Actual Wages Paid to Chinese Workers

Notes on Chinese Payroll at CPW Hercules Dept., Pinole

by Jennifer Posedel July 2022

Comparison of Wages Paid Chinese with Wages Paid Managers and Others

December 1881 payroll

• No person counts or breakdown by type of worker other than labor powder and cooks.
• Chinese cooks $70
• Chinese labor powder $869.50

December 1881 detail below.

The first explosion at Hercules occurred on January 11, 1882, two months after the plant commenced operations, killing one man and wrecking seven buildings.  

Feb 1882 payroll record (for the month of January) for cooks was $71.75.  China labor powder paid $613.90 (no person count). Signed for by Ling(sp?) Yin.

Feb 1882 detail below

March 1882 detail below

March 1882 China labor powder

August 1882 person count for powder Approx. 1185.25. 

The worst explosion occurred in September 1883, killing an estimated 32 to 40 Chinese workers and their white foreman. An exact count of the number of Chinese laborers lost in this tragedy and others will never be known.  Until 1914, they were employed through a labor agent.  These “outside men” were not on the official company rosters, and whether some of these men died in explosions or simply decided to leave the plant and never to return is a mystery. Because the force of some blasts “atomized” men, an official roll call was the only way to know for sure who was missing.

August 1883 payroll for Chinese Labor Powder $1305.95. =Chinese Labor B.H. $78 ($30 board) payment $48. Date of payment 8/31/1883

September 1883 cannot read China Labor Powder amounts.  Date was changed to 1884 and ink spilled on ledger.

October 1883 payroll is for Chinese Labor BH only$144.50 less $60 Board. Count 110. 9Powder workers recorded as Chinese Labor outside at only $304.40 (no board).

October 1883 11 burial permits issued by Chinese Mortuary of City and County of San Francisco for men killed at Pinole Cal.  Only 5 are specifically named.  

January 1884 payroll record includes $6 prize payments.

Jan 1885-Dec 1887 only Chinese labor on payroll recorded in Boarding House at $60-$65 a month.  W. Pitchford signed for BH payroll. Later August Meyers.

May 3, 1886 - At Powning station near Pinole nitroglycerine house at CALIFORNIA POWDER WORKS blown up at 12:09; Andrew Andresson and 3 Chinese men killed (Sacramento Daily Record-Union); LAT 4 May 1886; NYT 4 May 1886

May 1887 payroll record

1888-1891 no Chinese labor payroll noted. The payroll records for these years are Santa Cruz.

At that time, James MacLean classified as an outside foreman.

April 1882 payroll detail

July 1882 payroll detail

Quinan plant superintendent = $500 July 1886