Economy | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 2, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Prisoners, Pullmans and Prostitutes

Very few people lived there, but that shouldn’t suggest the place was without activity.

By the time of first contact with Europeans, the downtown area of Honolulu, known then as Kou, was comprised of shoreward fishponds and taro lo‘i fed by streams extending into the Nu‘uanu and Pauoa valleys.

On the opposite side (ʻEwa) of Nu‘uanu stream was a fishpond, identified as “Kawa” or the “King’s fish pond.” Iwilei at that time was a small, narrow peninsula, less populated than the Honolulu-side of Nuʻuanu stream.

Offshore from Iwilei was a small island on the coral reef on the west site of the bay. On the island was a small hut referred to as “Ka-moku-‘akulikuli” or “Kaha-ka-‘au-lana” (the early names for it were “Quarantine Island,” then “Sand Island” – it was a lot smaller, then, too.)

The first wharf at Honolulu Harbor was just north of Nuʻuanu Street. It was constructed from an old hulk sunk at the spot in 1825. This was replaced and expanded in 1837.

On the shoreline (at about what is now the intersection of Queen and Nimitz) Fort Kekuanohu was constructed. Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out. Later, it was used as a prison.

In 1852, the legislature adopted a resolution directing the minister of the interior to remove the Fort and to use the material obtained thereby “in the construction of prisons, and the filling up of the reef.”

The Fort, being used as a prison, could not be removed until a new prison was built; construction for the new prison began in 1855, but not entirely completed until more than two years later. The Fort was then removed in 1857. (Kuykendall)

The Prison was on a marshy no-man’s land almost completely cut off from the main island by two immense fishponds. The causeway road (initially called “Prison Road,” later “Iwilei Street”) split Kawa Pond into Kawa and Kūwili fishponds.

Sometimes called the “Oʻahu Prison,” “King’s Prison,” “Kawa Prison” or, simply, “The Reef,” it was a coral block fortress built upon coral fill at the end of a coral built road over the coral reefs and mudflats of Iwilei.

In 1886, Mark Twain visited the prison and wrote: “… we presently arrived at a massive coral edifice which I took for a fortress at first, but found out directly that it was the government prison. A soldier at the great gate admitted us without further authority than my countenance, and I supposed he thought he was paying me a handsome compliment when he did so; and so did I until I reflected that the place was a penitentiary”.

The Prison was later relocated to Kalihi (1916) and renamed O‘ahu Jail; this is now known as O‘ahu Community Correctional Facility.

Another Iwilei activity included a railway station. In 1889, a group of businessmen led by Benjamin Dillingham founded the O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L).

OR&L built Honolulu’s first depot between Kūwili fishpond and King Street, west of Iwilei Street. The July 27, 1889 Advertiser noted, “Plans have been approved by which the main depot will be placed 180 feet from King Street in what is now a fishpond dividing Oahu Prison from the royal stables. A large portion, if not all, of this extensive fishpond will be filled in without delay…”

The railroad carried sugarcane from the plantations to Iwilei – it carried people, too. To accommodate this, the marshes and fishponds were filled in and new wharfs built. By 1901, the OR&L and other business interests had created about 500 acres of waterfront land. The docks could accommodate over 20 deepwater sailing vessels, unloading coal and loading sugar.

The last of the activities at early Iwilei was the business of sex. (Before there was Hotel Street (the 1940s gathering place,) there was Iwilei.) They called it the ‘Iwilei Stockade.’

Inside a high stockade wall were long rows of rooms, each 8×10; there were 225 of them. Most of the women were from Japan. From 4 pm to 2 am, the stockade gates were open. (Gallagher)

These women did not live at Iwilei; they only went there in the evenings, and then returned to their uptown homes at night. Some had homes of their own, others were servants of families; but all went back to town. They were in no sense isolated; Iwilei was not their home; they neither eat nor sleep there. (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

Local law enforcement condoned and controlled the activities, under the guise that it was “a public necessity.” “The whole of Iwilei makai of the Oʻahu Prison has been used for the purpose of prostitution for some time past.” (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

“The High Sheriff of the Territory, through his agents, has ordered all of such women (prostitutes) that are found in different parts of the City, and also in some portions of Iwilei, to move to one particular part as follows: on the makai side of Iwilei rice mill, and on the Ewa side of the Iwilei road.” (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

The Iwilei brothels (or “boogie houses,” as they were also called back then) were later forced to relocate to Hotel Street and a few adjoining parts of Chinatown. By 1916, the Iwilei Stockade was shut down.

It has been suggested that one of the former Iwilei prostitutes became the role model for the key character in the silent film “Sadie Thompson,” based on W. Somerset Maugham’s short story “Rain” (as well as other adaptations.)

As time went on, more of the fringing reefs were filled, which made way for expanded commercial use. By the 1920s, small and large businesses moved in – and, now, gone are the Prisoners, Pullmans and Prostitutes from Iwilei.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Downtown_and_Vicinity-Map-noting_Oahu_Prison-Kawa_and_Kuwili_Fishponds-and-Shoreline-1887

Looking_mauka_from_Iwilei_Prison-overlooking_causeway-(Saga-Scott)

Prison_Inmates_around_Communal_Buckets_of_Poi

Honolulu_from_the_Prison-PP-38-2-002-1862

Looking_mauka_from_Iwilei_Prison-overlooking_causeway

Honolulu_Waterfront-From-Iwilei-PPWD-9-3-003-1890s

Dwellings probably along King St. near River St. and Nuuanu Stream-PP-38-3-017-1870

Honolulu_Waterfront_from_the_Prison-PP-38-5-007-1880s

River Street looking toward Punchbowl from King Street

pulls into the Honolulu Depot to pick up and dispatch passengers. Photo taken in 1890.

OR&L-Chinese_Theater-Kaumakapili_Church-PPWD-9-3-002-1890s

General_View_of_Iwilei_Pen-(The_Republican)-09-02-1900

March 1, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiʻi Population Distribution 1853

In 1853, thirty-three years after the first missionaries landed, a census of the islands was taken by the Government with the help of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) – the first year for which a census report of the islands by districts is available.

In interpreting the distribution of population in 1853, keep in mind that Hawaiian culture of that year included characteristics not originally Hawaiian. During the seventy-four years which had elapsed since ‘Contact’ was made, interactions with foreigners were frequent and trade and commerce were actively carried on.

Thousands of natives were killed by disease. In 1848 and 1849 epidemics of measles, whooping cough and influenza occurred. Likewise, Hawaiians were leaving and worked on whaling ships.

The distribution of population in the census districts in 1853 is indicated by the awards of land made by the Board of Land Commissioners formed by King Kamehameha III about the time of the “Great Māhele.”

For the first time the common people, formerly tenants of the chiefs, received title to small holdings, known as kuleana. The land commission awarded titles to kuleana involving the hearing and taking of testimony in connection with nearly 12,000-individual claims.

The number of people in a district and their distribution was closely related to the food supply of the area, which was obtained principally from planted crops and fish, supplemented by hogs and in a small way by other animals.

Although sandalwood, whaling and the beginning of sugar and other agriculture formed the foundations of an economy, life was maintained largely by traditional means of subsistence agriculture and fishing.

With people heading to California during the gold-rush of 1849, the lack of sufficient supplies, and the isolation of California from other food-producing areas on the continent gave people in the Hawaiian Islands an opportunity for a while to supply the growing market there.

Since agricultural produce from Hawaiʻi could be marketed in California directly by boat, and therefore cheaper than by overland routes of that time, the use of arable land in the islands was stimulated.

In 1853, there were 73,138 people in the Hawaiian Islands of whom 71,019 were Polynesians, and 2,119 were classed as “foreigners.”

Following is the head count in Hawaiʻi – in addition, maps are included that graphically display the population distribution to the various districts and portions of each island.

Niʻihau had a population of 790-people. The distribution of people as shown on the population map is based on a map of Niʻihau made by a man named Wilcox between 1850 and 1855, depicting groups of houses.

In 1853 there were 6,981-people on the Island of Kauai. The population was concentrated chiefly on the lower flood plains and delta plains of rivers where wet land taro was raised on the rich alluvial soil.

Nearly half of the population of Oʻahu was concentrated in the City of Honolulu and on the adjoining coastal plain. In the city and vicinity there were between 7,000 and 8,000-people; nearly 1,200 of these were foreigners.

Honolulu was an important center of trade and commerce chiefly in connection with the whaling industry. In 1852 as many as 585 vessels called at the port. “The settled portion of the city was then substantially limited by the present Alapaʻi and River Streets, and mauka at School Street.”

Nearly all the remaining population of Oʻahu was scattered around Pearl Harbor, along the east coast of the island, and at Waialua near the center of the north coast.

Molokai had a population of 3,607. The outstanding characteristic of the distribution and density of people was the concentration along the eastern third of the south coast.

The population of Maui was 17,574. Nearly all the people were scattered around the shores of the island and on each side of the isthmus.

The largest settlement on the island was at Lāhainā, the port of which had advantages in that the roadstead was accessible “at any season of the year, … at any hour of the day or night,” and a pilot was not needed to enter it or leave it. In the spring of 1853 seventy whaling ships called at the port. The town of Lāhainā extended for two miles along the shore.

The population of Lanaʻi in 1853 was 600, all of whom were Polynesians. On the east coast of the island it was possible to raise wet land taro in a small area in the upper part of Maunalei Gulch …

… where the higher land, intercepting the trade winds, caused sufficient precipitation for a small stream of water throughout the year. Hawaiians who lived on the central part of the east coast climbed the highlands to plant their taro patches.

Kahoʻolawe is remarkable by contrast with the other islands in the Hawaiian group. Much of it is a wind-swept plateau devoid of vegetation of any kind. It is not mentioned in the census report of 1853. In 1841 men from the Wilkes’ Exploring Expedition who visited the island found only a few fishermen and fifteen convicts. Kahoʻolawe was used as a place of exile, as late as 1852.

Hawaiʻi, the largest island in the Hawaiian group, had the largest population, 24,450. The most densely-peopled continuous area was along the coasts of North and South Kona.

Dry land taro was an important crop in the Kona districts. Breadfruit, bananas and coconuts grew there, all of which were used for food.

Peas, beans, carrots and cabbages were raised in the vicinity of Kealakekua Bay, near which there was also a “coffee estate,” and between Kealakekua Bay and Kailua “oranges, grapes” and “tall plantains” grew.

For the District of Puna there is an inconsistency between the number of people recorded in the census and the number of land grants which were given after the “Great Māhele.” There were 2,700 people and only nineteen grants. These were large areas and included several ahupuaʻa. Puna was isolated; there was no road into the area until 1898 or 1899.

The eastern, tradewind coast of Hawaiʻi was densely populated. Many streams flowed down the slopes of Mauna Kea into the ocean; near the mouths of which the land was used for irrigated taro.

The distribution and density of people in the Hawaiian Islands in 1853 was closely related to the food supply obtained from agriculture, aquaculture and fishing.

Taro, the most important plant raised for food, was cultivated both by wet land and dry land farming. Other dry land crops were also raised.

Areas where wet land taro was extensively cultivated were more densely populated than areas of dry land farming. Land in the vicinity of fish ponds was densely populated.

Most of the foreign population lived in Honolulu or other ports of call for whalers where they engaged in trade and commerce, although a few carried on pastoral industries or raised crops for export. (Coulter wrote a paper on this subject and it and its images are the basis of this summary.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Niihau_Population_Distribution-(Coulter)-1853

Kauai_Population_Distribution-(Coulter)-1853

Oahu-Population_Distribution-(Coulter)-1853

Molokai_Population_Distribution-(Coulter)-1853

Maui_Population_Distribution-(Coulter)-1853

Lanai_Population_Distribution-(Coulter)-1853

Hawaii_Island_Population_Distribution-(Coulter)-1853

February 26, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Grog

‘Grog’ is any liquor, but especially rum, that’s been diluted with water.

Grog was named after British Admiral Edward Vernon (whom the sailors called ‘Old Grog’ because he always wore a grogram coat (grogram is a coarse fabric of silk mixed with wool,)) who gave the order that the daily rations of rum aboard Her Majesty’s ships be diluted.

Pretty soon, taverns catering to sailors had taken up the practice, and grog became what was settled for when one couldn’t afford a stiffer dose. (Greer)

According to Kamakau, “The first taste that Kamehameha and his people had of rum was at Kailua in 1791 or perhaps a little earlier, brought in by Captain Maxwell.”

“Kamehameha went out to the ship with (John) Young and (Isaac) Davis when it was sighted off Keāhole Point and there they all drank rum. …. Then nothing would do but Kalanimōku must get some of this sparkling water, and he was the first chief to buy rum.”

Don Francisco de Paula Marin was a Spaniard who arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1793 or 1794 (at about the age of 20.) His knowledge of Western military weapons brought him to the attention of Kamehameha, who was engaged in the conquest of O‘ahu. Marin almost immediately became a trusted advisor to Kamehameha I.

Hawai‘i’s first accommodations for transients were established sometime after 1810, when Marin “opened his home and table to visitors on a commercial basis … Closely arranged around the Marin home were the grass houses of his workers and the ‘guest houses’ of the ship captains who boarded with him while their vessels were in port.”

He fermented the first wine in Hawai‘i and distilled brandy. He also made rum from sugarcane and brewed beer, all of which he sold at his boarding house-saloon near the waterfront.

Within a decade or so, Island residents were producing liquor on a commercial basis. “It was while Kamehameha was on Oʻahu that rum was first distilled in the Hawaiian group,” wrote Kamakau. “In 1809 rum was being distilled by the well-known foreigner, Oliver Holmes, at Kewalo.” Several small distilleries were in operation by the 1820s.

Although both Hawaiians and foreign residents had been drinking hard liquor – either bought from visiting ships or distilled locally – for many years, no mention of bars or saloons occurs in the historical record.

However, by November 1822, Honolulu had seventeen grog shops operated by foreigners. Drinking places were one of the earliest types of retail business started in the Islands. Later, more were established.

Whalers – primarily American vessels – began arriving in Hawai’i in the early-19th century; they were hunting whales primarily for the whale oil for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; with these ships and sailors came more rum; it became one of the sought-after items the Hawaiians traded for with the Westerners.

“There is scarcely a community in the world able to prevent the pestiferous influence of grog-shops to keep the habitual customers from excess, riot, and rum.” (Hiram Bingham)

The missionaries weren’t the only ones concerned about the effects of liquor. “Some ship-owners are afraid to have their ships come often to this port

Capt. Joy and others have been ordered by their owners not to come into this harbor to recruit, lest their men should be tempted to leave their vessel, or otherwise be led astray and induced to make trouble in consequence of the facilities for getting drunk and bringing other evils upon themselves.”

Capt. Beechey, of the ‘Blossom’ (of the British Royal Navy,) said to Kalanimōku, “If you do not suppress the grog-shops, I will not bring my ship into your harbor, when I return.” To which Kalanimōku replied, “I wish to suppress them, but the British consul owns one of them.” (Bingham)

“For some years after the arrival of missionaries at the islands it was not uncommon in going to the enclosure of the king, or some other place of resort, to find after a previous night’s revelry, exhausted cases of ardent spirits standing exposed …”

“… and the emptied bottles strewn about in confusion amidst the disgusting bodies of men, women and children lying promiscuously in the deep sleep of drunkenness.” (Dibble)

But the missionaries apparently also shared in the libations. As late as 1827, the Honolulu contingent ran in effect a liquor store for its members.

From May 15, 1826 to May 2, 1827, Hiram Bingham bought on his personal account 7 ½ gal of wine, 6 ¾ gal, 1 pt and a bottle of rum, 4 gal of brandy, 1 doz bottles of porter and 4 bottles of port. (Mission Account Book, Greer)

While visiting Anthony Allen for dinner (a former slave who had a home at what is now Washington Intermediate School,) Hiram’s wife, Sybil, notes in her diary, “He set upon the table decanters and glasses with wine and brandy to refresh us”. They ended dinner “with wine and melons”.

The Binghams were not the only missionaries to imbibe. Elisha Loomis bought 8 gal, 1 pt of wine, 1 gal of rum, and 1 ½ gal of brandy. Abraham Blatchley bought 4 gal of brandy, 2 gal of rum, and 2 gal of gin. Joseph Goodrich bought 2 ½ gal of wine and 1 qt of rum.

Samuel Ruggles bought 1 ¼ gal of brandy and 2 ¼ gal of wine. Levi Chamberlain bought 3 qts of wine and 2 qts of brandy. The Medical Department drew 4 gal of rum. (Mission Account Book, Greer)

However, they shortly got on the bandwagon against liquor and encouraged King Kamehameha III and most of the chiefs to pledge themselves to total abstinence. And, in part, became zealous preachers of temperance; the king himself frequently addressing the people on the subject. (The King and others regularly fell off the wagon.)

In March 1838, the first liquor license law was enacted, which prohibited all selling of liquors without a license under a fine of fifty dollars for the first offense, to be increased by the addition of fifty dollars for every repetition of the offense. (The Friend, December 1887)

All houses for the sale of liquor were to be closed at ten o’clock at night, and from Saturday night until Monday morning. Drunkenness was prohibited in the licensed houses under a heavy fine to the drinker, and the loss of his license to the seller. (The Friend, December 1887)

In 1843, the seamen’s chaplain, Samuel C. Damon, started ‘The Temperance Advocate and Seamen’s Friend;’ he soon changed its name to simply “The Friend.”

Through it, he offered ‘Six Hints to seamen visiting Honolulu’ (the Friend, October 8, 1852,) his first ‘Hint,’ “Keep away from the grog shops.”

However, that was pretty wishful thinking, given the number and distribution of establishments in the early-years of the fledgling city and port on Honolulu.

The map illustrates this, noting various grog shops and other places where it was sold in Honolulu, from the turn of the century to the mid-1800s (Info here and map based on Greer and geo-referenced into Google Earth.)

Here’s a list of these establishments/proprietors:

1. Shipyard Hotel
2. Alex. Smith’s Private Grog-Shop
3. Oahu Hotel and South Seas Tap
4. William R. Warren’s Boarding House
5. Joseph Navarro’s Hotel
6. Blonde (Boki House)
7. Ship And Whale, Blonde
8. Indigenous Grog-Shop
9. Pearl River House
10. Sign of the Ann
11. Joel Deadman, Alex. Smith, James Vowles, Church, Charles Turner
12. Telegraph Tavern
13. Eagle Tavern, National House Hotel
14. Shipwright Arms
15. John Crowne
16. Telegraph
17. John Hobbs
18. Commercial Hotel
19. Samuel Thompson
20. Samuel Thompson
21. Francisco De Paula Marin’s Boarding House And Hotel
22. Adelphi
23. William E. Gill’s Hotel
24. Louis Gravier, Thomas Mossman
25. Dog And Bell, Rising Sun, White Swan
26. The Red Lion
27. Alex. Smith’s, Samuel Thompson’s Grog Shops
28. Warren Hotel, Canton Hotel
29. The Blonde
30. Jose Nadal’s Grog-Shop
31. Globe Hotel
32. Hill And Robinson Coffee House
33. Alex. Smith And John Munn
34. Paulet Arms
35. French Hotel
36. Capt. Nye’s Boarding House
37. George Chapman’s Consular Boarding House
38. Samuel Thompson
39. Samuel Thompson
40. French Hotel
41. Royal Hotel, Desprairie’s Victualing House
42. French Hotel, Mrs. Carter’s Boarding House
43. Mansion House Hotel
44. Mrs. Dominis’s Boarding House
45. Robert Boyd’s Grog-Shop And Hotel

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Honolulu Grog Shops Map-Greer-GoogleEarth

Admiral_Edward_Vernon_'Old_Grog'_by_Thomas_Gainsborough

February 25, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“I Love The Flower That Constantly Attracts”

It’s the national flower of the Philippines (they call it ‘sampaguita,’ there) – it’s also one of the three national flowers in Indonesia, (the other two are the moon orchid and the giant padma.)

In Cambodia, the flower is used as an offering to Buddha. In India, it’s sacred to the god Vishnu and used in religious ceremonies. In China, the flower is processed and used as the main ingredient in jasmine tea.

In Oman, it features prominently on a child’s first birthday. Flowers are sprinkled on the child’s head by other children while chanting “hol hol” (the Arabic word for one year.)

It’s known as Jasminum sambac, a species of jasmine from the olive family (native to South and Southeast Asia.) It is known as the Arabian jasmine in English. (Other countries have other names for it.) The flowers are also used for perfumes.

“Plants that wake when others sleep. Timid jasmine buds that keep their fragrance to themselves all day, but when the sunlight dies away, let the delicious secret out, to every breeze that roams about.” (Thomas More, 16th Century)

The plant was introduced to Europe in the early 16th Century, although its existence had been known about for some time by then. It probably came into Hawaiʻi in the 1800s.

In Hawaiʻi, the flowers are woven into lei (it takes about 125 buds to make a single strand.)

It was the favorite flower of Princess Kaʻiulani. Kaʻiulani liked birds, too … especially peacocks.

The name of her birds (peacock – pīkake) carried over to become the name we use in Hawaiʻi for these flowers – the Pīkake.

Mapu ia ke ala o ka pīkake
I ka o aheahe a ka makani
Aloha aʻe au i ka pua ʻume mau

The fragrance of the pīkake is wafted
By a gentle blowing of the wind
I love the flower that constantly attracts
(Flanagan and Raymond)

Click here for a fabulous rendition of Lei Pīkake by Hapa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI92r0rkxuw

While attending a wedding at Waimea on the Big Island, Kaʻiulani got caught in a cold Waimea rain while riding on horseback with her friends, Helen and Eva Parker (daughters of Samuel Parker.) She became ill; she and her family returned to O‘ahu.

After a two-month illness, Kaʻiulani died at ʻĀinahau on March 6, 1899, at age 23. It is said that the night she died, her peacocks screamed so loud that people could hear them miles away and knew that she had died.

Princess Kaʻiulani’s mother was Princess Miriam Kapili Kekauluohi Likelike (sister of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani) and her father was Scottish businessman and horticulturist Archibald Scott Cleghorn, who later became Governor of Oʻahu.

In his writings, Robert Louis Stevenson endearingly recalled that Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani was “…more beautiful than the fairest flower.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Kaiulani_feeding_peacocks_at_Ainahau_1897

Pikake-jasminum_sambac__(arabian_jasmine)

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

February 22, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Moseying Along

Throughout the years of late-prehistory, AD 1400s – 1700s, and through much of the 1800s, the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi. Canoes were used for interisland and inter-village coastal travel.

Most permanent villages initially were near the ocean and at sheltered beaches, which provided access to good fishing grounds, as well as facilitating convenient canoe travel.

Although the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi, extensive cross-country trail networks enabled gathering of food and water and harvesting of materials for shelter, clothing, medicine, religious observances and other necessities for survival.

These trails were usually narrow, following the topography of the land. Sometimes, over ‘a‘ā lava, they were paved with water-worn stones.

Back then, land travel was only foot traffic, over little more than trails and pathways.

June 21, 1803 marked an important day in the history of Hawaiʻi land transportation and other uses when the Lelia Byrd, an American ship under Captain William Shaler (with commercial officer Richard Cleveland,) arrived at Kealakekua Bay with two mares and a stallion on board.

Before departing to give these gifts to Kamehameha (who was not on the island to accept them,) the captain left one of the mares with John Young (a trusted advisor of the King, who begged for one of the animals.)

Shaler and Cleveland then departed for Lāhainā, Maui to give the mare and stallion to King Kamehameha I.

Hawaiʻi had a new means of transportation (as well as a work-animal to help control the growing cattle population (gifts from Captain Vancouver in 1793.))

Until the mid-1800s, overland travel was predominantly by foot and followed the traditional trails.

In 1838, a major street improvement project was started. Honolulu was to be a planned town. Kinaʻu (Kuhina Nui Kaʻahumanu II) published the following proclamation: “I shall widen the streets in our city and break up some new places to make five streets on the length of the land, and six streets on the breadth of the land… Because of the lack of streets some people were almost killed by horseback riders …”

By the 1840s, the use of introduced horses, mules and bullocks for transportation was increasing, and many traditional trails – the ala loa and mauka-makai trails within ahupua‘a – were modified by removing the smooth stepping stones that caused the animals to slip.

A few remnants of the early uses of horses to get around can be seen. Circular indentations in curbs adjoining streets show the location of hitching rings used to tether horses outside businesses.

Typically, the evidence is iron stubs that fastened the rings to the curb. In Hilo, some curb rings can still be seen; along the curb of Kamehameha Avenue are two-inch rings spaced at intervals.

There is also evidence on Alakea Street, between King and Merchant, in Honolulu, fronting the Wolter Building (site of the former Occidental Hotel.)

Today, Hawaiʻi remains strong in the ranching tradition. Remnant hitching posts can be found outside of some businesses and homes. Rodeo grounds can be seen on most of the islands.

In 1868, horse-drawn carts operated by the Pioneer Omnibus Line went into operation in Honolulu, beginning the first public transit service in the Hawaiian Islands.

Honolulu resident HP Baldwin is credited with having the first automobile back in October 1899 (it was steam-powered.) The first gasoline-powered automobile arrived in the Islands in 1900.

In November of 1900, an electric trolley (tram line) was put into operation in Honolulu, and then in 1902, a tram line was built to connect Waikīkī and downtown Honolulu. The electric trolley replaced the horse-mule-driven tram cars.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Horse tethering ring-Hilo town along the curb of Kamehameha Avenue

Horse_tethering-marking-King_and_Alakea-Wolter_Building

Mamalahoa_Trail_as_horse_trail-1900s-(HMCS-NPS)

Buggies on Mt. Tantalus, Honolulu, 1900s.

Records of the Fire Dept show horses were used as early as April 1886. On Aug 15, 1891 a new steam engine arrived for Engine Co 1. The members of the company received the horses from merchants and tranined them for connection to the engine. Horses were not