DEDICATED TO THE LEE LUM FAMILY

​Did you know that there were people of Chinese descent who played a critical role in the development of the local oil industry? In this article, Angelo Bissessarsingh tells of the contribution of John Lee Lum to the development of the Local Oil Industry .
JOHN LEE LUM – OIL PIONEER
Author and Researcher : Angelo Bissessarsingh
John Lee Lum was one of the few Chinese in Trinidad who did not come here directly. Born in Guangdong , China in 1847, he went to California , USA where he worked with thousands of other Chinese coolies to lay the track for the Trans Pacific Railroad which connected the East and West Coasts. In 1885, he came to Trinidad and set up a provision shop on Charlotte St. It prospered since there was a boom in the price of cocoa which meant that he traded provisions for dried cocoa beans which were then exported. Ever the shrewd businessman, he recognized instantly the value of having agencies in the outlying areas of the island and by 1900, owned 60 shops in villages throughout Trinidad, including La Brea, Mayaro, Siparia, Toco, Tunapuna, Sangre Grande, Chaguanas, Pointe-a-Pierre, Moruga, Princes Town and Tabaquite. Lee Lum gave credit and so was able to foreclose on many peasant-owned smallholdings. This is how he was able to acquire vast cocoa estates on the south coast and in the Montserrat Hills near Gran Couva .
Lee Lum was supposed to have been the originator of a catchphrase “Chinee for Chinee” which meant that he sent back to China for labour to staff his shops. At the time (1890s) there was a shortage of coins in the island. At his La Brea shop in particular, Lee Lum issued stamped metal tokens which were square and bore his name as well as the word ‘La Brea’. Perhaps remembering the copper ‘cash’ of his homeland, the tokens had a hole in the middle which meant that they could be strung together. Estates such as those owned by Lee Lum, paid their workers with IOU slips called ‘chits’ which would be taken to the shop to be exchanged for goods. Perhaps John Lee Lum is best remembered for the role he played in the development of the local oil industry.
In the 1880s, a surveyor mapping the southeastern coast noticed seepages of oil in the Guayaguyare forest. By 1893, Major Randolph Rust, a POS merchant who had been bitten by the oil bug, was in the same forest looking at the seepages. The land was owned by Lee Lum. Rust was sufficiently convinced of the commercial possibilities of oil, and undertook to provide financing for his enterprise BEFORE drilling. Backed by Lee Lum, Rust entered into a partnership with the Walkerville Whisky Company of Canada to form the “Canadian Oil Exploration Syndicate in 1901.Erecting a rickety wooden drilling rig, powered by a steam engine Rust and his men struck a rich oilsand at just 2000 feet. The recovery process was even cruder than the drilling apparatus. A large well was dug and a pulley system installed on which drill pipe dippers were dipped in the pooling oil and then dumped into wooden barrels which were then loaded on canoes and taken to the mouth of the river. Although the production of oil had begun in earnest the costs associated with the remote location were huge. Moreover, refining the oil was a problem since it had to be sent to La Brea to be distilled into fuel. In 1913, Trinidad Leaseholds Ltd who had commenced operations at Fyzabad and had opened a refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre took over the Guayaguayare wells of Rust and Lee Lum.
John Lee Lum married and had three sons; Aldrich, Edwin and Oliver who were educated in the USA and England and returned to Trinidad to take over the family business which by the 1920s was one of the largest family-owned firms in Trinidad and diversifying into the importation of Chinese goods and wares. In 1914 he purchased a quantity of land at Pointe Gourde in Chaguaramas where the subsoil was suitable for road metal. A thriving quarry was operated here well into the 1930s before the coming of the Americans in WWII when the entire peninsula was ceded to them under the Bases Agreement. Lee Lum was always a supporter of the local Chinese community and in 1925 established a cooperative business for them called the Canton Trading Company which imported dry goods from China and became one of the best known retailers of Charlotte St. The first Managing Director of the Canton Trading Company was John T. Allum, a local Chinese who later branched off to form the well-known Allum’s supermarket chain which survives today as JTA Supermarkets. Lee Lum retired to Hong Kong to enjoy his wealth and died there in the 1930s.
Source : A History of Trinidad Oil by George E. Higgins.
Copy of photo of John Lee Lum  (Source: Virtual Museum of T&T, October 5, 2023)