Story of the Life of Joseph Young
Story of the life of: Joseph Eng "Joe" Young
Shared by Ron Young, former OCA APAA NE treasurer
November 18, 1910 - August 9, 2008
Joseph Eng Young was born under the last Joseph Eng Young was born under the last Chinese emperor, in Jianghe, a new village in northern Taishan, convenient for his father, NG Mun Wei, a sojourner, who returned from California every so often to visit the family. NG Mun Wei had moved from the ancestral village of Gangmei, Kaiping, where the genealogy books trace the male line back to NG Gee Sui, of the Spring and Autumn period, his 67th great grandfather.
On his next return trip after Joseph was born, NG Mun Wei contracted an epidemic disease. As a result, Joseph became an orphan. His grandfather, who had come back from a successful stint helping to build the Transcontinental railroad, took responsibility for Joseph's care. When his grandfather passed on, his second Uncle adopted him and arranged for him to come to Newark, New Jersey where both his second Uncle and his third Uncle had laundries.
In 1922, at the age of 12, Joseph Eng Young came from China, traveling by sea from Hong Kong to Vancouver, and then by rail to Halifax. He then took a coastal steamer to New York, after spending about a month in Ellis Island.
Joseph settled in Newark's Chinatown and lived in the back of laundries. To earn his passage money, he ironed handkerchiefs. He was so short that he had to stand on a box to reach the ironing board. The laundry was so small that he had to sleep on the ironing board at night.
Joseph attended grade school near Newark's Chinatown. On Sundays he attended Sunday School, sometimes two different denominations, when they did not conflict in time. In this way, he learned English along with the Bible. He was baptized Joseph Eng at Peddie Memorial Baptist Church on Broad Street. His favorite hymn was "Bringing in the Sheaves".
After he finished reimbursing his Uncles for the passage money, Joseph went to work at a Chinese restaurant in Newark. When he first started at 15, he had to work in the kitchen, because he was still under age. When he got a little older, he was allowed to be a bus boy and then, a substitute waiter, while the regular waiters had their days off. He made a lot of money on weekends. On weekday evenings he went to various night schools.
Joseph would hit the books during slack periods at the restaurant. It was tough. He would have to look up many words in his English-Chinese dictionary. In the daytime when business was slow, many of the waiters who were college students from China, helped him learn English.
Joseph traveled to Stewart Automobile School in New York for practical training in automobile mechanics, receiving a certificate in 1927. He also went to Chamberlain School, a small private school in Brooklyn just to study English.
For about six years, Joseph worked at Globe Restaurant on Broad Street during lunchtime, then attended Newark Technical School in the evening, studying Math, English, and technical subjects. But he realized the night school program would take him eight more years to complete.
Then the stock market crash came, and he realized it was the right time to apply to study Engineering full time at Tri-State College in Angola, Indiana. At that time, Tri-State had four quarter sessions and accepted students with unusual backgrounds from all over the world. It had an intensive engineering program where you went to school all year and could earn your bachelors degree in two years.
Joseph hurried to withdraw his savings the day before President Roosevelt called for the bank holiday. At the Howard Savings Institution, he stood on a long line that wound around the block. At one point, the bank ran out of cash, even though they had plenty of assets. They had to make a quick arrangement with the Prudential Insurance Company, which was located just across the street. The bank employees went across the street and rolled wheelbarrow loads of cash from the insurance company to the bank, deliberately parading in front of the people on line to inspire confidence in the bank. Fortunately, he got the money in time to leave the next day for Indiana, where he earned his B. S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1934.
Joseph came back to the New York area with a college degree, but there was very little work. He could occasionally earn a little money helping out in one Chinese restaurant or another. Not content with this situation, he then took a one-year course in airplane and engine mechanics at Casey Jones School of Aeronautics, in Newark, and worked as a waiter at the nearby Globe Restaurant, on weekends. A fellow student was his future wife's cousin, Hen Sang.
