Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Colnett

Captain James Cook set sail on three voyages to the South Seas.  His first Pacific voyage (1768-1771) was aboard the Endeavour and began on May 27, 1768. It had three aims; go to Tahiti to record the transit of Venus (when Venus passes between the earth and sun – June 3, 1769;) record natural history, led by 25-year-old Joseph Banks; and search for the Great South Land.

Cook’s second Pacific voyage (1772-1775) aboard Resolution and Adventure aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent, and make astronomical observations.

Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.  Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery.  (State Library, New South Wales)

“Every Fighting Service has, and must have, two main categories – ‘Officers’ and ‘Men.’ The Royal Navy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was no exception. The distinction existed: was indeed more than ordinarily marked. It was not only a naval distinction, but a sharp social one too.”

“‘Officers’ as contemporary society used that word, came from one walk of life, ‘Men’ from another: and, as it was not easy in Society to pass from a lower stratum to a higher, so in the Navy, it was not easy for a ‘Man’ to become an Officer. But it was possible.” (Captain Cook Society)

“Cook had chosen his subordinates well or had been lucky. The officers of the third voyage were a remarkably intelligent group of men.” (Captain Cook Society)

“All the great remaining voyages of the eighteenth century drew on Cook’s officers. Bligh, Portlock, Vancouver, Colnett, Riou, and Hergest all got their commands and served with great distinction. These men then passed on their skills to a second generation of men such as Flinders and Broughton.”  (Mackay, Captain Cook Society)

James Colnett was born in 1753 at Plymouth, England; the Colnett family was originally from the Stepney district of East London.

His father, James Colnett senior, was in the Royal Navy and this took him and the family to Plymouth and Portsmouth. His father died in 1760.  James Jr’s mother, Sarah, was left to bring up the four children alone.

The younger James began his naval career on June 28, 1770 as an able seaman on the Hazard, a small sloop. On September 4, 1771, he became a midshipman on HMS Scorpion under James Cook and transferred to the Resolution when Cook was readying for his second Pacific voyage.

Colnett served as midshipman throughout Cook’s second voyage from 1772 until 1775. Colnett was the first European to sight New Caledonia, and Cook named Cape Colnett and Mount Colnett commemorated that sighting.

One of his midshipman colleagues, John Elliott, later described Colnett as ‘Clever and Sober’.

After Cook’s voyage, Colnett was appointed to the Juno, a 5th rank, as gunner on January 1, 1776.  He was then appointed master of the Adventure during the War of American Independence before passing for lieutenant on February 4, 1779. Ten days later he was appointed third lieutenant of the Bienfaisant, a 3rd rank, remaining on that ship until 1783.

In one of his journals, he provides advice on passage around Cape Horn (south of South America), “I have doubled Cape Horn in different seasons …”

“… but were I to make another voyage to this part of the globe, and could command my time, I would most certainly prefer the beginning of winter, or even winter itself, with moon-light nights; for, in that season, the winds begin to vary to the Eastward; as I found them, and as Captain, now Admiral, Macbride, observed at the Falkland Isles.”

“Another error, which, in my opinion, the commanders of vessels bound round Cape Horn commit, is, by keeping between the Falkland Isles and the main, and through the Straits Le Maire …”

“… which not only lengthens the distance, but subjects them to an heavy, irregular sea, occasioned by the rapidity of the current and tides in that channel, which may be avoided, by passing to the Eastward.”

“At the same time, I would recommend them to keep near the coast of Staten Land, and Terra del Fuego, because the winds are more variable, in with the shore, than at a long offing. …”

“If the navigation round Cape Horn should ever become common, such, a place we must possess; and agreeable to the last convention with Spain, we are entitled to keep possession of it, and apply it to any purpose of peace or war. Great advantages might arise from such a settlement.” (Colnett)

In 1785, a London merchant, Richard Cadman Etches, had formed the King George’s Sound Company to send ships to the Northwest coast of North America to exploit the sea otter pelt trade.

Two ships, the King George and the Queen Charlotte, had already been dispatched in 1785 under the command of Nathaniel Portlock and George Dixon and it was now proposed to send another two ships.

Colnett had been in discussions with Etches and, having obtained permission from the Admiralty for extended leave of absence, he took command of the expedition and the Prince of Wales, the larger ship. Charles Duncan was appointed to command the Princess Royal consort vessel.

The ships left Britain in October 1786 and spent the summer of 1787 trading in the Queen Charlotte Islands and the adjacent mainland.   The two ships then sailed in August 1788 for Hawai‘i. The traders had usually wintered at the Hawaiian islands.

It was then, in what appears is the first reference and suggestion that Pacific captains should hire Hawaiians to their crew.  In his journal, Colnett suggested, “If you can procure a hardy willing fellow from Isles [Hawai‘i] to embark with you to increase your strength …”

He also provides other observations about the Hawaiian, “You will in the winter Season send what Vessels you Judge proper to the Sandwich Isles for Provisions …”

“… and in their return we imagine that some of the Natives of those Isles both men and women may be embark’d and transplanted to America and made useful in our employ. This must be done by their own consent and with every precaution with regard to their health as well as happiness.” (Colnett)

Colnett had been away for five and a half years during which time his mother had died in 1790. A codicil to her will was witnessed by Nathaniel Portlock, who had led the other Etches expedition to the Pacific.

The Pacific sperm-whaling industry began with the 1789–90 voyage of the Emelia out of England. Prompted by that voyage’s success, the Emelia’s owners commissioned James Colnett in 1793 to take the Rattler to the Pacific Ocean to discover exactly where and when sperm whales congregated and to discover suitable ports and anchorages that British whalers could use.

Colnett’s narrative of the voyage was published in 1798 together with a series of charts. Colnett’s voyage opened up the South Pacific whale fishery.

Sperm oil, used in lamps, and spermaceti (a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale), used in candles, fueled the eighteenth-century lighting revolution, inside homes and outside on public thoroughfares.

James Colnett died on September 1, 1806, at his lodgings in Great Ormond Street, London.  He was buried on September 6 in St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney.  (Information here is from A Voyage to the South Atlantic and around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, Colnett; New Histories of Pacific Whaling, Jones & Wanhalla; Captain Cook Society)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bishop Moves to California

“[T]he Man of Peace leaves institutions founded and endowed for promoting Education, Science, Charity and Good Morals, – his memory blessed by generations that he never knew.”

He never mentioned “any particular guide or mentor who took the place of parents in his early years. His faithfulness to the work in hand, whatever it might be, seems to have been innate, and in no way corrupted by unfit companions.”

We should remember “the good that he did in a long life on the Hawaiian Islands, for it was not long before the natural desire came to him to know more than the rural region of his birth offered, and the good sense of proper companionship that had befriended in early life continued when he left his native shores to seek a fortune in what was then called the ‘Northwest’”.

“The hand of God seems visible in the direction of that voyage, for provisions gave out and the ship put in to Honolulu for supplies. Perhaps with exception of the missionaries no ship ever brought greater help to these islands than these two young men [Charles R Bishop and William L Lee] were, all unconsciously, bringing in their unexpected visit in search of food.”

“While his interest in education so valuable to the country in later days took him often to the Royal School for Chiefs, then in the charge of Mr and Mrs Cooke, wise selection of companions picked out the Princess Pauahi, who soon showed an equal inclination to the interesting young haole.”

Bishop and Pauahi “were privately married in the school parlor, and [Pauahi’s father] Abner Paki in his wrath disowned his beloved Bernice and took Liliuokalani in her place; …”

“… but the father-love was stronger than his anger, and after a year’s estrangement all was forgiven and the young couple came back to Paki’s home, “Haleakala”, which soon became the greatest centre of hospitality in Honolulu.”

“In this quiet way began the united life that was to give so much to Honolulu and the whole kingdom, not merely in money, but in far greater measure in good influences among both natives of the soil and the foreigners who settled here and those who merely pass through on their way to other lands.”   (Brigham in Thrum 1916)

“Next to her royal lineage, no other aspect of Pauahi’s life was as important to her fulfillment as a woman … as her marriage to Charles Reed Bishop. He brought her the love and esteem she needed as a woman and the organizational and financial acumen she needed to ensure the successful founding of her estate.”

“It was Thursday, October 16, 1884. The rains had been falling since early morning. Pauahi was unconscious and Charles was at her side. In a heavy downpour the rains reached a crescendo just about the time Pauahi died. It was twelve minutes after noon.”  (Kanahele)

“After 34 years of marriage, Pauahi died … Bishop was co-executor of her will and one of five trustees she selected to manage her estate.”

“Bishop and his royal wife never had children of their own, but their love for Hawaii’s people and Hawaiian children were of high priority. Bishop set in motion the process that resulted in the establishment of the Kamehameha Schools in 1887.”  (Dela Cruz)

“Because Pauahi’s estate was basically land rich and cash poor, Bishop contributed his own funds for the construction of several of the schools’ initial buildings on the original Kalihi campus …”

“… the Preparatory Department facilities (1888), Bishop Hall (1891) and Bernice Pauahi Bishop Memorial Chapel (1897). In addition, he founded and endowed the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in 1889 as an enduring memorial to his wife.”  (KSBE)

Bishop noted, “‘Being interested in her plans and wishes and because of her very generous gifts to me … I decided to carry out her wishes regarding the schools and promised to do something toward a museum of Hawaiian and other Polynesian objects”.

“‘[I]n order to accomplish something quickly without sacrifice or embarrassment of her estate, I soon reconveyed to her estate the life interests given by her will and added a considerable amount of my own property on Oahu, Hawaii and Molokai.’ (C.R. Bishop letter to Samuel Damon, 1911)” (KSBE)

“In 1889, again with his own funds, Bishop established a museum in his wife’s honor. The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum was built to house the princess’s personal collections, ranging from chiefly possessions to Polynesian curios. Today, it is the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History and houses more than 24 million catalogued objects.”  (Dela Cruz)

“During the 1880s, Bishop visited San Francisco frequently, staying at the Occidental Hotel. In 1894, he made it his residence”. (Dela Cruz)

“[W]hile approving annexation as the only way of protecting the group from Oriental capture, he thought it wiser to remove to San Francisco where he had important interests, and he never revisited his island home.” (Brigham)

“It has been mentioned that Mr. Bishop was a trustee of Oahu College [Punahou School], and as his interest was strongly educational it was there that some of his larger public gifts were made; besides endowments there were the Scientific Building, Pauahi Hall, and the CR Bishop Building for the preparatory classes, permanent monuments.” (Brigham)

“During his years in San Francisco, many visitors traveling to and from Hawaii would visit with him at his apartment; many of them sought his advice. From California, he also remained active in all of his philanthropic affairs in Hawaii. He created a Charles R Bishop Trust to provide direction for his charities and philanthropies.”

“Then, in 1906, the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed many of Bishop’s possessions, including all of his wife’s correspondence, pictures and personal papers. Following the disaster, he moved to Berkeley, where he died on June 7, 1915. He was 93 years old.”

“When news of his death reached Hawaii, flags were lowered to half-staff. A grieving Queen Liliuokalani was quoted in the Pacific Advertiser stating: “In common with those who have known Mr. Bishop for a lifetime, I feel the news of his death most keenly, and can truly say that his loss to Hawaii and the Hawaiians is irreparable.”

“Bishop’s ashes were returned to Hawaii where memorial services were held at Kawaiahao Church. The chants of Kamehameha were performed in his honor, and a royal ceremony was observed for the first time in nearly 100 years for a Caucasian man connected with the Kamehameha dynasty.”

“The only other white man to lay in state in such fashion was John Young, Kamehameha the Great’s trusted friend and adviser. Bishop was laid to rest with his wife at the royal mausoleum, at the tomb of the Kamehameha’s.” (Dela Cruz)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sugar/Forestry Connection

The early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in the islands.

As a later economic entity, sugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid‐19th century and became the principal industry in the islands, until it was succeeded by the visitor industry in 1960.

Hawaiʻi had the basic natural resources needed to grow sugar: land, sun and water. Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.

Sugar‐cane farming gained this prestige without great difficulty because sugar cane soon proved to be the only available crop that could be grown profitably under the severe conditions imposed upon plants grown on the lands which were available for cultivation. (HSPA 1947)

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese 1852; Japanese 1885; and Filipinos 1905. Several smaller, but substantial, migrations also occurred: Portuguese 1877; Norwegians 1880; Germans 1881; Puerto Ricans 1900; Koreans 1902 and Spanish 1907.

It is not likely anyone then foresaw the impact this would have on the cultural and social structure of the islands. The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures. Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix.

Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places on the globe. Sugar changed the social fabric of Hawai‘i.

That is not the only influence that sugar production had in the Islands.

Interestingly, it was the sugar growers, significant users of Hawai‘i’s water resources, who led the forest reserve protection movement.

We are fortunate that a little over 100-years ago some forward thinkers had the good sense to set aside Hawai‘i’s forested lands and protected our forest watersheds under the State’s Forest Reserve system. While I was at DLNR, we oversaw these nearly 1-million acres of mauka lands.

The link between tree-planting and the sugar planters can be seen particularly clearly in the career of Harold Lyon, who arrived in Hawai‘i in 1907 as a plant pathologist in the employ of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA).

Diseases of sugar cane occupied Lyon’s efforts for several years, but his purview gradually broadened to include a variety of problems relating to Hawaiian agriculture, including deforestation. (Woodcock)

Lyon was a strong voice for forests. In an early report, he discussed the water situation on O‘ahu, the insufficient supplies of water available for agriculture, and the role of the forested high-elevation areas of the windward Ko‘olau in recharging the island’s aquifer.

He described the water budget and the action of forested watersheds in slowing the rate of runoff and increasing infiltration and flow of water to groundwater. (Woodcock)

It was evident to Lyon and others that deforestation was increasing runoff – water that was essentially lost to agriculture, since the topography of the islands, with their many short streams, makes impoundment, and in many cases diversion, impractical.

As evidence for the water-conserving role of vegetation, Lyon noted the drying out of many streams that had previously been more continuously flowing, an observation that by this time had been made repeatedly.

Lyon emphasized that the problem was not just increased demand for water but also the conditions determining supply – ‘‘The candle is burning at both ends and we only fan the flames’’ – and argued that resources should be committed to reforest the watersheds with ‘‘healthy, water-conserving forest’’. (Woodcock)

Neglect of the islands’ forests would be ‘‘suicidal,’’ for ‘‘everything fails with the failure of our water supply’’. (Lyon; Woodcock)

After more than a century of massive forest loss and destruction, the Territory of Hawai‘i acknowledged that preservation of the forest was vital to the future economic prosperity of the Islands.

Urged by sugarcane growers and government foresters concerned about the vanishing woodlands, the forest reserve system became the basis for the largest public-private partnership in the history of the Islands. (Last Stand)

On May 13, 1903, the Territory of Hawaiʻi, with the backing of the Hawaiʻi Sugar Planters’ Association, established the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry. (HDOA) The next year, Ralph Sheldon Hosmer became the first Superintendent of Forestry in the Islands.

The forest reserves were useful for two primary purposes: water production for the Territory’s agricultural industries, and timber production to meet the growing demand for wood products. The forest reserve system should not lead to “the locking up from economic use of a certain forest area.” (Hosmer)

Even in critical watersheds the harvesting of old trees “is a positive advantage, in that it gives the young trees a chance to grow, while at the same time producing a profit from the forests”. (LRB)

A main concern was finding an alternative to importing redwood and Douglas-fir from California for construction timbers. In 1904 the government nursery was asked to grow timber tree species instead of its usual ornamental, flowering trees (pines, cypress, cedar and Douglas fir.) (Anderson)

“As an influential board member on the Agriculture and Forestry Commission, Harold Lyon succeeded in persuading the Territorial Commission to import seed of a vast number of alien tree species. … nearly 1,000 alien species were outplanted in Hawaiʻi forest reserves.” (Mueller-Dombois)

Various trees and plants were imported from diverse areas of the world including Madagascar, Australia, India, Brazil, the Malay states, China, the Philippines, southern Europe, the East Indies, the West Indies, New Zealand, Central America and South Africa.

Trees that successfully survived the Mānoa Valley soil conditions and promoted water conservation were then widely planted throughout the arboretum

Eucalyptus species, silk oak, paperbark and ironwood were the most frequently planted trees due to their fast growth and their resistance to adverse environmental conditions. However, these very qualities, as well as their ability to seed profusely, would lead to some species such as tropical ash and albizia. (Iwashita)

The number of trees planted rose to many millions by the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was available for planting. From 1935 to 1941, with the help of the CCC, an average of close to two-million trees were planted per year in the forest reserves.

Lyon envisioned the plantations as a buffer zone that would be established between the remaining native forests and the lower-elevation agricultural lands to protect the native forests and perform the functions (maintaining input of water to aquifers.)

In his 1949 annual report to the HSPA entitled, ‘What is to be the fate of the arboretum?,’ Lyon declared the Mānoa Arboretum’s mission to test new plant introductions to be essentially complete; he believed that the HSPA should not remain the arboretum’s custodian.

On July 1, 1953, HSPA conveyed the Mānoa Arboretum to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaiʻi. The regents were individually entrusted with the fiduciary duty of maintaining the arboretum. In 1962, the Board of Regents transferred the arboretum to the University of Hawaiʻi.

Dr. Lyon remained with the arboretum as its first director under the regents’ and university’s stewardship. After Dr. Lyon’s death in 1957, an advisory committee directed the arboretum until 1961, when Dr. George Gillette assumed the directorship on a part-time basis.

When Dr. Lyon died, the Board of Regents renamed the facility the Harold L Lyon Arboretum (Lyon Arboretum) in honor of the man so closely associated with its growth and fruition.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Harvey Coney

John Harvey Coney was born in June 1820 in Litchfield, NY.  He came to Hawaiʻi after participating in the 1848 Mexican-American War.  He married Laura Amoy Kekuakapuokalani Ena (she was 17) on November 27, 1860.

John, supposedly through his wife’s family’s connections with King Kamehameha IV, was soon appointed Sheriff of Hilo, where Laura’s ancestral lands were located.  (Williams)

“I stopped 3 days with Hon. Mr. (Coney), Deputy Marshal of the Kingdom, at Hilo, Hawaii, last week, & by a funny circumstance, he knew everybody that ever I knew in Hannibal & Palmyra. We used to sit up all night talking, & then sleep all day. He lives like a Prince.”  (Twain)

The Coneys lived in a long grass thatched house on the mauka (toward the mountain) side of the courthouse lot, and later built a pretentious residence which is now (1922) the County Building….”  (Williams)

Coney was “a tall handsome man, who carried himself like a soldier,” he was “titular executive head of government next to the Governess of Hawaiʻi and Lieut. Governor”.  (Sanderson)

Besides being Sheriff (and later postmaster,) Coney got into a variety of business interests.  An April 22, 1868 Hawaiian Gazette notes, “Wharf at Hilo. The landing of passengers and goods at the Harbor of Hilo has been facilitated by the building of a short wharf from the rocky point at the west end of the beach. It has been made by the enterprise of Mr Coney and Mr  Hitchcock”.

“The wharf just built is well timbered and fastened, and carries six feet of water. Its strength was tested by the great, earthquake wave of Thursday, and by a loaded scow washing upon it, and it proved equal to the strain. Wharfage, hereafter, will be one of the charges on schooners running to Hilo.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, April 22, 1868)

Wife Laura was of royal descent.  She was the daughter of Chinese merchant John Lawai Ena and Hawaiian chiefess Kaikilanialiiwahineopuna (a descendent of the Kamehameha line and the last high chiefess of the Puna district of the island of Hawaiʻi.)  She was described as “an exceptionally fine woman of high character, gracious manner, generous instincts and kind disposition….” (Williams)

The Coneys had six children:  Clarissa (Clara) Piilani Amoy Coney (lady-in-waiting to the household of Queen Kapiʻolani;) Mary Ululani Monroe Coney; John Harvey Haalalea Coney (High Sheriff on Kauaʻi, later Territorial Representative and Senator;) Elizabeth (Lizzy) Likelike Kekaekapuokulani Coney (lady in waiting to Princess Miriam Likelike Cleghorn at Coronation of Kalākaua;) Eleanor (Kaikilani) Coney (travelling companion to Queen Liliʻuokalani across US) and William Hawks Hulilaukea Coney (co-Founder with Wallace Rider Farrington of Evening Bulletin, predecessor of the Honolulu Star Bulletin.)

Laura taught her children not to speak of their aliʻi blood, to forget about high chiefs and chiefesses, and to make their own way in the world because the days of chiefs and chiefesses were gone.

A daughter-in-law once noted, “I remember a time when the king (Kalākaua) was calling on Mother Coney. He was busy at the time collecting the genealogies of the nobility and the mele (songs, chants) of the Hawaiians.”

“He said to Mother Coney, ‘Tell me, Mrs. Coney, who were your ancestors, I know that you belong to the Kamehameha line.’ ‘Adam and Eve were my ancestors,’ she replied.”  (Williams)

After about 18-years in Hilo, the Coneys moved to Honolulu; their home (which they called ‘ Halelelea,’ that they translated to ‘Pleasant House’) was just mauka of ʻIolani Palace (on the mauka-Diamond Head corner of Richards and Hotel Streets.)  It was often the setting for many of the city’s “brilliant entertainments” during the Kalākaua monarchy.  (Williams)

In the Māhele of 1848, the property had been grant to High Chiefess Miriam Ke‘ahikuni Kekauōnohi, a granddaughter of Kamehameha I and a wife of Kamehameha II. Upon her death on June 2, 1851, all her property was passed on to her second husband, High Chief Levi Haʻalelea.

Levi Haʻalelea’s second wife was Amoe Ululani Ena Haʻalelea, sister of Laura Ena Coney.  When Levi Haʻalelea died in 1864, his second wife transferred ownership of the land to her sister’s husband John Coney.

In 1889, the Coney’s home, Halelelea, played a minor role during the Wilcox rebellion to restore the rights of the monarchy, two years after the Bayonet Constitution of 1887 left King Kalākaua a mere figurehead.

The insurgents were hunkered down in a bungalow across a narrow lane from the Coney House.  The plan was to throw dynamite at the bungalow.

“No attack was expected from that quarter, and there was nothing to disturb the bomb thrower. (Hay Wodehouse) stood for a moment with a bomb in his hand as though he were in the box waiting for a batsman. He had to throw over a house to reach the bungalow, which he could not see.”

“The first bomb went sailing over the wall, made a down curve and struck the side of the bungalow about a foot from the roof … The bomb had reached them and hurt a number of the insurgents. “

Wodehouse “coolly picked out another bomb. Then he took a step back, made a half turn and sent it whizzing.  It landed on the roof … He threw one more bomb and Wilcox came out and surrendered.”    (The Sporting Life, October 16, 1889)

Another property that had been granted to Kekauōnohi and subsequently conveyed to Coney at the same time as their home was approximately 41,000-acres of land at Honouliuli.  In 1877, Coney sold that land to James Campbell, who soon started Honouliuli Ranch.  After drilling Hawaiʻi’s first artesian well (1879,) by 1890 the Ewa Plantation Company was established.

John Harvey Coney died in Honolulu on October 9, 1880, at the age of 60.  Laura Ena Coney died in Honolulu on February 24, 1929, at the age of 85.

In a funeral recitation for Laura given by the Reverend Akaiko Akana, pastor of Kawaiahaʻo Church, on February 24, 1929, Laura was referred to as “one of the old and prominent kamaʻāinas who has helped to build Hawaii, not only by her personal effort, but through her influence on her husband, children and influencial associates and acquaintances throughout these islands.”  (Williams)

There are two marble plaques in Kawaiahaʻo Church commemorating members of the Coney family, both above the mauka royal pew. Donated by her daughters Kaikilani and Elizabeth, one reads: In Memory of Laura Kekuakapuokalani Coney 1844—1929 Always a devoted member of Kawaiahaʻo Church, she often said, “Ka wahi e nele ai, e haʻawi” Where need is, there give.

The other plaque reads: “In Memory of Levi Haʻalelea 1828-1864 His wife Ululani A. A. Haʻalelea 1824-1904 and Richard Haʻalilio 1808—1844.”  (I have been told this plaque is incorrect – Levi Haʻalelea was born in 1822; the last name listed should be Timothy Haʻalilio.)

The image shows John Harvey Coney.  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honouliuli

The island of Oʻahu is divided into 6 moku (districts), consisting of: ‘Ewa, Kona, Koʻolauloa, Koʻolaupoko, Waialua and Waiʻanae. These moku were further divided into 86 ahupua‘a (land divisions within a moku.)

‘Ewa was divided into 12-ahupua‘a, consisting of (from east to west): Hālawa, ‘Aiea, Kalauao, Waimalu, Waiau, Waimano, Mānana, Waiʻawa, Waipi‘o, Waikele, Hōʻaeʻae and Honouliuli.

‘Ewa was at one time the political center for O‘ahu chiefs. This was probably due to its abundant resources that supported the households of the chiefs, particularly the many fishponds around the lochs of Puʻuloa (“long hill,) better known today as Pearl Harbor. (Cultural Surveys)

Each had fisheries in the harbor, floodplains with irrigated kalo and fishponds, and interior (lower kula valley streams/gulches) and mountain forests.  One of these, Honouliuli, had a large coastal area, including what it is typically referred to as the “ʻEwa Plains.”  (Kirch)

Honouliuli includes lands extending from the mountains, to the watered plains where loʻi kalo (taro pond fields) and loko ia (fishponds) were developed, to the arid plains and rich fisheries on the ocean. Along the ocean-fronted coast of Honouliuli are noted places in lore and ancient life, such as Keahi, Kupaka, Keoneula (Oneula), Kualakai, Kalaeloa and Koʻolina.  (Maly)

Honouliuli (dark bay) includes a wide plain back of Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) and Keahi (a point west of Pearl Harbor) where the homeless, friendless ghosts were said to wander about. These were the ghosts of people who were not found by their family ʻaumakua or gods and taken home with them, or had not found the leaping places where they could leap into the nether world.  (Pukui)

In 1793, Captain George Vancouver described this area as desolate and barren:  “From the commencement of the high land to the westward of Opooroah (Puʻuloa – Pearl Harbor) was … one barren rocky waste, nearly destitute of verdure, cultivation or inhabitants, with little variation all to the west point of the island. …”

In 1839, Missionary EO Hall described the area between Pearl Harbor and Kalaeloa as follows: “Passing all the villages (after leaving the Pearl River) at one or two of which we stopped, we crossed the barren desolate plain”.  (Robicheaux)  In the 1880s, these lands were being turned over to cattle grazing and continued through the early-1900s.

Nearby Moku ʻUmeʻume (Ford Island) provided pili grass for house thatching. Ewa’s house builders gathered their pili grass for house thatching here until the time came when foreign shingles were introduced, then thatching was discontinued.

It was also covered with kiawe trees; it was noted that the kiawe forests there and the Honouliuli region supplied much of the fuel for kitchen fires in Honolulu.

Reported in 1898, a few fishermen and some of their families built shanties by the shore where they lived, fished and traded their catch for taro at ‘Ewa.  Their drinking water was taken from nearby ponds, and it was so brackish that other people could not stand to drink it. (Cameron; Maly)

James Campbell, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1850, ended up in Lāhainā and started a sugar plantation there in 1860 (later known as Pioneer Mill.)  He also started to acquire lands in Oʻahu, Maui and the island of Hawaiʻi.

In 1876, he purchased approximately 15,000-acres at Kahuku on the northernmost tip of Oʻahu from HA Widemann and Julius L Richardson. In 1877, he acquired from John Coney 41,000-acres of ranch land at Honouliuli.

Many critics scoffed at the doubtful value of his Honouliuli purchase. But Campbell envisioned supplying the arid area with water and commissioned California well-driller James Ashley to drill a well on his Honouliuli Ranch.

In 1879, Ashley drilled Hawaiʻi’s first artesian well; James Campbell’s vision had made it possible for Hawaiʻi’s people to grow sugar cane on the dry lands of the ʻEwa Plain.

“At 240 feet the water commenced to overflow. The bore was continued to 273 feet, the flow increasing and coming to rise from one-half to two-thirds of an inch crown above the pipe, 7 inches in diameter.  This success was a happy surprise to the community. (There was) a sheet of pure water flowing like a dome of glass from all sides of the well casing, and continuing to flow night and day, without diminution.”  (Congressional Record, 1881)

What they discovered was vast reservoirs of artesian water; the groundwater here is composed of a freshwater lens that generally moves toward the ocean but is impeded by a wedge of caprock that overlies the volcanic rock near the coast.  (Nellist, Bauer)

When the first well came in at Honouliuli the Hawaiians named it “Waianiani” (crystal waters.)  (Nellist) The ʻEwa Plain has been irrigated with ground water since 1890. By 1930, Ewa Plantation had drilled 70 artesian wells to irrigate cane lands; more were drilled later.

It was some years after the first artesian wells were brought in before there was a general understanding of the formation of the coastal caprock and its vital importance in the creation and functioning of the artesian reservoirs.

Discovery of artesian water at Honouliuli was beyond question the most important single contribution to the development of Oʻahu and Honolulu as we know the island and city today.  (Nellist)  (The flow from the well continued for 60-years until it was sealed by the City and County of Honolulu in 1939.)

In 1889, Campbell leased about 40,000-acres of land for fifty years to BF Dillingham (of Oʻahu Railway and Land Co;) after several assignments and sub-leases, about 7,860-acres of Campbell land ended up with Ewa Planation.

By 1923, Ewa Plantation was the first sugar company in the world to raise ten tons of sugar per acre and, by 1933, the plantation produced over 61,000-tons of sugar a year.

Ewa Plantation was considered one of the most prosperous plantations in Hawaiʻi and in 1931 a new 50-year lease was executed, completing the agreement with Oʻahu Railway and Land Company and beginning an association with Campbell Estate.

By 1936, ʻEwa Plantation Company was the first plantation to have a fully mechanized harvesting operation and by 1946 tests were made to convert the hauling of cane from railroads to large trucks.

During WWII, Japanese Americans were put in internment camps in at least eight locations on Hawaiʻi; one of those sites was at Honouliuli Gulch.  The forced removal of these individuals began a nearly four-year odyssey to a series of camps in Hawaiʻi and on the continental United States.

They were put in these camps, not because they had been tried and found guilty of something, but because either they or their parents or ancestors were from Japan and, as such, they were deemed a “threat” to national security.

In 1962, Castle and Cooke purchased majority control of ʻEwa Plantation Company stock and in 1970 ʻEwa Plantation Company merged with Oʻahu Sugar Company in Waipahu (the ʻEwa mill closed in the mid-1970s after the sale; the mill was demolished in 1985.)

Campbell became known by the Hawaiians as “Kimo Ona-Milliona” (James the Millionaire).  Despite his success in sugar, his interests turned to other matters, primarily ranching and real estate.

When James Campbell died on April 21, 1900, the Estate of James Campbell was created as a private trust to administer his assets for the benefit of his heirs (in 2007, the James Campbell Company succeeded the Estate of James Campbell.) The Estate played a pivotal role in Hawaiʻi history, from the growth of sugar plantations to the growing new City of Kapolei.

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