Eben Low | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 19, 2018 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Ebenezer Parker Low

“He described sitting on the veranda there at that ranch. It’s on the slopes going down to Mahukona from Kohala and you could look and late in the afternoon when the sun used to hit the Hualalai Mountains …”

“(H)e would see this funny little sponge cake-looking hill sticking out in the side of Hualalai. And he used to just dream about getting over to that place that had a perfect fascination for him.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“My father was known as Rawhide Ben because ever since he was knee high to a grasshopper, I guess, he loved the ranch life. And he was brought up as a member of the family in Mana and Kamuela with the rest of them.”

“So as a little boy he always had a chance to do something with animals. And this was his whole life. All he ever thought about was his cowboy experiences.”

“And as soon as he became an adult, his first job – big job – was given him by Theo. H. Davies and Company as manager of Puakea Ranch which is in Kohala – South Kohala there.”

“Eben Parker Low was born in Honolulu, a great grandson of John Palmer Parker I and his Hawaiian wife, Kipikane. He spent his early years on Parker Ranch, Handling cows and calves by the time he was six years old.”

“He had very little education; in his own words, ‘… just plain common sense plus some English grammar and arithmetic and writing.’”

“At the age of 26 he became manager of Pu‘uhue ranch in Kohala, and began a career that made him one of the big island’s most famous and colorful paniolo.” (Hawaii Cattlemen’s Hall of Fame) Unfortunately, he lost a portion of his left arm while roping.

Back to the sponge cake hill … “finally he found a Hawaiian who knew how to go across the lava flows there. I don’t know if he went on a mule or on a horse. But this man took him with him and they one day got across all that long lava flow by a trail and got to Puuwaawaa Ranch – Puuwaawaa Hill.” (Lucas; Watumull)

Then, he and Robert Robson Hind finally got a chance to take control of it … they picked up the Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a lease (General Lease No. 186; March 1, 1894) covering 40,000 acres for 25 years, and established a ranch. (Marion Kelly)

“(I)t was just a wilderness and lava and really rough country and they had to begin from scratch. But my father loved it. He just loved every minute of it. … What food was available in the rocks there up in that mountainside was very rich, evidently, very nutritious, because the cattle that came up to that ranch were always very fat.”

“Then they finally decided to split up after nine years because they couldn’t work together and my father didn’t have enough money to buy out Mr. Hind (his brother-in-law, Robbie married Low’s sister, Hannah.) But they finally split up and my father came to Honolulu from Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a. “ (Lucas; Watumull)

Eben was instrumental in bringing the talent of the Hawaiian paniolo to the national scene when he sent Archie Ka’au’a, Jack Low and Ikua Purdy to the Frontier Days World Championship Roping Competition in Cheyenne Wyoming in 1908.

Mid-westerners watched the Hawaiians compete. Purdy won the World’s Steer Roping Championship – roping, throwing, and tying the steer in 56 seconds flat. Ka‘aua and Low took third and sixth place.

“His confidence and pride in them were expressed by his own words, “’one cannot imagine the noise of the applause our boys received from those 30,000 watchers . . . The kanakas had won!’” (Hawaii Cattlemen’s Association)

“(B)efore my father died he asked his nephew, Archie Ka‘aua, to take care of his ashes when he died . Archie’s family lived in Kamuela and his family still own property right in the village there at Kamuela, forty acres out in the homestead section there.”

“Archie at that time was a young man and seemingly very well. Archie promised to take his ashes and scatter them up at Mauna Kea. But Archie had a funny feeling that he wasn’t going to outlive my father and he went to Willie Kaniho, who was the head cowboy of Parker Ranch.”

“So Willie Kaniho was given the assignment by Archie. … So sure enough, Archie Ka‘aua did die before my father died. But when my father passed away, Willie Kaniho was ready to do this.”

“There was no way of getting up there unless you got up on horseback. So Anna Lindsey [Perry- Fiske] who is, of course, one of my father’s pets too, came forth … Well, the family went up. … and Reverend Akaka–Abraham Akaka–went with us.”

“We got to the very top of that mountain – the very top – Reverend Akaka said a prayer and read a little bit from Scriptures and then Kaniho and Reverend Akaka scattered the ashes right at the top of the mountainside. It was really very impressive.” (Lucas; Watumull)

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Eben ‘Rawhide Ben’ Low-PP-75-5-006-1931

November 6, 2017 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Elizabeth Jessamine Kauikeolani Low

Elizabeth Jessamine Kauikeolani Low “was named Clorinda by (her) father, as a nickname, way back when (she) was about six years old. (They) were living on a ranch, (she) loved horses, and had a very bad temper.”

“(Her father) read a book in which a child the same age had the same characteristics and was called Clorinda. So he called (her) Clorinda and it seems to be the one name that stuck all through (her) life”. (Lucas; Watumull)

She was born in Honolulu on August 9, 1895. Her father was Ebenezer Parker (Rawhide Ben) Low – he was married to Elizabeth Pu‘uki Napoleon (“really Napoli. … Became known as Napoleon later.”)

“(Her mother) was always known as Lizzie Low. (Her) mother’s people were not well known to us because she was hanaied by Judge and Mrs. Sanford B. Dole when she was about twelve years of age [circa 1879].”

“Judge Dole was a teacher at Kawaiaha‘o Sunday School and had in his class a little girl of about six whose name was Lizzie Napoleon. And he became very attached to this little girl so when she got a little older, he asked her mother if she wouldn’t allow her to live with them.”

“She didn’t want to go at first but she did finally become attached to both Judge and Mrs. Dole and lived there until she was married.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“(Her) father was known as Rawhide Ben because ever since he was knee high to a grasshopper, I guess, he loved the ranch life. And he was brought up as a member of the family in Mana and Kamuela with the rest of them.” (Lucas; Watumull)

She married Charles Williams (Charlie) Lucas on July 19, 1924; they had one child Laura Lucas (who later married Myron Bennett (Pinky) Thompson.) (His unusual nickname came from his mother. So convinced that she was pregnant with a girl, she decorated the baby’s room completely in pink and purchased pink clothes. Ever since, her son was known as ‘Pinky.’ (Gordon))

Family ties go back to Alexander Adams and John Palmer Parker. Captain Alexander Adams arrived in the Islands in 1811 on the American trading ship the ‘Albatross’ from Boston.

He became an intimate friend and confidential advisor to King Kamehameha I, who entrusted to him the command of the king’s sandalwood fleet. Lucas, a fourth-generation descendant of the John Palmer Parker family, was a notable community leader.

During most of her adult life, Clorinda Lucas devoted her time and attention to child welfare and the problems of Hawaiian people through the Liliuokalani Trust, the Department of Public Welfare and the Department of Public Instruction.

For three years following her graduation from Smith College (BA degree) in 1917, she Lucas worked in New York City for the national board of the YWCA in the Division of Education for Foreign-born Women. She was the first Hawaiian to have professional social work education. (NASW)

“I was with the Department of Public Welfare, we called it in those days. When I first came back from the New York School [of Social Work] in 1937, my first job was director of the Oahu Department of Public Welfare.”

“And I was there until we reorganized and then we had a social work division and a child welfare division and I don’t know, we had a real change tied in with the Social Security Act. And then I was director of the social work division.”

“And then from there I went into the Department of Education and headed the Division of Pupil Guidance and I was there for seventeen years, then retired in 1960.”

Lucas led the Humane Society. She notes, “My first social work job was with the Humane Society when they took care of children. I was there, I guess, about three or four years and then I went to the New York School [of Social Work] and got my training and then came back to the Department of Public Welfare.” (Lucas; Watumull)

Lucas’ daughter, Laura Thompson later became executive director. “(W)e’ve been tied up with animals just about all our lives and of course I’m very happy to know that Laura’s interested in animals too.” (Lucas; Watumull)

But of all the community projects she worked on and worked for that had been the most gratifying and most satisfying, was “of course my connection with the Liliuokalani Trust (she was Chair of the Board of Trustees) has pretty much circumscribed what is important for me to consider for Hawaiians and that has to do with the orphan and destitute children of Hawaiian blood.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“(Lili‘uokalani’s) Will said to build an orphanage and the orphanage was to be made of fireproof materials and it was to have the name Liliuokalani, no cross or steeple. These were all in her Will. But they just didn’t have enough money to do that.”

“Well, in the meantime it was obvious that children should not be brought up in orphanages, especially babies that have lost their parents. So then they went to court, when there was enough money to do something with it, went to court and got permission from the court to at least take care of the children in a little different way”

“Instead of building an orphanage, to find homes where they could have fairly close relationship with just one or two people instead of many. So this was allowed, with the understanding that the trustees would always have in the back of their minds that someday they would have to build an institution of some sort.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“So, since then, we have worked on this foster care program or adoption program, anything so that you put children with families where they can become an integral part of them.”

“And I would say probably that’s been the most satisfying experience for me. That to see this thing grow from a rather limited concept, which was the thing to do at the time she died, to what you could do today.”

“And I will say that the thing that to me is the most satisfying is we have done some very innovative things and with this trust money.” (Lucas; Watumull)

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Clorinda Lucas

July 15, 2014 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Olopua

Athens was named for goddess Athena after she disputed Poseidon’s claim (he plunged his trident into the ground and unleashed a salt water spring to symbolize his power as god of the sea.) Athena planted an olive tree, saying that it represented peace and prosperity.

Zeus intervened and asked the other gods and goddesses to settle the matter by deciding who had given them the better gift. All of the gods voted for Poseidon and the goddesses for Athena, but as Zeus abstained, the women’s votes outnumbered the men’s by one, and Athena won.

Today, the olive branch continues as a symbol of peace and prosperity.

Hawaiʻi has an endemic olive, the Olopua (it is found only in Hawaiʻi.) It belongs to the Oleaceae or Olive family which include olives, as well as forsythia, ash, privet, jasmine and pīkake.

The early Hawaiians had a number of uses for the very durable hard wood. Though it was difficult to work with and they fashioned spears (ihe,) digging sticks (ʻōʻō,) adze handles (ʻau koʻi,) daggers for warfare (pāhoa) and rasps for making fish hooks.

The strong wood was also used for posts, rafters and thatching posts or purlins in house (hale) construction. It was a preferred firewood, as it burned with a hot flame even when green.

Olives were also imported to Hawaiʻi – for its leaf tea, fruit and oil. Don Francisco de Paula Marin (known to the Hawaiian as “Manini”) was a Spaniard who arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1793 or 1794 (at about the age of 20.)

Marin was known for his interest in plant collecting and brought in a wide variety of new plants to Hawai‘i. His gardens were filled with trees, vines and shrubs – including olives.

Another early olive importer was another Kamehameha ally, Captain Alexander Adams (he arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1811;) among other crop plants, he brought olives from California.

Later, attempts were made (and/or encouraged) to expand Hawaiʻi’s agricultural diversity.

“We welcome His Honor Judge Jones back from his trip to Oliva Wainiha, Kauai, whither he went last week to plant olive trees and grape vines on his plantation. We are glad to know that our people are taking a lively interest in the matter of introducing fruits from abroad, and that a spirit of enterprise has taken hold which, if persevered in, will in due time bring forth good results. Every man should remember that ‘he who causes one more blade of grass to grow is a benefactor,’ and has not lived in vain.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 19, 1879)

“We noticed in our last Issue that a number of olive trees in fine condition had been imported by Mr. Bush. We have since learned that they were imported by Mr. Bush for Judge Jones, who has started a new Industry at Wainiha, Kauai. He has a vineyard of 10,000 assorted vines and several hundred olive trees now growing and in a flourishing condition. We understand that be intends to add yearly to the number of his olives and vines, and for that purpose the late importation was made.” (Pacific Commercial, March 6, 1880)

Then a newspaper article raised an interesting perspective, “In Southern California at the present time there are 2,500,000 olive trees, and the product of these trees is in ever increasing demand. The trees yield to the owner from three to seven dollars each, according to age.”

“The California pickled olive is gaining in favor in the East and is competing strongly with the olives from the Mediterranean seaboard, the fruit from the Pacific Slope being of finer quality. If Southern California can raise olives, undoubtedly the Hawaiian islands can.” (Hawaiian Star, March 11, 1898)

Some took on the challenge, “Some years ago olives were grown up on this Island and shown to be a practical success. The trees were sturdy although not scientifically grown and bore fruit that an expert from Greece stated to be superior to any grown in Ionia.”

“’The trees were first planted by Judge Jones,’ said John Emmeluth this morning ‘and afterwards came into my hands. The growing of olives seems to be satisfactory and easy enough in these islands but in this instance were not properly looked after in the Initiatory stages of their growth.’” (Hawaiian Star, December 16, 1901)

“From my observation it takes about twelve years for the trees to bear, a long time for the small farmer to wait for his profits, but It must be remembered that the trees can be cultivated as a subsidiary Issue for the first few years and that they will grow on the rocky uplands that could not be cleared and used for ordinary crops.”

“The greatest trouble we experienced and on which among other causes finally stopped the growing of olives was the destruction of the fruit by the birds, the trees flowered readily and if, as soon as the olive showed in fruitage, I covered the branch with netting and kept off the depredations of the birds, the fruit yield was most satisfactory.”

“I don’t think it was the mynahs that did the damage but rather the small rice birds that roosted in the branches over night and made their breakfasts on my young olives in the morning. I imagine that they have similar troubles elsewhere and have found means of counteracting the difficulty. I think that there is little doubt but what the olive could he grown here successfully and profitably.” (Hawaiian Star, December 16, 1901)

Reportedly, Eben Parker Low planted olive trees around his hometown of Waimea on the Island of Hawaiʻi around 1895.

The industry is making a comeback of sorts, this time on Maui with what appear to be several operations, as well as on Oʻahu.

The image shows the fruit of the Olopua (Starr.) In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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