Prominent People | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 29, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Sarah Rhodes von Pfister

Sarah Rhodes von Pfister was not only a tutor and governess, but also a trusted mentor and confidante to one of Hawaiʻi’s Queens. Sarah played an important role in her growing up during her adolescence. (Kanahele)

Let’s look back.

Siblings, (the boys) Henry and Godfrey Rhodes, and (the girls) Mary Ann, Annie, Sarah and Sussannah (Mrs Brown, Mrs. Covington, Mrs. von Pfister, and Mrs. Robinson) were children of a prominent officer of the Bank of England.

The von Pfister family came of good stock and was among the early settlers in New York; the brothers were Frank M, Edward H and John R von Pfister. (Brown)

Members of both families came to the Islands. John von Pfister courted and married Sarah Rhodes. They had two children, Ida and Ramsay.

In 1842, George Rhodes and Frenchman John Bernard “obtained a lease from the government for fifty years, on two parcels of land, ninety acres east and sixty acres west of the (Hanalei) river, and there started a coffee plantation.”

“This was a new industry for Kauai, although coffee berries had been brought to Honolulu from Brazil in 1825 on the British frigate Blonde, and a few plants had then been started in Manoa Valley on Oahu.

“Four or five years later the missionaries at Hilo and other planters in Kona on the island of Hawaii had begun to grow coffee around their houses, but it was from the original source in Manoa Valley that the seed and young were obtained for Hanalei.”

In October of 1845, Godfrey Rhodes and John von Pfister formed a partnership. By 1846, the Rhodes and Company Coffee Plantation covered seven hundred and fifty acres, so that the two plantations counted over one hundred thousand trees and “a great part of the valley, at least to the extent of a thousand acres, was under cultivation in coffee at this time.” (Damon)

“In May, 1847, just as the trees were in good condition of full bearing, they had “severe rains for two weeks which did much damage to the valley, flooding the coffee plantations.”

“Masses of rock, trees and earth were loosened and carried by force of water, crushing several hundred trees and doing much other damage.”

“Recovering from this pullback another difficulty was met with the following year by the California gold fever, rendering labor scarcer and dearer.” (Thrum)

John caught the Gold Fever and headed to California.

Placards posted around told the sad news, “Posted around San Francisco was a placard stating that a reward of $5,000 would be paid for the apprehension of Peter Raymond, who murdered John R von Pfister at Sutter’s Mill, or for his head in case he could not be taken alive.” (Grimshaw)

Widowed, Sarah managed to get along by teaching school, which filled a long-felt want in the community. (Brown)

Sarah moved to Honolulu and set up a “select” school for the children of Honolulu’s elite, which was located on Smith and Beretania Streets. (Kanahele)

Smith Street was opposite the old Kaumakapili church, and was named after its pastor, Rev. Lowell Smith. Sarah lived nearby and had a school there. (Unfortunately Sarah’s building burned down, but she was able to get a new school site.) (Brown)

Then came the new special student for Sarah Rhodes von Pfister. At the age of five, the child had entered the Chiefs’ Children’s School.

That school was created by King Kamehameha III; the main goal of the school was to groom the next generation of the highest ranking chief’s children of the realm and secure their positions for Hawaii’s Kingdom.

Seven families were eligible under succession laws stated in the 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i; Kamehameha III called on seven boys and seven girls to board in the Chief’s Children’s School.

The Chiefs’ Children’s School was unique because for the first time Aliʻi children would be brought together in a group to be taught, ostensibly, about the ways of governance.

Amos Starr Cooke (1810–1871) and Juliette Montague Cooke (1812-1896), missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, were selected by the King to teach the 16-royal children and run the school.

The school closed in 1849; then, when the school closed, Thomas Rooke, hānai father of Emma Naʻea Rooke, hired Sarah Rhodes von Pfister to tutor his daughter for the next four years.

As noted above, Sarah not only taught the young girl, she also became her friend.

On June 19, 1856, Emma married Alexander Liholiho (who a year earlier had assumed the throne as Kamehameha IV) and became Queen Emma.

In March 1853, Robert Crichton Wyllie bought the coffee plantation at Hanalei. In 1860, he hosted his friends King Kamehameha IV, Queen Emma and their two-year-old son, Prince Albert, at his estate for several weeks. In honor of the child, Wyllie named the plantation the “Barony de Princeville”, the City of the Prince (Princeville.)

Members of Queen Emma’s family are interred in the Wyllie Crypt at Mauna Ala: Queen Emma’s mother, Kekelaokalani; her hānai parents, Grace Kamaikui and Dr. Thomas Charles Byde Rooke; her uncles, Bennett Namakeha and Keoni Ana John Young II; her aunt, Jane Lahilahi; and her two cousins, Prince Albert Edward Kunuiakea and Peter Kekuaokalani.

October 26, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Na Lāʻau Arboretum

“In Honor of George Campbell Munro. Pioneer in Hawaiian botany and ornithology. Whose vision and initiative led to the establishment of Na Lāʻau Hawaii Arboretum -1962” (plaque at Diamond Head.)

We generally associate Munro (born in New Zealand on May 10, 1866) as a ranch manager on Lānaʻi – actually he was an ornithologist (birds.)

On December 13, 1890, George Campbell Munro arrived in Honolulu after a voyage aboard the steamship Mariposa which left Auckland, New Zealand on the 1st of December.

He was to assist ornithologist, Henry C Palmer (in the Islands 1890-1893) in collecting birds in Hawai‘i under the sponsorship of Lord Walter Rothschild for the museum collection in Tring, England.

The first intensive scientific collecting expedition in the Northwestern leeward Hawaiian Islands was conducted in the summer of 1891. (Smithsonian) Munro pioneered in the banding of seafowl.

Munro worked seven years on Kaua‘i, then worked seven more on Moloka‘i, where he was the ranch manager from 1899 to 1906.

After a brief return to New Zealand in 1911, he was offered the position as the range manager of the Lānaʻi cattle ranch. (Towill; Wood)

In 1911, Munro found the importance of the fog drip coming from the Lānaʻi Hale was valuable water. He realized that pine trees collected a lot of water from the fog and clouds. Munro then created program of planting cook pines across the island of Lānaʻi and also Lānaʻi Hale to collect fog drip.

In 1930, Lānaʻi switched from ranching to pineapple. Munro retired to Honolulu; his home was on the west slope of Diamond Head.

From 1935 to 1937, Munro started the first comprehensive survey of the birds of Hawai‘i and in 1939 he helped found the “Honolulu Audubon Society” which eventually became the Hawaii Audubon Society.

It was not until 1944 that Munro published his Birds of Hawaiʻi (of which a slightly revised edition appeared in 1960.) It contains authentic short accounts of most of the extinct Hawaiian species by one of the very few naturalists ever to view them alive.

In 1950, Munro started his efforts in the creation of a botanical garden of Hawaiian arid plant species. He received permission from the National Guard to plant on a 9-acre tract on the west exterior slopes of Diamond Head.

In the early years of Na Lāʻau, Munro, with help from family and friends, personally developed the garden; when rainfall was insufficient, he “carried buckets of water up the steep slopes to supplement the natural supply.”

His work resulted in the Na Lāʻau Arboretum and its companion Ke Kuaʻāina garden of endemic plants, which eventually grew to over 100-acres; it became part of the Board of Agriculture park system on March 7, 1958.

In 1958, the governor of Hawaiʻi designated the garden as a sanctuary. A water system consisting or a pump, tank and an irrigation line were constructed in the arboretum. (DLNR)

In 1961, the Garden Club of Honolulu funded the construction of a lookout area with benches. A little remembered monument sits on the west side of Diamond Head (noting the language listed at the beginning of this post.)

The extent of the garden runs over an area 328-feet long and 66- to 99-feet wide. The remnants of this garden are located along a trail that runs north from Makalei Place. (DLNR)

Conservation Council of Hawaiʻi’s first conservation award was given to George C Munro, a CCH member and conservationist (1960s.)

In 1960, at age 94, he became an honorary member of the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens Society. A year later, he won the Garden Club of America’s Medal of Honor and was elected honorary associate of the Bishop Museum.

The William S. Richardson School of Law gives the George C Munro Award for Environmental Law (established by the Hawai‘i Audubon Society.)

A well-known trail on Lānaʻi is named after him, as are dozens of plant species, including the rare munroidendron.

DLNR’s Master Plan for Diamond Head (2003) notes, the existing Na Lāʻau Arboretum, located outside the crater below Diamond Head peak, is inaccessible and has suffered neglect over many years (it has not been maintained since the 1970s.) (Lots of information here from ʻElepaio and DLNR.)

October 24, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

‘Hilo Walk of Fame’

It started on October 24, 1933 …

Filmmaker Cecil B DeMille was in Hilo filming scenes for ‘Four Frightened People.’ The Hilo Park Commission asked him and some of the actors from the film (Mary Boland, William Gargan, Herbert Marshall’s wife (Edna Best Marshall) and Leo Carillo) to plant trees to commemorate their visit. (Pahigian)

Shortly after (October 29, 1933,) George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth added a tree; he was in town for an exhibition baseball game against the Waiākea Pirates. In an earlier game in Honolulu, “Babe Ruth hit the first ball pitched to him for a home run when the visiting major league players defeated the local Wanderers here yesterday, 5 to 1.” (UP, El Paso Herald, October 23, 1933)

He and the visiting All Stars weren’t as fortunate in Hilo. “One of the most entertaining games ever played in Hilo was a 1933 exhibition matchup between the Waiākea Pirates and an all-star team featuring Babe Ruth. Ruth dazzled the crowd with a pair of homers, including one that traveled 427 feet. The Pirates still prevailed, 7-6.” (Honolulu Star-Advertiser, March 15, 2013)

A little later, US President Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) was visiting the islands and arrived in Hilo on July 25, 1934 he planted a tree, too. FDR traversed the Pacific aboard the USS Houston, debarked at both the ports of Hilo and Honolulu, and stayed in the Islands for several days (July 24-28, 1934) to tour both cultural landmarks and military areas.

The visit was a stopover on a cruise starting July 1, 1934 at Annapolis going on to Portland, with stops in the Bahamas, Haiti, Puerto Rico, St Thomas, St Croix, Columbia, Panama, Cocos Island and Clipperton Island.

“Commemorating King George V’s silver jubilee (grandfather of the present Queen Elizabeth II,) a banyan tree has been planted here near the tree planted last year to honor President Roosevelt’s visit here.” (AP, Evening Independent, July 8, 1935.)

Another notable planter was Amelia Earhart. “Over the Christmas holiday, Amelia Earhart and George Putnam, along with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mantz, arrived in Honolulu on December 27 (1934,) having sailed on the Matson liner SS Lurline. … The group spent two weeks vacationing in Hawaiʻi.”

“Five days after planting the banyan tree, she hopped off from Honolulu in her Lockheed Vega to cross 2,408-miles of Pacific Ocean. Eighteen hours and sixteen minutes later, Amelia and her red Vega, ‘Old Bessie, the Fire Horse,’ made a perfect landing at Oakland Airport at 1:31 pm … the very first person, man or woman, to fly solo between Hawaii and the Mainland and the first civilian airplane to carry a two-way radio.” (Plymate)

The next year, on November 15, 1935, Attorney Gonzalo and Adela Manibog, prominent Hilo community leaders in the 1930s and 40s, were given the honor of planting a banyan tree commemorating the birth of a new nation, the Philippine Commonwealth (now a republic.)

President Franklin D Roosevelt signed into law the Tydings-McDuffie Act creating the semi-autonomous government of the Philippine Commonwealth, a US protectorate ceded by Spain after the Spanish American war in 1898. (Manibog)

David McHattie Forbes, botanist, ethnologist, sugar plantation manager and explorer on the island of Hawaiʻi planted a tree. He served as the first district forester of South Kohala in 1905, and twenty years later was appointed a judge in Waimea. He was the discoverer in 1905 of what became known as the Forbes Collection, the greatest collection of Polynesian artifacts ever found.

William Linn (Lincoln) Ellsworth, was an American explorer, engineer, and scientist who led the first trans-Arctic (1926) and trans-Antarctic (1935) air crossings – he added a tree to the growing number.

Later, “Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong planted a tree … in the ‘living memorial’ Banyan grove in Hilo, Hawaii. Reviving a custom dormant since 1952, the musician spaded earth around the roots of the Louis Armstrong tree. It stands a few feet from the Amelia Earhart tree, planted by the aviatrix who vanished on a Pacific flight in 1937.” (Park City Daily News, May 7, 1963)

The tree then-Senator Richard Nixon of California planted in 1952 was destroyed. His wife Pat returned to Hilo in 1972, the year of his presidential re-election, and planted two banyans, one replacing his senatorial specimen (the sign incorrectly notes 1962) and another in her own honor.

Initially, eight trees were planted in October 1933; there have been over 50-trees planted at what is now known as Banyan Drive on the Waiākea peninsula, traditionally known as Hilo-Hanakāhi.

At the time, Banyan Drive was a crushed coral drive through the trees. Forty trees were planted between 1934 and 1938, and five more trees were planted between 1941 and 1972. In 1991, a tree lost to a tsunami was replaced. (Hawaiʻi County)

Trees were typically planted by or for notable politicians, entertainers, religious leaders, authors, sports figures, business people, adventurers and local folks.

The trees now represent the ‘Stories of Incredible People,’ as described in a book by Ted Coombs of Kurtistown, Hawaiʻi.

October 19, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Squirmin’ Herman

“Squirmin’ Herman Wedemeyer, the hula-hipped hurricane from Hawaiʻi, contributed a remarkable chapter to the lore of West Coast football in 1945 when he sparked St. Mary’s undernourished teenagers to a successful season and a trip to the Sugar Bowl.” (McCarty)

Wedemeyer (Wedey,) born May 20, 1924 in Hilo, “led St Louis College (now St Louis School) to Interscholastic League of Honolulu football titles in 1941 and 1942. He turned down scholarship offers from Notre Dame and Ohio State to attend St. Mary’s.” (Masuoka)

Located in rural Moraga, California, St Mary’s College is a small Catholic liberal arts college. When World War II broke out, St Mary’s (an all-male school) lost almost all of their students to military duty.

In the 1943 season, only 20 students showed up to play on the team, and of those, only 3 weren’t going to be in the military by the fall. So the coach decided to put together a team of players who were all freshmen, as they would be 17, and too young to be drafted into the military.

Although they lost their first game (that they were expected to lose,) seventeen-year-old Wedemeyer was “the most sensational discovery to come over the horizon since the Santa Maria… California won the ball game but Herman Wedemeyer won the hearts of every man, woman, and child present.”

Grantland Rice, sportswriting’s dean, said that Wedemeyer was “the only back I’ve seen in many years who could handle (running, passing, blocking, tackling and kicking) with poise and grace thrown in….His reflexes are far quicker than anything I’ve seen on a football team in many, many years.”

His speed and turn-on-a-dime agility on the field earned him the nicknames “Squirmin’ Herman,” “The Flyin’ Hawaiian,” “The Hawaiian Centipede” and “The Waikiki Wonder.” (Barracuda Magazine)

In 1944, St. Mary’s had to do without Wedemeyer, as he enlisted in the Merchant Marines. The Gaels only scheduled five games that season, and minus Wedemeyer, they lost every one of them.

Wedemeyer, at only 5’ 10” and 164-pounds, returned to the team for the 1945 season (which began shortly after the end of WWII), but St Mary’s enrollment was still under 100 students. The team once again showed promise, even though they were the youngest college team ever put together. (Barracuda Magazine)

The highlight of the season was the 26-0 trouncing of USC. Little St Mary’s went on to capture the Pacific Coast title – and played in the Sugar Bowl against the undefeated Oklahoma A&M. (St Mary’s lost that game.)

Wedemeyer was the first from Hawaiʻi player to be named to the All-American first team. He was also selected to play for the West in the annual Shrine game, the first freshman ever so honored. Sportswriter Rice noted, “Herman Wedemeyer is the greatest athlete in the country.”

Wedemeyer was a first-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1947 (and played with fellow Hawaiian, free agent Johnny Naumu.)

The AAFC was an upstart challenger to the then-25-year-old NFL; the Dons were supported-by-the-stars, Don Ameche was president and minority owners included Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Pat O’Brien and others.

The Dons were the first professional football team to play a regular season game in Los Angeles, beating the rival Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League by two weeks. (LA Times)

Wedemeyer played one year with the Dons and later played for the Baltimore Colts, but an injury cut short his career. He had a short stint in professional minor league baseball.

Returning to Hawaiʻi, Wedemeyer became a businessman. He was elected to the Honolulu City Council in 1968. In 1970, he was elected/reelected to the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives.

From 1971 to 1980, Wedemeyer appeared in “Hawaii Five-O,” playing Edward D “Duke” Lukela. (Masuoka) Wedemeyer died January 25, 1999 in Honolulu (aged 74.)

October 17, 2025 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Ida May Pope

“Kamehameha Girls School Last Night – The first commencement of the Girls’ School took place in Kaumakapili Church last night before an audience of something like 2,000 people, the largest number ever gathered together in the native place of worship.”

“This very generous attendance showed the interest that the people of Honolulu have in the work that is being done by Miss Pope and her corps of worthy assistants.”

“Miss Pope’s work with the girls cannot be too highly praised, and she and her assistants may feel justly proud that they have sent forth into the world Hawaiian girls who are eminently capable to take their places as trainers of the young Hawaiians.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 6, 1897)

“These are the young ladies of the school who graduated this year: Lydia Aholo, Julia Akana, Kalei Ewaliko, Miriama Hale, Lewa Iokia, Helen Kahaleahu, Elizabeth Kahanu, Malie Kapali, Hattie Kekalohe, Elizabeth Kaliinoi, Keluia Kiwaha, Julia Lovell, Jessie Mahoahoa, Elizabeth Waiamau, and Aoe Wong Kong.” (Kuokoa, July 2, 1897)

Ida May Pope was born in Crestline, Ohio July 30, 1862 to Dr William and Cornelia Waring Pope. She was the third child among seven.

Though her father was a doctor, he also co-patented the Franz-Pope device “to provide an improved mechanism for taking up the slack of the yarn, which occurs in knitting the heels and toes of stockings.” (Franz and Pope)

Ms Pope “was a graduate of Oberlin University and for many months held a responsible position in one of the educational institutions at Columbus supported by the State of Ohio.”

Then, “in August 1890, Miss Ida M Pope left for Honolulu to accept a position in the Kawaiahaʻo seminary. This talented young lady is one of the most efficient teachers ever raised in this community.”

“Miss Pope remained a teacher in the seminary one year. The gentlemen in charge of the seminary appreciated her faithful efforts and appointed her principal of the institution.”

In 1893, Miss Pope was granted a vacation to visit some of the best industrial schools on the continent and was given authority to employ seven young ladies to assist in Kawaiahaʻo Seminary. The education work made rapid progress and the seminary was so successful that it was determined to increase the corps of teachers and add an industrial department to the work.

“Among the seven teachers employed are three well known to the citizens of this community, who left yesterday afternoon with Miss Pope. These are Miss Bertha Sears, Mrs Ida Sturgeon and Miss Jennie Denzer. … They will sail from San Francisco on August 17 and reach Honolulu August 24.” (Bucyrus (Ohio) Journal; Hawaiian Gazette, August 29, 1893)

Then, on December 19 1894, the second stage of establishing the Kamehameha Schools was accomplished when the Kamehameha School for Girls was begun. The site was on the makai of King Street opposite the campus of the then school for boys (across from what is now Farrington High School.)

The first principal of the school was Ida May Pope; she was a strong-minded, energetic Midwesterner who picked her own teachers; the first, like her, were all single women from the mainland.

“Pope set a tone to discipline the Hawaiianness of her girls. ‘Constant and consistent restraint is the way to control the careless, joyous, happy-go-lucky nature of the Hawaiian.’” (Broken Trust)

“The object of the school is to furnish a carefully arranged, practical education to Hawaiian girls of thirteen years of age and over, qualifying them for service at home, for wage-earning in some handicraft, or as teachers in the government schools. The number of pupils is limited to eighty.” (Pope; The Friend)

The school has offered two courses—an English and a Normal course. The schoolroom work includes drill in the common branches, algebra, Hawaiian and general history, literature, elementary science, embracing physiology, botany, zoology, chemistry and physics.

We hope to see a fruit orchard, where the mango, orange, lime, papaya, and pear will flourish, and a garden that will supply vegetables for the table and flowers in abundance.”

“We cannot make farmers of Hawaiian girls, but we can train them to beautify their homes and supply their tables with flowers, fruit, and vegetables raised by their labor; and we can give them an insight into the keeping and caring for well-ordered homes and grounds.”

“The general housework of the school – cooking, laundering, and the care of public and private rooms – is done by the pupils. Games—tennis, croquet, basket and tower ball, afford ample relaxation and recreation. Mondays are holidays. Saturday evenings the pupils gather in the assembly hall or gymnasium for literary or social entertainments.” (Pope; The Friend)

Pope was referred to by the girls as Mother Pope or Mama Pope. During the last few years of her life, she also took on personal responsibility for a young child. The girl, Gladys, was the only daughter in a household with five older sons. Pope took Gladys as her hānai daughter (we knew her as Gladys Brandt (1906-2003.))

Miss Ida May Pope died on July 14, 1914, while on a teacher recruiting trip. “The death of Miss Pope is an irretrievable loss to the Kamehameha Schools and to the Hawaiian race.” (Albert F Judd)

“She gave herself to the cause of mothering Hawaiian girls, so many of whom had no real mothers. In this service she never spared herself and to it she sacrificed her life.” (LC Hudson)