Background
He married a daughter of the well-known Choa Chong Long, by whom he had an only son,, and several daughters, one of whom became the wife of Wee Bin of the steamship firm of "Wee Bin & Company" Mr. Kong Tuan also figured as the Spirit Farmer for some years.
Career
He had a spirit factory at Pearl"s Hill, and the site is still known among the Chinese as Chiu-long-san (the spirit factory hill). He was named, by Stamford Raffles as the first Kapitan China of Singapore. He held the opium farms for a long time during the 1830s.
He was also involved in coffee and real estate.
In the 1840s he had 50 acres (200,000 m2) of coffee near Jurong. He held the spirit and opium farms in 1848.
He was the last opium farmer in Singapore. He died at the age of 64 years on 16 January 1854.
Mr. Kong Tuan was the grantee of that large tract of land comprising 20 acres (81,000 m2) which has now become a thickly populated Straits Chinese residential quarter with Chinese Swee Road as the main artery and Cornwall Street and Seok Wee Road as side streets.
(龚菽惠 b: 1839 d: 1888) was the grandson of Choa Chong Long and son of Spirits Farmer Kiong Kong Tuan. He did not fancy spirit farming and instead went into business with his brother-in-law, Wee Bin, but the partnership was short-lived. In 1865 along with Wee Leong Hin, the firm of Leong Hin, Seok Wee & Company, chop Aik Ho, shipchandlers, was established at Boat Quay and another under the chop Joo Chinese & Company as General Merchants.
"Aik Ho" was accidentally burnt down, and as it was not covered by insurance, Mr.
Seok Wee sustained a severe loss which was augmented by the failure of Joo Chinese & Company He was at that time one of the proprietors of the Singapore Daily Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser.
In 1869 the affairs of Mr. Seok Wee and his partner were administered by the Court of Insolvent Debtors.
The youngest son of Mr.
Seok Wee is Kiong Ching Engineer, chief clerk and cashier at the General Hospital, a man of liberal education and a first-class player both in tennis and chess. Seok Wee Road is named after him. Aik Hoe Road is named after his shipchandlers firm Chop Aik Hoe.