Polly Bemis

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Polly Bemis was a famous Chinese American pioneer woman who lived in the Pacific Northwest in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. Polly Bemis was born Lalu Nathoy in China in 1853. She was sold by her parents when she was still a child. Lalu was later smuggled into the U.S. and sold to a Chinese man. They settled in Warren, Idaho. She later changed her name to Polly. In 1894 she married Charlie Bemis. Together they helped settle Idaho, especially along the Salmon River. Charlie died in 1922. Polly died in 1933.

• The story of Polly Bemis was fictionalized in the film A Thousand Pieces of Gold.