Peter T Young

July 6, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Cane Fire

Slash and burn agriculture is a widely used method of growing food in which wild or forested land is clear cut and any remaining vegetation burned.

The resulting layer of ash provides the newly-cleared land with a nutrient-rich layer to help fertilize crops. (EcoLogic)

In the Islands, between AD 1100 and 1650, there was a period of expansion and agricultural intensification in Hawaii that accompanied an increase in human population. (Pratt)

Until about 1500 AD, agriculture was shifting cultivation using slash and burn techniques and long fallow periods. Between 1500 and 1800 A.D., agriculture expanded, intensified, and became permanent. (Cuddihy & Stone)

During that period the lowland vegetation below 1,500-feet elevation was almost entirely replaced by cultivated fields, dispersed settlements and grasslands, caused by repeated fires; while upland sites remained little disturbed. (Pratt)

Several of the large field systems have pronounced burn layers that represent wither the original removal of native tree cover or the use of fire for clearing fallow fields.

Fire was the primary tool used by Hawaiians to clear lands prior to cultivation. This was true in areas adjacent to irrigated valleys and windward slopes as well as in the great field systems. Fire may have been repeatedly used to periodically clear the secondary growth on fallow fields. (Cuddihy & Stone)

Fire was also used in marginal cultivations to burn off vegetation and increase the cover of ‘ama‘u ferns used as pig feed. Large expanses of the lowlands were regularly burned to clear woody vegetation and stimulate indigenous pili grass. (Pratt)

Agricultural burning is standard practice for many other kinds of crops on nearly 9-million acres throughout the country, including rice, wheat, corn, cotton, lentils and soybeans. (HC&S)

Fire was later used in the harvesting of sugarcane. Burning the cane before harvesting removes most of the dead vegetation without causing significant damage to the interior of the cane stalk. (James)

The sugarcane plant consists of about 75 percent to 80 percent net cane (stalks) from which the juice is extracted and the sugar crystalized. The other 20 percent to 25 percent of the plant consists of leafy material, including tops, from which little or no sugar is produced.

This leafy material is called trash. Burning sugarcane before harvest (or milling) removes from one-half to two-thirds of this trash that would otherwise contribute nothing to sugar production. (LSUAC)

In many countries, such as Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and Costa Rica, pre-harvest burning is a common practice. In the US and Philippines, sugarcane fields are burned either before or after harvest, but in India, most of the sugarcane residues are usually burned in the field only after harvest. (de Azeredo França)

In Australia, sugarcane burning started in the 1930s to combat Weil’s disease (leptospirosis) among cane-cutters. In other cane growing areas, burning was sometimes done to clear the field of snakes before hand-cutters cut the cane. (Cheesman)

There were attempts to use fire to get rid of pests, “When as an experiment, a patch of about nine acres of cane, so heavily attacked by leaf-hopper as to be useless, was set on fire all around to destroy these, it was noticed that the adult hoppers rose from the cane in a cloud and spread to other fields; so this plan for destroying them was of no value.” (HSPA, 1906)

It appears that the practice of burning sugarcane started in the early-1900s (some suggest in 1908.) Prior to that, cane trash (nonproductive leafy parts of the cane) was removed by hand (men chopped the cane; ‘holehole’ work, stripping the dried cane leaves, was deemed ‘women’s work.’)

The sugar in burned cane inverts after 48-hours and the lack of ability to quickly transport burned cane to mills limited its practice until the late-1920s when a macadamized road system and diesel trucks across the islands became widespread. (Hayakawa)

Later, pre-harvest burning, in the field, was the only economical means sugar planters found for removing the dried leafy material from its crop.

Removal of this dried leafy material reduces the quantity of material which needs to be hauled to the factory, including the soil adhering to the harvested material; reduces the number of haulers traveling back and forth and therefore reduces fuel consumption; reduces the amount of material the factory must handle and therefore its energy consumption; and improves sugar recovery. (HC&S)

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Sugarcane fire

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Cane Fire-UH-Manoa-Library

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Japanese sugar plantation workers in Hawaii around 1910 (BishopMuseum)

Sugar harvesting

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July 5, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Call the little baby Kīna’u.”

“I was born in the ‘Old Mission House’ in Honolulu on the 5th day of July, 1831. When I was but a few hours old, ‘Kīna’u,’ the Premier, came into the bedroom with her crowd of ‘kahus,’ took me into her arms and said that she wanted to adopt me, as she had no girl of her own.”

“My mother, in her weak state, was terribly agitated, knowing that the missionaries were unpopular and entirely dependent on the good-will of the natives, so feared the consequences of a denial. They sent for my father in haste, who took in the state of affairs at a glance.”

“’We don’t give away our children,’ he said to Kīna’u. ‘But you are poor, I am rich, I give you much money,’ replied the Chiefess. ‘No, you can’t have her,’ my father answered firmly. Kīna’u tossed me angrily down on the bed and walked away, leaving my poor mother in a very anxious frame of mind.” (Wilder; Wight)

“She accordingly went away in an angry and sullen mood, and was not heard from until the infant was being christened a few weeks later, when she again appeared, elbowed the father to one side, and exclaimed in the haughtiest of tones, ‘Call the little baby Kīna’u.’”

“Fearing that a second refusal would result disastrously, the parents agreed, and the child was accordingly christened Elizabeth Kīna’u Judd.” (The Friend, May 1912)

Kīna’u “seemed somewhat appeased after the (christening) ceremony, and, as I was the first white girl she had ever seen, deigned from that time on to show a great interest in me, either visiting me or having me visit her every day.” (Wright, Wight)

Kīna’u, daughter of Kamehameha I, became a Christian in 1830. She succeeded her aunt Kaʻahumanu as Kuhina Nui upon the latter’s death in 1832.

She acted as the Regent for her brother Kauikeaouli when he became King Kamehameha III, from June 5, 1832 to March 15, 1833. She would rule with him until her death. She was responsible for enforcing Hawaiʻi’s first penal code, proclaimed by the king in 1835.

Gerrit and Laura Judd were in the 3rd Company of missionaries. In 1839, at the request of King Kamehameha, Judd, a physician, looked after the royal children in the Chiefs’ Children’s School.

Judd left the mission in 1842 and for the next 10+ years served the Kingdom in various positions, including translator, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Interior and Commissioner to France, Great Britain & US.

The Judd’s child was not the only missionary child named for Hawaiian Chiefs or Chiefesses.

Maria Kapule Whitney was born October 19, 1820 to the Pioneer Company missionaries/teachers, Samuel and Mercy Whitney. She was “the first haole girl to be born in the Hawaiian archipelago,” and named for Kauai Chiefess Kapule, wife of Kauai’s King Kaumualiʻi.

Maria went to the mainland at the age of six to be educated; she returned to the Islands with the 11th Company. She married bachelor missionary Reverend John Fawcett Pogue of the 11th Company.

Reportedly, the daughter of Samuel and Nancy Ruggles (missionaries/teachers of the Pioneer Company) born on December 22, 1820, was named Sarah Trumbull Kaumuali’i Ruggles. (Some suggest her Hawaiian name was Ka‘amuali‘i.)

The Whitneys and Ruggles escorted Humehume (Prince George,) King Kaumuali‘i’s son, back to Kauai, where they set up a missionary station.

Lucia Kamāmalu Holman was daughter of Thomas and Lucia Ruggles Holman of the Pioneer Company (Lucia was Samuel Ruggles sister.) Holman was the mission’s first physician and was stationed in Kona. She was born March 2, 1821 on Kauai and named after Queen Kamāmalu, King Kamehameha II’s wife.

Elisabeth “Lizzie” Kaahumanu Bingham was born March 8, 1829 in Honolulu to Reverend Hiram and Sybil Bingham, leaders of the Pioneer Company of missionaries. She was named after Queen Kaʻahumanu, favorite wife of King Kamehameha I and a friend of the mission.

In 1840, Lizzie returned to the mainland with parents and, after graduating from Mount Holyoke, taught on the continent. Lizzie returned to Hawai‘i in 1868 to work at Kawaiahaʻo Seminary (until 1880.) She died November 27, 1899 in Honolulu.

Mary Kekāuluohi Clark was born to Ephraim and Mary Clark (from the 3rd Company of missionaries) on September 20, 1829. She was named for Kekāuluohi, who later became Kuhina Nui (as Kaʻahumanu III;) Kekāuluohi was mother of King Lunalilo.)

Harriet Keōpūolani Williston Richards was born in 1829 to Reverend William and Clarissa Richards of the 2nd Company of missionaries. (Harriet was sent to the continent and lived with the Willistons; when her father died, she was adopted by the Willistons and took their name.)

Harriet was named for the mother of King Kamehameha II and III. When the 2nd Company arrived in the Islands (1822,) Richards and others escorted Keōpūolani to Lahaina where Richards was stationed. William Richards left the mission in 1838 at the request of King Kamehameha III to become the King’s translator, counselor and political advisor.

Douglass Hoapili Baldwin was son of Reverend Dwight and Charlotte Baldwin of the 4th Company of missionaries. He was born in 1840 and died in 1843; Hoapili was Governor of Maui and lived in Lahaina (where the Baldwins were stationed at the time of Douglas’ birth.

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Gerrit and Laura Judd

Elizabeth Kaahumanu Bingham gravestone

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Hiram and Sybil Bingham-1819

Maria Kapule Whitney Pogue

Samuel and Mercy Whitney-1819

Samuel and Nancy Ruggles-1819

Thomas and Lucia Holman

July 4, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Independence Day

Independence Day celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is the nation’s most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson’s most enduring monument.

What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in “self-evident truths” and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country.

Fifty-six men from each of the original 13 colonies signed the Declaration of Independence – they mutually pledged “to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

Nine of the signers were immigrants, two were brothers and two were cousins. Eighteen of the signers were merchants or businessmen, 14 were farmers and four were doctors. Twenty-two were lawyers and nine were judges.

The average age of a signer was 45. Benjamin Franklin was the oldest delegate at 70. The youngest was Thomas Lynch Jr. of South Carolina at 27.

At the time of the signing, the American Revolutionary War was already underway (1775-1783.)

The British captured five signers during the war. Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward and Arthur Middleton were captured at the Battle of Charleston in 1780. George Walton was wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah; Richard Stockton was incarcerated at the hands of British Loyalists.

Eleven signers had their homes and property destroyed. Francis Lewis’s New York home was razed and his wife taken prisoner. John Hart’s farm and mills were destroyed when the British invaded New Jersey, and he died while fleeing capture.

Fifteen of the signers participated in their states’ constitutional conventions, and six – Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, James Wilson and George Reed – signed the US Constitution.

Here are some other brief Revolutionary War highlights (and some Hawaiʻi July 4 events:)

1775
March 23 – Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech
April 18 – The rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes
April 19 – Minutemen and redcoats clash at Lexington and Concord “The shot heard round the world”
June 17 – Battle of Bunker Hill (Boston) – the British drive the Americans
Throughout the year, skirmishes occurred from Canada to South Carolina

Initially, fighting was through local militias; then, the Continental Congress established (on paper) a regular army on June 14, 1775, and appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief.

The development of the Continental Army was a work in progress, and Washington used both his regulars and state militia throughout the war.

1776
January 15 – Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy
March 17 – the British evacuate Boston

Ultimately, on September 3, 1783, the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The treaty document was signed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay (representing the United States) and David Hartley (a member of the British Parliament representing the British Monarch, King George III).

On June 21, 1788, the US Constitution was adopted (with all states ratifying it by that time.)

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Charles Carroll were the longest surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence. Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; Carroll was the last signer to die – in 1832 at the age of 95.

On July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawai‘i was established at Aliʻiolani Hale; Sanford B Dole became its first president.

On July 4, 1913, Duke Kahanamoku established three new West Coast records in swimming, winning the 50-yard, 440-yard and 220-yard races in a San Francisco regatta.

Following statehood of Hawaiʻi, the new flag of the United States of America, containing a union of 50 stars, flew for the first time at 12:01 am, July 4, 1960, when it was raised at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, Maryland.

Attached is an image of the Declaration of Independence.

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Declaration of Independence

July 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Clinic

He was born Georg Franz Straub on March 14, 1879 to Georg and Margaretha Straub in Edenkoben, Germany. He was a pre-med graduate from University of Wurzburg and in 1903, earned a Medical Degree, summa cum laude, from University of Heidelberg.

In 1903, he immigrated from Germany to London to America. (Apparently, at a family party that year, he struck a drunk relative (an officer in the German army;) the penalty was either to face a court-martial or leave the country.) He left. (Magaoay)

He met and later married Adele Germains on November 20, 1907 in Manhattan, New York. That year, they moved to Honolulu and he started his medical practice. (He ‘Americanized’ the spelling of his name to George Francis Straub.)

He was a consulting physician of the Honolulu Institute for Physiotherapy, that offered “All kinds of Electric Light Baths (blue, red, white and violet), Steam Baths; Turkish, Russian, Pine Needle, Nauheim. Carbonic Acid and Oxygen, or Medical Baths; Massage, X-Rays and High Frequency, etc.”

He was also a surgeon; “Yesterday afternoon there was a Caesarian operation performed in Queen’s Hospital on Mrs. Hopii Kolo by Dr George F Straub with the assistance of Doctor Hobdy.”

“The operation was in every respect a great success, mother and baby doing well. This is the second time that Doctor Straub has performed this operation successfully in these Islands and these are the only.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 14, 1910)

Then a fire destroyed “the old McGrew residence on the corner of Beretania and Richards … Dr Straub, who was consulting physician of the Honolulu Institute of Physiotherapy, which was located in the building, sustained a loss of about $4,000, and all his Instruments were destroyed.”

“… it was a very old house and burnt like a box of matches once it had caught alight. … Dr Straub resides in another cottage at the rear of the burnt building,… Dr. Straub has not decided upon what to do as regards his Institute, but he will make up his mind within a day or two, when he finds out exactly where he stands.” (Evening Bulletin, October 20, 1910)

He built a 15-room, 2-story wood-frame building at 410 South Beretania Street (at Miller Street across from Washington Place – he had his office on the first floor and his home on the second.) By 1916 his practice had grown to the point that he recruited an assistant, Dr. Guy C Milnor.

Straub began to envision a clinic providing specialized care in five major fields of medicine: Obstetrics and Gynecology; Surgery; Internal Medicine; Ear Nose & Throat; and Clinical Pathology. He and Milnor joined with Dr Arthur Jackson, a specialist in internal medicine in 1920 and the group operated for a short time as Straub, Milnor, and Jackson. (AfterCollege)

After the turn of the century, residents of Honolulu found it fashionable to have a ‘country place’ and beach houses began to spring up on Mōkapu. Straub preferred the coastal breezes and bird-shooting spots of Ft Hase and Nu‘upia Pond. (Steele)

It was first a one-room cottage; “If you could call a shipping crate a room.… Whenever I could get hold of another crate, it meant another room. It was simple construction. Just nail them together, cut a door, and there it was, an additional room bigger.” (Straub)

It could well be called the first “ranch-style” home on the island. Straub later gave the building to the military and moved to Waikiki. (His Mōkapu retreat served as an officer’s club for the growing military presence on the peninsula.) (Steele)

Straub divorced Adele in 1917 (“alleging extreme cruelty and desertion.”) (Star Bulletin, December 3, 1917) He went back to the mainland for a while.

Many of his Hawai‘i patients signed a petition asking him to return to the island, offering him passage via the Panama Canal. The cold weather of New England helped him decide on a Honolulu practice. (Windward Marine, October 25, 1962) He married Gertrude Scott and returned to the Islands.

In 1920, Straub’s medical partnership with Milnor and Jackson expanded; after leaving the Army, Dr Howard Clarke joined as a specialist in Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat, and Dr Eric A Fennel joined the group as pathologist.

On January 1, 1921, the five founding doctors formally organized themselves as a legal partnership. At Dr. Straub’s insistence the group he founded did not bear his name, and it was to be known simply as “The Clinic”. (AfterCollege)

The Clinic expanded and moved to the Strode Building on Young Street. In 1952, after years of success and growth, The Clinic was renamed ‘Straub Clinic’ in honor of Dr Straub, its principal founder. (HonoluluTown)

January 6, 1970, ground was broken for a 159-bed hospital and adjacent parking structure. Later that year, the Straub Clinic Partnership became a corporation and renamed Straub Clinic, Inc. February 4, 1973, it became Straub Clinic & Hospital, and Straub Hospital opened its doors. Straub opened its first satellite clinic on the Leeward side of O‘ahu in 1977.

Later, anchored by its four hospitals with the merger of Straub, Wilcox, Pali Momi and Kapiʻolani Hospitals (as well as its numerous satellite facilities,) Hawai‘i Pacific Health became one of the largest health care delivery systems in Hawai‘i.

Straub played cello with the Honolulu Symphony; after he retired from his medical practice (1933,) he turned his passion to hand-crafting violins. (Nakaso) Straub died May 21, 1966 in Honolulu.

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Straub’s Residence and Office-Beretania-Miller

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Mokapu-(Kailua_Side)-UH-Manoa-2444-1952-noting Straub House

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July 2, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Wauke

“Canoe crops” (Canoe Plants) is a term to describe the group of plants brought to Hawaiʻi by the early Polynesians. It is believed that these settlers, and the settlers that followed them, introduced a variety of plant species.

One such was Wauke (Paper Mulberry.) It’s a tree that can grow up to 50-feet. It thrives in places along streams, in woods, hollows or uneven grounds, in dry taro patches, in moist land where water flows. It is a species of the Hawaiian wet forests.

Legend identifies wauke with Hina, on the island of Maui. This may indicate that the paper mulberry, like one species of bamboo, was first brought to and planted on that island, which was Hina’s home.

The legend tells of Hina and her tapa making that anciently the sun hurried across the sky so fast that her tapa had no chance to dry. So her son Maui went to the place where the sun rises (Haleakala.) There he watched and caught the first ray that rose and broke it off, so that ever since the sun has traveled the sky more slowly.

The proper time for planting wauke is at the beginning of a rainy period. The shrub is said to mature within 18 months from the time the slip is planted.

Thereafter it continues to grow, young shoots springing from the roots to replace old ones. By recultivating an old patch, a flourishing crop of stems (for bark-stripping) may be had.

According to Thrum, in the upland plantations the whole plant was sometimes pulled out for harvesting and the roots lopped off and cut into segments for replanting. (Handy)

As the wauke tree grew, planters cut off the side branches, so a straight trunk stalk without branch holes could later be stripped. In 6-10 months the trunk shoots were cut down and the roots and tops removed.

The chief use and the main purpose of its cultivation were the making of cloth. In Hawai‘i, wauke made the softest, finest, and most durable kapa (tapa – bark cloth) for dress, bed sheets and for ceremonial purposes.

Indeed, the wealth of a household was often counted in the number and quality of its fine kapa materials, and in those made available, through the industry and skill of the womenfolk, as a store from which gifts might be made to ʻohana and revered ali‘i. (Handy)

It was pounded into kapa and made into a malo: a strip of cloth nine inches wide and nine feet long for the man, and pa‘u for the woman: a strip a little wider and somewhat longer.

The Hawaiians beat the fibers with beaters that had designs carved into them, this would leave a watermark on the cloth. Second, they used colors not found on other kapa, reds, blues, pink, green, and yellow.

The method of getting wauke is the same for the various kapas which a person desires; it is only during the process of beating out the kapa that a person could make use of the pattern which she prefers. (Fornander)

The trunks were stripped of bark, as thick as a finger and about 4 feet long. The outer bark was slit and peeled off. The inner bark fibers, called bast, were then soaked in running water, such as a high tide pool, with stones placed on top of the fiber pile.

This part of the process breaks down the woody fibers and washes away the starch. A complicated process of soakings and fermentation followed, leaving the fine fibers of the moist inner bark still tough and resilient when finally removed from the waters.

At this time in the process, the women of Hawai`i would often twist cordage out of the fibers, for use as fish nets, upena and as carrying nets, koko, from which to hang calabashes of wood and gourds. (CanoePlants)

For Kapa, strips were laid edge to edge, and felted together by beating with wooden beaters of different sizes, square in cross section, having carved geometric designs on their four faces to give watermarking. Many successive beatings with lighter and lighter clubs were required to make the finest cloth. (Handy)

For the process of beating the kapa these things are prepared: The block on which to do the beating; this block is made broad and flat on top and the two ends are made thus: the top one is lengthened and the under one is shortened. Water is used through the beating process to keep the wauke continually wet. (Fornander)

The first i‘e (club – tapa beater) (a coarse-figured club) is used for hard pounding. After that is the i‘ekike, the dividing club, a smaller-figured club; then comes the printing club and the finishing club. The kapa is then cut. It is next taken to soak in water.

It is then spread to dry at a place prepared for drying it, that is the drying ground; there it is spread out and pressed down with rocks placed here and there so that the pa‘u would not wrinkle. This is continued until the pa‘u is dry. And this is done until there are five kapa; they are then sewn together. That is called a set of kapa.

The sap is used medicinally as laxative. Ashes from burned tapa was used as medicine for ‘ea (thrush). Strips of coarse tapa were worn around a nursing mother’s neck for milk flow. (kcc.hawaii-edu)

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