Prominent People | Page 90 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 19, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Chen Fang

Zhongshan (historically known as Xiangshan), one of the few cities in China with an eponymous name (a person or thing, whether real or fictional, after which a particular place or other item is named,) is named after Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) who was also known as Sun Zhongshan. Xiangshan was renamed Zhongshan in 1925 following Sun Yat-sen’s death.

Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese revolutionary and first president and founding father of the Republic of China (“Nationalist China”). (Dr. Sun Yat-Sen spent four years in Hawaiʻi (1879-1883) and attended three Christian educational institutions: ʻIolani College, St. Louis College and Oʻahu College (Punahou School.))

But this story isn’t about Sun Yat-sen; it’s about someone from his hometown.

In 1849, Chen Fang left his Xiangshan village for Honolulu to profit from a business boom caused by the California Gold Rush (he left a wife and son behind.)

There were only about a hundred Chinese in the entire kingdom when he arrived. He was in his mid-twenties, of average height (about five and a half feet) and sparingly built; it was his piercing black eyes that people remembered.

At that time, there was no Chinatown in Honolulu. The Cantonese enterprises were scattered throughout the small business district at the harbor’s edge.

Over the years in Hawaiʻi, he was widely known as Chun Afong, a respected Cantonese merchant, who was proficient in the Hawaiian and English languages, and conversant with Western manners.

In 1852, the importing of contract labor from China began; these new Chinese to Hawaiʻi were from a different province and spoke a different dialect than their entrepreneurial predecessors – and the two groups of Chinese didn’t get along very well.

Hawaiians and Caucasians drew a distinction between resident Chinese merchants and the imported field laborers. “It is to be regretted that the Chinese coolie emigrants … have not realized the hopes of those who incurred the expense of their introduction,” said King Kamehameha IV in a major address on immigration. (Kuykendall)

“They are not so kind and tractable as it was anticipated they would be; and they seem to have no affinities, attractions or tendencies to blend with this, or any other race.” (Kuykendall)

By 1855, Afong had made his fortune in retailing, real estate, sugar and rice, and for a long time held the government’s opium license (he is Hawaiʻi’s first Chinese millionaire.)

Throughout the reign of Kamehameha IV, which was marked by good feelings among Honolulu’s racial groups, the public image of the Cantonese merchants remained generally favorable, in part because of their unfailing generosity to the throne and their commitment to civic betterment.

Chun Afong became the leader of the Chinese community and prospered in business. He married a hapa haole woman (Julia Fayerweather) and reared a large family.

Afong’s business was headquartered in Hawaiʻi, but with his two brothers, he also had stores in San Francisco and Hong Kong. Moreover, he reportedly had interests in mercantile businesses in Canton, Macau and Shanghai, and agricultural lands in Zhongshan.

He lived in the grand style mansion on Nuʻuanu Avenue and School Street in Honolulu, and a villa on Waikīkī Beach. His Waikīkī villa was on three acres of landscaped oceanfront property.

Here he gave grand parties for royalty, diplomats, military officers and other dignitaries. (In 1904 the US Army purchased the Waikīkī property to make way for the construction of Fort DeRussy.)

In 1873, Afong spent some time in China with his China wife and fathered another son. His Hawaiʻi enterprises continued to prosper and when Kaupakuea, a sugar plantation outside of Hilo he was leasing. It became available for purchase in October 1874; he bought it.

Chun Afong financially supported Kalākaua’s candidacy “in a quiet way;” Kalākaua won the legislative election. Chun Afong stepped out from behind the political scenes to accept appointments in 1879, first as a member of the Privy Council to Kalākaua and then as Chinese commercial agent (and de facto Chinese consulate.)

When the Hawaiian government adopted anti-Chinese policies following the rebellion of 1887, he removed himself and much of his capital to Hong Kong (here he made investments in real estate, shipping, banking and merchandising ventures.)

After three decades in Hawaiʻi, the “Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains” (as coined by historian Bob Dye) returned to China to get richer. His first fortune, made in Hawaiʻi as a planter and merchant, fueled his China enterprises and funded his philanthropic works.

For his philanthropy he was granted official rank by the Qing government, and to honor him memorials were erected in his home village of Meixi, located about nine miles north of Macau.

The memorials still stand on the entrance road to the small agricultural village, but the villagers who bicycle past them today have no knowledge of the man who, a century before, commanded a business empire that stretched from China’s Pearl River Delta across the Pacific to San Francisco.

Afong’s family life was fictionalized in a famous short story, “Chun Ah Chun,” by Jack London and in a Broadway musical comedy, Thirteen Daughters, by Eaton Magoon Jr., a great-grandson of Afong.

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Chun Afong's house in Honolulu built in the Western and Chinese styles in the 1850s and torn down in 1902_(WC)

Afong Villa Marker

Triumphal arch put up by the Chinese merchants of Honolulu at the intersection of King and Fort to celebrate Kalakaua's return for his world tour

paifangs_in_meixi_village_grand_compliments_to_chen_fangs_generosity

Julia_Fayerweather_Afong-(WC)-around-1860s-70s

Julia_Fayerweather_Afong-(WC)-before-1919

Merchant_Prince_of_the_Sandalwood_Mountains-Dye

Oahu-Honolulu_Harbor-to-Diamond_Head-Monsarrat-Reg1910-1897-(portion)-Afong_property_noted

Honolulu_Harbor_to_Diamond_Head-Wall-Reg1690 (1893)-(portion)-Afong_property_noted

October 13, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Claus Spreckels

Claus Spreckels (1828–1908) was perhaps the most successful German-American immigrant entrepreneur of the late-nineteenth century; he was one of the ten richest Americans of his time.

The career of the “sugar king” of California, Hawaiʻi and the American West consisted of building and breaking monopolies in sugar, transport, gas, electricity, real estate, newspapers, banks and breweries.

The first industry in which Spreckels succeeded was quite typical for German immigrants: beer brewing. In the spring of 1857, together with his brother Peter Spreckels and Claus Mangels, among others, he founded the Albany Brewery, the first large-scale producer of beer in San Francisco.

Though profitable, he sold his beer operation in 1863 and switched to a new field that would make him rich: sugar. That year, he started the Bay Sugar Refining Company, but sold it three years later.

He then constructed the California Sugar Refinery in 1867 to process sugar. While grocers, then, sold “sugar loaves,” Spreckels introduced the European process of packaging granulated sugar and sugar cubes (so customers could more easily divide the portions.)

In 1878, through his friendship with King Kalākaua, Claus Spreckels secured a lease of 40,000-acres of land on Maui and by 1882 he acquired the fee simple title to the Wailuku ahupuaʻa.

That same year, Spreckels founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company, which quickly became the largest and best-equipped sugar plantation in the islands.

The Spreckelsville Mill was actually four mills in one complex (it was located just to the northeast of the present Kahului Airport, near the intersection of Old Stable Road and Hana Highway.) The town of Spreckelsville built up around it.

Part of the production innovation was the use of electric lights; the first recorded onshore use of electric lighting in Hawaiʻi was at Mill Number One of the Spreckelsville Plantation on Maui on Aug. 21, 1881.

To satisfy the curiosity of people anxious to see the “concentrated daylight,” Capt. Coit Hobron ran a special train from Kahului, and King Kalākaua, Widow Queen Emma and Princess Ruth were among those who came to view the lights.

Spreckels modernized and mechanized the sugar production process, from hauling cane to the mill, to extracting the juice, reducing the juice to syrup and producing sugar grains. The raw sugar was then packed and shipped to his refinery in San Francisco. (Miller)

Sugar is a thirsty crop and Spreckels built the Haiku Ditch that spanned thirty miles and delivered fifty million gallons of water daily, irrigating twenty times as much land as had previously been irrigated.

Looking to upgrade from the mule and oxen means of moving sugar to the mill (as well as reduce costs,) Spreckels built a narrow-gauge railroad to haul the sugar from the plantation to the mill.

By 1881, twenty miles of iron track were completed. The rail line also transported the processed sugar to Maui’s major port, Kahului. By 1885, Spreckelsville had forty-three miles of railroad, four engines and 498 cars for hauling cane.

Needing transportation to move his Hawaiʻi sugar for refining on the continent, he formed JD Spreckels & Bros. shipping line in 1879, which was incorporated as the Oceanic Steamship Company in 1881.

It was the first line to offer regular service between Honolulu and San Francisco, and his sons managed to reduce travel time immensely. While the sailing ship Claus Spreckels made a record run of less than ten days in 1879, by 1883 the new steam vessel Mariposa needed less than six days.

Spreckels incorporated the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company in 1884; it included four sugar mills, thirty-five miles of railroad with equipment, a water reservoir and the most advanced ditch system in the Pacific region. (Spiekermann)

Spreckelsville was the largest sugar estate in the world by 1892.

The late-1890s saw internal family conflicts. Spreckels lost control of HC&S and in 1898; it became a part of Alexander & Baldwin Co. Following the 1948 merger of HC&S and Maui Agriculture Co., HC&S became a division of Alexander & Baldwin.

Claus Spreckels was a controversial figure. For friends, he was a man “with a fine presence, an open, pleasant countenance and a cheerful word for everybody.” Others, however, characterized him as impatient, implacable, and ruthless, driven by “Dutch obstinacy.” (Spiekermann)

Hawaiʻi served as only one of the venues for the Spreckels holdings. During the 1880s and early 1890s, he bought and built up several blocks of office buildings in San Francisco.

Claus Spreckels was a financial and an industrial capitalist. Obtaining, investing and multiplying money was his main business, and his role as a pioneer of Hawaiian sugar planting and Californian beet sugar production was merely an outgrowth of his desire to increase his fortune. (Spiekermann)

Although none of his firms survived, his name today is still mentioned in San Francisco and Hawaiian travel guides as an example of an exceptional self-made man: “The life of Claus Spreckels is one of the interesting and absorbing personal histories of which America is so proud.” (Spiekermann)

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October 10, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Mauna Loke

Called the “Prince of Entertainers” and the “Entertainer of Princes,” John Cummins was a prosperous businessman known for his generous and lavish hospitality to royalty and commoner alike and for his knowledge and love of Hawaiian traditions.

John Adams Kuakini Cummins was born on O’ahu on March 17, 1835, the son of High Chiefess Kaumakaokane Papali‘ai‘aina and Thomas Jefferson Cummins, Jr.

He was a namesake of island governor John Adams Kuakini (1789–1844,) who in turn took the name of John Quincy Adams.

His mother was a descendent of the Lonoikahapu‘u line and was a cousin of King Kamehameha I. His father was a wealthy and aristocratic Englishman, born in Lancashire and reared in Massachusetts, who came to the Islands in 1828.

Cummins married Rebecca Kahalewai (1830–1902) in 1861, also considered a high chiefess, and had six children: Matilda Kaumakaokane, Jane Pi‘ikea, Kaimilani, ‘Imilani, Thomas Puali‘i and May Ka‘aolani. When she died, her pallbearers included Princes David Kawānanakoa and Jonah Kalaniana‘ole. In 1903, he married his son-in-law’s sister, High Chiefess Elizabeth
Kapeka Merseberg.

Cummins was a staunch monarchist, who, in his later years, was arrested, tried, imprisoned and heavily fined by the new Republic of Hawaiʻi.

Thomas Cummins purchased or leased lands known as the Waimanalo Sugar Plantation; the first record of this was March 27, 1842, when High Chief Pākī leased Cummins a parcel of land on which to build a house.

This residence was later named Mauna Loke, or Rose Mont. (He had another home, Ahipu‘u, named after the hill and caves behind the house. Today it is the site of the O’ahu Country Club.)

However, it was Mauna Loke, the family home in Waimānalo that was the scene of lavish Hawaiian-style living and entertaining that was synonymous with Cummins’s name.

It was said that the food served there excelled that of the best in San Francisco, and the wines were of the choicest vintage. Although always offering plenty to drink, Cummins himself never touched a drop.

His guests included royalty, starting with Kamehameha V, as well as foreign visitors. This included German Princes and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869.

“Cavalcades of horsemen and horsewomen braved the dangers of the steep pali and the rocky trail in order that they might reach the fertile valley and beach where John Cummins kept open house for all who came his way.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 21, 1913)

King Kalākaua often enjoyed Cummins’s hospitality at the spacious home. There were several grass houses scattered throughout the grounds, one for the exclusive use of Kalākaua and one exclusively for Princess Kaʻiulani.

As a child, Kaʻiulani helped “Uncle John” erect a flagpole nearby, then she raised the Hawaiian flag and christened it with a bottle of champagne.

King Kamehameha V also liked to visit Mauna Loke. In order to avoid the difficult trip over the Pali trail, the king purchased a small steamboat in which to ride around the island from town and had a short railway line installed from the boat landing to the house.

A huge celebration took place at Mauna Loke in November 1874, the first stop of a two-week “Grand Tour of O’ahu” by Queen Emma.

The queen stayed three days, by which time the number present – both invited and uninvited – was in the hundreds. Guests brought food by the wagon load: hogs, bullocks, ducks, turkeys and poi.

Three hundred torches burned throughout the night of the lū‘au. (By the way, Pukui notes, “lū‘au” is not an ancient name, but goes back at least to 1856, when so used by the Pacific Commercial Advertiser; formerly a feast was called pāʻina or ʻahaʻaina.)

There were fireworks, bonfires, swimming, surfing, stream fishing, lei making, horse racing, rifle shooting and hula troupes performing one after another until daylight the next day.

Cummins then escorted Emma on the rest of the tour around the island.

Cummins was elected representative for his Koʻolau district in 1873 and assisted in the election of King Lunalilo that same year. The following year, he aided in the election of King Kalākaua and eventually served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Cummins was instrumental in helping King Kalākaua effect a reciprocity treaty with the United States in 1874, after which the sugar industry prospered and the value of Waimānalo Plantation was greatly enhanced.

John Adams Cummins died March 21, 1913, his obituary read, in part, “Being one of the last of the high chiefs, whose youth was spent in associating with the kings and princes of the realm, if he had no love for the Hawaiian flag and of the traditions of his country, then no one had. He had been dandled on the knee of Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III.”

“Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV, and his gentle Queen Emma were his most intimate friends and companions. Kalākaua owed his election largely to the instrumentality of Mr. Cummins, and would gladly have had him near him continually.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 21, 1913)

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Mauna_Loke_(Rose_Mont),_Waimānalo,_Hawai'i

Kaiulani,_Liliuokalani,_and_Poomaikelani_at_Mauna_Loke_1880s

Princess Ruth Keelikolani with hapa-haole chiefs Samuel Parker and John Adams Cummins as kāhili bearers

September 12, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Anthony Allen

The history of the Black presence in Hawaiʻi goes back to the early sailors; Blacks were crewmembers of Cook’s second and third Pacific voyages.

There is a “high likelihood” for the presence of Blacks on many of the ships that crossed the Pacific. Free and unfree Blacks had been serving onboard these ships in a variety of capacities.

Between about 1820 and 1880, hundreds of whaling ships annually pulled into (primarily) Honolulu and Lāhainā, and a significant number of Blacks stayed behind in the islands and became permanent residents where they worked as cooks, barbers, tailors, sailors on interisland vessels and members of musical groups.

Discussion of early African-American presence in Hawaiʻi usually starts with Anthony D. Allen. He was born a slave on the German Flats, in New York, in 1774. At about the age of 24, fearing his old master’s widow (Dougal) might sell him and he would have to leave his mother, he arranged for a new slave master and he was bought for $300.

Shortly thereafter, in 1800, he made a flight for freedom from Schenectady, NY, and made his way to Boston. He went to work at sea, sailing with the same sea captain for eight years, seven as steward and one as cook.

Many other African Americans worked in the maritime industry during this period as crew members, pilots, cooks, stewards, stevedores, builders and captains. In the coming decades, Americans with African lineage would account for up to 50 percent of the maritime forces. (Scruggs, HJH)

In 1806, he ran into his former slave master and was almost forced back into slavery. Mr. Coolege, the ship owner on which he worked, agreed to pay the former owner $300; the former owner agreed.

In return, Allen gave Coolege a promissory note to pay him back. In April 1807, Allen paid the note back. He spent the next few years sailing across the globe – Boston, France, Haiti, Havana China, Northwest US and eventually, in 1811, Hawaiʻi.

Called Alani by the Native Hawaiians, Allen served as steward to Kamehameha the Great and he acquired a parcel of about six acres. He married a Hawaiian woman and had three children who survived into adulthood. (HHS)

He “resided at Waikiki, lived as comfortably, and treated us as courteously, as any who had adopted that country before our arrival.” (Hiram Bingham)

John Papa ʻĪʻī, a neighbor of Allen, in his testimony confirming rights to the land, told how Allen acquired his land: “The Allens got this land from an old high Priest – Hewa hewa. … this land was given him in the time of ‘’Kamehameha I’.” (HJH)

By 1820, Allen owned a dozen houses, “within the enclosure were his dwelling, eating and cooking houses, with many more for a numerous train of dependents. There was also a well, a garden containing principally squashes, and in one part, a sheepfold in which was one cow, several sheep, and three hundred goats.” (Sybil Bingham Journal)

Allen’s land held a variety of business enterprises, including animal husbandry, farming, a boarding house, a hospital, a bowling alley and a grog shop. Besides keeping his own animals, Allen boarded cattle for others. Allen may have operated the first commercial dairy in Hawaiʻi.

“Waikīkī” was once a vast marshland whose boundaries encompassed more than 2,000-acres (as compared to its present 500-acres below the Ala Wai Canal we call Waikīkī, today).

Allen’s six-acres and home were about two miles from downtown at Pawaʻa, between what we now call Waikīkī and Mānoa at what is now the corner of Punahou and King Streets. This is where Washington Intermediate School is now situated. (Washington was the first intermediate school built on Oʻahu; it opened in 1926.)

In addition to his farming, Allen provided overnight accommodations – one of the earliest known hotel uses in Waikīkī. Several references note his property as a “resort.” (Hawaiʻi’s first “hotel” may be attributed to Don Francisco de Paula Marin, sometime after 1810 on Marin’s property at Honolulu Harbor.)

Reverend Charles Stewart notes of Allen’s place in his journal, “… it is a favourite resort of the more respectable of the seamen who visit Honoruru. …” With it, he had a popular bowling alley.

He entertained often and made his property available for special occasions. “King (Kauikeaouli – Kamehameha III) had a Grand Dinner at A. D. Allen’s. The company came up at sunset. Music played very late.” (Reynolds – Scruggs, HJH)

He even operated a hospital where ill or injured seamen and sea captains were taken ashore to recuperate; however, it is not clear if he had medical training or who else there did.

It appears that Allen helped oversee the construction and maintenance of one of the first improved roads in Honolulu, probably what today is known as Punahou Street, which becomes Mānoa Road.

In the “… valley of Manoa … this afternoon Mr. Bingham drove me in a wagon to it. There is now a good carriage road … as far as the country house of Kaahumanu … five miles from Honolulu.” (Reynolds, Scruggs, HJH)

Allen, the former slave, died of a stroke on December 31, 1835, leaving behind a considerable fortune to his children.

In tribute to Allen, Reverend John Diell noted, “The last sun of the departed year went down upon the dying bed of another man who has long resided upon the island. He was a colored man, but shared, to a large extent, in the respect of this whole community. …”

“He has been a pattern of industry and perseverance, and of care for the education of his children. … In justice to his memory, and to my own feelings, I must take this opportunity to acknowledge the many expressions of kindness which we received from him from the moment of our arrival.”

The image shows an 1874 map (Waikiki DAGS Reg-797-(portion)) that notes the property owned by Anthony D Allen.

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September 4, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Carl Smith

On December 2, 1897, Carl Smith and Nelle Wood married in Atlantic, Iowa; later that month they left aboard the ‘Martha Davis’ from San Francisco and arrived in the Islands on December 27, 1897; Carl was 27 and his new bride was 26.

Carl was born September 4, 1870 in Cambridge, Vermont, son of Edward Charles and Marilla (Derby) Smith, and studied at the public schools of San Jose, California.

He attended the University of California and Stanford University and gained a law degree from Northwestern University in 1896.

He arrived in Honolulu in 1897, where he was associated with the law firm of Kinney & Ballou until June, 1898, when he moved to Hilo.

In Hilo he was associated in the practice of law with various partners, including D. H. Hitchcock and Charles F . Parsons. He had been in the private practice of law for many years, his two sons Wendell and Merrill joining him in 1920, and his grandson, Donn, joined the staff in 1953.

Along the way, Hawaii law allowed and defined a process for people to change their name.

Section 2350 of the Revised Laws of Hawaii was amended to read: “It shall not be lawful to change any name adopted or conferred under this Chapter, except upon a decree of the Governor …”

“… which decree shall be founded upon the petition of the person desirous of changing his or her name and shall be published for at least four consecutive weeks in some newspaper of general circulation in the Territory of Hawaii in such decree mentioned.” (Approved April 17, 1907, Governor GR Carter)

Carl sought to change his.

Notices for “the Matter of the Petition of Carl Schurz Smith for Change of Name” were published in the newspaper Dec. 12, 19, 26 (1911), Jan. 2, 12 (1912).

Those notices stated that Governor Walter F Frear “ordered and decreed that the name of Carl Schurz Smith hereby is changed to Carl Schurz Carlsmith”. (Hawaiian Star, December 19, 1911)

Implementation of the name change had its challenges …

“When Governor Frear left behind him the palmless shores of Makapuu point and proceeded towards the Golden Gate it was in full possession of the fact that when a man changes his name all public documents of which he might be a signer must have attached to them a certified copy of the change.”

“But it was with an equally profound ignorance of the fact that this important change had been effected in the landscape of Hilo that Secretary Mott-Smith assumed the duties of the acting Governor.”

“Upon taking his seat in the executive chamber and calling for the memo book he was first accosted by his gentlemanly and unobtrusive secretary who, pushing a broad sheet of parchment before him, designated a certain spot upon it and remarked.”

Name changing has consequences … “‘Sign here,’ please, The First National Bank of Squedunkport, in which Mr. Carl S. Carlsmith of Hilo has a small deposit, requires a certified copy of the change in his name. Thank you.’”

And gazing upon the extra fanciful chirographic specimen which designated Mr. Mott-Smith’s first official act, he passed out. But, alas, about this time the first national banks, and the second national banks and the other banks throughout the country as well as other Institutions who do business with Mr. Carlsmith began to clamor for official explanations.”

“Within a week Mr. Mott-Smith’s hair was standing straighter up and his signature was slanting further over and his profanity gradually rose from plain mush to the expressive buckwheats of yesterday.”

“This was occasioned by no less a fact that following the acting-Governor jubilation Monday over the completion of the deal for the land for the Hilo wharf in which Mr. Carlsmith was the other party …”

“… the private secretary yesterday presented to him a parchment which was to assure all future generations that the name which Mr. Carlsmith appended to the wharf agreement was a true and certified copy of the proclamation on file in the Governor’s office.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 31, 1912)

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Carl Smith birth notation 1870