Ali’i / Chiefs / Governance | Page 106

April 29, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

United?

The dictionary defines ‘unite’ as “to join together to do or achieve something; to cause (two or more people or things) to be joined together and become one thing; and to become joined together as one thing.”

The suggestion is that to ‘unite’ is a positive, beneficial thing.

Most say Kamehameha ‘united’ the Islands; however, it wasn’t very ‘positive’ during the process, for either conqueror or conquered.

In the Islands, over the centuries, the islands weren’t under single rule. Leadership sometimes covered portions of an island, sometimes covered a whole island or groups of islands.

Island rulers, Aliʻi or Mōʻī, typically ascended to power through familial succession and warfare. In those wars, Hawaiians were killing Hawaiians; sometimes the rivalries pitted members of the same family against each other.

At the period of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokai, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

“At that time Kahekili was plotting for the downfall of Kahahana and the seizure of Oahu and Molokai, and the queen of Kauai was disposed to assist him in these enterprises.”

“The occupation of the Hana district of Maui by the kings of Hawaii had been the cause of many stubborn conflicts between the chivalry of the two islands, and when Captain Cook first landed on Hawaii he found the king of that island absent on another warlike expedition to Maui, intent upon avenging his defeat of two years before, when his famous brigade of eight hundred nobles was hewn in pieces.” (Kalākaua)

Kamakahelei was the “queen of Kauai and Niihau, and her husband was a younger brother to Kahekili, while she was related to the royal family of Hawaii. Thus, it will be seen, the reigning families of the several islands of the group were all related to each other, as well by marriage as by blood. So had it been for many generations. But their wars with each other were none the less vindictive because of their kinship, or attended with less of barbarity in their hours of triumph.” (Kalākaua)

“By this time nearly a generation of the race had passed away, subsequently to their discovery by Cook. How much of their strength had been exhausted by wars and the support of armies, and how much by new and terrible diseases, it is not easy to estimate. The population was greatly diminished, and the residue unimproved in morals.” (Bingham)

By the time of Cook’s arrival (1778,) Kamehameha had become a superb warrior who already carried the scars of a number of political and physical encounters. The young warrior Kamehameha was described as a tall, strong and physically fearless man who “moved in an aura of violence.” (NPS)

“Before the conquest of Kamehameha, the several islands were ruled by independent kings, who were frequently at war with each other, but more often with their own subjects. As one chief acquired sufficient strength, he disputed the title of the reigning prince.”

“If successful, his chance of permanent power was quite as precarious as that of his predecessor. In some instances the title established by force of arms remained in the same family for several generations, disturbed, however, by frequent rebellions … war being a chief occupation …” (Jarves)

The impress of his mind remains with his crude and vigorous laws, and wherever he stepped is seen an imperishable track. He was so strong of limb that ordinary men were but children in his grasp, and in council the wisest yielded to his judgment. He seems to have been born a man and to have had no boyhood. (Kalākaua)

He was always sedate and thoughtful, and from his earliest years cared for no sport or pastime that was not manly. He had a harsh and rugged face, less given to smiles than frowns, but strongly marked with lines indicative of self-reliance and changeless purpose. (Kalākaua)

He was barbarous, unforgiving and merciless to his enemies, but just, sagacious and considerate in dealing with his subjects. He was more feared and admired than loved and respected; but his strength of arm and force of character well fitted him for the supreme chieftaincy of the group, and he accomplished what no one else could have done in his day. (Kalākaua)

A later battle at ʻIao is described as, “They speak of the carnage as frightful, the din and uproar, the shouts of defiance among the fighters, the wailing of the women on the crests of the valley, as something to curdle the blood or madden the brain of the beholder. (Fornander)

The Maui troops were completely annihilated, and it is said that the corpses of the slain were so many as to choke up the waters of the stream of lao, and that hence one of the names of this battle was “Kepaniwai” (the damming of the waters). (Fornander)

Then, a final battle of conquest took place on Oʻahu. Kamehameha landed his fleet and disembarked his army on Oʻahu, extending from Waialae to Waikiki. … he marched up the Nuʻuanu valley, where Kalanikūpule had posted his forces. (Fornander)

At Puiwa the hostile forces met, and for a while the victory was hotly contested; but the superiority of Kamehameha’s artillery, the number of his guns, and the better practice of his soldiers, soon turned the day in his favour, and the defeat of the O‘ahu forces became an accelerated rout and a promiscuous slaughter. (Fornander) Estimates for losses in the battle of Nuʻuanu (1795) ranged up to 10,000. (Schmitt)

“It is supposed that some six thousand of the followers of this chieftain (Kamehameha,) and twice that number of his opposers, fell in battle during his career, and by famine and distress occasioned by his wars and devastations from 1780 to 1796.” (Bingham)

Vancouver was appalled by the impoverished circumstances of the people and the barren and uncultivated appearance of their lands. “The deplorable condition to which they had been reduced by an eleven years war” and the advent of “the half famished trading vessels” convinced him that he should pursue his peace negotiations for “the general happiness, of the inhabitants of all the islands.” (Vancouver)

“(T)he greatest loss of life according to early writers was not from the battles, but from the starvation of the vanquished and consequential sickness due to destruction of food sources and supplies – a recognized part of Hawaiian warfare.” (Bingham)

“Whether we contemplate the horrors or the glories of the rude warfare which wasted the nation, we are not to confine our views to the struggles of armed combatants, the wounds, the reproaches, and various evils inflicted on one another …”

“… but the burden of sustaining such armies deserves attention, and the indescribable misery of the unarmed and unresisting of the vanquished party or tribe, pursued and crushed, till all danger of further resistance disappeared, must not be forgotten.” (Bingham)

Kauai was never conquered; in the face of the threat of a further invasion, in 1810, at Pākākā on Oʻahu, negotiations between King Kaumuali‘i (son of Kamakahelei) and Kamehameha I took place and Kaumualiʻi yielded to Kamehameha. The agreement marked the end of war across the Islands.

The association of Kauai into the group was bloodless; the others resulted in conquest, with the winner reaping the spoils and the loser forced to concede – with blood spilled by both sides. That was the ‘uniting’ of the Islands.

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April 27, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William Richards

William Richards, the seventh child and third son of James and Lydia (Shaw) Richards, was born at Plainfield, Massachusetts, August 22, 1793.

His grandparents were Joseph and Sarah (Whitmarsh) Richards, and Captain Ebenezer and Ann (Molson) Shaw. The Richards family is descended from William Richards, who came to Plymouth before 1633, and ultimately settled in Weymouth, Massachusetts.

William’s father was a farmer, but was also a teacher and held many public offices. His mother is described as a most excellent woman. The parents gave to their children the best of pious instruction.

William was a younger brother of James Richards, Jr. In the summer of 1806, in a grove of trees, in what was then known as Sloan’s Meadow at Williams College, James Richards, Samuel John Mills, Francis L Robbins, Harvey Loomis and Byram Green debated the theology of missionary service.

Their meeting was interrupted by a thunderstorm and they took shelter under a haystack until the sky cleared. That event has since been referred to as the “Haystack Prayer Meeting” and is viewed by many as the pivotal event for the development of Protestant missions in the subsequent decades and century and catalyst to formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM.)

At the age of fifteen, William became hopefully pious, and three years later he united with the church in his native place, under the care of the Rev. Moses Hallock.

His desire to become a missionary was, probably, awakened by his older brother, who, about the time of his graduation, disclosed his plan for life to the younger brother.

As his brother had done, William entered Williams as a Freshman in 1815. He had as classmates two sons of his pastor, Gerard and William Allen Hallock.

“His intellectual powers were of a high order. When at college, he excelled in mathematics, natural and intellectual philosophy, and logic, while, in the languages and belles lettres, he scarcely rose above the common average.” (Gerard Hallock; Hewitt, Williams College)

In college he was a member of the Mills Theological Society, and also of the Philotechnian Literary Society, of which he was, for a time, president. He was a superior student, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa rank. At Commencement, he had a Philosophical Oration, the subject of his address being “The Nature and Effects of Dew.”

After graduating in 1819, Richards pursued his theological studies at Andover. In February, 1822, the ABCFM having planned to reinforce the mission at the Sandwich Islands, Richards offered himself for that service and was accepted.

He was ordained in New Haven, Connecticut, on September 12 of the same year, with two other missionaries, the Rev. Dr. Miller of the Princeton Theological Seminary preaching the sermon.

On October 30, 1822, Mr. Richards married Clarissa, daughter of Levi Lyman, of Northampton, Massachusetts. On November 19 he, with his wife, joined the Second Company of American Protestant missionaries to Hawai‘i.

After five months at sea they reached Honolulu on Sunday, April 27, 1823. The missionaries were most cordially welcomed, not only by their future associates, but by several chiefs of the island.

Richards describes his first Hawai‘i home, “We are living in houses built by the heathen and presented to us. They are built in native style, and consist of posts driven into the ground …”

“… on which small poles are tied horizontally, and then long grass is fastened to the poles by strings which pass round each bundle. We have no floors, and no windows except holes cut through the thatching, which are closed by shutters without glass.”

In May 1823, Keōpūolani (wife of Kamehameha I and mother of King Kamehameha II & III) and her husband Hoapili expressed a desire to have an instructor connected with them and asked that a Tahitian, Taua, do so.

The mission approved, and Taua resided until the death of Keōpūolani. He proved a faithful teacher, and by the blessing of God, we believe, he did much to establish her in the Christian faith. (Memoir)

Keōpūolani also requested that missionaries accompany her. As Lahaina had been previously selected for a missionary station, the missionaries were happy to commence their labors there under such auspices. Richards and Charles Samuel Stewart therefore accompanied her. (Memoir)

On their passage, she told them she would be their mother; and indeed she acted the part of a mother ever afterwards. Immediately on their arrival, she requested them to commence teaching, and said, also, “It is very proper that my sons (meaning the missionaries) be present with me at morning and evening prayers.”

Soon after landing in Lahaina, Richards wrote: “The field for usefulness here is great; and I have never, for a moment since I arrived, had a single fear that my usefulness on these Islands will be limited by anything but my own imperfections. …”

“It is enough for me, that in looking back I can see clearly that the finger of Providence pointed me to these Islands; and that in looking forward, I see some prospect of success and of lasting usefulness.” (Richards, August 30, 1823; Missionary Herald)

By 1825, there was strong interest in the message of the missionaries. Richards wrote, “As I was walking this evening, I heard the voice of prayer in six different houses, in the course of a few rods. I think there are now not less than fifty houses in Lahaina where the morning and evening sacrifice is regularly offered to the true God.”

“The number is constantly increasing and there is now scarcely an hour in the day that I am not interrupted in my regular employment by calls of persons anxious to know what they must do to be saved.” (Richards; Anderson) In 1831, Richards and Lorrin Andrews helped to build the high school at Lahainaluna on the slopes above Lahaina.

In 1837, after fourteen years of labor, he made a visit to the US, accompanied by his wife and the six oldest children. The health of himself and his wife made such a change desirable, and he wished to provide for the education of his children there.

On his return to his post in the spring of 1838, the king and chiefs, who felt the need of reform in their government, asked Mr. Richards to become their teacher, chaplain and interpreter.

With the consent of the ABCFM, he accepted this position and resigned his appointment as missionary and then spent his time urging the improvement of the political system.

He prepared a book No Ke Kalaiaina, based on Wyland, Elements of Political Economy. This book and Richards interation with the king and chiefs helped shape the initial Hawaiʻi Constitution (1840). (Lots of information here is from Hewitt, Williams College.)\

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April 26, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Princess Ka‘iulani School

“As you drive through to Palama your eyes, accustomed to the barren land, or sordid stores that line the roughened way, turn with Involuntary pleasure toward a splendid residence that suddenly looms before your vision.”

“It is set well back from the roadside. Its gates are wide open, as if inviting visitors; its beautiful lawns refresh one’s senses, and its trees and fernery call up many a pleasant memory of other trees and other ferneries in a far distant land.”

“For this is the Ka‘iulani School! Yesterday was the birthday of the beautiful princess, who gave to the school her name. In the big hall on the second floor appropriate exercises were held yesterday morning to commemorate Ka’iulani, the Good.” (Coyney; Pacific Commercial Advertise. October 17, 1900)

The Princess Ka‘iulani, who was the heir apparent to the Hawaiian throne, was born in Honolulu, October 16, 1875. Her father was Archibald S. Cleghorn, a Scotchman, and ex-Governor of the Island of Oahu. Her mother was the Princess Miriam Likelike, sister of the late King Kalākaua and of the present Queen Liliuokalani.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 17, 1900)

Ka‘iulani’s mother passed away when she was just 11 years old. “The Princess was sent to England to be educated, when but fourteen years of age. There she had the best advantages and was cordially received into London society, even royalty taking an Interest in her.”

“It was while studying there, March 9, 1891, that she was proclaimed heir apparent to the throne by Queen Liliuokalani …” It was some time during 1893 she visited the United States. Later on she returned to England, where she was received with open arms.”

“She revisited the States in 1897, and then came home. Her father built her a beautiful residence in Waikiki, ‘Āinahau. Here she lived quietly and simply …”

“After annexation she dropped her title, becoming plain Miss Cleghorn. She was active in the work of the Hawaiian Relief Society, the Red Cross Society and all matters relating to charity. She rests in the company of the King of her race and lies entombed in their mausoleum.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 17, 1900)

Kaiulani died unexpectedly on March 6, 1899 at the young age of 23. It was said that her peacocks cried out with sadness the day she passed away. That same year, a new school was opened in Kalihi-Palama and was named Princess Victoria Ka’iulani Elementary School. (Princess Ka‘iulani School)

“The Princess Ka‘iulani School opened for its scholars this morning.” (The Independent, April 25, 1899)

“The Princess Kaiulani school in Palama opened yesterday morning with a full attendance. The preparatory work of organizing the classes and getting under way was accomplished. Today the regular school work will go on.”

“Principal Armstrong Smith has compiled the following statistics from the records of the first day’s total attendance of 297.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 26, 1899)

“The school aim is to prepare these children, not for colleges, but for life. They are taught to honor labor. As Miss Felker quoted:
‘The man who earns by honest labor. The daily food which nature needs. Is not beneath his lordly neighbor. Whom the golden spoon of fortune feeds.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 17, 1900)

Every year on or near October 16th, Ka‘iulani’s birthday, the school celebrates and honors Ka‘iulani in song and dance. The Royal Hawaiian Band joins them at their outdoor stage for this special event. (Princess Ka‘iulani School)

A cutting of Ka‘iulani’s banyan was taken from her home, ‘Āinahau, and given to the school when it opened in 1899.

“On Wednesday, October 13, 1930, the anniversary of the birthday of Princess Ka‘iulani, a bronze tablet, placed on the banyan tree at ‘Āinahau, Waikiki, was unveiled with appropriate ceremonies.” (The Friend, June 1, 1934)

Apparently, the tablet was later moved to the Ka‘iulani School and placed under the banyan tree there. It reads: “This tablet was placed by the Daughters of Hawai‘i in memory of Princess Ka’iulani 1875-1899.”

“‘The daughter of a double race, her islands here, in southern sun, shall mourn their Ka‘iulani gone. And I, in her dear banyan shade, look vainly for my little maid.’ Written to Ka‘iulani by Robert Louis Stevenson who often sat here with her.”

“Historic ʻĀinahau, at Waikiki, was totally destroyed by fire August 2d (1921,) together with most of its furniture and fittings, on which $15,000 insurance was carried.” (Thrum)

“Historic ʻĀinahau, home of the wide lanais and lofty palms, rendezvous of Honolulu society in the reign of King Kalākaua, and haunt of Robert Louis Stevenson in his Hawaiian days, is gone. “

“The age old coconut trees which surrounded the famous palace were torches of remembrance, flaming high into the tropic night long after ʻĀinahau had become only a ghost among its glowing embers, but today they are charred stumps around blackened ruins.”

“Cleghorn, who survived both Princess Miriam Likelike and their daughter, died only a few years ago. His wish was that the estate might be preserved to posterity as a public monument, but the government did not see fit to accept the gift, and the property was cut up into building lots.”

“The palace itself, after a brief career as a hotel, passed into the hands of WF Aldrich, the moving picture producer, who, with his wife, “Peggy” Aldrich, had a rather close call last night when the place burned.” (Gessler, The Step Ladder, October 1921)

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Princess Kaiulani School Sign-Kaiulani School

April 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Palmyra

“(T)ake possession in our name of Palmyra Island, the said Island being situated in longtitude 161° 53′ west and in latitude 6° 4′ north not having been taken possession of by any other government or any other people …”

“… by erecting thereon a short pole with the Hawaiian flag wrapped round it and interring at the foot thereof a bottle well corked containing a paper signed by (Zenas Bent) in the following form viz: …”

“… Visited and taken possession of by order of His Majesty King Kamehameha IV, for him and his successors on the Hawaiian throne by the undersigned in the Schooner Louisa this day of . . . . . . . . . . . . 186. . . . . . .” (Kamehameha IV and Kuhina Nui, March 1, 1862) (Bent did so on April 15, 1862.)

Lot Kamehameha, the Minister of the Interior, duly issued a proclamation on June 18, 1862 as follows: “Whereas, On the 15th day of April, 1862, Palmyra Island, in latitude 5° 50′ North, and longitude 161° 53′ West, was taken possession of, with the usual formalities …”

“… by Captain Zenas Bent, he being duly authorized to do so, in the name of Kamehameha IV, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Therefore, This is to give notice, that the said island, so taken possession of, is henceforth to be considered and respected as part of the Domain of the King of the Hawaiian Islands.” (Lot Kamehameha, Minister of Interior)

Later legal decisions note that ownership of Palmyra was held privately, initially in the name of Bent and Johnson B Wilkinson. Palmyra Atoll was a part of the Territory of Hawaii prior to Hawaii’s entering the Union on August 21, 1959. Congress expressly excluded Palmyra from the State of Hawaii by section 2 of the Hawaii Statehood Act. (DOI)

Palmyra Atoll is situated nine hundred sixty miles south by west of Honolulu and three hundred fifty-two miles north of the Equator. The atoll has an area of about one and one-half square miles with numerous islets in the shape of a horse shoe surrounding two lagoons.

The climate is wet and humid, as the dense vegetation evidences. Palmyra lies near the zone where the northeast and southeast trade winds meet. The contact between these bodies of air forces the warmer air to rise, to become cooled and to drop its moisture in the form of tropical rain.

“‘Don’t wait to get fresh milk from Honolulu. Use the cow of the Pacific.’ The coconut is known as the cow of the Pacific. Its milk is very nourishing. I said, ‘Get me two nuts and I’ll show you how to make both cream and milk.’” (Fullard-Leo)

Palmyra Atoll is the northernmost atoll in the Line Islands Archipelago halfway between Hawaii and American Samoa. The atoll received its name from the American vessel Palmyra under the command of Captain Sawle, who sought shelter there on November 7, 1802.

The Palmyra group is a coral covered atoll of about fifty islets, some with trees, and extends – reefs, intervening water and land – 5 2/3 sea miles in an easterly and westerly direction and 1 1/3 sea miles northwardly and southwardly. (US Supreme Court)

One prior owner, Judge Henry Cooper Sr made short visits to Palmyra in 1913 and 1914 for two to three weeks and built a house there in 1913. The judge’s house collapsed by 1938.

In 1920 and 1921 the Palmyra Copra Company was actively engaged on the island under a lease from Cooper. On August 19, 1922, the Leslie and Ellen Fullard-Leo bought all but two of the Palmyra islands.

As a militaristic Japan made inroads into China in the 1930s, concern heightened for the security of Wake, Midway, Johnston, and Palmyra Islands, the outposts protecting Hawaii, a vital staging area for a war in the Pacific.

In 1934, Palmyra Atoll was placed under the Department of the Navy. According to the November 3 issue of The Coast Defense Journal (courtesy of John Voss), “Rear Admiral Claude Bloch announced the establishment of Naval Air Station Palmyra Island on 8/15/41, officially opening the air station.”

“They used (the atoll) during the war as a base; constructed two hospitals there to bring the wounded from the west and southwest Pacific”. (Fullard-Leo)

On December 23, 1941, a little more than two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese submarine surfaced offshore at Palmyra Island, 1,000 miles south of Hawai‘i, and opened fire.

The enemy’s target that day: a new U.S. Naval Air Station that was still under construction. Specifically, enemy guns focused on the “Sacramento,” a US Corps of Engineers dredge anchored in the atoll’s central lagoon.

The Sacramento was hit, but only lightly, and when U.S. forces promptly returned fire, the Japanese vessel submerged, never to be seen again. That incident marked the only war-time attack on Palmyra. From then on, until the fighting ended in 1945, the atoll served as a strategic Pacific outpost for the U.S. military. (TNC)

Around the atoll’s periphery, pill boxes were built for defense while further inland a line of small coastal gun emplacements and command posts were installed. Roads, waterlines, warehouses, barracks, a mess hall, radio station, cold storage plant, ammunitions depot, hospital and other elements of a modern infrastructure were also constructed.

The primary mission of the Palmyra Naval Air Station was to serve as a troop transport and re-servicing and staging point for U.S. aircraft and small ships en-route to the south and southwest Pacific.

Palmyra’s growth in personnel, from 112 men on December 7, 1941, to the maximum of 2,410 men in August of 1943, and its subsequent reduction to 428 men in July of 1945, traces its importance in the early years of the war and its later decline. (TNC)

After several private transfers, title is now held by The Nature Conservancy. It is an incorporated Territory of the US. On January 18, 2001, the Secretary of the Interior signed Secretary’s Order No. 3224, which transferred all executive, legislative and judicial authority from the Office of Insular Affairs to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Palmyra is part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the Central Pacific Ocean that ranges from Wake Atoll in the northwest to Jarvis Island in the southeast. The seven atolls and islands included within the monument are farther from human population centers than any other US area. (Lots of information here is from TNC, DOI &US Supreme Court.)

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Coconut crab, Sand Island; Palmyra Atoll

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Meng Island, Palmyra Naval Air Station, 1942

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Marine quarters, Palmyra, 1942. The hut slept eight men-TNC

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April 12, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Samuel Rice

“Far, far back in the prosperous reign of Kamehameha I, a vessel visited these Islands. She had on board a blacksmith. Kamehameha was every inch a king. All these Islands were made for him; and so he thought was that foreign blacksmith.” (Lucy Thurston)

Kamehameha started to accumulate Western goods, including ships and weaponry. In 1790, he was joined by John Young and Isaac Davis, Europeans who knew how to use both.

A blacksmith would have been needed to keep these ships and weapons in working order. Samuel Rice was a blacksmith by trade. (Solomon)

“Power and skill so interlaced providences, that when the vessel sailed, the blacksmith was detained on shore. (He later) worked for his royal master, but with the full purpose of embracing the first opportunity to leave the Islands.” (Thurston)

Samuel Rice was born in about April 1787; his Hawaiian naturalization certificate notes he was a native of New Hampshire. He came to the Islands around 1811, probably aboard a fur trading ship. (Solomon)

Other note Rice was a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, and left a ship at Kealakekua, of which he was blacksmith, about the year 1815, and became the King’s ‘armourer.’ (Sheldon; Thrum, 1882)

“Kamehameha had never been introduced to the code of Christian morals. Another vessel came and went, and the pioneer blacksmith was still detained. The frightful idea of long and hopeless captivity now burst upon him. He drank more deeply …”

“Such was his sad state when the American Missionaries reached these Islands in 1820. Other foreigners came and took us by the hand. For four years he never approached us. His first call was one never to be forgotten.” (Lucy Thurston)

“If Mr Samuel Rice, of Kailua to be credited, Kamehameha did not forget John Young in his dying instructions to Kaʻahumanu. As Mr Rice was present on that occasion, and as few or any other of those who were, now survive, the statement made by him is to some historical importance, as a record of the olden time.” (The Polynesia, October 11, 1851)

Around 1820, Samuel married a Hawaiian woman known as Kahiwakalana. There are records with other variations of this name as well. They had a daughter named Hannah Kaʻakau Rice. That marriage was annulled; Rice married Kaʻanae of Lanihau on March 24, 1851. (Solomon)

“For about 18 years of his residence in these islands he was addicted to drinking to intoxication, and spent all he earned in this way. But about the year 1833 or 4 there was a marked change in his character in this respect, and he appeared a reformed man; and in the year 35 he was received as a member of the church at Kailua”. (Asa Thurston)

“The daughter had learned to fear, to obey, and to love her father. She then came under his guidance, the instruction and influence of the missionaries, as had never been thought of before. She married, became a faithful wife, a devoted mother, and a humble Christian.” (Lucy Thurston)

In the service of Kamehameha, and later Kuakini, Rice was given property in West Hawaii: Honuaʻino (an ahupuaʻa that runs through Kainaliu) and two house sites in Kailua; the first, Pa O ʻUmi Heiau (on Ololi Road between Kopiko Plaza and Kuakini Hwy.)

During Land Commission hearings regarding various land awards, John ʻIʻi stated, “I have seen this place which is on Hawaii named Honuainoiki (Honuaʻinoiki.) I had heard during the lifetime of Kamehameha that the place had been acquired by him (Rice) and in the year 1843.”

“I had seen the land and house-lot personally. … It is my belief that Kamehameha had given this land to him (Rice) because he (Rice) was Kamehameha’s blacksmith and no one has ever objected.”

“The House lot at Kailua Rice’s house-lot at Kailua is named ʻUmi. It has been enclosed and there are houses. The boundaries are shown in the map of the lot. I believe Kuakini had given him this interest in the year 1829 and since then to this day, no one has objected.” (ʻIʻi; Maly)

The other was Kolelua (in the Honuaʻula ahupuaʻa – in the vicinity of Kona Inn and Huliheʻe Palace;) “the first house built by a white settler”. (Daily Bulletin, April 8, 1886) “Claimant received from Kamehameha I in the year 1814…”

Hannah Rice married Charles Hall. “In the year 1843, Mr Rice came up from Oʻahu to make arrangements with Hall to enter into partnership in a coffee plantation.”

“Some four or five miles beyond Keauhou I reached Mr Hall’s place where he has an extensive coffee plantation. His thatched house, or rather houses, is pleasantly situated among beautiful shade trees – among them the Pride of India, kukui, etc.”

“He has many thousand coffee trees, and after five years’ labor is beginning to find it profitable. He estimates that coffee may be afforded at 5 cents per pound; the actual price this year is 16 cents, and in past years it has been 20 cents or more. “

“There is abundance of rain in this elevated region (some 2000 or 3000 feet above the sea and about 3 miles inland,) and the climate is moderate and bracing. He has a native wife and a family of several children. His wife is a daughter of Mr. Rice of Kailua…” (Lyman; Maly)

“He has been a member of the Church for about 18 years, during which period, and except the faults above mentioned, after each of which he professed repentance, he has exhibited himself as on the Lord’s side.”

“He was a regular attendant on the means of Grace, and his seat in the house of God was never vacant except from ill health, absence from home, or some press of business which could not well be deferred.”

“He read the Bible much till his eyesight failed, and since he frequently requested his wife to read to him some chapter or portion of the word of God; and a short time since lie was seen to take the blessed book and pressing it to his lips, with streaming eyes, expressed his tears that he should no more be able to peruse its sacred pages.”

“He died on the morning of the 24th (of July, 1853,) rather suddenly, with the cholic or cramp, of which he had many previous attacks in years past.” (Asa Thurston)

“Honor be to the memory of the humble old patriarch. I knew him well. He had my most profound sympathy in his deep degradation, in his mighty conflicts, and in his great conquests.” (Lucy Thurston)

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