Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pendulum Peak

Early pendulum experiments helped calculate the force of gravity. By taking different readings at different locations across the planet, it is possible to calculate the contours of the earth, as well as the density of the interior. (A later Foucault pendulum was used to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.)

Lt Charles Wilkes, as part of the US Exploring Expedition, came to Hawai‘i in 1840 with a 68-inch long pendulum and a pendulum clock. Just after new year’s in 1841, Wilkes conducted pendulum observations on the top of Mauna Loa, at a site they named Pendulum Peak. “The 3d proved fine, and the pendulum-clock and apparatus being arranged and adjusted, the clock was put in motion, and a comparison made with the three chronometers every two hours.”

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Lewers & Cooke

What started as a lumber company of Christopher H Lewers evolved into Lewers & Dickson, and eventually Lewers & Cooke. The primary parties in this process included Lewers, Robert Lewers (his cousin,) Joshua Gill Dickson and Charles Montague Cooke. Christopher Hamilton Lewers, a cabinet maker hailing from Dublin, Ireland, landed in Honolulu in about 1850. In 1852, he started into the business in the Islands with the purchase at auction of a cargo of eastern white pine shipped from the States via Cape Horn.

The Honolulu carpenters at that time kept on hand small lots of white pine to make sash, doors, blinds, etc, which were made entirely by hand. Lewers’ purchase cornered the market on white pine, and he found it a profitable transaction and made it the basis for a regular lumber business. At that time lumber, mostly Douglas fir. On January 1, 1901, Lewers & Cooke Ltd succeeded Lewers & Cooke. “A noteworthy fact in the establishment of the firm of Lewers & Cooke, Ltd., was the inclusion of a clause in the articles of incorporation empowering the directors to contribute a portion of the earnings for social, benevolent and religious purposes. It was the first time this had been done in Hawai‘i.”

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Pua‘aiki

The Pioneer Company of missionaries arrived in the Islands “early found among the thousands of their degraded inhabitants, a poor blind man, almost destitute of clothing, habitation, and friends. He was born at Waikapu … probably about the year 1785.” “He is poor and despised in his person, small almost to deformity; and in his countenance, from the loss of sight, not prepossessing. Still, in our judgment he bears on him the image and superscription of Christ; and if so, how striking an example of the truth of the Apostle’s declaration …”

“Having a shagged head of black hair, unshielded by a hat from tropical suns and showers, and, at middle age, a beard growing at full length under the chin, the rest being plucked out, he roamed shoeless, without moral or mental culture, without hope, and without a Saviour.” “His name is on heavenly records, and it is familiar to the ear of Protestant Christendom, as the Blind Hawaiian Preacher, or Bartimeus L Pua‘aiki.” “Residing chiefly at Wailuku for some two years, he itinerated and preached at many villages around the island, generally about three Sabbaths in a month at out-stations from five to twenty miles distant. … on Sabbath evening, September 17, 1843, he surrendered his liberated spirit into his gracious hands.”

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Chiefs Meeting King George IV

Liholiho (Kamehameha II) sailed from Honolulu, November 27, 1823, accompanied by his favorite wife Kamāmalu, Boki and his wife Liliha, Kekūanāo’a, Kapihe, Manuia, James Young Kanehoa, a few servants, and his interpreter John Rives. In London, Liholiho and Kamāmalu became ill. It is believed they probably contracted the measles on their visit to the Royal Military Asylum (now the Duke of York’s Royal Military School.) Kamāmalu (aged 22) died on July 8, 1824. The grief-stricken Kamehameha II (age 27) died six days later, on July 14, 1824. Prior to his death he asked to return and be buried in Hawai‘i.

By the death of the king, Boki became the leader of the party. After they had all regained their health and arrangements had been completed for their return to Hawaii, an interview was held (September 11, 1824) with King George IV who was accompanied by Secretary Canning and some other officials. “The king then asked Boki ‘What was the business on which you and your king came to this country?’ … Then Boki ‘We have come to confirm the words which Kamehameha I gave in charge to Vancouver, thus, ‘go back and tell King George to watch over me and my whole kingdom.’” “George IVth replied, you must look after the inside affairs, and I will look after the outside …”

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George Paul Cooke

Born in Honolulu, December 2, 1881, George Paul Cooke was grandson of missionaries Amos Starr and Juliette Montague Cooke and son of Charles Montague Cooke and Anna Charlotte (Rice) Cooke. He married Sophie Boyd Judd (granddaughter of missionaries Gerrit Parmele Judd and mother was Laura Fish Judd, daughter of Albert Francis Judd and Agnes Hall Judd) (April 4, 1906.) (They had six children, Dora, George Paul, Jr., Francis Judd, Thomas Hastings, Stephen Montague and Phoebe Cooke.)

In 1897, a group of Honolulu businessmen (including Judge Alfred S Hartwell, Alfred W Carter, and AD McClellan) purchased 70,000 acres from the trustees of the Bishop Estate and leased another 30,000 acres from the Hawaiian government. Molokai Ranch was formed. About 10-years later (December 1908,) the land was bought out by Cooke and his father; George Cooke took over the operation. Cooke was manager of Molokai Ranch for 40 years; when he left, he took with him a reputation as an honest and fair businessman, and the respect of the Hawaiian cowboys with whom he worked from the saddle.