"Chinee Boy"

In the 80's Prescott had a flourishing Chinatown. Many of the young Chinese attended classes at the Congregational Church to study English and Christian teaching. Included in a group was a youth, Charlie Wann, who as Jan Con Sang was destined to become one of the great people of China. Charlie stands at the extreme left.A humble immigrant living in Territorial Prescott returns to his native land to become one of the great merchant princes of China.

"I thank God heartily and the friends of your church for having taught us their knowledge and pointed us to serve the true God. So that I have the opportunity to bring the message back to our people with favor of our Lord. And enable us to witness our Master wherever we are."

HIS WAS THE GREETING sent by a great Chinese merchant to the First Congregational Church of Prescott upon the recent occasion of its celebration of the sixtieth year of its founding, but only to those who have known of the life of this Chinese merchant prince is the sincerity of this greeting understood. This is another of those unchronicled incidents of days long since gone which testify that Arizona for many was truly a land of new beginning and of new life.

In the latter years of the 1880's, many young Chinese found their way to the communities of Arizona, and Prescott then had a flourishing Chinatown with considerable population.

In Prescott these Chinese had one great-hearted friend. He was T. W. Otis, one of the pioneer merchants of the Old Capital. He had come with Mrs. Otis to Arizona Territory from his native Ohio and had immediately given himself to re-creating on the new frontier a society like that which he had known in Oberlin. He had been, along with others such as W. E. Hazeltine, E. P. Clark, and R. H. Burmister, a leader in founding the Presbyterian and later the Congregational churches in Prescott. He had a loyalty to his church and sought to make it serve the needs of the community.

Deacon Otis, as he was known in those days, was "uncle" to all the Chinese of the town. He wanted to help them and in this his pastor, the Reverend T. D. McLean now of San Diego, California, assisted him. A class was organized for the instruction of these young men. The Bible and Gospel Hymn Book were the Prescott, from an early view, as it was in the 80's. Here Charlie Wann learned American ways and American life before returning to his home in China.

A part of Chinatown in Prescott.

As Charlie Wann he lived as a youth in Prescott. Today he is Jan Con Sang the Powerful, one of China's wealthiest men.

texts for instruction in English, reading, spelling, and singing. The class met in the little frame church and was concluded each week with a talk by the minister and a short worship service. These young men not only learned English and something of American life but, they were also in the process of receiving instruction and guidance in Christian teaching and life.

To these class meetings each week came many of these young Chinese desiring to be taught. Among those who came were Charlie Wann (Jan Con Sang), Low Dick, Chin Kee, Jo Ah Jow, Kim Sam, Low Sung, Tom Ben, Tom Lin. Our interest centers in Charlie Wann, the young Chinaman from Shek Kee, Chung Shoan District, with his shaved forehead, long queue, and long though spare moustache. This young man had left his native China at the age of fourteen and had come to California. There he had attended a night school in a mission for Chinese and had learned some English and had come in contact with the Christian teaching. Like most of these young Chinese, Charlie Wann gambled and when he lost he was thoroughly despondent. After some time he left and came to Prescott. Here he again found a Chinese mission, which he attended. Thus we find him in the class of 1896.

He studied diligently and was later baptized and became affiliated with the church. This event was to change the entire life of Charlie Wann; and Deacon Otis and Mr. McLean little realized what a great good was to come from this humble life of this young Chinese man.

In 1902 Charlie Wann returned to his native Shek Kee in China and then began the story of one of the great Christian laymen of China. He became one of the co-founders of the "Sincere Co., Ltd." and wealth and power were to be placed in his hands.

In an interview given by one of his American friends some years ago, we find these words: "Charlie Wann, who once shuffled around his shabby store in the heart of Prescott's Chinatown, will celebrate a sumptuous Christmas in his palace in Hongkong this year. He isn't poor Continued on Page Thirty-Three)