Ham Ging Lung was born in Canton, China in about 1855 and was known by the more “Americanized” name of Sam Wing. He came to this country with his cousin Ah Quin sometime between 1874 and 1879. According to newspaper reports both Ham Ging Lung (“Sam”) and his cousin “performed manual labor for many years before getting ahead in this world.”

It wasn’t an easy road to success. There was a real anger and hatred of Chinese, particularly in California. Even though the Chinese played an enormous role in building the Transcontinental Railroad, they were considered “undesirable” and viewed with disdain. Although useful for hard labor, working arduous hours for little pay, Chinese immigrants were seen as a threat. Because they were paid lower wages than their white counterparts (through no fault of their own) they were accused of taking jobs from whites. In response to what was perceived as a growing problem, President Chester A. Arthur signed into law the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It halted Chinese immigration for a ten-year period and prohibited Chinese immigrants to apply for naturalization.

Then in 1892, California Congressman Thomas Geary introduced The Geary Act which extended the Chinese Exclusion Act for an additional ten years. In addition, it required Chinese residents to carry documentation, “certificates of residence”. If caught without this documentation, Chinese immigrants could be sentenced to hard labor and/or deportation.

Because of these laws, Chinese had to be smuggled into the country. (Chinese women had been banned in 1874). The Chinese were looking for work and their counterparts were looking for cheap labor.

Despite the unfavorable social climate, Ham Ging Lung (sometimes misspelled as Hong Gim Lung) immigrated to the United States, but nothing is known of his early years or his journey here. He first “settled” in San Diego and eventually made his way to the new town of Oceanside, which was established in 1883. In 1885 Wing purchased four lots on North Myers Street from Oceanside founder Andrew Jackson Myers. He eventually purchased a “truck garden” and sold his produce to locals. Wing also operated a laundry business on North Cleveland Street and offered Chinese merchandise including children’s toys.

Sam did well enough to regularly advertise in the local paper. An ad from 1888 in the South Oceanside Diamond contained the following text: “Help of all kinds constantly on hand. Office of Employment and Information Bureau. Will contract to furnish any number of men, for all kinds of work.“

Intelligent and industrious, Wing was so successful that he was included on a list of the top taxpayers in the city. He was also one of the stockholders of Oceanside’s first pier (called a wharf). In December of 1888 Wing purchased a $400 lot near the Oceanside wharf and from there continued to buy other lots. He owned a home on the 700 block of North Tremont Street. Wing expanded his real estate holdings in 1907 by leasing 100 acres with a well from the South Coast Land Co. The Oceanside Blade reported that Wing would install a 24-horse power gasoline engine “and the land planted to potatoes and cabbages.” 

However successful Sam Wing appeared to be, it was clear to many that he made more money smuggling men and opium. He was on the radar of local law enforcement and was suspected of running an “opium den”. In March of 1888 Marshal Charles C. Wilson raided Wing’s establishment and “arrested three Chinamen in a stupid condition.” Ironically, two white men were said to have “escaped in the darkness.”

Someone allegedly tried to murder the wealthy “Laundry Magnate” by poisoning him with strychnine in 1906. According to the Blade newspaper, after smoking his pipe one evening, Sam “took a few swallows from a bottle of Chinese gin” which he kept on a table by his bed. He noticed the intensely bitter taste and beginning to feel badly sent for Dr. Wall.” According to the doctor, the bottle contained enough strychnine crystals to kill 150 people. Wing was treated and made a full recovery, but he was robbed of $8.50, and his watch was stolen.  

Wing attended a meeting of the city trustees in March of 1909 wherein he petitioned a reduction in his water bill, asking for the same courtesy extended to another resident, and none other than a city trustee. Sam’s appearance before the council was newsworthy and used as an opportunity to mock his English, with the headline “Pidgin English in Copious Flow, Trustees Addressed by Sam Wing, Eloquent Grower of Vegetables.”

Then the newspaper recounted the story in detail, taking the opportunity to hold Wing in esteem and ridicule him at the same time.

“Sam was paying more taxes than any man in Oceanside and the board could not refuse him a hearing.  Sam paid his taxes regularly, never being delinquent a cent, but he learned that in several instances water taxes had been rebated to favorites of the council. An Englishman had induced the council to return to him half the water taxes he had put up. A trio of citizens who didn’t like the way the council was running things, took Sam in hand and rehearsed him for the part he was to play.

“On the night of the meeting, for the first time in his life, Sam wore a white, stiff collar and necktie.  He was attired in a long black coat and his shoes were polished.  The Chinaman, abashed for a few minutes, soon recovered himself and the criticism he hurled at that council made the ears of the members uncomfortably warm.

“Big high-tone Englishman,” shouted the Oriental, “he come to see ’bout water tax.  He give you nodding an’ you give him half back!  My same as cooley me pay eve’y cent.  You dam’ fools you fool you-se’f.”

“One member suggested that Sam be ejected, whereupon Sam pointed an accusing finger at him.  “How much you pay?” Sam demanded.  “How much watah tax you pay?  Let me see in book how much you pay.” 

It is unknown if the council relented to Sam Wing’s passioned appeal.

Likely due to his notable wealth, Wing was robbed again in November of 1909 when Albert Page, a fisherman working for the McGarvin brothers, entered his house and stole two tourmaline gemstones or crystals, and an “opium smoking outfit.” When arrested and charged, Page confessed to the theft. They recovered one of the stones and Wing’s opium pipe along with two bowls which were turned over to the constable.

That same week Oceanside resident A. M. Matthews complained to the city the Wing’s dogs were a menace to public safety and the Marshal was ordered to have the dogs chained or destroyed.

Then in 1911 the Oceanside Blade reported that “Ham Ging Lung, locally known as Sam Wing, is being sought by the officers in connection with the seizure of ten cans of opium in Los Angeles Thursday of last week. The opium was concealed in a box of clams shipped to Yee Sing & Co., Chinese merchants of the Angel City and a letter captured by the officers with the box is said to have connected Sam Wing with the shipment.” 

Newspapers in Los Angeles later announced charges of smuggling opium against Wing, and of his arraignment in the United States District Court. The Herald also noted that Wing conducted a “laundry at Oceanside” and that the “goods which he is alleged to have handled was seized at the Yee Sing company, 322 Marchessault Street (which was in Los Angeles’ Chinatown).

Sam was sentenced to a four-month jail term and given the notorious title of “King of Opium Smugglers” in the Los Angeles Herald. The article went on to say that Wing had confessed to officials and implicated others in the smuggling ring. 

After Wing’s release from jail in February of 1912, another smuggling arrest was made and this time the newspapers reported that an unnamed law enforcement officer was involved in smuggling of “coolies”, saying the “possibility that more than one of the San Diego officials may be mixed up in the business is strongly hinted at by the local Immigration inspectors, who intimate that arrests may be expected at any time.”

Despite his arrests, Sam Wing was still highly thought of by many and in some regards well respected.

Chinese immigrants were sometimes buried in temporary graves due in part because they had intended one day to return to China and reunite with family members. However, if they died in the States (and abroad) many wanted their remains returned and buried in their homeland China. Even after several years, the remains would be exhumed, the bones cleaned and packaged, and then shipped to China. Because of his renown and status in the county, in 1913 Sam Wing supervised this careful and solemn ritual, tasked with the disinterment of three of his fellow countrymen who had been buried in an Escondido cemetery. 

In January of 1914 Wing, who was well known throughout San Diego County by friends, customers and law enforcement, was featured in the San Diego Union along with his likeness. The inclusion of a photograph was not a common one, and this rare image was proof of Sam’s renown. However, while regaling his accomplishments and his net worth of $250,000 (touting him as the richest man in Oceanside), the article included derogatory slurs and made fun of his broken English. When the article was published in the Oceanside Blade, the headline read: “Alle Same Sam Wing Rich Man”.

The article provided Wing’s Chinese name of Hong Gim Lung, and noted his status as “pioneer Chinaman of Oceanside.” It went on to say that after arriving in San Diego forty years ago, Wing was “the owner of lands and ranches, town lots and other property, besides being heavily interested in Chinese mercantile houses in various coast cities.” And then, “He is nearly 70 years of age and still is a hustler.” It is assumed this is meant as a compliment. The article goes on to say, “He ascribes his financial success to his accumulation of land, together with his abstinence from the use of opium.  His first savings went to buy an interest in a truck garden and he has been purchasing lands ever since.  He has a fine sense of humor and likes to be in the company of white men. Of his deeds of charity hundreds of stories have been told, and it has been said that no person in need ever left Sam’s house without being given relief.”

The short-lived newspaper the Oceanside Record published what they touted as Sam Wing’s “orphic sayings” which included the following: 

“Me just Chink, that’s all —all same coolie, but pay my debt to ev’ybody. Some high tone people no pay ’em’ up debt.’’ “When I live in China I got no shoe on foot —poor all time. Come to Oceanside an’ make ’em money. I no go back to China.”

Just days after the articles on Sam Wing appeared in the local papers, he reported to City Marshal Love “that a man on a white horse (another account said it was gray) shot and killed his favorite dog.” Included in the brief article was the following statement: “The Blade considers this a shame. It is known who the man is, but it is difficult to convict without more absolute proof.” Was this in retaliation of some sorts? Out of resentment?  Was it A. M. Mathews who had complained just a few years earlier?

Ah Quin, Wing’s beloved cousin, died in February of 1914. Quin’s obituary stated that he was a “wealthy pioneer merchant of San Diego’s Chinese quarter.” The San Diego Union reported that Sam Wing brought a car load of carnations and other flowers from Oceanside for the funeral.

Then in March of 1914 Sam Wing was arrested by Immigration and Government officers and taken to Los Angeles by train after a prisoner turned state’s evidence against Sam. The Blade reported “unauthenticated rumors of a rancher, while carrying a lantern at night, being fired at by a boat at sea” and “a number of Chinamen being landed near here on Monday night.”

A month later Sam Wing along with Oceanside residents Clinton Culver and William E. Freeman, were indicted by a Federal grand jury. Culver and Freeman were accused of being in charge of the Chinese during the smuggling operation and Sam Wing was described as “the Oceanside Chinese who has been a thorn in the flesh of the immigration authorities for years.” While awaiting trial in Los Angeles, it was reported that Sam was doing laundry in jail and making $48 a month.

Both Sam Wing and Clinton Culver, a former deputy constable, were convicted of smuggling and sentenced to 18 months at McNeil’s Island in Washington. It was known as the Alcatraz of Puget Sound. Due to Wing’s then failing health, a petition for pardon signed by numerous residents of Oceanside was sent to President Woodrow Wilson but never acted upon.  The harsh conditions of prison life took its toll and Sam Wing died in prison on May 30, 1915. His accomplice Clinton Culver had been paroled just 15 days earlier. 

Sam willed his Oceanside property consisting of eights lots and his house on Tremont Street to his cousin Hom Ging Choy. His laundry business was sold.

One wonders if the remains of Ham Ging Lung aka Sam Wing were sent back to his homeland by his countrymen where he could be buried there and reunited with his family members.