Ong Sam Leong and Yeo Hean Neo

on
Ong Sam Leong



民國六年十二月
顯祖考違三龍王公之佳城
孝男
文達
平福
孝女
梅娘
孝孙
長輝
長成
Sons : Ong Boon Tat
Ong Peng Hock
Daughter : Ong Boey Neo
Grandsons : Ong Tiang Wee
Ong Tiang Seng

Died 7 Feb 1918 at the age of 60 

Ong Tiang Seng was the son of Ong Peng Hock

LATE MR ONG SAM LEONG.
The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 8 February 1918, Page 4

Wife - Yeo Hean Neo



民國廿四年四月廿三日吉
顯祖妣謚賢娘王門楊氏壽域

Died 25 May 1935, age 73 
Left behind her two sons, one surviving daughter Mrs Khoo Peck Lock, three sons in law (Messrs Lim Teck Kim, Poey Yean Chuan and Khoo Peck Lock”

One Hundred Years’ History Of the Chinese in Singapore
By Song Ong Siang 
Mr Ong Sam Leong was born in Singapore in 1857, and at the age of 21 started a small commission agent’s business on his own account.
His early land transactions turned out profitably, and he became interested in timber concessions in Pahang and Kemaman. In 1899 he secured the contract as universal provider to the Christmas Island Phosphate Co Ltd at that island under the name of Ong Sam Leong & Co, and the firm still holds the monopoly of the contract with the Company. He also owned the well-known Batam Brickworks and held large interests in numerous sawmills in Singapore. As part of his business activities, he engaged in house-building and rubber-planting, and at his death on 7th February 1918 his estate consisted of substantial landed properties and rubber estates, both local and outside the Colony. He was a popular member of several old and respectable Chinese clubs in Singapore and for many years was president of ‘Ban Chye Ho’ Club. He was keenly interested in the patriotic movement of the Straits Chinese community during the Great War and subscribed liberally to all local funds necessitated by that War. He further erected, at his own expense, the garage at the SVC Drill Hall, for the use of the Corps motor lorry, as an expression of his appreciation of the valuable work which was then being done, at a number of outposts, for the defence of the Settlement by volunteers belonging to the various units. He continued to be a very busy and hard-working man till the end of his days, and the only relaxations he gave himself were motoring and sea-trips. He started life handicapped with a meagre education, but his perseverance and business acumen helped him to build up his own fortune, and before his death he had erected a fine house in Bukit Timah Road known as ‘Bukit Rose’, in which he entertained his friends on a lavish scale. His widow belongs to an old ‘Yeo’ family, several members of which were of the Christian faith;  an aunt being the first wife of the late Mr Song Hoot Kiam, and an uncle being the well-known Yeo Koon Ho (alias Toleap Young). His surviving daughter is the wife of Khoo Pek Lock, the third son of Khoo Phee Soon, at one time one of the leading shipowners and rice merchants of Singapore.

Of his two sons, the elder one, Ong Boon Tat,33 was born in Singapore in 1888 and educated at Raffles Institution, where he won the Guthrie Scholarship, which had been resuscitated after having been in abeyance for some years. At the age of 19 Mr Boon Tat commenced his business training under his father and is now a prominent man among Straits Chinese merchants of this Colony. He extended the business of Ong Sam Leong  and Co., of which he is the chief, by opening a branch house in Penang which is meeting with much success. He is a JP and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and is one of the group of young Straits Chinese who are taking a practical interest in public affairs, having realised the duties of citizenship which devolve more especially on the men of education and standing in our community.
The younger son, Ong Peng Hock, who also received his education at Raffles Institution, was carefully trained by his father in the timber trade, and was managing director of United Sawmills Ltd during the brief period of its existence. As a partner of Ong Sam Leong and Co. he goes on frequent visits to Penang to supervise the management of the branch business there.
——————————
MRS. ONG SAM LEONG.
The Straits Times, 27 May 1935, Page 12