Economy | Page 215 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 7, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lihue Plantation

“(T)he plains of Whymea … are reputed to be very rich and productive, occupying a space of several miles in extent, and winding at the foot of these three lofty mountains far, into the country.”

“In this valley is a great tract of luxuriant, natural pasture, whither all the cattle and sheep imported by me were to be driven, there to roam unrestrained, to ‘increase and multiply.’” (Vancouver, February 1794)

The Waimea of the 1830s and 40s was a busy place. Wild cattle were being caught for hides and beef, tanneries were turning hides into leather, sugar cane was being milled into sugar, and farm products were being grown. In 1835, the Protestant minister, Lorenzo Lyons, wrote to the mission headquarters in Honolulu:

“Waimea ought to be supplied (with more missionaries) for it has become the residence of Governor Adams (Kuakini – brother of Kaʻahumanu) … and many foreigners reside there…” (Lyons, June 25, 1835)

One reason for the presence of so much activity in Waimea was its proximity to the port of Kawaihae, a preferred stopping place for sailing vessels due to its relatively safe anchorage and good provisioning. The ships had access to plentiful supplies of water, salt, beef, pork, sweet potatoes, etc.

On (September 7, 1835) the Diana arrived 92 days from Canton via Bonin Islands. … Brig full of miscellaneous cargo … the principal of the balance to the Chinamen in French’s employ….”

“There were in the brig four Chinese sugar manufacturers with a stone mill and 400 to 600 pots for cloying and 5 cast Iron boilers. They are under control of Atti (Ahtai who was employed by William French) and hopefully can be obtained on fair terms.” (William Hooper, Ladd & Company; Kai)

Besides his interest in sugar, French had a store and a warehouse at Kawaihae as well as a store, a home and a tannery in the uplands at Waimea, Kohala. (Kai)

A visitor to the area in 1839 noted, “I accompanied Mr French on a walk to a place about two miles distant where the business of tanning is being carried on under the direction of Chinamen. The establishment is extensive and the leather exhibited … was of a very superior quality. Besides a saddlemaker close by the tan works, Mr. French has a shoemaker and a carpenter in his employ.” (Olmstead)

Records have not been found giving the names of these Chinese tanners but the names of six other Chinese men who were in the Waimea area during the 1830s and early 1840s are known. These were Ahpong, Ahsam, Ahchow, Aiko (Lum Jo), Lau Ki or Kalauki, and Apokane (Ahsing.) (Kai)

The first sugar mill is described as having been established by a Chinese man named Lau Ki, who had come to Hawai‘i with Captain Joseph Carter, grandfather of AW Carter. The mill was powered by a water wheel using water from Waikoloa Stream. (Stewart)

The sugar plantation was doing business under the name of Achow & Company. (Kai) It was situated in Lihue, an area in Waimea that is generally where the Lālāmilo agricultural subdivision is situated.

Aiko, whose Chinese name was Lum Jo, was listed as one of the six ‘sugar masters’ who came to Hawaiʻi between 1820-1840. He appears to have been one of the principal partners in Lihue Plantation.

Aiko married a Hawaiian woman from the Waimea area in 1835 and they had a daughter, Amelia, born in 1836. Aiko’s wife, Maria Kaʻahuapeʻa, probably from the Waimea area, was baptized a Catholic in 1840. Amelia was their only natural child. They raised other children, hānai and adopted. (Kai)

In 1843, Aiko and his partners sold the Lihue mill, their tools, the cane in the fields and whatever rights they had in their original agreement with Governor Kuakini, to Abraham (Abram) Henry Fayerweather. (Kai)

After selling the plantation Aiko went up to Kohala where he started another plantation in Iole, then came down to Hilo to start another plantation on Ponahawai and he was involved in various businesses including the first bowling alley in Hilo. (Clarry)

Back in Waimea, on December 5, 1843 Fayerweather entered into an agreement with Kuakini. That agreement noted, in part, “Kuakini shall plant sugar cane at Waimea and when the same shall be ripe, shall carry or cause the same to be carried to the sugar mill of AH Fayerweather at Waimea, and shall also furnish men to do all the labour for same including the grinding, and shall furnish firewood for boiling the same.”

“That, AH Fayerweather shall furnish a mill for grinding the aforenamed cane, a sugar maker and all the tools for making the sugar and molasses, and the sugar and molasses, proceeds of the aforenamed cane, shall be shared equally between the said Kuakini and AH Fayerweather, one half each.”

“This agreement is to commence on the first day of January AD one thousand eight hundred and forty four, and is to continue and be binding on the parties, for themselves their heirs and assigns for the term of five years.”

“It is also agreed that the land now planted with cane by the said AH Fayerweather and also heretofore planted by Achow & Co at Waimea, shall be free from taxes of all kinds.” (Kuakini/Fayerweather Agreement)

Although unsuccessful, sugarcane continued to be cultivated in Waimea after George W Macy and James Louzada purchased the mill in 1853. Macy and Louzada leased a large portion of Puʻukapu in 1857 for growing sugarcane. However, cultivation of sugarcane in Puʻukapu was abandoned by 1877. (Kai)

While sugar was out; cattle was in.

Around this time, more lands were converted to pasturage and holding pens; and, according to Lorezo Lyons, Waimea had turned into a “cattle pen” and “(b)y another unfavorable arrangement 2/3 of Waimea have been converted to a pasture for government herds of cattle, sheep, horses, etc.” (MKSWCD)

In 1847, the branding of wild cattle became a government function, overseen by William Beckley. That same year, John Palmer Parker purchased the first acres of land that would become Parker Ranch. (Bergin)

Shortly after, in 1850, the King appointed George Davis Hueu, of Waikoloa, as “Keeper of the Cattle” at Waimea, Mauna Kea and surrounding districts. (MKSWCD)

Likewise, because of the demand for Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes by those in California involved with the Gold Rush, Waimea farmers began to increase their production and shipping of potatoes to California, along with other agricultural products. (Stewart)

(Lihue Plantation Company on Kauai originated in 1849 as a partnership between Charles Reed Bishop, Judge William L. Lee, and Henry A. Pierce of Boston; H Hackfeld & Co. served as agents.)

(The site of the mill was selected in the valley of the Nāwiliwili stream; water power was used to drive the mill rollers, which were iron bound granite crushers brought from China. A centrifugal sugar dryer was installed in 1851. Open kettles provided the means for boiling the syrup.) (HSPA)

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April 5, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Soaring, Surfing & Sailing

Born in New York on April 5, 1912, the older of two children, Woodbridge (Woody) Parker Brown came from a very wealthy home, headed by a father with a seat on the Wall Street Stock Exchange. Woody was expected to step into that position.

But he had other ideas and, at the age of 16, walked away from school in favor of hanging out at Long Island airfields, because he was crazy about planes. He learned to fly, and acquired a glider. (Gillette)

He met aviator Charles Lindbergh at Curtis Field on Long Island. Inspired by Lindbergh, Woody learned to fly in a Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny,” an obsolete single-engine trainer used by the US Army Air Service in World War I. (Kampion)

Woody virtually lived at New York’s Curtis Field where he became a protégé of Lindbergh, but Woody soon discovered that his true passion was for the unique world of gliders, soaring silently on invisible currents of air. His goal was to acquire the finely tuned sensitivity required to read the air and wind with nothing to hold him aloft but his own skill. (dlbfilms)

“Soaring appealed to me because it’s like surfing or sailing. It’s working with nature; not ‘Brute Force and Bloody Ignorance.’ You know, you give something enough horse power and no matter what it is it’ll fly.”

“Flying was brand new, then! Every time you took off it was an experiment. You didn’t know what was gonna happen. Every flight was a brand new flight. So, it was real exciting.” (Brown; Gault-Williams)

He soon met Elizabeth (Betty) an Englishwoman and they headed West to San Diego in 1935. The young couple lived at La Jolla, where Woody got into bodysurfing, then surfing.

He built his own board, a hollow plywood “box” that would float him so he could catch waves at Windansea, Bird Rock, and Pacific Beach. His second board – the “snowshoe” – was more refined.

He adapted some of the aerodynamic wisdom he’d acquired to the much denser medium of water. The outline was traced from the fuselage of his glider; it featured a vee bottom and a small skeg.

At nearby Torrey Pines, he was the first to launch a glider from the high bluffs into the vaulting updraft of the onshore breeze. He survived a couple of near-death experiences there and a couple of crashes riding the inland thermals. He became a soaring champion, winning meets around the state and country.

In the midst of “the happiest years of my life” (Kampion,) in 1939, at Wichita Falls, Brown flew his Thunderbird glider 263-miles to national and world records of altitude, distance, maximum time aloft and goal flight. President Herbert Hoover sent him a congratulatory telegram. (Marcus)

He made it home for the birth of his son; unfortunately, his wife, Betty, died in childbirth. Distraught, he left his infant son and all of his possessions in La Jolla and moved to Hawai‘i (he eventually reconciled with his abandoned son, some 60 years after the fact.) (Surfer)

“I left my car, the garage, my home, glider, everything. I don’t know what happened to them. I just walked out and left everything. When you’re off your rocker that way, you know, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

In the early 1940s, Brown joined surfing pioneer Wally Froiseth and began surfing pristine waves in remote places like Mākaha and the North Shore.

Flying was not available in Hawai‘i at the time, so he tried to surf the sadness out of his system. He’d go out in the morning and surf all day long. “I’d be able to sleep a little ‘cause I was so damn tired … I survived. Surfing saved my life.” (Brown; Marcus) In 1943, he married Rachel.

A conscientious objector, during WWII he worked as a surveyor for the Navy on Christmas Island. There, he noticed double-hull canoes.

When he returned to Hawai‘i, Woody and a Hawaiian friend, Alfred Kumalae, went to Bishop Museum and studied all the Polynesian canoes on display. (Gillette)

He teamed with Rudy Choy, Warren Seaman and Alfred Kumalae who started C/S/K Catamarans. They designed and built Manu Kai, a 38-foot double-hulled sailing catamaran (using wooden aircraft construction techniques.)

In 1943, Brown and Dickie Cross got caught in rising surf at Sunset beach and paddled down the coast looking for a lull in the massive waves. They ended up at Waimea, where the bay was closing out with sets as big as 20-30 feet.

Cross went over the falls of one wave and was never seen again. Barely alive, Woody crawled up in the beach in the darkness. Spooked by the disappearance of Cross, big-wave riders would wait a decade before trying to tackle Waimea Bay again. (Coleman)

Brown was one of three surfers photographed charging down a giant Mākaha wave in 1953. The iconic photo, which appeared in newspapers around the world, is credited with triggering a migration of surfers to Hawai‘i.

George Downing, who along with Buzzy Trent, was also on the 20-foot wave. “(Brown) was the only one that made the wave. That was point break at Mākaha. Where Woody was he was on the perfect place on the wave.” (Downing; Star-Bulletin)

During the ’50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, Woody continued his carefree life of surfing and sailing; in 1971, Woody, then 59, took a glider to a Hawaiian altitude record of 12,675-feet. Not long after, Woody lost his beloved wife Rachel. (dlbfilms) In 1986, Woody flew off to the Philippines, where he met and married his third wife, a young woman named Macrene.

Woody Brown dedicated the rest of his life, a life which he has always considered to be blessed, to giving as much as he can through service to others. His sense of spirituality mixes elements of the Christian tradition with his lifelong love of nature and his sense of gratitude for the gifts he feels he’s been given.

If you asked him if he’s a Christian, he’d say no. If you asked him who he considers his ultimate role model, he’d say Jesus Christ. Woody marched to his own drummer. (dlbfilms) In 1980, he wrote The Gospel of Love: A Revelation of the Second Coming.

A film of his life, ‘Of Wind and Waves: The Life of Woody Brown’ premiered to great acclaim at Mountainfilm in Telluride where it won The Inspiration Award. In 2004, the 35-minute version won the “Audience Award for Best Short” at the Maui Film Festival.

Woody Brown died April 16, 2008 on Maui, he was 96. “Woody Brown was one of the first and greatest icons in the history of surfing.”

“He was the essential surfer, an iconoclast: extremely independent, futuristic and, most especially, healthy, which explains why he lived for 96 very productive, wonderful years. And I only hope more of us who call ourselves surfers can live the way Woody lived. Sad as anyone passing is, what a joyous life.” (Fred Hemmings)

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Woody Brown, George Downing and Buzzy Trent at Makaha in 1953

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Woody_Brown-model of Manu Kai

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The Gospel of Love-A Revelation of the Second Coming

April 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Canec

Between 1879 and 1948, Waiākea Mill Company conducted mill operations at Waiākea Pond. Bagasse – a by-product of sugarcane – became a secondary industry, first as a fuel for the mills’ boilers, then as the main ingredient for a wallboard product.

As commercial fuel oils became increasingly available in the late 1920s, the use of bagasse as a fuel declined. This byproduct of production was then creatively used to manufacture a wallboard product for construction.

In 1929, Hawaiian Cellulose Ltd, a subsidiary of the Waiākea Mill Company applied for a patent for the manufacture of it. (County of Hawai‘i)

On May 23, 1930, “The leading plantation agencies and a group of business men organise a $2,250,000 corporation for the manufacture of wallboard and other universally used bagasse fiber products. The name chosen was the Hawaiian Cane Products, Limited.” (The Friend, June 1930)

Later that year, the directors of the company “authorized the purchase of a one-hundred-ton daily capacity plant for the manufacture of insulating board from bagasse.” (The Friend, October, 1930) (It ended up costing $2.5-million.)

April 27, 1932, the company’s Hilo plant (at Waiākea, adjoining Wailoa Pond) was opened; the company emphasized “the overseas distribution for which the industry aims.” (The Friend, June 1, 1932) (By 1934, “five carloads were shipped … to Manchuria.” (Friend, July 1, 1934))

Canec was originally the brand name for pressed fiber board made by Hawaiian Cane Products, Ltd., but it has become commonly used to refer to all pressed board of this type.

It was formed into sheets similar in size to drywall, as well as other sizes for use as ceiling and wallboard. Canec was used for interior ceilings and walls in many residential and commercial structures throughout the state of Hawai‘i. (DOH)

Reportedly, Charles William Mason, a Scotsman who ended up in Olaʻa on the Island of Hawai‘i in 1919, was the inventor of Canec. Mason became the superintendent of Hawaiian Cane Products Company, Ltd., located in Hilo near the site of the Waiākea Mill Company. (Johnston)

The use of canec as a building material in Hawai‘i gradually expanded during the 1930s, but greatly accelerated after World War II when construction volume rapidly increased.

It was estimated that from the twelve plantations contributing bagasse to the canec plant, one million tons of bagasse would be available for the production of wallboard.

Hawaiian Cane Products was sold to the Flintkote Company in 1948. That year, the Hilo plant manufactured 120,000,000-square feet of canec panels; from 1945 to 1955; the majority of the housing in the Islands featured cane walls and/or ceilings. (HHF)

The original patent for canec wallboard called for the bagasse to be mixed with hydrated lime, caustic soda, soda ash and similar chemicals to digest fiberous portions of the trash. (Bernard)

It was treated with inorganic arsenic compounds to discourage mildew and insects. In addition, the wallboard was treated against termites with calcium arsenate and arsenic, and finally hydrosulfate was added to ‘set the size,’ inhibit the absorption of water and harden the board. (Bernard)

The canec plant discharged its waste through a sewer pipe that emptied into the water at the point where the pond flows into Wailoa River.

A NOAA report says, “An estimated 558-tons of arsenic compounds were released into the Hilo Bay estuary through this sewer line during the operational history of the plant.” (EH)

As was disclosed to the public in 1973, the canec plant had “discharged approximately 3.5-mgd of waste water into the Wailoa estuary for 29-years”.

This waste water included both toxic and lethal chemicals such as arsenic, hydrated line, hydrosulfate, ethyl silicate, hydrosulfate, calcium, arsenate and arsenic acid. (Bernard)

Arsenic concentrations in the sediments of Hilo Bay have been found to be as high as 6,370-ppm, approximately 34 times higher than anywhere else in the state (Department of Health.) (Hallacher)

Some suggest the canec plant was destroyed by the May 23, 1960 tsunami that devastated Hilo; actually, a fire destroyed the canec plant a month earlier (April 3, 1960.)

In 1971, the hotel complex known now as Waiākea Villas was built on the canec plant site (the adjacent Waiākea plant millpond was made part of Wailoa River State Park.)

“Although elevated in comparison to natural background, inorganic arsenic in canec material does not pose exposure or potential health concerns for building residents or workers, provided that the canec is in good condition and not rotting or ‘powdering away.’”

“No health effects caused by short time (acute) exposure to high levels of arsenic in canec, or to lower concentrations for a long time (chronic exposure) have been reported to HDOH.”

“However, daily exposure to very high levels of inorganic arsenic over many years can result in various health effects, including an increased risk of cancer. As a result, exposure to deteriorating canec should be minimized.” (Department of Health)

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Flintkote_Canec Division Plant at Waiakea-DOH

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Flintkote_Canec Division Plant – Waiakea-DOH

Waiakea Villas-on former Canec Plant site

Wailoa Pond-Waiakea Villas-on former Canec Plant site (R)

April 2, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Experiment Stations

Members of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association were typically sugar plantations or mill companies and individuals who were directly interested in sugar production. HSPA was self-funded by the industry through self-assessments on each ton of sugar produced. Each plantation company contributed based on the tons sugar produced.

“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’s Experiment Station was founded in the days of the Republic of Hawai‘i on April 2, 1895 (the date that Dr. Walter Maxwell arrived at the port of Honolulu as the first Director of the Station and took up his work in science applied to sugar-cane culture and production.)

The HSPA Experiment Station had its beginnings in an era when farm science was theory, separated from farm practice by a great gulf of unbelief. Truly, the founders of the Experiment Station had a breadth of vision in the necessity for untrammeled research which was extraordinary.

The initial laboratory and office first opened on the ground floor of the Robinson building, corner of Nuʻuanu and King streets. It was later moved to Makiki (on Makiki Street, near Wilder on land leased from the Kapiʻolani Estate.) HSPA later purchased adjoining land from the Lishman family, and acquired the fee of the leased site.

A building was built in 1904 to house offices and laboratories being “ … equipped in modern fashion, with especial regard to the use to which it is to be put. The rooms are large and are provided with sufficient shelves, drawers, etc., the special bug room and the outdoor cages furnish ample facilities for conducting breeding experiments; and, in fact, almost everything in the way of equipment is present that could be desired”. (Grammer)

In 1919, following restructuring after WWI, the Station’s programs of work included: Entomology (focusing on natural enemies of the leafhopper;) Botany and Forestry (focusing on Forestry work, establishment of nurseries and stations on all islands; and pineapple work in accordance with our contract with the Hawaiian Pineapple Packers’ Association) …

… Chemistry (Fertilizer control work, analytical work as needed by the plantations; soil surveys; and research work on Hawaiian soils;) Sugar Technology (Mill inspections and laboratory investigations on mill operations;) and Agriculture (field experimentation on fertilization, cultivation, irrigation, etc., and extension of seedling work.)

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the HSPA Trustees, “resolved, that in light of the existing emergency, The Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association does pledge its fullest cooperation to the Government of the United States and places all its facilities, services and membership at the disposal of our Government.”

The onset of war forced the Station to suspend immediately work on some of its important projects; numerous members of the Station joined the Armed Forces, while other members left to devote their skill to some special phase of the war effort.

When the Honolulu Blood Bank was frantically calling for blood and more blood, the Station not only made its laboratory facilities and apparatus available to the Blood Bank but assigned numerous members of its technical staff to full-time work.

Members of the Chemistry department devoted considerable time and effort to war work, mainly concerned with such matters as chemical surveys, camouflage problems, weed control, soil sterilization, chemical-dipping problems, precautions in handling toxic materials, demolition issues, and gas decontamination problems.

To meet a very obvious need, the Pathology department cultured the penicillin-yielding mold and produced in large quantities products of the highest quality and potency which were made available to local physicians throughout the long and critical period during which penicillin was not available for the treatment of civilians.

The primary object of the Molasses laboratory had been to produce a high-quality yeast for human consumption. After December 7, however, the shortage of bakers’ yeast in Honolulu brought many requests to the Station for aid. It was found that the yeast slurry was excellent for bread making and the Station furnished yeast slurry to numerous bakeries.

One of the most active units of the Station during the war was the Library. It was practically a war-time utility and scarcely a day passed that a group of service men could not be found around the Library tables.

Information was requested on an amazing and endless variety of subjects such as chemistry, ordnance, agricultural crops, rat control, mosquito data and other material pertinent to camp or field work, diversified and soilless agriculture, insects, botany, and so on.

HSPA built its main experiment station and administrative facilities at Makiki (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 (later known as the Lyon Arboretum,) and a few other O‘ahu sites.

On the Island of Hawaii there were 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.

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HSPA entrance to administrative building at experiment station in Makiki

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HSPA administration building (fronting Keeaumoku Street)

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March 25, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Ties to the Santa Fe

While small gravity and mule-powered rails popped up here and there in the eastern United States, it was the coming of the steam locomotive that truly allowed railroads to prosper.

In August 1829, Horatio Allen tested an English-built steamer named the Stourbridge Lion in Pennsylvania; by the time of the Civil War there were more than 60,000 miles of railroad in the country, by the 1870s, the Transcontinental Railroad stretched all the way to California and there were more than 190,000 –miles of rail at the beginning of the 20th century.

During the height of the industry, commonly referred to as the ‘Golden Age’ from the late 19th century through the 1920s there were more than 254,000 miles of railroad in service.

The expanding rail system needed material to tie the rails – then, in 1907, the ‘Santa Fe’ came to the Islands.

“Among the passengers for Hawaii on the Kīnaʻu yesterday were EO Faulkner (head of the tie and lumber department of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad) has come to this Territory to investigate the ʻōhiʻa ties”. (Pacific Commercial Advertising, September 25, 1907)

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company (distinctively known as the Santa Fe) was founded by Cyrus K Holiday in Kansas in 1859. A line that reached from Kansas to California and from Kansas to the Gulf of Mexico was the vision of Holiday.

The desire to tap into the cotton and cattle markets in Texas combined with the promise of Texas as a market for Kansas wheat led the Santa Fe to seek an entry into markets in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. (American Rails)

Before he left the Islands, Faulkner “signed a contract with the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company which will mean the exportation of 90,000,000-board feet of ʻōhiʻa to the mainland within the next five years.”

“While the representatives of their lumber company are unwilling to state the exact price obtained for their lumber under the contract, the fact was obtained that it was between $2,500,000 and $3,000,000.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 11, 1907)

To fulfill the agreement, “The ties will all be handled by the Hilo railroad. The next work to be done will be making a start on the new mill in Puna and we will also build a railroad, connecting with the main line at Pahoa, and running some four miles into the forest eventually.”

“It will run through the ʻōhiʻa forests which skirt the koa, and thus enable us to reach the koa property easily.” (AN Campbell, Henry Waterhouse Co; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 25, 1907)

“The development of the Hawaiian lumber industry stands out preeminent, through the signing in October 1907 of a contract between the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company and the Santa Fe Railway System to supply during the next five years …” (Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1908)

“According to the terms of the contract the local company is to furnish 500,000 ties six by eight inches and eight feet in length, each year for five years, the same to be delivered at such Coast ports as shall be designated by the railroad company.”

“In addition to this they shall deliver each year 500 sets of switch ties, which are heavier than the regular tie and vary in length from 10 to 22 feet.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 11, 1907)

“Prior to this contract – in June 1907 – one schooner load of 13,000 ʻōhiʻa ties was sent to San Francisco. Several good-sized orders for ʻōhiʻa ties and ʻōhiʻa piling for use in the Territory have also been filled by the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company.” (Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1908)

Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company (also called Pāhoa Lumber Mill) began in 1907 (owned by James B Castle.) By September 1908, the company was operating a lumber mill in Pāhoa.

A narrow gauge railroad was built from Glenwood to the saw-mill in the woods back of the Volcano House, the mill itself has been erected and some of the machinery installed. Trees were felled in the forest, cut into logs and hauled in to the mill yard.

Most of the ties were to be cut in the Puna District on the homestead lots above Olaʻa, on lands of the Puna Plantation that were being cleared for cane, and on other lands in Puna on which rubber will be planted. The ties will be shipped from Hilo by steamers and sailing vessels, the first shipment being sometime in the spring of 1908.

Between 1909 and 1910, Pāhoa Lumber Mill have lumbered something over 1000 acres. In 1911, the Pāhoa Lumber Mill sought more land for logging. However, by 1914, the Division of Forestry notes that the Pahoa Lumber Mill “has barely reached the section set apart as the Puna Forest Reserve…” (Division of Forestry Annual Report, 1914)

In January 5, 1910 Lorrin A Thruston and Frank B. McStocker of the Hawaiian Development Co. Ltd. appeared before Marston Campbell, Commissioner of Public Lands in Honolulu, to secure rights to log a tract of government lands in Puna.

In January 1913, a fire devastated the Pāhoa Lumber Company mill, and that same year the mill changed its name to Hawaiʻi Hardwood Company. According to government records, the Hawaiian Development Company Ltd. was a successor to the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company (Hawaiian Forester and Agriculturalist)

The contract with the Santa Fe Railway System was never fulfilled. The Division of Forestry noted that by 1914, few ‘ʻōhiʻa was being sold for railroad ties after it was realized that the ‘ʻōhiʻa wood ties did not last in the extreme conditions of the southwest.

Likewise, “increasing attention is being paid to finding a market for ʻōhiʻa for uses of higher tirade. Especially is an effort being made to introduce ʻōhiʻa as flooring …”

“… a use to which the firm, close texture of the wood and its handsome color lend themselves admirably. The waste from the ʻōhiʻa mills (slabs, etc.) is sold for firewood, not a little of it being shipped to Honolulu.” (Report of the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry, 1911) (Lots of information here is from Uyeoka.)

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