Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kalākua

Kalākua (also Kaheiheimālie) (c. 1778–1842) was daughter of Keʻeaumoku, a chief from Hawaiʻi Island and Namahana, from the royal family on Maui. She was described as physically being ‘tall and gigantic,’ like her siblings. Her siblings included Queen Kaʻahumanu, Hawaiʻi Island Governor John Adams Kuakini, Maui Governor George Cox Kahekili Keʻeaumoku II and Lydia Namahana Piʻia. She first married Kalaʻimamahu, the younger brother of Kamehameha I. Her first daughter, Kekāuluohi, became Kamehameha’s youngest wife.

Kekāuluohi later married Charles Kanaʻina. By Kanaʻina, had a son William Charles Lunalilo (future king of the Islands.) Kalākua married Kamehameha I and had four children: their two sons died as infants; the oldest daughter, Kamāmalu, became wife of Liholiho (Kamehameha II,) and the youngest daughter, Kīnaʻu, later became Kuhina Nui. Kīnaʻu later married Mataio Kekūanāoʻa; they had several children, including Lot Kapuāiwa (Kamehameha V,) Alexander Liholiho (Kamehameha IV) and Victoria. She later married Hoapili. Kalākua was mother of two Queen consorts and grandmother of three future Kings.

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Tea Party

“On Tuesday of last week (December 11, 1827,) Mrs Bingham & Mrs Richards, undertook to make a ‘tea party’ to bring all the chiefs in the place & the members of the mission family together to join in a friendly & social cup of tea, to shew Christian kindness & civility to our Sandwich Island neighbors and to promote kind feelings among the chiefs themselves now assembled from the different Islands.” Those in attendance included, Ka‘ahumanu, Kalākua, Pi‘ia, Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III,) Nahienaena, Kuakini, Naihe, Kapi‘olani, Hoapili, Kaikioewa, Keaweamahi, Kapule, Kaiu, Kekāuluohi, Kīna’u, Kekauōnohi, La‘anui, Keli‘iahonui, Kana‘ina, Leleiōhoku and Kamanele.

“But look, for a few moments, at the present group: twenty-one chiefs of the Sandwich islands mingling in friendly, courteous and Christian conversation with seven of the mission family, whom you have employed among them. Contemplate their former and their present habits, their former and their present hopes. They have laid aside their vices and excesses, and their love of noise and war.”

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kuakini’s Cotton

“The pleasant village of Kailua is situated on the west side of Hawaii. It is the residence of the Governor of the Island. … Here the Governor undertook the manufacture of cotton cloth, and actually succeeded so far as to make several hundred yards.” “Governor Kuakini indeed went so far as to manufacture a very stout kind of cloth in Kailua … It was asserted that this cotton raising is a business which will fall in with the habits of the people, and for which they have always evinced an inclination.”

The cloth making experiment begun on Maui was continued; spinning and knitting were undertaken at one or two other stations; cotton growing was taken up by the church members at several places as a means of raising funds for new school and church buildings and to aid the missionary cause in general. Kuakini’s “scheme failed probably from the fact that the Governor found it cheaper to buy coarse cottons than to make them.”

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Huliheʻe, Its Owners and Visitors

In 1838, John Adams Kuakini built Huliheʻe as his primary residence. When Kuakini died Huliheʻe passed to his hānai son, William Pitt Leleiōhoku. Leleiōhoku died a few months later, leaving Huliheʻe to his wife, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. Kamehameha IV (Ruth’s half-brother) signed a lease with Princess Ruth for Huliheʻe; the King and Queen Emma moved to Kona for a 4-month stay in 1858. In May, 1861, Lady Jane Franklin, widow of a famed explorer, visited the palace. When King Lunalilo became ill, Princess Ruth and Queen Emma urged him to recover at Huliheʻe; he later returned to Honolulu and died shortly thereafter.

Princess Ruth died in her hale pili at Huliheʻe. Shortly after King Kalākaua finished building ʻIolani Palace (1882,) he purchased Huliheʻe from Pauahi’s estate in 1885 and turned Huliheʻe into his summer residence. Kalākaua died in 1891 and his wife, Queen Kapiʻolani, inherited the palace. Upon her death in 1899, the property went to her nephews, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole and Prince David Kawānanakoa. In 1925, the Territory of Hawaiʻi purchased the property then turned it over to the Daughters of Hawaiʻi to run it as a museum (which they continue to do today.)

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

“It was like laying a corner stone of an important edifice for the nation.”

The planning for the formal written Hawaiian language in the early part of the nineteenth century was started by the Protestant missionaries who arrived in Hawaii, starting in 1820. A committee of some of these missionaries (Hiram Bingham, CS Stewart and Levi Chamberlain) worked on the development of the Hawaiian alphabet.

Toketa (a Tahitian, arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1818,) who had learned to read Hawaiian after an hour’s instruction, wrote a letter for Kuakini to Hiram Bingham, requesting copies of pages of the spelling book being assembled. “(Bingham) immediately answered in the Hawaiian, under date of Feb. 8th, 1822, one month from the first printing for the nation.” (This was the first correspondence back and forth in Hawaiian.)