Sadly, when reviewing the white history of the Pomona Valley, it pretty much always arcs back to a virulent racism.

By Pamela Casey Nagler

Published 10/30/2023 | 1:14pm PST

William T. "Tooch" Martin has generally been touted as the first Anglo settler of Claremont. On June 5, 2023, local historian John Neiuber wrote in the local Claremont Courier:

"Which brings me to William “Tooch” Martin, known as the first Anglo settler in Claremont . . . William T. “Tooch” Martin was a justice of the peace, civic leader, and Los Angeles County Supervisor. Tooch purchased 160 acres in Claremont that he farmed and where he built a house for his wife and seven children near Indian Hill and 11th Street. He was first a teacher, then justice of the peace, founded the Masonic Lodge in Pomona, was a civic leader, and was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.”

Unfortunately, as it turns out, Tooch Martin, led a vicious anti-Chinese campaign in Pomona.

The Progress, the local newspaper of the Pomona Valley of Feb. 25, 1886, urged everyone to join in supporting “the policy of boycotting Chinese manufacturers, labor and industry of all kinds.” The newspaper claimed that by neither buying from nor hiring Chinese, residents would find “an effective cure of the Asiatic curse.”

A couple of days later, The Progress reported that on Feb. 27, most of the leaders of the then-unincorporated community convened on a Saturday night to form the Pomona Branch of the Anti-Chinese Association.

Led by the future Los Angeles County Supervisor William T. “Tooch” Martin as chairman, the organization authored a pledge urging every resident to sign and affirm that “I am in favor of all lawful means for the expulsion of the Chinese from the Pacific Coast, and I hereby pledge myself that I will not employ Chinamen directly or indirectly nor purchase the produce of Chinese labor.”

According to an April 7, 2014 article written by Joe Blackstone and printed in the Daily Bulletin, titled, Anti-Chinese hysteria enveloped Pomona in mid-1880s, “one action taken in 1886 encouraged employers of Chinese laborers to find ‘competent white labor’ by turning to a group called the White Labor Bureau.

On April 8, the Progress reported that the Anti-Chinese Association’s steam laundry committee had met and determined $5,000 would be required to open such a plant in Pomona. Steps were to be taken to sell 500 shares of the future business at $10 each.

Martin and businessman W.R. Carter joined W.F. Reynolds in a project to cultivate an extensive garden to raise vegetables to sell to the community. Reynolds would provide the land, allowing residents to avoid buying vegetables grown by the ‘Mongolians,’ as the Progress called them.

Ultimately, for obvious reasons, Pomona’s Chinese population soon went elsewhere, its abandoned shacks between First and Second streets later removed.”

The Progress reported that on April 15, 1886, “one of our leading Chinese, ”Ah Wong, pointed out what he saw as the real cause for the conflict - US citizens wanted the Chinese to cross the Pacific Ocean to labor for them, but the US citizens did not want the Chinese to live among them. Wong said,

“It is not the fault of the Chinaman. It is American man’s fault. American man sell steamboat ticket (to Chinese). It makes him dollars. American man likes those dollars. Chinaman likes to work. American man likes cheap-working man, It is not the fault of the Chinaman; it is the big fault of American man. American man likes dollars, also does Chinaman. You understand?”

LINKS
Anti Chinese Hysteria Enveloped Pomona in Mid 1880s
Village parking, ‘Tooch’ Martin, and the end of Claremont

Pamela Casey Nagler is currently finishing her book, A Century of Disgrace: The Removal, Enslavement, and Massacre of California’s Indigenous People 1769 - 1869.