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January 27, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Robert Wilcox Supported Annexation and Statehood

Robert Randall Hoes “reached Honolulu on the USS Pensacola September 20, 1891, and remained there until March 9, 1893.” (Hoes)

As stated by Hoes, “I went there as chaplain of the Pensacola, and, having considerable leisure, apart from my professional duties, I commenced a study of the history of the country, pursuing it as carefully and critically as the books and pamphlets at my command would permit.” (Hoes)

“I was officially attached to the Pensacola while she remained in Hawaiian waters, and performed my duties accordingly; but, having considerable leisure at my disposal …”

“… as already said, I engaged in historical studies, and was instrumental, with Prof. Alexander, JS Emerson, and others, in organizing the Hawaiian Historical Society, and was officially connected with that organization until I left Honolulu.” (Hoes)

“The Queen, subsequently hearing that I was so deeply interested in historical research, applied to Secretary Blaine, through Minister Stevens, for permission for me to remain in Honolulu after the Pensacola left …”

“… to prepare a bibliography of Hawaii, and also to examine and arrange the early archives of the Government, which were in a state of disgraceful confusion. I was subsequently detached and remained in Honolulu until the time stated.” (Hoes)

Hoes was “studying the people for historical purposes … (and) also to learn contemporary opinion.”

In doing so, he interviewed Robert Wilcox, “the man who figured so prominently and conspicuously in the revolution of 1887, and has mingled in politics more or less ever since, and was a member of the last Hawaiian Legislature.” (Hoes)

The following is an interview between Hoes and Robert Wilcox, January 27, 1893, shortly after the overthrow:

”What are your views, Mr. Wilcox, in regard to the present situation in general?” (Hoes)

“Queen Liliuokalani brought these evils upon herself and the country both by her personal corruption, and that of her Government. She surrounded herself with bad advisers, and seemed determined to drive the nation to destruction.” (Wilcox)

“Good people had no influence over her whatever, for she indignantly refused to listen to them. I believe that if we can be annexed to the United States, the rights of all of our citizens, and especially those of the native Hawaiians, will be protected more carefully than they have ever been under the monarchy.” (Wilcox)

“What, in your opinion, is the personal feeling of the native Hawaiian element in this community?” (Hoes)

“My countrymen, with the exception of the most intelligent among them, do not understand much about these things.- They need to be educated. They have so often been told by designing men that the United States was their enemy that they are naturally suspicious.” (Wilcox)

“Politicians who have sought to use the natives simply as so many tools have deceived them. When they understand from the lips of disinterested men and patriots what annexation means, and become acquainted with the benefits that it will bring them, they will be as much in favor of the movement as any of our other classes of citizens.” (Wilcox)

“Does the present Provisional Government command the respect of the native Hawaiians?” (Hoes)

“They are naturally somewhat prejudiced against it, as monarchy is the only form of Government with which they are familiar, but this feeling will quickly wear away as the Hawaiians are led to see that the Government is friendly to them and their interests. They already have confidence in the integrity and patriotism of President Dole.” (Wilcox)

“You advocated annexation to the United States, I believe, several months ago, in your newspaper, ‘The Liberal?’” (Hoes)

“Yes, and I have repeatedly done so in public meetings held in this city.” (Wilcox)

“How long do you think it would be after hoisting the American flag before the natives would be entirely reconciled?” (Hoes)

“Almost immediately.” (Wilcox)

“Are you doing anything to instruct the natives so that they may have correct views in regard to these matters?” (Hoes)

“Yes; but I am compelled to move cautiously, or I shall lose my influence over them. I believe I am doing a good work by constantly conversing with them on the subject.” (Wilcox)

“I have told my countrymen that the monarchy is gone forever, and when they ask me what is the best thing to follow it I tell them annexation, and I firmly believe that in a very short time every Hawaiian will be in favor of that step.” (Wilcox)

“The great thing is to keep them from being influenced by the arguments of designing men who pretend to be their friends, but who are really their enemies – men who will try and use them as tools to accomplish their own corrupt and selfish plans. We have had too much of this and it is high time to call for a halt.” (Wilcox)

“Have you confidence in the integrity and patriotic intentions of the commission that has just been sent to Washington by the Provisional Government?” (Hoes)

“It is made up of good men, and I believe they will endeavor to do what is for the best interests of the country.” (Wilcox)

“The above is correctly reported. RW Wilcox.” (Hoes; Reports of Committees of the Senate of the United States, 1893-1894)

With the establishment of Territorial status in the Islands, Hawaiʻi was eligible to have a non-voting delegate in the US House of Representatives.

Wilcox and others formed the Independent ‘Home Rule’ Party and Wilcox ran as a candidate for the Delegate position (against Republican Samuel Parker and Democrat Prince David Kawānanakoa.) Wilcox won, and served as the first delegate and representative of Hawaiʻi in the US Congress.

Then, “Washington. July 3 (1901). Delegate Wilcox, of Hawaii, announces here that at the very opening of the next session of Congress in December he will introduce a bill granting statehood to the territory of Hawaii. Mr. Wilcox says that he does not fully expect that the bill will become a law next winter, but he predicts early statehood for the territory.”

“‘Of course I realize,’ says Mr. Wilcox, ‘that this proposition will meet with opposition on the ground that we have but recently been incorporated Into a territory and that we should wait, but I shall Introduce the bill just the same and commence working upon it.’”

However, others felt, “The statehood bill that Mr. Wilcox says he is going to bring forward will result In nothing but a discussion of the political conditions In Hawaii. There is no chance whatever that during the term for which Mr. Wilcox has been elected to sit in Congress he can get a statehood bill through for the territory.” (Honolulu Republican, July 17, 1901)

Wiclox ran for re-election, but lost to Republican Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole Piʻikoi (Prince Kūhiō served from 1903 until his death in 1922.)

Wilcox returned to Washington to finish out his term (November 6, 1900 to March 3, 1903,) but was very ill. He came back to Hawaiʻi in 1903, and died October 26, 1903. He is buried in the Catholic cemetery on King Street.

Robert_William_Wilcox_1900

January 26, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hula … A view by a Missionary’s Son

“The Hawaiians, it is true, were many removes from being primitives; their dreams, however, harked back to a period that was close to the world’s infancy.”

“Their remote ancestry was, perhaps, akin to ours – Aryan, at least Asiatic – but the orbit of their evolution seems to have led them away from the strenuous discipline that has whipped the Anglo-Saxon branch into fighting shape with fortune.”

“If one comes to the study of the hula and its songs in the spirit of a censorious moralist he will find nothing for him; if as a pure ethnologist, he will take pleasure in pointing out the physical resemblances of the Hawaiian dance to the languorous grace of the Nautch girls, of the geisha, and other oriental dancers.”

“But if he comes as a student and lover of human nature, back of the sensuous posturings, in the emotional language of the songs he will find himself entering the playground of the human race.”

“The hula was a religious service, in which poetry, music, pantomime, and the dance lent themselves, under the forms of dramatic art, to the refreshment of men’s minds.”

“Its view of life was idyllic, and it gave itself to the celebration of those mythical times when gods and goddesses moved on the earth as men and women and when men and women were as gods.”

“As to subject-matter, its warp was spun largely from the bowels of the old-time mythology into cords through which the race maintained vital connection with its mysterious past.”

“Interwoven with these, forming the woof, were threads of a thousand hues and of many fabrics, representing the imaginations of the poet, the speculations of the philosopher, the aspirations of many a thirsty soul, as well as the ravings and flame-colored pictures of the sensualist …”

“… the mutterings and incantations of the kahuna, the mysteries and paraphernalia of Polynesian mythology, the annals of the nation’s history – the material, in fact, which in another nation and under different circumstances would have gone to the making of its poetry, its drama, its opera, its literature.”

“The people were superstitiously religious; one finds their drama saturated with religious feeling; hedged about with tabu, loaded down with prayer and sacrifice. “

“They were poetical; nature was full of voices for their ears; their thoughts came to them as images; nature was to them an allegory; all this found expression in their dramatic art.”

“They were musical; their drama must needs be cast in forms to suit their ideas of rhythm, of melody, and of poetic harmony.”

“They were; moreover, the children of passion, sensuous, worshipful of whatever lends itself to pleasure. How, then, could the dramatic efforts of this primitive people, still in the bonds of animalism, escape the note of passion?”

“The songs and other poetic pieces which have come down to us from the remotest antiquity are generally inspired with a purer sentiment and a loftier purpose than the modem; and it may be said of them all that when they do step into the mud it is not to tarry and wallow in it; it is rather with the unconscious naivete of a child thinking no evil.”

“If one mistakes not the temper and mind of this generation, we are living in an age that is not content to let perish one seed of thought or one single phase of life that can be rescued from the drift of time.”

“We mourn the extinction of the buffalo of the plains and of the birds of the islands, rightly thinking that life is somewhat less rich and full without them.”

“What of the people of the plains and of the islands of the sea? Is their contribution so nothingless that one can affirm that the orbit of man’s mind is complete without it?”

“Comparison is unavoidable between the place held by the dance in ancient Hawaii and that occupied by the dance in our modern society.”

“The ancient Hawaiians did not personally and informally indulge in the dance for their own amusement, as does pleasure loving society at the present time.”

“Like the Shah of Persia, but for very different reasons, Hawaiians of the old time left it to be done for them by a body of trained and paid performers. “

“This was not because the art and practice of the hula were held in disrepute – quite the reverse – but because the hula was an accomplishment requiring special education and arduous training in both song and dance, and more especially because it was a religious matter, to be guarded against profanation by the observance of tabus and the performance of priestly rites.”

“This fact, which we find paralleled in every form of communal amusement, sport, and entertainment in ancient Hawaii, sheds a strong light on the genius of the Hawaiian.”

“We are wont to think of the old-time Hawaiians as light-hearted children of nature, given to spontaneous outbursts of song and dance as the mood seized them …”

“… quite as the rustics of ‘merrie England’ joined hands and tripped ‘the light fantastic toe’ in the joyous month of May or shouted the harvest home at a later season. “

“The genius of the Hawaiian was different.”

“With him the dance was an affair of premeditation, an organized effort, guarded by the traditions of a somber religion. And this characteristic, with qualifications, will be found to belong to popular Hawaiian sport and amusement of every variety.”

“Exception must be made, of course, of the unorganized sports of childhood. One is almost inclined to generalize and to say that those children of nature, as we are wont to call them, in this regard were less free and spontaneous than the more advanced race to which we are proud to belong.”

“But if the approaches to the temple of Terpsichore with them were more guarded, we may confidently assert that their enjoyment therein was deeper and more abandoned.” (All here is from Nathaniel Bright Emerson.)

Jean_Augustin_Franquelin_(after_Louis_Choris),_Danse_des_femmes_dans_les_iles_Sandwich_(1822)

Danse_des_femmes_dans_les_iles_Sandwich._Dess._et_lith._par_Choris._Lith._de_Langlume-1816

Danse_des_hommes_dans_les_iles_Sandwich._Lith.e_par_Franquelin_d’apres_Choris._Lith._de_Langlume_i_de_l’Abbaye._Paris,_1822

January 25, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sky Ranch

It’s not clear when it opened, but in the 1940s and ‘50s, there is clear evidence of the “Kailua Airport” on the Windward side of O‘ahu, reportedly, privately-owned and operated by Bob Whittinghill.

When work was started in 1948 on the new airport in Kailua-Kona, to avoid confusion with the Kailua Airport on Oʻahu, the Big Island’s airport was named “Kona Airport.”

In 1954 it was “enlarged and improved to handle an expected resurgence of prospective fliers. (T)he airport is prepared to offer flying lessons under a complete ‘pay-as-you-fly’ program.” (Advertiser, May 23, 1954)

It was generally referred to as ‘Sky Ranch’ and “was a grass field in Kailua, windward side of Oahu. It was located parallel to the southern fence of Kaneohe Marine Base, near the Mōkapu gate to the base, and west of Mōkapu Boulevard.”

“The runway was where the east/west portion of ‘Aikahi Loop is now. It would have appeared in any sectional published pre-1960. It had a 200′ asphalt strip & about 1,800′ of grass, and power lines at the East end, along Mōkapu Blvd.”

“There was a large Quonset hut as a hangar, shop combination, and a small raised house that served as the office & bathroom. There was a gasoline-powered pump & 3,500 gallon tank of 80/87 avgas.”

“The field was operated by Robert Whittinghill, who was an instructor at the state aircraft mechanic school at Honolulu Airport.” (Hurd; Freeman)

“One man who’s licked the commuting problem over the Pali is Bob King of Kailua who lives a block away from the Kailua Sky Ranch landing strip and works at Honolulu airport. He usually flies to work.”

“It takes him an average of seven minutes over the Pali, about 16 minutes by way of Koko head. He claims flying is six time safer that driving a car, 12 times safer than driving across the Pali.” (Krauss, March 2, 1959)

Besides recreational and commuter flying, there were other aviation activities there. “(N)ews has arrived from Hawaii of the formation of the Hawaii Soaring Club with Woody Brown as President.”

“Plans call for the operation of Pratt-Reads from Kailua Sky Ranch on Oahu with Kipapa Field as a secondary base of operations. We are glad to hear these beautiful islands which have in the past been the site of some interesting soaring flights will once again be the scene of soaring activity.” (Soaring, Jan-Feb, 1959)

Likewise, “Parachuting is rapidly becoming a very popular sport. Quite ordinary young men – and women – are jumping from aircraft every weekend all over the United States, including Hawaii.”

The Aloha Sky Divers “meets every Sunday at the Kailua Sky Ranch, a short walk from the Pali Palms. Its members, floating down under colored canopies, have become a familiar sight in these parts.” Star Bulletin, July 14, 1961)

In addition, “Oahu’s only Air Scout squadron has been launched at Kailua Sky ranch, where a model plane meet is scheduled. … a clubhouse with work shop has been made available for both the Boy Scouts and the model plane enthusiast of Windward Oahu.”

“Bob Whittinghill is adviser for the aero squadron, composed of Boy Scouts 14 and over … the model plane meet set for today is the third held by Kailua Sky ranch. The two earlier meets drew about 1,000 persons at each event”. (Advertiser, May 24, 1954)

“Robert Whittinghill (leased) Kailua Sky Ranch from Kaneohe Ranch Company on a short-notice basis.” (Star-Bulletin, October 29, 1956) While pressure was building to keep the air field for recreational flights, ultimately, pressure for residential home development overcame that.

“About 15 planes will leave this weekend on a final, nostalgic flight from the Kailua Sky Ranch, Oahu’s only remaining private airport for light planes.”

“The planes will head for temporary quarters at busy Honolulu Airport as bulldozers move in to plow the Sky Ranch airstrip for a housing subdivision.” (Star-Bulletin, July 20, 1961)

“‘Aikahi Park, a prestige home development designed for families growing in stature and size, is being opened this Labor Day weekend by Centex-Trousdale.” (Prices ranged from $25,050 to $27,350, “on low rent Kaneohe Ranch Co 55-year leasehold land.”)

“Homes in the park have been designed by Vladimir Ossipoff, FAIA, who has won many architectural awards for local residences. They are in Hawaiian styles with three and four bedrooms, the latter containing fireplaces.” (Star-Bulletin, September 2, 1962)

Whittinghill also ran (since 1947) the Aero-Tech Division of Honolulu Technical School, a State education arm for training aviation mechanics, situated in a hanger at Honolulu International Airport. (Advertiser, September 18, 1963)

Kailua-Mokapu-Aerial-(2444)-1952-(portion-Kailua-Airfield)

Kailua-Mokapu-Aerial-(4290)-1963-(mass_grading_Aikahi_Park_takes_out_the_Kailua-Airfield)

Kailua-Mokapu-Aerial-(2508)-1959-(portion_noting_Kailua-Airfield)

Kailua-Mokapu-Aerial-(2444)-1952-(portion_noting_Kailua-Airfield)

Kailua Sky Ranch-Aikahi

Sky Ranch-USGS_Mokapu-1952-portion

Sky Ranch-USGS_Mokapu_1952-portion

Sky Ranch0O_Mokapu_1969-Portion

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January 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Lanihau

“I started looking for property in Kona in 1921 when I graduated from Yale [University] and I think between then and 1932, why, I must have seen every beach property from Milolii to Kawaihae, no matter how you got to it–by air or by sea or by boat or by donkey or by mule or on foot.”

“And I finally decided on [William] Doc Hill’s place down at Keauhou as being the ideal spot that I wanted to live in but through a long combination of funny circumstances, why, I didn’t get it.”

“I’d inquired about this place from Mr. Childs who was then local head of American Factors. He said, ‘Oh hell, that property’s so tied up with owners you never could clear title.’”

“‘Well,’ I said, ‘you live here’ – and he was a big shot of the community at the time. ‘Tell you what I’ll do. If you can clear the titles, I’ll put up the money and we’ll subdivide the thing into large pieces and go fifty-fifty on it.’ And he said, ‘Well, that’s fair enough. That doesn’t cost me anything.’”

“So I waited seven years and nothing happened. Then I happened to meet an old-timer from up here who’d been in the tax office and knew land problems–who my father helped to keep out of jail–and he was very fond of the Thurstons.”

“So I said, ‘Who owns that property next to Factors?’ ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘that belongs to so-and-so and so-and-so. You want to buy it?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know whether I can afford it or not.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘the girl right at this moment needs money badly, I know, and I’m quite sure she would sell.’”

“So, this was four in the afternoon and at 9:30 the next morning I got a call and he said, ‘If you’ll have so much money available by eleven o’clock, I can buy her half-interest in thirty-eight acres.’”

“So I said, ‘Well, I don’t know where I’m going to get the money but I’ll have it.’ I did. Five years later, for five times as much, I bought the other half. So that brings us up to about 1938 and going into 1939.”

“An old kahuna who lived down at Kahaluu – I can’t remember his name at the moment but it’ll come to me – through his grandson who worked for [Theo. H.] Davies and Company, said that his grandfather wanted to come see me.”

“His grandfather had known my great-grandfather as a little boy and his great-grandfather was, at that time, in his late nineties and Asa [Thurston] died when he was well along in the eighties, so there is quite a span there. So I said I’d be delighted.”

“So the old man came over and his grandfather … he was ashamed to speak English so he spoke in Hawaiian and I spoke English. I could understand him and he could understand me. So he said, ‘I would like to know what Mr. Thurston’s plans are for the development of this property,’ which was translated duly.”

“And I replied and gave him a general idea of what I was trying to accomplish here. We’d planted quite a few trees at that time.
So the old man sat here for quite a long time and just nodded his head; and then he started in talking Hawaiian very rapidly and he talked for about ten minutes without taking a breath.”

“So the old man thanked me with tears in his eyes and we talked a little bit about his remembering my grandfather. He was a young man at the time. And he died, oh, within two or three months after that down at Kailua.”

“The name of this place is Lanihau. L-A-N-I-H-A-U. There’s Lanihau-nui which is next door and this is Lanihau-iki, meaning little Lanihau, and Lanihau-nui is back of it [and means large or great Lanihau]. That belongs to the Greenwells.”

“The name puzzled me. Lani means heavenly; beauty. Hau–H-A-U–is normally the tree from which they make the Hawaiian outriggers or the amas [float for canoe outrigger] or ‘iako [canoe outrigger]. H-A-0 is iron or steel or very strong.”

“So I submitted this to John Lane, who was then alive, and Mary Pukui, who’s still alive, and Reverend Henry Judd and two others … and asked them what this name meant, because many times Hawaiian meanings were hidden.”

“They asked a great many questions about the place. Was it on a point? Yes. You had a beautiful view up and down the coast? Yes. You had a beautiful view of the ocean? Yes. And the surf? Yes.”

“And out on the point at times it’s enormous; and is there a current that comes past that you can see sometimes? Yes, you can see it coming down the coast, coming around the point. And you have a beautiful view of the sunrise and of the sunset?”

“They finally came up with this hidden meaning which I think is very interesting; Lanihau is the place where the forces of the heavens and of the earth meet and all is quiet and peaceful. The moonlight and the sunshine, the waves, the grand weather, the storms, and so on, which is rather interesting, I think.”

“I would say that you are really in a very blessed spot.”

“I started to work here on the 28th of December of 1939. It was all just lava, nothing else. And this place evolved as a result of exposure and watching the surf and studying and seeing what one could do.”

“I always wanted a harbor for a boat to go fishing and to go swimming. And so, this gradually evolved and then I began to find out things about it.”

“Kamehameha the Great lived right here for some time – seven years – prior to his death. This is where he slept and over there was where he ate and over where the guest house is, is where his servants lived; and over at the far end there, beyond the entrance to the pond – going into the King Kamehameha [Hotel] lot – was the old heiau.”

“So he was self -contained and nobody was allowed on this place in the old days. You had to go around it. It was tabu. … Sacred.”

Back to the old man and his grandfather … “His grandson laughed when the old man ran down and said, ‘Well, my grandfather has said quite a few things. I will try to translate.’”

“In essence, what he said was this, that he will now die happy and he now understands why the good Lord never let anybody buy this over all the years.”

“He said, ‘He was waiting till you could come – till you had the money to come – and till you could develop this place, which certainly is even farther than Kamehameha would have been able to had he chosen to do it, and it will become a place of great beauty.’”

“‘I will now die happy because this property is in the hands of the man the Lord intended it to go to.’” (Lorrin P Thurston; Watumull Oral History)