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June 25, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Free Health Care for Hawaiians?

In King Kamehameha IV’s initial speech to the legislature in 1854, the King voiced his desire to create a hospital for the people of Hawai’i. At that time, the continued existence of the Hawaiian race was seriously threatened by the influx of disease brought to the islands by foreign visitors.

Queen Emma enthusiastically supported the dream of a hospital, and the two campaigned tirelessly to make it a reality. They personally went door-to-door soliciting the necessary funding. The royal couple exceeded their goal in just over a month, raising $13,530. In turn, the Legislature appropriated $6,000. (Queen’s)

Hawaiians called the hospital and dispensary Hale Ma‘i o ka Wahine Ali‘i (literally, sick house of the lady chief,) or Hale Ma‘i for short. Opening day was August 1, 1859. (Greer)

“The Queen’s Hospital was founded in 1859 by their Majesties Kamehameha IV and his consort Emma Kaleleonalani. The hospital is organized as a corporation …”

“… and by the terms of its charter the board of trustees is composed of ten members elected by the society and ten members nominated by the Government ….” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 31, 1901)

“(A) number of persons, resident in Honolulu and other parts of the Kingdom have entered into a voluntary contribution, by subscription, for the purpose of creating a fund, for the erection and establishment of a Hospital at Honolulu, for the relief of indigent sick, and disabled people of the Hawaiian Kingdom, as well as of such foreigners, and others, as may desire to avail themselves of the same …”

The “subscribers … resolved that they should associate themselves together as a Body Politic and Corporate, for the purpose of carrying into effect the objects and intentions of the said subscribers …”

“…the following on behalf of the said subscribers were elected by ballot to act as Trustees, on behalf of the said subscribers, viz, BF Snow, SC Damon, SN Castle, CR Bishop, IW Austin, EO Hall, TJ Waterhouse, WA Aldrich, WL Green and H Hackfeld …”

“His Majesty then designated the following ten persons, Trustees, on behalf of the Government, viz, His Royal Highness Prince L (Lot) Kamehameha, David L Gregg, Wm Webster, GM Robertson, TC Heuck, John Ladd, James Bissen, HIH Holdsworth, AB Baker, L John Montgomery.” (Charter of the Queen’s Hospital)

The initial intent was “to establish a temporary Dispensary, with suitable Hospital accommodations at Honolulu, until the permanent Hospital, contemplated by this Charter, shall have been established, and for that purpose, to hire, and furnish, a suitable house premises …

“… also to purchase, or rent, or lease, a suitable site for, and provide for and proceed with the erection, furnishing, establishing and furthering into operation, a permanent Hospital at Honolulu, with a Dispensary, and all necessary furnishings and appurtenances …”

“… for the reception and accommodation, and treatment of indigent, sick, and disabled Hawaiians, as well as such foreigners, and others, who may choose to avail themselves of the same.” (Charter of the Queen’s Hospital)

While there was no specific provision in the hospital’s charter for free medical service to native Hawaiians, “all native Hawaiians have been cared for without charge, while for others a charge has been made of from $1 to $3 per day.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 31, 1901)

In part, the Hospital was funded with government funds (taxes and appropriations.) On May 13, 1859, the king approved an ‘Act to Aid in the Establishment of Hospitals for the Benefit of Sick and Disabled Hawaiian Seamen.’

It provided that each passenger arriving from a foreign port should pay a tax of $2.00 to the Collector of Customs for the support of such hospitals.

Additional revenue was expected from a tax on seamen sailing under the Hawaiian flag. The Civil Code of 1859 provided that: (1) ship owners or masters arriving from foreign ports should pay twenty-five cents a month for each seaman employed on board since the last entry at any Hawaiian port;

(2) masters of coasting vessels should pay, quarterly, twenty-five cents a month for each seaman employed. The tax was withheld from wages, and funds realized were retained as a ‘Marine Hospital Fund’ for the relief of sick and disabled Hawaiian seamen. (Greer)

However, when Hawai‘i became a US Territory, “‘There is a possibility that the legislative appropriation will be cut off after the first of the year,’ said George W Smith yesterday, ‘but even se we shall have funds enough to get along, although the hospital will be somewhat crippled.’”

“You see there is a provision in the United States Constitution that public property shall not be taken for private use, or that the people shall be taxed to support private institutions.”

“Under the Monarchy and the Republic $10,000 was annually appropriated for its support, but now that the Islands are a part of the United States this sum may be eliminated from the appropriation list.”

“We have already lost the $1 tax which was exacted from everyone who landed on the Islands, which amounted to something over $30,000 annually, and likewise the seamen’s tax, which netted us another $2,000 or more, so with this additional money lost we shall be out a considerable portion of our revenue.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 30, 1900)

“The Legislature at its last session made an appropriation for the Queen’s Hospital of $40,000, to be used in the next biennial period. This was in line with the previous policy of the Government in making appropriation for the hospital, similar appropriations being made at the same time to other like Institutions.”

“There was, however, one very peculiar incident in connection with the appropriation made for the Queen’s Hospital. In the past the sum of $20,000 had always been given to the hospital for the biennial period, and Governor Dole recommended that the Legislature make the usual appropriation.”

“Instead that body appropriated just double the amount asked, or $40,000. Attached to the bill, however, was a rider providing that no distinction should be made as to race in the care of patients at the hospital.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 31, 1901)

“Under the provisions of the Organic Act the Legislature has no power to give a subsidy to any institution and, under the construction likely to be placed by the Board of Health of the intentions of the Legislature, the Queen’s Hospital must be placed under the control of the Government before it may receive the appropriation of $40,000.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 31, 1901)

Today, the Queen’s Medical Center is a private, non-profit, acute medical care facility. It is the largest private hospital in Hawaiʻi, licensed to operate with 505 acute care beds and 28 sub-acute beds. The medical center has more than 3,000 employees and over 1,200 physicians on staff.

As the leading medical referral center in the Pacific Basin, Queen’s offers a comprehensive range of primary and specialized care services. (Queen’s)

Since its founding in 1859, The Queen’s Medical Center has strived “to fulfill the intent of Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV to provide in perpetuity quality health care services to improve the well-being of Native Hawaiians and all of the people of Hawai‘i.” (Queen’s) (The image shows the original Queen’s Hospital in 1860.)

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Queens Hospital-PP-40-9-014-1860

June 24, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kamā‘ule‘ule

Kamā‘ule‘ule was the son of Kekuamanoha, a chief of Maui, and was a younger brother of Kalanimōku (but it was rumored that he was the son of Kahekili.) His nickname, ‘Boki’ or ‘Poki,’ came from a variation on ‘Boss’ (it was also the name of a supernatural dog.)

Boki was appointed governor of O‘ahu and confirmed in his post by Kamehameha II. He married Liliha. Boki agreed to the breaking of the tabus in 1819 and accepted the Protestant missionaries arriving in 1820, although he had been baptized as a Catholic aboard the French vessel of Louis de Freycinet, along with Kalanimoku, the previous year.

High Chief Boki and his wife High Chiefess Liliha were among the ali‘i who accompanied King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamamalu to England in 1824.

Due to the sudden death of Kamehameha II from the measles, it was Boki who lead the Hawaiian delegation to meet with King George IV and receive the King’s assurances of British protection for Hawai‘i from foreign intrusion. (KSBE) Boki brought back an English gardener, John Wilkinson.

Wilkinson, a British agriculturist, obtained coffee seedlings from Brazil. These plants were brought to Oʻahu in 1825 board the HMS Blonde (the ship also brought back the bodies of Liholiho and Kamāmalu who had died in England) and planted on Boki’s property in Mānoa.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings from Hilo, the same stock as in Mānoa, and brought them to Kona. Henry Nicholas Greenwell grew and marketed coffee and is recognized for putting “Kona Coffee” on the world markets.

Boki also grew sugarcane on his Mānoa property, as well as operated a sizable sugar cane distillery, making rum.

The chiefs placed a kapu upon prostitution and “to suppress vice, such as drunkenness, debauchery, theft and the violation of the Sabbath” (Kuykendall) which had sprung up in the ports of Honolulu and Lahaina.

The rage of the sailors (supported in some cases by their officers, and having the countenance of at least one United States naval officer) was directed not so much against the native authorities as it was against the missionaries.

Riots and armed demonstrations occurred several times during the years 1825, 1826 and 1827. The development of a system or code of laws was hampered by a division of the chiefs into two factions which ran to extremes in opposite directions.

The larger and more powerful group favored and at times enforced a strict puritanical regime; the other favored a liberal regime which in this unstable community had an incorrigible tendency to run into license and disorder. Others favored a more relaxed approach. (Kuykendall)

Boki became resentful of the power of Ka‘ahumanu and her missionary advisors, and not surprisingly, allied himself with foreigners like Richard Charlton and John Percival, Captain of the first visiting American warship. Boki was also a protector of the French missionaries that began arriving in 1827.

Ka‘ahumanu and the council in May, 1827, charged Boki and Liliha with misconduct, intemperance, fornication and adultery, and had them fined. In return, Boki and Liliha objected to the laws passed at the end of the year and made no effort to enforce them. (Kelley)

“The foreigners, finding Boki friendly and obliging, proposed a more profitable way of making money, and both Boki and Manuia erected buildings for the sale of liquor, Boki’s called Polelewa and Manuia’s Hau‘eka.” Boki’s place was also called the Blonde Hotel. (Kamakau)

Boki stocked his bar with cheap, bad wine – a mixture of several kinds – from China, saying it was good enough for the sailors. But his usual ill luck or bad judgment dogged the enterprise. Hiram Bingham’s remark summed it up: “However lucrative Boki’s store and hotel might have been to his English clerks, they were probably losing concerns to himself.” (Greer)

“Since Liholiho’s sailing to England, lawlessness had been prohibited, but with these saloons and others opened by the foreigners doing business, the old vices appeared and in a form worse than ever.” (Kamakau)

At times the peace of the country was threatened by this division, as when Governor Boki of Oahu in 1829 seemed on the point of attempting to overthrow Ka‘ahumanu. (Kuykendall)

Boki incurred large debts and, in 1829, attempted to cover them by assembling a group of followers and set out for a newly discovered island with sandalwood in the New Hebrides. Boki fitted out two ships, the Kamehameha and the Becket, put on board some five hundred of his followers, and sailed south.

Just prior to Boki’s sailing in search of sandalwood, the lands of Kapunahou and Kukuluaeʻo were transferred to Hiram Bingham for the purpose of establishing a school, later to be known as Oʻahu College (now, Punahou School.)

These lands had first been given to Kameʻeiamoku, a faithful chief serving under Kamehameha, following Kamehameha’s conquest of Oʻahu in 1795. At Kameʻeiamoku’s death in 1802, the land transferred to his son Hoapili, who resided there from 1804 to 1811. Hoapili passed the property to his daughter Kuini Liliha (Boki’s wife.)

Sworn testimony before the Land Commission in 1849, and that body’s ultimate decision, noted that the “land was given by Governor Boki about the year 1829 to Hiram Bingham for the use of the Sandwich Islands Mission.”

The decision was made over the objection from Liliha; however, Hoapili confirmed the gift. It was considered to be a gift from Kaʻahumanu, Kuhina Nui or Queen Regent at that time.

Boki and two hundred and fifty of his men apparently died at sea.

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Na_Poki._and_his_wife_Liliha-1824

June 23, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

New Guinea

In 1602 the English colonist Bartholomew Gosnold arrived in the ship Concord, landed at Cuttyhunk Island, off Cape Cod, and laid claim to the entire region.

In 1652 English settlers from the Plymouth Colony acquired from Chief Massasoit control of 115,000 acres along the south coast of Massachusetts.

The colonial town government, organized in 1664, encompassed the present towns of Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, New Bedford, and Westport. The economy was agrarian – a few scattered villages that supported themselves by farming and fishing.

The merchant families who came to New Bedford from Nantucket in the 1760s brought not only their whaling expertise, but also the Quaker traditions that had sustained them on the island. These traditions profoundly influenced business dealings and social relations during the whaling era and afterwards.

In the mid-18th century Nantucket emerged as the world’s most vigorous whaling port in the colonies, with a substantial fleet dedicated exclusively to pelagic sperm and right whaling on distant grounds, and a highly developed network of merchants and mariners to prosecute the hunt.

By the 1840s, with its harbor no longer deep enough to handle newer, larger whaling ships, most of the vessels relocated to New Bedford, while most of the financiers and much of the money and good life stayed in Nantucket.

The whaling industry had a major effect upon Hawaiian commerce and trade. As the Northwest fur trade decreased and sandalwood supplies and values dropped, the whaling industry began to fill the economic void. The first New England Whalers came in 1819.

There were more than three hundred Nantucket whaling voyages to Hawaii and the Native Hawaiian crewmen aboard. Thousands of Hawaiians shipped out as seamen aboard the whaling ships, so many that the crews were often half Hawaiian.

Whaling had been “an economic force of awesome proportions in these Islands for more than forty years,” enabling King Kamehameha III to finally pay off the national debts accumulated in earlier years. (NPS)

Many of the Native Hawaiian seamen who joined the whalers were named George, Jack, Joe, or Tom Canacker, Kanaka, Mowee, or Woahoo. Their given names remain lost because of the common practice among whaling captains of giving them English nicknames and surnames.

As early as 1825, The Nantucket Inquirer estimated that there were more than fifty Pacific Islands on Nantucket, all employed on whale ships.

An 1834 editorial in the New Bedford Mercury defined “Canackers” for New England readers. “The term Canacker bears the same meaning as our English word man and is used by the natives to signify man, in general …”

“… and a man as distinguished from a woman or female. The present established mode of writing it is Kanaka, pronounced Kah nah kah, with the accent on the second syllable.” (Lebo)

By the 1830s, Nantucket whalers employed about fourteen hundred seamen, including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Four or five hundred men arrived or departed annually.

As far as residents of Nantucket were concerned, Kanaka meant ‘male Pacific Islander,’ for whaling ships brought only young men, ‘single mariners,’ halfway around the world.

As ‘black men,’ Pacific Islanders ashore on Nantucket lived in ‘New Guinea.’

New Guinea was the segregated section of Nantucket where blacks lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 18th century, a number of free blacks bought lots on the West Monomy shores, near the Old Mill.

Once known as Newtown, the area became known by 1820 as New Guinea, indicating the African roots of the property owners. (The label “New Guinea” was used in numerous cities and towns to designate the section in which people of color resided.) (MuseumOfAfroAmericanHistory)

The settlement, known as Guinea, or New Guinea, after the territory of the same name in West Africa, was a cluster of residences, gardens, and pastures physically separated from the white community by Newtown Gate, a sheep barrier at the end of Pleasant Street. There were stores, shops, churches, a school, and later on an abolition society. (Nantucket HA)

Among the residents of New Guinea in the 19th century, were at least three who had been born in Africa. One of them was James Ross. He had found his wife Mary Pompey on-island. Their children were, in order of birth: James Jr, Maria, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Eunice.

“In 1837 Maria Ross married William Whippey (identified as a ‘coloured’ man,) who was had been born in New Zealand in 1801, apparently the son of a Maori mother and one of the Nantucket whaling Whippeys.”

At least six sailor boarding houses operated during the 1820 to 1860 period when Native Hawaiian seamen frequented Nantucket. Together William and Maria ran a boarding house for Pacific Islanders on-shore from Nantucket whaling vessels.

That house, near Pleasant Street in Nantucket’s New Guinea section, primarily or exclusively boarded Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and a sign identified William Whippy’s establishment as the “William Whippy Canacka Boarding-House.”

After William’s death from tuberculosis in 1847, Maria kept the boarding house going for a while and then remarried. Widowed again, she went to work as a stewardess on the Island Home, a steamboat running between Nantucket and Hyannis. (lots of information here is from Lebo, Karttunen, Carr and Okihiro.)

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William Whippy Canacka Boarding-House-sign-NantucketHA

Nantucket-New Guinea-map-1834

June 22, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Morning Star

“The long looked for missionary ship was a thing of life and beauty, adorned with nearly her full complement of snow-white sails, and sitting so daintily upon the water.”

“’Beautiful,’ we exclaimed. ‘Nani,’ said our ninety native passengers, ‘nani loa,’ – ‘very beautiful!’ and so she was. With unmingled admiration we scanned her elegant proportions, her neatly turned stem, her graceful prow, her modest but significant figurehead, her perfect lines, her tall and beautiful tapering masts.” (Bond; Baker)

Many proudly proclaimed, “I owned shares in a ‘Morning Star.’”

Let’s look back …

In less than 30-years after the first missionaries landed in Hawai‘i, as the missionary spirit grew in the Hawaiian churches, the Hawaiian Missionary Society was formed.

This led the missionary fathers to the idea of exploring the islands to the west for the purpose of new mission work in Micronesia in partnership with the American Board.

In 1853, a mission south to the Marquesas Islands had been started. In carrying it on, it had been necessary to charter small and uncomfortable vessels at high prices to take out missionaries with their supplies and to send mail and delegates annually to encourage and look after them.

In Micronesia such a long time elapsed before the first mail arrived after the mission was established, that a missionary’s mother had been dead 2-years before he received the sad news.

At another station, where food was scarce and the variety limited, a missionary came so near starving that when a vessel arrived with supplies, he was so weak that he had to be carried on board the vessel and carefully nursed back to health.

Titus Coan proposed that the ABCFM ask children on the continent to take ten cent shares of joint ownership in such a missionary vessel, to be called ‘Day Star;’ his proposal of such to folks in Boston was approved, but with one change, the name to be ‘Morning Star.’

It was the first of five ‘Morning Stars.’

Those ‘Morning Stars’ were on missions to the South Pacific. The task of those men was outlined in Honolulu in 1870 at the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, where it was said, “Not with powder and balls and swords and cannons, but with the loving word of God and with His spirit do we go forth to conquer the islands for Christ.” (Nimitz; Baker)

On her first voyage to Micronesia (leaving Honolulu August 7, 1857) she had sailed about 10,000-miles, and her practical value for the work had been all that was expected. It was said that the little vessel had already performed a service that would warrant the whole expense of building her. (Baker)

By 1865, she had finally become so worn that they decided to sell her and build another vessel. In 1866 children were again asked to take stock in a new vessel. Enough was raised to build a new ship.

Like the first, the second ‘Morning Star’ was a hermaphrodite brig (square-rigged foremast and fore-and-aft mainmast.) She was built at East Boston, launched September 22, 1866; sailed from Boston under Captain Hiram Bingham, Jr, on November 13, 1866 and reached Honolulu March 15, 1867.

“Two thousand Hawaiian Sunday-school children marched to the wharf to see ‘their ship’; for three or four thousand out of one hundred and fifty thousand of her stockholders were Hawaiians.” (Bingham)

“It was on March 28, 1867, that the Star began her missionary work in the Pacific, still sailing under command of Captain Bingham. The plan for her yearly trip is to go from Honolulu first to the Gilbert Islands, although they are the southernmost group, lying directly under the equator.”

“This is in order to take advantage of prevailing winds and currents. Then she sails northwest nearly a thousand miles to Ponape, taking the other mission islands on the way.” (Bingham)

After only three years of service, unfortunately one evening the ‘Morning Star’ left Kusaie for Honolulu, but drifted dangerously near the island. Boats were lowered to tow, but she had to be anchored and held, when a severe squall struck her.

She tried to sail out of danger, but failed and struck the rocky reef in a heavy surf. The missionaries and all on board, with some of their possessions, were saved in a boat; the ‘Morning Star’ was wrecked. After waiting a month, the missionaries reached Honolulu on February 8, 1870, in a chance vessel which came along.

The children were called upon, and, again, responded and with insurance, a third ‘Morning Star’ (of similar design to the second ‘Morning Star’) was started. “(I)n the summer of 1871, a third ‘Morning Star’ dawned on the waiting isles.” (Bingham)

For the 10th annual trip, the captain noted, “The whole distance sailed during the voyage is 15,783 miles. Number of passengers carried, 243. The number of islands sighted is 48, at 27 of which we stopped one or more times.”

“We entered 16 lagoons, anchored 43 times, and spent 147 hours standing off and on. We laid at anchor 79 days, and boated 568 miles. We had 1,546 miles of adverse currents, and 989 hours of calm.” (Bray; Missionary Herald)

Unfortunately, on February 22, 1884, the third ‘Morning Star’ was wrecked on Kusaie, about 6-miles from where the second ‘Morning Star’ was lost.

Already planned for replacement, a fundraising campaign was already underway for a fourth ‘Morning Star’. As with the others, it was successful and the Board felt justified in building at once, and the contract was made at Bath, Maine. Thus they began to build the same month that the third ‘Morning Star’ was wrecked.

The fourth ‘Morning Star,’ was a barkentine (foremast only being square-rigged, main and mizzenmasts fore-and-aft rigs but carrying no topsails so far as pictures show). She had a hollow iron mainmast for a smokestack, for auxiliary steam-power for use in calms and strong currents and in entering lagoons.

She had comfortable cabins, staterooms, etc., between the main-deck and a hurricane-deck, and three water-tight compartments below, the center compartment having the engine boilers and coal-bunkers. Upon the substantial hurricane-deck all the working of the ship was done, and it provided a promenade of nearly a hundred feet.

She sailed on her first missionary voyage to Micronesia on May 2, 1885, and reached one of the Gilbert Islands in just three weeks. However, on January 26, 1886:

“… late in the afternoon, we ran upon a small coral reef in Ponape lagoon, where we remained upwards of forty hours. I need not say we heartily rejoiced when we were afloat again, damaged only by a small leakage.” (Wetmore; Baker)

The fourth ‘Morning Star’ “served long and well until 1900,” when she was sold for the ‘carrying trade’ between San Francisco and Cape Nome, Alaska. There was a break until 1904, when it was decided to build a fifth ‘Morning Star’.

This fifth and last ‘Morning Star’ (a steamer,) after being inspected at Boston by many shareholders, was dedicated and farewell services held on board on June 4, 1904.

Dr Hiram Bingham (II,) who had sailed to Micronesia on the first ‘Morning Star’ in 1856, and whose father, Hiram Bingham, Sr, had then been present and prayed at the time of departure, was present and offered the prayer of dedication.

However, it became cost prohibitive to maintain the ship and a decision was made in 1905 to sell her. Thus ended a half century of missionary ‘Morning Stars,’ 1856 to 1905. (Lots of information and images here are from Baker and Bingham.)

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Morning Star-launch-1

Morning Star-1

Morning Star_1

Welcome of the Morning Star-1

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Morning Star 4

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Map of Eastern Micronesia-Bingham

Certificate for the Children’s Morning Star

Certificate for the Morning Star

Certificate for the missionary packet, Morning Star

June 21, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Chinese Wo Hing Society Temple and Cookhouse

Some suggest Captain James Cook’s crew gave information about the “Sandwich Islands” when they stopped in Macao in December 1779, near the end of the third voyage.

In 1788, British Captain John Meares commanded two vessels, the Iphigenia and the Felice, with crews of Europeans and 50-Chinese. Shortly thereafter, in 1790, the American schooner Eleanora, with Simon Metcalf as master, reached Maui from Macao using a crew of 10-Americans and 45-Chinese. (Nordyke & Lee)

Crewmen from China were employed as cooks, carpenters and artisans, and Chinese businessmen sailed as passengers to America. Some of these men disembarked in Hawai’i and remained as new settlers.

The growth of the Sandalwood trade with the Chinese market (where mainland merchants brought cotton, cloth and other goods for trade with the Hawaiians for their sandalwood – who would then trade the sandalwood in China) opened the eyes and doors to Hawaiʻi.

The Chinese referred to Hawaiʻi as “Tan Heung Shan” – “The Sandalwood Mountains.” The sandalwood trade lasted for nearly half a century – 1792 to 1843. (Nordyke & Lee)

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America. The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

“These Chinese were taken to the plantations. There they lived in grass houses or unpainted wooden buildings with dirt floors. Sometimes as many as forty men were put into one room.”

“They slept on wooden boards about two feet wide and about three feet from the floor. … (T)hey cut the sugarcane and hauled it on their backs to ox drawn carts which took the cane to the mill to be made into sugar” (Young – Nordyke & Lee)

The sugar industry grew, so did the Chinese population in Hawaiʻi. Between 1852 and 1884, the population of Chinese in Hawai’i increased from 364 to 18,254, to become almost a quarter of the population of the Kingdom (almost 30% of them were living in Honolulu.) (Young – Nordyke & Lee)

During the years 1852-1898, many thousands of Chinese came to Maui to work on sugar plantations and in sugar mills. Chinatown in Lahaina began as one-story shops and housing on Front Street, and as more Chinese were attracted to the area, two-story wooden buildings were built to accommodate them.

Between 1869 and 1910 over thirty secret societies that have their roots in seventeenth century China were established in the Islands, six on Maui. These secret societies were formed to politically re-establish the deposed Ming dynasty.

The societies in Hawai‘i were not significantly interested in the political aspects of the parent societies. However, these societies made financial contributions to the 1911 Chinese revolution conducted by Sun Yat-Sen.

These local clubs were mutual aid societies which met social and recreational needs of its members providing funeral services and burial, protective services and made contributions to their members.

The Wo Hing Society – Wo, meaning “peace and harmony” and Hing, meaning “prosperity” – a branch of the Chee Kung Tong in Lahaina was incorporated in 1905 and the original structure repaired in 1906. “The extensive improvements at the Wo Hing Society House will be completed in season for the Chinese New Year’s festivities.” (Maui News, December 23, 1905)

The Society was an important aspect of cultural and social life for its immigrant Chinese members. Since many of the early Chinese immigrants were single men the society provided a fraternal structure which was a substitute for the absent family.

The Chinese Tong Society was a club opened to men sixteen to sixty. An initiation fee was paid and members participated in rigorous initiation rites and took an oath based on thirty-six codes of morality, brotherhood, patriotism and chivalry. Members could be identified by special gestures, secret chopstick maneuvers and passwords.

The members would meet to exchange news of China with people from other island , and read, or have read to them Chinese newspapers. The festivals and celebrations have included the Kuan Ti festival , to celebrate the god, the New Year festival to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the Ching Ming in April , when offerings were made to ancestral graves.

In 1912, using private donations, the society built a two-story temple on Front Street; the society provided social contacts, support in times of crisis, and housing for retired workers. It is believed that the present building replaced the older structure.

Upstairs is a temple with an altar for religious ceremonies, downstairs was the social hall and adjacent was the cookhouse. It served the growing Chinese population centered in Lahaina.

By the 1940s the declining Chinese population in Lahaina slowly made the building redundant and the property was neglected. In 1983, Lahaina Restoration Foundation took steps to restore this valuable site for Lahaina.

Under a long-term agreement with the Wo Hing Society, the foundation provided funds to bring the buildings back to life and maintain them as a museum. (Lots of information here is from Lahaina Restoration Foundation and National Park.)

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