Polly Bemis

Polly Bemis (possibly born Lalu Nathoy) (September 11, 1853 – November 6, 1933) was a Chinese American pioneer who lived in Idaho in the late 19th and early 20th century. Her story became a biographical novel, and was fictionalized in the 1991 film A Thousand Pieces of Gold.

Life

Polly Bemis was born in rural northern China. As a child, she had bound feet. Later, her family fled from a group of bandits that raided her village. Subsequently, she was sold by her father for two much needed bags of seed. Bemis was then smuggled into the United States in 1872 and sold as a slave in San Francisco for $2,500. It was common for Chinese men of that time to have multiple wives and concubines, all having some social status and living under the same roof. When a Chinese man moved to North America, he might take a concubine with him or acquire one there, as custom required him to leave his wife in China to take care of his parents. An intermediary took her from San Francisco via Portland, Oregon, to Idaho, where her buyer, a wealthy Chinese man, possibly named Hong King, ran a saloon in a mining camp in Warrens, Idaho Territory, now Warren, Idaho. She arrived in Warrens on July 8, 1872. Bemis was 53 inches (130 cm) tall.