Prominent People | Page 32 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 19, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Lady Lawyer

“Foreign missionary Harvey Rexford Hitchcock married Rebecca Howard. They sailed for the Hawaiian Islands on the whaleship Averick, arriving in Honolulu 17 May 1832, after a voyage of 173 days. His sister Elizabeth later came to Hawai’i to join them.”

Harvey and Rebecca Hitchcock; they had four children, David Howard, Harvey Rexford Jr, Edward Griffin, and Sarah Diana (who died very young).

“The boys were educated at home until it was time for them to attend O’ahu College (now Punahou). After his Island schooling, David went to Massachusetts, where he entered Williams College as a sophomore in 1853. He returned to Molokai in 1855 where he read law with one of the best lawyers in the Islands.”

“David remembered a young lady school teacher whom he had met in his days back East and sent Almeda Eliza Widger of Otselic, New York, a proposal of marriage, adding that if he did not hear from her, he would consider it a refusal.”

“The letter did not reach her at once on its arrival and she saw it listed in the list of advertised letters. She wrote him that she would come and sailed from Boston on board the Raduga which after a long voyage around Cape Horn arrived finally at Honolulu considerably overdue.”

“Rev. Mr. Armstrong accompanied David on board the Raduga, and he married Almeda on 13 March 1857; thus, she arrived in Honolulu as Mrs. Hitchcock.” (June Hitchcock Humme, grandniece of Almeda Eliza Hitchcock)

“Their first child, Ella Marian, arrived before the new home was completed. Born in this home were Cora Etta, David Howard Jr, Almeda Eliza, and Charles Henry Wetmore Hitchcock.”

“The last daughter, Almeda Eliza, was born Saturday, 5 December 1863. Her father, writing to his brother Edward on 15 January 1864, had this to say about her: ‘… baby grows like a weed. We call her ‘Alme’ or ‘Kitty’, mostly the latter, as she is so good to lie still.’”

Alme was taught at home until age 15, when she and her sister Cora went to O’ahu College (Punahou) as boarders in Honolulu. In 1880 there were 112 students in the school, many of them boarders.

“In a family letter of 15, June 1881, Alme’s aunt Mary Castle Hitchcock states: ‘Cora will be through with her course and David and Almeda have decided that Alme is not to go back to school next year, on account of her health, which has never been as good since she had a fall in Hilo, four or five years ago, which hurt her back.’” (Humme)

That leads us to another child of David and Almeda, David Howard (Howard) Hitchcock.

“His brothers and sisters were not such problems to their father. Cora graduated from Punahou, married an educator and became a teacher herself. Alme, (Almeda) went on to college at Anne Arbor.”

“The oldest daughter, Ella, married Albert Loebenstein, a businessman, and Charles the younger son worked for the new telephone company, and for the railroad, as tax assessor and court clerk, all practical and normal jobs.”

David Hitchcock wanted his son to be a lawyer … Howard Hitchcock wanted to be an artist.

Before his formal training abroad, D Howard Hitchcock was inspired by other Volcano School painters and was encouraged by Jules Tavernier to endeavor life as an artist. Hitchcock admits to following Tavernier and Joseph Strong around, ‘like a parasite.’ (NPS HAVO)

“One family legend says that when Howard insisted on painting, his father sent him up to his Puakala ranch to hunt beef, where he presumably would be cut off from art for lack of supplies. But he found some house paint and made a charming study of akala berries on a door, which still survives.” (Shipman info sheet at Haena)

“But it was another event which may have turned the key for Howard’s complete release into the world of art. The Hawaiian Gazette for November 6, 1888 has a story titled ‘A Lady Lawyer … Miss Hitchcock Admitted to the Hawaiian Bar – The Pioneer of Her Sex.’” (Shipman) (Her brother, D Howard Hitchcock, became a famous Hawai‘i artist.)

Almeda Hitchcock was admitted to the bar in Michigan on December 27, 1887, before her graduation, “under honors – as she is class prophet.” (She was apparently the only woman among the 143 graduates in the law class.) (Matsuda)

Then, “Miss Almeda E. Hitchcock, daughter of Hon. D.H. Hitchcock, of Hilo, was on October 29th admitted to practice in the Courts of this Kingdom. She submitted to the Judges of the Supreme Court her diploma as Bachelor of Laws from Ann Arbor University, Michigan, also her license to practice law in the Circuit and Supreme Courts of that state.” (Hawaiian Gazette, Nov 6, 1888)

“Miss Alme E Hitchcock … will doubtless be the first woman to be admitted to the bar outside of the United States’. She indicated that she felt there would be no reluctance on the part of men attorneys in her country …”

“… pointing out that ‘there are at present no women practicing law, but there are quite a number of practicing [women] Physicians. The popular feeling is for rather than against women in the professions.” (Matsuda)

David Hitchcock made his daughter his partner at once, and the law firm of Hitchcock and Hitchcock presented its first case … the next day.” (Almeda made and won her first motion – the court dismissed the case.) (Matsuda)

“Although her career was short, lasting only five years before her marriage [on May 24, 1892, Hitchcock married American physician William Levi Moore] and early death [she died May 9, 1895, at the age of 31], Almeda Hitchcock led the way for women as the first lawyer and law partner in Hawai‘i.” (Case)

“She was possessed of many pleasant qualities, which made her an always welcome guest and her loss keenly felt. She received an education in the Law school of the University of Michigan and has shown an unusual aptitude for the profession. Hers was a life of bright promises.” (Hawaiian Gazette, Humme)

May 18, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Poi Boys

On May 9, 1959, the call letters of the existing AM station begun in 1946 were changed from KHON-AM to KPOI-AM and the format was changed to full-time rock-and-roll.

On May 18, 1959, KPOI Radio 1380 AM signed on the air (one of the first stations to use a name, not the series of call letters issued by the FCC). K-POI was the focal point of rock-and-roll in the Hawaiian Islands in the early years of Statehood. (Territorial Airwaves)

Originally on-air from 6am until midnight; after a few ratings KPOI went 24 hours. The ratings then were Hoopers. K-POI rocketed to #1 — with shares in the high teens and sometimes 20’s — by October. (Jacobs, ReelRadio)

The K-POI studio and tower were located at 1701 Ala Wai Boulevard between Kalakaua Ave and John Ena Road. The tower was located along the Ala Wai Canal, across from the old Aloha Motors location (across the Ala Wai from where the Convention Center is situated).

A crew of young broadcast vets known as the ‘Poi Boys’ came on and played the Top 40 hits mixed in with outrageous fun and games.

The original Poi Boys included ‘Uncle’ Tom Moffatt, Bob ‘The Beard’ Lowrie, ‘Jumpin’’ George West, Sam Sanford and ‘Whodaguy’ Ron Jacobs. “They ranged from merely extroverted to outright nuts.” (Jacobs) Moffatt stayed with the station for 14 years, eventually becoming vice president and general manager. Other Poi Boys came and went.

“We had a lot of creative minds at KPOI and that’s where I learned a lot,” says Mofatt. “It was the first 24-hour-a-day, all-rock station and that’s where we started putting our minds together and developing marathon hits, bowl-a-thons, hula-thons and every kind of ‘thon’ you could imagine.”

“The first, and greatest, [Thon] was when Tom Rounds, our News Director, stayed awake in a funky department store’s window for 8 1/2 days (!!!) thus breaking the record in the Guinness Book when few people even knew of that volume.”

“K-POI jocks hung from cars suspended from cranes, broadcast underwater from a glamorous Waikiki pool, and competed in Drum-A-Thons, Pool-A-Thons, Insult-A-Thons, donkey basketball games and endless stuff that caught the fancy of the kids turning on to Elvis, Frankie, Ricky, Fabian, etc.”

“We ran our own board, answered the phones, filled out two logs, flipped two-minute records, watched the news wire and made our own coffee. There was no such thing as a ‘post’ to ‘hit,’ children. You just felt it man.” (Jacobs, ReelRadio)

“In June 1960, Dave Donnelly, recently discharged from the Navy and studying drama at UH, joined KPOI as the weekend newsman. He replaced Larry Cott, who left to write political commentary full time. Within a year Donnelly was reading the news on the ‘Ron Jacobs Show.’”

“Every morning for three hours we peered at each other through a soundproof window. [Jacobs] played records by ‘Ricky’ Nelson, the Five Satins, Connie Francis — all the golden oldies of the future.”

“Donnelly reported on Hawaii newsmakers like Gov. William Quinn, Mayor Neal Blaisdell and new U.S. Sen. Hiram Fong. International headlines, which included named like Gagarin, Eichmann, Gromyko and DeGaulle, seemed to be coming from another worlds.”

“It was 20 years before CNN began … Rounds nicknamed Donnelly ‘The Moose’ because ‘he was big and hulking — like a moose.’”

“Later, when Donnelly morphed into a Poi Boy, he was issued a goofy jingle that ended with the words, ‘Moose, Moose, Moose.’ Donnelly pretty much despised the moniker.”

“If [Jacobs] called him the ‘Moose’ off the air, he would shut [him] up by calling [him] ‘Ronnie,’ which he knew [Jacobs] hated since elementary school.” (Jacobs, SB)

In the late 1970s, K-POI AM ceased operations, the property on 1701 Ala Wai Blvd sold and the AM tower dismantled. But the KPOI Poi Boys had changed Hawaii’s radio landscape forever. (Territorial Airwaves)

May 15, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas; the daughter of a railroad attorney, she spent her childhood in various towns, including Atchison and Kansas City, Kansas and Des Moines, Iowa.

“Doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke … but enjoys an occasional game of poker. … Dances anywhere a band plays. Says there’s a saying among aviators: ‘Show me how well you dance and I’ll tell you how well you can fly.’” (Keir)

“(Flying) may not be all plain sailing … But the fun of it is worth the price.” (Putnam, The Fun Of It)

When she was 10, she saw her first plane at a state fair … she was not impressed. “It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting.”

It wasn’t until she attended a stunt-flying exhibition, almost a decade later, that she became seriously interested in aviation. A pilot spotted her and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dove at them. “I am sure he said to himself, ‘Watch me make them scamper.’” She stood her ground.

Something inside her awakened as the plane swooped by. “I did not understand it at the time,” she said, “but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by.” On December 28, 1920, pilot Frank Hawks gave her a ride that would forever change her life.

“By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground,” she said, “I knew I had to fly.” (California Museum) Learning to fly in California, she took up aviation as a hobby, taking odd jobs to pay for her flying lessons.

In 1922, with the financial help of her sister, Muriel, and her mother, Amy Otis Earhart, she purchased her first airplane. She was the 16th woman to earn her pilot license, receiving it on May 15, 1923.

In 1929, she and a group of other women pilots (a total of 99) formed the Ninety-Nines; she served at its first president. Later, she met and married (February 7, 1931) George Palmer Putnam, a publisher and promoter.

She flew for ‘fun.’ She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (1932,) the first woman to fly solo, nonstop, across the US from Los Angeles to Newark (1932,) and the first person to fly solo between Los Angeles and Mexico City and between Mexico City and Newark (1935.)

She came to Hawaiʻi twice (December 27, 1934 to January 11, 1935 (to make the Hawaiʻi to the continent) and March 17 through March 20, 1937 (as part of the first plan to fly around-the-world.))

“Over the Christmas holiday (1934,) Amelia Earhart and George Putnam, along with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mantz, arrived in Honolulu on December 27, having sailed on the Matson liner SS Lurline. Amelia’s Lockheed Vega was secured on the ocean liner’s deck. The group spent two weeks vacationing in Hawaiʻi.” She visited Hilo and planted a banyan tree on “Hilo Walk of Fame.”

Five days after planting the banyan tree, she took off from Wheeler Field, Oʻahu and after 18-hours and 15-minutes, Amelia and “Old Bessie, the Fire Horse,” made a perfect landing at Oakland Airport at 1:31, January 12, 1935, she was engulfed by a cheering crowd of 5,000-enthusiastic supporters.

It was another record flight for Amelia – the very first person, man or woman, to fly solo between Hawaiʻi and the American continent and the first civilian airplane to carry a two-way radio. (Plymate)

A commemorative plaque to honor her trans-pacific solo flight was put up on Diamond Head Road. Documents of that flight were placed in a copper box and inserted into the plaque’s base on March 6. It was dedicated on March 14, 1937.

The last Hawaiʻi visit was part of her planned flight around-the-world. She assembled a team to make an around-the-world flight (navigators Fred Noonan and Captain Harry Manning, as well as technical advisor/assistant navigator Paul Mantz.) It wouldn’t be the first around-the world flight, but it would be the longest, taking an equatorial route.

They set out from Oakland on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17, 1937) and headed for Hawaiʻi on the first leg of their journey. After 15-hours and 47-minutes they landed at Wheeler Field. (From there they would travel on to Howland Island in the South Pacific, and then on to Australia.) The plane was moved to Luke Field for take-off on the next leg.

At 5:53 am, March 20, 1937, she began the take-off roll; suddenly, at the 1,000-foot mark the right tire blew (ten seconds more and the plane would have been airborne.)

The right landing gear broke and the right wing and other parts of the plane were badly damaged (no one was hurt.) Within 6-hours after the aborted take-off, she was heading for San Francisco via ship. The plane had to be shipped back to California for repairs and the round the world trip was rescheduled.

She set out on her second attempt in June, this time with only Noonan to assist her effort. They set again from Oakland, this time flying from west to east, across the continental US to Miami, Florida.

They then flew toward Central and South America before finally turning east and crossed Africa and southern and southeastern Asia before setting down in Lae, New Guinea on June 29, 1937.

Necessary repairs and adjustments were made and the plane was refueled for the big trek across the Pacific to tiny Howland Island – the destination Earhart was attempting to reach on her first around-the-world attempt.

On July 1, she made her way from Lae, New Guinea for Howland Island. A radio report was received from her plane that she was over the ocean with no land in sight, with about one-half hour’s fuel left on board. (hawaii-gov)

They never reached Howland Island; they disappeared July 2, 1937.

Despite an extensive coordinated search carried out by the Navy and Coast Guard with 66-aircraft and 9-ships they were not found. (On January 5, 1939 Amelia Earhart was declared legally dead, in Superior Court in Los Angeles, California.)

In 1938, a lighthouse was constructed on Howland Island in her memory, and across the United States, streets, schools, and airports are named after Earhart. Her birthplace, Atchison, Kansas, became a virtual shrine to her memory.

The search for clues to Earhart’s disappearance continued. It was recently reported on Discovery that a fragment of her lost plane (a patch that replaced a navigational window in her modified plane) has been identified to a high degree of certainty.

New research strongly suggests that a piece of aluminum aircraft debris recovered in 1991 from Nikumaroro, an uninhabited atoll in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati, does belong to Earhart’s plane. (The rivet pattern and other features on the 19-inch-wide by 23-inch-long fragment matched the patch and lined up with the structural components of the plane.)

The breakthrough suggests that, contrary to what was generally believed, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, did not crash in the Pacific Ocean, running out of fuel somewhere near their target destination of Howland Island.

Instead, they may have made a forced landing on Nikumaroro’ smooth, flat coral reef. The two became castaways and eventually died on the atoll, which is some 350 miles southeast of Howland Island. Further research is on-going. (Lots of information here is from hawaii-gov, Soylent and Amelia Earhart Museum.)

Amelia Earhart poses in front of her airplane in Wheeler Field, Hawaii, on January 4, 1935-NatlGeographic

Amelia arrives at Wheeler Field aboard her twin engine Lockheed Electra on 1st leg of her east to west around the world flight 3-18-1937.

Amelia Earhart’s plans to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. shipped her plane from Los Angeles on December 23, 1934-NatlGeographic

George Palmer Putnam and Amelia Earhart Putnam

Flower leis drape Amelia Earhart in Honolulu on January 3, 1935-NatlGeographic

Eating pineapple with Duke Kahanamoku-January 11, 1935-NatlGeographic

Pilot Amelia Earhart readies her plane at Wheeler Field, Hawaii, for a flight across some Pacific islands-NatlGeographic

Amelia Earhart is showered with flowers-the first person to successfully fly from Hawaii to California-NatlGeographic

Earhart-piece_of_plane-Discovery

Earhart-piece_of_plane-location-Discovery

Amelia’s Electra following take off accident on Ford Island March 20, 1937.

Banyan Drive Tree-Amelia_Earhart, 1935

Amelia Earhart Memorial on Diamond Head, Oahu, August 1943

Amelia Earhart Memorial -plaque

‘Earhart Light’ on Howland Island-1939

‘Earhart Light’ on Howland Island

May 14, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Consolidated Amusement

The first moving pictures were first publicly shown in Hawaiʻi in February 1897. A little over a decade later, the ‘cameraphone’ arrived, it was “the picture machine that sings and talks”. (Hawaiian Start, January 18, 1909)

“Harry Werner and his wife Leona Clifton leave in the SS Alameda on Wednesday next for the mainland … Werner will devote his attention abroad to the cameraphone, a device producing the effect of talking-moving pictures and which he may bring to Honolulu later.” (Hawaiian Star, September 12, 1908)

“Harry Werner was an incoming passenger on the SS Lurline arriving this morning. He has been away several months and returns with a cameraphone, a moving picture novelty popular at the Coast but never introduced here.” (Hawaiian Star, January 13, 1909)

“In reproducing the picture and vocal record at exactly the same rate of movement, the moving picture machine is placed as usual at a point behind the audience at the back of the Opera House, while the talking machine is located near the screen.”

“By this means we have a perfect concordance between the two apparatus. This great novelty will open in the Opera House next Saturday evening. Seats are on sale … Prices 15¢, 25¢, 35¢ and 50¢.” (Evening Bulletin, January 21, 1909)

“Tonight the Cameraphone will make its first how to a Honolulu audience. The program selected is sure to please as it made up of operatic trio, duets and solos, as well as vaudeville acts and dramatic numbers.” (Evening Bulletin, January 23, 1909)

And so the modern movie phenomenon began.

By 1910, a dozen nickelodeons were operating in downtown Honolulu, including the Savoy. The Liberty, the first modern, “fireproof” theatre, opened on Nuʻuanu Street in 1912. Others opened.

In 1911, many of the independent theatres joined forces and formed the Honolulu Amusement Company; it was later renamed Consolidated Amusement, eventually operating more than three dozen theatres at its peak and became the Islands’ largest theatre chain (first under J Albert Magoon, then his son, John Henry Magoon.) (Angell)

J Alfred Magoon was a prominent Honolulu lawyer and promoter of the Honolulu Consolidated Amusement Co. (which controlled the Bijou, Hawaii, Ye Liberty and Empire theatres at Honolulu.) (Variety, 1916)

“Articles of incorporation were filed today by the Consolidated Amusement Company Ltd. … The incorporators are GT Chong, president, who holds 1,498 shares of the stock; J Alfred Magoon, vice president, holding 1,498 shares of stock; Robert McGreer, treasurer, holding one share; John Henry Magoon, secretary, holding one share, and William H. Campbell, holding one share. L Abrams is named as auditor.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 5, 1912)

Joel C Cohen was instrumental in the organization of the Honolulu Amusement Co., Ltd., in which were consolidated a number of moving picture houses. He became president and manager of the Consolidated Amusement Co., Ltd., in 1913; he also operated a motion picture exchange which supplied all the theaters of the Territory with films.

Back then, movie going was not the near-dawn to waay-dark, 7-days-a-week phenomenon that it seems to be today. “… a law was passed in this past legislative session giving the responsibility to the board of supervisors of each county to make laws to approve showing movies on the Sabbath; the Consolidated Amusement Company put a request before the board of supervisors of the City and County of Honolulu at the meeting of that board on this past Tuesday night, to ask for approval to show movies on Sundays.” (Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, May 14, 1915) (Sunday performances were allowed May 23, 1915.)

Downtown Honolulu’s Hawaiʻi and the nearby Princess theatres both opened in 1922, the biggest and fanciest the Islands had ever seen. The Dickey-designed Waikīkī Theater opened in 1936.

“… the Hawaiʻi, a class of entertainment hitherto undreamed of in the Islands. The Hawaiʻi Theatre is the home of Hawaiʻi’s people, whether living in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, Maui or Kauaʻi. It is there for your entertainment and delight whenever you visit the Queen City.” (Maui News, October 22, 1922)

But opportunities for movie entertainment were not limited to downtown Honolulu.

“Fun. Laughter. Excitement. These words describe the Kalaupapa Social Hall. Built in 1916, the hall hosted numerous recreational events and gatherings for all the residents of Kalaupapa. Isolated from the outside world both physically and socially, people needed a place for coming together, for socializing, for “talk story.” Now they had a suitable structure for hosting movies, dances, theater performances and concerts.” (Paschoal Hall, (NPS))

“Hawaiʻi, in a few brief years, has been swept from the edge of world affairs close to its vortex. And, until a very few years ago, the Territory was dependent for its amusements entirely upon such stray attractions as dropped off the steamers enroute between Orient and Occident.”

“The Consolidated Amusement Company has changed all that. It has brought the world’s best pictorial entertainment your door. And, now, it has afforded Island people, when in Honolulu the advantages of playhouse second to none in America so far as beauty and comfort is concerned.” (Maui News, October 22, 1922)

By 1929 popularity of movies caused further expansion and, to meet the demand, Consolidated Amusement began constructing neighborhood theatres that year and into the 1930s, with well over a dozen built on the Island of Oʻahu.

“Honolulu in the early 1930s was mad about the movies. … To meet the growing demand, the leading theater operators, Consolidated Amusement, built more than two dozen neighborhood and rural theaters on O‘ahu and elsewhere during the decade. Every neighborhood had one.” (Friends of Queen Theater)

“On October 9th, 1931 the first sound program was shown in the Kalaupapa theatre with the dual equipment installed by the Consolidated Amusement Co. This equipment has given complete satisfaction since its installation and an average of two programs weekly has been maintained since the initial show.” (Superintendent’s Annual Report, 1932)

“Everybody looked forward to the movies. There was nothing else to do on Monday and Friday except go to the movies unless there was a baseball game, then maybe they would go to the game and then come to the movie. But other than that, nobody misses the movie because it starts at 7:00.”

“During the War, (World War II) at one time they started it at 3:30 in order for it to get through before dark. They blacked out all the windows inside and then they showed the movie.” (Kalaupapa resident, NPS)

In all, there have been more than 400 theatres throughout the Islands. The tropical climate and social, cultural, and ethnic diversity contributed to a variety of theatre designs unique to Hawai’i — tin-roofed plantation theatres, neighborhood movie houses in exotic styles, large downtown “palaces,” and the uniquely beautiful, tropical 1936 Waikīkī Theatre. (TheatresOfHawaii)

The most famous hula movie in Hawaiʻi is not a movie at all but a “trailer” featuring torch-bearing hula dancers appearing on the screens in all Consolidated Amusements Theatres before every feature-length film.

For the last 22 years, Consolidated Amusement has run the “Hawaiʻi” trailer more than a thousand times a day on its screens across the Islands. Jon de Mello, the film’s producer, believes it is the longest running movie trailer ever made. (Fawcett)

Click HERE for Consolidated Amusement’s trailer.

The first movies actually filmed in Hawaiʻi were ‘Honolulu Street Scene,’ ‘Kanakas Diving for Money’ (two parts), and ‘Wharf Scene, Honolulu,’ all made by two Edison photographers, W Bleckyrden and James White, on May 10, 1898 while in transit through Honolulu. (Schmitt)

Keeping on the entertainment subject, television came to the Islands in late-1952. Station KGMB-TV was first with both a live program and televised motion pictures, initiating regular programming at 5:05 pm, December 1. Color television was first viewed in Hawaiʻi on May 5, 1957 at 6:30 pm, when KHVH-TV presented a program of color slides and movies. (Schmitt)

Live television broadcasting to and from the Mainland was inaugurated on November 19, 1966, when KHVH-TV used the Lani Bird communication satellite to bring the Michigan State-Notre Dame football game at East Lansing to Island viewers. (Schmitt)

April 29, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Seven Sisters

Nā-Huihui-O-Makaliʻi, “Cluster of Little Eyes” (Makaliʻi) (a faint group of blue-white stars) marks the shoulder of the Taurus (Bull) constellation. Though small and dipper-shaped, it is not the Little Dipper.

Traditionally, the rising of Makaliʻi at sunset following the new moon (about the middle of October) marked the beginning of a four-month Makahiki season in ancient Hawaiʻi (a sign of the change of the season to winter.)

In Hawaiʻi, the Makahiki is a form of the “first fruits” festivals following the harvest season common to many cultures throughout the world. It is similar in timing and purpose to Thanksgiving, Oktoberfest and other harvest celebrations.

Something similar was observed throughout Polynesia, but it was in pre-contact Hawaiʻi that the festival reached its greatest elaboration. As the year’s harvest was gathered, tributes in the form of goods and produce were given to the chiefs from November through December.

Various rites of purification and celebration in December and January closed the observance of the Makahiki season. During the special holiday the success of the harvest was commemorated with prayers of praise made to the Creator, ancestral guardians, caretakers of the elements and various deities – particularly Lono.

Makaliʻi is also known as the Pleiades; its common name is the Seven Sisters.

But it is not these seven sisters that is the subject of this summary; this story is about Mellie, Kulamanu, May, Einei, Lucy, Kathleen and Lani – the seven daughters of Curtis and Victoria Ward.

Curtis Perry Ward was born in Kentucky and arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1853, when whaling in the Pacific was at its peak. Curtis worked at the Royal Custom House, which monitored commercial activity at Honolulu Harbor for the kingdom.

Victoria Robinson was born in Nuʻuanu in 1846, the daughter of English shipbuilder, James Robinson and his wife Rebecca, a woman of Hawaiian ancestry whose chiefly lineage had roots in Kaʻū, Hilo and Honokōwai, Maui.

Ward started a livery with headquarters on Queen Street and expanded into the business of transporting cargo on horse-pulled wagons. The size of Ward’s work force became just as big as the harbor’s other major player, James Robinson & Co. (Victoria’s father.)

Curtis and Victoria married in 1865 and for many years they made their home near Honolulu Harbor on property presently occupied by the Davies Pacific Center.

The Wards bought land on what was then the outskirts of Honolulu, eventually acquiring over 100-acres of land running from Thomas Square on King Street down to the ocean.

They built the “Old Plantation” in 1882, a stately, Southern-style home on the mauka portion of the property. It featured an artesian well, vegetable and flower gardens, a large pond stocked with fish, and extensive pasturage for horses and cattle. Self-sufficient as a working farm, Old Plantation was surrounded by a vast coconut grove.

Here’s a link to a video of “Old Plantation” with Anna Machado Cazimero, Kanoe Cazimero, Rodney Cazimero, Melveen Leed and Tito Berinobis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtPTv1QENC0

That year, Curtis Ward died (at age 53,) leaving Victoria to raise seven daughters and manage the estate. Here’s a little bit about the girls.

Mary Elizabeth “Mellie” Ward (February 16, 1867 to July 26, 1956) – married Frank Hustace September 30, 1886; Frank worked with, then succeeded his father-in-law in the draying business.

May Augusta Ward (May 10, 1871 to January 6, 1938) – married Ernest Hay Wodehouse in 1893; he was a prominent figure in the business world of Hawaiʻi; former president of Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association and the Sugar Factors Co, Ltd.

Annie Eva Theresa “Einei” Ward (March 13, 1873 to July 19, 1934) – married Wade Armstrong (Einei was the first of the Ward sisters to die, living to the age of 61.)

Keakealani Perry “Lani” Ward (May 27, 1881, December 31, 1961) – married Robert Booth; in 1966, Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children completed a new four-story Lani Ward Booth wing on Punahou Street.

Three sisters never married, and Lucy and Kathleen lived their lives at Old Plantation:
Hattie Kulamanu Ward (March 26, 1869 to March 2, 1959)
Lucy Kaiaka Ward (August 27, 1874 to March 20, 1954) (one of the founding members of the Hawaiian Humane Society)
Victoria Kathleen Ward (February 27, 1878 September 12, 1958)

Victoria Ward established Victoria Ward Ltd. in 1930 to manage the family’s property, primarily the remaining 65-acres of Old Plantation, now part of the core of Kakaʻako real estate adjoining downtown Honolulu. Victoria Ward died April 11, 1935.

Victoria Ward was loyal to the Kingdom (Queen Liliʻuokalani was her personal friend) and she died under the flag much in the same way her husband passed under the Confederate flag more than 50 years before. (Command)

Three sisters, Lucy Kathleen and Kulamanu, took control of the Victoria Ward Estate, with Kathleen becoming president and Lucy the secretary.

All was not always happy in the family.

In 1951, sisters Lucy and Kathleen sued to establish guardianship for sister Kulamanu. At the hearing, evidence of insanity was undisputed and proved to the judge’s satisfaction that Kulamanu was mentally incapable of managing her estate. On evidence of suitability the probate judge found that Hawaiian Trust Company, Limited, is “a fit and proper person to be appointed” as guardian of her estate. (Circuit Court Records)

Later (1957,) the Supreme Court decided on sisters Lani and Mellie (and nephew Cenric Wodehouse) petition for the appointment of a guardian for their sister, Kathleen, alleging that Kathleen was seventy-seven years of age, mentally infirm and unable to manage her business affairs.

The court found Victoria Kathleen Ward was incompetent to manage her business affairs (but not insane) and appointed Chinn Ho, Mark Norman Olds and George H Vicars, Jr guardians of the property. (Supreme Court Records)

In 1958, the city bought the mauka portion of the Old Plantation Estate and tore it down to build the Honolulu International Center (later re-named Neal S. Blaisdell Center (after Honolulu’s former Mayor.))

The Blaisdell Center has been in operation since 1964 and in 1994 was remodeled and expanded. The Blaisdell Center complex includes a multi-purpose Arena, Exhibition Hall, Galleria, Concert Hall, meeting rooms and parking structure.

On April 8, 2002, General Growth Properties, Inc announced the acquisition of Victoria Ward, Limited; this included 65-fee simple acres in Kakaʻako, with improvements of over one-million square feet of leasable area (Ward Entertainment Center, Ward Warehouse, Ward Village and Village Shops.)

General Growth later (2004) acquired the Howard Hughes Corporation. With excessive debt, General Growth was pushed into bankruptcy in 2009; then, in 2010, it spun off the Ward assets into the Hughes entity (General Growth was out of bankruptcy by the end of that year.)

2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC