Prominent People | Page 16 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 31, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Martin Pence

“It has always been my theory that naturally, ‘As the Twig is bent, so the tree is inclined,’ but in nearly every person’s life, if they’ve lived a full life and moved around and changed, that it’s divided up into the childhood and whatever those influences were–and that includes the education they got.”

“And then, all of a sudden, school is all finished and that was just preparation. And the next thing is–what do you do with what you have? What do you do with what you are?”

“And from there on, the developments which take place may come from you, but oh, how they’re influenced by the slings and arrows of outrageous and wonderful fortune. And luck, luck, luck – if you don’t have that, no matter how good you are, you can go down into failure.”

“On the other hand, as Iacocca showed, if you have the luck with you, all of a sudden you’re the greatest person in the world.”

“But you must have, as you know – you’ve seen it in your own life – you must have the ability to be able to utilize whatever your capacities are and to help that luck.”

“The tide taken at full, and so forth, you can go out to sea and your ship goes right ahead. So that you have to have all of the aspects; ability, integrity and luck in order to succeed in any area.” (Martin Pence; Watumull Foundation)

“My father was a farmer in Kansas. His father came from Indiana in the 1860s to Kansas to homestead 160 acres. At that time a person who had 160 acres could live and raise a family on it”.

“I remember reading, ‘If you only go through high school, your increased pay will be so much, and if you go through college, you’ll be able to earn so much more.’ Imagine. I remember seeing that tacked up in the old post office in the little old town of Sterling, Kansas – population then 2,000; population today 2,200.”

As a young farm boy in Kansas Martin Pence decided he would be an attorney. “I always went down that road. And then – so through with school – take the bar in 1928 in California – passed the bar and I’m a lawyer.” He started working in San Francisco.

“And just because luck – I had a friend in one of the insurance company’s claims departments that the Home Insurance Company reinsured their insurance through, and he calls me up there in June, 1930 and says, ‘Do you want to go to Hawaii?’ And I said, ‘Oh sure, when do we start?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘seriously, the president of this company’s down looking for someone. Come on over and meet him.’”

“About three weeks later, my friend there called me up and said that Clark wanted to see me again. This time he said, ‘I’ve interviewed fifty-four other persons, and here I make you this offer.’ Well, this offer was $225 a month plus a one-year contract and a round trip ticket to Hawaii.”

“[T]hat was an offer you couldn’t refuse … I hesitated though … because in San Francisco I had a lot of contacts. But then what’s a year in the life of a young man aged twenty-five? So I accepted.”

“I got off the Malolo (August 6, 1930) and we were going out this old road … I remember looking up at the greenery of these hills in August – there was something about the blue of the sky and the white fleecy clouds, the air and all – and saying, ‘I’m never going to leave here.’ And that was final. I knew that I was never going to leave here. So it came to pass.”

“It was during 1931 that I met my first wife. She was a student at the University of Hawaii. At that time I think she was a senior. I remember her well because the first time I met her I said, ‘This girl’s dangerous – she’s too damn marriageable.’”

“She was the one woman I knew who was smarter than I was. And she was. But we dated off and on for eight years. Lucy Elizabeth Powell. An only child. … I married Lucy [Lu] Elizabeth Powell, in 1938, November 19.”

“I found that I did have an aptitude for trial work and I found that a lot of people on the [Big] Island over there heard about me as a lawyer, but I wanted more exposure. The reason I went over there was because, very frankly, they had such wonderful hunting, one of the reasons.”

“But I wanted more exposure as a lawyer. So I decided in 1938 that I would run for office. I debated at first as to what office I would run for. House of Representatives? No, it would have to be county attorney because that was my field.”

“I won. … it paid $4,400 a year, but you were allowed to take private practice. And so one always has to have breaks and I got some breaks – publicity. I used to say my business was the Woolworth Five and Ten – meaning it was of the ordinary people with low income”.

“The people had problems. I had the knack that I could talk to any race, on any problem, and so forth, and they didn’t go broke when they came in to see me. And the result was that I steadily built up a practice of little people. That’s really what it was.”

Later, “Judge Metzger immediately told me that I ought to become the circuit judge of the Third Circuit over there. It paid, I think, about $9,000 a year and with private practice I was making more than that as county attorney. And I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be a circuit judge.”

“ I really didn’t feel that I wanted to become a circuit judge, but Metzger knew me and knew where to touch and he said, ‘Martin, you have to take it. It would make your father so proud.’ My father back there in Kansas, in his seventies, and I knew it would. So I said, ‘All right.’”

“[I]t came to pass that in October of 1945 I received a certificate from Washington, DC that said, ‘In view of and so forth, relying upon the honesty, et cetera, I have here appointed Martin Pence a United States Circuit Judge, Third Circuit, Territory of Hawaii.’ Now in one sense I was a United States circuit judge, but actually it should have been just simply circuit judge”.

Unfortunately, the pay of the circuit judge didn’t move an inch, $9,000. And as time went on I grew poorer and poorer because prices went higher and higher. At that time the appointment was for four years, but my four years came along and there was no action out of Washington, so I decided I was through.”

“So I wrote to the president saying that I wished to resign as soon as someone was appointed to take over. That was in March and I heard nothing, not even an answer back. So in April I wrote that I’m resigning on June 30, 1950. And so I resigned and went into private practice back in Hilo.”

“And then John Ushijima … came back from Georgetown and I took him in as an associate first, and eventually made him a partner. Then Roy Nakamoto came back from Harvard and I made him an associate because business was just booming all the time. I wound up with six secretaries instead of one or two”.

Then, “Hawaii had become a state … So it happened that on June 13, 1961, I got a call from Washington, DC, an attorney friend of mine there, saying, ‘Penny, your friend McLaughlin has just been notified this morning that he is not going to be appointed to be United States district judge.’”

“’He’s out. There are only three names now being considered by the Department of Justice; John Wiig; Bert Kobayashi, then attorney general of Hawaii; and Martin Pence.’”

“It wasn’t until the following March when I was at the school for judges at Monterey – the second school that they had for federal judges – now every year when a new batch of judges comes in they have a school for them- but that was the second time it was tried – educating you on the problems of handling federal cases the best way”.

“So I [became] a United States district judge. I had then to shift to Honolulu. Lu and I had built a house in 1955. It cost us a heck of a lot more than that first house and here it was 1961 and we had to give it up. We’d built it especially for us.”

“I hated to leave Hilo. I had twenty-five years – my roots – I could say in all sincerity that there was no one on the Island of any mature age who didn’t know me.”

Pence, “married [Eleanor Talcott Fisher, “Her mother had been a Wilcox, a niece of George Wilcox, famous of Kauai”] on April 12, 1975, not quite a year and a half after Lu died.”

Judge Pence was a hunter. “I loved, always having loved, still do love, not only sheep hunting, but bird hunting in the fall, and Parker Ranch had great areas over there”.

Several decades ago, I had the opportunity to go bird hunting with Judge Pence on Parker Ranch land in Kohala, with the Parker Ranch Business Manager. Martin Pence died May 29, 2000. (All here is from an oral history interview with Martin Pence through the Watumull Foundation.)

January 30, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bathing Suit Law

“Shades of Stephen Desha! It seems that the bluest of blue laws, that nefarious ‘cover your knees’ bathing suit law is going to be inforced even on our own little island.”

“Haint you never heard of Stephen Desha? Don’t you know of the bathing suit law? Don’t you know that you are not supposed to have knees, or if you must have them that, you’ve got to keep ‘em covered.” (The Garden Island, April 25, 1922)

Stephen Langhern Desha Sr “was a colorful personality and was an outstanding leader of his people. Tracing back to New England and Kentucky as well as Polynesia, he combined the best qualities of both races in perpetuating their traditions and exemplifying traits that distinguish both the Polynesian and the Anglo-Saxon.”

“Mr Desha was born in Lahaina, Maui, on July 11, 1859, and spend the first years of his boyhood on the Island of Lanai. He later moved to Honolulu and in his adolescent years was an employee of the firm of C. Brewer & Company.”

“Being filled with the desire to preach the Gospel, he entered the North Pacific Missionary Institute and graduated in 1885. He became pastor of the Kealakekua Church in Nāpoʻopoʻo in that year and served in this, his first charge, for four years.”

“In 1889 he received a call to become pastor of the Haili Church in Hilo, and for forty-five years labored in the one parish which was to feel the strong influence of this great preacher and forceful personality.”

“Mr Desha was no ordinary preacher of the word. He had a remarkable gift of oratory in his native tongue, in which he was a master. He was saturated with the spirit of ancient mele, folklore, traditions and stories of the Hawaiian people, and this gave him considerable influence among his own people.”

“It was easy for him to make his point known by introducing some apt story or telling illustrations from Hawaiian history or mythology.”

“First and foremost. Mr. Desha will be remembered as a Christian minister. His work in the pulpit was outstanding and he was often called upon to make addresses and to give sermons not only in his own parish, but in various parts of the territory.”

“His intimate knowledge of the Scriptures increased his ability in proclaiming the Word. Mr. Desha was also a good pastor and vitally interested in the welfare of his flock as a good shepherd should be.”

“In his relationships with his fellow ministers, ‘Kiwini,’ as he was generally known by his associates, was always regarded as a friendly counsellor and loyal coworker. His interest in the island and territorial associations was genuine, and he was always present except when ill-health prevented his being with his associates.”

“We must not forget that Mr. Desha was also a journalist and for many years was editor of “Ka Hoku o Hawaii” (The Star of Hawaii), a weekly newspaper published in Hilo. This contained a good deal of church news as well as translations of stories from the English language and general items of interest to Hawaiian readers.”

“Stephen Desha was not only a Christian, but also a loyal patriot, and the Hawaiian people have never had a more zealous champion for their rights and privileges than ‘Kiwini.’ In association with the late Prince Kūhiō, Mr. Desha was a great advocate of the Hawaiian rehabilitation plan and did all within his power to preserve and perpetuate the Hawaiian race.”

“Mr. Desha fulfilled the definition of the true patriot – one who loves his country and zealously supports its authority and interests. He accepted the change from the monarchy to the provisional government, and later to that of the Republic of Hawaii and the subsequent transfer of authority to the United States of America.”

“It was most natural for him to become interested in politics, for he was not a mere theorist in matters of government. After serving a term as supervisor of the County of Hawaii, he became a senator and served five terms, with the total record of twenty years as a member of the senate of Hawaii.” (The Friend, August 1, 1934)

One year, when Desha “came to Honolulu for the biennial session of the territorial legislation after a considerable period of hibernation in his native habitat, the sights that he saw a the beach at Waikiki resulted in the enactment of a new law. And this is what he says:” (Washington Herald, May 30, 1921)

“Section I—No person over 14 years of age shall be or appear on any road or highway within the Honolulu District, City and County of Honolulu, in a bathing suit unless covered suitably by an outer garment reaching at least to the knees.”

Section 2. Any person violating the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $50.00.

“The Desha law was designed to give pause to young and older mermaids who had been in the habit of dashing through the streets of the Waikiki district clad in bathing suits which made Mack Sennett’s girls look all dressed up. But it didn’t give them much pause.”

“The Waikiki beach beauties still fly along the highways and byways, en route to the surf, wearing suitable outer garments, but hardly covered by them, save around the neck, the rest of said garments fluttering in the breeze like the tail of a comet in a hurry to go somewhere, with most everything Senator Desha wanted to cover up still available for optical appraisal.”

“The spirit, not the letter of the law is observed, but thus far no arrests have been made in an effort to make the word ‘covered’ in the law mean something. The sight at Waikiki still exercises a strange fascination for elderly tourists.” (Washington Herald, May 30, 1921)

“Honolulu policemen are reported to have taken the Desha Law onto the beach at Waikiki. The general impression has been that it applied only to streets and alleys and that the bather could discard the superfluous covering after reaching the beach. If sun baths are to be taken only in robes and mackintoshes, the remaining popularity of the much sung of strand will still further wane.” (Maui News. April 21, 1922)

The law met with opposition, across the Islands, “Honolulu’s Bathing Suit law is still regarded as a joke where it is regarded at all, is the word coming from the capital city. The Desha Bill was a joke when introduced and has never been able to outgrow it.” (Maui News, July 15, 1921)

The Maui News cynically followed up with, “Honolulu has a curfew law and a Desha bathing suit law that appear to be enforced to an equal extent.” (Maui News, March 7, 1922)

“(T)he Desha Bathing Suit Law so unpopular in Honolulu that it can be repealed at the next legislative session.” (Maui News, April 21, 1922)

Not regularly enforced, and ignored by many, it wasn’t until 1949 that the law was eventually repealed. “I don’t think many Hawaiians know about the law. The only reason I learned about it is that someone dug it out of the mothballs the other day and is working the territorial legislature to repeal it.”

“The repealer passed the senate and is now before the lower house. If it passes there, as seems absolutely certain, we can all go around the way we’ve been going – but legally, yet. … But it’s nice to know it’s going to be repealed. As a law-abiding citizen it goes against the grain for me to leer illegally.” (Dixon, The Independent, April 15, 1949)

Bathing_Suit_Law-Andre de la Varre with Waldron Sisters at the Outrigger Canoe Club Waikiki Beach, 1923

January 21, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mānoa Valley Inn

The first subdivision in Mānoa was the Seaview tract, in Lower Mānoa near Seaview Street, which was laid out in 1886 (this area in the valley became known as the “Chinese Beverly Hills” due to the high percentage of people of that ethnic group buying into the neighborhood (1950s.)) (DeLeon)

In 1888, the animal-powered tramcar service of Hawaiian Tramways ran track from downtown to Waikīkī. In 1900, the Tramway was taken over by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co (HRT.)

In addition to service to the core Honolulu communities, HRT expanded to serve other opportunities. In the fall of 1901, a line was sent up into central Mānoa. The new Mānoa trolley opened the valley to development and rushed it into the expansive new century.

Originally numerous large, well-designed houses lined Vancouver Drive; however with the passing of the years many of these dwellings have disappeared. One of approximately a half dozen remnants of the earlier time which are scattered in the area is the subject of this summary.

The lot and house had been previously owned by Benjamin Dillingham, founder of the Oahu Railway and Land Company; Richard Bickerton, Supreme Court Justice and Privy Council Member under Queen Liliʻuokalani; Grace Merrill, sister of Architect Charles Dickey, and wife of Arthur Merrill, principal of Mid Pacific Institute. (NPS)

The John Guild House, now known as Mānoa Valley Inn at 2001 Vancouver Drive, was purchased in 1919 by John Guild, a Honolulu businessman. It had been built four years earlier by Iowa lumber dealer Milton Moore and has been refurbished and restored several times over its lifespan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Predating Hawaiʻi zoning laws by some fifty years, the Seaview area was one of the first areas to impose restrictive covenants for design and view planes. It is likely that this is the reason that John Guild remodeled an earlier house on this site, rather than rebuilding a new house.

Prior to the 1919 major remodeling, the Guild residence was a large two-story bungalow style house which featured brown shingles. Guild added the large brackets, outset square projections, porte cochere and inset centered porch.

The house was purchased in the 1980s by Honolulu businessman Rick Ralston (the founder of Crazy Shirts), who restored it in 1982 for use as a bed and breakfast under the name John Guild Inn, later Mānoa Valley Inn. Several other transactions followed.

It’s now a 4,424-square-foot, three-story gabled cottage near the campus of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, operating as a bed and breakfast with six bedrooms, a suite and a small cottage and a broad, sheltered lanai with a view over the city on the sea side of the house. The rooms are furnished with fine antiques.

Let’s go back to the home’s original namesake, John Guild.

Guild was born May 11, 1869, in Edinburgh, Scotland; he was son of James (a merchant of Edinburgh) and Mary (Scott) Guild. After leaving school he went to join relatives interested in the sugarcane industry in the West Indies. He married Mary Knox there on August 20, 1891; they had four children, Dorothy, Marjorie, Douglas Scott and Winifred.

He came to Hawaii 1897 and for short time was employed on Makaweli plantation; he later joined Alexander & Baldwin, then a co-partnership (incorporated 1900) and worked his way to being a Director and Secretary of A&B and in all the companies they represented. He had quite a share in the development of the concern.

Guild’s prominent presence came to an abrupt end.

A New York Times headline tells the story: “ADMITS $750,000 Shortage; John Guild Manipulated Surplus Cash of Honolulu Firm”

“John Guild, formerly secretary and director of Alexander & Baldwin and honored member of the business and social communities of Honolulu is now No. E-512 in the Oahu penitentiary. He is employed in garden work…” (Maui News, August 29, 1922)

“(T)he grand jury found two true bills of indictment against him, one for embezzling bonds from the Episcopal Church and the other for embezzling $37,000 from Alexander & Baldwin in 1917.”

“On Saturday morning Guild was taken before Judge Banks and pleaded guilty to both indictments. He was sentenced to serve in the Oahu penitentiary at hard labor two terms of not less than five nor more than ten years, to run consecutively.”

“This would mean that with allowance for good behavior he may be released in between seven and eight years, if he lives to finish his sentence.” (Maui News, August 29, 1922)

Only two indictments were issued, “though more than a hundred might have been more were claimed.” It was reported that the A&B books showed that Guild’s embezzlement was in excess of a million dollars.

The house was sold to the company for $1 and Guild was sent to prison where he died in 1927. In 1925, merchant Arthur J Spitzer and his wife Selma purchased the house. They lived here until 1970.

The house later fell on hard times and was used as a student rooming house. The building was scheduled for demolition in 1978, when it was bought and renovated by Ralston and continues to be a very active bed and breakfast.

January 20, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Face of the Future

After attending the National Baptist Convention in San Francisco and speaking in Los Angeles, Dr Martin Luther King flew to Hawaii for several engagements and a brief vacation.

On September 17, 1959, arriving just three weeks after Hawaii became the fiftieth state, he addressed the legislature at the state capitol, the ‘Iolani Palace. King thanks the Hawaiians for offering the nation “a noble example” of progress “in the area of racial harmony and racial justice.”

“Mr. Speaker, distinguished members of the House of Representatives of this great new state in our Union, ladies and gentlemen:”

“It is certainly a delightful privilege and pleasure for me to have this great opportunity and, I shall say, it is a great honor to come before you today and to have the privilege of saying just a few words to you about some of the pressing problems confronting our nation and our world.”

“I come to you with a great deal of appreciation and great feeling of appreciation, I should say, for what has been accomplished in this beautiful setting and in this beautiful state of our Union.”

“As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice, what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country …”

“… and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice.”

“People ask me from time to time as I travel across the country and over the world whether there has been any real progress in the area of race relations, and I always answer it by saying that there are three basic attitudes that one can take toward the question of progress in the area of race relations.”

“One can take the attitude of extreme optimism. The extreme optimist would contend that we have come a long, long way in the area of race relations, and he would point proudly to the strides that have been made in the area of civil rights in the last few decades.”

“And, from this, he would conclude that the problem is just about solved now and that we can sit down comfortably by the wayside and wait on the coming of the inevitable.”

“And then there is the extreme, the attitude of extreme pessimism, that we often find. The extreme pessimist would contend that we have made only minor strides in the area of human relations.”

“He would contend that we have created many more problems than we have solved. He would look around and see the tensions in certain sections of the country; he would listen to the rhythmic beat of the deep rumblings of discontent; he would point to the presence of Federal troops in Little Rock, Arkansas …”

“… he would point to schools being closed in some states of the Union and from all of this, he would conclude that we have retrogressed instead of progressed. And then he would go on later and contend that a monster human nature cannot be changed.”

“Sometimes he will turn to the realm of theology and talk about the tragic taint of original sin hovering over every individual, or he might turn to psychology and talk about the inflexibility of certain habit structures once they have been molded and from all of this, he would conclude that there can be no progress in the area of human relations because human beings cannot be changed once they have started on a certain road.”

“Now, it is interesting to notice that the extreme optimist and the extreme pessimist have at least one thing in common. They both agree that we must sit down and do nothing in the area of race relations.”

“The extreme optimist says do nothing because integration is inevitable. The extreme pessimist says do nothing because integration is impossible.”

“But I think there is a third position, a third attitude that can be taken, namely the realistic position. The realistic attitude seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites while avoiding the extremes of both.”

“So the realist in the area of race relations would agree with the optimist that we have come a long, long way, but he would balance that by agreeing with the pessimist that we have a long, long way to go.”

“And so this is my answer to the questions of whether there has been any progress in the area of race relations. I seek to be realistic and say we have a long, long way to go.”

“Now, it is easy for us to see that we have come a long, long way. Twenty-five years ago, fifty years ago, a year hardly passed that numerous Negroes were not brutally lynched in our nation by vicious mobs. Lynchings have about ceased today.”

“We think about the fact that just twenty-five years ago, most of the Southern states had a system known as a poll tax to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters. The poll tax has been eliminated in all but four states.”

“We think about the fact that the Negro is voting now more than he has ever voted before. At the turn of the century, there were very few Negro registered voters in the South. By 1948 that number had reached to 750,000, and, today, it stands at about 1,300,000.”

“And even in the area of economic justice, we have seen a good deal of progress. The average Negro wage earner in the South today and over the nation makes four times more than the average Negro wage earner of ten years ago and the national income of the Negro is now $17 billion a year.”

“That is more than all of the exports of the United States and more than the national income of Canada. So, we’ve come a long, long way.”

“Then we’ve come a long, long way in seeing the walls of segregation gradually crumble. When the Supreme Court rendered its decision in 1954, seventeen states and the District of Columbia practiced segregation in the public schools, but, today, most of these states have complied with the decision …”

“… and just five states are left that have not made any move in the area of compliance and two of these states are now under orders to integrate – Atlanta, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana.”

“So after next September, that will only leave Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina as the states that have not complied with the Supreme Court’s decision.”

“So, you can see that we have come a long, long way. But before stopping –it would be wonderful if I could stop here – but I must move on for two or three more minutes and say that there is another sign.”

“You see, it would be a fact for me to say we have come a long, long way, but it wouldn’t be telling the truth. A fact is the absence of contradiction, but truth is the presence of coherence. Truth is the relatedness of facts.”

“Now, it is a fact that we have come a long, long way, but in order to tell the truth, it is necessary to move on and say we have a long, long way to go.”

“If we stop here, we would be the victims of a dangerous optimism. We would be victims of an illusion wrapped in superficiality. So, in order to tell the truth, it’s necessary to move on and say we have a long, long way to go.”

“Now, it is not difficult to see that. We know that the forces of resistance are rising at times to ominous proportions in the South. The legislative halls of many of our states ring loud with such words as ‘interposition’ and ‘nullification.’”

“While lynchings have ceased to a great extent, other things are happening. Churches are being bombed, homes are being bombed, schools are being bombed, synagogues are being bombed by forces that are determined to stand against the law of the land.”

“And although the Negro is voting more than ever before, we know that there are still conniving forces being used to keep the Negro from being a registered voter. Out of the potential 5,000,000 Negro registered voters in the South, we only have 1,300,000.”

“This means that we have a long, long way to go in order to make justice a reality there in the registration of voting. And although we have come a long, long way in the economic realm, we have a long, long way to there in order to make economic justice a reality. And then segregation is still with us.”

“Although we have seen the walls gradually crumble, it is still with us. I imply that figuratively speaking, that Old Man Segregation is on his death bed, but you know history has proven that social systems have a great last-minute breathing power, and the guardians of the status quo are always on hand with their oxygen tents to keep the old order alive, and this is exactly what we see today.”

“So segregation is still with us. We are confronted in the South in its glaring and conspicuous forms, and we are confronted in almost every other section of the nation in its hidden and subtle forms.”

“But if democracy is to live, segregation must die. Segregation is a cancer in the body politic which must be removed before our democratic health can be realized.”

“In a real sense, the shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of an anemic democracy. If we are to survive, if we are to stand as a force in the world, if we are to maintain our prestige, we must solve this problem because people are looking over to America.”

“Just two years ago I traveled all over Africa and talked with leaders from that great continent. One of the things they said to me was this …”

“No amount of extensive handouts and beautiful words would be substitutes for treating our brothers in the United States as first-class citizens and human beings. This came to me from mouth of Prime Minister Nkrumah of Ghana.”

“Just four months ago, I traveled throughout India and the Middle East and talked with many of the people and leaders of that great country and other people in the Middle East, and these are the things they talked about …”

“That we must solve this problem if we are to stand and to maintain our prestige. And I can remember very vividly meeting people all over Europe and in the Middle East and in the Far East, and even though many of them could not speak English, they knew how to say ‘Little Rock.’”

“And these are the things that we must be concerned about – we must be concerned about because we love America and we are out to free not only the Negro.”

“This is not our struggle today to free 17,000,000 Negroes. It’s bigger than that. We are seeking to free the soul of America. Segregation debilitates the white man as well as the Negro. We are to free all men, all races and all groups.”

“This is our responsibility and this is our challenge, and we look to this great new state in our Union as the example and as the inspiration. As we move on in this realm, let us move on with the faith that this problem can be solved, and that it will be solved, believing firmly that all reality hinges on moral foundations, and we are struggling for what is right, and we are destined to win.”

“We have come a long, long way. We have a long, long way to go.”

“I close, if you will permit me, by quoting the words of an old Negro slave preacher. He didn’t quite have his grammar right, but he uttered some words in the form of a prayer with great symbolic profundity and these are the words he said:”

“‘Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be, but thank God, we ain’t what we was.’ Thank you.” (Dr Martin Luther King)

He later shared his impressions of Hawai‘i’s multi-ethnic society: “As I looked at all of these various faces and various colors mingled together like the waters of the sea, I could see only one face – the face of the future!” (King)

martin-luther-king-jr-in-hawaii-1959

January 19, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

125 Years of Young Brothers

John Nelson Young was a chair and cabinetmaker from Canada. He and his brothers James and Alexander later started a furniture business, one of the first commercial enterprises in San Diego. They called it Young Brothers Carpenters and Furniture Builders (they added undertaking as a sideline).

John and his wife Eleanor had a growing family with five children: Annie Edith Young was born December 28, 1868 (in San Francisco), then in San Diego, Herbert Gray Young, on March 21, 1870; William Edward Young, on April 24, 1875; John Alexander ‘Jack’ Young, on January 2 1882; and Edgar Nelson Young, on July 21, 1885.

Eleanor Young died on February 16, 1894 at age forty-five, leaving minor children Jack, 12, and Edgar, 10. John died September 13, 1896. Edith accepted the responsibility of raising and educating the youngest brothers, Jack and Edgar. Herbert and William worked to help support the family.

Avalon, Catalina Island

Herb and Will visited Catalina Island in 1898. Then, “In 1899 all four of us were on hand at the island. In addition to the marine garden excursions we offered the special attraction of exhibition diving … Herb would dress and go down. Picking up objects as souvenirs and catching brightly colored fish with a butterfly net for various shore aquariums.”

“Not averse to picking up a few dollars here and there, we four would often conduct parties to the sandab grounds. Sandab, a tasty fish and much in demand, were to be caught only in deep water … We caught then on lines with dozens of hooks each …”

Some suggest this was the beginning of charter fishing; likewise, this marked the beginning of the famous glass-bottom boat rides which were to prove of such great interest and profit at Catalina.

The Great Adventure

After the season on Catalina ended, Herb landed a berth on a schooner bound for the Hawaiian Islands, and Will decided to join him on what he would later call ‘the great adventure.’ “On January 9, 1900, we sailed out of Golden Gate toward the Great adventure …”

“At last, on January 19, after a fine voyage, we sighted Honolulu. The green shores. the white beach and coral formations, the boats of the Kanakas, the town rising at the harbor edge to be lost in the verdure of the tropical plants …”

“Although there was then no actual tourist trade, which has of late years assumed such importance in Hawaii, all ships on their way to or from the Orient and Australia made Honolulu a port of call, and the harbor in 1900 was always a veritable forest of masts so that mooring was at a premium.”

The first view of Honolulu that greeted Herb and Will on January 19, 1900 revealed a town numbering fewer than 45,000 residents. For several days, Chinatown had been burning to what would become a smoldering ruin in an effort to rid the city of bubonic plague.

“We dropped anchor at quarantine and stood on deck, silently, in wonder at the natural beauty of the island. Would our dreams come true here?”

“Herb and I had just seventy-five dollars between us, which wasn’t very much. It had to last until we were able to find some new occupation. The decision was easy as we were in no danger of starvation aboard the Surprise, and we could still have our jobs there.”

Jack Young arrived later that year (October 16, 1900); Youngest of all, Edgar, arrived in July 1901 (but being only fifteen at the time, he attended McKinley High School before returning to California to study medicine; he became a Doctor and returned to the Islands.)

They Formed Young Brothers

The brothers bought a small launch, the Billy, and started running a ‘bum boat’ service in Honolulu harbor – they called their family business Young Brothers.

Their early years were focused on activities at Honolulu Harbor. When a ship came in, the anchor line had to be run out to secure the ship. Or if the ship needed to unload, a line had to be carried to the pier. The brothers would run lines for anchoring or docking vessels, carry supplies and sailors to ships at anchor outside the harbor, and various other harbor-related activities.

They did other things to entertain people, as well.

Shark Hunting

From their first days in Honolulu, the Young brothers were fascinated by the big sharks that infested the waters just outside the harbor where the garbage was dumped.

While the three brothers (Herb, Will & Jack) were involved in their daily harbor activities, they came to befriend boat captains, passengers and interested bystanders who were fascinated by tales of sharks, and more particularly whether they attacked humans.

This led to a small side-business in shark hunting that quickly earned William the nickname ‘Sharkey Bill.’ Fishing parties would he formed from among hotel guests, who were taken out on the Billy for a day of shark fishing.

Flying Fish Hunting

It was the idea of Jack … “He has been plying the waters of the bay at all hours of the day and night for many years and had grown so accustomed to seeing the buzzing blue fish leap out of the water as his launch plowed past that he knew, almost to a foot, where every school of flying fish is between the bell buoy and Diamond Head.”

“Yesterday a new sport was born; Waikiki bay was the birthplace, and HP Wood of the Hawaii promotion committee was the accoucheur. For the first time in the history of the field and gun were flying fish flushed with a steam launch and shot on the wing.”

“Taking pot shots at fish on the wing is sport of the first water, affording plenty of exercise in the good sea air, giving the opportunity for quick shooting, providing for the use of all the alertness contained within a man and being not too hard upon the fish.”

Activities In and Around Honolulu Harbor

The next year they bought the Fun from the Metropolitan Meat Market and took over the contract to deliver meat and other fresh supplies to the ships anchored in the harbor.

Herb and Will also worked as a diving team, salvaging lost anchors, unfouling propellers, or inspecting hulls of ships for repairs. A more frequently needed undersea service was to scrape the sea growth off the hulls of ships.

The launches of the Young Brothers were routinely asked to pull stranded boats or ships off the shore or reef or to rescue ships in trouble at sea.

They entered a contract to use the Waterwitch launch as a revenue and patrol boat, and to take boarding officers to all incoming liners. Herb had the privilege of presenting her and flying the Custom’s flag on May 21, 1903. The Waterwitch remained in service for over forty years.

Young Brothers Boathouse

The first Young Brothers Boathouse was near the lighthouse in Honolulu Harbor. ln March of 1903, the Youngs moved to a spot near what is now Piers 1&2. The Young Brothers’ boathouse was home to Herb, Will and Jack and was a structure well known on the waterfront.

“Young Brothers’ Boathouse, where we lived, near the harbor entrance, was the center of information along the waterfront. From this point of vantage, everything going in or out, or approaching, was seen by those of us on duty at the Boathouse.”

“Two or three launchmen and a couple of deckhands were sure to be found about the place besides ourselves, and we were on twenty-four-hour service with the Customs people and Immigration Service.”

“In front were moored our boats, the Fun, the Billy, the Brothers and the Huki Huki. Alongside was warped the Water Witch, a fifty-footer used for Customs work. This boat, brought down by Archie Young, for whom we went to work at first on Oahu, is still in service after thirty-two strenuous years.”

Young Brothers Incorporated in 1913

In 1903, Edith moved to the Hawaiian Islands and joined her brothers. In 1905, Herb sold his interest in the Young Brothers business and went to the mainland to look for work as a diver.

“Young Brothers was incorporated [May 5, 1913], and for the first time someone outside the family directed activities.” Following incorporation, Will stopped taking an active role in the operations of the company, preferring to pursue his fascination with sharks, and eventually left the islands for good in 1921 to become a well-known international shark hunter.

Jack, the last founding member of the company, remained as the operating manager.

Libby’s

Libby began to grow pineapple on land leased from Molokai Ranch; their activities were focused primarily in the Kaluakoʻi section of the island. Lacking facilities and housing, the plantation began building clusters of dwellings (“camps”) around Maunaloa.

Libby’s need to ship fruit from the growing area on Molokai, to pineapple processing on Oʻahu created an opportunity for the brothers. Young Brothers, using their first wooden barges, YB1 and YB2, hauled pineapples from Libby’s wharf to Honolulu. “That’s how [Young Brothers] started the freight.” (Jack Young Jr)

Tandem Towing

With expanded freight service to Molokai (to Kolo and Kaunakakai,) Young Brothers further innovated with the practice of tandem towing – towing two barges with one tug.

About 1929, Young Brothers’ Captain Bob Purdy pioneered this because two barges were needed to serve Molokai. They would drop one barge off at Kolo for pineapples and then carry on to Kaunakakai for general freight; they’d pick up the Kolo barge on the way back to Honolulu.

Building Breakwaters

Most associate Young Brothers as an inter-island barge company. But, in their early years in the Islands, Young Brothers did a lot of things. Young Brothers was given a contract to help with the original dredging of Pearl Harbor. They engaged to tow mud scows out to sea and dump them.

They also got involved in the construction of a couple substantial breakwaters that continue to protect Hilo and Nawiliwili.

Miki and Kāpena Class of Tugs

In 1929, the tug Mikimiki (‘to be quick, to be on time’) was launched. She made the voyage to Hawaiʻi from the West Coast, towing a 140-foot steel barge, in eleven days, sixteen hours and ten minutes. This worked out to an average speed of 8.5 knots, bettering the record of the earlier Seattle-built Mahoe by almost three days.

The excellent performance of the original Mikimiki led to the adoption of her basic design for a large fleet of tugs produced for the US Army Transport Service in West Coast shipyards for World War II service.

At the beginning of 1942, more ships were needed for the war effort. Folks recognized the Mikimiki design “could be used as it was a proven, reliable tug that has already been drawn and lofted, and was available with only slight design changes”.

Miki-class tugs were built for the US Army during World War II to haul supplies and rescue stalled ships; a Miki-class tug landed men on the beach in Normandy during World War II.

Young Brothers continued with another innovation; the Kāpena class tugs that modernizes the Young Brothers’ fleet. ‘Kāpena’ means ‘captain’ in the Hawaiian language, and the name for the class of ships celebrates the skill and innovation of Young Brothers’ Hawaiian navigators and will be home-ported in Kaunakakai, Molokai.

“The Kāpena Jack Young is named after Captain Jack Young, one of three brothers who founded Young Brothers in 1900 [and his son, Jack Young Jr, who was also a captain and active with the company]. Each of the four new Kāpena class tugs are named after an original Young Brothers’ captain, including nā Kāpena George Panui Sr. and Jr., Bob Purdy, and Raymond Alapa‘i.”

Young Brothers Moving Forward

In 1999, Saltchuk Resources, Inc acquired Young Brothers and selected assets of Hawaiian Tug & Barge. Saltchuk is the parent company of Foss Maritime.

Saltchuk is a privately owned family of diversified transportation and distribution companies headquartered in Seattle. Throughout North America, Saltchuk companies provide Air Cargo, Marine Services, Energy Distribution, Domestic Shipping, International Shipping and Logistics.

In 2014, Hawaiian Tug & Barge (HTB) was rebranded and incorporated into the Foss Maritime fleet, and Young Brothers remains a wholly-owned independent subsidiary of Foss Maritime, part of the Saltchuk Marine family of companies.

Our Young Family Connection

I am the youngest brother of the youngest brother of the youngest brother of Young Brothers. (My grandfather was the youngest of the Young Brothers; my father was the youngest brother in his generation; and I am the youngest brother in our family.)

Jack Young Sr is my grandfather. Jack Sr had three children, Jack Jr, Dorothy (Babe) and Kenny. Kenny is my father. When Jack Sr’s two sons (Jack Jr and Kenny) became old enough, they joined Young Brothers.

While the Young family has been out of Young Brothers for a long time, we still feel very much a part of it, and its history and heritage.

Click the link for more information on the 125 Anniversary:

Click to access 125_Years_of_Young_Brothers.pdf

(Lots of information here is from Young Brothers, Young family background and genealogy, William Youngs’ book ‘Shark! Shark!, and oral history interview with Jack Young Jr.)