Yuen Yeck Bow (also called Jack Ellis) was a Chinese cook employed by W. T. Ellis, Sr., for 49 years. He came to California during the Gold Rush to mine for gold, then turned to the dangerous job of railroad construction, as so many other Chinese immigrants did. After being knocked unconscious for two days by a railroad accident, he resolved not to risk his life in railroad construction anymore, and found a new job as a cook for banker John H. Jewett and his wife, who lived on the southwest corner of 6th and C Streets. When the Jewetts left for Europe around 1864, Yuen became a cook for the Ellis family, where he remained until the death of W. T. Ellis, Sr., in 1913.
Yuen's employer's son, W. T. Ellis, Jr., wrote in his autobiography Memories: My Seventy-Two Years in the Romantic County of Yuba, California:
Jack was quite a character; he was very small and almost every one knew him, especially the children. He did some marketing himself every day, always carrying a basket, swung on his arm, in which he would carry bananas, or some other fruits and candies; the children knew of this and on his way home he would be coaxed for some of the things in his basket and by the time he reached home, many times the basket would be empty; he had a great fondness for children, but, like all Chinese, favored boys. He was very faithful and generous to a fault and every Christmas, notwithstanding our protestations, he would give us valuable presents. One of the most difficult decisions he ever had to make was when the edict went forth that all good Chinese should cut off their queues and let all their hair grow, "American fashion"; he just hated to give up that old "pigtail" of his, but he finally did and then became quite proud of the change. |
Links
Memories: My Seventy-Two Years in the Romantic County of Yuba, California, by W. T. Ellis