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February 4, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Polynesian Confederacy

The last decades of the 19th-century were a period of imperial expansion, especially in the Pacific. European (primarily Britain, France and Germany,) Asian (Japan) and American (US) were making claims and establishing colonies across the Pacific.

After the British took control of Fiji in 1874, only three major island groups remained independent in the Pacific: Tonga, Hawai‘i and Sāmoa. The Euro/American powers had marked off all three of these groups as falling under their own spheres of interest.

However, the Americans took a specific interest in Hawai‘i, the British in Tonga, and the Germans, British and Americans all claiming a right to determine the future of Sāmoa. (Cook)

Kalākaua was filled with visionary schemes for the protection and development of the Polynesian race; (Walter Murray Gibson) fell in step with him … The king and minister at least conceived between them a scheme of island confederation. (Stevenson)

“(Gibson) discerned but little difficulty in the way of organizing such a political union, over which Kalākaua would be the logical emperor, and the Premier of an almost boundless empire of Polynesian archipelagoes.” (Daggett; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 6, 1900)

“The first step once taken between the Hawaiian and Samoan groups, other Polynesian groups and, inclusively, Micronesian and Melanesian groups, might gradually be induced to enter into the new Polynesian confederation just as Lord Carnarvon gets colony after colony to adopt His Lordship’s British Federal Dominion policy.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 17, 1877)

As early as 1880, the American consul in Hawaiʻi had complained that Kalākaua was “inflamed by the idea of gathering all the cognate races of the Islands of the Pacific into the great Polynesian Confederacy, over which he will reign.”

On June 28, 1880, Kalākaua’s Premier Walter Murray Gibson, introduced a resolution in the legislature noting, “the Hawaiian Kingdom by its geographic position and political status is entitled to claim a Primacy in the family of Polynesian States …”

“The resolution concluded with an action “that a Royal Commissioner be appointed by His Majesty, to be styled a Royal Hawaiian Commissioner to the state and peoples of Polynesia …” (Kuykendall)

It passed unanimously and within six months Gibson became the head of a new ministry, as Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Although Kalākaua had been elected and serving as King since 1874, upon returning from a trip around the world, it was determined that Hawaiʻi’s King should also be properly crowned.

“It was through (Gibson’s) influence that the Hawaiian Legislature ceremonies of the occasion were impressively enacted in the presence of the representatives of the most of the great civilized powers and with the warships of many nations giving salutation to the event in the harbor of Honolulu.” (Daggett; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 6, 1900)

“ʻIolani Palace, the new building of that name, had been completed the previous year, and a large pavilion had been erected immediately in front of it for the celebration of the coronation. This was exclusively for the accommodation of the royal family; but there was adjacent thereto a sort of amphitheatre, capable of holding ten thousand persons, intended for the occupation of the people.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“On Monday, 12th February, the imposing ceremony of the Coronation of their Majesties the King and Queen of the Hawaiian Islands took place at ʻIolani Palace. … Like a mechanical transformation scene to take place at an appointed minute, so did the sun burst forth as the clock struck twelve, and immediately after their Majesties had been crowned.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 17, 1883)

Then, to set the stage for the assemblage of the Polynesian Confederacy, Gibson wrote a diplomatic protest that the legislature officially approved, condemning the predatory behavior of the Great Powers in the Pacific.

“Whereas His Hawaiian Majesty’s Government being informed that certain Sovereign and Colonial States propose to annex various islands and archipelagoes of Polynesia, does hereby solemnly protest against such projects of Annexation, as unjust to a simple and ignorant people, and subversive in their ease of those conditions for favourable national development which have been so happily accorded to the Hawaiian nation.” (Gibson Protest, August 23, 1883)

The protest evoked the goals of the Confederacy and justified Hawai‘i’s right to lodge such a protest based on its dual status as both a Polynesian state and part of the Euro/American community of Nations. (Cook)

Kalākaua’s vision of a Polynesian Confederacy reflected a complex and multi-dimensional understanding of both the identity of the Hawaiian people and how that identity connected and allied them with a broad array of other peoples and states across the globe.

It was a project that envisioned Hawai‘i as intimately connected to the Euro/American powers through the bonds of an international community built on the shared ideals of constitutional governments, formal diplomatic recognition, and the rule of law.

At the same time, it envisioned the nation as closely allied with other non-European peoples against the shared threat of the Euro/American empires. More specifically, however, it envisioned Hawai‘i as part of a Polynesian community whose members needed to rely upon one another in order to maintain both their independence and shared identity. (Cook)

John Bush, Hawaiʻi’s ambassador to Sāmoa, succeeded in negotiating Articles of Confederation, which the Hawaiian cabinet ratified in March 1887. Kalākaua sent the Kaimiloa to salute High Chief Malietoa Laupepa in Sāmoa. (However, a German warship there warned Kalākaua to stop meddling in Samoan affairs.) (Chappell)

Later, the Berlin Act (signed June 14, 1889,) between the US, Germany and Britain, established three-power joint rule over Sāmoa. This ultimately led to the creation of American Sāmoa.

Eventually, the confederacy attempts failed. It part, it is believed too many changes to existing systems were proposed, many of which were modeled after the Western way.

However, Kalākaua’s dream was partially fulfilled with later coalitions (although Hawaiʻi is not the lead.) In 1971, The Pacific Islands Forum, a political grouping of 16 independent and self-governing states, was founded (it was initially known as the South Pacific Forum, the name changed in 2000.)

Members include Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Sāmoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Later (2011,) eight independent or self-governing countries or territories in Polynesia formed an international governmental cooperation group, The Polynesian Leaders Group.

The eight founding members are: Sāmoa, Tonga and Tuvalu (three sovereign states;) the Cook Islands and Niue (two self-governing territories in free association with New Zealand;) American Sāmoa (an unincorporated territory of the United States;) Maʻohi Nui (French Polynesia) and Tokelau (a territory of New Zealand.)

Its members commit to working together to “seek a future for our Polynesian people and countries where cultures, traditions and values are honored and protected”, as well as many other common goals. (PLG Memorandum of Understanding, 2011)

February 3, 2025 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Two Wills, Two Outcomes

Prince Lunalilo was born on January 31, 1835 to High Chiefess Miriam ‘Auhea Kekauluohi (Kuhina Nui, or Premier of the Hawaiian Kingdom and niece of Kamehameha I) and High Chief Charles Kanaʻina.

Lunalilo’s grandparents were Kalaʻimamahu (half brother of Kamehameha I) and Kalākua (sister to Kaʻahumanu). His great grandfather was Keōuakupupailaninui (Keōua, father of Kamehameha I.)

Lunalilo was educated at the Chiefs’ Children’s School, and at age four, became one of its first students. He was known as a scholar, a poet and a student with amazing memory for detail.

From a very young age, he loved to write with favorite subjects in school being literature and music. He composed Hawai’i’s first national anthem, E Ola Ke Ali`i Akua, or God Save the King.

He also developed a sense of justice and love for people. These traits were recognized by the age of six in the unselfish and caring manner in which he interacted with his servants.

As a young man, he was courteous and intelligent, generous and friendly. His close friends affectionately called him “Prince Bill”. His native people called him ”Lokomaikaʻi”, meaning “generous or benevolent”.

When Lunalilo died on February 3, 1874, while he was king, he was the first of the large landholding aliʻi to create a charitable trust for the benefit of his people.

His estate included large landholdings on the five major islands, consisting of 33-ahupuaʻa, nine ʻili and more than a dozen home lots. His will, written in 1871, established a perpetual trust under the administration of three trustees to be appointed by the justices of the Hawaiian Supreme Court.

The purpose of the trust was to build a home to accommodate the poor, destitute and infirm people of Hawaiian (aboriginal) blood or extraction, with preference given to older people. The will charged the Trustees to sell all of the estate’s land to build and maintain the home.

His will states “all of the real estate of which I may die seized and possessed to three persons … to be held by them in trust for the following purposes, to wit …”

“… to sell and dispose of the said real estate to the best advantage at public or private sale and to invest the proceeds in some secure manner until the aggregate sum shall amount to $25,000, or until the sum realized by the said trustees shall with donations or contributions from other sources, amount to the said sum of $25,000.” (District Court Records)

“The will leaves the testator’s real estate to his Trustees in trust to sell the same at public or private sale and invest the same till the amount realized from such sale or by additions from other sources shall be $25,000 …”

“… and then directs that they shall expend the whole amount in the purchase of land and in the erection of a building or buildings on the Island of Oahu for specified eleemosynary purposes.” (Supreme Court Records)

His will notes, “Then I order the trustees to exceed the whole amount in the purchase of land and in the erection of a building or buildings on the Island of Oʻahu, of iron, stone, brick or other fireproof material, for the use and accommodation of poor, destitute and infirm people of Hawaiian blood or extraction, giving preference to old people.” (District Court Records)

According to the instructions in the will, the Estate trustees sold the land, built Lunalilo Home and invested the remaining proceeds in mortgages, securities and government bonds.

Unfortunately, those investments went sour, and today the Lunalilo estate has limited assets, other than Lunalilo Home in Hawaiʻi Kai and the land under it, and the trust must constantly raise funds to maintain the operation of the home. (Byrd)

Reportedly, Lunalilo left an estate even larger than the one left by Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, founder of Kamehameha Schools. However, the outcome of her estate has had a different ending.

High Chief Abner Pākī and his wife High Chiefess Laura Kōnia (Kamehameha III’s niece) had one child, a daughter, Bernice Pauahi Pākī (born December 19, 1831.)

When her cousin, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani, died, Keʻelikōlani’s will stated that she “give and bequeath forever to my beloved younger sister (cousin), Bernice Pauahi Bishop, all of my property, the real property and personal property from Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi, all of said property to be hers (about 353,000 acres.)”

(Keʻelikōlani had previously inherited all of the substantial landholdings of the Kamehameha dynasty from her brother, Lot Kapuāiwa (King Kamehameha V.))

Pauahi died childless on October 16, 1884. Her will formed and funded the Kamehameha Schools; “I give, devise and bequeath all of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate real and personal … to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha Schools.”

Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s will (Clause 13) states her desire that her trustees “provide first and chiefly a good education in the common English branches, and also instruction in morals and in such useful knowledge as may tend to make good and industrious men and women”.

That same Clause gives the “trustees full power to make all such rules and regulations as they may deem necessary for the government of said schools and to regulate the admission of pupils, and the same to alter, amend and publish upon a vote of a majority of said trustees.”

She directed “that the teachers of said schools shall forever be persons of the Protestant religion, but I do not intend that the choice should be restricted to persons of any particular sect of Protestants.”

However, in order to support her vision, her will did not require her trustees to sell the land; rather, they can only sell “for the best interest” of the estate. Clause Seventeen notes, “I give unto the trustees … the most ample power to sell and dispose of any lands or other portion of my estate, and to exchange lands and otherwise dispose of the same … “

“I further direct that my said trustees shall not sell any real estate, cattle ranches, or other property, but to continue and manage the same, unless in their opinion a sale may be necessary for the establishment or maintenance of said schools, or for the best interest of my estate.”

Today, the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate has net assets of nearly $7-billion and annual operating revenue of $1.34-billion.

“Had Lunalilo directed its trustees, as Princess Pauahi Bishop did, to retain the land and sell it only as necessary to run the home for the aged, the Lunalilo Trust today would rival the Bishop Estate in its net asset value, and it would be able to assist many more than the approximately fifty elderly Hawaiians who now live in Lunalilo Home.” (Takabuki)

“Princess Pauahi was wise when she directed her trustees to retain the “ʻĀina,” her primary endowment, and sell it only when necessary for the Kamehameha Schools or the best interest of the trust. Real estate has been, and will continue to be, a sound, prudent, long-term investment.” (Takabuki)

This summary is intended to address one key differing statement in the respective wills. While each called for trustees selected by the Supreme Court (thereby not knowing who would eventually carry out its instruction,) Lunalilo instructed his trustees to sell his land; on the other hand, Pauahi gave her trustees that right, but only in the “best interest” of the trust.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Bernice_Pauahi_Bishop,_about_age_twenty-three-1854

Bernice_Pauahi_Bishop,_San_Francisco,_1875

Charles Reed Bishop and his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop in San Francisco in September 1876

Kamehameha School for Boys campus-(KSBE)-before 1900

Kamehameha School for Girls campus is the first to be completed on Kapälama Heights-(KSBE)-1931

Kamehameha_School_for_Girls-makai-Diamond Head corner of King and Kalihi Streets.(KSBE)

V2_5A Kamehameha Schools for Boys-(KSBE)-before 1900

Kamehameha_Schools_Land_Holdings-Google_Earth

February 2, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Metal Stick Operators – Beeper Pilots

“Much of the credit for the 17,000 Japanese planes shot out of the air or destroyed aground in the war can be given to realistic training afforded pilots, aircrewmen and [anti-aircraft] gunners firing at aerial targets – tow sleeves, banners and drones.”

“Intensive work to develop an aerial target that would approximate more closely firing on an aircraft in flight began at Naval Aircraft Factory in 1923.” (Naval Aviation News, Nov 1945)

“Drones were developed [in the 1920s]. First experiments with radio-control were in 1922 and the first successful take-off and flight was made with a VE-7 plane in 1924. … During the war smaller drones were used”.

The standard drone is … “a low wing Culver monoplane with 30-foot wingspan. It is a standard small plane adapted as a flying target and can fly three hours and another hour if provided with auxiliary fuel tank.” (Naval Aviation News, Nov 1945) The airframe was made with molded plywood. (Allnut, Military Aviation Museum)

Wheeler Army Airfield had the 17^th Tow Target Squadron that, as the name suggests, towed targets behind aircraft for aerial anti-aircraft gunnery training.

“The unit’s other responsibility involved training antiaircraft gunners on the ground, and for this they were also equipped with radio-controlled PQ-8 Red Foxes and later, with PQ-14 Cadets, along with specially modified Cessna UC-78 Bobcats which served as motherships to guide the PQ aircraft on their missions.”

“The PQ-14 and its slightly older and smaller sibling, the Culver PQ-8 Red Fox, played key roles in preparing the nation’s anti-aircraft gunnery crews (on both land and at sea) for the situations they might encounter in combat.”

“These diminutive, radio-controlled aircraft presented realistic, live targets for our trainee gunners to test their skills against. The men got to practice every aspect of how best to track, lead and shoot down incoming enemy aircraft.”

“Short of experiencing actual combat, this opportunity presented them with the most effective way of gaining such vital skills in their efforts to help win World War Two.” (Allnut, Military Aviation Museum)

“The PQ-8 and PQ-14 were flown remotely using the same principles which present day RC [Remote Control] hobbyists fly their model aircraft.”

“Each of the drone’s control surfaces (rudder, elevator, ailerons and trim tabs) was connected to its own servo motor, which input precise position adjustments responding to commands it received from the remote pilot (via the aircraft’s radio control receiver).”

“Similar servo motors were connected to the engine’s throttle, mixture and carburetor heat levers. The PQ-14 also had a relay for operating the retractable undercarriage as well, a feature which the fixed-gear PQ-8 obviously didn’t need.”

“Neither aircraft type had flaps, to reduce their complexity and weight, although it did mean that landing speeds were comparatively high (90-mph for PQ-14) relative to other aircraft of their size.”

“During a typical drone mission, a pilot on the ground would perform the takeoff, sitting atop a chair with a ‘Metal Stick’ controller in front of them to remotely operate the PQ’s controls.” (Allnut, Military Aviation Museum)

“Formally known as ‘Metal Stick Operators’, these pilots were colloquially referred to as ‘Beeper Pilots’ due to the sounds and flashing lights emanating from their control consoles.” These sounds and lights were confirmation that the system was in proper communication with the PQ drone.

Typically, the ground-bound Beeper Pilots were only involved in the PQ’s takeoff sequence, another Beeper Pilot aboard a mothership would then take over the drone’s flying controls.”

“Once the PQ was in the air, a separate remote operator, flying nearby in a mothership with their own ‘Metal Stick’ controller, would assume command of the aircraft and take it through its mission and, should it survive, back to base for a landing.”

“Those qualified to fly a PQ from its cockpit often had to take their turn serving as a safety pilot while other trainee Beepers tested their mettle from the mothership.”

“A ‘Beeper’s’ ultimate goal involved learning how to land the PQ remotely from the air without a safety pilot aboard the drone, a feat referred to colloquially in some quarters by the term ‘nullo.’ With a nullo under their belt, and a little more practice, trainee Beepers would soon become qualified to fly actual gunnery missions with the PQ.” (Allnut, Military Aviation Museum)

“These pilots could control the plane as effectively as if they were sitting in the cockpit and could perform a satisfactory imitation of even the hottest enemy fighter planes during target training for gunners and pilots.” (Experimental Aircraft Assn)

WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) were involved in the drone operations, as noted in a letter from Betty Jane Deuser, who spent several months learning how to fly the PQ-8, both from the cockpit and remotely. She was based at Liberty Field in Hinesville, Georgia.

“‘The radio control operations is secret, but seeing as how they publicize the torpedo angle, it’s OK to say a little about it I guess. There’s a unit in the PQ [Culver PQ-14 Cadet airplane] which works by radio signals. We’re practicing flying the PQ with this unit now, and will go on to flying the PQ from the C-78, using the same method.’”

“‘To begin with, the PQ has a safety pilot in it; in case the ‘beeper’ gets the ship doing maneuvers that aren’t cricket. Then the safety pilot takes over and flies the PQ.’”

“‘But that’s just for practice. When we get good enuf at landing the PQ without busting it up, then we can do PQ missions – flying the PQ from the C-78 up over the anti aircraft artillery range, where they try to shoot it down. It’s better practice for the AA [Anti-Aircraft] to use real planes instead of just target sleeves…’” (Betty Jane Deuser, October 19, 1943 in letter home)

February 1, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Oregon Ducks

Before Oregon was the 33rd state admitted to the United States in 1859, it was known as the Oregon Territory, and before that, the Oregon Country. On February 14, 1859, Congress granted Oregon statehood.

Edwin Battistella, a professor of English at Southern Oregon University says the name Oregon dates back to a written record of at least 1765, credited to a British soldier named Major Robert Rogers.

“He was a colonial soldier in 1765 who wrote up a proposal to King George III to fund an expedition to find the northwest passage by way of the river the Indians call Ouragon,” Battistella said. King George III denied that request. “For now, we can safely say that the name originated from Major Robert Rogers’ rendering of a Native word for the water route to the Pacific.” (KGW)

The origin is unknown. It may have come from the French word Ouragan (which means Hurricane) and was a former name of the Columbia River.

Other say the word “Oregon” is derived from a Shoshoni Indian expression meaning, The River of the West, originating from the two Shoshoni words “Ogwa,” River and “Pe-on,” West, or “Ogwa Pe-on.” (Rees) That river as we know it today is the Columbia River.

In the word “Ogwa” the syllable “Og” means undulations and is the basis of such words as “river,” “snake,” “salmon,” or anything having a wavy motion. The sound “Pah” means water. Therefore, a river is undulating water. “Pe-on” is contracted from the two syllables, “Pe-ah,” big and “Pah,” water or Big Water meaning the Pacific Ocean. (Rees)

The use of the word webfoot associated with Oregon has a long history. Webfoot was first used by Californians to express their satirical dislike of the Oregonian and his rainy county and was brought to Oregon by California miners settling in or traveling through the territory during the various gold rushes of the late 1850s into the Pacific Northwest.

“In fact, it seems quite probable that webfoot began as a derisive epithet in California during the gold rush of 1848-1849. The Oregonians were among the first to reach the California gold fields, were not beloved by the Californians.”

“The first discovered printed usage in California pf the word webfoot in the sense of Oregon or Oregonian is in the San Francico Sun on May 19, 1853. The writer of the item requested that ‘if you have any web-foot friends bound this way, dissuade them from putting in here, as nothing in the way of supplies can be obtained but water.’” (Mills)

In describing a coming football game between the University of Oregon and Pacific University, the Eugene Guard noted, “The grounds will be somewhat muddy tomorrow, but that never stops an enthusiastic football player. In fact Webfoot boys would rather play on a muddy field than one that is dry and solid.” (Eugene Guard, Nov 28, 1894)

Webfoot caught on and ‘Webfoot State’ became a nickname for the State of Oregon. When the University of Oregon began searching for an athletic nickname in the late 1800s, the name “Webfoots” was the obvious choice. (White) By 1907 statewide sentiment had turned sour toward the term Webfoot, and the 1907 yearbook would adopt the name “The Beaver”.

Through the first two decades of the 20th century, there remained no officially sanctioned mascot for the university. Even as the use of mascots became commonplace at universities around the country, the Oregon teams that went to the Rose Bowl twice in four years after the 1916 and 1919 seasons traveled to Pasadena without one of their own to cheer them on. (University of Oregon)

The word “Web-foot” made its reappearance in print in January 1922 thanks to Oregon Daily Emerald reporter Ep Hoyt, who bestowed the name upon the Oregon Agricultural College football team during its postseason tour of Hawai‘i. (Oregon Alumni)

Oregon’s football team played two games in Hawai‘i – the Star Bulletin stated in a headline, “Webfooters Shut Out Pearl Harbor Navy Team”. The accompanying articles stated, “The Navy put up a good brand of football but the webfooters put up a brand that was better.” (Star Bulletin, Jan 3, 1922) Final score 35 to 0.

The Oregon Webfoots previously beat the University of Hawai‘i 47 to 0. Otto Klum was the new football coach at University of Hawai‘i that year – he had arrived from Portland a couple months before the Oregon game. (Oregonian, Sept 10, 1921)

Later that year, an Emerald editorial argued for the necessity of adopting a team name for University of Oregon sports teams and solicited names from readers.

Professor WG Thatcher argued in favor of Pioneers, while other suggestions included Condors, Eagles, Hawks, Vultures, Bulls, Wild Cats, and Fighting Drakes. Another professor, Jim Gilbert, favored Skinners in tribute to the founder of Eugene. (University of Oregon)

The Chamber of Commerce later stepped in and noted, “Oregon’s misnomer, ‘Webfoot State’ will be discarded”, stating, “that the term ‘webfoot state’ is poor advertising for the state, leading many eastern people to believe that Oregon is a swampy country, deluged by rain winter and summer.” (The Bulletin, Nov 17, 1923)

The debate surrounding the adoption of an official mascot raged for five years from 1922 to 1926. On November 6, 1926, the Eugene Guard and Oregon Daily Emerald jointly announced a new naming contest for the University of Oregon’s sports teams.

Webfoots and Ducks were viewed as “inadequate names” that impute “the harmlessness of doves” on the school’s squads. But the newspaper contest did not end the debate. It wouldn’t be until 1932 that students and alumni voted to confirm Webfoots as the official school mascot. (University of Oregon)

Even after Webfoots was officially adopted by the school in 1926, according to Douglas Card in “The Webfooted Ducks,” “Sportswriters gradually shortened the moniker to Ducks.” (Caputo)

Oregon’s first live mascot had surfaced in the 1920s when “Puddles,” a resident duck of the nearby Millrace, was escorted to football and basketball games by his fraternity-house neighbors.

Puddles and his various offspring were part of the Duck sports scene until the early 1940s when repeated complaints from the Humane Society finally sucked the fun out of bringing a live duck to games. (University of Oregon)

However, Puddles’ memory was preserved in 1947 when Oregon’s first athletic director, Leo Harris, struck a handshake arrangement with Walt Disney. Donald Duck’s likeness could serve as the mascot, as long as it was done in good taste.

The unique deal stood for 20 years, with Walt Disney Productions providing several versions of the duck for Oregon’s use, until the cartoonist’s death in 1966. That’s when both parties realized no formal contract existed granting the University the right to Donald’s image. (University of Oregon) They later formalized the association.

Another Hawai‘i connection, at least for me … when we were kids, our family hosted a couple of the Oregon Duck women’s swim team, when they came to the Islands for UH swim meets.

January 31, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Martin Pence

“It has always been my theory that naturally, ‘As the Twig is bent, so the tree is inclined,’ but in nearly every person’s life, if they’ve lived a full life and moved around and changed, that it’s divided up into the childhood and whatever those influences were–and that includes the education they got.”

“And then, all of a sudden, school is all finished and that was just preparation. And the next thing is–what do you do with what you have? What do you do with what you are?”

“And from there on, the developments which take place may come from you, but oh, how they’re influenced by the slings and arrows of outrageous and wonderful fortune. And luck, luck, luck – if you don’t have that, no matter how good you are, you can go down into failure.”

“On the other hand, as Iacocca showed, if you have the luck with you, all of a sudden you’re the greatest person in the world.”

“But you must have, as you know – you’ve seen it in your own life – you must have the ability to be able to utilize whatever your capacities are and to help that luck.”

“The tide taken at full, and so forth, you can go out to sea and your ship goes right ahead. So that you have to have all of the aspects; ability, integrity and luck in order to succeed in any area.” (Martin Pence; Watumull Foundation)

“My father was a farmer in Kansas. His father came from Indiana in the 1860s to Kansas to homestead 160 acres. At that time a person who had 160 acres could live and raise a family on it”.

“I remember reading, ‘If you only go through high school, your increased pay will be so much, and if you go through college, you’ll be able to earn so much more.’ Imagine. I remember seeing that tacked up in the old post office in the little old town of Sterling, Kansas – population then 2,000; population today 2,200.”

As a young farm boy in Kansas Martin Pence decided he would be an attorney. “I always went down that road. And then – so through with school – take the bar in 1928 in California – passed the bar and I’m a lawyer.” He started working in San Francisco.

“And just because luck – I had a friend in one of the insurance company’s claims departments that the Home Insurance Company reinsured their insurance through, and he calls me up there in June, 1930 and says, ‘Do you want to go to Hawaii?’ And I said, ‘Oh sure, when do we start?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘seriously, the president of this company’s down looking for someone. Come on over and meet him.’”

“About three weeks later, my friend there called me up and said that Clark wanted to see me again. This time he said, ‘I’ve interviewed fifty-four other persons, and here I make you this offer.’ Well, this offer was $225 a month plus a one-year contract and a round trip ticket to Hawaii.”

“[T]hat was an offer you couldn’t refuse … I hesitated though … because in San Francisco I had a lot of contacts. But then what’s a year in the life of a young man aged twenty-five? So I accepted.”

“I got off the Malolo (August 6, 1930) and we were going out this old road … I remember looking up at the greenery of these hills in August – there was something about the blue of the sky and the white fleecy clouds, the air and all – and saying, ‘I’m never going to leave here.’ And that was final. I knew that I was never going to leave here. So it came to pass.”

“It was during 1931 that I met my first wife. She was a student at the University of Hawaii. At that time I think she was a senior. I remember her well because the first time I met her I said, ‘This girl’s dangerous – she’s too damn marriageable.’”

“She was the one woman I knew who was smarter than I was. And she was. But we dated off and on for eight years. Lucy Elizabeth Powell. An only child. … I married Lucy [Lu] Elizabeth Powell, in 1938, November 19.”

“I found that I did have an aptitude for trial work and I found that a lot of people on the [Big] Island over there heard about me as a lawyer, but I wanted more exposure. The reason I went over there was because, very frankly, they had such wonderful hunting, one of the reasons.”

“But I wanted more exposure as a lawyer. So I decided in 1938 that I would run for office. I debated at first as to what office I would run for. House of Representatives? No, it would have to be county attorney because that was my field.”

“I won. … it paid $4,400 a year, but you were allowed to take private practice. And so one always has to have breaks and I got some breaks – publicity. I used to say my business was the Woolworth Five and Ten – meaning it was of the ordinary people with low income”.

“The people had problems. I had the knack that I could talk to any race, on any problem, and so forth, and they didn’t go broke when they came in to see me. And the result was that I steadily built up a practice of little people. That’s really what it was.”

Later, “Judge Metzger immediately told me that I ought to become the circuit judge of the Third Circuit over there. It paid, I think, about $9,000 a year and with private practice I was making more than that as county attorney. And I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be a circuit judge.”

“ I really didn’t feel that I wanted to become a circuit judge, but Metzger knew me and knew where to touch and he said, ‘Martin, you have to take it. It would make your father so proud.’ My father back there in Kansas, in his seventies, and I knew it would. So I said, ‘All right.’”

“[I]t came to pass that in October of 1945 I received a certificate from Washington, DC that said, ‘In view of and so forth, relying upon the honesty, et cetera, I have here appointed Martin Pence a United States Circuit Judge, Third Circuit, Territory of Hawaii.’ Now in one sense I was a United States circuit judge, but actually it should have been just simply circuit judge”.

Unfortunately, the pay of the circuit judge didn’t move an inch, $9,000. And as time went on I grew poorer and poorer because prices went higher and higher. At that time the appointment was for four years, but my four years came along and there was no action out of Washington, so I decided I was through.”

“So I wrote to the president saying that I wished to resign as soon as someone was appointed to take over. That was in March and I heard nothing, not even an answer back. So in April I wrote that I’m resigning on June 30, 1950. And so I resigned and went into private practice back in Hilo.”

“And then John Ushijima … came back from Georgetown and I took him in as an associate first, and eventually made him a partner. Then Roy Nakamoto came back from Harvard and I made him an associate because business was just booming all the time. I wound up with six secretaries instead of one or two”.

Then, “Hawaii had become a state … So it happened that on June 13, 1961, I got a call from Washington, DC, an attorney friend of mine there, saying, ‘Penny, your friend McLaughlin has just been notified this morning that he is not going to be appointed to be United States district judge.’”

“’He’s out. There are only three names now being considered by the Department of Justice; John Wiig; Bert Kobayashi, then attorney general of Hawaii; and Martin Pence.’”

“It wasn’t until the following March when I was at the school for judges at Monterey – the second school that they had for federal judges – now every year when a new batch of judges comes in they have a school for them- but that was the second time it was tried – educating you on the problems of handling federal cases the best way”.

“So I [became] a United States district judge. I had then to shift to Honolulu. Lu and I had built a house in 1955. It cost us a heck of a lot more than that first house and here it was 1961 and we had to give it up. We’d built it especially for us.”

“I hated to leave Hilo. I had twenty-five years – my roots – I could say in all sincerity that there was no one on the Island of any mature age who didn’t know me.”

Pence, “married [Eleanor Talcott Fisher, “Her mother had been a Wilcox, a niece of George Wilcox, famous of Kauai”] on April 12, 1975, not quite a year and a half after Lu died.”

Judge Pence was a hunter. “I loved, always having loved, still do love, not only sheep hunting, but bird hunting in the fall, and Parker Ranch had great areas over there”.

Several decades ago, I had the opportunity to go bird hunting with Judge Pence on Parker Ranch land in Kohala, with the Parker Ranch Business Manager. Martin Pence died May 29, 2000. (All here is from an oral history interview with Martin Pence through the Watumull Foundation.)