Images of Old Hawaiʻi

  • Home
  • About
  • Archive
    • Ali’i / Chiefs / Governance
    • Buildings
    • Economy
    • Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings
    • General
    • Hawaiian Traditions
    • Military
    • Place Names
    • Prominent People
    • Schools
    • Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

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.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2019 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Kainalu-aerial
Kainalu-from ocean
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
Kainalu_Side
Kainalu-James_B._Castle_home_in_Waikiki
Kainalu_Elks-interior
Mrs. Castle, widow of businessman James B. Castle, sold their Waikiki home to the Elks after he died in 1918.
Kainalu_Elks-interior-event
Kainalu-Elks-exterior-front
Kainalu-front
Kainalu-Elks-exterior-socializing
Kainalu-Elks-interior
Kainalu-Elks-interior-stairs
Kainalu-interior

Filed Under: Buildings, Economy, Prominent People Tagged With: Castle and Cooke, Hawaii, Kahuku, Kainalu, Kapiolani Park, Oahu, Outrigger Canoe Club, Waikiki

May 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Downtown Honolulu In 1950

A picture is worth a thousand words; they (and maps) tell stories. This map tells lots of stories … and brings back some great memories.

OK, I wasn’t even born when the map was printed. But a few years later, when I was a kid, there are a lot of familiar places (and associated stories) depicted on this map.

Take some time looking at the ownership and operations up and down the streets. There have been lots of changes since then – but the memories are still here.

Back then, Bishop only went to Beretania – with no further mauka extension (it finally popped through and extended/ connected to the Pali Highway and became the windward gateway into “Town.”)
Bishop Street was the home of the Big 5. Bishop Street was and continues to be the center of Hawai‘i commerce and banking (in the center of the map, running up/down.)

Did you notice their placement on Bishop Street (and to each other) back then (as well as the battling banks across Bishop Street from each other?)

Five major companies emerged to provide operations, marketing, supplies and other services for the plantations and eventually came to own and manage most of them. They became known as the Big 5:

  • Amfac (1849) – Hackfeld & Company – a German firm that later became American Factors Ltd (Amfac.) It was started by a young German selling goods to whalers and grew to manage and control various sugar operations.
  • Alexander & Baldwin (1870) – started by Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of missionaries. It was the only Big 5 that started in sugar. Their irrigation project sent water 17-miles from Haleakala to 3,000-dry sugar cane acres in central Maui.
  • Theo H. Davies (1845) – a British firm that started as a small isle trading company and expanded into other businesses including sugar, transportation and insurance.
  • Castle & Cooke (1851) – founded by missionaries (Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke,) which originally sold sewing machines, farm tools and medicine in Hawaii. It later bought stock in sugar plantations and focused on sugar companies.
  • C. Brewer – (1826) founded by James Hunnewell, an officer on the Thaddeus that brought the original missionaries to Hawai‘i in 1820. He returned in 1826 to set up a trading company specialized in supplying whaling ships but then moved into sugar and molasses. The firm’s namesake, Capt. Charles Brewer, became a partner in 1836.

Another Hawai‘i family and company, Dillingham, started in the late-1800s, although not a “Big Five,” deserves some attention – it’s offices were down there, too (next to the Big 5.)

They played a critical role in agricultural operations through leasing land and controlling some operations, but mostly moved the various goods on OR&L.

Back in the ‘50s, Fort Street was “it” for shopping (to the left of Bishop Street, also running mauka/makai – now, it’s mostly a pedestrian mall.)

You can read the names of old Honolulu retail iconic institutions – Liberty House, McInerny, Watumull and Andrade – along with Kress, Woolworths, National Dollar and Longs Drugs.

I remember the “moving windows” during Christmas season; we’d pile in the station wagon and take a special trip over the Pali to downtown to Christmas shop (the Pali Tunnels and Ala Moana Center weren’t open until 1959.)

We’d walk up and down Fort Street and look at all the animated window displays, then stop in at a restaurant for dinner (one of our favorites was Fisherman’s Wharf at Kewalo Basin.)

‘Iolani Palace is on the site labeled Territorial Executive Grounds (we’re still nine years away from statehood;) mauka of it had different uses – it’s now the State Capitol and Hotel Street walkway.

The YWCA (just to the left of ‘Iolani Palace) is still going strong and nearby was the YMCA, now converted to the Hawai‘i State Art Museum and state offices.

The Alexander Young Hotel, opened in 1903 (on Bishop between Hotel and King,) was later converted hold offices and was demolished in 1981.

You can see some roads have changed or have been consolidated into adjoining properties. Did you notice, back then, Ala Moana/Nimitz on the map was called Queen Street?

In my early years in real estate (while still a student at UH, I used to do research in the Tax Office and Bureau of Conveyances (lower right of map.) Fifty-years later, I directed DLNR which now has the Bureau of Conveyances under its management umbrella.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2019 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950
Bishop Street ended at Beretania in 1959
American Factors Building was demolishe
American Factors Building was demolishe
Amfac-Building-corner-of-Fort-Queen-Streets
Amfac-Building-corner-of-Fort-Queen-Streets
Theo H Davies Building-1920s
Theo H Davies Building-1920s
Queen-Street-view-of-C.-Brewer-Building
Queen-Street-view-of-C.-Brewer-Building
c brewer & co ltd
c brewer & co ltd
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
Dillingham_Transportation_Building
Dillingham_Transportation_Building
Queens_Hospital-1954
Queens_Hospital-1954
Schuman Carriage-corner of Beretania and Richards-the entire block was torn down to build the State Capitol Building-1950s
Schuman Carriage-corner of Beretania and Richards-the entire block was torn down to build the State Capitol Building-1950s
McInerny
McInerny
Alexander Young Building
Alexander Young Building
Honolulu Iron Works 1960. Today it is the location of Restaurant Row.
Honolulu Iron Works 1960. Today it is the location of Restaurant Row.
Honolulu Harbor-1950s
Honolulu Harbor-1950s
Fort Street looking mauka from King street-11-08-59
Fort Street looking mauka from King street-11-08-59
Downtown Honolulu in 1956. McInerny on the left, and the overhead lines are for trolley buses
Downtown Honolulu in 1956. McInerny on the left, and the overhead lines are for trolley buses
Bishop_Street-1954
Bishop_Street-1954
Bishop_Street_Looking_Makai-Dillingham_Transportation_Bldg-1940
Bishop_Street_Looking_Makai-Dillingham_Transportation_Bldg-1940
Honolulu_Harbor-Downtown-aerial-1950s
Honolulu_Harbor-Downtown-aerial-1950s
Downtown_Honolulu-1957
Downtown_Honolulu-1957
Honolulu and Vicinity-Transit-Map-1949
Honolulu and Vicinity-Transit-Map-1949
Honolulu-HVB-map-1952
Honolulu-HVB-map-1952

Filed Under: Buildings, Economy, General Tagged With: Alexander and Baldwin, Amfac, Bishop Street, C Brewer, Castle and Cooke, Dillingham, Downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu, Theo H Davies

April 3, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mānoa Heritage Center

Mānoa Heritage Center is a non-profit organization, whose mission is to promote stewardship of the natural and cultural heritage of Hawai‘i. The site consists of Kūali‘i, a Tudor-style house built in 1911, Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau and a Native Hawaiian garden.

The site is the former home of Charles Montague Cooke, Jr. Charles Montague Cooke Sr gave the land to his son in 1902. On it his son established Kaimi dairy.

In 1911, Emory & Webb, a major architectural firm in Honolulu, designed this house, and it stands as one of their major works from this period. Other works of theirs from this time include the YMCA and the First Methodist Church.

Amos Starr Cooke came to Hawai‘i in 1837 as a missionary. He and his wife Juliette, were selected by King Kamehameha III to educate the next generation of Hawai‘i leadership (including Kamehameha IV and V, Lunalilo, Kalākaua, Lili‘uokalani and others)

Cooke later founded the firm of Castle & Cooke in 1851, which became one of the ‘Big Five’ sugar companies, which dominated so much of Hawai’ i’s economic, social and political history up through World War II.

Charles Montague Cooke Jr. was the grandson of Amos Starr Cooke and the son of Charles Montague Cooke. His father was the President of both C Brewer, another of the ‘Big Five’ firms, and the Bank of Hawai’i.

Dr. Charles Montague Cooke Jr. was born in Honolulu in 1874, and attended Punahou and Yale. In 1901 he received his PhD and went to Europe to do scientific work in London and Paris.

In 1902 he returned to Hawai’i to work at the Bishop Museum, where he made valuable contributions to the field of malachology, the branch of zoology that deals with mollusks, especially with regards to the study of Hawaiian land snails. He headed a number of scientific expeditions throughout Polynesia and was the author of 45 scientific works. (NPS)

Kūali‘i, the house on the site, is a two-story Tudor revival style house. It is situated at the top of a hill in Mānoa Valley and has a large front lawn gracefully landscaped with several mature monkey pod and shower trees. The front of the house is separated from Mānoa Road by a stone wall, and a circular drive provides vehicular access to the property. (NPS)

The lava rock basement and first floor support half-timber and stucco second and third floors. The home has three bays with a large 2-story porte cochere off the center bay. Two stonewall chimneys anchor the outside bays. The stone was quarried in the front year where the driveway now circles between two stone pillars of the front rock wall.

The house was originally going to be sited where a heiau (temple) was situated – and use the stone from the heiau as the foundation. Instead, the house was located so as not to disturb the heiau. (Ferraro; Pōhaku) The heiau was later restored.

According to legends, the menehune built a fort and heiau at the top of the hill ‘Ulumalu. They were driven away from their fort by the high chief Kūali‘i during his reign (sometime in the 1700s). Kuali‘i rebuilt it after his seizure of the fort. (Cultural Surveys)

This heiau was the center piece of a string of heiaus that strung across the Kona district. The existence of such an important heiau at the mouth of the valley could be taken as an indication of the early importance of Mānoa.

Another legend says that the menehune were driven from their fort and temple by the owls, who became their bitter enemies.
The legends say that the fairy people, the Menehunes, built a temple and a fort a little farther up the valley above Pu‘u-pueo, at a place called Kūka‘ō‘ō.

Surrounding Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau is a Native Hawaiian garden featuring endemic and indigenous plants, as well as Polynesian introductions.

In addition, a Polynesian Introduced Garden offers an array of ‘Canoe Plants’ representing those that may have come with ancient seafarers from the Marquesas, Tahiti, Samoa and other South Pacific archipelagoes.

The first settlers of Hawaiʻi arriving by canoe, brought many of their favorite plants for food, seasoning, medicine, making household items and implements to farm, build structures and use for clothing.

Taro (kalo) became the staple of the Hawaiian diet and they developed hundreds of varieties, adapted to suit diverse terrain and weather conditions. Sweet potato (uala) was sometimes substituted for taro in the drier areas.

Tumeric (ʻolena) was used to produce a brilliant yellow orange dye for clothing, coconut (niu) for bowls, drums and roof tops, and kawa (ʻawa) to ease a painful headache were treasured supplies. (Mānoa Heritage Center)

The house, heiau and gardens are part of the Mānoa Heritage Center, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote stewardship of the natural and cultural heritage of Hawai‘i. It was the home of Sam and Mary Cooke and the restoration of the property was through their efforts.

Currently, Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau and garden tours are available, guided by volunteer docents. Reservations are needed with two-week advance notice preferred.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2018 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Manoa Heritage Center map
Manoa Heritage Center map
Kukaoo_Heiau-AuthorGeneParola
Kukaoo_Heiau-AuthorGeneParola
Kukaoo_Heiau-AnnCecil
Kukaoo_Heiau-AnnCecil
Kualii-Manoa Rd-2859-gateposts-WC
Kualii-Manoa Rd-2859-gateposts-WC
Kualii-from-Oahu Ave-below-WC
Kualii-from-Oahu Ave-below-WC
Honolulu-Manoa-Road-2859-WC
Honolulu-Manoa-Road-2859-WC
Charles-Montague-Cooke-Jr-House-WC
Charles-Montague-Cooke-Jr-House-WC
Kualii-Manoa-Valley-above-WC
Kualii-Manoa-Valley-above-WC

Filed Under: Buildings, Economy, General, Hawaiian Traditions, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Place Names, Prominent People Tagged With: Amos Cooke, Castle and Cooke, Charles Montague Cooke, Hawaii, Juliette Cooke, Manoa, Manoa Heritage Center, Oahu

August 13, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Big Five (plus 2)

“By 1941, every time a native Hawaiian switched on his lights, turned on the gas or rode on a street car, he paid a tiny tribute into Big Five coffers.” (Alexander MacDonald, 1944)

The story of Hawaii’s largest companies dominates Hawaiʻi’s economic history. Since the early/mid-1800s, until relatively recently, five major companies emerged and dominated the Island’s economic framework. Their common trait: they were focused on agriculture – sugar.

They became known as the Big Five:

C. Brewer & Co.
Founded: October 1826; Capt. James Hunnewell (American Sea Captain, Merchant; Charles Brewer was American Merchant)
Incorporated: February 7, 1883

Theo H. Davies & Co.
Founded: 1845; James and John Starkey, and Robert C. Janion (English Merchants; Theophilus Harris Davies was Welch Merchant)
Incorporated: January 1894

Amfac
Founded: 1849; Heinrich Hackfeld and Johann Carl Pflueger (German Merchants)
Incorporated: 1897 (H Hackfeld & Co;) American Factors Ltd, 1918

Castle & Cooke
Founded: 1851; Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke (American Mission Secular Agents)
Incorporated: 1894

Alexander & Baldwin
Founded: 1870; Samuel Thomas Alexander & Henry Perrine Baldwin (American, Sons of Missionaries)
Incorporated: 1900

Some suggest they were started and run by the missionaries. Actually, only Castle & Cooke had direct ties to the mission – Castle ran the ‘depository’ and Cooke was a teacher.

Alexander & Baldwin were sons of missionaries, but not a formal part of the mission. Brewer was an American sea captain and merchant; the founders of Davies were English merchants and the founders of Amfac were German merchants.

Hawaiʻi’s industrial plantations began to emerge at this time (1860s;) they were further fueled by the Treaty of Reciprocity – 1875 between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market. Through the treaty, the US obtained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into U.S. markets for their sugar.

As the sugar industry pushed ahead, something else new was introduced into the economic scheme of things. In Honolulu two or three new firms began business solely to handle the affairs of the scattered plantations.

They began by acting as selling agents for the planters. Gradually they took over other functions: financing crops, importing labor, purchasing machinery for the planters and serving in all ways as their business agents. The new businesses soon found themselves running the sugar industry.

By the 1880s, five of these concerns, called factors, eventually dominated the field. How effectively the Big Five could band together as one against outside forces whether the enemy was foreign capital, insects, labor, competing products or disease was well demonstrated by their Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association, more familiarly known as the HSPA. (MacDonald)

This group organization for Hawaii’s sugar industry was founded in 1882 as the Planters’ Labor and Supply Company when the planters found they had common problems in irrigating the sugar lands, growing the cane, and finding labor. That was its immediate official purpose.

“Everything that comes into the territory comes through a large corporation. The independent businessman who attempts to enter business here immediately finds that even nationally advertised lines from the mainland are tied up by the Big Five. It is almost impossible to get an independent line of business as they have everything – lumber paint, right down the line.” (Edward Walker, High Sheriff of Hawaiʻi, 1937; Kent)

Acting as agents for thirty-six of the thirty-eight sugar plantations, the Big Five openly monopolized the sugar trade. Twenty-nine firms, producing seven out of every eight tons of sugar exported from the Islands, refined, markets and distributed through the Big Five’s wholly owned California and Hawaiian Sugar Company, whose refinery, the largest in the world, was on San Francisco Bay. (Kent)

They branched out into other businesses. To squeeze additional profits out of the sugar trade, they started their own refinery in California; it was to become the largest in the world. They built up a fleet of ships, the Matson line, to carry the sugar away and to bring back goods and passengers.

They developed inter-island shipping, built hotels, put capital into insurance, cattle, pineapples, banking. They took over bodily the wholesaling of goods coming into the Islands; ninety percent of retail stock came from their warehouses.

Their capital started the public utilities. Their street railway transported Hawaiians, their gas and electric plants lighted the city, they acquired the communications systems. (MacDonald)

The sugar industry was the prime force in transforming Hawaiʻi from a traditional, insular, agrarian and debt‐ridden society into a multicultural, cosmopolitan and prosperous one. (Carol Wilcox)

With statehood in 1959 and the almost simultaneous introduction of passenger jet airplanes, the tourist industry began to grow rapidly.

The industry came to maturity by the turn of the century; the industry peaked in the 1930s. Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar. (That plummeted to 492,000-tons in 1995.)

A majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s. As sugar declined, tourism took its place – and far surpassed it. Like many other societies, Hawaii underwent a profound transformation from an agrarian to a service economy.

There were a couple other associated entities that were associated with the Big 5” Dillingham (Benjamin Franklin Dillingham) and Campbell (James Campbell) and their associated companies.

Click HERE to view/download for more information on Hawai‘i’s Big 5 (plus 2).

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2017 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownersh
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownersh
Alexander & Baldwin-logo
Alexander & Baldwin-logo
Alexander & Baldwin Building-PP-7-4-006-00001
Alexander & Baldwin Building-PP-7-4-006-00001
Amfac-logo
Amfac-logo
American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-019-00001
American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-019-00001
C Brewer-logo
C Brewer-logo
Brewer Building-Burlingame-SB
Brewer Building-Burlingame-SB
Castle & Cooke-logo
Castle & Cooke-logo
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-008-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-008-00001
Theo Davies-logo
Theo Davies-logo
Theo. H. Davies Co., Bishop St-PP-8-3-010-00001
Theo. H. Davies Co., Bishop St-PP-8-3-010-00001
James_Campbell_Building-(Williams, Adamson)-1967
James_Campbell_Building-(Williams, Adamson)-1967
Dillingham Transportation Building-PP-8-4-003-00001
Dillingham Transportation Building-PP-8-4-003-00001

Filed Under: Economy, Prominent People Tagged With: Alexander and Baldwin, American Factors, Amfac, Big 5, C Brewer, Castle and Cooke, Dillingham, Hawaii, James Campbell, Theo H Davies

August 28, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Kakela me Kuke’

In 1837 Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke landed in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi,) as part of the 8th Company of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Neither were missionary ministers. Castle was assigned to the ‘depository’ (a combination store, warehouse and bank) to help the missionaries pool and purchase their supplies, to negotiate shipments around the Horn and to distribute and collect for the goods when received. Cooke was a teacher.

Twelve years after Castle and Cooke had landed in the Islands, the American board decided that its purposes had been accomplished. It advised its representatives that their work was done and the board’s financial support would end.

Over the years Castle, who felt Cooke’s accounting abilities would help the depository, kept trying to convince his friend to join him. Cooke firmly declined until 1849, when his schooling of the royal children was complete. He needed to make a living since monetary support from Missions headquarters had been discontinued.

Castle and Cooke, good friends, decided they would become business partners. Many of the missionaries were planning to remain. Their needs must be met. So those of other residents and the crews of the whaling ships which wintered in Honolulu harbor.

So a business was born. On June 2, 1851, Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke signed their names to partnership papers. A sign reading ‘Kakela me Kuke’ (‘Castle & Cooke’) was installed at the entrance to the Honolulu depository.

Money could be made by trading with the community at large, while mission posts could be supplied at cost. They took up the matter with the Mission Board in Boston, which, after two years, decided to release the partners from the mission and pay each a yearly salary of $500.

In 1853 a branch store was opened downtown, to be closer to the considerable action the California Gold Rush brought. Also in 1853, Castle and Cooke purchased their first ship, the Morning Star to ship produce to California. By 1856, the partners elected to sell the depository, located on the outskirts of Honolulu, to concentrate on their burgeoning downtown business.

In 1858, Castle and Cooke first ventured out of the mercantile business to make an investment in the new sugar industry. In the late 1860s they branched into the shipping business, handling shore-side business for a number of transpacific schooners and several inter-island vessels.

Despite these diversifications, however, the mercantile portion of the business continued to provide the bulk of the profits. One of the most active customers was Kanaʻina, husband of High Chiefess Kekāuluohi and father of the boy who was to become King Lunalilo.

Then, the Civil War started; goods became hard to get and sales slumped. Then, business with the whalers failed; oil found in Titusville, Pennsylvania replaced whale oil. Castle & Cooke almost went out of business. It was sugar that encouraged the partners to continue their business.

They had generally avoided the policy of investing their firm’s funds in other enterprises, but had bought personally into ventures that attracted them. This often led to relationships producing merchandise and shipping business for the firm and occasionally resulted in its appointment as fiscal agent for a company — as in the case of Kohala Sugar Company.

Kohala Sugar was founded in 1863 by the Rev Elias Bond; he organized the venture to create jobs for the Hawaiians living in Kohala. (It was not until 1910 that Castle & Cooke as a firm acquired an interest in the Kohala Sugar Company, though it had served as its agent for nearly 50 years.)

Then, in 1890, BF Dillingham’s railroad (OR&L,) started with the help of $100,000 invested by Castle, ended at Pearl City. To go further the line needed freight revenues. None were in sight – unless the Ewa land could be made to grow sugar by tapping its underlying fresh water sources to irrigate the crop.

From the organization of Kohala in 1863 until the Ewa lands were leased for sugar in 1890, Castle & Cooke at one time or another served as agent for nine plantations.

On December 28, 1894, the Castle & Cooke partnership was incorporated. The company continued to believe in the profitability of the Ewa Plantation and the risk paid off. In 1898, the original merchandise business was sold.

Diversification did not stop, however. In the ensuing years Castle & Cooke involved itself in an automobile company, the Hawaiian Fertilizer Company, and a big but short venture into the sugar refinery business with the Honolulu Sugar Refining Company.

Although Castle & Cooke had been in the shipping business for 50 years, a 1907 agreement with William Matson to be the agent for his Matson Navigation Company greatly increased the business in this area. The agreement endured for 56 years.

To insure a supply of oil for his ships, Captain Matson bought some wells in California and built a pipeline to the coast. In 1910 he founded the Honolulu Oil Corporation. Castle & Cooke, with other island firms, helped him finance his oil venture.

Pineapple cultivation on a commercial scale began in Hawaii in 1886 when Captain John Kidwell set out a thousand plants in Mānoa valley. By 1909, Castle & Cooke, as agent for Waialua, had negotiated leases of over 3,000 acres of the plantation’s upper lands to James D Dole and other growers for pineapple plantings.

Castle & Cooke had no substantial direct investment in the pineapple industry until 1932 when Hawaiian Pineapple Company (later Dole) encountered financial trouble. In that year Castle & Cooke and Waialua jointly under wrote the reorganization of the pineapple company and for a few years thereafter, Castle & Cooke served as its agent and took over the operations.

Castle & Cooke recognized the need for diversification which led to investment in tuna canning (Hawaiian Tuna Packers, 1946) and macadamia nuts (Royal Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts, 1948.)

For a time in the 1960s, Castle & Cooke were the biggest of the Big Five (C Brewer (1826;) Theo H. Davies (1845;) Amfac – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and Alexander & Baldwin (1870;)) however, Amfac later outpaced it.

Later, the company was the subject of several takeover bids; ultimately, David Murdock took firm control of Castle & Cooke (1985,) reorganized it into a holding company for three separate operations: Flexi-Van, Dole Food and Oceanic Properties, and relocated its headquarters to Los Angeles. (Lots of information is from Castle & Cooke, Greaney and FundingUniverse.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2015 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Samuel_Northrup_Castle_(PP-69-4-009)
Samuel_Northrup_Castle_(PP-69-4-009)
Amos_Starr_Cooke
Amos_Starr_Cooke
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-001-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-001-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-005-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-005-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-007-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-007-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-005-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-005-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-003-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-003-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-Merchant_from_Bishop-PP-39-1-020
Castle_&_Cooke-Merchant_from_Bishop-PP-39-1-020
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-014-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-014-00001
Castle_&_Cooke_Terminals-Freight-PP-8-1-013-00001
Castle_&_Cooke_Terminals-Freight-PP-8-1-013-00001

Filed Under: Buildings, Economy, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Prominent People Tagged With: Castle and Cooke, Hawaii

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

Info@Hookuleana.com

Connect with Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • Day 046 – December 7, 1819
  • NAS Kāneʻohe Bay
  • Day 045 – December 6, 1819
  • “East Wind, Rain”
  • Day 044 – December 5, 1819
  • Waiʻanae
  • Day 043 – December 4, 1819

Categories

  • Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance
  • Buildings
  • Economy
  • General
  • Hawaiian Traditions
  • Military
  • Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings
  • Place Names
  • Prominent People
  • Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks
  • Schools
  • Voyage of the Thaddeus

Tags

American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions American Protestant Missionaries Bernice Pauahi Bishop Captain Cook Downtown Honolulu Hawaii Hawaii Island Henry Opukahaia Hilo Hiram Bingham Hiram Bingham Honolulu Honolulu Harbor Iolani Palace John Young Kaahumanu Kailua Kailua-Kona Kalakaua Kalanimoku Kamehameha Kamehameha Kamehameha III Kamehameha IV Kauai Kauikeaouli Keopuolani King Kalakaua Kona Lahainaluna Lanai Liholiho Liliuokalani Maui Missionaries Oahu Pearl Harbor Punahou Queen Emma Queen Liliuokalani Sugar thevoyageofthethaddeus Volcano Waikiki

Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.

Info@Hookuleana.com

Never miss a post

Get future posts straight to your inbox by subscribing below.

Copyright © 2012-2016 Peter T Young, Hoʻokuleana LLC