Gin Chow - Biography

Biography

Born in Guangzhou as the son of teachers, Chow immigrated to California at the age of 16 in 1873 arriving in San Francisco he worked as a dish washer in a French restaurant, went into domestic service for six years and later became a gardener. It was while living in Northern California that he met his wife with whom he had three chrildren. By 1890 Chow had moved south to the Lompoc Valley where he owned a small farm and grew strawberries and casaba melons which he then sold on the streets of Santa Barbara.

Chow gain regional reputation with accounts of his prediction of the 1925 earthquake which hit the Santa Barbara area retold in articles by Los Angeles Times columnist Harry Carr and in books by Santa Barbara News-Press publisher Thomas More Stroke. Greater recognition came when Chow himself produced Gin Chow's First Annual Almanac in 1932 with the encouragement of Carr. The book included details on some of his past predictions as well as future pronostications. Chow's popularity remained thanks in part to daily weather forecasts from Chow featured in Carr's Times columns and read by Chow over the radio on station KHJ. The income provided by his book enabled Chow to save his farm from bankruptcy.

It was to save his farm that Chow also filed suit against the Cities of Santa Barbara and Montecito in 1928. The case reached the California Supreme Court in 1930 and was decided in favor of the cities.

Gin Chow died in 1933 at the age of 76 after being struck by a truck while walking.