My grandfather was the
partner of Mr. Babcock
Who? My father Anton Nathaniel Lethin jr and me, Lisa Lethin.
Hi! It is very exciting to visit the Café of the Mahjong in Holland Museum. My name is Lisa Lethin and my grandfather was Anton Nathaniel Lethin Sr, Mr. Babcock's partner for the Mah-Jongg Company of China. My granddad lived from August 1887 to May 1966. My grandmother, Helen Van Housen Lethin, was descended from Sarah Rapelje, born 1625, the first female of European descent born in New Netherland. So there is a small Dutch connection there.
My grandfather Anton N. Lethin, Mr. Babcock's partner
for the Mah-Jongg Company.
My granddad had gone to the Philippines to work as a court reporter in 1912, but his Spanish skills were insufficient for the job. He then got a job with the Manila Office of the International Correspondence Schools (I.C.S.} and Albert R. Hager was his boss. Bert used to go back and forth between the Shanghai and Manila offices of I.C.S. Eventually, in 1915, my granddad was transferred to Shanghai to work at the I.C.S. there.
The worldfamous Bund of Shanghai.
Before he left for the Orient, my granddad had met my grandma Helen back in Illinois and then wooed her from Shanghai with love letters. In November 1916 he went home to marry her. In January 1917 on their way back to China, they stopped in Ashland, Oregon where she had taught school for a year. When they boarded the train in Ashland, they met a very nice, recently married couple, who were also headed for Shanghai: the Babcocks. Joe and Norma Babcock had met in China, married in Japan, and had been home for a visit so he could introduce his new bride to his family. They all really hit it off, had a great time on the ship, and a close friendship was born.
Mrs.Lethin and Mrs. Babcock on the Siberia Maru ship
in January 1917, sailing to China. The Babcocks and
Lethins had all just met, the beginning of a lasting
friendship.
Joe Babcock was a sales representative with Standard Oil Company. The Babcocks lived in Soochow and the Lethins in Shanghai in a few different places, including the Columbia Country Club from 1918-1919. Sometimes my grandparents went to Soochow to visit, and sometimes the Babcocks came to Shanghai. They continued to keep in touch after the families were back in the States.
A nice old photo of my aunt Onnette
Lethin Rhodes from 1941. She was
born in 1920 in Shanghai.
In 1920 the Lethins had a daughter, Onnette. She had been born in Shanghai in 1920 and lived there till the age of almost four. My father Anton, Jr. and my uncle Jay were born after my grandparents returned to the States. I interviewed my aunt Onnette, before she died several years ago. She told me many stories about China.
This is one she said she had heard from her parents: Joe Babcock had been on a houseboat on the Yangtze River. The Lethins were not with them at the time. The wind died down, and they were stranded on the river. So the Chinese got out an unknown, strange game to play. Joe was definitely a linguist; he did know Chinese. He was able to understand the rules and everything and how to deal with the game.
The Lethins (on the left) and the Babcocks (on the right) with an
unidentified man in the middle. They are about to go sailing in
Soochow, either on Lake Tai or the Yangtze River. The year is
approx. 1917 - 1919.
Anton Lethin (on the left), Bert Hager (in the middle)
and a unknown gentleman.
Joe Babcock got the idea to adapt the game for Westerners in the fall of 1919 after he watched my grandparents struggling to play one time in Soochow. My granddad’s boss Bert Hager then heard about the game and went to talk to Joe Babcock. Bert Hager and my granddad began teaching the game to friends in Shanghai, and they began to see commercial possibilities.
So that is how the ball got rolling with Mah-Jongg. Joe had the idea, Bert had money to invest, and my granddad was the one who brought the two together. The three became partners in the Mah-Jongg Company of China. Granddad always said that Mah-Jongg was a word he had gotten into the dictionary, a word that he coined. The Chinese word was almost impossible to pronounce -- Ma-Ch'iao -- something like that.
Norma Babcock and Helen Lethin - van Housen.
I believe that in 1923 or 1924 Babcock, Lethin, and Hager started a small Mah-Jongg factory, as they could not keep up with the demand simply by buying sets from family shops. Mah-Jongg had been hand-produced in China before. Even when the three partners started the factory, a lot of the work was hand-work, hand-carving the designs into the tiles. We used to have a photo of my granddad managing the small Mah-Jongg factory, but the photo has been misplaced. The trademark eventually ran out and nobody did anything to renew it.
Het mooiste en opwindendste spel ter wereld