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December 2, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ho‘okipa

Haʻaheo ʻiʻo nō e Hoʻokipa Pāka
Kahi a ka lehulehu
E kipa a hoʻonanea
Nanea mai hoʻi kau

Nanea mai hoi kau ke noho ʻoe la
Malalo o ka lau o ka hau la
Kahi e malu aʻe ʻoe
He malu ʻolu ʻai ʻoe

He nani iʻo no keʻ`ike aku la
I ka papa heʻenalu
Heʻe ana i ka pue one
He one kaulana no

Pulu au i ka huna kai kai heʻʻeheʻe i ka `ili
Ame ka ehu kai kilikilihune
A konikoni i ka ʻili
Huʻi kona au maʻaʻele

E ō i kou inoa Hoʻokipa Pāka
Kahi a ka lehulehu
E kipa a hoʻonanea
Nanea mai hoʻi kau

Proud of Welcome Park, over there
Place where the crowd
Is welcome to rest
Come, rest here for a while

Rest here a while, stay
Under the hau tree leaf
Where you have shade
Cool shade, you’ll enjoy

It’s splendid there to see
The surfboards
Surfing to the sandbar
It’s a famous beach

I am damp with sea spray that drips on the skin
And the fine salt mist
Makes the skin tingle
I tingle chilly and numb

Answer to your name, Welcome Park
Place where the crowd
Is welcome to stay
Come, rest here for a while

(Ho‘okipa Pāka, Alice Johnson)
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“In 1936 my family moved from Lower Pāʻia to Kūʻau. I was singing with the Royal Hawaiian Band, but in 1937 I left them to come home. One day my sister and I decided to walk over to the park. We were curious to see what it looked like.”

“A friend of ours was the park keeper, and when we arrived, she had just finished her poi lunch and had fallen asleep under the hau trees. The peacefulness and beauty of the entire scene inspired me to write ‘Hoʻokipa Park Hula.’”

“The kids from Lower Pāʻia and Kūʻau were already surfing here, so I mentioned surfing in the song. The ʻ46 tidal wave destroyed the area and completely changed it. The wide beach and many of the hau trees were lost, and the high wall there today was built to prevent further damage.” (Alice Johnson, January 27, 1978; Clark)

“Surfing on Maui really came into prominence with the formation of the first ‘Ho‘okipa Surfriders Club’ at Ho‘okipa Park some 25 years ago (1935). Meetings were held each month at the Ho‘okipa Park Pavilion and the County of Mui erected a surfboard locker to hold 50 surfboards.”

“Surfing was then confined to just Ho‘okipa Park and Kahului Harbor and the surfboards used then were made of solid redwood weighing from 60 to 75 pounds each. Then years later the hollow surfboards made of plywood became very popular.”

“These too were quite heavy but they were longer than the redwood type and much easier to pick up waves. On Kamehameha Day in the year 1939, surfboard paddling races were held between the piers at Kahului Harbor.”

“Surfing died off for awhile on Maui until the Meheulas moved to Maui from Honolulu and introduced the new Malibu type balsa wood boards. This type proved to be very popular and today (1960) there are over a hundred of these boards on the island.”

“They are very light compared to the oldtime surfboards and thereby faster on the bigger waves and their maneuverability were terrific. Surfing thus came to be more exciting and thrilling and the challenge on bigger waves became greater.”

“Today there are over 18 surfing beaches on Maui and Ho‘okipa is rated by the Californians to be one of the best anywhere.” (Uchimura, June 18, 1960; info from Lind)

“Maui Agriculture leased the land for the park to the County of Maui in 1933 and in a land exchange conveyed title to the Territory of Hawai’i in 1947. The name Ho’okipa means ‘hospitality.’”

“The surf offshore from Ho’okipa Beach Park provides surfers with waves almost all year round, as the reefs pick up both summer and winter swells. The most spectacular waves, however, occur during the winter and often reach heights of ten to fifteen feet.”

“This tremendous surf is some of the best on Maui. … A small building that served as a clubhouse and a set of surfboard racks were donated and constructed in the park by Harold Rice”

“Foremost among the charter members were two brothers, Donald and Teruo Uchimura, who have both been avid surfers as well as great promoters of the sport of surfing since the founding of the club.” (Clark)

In the early 1970s, windsurfing was introduced to Hawai‘i. (Clark) Today, Ho‘okipa Beach Park remains the epicenter of the windsurfing world.

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December 1, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Piracy – Honolulu Captured and Sacked by an Armed Force

The headline of a December 15, 1884 front page story in the Daily Alta California in San Francisco suggested, “on the afternoon of Dec. 1st, (Honolulu was ransacked) by a pirate vessel’s crew.” There was more …

The Most Audacious Piratical Raid on Record.
No Attempt at Resistance.
The King, Public Treasury and Merchants Despoiled.
Over Three Millions in Coin and Plate Carried Off.
Capture of the Palace.
The Town in Possession of the Pirates for Nine Hours.
Not a Blow Was Struck Nor a Shot Fired.
Bishop’s Bank Plundered.
The Piratical Band Supposed to Have Organized in this City.

In explicit detail, we learn that “At 2 o’clock of the afternoon of December 1st a strange vessel was sighted off Diamond Head. The Alameda had passed out, and was well into the Molokai Channel by this time. [As the memoranda of the Alameda made no mention of this incident, she could not have seen her. — Ed.]”

“The craft, which was rigged like a steam whaler, after standing close along shore, shaped her course to the southward, and was soon a mere speck on the horizon. Towards evening, however, she was observed to go about and steer direct for Honolulu.”

“At 9 p. m., or thereabouts, the stranger hove to just outside the reef, and a boat, containing Colonel Curtis Iaukea, the recently appointed Collector of the Port, and four men, pushed off for her. About half an hour afterwards a second boat was sent from the Custom House, as the one containing Iaukea had not returned.”

“At 10 o’clock five boats, filled with armed men, pushed off from the strange craft and came alongside the Oceanic Steamship Company’s wharf. A few natives who were engaged in catching the red fish, a shoal of which had come into the harbor, ran up town with the intelligence that the wharf was thronged with armed men.”

“Mr. Brown, a reporter of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, met them, and, doubting the information, walked down to the water front. He found himself at once Surrounded by an Armed Force”

“Who bound him hand and foot and left him in charge of a dozen of their number, while the rest, about seventy or eighty, marched up Fort street in solid column.”

“All had Winchester repeating rifles, revolvers and cutlasses. Nine ‘o’clock in Honolulu sees the streets almost deserted, with the exception of a few natives and policemen.”

“‘The leader, a tall man with a long, red beard, walked deliberately towards us with a cocked pistol in his hand. We stood in the porch, sort of paralyzed. No one thought of making any resistance then, and I tell you the rifles looked mighty wicked in the light of the lamps of the hotel ground.’”

“‘Now, gentlemen,’ said the Captain, “’ don’t want any foes. We have not come here to play at soldiers, and we don’t intend to get hurt. If any of you show a weapon or make a threatening motion, we’ll fire on you. We have not come here to rob you; you ain’t going to be a dollar out, but we will not be interfered with.’”

“‘Never you mind,’ said the Captain. ‘Give me the keys of the house.’ They gave them to him, and I was locked up with the rest. There was a sentinel posted at each entrance, and we sat in our rooms looking out of the windows, for no one knew how many men were on the island, or exactly what they wanted, for that matter.”

“That the leader was a man well acquainted with the town there can be no doubt, and, indeed, Dexter identified him as a person who had once been employed as a steward on board the Mariposa, and who had worked his passage in the steward’s mess. So far, no one in the upper portion of the town, except the hotel people, knew anything about the invasion.”

“The ‘King’s Own,’ a company of about forty men, Kalakaua’s special guard, were in their barracks, near the Palace, and the sentries were posted in their usual places at the Palace gates. The filibusters marched directly from the hotel to the Palace.”

“The king had a dinner party that evening, and was entertaining his Ministers … They were immediately surrounded, but in the confusion that followed General Hayley managed to slip through the hall and to the barracks, through the rear entrance of the palace.”

“Mr. Gibson was about to address the leader of the gang when the King pushed him aside and demanded haughtily what the meaning of all this was. ‘It means, sir,’ said the leader, that we’ve just taken possession of this little kingdom of yours, and we mean to hold it, too, by G – d !’”

“The Palace now being in possession of the filibusters, they proceeded to raid it in the most systematic manner. The feather cloak of the Kamehamehas, which is prized by the Hawaiians as a sacred relic, was carried off.”

“The presents of silver plate which the King had received in his European trip were also taken off in addition to the silver service in daily use in the Palace.”

“Mr. Frank Pratt, the Public Registrar, who keeps the keys of the Treasury, was seized at his residence on Beretania street, dragged to the public building on Aeolani Hale, and forced to open the vaults.”

“Here were $700,000 in Hawaiian currency – silver dollars and half-dollars – and $200,000 in American gold and silver. All the money the pirates sacked up and sent down to their boats.”

“Their next proceeding was an attack on the residence of Mr. C. R. Bishop, the well-known banker. Mr. Bishop, who lost his wife recently, and who is in ill health, was taken from his bed and forced to open the safe in his bank on Merchant street. Here the filibusters bagged in the neighborhood of $500,000 in gold, silver and greenbacks.”

“The door of the business house of W. G. Irwin & Co. was forced, where some $300,000 which Mr. Irwin had sent from San Francisco several weeks ago, rested. This money was taken off with the rest.”

“At daybreak the next morning the leader withdrew his men from the town, and released the King and the other prisoners who were confined in the Palace and the barracks.”

“Not a blow had been struck on either side and no one was injured or insulted except Colonel Judd, who was bruised and kicked by the sentinel left in charge of him. General Hayloy had his left wrist broken in a fall over the breach of one of the Krupp guns in on attempt to escape from town after the first alarm.”

“The utterly defenceless condition of Honolulu, and the perfect practicability of such a scheme, removes all doubt about the matter. Moreover, the names Moran has given are those of well-known Honolulu citizens.”

“That the filibustering expedition was fitted up in this city and sailed from here with the express purpose of sacking those islands, knowing how easily it could be accomplished, is evident. They laid their plans cleverly.”

“No matter how small, who had the nerve and purpose for the job. It does not seem remarkable, in view of all this, that the raid should have been so easily accomplished. Where the vessel sailed for, or what her name was, Moran did not hear. She was away by daybreak, and possibly sailed for the Gilbert group, or perhaps Tahiti.”

Interestingly, none of the local papers carried the story. Rather, they soon concluded it was a hoax.

“An hour’s sensation was produced, upon the arrival of the Alameda, by an imaginary account, in the Alta California of the date the steamer left, of the capture and sacking of Honolulu, on the afternoon of Dec. 1st, by a pirate vessel’s crew.”

“Whether the motive was amusement, profit or political effect, the hoax can hardly fail to have injurious results, of more or less
degree and duration, upon Hawaiian securities abroad.”

“The work is generally ascribed to Mr. Dan O’Connell, late editor of the Advertiser, an opinion that is strengthened by the issue of an extra with the article, in similar type to the original, from the office of that paper, within an hour after the steamer’s arrival.” (Daily Bulletin, Dec 23, 1884)

A closer look at the Daily Alta supports the conclusion – hidden in the middle of page four was the disclaimer, “The narrative on the first page shows what might be accomplished in the Hawaiian Kingdom by a small body of desperadoes.” (Daily Alta California, December 15, 1884)

“The whole thing appears very much like an attempt to help the Government here to get forward a grand military scheme; in fact it is the army bill once more coming to the fore.” (Hawaiian Gazette, December 24, 1884)

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November 30, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Where do you ‘Go’?

“Lanikaula was a prophet of Molokai. He died and was buried at Puu-o-Hoku. The spot was named Lanikaula for him. It was said that he was a clever prophet in his day. While he was a prophet he could foresee the death of any chief or commoner through his wisdom as prophet, but when his own death drew near, he did not know.”

“This was the reason it is said that he did not know. One morning, one of the overseers of Keahi-a-Kawelo, of Lanai [and who had feigned friendship with Lanikäula], passed by.”

“He had a raw sweet potato in his hand and inside of the sweet potato he had placed the excrement of Lanikaula. He passed right in front of Lanikaula, and the priest did not say, ‘That is my excrement you are carrying away,’ he didn’t say a word.”

“The messenger got back to Keahi-a-Kawelo on Lanai. It was perhaps on the night of Kane (po Kane) when the fire was lighted by Keahi-a-Kawelo, and then Lanikaula knew from the smoke, that it was his excrement that was being burned.”

“It was in this way, that he knew that he was going to die. He asked the men of Molokai to make stone knives under which to bury him when he died. He was afraid to be buried with just plain earth lest he be dug up and his bones used for fish hooks …” (Bishop Museum; Maly)

“The disposal of the excreta, or refuse of the human body, is an unpleasant subject to consider; but it is a very important one, in connection with the care of health; and was so regarded by the inspired lawgiver, Moses, in his sanitary instructions to the children of Israel.”

“In the 23d Chapter of Deuteronomy, the following ordinance is declared: ‘Thou shalt have a place, without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad; and thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and it shall be when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back, and cover that which cometh from thee.”

“(N)ow give heed to the simple, yet important ordinance of cleanliness, declared by the great lawgiver, so that when you walk alone, take care that no one shall have occasion to avoid, or regret going in the path you have trod.” (Gibson)

“In Hawai‘i each family lived upon or near the land it cultivated. Usually the cluster of grass-houses which formed a household, a kauhale, sheltered the members of a single family.”

“The minimum number of structures in a kauhale was four: an eating-house for the males, a hale mua, which was also the meeting place for them and their family gods; a separate eating-house for the females and infant boys, the hale ‘āina …”

“… a house for the women in their times of menstruation, the hale pe‘a; and a sleeping-house, the hale noa, the ‘house freed of taboos’, where the whole family met in social converse and where they slept.”

“A kauhale was established in a place chosen by a consultant authority, whose recommendation of site and orientation was thought to assure health and good fortune for the family which would live there.”

“Because his selection of a site was performed for the sake of each family which sought his advice, this consultant was not required to fit the new kauhale into a planned pattern with respect to the neighboring households.”

“(V)ery few people have paid any attention at all to the unromantic details of the business of living even in the years since (‘contact’ with) the islands.” (Bushnell)

The “kapus are excellent illustrations of ‘religious sanctions’ … ‘those motives in the individual for the regulation of his conduct in conformity with usage’ in his community. By observing these sanctions the individual Polynesian gained the approbation of his gods and of his fellows, the while he avoided the consequences of their disapprobation”.

“The kapus which were established by the priests for the disposal of body wastes had a double concern: the protection of the mana, the spiritual power, of the person from whom the wastes were derived; and respect for the mana of all of the gods …”

“Out of respect for the gods, the Hawaiian refrained from polluting their abodes. Out of fear for himself, he was most careful to keep his body’s parts, or its wastes, and his personal possessions from falling into the hands of the dreaded sorcerer, the kahuna ana‘ana, or into the keeping of an enemy who would give them to the sorcerer to use in his fell ritual.”

“No doubt the rewards of obedience to the laws of cleanliness were taken for granted by the people. But the consequences of disobedience were always present to frighten them into compliance, and their dread of the subtle punishments of the body or of the spirit was the goad that made them good.”

“Because of this fear it is unlikely that there was such a functionary as a sanitary inspector type of kahuna among the priestly ranks, numerous and varied as they were. With the kahuna ana‘ana around, there was no need to invent the sanitary inspector: each person became his own most careful bodyservant and bodyguard.” (Bushnell)

“When a man needed to relieve himself he went off into the bush or into the wasteland, apart from the others of his household or village; and there, as a Jew was enjoined to do by the Mosaic Laws …”

“… he dug a hole and buried in it the portions of himself that were so indubitably his, together with the leaves or small stones or wisps of grass with which he cleaned himself when he was done.”

“Because, even in the time of his need for privacy, he was well aware of the watching gods, he protected himself, front, flank, and rear, as it were, with a prayer of apology to the resident spirits for his action.”

“(H)e carefully covered the cat-hole he had dug and all traces of his visit, in order to hide its secrets from the searching eyes of the kahuna ana‘ana.”

“Others of his personal wastes were not casually thrown away; they were buried, as carefully as was his excrement, or they were burned. Nor were they cast into the sea, or into streams, pools, swamps, taro-patches, or other accumulations of fresh water.” (Bushnell)

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November 29, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cherokee Mission

The first of the missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) on the continent was to the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians of the southeast.

“Other Indian missions were begun shortly after this; in fact the next two decades saw the most widespread efforts of the Board upon the American continent. Many of these missions to Indian tribes were short lived and not very productive but there are three which stand out as of special interest: the mission to the Cherokees. the Oregon mission and the mission to the Dakotas.”

“Only one of these is still continuing, the Dakota work which has been carried on by the American Missionary Association since 1883. The Oregon mission was ended by massacre in 1847 and the general break-up which followed the massacre.”

“The Cherokee enterprise was the scene of some of the most stirring events in the history of our country and also of some of the most tragic and shameful actions. When the tribe was deported to the west in 1838 the mission continued but the great promise of earlier days was never fulfilled and the tribe ceased to be the significant nation that it once had been.”

“When Cyrus Kingsbury went to the land of the Cherokees in 1817 the tribe had already had a long and discouraging experience with the white man.”

“Their land had been taken from them piece by piece, treaties had been repeatedly broken – and that was to continue – and they had been in one way or another involved and had suffered in the wars between the French and the English and between the British and the Americans.”

“The Cherokee nation at that time was located mainly in the western and northwestern part of Georgia, in southern Tennessee and northeastern Alabama. The pressure of white settlers was increasing yearly especially upon the part of the nation located in the state of Georgia.”

“But if relations with white settlers and governments had been adverse to the Indians there were already established missions, especially that of the Moravians, which gave support and encouragement to Kingsbury and those who soon followed him.”

“Their first station was located on Chickamauga Creek not far from the present city of Chattanooga and was named the Brainerd Mission after the early evangelist to Indians in the north. This became the center of a work that extends into Georgia and Alabama and other stations in Tennessee.”

“Cyrus Kingsbury went through Washington on his way to Tennessee and secured approval for the opening of a mission. President Monroe himself was interested in it.”

“Later after a surprise visit to the Brainerd station he declared himself to be more than satisfied with its program and promised to have means supplied for the building of a substantial frame house to take the place of the log structure then in use, a promise that was fulfilled.”

“Robert Sparks Walker declares that ‘the Brainerd Mission has the distinction of being the first school in North America to give instruction in systematic and scientific agriculture, also trades, domestic science and domestic arts.’ This educational program lay at the root of the ‘civilizing’ the mission felt that it must do.”

“Among tribes that never settled down to a life of work and discipline such as is involved in farming and the trades little progress has ever been made in the teaching which is necessary to the introduction of an ordered Christian life.”

“(T)he Brainerd mission was at once a school, a farm and a place of apprenticeship to such necessary trades as carpentry and blacksmithing. The long day of the Indian students was divided between study and work. … Both boys and girls, in separate schools, made up the industrious community.”

“Some of the test friends and helpers of the mission program were half breeds. One of these, Charles R. Hicks, was a chief of the Cherokees and a Christian.”

“Every one who reported on the progress of his people has called him the best friend of the mission and the most helpful in all dealings with the Indians. Elias Boudinot probably had some white blood in his veins. He studied in the mission school at Cornwall, Connecticut, married a daughter of one of the best families of that town and returned to be a leader of his people.”

“It is of interest to note that the school at Cornwall came into existence largely because of the plea that the Hawaiian, Obookiah, made for an education. Its function was to train both American students and young men from mission fields for the work of the mission.”

“It was closed in 1827 and at least one reason for its abandonment was the Opposition created in the town by the marriage of Cornwall girls of good family to Indian students. One of these students was Elias Boudinot; the other was John Ridge. Despite the opposition of the people of Cornwall both these marriages were successful.”

“The most noted Cherokee, however, was Sequoia, or George Guess as he was known among white people. Sequoia could neither read nor speak English. He was greatly distressed that his own language had no written form.”

“So he proceeded to create an alphabet of eighty-six characters which represented the language phonetically so well that it was soon adopted in preference to one upon which missionaries were at work. This became and remains the medium of all written or printed Cherokee. The Bible, of course, was translated into the language with the use of Sequoia’s alphabet.”

“The achievement of Sequoia’s deserves at least to be compared to the Laubach invention. To honor this Cherokee Indian, Stephen I. Endlicher in 1847, gave the name of Sequoia to the big trees in California.”

“The mission inevitably suffered from the encroachment of the citizens and the state of Georgia upon the lands of the Cherokee nation and their eventual deportation west of the Mississippi.”

“A law was passed by the Georgia Legislature requiring an oath of allegiance to the state by anyone who wanted to live within its boundaries and declaring null and void all laws and customs of the Cherokees.”

“As a result of refusal to take the oath several of the missionaries were arrested and Dr. Samuel A. Worcester and Dr. Elizur Butler were sentenced and kept in prison for more than a year.”

“Meantime, the lands of the Cherokees within the state of Georgia were divided up and opened to white settlers and the properties of the missionaries and mission were taken over by them.”

“The end of the mission in Tennessee and Georgia, however, was in sight. In final violation of the rights of the Cherokees as often affirmed in treaties, the whole tribe was transported to the Indian territory.”

“Some had gone west many years before and a mission was begun there in 1821. But the tribe disintegrated and the mission was closed in 1860. A mission to the Choctaws was also discontinued at about the same time.” (All from Hugh Vernon White, Secretary, The Congregational Church)

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November 28, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahuā

“Kahuā means the beginning, the source, the foundation and this is what our property has been built on.” (Monty Richards)

Another meaning of the word Kahuā is place of encampment. This definition makes historic sense because Kamehameha I trained his warriors for battle on the steep slopes of cinder cones near Kahuā’s main ranch house. Also, the ranch may have been named after a star, kahu‘a.

Kahuā 1 was awarded to Lot Kapuāiwa (later Kamehameha V) and Kahuā 2 was awarded to his sister, Victoria Kamāmalu. Cattle have probably been found on the lands of Kahuā for 100 years or more. About 1880 the lands were controlled by Allen and Stackpole. (UH)

“The main house on (the) Ranch is over a hundred years old and there aren’t many of these old places left around here. The original house was built around 1870 or 1880.” (Monty Richards)

On January 1, 1879, Queen Emma signed a lease with Allen and Stackpole for nearby land at Kawaihae; a new agreement was signed on July 1st, 1883.

Kahuā Ranch had its beginnings with George Frederick Holmes at about the 3000’ elevation. In April 1886, the Ranch was purchased by three English brothers, Godfrey, Ernest and Fred Burchardt, and John McGuire, “partners under the style of the Kahuā Ranch Company”. (Hawai‘i Supreme Court)

In 1891, Maguire bought out the Burchardt share of the ranch, when they returned to England. In 1895, Maguire sold a half interest in the property to Frank Woods, who later purchased the remaining interest.

Frank Woods invested heavily in a new scheme to turn Kahuā into a sugar plantation. What he needed was water, and he knew where to get it.

About ten years earlier, Kohala sugar planters built Kehena Ditch to funnel water from the mountain forests above Pololu Valley to their thirsty plantations along the coast.

Kahuā had the right to siphon off a little water, but Woods planned a major waterway, some eight feet wide and four feet deep, capable of diverting a virtual river of water his way.

Woods was within one hundred feet of tapping into the Kehena Ditch when the Kohala sugar planters, alarmed and angry, stopped him. Woods was not able to keep the ranch.

Ronald von Holt had been ranching at Hono‘uli‘uli on the Ewa Plain for Oahu Railway & Land Company. His grandfather, Hermann von Holt from Hamburg, arrived in Hawai’i in 1851 and stayed to open a successful store.

Ronald wanted to get into ranching on his own and was looking for a start. Atherton Richards was also searching for a ranching opportunity, preferably on an outer island.

When news of Frank Woods’ dilemma reached O’ahu, Ronald approached Atherton Richards about the possibility of buying Kahuā Ranch.

Ronald Von Holt partnered with brothers Atherton Richards and Herbert Montague Richards, to buy Kahuā and the lease in 1928. They named it Kahuā Ranch Limited.

Ronald Von Holt was grandson of a German immigrant to Hawai‘i. Brothers Atherton Richards and Herbert Montague Richards were grandsons of an early missionary pioneer to Hawaii.

Herbert Montague Richards, moved up to Kahuā with his wife to try his hand at ranching. In 1929, Herbert Montague ‘Monty’ Richards, Jr. was born at Kahuā, and Ronald von Holt was asked to be his godfather.

Although the Richards family returned to Honolulu in 1931 when Monty was just a youngster, he enjoyed summer visits at the big ranch house later in his childhood.

“In 1956, Atherton Richards moved to Kahuā to manage the ranch. After two years, he turned the operation over to Monty who has skillfully run the ranch ever since. With his trademark sweatshirt, baseball cap, suspenders and ever-present radio, Monty Richards has pushed Kahuā well into the next century.”

“A first time visitor to Kahuā Ranch has a difficult time knowing what to look at — the gorgeous cattle, the woolly sheep, the greenhouses filled with carnations and lettuce, or the spinning windmills generating electricity for the entire ‘Kahuā village.’”

“Soon there will be a Ranch Store (housed in a converted slaughterhouse), a pistol range and a spanking new Paniolo Porch for tour group picnics and ranch parties.”

“‘Monty is a very open, diversified thinker,’ said Pono von Holt, talking about his former boss. ‘That’s how Kahuā ended up with sheep, wind farms and tomatoes.’” (Melrose)

In the mid 1980s the IRS stated that a single business must have a single corporate structure and the families decided to split the ranch to become Kahuā Ranch Ltd and Ponoholo Ranch Ltd. Both ranches still work together in operations as well as joint ventures. (Kahuā) (Monty Richards recently passed away.)

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