Nameless Builders of the Transcontinental.

Nameless Builders of the Transcontinental by William F. Chew Trafford Publishing (Victoria, BC), 2004

SYNOPSIS: Nameless Builders of the Transcontinental reveals for the first time the individual names of 1,500 Chinese workers of the Central Pacific Railroad Company as they appear on the payroll sheets of the Central Pacific. These are the names of gang bosses who collected pay for crews averaging 28 workers each. This book refutes previously published dates of Chinese employment in the railroad company. It also identifies the first Chinese workers, describes major accomplishments despite grueling and primitive working conditions, and provides a calculated total number of fatalities suffered during construction.

AUTHOR: William F. Chew, past Vice President of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and a retired aerospace engineer, was inspired to write this book after volunteering as a history researcher for the Golden Spike National Historic Site. As a descendent of a "coolie" worker of the Central Pacific, he is dedicated to increasing public awareness and appreciation of this monumental construction project built in the 1860s by Chinese pioneers.