Prominent People | Page 142 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 9, 2015 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Carlotta

In 1898, Carlotta Stewart, at eighteen years of age, came to Hawai‘i with her father (probably at his urging,) to continue her education and to begin planning her future. (Guttman)

The third child of Thomas McCants Stewart and Charlotte Pearl Harris, Carlotta was born in 1881 in Brooklyn, New York, where she attended public schools during her formative years.

Although her father had spent several years in Liberia, Africa, Carlotta had never traveled outside of the continental United States before coming to Hawai‘i.

Her father – a noted black lawyer, civil rights leader and friend of Booker T Washington – was the first African American to be admitted to practice law in Hawaiʻi (1898.) (jtb-org)

She attended Oʻahu College (Punahou,) where she played on the girls’ basketball team. After she graduated from there, she continued with basketball, playing for the YWCA and serving as timekeeper for the local games.

Her brothers McCants and Gilchrist had attended Tuskegee Institute, the Southern vocational school established by Booker T
Washington (1881,) Carlotta lived with her father following a bitter divorce from his first wife. (Broussard)

She graduated from Oʻahu College in 1902, one of eight members in the senior class. The course of study there included classes in philosophy, religion, English, Latin, Greek, French or German, history, economics, mathematics and science.

After graduation, Carlotta completed the requirements for a Normal School certificate (later known as the Teachers’ College,) which she received in 1902, and she promptly accepted a teaching position in the Practice Department of the Normal School.

She had converted to Catholicism during the early-1900s, despite the fact that her father was an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and that she visited the Priory (an Episcopal school) often as a young teacher to pray, study and dine with other females. (Broussard)

Stewart remained at the Normal School for several years, where she taught English; she is listed in the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to the Governor of the Territory of Hawaii between 1902 and 1924.

Her father and stepmother left the Islands in 1905; Carlotta later noted “Sometimes I get quite blue not having a single relative in the Islands. … I soon get over it, for I have such good friends. I want for nothing.”

In 1906, in addition to teaching, she was busy with classes, vacations, camping, surfing and frequent parties. “We took in two dances a week at the Seaside Hotel and played cards at home the other evenings or made up moonlight bathing parties.” (Stewart; Broussard)

In 1909, Carlota was noted as a teacher assigned to Koʻolau Elementary School (Kauai,) a later newspaper story noted that she was identified as principal there. “This school (is) situated on the government road near the north side of Moloa‘a Valley, between Anahola and Kilauea”.

Initially, total enrollment for the school was 61, average attendance 59; Japanese 31, Part Hawaiian 19, Hawaiian 7 and Portuguese 4.

“The majority of the children here come from the homes of the small tillers of the soil in the Moloa‘a Valley and thereabouts, especially the rice fields of the Japanese and the kuleanas of the Hawaiians.” (Evening Bulletin, October 14, 1909)

Her rapid advancement in the space of seven years was an impressive achievement, although many black women had established teaching careers and a handful were school administrators by 1909, it was unusual for a black woman at the age of 28 to serve as principal of a multi-racial school.

This achievement was particularly striking in a society in which few black people lived and, therefore, had no political influence to request a job of this magnitude. Her pupils reflected a true cross section of Hawaii’s school-aged population, which grew rapidly between 1900 and 1940.

Conditions were neither difficult nor racially oppressive for a black professional woman, in Hawai‘i, there was no substantial black community before World War II, and Carlotta saw few black people either in classrooms or outside.

Most of her socializing took place in groups, relieving her of the pressure to find a companion with a comparable racial and social background.

She met and married her husband, Yun Tim Lai of Chinese ancestry at Anahola. He was sales manager of the Garden Island Motors, Ltd, an automobile dealership in Lihue, when the couple wed in 1916. (The 19-year marriage ended, however, in 1935, when Lai died suddenly in Hong Kong while visiting his parents.) (Broussard)

Carlotta Stewart Lai never remarried but remained in Hawai’i for the next 17 years, serving as principal and English teacher until her retirement in 1944.

By 1951 Lai’s health grew increasingly more fragile, and, unable to provide for herself without fear of bodily injury, she entered the Manoa Convalescent Home in 1952 and died there on July 6, 1952.

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Carlotta Stewart Lai

Oahu_College-1902-front (L-R) Carlotta Stewart, William Heen, Mary Paty; Ed Young, Charlotte Dodge, Harriet Hapai, George Hapai-(Punahou)

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Principal Carlotta Stewart Lai and students at Hanamaulu School, Kauai-1933

November 30, 2015 by Peter T Young 6 Comments

Alsoberry Kaumualiʻi Hanchett

“The object of the Harvard Club of Hawaiʻi as stated in its constitution is ‘to extend the influence of Harvard University in Hawaiʻi and to foster closer relations between the Harvard men in Hawaiʻi and other Harvard Alumni.’”

“Toward carrying out the program involved, the question of assisting worthy young men financially in going to Harvard was brought up …”

“… and after a full discussion it was ‘Voted that it be the policy of the Club to help boys to go to Harvard; that one boy be helped each year by a loan of an amount not to exceed $200 per year’”.

“AK Hanchett, a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools, now a senior in Oʻahu College, was chosen as the first recipient.” (Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, 1907)

Born in Lihuʻe, Kauai, November 16, 1885, Alsoberry Kaumualiʻi Hanchett was the son of Salem Panole Hanchett and Julia Malaea (Palaile) Hanchett.

His grandfather, Salem Hanchett of Massachusetts, went to sea as a teenager aboard a Pacific whaler, and settled on Kauai during the reign of King Kaumualiʻi; he married Aluhua Aka, a descendent of Kaumualiʻi.

In 1848, he was granted citizenship in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, and seven years afterward, he obtained a license to operate a Wailua River ferry at a time when no bridges spanned the river. (Soboleski)

AK Hanchett received his early education in Honolulu at the Kamehameha. Following his graduation from Kamehameha, he went on to excel at Oʻahu College. President Arthur F Griffiths noted:

“Hanchett is a part Hawaiian of the best type. He is a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools and of Oahu College. He is steady, reliable and conscientious. As a student, he has good ability which compares with the best”.

Hanchett applied for Harvard in the spring of 1907 with strong letters of support from President Arthur F Griffiths of Oʻahu College and President Perley Horne of the Kamehameha Schools. (Aki; OHA)

He received an AB degree at Harvard University in 1911, and, continuing his studies in the medical college of the same institution, earned his MD degree in 1914.

“This Hawaiian boy will graduate in this coming June, and will intern for two years at one of the Famous Hospitals of America to advance his abilities in the medical field, and at the completion of his stay at the Hospital, then he will select where he will practice his calling.”

“We hope that he will come back to Hawaiʻi nei to practice this greatest of occupations in which he trained, and be the first Hawaiian to practice medicine in here in Hawaiʻi.” (Ka Hoku o Hawaii, June 21, 1914)

“(I)n an examination of the medical students in Boston, in order to enter one of the Hospitals of the City, and from amongst a 100 students, the Hawaiian boy ranked 3rd …”

“… and because this Hawaiian Boy wanted to once again test his competence, his Medical abilities were tested once again at a big Hospital in Providence in the State of Rhode Island, and what was revealed in that examination was that amongst 50 students who took the test, to the Hawaii boy went ‘Number One.’” (Ka Hoku o Hawaii, June 21, 1914)

Dr Hanchett abbreviated his name to A Kaumu, discovering that Alsoberry Kaumualiʻi was altogether too long for a doctor’s shingle. (Episcopal Church)

During World War I, Major Hanchett served in the Medical Corps at Schofield Barracks and Fort Shafter, and later entered private practice with Dr Pekelo in an office on the corner of Beretania and Punchbowl.

Hanchett and Mary Hazel McGuire – a nurse at Queens Hospital – were married in Honolulu in 1917 and had eight children. (Soboleski)

Alsoberry Kaumualiʻi Hanchett, was the first person of Hawaiian ancestry to graduate from Harvard Medical College; the first doctor of Hawaiian descent to practice in the Islands; first City-County physician in Honolulu and first doctor at the Shingle Memorial Hospital, Molokai. (Episcopal Church)

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Dr Alsoberry Kaumualii Hanchett

November 25, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Vladimir Ossipoff

“An architect has to be a bit of a sociologist, lawyer and psychologist. He has to know human nature.” (Vladimir Ossipoff)

Vladimir Ossipoff was a prominent architect in the Islands, working between the 1930s and 1990s. He was recognized locally, nationally and internationally for his designs. He is best known for his contribution to the development of the Hawaiian Modern movement.

This style is characterized by the work of architects who “subscribed to the general modernity of the International Style while attempting to integrate the cultural and topographical character of the (Hawaiian) region.” (Sakamoto)

This very frequently included an attempt to integrate the interior of buildings with the outdoors, and minimizing the dividing line between the building and the site.

Ossipoff was born in Russia on November 25, 1907 and moved with his family to Japan, where his father was a military attaché in Tokyo during the post Russo-Japanese War period. The family remained in Japan during the Russian revolutionary period, and Ossipoff attended school in Tokyo and Yokohama.

In 1923, Ossipoff and his mother and siblings moved to Berkeley, California where he graduated from Berkeley High School in 1926. He continued on to the University of California at Berkeley, studying architecture. He earned a Bachelor’s in Architecture in 1931, and after losing his first job out of school due to the Great Depression, sailed for Honolulu the same year.

Within a few months of taking up residence in Honolulu, he found work with the architect Charles W Dickey working on the Immigration Station at Honolulu Harbor. He worked as in-house designer for developer Theo H. Davies, designing more than twenty-five residences between 1932 and 1935, before opening his own firm in early 1936.

His early work included mainly upscale homes with Hawaiian elements, though he sometimes included International Style or Modern influences, and still more infrequently designed strict interpretations of these styles.

The 1937 Ossipoff-designed, four-acre Boettcher Estate site on Kailua Beach was acquired by the City and County of Honolulu in 1978. It was restored and is now part of the Kalama Beach Park.

During World War II, Ossipoff worked for the government, with the Contractors, Pacific Naval Air Bases and quickly reopened his office at the end of the war.

About 1947-48, Ossipoff and several other Honolulu architects associated as Fisk, Johnson, Ossipoff and Preis, Associated Architects, combining the resources of their offices in order to obtain large commissions.

The association split up gradually, around 1952-53, as the members withdrew to work on their own projects. In 1956-57, Ossipoff expanded his office, hiring several younger architects, including Sidney Snyder, Jr., Alan Rowland and Gregory Goetz, and in 1973, the firm was incorporated as Ossipoff, Snyder, Rowland and Goetz.

Between the end of the World War II and the 1970s, Ossipoff produced most of the Hawaiian Modern design that he is known for today, and became a leading figure in the Hawaiian Modern movement.

Although he practiced at a time of rapid growth and social change in Hawai`i, Ossipoff criticized large-scale development and advocated environmentally sensitive designs, developing a distinctive form of architecture appropriate to the lush topography, light and microclimates of the Hawaiian Islands.

Ossipoff’s inspiration was Hawaiian architecture, in particular the lanai, an open-sided, freestanding and lightly-roofed structure usually buffered from the weather by foliage. His use of a shaded lanai as the primary living area, created an inviting indoor-outdoor space around an intimate garden. (NY Times)

The adaptation of Modernist building forms to Hawaiian living conditions was to become more pronounced in Ossipoff’s later buildings, and also eventually evolve into his signature style.

Ossipoff’s design employs deep overhangs, carefully oriented windows and vents to create a naturally ventilated structure that is permeable to the powerful Pacific trade winds yet protected from rain and excessive sunlight. (NY Times)

His design values were consistent with recommendations made nearly three decades earlier by the American cultural critic Lewis Mumford in his report “Whither Honolulu” (1938) which was commissioned by the city’s Parks Department.

Mumford cautioned that while much of Honolulu’s natural virtues had “… already been spoilt. More disastrous results may follow unless steps are taken at once to conserve Honolulu’s peculiar advantages such as its connections to the ocean and to create buildings which take full advantage of the balmy trade winds and exceptional foliage that are unique to Hawaiʻi.” (DAM)

His work has been featured in local, national, and international publications, and he won numerous local design awards. Ossipoff served, two times, as president of the Hawaiʻi chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and also served as the AIA’s northwest regional director in 1972 – the first architect from Hawaiʻi to do so.

He was asked to serve as a visiting critic at the Cornell University School of Architecture, and as a juror for the Sunset magazine Home Design Awards in 1959. In 1964, he chaired the jury for the Mount Olympus International Design. (Lots of information here is from Jones, NPS.)

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Vladimir_Ossipoff

Vladimir-Ossipoff

HPA_Chapel-Ossipoff

HPA-Chapel-Ossipoff

HPA-Ossipoff

Henderson House-Ossipoff

William H. Hill House, Keauhou, Kona, Hawaii, 1954-Ossipoff

US-immigration-station-Honolulu-(WC)-Dickey-(Ossipoff)

University of Hawaii Administration Building, Manoa, Honolulu, 1949-Ossipoff

Punahou-Winnie Units

Punahou spring flows into pools inside Robert Shipman Thurston, Jr. Memorial Chapel, 1967-Ossipoff

Pacific_Club-Ossipoff

Liljestrand House, carport and entry at centre-Ossipoff

Liljestrand House with views of Honolulu-Ossipoff

Kalama_Beach_Park-Covered lanai and courtyard-Boettcher Estate-c. 1950-Ossipoff

Kalama_Beach_Park-Boettcher Estate-Ossipoff

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Honolulu International Airport, Departures Terminal and access ramp, 1974-Ossipoff

First_Hawaiian_Bank-Kalihi-Ossipoff

November 18, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Teeth

Dental care in pre-contact was simple. For cleaning, Hawaiians rubbed wood ash or charcoal on and between the teeth and then rinsed their mouths.

Toothache and periodontal disease were treated with the root of the pua kala (poppy,) bitten into and held between the teeth. Teeth were extracted by pulling them out with an olona cord. (Schmitt)

Some extraction was done as part of mourning – prolonged weeping and sorrowful wailing marked the death of a loved one, distress upon the death of a respected leader was demonstrated by knocking out one’s teeth, cutting one’s flesh, tattooing one’s tongue, or cutting a section of one’s hair. (NPS)

It was found that the custom of knocking out the incisor teeth as a sign of grief for the departed was not prevalent, just over 17-per cent (more often resorted to by men than by women, and more prevalent on the island of Hawai‘i than on the other islands. The lower incisors were removed more often than the upper. (Chappel)

When Kalola died (grandmother of Keōpūolani (future wife of Kamehameha,)) Kamehameha and his chiefs entered into mourning for her. Her chiefs and others were full of grief and Kamehameha knocked out a front tooth (as did other chiefs.) (Desha) When Kamehameha died in 1819, Boki knocked out four of his front teeth. (Daws)

Western dentistry apparently started in the Islands with the coming of the missionaries. “Mr B has almost daily calls to extract teeth, let blood, administrate medicine, etc. If the mission should have perfect health, a physician might still be exceedingly useful at this, or any other station on the islands.” (Sybil Bingham Journal, February 14, 1822) (Bingham was a missionary, not a doctor or dentist.)

Just before, Sybil was a patient, “Feb. 5th. I have some confidence in the skill of my dear husband, or I could hardly have been prevailed on to sit down, as I did yesterday, to the extraction of a badly decayed tooth, given up as hopeless, a long time since.” (Sybil Bingham Journal, February 5, 1822)

Shortly thereafter, “Feb. 8th. Much distressed again, night before last, with the tooth ache. The seat of the pain was a large black tooth, so much decayed that I thought I never should have resolution to have it extracted.”

“But encouraged by the good success of Monday, I closed school last night and sat down as before, to the operation. Much to my surprise, like the other, it came safely out. I had taken an opiate–now went to bed–slept and was refreshed, and, today, find myself well and free from pain.” (Sybil Bingham Journal, February 8, 1822)

Hawai‘i’s first professional dentist of record was Dr MB Stevens, who appeared in December 1847 and advertised his services over a twelve-week period, and then dropped out of sight.

Dr. Stevens was followed by George Colburn, who arrived in Honolulu on September 20, 1849 and ran an advertisement in the paper; however, like his predecessor, apparently moved on. (Schmitt)

Hawai‘i’s third dentist, and the first to settle permanently in Hawai‘i, was John Mott Smith. Dr. Smith (who eventually acquired a hyphen between his middle and last names, becoming John Mott-Smith) was a New Yorker who studied dentistry by himself, using the textbooks of a friend who was then attending dental college.

After passing the State dental examinations, he located in Albany and practiced there for three years. He moved to California in 1849 and late in 1850 sailed to Hawai‘i. He arrived early in 1851 and remained an Island resident until his death 44 years later, after a distinguished career as a dentist, editor, and government official. (Schmitt)

Intimate friend of both King Kalākaua and Queen Lili‘uokalani, Dr Mott-Smith was an ardent champion of the monarchy and gave freely of his services to the kingdom

Here is a short video about Dr Mott-Smith, portrayed by Adam LeFebvre at a ‘Cemetery Pupu Theatre, sponsored by Hawaiian Mission Houses:

In 1866 Mott-Smith gave up his dental practice to John Morgan Whitney, the first in Hawai‘i to actually graduate from a dental school. Whitney, MD, DDS, was for more than fifty years regarded as Honolulu’s leading dentist.

“When I first came to my practice in Honolulu it was the custom for the physicians to give instructions to the dentist what to do. This I resented with considerable spirit …”

“… for as I said to them, ‘I have spent as many years in preparing for my specialty as you did for your general practice and under as severe discipline, and it is but commonsense that I should know more about it that you do who did not probably give it an hour of time in your full course.’”

“I had so much of this to contend with that I resolved to see for myself the foundation upon which they built their sense of such superior knowledge.” (Whitney; Pacific Dental Gazette)

Notwithstanding the growth in sophistication regarding dental care, standards for dentists remained low or nonexistent through most of this period. Licensing had been instituted for foreign physicians in 1859 and all physicians in 1865, for example, but until the last decade of the century no restrictions were imposed on the practice of dentistry.

‘An Act to Regulate the Practice of Dentistry in the Hawaiian Kingdom’ was approved on December 19, 1892; a three-member Board of Dental Examiners (one physician and two dentists) was created, and standards for licensing were established.

A new, much stricter ‘Act to Regulate the Practice of Dentistry in the Territory of Hawai‘i’ was approved on April 25, 1903. The new law established a Board of Dental Examiners, consisting of three practicing dentists, to be appointed by the Governor upon the recommendation of the Dental Society of Hawai‘i (formed 3-months earlier.)

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No._3._View_of_Honolulu._From_the_Catholic_church._(c._1854)-Portion-Dentist

Tooth Extractor-similar to that used at the time of Bingham

John_Mott-Smith

John Morgan Whitney gravestone

Hiram_(I)_and_Sybil_Moseley_Bingham,_1819,_by_Samuel_F.B._Morse

November 15, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Archibald Scott Cleghorn

Thomas Cleghorn and Janet Nisbet of Scotland had five boys: Thomas Davis, William Edinburgh, Alexander Nisbet, John Inglis and Archibald Scott. In 1840, they immigrated to New Zealand, and then moved to the Islands.

After arriving to Honolulu in 1851, Thomas Sr set up a dry goods store in Chinatown, but within the year, at the age of 54, he suffered a fatal heart attack while on his way home from church.

Archibald took over his father’s business and turned it into one of the most successful mercantile chains in the islands. (Fahrni)

He first married Elizabeth Pauahi Lapeka and they had three daughters: Rose Kaipuala Cleghorn (married James William Robertson,) Helen Manuʻailehua Cleghorn (married James Boyd) and Annie Pauahi Cleghorn (married James Hay Wodehouse.) (Geer, Fahrni)

On September 22, 1870, Archibald married Princess Likelike. She was the sister of a King and Queen – and the daughter of High Chief Kapaʻakea and Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole – her sister became Queen Liliʻuokalani and her brothers were King Kalākaua and William Pitt Leleiōhoku.

The wedding was held at Washington Place, the residence of Governor Dominis and Princess Liliʻuokalani. The Cleghorns had one child Kaʻiulani (born on October 16, 1875) – “the only member of the Royal Family having issue.” (Daily Herald, February 3, 1887)

ʻĀinahau, their Waikiki home was said to have been the most beautiful private estate in the Hawaiian Islands. A driveway between rows of stately palms led to the gracious pillared mansion set in a grove of 500 coco palms. Artificial lakes dotted with pink water lilies, and statues found here and there, added to the charming grounds.

Continuing his father’s love of horticulture, Archie also became known as Hawaiʻi’s Father of Parks and served as Oʻahu Parks Commissioner; he was landscaper for ʻIolani Palace.

Archibald is also responsible for the spectacular gardens of the ‘ʻĀinahau estate, where he planted several varieties of plants, shrubs and trees, including Hawaiʻi’s first banyan, which became known as ‘The Kaʻiulani Banyan’. (Fahrni)

In addition he was the lead landscaper for Kapiʻolani Park. Kapiʻolani Park was dedicated on June 11, 1877 and named by King Kalākaua to honor his wife, Queen Kapiʻolani. It was the first public park in the Hawaiian Islands.

Characterized from the beginning as “swamp land in a desert,” Kapiʻolani Park became a park specifically because it wasn’t considered suitable for anything else, and because of its peculiar climate – it’s one of the few places on Oahu where rain almost never falls.

Archibald and Likelike deeded land at Kaʻawaloa to Major James Hay Wodehouse, Her Britannic Majesty’s Commissioner and Consul General for the said Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, for a monument in memory of Captain Cook. (Thrum)

Cleghorn served in the House of Nobles from 1873 to 1888, and the Privy Council from 1873 to 1891. He succeeded Prince Consort John Owen Dominis upon his death in November 1891, until February 28, 1893 as Royal Governor of Oahu.

He also served as the first President of The Queen’s Hospital, a member of the Privy Council, the Board of Health, the Board of Prison Inspectors, the Board of Immigration and the president of the Pacific Club (his downtown Honolulu home eventually became the home of the Pacific Club – Kaʻiulani was born there.)

Cleghorn (November 15, 1835 – November 1, 1910) died of a heart attack at ʻĀinahau. He was buried in the Kalākaua Crypt at Mauna Ala, the Royal Mausoleum.

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