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June 6, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘For Manly Men’

“‘Here’s to another year and years and years of steady nerves, clear brains and vigorous health.’”

“Duncan is a body-builder and a good one. There are others in town all good ones. The town cannot have too many of them.” (Hawaiian Star, January 27, 1912) (Advertisements noted that Duncan’s Gym was for ‘Manly Men.’)

“‘If we can have a boy for two years, say from the age of twelve to fourteen,’ said Duncan, ‘we can make a well rounded youngster of him, and in addition to that the spirit of, true sportsmanship and love of the gym work for the work’s sake is so ingrained in him that he will never stop it.’”

“We don’t aim to turn out prizefighters, but we do aim to put a person in such shape that medicines and physicians will he unknown to him for a long time to come.” (Evening Bulletin, March 1, 1911)

“Duncan’s gymnasium isn’t half big enough to accommodate the youngsters who are anxious to join in the classes, but although the space is limited the boys take delight in playing the games that will make them stronger and fairer in every way.”

“A visit to the gymnasium will show hundreds of devices that have been built to improve the bodies of the youngsters, and the older people as well. Mr. Duncan has gone to much trouble in securing wheels and hundred s of implements of exercise that make for the building up or the youth.” (Star-Bulletin, May 3, 1916)

“At the recent Indoor meet held at the gymnasium a number of the parents looked on, and watched what the boys had accomplished during the class periods.”

“Many of the youngsters had gone into the classes with little of what one might call ‘pep,’ but the feats performed during the meet was enough to convince the mothers and fathers that the boy had been ‘learning the game.’”

“The meet showed the boys how to win; and how to take defeat.”

“The ‘thinking’ races were a big feature of the afternoon’s entertainment, and the race was not always to the swiftest.”

“A number of incidents happened during the afternoon that proved that the boys had teen taught to ‘play fair.’ One youngster with rosy cheeks who had been making a success won in a race, and after he had crossed the tape acknowledged to the referee that he had missed one of the relay pins.”

“In speaking of this incident afterwards Mr. Duncan said: ‘Things of that kind do the boy more good than a medal won, and I always try to encourage the boys to play fair at any cost.’”

“‘I wish that I had more room so I could cater to more of the boys and give them more room for the accomplishment of athletic features.’”

“Each afternoon many of the businessmen of the city spend an hour or so at the gymnasium, and the universal opinion is that it is more than worth the time spent.”

“Among the men of the city are many who have taken a deep interest in the youngsters, and at the recent track meet John Guild and Fred Wichman donated cups to the boys who competed in the various events.” (Star-Bulletin, May 3, 1916)

“Because of the great success made by GM Duncan in building up the weakling, there is much interest in his competition this afternoon. Mr. Duncan has divided the boys into two groups, the Reds and the Blues, and there is certain to be a number of events stated.”

“Fred Wichman said, ‘Mr. Duncan is doing a great work in developing the youngsters in every way, and he richly deserves credit for the manner in which he has helped the boys.’ Many of the leading businessmen of the city patronize the gymnasium and all join in singing praises for the manner in which the exercises are handled.”

“‘Mr. Duncan is doing a great work for the youngsters and for the older men as well. I use the gymnasium every day and find that it builds you up, and you can see that it has made the youngsters stronger. I would like to see a larger building where more boys could receive benefits from the exercise.’” (Guy Macfarlane) (Honolulu Star Bulletin, April 25, 1918)

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Duncans Gym-PP-6-4-007
Duncans Gym-PP-6-4-007
Duncans Gym-PP-6-4-009
Duncans Gym-PP-6-4-009
Members of the Boys class at Duncans Gymnasium-SB-May 3, 1916
Members of the Boys class at Duncans Gymnasium-SB-May 3, 1916

Filed Under: General, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Duncan's Gym, GM Duncan

June 5, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Mahiole

The love of personal decoration appears very early in the history of the human race. (Brigham)

Hawaiian featherwork consists first of lei or strings of feathers worn in the hair, or in later times the neck; Kāhili used as royal insignia; ahuʻula cloaks or capes worn by chiefs; mahiole helmets; images of the god Kūkaʻilimoku, the war-god of Kamehameha; and a few other items. Brigham)

The Hawaiians were a close observer of nature. The hunters know the haunts of birds they sought and the season when the plumage was at its best.

The rare birds were never killed, but captured alive and released, after the feathers desired were plucked.

When the British ships Resolution and Discovery entered Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, in January 1779, they were greeted by thousands of people in canoes.

They had arrived during the Makahiki festival, dedicated to the god of peace and productivity, Lono. Presentations of cloaks and helmets were made to Captain Cook. (British Museum)

In contrast to the feathered cloak, which was also found in Tahiti and New Zealand, the feathered helmet is peculiar to Hawai‘i. Together with the feathered cloak, the crested helmet belonged to the insignia of the high chiefs, or later the king. (National Museum of Australia)

In the Hawaiian Islands, feathered cloaks, capes and helmets were worn by male chiefs to signify their status. These were worn during ceremonial occasions, which often took place at heiau (temple areas,) as well as during makahiki.

All of a chief’s garments were considered kapu, having a divine or sacred power, and would not be worn by anyone else.

It was a custom to cut the hair close at the sides of the head leaving a ridge of still, erect hair, like a mane on the top of the scalp, and this mane-like ridge was called mahiole, the same name given to the helmet. (Brigham)

Mahiole were constructed of the aerial roots of the ʻieʻie vine, woven into a basketry frame. They were perfectly fitted to an individual, and protected the most sacred part of the body, the head.

A net of olona fibers was laid over the framework, and feathers attached in bundles in the same way as for the cloaks. The featherwork starts from the bottom, so each new row conceals the quills of the feathers below. (Museum of New Zealand)

Small feathers of a uniform size were attached. Red feathers were gathered by specialist bird-catchers from the ‘i‘iwi bird, a honeycreeper, and the black and yellow feathers from honeyeaters. Garments made of these feathers were reserved for particularly high-ranking chiefs.

The shape of the crest echoes the crescent designs found on cloaks, and in men’s hairstyles and tattoo designs. The Hawaiian word for crescent, hoaka, means to ‘frighten away’, but also indicates brightness, splendor and glory.

The mahiole represented the political status of male chiefs who had various authority.

There are many different kinds of mahiole that can be seen today found in museums around the world from the mahiole haka (short crested helmet,) mahiole pōheoheo (knobbed helmet,) mahiole haka kahakaha (striped short crest helmet,) spoked crescent helmet and others.

On the island of Hawaii, helmets with a high crest were favored. Other helmets, which had mushroom-like ornaments on top, or which were decorated with human hair, were worn by warriors or lesser chiefs. (National Museum of Australia)

Kaumuali‘i’s mahiole is consists of red ‘i‘iwi, yellow and black feathers and knotted a million times into a lacy filigree. The mahiole was a gift from Kamehameha I in 1810 after Kaumuali‘i stepped down as high chief of Kauai. It is the only feathered mahiole whose owner can be confirmed. (Bishop Museum)

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Mahiole-British Museum
Mahiole-British Museum
Gorro de príncipe hawaiano (M. América, Madrid) 01
Gorro de príncipe hawaiano (M. América, Madrid) 01
Arago_–_Guerrier_des_Iles_Sandwich-1819
Arago_–_Guerrier_des_Iles_Sandwich-1819
Kaiana_(PP-96-7-001)-1787
Kaiana_(PP-96-7-001)-1787
Mahiole_British_Museum
Mahiole_British_Museum
Mahiole_of_Kaumualii,_1899
Mahiole_of_Kaumualii,_1899
Mahiole-British_Museum
Mahiole-British_Museum
Mahiole-BritishMuseum
Mahiole-BritishMuseum
Mahiole-British-Museum
Mahiole-British-Museum
Mahiole-ieie-BritishMuseum
Mahiole-ieie-BritishMuseum
Mahiole-ieie_vine-Vancouver-1791-1795
Mahiole-ieie_vine-Vancouver-1791-1795
'Man_Wearing_Feather_Cloak_and_Helmit',_attributed_to_Rembrandt_Peale-c. 1805-1810
‘Man_Wearing_Feather_Cloak_and_Helmit’,_attributed_to_Rembrandt_Peale-c. 1805-1810
Aniheneho._L'un_des_Premiers_Officiers_de_Tahmahamah-Jacques_Arago,_1819
Aniheneho._L’un_des_Premiers_Officiers_de_Tahmahamah-Jacques_Arago,_1819
'A_Man_of_the_Sandwich_Islands_with_His_Helmet'_c._1800
‘A_Man_of_the_Sandwich_Islands_with_His_Helmet’_c._1800
Portrait_of_Kaneena,_a_chief_of_the_Sandwich_Islands_in_the_North_Pacific-between 1778 and 1779
Portrait_of_Kaneena,_a_chief_of_the_Sandwich_Islands_in_the_North_Pacific-between 1778 and 1779
John_Webber's_oil_painting_'A_Chief_of_the_Sandwich_Islands',_1787
John_Webber’s_oil_painting_’A_Chief_of_the_Sandwich_Islands’,_1787
Tianna_a_Prince_of_Atooi,_c._1787
Tianna_a_Prince_of_Atooi,_c._1787

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Ieie, Hawaii, Alii, Chiefs, Mahiole

June 4, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa

Ka Lama Hawaii and Ke Kumu Hawaii were the papers of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM,) mainly New England Calvinist missionaries, but produced by and for their students at Lahainaluna School in Maui.

The Hawaiian language newspapers were not the only early papers in Hawai’i. Although Ka Lama and Ke Kumu Hawaii were the first two newspapers to be published in Hawai’i, English language newspapers soon followed.

Ka Nonanona and Ka Elele Hawaii were both edited by Reverend Richard Armstrong, who later became the superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction. Ka Hae Hawaii, official newspaper of that department under Armstrong, also conveyed a Protestant slant.

Some English language papers supported Christianity. The Polynesian (1840-41, 1844-64), was published by James Jackson Jarves of Boston. From 1844 to 1860 it became the official printer of laws and notices of the Hawaiian government. The Friend (1843-1954) was begun by Reverend Samuel Chenery Damon.

In contrast, the Honolulu Times (1849-1851) published by Henry L Sheldon, originally of Rhode Island, opposed the influence of American Protestants, as did the earlier English language newspapers supported by the business community.

After the Honolulu Times ceased publication, Abraham Fornander, who had written for Sheldon, published the Weekly Argus (1851-53). Fornander’s objective was to provide in the Weekly Argus a voice against the government’s Polynesian. From 1853 to 1855 it was published as the New Era and Weekly Argus.

In 1856 Henry Whitney began the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (1856-), which was renamed the Honolulu Advertiser in 1902. In 1882 Whitney also started the Daily Bulletin (1882-) which was later renamed the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Henry Martyn Whitney (1824-1904), son of Samuel and Mercy Whitney of the Pioneer Company of ABCFM missionaries, was born on Kauai, and educated in Rochester, New York.

He worked on the American newspaper New York Commercial Advertiser and for the publisher Harper and Brothers, then returned to Hawai‘i where he served as head printer at the Hawai’i government printing plant and business manager of the English-language newspaper, The Polynesian.

In 1861, while he continued to publish the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Whitney commenced publication of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa.

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa has been described as “the first independent Hawaiian newspaper”, in the sense that it was independent of American Protestants, French Catholics and the government of the Hawaiian kingdom (although published by a missionary son and edited by him, as well as students from the Mission’s Lahainaluna.)

“It is true that a foreign publisher in this city has offered to issue a journal in the Hawaiian language to supply the intellectual want of the native people, and that his offer has been most warmly seconded and espoused by the Missionaries, but as a general thing the natives repudiate it …”

“… not because it may not prove a valuable and instructive journal, but because it is calculated to drive their own paper out of the field, and because they apprehend that it will not be a true reflex of their own opinions and thoughts upon matters and things.” (Polynesian, November 23, 1861)

Henry Whitney’s far-reaching influence as publisher of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa is described by Helen Chapin as being due to his practice of hiring capable Hawaiian editors, such as Joseph Kawainui, SK Mahoe, and JM Poepoe, who published what turned out to be materials of the greatest importance to Hawaiian history. (Chapin; Hori)

In 1861 the editor of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa was L H Gulick. He announced in the paper that Kuokoa would continue where Ka Hae Hawaii had left off, in its support of the missionary position.

In 1866, while still editor of Kuokoa, Gulick started the Hawaiian language newspaper Ke Alaula, with coeditors Anderson O. Forbes and Lorenzo Lyons. All three were also agents and distributors of Kuokoa on outer islands. Ke Alaula was from the Hawaiian Board of Missions.

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, the Hawaiian language newspaper with the longest publication history, first appeared in 1861. While published with Christian mission support and demonstrating a haole, or European-American stance, it had a long history of publishing information about Hawaiian, or Kanaka Maoli, tradition and culture.

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa published monthly in October, November, and December of 1861, and weekly thereafter until December 29, 1927. In the course of its history it would absorb a number of its rival newspapers.

In Kuokoa were genealogies, tales of gods and goddesses, vivid descriptions of Hawaiian birds, bird catching and fishing practices, instructions on canoe building, summaries of medical practices, accounts of travel through the Islands, and how to speak the Hawaiian language correctly.

In its pages, too, first appeared the stories of John Papa Ii and Samuel M Kamakau, which were later gathered together respectively as Fragments of Hawaiian History (1959) and The Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii. (Chapin; Hori) (The inspiration and information in this summary are largely from Hori.)

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Nupepa Kuokoa-Jan 1, 1862
Nupepa Kuokoa-Jan 1, 1862

Filed Under: Economy, General, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Henry Martyn Whitney, Newspaper, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Samuela Whitney, Hawaii

June 3, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Artist and the Architect

The artist, known as ‘Palani’ among his Hawaiian friends, was named a ‘Living Treasure’ for his paintings and murals showing Hawai‘i’s culture; the architect was identified as “the man who changed the face of the Pacific”. They got together in 1956.

Let’s look back …

The artist, Louis Henri Jean Charlot, descended from “sundry exotic ancestors,” was born in Paris. His father, Henri, was a French businessman; Anna, his mother, an artist and a devout Catholic, was the daughter of Louis Goupil, a native of Mexico City.

Also living in Paris was Jean Charlot’s great-uncle, Eugène Goupil, a collector of Mexican works of art. Jean, who began to draw around age two, grew up surrounded by pre-Hispanic antiquities. (Thompson)

In his teens, Charlot had become one of a Catholic group that called itself Gilde Notre-Dame (“Parisian adolescents (who) used to gather in a crypt”) made up of sculptors, stained glass makers, embroiderers and decorators.

“My life in France was on the whole rational, national, obeying this often heard dictum that a Frenchman is a man who ignores geography. There were though, simultaneously, un-French elements at work. Russian, sephardim, Aztec ancestors, warmed my blood to adventure.” (Charlot; Thompson)

After a Mexican trip, in 1928, Charlot and his mother moved to New York where he rented a small apartment on the top floor of 42 Union Square from the artist Morris Kantor. The apartment was unheated, which probably contributed to the death of his mother from pneumonia in January, 1929.

On a brief trip to Mexico in 1931, Charlot met his future wife, Dorothy Zohmah Day. During a visit to Zohmah in Los Angeles in 1933, Charlot met the printer Lynton R Kistler and produced Picture Book, “a repertory of motifs I had used up to then.” Returning to New York, teaching and lecturing occupied much of Charlot’s time.

In May 1939, Jean Charlot and Zohmah Day were married in San Francisco. “It was a long courtship,” commented Charlot. “Eight years. We were always in different places”.

The years from 1941-44 were spent as artist-in-residence at the University of Georgia, Athens, and instructor in art history at the University of California, Berkeley and artist-in-residence at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. (Thompson)

Then he had a chance to come to Hawaiʻi – and he stayed. An invitation to create a fresco at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa, brought Charlot to Honolulu in 1949 where he painted Relation of Man and Nature in Old Hawai’i at Bachman Hall.

He accepted a position as professor of art at the University, and Hawai’i became the Charlot family’s permanent home. Attracted to the culture of the native Hawaiian, just as he had been interested in the folk aspects of the residents of rural France and the indigenous peoples of Mexico, he studied Hawaiian history, customs and religion, and learned the Hawaiian language.

From 1949 to 1979 Charlot created almost six hundred easel paintings, several hundred prints, and thirty-six works of art in public places in fresco, ceramic tile and sculpture. He taught summer sessions at several schools. (Thompson)

The architect, George James ‘Pete’ Wimberly, was born on January 16, 1915 in Ellensburg, Washington. He earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1937 from the University of Washington.

He served as a draftsman/designer in Seattle, Los Angeles and Phoenix, and in 1940 was in a civil service position as “journeyman architect doing naval work at Pearl Harbor.”

“At the end of World War II, there was a great backlog demand for buildings of all sorts. During the four years of war, only essential or defense-oriented projects were allowed.”

“Most of the architects at the time were not hurting because they were all doing defense work, either as private practitioners or as direct employees of the Armed Forces. (W)hen V-J Day was announced, I left the Navy Yard and never went back, except to pick up my pay check.” (Wimberly; WATG)

“I had an agreement with Howard (Loren) Cook (who was working on Tripler Hospital) that I would set up an office and we would split the take, his salary and my fees 50/50.”

“Fortunately, there was a great deal of work out there. Furthermore, I had the fortune to know Gardner Dailey on the mainland. He selected me as the local architect for the remodelling of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. (1946) … With this prestigious commission, we suddenly had credentials and were able to pick up other worthy jobs.” (Wimberly; WATG)

The artist and the architect got together in the design and construction of Charlot’s ‘dream house.’

It was part of the expansion of KahaIa in the 1950s. Before the expansion, Kahala was used mostly for beach homes along the shore, with another row of houses on the mauka side of Kahala Avenue. Bishop Estate opened up the balance of the area for residential and related development.

In recognition of his work in Hawaiian culture, Bishop Estate gave Charlot one of the first choices of the new lots. He picked the end lot of the three on the little appendix to Kahala Avenue, fronting the Wai‘alae Golf Course, the house sits on a flat lot bordered by the golf course on the north and a canal on the west.

The house was completed in 1958 as a true collaboration between Charlot and Wimberly. Charlot’s art and therefore his dream house had to fit its site. Wimberly also emphasized a ‘sense of place’ in his architecture and went on to build many structures that exuded this appropriateness to the lifestyle and climate of Hawai‘i.

Fitting into Hawai‘i’s lifestyle and climate is demonstrated in its open plan (the master bedroom overlooking the living room, only bedrooms and bathrooms are fully walled in,) blurred definition between the interior and exterior (the built-in dining table that connects to the exterior …

… the two story height glazed sections that connect to the lanai area, and the lanai with the same flooring material as the drawing room), incorporation of native arts (mural, petroglyph tiles), use of native materials (hapu’u) and siting by tradewinds. The house is an intensely personal one, yet a characteristic of Charlot’s art is its emphasis on appropriateness. (NPS)

It had a uniquely artistic flair, incorporating the openness and lanais of island homes with the vertical emphasis of traditional French rural ‘architecture and the brick floors and back courtyards of Mexican houses. (NPS)

Here, Charlot conducted most of his work in this house and more particularly in his 2nd floor studio. This was the final period of Charlot’s life, when he reached the peak of his artistic powers and was able to synthesize the esthetics of Europe, Mexico and Pacific Islands, the places he lived and influenced his art. His career spanned these places. Charlot remained active as an artist and a scholar until his death on March 20, 1979.

Wimberly also went on the great things. He invented a style of resort architecture that was creative, exotic and imaginative. His landmark projects helped define Hawai‘i tourism and created a Hawai‘i-based business designing resorts around the world.

Wimberly “established himself as perhaps the most successful resort architect in the world” and that his “Honolulu-based firm of Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (also known as WATG) designed many of the Pacific Rim’s pace-setting hotels and is the world’s largest ‘niche’ architecture firm, specializing in the $4-trillion-dollar travel industry.” (Honolulu Weekly) Wimberly died December 30, 1995.

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Jean_Charlot_Residence-Kimberly_Jackson
Jean_Charlot_Residence-Kimberly_Jackson
JeanCharlot
JeanCharlot
Pete Wimberly
Pete Wimberly
Jean_Charlot_Residence-Patio-Kimberly_Jackson
Jean_Charlot_Residence-Patio-Kimberly_Jackson
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Jean_Charlot_Residence-Stairs-Kimberly_Jackson
Jean_Charlot_Residence-Charlot's_Studio-Kimberly_Jackson
Jean_Charlot_Residence-Charlot’s_Studio-Kimberly_Jackson
Jean_Charlot_Residence-Drawings-Kimberly_Jackson
Jean_Charlot_Residence-Drawings-Kimberly_Jackson

Filed Under: Buildings, Prominent People, General Tagged With: Hawaii, Jean Charlot, 'Pete' Wimberly, Artist, Architect

June 2, 2016 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

‘And Now I Must Pay’

“Ten minutes to eight. Margaret died instantly. She did not suffer. And now I must pay.”

(So said the note found on the seat of a car at the edge of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater at Volcano.) (Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1932)

The next day (June 3, 1932,) an 8.2 earthquake off the coast of Colima and Jalisco in Mexico produced a tidal wave which was recorded strongly at Hilo, Hawaii (little damage and no deaths were recorded.) (Seismicity of the Earth)

“Natives construe the tidal waves which swept the mouth of the Wailoa river and lower Kūhiō bay yesterday as an omen that Pele resents having two lifeless mortals at the threshold of her fiery kingdom.”

“They expressed fear that the tragedy which ended the lives of Sylvester (William) Nunes, 20, and Margaret Enos, 17, may lead to some dire calamity.” (Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1932)

Whoa … let’s look back ….

“The tragedy had its inception when Nunes, a Portuguese, wished to take the young high school student (Enos) in marriage. She declined to consider matrimony.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

“The twenty-year-old youth (Nunes) was educated in American schools and had started a promising business career.”

“About a year ago Sylvester met Margaret Enos. She was a laughing, gay native girl and he loved her smile and bubbling spirits.”

“Occasionally she accompanied Sylvester on motor rides in his smart red roadster. Sometimes they rode to nearby beaches, swam and went surf-riding, a sport at which both were adept.”

“Some weeks ago he proposed to Margaret, ‘I am too young to marry and settle down,’ she told him. ‘Wait a few years – then perhaps who can tell about such things.’”

“But she would accept none of the many gifts Nunes tried to shower on her and refused to commit herself (to) marrying him. … To the seventeen-year-old Hawaiian beauty life was too happy and joyous a thing to be spoiled by the moody bursts of temper of a disappointed admirer.”

“Margaret in a very short time became an obsession with him. He couldn’t eat, was unable to sleep. He bombarded her with impassioned love-letters.”

“When she went out with other native boys he followed them and watched in agony the girl’s flashing eyes and listened to her laughter. The things he saw were innocent enough. Margaret was a respectable girl but the sight of a rival’s arm on the back of her chair and her gayety at parties shot poison into his heart.”

“Several times he warned her boy-friends, “Margaret is engaged to me. Leave her alone!””

“In the end Sylvester, with his spying, his letters and his jealous protests, became such a nuisance that the girl told him she never wanted to see him again. He threatened, cajoled and pleaded, but the girl merely shook her little head.”

“After that final quarrel Nunes disappeared temporarily from Hilo, where both lived. For a week no one saw or heard from him. … Then one late afternoon, the jilted admirer reappeared in Hilo.”

“In his red roadster he drove straight to the home.” (Fresno Bee, July 24, 1932) “Margaret’s sister, Mrs. Manuel Furtado, with whom she lived, grappled with Nunes.” (Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1932)

”‘I will go,’ said Margaret with assumed placidity … Obviously she thought she could quiet him once they were outside. But Mrs. Furtado stood in the doorway. ‘You will not go with him,’ she announced. Taking Margaret by the hand, Nunes tried to push past her older sister. But Mrs. Furtado seized him by the coat and would not let go.”

“In a rage, the young Hawaiian shot the woman through the hand. While Mrs. Furtado screamed with rage, Nunes picked up the girl and carried her to his waiting car. She fought, bit and scratched, but his superior strength proved too much for her.”

“‘I will kill you unless you keep still,’ he told the girl. Terrified, she allowed him to drive her away. The revolver he kept by his side as they drove through the sleepy streets of Hilo.”

“As police later reconstructed the story, Nunes drove about the country for several hours. Again and again he begged the beautiful girl to marry him.” (Fresno Bee, July 24, 1932)

“Taking Margaret to the volcano, where sweethearts are in the habit of keeping trysts, it is presumed he again made his protestations of love and asked her to marry him. She evidently refused, for evidence indicates he shot her and, clasping her in his arms leaped into the fiery pit.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

“Park rangers found Nunes’ rented motor car on the brink of the firepit at noon. It was spattered with blood. On a seat was an automatic pistol and a note which read:”

“‘Ten minutes to eight. Margaret died instantly. She did not suffer. And now I must pay.’” (Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1932)

“With powerful glasses Hawaiian National Park rangers located the bodies of the pair on a ledge 800 feet below the brink of the 1,200 foot deep pit.” (Stanford Daily, June 3, 1932)

“One of the strangest rescues ever attempted was effected successfully today when Rikan Konishi, a Japanese weighing 85 pounds, took the bodies of a despairing lover and the sweetheart he killed from the troubled kingdom of the fire goddess Pele in the smoking crater of the volcano Halemaumau.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

Aided by dozens of helpers, Konishi worked night and day building platforms and used 3 tractors and 2 caterpillars to help string a mile of cable – the effort dragged on for more than a week. The gondola was 30-inches wide and 6-feet long (with 3-foot sides.) (Farabee)

“Lighting a cigaret, Konishi entered a cage he had constructed at 9 o’clock this morning. He sat on a low stool with his head almost hitting the roof, while paraphernalia was packed all around him.”

“He protected himself as best he could against the gaseous fumes of the crater and tied himself with a slipknot to guard against falling out. He also had a telephone contact with his brother-in-law, who remained on the crater’s rim.”

“Konishi phoned directions for raising or lowering the cage, which was manipulated by a winch. As the descent started rocks were dislodged and thundered down as he swung out over the 1,200 foot chasm and descended slowly until he reached Talus slope, 800-feet down, where the bodies lay.”

“Landing about thirty feet from the nearest body, that of the young girl, the midget Japanese wrapped it in canvas. He then walked on loose rocks, holding on to a guide rope, to the body of Nunes, which he prepared in like manner.”

“The bodies were too heavy for the slight rescuer to move, so he attached them to ropes from the cage. He ordered the cage raised until both were dangling together. He then had it lowered until they lay upon a ledge, side by side.”

“He secured them to the bottom of his conveyance, unfurled a white flag to signal success, took a drink of water, and sat calmly in the cage as it made its ascent.”

“He reached the rim from the pit shortly after 6 o’clock this evening with both bodies wrapped in canvas. The entire operation took about eight hours, throughout which Konishi displayed the calm courage of his Japanese ancestors. … Konishi, who is a contractor, will collect $1,000 for his work.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

Benefits and fund-raising efforts over the next two weeks added $1,114 to the $1,000 guaranteed by the National Park so that Konishi could meet his expenses. (Farabee)

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Newspaper_account_of_bodies_recovered_at_Halemaumau_Firepit_Hawaii-auburn
Newspaper_account_of_bodies_recovered_at_Halemaumau_Firepit_Hawaii-auburn
Margaret_Enos-Bortfeld
Margaret_Enos-Bortfeld
Konishi-Nunes-Enos
Konishi-Nunes-Enos
Konishi and Pele's Transport-auburn
Konishi and Pele’s Transport-auburn
US military personnel assisting with gondola and cable-auburn
US military personnel assisting with gondola and cable-auburn
Konishi cable cage to reach Enos and Nunes-auburn
Konishi cable cage to reach Enos and Nunes-auburn
Halemaumau just before the 1932 activity ceased. Powers photo-NPS
Halemaumau just before the 1932 activity ceased. Powers photo-NPS
Konishi Cable Cage into Halemaumau-auburn
Konishi Cable Cage into Halemaumau-auburn
Hawaii-Volcanoes-National-Park--1960-eruption-of-Kilauea-Volcano
Hawaii-Volcanoes-National-Park–1960-eruption-of-Kilauea-Volcano
Halemaumau-PIP-USGS
Halemaumau-PIP-USGS
Halemaumau pre-1940-eBay
Halemaumau pre-1940-eBay

Filed Under: General, Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Volcano, Halemaumau, Rikan Konishi, Margaret Enos, Sylvester (William) Nunes

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