Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Forty Niner

Katsutaro Chagami was Issei (first generation) – born in Japan and emigrated to the Islands from 1885 to 1924 (when Congress stopped all legal migration). The term Issei came into common use and represented the idea of a new beginning and belonging.

The children of the Issei, like Richard Kiyoshi Chagami, were Nisei, the second generation in Hawaiʻi and the first generation of Japanese descent to be born and receive their entire education in America, learning Western values and holding US citizenship.

“When the Issei first arrived in Hawaii they lived in plantation villages or camps and preserved their way of life by only speaking Japanese. After 1900, a significant influx of picture brides to the islands created families that served as the basis for a flourishing Japanese population.”

“As the community grew, Buddhist temples, Japanese newspapers, and Japanese language schools were created. Most Japanese immigrants were plantation workers, but there were those who chose to take up a life of fishing as a means of sustenance and income.”

“Small fishing villages were known to crop up around coastal areas. Katsutaro and Kawayo Chagami [Richard Chagami’s parents], lived on the shores of Pearl Harbor in a small fishing village on what is currently the Aiea Bay State Recreation Area.” (Minatoishi and Gushiken; NPS)

“Katsutaro Chagami owned a sampan (a flat-bottomed fishing boat) that was moored at Kewalo Basin. His fishing endeavors called him away for two weeks at a time. Besides deep sea fishing, Katsutaro occasionally brought the boat home to take the family for rides to Ford Island (Mokuumeume) or around Pearl Harbor (Puuloa).”

“The Chagami family had erected an ebisu kotohira (fishing shrine) on their property, a sacred object the family would eventually take with them.”

“In 1940, Pearl Harbor terminated the leases on the fishing village and Katsutaro, Kawayo, and their 11 children were forced to look for other living accommodations.” (Minatoishi and Gushiken; NPS)

Richard Chagami (born on June 21, 1917) served in the Army along with his brother Henry. They served in Italy and France as part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II.  During his service with the Army, Richard served as a cook.  (Minatoishi and Gushiken; NPS)

Upon the boys’ return, their parents purchased a lunch wagon from Elia Niau so the brothers could start a business together. The lunch wagon sold meals near the corner of Honomanu and Kamehameha Highway.

In the beginning, they served mostly banana splits, ice cream floats and sodas. The menu later changed to plate lunches, saimin and burgers. (Bernardo)

“The wagon was on their (Chagami’s) property. We used to hook up to their electricity and use their water to run the wagon. They were always really nice to us.”

“It was World War II, so there was rationing.  But because my father was a police officer who patrolled the Pearl City area, he always knew where to get the food.”

“I used to use a wheel barrel to carry the sodas and the burgers across the street. They loved our burgers and our bacon sandwiches.” (Solomon Niau, son of Elia Niau; Paragas) These were the two staples of the lunch wagon then, and they remain popular among many of the restaurant’s current patrons. (Paragas)

The wagon was named the “Forty Niner”. The name drew inspiration from the Gold Rush and alluded to the owner’s hopes that patrons would flock to the eatery much like adventurers converged on California.

“I guess my parents (including mom Elizabeth Johnson Niau) thought that if they bought the Forty Niner, people would rush in like they did during the 1949 Gold Rush.” (Solomon Niau, son of Elia Niau; Paragas)

The wagon gained a strong following from workers at the Aiea Naval Hospital, Pearl Harbor, and other adjacent military facilities. After the lunch wagon gained a substantial following, a free-standing, permanent restaurant was constructed. The Forty Niner establishment was completed in August of 1947. (Minatoishi and Gushiken; NPS)

Richard Chagami handled the daily operations while Henry handled the bookkeeping. Over the years, Chagami’s nine other siblings also helped out. (Bernardo)

Richard retired in 2006 and passed the historic building, and the recipes served in it, to new owner Wil Cordes III. “I knew there would be a lot of eyes on me,” Cordes says.

“People have been bringing their families, three, four generations already. They were going to know the menu and taste of the food better than I did.”

So, after a few months of much needed renovations – the kitchen had a single burner and no telephone – he reopened with Richard’s sister, Jennie Tsuchidana, still making the burgers, saimin dashi and all the original menu items. Before he passed in 2011, Richard would even stop by now and then: “He would just say, ‘taste good, taste good,’” Cordes says.

“Meanwhile, he and his wife, Karla, expanded the menu to breakfast with pancakes, waffles and French toast and rotating specials throughout the day.

Longtime diners can now dig into the Forty Niner pancakes – which Cordes says were the first to feature haupia sauce and macadamia nuts – banana French toast, chilaquiles with eggs and garlic chicken while sitting on the eatery’s original stools.  (Honolulu Magazine)

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Two Friends … Fellow Adventurers

The older was born February 25, 1821 in Sandy Hill, New York (In 1910, the village’s name was changed to Hudson Falls.) Stone quarried from there was used to construct the Brooklyn Bridge (1883.)

The younger was born January 25, 1822 in Glens Falls, New York, about 3-miles away; his father was a toll collector who worked on a toll booth in the middle of the Hudson River. Glens Falls was later known as “Hometown USA,” a title given to it by Look Magazine in 1944.

Shortly after his brother was born (1824,) the younger’s mother becomes ill and died a few weeks later. Her older sister, Lucy, takes the two-year old to Fort Ann, New York to live with her awhile. Aunt Lucy keeps him for a few years, then sends him to live with his paternal grandfather, Jesse. (KSBE)

The younger didn’t have much schooling, attending Glens Falls Academy for 7th and 8th grades, his only years of formal schooling. After leaving school, he was a clerk for Nelson J Warren, the largest business in Warrensburgh, New York. He learns bartering, bookkeeping, taking inventory, maintenance and janitorial duties.

The older had formal education; he had been a law student at Harvard under US Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story and the renowned law teacher Samuel Greenleaf. (Silverman)

At about the age of 20 (in 1842,) the younger worked as a bookkeeper and head clerk for Charles Dewey in the Old Stone Store in Sandy Hill about 3 miles from Glens Falls.

It was here the two met.

Dewey was a brother-in-law of the older. Later, the older’s sister, Eliza, married the younger’s uncle, Linus.

The older suffered from recurring tuberculosis and sought a better place to live. The younger looked to broaden his horizons. In early 1846, they planned a trip to the Oregon Territory, the older seeking to practice law, the young to survey land.

The Oregon Territory stretched from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains, encompassing the area including present-day Oregon, Washington, and most of British Columbia. Since the late-1600s the wilderness was hunted and trapped for furs (mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the US.)

After acquiring the “Louisiana Purchase” in 1803, under the directive of President Thomas Jefferson, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the “Corps of Discovery Expedition” (1804–1806,) was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific coast undertaken by the US.

Later, Manifest Destiny was the widely held belief that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. Journalist John L O’Sullivan wrote an article in 1839 and predicted a “divine destiny” for the United States.

By 1843, increased American immigration on the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Territory made of the border between the US and Canada an issue in Congress. On June 18, 1846, they voted on the 49-degree line as the border between Canada and the US.

Rather than walk, the two sailed on the ‘Henry,’ leaving February 23, 1846. After a long and stormy voyage – rather than continuing to Oregon Territory – the ‘Henry’ limped into Honolulu Harbor on October 12, 1846, needing extensive repairs.

While waiting there, the older was consulted by some American residents on a legal question. He caught the attention of officials in the Hawaiian kingdom and was recruited by Attorney General John Ricord and Dr Gerrit Judd, the Minister of Finance for Kamehameha III. Then 26 years old, he was only the second trained attorney in the Islands (after Ricord). (Dunn)

After some persuasion, he consented to stay, provided his friend could also be provided with employment. The younger first worked at Ladd & Company, a mercantile and trading establishment, then at the US Consulate in Honolulu.

They didn’t plan to go to Hawaiʻi, let alone stay there; but they did.

However, there was a time, the younger appeared to catch the gold fever and on January 6, 1849, he and others published, “Notice. The subscribers hereby give notice of their intention to depart from this kingdom, and request all persons having demands against them to present them for payment immediately.” (Polynesian, January 6, 1849)

The older encouraged and convinced the younger to stay. He did; in fact, in 1849, the younger became a naturalized citizen and signed an oath to “support the Constitution and Laws of the Hawaiian Islands”.

The two left lasting legacies in the Islands.

The older, William Little Lee, was the first Chief Justice of the Superior Court (1847-52) and then the Supreme Court (1852-57.) In 1851, he was elected to the Legislature and became Speaker of the House of Representatives. Among his efforts were the framing of the revised constitution of the kingdom, and the task of drafting criminal and civil codes for the kingdom. (Ellis)

Lee brought major areas of substantive Western law into the Hawaiian legal system by drafting legislation which was frequently passed without alteration.

The younger of the two, Charles Reed Bishop, was primarily a banker (he has been referred to as “Hawaiʻi’s First Banker.”) An astute financial businessman, he became one of the wealthiest men in the kingdom from banking, agriculture, real estate and other investments.

He met Bernice Pauahi while she was still a student at the Chiefs’ Children’s School (they probably met during the early half of 1847,) and despite the opposition of Pauahi’s parents who wanted her to marry Lot Kapuāiwa (later, Kamehameha V,) Bishop courted and married Pauahi in 1850.

Bishop’s industrious nature and good counsel in many fields were also highly valued by Hawaiian and foreign residents alike. He was made a lifetime member of the House of Nobles and appointed to the Privy Council.

He served Kings Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V, Lunalilo and Kalākaua in a variety of positions such as: foreign minister; president of the board of education; and chairman of the legislative finance committee.

The image is the two friends and adventurers: William Little Lee (L) and Charles Reed Bishop (R) (1846.) (Lots of information here is from KSBE.)

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William_Little_Lee_(L)_and_Charles_Reed_Bishop_(R)-1846

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Hermit of Kalalau

“People may think I am a fool but I have found real happiness and, above all real peace of mind.” (Wheatley)

Bernard Gamaliel Wheatley was born the son of a shopkeeper in St Thomas, Virgin Islands, October 14, 1919, son of Osorio Solario Wheatley and Anna (Fleury) Wheatley. (Ancestry and Soboleski)

Wheatley received a medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., and held a medical post with the Army, from which he was discharged in 1946.  Wheatley practiced medicine for a short time in Sweden. (TenBruggencate)  Dr. John Eriksson, who was his superior, says: “He was a good surgeon and a nice man.” (Ebony)

“There is evidence to indicate that both in medical school and in later practice the doctor showed brilliance and an unusual capacity for work. He was also successful.”  (Krauss)

Then, “‘He became,’ one of his friends say, ‘a religious fanatic.’ This transition was not accomplished without a mental upheaval. Dr. Wheatley disappeared three times. The last time he was found naked in a Stockholm park.”

“The doctor-turned-mystic is critical of his former colleagues. ‘Shooting people with penicillin,’ he says, ‘is no better way of curing disease than shooting hydrogen missiles is a means of curing war.’  His rejection of medicine, he says, was hastened by a heart attack he suffered in 1951 in Sweden.”

“‘I became struck,’ he continues, ‘with the similarity between psychosomatic medicine and the teachings of Christ – how closely hate and fear and anxiety are related to heart disease, high blood pressure, peptic ulcer, diabetes mellitus.’”

“‘Finally, I made up my mind to go directly to the cause of disease instead of treating the symptoms. In a moment of lucidity, I saw all the way to the fact that man could overcome death and could control his health by living a life of love.’” (Ebony)

“He was treated for a nervous breakdown. In 1953, he went to Paris, where his brother, a pianist, lives. He wandered around Europe for a while and then came to America.”

“He turned up unexpectedly at the homes of several of his classmates. They were shocked by his appearance and the sudden change in his personality. It was like meeting a completely different man, one doctor says. He walked from New York to California.”

“In Chicago, he was a guest in the home of the Reverend William J Faulkner, who was dean of chapel when Wheatley was a student at Fisk University. He told Faulkner that he wanted to found a center for the propagation of his philosophy. Faulkner replied in a lighthearted vein that Hollywood would be just the place for the center. Both men laughed.” (Ebony)

“A few months later, Wheatley turned up in Hawaii. He worked for a while as a dessert maker in a restaurant. He quit this job. ‘I found,’ he says, ‘that at the end of the day I had spent so much energy arguing with the waitresses that I had none left for creative thinking.’”

“When a man who knows Wheatley heard this explanation, he said; ‘That sounds typical of him. He was probably telling them what stupid, narrow lives they lead and they were telling him he was crazy. And probably, they were all right, in a way.’”

“Wheatley’s last job was at the Central YMCA in Honolulu. He was desk clerk. He quit this job because he didn’t think it was right to charge poor people for rooms.”  (Ebony)

“[I]n April, 1957, Dr. Wheatley turned his back on the world and went into Kalalau Valley. ‘My guess,’ a friend of his says, ‘is that these experiences are what finally drove him out of the world and into Kalalau. To a man of his sensitivity, I should think an arrest and appearance in court with attendant publicity would be a sort of final stamp of social disapproval in his mind.’” (Ebony)

Wheatley became known as the Hermit of Kalalau.

“The Hermit of Kalalau is a lean but powerfully built man of 40 years, His jaw and upper lip are covered with short, curling black whiskers. He was barefoot and dressed in a pair of tan swimming trunks and a spotlessly clean T-shirt.”

“He spoke with excellent articulation and with great poise, searching for just the right word, as if he were giving a lecture out there on the trackless beach. … Then then the Hermit helped us carry our gear across the sunlit sand into his ‘guest cave,’ a small cavern beside the one in which he lives under a majestic black cliff.”  (Krauss)

“In front of his cave, about 30 feet wide and 12 feet deep and eight feet high in the rear, were a series of neat, geometrical patterns ln the sand. Otherwise the sand was undisturbed.”

“‘These are my paths,’ the Hermit explained. ‘May I ask you to use them?  You see, there is great beauty in the land with the sun or moonlight upon it. Footprints destroy it. And I’ve found that, of all the requirements for survival, beauty is the most important.’” (Krauss)

“Then he took us on a tour of his valley. We started with his own cave. It reminded me very much of the cell of a monk. The immaculate sand floor is terraced in two levels. On the first terrace the Hermit has, on one side of the cave, his tiny fireplace, which is a grill set neatly upon four stones. He must use it only occasionally because there was only a trace of ash.”

“Above the fireplace, on the top terrace in a niche in the lava rock, the Hermit keeps his silverware and cooking utensils. He has about four spoons, as many forks and a few knives. Also three cups and saucers and as many jelly glasses.”

“Everything was neatly arranged on the rocks and on a wooden board. ‘I try to keep some degree or nicety and orderliness,’ the Hermit explained. “I always set my table (a wooden box) correctly with silverware at meals even though I’m having only taro. One can judge character by the way a man acts m the wilderness.’” (Kraus)

“Little by little I pieced together the strange story of survival that began in April, 1957.  ‘I had seen the valley from the lookout in January of that year,’ the Hermit said, ‘and felt attracted to it. In April I hiked in for the first time.’”

“’Had you ever been on the trail?’ ‘No. All I had with me was a lunch. I didn’t even have matches. It took me two days to get into the valley. I lost the trail and had to hull my way through the lantana. My clothes were pretty badly torn.’”

“‘The first time I stayed for 23 days. Then I became constipated because of the guava seeds. The pain was pretty bad for about five days. Finally I flagged down a passing sampan and the crew took me to Lihue Hospital.’  Five weeks later the Hermit was back in his valley, armed with a mess kit this time, and a change of clothing.”

Why was he there … “What he is trying to do, he said, is live according to what he believes with no compromise. Apparently, the only place he  has found this is possible ls in remote Kalalau Valley.”

“‘On the outside I constantly feel limitation around me,’ he said. ‘The instinctive reaction to a new situation is fear. There is so much that is negative in the world so many people to say, ‘That’s impossible.’ Here in the valley I feel no fear or limitation. That doesn’t mean I think I can fly. But I feel that l can always do what I have to do. Some wisdom must come from taking chances.”

“‘I’ve found,’ he said, ‘that very few people want to hear what I have to say. I can accomplish more by talking to the occasional person who is interested and understands. Try not to judge others. There is no way of knowing which of us will finally be most important in the scheme of things.’”

“When hippies came to Kalalau in the late-1960s with their hallucinogens and lifestyles at odds with his own, he finally left his once solitary home.  A good friend of his said that he had dedicated his life to God, and Kalalau had been his test. By surviving there alone for so long, he had proven that God had taken care of him.”  (Soboleski)

“I think a person should be improving all the time. Then, on a certain day, you know that you have achieved enough change in yourself to belong in another place on a certain day. That is what happened to me. … I have stayed at the YMCA several times. Other times I stay with friends.”  (Kraus)

“’I’ve never really been a hermit I used to leave the valley fairly frequently when friends needed me. I often played tennis or bridge with them. I’m primarily a thinker. I came to the valley to evaluate things.’ … He says he is never going back to the practice of medicine.”  (Knaefler)

“One of his chief criticisms of you and I is that we don’t DO the things we say we believe. … He puts little stock in philosophers because ‘they don’t act on their philosophies; they don’t participate in the universe.”  (Krauss)

“Dr. Bernard Wheatiey died on Kauai at 72 on December 3, 1991, and his ashes were scattered in Kalalau Valley.” (Soboleski)

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Emma Louise Smith Dillingham

Rev. Lowell Smith and his wife Abigail arrived in Honolulu on May 1, 1833, with the Sixth Company of missionaries of the ABCFM.  He first served at Molokai in June 1833; then, in 1834, he established a church at Ewa District, O‘ahu and later founded and served as pastor of Kaumakapili Church (Second Native Church) in Honolulu, 1839–1869.

Rev and Abigail Smith had five children: Lowell Smith (1841–1842), Emma Smith (1843–1843), Emma Louise Smith (Dillingham) (1844–1920), Ellen Amelia Smith (1847–1848), and Augustus Lowell Smith (1851–1891).  (FindAGrave)

Emma Louise Smith was a writer and had talents  in music and the arts; her daughter Mary Emma Dillingham (Frear) published Emma’s 1850-51 Journal Book, written at age six. Emma later wrote poems, songs, books, etc. 

“Little Emma Louise Smith entered Punahou at the age of 13, after having attended the old Royal School.” (Star Bulletin, April 26, 1929)

“Her father tells how Emma rode from Nuuanu to Punahou daily with two of Dr. Judd’s children. He says she was in advance of most of the children of her age, for which credit was due to her mother. ‘Emma can put a horse to a carriage … wash dishes, darn stockings, play the piano and do some other things equally well,’ her mother wrote.” (Punahou First 100 Years; Morrow)

“She graduated with the class of 1863 and the next year became an instructor in the academy.  After one year, she accompanied her parents to the Atlantic coast of the United States, where she continued the study of music.”

“On her return to Honolulu she again became a Punahou instructor of music. She went to the Royal School as a teacher the next year, but after that again returned to Punahou.”

“Meantime, in 1865, there had arrived in Honolulu a young New England seaman, first officer of the bark Whistler.  Attempting to indulge in the almost universal island sport of riding …” “… he had found himself more skilled in guiding a ship than a horse, with the result that when the Whistler went on, it left its first officer nursing a broken leg, the result of a fall from his mount.” (Star Bulletin, April 26, 1929)

“The first officer of the bark Whistler, Mr. Dillingham, whose leg was broken last Friday night, by being thrown from a horse, in collision with a carriage, on the valley road. … [Dillingham] is now at the American Marine Hospital, where he receives every care and attention, and is in favorable condition for recovery.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 29, 1865)

“It felt as if I had anchored in a home port; the cordiality I experienced from all those whom I met removed at once the feeling of being in a foreign land though the streets were filled with several nationalities. The luxuriant foliage, the balmy breezes, the tropical fruits, all afforded such delights that I felt sure I should return.”

“The first evening I left the ship was spent at the Wednesday evening prayer meeting in the Bethel vestry (where Emma led the choir). One of the first calls I made was at the home of Rev. Lowell Smith.” (Dillingham; Morrow)

“Young Benjamin [Franklin ‘Frank’] Dillingham entered the commercial life of the city as soon as he was able to be about. When an opportunity came to leave here he decided against it, a matter, no doubt, in which the young teacher of Punahou figured, since they were married on [April 26] 1869.” (Star Bulletin, April 26, 1929)

Despite tales of Emma nursing Frank back to health, Emma was away in New England while Frank was recuperating. The two of them probably met for the first time when Frank attended a church service after his arrival in Honolulu. But his efforts to win her hand began in earnest only in 1867. On April 26, 1869, Frank Dillingham married Emma Smith. They were both 25.

Frank was stocky and well-muscled, Emma was lovely and tall. She, like her mother, had dark hair parted down the middle, but her face was softer than Abigail’s and her smile was bright and engaging.

She had been engaged to James Baldwin of Maui when she met Frank, but, not in love with her fiancé, broke off the relationship. Frank pressed his suit quietly but firmly after their meeting and slowly she fell in love. (Morrow)

He accepted a job as a clerk in a hardware store called H Dimond & Son for $40 per month. The store was owned by Henry Dimond, formerly a bookbinder in the 7th Missionary Company. In 1850 Dimond had been released from his duties at the Mission and had gone into business with his son.

Dillingham later bought the company with partner Alfred Castle (son of Samuel Northrup Castle, who was in the 8th Company of missionaries and ran the Mission business office;) they called the company Dillingham & Co.

On September 4, 1888, Frank Dillingham’s 44th birthday, the legislature gave Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad … for the carriage of passengers and freight.”

Dillingham formed O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L,) a narrow-gauge rail, whose economic being was founded on the belief that O‘ahu would soon host a major sugar industry.

‘Dillingham’s Folly’ had now become the greatest single factor in the development of O‘ahu and Honolulu.  (Nellist)  “With a shrill blast from the whistle and the bell clanging, the engine moved easily off with its load. Three rousing cheers were given by the passengers, and crowds assembled at the starting point responded.”  (Daily Bulletin, September 5, 1889)

Ultimately OR&L sublet land, partnered on several sugar operations and/or hauled cane from Ewa Plantation Company, Honolulu Sugar Company in ‘Aiea, O‘ahu Sugar in Waipahu, Waianae Sugar Company, Waialua Agriculture Company and Kahuku Plantation Company, as well as pineapples in Wahiawa for Dole.

“It was in [Emma’s] home that the YWCA was organized, and she took an active part in the work of the Salvation Army.”  (Advertiser, July 7, 1956)  “In 1900, Emma Louise Smith Dillingham founded the YWCA Oahu as a place for Honolulu’s working women to learn skills that promote community engagement, build friendships, and develop shared values.”

“By 1915, Oahu YWCA boasted a membership of 1,386 women, which included Queen Liliuokalani. Today’s YWCA stands for empowering women, eliminating racism, standing up for social justice, helping families, and strengthening communities.” (BOH)

“She was one of [seven] founders of the Daughters of Hawaii.” (Advertiser, July 7, 1956)  “‘Daughters of Hawaii’ was formed November 18, (1903) by Mrs. Emma Dillingham. Mrs. Sarah Colin Waters, Mrs. Lucinda Severance, Mrs. Ellen A. Weaver, Mrs. Annie A. Dickey, Mrs. Cornelia H. Jones and Miss Anna M. Paris.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 26, 1904)

The women (all daughters of American missionaries) foresaw the looming loss of Hawaiian culture and in an inaugural meeting, their gathering gave rise to the “The Daughters of Hawaii” dedicated  to preserving  that culture. (Morrow)

“Its object is ‘To perpetuate the memory and spirit of old Hawai‘i and of historic facts, and to preserve the nomenclature and correct pronunciation of the Hawaiian language.’ No one is eligible to membership who was not born in Hawaii of parents who came here before 1860.” (Hawaiian Star, December 7, 1903)

The Daughters of Hawai‘i was one of the first organizations in Hawai‘i to recognize the importance of historic preservation. Since the early 1900s it has been distinguished for preserving Hānaiakamalama in Nu‘uanu, commonly known as the Queen Emma Summer Palace, and Hulihe‘e Palace in Kailua-Kona, restoring them with original royal furnishings and regalia.

The Daughters continue to be stewards of two of Hawai‘i’s three royal palaces, as well as the birth site of King Kamehameha III at Keauhou Bay in Kailua-Kona. (Daughters of Hawaii)

Children of Frank and Emma Dillingham are Mary Emma Dillingham (Frear) (1870–1951), Charles Augustus ‘Charlie’ Dillingham (1871–1874), Walter Francis Dillingham (1875–1963), Alfred Hubbard ‘Freddie’ Dillingham (1880–1880), Harold Garfield Dillingham (1881–1971), Marion Eleanor Dillingham (Erdman) (1883–1972). (FindAGrave)

On his death in 1918 at age 74, Dillingham was hailed as a “master builder” and Honolulu’s financial district closed its doors out of respect. (Wagner) The Islands would have been different if not for a sailor breaking his leg riding a horse.

Emma Dillingham, “one of Honolulu’s most prominent women for many years … passed away peacefully” August 15, 1920. (PCA, August 16, 1920)

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Lānai Ranch

Lānai’s formal ranching period ran from approximately 1854 to 1951 – longer than the cultivation of pineapple on the island. The ranch headquarters, situated about one mile away from what is now the city was at a place known as Kō‘ele.

Prior to 1923 and the arrival of James Dole, the Kō‘ele headquarters of the Lānai Ranch was the closest thing to a town in the uplands of Lānai. The only other historic “city” or village was situated on the windward shore of Lānai, at Keomuku – which had originally been built as the center of operations for the Maunalei Sugar Company (1898 to 1901). (Kepa Maly)

Walter Murray Gibson and other followers of the Mormon Church started a settlement on land they had purchased. Shortly thereafter, Gibson was excommunicated for allegedly misusing church funds; the settlement failed and the Mormons left the island.

Gibson remained and consolidated the 26,000 acres of land he controlled to form Lānai Sheep Ranch, headquartered in Palawai. By 1867, Gibson’s ranch consisted of 10,000 sheep and 18,000 goats.

By 1875, despite protests by Lānai; residents, Gibson controlled 90 percent of Lānai; lands either in fee simple or long-term leases, for ranching and farming operations. After Gibson’s death in 1888, the ranch was turned over to his daughter and son-in-law, Talula and Frederick Hayselden.

The ranch, headquartered in Kō‘ele, had grown to number 40,000 sheep, 3,000 Angora goats, 600 horses and 200 head of cattle. Lands making up Lānai Ranch included the former Gibson lands, government-owned land, and some ahupua‘as owned by Honolulu financier WG Irwin.

Despite attempts to increase the ranch’s efficiency and profitability, the Hayseldens lost money. Therefore, in 1898, the Hayseldens established Maunalei Sugar Company.  Plagued by financial problems, Hayselden closed the plantation in 1901.

The Gibson estate went into receivership, with financiers WH Pain and Paul Neuman assuming two-thirds of the debt and the remaining land and assets. Charles and Louisa Gay, of the wealthy Gay and Robinson family of Kauai and Ni‘ihau, purchased the properties held by Pain and Neuman in 1902.

By 1907, Gay owned virtually the entire island.  The Gay family moved to Lānai in late 1902. The family business is primarily ranching, but with a transition from sheep to cattle.

Between 1902 and 1910, the years of his tenure as landowner and manager, Gay brought up plantation homes for ranch hands from Keomuku to Kō‘ele, laid pipelines, dug reservoirs and wells, erected windmills and fences, installed a water-pumping system in Maunalei Gulch, and began experimental farming.

Gay, who lived in the ranch manager’s home in Ko’ele, also maintained a residence near the beach at Keomuku. He used some of the defunct sugar company’s facilities at Keomuku – such as the brackish-water wells, windmills, and the Kahalepalaoa Landing – to maintain some ranch operations manned by a few employees.

Gay also built a school in Palawai for his own children and that of ranch employees, and a church in Keomuku for use by his family and nearby residents.  Although Gay achieved some measure of success after his improvements, he had difficulty turning a profit. He subsequently sold all but 600 acres of his lands in 1910 to a hui of businessmen.

William G Irwin (and his wife), Robert W Shingle and Cecil Brown formed the “Lānai Ranch Company,” which later became the “Lānai Company.”  At the time of this sale, the ranch consisted of 22,500 sheep, 250 head of cattle, and 150 horses.

Gay remained on Lānai and, on his 600 acres, farmed corn, watermelons, pineapples and other crops, raised pigs, and built a home in Lalakoa, an area adjacent to present-day Lānai City. He also continued to use his Keomuku home.

In 1911, Lānai Ranch Company hired New Zealander George Munro as ranch manager. Munro, who previously worked at Molokai Ranch, found that because there had been little subdividing of pastureland, the sheep were roaming the island almost at will and the goats had become wild.

Munro, who had a knowledge of and interest in botany, planted hundreds of Norfolk Island pine trees throughout the island to catch fog drip to increase the ground water supply. Also during this time, Lānai Ranch Company began shifting its emphasis from sheep to cattle in order to supply a growing market for beef.

In 1917, Lānai Ranch Company sold the island to Frank and Harry Baldwin of Maui, who continue the cattle ranching operation under the title of “Lānai Ranch.”

Munro, who was to stay on as ranch manager until 1935, continued the shift from sheep to cattle, and reduced the goat population. With the improved water supply, the emphasis on cattle, and the decimation of goats which destroyed grazing lands, Lānai Ranch began making a profit.

In 1922, despite this relative prosperity, the Baldwins sold the island to James D Dole of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. This began the large-scale pineapple cultivation on Lānai which was to permanently alter the island’s landscape and social fabric while at the same time signaling the decline of Lānai Ranch as the island’s dominant commercial activity.

James Dole and associates planned and started the construction of Lānai City, Kaumālapa‘u Harbor (to ship pineapples and supplies), the plantation fields, and infrastructure needed for development of the plantation.

​Dole engaged David Root, James Munro, Tokumatsu Murayama, Hawaiian Dredging and others to develop the plantation.  Former pasturelands were cleared and rows upon rows of pineapple were planted.  The first buildings in Lānai City were under construction in 1923.

​During the decade following its purchase, Hawaiian Pine carefully implemented plans to transform Lānai into a pineapple plantation and ultimately made Lānai the world’s largest pineapple plantation.

As pineapple growing and harvesting began in earnest, the first crop was harvested and shipped in 1926 – Munro reduced the cattle herd and turned over ranch acreage to Hawaiian Pineapple Company. By 1927, of Lānai’s 89,600 acres, pineapple operations accounted for 40,000 acres, Lānai Ranch occupied 44,000 acres, and 5,000 acres were taken up by forest reserve.

In 1935, George Munro, Lānai Ranch manager since 1911, retired. He advised that pineapple, not cattle, be given primary consideration on Lānai, and that the ranch be continued only as long as pineapple-growing was not jeopardized.

The ranch continued to decline in the 1940s. By 1950, there were only a few cowboys to herd up the remaining cattle on the island. The ranch officially closed in 1951.

Castle & Cooke, Inc., which in 1961 acquired 100 percent direct ownership of Hawaiian Pineapple Company (in 1985, David H Murdock purchased Castle & Cooke – which includes much of the island of Lānai). In 1987. construction of the two luxury hotels on Lānai started.

In 1992, the final harvest of pineapple on Lānai took place in October. On November 14. 1992, a “Pau Hana” (“end of work”) gathering was held in Dole Park to commemorate the close of the pineapple era on Lānai.

In 2012, Larry Ellison purchased the island of Lānai – approximately 97 percent of the land on island – and engaged in building a sustainable community through the holding company, Pūlama Lānai.  (Lots of information here is from UH Center for Oral History and Lānai Culture & Heritage Center.)

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