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January 14, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Rapid Transit (HRT)

Nuʻuanu Valley was the first of the valleys to undergo residential development because it was convenient to the town (when most people walked from town up into the valley.)

In 1888, the animal-powered tramcar service of Hawaiian Tramways ran track from downtown to Waikīkī. In 1900, the Tramways was taken over by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co (HRT.)

HRT initially operated electrically powered streetcars on tracks through Honolulu streets. Power came from overhead wires. Its “land” component included investments into the construction and operation of the Honolulu Aquarium (now the Waikīkī Aquarium), a popular attraction at the end of the Waikiki streetcar line.

In addition to service to the core Honolulu communities, HRT expanded to serve other opportunities. In the fall of 1901, a line was also sent up into central Mānoa.

The new Mānoa trolley opened the valley to development and rushed it into the expansive new century. In particular, it would help to sell a very new hilltop subdivision, “College Hills,” and also expand an unplanned little “village” along the only other road, East Mānoa. (Bouslog)

The rolling stock consisted of ten 10-bench cars; fifteen 8-bench cars; two closed cars; eight convertible cars and ten trailers. (Electrical Review 1902)

For the line work, wooden poles thirty feet long were used and placed about 100-feet apart. The necessary span wires are so placed to allow the trolley wire, which was 4/0 copper wire, about twenty-feet above the track. (Electrical Review)

“The company operates on twenty miles of trackage, which is continually being extended to anticipate the demands of traffic. The overhead trolley system is in vogue, with power supplied from a modern generating plant operated by oil fuel.”

“The entire equipment conforms to the latest offered by modern invention, providing for safety, durability and comfort.” (Overland Monthly, 1909)

“The company’s service extends to Waikiki beach, the famous and popular resort of the Hawaiian and tourist, and where the aquarium, the property of the company, is one of the great objects of attraction.”

“Kapiolani Park, the Bishop Museum, the Kahauki Military Post, the Royal Mausoleum, Oahu College and the Manoa and Nuuanu valleys are reached by the lines of this company.” (Overland Monthly, 1909)

Bus service was inaugurated by HRT in 1915, initially using locally built bodies and later buses from the Mainland (acquired in 1928.) Trolley buses operated on a number of HRT routes from January 1938 to the spring of 1958. Electric street cars, first used by HRT on August 31, 1901, were withdrawn early in the morning of July 1, 1941. (Schmitt)

“At two o’clock on the afternoon of June 31, 1941, car 47 left the HRT carhouse. Number 47’s run that day was unusual. To begin with, it was an old open car, one of those originally built about 1908. In addition, the car sported one of the largest leis ever made, which circled it completely.”

“At the controller was George Bell, son of Jack Bell who ran HRT’s first car in 1901. The car ran over the remaining rail line all afternoon and evening … The end finally came at 1:30 a.m. on July 1, 1941.” (Hawaiian Tramways)

The streetcars were replaced completely by buses (first gasoline and later diesel buses.)

Entrepreneur Harry Weinberg from Baltimore began investing in HRT in 1954 and methodically proceeded to take over HRT in 1960. After Weinberg took control of HRT he went on to continue investing in real estate and other corporations.

The confluence of several milestone developments up to mid-1960s became the precursors of an unfolding drama that culminated in a battle of titanic proportions that led to the transfer of the company from private hands to public ownership by the City & County of Honolulu. (Papacostas – ASCE)

First came the establishment of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in 1913; HRT started to spin off non-utility properties and operations to a subsidiary (Honolulu Ltd) to avoid regulatory oversight.

Then, in April 1937, the US Supreme Court validated the 1935 National Labor Relations Act that strengthened to role of labor (or trade) unions. The thirds came from the US Congress in the form of “The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964,” which provided funding for urban mass transit systems. (Papacostas – ASCE)

Through this provision, Frank F. Fasi, who was first elected mayor of the City & County of Honolulu in 1969 and who was destined to become the longest-serving person in that capacity initiated definite moves toward the ultimate take-over of HRT. (Papacostas – ASCE)

Bernard W. Stern states in his book on Rutledge Unionism, “as early as 1970 the Federal Department of Transportation, in response to an inquiry, advised Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi that Honolulu was eligible to receive two-thirds of the acquisition costs of HRT, Wahiawa Transport, and Leeward Bus Company.”

The “Wahiawa” and “Leeward” companies were suburban lines, the first also being run under majority ownership by Weinberg. (Papacostas – ASCE)

The company suspended all service after December 31, 1970, because of a labor dispute, and was succeeded a few months later by MTL, Inc. (a new management company established by the City and known as Mass Transit Lines (MTL.) (Schmitt)

As a consequence of court decisions, the March 22, 1973 issue of the Honolulu Advertiser declared that finally “Weinberg, City agree to quick takeover of site.” (Papacostas – ASCE)

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King at Fort Streets
Park your auto safely at home use the street car service.
Park your auto safely at home use the street car service.

January 12, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kāhi Hāli‘a Aloha

Unlike western burials in caskets (where the body is stretched out in the prone position,) native Hawaiians were typically buried wrapped in tapa in the flex position (the legs were drawn taut until the knees touched the chest (Malo.))

In addition to actual burials in and under the earth or land, Hawaiians also used burial caves, disposal pits and caverns to hide the bones of the dead (Kamakau.) The funerals take place in the night, to avoid observation and to maintain secrecy.

There are several special secret burial hiding places for the high chiefs, including the caves in ‘Iao Valley, Maui and Pali Kapu O Keōua, Kealakekua Bay, Hawai‘i.

Many ancient Hawaiians were buried in the beach and sand dunes, in unmarked graves.

Waikīkī has a centuries-old Hawaiian heritage, inhabited by Native Hawaiians for some 2,000-years. Waikīkī was the preferred playground and royal residence of generations of ancestors. (Kāhi Hāli‘a Aloha plaque)

As a result of ongoing excavation and construction in modern Waikīkī, the bones of long-deceased Hawaiians come to light. Lineal descendants worked with governmental agencies to find ways to dignify and honor the final remains of those who preceded them. (Kāhi Hāli‘a Aloha plaque)

A Memorial was proposed and designed by the lineal descendants to accommodate Hawaiian ancestral remains – Kāhi Hāli‘a Aloha (“The Place of Loving Remembrance.”)

Keawe Keohokālole designed the memorial; his lineage includes High Chiefess Ane Keohokālole, biological mother of King Kalākaua and Queen Lili‘uokalani.

The Memorial is the first of its kind to offer permanent and dignified protection to generations of Hawaiian ancestral remains unearthed and/or repatriated from museum collections across the nation.

The burial monument, situated at the corner of Kalakaua and Kapahulu Avenues (fronting the Honolulu Zoo,) now contains about 200 iwi kūpuna (skeletal ancestral remains.) Currently, the remains fill only the west-facing side of the eight-sided memorial.

Approximately 50 sets of skeletal remains, said to be more than 100 years old, were discovered during a Board of Water Supply project along Kalākaua Avenue. In addition, there are 150 skeletal remains that were unearthed during earlier Waikīkī projects (these had been stored for years at Bishop Museum.)

At the time of the blessing, A. Van Horn Diamond, speaking on behalf of the families, said, “This is the affirmation of what happens when families assume their responsibility and the community provides support for it to take place.”

When I was Deputy Managing Director for Hawai‘i County, I remember Lily Kong, a respected Kona kūpuna, had recommended a similar type of arrangement (a burial memorial for the relocation of inadvertent burials) in each of Kona’s ahupua‘a.

(According to State law, inadvertently discovered (finding a burial that was not previously known,) burial remains are to be protected in place (if not immediately threatened with damage from natural or man-made causes.) Final disposition of remains is determined in consultation with DLNR-SHPD and native Hawaiian descendants of the families.)

State rules (HAR §13-300-2) define lineal and cultural descendants:
“Lineal descendant” means with respect to Native Hawaiian skeletal remains, a claimant who has established to the satisfaction of the council, direct or collateral genealogical connections to certain Native Hawaiian skeletal remains …”

“… or with respect to non Native Hawaiian skeletal remains, a claimant who has established to the satisfaction of the department, direct or collateral genealogical connections to certain non Native Hawaiian skeletal remains.

“Cultural descendant” means with respect to non Native Hawaiian skeletal remains, a claimant recognized by the department as being the same ethnicity, or with respect to Native Hawaiian skeletal remains, a claimant recognized by the council after establishing genealogical connections to Native Hawaiian ancestors who once resided or are buried or both, in the same ahupua`a or district in which certain Native Hawaiian skeletal remains are located or originated from.

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January 11, 2020 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Leina a Kaʻuhane – Ka Lae O Kaʻena

Here was where the spirits of the dead could be reunited with their ancestors. The path of the spirits of dead kinsmen always led westward; so as to return to the land of their ancestors.

On every island there existed a prominent bluff pointing westward, bearing the name: “leap of the spirit” (leina-a-ka-uhane). The name marked the jumping-off place where the soul of the dead was believed to depart beyond the land of the living.

Kaʻena or Kaʻena Point (‘the heat’) is the westernmost tip of land on the island of Oʻahu. The point can be reached on foot from both the East (via Oʻahu’s North Shore / Mokuleʻia) and Southeast (via Waiʻanae Coast;) you cannot drive around the point.

When an individual lay on the deathbed, his soul left the body and wandered about; if all earthly obligations had been fulfilled, the soul continued wandering, otherwise it was returned to the body. In its continued wandering it then approached Leina a Kaʻuhane. (DLNR)

“I send you with this a sketch of the west end of the Island of Oahu, showing the position of the Leina-Kauhane as related to that portion of the island. From this you will see that it is on the land near the shore line, about three-quarters of a mile from the western end of the Island of Oahu, known as Ka Lae-o-Kaena, or Kaena Point.”

“The Leina-Kauhane is a large rock on a level plain, overlooking the sea with its sandy shore. On passing it the other day in the steam-cars, I was surprised to see a couple of little straw huts leaning against it.”

“I presume they must have been erected by Japanese fisherman, for it is difficult to believe that any native Hawaiian would think of spending a night there where the spirits are supposed to pass. JE Emerson” (Journal of the Polynesian Society, 1902)

The volcano that created the Waiʻanae Mountain Range last erupted over 3-million years ago. On the narrow western point, the hard volcanic rock shows the mark of millennia of pounding waves – the carved sea cliﬀs of Mokuleʻia that rise above Kaʻena.

Dunes such as these were once found on most of the main Hawaiian Islands, and on them developed ecosystems unique in the world. The intense sunlight, low rainfall, strong winds and salt spray created a challenging environment at Kaʻena. It is the site of one of the last intact dune ecosystems in the main Hawaiian Islands.

Unfortunately, these dunes and the native species that live on them have almost entirely been lost to 1000-years of change (since the humans first came to the Islands.)

The Kaʻena ahupuaʻa was probably the poorest ahupuaʻa in terms of arable land resources on Oʻahu. It is likely that Kaʻena was devoted exclusively to sweet potato, except for about 20 taro patches, terraced with rock facings, on the slopes below Uluhulu Gulch (irrigated from a spring on the hillside west of the gulch.) (Handy, DLNR)

Although very poor in terms of land, Kaʻena faced out onto very rich deep sea fishing grounds. Family groups fished along the shore for sustenance, and Chamberlain, in his journals written between 1822-1849, noted one such group, “… we passed Nenelea, a settlement of fishermen and a convenient place for hauling up their canoes …” (DLNR)

The abundance of fishing koʻa attests to the rich fishing off the coastline: Ponuahua, “a fishing shrine near the point, though it is not known which group of rocks was so designated” and Alauiki fishing shrine, “a group of stones near the edge of the water”. (DLNR)

In modern times (1983,) the State of Hawaiʻi designated Kaʻena Point as a Natural Area Reserve to protect nesting Laysan Albatrosses and wedge-tailed Shearwaters, Hawaiian monk seals and the fragile native strand vegetation that has been restored there.

The reserve provides refuge and a nesting area for the Laysan albatross, and is a potential nesting site for the green sea turtle and Hawaiian monk seal. During the winter breeding season, humpback whales will frequent the waters surrounding the point.

Nearly six feet of sand were lost due to vehicular erosion in less than ﬁve years. In response, motor-vehicles are now prohibited within the Reserve to help the dune ecosystem recover.

Because dogs and rats have killed nesting seabirds, a nearly ½-mile long, 6½-foot high predator-proof fence was constructed following an existing roadbed and encloses the tip of the Kaʻena Point peninsula, a total of 59-acres. Three unlocked double-door gates allow access by people.

After the fence was constructed, project personnel began to remove predatory animals from the reserve by using traps for larger animals and a combination of bait boxes and traps for rodents.

One of the last few remaining and easily-accessible wilderness areas on Oʻahu, Kaʻena Point is also part of the State Park system.

As part of the State Park, the Kaʻena Point Trail follows an old railroad bed and former dirt road that ran around the point. The trail leads to Kaʻena Point Natural Area Reserve.

From the Waiʻanae side, the trailhead is at the end of the paved road in the Keawaʻula Section of Kaʻena Point State Park and follows the dirt roadway for 2.4 miles to Kaʻena Point Natural Area Reserve. From the Mokuleʻia side, the trailhead is at the end of the paved road and follows the dirt roadway for 2.5 miles.

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January 10, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Julia Fayerweather Afong

Emmeline, Toney, Nancy, Mary, Julia, Elizabeth, Marie, Henrietta, Alice, Caroline, Helen, Martha, Albert, Melanie, Henry and James

These are the sixteen children (4-boys and 12-girls) of Chun Afong and his wife, Julia Fayerweather Afong (15 would live into adulthood – James died as an infant.)

But wait … we need to step back a few years to get a better perspective.

A legal notice signed by Dr. Gerrit P. Judd, the former missionary doctor, appeared in the newspaper in March 1857. Titled “Julia Fayerweather,” it read: “Having eloped or been enticed away from my guardianship, I forbid all persons harboring or trusting her, under penalty of the law.”

No, wait; let’s go back a little farther.

Julia Hope Kamakia Paʻaikamokalani o Kinau Beckley Fayerweather was the daughter of Abram Henry Fayerweather and Mary Kekahimoku Kolimoalani Beckley (daughter of Captain George Beckley and High Chiefess Elizabeth Ahia) (February 1, 1840.) The Fayerweathers had three children.

Julia’s grandmother, the chiefess Ahia, married Captain George Beckley, one of “Kamehameha’s haoles” and the first commander of the Fort of Honolulu. (Dye)

The Fayerweather daughters, Julia (age 10,) Mary (8) and Hanna (7,) were orphaned in 1850. They were raised by foster parents.

Julia’s foster father was Keaweamahi Kinimaka. (Another hānai child raised in the same family was David Kalākaua (later, King of Hawaiʻi.))

Julia was later placed under the guardianship of missionary Gerrit P Judd.

Julia met Chun Afong (he was a Chinese national who came to Hawaiʻi in 1849 – leaving his Chinese wife and son in China.) By 1855, Afong had made his fortune in retailing, real estate, sugar and rice, and for a long time held the government’s opium license. He was later dubbed, “Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains” and is Hawaiʻi’s first Chinese millionaire.

When Julia was 15, Chun Afong began to ask for permission to marry from her guardian, Dr. Judd.

The Grand Ball of 1856, celebrating the marriage of King Kamehameha IV and Emma Rooke, was a combined effort of the Chinese merchants of Honolulu and Lāhainā communities; Afong attended.

The March 1857 newspaper proclamation posted by Judd (noted above) was done when Julia was sixteen.

In May 1857, Chun Afong became a naturalized Hawaiian citizen, a requirement for foreigners who wished to wed native Hawaiian women; shortly thereafter, he married the teenager, Julia.

The ceremony took place on June 18, 1857 at Afong’s Nuʻuanu home and was performed by the Reverend Lowell Smith of Kaumakapili Church. (Afong also had a house on the water in Kālia, Waikīkī, where Fort DeRussy is now located.)

Over the following years, the Afongs had 16-children. They sent their firstborn son of his Hawaiian wife to his Chinese wife in Zhongshan in exchange for his China-born son, who was brought to Honolulu to be reared.

Emmeline Afong, their first child, became the hānai child of Keaka (a retainer at Princess Ruth’s home) and Haʻalilio. Emmeline married J. Alfred Magoon, a lawyer – they had seven children.

Alfred Magoon helped found the Sanitary Steam Laundry, invested in Consolidated Amusement Co. and the Honolulu Dairy. He died and Emmeline took over leadership of his business interests. In her 70s, she moved to South Kona and managed the Magoon Ranch at Pāhoehoe – riding horseback and overseeing the cattle ranch. She died in 1946 at age 88.

Eldest son, Toney, decided to live as a Chinese in Asia. Toney married a Chinese woman and became a prominent Hong Kong businessman, the governor of Guangdong for a time and a philanthropist.

All of Afongs’ daughters, with the exception of Emmeline, moved to California, most of them to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Chun Afong returned to China and died peacefully on September 25, 1906 in his home village and is buried there; Julia remained in Hawaiʻi, died February 14, 1919 and is buried at Oʻahu Cemetery, surrounded by many of her descendants.

In 1912, Jack London published a short story called “Chun Ah Chun”, based on the life of Chun Afong and his family. An Afong great-grandson, Eaton Magoon Jr., updated the capitalistic context of London’s story by having Chun market his daughters by “merchandise packaging” them in a musical comedy called Thirteen Daughters.

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January 9, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Courthouse

Up to late-1840s, the Judiciary found quarters in other people’s houses.

At the end of 1846 the King’s Privy Council resolved to authorize funds and have Governor Kekūanāoʻa’s stone house within the old fort of Honolulu “be turned into a court house for the foreign judges and Hopkins’ house for a district court house, said houses however to be put in good condition.” Back then this was at the water’s edge.

An act to organize the judiciary department of the Hawaiian Islands was passed in September, 1847. It set up a superior court and otherwise assembled the machinery of law and order.

Beginning early in 1851, as a combined courthouse and jail, work was soon halted “on account of the depth of water found upon the foundation rock, which rendered it impracticable to proceed.”

When work was recommenced in June, the jail had been dropped and the plans for the new building called only for one that would “serve the purposes of the Legislative Assembly, as well as for holding the Courts.”

In October, sixty prisoners were used to cut coral blocks for the Courthouse. One night while staying in houses near their work place (in order to take advantage of a low tide very early in the morning,) forty men overpowered the guards and seized the gun batteries overlooking Honolulu.

Loaded cannon were trained on prominent buildings. But the prisoners lacked fire to set off the pieces. The prisoners were captured and order was restored in the morning.

On July 5, 1852, the superior court of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi met for the first time. At the time, it was the second largest building in the kingdom and served concurrently as a courthouse, parliament house and civic center.

Judge Lee opened the session of the superior court with an address in which he asked those in attendance to “pause a moment, as we meet for the first time in this temple dedicated to justice, and reflect upon our duties as lawyers, as jurors, and as judges.”

In concluding his address, Judge Lee referred briefly to the new courthouse: “I well remember when I landed on these shores, now nearly six years ago, the court met in an old grass house, floored with mats, without benches, seats or comforts of any kind …”

“… with one corner partitioned off with calico, for judge’s office, clerk’s office, police court, and jury room, standing on the very ground where now stands this substantial edifice erected at a cost of upwards of forty thousand dollars, and which would do credit to any land.”

He continued, “Justice in a grass house is as precious as justice in one of coral, but no one can fail to agree with me, that the latter with all its comforts and conveniences is greatly to be preferred, inasmuch as it tends to promote that dignity and propriety of manners so essential to secure a proper respect for the law and its administration.”

“May this Hall ever be the temple of Justice – may its wall ever echo with the accents of truth – may its high roof ever look down upon us in the faithful discharge of our duties — and may the blessing of Him who builded the Heavens and whose throne is the fountain of all justice ever rest upon us.”

When the court house was built, the city gained a new and bigger set of public rooms. The result was that the chambers dedicated to the government’s judicial and legislative processes were the scene of a variety of private and community functions.

In addition to its official function as a courthouse and legislative hall, the building was frequently used for public meetings. The congregation of the Second Foreign Church of Honolulu announced it would use the new court house for its services.

Among the more colorful events to be held at the courthouse were the festivities given during the reign of King Kamehameha IV. On November 13, 1856, the Chinese merchants of Honolulu and Lāhaina combined to give a grand ball to their majesties King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, in honor of their recent marriage.

Almost the last official action to take place in the courthouse was the special session of legislature, called for February 12, 1874, to elect a successor to King Lunalilo, who had died without having designated an heir to the throne.

Lunalilo himself had been elected king in this building on January 8, 1873, after Kamehameha V died without issue and without having proclaimed an heir on December 11 of the preceding year.

In accordance with the provisions of the constitution in cases where the previous occupant of the throne failed to nominate or proclaim a successor, the cabinet of the late king called a meeting of the legislative assembly to “elect by ballot some native alii of the kingdom as successor to the throne.” Such a meeting was ordered by the cabinet for noon Feb. 12.

With the Court and Legislative functions in the old Courthouse ended, the regular session of the legislature for 1874 met on April 30, 1874 in the legislative hall of the new government building – Aliʻiolani Hale.

The old Courthouse was advertised for sale at auction in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of May 9, 1874. The courthouse property was sold to H. Hackfeld & Co., predecessor of American Factors, Ltd. (AmFac – one of Hawaiʻi’s Big Five,) at the upset price of $20,000. As reported by the Hawaiian Gazette, “It is the best business stand in Honolulu.”

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