Bee acted in an official capacity to represent the interests of Chinese immigrants,[2] and appeared in federal court cases;[3] his efforts to preserve harmony were recognized by the Emperor of China.

[4] October, 2015 Sierra Heritage magazine featured Frederick Bee in a 4-page article written by Lj Bottjer.

Bee's wife, Catherine Maxwell, was born on March 7, 1828, in Ballston Spa, NY, and died on August 18, 1889, in San Francisco, CA.

[16] On November 30, 1858, Bee wrote to William M. Gwin to encourage a government subsidy to complete the telegraph to Salt Lake City, Utah Territory.

[17] Legislative Assembly of Utah Territory approved the incorporation of Placerville, Humboldt and Salt Lake Telegraph Company on January 21, 1859.

Colonel Bee constructed a telegraph line between Placerville and Virginia City, attaching the wire to the trees; their swaying stretched it until it lay in loops on the ground, resembling the trailing California grapevines.

Frequent breaks occurred from falling trees and avalanches, till the line became almost useless, being sometimes beaten into Sacramento by the Pony Express.

California and Nevada newspapers took it up, and whenever a journalist wished to cast doubts on the freshness of his opponent's news he forthwith accused him of running a grapevine telegraph.

But in the spring of 1861 the Overland Company pushed into the Sierras and successfully connected Virginia City with Sacramento by a modern telegraph wire on poles.Colonel Bee's Grapevine soon became proverbial for dubious communication.

[23] In September 1864, during the Civil War, a contributor to the Quarterly Review of Danville, Kentucky, wrote that though men of the South had moved their families north and taken the oath of allegiance to the Union, many had returned to fight for the South at their pleasure despite their oaths: "Thousands of rebel men have left their wives and children behind, among us, to enjoy all the plenty and protection of the land, who are in constant intercourse by the public mails, as well as by the grapevine, with them, and publicly and secretly doing all they can to give aid to the rebel movements.

"[24] Reflecting on the Civil War thirty years later, author Martha McCulloch Williams wrote in 1893 that in conquered territories, "The only news came over the 'grapevine telegraph,' which ran from Nowhere into Space—and, it is safe to say, recorded more marvels than ever went over a wire.

[28] At 10 pm on October 26, 1861, this message from San Francisco was received by Cyrus W. Field in New York, “The Pacific telegraph calls the Atlantic cable AW Bee”.

Besides the three original members of the firm the incorporators included General Superintendent BF Ficklin together with FA Bee ,WW Finney and John S Jones, all tried and trustworthy stage employees ,who were retained on account of their wide experience in the overland traffic business.

[47] Edward S. Salomon and Frederick Bee worked for the Olympia Railroad and Coal Mining Company starting in August, 1873.

[55] A group of 3000 Irish workers met in San Francisco in November, 1878 to protest statements Bee made in the Washington Post.

[56] Envoys Chen Lanbin and Yung Wing investigated Bee, who had helped the Chinese to settle disputes, and found him worthy of the appointment.

He protested the Act, writing that "I believe that the immortal truths of the Declaration of Independence came from the same source with the Golden Rule and the Sermon on the Mount...... As surely as the path on which our fathers entered a hundred years ago led to safety, to strength, to glory, so surely will the path on which we now propose to enter bring us to shame, to weakness, and to peril.

[65] Huang Zunxian was a poet and diplomat who became Consul General in San Francisco in May, 1882 and wrote a poem about Bee expressing his approval: One of Bee's duties was to verify the residency status of Chinese passengers, who had petitioned for writs of habeas corpus, so a judge could decide if the petitioners were allowed to remain in the United States.

[72] Bee grew 40 acres of Tokay, mixed wine, Rose Peru and Black Hamburg grapes.

The Chinese Consulate sent a large heart made of flowers on behalf of the Qing government with an inscription calling him “Our Colonel”.