Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Honolulu Oil

William Matson was born in 1849 in a Swedish seacoast town and ran off to sea at the age of twelve. According to his daughter, he had not a single day’s schooling in his life.

At 18, Matson “came round the Horn” to California and soon worked his way up to the captaincy of a scow schooner (barge) in San Francisco Bay.

At age 33 he became one-quarter owner—for $5,000—of the new three-masted schooner, Emma Claudia, and brought her to Hilo on her first voyage. Matson saw opportunity on the Big Island and began to focus his service there.

“My father used to do everything. He bought the horses, he bought needles, thread, mules, dress materials… a floating store.” (daughter Lurline Matson)

Every voyage was a partnership—with different partners holding shares, generally in eighths—and then splitting the profits. Matson expanded in this way, buying more ships and chartering others.

Matson became well established in the Hawaiian trade. His small fleet of sailing vessels shuttled back and forth between Hilo and San Francisco.

Westbound to Hawai‘i, he would bring goods of all descriptions. Eastbound to California, he would take sugar, molasses, fruits, vegetables and hides.

His fleet was still all wind-driven sailing ships, though in 1889 he was quoted: “I was wondering whether I’d ever be able to run a steamship between the islands and San Francisco.”

In 1901, Matson acquired his first steamship, the Enterprise. At that time, most steamers burned coal to fire the boilers. Matson immediately converted the Enterprise to the first oil burner in the Pacific, because oil was cheaper.

It cost $2.10 in oil for the same energy provided by $7.00 worth of coal. Oil was also cleaner, more space efficient, and demanded less manpower.

Matson recognized the potential of oil. He convinced Hawai‘i’s plantation and sugar mill owners to switch from coal and bagasse (sugar cane waste) to oil. Then he converted some of his sailing flee into tankers to carry the oil to the Islands.

Matson said, “If you use fuel in large quantities, you must control the source.” To insure a supply of oil for his ships, Captain Matson bought some wells in California and built a “couldn’t be done” 112-mile pipeline from the Coalinga oil fields to Monterey.

In 1903, he formed the Monarch Oil Company and five years later bought the Buena Vista Hills property (Matson later renamed the area Honolulu Hills) and a year later (1910) created Honolulu Oil Company.

Matson told investors: “You’ll either go broke or get rich.” (Castle and Cooke invested $140,000. Fifty years later, the company was receiving $400,000 in annual dividends, and finally liquidated its shares (at government behest) for over $23-million.)

Honolulu Oil Corporation was engaged in exploration for, and extraction and sale of oil and gas in 15 states and the Dominion of Canada. The actual drilling was done by independent contractors, with Honolulu’s engineers acting in an advisory capacity.

Honolulu’s operations were divided into five geographical divisions: California (California, Nevada and Utah,) Mid-Continent (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma,) Canadian, Rocky Mountain (Montana and Wyoming,) Southeastern (Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee.) Reports note Honolulu Oil was later acquired by a larger oil company.

In 1911, Matson developed compressors to convert his oil product into gasoline and a year later built a pipeline to Los Angeles. That led to the modernization of the US Navy and their conversion to oil. (David Whitley; Taft Midway Driller)

Captain Matson brought the Falls of Clyde into the Hawaiian sugar trade, specifically servicing the plantations of the Big Island, bringing needed goods and machinery from the West Coast to Hilo, and returning with burlap sacks full of raw sugar on its way to the California refineries and then to the markets of the US.

He modified the Falls of Clyde sail plan, added a deck house and chart house, and rearrange the after-quarter for passengers. From 1899 to 1907, the Falls made over sixty voyages between these ports. Sailing time averaged seventeen days.

To help move oil, the Falls of Clyde was converted to a sailing oil tanker (1907;) her insides were gutted and ten large tanks were constructed along both sides and the bottom, giving her a capacity of 756,000 gallons of oil.

Heavy-duty pumps and a second steam boiler to operate them were installed. She sailed between Gaviota and Honolulu Harbor; molasses was often loaded into her tanks for the run back to California.

She continued to carry a few passengers and small amounts of cargo “tweendecks.” (Simpson) (Lots of information here is from Simpson, Stanford, Castle & Cooke and Taft Midway Driller.)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Possibly the Last Human Sacrifice

“In 1804 when Kamehameha was on his way from Hawaiʻi to invade Kauai he halted at Oahu with an army of eight thousand men at Oʻahu.”

“The yellow fever broke out among the troops, and in the course of a few days swept away more than two thirds of them. During the plague, the king repaired to the great marae (heiau) at Wytiti, to conciliate the god, whom he supposed to be angry.”

“The priests recommended a ten days’ tabu, the sacrifice of three human victims, four hundred hogs, as many cocoa-nuts, and an equal number of branches of plantains.”

“Three men, who had been guilty of the enormous turpitude of eating cocoanuts with the old queen, were accordingly seized and led to the marae.”

“But there being yet three days before the offerings could be duly presented, the eyes of the victims were scooped out, the bones of their arms and legs were broken, and they were then deposited in a house, to await the coup de grace on the day of sacrifice.”

“While these maimed and miserable creatures were in the height of their suffering, some persons, moved by curiosity, visited them in prison, and found them neither raving nor desponding, but sullenly singing the national huru (anthem) – dull as the drone of a bagpipe, and hardly more variable – as though they were insensible of the past, and indifferent to the future.”

“When the slaughtering time arrived, one of them was placed under the legs of the idol, and the other two were laid, with the hogs and fruit, upon the altar-frame. They were then beaten with clubs upon the shoulders till they died of the blows.”

“This was told us by an eye-witness of the murderous spectacle. And thus men kill one another, and think that they do God service.” (Journal of Tyerman And Bennet, 1832)

But that wasn’t the last …

“Kaʻahumanu was a woman of the chiefly stature and of celebrated beauty … her husband (Kamehameha) cherished her exceedingly. He had the indelicacy to frame and publish an especial law declaring death against the man who should approach her, and yet no penalty against herself.”

“And in 1809, after thirty-four years of marriage, and when she must have been nearing fifty … Kanihonui, was found to be her lover, and paid the penalty of life”. (Stevenson)

Kanihonui was a handsome 19-year old. Reportedly, Kaʻahumanu had seduced the boy while she was intoxicated; in addition, the boy was the son of Kamehameha’s half-sister – and, Kamehameha and Kaʻahumanu raised him.

Kanihonui was put to death at Papaʻenaʻena Heiau on Leʻahi (Diamond Head) for committing adultery with Kaʻahumanu.

“After the death of Kanihonui the mind of Kaʻahumanu dwelt thereon; she could not readily dismiss the thought. This event was preceded by the death of Keʻeaumoku, the father of this chiefess, by the plague; therefore she was sent to a disconcerting place, but to no purpose.” (Thrum)

“She sought to recover from her anger but was unable to do so; and she considered … taking the kingdom from the king by force and giving it to the young chief, Liholiho.”

“Before she laid her plans for the war, a holiday for the purpose of surfing at Kapua in Waikiki was proclaimed, because the surf was rolling fine then.”

“It was where one could look up directly to the heiau on Leʻahi, where the remains of Kanihonui were, all prepared in the customary manner of that time.”

“It was said that only Kaleiheana, who was a Luluka, watched over the corpse from the time of death until it was decomposed.”

“The chiefess had heard something about her lover’s remains being there, and perhaps that was why the proclamation was made.”

“On the appointed day, chiefs, chiefesses, prominent people, and the young chief Liholiho went to Kapua. When all had assembled there, the king gathered his men together in readiness for trouble.”

“He sent a messenger, Kinopu, after Kaahumanu’s followers to find out what they were planning. It is said that three things were done at Kapua: surfing, lamenting, and more surfing; and it is said that they had intoxicants with them.”

“Thus they whiled away the time until evening.” (John Papa Ii)

“And thus it was the young prince was before them and the chiefs at the time when Kalanimōku asked him, whilst the chiefs were assembled together: ‘What think you? Let us take the government from your father, and you be the king, and your father be put to death?’”

“When the child heard these words he bent forward and thought deeply of the question’s meaning. Straightening himself up and looking at the assembly, he replied: ‘I do not want my father put to death.’”

“By this answer all the chiefs who were gathered together at that time were greatly gratified.” (Kuokoa, August 4, 1869; Thrum)

George W. Bates, in 1854, describes a heiau at the foot of Leʻahi (believed to be Papaʻenaʻena) as: “Just beyond Waikiki stand the remains of an ancient heiau, or pagan temple. It is a huge structure, nearly quadrangular, and is composed merely of a heavy wall of loose lava stones, resembling the sort of inclosure commonly called a ‘cattlepen.’”

“This heiau was placed at the very foot of Diamond crater, and can be seen at some distance from the sea. Its dimensions externally are 130 by 70 feet. The walls I found to be from six to eight feet high, eight feet thick at the base, and four at the top.”

“On climbing the broken wall near the ocean, and by carefully looking over the interior, I discovered the remains of three altars located at the western extremity, and closely resembling parallelograms. I searched for the remains of human victims once immolated on these altars, but found none; for they had returned to their primitive dust, or been carried away by curious visitors.”

Later (at about 1856,) Queen Emma ordered her workers to take rocks from Papaʻenaʻena heiau to build a stone wall around her property at Waikīkī.

“After the death of Kanihonui at Waikiki … Kamehameha … moved to Honolulu from Waikiki.” (Laʻanui, Kumu Hawaiʻi, 1839; Thrum)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

James Walker Austin

James Walker Austin (1829-1895) was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, January 8, 1829, son of William Austin (1778- 1841) and Lucy Jones (1802-1853).

“My father died in my boyhood (in Charlestown, June 27, 1841), and now, after nearly fifty years, his pleasant smile, his kind heart, and the light of his countenance are still living memories.” (James Walker Austin)

James was prepared for college in the schools of Charlestown and at the Chauncy Hall School, Boston, and was graduated from Harvard College in 1849, and from the Law School two years later, and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1851.

He went in 1851 to California, and thence to the Hawaiian Islands. He was attracted by the beauty and fertility of the islands, and he determined to settle there.

Austin arrived in Hawaii and was quickly thereafter enlisted by Kamehameha III for his legal services. He served the monarchy in that capacity through the reigns of Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

On July 18, 1857, he married Ariana Elizabeth Smith Sleeper (1829-1911) who was the daughter of John Sherborn Sleeper (1794-1878) and Mary Folsom Noble (1798-1885). They were the parents of five children.

He rose rapidly in the public esteem, and was soon chosen to places of trust and honor. In rapid succession he was made District Attorney, Member of Parliament, Speaker of the House, and a Justice of the Supreme Court.

He was also placed on two important Commissions, — one for revising the Civil Code, the other for revising the Criminal Code of the Kingdom. (Edes; Colonial Society of MA, 1895)

In honor of his work for Kamehameha V, James Walker Austin was given the land upon which Kapualei Ranch sits on July 10, 1868. (Kapualei Ranch)

He was admitted to the Bar in that country, and was appointed district attorney. He was elected to the Hawaiian Parliament, and reelected for three sessions. He was speaker of the House one session.

He was the guardian a number of years, of Lunalilo, heir to the throne. “Prince Bill had many fine qualities. In spite of his many fine qualities he was overcome by one weakness. He became addicted to liquor.”

“In 1858 Kanaʻina, out of love and concern for his son, petitioned the court to appoint guardians for him. Prince Bill agreed to this idea even though he was twenty-three years old. So the court appointed his father and two others, Dr. Richard Armstrong and James W Austin, as guardians.” (Galuteria)

In 1868 Austin was appointed judge of the Supreme Court by a special act of the Legislature, and he was chosen to revise the criminal code of the islands, in connection with two other judges of the Supreme Court.

He had been a member of the commission to revise the civil code two years before. These codes were modeled on those of the State of Massachusetts.

He returned to the United States in 1872 for the education of his children. The Austins made 9 Arlington in Boston their home. Their children lived with them: Herbert Austin, who would become an iron and steel dealer; Walter Austin, who would become an attorney and author; William Francis Austin; and Edith Austin.

“Judge Austin was a man of strong character, and of many accomplishments. His integrity was unimpeachable. He had a large circle of friends at the islands, where he had much to do in building up a vigorous and well-ordered community.”

“He was highly esteemed for his many noble qualities. His rugged honesty of opinion and positive ideas were sometimes veiled by his gentle manner; but they never lacked vigorous expression upon all proper occasions, and he always had the courage of his convictions.”

“Frankness, purity of mind and of heart, loyalty to every duty and to friends, and sincerity were marked traits of his character. His sympathies were as tender and quick as a woman’s. Censoriousness had no place in his fine nature; and when he could not approve the actions of others, he cultivated that silence which is golden.”

“He was as generous in his judgments of others as in his gifts to many worthy objects; and in all the relations of life he furnished an example deserving emulation.” (Edes; Colonial Society of MA, 1895)

Austin went to Europe the last year of his life, with his wife and daughter, and they were with him at the time of his death. He died in Southampton, England, October 15, 1895. (New England Historic Genealogical Society)

“In every relation of his long and active life he was an example to be imitated and followed. Sincerity, truthfulness, and frankness spoke in every accent of his voice, in the pressure of his hand, in his manly and gentle spirit.”

“His affections, when once placed, were deep and lasting. His charity of thought and feeling and act seemed instinctive, but it rested on solid and enduring principles.”

“No one who knew him intimately in public or in social life could ever doubt that he was a man of positive opinions, or that he had any hesitancy, when occasion required, in expressing them; but he never unduly pressed his own views, and was eminently tolerant of the opinions, and even the prejudices, of his associates.”

“No man loathed selfishness, deceit, or treachery more than he; but while he condemned the act he pitied the offender. He avoided controversy, and strove to be a peace-maker.”

“After more than twenty years of acquaintanceship – for many years seeing him almost daily – the writer of these lines does not recall an instance of hearing Judge Austin utter a censorious remark upon any man or woman.”

“And it is said that this temper and manner characterized him through his entire career, – in his boyhood days, at the university, at the bar, on the bench, and in all the various associations of his life, – public, social, and domestic.”

“But who can adequately express in words the prompt and unfailing sympathy he manifested for every form of woe and suffering? To many hearts surcharged with sorrow his ready and tender ministries have been a source of hope and courage, of comfort and of strength.

“He was, indeed, a rare man, and the world is poorer now that he has left us.” (Hoyt; New England Historic Genealogical Society)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Jack Roosevelt Robinson

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” (Jack (‘Jackie’) Roosevelt Robinson)

He was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia, the fifth, and last child of Mallie and Jerry Robinson. (In 1936, his older brother Mack won an Olympic silver medal in the 200-meter dash (behind Jesse Owens.))

Jackie was a four-sport athlete in high school and college; during a spectacular athletic career at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA,) he had starred in basketball, football, track, and baseball (and became the first student to earn varsity letters in four sports: football (1939 and 1940,) basketball (1940 and 1941,) track (1940) and baseball (1940.)

After exhausting his sports eligibility, Jackie decided to leave UCLA before attaining his degree, despite his mother’s objection, because he wanted to repay her for supporting him during his college career.

Jackie found a job in the winter of 1941 in Honolulu, where he played in the semipro Hawaii Senior Football League for the Honolulu Bears, who had joined the league in 1939 as the Polar Bears or the Hawaiian Vacation Team. (Ardolino)

Unlike the other three teams, the University of Hawaii Rainbows, the Na Aliis (Chiefs) and the Healanis (the Maroons,) the Bears signed their players to contracts, giving Robinson a paying sports job. (Ardolino)

He was paid a $150 advance (deducted from his salary,) a fee of $100 per game, a bonus if the team won the championship and a draft-deferred construction job near Pearl Harbor.

He arrived to great fanfare as the league’s all star, had some superb moments, but succumbed to a recurring injury and faded in the last games.

He stayed at Palama Settlement, rather than with the team in Waikiki (the hotels barred him entry because of the color of his skin.) (PBS)

Their first exhibition game was in Pearl Harbor. Jackie left Honolulu on December 5, 1941, just two days before the Japanese attacked. He was on the Lurline on his way home when Congress formally declared war. He was shortly thereafter inducted into the Army.

Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, he was originally denied entry into Officer Candidate School despite his college background. Intervention by a fellow soldier, boxing great Joe Louis, who was also stationed at the base, managed to get the decision reversed. (Swaine)

While in the Army, he had an incident similar to Rosa Parks – on July 6, 1944, Robinson, a twenty-five-year-old lieutenant, boarded an Army bus at Fort Hood, Texas.

He was with the light-skinned wife of a fellow black officer, and the two walked half the length of the bus, then sat down, talking amiably. The driver, gazing into his rear-view mirror, saw a black officer seated in the middle of the bus next to a woman who appeared to be white. Hey, you, sittin’ beside that woman,” he yelled. “Get to the back of the bus.”

Lieutenant Robinson ignored the order. The driver stopped the bus, marched back to where the two passengers were sitting, and demanded that the lieutenant “get to the back of the bus where the colored people belong.”

Lieutenant Robinson told the driver: “The Army recently issued orders that there is to be no more racial segregation on any Army post. This is an Army bus operating on an Army post.”

The man backed down, but at the end of the line, as Robinson and Mrs. Jones waited for a second bus, he returned with his dispatcher and two other drivers. Robinson refused, and so began a series of events that led to his arrest and court-martial and, finally, threatened his entire career.

Later, all charges stemming from the actual incident on the bus and Robinson’s argument with the civilian secretary were dropped. He had still to face a court-martial, but on the two lesser charges of insubordination arising from his confrontation in the guardhouse.

The court-martial of 2d Lt. Jackie Robinson took place on August 2, 1944. After testimony, voting by secret written ballot, the nine judges found Robinson “not guilty of all specifications and charges.” (Tygiel) In November 1944, he received an honorable discharge and then started his professional baseball career.

He played for the Kansas City Monarchs as a part of the Negro Leagues until Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey decided he wanted to integrate baseball. (Hall of Fame)

On October 23, 1945, it was announced to the world that Robinson had signed a contract to play baseball for the Montreal Royals of the International League, the top minor-league team in the Dodgers organization.

Robinson had actually signed a few months earlier. In that now-legendary meeting, Rickey extracted a promise that Jackie would hold his sharp tongue and quick fists in exchange for the opportunity to break Organized Baseball’s color barrier. (Swain)

Robinson led the International League with a .349 average and 40 stolen bases. He earned a promotion to the Dodgers. (Hall of Fame)

On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers in their opening-day game against the Boston Braves. In so doing, he became the first African-American to play in the major leagues since an abortive attempt at integration in 1884. (Schwarz)

At the end of his first season, Robinson was named the Rookie of the Year. He was named the NL MVP just two years later in 1949, when he led the league in hitting with a .342 average and steals with 37, while also notching a career-high 124 RBI. The Dodgers won six pennants in Robinson’s 10 seasons. (Hall of Fame)

Playing football was not Robinson’s only sports experience in Hawaiʻi; immediately following the 1956 Worlds Series (that the Dodgers lost to the Yankees,) on October 12, 1956, the Dodgers went on a Japan exhibition tour.

Along the way, Robinson and the Dodgers stopped for pre-tour exhibitions in Hawaii with games against the Maui All-Stars, the Hawaiian All-Stars and the Hawaiian champion Red Sox. (Jackie Robinson died on October 24, 1972 at the age of 53.)

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Henry Nicholas Greenwell

William Thomas Greenwell (1777–1856) and Dorothy Smales (1789–1871) of Lanchester, Durham, England had a son, Henry Nicholas Greenwell on January 9, 1826.

Henry was educated in the Durham Grammar School and at Sandhurst, the British military college.  As fourth son he had little chance of inheriting the family estate called Greenwell Ford.

After graduating from the Royal Military Academy, in 1843, at the age of 17, he became an Ensign in the 70th Regiment of Foot, and a Lieutenant in 1844.  Part of his military work included helping feed folks starving during the Potato Famine in 1847.

Finding the military life insupportable, at the age of 23 he left for Australia to make a new start, arriving there on July 4, 1848.  In early-1849, he decided Australia was not for him, then got a partner and planned to make a profit by buying goods in Australia and selling them in San Francisco.

“On arrival, all hands took off for the gold fields, leaving the partners to unload the goods themselves. During this process, HNG was severely injured and was forced to go to Honolulu for treatment. He arrived on January 2, 1850 … On recovery he discovered that his partners had run out on him”.

He worked as an agent for HJH Holdsworth in his importing and retail business, and opened a branch of the business at Kailua (Kona) in September of 1850. (Kona Echo, April 1, 1950; Melrose, Kinue)

The Greenwell store was built around 1851 at Kalukalu (Kealakekua, near Konawaena High School) and originally served as a store and post office.  (Greenwell also served as the area’s postmaster as well as the area’s general merchandiser.)

The HN Greenwell Store is now a museum set in the 1890s timeframe, with costumed interpreters and period merchandizing.  (Suggested Donation is $5 for adults and children under 17 years old are free.)

Greenwell started to buy land, gradually acquired extensive land holdings, and got into the cattle and sheep business on a large scale.  (In 1879, he acquired the lease on Keauhou from Dr Georges Trousseau.)

Greenwell grew oranges.  “At last we reached a cross-road store, back of which is a vast orange-grove. This is the home of Mrs. HN Greenwell, and is known as Kalu Kalu, South Kona. We drew rein in front of the store and called for some refreshments. … The oranges were the largest and sweetest I ever saw.”

“In a large wareroom the people were packing the oranges in boxes for shipping. There were several hundred barrels of the fruit in a pile, and men and women were wrapping the oranges separately in tissue-paper and placing them in boxes. I was told that the Greenwell plantation produced the largest sweet oranges in the world, and from my own experience I believe the statement true.”  (Musick)

He also grew coffee and is recognized for putting “Kona Coffee” on the world markets.  In 1873, at Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (World Exhibition in Vienna, Austria (1873,)) Greenwell was awarded a “Recognition Diploma” for his Kona Coffee.  Greenwell descendants continue the family’s coffee-growing tradition in Kona. (Greenwell Farms)

Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) seemed to concur with this when he noted in his Letters from Hawaiʻi, “The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

“’Coffee-trees are often planted with a crowbar,’ it is said. Strange as this may seem, it is nevertheless true. A hole is drilled through the rock, or lavacrust, and the soil thus reached; the tree, a small twig dug up from the forest, is planted in this hole, and it grows, thrives, and yields fruit abundantly.”  (Musick, 1898)

At one point Greenwell was accused of 2nd degree murder; he pled not guilty, testimony in support of his plea was made and he was ultimately found not guilty.

Henry married Elizabeth Caroline Hall on April 9, 1868, and they had six sons and four daughters, William Henry Greenwell June 7, 1869,) Dora Caroline (Carrie) Greenwell (October 15, 1870,) Arthur Leonard Greenwell (December 7, 1871,) Elizabeth (Lillie) Greenwell (April 11, 1873,) Christina Margaret (September 16, 1874,) Francis Radcliffe Greenwell (August 26, 1876,) Wilfrid Alan Greenwell (November 7, 1878,) Julian Greenwell (September 2, 1880,) Edith Amy Greenwell (August 28, 1883) and  Leonard Lanchester Greenwell (December 4, 1884.)

Greenwell died May 18, 1891.  His significant land holdings were eventually divided into three main ranches. In the North (Honokōhau area,) son Frank first managed and then grandsons Robert and James Greenwell;) relatively central (Kalukalu,) son William, then grandson Norman managed; and in the South (Captain Cook,) son Arthur, then grandson Sherwood managed.  (The latter two ranches were sold, Lanihau Properties/Palani Ranch are still controlled by Greenwells.)

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