The first Chinese residents of Grand Rapids were three men working in the laundry business ca. 1875. Wau Lee and Ah Tun were at 19 Canal St. Lung Sam operated his O.K.Laundry under the Rathbun House, an hotel located at 31 Monroe, until 1880 when Fee(Fu) King is listed as the operator. After 1880 Young Joe became the owner of the Rathbun House laundry. In 1889 Lam Fook, the proprietor of the O. K. Laundry who had lived here for two years, was found dead in his "dark, damp basement room by his partners, Wong Young and Lee Tsee." His belongings included a certificate of deposit for $100, many letters, a brass tobacco pipe, a bag of tobacco, and a few trinkets and charms.

Wong Chin Foo, a notable Chinese lecturer who visited Grand Rapids in 1874, was not a resident but obtained his citizenship papers here on April 4, 1874. He claimed to be the first Chinese in the United States to be granted citizenship. He returned here in 1880 to lecture again. He made his home in New York City where he ran a bi-lingual newspaper, the Chinese American, and advocated for the rights of his fellow immigrants. He was founder and secretary in 1892 of the Chinese Equal Rights League of America.

The only Chinese woman in Grand Rapids was the wife of Chan(g) Ball. The family arrived here around 1885, and like his predecessors he opened a laundry. The Dec. 18, 1886 issue of the Grand Rapids Eagle noted the birth of the first Chinese child in the city, a 5 lb. boy, and the second son for Chang Ball and his wife. A third son was born in 1888. A year later Chang Ball added to his laundry the first exclusively Chinese store in the city featuring items imported from China. The newspaper reported in 1889 that the population of the city now included a dozen Chinese.