Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lānaihale

The island of Lānai was made by a single shield volcano between 1- and 1.5-million years ago, forming a classic example of a Hawaiian shield volcano with a gently sloping profile.  (SOEST)

The island of Lānai is about 13-miles long and 13-miles wide; with an overall land area of approximately 90,000-acres, it is the sixth largest of the eight major Hawaiian Islands.

Lānai has thirteen ahupua‘a (native land divisions), three of which are fairly unique in the larger island group, as they cross the entire island from Kona (leeward) to Koʻolau (windward) regions.

The tallest peak on Lānai is Lānaihale.

The name of the summit is associated with the traditional story of a young chief, Kauluaʻau, son of Aliʻi nui Kākaʻalaneo, a ruler of Maui during the early-1400s.

Kauluaʻau, because of his misdeeds (pulling up breadfruit plantings) in Lāhainā, was banished to Lānai (then known as Kaulahea.) (Maly)

At that time, Lānai was known for being haunted by ghosts. This summit area is where the ghosts of Lānai would gather. The story recounts Kaululaʻau’s plot to kill the ghosts.

According to the account, Kauluaʻau built a house on the summit of Lānai and held a housewarming party, and invited the ghosts.  When they entered the house, Kauluaʻau killed the ghosts and ridded Lānai of their presence.

This story serves as the basis for the name of the island, Lānai (day of victory, day of conquest,) as well as the name of the summit, Lānaihale (house of Lānai.)  (Maly, PBS)

“The land rises with an ascent more or less steep … all around the island, and is at first dry and rocky, with an abundance of thatching pili. A mile or two up it becomes smoother, and patches of brushes appear, and vegetation generally is more luxuriant.”

“Higher up small trees grow, and on the very top of the island, timber is found for good-sized native houses.” (The Polynesian, August 6, 1853; Lānai Culture & Heritage Center)

To get there, you travel on the Munro Trail, a single-lane dirt road (with periodic pull-outs) built in 1955 (generally running north-south and follows a traditional foot trail, later used by island cowboys as a horse trail before improvement as a road.)

It was named after the former ranch manager, George C Munro, who was responsible for planting the numerous Cook Island pines in the summit region.

“At the very summit of the island, which is generally shrouded in mist, we came upon what Gibson (an early (1861) Mormon missionary to the islands) called his lake – a little shallow pond, about the size of a dining table.”

“In the driest times there was always water here, and one of the regular summer duties of the Chinese cook was to take a pack mule and a couple of kegs and go up to the lake for water.”  (Lydgate, Thrum)

Sitting in the rain shadow of Maui, Lānai has always been stressed for want of water.  It was a lone Norfolk Island Pine, planted by Walter M Gibson at Koele in 1878, that in 1911, alerted Munro to the importance of the fog coming off of Lānaihale as a producer of valuable water in the form of fog (cloud) drip.

Hearing the constant drip of water on the corrugated roof of the ranch house situated alongside the Norfolk Pine, Munro realized that the pine boughs collected water from the fog and clouds.

As a result, Munro initiated a program of planting pines across the island.  (Lanai Culture & Heritage Center)

Munro ordered seeds for Norfolk Pines (he received Cook Island Pine seeds instead) and by 1913, initiated a tree planting program on Lānaihale, and outer slopes of the island.

In 1956, Hawaiian Pineapple Company ran catchment experiments, and found that in a 24 hour period, one pine tree could produce 240 gallons of water from fog-drip.

This upland area contains most of the remaining native dominated forest and is habitat for the ʻuaʻu (Hawaiian petrel,) ʻapapane and rare land snails.  (DLNR)  A large colony of the Hawaiian petrel is known to exist near the summit of Lānaihale.

The name of the nearby peak of Haʻalelepaʻakai (salt left behind or discarded) relates to a story of two fishermen who come across from Maui, laden down with their fishing gear and salt.

Early in the morning, they rose up to this second summit and look down into Palawai Basin, and they could see a bed of white “Ae no ka paʻakai” (There’s salt down there.)

So they decided to throw away their salt away at the summit and planned to gather the salt below. They made it down, they found that the salt was gone (what they saw from the summit was mist.) (Maly, PBS)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Paul Neumann

“Mrs. Dominis in a few words stated that she desired to surrender all her claims to the throne, and offered her formal abdication to President Dole in the shape of a document drawn up by Judge AS Hartwell, who was consulted by Mr. Wilson, Mr. Parker and Mr. Neumann about the matter and acted as advising counsel for them”.

“Attorney Neumann then read aloud the formal abdication. Her ex-Majesty also read the document aloud from beginning to end and then signed both the document and the oath of allegiance to the republic, while Notary Stanley affixed his jurat.  Mr. Neumann returned the document to the ex-Queen”.  (The Morning Call, February 7, 1895)

Paul Rudolph Neumann, lawyer, diplomat, and bon vivant (a person having cultivated, refined and sociable tastes especially with respect to food and drink,) was born in Prussia in December 1839.

He came to the United States when he was fifteen, locating in California, where he became a naturalized citizen. He was admitted to the practice of law in 1864 and served in the California legislature as a senator three terms.

Interactions with Neumann were typically enlivened by his bubbling wit; while a competent lawyer, he was known far more widely for his love of fun and his wit and bon vivant. Wherever he went, he left behind a trail of his kindly humor and was as full of frolic as a schoolboy.

While in California, Neumann broke his leg; while it was mending, he broke it again.  It had to be amputated; he “stumped around on a cork substitute, of which he was ever ready to make fun.” He and another amputee, C Mitchell Grant, would joke with an impromptu peg-leg waltz. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 22, 1901)

Neumann married Elise Dinklage of California on June 25, 1870; they had six children: Paul Jr, Edouard, Anita Alejandra, Inez Sophie, Eva and Lillie Leonora.  (Neumann was born of Jewish parents and was reared as a Jew. His wife was not a Jewess and his children were not reared in the Jewish faith.  (The New Era))

As a lawyer, the partner of Harry Eickhoff, he had a good practice and did not hesitate to match wits with any member of the bar. Often he upset a learned argument with a quick sally, and people followed him into court in the expectation of hearing him turn a point and raise a laugh. But beyond his humor he could be logically forceful and had quite a turn of eloquence.

As an after-dinner speaker he was particularly ready, and was often selected to preside as toastmaster when an evening of lively fun was expected. Even when he went into politics he could not keep down his love of a joke, and he lost some votes among people who feared he never would be serious enough for a lawmaker.  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 22, 1901)

In the fall of 1882 he was the Republican candidate for representative in Congress from the San Francisco district; he was denounced by the San Francisco Chronicle as a ‘sugar-coated candidate’ and a tool of the Claus Spreckels interests.  He lost.

In the fall of 1883, Neumann made a short visit to Honolulu. It was reported that he had been offered an appointment as Attorney General but had declined it. A month later, he returned to Honolulu and within a few days was admitted to the Hawaiian bar.  On December 14 he was appointed Attorney General.  (Kuykendall)

In public service, he was Attorney General under King Kalākaua (1883–1886) and Queen Liliʻuokalani (1892,) became a member of the House of Nobles, and later became Liliʻuokalani’s personal attorney until his death.  In 1884 he went to Mexico as special Hawaiian Envoy; later (1896,) he was Envoy Extraordinary of the Republic of Hawaiʻi to Guatemala.

“Paul Neumann … told me stories of the old monarchy and the good old early days.  Neumann was a character, one of the early figures in modern Hawaiian history, and a very patriotic man. Crabbed and crusty to the stranger, he unbent most charmingly to any one he liked. Story followed story …” (Beringer; Overland Monthly, 1909)

When the Hawaiʻi Bar Association was formed, Neumann was unanimously elected as its first President.  (Independent, June 29, 1899)

He was a close friend and poker-playing companion of the King. As Attorney General and legislator, friendly adviser and personal attorney, Neumann gave faithful service to King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani.  (Kuykendall)

Neumann was also a great friend and companion of Robert Louis Stevenson; Stevenson was a welcomed and privileged guest at the Neumann’s residence while in Honolulu. (Johnstone)

At the time of the overthrow, Neumann went to Washington as the representative of Queen Liliʻuokalani, to oppose the first treaty of annexation and to secure her restoration.

He successfully kept Hawaiʻi from becoming a Territory of the United States under President Grover Cleveland by carrying a personal letter from the Queen explaining the takeover – Cleveland interceded with Senate Democrats to stop action on the treaty.  (Denson)  That changed in 1898 when McKinley took office.

Neumann also successfully negotiated a pension for the Queen ($20,000 annually during her life) and Princess Kaʻiulani (a lump sum of $150,000.)

Following the conspiracy of 1895, Neumann was counsel for the ex-Queen and for the more prominent of the royalist defendants in the trials for treason before the military court.  (Hawaiian Star, July 2, 1901)

Paul Neumann died July 2, 1901.  His widow, several years later, met with a tragic ending.  “She was known to her many friends as an unusually self-reliant woman.  Of recent years her sorrows have been many.”

“Her husband died, seven year ago. Two years ago one of her sons, an ensign in the United States Navy was killed on board the battleship Missouri in a turret explosion.  Her mother died about a year ago.”

“She never ceased to grieve, say her friends, over the death of her son.” … (She reportedly jumped overboard and drowned while travelling via ship from Mazatlán to San Francisco.)  (San Francisco Call, September 8, 1908)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Podmore Building

Joseph William Podmore was an English sailor who became a clerk for JT Waterhouse & Co from 1886 to 1900.  He then opened his own firm for insurance, shipping, commission, and as agent of the Anglo-American Crockery & Glass Co. of San Francisco.  He was active as a real estate investor in the early 1900s.

On February 26, 1902, Peter Cushman Jones, Ltd. leased the vacant lot it owned at Merchant and Alakea Streets to Podmore.

The lease was for a period of twenty-five years from April 1, 1902 at $60 per month net rent, with the condition that Podmore “within six months from April 1, 1902 at his own cost and charge, erect and complete a good and substantial building .., and shall lay out and expend therein not less than $7,000.”

The April 17, 1902 Advertiser listed a building permit issued to Lee Wai for a 2-story store at 901 Alakea Street. Apparently, PC Jones, Ltd. lent Podmore part of the money to construct the building, for on June 25, 1902 Podmore mortgaged his lease to PC Jones, Ltd.

It was called the Podmore Building.

It is believed that the building was built for investment, as Podmore was not an occupant. The City Directory of 1903-04 lists merchant tailor Joseph P Rodrigues  as occupying the corner store, with Edward C Rowe, a painter, paperhanger and decorator occupying the mauka office. The upstairs was occupied from 1902-06 by the Mercantile Printing Co, Ltd.

The Podmore Building is a two story cut stone building constructed primarily of Hawaiian blue-gray basalt, measuring 72 feet by 34 feet, with a hip roof, situated at the northeast corner of Merchant and Alakea Streets.

The building is representative of a style of rusticated stone construction utilized for commercial buildings in Hawaii from 1894 to 1907, derived from the Romanesque Style popularized by Henry Hobson Richardson.

The building is characterized by massive, rough-faced stonework, sparse ornamentation, a flat facade divided by symmetrical windows and storefront openings, with arches over the entry doors to the second floor stairway, and a stone railing parapet with peaked capstones at the corners and midpoint of the facades.

The masonry work was typical in Honolulu when Hawaiian basalt was widely used for durable construction, with five quarries in operation on Oʻahu. The stone was finished and dressed by hand at the construction site, with much of the work performed by immigrant Portuguese stonemasons.

The massive stones were lifted into position by block and tackle from wooden hoists and scaffolds. Its use was discontinued due to economic considerations and the tendency of some stones to explode if heated by a fire and then doused with water.

On the curb on Alakea Street, between King and Merchant, in Honolulu, fronting this area is evidence of other aspects of old-Honolulu – remnants of the tethering rings.  (By the 1840s, the use of introduced horses, mules and bullocks for transportation was increasing; circular indentations in curbs adjoining streets show the location of hitching rings used to tether horses outside businesses.)

(In 1868, horse-drawn carts operated by the Pioneer Omnibus Line went into operation in Honolulu, beginning the first public transit service in the Hawaiian Islands; the first automobile arrived in October 1899 (it was steam-powered,) the first gasoline-powered automobile arrived in the Islands in 1900.)

During 1906-07 Podmore apparently sold his lease back to Jones.  On February 7, 1907 Jones donated the land and building to the Hawaiian Board of Missions for use as a permanent home.  From March 1907 until April 1916 the Hawaiian Board of Missions used the property as their headquarters.

“The Hawaiian Board is the organization which carries on the home missionary work of the Congregational Church throughout the Territory of Hawaiʻi. The full name of this organization is The Board of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association. This Board is the child of the early mission begun in 1820 by the American Board of Foreign Missions; not only the child, but the direct successor and inheritor of that great enterprise.”  (Erdman, The Friend, April 1, 1937)

The property was purchased by Charles M. Cooke, Ltd. in 1913. The Board continued to rent the premises until the completion of the new Mission Memorial Building on Beretania Street in 1916.

In 1924 the property was purchased by the Advertiser Publishing Co. Ltd who owned the adjacent property where the Honolulu Advertiser was published until 1928. (Lots of information here from NPS.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen is the Founding Father of modern China, the Republic of China (Nationalist China) and the forerunner of democratic revolution in the People’s Republic of China.

As part of a philosophy to make China a free, prosperous, and powerful nation Sun Yat-sen adopted “Three Principles of the People:” “Mínzú, Mínquán, Mínshēng“ (People’s Nationalism, People’s Democracy, People’s Livelihood.)

The Qing Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Qing or Great Qing, was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917.

After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution on October 10, 1911, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen (November 12, 1866 –March 12, 1925) was elected Provisional President and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China.

Sun Yat-sen was born to an ordinary farmer’s family in Cuiheng Village, Xiangshan, the South China province of Guangdong.

In 1879, then 13 years of age, he journeyed to Hawaiʻi to join his older brother, Sun Mei, a successful rice farmer, rancher and merchant.  He entered ʻIolani at age 14.  (ʻIolani)

In Sun Yat-sen’s four years in Hawai’i (1879-1883), he is said to have attended three Christian educational institutions: ʻIolani College, St Louis College and Oʻahu College (Punahou School.)  Then, he was called Tai Cheong or Tai Chu.

His three years at ʻIolani are well authenticated. Whether he ever attended St Louis cannot be substantiated by school records, but such a possibility exists. As for Oʻahu College, there is evidence to support the claim, though the time he spent there is not altogether clear.  (Soong)

“During his years at ʻIolani and Punahou, he was exposed to Western culture, was strongly influenced by it, and in his young mind, the seeds of Western democracy were planted.” (Lum, ʻIolani)  It also “led him to want more western education – more than that required to assist in his brother’s business.”  (Soong)

In 1883, Sun registered in the Punahou Preparatory School, one of the fifty children who studied in the two classrooms upstairs in the school building.  He was listed as Tai Chu, he was one of three Chinese students, the others being Chung Lee and Hong Tong.

Sun was also influenced by the Anglican and Protestant Christian religious teachings he received; he was later baptized.

He came to Hawaiʻi on six different occasions, initially for schooling and to support his brother’s businesses on Maui.  Later, his trips were geared to gain support for revolutionizing China and fundraising for that end.

On his third trip in Hawaiʻi (on November 24, 1894) Sun established the Hsing Chung Hui (Revive China Society,) his first revolutionary society. Among its founders were many Christians, one of them being Chung Kun Ai, his fellow student at ʻIolani (and later founder of City Mill.)

Shortly after, in January 1895, Dr Sun left Hawaiʻi and returned to China to initiate his revolutionary activities in earnest.  The funding of the First Canton Uprising mainly came from the Chinese in Hawaiʻi (that first effort failed.)

On another visit to Hawaiʻi (in 1903,) Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui into Chung Hua Ke Min Jun (The Chinese Revolutionary Army) in Hilo.

In 1905, in Tokyo, Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui and other organizations into a political party called the Tung Meng Hui.
Likewise, the Chinese Revolutionary Army was reorganized and all of its members Tung Meng Hui members.

This party spread all over China and rallied all the revolutionists under its wings.  He then made his last visit to Hawaiʻi to form the Hawaiʻi Chapter of Tung Meng Hui.

From 1894 to 1911, Sun traveled around the globe advocating revolution and soliciting funds for the cause. At first, he concentrated on China, but his continued need for money forced him elsewhere. Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaii, Canada, the United States, and Europe all became familiar during his endless quest.  (Damon)

The revolutionary movement in China grew stronger and stronger. Tung Meng Hui members staged many armed uprisings, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty and established the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day”. On December 29, 1911, Sun Yat-sen was elected president and on January 1, 1912, he was officially inaugurated.  After Sun’s death on March 12, 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT.)

The Republic of China governed mainland China until 1949; in that year, during the Chinese Civil War, the communists captured Beijing and later Nanjing. The communist-party-led People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

Originally based in mainland China, Chiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Republic of China troops and two million refugees, fled from mainland China to Taiwan (formerly known as “Formosa.”)

On December 7, 1949 Chiang proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary capital of the Republic of China and it now governs the island of Taiwan.  Sun Yat-sen is one of the few Chinese revolutionary figures revered in both the People’s Republic of China (mainland) and Republic of China (Taiwan.)

Hawaiʻi and its people played an important role in the life of Sun Yat-sen as well as in his revolutionary activities. His first revolutionary organization was formed in Hawaiʻi, it developed into the political party directly responsible for the collapse of the Manchus.

Another Hawaiʻi tie for Sun relates to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that blocked Chinese travel to the US.

In March 1904, while residing in Kula, Maui, Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the Territory of Hawaiʻi, stating that “he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1870.”

He used it to travel to the continent; then, when it was no longer needed, he renounced it.

Sun Yat-sen apparently felt at home in Hawaiʻi.  “This is my Hawai‘i … here I was brought up and educated, and it was here that I came to know what modern, civilized governments are like and what they mean.”  (Sun Yat-sen, 1910)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

J Alfred Magoon

“A half-dozen mixed in a free-for-all fight, that originated between two lawyers, was the scene witnessed yesterday morning in the judiciary building close to the doors of the Circuit Court.”

“The principal combatants were Hon. Cecil Brown, lawyer, Senator of the Territory and president of the First National Bank of Hawaiʻi, and J Alfred Magoon, lawyer, owner of the Magoon block.”  (San Francisco Call, December 21, 1905)

“The trouble arose through the affairs of the American Savings and Trust Company, a branch of the First National Bank of Hawaii, of which Cecil Brown is president. A meeting of stockholders of the trust company was held last week, Magoon being attorney for the majority.”

“Brown as president ruled out some of their stock … As the Magoon faction was five shares short of a majority, President Brown declared that the old board of directors remained in office.”

“The differences between the stockholders have existed for nearly a year, and the courts will now be called upon to decide them if the Treasury Department at Washington does not step in.”  (San Francisco Call, December 21, 1905)

Whoa … let’s step back and get some perspective here.

John Alfred (J Alfred) Magoon was the son of John C and Maria Sophia Eaton Magoon.

John C Magoon was born on December 9, 1830, at Litchfield, Maine.  In 1857, he married Maria Sophia Eaton; the newly married couple started west and settled in Kossuth, Iowa, where their son and only child, J Alfred Magoon, was born on July 22, 1858.

After suffering intensely from fever they made their way back to Maine, having endured the greatest hardships in the journey owing to the primitive mode of travel.  In 1863, Mr Magoon went to California, where in 1869 his wife and son joined him.

J Alfred enrolled in Heald’s Business College remaining there until he graduated. He entered mercantile life immediately, filling the position of bookkeeper with several well-known firms. He was engaged for a time in the office of the Santa Rosa Democrat.

His father bought a ranch near Lower Lake in Lake County and was afterward engaged in quicksilver mining until he and his wife came to the Hawaiian Islands in 1876. Being a farmer he located at Wahiawa, Oʻahu, but a drought destroyed his crops and he moved to Honolulu.

J Alfred joined them shortly afterward and secured a position as bookkeeper on the Halstead plantation at Waialua. It was during this engagement that he decided to adopt law as a profession, and spent what spare time he had reading his law books.

He remained on the plantation for a year and then entered the office of Benjamin H Austin, where he remained for a year, when his straitened finances compelled him to abandon it for the more lucrative position of deputy sheriff at Makawao, Maui.

He afterward resigned and took the position of bookkeeper at Paia Mill and pursued his study of the law as the opportunity was offered. In 1883 he resigned and went to Ann Arbor University, where he took a law course. Upon his graduation two years later he returned to Honolulu and was admitted to the bar.

“He has, perhaps, the largest practice of any of the members of the Honolulu bar, and it was this fact that compelled him to refuse the judgeship when he was first called upon to take it.”

J Alfred Magoon has been selected by the Executive to fill the position of Circuit Court Judge caused by the appointment of Judge HE Cooper to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. Judge Magoon is one of the best young men practicing at the bar.  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 5, 1895)

J Alfred married Emmeline Marie Afong and had 7 children: Julia H S Kamakea Magoon (1887-1933) – Harmon Anderson Kipling of California; John Henry N “Lani” Magoon (1889-1975) – Juliet Carrol; Chun Alfred Kapala Magoon (1890-1972) – Ruth L; Eaton Harry Magoon (1891-1970) – Genevieve Burrall Sicotte (teacher in Makaweli;) Mary “Catherine” Kekulani Magoon (1892-1996;) Marmion Mahinulani Magoon (1896-1969) and Emeleen Marie Magoon (1898-1974) – Orville Norris Tyler.

Oh, the earlier fight … “The pugilistic encounter of the two competing leaders will pass into history. It has been ignored by the local press.”  (San Francisco Call, December 21, 1905)

OK – here are some connections, if you haven’t already seen them (there are more.)

J Alfred’s wife Emmeline was daughter to Chun Afong and Julia Fayerweather Afong.  Afong made his fortune in retailing, real estate, sugar and rice, and for a long time held the government’s opium license.  He was later dubbed, “Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains” and is Hawaiʻi’s first Chinese millionaire.

Mary Catherine, the second daughter of Emmeline and J Alfred Magoon, married Frank Ward Hustace, becoming step-mother to seven Hustace children.  (Kauai Historical Society) Hustace was the first son of Frank and Mary Elizabeth “Mellie” Ward Hustace, the eldest of seven daughters of Victoria Robinson Ward.  Victoria’s sister, Mary Robinson, married a Foster.

Here are some prior stories on those families:

That’s enough for now.

No wait, back to the Magoons …

Like many businessmen, Magoon bought properties as investments, for development or for sale for a profit at a later date. By 1914, he built on the Queen Street lot a two-story structure with shops on the ground floor and residential apartments on the top floor, described as “Hawaii’s First Apartment House.”

Additional structures were built in the early twentieth century in a parcel called the “Magoon Block” on the eastern side of Kakaʻako.  The apartments were generally low-rent and inhabited by bachelors, although some poorer families crowded into the larger apartments. (Cultural Surveys)

As the population of Honolulu swelled, tenement buildings were quickly constructed to meet the rapidly growing demand for housing. Hawaiians congregated in the Chinatown and the Kakaʻako districts, both of which were near the waterfront and the center of town. (McGregor)

Magoon Block had a meat market, a grocery store, an ice cream parlor, a furniture store, a little restaurant, and a barber shop on the ground floor, all in one big building. Above the storefronts were rooms with a common kitchen, bath and toilet facilities. It was a little shopping center for the district. (McGregor)

J Alfred Magoon helped found the Sanitary Steam Laundry, invested in Consolidated Amusement Co and the Honolulu Dairy.  He died and Emmeline took over leadership of his business interests.  In her 70s, she moved to South Kona and managed the Magoon Ranch at Pāhoehoe – riding horseback and overseeing the cattle ranch.  She died in 1946 at age 88.

J Alfred Magoon, prominent Honolulu lawyer and promoter of the Honolulu Consolidated Amusement Co. (which controlled the Bijou, Hawaii, Ye Liberty and Empire theatres at Honolulu), died July 26, 1916 at Baltimore, following a fall from a bridge. (Variety, 1916)

The family formed Magoon Estate, Ltd t.  In additions to land holdings in Hawaiʻi, the estate owned the 21,000-acre Guenoc Ranch; and also owned and operated Guenoc Winery, a producer of premium California wines. (The winery was sold to Foley Family Wines in 2012, and then to Langtry Farms LLC in 2021. The winery is now known as Langtry Farms Vineyard and Winery.)

OK, that’s enough, for now … by now, you should get the sense that there are more stories on this and related families, properties and businesses.

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