Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Cyclomere

 

The lead line, “Bicycle racing in Honolulu has come to stay,” in the February 8, 1898 issue of the Hawaiian Gazette was more wishful thinking than reality.

Charles Desky opened the track in 1897, and it closed the following year; it was located on the makai side of what we now call Kapiʻolani Boulevard, between Cooke Street and Ward Avenue.

“The Cyclomere track at Honolulu is three laps to the mile, scientifically constructed, and the surface is of decomposed coral, the finish being somewhat similar to merit. Mr. Desky says that the people there are very enthusiastic over cycle racing, and at previous meets held on a poor track and with inferior accommodations for the people the attendance has been immense.”  (San Francisco Call, October 14, 1897)

Races were held at night, with illumination from 23 arc lights on poles.  A spectator grandstand was 150-feet long by 34-feet wide, 11 tiers of seats and 12 private boxes in front. (Krauss)

“The opening of the new cycle racing track at Honolulu next month has attracted the attention of California riders, and three of the most prominent will leave for there this afternoon on the steamer Moana, accompanied by a trick rider.” (San Francisco Call, October 14, 1897)

“The races at the islands will be conducted under special sanction from the California Associated Cycling Clubs, which was necessary before the racing board would let the men go from here.”  (San Francisco Call, October 14, 1897)

“Cyclomere Bicycle Track was opened most auspiciously on Saturday. Although the elements wore an ominous aspect at times, the worst they gave was an occasional sprinkle. Between 800 and 1000 people were in the grand stand in the afternoon, and half as many more in the evening.  The circle of arc and incandescent electric lights surrounding the tract, reflected in Cyclomere Lake around which the track is built, made a wonderfully beautiful night scene.  (Evening Bulletin, October 25, 1897)

“It had been a hope of mine from the time I started operations in Kewalo that Cyclomere could be kept as a place of resort.  There is nothing finer of the kind in any country. The people to a large extent seemed to think the same,” said Charles Desky. (Hawaiian Gazette – April 8, 1898)

Desky initially looked to a hui of five to take a long-term lease on the facility and keep it going.  However, a newspaper account in May, 1898 noted there would be no more racing at Cyclomere, so far as the hui of town boys was concerned.

“They are now filling the lake of the Cyclomere Park which comprises about 10 acres and when completed will be laid out in lots, and lies mauka of the Queen street car line. This tract is part of the original Kewalo purchase. Mr. Desky is manager of Bruce Waring & Company, who control the real estate business on the Island. Their offices are located in the Progress block.”  (Pacific Commercial, August 13, 1898)

In 1900, the pond that surrounded the racing bicycle track at Cyclomere in the Kewalo area was filled.  Desky dumped the banks of the track into the lake, piled more dirt in and set out to sell lots for residences.

Desky saw that as more financially lucrative, particularly since it is became known that the Iron Works was going to that neighborhood.

However, Desky didn’t fare as well with the former Cyclomere site.  Facing foreclosure, “Sensational developments have transpired in connection with one of the earliest land operations by Charles Desky in Honolulu.”

After selling 29 lots, it was learned that Desky did not pay the underlying mortgage down from the sale proceeds, saying he needed the money for other purposes.  It eventually was cleared up in court.

Selling lots was nothing new for Charles Desky.  In 1899 the Pacific Heights road was laid out by Mr. Wall, and sold by Hawaii’s first subdivider, a Mr. Desky.  (One historian has called Desky “Hawaii’s first subdivider,” and noted that “Desky pulled several shady land transactions.”)

By 1900, Honolulu had a population of more than 39,000 and was in the midst of a development boom, creating tremendous need for more housing.

The image is an 1897 map of the Kewalo and surrounding areas, noting the Cyclomere Lake and bicycle track.

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Number, Please

“Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.”  Soon after that fateful day of March 10, 1876, with the message from Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Thomas A. Watson, the telephone grew in popularity.

In July of 1877, the Bell Telephone Company was formed and by the end of 1877 there were three-thousand telephones in service.

Some suggest ʻIolani Palace had telephones before the White House.  However, the White House had a phone in 1879 (President Rutherford B. Hayes telephone number was “1”.)  “By the fall of 1881 telephone instruments and electric bells were in place in the Palace.”  (The Pacific Commercial, September 24, 1881)

“The first telephone ever used in Honolulu belonged to King Kalākaua.  Having been presented to him by the American Bell Telephone Company.”  (Daily Bulletin, December 4, 1894)

The earliest telephone in Hawaiʻi followed the first commercial telegraph, and like the earlier device stemmed from the efforts of Charles H. Dickey on Maui.

In early-1878, Maui’s Charles H. Dickey installed Hawaiʻi’s first two telephones between his home and his store. The phones were rented from a Mainland firm and ran on wet cell batteries.

Years later, Dickey wrote: “In 1878 I received a letter from my brother, JJ Dickey, superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph at Omaha, describing the new invention. … Before the year was out … I sent for instruments and converted my telegraph line into a telephone line.”  (Schmitt, HJH)

In a letter to the Hawaiian Gazette, CH Dickey noted, “Sir, the greatest discovery of the age is the Bell Telephone. By its use, persons many miles apart can converse with ease. Every sound is distinctly transmitted. The tones of the voice, musical notes, articulation, in fact any and every sound that can be made is reproduced instantaneously in a miniature form, by all the telephones on the wire.” (CH Dickey, Hawaiian Gazette, March 13, 1878)

“I have made arrangements to have a few sent me, to be used by the Hawaiian Telephone Company, and hope soon to be prepared to furnish telephones to all who wish them in the Islands, as agent for the manufacturers. … A number of instruments can be attached to the same wire, although but one person can talk at a time, as is usual in polite conversation.” (CH Dickey, Hawaiian Gazette, March 13, 1878)

“Let a good line be put up, beginning at the upper end of Nuuanu, running down the Valley, connecting with the residences and business houses; then out on King street, connecting with the Palace and Government Building; then up through the residences to Punahou, and ending say at Waikiki.” (CH Dickey, Hawaiian Gazette, March 13, 1878)

Shortly after this, the newspaper commented, “it is plain that this new invention is destined to come into general use at no distant date.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 30, 1878)

On April 11, 1878, Dickey submitted his application for a caveat (a kind of provisional patent), asserting his “intention to introduce into the Hawaiian Islands the Invention known as The Bell Telephone,” but the Privy Council apparently failed to act on his request.

Less than two weeks later, on April 24, 1878, a letter was sent to the Advertiser from Wailuku stating that “the East Maui Telegraph Company are about to introduce that new wonder of the age, the telephone.”

The Maui telephone system was apparently put into operation in May or June, 1878; a letter from Makawao, dated June 27, 1878, and printed in the Advertiser, boasted that “the telegraph and telephone are old here, ‘everybody has ’em’ ” and went on to tell how “comes the word by telephone that Mr. Spencer (E. Maui Plantation) has met with an accident.” (Schmitt, HJH)

In 1878, S. G. Wilder, Minister of the Interior, had a line installed between his government office and his lumber yard, and other private lines quickly followed. Organized service in Honolulu began during the late fall of 1880, and on December 30 the Hawaiian Bell Telephone Company was incorporated.

On December 23, 1880, a charter was granted to the Hawaiian Bell Telephone Company (Bell had nothing to do with the company; the name “Bell” was added to honor Alexander Graham Bell.)

There were 119 subscribers by the end of 1881; the next year there were 179.  (On August 16, 1883, a competitive group was granted a charter, it was called the Mutual Telephone Company.  Competition brought the rates down.)

The 1880-1881 directory, published in 1880, noted that the Hawaiian Telegraph Company “was established in 1877, and was the pioneer line of the Kingdom, and is up to the present time the only public line. It was originally worked with what are known as Morse Sounders, but, the business of the line not being sufficient to pay for experienced operators, telephones have been substituted.”  (Schmitt, HJH)

The first calls were operator assisted – the first operators were men.

They knew each subscriber by voice and did more than just connect calls – they made appointments, conveyed messages and even announced the current attraction at the Opera House.  Throwing a master switch, they could inform all subscribers on matters of general concern, with a “Now hear this!”

On November 2, 1931, the Mutual Telephone Company inaugurated interisland radio telephone service.  Mutual introduced radio telephone service with the Mainland a few weeks later. (Schmitt, HJH)

Annoyed by the growing numbers of free-loaders who used merchants’ phones for their private calls, the company (with the approval of the Public Utilities Commission) forbade free calls from stores and other public places, and in 1935 installed the first pay phones in Honolulu.  (Schmitt, HJH)

Shortly after the turn of the century, women replaced men as telephone operators.  On August 28, 1910, Honolulu telephones were converted to dial operation, but the last manual phones in Hawaiʻi (at Kamuela and Kapoho) were not phased out until 1957.

That same year (1957,) the first submarine telephone cable laid between Hawaiʻi and the mainland United States (actually two cables, (one transmitting in each direction.))  This provided the first direct dialing between Hawaiʻi and the mainland.  It was replaced in 1989 with more advanced Fiber Optic cable technology.

Direct Distance Dialing was made available for calls from Oahu to the Neighbor Islands and Mainland beginning at 12:01 a.m., January 16, 1972.  This permitted callers to bypass long-distance operators and reduce charges appreciably.

The image shows male telephone operators (Saga of the Sandwich Islands) in the early-1890s.  In addition, I have included other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Google+ page.

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Benjamin and Mary Parker

From the time of early Polynesian settlement the ahupuaʻa of Kāneʻohe was a desirable place to live.  With its fertile land and abundant water sources, it is estimated that the 1779 population of the Kāneʻohe Bay area was probably somewhere between 15,000 and 17,000 people.

When foreigners began to settle in Hawaiʻi, Kāneʻohe was relatively isolated. The Bay did not provide a good anchorage and the trail over the Pali was treacherous.

The American Protestant missionaries decided to open a mission in Kāneʻohe.

The Rev. Benjamin Wyman Parker (born October 13, 1803 in Reading, Massachusetts) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Parker (known in Hawaiʻi as “Mother Parker” – of Branford, Connecticut) were in the Sixth Company of the Sandwich Island Mission, arriving in Honolulu on May 1, 1833 on the ship “Mentor.”

Almost immediately they joined the Alexander and Armstrong families to open a mission in the Marquesas, on July 21, 1833.  Their first and only son, Henry Hodges Parker was born there.  They returned to Honolulu and were assigned to the “Kāneʻohe Station” on Windward Oahu.

“We reached this little nook after a voyage of two days in safety. This little bay—Kaneohe—is now our home. The people speak to us in an unknown tongue, yet are exceedingly kind. We have a large grass house to live in, without a window, partition or floor—not one fixture—not even a shelf. Almost all we had was left behind … Surely we may live and feel like pilgrims without any difficulty. Our cookhouse is two stones sheltered only by the open heavens.” (Mary Parker, The Friend, May 1933)

When the Kāneʻohe Mission Station first opened in 1835, “high chief Liliha, who officiated as a sort of ‘Mother-superior’ of the place [Koʻolaupoko], located her ‘new teachers’ [Missionary Parker and his family] on a little bluff on the edge of a beautiful bay [Kaneohe Bay]”

In 1835, Parker opened a school for 60 children; and another for men and women. The following year, he had 100 children.

“The high Chiefess Liliha had located her “New Teachers,” as she called them, on this bluff overlooking a beautiful bay.  The locality was called “Aipaakai,” literally an invitation to eat salt. Here they began the work of a lifetime. The Hawaiians from Waimanalo, one extreme, to Kualoa, the other extreme of the district, numbered about 10,000. The barrier of language was soon removed as they learned to speak the Hawaiian language; and within a few weeks (Parker) preached his first sermon to his people.” (The Friend May, 1933)

The school was initially in a grass hut. Later, they moved into a stone mission house provided again by Liliha, a quarter mile inland.

“Our new stone meeting-house, now nearly finished, is 95 feet in length by 42 in width. It has been erected by the voluntary effort of the church members.  Our old grass house, in which we had worshipped eight years, had become too poor to allow of our assembling in it much longer. … The people are poor, and destitute of every facility for erecting a permanent house.  Yet they entered more than willingly upon the work … not more than 75 (of the 100 male members) are able to labor at such work, a number being aged and infirm. Yet these 75 have collected the materials for the house, consisting of stone, wood, and lime; they have assisted in laying the walls; they have been to the mountains to cut and draw timber, besides contributing in other ways to pay the carpenters and masons. The female members of the church have contributed monthly 12 ½ cents in money, or in some available articles, for the same object.”  (The Friend, May 1933)

“(Parker) preached to large congregations; organized schools; taught classes; took long journeys either on foot or horseback to outlying districts, going from house to house, advising, helping, instructing his people; inspected the schools, guided the Hawaiian teachers; collected timber in the mountains for building purposes; superintended the building of churches and schoolhouses; planted trees; laid out roads; and directed the course of a stream of water from the mountains. The brook which runs its way in front of the modern public school is due to his foresight.”  (The Friend, May 1933)  He also helped survey the Koʻolau lands for the Great Māhele.

Their three daughters were born at the Kāneʻohe Station, Mary in 1835, Harriet in 1837 and Caroline in 1840. All of their children carried on their parents work. Mary and Caroline were in charge of a boy’s reform school in Pālama. Their son, Henry became pastor of Kawaiahaʻo Church in 1863 and served in that position for 54-years.

“A telescope leveled on the pali for coming visitors told the Parker girls how much taro and sweet potato to prepare for dinner. That telescope and the handbell used as a signal for the sexton to ring the church bell, were part of the family belongings for years.”  (The Friend, May, 1933)

In 1848, Rev. Parker reported the foreign population of Koʻolaupoko to be only seven (one Swede, two Englishmen and four Americans) , three of whom were married , each having one child. One was a house carpenter and the others “cultivate the soil to some extent”.

Following the Māhele, Parker acquired Koʻolaupoko lands, the ʻili of Lilipuna and other Kāneʻohe lands (over 55-acres total in 1851) and almost 650-acres of Waiheʻe, in 1855.  By 1869 Parker owned all the land of Waiheʻe except for the kuleana lands.

His son Henry formed the Parker Sugar Company and had about 80-acres in cultivation in 1880; they were only planters, the grinding was done at the nearby Kāneʻohe Sugar Plantation.

In 1894, the Parker family, the major landholder in Waiheʻe, leased rice property to the Sing Chong Company, a hui that also possessed or leased lands in Kaʻalaea and Kahaluʻu

In 1853, the Hawaiian Missionary Society reopened the Marquesas mission; Reverend Parker accompanied local emissaries in 1853 and 1867. Later in 1867, he retired and moved to Honolulu. He died in Honolulu March 23, 1877 at the age of 74.

In December 1905, the Hawaiian Mission celebrated the one-hundredth birthday of Mother Parker, noting, “For many years you have remained the sole survivor of that large band of missionaries with whom you labored more than sixty-five years ago for the spiritual and social uplifting, through Christ, of these beloved Hawaiian people, while children who remember those early days have grown aged or gone on before.”  Governor Carter came with congratulations, and a call from the former Queen was highly appreciated.

In 1927, The Reverend Benjamin Parker School (originally called Kāneʻohe School) opened in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, on land donated by the Parker family.  It is the first school in the Windward district.  It started as an elementary and intermediate school, grades 1-8.

Over the years, it expanded in size and grades taught; in 1937 it became an elementary and high school, grades 1-12.  In 1951, when Castle High School opened, Parker reverted to an elementary school, serving grades K – 6.   A fire destroyed portions of the school and it was reconstructed in 1973.  The school currently serves about 330 students.

The image shows Benjamin and Mary Parker.  Lots of stuff here from The Friend, Kāneʻohe: A History of Change and the Benjamin Parker School website.  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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Fort Armstrong

Fort Armstrong was located at Honolulu and was built on fill over Kaʻākaukukui reef in 1907 to protect Honolulu Harbor. It had one named Battery, and was spread over an area of 64.34 acres (6 acres being upland and the balance submerged lands.)

Kaʻākaukukui (the right (or north) light – and also called ‘Ākaukukui) was an original name for Kakaʻako.

Marshland, reef, salt pans and traditional fish ponds existed in this area. The entire shoreline was a coral wasteland bordered by mudflats. According to an 1885 survey map, the ‘ili of Kaʻākaukukui was awarded by land court to Victoria Kamāmalu; Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop inherited the land and it later became part of the Kamehameha Schools.

In 1898, the property was transferred to the United States by the Republic of Hawaiʻi under the joint resolution of annexation and, to protect the mouth of Honolulu Harbor, the US Army filled a submerged coral reef on the ‘Ewa side of Ka’ākaukukui for a gun emplacement.

In January 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt instructed Secretary of War William H Taft to convene the National Coast Defense Board (Taft Board) “to consider and report upon the coast defenses of the United States and the insular possessions (including Hawai‘i.)”

In 1906 the Taft Board recommended a system of Coast Artillery batteries to protect Pearl Harbor and Honolulu.  Between 1909-1921, the Hawaiian Coast Artillery Command had its headquarters at Fort Ruger and defenses included artillery regiments stationed at Fort Armstrong, Fort Barrette, Fort DeRussy, Diamond Head, Fort Kamehameha, Kuwa‘aohe Military Reservation (Fort Hase – later known as Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi) and Fort Weaver.

The District was renamed Headquarters Coast Defenses of Oʻahu sometime between 1911 and 1913. Following World War I and until the end of World War II, additional coastal batteries were constructed throughout the Island.

Fort Armstrong, built in 1907, was named for Brigadier General Samuel C Armstrong.  His father, Reverend Richard Armstrong (1805-1860,) had arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1832 and later replaced Hiram Bingham as pastor at Kawaiahaʻo Church (1840-1843.) In 1848, Armstrong (the father) left the mission and became Hawaiʻi’s minister of public education.

Armstrong (the son – namesake of the Fort) was born January 30, 1839 in Maui, Hawaii, the sixth of ten children. He attended Punahou School and later volunteered to serve in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

At the end of the war, Armstrong established the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute – now known as Hampton University – in Hampton, Virginia in 1868. Perhaps the best student of Armstrong’s Hampton-style education was Booker T Washington.  Samuel Chapman Armstrong died at the Hampton Institute on May 11, 1893, and is buried in the Hampton University Cemetery.

The original garrison at Fort Armstrong was the 1st Coast Artillery Company, followed by the 104th Mine Co. operating the harbor mines. Also stationed there was the 185th Coast Artillery Company.

They lived in tents for quite a long time; then temporary barracks were built – wooden structures that were continually occupied since January, 1914.  Buildings are constructed of 1 x 12 rough boards, with tar-paper roofs.

The facility later had a barracks, 4 officers’ quarters, 3 noncommissioned officers’ quarters, administration building and post exchange, guardhouse, fire apparatus house, quartermaster storehouse, gymnasium and related infrastructure; the standard strength was 109 men.

Battery Tiernon at Fort Armstrong was armed with two pedestal mounted 3-inch Guns from 1911 to 1943.

The first service practice ever held at Battery Tiernon, using the 3-inch guns, was August 30, 1913.  “Two 10-by-24 foot material targets were towed from right to left, facing the field of fire from a position at the B.C. station. … only one target was fired upon, viz: Four shots by the first manning detail and then four shots by the second manning detail. This was due to the fact that when the left target had almost reached the inner allowable limit of range at which practice may be held (1,500-yards) the right target was just beginning to be obscured by a dredge working in the outer channel.”

The Army mission in Hawaiʻi was defined in 1920 as “the defense of Pearl Harbor Naval Base against damage from naval or aerial bombardment or by enemy sympathizers and attack by enemy expeditionary force or forces, supported or unsupported by an enemy fleet or fleets.”

Fort Armstrong continued under the Coast Artillery program until September 15, 1922.

It was reserved for military purposes by a series of Executive Orders in 1930 and was described as the Fort Armstrong Military Reservation.

The present seawall was constructed 500-feet out from the original shoreline in 1948, and the area was backfilled. The Army Corps of Engineers took over the post in 1949. Kakaʻako Park was created over the landfill area.

On December 13, 1951, because the site was no longer needed by the military and was needed by the Territory of Hawaiʻi for harbor improvements, President Truman transferred the land to the Territory of Hawaiʻi.

Today, the site includes Piers 1 and 2 and has container and general cargo berths, warehouses, sheds, open paved storage areas for container back up and marshaling and Foreign Trade Zone No. 9.  The area also contains the US Immigration Station, the Department of Health Building, and the Ala Moana Pumping Station (all historic buildings.)

The image shows tents and other facilities at Fort Armstrong (1911-1920) (Hammatt – HSA.)  In addition, I have included other images/maps in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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“I Love The Flower That Constantly Attracts”

It’s the national flower of the Philippines (they call it ‘sampaguita,’ there) – it’s also one of the three national flowers in Indonesia, (the other two are the moon orchid and the giant padma.)

In Cambodia, the flower is used as an offering to Buddha.  In India, it’s sacred to the god Vishnu and used in religious ceremonies.  In China, the flower is processed and used as the main ingredient in jasmine tea.

In Oman, it features prominently on a child’s first birthday. Flowers are sprinkled on the child’s head by other children while chanting “hol hol” (the Arabic word for one year.)

It’s known as Jasminum sambac, a species of jasmine from the olive family (native to South and Southeast Asia.)  It is known as the Arabian jasmine in English.  (Other countries have other names for it.)  The flowers are also used for perfumes.

“Plants that wake when others sleep. Timid jasmine buds that keep their fragrance to themselves all day, but when the sunlight dies away, let the delicious secret out, to every breeze that roams about.”  (Thomas More, 16th Century)

The plant was introduced to Europe in the early 16th Century, although its existence had been known about for some time by then.  It probably came into Hawaiʻi in the 1800s.

In Hawaiʻi, the flowers are woven into lei (it takes about 125 buds to make a single strand.)

It was the favorite flower of Princess Kaʻiulani.  Kaʻiulani liked birds, too … especially peacocks.

The name of her birds (peacock – pīkake) carried over to become the name we use in Hawaiʻi for these flowers – the Pīkake.

Mapu ia ke ala o ka pīkake
I ka o aheahe a ka makani
Aloha aʻe au i ka pua ʻume mau

The fragrance of the pīkake is wafted
By a gentle blowing of the wind
I love the flower that constantly attracts
(Flanagan and Raymond)

Click here for a fabulous rendition of Lei Pīkake by Hapa.

While attending a wedding at Waimea on the Big Island, Kaʻiulani got caught in a cold Waimea rain while riding on horseback with her friends, Helen and Eva Parker (daughters of Samuel Parker.)  She became ill; she and her family returned to O‘ahu.

After a two-month illness, Kaʻiulani died at ʻĀinahau on March 6, 1899, at age 23.  It is said that the night she died, her peacocks screamed so loud that people could hear them miles away and knew that she had died.

Princess Kaʻiulani’s mother was Princess Miriam Kapili Kekauluohi Likelike (sister of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani) and her father was Scottish businessman and horticulturist Archibald Scott Cleghorn, who later became Governor of Oʻahu.

In his writings, Robert Louis Stevenson endearingly recalled that Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani was “…more beautiful than the fairest flower.”

The image shows Princess Kaʻiulani at ʻĀinahau (her Waikīkī home,) with her pīkake (peacocks.)   In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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