Categories

October 23, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Men of the Mission

“It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” (James Brown)

“Coverture is a long-standing legal practice that is part of our colonial heritage. Though Spanish and French versions of coverture existed in the new world, United States coverture is based in English law.”

“Coverture held that no female person had a legal identity. At birth, a female baby was covered by her father’s identity, and then, when she married, by her husband’s.”

“The husband and wife became one–and that one was the husband. As a symbol of this subsuming of identity, women took the last names of their husbands. They were “feme coverts,” covered women.”

“Because they did not legally exist, married women could not make contracts or be sued, so they could not own or work in businesses. Married women owned nothing, not even the clothes on their backs. They had no rights to their children, so that if a wife divorced or left a husband, she would not see her children again.” (Catherine Allgor)

“Coverture was disassembled in the United States through legislation at the state level beginning in Mississippi in 1839 and continuing into the 1880s. The legal status of married women was a major issue in the struggle for woman suffrage.” (Britannica) (US women did not get the right to vote until 1920.)

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus for Hawai‘i. Over the course of a little over 40-years, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) sent twelve companies of missionaries, support staff, and teachers – about 184-men and women – to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

During the Missionary Period (1820-1863), 84 missionary men and 100 women were sent to the Islands. There was no more than a total of 89 missionaries (men and women) in the Islands at any given them – of that, there were no more than 42 missionary men across the Islands at any given time.

The average number of missionaries in the Islands over the years was about 56 missionaries (men and women) per year; of that, an average of only 27 missionary men were in the Islands each year.

The first missionaries to the Islands needed to receive permission to land and stay. Discussions and negotiations (between the missionary men and the King and Chiefs) to allow the missionaries to stay went on for days.

One of the earliest efforts of the missionaries, who arrived in 1820, was the identification and selection of important communities (generally near ports and aliʻi residences) as “stations” for the regional church and school centers across the Hawaiian Islands.

By 1850, eighteen mission stations had been established; six on Hawaiʻi, four on Maui, four on Oʻahu, three on Kauai and one on Molokai. (So, the missionaries (men and women) were spread out across the Islands.)

The Mission Prudential Committee in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said: “Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. …”

“Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high. You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.” (The Friend)

After the missionaries were serving in the Islands, the King and Chiefs asked for more to come and they sought their counsel. On August 23, 1836, King Kamehameha III and fourteen of the highest chiefs in the Islands wrote …

“We hereby take the liberty to express our views as to what is necessary for the prosperity of these Sandwich Islands. Will you please send to us additional teachers to those you have already sent, of such character as you employ in your own country in America?”

Shortly after, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) sent the largest company of missionaries to the Islands; including a large number of teachers.

A few of the missionaries left the mission at the request of the King and Chiefs and worked for the Hawaiian Government. These included William Richards, Gerritt P Judd, Lorrin Andrews, and Richard Armstrong.

In addition, King Kamehameha III and Chiefs Hoapili Kane and Kekāuluohi sent a letter, “We ask Mr. [Amos] Cooke to be teacher for our royal children. He is the teacher of our royal children and Dr. Judd is the one to take care of the royal children …” when forming the Chiefs’ Children’s School (Royal School).

The missionaries, “Though in many cases married to hastily found mates shortly before sailing, lived marital lives that were exemplary in their fill of love and devotion; their families parents and children were models for affection and mutual helpfulness …”

“… with mere pittances of salaries or rations, often unable to obtain suitable food, living at first for years in cramped, leaky, floorless thatched houses, with little privacy, often ill or child-bearing with no doctor available, and no end of calls for self-sacrificing services, they were marvels of patience and faithfulness.”

“They had to be all-round mechanics and farmers, building houses and churches of stone, adobe or wood and thatch, making furniture, and raising fruits, vegetables, flowers, and dairy and poultry products, not to mention surveying, doctoring, and peace-making …”

“… in their ministering they had the courage of their convictions, not hesitating to discipline chiefs especially when the latter oppressed the common people, for they were very democratic champions of the rights of man.”

“Realizing that religion alone was not sufficient, they introduced the school and the press, as well as the church, established manual training schools, the first of their kind, taught new industries, mechanical and agricultural …”

“… incessantly inculcated the rights of the common people with the result that in approximately a quarter of a century this handful of zealous, intelligent, practical workers, with their sympathizers, largely Christianized the nation …”

“… and made it one of the least illiterate, transformed the government from absolutism to constitutionalism, secured to the masses personal and property rights and enabled them to acquire homes of their own, preserved the independence of the nation against great odds …”

“… and, what perhaps may prove to be the crowning feature, planted the seeds which have fruited in the world’s best object lesson of interracial brotherliness.” (Frear, 1920)

October 22, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Train Accident at Maulua Tunnel

Following the Treaty of Reciprocity (1875) between the US and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i (that eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market), sugar cultivation exploded on the Big Island.

As a means to transport sugar and other goods, on March 28, 1899, Dillingham received a charter to build the original eight miles of the Hilo Railroad that connected the Olaʻa sugar mill to Waiākea, that was soon to become the location of Hilo’s deep water port.

Rail line extensions continued. Extensions were soon built to Pāhoa, where the Pahoa Lumber Company was manufacturing ʻōhia and koa railroad ties for export to the Santa Fe Railroad.

All the sugar grown in East Hawaiʻi, in Puna and on the Hāmākua Coast, was transported by rail to Hilo Harbor, where it was loaded onto ships bound for the continent.

An early account stated that the rail line crossed over 12,000 feet in bridges, 211 water openings under the tracks, and individual steel spans up to 1,006 feet long and 230 feet in height.

Some of the most notable were those over Maulua and Honoliʻi gulches, the Wailuku River and Laupāhoehoe.

Over 3,100 feet of tunnels were constructed, one of which, the Maulua Tunnel (built in 1912), was over half a mile in length. This historic tunnel once opened to a 144 ft. high steel trestle that was 1,006 ft. in length.

While the main business of the railroad remained the transport of raw sugar and other products to and from the mills, it also provided passenger service.

Between 1909 and 1913, the Hāmākua Division of the railroad was constructed to service the sugar mills north of Hilo. Unfortunately, the cost of building the Hāmākua extension essentially destroyed the Hilo Railroad, which was sold in 1916 and reorganized as the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway.

Targeting tourists to augment local passenger and raw sugar transport, the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway ran sightseeing specials under the name “Scenic Express.”

Passengers were treated to spectacular views of the rugged Hamakua Coast, pounding surf, massive cliffs, plunging waterfalls, and wild and tangled tropical vegetation.

Not for the faint of heart, these trips included a stop on the trestles, where passengers disembarked to admire the outstanding scenery.

Then, an accident … “According to information from passengers, the observation train had just passed through the long tunnel at the approach of Maulua gulch trestle at 10:30 am, and had come to a stop on the high steel structure to allow the passengers to enjoy the view from that point.”

“As the observation train stood still the regular passenger train following came out of the tunnel. The brakes of the oncoming locomotive failed to hold well enough to stop the train from coming into collision.”

“The accident occurred about 100 feet out from the tunnel, as both trains were headed towards Paauilo. The derailed rear truck of the excursion train was thrown about one foot off the rails, it Is said.” (HTH, Oct 22, 1924)

“‘We all feel that we had a miraculous escape,’ a member of the excursion said in commenting on yesterday’s accident. ‘Although a near tragedy, the accident has put a different atmosphere into the party.”

“You might say that we feel awed. In that short moment yesterday morning families were drawn closer together and we have forgotten the little things that irritated us.’”

“Very soon after the accident everyone had himself well in hand, husbands were particularly attentive to wives, and a gentleman of the party went about administering ‘oxygen’ from the bulb of his kodak to those who were feeling faint.” (HTH (Oct 23, 1924)

A few remnants of the railway are still visible. Hawaiʻi Consolidated’s yards were in the Waiākea district of Hilo, where the roundhouse still stands today, next to the county swimming pool on Kalanikoa Street.

In Laupāhoehoe, a concrete platform remains where Hula dancers once performed for tourists. And the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum is housed in the former home of Mr. Stanley, the superintendent of maintenance.

Today, the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum and Visitors Center keeps the memory of Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway alive. The admission fee is $10 for adults, Kamaaina $8, and $5 students. Special rates for tours are also offered.

The museum is typically open 10 am to 2 pm Monday – Saturday. Other days open by appointment. (Hours sometimes change based on available volunteers.) The address is 36-2377 Māmalahoa Highway, Laupāhoehoe, Hawaiʻi 96764. (Lots of information here for Laupāhoehoe Train Museum and Ian Birnie.)

October 21, 2025 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Beyond the Boundaries

In ancient Hawai‘i, most of the makaʻāinana (‘common people’) were farmers, a few were fishermen. Tenants cultivated smaller crops for family consumption, to supply the needs of chiefs and provide tributes.

Access to resources was tied to residency and earned as a result of taking responsibility to steward the environment and supply the needs of aliʻi. The social structure reinforced land management – the primary land unit was the ahupuaʻa.

Resources not only sustained the occupants, they were also used to pay tributes to the King. Missionary Samuel Ruggles noted in his journal (June 17, 1820:) “The King’s rent has been brought in from all parts of the Island and from Onehow (Niʻihau) a small Island about 15 miles to the westward.”

“It consisted of hogs, dogs, mats, tappers, feathers, pearl fishhooks, calabashes and paddles. This rent is to go to Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi) as a present to the young King.”

“It was interesting to see the natives come, sometimes more than a hundred at a time, with their loads on their backs and lay down their offerings at the feet of their great and good Chief as they call him.” (Ruggles)

A typical ahupuaʻa was a long strip of land, narrow at its mountain summit top and becoming wider as it ran down a valley into the sea to the outer edge of the reef. If there was no reef then the sea boundary would be about one mile from the shore.

Shaped by island geography, ahupuaʻa varied in shape and size (from as little as 100-acres to more than 100,000-acres.) Each ahupuaʻa had its own name and boundary lines. Often the boundary markers were natural features such as a large rock or a line of trees or even the home of a certain bird. A valley ahupuaʻa usually used its ridges and peaks as boundaries.

The traditional land tenure system in ancient Hawaiʻi had at its core the presence of water (however, some ahupuaʻa did not have perennial streams or springs.) Although of many shapes and sizes, the typical ahupuaʻa consisted of three area types: mountain, plain and sea. Ahupuaʻa contained nearly all the resources Hawaiians required for survival.

In ancient Hawaiian times, relatives and friends exchanged products. The upland dwellers brought poi, taro and other foods to the shore to give to kinsmen there. The shore dweller gave fish and other seafood.

The emphasis on economic self-sufficiency in Hawaiian ahupua‘a resonates in our modern world with concerns for environmental and economic sustainability.

But the general perception of ahupua‘a self-sufficiency is quite different from demonstrated large scale movement of basalt and volcanic glass artifacts between island districts and sometimes between islands. (Mills)

Although control over agricultural production was doubtless central to the Hawaiian political economy, to this we can add a significant role of an exchange economy based on the control and distribution of other kinds of goods and resources.

One such resource, which fortunately is well represented in the archaeological record, consists of high-quality, fine-grained volcanic rock. (Kirch)

Many sources of stone within most ahupua‘a could have been used to make adzes (albeit of lesser quality.) It was the structure of ancient Hawaiian culture that led to the development of preferred sources outside of the ahupua‘a being used.

The ahupuaʻa of Kaʻohe in the Hāmākua district of Hawaiʻi Island, and its rich resource of basalt for adze making, helps illustrate this.

Kaʻohe is an irregular ahupua‘a because it only occupies a narrow (and relatively resource-poor) band along the coast where most of the residents would have lived.

But as Kaʻohe ascends the eastern slope of Mauna Kea and emerges above the forest near 6,000-ft in elevation, it expands to occupy the entire summit region.

The uplands of Kaʻohe would have contained few food resources beyond ground-nesting birds. The primary evidence of pre-contact human utilization of Kaʻohe’s vast mountain region is the adze quarry, which would have provided Kaʻohe with a valuable resource to exchange with other ahupua‘a. (Mills)

Likewise, Kahikinui on Maui, shows that, although the district’s residents exploited local stone sources for the majority of their tool production, they nonetheless imported slightly more than one-quarter of their lithic resources from outside of their own political district.

Clearly, even though they were capable of being self-sufficient in stone resources, they chose to import a significant quantity of high-quality volcanic rock, either as raw material or as finished adzes. (Kirch)

Moreover, archeologists have found disproportionately high frequency of fine-grained volcanic rock artifacts (from outside the specific ahupuaʻa) in high-status residence sites or ritual, temple complexes.

This strongly suggests that control over access to and distribution of these stone resources was controlled by aliʻi, who would likely have included the district chief (aliʻi ‘ai moku) and ahupua‘a-level sub-chiefs (aliʻi ‘ai ahupua‘a,) as well as the land managers (konohiki) and priests (kāhuna.) (Kirch)

Some early historical texts also hint at other kinds of exchange with others from other districts, including peddlers who traveled with goods between districts, regular exchange of foodstuffs, woods and fibers between moku, and even ‘fairs’ for barter between different districts. (Mills)

This exchange economy may also have consisted of perishable materials (ie, salt, fiber plants and cordage, lauhala matting, large hardwood logs for canoe hulls, and the red and yellow feathers of certain species of forest birds;) however, none of these preserve in most archaeological contexts. (Kirch)

Of course, following contact, the economic exchange of goods and services expanded – Sandalwood, supporting Whaling, Sugar, Pineapple, Visitor Industry etc. (Lots of information here is from Kirch and Mills.) (The image shows the adze maker in artwork by Herb Kane.)

October 20, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Napa Meets Hawaiʻi

A notorious German, Georg Anton Schäffer, representing the Russian-American Company of Alaska, arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1815 to recover the cargo of a Russian trading ship wrecked at Waimea, Kauaʻi.

Landing on O‘ahu, Kamehameha I granted the Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor. But, instead (as directed by the Schäffer,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag.

When Kamehameha discovered the Russians were building a fort (rather than storehouses) and had raised the Russian flag, he sent several chiefs, along with John Young (his advisor,) to remove the Russians from Oʻahu by force, if necessary. The Russians (and Schäffer) sailed for Kauai and eventually built the Russian Fort Elizabeth.

In 1817, Schäffer made a claim of the whole island of Kauai in the name of the Emperor of Russia. He was ordered to leave the Island. He sailed to Honolulu in a leaking boat.

There, American Captain Isaiah Lewis, grateful for prior medical assistance from Schaffer the previous year (reportedly pulling his abscessed tooth,) gave Schaffer passage on the Panther to Canton (leaving on July 17, 1817,) then to St Petersburg. (Pierce)

Following this, Captain Lewis, a co-partner of the ship Arab with Bordman & Pope of Boston and William Dodge of Ipswich, Massachusetts, made a two-year voyage to acquire sandalwood in the Islands to sell in Canton, China.

Lewis married Sarah Pauline ‘Polly’ Holmes. One of their children was named John George Washington Lewis.

Polly’s parents were Oliver Holmes and Mahi, daughter of a high chief of Koʻolau. Holmes made his living managing his land holdings on Oʻahu and Molokai, providing provisions to visiting ships.

To supplement that, in 1809, he got involved with a distillery in Kewalo – this was the infancy of the short-lived rum distillation from the local sugar cane.

(Oliver Holmes was assistant to the Governor of Oʻahu and was appointed to arrange settlements of disputes (hoʻonoho e hoʻoponopono i na mea hihia.)) (LCA 8504 Testimony))

After Isaac Davis’ death (1810,) Holmes impressed visitors as the most important man on Oʻahu, next to the King. Holmes was addressed as Aliʻi Homo (Chief Holmes.) (Daws)

John Lewis married Amelia Kalena on December 31, 1865; they had a daughter, Harriet (Hattie) Kawaikapulani Likelike Lewis (born June 17, 1874, at Kōloa, Kauai.)

That leads to another of German descent, Beringer.

“The firm or house of Beringer Bros consists of Messrs Frederick and Jacob L Beringer. Of these Frederick Beringer, the elder of the two, is the manager and business man.” (It started in 1875.)

“It is his ample means that has enabled the firm to accomplish what it has in the way of erecting a splendid cellar, and in carrying out the many improvements which enable the house to produce its fine quality of wine.”

“It is to the personal experience in wine-making, etc, however, of Mr Jacob L Beringer, the younger member of the firm, that the practical details of the whole matter have been carried out.”

“The brothers were born in Mainz, Germany, the former in January, 1840, and the latter in May, 1845. Mr Frederick Beringer was sent to Paris when young to be educated, studying at the great St. Louis College.”

“After graduation he went into business in that city, remaining in all ten years in Paris. He then traveled extensively through Mexico and the United States, finally going to New York in 1862.” (Lewis Publishing Co, 1891)

There Frederick and Bertha Beringer had a son (May 28, 1870,) Fred L Beringer Jr. In 1884, they moved to California to join Jacob Beringer and built the Rhine House in St Helena, Napa Valley (now the centerpiece of the expansive Beringer Brothers winery.)

“Quality, not quantity,” is the motto of the Beringer Bros., and they are living up to it as shown by the fact that they received a silver medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889 for their wines, a gold medal at the State Fair at Sacramento, and also a medal at the Mechanics’ Fair in San Francisco, in fact wherever they have exhibited they have carried the honors. (Lewis Publishing Co, 1891)

Then, on June 1, 1905, Hattie Lewis married Fred L Beringer, in Honolulu. Basic reports in the local paper note Fred served in the Treasury Department of US Customs.

Fred_Beringer-(with_lei)-next_to_Harriet_Lewis_Beringer

October 19, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Squirmin’ Herman

“Squirmin’ Herman Wedemeyer, the hula-hipped hurricane from Hawaiʻi, contributed a remarkable chapter to the lore of West Coast football in 1945 when he sparked St. Mary’s undernourished teenagers to a successful season and a trip to the Sugar Bowl.” (McCarty)

Wedemeyer (Wedey,) born May 20, 1924 in Hilo, “led St Louis College (now St Louis School) to Interscholastic League of Honolulu football titles in 1941 and 1942. He turned down scholarship offers from Notre Dame and Ohio State to attend St. Mary’s.” (Masuoka)

Located in rural Moraga, California, St Mary’s College is a small Catholic liberal arts college. When World War II broke out, St Mary’s (an all-male school) lost almost all of their students to military duty.

In the 1943 season, only 20 students showed up to play on the team, and of those, only 3 weren’t going to be in the military by the fall. So the coach decided to put together a team of players who were all freshmen, as they would be 17, and too young to be drafted into the military.

Although they lost their first game (that they were expected to lose,) seventeen-year-old Wedemeyer was “the most sensational discovery to come over the horizon since the Santa Maria… California won the ball game but Herman Wedemeyer won the hearts of every man, woman, and child present.”

Grantland Rice, sportswriting’s dean, said that Wedemeyer was “the only back I’ve seen in many years who could handle (running, passing, blocking, tackling and kicking) with poise and grace thrown in….His reflexes are far quicker than anything I’ve seen on a football team in many, many years.”

His speed and turn-on-a-dime agility on the field earned him the nicknames “Squirmin’ Herman,” “The Flyin’ Hawaiian,” “The Hawaiian Centipede” and “The Waikiki Wonder.” (Barracuda Magazine)

In 1944, St. Mary’s had to do without Wedemeyer, as he enlisted in the Merchant Marines. The Gaels only scheduled five games that season, and minus Wedemeyer, they lost every one of them.

Wedemeyer, at only 5’ 10” and 164-pounds, returned to the team for the 1945 season (which began shortly after the end of WWII), but St Mary’s enrollment was still under 100 students. The team once again showed promise, even though they were the youngest college team ever put together. (Barracuda Magazine)

The highlight of the season was the 26-0 trouncing of USC. Little St Mary’s went on to capture the Pacific Coast title – and played in the Sugar Bowl against the undefeated Oklahoma A&M. (St Mary’s lost that game.)

Wedemeyer was the first from Hawaiʻi player to be named to the All-American first team. He was also selected to play for the West in the annual Shrine game, the first freshman ever so honored. Sportswriter Rice noted, “Herman Wedemeyer is the greatest athlete in the country.”

Wedemeyer was a first-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1947 (and played with fellow Hawaiian, free agent Johnny Naumu.)

The AAFC was an upstart challenger to the then-25-year-old NFL; the Dons were supported-by-the-stars, Don Ameche was president and minority owners included Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Pat O’Brien and others.

The Dons were the first professional football team to play a regular season game in Los Angeles, beating the rival Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League by two weeks. (LA Times)

Wedemeyer played one year with the Dons and later played for the Baltimore Colts, but an injury cut short his career. He had a short stint in professional minor league baseball.

Returning to Hawaiʻi, Wedemeyer became a businessman. He was elected to the Honolulu City Council in 1968. In 1970, he was elected/reelected to the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives.

From 1971 to 1980, Wedemeyer appeared in “Hawaii Five-O,” playing Edward D “Duke” Lukela. (Masuoka) Wedemeyer died January 25, 1999 in Honolulu (aged 74.)