Peter T Young

January 2, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Benjamin Parker High School

In 1927, the Reverend Benjamin Parker School (originally called Kāneʻohe School) opened in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu. It started as an elementary and intermediate school, grades 1-8.

Over the years, it expanded in size and grades taught; in 1937 it became an elementary and high school, grades 1-12. In 1940, Benjamin Parker School was a founding member of the Rural O‘ahu Interscholastic Association (ROIA – with Kahuku, Leilehua, Waialua and Waipahu.)

That group later grew into the O‘ahu Interscholastic Association (OIA sports league.) Benjamin Parker was ROIA football champion in 1945.

Parker began bursting at the seams … “Congestion and inadequate accommodations at Benjamin Parker School in Kaneohe, was disclosed Thursday in a letter to the Mayor and board of supervisors by Joseph T Ferreira, of the department of public instruction, who has asked for the installation of three Quonset huts to relieve the conditions.”

“Maximum accommodations at the school, Mr Ferreira told the Advertiser yesterday, are for 940 pupils. The present enrollment is 1,065.”

“The school has 17 classrooms, all filled, and in addition uses four basement rooms and two Quonset huts for classroom purposes.” In addition, 2-classes were held at Luluku Japanese School, 1-class was at Windward Community Assn, 1-class in the Methodist Church, 1-class in the school auditorium and another in the school library. (Advertiser, October 3, 1947)

Ground was broken in 1949 for a new windward school. On “January 2, 1951, Principal Clinton Kanahele and his 700 students of Benjamin Parker Elementary and High School made their move to the new Benjamin Parker Annex on Kāne‘ohe Bay Drive.”

“During the first year of operation, approximately 750-students enrolled in grades 7-12. A library, an office and four more classrooms were under construction.” (Star Bulletin)

“At the start of the 1951-1952 school year, the name changed to James B Castle High and Intermediate School. In June, 1952, 108-seniors made up the first graduating class of the James B Castle Intermediate and High School. (In 1965, Castle became a high school servicing grades 9-12. Grades 7-8 were then served at King Intermediate School.) (Allen)

(When Castle High and Intermediate started, the old Parker School reverted to an elementary school, serving grades K – 6. A fire destroyed portions of the school and it was reconstructed in 1973. (DOE))

Parker School was named after American Protestant missionary Benjamin Wyman Parker. When the Mission Station first opened in 1835, “The high Chiefess Liliha had located her ‘New Teachers,’ as she called them, on this bluff overlooking a beautiful bay.”

The school was initially in a grass hut. Later, they moved into a stone mission house provided again by Liliha, a quarter mile inland.

“The locality was called ‘Aipa‘akai,’ literally an invitation to eat salt. Here they began the work of a lifetime. The Hawaiians from Waimanalo, one extreme, to Kualoa, the other extreme of the district, numbered about 10,000.”

“The barrier of language was soon removed as they learned to speak the Hawaiian language; and within a few weeks (Parker) preached his first sermon to his people.” (The Friend May, 1933)

The original Benjamin Parker School that started in 1927 was on land donated by the Parker family. The second Parker School (now Castle High School) is on land donated by the Castle family.

Hawai‘i-born James Bicknell Castle was son of American Protestant Missionary Samuel Northrop Castle (also founder of Castle and Cooke.) “Not satisfied with the mere amassing of wealth, Mr. Castle invariable turned over properties as soon as they were brought to the point of financial stability, and launched new enterprises.”

Castle expanded Castle & Cooke in sugar and rail and is credited with taking control of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company from Claus Spreckels in 1898. He bought large amounts of land, such as Kaneohe Ranch.

Today, James B Castle High has over 1,550 students, the largest of four high schools on the Windward side (Castle, Kailua, Kalaheo and Kahuku.) Rev. Benjamin Parker Elementary School has 336 students in grades PK and K-6.

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Castle Knights

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James Bicknell Castle (1855–1918) and Julia Matilda White (1849–1943)

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Castle sign

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Ka Haku Beniamina at Benjamin Parker Elementary School DAGS

Ka Haku Beniamina at Benjamin Parker Elementary School_DAGS

Ka Haku Beniamina at Benjamin Parker Elementary School-DAGS

December 31, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Poisoned

“Scrawls on a hand-drawn map by Brintnall told of the murder of his officer Elihu Mix, who died aboard the Triumph in Honolulu Harbor after allegedly eating a poisoned fish dinner sent to the ship.” (Cook)

Family tradition suggests Mix was not the target – rather, the Triumph’s ship captain, Brintnall was intended to be killed; “Luckily for Brintnall, he was ashore and missed the dinner.” (Cook)

Let’s take a closer look …

“My father traced his descent back to Caleb Mix, one of the founders, or at least earliest settlers, of New Haven. Caleb, the second, born 1687, had a son Thomas, who in 1770 married Mehitable Beecher.”

“They had six children, the eldest being Elisha. He was, I judge, a man of means and a merchant, trader, etc. His eldest son, Elihu, was my grandfather; he married Nancy Atwater, of New Haven.”

“They had three children: Edward H, Elihu L Mix, and Margaret M Mix; Mr Elihu Mix, of Westville, only surviving at this time.”

“My grandfather (Elihu) was engaged in the shipping business at early part of this century and sailed from New Haven in the little ships of those days, circumnavigating the globe.”

“In one of these adventurous voyages, in the seal fishery and China trade interest, in 1808, his ship touched for stores at the Sandwich Islands, and while there he was poisoned by the Queen of the Islands (Kaʻahumanu.)”

“The king (Kamehameha I) wished his young sons to come and it was understood the queen, to defeat their object, caused the baked fish she had sent to the officers to be poisoned. Accidentally the others were absent and Captain Mix only partook of the fatal dish.” (Jonathan Mix of New Haven, 1886-Appendix)

It seems, in January 1808, Kamehameha made arrangements with Captain Caleb Brintnall, Master of the Triumph out of New Haven, to take his 12-year old son and heir apparent, Liholiho, to New England for his education.

A few years earlier, Kaumuali‘i of Kauai had sent his son Humehume to New England for school and Kamehameha wanted his heir to equal to his rival’s in Western education.

However, Kaʻahumanu saw Kamehameha’s plan for the boy as a threat to her influence and political hold. So she sent an outrigger canoe with a mullet dinner out to Brintnall’s ship in Honolulu Harbor – a gift for the Captain and his officers.

In the Hawaiian tradition of ‘apu koheoheo (the poison cup) the fish had been basted with the deadly toxins of the keke (puffer fish.) However, Brintnall and most of his officers were on shore at Honolulu. Mix was the only officer on board who had dinner and then died from the poisoning. (Wehrheim)

This may have changed the course of history in the Islands.

Following this, Brintnall sailed on to Kealakekua, the same place where Captain Cook landed on the Island of Hawaiʻi; across the bay from Hikiʻau Heiau is where Cook was later killed.

Brintnall met ʻŌpūkahaʻia. Both of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s parents had been slain during the battles on the island. The only surviving member of the family, besides himself, was an infant brother he hoped to save from the fate of his parents, and carried him on his back and fled from the enemy.

But he was pursued, and his little brother, while on his back, was killed by a spear from the enemy. Taken prisoner, because he was not young enough to give them trouble, nor old enough to excite their fears, ʻŌpūkahaʻia was not killed.

He was later turned over to his uncle, Pahua, who took him into his own family and treated him as his child. Pahua was a kahuna at Hikiʻau Heiau in Kealakekua Bay.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s uncle, wanting his nephew to follow him as a kahuna, taught ʻŌpūkahaʻia long prayers and trained him to the task of repeating them daily in the temple of the idol. This ceremony he sometimes commenced before sunrise in the morning, and at other times was employed in it during the whole or the greater part of the night.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia was not destined to be a kahuna. He made a life-changing decision – not only which affected his life, but had a profound effect on the future of the Hawaiian Islands.

“I began to think about leaving that country, to go to some other part of the globe. I did not care where I shall go to. I thought to myself that if I should get away, and go to some other country, probably I may find some comfort, more than to live there, without father and mother.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

He boarded Brintnall’s ‘Triumph’ in Kealakekua Bay; also on Board was Hopu. They set sail for New York, stopping first in China (selling seal-skins and loading the ship with Chinese goods.)

Russell Hubbard, a son of Gen. Hubbard of New Haven, Connecticut was also on board. “This Mr. Hubbard was a member of Yale College. He was a friend of Christ. Christ was with him when I saw him, but I knew it not. ‘Happy is the man that put his trust in God!’ Mr. Hubbard was very kind to me on our passage, and taught me the letters in English spelling-book.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

In 1809, they landed at New York and remained there until the Captain sold out all the Chinese goods. Then, they made their way to New England. “In this place I become acquainted with many students belonging to the College.”

“By these pious students I was told more about God than what I had heard before … Many times I wished to hear more about God, but find no body to interpret it to me. I attended many meetings on the sabbath, but find difficulty to understand the minister. I could understand or speak, but very little of the English language. Friend Thomas (Hopu) went to school to one of the students in the College before I thought of going to school.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

ʻŌpūkahaʻia was taken into the family of the Rev. Dr. Dwight, President of Yale College, for a season; where he was treated with kindness, and taught the first principles of Christianity. At length, Mr. Samuel J. Mills, took him under his particular patronage, and sent him to live with his father, the Rev. Mr. Mills of Torringford.

By 1817, a dozen students, six of them Hawaiians, were training at the Foreign Mission School to become missionaries to teach the Christian faith to people around the world.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia improved his English by writing the story of his life in a book called “Memoirs of Henry Obookiah” (the spelling of his name prior to establishment of the formal Hawaiian alphabet, based on its sound.) ʻŌpūkahaʻia died suddenly of typhus fever in 1818. The book about his life was printed and circulated after his death.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia, inspired by many young men with proven sincerity and religious fervor of the missionary movement, had wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi; his book inspired 14-missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawaiʻi.)

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from the northeast United States, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.)

There were seven couples sent to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity. These included two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

Among the other Hawaiian students at the Foreign Mission School were Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauai’s Kaumuali‘i.)

After 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Hawai‘i’s “Plymouth Rock” is about where the Kailua pier is today.

By the time the Pioneer Company arrived, Kamehameha I had died and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished; through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho,) with encouragement by former Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother,) the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs.

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Mullet-cooked

December 30, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaiwiki Sugar Company

“Sugar is now the great interest of the islands. Christian missions and whaling have had their day, and now people talk sugar. Hawaii thrills to the news of a cent up or a cent down in the American market.”

“There are 200,000 acres of productive soil on the islands, of which only a fifteenth is under cultivation, and of this large area 150,000 is said to be specially adapted for sugar culture.”

“Herein is a prospective Utopia, and people are always dreaming of the sugar-growing capacities of the belt of rich disintegrated lava which slopes upwards from the sea to the bases of the mountains.” (Isabella Bird, 1872)

One such operation was Kaiwiki Sugar Company that began in the 1860s when the sugar industry was young and sugar production was more an individual effort than a corporate venture.

“Then there is the sugar plantation of Kaiwiki, with its patches of bright green cane, its flumes crossing the track above our heads, bringing the cane down from the upland cane-fields to the crushing-mill, and the shifting, busy scenes of the sugar-boiling season.”

“This is a most picturesque spot, the junction of two clear bright rivers, and a few native houses and a Chinaman’s store are grouped close by under some palms, with the customary loungers on horseback, asking and receiving nuhou, or news, at the doors.”

“There we met parties of natives, all flower-wreathed, talking and singing, coming gaily down on their sure— footed horses, saluting us with the invariable ‘Aloha.’”

“Every now and then we passed native churches, with spires painted white, or a native schoolhouse, or a group of scholars all ferns and flowers. The greenness of the vegetation merits the term ‘dazzling.’ We think England green, but its colour is poor and pale as compared with that of tropical Hawaii.”

“The unique beauty of this coast is what are called gulches – narrow deep ravines or gorges, from 100 to 2,000 feet in depth, each with a series of cascades from 10 to 1,800 feet in height.”

“I dislike reducing their glories to the baldness of figures, but the depth of these clefts (originally, probably, the seams caused by fire torrents), cut and worn by the fierce streams fed by the snows of Mauna Kea, and the rains of the forest belt, cannot otherwise be expressed.”

“The cascades are most truly beautiful, gleaming white among the dark depths of foliage far away, and falling into deep limpid basins, festooned and overhung with the richest and greenest vegetation of this prolific climate … Each gulch opens on a velvet lawn close to the sea, and most of them have space for a few grass houses, with cocoanut trees, bananas, and kalo patches. “

“There are sixty-nine of these extraordinary chasms within a distance of thirty miles! … The descent into some of them is quite alarming. You go down almost standing in your stirrups, at a right angle with the horse’s head, and up, grasping his mane to prevent the saddle slipping.” (Isabella Bird, 1872)

“The plantations … enjoy special advantages, for by turning some of the innumerable mountain streams into flumes the owners can bring a great part of their cane and all their wood for fuel down to the mills without other expense than the original cost of the woodwork.”

“Mr A has 100 mules, but the greater part of their work is ploughing and hauling the kegs of sugar down to the cove, where in favourable weather they are put on board of a schooner for Honolulu. This plantation employs 185 hands, native and Chinese, and turns out 600 tons of sugar a year.”

“I have made a second tour through the factory, and am rather disgusted with sugar making. ‘All’s well that ends well,’ however, and the delicate crystalline result makes one forget the initial stages of the manufacture.”

“The cane, stripped of its leaves, passes from the flumes under the rollers of the crushing-mill, where it is subjected to a pressure of five or six tons. One hundred pounds of cane under this process yield up from sixty-five to seventy-five pounds of juice.”

“This juice passes, as a pale green cataract, into a trough, which conducts it into a vat, where it is dosed with quicklime to neutralize its acid, and is then run off into large heated metal vessels. At this stage the smell is abominable, and the turbid fluid, with a thick scum upon it, is simply disgusting.”

“After a preliminary heating and skimming it is passed off into iron pans, several in a row, and boiled and skimmed, and ladled from one to the other till it reaches the last, which is nearest to the fire, and there it boils with the greatest violence, seething and foaming, bringing all the remaining scum to the surface.”

“After the concentration has proceeded far enough, the action of the heat is suspended, and the reddish-brown, oily-looking liquid is drawn into the vacuum-pan till it is about a third full; the concentration is completed by boiling the juice in vacuo at a temperature of 150 degrees, and even lower.”

“As the boiling proceeds, the sugar boiler tests the contents of the pan by withdrawing a few drops, and holding them up to the light on his finger; and, by certain minute changes in their condition, he judges when it is time to add an additional quantity.”

“When the pan is full, the contents have thickened into the consistency of thick gruel by the formation of minute crystals, and are then allowed to descend into an heater, where they are kept warm till they can be run into ‘forms’ or tanks, where they are allowed to granulate.”

“The liquid, or molasses, which remains after the first crystallization is returned to the vacuum pan and reboiled, and this reboiling of the drainings is repeated two or three times, with a gradually decreasing result in the quality and quantity of the sugar.”

“The last process, which is used for getting rid of the treacle, is a most beautiful one. The mass of sugar and treacle is put into what are called ‘centrifugal pans,’ which are drums about three feet in diameter and two feet high, which make about 1,000 revolutions a minute.”

“These have false interiors of wire gauze, and the mass is forced violently against their sides by centrifugal action, and they let the treacle whirl through, and retain the sugar crystals, which lie in a dry heap in the centre.”

“The cane is being flumed in with great rapidity, and the factory is working till late at night. The cane from which the juice has been expressed, called “trash,” is dried and used as fuel for the furnace which supplies the steam power. The sugar is packed in kegs, and a cooper and carpenter, as well as other mechanics, are employed.” (Isabella Bird, 1872)

After several acquisitions and changes in operation by it and other sugar plantations, in 1909, the defunct O‘okala Sugar Company (it was bankrupt and the controlling interest passed to Theo. H. Davies & C) was sold to Kaiwiki and it was renamed Kaiwiki Sugar Company.

O‘okala Sugar Company owned a total of 8,679 acres, its cane land was limited to 1,405 in fee simple and 3,005 acres of leased land. Located between the Hāmākua district and the rain-drenched lands of the Hilo district, the land rose to an elevation of 1,800 feet, with steep slopes and a frontage on the sea of about 4 ½ miles and a depth of 2 ½ miles.

Kaiwiki Sugar Company’s almost fifty years of existence ended when the company and neighboring Laupahoehoe Sugar Company merged on January 3, 1957. It should not be confused with Kaiwiki Milling Company.

Kaiwiki Milling Company was formed by 150 stockholders holders (all were Portuguese homesteaders) who built a mill near their properties just outside of Hilo.

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Ookala Sugar Mill-Malecek

December 29, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Wounded Knee

Nearly two centuries before the trouble at Pine Ridge, South Dakota began, the Sioux tribes left their historical homelands at the headwaters of the Mississippi River and moved westward to the great plains of Nebraska and the Dakotas.

One reason for their departure was that their enemies, the Ojibwas, had obtained firearms from the French and thus made life uncomfortable for the Sioux.

Another reason for the move to the great plains was the abundance of buffalo discovered there. In the early 1700s, the Sioux acquired the horse and this gave them great mobility, especially for hunting and war-making activities and their territory extended from Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Yellowstone River to the Platte River.

The Sioux were quick to see the value and potential of the hundreds of miles of open range available to them. They were proud and powerful warriors and maintained their mastery over the region. (Alexander Kelley)

In 1868, government policy was implemented that was designed to bring all Plains Indian tribes under direct control of the government in Washington. In April of that year, the Sioux signed a treaty which stated optimistically at its outset, “From this day forth, all wars between the parties of this agreement shall cease forever.”

The treaty required the Sioux to give up a large part of their land in return for a guarantee that the rest of their land (portions of South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming) would be “set apart for their absolute and undisturbed use and occupation.” The government abandoned three forts on the Bozeman Trail, but established Indian agencies and agents. (Alexander Kelley)

In December of 1890, approximately 350 to 375 Sioux men, women, and children under the leadership of Chief Big Foot journeyed from the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at the invitation of Chief Red Cloud to help make peace between the non-Indians and Indians.

The journey of Chief Big Foot and his band of Minneconjou Sioux occurred during the Ghost Dance Religion period when extreme hostility existed between Sioux Indians and non-Indians residing near the Sioux reservations, and the US Army assumed control of the Sioux reservations.

Chief Big Foot and his band were intercepted on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at Porcupine Butte, surrendered unconditionally under a white flag of truce, and were escorted to Wounded Knee Creek, on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the US state of South Dakota. (Congress)

However, Sitting Bull, “being in open rebellion against constituted authority, was defying the Government, and encouraging disaffection, made it necessary that he be arrested and removed from the reservation.”

At daybreak, a force of thirty-nine policemen and four volunteers (one of whom was Sitting Bull’s brother-in-law, ‘Gray Eagle’) was dispatched to the Standing Rock Reservation.

Sitting Bull accepted his arrest quietly at first, but then got stubborn and refused to accompany them. The policemen took him out of the house; but, getting outside, they found themselves completely surrounded by Sitting Bull’s followers, all armed and excited. (Eye witness account by McLaughlin, Indian Agent, 1891)

“While the troops were searching for arms among the Indians’ tepees at Wounded Knee, Dec. 29 (1890,) the Indians suddenly attacked them. The soldiers turned on them with machine guns and rifles, almost abandoning tactics in their wrath at the treachery of the savages.” (Daily Bulletin, January 9, 1891)

“The wounded Indians lying on the battle-field fought like fiends. They continued shooting until they were killed or their ammunition was exhausted. There were many single-handed ferocious combats between wounded soldiers and Indians.” (Daily Bulletin, January 9, 1891)

A few minutes later, the plain was covered with the dead and dying. More Indians had been killed there than in any fight for the thirty years preceding. (Alexander Kelley)

“The result was the killing of thirty men and three officers and about 160 Indians. The fight was a hot one and no mercy was shown on either side. It is now reported that the Sioux tribe numbering about 3,000 warriors has left the Agency and gone on the warpath, notwithstanding, a dreadful blizzard is and has been raging for some days past.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 9, 1891)

Historians regard the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre as the last armed conflict between Indian warriors and the US Cavalry which brought to a close an era in the history of this country commonly referred to as the Indian wars period characterized by an official government policy of forcibly removing the Indian tribes and bands from the path of westward expansion and settlement through placement on reservations. (Congress)

As a time comparison (and not associated with Wounded Knee,) failing health for some months made it seem advisable that King Kalākaua should seek to regain it by a voyage to the more bracing climate of California, and inspired with this hope, he left his kingdom in November (1890.) The voyage and change of circumstances at first seemed to benefit him. (Privy Council)

“The United States steamer Charleston, with King Kalākaua, of Hawaii, on board, entered the harbor at 11 o’clock this morning. Colonel McFarlane, chamberlain to King Kalākaua, stated that the king visited California for the benefit of his health and eyesight, which is somewhat impaired.”

“The king would probably remain in California five or six weeks, and during that period would visit the southern part of the state, but would not go east. The king is accompanied only by Colonel McFarlane and a few servants.” (Los Angeles Herald, December 5, 1890)

On December 18, the Daily Alta California announced that local favorites from San Francisco and Oakland would be competing in the baseball game, which would be held December 20 at the Haight Street grounds, where the bleachers could seat 14,000 fans.

The king and his party arrived at 2:15 pm. The band played ‘Hawaii Ponoʻi’ and the game began. Despite a triple by Picked Nine right fielder Ebright, the All-Californians won 12-8. The king did not stay for the whole game. He was a sick man suffering from kidney disease. (San Jose Mercury News)

Then, the sad news …

“The announcement yesterday of the death of King Kalākaua fell like a clap of thunder from the skies. Although we all knew that he was not a well man when he left here and that he had in his system a most insidious disease …”

“… yet the reports of the decided improvement in his health from the voyage over and the bracing climate of California deceived us as to his frail hold on life.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 30, 1891)

“He passed away at exactly 2:35 pm of Tuesday, January 20, 1891 … Kalākaua I was buried with great state on February 15th, 1891, another guest in that mausoleum which is so fast filling with the mortal remains of Hawaiian royalty. His sister Liliʻuokalani reigns in his stead”. (Gowen)

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Gen Brooks camp at Pine Ridge Agcy S.D.

Sioux camp scene, ca. 1880 (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution – P22843)

Photograph of the Mass Burial at Wounded Knee, January 1, 1891

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December 28, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Basket Ball

“A very interesting game is indulged in during an intermission, which is taken for rest and amusement combined. It is basket ball. A small wire basket is fastened to the wall on either end, about twelve feet from the floor.”

“Sides are chosen and each attempt to land a small rubber ball in the goal of the other team. The tactics involved in football are used with the exception that there is no kicking of the ball or tackling of players.” (Hawaiian Star, December 3, 1896)

“In the winter of 1891, Luther Gulick, the head of the physical education department at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, persuaded a young instructor named James Naismith to create an indoor game that could be played during the off-season.” (Basketball Hall of Fame)

Gulick’s first intention was to bring outdoor games indoors, namely, soccer and lacrosse. These games proved too physical and cumbersome.

At his wits’ end, Naismith recalled a childhood game, that he had referred to as “Duck on a Rock”, that required players to use finesse and accuracy to become successful. (SONAHR)

Gulick and Naismith developed the game we now call Basketball. The first formal game was played on December 29, 1891.

That day, 18 men at the School for Christian Workers (later the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts played a match in the Armory Street court: 9-versus-9, using a soccer ball and two peach baskets. (SONAHR)

“A major force in the early development of the sport, Gulick oversaw Naismith’s creation of the game, led basketball’s move to the national and international level, and in 1895 became the chairman of the Basketball Rules Organization.”

“Among his other achievements, Gulick developed the YMCA triangle symbol (signifying the YMCA’s physical, emotional, and intellectual pursuits that still remain today), served on the Olympic Committee for the London Games in 1908 …”

“… and is credited with forming such notable youth organizations as the Public School Athletic Leagues (PSAL) in New York, the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls.” (Basketball Hall of Fame)

Luther Halsey Gulick was born on December 4, 1865 at Honolulu, Hawai‘i, the fifth of seven children of Congregationalist missionaries, Luther Halsey Gulick and Louisa Lewis Gulick.

Young Luther spent the first fifteen years of his life abroad in Hawai‘i, Spain, Italy and Japan. Upon return to the US in 1880, he enrolled in the preparatory department of Oberlin College until 1882.

Luther was enrolled in Hanover High School in Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1882 to 1883. In 1884, he returned to Oberlin, where he studied physical education.

However, plagued throughout his life with heart problems and chronic headaches, Gulick had to leave Oberlin due to illness in 1885. He resumed his education the same year, however, when he joined the Sargent School of Physical Training, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The following year, Gulick became a student at the Medical College at the City University of New York where he was awarded the MD in 1889. He married Charlotte Emily Vetter on August 30, 1887. Together they had six children, Louise, Frances, Charlotte, Katharine, Luther, and John Halsey.

Throughout his life and career, Luther Halsey Gulick was greatly interested in physical education and hygiene. He also kept himself intensely busy.

While pursuing his medical degree between 1886 and 1889, he began his career as the physical director of the Jackson, Michigan YMCA in 1886.

In 1887, Gulick became head of the gymnasium department of the Young Men’s Christian Education’s Springfield Training School. It was there, in 1891, that the game of basketball was created. (Winter)

“He was recognized as an authority upon physical training in the public schools and the author of many books on this subject. A series of lectures at the St Louis Exposition in 1904 won him international recognition as an expert in such matters.”

“He was Chairman of the international Committee on Physical Recreation of the War Work Council of the YMCA until he had to give it up on account pf his health.” (NYTimes)

Luther’s sibling Edward Leeds Gulick and his wife Harriet Marie Gulick settled in Vermont and started the “Aloha Camp” there in 1905.

Fifteen years before women were allowed to vote, when floor length skirts and lace up boots were mandatory for playing any sport; when popular conduct books for girls encouraged a “retiring delicacy” …

… and declared that “one of the most valuable things you can learn is how to become a good housewife” – Harriet and Edward Gulick created a world in which every girl could discover her most adventurous self.

Aloha Camp afforded young women the knowledge, skills and freedom to explore wild nature on foot and on horseback, by skiff and by canoe; to kindle campfires in the woods and cook meals in the open air; to pitch tents over rough ground and sleep out of doors under the stars.

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