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April 27, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Rycroft

Robert Henry Rycroft (April 27, 1843 – February 3, 1909) emigrated to the United States from Leeds, England, when he was 16 years old. After serving 16 months in the U.S. Cavalry during the Civil War, he arrived in Honolulu.

He first went to work in the Honolulu Iron Works and afterwards went into the plumbing business, which was his profession. He was also proprietor of the Fountain restaurant and Temperance saloon on Fort Street in an old one story frame building

Failing in the restaurant and saloon business on Fort Street in Honolulu he went to Brisbane, Australia, to establish an ice works and was nearly successful in establishing his system on steamers to carry frozen mutton to Europe.

“(H)e erected an ice machine at Brisbane, which was the first ammonia machine there using a pump to compress the gas. After remaining, there about two years he returned to Honolulu and soon after removed to the Island of Hawaii in 1877.”

“There he went into the ‘awa shipping business. The trade in ‘awa at that time was so large that many tons were handled each year, much of it going to foreign ports, mostly to the United States, for medical purposes.”

“About the year 1881 Mr. Rycroft went into the cattle business, having purchased the Pohoiki and Keahialeka tracts in Puna, Hawaii, containing about nine thousand acres.”

“He also erected a large saw mill at Pohoiki and furnished the Government with all of the hard wood used in the public works. He also furnished the wood supply of Honolulu for several years by the Allen & Robinson line of schooners. The ties of the O. R. & L. Co. came from this mill.”

“Soon after things were running smoothly Mr. Rycroft again branched out and was one of the first, if not the very first, who went into the systematic cultivation of coffee, upon a large scale.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 9, 1900)

Rycroft launched a boom in coffee production during the late 19th century; between 1896 and 1906, most of the 300 land grants made to speculators were for coffee.

In the Puna District in 1880, Hawaiians maintained small-scale traditional farms, and other settlers invested in commercial properties like coffee plantations on approximately three dozen land grants. (ORNL)

He constructed a coffee mill in 1891 to process the coffee then being planted in Puna. However, for some unknown reason, the coffee boom ended in 1899, leaving the mill basically without a product to process. Then, probably, the Rycrofts had to find an alternate crop to process in the new coffee mill.

Presumably, then, the Rycroft guava business in Puna was started in about 1900 to use the coffee mill, and possibly was abandoned after 1910.

Rycroft and his son, Walter, should be credited with the first commercial production of guava at Pohoiki in Puna; they produced guava jam and jelly in the ‘coffee mill.’ (Shigemura & Bulloock)

Rycroft also funded improvements at Pohoiki Landing to support his commercial ventures, although the original landing was destroyed by a tsunami in August 1885. (DLNR)

The Pohoiki area has remained mostly undeveloped except for the 23-year period of commercial development under Robert Rycroft. Rycroft’s ventures between 1877 and 1899 included ‘awa, cattle, sawmill, coffee and guava. The Pohoiki commercial activity appears to have ended when Rycroft moved to Honolulu in 1899. (DLNR)

When he sold out in 1899 he had in lower Puna sixty-five acres and in Ola‘a 170 acres of bearing coffee. This venture, however, did not prove as profitable as most of Mr. Rycroft’s enterprises. Messrs. H. Hackfeld & Co purchased his Olaa property.

“Last year upon the formation of the Puna Sugar Co. an offer was made Mr. Rycroft for his 9,000 acres of land in lower Puna and he determined to sell out and remove to Honolulu.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 9, 1900)

Rycroft returned to Honolulu in 1899, starting the Fountain Soda Works. “Since coming to Honolulu Mr. Rycroft has purchased six lots in the old base ball ground, where he is now erecting a fine residence, which will be competed as rapidly as the work can be done.”

“Mr. Rycroft will go into business in Honolulu and will become a permanent resident. He has not as yet thoroughly settled upon his future plans, but will make his debut in business circles in the near future.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 9, 1900)

For some years his eldest son conducted the soda business (in the vicinity of what is now Rycroft Street) while Rycroft attended to his investments in general. (Hawaiian Star, February 3, 1909)

“Robert Rycroft, one of the oldest residents of the Hawaiian Islands, died of heart trouble early this morning at his home on Wilder avenue. He leaves a wife, three sons, Henry, Mark and Walter, and two daughters Sophia and Gladys. Mrs. Rycroft is a sister of AN Campbell, Treasurer of Hawaii, and was married to Mr. Rycroft in 1872.” (Hawaiian Star, February 3, 1909)

April 26, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Killed By Indians’

“The red skins are on the war path, and are amusing themselves with scalping Black Hills immigrants. On May 6 they made (their) appearance near Fort Laramie.”

“Upwards of 35 head of cattle were driven off. Massacres have been committed in Red canon, and three fights have occurred, in which the Indians were repulsed. The Black Hills miners have something to do besides digging gold.” (Northern Tribune, May 20, 1876)

“The Indians run off thirty-one head of horses and mules from Hunton’s ranche, belonging to Col. Bullock, of Cheyenne, and Mr. John Hunton, yesterday.” (Nebraska Advertiser, May 11, 1876)

“A courier has just arrived at this post from Hunton’s ranch with news that the body of James Hunton had been found. It is completely riddled with bullets, and moccasin and pony tracks in the vicinity of where he was found show that the victim was chased some distance by twenty-five Indians and finally surrounded and was shot at leisure.”

“Mr. Hunton was a prominent and highly esteemed frontiersman, and the murder causes great excitement. Scattering bands of hostile Sioux have even come within four miles of the fort the past few days, and we expect more of their bloody work at any moment.” (Cincinnati Daily Star, May 8, 1876)

His headstone simply says, “James Hunton – Killed by Indians – May 4, 1876 – Aged 24 yrs”.

“Prior to the spring of the year 1867, there were no white inhabitants living within the area of what is now Platte County, Wyoming, except a few, less than ten, along the Oregon Trail from the Platte river valley east of Guernsey”. (John Hunton)

“In the spring and early summer of 1868 the Government, having induced the Indians to consent to be moved to White Clay River, near Fort Randall on the Missouri River; then to concentrate into one large camp east of Ft Laramie about 8-miles”. John Hunton)

Tension between the native inhabitants of the Great Plains and the encroaching settlers resulted in a series of conflicts … this eventually led to the Sioux Wars.

The most notable fight, fought June 25–26, 1876, was the Battle of Little Big Horn (Lt Col George Armstrong Custer lost – Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and others won.)

Most native Americans were confined to reservations by 1877. In September 1877, Chief Crazy Horse left the reservation and General Crook had him arrested. When Crazy Horse saw he was being led to a guard house, he resisted and was stabbed to death by a guard. (Denardo)

In the fall of 1877, Sitting Bull headed north to Canada; life there was tough and in 1881 he surrendered to the US. In 1889 Sitting Bull was shot by Police. (NPS)

OK, back to Hunton and a connection (although indirect) to the Islands.

“James Hunton, a brother of John was killed (and scalped.) His body was found eight miles from the ranche, at Goshen Hole, and brought into the ranche last night, by JH Owens, of Chug spring’s ranche, and Little Bat, a hunter and scout.” (Nebraska Advertiser, May 11, 1876)

His brother John provides a description of what happened, “James Hunton, my brother, left Bordeaux, my home, on the afternoon of that day (May 4, 1876) to go to the ranch of Charles Coffee on Boxelder Creek about 14 miles east of Bordeaux, to get a horse he had traded for.”

“While going down through ‘the Notch’ in Goshen Hole, about half way between the two places, he was waylaid, shot and killed by five Indian boys who were out on a horse stealing expedition.”

“The Indians then went to my ranch at Bordeaux after night and rounded up, stole and drove off every head of horse and mules (38) I owned except my saddle horse, which I had with me at Fort Fetterman, where I received the news by telegraph the evening of the 6th.”

“The horse my brother was riding ran and the Indians could not catch him and the next morning was seen on top of the bluff east of the ranch. Blood in the saddle told the tale and a searching party found the body that afternoon.” (John Hunton)

The Sioux Wars military campaign provisioned at Fort Laramie, prior to heading north to South Dakota and Montana. John Hunton was fort sutler (providing provisions out of the camp post.)

John Hunton lived with/was married to LaLie (sister to fellow scout (and half-breed) Baptiste Garnier (Little Bat – the scout who helped bring James Hunton’s body back to the Hunton ranch.))

(I don’t mean to be repetitive, I just want you to remember that LaLie was Little Bat’s sister.) LaLie later left Hunton and married Frank Grouard – that marriage didn’t last either, and she left Grouard, too.

The Grouard family lived in Utah; Frank ran away from home and at the age of nineteen, ended up a Pony Express mail carrier … “out West” through hostile Indian Country (between California and Montana.) (Trowse)

Kuakoa tells us the Hawai‘i/Polynesia link … “A Hawaiian by the name of Frank Grouard (Standing Bear) is living as a scout in the American Army under General Crook, fighting Sioux Indians.”

“During one of his trips on a lonely trail (Grouard) was captured by Crow Indians and taken prisoner. The Crows took him many miles from the road, and in a lonely forest, stripped off his clothes and possessions, then released him to wander alone.”

“He wandered, cold and hungry, a piece of fur for clothing, eating grasshoppers and other bugs for food. When he had given up hope of surviving, he was discovered by a group of Sioux Indians. Because of his expressions of aloha, they took a liking to him.” (Kuakoa, September 30, 1876; Krauss)

He learned the landscape, customs and traditions – all the while constantly on alert to escape captivity. Around age 26, he eventually escaped from his Indian captors. Then, Grouard (Standing Bear) became an Indian Scout in the American Army under General George Crook, fighting Sioux Indians.

Almost every summer for nearly a dozen years, Grouard was in the field as a scout, commanding as many as 500 scouts and friendly Indians with all the Indian fighters who made reputations in subduing the Indians. He was wounded many times, suffered almost incredible hardships, saved small armies on several occasions and often saved the lives of individual men and officers.

OK, one other bit to this story … John and James Hunton are Nelia’s Great Great Uncles.

April 25, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Jews in Hawaiʻi (Shaloha)

“What dignity in its appearance! How lordly in its bearing!”

“When full grown it rises about twenty feet from the ground without branches. Then for about ten feet more it throws forth beautiful and finely curved branches in all directions, and on the very top stands forth a straight stalk pointing upward.”

“That tree (royal palm) preaches a sermon to all mankind; those branches, spreading on all sides, manifest the people on this earth, settled in every clime …”

“… the stalk, projecting from the midst of these branches, and shooting upwards, is Israel, the connecting link between earth and heaven. Israel’s mission is to link the people of this earth to their Father in Heaven.”

“It is a powerful sermon that this royal palm teaches. May the moral not be lost on us.” (Rabbi Rudolph Coffee, in the Islands in 1902)

Shaloha is a conjunction of Shalom and Aloha – (the former is Hebrew, the latter Hawaiian) they each can mean peace, completeness, prosperity and welfare and can be used idiomatically to mean both hello and goodbye.

The conjunctive word is used by many of the Jewish faith in Hawaiʻi, and the word serves as the basis for the website of Temple Emanu-El (a synagogue community and a center of Jewish life in Hawaiʻi.)

Recorded history notes that the 1798 diary entries of Enbenezer Townsend are indicated as the first references to Jews in Hawaiʻi. Townsend, the principal owner of the ‘Neptune’ was at the time one of the most extensive ship owners in New Haven. They were on a sealing voyage under the command of Daniel Greene and were in Hawaiʻi from August 12, 1798, to August 31, 1798.

“At about sunrise, the king, whose name is Amaiamai-ah (Kamehameha) came on board in quite handsome style in a double canoe, paddled by about five and twenty men. … While we lay there I proposed learning him the compass, which I had some reason to regret, for he kept me at it continually until he learned it.”

“One of his wives (Kaʻahumanu) came on board with him; she was a large woman, with a great deal of the cloth of the country around her … He also brought a Jew cook with him, and if he remains here I think it will be difficult to trace his descendants, for he is nearly as dark as they are.” (Diary of Ebenezer Townsend, Jr, August 19, 1798)

It is believed that Jewish traders from England and Germany first came to Hawaiʻi in the 1840s. Jews from throughout the world were attracted to California and in most cases they tried it there before they came to the Islands. (Glanz)

The first Jewish mercantile establishment was a San Francisco firm, which opened a branch in Honolulu. As with many other Jewish families of merchants in California, it was a large family which could well afford to staff the branch of the firm in the islands with a partner, while other family members remained in San Francisco. Subsequently other Jewish firms in California did the same thing.

AS Grinbaum is to be regarded as the first founder of a firm of this kind; he arrived in Honolulu in 1856, where he remained for about seven years. At the end of this time, after having acquired a small fortune through carrying on a general merchandise business, he returned to the United States, and later to Europe.

Grinbaum’s success led him to induce one of his nephews to settle in the Islands. Encouraged by the financial success of Grinbaum, another German Jew, Hirsch Rayman, went to engage there in business in the early 1860s. He was also successful and after a sojourn of five years, he returned to Posen. (Coffee)

The firm of M. Phillips and Company was founded in 1867 by Michael Phillips of San Francisco, who owned an importing and jobbing firm there. The Honolulu branch of the firm was headed by Phillips’ brother-in-law, Mark Green. The Phillips Company was mainly active in the export of sugar, rice and coffee. (Glanz)

Another firm founded in the 1860s was that of the Hyman Brothers. There were five brothers, one of whom was Henry W Hyman, who engaged in a mercantile business with his brothers as “Hyman Bros., Importers of General Merchandise and Commission Merchants,” filling orders to the sale of Consignments of Rice, Sugar, Coffee and other Island Produce.”

The Grinbaum, Hyman and Phillips firms were the outstanding Jewish-owned companies prior to the annexation of the islands by the US in 1898. (Glanz)

The Odd Fellows had been established in the Sandwich Islands in 1846, and Jewish names can be seen in their membership rosters. The report of a picnic held on April 25, 1885 in Waikiki, by the Excelsior Lodge, noted among others, the presence of the “following brethren with their lady guests:” L. Adler, I. S. Ginsbergh and M. Louisson.

There was at least one Jew who played a prominent role in the political history of the islands; Paul Rudolph Neumann, lawyer and diplomat, was one of the Jewish leaders in Hawaiʻi. He served as Attorney General under King Kalākaua (1883–1886) and Queen Liliʻuokalani (1892,) became a member of the House of Nobles, and later became Liliʻuokalani’s personal attorney.

About 1901, the Hebrew Benevolent Association was formed, the purpose of which was to acquire a cemetery. It numbers forty members, and represents the male population of Honolulu, with the exception of about ten men, who have refused to affiliate.

Immediately subsequent to annexation, the islands began to do a very large mercantile business, and the Jewish community was enlarged. But, by 1902, business was at a standstill and lots of folks returned to the mainland – with just about 100-staying; they are engaged chiefly in mercantile pursuits. (Coffee)

“This community of one hundred, which is found in a city whose population numbers forty-five thousand people, represents more wealth, as far as I am able to judge, than any other Jewish community with ten times the number of people in this country.” (Coffee)

In the years before World War I, the growing importance of the islands as a military base brought Jewish members of the American armed force in numbers which created an entirely new picture for the Jewish community there. (Glanz)

To care for Jews in the military stationed in the Islands, the National Jewish Welfare Board (JWB) established the Aloha Center in 1923. The community began to flourish and the Honolulu Jewish Community was established in 1938.

Today, there are at least 9 congregations serving the Jews of the Hawaiian Islands. According to The American Jewish Year Book (2012,) there are approximately 7,000 Jews residing in the state of Hawaii. (NJOP)

Lasting legacies of early Jewish presence in the Islands are gifts from Elias Abraham Rosenberg (Rabbi ‘Rosey,’ Holy Moses) to King Kalākaua: a Sefer Torah (Pentateuch) and Pointer; they were brought to Hawaiʻi in 1886 by Rosenberg, who came here from San Francisco.

“The king received the Torah scroll and yad … over the years that followed, the scroll and yad gradually made their way to Temple Emanu-El, where they remain to this day, safely ensconced in a glass cabinet.” (Canadian Jewish Chronicle, August 4, 2011) Rosenberg left the Islands June 7, 1887 and returned to San Francisco; he died a month later.

April 24, 2026 by Peter T Young 13 Comments

William Hardy Hill

He reportedly came to Hawaiʻi and jumped a whaling ship, and stayed. (Maui Council)

“Doc Hill (William Hardy Hill) was kind of the maverick businessman in Hilo … (he) eventually, became probably the most influential businessman on this island.” (Henderson)

“Doc” acquired his moniker for selling eyeglasses, after he came to the Big Island in 1913; he opened the Hill Optical Co in the Young Kwong Hoy building in 1917 (between what is now the Kress bldg. & Basically Books.)

License No. 1 under the 1917 legislation to Regulate the Practice of Optometry was granted to Hill; he was a charter member of the Optometry Board of Examiners.

“He had some experience in optics from a job in a jewelry store back on the Mainland, so when he noticed a display of 40-cent eyeglasses in a Chinese store he persuaded the proprietor to let him have four dozen pair on credit. These he peddled to aging Orientals in the plantation camps for $4, on easy payments.” (Star Bulletin, June 6, 1970; Schmitt)

Although the published biographical sketches of Hill mention only a grammar school or high school education, he reportedly possessed a Doctor of Optics degree from Northern Illinois College of Ophthalmology and Otology. (Schmitt)

Doc added his jewelry business in 1919, and both his optical and jewelry businesses were among the largest in the Territory. When he was elected to our Territorial House of Representatives in 1928, Doc sold his optical and jewelry businesses to his bookkeeper, Freiderich Wilheim “Fritz” Koehnen. (Narimatsu)

“(O)nce you become associated with Doc Hill, you get very much involved with politics.” (Henderson) Hill was a member of Hawaiʻi territorial house and senate (he was senate president 1932-1959;) delegate to Republican National Convention from Hawaii Territory, 1944; member of Hawaii state senate, 1959-67.

Sometimes irascible, oft times flamboyant, but always keenly analytical and astute in his approach to the problems of the day. Senator Hill contributed greatly to the work of the legislature and to the development of the 50th State. (Congressman Matsunaga)

After President Dwight D Eisenhower signed the proclamation welcoming Hawai‘i as the 50th state of the union on August 21, 1959, the First Legislature of the State of Hawai‘i convened on August 31, 1959, in accordance with the Hawai‘i State Constitution.

During this 45-day First Special Session of 1959, the Senate elected Senator William H. Hill of the first senatorial district as Senate President. Senator Hill stated in his Opening Day remarks:

“This session of the Legislature is the most important that Hawai‘i has ever had and without a doubt will be the most important that will ever be known in Hawai‘i because in this session the die will be cast for future sessions.”

“Doc could go on telling you stories forever. (He’d say, ‘You gotta do things when you can, not when you can’t.’ In other words, if there’s a deal to be made or something that you want done, you do it when you can, and that means right now”. (Henderson)

‘Little Doc,’ his talking mynah bird joined him “(e)very year until the bird died In 1965, ‘Little Doc’ was brought from Hilo by his master to alt caged outside of the Senator’s ʻIolani Palace office – whistling at the wahines and saying ‘Vote for Doc Hill’ in true campaign style.”

Perhaps the ceremonial highlight of Doc’s Senate career came in 1967, when he appeared during one of the extended days of the session dressed in a kimono.

“Mr. President,” he said. “I have been humiliated, insulted and shunned the past few days and it’s all your fault. Last Thursday, Mr. President, I arose on this floor to tell you of rumors that the Senate might not adjourn as scheduled the next day.”

“I told you that my wife was going back home to Hilo In a few hours and wanted to know how many shirts she should leave for me In Honolulu. And you told me – before this body – that she should leave only one shirt.”

“Along about Saturday, I began to notice that when I would approach a group of senators I thought were my friends, they would scatter or else get upwind of me. I wondered what was wrong. Had I voted wrong on one of their pet measures?”

If ever the term Elder Statesman fit a man. It fit Doc. After many years in the inner circle of power In Hawaii government, age and the Democratic ascendancy In the Senate moved him back into the ranks during the late 1960s.

But really, Doc Hill never took a back seat to anyone in speaking his piece on the Senate floor. And age which slowed his step hasn’t yet worked its way up to the quick mind beneath that Caesar-like haircut. (Congressman Matsunaga)

It’s well known that Senator WH ‘Doc’ Hill of Hilo is a capitalist, period. (Honolulu Record, December 6, 1956)

“(Doc Hill) eventually got control of, at that time, the Hilo Electric Light Company (later known as Hawai’i Electric Light Co, (and the) General Motors dealership. … (He also had) Wailoa Motors, which operated a major tire-recapping facility that dealt mainly with the sugar plantations cane haul trucking tire needs”.

We had nine theaters around the island … (Hilo Theatres, Ltd) … I might say the theater business was a very good business before television arrived.” (Henderson)

He organized ‘Realty,’ a holding company in 1926; it was parent company to several of his holdings. (Realty was later renamed Realty Investment Co, Ltd.)

He also had “Hilo Thrift and Loan (Hilo Finance and Thrift Co., Ltd,) that eventually became what is known as Realty Finance. Doc was involved in “all kinds” of real estate ventures (land; built and bought businesses; developments, etc.)

From 1954 to 1973, Big Island developers, including Realty Investment Co Ltd, won permission to chop up thousands of acres in Lower Puna and sell them off into thousands of individual lots. (Dayton) Most of the subdivisions were created prior to the adoption of the Zoning Code in 1967. (Puna CDP)

Mainland marketing pieces for Puna subdivisions noted, “Your Future Is Here! If you’ve ever wanted to own property in Hawaii, it pays you to act now. Combine investment with pleasure in the 50th State of the Union.”

“William H Hill, says in his (Hilo Electric Report) that ‘the vast water supply, temperate climate and other natural resources, many still untapped, make the Big Island the Territory’s most valuable land area for economic development and location of new industry’.” (Salt Lake Tribune, April 10, 1960)

Hill and his wife Ouida had large homes in Hilo and Kona, and had hosted notable visitors for decades: John Wayne and Pilar Palette were married on the grounds of his Keauhou Bay estate on November 1, 1954. ‘Doc’ Hill died in 1970.

April 23, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Oil

William Matson was born in 1849 in a Swedish seacoast town and ran off to sea at the age of twelve. According to his daughter, he had not a single day’s schooling in his life.

At 18, Matson “came round the Horn” to California and soon worked his way up to the captaincy of a scow schooner (barge) in San Francisco Bay.

At age 33 he became one-quarter owner—for $5,000—of the new three-masted schooner, Emma Claudia, and brought her to Hilo on her first voyage. Matson saw opportunity on the Big Island and began to focus his service there.

“My father used to do everything. He bought the horses, he bought needles, thread, mules, dress materials… a floating store.” (daughter Lurline Matson)

Every voyage was a partnership—with different partners holding shares, generally in eighths—and then splitting the profits. Matson expanded in this way, buying more ships and chartering others.

Matson became well established in the Hawaiian trade. His small fleet of sailing vessels shuttled back and forth between Hilo and San Francisco.

Westbound to Hawai‘i, he would bring goods of all descriptions. Eastbound to California, he would take sugar, molasses, fruits, vegetables and hides.

His fleet was still all wind-driven sailing ships, though in 1889 he was quoted: “I was wondering whether I’d ever be able to run a steamship between the islands and San Francisco.”

In 1901, Matson acquired his first steamship, the Enterprise. At that time, most steamers burned coal to fire the boilers. Matson immediately converted the Enterprise to the first oil burner in the Pacific, because oil was cheaper.

It cost $2.10 in oil for the same energy provided by $7.00 worth of coal. Oil was also cleaner, more space efficient, and demanded less manpower.

Matson recognized the potential of oil. He convinced Hawai‘i’s plantation and sugar mill owners to switch from coal and bagasse (sugar cane waste) to oil. Then he converted some of his sailing flee into tankers to carry the oil to the Islands.

Matson said, “If you use fuel in large quantities, you must control the source.” To insure a supply of oil for his ships, Captain Matson bought some wells in California and built a “couldn’t be done” 112-mile pipeline from the Coalinga oil fields to Monterey.

In 1903, he formed the Monarch Oil Company and five years later bought the Buena Vista Hills property (Matson later renamed the area Honolulu Hills) and a year later (1910) created Honolulu Oil Company.

Matson told investors: “You’ll either go broke or get rich.” (Castle and Cooke invested $140,000. Fifty years later, the company was receiving $400,000 in annual dividends, and finally liquidated its shares (at government behest) for over $23-million.)

Honolulu Oil Corporation was engaged in exploration for, and extraction and sale of oil and gas in 15 states and the Dominion of Canada. The actual drilling was done by independent contractors, with Honolulu’s engineers acting in an advisory capacity.

Honolulu’s operations were divided into five geographical divisions: California (California, Nevada and Utah,) Mid-Continent (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma,) Canadian, Rocky Mountain (Montana and Wyoming,) Southeastern (Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee.) Reports note Honolulu Oil was later acquired by a larger oil company.

In 1911, Matson developed compressors to convert his oil product into gasoline and a year later built a pipeline to Los Angeles. That led to the modernization of the US Navy and their conversion to oil. (David Whitley; Taft Midway Driller)

Captain Matson brought the Falls of Clyde into the Hawaiian sugar trade, specifically servicing the plantations of the Big Island, bringing needed goods and machinery from the West Coast to Hilo, and returning with burlap sacks full of raw sugar on its way to the California refineries and then to the markets of the US.

He modified the Falls of Clyde sail plan, added a deck house and chart house, and rearrange the after-quarter for passengers. From 1899 to 1907, the Falls made over sixty voyages between these ports. Sailing time averaged seventeen days.

To help move oil, the Falls of Clyde was converted to a sailing oil tanker (1907;) her insides were gutted and ten large tanks were constructed along both sides and the bottom, giving her a capacity of 756,000 gallons of oil.

Heavy-duty pumps and a second steam boiler to operate them were installed. She sailed between Gaviota and Honolulu Harbor; molasses was often loaded into her tanks for the run back to California.

She continued to carry a few passengers and small amounts of cargo “tweendecks.” (Simpson) (Lots of information here is from Simpson, Stanford, Castle & Cooke and Taft Midway Driller.)