Economy | Page 193 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 28, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Basket Ball

“A very interesting game is indulged in during an intermission, which is taken for rest and amusement combined. It is basket ball. A small wire basket is fastened to the wall on either end, about twelve feet from the floor.”

“Sides are chosen and each attempt to land a small rubber ball in the goal of the other team. The tactics involved in football are used with the exception that there is no kicking of the ball or tackling of players.” (Hawaiian Star, December 3, 1896)

“In the winter of 1891, Luther Gulick, the head of the physical education department at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, persuaded a young instructor named James Naismith to create an indoor game that could be played during the off-season.” (Basketball Hall of Fame)

Gulick’s first intention was to bring outdoor games indoors, namely, soccer and lacrosse. These games proved too physical and cumbersome.

At his wits’ end, Naismith recalled a childhood game, that he had referred to as “Duck on a Rock”, that required players to use finesse and accuracy to become successful. (SONAHR)

Gulick and Naismith developed the game we now call Basketball. The first formal game was played on December 29, 1891.

That day, 18 men at the School for Christian Workers (later the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts played a match in the Armory Street court: 9-versus-9, using a soccer ball and two peach baskets. (SONAHR)

“A major force in the early development of the sport, Gulick oversaw Naismith’s creation of the game, led basketball’s move to the national and international level, and in 1895 became the chairman of the Basketball Rules Organization.”

“Among his other achievements, Gulick developed the YMCA triangle symbol (signifying the YMCA’s physical, emotional, and intellectual pursuits that still remain today), served on the Olympic Committee for the London Games in 1908 …”

“… and is credited with forming such notable youth organizations as the Public School Athletic Leagues (PSAL) in New York, the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls.” (Basketball Hall of Fame)

Luther Halsey Gulick was born on December 4, 1865 at Honolulu, Hawai‘i, the fifth of seven children of Congregationalist missionaries, Luther Halsey Gulick and Louisa Lewis Gulick.

Young Luther spent the first fifteen years of his life abroad in Hawai‘i, Spain, Italy and Japan. Upon return to the US in 1880, he enrolled in the preparatory department of Oberlin College until 1882.

Luther was enrolled in Hanover High School in Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1882 to 1883. In 1884, he returned to Oberlin, where he studied physical education.

However, plagued throughout his life with heart problems and chronic headaches, Gulick had to leave Oberlin due to illness in 1885. He resumed his education the same year, however, when he joined the Sargent School of Physical Training, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The following year, Gulick became a student at the Medical College at the City University of New York where he was awarded the MD in 1889. He married Charlotte Emily Vetter on August 30, 1887. Together they had six children, Louise, Frances, Charlotte, Katharine, Luther, and John Halsey.

Throughout his life and career, Luther Halsey Gulick was greatly interested in physical education and hygiene. He also kept himself intensely busy.

While pursuing his medical degree between 1886 and 1889, he began his career as the physical director of the Jackson, Michigan YMCA in 1886.

In 1887, Gulick became head of the gymnasium department of the Young Men’s Christian Education’s Springfield Training School. It was there, in 1891, that the game of basketball was created. (Winter)

“He was recognized as an authority upon physical training in the public schools and the author of many books on this subject. A series of lectures at the St Louis Exposition in 1904 won him international recognition as an expert in such matters.”

“He was Chairman of the international Committee on Physical Recreation of the War Work Council of the YMCA until he had to give it up on account pf his health.” (NYTimes)

Luther’s sibling Edward Leeds Gulick and his wife Harriet Marie Gulick settled in Vermont and started the “Aloha Camp” there in 1905.

Fifteen years before women were allowed to vote, when floor length skirts and lace up boots were mandatory for playing any sport; when popular conduct books for girls encouraged a “retiring delicacy” …

… and declared that “one of the most valuable things you can learn is how to become a good housewife” – Harriet and Edward Gulick created a world in which every girl could discover her most adventurous self.

Aloha Camp afforded young women the knowledge, skills and freedom to explore wild nature on foot and on horseback, by skiff and by canoe; to kindle campfires in the woods and cook meals in the open air; to pitch tents over rough ground and sleep out of doors under the stars.

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Basketbal-equipment used in 1892

Naismith with what is believed to be the first US Basketball Team

James Naismith-Canadian physical education instructor who with Luther Gulick invented basketball in 1891

December 27, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bank of Hawai‘i

On December 27, 1897, Bank of Hawai‘i became the first chartered and incorporated bank to do business in the Republic of Hawai‘i; it is Hawai‘i’s second oldest bank. (BOH)

(Bishop & Co (later known as First Hawaiian Bank) started as a banking partnership under the laws of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i on August 17, 1858. (FHB))

The Bank of Hawai‘i charter was issued by James A King, Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Hawai‘i, and signed by Sanford Ballard Dole, president of the Republic.

Bank of Hawai‘i operated its first office from a two-story wooden building in downtown Honolulu, sharing space with the Hawaiian Safe Deposit & Investment Company, which Jones established in 1893 with his son, Edwin Austin Jones.

Previously, in 1893, Peter Cushman Jones persuaded close friends Joseph Ballard Atherton and Charles Montague Cooke (Atherton and Cooke were brothers-in-law) to join him in organizing a new bank in the Islands. (BOH)

Like any bank, Bank of Hawai‘i could not grow unless the community it served grew, a dependence that was directly related to the growth of Hawai‘i’s pineapple industry.

During the first years of the 20th century, at roughly the same time the territory’s political leaders first pushed for statehood, advances in the efficiency of canning methods fueled the expansion of pineapple production.

Sugar production increased as well, providing the seeds for Bank of Hawai‘i’s growth: waves of new immigrants and new businesses, both attracted by the flourishing pineapple and sugar industries. With it brought waves of immigrants to the Islands.

Between 1900 and 1940, the territory’s population increased substantially, nearly tripling from 154,001 to 422,770. The growth in population represented the growth of the bank’s potential customer base, providing a fertile economic climate that enabled Bank of Hawai‘i to establish itself as the territory’s largest bank.

Competition was strong; when Castle & Cooke found itself in ‘grave financial difficulties’ because of the expenses of Ewa Sugar Plantations, Bishop and Co refused to grant the firm an advance. Then the bank bounced a $54 Castle & Cooke check.

So when the fortunes of Ewa Plantations turned around, Castle & Cooke decided it was time to teach Bishop and Company a lesson.

Castle & Cooke withdrew all of the firm’s funds and walked back through the streets of Honolulu with a wheelbarrow full of gold coins to be deposited in the new Bank of Hawai‘i. Bank of Hawai‘i went on to finance the Alexander Young Hotel, and the Moana Hotel in Waikiki. (SB)

In 1903, Bank of Hawai‘i opened its first branch office in Lihue, Kauai. Later (1922,) it merged with First Bank of Hilo, acquiring branches in Hilo, Honokaʻa, Kohala, Kealakekua and Kāʻu.

That year (1922,) it completed construction of its main office; it’s site was where the old Paki house, ‘Haleakala,’ onetime home of Charles Reed Bishop and Bernice Pauahi Bishop once sttod. Hānai daughter of the Paki’s was Lili‘uokalani, later to be Hawai‘i’s last queen. (SB)

Bank of Hawai‘i milestones included being designated as the official depository for the US Navy, Pacific Theater in 1942 and being the first bank in Hawai‘i to establish a consumer loan department in 1946.

In 1966, Bank of Hawai‘i President Wilson Cannon Jr. added meaning to Aloha Friday when he began allowing employees to wear aloha shirts on the last business day of the week. (PBN)

Bank of Hawai‘i moved into new, modern headquarters in the Financial Plaza of the Pacific in 1968, located in almost the exact same site as Bank of Hawai‘i’s office when it was first founded.

The complex includes three buildings: the six-story Bank of Hawai‘i, the twenty-one-story Pacific Century Tower (originally the Castle and Cooke Tower – on the site where the former Castle & Cooke building once stood (1924-1966)) and the twelve-story American Savings and Loan Association Building. (Hibbard)

Bank of Hawai‘i is the primary subsidiary of Bank of Hawai‘i Corporation, a regional bank holding company. Bank of Hawai‘i Corporation through its subsidiaries provides varied financial services to businesses, consumers and governments in Hawaii, American Samoa and the Pacific Islands.

The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as “BOH.” In the community, Bank of Hawaii is also affectionately known as “Bankoh.” (BOH)

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Downtown and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 03 -Map-1899-1st location of Bank of Hawaii

December 22, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Dickie Cross

“Nobody went to the North Shore.”

Until the 1930s, modern surfing in Hawaiʻi was focused at Waikīkī; there the waves were smaller. Then, in 1937, Wally Froiseth and John Kelly, reportedly on a school trip, witnessed the large break at Mākaha and later surfed its waves. They were later joined by George Downing and others.

Riding at an angle to the wave, rather than the straight to shore technique, on the new “hot curl” board, with narrower tails and V-hulled boards, allowed them to ride in a sharper angle than anyone else.

Mākaha became the birthplace of big wave surfing. Even before Oʻahu’s North Shore, Mākaha was ‘the’ place for surfing – especially big-wave surfing.

In January 1955, the first Mākaha International Surfing Championships was held and for the next decade was considered the unofficial world championships of surfing.

“We were the first ones to go (to the North Shore.) Wally and John Kelly told me, they said, ‘Oh, there at (Sunset Beach,) there’s big waves over there.’” (Quotes in this summary are from an account by Woody Brown in Legendary Surfers.)

On December 22, 1943, Woody Brown and a young friend named Dickie Cross paddled out at Sunset on a rising swell. Up to this time, Sunset had rarely been ridden.

“Oh well, it’s winter time. There’s no surf in Waikiki at all, see. So, we got bored. You know how surfers get. Oh, let’s go over there and try over there. That’s how we got over there and got caught, because the waves were 20 feet.”

“Well, that wasn’t too bad, because there was a channel going out, see. The only thing is, when I looked from the shore, I could see the water dancing in the channel … the waves are piling in the bay from both sides, causing this narrow channel going out.”

“There were 20 foot waves breaking on each side. We went out to catch these waves and slide toward the channel. The only trouble was, the surf was on the way up. We didn’t know that. It was the biggest surf they’d had in years and years, see, and it was on the way up.”

“So, we got caught out there! It kept getting bigger and bigger and, finally, we were sitting in this deep hole where the surf was breaking on two sides and coming into the channel. The channel opened up into this big deep area where we were and the surf would break on two sides”.

“Then, all of a sudden, way outside in the blue water, a half mile out from where we were – and we were out a half mile from shore – way out in the blue water this tremendous wave came all the way down the coast, from one end to the other.”

“It feathered and broke out there! We thought, ‘Oh boy, so long, pal. This is the end. … 20 feet of white water, eh? Rolling in and just before it got to us, it hit this deep hole and the white water just backed-up. The huge swell came through, but didn’t break.”

“Oh, boy! Scared the hell out of us! Well, there was a set of about 5 or 6 waves like that. So, after the set went by, we said, ‘Hey, let’s get the hell inside. What are we doing out here? This is no place to be! Let’s get in!’”

“You have to be very careful of these channels. When the waves get big, the rip current just pours out of there, out of the bay. You can’t get in. Anyway, we didn’t know what to do.”

“So, finally, we decided, ‘Well, there was only one thing to do. We gotta wait until that huge set goes by’ … ‘then, we’ll paddle like hell to get outside of ’em and then paddle down the coast and come in at Waimea.

“By the time we got there, it kept getting bigger and bigger. It went up on the Haleiwa restaurant and it wiped out the road at Sunset. It was the biggest surf they’d had in years and we were stuck out there.”

“Then what I was afraid might happen did happen. In other words, a set came where we were — a big, tremendous set. Boy, outside of us there was just a step ladder a far as you could see, going uphill.”

“(W)e had agreed we’d go out in the middle of the bay, where it was safe, and sit there and watch the sets go by and see what it looked like. Then we could judge where to get in and what.”

“But, no! (Cross) starts cutting in, and I hollered at him, ‘Hey, hey, don’t go in there. Let’s go out in the middle!’ “‘Nah!’ ” “He just wouldn’t pay any attention.”

“So, he was going in and I would see him go up over these swells and come back out off the top. The next one would come and he’d disappear and then I’d see him come up over the top and it looked like he was trying to catch ’em.”

“I told him, ‘Come out, come out!’ It sounded like he said, ‘I can’t, Woody, I’m too tired.’ That’s what it sounded like. But then, he started swimming out towards me, so I started paddling in to catch him to pick him up on my board.”

“Well, you know, at a time like that, in that kind of big waves… you’re watching outside all the time … So, I’m paddling in and one eye’s out there and one eye’s on him to pick him up.”

“All of a sudden, his eyes see the darn mountains coming way outside in the blue water, just piling one on top of another, way out there. I turned around and started paddling outside for all I’m worth”.

“I started looking for Dickie, cuz he’s been inside of me. Oh, boy. I hollered and called and looked, swam around, and there was no more Dickie anywhere. It’s getting dark, now, too! The sun’s just about setting.”

“So, I’m swimming and I think, ‘Well, I’m gonna die, anyway, so I might just as well try to swim in, because, what the hell, I’m dead, anyway, if I’m gonna float around out here.'”

“I’ll swim out to the middle of the bay and I’ll wait and watch the big sets go by and after a big set goes by, then I just try swimming and hope to God I can get in far enough that when another big set comes in I’ll be where it isn’t so big and strong.”

“And that’s what I did. I was just lucky when the first one came. I’m watching it come, bigger and higher and higher and it broke way outside, maybe 4-5 hundred yards outside of me. I said, ‘Well, maybe I got a chance.’”

“So, I figured, ‘Man, if I lived through this one, I got a chance!’ Cuz each one, I’m getting washed in, eh? So, each time I dove a little less deep and I saw it was washing me in.”

“So, they washed me up on the beach. I was so weak, I couldn’t stand up. I crawled out on my hands and knees and these army guys came running down.”

“The first thing I said to them was, ‘Where’s the other guy?’ They said, ‘Oh, we never saw him after he got wrapped up in that first big wave.’”

“If he got ‘wrapped up’ meant that he was up in the curl, right? How else would you express it? So, I figured he tried to bodysurf in.” (Legendary Surfers)

Census records show Dickie Cross (born in 1925) was son of William and Annie Cross who emigrated from England in 1902. His father was a brick mason; they lived in Waikiki on Prince Edward Street, about a block mauka of what is now the Hyatt Regency.

Honolulu-born Dickie, along with older brother Jack, was a fixture on the Waikiki surfing and paddleboard-racing scene in the late-1930s and early-40s. While still in middle school, the two boys made a sailing canoe in their backyard, and sailed it, alone, from Waikiki to Molokai, a distance of 40 miles.

Cross’s death contributed greatly to what California big-wave rider Greg Noll later described as the ‘Waimea taboo’ – a general fear that kept surfers from riding the break until 1957.

As part of the Sunshine Freestyle Surfabout, there is the Dick Cross Memorial Distance Paddle that sends surfers on their boards from Carmel River Beach, around Carmel Point, California, all the way to the judges’ stands at Eighth and Scenic. Top paddlers do the distance in about 15-minutes.

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Dickie Cross, Queens, 1940

Wally Froiseth & Dickie Cross-1943

Dickie Cross (second from right), Waikiki, 1943

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December 21, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Millionaires Cruise

Matson Navigation Company’s long association with Hawaiʻi began in 1882, when Captain William Matson sailed his three-masted schooner Emma Claudina from San Francisco to Hilo, Hawaii, carrying 300 tons of food, plantation supplies and general merchandise.

That voyage launched a company that has been involved in such diversified interests as oil exploration, hotels and tourism, military service during two world wars and even briefly, the airline business. Matson’s primary interest throughout, however, has been carrying freight between the Pacific Coast and Hawaii. (Matson)

They started carrying people, too; via ship was the only way to get to/from the Islands. With increasing passenger traffic to Hawaii, Matson built a world-class luxury liner, the S.S. Malolo, in 1927.

At the time, the Malolo was the fastest ship in the Pacific, cruising at 22 knots. Its success led to the construction of the luxury liners Mariposa, Monterey and Lurline between 1930 and 1932. Matson’s famed “white ships” were instrumental in the development of tourism in Hawaii. (Matson)

Then, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce had an idea for a goodwill mission. “This good-will mission Around the Pacific is one of the most ambitious enterprises ever fostered by the Chamber of Commerce and has become of national, if not international, import.”

“It will be a good will mission in a literal sense because in its wide scope it embodies many purposes which will make it a tangible expression of good will from San Francisco and the nation, of which it is an important part, toward the other nations which fringe the wide stretches of the Pacific”. (Neale; San Francisco Business, April 10, 1929)

“The goodwill mission making the three months voyage on the Malolo will comprise component groups of business and professional men representing every line of constructive, commercial, industrial, social, professional and civic activity in San Francisco.”

“Briefly, the voyage will take three months. It will be made on the Malolo, known as the “Queen of the Matson fleet.” The itinerary includes stops at Yokohama, Tokyo, Nikko, Kobe, Kyoto, Peking, Shanghai, Hongkong, Manila, Saigon, Bangkok, Singapore, Batavia (Jakarta,) Soerabaya (Indonesia,) Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Suva, Pago Pago, Hilo and Honolulu.” (Neale; San Francisco Business, April 10, 1929)

“All of this was focused under the leadership of Mr. Charles C Moore. … He is a man, in San Francisco, of international mind and contact; he is a man of wide experience and vision; he is a man of dynamic energy; he is a man of tremendous idealism, practical idealism …”

“… he is a man who felt that he could discharge a duty here around the Pacific, having met the peoples of the world at the time of the great exposition, having had contacts with them all during these years.”

“We started out with the idea that we would get all of these people from San Francisco. We failed, fortunately. We thought we would get them all from California. We failed. The trip was on too grand a scale. The scope and character and cost of that trip was almost a million dollars – $900,000 to be exact – and so we appealed to the United States Chamber of Commerce.”

“We wanted it to be strictly a business trip. We secured representatives from twenty-six states and two territories. Practically every man aboard that boat was a business man, or interested in business problems.”

“The ladies on board the boat were either of the families, or they were business women, or women that sympathized most deeply and furnished a splendid background to the idealism of this particular trip.” (Neale; San Francisco Business, January 8, 1930)

On September 21, 1929, the SS Malolo sailed from San Francisco on the first leg of its Pacific cruise. Some 325 passengers were all acknowledged millionaires, specially selected by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Matson Navigation Company, owners of the SS Malolo. (McPhail)

This was to be the most luxurious cruise ever offered, aboard the world’s newest luxury liner. Because of the affluent passengers, the ‘Around Pacific Cruise’ was also dubbed the ‘Millionaires Cruise.’

They all started that way, but economic conditions changed into the cruise. The Great War had been won, stocks were soaring, speedy new cars and fancy electric products were all the rage, prohibition was ignored, and clothing and hairstyles were wild and loose and sexy.

Just 38 days later, on Black Tuesday – October 29, 1929 – the American stock market crashed and their lives were forever changed. (McPhail)

On Wall Street investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. Many went from fat cats to paupers. (Grace)

In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression (1929-39,) the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time.

The cruise continued across the Pacific, then to Hilo, Honolulu and home. “The Around The Pacific Good-Will Cruise was completed upon the return of the SS Malolo on December 21st (1929). This cruise is one of the outstanding achievements of the Chamber, and has established San Francisco’s leadership in Pacific trade.” (San Francisco Business)

“To sum up our trip briefly, I would like to say that in this trip we had a great vision of America’s place in the Pacific. The problems of all of these countries are our problems. If they are not solved it is going to wreck us as well as them.”

“The interests of the United States are bound up inextricably in this entire Pacific area. Our economic future is bound up there. The United States will realize more and more that the great future of this country is in the Pacific …”

“… and to properly meet the problems of the Pacific area, and of these Pacific countries, is a matter of vital interest to us and we must apply, in every possible way, all of the resources which we have to this end.” (Neale; San Francisco Business, January 8, 1930)

There was another outcome of the cruise. Typically ships were used as transportation to a destination, where passengers would disembark and stay at luxury hotels at their destination.

The Malolo was so luxurious that it was a destination in and of itself. It established a trend of cruising, where passengers could see far off places, and remain on board in luxury (in many cases those destinations did not have adequate land-based accommodations and would otherwise be bypassed.)

In the last 10-years, demand for cruising has increased 68%. Today (2016 estimates,) over 24-million passengers cruised the seven seas on nearly 450-ships, generating nearly $120-billion in total economic impact. (Cruise Lines International Association)

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Malolo-Honolulu Harbor

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December 17, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Wright Brothers

On December 14, 1903, the brothers tossed a coin to decide the flying order. Wilbur won the coin toss, but when he oversteered with the elevator after leaving the launching rail, the flyer climbed too steeply, stalled and dove into the sand. Three days later, they were ready for the second attempt.

At 10:35 am, December 17, 1903, Orville was at the controls. The flyer moved down the rail and with a total airspeed of 34 mph (27-mph headwind, the groundspeed was 6.8 mph,) Orville kept the plane aloft until it hit the sand about 120 feet from the rail – the first controlled and sustained power flight.

The brothers took turns flying three more times that day, getting a feel for the controls and increasing their distance with each flight. Wilbur’s second flight – the fourth and last of the day – was an impressive 852 feet in 59 seconds. (NPS)

Wait … this isn’t about those Wright Brothers. This is about the Wrights and some of the generations of respective brothers who were in the islands at about this same time.

Thomas and Jane (Wilson) Wright were from Durham, England. They had eight children: John Thomas, Mary Jane, William Wilson, Thomas, Isabell, Henry, Elizabeth (Polly,) and George Henry.

While the parents never left England, some of the siblings moved to New Zealand and then to Honolulu. Some siblings stayed in New Zealand. The youngest son, George Henry went to San Francisco.

The elder Wright was a blacksmith, a trade followed for more than 150 years by members of the family. In the early 1880s, at least three of the boys (Thomas, William Wilson and Henry) came to the Islands.

It was a time before the automobile; folks rode horseback or were carried in a horse or mule drawn carriage, trolley or omnibus (the automobile didn’t make it to the Islands until 1890.)

Until the mid-1800s, Hawaiʻi overland travel was predominantly by foot and followed traditional trails. To get around people walked, or rode horses or used personal carts/buggies.

It wasn’t until 1868, that horse-drawn carts became the first public transit service in the Hawaiian Islands, operated by the Pioneer Omnibus Line.

In 1888, the animal-powered tramcar service of Hawaiian Tramways ran track from downtown to Waikīkī. In 1900, the Tramway was taken over by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co (HRT.)

Before the introduction of automobiles, carriage makers’ shops had the place in the community now held by garages and repair shops.

The brothers set up respective carriage and blacksmithing facilities in Honolulu – Thomas and Henry formed Wright Brothers and William Wilson and his son formed WW Wright and Son (and Honolulu Carriage Manufactory.)

Thomas and his wife Elizabeth built a home in Waikiki in about 1890. Unfortunate and tragic events shortly followed with the death of their 10-year-old son Gladstone (due to a rockfall while on a Sunday school hike in Mānoa) and shortly thereafter, the death of their 7-year-old daughter Cicely (due to unknown disease.)

Thomas and Elizabeth then started making their home available as a bathhouse and called it Wright’s Villa. Just as “sea bathing” was gaining popularity on the American and European continents, private bathhouses, like Wright’s Villa, began to appear in Waikīkī. (White) They added dining and overnight accommodations.

Then, “Wright’s Villa has been rechristened and will henceforth be known as the ‘Waikīkī Inn.’ … It is conducted under the same management. You can have the same bathing on the best beach in the Islands, the same excellent dinner and if you are so inclined enjoy a bottle of claret while dining.” (Evening Bulletin, October 14, 1899)

Thomas and Elizabeth Wright left the Islands in 1899 and returned to Staindrop, England, never to return to the Islands (although they were constantly reminded of the Islands; they named their England home ‘Honolulu House.’)

Brother William Wilson (WW,) after being associated with the Wesson Foundry in England, went to Australia and, before coming to Honolulu, was employed for three years by the government railroad.

In the Islands, WW was first employed by CC Coleman, blacksmith; WW became associated with SM Whitman and JM Rose, carriage builders, later purchasing Mr Rose’s interest in the firm and consolidating it with the Hawaiian Carriage Co., remaining as a member of the firm until he established WW Wright & Son.

King Kalākaua, a personal friend of WW, was one of his patrons. When the Kaimiloa was being fitted for its historic but unsuccessful expedition to gain possession of Samoa for Hawai‘i, Mr. Wright had the contract for all iron work on the vessel.

Another son of WW was George Frederick Wright. George was born in Honolulu, April 23, 1881 and attended the old Fort Street School and graduated from Honolulu High School (McKinley) with the class of 1898.

Rather than follow the family tradition of blacksmithing, George became a professional surveyor, establishing himself as one of the foremost surveyors of the Territory through his direction of important surveys and other engineering works.

He entered the government survey department in June, 1898, and remained in public work until 1909, when he started business for himself. Among the larger commissions undertaken by the firm in recent years were surveys of the Parker Ranch property, on the Island of Hawai‘i and of the Island of Lanai, completed in 1925, as well as Pioneer Mill on Maui.

George later became the fifth person to serve as Mayor of Honolulu (starting in 1931.) He died in office in 1938 while traveling aboard the SS Mariposa. (Krauss) (Mayor Wright Housing in Kalihi was named after him.) (Lots of information here is from Nellist.)

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