Economy | Page 83 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 12, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Fort Street Mall

In 1815, Kamehameha I granted Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor. But, instead, directed by the German adventurer Georg Schaffer (1779-1836,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag.

They built their blockhouse near the harbor, against the ancient heiau of Pākākā and close to the King’s complex. There are reports that the Russians used stones from Pākākā in building their facility. (Pākākā was the site of Kaua‘i’s King Kaumuali‘i’s negotiations relinquishing power to Kamehameha I, instead of going to war, and pledged allegiance to Kamehameha, a few years earlier in 1810.)

When Kamehameha discovered the Russians were building a fort (rather than storehouses) and had raised the Russian flag, he sent several chiefs (including Kalanimōku and John Young (his advisor,)) to remove the Russians from Oʻahu by force, if necessary.

The Russian personnel judiciously chose to sail for Kaua‘i instead of risking bloodshed. On Kaua‘i, there they were given land by Kaua‘i’s King Kaumuali‘i; the Russian Fort Elizabeth was built soon after on Kaua‘i.

The partially built blockhouse at Honolulu was finished by Hawaiians under the direction of John Young and mounted guns protected the fort. Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out. But, it was also used to keep things in (it also served as a prison.)

By 1830, the fort had 40 guns mounted on the parapets all of various calibers (6, 8, 12 and probably a few 32 pounders.) Fort Kekuanohu literally means ‘the back of the scorpion fish,’ as in ‘thorny back,’ because of the rising guns on the walls. In 1838 there were 52 guns reported.

Fort Street is named after this fort; it is one of the oldest streets in Honolulu. Today, the site of the old fort is the open space called Walker Park, a small park at the corner of Queen and Fort streets (also fronting Ala Moana/Nimitz.)

Fort Street gradually became the retail and business center of the Island throughout the 1800s and into the 1950s; it hosted several of the largest department stores in Hawaii including Kress, Liberty House and Woolworth’s. Other stores were located along its streets.

However, by the 1940s, some foresaw the decline of downtown. Traffic congestion, inadequate parking and competition from suburban shopping centers drained business from downtown.

In 1949, the Hawaiʻi Chapter of the American Institute of Architects made the first proposal to close Fort Street to vehicular traffic. Nothing happened; then, with the announcement of the planned Ala Moana Shopping Center, many feared a mass exodus from downtown.

In response, the Downtown Improvement Association was formed in 1958. It developed a master plan for downtown. Little happened, for another 6-years. Then, a pilot project closed Fort Street, in conjunction with the Golden Harvest Celebration.

While downtown business declined with the opening of Ala Moana Center, more studies and plans were prepared, until, finally, the City Planning Commission hired Gruen to develop a plan.

The plan called for downtown super blocks, with a system of pedestrian malls. In January 1968, the City Council approved Gruen mall plan, after 75% of adjoining owners indicated their consent.

Fort Street Mall is 5-blocks in length (1,738-feet,) extending from Queen Street up to Beretania Street. Construction began in June 1968 and was completed in February 1969, at a cost of $27-millon.

The architect of the Mall was Victor Gruen Associates. The project was funded by the City & County (55%,) private owners (44%) and Board of Water Supply (1%.)

Its average width is 50-feet, at the King Street Plaza it widens to 83-feet and at Father Damien Plaza on Beretania Street it becomes 93-feet. There are cross streets at Merchant, King and Hotel with a pedestrian underpass (and Satellite City Hall) on King Street.

Today, the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District Association, a nonprofit corporation consisting of property owners and ground lessees adjacent to the Mall, manages the Mall by supplementing the services (primarily maintenance and security) currently provided by the City and County of Honolulu.

Like most urban settings, Fort Street Mall’s character changes block by block. As you walk along the Mall, the businesses and the patrons indicate changes in the Mall’s identity.

Across from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace at the mauka end of the Mall, the Hawaii Pacific University presence gives the Mall a college feel. Students periodically fill the Mall when classes let out and they stroll to one of the many buildings that HPU occupies on the Mall.

(Information here if from Pedestrian Malls, Streetscapes, and Urban Spaces, Harvey M. Rubenstein and The Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District Association.)

July 10, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Edward LaVaun Clissold

Edward LaVaun Clissold was born in Salt Lake City April 11, 1898. He grew up in Salt Lake City and attended East High School. After high school he received at least some education from the University of Utah. World War I apparently cut short his education.

Clissold served in the Navy along with his brother Albert aboard the battleship USS Arkansas in the Atlantic. Returning from the Navy at age 22, he married Irene Picknell.

While still barely a newlywed, he made a monumental decision that would affect the rest of his life. At age 23, a war veteran, a husband and soon to be father, he chose to serve a Mormon mission in a time when only a few served missions.

As a brand new missionary, he sailed for Hawaii on the S.S. Manoa alone. When he arrived in Honolulu a week later on July 27, 1921, there was no one to meet him.

He sat alone with his trunk on the dock not knowing what he should do next. A baggage man approached him, asking if he were a Mormon Missionary. He replied yes and asked how he knew.

The man replied “Well, we have a forlorn-looking group come in here every once in awhile. I take their baggage up to the mission home.” And so the baggage man took Elder Clissold to the mission home.

Elder Clissold was assigned to the Oahu Conference (zone) and two months later to Laie where he would serve from August to November of 1921. The Temple in Laie, which was less than two years old.

He left on November 15, 1921 for Kona (Big Island) where he would spend the next 13 months. It was there that he learned to speak Hawaiian.

Elder Clissold spent the remainder of his mission in the Honolulu area, serving in leadership positions for the Sunday Schools, as was often the practice for missionaries in those days.

Clissold returned to Salt Lake City in 1924 following his mission. When he returned home to his wife, he met a two-and-a-half year old daughter he had never seen before.

Clissold started working for American Savings in Salt Lake City; they wanted to open a branch in Honolulu and Clissold was offered the job of running the Honolulu Branch.

Clissold arrived in Hawaii in January 1925, with Irene following a few months later. In August of 1926 he moved to State Savings and remained there until 1970.

During the 1920s and 30s, he was involved with the Lions Club; in addition to his other responsibilities, becoming the president at age 33 and District President at age 42.

Associated with his business activities at the time was his desire to learn to speak Japanese. He had observed that approximately half of Hawai‘i’s population at the time was first and second generation Japanese.

He thought it made good business sense to learn their language and hired a tutor to teach him the language from 1926-34. His Japanese apparently was not as good as his Hawaiian.

However, the fact that a haole businessman could speak both Hawaiian and Japanese was most unusual, and earned him respect from the speakers of these languages. Additionally, the Clissold children attended the Makiki Japanese School from 1934 to 1936.

Ten years after he moved to Honolulu, the Oahu Stake was created, and Clissold was called as 1st counselor to Stake President and served as such for 9-years. In 1936, Clissold became the Hawai‘i Temple President; he served as the president until 1938.

Clissold resumed his association with Navy in 1936 by joining the Navy reserve as a Lieutenant. He soon went on a shakedown cruise to the South Pacific on the destroyer USS Maori, DD-401. Then came war.

1942 found him serving as the Hawai‘i Temple President again due to the departure of the former president and the lack of replacements to serve because of the war.

At the same time, he became the acting president of the Japanese Mission. It was during this time that the mission name was changed to the Central Pacific Mission.

In 1943 the war finally carried him away from Hawai‘i as he was sent to the Mainland, first to Charlottesville, Virginia and then to the University of Chicago, to teach the US occupational forces who were preparing for post-war Japan.

His military service overseas saw him participating in the military government in Philippines, Okinawa and Japan. While in Japan, he surveyed the situation in anticipation for reopening missionary work there. He finally returned home to Hawai‘i in 1946.

He became the Oahu Stake President, from 1951 until 1963; his responsibilities included forming a school, the Church College of Hawai‘i (now known as Brigham Young University – Hawaii), which opened in 1955.

In addition, Clissold became the manager and then chairman of Zions Securities (now known as of Hawai‘i Reserves) during the years 1953 to 1970. He also served on the Hawaiian Homes Commission from 1954 to 1958.

Simultaneous with these activities, he was also laying out the foundation of what would become the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC). (It opened on October 12, 1963.) He served a third term as Hawai‘i Temple President from 1962 to 1965.

Clissold’s personality has been described by himself and numerous others as quiet, humble, private, self-effacing, with a tendency to detail. He held an unprecedented number of callings and responsibilities, simultaneously.

Because of his multiple responsibilities, he has been referred to as ‘Mr. Everything,’ or in the words of one Hawaiian man, ‘the second most powerful man in the Church’ (Church President David O. McKay being the single most powerful). (All here is from a summary by Brian O’Brien)

July 5, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Stages to the Overthrow – Challenges with Kalākaua

Some suggest the overthrow of the Hawai‘i constitutional monarchy was neither unexpected nor sudden.

Dissatisfaction with the rule of Kalākaua (and, later, Lili‘uokalani) led to the ‘Bayonet Constitution,’ then, the overthrow. Mounting dissatisfaction with government policies and private acts of officials led to the formation of the Hawaiian League, a group of Honolulu businessmen.

Folks generally cite the efforts to form the Polynesian Confederacy, the opium license bribery case and the extravagance (and growing debt) as issues of concern about Kalākaua’s rule.

Polynesian Confederacy

“Kalākaua (one of the most theoretical of men) was filled with visionary schemes for the protection and development of the Polynesian race; (Walter Murray Gibson) fell in step with him … The king and minister at least conceived between them a scheme of island confederation.” (Stevenson)

“(Gibson) discerned but little difficulty in the way of organizing such a political union, over which Kalākaua would be the logical emperor, and the Premier of an almost boundless empire of Polynesian archipelagoes.” (Daggett; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 6, 1900)

“The first step once taken between the Hawaiian and Samoan groups, other Polynesian groups and, inclusively, Micronesian and Melanesian groups, might gradually be induced to enter into the new Polynesian confederation just as Lord Carnarvon gets colony after colony to adopt His Lordship’s British Federal Dominion policy.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 17, 1877)

John Bush, Hawaiʻi’s ambassador to Sāmoa, succeeded in negotiating Articles of Confederation, which the Hawaiian cabinet ratified in March 1887. Kalākaua sent the Kaimiloa to salute High Chief Malietoa Laupepa in Sāmoa. (However, a German warship there warned Kalākaua to stop meddling in Samoan affairs.) (Chappell)

Eventually, the confederacy attempts failed. It part, it is believed too many changes to existing systems were proposed, many of which were modeled after the Western way.

Later, the Berlin Act (signed June 14, 1889,) between the US, Germany and Britain, established three-power joint rule over Sāmoa. This ultimately led to the creation of American Sāmoa.

Opium License Bribery Case

Another issue that particularly incensed people was the opium franchise bribery case, in which the King was implicated. (Forbes) 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)

“With some difficulty Aki raised the money, and secretly paid it to Kaae and the King in three instalments between December 3d and December 8th, 1888. Soon afterwards Kaae called on Aki and informed him that one, Kwong Sam Kee, had offered the King $75,000 for the license, and would certainly get it, unless Aki paid $15,000 more.”

“Accordingly Aki borrowed the amount and gave it to the King personally on the 11th. Shortly after this another Chinese syndicate, headed by Chung Lung, paid the King $80,000 for the same object, but took the precaution to secure the license before handing over the money.” (Alexander)

In a later affidavit, Tong Kee (Aki) noted, “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.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 17, 1887)

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.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 17, 1887)

“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)

Extravagance/Debt

Although Kalākaua had been elected and serving as King since 1874, upon returning from a trip around the world (1881), it was determined that Hawaiʻi’s King should also be properly crowned (1883).

“ʻIolani Palace, the new building of that name, had been completed the previous year (1882), and a large pavilion had been erected immediately in front of it for the celebration of the coronation. This was exclusively for the accommodation of the royal family; but there was adjacent thereto a sort of amphitheatre, capable of holding ten thousand persons, intended for the occupation of the people.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“On Monday, 12th February, the imposing ceremony of the Coronation of their Majesties the King and Queen of the Hawaiian Islands took place at ʻIolani Palace. … Like a mechanical transformation scene to take place at an appointed minute, so did the sun burst forth as the clock struck twelve, and immediately after their Majesties had been crowned.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 17, 1883)

The building of ‘Iolani Palace, in and of itself was an enormous extravagance, and so far as its cost is concerned remains a mystery to this day. The contract was not put out to tender in the customary manner, but the work was given for private reasons to architects and builders whom the King wished to favor. There were no requisitions upon the Treasury, and bills were paid by the King without any Ministerial intervention. (Krout)

During the Aki Opium Bribery Case, noted above, it was learned that, “the King’s liabilities of one kind and another amounted to more than $250,000. He was finally induced to make an assignment for the benefit of his creditors … it was decided, in conformity with the Constitution, which adhered to the old mediaeval tradition, that the King could ‘do no wrong.’”

“This interpretation meant that Kalākaua ‘could not be sued or held to account in any court of the kingdom,’ but the revenue in the hands of the trustees was held liable to Aki’s claim.” (Krout)

“Official advices from Honolulu, just received here, shows that the financial condition of the Hawaiian Kingdom is such that there is not the slightest hope of the Government ever again being independent of money lenders. The consequence will be trouble which must come sooner or later, involving the interest of Americans, Englishmen and Germany.”

“It is understood that when that period is reached our Government will insist that only American authority shall be recognized in the Hawaiian Kingdom, in what form this control will be established has not been considered, but no foreign Government will be permitted, under plea of setting up a protectorate, to establish itself in that country.” (Sacramento Daily Union, June 29, 1887)

This led to the ‘Bayonet Constitution’ (signed July 6, 1887) that greatly curtailed the monarch’s power, making him a mere figurehead; it placed executive power in the hands of a cabinet whose members could no longer be dismissed by the monarch but only by the legislature; it provided for election of the House of Nobles, formerly appointed by the monarch. (hawaiibar-org)

Kalakaua_1882

July 3, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“The sound of the waves on the beach at Waikiki”

Webley Edwards was born November 11, 1902 in Corvallis, Oregon. He attended Oregon Agricultural College (OAC – it was later named Oregon State University) where he became the first student manager of campus radio, KOAC.

As an OAC student, Webley “made good grades, was a popular athlete, and became the best ukulele player on campus, in an era when skill with the instrument was considered a sure way to a woman’s heart.” (Corvallis Gazette-Times)

After graduating from OAC in 1927, Webley moved to Hawaiʻi in 1928 to work as a car salesman and play semi-pro football. Fascinated with the local music, in 1935, he arranged for a two-week trial run for a radio show of “authentic” Hawaiian music.

On July 3, 1935, Edwards created and first aired a radio program called “Hawaiʻi Calls” featuring Hawaiian music and entertainment.

The first show reached the West Coast of the continental US through shortwave radio. Although the program enjoyed a growing popularity on the mainland, Edwards initially had a hard time making ends meet and solicited support from the Hawaiʻi Tourist Bureau.

Hawaiʻi was calling, he seemed to suggest, and to the home-bound listener freezing through an Iowa or Montana winter, making a vow to one day visit the Islands became irresistible.

From about 40,000 visitors annually in the 1930s, the number had grown to 500,000 by the time the show ended its run more than 35 years later. (Corvallis Gazette-Times)

Except for an apparent break during World War II, the radio program aired continuously since its inception.

Edwards was the first to broadcast news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In his own words, “the real McCoy. All army, navy and marine personnel report to duty.” (Corvallis Gazette-Times)

During the war, Edwards worked as a reporter for CBS Radio and landed exclusives including an interview with Colonel Paul W Tibbetts (the pilot of the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, who dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.)

He had been chosen by lottery to be the chief announcer for the shipboard ceremony that ended hostilities between the United States and Japan and aboard the USS Missouri reported on the surrender ceremony that brought the conflict to its close. (Ankeny)

“Attention, peoples of the world! World War II is about to come to its official closing, three years, eight months and 25 days since the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese delegation has just arrived.”

“Lined up before us are officers and men with high-ranking stars and gold braid. The deck of the Missouri stretches out before us … its great guns pointed skyward to allow for more room …” (Corvallis Gazette-Times)

From the time of inception until January of 1972, Webley Edwards was Hawaiʻi Calls’ announcer and leading personality.

Each show opened with the sounds of the pounding surf and the enthusiastic bounding voice of Webley Edwards proclaiming “The sound of the waves on the beach at Waikiki.”

Usually that radio program was broadcast to the Mainland at about sundown. The announcer always described the beautiful sunset including the words, “and now the beautiful sun is a ball of fire, sinking, sinking, ever so slowly over the edge of the ocean–there it goes.” (Green)

The weekly program was typically taped before a live audience at the Moana Hotel in Waikiki. Periodically, they took the show on the road and broadcast from a neighbor island.

In its heyday, the show was heard on over 600 radio stations in North America and scores of others in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South America, Africa and the Far East. It was also heard on the Voice of Freedom (the predecessor to the Voice of America) and on Armed Forces Radio throughout the world. (Hula Records)

Throughout the 1950s, Edwards compiled and produced a series of Hawaiian music collections for Capitol Records. He even wrote songs under a pseudonym, John Kalapana.

In all, Hawaiʻi Calls spanned 40-years, along the way popularizing tunes including “Lovely Hula Hands,” “Beyond the Reef,” “Little Brown Gal” and “The Hawaiian Wedding Song.”

“Sweet Leilani,” which Edwards debuted in 1936, won an Academy Award after Bing Crosby’s powerful, yet gentle, rendition from the movie ‘Waikiki Wedding’ thrilled people throughout the world. (Hula Records)

In addition, he helped promote local performers, including Alfred Apaka, George Kainapau, Haleloke, and Simeon and Andy Bright. (Ankeny) In addition, Al Jolson and Arthur Godfrey were among the many guests featured on the program.

After Edwards left the program, Danny Kaleikini, a well-known Hawaiʻi entertainer and singer, was the announcer and a performer for the program. (US District Court Records) The program ended August 16, 1975.

Late in his career, Edwards made a successful run at politics, serving for more than 14-years in Hawaiʻi’s territorial legislature and then the state legislature.

Spending his last few months in a Honolulu assisted-living facility, he died October 5, 1977, after suffering a heart attack.

On October 3, 1992 there was a temporary return of Hawaiʻi Calls, taped at the Hilton Hawaiian Village’s beachside Tropics Showroom, then transmitted via satellite to affiliates. It ran for about a year, but it failed to attract enough financial support to continue.

July 1, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kimo Pelekane

James Isaac Dowsett was born to Samuel James Dowsett (born in Rochester, Kent, England 1794 – lost at sea in 1834) and Mary Bishop Dowsett (Rochester, Kent, England; 1808 – 1860) in Honolulu, December 15, 1829 (said to have been the first white child, not of missionary parentage, born in Hawaiʻi.

Samuel and Mary married in Australia. A ship captain, Samuel did shipping business in Australia and was into whaling. Samuel first arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1822 when he was first officer of the “Mermaid,” accompanying the “Prince Regent,” a gift-ship from King George IV of England to King Kamehameha I, promised to the King by George Vancouver.

Samuel returned with his wife on July 17, 1828, arriving on the brig Wellington; they set up their home in Hawaiʻi at that time. Samuel and Mary had 4 children, James, Samuel Henry, Elizabeth Jane and Deborah Melville.

“The house in which (James) first saw the light of day and which was built by his father, still stands and is occupied. It is the 2-story building in Union street, next to the old bell tower fire station.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898; the house is now gone)

During his youth, Dowsett was a playmate of Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and future King Lunalilo. James was less than five years old when in 1834 his father sailed away on a pearl fishing expedition and was lost at sea.

In his school days Dowsett was associated with Romualdo Pacheco (who later became Governor California; Pacheco was sent to Hawaiʻi from California to be educated in the islands, a custom followed extensively in early days by parents who sought the best schools for their children.)

Dowsett was hardly more than twelve when he was hired by the Hudson’s Bay Co, but continued his schooling on the side. (His mother refused offers of remarriage and remained a widow until her death.) In the early-1860s he entered the whaling business, owning a fleet of whaling ships.

“He did not care for public office. Had he yearned for political preferment, any office was at his disposal for many years. He was appointed a Noble of the Kingdom by Kamehameha III and was friend and confident of Kamehameha IV and V.”

“His advice was often sought by the monarchs and was given as one entirely disinterested and be held the trust of those in the highest positions as well as the implicit confidence of the common people. He was a great favorite with the native Hawaiians and spoke their language beautifully.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898) The Hawaiians called him “Kimo Pelekane” (Jim the Englishman.)

Besides his whaling activities, Mr. Dowsett engaged in the lumber business and owned a fleet of schooners and small steamers operating between the islands.

Dowsett also had extensive ranching interests; properties now occupied by Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter, Wheeler Army Airfield and Lualualei were once pastures for Dowsett’s cattle and horses. He also once owned ʻUlupalakua Ranch.

He was engaged in ranching as early as 1850, and a medal was awarded him at the Agricultural Fair at the time for the best pair of “working oxen.” Dowsett was the first rancher to import Aberdeen Angus stock to Hawaiʻi.

Puʻuloa Salt Works (property of Dowsett) “are at the west side of the entrance to Pearl River, and the windmill is a prominent object in the landscape as we enter. It is also one of the guides in steeling vessels inward. On the eastern side and opposite to the Puʻuloa buildings, is the fishery, where are a number of buildings inhabited by Chinamen.” (Daily Bulletin, January 6, 1889)

Dowsett married Annie Green Ragsdale of Honolulu and they were the parents of thirteen children, James Isaac, Jr, Alexander, Phoebe K, Edward Ragsdale, Mary K, Alexander Cartwright, Annie K, Elizabeth Jane, David A, Rowena N, Samuel Henry K, Marion C and Genevieve N.

“Mr. Dowsett was a man of kindly, genial disposition. It was a habit of his for a number of years to make a trip to Waikiki each evening in a street car. It was genuine treat to be a passenger with him.”

“It was a study for one not acquainted with him to watch him in the car and to see all the natives and even the Chinese pay their respects to him on entering the car. Everybody knew who he was and strangers liked him in advance, while those who came to speaking terms with him valued the privilege.”

“He was a quick thinker and an excellent reasoner and while not a talkative man was always willing to supply any information from his great storehouse that might be useful to another or that might interest an inquirer.”

“He knew the town, the people and the country. He never left the Islands but once in his whole life and then four days in San Francisco was enough of life in foreign parts. He was a perfect encyclopedia of history and biography not only of Honolulu and Oahu, but of the entire group.”

“The common suggestion to one in search of obscure historical data was to go to Mr. Dowsett and he never failed. He could always supply day and date and all required details.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Dowsett was one of the founders of the British Club, now the Pacific Club of Honolulu, and was a trustee of The Queen’s Hospital from its establishment.

Dowsett took on Chung Kun Ai as his protégé, allowing Ai to use a portion of his warehouse, and Ai started importing cigars, tea, peanut oil, shoe nails and other items. Ai and others later started City Mill, a rice milling and lumber importing business in Chinatown, Honolulu. The City Mill building on Nimitz was dedicated to Dowsett.

“Dowsett saw the grass hut replaced by the stone business block and the taro patch filled up for mansion site. He saw the little paths become fine streets and the broad and barren plains thickly populated districts. He saw the life of a nation change. … Through all this he was a close observer and always on the side of what was right and just.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Dowsett died on June 14, 1898; “news of the death of Mr. Dowsett had been sent all over the Island and the Hawaiians in large numbers joined the throng of haoles calling to pay respects and offer consolation.”

“The older Hawaiians could not restrain themselves at all and gave vent to floods of tears and to strange wailings. They were overpowered and overcome by the thought that no more would they have the friendly greeting, the certain and reliable advice or the material assistance of the one who had been their reliance at all times and upon all occasions for so many years.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Subsequent Dowsett generations were also generous; in 1930, Herbert M. Dowsett, Llewellyn F Dowsett and Aileen Dowsett White donated 7-acres and their family estate on Punahou Street to the Shriners Hospital. Dowsett Avenue and Ragsdale Place in Dowsett Tract and Highlands in Nuʻuanu are named after James and Annie.