Lue Gim Gong deserved better

Screengrab from a 1922
issue of the Manatee River
Journal in Bradenton, FL

It's a joy to uncover instances when pioneers in Florida helped others make it through day-to-day life. And sad to find times when they don't. Today's post encompasses both.

Discrimination against people of Asian descent, again on the rise, marred Florida's frontier days. A visible case is that of Lue Gim Gong, a gifted and lauded horticulturist about whom I've written before.

We know basic facts about Lue's life (see this post from 2014). One of these facts is that he died in poverty in 1925. He was a brilliant horticulturist but a naive businessman. People took advantage of his generous heart and soul.

Lue's major contribution to the citrus industry -- the Lue Gim Gong orange -- was hailed as revolutionary upon introduction in the early 1900s. It earned a federal agricultural award. Then drifted into obscurity. Some industry leaders decided it was simply a strain of the better known Valencia orange. 

I'm no botanist, but after learning how sad and lonely Lue's final years were, I can't help but wonder if those citrus leaders deliberately pushed him and his discovery into the footnotes. Jealousy? I found a 1912 newspaper account proclaiming the orange's greatness - and explaining why. And I found other articles mentioning Lue's other botanical achievements.

Bigoted competitors wouldn't want a Chinese immigrant stealing any of Florida's citrus glory. Florida in the 1920s wasn't known for its tolerance, as black, Catholic and Jewish people can attest.

Thankfully, the state's agriculture industry included people who stood by Lue. Some neighbors in DeLand and the surrounding area likewise supported him. One man who'd grown up in DeLand spoke loudly and eloquently on a statewide platform about Lue's mistreatment. 

The words of those who supported Lue are what I wish to share here. In most cases, I don't have individual names. The information was printed and reprinted in various newspapers.

Lue died in 1925, but he needed help years earlier. The Miami Herald on January 31, 1917 carried a reprint from "The Lancer in Florida Grower," an industry publication. The headline stated, "Hard Luck for Lue Gim Gong."  Lue is described as "a poor, inoffensive, loveable, Christian Chinaman who lives a lonely life on a little citrus grove, his only company being a pet horse and a rooster." 

It says Lue's name was known throughout Florida, and that prominent fruit growers from throughout the state had visited him and "learned to admire his honest and earnest character." 

The article says Lue had only left his farm once in the past seven years, meaning since 1910, "not even visiting his nearby city of DeLand."

Perhaps DeLand wasn't always welcoming to Lue, especially after the woman who adopted him died and left him her land and house in the early 1900s. His grave in DeLand's Oakdale Cemetery was left unmarked until a New York historian place a bronze marker on it five years after Lue's death. Yet the Orange County Regional History Center's webpage about Lue says prominent citizens served as pallbearers. So who knows. I do know Lue's grave didn't have a headstone until 1999. 

The 1917 Miami Herald article continues by stating Lue was often defrauded and ripped off, to use today's terms, and couldn't pay his bills. The writer calls on readers to support a fund drive ($1 apiece) to raise money for Lue. And to "make him realize there is something more than mere words in the Christianity he has adopted..."

Did it help? Hard to say. Maybe for a while. But it wasn't enough. Five years later, on December 8, 1922, the Manatee River Journal-Bradenton Herald headlined an article with this: "Chinese 'Burbank' of Florida Going Broke." (Burbank was a noted horticulturist of the times.) 

The article reports that the aged - he was 63 - and internationally known Lue was dependent on the generosity of friends. It describes him as "feeble and broken," with a heavy mortgage on his property and in danger of foreclosure.

It also notes that Lue had only visited downtown DeLand four times over the past 16 years. That's four times between 1906 and 1922. 

By the end of the month, The Florida Grower was fundraising again for Lue. A Florida Grower article was reprinted in the December 28, 1922, Manatee River Journal. It urges readers to pledge $100 each to help Lue meet a payment deadline and secure a new mortgage on his property. A large amount was coming due - $5,700 on January 1, 1923. That's the equivalent of about $95,000 in 2022.

I don't know the end of the story. Haven't yet found more vintage newspaper coverage. But I did find an article about one man who supported the fund drive, contributed $100 and pledged to give more if needed. That person was Bishop Frederick Leete of the Episcopal diocese of Florida.

The family name of Leete was one of the oldest and best known in DeLand at the time. Its members contributed to the city's founding. Bishop Leete grew up in DeLand and had known Lue. He also knew Lue had faced discrimination.

The DeLand Sun on January 5, 1923, carried a reprint from the Tampa Times in which Leete is quoted. Leete lauded the Florida Grower fundraising effort, urged others to contribute and lamented that Lue had reached such a low point. His next statement is poignant:

"I do not need to tell you that Lue has not been altogether well treated by the Philistines.* He is also a little too good for this wicked world."

Leete closed with what could be taken as an admonition to DeLand: "The home of my boyhood is too splendid a city to allow any serious calamity to happen to this remarkable man."

Some people in DeLand rose to the occasion. Others didn't. Today, DeLand embraces Lue and pays him the tribute he deserves. 

Rest in Peace, Lue. Your contributions are not forgotten.

Afterthought: After Lue died, many uncashed checks were found in his house. Lue was a poor businessman but he wasn't stupid. I now wonder if area banks refused to do business with him or refused to help him understand the American banking system. That would explain uncashed checks. I hope I'm wrong.

*The reference to the Philistines may have meant people who didn't care about Lue, his plight or his work and weren't interested in changing their minds.