Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kīlauea

 “A little farther on we entered groves of hala, through which we continued to ride for the rest of our journey. We turned from the road to see the falls of the Kāhili River.”

“Though not large they are beautiful. Here the river falls in a jet of foam over a precipice of about 40 feet into a broad clear basin below….”  (Alexander, 1849; (Kīlauea Stream is universally referred to as “Kāhili Stream;”) Cultural Surveys)

Pukui suggests “Kīlauea means “spewing, much spreading;” associated references relate to volcanic eruptions at the place of like name on the Island of Hawaiʻi – typically referring to the rising smoke clouds.

Wichman explains the name as referring to “spewing many vapors” and traces it rather generically to the streams of Kīlauea that flow between the Makaleha Mountains and the Kamo‘okoa Ridge. The name may have originally been in reference to Kīlauea Falls itself.  (Cultural Surveys)

The relatively large volume of water flowing over a relatively wide and high drop against the prevailing trade winds (blowing approximately straight up the lower stretch of the valley) can create a large volume of diffuse mist that may have inspired the name of the land.  (Cultural Surveys)

In the Māhele, all of Kīlauea ahupuaʻa was retained as government lands; apparently no claims were made by native tenants, although there were several in a low, wide terrace along the stream in the adjoining Kāhili ahupuaʻa.

In January 1863, the approximate 3,016-acres of the Kīlauea ahupuaʻa were purchased by a former American whaler named Charles Titcomb.  Titcomb already had land holdings at Kōloa and Hanalei.  He was cultivating silkworm, coffee, tobacco, sugarcane and cattle.

Adding other leased land, he and partners Captain John Ross and EP Adams formed the Kilauea Plantation (1863,) and by 1877 the started a sugar plantation, “one of the smallest plantations in the Hawaiian Islands operating its own sugar mill”.  (Cultural Surveys)

Hawaiʻi’s earliest history with railroads is often credited to Kīlauea Plantation, whose first system opened in 1881 on three miles of narrow-gauge track to haul sugar cane.  Princess Lydia Kamakaeha (Lili‘uokalani) drove in the first spikes for the railroad bed. The plantation infrastructure grew over the next twenty years.

“The transportation system consists of twelve and a half miles of permanent track, five miles of portable track, 200 cane cars, six sugar cars and four locomotives.”

“(Kīlauea) is situated three miles from the landing at Kāhili, with which it is connected by the railway system. Sugar is delivered to the steamers by means of a cable device at the rate of from 600 to 800-bags an hour.”  (San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 1910) The town of Kīlauea originated as the center of the sugar plantation operation; Kīlauea Sugar Plantation closed in 1970.

The Kīlauea School was founded in 1882 as an ‘English School.’  Its 54-pupils were primarily workers’ children from Kīlauea Sugar Plantation.  As the Board of Education of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi owned no land in the district, school was held in a Protestant Church and partly in an old building that belonged to the Board.

In 1894, the Board of Education of the Republic of Hawaiʻi was able to obtain a two-acre parcel of land from the plantation and a two-room school and teacher’s cottage were erected (it was situated near Kūhiō Highway and Kalihiwai Road.)

By 1920, the educational facilities were greatly strained as the school boasted 239-students and 7-teachers for grades one through eight.  At the end of 1921, Kauai County purchased the present school site and the new school opened September 11, 1922; it has been in use since that time.  (NPS)

By the 1890s, much of the old kalo-growing areas of this portion of Kaua‘i were now producing rice, farmed by Chinese immigrants. There were 55-acres of land in rice production in the Kīlauea-Kāhili area in 1892 and eventually a rice mill on Kīlauea Stream.

The mill is known to have been on the stream terrace east of Kīlauea Stream. Rice and vegetable cultivation was also noted along the banks of Kīlauea Stream, circa 1925.  (Cultural Surveys)

Built in 1913 as a navigational aid for commercial shipping, the Kīlauea Lighthouse was credited with saving lives, not only of countless sailors lost at sea, but of two fliers on a historic trans-Pacific flight.

When Lt Albert Hegenberger and Lt Lester Maitland were on the first trans-Pacific airplane flight in history (June 29, 1927,) they overshot their course to Oʻahu and became lost.

They heard a strange signal and interpreted it as a radio beacon originating in the Islands. They used the signal to calculate their exact position and made the necessary adjustments to put them on course, thus enabling them to land the ‘Bird of Paradise’ safely at Hickam Field on Oʻahu.  (NPS)

Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, surrounding the Lighthouse, was established in 1985 to preserve and enhance seabird nesting colonies and was expanded in 1988 to include Crater Hill and Mōkōlea Point.  The refuge is home to some of the largest populations of nesting seabirds in in the main Hawaiian Islands.

Nearby, Hawaiian Islands Land Trust (HILT) added to an existing preserved property to form the Kāhili Coastal Preserve.  The property provides public access to Kāhili Beach while safeguarding the shoreline ecosystem.  (HILT)

The image shows Kīlauea Falls, Kauaʻi.  In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Charles Brewer

Charles Brewer was born in Boston in 1804. His father was Moses Brewer, his mother Abigail May Brewer.  After his father died in 1813, his mother moved to her family home in Jamaica Plain, where she remained until she died in 1849 at 79 years.

“At a very early age (he) had a strong desire to be a sailor, but, being an only son, (his) mother strongly objected, and sent (him) to a woman’s school at East Sudbury. (He) remained there two summers.  During the year following (he) attended the East Sudbury Academy.”  (Brewer; Reminiscences)

Then, “One day, my mother, without my knowledge, called on several of her old friends to consult with them about my going to sea … each of whom had been a sailor in his youth, and afterwards had been engaged in shipping business from Boston for many years.”  (Brewer)

“Their advice … was that, if I was so anxious to become a seaman when I was twenty-one, she had better give her consent for me to go when I was seventeen, so that perhaps I might become an officer by the time I was twenty-one.”

“Their advice proved good, for (he) was second officer of the ship” Paragon” when (he) was twenty-one, and first officer of the same ship when was twenty-two.”  (Brewer)

After some sailing experience, Brewer had an interest in going to the Sandwich Islands.  “(He) learned that the ship ‘Paragon’ was going to the Sandwich Islands and to China, so (he) made application at once, and was shipped on board as an ordinary seaman at eight dollars a month.”  (Brewer)

They left Boston on February 23, 1823 with two passengers, Thomas Crocker. Esq., US consul for the Hawaiian Islands, and Robert Elwell, consul’s clerk.  Second officer (and also acting sail-maker) on board was John Dominis (father of John Owen Dominis who was later the husband of Queen Liliʻuokalani.)

After arriving in Honolulu and ongoing attempts to gather sandalwood for trade, the King asked to charter the Paragon for the funeral of Queen Keōpūolani.

“The king, with all his officers, together with all the foreign consuls, was on board the ‘Paragon.’ On the arrival of the fleet at Lāhainā, minute-guns were fired, and it was continued all the day.”

“There were nearly 12,000 natives at the landing at Lāhainā to witness the funeral; and they expressed their deep grief and sympathy for the king by a loud wailing and wringing of hands.  The next day the fleet returned to Honolulu.”  (Brewer)

After serving on several other ships trading between the Northwest, Hawaii and China, Brewer headed for Honolulu (on his third voyage for the Islands,) arriving in November, 1830.

Part of the cargo was plants, including night-blooming cereus.  They looked dead and he was ordered then thrown overboard; one looked survivable and he nursed it back and when they arrived in Honolulu the flowers were in full bloom and “was a great curiosity.”

“When I was at Honolulu in 1879, I found the plant no longer a curiosity, for the walls in many parts of the town were covered with it.”  (Brewer)

(Punahou School’s dry stack rock wall along Punahou Street was constructed in 1834.  The night-blooming cereus (known in Hawaiʻi as panini o kapunahou) that today continues to cover the Punahou walls (that back in 1924 was noted to have “world-wide reputation and interest”) was planted by Sybil Bingham (Hiram’s wife.))

As Brewer was sailing back and forth to the Islands, James Hunnewell was doing the same.  On one trip, on the Thaddeus, Hunnewell returned to the Islands in 1820.

“This was the memorable voyage when we carried out the first missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands (including Hiram and Sybil Bingham.”)  He stayed … “it was urged by some of the chiefs that knew me on my previous voyage that I should remain instead of a stranger to trade with them.”  (Hunnewell)

Later, in 1825, Hunnewell negotiated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, “to take the missionary packet out, free from any charge whatever on (his) part for sailing and navigating the vessel—provided the Board would pay and feed the crew, and allow (him) to carry out in the schooner to the amount (in bulk) of some forty to fifty barrels”.  (Hunnewell)

He then purchased the premises of John Gowen for the sum of $250, to which I added some land by exchange in 1830.  “As soon as I secured this place, I landed my cargo, and commenced retailing it…”  (Hunnewell)  This was the beginning of a company that would later carry the Brewer name.

Hunnewell first partnered with Henry A Peirce.  Peirce then took Thomas Hinckley as a partner; but Hinckley soon retired due to his health.  Next, in steps Brewer; he commanded Peirce’s trading vessels on their voyages to China and the Russian possessions.

In December, 1835, a co-partnership was formed by Peirce and Brewer.  Under this partnership, the firm of Peirce & Brewer conducted a general merchandise and commission business at Honolulu.  (Peirce)

“When I was received as a partner in business with Mr Henry A Peirce, I continued the firm name of Peirce & Brewer until Mr Peirce retired, in 1843.  I then continued the business as C Brewer & Co., with my nephew C Brewer, 2d, until the year 1845.”  (Brewer)

After various partnerships and name changes, it was not until 1859 that the firm again and finally resumed the name of C Brewer & Co., when in September of that year, Charles Brewer II, a nephew of Captain Brewer, engaged in partnership with Sherman Peck and took over the business.  (Nellist)

Brewer returned to Boston.  “We arrived in Boston on March 26, 1849, and from that time, my sea life may be said to have ended.”  (Brewer)

However, “I continued my business alone for about one year, and then joined with Mr. James Hunnewell and Mr. Henry A. Peirce in the Sandwich Islands and East India trade, as well as general freighting in various parts of the world. Our Partnership consisted only in our ships, and we were one third owners each of our several vessels.”  (Brewer)

In reminiscing of life in the Islands, Brewer noted, “My life at the Sandwich Islands during a period of nearly twenty-six years was a very pleasant one, and I shall always remember with gratitude the kindness I received from the many friends in Honolulu, and especially from his majesty King Kamehameha III, who, from his boyhood to his death, was always my firm friend.”

The image shows Charles Brewer.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaʻalāwai

Along the coastal area between Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) and Kūpikipikiʻō (Black Point) several small neighborhoods are sometimes identified by the names of the main roads in the area Kaikoo, Papu Circle and Kulamanu. However, the historic name for this area of Oʻahu’s is Kaʻalāwai.

Kaʻalāwai literally means ‘the water (basalt) rock’ and is probably named for the springs on the beach and among the rocks at the east end of the beach.

It is a narrow, white-sand beach with a shallow reef offshore, which generally has poor swimming conditions. There are only a few scattered pockets of sand on the nearshore ocean bottom.  Lots go surfing outside.

At the east end of the beach near Black Point is a mansion turned museum, built by Doris Duke, the daughter of James Duke, the founder of the American Tobacco Company, and her husband, James Cromwell.  (It’s their name that is attributed to the “Cromwell’s” Cove and Beach references.)

In the late-1930s, Doris Duke built her Honolulu home, Shangri La, on five acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Diamond Head.  Shangri La incorporates architectural features from the Islamic world and houses Duke’s extensive collection of Islamic art, which she assembled for nearly 60 years.

Through an Exchange Deed dated December 8, 1938 between the Territorial Land Board of Hawai‘i and Ms Duke, two underwater parcels (totaling approximately 0.6-acres) were added to the Duke property.

At water’s edge below the estate, Duke then dynamited a small-boat harbor and a seventy-five-foot salt-water swimming pool into the rock.  The harbor was built to protect Duke’s fleet of yachts, including Kailani Lahilahi, an ocean-going, 58-foot motor yacht and Kimo, the 26-foot mahogany runabout that Duke sometimes used to commute into Honolulu.

Part of the deal was that the transfer gave the Territory (now State) a perpetual easement of a four-foot right-of-way for a pedestrian causeway along the coastline.  It’s a popular swimming area (ongoing media reports note the hazards here, so be careful.)

Today, Shangri La is open for guided, small group tours and educational programs. In partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art – which owns and supports Shangri La – the Honolulu Museum of Art serves as the orientation center for Shangri La tours.

Another stretch of beach here had some other interesting ownership/use issues.

In the old days, a Beach Road ran right next to the water at Kaʻalāwai. When some of the private property mauka of the road was subdivided into seven lots and conveyed in 1885, the makai boundaries of these seven lots were specified “along the road”.

However, in 1959, folks adjoining the then-abandoned road soon made claims to it – most extended their landscaping (and even put in improvements (patio, walls, etc)) out over the old beach road.

Some of the abutting owners succeeded in their title claims and subsequent legal battles, obtaining declaratory judgments in their favor and they gained title to the road remnant real estate.  Subsequently, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court ruled that the State owns the road.

The last property made application to the State to acquire the road remnant, however, after following discussions, they ended up seeking a long-term easement over the old roadway.

Oh, one more Kaʻalāwai story … following the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893, the Committee of Safety established the Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi as a temporary government until an assumed annexation by the United States.

The Provisional Government convened a constitutional convention and established the Republic of Hawaiʻi on July 4, 1894. The Republic continued to govern the Islands.

From January 6 to January 9, 1895, in a “Counter-Revolution,” patriots of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the forces that had overthrown the constitutional Hawaiian monarchy were engaged in a war that consisted of battles on the island of Oʻahu.

It has been called the Second Wilcox Rebellion of 1895 (named after Robert William Wilcox.)  In their attempt to return Queen Liliʻuokalani to the throne, it was the last major military operation by royalists who opposed the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

Wilcox’s headquarters was at Kaʻalāwai. (Daily Bulletin, January 19, 1895)  Shortly after the fighting began, losing the element of surprise and seeing no tactical importance in remaining at Diamond Head, Wilcox ordered his men to retreat to Waiʻalae.

Wilcox and his men then escaped to the Koʻolau up a trail on the precipice to the ridge separating Mānoa from Nuʻuanu. On that ridge his men dispersed into the mountain above; Wilcox and a few others crossed Nuʻuanu that night, eluding the guards.  They were later captured.

Queen Liliʻuokalani was put under arrest on the 16th, and confined in a chamber of ʻIolani Palace.  A tribunal was formed and evidence began to be taken on the 18th.  Nowlein, Wilcox, Bertelmann and TB Walker all pleaded guilty, and subsequently gave evidence for the prosecution.

Wilcox was court-martialed and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to thirty-five years.    In January, 1896, he was given a conditional pardon and became a free man; in 1898, President Dole gave him a full pardon.  (Wilcox later served as the first delegate and representative of Hawaiʻi in the US Congress.)

Convicted of having knowledge of a royalist plot, Liliʻuokalani was fined $5,000 and sentenced to five-years in prison at hard labor. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment in an upstairs bedroom of ʻIolani Palace.

She spent 8 months in this room.  After her release from ʻIolani Palace, the Queen remained under house arrest for five months at her private home, Washington Place. For another eight months she was forbidden to leave Oʻahu before all restrictions were lifted.  Liliʻuokalani died of a stroke on November 11, 1917 in Honolulu at the age of 79.

The image shows Kaʻalāwai and Black Point area prior to development.  In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

H Hackfeld

On September 26, 1849, sea captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld arrived in Honolulu with his wife, Marie, her 16-year-old brother Johann Carl Pflueger and a nephew BF Ehlers.

Having purchased an assorted cargo at Hamburg, Germany, Hackfeld opened a general merchandise business (dry goods, crockery, hardware and stationery,) wholesale, as well as retail store on Queen Street.

In 1850 he moved to a larger location on Fort Street. This store was so popular, it became known as “Hale Kilika” – the House of Silk (because it sold the finest goods available.) As business grew, the nephew took over management of the store while Hackfeld traveled the world for merchandise. The company took BF Ehlers’ name in 1862.

Hackfeld developed a business of importing machinery and supplies for the spreading sugar plantations and exported raw sugar. H Hackfeld & Co became a prominent factor – business agent and shipper – for the plantations.

Its shipping interest, manufacturing and jobbing lines developed a web of commercial relationships with Europe, England and the eastern seaboard of the US. German whalers were still sailing the Pacific in the 1850s and Hackfeld bought and outfitted several whalers, brought in Pacific Coast lumber beginning in 1855 and engaged in the trans-shipment trade.

By 1855, Hackfeld operated two stores, served as agent for two sugar plantations, and represented the governments of Russia, Sweden and Norway. (Later the firm or its principals also represented Austro-Hungary, Belgium and Germany.)  When Hackfeld left on a two-year business trip to Germany and Pflueger took charge in his absence.  (Greaney)

In 1871 Hackfeld and Pflueger both went back to Europe to launch a German affiliate in Bremen. There they placed into service a line of ships sailing under the Hawaiian flag between Bremen and Honolulu with wheat, oil, wool and hides for the Islands and sugar shipments on the way back.

The old Honolulu Courthouse site was advertised for sale at auction in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of May 9, 1874; H Hackfeld & Co bought it at the upset price of $20,000. As reported by the Hawaiian Gazette, “It is the best business stand in Honolulu.”

Then, the Treaty of Reciprocity (1875) between the US and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market.  Through the treaty, the US gained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into US markets.  Sugar boomed.

In 1881, Hackfeld and Paul Isenberg became partners.  Isenberg, who had arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1858, had extensive experience in the sugar industry, previously working under Judge Duncan McBryde and Rev. William Harrison Rice in Kōloa and Lihuʻe.

From that time on Mr. Isenberg was a factor in the development of the Hackfeld business, which became one of the largest in Hawaiʻi.

Hackfeld became the first Swedish and Norwegian Consul in the Islands. In 1862, he returned to Hamburg, and afterwards to Bremen, where he settled and managed the business of H. Hackfeld & Co. there until 1886, when he retired from the firm.  In 1886 Hackfeld sold his interest in the company and returned to Germany; he died there on October 20, 1887.

When the partnership was incorporated in 1897, a new building was erected at the corner of Fort and Queen Streets; it stood there for 70-years.

After the US annexation of Hawaii in 1898, Isenberg returned to Germany to live; however, he retained the role of president, with Hackfeld’s son, Johan (John) Friedrich Hackfeld serving as 1st vice president and Isenberg’s son, Alexander Isenberg as 2nd vice president.

John later took over; however, he, too, returned to Germany in 1900.  His cousin, George F Rodiek, became the executive in charge of H Hackfeld & Co.  (Weiner)  In 1905, Rodiek built an estate in Nuʻuanu.

A few years later, with the advent of the US involvement in World War I, things changed significantly for the worst for the folks at H Hackfeld & Co.

In 1918, using the terms of the Trading with the Enemy Act and its amendments, the US government seized H Hackfeld & Company and ordered the sale of German-owned shares.  (Jung)

The Alien Property Custodian’s Office noted, “The powerful German hold on the sugar industry of the Hawaiian islands has been crushed. The control of Hawaii’s most important industry has been restored to its people.”

“This is the effect of the announcement of A Mitchell Palmer, alien property custodian, that he had completed the Americanization of the H Hackfeld Co, the threat German owned corporation which for years has played so important a part in the sugar situation of the Hawaiian islands.”

“Mr. Palmer Americanized this German concern by … selling the entire assets and business of the German Hackfeld Co to (an) American company, whose stockholders are all loyal American citizens, most of them residents of the Hawaiian islands.”  (Alien Property Custodian’s Office; Daily News Almanac, 1919)

The patriotic sounding “American Factors, Ltd,” the newly-formed Hawaiʻi-based corporation, whose largest shareholders included Alexander & Baldwin, C Brewer & Company, Castle & Cooke, HP Baldwin Ltd, Matson Navigation Company and Welch & Company, bought the H Hackfeld stock.  (Jung)  Thus, the German-started H Hackfeld & Co became one of Hawaiʻi’s “Big Five.”

(Hawaiʻi’s Big 5 were: Amfac – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Alexander & Baldwin (1870;) Theo H. Davies (1845;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and C. Brewer (1826.))

At that same time, the BF Ehlers dry goods store also took the patriotic “Liberty House” name.  In 1937 a second store was opened in the Waikiki area. Eventually there would be seven stores on Oahu, and several more on the other islands.

During the 1970s, Liberty House expanded into California, Nevada and Washington, but the Washington stores were sold in 1979 and the California and Nevada locations were sold in 1984.  In 2001, Federated Department Stores Inc bought Liberty House, Hawaiʻi’s oldest and largest department store chain, and turned it into Macy’s.

American Factors shortened its name to “Amfac” in 1966.  The next year (1967,) Henry Alexander Walker became president and later Board Chairman.  Walker bought the former Rodiek estate.

Over the next 15-years, Walker took Amfac from a company that largely depended on sugar production in Hawaiʻi to a broadly diversified conglomerate. After adding so many companies, Amfac sales were $1.3 billion by 1976, up from $575 million in 1971.  (hbs-edu)

After subsequent sales of controlling interests in the company and liquidation of land and other assets, in 2002, the once dominant business in Hawaiʻi, the biggest of the Hawaiʻi Big Five, Amfac Hawaiʻi, LLC filed for federal bankruptcy protection.  (TGI)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+    

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William Beckley

George Charles Beckley was known as “the English friend and military adviser of Kamehameha the Great.”  (Taylor)  Born in 1787, Beckley arrived in the Islands around 1804.  About 1813, he married Ahia Kalanikumaikiʻekiʻe.

Ahia was daughter of Kaha, a trusted friend of Kamehameha I, a warrior and Kahuna Kalaiwaʻa (a priest who superintended the building of canoes) and of Makaloa, daughter of Malulani (k) and of Kelehuna (w) of Puna, Hawaiʻi.  (Hawaiian Historical Society)

At the birth of the princess Nahiʻenaʻena (Kamehameha’s daughter) at Keauhou, Kona, in 1815, Beckley was made a high chief by Kamehameha, so that he might with impunity enter the sacred precinct and present the royal infant with a roll of China silk, after which he went outside, and fired a salute of thirteen guns in her honor.  (Hawaiian Historical Society)

The Beckleys had seven children, William (1814,) Maria (1817,) Localia (1818,) Mary (1820,) George (1823,) Hannah and Emmeline (1825.)

Captain Beckley’s oldest son, William Beckley, born at Keauhou (August 1, 1814,) was hānai to Keōpūolani and brought up together with Kauikeaouli (later King Kamehameha III.) George Beckley’s two oldest daughters were brought up by Queen Kaʻahumanu.  (Hawaiian Historical Society)  William was also playmates of Keoni Ana, son of John Young, and Aikake, son of Isaac Davis.

John Young and Isaac Davis were two of the several foreigners who aligned with Kamehameha I.  Young, a boatswain on the British fur trading vessel, Eleanora, was stranded on the Island of Hawai‘i in 1790.  Davis arrived the same year on The Fair American.  Both became close advisors to Kamehameha I.

With the arrival of Western ships, new plants and animals soon found their way to the Hawaiian Islands.  In 1793, Captain George Vancouver gave a few cattle to Kamehameha I.  When Vancouver landed additional cattle at Kealakekua in 1794, he strongly encouraged Kamehameha to place a 10‐year kapu on them to allow the herd to grow.

In the decades that followed, cattle flourished and later turned into a dangerous nuisance.  (By 1846, 25,000-wild cattle roamed at will and an additional 10,000-semi‐domesticated cattle lived alongside humans.)

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

The hapa-haole Beckley was for a number of years in charge of the king’s cattle on Hawai’i. After the death of Governor Adams Kuakini on December 9, 1844, Beckley was appointed konohiki of Waimea, as well as manager of all the cattle there belonging to the king and the government.  (Clark/Kirch)

Kamehameha III, although a king, was one of the first ranchers in the islands, owning the largest on the Big Island, from the top of Mauna Kea to the sea. He had William Beckley for his partner and afterwards Olohana Davis (son of Isaac Davis.)    (Taylor)

Beckley carried his own portion independently; they were identified as Waʻawaʻa, Waikani and a pahale (houselot) at Līhuʻe.  In addition, some land nearby (Waiemi) was awarded to his wife (a granddaughter of Kameʻeiamoku (one of the four Kona Uncles and close associates with Kamehameha.))  (Clark/Kirch)

Beckley called his piece “Little Mexico,” where he raised thoroughbred horses. This was at Waimea, and a portion of this is now part of Parker Ranch.  (Taylor)

The “Mexico” reference may tie into one of the stories about how the initial vaqueros (Español – paniolo (cowboys)) came to the islands; one story suggests William Beckley recruited vaqueros from Veracruz Mexico.  (Barna)

The earliest Hawaiian bullock hunters hunted alone, on foot, and used guns and pit traps. By 1830, a few vaqueros who had perfected methods of capturing wild cattle on horseback in Alta California began working for the Hawaiian monarchy and teaching the Hawaiians their techniques.  (Mills)

Most histories credit Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) with the idea of hiring vaqueros.   Joaquin Armas arrived in Hawai‘i on April 4, 1831 and stayed in Hawai‘i at the bequest of the King. Armas had grown up in Monterey, where undoubtedly he learned how to rope cattle and process hides. Other contemporary vaqueros on Hawai‘i Island were Miguel Castro, a man named Boronda, and Frederico Ramon Baesa.  (Mills)

Hawaii’s cowboys became known as paniolo, a corruption of español, the language the vaquero spoke. The term still refers to cowboys working in the Islands and to the culture their lifestyle spawned.

By 1840, there was concern that the great herds of cattle would be diminished because of consistent hunting pressure. So, another kapu was placed on the cattle.

Under Beckley, more lands were converted to pasturage and holding pens; and, according to Lorezo Lyons, Waimea had turned into a “cattle pen” and “(b)y another unfavorable arrangement 2/3 of Waimea have been converted to a pasture for government herds of cattle, sheep, horses, etc.”  (MKSWCD)

In 1847, the branding of wild cattle became a government function, overseen by William Beckley.  That same year, John Palmer Parker purchased the first acres of land that would become Parker Ranch.  (Bergin)

Shortly after, in 1850, the King appointed George Davis Hueu, of Waikoloa, as “Keeper of the Cattle” at Waimea, Mauna Kea and surrounding districts.  (MKSWCD)  William Beckley died March 16, 1871.

The image shows an early view of Waimea (Engraved at Lahainaluna.) In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+    

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC