Economy | Page 153 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

November 4, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Eben’s Glove

“He was always immaculately dressed and tailored when I saw him.” (Lucas; Watumull)

He was married to Elizabeth Pu‘uki Napoleon (“really Napoli. … Became known as Napoleon later.”)

“She was always known as Lizzie Low. My mother’s people were not well known to us because she was hanaied by Judge and Mrs. Sanford B. Dole when she was about twelve years of age [circa 1879].”

“Judge Dole was a teacher at Kawaiaha‘o Sunday School and had in his class a little girl of about six whose name was Lizzie Napoleon. And he became very attached to this little girl so when she got a little older, he asked her mother if she wouldn’t allow her to live with them.”

“She didn’t want to go at first but she did finally become attached to both Judge and Mrs. Dole and lived there until she was married.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“My father was known as Rawhide Ben because ever since he was knee high to a grasshopper, I guess, he loved the ranch life. And he was brought up as a member of the family in Mana and Kamuela with the rest of them.”

“So as a little boy he always had a chance to do something with animals. And this was his whole life. All he ever thought about was his cowboy experiences. But he became known as Rawhide Ben …”

“… I think, because even though he was sent to Maui and then to Honolulu later, at Iolani School, to get educated when he was a little fellow, he always went back to the ranch and that was all he wanted to do.”

“And as soon as he became an adult, his first job – big job – was given him by Theo. H. Davies and Company as manager of Puakea Ranch which is in Kohala – South Kohala there.”

Eben Parker Low was born in Honolulu, a great grandson of John Palmer Parker I and his Hawaiian wife, Kipikane. He spent his early years on Parker Ranch, Handling cows and calves by the time he was six years old.”

“He had very little education; in his own words, ‘… just plain common sense plus some English grammar and arithmetic and writing.’”

“At the age of 26 he became manager of Pu‘uhue ranch in Kohala, and began a career that made him one of the big island’s most famous and colorful paniolo.” (Hawaii Cattlemen’s Hall of Fame)

Unfortunately, he lost a portion of his left arm while roping … “he was trying to get a wild bullock that they had been chasing for a long time and he finally caught it but it was very wild and the thing was just swishing around this way (she indicates to the right and around the back of her) …”

“… so he had just enough time to duck down and the rope (with which the bullock was lassoed) went over his head. But he had the rope tied at the end of his pommel, which he never does ordinarily but he did that time because he didn’t want to lose it. And it caught his hand, see, ‘cause the loop was around his hand and it just tore the thing right off.”

“So then, there was one man with him and I don’t know how long they had – about two hours before they could get to anyplace. And of course he had this thing up and was bleeding like a cut pig.”

“And when they finally found the doctor and could get him up there, hours had passed and gangrene was starting to come in, so they cut it. They had to cut it down here (indicates forearm) and had to cut it again at the elbow.”

“But he got through that and, well, he was a young man then. I think he was about twenty-five when that happened, so he had a lot of time to get over it, too.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“Low was known as ‘one of the better artists with a rope, horse and steer’. Low had lost his left hand in a roping accident, but ‘managed to excel at roping despite his handicap of the one missing hand’”. (Marion Kelly)

“(H)e had that one arm that had to be amputated forearm and so he’d … usually wore a … false hand with a glove on his left hand and then when he roped he had a thing he’d put on with a hook it just you know a mean hook it you’d look like a pirate you look at the pictures of old pirates”. (Billy Paris; Hawaii Cattlemen’s Association)

“And I remember that leather glove. I always remembered that leather glove. I can just see him so clearly.”

“Yeah, he was a rascal with that glove because obviously, you know, there was an artificial arm. Let’s see now, his arm was cut here (indicates it was just below the elbow) so there was just a little leverage here, right below the elbow, and would give him leverage, so this thing – this gloved hand – would fit right into the end of this stump.”

“And so, he could twist it and take it off or not as he pleased. And half the time he would take it off and put a hook on it because he could handle a hook more easily than he could a glove. But oh, he used to do terrible things with that glove.”

“For instance, I remember one time when a woman – I can’t remember who she was now but it was someone that I thought should not have been in any way fooled with because she was very dignified and she was very well dressed and she was so sedate, so prim and proper …”

“… and my father just couldn’t stand it and so he just twisted this thing off and threw the [gloved] hand in her lap. That woman nearly died of a heart attack.” (Lucas; Watumull)

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Eben ‘Rawhide Ben’ Low-PP-75-5-007-1939

November 2, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pineapple Pier

Although sugarcane was ‘king’ in Hawai‘i, untilled government land was in pasture rather than sugarcane because it was too dry for unirrigated sugarcane and the elevation was too high for irrigated cane.

Several events occurred in 1898 that facilitated the development of the new pineapple canning industry. First, the annexation of Hawaii in that year resulted in the revocation of the 35% duty on Hawaiian canned pineapple.

Second, the Republic of Hawaii legislature passed a law that made some 1,300-acres of government land near Wahiawa available for homesteading once a pasture lease expired (13 southern California families came to Wahiawa to homestead the land made available under the new law.)

These early migrants and James Dole, who arrived in 1899, formed the nucleus of what would eventually become the largest pineapple industry in the world. (Bartholomew et al)

Homesteaders cleared land, built homes, and at first planted food and fodder crops. Byron O. Clark had obtained a small pineapple farm planted with ‘Smooth Cayenne’ plants near Pearl City in 1898 before the prospective homesteaders had left California.

Clark’s farm provided the first pineapple plants grown on the homesteaded lands near Wahiawa and they grew so well that other homesteaders followed suit. James Dole established the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901 and is “usually considered to have produced the first commercial pack of 1,893 cases of canned pineapple in 1903”.

The pineapple plantation concept quickly spread to Kauai and Maui, perhaps because the already well-established sugar industry provided the near-ideal plantation model for those to whom it was not initially obvious. (Bartholomew et al)

In the early 1900s, to help with the burgeoning plantation population, government lands were auctioned off as town lots in Kapa‘a.

The first pineapple company on the island of Kauai was established in 1906. In 1913, Hawaiian Canneries Company, Ltd opened in Kapa‘a at the site now occupied by Pono Kai Resort. Through the Hawaiian Organic Act, Hawaiian Canneries purchased land they were leasing, approximately 8.75 acres, in 1923.

A 1923 sketch of the cannery shows only four structures, one very large structure assumed to be the actual cannery and three small structures makai of the cannery. (Bartholomew etal)

On August 21, 1929, a US trademark registration was filed for ‘Pono’ by Hawaiian Canneries. The description provided to the trademark for Pono is ‘canned sliced and crushed pineapple and pineapple juice used for food-flavoring purposes’. (Trademarkia)

By 1956, the cannery was producing 1.5 million cases of pineapple. By 1960, 3,400 acres were in pineapple and there were 250 full time employees and 1,000 seasonal employees. (Exploration)

Until the 1960s, the Hawaiian Canneries canning plant used to produce canned sliced and crushed pineapple and pineapple juice used for food-flavoring purposes.

Factory by-products – the crowns & skins from the processed pineapples – were loaded onto train carts and hauled up the coast to a pier. The pineapple rubbish was then dumped into the ocean from the end of the pier. (Kauai Path)

As canned pineapple from other countries began filling the market, Hawaiian canneries began to close and plantations, once located on Maui, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, and Kauai, began to shrink.

In 1962, Hawaiian Canneries went out of business due to foreign competition. (Exploration) Other smaller Kauai and Maui pineapple companies closed in the late-1960s.

In 1969, Hawaiian Fruit Packers (which was formed in 1937 by the reorganization of a company initially started by a group of ethnic Japanese growers) on Kauai, the last cannery remaining there, announced plans to cease planting. The cannery was closed in Oct. 1973. (Bartholomew etal)

Del Monte cannery closed in 1985, and Dole cannery in Iwilei closed in 1991. The Kahului cannery of Maui Land and Pineapple Company was the last remaining pineapple cannery in Hawai‘i. During the end of the 1990s and into the 21st century the value of fresh Hawaiian pineapple overtook the value of canned Hawaiian pineapple.

The Hawaiian pineapple industry has gone from its early days as a primarily fresh product, through most of the 20th century as principally a canned product and a major supplier of the worlds canned pineapple market, to the 21st century when it is once again grown mostly for fresh consumption. (HAER)

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Pineapple Dump Pier

Pono Pineapple

Pono – Hawaiian Canneries Company, Ltd

Hawaiian_Canneries (Kapaa)-Sanborn Fire Map

Sugar_Plantation-Fire_maps-Index-Kauai-Oahu-Hawaiian Canneries Company, Ltd-noted

November 1, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Islands in 1856

“On Owhyhee, two enormous mountains rise to 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, and rest crowned with perpetual snow. Many craters of extinct volcanoes, and extensive plains covered with the rude debris of earlier or later eruptions, exist everywhere; and Kilauea, on the mountain of Mouna Kea, is the largest active volcano in the known world.”

“In a country thus formed, and, doubtless, at a date comparatively so recent, we cannot be surprised that no metals have been found, and no minerals save the varieties of the lava, and some limestone which has been lately discovered lying in a remarkable and raised bed at Kahuku, in the island of Woahoo.”

“In this island there is also a salt-lake, a little elevated above the surface of the sea. Soils formed of such materials as those which thus compose the entire bed of the islands, could not be expected to be very fertile, save upon some of the lower or little elevated lands, and in the valleys long formed in situations exposed to the winter rains.”

“The climate generally of the islands is remarkable for its salubrity and its even temperature. Near the sea, the highest elevation of the thermometer is 86° Fahrenheit, and the lowest 62°. The greatest heat occurs during the month of July, and the least in January.”

“Thus the extreme range during the year, does not exceed 24°, but the variation is rarely more than 8°. The inhabitants may, however, by ascending to the higher lands, live in any temperature between that of these tropical latitudes and that of the frigid zone.”

“But, notwithstanding the general healthiness of the climate, at the time that the trade-winds are irregular, which happens during the winter months …”

“… when the wind is commonly from the south, rains and storms occur, attended by diseases not differing much from those which prevail in the southern parts of Europe, at the same season — such as headaches, rheumatism, and others, arising from imprudent exposure to the night air, in damp and chilly weather.”

“According to the reports of naturalists who have visited the islands, the spontaneous productions of their soil are much more varied than the evidently recent formation of the group would lead us to expect. It will suffice to mention, that those of the family of Rubiaceae, Con tor tee, and Urticae, predominate.”

“From the last of these, as well as from the Broussonetia papyrifera, or the paper mulberry, are made cordage and cloths. The acacia also abounds in the mountain districts, and is employed by the natives in the construction of their canoes.”

“The sandal-wood was also once very abundant, and lately afforded an article of commerce with the Chinese, by whom it is chiefly used for cabinet purposes. It is now, however, save some young, and, for the present, useless trees, quite destroyed.”

“The more familiar plants and useful productions for domestic purposes are, the banana-tree, the sugar-cane, the yam, the bread-fruit, and the taro-root (Arum esculentum), all of which are indigenous.”

“Such were these islands after they first raised their towering heads above the waters of the mighty ocean which surrounds them, and such the earliest productions of the vegetable world which sprung from the soil first formed.”

“Several important plants have been lately introduced, such as the coffee, cotton, rice, tobacco, the melon and water-melon, indigo, and even the vine, of which, however, though it flourishes in the mountain districts, little use is likely to be made, on account of the necessity of discouraging the growth of everything from which alcohol may be distilled.”

“Several of our ordinary vegetables have also been introduced with success, as well as some of the fruits of the tropical and temperate latitudes which were not indigenous, such as pine-apples, oranges, grapes, peaches, figs, tamarinds, and guavas. The bread-corns will also flourish on the higher lands.”

“With respect to the animal kingdom, it seems that at the discovery of the islands nothing was observed save hogs and dogs, the importation, without doubt, of the first inhabitants, and such of Nature’s earlier productions as may be considered habitants rather of the sea than of the land …”

“… but all our domestic animals, including such as we use for food, for beasts of burden, and for companions of our sports, have been since introduced.” (All here is from Hill.)

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Hawaiian Islands from Hill-1856

October 30, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Looking Into The Past

It looks like Kalākaua’s vision is becoming a reality …

Kalākaua’s interest in modern astronomy is evidenced by his support for an astronomical expedition to Hawaiʻi in 1874 that came from England to observe a transit of Venus (a passage of Venus in front of the Sun – used to measure an ‘astronomical unit,’ the distance between the Earth and Sun.)

The King allowed the British Royal Society’s expedition a suitable piece of open land for their viewing area; it was not far from Honolulu’s waterfront in a district called Apua (mauka of today’s Waterfront Plaza.)

Kalākaua addressed those astronomers in 1874 stating, “It will afford me unfeigned satisfaction if my kingdom can add its quota toward the successful accomplishment of the most important astronomical observation of the present century and assist …”

“… however humbly, the enlightened nations of the earth in these costly enterprises to establish the basis of astronomical distance.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 19, 1874)

Kalākaua reinforced his positive feelings toward modern astronomy – and noted the importance of scientific learning versus the financial aspect of it. On November 22, 1880, King Kalākaua wrote to Captain RS Floyd noting his interest in telescopes and astronomy:

“I must thank you sincerely for the pamphlet you sent me of the ‘Lick Observatory Trust.’ Something of this kind is needed here very much but we have so few people who take interest in scientific matters. Everybody is bent upon making money on sugar and the all might dollar.” (King Kalākaua)

In Kalākaua’s time they were measuring an astronomical unit, using now-considered rudimentary equipment; today’s cutting-edge telescopes are making discoveries about new planets, interacting galaxies and seeing stars at the edge of the observable Universe.

Astronomy looks into the distant past.

“Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to us (other than the Sun), is about 4 light-years away. This means that the light we see from it now left the star about 4 years ago.”

“(T)he light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes to reach us here on Earth, so when you look up at the Sun, you see it as it was 8 minutes ago (but don’t look at the Sun) … The speed of light is about a foot per nanosecond (billionth of a second)”. (Masters)

It wasn’t until nearly a century after Hawaiʻi’s participation in the first Transit of Venus that a high elevation observatory was constructed in Hawaiʻi – in 1964, a NASA-funded 12.5-inch telescope was installed on Puʻu Poliahu to see if Mauna Kea provide the right observation conditions.

Dr. Gerard Kuiper’s team began “seeing” studies. Kuiper concluded that “The mountaintop is probably the best site in the world – I repeat – in the world – from which to study the moon, the planets, and stars.” (Ironwood Observatory Research)

At the close of the decade Mauna Kea saw the construction of a 0.6-meter (24-inch) (1968) and 2.2-meter (88-inch) (1970) telescopes, provided to University of Hawaiʻi by the US Air Force and NASA.

Now, Hawai‘i has another opportunity … the Thirty Meter Telescope.

The Hawai‘i Supreme Court has upheld the Board of Land and Natural Resources decision to issue the Conservation District Use Permit for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

TMT will be three times as wide, with nine times more area, than the largest existing visible-light telescope in the world. This larger telescope will deliver sharper and deeper images than existing telescopes both on the ground and in space.

These gains can only be realized if we correct the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmosphere with special adaptive optics. Maunakea is one of the best sites in the world for using adaptive optics to sharpen images, as the atmosphere over Hawaii is calm, steady, and most often free of clouds and weather.

As a result, TMT will likely revolutionize our understanding of the universe and will help to ensure that Hawaii remains the global leader in astronomy. (TMT)

TMT will be able to study the earliest galaxies that formed, when the universe was only a small percentage of its present age; galaxies containing stars comprised of raw materials from the Big Bang.

TMT will also extend the studies of the shapes, dynamics, and chemistry of early galaxies – from 5 to 6 billion years ago and further back in time to almost 13 billion years ago, when the very first structures in the universe were forming.

TMT will also study individual stars in our local group of galaxies at a volume nearly 100 times larger than currently possible.

By resolving and studying these individual stars, we can determine how our Milky Way Galaxy and its nearest neighbors have grown, interacted, and possibly even merged (i.e. captured dwarf galaxies) over the history of the universe. (TMT)

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October 27, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Attempts to Prevent Disease

In January 1778, Captain James Cook aboard the Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke aboard the Discovery were sailing from the Society Islands to the Northwest coast of North America on Cook’s Third Expedition of the Pacific Ocean.

“Although certainly ignorant of these environmental complications, Cook was sensitive to the need to prevent the members of his crew who were infected with venereal disease from passing their complaint on to the Hawaiian population.” (Pirie)

“As early as the second day of his landing, Cook took precautions to keep the venereal disease that was manifest among his men from spreading to the Hawaiians.” (Moore)

“As there were some venereal complaints on board both the ships in order to prevent its being communicated to the people, I gave orders that no women on any account whatever were to be admitted on board the ships, I also forbid all manner of connection with them, and ordered that none who had the venereal upon them should go out of the ships.” (Beaglehole)

“The order not to permit the crews of the boats to go on shore was issued, that I might do every thing in my power to prevent the importation of a fatal disease into this island, which I knew some of our men laboured under, and which, unfortunately, had been already communicated by us to other islands in these seas.”

“With the same view, I ordered all female visitors to be excluded from the ships. Many of them had come off in the canoes. Their size, colour, and features did not differ much from those of the men; and though their countenances were remarkably open and agreeable, there were few traces of delicacy to be seen, either in their faces, or other proportions.”

“The only difference in their dress, was their having a piece of cloth about the body, reaching from near the middle to half-way down the thighs, instead of the maro worn by the other sex.”

“They would as readily have favoured us with their company on board as the men; but I wished to prevent all connection, which might, too probably, convey an irreparable injury to themselves, and through their means, to the whole nation.”

“Another necessary precaution was taken, by strictly enjoining, that no person, known to be capable of propagating the infection, should be sent upon duty out of the ships.”

“Whether these regulations, dictated by humanity, had the desired effect, or no, time only can discover. I had been equally attentive to the same object, when I first visited the Friendly Islands; yet I afterward found, with real concern, that I had not succeeded.”

“And I am much afraid, that this will always be the case, in such voyages as ours, whenever it is necessary to have a number of people on shore.”

“The opportunities and inducements to an intercourse between the sexes are then too numerous to be guarded against; and however confident we may be of the health of our men, we are often undeceived too late.”

“It is even a matter of doubt with me, if it be always in the power of the most skilful of the faculty to pronounce, with any certainty, whether a person who has been under their care, in certain stages of this malady, is so effectually cured, as to leave no possibility of his being still capable of communicating the taint.”

“I think I could mention some instances which justify my presuming to hazard this opinion. It is likewise well known, that, amongst a number of men, there are generally to be found some so bashful as to endeavour to conceal their labouring under any symptoms of this disorder.”

“And there are others, again, so profligate, as not to care to whom they communicate it. Of this last, we had an instance at Tongataboo, in the gunner of the Discovery, who had been stationed on shore to manage the trade for that ship.”

“After he knew that he had contracted this disease, he continued to have connections with different women, who were supposed not to have already contracted it.”

“His companions expostulated with him without effect, till Captain Clerke, hearing of this dangerous irregularity of conduct, ordered him on board.” (Cook’s Journals)

“In spite of Cook’s precautions however, it is certain that venereal disease was passed on to the Hawaiian population during this visit. Because of high surf, a party of 20 men and an officer had to be left on Niihau for two days.” (Pirie)

“The Captain was very uneasy at their staying on shore, being apprehinsive, that his endeavours in hindring any connexions with the women would now be frustrat’d”. (King)

“… and by this unfortunate circumstance, the very thing happened, which, as I have already mentioned, I wished so heartily to prevent, and vainly imagined I had effectually guarded against.” (Cook’s Journal)

When Cook returned to the Islands, “On the 5th in the morning, we passed the south point of the island, … On this point stands a pretty large village, the inhabitants of which thronged off to the ship with hogs and women.”

“It was not possible to keep the latter from coming on board; and no women I ever met with were less reserved. Indeed it appeared to me that they visited us with no other view than to make a surrender of their persons.” (Cook’s Journal)

When they anchored at Kealakekua, Cook continued his fight against spreading venereal disease, a crewman, Will Bradley was given 2 dozen lashes for “having connections with women knowing himself to be injured with the Veneral disorder.” (Beagleton)

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