Peter T Young

March 17, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Kamehameha III Tablet

Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III
Son of Kamehameha I and Keōpūlani
Born March 17, 1814
Died December 15, 1854
Ka Moi Lokomaikai

“Under the auspices of the Daughters of Hawai‘i the centenary of Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III, was observed this year in an unusual manner …”

“… first in memorial services at Kawaiahaʻo church in this city (Honolulu,) March 17th, at the unveiling of the tablet prepared to mark his birthplace at Keauhou, Kona, Hawai‘i, and again at its erection on that historic spot August 15th …”

“… both of which occasions were made impressive with eulogies in Hawaiian and in English, and in song and recitation illustrative of ancient custom now rarely met with. Queen Liliuokalani and Mrs. E. K. Pratt, claiming lineal descent from Keawe, founder of the Kamehameha dynasty, participated in both commemorative services, which were largely attended.” (Thrum, 1914)

“The centenary of the birth of Kamehameha III was celebrated March 17, 1914, at Kawaiahaʻo church, this city, under the auspices of the Daughters of Hawai‘i, services commencing at 4 pm.”

“This historic church that has witnessed so many of the royal ceremonials of the Hawaiian people was taxed on the occasion to the utmost of its seating capacity, to view the unveiling of the memorial tablet which had been prepared by the Daughters of Hawai‘i to mark the birthplace of Kauikeaouli at Keauhou, Kona, Hawai‘i.”

“The tablet was hidden from view by the royal standard of Liliuokalani and a Hawaiian flag loaned by Hawai‘i’s venerable ex-queen for the sacred ceremonial.”

“The queen and high chiefess Elizabeth Kekaaniau Pratt, both of whom are lineal descendants of Keawe, the ancient king of Hawai‘i and founder of the Kamehameha dynasty, were seated on either side of the memorial stone in the nave of the church.”

“Back of the queen and Mrs. Pratt were high chiefs Beckley and Hoapili, clad in the ceremonial feather cloaks and helmets of the royal courtiers.”

“Fred Kahapule Beckley, the spear bearer, is a direct descendant on his father’s side from Kame‘eiamoku, which Albert Kalaninoanoa Hoapili, the kalihi bearer, is a lineal descendant of Kamanawa.”

“These two therefore represented the spear and kahili bearers who are shown on the Hawaiian coat of arms, and are descendants of the two chief court alii of Kamehameha I.”

“On either side of the royal court representatives were the kahili bearers in ordinary, sixteen young men from the Kamehameha school, robed in capes and the costumes of warriors of old. representative of the court attendants.”

“The chancel and pulpit platform were tastefully decorated with beautiful ferns and palms while above was the royal standard
and Hawaiian flag.”

“The services opened with the grand old hymn, ”How Firm a Foundation,” by the choir and congregation, after which Rev. HE Poepoe gave the invocation. Then the royal chanter, Mrs Naha Hakuole, chanted the koihonua or song of genealogy of the king.”

“After this the queen drew the cord releasing her royal standard or personal flag, while Mrs. E. Kekaaniau Pratt released the Hawaiian flag covering the tablet.”

“This tablet was a polished block of fine grain deep lava from the Moiliili quarries, surfaced some ten square feet on which the … inscription stood out in bold letters, within a neat border….” (Thrum 1914)

“Like impressive ceremonies attended the dedication of the memorial tablet at its placement, marking the king’s birthplace, August 15th, at Keauhou, for which purpose the queen and a large delegation of prominent lady representatives of the various
Hawaiian societies, and a number of others, journeyed from this city.”

“The tablet was conveyed to Kailua by steamer, where it was met by a royal double canoe, manned by paddlers clothed in semblance of feather cloaks and bedecked with brilliant colored leis.”

“This large canoe was accompanied by a flotilla of small ones filled with ancient costumed warriors. Upon the stone being lowered into the double canoe the fleet paddled down the coast to its destination, Keauhou.”

“At its landing twelve stalwart descendants of warrior chiefs, each clad in costume emblematic of the rank and station of his ancestors, conveyed it by a litter to its designed place where services were held before a large concourse of Hawaiians that had gathered to do homage to their alii.” (Thrum 1914)

“The unveiling of a handsome tablet of Hawaiian lava granite, to the accompaniment of sacred chants composed a century ago, marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kauikeaouli, the third of the Kamehamehas, which yesterday afternoon was observed at old Kawaiahao church by the Daughters of Hawai‘i.”

“It was a fitting memorial to that ruler who, known to his subjects as the beneficent king, gave to the inhabitants of these islands their first written constitution, and, to make the observance further complete, the tablet will be taken to Keauhou, Kona, where it will mark the birthplace of ka moi lokomaikai.” (Star Bulletin, March 18, 1914; Nupepa-Hawai‘i)

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Kamehameha III Memorial Tablet-Melrose

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Kamehameha III Tablet

March 16, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pā‘ani Pepa

Kalākaua’s penchant for “dances, picnics, suppers and other types of amusement” is legendary.

“Above all, he liked to play poker, and he usually lost. Then one day having four kings in his hand he was certain of winning the game.”

“Unluckily enough, his opponent had four aces. Kalākaua, not to be outdone, quickly hit upon the idea of including himself in his hand and said, ‘I have five kings-four in my hand and myself.’” (Ka Leo O Hawaii)

Pā‘ani pepa (card games) seem to have been introduced in Hawai‘i by foreign seamen in the 1790s or early 1800s. Gavan Daws notes that Islanders were enthusiastic gamblers and took up card games with avidity, soon becoming quite skillful.

“(T)he only card game the people and chiefs had known before was ‘Nu‘uanu.’” (Kamakau) It seems the game had already filtered into the society, from ali‘i to makaʻāinana, by the early 19th century when ‘I‘i served Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and the high chiefs in the royal court.” (Chiba)

“Card playing was especially popular among members of royalty. Agents of the Hudson’s Bay Company, visiting Kamehameha and his son Liholiho in 1816, taught the future king how to play whist, then new to Hawai‘i.” (Schmitt) (Whist is a trick-taking card game involving trump cards.)

Missionaries note the regular card playing by ali‘i. “Part of the morning was spent in calling upon the queen (Ka‘ahumanu,) chiefesses, and I took with me one garment which we had completed for Kamamaloo.”

“I did not find her as when we called last Saturday. She was engaged, with a party, under a small booth, by the king’s door at a game of whist.” (Sybil Bingham, March 14, 1822)

(The game of whist is substantially the product of English soil, and its gradual development during more than two centuries, until it has all but arrived at maturity, is mainly due to British talent.”)

(“From England it was carried about a hundred and sixty years ago into the centres of Parisian life, and the diplomatists and financiers from other countries who resorted to that capital became subject to its influence, and introduced it into the cities of their own lands.”) (English Whist, 1894)

Back to Ka‘ahumanu … “Money was spread upon the mats upon which the company were seated. Cards engrossed their attention, while the nod of cold civility was all they could bestow upon us.”

“My long walk in the sun had caused some fatigue; but too many attendants surrounded to admit our having a seat under cover. Seeing that little prospect but that of standing as idle spectators of a vain amusement, we, without any formality, took our leave.”

“As I stood and looked upon the sable group of ignorant, unconcerned, yet precious immortals, thought of their indifference to the message of eternal mercy, and their entire devotions, not only to vain feat to sensual delights, my spirit seemed to faint within me.” (Sybil Bingham, March 14, 1822)

Sybil’s husband, Hiram Bingham, noted of Kaʻahumanu, “sometimes, a full length portrait of her dignity might have presented her stretched out prostrate on the same floor on which a large, black, pet hog was allowed, unmolested, to walk or lie and grunt, for the annoyance or amusement of the inmates.”

“She would amuse herself for hours at cards … Mrs B and myself called at her habitation, in the centre of Honolulu. She and several women of rank were stretched upon the mats, playing at cards, which were introduced before letters.”

“It was not uncommon for such groups to sit like tailors, or to lie full length with the face to the ground, the head a little elevated, the breast resting on a cylindrical pillow, the hands grasping and moving the cards, while their naked feet and toes extended in diverging lines towards the different sides or extremities of the room.”

“Being invited to enter the house, we took our seats without the accommodation of chairs, and waited till the game of cards was disposed of, when the wish was expressed to have us seated by her.”

“We gave her ladyship one of the little books, and drew her attention to the alphabet, neatly printed, in large and small Roman characters.” (Bingham)

Thus, Western card games such as whist, poker games, or so appear to have been already imported into Hawai‘i with other Western materials and goods probably by sailors by early 1800s just after the 1778 British landfall or Cook’s arrival, which was the Hawai’i’s first step into the evolving capitalistic economy. (Chiba)

“Pe-pa-ha-kau: Cards.—Foreign playing-cards are used. Poker is a favorite game. Five cards are dealt around and the highest hand wins. A player not getting a pair is out of the game. Pe-pa, ‘cards,’ is the English ‘paper.’ Ha-kau means ‘fighting.’” (Culin, 1899)

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Wall Nichols Card Set ca 1901

March 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ward Homes

Curtis Perry Ward was born in Kentucky and arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1853, when whaling in the Pacific was at its peak. Curtis worked at the Royal Custom House, which monitored commercial activity at Honolulu Harbor for the kingdom.

Victoria Robinson was born in Nuʻuanu in 1846, the daughter of English shipbuilder, James Robinson and his wife Rebecca, a woman of Hawaiian ancestry whose chiefly lineage had roots in Kaʻū, Hilo and Honokōwai, Maui.

Curtis and Victoria married in 1865. They lived in several houses, each named with a southern reference, ‘Dixie,’ Sunny South’ and ‘Old Plantation.’

‘Dixie’

Ward started a livery with headquarters on Queen Street and expanded into the business of transporting cargo on horse-pulled wagons. The size of Ward’s work force became just as big as the harbor’s other major player, James Robinson & Co. (Victoria’s father.)

Curtis and Victoria married in 1865 and for many years they made their home near Honolulu Harbor on property presently occupied by the Davies Pacific Center.

When tensions began to rise between the American North and South in the late-1850s, Ward would defend his Southern heritage. As a result, Ward’s home, named “Dixie,” was often stoned by Northern sailors. (Hustace)

“Lili‘uokalani liked young Ward and felt sympathy for him as a passionate upholder of Confederate rights.” (Taylor) “(A)ccording to a family story, some members of the court privately expressed sympathy for Ward’s Southern allegiance during the War Between the States.”

“Lydia Lili‘u Pākī is said to have worked quietly at night, in the privacy of her chambers, sewing a Confederate flag for Ward.”

“He accepted her gift with pleasure and promptly attached it to the canopy of his four-poster bed, declaring it was his wish to die under the flag.” (Hustace)

‘Sunny South’

In 1869, he purchased a 7-acre parcel in Pawa‘a. (Hustace) Ward then moved to the country on Waikiki Road (Kalākaua Avenue,) and built a home designed in Southern Colonial style. (Krauss)

(It was between Washington Intermediate and Makiki Stream – across from what was later the Cinerama Theater.) (Hustace)

Ward “built a huge beach house on Waikiki” with a “great gate over which he carved the home’s name – ‘Sunny South.’” (Courier-Journal, August 6, 1963)

“‘Sunny South’ on the Waikiki road testified to his love of his former home in the States, was an unreconstructed Confederate.…”

“For political reasons mostly he used to have trouble with the boys of Punahou College. They went down Waikiki way now and then and pulled off his ‘Sunny South’ sign, leaving it in the road.”

“Finally they concluded to take it away bodily, carry it to their rooms in the college dormitory and whittle it into inch bits, making a street bonfire afterward of the shavings.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 3, 1903)

‘Old Plantation’

“In 1880 Ward built a mansion with stately verandas, chandeliers, high ceilings and a ball room. He fashioned it directly after his home in Lexington (Kentucky) and called it ‘Old Plantation.’”

“The site of ‘Old Plantation’ once was known as ‘Little Kentucky.’” (Courier-Journal, August 6, 1963) Old Plantation became one of the showplaces of Honolulu and remained substantially unchanged for nearly 80 years.

Members of the Ward Family worked hard to preserve Hawaiian cultural traditions and also supported many social service activities in the community. (Ward Centers)

The Wards were early supporters of child welfare and animal rights, and they devoted considerable energy toward the establishment of the Hawaiian Humane Society. They also contributed financial support to Kapiʻolani Maternity Hospital, St. Clement’s Church and to the Academy of the Sacred Hearts. (Ward Centers)

Victoria Ward established Victoria Ward Ltd. in 1930 to manage the family’s property, primarily the remaining 65-acres of Old Plantation, now part of the core of Kakaʻako real estate adjoining downtown Honolulu. Victoria Ward died April 11, 1935.

In 1958, the city bought the mauka portion of the Old Plantation Estate and tore it down to build the Honolulu International Center (later re-named Neal S. Blaisdell Center (after Honolulu’s former Mayor.))

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Ward Homes

March 14, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1900s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1900s – Young Brothers formed, Moana Hotel opens, Dole organizes Hawaiian Pineapple Company and UH starts. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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March 13, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

John Harbottle

Harbottle is a village and a township in Holystone chapelry, Northumberland, England. Harbottle Castle crowns a lofty, isolated, green mound, above the river Coquet. Harbottle, in the English Saxons’ tongue Herbottle, is “whence the familie of the Harbottels descended”. (Vision of Britain)

The castle, built in 1155-89, now of shattered and leaning walls, had formerly an outer moat crossed by a drawbridge. (Vision of Britain) The building’s most famous hour came in October 1515, when his Lordship played host there to the pregnant Queen Margaret of Scots and her (second) husband, the Earl of Angus.

At Harbottle, the lady gave birth to a daughter, also Margaret, the future mother of Lord Darnley (husband of Mary, Queen of Scots and father of James VI). (Britannia)

In the Pacific, Captain Brown’s three vessel trading squadron collecting furs, hides, and whale oil in the American Northwest and trading with China included the ‘Butterworth’ (under Captain Brown,) ‘Prince Lee Boo’ (under Captain Sharp) and the ‘Jackal’ (under the command of Captain Alexander Stewart.) John Harbottle served as mate on the Jackal.

They were “one of that numerous group of commercial adventurers who flocked into the north Pacific Ocean in the wake of Cook, drawn thither by the chance discovery, as one result of the last expedition led by that great navigator, of the possibilities of wealth in the fur trade between China and the coast of America.” (Kuykendall)

The Jackal “had English colors and shew a teir of ports fore and aft the greatest part of which were false or only painted yet they made a good appearance at a distance that for some time we concluded she was a Kings Cutter or tender to some of the men of war on the coast.” (Ingraham; Kuykendall)

The squadron spent the trading season of 1793 on the northwest coast and at the end of the season all of them went to the Hawaiian Islands for the usual refreshments. During this visit to the islands Captain Brown was given an opportunity of performing a useful service for his friend Kahekili, and later Kalanikūpule.

From there Captain Brown sent the Butterworth on her way toward England, by way of Cape Horn, ‘with directions to fish for whales and seals in passing through the Pacific Ocean, and at Staten Land, where Mr. Brown had formed a temporary establishment.’ Captain Brown himself with the Jackal and Prince Lee Boo sailed to Canton.

Returning to the Islands, in November of 1794 the harbor of Honolulu, known to early Hawaiians as Ke Awa o Kou, (The harbor of Kou) was discovered by Captain Brown, of the British ship Butterworth, and called by him “Fairhaven.” Honolulu was first entered by the schooner Jackal, her tender. (Thrum; Maly)

Brown died in 1795 and Harbottle later sailed as Second Officer with Captain Bishop on the Nautilus. They sailed from Canton in June 1797, only to meet a series of devastating storms. (Journal/Letters of Captain Charles Bishop)

“That it was not until Thursday 29 June (1797) we had crossed the China Sea and reached the South point of the Island Formosa where we anchored in a Sandy bay for the purpose of fitting up the Empty water Casks …”

“… and the boat was dispatched with an Empty Cask to a Proper place, which they did about one and a half miles from the Ship. there being however a considerable Surf the boat was Anchored just within it and about 50 yards from the Shore, the People were not enabled to carry any Arms on Shore dry, and not seeing any Native, took only the Cask with Bucketts to fill it …”

“… they had began on their business when they were Suddenly attacked by a Party of Indians, who fired many Musketts and persued the people into the water – Captain Bishop being near the boat soon got on board her, and with the boat-keeper fired on the Natives and covered the retreat of the boats Crew, who all reached the boat …”

“… but Mr John Harbottle second mate was wounded … two Indians more daring then the rest, rushed into the water to catch hold of Mr Harbottle who was the hindmost of our people, being wounded by an arrow in the back and his thigh bone broken by a Gun shott, happily however he got within reach of one of the oars and we Saved him by timly wounding his assailants”. (Bishop, Memoranda on the Ship Nautilus)

Next, the Nautilus sheltered at Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka. Russian Commander Schmaleff, “readily offered us every assistance, the settlement could afford. The artificers and People were ordered to do any thing for us we requested and …”

“… our wounded officer (Harbottle) was placed by his directions in the house of the 2d in Command whose Wife and daughters were his kind nurses and Attendants”. (Journal/Letters of Captain Charles Bishop)

“The Nautilus then sailed south into further tempests, which did not even allow a return to Kamchatka. Instead Bishop made again for the Sandwich Islands”. There, Harbottle stayed and “joined Kamehameha’s ring of European aides; Harbottle’s was indeed a happy progress from that grim day at Formosa.” (Journal/Letters of Captain Charles Bishop)

Harbottle was one of the first foreign residents in Hawai‘i (arriving around 1799) and became Kamehameha I’s port pilot. He was called Keaka Habatala. He married High Chiefess Pāpapa‘upu (also called Hanepu,) the hānai granddaughter of Kamehameha I. (Quigg)

Reportedly, he fathered 13 children: William Hepala Harbottle; Sarah Ulukaihonua Harbottle; Mary Ilikealii Harbottle; Charlotte Oili Harbottle; George Nahalelaau Harbottle; John Waihinepio H. Harbottle; Edwin Edward Ailueni, Harbottle; Isaac Kewalo Harbottle; Edwin Harbottle; Issac Kewalo Harbottle; Edward Ailueni Harbottle; William He Pala Harbottle and Winship Reynolds.

In 1809, Harbottle, generally acted as Honolulu harbor pilot. (Greer) Under his direction, hawsers would be run from the ship to rows of canoes, and paddlers would warp the ship into harbor. (Daws)

Likewise, Harbottle was made captain of the Lelia Bird and was involved in the sandalwood trade to China, making two or three voyages and finally ending her days by sinking at Whampoa. (Thrum)

For his service, Harbottle was given land by Kamehameha, including the ahupua‘a named ‘Waipi‘o’ at Hāmākualoa on Maui, “he resided peacefully there until his death.” (Land Commission Testimony) He died June 26, 1830.

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Harbottle Castle Ruins