Economy | Page 222 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 11, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Koa House

In 1840, John Joseph Halstead sailed to Hawai‘i on a whaling ship bringing with him from New York carpentry and cabinet-makings skills. He set up a shop in Lāhainā. (Martin) He was said to be the first man to put up a frame house in Lāhainā.

With the news of the discovery of gold in California in 1848, came orders from San Francisco merchants for Irish potatoes and other food supplies for those heading to the gold fields.

Halstead did not join the pioneers of 1849; He moved over to Kalepolepo, along the Kihei shoreline, with his family 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 Koʻieʻie 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)

No one remembers the actual date of construction of Koa House, but the fact that King Liholiho (Kamehameha IV), visited Kalepolepo on a royal tour immediately after accession to the throne in the fall of 1854, and stayed overnight as the guest of Halstead, its owner, is proof it was built before that time. (Wilcox)

Its timbers were from saw mills in East Makawao and from Kula, partly hewn and whip-sawed by hand Into shape, for labor was cheap In the good old days. Also pine and other material brought around Cape Horn by early traders.

When finished the first floor was fitted up with koa wood counters and shelves, and used for a store. The upper floors were used for living quarters. Many of the larger pieces of furniture were made of koa wood by Halstead himself. (Wilcox)

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.

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.

At Halstead’s Kalepolepo Store a cartload of potatoes – thirty to forty bags – could readily be exchanged for a bolt of silk or other provisions.

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.

Halstead held his share of the Irish potato trade against more promising cash offers made by his business rivals. So lively was the competition that LL Torbert of ʻUlupalakua conceived the idea of an Irish potato corner.

He sent out his men and bought up all the Irish potatoes in sight, paying as high as five dollars for a bag of potatoes, a fabulous price for those days when native labor was plentiful at twenty-five cents a day.

Having cornered all the potatoes to be had, he shipped about $20,000 worth by the bark Josephine for San Francisco. The bark proved leaky, water got into the potato-filled holds and rotted them so that on arrival at San Francisco not enough good potatoes were left in the cargo to pay the freight bill.

At that time Kalepolepo was a thriving village, with two churches, a Mormon church where George Cannon or Walter Murray Gibson expounded the Christian doctrines of Joseph Smith against Christian Calvinism as preached by the Reverend Green and David Malo.

Reportedly, Halstead’s old house at Kalepolepo was Rev Green’s granary during the wheat boom of the 1850s and early-1860s, when the upper Makawao country from Maliko to Waiohuli was cropped to wheat.

Possibly some wheat may have been shipped from Kalepolepo in those days, for from early times to the late-1860s it was a shipping port for Wailuku and Kula. Halstead had one or two big warehouses standing makai of his residence.

In the late sixties the Irish potato trade had become unimportant and later ceased altogether. In 1876, Halstead closed his store and moved to ʻUlupalakua, where he died eleven years later, May 3, 1887. (Wilcox)

The koa house remained standing until it was burned down in 1946 by the Kihei Yacht Club. (NPS) (Lots of information here is from NPS and Wilcox.)

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July 6, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Cane Fire

Slash and burn agriculture is a widely used method of growing food in which wild or forested land is clear cut and any remaining vegetation burned.

The resulting layer of ash provides the newly-cleared land with a nutrient-rich layer to help fertilize crops. (EcoLogic)

In the Islands, between AD 1100 and 1650, there was a period of expansion and agricultural intensification in Hawaii that accompanied an increase in human population. (Pratt)

Until about 1500 AD, agriculture was shifting cultivation using slash and burn techniques and long fallow periods. Between 1500 and 1800 A.D., agriculture expanded, intensified, and became permanent. (Cuddihy & Stone)

During that period the lowland vegetation below 1,500-feet elevation was almost entirely replaced by cultivated fields, dispersed settlements and grasslands, caused by repeated fires; while upland sites remained little disturbed. (Pratt)

Several of the large field systems have pronounced burn layers that represent wither the original removal of native tree cover or the use of fire for clearing fallow fields.

Fire was the primary tool used by Hawaiians to clear lands prior to cultivation. This was true in areas adjacent to irrigated valleys and windward slopes as well as in the great field systems. Fire may have been repeatedly used to periodically clear the secondary growth on fallow fields. (Cuddihy & Stone)

Fire was also used in marginal cultivations to burn off vegetation and increase the cover of ‘ama‘u ferns used as pig feed. Large expanses of the lowlands were regularly burned to clear woody vegetation and stimulate indigenous pili grass. (Pratt)

Agricultural burning is standard practice for many other kinds of crops on nearly 9-million acres throughout the country, including rice, wheat, corn, cotton, lentils and soybeans. (HC&S)

Fire was later used in the harvesting of sugarcane. Burning the cane before harvesting removes most of the dead vegetation without causing significant damage to the interior of the cane stalk. (James)

The sugarcane plant consists of about 75 percent to 80 percent net cane (stalks) from which the juice is extracted and the sugar crystalized. The other 20 percent to 25 percent of the plant consists of leafy material, including tops, from which little or no sugar is produced.

This leafy material is called trash. Burning sugarcane before harvest (or milling) removes from one-half to two-thirds of this trash that would otherwise contribute nothing to sugar production. (LSUAC)

In many countries, such as Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and Costa Rica, pre-harvest burning is a common practice. In the US and Philippines, sugarcane fields are burned either before or after harvest, but in India, most of the sugarcane residues are usually burned in the field only after harvest. (de Azeredo França)

In Australia, sugarcane burning started in the 1930s to combat Weil’s disease (leptospirosis) among cane-cutters. In other cane growing areas, burning was sometimes done to clear the field of snakes before hand-cutters cut the cane. (Cheesman)

There were attempts to use fire to get rid of pests, “When as an experiment, a patch of about nine acres of cane, so heavily attacked by leaf-hopper as to be useless, was set on fire all around to destroy these, it was noticed that the adult hoppers rose from the cane in a cloud and spread to other fields; so this plan for destroying them was of no value.” (HSPA, 1906)

It appears that the practice of burning sugarcane started in the early-1900s (some suggest in 1908.) Prior to that, cane trash (nonproductive leafy parts of the cane) was removed by hand (men chopped the cane; ‘holehole’ work, stripping the dried cane leaves, was deemed ‘women’s work.’)

The sugar in burned cane inverts after 48-hours and the lack of ability to quickly transport burned cane to mills limited its practice until the late-1920s when a macadamized road system and diesel trucks across the islands became widespread. (Hayakawa)

Later, pre-harvest burning, in the field, was the only economical means sugar planters found for removing the dried leafy material from its crop.

Removal of this dried leafy material reduces the quantity of material which needs to be hauled to the factory, including the soil adhering to the harvested material; reduces the number of haulers traveling back and forth and therefore reduces fuel consumption; reduces the amount of material the factory must handle and therefore its energy consumption; and improves sugar recovery. (HC&S)

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Sugarcane fire

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Japanese sugar plantation workers in Hawaii around 1910 (BishopMuseum)

Sugar harvesting

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July 4, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Independence Day

Independence Day celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is the nation’s most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson’s most enduring monument.

What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in “self-evident truths” and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country.

Fifty-six men from each of the original 13 colonies signed the Declaration of Independence – they mutually pledged “to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

Nine of the signers were immigrants, two were brothers and two were cousins. Eighteen of the signers were merchants or businessmen, 14 were farmers and four were doctors. Twenty-two were lawyers and nine were judges.

The average age of a signer was 45. Benjamin Franklin was the oldest delegate at 70. The youngest was Thomas Lynch Jr. of South Carolina at 27.

At the time of the signing, the American Revolutionary War was already underway (1775-1783.)

The British captured five signers during the war. Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward and Arthur Middleton were captured at the Battle of Charleston in 1780. George Walton was wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah; Richard Stockton was incarcerated at the hands of British Loyalists.

Eleven signers had their homes and property destroyed. Francis Lewis’s New York home was razed and his wife taken prisoner. John Hart’s farm and mills were destroyed when the British invaded New Jersey, and he died while fleeing capture.

Fifteen of the signers participated in their states’ constitutional conventions, and six – Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, James Wilson and George Reed – signed the US Constitution.

Here are some other brief Revolutionary War highlights (and some Hawaiʻi July 4 events:)

1775
March 23 – Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech
April 18 – The rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes
April 19 – Minutemen and redcoats clash at Lexington and Concord “The shot heard round the world”
June 17 – Battle of Bunker Hill (Boston) – the British drive the Americans
Throughout the year, skirmishes occurred from Canada to South Carolina

Initially, fighting was through local militias; then, the Continental Congress established (on paper) a regular army on June 14, 1775, and appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief.

The development of the Continental Army was a work in progress, and Washington used both his regulars and state militia throughout the war.

1776
January 15 – Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy
March 17 – the British evacuate Boston

Ultimately, on September 3, 1783, the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The treaty document was signed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay (representing the United States) and David Hartley (a member of the British Parliament representing the British Monarch, King George III).

On June 21, 1788, the US Constitution was adopted (with all states ratifying it by that time.)

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Charles Carroll were the longest surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence. Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; Carroll was the last signer to die – in 1832 at the age of 95.

On July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawai‘i was established at Aliʻiolani Hale; Sanford B Dole became its first president.

On July 4, 1913, Duke Kahanamoku established three new West Coast records in swimming, winning the 50-yard, 440-yard and 220-yard races in a San Francisco regatta.

Following statehood of Hawaiʻi, the new flag of the United States of America, containing a union of 50 stars, flew for the first time at 12:01 am, July 4, 1960, when it was raised at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, Maryland.

Attached is an image of the Declaration of Independence.

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Declaration of Independence

July 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Clinic

He was born Georg Franz Straub on March 14, 1879 to Georg and Margaretha Straub in Edenkoben, Germany. He was a pre-med graduate from University of Wurzburg and in 1903, earned a Medical Degree, summa cum laude, from University of Heidelberg.

In 1903, he immigrated from Germany to London to America. (Apparently, at a family party that year, he struck a drunk relative (an officer in the German army;) the penalty was either to face a court-martial or leave the country.) He left. (Magaoay)

He met and later married Adele Germains on November 20, 1907 in Manhattan, New York. That year, they moved to Honolulu and he started his medical practice. (He ‘Americanized’ the spelling of his name to George Francis Straub.)

He was a consulting physician of the Honolulu Institute for Physiotherapy, that offered “All kinds of Electric Light Baths (blue, red, white and violet), Steam Baths; Turkish, Russian, Pine Needle, Nauheim. Carbonic Acid and Oxygen, or Medical Baths; Massage, X-Rays and High Frequency, etc.”

He was also a surgeon; “Yesterday afternoon there was a Caesarian operation performed in Queen’s Hospital on Mrs. Hopii Kolo by Dr George F Straub with the assistance of Doctor Hobdy.”

“The operation was in every respect a great success, mother and baby doing well. This is the second time that Doctor Straub has performed this operation successfully in these Islands and these are the only.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 14, 1910)

Then a fire destroyed “the old McGrew residence on the corner of Beretania and Richards … Dr Straub, who was consulting physician of the Honolulu Institute of Physiotherapy, which was located in the building, sustained a loss of about $4,000, and all his Instruments were destroyed.”

“… it was a very old house and burnt like a box of matches once it had caught alight. … Dr Straub resides in another cottage at the rear of the burnt building,… Dr. Straub has not decided upon what to do as regards his Institute, but he will make up his mind within a day or two, when he finds out exactly where he stands.” (Evening Bulletin, October 20, 1910)

He built a 15-room, 2-story wood-frame building at 410 South Beretania Street (at Miller Street across from Washington Place – he had his office on the first floor and his home on the second.) By 1916 his practice had grown to the point that he recruited an assistant, Dr. Guy C Milnor.

Straub began to envision a clinic providing specialized care in five major fields of medicine: Obstetrics and Gynecology; Surgery; Internal Medicine; Ear Nose & Throat; and Clinical Pathology. He and Milnor joined with Dr Arthur Jackson, a specialist in internal medicine in 1920 and the group operated for a short time as Straub, Milnor, and Jackson. (AfterCollege)

After the turn of the century, residents of Honolulu found it fashionable to have a ‘country place’ and beach houses began to spring up on Mōkapu. Straub preferred the coastal breezes and bird-shooting spots of Ft Hase and Nu‘upia Pond. (Steele)

It was first a one-room cottage; “If you could call a shipping crate a room.… Whenever I could get hold of another crate, it meant another room. It was simple construction. Just nail them together, cut a door, and there it was, an additional room bigger.” (Straub)

It could well be called the first “ranch-style” home on the island. Straub later gave the building to the military and moved to Waikiki. (His Mōkapu retreat served as an officer’s club for the growing military presence on the peninsula.) (Steele)

Straub divorced Adele in 1917 (“alleging extreme cruelty and desertion.”) (Star Bulletin, December 3, 1917) He went back to the mainland for a while.

Many of his Hawai‘i patients signed a petition asking him to return to the island, offering him passage via the Panama Canal. The cold weather of New England helped him decide on a Honolulu practice. (Windward Marine, October 25, 1962) He married Gertrude Scott and returned to the Islands.

In 1920, Straub’s medical partnership with Milnor and Jackson expanded; after leaving the Army, Dr Howard Clarke joined as a specialist in Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat, and Dr Eric A Fennel joined the group as pathologist.

On January 1, 1921, the five founding doctors formally organized themselves as a legal partnership. At Dr. Straub’s insistence the group he founded did not bear his name, and it was to be known simply as “The Clinic”. (AfterCollege)

The Clinic expanded and moved to the Strode Building on Young Street. In 1952, after years of success and growth, The Clinic was renamed ‘Straub Clinic’ in honor of Dr Straub, its principal founder. (HonoluluTown)

January 6, 1970, ground was broken for a 159-bed hospital and adjacent parking structure. Later that year, the Straub Clinic Partnership became a corporation and renamed Straub Clinic, Inc. February 4, 1973, it became Straub Clinic & Hospital, and Straub Hospital opened its doors. Straub opened its first satellite clinic on the Leeward side of O‘ahu in 1977.

Later, anchored by its four hospitals with the merger of Straub, Wilcox, Pali Momi and Kapiʻolani Hospitals (as well as its numerous satellite facilities,) Hawai‘i Pacific Health became one of the largest health care delivery systems in Hawai‘i.

Straub played cello with the Honolulu Symphony; after he retired from his medical practice (1933,) he turned his passion to hand-crafting violins. (Nakaso) Straub died May 21, 1966 in Honolulu.

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Straub’s Residence and Office-Beretania-Miller

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Mokapu-(Kailua_Side)-UH-Manoa-2444-1952-noting Straub House

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June 30, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Tong Kee

During the spring of 1887, mounting dissatisfaction with government policies and private acts of officials led to the formation of the Hawaiian League, a group of Honolulu businessmen (largely, but not exclusively, haole (Caucasian.)) One issue they were particularly incensed by was the opium franchise bribery case, in which the King was implicated. (Forbes)

Initially the king, through his minister of foreign affairs, disclaimed any involvement. However, “To cap the climax of the opium matter, the Attorney General proceeds to acknowledge that the money was paid over by the Chinese …”

“(H)e informed the gentlemen interested in getting the money back that he would never accomplish his object so long as he allowed the newspaper to speak of the affair.”

“The Attorney General then sees that there is no use in denying the receipt of the money but suggests that if a quiet tongue is kept in the matter the cash received for the bribe may be returned.”

“This is a pretty piece of morality for the Attorney General to put forth and shows the obliquity of vision of all who are connected with the government.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 17, 1887)

The Aki scandal was one of the events that mobilized many of the haole residents to organize and establish an armed body. (Lim-Chong & Ball) The Hawaiian League came into control of the Honolulu Rifles (made of about 200 armed men.)

On the afternoon of June 30, 1887, the league held a mass meeting during which they presented a list of reforms they intended to submit to the king. Among them were demands that the king dismiss his cabinet, and that Walter Murry Gibson be dismissed of ‘each and every office held by him.’

After that was accomplished, in July 1887, King Kalākaua was induced to promulgate a new constitution, known as the “Bayonet Constitution of 1887.” (Forbes)

Let’s look back …

Celso Caesar Moreno, a professional lobbyist well known in Sacramento and Washington, DC, arrived in Honolulu on the China Merchant Steam Navigation Company’s ship ‘Ho-chung’ in November 1879.

One week later, he invited King Kalākaua, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Chamberlain aboard the steamer to meet Fan Yau Ki, a wealthy Chinese industrialist. One of the things Moreno was looking for was the liberalization of Hawai‘i’s strict opium laws. He advocated making Honolulu the opium processing and distribution center for the whole Pacific.

An opium bill was passed providing for a license for four years, to be granted by the minister of the interior with the consent of the King. (Reports of Committee on Foreign Relations)

Early in November, 1886, Junius Kaae, (who has access to the King,) informed a Chinese rice planter named Tong Kee, alias Aki, that he could have the opium license granted to him if he would pay the sum of $60,000 to the King’s private purse …”

“… but that he must be in haste because other parties were bidding for the privilege. (Executive Documents US House of Representatives, 1895)

In a later affidavit, Tong Kee (Aki) described what happened …

“I met Junius Kaae in the street and he spoke to me in Hawaiian and said ‘Do you not want the opium license?’ I replied ‘Yes, perhaps so,’ and asked him how it could be obtained. He said he could help me. A few days after this I went to the Record Office with some documents for record.”

“While there, he took me outside of the door and spoke of the matter again saying ‘I can help you about it and will push it until you get it but it will take a great deal of money. Several people have been to me to help them but he who takes money to the king, and a great deal of it, will get the license.’”

First, “I was to get 20,000 … I went to look for the King (and) found him in the Palace. I then went in and handed him a letter … He read it laughed and said ‘Where is that money?’”

“I replied that it was outside in a carriage so we … walked outside upon one of the verandas – when he looked around and seeing a good many people about, said, ‘It won’t do now, come again at six this evening with your money.’”

“We … then went to the King’s office in the Bungalow and carried the basket (‘heavy with gold’) … Kaae … asked where the money was. It having been pointed out to him he took a key from his pocket unlocked and opened a drawer in the Kings table …”

“… into which he put all of the gold and certificates locked the drawer again and put the key into his pocket. I asked for a receipt but he refused saying that it would be all right that if I did not get the license all of the money would be returned”.

“The next day Kaae came to the house and said that he and the King had counted over the money the evening before and that it was short of $20,000 by $2.50 so I handed that to him in silver.”

“I then set about raising the last $40,000 … Upon the 7th of December … I went … to the Palace and handed the King in person a check for $10,000 …”

“The King took the check looked at it and put it in his pocket. … The same day Kaae came to me with the check and said as he handed it back, that I must draw the money as it would not do to have any checks – that the King said that by and by people would find out about it and it would be all exposed.”

Tong Kee then delivered ‘a large package of certificates’ ($10,000 in cash.) Kaae “then urged me very strongly about getting the remaining $30,000.” Tong Hee then brought more money. “The King then invited us into the office. We entered and presented him with a letter … and said ‘Where is the money?’” They were invited into the King’s office.

“The King went into a door on the Ewa side of the room mauka end … (we) put the baskets on the floor near the door – but the King said, ‘No, not there,’ and going to a trunk unlocked and opened it and then taking out some quilts … (we were) told to put the money in there.”

They laid the bags in the trunk; “The King laid back the quilts closed and locked the trunk and put the key in his pocket. … We were then dismissed.”

“Very soon after this Kaae came to my house – others were there. He looked angy or disturbed. He said, ‘The King has shown me a letter from John S Walker, in which he said that Kwong Sam Kee had been to him and wanted him to assist them about an opium license. That they offered $75,000 for it’ … Now what do you think, Aki? If you don’t give more money, Kwong Sam Kee will get that license!’”

“We went to the Bungalow (with more money) and waited on the same veranda as formerly … The King came soon and we presented the pig which caused him a smile of pleasure. … He asked where the money was and on seeing it entered into conversation about the license.”

“Seeing people about I suggested that the money had better be put away. He then sent off a Lelewa woman who was sweeping and himself carried the basket into the same room where the $30,000 had been put. This $15,000 was mostly in US gold but it contained some certificates and the whole was in a basket.”

“(W)e went away but I first asked him when the license would be issued to me. He replied that it must be done in regular course through the Ministers as by law required that there would be a meeting very soon and he promised to help me about it.”

Tong Kee was later informed that Chun Lung was getting the opium license. The King informed him that he would have a share in the license. “The King finally said that he had arranged it that the license had fifteen shares in all – that Chung Lung was to have five, I was to have five and he was to keep five himself.”

“Fearing that I should lose all my money I agreed to this proposition on condition that part of my money was returned. I said that as $75,000 were paid to the King for the whole license and I was only to have a third that $50,000 should be returned and the King might keep $25,000.”

“But he gave no definite answer to this at that time but said it was to be arranged by and by after the whole matter was adjusted.” But resolution was uncertain “it appealing that he (Kalākaua) was constantly shifting his ground.”

“I asked the King to return me all of my money and drop the whole thing. He exclaimed that this could not be done that it was all understood and arranged about the division of the license and could not be changed.”

“I insisted on the return of my money. He finally seemed to assent to this and intimated that by and by he would pay me back when they paid in their money. I do not know who he meant but inferred from what had been said that he meant the opium licensee.” (Affidavit of T Aki (Tong Kee;) Hawaiian Gazette, May 31, 1887)

Just when it seemed that Aki himself was about to come forward and make a statement … he died under mysterious circumstances. It was widely believed that he was poisoned.” (Zambucka)

The King’s disastrous financial affairs were then placed in the hands of trustees. Aki’s estate petitioned for return of what he paid Kalākaua.

On September 21, 1888, Judge Preston decided, “the claim against the defendants for the sum of $71,000 is established as just and correct within the meaning of the deed of trust in the bill mentioned and that the complainants are entitled to be paid pro rata with other approved claims …”

“… and order defendants (Kalākaua’s trustees) to pay the same accordingly out of the moneys which may have come to their hands under the trust of the said deed …” (Zambucka)

The Aki scandal was one of the events that mobilized Kalākaua’s enemies to secretly plot his downfall and ultimately led to the 1887 Constitution, known as the ‘Bayonet Constitution,’ which took away much of the king’s power. (IslandExpat)

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