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July 25, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Japan’s Hawaiian Protest

Sugar growers, who dominated the Hawaiian Islands’ economy, imported thousands of immigrant laborers first from China, then Japan. (Mintz & McNeil)

“Although the efforts of Hawai‘i to establish treaty relations with Japan met with success in 1871, no considerable number of Japanese immigrants arrived during the years immediately following. Primarily to offset the numerical preponderance of the Chinese plantation laborers, the Hawaiian Government signed an immigration convention with Japan in 1886.”

“With startling rapidity the islands were flooded with Japanese, whose numbers increased from 116 in 1883 to 24,407 in 1896, out of a total population of 109,020.” (Bailey)

“The great influx of Japanese into the Hawaiian Islands during the last several years and especially during the last few months is causing anxiety to the Hawaiian government and to Americans who favor the annexation of the islands to the United States.”

“According to the recent reports of Consul-General Ellis Mills, the Japanese rank second in numerical strength among the nations represented in the Hawaiian Islands.” (The Chautauquan, 1897)

“Faced with the prospect of domination at the hands of a foreign people, the Hawaiian government began as early as 1887 to take fruitless measures to stem this oriental inundation.”

“The situation finally became so desperate that her Hawaiian officials, alleging irregularities, refused admittance to 1,174 Japanese immigrants during March, 1897, and sent them back to Japan.” (Bailey)

“This threatened monopolization of power by the Japanese has been urged during the McKinley administration as a plea for the annexation of the islands by the United States. However, no occasion for special alarm occurred till early in April.” (The Chautauquan, 1897)

At the time, the Republic of Hawai‘i and the US were in discussions for annexation of the Islands by the US. Japan protested Hawaiian annexation.

“Japanese minister, Toru Hoshi, calls the attention of Secretary Sherman to the rumor that the governments of the United States and of Hawai‘i were upon the point of concluding a treaty of annexation, a rumor the circumstantiality of which had caused it to be the subject for an interview between them before the note was sent to the secretary.”

“In the note itself the minister stated that the Japanese government could not view without concern the prospects of a sudden and complete change in the status of Hawai‘i, whereby the rights of Japan and of Japanese subjects may be imperiled, and that while they confidently relied upon the United States to maintain towards them a just and friendly attitude …”

“… they felt that under the circumstances they could not be regarded as spectators merely, without interest in the important change which was about to be made. For these reasons the minister said he felt himself justified in inquiring of the secretary what provision had been made for the preservation and maintenance of the rights acquired by Japan under treaty.” (Los Angeles Herald, July 25, 1897)

At the time, the “Japanese in the islands with large property rights, and under the present conditions they are entitled to become citizens of Hawai‘i.”

“In case of annexation these Japanese could not become citizens of the United States, as the decisions of United States Circuit Courts are to the effect that no Asiatic can become a citizen of the United, States.”

“The Japanese base their opposition to annexation almost entirely upon the ground that it is an interference with the treaty rights of Japan and complain especially that the treaty was negotiated in the face of the most friendly protestations from Japan and at a time when the Japanese authorities had been led to believe that no such treaty would be undertaken.”

“The Japanese insist, as on all former occasions, that the Japanese Government has not now and never has had any designs against Hawai‘i. This they consider a most important point because of the talk about colonization which they say apparently has had so much weight in the discussions of the question.”

“They contend that the Japanese just went to Hawai‘i in response to the demands for labor in the islands under provision of a treaty concluded in 1886 at the solicitation of the Hawaiian Government.” (New York Times, June 27, 1897)

“Hawaiians in Washington insist that the reason for the protest of Japan against annexation is that Japan really desires to acquire the Islands herself.” (New York Times, June 25, 1897)

“The evident intention of Japan to take possession of the islands has caused some uneasiness in Washington among those who favor annexation, and it is said that prompt action should be taken by this Government to prevent such a calamity.”

“It is now known here that, notwithstanding the demands at the time concerning the reason of the Philadelphia’s hurried trip to Honolulu …”

“… that ship was really ordered there on account of news received from the American representative there calling attention to the floods of Japanese pouring into the country and the evident intention of the Japanese to overwhelm the other people there, both native and foreign.” (Sacramento Daily News, April 13, 1897)

“The Japanese assert that Hawai‘i took no steps to restrict immigration from Japan until last February, when a sudden and suspicious demand was made upon Japan to this end. This, it is claimed, is evidence sufficient that there is no flooding of the Island.”

“The Japanese regarded this demand from the island Government as capricious and concluded that it was made for increasing the agitation in the interest of annexation, and to furnish a pretext for speedy action in that direction.”

“In view of these explanations on their part to the United States, the Japanese complain of the suddenness of the announcement of the Hawaiian treaty of annexation, and say the treaty was consummated when they had reason from official assurances for believing that no hasty action in that direction was contemplated.” (New York Times, June 27, 1897)

US Secretary of State John Sherman relied to the Japanese protests saying, “What the Hawaiian treaty of annexation proposes is the extension of the treaties of the United States to the incorporated territory to replace the necessarily extinguished Hawaiian treaties in order that the guarantees of treaty rights to all may be unquestionable and continuous.”

“To this end the termination of the existing treaties of Hawai‘i is recited as a condition precedent. The treaty of annexation does not abrogate these instruments. It is the fact of the Hawai‘i’s ceasing to exist as an independent contract that extinguishes those contracts.”

“As to the vested rights, if any be established in favor of Japan and of Japanese subjects in Hawai‘i, the case is different, and I repeat that ‘there is nothing in the proposed treaty prejudicial to the rights of Japan.’”

“Treaties are terminable in a variety of ways; that of 1886, between Japan and Hawai‘i, to which your protest is supposed to relate, is by either party on six months’ notice, but its extension would no more extinguish vested rights, previously acquired under Its stipulations, than the repeal of a municipal law affects rights of property vested under its provisions.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 14, 1897)

“This reply of Secretary Sherman was not satisfactory to the Japanese government, for in three days thereafter the minister having communicated with the Japanese minister for foreign affairs In the meantime, he laid before the secretary his formal protest against the annexation of the islands.”

“The protest concluded with an emphatic and unequivocal repudiation of the suggestion or report that Japan had designs against the integrity or sovereignty of Hawai‘i and a declaration that Japan has not now and never had such designs or designs of any kind whatever against Hawai‘i.”

“In this shape the incident remains for the present. It is scarcely conceivable that the protest of Japan can have any appreciable effect upon the fate of the treaty.” (Los Angeles Herald, July 25, 1897)

With the country aroused by the Spanish American War and political leaders fearful that the Islands might be annexed by Japan, the joint resolution easily passed Congress. Hawai‘i officially became a US territory in 1900. (Mintz & McNeil)

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Uncle Sam Hawaii Annexation Cartoon

Uncle Sam Annexation Cartoon

Japanese Ambition

July 24, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Steiner

Born in Mirschikau, Pilsen, Bohemia (Czechoslovakia) July 24, 1860, James Steiner received business training at Frankfort-on-the-Main and moved to the United States in 1881.

“(Steiner) first worked as a bell hop or a waiter someplace in Missouri, someplace in St. Louis, Missouri. Then he met a man that spoke German, like himself, and this man whose name I do not recall since it was not given to me, suggested that he, my father, come out to Hawai‘i and find a place for himself. That’s how he got here.”

“(M)y father came down here (in 1882) and he worked for a restaurant up on Hotel Street just on the ‘Ewa side of the old YMCA. The owner of that restaurant was a Lionel Hart and the restaurant was known as Hart’s Restaurant.”

“It was in this restaurant that my father worked as a waiter and later on he was taken in by Mr. Lionel Hart as a partner. There was one of my brothers named Lionel after this said Lionel Hart. At a later time, the family established a home close to that restaurant.”

“(I)t was there, on that corner or that area there bounded by Adams Lane, Bishop Street, and Hotel Street that ice cream was made here commercially. He was the first one that sold ice cream here commercially.” (Ernest Steiner, Oral History)

A February 15, 1887 ‘Notice’ in the newspaper noted a co-partnership had been formed (Hart & Steiner) and they carried on the Elite Ice Cream Parlors in Honolulu, manufacturing ice cream, Cakes, Candles, Curios and other incidentals. (Daily Bulletin, February 15, 1887)

Steiner was known all over the islands as the “Ice Cream and Candy King.” (Nellist)

“Over a thousand guests recepted the generous hospitality of Hart Co last evening in participating in the opening of their beautiful and handsome ice cream parlors in the Elite building”

“There are very few parlors in the United States that will rival the Elite parlors in beauty refinement of taste or excellence in appointment.” (Independent, November 1, 1900)

“He decided to give up the restaurant business and then he established another business right in that area there and it was known as the Island Curio Company.” (Ernest Steiner, Oral History)

The Island Curio Company was a major producer of postcards. Whether or not the subjects depicted on postcards had originally posed for the photographs that were sources for the cards, once imaged on postcards, these subjects became mass commodities in a visual economy of images that linked Hawai‘i with America and Europe.

From mass production and sale in Hawai‘i, the postcards became individual or private objects for the purchasers and the ultimate recipients. (UH)

They sold more than postcards … “Next to the Bishop Museum, the greatest and best Polynesian collection, is that of the Island Curio Company with its headquarters on Hotel Street, Honolulu … (and) for nearly half a century has been stacking up these native curios from almost every part of the island.” (Mid-Pacific Magazine)

In 1889, Steiner and Rosa Schwarz (from Czechoslovakia) were married in Hawai‘i. They had a family of four boys and one girl .

Steiner pioneered in the purchase and improvement of beach lots at a time when Waikiki was considered too far from the center of Honolulu and only served as a week-end, outing and bathing resort, and selected his property with good judgment and vision for the future. (Nellist)

“(T)hey moved to Waikiki in about 1899. The area there where they moved was on Kalākaua Avenue, just on the ‘Ewa side of what is now known as Kuhio Beach.”

“I don’t think there were any, there was very few other people in the area. There was one prominent Hawaiian family there that lived, oh, within eighty or ninety feet from our place. That was the William Kanakanui family. Mr. Kanakanui was a surveyor and engineer working for the Territory.” (Ernest Steiner, Oral History)

Steiner named his Waikiki home Kaiona “the native word for English ‘mermaid’ and German ‘lorelei,’ the suggestion having come from CL Hopkins, Hawaiian court interpreter.”

“Colonial in style, modified to suit the tropical climate, the house interior contains many innovations in the building craft. Ripley, Reynolds & Davis are the architects, while the Pacific Engineering Co., Ltd., is the builder.” (Star-Bulletin, August 10, 1912) It later became the Halekai Officer’s Club during WWII and later the Sands Nightclub and Restaurant.

“James Steiner is about to retire from the curio business, in which he is one of the local pioneers. Beginning as a clerk in Hart’s ice cream parlors about a quarter of a century ago, Mr. Steiner developed into one of Honolulu’s shrewdest business men.”

“A monument to his enterprise is the Elite block, one of the first three or four modern business structures of Honolulu.” (Hawaiian Star, June 20, 1911)

The three-story brick with terra cotta trimmings building was part of a “New Era of Building in Honolulu” which the 1900 Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual anticipated as “promising to be the handsomest business block in the city, so far.”

He retired from business in 1914 to devote his time to the management and development of his extensive property holdings in Honolulu and Waikiki. Steiner died in 1939.

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Island Curio Postcard-UH-Manoa

Steiner mansion still under construction on the right-1913

Steiner home used as an Officer’s Club before Pearl Harbor attack

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James_Steiner-Waikiki-home

Island Curio-eBay

Halekai (Army Officer’s Club)-kamaaina56

Elite Block-PCA-Jan_1,_1901

Elite Ice Cream Parlors-Daily Bulletin, July 10, 1885

Steiner Mansion on the right known as the Sands Nightclub and Restaurant-early 1960s

Curly Koa lidded Calabash from Island Curio-eBay

Steiner headstone

July 23, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kōnāhuanui

The Hawaiian Islands were formed as the Pacific Plate moved westward over a geologic hot spot. Oʻahu is dominated by two large shield volcanoes, Waiʻanae and Koʻolau. Koʻolau volcano started as a seamount above the Hawaiian hotspot around 4-million years ago. It broke sea level some time prior to 2.9-million years ago.

About 2-million years ago, much of the northeast flank of Koʻolau volcano was sheared off and material was swept more than 140-miles north of O‘ahu and Molokai onto the ocean floor (named the Nuʻuanu Avalanche) – one of the largest landslides on Earth. Ko‘olau’s eroded remnants make up the Koʻolau Mountain Range.

Mountains are one of ‘āina’s most enduring bodies, not as easily leveled as hills or forests; Kōnāhuanui (among others on the Koʻolau capture rain clouds coming in on the trade winds, and silvery shimmering steams of water tumbling down their pali have come to symbolize the sky father Wākea bringing new life to the earth mother Papa. (Kawaharada)

Ku luna ‘o Kōnāhuanui i ka luku wale e, “Mountainous Kōnāhuanui reveals the onslaught” is the tallest on Koʻolau; Kōnāhuanui is actually two peaks (3,150 feet and 3,105 feet.) It forms the northwest corner of the Mānoa Ahupua‘a boundary.

Kōnāhuanui plays a part in the ‘Punahou’ story told by Emma M. Nakuina, a tradition of the creation of Punahou Spring by a moʻo god named Kakea.

The main characters in ‘Punahou’ are twin rain spirits: a boy named Kauawa‘ahila (a rain of Nuʻuanu and Mānoa) and his sister Kauaki‘owao (a rain and fog carried on a cool mountain breeze.)

The twins were abused and neglected by an evil stepmother named Hawea while their father Kaha‘akea was away on Hawai‘i Island. The siblings fled from their home near Mount Kaʻala, the highest peak on O’ahu (4,020 ft) to Kōnāhuanui above Manoa.

The affinity of the twins for mountain peaks suggests their rain cloud forms and also their moʻo ancestry; their flight from Kaʻala to Kōnāhuanui depicts the movement of rain clouds associated with cold fronts which sweep over the islands from west to east during the rainy season of Ho‘oilo (October to April).

Pursued by their mean-spirited stepmother, the twins fled from Kōnāhuanui to the head of Mānoa Valley. Like a cold north wind behind a passing front, Hawea followed her stepchildren to the head of the valley, so the twins went down the valley to Kukao‘o Hill; then to the rocky hill behind Punahou School.

The movement of the twins down the valley represents the path of the rains called Kauawa‘ahila and Kauaki‘owao sweeping from the wet uplands toward the dry plains. Each stop is drier than the last, with less food.

At Kukao‘o hill, the twins planted and ate sweet potatoes, a dry-land crop, not as prized as the wetland taro of the upper valley. At the rocky hill near the mouth of the valley, they lived on leaves, flowers, and fruits and on ‘grasshoppers and sometimes wild fowl.’ The rocky hill marks a rain boundary: it may be pouring rain in the upper valley, while it is sunny and dry below the hill. (Kawaharada)

Translated “his large seeds (testicles,)” the name Kōnāhuanui is said to come from a story summarized by T Kelsey: “when a man, probably a giant, chased a woman who escaped into a cave, he tore off his testes and threw them at her”. (Kawaharada)

Kōnāhuanui is the highest peak in the Koʻolau Mountains and is the northwest corner of the Mānoa Ahupua‘a boundary. It was the home of the gods Kāne and Kanaloa.

It was where their parents came on their way to and from the east from above and from the right (mai kahiki a mai ka hiwamai), meaning it was the starting and resting point of the gods since the formation of the islands. (Cultural Surveys)

It is home to a moʻo goddess, a large mythic lizard that lives in freshwater pools and streams. Rain clouds gather around its peak, and its Kona side, often ribboned with waterfalls, is the wettest area of Honolulu: here is the source of the waters of Manoa and Nuʻuanu valleys.

On the Ko‘olaupoko side, below Konahuanui, is a stream called Kahuaiki (the small seed,) one of three streams said to be wives of the god Kāne (the other two are Hi‘ilaniwai and Māmalahoa).

The three join together as one, Kamo‘oali‘i (the royal mo‘o), which brings life-giving water to the fields and plains of Kāne’ohe before entering the bay near Waikalua fishpond. Huanui, big seed, and huaiki, small seed, both speak to the fertility of the land.

To the northwest of Konahuanui is Lanihuli (swirling heavens,) a name suggesting rain clouds moving in the wind around the peak; northwest of Lanihuli is Kahuauli, the dark seed. Uli may refer to the dark rain clouds, their shadows on the land below, and the dark green vegetation along the summit and below it. (Kawaharada)

“There is only one famous hiding cave, ana huna on Oʻahu. It is Pohukaina… This is a burial cave for chiefs, and much wealth was hidden away there with the chiefs of old … Within this cave are pools of water, streams, creeks, and decorations by the hand of man (hana kinohinohiʻia), and in some places there is level land.” (Kamakau)

Pohukaina involves an underground burial cave system that connects with various places around O‘ahu and is most notable as the royal burial cave at Kualoa. The opening in the Honolulu area is in the vicinity of the Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) residence (the grounds of ʻIolani Palace,) where also many of the notable chiefs resided. (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

The opening on the windward side on Kalaeoka‘o‘io faces toward Ka‘a‘awa is believed to be in the pali of Kanehoalani, between Kualoa and Ka‘a‘awa, and the second opening is at the spring Ka‘ahu‘ula-punawai.

On the Kona side of the island the cave had three other openings, one at Hailikulamanu – near the lower side of the cave of Koleana in Moanalua—another in Kalihi, and another in Pu‘iwa. There was an opening at Waipahu, in Ewa, and another at Kahuku in Ko‘olauloa.

The mountain peak of Kōnāhuanui was the highest point of the ridgepole of this burial cave “house,” which sloped down toward Kahuku. Many stories tell of people going into it with kukui-nut torches in Kona and coming out at Kahuku. (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

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Konahuanui-USGS-marker

July 22, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kuakini’s Cotton

“The pleasant village of Kailua is situated on the west side of Hawaii. It is the residence of the Governor of the Island. It is celebrated in Hawaiian history, as having been the residence for several years of Kamehameha I, and at this place he died, on the 8th of May, 1819, at the age of 66 years.”

“Here was first announced by Royal authority, that the old tabu system was at an end. It was in the quiet waters of this bay, that the brig Thaddeus anchored, April 4th, 1820, which brought the first Missionaries to the shores of Hawaii.”

“The natural features of the lofty mountain of Hualālai, and the rugged and rocky coast remain the same; but changes have been gradually going forward in the habits of the people and the appearance of the village.”

“There stands the village church with its tapering spire, almost a lac-simile of some that anciently stood in the centre of the common in many a New England village.”

“During the summer of 1844, we landed at Kailua to commence a tour of Hawaii. It was on the morning of the 1st of July, and we were kindly invited to take up our brief sojourn at the house of the Rev, Mr. Thurston who with his wife and children had been our voyaging companions on board the Clementine, from Honolulu.”

“The day of our landing happened to be the first Monday of the month, which has been so sacredly consecrated by American Missionaries and the churches of the United States, as a day of prayer for the blessing of God upon the Missionary enterprise.”

“It was pleasant to enjoy one of these sacred seasons, on the spot, so replete with incidents calculated to inspire the friend and lover of the cause with thanksgiving and gratitude. As might naturally be supposed, we had a ‘thousand’ inquiries to make of our venerable Missionary best, who bad been here watching the successive phases and changes of events for the last quarter of a century.”

“From our Journal for July 2d, we copy the following: ‘This morning it was proposed that we visit the village. Our steps were first directed to Governor Adams’ ‘factory,’ a long, and low, thatched building, now occupied as a native dwelling and store house.”

“Here the Governor undertook the manufacture of cotton cloth, and actually succeeded so far as to make several hundred yards.” (The Friend, April 15, 1845)

“Governor Kuakini indeed went so far as to manufacture a very stout kind of cloth in Kailua, Hawaii. It was proposed by the Rev. Mr. Armstrong that prizes in money and of sums which would make them worth contending for should be offered on a graduated scale for say, the three best specimens that may be exposed at the exhibition of this year.”

“It was asserted that this cotton raising is a business which will fall in with the habits of the people, and for which they have always evinced an inclination.” (Polynesian, June 11, 1859)

The cloth making experiment begun at Wailuku was continued; spinning and knitting were undertaken at one or two other stations; cotton growing was taken up by the church members at several places as a means of raising funds for new school and church buildings and to aid the missionary cause in general.

At Haiku, Maui, an American farmer commenced a small plantation, having 55 acres planted in 1838. Governor Kuakini of Hawaii. one of the most business-like of the chiefs, visited Miss Brown’s class at Wailuku in 1835 and conceived the idea of having the industry established on his island.

In 1837 the governor was reported by one of the merchants to have planted an immense cotton field at Waimea, Hawaii. In the same year he erected a stone building at Kailua, thirty by seventy feet, to be used as a factory. A foreigner in his employ made a wheel, from which as a sample the natives made about twenty others.

Wheel heads and cards were imported from the United States. Three poorly trained native women served as the first instructors for some twenty or thirty operatives, girls and women from twelve to forty years of age.

In a comparatively short time they acquired a fair proficiency in the work; by the middle of 1838 a large quantity of yarn bad been spun. Two looms were next procured and a foreigner familiar with their operation.

Members of the United States exploring squadron visited the factory in 1840, and the commander of the expedition wrote that the foreigner just mentioned ‘was engaged for several months in the establishment, during which time he had under his instruction four young men, with whom he wove several pieces of brown stripes and plaids, plain and twined cotton cloth.’

‘After this time, the natives were able to prepare and weave independently of his aid. Becoming dissatisfied, however, all left the work, together with the foreigner; but after some time they were induced to return to their work. This small establishment has ever since been kept up entirely by the natives.’ (Kuykendall)

Kuakini’s “scheme failed probably from the fact that the Governor found it cheaper to buy coarse cottons than to make them.” (The Friend, April 15, 1845)

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‘John Adams’ Kuakini, royal governor or the island of Hawai’i, circa 1823

July 21, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Not Just a Piano Man

Leonard E Thayer was born in New Hampshire on November 24, 1842. He served as a First Lieutenant in the Civil War and then took a business course in college, after which he went west, settling in Michigan.

Thayer spent the next thirty-five years of his life in the piano business. In 1905, he went to Honolulu, where he organized the Thayer Piano Co. (Music Trade Review, 1917)

Wade Warren Thayer was born at Jackson, Jackson County, Michigan, September 15, 1873, the son of Leonard E and Fannie (Fletcher) Thayer.

He received his early education in the public schools of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and at Howe School, Indiana, entering Hobart College in 1891. Later he attended the University of Michigan, receiving an AB degree in 1895 and a law degree in 1896.

Before going to the Pacific Coast Thayer was engaged in newspaper work at Salt Lake City, Utah. “He came to Honolulu (from San Francisco) for the Advertiser in June, 1900, resigning in October of that year to enter upon the practice of law.” He had an office in the Stangenwald building.

He was a business organizer, “East meets West on the financial map of the world when daily business is transacted at the International Trust Co., Ltd, Honolulu. Establishment of this institution, in which capital of American and Japanese stockholders is equally invested, was made possible by Wade Warren Thayer”.

Thayer has been identified with other business enterprises. He was secretary and treasurer of the Consolidated Soda Works from 1905 to 1916, had been secretary of the Thayer Piano Co since 1910 and was a director of the Sumitomo Bank of Hawaii, Ltd. (Nellist)

In 1909, he was appointed second district magistrate for the district of Honolulu. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 8, 1909)

He was appointed and served as attorney general, starting on January 1, 1913, then, in 1914, Secretary of the Territory of Hawai‘i. The Act providing a government “for the Territory of Hawai‘i” noted, “The executive power is lodged in a Governor, a Secretary, both to be appointed by the President and hold office four years”.

The Act further noted that the secretary, “shall (among other things) record and preserve all the laws and proceedings of the legislature and all acts and proceedings of the governor, and promulgate proclamations of the governor.” When the Governor was away, the Secretary served as acting Governor.

“(Thayer’s) conduct of the office (of attorney general) is regarded as having been sound and progressive and though he is a Democrat, he has been given strong Republican support for the secretaryship.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 27, 1914) He was made secretary of the Territory, holding this position from 1914 to 1917.

“Nearly four years of work on the part of Secretary of the Territory Wade Warren Thayer came to a close today with the issuance from the press of the Paradise of the Pacific of a digest of the reports of the local supreme court for the last 70 years.”

“Secretary Thayer began work on the digest four years ago and labored off and on during the first three years, but during the last year he devoted practically all of his time to the big task.”

“The decisions and reports are contained in 22 volumes and they date as far back as June 6, 1847, when Kamehameha IV was king and when William Lee was Justice of what was then known as the superior court, later the supreme court. … The table of cases, including all citations, is the work of Mrs Thayer.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 23, 1916)

Thayer liked golf, “The White Rock cup trophy of the Honolulu Golf Club was played for yesterday both morning and afternoon on the Country Club links, and was won by Wade Warren Thayer, by a net score of 80 points.” (Hawaiian Star, June 10, 1907)

He helped form gold clubs, “The Manoa Golf Club ceased to be last night, being formally disbanded at a meeting in the Young Hotel. In his final report, the secretary, WW Thayer, recited the history of the club since its inception in May, 1904, when the number of golfers in the Territory was probably not more than fifty.”

“’Now,’ said Mr. Thayer, ‘their numbers are well up in the hundreds. We have all known that the life of the club would be necessarily brief, and now that its days are numbered we have the satisfaction of knowing that a worthy successor will take up its work – the Oahu Country Club.’”

“’It should be further a source of gratification to us that had it not been for the Interest in golf that the Manoa Golf Club has stirred up the Country Club would not be so near a reality as it is at the present time, perhaps might never have been a reality at all.’”

“Practically all the members of the Manoa club are among the charter members of the Country Club, the latter being, in fact, almost a continuation of the pioneer golf association.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 30, 1906)

Thayer was part of the organizing group, forming the O‘ahu Country Club. The September 1, 1904 Evening Bulletin noted the lease transaction between “Mary Rooke (widow) et al (CB Rooke heirs) to Wade W Thayer; pc land, Waolani, Honolulu; 20 yrs at $900 per an. B 283 p 441. Dated Oct 2, 1905”.

Then a subsequent transaction (assignment of lease) was made from Thayer to the O‘ahu Country Club, “Wade W Thayer to Oahu Country Club; AL; lands, Waolani, Honolulu; $1. B 283, p 444, Dated Sept 10, 1906”.

Thayer married Rhoda Green in Honolulu, June 30, 1908. He died June 4, 1959, in Honolulu.

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