General | Page 230 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 11, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William Ansel Kinney

William Ansel Kinney was born October 16, 1860 in Honolulu. His parents were born in Canada, lived a while in Calais, Maine, then moved to Hawai‘i.

William first attended the Royal School at Honolulu, afterwards at O‘ahu College (Punahou – (1874–1877.)) During his boyhood, when out of school, he has been a clerk in a law office. He graduated from Michigan University Law School in 1883. (Michigan University)

He returned to the Islands; his first law partner was Arthur P Peterson. Then, in 1887 he became partners with William Owen Smith and Lorrin A. Thurston. (Kuykendall) From 1887-1888, he was a member of the House of Representatives, representing Hawai‘i Island.

Kinney was part of the team that drafted the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i (‘Bayonet Constitution.’) Other reforms to the government included replacement of the Kings cabinet. (Forbes)

He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, about 1890 and practiced law there. “After several visits to the states about 1891 (his mother) came to live for a time at Salt Lake with her second son William A Kinney, then and for several years after a well-known attorney of this city. (Salt Lake Herald, April 9, 1897)

Following the overthrow of the Hawai‘i constitutional monarchy, “William A. Kinney, now a lawyer in Salt Lake City, but a former resident of the Sandwich Islands and one of the leading participants in the revolution of 1887…”

“… met the members of the committee (seeking Hawai‘i annexation to the US) at Ogden for the purpose of renewing old acquaintance, and was induced to accompany the body to Washington in an unofficial capacity as legal adviser.” (NY Times, February 4, 1893)

Kinney moved back to the Islands in 1893 and on August 16, 1893 he married Alice Vaughan McBryde in Honolulu. McBryde was the daughter of Judge Duncan McBryde, who laid the foundation for what later was to become McBryde Sugar Company. Not a planter himself (but encouraged by Kinney and Dillingham,) McBryde hired a few men to obtain seed, plow the land and haul cane.

The original plantation lands extended from Kōloa to the Hanapepe River giving the newly formed McBryde Sugar Company access to a port. At first, the ʻEleʻele sugar mill was used to grind the cane, but within a couple of year, the Directors knew that another mill would have to be built.

As fortune would have it, McBryde bought the large Cuban type mill originally destined for Molokai’s American Sugar Company, whose plans for a plantation had to be abandoned. (HSPA)

Following Queen Lili‘uokalani’s arrest in 1895, “Mr William A. Kinney … Without military experience, he was commissioned a captain, and afterward charged with the duty of Judge Advocate in attacking me, and those of my people who sought liberty from the foreign oppressor.” (Lili‘uokalani)

While critical of Kinney related to the trials in 1895, in 1909, Lili‘uokalani retained Kinney and others in her claim to Crown Lands.

“Mr Kinney was judge advocate for the United States in the trial of Queen Lili‘uokalani and as he says ‘I tried her, prosecuted her, and convicted her, and I am now her attorney. Of course there was never anything personal in the matter.’” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 26, 1910)

Queen Lili‘uokalani made a claim to Crown Lands as her personal property. Noting, “Her cause of action is predicated upon an alleged ‘vested equitable life interest’ to certain lands described in the petition, known as ‘crown lands,’ of which interest she was divested by the defendants.”

However, the US Court of Claims noted, “It may not be unworthy of remark that it is very unusual, even in cases of conquest, for the conqueror to do more than to displace the sovereign and assume dominion over the country.”

The Court concluded, “The crown lands were the resourceful methods of income to sustain, in part at least, the dignity of the office to which they were inseparably attached. When the office ceased to exist they became as other lands of the Sovereignty and passed to the defendants as part and parcel of the public domain.”

The Court further noted, “The constitution of the Republic of Hawai‘i, as respects the crown lands, provided as follows: ‘That portion of the public domain heretofore known as crown land is hereby declared to have been heretofore, and now to be, the property of the Hawaiian Government …” (Lili‘uokalani v The United States, 1910)

Later, Kinney joined forces with Prince Kūhiō in fighting Governor Frear (and the Big 5’s hold on the Islands,) noting, “Simply that the plantations, finding Gov. Frear under fire on their account, have been trying to fix things up …”

“… for they do not propose to lose control of the governorship and the local Territorial government; and when they do, however justly, a determined cry will be raised by them for commission government.”

“(I)nsistent retention of medieval ideas on land and labor, is merely an illustration of the recognized principle that things are apt to move along the lines of least resistance.”

“When the plantations of Hawaii have either got to do the right thing in regard to homesteading or go to the wall, they will come to time, and they should be forced to that position, not by way of retaliation nor in a spirit of hostility but because it is right and just to Hawaii and to the mainland that this be done.” (Kinney, Testimony before US House of Representatives, 1912)

The matter related to appointment of the next Territorial Governor of Hawai‘i. Kinney wanted someone without ties to the Plantations.

Lucius Pinkham, from the mainland, but had prior Island business interests and noted by Kūhiō that the Hawaiians “are very fond of Pinkham and … believe he is their best friend,” got the appointment.

Kinney left the Islands shortly thereafter and lived in California, continuing with his legal profession; he died sometime after 1930 in California.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

William Ansel Kinney-(PP-51-9-001)-1895-400

William_Ansel_Kinney-WC-1883

Hawaiian_Military_Commission-Alexander George Morison Robertson, William Ansel Kinney, and Alfred Wellington Carter-(PP-51-9-001)-1895

Neumann addressing Military Court-PP-53-6-003-00001

Trial_of_1895_Counter-Revolution_in_Hawaii-Kinney at far right

Political cartoon depicting Kinney on the shoulder of a governor going after sugarcane plantation interests-1912

October 7, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Villa Franca

By the nineteenth century Italy had been divided into a number of competing states for over a thousand years. The French, Austrians and Spanish had all dominated at different periods.

At the start of the French Revolutionary Wars the Austrians controlled Lombardy and Tuscany, while branches of the Bourbon family ruled in Parma, Modena and Naples. Much of central Italy was ruled by the Pope, forming the Papal States.

After the final defeat of Napoleon the pre-war status quo was almost restored. The Bourbons returned to Naples, the House of Savoy to Piedmont-Sardinia and the Habsburgs to Lombardy. The Papal States were restored.

Italy didn’t settle down under the restored status-quo. A series of revolutions broke out across the country. Some of the fighting was between the French and Austrians (Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Franco-Austrian War.)

“The war which had broken out in Northern Italy (was) brought to a close by the peace of Villa Franca”. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 17, 1859)

Wait, this is not about Villa Franca in Italy … let’s look at Hawai‘i.

The archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine islands, situated in the Atlantic Ocean; the Azores are divided into three districts, subdivided into nineteen “conulhos” (municipalities) with 120 “freguezias” (parishes) – Villa Franca do Lamqo (is one, with 4,000 inhabitants.) (Daily Press, December 25, 1885)

“The last official census of this Kingdom acknowledged here 9,377 Portuguese; but, as the Luso Hawaiiano justly remarked some time ago, that number is far short of the actual truth…”

“… the above figures do not include the last arrival of immigrants 370 In the Dacca nor does It enumerate the number of Portuguese children born in this country, which go into the ‘foreigners, Hawaiian-born,’ nor the children of Portuguese married to Hawaiian or half-white women, which go under the heading of ‘half-castes.’”

“It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the Portuguese colony in these Islands numbers now over 10,500 souls, which makes one-eighth of the total population.”

“Thus they have become quite an important element amongst us, and as very few of them, if any, come from Portugal itself, the majority of them having come from the Azores …” (Daily Press, December 25, 1885)

As the population grew, one developer looked to market a Hilo subdivision to provide a place for them to live.

“Villa Franca is the name of the Waiākea addition to Hilo, thrown open for settlement by CS Desky of Honolulu. It will without doubt become purely a Portuguese villa and Mr Desky anticipating this has named the streets now being constructed, Lisbon, Lusitana and Funchal.” (Evening Bulletin, May 12, 1897)

“(H)e bought some land most unprepossessing in an out-of-the-way part of Hilo and cut it up into 96 lots of about 1/8 of an acre per lot and sold every lot for $100 per lot. That was a selling price of $800 per acre (at) Villa Franca …” (The Friend, October 1916)

It seems his marketing worked, early owners in Villa Franca includes Antonio, Carvalho, da Camara, da Costa, Francisco, de Gouvea, Medina, Rocha, da Silva, Souza, Soares, Santos, Serrao, Liborio, Medeiros …

It appears Desky didn’t name the streets as initially planned; the area is now just mauka of the County and State municipal buildings in Hilo, with Panaʻewa, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea as some of its streets (bounded by Hualālai, Kinoʻole, Kilauea and Wailoa River.)

One historian called Desky ‘Hawaii’s first subdivider;’ he developed a variety of residential and commercial properties all over the Islands. Villa Franca was described as “a working class neighborhood”.

“A few years ago even the most progressive citizens of the Paradise of the Pacific would state that there was ‘nothing in real estate’ in Honolulu, and every man with money was chasing after sugar stock or doubling his coin in the business which justly, if not politely, must be described as usury.”

“New blood and fresh ideas were wanted to shake up the community from the lethargy in which every body apparently had fallen.” (The Independent, April 25, 1898)

“One day CS Desky arrived on the scene, and it didn’t take him very long before he had realized the wonderful opportunities which the islands offered …. Desky treated the public to surprise after surprise. …” (The Independent, April 25, 1898)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Villa Franca Ad-Hawaiian Star-Feb_24,_1898

Hilo-Villa_Franca-GoogleEarth

October 5, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Molokans

“Two hundred years ago in central Russia a group of farmers defied the Russian Orthodox Church by drinking milk whenever they pleased, even on holy days. Despised and persecuted, they were called Molokans – milk drinkers.” (Southeast Missourian, November 11, 1964)

“The Molokans have been compared to Protestants for rejecting the parent church’s orthodoxy, and also have been likened to Presbyterians for having lay ministers and a loose council of dominant elders.”

“In about 1905, thousands of Molokans left Russia to escape religious intolerance and the threat of the military draft, which violates their religious principles. Church prophets instructed the Molokans to migrate to ‘the promised land.’”

“But the prophecy was not clear on an exact location, so some members ended up settling in Baja California where they established a small community known as Valle de Guadalupe. Others migrated to Northern and Central California. The majority, however, settled in East Los Angeles.” (LA Times)

“Their only occupation is agriculture and horse, stock and sheep-raising in connection with it. They live in communities of different sizes, the villages comprising from forty to 500 families. The land is owned in common, and redivided at certain intervals according to changes of working forces in families.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 26, 1905)

James Bicknell Castle became interested in members of the Molokans, “and immediately began efforts to induce some of them to come to Hawaii, and to that end invited Captain Demens (formerly a Russian nobleman and liberal leader, who has been a resident and citizen of the United States for the past thirty years) to come and examine conditions here to see if he could recommend them to his fellow countrymen.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 26, 1905)

“Captain Demens came, was pleased with soil, climate and conditions and agreed to recommend his people to come to Hawaii, upon the condition however, that they could secure land at reasonable prices on which they could locate and make a living.”

“Negotiations were immediately opened with the government for land under the homestead settlement law, and with the Makee Sugar Company which holds a lease with eighteen months yet to expire, on the government land of Kapa‘a …”

“… with a view to secure a cancellation of the lease, the homesteading of the same by the proposed settlers and favorable terms for grinding cane raised by them.”

“The day when 600 god-fearing, moral, industrious, educated people, of western civilization, become established on their own land, and doing their own work, will be a red-letter day for Hawaii.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 26, 1905)

“The first detachment Molokan settlers for these Islands arrived yesterday afternoon the China from San Francisco. Exactly 110-men, women and children composed the party, representing about 30 families. They came in charge George Thellen representing James B Castle.” (Hawaiian Star, February 20, 1906)

“It will be remembered that agents for them visited Honolulu some months ago, to spy out the land. They were looking, they said, for some kind of ‘Land of Promise,’ which their religion taught them would be given them …”

“… where they would be free from governmental tyranny, where the soil and climate would be good, and where they could live their own lives in their own way, at peace with their neighbors and infringing no man’s rights. The agents of the Molokans expressed themselves, at that time, as highly pleased with the Territory.”

“The (Los Angeles) Times said that there would be sixteen thousand of these people to follow the first movement to Los Angeles, and commented very favorably upon the gain that their coming would be to the State.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 25, 1906)

“Hawaii has cut in ahead of Los Angeles and if the Molokan experiment here is a success, there is little doubt that these sixteen thousand people will find their future home in the Territory.”

Eventually the project failed … “The Kapaa section, once flourishing with green sugar cane, is now a barren looking place. It is government land and is being set apart for homesteaders and until it is fully settled it will be bleak and barren.”

“It is said that the Molokans were disagreeably surprised when first they entered the canefields to cut the juicy stalks. They failed to fasten the bottoms of their trousers legs, as advised, and soon they were hopping about with centipedes clinging to their calves, the Japanese laughing at the predicament of their field rivals.” (Hawaiian Gazette, September 10, 1909)

George H Fairchild, the Makee plantation manager, “gave up on the Russians, declaring them too individualistic to accept supervision and too unreliable as laborers.” (Alcantara)

The ‘Molokan Experiment’ ended about as fast as it started … “(it) seems now pretty well at an end, although twelve families still remain on Kauai.”

“Thirty-four of the colonists, of which such high hopes were entertained when they were brought here, arrived in Honolulu this morning definitely announcing their purpose to leave the islands. Perhaps the trouble was that too generous terms were offered them.” (Hawaiian Star, June 9, 1906)

Castle met the expense of shipping the Molokans back to California, but the cane lands that he caused to be planted by this colony afterward became the nucleus of the plantation operated by the Makee Sugar Co. (Nellist)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Kealia Mill-KHS, Cultural Surveys

October 1, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kuaiwi

Archeologists divide Pre-European Hawaiian agriculture into wetland, flood irrigated systems that were restricted to stream valleys and coastal plains of each island and dryland, rainfed systems that covered vast areas of relatively fertile soils on the younger islands.

Each agricultural system had its own pattern of social organization, and development of the dryland systems in particular led to consolidation of social control by the ruling chiefs. (Lincoln) Large scale dryland systems have been found in Kona, Kohala, Kaupo and Kalaupapa (and elsewhere.)

The Kona Field System was not brought to Kona as a fully developed system; but rather, it reflects a developmental adaptation to the area likely associated with the evolving sociopolitical structure and increasing population in Kona.

As population increased to AD 1650, these systems underwent both expansion (to the limits of suitable soil and rainfall conditions) and intensification (in cropping interval, labor input, construction of permanent field borders and animal husbandry.) (Kirch)

The Kona Field System was a nearly continuous series of agricultural fields stretching from the Kaū ahupua‘a (above what is now Kona Airport) in the north to Hoʻokena in the south. The fields cover approximately 34,350-acres across the slopes of Hualālai and Mauna Loa. (Rechtman)

Planting areas were divided by kuaiwi (one translation of the word kuaiwi is ‘backbone;) these are low stone mounds/walls, which may have also served as trails between cultivated areas.

Between the kuaiwi, other traditional Hawaiian planting features are present such as mounds, terraces, modified outcrops and platforms. (Dye)

Early explorers marveled at the size and fertility of Kona’s upland plantations. Archibald Menzies, a surgeon and naturalist who accompanied Vancouver to Kealakekua Bay in 1793, wrote: “As we advanced beyond the bread-fruit plantations, the country became more and more fertile, being in a high state of cultivation.”

“For several miles round us there was not a spot that would admit of it but what was with great labor and industry cleared of loose stones and planted with esculent (kalo, taro) roots or some useful vegetable or other.”

“In clearing the ground, the stones are heaped up in ridges (kuaiwi) between the little fields and planted on each side, either with a row of sugar cane or the sweet root (ti) of these islands … where they afterwards continue to grow in a wild state …”

“… so that even these stony, uncultivated banks are by this means made useful to proprietors, as well as ornamental to the fields they intersect.” (Menzies, 1793)

The Kona system developed into a highly diverse patchwork characterized by a matrix of agricultural practices overlaid onto a spectrum of lava flows of varying ages. (Lincoln)

The kuaiwi, wider than tall, are a series of closely-spaced parallel structures that are parallel to the mauka-makai slope and are intersected by shorter, perpendicular retaining cross-walls.

Kuaiwi extend for several hundred yards to more than a mile in length, so they were probably not the work of individual gardeners, but the result of broader, organized use.

The kuaiwi system is extensive, but is found only in association with fertile soils. Their age, extrapolated from radiocarbon dates of charcoal retrieved from under the structures, indicate fifteenth-to sixteenth-century construction. (Wozniak)

Agricultural fields are thus discernible by the rectangular pattern created by the kuaiwi and cross-walls. The construction of kuaiwi was likely a by-product of land clearing as rocks were removed to create planting areas. (Dye)

The Kona Field System is generally considered a dryland complex, however, water control features, ʻauwai and modified waterholes, have been documented in areas where intermittent streams were present. (Rechtman)

This system is applicable to planting in a dry setting for several reasons: moisture – the kuaiwi are described as being very effective at catching morning dew; mulch – the kuaiwi were constructed using ‘waste’ rocks ranging in size from a pebble to the size of a fist, probably cleared from surrounding fields. (Gon)

We know that there is a very essential process of mulching in which the Hawaiians transferred leaf material from the kuaiwi to the fields. And it is very possible that the kuaiwi played a very essential role in managing the nutrient cycle within the Kona Field System and allowed the Hawaiians to sustain their agriculture over hundreds of years. (Lincoln)

Within the majority of the Kona Field System, the kuaiwi were planted with tall crops such as sugar cane and ti leaf while the cleared fields between the kuaiwi were growing the staple crops such as taro and sweet potato. (Lincoln)

The Kona Field System is without equal in Hawai‘i, and probably in the nation in terms of the extensiveness of a prehistoric modification of the land.

The system is so extensive that it cannot be seen in its entirety except from extremely high altitudes, but the physical remains are sufficiently well preserved and in such generally good condition that they may still be detected on the ground, although it is difficult to realize what is viewed is part of such a massive system.

The vastness and complexity of the system show excellent practical engineering and environmental knowledge of the ancient Hawaiians, as well as the highly evolved social organization which could coordinate the labors of a multitude of people to create and maintain such a system. (Newman)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Kona Field System Walls – Google Earth

Kuaiwi-Lincoln-Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden

Kona_Field_System-GoogleEarth

Hawaii_Island-noting_Kona_and_Kohala_Field_Systems-Map

Kona_Field_System-Map

September 30, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Poni Mo‘i

‘Auhea wale ana ‘oe
Pua carnation ka‘u aloha
A ke lawe ‘ia ‘ala ‘oe
E ka makani pā kolonahe

Ke aloha kai hiki mai
Hō‘eha i ka pu‘uwai
Noho ‘oe a mana‘o mai
Ho‘i mai kāua e pili

Oh, thou fairest of all flowers
Sweet carnation I adore thee
Far from me thou art being borne, my love
By the soft and gentle zephyrs

Love for you is here with me
Filling my heart with pain
When you remember our love
Come back to be with me
(Charles E King, translated by Mary Pukui)

The original birthplace of the carnation is on the coast of the Mediterranean. The popularity of the flower goes back many centuries; the Romans were already making wreathes and fresh eau de toilette out of carnations. (Flower Council)

Later, Americans began to like the carnation … “So when (a florist) finds it necessary to his business to introduce a new ‘fashionable flower’ he takes care that it shall be very expensive and that his customers shall believe it to be very rare.”

“Such a flower is the carnation. It first leaped into prominence as a ‘florists’ flower’ nearly thirty years ago and its vogue at the time was greater even than that of the chrysanthemum in its best days.”

“One day everybody was wearing a rosebud, ten or Bon Selene, (the carnation craze succeeded the ‘Boston bud’ craze); the next day everybody was wearing a carnation.”

“And with a great many people it has remained in favor ever since. This is not only because of its beauty of form and color and its spicy fragrance. The carnation seems to have been especially designed by nature for a boutonniere.”

“It sets closely and neatly to the coat lapel, it keeps fresh and unfaded for a long time, it requires no pinning in place, and it never breaks from its stem”. (Democrat and Chronicle, New York, December 4, 1894)

“Chicago has a carnation day in honor of President McKinley, whose favorite flower was the carnation. Once a year Chicago government buildings bloom with carnations and the employees wear them.” (Hawaiian Star, February 27, 1908)

For years, McKinley had worn a ‘lucky’ red carnation on his lapel; but on September 6, 1901 he decided to gift it to a little girl at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Moments later, he was shot, and died 8-days later. (Kelly)

The carnation can be regularly seen in religious paintings, as a symbol of the Virgin Mary and as a symbol for the suffering of Christ. The Latin name for the carnation is Dianthus, derived from Dios (God) and anthos (flower) – divine flower. (Flower Council)

American Protestant missionary wives are credited with bringing the first carnations to the Islands in the mid-1800s. The first variety was a white, scented flower and it soon became the favorite for lei makers. Red carnations were introduced later. (Bird)

The Hawaiian name for carnation is poni mo‘i (that also means ‘coronation.’) The name is the result of the similarity between the words ‘carnation’ and ‘coronation.’

The major emphasis in the past has been on the production of carnations for lei flowers, and qualities demanded of cut flowers were generally ignored. Consequently, the types grown had small flowers, short stems, and bushy growths. (CTAHR)

Carnations were cultivated in the Koko Crater area on O‘ahu especially to meet the demands of the fast growing tourist industry. In 1900, gardens in Pauoa supplied lei sellers at the piers with carnations and other lei flowers.

Japanese and Korean farmers leased small parcels of land along Lunalilo Home Road and soon their ‘carnation plantations’ were familiar sights, likewise in Kaimuki and Palolo.

The white carnation lei is usually given to women and the red to the men: white being femininely pure and withdrawn – red representing masculine boldness, strength and power. (Ka Lei, Marie McDonald) Depending on the style and flower size, 50 to 100 flowers may be used.

Back in the 1950s-1970s, the fat, fragrant carnation lei was popular. Friends bestowed thick carnation lei at the airport gate, politicians regularly wore them and nightclub entertainers typically had a carnation lei.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger