Pioneer Asian Indian Immigration to the Pacific Coast

goldbraid

Return to Chronology

First Facts
About Early Settlement in the Yuba - Sutter Area
(Yuba City and Marysville) California, 1924 -

  • 1913-Kartar Singh was the first persom to bought a land in Sutter County.

  • Puna Singh and family were the first Asian Indian resident family in 1924.

  • 1941-Balwant Singh Brar was the first person registered with the draft board.

  • Parmjit Kaur Gill Brar was the first Sikh woman to come directly to California from India in 1946.

  • 1961-Hari Singh Everest was first punjabi to appointed teacher in Sutter.

  • Dr. Gulzar Singh Johl was the Sikh doctor to open a practice in 1961.

  • G. Dave Teja opened the first law office in 1961. (Source Hari Singh Everest)

  • The first area Sikh temple was built in 1970, in Tierra Buena. Before 1970, area Sikhs had to commute to a Stockton temple. In fact, the Stockton temple was the first in California registered in 1912. (It was previously in a private house from 1906 until the permanent structure was occupied in 1912.)

  • Balwant Singh Brar was the first Sikh to serve jury duty in Sutter County in February 1978.
       (Source: Terald A. Zall. Appeal-Democrat, July 31, 1994 P.D.2)

  • First Nagar Kirtan started in Yuba City in 1979.

  • The Punjab American Heritage Society was established in Yuba City in 1993.

  • Today, in 1997, 250,000 Asian Indians live in California. There are roughly 9,000 Sikhs in the Yuba City/Marysville area - the largest Asian/Indian farming community outside of India.
    (Source: Bruce LaBrack - Sacramento Bee, August 18, 1997.)

  • 1998 Founding of First Sikh Preschool in Northern California.Yuba City The Guru Ram Das Khalsa preschool. The new school is the first Sikh school in Northern California.

  • 2000- 314,619 population of Indo-American in California which more than 10, 000 in Sutter and surrounding areas. US Census 2000