Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Fred Harvey Company

The rapid growth of railroads after the Civil War was both a response to an existing need and an attempt to meet the challenge of future development. The frontier was pushing across the Kansas plains. (Snell)

Cyrus K Holliday took concrete steps toward the building of a railroad to the west as early as 1859; he has been credited with inaugurating the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (Santa Fe) railroad system.

“The said company is hereby authorized and empowered to survey, locate, construct, complete, alter, maintain and operate a railroad, with one or more tracks, from or near Atchison, on the Missouri River, in Kansas Territory, to the town of Topeka, in Kansas Territory, and to such a point on the southern or western boundary of said Territory, in the direction of Santa Fe, in the Territory of New Mexico”. (AT&SF Charter; Snell)

After getting to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the rail reached Needles, California in 1883 and would later reach all the way to Los Angeles in 1885 with a connection to San Francisco by 1900.

Frederick Henry Harvey was born on June 27, 1835 to Charles and Helen Manning Harvey, he lived in Liverpool, England with his family until they immigrated to the United States in 1850.

He first worked as a dishwasher with Smith and McNeill Café in New York for just $2 per day. He moved to New Orleans; then in 1853, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Six years later, he and a partner opened a restaurant in St. Louis (just before the Civil War broke out.)

The Civil War was bad for the restaurant industry, but good for the rail industry. Mr Harvey’s business partner left to join the Confederacy and the restaurant closed.

Harvey went to work for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (commonly called the ‘Burlington.’) On January 14, 1860 he married Barbara Sarah Mattas; they had 7 children, 5 of which survived to adulthood.

During this time, Harvey noticed that the lunchrooms serving rail passengers were deplorable and most trains did not have dining cars, even on extended trips. The custom at the time was typically to make dining stops every 100-miles or so.

The dining stops were short, no longer than an hour, and the passengers were expected to find a restaurant, order their meal, get served and eat. When the train was ready to go, it left, often leaving passengers stranded at the station.

Harvey tried unsuccessfully to interest the Burlington in a co-operative arrangement to provide good food for travelers. But the Santa Fe was interested and early in 1876 he acquired the lunchroom at the Topeka depot. Service and food were dramatically improved, and both Harvey and the Santa Fe desired to see his operations expanded.

Before long, the first Harvey House Restaurant opened in the Topeka, Kansas Santa Fe Depot Station in 1876. Leasing the lunch counter at the depot, Harvey’s business focused on cleanliness, service, reasonable prices and good food. It was an immediate success.

The Harvey Houses became the first chain restaurants, with the Topeka depot becoming the training base for the new chain along the Santa Fe Route. Soon Harvey lunchrooms extended from Kansas to California.

By the late-1880s, there was a Harvey establishment every one hundred miles along the Santa Fe line. Setting high standards for efficiency and cleanliness, the food was always served on china and customers were required to wear coats.

Harvey found that the men he hired to work in his restaurants weren’t working out; he began hiring women at a time when the only jobs for respectable females were as domestics or teachers. Harvey began to recruit them in newspaper ads across the country.

In order to qualify as one of the ‘Harvey Girls,’ the women had to have at least an eighth grade education, good moral character, good manners, and be neat and articulate. Harvey paid good wages, as much as $17.50 per month with free room, board and uniforms.

In return for employment, the Harvey Girls would agree to a six month contract, agree not to marry and abide by all company rules during the term of employment. In no time, these became much sought after jobs.

The famous ‘Harvey Girls,’ carefully trained, well-groomed young women who were hired as waitresses, further increased customer traffic. Before long, Harvey was operating restaurants, hotels, gift shops and newsstands in increasing numbers along the railroad route.

Fred Harvey’s rest houses became gathering places for visitors searching for mementos of Indian land and the Native residents of some of the West’s most striking cultural and geographic terrain.

In the 1890s, the Santa Fe Railway began including dining cars on some of its trains; Harvey got the contract to serve food on those, as well. About this same time, George Pullman began building (and staffing) his own sleeping cars.

After World War I, rising affluence, more automobiles and more leisure time hurt the Harvey Company. While keeping many Harvey Houses, they moved away from full reliance on train passengers. They packaged motor trips of the southwest, including tours of Native American villages (Indian Detours) and natural wonders(such as the Grand Canyon

At its peak, there were 84 Harvey Houses. They continued to be built and operated into the 1930s and 1940s (in 1946, its 7,000 employees served 33,000,000 meals a year to travelers.)

So, what’s the Hawai‘i connection? … In 1968, Amfac (one of Hawai‘i’s ‘Big Five’ companies) bought the Fred Harvey Company.

Amfac had its beginning in the Islands when, on September 26, 1849, German sea captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld arrived in Honolulu and opened a general merchandise business (dry goods, crockery, hardware and stationery,) wholesale, as well as retail store.

Hackfeld later became a prominent ‘factor’ – business agent and shipper – for the sugar plantations. However, with the advent of the US involvement in World War I, things changed. In 1918, the US government seized H Hackfeld & Company and ordered the sale of German-owned shares. (Jung)

The patriotic sounding ‘American Factors, Ltd,’ the newly-formed Hawaiʻi-based corporation (whose largest shareholders included Alexander & Baldwin, C Brewer & Company, Castle & Cooke, HP Baldwin Ltd, Matson Navigation Company and Welch & Company,) bought the H Hackfeld stock. (Jung) At that same time, the BF Ehlers dry goods store took the patriotic ‘Liberty House’ name.

American Factors shortened its name to “Amfac” in 1966. The next year (1967,) Henry Alexander Walker became president and later Board Chairman of Amfac.

Amfac first got into resort management in 1962 when it developed some of its land at Kāʻanapali Beach Resort, Hawaiʻi’s first master-planned resort. Twenty-five years after it started, the Urban Land Institute recognized Kāʻanapali Beach Resort with an Award of Excellence for Large-Scale Recreational Development.

Amfac expanded its resort experience in the Islands in 1969 when it acquired Island Holidays Hotel Co and its chain of ‘Palms’ resorts (including Kona Palms, Maui Palms and Coco Palms) started by ‘Gus’ and Grace Guslander.

Walker took Amfac from a company that largely depended on sugar production in Hawaiʻi to a broadly diversified conglomerate (which included the acquisition of the Fred Harvey Company in 1968.)

Later (2002,) the resort management company became known as Xanterra Parks and Resorts. (Lots of information here is from Harvey Houses, Armstrong, Legends of America and Xanterra.)

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Kaluaikonahale

He was born about 1789 with the name Kaluaikonahale, the son of Keʻeaumoku and his wife Nāmāhana. He was the youngest of four famous siblings.

His sisters were Queen Kaʻahumanu, Kamehameha’s favorite wife who later became the powerful Queen Regent and Kuhina nui, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and Namahana-o-Piʻia (also queens of Kamehameha) and brother George Cox Kahekili Keʻeaumoku.

His father, Keʻeaumoku, was a “tried friend of Kamehameha and one of the principal promoters of his fortunes. Being of prodigious personal strength, his valor powerfully assisted Kamehameha in securing the entire dominion of the group.” (Polynesian, January 4, 1845)

Kaluaikonahale was born on Maui, but as an infant he was taken to Keauhou to grow up; he excelled in canoeing and other sports. In his youth, he once jumped a stone wall and injured his foot; he almost died from the injury, but recovered and remained lame for the rest of his life. (Oaks)

He married Analeʻa (Ane or Annie) Keohokālole; they had no children. (She later married Caesar Kapaʻakea. That union produced several children (including the future King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani.))

He later married Lydia Haʻaheo Kaniu. They had one son Keōua, who died in infancy, and one daughter Kamanele (1814–1834.)

With the introduction of Christianity and adoption of western names, he changed his name and chose the name John Adams after John Quincy Adams (the US President at the time.)

From then, he was called John Adams Kuakini.

His physical appearance was formidable; standing 6-feet, 3-inches “and even heavier than this gigantic stature would indicate.” Ellis noted he was “tall, stout, well made and remarkably handsome.” (Oaks)

His wife “was like himself, a royal chief of highest rank, and not quite equally ponderous. I remember seeing the princely pair lolling on their own pile of rich Niʻihau mats, with many attendants busily kneading their bodies and limbs (lomi-lomi). Ages of nourishing diet and massage for digestion had bred a royal Hawaiian race of immense stature and girth.” (Bishop)

Kuakini was an important adviser to Kamehameha I in the early stages of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. His “first office of importance under Kamehameha I was that of captain of the ordnance at Oʻahu. Upon the King’s last return to Hawaiʻi in 1813, he was raised to the rank of counselor.”

“Immediately after the death of the King, Kaʻahumanu made him Governor of Hawaii; his original charge was limited to the district of Kona. In 1830, she further appointed him to the governorship of Oahu, which office he retained until December, 1831, when he returned to Hawaiʻi.”

“(Kuakini’s) administrations were vigorous and effective. Energetic in action, but reserved in manners, he assumed to himself much responsibility. It was difficult to secure his confidence in matters of council, as he relied much upon his own judgment.”

“While in Hawaiʻi, being remote from the seat of government and the influence of other chiefs mostly assembled around the King, he acted in a great measure independently of them, and sometimes contrary to their opinions.”

“His acquaintance with the English language, and his thirst for knowledge, gave him a superiority in general intelligence, over most of the chiefs of his rank; and afforded him a better insight into the nature of things than others attained.”

“He was more enterprising in deed than other native rulers, and many of the objects which claimed his attention, such for instance as the building of churches and the making of roads, were intended for the public benefit”.

“(Y)et in most of his enterprises, his aim was to accumulate property. But he was correct in his business transactions and a man of his word.” (Polynesian, January 4, 1845)

“By sea and by land we have enjoyed the protection of God, and the countenance and patronage of the king and chiefs. Especially would we notice the kindness of Kuakini, the Governor of Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi,) who received us with great hospitality, and freely lent his influence and authority to aid us in the attainment of our immediate objects”.

“… with a view to the permanent establishment of a missionary station there, (Kuakini) has promptly commenced the erection of a chapel at Kairua for the worship of Jehovah, whose rightful and supreme authority he has publicly acknowledged.” (Ellis)

Kuakini gave land to missionary Asa Thurston to build Mokuʻaikaua Church. “This was erected by Governor Kuakini about 1828. It was a wholly native structure, framed with immense timbers cut and dragged from the great interior forest by Kuakini superintending his subjects in person.” (Bishop)

“(I)n 1835, the great church was burned by some incendiary, and the services were then conducted in a large canoe-shed of the Governor, which was vacated for the purpose.”

“The energetic Kuakini immediately set about building the great stone church now standing on the site of the old one. … the corners were built up with large square blocks of pāhoehoe lava, which were transported by the people from some heiau at a distance. They were smoothly hewn, evidently with great labor. (Bishop)

During his tenure, Kuakini built other historical sites that dominate Kailua-Kona today. The Great Wall of Kuakini, probably a major enhancement of an earlier wall, was one of these.

The Great Wall of Kuakini extends in a north-south direction for approximately 6 miles from Kailua to near Keauhou, and is generally 4 to 6-feet high and 4-feet wide.

He built Huliheʻe Palace in the American style out of native lava, coral lime mortar, koa and ‘ʻōhiʻa timbers. Completed in 1838, he used the palace to entertain visiting Americans and Europeans with great feasts.

The Palace was constructed by foreign seamen using lava rock, coral, koa and ʻōhiʻa timbers. Kuakini oversaw the construction of both Mokuʻaikaua Church and Huliheʻe Palace and these landmarks once shared a similar architectural style with exposed stone.

Kuakini died December 9, 1844 in Kailua-Kona; the Palace passed to his adopted son, William Pitt Leleiōhoku. Leleiōhoku died a few months later, leaving Huliheʻe to his wife, Princess Ruth Luka Keʻelikōlani. It became a favorite retreat for members of the Hawaiian royal family.

A highway is named “Kuakini Highway,” which runs from the Hawaii Belt Road through the town of Kailua-Kona, to the Old Kona Airport Recreation Area. He is also the namesake of Kuakini Street in Honolulu, which is in turn the namesake of the Kuakini Medical Center on it.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Central Fire Station

No organized fire protection system existed in Honolulu until November 6, 1850, when the city’s first volunteer fire brigade was formed.

On December 27, 1850, King Kamehameha III established by ordinance in the Privy Council creating the Honolulu Volunteer Fire Department; the 1851 legislature enacted the ordinance into law.

In August 1851, a second-hand fire engine was purchased through public subscription and became the property of Engine Company No. 1.

Within ten years, the city had four engine companies, including No. 4, which was composed exclusively of Hawaiians. Kings Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and Kalakaua were all active members of this company. (NPS)

In 1870, the tallest structure in Honolulu was the bell tower of Central Fire Station, then-located on Union Street. Spotters would sit in the tower, ready to sound the alarm. (HawaiiHistory)

In 1897, Central Fire Station was relocated to its present site at Beretania and Fort Streets, a consolidation of Engine Companies 1 and 2.

“The city of Honolulu is protected from fire by a very efficient department. The central fire station is not only an ornament to the city, but contains all the necessary conveniences for its intended purpose.”

The 2½-story blue stone Central Fire Station was one of three stations at the time; the others were the 2-story wooden Makiki Station and the 2-story brick Palama Station.

There were 200 3-way standing and 50-ground hydrants distributed throughout the City. Plans were underway for a fire alarm telegraph system with 65-alarm boxes. (Report of the Governor of the Territory of Hawaii; to the Secretary of the Interior, 1901)

The Central Fire Station soon became outmoded. The Romanesque Revival rock structure was replaced in 1934 by a Dickey designed Moderne/Art Deco two-story reinforced concrete building (Kohn M Young was the engineer.) It previously served as headquarters for the Honolulu Fire Department.

The building is five bays wide and dominated by the three middle bays with their one-and-one-half story Art Deco aluminum doorways which were constructed by the California Artistic Metal and Wire Company of San Francisco.

Above the doors are aluminum panels with linear designs with an octagon in the middle containing the letter HFD. Above each panel is a set of four windows.

The end bays each contain a first story window and a set of three second story windows. All second story windows are jalousies, and the first floor windows are tinted plate glass.

A decorative belt course bands the top of this flat roofed building. This banding employs the octagonal HFD motif of the door panels. An abbreviated tower of approximately thirty feet rises from the roof at the rear of the right bay. This tower has a pair of long rectangular louvers running its height.

In 1949, a one-story hollow tile addition was erected at the rear to provide additional office space. The Ewa (northwest) side of the building features a balcony with geometric deco decoration. Behind the balcony is a set of three windows with rectangular pillars between them. (NPS)

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Tree-named Hotels

Edward Payson Irwin was born in DeWitt, Iowa, May 7, 1875; he graduated from the University of Kansas in 1897.  After enlisting and serving in the US Army during the Spanish-American War, he came to Hawai‘i in 1906 to be a reporter for the Bulletin. (HSA)

“Irwin was an accomplished newsman who acted as a gadfly over many years against the establishment and its press and against the fiscal ‘extravagance’ of the government. Progressive in politics and social issues.” (Guide to newspapers of Hawaiʻi, 1834-2000, Chapin)

Irwin served as City Editor and later Editor for the Advertiser. He later founded and was editor for the Weekly Times (also called the Honolulu Times). (Hawai‘i Sate Archives) He worked at other publications.

Irwin developed an interest in Waikīkī.  Historically, Waikīkī encompassed fishponds, taro lo‘i, coconut groves and a reef-protected beach that accommodated Hawaiian canoes.

Waikīkī shifted from agricultural to residential uses, with private residences for the Hawaiian royalty and the well-to-do.  Near the turn of the 20th century, some of these homes were converted into small hotels and eventually into world-class resorts.

Robert Lewers (whose firm Lewers & Cooke supplied much of the lumber for O‘ahu homes) built a two-story wooden frame bungalow with an open veranda overlooking a coconut grove in 1883. 

In 1907, Irwin leased the Lewers’ house and converted the structure into a small hotel called the Hau Tree, in honor of the many trees that shaded the beachside lawn. (Halekulani)

Irwin had another tree-named hotel; this time in central O‘ahu.

“Wahiawa is 25 miles from town by rail. It is the original pineapple district founded by a colony of American agriculturists in 1899. It is a small village surrounded by pineapple fields, and being of an elevation of 1000 feet offers to pleasure-seekers and those seeking the cool atmosphere, recreation and rest.” (Aloha Guide, 1915)

It “also (has) several stores, markets, shops, laundry, etc., and two pineapple canneries. Now that the mails come twice a day by rail instead of twice a week by stage from Pearl City, as was the case formerly, a number of Honolulu people have built country houses.”  (Paradise of the Pacific, Oct/Nov 1905)

Mr and Mrs Henry C Brown converted their Wahiawa home into the “Malukukui, their home-hotel among the pineapples at Wahiawa.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, September 29, 1909)

“(I)ll health sent them to seek a quiet country life. They settled in Wahiawa, the largest pineapple country in the world, where they bought several acres of ground and built their home, evolving from it a small country inn in which they are now able to accommodate some fifty guests.”

“Every room has a fine view either over the restful pineapple fields or down the deep ravine on the edge of which the house is built. In the distance can be seen magnificent mountain ranges and glimpses of the Pacific ten miles distant.”  (The Craftsman, 1909)

Then, in 1911, Trent Trust Co placed advertisements offering the Malukukui and its 10-acres of land for sale or lease. This was followed by, “The lease giving EP Irwin the control of the Wahiawa country resort formerly the Malukukui Hotel was signed yesterday by the trustees of the Atherton estate and the new proprietor took possession at once.”

“Numerous expensive additions and repairs about the place have been already planned and will be immediately executed increasing the capacity of the hotel and making it cosier and nearer the standards of the comfort in city hostelries.”

“An automobile will meet the trains at Wahiawa from the hotel and in its off moments act as a link between the Hau tree Irwins Waikiki Hotel and his new Wahiawa enterprise.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 7, 1911)

“The Kukui Tree, formerly known as Malukukui, at Wahiawa, is now open and ready to receive guests. Extensive Improvement are under way and will soon be completed. No place in Hawaii is as suitable to spend a week end at as the Kukui Tree.”

“Run up today or tomorrow and stay over Sunday and see if this is not true. If you try it once, The Kukui Tree will become a habit with you. The table is excellent, as are the accommodations. Inquiries may be made of EP Irwin, at the Hau Tree, phone 1389.” (Hawaiian Star, March 24, 1911)

“The necessity for a place such as Mr Irwin has reopened exists and he deserves all the patronage his enterprise should bring him. As managers of the Hau Tree at Waikiki, Mr and Mrs Irwin have demonstrated the fact that they know how. (Hawaiian Gazette, March 24, 1911)

However, “The Kukui Tree would pay big in the hands of anyone who could get a liquor license, or who would run a blind pig. … EP Irwin has decided to close the Kukui Tree, at Wahiawa. …”

“The place has not been paying. Mr. Irwin will devote all his attention now to his Waikiki place, the well known Hau Tree.”  (Hawaiian Star, July 17, 1911) 

However, Irwin’s Waikīkī enterprise also faltered, his lease expired, and the landowners ran an ad for new tenants. (Halekulani)

 “Despite its location and modest rent, the business they took over was little better than a boarding house. There were three guests the day they moved into their 40-guest capacity hotel.” (From “Hali‘a Aloha o Halekulani”; Halekulani)

Nearby, the J Atherton Gilman family bought 3-acres and built a two-story house from a man named Hall.  La Vancha Maria Chapin Gray rented the Gilman house in 1912 and converted it into a boarding house and named it Gray’s-by-the-Beach.  The sandy area fronting it was soon referred to as Gray’s Beach.

In 1917, Clifford and Juliet Kimball acquired the Hau Tree Inn near Gray’s Beach and, in the late 1920s, they decided to expand and bought the Gilman property, including Gray’s-by-the-Sea and an adjacent parcel belonging to Arthur Brown.

When their expansion project was completed, the Kimballs had acquired over five acres of prime Waikīkī beachfront for their resort, which they named Halekūlani, or “house befitting heaven.” 

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Pahukanilua

Kamehameha I granted an ahupua’a called Kawaihae Hikina (also referred to as Kawaihae 2) to John Young for his invaluable service. The John Young Homestead was part of the ‘ili‘aina (or estate) known at one time as Pahukanilua.

Young was given the Hawaiian name of “Olohana,” which was the “Hawaiian language imitation of his boatswain’s call ‘All Hands’ during the battles of conquest.”

Young is credited with introducing cattle and goats to the island because of his relationship with Captain Vancouver, and he supported the introduction of Christianity to Hawaii and the establishment of missions.

He operated the kingdom’s warehouse at Kawaihae, where meats and hides were stored, and oversaw the sandalwood trade. Young’s influence is so great that he “seems to have been present and involved in every event of lasting importance in Hawaii from 1790 through 1820.” (Durst)

The John Young Homestead served as Young’s principal residence from 1798 until his death in 1835, at which time it appears to have been essentially abandoned. In 1929, AP Taylor, librarian with the archives of Hawaii, began advocating for the restoration and preservation of the site because of Young’s significant role in Hawaiian history.

Young’s property was actually divided into the lower homestead, near Kawaihae Bay and now underwater, and the upper homestead, which is now part of Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site.

The site was organized in a typical Hawaiian manner as a cluster of eight residential structures serving various functions.  Five of these structures as “Hawaiian-style,” meaning they were built using traditional Hawaiian construction techniques like dry-set masonry, and three as “Western-style,” meaning mortar and coral lime plaster were utilized.

The distinguishing feature between Hawaiian and Western construction techniques at this site was not the absence or presence of plaster but whether or not the stones were set in mortar. Thus, the John Young Homestead represents a transitional period in construction methods on the Hawaiian islands.

“… coral blocks brought by canoe from reef at Puako. Coral blocks were burnt. Mortar and plaster were made from sand, burnt coral and mixed with poi and hair.”  “I finish plastering all houses and have whitewashed the fences around the animal pens. It is as in Wales.”  (Young Diary 1798-1799) (abstracted from Young Diary 1798-1799; Apple)

Young wrote in his diary in 1798 about the establishment of his homestead and indicated the closeness of his relationship with Kamehameha I:

“Have begun four buildings. My house, the cook house, and storage room, the house for the child and tahus [guardians] and near the small temple [perhaps referring to Mailekini Heiau] a house for storage.”

“My house at the small rise below the great temple [referring to Pu‘ukohola Heiau] more suitable than the ravine which washes away with Whymea floods [perhaps referring to the Makeahua gulch]. The great one [Kamehameha I] comes to use my cook house several times. I make biskits and cook a lamb. Have all enjoyed feast.”

The John Young Homestead is described in many contemporary travel accounts … “The house of this interesting old man, was located at the top of a small hill which overlooks the village of Kawaihae, built of stone, well ventilated and sanitary.”  (Freycinet, 1829)

“The north point of Owhyee consists of low land, which rises in a strait line under an acute angle, into the region of the clouds.  As soon as you reach these parts, the monsoon has no longer any effect, and you may expect sea and land winds frequently interrupted by total calms, and light breezes from every point of the compass; this was our case near Tocahai [Kawaihae] Bay, where the wind entirely died away.”

“We now saw Young’s settlement of several houses built of white stone, after the European fashion, surrounded by palm and banana trees; the land has a barren appearance, and is said to be little adapted to agriculture, as it consists, for the most part, of masses of lava.” (Kotzebue 1821)

“From out at sea, we could see the European built houses of John Young towering above the grass shacks of the natives.  The whole beach is encircled by settlements of the people but wholly without any shade.”

“Only towards the south, along the coast, are cocoanut trees found scattered amongst the houses. The woods that occupy a higher zone on the mountain are not found in the valleys. Columns of smoke were to be seen in different parts of the island.”  (Chamisso 1939)

At Kawaihae, “we were entertained by old John Young, an English runaway sail or, who had been many years on the islands, and had assisted Kamehameha in bis conquests. He had married a native woman of rank, has a fine family of sons and daughters, and is considered a chief.”

“He lived in a dirty adobe house adorned with old rusty muskets, swords, bayonets, and cartridge boxes. He gave us a supper of goat’s meat and fried taro, served on old pewter plates, which I was unfortunate to see his servant wipe on his red flannel shirt in lieu of a napkin.”

“We were sent up a rickety flight of stairs to sleep. I was afraid, and requested Dr Judd to look around the room carefully for concealed dangers, and he was heartless enough to laugh at me.”

“Sleep was out of the question; I was afraid of the wind, which sometimes sweeps down the gorge of the mountain, and got up at midnight, and went down to the grass house of Mrs. Young, which was neat and comfortable.” (Laura Fish Judd, Honolulu: Sketches)

“Mr. Young, taking a female of rank for a wife, was himself promoted to the rank of a chief, partly in consequence of the services he had rendered in the wars of conquest, his strong attachment to the king, and his ability and readiness to serve him. He officiated for a time, as governor of Hawaii.”

“Though at first detained there against his will, he at length preferred to stay rather than to return to England. He had two sons and three daughters, who at length came under the instruction of the missionaries.” (Bingham) Young would spend the rest of his life in Hawai‘i; he died in Honolulu on December 17, 1835.

John Young and his granddaughter Queen Emma are buried at Mauna ‘Ala (the Royal Mausoleum on O‘ahu,) the final resting place of the high chiefs and royalty of the Kamehameha and Kalākaua dynasties.

In John Young’s last will and testament of 1834, bequeathed lands were divided between John Young and Isaac Davis’ children and John Young’s surviving wife Ka‘oana‘eha (Mary Kuamo‘o). Legal separation of the upper and lower portions of the John Young Homestead occurred under the Mahele and Land Commission Awards.

In 1848, Ka‘oana‘eha and Isoba Puna (konohiki) applied for ownership of the lower portion of the John Young Homestead. In 1851, LCA 4522 was awarded to Ka‘oana‘eha and Puna thereby creating the formal separation of the upper and lower portions of the Homestead. (Durst) (Lots of information here is from Apple, Durst, NPS, HABS, Judd, and Bingham)

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