Peter T Young

December 5, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waiʻanae

The Waianae Coast received its name from the mullet that was once farmed here. Wai means water, and ʻanae means large mullet (perhaps from mullet in the muliwai, or brackish-water pools, that were once common in the backshore on many Waiʻanae beaches.) These fish were once produced in large amounts.

A legend describes the origins of niu (coconut) in the Hawaiian Islands, as well as the naming of Pōkaʻī Bay. Pōkaʻī was a voyaging chief of Kahiki (Tahiti) who is said to have brought coconut palms to Hawai‘i. A huge grove of coconuts once lined the shore of Pōka‘ī Bay.

The trees provided shelter and useful materials for the ancient Hawaiian village. This grove, known as “Ka Uluniu o Pokai,” was not just a legend as it was noted by western sailors in the 1700s.

Waiʻanae Ahupuaʻa within the Waiʻanae District was its Royal Center in the late-1600s to the 1700s. The ahupuaʻa had numerous important heiau and the largest population of the district at European contact.

Prior to contact with the Hawaiian Islands by Captain James Cook in 1778, the population of Waiʻanae was approximately 4,000 to 6,000 people.

In 1793, Vancouver described Waiʻanae as desolate and barren: “From the commencement of the high land to the westward of Opooroah [Puʻuloa] was … one barren rocky waste, nearly destitute of verdure, cultivation or inhabitants, with little variation all to the west point of the island. …”

“Nearly in the middle of this side of the Island is the only village we had seen westward of Opooroah. … The shore here forms a small sandy bay. On its southern side, between the two high rocky precipices, in a grove of cocoanut and other trees, is situated the village. …”

“The few inhabitants that visited us from the village, earnestly entreated out anchoring and told us, that if we would stay until morning, their chief would be on board with a number of hogs, and a great quantity of vegetables. … The face of the country did not, however, promise an abundant supply.” (Vancouver)

A Waiʻanae kahuna (priest) prophesied the coming of a “big fish” who “would eat all the little fish.” The following year (1795,) Kamehameha invaded and conquered Oʻahu. Following Kamehameha’s succession as ruling chief, “the despoiled people in large numbers fled to Waiʻanae and settled there. This part of Oahu being hot, arid, isolated, with little water, was not coveted by the invaders”. (City P&R)

In direct contrast was an inland description of Waiʻanae recorded by Handy in 1940: In ancient times Waiʻanae Valley had extensive systems of terraces along its various streams, in what is now forest and water reserve, and well down into the broad area not covered by sugar cane.

Names were obtained for 14 district terrace sections, watered by Olahua Stream, extending as far down as the site of the present power house. The section named Honua, including the group of terraces farthest inland, belonged to the aliʻi of the valley. (City P&R)

In the 1800s, missionary Levi Chamberlain traveled to Waiʻanae, describing it as: “… a very beautiful place, opening an extensive valley … having a view of the sea from those points …”

“… on the left is a grove of coconuts on low ground through the midst of which runs a beautiful stream of clear water from the mountains. Houses are scattered here and there in the grove and clumps of sugar cane and rows of bananas are see interspersed.” (Chamberlain)

The census in 1835 listed 1,654 residents on the Waiʻanae coast. In 1855, JW Makalena, the Waiʻanae tax collector, listed these figures for taxpayers: Waiʻanae Kai – 62, Kamaile – 44, Mākaha – 38, Makua – 21, Maile – 9, Nanakuli – 8. These were generally adult males. Assuming each adult male had a family of four, estimates of population are: Waiʻanae Kai – 250, Kamaile – 175, Makaha – 150, Makua – 85, Maili – 35, and Nanakuli – 30.

Christian missionaries were quick to establish missions throughout Oʻahu following their arrival in 1820. Ordained in 1850, Stephen Waimalu became the first Hawaiian minister of Waiʻanae.

In the mid-1800s, Paul Manini (son of Don Francisco de Paula Marin) had a lease over Waiʻanae Valley; he raised cattle on the land. By the late-1870s most of Waiʻanae Ahupuaʻa was in ranching. JM Dowsett had acquired Waiʻanae Uka by 1870 and by 1880 was running a grazing ranch on 17,200 acres of the Waiʻanae Valley. (City P&R)

Prior to the 1880s, the Waiʻanae coastline may not have undergone much alteration. The old coastal trail probably followed the natural contours of the local topography. With the introduction of horses, cattle and wagons in the nineteenth century, many of the coastal trails were widened and graded.

However, sugar was to be the economic future of Hawaiʻi and with the passing of the treaty of reciprocity in 1876, allowing sugar into the United States duty free, the profits became enormous.

In 1879 Judge Hermann A Wideman, GN Wilcox and AS Wilcox started the Waiʻanae Company to grow sugar in the Mākaha, Waiʻanae and Lualualei valleys.

With the addition of a railroad for hauling cane, Waiʻanae Company carried the distinction of being the most modern and efficient in all of Hawai`i.

As the success of sugar cultivation grew, so did Waiʻanae Village. By the 1890s, there was a resident postmaster, two mail deliveries a week, a steamer arrival every Friday and the plantation manager’s office boasted a telephone (McGrath).

Eventually as the sugar lands increased, squabbles arose between the plantation and the taro farmers over the precious and limited water resources. Wells dug by the McCandless brothers solved the crises for the plantation for a while. At its peak, the plantation produced 13.79 tons of sugar per acre in 1935.

John Papa ‘Ī‘ī describes a network of Leeward O‘ahu trails, which in early historic times crossed the Waiʻanae Range, allowing passage from Central O‘ahu through Pōhākea Pass and Kolekole Pass. The Pu‘u Kapolei trail gave access to the Waiʻanae district from Central O‘ahu, which evolved into the present day Farrington Highway.

In 1888, Benjamin F Dillingham secured a franchise from King Kalākaua to build a railroad that eventually extended from Honolulu, along the Waiʻanae coast, around Kaʻena Point, to Waialua and Kahuku. With easy access to the Waiʻanae coast by train came limited development

The arrival of WW II changed the character and land use of Waiʻanae. Some of the best sugar lands were taken over by the military, which was the beginning of the end for the Waiʻanae Plantation, that closed in 1947. Lots of information here from McGerty and Spear in City P&R.

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Farrington_Highway-Makaha_Beach-(CulturalSurveys)-1947

Farrington_Highway-(Cultural_Surveys)-late-1940s

Suydam Cutting, NY explorer & writer; Jouett Todd, Louisville attorney; Walter Dillingham; W. Averell Harriman, chmn Board; Sloan Colt, pres NY Banker’s Trust Co; Hugh Chrisholm, Portland MO.

Plantation manager's home, Waianae, Oahu-(HSA)-PPWD-18-2-012-1885

Waianae Beach, Poka'i Bay-(vic&becky)-1953

December 4, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Waiʻalae Country Club

In 1887, Daniel Paul Rice Isenberg (Paulo Liʻiliʻi) (son of the Paul Isenberg, one of the founders of H. Hackfeld & Co. (Amfac) and one of the organizers of the Līhuʻe Sugar plantation) invested a large part of his inheritance in the development of a 3,000-acre ranch at Waiʻalae, Oʻahu.

He obtained the major part of Kaimuki from the Lunalilo and Bishop estates, and used this land for cattle, alfalfa and race horses.

He was the first ranchman in the islands to demonstrate the growth and uses of alfalfa, a valuable stock feed, but he couldn’t realize much of a profit because sugar and rice were top priority, then.

His birthday was on June 11, Kamehameha Day, the day for horse races at Kapiʻolani, and “rarely did it pass without a luau at Waiʻalae Ranch.” King Kalākaua frequently visited Isenberg at his ranch for the evening, for both of them enjoyed the same things, festivities, luaus and singing.

In 1919, after Isenberg’s death, the ranch’s lease was sold to accommodate a dairy by 1924; it was the largest dairy in Honolulu.

Then, in 1927, the Territorial Hotel Co., as part of a promotional program to develop luxury travel trade to Hawaiʻi on the mother company’s Matson Navigation Co. cruise ships, built the Royal Hawaiian Hotel … and with it the Waiʻalae Golf Course.

The hotel and golf course lands were leased from the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate. The Golf Course was opened for play on February 1, 1927. In July 1927, the Isenberg ranch home near the mouth of Wai‘alae stream became the club house for the Wai‘alae Golf Course.

Local players were able to use the course, and by payment of annual fees for play became “privilege card holders” in the Territorial Hotel Company’s Waiʻalae Golf Club.

In 1930, a group of these Waiʻalae players formed a private club within the Waiʻalae Golf Club which they called Waiʻalae Country Club. It enlarged a small service building close to the main clubhouse, installed showers and had its own clubhouse where the swimming pool is now located.

The great depression of the 1930s severely reduced travel and resulted in bankruptcy of the Territorial Hotel Co. Matson took over the obligations and interests of the Territorial Hotel Co. which included the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the Moana Hotel and Waiʻalae Golf Club.

By the 1930s, the beachfront along Kahala Avenue was being developed with homes, while farming continued in other areas. In 1938, more than 50 pig farms were operating in the vicinity of Farmers Road and Kahala Avenues. Residents of the area, citing an increase in rats and mice at Kahala, petitioned the territorial board of health to remove the pig farms (Honolulu Advertiser, December 20, 1938).

During these years, play on the course was mainly by local privilege card holders, most of whom were members of Waiʻalae Country Club.

In August of 1941, fire destroyed the Waiʻalae Pavilion which was used by Waiʻalae Golf Club for dining and dancing, and Matson decided to turn the golf course and remaining buildings over to Waiʻalae Country Club.

Before this plan was consummated, the US had entered World War II, the military had requisitioned the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, and numerous military defenses had been installed along Oʻahu’s coastline including the golf course at Waiʻalae.

Waiʻalae Country Club was incorporated on September 30, 1942 and became lessee of the golf course acreage and a small section of land owned by Matson on which the old Isenberg home (later The Pavilion) had been located. The military built a replacement for the Pavilion because of the heavy use of the course by military personnel during the war.

The old Waiʻalae Country Club clubhouse was destroyed by fire in 1952, but through the conversion of the military structure into kitchen and dining facilities, and the building of new locker rooms, Waiʻalae was again in full operation within twenty-four months after the fire.

In the 1953 filming of “From Here to Eternity,” Private Prewitt is shot near the bunker on the first hole at Waiʻalae.

No major physical changes were made in the golf course layout until 1954 when the 15th hole was lengthened from 320 yards to 435 yards. (However, in the early-1960s major reconstruction on the front nine was necessitated in order to provide beachfront areas for the Kahala Hilton Hotel and the Kahala Beach Apartments.)

Tennis courts, swimming pool and added parking units were completed in 1958 and Waiʻalae became a Country Club in fact, as well as, name.

Hawaiian Opens (under various sponsorships) have been held at Waiʻalae since 1928. The First PGA Tour Hawaiian Open Golf Tournament was held in the fall of 1965. Today, Waiʻalae is home to the Sony Open in Hawaiʻi. (Lots of images and information here is from the waialaecc-org.)

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Barrenness_of_Kahala-seen_from_Kaimuki-in_distance_is_Isenberg's_Waialae_Ranch-(later_Golf_Cource)-1889

The new golf course at Waialae-(waialaecc-org)-1929.

Ground Breaking for new clubhouse building-(waialaecc-org)-1971

The original home of Waialae Country Club, the former Paul Isenberg garage and servants' quarters-(waialaecc-org)

Clubhouse,-The section on the left was the old Army theater building-(waialaecc-org)-1955

Waialae_Country_Club-The Pavilion-interior-(waialaecc-org)-1927

Waialae_Country_Club-The Pavilion-(waialaecc-org)-1927

In the 1953 filming of 'From Here to Eternity,' -(waialaecc-org)

Black_Point-Wailupe-(USGS-UH_Manoa)-4485-1965

Kahala-Aina_Haina-(USGS-UH_Manoa)-2449-1952

December 3, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kulaokahu‘a

On January 9, 1847, the Polynesian reported there were 1,386 buildings in Honolulu, 1,337 of these were residences: 875 made of grass; 345 adobe; 49 coral; 49 wood and 29 stone/coral below, wood above.

Washington Place was built that year by future-Queen Liliʻuokalani’s father-in-law.

Excluding visiting sailors, foreigners made up only some 6 per cent of Honolulu’s approximately 10,000-residents.

Following a road realignment program directed by Kuhina Nui Kīnaʻu (Kaʻahumanu II) to straighten out the streets, Honolulu was linked by four “big paths” or alanui: Beretania and Queen bordered it in the north and south and Alakea and Nuʻuanu defined its eastern and western limits.

Nearly two-decades before (about 1830,) Queen Ka‘ahumanu ordered that a wall be built in the Makiki area to keep cattle from the inland residential areas. The stone wall also marked a path across Makiki which was first called Stonewall Street; this former path is now covered by Wilder Avenue.

The government decreed that after May 4, 1850 no horses, cattle, or other animals could run at large there; more than 30 years later agents were being appointed to take up strays. (Greer)

Beyond Honolulu’s limits there were few residences other than the grass houses of Hawaiians. The population was growing toward and up Nuʻuanu, but Honolulu was hemmed on the Diamond Head end by the barren plains called Kulaokahuʻa.

Kulaokahu‘a translates as “the plain of the boundary.”

Kulaokahu‘a was the comparatively level ground below Makiki Valley (between the mauka fertile valleys and the makai wetlands.) This included areas such as Kaka‘ako, Kewalo, Makiki, Pawaʻa and Mōʻiliʻili.

“It was so empty that after Punahou School opened in July 1842, mothers upstairs in the mission house could see children leave that institution and begin their trek across the barren waste. Trees shunned the place; only straggling livestock inhabited it.” (Greer)

This flat plain would be a favorable place to play maika, a Hawaiian sport which uses a disc-shaped stone, called an ‘ulu maika, for a bowling type of game.

Pukui states that the name makiki comes from the type of stone used to make octopus lures. This is the same type of stone that was used to make ‘ulu maika, and some have speculated that the name of the ahupua‘a (Makiki) may have originated from its association with the maika sport rather than, or addition to, the making of octopus lures.

There were several horse paths criss-crossing the Kulaokahu‘a Plains. In the 1840s, it was described as “nothing but a most exceedingly dreary parcel of land with here and there a horse trail as path-way.” (Gilman) The flat plains were also perfect for horse racing, and the area between present-day Piʻikoi and Makiki Streets was a race track.

The Plains were described as dry and dusty, without a shrub to relieve its barrenness. There was enough water around Makiki Stream to grow taro in lo‘i (irrigated fields,) and there was at least one major ʻauwai, or irrigation ditch.

From 1840 to 1875, only a few unpaved roads were in the area, generally along the present course of King, Young, Beretania and Punahou Streets. These roads or horse paths “ran a straggling course which changed as often as the dust piled up deep”. (Clark)

“As early as 1847 a number of sales took place of lots in Honolulu, Kulaokahuʻa plain, Manoa and Makawao.” (Interior Department, Surveyor’s Report, 1882)

In the Great Mahele, the Kulaokahu‘a Plains were awarded to the Crown. On July 11, 1851, an Act was passed confirming certain resolutions of the Privy Council of the previous year, which ordered “that a certain portion of the Government lands on each island should be placed in the hands of special agents to be disposed of in lots of from one to fifty acres in fee simple, to residents only, at a minimum price of fifty cents per acre.” (Interior Department, Surveyor’s Report, 1882)

Between the years 1850 and 1860, nearly all the desirable Government land was sold, generally to Hawaiians. The portions sold were surveyed at the expense of the purchaser. (Interior Department, Surveyor’s Report, 1882) Most of the Kulaokahuʻa lands were not included.

Clark noted that “the settling of the Plains did not come until the 1880s, after water was brought from Makiki Valley.” Kulaokahu‘a became more hospitable when water became available from springs and artesian wells, and would gradually be transformed into an attractive residential district in the 1880s.

A notation concerning an 1878 article in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser notes a new 400,000-gallon Makiki reservoir (to be completed June 1879) to supply the Kulaokahuʻa plains and Waikikī, and eventually Kapiʻolani Park. (Krauss)

In marketing material advertised in the Pacific Commercial in 1881, the area is described as, Beretania, King, Young, Victoria, Lunalilo and Kinau Streets, no taro patches, good roads, plenty of water, best of soil, beautiful scenery and pure air. (Krauss)

The Daily Bulletin on July 13, 1882 noted, “Mr. Philip Milton has some fine grape vines growing at his residence on King street, Kulaokahuʻa Plains. They are now bearing. A specimen of the grapes may be seen in the show window at Messrs. JW Robertson & Co.’s store. Those fond of eating this delicious fruit may have an opportunity of purchasing the article from AW Bush on Fort Street, who will have a small lot for sale.”

When looking at renaming the place in 1883, names suggested were Artesia, because of wells sunk there, also Bore-dumville, and Algarroba (kiawe) because the area was then covered with trees, thickly shaded. (Krauss)

Never-the-less, in 1892, Thrum noted that to get to Mānoa “for nearly a mile the road leads by or along pasture fields with no visage of tree or shrub other than the lantana pest … and passes along Round Top of Ualakaʻa”.

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No._2._View_of_Honolulu._From_the_Catholic_church._(c._1854)-Honolulu_to_Waikiki

Paul_Emmert_-_'Diamond_Head_from_Aliapaakai_(Salt_Lake)',_c._1853-59

No._2._View_of_Honolulu._From_the_Catholic_church._(c._1854)-Honolulu_to_Waikiki-Detail

Kakaako-From the cupola of Old Plantation, looking across the fish pond to the Ward’s beachfront lands, Kukuluae‘o-(avisionforward)

Edward_Clifford_(1844-1907)_-_'Diamond_Head,_Honolulu',_watercolor_painting,_1888

George_Henry_Burgess_-_'Queen_Street,_Honolulu',_watercolor_over_graphite_painting,_1856

Kawaiahao Church in 1885-Look towards Diamond Head

Honolulu_Harbor_to_Diamond_Head-Wall-Reg1690 (1893)-(portion_development_in_Kulaokahu‘a-and-wetlands_below_in_Kewalo)

Trails from Punchbowl Street to Waialae as described by 'I'i

December 2, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Literacy

“It was like laying a corner stone of an important edifice for the nation.” (Bingham)

“I think literacy was … almost like the new technology of the time. And, that was something that was new. … When the missionaries came, there was already contact with the Western world for many years…. But this was the first time that literacy really began to take hold.”

“The missionaries, when they came, they may have been the first group who came with a [united] purpose. They came together as a group and their purpose was to spread the Gospel the teachings of the Bible.”

“But the missionaries who came, came with a united purpose … and literacy was a big part of that. Literacy was important to them because literacy was what was going to get the Hawaiians to understand the word of the Bible and the written word became very attractive to the people, and there was a great desire to learn the written word. … Hawai‘i became the most literate nation at one time.”

Click HERE for a link to comments by Manu Ka‘iama and Jon Yasuda.

“The Ali‘i Letters project “changed my perspective on the anti-missionary, anti-Anglo-Saxon rhetorical tradition that scholarship has been produced, contemporary scholarship, and it is not to discredit that scholarship, but just to change a paradigm, to shift the paradigm, and it shifted mine.” (Kaliko Martin, Research Assistant, Awaiaulu)

Click HERE for a link to comments by Kaliko Martin.

“The missionary effort is more successful in Hawai‘i than probably anywhere in the world, in the impact that it has on the character and the form of a nation. And so, that history is incredible; but history gets so blurry …”

“The missionary success cover decades and decades becomes sort of this huge force where people feel like the missionaries got off the boat barking orders … where they just kind of came in and took over. They got off the boat and said ‘stop dancing,’ ‘put on clothes,’ don’t sleep around.’ And it’s so not the case ….”

“The missionaries arrived here, and they’re a really remarkable bunch of people. They are scholars, they have got a dignity that goes with religious enterprise that the Hawaiians recognized immediately. …”

“The Hawaiians had been playing with the rest of the world for forty-years by the time the missionaries came here. The missionaries are not the first to the buffet and most people had messed up the food already.”

“(T)hey end up staying and the impact is immediate. They are the first outside group that doesn’t want to take advantage of you, one way or the other, get ahold of their goods, their food, or your daughter. But, they couldn’t get literacy. It was intangible, they wanted to learn to read and write”. (Puakea Nogelmeier)

Click HERE for a link to comments by Puakea Nogelmeier.

Many Are the People – Few Are the Books

“Having just begun to learn to read, Ka‘ahumanu, about this time (1822), embarked with her husband, and visited his islands with a retinue of some eight hundred persons, including several chiefs, and Auna, and William Beals, whom the queen requested us to send as her teacher.”

“On their arrival, the next day, at Waimea, they gave a new impulse to the desire among the people to be instructed, much to the surprise and gratification of Messrs. Whitney and Ruggles, who said their house for several days was thronged with natives pleading for books.”

“They immediately took three hundred under instruction. Their former pupils were now demanded as teachers for the beginners. Ka‘ahumanu, spurring on these efforts, soon sent back to Kamāmalu at Oahu the following characteristic letter.”

“‘This is my communication to you: tell the puu A-i o-e-o-e (posse of Long necks) to send some more books down here. Many are the people – few are the books.”

“I want elua lau (800) Hawaiian books to be sent hither. We are much pleased to learn the palapala. By and by, perhaps, we shall be akamai, skilled or wise. Give my love to Mr. and Mrs. Bingham, and the whole company of Long necks.’” (Ka‘ahumanu; Bingham)

Printing Press

“The first printing press at the Hawaiian Islands was imported by the American missionaries, and landed from the brig Thaddeus, at Honolulu …. It was not unlike the first used by Benjamin Franklin, and was set up in a thatched house standing a few fathoms from the old mission frame house”. (Hunnewell; Ballou)

Without the printing press, the written Hawaiian language, and a learned people of that time, we would know little about the past. (Muench)

“Perhaps never since the invention of printing was a printing press employed so extensively as that has been at the Sandwich islands, with so little expense, and so great a certainty that every page of its productions would be read with attention and profit.” (Barber, 1833)

In the meantime, a Wells-model press arrived at Lahainaluna in 1832 and it carried the major load of the printing there. The mission press also printed newspaper, hymnals, schoolbooks, broadsides, fliers, laws, and proclamations. The mission presses printed over 113,000,000 sheets of paper in 20 years. (Mission Houses)

Literacy was Sought by the People

“A key point in Liholiho’s plan required the missionaries to first teach the aliʻi to read and write. The missionaries agreed to the King’s terms and instruction began soon after.” (KSBE)

The arrival of the first company of American missionaries in Hawai¬ʻi in 1820 marked the beginning of Hawaiʻi’s phenomenal rise to literacy. The chiefs became proponents for education and edicts were enacted by the King and the council of chiefs to stimulate the people to reading and writing.

“That the sudden introduction of the Hawaiian nation in its unconverted state, to general English or French literature, would have been safe and salutary, is extremely problematical.”

“The initiation of the rulers and others into the arts of reading and writing, under our own guidance, brought to their minds forcibly, and sometimes by surprise, moral lessons as to their duty and destiny which were of immeasurable importance.” (Hiram Bingham)

“This literacy initiative was continually supported by the aliʻi. Under Liholiho, ships carrying teachers were not charged harbor fees. During a missionary paper shortage, the government stepped in to cover the difference, buying enough paper to print roughly 13,500 books.”

“During this period, there were approximately 182,000 Hawaiians living throughout 1,103 districts in the archipelago. Extraordinarily, by 1831, the kingdom government financed all infrastructure costs for the 1,103 school houses and furnished them with teachers. Our kūpuna sunk their teeth into reading and writing like a tiger sharks and would not let go.” (KSBE)

“This legendary rise in literacy climbed from a near-zero literacy rate in 1820, to between 91 to 95 percent by 1834. That’s only twelve years from the time the first book was printed!” (KSBE)

It was through the cooperation and collaboration between the Ali‘i, people and missionaries that this was able to be accomplished.

Click HERE to view/download more on Literacy.

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Ramage Press replica at Mission Houses

Hawaiian Alphabet

Baibala

Kaahumanu-(HerbKane)

Missionaries_preaching_under_kukui_groves,_1841

November 29, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kekaulike Dynasty

King Kekaulike (1700-1736) was the 23rd King (Mo‘i) of Maui and founder of Maui’s last ruling dynasty.

He was descended from Pi‘ilani (‘ascent to heaven’) the Great. The Prince Maui-Loa was the first independent sovereign of Maui. Twenty generations of independent monarchs ruled in Maui from the Prince Maui-Loa until the accession of Pi‘ilani the Great who is perhaps the most renowned monarch of the island Kingdom of Maui.

The kings of Maui consolidated their strength, built up their armies and created a nation strong enough to threaten at times even the might of the powerful kings of Hawai‘i.

King Kekaulike and his children built an empire that enjoyed levels of power and prestige greater than any other royal family up until that point.

In the early-1790s, Maui’s King Kahekili (son of Kekaulike) and his eldest son and heir-apparent, Kalanikūpule, were carrying on war and conquered Kahahana, ruler of O‘ahu.

By the time Kamehameha the Great set about unifying the Hawaiian Islands, members of the Kekaulike Dynasty were already ruling Maui, Molokai, Lāna‘i , O‘ahu, Kauai and Ni‘ihau.

In the late-1780s, into 1790, Kamehameha conquered the Island of Hawai‘i and was pursuing conquest of Maui and eventually sought conquer the rest of the archipelago.

In 1790, Kamehameha travelled to Maui. Hearing this, Kahekili sent Kalanikūpule back to Maui with a number of chiefs (Kahekili remained on O‘ahu to maintain order of his newly conquered kingdom.)

Kekaulike’s son, Kamehamehanui (uncle to Kamehameha I,) lost Hana, which was isolated from the rest of Maui.

Kamehameha then landed at Kahului and marched on to Wailuku, where Kalanikūpule waited for him. This led to the famous battle “Kepaniwai” (the damming of the waters) in ‘Iao Valley (which Kamehameha decisively won.)

Maui Island was conquered by Kamehameha and Maui’s fighting force was destroyed – Kalanikūpule and some other chiefs escaped and made their way to O‘ahu (to later face Kamehameha, again; this time in the Battle of Nu‘uanu in 1795.)

There the war apparently ends with some of Kalanikūpule’s warriors pushed/jumping off the Pali. When the Pali Highway was being built, excavators counted approximately 800-skulls, believed to be the remains of the warriors who were defeated by Kamehameha.

While it may be true that Kamehameha the Great conquered Maui and overthrew the Kekaulike Dynasty at the Battle of Nu‘uanu, it should also be remembered that Kamehameha’s own mother, the Princess Keku‘iapoiwa II, was a Maui princess.

Likewise, Kamehameha’s wives of rank were princesses of Maui. These were Keōpūolani, Ka‘ahumanu, Kalākua-Kaneiheimālie and Peleuli. Keōpūolani, granddaughter of Kekaulike, was the mother of the Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III.

Others from this Maui lineage include King Kaumuali‘i (of Kauai,) Abner Pākī (father of Bernice Pauahi Bishop,) Kuakini, Keʻeaumoku II and Kalanimōkū.

The Kekaulike Dynasty was a powerful line that ruled multiple islands. Although they lost to Kamehameha, the Kekaulike lineage continued through the leadership of the future leaders of Hawai‘i.

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