Wong On Lee

Wong On Lee (Dan) was born on April 12, 1904. In 1922, he paid a $500 head tax and boarded the Empress of Asia bound for Canada. He managed to enter Canada just before the Chinese Immigration Act (1923). Dan was 18 years old, but for unknown reasons his documents indicated that he was 15. Arriving in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 5th, Dan joined an uncle in Brooks, Alberta, who was working in a CPR camp. Eventually, Dan went to work in restaurants in Tompkins, Saskatchewan and The Pas, Manitoba before settling in Queenstown, Alberta, in 1927 where he opened a cafe. He later turned his cafe into a general store and named it Dan Wong’s General Merchant. (See more….)