Peter T Young

January 6, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

250 Years Ago … New York Provincial Company of Artillery is Formed

New York Provincial Company of Artillery was authorized on January 6, 1776; it is the oldest Regular Army unit on uninterrupted active duty and the only active Regular Army unit with credit for Revolutionary War service, and one of the few with credit for War of 1812 service. (Army)

It was commanded by Captain Alexander Hamilton. In 1772, Hamilton arrived in New York City. He began preparing for college at Eizabethtown Academy in New Jersey. He later studied at King’s College (now Columbia University).

At the outbreak of the war, Hamilton joined other students in a volunteer militia regiment called the Corsicans. This regiment was later named the Hearts of Oak.

Hamilton showed great potential as a leader through hard work and study. In 1776, he accepted the rank of captain of the New York Provincial Company of Artillery.

With two six-pound guns, 25 men and a wealth of revolutionary fervor, Hamilton joined Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army.

Hamilton and his company crossed the Delaware River on that freezing Christmas night in 1776, commandeering an iron-ore barge, better known as a Durham Boat, which was nine feet wide and 60 feet – long to accomplish the task and confront the Hessians at Trenton.

Today, 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery traces its lineage to this unit. It is the only active Regular Army unit with credit for Revolutionary War service, and one of the few with credit for War of 1812 service. Soldiers refer to themselves as ‘Hamilton’s Own’.

Following the war, President Washington appointed Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury. He was instrumental in the creation of the US Mint, stock and bond markets, and the First Bank of the United States.

As tensions rose against France, Hamilton returned to the Army in July 1798 as a Major General and served as the Army’s inspector general and second in command to Washington. He also became the de facto head of one of America’s first political parties, the Federalists.

Hamilton’s life came to an end on July 12, 1804, when he was mortally wounded in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, a political rival.

January 5, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tree-named Hotels

Edward Payson Irwin was born in DeWitt, Iowa, May 7, 1875; he graduated from the University of Kansas in 1897. After enlisting and serving in the US Army during the Spanish-American War, he came to Hawai‘i in 1906 to be a reporter for the Bulletin. (HSA)

“Irwin was an accomplished newsman who acted as a gadfly over many years against the establishment and its press and against the fiscal ‘extravagance’ of the government. Progressive in politics and social issues.” (Guide to newspapers of Hawaiʻi, 1834-2000, Chapin)

Irwin served as City Editor and later Editor for the Advertiser. He later founded and was editor for the Weekly Times (also called the Honolulu Times). (Hawai‘i Sate Archives) He worked at other publications.

Irwin developed an interest in Waikīkī. Historically, Waikīkī encompassed fishponds, taro lo‘i, coconut groves and a reef-protected beach that accommodated Hawaiian canoes.

Waikīkī shifted from agricultural to residential uses, with private residences for the Hawaiian royalty and the well-to-do. Near the turn of the 20th century, some of these homes were converted into small hotels and eventually into world-class resorts.

Robert Lewers (whose firm Lewers & Cooke supplied much of the lumber for O‘ahu homes) built a two-story wooden frame bungalow with an open veranda overlooking a coconut grove in 1883.

In 1907, Irwin leased the Lewers’ house and converted the structure into a small hotel called the Hau Tree, in honor of the many trees that shaded the beachside lawn. (Halekulani)

Irwin had another tree-named hotel; this time in central O‘ahu.

“Wahiawa is 25 miles from town by rail. It is the original pineapple district founded by a colony of American agriculturists in 1899. It is a small village surrounded by pineapple fields, and being of an elevation of 1000 feet offers to pleasure-seekers and those seeking the cool atmosphere, recreation and rest.” (Aloha Guide, 1915)

It “also (has) several stores, markets, shops, laundry, etc., and two pineapple canneries. Now that the mails come twice a day by rail instead of twice a week by stage from Pearl City, as was the case formerly, a number of Honolulu people have built country houses.” (Paradise of the Pacific, Oct/Nov 1905)

Mr and Mrs Henry C Brown converted their Wahiawa home into the “Malukukui, their home-hotel among the pineapples at Wahiawa.” (Hawaiian Gazette, September 29, 1909)

“(I)ll health sent them to seek a quiet country life. They settled in Wahiawa, the largest pineapple country in the world, where they bought several acres of ground and built their home, evolving from it a small country inn in which they are now able to accommodate some fifty guests.”

“Every room has a fine view either over the restful pineapple fields or down the deep ravine on the edge of which the house is built. In the distance can be seen magnificent mountain ranges and glimpses of the Pacific ten miles distant.” (The Craftsman, 1909)

Then, in 1911, Trent Trust Co placed advertisements offering the Malukukui and its 10-acres of land for sale or lease. This was followed by, “The lease giving EP Irwin the control of the Wahiawa country resort formerly the Malukukui Hotel was signed yesterday by the trustees of the Atherton estate and the new proprietor took possession at once.”

“Numerous expensive additions and repairs about the place have been already planned and will be immediately executed increasing the capacity of the hotel and making it cosier and nearer the standards of the comfort in city hostelries.”

“An automobile will meet the trains at Wahiawa from the hotel and in its off moments act as a link between the Hau tree Irwins Waikiki Hotel and his new Wahiawa enterprise.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 7, 1911)

“The Kukui Tree, formerly known as Malukukui, at Wahiawa, is now open and ready to receive guests. Extensive Improvement are under way and will soon be completed. No place in Hawaii is as suitable to spend a week end at as the Kukui Tree.”

“Run up today or tomorrow and stay over Sunday and see if this is not true. If you try it once, The Kukui Tree will become a habit with you. The table is excellent, as are the accommodations. Inquiries may be made of EP Irwin, at the Hau Tree, phone 1389.” (Hawaiian Star, March 24, 1911)

“The necessity for a place such as Mr Irwin has reopened exists and he deserves all the patronage his enterprise should bring him. As managers of the Hau Tree at Waikiki, Mr and Mrs Irwin have demonstrated the fact that they know how. (Hawaiian Gazette, March 24, 1911)

However, “The Kukui Tree would pay big in the hands of anyone who could get a liquor license, or who would run a blind pig. … EP Irwin has decided to close the Kukui Tree, at Wahiawa. …”

“The place has not been paying. Mr. Irwin will devote all his attention now to his Waikiki place, the well known Hau Tree.” (Hawaiian Star, July 17, 1911)

However, Irwin’s Waikīkī enterprise also faltered, his lease expired, and the landowners ran an ad for new tenants. (Halekulani)

“Despite its location and modest rent, the business they took over was little better than a boarding house. There were three guests the day they moved into their 40-guest capacity hotel.” (From “Hali‘a Aloha o Halekulani”; Halekulani)

Nearby, the J Atherton Gilman family bought 3-acres and built a two-story house from a man named Hall. La Vancha Maria Chapin Gray rented the Gilman house in 1912 and converted it into a boarding house and named it Gray’s-by-the-Beach. The sandy area fronting it was soon referred to as Gray’s Beach.

In 1917, Clifford and Juliet Kimball acquired the Hau Tree Inn near Gray’s Beach and, in the late 1920s, they decided to expand and bought the Gilman property, including Gray’s-by-the-Sea and an adjacent parcel belonging to Arthur Brown.

When their expansion project was completed, the Kimballs had acquired over five acres of prime Waikīkī beachfront for their resort, which they named Halekūlani, or “house befitting heaven.”

January 4, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pahukanilua

Kamehameha I granted an ahupua’a called Kawaihae Hikina (also referred to as Kawaihae 2) to John Young for his invaluable service. The John Young Homestead was part of the ‘ili‘aina (or estate) known at one time as Pahukanilua.

Young was given the Hawaiian name of “Olohana,” which was the “Hawaiian language imitation of his boatswain’s call ‘All Hands’ during the battles of conquest.”

Young is credited with introducing cattle and goats to the island because of his relationship with Captain Vancouver, and he supported the introduction of Christianity to Hawaii and the establishment of missions.

He operated the kingdom’s warehouse at Kawaihae, where meats and hides were stored, and oversaw the sandalwood trade. Young’s influence is so great that he “seems to have been present and involved in every event of lasting importance in Hawaii from 1790 through 1820.” (Durst)

The John Young Homestead served as Young’s principal residence from 1798 until his death in 1835, at which time it appears to have been essentially abandoned. In 1929, AP Taylor, librarian with the archives of Hawaii, began advocating for the restoration and preservation of the site because of Young’s significant role in Hawaiian history.

Young’s property was actually divided into the lower homestead, near Kawaihae Bay and now underwater, and the upper homestead, which is now part of Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site.

The site was organized in a typical Hawaiian manner as a cluster of eight residential structures serving various functions. Five of these structures as “Hawaiian-style,” meaning they were built using traditional Hawaiian construction techniques like dry-set masonry, and three as “Western-style,” meaning mortar and coral lime plaster were utilized.

The distinguishing feature between Hawaiian and Western construction techniques at this site was not the absence or presence of plaster but whether or not the stones were set in mortar. Thus, the John Young Homestead represents a transitional period in construction methods on the Hawaiian islands.

“… coral blocks brought by canoe from reef at Puako. Coral blocks were burnt. Mortar and plaster were made from sand, burnt coral and mixed with poi and hair.” “I finish plastering all houses and have whitewashed the fences around the animal pens. It is as in Wales.” (Young Diary 1798-1799) (abstracted from Young Diary 1798-1799; Apple)

Young wrote in his diary in 1798 about the establishment of his homestead and indicated the closeness of his relationship with Kamehameha I:

“Have begun four buildings. My house, the cook house, and storage room, the house for the child and tahus [guardians] and near the small temple [perhaps referring to Mailekini Heiau] a house for storage.”

“My house at the small rise below the great temple [referring to Pu‘ukohola Heiau] more suitable than the ravine which washes away with Whymea floods [perhaps referring to the Makeahua gulch]. The great one [Kamehameha I] comes to use my cook house several times. I make biskits and cook a lamb. Have all enjoyed feast.”

The John Young Homestead is described in many contemporary travel accounts … “The house of this interesting old man, was located at the top of a small hill which overlooks the village of Kawaihae, built of stone, well ventilated and sanitary.” (Freycinet, 1829)

“The north point of Owhyee consists of low land, which rises in a strait line under an acute angle, into the region of the clouds. As soon as you reach these parts, the monsoon has no longer any effect, and you may expect sea and land winds frequently interrupted by total calms, and light breezes from every point of the compass; this was our case near Tocahai [Kawaihae] Bay, where the wind entirely died away.”

“We now saw Young’s settlement of several houses built of white stone, after the European fashion, surrounded by palm and banana trees; the land has a barren appearance, and is said to be little adapted to agriculture, as it consists, for the most part, of masses of lava.” (Kotzebue 1821)

“From out at sea, we could see the European built houses of John Young towering above the grass shacks of the natives. The whole beach is encircled by settlements of the people but wholly without any shade.”

“Only towards the south, along the coast, are cocoanut trees found scattered amongst the houses. The woods that occupy a higher zone on the mountain are not found in the valleys. Columns of smoke were to be seen in different parts of the island.” (Chamisso 1939)

At Kawaihae, “we were entertained by old John Young, an English runaway sail or, who had been many years on the islands, and had assisted Kamehameha in bis conquests. He had married a native woman of rank, has a fine family of sons and daughters, and is considered a chief.”

“He lived in a dirty adobe house adorned with old rusty muskets, swords, bayonets, and cartridge boxes. He gave us a supper of goat’s meat and fried taro, served on old pewter plates, which I was unfortunate to see his servant wipe on his red flannel shirt in lieu of a napkin.”

“We were sent up a rickety flight of stairs to sleep. I was afraid, and requested Dr Judd to look around the room carefully for concealed dangers, and he was heartless enough to laugh at me.”

“Sleep was out of the question; I was afraid of the wind, which sometimes sweeps down the gorge of the mountain, and got up at midnight, and went down to the grass house of Mrs. Young, which was neat and comfortable.” (Laura Fish Judd, Honolulu: Sketches)

“Mr. Young, taking a female of rank for a wife, was himself promoted to the rank of a chief, partly in consequence of the services he had rendered in the wars of conquest, his strong attachment to the king, and his ability and readiness to serve him. He officiated for a time, as governor of Hawaii.”

“Though at first detained there against his will, he at length preferred to stay rather than to return to England. He had two sons and three daughters, who at length came under the instruction of the missionaries.” (Bingham) Young would spend the rest of his life in Hawai‘i; he died in Honolulu on December 17, 1835.

John Young and his granddaughter Queen Emma are buried at Mauna ‘Ala (the Royal Mausoleum on O‘ahu,) the final resting place of the high chiefs and royalty of the Kamehameha and Kalākaua dynasties.

In John Young’s last will and testament of 1834, bequeathed lands were divided between John Young and Isaac Davis’ children and John Young’s surviving wife Ka‘oana‘eha (Mary Kuamo‘o). Legal separation of the upper and lower portions of the John Young Homestead occurred under the Mahele and Land Commission Awards.

In 1848, Ka‘oana‘eha and Isoba Puna (konohiki) applied for ownership of the lower portion of the John Young Homestead. In 1851, LCA 4522 was awarded to Ka‘oana‘eha and Puna thereby creating the formal separation of the upper and lower portions of the Homestead. (Durst) (Lots of information here is from Apple, Durst, NPS, HABS, Judd, and Bingham)

January 3, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Gooneyville Lodge

Midway is an atoll in the middle of the northern Pacific. It is about 3,200 miles west of San Francisco, about 3,600 miles east of Shanghai, China, and approximately 1,300 miles northwest of Oahu. (HABS UM-1)

(An island is a body of land surrounded by water. (Continents are also surrounded by water, but because they are so big, they are not considered islands.) An atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef, island, or series of islets. The atoll surrounds a body of water called a lagoon. (National Geographic))

In January 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt placed Midway Atoll under the control of the U.S. Navy. A few months later, the Commercial Pacific Cable Company brought in the first permanent residents of Midway Atoll.

Their mission was to install and maintain a trans-Pacific telegraph cable as part of the first round-the-world communications system. The cable company constructed four two-story buildings. (Friends of Midway)

Midway Atoll’s three small islands (Sand, Spit, and Eastern (W2E)) provide a virtually predator-free safe haven for largest nesting colonies of Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses in the world.  (FWS)

Beautiful in flight, but ungainly in their movement on land, the albatrosses were called “gooney birds” (or just “gooneys”) by the men stationed on the islands during World War II. (Marine Conservation Institute)

Midway’s gooneys did not become widely known until Pan American Airways built a base for its transpacific clippers on the mid-Pacific atoll in 1935.

Pan American Airways pioneered the transpacific air route between the US mainland and China, using US jurisdictions and territories across the Pacific as “stepping stones.” This extended the American Home Front westward, and sparked Americans’ imaginations and their excitement for the Airline. (NPS)

These large flying boats flew from San Francisco to China, marking the fastest and most luxurious route to the Orient at that time. This service not only connected distant regions but also brought tourists to Midway, operating until 1941.

Pan Am’s establishment of Midway Island as a stopover was part of a larger strategy to set up refueling stops across the Pacific, which included locations in Hawai’i, Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines. (Midway-Island)

In April 1935 Pan Am began the construction of an intermediate base at Midway for their air route from the U.S. mainland to the Orient. Their air route across the Pacific used seaplanes, so no runways were needed, but a wooden dock and a mooring barge in the lagoon were constructed. (HABS UM-1)

The latter is where the seaplanes discharged cargo and passengers; they were then carried to the dock in small boats. Carrying air mail had been the first intended use for the Pan American planes, but demand for passenger service became so great, plans were drawn up to includes hotels at the isolated bases. (HABS UM-1)

A prefabricated hotel building was sent out. It was Y-shaped, with the lounge and dining room in the center and 20 rooms in each of the two flanking wings. Other prefabricated buildings were erected for the permanent base crew.

In 1938 the Pan American Airways settlement consisted of some 20 frame buildings, including “a machine shop, refrigerator plant, radio station, radio beacon, offices, and power plant”.

In 1939, “There are three ‘towns’ on this island: Cable City [for Commercial Pacific Cable company], Gooneyville [Pan Am’s facilities] and Used [the US Engineering Department] …”

“… but there are no boulevards, no street lamps, no telephone poles, no fire hydrants, no dogs, no traffic cops, no neon signs, no drug stores, no theaters, no daily newspapers (except a couple of sheets of news furnished by courtesy of the cable company). no post office, no almost anything!”

Buildings were “amidst a multitude of nesting white gooneys the Pan American Airways people staked claim and moved in on April 7, 1935. Neat, huff-colored cottages and work shops, all red-roofed, are scattered over the sandscape …”

“… unpainted board walks run along the cottage side of ruts in the sand which mark the main thoroughfare, while the PAA hotel – the first and only one of the island – sprawls apart by itself, a huge blue-trimmed ivory Y surrounded by wide-eyed gooneys and recently planted shrubbery.” (Adv, Apr 3, 1939)

During WWII, the military took over Midway … the Pan American Airways hotel was taken over as a recreation and recuperation center for the submariners, and its name changed to “Gooneyville Lodge” (HABS UM-1) A golf course received world-wide billing as the only one with gooney birds nesting on fairways. (Aldrich)

The Japanese planned to assault and occupy the atoll in order to threaten an invasion of Hawaiʻi and draw the American naval forces that had survived the attack on Pearl Harbor out into an ambush against the brunt of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Midway was of vital importance to both Japanese and American war strategies in World War II, and the raid on the atoll was one of the most significant battles of the war, marking a major shift in the balance of power between the United States and Japan.

As dawn approached at around 0430, June 4, 1942, the American carriers (Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown) were about 300 miles north north-east of Midway. Their Japanese counterparts (Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū) were 250 miles northwest of the atoll.

In their attack, the Imperial Japanese Navy lost two thirds of its fleet aircraft carriers (four Japanese aircraft carriers and their accompanying aircraft and crews.) The loss of USS Yorktown was a major blow to the US, but the American wartime production of men and materiel would soon make up the difference and outpace that of the Japanese.

While the primary carrier fleet engagement occurred well to the north of Midway Atoll, much of the “secondary” action occurred within or originated from the atoll.

The Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) is considered the most decisive US victory and is referred to as the “turning point” of World War II in the Pacific. The victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position.

Then, in 1950, “Midway atoll, the United States’ oldest off-shore possession and once a bristling sentinel of the North Pacific, is being turned over to its first settlers, Gooney Birds.”

“The navy has ordered its personnel out by June 30, and long before then Pan American Airways and Civil Aeronautics administration employes will have packed up and left. … The navy’s deserted submarine base and two strategic airfields will be only symbols of America’s Pacific war strength.” (Adv, Apr 30, 1950)

“One navy wife explained the sentiments of the islands’ departing residents: ‘They must have called it Midway because its halfway between Heaven and Earth.’” (Adv, Apr 30, 1950)

Today, the US Fish and Wildlife Service staff, volunteers and contractors live on Midway to support the recovery and integrity of wildlife habitat and species while balancing their own human impact on the land and seascape, and protecting historical resources. (FWS)

While in the chain of islands, atolls, and seamounts of the Hawaiian Islands Archipelago, Midway is part of the US but not part of the State of Hawai‘i. (The Hawai‘i Admission Act (Public Law 86-3, March 18, 1959) excluded Midway – “The State of Hawaii shall consist of all the islands … but said State shall not be deemed to include the Midway Islands …”)

https://maps.app.goo.gl/xrFBTvL3miZPr84R8

A little personal side story … When Pan Am used Midway and Wake as stopping points for flights across the Pacific, my grandmother (Laura Sutherland) was Assistant Head Librarian for the Library of Hawai‘i in charge of the “Extension Department.”

My grandmother took advantage of these flights and expanded the reach of her “Extension Department” by supplying reading material to residents on Midway and Wake, with the cooperation of Pan Am. Each week, a new supply of books was added to the flights in what is believed to be America’s only Flying Library Service.

January 2, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hanai

Hanai – To raise, rear, feed, nourish, sustain; provider, caretaker (Pukui;) or, on a historical, practical context, “given away by birth parents to be raised by another couple.” (Wood)

In ancient Hawaiʻi, and even today, the concept and practice of “hanai takes place openly among family and close friends; a child is considered the greatest of gifts.” (Essoyan)

It’s interesting to hear the explanation of a hanai child of her relationship with her birth siblings and parents.

“I was destined to grow up away from the house of my parents. Immediately after my birth I was wrapped in the finest soft tapa cloth, and taken to the house of another chief, by whom I was adopted.”

“(W)hen I met my own parents, it was with perhaps more of interest, yet always with the demeanor I would have shown to any strangers who noticed me.”

“My own father and mother had other children, ten in all, the most of them being adopted into other chiefs’ families; and although I knew that these were my own brothers and sisters, yet we met throughout my younger life as though we had not known our common parentage. This was, and indeed is, in accordance with Hawaiian customs.” (Liliʻuokalani)

Liliʻuokalani was born September 2, 1838 to Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea and Analeʻa Keohokālole, she was hanai (adopted) to Abner Paki and his wife Laura Konia (granddaughter of Kamehameha I.)

“…their only daughter, Bernice Pauahi (born December 19, 1831,) afterwards Mrs Charles R Bishop, was therefore my foster-sister. … I knew no other father or mother than my foster-parents, no other sister than Bernice.”

She was not the only Queen who was hanai. Emma Naʻea was born in Honolulu on January 2, 1836 to high chief George Naʻea and Fanny Kekelaokalani Young (daughter of John Young, King Kamehameha I’s counselor) and Kaʻoanaʻeha (Kamehameha’s niece.)

As was the custom, she was offered to her mother’s sister, Grace Kamaikui Rooke and her husband, Dr Thomas Charles Byde Rooke (an Englishman) as hanai daughter. Unable to have children of their own, the Rookes adopted Emma.

Emma married Alexander Liholiho (he was also hanai, to Kauikeaouli, King Kamehameha III.) At his hanai father’s death, Alexander Liholiho became King Kamehameha IV; when Emma married him, she became Queen Emma.

Hawaiʻi Courts have long recognized hanai relationships. “(T)he customs and usages which have long prevailed, and have been universally recognized, have the same force of law as those subsequently passed and incorporated in a Code.” (Noting that children were given and received freely in adoption in ancient Hawaiʻi.)” (Supreme Court, 1872)

Hawaiian “families of this state have long maintained strong ties among members of the same extended family group. The Hawaiian word ʻohana has been used to express this concept.”

“It is not uncommon in Hawaiʻi to find several parent-children family units, with members of three and even four generations, living under one roof as a single family.” (Supreme Court)

“The Hawaiian concept of adoption also differs from that in other common law jurisdictions. The ancient Hawaiians cherished the principle of adoption which took two forms …”

“… a child or adult one loves, but for whom one might not have exclusive care, might be adopted as a keiki hoʻokama (a child of the family) (and a) keiki hanai is a child given to another to raise, as a foster child (the term hoʻokama has fallen into disuse and the term hanai has since been used to refer to all types of adoption.)”

“Nevertheless the custom of giving children to grandparents, near relatives, and friends to raise whether legally or informally remains a strong one.” (Richardson, Supreme Court)

Courts (and the law) have acknowledged, “in recognition of Hawaiʻi’s unique customs and traditions regarding family, that adopted children are the “issue” of their adopting parents (now codified in HRS § 578-16 – ‘A legally adopted individual shall be considered to be a natural child of the whole blood of the adopting parent or parents.’)” (AG)

The image shows a drawing by Charles Bartlett, ‘Hawaiian Mother and Child.’ (ca 1920)