Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-03-21

PRETTY GIRLS, HALF CHINESE,
ALL MARRY WHITES,
Illinois Soldier Boy En- Route to Ma
Mia Lands at Honolulu and
Promptly Falls in Love With One
of the Oriental Charmers-Some
All Fong History.

W0ll-tO-dO residents VI MOUND OlIy
Ill. will welcome the Chinese bride OF
their son. They have heard that Miss
Martha All Fong, of the famous thir.
teen All Fong sisters of Honolulu, has
gone to Manila. there to wed Lieut.
Andrew ]. Dougherty, who is in the
service Of his country.
The bride-to-bc of the unnois So
der is one of the prettiest of the tai
ented children of pure blooded Chi.
nese father, who married the daugh-
ter of a Portuguese sailor living in
Hawaii. The natural shrewdness of
All Fong made him a wealthy man.
His daughters are well known as the
beauties of Honolulu and their magnl-
ficent house is said to be fitted with
the contest hooks Imaginable, where
many a VOW has been whispered to
the Chinese maidens.
1t was in one of these hooks that
Lieut.. Dougherty, on his way to Ma
Mia, told of his love to pretty Martha.
He is attached to the Thirty seventh
Infantry, U. S. v, and his regiment on
it's way to Manila stopped at Hono-
lulu. 1t was brief stay, but, like all
other Americans of good standing, he
| was introduced to the All Fong family.
Martha caught his eye with her be
witching smile, and as Lieut. Dough-
erty looks like a hero in his uniform,
the first sight of each was a welcome
one to the other.
Under the blue Hawaiian skies the
| friendship soon ripened into love- An
| engagement was announced, but the
| soldier had to continue on his way to
the Philippines. Once there, he found
| it impossible to go to Honolulu to weo
| the girl of his choice, so she decided
| to go to him.
i She took passage On the transport
Lawton in the middle of February and
the wedding will occur at once. 1t
will be a notable event in military
circles. When Lieut.. Dougherty re-
| turns to his home he will find a ready
welcome from his family and towns
men, and the best society of the place
will be at the feet of the Chinese
| bride-and they are very small, by the
way.
1t will not be the young woman 5
| first visit to America. She took a
| postgraduate course at Mills college,
near Oakland, Cal, known as the Vas
sar of the Pacific coast. She is slen-
der, of average height. and in her
cheeks of dark olive a healthful red
| CLOVIS. She is II years old.
| Lieut.. Dougherty comes of one of
the best families in southern Illinois.
! His father owns large stave factory
| Young Dougherty entered the Univer-
| sity Of Illinois at Champaign, but in
| his Junior year was expelled for refus-
ing to divulge the names of his asso-
ciates in a class rush. He fought at
San Juan hill and Ell Caney and was
made a lieutenant for gallantry.
While the Chinese maidens and
wives were looking with pleasure to
! the addition of a brother to the family
| they were cast into mourning by the
loss on the Inflated steamer Rio de
! Janeiro of the husband of Helen, a
/ San Francisco lawyer.
| 1t was in 1897 that William A. Hen
shall married Helen All Fong in the
old Central Union church at Honolulu
Like the gallant Dougherty, he fell in
| love at first sight with the All Fong
beauty. He had been admitted to the
! bar in California short time previous
and went to Honolulu, where he met
his pleasant fate. He was formerly a
resident of Berkeley, Cal, where he
attended the state university He
was on mis- way to his old home for
, visit when he went down in the golden
gate.
The history of the All Fong family
| is a strange one. Wing All Fong, me
founder, went from China to Honolulu
| in 1858 He seemed to be an ordin-
airy Chinaman. but he was more than
that He had few articles of mer-
chandise which he sold at enough
profit to start in business, and he soon
did a good business in Chinese silks
and bric-a-brac. Within a few years
he was the leading merchant in the
Hawaiian capital. He was as shrewd
as a Scotchman and as cunning as any
| Chinaman.
He fell in love with Conception,
daughter of Portuguese sailor and d
belle of Honolulu. They were mar
ried in 1860. Wealth and children fol-
lowed. One son only was born, but
thirteen girls proved that there was
luck in even that odd number.
I. All Fong invested in sugar planta-
lions and grew rich. In ten years he
was worth s350,000 and was adding
s35, 900 yearly. He bought plantations
from the thriftless Hawaiians and fol-
lowed the fortunes of Claus Spreckels,
who made his money much faster
than All Fong.
By 1870 there were six children,
five girls and the boy. Eight more
girls were born in the fifteen years
following. All Fong was a model
| father, generous and loving. He was
passionately fond of his thirteen
daughters. Death has never broken
the number He liked to see the girls
look like American girls, but he and
the boy chung to Chinese costume
even to the queue. The daughters
put the father in dress coat once
when naval officers were their guests,
but he never REPEATED the experiment
The All Fong house is one of the
sights of Honolulu. There are more
than a dozen piazzas around it.
Envious neighbors with marriageable
daughters hint that the piazzas are
marrying off the girls. anu all well at