Peter T Young

March 6, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Princess Kaʻiulani … Engaged?

On October 16, 1875, a child was born to Princess Likelike (the youngest sister of King Kalākaua) and Archibald Cleghorn. The child, the only direct descendant of the Kalākaua dynasty, was named Victoria Kawekiu Kaʻiulani Lunalilo Kalaninui Ahilapalapa.

On March 9, 1891, Princess Kaʻiulani was duly appointed and proclaimed heir apparent to the Hawaiian throne.

Kaʻiulani inherited 10-acres of land in Waikīkī from her godmother, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. Originally called Auaukai, Kaʻiulani’s mother named it ʻĀinahau.

The family built a two-story home on the estate. At first, the home was used only as a country estate, but Princess Kaʻiulani’s family loved it so much, it soon became their full time residence. As many as fifty peacocks, favorites of the young Princess, were allowed to roam freely on the grounds.

At the age of 13, Princess Kaʻiulani sailed to Europe to begin her education abroad; she spent the next 8 years studying and traveling in Europe.

Reports and rumors of Kaʻiulani’s engagement to various men have been reported over the years. It depends on whether you believe what you read in the newspapers or books – and which one you believe – to determine if the answer to the question posed in the title is true.

Clive Davies

Newspaper reports in 1893 noted Clive Davies and Kaʻiulani were engaged. Clive Davies is the son of Theophilus Davies. Not only was the senior Davies’ firm, Theo H Davies, one of the Hawaiʻi Big Five, he personally served as guardian to Princess Kaʻiulani while she was studying in England (Davies had a home in Nuʻuanu called “Craigside;” he had another home in England, “Sundown.”)

George Davies

Later, in 1897, newspaper accounts note George Davies, another son of Theo H Davies (Kaʻiulani guardian while she studied in England,) was engaged to the Princess.

David Kawānanakoa

A New York Times announcement in early 1898, stated, Prince David Laʻamea Kahalepouli Kinoiki Kawānanakoa (Koa) Piʻikoi, a descendant of the sister of Kalākaua’s wife, Queen Kapiʻolani, was engaged to marry Kaʻiulani – his cousin.

David was the first child of his father High Chief David Kahalepouli Piʻikoi, from Kauaʻi Island, and his mother Victoria Kūhiō Kinoiki Kekaulike. His younger brothers were Edward Keliʻiahonui (Prince Edward) (1869–1887) and Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole (Prince Kūhiō) (1871–1922.)

Adding credibility to this announcement, reportedly, Queen Kapiʻolani gave Princess Kaʻiulani’s an engagement necklace in anticipation of the marriage between Kaʻiulani and Koa. It was originally a gift to Queen Kapiʻolani from King Kalākaua for their wedding anniversary.

Putnam Bradlee Strong

In late-summer 1898, newspaper reports stated Kaʻiulani was engaged to Captain Putman Strong, son of New York ex-Mayor Strong.

Andrew Adams

Later in 1898, reports suggested Kaʻiulani was engaged to Andrew Adams, son of a railroad engineer. He was previously a member of the staff of the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal and had moved to Hawaiʻi and worked at the Hawaiian Star in Honolulu.

James G Blain Jr.

An 1899 report has a cryptic reference that James Blain Jr was “at one time engaged to be married to Kaʻiulani”. Somewhat surprising, since his father, James Blain, worked to bind the kingdom more closely to the US, suggesting Hawaiʻi should become an American protectorate. Some suggest Blain was involved with the ultimate annexation of Hawaiʻi by the US.

International

German: Reportedly, in a letter to Queen Liliʻuokalani, Kaʻiulani wrote: “I could have married an enormously rich German Count, but I could not care for him. I feel it would be wrong if I married a man I did not love, I should be perfectly unhappy, and we should not agree, and instead of being an example to the married women of today, I should become like one of them, merely a woman of fashion and most likely a flirt. I hope I am not expressing myself too strongly but I feel I must speak out to you and there must be perfect confidence between you and me, dear Aunt.” (KaiulaniProject, June 22, 1894)

Japanese: King Kalākaua proposed a royal marriage to the throne of Japan. The proposal was a matrimonial relationship between Princess Kaʻiulani and a young Japanese Prince, Komatsu, during a private meeting. At that time, the offer was neither accepted nor rejected. Prince Komatsu himself had written King Kalākaua, formally thanking him but at the same time, stating that a marriage had already been arranged for him when he was very young. (ufl-edu)

Scottish: Of course, there is one more lingering message from the rumor mill – folks still suggest there was something going on between Kaʻiulani and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Stevenson made several trips to the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and became a good friend of King David Kalākaua, with whom Stevenson spent much time. Stevenson also became good friends with Kaʻiulani, also of Scottish heritage.

Historians have debated the true nature of their relationship as to whether or not they had romantic feelings for each other. Because of the age difference, such stories have often been discredited. (Treasure Island – eBook)

Kaʻiulani never married.

While attending a wedding at Parker Ranch at Waimea on the Big Island, Kaʻiulani got caught in a cold Waimea rain while riding on horseback, she became ill; she and her family returned to O‘ahu.

Tragically, after a two-month illness, Kaʻiulani died at ʻĀinahau on March 6, 1899, at age 23. It is said that the night she died, her peacocks screamed so loud that people could hear them miles away and knew that she had died.

March 5, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Occidental Hotel

Edward HF Wolter was one of the military officers who helped Hawai‘i in the stirring closing years of the 19th century, during the Revolutionary period, aiding in obtaining annexation to the United States for the islands; he then got into real estate as a builder and real estate operator.

Born on February 22, 1854, at Sprackensehl, Provinz Hanover, Germany, Wolter was the son of Jurgen H. C. and Sophia M. E. Wolter. He obtained his education in the schools of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and arrived in Honolulu on Oct. 7, 1881, acquiring a part ownership in Olowalu sugar plantation. From 1882 to 1885 he served as a plantation overseer.

He accepted a position as hotel manager in 1885 and resigned in 1913, after almost thirty years of service, to enter the building and real estate business. He also has served as a supervisor for the city and county of Honolulu.

His career as a military officer in Hawaii began during the reign of King Kalakaua and was continued through the regime of Queen Liliuokalani, the Republic of Hawaii under President Dole and latterly in the National Guard of Hawaii, in the 298th US Infantry. (Nellist)

Then, an announcement of the construction of the Occidental Hotel was made in 1896, under ‘Local and General News:’ “Major EHF Wolter contemplates erecting a grand lodging house in place of the McDowell place on the corner of King and Alakea street.”

“If the dilapidated buildings on the other corners could be torn down a great improvement would be made.” (The Independent, October 3, 1896)

The Occidental, long popular as a modestly-priced hotel and rooming house on the makai-Waikīkī corner of Alakea and South King Streets, was built in 1896.

With its lathe and plaster exterior, iron-railed second-floor balcony grillwork, potted plants, and dormered-mansard roof and cupola, the Occidental remained substantially unchanged while Honolulu grew up around it.

In 1900 EHF Wolter presided as manager; room rates by the day in the two-and one-half story structure ran from $1.00 to $2.00, with “a substantial reduction in prices when taken by the month.” (Scott)

The fire inspection report for 1900 noted that “the walls were full of openings; there was a ‘poor chimney’ and no bar ….”

By 1904 proprietor Wolter had added a bistro where straight goods were a specialty and a barber shop for good measure. The new $1.25 daily rates were “the lowest in the city for a refined hostelry.”

On the King Street side of the hotel stood Fred Harrison’s Hawaiian Marble Works adjoining Spanton and Lund, sign painters and paperhangers. (Scott)

“The valuable piece of property at the corner-of King and Alakea streets, now owned by EHF Wolter, is likely to be thrown into litigation in the very near future unless an amicable agreement is reached between the present possessor of the land and Mrs. Robert Wilcox, who claims ownership of the corner by reason of an alleged defective title.” (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“The land was originally deeded by the King to Rieves, a kamaaina of Hawaii. At the death of Rieves the land was deeded to his six children, so Mrs. Wilcox contends. Two of these signed off in favor of a third.”

“The land passed out of the Rieves family and has been transferred numerous times until bought in by Wolter at a public auction sale.” (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Now Mrs. Wilcox claims to have proof that the land never legally passed out of the Rieves family. Her grandfather was one of the two who did not come in for his share of the property. She insists that it has been handed down to her by her ancestors and that Mr. Wolter’s title is defective.” (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Mrs. Wilcox has retained WR Castle as her attorney and he will Institute suit or the recovery of the property unless Mr. Wolter agrees to settle. LA Thurston is Mr. Wolter’s counsel. It is said that the present owner has shown some inclination to compromise. The property is worth about $12,000.” (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Mr. Wolter is erecting a large building on the premises to be known as the Occidental hotel. It extends back half a block and has fully fifty feet front on King. Construction on the building has been temporarily stopped by the Government, the claim being that it is not as nearly fire proof as it should be.” (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Mr Wolter is thinking of making a three story building of the Occidental Hotel. (Hawaiian Star, October 27, 1898)

The “box-like, durable Occidental Hotel, its original cupola still intact, appeared somewhat out of place in downtown Honolulu” in 1940.

“The old hostel, at the makai Waikiki corner of South King and Alakea Streets, had recently been renovated and small shops occupied the ground floor with the upper two stories given over to furnished rooms.” (Scott)

Wolter’s son, Henry Wolter, took over the property after his father’s death in 1928. He redeveloped the site of the Occidental Hotel (demolished in October 1950) with a 2-story office building that was ready for occupancy in 1951. (Star Bulletin, March 2, 1951)

On the curbstone in front of the Wolter Building, corner of King and Alakea, circular indentations show the location of hitching rings used to tether horses at the old Occidental Hotel.

Forty years ago a couple of the rings remained; now there are only the iron stubs of one or two shanks that fastened the rings to the stone (not concrete) curb.

March 4, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kīpapa Gulch

Place names help tell the stories of the place.

During the reign of Māʻilikūkahi, who ruled at about the same time Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic, invaders from Hawai‘i and Maui arrived on O‘ahu.

In the battles, the O‘ahu forces met the opposing forces in the uplands of Waipi‘o, and a great battle occurred.

Māʻilikūkahi was raised partly in Waialua and is said to have maintained a kulanakauhale (village) there.

Fornander writes, “He (Māʻilikūkahi) caused the island to be thoroughly surveyed, and boundaries between differing divisions and lands be definitely and permanently marked out, thus obviating future disputes between neighboring chiefs and landholders.”

Kamakau tells a similar story, “When the kingdom passed to Māʻilikūkahi, the land divisions were in a state of confusion; the ahupuaʻa, the ku, the ʻili ʻāina, the moʻo ʻāina, the pauku ʻāina, and the kihāpai were not clearly defined.”

“Therefore, Māʻilikūkahi ordered the chiefs, aliʻi, the lesser chiefs, kaukau aliʻi, the warrior chiefs, puʻali aliʻi, and the overseers (luna) to divide all of Oʻahu into moku, ahupuaʻa, ʻili kupono, ʻili ʻāina, and moʻo ʻāina.”

What is commonly referred to as the “ahupuaʻa system” is a result of the firm establishment of palena (boundaries.) This system of land divisions and boundaries enabled a konohiki (land/resource manager) to know the limits and productivity of the resources that they managed – and increase its productivity.

Māʻilikūkahi is also known for a benevolent reign that was followed by generations of peace. He prohibited the chiefs from plundering the makaʻāinana, with punishment of death. His reign “ushered in an era of benign rule lasting for several generations.”

Thrum notes that while Māʻilikūkahi was peacefully disposed, he proved to be a brave defender of his realm in thoroughly defeating the invading forces.

Fornander suggests it was not considered a war between the two islands, but, rather, it was a raid by some restless and turbulent chiefs. The invading force first landed at Waikīkī and proceeded to ʻEwa and marched inland.

At Waikakalaua (an upland ʻili of Waikele) they met Māʻilikūkahi and his forces, and a bloody battle ensued. The fight continued from there to the Kīpapa gulch – stretching across Kīpapa (an ʻili of Waipiʻo,) Waikakalaua and the place known as Punaluʻu.

Tradition has it that the body count from the invaders was so great that it is said the area was paved (kīpapa “placed prone”) with their bodies.

Punaluʻu, an upland ʻili, was named for one of the invading warrior-chiefs killed during the battle. Another warrior-chief, Hilo, was also killed in the battle.

Poʻohilo (an ʻili of Honouliuli) is named from events following a battle in the Kīpapa-Waikakalaua region in which the head of Hilo was placed on a stake at this site and displayed.

Kanupo‘o (an ʻili of Waikele) may be translated as meaning, “planted skull” and seems to imply an event of some importance – it may be tied to events of the battle at Kīpapa and the naming of Po‘ohilo at Honouliuli.

Today, people suggest the gulch is ruled by the spirits of fallen warriors; there are reports that this is one of the paths of the Huakaiʻpo (night marchers) and other reports suggest a woman dressed in white hitchhiking.

The area was also a temporary home to the Naval Air Station Kipapa Field / Kipapa Army Airfield. It was used because it could accommodate two 5,000′ runways free from obstructions (however, concerns were raised about increased air congestion due to its proximity between Pearl Harbor and Wheeler Field.)

The airfield site is located south the Mililani Golf Course between Meheula Parkway and Hokuala Streets – the runways extended out to the edge of the gulch. Mililani District Park is located near the intersection of the 2 main runways.

The use of this site by the Navy would permit the concentration of carrier-group training for Naval aviation on the south side of the island of Oahu including Barber’s Point, Kīpapa Gulch, and Ford Island.

But it was not until sometime after the United States entered World War II that Kipapa Airfield was developed; the exact start date is not clear, but 1943 maps note the facility.

During the war it apparently saw little use by the Navy due to the fact that carrier aircraft were constantly deployed during the war. The Army Air Corps became the principal user of the airfield by default.

Aircraft from this airfield searched & patrolled over the surrounding Pacific area, maintaining a 24-hour vigil to avert any attack with a large number and variety of squadrons are documented to have been stationed at Kipapa Airfield during World War II.

Kipapa Field was evidently closed at some point between 1959 and 1961 (it was no longer depicted on the 1961 and later mapping.)

March 3, 2022 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Surfer Girl

“Surf-riding was one of the most exciting and noble sports known to the Hawaiians, practiced equally by king, chief and commoner. It is still to some extent engaged in, though not as formerly, when it was not uncommon for a whole community, including both sexes, and all ages, to sport and frolic in the ocean the livelong day.” (Malo)

By 1779, riding waves lying down or standing on long, hardwood surfboards was an integral part of Hawaiian culture. Surfboard riding was as layered into the society, religion and myth of the islands as baseball is to the modern United States.

Even the missionaries surfed.

Amos Cooke, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1837 – and was later appointed by King Kamehameha III to teach the young royalty in the Chief’s Childrens’ School – surfed himself (with his sons) and enjoyed going to the beach in the afternoon. “After dinner Auhea went with me, & the boys to bathe in the sea, & I tried riding on the surf. To day I have felt quite lame from it.” (Cooke)

Mark Twain sailed to the Hawaiian Islands and tried surfing, describing his 1866 experience in his book Roughing It. “I tried surf-bathing once, subsequently, but made a failure of it. I got the board placed right, and at the right moment, too; but missed the connection myself.”

“The board struck the shore in three quarters of a second, without any cargo, and I struck the bottom about the same time, with a couple of barrels of water in me.”

Missionary Hiram Bingham, noted of surfing (rather poetically,) “On a calm and bright summer’s day, the wide ocean and foaming surf … the green tufts of elegant fronds on the tall cocoanut trunks, nodding and waving, like graceful plumes, in the refreshing breeze …”

“… the natives … riding more rapidly and proudly on their surf-boards, on the front of foaming surges … give life and interest to the scenery.”

Although everyone, including women and children, surfed, it was the chiefs who dominated the sport. One of the best among Waikīkī’s chiefs was Kalamakua; he came from a long ancestry of champion surfers whose knowledge, skill and mana were handed down and passed on from generation to generation. (DLNR)

A notable wahine (woman) surfer was Kelea, sister of Kawao, King of Maui (about AD 1445) – “No sport was to her so enticing as a battle with the waves.” (Kalākaua)

She loved the water possibly because she could see her fair face mirrored in it – and became the most graceful and daring surf-swimmer in the kingdom. Kelea later married Kalamakua. (Kalākaua) But this story is not about Kelea.

This story is about another surfer girl.

Reportedly, Mrs James Cromwell became the first woman to take up competition surfing under the guidance of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers.

Cromwell won “First Place” in a surfboard regatta staged at Waikīkī Beach (January 22, 1939.) She and beach boy Sam Kahanamoku won the tandem, open “malihini girls and beach boys” quarter-mile sprint. (Honolulu Advertiser, January 23, 1939)

She and Sam were a familiar team in Waikīkī, where they won tandem surfing and paddling competitions. A bronze medalist in the 100-meter free-style swim at the 1924 Olympics, Sam was also an avid surfer, paddler, musician and a great wit. (Their friendship continued until his death in 1966.)

By 1941, Cromwell had 13-boards in the household inventory. Each of the boards had a name or initials, including one named Lahilahi (thin or dainty,) an affectionate nickname given to her by the Kahanamokus.

All was not fun and games. Showing her husband her surfing skill while in Honolulu, Mrs Cromwell, in 1935, had a slight scalp wound as a result of being thrown from her 60-pound surfboard. An emergency hospital record showed she was treated and released. (St Petersburg Times, November 3, 1935)

She later had a more modern board, created by Dale Velzy, who is considered one of the men responsible for the rise of the California surfer culture in the years following World War II. Some suggest Velzy opened the first conventional surf shop at Manhattan Beach in California in 1949.

Her board is one of the first boards Velzy created using the new polyurethane foam material; boards were previously made of balsa wood.

Oh, by the way … Mrs Cromwell was more generally known as “the richest girl in the world,” Doris Duke.

Doris Duke, the only child of James Buchanan Duke, was born on November 22, 1912. Her father was a founder of the American Tobacco Company and the Duke Power Company, as well as a benefactor of Duke University. When Mr Duke died in 1925, he left his 12-year old daughter an estate estimated at $80-million.

In the late-1930s, Doris Duke built her Honolulu home, Shangri La, on 5-acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Diamond Head. Shangri La incorporates architectural features from the Islamic world and houses Duke’s extensive collection of Islamic art, which she assembled for nearly 60-years.

Her surfing legacy lives on.

Rough Point has been the ‘home’ of the Doris Duke Surf Fest. It’s not really a surf contest; it’s more of a display of vintage surfboards on the grounds of Rough Point, one of Duke’s other homes (in Newport, Rhode Island, not far from the International Tennis Hall of Fame.)

Designed in the English manorial style, Rough Point was originally built for Frederick W Vanderbilt, sixth son of William H Vanderbilt. When it was commissioned in 1887, Rough Point was the largest house that the Newport summer colony had yet seen, replacing two wood-frame houses at the extreme southeast end of Bellevue Avenue.

Duke’s father bought it in 1922. On her death, she bequeathed the estate to the Newport Restoration Foundation with the directive that it be opened to the public as a museum (it opened for tours in 2000.) (Lots of information here from Shangri La Hawaiʻi and Newport Restoration Foundation.)

March 2, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sugar in Hawai‘i in 1915

“Sugar is the commercial life blood of Hawai‘i. There are 46,000 persons actually on the pay roll of the Hawaiian sugar plantations, with twice as many more directly dependent on the industry, and almost the entire population indirectly dependent thereon.”

“It takes, with a few exceptions, from eighteen to twenty-four months, and on the higher lands, as many as thirty months to make a crop, instead of a year, as is the case in almost every other sugar country, with the consequent increase of cost …”

“… for all expense of upkeep and overhead charges for the longer time must come out of one crop. There are always two crops in the ground, and during several months of the year, three, all under care.”

“With the exception of certain districts, Hawai‘i is too dry to produce sugar cane without artificial irrigation. The cane from which one half of the sugar output is produced has to be irrigated every week or ten days. One-third of the employees of irrigated plantations are continuously engaged in watering the cane.”

“There is more water used per day for irrigating cane in Hawai‘i, than the daily . capacity of the New York aqueduct – 700,000,000 gallons.”

“Sixty per cent of the cost of sugar in Hawai‘i is for labor; and on sugar plantations in Hawai‘i, laborers are better and more expensively cared for, and are paid more than in any other cane producing country.”

“Under the United States coastwise shipping law, Hawaii is compelled to use high priced American ships only, to carry freight to and from the mainland; while other sugar producing countries can use the cheap freight rates of foreign shipping.”

“The opening of the Panama Canal has reduced the freight rate on sugar, from Hawai‘i to New York, from $9.50 to $8.50 per ton, and it may go somewhat lower; but the freight on Cuban sugar to New York, Hawai‘I’s chief competitor, is only $2.50 per ton.”

“The average cost of marketing a ton of Hawaiian sugar, covering freight, insurance, charges and commissions, is from $10 to $15 per ton.”

“The freight on merchandise from New York to Hawai‘i ranges from $8 to $20 per ton. The canal has reduced the rate by an average of about ten per cent. Later the reduction may be somewhat increased.”

“Hawaii has to plant cane anew about every third crop. In Cuba they are said to be still harvesting cane growing from cuttings planted by the grandfathers of the present sugar planters. It is common to continue harvesting annually in Cuba from cane planted ten to twenty years before.”

“There are other minor handicaps to Hawai‘I’s disadvantage, among them that Hawaii is so bedeviled with insect pests, and cane diseases …”

“… and the problems of meeting the naturally adverse conditions are so ever pressing and imperative, that the Hawaiian sugar planters are compelled to maintain, at their own expense, an experiment station, demonstration farm and corps of scientists that cost from $80,000 to $160,000 per annum.”

“The foregoing partially explains why it costs more to produce sugar in Hawai‘i than in any other sugar producing country in the world, except on the mainland of the United States.”

“The great world sugar producers, Cuba, Java and the European beet sugar countries; have cheap material, cheap labor and cheap freights.”

“Hawai‘i is inside the sacred circle of the American tariff, with its resulting higher basis of cost as to everything which enters into the production of sugar.”

“If it, too, can receive reasonable protection, it can continue, and better its past magnificent record of development; but it cannot buy and produce in a protected market and sell in the open market.”

“In this respect, Hawai‘i is in the same boat with the cane sugar industry of Louisiana and the beet sugar producers of the North and West.”

“Although Hawaii has some advantages over them, they also have advantages over the sugar producer in Hawai‘i, such as cheaper material, cheaper freights and near-by market.”

“There are forty-five complete sugar plantations in Hawai‘i. They are nearly all incorporated and owned by thousands of stockholders.”

“Twenty-four of these are listed on the stock exchange, and their financial affairs are open to all. They are a fair representation of the whole.” (Thurston, History of the Panama Canal, 1915) (Images from Babcock – 1926)