Lue Gim Gong (; August 24, 1857 – June 3, 1925) was a Chinese-American horticulturalist. Known as "The Citrus Wizard", he is remembered for his contribution to the orange-growing industry in Florida.
Life.
Born in Taishan, Guangdong, Qing dynasty China to a family of farmers, Lue Gim Gong was interested in the United States and the opportunities that lay across the Pacific Ocean. After his uncle returned from America when Lue was 15, young Lue pleaded with his parents to let him return with his uncle to America. His parents agreed, giving him a bolt of silk to sell when he arrived. He lived in a heavily Chinese-populated area in San Francisco until the age of 16 when he moved to North Adams, Massachusetts, to work at a shoe factory.
At the factory, Lue met Fanny Burlingame, who taught his Sunday School class. When she learned of his skill with plants, she asked him to live with the Burlingames is known to tend their garden. She converted him to Christianity, and helped him become a United States citizen on October 4, 1887.
Lue had been advised to move to a warmer climate due to his recent contraction of tuberculosis. He visited China in 1886. Upon his return, Fannie recommended relocation to DeLand, Florida, where she and her sister owned land. Lue agreed, and in 1885, he was working once again, this time in orange groves. 
When Ransom Eli Olds, one of the pioneers of the American automotive industry purchased 37,500 acres of land for development at the end of 1916, he hired Lue Gim Gong, who was already 60 years old at the time, to plan for the farms. Mr. Olds was very pleased with Lue's work and named one of the roads on the farm Gim Gong Road in 1918. It is now within Oldsmar, Florida, and connects to Tampa Road.
He died in DeLand on June 3, 1925.
References.
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