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July 9, 1901 – Kern County, California: Chinese Cook Lynched for Allegedly Assaulting a White Woman

Date:July 9, 1901
Location:Mt. Breckenridge, California
Event Type:Lynching
Victim Names:Ah Sing Yong (aka Tung Fook; Yung Fook; Young Fooke)
Victim Gender:Male
No. of Victims:1
Accusation:Assault
Compiled By:Ken Gonzales-Day; Monroe Work Project; Thirty Years of Lynching
Map showing location of Mt. Breckenridge, California

Narrative

[AI-generated placeholder. Deeper narrative coming soon.] In July 1901, in the mountains of Kern County, California, a Chinese cook named Ah Sing Yong (also known as “Young Fook”) attacked the wife and daughter of a lumber mill foreman. He was quickly overpowered by enraged lumbermen, who “knocked the Chinaman down, placed a rope around his neck and hanged him to a tree” on the spot (Anaconda Standard, July 10, 1901). A coroner’s inquest was held, but all 18 witnesses sworn in testified they “did not know” who carried out the hanging, and the jury returned a verdict that the deceased had been hanged by “parties unknown.” This lynching – effectively condoned by the community’s silence – shows how frontier mobs dealt out instant “justice,” especially when a Chinese man was accused of attacking a white woman.

Related Newspaper Article(s)

Crazy Chinaman Lynched

The Brooklyn Daily Times (Brooklyn, New York)

July 10, 1901 (Page 2)

Lumbermen at Mount Breckenridge, near Bakersfield, California, lynch Chinese cook Young Fooke after he slashes Mrs. Kenney and wounds her husband and child; the paper suggests the attacker was insane.

Chinaman Lynched

Fall River Daily Evening News (Fall River, Massachusetts)

July 10, 1901 (Page 6)

Young Fooke, a Chinese cook at Mount Breckenridge lumber camp near Bakersfield, attacks Mrs. Kinney and wounds her husband and child with a butcher knife; lumbermen overpower him and hang him from a tree, believing him insane.

Chinaman Lynched

Visalia Daily Times (Visalia, California)

July 10, 1901 (Page 4)

California dispatch repeats details of Young Fook’s lynching by lumbermen at Mount Breckenridge after his knife attack on the Kenney family; insanity is again suggested as motive.

Chinaman Lynched

The Topeka State Journal (Los Angeles, California)

July 10, 1901 (Page 1)

Lumbermen at Mount Breckenridge, east of Bakersfield, lynch cook Young Fook after he slashes Mrs. Kenney’s face and wounds her husband and child with a butcher knife on 10 July 1901.

Chinese Cook Lynched

Evening Star (Butte, Montana)

July 10, 1901 (Page 1)

Butte paper recounts Bakersfield lynching of Chinese cook Yung Fooke at Mount Breckenridge lumber camp after knife attack on Mrs. Kenney and family; lumbermen hang him to a tree.

Chinese Cook Lynched

Waterbury Democrat (Waterbury, Connecticut)

July 10, 1901 (Page 1)

Bakersfield lumbermen lynch cook Young Forke (a.k.a. Yung Fooke) at Mount Breckenridge after knife attack on Mrs. Kenney and child.

Chinaman Lynched

The Daily Herald (Port Huron, Michigan)

July 11, 1901 (Page 4)

Lumbermen at Mount Breckenridge, California, lynch Chinese cook Young Fook after he slashes Mrs. Kenney’s face and wounds her husband and daughter; the paper notes widespread belief that the assailant was insane.