Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Kauai Coffee

The first reference to an attempt to cultivate coffee in Hawai’i was made by the Spaniard, Don Francisco de Paula y Marin, who recorded in his journal dated January 21, 1813, that he had planted coffee seedlings on the island of O’ahu. Evidently his planting was not successful.

When H.M.S. Blonde was bringing the bodies of Liholiho and Kamāmalu, they stopped in Rio de Janeiro Brazil and brought 30 live coffee plants in May, 1825, this introduction was referred to as the first successful introduction of coffee plants into Hawai’i, with an additional remark that ‘if the plant had been introduced before, it had become extinct.’

These live coffee seedlings were brought by John Wilkinson, an Englishman who was commissioned by Governor Boki of O‘ahu to develop and supervise a plantation type of farming in Hawai’i. (Goto)

In 1842, to encourage the production of coffee, the government enacted a law to allow payment of land taxes in coffee as well as in pigs, which had been the common tax payment up to that time. The Act also imposed a three percent duty on all foreign coffee imported into the Kingdom. (This tax was increased to five percent in 1845.)

Response to the government’s policy of encouraging coffee growing was good. Small areas of coffee were planted wherever possible, even in remote and neglected ravines and valleys on O‘ahu, Maui and Hawai‘i. But it was on Kauai where the most impressive development took place.

Godfrey Rhodes, an Englishman, and John Bernard, a Frenchman, started the first large-scale coffee plantations in the beautiful valley of Hanalei. Eventually, when Titcomb also moved to Hanalei, the plantations in the valley became a continuous planting of a thousand acres of coffee trees. (Goto)

“This was a new industry for Kauai, although coffee berries had been brought to Honolulu from Brazil in 1825 on the British frigate Blonde, and a few plants had then been started in Mānoa Valley on Oahu.”

“Four or five years later the missionaries at Hilo and other planters in Kona on the island of Hawaii had begun to grow coffee around their houses, but it was from the original source in Manoa Valley that the seed and young were obtained for Hanalei.”

In October of 1845, Godfrey Rhodes and John von Pfister formed a partnership. By 1846, the Rhodes and Company Coffee Plantation covered seven hundred and fifty acres, so that the two plantations counted over one hundred thousand trees and “a great part of the valley, at least to the extent of a thousand acres, was under cultivation in coffee at this time.” (Damon)

But after a promising start a series of misfortunes in the next decade doomed the Hanalei coffee enterprises.

The first major set-back came in 1846 when, through lack of planning, a shortage of coffee pickers to harvest that year’s huge crop caused a disastrous financial loss.

“In May, 1847, just as the trees were in good condition of full bearing, they had “severe rains for two weeks which did much damage to the valley, flooding the coffee plantations.”

“Masses of rock, trees and earth were loosened and carried by force of water, crushing several hundred trees and doing much other damage.”

“Recovering from this pullback another difficulty was met with the following year by the California gold fever, rendering labor scarcer and dearer.” (Thrum)

Left behind were the aged and crippled, who took advantage of the labor shortage and demanded wages as high as five dollars a day.

The year 1852 was the beginning of the end of the coffee plantations at Hanalei. The drought-weakened coffee trees were attacked by the white scale and its companion, the black fungus smut, which lives on the secretion of the scale.

At that time, there were no control measures for the infestation and the damage continued unabated, spreading throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

In 1856, Rhodes and his associates finally sold their interest in the coffee plantations to RC Wyllie, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom. He abandoned the entire coffee planting of Hanalei and planted the land in sugar cane.

Ultimately, others shifted their interest from coffee to the more secure sugar industry. By 1860, coffee literally disappeared from Kauai and the decline continued in the other islands in the Kingdom. Sugar took its place. (Goto)

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Godfrey Rhodes and his daughter-TGI
Godfrey Rhodes and his daughter-TGI

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Haraguchi Rice Mill

The Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society was formed in 1850 to develop Hawaiʻi’s agricultural resources.  It was then that rice made its mark in the Hawaiʻi economy. The group purchased land in the Nuʻuanu Valley and rice seed from China and planted in a former taro patch.

At first the Society offered the rice seed to anyone in Hawaiʻi who wanted to plant it. King Kamehameha IV also offered land grants for cultivation of rice.  Because there were no proper milling facilities in Hawaiʻi, it didn’t take off as a viable crop right away.

Then, in 1860, imported rice seed from South Carolina proved very successful and yielded a fair amount of crop.  This, combined with the collapse of the taro industry in 1861-1862 (as the Hawaiian population declined, the demand for taro also declined,) added value to the numerous vacant taro patches and a boom in the rice industry.

In 1899, Hawaiʻi’s rice production had expanded so that it placed third in production of rice behind Louisiana and South Carolina.

The Agricultural Extension Service of the University of Hawaiʻi encouraged rice production, primarily in Hanalei.  As a result the acreage planted in rice on the island rose from 759 acres in 1933 to 1,058 in 1934.

For areas like Hanalei Valley, such efforts, coupled with the valley’s general remoteness and absence of competing demands for the land, allowed rice cultivation to continue as a regional activity.

The Hanalei Valley of Kauaʻi led all other single geographic units in the amount of acreage planted in rice. The valley was one of the first areas converted to this use and continued to produce well into the 1960s.

The Commercial Pacific Advertiser noted on October 3, 1861, “Everybody and his wife (including defunct government employees) are into rice – sugar is nowhere and cotton is no longer king. Taro patches are held at fabulous valuations, and among the thoughtful the query is being propounded, where is our taro to come from?”

When the Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaiʻi, their tastes preferred a shorter grain rice than the Chinese long-grain variety. With the decline of the Chinese population and increase in the Japanese population, more of the Japanese rice was being imported from Japan.

As the Japanese left the plantations, they started their own farms and cultivated their own staple rice.

It was at Hanalei where some Chinese built a rice processing facility; it as later purchased by the Haraguchi family in 1924.  At one time, the Haraguchis cultivated about 75-acres in Hanalei Valley.

Fire destroyed the original wooden mill in March of 1930; a new mill consisted of a 3-foot thick concrete foundation with corrugated iron for its roof and siding.  Interior spaces included engine room, milling area, and storage area for both finished and unprocessed rice.

This main engine operated all the mill machinery by turning a main shaft that connected all the other machines by a pulley system.  The rice in a pit would be delivered up by cups on a belt located on a “triple chute” system. One chute served the belts going downward, another chute for the belts returning upwards and a third to suck the dust up which traveled to the blower.

The cups carried the rice over the wall onto another chute and into the strainer. This strainer would shake the rice and separate any rubbish or stones to prevent it from entering the husking machines.  From the strainer, the rice would proceed to the first husker that removed part of the husk.

About 80% of the husks would be removed by this husker. The husks would travel up the air ‘chute to the blower which blew the husks out the back of the mill into a ditch that carried the husks into the river.

The partly husked rice would exit the first husker and was taken up a chute by belted cups and dropped onto another chute into the second husker. The second husker would remove the rest of the husks and the grains would continue up another “triple chute” which would carry it up and over into the polishing machine.

The fine dust from the second husker was collected in a basket under the machine and also taken up the chute into the blower.  Cowhide was used to polish the rice which prevented the grains from cracking which ensured high quality rice.  The rice would exit the polisher and taken up another chute to the grader.

The grading machine constantly shook to move the rice to the three different grades of rice. The whole grain would bypass the grading holes and a trowel was used to push the rice onto a small trough into the rice bag which hung at the end of the funnel.  From there the bags were scaled, sewn by hand and then stacked.

Despite the competition from the California grown rice, the Japanese farmers continued to produce on a smaller scale than the Chinese farmers. By the early 1950s there were about 50 growers cultivating 170 acres of rice on Kauaʻi. Hanalei Valley held 90 acres, 48 acres in Wailua and the rest was split between Hanapepe and Waimea valleys.

In addition to the staple rice, “mochi rice,” used for traditional Japanese cake on New Year’s and other special occasions, was grown.

The mochi rice from Hanalei Valley was noted for its quality throughout the Islands. It was largely a luxury crop and most of it was consumed in the Islands; about 200-bags were shipped to the Mainland.

Some mochi rice was imported from the Mainland but local buyers preferred the local crop since it was said to produce a larger yield of mochi per pound.

In 1959, Hurricane Dot left the mill intact except for an air vent at the roof peak that was torn off and not replaced.  The mill ceased operating in 1960 when Kaua`i’s rice industry collapsed. Hurricane Iwa on November 23, 1982 toppled 85% of the building onto the machinery; then came Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

The Haraguchi Rice Mill was the last mill to operate in Hanalei Valley and the only remaining rice mill in the State of Hawaiʻi.  A nonprofit organization was formed to preserve and interpret the mill; the organization is guided by an unpaid Board of Directors (many of them are members of the Haraguchi family.)  The Haraguchi family now farms taro on the adjacent lands that once supported rice.

Today, the Hoʻopulapula Haraguchi Rice Mill is an agrarian museum located in the taro fields of Hanalei Valley.  The Rice Mill Kiosk is open to the public, Monday through Saturday, 11 am – 3 pm.  No Public access into the farm & Rice Mill unless through guided tours, available Wednesdays at 10 am (reservations are required.)  (Lots of information here from NPS.)

The image shows Hanalei and the Haraguchi Rice Mill along the river in distance (HHF.)  In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Wetland Taro

Wākea and Papa, sky-father and earth-mother, who by the ʻOpūkahonua lineage were half-brother and half-sister, were said to be the parents of islands, Hawaiʻi and Maui (and later Kauaʻi, Niʻihau, Lehua, and Kaʻula – the rest were added later.)  According to tradition, their first human offspring was a daughter, Hoʻohōkūkalani (to generate stars in the sky.)

Wākea seduced his daughter, Hoʻohōkūkalani.  Their first child was born prematurely; they named him Hāloa-naka (quivering long stalk.)  They buried him in the earth and from that spot grew the first kalo (taro) plant. The second child, named Hāloa in honor of his elder brother, was the first Hawaiian Aliʻi Nui and became the ancestor of all the Hawaiian people.

Thus kalo, which was the main staple of the people of old, is also the older brother of the Hawaiian race.

Traditions on the island of Oʻahu provide the names of a dynasty of ruling chiefs including Mā’ilikūkahi, around 1500 (about the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic.) Māʻilikūkahi is said to have enacted a code of laws in which theft from the people by chiefs was forbidden.

A son of Mā’ilikūkahi was Kalona-nui, who in turn had a son called Kalamakua. Kalamakua is said to have been responsible for developing large taro gardens in what was once a vast area of wet-taro cultivation on Oʻahu: the Waikiki-Kapahulu-Mōʻiliʻili-Mānoa area. The extensive pond fields were irrigated by water drawn from the Mānoa and Pālolo Valley streams and large springs in the area.

Other chiefs mentioned in Oʻahu traditions were associated with organizing activities in more systematic ways than those in times previous to them; one such high chief was Kākuhihewa.

Another great chief of Oʻahu, Kualiʻi, was famous for the kolowalu law: “If a man says, ‘I am hungry for food’ feed (him) with food, lest he hungers and claims his rights by swearing the kolowalu law by his mouth, whereby that food becomes free, so that the owner thereof must observe the law faithfully.”

In pre-contact (prior to Captain Cook) times, kalo played a vital role in Hawaiian culture. It was not only the Hawaiians’ staple food, but the cultivation of kalo was at the very core of Hawaiian culture and identity.

The early Hawaiians probably planted kalo in marshes near the mouths of rivers. Over years of progressive expansion of kalo lo‘i (flooded taro patches) up slopes and along rivers, kalo cultivation in Hawai‘i reached a unique level of engineering and sustainable sophistication.

Hawaiians knew the productive advantages of growing wetland taro and placed the greater effort in this area very early, when required to increase food production capabilities for the rapidly increasing number of people. By the time of Captain Cook’s visits in 1778 and 1779, every large river valley in the islands contained many loʻi (pond fields,) and each was systematically irrigated by means of ditches delivering water to the fields spread throughout the valley.

Usually, water was fed into an irrigation ditch from a stream. A loose-rock dam built across the stream allowed water to flow between and over the top of the rocks to provide for farmers living downstream. The dam functioned to raise the water level just high enough at that point to permit water to flow into the ditch leading to the terraces.

In this way the amount and speed of the water could be controlled. If too much water was found to be flowing into the ditch, a few stones could be removed from the dam, thus lowering the water level and reducing the volume of water entering the ditch.

The speed of the flow of water into the pondfields was controlled by the length and slope of the ditch. By varying the length and grade of the ditch, its builders were able to maintain a constant and low-level gradient over variegated terrain. The flow through the pond fields was controlled by the height of the terraces.

Kalo lo‘i systems are typically a set of adjoining terraces that are typically reinforced with stone walls and soil berms. Wetland taro thrives on flooded conditions, and cool, circulating water is optimal for taro growth, thus a system may include one or more ʻauwai (irrigation ditches) to divert water into and out of the planting area.  (McElroy)

The ʻauwai construction and maintenance formed foundations around which an entire economy, class system and culture functioned.  The ʻauwai, lo‘i and the taro plant’s mythical and spiritual connections in Hawaiian society influenced individual and social activity within the ahupua‘a.  (Handy, HART)

The different representatives in the ahupuaʻa taking part in the work furnished men according to the number of kalo growers on each land.  (The quantity of water awarded to irrigate the loʻi was according to the number of workers and the amount of work put into the building of the ʻauwai.)

David Malo explained how a taro garden could keep a large number of people in vegetable food continuously:  “Some farmers did not plant a great deal at a time. They would plant a little, and after waiting a few months, they planted more land. So they continued to plant a little at a time during the months suitable for planting. The food did not all ripen at once, and by this plan the supply was kept up for a long time and they had no lack of food.”

On the question of the productivity of wet-land taro versus dry-land taro, some missionaries recorded their experiences and observations in 1847 and 1848. They helped answer the question: What number of people could be fed by one acre of land, of average quality in the district, if cultivated for kalo?

Rev. Armstrong suggested that there would be ‘food enough for ten persons’ on an acre of average taro land in Honolulu, that is, subsistence for ten persons.  “With proper management, kalo (taro) land needs no rest. So the natives tell me. Let the water be kept constantly upon it and the weeds cleared out and that is all that is needed. The kalo plants, however, must be changed every crop. It requires about a year to bring a crop of kalo to maturity.”  (Armstrong)

Rev. Johnson of Hanalei, Kauaʻi, a noted wetland taro-producing valley, suggested that 25 people subsist on an acre of good taro land.

Writing from his experiences on the well-watered windward side of Oʻahu, Rev. Parker wrote:  “An acre of kalo land would furnish food for from twenty to thirty persons, if properly taken care of. It will produce crops for a great many years in succession, without lying fallow any time.”

Rev. Bishop, writing from ʻEwa District on Oʻahu, suggested that 15-20 people could be fed from an acre of taro:  “Good kalo land, irrigated by water, improves by cultivation. It only requires time enough between crops to rot the weeds, which serve as manure.”

Rev. Emerson lived and worked in Waialua District on Oʻahu where several large rivers and numerous springs watered the land.

He wrote: “Twenty persons, I think can be fed on an acre of good kalo land. The land can generally be cultivated perpetually, if it has two or three months between each crop, in which to decompose the weeds which might grow during the time the kalo was ripening.”

“I have a large kalo patch that has not been left to rest one month at a time for fifteen years, and yet it produces as largely as fifteen years since. I presume the same parch was cultivated centuries before I knew it. It requires one year for kalo to come to maturity.”

In 6 to 12-months, depending upon plant variety along with soil and water conditions, the taro is generally ready to harvest. Each parent tuber produces from two to 15 ʻohā, side tubers of corms, up to 6 inches in diameter.

The Hawaiian concept of family, ‘ohana, is derived from the word ‘ohā (Fig., offspring, youngsters,) the axillary shoots of kalo that sprout from the main corm, the makua (parent.)  Huli, cut from the tops of mauka and ‘ohā are then used for replanting to regenerate the cycle of kalo production.

Taro or Kalo has been a traditional form of food sustenance and nutrition, particularly in ancient Hawaiian culture.  Reportedly, it is the world’s fourteenth most-consumed vegetable.  All parts of the plant are eaten, including poi, table taro (the cooked corm,) taro chips and luau leaf.

The foregoing information (primarily from Marion Kelly and Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa (with some help from some others to fill some gaps)) helps answer some of the When, Why, Where and How Much questions related to wetland taro farming.

The 22nd Annual East Maui Taro Festival is being held May 3-4, 2014.

The image shows kalo (Markell.)  In addition, I have included more related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Kauikeōlani

A person, a place, a hospital … it’s all about a family.

Emma Kauikeōlani Napoleon was the eldest of the fifteen children born to Pamahoa and Temanihi Napoleon; she was of Hawaiian, Corsican and Tahitian descent.

They lived in downtown Honolulu, on Queen Street near Kawaiahaʻo Church; she was a teacher at Kawaiahaʻo Seminary.

Emma lived during the time of transition in Hawaiʻi’s history when the Americanization of Hawaiʻi had replaced the Hawaiʻi of high chiefs.  Growing up during the early part of this period, Emma was one of many exemplary women of her time who strove to bridge the gap between the old and the new.

While protecting her heritage, she followed her convictions to improve the quality of life for all people in Hawaiʻi.  (Notable Women of Hawaii)

On June 2, 1882, Emma married Samuel Mahelona.  Born July 7, 1861, Samuel passed away on May 24, 1892 at age of thirty-one.  As noted in ‘The Friend,’ June, 1892, “The very sudden death of Mr. Samuel Mahelona has removed the head of a beloved Hawaiian household. Mr. M. had for some years been a book-keeper with Allen & Robinson, and was a gentleman of the highest character, and a consistent member, with his wife, of Kawaiahaʻo Church.”

“Mrs. Mahelona, prior to their marriage nine years since, had been greatly valued as an assistant teacher in Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary, as Miss Emma Napoleon. The example of this refined Christian home of their own people has been one of most important service and encouragement to Hawaiians, and makes the death of this young father a public as well as private loss.”

Their four children were Samuel Hooker Kaleoʻokalani Mahelona (1884 – October 20, 1912;) Ethel Kulamanu Mahelona (February 2, 1887 – September 19, 1954;) Sunbeam Cushman Nehenuiokalani Mahelona (April 14, 1888 – August 16, 1889) and Allen Clesson Kauluheimalama Mahelona (1891 – unknown.)  

On June 7, 1898, Emma married Albert Spencer Wilcox (May 24, 1844-July 7, 1919.) (Albert adopted Emma’s children.)  Albert is the son Abner Wilcox (1808-1869) and Lucy Eliza (Hart) Wilcox (1814-1869;) they were in the eighth company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.)

Albert was born in Hilo on Hawai‘i Island and grew up at Waiʻoli in Hanalei, Kaua‘i.  He worked with his brother George Norton Wilcox (1839-1933) in a sugarcane business in Hanalei, before working as the manager of Hanamāʻulu Plantation; for many years (1877-1898) he managed that section of Līhuʻe plantation.

In 1892, Albert purchased an interest in the Princeville Plantation, and by 1899 had complete ownership; he sold the Princeville lands in June of 1916.

Albert served as president of C Brewer and sat as a director on the boards of Kekaha Sugar Company, Waiʻanae Sugar Company, the Home Insurance Company and the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company. In addition, he served as a member of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi’s House of Representatives for two years (1891-1892.)

In 1899, they built their home on Hanalei Bay.  Albert and Emma named their Hanalei home after Emma’s namesake, Kauikeōlani, which means “place in the skies (of) heaven.”  (The house is also referenced as the Albert Spencer Wilcox Beach House – it’s on the State and National Register of Historic Places.)

It is the earliest known beach house to be constructed on Hanalei Bay.  In the early twentieth century, other substantial beach houses were constructed by Mabel Wilcox, Dr. Harl, the Baldwins, Fayes, Sloggetts and Sanborns.

Kauikeōlani sits on a large landscaped lawn of land on the mauka (mountain) side of Weke Road; it has two inland fish ponds.

The deaths of five of her siblings at early ages greatly influenced Emma’s concern for the welfare of all native Hawaiians.  Albert and Emma Wilcox purchased land and built a hospital in Honolulu; in 1909, the Kauikeōlani Children’s Hospital opened on Kuakini Street and was named in Emma’s honor (one of the few hospitals in the world at that time that was dedicated to treating children.)

“Nearly every child In Kauikeōlani hospital today is a charity ward. It is essentially a charity hospital. No babe in distress is turned from its door. If the parents can afford it, they must pay, but lack of fund keeps no baby away.”

“So good are the environments, the care and the treatment given, that many wealthy parents send their ailing children to private wards in this hospital. … Although all nationalities are welcome at Kauikeōlani … the Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian children predominate.”  (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, May 30, 1916)

In 1978, Kauikeōlani Children’s Hospital merged with Kapiʻolani Hospital and relocated to become Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children.  (Queen Kapiʻolani founded the Kapiʻolani Maternity Home in 1890.)

(The Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific (which first started as a department of the Kauikeolani Children’s Hospital) is now on the grounds of the former Kauikeolani Children’s Hospital.)

Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women & Children is Hawai‘i’s only maternity, newborn and pediatric specialty hospital; it’s in a $30-million fundraising program for its first phase to renovate and expand its facility.

This was not the only medical facility the Wilcox family founded.  Son Samuel Mahelona died of tuberculosis at a young age.  As a memorial to his son, in 1917, Wilcox (with others from the Wilcox family) provided land and funds for the Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital at Kapaʻa, Kauaʻi, for the treatment of tuberculosis (one of the first hospitals on Kauaʻi.)

Over the years, the hospital was enlarged to accommodate increasing numbers of patients and services.  When antibiotics established the cure of tuberculosis, in the early-1950s and 60s, the facility began focusing on long term care needs and began admitting patients with acute mental illness.  It provides 24-hour Emergency Services, Imaging (Digital Xray), Rehabilitation Therapies (Occupational, Physical, Respiratory and Recreational,) Skilled Nursing, Intermediate, Long Term and Acute Care.

The image shows Emma Kauikeolani Wilcox (1920.)  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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