Economy | Page 66 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 18, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Shirakawa Motel

“A kupua, a spirit came from Kahiki and lived below the Ha‘ao springs. He married a Ka‘u woman, and had a son named Kupa. They killed many people, and hid their bodies among tall weeds by the springs.”

“A cloudburst would bring grease from the corpses into the stream of Wai-o-hinu. With a ruse the people caught the boy and his father in a net and burned them in an imu. Some people credit this story for the name Waiohinu or “water shining like oil”. (Wilson Okamoto)

“Quite distinct from the rest of Ka-‘ū is the valley of Wai‘ōhinu, which is flanked in such a way by the mountainside that it escapes the violence (and evaporation power) of both trade and southernly winds, while receiving a generous share of rainfall. This was the locality chosen by the chiefs (ali‘i) for their residence.” (Handy & Pukui)

Wai‘ōhinu was a favored location within Ka‘ū Ahupua‘a by Hawaiian ali‘i (royalty). An upland forest of ‘ōhi‘a lehua, a permanent stream watered from Hā‘ao Springs, moderate rainfall, and a sheltered valley created a comfortable environment with fertile soils. (Wilson Okamoto)

In the 1800s, Wai‘ōhinu was the main village in Ka‘ū District. The nearest port for small vessels was in Ka‘alu‘alu which joined the village by a cart road built in 1852.

In 1857, an Agricultural Society was formed and agricultural pursuits in Wai‘ōhinu were improved; “farming has actually commenced in Kau during the past year. Within this time the first plow has been brought in and the first ground ploughed.”

“There are a dozen houses at Waiohinu, and they have got sound roofs, which is well, because the place is tolerably high upon the mountain side and it rains there pretty much all the time. The name means ‘sparkling water,’ and refers to a beautiful mountain stream there, but they ought to divide up and let it refer to the rain also.”

“A sugar plantation has been started at Waiohinu, and 150 acres planted, a year ago, but the altitude ranges from 1,800 to 2,500 feet above sea level, and it is thought it will take an other year for the cane to mature.” (Mark Twain, 1866)

“From 1859 to 1885, pulu fiber from the Hawaiian tree fern (hāpu‘u) was gathered and sold to American traders. The pulu was typically shipped to California and used to fill pillows and mattresses.

Through the mid-1800s to early 1900s, commercial sugarcane cultivation dominated the Ka‘ū landscape. The need for an increase in field workers let to an influx of contracted laborers from around the world, including China, Portugal, Japan, Korea and the Philippines. In 1850, Native Hawaiians accounted for 97 percent of the population, but only 33 percent by 1899. (Wilson Okamoto)

The Hawaiian Agricultural Company started between the years 1876 and 1880 and became the largest plantation company in Hawai‘i. It was also locally referred to as the Pahala Plantation, as the laborers housing was located in Pāhala. Mills were built in Nā‘ālehu and Pāhala. Wharves were built at Honu‘apo and Punalu‘u to ship out all the Ka‘ū sugar.

In 1900, Wai‘ōhinu became the county seat of Ka‘ū within the territory of the United States. The courthouse, jail, post office and school were all situated in Wai‘ōhinu until the 1930s

Sales people would take the long journey to Wai‘ōhinu to stock plantations and stores and then need a place to spend the night. They found such a place in Wai‘ōhinu.

“The original building, opened in 1926 as a way stop for salesmen, [was later] home to the family of Takumi Shirakawa.” (NY Times) It was a family-operated lodging house.

During WWII, the military took over the hotel. The Shirakawa family then ran a motel of thirteen rooms “amid trees dripping red and yellow hibiscus flowers”. (Wilson-Okamoto)

“The signboard of the Shirakawa Motel is partly hidden in lush greenery, and the motel itself is nearly in the shadow of Mark Twain’s Monkeypod Tree, planted by Twain during visit to the islands in 1866.” (NY Times)

“In a wonderful juxtaposition of then and now, guests who want to call him at his nearby nursery farm just press the button on a portable telephone buzzer in the foyer.

“There was no food service at the Shirakawa [some rooms had kitchenettes]; the nearest grocery and restaurant are two miles down a slight curve of the road to Naalehu, the southernmost town in the United States.” (NY Times)

Later, Pacific Quest, incorporating an outdoor-based, integrated therapy program for teens and young adults, took over the property and had its Ka‘ū facilities in the former Shirakawa Motel. (Pacific Quest left Ka‘ū in 2019.) (Ka‘ū Calendar)

September 16, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Luther Aungst

Luther S Aungst was born at Linglestown Pennsylvania on October 26, 1862, the son of Daniel and Amanda Aungst. He was educated in public school in Decatur, Illinois.

Aungst got into the telephone business and worked in Des Moines, Iowa 1879-1882, Philadelphia 1882-1886; San Francisco and Los Angeles 1886-1890. He came to the Islands in February, 1890, to take charge of the rebuild the Hamakua and South Kohala telephone systems.

“Mr Aungst, the new telephone man, is making a good start, and has the lines in good working order. He understands the business thoroughly.” (Hawaiian Gazette. March 25, 1890)

Aungst was known as the man who ‘wired’ the Big Island. He installed a line from Hilo to Kau, and across Kona to North Kohala. He used mules to drag telephone poles across lava flows.

He later secured a franchise from the government for Kona-Kau Telephone and Telegraph (1892-1932), stringing a phone line from Kau to Waimea. Kona-Kau Telephone & Telegraph later merged into Hawaii Telephone Company. (HIGenWeb)

Aungst (5 ‘6″ tall, sloping forehead, grey eyes, light hair, fair complexion) married Emma L Schoen of Hilo on February 1, 1896; they had three children Edith A, Elmer L and Wallace M.

He did more than telephone operations … “The sisal mill was run by Mr. Aungst [from 1917 – 1921], the man that owned the telephone company. Mr. Aungst was quite a pioneer.”

Young Minoru Inaba (later, Kona Representative in the State legislature) notes, “I got the job at the sisal mill after I graduated from the eighth grade.”

“My father used to be the foreman at the sisal mill. So, I got a job there. I used to get up, 3 o’clock in the morning, get on a donkey from Holualoa, go all the way to Keopu, and go down the trail. You see, the sisal mill used to be on Palani Road.”

“It’s little below where the Liliuokalani Housing is. Used to take me three hours to get to the sisal mill every morning. I used to get up 3 o’clock in the morning – well, before 3 o’clock, and leave home at 3 o’clock. Get to the sisal mill at 6 o’clock, work there the whole day, then come back. So, I used to get home about 7 o’clock at night daily.”

“I had to haul in a wheelbarrow all the thrash that came out of the sisal. And haul it away from the mill, dump it on the ma kai side of the road. You couldn’t loaf on the job. Because if you’d loaf, it’d pile up, accumulates, and you’d have a hard time. So, it had to be continuously working. It was a pretty good-paying job … $2.50 … per day”.

“What they used to do was to thrash the sisal. You take the green leaves, and at the tip there’s always a spine, huh? So, they had to cut the tip off, and then, cut the leaf off – the sisal leaf. And then, they’d put it on a conveyor.”

“That leaf is really thick, you know, and much of it is moisture and thrash in there. So, this machine would thrash that leaf and leave only the fibers.”

“The thrash that used to come out of the leaves is what I used to haul away. After the liquid and thrash was cleaned out, it left only the fibers. This was what they made rope out of sisal.”

“They had to dry this out in the sun. After it was thoroughly dried – the fibers were dried – they’d bring it in, and they’d compress it into bales. They used to ship it to San Francisco. But the cost of bringing out the sisal from the field …. They used to pack it, and those things were heavy.”

“You know, to bring it out in a rocky terrain, they used to bring it out on the donkeys. Load ‘em up on the donkeys and bring ‘em out. This was the costly part of their operation, so finally, they had to give up.” (Minoru Inaba)

“In Holualoa, he started the first garage. He was the first one that had a radio. He was the first one that brought in the carbide lights – you know, gas lamps for the home. He was the first one that imported the flashlight.”

“He was the first one that brought in ice from Honolulu. There was no ice factory here, so every steamer day, the ship would bring in ice, and they’d bring it up to his home. He was the only one that had ice.”

“Oh, he was quite a pioneer. And he started the soda works there. … The old soda works used to be the Kona Bottling Works. Yes, he was quite a pioneer.” (Minoru Inaba) “The Kona Bottling Works bottled and delivered soda throughout the district”. (Peterson)

Aungst died at his home in Holualua on September 17, 1953 at the age of 90. The County “Board of Supervisors prepared a resolution of condolence to Mr Aungst’s family, honoring him as the first citizen of Kona and a pioneer in developing telephone communications on this island.” (Hawaii Tribune Herald, September 18, 1953)

September 12, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sake

When you drink sake
You feel like the springtime,
And the loud cries
Of impatient creditors
On the outside
Sound in your ears
Like the voices of nightingales
Singing most sweetly.
(Japanese drinking song, Burton Holmes Travelogues, 1870)

Sake is a traditional alcoholic beverage in Japan. It is made through fermentation, like beer and wine. Sake is made from rice, a staple food in Japan. (NRIB)

It is not exactly known when people began making sake in Japan; however, it is believed an alcoholic beverage made from rice was already made in the Yayoi period (300 BC- 250 AD) when rice cultivation was brought from China to Japan. (NRIB)

A Dec 18, 1910 article in the San Francisco Call notes, “It is said that 7 per cent of the entire rice crop of Japan goes to the making of this amber fluid, which contains about 13 per cent of alcohol and is characterized by five distinct tastes, according to experts – ‘sweetness, sharpness, sourness, bitterness and astringency.’”

In Hawai‘i, a century after Captain James Cook’s arrival, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

Japanese came to Hawai‘i to work on the sugar plantations between 1885 and 1924, when limits were placed on the numbers permitted entry.

It is not likely anyone then foresaw the impact this would have on the cultural and social structure of the islands. The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures. Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix.

Most suggest the first Sake brewery outside of Japan was in Hawaii, the Honolulu Japanese Sake Brewery Co. Many people still believe that to be true, but it was likely the fourth sake brewery established in the US. The Japan Brewing Co was incorporated in Berkeley, California in June 1901. In addition, two other California sake breweries were established in 1903 and 1907. (Auffrey)

However, the Honolulu sake brewery was more successful, more long lasting, and left a much greater legacy than any other of the early Sake breweries in the US. (Auffrey)

“The Honolulu Sake Brewery and Ice Co Ltd, was built in 1908 by Tajiro Sumida and Tomokuni Iwanaga as the Honolulu Japanese Sake Brewery Co, Ltd.”

“‘The reason it was started is because of the early Japanese immigrants who came to Hawaii to work as plantation laborers,’ Emil A Nomura, the brewery’s assistant brewmaster, said the other day.”

“‘You see,’ Nomura said, ‘with the meager wages these workers earned, there was barely enough money left to indulge in the privilege of drinking sake, the Japanese people’s favorite drink. And sake from Japan was expensive, because of import duties and things.’”

“To remedy that drinking man’s urge for his favorite brew, the Sumida-Iwanaga partnership designed the world’s first warm-weather sake brewery.”

“The new brewery differed from any traditional Japanese brewery because it was refrigerated and capable of producing sake all year. ‘The factory had to be refrigerated because sake has to be made in a cool room (as cool as 43 degrees),’ Shinsaburo S Sumida, the brewery’s present president said recently.”

For a time, it was “The only brewery in the world which makes sake year round.” “Sumida explained that until the Pauoa brewery was built by his father and Iwanaga, sake had only been made in winter months, usually from the end of October through February, because its fermentation-mold stages of brewing are easily spoiled by heat.”

The Hawai‘i sake brewery faced several other challenges …

Prohibition in 1920s … However, “The booming brewery, however, didn’t let the no-booze era dampen its spirits. Instead, it froze brewing operations, turned up the brewery’s refrigerators, reopened as an ice factory and skated through the lean Prohibition (and Depression) years.”

“With repeal, in 1934, the ice house thawed itself out, increased its working capital from $150,000 to $250,000 (400 shareholders), imported five sake experts from Japan to supervise the installation of new machinery and went back into the brewing business.”

“With World War II came new problems: a rice shortage which didn’t allow rice to be used as anything but food and a sociological shakeup in Japanese American society.”

“‘It was an order,’ recalls Sumida. ‘We couldn’t use rice for making sake, so at that time we started making shoyu (soy sauce).’ And so the Pauoa brewery-factory shoyued its way through the war, and eventually resumed sake operations in 1948.” (SB & Adv Jan 17, 1971) The Honolulu Sake Brewery ceased operations in 1989.

A side story on Japan’s sake industry …

The Japanese started producing small glass floats in the early-1900s and the first Asian floats came ashore along the West Coast just before 1920.

These Japanese floats are part of early recycling efforts – initial Japanese floats we made from recycled sake bottles. Most floats are shades of green because that is the color of glass from these sake bottles (especially after long exposure to sunlight).

To accommodate different fishing styles and nets, the Japanese experimented with many different sizes and shapes of floats, ranging from 2 to 20 inches in diameter. Most were rough spheres, but some were cylindrical or “rolling pin” shaped.

The earliest floats, including most Japanese glass fishing floats, were hand made by a glassblower. Recycled glass, especially old sake bottles, was typically used and air bubbles in the glass are a result of the rapid recycling process.

By 1939, millions of Japanese glass floats were being used; although Japanese glass fishing floats are no longer being manufactured for fishing, there are thousands still floating in the Pacific Ocean.

September 10, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiians Away From The Islands

“So many Hawaiians living in California! 1863.”

“O Kamaaina of my dear land of birth; Aloha oukou: – I was just in California, and came back. I had much interaction with Hawaiians living there, and I saw most of them who are living in that large land; and by asking, I obtained the names of some who I have not seen.”

“You maybe want me to tell you those who I came across there? You all answer, “‘Yes, that is a good thing indeed; we will find there brethren that were lost to us, who we mistakenly thought were dead; come to find out they are living in California.’”

“Yes, I will tell you, and I will also where they live; so that you all can write to them. Look carefully at the names of the places below, and that is what to write outside of the letter so that it goes straight; and one more thing, affix a Postage Stamp (Poo Leta), of five cents price.”

“The majority of Hawaiians in California move from place to place, and do not settle in one place, therefore accuracy of the list of names stated below is not certain, because some people may have moved away at this time.”

“There is one more thing before I stop. With the grace of the Lord, I intend to return to California next week, to carry on the word of God amongst the Indians and the Hawaiians in that land, and I ask of you, all of your brethren of this archipelago, pray hard to God that he makes the work progress among the kamaaina and malihini who live in California.”

“With much aloha, Gulick Jr. [Kulika Opio]. Honolulu, September 2, 1863.” (Kuokoa, 9/12/1863

The town of Vernon, located just south of the junction of the Feather and Sacramento Rivers and roughly eighteen miles to the north of Sacramento, was originally established as a trading center in 1849 for miners of the Feather and Yuba Rivers.

It was centrally connected to the various towns and mining communities in the gold-mining region by a network of rivers. Within a few short years it was superseded by Marysville in the north, a town that became an important metropolis of the Feather and Yuba river mines. (Farnham)

However, Vernon remained an active agricultural town until the late 19^th century. The evolution of Vernon as a Kanaka “fishing” colony appears to have its origins on the opposite side of the Sacramento River, at the former town known as Fremont in Yolo County.

In the nineteenth century Kanaka laborers were moving between the two neighboring communities regularly, up until 1870. (Farnham)

On April 17, 1861, just days after the US Civil War had commenced, an editor with Ka Hae Hawaii requested that immigrants in California respond to accusations by “Dr. Frick,” a Honolulu foreigner, that labor conditions in California mimicked the conditions of “na keiki hookaumahaia o Aperika” (burdened African children).

The editor asked:

Are you experiencing difficulties in your living conditions in Caifornia with regards to the justice system of the country?
Do you suffer difficulty due to the cold and the heat?
Do you suffer from famine and going without food or due to bad food in that country?
Are you without proper clothing, wool clothes and blankets?
Are you exhausted from the work you do there?
Do your foreign bosses burden you with difficulties?
Are you sad, lonely, uncomfortable in your living conditions there or not?
Are there sicknesses and vices that tempt the soul and body of man in that country, more so than the vices found here [in Hawaii]?

Only one Hawaiian, a fisherman by the name of Thomas B Kamipele (Campbell) living in Vernon, California, answered the newspaper’s inquiry. He wrote in part:

“I offer you an olive flower. Will you please take it to the four corners of your country so that parents, friends of those living here in California may know. . . “

“Life here is tiresome and one works hard, and you work hard everyday but do not realize expansion [wealth], but experience hunger as your reward for the day.”

“Recent years have seen better times here in California.”

“These years in which we live, everyone living up in the mountains digs for gold, but do not get a worthy pay for the effort. What they earn is the pangs of hunger and a want of food and fish.”

“And because of this lack [of pay] they cannot return to their homeland. It is just as it is said in letters of the those who write to their friends living here in California.” (Ka Hae Hawaii, July 3, 1861, Farnham)

“Perhaps more importantly, Kamipele indicated that many immigrants had become frustrated with contract employment in California. “Ka hana hoolimalima me na haku haole, ua pili aku no i ke ano o na kauwa hooluhi” (The act of contract labor with white owners is very much like hard slavery), he explained.”

“He cited as an example: ‘One white man, Coneki, brought some Hawaiians from the homeland, about fifty of them in total. Among that group was Kekuaiwahie and Kapua‘a who worked with their boss for six months. They were not paid at all for their labor. They left and each went their separate ways.” (Farnham)

“Just as in Hawaii, Kanaka Hawai’i laborers in California were beginning to reject contract work with haole employers in favor of independent work in more ideal environments. The Sacramento River of the Central Valley offered one such environment.” (Farnham) (Lots here is from April Farnham.)

September 3, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Irwin Park

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project, introduced by Governor Lucius E Pinkham and the Board of Harbor Commissioners in 1916, was declared to be the “most important project ever handled in Honolulu Harbor.”

The project began in 1916 with the construction of new docks; it continued in 1924 with the construction of Aloha Tower as a gateway landmark heralding ship arrivals.

On September 3, 1930, the Territory of Hawaiʻi entered into an agreement with Hélène Irwin Fagan and Honolulu Construction and Draying, Ltd. (HC&D), whereby HC&D sold some property to Fagan, who then donated it to the Territory with the stipulation that the property honor her father and that it be maintained as a “public park to beautify the entrance to Honolulu Harbor.”

The Territory of Hawai‘i agreed to accept the donation from Hélène Irwin Fagan. The deed restrictions and conditions stated that if any portion of the Property was ever abandoned as a public park, the Property would revert back to Fagan and “her heirs and assigns”.

On March 13, 1931, through Executive Order No. 472, the Territory set aside the Property as a public park and noted that the Territory owned the Property subject to the restrictions and conditions set forth in the deed from Fagan to the Territory.

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project was completed in 1934 with the creation of a 2-acre oasis shaded by the canopies of monkeypod trees; Irwin Memorial Park is located mauka of the Aloha Tower Marketplace bounded by North Nimitz Highway, Fort Street, Bishop Street and Aloha Tower Drive.

In 1939, the Territory and Fagan entered into a Supplemental Agreement “to permit the parking of vehicles of whatsoever nature, whether with or without the payment of a fee or fees on that portion of (Irwin Park) now set aside for the parking of vehicles”. A later (1951,) agreement allowed for widening of Nimitz Highway. (Hawaii ICA)

In 1981, the Legislature enacted Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 206J, which created Aloha Tower Development Corporation (ATDC) as an agency of the State, and which provides that “Irwin Memorial Park shall be retained as a public park subject to the reservations and conditions set forth in the deed”. In 1999, Irwin Park was placed on the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places. (Hawaii ICA)

William G Irwin was born in England in 1843; he was the son of James and Mary Irwin. His father, a paymaster in the ordnance department of the British army, sailed with his family for California with a cargo of merchandise immediately after the discovery of gold in 1849. The family then came to Hawaiʻi.

Irwin attended Punahou School and as a young man was employed at different times by Aldrich, Walker & Co.; Lewers & Dickson; and Walker, Allen & Co.

In 1880, he and Claus Spreckels formed the firm WG Irwin & Co; for many years it was the leading sugar agency in the kingdom and the one originally used by the West Maui Sugar Association.

In 1884, the firm took over as agent for Olowalu Company. William G Irwin and Company acted as a sales agent for Olowalu’s sugar crop as previous agents had done. It also was purchasing agent for plantation equipment and supplies and represented Olowalu with the Hawaiian Board of Immigration to bring in immigrant laborers.

In 1885, Irwin and Spreckels opened the bank of Claus Spreckels & Co., later incorporated under the name of Bank of Honolulu, Ltd., that later merged with the Bank of Bishop & Co.

In 1886, Mr. Irwin married Mrs. Fannie Holladay. Their only child, Hélène Irwin, was married to industrialist Paul Fagan of San Francisco.

A close friend of King Kalākaua, Irwin was decorated by the King and was a member of the Privy Council of Hawaiʻi in 1887.

In 1896, the Legislature of the Republic of Hawaiʻi put Kapiʻolani Park and its management under the Honolulu Park Commission; William G Irwin was the first chair of the commission.

In 1901 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government in recognition of his services as Hawaiʻi’s representative to the Paris Exposition.

By 1909, William G Irwin and Company’s fortunes had declined and, reaching retirement age, Irwin reluctantly decided to close the business. In January 1910, the firm of William G. Irwin and Company merged with its former rival C. Brewer and Company.

Irwin moved to San Francisco in 1909 and served as president and chairman of the board of the Mercantile Trust Company, which eventually merged with Wells Fargo Bank.

In 1913, Mr. Irwin incorporated his estate in San Francisco under the name of the William G. Irwin Estate Co., which maintained large holdings in Hawaiian plantations. He had extensive business interests in California, as well as in Hawaiʻi, and was actively associated with the Mercantile National Bank of San Francisco in later years.

William G Irwin died in San Francisco, January 28, 1914.

Irwin had a CW Dickey-designed home makai of Kapiʻolani Park. In 1921, the Territorial Legislature authorized the issuance of bonds for the construction, on the former Irwin property, of a memorial dedicated to the men and women of Hawaiʻi who served in World War I. It’s where the Waikīkī Natatorium War Memorial now sits.