Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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January 23, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Marcus Douglas Monsarrat

I like maps, especially historical maps.

One of my favorites was a map of Honolulu drawn by Marcus Douglas Monsarrat, Hawaii-born surveyor.  He prepared it in 1897.

I like it, not only because it represents the nature of the City at that time, but, more importantly, he also depicts homes and buildings, and includes the names of the owners.

Born on March 29, 1857, on his paternal side Monsarrat is descended from Nicholas Monsarrat, who went to Dublin, Ireland, in 1755 from France.

His father, MC Monsarrat resided in Canada before coming to Hawaii, having been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, June 18, 1844, and in the Islands he served as deputy collector of customs, later with Dowsett & Compauy, lumber dealers, which subsequently became SG Wilder & Company.

His father (Marcus Cumming Monsarrat became a bit notorious in the Islands.  Prince Lot had invited Marcus Monsarrat, who lived nearby, as a guest at a dinner party on January 15, 1857.  When dinner was over, Monsarrat bid his goodbye and left. …

Soon after, one of Lot’s servants said the tall, handsome Monsarrat was in Victoria Kamāmalu’s bedroom.  Prince Lot burst into Victoria Kamāmalu’s quarters and discovered her in compromising circumstances with his guest Marcus Monsarrat (he was ‘arranging his pantaloons.’)  He was banished from the Islands.

The incident was embarrassing to the court because efforts were underway to arrange a marriage between Victoria Kamāmalu and Kalākaua; these plans were quickly aborted.  Monsarrat returned; he died in Honolulu on October 18, 1871.  Some suggest Monsarrat Street near Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) is named for Monsarrat; others say it is for his son, James Melville Monsarrat, an attorney and Judge.

Through his mother Marcus Douglas Monsarrat is a descendant of Captain Samuel James Dowsett, a native of Rochester, Kent, England, and a commander in His Majesty’s Colonial Service, who, as owner and master of the brig “Wellington,” came to Hawaii from Sydney July 27, 1828, and established his family in Honolulu. (Nellist)

Monsarrat studied at O‘ahu College (now Punahou School, 1866-70 and 1872-73) and St Alban’s (now Iolani School, 1870-71).  His first employment was with James Dowsett.

Monsarrat worked for the Hawaiian Government Survey from about 1874 until 1877.  The Office of Hawaiian Government Survey was established under the Interior Department in 1870, when the Minister of the Interior, F.W. Hutchison (who had the care of public lands and by law had the authority to have them surveyed), asked the Legislature for $5,000 for “Government Surveying.”

Its formation was prompted by the increased public demand for additional grants of government land in the late 1860s and the government’s corresponding ignorance of the amount or location of government land still available for lease or sale.

It was also surmised that a survey and its resultant maps, besides determining the extent of remnant government lands, would prove useful to private individuals and other government agencies, especially tax assessors, boundary commissioners and the courts, since no district maps then existed and island maps were still based on the charts of Cook and Vancouver.

Consequently, an Office of Survey was begun and its primary object was “to account for all the land in the Kingdom by its original title, and indicate such accounting on general maps, and while having no authority to settle boundaries, to require the surveyors to lay down such boundaries on maps to the best of their ability with the abundant information at their disposal.” (DAGS, Survey)

Monsarrat surveyed the Island of Lanai.  After working for the government, Monsarrat opened his own surveying firm. He served as Crown surveyor from 1878 until Hawai‘i’s annexation with the US. (Geographicus) He also had a contract to survey Molokai.

During his long and active career, he personally surveyed a large portion of the Hawaiian Islands.  From 1902 to the time of his death, he served as commissioner of boundaries for first and second judicial circuits.  (Siddall)

Monsarrat married Florence Ellen Luce, at Honolulu, June 1, 1882; they had three children, Kathleen Douglas, Mildred Myrtle (deceased), and Ethel Florence. (They later divorced.)  Monsarrat died October 23, 1922.

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Filed Under: Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii

January 21, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Point Four Program

In his inaugural address (January 20, 1949) President Harry S Truman noted that, “Since the end of hostilities [of WWII], the United States has invested its substance and its energy in a great constructive effort to restore peace, stability, and freedom to the world. …”

“We have constantly and vigorously supported the United Nations and related agencies as a means of applying democratic principles to international relations. We have consistently advocated and relied upon peaceful settlement of disputes among nations.”

Truman challenged the nation by stating that, “In the coming years, our program for peace and freedom will emphasize four major courses of action.” 

He noted that, “First, we will continue to give unfaltering support to the United Nations and related agencies … Second, we will continue our programs for world economic recovery. … Third, we will strengthen freedom-loving nations against the dangers of aggression.”

The last of his initiatives later earned the name, Point Four Program.  In it, he stated, “Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.”

Truman went on to elaborate, in describing this latter point, “I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples the benefits of our store of technical knowledge in order to help them realize their aspirations for a better life. And, in cooperation with other nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needing development.”

“Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materials for housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens.” (Truman Inaugural Address, Truman Library Museum, National Archives)

“The primary functions of Point Four lie in the fields of education, public health and agriculture. In the fiscal year 1951 approximately 80 per cent of the Point Four budget was spent on projects in these fields.”  (Rickher)

It’s interesting that later history writers referenced the first American Protestant Missionaries to Hawai‘i as the “first American Point Four Agents.” (Tate)

“[O]ne hundred-thirteen years before President Harry S. Truman’s ‘bold new program’ for making the benefits of American scientific ‘know how’ and industrial progress available for the advancement of undeveloped areas of the world …”

“… the Sandwich Islands missionaries demonstrated a genuine and prophetic acquaintance with the requirements of a humble people lacking skill, enterprise, and industry, and suffering under so many restrictions that their temporal prosperity and their existence as a nation appeared problematical.”

“To the naive and sometimes indolent Hawaiians the evangelists exhibited the advantages of industry and frugality; they endeavored earnestly with their limited resources to lift a benighted nation from ignorance and poverty, in fact, to save it from extinction.”

“Their mission was more than a mission of love – it was the first American technical mission overseas; their tireless labors and simple instruction in the agricultural, mechanical, and manual fields represented the first chapter in the prelude to Point Four.” (Tate)

“On November 15, 1832, Rev. William Richards and others at Lahaina, Maui, in a letter to the American Board, expressed their conviction that in order to retain the ground which Christianity had already gained in the islands, new plans must be devised for elevating the character and living standards of the people.”

“As one means of doing this, they suggested that the Board sponsor a project for introducing the manufacture of cotton cloth into Hawaii. … The missionaries did not propose that the Board become a manufacturing company; but they saw nothing more inconsistent in teaching the people to manufacture cloth than in instructing them in agriculture.”

“They had already voted to teach the Hawaiians carpentry in connection with the high school at Lahainaluna, near Lahaina. In the same month [missionaries in Kona] emphasized the need of machinery for the domestic manufacture of cloth and of an instructor.”

“These clergymen earnestly invited the attention of ‘the friends of civilization to the subject of raising this people from their degradation’ and of uniting ‘with this mission in fixing upon some practicable means to effectuate this object.’ The American Board looked favorably upon the plan”.

Rev BB Wisner, secretary of the American Board, “wanted to have the deliberate views of the mission on the subject of agriculture, not with the aim of making New England farmers, ‘but of introducing and encouraging among them [the Hawaiians] such agriculture as is suited to their climate.”

The missionaries in the Islands “regarded the subject as of sufficient importance to warrant ‘encouraging the growth of cotton, coffee, sugar cane, etc., that the people may have more business on their hands and increase their temporal comforts.’”

“The initial steps toward the desired end were taken at the mission stations that became veritable oases from which seeds and cuttings of vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers were distributed throughout the country districts.”

“Edwin Locke at Waialua, Oahu, Samuel Ruggles at Kona, Hawaii, and James Goodrich, of the Hilo station, were especially successful along these lines.”  (Tate)

“The first mission schools were not established as industrial or manual training institutions, but in the 1830’s the evangelists perceived the importance of agriculture and industry in raising the living standard of the nation.”

“In their general meeting held at Lahaina in 1833 they proposed a manual labor system, as a means both of desirable improvement and self-support, to be instituted at the high school. The secular agent was instructed to engage an artisan to oversee the work, take charge of the stock, tools, etc.”

“Two years later the mission recommended that a farmer be procured to teach agriculture and to conduct the secular concerns of the school and that the scholars be required to cultivate the land or earn their own food by their personal industry.”  (Tate)

“In 1841 a regular manual labor school was started at Waioli, on Kauai, by Edward Johnson, but later was conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Abner Wilcox. Moreover, in the boarding schools at Kohala, Wailuku, and Hilo the boys were given instruction in agriculture and the girls were taught domestic science or home making.”

“[T]he Hilo Boarding School curriculum kept abreast with industrial progress by introducing successively courses in agriculture, tailoring, dairying, carpentry, blacksmithing, and coffee culture in the nineteenth century and cocoa, banana, and pineapple production and auto mechanics in the twentieth.”

“On twenty-five acres of land at Lahainaluna set aside for vocational education, Samuel T. Alexander, just out of college, was assigned … to the supervision of a sugar cane project. The success of this experiment conducted by the son of a former missionary principal, William P. Alexander, encouraged the commercial development of sugar in Hawaii.”

The Hawaiian leadership saw benefits.  King Kamehameha III sought to expand sugar cultivation and production, as well as expand other agricultural ventures to support commercial agriculture in the Islands.  In a speech to the Legislature in 1847, the King notes:

“I recommend to your most serious consideration, to devise means to promote the agriculture of the islands, and profitable industry among all classes of their inhabitants. It is my wish that my subjects should possess lands upon a secure title; enabling them to live in abundance and comfort, and to bring up their children free from the vices that prevail in the seaports.”

“What my native subjects are greatly in want of, to become farmers, is capital with which to buy cattle, fence in the land and cultivate it properly.”

“I recommend you to consider the best means of inducing foreigners to furnish capital for carrying on agricultural operations, that thus the exports of the country may be increased …” (King Kamehameha III Speech to the Legislature, April 28, 1847; Archives)

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Filed Under: Economy, General, Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Prominent People Tagged With: Sugar, Kamehameha III, Agriculture, Economy, Point Four Program, Hawaii, Missionaries

January 20, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The First Images of Hawai‘i (John Webber)

John Webber (Johann Waeber) served as official artist on Captain James Cook’s third voyage of discovery around the Pacific (1776-1780) aboard HMS Resolution.

Through his work, we have the first glimpses of what the people and landscape looked like.

Webber became the first European artist to make contact with Hawai‘i, then called the Sandwich Islands. He made numerous watercolor landscapes of the islands of Kauai and Hawai‘i, and also portrayed many of the Hawaiian people.

Born in 1751, when John was six, his parents sent him to Bern to live with his father’s sister. He must have shown ability in art, for at sixteen he was apprenticed to a leading, and popular, landscape artist in Switzerland, Johann Aberli.

He spent three years in Aberli’s studio, and then had four years in Paris, where he studied drawing and oil painting at the Académie Royale. Eventually he returned to London to work and to continue his studies at the Royal Academy there.

In 1776, Webber’s work at an exhibition caught the eye of Daniel Solander, a botanist on Cook’s first voyage. Solander knew that the Admiralty was still looking for a suitable expedition artist for Cook’s forthcoming voyage. He met Webber to sound out his interest in the task. (govt-nz)

Knowing that no artist had yet been selected for Cook’s voyage, Solander recommended Webber to the Admiralty and Royal Society. His appointment was made just days before the departure. (gov-au)

Webber was twenty-four years old when he was offered a place as expedition artist with Captain James Cook on his third voyage of exploration to the Pacific.

It must have seemed an amazing opportunity to an artist in the early stages of his career. And indeed that voyage became a launching pad for the direction of Webber’s work for the rest of his life.

Webber’s appointment was a success. He was popular with his shipmates, and his work was appreciated too. He was obviously an assiduous and enthusiastic worker. He penned, crayoned, and water-coloured his way around the world, producing a large volume of material – from lightning quick field sketches, to worked-up drawings, to complete compositions.

One of his first tasks on the expedition’s return to England in 1780 was to complete the portrait of James Cook he had begun in 1776, which he then presented to Cook’s widow.

The Admiralty employed him for several years making oil paintings based on his drawings. These were the illustrations for the official account of the voyage. He then supervised the engravings made of the pictures to enable them to be printed and published.

Webber’s reputation as an artist was thoroughly established by his work from this voyage. His representation of Pacific places continued to fascinate an audience with a thirst for the exotic.

One outcome was his involvement in the creation of stage scenery and costumes for the 1785 London stage spectacle loosely based on Cook’s voyages and on the travels of Omai from the Society Islands.

For the rest of his life he made regular tours drawing landscapes in Britain and Europe. He continued to do portraits and paint compositions based on the drawings of his Pacific travels, such as his painting of Ship Cove

He was one of the first artists to make and sell prints of his own works. He was made a full member of the Royal Academy in 1791 – a distinction in those days for someone who was regarded primarily as a landscape artist. He died from kidney disease in 1793, leaving ‘a considerable fortune’. (govt-nz)

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View of the Sandwich Islands_Webber-Anchorage at Atooi
View of the Sandwich Islands_Webber-Anchorage at Atooi
An Inland View of Atooi-Webber-Rumsey-S
An Inland View of Atooi-Webber-Rumsey-S
A Morai in Atooi-Webber-Rumsey-S
A Morai in Atooi-Webber-Rumsey-S
Kalaniopuu, King of Hawaii, bringing presents to Captain Cook-John_Webber-1779
A Morai in Atooi-Webber-Rumsey
A Morai in Atooi-Webber-Rumsey
Heiau_at_Waimea_by_John_Webber-1778-79
Heiau_at_Waimea_by_John_Webber-1778-79
Kealakekua-John Webber art-1779
Kealakekua-John Webber art-1779
View of the Sandwich Islands_Webber-Achorage at Atooi-400
View of the Sandwich Islands_Webber-Achorage at Atooi-400
Kalaniopuu, King of Hawaii, bringing presents to Captain Cook-John_Webber-1779
Kalaniopuu, King of Hawaii, bringing presents to Captain Cook-John_Webber-1779
A_view_of_Karakokooa,_in_Owyhee_by_John_Webber
A_view_of_Karakokooa,_in_Owyhee_by_John_Webber
A_Canoe_of_the_Sandwich_Islands,_the_Rowers_Masked_by_John_Webber_1779
A_Canoe_of_the_Sandwich_Islands,_the_Rowers_Masked_by_John_Webber_1779
A_man_of_the_Sandwich_Islands_dancing_by_John_Webber-1778
A_man_of_the_Sandwich_Islands_dancing_by_John_Webber-1778
A_Man_of_the_Sandwich_Islands_in_a_Mask_by_John_Webber_ca_1784_
A_Man_of_the_Sandwich_Islands_in_a_Mask_by_John_Webber_ca_1784_
An_offering_before_Capt._Cook,_in_the_Sandwich_Islands._Drawn_by_J._Webber-1778
An_offering_before_Capt._Cook,_in_the_Sandwich_Islands._Drawn_by_J._Webber-1778
C.1779, John Webber art, Kealakekua Bay and Hawaiian people.
C.1779, John Webber art, Kealakekua Bay and Hawaiian people.
Surfing_Cook_Hawaii_John_Webber-1778
Surfing_Cook_Hawaii_John_Webber-1778

Filed Under: Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Hawaii, Captain Cook, John Webber, James Cook

January 19, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cook’s Journal on the Moment of Contact

“On the 2d of January [1778], at day-break, we weighed anchor [ at Christmas Island}, and resumed our course to the north; having fine weather, and a gentle breeze at east, and east-south-east, till we got into the latitude of 7° 45′ N. and the longitude of 205″ E., where we had one calm day.”

“This was succeeded by a north-east by east, and east-north-east wind. At first it blew faint, but freshened as we advanced to the north.”

“We continued to see birds every day, of the sorts last mentioned; sometimes in greater numbers than others; and between the latitude of 10° and 11° we saw several turtle. All these are looked upon as signs of the vicinity of land.”

“However, we discovered none till day-break, in the morning of the 18th, when an island made its appearance, bearing northeast by east; and, soon after, we saw more land bearing north, and entirely detached from the former.”

“Both had the appearance of being high land. At noon, the first bore north-east by east, half east, by estimation about eight or nine leagues distant; and an elevated hill, near the east end of the other, bore north, half west. Our latitude, at this time, was 21° 12’ N.; and longitude 200° 41′ E.”

“We had now light airs and calms, by turns; so that at sunset, we were not less than nine or ten leagues from the nearest land.”

“On the 19th, at sunrise, the island first seen, bore east several leagues distant. This being directly to windward, which prevented our getting near it, I stood for the other, which we could reach; and not long after discovered a third island in the direction of west north-west, as far distant as land could be seen.”

“We had now a fine breeze at east by north ; and I steered for the east end of the second island ; which at noon extended from north, half east, to west northwest, a quarter west, the nearest part being about two leagues distant.”

“At this time, we were in some doubt whether or no the land before us was inhabited; but this doubt was soon cleared up, by seeing some canoes coming off from the shore, toward the ships, I immediately brought-to, to give them time to join us.”

“They had from three to six men each ; and, on their approach, we were agreeably surprised to find, that they spoke the language of Otaheite, and of the other islands we had lately visited.”

“It required but very little address, to get them to come alongside; but no intreaties could prevail upon any of them to come on board.”

“I tied some brass medals to a rope, and gave them to those in one of the canoes, who, in return, tied some small mackerel to the rope as an equivalent. This was repeated’ and some small nails, or bits of iron, which they valued more than any other article, were given them.”

“For these they exchanged more fish, and a sweet potatoe ; a sure sign that they had some notion of bartering; or, at least, of returning one present for another. They had nothing else in their canoes, except some large gourd shells, and a kind of fishing-net; but one of them offered for sale the piece of stuff that he wore round his waist, after the manner of the other islands.”

“These people were of a brown colour ; and, though of the common size, were stoutly made. There was little difference in the cast of their colour, but a considerable variation in their features ; some of their visages not being very unlike those of Europeans.”

“The hair of most of them was cropt pretty short ; others had it flowing loose; and, with a few, it was tied in a bunch on the crown of the head. In all, it seemed to be naturally black; but most of them had stained it, as is the practice of the Friendly Islanders, with some stuff which gave it a brown or burnt colour.”

“In general they wore their beards. They had no ornaments about their persons, nor did we observe that their ears were perforated ; but some were punctured on the hands, or near the groin, though in a small degree ; and the bits of cloth which they wore, were curiously stained with red, black, and white colours.”

“They seemed very mild ; and had no arms of any kind, if we except some small stones, which they had evidently brought for their own defence ; and these they threw overboard, when they found that they were not wanted.”

“Seeing no signs of an anchoring place at this eastern extreme of the island, I bore away to leeward, and ranged along the south east side, at the distance of half a league from the shore. As soon as we made sail, the canoes left us; …”

“… but others came off, as we proceeded along the coast, bringing with them roasting pigs, and some very fine potatoes, which they exchanged, as the others had done, for whatever was offered to them. Several small pigs were purchased for a sixpenny nail ; so that we again found ourselves in a land of plenty ; and just at the time when the turtle, which we had 90 fortunately procured at Christmas Island, were nearly expended.”

“We passed several villages ; some seated near the sea, and others farther up the country. The inhabitants of all of them crowded to the shore, and collected themselves on the elevated places to view the ships.”

“The land upon this side of the island rises in a gentle slope, from the sea to the foot of the mountains, which occupy the centre of the country, except at one place near the east end, where they rise directly from the sea, and seemed to be formed of nothing but stone, or rocks lying in horizontal strata.”

“We saw no wood, but what was up in the interior part of the island, except a few trees about the villages; near which, also, we could observe several plantations of plantains and sugar-canes, and spots that seemed cultivated for roots.”

“We continued to sound, without striking ground with a line of fifty fathoms, till we came abreast of a low point, which is about the middle of this side of the island, or rather nearer the north-west end. Here we met with twelve and fourteen fathoms, over a rocky bottom.”

“Being past this point, from which the coast trended more northerly, we had twenty, then sixteen, twelve, and, at last, five fathoms over a sandy bottom. The last soundings were about a mile from the shore. Night now put a stop to any farther researches ; and we spent it standing off and on.”

“The next morning we stood in for the land, and were met with several canoes filled with people; some of whom took courage, and ventured on board.”

“In the course of my several voyages, I never before met with the natives of any place so much astonished, as these people were, upon entering a ship.”

“Their eyes were continually flying from object to object; the wildness of their looks and gestures fully expressing their entire ignorance about every thing they saw, and strongly marking to us, that, till now, they had never been visited by Europeans, nor been acquainted with any of our commodities except iron; …”

“… which, however, it was plain, they had only heard of, or had known it in some small quantity brought to them at some distant period. They seemed, only to understand, that it was a substance much better adapted to the purposes of cutting, or of boring of holes, than any thing their own country produced.”

“They asked for it by the name of hamaite, probably referring to some instrument, in the making of which iron could be usefully employed; for they applied that name to the blade of a knife, though we could be certain that they had no idea of that particular instrument ; nor could they at all handle it properly.”

“For the same reason, they frequently called iron by the name of toe, which in their language signifies a hatchet, or rather a kind of adze. On asking them what iron was, they immediately answered, ‘We do not know ; you know what it is, and we only understand it as toe, or hamaite.’”

“When we shewed them some beads, they asked first, ‘What they were; and then, whether they should eat them?’ But on their being told, that they were to be hung in their ears, they returned them as useless.”

“They were equally indifferent as to a looking-glass, which was offered them, and returned it, for the same reason but sufficiently expressed their desire for hamaite and toe, which they wished might be very large.”

“Plates of earthen-ware, china cups, and other such things, were so new to them, that they asked if they were made of wood ; but wished to have some, that they might carry them to be looked at on shore.”

“They were in some respects naturally well bred ; or, at least, fearful of giving offence, asking, where they should sit down, whether they might spit upon the deck, and the like.”

“Some of them repeated a long prayer before they came on board ; and others, afterward, sung and made motions with their hands, such as we bad been accustomed to see in the dances of the islands we had lately visited.”

“There was another circumstance in which they also perfectly resembled those other islanders. At first, on their entering the ship, they endeavoured to steal every thing they came near ; or rather to take it openly, as what we either should not resent, or not hinder.”

“We soon convinced them of their mistake; and if they, after some time, became less active in appropriating to themselves whatever they took a fancy to, it was because they found that we kept a watchful eye over them.”    (Cook’s Journal; 2nd of 3rd Voyage, pgs 176-181)

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Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions, Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Contact, James Cook

January 16, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Horace Gates Crabbe

“Horace Gates Crabbe [Papai, Kuokoa] was born in Philadelphia March 2, 1837. … When he was about sixteen years of age, his father, Captain Crabbe of the United States Marine Corps, was attached to the yards at New Orleans.”

“[Crabbe’s father] was ordered to California and took passage in a sailing vessel and came around Cape Horn. The vessel carried United States stores which were consigned to the naval forces at Monterey.”

“Young Crabbe undertook the journey as clerk to his father. They remained in California for a short time when Captain Crabbe was sent to Honolulu. [Captain Crabbe] was a representative here of the United States for some time, when he resigned and went into business for himself.”

“Horace Crabbe remained with his father, acting as his clerk. He afterwards went into business for himself.”  (Sunday Advertiser, Dec 6, 1903)

In 1857 Crabbe married Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Meek, daughter of Captain John Meek.  (John Meek (Nov. 24, 1791 – Jan. 29, 1875) came to Hawaii from Massachusetts in 1809 along with his brother Captain Thomas Meek, who was engaged in the Northwest trade.)

“While Col WF Allen was Collector of the Port Horace Crabbe occupied a position in the Customs House and in a subsequent regime he was the acting Surveyor of the Port.” (Sunday Advertiser, Dec 6, 1903)

Following the death of Kamehameha V, William Charles Lunalilo ascended the throne by election in 1873. “Lunalilo was a Congregationalist and ‘well liked by haole who considered him democratic.’” (Renaud)

Lunalilo appointed conservative haoles to his four-member cabinet: Charles Reed Bishop (husband of Lunalilo’s cousin, Pauahi – Minister of Foreign Affairs), Edwin O Hall (Minister of Interior), Robert Stirling (Minister of Finance) and Albert Francis Judd (Attorney General).

With a depressed economy, Bishop’s economic program was simple and straightforward: trade a Hawaiian harbor to the US for a naval base in return for a treaty that admitted Hawaiian sugar to the US duty free. (Dye) (What became known as the Treaty of Reciprocity was ultimately adopted during Kalakaua’s regime.)

The newspaper also announced Lunalilo’s appointment of Chamberlain. (The Chamberlain was an officer of the royal household appointed by the monarch and confirmed by the Privy Council. He was responsible for the royal household and the private estates of the monarch.  (Hawai‘i State Archives))

“We are pleased to learn that His Majesty has bestowed the honorable and somewhat onerous post of Chamberlain upon Mr. Horatio G Crabbe. …”

“He is well qualified for the position, and the fact that he is married to a native of the country and has a family here, is a proof that His Majesty recognizes the justice of the policy of advancing those who have identities themselves with his own people, and who are otherwise competent.” (PCA, Jan 18, 1873)

Lunalilo never married, but he had “mistress Eliza Meek, who was the part-Hawaiian daughter to Captain John Meek, the harbor master.” (Kanahele) Their relationship was apparently more of a love-hate relationship. (Renaud) Eliza was sister-in-law to Crabbe.

A Kamehameha through his mother Kekāuluohi, Lunalilo proclaimed the royal family to consist of himself, his father Kanaʻina, Dowager Queen Emma and Keʻelikōlani. His official royal court included these four, along with the king’s treasurer, HG Crabbe. (Nogelmeier)

Lunalilo died February 3, 1874, after only serving about 1-year as King.  Crabbe “then went to Leilehua Ranch which he partly owned. The drought came and the ranch was almost stripped of its live stock. He returned to Honolulu and successively engaged in the draying and hay and grain business.”

“While in the grain business he was elected a noble on the National Reform ticket during the reign of Kalakaua and served his term in the legislature.”

“In later years he was connected with the police station under Marshal Parke, and was also with the Oahu Railway. In recent times he retired from active participation in business or affairs.”

“Horace Gates Crabbe one of the white kamaainas longest in these islands died at 10:30 o’clock Saturday evening [December 6, 1903] at his residence on Nuuanu avenue following a stroke of paralysis suffered about a week before.” (Hawaiian Star, Dec 7, 1903)

“He leaves surviving him five children: De Courcy W, John M, Clarence L [the President of the Hawaiian Senate], Horace N, and Mrs Lydia R Allen.”  (Sunday Advertiser, Dec 6, 1903)

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Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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