Economy | Page 223 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

June 15, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Percy Martyn Pond

“‘I could not do office work,’ he said, ‘and so I had to get out of door occupation. And I thought that I would try and see whether the land right here close to town would not yield results.’” (He had a farm “around the shoulder of Diamond Head.”)

“Mr. Pond has made the land give results, too, in produce, in eggs, in chickens, in taro, in small fruits in all those things that the people who will frankly admit possibilities know can be made to come from the soil here.”

Percy Pond studied the situation here, and thought that his first show for profit was to devote the major portion of his attention to dairy farming. And the Jersey dairy farm, which is the name of his place, is a dairy conducted on strictly scientific principles.” (Advertiser, June 4, 1905)

In 1914, Pond started the Kemoo Farm for the conservation of table refuse from Schofield Barracks by the production of pork and eggs, producing more than a million pounds of pork during the war. He also served on the Territorial district draft board during the war period. (Nellist)

“The Kemo‘o farm, located near Schofield Barracks, Oahu, has a swine herd numbering 1,460 animals, 250 of which are brood sows of high grade and 10 are pure-bred Duroc-Jersey and Berkshire boars. Each sow on this farm farrows, on the average, 3 litters in two years and raises 5 or 6 pigs per annum.”

“Eighty cans containing about 300 pounds of garbage each are daily hauled from the military posts to the Kemo’o farm. In 1915 the Kemo‘o farm sold 365 garbage-fed hogs … In 1918 the sales increased to 1,686 head …”

“Kemo‘o farm, where swine raising constitutes the main and a highly specialized line of farming, with dairying and poultry raising ranking next in importance.” (CTAHR, 1923)

But farming is not what Pond is generally known for – Percy Martyn Pond, was born on Feb. 2, 1870, in Medina, Medina County, Ohio, the son of Reverend Chauncey Pond and Harriet Permelia Perkins Pond. He graduated from Oberlin College (Ohio) in 1892.

Coming to Hawaii in 1896, Pond was a luna at Ewa plantation until 1897, when he joined Castle & Cooke, Ltd., as merchandise cashier.

He was bookkeeper and clerk for the S. N. Castle Estate in 1899 and 1900, and in the latter year entered the real estate business, when the firm of McClellon & Pond was formed.

Pond married Edith O Eldredge, November 26, 1900, in Chicago. They had two sons, Eldredge B and Richard C Pond.

In conjunction with Castle & Lansdale, Pond opened up the College Hills tract, lower Manoa Valley. From 1903 to 1904 Pond was affiliated with the Waterhouse Trust Co., Ltd., leaving there to start his dairy, which he conducted until 1914, when the retail business was disposed of and the enterprise was combined with the Honolulu Dairymen’s Association.

Pond was one of the first men in Honolulu to engage in real estate promotions on a big scale. He realized years ago that the city was to have a future then foreseen by few residents, and that room for expansion was a vital necessity.

Acting on this conviction, in 1911 he bought land in Kālia, Waikiki and filled in the ponds and wetlands there. He subdivided the property makai of Kalākaua Avenue and between Lewers Street and Saratoga Road and called it Beach Walk.

Many small homes were built in the area, some of which were rented out as vacation cottages. The tenants, who generally arrived for long stays on a Matson steamer, had close access to Waikiki Beach by means of the foot right-of-way that still exists on the Diamond Head side of the Outrigger Reef Hotel. (Kelley)

Pond later purchased and developed the Royal Grove tract, in the Waikiki district, where values have also greatly increased. The Clark tract at Wahiawa, Dewey Court tract and ʻĀinahau tract were also promoted by Pond. In 1923, he financed Prospect Terrace, and in 1924 he opened the Castle tract in Honolulu.

Real estate development, however, is only one of a number of business ventures financed and promoted by Mr. Pond.

In 1916 Smoot & Steinhauser was formed; Pond became Vice President (the firm later became Pond Co., Ltd., an automobile sales agency, (Story of Hawaii and Its Builders, Nellist)).

A new building was built by the company on Beretania street in 1921, and in 1924 Pond organized the Hawaiian Finance Co., Ltd., a corporation dealing in installment automobile paper, of which he was president.

The 1940 census noted Pond’s occupation as ‘Realatar.’ Pond returned to the mainland at the outbreak of the war after disposing of his property in Hawai‘i.

Percy Pond died on July 3, 1945, in Orlando, Florida, after an illness of more than two years. (Overlin) (Lots of information here is from Nellist)

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Percy Pond-MidPacificMag-1916

Vats for steaming garbage at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923

Pond Farm-Milking Shed-Diamond Head-Adv-June 4, 1905

Pond Cows in kiawe pasture-Diamond Head-Adv-June 4, 1905

Pond Cows going for milking-Diamond Head-Adv-June 4, 1905

Garbage-fed pigs at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923

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Beach_Walk_Subdivision-1914

June 11, 2016 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

La Ho‘o-mana‘o O Kamehameha I

Kamehameha Day was first proclaimed by Kamehameha V as a day to honor his grandfather, Kamehameha I, and was first celebrated on December 11, 1871 (Kamehameha V’s birthday.) It later changed to June 11.

“The celebration of Kamehameha Day on June 11 came about in the following way.”

“On December 11, 1871, the birthday of Kamehameha V who was at that time ruling king, a public celebration was held with horse-riding and other sports.”

“It was agreed to make this celebration an annual event, but because of the uncertain weather in December to change the date to June.”

“Kamehameha V died soon after, and the holiday remained as a ‘Day in Commemoration of Kamehameha I,’ (La Ho‘o-mana‘o o Kamehameha I.)” (Kamakau)

So, while linked to Kamehameha V’s birth date, it boils down to having a celebration when the weather is better (6-months from King Kamehameha V’s birthday.) The date does not have any direct connection to Kamehameha I.

The 1896 legislature of the Republic of Hawaiʻi declared it a national holiday.

“Kamehameha Day was generally observed by the people. Elaborate preparations were made for the celebration of the day, with sumptuous feasts and sports, and every effort was brought to bear in order to insure the success of the occasion.”

“It might well be said that, in the language of the poet, its observance was usually attended with:
‘The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beaut’, all that wealth e’er gave.’”

“The celebration itself was characterized by a cheerful spirit and good-fellowshlp. ‘Aloha,’ the watchword that opened every heart and brightened every soul, was greeted on every side, and hospitality, unalloyed and unbounded, was displayed at every door. There was no distinction in race, color or creed.” (John C Lane, Mayor, 1916)

In 1939, Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes under the Territorial Legislature of Hawai‘i created the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission – that law remains in effect, today.

State law notes: §8-5 King Kamehameha celebration commission … “The commission shall have charge of all arrangements for the celebration each year generally observed throughout Hawai‘i Nei on June 11, to commemorate the memory of the great Polynesian Hawaiian warrior and statesman King Kamehameha I, who united the Hawaiian Islands into the Kingdom of Hawai‘i”. In 1978 the legislature renamed this holiday King Kamehameha I Day.

Almost from its first observance this day was celebrated chiefly by horse races in Kapi‘olani Park; but the races eventually gave way to today’s parades of floats and pāʻū riders.

On February 14, 1883, the Kamehameha statue was unveiled at Aliʻiōlani Hale during the coronation ceremonies for King Kalākaua.

The stance of the statue, with spear in left hand and right outstretched with open palm, showed the “successful warrior inviting the people … to accept the peace and order he had secured.”

At the request of the monument committee, statue designer Thomas R Gould modified the features to make the king seem about 45-years old. The intent was a bronze statue of ‘heroic size’ (about eight-and-a-half-feet tall.)

‘Boston Evening Transcript’ of September 28, 1878, noted “It has been thought fitting that Boston, which first sent Christian teachers and ships of commerce to the Islands, should have the honor of furnishing this commemorative monument.”

While Gould was a Bostonian, he was studying in Italy, where he designed the statue; ultimately, the statue was cast in bronze in Paris.

It was shipped on August 21, 1880, by the bark ‘GF Haendel,’ and was expected about mid-December. On February 22, 1881, came word that the Haendel had gone down November 15, 1880, off the Falkland Islands. All the cargo had been lost.

About the time it was lost, King Kalākaua was on a royal tour of the island of Hawai‘i. He made a speech in front of the Kohala Post Office.

There, the King was reminded the Kamehameha Statue was destined for Honolulu, yet Kohala, the birthplace of Kamehameha, was overlooked as a place for his statue. Kohala residents then raised funds and a replica was ordered.

It turns out, however, that the original statue had been recovered and was in fair condition. The right hand was broken off near the wrist, the spear was broken and the feather cape had a hole in it. It was taken to a shed at Aliʻiolani Hale to be repaired.

Meanwhile, on January 31, 1883, the replica ordered by Kohala arrived. On February 14, 1883, the replica statue was unveiled at Aliʻiolani Hale during the coronation ceremonies for King Kalākaua.

As for the original statue (which had been repaired,) it was dedicated on May 8, 1883 (the anniversary of Kamehameha’s death) and is in Kapaʻau, North Kohala outside Kohala’s community/senior center.

There are now four different statues of similar design of Kamehameha:
• The first replica stands prominently in front of Aliʻiolani Hale in Honolulu
• The original (repaired) casting of the statue is at Kapaʻau, North Kohala
• Another replica is in US Capitol’s visitor center in Washington DC
• Another statue is at the Wailoa River State Recreation Area in Hilo

The customary draping of the Kamehameha Statue with lei dates back to 1901. As far as the parade goes, in 1903, the Territory of Hawaiʻi, Chamber of Commerce and Merchants’ Association created the Hawaiʻi Promotion Committee (forerunner to the Hawaiʻi Visitors and Convention Bureau.) Supported by a legislative appropriation, it was mandated to provide better publicity to encourage tourism to Hawaiʻi.

The early years of the Territorial era saw the creation of a series of public celebrations. Beginning with the Mid-Pacific Carnival in 1904, a series of multiethnic public celebrations and parades were created to attract tourists and showcase Hawaiʻi’s multi-ethnic culture.

The Mid-Pacific Carnival, held in February as a celebration in honor of Washington’s birthday, had spectacular and historic pageants and military parades featured. During the winter season, the Mid-Pacific Carnival was at ʻAʻala Park in downtown Honolulu. Circus acts, sideshows and hula dancers entertained the public.

The carnival had an annual Floral Parade. By the early-1900s, the automobile made its appearance and soon reduced the need and use of horses. Then, a group of women made a society to keep the culture going and Pāʻū clubs were formed.

The Hawaiian Star, February 22, 1906, headlined the “Floral Parade a Great Success.” “It was a great day for Honolulu. The Promotion Committee’s inauguration of what is intended to be an annual event in celebration of Washington’s birthday, could have asked no better day, no greater success …”

“… no more wide spread interest in all classes of the population, no greater enthusiasm among those who participated In the parade, and no more unique, striking, or picturesque a feature to individualize the celebration in Honolulu, and make it separate, and apart from the pageant of other places than the Pa-u riders.”

“The Pa-u riders, of course, were the magnet and center of attraction. This revival of an old custom, picturesque and under the conditions that gave rise to it, strikingly useful, was a happy thought of the Promotion Committee.”

“It appealed to dormant but when aroused, pleasing associations, among the older residents, especially the Hawaiians. It appealed to the love of oddity and the striking costume in the younger generation.” (The Hawaiian Star, February 22, 1906)

In 1916, Mid-Pacific Carnival merged into the Kamehameha Day Parade.

Next time you are at the original or replicas of the Kamehameha Statue, look closely at Kamehameha’s sash; there is an error in the arrangement of the sash. Traditionally, a sash is worn by first draping the sash over the left shoulder to where it falls between the knees.

Then the remaining length is wrapped around the waist and over the front flap of the sash to around the back, fed behind the part over the shoulder, and the remaining hangs down in the back (at knee length.) (San Nicolas) After that, you put the cape on over it all.

“In the statue the cordon passes from the pendent end up behind the portion used as a waist-band, over the left shoulder, outside the cloak, instead of returning down the back to form the belt as it should have done with the end tucked in to tighten the band, it leaves this belt as an independent member and passes down over the cloak to trail on the ground!” (Brigham)

“The final arrangement must be based on esthetic rather than historical grounds. In fact, the decorated end of the sash drags on the ground behind the figure. The other end has had to be supplemented with a fictitious terminal band to be presentable in front.”

“If you look closely, the final arrangement is impossible without two sashes: a long one from malo front over the shoulder and down to the ground, and a short, separate belt.” (Later noted by Charlot.)

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Kamehameha-Statue-(HTA)

The original statue of King Kamehameha I, in Kapaʻau

Kamehameha_Statue-1900

Kamehameha_statue_Kapaau_1908

King Kamehameha I statue and Aliiolani Hale building, in downtown Honolulu

Kamehameha_Statue-Honolulu-front_and_back

The original statue of King Kamehameha I, in Kapaʻau, North Kohala. Sculptor-Thomas Ridgeway Gould

Kamehameha_Statue-Kapaau_front_and_back

Statue of Kamehameha I, located in the Wailoa River recreation area of Hilo

Kamehameha statue on display in the US Capitol Visitors Center, Washington DC

Mid-Pacific Carnival-1910

Mid-Pacific Carnival-auto-1908

Mid-Pacific Carnival-Pau_Riders-1914

Mid-Pacific Carnival-Band_on_Horseback

Pau_Princess_of_Niihau-(ghir)

Pau_Princess_of_Kauai-(barryfackler)

Pau_Princess_of_Oahu-(jndx)

Pau_Princess_of_Molokai-(barryfackler)

Pau_Princess_of_Lanai-(enolarama)

Pau_Princess_of_Maui-(enolarama)

Pau_Princess_of_Hawaii-(enolarama)

June 9, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Dillingham Transportation Building

In 1889, after devoting twenty years to the hardware business, Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham created the O‘ahu Railroad and Land Company (OR&L.) This company was primarily responsible for the development of the 160-mile O‘ahu Railroad.

Through these rail interests, the corporation became involved with the development of the various sugarcane plantations along its route, and later expanded its cane activities to the islands of Kauai, Maui and Hawai‘i with the McBryde, Kihei, Puna and Ola‘a Sugar Companies. (NPS)

Ultimately OR&L sublet land, partnered on several sugar operations and/or hauled cane from Ewa Plantation Company, Honolulu Sugar Company in ‘Aiea, O‘ahu Sugar in Waipahu, Waianae Sugar Company, Waialua Agriculture Company and Kahuku Plantation Company, as well as pineapples for Dole.

By the early-1900s, the expanded railway cut across the island, serving several sugar and pineapple plantations, and the popular Haleʻiwa Hotel. They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Hale‘iwa for picture-taking.

When the hotel opened on August 5, 1899, guests were conveyed from the railway terminal over the Anahulu stream to fourteen luxurious suites, each had a bath with hot-and-cold running water. Dillingham died April 7, 1918 (aged 73.)

Built in 1929, in memory of Dillingham by his son Walter Francis Dillingham, the 4-story Dillingham Transportation Building carries the ‘transportation building’ because at that time the Dillingham family was concerned with various types of transportation to and around Hawaii.

Walter founded the Hawaiian Dredging Company (later Dillingham Construction) and ran the O‘ahu Railway and Land Company founded by his father.

The building was designed in an Italian Renaissance Revival by architect Lincoln Rogers of Los Angeles, who also designed the Hawaii State Art Museum (1928.)

“Lincoln Rogers, architect of the building, in choosing a style of architecture generally called ‘Mediterranean’ with Italian Renaissance as the guiding principle, found a motif ideally suited to a semi-tropic city surrounded by sparkling seas and green-clad mountains.” (Honolulu)

The Dillingham Transportation Building is Italian Renaissance concrete and concrete block structure with three connected wings, and is a good example of the Mediterranean revival style applied to a commercial structure.

The first story round arched arcade, upper story quoins and the low pitched, tile, hipped roof, well convey the style. The Mediterranean and Spanish mission revival styles enjoyed tremendous popularity in Hawaii during the twenties.

These styles, the closest European equivalents to tropical design, were considered to be the most appropriate forms for Hawaii’s climate with their arcades providing a sense of airy openness.

The Dillingham Transportation Building is one of a number of downtown buildings to employ these styles, and is the most imposing of the Mediterranean revival buildings in the area. (NPS)

The structure has a Spanish tile hip roof, and below the eave there is a frescoed decoration. The entrance lobby features Art Deco patterns of variously colored marbles and bricks. (Historic Hawai‘i)

You will note nautical references above the door arches and along the outside walls of the building – noting ships, sailors and twisted rope patterns (even over the elevators.)

The Dillingham Transportation Building shares arcade space with the nearby Pacific Guardian Building, whose street address is ‘through’ the Dillingham lobby. (Star-Bulletin)

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Dillingham Memorial Dedication Plaque-400

Dillingham Transportation Building

Benjamin_Franklin_Dillingham_(1844–1918)

Walter_Francis_Dillingham-(WC)

June 7, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Irrigation-enhanced Recharge

The early Polynesians brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in the islands. The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co, was started at Kōloa on Kauai in 1835. Others followed, including on Maui.

Sugar became part of the Maui landscape. More than 30-plantations of various sizes popped up on Maui. Over time, consolidations and closures gradually reduced the number to fewer, but larger, plantations. (Sugar Museum)

Sugar is a thirsty crop; in order to irrigate, in 1876 the initial Hāmākua Ditch was built, bringing water from streams from the windward and wet East Maui. A total of ten ditches were constructed between 1879 and 1923; this system makes up what is known today as East Maui Irrigation (EMI.)

Under natural conditions, most surface water would flow to the ocean; instead, this water has been diverted and artificially applied to the plant-soil system, creating a net increase in ground-water recharge. Irrigation-enhanced recharge greatly affects the groundwater system in central Maui.

Ground water is one of Hawai‘i’s most important natural resources. It is used for drinking water, irrigation, and domestic, commercial, and industrial needs. Ground water provides about 99% of Hawai‘i’s domestic water and about 50% of all freshwater used in the State.

The amount of recharge available to enter the aquifers is the volume of rainfall, fog drip, and irrigation water that is not lost to runoff or evapotranspiration or stored in the soil. (USGS)

The period 1926–79 had the highest estimated recharge; irrigation rates during this period were at least 50% higher than in any other period considered.

Prior to the early-1970s, about 190-million gallons per day (Mgal/d) of water diverted by East Maui ditches and 170-Mgal/d of groundwater withdrawn from shafts and wells was used to irrigate sugarcane fields in central Maui.

Groundwater recharge concerns have gone from bad to worse. Overall irrigation rates have been steadily decreasing since the 1970s, when large-scale sugarcane plantations began a conversion from furrow to more efficient drip irrigation methods and a reduction in the amount of acreage dedicated to sugarcane production.

Estimated recharge for central and west Maui declined 44% during the period 1979–2004. During this period, on the leeward (Lāhainā) side of West Maui Mountain, sugarcane cultivation ceased altogether.

The decrease in irrigation has coincided recently with periods of below-average rainfall, creating the potential for substantially reduced recharge rates in many areas. (USGS)

The period 2000–04 had the lowest estimated recharge; irrigation rates during this period were 46 percent lower than during 1926–79, and rainfall was the lowest of any period.

With the closure of HC&S’ sugarcane fields in central Maui, and subsequent stoppage of irrigation over the groundwater aquifer, recharge will be reduced and the groundwater flow system will be affected. (USGS)

Population growth on the Island of Maui has led to an increase in ground-water demand. The resident population on the island increased more than 300% percent during the period 1960–2010: from 35,717 to 144,444 (Maui County)

The ‘Ïao aquifer system is the principal source of domestic water supply for the Island of Maui. Ground-water withdrawals from this aquifer system increased from less than 10-Mgal/d during 1970 to about 17-Mgal/d during 2005.

So, there is concern surrounding declines in ground-water levels and an increase in the chloride concentration of water pumped from wells in the ‘Ïao aquifer system.

Even before the contemplated, and later announced, closure of HC&S sugar cultivation, the State Water Commission designated ‘Īao as a groundwater management area because the 12-month moving average pumping withdrawals exceeded the Commission-established trigger.

The effect of changes in irrigation-enhanced recharge was illustrated on a small scale in Wailua on Kauai, and the drying up of ‘Fern Grotto’ was the result. There, the Kapa‘a irrigation system was built in the 1920s to provide water for approximately 6,000 acres of land under sugar cane.

Up until the sugar company closing, the lower portion has been fed by the Hanamaulu Ditch, which ended at ‘Reservoir 21,’ directly above Fern Grotto. The ferns began growing only after sugar was grown on the land 150 feet above the cave.

Plantation workers built a catch basin for storm runoff that became known as Reservoir 21. Water from the reservoir percolated through the ground and came out on the roof and walls of the cave.

The shutting down of the Hanamaulu Ditch has undoubtedly contributed or even was the principal cause of the drying up on the Fern Grotto. The lack of irrigation water caused the cliff-side ferns to dry up.

A 9-month rejuvenation project involved creation of a second waterfall in the grotto and installation of solar panels to power pumps to bring water from the Wailua Reservoir to the Fern Grotto.

Now, the Fern Grotto is back. Solutions in the central Maui isthmus, the principal source of domestic water supply for the Island of Maui, are not as simple.

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. Sugar changed the social fabric of Hawaii. Hawai`i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880.

The industry came to maturity by the turn of the century; the industry peaked in the 1930s. Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar. (That plummeted to 492,000-tons in 1995; a majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s.)

So, the Islands have not just lost that last remnant of generations of economic and agricultural activity; Maui must now look at ways to manage and provide for water needs and demands, given the loss of irrigation-enhanced recharge. (Lots of information here is from several USGS reports.)

I was fortunate to have served as the Chair and Director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Chair of the Water Commission, working on these and other related issues.

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Central Maui Isthmus-sugarcane

EMI_System-map

EMI_Intake

EMI-Ditch

Installation of a pipeline for Haiku ditch water under the steel railroad bridge crossing the Maliko Gulch-1909

Iao Aquifer-Ditches-USGS

Fern Grotto

May 23, 2016 by Peter T Young 6 Comments

William Francis James

“Dear Doctor (James) – I have taken this opportunity to express my heartiest appreciation and many thanks for the good treatment that I received at your hands while at the hospital for the last past three months.”

“I am enjoying sound health at present owing to your skilful medical attention given me and which I never, will forget.” (Hawaiian Star, December 7, 1909)
On the continent, the idea of unified, correlated national health services had been germinating slowly since the epidemic of yellow fever in 1793. Fast forward about a century … State Boards of Health were being organized in rapid succession.

In 1874 the National Association of State Health Commissioners was formed, and the obvious need for a central federal health agency became more and more apparent. Then in 1879, a National Board of Health was created.

In 1872, the small island off Iwilei in Honolulu Harbor – “Kamokuʻākulikuli” – became the site of a quarantine station used to handle the influx of immigrant laborers drawn to the islands’ developing sugar plantations.

The site is described as “little more than a raised platform of sand and pilings to house the station, with walkways leading to the harbor edge wharf, where a concrete sea wall had been constructed” and as “a low, swampy area on a reef in the harbor”. (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1881)

By 1888, Kamokuʻākulikuli Island had been expanded and was known as “Quarantine Island.” If vessels arrived at the harbor after 15 days at sea and contagious disease was aboard, quarantine and disinfecting procedures were required at Quarantine Island. (Cultural Surveys)

At the request of the Territorial authorities an officer of the United States Public Health Service was detailed for duty as sanitary adviser to the Governor of Hawaii. (Journal of Public Health, 1913)

The work of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service in Hawaii was divided into four sections: quarantine operations; plague-preventive measures; immigration inspection; and marine-hospital relief.

“At Honolulu the service has a first-class quarantine and disinfecting station with a wharf capable of accommodating vessels of 35 feet draft. The quarantine station has accommodations for 75 cabin and 600 steerage passengers in the regular quarters and barracks.”

“In addition there are tent platforms of United States Army Regulation, 14 by 15 size, which can be made available at short notice for 1,280 soldiers, with the cooperation of the Quartermaster Department of the Army or of the Hawaiian National Guard. There is also tentage capacity on the island for at least as many more troops or other persons.”

“At Hilo the service maintains a second-class quarantine and disinfecting station with facilities for fumigating vessels by the sulphur-pot method. There is as yet no provision for handling numbers of persons in quarantine except on shipboard or by arrangement with the board of health for use of its quarters temporarily.”

“At the subports of Mahukona, Kahului, Lāhainā, Port Allen and Kōloa acting assistant surgeons of the service board and inspect incoming vessels.” (Surgeon General Annual Report, 1911)

Dredged materials from improvements to Honolulu harbor had enlarged Quarantine Island again and by 1906 the island was encircled by a seawall and was 38-acres. By 1908 the Quarantine Station consisted of Quarantine Island and the reclaimed land of the Quarantine wharf (with a causeway connecting the two.)

Quarantine Island (what is now referred to as Sand Island) became the largest United States quarantine station of the period, accommodating 2,255-individuals. This facility included two hospitals and a crematorium. (Cultural Surveys)

One of its residents was William Francis James. James was born in Darwhar, Bombay Presidency, India, November 11, 1860, the son of Cornelius Francis and Caroline Sophia James.

Dr William Francis James was married to Sarah Ellen “Helen” Robinson in San Antonio, Texas on June 16 1886. The couple were parents to eight children: William Walter James, Francis “Frank” Leicester James, Stella James, Caroline Ella “Cherie” James Morren, Sophie Ethel James Fase, Gracie James, Naomi James Jacobson Hart and Ruth James Lord. (Schnuriger)

James was a graduate physician (Tulane, 1893) and surgeon in private practice since 1888 in San Antonio Texas. He enlisted in the US Army in the Rough Riders, 1st Volunteer Cavalry during Spanish American War in 1898 and then came to the Islands in 1903 to work for the Public Health Service; his salary was $200 per month.

His duty as Acting Assistant Surgeon required him to board vessels wanting to enter the port of Honolulu and examine their passengers and crew and ascertain if there are any diseases there among that would prevent the vessel from entering the port. (US Circuit Court of Appeals)

“(W)e treat free of charge all sailors on United States boats, and also hospital treatment and outdoor patients treatment, and boarding vessels for the purpose of examining the crew and passengers on board the boats as to their health, and contagious diseases especially.” (James)

His services went beyond medicine … “Voicing the unanimous sentiment of the Japanese community, the members of the Japanese Hotel Union of Honolulu desire to express their deep appreciation of the heroic act …”

“… by which a Japanese woman, Sei Shibata, was saved by you from drowning in Honolulu harbor on the 23rd of September, 1912.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 3, 1912)

“Plunging into waters infested with sharks, Acting Assistant Surgeon WF James, of the public health service, stationed at Honolulu, rescued a Japanese woman from drowning on September 23.”

“The Young brothers’ launch Water-witch with visiting newspapermen was soon at the scene, and the woman and her brave rescuers were hauled aboard. From the launch they were transferred to the ‘Korea.’ Drs Trotter and James worked over the woman for some time before she was restored to consciousness.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, September 24, 1912)

“(James) was lauded for bravery by Secretary of the Treasury MacVeagh, who yesterday called attention to his ‘humanitarian and unselfish action.’ Dr James was formerly a Roosevelt Rough Rider.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 4, 1912) He died May 23, 1944 in Honolulu.

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