Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Monkeypod

Monkeypod (Pukui refers to it as ‘ōhai) was introduced to Hawai‘i in 1847 by Peter A Brinsmade, then consul from the Kingdom of Hawai‘i at Mexico City, who brought in two seeds.

One became a tree which was at Bishop and Hotel Streets in downtown Honolulu until 1899, when it was cut down to permit construction of a building. The other seed was planted at Kōloa, Kauaʻi, and produced a tree that was the parent of a large stand of monkeypod there.  (CTAHR)

Originally from northern South America, primarily Venezuela, it goes by many names in the countries to which it has been introduced. In most English-speaking countries it is called rain tree.

A January 23, 1902 article in the Hawaiian Star notes, “Monkey Pod Valuable. Marston Campbell Shows Finely Polished Sample of the Wood.”

“Assistant Superintendent of Public Works Marston Campbell has had a section of native wood polished for exhibition to the government. The slab Is taken from the upper trunk of a monkey pod and shows a beautifully polished light wood not unlike mahogany, heavy and close grained.”

“‘This is what the people of Honolulu are burning in their stoves,’ said Mr. Campbell ‘The calabashes from the wood are splendid and I have some tables of It that cannot be beaten for polish and appearance.’”

“‘The wood is of great commercial value and there is plenty of It around.’ One tree furnishes enough material for a whole set of furniture. It is very hard and takes a splendid polish. He had to give up trying to surface it by hand and used the buffer at the planing mill for satisfactory results.”

“Wray Taylor has these notes in his agricultural report for 1900 ‘Albizzia Saman – Monkey pod – grows freely in lower portion of Tantalus forest though not to such size as In town.’ It would seem that line the algeroba, the monkey, pod nourishes best on sea level and not higher than 500-feet.”

Here, it’s typically planted for shade.  In some places, the pods are feed for cattle, hogs, and goats. Some people chew the pods for the sweetish flavor like licorice.

Hawaiʻi has had a couple notable Monkeypod trees.

First, in 1866, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) traveled through Hawaii writing articles for the Sacramento Union, which were the basis for several chapters in Roughing It.

Twain spent four months in the islands in 1866, when he was 31 and working on becoming famous.  Waiʻōhinu boasts of a monkeypod tree which was planted by Twain, when he visited there.

It stood in the front yard of the residence of Samuel Kauhane, former chairman of the Hawaii supervisors, and is an excellent specimen of the tree.

It is known as the “Mark Twain” tree.  (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 22, 1915)  In 1957, the original tree was blown down and a new tree grew from its sprouts that still stands today.

Moanalua Gardens is also the home of a large monkeypod tree (about 130-years old) that is known in Japan as the Hitachi Tree, one of the most recognizable corporate icons in Japan.

The Hitachi Tree first originated through a TV commercial for Japanese electronics manufacturer Hitachi, Ltd that first aired in Japan in 1973.

The tree is widely recognized, especially in Japan, and has become an important symbol of the Hitachi Group’s reliability, and earth-friendliness.  It also enhances Hitachi’s brand value as a visual representation of its corporate slogan: “Inspire the Next.”

Over the past 40 years, the Hitachi Tree has become a valuable Hitachi Group asset as a familiar and respected image in Hitachi’s expanding messages globally.

An earlier agreement between the Damon Estate and Hitachi gave Hitachi exclusive worldwide rights to use the tree’s image for promotional purposes in exchange for annual payments.   It was reported that Hitachi Ltd, has agreed to pay the owner of the Moanalua Gardens $400,000 a year for 10 years to use the garden’s famous monkeypod tree in its advertising.

The tree is registered as an exceptional tree by the City and County of Honolulu and cannot be removed or destroyed without city council approval.

We also know monkeypod for the various bowls, figures and furniture and other woodworking art/function.  I suspect, like many, I have a ‘project’ monkeypod end table that needs refinishing.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kona Oranges

The orange is one of the oldest of cultivated fruits; although its nativity is not known, it probably originated in the Indo-Chinese region. It is now widely distributed.

Native to Asia, oranges were introduced to Hawaii by Captain George Vancouver; in 1792 he came from Tahiti, where it had long grown, having received a large store of supplies from the natives there.

Arriving on Hawaii Vancouver left with the native chiefs of Kona a number of valuable seeds and ‘some vine and orange plants.’ A few days later he left some ‘orange and lemon plants’ on the island of Niihau.

It is supposed that these plants were the parents of the famous russet Kona oranges that are such general favorites among islanders. On Molokai, far back in the mountains, an old orange grove was seen in a fairly thrifty state.

Some of the trees were two feet in diameter at the height of my shoulder. Everything about them indicated their great age, and it is highly probable that this grove antidates the introduction of the plants by Vancouver.  (Bryan, Natural History of Hawaii)

As noted in Captain Vancouver’s journal in March 1792:

The retinue of Tianna (Ka‘iana) on this occasion was to consist of a considerable number; part were to attend him on board the Discovery, and, the remainder was to proceed in the Chatham. His residence was a little to the north of Karakakooa (Kealakekua); and as it was proposed his suite should be taken on board the next afternoon …

As Tianna had several goats, I did not present him with any of these animals, but made him very happy by giving him some vine and orange plants, some almonds, and an assortment of garden feeds, to all of which he promised the most particular care and attention. (Vancouver (Vol 1, 1792)

“The orange flourished in the dry climate, similar to that found in the Valencia region of Spain from which the variety originated.”

“Many acres of what came to be known as ‘Kona oranges’ were grown and, for many decades during the nineteenth century, these oranges were a major export from the region.”

“Many of these oranges were bound for the West Coast, with some making their way into the goldfields of California. A few Kona orange trees still exist, bearing fruit to this day.” (Nagata, WHT)

The California gold rush brought an economic boom to Hawaii agriculture; Irish and sweet potatoes, onions, pumpkins, oranges, molasses, and coffee were shipped to the West Coast. (DOA)

Then, “In the late 1880s and 1890s Holualoa was an agricultural region settled by Chinese, Portuguese and Japanese immigrants who planted coffee, cotton, grapes, breadfruit and Kona oranges for export to support their growing community.”

“From 1899 to 1926 coffee was replaced by sugar cane, which then supported their local economy very well. Coffee later saved the Holualoa economy after the sugar market collapsed.” (Burt, Western Express)

Oranges continued to grow and be sold in Kona, “the orange tree branches are real strong. They won’t break, and you can rely on it. We used to climb the trees, pick it by hand.”

“But another thing, what [my father] did was, to save time instead of getting the basket going up, he made basket on the top with a funnel like thing made out of cloth and the thing would drop all the way to the ground.”

“And what we did was, with the basket we just spin the thing round and around, and when we picked the orange, the orange would come down whirling, whirling, no damage to the orange. So, when you get down there, you know no damage.  So that’s the way we were picking the orange.”

“And the biggest success from the orange was when the Second World War came on, the army wanted our oranges and they wanted it real bad. So we just had to go pick, even half-ripe ones, whatever came up to the station up here. The thing just went on the truck and gone. We had four years of good [business].”

[Interviewer Question:] “So wartime, oranges was good then.  [Answer]; Oh yeah, couldn’t keep up. … Yeah, in Kona. Kona Orange. …”

“Well, after school, because we were so busy those days. Coming back from school we had to grade the oranges and watch the store when my mother was cooking. My dad wasn’t around, so we all pitched in and did all the things that had to be done.”

“We were lucky because all our brothers stood by, never did go anyplace. But one of the setbacks was, since we had to work on the farm, my second oldest brother couldn’t volunteer for the army because they classified him 4-F.”

“They wanted somebody to run the farm because my father wasn’t here. So, he stayed back and then my other brothers were drafted. The oldest was [a member of] the 100th [Infantry] Battalion. The other one, he just got into the army when the war was over….”

“Yamagata Store was not only general merchandise, [my mother] went into material, and oranges were sold in the store too. In fact, the oranges had their own place in the veranda. We had a rack made just for the oranges; people would just stop and buy the oranges….”

“Tourists used to stop by because of the oranges, we displayed the oranges. A lot of tourists. … [Question]: So it’s mostly tourists buying the oranges? … [Answer] “Yeah.”

“It’s a small quantity going to the tourists, but most of them we had to ship them out to Honolulu, all over. They used to go out, by the truckload they used to ship them out. So we had to make the crates and everything.”

[Oral History Question]: “It wouldn’t make sense for a Kona person to come buy oranges, yeah?” [Answer]: “We used to give them. You know, when the oranges getting a little too old or something, ‘Here, take ‘em home.’”  (Sukeji Yamagata, N. Yamagata Store, Kona Heritage Stores Oral History)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pāhoa

Early settlement patterns in the Islands put people on the windward sides of the islands, typically along the shoreline.  However, in Puna on the Island of Hawaiʻi, much of the district’s coastal areas have thin soils and there are no good deep water harbors. The ocean along the Puna coast is often rough and windblown.

As a result, settlement patterns in Puna tend to be dispersed and without major population centers. Villages in Puna tended to be spread out over larger areas and often are inland, and away from the coast, where the soil is better for agriculture.  (Escott)

This was confirmed on William Ellis’ travel around the island in the early 1800s, “Hitherto we had travelled close to the sea-shore, in order to visit the most populous villages in the districts through which we had passed. But here receiving information that we should find more inhabitants a few miles inland, than nearer the sea, we thought it best to direct our course towards the mountains.”  (Ellis, 1823)

An historic trail once ran from the modern day Lili‘uokalani Gardens area in Hilo to Hāʻena along the Puna coast. The trail is often referred to as the old Puna Trail and/or Puna Road. There is an historic trail/cart road that is also called the Puna Trail (Ala Hele Puna) and/or the Old Government Road.

This path was essentially the main thoroughfare through the Puna district before the late-1800s.  Pāhoa was oʻioʻina (a resting place) on the trail.  (Papakilo)  Then it grew to become the principal town of lower Puna.

The evolving trail (first by foot, then by horse, cart and buggy, and finally by automobile) likely incorporated segments of the traditional Hawaiian trail system often referred to as the ala loa or ala hele.  (Rechtman)

The full length of the Puna Trail, or Old Government Road, might have been constructed or improved just before 1840. The alignment was mapped by the Wilkes Expedition of 1804-41.  (Escott)

People who traditionally had lived along the Puna coast were moving toward Hilo and into the more fertile upland areas of Puna in order to find paid work and to produce cash crops for local markets and for export.

The focus began to shift to the center of the Puna District and the developing sugar and related industries near ʻŌlaʻa, Hilo and the volcano region.

Before the turn of the century, railroad operations began – with lines running into Hilo. A main railroad line and several feeder lines were constructed in the early-1900s from Keaʻau to locations in lower Puna District.

The major line ran from Hilo through Keaʻau to the Kapoho area.  A branch line ran from the ʻŌlaʻa Sugar Mill up past present day Glenwood. A second branch line ran to Pāhoa town.

Some suggest this is how Pāhoa received its name.  “Then the train was put in from Hilo to Puna. One spur went up into Pāhoa; it was like a dagger into the forest. I‘m told this is how Pāhoa got its name. (Pāhoa means dagger.)”  (Edwards; Cultural Surveys)

People began to work in the inland areas to grow sugarcane. The new road, the Pāhoa branch of the railroad, sugarcane agriculture and a logging venture all combined to create Pāhoa as a population center in the region.  (Rechtman)

Macadamia nuts and papaya were introduced in 1881 and 1919; at the turn of the century, large-scale coffee cultivation was attempted.  Over 6,000-acres of coffee trees were owned by approximately 200-independent coffee planters.

This fledgling industry couldn‘t compete with more successful ventures located in other districts, and after a few decades the coffee industry in Puna was abandoned.  (Cultural Surveys, Rechtman)

By 1901, sugar dominated the island’s industry and landscape, and Hilo was the epicenter of production and export. Railroads connected sugar mills and sugar plantations in Hilo, the Hāmākua and Puna. The railroad also connected the mills to the wharves at Hilo Bay.

Early on, one of the major export items transported by the railroad was timber.  Starting in 1907, the Hawaiian Mahogany Company began cutting trees to clear land for sugarcane. The logs were brought to Pāhoa Town to be milled, then sent to Hilo Harbor and eventually shipped to the US Mainland as railroad ties for the Santa Fe Railroad.

The lumber mill facilities and the railroad line that served them were located near the center of town where the Akebono Theater is located.

In 1909, the company was renamed Pāhoa Lumber Company. In 1913, the main mill facilities were lost in a fire; it was rebuilt that year the company was renamed the Hawaiian Hardwood Company.

The company closed down in 1916 when the Santa Fe Railroad ended its contract to buy lumber. The defunct company then leased its mill facilities, buildings and railroad tracks to the expanding ʻŌlaʻa Sugar Company.  (Rechtman)

Today, Pāhoa Town has a main street – the former highway route before the construction of the by-pass road – that still retains much of the original street-wall of plantation-era structures, as well as some significant stand-alone buildings.

Most of the uses are commercial or civic.  The County has acquired a large tract of land within Pāhoa Town, which presents a significant opportunity for community revitalization and a possible catalyst for economic activity.  (Puna CDP)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pua‘a Pepeiaohao

With the arrival of Western ships, new plants and animals soon found their way to the Hawaiian Islands.

The simple‐seeming gift of a few cattle given to Kamehameha I by Captain George Vancouver in 1793 made a major impact on the Hawai`i’s economy and ecosystem.

Having never seen animals with horns before, the Hawaiian called them pua‘a pepeiaohao, literally “pigs with iron ears.”

It also spawned a rich tradition of cowboy and ranch culture that is still here today.

Spaniards introduced the first cattle to Veracruz, Mexico in 1521.  Vancouver picked up descendants of these animals from the Spanish mission in Monterey when he set off across the Pacific, intending to use them as food and gifts.

Cattle were not the only animals introduced to Hawai`i during this period.  In 1778, Captain Cook left both goats and pigs.

British introduced sheep in the 1790s and they all soon roamed on Mauna Kea and Hualālai.  In 1803, American Richard Cleveland presented horses ‐ a stallion and a mare ‐ to Kamehameha.

When Vancouver landed additional cattle at Kealakekua in 1794, he strongly encouraged Kamehameha to place a 10‐year 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.

A wild bull or cow could weigh 1,200 to 1,500-pounds and had a six‐foot horn spread.  Vast herds destroyed natives’ crops, ate the thatching on houses, and hurt, attacked and sometimes killed people.

Kamehameha III lifted the kapu in 1830 and the hunting of wild cattle was encouraged.  The king hired cattle hunters from overseas to help in the effort; many of these were former convicts from Botany Bay in Australia.

Hunting sometimes ended in inadvertent tragedy.  In 1834, the trampled dead body of Scottish botanist David Douglas, for whom the Douglas Fir tree is named, was discovered in a cattle-trap pit on Mauna Kea.

Hawaiʻi’s wild cattle population needed to be controlled for safety reasons, but the arrival of cattle hunters and Mexican vaquero (“Paniolo”) also happened to coincide with an economic opportunity.

In the early-1830s, trade in sandalwood slowed down as island forests became depleted.  At about the same time, whaling ships hunting in the north Pacific began wintering in Hawaiian waters.

Ships provisioning in Hawaiʻi ports provided a market for salt beef, in addition to hides and tallow.  With the economic push of providing provisions to the whaling fleets, ranching became a commercial enterprise that grew in the islands.

Cattle ranching remains an important export and food industry in Hawai‘i. Currently, ranchers provide calves for finishing on the mainland and produce cattle for local consumption.

Cattle are Hawaii’s third most valuable agricultural commodity, worth about $44.8 million in 2017, though a history of having to respond to the whims of greater market forces has forced ranchers to constantly adapt to new changes in the supply chain. And for the past 30 years, cow-calf operations have been the best way for ranchers to make a living.

In 2019-2020, Idaho billionaire Frank VanderSloot assumed the leases for and purchased the slaughterhouses on O’ahu near Kapolei and on the Big Island in Paauilo, which together account for 70% of the state’s animal harvest capacity.

VanderSloot, founder of wellness company Melaleuca (the largest online wellness shopping club), recently completed upgrades to the O’ahu operation and work on the Big Island facility is underway. (Civil Beat)

When living in Waimea, I had a brief experience in “ranching.”

We picked up a day-old dairy bull calf from an Āhualoa dairy; we named him “Freezer Burn.”  We removed the middle seat and transported him back home in our VW van.  (I know; real cowboys don’t name their steers.)

After bottle-feeding him and briefly pasturing him, he ditched the premises and hooked up with part of the Parker Ranch herd.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kona Sugar

Kona’s first sugar plantation was started by Judge C. F. Hart in 1869; a small mill was erected and a  dozen horses were used to pull the rollers. The plantation, which covered 50 acres, was unprofitable and soon abandoned. (Social History of Kona)

In 1899, Kona’s first and only sugar mill was built in Wai‘aha.  Sugarcane was grown mauka of a railroad track that was built to support the mill. (Maly)

The Kona Sugar Co, was established for the purpose of cultivating sugar cane and manufacturing sugar and generally to carry on a sugar plantation and general agricultural business. (Hawaii Supreme Court)

In the early 1900s, the Kona Sugar Co, under the auspices of a number of affiliated companies, constructed a railway line from Wai‘aha, North Kona, to Keōpuka in South Kona. The railway was built at approximately the 700-foot elevation. The train that ran on this railroad was a 3 ft. wide narrow gauge. (Birnie, Maly) The railway was intended to run 30-miles.

“The Kona Sugar Company failed completely”.  (Hawaii Supreme Court) In 1906, the West Hawaii Railway and the Kona Development Company were formed. “The Kona Development Company is a successor of the old Kona Sugar Company and will take over its property.” (Hawaiian Star, Apr 5, 1906)

“The Kona Development Co. has its prime field of operations in North Kona, and the Kona Agricultural Co. a corresponding relation to South Kona, the two being closely allied, while the railroad is primarily designed to connect them up and carry sugar cane from their respective plantations to the mill of the Kona Development Co which is situated in North Kona.”

“Seven miles of the track have been built, three miles more is under construction and it is proposed, from the proceeds of the bonds, to build an extension of twenty-two miles, making a total of thirty-two miles. As stated it will be a general public road and do a common carrying business as well as the transportation of cane for its owning companies.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Oct 30, 1907)

The railway ended up to be a total of about 11-miles.  “they have a railroad track somewhere around – below Kainaliu. From just below Konawaena School, that’s quite a ways down, toward the ocean, they had the railroad. They used to haul the cane on the train to Holualoa. KD [Kona Development Company] Mill. They call KD Mill.”

“That’s where they crush the cane. But until then, they have a station built. They used to slide the cane – bundle up the cane with a chain – and then they slide through the cable, down to the train track.”  (Yosoto Egami; Social History of Kona)

“The cane was cut in the fields. They had a cable wire from way up here or whatever field they had, reach down to the railroad. The railroad had cars. Up here, they bundle the cane, and they hook it on the wire with a roller. The wire had enough slope, so they grease that roller all the time. It went down fast. Then, it went down there [to the railroad]. Had a switch there.”

“The bundle of cane dropped right into the truck [railroad car], see? (And one man would pick up the rollers and take it back up to the field.) Then, the train hauled it back to the sugar mill to grind it. Oh, was quite a job.” (John DeGuair, Sr, Social History of Kona)

“Mr. Kondo was the owner of the railroad … In Kona, the sugar was transported to the railway by means of cables, cultivation took place mauka of the railway. Mr. Ide remembers hearing from Jack Greenwell, that Masao Kuga invented a trigger on the cable from which the sugar would fall when it reached its destination near the railway.” (Maly)

“Although the greater part of the work on the plantations of the [Islands] is done by Japanese, there is but one plantation in the Islands exclusively owned and managed by men of that race.”

“This is the Kona Development Company property which has about 2500 acres under cultivation in the Kona district. From an area of 1285 acres this plantation produced 3205 tons of sugar in 1919.”

“The plantation is managed by T. Konno, a Japanese who gained his knowledge of the sugar industry as a contract planter at Papaaloa on the Hilo coast of Hawaii. He, with a number of countrymen, organized a company and took over the property from J. B. Castle and associates in 1915.”

“The cane land of the Kona Development Company lies amidst fields of coffee for which the Kona district is most noted, industrially. The Kona Development Company, with lands cultivated by small farmers, gives employment to several hundred persons.”

“At the end of the last grinding season, the Kona Development Company began making some needed improvements in its mill. The old brick and stone foundations of the power room were removed and a new boiler was installed. The mill has a capacity for making 30 tons of sugar in 12 hours.”

“Arrangements have been made recently for the saving and marketing of all the molasses from the mill. To do this tanks, with a capacity of 100,000 gallons have been erected at the mill, which is situated just above Kailua. Previously the only use made of the molasses was its consumption for feed and fuel.”

“The Kona plantation is favored by the fertility of its soil which does not make replanting at the end of two or three crops necessary. The stools of the cane continue to bear for many years. Under the management of T Konno the planted area has increased 500 acres.”

“Throughout the district under cultivation the plantations operates a narrow gauge railway upon which the cane is hauled to the mill to be ground.”

“The Waterhouse Trust Company are the Honolulu agents of the Kona Development Company.  The skilled employees are as follows: T. Uchimura, bookkeeper; T. Kudo, office Assistant; A.N. Smith, chemist; F. Sato, engineer; N. Tokunaga, sugar boiler; C. Suzuki, mill and railroad superintendent …”

“… D. Tatsuno, head luna; K. Sasaki, Kainaliu section timekeeper; T. Iseri, Holualoa section timekeeper; Manuel Silva & Frank Mederios, lunas; Henry deAguiar, Holualoa section luna; Y. Hatanaka, private secretary to T. Konno.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Centenary Number, April 12, 1920)

The Kona Development Mill quit operations on July 3, 1926.  “As the concern has been bankrupt for some time, the 1927 crop had been entirely neglected”. (Hawaii Tribune Herald, June 25, 1926) The companies went into foreclosure and receivership and the assets were sold at public auction.

“Sugar cane, it is feared, is a thing of the past in Kona, and energies are next to be devoted to raising coffee and cotton more extensively.”  (Hawaii Tribune Herald, June 25, 1926)

Then (1928), the Treasurer of the Territory of Hawaii issued notices of the intent to dissolve the Kona Development Company and West Hawaii Railroad Company.  Shortly thereafter (1931), the County Engineer surveyed the abandoned West Hawaii railroad right-of-way for road purposes.

Today, Hienaloli Road follows the alignment of the West Hawaii Railway and remnants of the sugar mill may be seen along that road (as well as a stacked rock truss near Hualalai Road).

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