Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Melville Monsarrat

James Melville Monsarrat was born June 13, 1854, in Honolulu.  On his paternal side Monsarrat is descended from Nicholas Monsarrat, who went to Dublin, Ireland, in 1755 from France. MC Monsarrat, his father, resided in Canada before coming to Hawaii.

The elder Mr. Monsarrat was a figure in the public life of Hawaii in the 1850s, being at one time deputy collector of customs and later entering the lumber firm of Dowsett & Co., which was eventually absorbed by S. G. Wilder &  Co. He died on October 18, 1871.

Through his mother Monsarrat is a descendant of Captain Samuel James Dowsett, a native of Rochester, Kent, England, and a commander in His Majesty’s Colonial Service, who, as owner and master of the brig “Wellington,” came to Hawaii from Sydney July 27, 1828, and established his family in Honolulu.

James Monsarrat was educated at Episcopal Grammar School (Honolulu), Oahu College (Punahou).  Returning to his father’s native land in 1871, he studied at Kilkenny College, Ireland.

For two years, and, traveling extensively, he was privately tutored in the French language at Brussels, Belgium, in 1873. He later attended Harvard University Law School, receiving  his LL.B. degree, class of 1878.

Before returning to Hawaii, he was with the law firm of Ely & Smith, New York City, for a short time. He was then admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the Hawaiian Islands, Aug. 22, 1879.

He became active in public life, holding the office of deputy attorney general under W Claude Jones, Attorney General, and was secretary of the legislative assembly in 1880.

During his practice Judge Monsarrat drew the will of Queen Emma and of Princess Likelike. The will of Queen Emma was later contested without success by Prince Albert Kunuiakea.

“There are many legacies mentioned in the will. Some are to native Hawaiians, one is to a Chinaman, and to the St. Andrew’s School for Girls, and the Queen’s Hospital, a chartered institution, a large share of the property is left.” (Hawai‘i Supreme Court)

Queen Emma left the bulk of her estate, some 13,000 acres of land on the Big Island and in Waikiki on Oahu, in trust for the hospital that honors her.

The Queen’s Medical Center mission is to fulfill the intent of Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV to provide in perpetuity quality health care services to improve the well-being of Native Hawaiians and all the people of Hawaii.

Princess Likelike was the sister of a King and Queen – and the daughter of High Chief Kapaʻakea and Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole – her sister became Queen Liliʻuokalani and her brothers were King Kalākaua and William Pitt Leleiōhoku.

On September 22, 1870, Princess Likelike was married to Honolulu businessman Archibald Scott Cleghorn.  The Cleghorns had one child Kaʻiulani (born on October 16, 1875) – “the only member of the Royal Family having issue.” (Daily Herald, February 3, 1887)

In 1887 when Master of Hawaiian Masonic Lodge, Monsarrat assisted in conferring the Mark Master’s degree on King Kalakaua at Iolani Palace.

Monsarrat married Carrie Capitola Tuttle in Honolulu, February 11, 1907. He was appointed District Magistrate of Honolulu, May 8, 1911 to May 31, 1917.  He was later an examiner of titles for the Land Court.  

Judge Monsarrat consolidated his professional interests in 1926, when he organized the Monsarrat Abstract and Title Co., his nephew, Marcus R Monsarrat, became associated with him at that time.

Judge Monsarrat was a member of the Outrigger Canoe, Harvard and British Clubs, and the Harvard Law School Association.  He died September 20, 1943 in Honolulu.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mōʻiliʻili Skeletons

This story raised more questions than answers.  It related to a Honolulu Advertiser story published on April 24, 1926.  It asks, “What mysteries will the skeletons of Mōʻiliʻili reveal …?”

In part, it notes theories by historian WD Alexander, who suggests, “it is nearly certain that there were two distinct periods of emigration to these Islands.”

“The first settler must have arrived in the very ancient times, as the discovery of human bones under ancient coral beds and lava flows.  Judge Fornander estimates that these Islands were inhabited as early as 500 BC.”

At Mōʻiliʻili, the paper notes that, “Skeletons that may be thirty centuries old, have just been uncovered from the encompassing layers of brown sand, still in a remarkable sate of preservation, the skulls intact, not a tooth missing.”

“And some of the skeletons are reported by the discoverers to have been found in a standing position. Above the sand is a top soil from a score to 50 feet in depth. Below, in the sand strata, 15 feet below the top soil, the skeletons were found a few days ago.”

We know that during the island’s formative stage, the sea level was more than 25 feet higher than its present level.  This is estimated to have happened during the Sangamon Interglacial Stage (the Pleistocene Epoch). In Hawai‘i, folks refer to this as the Waimanalo High Sea Stand around the island about 120,000 years ago.

This period of sea level elevation is responsible for the deposit of fossil reef limestone (and, thus, some sand) in southern coastal Oʻahu, including up to the region we now know as Mōʻiliʻili.

The weathering and erosion of Oahu’s dormant volcanoes, the Waianae and Koʻolau, paired with the rise and retrieval of the sea level resulted in the formation of “interbedded marine and terrestrial deposits”.

So, sand in Mōʻiliʻili is not unexpected.  But the news report adds a peculiarity … “How does it happen that this sand is different from any other sand found on Oahu, unlike the Waianae sand or the sands from the beaches?”

“How does it happen that this sand  is similar to the standard Ottawa sand, and one of the best known to builders? From this sand bank ton upon ton is being excavated and transported to the city of Honolulu and is being incorporated in some of the great new structures rising all over under the impetus of the new building activity”?

Back to the skeletons … “Those who have seen these skulls are intrigued by the belief that they do not resemble the usual type of Hawaiian skull, in that their contour is practically perfect, suggesting a pure Aryan origin. No marble figure of the Greek has a more perfect head that that found in the Mōʻiliʻili sand strata.”

“Some. Hawaiians, threading back into the ancient and misty past, and clinging to the thought that the Hawaiians came out of the ‘place of the dawn,’ or the rising sun, believe in the possibility of a migration from the western continental hemispheres, possibly Aztec, possibly Inca Origin …”

“… and with this trend of thought presented it is easy to build up an ethnological mosaic that would hark back to the area of the continent of Atlantis, [peopled] by those of the farther east, and after all, clinging still to that trend, the origin could be traced to the shadow of the pyramids.”

“The startling fact was revealed that one has was found whose sightless eye orifices faced, apparently, to the east, toward the rising sun, the ‘Kahiki’ of the Hawaiians, their ‘place of dawn’ …”

“… for even the Hawaiians, in their legends and their ancient chants handed down, generation to generation by the bards, ‘word-of-mouth-narratives’ expressed a theory of having come from ‘out of the dawn – the east.’”

Having said that, the Star Bulletin came out with a following statement from the Bishop museum where they reported, that while “Members of the staff have not examined the skeletons …”

“In the absence of definitive proofs of extreme age, scientists of the Bishop Museum are not inclined to ascribe special importance to the finding of several skeletons at the Mōʻiliʻili quarry”.

“‘As far as the location of the burials is concerned,’ says Dr Herbert E Gregory, director of the Bishop Museum, ‘they do not indicate any great lapse of time.  They are not found at any great depth.’” (SB, April 27, 1926)

No further reporting was found in the old newspapers about the Mōʻiliʻili skeletons; however, it seems questions remain (a burning one for relates to why the burials were in ‘a standing position’).

(A prior post on the Mōʻiliʻili Karst noted the eroded limestone caves under Mōʻiliʻili: https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/moiliili-karst-moiliili-water-cave/)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Inter-Island Hula Contest

David and Lydia Bray sought to reinsert hula into everyday public life.  A group of influential Hawaiians – a princess, a famed hula dancer, and a composer – gathered at a Honolulu home in 1919 to judge a private hula performance.

The Brays, a young Hawaiian couple who were dancers themselves, had staged this unofficial “hula trial.”  They sought to address the question, Was hula truly vulgar and vile? All we know is that girls from the ages of eight to fourteen presented their hula repertoire before the panel.

At the end of the presentation, the judges conferred and delivered a “not guilty” verdict. The hula was clean; its practitioners should not fear performing before Hawaiian and American audiences. (Imada)

For many Hawaiian women, hula presented a dream ticket out of Hawai‘i, promising fame, glamour, and middle-class status difficult for them to achieve in the plantation and service industries. Hula dancers could earn between fifty and one hundred dollars a week, compared with four to ten dollars a week in the pineapple canneries.

Talent recruiters from the US continent took advantage of the ample labor pool in the islands. Orchestra leaders, Hollywood film studios, and American nightclubs periodically scouted for dancers in Hawai‘i, where women often faced stiff competition for coveted hula contracts. (Imada)

Then, in 1938, sponsored by Hollywood’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) and the Hawai‘i-based Consolidated Amusement Company, the “Inter-Island Hula Contest” sought to crown a “hula queen.”

In the “greatest hula contest ever staged in the Islands,” nearly five hundred young Hawaiian women competed for the title for more than a month, going through several rounds of competition. Each hoped to win the grand prize: a trip to Hollywood and a chance at stardom in the United States.

On almost every island, audiences followed the competition with great enthusiasm, buying tickets for preliminary rounds held at movie theaters and rooting for their favorites.

On Friday nights on O‘ahu, local people attended elimination rounds at the Hawai‘i Theater and indicated by applause their choices of finalists. (Imada)

In September 1938 five finalists from five different islands gathered in Honolulu for a “Hula-Nui Nite” (Big Hula Nite).  Finalists were Keahi Bright, Oahu; Rita Lum Ho, Maui; Dorothy K Dudoit, Molokai; Ethel Moniz, Hawaii and Kealoha Holt, Kauai.  In an overflowing theater, a board of judges crowned the contestant from Kauai, Alice Kealoha Pauole Holt, “Hula Queen.”

Holt was born on February 10, 1919 into a life of modest means with a lineage directly tied to the royal families of Hawai‘i. Her introduction to the world of movies came by way of MGM, who sponsored the event, and sent her to Hollywood to play the part of the native dancer in the movie Honolulu with Robert Young and Eleanor Powell.  (IMDb)

Holt subsequently passed her MGM screen test in Hollywood and spent three months there, touring as an “ambassador of good will” and dancing in the American stage and film productions of Honolulu.

Holt may have been MGM Studio’s only official “Hula Queen,” but she was only one of a generation of Hawaiian women who began leaving Hawai‘i in the 1930s for the US continent. (Imada)

“Hollywood knew Hawaii’s brightest and best hula dancer, Kealoha Holt, for a brief few months, before the young lady suffered pangs of homesickness and returned to the islands.” (SB, Sep 30, 1939)

American nightclubs and showrooms packaged hula as middlebrow American entertainment, and hula dancers joined circuits that routed them between Hawai‘i and Manhattan. Hula became the ticket out of Hawai‘i for many women, promising fame and glamour in the United States. (Imada)

“And now, the newest crop of hula dancers, singers and musicians are in New York .… Most of the girls, in long letters home, write of their longing for Hawaii. Some, like Kealoha Holt, just pack up and return.”

“Their jobs pay from $75 to top prices of $100 a week. They put on three shows a night, six nights a week. They usually live at the hotel where they work, or in apartments adjoining night clubs where they are featured. … They pick up pin money making recordings, if they sing; posing for advertising, teaching the hula to patrons.”

“Today, with Hawaii’s good will emissaries stationed in strategic centers such as San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago and New York, synthetic shimmies of yesterday are giving way to real Hawaiian hulas.”

“These singing and dancing islanders who invade mainland night spots provide splendid advertising for Hawaii.  They take with them the charm and grace of an island paradise where two thirds of America longs to visit. They are fresh and blood representatives of a South Seas island lure of which escapists dream.”  (MacDonald, SB, Sep 30, 1939)

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Hilo Fire Department

When arguing against a legislative budget appropriation for fire equipment for Hilo, a representative rationalized that, “it never got dry enough in Hilo for a fire.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Oct 18, 1890)

However, others saw that “Hilo needs a hook and ladder company at once”. (Hawaiian Gazette. Jan 17, 1888) “… but since then no one seems to feel any interest in the matter.  Insurance must be higher here than it would otherwise be, as there is no protection against fire.” (PCA, Nov 29, 1888)

During the 1890 legislative session, Rep. Nawahi moved to insert $5,000 “to provide fire apparatus for Hilo” into the budget.  “Rep Brown said $5,000 wouldn’t build the house for the engine let alone buy the engine.  A good engine costs from $10,000 to $15,000.”

“The only way to have a fire department is to organize it, and to do that you must pass an Act.  Therefore instead of putting this in the Appropriation Bill it had better go to a select committee.”  They were told, “Without a law authorizing the organization of a fire department nothing can be done.”

“Rep Lucas stood out numerous calls of ‘question,’ and said that $4,000 or $5,000 would be enough.  A very good hand machine could be got for $2,000 to $3,000. The Item passed.”  (PCA, Aug 2, 1890)

On January 9, 1893 Lili‘uokalani approved an act that, “There shall be a Fire Department for the town of Hilo, on the Island of Hawaii, which shall consist of a Chief Engineer, not over two assistants, and as many firemen as may be approved by the Board of Representatives of the Department duly chosen as by its by-laws”.

“Any person may be a member of the Fire Department of Hilo by the affirmative vote of a majority of the members of any fire company to which such person shall have applied, provided always, that such person shall not be a vagrant or disorderly person, and shall not have been convicted of any felony which shall not have been pardoned.” (Evening Bulletin, Jan 26, 1893)

On July 27, 1893, “The first election for chief engineer of the Hilo fire department … was held in the court-house … Daniel Porter, Clerk of the third and fourth circuit court, was elected chief for two years and A Wall assistant engineer for the same period.”

“Now that the organization is complete, and the Hilo fire department an accomplished fact, it is expected that the property-owners about the town will take more interest it its welfare and assist the fire company by making donations to its building fund. And by joining the Provisional government to enlarge and improve our water works system.”

“A movement is on foot to establish a hose company among the native Hawaiians, and a meeting was held at the court house, August 1st, to effect arrangements of the organization.” (Hawaiian Gazette, August 15, 1893)

Although initially volunteer firefighters, “Members of the Fire Department who shall have been in the active performance of their duties for at least a year … shall be exempt for the payment of poll, school and road tax in each year.” (Evening Bulletin, Jan 26, 1893)

Later that year, Andrew Brown, chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners in Honolulu, purchased the bell “which has so long occupied a position in the Bell Tower [of the Mechanic’s Engineer Company No. 2]; and after having it cleaned and its fittings painted … present[ed] it to the Hilo Fire Department.” (Hawaiian Star, Sep 4, 1893)

By 1899, “Chief Engineer Vannatta has had but little actual fire-fighting to engage in but he keeps the department ‘up to date’ in drill and discipline.” (Godfrey)

Steam Fire Engine Co., No. 1 was the first fire station and was located at the corner of Waianuenue Avenue and Kekaulike Street.  A steamer and hose wagon were located in the new station.

“Wood was used to fire the boiler, which produced steam to run the fire pump. By 1910 the Hilo Volunteer Fire Department had 60 members and responded to 11 fire calls that year. Additional equipment in service included a chemical wagon mounted on a car and a second car was used to tow the steam engine.”

“During 1919 the first motorized apparatus, a 750 gpm Seagraves engine was placed in service. The first career firefighters were hired in 1924 and included William Todd the first paid chief, an assistant chief, drivers, and hosemen; seven personnel total.”

“The career service was supplemented by volunteers, which continue in service today. In 1927 the second motorized apparatus was purchased, which was a 1,000 gpm Seagraves.”

“During 1931, 12 additional personnel were hired, and in 1937 a third engine was placed in service. Emergency medical service (EMS) was added to the department in 1972 with the first two firefighters trained as emergency medical technicians (EMTs).” (Robert A Burke)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kohala Field System

Throughout the younger islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, dryland agricultural field systems constituted a significant component of the late prehistoric subsistence economy.
 
The field systems produced large quantities of food to support local farmers and residents, as well as local and district-level chiefly elites.
 
It is generally thought that the dryland agricultural systems had spread to their maximum extent, nearly reaching the edge of productive lands.
 
Kohala supported a large and well-developed field system, covering over 15,000-acres with a dense network of field walls and paved trails.  It is one of the largest archaeological sites in Polynesia.
 
In the Kohala area, Hawaiian farmers found, farmed and intensified production on lands that were poised between being too wet and too dry.
 
The distribution of intensive rain-fed agricultural systems was constrained on its lower end by conditions that were too arid to support intensive agriculture reliably, while at their upper margin many millennia of leaching had depleted soil fertility to a point where intensive rain-fed agriculture was infeasible.
 
In essence, Hawaiians were farming the rock in intensive dryland agricultural systems; their field systems extended to the wettest point that still supplied nutrients via basalt weathering.
 
When the field system is plotted against the rainfall map it falls within the 30-70-in rainfall band.
 
Archaeological evidence of intensive cultivation of sweet potato and other dryland crops is extensive, including walls, terraces, mounds and other features.
 
The fields throughout the Kohala system were oriented parallel to the elevation contours and the walls (and perhaps kō (sugar cane) planted on them) would have functioned as windbreaks from the trade winds which sweep down the slopes of the Kohala mountains.
 
Configured in this way, the walls would also have reduced evapotranspiration and – with heavy mulching – retained essential moisture for the crops.  This alignment of fields also conserved water by retaining and dispersing surface run-off and inhibited wind erosion and soil creep.
 
The main development of the Kohala field system took place AD 1450-1800.  By the late-1600s the lateral expansion of the field system had been reached, and by AD 1800 the system was highly intensified.
 
The process of intensification involved shortened fallow periods, and agricultural plots divided into successively smaller units.
 
The archaeological map of the Kohala field system depicts over 5,400-segments of rock alignments and walls with a total length of nearly 500-miles.
 
The fields begin near the north tip of the island very close to the coast.  The western margin extends southward at an increasing distance from the coast, with the eastern margin at a higher elevation and also an increasing distance from the coast.
 
From north to south the field system is more than 12-miles in length.  At its maximum, it is more than 2.5-miles in width.
 
Scientists speculate that this farming did not just support the local population, but was also used by Kamehameha to feed the thousands of warriors under his command in his conquest of uniting the islands under a single rule in the late-1700s.
 
Based on experimental plantings, if only half of the Kohala Field System was in production in one year, it could be producing between 20,000 to 120,000-tons of sweet potato in one crop.
 
The system was abandoned shortly after European contact in the early- or mid-19th century.
 
The image shows remnants of the Kohala Field System walls in present pastureland.  A special thanks to Peter Vitousek, former Hawai‘i resident and now Professor at Stanford, for background information and images.