Economy | Page 47 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 10, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mānā – Laumai‘a – Keanakolu Trail/Road

This is about a trail and a subsequent road on the east side of Mauna Kea. Today, we call the Waimea end (and up Mauna Kea) the Mānā Road and the Saddle Road side of this road we call the Keanakolu Road,. At least part of this trail/road was called Laumai‘a Trail.

Here is some of the background about the need for mauka access in this area of the Island of Hawai‘i, as well as some history on the trails/roads there.

Although the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawai`i, extensive cross-country trail networks enabled gathering of food and water and harvesting of materials for shelter, clothing, medicine, religious observances and other necessities for survival.

Trails and roads connected the coast with the uplands, probably easing travel through the upland forests. Boundary Commission records document numerous trails from the coast to the upper edge of the forest.

Most trails seem to have followed ahupua‘a boundaries (although this could be a factor of the Commission’s purpose, which was to define boundaries). (Tuggle)

Early accounts date back to the 1500s, at the time that ‘Umi-a-Līloa fell into a disagreement with the chief of Hilo over a whale

tooth (ivory) pendant. Traveling from Waipi‘o, across Mauna Kea, ‘Umi and his warriors camped in the uplands of Kaūmana.

Samuel Kamakau wrote that ‘Umi-a-Līloa “conferred with his chiefs and his father’s old war leaders. It was decided to make war on the chiefs of Hilo and to go without delay by way of Mauna Kea.”

“From back of Ka‘umana they were to descend to Hilo. It was shorter to go by way of the mountain to the trail of Poli‘ahu and Poli‘ahu’s spring at the top of Mauna Kea, and then down toward Hilo. It was an ancient trail used by those of Hamakua, Kohala, and Waimea to go to Hilo.”

“They made ready to go with their fighting parties to Mauna Kea, descended back of Hilo, and encamped just above the stream of Waianuenue without the knowledge of Hilo’s people that war was coming from the upland. Hilo’s chiefs were unprepared.” (Kamakau, Ruling Chiefs)

In the period leading up to the mid-1800s, travel to Mauna Kea was done on foot along a system of trails that crossed the mountain lands.

Native ala hele (trails), which had been used for centuries and often provided the “path of least resistance,” to travel around and across the island, proved inadequate for the new methods of travel with horses, wagons and team animals.

By 1847, Kamehameha III had instructed island governors to undertake the survey of routes and construction of new roads, which became known as the Alanui Aupuni (Government Roads). Construction was to be paid for through taxation and “labor days” of the residents of the lands through which the roads would pass. (ASM)

In 1862, the Commission of Boundaries (Boundary Commission) was established in the Hawaiian Kingdom to legally set the boundaries of all the ahupua‘a that had been awarded as a part of the Māhele.

Subsequently, in 1874, the Commissioners of Boundaries were authorized to certify the boundaries for lands brought before them. The primary informants for the boundary descriptions were old native residents of the lands, many of which had also been claimants for kuleana during the Māhele. (ASM)

An informant, Kalaualoha, stated that “in olden times the birdcatchers used to go up the Honohina and Pīhā roads, they could not go up Nanue as the road was so bad.”

“The canoe road of Nanue ran to mauka of Kaahiwa [Ka‘ahina stream], there it ended. But the roads on Honohina and Pīhā ran way mauka.” (Koa logs were selected, prepared in the forest and then hauled down canoe roads.) (Tuggle)

Puuhaula’s testimony for Pāpa‘ikou stated that “the old Alakahi road ran up the boundary to Palauolelo and was said to be the boundary between Makahanaloa and Papaikou.”

Coastal-inland travel in all likelihood extended beyond the limits of any particular ahupua‘a. But McEldowney suggests that paths in the upper subalpine region were not defined; rather, travelers followed “prominent landmarks rather than set or distinct trails.” (Tuggle)

It was not until the second half of the 1800s that specific routes up the mountain were established, probably related to the building and use of ranch establishments at ‘Umikoa (Kukaiau Ranch) and Humu‘ula (Humuula Sheep Station) as base camps.

A major cross-island trail crossed the upper edge of the Hakalau Forest area. In the 19^th century, it was called the Laumai‘a road, but it likely originated in earlier times. The present Keanakolu Road probably roughly follows the Laumai‘a alignment. (Tuggle)

Cordy describes a trail on the east flank of Mauna Kea that connected Kohala, Waimea, and Hāmākua with Hilo. This could be the trail that was used by the high chief ‘Umi in his conquest of Hilo. (Kamakau, Tuggle)

“It was shorter to go by way of the mountain [Mauna Kea] to the trail of Poli‘ahu and Poli‘ahu’s spring at the top of Mauna Kea, and then down toward Hilo. It was an ancient trail used by those of Hamakua, Kohala, and Waimea to go to Hilo.”

Nineteenth century accounts document travel between Kawaihae and Hilo using a mountain route, although the specific alignment of the road may have varied somewhat from the earlier traditional trail.

Although this road probably follows the general alignment of earlier routes, there was a different path for what was alternatively referred to as the Laumai‘a road, the Laumai‘a-Hopuwai road, the Laumai‘a-Hope-a trail, or the connection to the Mānā (Waimea) road. (Tuggle)

The Kalai‘eha-Laumai‘a Trail, was paved with stones in the late 1800s to facilitate transportation of goods around the mountain. (ASM) (Kalai‘eha is the large pu‘u (cinder cone) near Saddle Road on DHHL property, Hilo side of the Mauna Kea Access Road.)

Formal surveys of the Hilo-Kalai‘eha-Waimea government road via Waiki‘i (the early Saddle Road) were begun in 1862. The Kalai‘eha-Waiki‘i alignment remained basically the same until after the outbreak of World War II, and the paving of the “Saddle Road” in the 1940s.

In the area from Kilohana (on the north side of the present-day Girl Scout Camp) to Waiki‘i proper, the route is almost as it was finally laid out in 1869 (overlaying one of the ancient trails through the area), except for widening.

The Kalai‘eha-Hilo section of the route remained basically as constructed in 1869, but because of the dense forest vegetation and the difficulty encountered in traveling through the region, the route received little maintenance and use by travelers other than those on foot or horseback, generally on their way to one of the ranch stations or the summit of Mauna Kea. (Kumu Pono)

The Waimea-Mānā-Kula‘imano-Hilo route along the upper forest line of Hāmākua and Hilo, was developed in 1854, with subsequent modifications in 1877, and again in the 1890s, as a part of the Humu‘ula Sheep Station operation.

Further modifications to the Kalai‘eha-Keanakolu-Mānā route were made as a part of the tenure of Parker Ranch-Humu‘ula Sheep Station, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and Territorial Forestry tenure of the land. (Kumu Pono)

Access along the eastern side of Mauna Kea was by the old Waimea-Laumai‘a road, which was greatly improved by the CCC; “a truck trail has been cleared along the old horse trails on this mountain so that now one may negotiate the trip completely around Mauna Kea at the general elevation of 7,000 feet in an automobile.” (Judd, Tuggle)

In the 1930s, the CCC, under the direction of L Bill Bryan, undertook improvements on the mountain roads, particularly the section between Kalai‘eha and Keanakolu.

In 1942, following the outbreak of World War II, the US Army began realignment and improvements of the route that became known as the Saddle Road. Territorial ownership of the road was assumed on June 30, 1947. (Kumu Pono)

Construction on the Alanui Aupuni from coastal Kona to the saddle lands was actually begun in 1849, and ten miles of the road, completed by 1850. The route was cut off by the lava flow of 1859, and all but abandoned by public use; though it remained in use by ranchers and those traveling between Kona, the saddle region, and Waimea until the early 1900s. (Kumu Pono)

February 4, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Dealing with Outcasts, Desperadoes and Debt

A February 4, 1845 report by US Naval Captain Thomas ap Catesby Jones (and accompanying documents) to the US House of Representatives tells us a lot about the situation in the Islands in the early stages of whaling in the Pacific.

This involves petitions from ship owners, business people and others in the community to Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams and resulted in Captain Jones being sent to the Islands to help make things right.

Several merchants and others engaged in whaling wrote to President Monroe saying, “They are fully persuaded that a naval force, properly distributed there, will have a powerful tendency to prevent such fatal occurrences, by deterring from acts of violence the unprincipled, who are inseparably connected with such a multitude of men as are required to navigate their ships.”

“These, which have till within a short time been confined to a small portion of the Pacific, now traverse the greater part of that ocean, which has increased the danger of which they complain to a very considerable degree.”

“Hence, they feel the necessity of a naval force stationed there, that shall visit the remote parts of it, and occasionally touch at those islands to which their ships resort for refreshments, &c. …”

New Bedford wrote the President Adams, “in prosecuting whaling voyages into the most distant parts of the Pacific ocean, it becomes necessary for ships so employed to touch at islands in that ocean for purposes of supplies and refreshment …”

“that the Sandwich islands, as affording convenient opportunities for this purpose, have of late years being very generally resorted to; that very nearly one hundred American whaling ships may be estimated to visit Oahu (a port in the Sandwich islands) in the course of every year, and it is not unfrequent that over thirty American whalemen are lying at that portal one time …”

“Experience has shown that, since the introduction of foreign habits and foreign vices among those distant islanders, their characters have undergone an essential depreciation: the purity of intent which characterizes man in his state of natural simplicity, is now scarcely to be traced among them …”

“outcasts and desperadoes have mingled with them, carrying into their habitations the seeds of iniquity, inciting among them a spirit of evil, and diffusing a skill in the purposes of vice, at once to be deplored and dreaded.”

“Upon a population thus prepared for acts of violence and outrage, the mere influence of a pacific habit cannot be safely trusted to as a restraining motive. The distance, also, at which these people (thus attempered to evil design) are placed from the effective operation of civil power, is a circumstance truly calculated to inspire apprehension and alarm.”

A subsequent petition to President Adams noted that “there were over one hundred and fifty seamen (principally deserters from the whale ships) prowling about the country, naked and destitute … their number was constantly increasing, and serious apprehensions existed that necessity would induce those lawless deserters to commit some act of a piratical nature.” (Petitions to John Quincy Adams)

Mr. Bayly, from the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, made the following remarks, “It appears, from memorials presented to Presidents Monroe and Adams by a large number of merchants and others, residents of Nantucket, engaged in the whale-fishery, that in 1824 and 1825 mutinies were taking place on board of American vessels …”

“and desertions of their crews, who took refuge in the Sandwich islands; which place, it was feared, would become, unless our government interfered, ‘a nest of pirates and murderers;’ and the government was asked to send a national vessel to apprehend the offenders, and to look generally after American commerce in the South Seas.”

In addition, there were debts due to our citizens by the people and government of the Sandwich islands … over $500,000 due by the late king Tamahamaha, of the Sandwich islands, to sundry citizens of the United States; (which debt the successors of Tamahamaha had refused to recognize)”.

“Captain Jones, upon his arrival at the Sandwich islands, found great obstacles to the success of his mission. The natives were a semi-barbarous people, just emerging from heathenism …”

“there were in the islands a great many lawless foreigners, long familiarized to living without the restraint of law, who insidiously opposed every effort to introduce law and order, and everything was in a state of great disorder and confusion.”

“In addition to this, the English government had contrived to possess itself of a very large share of the confidence of those islanders. … The influence thus acquired was not all which the British agents interposed to prevent Captain Jones’s success …”

“but the English consul general, residing at Oahu, in 1826, openly claimed for his king the right of sovereignty over those islands; and, in Captain Jones’s presence, at a general council convoked for conference with him, told the regency that they had no power to make treaties, or to enter into any stipulations with a foreign power, without the consent of Great Britain …”

“and even went so far as to warn the islanders that the steps they were then taking to establish a firm and lasting friendship with the United States, would assuredly bring upon them the wrath of the great and powerful nation which he represented.”

“In contrast with the exalted opinion which the Sandwich islanders held of the English nation, was the poor opinion which they had been taught to entertain of the United States.”

“[T]hey had been taught to believe ‘that the Americans were destitute of maritime force. The English,’ they say, ‘have men-of-war, but the Americans have only whalers and trading vessels.’”

“Under these circumstances, Captain Jones thought it indispensable to his success so to demean himself as to elevate, in the eyes of those islanders, the American character; and he was compelled to resort to expensive entertainments and presents, the invariable means of facilitating negotiations with an unlettered people …”

“Notwithstanding the difficulties which he had to encounter, Captain Jones was entirely successful. He negotiated a commercial arrangement with the authorities of the Sandwich islands, eminently beneficial to us, and he prevailed upon them to adopt a plan of raising a revenue to satisfy claims of our citizens, as novel and curious as it was successful.”

“These two measures were the first essay of those islanders in negotiation and legislation; and it is believed the success of them tended to no small extent to generate in them a feeling of independence and self-reliance; which alone, it is more than probable, has prevented these islands from being numbered, by this time, among the colonial possessions of Great Britain.”

“The one has ever been regarded by all nations having intercourse with these islanders as a solemn treaty; has been respected as such; and been made the basis of all similar arrangements entered into with them.”

“The other was so efficient as to secure to our citizens some $500,000, the recovery of which, until it was adopted, had been despaired of.”

(In an agreement between Jones and Kaahumanu (as Regent), Kalanimoku (as Prime Minister), Boki, Hoapili and Namahana, the debt was paid off via a tax where,

“Every man is to deliver half a pecul of good sandal-wood to the governor of the district to which he belongs [and] Every woman of the age of thirteen years or upwards, is to pay a mat, 12 feet long and 6 wide, or tapa of equal value, (to such a mat,) or the sum of one Spanish dollar”.

“After the public debts are paid, the remainder of the amount of this tax to be divided between the king and governors—one half to the regency, for the use of the king; and the other half to be divided between the governors, in proportion to the amount collected from each island.”)

“The importance of the Sandwich islands as a place of refuge for the refreshment and repair of our marine, is understood by all commercial men, and cannot well be overrated; and …”

“the services of Captain Jones, the pioneer in making those arrangements which have kept them open to our shipping, cannot be too highly estimated.”

“He deserves the gratitude of every man who values our South Sea commerce; and ought not to be permitted to suffer from pecuniary losses sustained in rendering such important services to his country.” (US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 28^th Congress, 2d Session, Report No. 92)

He “secured for himself among the people the designation of ‘the kind-eyed chief’ – a compliment falling on the ear of many of different classes”. (Hiram Bingham)

January 27, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Linzy Clark Child

“Born Aug. 14, 1887, Ogden, Utah, son of Austin W., and Mary (Thompson) Child; married Lena Conant at Kealakekua, Hawaii, July 5, 1913; children, Helen C., Madelane C., and Elmer Austin Child; member, Hilo Lodge No. 759, B. P. 0. Elks.”

“Educated in schools of Utah, Mr. Child came to Hawaii in 1908 and entered the employ of H. Hackfeld & Co., at Kailua, remaining in the branch office and store there after it was taken over by American Factors, Ltd.”

“On October 1, 1918, he was promoted to the managership, which position he still holds. He is active in the civic affairs of the Kona district and is postmaster at Kailua.” (Nellist)

“From 1900 to 1917, the largest business in Kailua-Kona was H. Hackfeld & Co. Ltd. The name changed to American Factors in 1917 and to AmFac in the 1960s.”

“Its two-story building sat at the entrance to Kailua Pier on the current site of King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. It served as company headquarters, general store, post office and employee housing.”

“There were also a coffee mill and a large diesel generator used to make ice. By the 1930s, American Factors had established a lumberyard on the site as well. … the warehouses of Amfac dealt with practically everything else for decades: ice, food for man and beast, building materials, hardware, fuel and kitchen sinks.”

“[B]ecause Kailua’s shallow water pier was impossible to tie up to, lumber was floated, paddled, and swum ashore and then hauled up to dry on the white sands of Kamakahonu Beach.” (Kona Historical Society)

“This arduous task, floating huge beams and rafters ashore, happened for well over a century at undeveloped Kona ports such as Kailua, Keauhou, and Ho`okena. Henry N. Greenwell’s shipment of northwest fir for his Greenwell Store arrived at Kealakekua Bay before 1870.”

“His initials – H.N.G. – painted in black on each piece of timber identified his wood so when athletic Hawaiians swam it ashore at Napoopoo, it could be piled in one place.”

“That was when Napoopoo ‘was a really happening place’ with Amfac’s wooden store dominating the front street, large metal tanks holding fuel looming amongst the palm trees, and warehouses filled with Kona coffee, Kona oranges, and bananas advertised Kona’s agricultural wealth.”

“And, live beef on the hoof was to be found penned up near Hikiau Heiau, awaiting their one-way trip to Honolulu’s slaughterhouses on board the Humu’ula.”

“Freighters arrived in Kailua Bay laden with fuel, a long hose or pipe was connected from the ship to the shore to enable gasoline to be pumped directly into Standard Oil’s large white fuel tank. Fifty gallon drums full of oil were simply floated ashore.”

“When ‘rafts’ of bundled lumber made it onto the beach, Mr. Linzy Child, Amfac’s Kailua branch manager, had men grade (select with no knots, rough clear), segregate, and carefully stack each plank to dry with laths in between each piece.”

“Local villagers would be hired to do much of the work on steamer days, a good chance for able bodied men and boys to earn some ready cash.”

“Takao Katoku earned a penny a piece to swim lumber ashore and drag it onto the sands of Napoopoo Beach in the early 20th century.

“Kona, in the 1920s, enjoyed unprecedented prosperity. Large sums were invested in equipment and machinery, acreage was expanded, and new homes were built. Farmers obtained credit for these improvements and they borrowed heavily.”

“Those outside coffee farming – those who provided goods and services – prospered. The Y.K. Aiona Store, owned by Sam Liau’s family, was one of many stores that enjoyed a brisk business. The Manago Hotel, now a Kona landmark, expanded its facilities and services.” (Kona Historical Society)

Hopes continued to soar. But, when coffee prices fell, Kona’s people, too, fell deeper and deeper into debt. The hopes and dreams of many were shattered.

Between 1929 and 1938, the number of farmers decreased by an alarming 50 percent. Relief was obtained only in the late 1930s. Farmers, storekeepers, and others united in an effort to save their community.

Usaku Morihara was one of many who participated in this effort. “People started running away because of the depression. So we started negotiating with American Factors. I told Factors to reduce all of the debts.”

“I told them the people would remember this and be loyal to them until death. I told them the coffee business would be doomed otherwise, and there would be no farmers in Kona, so it would be their loss as well as ours. I told them let us be free of our debts.”

“I told them the farmers would start working hard when everything started fresh. And those who’d run away would come back since they liked Kona better than the sugar plantations and any other place.” (A Social History of Kona)

“[I]t was my grandfather Linzy C. Child who was the manager of American Factors Kailua during that period that negotiated and spoke to Mr. Morihara and others about helping the farmers debt problems.”

“Getting on a ship to Honolulu he was successful getting top management of American Factors to forgive 98% of the debts; this was unheard of. I believe the action taken by Grandpa and American Factors saved the Kona Coffee industry and changed the way banking was done in Hawaii in dealing with other ethnic groups!” (Linzy Hotz)

Linzy Clark is also credited in helping to start Kona’s Kai ‘Ōpua canoe club. (Kai ‘Opua) “Grandpa was a humble man who rarely spoke of his life while living in Kona since the early 1900s.” (Linzy Hotz)

January 26, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

First Descriptions of the Islands and the People

“On the 19th (of January, 1778,) at sunrise, the island first seen, bore east several leagues distant. … At this time, we were in some doubt whether or not the land before us was inhabited; but this doubt was soon cleared up, by seeing some canoes coming off from the shore, toward the ships”.

“In the course of my several voyages, I never before met with the natives of any place so much astonished, as these people were, upon entering a ship. Their eyes were continually flying from object to object …”

“… the wildness of their looks and gestures fully expressing their entire ignorance about every thing they saw, and strongly marking to us, that, till now, they had never been visited by Europeans, nor been acquainted with any of our commodities except iron …”

” Of what number this newly-discovered Archipelago consists, must be left for future investigation. We saw five of them, whose names, as given to us by the natives, are Woahoo (O‘ahu,) Atooi (Kauai,) Oneeheow (Ni‘ihau,) Oreehoua (Lehua) and Tahoora (Ka‘ula.)”

“Besides these … which we can distinguish by their names, it appeared, that the inhabitants of those with whom we had intercourse, were acquainted with some other islands both to the eastward and westward. I named the whole group the Sandwich Islands, in honour of the Earl of Sandwich.”

“The inhabitants are of a middling stature, firmly made, with some exceptions, neither remarkable for a beautiful shape, nor for striking features, which rather express an openness and good-nature, than a keen, intelligent disposition.”

“Their visage, especially amongst the women, is sometimes round; but others have it long; nor can we say that they are distinguished, as a nation, by any general cast of countenance.”

“Their colour is nearly of a nut-brown, and it may be difficult to make a nearer comparison, if we take in all the different hues of that colour; but some individuals are darker.”

“They are vigorous, active, and most expert swimmers; leaving their canoes upon the most trifling occasion; diving under them, and swimming to others though at a great distance.”

“It was very common to see women, with infants at the breast, when the surf was so high that they could not land in the canoes, leap overboard, and without endangering their little ones, swim to the shore, through a sea that looked dreadful.”

“They seem to be blest with a frank, cheerful disposition; … They seem to live very sociably in their intercourse with one another; and … they were exceedingly friendly to us.” “(T)hey spoke the language of Otaheite, and of the other islands we had lately visited.”

Men wore a ‘maro’ (malo,) “pieces of cloth tied about the loins, and hanging a considerable way down.” “The only difference in (women’s) dress, was their having a piece of cloth about the body, reaching from near the middle to half-way down the thighs, instead of the maro worn by the other sex.”

“The habitations of the natives were thinly scattered about … (part of Cook’s crew) had an opportunity of observing the method
of living amongst the natives, and it appeared to be decent and cleanly.”

“Though they seem to have adopted the mode of living in villages, there is no appearance of defence, or fortification, near any of them; and the houses are scattered about, without any order, either with respect to their distances from each other, or there position in any particular direction.”

“Their amusements seem pretty various; for, during our stay, several were discovered. The dances … from the motions which they made with their hands, on other occasions, when they sung, we could form some judgment that they are, in some degree at least, similar to those we had met with at the southern Islands”.

“They did not, however, see any instance of the men and women eating together; and the latter seemed generally associated in companies by themselves.”

“They eat off a kind of wooden plates, or trenchers; and the women, as far as we could judge from one instance, if restrained from feeding at the same dish with the men … are at least permitted to eat in the same place near them.”

“It was found, that they burnt here the oily nuts of the doee dooe for lights in the night, … and that they baked their hogs in ovens”.

“They met with a positive proof of the existence of the taboo (or as they pronounce it, the tafoo), for one woman fed another who was under that interdiction.”

“They also observed some other mysterious ceremonies; one of which was performed by a woman, who took a small pig, and threw it into the surf, till it was drowned, and then tied up a bundle of wood, which she also disposed of in the same manner. The same woman, at another time, beat with a stick upon a man’s shoulders, who sat down for that purpose.”

“They have salt, which they call patai; and is produced in salt ponds. With it they cure both fish and pork; and some salt fish, which we got from them, kept very well, and were found to be very good.”

“Fish, and other marine productions were, to appearance, not various; as, besides the small mackerel, we only saw common mullets; a sort of a dead white, or chalky colour; a small, brownish rock-fish, spotted with blue; a turtle, which was penned up in a pond; and three or four sorts of fish salted. The few shellfish that we saw were chiefly converted into ornaments”.

“Of animal food, they can be in no want; as they have abundance of hogs, which run, without restraint, about the houses ; and if they eat dogs, which is not improbable, their stock of these seem to be very considerable. The great number of fishing-hooks found among them, showed, that they derive no inconsiderable supply of animal food from the sea.”

“Judging from what we saw growing, and from what was brought to market, there can be no doubt that the greatest part of their vegetable food consists of sweet potatoes, taro, and plantains; and that bread-fruit and yams are rather to be esteemed rarities.”

“(T)he vale, or moist ground, produces taro, of a much larger size than any we had ever seen; and the higher ground furnishes sweet potatoes, that often weigh ten, and sometimes twelve or fourteen pounds; very few being under two or three.”

(This summary comes entirely from the Journals of Captain Cook, explaining what he saw immediately after contact.)

View of the Sandwich Islands_Webber-Achorage at Atooi

January 23, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Marcus Douglas Monsarrat

I like maps, especially historical maps.

One of my favorites was a map of Honolulu drawn by Marcus Douglas Monsarrat, Hawaii-born surveyor. He prepared it in 1897.

I like it, not only because it represents the nature of the City at that time, but, more importantly, he also depicts homes and buildings, and includes the names of the owners.

Born on March 29, 1857, on his paternal side Monsarrat is descended from Nicholas Monsarrat, who went to Dublin, Ireland, in 1755 from France.

His father, MC Monsarrat resided in Canada before coming to Hawaii, having been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, June 18, 1844, and in the Islands he served as deputy collector of customs, later with Dowsett & Compauy, lumber dealers, which subsequently became SG Wilder & Company.

His father (Marcus Cumming Monsarrat became a bit notorious in the Islands. Prince Lot had invited Marcus Monsarrat, who lived nearby, as a guest at a dinner party on January 15, 1857. When dinner was over, Monsarrat bid his goodbye and left. …

Soon after, one of Lot’s servants said the tall, handsome Monsarrat was in Victoria Kamāmalu’s bedroom. Prince Lot burst into Victoria Kamāmalu’s quarters and discovered her in compromising circumstances with his guest Marcus Monsarrat (he was ‘arranging his pantaloons.’) He was banished from the Islands.

The incident was embarrassing to the court because efforts were underway to arrange a marriage between Victoria Kamāmalu and Kalākaua; these plans were quickly aborted. Monsarrat returned; he died in Honolulu on October 18, 1871. Some suggest Monsarrat Street near Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) is named for Monsarrat; others say it is for his son, James Melville Monsarrat, an attorney and Judge.

Through his mother Marcus Douglas Monsarrat is a descendant of Captain Samuel James Dowsett, a native of Rochester, Kent, England, and a commander in His Majesty’s Colonial Service, who, as owner and master of the brig “Wellington,” came to Hawaii from Sydney July 27, 1828, and established his family in Honolulu. (Nellist)

Monsarrat studied at O‘ahu College (now Punahou School, 1866-70 and 1872-73) and St Alban’s (now Iolani School, 1870-71). His first employment was with James Dowsett.

Monsarrat worked for the Hawaiian Government Survey from about 1874 until 1877. The Office of Hawaiian Government Survey was established under the Interior Department in 1870, when the Minister of the Interior, F.W. Hutchison (who had the care of public lands and by law had the authority to have them surveyed), asked the Legislature for $5,000 for “Government Surveying.”

Its formation was prompted by the increased public demand for additional grants of government land in the late 1860s and the government’s corresponding ignorance of the amount or location of government land still available for lease or sale.

It was also surmised that a survey and its resultant maps, besides determining the extent of remnant government lands, would prove useful to private individuals and other government agencies, especially tax assessors, boundary commissioners and the courts, since no district maps then existed and island maps were still based on the charts of Cook and Vancouver.

Consequently, an Office of Survey was begun and its primary object was “to account for all the land in the Kingdom by its original title, and indicate such accounting on general maps, and while having no authority to settle boundaries, to require the surveyors to lay down such boundaries on maps to the best of their ability with the abundant information at their disposal.” (DAGS, Survey)

Monsarrat surveyed the Island of Lanai. After working for the government, Monsarrat opened his own surveying firm. He served as Crown surveyor from 1878 until Hawai‘i’s annexation with the US. (Geographicus) He also had a contract to survey Molokai.

During his long and active career, he personally surveyed a large portion of the Hawaiian Islands. From 1902 to the time of his death, he served as commissioner of boundaries for first and second judicial circuits. (Siddall)

Monsarrat married Florence Ellen Luce, at Honolulu, June 1, 1882; they had three children, Kathleen Douglas, Mildred Myrtle (deceased), and Ethel Florence. (They later divorced.) Monsarrat died October 23, 1922.