General | Page 152 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 29, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka Pā Nui o Kuakini

Captain George Vancouver gave a few cattle to Kamehameha I in 1793; Vancouver strongly encouraged Kamehameha to place a kapu on them to allow the herd to grow.

In the decades that followed, cattle flourished and turned into a dangerous nuisance. By 1846, 25,000 wild cattle roamed at will and an additional 10,000 semi‐domesticated cattle lived alongside humans.

John Adams Kuakini was an important adviser to Kamehameha I in the early stages of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i.

When the Kingdom’s central government moved to Lāhaina in 1820, Kuakini’s influence expanded on Hawaiʻi Island, with his appointment as the Royal Governor of Hawaiʻi Island, serving from 1820 until his death in 1844.

During his tenure, Kuakini built many of the historical sites that dominate Kailua today. The Great Wall of Kuakini, probably a major enhancement of an earlier wall, was one of these.

The Great Wall of Kuakini extends in a north-south direction for approximately 6 miles from Kailua to near Keauhou, and is generally 4 to 6-feet high and 4-feet wide.

Built between 1830 and 1840, the Great Wall of Kuakini separated the coastal lands from Kailua to Keauhou from the inland pasture lands.

The mortar-less lava-rock wall has had varying opinions regarding the purpose of its construction.

Speculation has ranged from military/defense to the confinement of grazing animals; however, most seem to agree it served as a cattle wall, keeping the troublesome cattle from wandering through the fields and houses of Kailua.

It is likely that the function of the wall changed over time, as the economic importance of cattle grew and the kinds and density of land use and settlement changed.

Kuakini was responsible for other changes and buildings in the Kona District during this era.

He gave land to Asa Thurston to build Moku‘aikaua Church.

He built Huliheʻe Palace in the American style out of native lava, coral lime mortar, koa and ‘ōhi‘a timbers. Completed in 1838, he used the palace to entertain visiting Americans and Europeans with great feasts.

Hulihe‘e Palace is now a museum run the Daughters of Hawaiʻi, including some of his artifacts.

He made official visits to all ships that arrived on the island, offering them tours of sites, such as the Kīlauea volcano.

He was born about 1789 with the name Kaluaikonahale. With the introduction of Christianity, Hawaiians were encouraged to take British or American names.

He chose the name John Adams after John Quincy Adams, the US president in office at the time. He adopted the name, as well as other customs of the US and Europe.

Kuakini was the youngest of four important siblings: sisters Queen Kaʻahumanu, Kamehameha’s favorite wife who later became the powerful Kuhina nui, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and Namahana-o-Piʻia (also queens of Kamehameha) and brother George Cox Kahekili Keʻeaumoku.

He married Analeʻa (Ane or Annie) Keohokālole; they had no children. (She later married Caesar Kapaʻakea. That union produced several children (including the future King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani.)

A highway is named “Kuakini Highway,” which runs from the Hawaii Belt Road through the town of Kailua-Kona, to the Old Kona Airport Recreation Area.

He is also the namesake of Kuakini Street in Honolulu, which is in turn the namesake of the Kuakini Medical Center on it.

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‘John Adams’ Kuakini, royal governor or the island of Hawai’i, circa 1823

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‘John Adams’ Kuakini, royal governor or the island of Hawai’i, circa 1823

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Kailua_Town_and_Vicinity_Map-Kanakanui-Reg1676 (1892)-(note_Great_Wall_of_Kuakini)

May 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Downtown Honolulu In 1950

A picture is worth a thousand words; they (and maps) tell stories. This map tells lots of stories … and brings back some great memories.

OK, I wasn’t even born when the map was printed. But a few years later, when I was a kid, there are a lot of familiar places (and associated stories) depicted on this map.

Take some time looking at the ownership and operations up and down the streets. There have been lots of changes since then – but the memories are still here.

Back then, Bishop only went to Beretania – with no further mauka extension (it finally popped through and extended/ connected to the Pali Highway and became the windward gateway into “Town.”)
Bishop Street was the home of the Big 5. Bishop Street was and continues to be the center of Hawai‘i commerce and banking (in the center of the map, running up/down.)

Did you notice their placement on Bishop Street (and to each other) back then (as well as the battling banks across Bishop Street from each other?)

Five major companies emerged to provide operations, marketing, supplies and other services for the plantations and eventually came to own and manage most of them. They became known as the Big 5:

Amfac (1849) – Hackfeld & Company – a German firm that later became American Factors Ltd (Amfac.) It was started by a young German selling goods to whalers and grew to manage and control various sugar operations.
Alexander & Baldwin (1870) – started by Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of missionaries. It was the only Big 5 that started in sugar. Their irrigation project sent water 17-miles from Haleakala to 3,000-dry sugar cane acres in central Maui.
Theo H. Davies (1845) – a British firm that started as a small isle trading company and expanded into other businesses including sugar, transportation and insurance.
Castle & Cooke (1851) – founded by missionaries (Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke,) which originally sold sewing machines, farm tools and medicine in Hawaii. It later bought stock in sugar plantations and focused on sugar companies.
C. Brewer – (1826) founded by James Hunnewell, an officer on the Thaddeus that brought the original missionaries to Hawai‘i in 1820. He returned in 1826 to set up a trading company specialized in supplying whaling ships but then moved into sugar and molasses. The firm’s namesake, Capt. Charles Brewer, became a partner in 1836.

Another Hawai‘i family and company, Dillingham, started in the late-1800s, although not a “Big Five,” deserves some attention – it’s offices were down there, too (next to the Big 5.)

They played a critical role in agricultural operations through leasing land and controlling some operations, but mostly moved the various goods on OR&L.

Back in the ‘50s, Fort Street was “it” for shopping (to the left of Bishop Street, also running mauka/makai – now, it’s mostly a pedestrian mall.)

You can read the names of old Honolulu retail iconic institutions – Liberty House, McInerny, Watumull and Andrade – along with Kress, Woolworths, National Dollar and Longs Drugs.

I remember the “moving windows” during Christmas season; we’d pile in the station wagon and take a special trip over the Pali to downtown to Christmas shop (the Pali Tunnels and Ala Moana Center weren’t open until 1959.)

We’d walk up and down Fort Street and look at all the animated window displays, then stop in at a restaurant for dinner (one of our favorites was Fisherman’s Wharf at Kewalo Basin.)

‘Iolani Palace is on the site labeled Territorial Executive Grounds (we’re still nine years away from statehood;) mauka of it had different uses – it’s now the State Capitol and Hotel Street walkway.

The YWCA (just to the left of ‘Iolani Palace) is still going strong and nearby was the YMCA, now converted to the Hawai‘i State Art Museum and state offices.

The Alexander Young Hotel, opened in 1903 (on Bishop between Hotel and King,) was later converted hold offices and was demolished in 1981.

You can see some roads have changed or have been consolidated into adjoining properties. Did you notice, back then, Ala Moana/Nimitz on the map was called Queen Street?

In my early years in real estate (while still a student at UH, I used to do research in the Tax Office and Bureau of Conveyances (lower right of map.) Fifty-years later, I directed DLNR which now has the Bureau of Conveyances under its management umbrella.

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Bishop Street ended at Beretania in 1959

American Factors Building was demolishe

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Theo H Davies Building-1920s

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Schuman Carriage-corner of Beretania and Richards-the entire block was torn down to build the State Capitol Building-1950s

McInerny

Alexander Young Building

Honolulu Iron Works 1960. Today it is the location of Restaurant Row.

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Fort Street looking mauka from King street-11-08-59

Downtown Honolulu in 1956. McInerny on the left, and the overhead lines are for trolley buses

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May 23, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Holokū and Mu‘umu‘u

In pre-contact Hawaii, the predominant form of dress for women was the pā‘ū.

This consisted of a rectangular piece of kapa (or tapa, which was fabricated from the inner bark of wauke (paper mulberry) trees) that was wrapped several times around the waist and extended from beneath the bust (for royalty) or the waistline (for commoners) to the knee (it looked like a hula skirt.)

After contact (and particularly in the early-1800s with the start of the sandalwood trade in 1810 and then the whaling industry,) fabrics made of silk, satin and gingham began to replace the kapa fabric for the pa‘u. This was especially true among the Ali’i.

An even more important change in dress began in the 1820s with the coming of the New England missionaries, who sought to cover the bodies of Hawaiian women, who traditionally wore nothing more than the skirt.

The missionary wives modified their New England-style dresses to adapt to the hot, humid environment. They replaced the high waistline of Western fashion with a yoke.

The end result was a basic design (referred to as a “Mother Hubbard”) which was simply a full, straight skirt attached to a yoke with a high neck and tight sleeves.

The missionaries established women’s societies that advanced the notion of modesty.

The diaries of missionary women report that Hawaiian women who had been Christianized adopted the holokū as daily dress by 1822 and it became standard dress of all Hawaiian women as early as 1838.

“All the women wore the native dress, the sack or holokū, many of which were black, blue, green, or bright rose color, some were bright yellow, a few were pure white, and others were a mixture of orange and scarlet.” Isabella Bird 1894

“At first the holokū, which is only a full, yoke nightgown, is not attractive, but I admire it heartily now, and the sagacity of those who devised it.”

“It conceals awkwardness, and befits grace of movement; it is fit for the climate, is equally adapted for walking and riding, and has that general appropriateness which is desirable in costume.” (Isabella Bird, 1894)

Various stories place the naming of the garment very early in its creation. According to one, the term holokū was created from two Hawaiian words, holo meaning to go, and kū meaning to stop.

Wearing the garment for the first time, the Hawaiian women are reported to have said “Holo! Kū!” Very roughly translated, this means “We can run in it – we can stand!”

The more commonly cited explanation for the term, holokū, suggest native seamstresses, when sewing their dresses, would say “holo!”(run) as they turned the wheel to operate the sewing machine, and “kū” (stop) when they wished to stop at the end of a seam. Consequently, these two words were connected and the term is explained.

The holokū was worn with a loose-fitting undergarment, the mu‘umu‘u (meaning cut-off, shortened.) Eventually, the mu‘umu‘u came to be worn as an outer garment, as well.

The muʻumuʻu in the early days was a dress for home wear. It was made full and unfitted with high or low neck and long or short sleeves

It is the more comfortable muʻumuʻu that has challenged the present day designers to create many variations for home, street and party wear.

Although it originated in Hawaii in the 1820s as a loose gown without a waistline or train and was worn for everyday wear, the holokū today is a long formal gown with a train.

For formal events, and other celebrations related to Hawaiian culture and ethnicity, the holokū is the quintessential Hawaiian gown.

While both holokū and mu‘umu‘u continue to be very important in Hawai‘i, it is the mu‘umu‘u that is regarded by most of the world as Hawaiian dress and the holokū that is practically unknown outside of Hawai’i.

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Woman in Holoku Looking Right-Tennent

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Hawaiian Lady in Holoku, Facing Right-Tennent

May 17, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiian Money

Ancient Hawaiians did not use money. They provided for themselves or simply traded for the things they needed.

As commerce came to Hawai‘i, initial transactions included trading – sandalwood became the primary medium of exchange for Ali‘i, who traded it for western goods.

The adoption of a Western style economy created a demand for money. At first, this money consisted of coins carried in from the variety of countries having interest in the islands.

Coins

This source proved unreliable and coins were in chronically-short supply.

King Kamehameha III set out to rectify the shortage of coinage and currency by including a provision for a Hawaiian monetary system in his new legal code of 1846.

This system provided for a unit known as the dala, which was based on the American dollar. The dala was divided into 100 keneta (cents.)

Several denominations of fractional silver coins were included in this system, as well as a copper piece to be valued at one keneta.

As prescribed by law, these copper pieces bore on their obverse a facing portrait of Kamehameha III with his name and title Ka Moi (the King).

Hawaii’s first coins were issued in 1847. They were copper cents bearing the portrait of King Kamehameha III. The coins proved to be unpopular due to the poor quality image of the king.

Although it is claimed the denomination was misspelled (hapa haneri instead of hapa haneli), the spelling “Hapa Haneri” was included until the end the 19th century.

The spelling “Haneri” (Hawaiian for “Hundred”) appears on all $100 and $500 Hawaiian bank notes in circulation between 1879 and 1900.

In 1883, silver coins were issued in denominations of one dime (umi keneta), quarter dollar (hapaha), half dollar (hapalua) and one dollar (akahi dala).

The vast majority of these coins were struck to the same specifications as current US coins by the San Francisco Mint.

Hawaiian coins continued to circulate for several years after the 1898 annexation to the United States.

In 1903, an act of Congress demonetized Hawaiian coins, and most were withdrawn and melted, with a sizable percentage of surviving examples made into jewelry.

Paper Money

As early as 1836, with coins in shortage, private Hawaiian firms began to issue paper scrip of their own redeemable by the issuing company in coins or goods.

At Kōloa Sugar Plantation, script was issued in payment for services and redeemable at the plantation store; it started with simply a notation of denomination and signature of the owner on cardboard.

However, due to counterfeiting, in 1839, script was printed from engraved plates, with intricate waved and networked lines.

This more formal Kōloa Plantation script became the first paper money from Hawai‘i. Not only was this script accepted at the Plantation store, it became widely accepted by other merchants on the island.

In early 1843, apparently, the Lahainaluna Mission Seminary first issued its own paper money.

The Hawaiian government occasionally issued its own banknotes between 1847 and 1898 in denominations of $10, $20, $50 and $100 Hawaiian Dollars.

However, these notes were only issued in small numbers and US notes made up the bulk of circulating paper money.

In 1895, the newly formed Republic of Hawai‘i issued both gold and silver coin deposit certificates for $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. These were the last Hawaiian notes issued.

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Hawaiian_Islands_Banknote_500_Dollars-1872-1891, reign of King David Kalākaua.

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May 15, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Māhā‘ulepū Heritage Trail

Māhā‘ulepū is an ahupua‘a (historic Hawaiian land division) and watershed running from the Hā‘upu mountain range to the shoreline on Kauai’s southeast coast.

The whole coast was populated by native Hawaiians when the first westerner, explorer Captain James Cook, sailed through Kauai waters to land in Waimea in 1778.

Cook’s arrival set the stage for an influx of newcomers from around the world and catalyzed a dramatic transformation of Hawai‘i’s land use and demographics.

By 1850, American entrepreneurs launched large-scale sugar plantations in southeast Kauai. Their efforts heralded the beginning of Hawai‘i’s plantation era, which lasted into the late 20th century.

Kauai’s South Shore coastline features a fascinating hike along the Māhā‘ulepū Heritage Trail, a 4-mile round trip stretching from Keoneloa Bay to Kawailoa Bay.

A range of natural and cultural resources reflect the state’s evolution through the periods of Hawaiian settlement and expansion, Western contact, and plantation life. The following summarizes some of them.

1. Keoneloa Bay – “Long Sand, Long Beach”

This is a long stretch of sandy beach on the far eastern end of the Po‘ipū resort area, fronted by The Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa and a county park facility.

It is also known as Shipwreck Beach, named for the wreckage an old, wooden fishing boat on the beach back in the 1970s (that has long since disappeared.)

2. Makahuena – “Rough Face” & Makawehi – “Calm Face”

The unusual cliff formations were formed from sand dunes that have been weathered by wind and surf over the centuries. These ancient limestone sea cliffs have been virtually sandblasted by a combination of wind, salt and water.

Today Makawehi point is being undercut by continual wave erosion. The huge blocks of limestone that lie at the base of these cliffs are examples of that erosion.

3. Pā‘ā Dunes – “Fence of Lava Rock” or “Dry and Rocky”

About 8,000 years ago, dunes began forming atop Makawehi as sections of the sandy shoreline accumulated a reddish fossil soil overlay.

The tradewinds blowing from the northeast or mauka (mountain) side of this area have had the most dominant influence determining the shape of the dunes along this section of coast, with kona winds from the southwest having a minor influence.

4. Pinnacles

Sandstone-limestone pinnacles are usually formed by rain-water washing down along vertical fractures in the limestone. Pinnacles can be seen in stark formation to the right of a small bay just before the climb to the golf course.

5. Heiau Ho‘ouluia – “Fishing Temple”

This site is thought to have been a place of worship where fish were offered to the god of the sea, to ensure good fishing.

6. Punahoa – “To Bind or Lash”

Punahoa is composed of a very thick accumulation of coastal sand dunes that formed around 350,000 years ago. They are the oldest sand dunes of this region, carved by the tradewinds which formed all the dunes of this coast.

Along this area are short pieces of pipe anchored into the lava rock to hold fishing poles. This shoreline has been popular for centuries among local fishermen, catching primarily shoreline game fish such as ulua, papio (juvenile ulua) and oio.

7. Makauwahi Sinkhole – “Fear, Break Through”

The Makauwahi Sinkhole is a small portion of the largest limestone cave found in Hawaii. Paleoecological and archaeological excavations of the sediment that has filled the pond in the sinkhole put its age at some 10,000 years, and have revealed at least 45 species of bird life.

More importantly, the findings of this study show how the first humans that inhabited Kauai affected the pre-human natural environment. It is one of only a handful of sites in the world that show such impact.

8. Māhā‘ulepū Beach-“And Falling Together”

Māhā‘ulepū’s name comes from a legendary battle that occurred in the 1300s when Kalaunuio Hua, a Big Island ruler, made an attempt to take over all the Hawaiian islands.

By nightfall, it was evident that Kalaunuio Hua had lost the battle and became a prisoner to Kukona. Thus began the historical distinction of Kauai as an island that was never conquered.

9. Wai‘ōpili Petroglyphs – “Water Against”

In 1887, Kauai resident JK Farley discovered carved drawings or petroglyphs on a rock at Māhā‘ulepū Beach near the mouth of the Wai‘ōpili Stream. The carvings are normally covered by beach sand, but if tides and ocean conditions are right the petroglyphs can occasionally be seen.

North of Māhā‘ulepū Beach is a large petroglyph boulder which contains two cup-like carvings at the top. One of the carvings contains a pecked out groove from the cup and runs along the edge of the boulder.

The Māhā‘ulepū Heritage Trail is a project of the Po‘ipū Beach Foundation.

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