Economy | Page 155 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

November 27, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Bingham Kick’

Football got an early start in America, “Colonists kicked and threw inflated bladders or sawdust-filled leather balls around long before they decided to fire on the whites of the redcoats’ blue eyes.”

“(B)y the latter part of the 18th Century, football had found its way onto the college campuses. Infrequent matches joined fisticuffs (and) wrestling”.

As happened at England schools, each American school developed its own form of the sport. “Early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional ‘mob football’ played in England. The games remained largely unorganized until the 19th century, when intramural games of football began to be played on college campuses.” (Smith)

At Princeton, they were playing a version called ‘ballown’ by 1820. At Harvard, the entire freshman and sophomore classes constituted sides for ‘rushes’ in which a soccer ball was used.

Yale and others each had individual variations. Yale students by 1840 were staging soccer rushes on the New Haven Green. The American style of play resembled circa medieval. The young gentlemen attacked each other in most ungentlemanly ways. (PFRA Research)

“The New York Evening Post was moved to observe that one such game would ‘make the same impression on the public mind as a bull fight. Boys and young men knocked each other down, tore off each other’s clothing. Eyes were bunged, faces blacked and bloody, and shirts and coats torn to rags.’” (PFRA Research)

A notable football-related moment at Yale was when Hiram Bingham Jr, who demonstrated skill not only in academic pursuits but in sporting achievements as well, became the first student to kick a football over the old courthouse on the New Haven green (it became known as the ‘Bingham Kick’).

This wasn’t his only athletic achievement. On one college vacation he paddled a canoe down the Connecticut River from the Canadian border, three hundred miles to Long Island Sound.

“These pursuits satisfied not only his sense of adventure but, more importantly, his need for achievement and attention from others. It was also, however, a reflection of the age in general, when a young man was expected to compete and achieve success.” (Rennie)

His parents had worried from an early age, that ‘he does not often enough think of his Savior,’ and that he was growing up without being governed by ‘the principles and feelings of a renewed nature’ – which presumably meant he did not at all times have a proper sense of guilt.” (Bingham)

Hiram Bingham Jr was the son of Rev. Hiram Bingham, who with Rev. Asa Thurston led the first company of missionaries to thes Islands in 1820. With his parents and sisters he came to America in 1840 and prepared for college at New Haven.

The younger Bingham was born in Honolulu, August 16, 1831, in the old Mission home which still stands on King street; he was probably the first Hawaii-born Yale graduate.

He entered Yale University in 1850. By this time, he had reached his full height of six feet four inches. The liberal arts course at Yale was of four years’ duration.

In the first three years, the students took Greek, Latin, Mathematics and a smattering of Geography, History, Science, Astronomy, English Expression and Rhetoric.

The Senior year concentrated more on Metaphysics, Ethics, Natural Theology and Moral Philosophy. The course was structured ‘not to teach that which is peculiar to any one of the professions, but to lay the foundation which is common to them all’.

By the 1850s Yale was becoming increasingly conservative. Its identity with the religious life of the country was also waning. Bingham won first prize for his studies in Astronomy in 1853.

At this stage, there was no conflict between science and religion. Charles Darwin did not publish his Origin of the Species until 1859. Not until the following year did public debate erupt when on June 30, 1860 Thomas Henry Huxley, defender of Darwinism, confronted Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. (Rennie)

At his commencement in 1853, Bingham delivered an honors oration, ‘Civilization and Destiny of the Hawaiian Islands.’

Hiram studied theology at Andover Seminary and in October 1856 was ordained and married to Minerva Clarissa Brewster, a teacher in Northampton. He took a missionary post in the Gilbert Islands, in the western Pacific.

The couple worked there until they returned to Hawai‘i in 1875, where their son was born. Hiram III graduated from Yale in 1898 and later became Yale’s first professor of South American history, gaining worldwide fame for his exploration of Machu Picchu. (Yale Alumni Mag)

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November 26, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Lighthouses

The origin of the Pacific Ocean Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers goes back to 1905 when Lieutenant John R. Slattery became the first Honolulu District Engineer.

In the early years the District constructed lighthouses and improved harbors in the Territory of Hawaii and erected seacoast fortifications for the defense of Honolulu and Pearl harbors on the island of Oahu.

The direct cause of assigning a Corps of Engineers’ officer to Hawaii was neither river and harbor improvements nor construction of fortifications. Lieutenant John R. Slattery, four years out of West Point, arrived in Honolulu in February 1904 because Hawaii had been found “woefully deficient” in lighthouses.

This conclusion had been reached by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico during its investigation of the condition of lighthouses and other federal matters in the Territory in 1903.

The Corps of Engineers’ responsibilities concerning lights and other aids to navigation had begun in 1852. Because of past problems in the Treasury Department office responsible for the construction and operation of lights, the Congress had authorized the creation of a Lighthouse Board that year.

The coasts of the United States were divided into districts, of which the Pacific Coast became the Twelfth Lighthouse District with its office in San Francisco.

The Army Engineer assigned to the Twelfth District had responsibilities in the construction, inspection, and maintenance of aids to navigation from the Canadian to the Mexican border.

In the early days at San Francisco, this officer was at times the San Francisco Engineer District Officer and at times the staff engineer assigned to the U.S. Army’s Department of California.

By 1903, however, lighthouse duties had become so complex that an Army Engineer, at this time Lieutenant Colonel Thomas H. Handbury, with a staff of his own, had become the Twelfth Lighthouse District Engineer.

Unlike San Francisco Bay, the ports of Hawaii do not experience navigational problems caused by fog. Early efforts in Hawaii to aid seamen were centered on the erection of lights at harbor entrances and at a few dangerous points of land near sea lanes.

Most of these lights were “fixed,” that is, steady beams of light with no revolving apparatus, and were low-powered and of short range.

Of an estimated 35 lights in the islands before aids to navigation became a United States responsibility in 1904, 19 had been erected by the Hawaiian government and the other 16 were privately owned.

The first light to be erected is said to have been at the port of Kawaihae on the northwest coast of Hawaii. Privately owned, it was lit in 1859 to guide whaling vessels into the harbor. Another port heavily used by whalers was the Lahaina Roadstead, Maui.

As many as 500 whaling vessels could be found there at one time in the heyday of the industry —much to the disgust of the missionaries on shore. In 1866, a small light was erected at Lahaina whose beam was visible six miles to sea.

Vessels entering Honolulu Harbor were assisted by two lights that were erected in 1869. The kingdom’s Interior Department reported at that time that a frame lighthouse had been constructed on the west reef at the inner end of the entrance channel.

It was supplied with an up-to-date Fresnel light of the fourth order, placed 25 feet above the high-water mark, and visible at a distance of ten miles.

Vessels entering at night determined the location of the entrance to the channel by lining this light up with a second one mounted on a tower on the Esplanade (later on top of the custom house). As the port grew, sea captains complained that they could not distinguish this light from others in the neighborhood. Perhaps that is why a red cloth was tied around it.
The south shore of Oahu was further marked by the erection of other lights: at Barbers Point to the west of Honolulu in 1888, and at Diamond Head around 1892.

Also at Diamond Head was a lookout station for reporting arriving ships to Honolulu (all ships sailing to Honolulu from the Pacific Coast passed through the channel separating Oahu and Molokai, past Diamond Head, and on to Honolulu). The lookout stationed at Diamond Head in 1902 was named Charles Peterson, but known to all as ‘Diamond Head Charlie.’

While the lights in the Hawaiian Islands were not as far advanced, it should be noted that the first American lighthouse on the Pacific Coast was not lit until 1854 – only five years before the Kawaihae light.

Nor did annexation bring immediate improvement to Hawaii’s aids to navigation; six more years passed before the United States Lighthouse Board (including Army Engineers) assumed responsibility for them. (All here is from Thompson and his History of the Army Corps.)

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Honolulu Harbor Light-1880s

November 20, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘The Longest Way Round Is Frequently The Shortest Way Home’

“(T)he distance between Panama and Yokohama, for example, via Honolulu, is greater than via San Francisco.” So why would ships stop in Hawai‘i?

“(S)hipping routes as well as lovers’ walks by moonlight, ‘the longest way round is frequently the shortest way home.’ The ‘short line’ argument ignores the fact that many things affect and decide routes of travel besides distance.”

“There are three distinct lines of steamer travel across the Pacific, north of the equator, between the American and the Asiatic continents. viz.:”

“(1) The southern route, via Hawai‘i, is in the northeast trade-wind belt, advertised by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company as the ‘Sunshine Belt,’ from the fact that the sun shines along this route during the great majority of the days of the year, and that the normal wind is a gentle breeze varying from ten to twenty knots an hour.”

“Since white men have visited them there has been nothing in the nature of a typhoon or hurricane in the Hawaiian Islands. Even heavy gales are few and far between. and fog is not known there.”

“The Hawaiian Islands and the surrounding ocean are the most favored spot, climatically, on earth.”

“(2) The northern route, from San Francisco, is along the Great Circle line. This is known as the ‘fog belt,’ for the reason that fog is prevalent there during the greater part of the year.”

“The prevailing wind along this line is from the west, and, as a rule. considerably stronger than the trade winds of the southern route. Violent storms are also prevalent along this line.”

“(3) The central route begins at San Francisco, but abandons the Great Circle route and its short distance of 4.536 miles, for a course considerably to the south thereof and making a distance to Yokohama of 4.791 miles, an increase in distance of 255 miles over the northern short line route. “

“This line is recommended by the hydrographic bureau at Washington to steamers crossing the Pacific from San Francisco. The object in taking this longer route is to escape the fog, violent winds and currents and storms of the northern route.”

“It is another demonstration that ‘The longest way round is the shortest way home.’”

“The foregoing demonstrates that although, theoretically, the northern route is 266 miles shorter than the southern, the route actually to be sailed is within eleven miles as long as the southern route.”

“Without looking for any further reasons, the supposed advantages of the northern ‘short line’ route disappear right here. All that remains to be done is to catalogue the many advantages which the southern route, via Hawaii, has over the northern route, via San Francisco.”

“The bulk of transpacific traffic will be carried on in comparatively low-powered freight steamers, making ten to twelve knots an hour, to whom boisterous weather conditions are a serious hindrance.”

“A few days of heavy weather, bucking head seas and winds, and the racing of the propeller as it is pitched up out of water, will use up far more fuel and time on the shorter rough route than will be expended on the longer but smoother route.”

“Stormy, rough weather is in every way detrimental to economical steaming; tends to rack, strain and otherwise injure the ship, with the possibility of wetting and otherwise injuring the cargo, regardless of what direction the wind is from.”

“Under these conditions, other things being equal, or even against a considerable handicap, the smooth water and gentle wind route will be chosen.”

“Practically all of the Pacific Mail and Japanese Mail line steamers plying between San Francisco and Yokohama now travel the ‘sunshine belt,’ via Honolulu, although it is 5,474 miles that way, instead of the direct, ‘fog belt’ route, although it is only 4,536 miles by that course. In other words they prefer a course which is 938 miles the longer.”

“To Hawaii oversea commerce, the arrival and departure of deep sea ships, is the alpha and omega of its commercial existence.”

“Everything that it imports and everything that it exports passes by sea. Every one who goes anywhere and every one who comes from anywhere travels by sea.”

“These conditions have created a habit of mind, a spirit and method of treatment of shipping that markedly characterizes Hawaiian ports.” (Thurston, History of the Panama Canal, 1915)

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November 18, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

My Mother Was A Daughter

“An organization to be known as the ‘Daughters of Hawaii’ was formed November 18, (1903) by Mrs. Emma Dillingham. Mrs. Sarah Colin Waters, Mrs. Lucinda Severance, Mrs. Ellen A. Weaver, Mrs. Annie A. Dickey, Mrs. Cornelia H. Jones and Miss Anna M. Paris.”

“Its object is ‘To perpetuate the memory spirit or old Hawaii and to preserve the nomenclature and correct pronunciation of the Hawaiian language.’”

“No one is eligible to membership who was not born in Hawaii of parents who came here before 1860.” (Hawaiian Star, December 7, 1903)

“The society, ‘Daughters of Hawaii,’ aims to number among its members, those who take an interest in the legends, traditions history and scientific discoveries relating to our native land.”

“Age seems to have a fascination with all who desire to trace an ancestry or recall historic events. Those who interest themselves along these special lines, find to their surprise, that according to the researches made by students of languages, customs and general evolution of races, the Hawaiian stands pre-eminent among the Polynesian people.”

“Not only have they no superior in the Pacific, but through the East Indies, on to the Malay Peninsula, in the vast country of India, and even to Arabia are there traces of their long descent.”

“Words, customs, legends leave no doubt of this fact. In the far time of their “beginning the ancestors were of white complexion, but climatic conditions, and inter mixture of bloods produced many variations during the centuries that followed.”

“It is the intent of this society to search the pages of the past, and glean all possible information relative to the long procession of events which have resulted in the Hawaiian of today. It is impossible to give even a synopsis of these possibilities in these few remarks, but the amazing genealogies of the Hawaiian families will support these intimations.”

“Our society is still young. Not a year has passed since we first met, a little band, as Daughters of Hawaii. The need of some fitting recognition of our birth-right in this fair land …”

“… a something that should redeem from oblivion a past swiftly fleeting, unique in its charm and teeming with memories almost sacred – had long been felt by some of us. It needed the supreme moment to give it life.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 26, 1904)

In addition to their group meetings, with music and reading historical accounts, the Daughters placed plaques and included historical stories of interest in the local newspaper. There are early interest in the Pali at Nu‘uanu.

That expanded into other areas in Nu‘uanu … A notice in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (November 11, 1890) noted that the government Water Works department purchased Hānaiakamalama (Queen Emma Summer Place) for $8,000.

It was acquired “for the special purpose of a site for establishing (water system) filter beds, and a distributing reservoir for the city, which was looked upon then as one of the much-needed public works recognized, as a public necessity by the then administration.”

“The scheme then under consideration and practically settled upon was part of the plans in connection with the storage reservoir above Luakaha, for the increased capacity of the Nuʻuanu system.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 30, 1906)

The water works plan waned and thoughts of a park at the site were considered; there was, reportedly, a proposal to tear down the house and put in a baseball diamond.

However, “Governor Carter has expressed his disapproval of the retention of the Queen Emma property in Upper Nuʻuanu valley for park purposes in a letter to the secretary of the Improvement Club in that district, which passed resolutions urging that that be done.”

“I beg to say that I do not approve of the setting aside as a public park of the Hānaiakamalama premises, for the following reasons: First. Public parks are for the relief of thickly populated districts, where the congestion is such that the residents do not have breathing spaces … “

“… Second. The taxpayers are contributing at present about all they can stand and this is not sufficient to properly take care of all those areas that are already parked.” (Carter, Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 6, 1906)

On May 12, 1906, The Pacific Commercial Advertiser noticed, “there will be sold at Public Auction … the following certain portions of land situate in the District of Kona, Island of Oahu, TH: … The land known as ‘Hānaiakamalama’ or the ‘Queen Emma Place’ (upset price of $10,000, possession given September 1, 1906.)”

Hānaiakamalama (Queen Emma Summer Palace) was saved from demolition by the Daughters of Hawaiʻi. Almost immediately, the newspaper announced, “Rules and regulations bearing on Hānaiakamalama, the Nuʻuanu home of the late Queen Emma, were adopted at a meeting on Wednesday of the Daughters of Hawai‘i, which society now has charge of the home.” .” (Honolulu Star Bulletin, October 19, 1916)

In addition to Hānaiakamalama, the Daughters own and maintain Kamehameha III’s birth site at Keauhou Bay, Kona. Through an agreement with the State of Hawaiʻi, the Daughters use and maintain Huliheʻe Palace in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island.

Shortly after King Kalākaua finished building ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu (1882,) he purchased Huliheʻe from Bernice Pauahi Bishops’s estate in 1885 and turned Huliheʻe into his summer residence.

He completed some major renovations so that the palace would more closely resemble the modern structures he saw during his travels. He stuccoed the entire lava rock exterior and plastered over the koa-paneled walls. He felt that the palace was outdated and that these renovations were necessary so that Hawai’i could portray itself to the world as a modern society.

The same year he finished renovation to Huliheʻe (1887,) Kalākaua, under threat of force, signed the ‘Bayonet Constitution.’ The King spent the majority of his time at Huliheʻe Palace after he signed the new constitution.

He continued to make improvements to Huliheʻe while living there and had a telephone line installed in the palace in 1888, which was one of the first telephones on the island of Hawai’i. He continued to entertain foreign visitors at the palace.

Kalākaua died in 1891 and his wife, Queen Kapiʻolani, inherited the palace. Kapiʻolani resided at Huliheʻe throughout the period of the subsequent overthrow.

Upon her death in 1899, the property went to her nephews, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole and Prince David Kawānanakoa. Fifteen years after the Princes inherited the palace they sold it to a wealthy woman, Mrs Bathsheba Alien, for $8,600. (She died just one month after the transaction.)

For years the property sat vacant and eventually fell into a state of disrepair. In 1925, the Territory of Hawaiʻi purchased the property then turned it over to the Daughters of Hawaiʻi to run it as a museum (which they continue to do today.)
All of these sites are worth visiting and the Daughters of Hawai‘i is worth supporting.

Today, membership is open to any woman who a) has a direct lineage to, or b) has been legally adopted by, a resident of Hawai‘i in or prior to 1880, without restriction as to race. In 1986, membership to the Daughters of Hawai‘i opened and expanded with the Calabash Cousins.

My mother was the great-great granddaughter of Hiram Bingham; she was a Daughter. One of the photos is her Daughters feather lei (Daughters wear white mu‘umu‘u and feather lei.) (The lei was the thing of hers I wanted when she passed away, I am glad my sisters let me have it – I had it framed, it has a prominent place in our home.)

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Daughters of Hawaii

Hulihee_Palace,_c._1885,_with_the_kitchen_to_the_left

Hulihee_Palace,_before 1884

Hulihee_Palace_Kona-entry-gate

Makai_side_of_the_Hulihee_Palace.

Makai_side_of_the_Hulihee_Palace

Queen_Emma_Summer_Palace_(Hanaiakamalama) 1875

Queen_Emma_Summer_Palace_(Hanaiakamalama) circa 1890

Queen_Emma_Summer_Palace_(Hanaiakamalama)

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Daughters of Hawaii

November 9, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Black Cat Cafe

“During the 1930s, the thousands of young men who joined the military service and sailed to the Hawaiian Islands for duty considered themselves fortunate indeed to receive such a choice assignment.”

“They enjoyed the beautiful beaches, lush foliage, and year-round pleasant climate that characterized “the Paradise of the Pacific” but, at the same time, they also served as the first line of defense for the United States.”

“On payday, it was the first sergeant who sat with the pay officer at a desk in the day room and called out the names of assembled personnel, one at a time.”

“As his name was called, each man stepped up, saluted the pay officer, repeated his own name, received his pay in cash, saluted again, did an about face, and left the room.”

“The pay in those days was $21 a month for privates, and from that amount 25 cents went to the Old Soldiers Home and $1.50 to the quartermaster laundry. After receiving what was left, the men normally had the rest of the day off.”

“If they wanted to go to Honolulu, a bus ride cost ten cents and taxi fare was a quarter. The bus line ended at the Army and Navy YMCA on Hotel Street in downtown Honolulu where a taxi depot was conveniently located so military members could take cabs to other areas.”

“Across the street was the famous Black Cat Cafe, a favorite hangout for off-duty soldiers and sailors. A Coney Island atmosphere prevailed there, with hot dogs, hamburgers, sea food, slot machines, and various other concessions.” (Arakaki & Kuborn)

“Throughout the afternoon and evening … buses and rattletrap taxis raced down the two-lane highway connecting Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, past the wrecks of similar taxis, and by sunset, a white river of sailors was flowing down Hotel Street.” (Clarke)

“On weekends, the streets of Honolulu were jammed with sailors. Here you will see one location that was popular for its cheap but good food.”

“Nowhere was the hustle and bustle greater than at the Black Cat Café. Ideally situated across from the Armed Forces YMCA at the corner of Hotel and Richards streets, the Cat provided the men with food, slot machines, and various other types of entertainment.”

“One very popular concession was the photo gallery where they could pose for photographs with “hula girls” to send to their families as souvenirs.”

“But for servicemen the food at the Cat was the major draw and after the war it was one of the most fondly recalled pleasures of their time in the Islands.”

“Prices were rock-bottom — the menu in 1941 listed hot dogs for 10 cents, hamburgers for 15 cents, a roast turkey dinner for 50 cents, and the most expensive item was the porterhouse steak with mushrooms for a dollar.” (USS Helena)

“(T)he bar most favored by servicemen. Many said it was the best joint to buy cheap beer and whiskey after working out at the YMCA across the street and before going in search of women.” (Knotts)

“But for servicemen the food at the Cat was the major draw and after the war it was one of the most fondly recalled pleasures of their time in the Islands.” (USS Helena)

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