Peter T Young

October 6, 2021 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Big Five (plus 2)

“By 1941, every time a native Hawaiian switched on his lights, turned on the gas or rode on a street car, he paid a tiny tribute into Big Five coffers.” (Alexander MacDonald, 1944)

The story of Hawaii’s largest companies dominates Hawaiʻi’s economic history. Since the early/mid-1800s, until relatively recently, five major companies emerged and dominated the Island’s economic framework. Their common trait: they were focused on agriculture – sugar.

They became known as the Big Five:

C. Brewer & Co.
Founded: October 1826; Capt. James Hunnewell (American Sea Captain, Merchant; Charles Brewer was American Merchant)
Incorporated: February 7, 1883

Theo H. Davies & Co.
Founded: 1845; James and John Starkey, and Robert C. Janion (English Merchants; Theophilus Harris Davies was Welch Merchant)
Incorporated: January 1894

Amfac
Founded: 1849; Heinrich Hackfeld and Johann Carl Pflueger (German Merchants)
Incorporated: 1897 (H Hackfeld & Co;) American Factors Ltd, 1918

Castle & Cooke
Founded: 1851; Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke (American Mission Secular Agents)
Incorporated: 1894

Alexander & Baldwin
Founded: 1870; Samuel Thomas Alexander & Henry Perrine Baldwin (American, Sons of Missionaries)
Incorporated: 1900

Some suggest they were started and run by the missionaries. Actually, only Castle & Cooke had direct ties to the mission – Castle ran the ‘depository’ and Cooke was a teacher.

Alexander & Baldwin were sons of missionaries, but not a formal part of the mission. Brewer was an American sea captain and merchant; the founders of Davies were English merchants and the founders of Amfac were German merchants.

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. Through the treaty, the US obtained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into U.S. markets for their sugar.

As the sugar industry pushed ahead, something else new was introduced into the economic scheme of things. In Honolulu two or three new firms began business solely to handle the affairs of the scattered plantations.

They began by acting as selling agents for the planters. Gradually they took over other functions: financing crops, importing labor, purchasing machinery for the planters and serving in all ways as their business agents. The new businesses soon found themselves running the sugar industry.

By the 1880s, five of these concerns, called factors, eventually dominated the field. How effectively the Big Five could band together as one against outside forces whether the enemy was foreign capital, insects, labor, competing products or disease was well demonstrated by their Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association, more familiarly known as the HSPA. (MacDonald)

This group organization for Hawaii’s sugar industry was founded in 1882 as the Planters’ Labor and Supply Company when the planters found they had common problems in irrigating the sugar lands, growing the cane, and finding labor. That was its immediate official purpose.

“Everything that comes into the territory comes through a large corporation. The independent businessman who attempts to enter business here immediately finds that even nationally advertised lines from the mainland are tied up by the Big Five. It is almost impossible to get an independent line of business as they have everything – lumber paint, right down the line.” (Edward Walker, High Sheriff of Hawaiʻi, 1937; Kent)

Acting as agents for thirty-six of the thirty-eight sugar plantations, the Big Five openly monopolized the sugar trade. Twenty-nine firms, producing seven out of every eight tons of sugar exported from the Islands, refined, markets and distributed through the Big Five’s wholly owned California and Hawaiian Sugar Company, whose refinery, the largest in the world, was on San Francisco Bay. (Kent)

They branched out into other businesses. To squeeze additional profits out of the sugar trade, they started their own refinery in California; it was to become the largest in the world. They built up a fleet of ships, the Matson line, to carry the sugar away and to bring back goods and passengers.

They developed inter-island shipping, built hotels, put capital into insurance, cattle, pineapples, banking. They took over bodily the wholesaling of goods coming into the Islands; ninety percent of retail stock came from their warehouses.

Their capital started the public utilities. Their street railway transported Hawaiians, their gas and electric plants lighted the city, they acquired the communications systems. (MacDonald)

The sugar industry was the prime force in transforming Hawaiʻi from a traditional, insular, agrarian and debt‐ridden society into a multicultural, cosmopolitan and prosperous one. (Carol Wilcox)

With statehood in 1959 and the almost simultaneous introduction of passenger jet airplanes, the tourist industry began to grow rapidly.

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. As sugar declined, tourism took its place – and far surpassed it. Like many other societies, Hawaii underwent a profound transformation from an agrarian to a service economy.

There were a couple other associated entities that were associated with the Big 5” Dillingham (Benjamin Franklin Dillingham) and Campbell (James Campbell) and their associated companies.

Click HERE to view/download for more information on Hawai‘i’s Big 5 (plus 2).

Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownersh

Alexander & Baldwin-logo

Alexander & Baldwin Building-PP-7-4-006-00001

Amfac-logo

American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-019-00001

C Brewer-logo

Brewer Building-Burlingame-SB

Castle & Cooke-logo

Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-008-00001

Theo Davies-logo

Theo. H. Davies Co., Bishop St-PP-8-3-010-00001

James_Campbell_Building-(Williams, Adamson)-1967

Dillingham Transportation Building-PP-8-4-003-00001

October 5, 2021 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Kalama Beach Park

“Hardware is one of the best businesses there is. I like that line, I was brought up in it. Axes and hammers don’t go out of style like so many other things.” This quotation was published in the Rocky Mountain News in April of 1934, when Charles Boettcher’s business enterprises had turned him into a national figure.

Charles was born into the hardware business; his parents, Frederick and Susanna Boettcher, ran a hardware store in Kolleda, Germany. When Charles finished Gymnasium (secondary school) his parents sent him to America to visit his older brother Herman, who was working in a hardware store in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Once in America, Charles admired the western landscapes and was soon working alongside Herman at Hoyer & Company Hardware. As a fringe benefit, he was allowed to sleep under the store counter. Charles figured out early that he was better off saving his money than spending it foolishly in the town saloons.

Charles as his partner, and in the summer of 1871 the brothers acquired another new store, this time in Evans, Colorado, just four miles from Greeley. Less than a year later, Charles moved to the new agricultural colony, Fort Collins. In Fort Collins, Charles met and married Fannie Augusta Cowan.

During their first year of marriage the couple moved south, to Boulder, where Charles opened the first hardware store in his own name. The Boulder store was so prosperous that Charles was able to build a large new building at 12th and Pearl, in the young town’s central commercial district (it’s still there).

By the end of the 1880s Charles Boettcher owned multiple hardware businesses and had his hand in mining, electricity, ranching, and banking.

In 1892, two years after the Boettchers moved to Denver, Henry C. Brown, along with two partners, Maxcy Tabor and William Bush, turned a triangular cow pasture at Seventeenth and Champa into the finest hotel in the West, the Brown Palace. Unfortunately for the partners, only a year after construction was complete the Silver Panic of 1893 hit.

In 1922, Horace Bennett and his associates, including Charles Boettcher, purchased the still-struggling hotel. After the crash of 1929, Bennett was forced to liquidate his interest, and Charles and Claude Boettcher became the hotel’s sole proprietors.

In the 1890s his interests would grow to include a meat packing company, a railroad, and Capitol Life Insurance. He started Colorado’s first sugar beet factory and formed Great Western Sugar.

The second generation of Colorado pioneers came of age in the 1890s. Claude graduated from Harvard and returned to

Denver and dedicated himself to expanding his father’s enterprises.

In 1908, Denver witnessed the completion of its first reinforced concrete building at the corner of Seventeenth and Champa, built by Charles Boettcher to promote the use of cement.

After two decades of progress Ideal Cement had plants all over the West and the cement industry had led Charles and his son Claude into a variety of other industries, most importantly, potash. After Charles’ death, Ideal merged with Potash of America and became Ideal Basic Industries.

As Claude’s only child, Charles Boettcher II grew up with all the advantages wealth brings. After completing his education, Charles too returned to Denver and began participating in the management of the family’s empire.

Charles II became a partner in Boettcher & Company in the 1920s, was involved in the Ideal Cement Company, and eventually inherited most of the offices formerly held by his father and grandfather at many Boettcher enterprises.

Then, one evening in 1933 (occurring the year after the Lindbergh kidnapping), Charles II and his wife, Anna Lou Boettcher, returned home from a dinner party and were accosted in their garage.

Charles II was held at gunpoint while another man passed a ransom note to Mrs. Boettcher. The kidnappers then sped away with

Charles II. Charles II was held for two weeks while Claude tried to make contact with the kidnappers. After Claude paid the $60,000 ransom, Charles was released. (Boettcher Foundation)

Needless to say, it was unsettling for everyone in the family. Apparently Charles and his wife, Mae, then started looking for a place that was far away from and far different than their surroundings in Denver.

So in 1935 they found the property in Hawaii – 4 acres of prime land on Kailua Beach. It was to be their get-away-from-it-all vacation home. (Cheever)

Charles II commissioned Vladimir Ossipoff to build him a house; it was designed by Ossipoff and built by contractor M. Kiuchi. (HHF)

Ossipoff came to Hawaii in late 1932. The Russian-born architect was educated at the University of California at Berkeley and had worked in San Francisco prior to moving to Hawaii.

Ossipoff started his architectural career in the islands as the head of the Home Building Department of Theo H. Davies. He also worked in architect C.W. Dickey’s office prior to starting his own practice in 1936.

Ossipoff’s work is characterized by its mixture of Hawaiian influenced design and more modern trends, such as the ranch style of house for domestic commissions. (National Register)

The one-story house has a distinctive steeply-pitched, cross-hip, “Hawaiian-style” roof, covered with shakes. The building’s U-shaped plan wraps around an in-set lanai supported by coral stone columns. The open side of the U faces the mountains, protecting the lanai from the prevailing onshore winds.

The home’s design combines many elements of indoor/outdoor living associated with the architecture of Hawaii during this period. The bath and dressing rooms open directly to the exterior, and the large lanai has a fireplace. (HHF)

The Boettcher family lived in Colorado and came to Hawaii for their holidays. During World War II, the family opened their home to the US Navy to use as Officers’ Quarters for the Waves. (National Register)

In September 1978 the City and County of Honolulu acquired the property for use as a park. It is now the central structure in the Kalama Beach Park.

October 4, 2021 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Smith

John Smith “was borne in Willoughby in Lincolnshire, and a scholar in the two Free Schools of Alford and Louth. His father anciently descended from the ancient Smiths of Crudley in Lancashire, his mother from the Rickands at great Heck in Yorkshire.”

“His parents dying when he was about thirteen years of age left him a competent means, which he not being capable to manage, little regarded; his mind being even then set upon brave adventures, sold his satchel, books, and all he had, intending secretly to get to Sea, but that his fathers death stayed him.”

“About the age of fifteen years he was bound an Apprentice to Mr. Thomas Sendatt of Linne, the greatest Merchant of all those parts; but because he would not presently send him to Sea, he never saw his master in eight years after.”

“After a month or so they sent him back again to his friends; who when he came from London they liberally gave him (but out of his own estate) ten shillings to be rid of him; such oft is the share of fatherless children. [Fortunately, the Barty brothers] gave him sufficient to return for England.”

Learning to be a Soldier

“Peace being concluded in France [1596], he went with Captain Joseph Duxbury into the Low Countries, under whose colors having served three or four years [1596-9], he took his journey for Scotland, to deliver his Letters.”

“After much kind usage amongst those honest Scots at Ripweth and Broxmoth, but neither money nor means to make him a Courtier, he returned to Willoughby in Lincolnshire; where within a short time being glutted with too much company wherein he took small delight, he retired himself into a little woody pasture, a good way from any town, environed with many hundred acres of other woods.”

“His friends persuaded one Seignior Theodora Polaloga, Rider to Henry Earl of Lincoln, an excellent Horseman, and a noble Italian Gentleman, to insinuate into his woodish acquaintances, whose Languages and good discourse, and exercise of riding drew him to stay with him at Tattersall. Long these pleasures could not content him, but he returned again to the Low Countries.”

“Thus when France and Netherlands had taught him to ride a Horse and use his Arms, with such rudiments of War, as his tender years in those martial schools could attain unto, he was desirous to see more of the world, and try his fortune against the Turks, both lamenting and repenting to have scene so many Christians slaughter one another.” (The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith)

The ‘Long War’

For 200 years, between the beginning of the sixteenth century and the early eighteenth century, Turkey (Ottoman Empire – Muslim) and Austria (Habsburg Empire – Christian) engaged in numerous wars.

The wars were dominated by land campaigns in Hungary, including Transylvania (today in Romania) and Vojvodina (today in Serbia), Croatia, and central Serbia. Initially, Ottoman conquests in Europe proved successful, reducing the Kingdom of Hungary to the status of an Ottoman tributary.

By the sixteenth century, the Ottomans had become a threat to Europe, with Ottoman Barbary ships sweeping away Venetian possessions in the Aegean and Ionia. When, on several occasions, the Ottomans reached the gates of Vienna, considered a cultural capital of Europe, it seemed a threat to the survival of Europe and of its dominant religion.

The Protestant Reformation, the France-Habsburg rivalry, and the numerous civil conflicts of the Holy Roman Empire served as distractions. (World Encyclopedia)

In 1600, learning of the war being fought between Christian forces of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) and the Muslim Ottoman Turks, John Smith set off for Austria to join the HRE army.

Smith fought against the Turks in battles waged in Slovenia, Hungary and Transylvania earning several awards for his bravery in battle. One award was his promotion to captain, a title Smith remained proud of the rest of his life.

The Prince of Transylvania gave Smith the title of “English gentleman”, and with it a coat of arms that consisted of three Turks’ heads representing the three Turks killed and beheaded by Smith in individual jousting duels.

Smith had become a very accomplished soldier and leader.

Captured and Sold into Slavery

But his good fortune ended in 1602 when he was wounded and captured in battle and sold into Turkish slavery. Smith was forced to march 600 miles to Constantinople.

As Smith describes it: “we all sold for slaves, like beasts in a market-place; where every merchant, viewing their limbs and wounds, caused other slaves to struggle with them to try their strength.” (Smith, The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith) In Constantinople, the enslaved Smith was presented by his master as a gift to his fiancée, Charatza Tragbigzanda.

According to Smith’s account, Charatza became infatuated with him, and apparently in an attempt to convert Smith to Islam, she sent him to work for her brother, Tymor Bashaw, who ran an agricultural station in present-day Russia, near Rostov, “to learne the language, and what it was to be a Turk, till time made her Master of her selfe.” (Smith)

Instead of instructing Smith, Tymore mistreated him, often beating him. During one such beating, Smith overpowered Tymore, killing him and fleeing his enslavement using Tymore’s horse and clothing.

Traveling for days, unsure of his route, Smith was befriended by a Russian and his wife, Callamatta, whom Smith called this “good lady”. Their assistance helped Smith regain his strength and begin his travels across the remainder of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Spain, and Morocco before finally returning to England in 1604. (All in this section from World Encyclopedia and NPS)

Jamestown

Back in England, Smith’s military exploits impressed prominent men, especially Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, a man intent on founding an English colony in the Chesapeake region of Virginia.

Gosnold, and other important men in London, organized the Virginia Company of London and were granted a charter by King James I on April 10, 1606, to establish a colony in Virginia.

On December 20, 1606, three small ships carrying 104 settlers, including Smith, left England, bound for Virginia. During the trip, Smith was arrested for mutiny.

According to Smith, the gentlemen on board were jealous of his military and naval experience and looked down on him because of his rural upbringing. He said they accused him of plotting to seize power for himself. He spent most of the voyage in irons and was nearly hanged.

Prior to departure, the leaders of the Virginia Company had selected seven voyagers to govern the colony. They put the names of the chosen in a sealed box, which was not to be opened until arrival in Virginia.

Upon landfall four months later, the colonists opened the box and discovered that Smith’s name was among the chosen leaders. Smith was allowed to take up a position on the council — but he remained disliked.

Established on May 13, 1607, the colony was named Jamestown, in honor of the king. Jamestown’s fate hung in the balance for many years, and some historians credit Jamestown’s survival to the efforts of Captain Smith.

Smith tried to focus the colonists on their immediate needs and not spend valuable time searching for gold. Despite these fruitless endeavors to find gold, the colony became more stable as additional settlers and food arrived. (NPS)

Smith was appointed cape merchant and tasked with trading with the natives for food. Smith conducted expeditions throughout the region.

Chief Powhatan and Pocahontas

On one such expedition in December 1607, Smith and his party were ambushed on the Chickahominy River by a large Powhatan hunting party. Smith was the sole survivor and was brought to the village of the paramount chief’s residence.

What happened next is unclear, as Smith gave varying accounts, and the story has been mythologized in popular culture.

The popular story is that the natives were ready to kill him, when Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan’s 11-year-old daughter, threw herself on top of Smith, trying to shield him from death. However, Smith did not write this version until 1624 in his book, “Generall Historie.”

In a letter written soon after the event and long before “Generall Historie” was published, Smith described feasting and conversing with Chief Powhatan.

Most historians believe that the Powhatan people conducted an adoption ceremony, welcoming Smith into their community, but that Smith did not understand this.

Also, anthropologist Helen C. Rountree points out that Pocahontas may well have been too young to even attend the ceremony. Girls her age were responsible for preparing food and cleaning up afterward.

Chief Powhatan announced that they were friends and that if Smith gave him two cannons and a grindstone, he would give Smith the village of Capahosic and would consider him a son.

It is now understood that Chief Powhatan was trying to expand his empire and neutralize the English threat, but Smith may not have seen this motivation.

After four weeks, on friendly terms with the Powhatan people, Smith was released and escorted back to James Fort.

By this time, only 38 of the 104 settlers were still alive.

More settlers arrived at Jamestown in January 1608, and Chief Powhatan sent some food to the English, but misfortune struck in early January with the accidental burning down of most of the fort.

They continued contact for some time, and Pocahontas often visited Jamestown with food. Though she and Smith were acquainted, they were never romantically involved. (All in this section is from Szalay and NPS)

Mapping the Chesapeake

When Smith returned to Jamestown in January, he discovered that he had been replaced on the council.

Settlers thought Smith was responsible for his companions’ deaths on the Chickahominy River, and he was sentenced to hang.

Luckily for Smith, the night of his sentencing, about 100 new settlers from England arrived with food and other reinforcements. Smith’s charges and execution were forgotten during the celebration.

With the arrival of new settlers and the help from the Powhatans, the situation at Jamestown began to slowly improve. At this point, the Virginia Company sent Smith to explore the Chesapeake in search of gold and a passage to the Pacific Ocean.

Smith embarked on two lengthy voyages, investigating 2,500 miles of territory. He did not find gold or a route west, but he did acquire food for the colonists, learned about the natives and created highly accurate maps of the area.

(These and later maps of his became one of Smith’s greatest accomplishments and were used by future explorers.) (All in this section is from Szalay)

Presidency and War

In September 1608, Smith was elected president of the colony. He immediately set about strengthening defenses and securing more food.

Smith declared, “He that will not work shall not eat,” and forced the colonists to plant crops, repair the fort, develop products like pitch and soap ash for export, and more.

According to Smith, his policies yielded productive results — but they nevertheless remained unpopular. The death toll fell but colonists were still unable to produce enough food and remained dependent upon Indian trade.

This was problematic because Virginia was experiencing a severe drought. The Powhatan community was also short on food, and therefore refused to share with the English for a time.

Unfortunately, relations were tenuous between the English and the Powhatan Indians as Smith responded to this situation with violence, burning villages, stealing food, imprisoning, beating, and forcing the natives into labor.

Relations between the English and the Powhatans were ruined, and the First Anglo-Powhatan War began. It ended only when Pocahontas married John Rolfe in 1614.

(Rolfe is the one who introduced a new strain of tobacco from seeds at Jamestown. Tobacco became the long awaited cash crop for the Virginia Company, who wanted to make money off their investment in Jamestown. This helped turn the settlement into a profitable venture. )

Smith continued to have political troubles, enacting controversial policies and refusing to step down as president. The Virginia Company decided instead to do away with the title and send a governor. (All in this section is from Szalay)

Explosion

In September 1609, Smith was victim of a gunpowder explosion and suffered severe burns.

Though Smith claimed that the explosion was an accident, historians think it may well have been attempted murder. The severely injured Smith was sent back to England. (LiveScience)

Smith Leaves Jamestown

“Smith was forced to yield to circumstances. No sooner had he given out that he would depart for England than they persuaded Mr. Percy to stay and act as President, and all eyes were turned in expectation of favor upon the new commanders.”

After he left, Jamestown experienced a terrible famine known as the Starving Time, which only 60 out of 240 settlers survived. (LiveScience)

Smith Returns to Explore “New England”

Always the adventurer, Smith undertook a voyage in 1614 exploring the shores of northern Virginia, which he mapped and renamed New England.

It was actually through Smith that the Plymouth name came about. The Pilgrim Separatists did not name Plymouth, Massachusetts; this area had been called Plymouth years before they arrived. It had been called a variety of things over the years, Patuxet, Accomack, Port Saint Louis and Plimouth.

Smith presented a map to Prince Charles – who renamed many of the locations for the version to be published. Rivers, mountains, islands, capes and Native settlements received English names

This is somewhat confusing in the case of Native settlements which are depicted on Smith’s map as though they were existing English towns with English names such as “London,” “Oxford,” and “Plimouth.”

In fact there were no permanent English settlements at the time of Smith’s exploration, despite how it may appear on the map at first glance. A few of Prince Charles’s names have stuck. Among them Cape Ann, the Charles River and … Plymouth. (Browne)

It noted the Accomack name was changed by Prince Charles to Plimouth. Smith’s book was printed in 1616, four years before the Pilgrims landed at that site.

Intending to establish an English colony there, Smith’s efforts were frustrated when he was captured by French pirates while sailing to New England in 1615.

Escaping from the pirates, Smith returned to England where he wrote extensively about his life’s adventures.

John Smith and Another Mayflower ‘Connection’

In 1620, the Pilgrims nearly selected Captain Smith to be their military advisor but instead selected Myles Standish, however, they did use Smith’s map of New England.

Captain John Smith died in London on June 21, 1631, and was buried at St. Sepulchre’s Church.

“Captain John Smith has lived on in legend far more thrillingly than even he could have foreseen. Much has been made-largely by ill-informed people-of trivial inconsequences in his narratives, and controversy has at times raged rather absurdly. …”

“To be sure, much of what John Smith wrote was exaggerated. … Rare indeed was the man who wrote in Stuart times without ornament, without exuberance. Let it only be said that nothing John Smith wrote has yet been found to be a lie.” (Philip Barbour)

Click the following link to a general summary about John Smith:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/John-Smith.pdf

October 3, 2021 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Iolani Palace – From Kingdom To Statehood (HHR Revival)

Lloyd Stone prepared an article (titled the same as this summary) in the April 1963 edition of the Hawaiian Historical Review. It is effectively an extensive timeline of people and events associated with the palace. All in the following is his article.

Iolani Palace is the only true royal palace under the American flag; a true palace in that, while other monarchies ruled areas which later evolved into the present United States, only Hawaii was a kingdom, a nation in its own right until it, too, became a part of America.

A history of Iolani is a history of Hawaii since the noble pile of masonry was built. From within its walls a king, a queen, a revolutionary hierarchy, a republic, a territory, and, finally, a state of the US have issued their commands.

At midnight on October 30, 1865, an event occurred which heralded the beginning of today’ s Iolani. The old one-story palace, similarly named, stood on the site of the present one, and in the deep of night from a vault within the grounds the removal of eighteen royal dead began.

Then a procession of black-swathed drays, mourners, towering kahili, kukui-nut torches accompanied King Kamehameha V and his father Kekuanaoa and scores of high chiefs, all bareheaded and afoot, as they wound their grieving way to the new royal mausoleum in Nuuanu.

Five years later, on September 25, 1871, the same king directed his minister of the interior to instruct the Hawaiian consul in Sydney, Australia, that …

“… it is the intention of this government to build a Royal Palace here … we have no architect … architects in northern countries would not appreciate our climate … but in Sydney, where the summer climate is very similar to ours, an architect might more likely be found to design an appropriate building …”

The palace was built, but never used as such. It became known as the “government building”, and in succeeding years gained its present name – the judiciary building.

The very different building that Honolulans call Iolani Palace today is of later vintage. This paper recalls many of the colorful events that make up its history.

June 3, 1874: Aboard the Mohango there arrived a fiercely-whiskered little German bandmaster, Henri Berger, whom Kamehameha had asked a brother rule, the Emperor of Prussia, to forward him. The little koppelmeister would direct the Royal Hawaiian Band for more than four decades at palace functions.

April 10, 1877: Princess Liliuokalani was proclaimed Heir Apparent.

June 29, 1876: Architect TJ Baker arrived from San Francisco. Almost three years elapsed, during which he designed and supervised the construction of other buildings, before his plans for the palace received any attention.

1878: On her way back from visiting friends at Maunawili, Princess Liliuokalani hummed into existence the most famous song of parting the world has ever known, Aloha Oe.

March 2, 1879: Baker received a letter from Minister of the Interior Samuel G. Wilder saying: “His Majesty King Kalakaua commands me to ask you to lay before this department your plans for a new Palace. If you will be good enough to call tomorrow before 12 M I shall be pleased to see you.”

August, 1879: Baker was appointed “architect and chief artificer” of the proposed palace, and work began on it.

November 14, 1879: Celso Moreno, Italian adventurer who within the next few months would exert tremendous influence over the king (especially in the matter of his coronation), arrived from Hong Kong.

November 19, 1879: Trouble broke out between Architect Baker and Minister Wilder, who wrote to the former: “I beg to call to your attention the fact that it is proper that you should file in this office duplicate or the original plans for the new palace … I need at once a list of flooring, lumber, etc …”.., 11 5
Baker replied: “I did not understand that you were to take my place as architect.”

December 10, 1879: Palace contractor Thomas complained: “I have laid the foundation out according to two different foundation plans, both being furnished by Baker, and yet the basement is not in conformity with either of his plans…”

To further requests of the minister, Baker insisted: “The Cabinet can not make me yield such plans of the building as I need retain”

December 14, 1879: The minister wrote Baker: “You have insulted His Majesty and the Cabinet… Where are the plans?”

December 16, 1879: Architect Baker replied: “My plans can be seen and examined at all times during business hours at my rooms.”

December 31, 1879: The forty-fifth birthday of King Kalakaua’s Queen, Kapiolani, was the occasion for laying the palace cornerstone. This was done by the Masonic order, of which the king was a 33rd degree Mason in the Scottish Rite and a Knight Templar in the York. The principal address was by Minister of Foreign Affairs JM Kapena, whose wife was the daughter of historian David Malo, and who therefore felt the import of Hawaii’s history. Kapena warned: “It will require all the skill, the watchful care, the patience, the caution, and the industry that can be bestowed in the future in order to secure the well-being of the people and the prosperity of the government.:

January 17, 1880: Baker was dismissed as architect and given an additional $1, 000 to conclude his services. The Superintendent of Public Works took over.

Spring, 1880: In its spring session the legislature, under the influence of Celso Moreno, passed two bills that would have great bearing on Iolani Palace history. One was a bill providing for the education of promising Hawaiian youths abroad; the other appropriated $10,000 for a proper coronation of the new Kalakaua dynasty.

Liliuokalani, the king ‘s sister, justified the bill thus: “The direct line of the Kamehamehas having become extinct, it has been succeeded by our Keawe-a-Heulu line … It is necessary to confirm the new family by a celebration of unusual impressiveness. It is wise and patriotic to spend money to awaken in the people a national pride.:

August 14, 1880: King Kalakaua prorogued the legislature, dismissed his cabinet, and appointed Celso Caesar Moreno as premier.

August 20, 1880: The king was pressured by an increasingly influential business group into retracting Moreno’ s appointment.

August 30, 1880: Moreno prepared to leave for Italy, escorting three Hawaiian youths who were to further their education abroad. Among them was Robert Wilcox, a significant figure in later Hawaiian palace history.

1880: Among the first Bell telephones installed in the Islands was one connecting the palace with the king’s boathouse.

January 20, 1881: To the boom of government cannon on Punchbowl, the music of Berger’s Royal Hawaiian Band playing “Home, Sweet Home”, and salutes of ships in Honolulu Harbor, Kalakaua departed for a tour of the world, the first ruler in history to do so while on the throne. He would return with assurances of: immigrant workers for sugar plantations, furnishings for his palace, cannon from Austria, and two jeweled crowns from England for his coronation.

October 29, 1881: King Kalakaua returned to a magnificent reception: triumphal arches, torches blazing at noonday (a symbol belonging solely to his family), and extravagant adulation of every description. He anxiously checked on the progress of his new palace.

January 27, 1882: A Masonic banquet celebrated completion of the palace. Its architecture was described as “in the ornate style known as ‘American composite …120 by 140 feet on the ground plan and towering 80 feet into the air.” Everyone agreed that it was “the finest and most imposing building in the Islands, an honor and an ornament to our capital city, and a fitting abode for royalty.” It cost $343,595, according to Sanford Dole.

November 4, 1882: The palace was equipped for lighting by gas.

February 12, 1883: The coronation of King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani, nine years after their ascension to the throne, took place in a pavilion built at the foot of the King Street stairs (today it is a bandstand at the King and Richards Street corner of the palace grounds). The King’s two sisters, also two of the Queen’s, marched in the procession. The ritual was a combination of old and new, there being five insignia of ancient supreme chieftancy and five symbols of contemporary royalty.

These latter included the crowns, carried by Kapiolani’s nephews, Princes David Kawananakoa and Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, and eighteen orders conferred on Kalakaua by foreign powers over the years. As under the dome of Notre Dame Cathedral Napoleon had taken the crown into his own hands and placed it up on his head, so did Kalakaua in a Hawaiian pavilion crown himself that day. There was no Hawaiian of higher blood rank present to do it for him.

December 16, 1883: The king proudly inspected samples of the newly minted coins, embossed with his own likeness, that were delivered to the palace for the first time.

April 18, 1886: The household guards and King Kalakaua himself helped fight a great fire in Chinatown. Sixty acres of tenements and stores were destroyed. Six to eight thousand were left homeless.

November 16, 1886: The jubilee anniversary of Kalakaua’ s birthday was celebrated. A reception began at six o’clock in the morning. All day long loyal subjects and loyal friends – as well as political favor-seekers – filed by Their Majesties in the throne room, each visitor depositing his hookupu – gift – at the king’s feet.

February 2, 1887: Princess Likelike, sister of Kalakaua and Liliuokalani, lay in state in the throne room. Her death left motherless the little Princess Kaiulani.

April 12, 1887: Queen Kapiolani and Princess Liliuokalani departed for Queen Victoria’s jubilee celebration, bearing Hawaii’s gifts and aloha.

June 30, 1887: All shops closed on the occasion of a mass meeting called oy foreign businessmen, self-styled ‘The Reformers’, to protest the king’s use of his veto powers to oppose interests they favored. Twenty of the party were bound by oath that any five should “execute him (Kalakaua) for the public good.”

One, in fact – Volney Ashford, head of the Reformers’ armed trainees (the Hawaiian League) – cornered the king in Iolani Palace during the afternoon’s meeting and at gun point extorted $5, 000 from him. Kalakaua forestalled any further violence by sending a spokesman to the meeting to yield to whatever demands were made upon him, The surprised Reformers quickly drafted a new constitution – referred to as the Bayonet Constitution – which the king signed. Thereafter he was a mere figurehead.

November 3, 1887: At the opening of the legislature Kalakaua reported that the 1875 Treaty of Reciprocity with the United States had been extended for seven years; in addition, the US secured the right to use Pearl River as a coaling and repair base for American warships. The US never made use of this right until after Annexation.

December 28, 1888: A mule-drawn tramway began running on King Street in front of the palace.

January 24, 1889: Writer Robert Louis Stevenson, aboard his Yacht Casco, arrived in Hawaii. Kalakaua and he became fast friends, spending much time together in the Bungalow, built on the palace grounds for the king to occupy while the palace itself was under construction. Here they pored over a collection of The Myths and Legends of Hawaii.

in June 27, 1890: For millinery reasons ladies at the palace – or in all Honolulu for that matter – were intrigued by Dr Trousseau’s new ostrich farm, stocked by importing three birds from California.

November 25, 1890: King Kalakaua left his palace to board the USS Charleston; he was bound for San Francisco in search of health. He died in that city on January 20, 1891.

January 29, 1891: Liliuokalani was proclaimed queen.

February 15, 1891: King Kalakaua lay in state in the throne room.

February 25, 1891: The cabinet resigned at the queen’s request. From this time forward she had only trouble in trying to re-assume royal powers her brother had yielded.

August 27, 1891: John Owen Dominis, the queen’s consort, lay in state in the throne room. He had been ill for a long time.

January 14, 1893: Queen Liliuokalani attempted to abrogate the hated Bayonet Constitution of 1887 and proclaim a new one, but her cabinet would not sign the latter, although they had led her to believe they would. She appeared on the palace balcony and told the crowd of Hawaiians gathered because of the rumored change to go home quietly, and later) that through methods provided in the existing constitution a new one would be promulgated.

Meanwhile a Committee of Safety (Reformers of 1887) declared a state of emergency, claiming that “riot and bloodshed were imminent.” Within the next three days events moved quickly: the Committee declared a provisional government to uphold the constitution against which the queen had rebelled; by doing this, they argued, the monarchy had abrogated itself.

The American minister recognized the new government promptly and, by request, landed 300 US marines and bluejackets “to protect American property and lives.” His action thwarted any armed protection of the monarchy. At sundown on January 17 the queen capitulated, protesting to the United States government “… that I yield to the superior force of the United States of America, whose Minister Plenipotentiary, John L Stevens, has caused the United States Troops to be landed at Honolulu, and declared he will support the Provisional Government.”

February 1, 1893: Across the street from the palace the American flag was hoisted over the government building.

March 17, 1893: Several rare and valuable kahili – royal standards – were stolen from the throne room during the night.

April 1, 1893: Commissioner Blount, sent by President Cleveland to investigate the extent of American participation in the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani, ordered the lowering of the American flag flying from the government building. He said it had been raised prematurely. Hawaiians on hand for the ceremony were asked by an Englishman why they did not cheer when the Stars and Stripes came down. Though overjoyed at the reinstatement of his own flag, one replied, “ After all, it is their flag, and we do not want to make them feel bad.”

April 2, 1893: Ryan, a derelict seaman temporarily conscripted into the citizens’ guard of the provisional government, was on duty in the palace basement. From a locked container he stole what he later testified was a paste crown with artificial jewels. In reality it was Kalakaua’ s crown, from which Ryan tore the diamonds, rubies, and semi-precious stones. He then threw the golden taro leaves and their circlet onto the latrine roof, where they were later discovered. The jewels he gambled away or sold to a hack driver.

With his two accomplices, Richard Stone and William Wagner, he was committed to Oahu Prison, where he had spent two months in 1887 for another offense. Ryan and Stone soon escaped and signed on ships leaving the Islands After exhaustive search, some of the smaller diamonds were recovered by a sheriff in remote Arkansas. The legislature ordered the royal crown restored in 1930.

June 2, 1893: The Executive and Advisory Councils passed the following resolution: “The offices of the Executive Council shall be in Iolani Palace, which shall hereafter be the seat of government and shall be known as the Executive Building.”

June 3, 1893: Troops moved into the basement of the executive building while the minister of the interior made himself at home in the dining room. Minister of Foreign Affairs and President Sanford Ballard Dole occupied the former king’s bedchamber and library. The attorney-general’s office was in the ex-queen’s bedchamber. The former throne room was to be used for council meetings, public receptions, audiences, etc.

July 4, 1894: Since the United States rejected the possibility of annexation for the time being, formation of the new Republic of Hawaii was announced from the executive building balcony. Sanford B. Dole was president.

January 6, 1895: A group of citizen guards quartered in Kalakaua’s old bungalow on the executive building grounds rushed to Diamond Head to quell a rumored royalist uprising under the leadership of Robert Wilcox. One goverrnnent man and two royalists were killed before the rebellion was squelched within a few days.

January 16, 1895: Ex-Queen Liliuokalani was arrested for misprision of treason and imprisoned in the upstairs Waikiki-makai corner room of the palace. She had one companion.

January 17-February 20, 1895: A military court of the Republic of Hawaii tried the ex-queen and 190 others accused of treason against the republic. It met in the former palace throne room. Liliuokalani was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and a fine of $5,000. Others were fined, imprisoned, or exiled, and three were sentenced to death. These latter sentences were never executed, however.

January 24, 1895: Liliuokalani signed a formal abdication and an oath of allegiance to the Republic of Hawaii.

September, 1895: The ex-queen was released from her palace prison, but was still held in protective custody at Washington Place. Her fine was never collected.

October 26, 1896: A council of state held in the throne room voted a full pardon for the ex-queen.

July 7, 1898: Because of desperate need for Pearl River as a coaling station to support the Philippine campaign of the Spanish American War, President McKinley signed a Congressional Joint resolution annexing Hawaii.

July 13, 1898: Since no cable yet connected Hawaii and the US, the islands had to wait until this date for the Pacific Mail SS Coptic to bring annexation news from San Francisco.

June, 1898: Even before news of annexation arrived, Honolulu had entertained the “boys in blue”. At one time on the executive building grounds residents provided for the military and naval forces of two fleets by giving them a huge week-long picnic, seating from 1,000 to 1,500 guests a day. Honolulu families volunteered huge quantities of eatables, and a steam boiler erected on the grounds made coffee.

August 12, 1898: The annexation ceremony took place at Iolani Palace. Henri Berger led the band. At the day’ s end he wrote in his journal with characteristic brevity: “The day is done. Flag is raised. We are all Americans. Pau Hawaii.”

October 7, 1899: Across the street from the palace, ice water first became available – in the opera house.

October 9, 1899: The Honorable HR. Baldwin tried out the islands’ first automobile, going down King Street past the palace at fourteen miles per hour.

June 14, 1900: Governor Sanford B Dole was inaugurated on a specially-constructed platform on the Diamond Head side of the palace. The platform was used for dancing at the inaugural ball that night.

Fall election, 1902: Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole who, as Queen Kapiolani’s nephew, had carried one of the crowns at Kalakaua’s coronation, and had also been convicted along with Liliuokalani for treason against the republic, was elected Hawaii’s second delegate to Congress.

January 1, 1903: The Commercial Pacific Cable Company’ s connection completed at Waikiki. That night from the palace Hawaii’s Secretary Cooper talked to President Theodore Roosevelt and received the latter’s congratulations.

November 23, 1903: Governor George R Carter was inaugurated in the throne room.

May 12, 1907: A party of US Congressmen, inspecting Hawaii’s qualifications for statehood, toured the palace.

August 15, 1907: Governor Walter F. Frear was inaugurated in the throne room.

June 21, 1908: David Kawananakoa, the other princely bearer of Kalakaua’s crowns, lay in state in the throne room.

June, 1911: John Philip Sousa’ s band, on world tour, stopped in Hawaii and gave a concert on the executive building grounds.

December 14, 1911: Governor Frear and other officials deserted executive building offices to attend opening ceremonies at Pearl Harbor.

December 31, 1913: Governor Lucius E. Pinkham arrived at the palace on the last night of the year after a parade from the ship that returned him to Hawaii from Washington, DC, where he had taken his oath of office.

August 2, 1914: A ceremony honored Captain Henri Berger for his more than forty years‘ service as conductor of the Royal Hawaiian Band, His last official duty occurred in June, 1915, at the interment or Charles Reed Bishop’s ashes in the Kamehameha tomb at the Royal Mausoleum.

August 7, 1914: On this day, three days after England declared war on Germany, the first of a dozen German ships sought refuge in Honolulu Harbor. Until America’ s entry into the war almost four years later, Governor Pinkham conducted from his executive building offices intermittent and sometimes frantic cable exchanges with Washington concerning the disposition of the vessels.

April 5, 1917: By this time all enemy ships in or leaving island harbors were either damaged or destroyed. From this date they were repaired and converted into American craft, if possible.

April 6, 1917: The throne room was turned over to the Red Cross for making clothing, bandages, etc. “The gilded throne, from which Kalakaua ruled in state, was moved out. The bright crimson carpets were taken up, so that the floor might be scrubbed daily. The pictures of the kings and queens of Hawaii were shrouded with white cheese cloth and even the glittering chandeliers were covered.” Long white tables were placed for maximum work efficiency in both the throne room and on the outside lanai – porches.

September 14, 1917: The Red Cross flag, a gift to the Honolulu chapter from Liliuokalani, was raised above the capitol (executive building) – the first time that such a flag had been displayed on any building in Hawaii, excepting the military hospital.

November 1, 1917: To select men for military service in World War I, Governor Pinkham drew the first draft numbers in the senate chamber of the capitol.

November 11, 1917: On this opening day of Hawaii‘s mobilization camp, named for the aged Liliuokalani, the former queen of the islands passed away. Not only did the recruits encamp to flags at half mast; the entire Territory was in mourning. Later Liliuokalani lay in state in her one-time throne room.

June 22, 1918: Governor Charles J McCarthy was inaugurated in the throne room.

September, 1918 – July, 1921: From Red Cross quarters in the throne room went people and supplies for the relief of diseased and starving thousands of Central Europeans, refugees huddled along Siberia’s Pacific shores. Hawaii’s contributions were outstanding because of its nearness and its aloha spirit.

April 13, 1920: The Prince of Wales arrived. He paid an official visit to Governor McCarthy at the capitol.

July, 1921: Governor Wallace Rider Farrington was inaugurated on the capitol steps.

January 14, 1922: Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, Hawaii ‘s delegate to Congress for nearly two decades, and the last of Hawaiian royalty to bear a title sealed with the seal of the vanished kingdom, lay in state in the throne room.

June 11, 1926: Sanford Ballard Dole – son of missionary parents, lawyer, revolutionist, head of the provisional government, president of the Republic of Hawaii, first governor of the Territory of Hawaii, and presiding judge of the federal district court – lay in state in the throne room.

August 10, 1926: The crown prince and princess of Sweden arrived. They paid an official visit to Governor Farrington at the capitol.

1930: The sum of $150,000 was appropriated to renovate the capitol. Workers replacing timbers discovered a giant cache of bees and honey. Reconstruction was completed in December. Steel girders, rafters, and uprights replaced wooden pnes The brick wall was laid around the banyan tree in the palace yard. The site of Hawaii’s first royal mausoleum, also located in the yard, was cleared and fenced.

July 5, 1929: Governor Lawrence M. Judd was inaugurated on a platform erected in front of the capitol steps.

July 24, 1934: President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the former palace and gave a speech in which he echoed a desire voiced by Curtis P Iaukea once King Kalakaua’s chamberlain, that the throne room be restored and opened to the public because of its great historic value.

March 1, 1934: Governor Joseph B. Poindexter was inaugurated in the executive chambers (formerly Kalakaua’s bedroom) with only a few intimate friends present.

March 21, 1935: The legislature passed a resolution rechristening the executive building Iolani Palace.

October, 1936 -April, 1937: The islands; first large waterfront strike isolated Hawaii. The legislature, meeting in the palace, was powerless to interfere.

November 12, 1938: Restoration of the throne room was completed.

December 7, 1941: The first Japanese bombs fell in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The time: 7:45 a.m. At 9:30 a projectile landed near Governor Poindexter’s driveway at Washington Place, and its fragments killed a passerby across the street. The governor hurried to his office in the palace; a second shell burst in the corner of the palace grounds. By 11:15 am Poindexter was proclaiming a state of emergency over the radio.

Before noon General Walter Short, commanding the Army’s Hawaiian Department, discussed with the governor the advisability of martial law. A call was put through from Iolani Palace to the White House, and President Roosevelt agreed with Short on the need for martial law. At 4:25 pm Governor Poindexter proclaimed the suspension of civilian authority. The military was in command. During the day 57 persons were killed on Oahu, 50 hospitalized, 230 less seriously injured, and private property worth $500, 000 was destroyed; these were civilian losses only, of course.

Office of Civil Defense headquarters were established in the senate chamber of the palace (this room had once been the royal dining room). The throne room was filled with cots for nap-catching during the prevailing forty-eight-hour tours of duty. The palace basement became a Red Cross canteen. Hangings blacked out all windows. Barbed wire girdled the palace gates. Within a few months all rugs, paintings, chandeliers, etc, had been removed and stored for safekeeping.

March 28, 1942: Hawaii’s quota of draftees was almost doubled as 2,645 men were inducted and given an aloha ceremony at Iolani Palace before one of the largest crowds assembled in Honolulu in years.

August 24, 1942: Governor Ingram M Stainback was inaugurated at Washington Place, the palace being occupied by the military.

1943 -1949: Housing was critically short in supply, and as many as eighteen people lived in a single room, using it in shifts. Even as late as 1948 an evicted family, unable to find quarters, camped on Iolani Palace grounds for several days among the temporary buildings squatting there.

March 10, 1943: “Restoration Day” ceremonies were held in the throne room to celebrate the return of civil law and authority – with minor exceptions.

July, 1944: Blackout curtains were removed from palace windows as blackout regulations were lifted.

August 12, 1945: A wild but premature celebration of VJ Day was set off by announcement from the mainland. Prohibited red firecrackers littered King street in front of the palace. An official air raid siren blast triggered a repeat performance two days later.

September 3, 1945: Honolulu’s VJ Day parade and ceremony took place at the palace.

August 9, 1946: A formal reception at the palace honored members of the 442nd and the 100th Battalions. These units, made up of Americans of Japanese ancestry, were the most dec orated of World War II.

May 8, 1951: Governor Oren E Long was inaugurated on a large platform erected at the foot of the palace steps.

February 28, 1953: Governor Samuel Wilder King, the first governor of Hawaiian blood, was inaugurated on a similar platform. It was the first such occasion since Kalakaua’s coronation in 1883 on which heavy rain fell. The rain stopped, however, during the actual ceremony. Old Hawaiians nodded at the blessing thus accorded one of their race.

July 31, 1953: A new building for Hawaii’s archives was completed on the palace grounds.

June 26, 1954: The state funeral of Joseph R Farrington, the islands’ delegate to Congress, was held in the throne room.

October 24, 1956: The first of several Aloha Week pageant s depicting the history of Iolani Palace was produced against the King Street facade.

September 2, 1957: Governor William F. Quinn was inaugurated; he proved to be Hawaii’s last appointed chief executive.

March 12, 1959: From Washington, DC, Governor Quinn telephoned to Iolani Palace that the Hawaii statehood bill had passed Congress. At last Hawaii was a part of the US, in the fullest sense – an equal of her forty-nine sister states.

The above is taken from Lloyd Stone’s article on Iolani Palace in the April 1963 Hawaiian Historical Review.

Click the link for the full listing.
https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Iolani-Palace-From-Kingdom-To-Statehood-HHR-Revival-Stone.pdf

October 2, 2021 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Courageous Dissent

Hiram (Harry) Bingham IV grew up in a Connecticut family whose members were well known for being missionaries (Hiram I & II) and explorers (Hiram III.)

He was a US diplomat stationed in Marseilles, France during World War II when Germany was invading France.

At great personal risk and against State Department orders, he (a Protestant Christian) used his government status to help over 2,500 Jewish people escape the Holocaust as they escaped Hitler’s occupied Europe from 1939-1941.

He organized clandestine rescue efforts and escapes, harbored many refugees at his diplomatic residence and issued “visas for life” and affidavits of eligibility for passage.

Hiram IV helped some of the most notable intellectuals and artists to escape, including Marc Chagall, (artist;) Leon Feuchtwanger, (author;) Golo Mann, (historian, son of Thomas Mann;) Hannah Arendt, (philosopher;) Max Ernst, (artist and poet;) and Dr. and Mrs. Otto Meyerhof, (Nobel Prize winning physicist.)

When the State Department learned of his actions, he was transferred to Lisbon, Portugal and later to Argentina.

In the eyes of the State Department, he was an insubordinate member of the US diplomatic service, a dangerous maverick who was eventually demoted.

He was not following established State Department policy – ultimately, he had to resign from the Foreign Service.

Bingham refrained from speaking about his service; his family had limited information about what he had done during the war.

Little was known of his extraordinary activities until after his death; then, family members found thousands of letters and official documents attesting to his quiet heroism.

His son, Robert “Kim” Bingham, wrote a book about him titled, “Courageous Dissent: How Harry Bingham Defied his Government to Save Lives”.

In 1998, Hiram IV was recognized as one of eleven diplomats who saved 200,000-lives from the Holocaust, which amounts to one-million descendents of survivors today.

He is the only US Diplomat who has been officially honored by the State of Israel as a “righteous diplomat.”

He was the only American diplomat recognized during Israel’s 50th Anniversary at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

Sixty years after leaving the Foreign Service (in 2002,) the State Department posthumously recognized Bingham with the department’s American Foreign Service Association “Constructive Dissent” award.

In 2005, Bingham was posthumously given a letter of commendation from Israel’s Holocaust Museum. In 2006, a US commemorative postage stamp was issued in his honor.

More than 450 supporters of the Simon Wiesenthal Center gathered for the 2011 Humanitarian Award Dinner. There, the Medal of Valor was awarded posthumously to Sir Winston Churchill, Hiram Bingham IV and Pope John Paul II.

Hiram I is my great-great-great-grandfather, Hiram Bingham IV is a cousin. We did not know this story until a couple years ago. Kim came to visit in Hawaiʻi and we had the opportunity to sit down with him and learn more about his father (Hiram IV, Harry.)

Hiram Bingham IV-ID card

Hiram Bingham IV circa 1980

Hiram Bingham IV-Medal of Valor

Hiram Bingham IV-MedalOfValor_Citation