Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Doubtful Island of the Pacific

“In the early dawn of the second day out, the steamer rounds Kalae Point, the extreme southern cape of Hawaiʻi – a locality noted for the wreckage and drift logs occasionally thrown ashore, and which often line the beach for miles, consisting mostly of timber and trunks of trees and occasionally wreckage of vessels.”

“It was here that … one of the masts of the United States sloop-of-war Levant, which was lost in the winter of 1860, while on the passage from Hilo to the mainland (was found.) After leaving Hilo the ship was never heard from.” (Hawaiian Planters Monthly, January 1900)

“A ship’s mast has drifted ashore, just below the harbor of Kawalunalu (Kaʻaluʻalu,) in Kaʻu (near Kamilo.) It is seventy-six feet long. The lower part of the mast, which was in between decks, is squared and finished, as if it had been used as a rack for guns, while on one side are large spikes driven in, as though it had been used for a raft.” (New York Times, August 4, 1861)

“… the fact of the entire mast having been used as a raft would go far to sustain the belief that the ship had been wrecked on some shoal, reef, rock or island, and not foundered, as is more generally believed; and in the former case there is still a chance that some of the ill-fated crew may yet survive or be heard of.” (New York Times, August 4, 1861)

Let’s look back a bit.

By the 1850s, both Honolulu and Lāhainā, on the island of Maui, had become the busiest ports for American whaling ships sailing in the Pacific Ocean. Hilo, on the Island of Hawaiʻi, was another important port.

Before the widespread use of petroleum oil, whale oil was the main source of fuel oil for illumination. At the time, it was also the best industrial lubricant for machinery.

Most whaling ships regularly sailed between New England and the Sea of Japan off the coast of Asia, then the prime hunting ground for sperm whales. Sperm oil was considered the finest whale oil and it often sold double or triple the value of other whale oils.

At the Hawaiian ports, incapacitated or sick sailors and whalers would disembark to recover. It was the duty of a Consul or an Agent to provide for their care or to send a destitute seaman home to America. (US Archives)

Hospitals had been established to serve sick and destitute sailors. The US Commercial Agent was responsible for recommending seamen to the hospital, keeping necessary papers and books, and handling the financial transactions.

A physician of the hospital had a contract with the US States Government which guaranteed him exclusive treatment of American seamen at US expense. The purveyor supplied food, clothing, shelter, maid service, laundry service and assorted other necessities. All of these services were charged to the US government. (Pyle)

The Levant, an 18-gun second-class sloop-of-war, had been sent to Hawaiʻi at the request of the State Department. Commodore William E Hunt, the ship’s captain, had been appointed to serve as a special commissioner to investigate charges of fraud among the US consular service and its employees at the US seamen’s hospitals in Hawaiʻi. (US Archives)

In addition, the US Commissioner in Hawaiʻi, James W Borden, participated in the investigations of the workings of the US hospital and consular system in Honolulu, Lāhainā and Hilo.

The investigators were blunt in terms of specific charges of fraud that were alleged to have taken place at the Honolulu consulate.

In part, Borden reported, “A careful examination of the evidence will, I believe, satisfy you that the Physician as well as the Purveyor, in this respect, and also in that of obtaining from the seamen blank receipts, have been engaged in defrauding the Government, and I have therefore no hesitation in recommending the removal of them both …” (Borden, April 27, 1860; US Archives)

After Hunt and Borden concluded their investigation, their reports were sent to the State Department. Hunt’s official report to the Secretary of State never arrived in Washington.

After spending four months in the Hawaiian Islands investigating at Honolulu, Lahaina and Hilo and receiving a state visit by King Kamehameha IV at Honolulu on May 7, 1860, Levant sailed for Panama on September 18, 1860, about 4,500 miles away to the south and east.

Unfortunately, that was the last day anyone ever saw the 23-year-old sailing ship intact or any of its 150 crew members alive. The ship never arrived at its destination.

The US Navy conducted a search for the vessel in early 1861, but no trace of the ship or its crew was found at that time. “The disaster must have been so sudden that no time was given to save the lives of those on board by taking to the boats or building a raft.” (US Archives)

Meantime, shortly after the failure of the Levant to arrive at Panama, and long before the finding of the above wreckage, two vessels of the US Navy (Saranac and Wyoming) had been sent from that port to the Hawaiian Islands.

But these and all similar efforts to solve the fatal mystery proving fruitless, Congress, by resolution duly adopted, fixed the date of June 30, 1861 to be reckoned as the day on which the Levant had foundered at sea, with the loss of all on board. (National Geographic Magazine, December, 1904, and March, 1907)

All ships that vanish at sea gather rumors in death as they collect barnacles afloat. But since Levant disappeared just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, an unusual number of intriguing yarns surround her last voyage. Bits of evidence, too scanty to solve her mystery, have multiplied the myths. ((navy-mil)

Commodore Montgomery reported that a violent hurricane had occurred in September in a part of the Pacific Ocean which Levant was to cross. Some rumors had her running aground on an uncharted reef off California (or some other doubtful island of the Pacific.)

Others had her defecting to the Confederacy. Whatever her real fate, this ghostly heroine of colorful episodes in American naval history still sails the seas of imagination and legend. (navy-mil)

The disappearance of the Levant, with 210 aboard, was the second worst marine disaster in Hawaiian history. The greatest marine disaster in Island history was the loss of the Kamehameha, in 1829 or 1830, with High Chief Boki, Governor of Oʻahu, and 250 others that went down in a storm seeking sandalwood.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Meirs Horner

“’You have no wheat here, your share was destroyed by elk, antelope, and other wild animals….’ So we got nothing for our labor. Thus ended my first year’s farming in California.” (Horner)

Whoa, let’s look back …

John Meirs Horner was born on a New Jersey farm June 15, 1821. He attended the public schools and later worked on farms in the summers and taught school in the winters.

“I had been wrought up over the subject of religion. The Methodists were the most persistent in my neighborhood and my preference was for them. In these days came ministers of a new sect calling themselves Latter-day Saints, with a new revelation preaching the gospel of the New Testament with its gifts and blessings.”

“It attracted much attention, people listened and some obeyed thereby enjoying the promised blessing. Members of the Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian faith as well as non-professors began to join them. Among the latter class were my father, mother and sisters”

“I was the first of the family to obey being baptized by Erastus Snow in the Layawa Creek on the second day of August 1840. In the spring of 1843, … I was introduced to and shook hands with the Prophet Joseph Smith.” (Horner) In 1846 he married a neighbor’s daughter, Elizabeth Imlay.

They headed west.

“The day finally arrived for the Brooklyn to set sail. The wharf was crowded with friends and relatives bidding their good-byes.”

“The Brooklyn set sail and left the New York harbor with 238 passengers including 70 men, 68 women and 100 children. … They took with them agricultural and mechanical tools for ‘eight hundred men,’ a printing press, two milk cows, forty pigs and a number of fowls. Also brought onboard were school books, histories, slates, and other school materials.” (Horner)

Yerba Buena (now known as San Francisco) was their destination, and they arrived there by way of New York, Cape Horn, Juan Fernandez Island and the Hawaiian Islands. It took 6-months and they covered 18,000-miles. The population of Yerba Buena was said to be forty; their company of 268 made an addition to their number of over 600%.

War was raging between Mexico and the US when they arrived in California. The upper part of the territory was already in possession of the US forces. After about 30-days, Horner moved to farm 40-acres of wheat on the lower San Joaquin.

Despite the early quote related to his farming experience, he turned that failure into future success. “Although I got no dollars out of it, I did get experience, which I profited by in after years. I had tested the soil in different places, with several different kinds of farm products and learned the most suitable season for sowing and planting.”

As a pioneer in agriculture, he furnished fresh vegetables and grain to the gold-crazed miners and the people of the growing city of San Francisco, as early as 1849. He fenced and brought under production many hundreds of acres, established a commission house in San Francisco for the sale of produce in 1850, imported agricultural implements from the east and iron fencing from England and built a flour mill.

He became known as “The Pioneer Farmer of California,” “California’s First Farmer” and, due to a speculative real estate venture, “Father of Union City.”

He also acquired part of Rancho San Miguel; it’s now known as Noe Valley in San Francisco. Horner’s Addition still carries some of the streets and names he laid out (among others, Elizabeth is for his wife and Jersey is for the place he was born.)

In the course of his operations, he opened sixteen miles of public road, operated a steamer and a stagecoach line, laid out no fewer than eight towns, built a public schoolhouse, and paid for the services of a teacher.

Missionaries and other brethren traveling through the area always received kind and ready assistance from his hands. Although he never visited Utah, he sent numerous cuttings of fruit trees, vines, and berries to aid the Mormons in establishing themselves there.

Then the Panic of 1857 caused him considerable loss, he sold his land holdings and moved to Maui (arriving on Christmas day 1879.)

At the time, his oldest son was growing sugar cane there; they contracted with Claus Spreckels for shares, with five hundred acres of land allotted to them and farmed under the name JM Horner & Sons.

“Our crop did well. It exceeded our expectations, in both yield and the price for which it sold. … Our crop yielded two thousand pounds of sugar more per acre than the land cultivated by the plantation, which fact fired its manager with jealousy”.

They “left Mr. Spreckels and contracted with the owners of the Pacific Sugar Mill Co. to do one-half of the cultivation for their mill … Here we made considerable sugar, increasing the yield on our half of the plantation from five hundred tons per year to two thousand.” (Horner)

They then “rented in the district of Hawaiʻi-Hāmākua, twelve hundred and fifty acres since increased to twenty four hundred of good, wild cane land with a view to starting a new plantation”.

“Not wishing to carry all our eggs in one basket, we established a stock ranch where we raised all the horses and mules required on the plantation, and some for sale. We have over four hundred head of horses and mules on the ranch, and one hundred and twenty on the plantation.”

“The ranch has some three thousand four hundred head of beef and dairy stock, the plantation and neighborhood are supplied with butter and beef from the ranch, and the surplus is disposed of elsewhere.” (Horner)

“Horner, a man of broad vision and accurate foresight, was quick to appreciate the possibilities of the sugar industry and was a big factor in its development.”

“At a meeting of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association in the early 80’s he declared that Hawaii eventually would produce 600,000 tons of sugar a year. His prediction was ridiculed then, but in 1924 the Territory’s output was more than 700,000 tons.”

Hawaiian planters were heavily interested in a refinery at San Francisco, operated in competition with the then powerful sugar trust dominated by the Havermeyers. Under pressure, the Hawaiian planters decided to dispose of their refinery to the trust.

Horner fought this move at every stage, asserting that Hawaii should refine its own produce and remain independent, and was the last man to transfer his holdings in the California enterprise. (Nellist)

Public duties also called and he served at two sessions as a Noble in the Hawaiian legislature. Horner died at his home on Hawaiʻi in 1907, at the age of 86 years. (Nellist) (Lots of information here from Nellist and Horner autobiography.) The image shows John Meirs Horner.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Prostitution

In the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

The next day, “we were in some doubt whether or not the land before us was inhabited; but this doubt was soon cleared up, by seeing some canoes coming off from the shore, toward the ships, I immediately brought-to, to give them time to join us. They had from three to six men each”.

“I tied some brass medals to a rope, and gave them to those in one of the canoes, who, in return, tied some small mackerel to the rope as an equivalent.”

“This was repeated ; and some small nails, or bits of iron, which they valued more than any other article, were given them. For these they exchanged more fish, and a sweet potatoe; a sure sign that they had some notion of bartering; or, at least, of returning one present for another.” (Cook Journal, at time of ‘Contact,’ )

While Cook bartered for provisions, his crew was already familiar with trading iron nails for sex. (Hansen) “Women were also forbidden to be admitted into the ships, except under certain restrictions. But the evil I meant to prevent (venereal disease,) by this regulation, I soon found, had already got amongst them.” (Cook)

Captain Cook, in his log of 1778, noted that native Hawaiian women would swim out to his ships, hoping to engage his crews sexually; thereafter, most randy seamen anticipated arrival at Hawaiian ports-of-call. (Waihona)

Archibald Campbell, an 1809 visitor to Hawai’i, noted the Hawaiians were “very jealous of any improper connexion between natives and their wives; but the case is widely different with respect to their visiters, where connexion of that kind is reckoned the surest proof of friendship, and they are always anxious to strengthen it by that tie.” (Campbell)

Prostitution, as it now would be defined, was nonexistent in pre-Western contact Hawai‘i, because sexual partners were readily available for mutual enjoyment.

After Western contact occurred, the females continued to openly want sex, now with the mana-loaded sailors and traders. The early mediums of exchange were nails or shirts.

These males advocated bartering for sex, and with no religious or social restrictions against prostitution, the natives had no hesitancy about profiting from the newcomers’ desires. (Diamond)

“The seaman, after wandering over the pathless ocean, with only the dark waste of waters in view, might well recognize a paradise in the green hills and shady groves of the islands of the Pacific, and angels in their dusky denizens.”

“It is admitted by all that licentiousness prevails extensively among the people even at present, but to a far less degree than formerly, when promiscuous intercourse was universal.”

“Men were living with several wives, and vice versa. All improvement in this respect is to be ascribed to the labors of Christian missionaries.”

“It was not merely polygamy or excess among a few of the more powerful members of the community, but the ordinary habit among all classes.”

“Chastity, whenever met with, was not a customary part of woman’s life, but only an incident dependent On particular circumstances; in fact, an abnormal condition.” (Sanger)

In the early nineteenth century, makaʻāinana women flocked to the European ships and port towns in large numbers to partake in the lucrative trade in sexual services. This was one of the few ways that makaʻāinana could acquire foreign goods since the aliʻi controlled other forms of trade. (Merry)

Many Hawaiian women boarded the ships coming to port here. They did not think that such associations were wrong … The husbands and parents, not knowing that it would bring trouble, permitted such association for foreign men because of the desire for clothing, mirrors, scissors, knives, iron hoops from which to form fishhooks and nails. (ʻIʻi; Merry)

The first attempt to change the sexual behavior of Hawaiian women was an attack on prostitution with European seamen. This endeavor earned the missionaries the undying hostility of the small but growing mercantile community and the visiting shipping community while failing to eliminate the sex trade. (Merry)

In December, 1827, drafted by Kaʻahumanu and scrutinized for Christian propriety by Hiram Bingham, a set of prohibitions were proscribed (murder, theft, adultery, prostitution, gambling, and the sale of alcoholic spirits.) Folks fought it.

“The leading one of these elements was the combination of lewd and intemperate whites, headed by the British and American consuls, in order to break down the new laws against prostitution and drunkenness.” (Missionary Herald, 1905) Prostitution didn’t stop.

At a time, “Local law enforcement condoned and controlled the activities, under the guise that it was “a public necessity.” “The whole of Iwilei makai of the Oʻahu Prison has been used for the purpose of prostitution for some time past.” (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

These women did not live at Iwilei; they only went there in the evenings, and then returned to their uptown homes at night. Some had homes of their own, others were servants of families; but all went back to town. They were in no sense isolated; Iwilei was not their home; they neither eat nor sleep there. (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

“The High Sheriff of the Territory, through his agents, has ordered all of such women (prostitutes) that are found in different parts of the City, and also in some portions of Iwilei, to move to one particular part as follows: on the makai side of Iwilei rice mill, and on the Ewa side of the Iwilei road.” (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

The Iwilei brothels (or “boogie houses,” as they were also called back then) were later forced to relocate to Hotel Street and a few adjoining parts of Chinatown. By 1916, the Iwilei Stockade was shut down.

Shortly thereafter, there was an unofficial system of regulated prostitution in the Islands, with the also unofficial sanction of the military. Army military police and the Navy shore patrol helped monitor it.

All girls had to live in the houses where they worked; no white girls were allowed on the other side of River Street. The Army, Navy, and civilian police picketed any house violating the rules, and no man could enter it. According to the agreement, the civil police regulated prostitution “with full cooperation by the Army and Navy.” Greer)

“The business of procuring girls to work in the brothels, or “factories”, before the war (WWII,) was usually handled by the same … “procurer.” He handled nothing but the transportation of the girls. … The fee for procuring a girl from the mainland rage(d) from $500 to $1,000 depending on the looks and the capability of the girl.” (O’Hara)

All of the girls have a Territorial tax book and a Territorial license (they were licensed as ‘entertainers,’) which cost each $1 per year. In addition, every month the Vice Squad would collect an unofficial tax of $30 per girl from the brothels.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Malukukui

“The Kukui Tree would pay big in the hands of anyone who could got a liquor license, or who would run a blind pig. … EP Irwin has decided to close the Kukui Tree, at Wahiawa. …”

“The place has not been paying. Mr. Irwin will devote all his attention now to his Waikiki place, the well known Hau Tree.” (Hawaiian Star, July 17, 1911)

Let’s look back …

Mr and Mrs Henry C Brown converted their Wahiawa home into the “Malukukui, their home-hotel among the pineapples at Wahiawa.” (Hawaiian Gazette, September 29, 1909)

“(I)ll health sent them to seek a quiet country life. They settled in Wahiawa, the largest pineapple country in the world, where they bought several acres of ground and built their home, evolving from it a small country inn in which they are now able to accommodate some fifty guests.”

“The house was built by Japanese carpenters and has some Japanese features; for example, the bedrooms on the sheltered side of the house have no glass in the windows, but only sliding screens and shutters which fold up on the outside to be used in the case of heavy rain.”

“The house is built of matched boards left rough on the outside but planed within, and over each joint, both inside and out, three-inch battens are laid. The roof is of galvanized iron, roofing much used in this district, and the whole is stained a dark moss green with white trimmings about the windows and doors.”

“Every room has a fine view either over the restful pineapple fields or down the deep ravine on the edge of which the house is built. In the distance can be seen magnificent mountain ranges and glimpses of the Pacific ten miles distant.”

“The house is of significance to us, not alone because of its attractiveness or the fact that many of the ideas for which we stand have been put into practice within it; but as an example of what can be done in a country where there are few resources, by people who really desire to build a home after their own hearts.” (The Craftsman, 1909)

Wahiawa Hotel operated under the American plan, $2.50 upward per day; $15 upward per week; $45 upward per month. (Aloha Guide, 1915)

“Wahiawa is 25 miles from town by rail. It is the original pineapple district founded by a colony of American agriculturists in 1899. It is a small village surrounded by pineapple fields, and being of an elevation of 1000 feet offers to pleasure-seekers and those seeking the cool atmosphere, recreation and rest.” (Aloha Guide, 1915)

It “also (has) several stores, markets, shops, laundry, etc., and two pineapple canneries. Now that the mails come twice a day by rail instead of twice a week by stage from Pearl City, as was the case formerly, a number of Honolulu people have built country houses.” (Paradise of the Pacific, Oct/Nov 1905)

“The Hawaiian Islands Pineapple cannery is located here and may be inspected whenever it is running, the height of the canning season being from July to September.”

“Oahu Railway & Land Co … which obtained its franchise in 1888 operates a narrow gauge railway from Honolulu as far as Kahuku, a distance of 71 miles with a branch line to Wahiawa (13 miles), the pineapple district and to Leilehua, the army post.” (Aloha Guide, 1915)

“A large dam has been constructed here for the purpose of storing up water for the Waialua Sugar Plantation.” (Aloha Guide, 1915) “Motor-boating on fresh water is one of the attractions of Wahiawa.”

“The Wahiawa Water Company, desiring to conserve the ten billion gallons of water which annually flowed through the Kaukonahua streams, for use on Waialua sugar-cane lands, spent over a quarter of a million dollars building a dam and system of ditches and tunnels.”

“Forty-seven million gallons was Waialua’s daily allowance recently during the planting season—a good help to dividends. The dam backs water three and one-half miles up one branch and four and one-half of the Wahiawa Colony, whence it passes through the holdings of all the colonists, giving them means of irrigating at moderate rates. Recently a pipe system has been installed, removing all fears of dry weather.” (Paradise of the Pacific, Oct/Nov 1905)

“The lease giving EP Irwin the control of the Wahiawa country resort formerly the Malukukui Hotel was signed yesterday by the trustees of the Atherton estate and the new proprietor took possession at once.”

“Numerous expensive additions and repairs about the place have been already planned and will be immediately executed increasing the capacity of the hotel and making it cosier and nearer the standards of the comfort in city hostelries.”

“An automobile will meet the trains at Wahiawa from the hotel and in its off moments act as a link between the Hau tree Irwins Waikiki Hotel and his new Wahiawa enterprise.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 7, 1911)

“The Kukui Tree, formerly known as Malukukui, at Wahiawa, is now open and ready to receive guests. Extensive Improvement are under way and will soon be completed. No place in Hawaii is as suitable to spend a week end at as the Kukui Tree.”

“Run up today or tomorrow and stay over Sunday and see if this is not true. If you try it once, The Kukui Tree will become a habit with you. The table is excellent, as are the accommodations. Inquiries may be made of EP Irwin, at the Hau Tree, phone 1389.” (Hawaiian Star, March 24, 1911)

“The necessity for a place such as Mr Irwin has reopened exists and he deserves all the patronage his enterprise should bring him. As managers of the Hau Tree at Waikiki, Mr and Mrs Irwin have demonstrated the fact that they know how. (Hawaiian Gazette, March 24, 1911)

However, as noted in the initial quote, “The place has not been paying (and) EP Irwin has decided to close the Kukui Tree, at Wahiawa.” There is limited mention of the Malukukui or the Kukui Tree after that.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Fight for Parker Ranch

Within a few years after John Palmer Parker arrived in the Islands from Massachusetts in 1809 (he was then age 19), he had established a relationship with King Kamehameha I and received exclusive permission to hunt the wild cattle roving the countryside.  (Paniolo Preservation Society)

Back then, carcasses were carried down the mountain slopes on the backs of Hawaiians. At a nearby port, the skins were turned over to King Kamehameha’s advisor. Hides were used in trading and the meat supplied the King’s ships. Later the whalers took on meat, tallow and hides. (Purdue Agriculturalist)

John Palmer Parker married Kipikane, the granddaughter of King Kamehameha. They had two sons, John II and Ebenezer, and a daughter, Mary Ann Kaulalani Parker. (Tracy)

John’s first property was in a remote area on the slopes of Mauna Kea, where he built a home that reminded him of the New England neighborhood where he grew up. Mana Hale (House of the Spirit) became a two-story Cape Cod “salt box” house, with a steep slate roof and plain white walls, small windows and a dormer.

It was almost completely made of koa wood: the narrow “ship style” staircase, three bedrooms, sitting rooms and great room, floors to ceilings, including much of the furniture. (Paniolo Preservation Society)

Kipikane had a dowery of 640 acres, and John bought 1,000 more acres the following year for 75 cents per acre; he continued to buy more land. (Tracy)

When John died in 1868, he willed half of the Parker property each to son John II and grandson Samuel Parker (son of Ebenezer – Ebenezer died in 1855). In 1879, John II purchased the “Hawaiian Victorian” mansion, Puuopelu. Originally built in 1862 by Englishman Charles Notley, Puuopelu became the heart of Parker Ranch.   (Paniolo Preservation Society)

John II adopted Samuel’s son John III to be heir of his half of the Ranch; John III married Elizabeth Jane Lanakila Dowsett but died shortly after his daughter, Annie Thelma Kahilu‘onāpua‘api‘ilani Parker, was born and his half of the estate was put in trust for their daughter, Thelma. (Tracy)

“[F]ollowing the death of JP Parker II in 1891, there was growing tension between Samuel Parker, estate trustees, and JP Parker III. The latter Parker died in 1894”. (Maly)

“On October 14, 1895, AW wed Elizabeth Hartwell, daughter of Judge and Mrs AS Hartwell, at the home of the bride’s parents in Honolulu. This marriage produced four children: Alfred ‘Hartwell,’ Edith ‘Edie’ Millicent (later Mrs H Ernest Podmore), Dorothy, who died at age sixteen, and Barbara Juliette.” (Bergin)

“While he maintained a law office in Honolulu, it became increasingly evident that AW yearned to be a rancher. On December 20, 1897, he wrote to Louis Von Tempsky, a prominent Maui landholder and rancher: ‘You may not be aware that I have contemplated becoming a ranchman myself.’”

“On January 28, 1898, AW realized his dream by leading a group of business partners in the purchase of Molokai Ranch. The group was incorporated as the American Sugar Company, with an interest in continuing ranching in part while building a sugar plantation.” (Bergin)

Elizabeth sought out and hired Honolulu attorney and former judge Alfred Wellington “AW” Carter to manage the Ranch on Thelma’s behalf. (Paniolo Preservation Society)

“On September 25, 1899, AW Carter was appointed guardian and trustee of Thelma Parker … In accepting the appointment as guardian and trustee, AW relinquished several opportunities that other men would have found difficult to abandon …”

“… a lucrative law career in the burgeoning city of Honolulu, president of Charles R. Bishop Trust, an executive career with Bishop Bank, deputy attorney general, judge of the First Circuit Court, and trusteeship of Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s estate.” (Bergin)

“When AW assumed the reins of the ranch, the combined total of fee simple land owned by Thelma K Parker and her natural grandfather Sam Parker amounted to only some 34,000 acres, with large parcels under lease.”

“AW was immediately concerned that if neighboring ranchers acquired those leases, it would be necessary to dispose of a large part of the cowherd. In the short span of a dozen or so years, the fee simple holdings of Parker Ranch grew to 314,000 acres. Strategic government leases also were acquired.”  (Bergin)

By 1902, Sam Parker, his cousin Eben Low, and backers, set in motion plans to take over the ranch and remove AW Carter from the role as trustee. Their first action was to contest Carter’s trusteeship of Annie Thelma K Parker. (Maly)

In 1903, “Sam approached AW with an offer to be bought out of his one-half interest of the entire ranch. The next day, AW offered him $600,000, and Sam left to think it over.”  (Bergin)

“There were several things in the air that caused AW to believe that Sam was mounting a hostile takeover of the entire ranch instead of accepting his $600,000 offer.” (Bergin)

“Things got so heated between Samuel Parker and AW Carter, that a take over was attempted, and on June 7th, 1904, Eben Low, JA Magoon, and J Lightfoot stormed Carter’s office, with Low apparently brandishing his pistols. Things were heated, but no shots were fired.”  (Maly)

On July 27, 1904, John S (Jack) Low filed a petition asking for the removal of Alfred W Carter, as guardian of the estate of Annie T. K. Parker. (Carter v. Gear, 197 U.S. 348 (1905), US Supreme Court)  “A consortium made up of Sam Parker, Eben Low, Alfred Magoon, and Fred Wunderberg, who had Sam’s power of attorney, was behind this scheme.” (Bergin)

“The case was decided on November 3, 1905 in favor of AW Carter as trustee; and the case regarding partition of assets was decided in September 1906, thus bringing an end to more than five years of disagreements and litigation.” (Maly)

In 1906, Sam Parker sold his interest to Thelma Parker’s trust, and she became to the sole heir to the Parker Ranch. Thelma Parker married Henry Gaillard Smart when she was eighteen and had one child, Richard Smart, who survived her (a daughter died young).

In 1913, Richard Palmer Smart was born to Thelma and Henry. In 1914, both Thelma and Henry Smart died before Richard was two years old. Richard Smart, [the] last remaining heir to the Parker Dynasty, took over Ranch operations from Hartwell Carter, son of AW Carter during the middle of the 20th century. (South Kohala CDP)

Richard Smart died in 1992. In his will, Smart bequeathed most of Parker Ranch’s assets to the Parker Ranch Trust Foundation. The Parker Ranch Trust Foundation’s mission is to …

“Provide perpetual support for designated beneficiaries engaged in healthcare, education, and charitable support through the sound management of Trust assets while remaining mindful of the needs of the Kamuela community and its unique quality of life.”

Smart designated five beneficiaries: North Hawai‘i Community Hospital, Lucy Henriques Medical Center, Parker School Trust Corporation, Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy, and the Richard Smart Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation. (South Kohala CDP)

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