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February 13, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Matsumoto Shave Ice

It is referred to in different ways, depending on where you are from … in Hilo it’s Ice Shave; lots of folks outside the Islands call it Sno-Balls, SnoCones (or Snow Cones) or even Shaved Ice … most, here, call it Shave Ice.

Shave ice exists all over the world today and is known as Gola Gunda in Pakistan, Juski in India, Ice Kachang in Malasia & Singapore where it is served with red beans and other fruits, Raspa, Raspado, or Raspadillo in Mexico and Peru (Raspar means “scrape” in Spanish.) (Stever)

In 1956, five years after Matsumoto Grocery Store first opened their doors to the public, a family friend suggested that the store sell cones of shave ice to help make up for slow business.

Mamoru and Helen soon purchased a hand-crank shave ice machine from Japan, attached an electric motor and started making shave ice cones at a nickel a piece. (Nemoto)

Whoa … we are already getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s look back …

Born in Hawaiʻi, Mamoru Matsumoto’s family returned to Hiroshima-ken when he was a toddler, and they struggled to survive. He worked as an apprentice at a sake factory and other odd jobs, but the income was insufficient.

Through friends and relatives he met his wife, Helen Momoyo Ogi, and they were married at the Haleiwa Jodo Mission. Mamoru worked long hours while Helen became a seamstress. They dreamed of opening their own business and purchasing a home for his family in Japan and for themselves.

Mr Kazuo Tanaka gave them the opportunity to open their own grocery store, M. Matsumoto Store Inc (founded February 13, 1951) in the previous Tanaka Store in Haleiwa. (Matsumoto)

Although grateful for the spot they now call home today, they “struggled” at first and had to work “really hard” in order for the family business to stay afloat. (Nemoto)

At first, Mamoru peddled his wares on a bicycle, until he was able to afford a panel truck. He went from camp to camp, taking orders and delivering the goods, while Helen manned the store and did some sewing. (Matsumoto)

“My dad had a panel truck,” says the second-generation Matsumoto. “He used to go around the community trying to sell canned goods in the back.” (Nemoto)

In 1956, the family expanded the business to include the frozen treat that’s known as kakigori (shave ice) in its place of origin, Japan. “The Japanese immigrants moved here with ice shavers. The equipment works like a wood planer.” (Washington Post)

This was before the present big wave surfing on the North Shore. Until the 1930s, modern surfing in Hawaiʻi was focused at Waikīkī; there the waves were smaller.

Then, in 1937, Wally Froiseth and John Kelly, reportedly on a school trip witnessed the large break at Mākaha and later surfed its waves. They were later joined by George Downing and others.

Riding at an angle to the wave, rather than the straight to shore technique, on the new “hot curl” board, with narrower tails and V-hulled boards, allowed them to ride in a sharper angle than anyone else.

Mākaha became the birthplace of big wave surfing. Even before Oʻahu’s North Shore, Mākaha was ‘the’ place for surfing – especially big-wave surfing.

But North Shore surfing caught on, so did the requisite stop at Matsumoto’s for shave ice.

When son Stanley Matsumoto took over in 1976, he bumped the canned goods to make space for the growing shave ice (and Matsumoto T-shirt) enterprise, which had been garnering attention from the Japanese media and visiting celebrities from both sides of the Pacific. (Washington Post)

In the busy summer season, the shop makes 1,000 ices a day; when school’s in session, the number drops to 500. “My father would be so happy with how the store has gotten so big,” said Matsumoto, whose father died in 1994 at age 85. (Washington Post)

“If they were alive right now they would be so happy to see how the store is today,” Matsumoto says. “They would be so proud to see everyone come to the store and have a nice time.” (Nemoto)

Shave ice is a local specialty found throughout the islands, but Matsumoto’s stands out for being the oldest continuously run operation on Oahu, going back more than half a century. (Washington Post)

Kamehameha Schools recent redeveloped the area. In all, the 28,000-square-foot retail complex spans a 0.1-mile section of Kamehameha Highway between Mahaulu Lane and Kewalo Lane.

Retailers now open for business include Matsumoto Shave Ice, Whaler’s General Store, Haleiwa Fruit Stand, Clark Little Gallery, Global Creations, Greenroom Hawaii, Guava Shop, Island Vintage Coffee, Kahala Sportswear, Mahina, Mailikukahi Hale Kamehameha Schools North Shore Information Center, Malibu Shirts, Spam Hawaii, Splash! Hawaii, T&C Surf and Teddy’s Bigger Burgers. (PBN)

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Matsumoto Shave Ice

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Matsumoto Shave Ice

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Tanaka Store-before Matsumoto

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February 12, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Crowning

Although Kalākaua had been elected and serving as King since 1874, upon returning from a trip around the world, in 1883, it was determined that Hawaiʻi’s King should also be properly crowned.

“ʻIolani Palace, the new building of that name, had been completed the previous year, and a large pavilion had been erected immediately in front of it for the celebration of the coronation. This was exclusively for the accommodation of the royal family …”

“… but there was adjacent thereto a sort of (coronation pavilion and amphitheater,) capable of holding ten thousand persons, intended for the occupation of the people.” (Liliʻuokalani)

On Monday, February 12, 1883, the imposing ceremony of the Coronation of their Majesties the King and Queen of the Hawaiian Islands took place at ʻIolani Palace.

The weather for the three previous days had been anything but favorable, it having rained incessantly during that time more especially on Saturday night. The roof of the amphitheatre not proving impervious to the drenching rain, it was made so by an additional covering of corrugated iron, all of which was put on betwixt a.m. and a.m. on Monday.

At break of day change of weather occurred. The sun shone forth with its wonted brilliancy. The reeds were spread over the line of march, and by o’clock the school children were marching towards the rendezvous.

At the appointed hour the procession started, and entering the Palace gates, the schools and societies took up the respective positions assigned to them.

“The Honorable President of the Legislative Assembly then took the King’s Crown and raised it up before the people and placed It In the hands of the Chancellor, saying : ‘I present this Crown to the rightful King of these Islands, approved by Acts of the Legislative Assembly in the Legislature of the Kingdom assembled of the years 1880 and 1882.’”

“The Chancellor then placed it in the King’s hands, saying: ‘Receive this Crown of pure gold to adorn the high station wherein thou hast been placed.’”

“The King then raised up the Crown and placed it upon his head.”

“The Chancellor then took the second Crown and placed it in the King’s hands, who rose and placed it upon the Queen’s head, who reverently bowed her head on receiving it, the King saying: ‘I place this Crown upon your head, to share the honors of my throne.’”

“The Crown is composed of a fillet or band of gold one inch in width, set, on each edge, with 192 small diamonds. Midway in the fillet set many rubies, save at the back, where there are set in the place of the emeralds and rubies 6 kukui nut jewels of a deep reddish black, highly polished.”

“At the front and back, and on each side, the fillet is surmounted by a golden Maltese cross, in the arms of which are set forty-eight diamonds, each arm having three. In the center of the cross in front of the crown is a magnificent diamond of about six carats weight, and on the sides others a little smaller.”

“A splendid carbuncle glows in the center of the cross at the back. Between the crosses are short curved bars forming twelve points, from which spring taro leaves in frosted gold, beautifully veined, and each on holding a diamond in its center.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 17, 1883)

“The taro leaf motifs adorning the crown’s fillet referenced the chief as the source of life. They denoted the role and responsibility of the chief as the progenitor of the people and the land, the chief’s descent from the gods, and the divine course of life.” (Kamehiro)

“Between the points are set twelve other fine diamonds. Springing from the fillet, over the crimson velvet cap of maintenance are eight bars of gold, whose surfaces are studded with half-round knobs, as in the crown of France.”

“These eight bars diminish in width, and finally unite at the base of globe of dark red enamel. These eight bars are emblematical of the union of islands of the group under one rule.”

“The globe that they uphold is banded horizontally with a circle of pearls, and another like band passes over the upper of the globe. Surmounting the whole is a golden Maltese cross, in which set four brilliant diamonds.”

“The Queen’s crown is precisely similar, except that it a trifle smaller. Each crown contains 521 diamonds, 54 pearls, 20 opals, 8 emeralds, 1 large carbuncle, and 6 kukui jewels.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 17, 1883)

In addition to the Western-style style crown, he received a sword, ring and scepter; Kalākaua was also presented with traditional items belonging to ruling Hawaiian chiefs: the feather cloak of Kamehameha I, the kāhili (standard) of Pili, and the pūloʻuloʻu (kapu stick) and lei palaoa (whale tooth pendant.)

A couple days later (February 14, 1883,) Kalākaua unveiled the King Kamehameha statue on the grounds of Aliʻiolani Hale (now the home of Hawaiʻi’s State Supreme Court.)

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King Kalakaua’s crown, scepter, and sword used during his coronation ceremony-PP-36-13-002-1883

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Mrs. Lahilahi Webb (1862-1949) setting up the royal crowns-PP-37-1-012-1936

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February 11, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Chinatown

Captain Cook’s voyage of exploration and ‘contact’ with the Islands in 1778 opened Hawai‘i to the world – it also showed the world the possibilities of the fur trade via the North American Northwest Coast. (Quimby)

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the US.

American and British trading ships began plying between the American Northwest and South China, stopping at various ports in the Hawaiian Islands to replenish their supplies of food and water.

“In the month of January 1788, in conjunction with several British merchants resident in India, I purchased and fitted out two vessels, named the Felice and the Iphigenia … (each) built with sufficient strength to resist the tempestuous weather so much to be apprehended in the Northern Pacific Ocean, during the winter season.”

“The crews of these ships consisted of Europeans and China-men, with a larger proportion of the former. The Chinese were, on this occasion, shipped as an experiment: – they have been generally esteemed an hardy, and industrious, as well as ingenious race of people …”

“… they live on fish and rice, and, requiring but low wages, it was a matter also of economical consideration to employ them; and during the whole of the voyage there was every reason to be satisfied with their services.-If hereafter trading posts should be established on the American coast, a colony of these men would be a very important acquisition.” (Mears, 1790)

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.

Sandalwood was first recognized as a commercial product in Hawai‘i in 1791 by Captain Kendrick (mainland merchants brought cotton, cloth and other goods for trade with the Hawaiians for their sandalwood – who would then trade the sandalwood in China.) Additional Chinese may have left their ships during the sandalwood trading.

Near the mouth of Nuʻuanu Stream, makai of King Street, is called Kapuʻukolo, a place “where white men and such dwelt.” At a nearby coral point was “where the first custom house stood.”

“In the vicinity of the custom house at the beach was a house for the first Chinese ever seen here. There were two or three of them, and they prepared food for the captains of the ship which took sandalwood to China.” (‘I‘i, Barrere & Rockwood)

“Because the faces of these people were unusual and their speech – which is not commonly heard – strange, a great number of persons went to look at them.” (I‘i; Kai)

Robert C Wyllie noted that by 1844 some Chinese had opened shops near the waterfront: “There are three stores kept by Chinamen, viz: Samping & Co, Ahung & Co and Tyhune.” (Wyllie, The Friend August 1, 1844)

In the mid-1840s, following defeat by Britain in the first Opium War, a series of natural catastrophes occurred across China resulting in famine, peasant uprisings and rebellions; many Chinese seized the opportunity to go elsewhere. (PBS) Some came to the Islands.

The region now known as Chinatown was established during the 1840s and 1850s, in an area along Honolulu Harbor southwest of Nuʻuanu Stream. (NPS) It is reportedly the oldest Chinese quarter in the US. (SunSentinel)

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 at Island sugar plantations were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America. The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

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)

By the early-1860s extensive tracts of irrigated taro land were being turned over to the cultivation of rice, and at various outlying locations, large sugar plantations were emerging on the island scene. As a result, programs of Chinese immigration for the workforce were implemented.

In 1862, the first rice mill in the Hawaiian Islands was constructed in Honolulu (prior to that it was sent unhulled and uncleaned to be milled in San Francisco.) (By 1887, over 13-million pounds of rice were exported. In 1899, Hawaiʻi’s rice production had expanded so that it placed third in production of rice behind Louisiana and South Carolina.)

By 1884 the area in the vicinity of Honolulu’s Mauna Kea, Nuʻuanu, King and Beretania Streets was heavily devoted to Chinese businesses and residences. The 1886 fire burned most of “Chinatown” to the ground. The Chinese residents quickly rebuilt, but by the early-1890s, sanitary conditions and a “slum-like” environment brought about renewed fears of cholera and other diseases.

In December 1899, the first case of bubonic plague was confirmed in Chinatown, and events following identification of the case, and subsequent deaths, led to relocating hundreds of people from Chinatown to Kaka‘ako on January 5, 1900.

Schools were closed, and Chinatown, with its 7,000 inhabitants, was placed under quarantine. In hopes of containing the plague only within Honolulu, the Board of Health closed the port of Honolulu to both incoming and outgoing vessels.

On January 6, 1900, “controlled fires” began to be set at buildings where victims had resided, and additional quarantine facilities capable of housing 2,000 people were being set up in Kalihi.

As cases of the plague continued to increase, “controlled burns,” were used in larger areas in an effort to remove the threat. On January 20, 1900, the fire between Beretania, Kukui, River and Nuʻuanu Streets went wild, and the entire area, including Kaumakapili Church, was destroyed.

From there, the flames spread, and a day later, on January 21, 1900 nearly all the buildings between Kukui, Queen, River and Nuʻuanu Streets were burned to the ground. (Kepa Maly)

Because the fire displaced the residential population of Chinatown, as the area was rebuilt, the Chinese only rebuilt their businesses in the neighborhood – not their homes.

Chinatown reached its peak in the 1930s. In the days before air travel, visitors arrived in the Islands by cruise ship; it was just a block up the street was the pier where they disembarked – and they often headed straight for the shops and restaurants of Chinatown, which visitors considered an exotic treat.

Today, Chinatown Historic District is the largest area in the city that still recalls a historic sense of time and place. (NPS) (SunSentinel)

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Chinatown

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Looking Ewa on King Street at the Fort Street intersection 1930s

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Honolulu looking into lower Nuuanu and Pahoa valleys. Sept 29 1928

Downtown Honolulu 1938

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February 10, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

CTAHR

“A Kingdom without a university looks like an anomaly. Education in this Kingdom is unquestionably on a respectable footing. The foundation of a Hawaiian national university is consequently not a chimerical idea.”

“The King and country should feel proud at the thought of a Hawaiian University lifting its head beside all the other universities of the world. The Curriculum, of course, would embrace the faculties of law, medicine and divinity.”

“A school of medicine is highly desirable here, as well as law school, and a regular school of divinity How is the Kingdom to be supplied with lawyers , doctors and divines?” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 7, 1877)

On January 4, 1893, the Hawaii Bureau (later Board) of Agriculture and Forestry was established in the Kingdom of Hawaii. From the remnants of the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society (1850–1869), the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association was established in 1895, and during this period, the seeds of the US Agricultural Experiment Station were planted.

On May 25, 1900, Congress allocated money for reconnaissance and eventually to establish an agricultural experiment station in Hawai‘i. The investigation confirmed that establishing a federal research station in the Territory of Hawaii was appropriate, and on April 5, 1901, Jared Smith stepped off a ship in Honolulu to become its special agent in charge. (CTAHR)

The Farmers’ Institute, along with the Hawaiian Poultry Association, organized the Territorial Agricultural Exhibits in 1906 and 1908. Institute members also voted to petition the US Secretary of Agriculture to assign a tobacco expert to Hawai‘i and to assist in a soil survey.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t until thirty years after the editorial noted at the beginning that, “An act to establish the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of the Territory of Hawai‘i” was passed by the Hawai‘i’s Territorial Legislature and was signed into law by Governor George Carter on March 25th, 1907.

The University of Hawaiʻi began as a land-grant college, initiated out of the 1862 US Federal Morrill Act funding for “land grant” colleges. Since the federal government could not “grant” land in Hawaiʻi as it did for most states, it provided a guarantee of $30,000 a year for several years, which increased to $50,000 for a time.

Cornell graduate John Gilmore, who had agriculture school experience in the Philippines and China took over as president. Gilmore was allowed to recruit faculty members, several of whom were Cornell graduates, thus establishing a “Cornell connection” that still exists today in the college. (CTAHR)

The regents chose the present campus location in lower Mānoa on June 19, 1907. In 1911, the name of the school was changed to the “College of Hawaiʻi.”

The campus was a relatively dry and scruffy place, “The early Mānoa campus was covered with a tangle of kiawe trees, wild lantana and panini cactus”.

The new College of Hawaii campus was also a working farm from the first day. A majority of the property, once cleared of rocks and brush, went to the college’s teaching farm. It appears the first structures built were a poultry shed and a dairy barn.

In 1912, the college moved to the present Mānoa location (the first permanent building is known today as Hawaiʻi Hall.) The first Commencement was June 3, 1912. On July 1, 1920, the College of Hawaiʻi became the University of Hawaiʻi.

On July 1, 1929, the US Agricultural Experiment Station came under joint management of USDA and the university, and all the federal employees who had been operating as federal extensions agents were transferred to the university. David Crawford, the university president, was also the first permanent director of extension under the newly formed relationship.

One of the most unique aspects of agricultural research and education in Hawai‘i, since the early 1900s, has been the cooperative relationship that prevailed among various entities concerned with creating successful agriculture in the Islands.

This included the US Agricultural Experiment Station, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (now the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center), the Pineapple Research Institute, the Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry (now the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture), and the college and university (all within a few miles of each other.)

The founding of the Graduate School of Tropical Agriculture at UH in 1931 brought together educators from these organizations, as well as the Bishop Museum, to teach graduate students. The Agricultural Engineering Institute was a direct result of a successful collaboration among three research institutions in 1947. (CTAHR)

The College of Agriculture was established in 1947 when faculty from the Cooperative Extension Service and the Experiment Station merged with the agriculture and home economics teaching faculty in the College of Applied Science.

Twenty-three years later, it was renamed the College of Tropical Agriculture (emphasizing the tropical nature of Hawai‘i’s environment and agricultural commodities.)

In 1978, the Cooperative Extension Service and the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station were brought closer together to create the Hawaii Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (HITAHR). Research and extension faculty were administratively included in the newly renamed College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR.)

One of the oldest artifacts of Hawai‘i’s Extension Service is ‘Minnie Lee’, the Extension hibiscus (a cross between the ‘Agnes Galt’ hibiscus and a “common yellow” variety.) This large yellow flower with a pinkish-red throat became a symbol of the program’s statewide outreach organization.

‘Minnie Lee’ was bred by Mr. AM Bush and first planted on Maui on May 25, 1929, about a year after the Extension Service officially started in Hawai‘i. It was named for the wife and daughter of William Lloyd, who came from Washington, DC for a year to formally establish the Extension Service. (Lots of information here is from CTAHR.)

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CTAHR-UH Campus-Hawaii_Hall-Farm on Right-1910s

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CTAHR-UH Campus-Farm on Left

College of Hawaii’s farm (1920)

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CTAHR-Related Facilities-Map

USDA Fruit Fly Laboratory (1931)

U.S Agricultural Experiment Station (circa 1901)

Territorial Normal School-1907

Pineapple Research Institute (1931)

Hawaii Sugar Planter’s Experiment Station (1904)

Hawaii Department of Agriculture-1930

College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (well prior to 1907)

Bishop Museum (1889)

Minnie Lee Hibiscus

February 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Joseph Atherton Richards

“’Who is this A. Richards?’”

“The players themselves, as well as others who usually know tennis players and tennis form as intimately as the average small boy knows the record of Babe Ruth, were asking each other the question at the clubhouse during the progress of this astonishing match.”

Richards, an unknown, beat favorite Watson Washburn in two straight sets and won the championship at the New York Tennis Club Tournament. (HMCS)

“Atherton Richards was the youth who thus confounded the prophets and tore the dope and the traditions into things of shreds and patches.” (NY Times, June 22, 1921)

He was called AR or Atherton Richards; however his full name was Joseph Atherton Richards. (Giles)

Richards was born in the Islands on September 29, 1894 (he died in 1974.) His father, Theodore Richards, came to Hawaiʻi in 1888 to become teacher of the first class to graduate at the Kamehameha Schools and, in 1894, principal of the Kamehameha Schools for five years. Atherton’s paternal grandfather was Joseph H Richards.

Theodore Richards founded Kokokahi on the windward side of Oʻahu (now a YWCA facility,) which means “of one blood”, which he meant as a place for people of different races to live together as people of one blood. (Star-Advertiser)

Theodore Richards married Mary Cushing Atherton, daughter of Juliette Cooke Atherton and Joseph Ballard Atherton. Joseph Atherton’ Richards maternal great grandparents were missionaries Amos Starr and Juliette Montague Cooke (Amos Starr Cooke and Samuel Northrup Castle formed Castle and Cooke.)

After graduating from Wesleyan University in 1915 (where he was captain of the tennis team,) Atherton served as a First Lieutenant in the US Army in 1917 and as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1942. (HICattle)

During WWII, Richards was one of the top officials serving under General William J “Wild Bill” Donovan, then-chief of the CIA’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS.)

Richards was tasked in the “Economics Branch” and was authorized to conduct research bearing on “the economic problems of the United States during and following the termination of the war emergency”. They also discussed “the possibilities of economic warfare organization.” (CIA)

In his business career, Richards served as an officer or director of Castle and Cooke Co, Hawaiian Pineapple Company, Bank of Hawaii, Ewa Plantation Co, Hawaiian Electric Co, and was a Kamehameha Schools, Bishop Estate (KSBE) trustee (1952-1974.)

In 1931, Hawaiian Pineapple accounted for about 38% of the Islands’ production (measured by cases of pineapples produced.) However, the Great Depression was on and Hawaiian Pineapple was facing bankruptcy.

In October 1932, Hawaiian Pineapple (what we call Dole) was reorganized to avoid catastrophe and founder James Dole was removed from management and Atherton Richards replaced him as general manager. (Cooper & Daws)

In late-1939, Richards tried to establish a new pineapple plantation on Molokai, in order to reduce their dependency on Waialua Agricultural Co, but the Molokai plantation plan was rejected by the board the next year. Richards left in 1941. (Hawkins)

As Bishop Estate trustee, Richards planted the idea of development of KSBE’s East Oʻahu property with Henry J Kaiser. They took a drive out to Kuapa Pond where Richards challenged Kaiser to make the development a success.

Kaiser accepted and proposed a $350-million dream city of 11,000 single family homes. Initially dubbed ‘Kaiser’s Folly,’ Hawaiʻi Kai became a success for Kaiser and Bishop Estate. (Hawaii Business)

Another lasting legacy of Richards is Kahua Ranch in Kohala, Hawaii Island, which he formed with Ronald Von Holt in 1928. The pair pooled their money and bought the property from Frank Woods.

Richards’ nephew, Herbert Montague “Monty” Richards, Jr, carries on his legacy today as Manager of Kahua Ranch. (Pono Von Holt runs the adjoining Ponoholo Ranch that had been split off from the original holdings.)

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Joseph Atherton Richards-HICattle