Economy | Page 209 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

November 1, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1790s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1790s – including John Young and Isaac Davis joining Kamehameha, Vancouver visits, Battles of Kepaniwai and Nu‘uanu, etc. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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October 31, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA)

From 1835, when the first successful commercial plantation was started at Kōloa, Kauai, to 1999, when one of the last sugar plantations ceased operations, over 100 sugar plantations and mills played a major role in the economic and social history of Hawaii. (UH Manoa)

Sugar industry members first organized together in 1882 as Planters’ Labor and Supply Company; the initial issue of the Planters Monthly (1882) noted that present publications (newspapers) “do not seem adquate avenues for the discussion of matters pertaining to the agriculture of a country.”

“The questions of labor, methods and cost of planting operations, methods of sugar making, dangers to which crops may be exposed from insects, plant diseases, and other causes, labor saving and sugar machinery, markets for produce, live stock, manures and other topics of similar importance can better be discussed in a publication devoted to their consideration.”

Over the years, The Planters’ Labor and Supply Company … (served as) a voluntary organization of persons and corporations in interested sugar industry. … (It had as its) objects and purposes the improvement of the sugar Industry, the support of an experiment station, the maintenance of a sufficient supply of labor, and the development of agriculture in general.” (Evening Bulletin, 1909)

Then, “After two days’ session the Planters’ Labor and Supply Company has passed out of existence and a new name substituted, under which much better results are hoped for.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 29, 1895)

An 1895 newspaper announcement noted By-Laws of the newly formed Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA) (evolved from the Planters’ Labor and Supply Company.)

“This Association shall be known as the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association and shall have for its objects the improvement of the sugar industry, the support of an experimental station and laboratory, the maintenance of a sufficient supply of labor, and the development of agriculture in general.”

“Members of this Association may be Sugar plantations or Mill Companies and individuals who are directly interested in Sugar plantations or Mills, but the Trustees of this Association may at their discretion admit other plantation companies and individuals engaged in other agricultural pursuits.” (The Independent, November 27, 1895)

HSPA was funded by the industry through self-assessments on each ton of sugar produced. The charge was determined based on the amount the board approved in the operating budget for HSPA. Each plantation company contributed based on the tons sugar produced.

The HSPA not only conducted scientific research in areas of improved seed, fertilization, and irrigation practices but also centralized management information and decision-making among the various plantations as it became a repository for knowledge of the sugar industry in Hawai’i.

HSPA was early to recognize to see the need to protect the Islands’ water supplies by reforesting mauka areas. On November 21, 1906, HSPA resolved that it “hereby expresses its hearty approval of the policy of setting apart forest reserves, inaugurated and now being prosecuted by the Territorial authorities …”

And that rangers should be provided “to guard and protect such reserves from fire, trespassers and depredation, (and) By the initiation of systematic reforesting of such portions of said reserves as are not now covered with trees”.

They later followed up in December 1916, resolving that “the public interests of the Territory urgently require that a systematic working plan for reforesting the several islands, more particularly the Island of Oahu, from the standpoint of the conservation of water, should be drawn up, adopted, and put into execution at as early a date as practicable”.

In 1919, the HSPA bought 124-acres and Harold Lyon was put in charge of a newly created Department of Botany and Forestation for the Territory of Hawai‘i. He organized the first plant pathology Department established in any US Experiment Station, and also developed the Manoa Arboretum for botanical studies (renamed the Harold L Lyon Arboretum after his death in 1957.)

“Members and administrators of the HSPA appear to acknowledge the difficult physical nature of manual labour in the sugar cane fields.” “Evidence from the early 1920s suggests that there were attempts by Hawaiian sugar plantation management to develop processes that measured individual productivity.”

“It was seen as an undertaking to reward individual efforts and help alleviate labour shortages that continued, albeit at a lower rate, through the 1930s Great Depression.” (Dyball & Rooney)

As an organization representing one of the largest industries in Hawai‘i prior to World War II, the HSPA and its members wielded great economic and political influence. (Nakamura)

Through the 1950s sugar was the dominant economic engine of the Hawaiian Islands. The owners and operators of the factory companies and plantations set the economic, social and political tone of the Islands. (HARC)

HSPA built its main experiment station and administrative facilities at Makiki in 1917 (much of its former outplanting area is now the fields of the Makiki District Park;)in the early-1970s HSPA moved to a new facility in Aiea.

In addition to that, HSPA had a large leased area at Waipiʻo, the Helemano Variety Station, the Ewa Variety Station, the Kailua Substation, the Manoa Arboretum (late known as the Lyon Arboretum, and a few other O‘ahu sites.

On the Island of Hawaii there are four cane variety units (in Hilo, Hāmākua, Kohala and the Hawai‘i Seed Nursery,) as well as other facilities. Kauai had the Kauai Variety Station at Lihue; the Maui substation was at HC&S and Molokai had sugar-cane quarantine facilities.

As plantations began, merged and closed, the business records of these enterprises were often lost or placed in jeopardy. In 1981, HSPA created the Plantation Archives to serve as a repository for records of plantations that chose to donate their records. In 1995, the collection was donated to the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa Library. (UH Manoa)

The organization changed its name again in 1996 to Hawai‘i Agriculture Research Center (HARC) which reflects its expanding scope to encompass research in forestry, coffee, forage, vegetable crops, tropical fruits, and many other diversified crops in addition to sugarcane.

In addition to serving Hawaii’s agricultural industries through research and immediate response teams to solve problems, HARC helps other local, national, and international organizations meet their research, on-site consulting, and training needs.

HARC offers a wide array of agricultural services. Mainland seed companies take advantage of Hawaii’s favorable weather conditions by utilizing HARC’s field and nursery services for winter growouts, seed increases, and testing. The analytical chemistry laboratory specializes in residue studies conducted according to EPA Good Laboratory Practices. (HARC)

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19700520 – Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association property in Makiki. Star-Bulletin BW by Warren Roll.

19610213 – The Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association campus in Makiki. BW Star-Bulletin photo.

HSPA administration building (fronting Keeaumoku Street)

HSPA Center Aiea

Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station-PP-8-9-007-00001

Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station-PP-8-9-006-00001

Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station-PP-8-9-005-00001

Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station-PP-8-9-004-00001

Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station-PP-8-9-003-00001

Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station-PP-8-9-002-00001

Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station-PP-8-9-001-00001

HSPA facility Aiea

HSPA entranct to administrative building at experiment station in Makiki

October 30, 2016 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

John Joseph Halstead

John Joseph Halstead was born on October 30, 1808 in a notable New York City family of the early Colonial days. His father had intended him for a physician, but young Halstead was unable to overcome his natural repugnance to handling cadavers.

He gave up his medical studies and went to sea in a whaler. Returning from his first whaling voyage he fell in love, but chose to go on another whaling voyage before marrying.

A whaling voyage in those days took all of three years, and on his return he found his betrothed betrayed him for another man. Halstead left New York for a voyage to the “off-shore whaling grounds” in the South Pacific Ocean off the South American coast.

In the year 1840 John Joseph Halstead sailed to Hawaii on a whaling ship bringing with him from New York carpentry and cabinet-makings skills. He set up a shop in Lāhainā.

With his Germanic influence in making furniture in the Empire style Halstead seems to have worked exclusively with koa, a wood native to Hawai‘i.

In many of his large pieces he mixed light and dark wood for dramatic effect. Few of these objects survive today. This is mainly due to devastating attacks by termites which are extremely active and destructive in the Hawaiian Islands. (Martin)

It was said to be the first man to put up a frame house in Lāhainā. He married ‘Uwaikikilani, a granddaughter of Isaac Davis (who helped Kamehameha in his conquest.)

He and his family moved over to Kalepolepo, along the Kihei shoreline, and shortly thereafter built a new house for himself. (Wilcox)

It was a large Pennsylvania Dutch style house made entirely of koa, built next to the south wall of Ko‘ie‘ie Loko I‘a (fishpond) (also called Kalepolepo Fishpond.)

Halstead’s three story house/store was nicknamed the ‘Koa House.’ With the mullet-filled fishpond, the Koa House became a popular retreat for Hawaiian royalty such as Kamehameha III, IV, V and Lunalilo. (Starr)

He opened a trading station on the lower floor. Whalers came ashore to buy fresh produce that was brought in by the farmers via the Kalepolepo Road.

The western trading interests at Kalepolepo between 1850 and 1860 were focused on the whaling and maritime trading industries, and co-existed with the continued traditional activities that focused on fishing and maintaining the ponds.

He promoted the Irish potato industry in Kula, which even then was a thriving industry for provisioning whale ships in their seasonal voyages after whales.

During the Irish potato boom of those days any native farmer with an acre or two of potatoes would sell his crop, and as soon as he received payment in fifty-dollar gold pieces he would hurry off to the nearest store to buy a silk dress for his wife or a broadcloth suit for himself.

Kula produce was also shipped out by Halstead to California during the gold rush era. During this period, Hobron’s interisland schooner, Maria, made regular stops (about every 10 days) at Kalepolepo, on its route between Honolulu, Lāhainā, Makee’s Landing (Makena) and Kawaihae.

During the 1850s Kalepolepo was not so barren looking a place. Coconut trees and kou trees grew beside pools of clear water, along the banks of which grew the taro and the ape (a giant plant which grows nowhere else on earth to-day), and was the scene of the labors of David Malo. (Wilcox)

From the 1840s to 1860s a small whaling station was maintained at Kalepolepo. During the winter and spring months schools of whales would come to stay or calf in the quiet waters of Ma‘alaea Bay.

Whale boats manned by native crews officered by experienced whalers would go out to battle with the big mammals, and if successful would return towing the carcass in to be cut up and tried for oil.

Once, a big whale came in close ashore on a Sunday. The temptation proved too much for the whalers, and Halstead himself went out, harpooned the whale – in defiance of the strict Sunday laws.

Halstead was summoned to court. His bail was fixed at $25, which was paid (the whale fetched thousands of dollars in oil and whalebone.)

In 1876, Halstead closed his store and moved to ʻUlupalakua, where he died eleven years later, May 3, 1887. (Wilcox) (NPS) (Lots of information here is from NPS and Wilcox.)

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John Joseph Halstead-Koa House-Paradise of the Pacific-1921

Uwaikikilani Halstead-Stanley-Hassrick-1849

Uwaikikilani Halstead-Stanley-Hassrick

Koieie-Fishpond-NPS

Koieie_Fishpond-NPS

Kihei Coastline-Kalepolepo-Pepalis

John Joseph Halstead-gravestone

October 28, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Late-1880s

The Statue of Liberty was made in France and was proposed by Edouard de Laboulaye, sculpted by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi and funded by the French people.

It was shipped in 1885 to New York and placed onto Liberty Island in New York Harbor. It wasn’t dedicated by Grover Cleveland until on October 28, 1886.

That year, John Pemberton begins selling his formula (a mixture of cocaine and caffeine) at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.

It was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda fountains. Coca Cola no longer contains Cocaine but that is how it got its name.

Geronimo (Mescalero-Chiricahua: Goyaałé [kòjàːɬɛ́] “the one who yawns” (June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader from the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache tribe.

From 1850 to 1886 Geronimo joined with members of three other Chiricahua Apache bands – the Chihenne, the Chokonen and the Nednhi – to carry out numerous raids as well as resistance to US and Mexican military campaigns in the northern Mexico states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and in the southwestern American territories of New Mexico and Arizona.

Geronimo’s raids and related combat actions were a part of the prolonged period of the Apache-American conflict that started with American settlement in Apache lands following the end of the war with Mexico in 1848.

In 1886, Geronimo, described by one follower as ‘the most intelligent and resourceful … most vigorous and farsighted’ of the Apache leaders, surrendered to General Nelson A Miles in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, after more than a decade of guerilla warfare against American and Mexican settlers in the Southwest.

The terms of surrender require Geronimo and his tribe to settle in Florida, where the Army hopes he can be contained. (In 1894, Geronimo and others were relocated at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.)

The National Geographic Society, founded on January 27, 1888 in Washington DC, has gone on to become the world’s largest scientific and geographical distribution organization.

Its original premise was ‘for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge.’ In the field, National Geographic has supported exploration, education and conservation and a number of geological, natural and literary sources since 1888.

In 1888, George Eastman introduced the Kodak No 1, a simple and inexpensive Box Camera that brings photography to all. Because of their simplicity, ease of use and cost, the cameras became an enormous success.

That year, Scottish Inventor John Boyd Dunlop patents the first practical pneumatic or inflatable tyre. Also that year, on August 31, 1888, the first victim of the murderer called ‘Jack the Ripper’ was discovered in London.

The Eiffel Tower, or the Tour Eiffel, was opened on March 31, 1889, and was the work of a Gustave Eiffel, who was a bridge engineer.

It was made for the centenary of the French Revolution and was chosen over one hundred other plans that were given. Eiffel’s engineering skills would preface later architectural designs.

The Tower stands at twice the height of both the St Peter’s Basilica and the Great Pyramid of Giza. Its metallic construction was completed within months.

On June 21, 1887, Britain celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, which marked the 50th year of her reign. Queen Kapiʻolani Princess Lili‘uokalani and her husband General Dominis, C.P. Iaukea, Governor of Oahu, Colonel J.H. Boyd, Mr. Sevellon Brown, Captain D.M. Taylor, and Lieutenant C.R.P. Rodgers, and four servants attended the Jubilee.

Queen Kapiʻolani brought along Liliʻuokalani to serve as her interpreter. Even though Kapiʻolani was raised to understand English, she would speak only Hawaiian. Newspapers noted that Liliʻuokalani was fluent in English while Kapiʻolani spoke ‘clumsily.’ (UH Manoa Library)

Queen Kapiʻolani had left the Islands under stress. Just before she left, Liliʻuokalani and Kalākaua’s sister, Miriam Likelike, wife of Archibald Cleghorn and mother of Princess Kaʻiulani, died on February 2, 1887. Her return was under stress, and expedited, as well.

Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee was held on June 20 and 21, 1887. On June 30, 1887, the Honolulu Rifles demanded that King Kalākaua dismiss his cabinet and form a new one.

Within days, with firearms in hand, the Hawaiian League presented King Kalākaua with a new constitution. Kalākaua signed the constitution under threat of use of force. (hawaiibar-org) As a result, the new constitution earned the nickname, The Bayonet Constitution.

“Queen Kapiʻolani and party reached (New York) from London (on July 11.) The queen expressed a wish to return home as soon as possible consistent with the health of the suite. It was decided not to stop more than a day or two at the longest in New York.”

“The queen … had been inclined to tears when she first heard the news of the Hawaiian revolution”. (Bismarck Weekly Tribune, July 15, 1887) Queen Kapiʻolani returned to Hawai‘i on July 26, 1887.

On July 30, 1889, Robert William Wilcox led a rebellion to restore the rights of the monarchy, two years after the Bayonet Constitution had left King Kalākaua a mere ﬁgurehead.

By the evening, Wilcox became a prisoner and charged with high treason by the government. He was tried for treason, but acquitted by the jury.

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Statue of Liberty, ‘Liberty Enlightening the World,’ in New York Harbor, on October 28, 1886

1876: The hand and torch of the Statue of Liberty on display at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, in Philadelphia, ten years before the rest of the statue was completed. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

Statue of Liberty towers over Paris rooftops in 1884, outside Bartholdi’s workshop

Statue of Liberty -Hand and torch being built in a Paris studio around 1876

Geronimo_17apr1886

Apache_chief_Geronimo_(right)_and_his_warriors_in_1886

Queen_Victoria’s_Golden_Jubilee_Service,_Westminster_Abbey-June_21,_1887

Queen_Victoria Jubilee-Kapiolani_and_Liliuokalani_at_the_Stewart_Estate,_England,_1887

Hawaiian_League_(PP-36-3-005)

honolulu_rifles_in_full_regalia_pp-52-1-019

Lajolla-1906 (the same in late-1880s)

Eiffel’s chief engineer came up with the original concept in 1884

Eiffel-tower-in-July-1888

Brooklyn_Bridge-under_construction

Brooklyn_Bridge-1890s

October 27, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

‘Toots’

His father was Albert Edward Minvielle who “served in Porto Rico, before coming to Hawai‘i, as a sanitary officer under the United States officials and carries high recommendations from these and other employers.”

The father later worked for the Honolulu Police Department as an interpreter. He later “has been twice already to Porto Rico for laborers for Hawaii and it was through him that the first Porto Ricans were brought to the (Islands.)” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 31, 1909)

He became the chief recruiter for the Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Association. Minvielle’s recruitment for the HSPA resulted in eleven expeditions bringing to Hawaii some 5,000-Puerto Ricans between December 23, 1900, and October 19, 1901. Of this number, 2,930 were men, and the rest were women and children. (O’Brien)

The son took the father’s name, but he generally went by the name ‘Toots.’ Toots Minvielle was born June 1, 1903 in Ola‘a Hawaii, where his father managed a sugar plantation store. Toots moved to Oahu in 1916.

The University of Hawai‘i formed its first swim team on October 1924. The swimmers did not have a coach, Team captain was ‘Toots” Minvielle. The team finished with a loss to Pearl Harbor Marines and a win against McKinley HS. (Cisco)

After graduating in 1929 from the University of Hawai‘i as an Engineer and Land Surveyor, he worked on Molokai as a Military surveyor. (Jacobs)

An avid waterman, Toots is credited with starting the Molokai to O‘ahu canoe race, as well as introducing outrigger canoes in California – and, building the first fiberglass outrigger canoe.

“I worked for Molokai Ranch from 1934 to 1938, and that’s when I got the idea for a Molokai to Oʻahu canoe race. All the races then were flat-water races, and I wanted to race in the open ocean. I tried to get George Cooke of Molokai Ranch to sponsor it, but I couldn’t interest him or anyone else until 1952.”

“That year two friends of mine, John Lind and Vance Faucett, were involved with Aloha Week, and they got the committee (to agree) to sponsor the race if I could get three teams to enter. Waikīkī Surf Club was the first to enter with their canoe the Malia.”

“The second team was a crew from Kukui o Lanikāula Canoe Club of Molokai. They used a 30-foot canoe I had picked up at Nāpoʻopoʻo. The third team was a bunch of guys from Ala Moana Park, and they used a 30-foot canoe owned by Dad Center. Each team had a six-man crew.”

“We set the race for October 27 (others note it was October 12, 1952) and decided it would start at Kawākiu and end at the Moana Hotel. … We all slept (on the beach at Kawākiu) that night. In the morning we had a service, and then I went out on the point. The surf was really big, and I signaled with a towel between sets to get the boats in the water.”

“When the three boats were out, I started the race, then flew back to Oʻahu. In the channel, the Malia’s lashing broke three times. Surf Club had also rigged a plywood keel to the bottom of the ama that they thought would help them track better in the open ocean.”

“They sawed it off in mid-channel. And none of the canoes had splash covers, so they all had to bail the whole race. Surf Club had the Malia, the best boat, and they probably should have won, but all of their problems slowed them down.”

“Molokaʻi won in eight hours and fifty-five minutes, Surf Club was second, and the guys from Ala Moana Park were third. They all finished within eighteen minutes of each other. Francis Brown had put up $500 for first place and the Aloha Week committee had put up $300 for second and $ 100 for third. (AE “Toots” Minvielle, November 30, 1977; Clark)

“Outrigger-canoe racing … was brought to the Mainland in 1959 by (Minvielle,) considered the father of the sport.” (LA Times) The first outrigger race held there was on September 20, 1959, a long distance race from Avalon on Catalina Island to the Newport Dunes inside the California Coast.

The first race involved two canoes shipped to California from Hawaii through the efforts of Minvielle. Both of them were koa wood canoes with the names Malia (calm waters) and Niuhi (shark.) (CatalinaCrossing)

In 1954, Minvielle built the first fiberglass canoe, and it proved equal to canoes made of koa, which was growing scarce. Today, most races have special divisions for koa canoes. (Sports Illustrated)

In 1970 he sent the first Hawaiian team to race in Tahiti, in 1976 to Japan, and in 1978 to England to race the English Channel.

While introducing the German people – particularly their Olympic athletes – to outrigger canoe paddling, in 1981, Toots approached the International Olympic Committee and proposed the acceptance of outrigger canoe racing as an Olympic event. (Jacobs)

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