Peter T Young

December 4, 2021 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Evacuation Camps and War-time Housing

In pre-war preparations, a May 23, 1941 article in the Honolulu Advertiser titled “Army Maps Areas to Be Evacuated in Event of Emergency” informed civilians that 86,000 persons living in Honolulu resided in danger zones, and that half would have to evacuate in the event of a war.

“The Hawaiian Department has worked out a comprehensive plan for moving and caring for those who would have to leave their home. Preparation of the plan was directed by Col. Albert B. K. Lyman department engineer.”

“Much of the responsibility for the actual mechanics of the process would devolve upon the civilian government unless it was necessary to invoke martial law …”

“… but it is hoped that the people of Honolulu would be sufficiently aware of the necessities of the evacuation process to act voluntarily and cooperate with the government and the army, both in caring for themselves and in helping to care for others.”

“Areas to be evacuated are those places surrounding and in the vicinity of legitimate targets for an enemy. They extend practically without a break along the waterfront from Middle street to Waialae golf course.”

“The mauka boundary is School street to Kapiolani street, then Kapiolani boulevard and the Ala Wai to the fair grounds, along Kapahulu to Waialae avenue, and along the ewa boundary of the golf course to Kahala avenue.”

“This portion of the city that would be evacuated contains several artillery posts, the docks, the oil tanks, railroad yards, Hawaiian Electric Company, Honolulu Gas Company, Mutual Telephone Company, the newspaper plants and the major traffic arteries – all legitimate targets.”

“Because any air raid on Honolulu that might ever occur would most probably be at night, consequently not of the precision variety, bombs might land at some distance from the actual targets. That is the reason so large an area would have to be evacuated.”

“There are two classes of evacuees: those who will voluntarily or with slight persuasion leave, and those who must be forced to leave … Persons who cannot be used in any manner in the defense and who are unwilling to leave Honolulu but who can be used directly and indirectly in the defense constitute the seconds class.’”

“In discussing the evacuation program General Short regretted, that Honolulu does not possess one of the most favorable facilities that could be utilized as a camp. That is a large recreation center away from the ocean. The beaches, he said, do not offer enough foliage for protection from observation.” (Honolulu Advertiser, May 23, 1941)

During the Fall of 1941 diplomatic relations between the United States and Japan, which had been steadily deteriorating, took a sudden turn for the worse. December 7, 1941 Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor.

Shelters for evacuees were built in the valleys of Palolo, Kalihi and Mānoa; however, they were “held in readiness for evacuees in connection with [another] attack.”

Neither Kalihi Valley Camp nor Palolo Valley Camp ever accommodated Islanders displaced after the initial attack on December 7th. A memorandum written in February 1942 confirmed that both Palolo and Kalihi Camps remained unoccupied.

With the coming of World War II Hawaii was confronted with a serious housing shortage, as Honolulu saw an influx of over 100,000 civilian defense workers, while a lack of building materials and laborers brought residential construction to a virtual halt.

Four evacuation camps, which the Office of Civilian Defense had erected in Palolo and Kalihi valleys in case of another Japanese attack, were turned over to the HHA and converted into wartime public housing for several hundred families.

The housing situation became more acute in 1943, as workers continued to come to the islands, and in 1944 the military further compounded the problem by permitting families to join war workers.

The HHA developed public housing areas in Palolo, Kapalama, and Lanikila during 1944 and 1945, and the Federal Public Housing Authority opened Kalihi War Homes with its 248 units in February 1945.

Members of a Congressional subcommittee, which came to investigate Honolulu’s housing situation (in Pālolo and elsewhere) in March 1945, learned of “hot bed apartments” where as many as eighteen men occupied one room in three shifts.

The subcommittee found that adequate housing had not been provided for approximately 60,000 of the 107,679 civilian newcomers who came to Hawaii during the war.

With the conclusion of World War II, the Pālolo School Camp was closed as they were deemed unsatisfactory for occupancy. The Pālolo Evacuation Camp adjacent to the 362-unit emergency housing project in Pālolo remained in operation.

The Federal Public Housing Authority started to build another 1,000 dwelling units in Manoa, but these were not completed until 1946, after the war was over.

With the conclusion of World War II, three of the evacuation camps, Kalihi Evacuation Camp, Kalihi School Camp, and Palolo School Camp, were closed as they were deemed unsatisfactory for occupancy.

The Palolo Evacuation Camp adjacent to the 362 unit emergency housing project in Palolo remained in operation. (HHF)

December 3, 2021 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sugar, the Early Years

Sugar was a canoe crop; the early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in the islands.

In pre-contact times, sugarcane was not processed as we know sugar today, but was used by chewing the juicy stalks. Its leaves were used for inside house thatching, or for outside (if pili grass wasn’t available.) The flower stalks of sugar cane were used to make a dart, sometimes used during the Makahiki games. (Canoe Crops)

The first written record of sugarcane in Hawaiʻi came from Captain James Cook, at the time he made initial contact with the Islands. On January 19, 1778, off Kauaʻi, he notes, “We saw no wood, but what was up in the interior part of the island, except a few trees about the villages; near which, also, we could observe several plantations of plantains and sugar-canes.” (Cook)

Cook notes that sugar was cultivated, “The potatoe fields, and spots of sugar-canes, or plantains, in the higher grounds, are planted with the same regularity; and always in some determinate figure; generally as a square or oblong”. (Cook)

It appears Cook was the first outsider to put sugarcane to use. One of his tools in his fight against scurvy (severe lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in your diet) was beer.

On December 7, 1778 he notes, “Having procured a quantity of sugar cane; and having, upon a trial, made but a few days before, found that a strong decoction of it produced a very palatable beer, I ordered some more to be brewed, for our general use.”

“A few hops, of which we had some on board, improved it much. It has the taste of new malt beer; and I believe no one will doubt of its being very wholesome. And yet my inconsiderate crew alleged that it was injurious to their health.” (Cook)

While the crew “would (not) even so much as taste it”, he “gave orders that no grog should be served … (he) and the officers, continued to make use of this sugarcane beer, whenever (they) could get materials for brewing it.” (Cook) Others later made rum from the sugarcane.

But beer and rum were not a typical sugar use; shortly after, the first reported processing of sugar was noted. “(I)n 1802 sugar was first made at these islands, by a native of China, on the island of Lanai.”

“He came here in one of the vessels trading for sandal wood, and brought a stone mill, and boilers, and after grinding off one small crop and making it into sugar, went back the next year with his fixtures, to China.” (Torbert; Polynesian, January 31, 1852)

As production grew, the early sugar ventures were either Hawaiian-owned or regulated by Hawaiian rulers. Stephen W Reynolds, crew on the New Hazard, kept a diary; his March 5, 1811 entry (presumably in Honolulu) notes:

“Sent a boat ashore after water. Went ashore in cutter with captain; saw the King’s cane mill and boiler, ship—a small one hauled up of about 175 tons, fort, etc.” (This suggests that King Kamehameha was making sugar in Honolulu in 1811.) (Cushing)

A friend of the King, Don Francisco de Paula Marin is also credited with early sugar processing. In Robert Crichton Wyllie manuscripts of Marin’s journals, Wyllie noted an entry concerning sugar, “On the 25th of February, 1819, he was engaged in making sugar.” There are eight additional entries that mention sugar or molasses. (Cushing)

In most instances, the Hawaiian-owned sugar processing was managed by either Chinese sugar boilers or American shopkeepers in rural districts. (MacLennan) Although sugar cane had grown in Hawaiʻi for many centuries, its commercial cultivation for the production of sugar did not occur until 1825.

In that year, John Wilkinson and Governor Boki started a plantation in upper Mānoa Valley. Within six months they had seven acres of cane growing, and by the time Wilkinson died, in September 1826, they had actually manufactured some sugar. The sugar mill was later converted into a distillery for rum, prompting Kaʻahumanu to have the cane fields destroyed around 1829. (Schmitt)

“The first successful sugarcane plantation was started at Kōloa, Kauaʻi in 1835. Its first harvest in 1837 produced 2 tons of raw sugar, which sold for $200. Other pioneers, predominantly from the United States, soon began growing sugarcane on the islands of Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu.” (HARC)

Shortly thereafter, King Kamehameha III, seeking to encourage commercial cultivation of sugar by native Hawaiians offered the “acre system,” giving “out small lots of land, from one to two acres, to individuals for the cultivation of cane.”

“When the cane is ripe, the King finds all the apparatus for manufacturing & when manufactured takes the half. Of his half one fifth is regarded as the tax due to the aupuni (government) & the remaining four fifths is his compensation for the manufacture. These cane cultivators are released from all other demands of every description on the part of chiefs.” (Armstrong (1839;) MacLennan)

About this time, the initial signs of commercial sugar are found on Maui, in Wailuku. In 1840, the King ordered an iron mill from the US, and it was erected by August. Hung & Co in 1841 advertised the sale of sugar and sugar syrup from its 150-acre plantation in Wailuku. More than likely, this was sugar from the King’s Mill. (MacLennan)

Early plantations were small and didn’t fare too well. Soon, most would come to realize that “sugar farming and sugar milling were essentially great-scale operations.” (Garvin)

Then, the King sought to expand sugar cultivation and production, as well as expand other agricultural ventures to support commercial agriculture in the Islands. In a speech to the Legislature in 1847, the King notes:

“I recommend to your most serious consideration, to devise means to promote the agriculture of the islands, and profitable industry among all classes of their inhabitants. It is my wish that my subjects should possess lands upon a secure title; enabling them to live in abundance and comfort, and to bring up their children free from the vices that prevail in the seaports.”

“What my native subjects are greatly in want of, to become farmers, is capital with which to buy cattle, fence in the land and cultivate it properly. I recommend you to consider the best means of inducing foreigners to furnish capital for carrying on agricultural operations, that thus the exports of the country may be increased …” (King Kamehameha III Speech to the Legislature, April 28, 1847; Archives)

A few things helped kick-start this vision – following finding gold in 1848, the California gold rush stimulated a small boom in commercial agriculture for the Islands – particularly in potatoes and sugar. However, by the end of the 1850s, the boomlet became a depression (California started to supply its own needs.)

A decade later, the American Civil War virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s. Hawaiian-grown sugar soon replaced much of this southern sugar through the duration of the conflict.

By the end of the war, over thirty extremely prosperous plantations were in operation and expanded to new levels previously unheard of before the war’s commencement.

Hawaiʻi’s industrial plantations began to emerge at this time (1860s;) they were further fueled by the Treaty of Reciprocity – 1875 between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market.

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.

The industry came to maturity by the turn of the century; the industry peaked in the 1930s. Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar. (That plummeted to 492,000-tons in 1995; a majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s.) The image shows sugarcane.

December 2, 2021 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Dunn’s Baby

Jack Dunn bought and managed the Baltimore Orioles of the International League.

He had a reputation for finding and developing young talent, selling a number of players to Major League clubs, which helped continue to fund the Orioles’ growth.

In 1914, Dunn came across a teenage pitcher at a local Baltimore high school. The kid’s name was George Herman Ruth. (Joe Swide)

George Herman Ruth was born to George Ruth and Catherine Schamberger on February 6, 1895, in his mother’s parents’ house at 216 Emory Street, in Baltimore, Maryland.

With his father working long hours in his saloon and his mother often in poor health, Little George (as he was known) spent his days unsupervised on the waterfront streets and docks, committing petty theft and vandalism.

Hanging out in his father’s bar, he stole money from the till, drained the last drops from old beer glasses, and developed a taste for chewing tobacco. He was only six years old.

Shortly after his seventh birthday, the Ruths petitioned the Baltimore courts to declare Little George “incorrigible” and sent him to live at St. Mary’s Industrial School, on the outskirts of the city.

The boy’s initial stay at St. Mary’s lasted only four weeks before his parents brought him home for the first of several attempted reconciliations; his long-term residence at St. Mary’s actually began in 1904. But it was during that first stay that George met Brother Matthias.

“He taught me to read and write and he taught me the difference between right and wrong,” Ruth said of the Canadian-born priest. “He was the father I needed and the greatest man I’ve ever known.”

Brother Matthias also spent many afternoons tossing a worn-out baseball in the air and swatting it out to the boys. Little George watched, bug-eyed.

“I had never seen anything like that in my life,” he recalled. “I think I was born as a hitter the first day I ever saw him hit a baseball.” The impressionable youngster imitated Matthias’s hitting style – gripping the bat tightly down at the knobbed end, taking a big swing at the ball – as well as his way of running with quick, tiny steps.

“Sometimes I pitched. Sometimes I caught, and frequently I played the outfield and infield. It was all the same to me. All I wanted was to play. I didn’t care much where.”

In one St. Mary’s game in 1913, Ruth, then 18 years old, caught, played third base (even though he threw left-handed), and pitched, striking out six men, and collecting a double, a triple, and a home run.

That summer, he was allowed to pitch with local amateur and semipro teams on weekends. Impressed with his performances, Jack Dunn signed Ruth to his minor-league Baltimore Orioles club the following February. (Society of American Baseball Research)

Because of Ruth’s rough background, in order for him to leave the high school and sign with the Orioles, Dunn had to become his legal guardian.

When the team took their new teenaged pitcher to spring training in North Carolina, Ruth became known as “Dunn’s baby,” which was eventually shortened to just “Babe,” and so was christened the legendary Babe Ruth. (His other nicknames included, Bambino, the Home Run King and The Sultan of Swat.)

The Babe’s Orioles tenure was brief, however, as mounting crosstown competition from the Baltimore Terrapins of the upstart Federal League put the Orioles in dire financial straits, forcing Dunn to sell his prized star to the Boston Red Sox midway through the season and ultimately move the team to Richmond, Virginia. (Joe Swide)

Ruth played for the Boston Red Sox (1914-1919), the New York Yankees (1920-1934) (Yankee Stadium opened on April 18, 1923. Ruth hit the first home run there, earning it the name “The House that Ruth Built.”) and briefly the Boston Braves (1935).

Babe Ruth retired in 1935 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. He was one of the first five players to be inducted. The Yankees retired his famous number 3.

Babe Ruth visiting the islands in October 1933 for a vacation and exhibition games in Honolulu and Hilo. “Babe Ruth, the foremost champion at baseball, and the greatest batter, constantly making homeruns in a majority of the games he is in, will play in an exhibition on this coming Sunday, October 22 at the ball field of Kamoiliili”.

“The people who are into baseball are talking about this game to be played by this baseball champ in Honolulu nei. The price [kaki] for entrance to see the game has not been announced, but it is certain that the fee will be a blow [kanono], because the expense to bring this man here to Honolulu is great, and we hear that his family will be coming to Honolulu as well.” (Alakai o Hawaii, 10/19/1933, p. 4)

“The Bambino played outfield and first base, took a turn In the pitcher’s box, knocked a home run and even struck out. Ruth’s team, an aggregation of local stars, won the exhibition by a score of 5 to 2.” (The Evening Star (DC) October 23, 1933)

He apparently, enjoyed his stay … “Babe Ruth, who came to Hawaii a fort night ago for a vacation, departed today for New York, seeking a rest.”

“His legs and arms were sunburned from a fishing trip on which his catch was about of a size to fill his coat pocket. As he boarded the Lurline for San Francisco with his wife and daughter Julia, the Bambino said:”

“‘I am going straight to New York to rest. I’ll get there two weeks from to day. I am going to sleep a week.” (The Sunday Star (DC), November 5, 1933)

December 1, 2021 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kalama Beach Club

Kailua Ahupua‘a is the largest valley on the windward side of O‘ahu, and the largest ahupua‘a of the Koʻolaupoko District. From the Koʻolau ridge line it extends down two descending ridge lines which provide the natural boundaries for the sides of the ahupua‘a.

When the first Polynesians landed and settled in Hawaiʻi (about 900 to 1000 AD (Kirch) they brought with them shoots, roots, cuttings and seeds of various plants for food, cordage, medicine, fabric, containers, all of life’s vital needs.

“Canoe crops” (Canoe Plants) is a term to describe the group of plants brought to Hawaiʻi by these early Polynesians. One of these was ‘niu,’ the coconut; they used it for food, cordage, etc.

Later, others saw commercial opportunities from coconuts.

In 1906, Albert and Fred Waterhouse were walking over sand dunes along the approximately one-mile wide by two-and-a-half-mile long area between Kawainui Marsh and the ocean, when they envisioned the idea of planting coconut trees there.

“During the week papers will be filed with the Treasurer for the incorporation of the Hawaiian Copra Co, having lands under (a 29-year) lease from Mr Castle. …”

“(The land) is … two-hundred and fifty acres adapted to the cultivation of cocoanut trees, of which it has twenty thousand, half of which are nearly three feet high and the balance recently planted.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 12, 1907)

“The copra is compressed and the extracted oil used in the manufacture of soaps, and as oils in the manufacture of high-grade paints. Another use to which it is put is the manufacture of shredded cocoanut, which is utilized by confectioners and bakers. The fiber is made into hawsers (ropes) for towing purposes.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 12, 1907)

They “leveled the sand dunes and smoothed out the sand hillocks,” and planted approximately 320-acres with over 130,000-coconut trees.

Many rows of ironwood trees were also planted as a windbreak and a fence had to be built to keep cattle out. (Drigot)

Things looked up.

“George A Moore & Co, commission merchants, of San Francisco, see no reason why Hawaiian copra should not compete more than favorably with other South Sea copra in the mainland market.… (He noted,) We beg to call to your attention the large consumption in this market of dried cocoanut, commercially known as copra, which reaches as high as fifteen thousand tons per annum.”

“Cocoanut plantations in the Pacific Islands for the production of copra have now become quite an extensive and profitable venture, and we have no doubt it would prove so to your planters. ” (Peters; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 17, 1908)

It didn’t last. … In 1916, the copra/coconut oil enterprise failed.

The Waterhouses sold their “Coconut Grove” to AH Rice, who planned a residential subdivision in the area. In 1924, Earl H Williams, of Liberty Investment Co, acquired 200-acres from Rice and began the subdivision process (the Coconut Grove Tract.) (Drigot)

In 1925, Harold Kainalu Long Castle opened the first housing tract in Kailua. He named it Kalama in honor of Queen Kalama, wife of Kamehameha III, who had previously owned the land division of Kailua.

The Kalama tract encompasses the area from the Kaneohe side of Ainoni Street to Kaneohe side of Makawao Street, and from the mauka (mountain) side of North Kalaheo to the mauka side of North Kainalu.

The tract was made up of 184 lots, which originally sold for between $1500 and $2500. The beach fronting the clubhouse has been known since as Kalama Beach.

Castle set aside a large oceanfront parcel for the use of the tract residents as a private beach park. In 1928, a clubhouse and pavilion were built on the property, and it was named the Kalama Beach Club.

The developer, Harold K.L. Castle (1886—1967) and Armstrong, Ltd., donated the Beach Club property and provided the funding for the design and construction of the Club House. The Club was meant to provide access to the beach for lot owners and as a place to gather.

The property owners were eligible to become members of the Kalama Beach Club once the Club House was completed in 1928. The original lots were 20,000 square feet and each property owner received a certificate for a one-share interest in the Kalama Community Trust.

Most lots have been subdivided so that there are now approximately 346 parcels with owners that are potential members of the Club. (Kalama Beach Club)

November 30, 2021 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Victoria and Emma

The earliest known humans arrived in the British Isles around 900,000 years ago. Prehistory (the time before written records) stretches from then until the Roman invasion in AD 43.

The Romans stayed in Britain for almost four centuries. In some parts of the country they were met with rebellion and resistance, but in more peaceful areas cities were founded, villas constructed and a network of roads developed. By the seventh century, England was made up of different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, all fighting for power.

(Anglo-Saxon (a term to distinguish the Saxons of Britain from those of the European continent (the invaders from three tribes, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes)) describes any member of the Germanic peoples who, from the 5th century, inhabited and ruled territories that are today part of England and Wales. )

(“Anglo-Saxon” continues to be used to refer to a period in the history of Britain, generally defined as the years between the end of Roman occupation and the Norman Conquest.)

Between 865-878, the Vikings from Denmark invaded all of the kingdoms, apart from the kingdom of Wessex. In 901, the rulers of Wessex slowly began to take back these lost kingdoms.

Then, in 927, the king of the Anglo-Saxons, Athelstan, became the first King of England. His rule ended in 1066, when William of Normandy (a region in what is now France) defeated King Harold II of England at the Battle of Hastings. William claimed the English throne, and became known as William the Conqueror.

(By the time of the Norman Conquest (1066), the kingdom that had developed from the realm of the Anglo-Saxon peoples had become known as England, and Anglo-Saxon as a collective term for the region’s people was eventually supplanted by “English.”)

Ruling families could rule for many years, creating dynasties. There have been six main dynasties:

Norman (1066-1154)

Plantagenet (also called the house of Anjou or the Angevin dynasty). (1154-1485)

Tudor (Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. This battle ended the Wars of the Roses. Henry Tudor became King Henry VII). (1485-1603)

Stuart (the Tudor line ended when Elizabeth I died in 1603; the crown passed to her cousin James (at the time he was James VI, king of Scotland) of the house of Stuart (or Stewart). (1603-1714)

Until 1603 the English and Scottish Crowns were separate, although links between the two were always close – members of the two Royal families intermarried on many occasions.

Following the Accession of King James VI of Scotland as King James I of England to the English Throne, a single monarch reigned in the United Kingdom.

Hanover (Hanover was a German state, and both George I and George II were born in Germany. George III was the first of the Hanoverian line to be born in England. (1714-1901)

Queen Victoria, born on May 24, 1819, the daughter of George III, and became queen in 1837, was the last monarch of the House of Hanover. With the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert, son of Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, the name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha came into the British Royal Family in 1840. When Queen Victoria died in 1901, the house of Hanover came to an end.

Windsor (Victoria was succeeded by her son Edward VII. His dynasty was at first called the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. It encompassed the reign of King Edward VII, who reigned for nine years at the beginning of the modern age in the early years of the twentieth century, and the first seven years of his son, King George V. (1901-present).

The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, as a British dynasty of that name, was short-lived. During World War I, Britain was fighting Germany. George V replaced the German-sounding ‘Saxe-Coburg-Gotha’ with ‘Windsor’ in 1917.

(The name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha survived in other European monarchies, including the current Belgian Royal Family and the former monarchies of Portugal and Bulgaria.)

By George V’s Proclamation of July 18, 1917, it was decreed “that as from the date of this Our Royal Proclamation Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor …”

“… and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor”.

Windsor remains the family name of the current Royal Family.

The early English kings were absolute monarchs, or rulers with total power over the kingdom. Over time, much of the English monarch’s power was transferred to Parliament. In 1215 King John was forced by English nobles to sign a document called the Magna Carta, which placed some limits on the king’s power.

The English Bill of Rights of 1689 made the king responsible to Parliament and subject to the country’s laws. In 1701 the Act of Settlement further limited the role of the monarch.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch shares power with a constitutionally organized government. The reigning king or queen is the country’s head of state. All political power rests with the prime minister (the head of government) and the cabinet, and the monarch must act on their advice. (Information here is primarily from Britannica.)

Queen Victoria and Queen Emma

Victoria was born at Kensington Palace, London, on May 24, 1819. She was the only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent (fourth son of George III). She became heir to the throne because the three uncles who were ahead of her in succession – George IV, Frederick Duke of York and William IV – had no legitimate children who survived.

On William IV’s death, she became Queen at the age of 18 on June 20, 1837. Queen Victoria is associated with Britain’s great Victorian Era of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. (At her death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.) (British Monarchy)

Across the globe, John Young, a Briton who came to the Hawaiian Islands in 1790 and befriended and supported Kamehameha, was called Olohana (“All Hands!”) He had four children,—Jane, Fannie, Grace and John Young Jr.

Young’s daughter, Fanny, married George Naea; they had a daughter, Emma, born on January 2, 1836. Emma was adopted by her aunt Grace Young & husband, Mr. Thomas Charles Byde Rooke. On June 9, 1856, Emma married Alexander Liholiho, King Kamehameha IV, and then was known as Queen Emma. (Restarick)

Queen Victoria and Queen Emma were unlike in more than the size of their realms. Victoria was almost a generation older than Emma. Victoria had nine children, the last one born in 1857, a year before Emma’s one and only child, Albert.

Queen Victoria and Queen Emma exchanged letters; many of them sad exchanges about the losses experienced by each. The correspondence between the two queens began in September 1862, with Queen Emma’s announcement of the death of Albert, her son and Queen Victoria’s godson.

It took 6-months for letter exchanges – at least 3-months for a letter to travel each way from Hawaiʻi to England. (Kanahele)

Queen Emma’s first letter (September 10, 1862) expresses her appreciation to Queen Victoria for her willingness to be godmother to Emma’s only child, Prince Albert …

”As a wife and fond mother, my heart overflows with gratitude to your Majesty, for the honour which you have been so graciously pleased to render to the King, my husband, and to our only son, in condescending to become his sponsor, at his baptism.”

However, that same letter also notified Queen Victoria that Prince Albert had died … “But, alas! Your Majesty’s spiritual relation to my beloved child has been of short duration, for it pleased Almighty God, in his inscrutable Providence, to call him away from this world, on the 17th August, only a few days after his baptism.” Queen Emma signed it: “Your Good & Grateful friend – Emma.”

Victoria, in mourning for years after the death of her husband in December 1861, replied (February 14, 1863) on her personal notepaper, marked with a wide black border on the paper and envelope and sealed with black sealing wax.

“As a Mother you will understand how fully I am able to appreciate the depth of your grief, at the sad loss which so soon succeeded to the Holy Ceremony. As a wife I can sincerely hope that you may be spared the heavier blow which has plunged me into life long sorrow,—but which makes my heart tenderly alive to all the sorrows of others.”

Later that year, Alexander Liholiho (King Kamehameha IV,) Emma’s husband, died. On February 14, 1864, she wrote to Victoria of the news and her grief, signing, “I remain Your Majesty’s afflicted but grateful friend”.

“My heart is very, very heavy while I make known to Your Majesty that God has visited me with that great trouble which in your kind and consoling letter you said you hoped I might be spared.”

“On the 30th. November my Husband, of whose danger I had never entertained one thought, expired suddenly, almost while in the act of speaking to me, and it was a long while before they could make me believe that what I saw was death and that he had really left me alone for the remainder of my life.”

“This blow has been very hard on me. It seems truly as yesterday that we lost our beautiful boy Albert, Your Majestys Godson, of whom I am afraid we were too fond and proud, and from whom we looked for such great things, flattering ourselves that his very name gave an assurance of his becoming as he grew up, every thing that is good and true and Prince-like.”

Victoria replied (June 14, 1864,) “My bleeding heart can truly sympathize with you in your terrible desolation! A dear & promising only child & a beloved Husband have both been taken from you within two years! Time does not heal the really stricken heart!”

“May God give you strength to bear up under your heavy affliction. I remain Your Majesty’s affectionate & unhappy friend Victoria R.” (The phrase “unhappy friend” was often used by Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert. (Hackler))

For the next 20 years, the two Queens wrote each other from time to time, sharing news of family events, happy and tragic. They exchanged photographs and small gifts and inquired about each other’s health and that of their families.

It was not until 1865 that Queen Emma travelled to England; there, she had the rare experience of spending the night with the British royal family in Windsor Castle. Victoria never made it to the Islands.

“The highlight of Emma’s visit was her audience with her son’s godmother and the ruler of the most powerful nation in the world and hence the most powerful woman in the world, Queen Victoria. She had looked forward to the meeting since her first letter recounting her son’s death.”

“But so was had Queen Victoria who, according to Prime Minister Lord John Russell, was ‘anxious to show her every attention and civility, & will be much interested in seeing her.’” (Kanahele)

In writing her appreciation for the visit, Emma wrote (December 12, 1865,) “Allow me to say with how much gratitude and affection I shall always cherish the remembrance of you and yours and with what pleasure I feel that I may subscribe myself My dear Madam, Your very sincere and faithful friend, Emma”

The last known letter exchange between the two was in 1882, Victoria responded to Emma, “My dear Friend, You wrote me a most kind letter on the occasion of the attempt on my life … We are now engaged in a war which I hope will be of short duration …”

“We were pleased to make the acquaintance of King Kalakaua and I would ask you to remember me to him. With renewed expressions of friendship and esteem, Your majesty’s affectionate friend, Victoria R.I.”

In 1883, Emma suffered the first of several small strokes and died two years later on April 25, 1885 at the age of 49; Queen Victoria died on January 20, 1901. (Information here is from Hackler and her paper, ‘My Dear Friend.’)