Grinnell College’s connections with China started more than a century ago, and two decades before the Grinnell-in-China program was conceived, through a Chinese American alumnus, Sing Bo Moy. Moy enrolled in the Freshmen English Academy in 1891-92, though he never returned to finish his course and earn a degree. Joseph Wall described a dual-track curriculum at the time in Grinnell College in the 19th Century. Iowa College, as it was called then, offered a three-year Classical Course for those intending to attend college and a four-year English course for those wishing for some secondary education to teach in public primary schools after graduation (208), though it is unknown whether Moy had that career plan in mind when he attended the College.   

Moy is said to have been born in Canton, China (US census 1920), birth date unknown, though he was reportedly in his 90s when he passed away in 1942. Moy emigrated first to India, working at a furniture store there, then to San Francisco in 1880, two years before the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and eventually to Davenport, IA, where he was taken into the home of Rev. Rollins Luther (R.L.) Adams. In 1883 he moved to Indianola, IA, following the Rev. and his family after Adams retired from active ministry. Moy lived in Indianola for the next several decades. He sent money home and made the occasional trip to China until WWI, during which he lost all contact with his family in China. When living in Newton and taking college classes, supposedly with help from his Grinnell friends (Opstad, “First Unraveling,”), Moy became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1892. But in 1913 his citizenship was revoked by a Jasper County judge in compliance with the Geary Act. 

Moy was a man of many talents as his life proves. For example, between 1893 and 1909 he opened and operated a steam laundry, the first of its kind in Indianola. He also started a laundry in Winterset and bought another one in Chariton, although he sold that one to Mr. and Mrs. Rogers from Grinnell after only three months (CL 10/13/1904). Moy also acquired considerable real estate in Indianola, and at the time of his death still owned two properties in Des Moines. Although described as a man of modest means in his obituary, he reported an income of $3,500 in 1904, equivalent to $100,000 in purchasing power today (Opstad, “First Unraveling”)! Moy was generous with his wealth, helping support Rev. Adams and his family in the Rev.’s retirement. In addition to being a successful entrepreneur, Moy was also a civil engineer. He installed a heating plant next to the laundry and piped steam heat underground up the block. He also built a 300-foot lateral sewer in Indianola, later donating it to the city of Indianola (Opstad, “First Unraveling”). He worked for Indianola’s Water Works after the laundry was closed and the lot sold. Residents of Indianola remembered seeing him ride a bike to work every day, despite a traffic accident in which he sustained a bad fall after a car struck his bike in 1933 (IR 08/18/1933). 

Moy lived with the Adams’ family at various locations for over six decades. After Rev. Adams passed away in 1929 at the age of 95, he lived together with Lida Adams, the adopted daughter of the Adams, until the end of her life in 1941, and only then moved into a nursing home in Des Moines until his passing. But he was never adopted by the Rev. The US censuses from 1900 and 1910 list him as a “boarder,” while the 1920’s census lists him as “head” of a rental home, describing him as a “laundryman” who could read, write, and speak English. He and Lida never married each other. Although they lived together, traveled together, and socialized with the townsfolk together, and Lida left him a bequest of $4,000 in her will (IT 03/18/1942), the nature of their relationship remains unspecified. One record describes him as a “servant” of the family while others speculate about a romantic involvement between the two. Given that interracial marriages between Chinese and Americans were forbidden by law, and that American women married to Chinese men would lose their citizenship and face automatic deportation, the fact that they did not marry was not surprising. 

People of Chinese descent did not regain access to US citizenship until the Geary Act was repealed in December 1943, the year following Moy’s death. However, he appeared to be well integrated into the community he lived in. Identified as a “Christian Chinese” and seen by his Iowa neighbors as “very gentlemanly in appearance” (CL 06/23/1904), he was also remembered in his obituary as “Moy Sing Bo, Chinese naturalized resident of Indianola for more than 40 years … “ (IT 03/18/1942).