Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Helen Keller

Helen Keller (1880–1968) became blind and deaf due to illness before she was two. At seven she began learning language through an alphabet spelled into her hand by her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

On March 3, 1887, Sullivan went to Keller’s home in Alabama and immediately went to work. She began by teaching six-year-old Keller finger spelling, starting with the word ‘doll,’ to help Keller understand the gift of a doll she had brought along. Other words would follow.

In 1890, Keller began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. She would toil for 25 years to learn to speak so that others could understand her.  Keller had mastered several methods of communication, including touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling.

Polly Thompson was her assistant after the death of Sullivan in 1936. Thomson spent 46 years with Keller.  Mary Agnes (Polly) Thomson was born in Glasgow, Scotland on February 20, 1885. In 1913, Thomson came to the United States for a long visit to an uncle who worked as a shoe manufacturer in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

On October 20, 1914, Thomson joined the household as secretary, eventually becoming Keller’s companion and interpreter. Polly helped Helen to communicate with the world despite her blindness and deafness.

Thomson and Keller formed a tremendous bond. They traveled together all over the world and spent countless hours at home responding to correspondence. The pair also, however, settled into a mostly quiet life. They were happy to escape to their respective rooms after dinner to spend the night reading their books.

In 1937 Helen Keller received a request to speak before the Hawai’i legislature for the blind of Hawai’i.  Helen and Polly were already planning a trip to Japan so, she noted, “I shall comply, as the boat stops there for a day.”

“A long cablegram from Honolulu, where [our boat] is to stop for a day. I am to speak before the legislature, urging them to provide a Bureau of Welfare for the blind of Hawaii and an adequate appropriation, and arrangements are being made for me to give an informal talk to the Honolulu Lions at a luncheon.”

“The welcoming committee at Honolulu sent me a cordial ‘Aloha’ by wireless this afternoon. Three times an inquiry has been cabled from there whether I would permit a broadcast of my speech for the people on seven other islands beside Hawaii, and three times I have signified my consent.”

“Whatever the trouble may be, the nearness of Hawaii is now a thrilling reality. Polly is whetting my impatience to reach that Blest Isle by recalling the blue, blue mountains round Honolulu which she saw years ago on a world cruise.”

“We arrived at Honolulu 6 A.M [April 6, 1937]. I was hardly up when a Braille copy of the program for the day was brought to me. I noted that two extra meetings had been put in between that of the legislature and the Lions’ luncheon. That meant remarks to be made on the spur of the moment.”

“Polly and I were on deck at 7 A.M. A committee headed by Commander Todd, aide to the governor of Hawaii, and including representatives of the blind, the deaf and the Lions, welcomed us.”

“The leis – veritable living jewels to my enraptured touch – were heaped upon me until my dress was completely hidden. From Polly’s enumeration of colors they must have had a rainbow glory-white, red, pink, orange, gold.”

“Their blended fragrances intoxicated me-gardenia, pekokee (very much like the scented wisteria), plumeria, mock orange – so that I forgot the weight and the heat of the flowers on my neck. The music of ‘Aloha Oe’ was in every word spoken, every kindness shown, on my first visit to Honolulu.”

“As we drove through the wide, pleasant streets I knew by smell it was a garden city. … Senators Elsie Wilcox, Mrs Cudingham and WJ Heen escorted Polly and me to the governor’s office in the building which was formerly the royal palace. Governor Poindexter greeted us cordially.  I was touched to learn that he had come out of hospital for the occasion.”

“He told me the office used to be Queen Liliuokalani’s bedroom, and that the representatives met downstairs in the sometime throne room. I said I had read her pathetic story as a young girl, and told how I shed tears hearing that the Hawaiians had shut themselves up and wept after her abdication.”

“Again the view from the windows held Polly entranced, and I could imagine how Her Majesty’s eyes must have rested upon their soft, luxuriant greenness with a poet’s intense love.”

“From the office several representatives escorted Polly and me to the House, where we were to speak.”  She started her talk, “For the first time, I know the full meaning of Hawaii.” “Speaking through Miss Thomson, Miss Keller voiced a plea for adequate legislative appropriations for work among the blind of the territory.”

“The response was encouraging, and I am sure the blind of Hawaii will obtain the Bureau of Welfare they need. I felt handsomely complimented when the legislature passed a long resolution extending to me a welcome on behalf of the people of Hawaii.”

“It was very interesting to address a legislative body representing widely different groups on the island – Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiians, Portuguese and Anglo-Saxon.”

“I believe they are working out slowly but surely a solution of interracial problems. Hawaii is fortunate in a geographical situation that sets it somewhat apart from the fettering prejudices and rabid nationalism which retard endeavors to achieve permanent peace.”

“As Polly and I were coming out of the palace we were surrounded by a large crowd of schoolboys and girls, and I was asked to say a few words to them from the balcony.”

“Afterwards we were taken to the Territorial School for the Blind and the Deaf, and fresh leis were rained upon me by delegates from the Honolulu Junior League, the Japanese Junior League, the Hospital Social Service, the Chamber of Commerce and the students.”

“Then I learned what those works of art meant – the wreath weavers rising at dawn, picking masses of blossoms and spending hours threading them together petal by petal. What a lavish, colorful welcome to bestow upon a visitor! And I counted between twenty and thirty leis round my neck.”

“I am sorry that the blind and the deaf are taught in the same school. The combination method does not produce the best results. For it imposes a heavier burden upon those who teach two entirely different groups of handicapped, and it is not possible to give each group the special attention it requires.”

“But I was delighted to find the Territorial School in spacious grounds where the students can exercise freely and develop happily, with beauty calling to the eye or the ear in mountain, sea, bird songs and brilliant vegetation.”

“The luncheon with the Honolulu Lions and the Business and Professional Women’s Club took place at Fuller Hall. Before I spoke the orchestra, led by one of my sightless fellows, sent out deep, sweet vibrations that I could feel a long way off.”

“Our charming hostess was the governor’s daughter, Helen Poindexter. His Excellency placed his automobile at our disposal for a ride round Honolulu. It had grown quite hot, and I was glad when we stopped at the pineapple factory, where we enjoyed the coolest, most delicious pineapple juice I had ever tasted.”

“To my regret I found we did not have time to pay our respects to the active volcano, Kilauea, but we drove far enough into the mountains to be overpowered by their magnificence. Polly said they seemed to float in an ocean of unearthly blue, and the rounded green slopes were beyond description.”

“I felt the car zigzag up corkscrew roads between hibiscus hedges, groves of palm and bamboo, pineapple fields and homes built on the summit or near it for the fascinating view in every direction.”

“Mr Palmer, who teaches the deaf, was of the party. Between his wealth of legend, history and Hawaiian names liquid with vowels, Polly’s color-filled fingers and the smells that flooded my nostrils I received a Niagara of impressions which I have not yet formulated.”

“We got out to visit Queen Emma’s summer palace with its wide cool rooms. I was permitted to touch the enormous beds on which the natives sleep, the cradle of the queen’s heir, her sewing table and her mat-weaving loom.”

“Then we walked into the ‘grass hut’ or pavilion where the king sought refuge from the cares of state. It had many windows as well as dry grass between strong, smooth bamboo logs.”

“What romance it suggested – revelers under the tender dreaming evening sky, graceful slender hula dancers, the ukulele sending its wistful notes out over the sea until the stoutest hearts succumbed to the love spell!”

“We drove on to the great Pali, or cliff, where Laihahee towered majestically close by; and the masses of white surf beating against the rock caught a rainbow glory in the sun.”

“On the exposed side a furious blast buffeted the car. Its vibration, which caused the windows to rattle, was startlingly like the roar of Niagara Falls which I have visited several times. I was told that wind had turned over a number of automobiles.”

“As we returned down the mountain a sudden pungent whiff made my heart jump with delight – the fragrance of eucalyptus trees which mingles with all my memories of Los Angeles.”

“Miss Poindexter drove us to the dock. Reluctantly we said good-by to the warmhearted friends who had made the day a sunburst of hospitality and pleasure for us, but their Alohas cheered us with the knowledge that we would be welcome if we came back for a longer stay.”

“Although Polly and I could scarcely stand from fatigue we went on deck for a glimpse of the beautiful harbor and Laihahee. People were waving to the ship, singing, shouting, the very automobiles seemed to honk ‘Aloha!’ until we were a long way from the shore.”

“When we entered our hot stateroom and saw leis piled high on our beds we groaned – in fact, I could have screamed. I was so surfeited with sweet smells and crazy to stretch out, I simply threw the wreaths on the floor. I understood as I had never before the painful effect of a dazzling spectacle too prolonged upon the eyes of those who see.”

“While we were having dinner in bed two boxes were brought in filled with an odorous miscellany of flowers which I was about to send away when a Braille label caught my finger tips. These are some of the lovely flowers that grow in Hawaii. Territorial School For The Deaf And The Blind.”

“I found they had with Aloha thoughtfulness fastened a Braille card to each blossom, giving its name and colors … All night I dreamed that I was being smothered with sweetness, and this morning I ache every time I recall the leis pressing upon my shoulders.”

“With twitching fingers Polly has done her best to spell the endless pen-written Honolulu messages, and with hands quite as tired I have gone over the Braille Alohas. Now I am oppressed by the prospect of thank you letters I am to write to Governor Poindexter, the school and many others ….”

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Diamond Head Charlie

“Ste-e-e-mer off Koko Head!”  (PCA, 1906)

“Before the telephone was invented, and long before the system was in use in Honolulu, we had the lookout station on Telegraph Hill, which by means of a semaphore arrangement communicated with a station on the building (downtown.)”

“Every merchant was supplied with the code, and whenever a schooner, a steamer, a mail packet, or a man of war, was sighted, the heart of the town knew it immediately.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 10, 1899)

Pu‘u O Kaimukī (aka “Kaimukī Hill”) was used as a sighting and signal station (using semaphore technology,) giving it the name “telegraph hill.”   It had broad view over the Pacific and line-of-sight to downtown Honolulu.  Back then, they used this vantage point to spot ships coming in, and then conveyed the news to Honolulu.

This is where John Charles Pedersen was first stationed.  Petersen was appointed lookout … by the then Minister of the Interior, Samuel G Wilder. The station was located at the top of Kaimuki Hill. (Evening Bulletin, September 27, 1907)

Semaphore towers used arms and blades/paddles to convey messages; messages were conveyed/decoded based on the fixed positions of these arms.  Reportedly, in 1857, a semaphore mechanism on Puʻu O Kaimukī, with large moveable arms, was attached to the top of a sixty-foot pole and used to signal to Honolulu.

The official receiving station from Kaimukī was on Merchant Street, but some have suggested other receiving stations at Kaʻahumanu Street and the foot of Nuʻuanu.

“When the telephone system got into working order the lookout station was moved to a position on Diamond Head which gave a view further along the channel, because it was no longer necessary for the station to be in full view of the city.” (Hawaiian Star, February 10, 1899)

Diamond Head was connected by telephone with the book store of Whitney & Robertson conducted in Honolulu Hale.  (Evening Bulletin, September 27, 1907)

Petersen’s regular weather reports (telephoned every evening promptly at 10 o’clock,) “Diamond Head – 10 pm – weather, hazy; wind, fresh, NE,” or calls with a ship sighting, “Ste-e-e-mer off Koko Head!” “gladdens the hearts of thousands of people every week.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 29, 1906)

Following the call, HECO’s whistle would scream three long blasts, loud enough for all Honolulu to hear. This meant the ship would arrive in two hours, and people rushed to the harbor.

“All hands, including government officials of many grades and various departments, agents’ representatives, post office clerks, hotel and newspaper men, waterfronters, hackmen, messengers, shipping men, storekeepers, the large army of people “expecting friends,” and frequently Captain Berger and the Hawaiian Band, make haste to get down to the dock to ‘see the steamer come in.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 29, 1906)

“For many years all Honolulu has depended on one man to announce the sighting of mail and freight steamers as well as the fleet of ‘windjammers.’  … ‘John Chas. Peterson, Keeper Diamond Head Signal Station,’ as he is designated in the directory.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 29, 1906)

He was better known as Diamond Head Charlie.

Petersen was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. He came to the Islands eighteen years ago from San Francisco in the old schooner Lizzie Wight.   He left for a short while, returned and married a Hawaiian who died four months after her child was born. “The pledge of their union still lives to cheer the father’s heart.”

“His house is built on a rough slope of Diamond Head, facing the sea and from its position the faithful lookout commands an almost unlimited view of the broad Pacific. His business is to watch for incoming vessels and report them. … He watches with unfailing zeal, and it is very seldom that a vessel ever escapes his sharp eyes.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 19, 1894)

“The great landmark on which he passes his time is well known to tourists and others, and it is eagerly watched for from the decks of incoming steamers. With the aid of glasses passengers can detect a small cottage, painted white, which is built on the side of the bleak extinct volcano.”

“Their home consists of bedrooms, a tiny bit of a pantry, and an observation room, from which Peterson scans the sea. On one side a large water tank stands, encased in wood; they must store the rain water or else go as far as James Campbell’s for the fluid.”

“In front of the cottage stands a flagpole eighty feet high, which is used for signaling. In a locker “Charlie” has a full complement of flags, and is proud of his belonging.”

“A large telescope stands in the observation room, which aids the eye to see a distance of at least thirty miles.  It is a powerful glass and when a vessel is eight miles away she does not appear to be more than 1000 yards distant. This telescope was presented to the lookout by Wm. G. Irwin and other merchants about town.”

“Peterson is on duty about seventeen hours every day, and divides his time between watching for vessels and cooking his meals. He has no servants, and of course must prepare his own food, which is done under great difficulties at times, as he has no kitchen.”

“He comes to town but once a month for his pay. While he is absent from his post, which is taken for the time being by a native, he usually purchases enough supplies to last him a month. His salary at present is $75 a month. He started in sixteen years ago at $50, and after a year’s time the sum was increased to $60.  He worked for twelve years for the last mentioned sum.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 19, 1894)

“His glory began to grow dim when the lighthouse was erected at the Head and a keeper came to divide honors with him. Though he has constantly been an important factor to the business community and reported the ships appearing off the port, he became less a household word after the installation of the trans-Pacific cable.”    (Evening Bulletin, September 27, 1907)

“Each year since 1895 General Soper has made a Christmas collection for Charlie among the business men of the town. The largest sum was $440 collected in 1902. Charlie was a faithful man and the news of his death (September 27, 1907) caused widespread expressions of regret throughout the town.  (Evening Bulletin, September 27, 1907)

“For several weeks past Peterson was in the hospital and little hope was held for his recovery.  Close on the allotted three score years and ten, he now sighted that mysterious bark whose captain is called Death.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 28, 1907)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Occidental Hotel

Edward HF Wolter was one of the military officers who helped Hawai‘i in the stirring closing years of the 19th century, during the Revolutionary period, aiding in obtaining annexation to the  United States for the islands; he then got into real estate as a builder and real estate operator.

Born on February 22, 1854, at Sprackensehl, Provinz Hanover, Germany, Wolter was the son of Jurgen H. C. and Sophia M. E. Wolter. He obtained his education in the  schools of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and arrived in Honolulu on Oct. 7, 1881, acquiring a part ownership in Olowalu sugar plantation.  From 1882 to 1885 he served as a plantation overseer.

He accepted a position as hotel manager in 1885 and resigned in 1913, after almost thirty years of service, to enter the building and real estate business.  He also has served as a supervisor for the city and county of Honolulu.

His career as a military officer in Hawaii began during the reign of King Kalakaua and was continued through the regime of Queen Liliuokalani, the  Republic of Hawaii under President Dole and latterly in the National Guard of Hawaii, in the 298th US Infantry. (Nellist)

Then, an announcement of the construction of the Occidental Hotel was made in 1896, under ‘Local and General News:’ “Major EHF Wolter contemplates erecting a grand lodging house in place of the McDowell place on the corner of King and Alakea street.”

“If the dilapidated buildings on the other corners could be torn down a great improvement would be made.” (The Independent, October 3, 1896)

The Occidental, long popular as a modestly-priced hotel and rooming house on the makai-Waikīkī corner of Alakea and South King Streets, was built in 1896.

With its lathe and plaster exterior, iron-railed second-floor balcony grillwork, potted plants, and dormered-mansard roof and cupola, the Occidental remained substantially unchanged while Honolulu grew up around it.

In 1900 EHF Wolter presided as manager; room rates by the day in the two-and one-half story structure ran from $1.00 to $2.00, with “a substantial reduction in prices when taken by the month.”  (Scott)

The fire inspection report for 1900 noted that “the walls were full of openings; there was a ‘poor chimney’ and no bar ….”

By 1904 proprietor Wolter had added a bistro where straight goods were a specialty and a barber shop for good measure. The new $1.25 daily rates were “the lowest in the city for a refined hostelry.” 

On the King Street side of the hotel stood Fred Harrison’s Hawaiian Marble Works adjoining Spanton and Lund, sign painters and paperhangers. (Scott)

“The valuable piece of property at the corner-of King and Alakea streets, now owned by EHF Wolter, is likely to be thrown into litigation in the very near future unless an amicable agreement is reached between the present possessor of the land and Mrs. Robert Wilcox, who claims ownership of the corner by reason of an alleged defective title.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“The land was originally deeded by the King to Rieves, a kamaaina of Hawaii. At the death of Rieves the land was deeded to his six children, so Mrs. Wilcox contends.  Two of these signed off in favor of a third.”

“The land passed out of the Rieves family and has been transferred numerous times until bought in by Wolter at a public auction sale.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Now Mrs. Wilcox claims to have proof that the land never legally passed out of the Rieves family. Her grandfather was one of the two who did not come in for his share of the property. She insists that it has been handed down to her by her ancestors and that Mr. Wolter’s title is defective.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Mrs. Wilcox has retained WR Castle as her attorney and he will Institute suit or the recovery of the property unless Mr. Wolter agrees to settle.  LA Thurston is Mr. Wolter’s counsel. It is said that the present owner has shown some inclination to compromise. The property is worth about $12,000.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Mr. Wolter is erecting a large building on the premises to be known as the Occidental hotel. It extends back half a block and has fully fifty feet front on King. Construction on the building has been temporarily stopped by the Government, the claim being that it is not as nearly fire proof as it should be.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Mr Wolter is thinking of making a three story building of the Occidental Hotel.  (Hawaiian Star, October 27, 1898)

The “box-like, durable Occidental Hotel, its original cupola still intact, appeared somewhat out of place in downtown Honolulu” in 1940.

“The old hostel, at the makai Waikiki corner of South King and Alakea Streets, had recently been renovated and small shops occupied the ground floor with the upper two stories given over to furnished rooms.” (Scott)

Wolter’s son, Henry Wolter, took over the property after his father’s death in 1928.  He redeveloped the site of the Occidental Hotel (demolished in October 1950) with a 2-story office building that was ready for occupancy in 1951. (Star Bulletin, March 2, 1951)

On the curbstone in front of the Wolter Building, corner of King and Alakea, circular indentations show the location of hitching rings used to tether horses at the old Occidental Hotel.

Forty years ago a couple of the rings remained; now there are only the iron stubs of one or two shanks that fastened the rings to the stone (not concrete) curb.

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by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Surfer Girl

“Surf-riding was one of the most exciting and noble sports known to the Hawaiians, practiced equally by king, chief and commoner. It is still to some extent engaged in, though not as formerly, when it was not uncommon for a whole community, including both sexes, and all ages, to sport and frolic in the ocean the livelong day.” (Malo)

By 1779, riding waves lying down or standing on long, hardwood surfboards was an integral part of Hawaiian culture. Surfboard riding was as layered into the society, religion and myth of the islands as baseball is to the modern United States.

Even the missionaries surfed.

Amos Cooke, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1837 – and was later appointed by King Kamehameha III to teach the young royalty in the Chief’s Childrens’ School – surfed himself (with his sons) and enjoyed going to the beach in the afternoon. “After dinner Auhea went with me, & the boys to bathe in the sea, & I tried riding on the surf. To day I have felt quite lame from it.” (Cooke)

Mark Twain sailed to the Hawaiian Islands and tried surfing, describing his 1866 experience in his book Roughing It. “I tried surf-bathing once, subsequently, but made a failure of it. I got the board placed right, and at the right moment, too; but missed the connection myself.”

“The board struck the shore in three quarters of a second, without any cargo, and I struck the bottom about the same time, with a couple of barrels of water in me.”

Missionary Hiram Bingham, noted of surfing (rather poetically,) “On a calm and bright summer’s day, the wide ocean and foaming surf … the green tufts of elegant fronds on the tall cocoanut trunks, nodding and waving, like graceful plumes, in the refreshing breeze …”

“… the natives … riding more rapidly and proudly on their surf-boards, on the front of foaming surges … give life and interest to the scenery.”

Although everyone, including women and children, surfed, it was the chiefs who dominated the sport. One of the best among Waikīkī’s chiefs was Kalamakua; he came from a long ancestry of champion surfers whose knowledge, skill and mana were handed down and passed on from generation to generation. (DLNR)

A notable wahine (woman) surfer was Kelea, sister of Kawao, King of Maui (about AD 1445) – “No sport was to her so enticing as a battle with the waves.” (Kalākaua)

She loved the water possibly because she could see her fair face mirrored in it – and became the most graceful and daring surf-swimmer in the kingdom. Kelea later married Kalamakua. (Kalākaua) But this story is not about Kelea.

This story is about another surfer girl.

Reportedly, Mrs James Cromwell became the first woman to take up competition surfing under the guidance of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers.

Cromwell won “First Place” in a surfboard regatta staged at Waikīkī Beach (January 22, 1939.) She and beach boy Sam Kahanamoku won the tandem, open “malihini girls and beach boys” quarter-mile sprint. (Honolulu Advertiser, January 23, 1939)

She and Sam were a familiar team in Waikīkī, where they won tandem surfing and paddling competitions. A bronze medalist in the 100-meter free-style swim at the 1924 Olympics, Sam was also an avid surfer, paddler, musician and a great wit. (Their friendship continued until his death in 1966.)

By 1941, Cromwell had 13-boards in the household inventory. Each of the boards had a name or initials, including one named Lahilahi (thin or dainty,) an affectionate nickname given to her by the Kahanamokus.

All was not fun and games. Showing her husband her surfing skill while in Honolulu, Mrs Cromwell, in 1935, had a slight scalp wound as a result of being thrown from her 60-pound surfboard. An emergency hospital record showed she was treated and released. (St Petersburg Times, November 3, 1935)

She later had a more modern board, created by Dale Velzy, who is considered one of the men responsible for the rise of the California surfer culture in the years following World War II. Some suggest Velzy opened the first conventional surf shop at Manhattan Beach in California in 1949.

Her board is one of the first boards Velzy created using the new polyurethane foam material; boards were previously made of balsa wood.

Oh, by the way … Mrs Cromwell was more generally known as “the richest girl in the world,” Doris Duke.

Doris Duke, the only child of James Buchanan Duke, was born on November 22, 1912. Her father was a founder of the American Tobacco Company and the Duke Power Company, as well as a benefactor of Duke University. When Mr Duke died in 1925, he left his 12-year old daughter an estate estimated at $80-million.

In the late-1930s, Doris Duke built her Honolulu home, Shangri La, on 5-acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Diamond Head. Shangri La incorporates architectural features from the Islamic world and houses Duke’s extensive collection of Islamic art, which she assembled for nearly 60-years.

Her surfing legacy lives on.

Rough Point has been the ‘home’ of the Doris Duke Surf Fest. It’s not really a surf contest; it’s more of a display of vintage surfboards on the grounds of Rough Point, one of Duke’s other homes (in Newport, Rhode Island, not far from the International Tennis Hall of Fame.)

Designed in the English manorial style, Rough Point was originally built for Frederick W Vanderbilt, sixth son of William H Vanderbilt. When it was commissioned in 1887, Rough Point was the largest house that the Newport summer colony had yet seen, replacing two wood-frame houses at the extreme southeast end of Bellevue Avenue.

Duke’s father bought it in 1922. On her death, she bequeathed the estate to the Newport Restoration Foundation with the directive that it be opened to the public as a museum (it opened for tours in 2000.) (Lots of information here from Shangri La Hawaiʻi and Newport Restoration Foundation.)

 

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Marianne Cope

“I am hungry for the work. … I am not afraid of any disease, hence it would be my greatest delight even to minister the abandoned ‘lepers.’”

Farmers Peter and Barbara Koob had five children in Germany and five children in the United States.  On January 23, 1838, their daughter, Barbara Koob (variants: Kob, Kopp and now officially Cope,) was born in the German Grand Duchy of Hess-Darmstadt.   The next year, the family immigrated to the United States to seek opportunity.

The Koob family settled in Utica, New York and became members of St. Joseph Parish, where the children attended the parish school.

In 1848, young Barbara received her First Holy Communion and was confirmed at St. John Parish in Utica when, in accordance with the practice of the time, the bishop of the diocese came to the largest church in the area to administer these two sacraments at the same ceremony.

After her father’s death, Barbara, in August, 1862, entered the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Syracuse, NY, and, on November 19, 1862, she was invested at the Church of the Assumption. She soon became known as Sister Marianne.

As a member of the governing boards of her religious community, she participated in the establishment of two of the first hospitals in the central New York area, St. Elizabeth Hospital in Utica (1866) and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse (1869). These two hospitals were among the first 50 general hospitals in the US.

Sister Marianne began her new career as administrator at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, NY in 1870 where she served as head administrator for six of the hospital’s first seven years.

In 1877, Sister Marianne was elected Mother General of the Franciscan congregation and given the title “Mother” as was the custom of the time.

In 1883, she received a letter from Father Leonor Fouesnel, a missionary in Hawaiʻi, to come to Hawaiʻi to help “procure the salvation of souls and to promote the glory of God.”

Of the 50 religious communities in the US contacted, only Mother Marianne’s Order of Sisters agreed to come to Hawaiʻi to care for people with Hansen’s Disease (known then as leprosy).

The Sisters arrived in Hawaiʻi on November 8, 1883, dedicating themselves to the care of the 200-lepers in Kakaʻako Branch Hospital on Oʻahu.  This hospital was built to accommodate 100-people, but housed more than 200.

The condition at the hospital were deplorable.  Each Sister-nurse learned to wash the wounds, to apply soothing ointment to the wounds, and to bring a sense of order to the lawlessness that prevails when there is abandonment of hope.

In 1884, Mother Marianne Cope and the Sisters of St. Francis came to Maui and with a royal bequest from Queen Kapiʻolani, established Malulani Hospital (“Protection of Heaven”) in Wailuku, next to the site of St. Anthony’s Church.  Malulani was the first hospital established on Maui.

In 1885, realizing that healthy children of leprous patients were at high risk of contracting the disease, yet had no place to live, she founded Kapiʻolani Home on Oʻahu for healthy female children of leprosy patients.  Because of her work, she was the recipient of the Royal Medal of Kapiʻolani.

In the summer of 1886, the Sisters took care of Father Damien (later Saint Damien) when he visited Honolulu during his bout with leprosy.  He asked the Sisters to take over for him when he died.

Mother Marianne led the first contingent of Sister-nurses to Kalaupapa, Molokaʻi, where more than a thousand people with leprosy had been exiled.  Upon arrival, on November 14, 1888, she opened the CR Bishop Home for homeless women and girls with Hansen’s Disease.  To improve the bleak conditions, Mother Marianne grew fruits, vegetables and landscaped the area with trees, thus creating a better environment among the residents.

While at Kalaupapa, Mother Marianne predicted that no Franciscan Sister would ever contract leprosy. Additionally she required her sisters use stringent hand washing and other sanitary procedures.

Upon the death of Saint Damien on April 15, 1889, Mother Marianne agreed to head the Boys Home at Kalawao.  The Board of Health had quickly chosen her as Saint Damien’s successor and she was thus enabled to keep her promise to him to look after his boys.

The Boys Home at Kalawao was completely renovated between 1889 – 1895 during her administration.  During the renovation, it was renamed Baldwin Home by the Board of Health in honor of its leading benefactor, HP Baldwin.

The two new Sisters who came to run the Home were accompanied on their boat journey by poet Robert Louis Stevenson, who stayed for a week.  During his stay, he wrote a poem for Mother Marianne and later donated a piano so that “there will always be music.”

Mother Marianne’s spirit of self-sacrifice enabled her to live and work with leper patients for 35 years.  Although there was not yet a cure, the Sisters could offer the lepers some semblance of dignity and as pleasant a life as possible.

Mother Marianne died in Kalaupapa on August 9, 1918.  The Sisters of St. Francis continue their work in Kalaupapa with victims of Hansen’s Disease.  No sister has ever contracted the disease.

On December 19, 2011, Pope Benedict signed and approved the promulgation of the decree for her sainthood and she was canonized on October 21, 2012.  (Information here is primarily from Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.)

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