Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Mess

Early Honolulu was not a city of Clubs; although residents of various nationalities had started several, their existence has not been of long duration. The British, Germans and Americans each had their respective club houses.

In 1852, the British first opened their “Mess” rooms (it was not called a “Club” back then;) it started in a one-story wooden building off of Maunakea street, which was reached by a lane leading to the rear of the premises known as Liberty Hall (also known as Bugle Alley.)

The original Mess consisted of fourteen members; they were Stephen Spencer, WA Cooper, SH Cooper, Robert Moffitt, Dr Richard H Smythe, James E Chapman, JK Dallison, William Webster, John Janion, Charles Gordon Hopkins, H Fosbrooke, James Almon and Thomas Harding.

William L Green was the head of the Mess; he was prominent in official, civic and social life, and was for a time acting British Commissioner and Consul General, and President of the Chamber of Commerce of Honolulu.

The Mess was what might have been termed “movable” property; about 2-years after its Maunakea Street location, it moved to an old building on Alakea Street, and moved again to a building on Adams Lane.

In 1861, the Mess moved from Adams Lane further up the road to a 2-story building (that had been originally built for a club house) facing on Union street.

Mess membership declined down to only 4 in 1865; through the persistent efforts of two of these four members, the Mess was kept together and in a few months later had regained its strength.

By July 1867, the Mess had more members and was renamed “The British Club.”  Member subscriptions were sought, so the club could purchase its own premises.

Fifteen members (some of Honolulu’s notables of the day) subscribed to the purchase fund: Stephen Spencer, Archibald S Cleghorn, H Prendergast, Robert Moffitt, J Bollman, Thomas Cummins, James I Dowsett, Wm L Green, John Ritson, HA Widemann, John Montgomery, Robert Stirling, John O Dominis, Dr FW Hutchinson and Dr Robert McKibbin.

A charter of incorporation under the name of “The British Club” was granted in 1879; charter members were Thomas Cummins, Henry May and Archibald S Cleghorn.

Club life in the earlier days was somewhat different to what it is now; the club house was used as a home where members spent their evenings in a social manner and receiving their friends.

This club has had the honor of entertaining several distinguished and prominent visitors during its existence; among them was the Duke of Edinburgh, who visited Hawaii in 1869.

Kings Kamehameha IV & V were frequent visitors to the club; Kalākaua and his brother Leleiōhoku, were reportedly members, as were members of the diplomatic corps.

At one time, a faction of Club members considered selling their property and leasing the “Paki” premises, formerly the home of Bernice Pauahi Bishop and Charles R Bishop (also known as the Arlington Hotel.)  The move was overruled.

Later, the Club purchased the former Cleghorn property on Emma Street (Princess Kaʻiulani, daughter of the Cleghorns, was born there in 1875.)  Another prior owner was James Campbell, who bought the home from the Cleghorns and lived there for a number of years.

The Club later merged with the University Club (1930.)  Organized in 1905, the University Club was an exclusive association that admitted members who had graduated from recognized Universities, including military academies.

The club was “an organization that would tend to cement the business interests of Hawaiʻi,” it soon evolved into a business center that provided meeting, reading, entertainment and dining room facilities to its members and to groups with business connections.  (ASCE)

In 1961, a new club house was built; it was designed by Vladimir Ossipoff (he received a Hawaiʻi Society AIA award for its design.)

To keep the Club going, while at the same time constructing the new structure, they built the new around the old (losing only one day of Club operations during the final construction/move.  The lawn and terrace mark where the old club house once stood.)

Starting as a Gentlemen’s club (for whites,) the racial policy was scrapped in 1968 (Philip Ching and Asa Akinaka joined the club;) in 1983 (under a threat of legislative action,) the Club voted to admit women (in 1984, Andrea L Simpson was the first woman member.)

Oh, in 1892, “British” in the club’s name was changed to “Pacific.” At that time, the older members of the club were outvoted by the newer and later members. (The members at the time of the renaming it “The Pacific Club” had representatives of several nationalities.)  The Pacific Club is the oldest organization of its kind in the United States west of the Mississippi River. (Lots of info here from Thrum.)

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu – 1820

In the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)  Hawaiian lives changed with sudden and lasting impact, when western contact changed the course of history for Hawai‘i.

Forty years after Cook’s death, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM)) set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (on October 23, 1819.)  There were seven American couples sent by the ABCFM to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity in this first company.  Missionaries arrived first at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820; they then went to Honolulu and arrived there on April 14, 1820.

Captain Cook estimated the population at 400,000 in 1778. When Vancouver, who had been with Cook, returned in 1792, he was shocked at the evidences of depopulation, and when the missionaries arrived in 1820, the population did not exceed 150,000.  (The Friend, December 1902)

By the time the missionaries arrived, Kamehameha I had died and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished; through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho,) with encouragement by former Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother,) the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs.

But how were our ears astonished to hear the voice devine proclaim, “in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God”! How were our hearts agitated with new & various & unexpected emotions, to hear the interesting intelligence, “Tamahemaha is dead,” – “The Taboos are broken” – “The Idols are burnt” – “The Moreahs (heiau) are destroyed” – and the priesthood abolished.   (Hiram Bingham and others in a letter to the ABCFM)

So, what was Honolulu like forty-years after the first arrival of foreigners?  The following, from books, journals and letters, helps to paint the picture of Honolulu.

This village (Honolulu,) which contains about two hundred houses, is situated upon a level plain extending some distance back from the bay part of which forms the harbour, to the foot of the high hills which abound throughout the Island. The little straw-huts clusters of them in the midst of cocoanut groves, look like bee-hives, and the inhabitants swarming about them like bees. In passing through the midst, in our way to the open plain, it was very pleasant to hear their friendly salutation, Alloah (Aloha,) some saying, e-ho-ah, (where going?) We answered, mar-oo, up yonder. Then, as usual, they were pleased that we could num-me-num-me Owhyhee (talk Hawaiian.)  (Sybil Bingham)

Here we dropped anchor in the peaceful waters of this safe and commodious harbor, the best in this part of the world. It is sufficiently large to admit 150 sail, of the capacity of 100 to 700 tons. The depth of water at the bar, or mouth of the harbor, being little more than twenty feet, and little affected by the tide, the largest class of ships could not pass in and out with safety, without under-girders, or camels, to buoy them up.  (Hiram Bingham)

Ships lying at harbor whose officers were interesting themselves in our object, and whom we sought to entertain at our little dwelling as much after the manner of our own country as we could— a respectful attention also to the chiefs and their suite whenever they came in and spread themselves around upon our mats.  (Sybil Bingham)

Passing through the irregular village of some thousands of inhabitants, whose grass thatched habitations were mostly small and mean, while some were more spacious, we walked about a mile northwardly to the opening of the valley of Pauoa, then turning south-easterly, ascended to the top of Punchbowl Hill an extinguished crater, whose base bounds the north-east part of the village or town.  (Hiram Bingham)

On the east were the plain and grove of Waikiki, with its amphitheater of hills, the south-eastern of which is Diamond Hill, the crater of an extinct volcano, in the form of a cone, truncated, fluted, and reeded, larger, higher, and more concave than Punchbowl Hill, but of much the same model and general character.  (Hiram Bingham)

Below us (below Punchbowl,) on the south and west, spread the plain of Honolulu, having its fish-pond and salt making pools along the sea-shore, the village and fort between us and the harbor, and the valley stretching a few miles north into the interior, which presented its scattered habitation and numerous beds of kalo (taro) in it various stages of growth, with its large green leaves, beautifully embossed on the silvery water, in which it flourishes.  (Hiram Bingham)

Through this valley, several streams descending from the mountains in the interior, wind their way, some six or seven mile watering and overflowing by means of numerous artificial canal the bottom of kalo patches, and then, by one mouth, fall into the peaceful harbor.  (Hiram Bingham)

The soil is of the best kind, producing cocoanuts, bananas, and plantains, bread fruit, papia, ohia, oranges, lemons, limes, grapes, tamarinds, sweet potatoes, taro, yams, watermelons, muskmelons, cucumbers and pineapples, and I doubt not would yield fine grain of any kind.  (Ruggles, The Friend)

There are large droves of wild cattle in the mountains, and a herd of about fifty fine ones on a large plain near this village, owned by a Spaniard who neither makes any use of them himself, nor will he permit us to, yet. There are also immense numbers of goats both wild and tame. They supply us with milk, and are excellent meat. Hogs are numerous in the mountains. Dogs abound in great numbers. I have counted 250 brought in one day to King Tamoree. They are esteemed by the natives as the best food.  (Ruggles, The Friend)

From Diamond Hill, on the east, to Barber’s Point and the mountains of Waianae, on the west, lay the sea-board plain, some twenty-five miles in length, which embraces the volcanic hill of Moanalua, two or three hundred feet high, and among them, a singular little lake of seawater, abounding in salt crystalized through evaporation by the heat of the sun, the ravine of Moanalua, the lagoon of Ewa, and numerous little plantation and hamlets, scattered trees, and cocoanut groves, range of mountains, three or four thousand feet high, stretches aero the south-western part of the island, at the distance of twenty-five miles.  (Hiram Bingham)

Another range, from two to four thousand feet high stretches from the north-western to the eastern extremity of the island. Konahuanui, the highest peak, rises back of Punchbowl Hill and north by east from Honolulu, eight miles distant, and four thou and feet high, often touching or sustaining, as it were, a cloud.  (Hiram Bingham)

We were sheltered in three native-built houses, kindly offered us by Messrs. Winship, Lewis and Navarro, somewhat scattered in the midst of an irregular village or town of thatched huts, of 3,000 or 4,000 inhabitants.  (Hiram Bingham)  “(O)ur little cottage built chiefly of poles, dried grass and mats, being so peculiarly exposed to fire, beside being sufficiently filled with three couples and things for immediate use, consisting only of one room with a little partition and one door.”  (Sybil Bingham)

In addition to their homes, the missionaries had grass meeting places, and later, churches.  One of the first was on the same site as the present Kawaiahaʻo Church.  On April 28, 1820, the Protestant missionaries held a church service for chiefs, the general population, ship’s officers and sailors in the larger room in Reverend Hiram Bingham’s house.  This room was used as a school room during the weekdays and on Sunday the room was Honolulu’s first church auditorium.  (Damon)

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Blacks at Plymouth

Black history in the continental US had its beginnings in Virginia, yet Plymouth appears to have been first in having blacks as freemen.  In 1622, Thomas Weston, a merchant capitalist who had led the Pilgrims’ Mayflower financial group, organized a group of adventurers and fortune seekers to create a startup settlement just north of Plymouth.

Juan (sometimes John) Pedro came to Plymouth Colony with this group. “Juan Pedro deserves the distinction of being Plymouth’s first black Pilgrim.” (Gauquier, Cad Cod Times)   Let’s look back …

Early African Slave Trade

In the 15th century, Portugal became the first European nation to take significant part in African slave trading.  (College of Charleston)  By the 1480s, Portuguese ships were already transporting Africans for use as slaves on the sugar plantations in the Cape Verde and Madeira islands in the eastern Atlantic.  (Britannica)

By the 16th century, the Portuguese dominated the early trans-Atlantic slave trade on the African coast.  As a result, other European nations first gained access to enslaved Africans through privateering during wars with the Portuguese, rather than through direct trade.

When English, Dutch or French privateers captured Portuguese ships during Atlantic maritime conflicts, they often found enslaved Africans on these ships, as well as Atlantic trade goods, and they sent these captives to work in their own colonies. (LDHI, College of Charleston)

The Portuguese developed a trading relationship with the Kingdom of Kongo, which existed from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries in what is now Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Civil War within Kongo during the trans-Atlantic slave trade would lead to many of its subjects becoming captives traded to the Portuguese. (LDHI, College of Charleston)

Angola is a country on the west coast of southern Africa.  Like other areas there, portions had been colonized by the Portuguese.  The Portuguese established several settlements, forts and trading posts along the coast.  Despite Portugal’s territorial claims in Angola, its control over much of the country’s vast interior was minimal. (Hashaw)

During the era of the Atlantic slave trade, Angola was the leading exporter of slaves.  Starting in the early 1500s to the mid-1800s, nearly six million captives were embarked for the Americas from West Central African ports.  (Slave Societies)

The Catholic Church has a long history in Angola.  Catholic missionaries had been active in Angola an entire century before 1619 and had won thousands of voluntary converts.

In 1621, the Portuguese campaigns went deep into Kongo, and thousands were captured at the battle of Mbumbi at the very end of the year. These would all have been Christian, indeed, probably third or fourth generation Christian.  (Hashaw)

Angolans Were the First Africans to English America

The first Africans in Virginia in the 17th century came from the Kongo/Angola regions of West Central Africa. They were part of a large system established by the Portuguese in Africa to capture and supply slaves to the Spanish colonies in Central and South America.  (Marks)

The Spanish slave frigate São João Bautista (‘Baptist’), captained by Manuel Mendes da Cunha, left Africa with 350 slaves.  At the end of June, one month into the voyage, they ‘had many sick aboard, and many had already died.’

Before the frigate crossed the Atlantic and reached the West Indies a few weeks later, more than one hundred Africans on the Bautista had died of sickness. And Vera Cruz, her intended destination, was still nearly one thousand miles away.

Fearing the entire shipment would be dead before reaching Mexico, they paused briefly in the Caribbean for medicine and supplies that he paid for with twenty-four ‘slave boys he was forced to sell in Jamaica where he had to refresh.’  (Hashaw)

Of the original 350 Angolans who crossed on the Bautista in the summer of 1619, only 147 would finish the voyage to Vera Cruz in August. However, not all of the slaver’s losses were due to sickness.

The Bautista was captured in the Gulf of Mexico in the summer of 1619 by two English pirate ships – the Treasurer (the same ship that in 1616 had delivered Pocahontas to England) and the White Lion.

The 140-ton White Lion, that sailed out of Plymouth, England, and Flushing, in the Netherlands, was captained by a Calvinist minister, thirty-nine-year-old Reverend John Colyn Jope.  The White Lion carried Dutch letters of marque (this paperwork allowed Jope, as a civilian, to attack and plunder Spanish ships). 

The Bautista was destroyed in that attack before she could reach her intended destination of Vera Cruz, Mexico.  Figuring ship capacity, food, water, and the distance to Jamestown, they selected sixty or so of the healthiest Bantu men, women, and children and transferred them to their vessels – about thirty or so for the White Lion and the same number for the Treasurer. (Hashaw)

The first Africans in English North America were those pirated in 1619 by the White Lion and the Treasurer from the Spanish frigate San Juan Bautista in July, and delivered to Jamestown six weeks later at the latter end of August. (NPS, Historic Jamestowne)

The Angolans arrived in Virginia in 1619 when Jamestown still teetered on the brink and seemed about to disappear like the many doomed Spanish and English colonies before it. Their arrival coincided with the Virginia Company’s decision to change its course from seeking treasure to building communities.

The White Lion did not stay long at Point Comfort (Virginia), probably sailing to Jamestown before the arrival of the Treasurer a few days later.

The colony’s officials saw the Africans as valuable commodities and their labor as profitable; food supplies were scarce in Virginia between 1618 and 1624, and the Africans from the White Lion were desirable enough that the Governor and Cape Merchant parted with the Company’s dwindling stores.

Three or four days later, the Treasurer arrived at Point Comfort with additional enslaved Africans from the San Juan Bautista. The Treasurer did not stay long, departing quickly to avoid an ensuing scandal and potential seizure. Before departing, “two or three negroes they caste at Virginia,” and the remaining 25-27 Africans were taken to Bermuda, where a friendly governor allowed the Treasurer to trade. (Austin, Hampton History Museum)

Juan Pedro

Juan Pedro was one of the Bautista slaves that landed in Bermuda. Born in Angola in 1593, Juan Pedro, the baptized son of Bantu Christians, was taken prisoner of war at the age of twenty-five when the Imbangala forces under Governor Vasconcelos overran the Ndongo army of soba Kaita ka Balanga in 1619.

Butler assigned Juan Pedro and the two dozen or so other Treasurer Africans to work on both his and Lord Rich’s plantations at Bermuda. Butler also seized an additional fourteen Africans that Kendall had recently acquired from the White Lion, claiming that Kendall had ”stolen” them. These he set to work on the company’s general lands.

Over the next four years, a half dozen of these Africans were sent back to Jamestown. Names of Bautista Africans first appear in the 1625 Jamestown census, and from the faceless anonymity of Rolfe’s 1619 general description of “Negroes” emerge John Pedro, Antonio and Maria Johnson, and Antonio and Isabell Tucker and their young child, William, along with John Graweere, Margaret Cornish, and others.  (Hashaw)

Bermuda’s Governor Butler acknowledged he had three Africans in his possession (Juan Pedro, Anthonio (Anthony) Johnson and Maria (Mary Johnson).  In 1621, Governor Butler put all three of them aboard the James, and they sailed to the port of Bristol to testify in cases related to the piracy of the Bautista – through that, the Treasurer was implicated.

John Pedro, also known as Juan Pedro, returned to Virginia in 1623 on the Swan with one of the Earl of Warwick’s allies, Francis West, and resided at West’s plantation.  (1619 Genealogy)

Pedro lived in Plymouth, and during his time there, he marched with Myles Standish to explore Massachusetts. Onboard the Sparrow, he fished along the New England coast. He met the famous Squanto. He was there during Plymouth’s own terrible ‘starving time’ and shared hardships with the Pilgrims. He joined the Pilgrims in cutting trees for pales (pickets) to ring the tiny Plymouth settlement in defense against hostile attack.  (Hashaw)

He would remain in Plymouth for about a year and a half. But the New England colony was not to be his home. Given the Pilgrims’ evangelistic urge, there is little reason to believe that the Catholic Juan Pedro in Plymouth was not once more targeted for Protestant conversion. Once again, he refused.

In 1623, Juan Pedro went on to the colony of Jamestown. The 1625 Jamestown census identified ‘John Pedro, a Neger aged 30’ in the muster of Captain Francis West at his plantation in Elizabeth City on the Hampton River but revealed little else than that he had arrived two years earlier on the Swan. Whether Juan Pedro was regarded as a temporary or permanent servant is not clear, since the unfinished contracts of indentured servants could be inherited, .bought, traded, and, turned over for debt. (Hashaw)

It would be decades before Jamestown forbade Africans from carrying guns. John Pedro, listed in West’s muster, served as a soldier at Fort Algernon. Since West, as both a Virginia captain and the New England admiral, seems to have paid more attention to military and civic duties than to raising tobacco, it is also probable that Pedro accompanied him on various military expeditions both at sea and on land.

Whether Juan Pedro was regarded as a slave, an indentured servant, or a professional soldier by Captain West, he was a free man by the early 1650s when he was clearing land for his own plantation and purchasing servants, white and black, to extend his holdings through headrights. Land records show him progressing from Isle of Wight County to adjoining Surry County and to Lancaster County as newer shires were carved from older counties.

Juan Pedro’s patent for land in the Lancaster, later Middlesex, area of Virginia places him on the Dragon Run Swamp just before he mysteriously disappeared from colonial records in 1653. Before this time he had reunited with fellow Angolans who had crossed the Atlantic with him on the Bautista, including John Graweere in Surry County, and Anthony and Mary Johnson at Bennett’s Welcome, which was next door to West’s plantation.

He also became reacquainted with Antonio and Isabel, living with their young son, William, at Captain William Tucker’s farm at Elizabeth City. They were all Angolan Christians like himself.

In 1648, there were three hundred Africans in Jamestown among the fifteen thousand European settlers; and by then the first  malungu communities of Angolan Christian free men, many of whom had arrived via the Black Mayflower, were beginning to pop up in half a dozen places in Tidewater Virginia.

But in addition to his community, Juan Pedro had another loyalty – to his faith. His business dealings as a freeman show him involved with an emigrant from the English country gentry named William Eltonhead who was a Catholic and a friend of Lord Calvert, Baron of Baltimore.

The Eltonheads had an enslaved Angolan man named Francisco, who would later become the freedman Francis Payne. By this time Juan Pedro had married a woman (not yet identified), and they had at least one child, Matthew, who married into the Mayo family and from whom many descendants survive in Virginia to this day, though the Pedro surname has now been anglicized in a variety of forms.

It should be noted that Juan Pedro, John Graweere, Francis Payne, and Anthony and Mary Johnson became the earliest, freed blacks in Jamestown and, with other Angolans then living in Dutch New York, also the earliest free black property owners in all of North America. (Hashaw)

Slavery was not the inevitable fate of all the Africans who arrived in Virginia in the 17th century. By the middle of the century about a third of all Africans in the colony were free persons.

Most had been either slaves or indentured servants at some time in their lives, although a few had come as free persons or had been born there to free parents. Until the late 17th century there were no restrictions on free Africans in Virginia, and they lived similar lives to those of their English neighbors. (Marks)

Click the following link to a general summary about the First Blacks at Plymouth:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Blacks-in-Plymouth.pdf

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu’s First Electric Railway

An electric railway that once operated on Pacific Heights in the early 1900s is now history, and only a few living persons remember its operation.  A record of this enterprise appeared in Thrum’s Annual for 1900, which said of Charles S Desky and his real estate developments:

“The Kaimuki addition and Pacific heights tracts are attracting a number of selectors, and desirable residences are in course of construction in both of these sections. …”

“Main roads and streets have also been constructed, and the Pacific heights enterprise promises Honolulu its first electric road in the course of a few weeks, to be followed by the construction of an elegant hotel, plans of which are completed.”

Additional information about the building of the electric railway came in the Hawaiian Gazette of November 13, 1900:

“The Installation of the Pacific Heights Electric railway during the past week deserves more than passing notice. It marks the opening of a new era for Honolulu, In more ways than one.”

“It is the first electric passenger road in Hawaii. As such it is the forerunner of a system which before many months will stretch out from the City center In every direction. …”

“Mr Desky is to be congratulated upon the successful inauguration of a large enterprise for one man to undertake to handle. The community should show their appreciation of his pluck by liberally patronizing the road, while at the same time they will be getting more than they pay for.”

The actual date of the first passenger run of the cars may have been on November 30, 1900, for the Honolulu Advertiser of that day in 1940, quoting from ‘our files of 40 years ago’, said: ‘Today regular trips will be made over the Pacific Heights electric railway. The fare is five cents each way.’

And on November 21, 1900, the Advertiser carried a more detailed article on the subject. It began thus:

“The Pacific Heights electric railway was running last night and quite a crowd enjoyed the novelty of a ride in the handsome cars….”

Mr. Desky was reported as saying that the decision to build an electric railway was the result of economics and an expediency for the residents of the Heights.

The passenger cars had been built by the Holman Car Co, of San Francisco and were equipped with two No. 49 thirty-five-horsepower motors each.

Mr. Desky continued:

“On November 7th, a little less than six months after start of construction, the first car was run over the line for a distance of about two miles … About midway on the line we have a turnout, which allows of the passage of cars ascending and descending….

“Although the road is still incomplete, the demand for pleasure riding has already taxed the capacity of the cars, and it would appear that at least two or possibly three more would be required to meet the demand upon the road….

“As heretofore stated, the road has not been thrown open to the public, although a great many have availed themselves of the very moderate cost of travel, five cents each way, which low rate of fare I hope to be able to maintain, so as to make Pacific Heights a popular and attractive place of resort, as well as of residence….”

“We shall endeavor to run every half hour afternoon and evenings and all day Sunday. The lighting up of the Heights in the evening will indicate that the cars are being operated, and people may ride over the road until 9 o’clock.”

The Hawaiian Annual for 1901 gave further information about the venture:

“To C.S. Desky belongs the credit of establishing Honolulu’s first electric road in connection with his Pacific Heights property. It is now in successful operation, having a well appointed electric plant, supplying light to his tract and Kaiulani Boulevard.”

“The road will likely be connected later with the Rapid [Transit] system.  This latter concern is progressing, their power house and car shed being in course of construction, with the machinery all on the ground. The laying of street rail s began early in November.”

The following year the same publication reported: ‘Another pleasant drive to a commanding point is around Punchbowl, an extinct volcano some 500 feet high, just back of the city, or, a trip by the electric cars up Pacific Heights slope, between Nuuanu and Pauoa valleys, to the site of Desky’s proposed hotel at an elevation of about 800 feet.’

Before long a dance pavilion was put up a t the top of the Heights; here dancing was held twice weekly, usually on Wednesday and Saturday nights. The eves of recognized holidays were also dance nights.

The exact date of the shut-down of operation of the electric railway appears to have been unrecorded. … The few people who still remember the operation of the electric railway say it was discontinued toward the latter part of 1906.

The reader may wonder what Pacific Heights looked like before Mr Desky started building his electric railway. That part of the slope toward the city was gentle, with many patches of guava trees, kalu bushes and stands of cactus (panini). There were no large or tall trees up to the summit until where the kukui nut, ohia and koa trees started along the ridge to the Ko’olau range.

Cutting of Kaiulani Drive (also called Kaiulani Boulevard) but now known as Pacific Heights Road, was a manual pick-and-shovel operation as power shovels, bulldozers and other modern road equipment had not yet been designed.

The short drive up the slopes of the site of Hawaii’s first electric railway will be a rewarding experience for anyone who is interested in the history and beauty of Honolulu.

The above is all from Manuel G Jardin’s article on the Honolulu’s First Electric Railway in the October 1965 Hawaiian Historical Review.

Click the following link to read/download Manuel Jardin’s full article from the Hawaiian Historical Review:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Honolulus-First-Electric-Railway-HHR-Revival-Jardin.pdf

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Holoholokū

Hānau ke aliʻi I loko o
Holoholokū, he aliʻi nui
Hānau ke kanaka I loko o
Holoholokū, he aliʻi no
Hānau ke aliʻi mawaho aʻe o H
Holoholokū ʻaʻohe aliʻi
he kanaka ia.

The child of a chief born in
Holoholokū is a high chief;
The child of a commoner born
in Holoholokū is a chief;
The child of a chief born outside
of the borders of Holoholokū
is a commoner.

The traditional name was Ka Lae o Ka Manu, which means the crest of the bird. Holoholokū appears to have been the ancient locality name.  (NPS)

Oral traditions tell of the sacred births of Kauaʻinui and Wailuanuihoʻano and the establishment of this area as a birthing site reserved for royalty. It is still considered as one of Hawaiʻi’s most sacred sites.  (Wailua Heritage Trail)

Holoholokū at Wailua on Kaua’i was one of two places in Hawai‘i specifically designated for the birth of high ranking children; the other site was Kūkaniloko near Wahiawa on Oʻahu.

Here all the kings of Kauaʻi were born, from earliest times to King Kaumualiʻi.  Aliʻi from other islands would also come here to give birth.

Kaumuali‘i was the only son of Kamakahelei and Kāʻeo (his mother Kamakahelei ruled the island when Captain James Cook made ‘contact’ in 1778.)  Kaumualiʻi was born the same year at Holoholokū. Kaumuali‘i became ruling chief of Kaua‘i upon the death of his parents.

It is said to be the oldest heiau on Kauaʻi and was named for a foster parent of Kawelo, son of Kauai’s ruling chief Mano-kalani-po and his wife Ka-wai-kini early in the 17th century.

Two boulders are within the heiau; the pōhaku hānau (birthstone) is actually two rocks.  Expectant mothers sat on the flat rock and rested her back on the other; when in use, the rocks were enclosed in a shelter and the rocks were covered with mats and kapa.

“… when an expectant mother of royal lineage was about to deliver her child, she would travel to the birthstone and squat on the ledge, leaning back against the upright section of the stone. After the birth, the mother and child were moved into a cave adjacent to the stone …“

“The mother remained in the cave with her child and retinue until she was able to travel; a booth or temporary shelter was built over the place. This was the sacred birthplace of the aliʻi or chiefs.”

“If the child really were a great chief, the heavens allegedly would burst forth with thunder and lightning, and there would be a heavy downpour of rain. A rainbow would arch over the area, with one end indicating the spot where the child had been born.”  (NPS)

A tradition describes how the piko (navel cord) of a newborn child was placed in the nearby Pōhaku Piko; if a rat stole the piko it was an omen that the child would grow up to be a thief, and allegedly the child was put to death. (NPS)

Another legend states that the newborn child was carried up a path to a boulder on the ridge, overlooking the river.  As the kahuna walked, he chanted of the arrival of the new chief.  (Joesting)

Within the walls of the heiau was a grass-thatched house of the kahuna.  “Bits of branch coral (indicative of sacredness) are scattered through the walls. Small, water-worn pebbles out on the earthen floor indicate the former presence of a house floor-pavement.”

“The west side of the heiau is bounded by a terrace and at the south end of this terrace, the south-west corner of the heiau, is a great horizontal ledge of stone, called the sacrificial stone.”

“Built out from the north side of this ledge is a little terrace, 9 feet square ….. I am certain the heiau of Ka-lae-o-ka-manu, or Holoholokū served in conjunction with the birth place, and that here the drum which would announce the news would be kept, as the drum of Kūkaniloko was kept in the near-by heiau.”  (Emery, 1933)

In December 1933, restoration of the Holoholokū heiau was completed by a team of volunteers led by Grove Farm director Henry Digby Sloggett, with Kapaʻa resident Charles Lono Kelekoma and Honolulu’s Bishop Museum providing technical expertise.   (TGI)

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC