Peter T Young

December 3, 2017 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Nikolai Konstantinovich Sudzilovskii

Nikolai Konstantinovich Sudzilovskii was born December 3, 1850 in Mogilev, Byelorussia to a noble family. He entered the St. Petersburg University law department but dropped out on the next year and entered medical department of the Kiev University where he did not finish his studies.

During his student years Sudzilovskii embarked on what was to become a lifetime career as a political activist. In 1874 he fled Russia, sought by the czarist police for violation of Article 193 of Russia’s Criminal Code – a prohibition against revolutionary propaganda and agitation. (Hayashida & Kittelson)

He went to London where he interned for a while at St. George’s Hospital and once shared a speaker’s platform at a rally with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Sudzilovskii later turned up in Geneva where he married his first wife by whom he had two daughters. In 1875 he arrived in Bucharest, registered in Bucharest University’s medical school. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1876. (Hayashida & Kittelson)

“From Roumania the young fugitive went to Bulgaria, thence to Greece, where he married the woman who has since shared with him the perils attending his frequent journeys to the Russian borders, and they then went to Paris.” It was here that Sudzilovshii took on the assumed name Nicholas Russel.

“At the end of several years’ practice as a physician in the French capital the doctor and his wife came to San Francisco. …. (In 1892) Dr Russel and his wife removed to Hawai‘i.”

“Where he, with the assurance of a lucrative employment, believed that his life’s work could be pursued under equally if not better conditions than in (San Francisco).” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 12, 1905)

Russel served as the Waianae Plantation physician until 1895. His activities and impressions of Hawaii during this period are recounted in two serialized articles, ‘In a village by the ocean,’ and ‘Among the Hawaiian volcanoes,’ which he wrote for his Russian audience in 1893 and 1895. (Hayashida & Kittelson)

“Russel felt that the 1893 Revolution was disastrous for the Hawaiian and opposed annexation because, ‘The rapacious state with white capitalists at its head would to the utmost and unnecessarily restrain the independent Kanaka, would subject him to the iron law of the economic minimum, and would make him adapt to a very intensive economy.’”

“Instead he favored an independent Republic with a strong central government, ‘The social, national, economic, and religious diversity and mixture, make necessary the firm authority of government; and this independence from foreign interference cannot be achieved without a prolonged and painful process of civil dissension.’” (Hayashida & Kittelson)

In 1897 Russel auctioned off the unexpired lease on his Punchbowl home and moved to Hilo. And on March 27, 1897, the Hilo Tribune noted that Russel had “Received 100 acres just back of Mr. Fulcher’s tract on the Volcano Road …”

He “let contracts for clearing and planting seventy five acres of it in coffee … purchased a place with twenty-six acres in coffee near Mountain View with frontage on the main road. A scheme of the Doctor’s is to bring a number of Russian families and locate them on his Olaa plantation.” (Hayashida & Kittelson)

“Settling in a modest home but a few miles from the base of the volcanic Mauna Loa he frequently, for a time, corresponded with his old friends in San Francisco, to whom he confided many of the details of the inner workings of his great scheme to promote revolution in Russia.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 12, 1905)

Russel’s idyllic retreat from political affairs was shattered in 1898 by the Republic’s imposition of a valuation tax on coffee. He opposed this tax and acted as attorney for a group of Olaa coffee growers who sought its repeal before the Hilo Tax Appeals Board in August 1898.

In 1898 the United States annexed Hawaii, providing Russel with the impetus to become further involved in Territorial politics. Hawaii’s transition from a Republic to an American Territory involved electing a Territorial Legislature on November 6, 1900.

The major contending political parties were the Republicans and the Democrats. Robert Wilcox formed the Home Rule Party. (“Home Rule leaders capitalized on the anti-haole resentment among the Hawaiians and during the campaign issued a number of decidedly racial statements.”) (Hayashida & Kittelson)

While Russel was not nominated, “The leaders of the Independent Home Rule party may place Dr. N. Russel on the Independent Senatorial ticket for Hawaii in place of one of the present nominees. … ‘It is almost an assured fact that Dr. N. Russel will be a Senator.’”

“Early in March, 1901, a steamer from Honolulu brought the news that Dr. Russel had been elected a member of the first Territorial Senate, of which he had been chosen president. With his love for agitation he had drifted into politics in the islands and had been persuaded to enter the Senatorial contest, in which he was successful.”

“As president of the first Senate, however, his career was a short one. His position prohibited him from taking an active part in the debates, as he eagerly desired …”

“… and finally, when the Senate was disturbed by a heated controversy over some matter of state, the doctor suddenly resigned the president and, taking his place among the other members of the legislative body, he was daily found in the midst of the exciting oratory on the floor.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 12, 1905)

“Dr. Russel in his resignation from the honorable and coveted position of President of the Senate, made some strong remarks upon the conduct of that body. No paper hero has been in a position to make such an indictment as President Russel.”

“Dr. Russel in his charge to the Senate one had almost said the party – said that the time of the Senate had been ‘wasted in debate upon trivial matters which are of no interest to the people of this Territory.’ ‘He sorrowfully says the Senate is an inefficient body.’” (Hawaiian Star, March 28, 1901)

In the House there were twenty-three full-blooded, or nearly full-blooded, Hawaiians, and seven white men, twenty of the whole number having been elected on the ticket of the Kuakoa Home Rula – Home-rule party, and nine Republicans, with one man who was elected on an independent ticket of his own. The Senate had six Republicans and nine Home Rulers. (Leslie’s Weekly, March 30,1901)

That first legislative session of the Territorial Legislature was later nicknamed the ‘Lady Dog Legislature’. It relates to multiple measures and extensive discussion seeking amendment to the taxes charged on dogs (reducing the female dog tax from $3 to $1 – the rate on male dogs.) The press likewise criticized the legislature.

In 1901, 1903 and 1905 there was successive decline in representation by Home Rule candidates in the Legislature, although there continued to be a total of around 30-Hawaiians (out of 45) in the Legislature. (Report of the Governor, 1920)

The next election (1907,) there was only 1-Home Rule party member serving in the Senate, and none in the House; however, a total of 32-Hawaiians were in the Legislature. With Republicans dominating both chambers, it is clear that most of the Hawaiians were Republicans. (Report of the Governor, 1920)

Russel lived in Hawaii until 1905, when he moved to Japan to conduct revolutionary propaganda among the Russian POWs there. (Tikhonov)

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December 2, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Walk Softly, and Carry a Big Pencil

I had the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream … teaching high school Math.

I am forever grateful to Ed Van Gorder, Parker School Headmaster, for taking a chance and giving me the opportunity; likewise, big thanks to Tana Hilliard for giving up her Pre-Algebra class, so I could teach it.

Parker School is a private school in Waimea on the Big Island – enrollment is small, as is each class size. Its home is the old Kahilu Theater – kind of like the little red schoolhouse.

(In my high school years, as a student at HPA, we would get bussed to the old theater on the weekends and watch travelogues.)

Then, a few decades later at Parker, each morning, I would arrive extra early, so I could greet each student as they came onto the school’s front porch, whether they were in my class or not.

I figured a special greeting with a smile and a few words of encouragement couldn’t hurt the start of a new day.

While most teachers used the board on the wall to write on, I preferred the overhead projector and screen. The students hated that, because they knew I was constantly facing them and they had to be on their toes at all times.

There is something special that happens when students “get it” in Math. When those light bulbs start shining, there is a happy glow throughout the classroom. I lived for those moments.

And, the way I am, when I get excited the volume of my voice increases.

I remember students asking “why am I yelling (at them)”?

It wasn’t because anything wrong was happening – actually, I was so excited that the group was “getting it” that my voice raised and the volume went up – some confused that with anger. Actually, some waaay cool stuff was happening in the classroom.

Being a Math teacher, I had my signature pencil with me at all times – a Ticonderoga #2 – but my pencil was 5-feet tall.

I also had a smaller, 2-foot, wooden pencil, with which I became pretty adept at slapping just the right way on the surface of the desk at just the right time to get the class’ attention (folks down the hall could also hear.)

I have to admit, those were some of the best of times. I miss the classroom.

I was working two fulltime jobs, at the same time. It was interesting to see how people knew me.

Some people knew I maintained my usual career in real estate as a full time real estate appraiser/consultant.

They thought that was all I did.

Other people knew me as a fulltime high school math teacher and soccer coach at Parker School.

They thought that was all I did.

And then there were others who knew I was a teacher/coach and a real estate appraiser/consultant.

It was interesting that some folks didn’t know of my “dual” life.

It wasn’t a secret; it just turned out some people didn’t know I had another life.

While not in the classroom, I am still enjoying life and having fun. My basic philosophy is that anything worth doing, is worth having fun doing it.

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Parker School-400

December 1, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Boston Traders Precede Missionaries

In the Islands, as in New France (Canada to Louisiana (1534,)) New Spain (SW and Central North America to Mexico and Central America (1521)) and New England (NE US,) the trader preceded the missionary.

For a generation previous to 1820 New England seamen had found rest, healing and even profit in the Islands.

When US independence closed the colonial trade routes within the British empire, the merchantmen and whalers of New England swarmed around the Horn, in search of new markets and sources of supply.

The opening of the China trade was the first and most spectacular result of this enterprise; the establishment of trading relations with Hawai‘i followed shortly.

Years before the westward land movement gathered momentum, the energies of seafaring New Englanders found their natural outlet, along their traditional pathway, in the Pacific Ocean.

Probably the first American vessel to touch at Hawai‘i was the famous Columbia of Boston, Capt. Robert Gray, on August 24, 1789, in the course of her first voyage around the world. She remained twenty-four days at the Islands, salted down five puncheons of pork, and sailed with one hundred and fifty live hogs on deck.

A young native called Attoo, who shipped there as ordinary seaman, attracted much attention at Boston, on the Columbia’s return, by his gorgeous feather cloak and helmet.

Attoo was the first of several young Hawaiians who, arriving in New England as seamen on merchant vessels, influenced the American Board of Foreign Missions to found the Mission School at Cornwall, Connecticut, which was the origin of the famous mission of 1819-20.

Captain Amasa Delano brought a young Hawaiian boy (whom Delano named ’Bill’,) arriving in Boston on November 2, 1801. (Carr)

“He performed on the Boston stage several times, in the tragedy of Capt. Cook, and was much admired by the audience and the publick in general.” (Delano)

The Boston traders who followed the Columbia to the Northwest Coast and Canton, found ‘The Islands,’ as they called the Hawaiian group, an ideal place to procure fresh provisions, in the course of their three-year voyages.

Capt. Joseph Ingraham stopped there in the Hope, of Boston, in May, 1792. Five months later, Captain Gray, fresh from his discovery of the Columbia River, ‘Made the Isle of Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands,’ writes John Boit, Jr, the 17-year-old fifth mate of this vessel.

(October 30, 1792) “Hove to, for some Canoes, and purchased 11 Hogs from the Natives, and plenty of vegetables, such as Sweet Potatoes, Yams, tarro, etc. These Canoes was very neatly made, but quite narrow. The Outrigger kept them steady, or else, I think, they wou’d too easily upset in the Sea.”

Off Kealakekua Bay: “Some double Canoes came alongside. These was suspended apart by large rafters, well supported. The Masts were rig’d between the canoes, and they carried their mat sails a long time, sailing very fast. The Shore was lined with people. “

(October 31, 1792) “Stood round the Island and hau’d into Toaj yah yah bay, 194 and hove to. Vast many canoes sailing in company with us. The shore made a delightful appearance, and appeared in the highest state of cultivation. Many canoes along side, containing beautiful Women.”

“Plenty of Hogs and fowls, together with most of the Tropical fruits in abundance, great quantities of Water, and Musk, Mellons, Sugar Cane, Bread fruit, and salt was brought for sale. The price of a large Hog was from 5 to 10 spikes — smaller ones in proportion. 6 Dunghill fowls for an Iron Chizzle, and fruit cheaper still.” (Boit)

It did not take long for the Northwest Coast fur traders to discover at Hawai‘i a new medium for the Canton market. That market was, of course, the prime object of our Northwest fur trade.

China took nothing that the US produced; hence Boston traders, in order to obtain the wherewithal to purchase teas and silks at Canton, spent 18-months or more of each China voyage collecting a cargo of sea-otter skins, highly esteemed by the mandarins.

Salem traders, in the same quest for the wealth of the Indies, resorted to various South Sea Islands for edible birds’ nests, and beche de mer or trepang, a variety of sea-cucumber that tickled the mandarin palate.

Captain Kendrick (who originally commanded the Columbia but remained in Pacific waters with the sloop Lady Washington), discovered about the year 1791 that Hawaii produced sandalwood, an article in great demand at Canton.

Captain Vancouver found on the Island of Kauai, in March, 1792, an Englishman, a Welshman and an Irishman whom Kendrick had left there the previous October, to collect pearls and sandalwood against his return.

Practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for refreshment and recreation; but it was not until the opening years of the 19th that the sandalwood business became a recognized branch of trade.

The imports at Canton of that fragrant commodity in American vessels rose from 900 piculs (of 133 1/3 pounds each) in 1804-05 to 19,036 piculs in 1811-12.

Sandalwood, geography and fresh provisions made the Islands a vital link in a closely articulated trade route between Boston, the Northwest Coast, and Canton.

Nathan Winship, Wm. Heath Davis, and Jonathan Winship, Jr made a deal with Kamehameha for sandalwood and cotton in 1812. One of the Winships was residing at Honolulu when the missionaries landed, on April 19, 1820, and placed his house at their disposal.

“We were sheltered in three native-built houses, kindly off’red us by Messrs Winship, Lewis and Navarro, somewhat scattered in the midst of an irregular village or town of thatched huts, of 3000 or 4000 inhabitants.”

“After the fatigue of removing from the brig to the shore, Captain Pigot of New York considerately and kindly gave us, at evening, a hospitable cup of tea, truly acceptable to poor pilgrims in our circumstances, so far from the sympathies of home.”

“As soon as the bustle of debarking was over, and our grass-thatched cottages made habitable, we erected an altar unto the Omnipresent God, and in unison with the first detachment of the mission, presented him our offerings of thanksgiving and praise”. (Hiram Bingham) (This was the first communion service on Hawaiian soil.) (Morison)

A new era opened in 1820 with the arrival of the first missionaries, the first whalers and the opening of a new reign. It was the missionaries who brought Hawai‘i in touch with a better side of New England civilization than that represented by the trading vessels and their crews.

But without the trader, the missionary would not have come. The commercial relations between Massachusetts and Hawai‘i form the solid background of American expansion in the Pacific.

At the same time, the Hawaiian market for American goods was rapidly increasing, owing to the improved standards of living.

As early as 1823 there were four mercantile houses in the Islands: Hunnewell’s, Jones’s, ‘Nor’west John DeWolf’s (from Bristol, Rhode Island) and another from New York (possibly that of John Jacob Astor & Son, represented by John Ebbets (Kuykendall.)) (Morison)

“Their storehouses are abundantly furnished with goods in demand by the islanders; and at them, most articles contained in common retail shops and groceries in America, may be purchased.”

“The whole trade of the four probably amounts to one hundred thousand dollars a year – sandal wood principally, and specie, being the returns for imported manufactures.”

“Each of these trading houses usually has a ship or brig in the harbor, or at some one of the islands; besides others that touch to make repairs and obtain refreshments, in their voyages between the north-west, Mexican and South American coasts, and China.”

“The agents and clerks of these establishments, and the supercargoes and officers of the vessels attached to them, with transient visiters in ships holding similar situations, form the most respectable class of foreigners with whom we are called to have intercourse.” (Stewart)

The New England whalers, so much complained of by the China traders, brought them new business by creating a local market for ships’ stores, chandlery, etc.; and by giving them return freights of oil and whalebone.

About 1829 the Islands were visited annually by nineteen American vessels engaged in the Northwest fur, South American, China and Manila trades, and by one hundred whalers.

The little community of respectable traders and missionaries, with a disreputable fringe of deserters from merchantment and whalers, was so predominantly Bostonian that ‘Boston’ acquired the same connotation in Hawaii as along the Northwest Coast. It stood for the whole United States.

Hawaii had, in fact, become an outpost of New England. The foreign settlement at Honolulu, with its frame houses shipped around the Horn, haircloth furniture, orthodox meeting house built of coral blocks, and New England Sabbath, was as Yankee as a suburb of Boston.

(The bulk of this post is from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society; Samuel Eliot Morison presented the paper to the October, 1920 meeting of the Society.)

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November 29, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Future Missionaries Attend Foreign Mission School

“About the 1st of May last, the buildings having been prepared, the school commenced its operations at Cornwall under the care of Mr. Dwight.”

“Soon after the commencement of the school in Cornwall, the Committee received an application from two young men of our own nation to be admitted into the school, for the purpose of being educated for missionary labors among the heathen.”

“Their desire is to give themselves up to the Board to be educated and disposed of, as to their field and station of future labors, just as the Board shall see fit to direct.”

“The name of one is Samuel Ruggles, of Brookfield, (Con.) The name of the other, James Ely, a native of Lyme, (Con.) They are both of age to act for themselves.”

“Ruggles has been a member of Morris Academy at South-Farms, under the instruction of the Rev. William R. Weeks, and is highly spoken of by his instructor. He has gained a good know ledge of Latin, and been through several books of the Greek Testament.”

“Ely has been a member of Bacon Academy, Colchester, (Con.) He is well recommended, and has been through the most of Virgil. They are members in good standing of the churches in their native towns. They are both destitute of property.”

“The committee hesitated, at first, about their admission, but viewing the hand of Providence in this application, and recollecting the principles of the Missionary Seminary at Gosport, (Eng.) they deemed it their duty to give the young men a trial, until the pleasure of the Board could be known.”

“The committee wished, also, to acquaint themselves more fully with the particular character and promise of these young men.”

“They have consequently been in the school most of the summer; and the committee can now freely express their decided approbation of these young men, and cheerfully recommend them to the patronage of the Board.”

“They appear to be pious and discreet, and to possess respectable talents. They possess, in a high degree, a missionary spirit, and have, we think, some peculiar qualifications to be useful as missionaries.”

“Their desire for the missionary life appears to be not a transient emotion of youth, but a deliberate choice, and a settled principle. And we believe, from all that we can observe, that full confidence may be placed in their firmness and perseverance.”

“They have had their attention and desires, from the first, turned to the Sandwich Islands, though they are willing to abide the direction of their patrons. It is not their expectation that they shall be sent to college, nor do they aspire to the rank of teachers or leaders.”

“They expect to obtain such knowledge of the sciences and of theology, as they can in the seminary, and then be schoolmasters, catechists, or teachers, as the Board shall direct. Ely is a cooper by trade, which we think an additional recommendation.”

“These young men have been extremely useful in the school. Their example and influence among the other youths has been very salutary.”

“Having gained the entire confidence of the foreign boys, they keep them from desiring other company, and maintain a kind of influence, which greatly assists the instructor, and promotes the harmony of the school.”

“They are also fast catching the language of the youths, with whom they associate, and will soon be able to converse in the language of Owhyhee. On the whole, the committee cannot but express the hope that they shall be permitted to retain these young men as members of the school.”

“Besides these two young men, the school now consists of ten members. Five of these are the youths from the Sandwich Islands; viz. Obookiah, Hopoo, Tamoree, Tennooe and Honoree. Concerning these an account is already before the public. The committee have it to say, that their conduct, since they have been in the school, is satisfactory.”

“Obookiah has for several years been a professor of the religion of Jesus; and we are happy to say, that his conduct and conversation have been such as become the Gospel.”

“He appears to grow in grace, and more and more to evince the reality of his new birth. He has been studying Latin chiefly the last summer, and has made as good proficiency as youths of our own country ordinarily do.”

“Hopoo, having for about two years entertained a hope in Christ, has been the past summer admitted to the first church in Cornwall, and received the ordinance of baptism.”

“He shines uncommonly bright as a Christian; has the zeal of an apostle, and ardently longs for the time, when it shall be thought his duty to return to his countrymen with the message of Jesus. His friends who know his feelings, have no doubt that Hopoo would burn at the stake for the honor of Christ.”

“Tennooe and Honoree have given satisfactory evidence of having passed from death unto life; and should their example continue to correspond with this judgment, they will probably soon be admitted to confess Christ before men.”

“Tennooe and Hopoo are about in the same advance of study; they have been attending to English grammar and arithmetic the past summer. Honoree has been employed in reading and spelling, together with exercise of the pen.” (ABCFM Annual Report 1817)

ʻŌpūkahaʻia died before he could become a missionary and return to the Islands. Samuel Ruggles, Hopu, Kanui, Humehume and Honoli‘i were in the Pioneer Company of missionaries and James Ely was in the Second Company of missionaries to the Islands.

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Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School

November 28, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Halemaʻumaʻu

“Astonishment and awe for some moments rendered us mute, and like statues, we stood fixed to the spot, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below. Immediately before us yawned an immense gulf, in the form of a crescent, about two miles in length, from north-east to south-west, nearly a mile in width, and apparently eight-hundred feet deep.”

“The bottom was covered with lava, and the south-west and northern parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and fro its ‘fiery surge’ and flaming billows.” (Ellis, 1823)

In 1823, Reverend William Ellis visited Kīlauea caldera on his journey around the island of Hawaiʻi. He was the first foreigner to be shown the home of Pele.

By the time Ellis arrived, more than 300-years after the summit collapses of the late 1400s, the caldera had begun to refill. He measured the chasm from the highest rim to its depths; it was over 1,000-feet deep, with a series of terraces that stepped down to a vast inner crater that occupied nearly half the caldera’s floor. (NPS)

“Sometimes I have seen what is called Halemaʻumaʻu, or South Lake, enlarged to a circuit of three miles, and raging as if filled with infernal demons”. (Halemaʻumaʻu is lit., fern house.)

“On another occasion I found the great South Lake filled to the brim, and pouring out in two deep and broad canals at nearly opposite points of the lake.”

“The lava followed these crescent fissures of fifty or more feet deep and wide until they came within half a mile of meeting under the northern wall of the crater, thus nearly enclosing an area of about two miles in length and a mile and a half in breadth.”
(Coan)

According to Hawaiian oral tradition, the Kīlauea caldera formed during an epic battle between Pele, the Hawaiian volcano deity, and her younger sister, Hiʻiakaikapoliopele (Hiʻiaka.)

Pele had sent Hiʻiaka to fetch her lover, Lohiʻau, from Kauai. Upon returning, Hiʻiaka discovered that Kawahine‘aihonua (Pele, the woman who eats the land) had broken her promise and set fire to Hiʻiaka’s beloved ‘ʻōhiʻa forests.

To avenge this transgression, Hiʻiaka made love to Lohiʻau at the summit of the volcano, in full view of her sister. Pele lashed out in anger and buried Lohiʻau beneath a flood of lava.

Driven by remorse, Hiʻiaka dug furiously to recover the body. Rocks flew as she dug the great pit. Their brother stopped Hiʻiaka from digging deeper, for doing so would surely have let in water and put out the fires of Pele. Thus the great caldera of Kīlauea was formed. (NPS)

Within the heart of Kīlauea, a great reservoir swells with magma prior to an eruption. In the late 1400s, however, large volumes of magma erupted or moved elsewhere in the volcano, emptying the magma reservoir.

Its internal support withdrawn, the top of the mountain collapsed, accompanied by explosive eruptions. Great blocks of the old summit slumped inward. The gaping depression that formed was ringed with stepped terraces descending to its floor. (NPS)

The summit caldera (‘crater’) of Kilauea is 2-1/2 miles long and 2 miles wide and its floor has an area of approximately 2,600-acres. Near its southwestern edge the caldera floor is indented by the depression Halemaʻumaʻu, the ‘Fire Pit,’ a collapsed crater about 3,200-feet wide. (NPS)

Geologic evidence suggests that the modern caldera of Kīlauea formed shortly before 1500 AD. Repeated small collapses may have affected parts of the caldera floor, possibly as late as 1790. For over 300-400 years, the caldera was below the water table.

Kīlauea is an explosive volcano; several phreatic eruptions have occurred in the past 1,200 years. (Phreatic eruptions, also called phreatic explosions, occur when magma heats ground or surface water.)

The extreme temperature of the magma (from 932 to 2,138 °F) causes near-instantaneous evaporation to steam, resulting in an explosion of steam, water, ash and rock – the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens was a phreatic eruption. (NPS)

There were explosions in 1790, the most lethal known eruption of any volcano in the present US. The 1790 explosions, however, simply culminated (or at least occurred near the end of) a 300-year period of frequent explosions, some quite powerful. (USGS)

Keonehelelei is the name given by Hawaiians to the explosive eruption of Kilauea in 1790. It is probably so named “the falling sands” because the eruption involved an explosion of hot gas, ash and sand that rained down across the Kaʻū Desert. The character of the eruption was likely distinct enough to warrant a special name. (Moniz-Nakamura)

The 1790 explosion led to the death of one-third of the warrior party of Kaʻū Chief Keōuakūʻahuʻula (Keōua.) At the time Keōua was the only remaining rival of Kamehameha the Great for control of the Island of Hawaiʻi; Keōua ruled half of Hāmākua and all of Puna and Kaʻū Districts. They were passing through the Kīlauea area at the time of the eruption. (Moniz-Nakamura)

Estimates of the number of fatalities range from “about 80 warriors” (William Ellis) to about “400 people” or “800 warriors” (Stephen Desha) to “5,405 countrymen” (David Douglas, quoting an eyewitness, a Priest of Pele, in 1834.) The lower numbers are probably most realistic. The dead were warriors and family members of Keōua’s army bound for Kaʻū. (NPS)

The next subsidence of the caldera floor occurred in 1868, when large earthquakes shook the southern part of Hawaii and simultaneous eruptions occurred from Mauna Loa and Kilauea. An area about 6,200-ft wide on the central caldera floor sagged about 330-ft, and a deeper conical pit about 900 m wide and about 3,000-ft developed at its southwest end at Halemaʻumaʻu. (USGS)

The pit again filled, and by 1874 a lava shield at Halemaʻumaʻu had once again grown to about the elevation of the southern caldera rim. Minor subsidences in and around Halemaʻumaʻu occurred again in 1879, 1886, 1891, and 1894.

The subsidence of 1894 was followed by 13-years of dormancy and very subdued, episodic activity within the pit of Halemaʻumaʻu. (USGS)

Lava returned to Halemaʻumaʻu shortly after the 1924 explosions ceased, but instead of being sustained the activity was now episodic. A series of seven brief eruptions in the next 10-years reduced the depth of Halemaʻumaʻu from 390 to 150 m, and then no eruptions occurred for 18 years, from 1934 to 1952.

Sustained eruption from June to November of 1952 filled Halemaʻumaʻu with another 120 m of lava. A brief eruption in May-June 1954 added 6 m of lava in Halemaʻumaʻu and a thin lava flow on the caldera floor to the east (Macdonald, 1955) (USGS)

The eruption of Kīlauea volcano continues at two locations. In the park, the vent within Halemaʻumaʻu Crater is easily viewed from the overlook at the Jaggar Museum. The second location is the Pu’u ‘Ō’ō vent located 10 miles east of the summit, on the remote east rift zone of Kīlauea. This area is not accessible to the public.

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