This is a story of adoption in the era around 1916.
A couple was childless. They adopted two girls as infants. Next they negotiated the adoption of a 6 year old boy. The boy's mother died of consumption. The poor widower father hurt his back as a coolie. He was about to return to his hometown in China as a cripple. His son refused to leave with him.
Since the prospective adoptive dad was rich, he actually sum up 1. a one way ship ticket 2. the cost price of a healthy horse 3. 6 months of wages earned by a farm hand. The grand total was given as a one-time gift to the crippled father. It was the means to a new life. The transaction was not human trfficking. The adoptive parents wanted a son to carry on the family name. The crippled man wanted to return to the shelter of his family. It was an amicable exchange. A document was drawn up, both men signed it in front of a commissioner of oath and a local business leader.
As far as I know, the adopted son died in the 1990s.
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