General | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 20, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Napa Meets Hawaiʻi

A notorious German, Georg Anton Schäffer, representing the Russian-American Company of Alaska, arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1815 to recover the cargo of a Russian trading ship wrecked at Waimea, Kauaʻi.

Landing on O‘ahu, Kamehameha I granted the Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor. But, instead (as directed by the Schäffer,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag.

When Kamehameha discovered the Russians were building a fort (rather than storehouses) and had raised the Russian flag, he sent several chiefs, along with John Young (his advisor,) to remove the Russians from Oʻahu by force, if necessary. The Russians (and Schäffer) sailed for Kauai and eventually built the Russian Fort Elizabeth.

In 1817, Schäffer made a claim of the whole island of Kauai in the name of the Emperor of Russia. He was ordered to leave the Island. He sailed to Honolulu in a leaking boat.

There, American Captain Isaiah Lewis, grateful for prior medical assistance from Schaffer the previous year (reportedly pulling his abscessed tooth,) gave Schaffer passage on the Panther to Canton (leaving on July 17, 1817,) then to St Petersburg. (Pierce)

Following this, Captain Lewis, a co-partner of the ship Arab with Bordman & Pope of Boston and William Dodge of Ipswich, Massachusetts, made a two-year voyage to acquire sandalwood in the Islands to sell in Canton, China.

Lewis married Sarah Pauline ‘Polly’ Holmes. One of their children was named John George Washington Lewis.

Polly’s parents were Oliver Holmes and Mahi, daughter of a high chief of Koʻolau. Holmes made his living managing his land holdings on Oʻahu and Molokai, providing provisions to visiting ships.

To supplement that, in 1809, he got involved with a distillery in Kewalo – this was the infancy of the short-lived rum distillation from the local sugar cane.

(Oliver Holmes was assistant to the Governor of Oʻahu and was appointed to arrange settlements of disputes (hoʻonoho e hoʻoponopono i na mea hihia.)) (LCA 8504 Testimony))

After Isaac Davis’ death (1810,) Holmes impressed visitors as the most important man on Oʻahu, next to the King. Holmes was addressed as Aliʻi Homo (Chief Holmes.) (Daws)

John Lewis married Amelia Kalena on December 31, 1865; they had a daughter, Harriet (Hattie) Kawaikapulani Likelike Lewis (born June 17, 1874, at Kōloa, Kauai.)

That leads to another of German descent, Beringer.

“The firm or house of Beringer Bros consists of Messrs Frederick and Jacob L Beringer. Of these Frederick Beringer, the elder of the two, is the manager and business man.” (It started in 1875.)

“It is his ample means that has enabled the firm to accomplish what it has in the way of erecting a splendid cellar, and in carrying out the many improvements which enable the house to produce its fine quality of wine.”

“It is to the personal experience in wine-making, etc, however, of Mr Jacob L Beringer, the younger member of the firm, that the practical details of the whole matter have been carried out.”

“The brothers were born in Mainz, Germany, the former in January, 1840, and the latter in May, 1845. Mr Frederick Beringer was sent to Paris when young to be educated, studying at the great St. Louis College.”

“After graduation he went into business in that city, remaining in all ten years in Paris. He then traveled extensively through Mexico and the United States, finally going to New York in 1862.” (Lewis Publishing Co, 1891)

There Frederick and Bertha Beringer had a son (May 28, 1870,) Fred L Beringer Jr. In 1884, they moved to California to join Jacob Beringer and built the Rhine House in St Helena, Napa Valley (now the centerpiece of the expansive Beringer Brothers winery.)

“Quality, not quantity,” is the motto of the Beringer Bros., and they are living up to it as shown by the fact that they received a silver medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889 for their wines, a gold medal at the State Fair at Sacramento, and also a medal at the Mechanics’ Fair in San Francisco, in fact wherever they have exhibited they have carried the honors. (Lewis Publishing Co, 1891)

Then, on June 1, 1905, Hattie Lewis married Fred L Beringer, in Honolulu. Basic reports in the local paper note Fred served in the Treasury Department of US Customs.

Fred_Beringer-(with_lei)-next_to_Harriet_Lewis_Beringer

October 16, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Public Access on Beaches and Shorelines

State law states that the right of access to Hawaii’s shorelines includes the right of transit along the shorelines. (HRS §115-4)

The right of transit along the shoreline exists below (seaward of) the private property line (generally referred to as the “upper reaches of the wash of waves, usually evidenced by the edge of vegetation or by the debris left by the wash of waves.”) (HRS §115-5)

However, in areas of cliffs or areas where the nature of the topography is such that there is no reasonably safe transit for the public along the shoreline below the private property lines, the counties by condemnation may establish along the makai boundaries of the property lines public transit corridors (not less than six feet wide.) (HRS §115-5)

Generally, the Counties have the primary authority and duty to develop and maintain public access to and along the shorelines. (HRS Secs 46-6.5, 115-5 & 115-7)

The State’s primary role in the shoreline area is to preserve and protect coastal resources within the conservation district and support public access along and below the shoreline. (HRS Chap. 205A)

When the shoreline erodes, lateral access is not lost; instead, the State’s acquires title to the newly eroded lands. (Application of Sanborn, 57 Haw. 585, 562 P.2d 771 (1997)) In other words, the public continues to have access along the shoreline to the upper reaches of the wash of the waves.

There is a specific situation related to ownership of beach areas; it is a special circumstance in Waikiki that dates back to 1928.

Waikiki is a ‘built’ beach. Over the last 100-years it has been built primarily in two ways, (1) construction of walls and groins in the nearshore waters and (2) beach nourishment/replenishment (adding sand to the beach.)

Between 1913-1919, the majority of Waikiki had seawalls; they were placed to protect roadways and new buildings. The beach was lost fronting Kūhiō and Queen’s Beach.

In 1927, the Territorial Legislature authorized Act 273 allowing the Board of Harbor Commissioners to rebuild the eroded beach at Waikiki.

In 1928, the Territory of Hawaiʻi entered into a “Waikiki Beach Reclamation” agreement with several of the beachfront property owners.

Effectively, the agreement authorized the Territory to build a beach from the existing high water mark fronting the shoreline from the Ala Wai to the Elks Club.

The new beach was “deemed to be natural accretion attached to the abutting property, and title thereto shall immediately vest in the owner or owners of the property abutting thereon”.

In exchange, the property owners agreed not to build anything “within seventy-five (75) feet of mean highwater mark of said beach” and “at no time prevent such beach in front of their respective premises from being kept open for the use of the public as a bathing beach and for passing over”.

As part of the 1928 Beach Agreement, eleven groins composed of hollow tongue and concrete blocks were built along Waikiki Beach with the intent of capturing sand. (SOEST)

A lot of the sand to build the beach was brought in to Waikiki Beach, via ship and barge, from Manhattan Beach, California in the 1920s and 1930s.

As the Manhattan Beach community was developing, it found that excess sand in the beach dunes and it was getting in the way of development there. At the same time, folks in Hawai‘i were in need for sand to cover the rock and coral beach at Waikiki.

Kuhn Bros. Construction Co supplied the sand; they would haul the sand up from Manhattan Beach, load it onto railroad cars, have it transported to the harbor in San Pedro and shipped by barge or ship to Hawai‘i. (Dalton)

Since 1929, about 616,500 cubic yards of sand have been used to enlarge and replenish Waikiki Beach between Fort DeRussy and Kuhio Beach, but every year more erodes away. Little new sand has been added since the 1970s. (DLNR)

When I was at DLNR, we initiated a demonstration project to move nearshore sand back on to the beach. In 2006, DLNR spent $500,000 to siphon 10,000 cubic yards of offshore sand – this was the largest replenishment effort of Waikiki’s beaches in more than 30 years.

It worked; then, a larger project was implemented. Early in 2012, a larger-scale replenishment project pumped sand from 2,000 feet off Waikiki to fill in the shrinking beach. Later, other replenishment projects occurred.

The 2006 demonstration project and the subsequent replenishment activity were really recycling projects, because the sand now settled offshore was brought in years ago to fill out the beach.

October 14, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Adventures of a University Lecturer

Hiram Bingham III was born in Honolulu, on November 19, 1875, to Hiram Bingham II, an early Protestant missionary to the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

He was the grandson of Hiram Bingham I, who in 1820 was the leader of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi.

He attended Punahou School and ultimately earned degrees from Yale University, University of California-Berkeley and Harvard University.

In 1900 at the age of 25, Hiram III married Alfreda Mitchell, heiress of the Tiffany and Co fortune through her maternal grandfather Charles L Tiffany. With this financial stability he was able to focus on his future explorations.

He taught history and politics at Harvard and then was a lecturer and subsequently professor in South American history at Yale University.

In 1908, he served as delegate to the First Pan American Scientific Congress at Santiago, Chile. On his way home via Peru, a local prefect convinced him to visit the pre-Columbian city of Choquequirao.

Hiram III was not a trained archaeologist, but was thrilled by the prospect of unexplored cities. He returned to the Andes with the Yale Peruvian Expedition of 1911.

“The first day out from Cuzco saw us in Urubamba, the capital of a province, a modern town charmingly located a few miles below Yucay, which was famous for being the most highly prized winter resort of the Cuzco Incas.”

“Its ancient fortress, perched on a rocky eminence that commands a magnificent view up and down the valley, is still one of the most attractive ancient monuments in America.”

Continuing on down the valley over a newly constructed government trail, we found ourselves in a wonderful cañon. So lofty are the peaks on either side that although the trail was frequently shadowed by dense tropical jungle, many of the mountains were capped with snow, and some of them had glaciers. There is no valley in South America that has such varied beauties and so many charms.” (Bingham; National Geographic)

“We camped a few rods away from the owner’s grass-thatched hut, and it was not long before he came to visit us and to inquire our business. He turned out to be an Indian rather better than the average, but overfond of ‘fire-water.’”

“His occupation consisted in selling grass and pasturage to passing travelers and in occasionally providing them with ardent spirits. He said that on top of the magnificent precipices nearby there were some ruins at a place called Machu Picchu”.

“He offered to show me the ruins, which he had once visited, if I would pay him well for his services. His idea of proper payment was 50 cents for his day’s labor. This did not seem unreasonable, although it was two and one-half times his usual day’s wage.” (Bingham; National Geographic)

On July 24, 1911, Hiram Bingham III rediscovered the ‘Lost City’ of Machu Picchu (which had been largely forgotten by everybody except the small number of people living in the immediate valley.)

“(W)e found ourselves in the midst of a tropical forest, beneath the shade of whose trees we could make out a maze of ancient walls, the ruins of buildings made of blocks of granite, some of which were beautifully fitted together in the most refined style of Inca architecture.”

“A few rods farther along we came to a little open space, on which were two splendid temples or palaces. The superior character of the stone work, the presence of these splendid edifices, and of what appeared to be an unusually large number of finely constructed stone dwellings, led me to believe that Machu Picchu might prove to be the largest and most important ruin discovered in South America since the days of the Spanish conquest.” (Bingham; National Geographic)

His book “Lost City of the Incas” became a bestseller upon its publication in 1948; he also wrote “Across South America” (an account of his journey from Buenos Aires to Lima, with notes on Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru.)

After his return to the United States, he attained the rank of Captain in the Connecticut National Guard.

He eventually became an aviator and organized the United States Schools of Military Aeronautics to provide ground school training for aviation cadets, as well as commanded an aviator school in France.

Hiram III was elected governor of Connecticut in 1924; he was also a US Senator.

‘Lost City of the Incas’ and Hiram III have been noted as a source of inspiration for the story and ‘Indiana Jones’ character.

Hiram Bingham I (reportedly a basis for James Michener’s Abner Hale character in ‘Hawaii’) is my great-great-great grandfather and Hiram III is my great-great uncle.

October 11, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Anthony Lee Ahlo

Anthony Lee Ahlo was born in 1876, in Honolulu (he was “Pake hapa-Hawaiʻi.”) His father Lee Ahlo (April 23, 1841- July 3, 1906) was born in Chong Lok near Canton, China, and came to Hawaiʻi in 1865.

His mother Lahela Kauhi Kehuokalani (April 22, 1852 – December 16, 1911) is reported to be a descendent of Kamehameha. (Anthony is also identified as Li Fang Ahlo and Lee Fong Ahlo, at various places and times.)

His father worked for seven years as a cook for Mr Lewers of Lewers & Cooke. He and Lahela were married June 22, 1872. In 1873, he started a small grocery at the corner of Maunakea and King Streets, in 1876 it moved to corner of Nuʻuanu and Chaplain Lane; he later expanded into rice planting/processing and general merchandising. (Krauss)

“(The mill) belonged to a man by the name of Lee Ahlo … (it) was near the Waikalua River, and there was a ditch and flume higher up the river that brought water from the river to the rice mill to make the water wheel go around, and that is where the rice mill got its power to clean the rice. The mill hulled the rice and it came out white. When it was still in the hull we called it paddy rice.”

“The river was near the rice mill and sometimes ulua and other large fish came up the river, following the water at high tide. They came into the ditches leading into the rice fields. Workmen netted them.” (Ching, History of Kāneʻohe)

His father died a very prominent merchant and had many friends. His estate was valued at $50,000 (about $1,500,000, today;) the inventory list includes $17,500 real property in Honolulu, $17,500 in Kāneʻohe, $3,000 in Waialua, $2,000 in personal property in Honolulu and $10,000 in Kāneʻohe. (Krauss)

Anthony Lee Ahlo graduated from Oʻahu College (Punahou) in 1897. He then was admitted at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University in 1898 and earned his BA in 1901 and MA 1911.

In 1901, Anthony married Gladys Fitzgerald. A reception, with over five hundred guests, being all the prominent society people of the city, was given by Mr. and Mrs. Lee Ahlo, in honor of their son and his young English wife, at their magnificent new residence off Liliha street, it “was a most brilliant and delightful affair.” (Honolulu Republican, October 20, 1901) Young Ahlo and his bride moved to Shanghai, China.

An article in the Maui news noted, “The Chinese government by imperial edict has requested Chinese residing in foreign countries to interest themselves in the matter of developing the mineral resources of China, and has pledged itself to grant the necessary rights, privileges and protection to those who desire to invest.”

It further noted, “China Waking Up. Mr. Anthony L Ahlo, an intelligent young Chinese, and by the way, a graduate of Cambridge, England is on Maui this week, and while here, is submitting an Investment for the purpose of developing the vast coal, copper and tin mines of the Chong Lock District in the province of Kwangtung (his father’s home town”.)

“Mr. Ahlo will proceed to China and secure the desired concessions. There is no question but what Chong Lock is a rich mineral district, and with the energy, ability and integrity of Mr. Ahlo back of the enterprise, there is no question but what the enterprise will prove successful and lay the foundation for vast fortunes for its promoters.” (Maui News, June 20, 1903)

Anthony was well-connected with the revolutionary movement that was underway in China. From 1894 to 1911, Sun Yat Sen traveled around the globe advocating revolution and soliciting funds for the cause. At first, he concentrated on China, but his continued need for money forced him elsewhere. Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaii, Canada, the United States, and Europe all became familiar during his endless quest. (Damon)

However, movement by Chinese to and through the US was restricted. Sun needed a certificate to enter the United States at a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 would have otherwise blocked him. Although born in China, to allow movement through the States, Sun sought a birth certificate from Hawaiʻi.

Ahlo provided sworn testimony supporting Sun Yat Sen’s ʻEwa birthplace (signed by A. Ahlo on March 22, 1904.) In part, he swore, “I have lived in Hawaii for 41 years. Have known Dr Sen a Chinese person, and knew his parents – since about 1870. I owned a rice plantation at Waipahu at that time and went there after to give it my attention. The father and mother of Dr Sen lived at Wamano and I often stopped at their house – sometimes overnight.”

On March 14, 1904, while residing in Kula, Maui, Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the Territory of Hawaiʻi, stating that “he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1870.”

A May 26, 1908 article in the Chinese Public Opinion, an English paper of Peking, noted, “We are pleased to note the appointment of Mr. AL Ahlo to a position as justice in the Supreme Court in Peking. This gentleman is one of the new generation and was educated at the University of Cambridge, England where he passed his degree with honors.”

“He has been for some time acting as legal adviser to the High Court of Justice and has been doing good work in this department. It is a noteworthy fact that he is the returned student who has been appointed to a position of any importance in the Judiciary of China.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 26, 1908)

In a speech he noted, “The world has become accustomed to seeing China plodding contentedly in rough conservatism and has not noted the size of reawakened China. Everywhere in the empire there are abundant evidences of material progress, and educational, industrial and scientific institutions tell the tale of life and activity.”

“The old-time superstitions and customs which stood in the path of its development are now being rudely brushed aside, and today behold China, a nation throbbing with the thrill of a new era, an era of advancement in the cause of humanity!” (Congress of American Prison Association, 1910)

The revolutionary movement in China grew stronger and stronger. Revolution members staged many armed uprisings, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty and established the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day”. On December 29, 1911, Sun Yat-Sen was elected president and on January 1, 1912, he was officially inaugurated. After Sun’s death in March 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT.)

The Republic of China governed mainland China; during the Chinese Civil War, the communists captured Beijing and later Nanjing. The communist party led People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

Ahlo’s provided further support and participation in the new China did not end there. Ahlo drafted the constitution of the Chinese republic which was submitted to the national assembly. It follows partially the federal law of America and part of that of France. It provides for a national assembly to consist of two houses, called the council of the people and the council of the provinces. (San Francisco Call, May 19, 1912)

In the early-1920s he was Chinese consul in Samoa and then Borneo, before being a secretary of foreign affairs at Peking, and then subsequently an assistant commissioner of foreign affairs in Canton.

“Dr. Ahlo’s 12-months sojourn in Samoa has enabled him to study the Pacific. He sees it as the meeting ground of England, Japan, and America, all striving to gain supremacy.”

“The enormous trade possibilities of this romantic region, with peoples of diverse races, numbering 800,000,000, waiting to be exploited as factors in trade and ideas, call the colonizers and traders of the Great Powers, and right through the Pacific the fight for this supremacy is going quietly on.”

“Tariffs and other things are playing their part, but the suspicions and antagonisms engendered by this competition are reflected in the naval importance given to the Pacific. It is now talked of as the scene of the next great war.”

“’The spending of millions on armaments will inevitably result in bankruptcy,’ said the doctor, and, on account of the enormous cost.” (The Advocate, Tasmania, August 4, 1921) The image shows Lee Fong Aholo.

October 7, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bahá’í

“If the learned and worldly-wise men of this age were to allow mankind to inhale the fragrance of fellowship and love, every understanding heart would apprehend the meaning of true liberty, and discover the secret of undisturbed peace and absolute composure.” (Bahá’u’lláh)

Bahá’í’s believe God has sent to humanity a series of divine Educators – known as Manifestations of God – whose teachings have provided the basis for the advancement of civilization.

These Manifestations have included Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad.

The Bahá’í Faith is an independent religion founded in Persia by Mirzá Husayn Alí (1817‐1892,) known as Bahá’u’lláh. It has its own sacred literature, religious and social tenets, as well as practices.

Bahá’u’lláh, the latest of these Messengers, explained that the religions of the world come from the same Source and are in essence successive chapters of one religion from God.

Bahá’í’s believe the crucial need facing humanity is to find a unifying vision of the future of society and of the nature and purpose of life. Such a vision unfolds in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh.

The Bahá’í commemorate May 23, 1844, when the Bab, the herald of the Bahá’í Faith, announced in Shiraz, Persia (now Iran,) that he was the herald of a new messenger of God. It is one of the nine holy days of the year when work is suspended.

Dr. Augur, Disciple of ’Abdu’l-Baha was born in New Haven, Connecticut and educated at Yale University. In 1898 Dr. Augur and his wife Ruth and their son Morris moved to Hawaii. Sometime in 1909 the Augur’s became Bahá’ís.

On December 26, 1901 Agnes Baldwin Alexander, a native of Hawaii, returned to Honolulu from a trip to Rome where she discovered the Bahá’í Revelation, and Hawaiʻi’s first Bahá’í.

She rejoiced that she was continuing work begun by her distinguished grandparents (Rev. Dr Dwight and Charlotte Baldwin and Rev. William Patterson and Mary Ann Alexander) who were in the fourth and fifth companies to bring Christianity to the Hawaiian Islands.

Miss Martha Louise Root, was born in Richwood, Ohio in 1872 encountered the Bahá’í Faith and became confirmed shortly thereafter. For the next twenty years she roamed the globe interviewing the famous and powerful while spreading the teachings of Baha’u’llah.

She was the first to travel and teach in South America. When Martha Root passed away in Honolulu on September 28, 1939, it was noted that, “unnumbered admirers throughout Bahá’í world lament … the earthly extinction of her heroic life.”

Two American Bahá’í, Mr Howard Struven and Mr CM (Charles Mason) Remey, were making a world trip in 1909 proclaiming the Faith; they first stopped in Honolulu. A local paper noted the following invitation for readers to learn about Bahá’í:

“The Bahá’í of Honolulu extend to all a cordial invitation to attend a lecture to be given at the Young Hotel on Monday night, at eight o’clock, by Prof CM Remey of the architectural department of the George Washington University, of Washington DC upon the history, teachings and reforms of the Bahá’í movement.”

“The object of the Bahá’í movement is the unification of all religions. Having had its birth in Persia over half a century ago, its truths have been taught the world over.”

“Mr. Remey and Mr. Struven, the Bahá’í workers, are now spending three weeks here, on a tour of the world which they are making in the interests of the Bahá’í cause.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 28, 1909)

Later (March 1915,) Remey returned to the Islands, with him were George O Latimer, a Portland attorney, and Miss Corrine True of Chicago.

While in the Islands, in addition to community gatherings to discuss the Bahá’í faith, Remey, Latimer and True met with former Queen Liliʻuokalani.

Today the Bahá’í communities can be found in over 200-nations. The voluminous Sacred Scriptures of the Bahá’í Revelation have been translated into more than 800-languages.

The spiritual heart of the American Bahá’í community is the Bahá’í House of Worship for North America, located in Wilmette, IL, just north of Chicago.

The Bahá’ís of Hawaiʻi are found on every inhabited island of the Hawaiian chain. Every race and ethnic group found in the islands is reflected in the Bahá’í community, as Baha’u’llah stated, we are all ‘fruits of one tree’ and ‘flowers of one garden’.

The Hawaiian Bahá’í community is a separate administrative community from the US Bahá’í community in the worldwide Bahá’í Faith. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the Hawaiian Islands was established in 1964.

Its administrative association is Australasia and the Mother Temple of the Pacific is in Samoa. All temples are dedicated to humanity and open to all for prayer and meditation. (Rice) (Lots of information here is from Bahá’í and Hawaiʻi Bahá’í.)