HERE7 Dogpatch Ranch: the Orgins of a Chinese American Family

This is the story of my Chinese great grandfather and grandmother and the 7 children they raised on a ranch in the late 1800's in Dogpatch, the Potrero, San Francisco. How and why did they raise their family on a ranch in outlying San Francisco instead of in Chinatown? This was a time of intense anti-Chinese sentiment? Some of the answers spin out in the lives of their children. And these answers suggest an unexpected interface between early Chinese entrepreneurs and San Francisco’s early business elite tied to the Pacific Ocean trade and to the railroads.

[@StevenTorrey]

Very moving. Fascinating!

[@mikelarkin5674]

Thank you putting this together!

[@marknorris7405]

Found your HERE series by accident. AMAZING story regarding your wonderful heritage. The entire series on the history of San Francisco is simply outstanding. Excellent photo documentation and commentary. SO VERY OUTSTANDING!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks

[@karlfonner7589]

Wow, wow. This was great. So glad that you come from a family of shutterbugs. The pictures were phenomenal. The story as well.

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks and for the comment about a family of shutterbugs !

[@sunnyoutdoors]

we are sending this documentary to 30 friends

[@richdeering9580]

Very interesting…. fascinating content…. well done👍

[@lymarchvideo]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@lewdpreservationsociety]

all your videos are sooooo great! thank you!

[@lymarchvideo]

Glad you like them!

[@tamala.david.sanfrancisco]

A remarkable story. Thank you for sharing.

[@lymarchvideo]

Thank you. Yes interesting to me how the elders in my family never pointed out how unusual this story was.

[@exdj1955]

Thank you for this thorough and well researched video. It was a pleasure to watch

[@lymarchvideo]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jtf267]

Thank you for a great video.

[@lymarchvideo]

Thank you too!

[@markschnell8216]

What an amazing family and story

[@lymarchvideo]

yes thanks

[@warrenmackeydiscdragons]

Loving your story been glued to this amazing story along with the fantastic pics I was raised in Piedmont, my pops dad was poor Irish according to my mom who immigrated here in 52’ from Finland married my dad from Alameda My grandfather the poor Irishman married Florence Crowley dad born in 26’ did well raised us Piedmont where I meet my best friend Blake Wong. You mentioned both Crowley and I thought Moi? Think that’s Blake’s mom’s family. Anyway I was Blake’s best man, always thought Blake was a stud smart good looking natural leader etc though not the best athlete can’t have it all I guess I understand Crowleys ran a tug boat gig and can’t find but told Florence’s dad Patrick Crowley was SF Chief of Police 3 times which may not bold well for my ancestors treatment of the Chinese Americans if true that whether he ever was chief I was in a large sense raised by the Wong family ate dinner there every night, can’t explain how Lonnie and Phil made me feel so welcome etc words st least for me can’t explain the peace happiness I couldn’t find at home. I practically lived therein high school then later in my 20’s anyway remember seeing the Wanderers “Don’t fuck with the Wongs” line in the movie if you don’t know. Anywho thank you Sir Ps. No surprise of your family success as far as I’m concerned cuz if your not an idiot it obviously clear how successful Chinese Asian Americans have been are will continue to be since I’ve been in school Chinese Americans have always tested the highest in tests and shit of the such I never did college served Army honorably and shit. I don’t mean to offend anyone with my latest note re-intelligence/smarts I believe that stat is a fact but to those I might piss off suck my ass Blake married a nice Jewish lady personally I thought he should land him a fine ass sophisticated like Hong Kong cuz Blake had fucking class brah and goodbye get a little carried away after taking a rip of my homegrown Chem Dog 91 last October harvest from the high desert. Hit me up blood you a homie from da Oak Oakland smoking anyway I’ll send ya some nugs. All right den

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks

[@samsgirl6415]

Great clips of early Chinese immigrants history, live across from crane cove park, very familiar with the neighborhood .

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks

[@CharlieLiuPhotography]

Holy wow this is really well made

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks

[@stravromulabeta6340]

well done. Thank you for sharing your great history ,

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks for listening

[@zeffiraananas3999]

Wow, what a story. Thank you for your incredible research ( painstaking, thorough, thrilling , beautiful research/info) & for telling this story.

[@sandrawylie7302]

I really enjoyed finding out about my grandsons family, what a brilliant video.

[@lymarchvideo]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@sunnyoutdoors]

due to discrimination, Chinese engineers were not hired. I know my friend did not find an engineering job, he opened a Chinese restaurant ... near Santa Cruz

[@josephavendano6902]

As a native San Franciscan I thank you for sharing your family’s history. The love, struggles, planning, success and loss, beauty and joy through generations you researched brought tears to my eyes. Never to be forgotten.🐲

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks. Reconstructing this history has been the work of a number of us descendants. My father never seemed to have the story of the ranch, and my grandfather never talked to me about the ranch, though he talked about his trek to the Mississippi River in 1904. Descendants of the oldest son received the fullest information on all of this plus they had at least one photograph of both the ranch and the subsequent house(s). The work of Andrea Yee and Prof Sue Fawn Chung has been most revealing. A paper they did for Stanford two years ago illucidates the amazing history of Liim Lip Hong's life in the decade after the Transcontinental Railroad work was complete 1867 until he started the ranch in Dogpatch 1878.

[@sunnyoutdoors]

wow one hour long, one of these days it can be a KQED documentary

[@LineageSys]

Amazing channel. Thank you so much. My heritage has been enriched.

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks. There's a lot of good stuff around!

[@LineageSys]

lymarchvideo I just walked through the financial district.

[@Besalu]

Very nice documentary. Very well researched. Nice to meet you today at the Grupo event. Julio

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks. Glad you liked this Besalu

[@usasians]

Very informative, fascinating, revealing and very important documentation about the history of Chinese Americans - CONGRATS!!

[@lymarchvideo]

Thank you

[@flipflopsguy8868]

BRAVO, best story of the year, I did my own investigation via Google maps and your visual information and its sad that Tubes got a street named after him on his former property but all you're family got was a parking lot. I am so glad your ancestor took the time to explain your history to you and you took the time to pass it on to us. The evolution of that area sums it up.

[@lymarchvideo]

The relationship between the Tubbs and members of my extended family seemed beneficial though the 1940's. The Tubb industries seemed to have changed in ownership after that and the company dissolved several decades later. I have had contact with subsequent generations of Tubbs offspring, but none recall any stories about my ancestors. This mirrors the lack of history destination within my own family.

[@FirstLast-jm4dx]

Seeing the location of the ranch, I was trying to picture where it would be in current day SF (is is near the Museum of Craft and Design?). Seems quite a large part of SF is filled-in bay.

[@lymarchvideo]

One way to imagine the Main Shed structure of the ranch is to go to the Philz coffee house at Minnesota Street between 24th and 25th Streets. Stand at the front door of Philz looking out across the street. Then turn about 45 degrees to your left and imagine the shed below ground, resting on land that is about 15 to 20' below the street. The old shoreline in that area basically lies between Minnesota and Tennessee Street. And when mud flats were filled in, the entire area had to be graded so that the new land surfaces could drain during rainfall out to the Bay and into the drainage grates, thus many parts of San Francisco are elevated from their original grades. There are several other reasons for these elevation chages which are touched on in my documentary HERE5 Erased Landscape.

[@movingroovinproduction]

This was fascinating to watch. Always learning something new. I live in Dogpatch now for over 13 years so I know exactly the area you speak about. Your story was awesome to learn from. Thank you.

[@susanlee630]

Thank you for creating this wonderful family journey . This is a testament to many Chinese families who live along side your great grandparents and their offsprings.

[@JohnJung]

Thanks for creating and sharing this impressive family history!

[@skyrocketcoast219]

i grew up in the Citys 1950's Excelsior District: that smell from Butchertown would arrive in our neighborhood on mornings of a hot weather day...not too often!

[@lymarchvideo]

Ah I see you saw this video also. I can only imagine what it was like way earlier when the butcheries were along Mission Creek centered I think around where Harrison and Treat are these days, with even older butcheries stuck in various location thought the city, all this I think was before the 1870's. There is a Stanford study about the location of the butcheries during this period.

[@grimpleswine]

Terrific work, a real eye-opener.

[@sfinsfevents]

I live in Potrero Hill and want to thank you for making this film. What a grand story! As the becomes even further gentrified, I feel it's very important to recognize the rich history disappearing every year from the area.

[@lymarchvideo]

Thank you

[@MichaelChavezsf]

Awesome work putting this together

[@lymarchvideo]

Much appreciated

[@billtubbs4862]

My youngest brother Alan brought your video to my attention, and it's a fascinating look at a part of San Francisco history. I also appreciate all of the geographic overlays of the area over the years. The one slice of history that still seems to appear is that small diagonal strip adjacent to Tubbs St., where the Ropewalk used to be. It's nice to see how your family's ranch evolved over the years.

[@lymarchvideo]

Hi Bill Tubbs. Do you happen to be a descent of the Tubbs Founders? If so, do you know whether anyone in your family might have any recollection or archives that might refer to great grandfather Lim Lip Hong who built the ranch right outside the main employee entrance to Tubbs Cordage or to his first son Lim Sing who was friends with Talient Tubbs and others in the family? Best Glenn Lym

[@missynorris2055]

I have enjoyed 3 of your videos now and came back to comment here. Yesterday, I was reading about the 1861-62 flood that lasted some 40 days, flooding the Central Valley, 20 miles wide & over 300 miles in length. There were numerous levy breaches and the Chinese railroad workers were brought in to deal with the situation. Yet another event of Chinese foreign workers as unsung heroes. I can't imagine that your GGF didn't play a part.

[@lymarchvideo]

Yup the 1861-62 flood did a number in San Francisco as you may know. Joel Pomerantz has done research on it both in SF and within California. I do not think he has published his material. My great grandfather may well have worked on the levies. Chinese were heavily involved in the initial building of the bulk of the California levies. He would have been around 20 years old at the time of those floods. Research by Andrea Yee (my cousin) and Sue Fawn Chung given at a Stanford Railway Conference in China several years ago, fills out the details of what great grandfather did in the decade between his work on the railroads and life on the Ranch in Dogpatch. He lived in various places in Nevada with his Native American wife conducted and contracting railroad work through the western states. He returned to San Francisco when violence against Chinese was rising. Apparently he eventually brought his two daughters from this marriage to Chinatown by 1900. The daughters probably lived in Chinatown.

[@bayareableepers]

This is so interesting! Thank you for putting this out. I don't think people understand the impact that Chinese families had in building the West and the San Francisco Bay Area. All of the hard work put in by Chinese laborers made San Francisco what it is today yet there was still so much discrimination against them and horrible things done to keep the Chinese oppressed. The history of Chinese Americans, is not just the history of Chinese in America, it is the history of America and it needs to be taught to all.

[@lymarchvideo]

Yup thanks.

[@drewdetsch5268]

Glenn, I trust you enjoyed creating this wonderful history as much as I enjoyed watching it.

[@lymarchvideo]

Yes indeed Drew. It opened up all sorts of avenues of inquiry, that I am following right now, though nothing has coalesced at the moment.

[@raymondchong8993]

A fascinating narrative of a Chinese family in the First City of Gold Mountain.

[@lymarchvideo]

Dogpatch Ranch will be shown free at the San Francisco Main Public Library's Koret Auditorium on Saturday, November 26, 2016 from 2-5pm. Afterwards, we'll hold a Q&A session with several relatives and Potrero Hill historians. And after that, I am hoping that a number of the extended relatives and interested parties will end up exchanging stories.

[@lymarchvideo]

There will be a Public Showing of Dogpatch Ranch Wednesday May 16 2018 Bernal History Project 7pm-9pm Bernal Heights Branch Library 500 Cortland Street San Francisco

[@talkinghead3169]

Having been born to Scots immigrants to Canada (Montreal), and being the only one of the family born outside of Scotland, this story resonates with me ...very different stories, though there are comparisons between what the Scots did farther north, and the Chinese did in SF. Great story!

[@lymarchvideo]

Thanks. And something that took me a long time to understand, is that the Chinese came to the America due to same events that caused the Irish to come as well, namely British geopolitic pressure on Ireland and on Coastal China from the 1830s through the 1850s.

[@lymarchvideo]

Dogpatch Ranch will be shown Saturday May 6 from 1-3:30pm at the San Francisco Maritime Museum Theater at 499 Jefferson Street in Fisherman's Wharf. I will be there to answer questions.

[@newnormal1841]

. 💎 🤺💐