Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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May 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Downtown Honolulu In 1950

A picture is worth a thousand words; they (and maps) tell stories. This map tells lots of stories … and brings back some great memories.

OK, I wasn’t even born when the map was printed. But a few years later, when I was a kid, there are a lot of familiar places (and associated stories) depicted on this map.

Take some time looking at the ownership and operations up and down the streets. There have been lots of changes since then – but the memories are still here.

Back then, Bishop only went to Beretania – with no further mauka extension (it finally popped through and extended/ connected to the Pali Highway and became the windward gateway into “Town.”)
Bishop Street was the home of the Big 5. Bishop Street was and continues to be the center of Hawai‘i commerce and banking (in the center of the map, running up/down.)

Did you notice their placement on Bishop Street (and to each other) back then (as well as the battling banks across Bishop Street from each other?)

Five major companies emerged to provide operations, marketing, supplies and other services for the plantations and eventually came to own and manage most of them. They became known as the Big 5:

  • Amfac (1849) – Hackfeld & Company – a German firm that later became American Factors Ltd (Amfac.) It was started by a young German selling goods to whalers and grew to manage and control various sugar operations.
  • Alexander & Baldwin (1870) – started by Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of missionaries. It was the only Big 5 that started in sugar. Their irrigation project sent water 17-miles from Haleakala to 3,000-dry sugar cane acres in central Maui.
  • Theo H. Davies (1845) – a British firm that started as a small isle trading company and expanded into other businesses including sugar, transportation and insurance.
  • Castle & Cooke (1851) – founded by missionaries (Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke,) which originally sold sewing machines, farm tools and medicine in Hawaii. It later bought stock in sugar plantations and focused on sugar companies.
  • C. Brewer – (1826) founded by James Hunnewell, an officer on the Thaddeus that brought the original missionaries to Hawai‘i in 1820. He returned in 1826 to set up a trading company specialized in supplying whaling ships but then moved into sugar and molasses. The firm’s namesake, Capt. Charles Brewer, became a partner in 1836.

Another Hawai‘i family and company, Dillingham, started in the late-1800s, although not a “Big Five,” deserves some attention – it’s offices were down there, too (next to the Big 5.)

They played a critical role in agricultural operations through leasing land and controlling some operations, but mostly moved the various goods on OR&L.

Back in the ‘50s, Fort Street was “it” for shopping (to the left of Bishop Street, also running mauka/makai – now, it’s mostly a pedestrian mall.)

You can read the names of old Honolulu retail iconic institutions – Liberty House, McInerny, Watumull and Andrade – along with Kress, Woolworths, National Dollar and Longs Drugs.

I remember the “moving windows” during Christmas season; we’d pile in the station wagon and take a special trip over the Pali to downtown to Christmas shop (the Pali Tunnels and Ala Moana Center weren’t open until 1959.)

We’d walk up and down Fort Street and look at all the animated window displays, then stop in at a restaurant for dinner (one of our favorites was Fisherman’s Wharf at Kewalo Basin.)

‘Iolani Palace is on the site labeled Territorial Executive Grounds (we’re still nine years away from statehood;) mauka of it had different uses – it’s now the State Capitol and Hotel Street walkway.

The YWCA (just to the left of ‘Iolani Palace) is still going strong and nearby was the YMCA, now converted to the Hawai‘i State Art Museum and state offices.

The Alexander Young Hotel, opened in 1903 (on Bishop between Hotel and King,) was later converted hold offices and was demolished in 1981.

You can see some roads have changed or have been consolidated into adjoining properties. Did you notice, back then, Ala Moana/Nimitz on the map was called Queen Street?

In my early years in real estate (while still a student at UH, I used to do research in the Tax Office and Bureau of Conveyances (lower right of map.) Fifty-years later, I directed DLNR which now has the Bureau of Conveyances under its management umbrella.

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Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950
Bishop Street ended at Beretania in 1959
American Factors Building was demolishe
American Factors Building was demolishe
Amfac-Building-corner-of-Fort-Queen-Streets
Amfac-Building-corner-of-Fort-Queen-Streets
Theo H Davies Building-1920s
Theo H Davies Building-1920s
Queen-Street-view-of-C.-Brewer-Building
Queen-Street-view-of-C.-Brewer-Building
c brewer & co ltd
c brewer & co ltd
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
Dillingham_Transportation_Building
Dillingham_Transportation_Building
Queens_Hospital-1954
Queens_Hospital-1954
Schuman Carriage-corner of Beretania and Richards-the entire block was torn down to build the State Capitol Building-1950s
Schuman Carriage-corner of Beretania and Richards-the entire block was torn down to build the State Capitol Building-1950s
McInerny
McInerny
Alexander Young Building
Alexander Young Building
Honolulu Iron Works 1960. Today it is the location of Restaurant Row.
Honolulu Iron Works 1960. Today it is the location of Restaurant Row.
Honolulu Harbor-1950s
Honolulu Harbor-1950s
Fort Street looking mauka from King street-11-08-59
Fort Street looking mauka from King street-11-08-59
Downtown Honolulu in 1956. McInerny on the left, and the overhead lines are for trolley buses
Downtown Honolulu in 1956. McInerny on the left, and the overhead lines are for trolley buses
Bishop_Street-1954
Bishop_Street-1954
Bishop_Street_Looking_Makai-Dillingham_Transportation_Bldg-1940
Bishop_Street_Looking_Makai-Dillingham_Transportation_Bldg-1940
Honolulu_Harbor-Downtown-aerial-1950s
Honolulu_Harbor-Downtown-aerial-1950s
Downtown_Honolulu-1957
Downtown_Honolulu-1957
Honolulu and Vicinity-Transit-Map-1949
Honolulu and Vicinity-Transit-Map-1949
Honolulu-HVB-map-1952
Honolulu-HVB-map-1952

Filed Under: General, Buildings, Economy Tagged With: Downtown Honolulu, Alexander and Baldwin, Theo H Davies, C Brewer, Amfac, Bishop Street, Dillingham, Castle and Cooke, Hawaii, Honolulu

May 22, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

It Was a Real Estate Deal

Although the park was initially touted to create “a tract of land in the vicinity of Honolulu as a place of public resort,” where “agricultural and stock exhibitions, and healthful exercise, recreations and amusements” could occur, its literal purpose was far from it.

On the dedication day in 1876, King Kalākaua and James Makee (Kapiʻolani Park Association’s first president) stressed the public space, which they said was needed for a modern city to be civilized, to allow “families, children, and quiet people” to find “refreshment and recreation” in the “kindly influences of nature,” and to be a “place of innocent refreshment.”

However, when Kapiʻolani Park was first conceived, the motivation wasn’t about creating a public place. Kapiʻolani Park began as a development project, run by the Kapiʻolani Park Association.

The association was founded with a two-fold purpose: (1) building residences for its stockholders along the ocean at Waikiki and on the slopes of Diamond Head and (2) laying out a first-class horse-racing track as a focal point of this new suburb.

Scotsman Archibald Cleghorn, Governor of Oʻahu and father of Princess Kaʻiulani, was the park’s designer. Vice-president and later president of the Kapiʻolani Park Association, Cleghorn planned the park’s landscaping, including the ironwood trees along Kalākaua Avenue.

200 shares were sold at $50 each. (King Kalākaua was a shareholder.) Every owner received the right to lease a beachfront house lot in the park, and as a result a number of residences were built along the park’s shores and around the race track during the 1880s.

The McInerny home and estate (founder of the McInerny retail stores) is where the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel now stands.

Samuel Northrup Castle family’s three-story beachfront home “Kainalu” became a prominent landmark in Waikīkī, as well as the landmark for the takeoff at Castles surf-spot. The mansion was razed in 1958 to build the Elks Club.

William Irwin’ home is where the 1927 World War I Memorial Natatorium now stands.

At the time, the park contained both arid spaces and wetlands, and the association focused on making the site usable and attractive. They soon distributed lots and established a prime racetrack complete with grandstands and stables.

All of this cost a considerable amount and the association was in debt in less than ten years. The legislature granted appropriations throughout the 1880s, and while there were some calls for transparency on the spending of public funds, the association generally slid by without much scrutiny.

The public funds did not increase public access, either, and the ocean remained blocked to the public. Later, moves were afoot to bring the public into the focus of the picture.

In 1896, an understanding was reached and later consummated between (1) the Kapiʻolani Park Association, which held a little over nine acres of land in fee, and a larger area on lease from the Republic, as a park, (2) William G. Irwin, who owned 19 waterfront lots and (3) the Republic of Hawaii. Irwin ended up with 18-mauka lots, known as “Irwin Tract.”

Beginning with the deeds of July 1, 1896, Kapiʻolani Park was a public charitable trust, and the park commissioners were its trustees.

The Legislature of the Republic of Hawaiʻi passed Act 53, which placed Kapiʻolani Park and its management to the Honolulu Park Commission, which was created specifically to manage this park.

Act 53 provided that the park was to be “permanently set apart as a free public park and recreation ground forever.” The commission had no authority to lease or sell land in the park, a prohibition that still governs the park trust and would be key to the preservation of the park and later battles about it.

The understanding was that lands used for park use would become a free public park and that a commission formed to oversee the park had an express provision that “[t]he said Commission shall not have authority to lease or sell the land comprising the said park or any part thereof[.]”

Facing the same kinds of constraints we see today, the commission worked with budgetary constraints and labored with little public clout, but they continued to construct the park and then in 1904, first facility for the public was erected, a small aquarium.

The Territorial Legislature passed Act 103 in 1905 “to declare certain lands as public parks.” This led to the final acquisition of the oceanfront land along Kapiʻolani Park as the leases on the land to homeowners were allowed to expire, and in 1907, Kapiʻolani Park became a beach park for the first time.

In 1913, the Territory of Hawaiʻi transferred administrative authority to the City and County of Honolulu, which still manages the park.

Later park improvements include, the Honolulu Zoo (1915;) the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium (1927;) the Eastman Kodak Company was given permission to stage a Polynesian review at Sans Souci Beach (1937;) the Waikiki Shell was completed and opened (1954;) in 1969, the Kodak Company moved to the area adjacent to the Waikiki Shell.

Kapiʻolani Park’s racetrack closed in 1926, but approximately half the infield area of the racetrack remained in open space.

Lots of good stuff in this post came from the Kapiʻolani Park Preservation Society website. This group continues to monitor and protect the public activities at Kapiʻolani Park.

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Kapiolani_Park_Association-Stock_Certificate-(kapiolani_park-a_history)
Kapiolani_Park_Association-Stock_Certificate-(kapiolani_park-a_history)
Kapiolani_Park_Horse_Race_Ad
Kapiolani_Park_Horse_Race_Ad
Kapiolani_Park_Horse_Race_Ad-April 30, 1881
Kapiolani_Park_Horse_Race_Ad-April 30, 1881
DH-track
DH-track
Horse races were a popular activity at Kapi‘olani Park-(waikikivisitor-com)
Horse races were a popular activity at Kapi‘olani Park-(waikikivisitor-com)
Kapiolani_Park-1900
Kapiolani_Park-1900
Kapiolani-Park-Racetrack
Kapiolani-Park-Racetrack
Man riding a bike on the Kapi‘olani race track-(waikikivisitor-com)
Observation balloon being readied for flight at Kapiolani Park, c1921-1923
Observation balloon being readied for flight at Kapiolani Park, c1921-1923
People in the stands at a horse race-(waikikivisitor-com)
People in the stands at a horse race-(waikikivisitor-com)
Overlooking lilly pads from one of Kapi‘olani Park’s bridges-(waikikivisitor-com)
Overlooking lilly pads from one of Kapi‘olani Park’s bridges-(waikikivisitor-com)
AlfredMitchellHouse(right-foreground)-IrwinHouse(center-background)
AlfredMitchellHouse(right-foreground)-IrwinHouse(center-background)
Waikiki-Kaneloa-Kapiolani_Park-Monsarrat-Reg1079 (1883)
Waikiki-Kaneloa-Kapiolani_Park-Monsarrat-Reg1079 (1883)

Filed Under: Economy, Place Names Tagged With: Kalakaua, Kainalu, Kapiolani Park, Natatorium, Hawaii

May 19, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiian Hotel

Back in the mid-1800s, the growth of steamship travel between Hawai‘i and the West Coast of the United States, Australia and New Zealand caused a large increase in the number of visitors to the islands.

The arrival and departure of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain,) the Duke of Edinburgh and others included envoys, politicians, merchants and opportunists, created the need of good hotel accommodations to lodge similar visitors.

“There had been earlier talk about the need for a first class hotel in Honolulu, and in 1865 a public meeting had been held and a committee appointed to study the question but no material result emerged.”

“The subject was under discussion again, in the community and in the king’s cabinet, about the beginning of 1870, a suggestion having been made that private parties loan money to assist the government in erecting a hotel.”

“Nothing was done immediately, but some six months later the king said to his ministers, ‘I think favorably of the Govt. building a Hotel.’”

“At a cabinet meeting on December 5, the subject for consideration ‘was the building of a Hotel at the public cost. . . . After much discussion it was resolved – That it was advisable to commence a building for this purpose of stone or other incombustible material, and that the Minister of Interior [Dr. F. W. Hutchison] be charged with the duty of procuring plans …’”

“‘… and it was further resolved that the expense should not exceed say ($50,000) Fifty Thousand Dollars—and further that the necessary funds should be procured by issuing Hotel Bonds—or stock, and the Minister of Finance [Dr. J. Mott Smith] be charged with the duty of procuring funds.’”

“From later minutes of the cabinet council and from other sources, we learn that the whole management of the hotel project soon devolved upon Dr. Smith, as he wished it to be; that he had the active support and co-operation of Minister of Foreign Affairs Harris …”

“… that these two selected the site for the hotel on the corner of Hotel and Richards streets and bought the land, a purchase which was then assumed by the government; that private parties subscribed $42,500, for which they received ‘Hotel Bonds’ paying, in lieu of interest, a due ‘proportion of the rent received from the hotel.” (Kuykendall)

The Hawaiian Hotel was proposed in 1865, but not laid down until 1871. The Hotel was located on the Mauka-Ewa corner of Hotel Street and Richards Street and was formally opened by a ball on February 29, 1872. The hotel was leased to Allen Herbert for a term of years;

The King “took great interest in the building of the Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu”. The hotel was later called the Royal Hawaiian Hotel; reportedly, King Kalākaua renamed it to give it a regal feel.

Therefore, first “Royal Hawaiian Hotel” was not in Waikīkī;l rather, it was in downtown Honolulu (the later one, in Waikīki, opened over fifty years later, in 1928.)

In 1879, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was surrounded by dwellings, including several thatched-roof hale, but the hotel expanded over the next twenty years and replaced most of the residences.

Reportedly, Kalākaua kept a suite there; the Paradise of the Pacific noted it was “one of the coolest buildings in the city.” It “was an ornament to the city and filled a real need in the community, for which it became an important social center.”

“Under the capable management of Allen Herbert, the hotel won praise from travelers and from local residents who patronized it. In course of time it passed into private hands.” (Kuykendall)

By 1900, the last dwellings and a doctor’s office were located on the corner of Beretania and Richards Streets. These were all gone by 1914.

In November 1917, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was purchased by a group of local businessmen and became the official headquarters of the Armed Services YMCA in Hawai‘i.

In 1926, the hotel was demolished and the present building was constructed. The Army and Navy YMCA building was erected on the site of the former Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1927.

Through the middle of the century, the downtown “Y” was a popular destination for service men from all branches of the military. By the mid-1970s, an increasing number of junior enlisted personnel were married with children.

The Armed Services YMCA responded to the changing needs of the military by opening family centers at Aliamanu Military Reservation, Iroquois Point Housing, Marine Corps Base Hawaii-Kaneohe, Wheeler/Schofield and Tripler Army Medical Center.

The building was rehabilitated in the late-1980s by Hemmeter Corporation, when it was renamed No. 1 Capitol District Building.

This remodeled office complex became the Hemmeter Corporation Building. After completion in 1988, the historic building served as Hemmeter Headquarters for several years.

Hemmeter Design Group earned national awards for the redevelopment of the historic YMCA building in downtown Honolulu.

Today, the Hawai’i State Art Museum (managed by the Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts) and several State offices are housed in the historic Spanish-Mission style building.

The Hawai‘i State Art Museum opened in the fall of 2002. The museum is located on the second floor of the No. 1 Capitol District Building. The museum houses three galleries featuring (and serves as the principal venue for) artworks from the Art in Public Places Collection.

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Richards_Street-Hawaiian_Hotel_HSA_1890
Richards_Street-Hawaiian_Hotel_HSA_1890
Richards_Street-Hawaiian_Hotel-HSA-1890
Richards_Street-Hawaiian_Hotel-HSA-1890
Richards_Street-Hawaiian_Hotel_HawaiianHistoricalSociety-1890
Richards_Street-Hawaiian_Hotel_HawaiianHistoricalSociety-1890
Royal Hawaiian Hotel-screened_patio-HawaiianHistoricalSociety
Royal Hawaiian Hotel-screened_patio-HawaiianHistoricalSociety
Royal Hawaiian Hotel-screened_patio-HSA-1890
Royal Hawaiian Hotel-screened_patio-HSA-1890
Army and Navy YMCA-(vintagehawaii)-1920s
Army and Navy YMCA-(vintagehawaii)-1920s
Army_and_Navy_YMCA-1940s
Army_and_Navy_YMCA-1940s
YMCA-1960
YMCA-1960
2001_02_23 Hemmeter - About Time. Army-Navy YMCA building. The Armed Forces YMCA building. March 1928. Yew Char photo.
2001_02_23 Hemmeter – About Time. Army-Navy YMCA building. The Armed Forces YMCA building. March 1928. Yew Char photo.
Hemmeter Building
Hemmeter Building

Filed Under: Buildings, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Lot Kapuaiwa, Kamehameha V, Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Hawaiian Hotel

May 17, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiian Money

Ancient Hawaiians did not use money. They provided for themselves or simply traded for the things they needed.

As commerce came to Hawai‘i, initial transactions included trading – sandalwood became the primary medium of exchange for Ali‘i, who traded it for western goods.

The adoption of a Western style economy created a demand for money. At first, this money consisted of coins carried in from the variety of countries having interest in the islands.

Coins

This source proved unreliable and coins were in chronically-short supply.

King Kamehameha III set out to rectify the shortage of coinage and currency by including a provision for a Hawaiian monetary system in his new legal code of 1846.

This system provided for a unit known as the dala, which was based on the American dollar. The dala was divided into 100 keneta (cents.)

Several denominations of fractional silver coins were included in this system, as well as a copper piece to be valued at one keneta.

As prescribed by law, these copper pieces bore on their obverse a facing portrait of Kamehameha III with his name and title Ka Moi (the King).

Hawaii’s first coins were issued in 1847. They were copper cents bearing the portrait of King Kamehameha III. The coins proved to be unpopular due to the poor quality image of the king.

Although it is claimed the denomination was misspelled (hapa haneri instead of hapa haneli), the spelling “Hapa Haneri” was included until the end the 19th century.

The spelling “Haneri” (Hawaiian for “Hundred”) appears on all $100 and $500 Hawaiian bank notes in circulation between 1879 and 1900.

In 1883, silver coins were issued in denominations of one dime (umi keneta), quarter dollar (hapaha), half dollar (hapalua) and one dollar (akahi dala).

The vast majority of these coins were struck to the same specifications as current US coins by the San Francisco Mint.

Hawaiian coins continued to circulate for several years after the 1898 annexation to the United States.

In 1903, an act of Congress demonetized Hawaiian coins, and most were withdrawn and melted, with a sizable percentage of surviving examples made into jewelry.

Paper Money

As early as 1836, with coins in shortage, private Hawaiian firms began to issue paper scrip of their own redeemable by the issuing company in coins or goods.

At Kōloa Sugar Plantation, script was issued in payment for services and redeemable at the plantation store; it started with simply a notation of denomination and signature of the owner on cardboard.

However, due to counterfeiting, in 1839, script was printed from engraved plates, with intricate waved and networked lines.

This more formal Kōloa Plantation script became the first paper money from Hawai‘i. Not only was this script accepted at the Plantation store, it became widely accepted by other merchants on the island.

In early 1843, apparently, the Lahainaluna Mission Seminary first issued its own paper money.

The Hawaiian government occasionally issued its own banknotes between 1847 and 1898 in denominations of $10, $20, $50 and $100 Hawaiian Dollars.

However, these notes were only issued in small numbers and US notes made up the bulk of circulating paper money.

In 1895, the newly formed Republic of Hawai‘i issued both gold and silver coin deposit certificates for $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. These were the last Hawaiian notes issued.

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HwiP.UNL1Dollar183344ScripRevLorrinAndrews
HwiP.UNL1Dollar183344ScripRevLorrinAndrews
Hawaii_Banknote_5_Dollars_c_1839
Hawaii_Banknote_5_Dollars_c_1839
Hawaii_1883_dime
Hawaii_1883_dime
Hawaiian_1891_dollar_coin
Hawaiian_1891_dollar_coin
Kingdom_of_Hawaii-Kalakaua_1883-Dime
Kingdom_of_Hawaii-Kalakaua_1883-Dime
Kingdom_of_Hawaii_Kalakaua_1883-Dime
Kingdom_of_Hawaii_Kalakaua_1883-Dime
Hawaiian_Islands_Banknote_500_Dollars-1872-1891, reign of King David Kalākaua.
Hawaiian_Islands_Banknote_500_Dollars-1872-1891, reign of King David Kalākaua.
Hawaiian_Islands_20_Dollar_Banknote
Hawaiian_Islands_10_dollar_banknote-1860-1880
Hawaiian_Islands_10_dollar_banknote-1860-1880
Republic_of_Hawaii_1895_5_silver_dollars_banknote
Republic_of_Hawaii_1895_5_silver_dollars_banknote
Republic_of_Hawaii_20_Gold_Dollar_banknote_1895
Republic_of_Hawaii_20_Gold_Dollar_banknote_1895

Filed Under: General, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Lahainaluna, Koloa, Money

May 16, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Fort Vancouver

Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was a fur trading company that started in Canada in 1670; its first century of operation found HBC firmly focused in a few forts and posts around the shores of James and Hudson Bays, Central Canada.

Within ten years after Captain Cook’s 1778 contact with Hawai‘i, the islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China. The fur traders and merchant ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water.

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the US.

In 1821, HBC merged with North West Company, its competitor; the resulting enterprise now spanned the continent – all the way to the Pacific Northwest (modern-day Oregon, Washington and British Columbia) and the North (Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.)

Fur traders working for the HBC traveled an area of more than 700,000 square miles that stretched from Russian Alaska to Mexican California and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

Ships sailed from London around Cape Horn around South America and then to forts and posts along the Pacific Coast via the Hawaiian Islands. Trappers crossing overland faced a journey of 2,000 miles that took three months.

In selecting a new fort and trading post site for the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) on the Columbia River in Oregon, they picked a location about 100-miles from the mouth at an opening in the forest called Jolie Prairie.

The new facility was to serve as the chief supply center for the company’s regional operation.

On March 19, 1825, the HBC opened Fort Vancouver on a bluff above the north bank of the Columbia River where the city of Vancouver, Clark County, is now located (named for British Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798.))

Yes, this is the same George Vancouver how first visited the islands as midshipman with Captain James Cook in 1778 and later led the expedition around the globe (and introduced the first cattle in Hawai‘i with a gift to Kamehameha I – he also discovered the Columbia River.)

Fort Vancouver became part of the expansion and establishment of forts and trading posts along the Pacific Northwest. Then, in 1829, HBC landed its first trading ship in Honolulu.

One of its primary ‘missions’ of that trip was that HBC was looking for a labor pool to help with its operations (they were also there to establish a trade business, as well as test the market for its primary products – lumber and salmon.)

A goal of the trip was to recruit a few seasoned seamen for HBC on the Northwest Coast, including “two good stout active Sandwich Islanders who have been to sea for 1, 2, or 3 years.”

At that time, Hawaiians had already played an important part in establishing the economic institutions of the Pacific Northwest. They provided the food and built the shelters of the fur traders and the early missionaries.

They had worked on many of the merchant ships plying between Hawaii, China, Europe and the Northwest. From the earliest Hawaiians who came as seamen or contract workers, to the ones who worked at Fort Vancouver and elsewhere along the Pacific Coast, they all made an important contribution to the development of the area.

As early as 1811, HBC had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest. By 1824, HBC employed thirty-five Hawaiians west of the Rocky Mountains.

Over the years, HBC’s Fort Vancouver had a unique relationship with the Hawaiian or “Sandwich” Islands, the nineteenth century trade hub of the Pacific.

During peak season, when the fur brigades returned to rest and re-supply, the settlement contained upwards of 600 inhabitants. For many years, the village was the largest settlement between Yerba Buena, (present day San Francisco, California) and New Archangel (Sitka, Alaska).

In the late-1830s Fort Vancouver became the terminus of the Oregon Trail. When American immigrants arrived in the Oregon Country during the 1830s and 1840s, and despite the instructions from the Hudson’s Bay Company that the fort should not help Americans, John McLoughlin, supervisor of the Columbia District, provided them with essential supplies to begin their new settlements.

Not only was the village one of the largest settlements in the West during the fur trade era, it was also unmatched in its diversity. The Hudson’s Bay Company purposefully hired people from different backgrounds, thus providing opportunities in the fur trade business to a variety of people from both the Old World and the New.

Few of the village spoke English, though French, Gaelic, Hawaiian and a variety of Native American languages were often heard. In order to communicate with one another, most villagers learned Chinook Jargon, a mix of Chinook, English and French.

Hawaiians worked as trappers, laborers, millers, sailors, gardeners and cooks; however HBC employed more people at agriculture than any other activity. The daily routine was work from sun up to sun down, with only Sundays off.

In 1840, Kamehameha III, faced with the seeming threat of racial extinction due to depopulation by both emigration and disease, enacted a law that required captains of vessels desiring to hire Hawaiians to obtain the written consent of the island governor and sign a $200 bond to return the Hawaiian back to Hawai‘i within a specified time.

HBC Governor Simpson, on a visit to Hawaii in 1841, reported, “About a thousand males in the very prime of life are estimated annually to leave the islands, some going to California, others to the Columbia, and many on long and dangerous voyages, particularly in whaling vessels …”

“… while a considerable number of them are said to be permanently lost to their country, either dying during their engagements, or settling in other parts of the world.”

In December 1845, the Oregon Government considered an act providing, “that all persons who shall hereafter introduce into the Oregon Territory any Sandwich Islanders … for a term of service shall pay a tax of five dollars for each person introduced.”

By 1849, the Hawaiian population at Fort Vancouver exceeded that of the French Canadians, due to the declining importance of furs and the rising export business of Fort Vancouver’s agricultural production and the consequent larger use of Hawaiian workers.

The number of Hawaiians working as contract laborers for the Company grew steadily. The large number of Hawaiian workers in the village led to the name “Kanaka Town” in the early 1850s – “Kanaka” is the word for “person” in the Native Hawaiian language. (At its peak, the village was home to around 535 men, 254 Indian women and 301 children.)

Several circumstances combined to bring an end to HBC’s activities at Fort Vancouver. The decline of the fur trade, the arrival of numerous American settlers to the newly organized Oregon Territory, the settlement of the boundary dispute with Great Britain which put the area under American sovereignty, all combined to hasten the decision to move the headquarters to Victoria, British Columbia.

In 1859, Hudson’s Bay Company withdrew from Fort Vancouver, the same year the decision was made to close the HBC trading facility in Honolulu.

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Fort_Vancouver-LOC-1850
Fort_Vancouver-LOC-1850
Fort_Vancouver_and_Village-1846
Fort_Vancouver_and_Village-1846
Fort_Vancouver_1825
Fort_Vancouver_1825
Fort_Vancouver_1841
Fort_Vancouver_1841
Fort_Vancouver_1845
Fort_Vancouver_1845
George Gibbs' illustration of Kanaka Village and stockade, 1851
George Gibbs’ illustration of Kanaka Village and stockade, 1851
Fort_Vancouver_1855_Covington_illustration
Fort_Vancouver_1855_Covington_illustration
Fort Vancouver by H. Warre (1848)
Fort Vancouver by H. Warre (1848)
Detail of map of Fort Vancouver-Columbia River,
Detail of map of Fort Vancouver-Columbia River,
Detail of map of Fort Vancouver-Columbia River, Surveyed 1825
Detail of map of Fort Vancouver-Columbia River, Surveyed 1825

Filed Under: Economy, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Hawaii, Hudson's Bay Company, Kamehameha III, Fort Vancouver, George Vancouver

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