his half-brother planned a brief vacation back to Canton to visit his family. His square rigged sailing vessel was off the coast of Japan when it caught fire and sank, causing all aboard to perish at sea. This left the young Lew Hing, at age 13, alone in San Francisco, without family or money. He attended educational classes a missionary school and learned English, in exchange he worked with translating for shipments from China for U.S. Customs. Hing met P. W. Bellingall, a successful businessman in the importing and exporting field through this experience. The growing Chinese community that would later become known as San Francisco's Chinatown was beginning to form familial associations that provided leadership and social opportunities among the Chinese immigrants to America. Men with the same surnames would help each other as brothers. This was the beginning of family association in Chinatown, and it was through such association that the young Lew Hing was able to survive. It was with such family association guidance that Lew continued working at his deceased brother's metal shop, while attending a local church mission to learn to read and write English. In doing so, he also learned to do his own bookkeeping and accounting. Never afraid to work long hours, he also accepted odd jobs for extra money. His industrious and entrepreneurial spirit carried him through these difficult years. Marriage and children In 1877, Lew Hing married Chin Shee (July 1860 – July 1947) in San Francisco. They had three sons and four daughters, each born in San Francisco. Lew Yuet-yung, aka Mrs. Quan Yick-sun (1879–1967) Lew Gin-gow (1885–1943) Lew Yuen-hing, aka Mrs. Ho Chou-won (1889–1978) Lew Wai-hing, aka Mrs. Ng Min-hing (1890–1969) Thomas Gunn-sing Lew, also known as Tom Lowe (1894–1974) Lew Soon-hing Rose, aka Rose Lew Moon (1898–1993) Ralph Ginn Lew (1903–1987) Early career Though he was never as skilled in metalwork as his older half-brother had been, he nonetheless learned the basics, such as soldering. In addition, among his odd jobs he helped a European woman make her fruit jams for storage in glass jars. This taught Lew about food preservation and how to avoid food poisoning. It was a natural next step for Lew to combine his metalwork with his food preservation skills to join in the new industry of canning foodstuffs. At age 18 in 1877, Lew Hing founded his first cannery with another metalworker of