Cape Girardeau's dirty laundry -- A brief history

In 1896, a proprietor of Asian descent rented space in the Rodney Building at 104 Broadway, "fitting a room" for a Chinese laundry. The jumble of names ascribed to this businessman in newspapers -- John Wu, Yen Way and Yem Wah -- illustrated the midwesterner's difficulty transcribing Asian dialect.

Cape Girardeau's second Chinese hand laundry opened in 1906, in adapted storerooms at the Opera House, 304 Broadway. Proprietor Lee Don immigrated in 1877, with his parents from China to San Francisco. Raised in California, Lee Don married and had children before opening business in Cape with a brother. Though Lee's arrival was marked with a racist slur in a 1905 newspaper account, subsequent articles celebrated his good work and generous monetary contributions for projects of community interest.

A third Asian-owned laundry opened at 707 Broadway before 1911. Laundryman Lum Sing and family were mentioned often in newspapers as they assimilated to Cape culture. Lum Sing's return from California in 1911, with Chueng, his new bride and stepmother to his young son Jim, was announced, adding the family would attend the Christian Church. Later enrolled at Broadway School, the newspaper stated the obvious -- Jim was the "first Chinese 'kid' in school in this city." An apt student, Jim taught his mother English. Even Jim's 1912 letter to Santa was printed in The Missourian for public display. And when father Lum Sing visited a local barber to cut his queue (braid) in compliance with political revolution in China, his family's displayed grief, severing cultural traditions, and it did not escape newspaper mention.

With intention to open a grocery store in St. Louis, Sing sold his Cape laundry in 1913. Newspaper coverage of the family's departure hinted sadness, reporting as they walked to the train depot, they carried, "with pride," a small American flag given them by a friend.

The small isolated Chinese community of Cape likely maintained cultural and kinship ties with the Hop Alley Chinese enclave in St. Louis. By steamboat or railroad, their comings and goings from St. Louis -- for haircuts, ethnic food shopping, and the visitation of friends -- were mentioned in the small town jottings of "city news."

Two mishaps likely led to the closing of Yem Wah Laundry. In May 1909, tragedy was front page news. One Chinese laundry worker died and others were sickened, when rat poison, mistaken for salt, seasoned an employee meal. In August 1912, the Yen Wah Laundry delivery wagon was struck by a street car, throwing 1he driver to the pavement with injuries. The building which housed the laundry was listed vacant later in 1912.

Cape Girardeau City Directory (1912) revealed how many worked to keep the town (population 8,500) in clean clothes. Listed are 65 Black laundresses and three commercial businesses -- O K Laundry, Sing Lum Laundry and Cape Steam Laundry. While Chinese laundries employed same race and Black assistants, Cape Steam Laundry played upon racial biases. They advertised in the Cape Weekly Tribune (1914), as "The White Man's Laundry."