store at Georgia and Granville? (Charles’ military records later gave the information that he had been a “jeweler and a clerk”) 1888 Georgia St. according to research was likely just a house- not a boarding house. Paul’s address in 1910? was “644 Hawks Ave” –when he had worked as a labourer. William’s address  was “1219 Burrard” when he worked on construction project before working for BC Tel.

 

On June 12, 1912, twenty-three-year-old William Haynes married a woman- also born in England- named Sarah Lavinia Pitches. (nicknamed Dolly) Witnesses at the wedding were Marion Haynes and Paul Howard. The wedding took place at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Vancouver. William and wife, Sarah, eventually had two children: Cedric born in 1913 (3 months after my mother) and another son named William.

 

Very likely it was Paul who introduced Clara to a 30 year old man, born in Hoi Ping, China, named Ong Wah. Ong Wah’s parents who still resided in China, were named “Ong Yuen Chong” (father); mother’s maiden name: “Cheng”. Ong Wah was undoubtedly attractive and charming; he probably spoke English quite well and was intelligent; perhaps even well-educated, (he signed his name fairly proficiently on the church copy of their marriage certificate?) He was apparently  employed in Canada as a “cook”? (He may also have been hired by Immigration Canada, Chinese Division, as an interpreter and perhaps assisted Paul from time to time when communication was needed with incoming immigrants and those being detained at the immigration hospital?”)

 

The anti-Chinese sentiment that prevailed in Vancouver at the time may have triggered Clara’s sympathy and ultimately their love for one another. Clara became pregnant with Ong Wah’s child. On Sept 5th, 1912, when she was 21 years of age, she and Ong Wah were married at Holy Trinity Anglican Church. Witnesses at the wedding were her brother William, and sister Marion.

 

Clara and Ong Wah moved into a house that may have been recently occupied by a friend (and perhaps Ong Wah’s relative?) whose name was “Chew Die” The house may have been located on Raymur Avenue near the railroad tracks. Chew Die was married to a woman born in Switzerland, named Louise Victoria (nee Schmidt) In 1912 the couple were

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in their early forties and expecting their second child, a daughter named “Joy”. They already had a four year boy named Paul. (Actually Paul was Louise’s son from a former marriage and he later changed his name officially to Reid.)

 

On January 13, 1913 my mother, Winifred Agnes Ong Wah, was born. Clara and Ong Wah’s friends, Chew and Louise Die, had moved to Victoria BC, to a house located at 611 Vancouver St. (According to records, the original piece of property  had been purchased in 1913 by 4 Chinese men: “Chew Die; Louie Fun; Louie Jew and Wah Song” Perhaps the name Wah Song was a corruption of  Wah Ong?  The name “Ong” would have been my grandfather’s surname. “Wah” would have been considered a nickname. By 1918 the property  had been subdivided and sold. The “611” portion belonged solely to Chew Die.)

 

Marion Haynes and Paul Howard were married in June 1913 at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Vancouver . Marion was 26 and Paul was 32.

 

In 1914 – Paul’s mother, Mrs L. Howard attended a birthday party for young Cedric Haynes. No mention of her husband in news article about the party? Marion was there. No mention of my grandmother there… my mother also born in 1913 was 3 months older than Cedric. Probably no party for her!

 

Sometime after war was declared in 1914, Paul enlisted. His brother-in-law, nineteen year old Charles, enlisted on Sept.14, 1914 in the Fort Garry Horse Corps and sailed overseas on Oct. 3.

 

Sometime in 1914 (after the birthday party for William’s son, Cedric- in April- and before Charles left for war) Agnes journeyed to Vancouver for a visit. (She may have planned to stay at the address given on Charles enlistment papers: “1562 Georgia St.” By 1915, however, Agnes was back in England (at Hove, Sussex) and married to a Mr. “W. Ford” who was an Australian. The couple resided in England (at Hove and Brighton at various times) until at least 1916.

 

Paul enlisted at New Westminster BC on December 1^st 1915. His wife Marian was living at her mother’s “Mrs Ford’s” in Brighton at the time. Paul’s occupation was listed as “immigration official”

 

According to a 1915 newspaper article,  Charles had been wounded and taken to “Hanover, Germany” as a P.O.W.  His military records, however, state that this “five foot seven inches tall” “fair haired, blue eyed and light complexioned” young man ended up being killed in action in France on June 3, 1916.

 

Paul had also been designated unfit for service and in May 1918, was “invalided home” to Canada after being hospitalized for a time in England. His wife, Marion, and baby daughter, Betty, accompanied him home. Paul never fully recovered from his illness, symptoms were internal in nature and also neurological ?( he may have been gassed?)

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By 1923, the Howard family had returned to the British Isles to live. Around that time Marion had been reunited with her youngest sister, Freda, who lived with her husband, Charles Gee, (could he also have been Chinese?) in Cardiff, Wales. The couple had adopted a baby boy named Peter. (Peter was killed in a bicycle accident in Cardiff when he was only 15 ) Paul Howard who owned a small family hotel in Cardiff died of a war related illness in 1933. (I attempted to no avail to zero in on their only child Betty– 4 years later the hotel was still listed as being owned by Paul Howard. It seems that Freda also died sometime in Cardiff sometime around that era? The youngest sibling Philip had died quite young from symptoms of malaria.)

 

In January 1914 my grandmother, Clara, gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Mary. Clara and Ong Wah had befriended another couple of mixed race: Louie Chow Hop Leland and his wife, Florence. Florence was born in Minster Love C, Oxfordshire, England- the daughter of Albert and Mary Clapton. Louie was born in China. The Lelands had been married in Victoria on Sept. 14, 1908 when he was 27 and she was 21. At that time he was employed as a “fruit salesman.” (*according to a Victoria Times article the couple had subsequently “disappeared”?) By 1910 the couple had re- located to Vancouver.  In later years they managed a grocery store: The Bayview Market- at 2908 West Broadway.

 

Louie Leland ( also known as Chow Hop Louie) is remembered as a “tall imposing man, quiet and solemn” by nature. Florence was more outgoing. She had no children, although as she confided to her friend Clara, she yearned for them; she’d even thought about “adopting”.

 

On October 29 1915 Clara and Ong Wah had a third child, another daughter named “Ruth”. It was shortly after the birth of her youngest child that Clara (or “Nellie” as she preferred to be called) left Ong Wah and moved to Victoria. For one year she resided with her children in what she referred to in a letter to her friend Florence Leland as “an Oriental home.” The facility was managed by the Methodist Church (later United)  According to archival records she had spelled her name as “Waugh or something like?” but it was definitely her. Ruth was baptized shortly after their arrival. Her husband had “illtreated” her –records state. Nellie’s mother in England had said she would not “be received” if she returned home. Nellie did attempt to reconcile with her husband the following summer but he once again illtreated her. She returned to the refuge home where she endured insults and was treated “like one of the slave girls”.

 

In her letter dated December 1916 Nelly asked Florence Leland if she was still interested in adopting a child. By that time she had run away from the Oriental home and was staying with a friend (probably the Chew Die family at 611 Vancouver St. in Victoria) She had found someone to care for Winnie and the baby, Ruth. “I want to go to work” Nelly confided to her friend. The Lelands agreed to adopt Mary. (The little girl would turn three in January. As her mother had assured Florence Leland, Mary was a good girl and would

 

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be “no trouble”). Nelly found a job as a nurses aide at Royal Jubilee Hospital. She hired a woman to take care of her other two­ children while she was at work.

 

Sometime in 1918 Nelly learned that the woman she had hired to care for her children was neglectful of them. Also any hope she may have had of being reunited, or of receiving child support from Ong Wah was  dashed- he had died of the flu in Toronto. She was in

dire straits financially. On September 5th 1918, someone who signed him or herself as “J. Haynes” (probably Nelly- she had changed her name back to the Caucasian name of Haynes- calling herself  “Mrs.Haynes”) admitted my mother “Winnie Agnes Haynes” (age 5½ ) and her sister, “Ruth Victoria Haynes” (almost 3) into the Protestant Children’s Orphan Home in Victoria. (They would not have accepted children of Oriental parentage.) The two girls would reside in that facility for the remainder of their childhood years.

 

In the fall of 1918 the deadly Spanish flu reached Victoria. Because she worked in the hospital, Nelly was exposed to the virus. She became ill and over the course of 2½ weeks, almost died. On November 11 she began to recover. By Christmas she was well enough to write the Lelands and­ enclose a gift for little Mary.

 

 Nelly’s brother William had been residing in the Kootenay’s for several years after having attained a managerial position with B.C. Tel. But in 1918 he had the misfortune of losing his job due to down-sizing by the company.  He was forced to seek employment elsewhere – first to Princeton, and then back to Vancouver.

 

For a few years Nelly managed to visit with her children at the orphanage fairly often. She worked at the hospital and (later?) looked after other people’s children in the Uplands District of Victoria. Chew and Louise Die were very supportive. The girls often ate Sunday dinners at the Die family home. At least once they were reunited with their sister, Mary. Joy Die, as well as Joy’s best friend Mildred, became lifelong friends with Mary Leland. (Perhaps the Lelands and Dies- senior- were also friends, maybe even related?)

 

 My mother Winnie was also friendly with Joy and Mildred- especially after Mildred (married names: “Geddes”, “Kraeker” and, much later, “King”) moved to Forest Grove, where Winnie also resided with my father, Herman Wolf, my brother Jack and myself. Mildred knew the secret of Winnie’s Chinese heritage – a story that Winnie never shared with her family. Ruth too, who was married and living in Vancouver, never shared the secret with her family. The existence of a sister “Mary” was sometimes hinted at but never confirmed.

 

Mary was also married and residing in the city of Vancouver. The Lelands had adopted a male sibling born in 1924 named Thomas who died in the 1980s. Mary had predeceased him in1969. Her children and grandchildren still reside on the Lower Mainland. Nelly moved from Victoria to Vancouver in 1923. (Perhaps her brother William, who by that time was employed by the Vancouver Police Force, had helped her land her job at a B.C. Tel office cafeteria?) William and his wife, Dolly, had recently separated. Dolly had taken the

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two boys with her to Montreal. William’s second wife was Sadie Rahy (or Ray) The couple had two sons, Ray and Don, who still reside on the Lower Mainland.

 

It may have been at the B.C. Tel job that Nelly met and married a man named Edwin Jones. After only a few years of marriage, on Mar.13 1926, Jones died of a heart attack on his way to work. According to the newspaper, Jones and his wife had “no children”

 

In late 1927 Nellie married a man named Thomas Quinn who was employed at a mine in Trail. The Quinns had 2 sons, Philip (who died in 1989) and William (Bill). Bill now lives in North Vancouver.

 

My mother (Winnie) once confided that the last time she had been visited (at the orphanage) by her mother was when she was 13 (1926) Sometime in 1926 there was a Haynes reunion in England. William’s son Cedric recalls seeing his grandmother Agnes who was staying with “the family.” (Agnes’ youngest son Philip may have passed away of malaria in Austrailia by that time?) Agnes died late in the fall of 1928.

 

Nellie’s third husband, Thomas Quinn, died in 1943. In 1944 Nelly and her sons returned to Vancouver. In conjunction with her brother, William, she purchased a store on Victoria  Drive. But brother and sister were only reunited for 4 or 5 months before William died of a heart attack. Nellie corresponded with her sister Freda for several years. But Freda too passed away when she was quite young. Nelly took some courses in First Aid from St. Johns Ambulance and for a number of years, worked part time with elderly people who suffered from debilitating ailments. Nelly died at the age of 88- in 1979. Unknowingly, her oldest daughter Winnie (as well as her youngest, Ruth) also lived in Vancouver at the time. Winnie died there four years later at the age of 70. Of all of Nelly’s children, Ruth and Bill are still alive. They finally met in Vancouver in March 1999. Bill Quinn recalls that his mother often stated she wished she’d had a daughter.  (Note:  Ruth died January 1^st, 2003)