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January 2, 2022 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb;
Its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day,
Which was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out;
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear.

This poem is a true story … Yes, there really was a ‘Mary’ and she did have a ‘Little Lamb’. The lamb became her pet, and has always been known everywhere as ‘Mary’s lamb.’

Mary Elizabeth Sawyer was born on March 22, 1806 on a farm in Sterling, Massachusetts. Her father was Thomas, the son of Ezra Sawyer, and her mother was Elizabeth Houghton.

In 1815, Mary, then nine, was helping her father with farm chores when they discovered a sickly newborn lamb in the sheep pen that had been abandoned by its mother. After a lot of pleading, Mary was allowed to keep the animal, although her father didn’t hold out much hope for its survival. Against the odds, Mary managed to nurse the lamb back to health.

I’ll let Mary tell the rest of the story (from books by Dickerson and another by Ford) …

“One cold, bleak March morning I went out to the barn with father; and after the cows had been fed, we went to the sheep pen, and found two lambs which had been born in the night. One had been forsaken by its mother, and through neglect, cold and lack of food was nearly dead.”

“I saw it had still a little life, and asked to take it into the house; but father said, No, it was almost dead, anyway, and at the best could live but a short time. But I couldn’t bear to see the poor little thing suffer, so I teased until I got it into the house.”

“Then I worked upon mother’s sympathies. At first the little creature could not swallow, and the catnip tea mother made it could not take for a long time.”

“I got the lamb warm by wrapping it in an old garment and holding it in my arms beside the fireplace. All day long I nursed the lamb, and at night it could swallow just a little. Oh, how pleased I was!”

“But even then I wasn’t sure it would live; so I sat up all night with it, fearing it wouldn’t be warm enough if there was not someone at hand to look out for its comfort.”

“In the morning, much to my girlish delight, it could stand; and from that time it improved rapidly. It soon learned to drink milk; and from the time it would walk about, it would follow me anywhere if I only called it.”

“My little pet was a fast grower, as symmetrical a sheep as ever walked, and its fleece was of the finest and whitest. Why, I used to take as much care of my lamb as a mother would of a child. I washed it regularly, kept the burdocks picked out of its fleece, and combed and trimmed with bright-colored ribbons the wool on its forehead.”

“When that was being done, the lamb would hold down its head, shut its eyes, and stand as quiet as could be. From the time it could walk until the season came for the sheep to go to pasture my lamb stayed in the woodshed.”

“It did not take kindly to its own species; and when it was in the field, it preferred being with the cows and horses instead of with other sheep.”

“’The lamb was a ewe and became the mother of three lambs, a single one and twins, and her devotion to her little family was as strong as could be.”

“We roamed the fields together and were, in fact, companions and fast friends. I did not have many playmates outside the dumb creatures on the place. There were not many little girls to play with, and I had few dolls; but I used to dress up my lamb in pantalets, and had no end of pleasure in her company.”

“Then I had a little blanket or shawl for her; and usually when that was on, she would lie down at my feet, remaining perfectly quiet and seemingly quite contented.”

“The day the lamb went to school, I hadn’t seen her before starting off; and not wanting to go without seeing her, I called. She recognized my voice, and soon I heard a faint bleating far down the field. More and more distinctly I heard it, and I knew my pet was coming to greet me. My brother Nat said, ‘Let’s take the lamb to school with us.’”

“Childlike, I thought that would be a good idea, and quickly consented. The lamb followed along close behind me. There was a high stone wall to climb, and it was rather hard work to get her over. We got her on top, then clambered over to take her down.”

“She seemed to understand what was expected, and waited quietly for us to take her off the wall. When the schoolhouse was reached, the teacher had not arrived, and but few of the scholars were there. Then I began to think what I should do with the lamb while school was in session.”

“I took her down to my seat – you know we had old-fashioned, high, boarded-up seats then. Well, I put the lamb under the seat and covered her with her blanket; and she lay down as quietly as could be.”

“By and by I went forward to recite, leaving the lamb all right; but in a moment there was a clatter, clatter, clatter on the floor, and I knew it was the pattering of the hoofs of my lamb.”

“Oh, how mortified I felt! The teacher was Miss Polly Kimball, who was afterward married to a Mr. Loring, and became the mother of Loring, the circulating-library man of Boston. She laughed outright, and of course all the children giggled.”

“It was rare sport for them, but I could see nothing amusing in the situation. I was too ashamed to laugh, or even smile, at the unlooked-for appearance of my pet. I took her outdoors, and shut her in a shed until I was ready to go home at noon. Usually I did not go home till evening, as we carried our lunch with us; but I went home at noon that day.”

The poem

There are a couple stories about the poem, and who wrote it.  Mary said the author was John Roulstone … “Visiting the school that morning was a young man by the name of John Roulstone, a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling.”

“It was the custom then for students to prepare for college with ministers, and for this purpose Mr. Roulstone was studying with his uncle.”

“The young man was very much pleased with the incident of the lamb; and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback to the little old schoolhouse, and handed me a slip of paper which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem.” (Mary, in Dickerson)

However, in 1830, Sarah Josepha Hale, a renowned writer and influential editor (she’s also known as the “Mother of Thanksgiving” for helping making the day a holiday), published Poems for Our Children, which included a version of the poem.

According to Mary herself, Roulstone’s original contained only the three stanzas, while Hale’s version had an additional three stanzas at the end.

Mary admitted she had no idea how Hale had gotten Roulstone’s poem. When asked, Hale said her version, titled “Mary’s Lamb,” wasn’t about a real incident, but rather something she’d just made up.

Soon the residents of Sterling and those of Newport, New Hampshire, where Hale hailed from, were arguing about the poem’s provenance – something they continued to do for years.  Later, Henry Ford sided with Mary’s claim that Roulstone wrote the first three verses.

There’s a third version of how the Mary and her lamb story came to be. Mary Hughes, of Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales, was credited with being the subject of the nursery rhyme supposedly penned by a woman from London by the name of Miss Burls.

The only problem with the UK version of events is that Mary Hughes wasn’t born until 1842, twelve years after Hale’s poem was published.  (Andrew Amelinckx)

Some Interesting Side Stories

Some say Mary and her lamb helped save Boston’s Old South Meeting House (Church).  The Congregationalists built Old South Meeting House in Boston in 1729. Judge Samuel Sewall publicly apologized for taking part in the Salem Witch Trials there. Benjamin Franklin was baptized on the site. Phyllis Wheatley thought about freedom while attending services at Old South.

It is just down the street from Park Street Church where the first American Protestant missionaries to Hawai‘i gathered in 1819 to receive their instructions before departing on their mission.

In 1876, the building was to be sold for scrap (for $1,350, the value of its parts).  The people of Boston organized to save it and, on July 13, 1876, the congregation’s leaders agreed to postpone the sale of Old South for two months, but the buyers had to come up with $420,000 and ask for no further delay.

Mary Sawyer Tyler, then living in Somerville, helped with the cause.  As she noted, “From the fleece sheared from my lamb, mother knit two pairs of very nice stockings, which for years I kept in memory of my pet.”

“But when the ladies were raising money for the preservation of the Old South Church in Boston, I was asked to contribute one pair of these stockings for the benefit of the fund. This I did.”

“The stockings were raveled out, pieces of the yarn being fastened to cards bearing my autograph, and these cards were sold;” cards were attached the wool that said, “Knitted wool from the first fleece of Mary’s Little Lamb.” (New England Historical Society)

First Phonograph Recording

The poem was one of the oldest audio recordings of a musical performance — and possibly the oldest ever of an American voice.  The audio, recorded on tin foil by Thomas Edison using one of his early phonographs, was made during a 1878 museum demonstration in St Louis.

Edison recalled the first words he spoke into the phonograph, a recital of the “Mary Had a Little Lamb” nursery rhyme. In his writings, Edison recounts further the 1878 recording:

“I designed a little machine using a cylinder provided with grooves around the surface. Over this was to be placed tinfoil, which easily received and recorded the movements of the diaphragm … Kruesi (the machinist), when he had nearly finished it, asked what it was for.”

“I told him I was going to record talking, and then have the machine talk back. He thought it absurd. However, it was finished, the foil was put on; I then shouted ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ etc. I adjusted the reproducer, and the machine reproduced it perfectly.”

“I was never so taken aback in my life. Everybody was astonished. I was always afraid of things that worked the first time.”  (Edison)

This original recording was thought lost until scientists at the University of California Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in collaboration with the Library of Congress had a go at recreating it using “optical imaging”.

Despite Edison’s account of shouting a nursery rhyme on a recording, it’s somewhat unclear if it’s his voice on this recording. (Some experts believe the voice is actually that of political writer Thomas Mason.”

The Old Redstone Schoolhouse

Built sometime in the late 1700s, the tiny, one-room schoolhouse was in use from 1798 up until 1927, when it was finally closed (for the first time). The little schoolhouse takes its name from its original location, as opposed to its color, having been located on Redstone Hill in Sterling, Massachusetts.

Henry Ford acquired the old schoolhouse to be a part of his Wayside Inn historic district.  Ford moved the schoolhouse around 20 miles to nearby Sudbury.  The school reopened again in 1927, at its new location, teaching grades 1-4 to the local children.

This second life lasted until 1951, when the school was closed a second time and converted into a solely historical site.  (Wayside Inn)

Death of Mary’s Lamb

Mary said, “I have not told you about the death of my little playmate. It occurred on a Thanksgiving morning. We were all out in the barn, where the lamb had followed me. It ran right in front of the cows fastened to the stanchions, built along the feed box.”

“One of the creatures gave its head a toss, then lowered its horns and gored my lamb, which gave an agonizing bleat and came toward me with the blood streaming from its side. I took it in my arms, placed its head in my lap, and there it bled to death.”

“During its dying moments it would turn its little head and look up into my face in a most appealing manner, as if it would ask if there was not something that I could do for it.”

“It was a sorrowful moment for me when the companion of many romps, my playfellow of many a long summer’s day, gave up its life; and its place could not be filled in my childish heart.’ (Mary; quoted in Dickerson and Ford)

Mary herself lived until 1889. (Ford)  There’s a statue of the famous lamb in town, and a restored version of Mary’s home (the original was destroyed by a pair of arsonists back in 2007). Her descendants continue to farm the land that gave birth to the most famous nursery rhyme of all time. (Andrew Amelinckx)

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: General, Prominent People Tagged With: John Roulstone, Sarah Hale, Old South Meeting House, Old South Church, Sterling, Boston, Edison, Massachusetts, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Henry Ford, Mary Sawyer

December 26, 2021 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaʻiana

Recorded history suggests that in May 1787 Wynee (also spelled Winee) was the first Hawaiian to leave the islands on a western ship, the British ship Imperial Eagle.  She served as the personal servant of the captain’s wife.  They headed to China.  (Duncan)

“This lady (Barclay’s wife) was so pleased with the amicable manners of poor Winee, that she felt a desire to take her to Europe; and for that purpose she took her, with the consent of her friends, under her own particular care and protections.”  (Meares)

Shortly thereafter, on about August 27, 1787, “Tianna (Kaʻiana (also spelled Tyaana & Tyanna,)) a chief of Atooi (Kauai,) and the brother of the sovereign of that island was alone received to embark with us, amid the envy of his countrymen.”  (Meares)  He was the first Hawaiian Chief to sail from the islands in a western ship.

“Tyanna is tall; being six feet two inches in height and so exceedingly well made, that a more perfect symmetry and just proportion of shape is rarely to be met with … (he) has a pleasing animated countenance (and) a fine piercing eye”.  (Portlock)

His father, ʻAhuʻula, was a younger son of King Keaweikekahialiʻiokamoku of the island of Hawaiʻi, making Kaʻiana a young first cousin of that island’s most powerful aliʻi, including King Kalaniʻōpuʻu, Keōua (father of Kamehameha I) and Keawemauhili of Hilo.

Kaʻiana’s mother was the Chiefess Kaupekamoku, who on her father’s side was descended from the ruling houses of Oʻahu and
Hilo, and on her mother’s side was a member of the Maui royal family, being a half-sister of King Kekaulike.

Kaʻiana was thus a first cousin to Kekaulike’s numerous children who included King Kahekili of Maui, King Kāʻeo of Kauaʻi, Namahana (mother of Kaʻahumanu,) Kekuamanoha (father of Kalanimōku) and Kalanihelemaiʻiluna (grandfather of Bernice Pauahi Bishop.)  (Miller)

Kaʻiana had two younger half-brothers, Nāmakehā and Nahiolea, sons of his mother by two chiefs of the Maui royal family. The brothers were closely allied throughout their lives; all three were acclaimed warriors.  (Miller)

Captain John Meares took Kaʻiana as a passenger to Canton, China (now called “Guangzhou”) with a cargo of furs from America.

Striding through the streets clad in a malo (loincloth,) ʻahuʻula (feathered cape) and mahiole (feathered helmet) and carrying his spear, Kaʻiana was a gigantic figure who terrified the Chinese.  (Miller)

“Tyaana often expressed his dislike for the Chinese, particularly that custom of shutting up and excluding the women from the sight of all strangers.”  (Portlock)

In China, according to Captain Nathaniel Portlock, “his very name (was) revered by all ranks and conditions of the people of Canton.”  From 1787-1788 Kaʻiana visited China, the Philippines and the Northwest Coast of America.

Wynee and Kaʻiana later met in China; Captain Meares acquired two new ships, the Felice and the Iphigenia, and they set sail in January of 1788 for Northwest America, with Kaʻiana and Wynee aboard.

There, in Kaʻiana’s honor, Captain Douglas gave the name “Tianna’s Bay” to the place where the Iphigenia anchored overnight on August 5, 1788, near Alaska’s Mount Saint Elias. It was probably the first foreign place to be named for a Hawaiian person, but modern maps show that site as Icy Bay.

The return voyage began badly; sickness broke out among the crew and Wynee became ill.  “Tianna, in his constant attendance upon Winee, had caught a fever, which, with the humane anxiety he felt on her account, confined him for some time to his bed.”  (Meares)

“Winee, a native of Owyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, who possessed virtues that are seldom to be found in the class of her countrywomen to which she belonged”, died aboard the Iphigenia February 5, 1788.

After time in the Northwest, Kaʻiana returned to the Islands on December 6, 1788 on the Iphigenia, captained by William Douglas.  They first landed at Wailuku, Maui, with Kaʻiana greeting old friends, leaving the same day for the Island of Hawaiʻi.  They touched at Kawaihae and Kailua, where friends and relatives of Kaʻiana crowded on board to see him.

Anchoring at Kealakekua Bay on December 10th Kamehameha came on board to greet Kaʻiana.  “(A)fter crying over Tianna for a considerable time, the King (Kamehameha I) presented Captain Douglas with a most beautiful fan, and two long feathered cloaks.”  (Meares)

Within a few days, Kaʻiana had decided to remain on Hawaiʻi, as Kamehameha, recognizing the advantage of having with him a chief familiar with foreign ways, had granted him a large property on the island.  (Miller)

This was a time of conquest by Kamehameha and warfare across the islands.

“Among the distinguished Hawaiian chiefs connected with the final conquest and consolidation of the group by Kamehameha the Great, and standing in the gray dawn of the close of the eighteenth century, when the islands were rediscovered by Captain Cook and tradition began to give place to recorded history, was Kaiana-a-Ahaula.”

“After giving to the conqueror his best energies for years, and faithfully assisting in cementing the foundations of his greatness, he turned against him on the very eve of final triumph, and perished in attempting to destroy by a single blow the power he had helped to create.”  (Kalākaua)

In the battle of Nuʻuanu (1795,) when the army of Kamehameha conquered Oʻahu, John Young (a close advisor to Kamehameha) is credited with firing the shot that killed Kaʻiana.

“By some the defection of Kaʻiana has been attributed to coldblooded and unprovoked treachery; by others to an assumption by Kaʻiana that by blood Kamehameha was not entitled to the sovereignty of the group, and that his defeat in Oʻahu would dispose of his pretensions in that direction, and possibly open to himself a way to supreme power.”  (Kalākaua)

By 1795, having fought his last major battle at Nuʻuanu on O‘ahu with his superior use of modern weapons and western advisors, Kamehameha subdued all other chiefdoms (with the exception of Kaua‘i.)

However, after a short time, another chief entered into a power dispute with Kamehameha, Nāmakehā (the brother of Kaʻiana.)  Hostilities erupted between the two that lasted from September 1796 to January 1797.  (Brumaghim) The battle took place at Kaipalaoa, Hilo.  Kamehameha defeated Nāmakehā.

The undisputed sovereignty of Kamehameha was thus established over the entire Island chain (except Kauaʻi and Niʻihau;)  in 1810, negotiations between King Kaumuali‘i and Kamehameha I took place and Kaumualiʻi yielded to Kamehameha making Kamehameha leader of all the Islands.

© 2021 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Kaiana

December 21, 2021 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

1821

Napoleon I, French Napoléon Bonaparte, original Italian Napoleone Buonaparte, byname the Corsican or the Little Corporal, French byname Le Corse or Le Petit Caporal, (born August 15, 1769, Ajaccio, Corsica—died May 5, 1821, St. Helena Island), French general, first consul (1799–1804), and emperor of the French (1804–1814/15), one of the most celebrated personages in the history of the West.

He revolutionized military organization and training; sponsored the Napoleonic Code, the prototype of later civil-law codes; reorganized education; and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy.  (Britannica)

After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d’état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804. Shrewd, ambitious and a skilled military strategist, Napoleon successfully waged war against various coalitions of European nations and expanded his empire.

After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in continental Europe and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances. 

However, after a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, Napoleon abdicated the throne two years later and was exiled to the island of Elba.

In 1815, he briefly returned to power in his Hundred Days campaign. After a crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, he abdicated once again and was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena. (History-com)

Napoleon Bonaparte died (apparently of stomach cancer) at 5:49pm on May 5, 1821, at Longwood on the island of Saint Helena.

Napoleon’s rise and prominence in power was concurrent with George Washington, and … Kamehameha.

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799)

The first president of the United States, George Washington, serving from 1789 to 1797, is often referred to as the Father of Our Country.

He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783.

After victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to the emerging American political ideology of republicanism.  Washington was elected as the first president in 1789, and re-elected 1792.

Dissatisfied with the weaknesses of Articles of Confederation, in 1787, Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the United States Constitution. 

Kamehameha I (ca. 1758 – May 8, 1819)

Kamehameha was initially known as Paiʻea, which means “hard-shelled crab;” Kamehameha means “The Lonely One.” Raised in the royal court of his uncle, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, Kamehameha achieved prominence in 1782, upon Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s death.

While the kingship was inherited by Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s son Kiwalaʻo, Kamehameha was given the prominent position of guardianship of the Hawaiian god of war, Kūkaʻilimoku.

In 1785, Kamehameha married Ka‘ahumanu, the daughter of one of his most trusted advisors.  In 1790, he attained control of Hawai‘i Island, then he successfully invaded the Islands of Maui, Lāna‘i, Molokai and O‘ahu, by 1795.

Ultimately, in 1810, Kauai’s Kaumuali‘i decided to peacefully yield and unite with Kamehameha and join the rest of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

Kamehameha instituted the Kānāwai Māmalahoe, the Law of the Splintered Paddle.  The law, “Let every elderly person, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety,” is enshrined in the state constitution, Article 9, Section 10, and has become a model for modern human rights law regarding the treatment of civilians and other non-combatants.

In the Islands …

1821 Wood Frame House

The wood-framed Mission House, built in 1821, was one of the first wood-framed buildings built in Hawai‘i. The frame house stands on the grounds of the Hawaiian Mission Houses, near Kawaiahaʻo Church on the makai side of King Street.

It is the oldest wood frame structure and the oldest intact Western structure still standing in the Hawaiian Islands.

The timbers of Maine white pine were cut and fitted in Boston in 1819 and came around the Horn on the brig Thaddeus with the first mission company in April 1820, arriving first in Kona.  The frame of the house arrived in Honolulu on Christmas morning of that year on board the ship Tartar.

Since the lumber for this New England plan type was actually pre-cut prior to shipment, it could also be considered in a broad sense a very early example of prefabrication.

Architecturally, it has a simple and straight-forward design; the relatively low ceilings, and basement are strong evidence of its New England concept, foreign to the temperate climate of Honolulu.

The Frame House was used as a communal home by many missionary families who shared it with island visitors and boarders.  It served as a residence for various missionaries, including Hiram Bingham, Gerrit Parmele Judd and Elisha Loomis.

Today the frame house is maintained by the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society as a memorial to the early missionary effort in the Hawaiian Islands.

Liholiho Moves Royal Center from Kailua-Kona to Honolulu

Early in 1821, Liholiho moved his court from Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i Island to Honolulu. The royal siblings, Kauikeaouli and Nahiʻenaʻena, together with their mother, Keōpūolani and her husband Hoapili, journeyed with the chiefs to Oʻahu.

As was traditional, one of the first acts of the new mōʻī was to make a royal progression around Oʻahu to visit the people. Lilholiho’s selected route took him from Honolulu through the Koʻolau region to Waialua to “enjoy the fat mullet of Ukoʻa and to catch aholehole fish” and then by way of “Kaʻena point to Waiʻanae and then to Honolulu.” He then went to Kauai (McGregor and MacKenzie)

Liholiho Buys Cleopatra’s Barge for 1-million Pounds of Sandalwood

In the central Pacific, practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for provisions and recreation; then, the opening years of the 19th century saw the sandalwood business became a recognized branch of trade.

Sandalwood, geography and fresh provisions made the Islands a vital link in a closely articulated trade route between Boston, the Northwest Coast and Canton, China.

At the same time, the Hawaiian demand for American goods was rapidly increasing, owing to the improved standards of living.  The central location of the Hawaiian Islands brought many traders, and then whalers, to the Islands.

For a while, sandalwood was a medium of exchange in the Islands.

A boat named Cleopatra’s Barge arrived at Lāhainā, Maui, on November 6, 1820; the very next day Liholiho (Kamehameha II) was welcomed aboard along with some family members and attendants.

Liholiho’s father Kamehameha had loved foreign ships; over time he had collected a sizable fleet of Western vessels, which, with guns and training by the foreigners, were a major asset in unifying and maintaining his kingdom across the islands.

Liholiho inherited his father’s love of ships; one of his childhood companions remembered seeing Liholiho frequently sailing a boat model “like a real man-of-war” on a pond and also recalled that their favorite boyhood pastime was drawing ships in the sand at the beach.

Just ten days after his first visit to the ship, Liholiho purchased Cleopatra’s Barge and her cargo for 1.07-million pounds of sandalwood, worth $80,000 at the time.

On January 4, 1821, King Liholiho took formal possession of Cleopatra’s Barge, appointing his personal secretary, Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Rives, as temporary captain.

Liholiho then renamed the yacht ‘Ha‘aheo O Hawai‘i’ (Pride of Hawaiʻi.)

© 2021 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks, General Tagged With: Timeline, 1821, Kamehameha, Liholiho, Kamehameha II, 1821 Frame House, Haaheo O Hawaii, Cleopatra's Barge, Napoleon, Timeline Tuesday

December 19, 2021 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L)

The story of Hawaii’s “Big Five” companies (Alexander & Baldwin, Amfac (American Factors), Castle & Cooke, C. Brewer & Co. and Theo. H Davies & Co.) dominates the state’s economic history.
 
Their common trait: they were founded in agriculture – sugar and pineapple.
 
Another Hawai‘i family and company, Dillingham, started business in the late-1800s; although not a “Big Five,” deserves some attention.
 
It’s beginning, in part, is traced to O‘ahu Railway and Land Company.  They didn’t necessarily produce agriculture, but they played a critical role in agricultural operations.
 
Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham formed OR&L (a narrow gauge rail,) whose economic being was founded on the belief that O‘ahu would soon host a major sugar industry.
 
In 1885, Dillingham embarked on a land development project west of Honolulu and, like his continental counterparts, realized that this venture would not succeed without improved transportation to the area.  He also figured that a railroad needed to carry freight, as well, in order to be profitable.
 
The drilling of the first artesian well on the Ewa Plain by James Campbell in 1879 presented Dillingham another opportunity.  He obtained 50-year leases beginning in 1887 from Campbell in Ewa.
 
In 1888, the legislature gave Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad … for the carriage of passengers and freight.”
 
Ultimately OR&L sublet land, partnered on several sugar operations and/or hauled cane from Ewa Plantation Company, Honolulu Sugar Company in ‘Aiea, O‘ahu Sugar in Waipahu, Waianae Sugar Company, Waialua Agriculture Company and Kahuku Plantation Company, as well as pineapples for Dole.
 
Likewise, OR&L hauled various stages in the pineapple harvesting/production, including the canning components, fresh pineapple to the cannery, ending up hauling the cased products to the docks.
 
By 1895 the rail line reached Waianae.  It then rounded Kaena Point to Mokuleia, eventually extending to Kahuku.  Another line was constructed through central O‘ahu to Wahiawa.
 
Passenger travel was an add-on opportunity that not only included train rides, they also operated a bus system.  However, the hauling for the agricultural ventures was the most lucrative.
 
They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Haleiwa for picture-taking.  During the war years, they served the military.
 
Just like the rail programs on the continent, the railroad owned and operated the Haleiwa Hotel and offered city folks a North Shore destination with beaches, boating, golf, tennis and hunting.
 
In addition, OR&L (using another of its “land” components,) got into land development.  It developed Hawai‘i’s first planned suburban development and held a contest, through the newspaper, to name this new city.
 
The winner selected was “Pearl City” (the public also named the main street, Lehua.)
 
The railway owned 2,200-acres in fee simple in the peninsula.  First they laid-out and constructed the improvements, then invited the public on a free ride to see the new residential community.
 
The marketing went so well; ultimately, lots were auctioned off to the highest bidder.
 
Multiple factors affected the ultimate demise of the rail operations: sugar/pineapple production fizzled in the islands; more and more people were getting automobiles for travel; a 1946 tsunami damaged tracks and the war’s end stopped military travel.
 
The last ride on OR&L’s train operations was on December 31, 1947, ending 58-years of steam locomotives hauling all kinds of people, freight and other around O‘ahu.
 
The Dillinghams were out of transportation, but were active in development, construction and dredging.
 
My father served as manager of the land department of OR&L (1952-1961.)  When OR&L and Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Company merged to form the Dillingham Corporation, he was manager and vice president at Dillingham until 1968.  As a kid, I remember going down to the old OR&L facility in Iwilei.
 
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Filed Under: General, Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Oahu Railway and Land Company, Dillingham, Images of Old Hawaii

December 18, 2021 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Nuʻuanu

In 1872, some referred to it as “Missionary Street,” although the Missionary Period had ended about 10-years earlier (the Missionary Period was from 1820 – 1863.)

You might more accurately call it the home of the elite, and that is not limited to folks of the Caucasian persuasion – both Kauikeaouli and Emma had summer residences here and included in the list of successful business people who called it home were the Afongs and others.

But you can’t help concluding the strong demand to live there based on early descriptions – even Realtors, today, would be envious of the descriptors Ellis used in 1831: “The scenery is romantic and delightful.”

“Across this plain, immediately opposite the harbour of Honoruru, lies the valley of Anuanu (Nuʻuanu,) leading to a pass in the mountains, called by the natives Ka Pari (Pali,) the precipice, which is well worth the attention of every intelligent foreigner visiting Oahu.”  (Ellis, 1831)

“The mouth of the valley, which opens immediately behind the town of Honoruru, is a complete garden, carefully kept by its respective proprietors in a state of high cultivation; and the ground, being irrigated by the water from a river that winds rapidly down the valley, is remarkably productive.”  (Ellis, 1831)

Over sixty years later (1897,) Stoddard keeps the demand momentum going by adding, “The way lies through shady avenues, between residences that stand in the midst of broad lawns and among foliage of the most brilliant description. An infinite variety of palms and tropical plants, with leaves of enormous circumference, diversify the landscape.”

Today, the descriptors of the past hold true – and the place is high in the demand (and price,) just as it was nearly two centuries ago.

So, who were some of the people who called this place home?

As noted, an early resident of Nuʻuanu was Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III.  Consistent with tradition, his home had a name, Kaniakapūpū (sound or song of the land snail;) it was located back up into the valley at Luakaha.

Ruins today, the structure, modeled on an Irish stone cottage, was completed in 1845 and is reportedly built on top or in the vicinity of an ancient heiau.  It was a simple cottage, a square with four straight walls.

Another royal, Queen Emma, had a “mountain” home, Hānaiakamālama (Lit., the foster child of the light (or moon,)) now known as the Queen Emma Summer Palace.  In 1857, she inherited it from her uncle, John Young II, son of the famous advisor to Kamehameha I, John Young I.

The ‘Summer Palace’ was modeled in the Greek Revival style. It has a formal plan arrangement, wide central hall, high ceilings and floor-length hinged, in-swinging shuttered casement window.  The Daughters of Hawaiʻi saved it from demolition and it is now operated as a museum and open to the public (a nominal admission fee is charged.)

On the private side, the following are only a few of the several notable residences (existing, or long gone,) in Nuʻuanu Valley.

A notable home is the “Walker Estate;” one of the few intact estates that were built in the upper Nuʻuanu Valley before and after the turn of the century (built in 1905,) it is a two story wood frame structure of Classical Revival style.  (NPS)

The home on the 5.7-acre estate was initially built for the Rodiek family, a leading businessman in Honolulu. Due to war time pressures on the family, who were German citizens, the home was sold in 1918 to Wilcox who lived there into the 1930s, when it was taken over by Henry Alexander Walker, president and chairman of the Board of Amfac (one of the Hawaiʻi Big Five businesses.)

The grounds were originally used for orchards and vegetables, although the Japanese garden was put in shortly after the house was built and is thought to be the oldest formal Japanese garden in Hawaiʻi, the stones, lamps and images specially brought from Japan for it.  (NPS)

Another notable home is former Governor George Carter’s “Lihiwai” (water’s edge.)  In the late-1920s, Carter built his 26,000-square feet home; it is reportedly “the largest and finest private residence ever constructed in Hawaiʻi (with the exception of ʻIolani Palace.)”  (NPS)

The entire building is built of shaped bluestone set in concrete and steel reinforced cement, and all the perimeter walls are 2 – 3-feet thick with the exception of the end walls, which are 6-feet thick.  It is constructed entirely of bluestone, concrete, steel, copper, bronze and teak.

Originally, the building was connected to two smaller structures — by a breezeway on the eastern side and by the porte-cochere on the western side (these structures were separated in 1957.)  The property was originally 10-acres, but portions were subdivided and sold in 1945 after the death of Helen Strong Carter. Today, the property includes the original house on a little over 1-acre.   (The home is undergoing restoration.)

A home long gone, but we are repeatedly reminded of it in on-the-air marketing for senior living in Nuʻuanu, is “Craigside.”  This was the home of Theophilus Harris Davies.  Not only was Davies’ firm, Theo H Davies, one of the Hawaiʻi Big Five, he personally served as guardian to Princess Kaʻiulani while she was studying in England (Davies had another home there – “Sundown.”)

Likewise, just up the hill, was the Paty house “Buena Vista;” it’s now gone and part of the Wyllie Street interchange with Pali Highway.  (Look for the parallel palms in the yard of the immediately-makai ‘Community Church of Honolulu.’  They used to line the Paty driveway, with the house off to the left (mauka.)

During the Spanish American War, the military took over Buena Vista and turned it into the Nuʻuanu Valley Military Hospital (also known as “Buena Vista Hospital.”)

Just mauka of Buena Vista (now also part of the Wyllie-Nuʻuanu interchange) was Robert Crichton Wyllie’ “Rosebank.”  Wyllie first worked as acting British Consul. Attracted by Wyllie’s devotion to the affairs of Hawaiʻi, in 1845, King Kamehameha III appointed him the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Kamehameha IV reappointed all the ministers who were in office when Kamehameha III died, including Robert C Wyllie as Minister of Foreign Relations (he was in Hawaiʻi from 1844 until his death in 1865.)  Wyllie served as Minister of Foreign Relations from 1845 until his death in 1865, serving under Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

Finally, a home of a missionary, Dr. Gerrit Parmele Judd, “Sweet Home” was located at the intersection of Nuʻuanu and Judd.   Judd was in the 3rd company of missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (he was in Hawaiʻi from 1828 until his death in 1873.)  After serving the mission for 15-years, Judd was translator and later Minister of Foreign Affairs, member of the House of Nobles and Privy Council, and Minister of Finance under Kamehameha III.

Wife Laura Judd once noted, “we were supposed to be rich,” but insisted they had never been so poor, being obliged to borrow money to pay for carpenters and masons.  (Scott, Saga)  The house was torn down in 1911 and the property became part of what is now Oʻahu Cemetery.

© 2021 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Buildings, Hawaiian Traditions, Place Names, Prominent People Tagged With: George Carter, Theo H Davies, Sweet Home, Buena Vista, Craigside, Nuuanu, Gerrit Judd, Kaniakapupu, Robert Wyllie, Lihiwai, Hawaii, Rosebank, Oahu, Queen Emma Summer Palace, Queen Emma, Hanaiakamalama, Kamehameha III

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