Kamehameha started to accumulate Western goods, including ships and weaponry. In 1790, he was joined by John Young and Isaac Davis, Europeans who knew how to use both. A blacksmith would have been needed to keep these ships and weapons in working order. Samuel Rice was a blacksmith by trade. He was born in about April 1787; his Hawaiian naturalization certificate notes he was a native of New Hampshire. He came to the Islands around 1811, probably aboard a fur trading ship.

In the service of Kamehameha, and later Kuakini, Rice was given property in West Hawaii: Honuaʻino (an ahupuaʻa that runs through Kainaliu) and two house sites in Kailua; the first, Pa o ʻUmi Heiau (on Ololi Road between Kopiko Plaza and Kuakini Hwy.) “He died on the morning of the 24th (of July, 1853,) rather suddenly, with the cholic or cramp, of which he had many previous attacks in years past.”