Prominent People | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

November 12, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Grove Farm Homestead – Kaua‘i

The decline of the whaling industry following the discovery of petroleum oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859 created a temporary economic vacuum in Hawai‘i.

Although sugar had a relatively slow start after the initial first successful sugar plantation at Kōloa, Kaua‘i (1835,) it soon started to prosper.

However, it wasn’t until the American Civil War, which virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s, that Hawai‘i was able to compete in a California market that paid elevated prices for sugar.

It was about this time (1864) that George Norton Wilcox (known as GN,) the second son of eight boys, born in Hilo August 15, 1839 to missionary parents, Abner and Lucy Wilcox, took over the lease for Grove Farm sugar operation on Kaua‘i and quickly became its sole owner.

The plantation had initially been chopped out of a large grove of kukui trees and was thereafter called the Grove Farm.

Initially schooled at Punahou, he then studied engineering on the mainland at the Sheffield Scientific School, now a part of Yale University; GN was an enterprising innovator of plantation sugar culture.

GN realized that his plantation lacked enough water, which is the key to successfully growing sugar. His first major innovation was the engineering and digging of an extensive irrigation ditch, in which water was brought from the mountains to his thirsty sugar fields.

Many modernizing changes occurred throughout the plantation, from the construction of the innovative water irrigation system to the creation of new cultivating machinery and planting methods to the use of the first sugar cane seed planter in the islands.

His Grove Farm Homestead was the center of operations for the developing sugar plantation and involved the relationship of family life, plantation activity, household work, gardening and farming which continue as a part of the experience of visiting Grove Farm today.

Today, the 100-acre Grove Farm Homestead preserves the earliest surviving set of domestic, agricultural and sugar plantation buildings, furnishings and collections, surrounding orchards and pasturelands in Hawaiʻi.

Grove Farm Homestead is the finest example in Hawaii of a complete plantation operation still in its original form. The estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Hawaii on June 25, 1974.

The original house (pre-dated 1854; exact date unknown) started as a single story, wood frame structure with a very high pitched hip roof with very wide eave overhand which is supported by square wood posts at the eave and covers a veranda which encircles the house on three sides.

To the rear of this building is a kitchen-food preparation building with access off the veranda.

During a 1915 renovation of the structure (under the direction of CW Dickey,) walls were removed and large openings placed adjoining each of the three rooms creating a feeling of openness and flow from one space to another.

The main estate house has two bedrooms, writing room, two bathrooms and a library on the first floor. A grand staircase leads up to the second floor which has more bedrooms. Behind the main house is a hexagonal gazebo styled after a Japanese teahouse, built in 1898.

To the south is a guest cottage divided into two living areas, built around 1890. Another single story cottage was built in 1877 for GN Wilcox, and an office building was built in 1884. A number of support buildings include a tool shed (dated 1870,) a garage and a number of small, single-story, wood-frame plantation workers’ houses.

The plantation buildings reflect a style adaptive to climatic conditions in the area (wide veranda, high pitched roofs), while the main house is a unique reminder of the 1850s renovated into the 20th Century.

Historically, Grove Farm Homestead is of great importance to Hawai‘i. It was developed under the direction of George N. Wilcox, one of the most important men in Hawaiʻi from the 1860s to 1933, when he died at the age of 93.

GN Wilcox was not only a plantation owner; he was also an engineer, statesman, businessman and a world traveler. More importantly, he was also a philanthropist and humanist, who left an extensive legacy of endowments and public donations behind him.

The main house is now a private museum with tours by appointment. Advance reservations are required for an unhurried two-hour guided tour of the buildings, gardens and grounds at Grove Farm.

Tours are given in small groups and are led by Kaua‘i residents familiar with life on the island, and are offered on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, beginning promptly at 10 am and 1 pm. There is a $20 requested donation for adults and $10 for children 5-12 years old.

A few decades ago, I had the opportunity to have a private tour of the Grove Farm Homestead with Barnes Risnik, then manager of the Grove Farm Homestead Museum. That was an awesome and memorable experience.

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19991001 – George N. Wilcox. 1880? Press release photo.

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November 8, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

What’s in a name?

In ancient Hawaiʻi, there were no “towns,” “villages” or “cities,” in the modern context. Around the 1400-1500s, the land was broken down into ahupuaʻa, ʻili and other physical subdivisions.

All of the land was owned by the ruling chief. Each ahupuaʻa in turn was ruled by a lower chief, or aliʻi ʻai. He, in turn, appointed an overseer, or konohiki. (The common people never owned or ruled land.)

A typical ahupuaʻa (what we generally refer to as watersheds, today) was a long strip of land, narrow at its mountain summit top and becoming wider as it ran down a valley into the sea to the outer edge of the reef. If there was no reef then the sea boundary would be about one and a half miles from the shore.

Each ahupuaʻa had its own name and boundary lines. Often the markers were natural features such as a large rock or a line of trees or even the home of a certain bird. A valley ahupuaʻa usually used its ridges and peaks as boundaries.

An ahupuaʻa in South Kohala on the Island of Hawaiʻi is Waimea (reddish water (as from erosion of red soil.)) Over time, the growing community concentrated at a cross-road at the lower slopes of the Kohala Mountains – that town was referred to as Waimea.

The Territory, officially through the US Board of Geographic Names, in 1914, agreed to name the community “Waimea” (and further noted it as a “village.”) Later, in 1954, they revised the name to simply Waimea (and dropped the village reference.)

While there are several other “Waimea” communities in the islands, and folks don’t seem to get confused with the name, the naming of the Post Office in Waimea was different.

On July 16 1832, Missionary Lorenzo Lyons (Makua Laiana) replaced Reverend Dwight Baldwin as minister at Waimea, Hawai‘i. Lyons’ “Church Field” was centered in Waimea, at what is now the historic church ‘Imiola.

He was known in the town as the man who carried out many functions. In October, 1854 Father Lyons became the first official Postmaster of Waimea, a post he held until he was very old. The Honolulu Directory of 1884 listed him as pastor of ʻImiola Church, postmaster, school agent and government physician.

In the early 1830s it took one year or more for mail to reach Waimea from the continent, coming by way of Cape Horn. When the transcontinental railroad was built, it took about a month for mail to reach Waimea.

Prior to 1854 there was no regular mail service on the Islands. Letters were forwarded by chance opportunities. Father Lyons described the first official shipment of mail that he handled, a small bag, sealed with wax, and containing a few letters. This first mail shipment had been carried from Hilo to Waimea.

Over the years, the communities across the state grew. With that, some uncertainty over postal facility names apparently created some confusion. In addition to the Waimea postal station in South Kohala, there was another “Waimea” post office on Kauai.

At the time, Waimea, Kauai was a larger community. To avoid confusion, on November 8, 1900, the Waimea, Hawaii Island Post Office was changed to Kamuela Post Office. (USPS Daily Bulletin, January 9, 1901) The Postmaster was Elizabeth W. Lyons, daughter of Lorenzo Lyons.

There are a couple stories about where the “Kamuela” (Samuel) name came from.

Some incorrectly suggest it was named after Samuel M Spencer (suggesting he was a Postmaster for the facility – however, there are no records that indicate he ever held that position.)

Samuel Spencer was, however, a prominent member of the community and member of the Hawaii Island Board of Supervisors serving at its Chair (equivalent to the present position of Mayor, from 1924-1944; the island’s longest serving.)

The Spencer story was told that when mail sorters in Honolulu were dividing the mail, they would “send it to Kamuela” (calling him by name, suggesting he would receive and deliver it.) Since he apparently was never with the postal service, this story doesn’t seem plausible.

Spencer was politically prominent almost 25-years after the Post Office name change. Likewise, there are no known references to Sam Spencer using “Kamuela” as his moniker. And, acknowledgment to him was made in the naming of a coastal beach park – Samuel M Spencer Beach Park (with no Kamuela reference.) That park was renamed “Spencer Park at ʻŌhaiʻula Beach,” in 2003.

What seems plausible (and is supported by documentation within the records of the US Board of Geographic Names) is the story that the Kamuela Post Office was named for Samuel “Kamuela” Parker, grandson of John Parker (founder of the Parker Ranch.)

In 1868, when his grandfather died, Samuel (at the age of 15) inherited half the Parker Ranch, with his uncle John Palmer Parker II (1827–1891) inheriting the other half. Samuel was attending Punahou School on Oʻahu at the time.

In 1883, Parker took his first political role when he became a member of the Privy Council of King Kalākua. He was appointed to the House of Nobles in the legislature from 1886 to 1890.

In early-1891, Kalākaua died and Queen Liliʻuokalani became the new ruler; Parker was appointed to be her Minister of Foreign Affairs. (Samuel Parker was notably successful well before the Post Office name change.)

While I previously bought into the “send it to Kamuela” scenario, it’s clear to me now that Kamuela Post Office was named after Samuel Parker, grandson of John Parker and prominent Waimea and Hawaiʻi citizen.

A sad side story: Samuel’s daughters, Helen and Eva Parker, were friends of Princess Kaʻiulani, and, sadly, riding horseback in a rainstorm on Parker Ranch led to her illness and untimely death a few months later.

An interesting postal side story: Postal Service to Kamuela Post Office was discontinued on March 5, 1908 and mail was rerouted to Kukuihaele. (USPS Daily Bulletin, March 5, 1908)

On May 9, 1908, the order was modified and mail was rerouted to Kawaihae, instead of Kukuihaele. ((USPS Daily Bulletin, May 9, 1908) Post services were reestablished at Kamuela Post Office on June 9, 1909. (USPS Daily Bulletin, August 6, 1909)

It turns out a former postmaster and his nephew (Moses Koki and Joshua Koki, respectively) were charged with the embezzlement of post office funds from the Kamuela post office. (The Hawaiian Star, March 18, 1908)

Remember, it’s the Post Office that is called “Kamuela;” the region and town have long been and continue to be known as “Waimea.”

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November 6, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Foster Botanical Garden

In 1853, Queen Kalama leased 4.6 acres of land to William Hillebrand, a botanist as well as a physician; he and his wife built a home in the upper terrace area of the present garden. The magnificent trees which now tower over this area were planted by him.

Six years after his arrival, he and nine other Honolulu physicians petitioned to charter an organization called the Hawaiian Medical Society. Today, it is the Hawaii Medical Association.

Appointed physician to the royal family at The Queen’s Hospital (now The Queen’s Medical Center), Hillebrand also served as chief physician at the hospital from 1860 to 1871.

While on a mission for the King to bring Chinese immigrants to work in the islands’ sugar fields, Hillebrand introduced Common Myna birds to Honolulu (as well as “carrion crows, gold finches, Japanese finches, Chinese quail, ricebirds, Indian sparrows; golden, silver and Mongolian pheasants; and [two] axis deer from China and Java”.)

After 20 years, Hillebrand returned to Germany, where he published Flora of the Hawaiian Islands in 1888.

In 1884, the Hillebrand property was sold Thomas R. Foster and his wife Mary E. Foster, who continued to develop the garden at their homesite.

In 1919, Foster leased two-acres to the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association for its experiment station, under the direction of Dr. Harold L. Lyon, a botanist and plant pathologist.

Lyon proceeded to build on the work of plant conservation and landscape architecture which Dr. Hillebrand and Mrs. Foster had initiated. By 1925, his plant nursery had produced over a million trees, most of them exceptional varieties which were not grown elsewhere.

Hundreds of new species of trees and plants had been imported, cultivated and distributed throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

Upon Mrs. Foster’s death in 1930, the 5.5 acre site was bequeathed to the City and County of Honolulu as a public garden and was opened to the public on November 30, 1931, with Lyon as its first director.

Over a span of 27 years, Dr. Lyon introduced 10,000 new kinds of trees and plants to Hawaiʻi. The Foster Garden orchid collection was started with Dr. Lyon’s own plants.

Through purchases by the City and gifts from individuals, under the directorship of Paul R. Weissich (1957-89), Foster Garden expanded to over 13.5-acres and also developed four additional sites on Oahu Island to create the 650-acre Honolulu Botanical Gardens system (including, Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden, Koko Crater Botanical Garden, Liliʻuokalani Botanical Garden and Wahiawa Botanical Garden.)

Taken as a whole, these five gardens feature rare species from tropical environments ranging from desert to rainforest, comprising the largest and most diverse tropical plant collection in the United States.

In addition to being a pleasant place to visit, Foster Botanical Garden is a living museum of tropical plants, some rare and endangered, which have been collected from throughout the world’s tropics over a period of 150 years.

Today the garden consists of the Upper Terrace (the oldest part of the garden); Middle Terraces (palms, aroids, heliconias, gingers); Economic Garden (herbs, spices, dyes, poisons); Prehistoric Glen (primitive plants planted in 1965); Lyon Orchid Garden; and Hybrid Orchid Display.

It also contains a number of exceptional trees, including a Sacred Fig which is a clone descendant of the Bodhi tree that Buddha sat under for inspiration, a sapling of which was gifted to Mary Foster by Anagarika Dharmapala in 1913.

In 1975, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature found that rapid development had led to the destruction of many of the State’s exceptional trees and passed Act 105 – The Exceptional Tree Act.

The Act recognizes that trees are valuable for their beauty and they perform crucial ecological functions. All told, Foster Botanical Garden contains 25 of about 100 Oʻahu trees designated as exceptional.

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Bodhi_tree_foster_botanical_gardens-Genetically identical to the Bodhi Tree (original) at Sri Mahabodhi temple, India

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Daibutsu-replica of the Great Buddha of Kamakura-dedicated in 1968 for centennial of Japanese immigration to Hawaii

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False Olive Tree, Elaeodendron orientale

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October 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kainalu

This spot was formerly called Kalehuawehe. The surf break ‘Castles’ is named after the Castle family’s four-story beachfront home.

In 1837, Samuel Northrup Castle arrived in Honolulu as a missionary. He left Hawaiʻi for a short time then returned as a businessman for the mission. With Amos Cooke, he founded Castle & Cooke Company in 1851 – it grew into being one of Hawaiʻi’s “Big Five” companies.

One of his ten children would surpass him as a businessman. James Bicknell Castle was born November 27, 1855 in Honolulu to Samuel and Mary (Tenney) Castle. He attended Punahou School 1867–1873, and then Oberlin College.

Castle acquired property in Waikīkī; it had been the home of Boki, the governor of O’ahu, and his wife Liliha. In 1899, James B. Castle built his Waikīkī home and called it ‘Kainalu.’ It was a lavishly furnished four-story mansion with extensive grounds, an ocean pier and other amenities.

In business, he greatly expanded Castle & Cooke in the sugar and railroad industries. One of his first moves was in 1890 when Lorrin Thurston and others joined to create the Kahuku Plantation Company on land subleased from Benjamin Dillingham.

Castle is credited with winning control of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company from Claus Spreckels in 1898, which he sold to Alexander & Baldwin for a large share of their stock. He later bought large amounts of land, such as Kāneʻohe Ranch.

He then moved to his next phase of his work, which was to connect the Dillingham’s Oahu Railway & Land Co. (OR&L) in Kahuku with the proposed street railway system in Honolulu by way of the Windward Coast.

His plan was to extend his Koʻolau Railroad Co. south of Kahana Bay through Kāneʻohe and Kailua, and on to Waimanalo where it would go through a tunnel and into Manoa Valley and connect with the Rapid Transit & Land Co.

Unfortunately, he died in 1918 before the project could be completed; however, he ran the line from Kahuku to Kahana Bay and extended his plantation and used this railway to haul it to the Kahuku mill. The train service completely closed down by 1952.

When Castle died, his widow found the beachfront property more than she wished to keep up. Mrs. James B. Castle was impressed by the charitable work being done by the Elks (the Honolulu Elks Lodge 616 was established on April 15, 1901) and in 1920 sold them 155,000 square feet on the beach at Waikīkī complete with lavish home, for $1 a square foot.

For decades, the Elks membership and officers worked to raise funds to pay off the mortgage. Every possible method of raising funds was tried. Elks held carnivals, “smokers,” baseball matches, boxing matches, theatricals, auctions, circuses, concerts and dances.

Funds were raised for charity, and a bit set aside to retire the mortgage. Finally, on March 3, 1943, as members sang “Auld Lang Syne;” the mortgage was burned with great ceremony.

Several times since 1920 the sale of the property was proposed and even authorized, but motions were defeated or rescinded. Most prominent was a protracted discussion with the Outrigger Canoe Club, which was looking for a new home.

Between 1954 and 1956, Outrigger Canoe Club made several offers to purchase about half the Castle property. All were refused. Eventually, in 1955, the Elks agreed to lease property to Outrigger. Negotiations continued, and a lease was signed effective November 17, 1956.

In 1958 the Lodge determined to raze Kainalu and rebuild a new lodge. After an April gala aloha event, the old Lodge was demolished in June of 1959. Ground breaking for the new building took place on August 17, 1959. On June 20, 1960, the first meeting was held in a new building, the present lodge building.

In the sand, constantly washed by the waves, are 6 flat-topped black basalt rocks set in cement. The rock is said to come from the Kaimuki Quarry. Also visible is one round, bowl-shaped object. These are the last remnants of the James Castle home.

The multi-sided stones were the footings for pillars holding up the Castle home’s dining room. Facing the ocean, 9 tubular wooden pillars sat on the round cement footings, and in the rear a second row of heavier pillars sat on the lava rock.

In 2007, a rent dispute between the Elks Lodge and Outrigger Canoe Club was settled by a three-member arbitration panel. Terms of the new rent between the next-door neighbors were not disclosed because of a confidentiality agreement (the Elks Lodge, the landowner, was seeking up to $1 million or more a year in rent from the canoe club for a 99-year lease that was renegotiated midway through the term.)

James Castle and his wife had one child, Harold Castle; in the form of various gifts, Harold Castle is the man behind Castle Hospital, Castle High School, Kainalu Elementary, Central Union Windward Church and the Windward Branch of Hawaiʻi Pacific University.

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An aerial view of the Elks Lodge’s original Waikiki building.

James Castle estate built in 1899 and sold to the Elks Club in 1920. Torn down in 1951

Mrs. Castle, widow of businessman James B. Castle, sold their Waikiki home to the Elks after he died in 1918.

October 19, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Chen Fang

Zhongshan (historically known as Xiangshan), one of the few cities in China with an eponymous name (a person or thing, whether real or fictional, after which a particular place or other item is named,) is named after Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) who was also known as Sun Zhongshan. Xiangshan was renamed Zhongshan in 1925 following Sun Yat-sen’s death.

Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese revolutionary and first president and founding father of the Republic of China (“Nationalist China”). (Dr. Sun Yat-Sen spent four years in Hawaiʻi (1879-1883) and attended three Christian educational institutions: ʻIolani College, St. Louis College and Oʻahu College (Punahou School.))

But this story isn’t about Sun Yat-sen; it’s about someone from his hometown.

In 1849, Chen Fang left his Xiangshan village for Honolulu to profit from a business boom caused by the California Gold Rush (he left a wife and son behind.)

There were only about a hundred Chinese in the entire kingdom when he arrived. He was in his mid-twenties, of average height (about five and a half feet) and sparingly built; it was his piercing black eyes that people remembered.

At that time, there was no Chinatown in Honolulu. The Cantonese enterprises were scattered throughout the small business district at the harbor’s edge.

Over the years in Hawaiʻi, he was widely known as Chun Afong, a respected Cantonese merchant, who was proficient in the Hawaiian and English languages, and conversant with Western manners.

In 1852, the importing of contract labor from China began; these new Chinese to Hawaiʻi were from a different province and spoke a different dialect than their entrepreneurial predecessors – and the two groups of Chinese didn’t get along very well.

Hawaiians and Caucasians drew a distinction between resident Chinese merchants and the imported field laborers. “It is to be regretted that the Chinese coolie emigrants … have not realized the hopes of those who incurred the expense of their introduction,” said King Kamehameha IV in a major address on immigration. (Kuykendall)

“They are not so kind and tractable as it was anticipated they would be; and they seem to have no affinities, attractions or tendencies to blend with this, or any other race.” (Kuykendall)

By 1855, Afong had made his fortune in retailing, real estate, sugar and rice, and for a long time held the government’s opium license (he is Hawaiʻi’s first Chinese millionaire.)

Throughout the reign of Kamehameha IV, which was marked by good feelings among Honolulu’s racial groups, the public image of the Cantonese merchants remained generally favorable, in part because of their unfailing generosity to the throne and their commitment to civic betterment.

Chun Afong became the leader of the Chinese community and prospered in business. He married a hapa haole woman (Julia Fayerweather) and reared a large family.

Afong’s business was headquartered in Hawaiʻi, but with his two brothers, he also had stores in San Francisco and Hong Kong. Moreover, he reportedly had interests in mercantile businesses in Canton, Macau and Shanghai, and agricultural lands in Zhongshan.

He lived in the grand style mansion on Nuʻuanu Avenue and School Street in Honolulu, and a villa on Waikīkī Beach. His Waikīkī villa was on three acres of landscaped oceanfront property.

Here he gave grand parties for royalty, diplomats, military officers and other dignitaries. (In 1904 the US Army purchased the Waikīkī property to make way for the construction of Fort DeRussy.)

In 1873, Afong spent some time in China with his China wife and fathered another son. His Hawaiʻi enterprises continued to prosper and when Kaupakuea, a sugar plantation outside of Hilo he was leasing. It became available for purchase in October 1874; he bought it.

Chun Afong financially supported Kalākaua’s candidacy “in a quiet way;” Kalākaua won the legislative election. Chun Afong stepped out from behind the political scenes to accept appointments in 1879, first as a member of the Privy Council to Kalākaua and then as Chinese commercial agent (and de facto Chinese consulate.)

When the Hawaiian government adopted anti-Chinese policies following the rebellion of 1887, he removed himself and much of his capital to Hong Kong (here he made investments in real estate, shipping, banking and merchandising ventures.)

After three decades in Hawaiʻi, the “Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains” (as coined by historian Bob Dye) returned to China to get richer. His first fortune, made in Hawaiʻi as a planter and merchant, fueled his China enterprises and funded his philanthropic works.

For his philanthropy he was granted official rank by the Qing government, and to honor him memorials were erected in his home village of Meixi, located about nine miles north of Macau.

The memorials still stand on the entrance road to the small agricultural village, but the villagers who bicycle past them today have no knowledge of the man who, a century before, commanded a business empire that stretched from China’s Pearl River Delta across the Pacific to San Francisco.

Afong’s family life was fictionalized in a famous short story, “Chun Ah Chun,” by Jack London and in a Broadway musical comedy, Thirteen Daughters, by Eaton Magoon Jr., a great-grandson of Afong.

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Chun Afong's house in Honolulu built in the Western and Chinese styles in the 1850s and torn down in 1902_(WC)

Afong Villa Marker