Economy | Page 137 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 22, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu City Lights

The first discoveries of electricity were made back in ancient Greece. Greek philosophers discovered that when amber is rubbed against cloth, lightweight objects will stick to it. This is the basis of static electricity.

The credit for generating electric current on a practical scale goes to the English scientist, Michael Faraday. In 1831, Faraday found the solution that electricity could be produced through magnetism by motion.

Using electricity as a power source, in the period from 1878 to 1880, Thomas Edison and his associates worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp. Incandescent lamps make light by using electricity to heat a thin strip of material (called a filament) until it gets hot enough to glow.

Finally, Edison decided to try a carbonized cotton thread filament. When voltage was applied to the completed bulb, it began to radiate a soft orange glow. Just about fifteen hours later, the filament finally burned out; Patent number 223,898 was given to Edison’s electric lamp.

In 1881, the Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) was held in Paris; it was the first International Exposition of Electricity. The major events associated with the Fair included Thomas Edison’s electric lights, electrical distribution and Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone.

Shortly thereafter, the Brush Electric Light Company established New York City’s first electric company. A small generator powered street lights on lower Broadway.

In an era of gas lamps, King Kalākaua recognized the potential of “electricity,” and helped pioneer its introduction in the Hawaiian kingdom. The King arranged to meet the inventor of the incandescent lamp, Thomas Edison, in New York in 1881, during the course of a world tour.

During the King’s visit to NYC, the New-York Tribune (September 25, 1881) wrote an article about the King: “One of the sights that pleased him most was the Paris Electrical Exhibition. We spent some time there.”

“Kalakaua is going to introduce the electric light in his own kingdom; and he examined the different lamps on that account with the greatest interest. The life in Paris entertained him very much; they turned night into day there.”

“The visit, indeed, was not altogether one of curiosity, nor was the Edison light wholly unfamiliar to his Majesty, who had already observed it in operation in Paris.”

“It has for several years been one of the dreams of his Majesty, in the development of the civilization toward which his people are rapidly struggling to introduce the electric light in Honolulu and light the city with it, in preference to gas.”

“He has, however, patiently awaited the perfection of some one of the many systems before the public and will probably on his return reduce the purpose to practice.” (New York Times, September 26, 1881)

“He seemed particularly interested in the statement that after steam-power had been transformed into electricity and carried to a great distance in that form it could again be converted into motive power by means of an electrical motor …”

“… and sold to customers for the purpose of running elevators or operating hoist-ways. His eyes lighted when he was told that one of the most profitable departments of the business of the company would be the sale of power to manufactories and business firms …”

“… in quantities as small as a single horse power, costing, under circumstances of ordinary use, not more than 8 cents a day.” (New York Times, September 26, 1881)

Five years after Kalākaua and Edison met, Charles Otto Berger, a Honolulu-based insurance executive with mainland connections, organized a demonstration of “electric light” at the king’s residence, ʻIolani Palace, on the night of July 26, 1886.

To commemorate the occasion, a tea party was organized by Her Royal Highness the Princess Liliʻuokalani and Her Royal Highness the Princess Likelike. The Royal Hawaiian Military Band played music and military companies marched in the palace square. An immense crowd gathered to see and enjoy the brightly lit palace that night.

Shortly after this event, David Bowers Smith, a North Carolinian businessman living in Hawaiʻi, persuaded Kalākaua to install an electrical system on the palace grounds. The plant consisted of a small steam engine and a dynamo for incandescent lamps. On November 16, 1886 – Kalākaua’s birthday – ʻIolani Palace became the world’s first royal residence to be lit by electricity.

With the palace lit, the government began exploring ways to establish its own power plant to light the streets of Honolulu. A decision was made to use the energy of flowing water to drive the turbines of a power plant built in Nu‘uanu Valley.

Accordingly, “a head of from 300 to 330 feet could be obtained at the elevation known as Queen Emma lot in Nu‘uanu Valley (Hānaiakamālama,) this giving about 130 horse power.”

The new dynamo station was located instead “opposite the Wood estate, it having been found that the Queen Emma lot could not be secured.” The contract was awarded to Peter High, ground was broken November 23, 1887 and the government accepted the building on January 21, 1888.

Water was taken in a pipeline running past Kaniakapūpū, then fed a hydroelectric plant in an area known as “Reservoir #1,” near Oʻahu County Club. Power lines were strung on the existing Mutual Telephone Co. poles in the area, down to downtown Honolulu.

On Friday, March 23, 1888, Princess Kaʻiulani, the king’s niece, threw the switch that illuminated the town’s streets for the first time – the first of Honolulu City Lights.

The Minister of the Interior report to the Legislative Assembly in the 1888 noted, “We have at present one twelve-light machine, carrying twelve lights with five miles of wire, and using nine horse power; also one fifty-light machine, carrying forty-six lamps on fifteen miles of wire, using forty-two horse power, making a total of fifty-eight lights now in use in the city.”

A year later, the first of a handful of residences and business had electricity. By 1890, this luxury had been extended to 797 of Honolulu’s homes.

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Nuuanu_Homes-Monsarrat-(portion)-1920-(noting_Government_Electric_Works)
Iolani Palace, circa 1889
Queen_Kapiolani_on_the_Iolani_Palace_grounds with Antoinette Swan-(PP-97-14-016)
Iolani_Palace-early 1880s
Kalakaua

August 19, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Gifts for the Young King

French sea captain Auguste Dehaut-Cilly made round-the world travels between 1826 and 1829; all of the following is from his account of the Islands following his trip from California to Hawai‘i, in 1828.

“The crossing was uneventful; on the seventeenth day we came in sight of the island of Oahu and we then sailed along the southeast shore past Koko Head. All this coast appears quite arid at first, but on coming closer one soon perceives greenery and human habitations.”

“This point projects prominently to the southeast coast turning sharply to the west, forms a shallow bay two Ieagues around and terminated by Diamond Head.”

“This low mountain is all the more remarkable in that it stands Isolated alongside the sea, rising out of a low terrain a league from the first high ground of the interior.”

“Its shape, quite round and truncated horizontally, is that of a volcanic crater; it doubtless owes its origin to one of those fire-belching eruptions. At the summit there is a small lake of fresh water filled with excellent fish.”

“West of Koko Head the island takes on a more pleasant aspect; the mountains, cut by deep valleys, are covered with forests of densely growing trees.”

“As soon as we had passed the Diamond we found ourselves opposite a magnificent grove of coconut palms whose broad leaves cast shade on the pretty village of Witite or rather Waitite., where ships used ordinarily to moor before the establishment of port of Anaroura (Honolulu), one league farther west.”

“At a distance of one mile and in a depth of eight or nine fathoms we coasted along the line of reefs that borders the shore and came to cast anchor at eleven fathoms in front of the harbor, where we could see a number of ships.”

“Seldom can one enter the harbor of Honolulu in the middle of the day. The narrow channel leading in is a tortuous opening in the reef, two miles long. If there is not a favorable wind, which there rarely is, on must await the calm of early morning and let the ship be towed in by small boats.”

“This difficulty has created in Honolulu a tradition dear to the fraternal alliance of all seamen among ourselves. On the day a ship is to enter the port, boats from all the other ships arrive before sunrise ready to perform this service.”

“A captain who refuses this touching ceremony would cover himself with shame in the eyes of all others.”

“The harbor of Honolulu Itself is a twisting channel where twenty-five ships can be moored in safety over a mud bottom from three to six fathoms.”

“When the ship was settled in its mooring berth we shot off a salute of thirteen guns, which was returned immediately from the fort in the same number.”

“I then called on the young king Kauikeaouli or Kamehameha III. He was at the house of the regent Boki, seated with no special marks of honor in an armchair similar to the one offered me.”

“He was dressed quite simply in white with a yellow neck-piece of pandanus seeds. Even this was not, as I thought at first, a sign of distinction since many other people, both men and women, wore similar ones.”

“This young prince, then seventeen years old, wore a melancholy air. His features were interesting, his face bearing several marks left by the smallpox, and his color was a dark chestnut brown.”

“He spoke little and looked at me closely for a long time. I had on board portraits of the king, his brother, and of the queen, who had both died in London in 1824, and I offered them to him through the interpreter.”

“He accepted with little show of feeling at first; it was only several days later, when they had been delivered to him, that he was struck by the perfect resemblance and fine execution.”

“For several days these two pictures excited great emotion among all his people; by shedding real tears they demonstrated the great attachment that they felt for their sovereigns.”

“Almost all the women had broken off the two incisors of the upper jaw, a sign of mourning in these islands for the death of the monarch.”

“The house where I found the young king was, as I have said, that of the regent Boki. In exterior appearance it is quite the same as all other houses in the town of Honolulu.”

“The Interior, carpeted with mats like the others, differed only in its European furniture, standing in every corner and mixed with the native furniture.”

“Nothing could have been more strange than to see a magnificent porcelain vase of French manufacture paired with a calabash, a work of nature…”

“… two splendid twin beds with curtains of embroidered stuff and of eiderdown; two hanging mirrors with glided frames meant to display beauties in their most elegant toilette but reflecting instead dark skin half covered with dirty tapa cloth.”

“However that may be, this dwelling would have been clean and decent if it had not been crowded with officials and servants stretched out on the mats and so close to each other that you could scarcely take a step without putting a foot on someone.”

“There was barely free space for four or five people. Since the king was no more than a child, the regent Boki was the most considerable person in the realm; he was always surrounded by the principal chiefs of the archipelago, some of whom lived at his expense.”

“One might think, to observe them, that positions of authority derive directly from size; the highest in rank are also the fattest, and as they are generally tall, we appeared to be pygmies beside them.”

“I often inquired about the extreme obesity of the chiefs, and this was always attributed to the lack of exercise and the abundance of food.”

“These must have something to do with the matter of weight, but why are they taller than the others? There is reason to believe that their origin is different from that of the lesser people …”

“… and that they are descended from the conquerors of these islands as the feudal seigneurs of medieval France descended from the Frankish chieftains who invaded the conquest the privileged nobles of England.”

“The tradition mingled with fale, on which is based the history of the Sandwich Islands, seems to indicate that they were conquered in some remote time by strangers of a race different from that of the first inhabitants.”

“That they do not now have the same facial structure is support from this conjecture. The profiles of most of the chiefs, instead of being straight or even pointed like most of the native people, are concave in form; if you put a straight rule to forehead and chin, it would hardly touch the nose.”

“I do not wish, however, to state as fact a matter so little attested. As for Kauikeaouli, he had purely indigenous features, and he was afflicted by being thin so that the embonpoint of the others was a continued source of jealousy to him.”

“Among the chiefs and courtiers who surrounded the king and regent and who overfilled the house, some were dressed in the European style, that is, in pantaloons and white shirts, while others had wrapped themselves in tapa, a piece of cloth made in this country from the bark of the paper mulberry.”

“But most of them go naked, wearing around the waist only a malo, a band of cloth so narrow that it is nearly always insufficient for the use intended.”

“Some of the women wore dresses and had combs in their hair as our ladies do, but the most usual garment of the sex is a large and billowing white chemise – I speak only of its color.”

“Princess Boki, having accompanied her husband to London when he went there with King Liholiho, had a greater taste for European style than the others and was thus better attired than they.”

“All of them retained one feature of their national costume, a band of feathers, usually red, green, and yellow and worn sometimes around the neck and sometimes on the head like a crown. The lattr manner becomes them marvelously.” (Duhaut-Cilly, 1828) (I am not sure what images were given; the images here are from when Liholiho and Kamamalu were in Europe.)

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August 13, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sailors

“The longer a man is out of his own country, the more he feels the need of support. To a Parisian, then, every Parisian is a relative; to a Frenchman all Frenchmen are friends; to a European, any European Is a compatriot, a fellow citizen.”

“And a sailor extends even further this community of feeling. Any man whose name is inscribed on the master roll of a ship is a child of the same great family, almost a brother.”

“The sailor greets him, defends him, makes sacrifices for him, and, above all, will consider it shameful to be made use of in any way harm a man of his own craft.”

“It is in the months of October and November that the English and American whaling ships, having spent the summer off the coast of Japan, come to the Sandwich Islands to refresh their crews and put their vessels in shape to go back to sea …”

“… either to return home if their whaling is finished or to continue the work if they do not yet have a full cargo. And in fact there arrived many such ships belonging to these two nations.”

“One cannot help noticing a great difference between the one and the other.”

“The Americans do not use ships of more than four hundred tons; they all arrive here in a state of uncleanness and disrepair1hat indicates a lack of discipline and care.”

“The English ships, much larger and more difficult to maintain since they are almost all renovated warships, appear on the contrary pleasingly neat and orderly.”

“We saw American whalers that remained a week in the harbor without loosing their wet sails to dry and others that let them Rap in the wind for several days without furling them.”

“On the English ships the oil casks are stowed away as they are filled and not touched until arrival In England. The Americans have to heave theirs onto the deck at least once in order to reseal them; without this precaution they would lose half their contents.”

“The English have perfected their casks , while the ship owners of Boston and Nantucket follow an old practice that they do not wish to change.”

“But if the English show more order and capacity to manage their ships, once the whalers have reached the Sandwich lslands the two groups compete with each other in dissipation.”

“English and American officers and sailors, all display the same manners. As soon as set foot on land, the streets are full of drunken men, nothing is to be heard but quarrels and bickering.”

“What a spectacle for the islanders, you see them run shouting toward the places where the Yankees and Jhn Bulls dispute their differences.”

The Captains arrive, sometimes more drunk than the men, and would send them back on board; the latter resist; the captains strike, and sometimes the sailors strike back; all shout at the same time; the God damns and damnation are Iike thunder; kicks and blows of the fist come down like hail; black eyes shine like lightning.”

“It is late at night before the storm abates only to blow up again the next day.”

“Few of these ships complete their voyages without some kind of mutiny or revolt, but there is good reason to believe that if the captain and officers were more sober, the sailors would be more obedient and peaceable.”

“Every day the English consul finds it necessary to have some of them flogged.”

“In general and with very exceptions the foreigners who have settles in the Sandwich Islands are the dregs of all countries, and they have brought their vices with them.”

“There are always a number of them around the young king, corrupting and giving bad counsel. Among them are several who have escaped from Botany Bay having been branded for crimes in England.”

“The consul is aware of this situation but has no way to prevent It. For the honor of his country, however, he would not suffer the executioner (flogger) to be a compatriot of his.”

“The season that brings English and American whalers to this archipelago attracts also those ships that trade furs on the Northwest Coast of America, few of which wish to pass the winter on those frozen shores.”

“During the month of October there arrived four of them, all of which had failed to prosper in this business. One of them, the Louisa, out of Boston, staying through a winter and two summers, had been able to procure only eight hundred beaver pelts and one hundred twenty otter skins, and the latter had cost eight times what they were worth ten years before.”

“It appears that this commerce, formerly so rich, is now quite done for, and the natives have turned sour in their relations with the whites.”

“Continually at war among themselves, they have become more savage and intractable than ever; they now hunt the otter only for their own needs.”

“During the years 1827 and 1828 ten vessels have traded for fewer than half the otter skins that a single ship could once have done in three months, and the ones they did obtain have cost them four or five times as much.”

“All the ships that came to the Sandwich Islands during my stay in Honolulu were obliged to sell at public auction what remained of their trading goods. …”

“One cannot deny, however, that (the) American missionaries have contributed much to the civilization of the archipelago as we understand that word, and if the pure Christian doctrine is not the basis of their instruction, they have at least enabled these people to enjoy some of the benefits of Christianity in teaching them the ethics of the Gospels.”

“They have been able to adapt the English alphabet or a part of it to the Sandwich Island idiom and they have succeeded in teaching these people to read and write their own language. There is a printing shop where they print in the Sandwich language the works judged proper for the people to read. …”

“Through the influence of Kaahumanu they receive kapus from the king for everything they want: to build their churches, their houses, their cloisters, their walls, and the like. At such times all the people are required to perform the prescribed tasks. “

“Another kapu fills the schools. In addition to these kapus for the benefit of the missionaries others are used by the king, the queen and the chiefs to get work done for themselves.” (All from French sea captain Auguste Dehaut-Cilly who made round-the world travels between 1826 and 1829.)

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August 8, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hawai‘i State Library

The earliest libraries in Hawaiʻi appear to have been reading rooms provided for ships officers and crews. In Lāhainā, the Seamen’s Chapel and Reading Room was built in 1834 following an appeal by William Richards and Ephriam Spaulding (it was built two years later.)

In Honolulu, the Sandwich Islands Institute, organized in November 1837, fitted up a room at the Seamen’s Bethel in downtown Honolulu as a library and a museum of natural history and Pacific artifacts.

A newspaper article in October 1840 referred to this as a “Public Library, three to four hundred volumes” and also listed a “Reading Room for Seamen,” presumably at a different location.

A decade later, in 1850, residents of Honolulu organized the Atheneum Society, which for a year or two maintained a reading room and library. The Atheneum was succeeded in 1853 by the Honolulu Circulating Library Association.

In 1879, a group of men founded the Honolulu Library and Reading Room Association. In the local newspaper, the Commercial Pacific Advertiser, editor JH Black wrote, “The library is not intended to be run for the benefit of any class, party, nationality, or sect.”

Some of the founders wanted to exclude women from membership, but Alexander Cartwright disagreed, writing to his brother Alfred: “The idea keeps the blessed ladies out and the children. What makes us old geezers think we are the only ones to be spiritually and morally uplifted by a public library in this city?”

It wasn’t long before the committee changed the wording of the constitution to make women eligible for membership.

Early in its history, the organization had established a solid economic foundation, and over time it was able to obtain the moral and financial support of both the Hawaiian government and wealthy citizens.

King Kalākaua, Queen Kapiʻolani, Queen Emma, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Regent Lili‘uokalani, Minister of the Interior F. W. Hutchinson and Charles R. Bishop were just a few of its notable and highly influential supporters.

From 1879 to 1912, library service was provided by the Honolulu Library and Reading-Room Association.

In 1909, Governor Frear helped pass the “Act to Provide for the Establishment of the Public Library of Hawaii”. On May 15, 1909 the Honolulu Library and Reading Room and the Library of Hawaiʻi signed an agreement by which the former agreed to turn over all books, furnishings and remaining funds to the latter.

A few months later, the Honolulu Library and Reading Room, Library of Hawaiʻi and the Historical Society jointly signed and submitted a letter to Andrew Carnegie requesting a grant for the construction of the Library of Hawaiʻi.

The request to Carnegie was for funds to build the new Library; Carnegie responded that the sum of $100,000 would be made ready as soon as a site was selected and plans drawn up.

The building’s final location, though, was not immediately settled. Several possible sites were considered. Ultimately, Governor Frear made a lot available on the corner of King and Punchbowl streets.

He picked a site that in 1872 had been purchased by the Government of Prince Lunalilo and transferred its control to the Board of Education.

The site was the location of Hāliʻimaile, the residence of Boki and Liliha and later Victoria Kamāmalu and her father and brothers before they ascended Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

In 1874, the government-supported Pohukaina School for Girls was started. Just up the street was the Royal School for Boys.

In order to accommodate the new Library of Hawaiʻi, after 36-years at King and Punchbowl, Pohukaina School was moved to Kakaʻako; the new school opened in 1913.

Ultimately, the Library of Hawaiʻi was completed at a cost of $127,000, with the local legislative funding providing the difference.

The building opened its doors on February 11, 1913, and Hawaiʻi at last joined those states of America that offered free library services to their communities. The library, now known as the Hawaiʻi State Library, still stands today.

Greco-Romanesque columns in front mark it as a Carnegie library, and within its lobby, a bust of Andrew Carnegie, the man who made it possible is on the grounds.

In 1921, the County Library Law established separate libraries on the islands of Kauaʻi, Maui and Hawaiʻi, under minimal supervision by the Library of Hawaiʻi, which restricted its services to Oʻahu. Even so, the latter quickly outgrew its quarters.

In 1927, the Territorial legislature approved funding to expand and renovate the building. Construction was completed in 1930. Architect CW Dickey tripled its size by adding new wings to create an open-air courtyard in the center.

After statehood in 1959, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature created the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System, the only statewide system in the United States, with the Hawaiʻi State Library building as its flagship branch.

My grandmother worked at the State Library, from 1920 to 1948; she retired after serving as Assistant Head Librarian and Director of the Extension Department. Part of her duties included the expansion of the Library to the Neighbor Islands in 1921. My mother received a degree in Library Science and was archivist at Punahou School.

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Home_of_the_Library_of_Hawaii,_before_1910

Bethel_Church,_Honolulu,_Hawaii

The_Seaman’s_Bethel_Church

Pohukaina School-hhs3049gs-1875

Hawaii_State_Library_from_King_and_Punchbowl

HawaiiStateLibrary-annex

HawaiiStateLibrary

Lahaina-Master’s Reading Room

August 6, 2019 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Waimānalo Sugar Plantation

High Chief John Adams Kuakini Cummins was born on Oʻahu on March 17, 1835, the son of High Chiefess Kaumakaokane Papaliʻaiʻaina and Thomas Jefferson Cummins, Jr. His mother was a cousin of King Kamehameha I. His father was a wealthy and aristocratic Englishman, born in Lancashire and reared in Massachusetts, who came to the Islands in 1828.

Thomas Cummins first acquired interests in land in Waimānalo (meaning potable water) on March 27, 1842, when High Chief Paki leased Cummins a parcel of land on which to build a house (that he named Mauna Loke, or Rose Mount)

On November 25, 1850, Cummins leased 970 acres in the same vicinity from King Kamehameha III. This property extended from Popoʻokaʻala Point to the hills of Kaʻiwa and Kaʻakaupu of the Koʻolau district. Over the years more land was acquired. In 1890, Cummins leased nearly 7,000-more acres for his sugar operation.

The land was first used as cattle pasture and horse breeding ranch. After attending the Royal School, Cummins worked on his father’s ranch, becoming manager in 1855.

One of the goals in horse breeding related to racing, an item of interest to the royalty and elite in Honolulu. Cummins had one of the largest stocks of race horses (and introduced some blooded stock to the islands) and was a promoter of horse racing. In about 1872, a horse racing track was laid out at Kapiʻolani Park. He was a Charter member of the Hawaiian Jockey Club in 1885.

John Cummins was elected representative for his Koʻolau district in 1873 and assisted in the election of King Lunalilo that same year. The following year, he aided in the election of King Kalākaua.

Cummins was instrumental, in helping King Kalākaua effect a reciprocity treaty with the United States in 1874, after which the sugar industry prospered.

Cummins conceived the idea of converting the ranch into a commercial sugar venture in 1877, two years after King Kalākaua had concluded a reciprocity treaty with the United States, greatly enhancing the sugar industry in the kingdom. Its first mill started grinding cane in January 1881.

The mill stood near Poalima Street behind present-day Shima’s Market on Kalanianaʻole Highway. Homes were on both sides of the highway. Rail tracks were laid out and three locomotive engines were brought in to haul cane to the mill and the wharf.

The sugar industry became a huge success.

The sugar plantation required more water than was easily available and a ditch was built to divert water from Maunawili Stream to Waimanalo. Two million gallons of water per day was pumped through a 2-mile long tunnel through Mount Olomana and into a reservoir where it was tapped to Waimanalo Sugar Company until the 1950s.

In the 1870s, Waimānalo Sugar Company built a 700-foot pier, Waimānalo Landing (near what is now the intersection of Huli Street and Kalaniana’ole Highway,) to use to transport the sugar, as well as serve as a landing for inter-island steamers (it was dismantled in the early 1950s.)

The railroad tracks from the mill culminated at a long wooden pier; at the end of the pier, winches and cranes lifted the bags of sugar onto the vessel alongside. Today, the line of broken pilings and all the landing’s machinery and crane and rigging, lies submerged beneath 12-15 feet of water at Waimānalo Beach Park.

The 86-foot ocean steamer “SS Waimānalo” (later renamed “SS John A. Cummins” or “Kaena”) owned by John Adams Cummins of the Waimanalo Sugar Plantation Company, made trips twice a week between stops in Koʻolaupoko (Heʻeia and Waimānalo) and Honolulu, exporting sugar and returning with supplies and goods.

Control of the plantation passed to W. G. Irwin and Co. in 1885, with Cummins continuing as manager. Cummins was ahead of the time in adopting a sort of “social welfare” plan for his employees, building a large structure containing a reading room and a section for dances and social gatherings for the plantation laborers.

It was decorated with Chinese and Japanese fans on the ceiling and pictures of King Kalākaua and other members of the royal family on the walls, and contained books, tables, an organ and singing canaries.

John Cummins left the sugar business to William G. Irwin, agent of Claus Spreckles, and developed a commercial building called the Cummins Block at Fort and Merchant streets in Downtown Honolulu.

In 1889 he represented Hawaiʻi at the Paris exposition known as Exposition Universelle. On June 17, 1890 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kalākaua’s cabinet, and thus was in the House of Nobles of the legislature for the 1890 session.

He died on March 21, 1913 from influenza after a series of strokes and was buried in Oʻahu Cemetery.

Due to security concerns, an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1917 significantly changed Waimānalo and Waimānalo Sugar Company – more than 1,500-acres belonging to the Waimānalo Sugar Company were converted to a military reservation.

In 1947, the plantation was shut down.

One lasting remnant of those plantation days is the Saint George Catholic Chapel. It is among the oldest parishes in Waimānalo. Built in 1842, it still has a sizable congregation, many of them descendants of the Portuguese and the Filipinos who worked for the sugar company.

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