Olaa | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 13, 2018 by Peter T Young 9 Comments

Pszyk

Geologic evidence suggests that the modern caldera of Kīlauea formed shortly before 1500 AD. Repeated small collapses may have affected parts of the caldera floor, possibly as late as 1790. For over 300-400 years, the caldera was below the water table.

Kīlauea is an explosive volcano; several phreatic eruptions have occurred in the past 1,200 years. (Phreatic eruptions, also called phreatic explosions, occur when magma heats ground or surface water.)

The extreme temperature of the magma (from 932 to 2,138 °F) causes near-instantaneous evaporation to steam, resulting in an explosion of steam, water, ash and rock – the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was a phreatic eruption.

There were explosions in 1790, the most lethal known eruption of any volcano in the present United States. The 1790 explosions, however, simply culminated (or at least occurred near the end of) a 300-year period of frequent explosions, some quite powerful. (USGS)

Keonehelelei is the name given by Hawaiians to the explosive eruption of Kilauea in 1790. It is probably so named “the falling sands” because the eruption involved an explosion of hot gas, ash and sand that rained down across the Kaʻu Desert. The character of the eruption was likely distinct enough to warrant a special name. (Moniz-Nakamura)

The 1790 explosion led to the death of one-third of the warrior party of Kaʻū Chief Keōua. At the time Keōua was the only remaining rival of Kamehameha the Great for control of the Island of Hawaiʻi; Keōua ruled half of Hāmākua and all of Puna and Kaʻū Districts. They were passing through the Kilauea area at the time of the eruption. (Moniz-Nakamura)

Camped in Hilo, Keōua learned of an invasion of his home district of Kaʻū by warriors of Kamehameha. To reach Kaʻū from Hilo, Keōua had a choice of two routes one was the usually traveled coastal route, at sea level, but it was longer, hot, shadeless and without potable water for long distances. (NPS)

The other route was shorter, but passed over the summit and through the lee of Kilauea volcano, an area sacred to, and the home of, the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele. Keōua chose the volcano route, perhaps because it was shorter and quicker, with water available frequently. (NPS)

… Fast forward … “Despite the network of Pre-Western contact trails that covered the island, Hawaiʻi lacked a comprehensive system of interior roads for overland travel before 1846.”

“In that year, the Kingdom established the Department of the Interior and the office of Superintendent of Internal Improvements (the forerunner of Public Works) to oversee the construction of piers, harbors, government buildings, roads, and bridges.” (Terry)

Like the times of Keōua, “Two routes may be taken to the crater Kilauea, on the slope of Mauna Loa, one by Puna, the other by ‘Ōla‘a. It will be advisable to combine both, by going one way and returning the other.”

“Time being an object, the trip to and from the crater via ‘Ōla‘a can be accomplished in three days, which will give one day and two nights at the volcano house.” (Whitney, 1875)

“A critical step toward developing agriculture in ʻŌlaʻa was the creation of a new road between Hilo and Kīlauea located mauka of the Old Volcano Trail.” (Terry)

Work on the road began in 1890 using mainly prison labor, and in September of 1894 the entire road was completed. As the new Volcano Road through ʻŌlaʻa was being built, the Crown made a large portion of potential agricultural lands in ʻŌlaʻa available for lease and homesteading.”

“Three hundred eighty-five ʻŌlaʻa Reservation lease lots were created mauka and makai of the new Volcano Road, as well as an additional forty homesteads.” (Terry)

The ‘Ōla‘a Sugar Company was incorporated on May 3, 1899; the promoters purchased 16,000 acres in fee simple land and nearly 7,000 acres in long leasehold from WH Shipman. The plantation fields extended for ten miles along both sides of Volcano Road as well as in the Pāhoa and Kapoho areas of the Puna District.”

‘Ōla‘a Sugar Company began as one of Hawai‘i’s largest sugar plantations with much of its acreage covered in trees. Previous to cane, coffee was the primary agricultural crop grown in the region. After purchase of these lands, the company uprooted the coffee trees and cleared it for planting sugarcane.”

“The town of Mountain View grew with the sugar trade, as immigrant laborers were imported from Japan, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to work on the sugar plantation.”

“Another lesser known group also came to ʻŌlaʻa. In 1897, the Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs approved a request by H.F Hackfeld and Company (who acted as a recruiting agency for the “Planters Association”) to bring in European laborers for a number of sugar plantations.”

“Between 1897 and 1910, a number of Ukrainian families and single workers were recruited to work for ʻŌlaʻa Sugar Company. Most Ukrainian immigrants left ʻŌlaʻa for the US mainland in 1905 and 1906, but a few remained.” (Terry)

Among those who stayed in Mountain View were Michael and Annie Pszyk. (Terry) They a fifty-acre farm and in addition to work on the plantation they began to clear some land and go into developing a small herds of cows.

It was rather isolated, about 1 ½ miles from the highway. They first blazed a path so that they were able to walk out to Volcano
road.

He then widened it into a trail, but it wasn’t very satisfactory to haul wood to the village for which there was good demand, and take milk and other products.

“My father approached the council to have them make the trail into a road, but there was little interest in such a project.”

“He, eventually, widened the trail himself and made it into a passable road. Then the council took it over and named it Pszyk Road, and rightly so …” (Helen Richardson-Pszyk; Ewanchuck)

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Pszyk Road Sign

View from Olaa-Volcano-Rd-DAGS1665a-1892

Michael Pszyk headstone

Annie Pszyk headstone

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Olaa-Keaau-Proposed Volcano Road-DAGS1665-1893

September 6, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Where Curtis Lived

“On Thursday, September 20, at the office of ED Baldwin, Hilo, Hawaii, will be sold at public auction about 200 lots, of 50 acres each, at upset price of from $1 to $12 per acre … The purchaser may not acquire more than one lot.”

“Purchaser shall substantially improve his holding within one year from date of agreement, and shall from the end of second year have under cultivation at all times at less than ten per cent of the premises.”

“To entitle him to Patent Grant giving fee simple title, he shall continuously maintain his home upon the premises for a term of six years and have at the end of such term 25 per cent of the premises under bona fide cultivation, or shall have maintained his home continuously upon the premises for four years and have under cultivation, at end of such period, 50 per cent of the premises”.

“He shall plant, if not already growing, and maintain in good growing condition from end of second year until termination of agreement an average of not less than ten timber, shade, or fruit trees per acre.” (Commission of Public Lands Report , January 1, 1900)

“The first tracts of land in the Olaʻa District, a very fertile one and now becoming famous for the sugar and coffee being raised within the belt … (were to be sold with) the intentions of the Government to preserve them as homesteads for bona fide settlers who would build up a family home thereon”. (San Francisco Call, September 2, 1899)

“In the opening up of the Olaʻa tract on Hawaii to settlers, (there was) the consequent impetus to business which followed at Hilo.” (Thrum, 1901)

“The amount thus sold, about 4,000 acres, is portion of a large tract having the same general qualities and a total area of about 20,000 acres, which has all been carefully surveyed and upon which an expenditure for surveys and the building of roads has been made by the local authorities to the amount of $30,000 or $40,000.”

“These lands are connected by good roads with the town of Hilo, and lie from 10 to 20 miles from same.” (Hawaiian Investigation, Congressional Report, 1903)

The records note AG Curtis acquired Lot #219 (50.00-ac) and Virginia H Curtis acquired the adjoining Lot #220 (49.08-ac.)

Olaʻa was one of Hawaiʻi Island’s main coffee growing areas; it claimed the largest total area and the greatest number of planters, the land actually under coffee is about 6,000 acres. (Thrum)

However, from various causes, the interest in coffee growing was not long-lived. Advantages offered by a change to the cultivation of sugar cane, where the land was found suitable, transformed most of the Olaʻa coffee plantations into one vast sugar estate. (Thrum)

The Olaʻa Sugar Company was incorporated in 1899, and soon entered into a contract to grind the crop of Puna Sugar Company, another newly formed plantation. That same year, Olaʻa Sugar contracted with the newly founded Hilo Railroad Co., with the laying of tracks to Olaʻa and parts of lower Puna beginning that fall.” (County of Hawaiʻi)

Curtis grew “cane at Olaʻa which they sell to Olaʻa Sugar Company under contract.” However, the financial arrangements later did not satisfy Curtis or others. “Their chief complaint that they are paid too low prices for their cane, and that the mill makes an unproportionate profit.”

“Olaʻa Plantation has been purchasing cane from small planters for several years past under three forms of contract viz: the 1904 contract (under which Mr. Curtis has been operating), a contract known as the 1908 contract, and, latterly, under the ‘Eckart’ or 1913 contract. The prices to be paid to the planters under all of these contracts are based upon the price of raw sugar in New York.” (Star Bulletin, April 24, 1915)

That wasn’t all Curtis grew … “A few rubber trees have been planted on the homestead lot belonging to Mr AG Curtis at Eleven Miles, on the Volcano Road. These trees look exceedingly healthy and have attained a height of twenty-five feet. They were planted about four years ago.” (Hawaii Ag and Forestry, 1904)

“Mr Curtis (also) started a general store after which a postoffice was allotted to ‘11 miles’, as (the town) is colloquially known on Hawaiʻi.” Curtis sold it.

“11 miles from Hilo, on the Volcano road … the store, store building and store site, has been sold to T Dranga, a Crescent City business man, for approximately $10,000, according to reports reaching Honolulu today.”

“The transfer was made last week, after AG Curtis, the owner, returned from the mainland. It is his mercantile business which Mr Curtis has disposed of, but be still retains much of his cane land, from which he has made an independent fortune in the last few years.”

“Mr Curtis is now bound again for San Francisco where he proposes starting a purchasing agency for Island patrons.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, December 19, 1917)

“Kurtistown on Hawaiʻi was named after AG Curtis who was one of the pioneers in Olaʻa in 1902 when the Olaʻa Sugar Company began operations there.”

“A United States Post Office was established in the general store owned by AG Curtis and named Kurtistown the name by which the settlement between 11 and 13 miles on Volcano Road was also called.”

“The name was spelled ‘Kurtis’ instead of ‘Curtis’ because there is no ‘C’ in the Hawaiian alphabet.” (A Gazetteer)

(The explanation of the first letter is noted; however, it seems they overlooked that the alphabet and spelling of Hawaiian language initiated by the initial missionaries, and in use today, also does not have the letters ‘R,’ ‘S’ or ‘T.’)

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March 10, 2015 by Peter T Young 12 Comments

What happened to ʻOlaʻa?

That seems to be the question of some, because in the district of Puna on the Island of Hawaiʻi what once was called Olaʻa is now called Keaʻau. So why did it change?

Let’s look back a bit.

Part of the confusion may be that Olaʻa was formerly called Laʻa, a legendary area for collecting bird feathers. (Ulukau) To further confuse things, some scholars believe that ʻOlaʻa is misspelled, and should be spelled as ʻO-Laʻa.

Some believe that the okina is a substitute for the letter ‘k,’ as it is in some other Polynesian languages, which would, in turn, change the meaning to the name of the hula deity Laka, or a place dedicated (Iaʻa) to the god. (Cultural Surveys)

Laka is the goddess of the upland forests worshiped in the hula dance. (Beckwith) Since Laka is guardian of the forest, her name is invoked by hula dancers and others when entering the forest.

Forests once covered much of ʻOlaʻa; they were later (1905-1928) made part of the forest reserve system within the Islands. The forest lands of ʻOlaʻa were noted for their growth of ʻohiʻa and koa trees, and hapuʻu tree fern.

At the Mahele (1848,) ʻOlaʻa was retained by the Crown. It was described as “A very large land, but cut off from the sea by Keaʻau.” (Cultural Surveys)

Keaʻau (about 60,000-acres of land) is the northern most of some 50 ahupuaʻa (ancient land divisions) found in the district of Puna. Keaʻau extends from the ocean fishery some 26 miles inland, and reaches an elevation of about 3,900-feet – portions of it wrap around the makai point of ʻOlaʻa. In the uplands, Keaʻau is cut off by Keauhou, eastern-most of the ahupuaʻa of the district of Kaʻu. (Maly)

While historically people typically settled along the shoreline, because much of the Puna’s district’s coastal areas have thin soils and there are no good deep water harbors, settlement patterns in Puna tend to be dispersed and without major population centers. Villages in Puna tended inland, and away from the coast, where the soil is better for agriculture. (Escott)

This was confirmed on William Ellis’ travel around the island in the early 1800s, “Hitherto we had travelled close to the seashore, in order to visit the most populous villages in the districts through which we had passed. But here receiving information that we should find more inhabitants a few miles inland, than nearer the sea, we thought it best to direct our course towards the mountains.” (Ellis, 1826)

“Nearly all the food consumed by the residents of this District is raised in the interior belt to which access is had by the ancient paths or trails leading from the sea coast. The finest sweet potatoes are raised in places that look more like banks of cobble stones or piles of macadam freshly dumped varying from the size of a walnut to those as large as ones fist. In these holes there is not a particle of soil to be seen”. (Alexander; Rechtman)

What is consistent and clear from testimony before the Land Commission, there definitely was an Olaʻa in upper Puna on the Island of Hawaiʻi. The testimony is equally consistent and clear that there also was a Keaʻau.

Thrum, in his 1894 Hawaiian Almanac and Annual, noted, “The year 1894 witnessed the completion of the volcano road which was begun in 1889. This is a boon to visitors and the settlers in the new coffee district of ʻOlaʻa, as it affords a fine carriage drive the entire distance of thirty miles. Regular stages now run between Hilo and the Volcano House every other day.”

A common reference relates to the old road to Volcano, “ʻOlaʻa (is) on the Hilo side of the road and Keaʻau on the Puna side.” Others phrased it “ʻOlaʻa being on the North side of the road and Keaʻau on the South east side.”

“ʻOlaʻa has come into prominence in the past few years as a most promising coffee center. The opening of the road from Hilo to the volcano, which traverses this neighborhood, was the means of bringing the possibilities of the ʻOlaʻa lands to public notice as well as within reach.” (Thrum, 1898)

So, what happened with the ʻOlaʻa – Keaʻau name changes?

Before 1900, coffee was the chief agricultural crop in the area. Over 6,000-acres of coffee trees were owned by approximately 200-independent coffee planters and 6 incorporated companies.

Soon, sugarcane was in large-scale production. Initially founded in 1899, ʻOlaʻa Sugar Company leased about 4,000-acres of land, expanded and eventually became the dominant operation in the region. Plantation fields extended for 10-miles along both sides of Highway 11 between Keaʻau and Mountain View, as well as in the Pāhoa and Kapoho areas.

Construction of centrally-located ʻOlaʻa Sugar Mill was completed in 1902, requiring 51 men working a three-shift operation. This industrial expansion marked the beginning of massive landscape alterations and clearing operations.

A community grew around the plantation. Attention to employee welfare was demonstrated by ʻOlaʻa Sugar Company in the housing program, free medical attention and recreational facilities. ʻOlaʻa modernized the housing by building new family units and relocating outlying houses scattered about the plantation into nine main villages.

They became miniature towns with running water, electric lights, schools, churches, stores, clubhouses, theaters, parks and ball fields. The plantation roads radiated from these nine camps to cover the cane areas where the men worked. The 1930 plantation census noted a total of 5,999-men, women and children residing in 1,098-houses at ʻOlaʻa. (HSPA)

The plantation made land available for community uses. As examples, the ʻOlaʻa Hongwanji was built in 1902. Likewise, ʻOlaʻa Christian Church was nearby. ʻOlaʻa School, an elementary school, began in 1939. Other groups and places were formed using the ʻOlaʻa namesake.

That changed … and, it’s not clear how or when the mistake was learned.

But a 1951 article in The Friend paper reported part of the reasoning for subsequent name changes. “At an impressive ceremony, more than 250 members and friends of the church gathered to witness the old ʻOlaʻa Christian Church become the new Keaʻau Congregational Church.”

“The name-changing and rededication ceremony took place on the night of April 10, 1951, at the ʻOlaʻa Christian Church …. The Christian assertion, ‘God is Truth,’ is no mere, pious assertion designed to conceal their inner fear of truth nor their secret attachment to falsehood.”

“Christians are incurably truthseekers. Thus when the members of our church learned that the original and correct name of the village in which the church is situated is Keaʻau and not ʻOlaʻa, they felt that the time had come when they should change the name of the church.” (The Friend, June 1, 1951)

Others followed.

In 1960, ʻOlaʻa Sugar Company became Puna Sugar Company. ʻOlaʻa Elementary School became Keaʻau Elementary and Intermediate School (later Keaʻau Middle School.) In the early-1970s, ʻOlaʻa Hongwanji became Puna Hongwanji.

Not all early labels and references were incorrect; a 1914 USGS map appears to correctly label the place once known as ʻOlaʻa as Keaau.

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Olaa School Token

Olaa_Sugar_Mill-kuokoa-01_20_1905

Puna Hongwanji

Olaa Hongwanji

Puna_Hongwanji

June 3, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Juzaburo Sakamaki

On May 3, 1899, Ben F Dillingham, Lorrin A Thurston, Alfred W Carter, Samuel M Damon and William H Shipman formed the Olaʻa Sugar Company and started what they believed would become Hawaii’s largest and most prosperous sugar plantation.

By that time (and in the years following,) numerous foreign immigrants came to the Islands to work on the sugar plantations, including Olaʻa.

There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese 1852; Japanese 1885; and Filipinos 1905. Several smaller, but substantial, migrations also occurred: Portuguese 1877; Norwegians 1880; Germans 1881; Puerto Ricans 1900; Koreans 1902 and Spanish 1907.

With the respective language barriers created by the influx of foreigners, plantations assigned interpreters to open lines of communication with the workers.

One of those at Olaʻa was Juzaburo Sakamaki.

In 1869, Sakamaki was the youngest child born in Hirosaki-Shi, Aomori-Ken, Japan to Hisao Sakamaki and Fumi Takasaki. His father died when he was 4; to make ends meet, his mother had to run a private boardinghouse.

Inspired by a letter from a friend, at 15, without telling his mother, he stowed away on a ship bound for California to start a new life. After arriving in the US, Sakamaki went East to Pennsylvania, where he spent nine years studying and working.

Receiving word that his mother was ill, he decided to return home. By the time he reached Hawaiʻi, he learned that she was already dead, so he canceled his plans to go on to Japan.

At about this time, Olaʻa Sugar Company was established, and he was hired as the company’s only regular interpreter.

As interpreter, Sakamaki was the only pipeline between the company and the Japanese immigrants who made up the majority of the labor force at Olaʻa Plantation.

As assistant postmaster of the Olaʻa post office, Sakamaki was also involved in all the daily activities of the Japanese there. As the agent of the Consulate General of Japan in Honolulu he was also in charge of administering the immigrants’ family register items.

In this capacity, he not only dealt with registrations of births, deaths, marriages, adoptions and other family matters, he handled remittances that workers sent home.

Growing immigrant population, including those from Japan, started to concern some, in the Islands, as well as on the continent.

In part, this was referred to as the “Japanese Problem” (their numbers were growing, racial conflicts were developing and the military feared Japanese expansion.)

Likewise, there was discontent among the sugar workers. This came to a head in 1920.

Demanding increases in pay, in 1920, Japanese and Filipino sugar workers on Oʻahu struck the plantations – approximately 6,000-workers, over three quarters of the labor force, walked off the job (only Oʻahu workers walked off, they relied on the neighbor islands for support.)

Though the strike was on Oʻahu, its impact was felt at Olaʻa.

A small item in the June 4, 1920 Honolulu Star Bulletin noted, “The home of a Japanese eight miles from Olaa was blown up with giant powder last night.” The newspaper did not give the name of the victim, but it reported that the man was in a back bedroom at the time and was not killed, even though the front of the house was destroyed. (UC Press)

It turns out the attack was on Sakamaki’s home.

“It was about eleven o’clock pm that night of the third of June … I was awokened by sound and, of course, didn’t realize that it was an explosion; first thought it was water-tank fell or something; anyway, I was awokened by the sound, and my wife was in another room and she called me, ‘What was that sound? What was that noise?’ Then a little later my boy said he smelled powder; then I realized it was an explosion.”

The dynamite had been set under the floor between the parlor and the dining room on the mauka side; the side of the house had been blown off.

Sakamaki had sided with management during the labor disputes of 1920. The Territory of Hawai’i charged leaders of the Federation of Japanese Labor with conspiracy to assassinate Sakamaki in order to intimidate opponents of the strike and alleged, further, that the strike was part of a concerted effort to take over the Islands by Japan.

The trial for conspiracy in the first degree began on Wednesday, February 1, 1922, in the First Circuit Court in Honolulu. Of the twenty-one defendants charged in the indictment, fifteen appeared in court every day. Their names were called each morning at the start of each court session in this order: Goto, Miyazawa, Tsutsumi, Kawamata, Furusho, Hoshino, Takizawa, Baba, Tomota, Ishida, Koyama, Kondo, Sazo, Sato Fujitani and Murakami. (UC Press)

The indictment read: “On 27th of May 1920, (the accused) did maliciously or fraudulently combine, or mutually undertake or consort together to commit a felony, to wit, to unlawfully use and cause to be exploded dynamite or other explosive chemicals of substance for the purpose of inflicting bodily injury upon one J. Sakamaki.”

It took the jury less than five hours to reach a verdict on the fifteen defendants.

Judge Banks then sentenced all the defendants to “be imprisoned in Oʻahu prison at hard labor for the term of not less than four years nor more than ten years.” (UC Press)

By the early 1920s many Americans had begun to look at Japan and the Japanese with deep suspicion. Some suggest it was the catalyst for legislation restricting immigration into the US.

The subsequent Johnson Reed Immigration Quota Act ((Immigration Act of 1924) limiting the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890 (down from the 3% cap set by the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921)) passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming majorities: in the House 308 to 58 and in the Senate 69 to 9.

(As an aside, Sakamaki Hall at the University of Hawaiʻi – Mānoa is named for Juzaburo’s son, Shunzo Sakamaki, a prominent administrator and Asian history professor at the University of Hawaii, from 1936 until his retirement in 1970.)

(A controversial aspect of Shunzo Sakamaki’s career concerns his work with the FBI beginning in 1940 aimed at identifying Japanese Americans in Hawaiʻi who should be considered dangerous in the event of war with Japan. While he believed that the vast majority of Japanese Americans in Hawaiʻi were loyal to the United States, he was on record as believing that Shinto priests in Hawaii should be interned.) (UH-Mānoa) (Lots of information here from a book by Masayo Umezawa Duus.)

The image shows a photo of Juzaburo Sakamaki (second from left.) In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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