Place Names | Page 114 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 5, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Heathen School at Nantucket

“If there is a missionary ground on earth it is here (in Nantucket).” (Christian Herald and Seaman’s Magazine; April 6, 1822)

The headline ‘Heathen School at Nantucket’ in The Religious Intelligencer, May 4, 1822 would suggest the possibility of a second Foreign Mission School was in Nantucket (to the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall). It possibly served as a feeder to the Cornwall school.

It appears plausible, given Nantucket’s early American leadership in the Pacific whaling fleets following the first American whalers’ visit to Hawai‘i in 1819 (Edmund Gardner, captain of the New Bedford whaler Balaena (also called Balena,) and Elisha Folger, captain of the Nantucket whaler Equator).

Nantucket emerged as the world’s most vigorous whaling port in the colonies, with a substantial fleet dedicated exclusively to pelagic sperm and right whaling on distant grounds, and a highly developed network of merchants and mariners to prosecute the hunt. (Lebo)

Gardner, like other whalers “shipped two Kanakas from Maui and had them the remainder of the Voyage and took them to New Bedford.” (Gardner Journal)

Many Nantucket captains, returning home from their Pacific whaling voyages, also recounted their Hawaiian adventures. Some brought back objects of Hawaiian manufacture, as well as Native Hawaiian seamen. Other Native Hawaiians landed in Nantucket, New Bedford, and nearby ports almost immediately after.

There were more than three hundred Nantucket whaling voyages to Hawai‘i and the Native Hawaiian crewmen aboard. Thousands of Hawaiians shipped out as seamen aboard the whaling ships, so many that the crews were often half Hawaiian. (NPS)

Within a few years, over fifty “natives of the South Sea Islands” reportedly served aboard Nantucket whaleships. By the 1830s, Nantucket whalers employed about fourteen hundred seamen, including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Four or five hundred men arrived or departed annually. (Nantucket Historical Association)

Whaling had been “an economic force of awesome proportions in these Islands for more than forty years,” enabling King Kamehameha III to finally pay off the national debts accumulated in earlier years. (NPS)

In part, it seems that some of the Islanders were also coming for Western education and were part of the enrollment in the First Congregational Church’s Sabbath School. (Nantucket Historical Association)

“Very little is known relative to the history of the first Congregational church and society in Nantucket, (anciently called Sherburne,) prior to the year 1761. The oldest church records that have been preserved, commence June 27th, of that year.”

“The original meeting-house was first located on a spot about a mile from the town in a northwesterly direction, and in 1765 it was moved into town and rebuilt.”

“It has since that period undergone various repairs and alterations, and in 1834 it was moved a few rods from the spot on which it was re-erected.”

“On that spot, called Beacon hill, now stands the new meeting-house built and dedicated in 1834. The old meeting-house has been fitted up in a commodious style, and is now used as a vestry for the church, and is also used for the Sabbath school.” (Deacon Paul Folger; American Quarterly Register, May 1843)

An unknown number of the Hawaiians attended local schools or temporarily resided in town with local families. In 1822, three of the “Heathen Youth” aboard an outbound whaler formerly attended the Sabbath School at the First Congregational Church.

That year, the Nantucket Inquirer reported “7 natives of the Sandwich Islands” at the school, while the Boston Recorder indicated “twenty Society or Sandwich Islanders” in attendance.

Two years later, Henry Attvoi (or Attooi) left for a whaling cruise aboard the Nantucket ship Oeno; he probably lived in the largely nonwhite section of town called New Guinea before his Oeno voyage began. (Nantucket Historical Association)

(The label “New Guinea” was used in numerous cities and towns to designate the section in which people of color resided.) (MuseumOfAfroAmericanHistory)

The Boston Reporter noted, Nantucket “has long been the resort of youth from pagan countries … there resided here twenty Society and Sandwich Islanders, who, on stated evenings when the sky was clear, assembled in the streets, erected the ensigns of idolatry, and in frantick orgies paid their worship to the host of heaven.”

“(A) kind of school has recently been instituted into which 15 natives of Owhyhee and other islands of the Pacific, have been received.”

“ Of these, 7 are still here are mostly between 14 and 17 years of age and generally remarkable for mildness of disposition, cleanliness of person, and symetry and activity of body.”

“They are anxious to learn, but as yet, ignorant of the true God and eternal life, and more or less addicted to idolatry. … Others have discovered emotion at religious truth.”

“Could one of the pious youth in Cornwall School be placed in our academy, he would enjoy the instruction of an able and devoted preceptor, late of the Theological Seminary in Andover, and perhaps render at his leisure as great service to his countrymen, as though he was stationed in Owhyhee.”

“We lamented to hear of the lack of means for the support of a greater number at Cornwall, since it has frustrated our hopes of introducing a very promising candidate from Chili, and another from the Sandwich Islands.”

“Such as might be given up by their master to receive an education, will if permitted to remain here, be sent to sea. Could they therefore be taken into the pious families of pious mechanics in the country, they might earn qualifications for future and extensive usefulness in connexion with some foreign mission.” (Boston Recorder copied in The Religious Intelligencer, May 4, 1822)

There appears to be some connection between the Nantucket and Cornwall schools, The Report of the 15th Annual Meeting of the ABCFM (Pecuniary Accounts, 1824) noted “Expenses of four youth from Cornwall; to Nantucket, and provisions and clothing for three of them, and their passage to the Sandwich Islands $183 55”.

By the 1840s, with Nantucket harbor no longer deep enough to handle newer, larger whaling ships, most of the vessels relocated to New Bedford, while most of the financiers and much of the money and good life stayed in Nantucket. (Lebo)

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First Congregational Church Nantucket-North Vespry-1820-WC

January 4, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahuku

“It is not only by far the worst part of the Island, but as barren waste looking a country as can be conceived to exist … we could discern black Streaks coming from the Mountain even down to the Seaside.”

“But the s[outhern] neck seems to have undergone a total change from the Effect of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, etc … By the SE side were black honey comd rockds, near the s extremity were hummocks of a Conical Shape which appeared of a reddish brown rusty Colour, & we judged them tot consist of Ashes.”

“The s extremit, which projects out, has upon it rocks of the most Craggy appearance, lying very irregularly, & of most curious shapes, terminating in Sharp points; horrid & dismal as this part of the Isalnd appears …”

“… yet there are many Villages interspersed, & it Struck us as being more populous than the part of Opoona [Puna] which joins Koa [Ka‘ū+. There are houses built even on the ruins lava flows we have describ’d.”

“Fishing is a principal occupation with the Inhabitants, which they sold to us, & we also had a very plentiful supply of other food when off this end…”

“…those we saw off Kao [Ka`ū], are very tawny, thin, & smallmean looking people, which doubtless arises from their constant exposure to the heat of the Sun, their being mostly employed in fishing or other hard labor on shore, & to their spare diet.” (King’s Journal)

“Kahuku, a very large ahupua‘a which for many years has been a ranch, is just beyond the southwest shoulder of Mauna Loa.”

“Over these heights the moisture-laden trade winds, having traversed the wet uplands and forested interior of eastern Ka‘ū, Hilo, and Hāmākua Districts, spread a great roll of cool clouds.”

“These masses of cool water vapor expand and precipitate as rain when they meet the air that rises morning to evening from the ocean, warmed in its passage over the dry lower plains of Kahuku, Manuka, and neighboring Kona.”

“Warmed trade winds also blow in over the southeast coast and Ka Lae, crossing the high rolling plains of Kama‘oa and Pakini, there precipitating much moisture as dew where it meets the cooled air blanketing the uplands.”

“Actually, during the months of March through November, the blanket of cool moist air moving over the upland flank of Mauna Loa, and the warm damp flood of wind diverted inland and overland by the high plains of Kama‘oa and Pakini …”

“… are nothing more nor less than vast eddies of the great southeastward flow of arctic air, which is warmed as it passes over the ocean in these latitudes.”

“These we term the “trades” – the winds so named because the ‘traders’ (sailing vessels) utilized their regular flow from March through November in their voyages.”

“In the season of southerly (kona) cyclonic storms, the wind and rain came in upon western Ka‘ū from oceanward in more violent gusts, sometimes sweeping in with great force.”

“These kona storms originate in the equatorial regions, hence their warm winds are heavily laden with moisture.”

“Coming upon the cool uplands their heavy black clouds produce electric storms, with thunder and lightning, and downpours starting with light gentle rain (hilina), which gradually increase into deluges, at times veritable cloudbursts.”

“These winter storms drench the whole land, which, whether dry lava, grassland, or forest, soaks it up greedily, and in the uplands stores it beneath the forests.”

“Continuing our journey into Ka‘ū, going southeastward, the next ahupua‘a after Manuka is Kahuku. Until the land was covered by lava through much of the verdant lower forest area in the last century, this must have been a far more favorable area for human occupation than was Manuka.”

“The evidence of such occupation have, however, been obliterated. Where lava has not covered the land, the pastures of Kahuku Ranch have done so. The seacoast of Kahuku is a barren as any on this side of Hawaii.”

“Standing on top of a hillock named Pu‘u Lohena on the east of Pakini and looking north across the 1868 flow, one can see beyond lava-covered land to where there was an open sandy area of Ka’iliki’i between two sections of the 1868 flows.”

“Ka‘iliki‘i was in 1823 described by Ellis as ‘a populous shore village’” The open ground led directly north toward Kahuku from the beach at Ka‘iliki‘i, where travelers from Kona often landed. “

“We could see how their path would have crossed an older flow that was there before the 1868 flow, as they headed for a break in the pali. This is a low dip in the ridge called Lua Puali.”

“In its lower reaches Kahuku is said formerly to have had flourishing gardens of sweet potato and sugar cane on the land now covered with lava.”

“If so, and we have no reason to doubt the veracity of informants, there must have been underground water here. Surface verdure, also, may have drawn more cloud and dew.”

“There probably was more rain coming across from Pakini when the plains east of the Pali-Mamalu and Pali Kulani (the great cliff that borders Kahuku on the east) were more verdant and covered with brush.”

“The bare lava of the recent flows, and the now dry plains of Pakini, Kama‘oa, and Ka‘alu‘alu must desiccate the winds which, sweeping along the coast line, normally throw up a cloud of cooled air that is moisture laden when the trade winds blow.”

“There is no similar drift of moisture over the naked shores of Kahuku and Manuka. Yet these coasts, barren as they are today, must have sufficed as good fishing grounds for the population settled in the two western ahupua‘a of Ka‘ū.”

“Wai-o-‘Ahu-kini close by, with its spring, pond and canoe haven, and the best fishing ground in all Hawaii, was awarded in the ancient land allotment to Pakini, then one of the most verdant of the plains areas of cultivation.”

“Doubtless it was Pakini’s numerous population, which gave its ali‘i power, that was responsible for this award.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

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Kahuku GoogleEarth

December 4, 2017 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Pahala Plantation

“Among the gigantic enterprises which had their birth at the consummation of the Treaty of Reciprocity between this Kingdom and the United States of America …”

“… notible mention should be made of a Company which was incorporated in 1877 under the name of the Hawaiian Agricultural Company (limited.) This Company chose for its locality or base of a site, at Pahala, situated on the southeast side of the Island of Hawaii.” (BF Dillingham; Daily Honolulu Press, November 26, 1885)

“Peter C. Jones, Charles R. Bishop, J.D. Brewer, H.A.P. Carter and several others chose to take advantage of the economic situation and incorporate on December 22, 1876 under the name Hawaiian Agricultural Company.” (HSPA)

“In due time the mill and other necessary buildings were erected, five miles from Punaluu Landing, at an elevation 800 (feet above the sea level, commanding a wide range of ocean, and an extensive view of the surrounding country.”

“Twenty-five miles along the shore by fifteen miles inland, reaching into the mountains, form the boundaries of the magnificent extent of territory taken up by this Company.”

“The first acre of virgin soil on this plantation was broken in 1877. A mill second in size to only one ever built in the history of the world, complete with building frame, and cover all of iron, was landed at Punaluu, in 1878.”

“Hundreds of acres of land had been plowed and planted with cane at an aggregate cost of an amount sufficient to yield more than a Princely income, when the outlook from long continued drought, seemed so strongly to betoken utter failure, that it was proposed by those who had been most sanguine among the promoters of the enterprise, to abandon the undertaking.”

“Without even erecting the ponderous mill which was now lying in a heap at the landing. A delegation of experts appointed by the Company at Honolulu took passage to the scene of distress, and it is said, their report favored the retrograde movement …”

“… and the delegation was of opinion that the prospective capacity of the whole plantation would not exceed 900 tons of sugar per annum. Fortunately for all interested parties, better counsels prevailed: forward! was the order cultivature progressed; rains came at last; cane fields almost white, put on their mantle of thrifty green, and hope revived.”

“In 1880, the ponderous mill, which had already been condemned under the euphonious name of ‘White Elephant,’ was removed from its quiet resting place and put in active service.”

“The area of cane under cultivation has steadily increased from 1,200 acres in 1880 until now there is a belt of cane fields stretching over a distance of seven miles, lying in a north easterly and south-westerly direction.”

“The lower edge of this belt barely reaches the elevation of the mill, rising thence toward the mountain top to a height of 1800 to 2000 feet. The number of acres under cultivation by the Company is 2000; and 600 acres more are cultivated by private planters”.

“The highest numbers of tons of sugar made, bagged, weighed, and shipped during any one day this 26½ tons. The best weeks work during the year shows an average of 46 clarifiers per day, or 138 tons of sugar for the week.”

“This much abused ‘White Elephant’ I am informed upon indisputable authority, has no superior in this kingdom, if any where else.”

“Its mechanism seems perfect as indeed do all its appointments. Its three little rollers, each of eleven tons weight, revolve with majestic quiet and dignity, performing their work of crushing cane in a manner which force upon one the thought suggested in the adage ‘Tho’ the Mills of the Gods grind slowly yet they grind exceedingly small.’” (BF Dillingham; Daily Honolulu Press, November 26, 1885)

“The original mill was brought from London in 1879 and was the largest in the islands at that time. But by 1914, it was necessary to increase it from a 9 roller mill to a 15 roller mill with a capacity of 45 tons of cane per hour. A new flume system and cane weighing scheme were also installed.”

“The flumes were arranged so that each contractor’s cane could be weighed separately, instead of weighing every tenth bundle in the field and averaging the weight. The cane was flumed into cars and weighed on track scales.”

“The Pahala mill also purchased cane from Wood Valley homesteaders, about 20 Hawaiians and Portuguese, who cultivated about 600 acres of land. This group of homesteaders was one of the most successful in the Territory.” (HSPA)

“While we stand watching the packing process, which is manipulated with mechanical precision and dispatch; a six-mule team is driven to the door, and in just four minutes from the time of arrival, the team is started to the tramway with a load of two and one half tons of sugar.”

“The narrow gauge railroad or tramway referred to was graded and built under the supervision of the present manager. Commencing at the wharf at Punaluu this tramway curves among the ledges of pahoehoe, rising on a grade of four feet in every hundred.”

“By the most rigid economy, the meager water supply afforded in very dry weather, by springs, found in the mountains at a distance of five to six miles, a sufficient amount is stored each night to ‘flume’ the required cane during the following day.”

“In making a tour through the cane fields, one is impressed with the thourough cultivation which was noticeable on every acre of ground. With loose earth and perfect freedom from weeds or grass, the full strength of the soil is given to nourish and foster the growth of the cane.”

“The whole working force on this plantation consists of a manager seven Lunas and 325 mill and field hands.”

“The portion of this great property embracing the Sugar Plantation is a small part of the whole; the bulk of the lands being suitable only for a cattle ranch.”

“Large herds of cattle (the aggregate number of which is said to be six thousand), roam at will over the vast expanse of territory. The cattle ranch is under the management of Mr. Julian Monsarrat who resides at Kapapala at the residence of the late WH Reed, former owner of that property. Under the management of this gentleman an effort is being made to improve the breed of both cattle and horses.”

“The plantation is a financial success, and every department is conducted with a quiet orderly mechanical precission, which is a comfort to both governor and governed.” (BF Dillingham; Daily Honolulu Press, November 26, 1885)

“In 1972, C. Brewer & Co. decided to consolidate the Hawaiian Agricultural Company with Hutchinson Sugar Plantation Company. The new entity was named Kau Sugar Company.” (HSPA) In 1999, Hawai‘i Island’s sugar era ended with the closure of Kau Sugar Mill.

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Japanese sugar plantation laborers at Kau, Hawaii Island-(HSA)-PP-46-4-010-1890

HAWAIIAN AGRICULTURE COMPANY PLANTATION HOSPITAL

HAWAIIAN AGRICULTURAL COMPANY – JAMES COMPSIE AND WIFE

Kau_Irrigation

Punaluu village, Hawaii-(HSA)-PPWD-5-6-003-1880

Hawaiian Agricultural Co – stock

November 28, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Halemaʻumaʻu

“Astonishment and awe for some moments rendered us mute, and like statues, we stood fixed to the spot, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below. Immediately before us yawned an immense gulf, in the form of a crescent, about two miles in length, from north-east to south-west, nearly a mile in width, and apparently eight-hundred feet deep.”

“The bottom was covered with lava, and the south-west and northern parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and fro its ‘fiery surge’ and flaming billows.” (Ellis, 1823)

In 1823, Reverend William Ellis visited Kīlauea caldera on his journey around the island of Hawaiʻi. He was the first foreigner to be shown the home of Pele.

By the time Ellis arrived, more than 300-years after the summit collapses of the late 1400s, the caldera had begun to refill. He measured the chasm from the highest rim to its depths; it was over 1,000-feet deep, with a series of terraces that stepped down to a vast inner crater that occupied nearly half the caldera’s floor. (NPS)

“Sometimes I have seen what is called Halemaʻumaʻu, or South Lake, enlarged to a circuit of three miles, and raging as if filled with infernal demons”. (Halemaʻumaʻu is lit., fern house.)

“On another occasion I found the great South Lake filled to the brim, and pouring out in two deep and broad canals at nearly opposite points of the lake.”

“The lava followed these crescent fissures of fifty or more feet deep and wide until they came within half a mile of meeting under the northern wall of the crater, thus nearly enclosing an area of about two miles in length and a mile and a half in breadth.”
(Coan)

According to Hawaiian oral tradition, the Kīlauea caldera formed during an epic battle between Pele, the Hawaiian volcano deity, and her younger sister, Hiʻiakaikapoliopele (Hiʻiaka.)

Pele had sent Hiʻiaka to fetch her lover, Lohiʻau, from Kauai. Upon returning, Hiʻiaka discovered that Kawahine‘aihonua (Pele, the woman who eats the land) had broken her promise and set fire to Hiʻiaka’s beloved ‘ʻōhiʻa forests.

To avenge this transgression, Hiʻiaka made love to Lohiʻau at the summit of the volcano, in full view of her sister. Pele lashed out in anger and buried Lohiʻau beneath a flood of lava.

Driven by remorse, Hiʻiaka dug furiously to recover the body. Rocks flew as she dug the great pit. Their brother stopped Hiʻiaka from digging deeper, for doing so would surely have let in water and put out the fires of Pele. Thus the great caldera of Kīlauea was formed. (NPS)

Within the heart of Kīlauea, a great reservoir swells with magma prior to an eruption. In the late 1400s, however, large volumes of magma erupted or moved elsewhere in the volcano, emptying the magma reservoir.

Its internal support withdrawn, the top of the mountain collapsed, accompanied by explosive eruptions. Great blocks of the old summit slumped inward. The gaping depression that formed was ringed with stepped terraces descending to its floor. (NPS)

The summit caldera (‘crater’) of Kilauea is 2-1/2 miles long and 2 miles wide and its floor has an area of approximately 2,600-acres. Near its southwestern edge the caldera floor is indented by the depression Halemaʻumaʻu, the ‘Fire Pit,’ a collapsed crater about 3,200-feet wide. (NPS)

Geologic evidence suggests that the modern caldera of Kīlauea formed shortly before 1500 AD. Repeated small collapses may have affected parts of the caldera floor, possibly as late as 1790. For over 300-400 years, the caldera was below the water table.

Kīlauea is an explosive volcano; several phreatic eruptions have occurred in the past 1,200 years. (Phreatic eruptions, also called phreatic explosions, occur when magma heats ground or surface water.)

The extreme temperature of the magma (from 932 to 2,138 °F) causes near-instantaneous evaporation to steam, resulting in an explosion of steam, water, ash and rock – the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens was a phreatic eruption. (NPS)

There were explosions in 1790, the most lethal known eruption of any volcano in the present US. The 1790 explosions, however, simply culminated (or at least occurred near the end of) a 300-year period of frequent explosions, some quite powerful. (USGS)

Keonehelelei is the name given by Hawaiians to the explosive eruption of Kilauea in 1790. It is probably so named “the falling sands” because the eruption involved an explosion of hot gas, ash and sand that rained down across the Kaʻū Desert. The character of the eruption was likely distinct enough to warrant a special name. (Moniz-Nakamura)

The 1790 explosion led to the death of one-third of the warrior party of Kaʻū Chief Keōuakūʻahuʻula (Keōua.) At the time Keōua was the only remaining rival of Kamehameha the Great for control of the Island of Hawaiʻi; Keōua ruled half of Hāmākua and all of Puna and Kaʻū Districts. They were passing through the Kīlauea area at the time of the eruption. (Moniz-Nakamura)

Estimates of the number of fatalities range from “about 80 warriors” (William Ellis) to about “400 people” or “800 warriors” (Stephen Desha) to “5,405 countrymen” (David Douglas, quoting an eyewitness, a Priest of Pele, in 1834.) The lower numbers are probably most realistic. The dead were warriors and family members of Keōua’s army bound for Kaʻū. (NPS)

The next subsidence of the caldera floor occurred in 1868, when large earthquakes shook the southern part of Hawaii and simultaneous eruptions occurred from Mauna Loa and Kilauea. An area about 6,200-ft wide on the central caldera floor sagged about 330-ft, and a deeper conical pit about 900 m wide and about 3,000-ft developed at its southwest end at Halemaʻumaʻu. (USGS)

The pit again filled, and by 1874 a lava shield at Halemaʻumaʻu had once again grown to about the elevation of the southern caldera rim. Minor subsidences in and around Halemaʻumaʻu occurred again in 1879, 1886, 1891, and 1894.

The subsidence of 1894 was followed by 13-years of dormancy and very subdued, episodic activity within the pit of Halemaʻumaʻu. (USGS)

Lava returned to Halemaʻumaʻu shortly after the 1924 explosions ceased, but instead of being sustained the activity was now episodic. A series of seven brief eruptions in the next 10-years reduced the depth of Halemaʻumaʻu from 390 to 150 m, and then no eruptions occurred for 18 years, from 1934 to 1952.

Sustained eruption from June to November of 1952 filled Halemaʻumaʻu with another 120 m of lava. A brief eruption in May-June 1954 added 6 m of lava in Halemaʻumaʻu and a thin lava flow on the caldera floor to the east (Macdonald, 1955) (USGS)

The eruption of Kīlauea volcano continues at two locations. In the park, the vent within Halemaʻumaʻu Crater is easily viewed from the overlook at the Jaggar Museum. The second location is the Pu’u ‘Ō’ō vent located 10 miles east of the summit, on the remote east rift zone of Kīlauea. This area is not accessible to the public.

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Overlook at Jaggar Museum-Shiinoki

Kilauea’s summit caldera-Dzurisin-1980

Kilauea Aerial

‘Kilauea_Volcano’,_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_William_Pinkney_Toler,_c._1860s

Kilauea_Summit-Halemaumau-Klemetti

Kapiolani_Defying_Pele-(HerbKane)

Halemaumau-1930

Eruption column from Halemaumau. Photo by Tai Sing Loo at 1500 on May 23, 1924 from near Volcano house or HVO-(USGS)

0820. cloud is now over 3.7 km high-three lightning bolts observed in the column-(USGS)-1924

November 21, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaiwiki Milling Company

“Hilo district is to have an Independent sugar mill. Capital sufficient to establish a company, which is to be known as the Kaiwiki Milling Company, has already been paid in, and the promoters expect to begin operations in March, 1916. The 150 stockholders holders are all Portuguese.”

“More than 500 acres of cane are now being cultivated by Hilo ranchers for the first crop. The factory is to be located on the old Correa property in Kaiwiki, several miles from the town. The corporation will not cultivate any cane of its own at the present time.”

“The mill will be able to produce 12 tons of sugar daily and will cost, with complete equipment, $50,000. The Honolulu Iron Works is to be the builder.” (Star-Bulletin, August 4, 1915)

“Work on the erection of the sugar mill now being constructed by the Kaiwiki Milling Company, just adjacent to Hilo, is proceeding apace and within another six weeks the mill should be grinding cane.”

“This is the mill which is being built by the home-steaders, who have heretofore sent their cane to the Hilo Sugar Company’s plant, and the progress which has been made is considered very satisfactory considering the weather conditions which have prevailed.”

“Almost all of the foundations are now in; the two boilers are installed and a great deal of the milling equipment is up at the mill site. This site is approximately one thousand feet above sea level and considerable difficulty is experienced in hauling the material up, everything having to be brought up in an auto truck and placed into position by manual labor.”

“For the past five months the erection of the mill has been slowly progressing, but better progress is now being made. The mill is situated close to the head of the spring which supplies the surrounding land with water and in this respect there should be nothing wanting in future, as there is a plentiful supply of water at all times.”

“When the mill is operating, which is expected to be by the end of June, it is hoped to crush approximately one hundred and fifteen tons of cane per day of twelve hours.”

“For the season it is expected to derive between three hundred and fifty and four hundred tons of sugar, which, at the present price of sugar, will go a long way towards recompensing the homesteaders for the amount expended in the erection of the mill.”

“Peter Silva, president of the Kaiwiki Milling Company, is in personal charge of the erection of the mill.” (Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, June 17, 1916)

However, the opening of the mill ended is disaster … “This company had erected a mill … for the purpose of manufacturing sugar from cane to be grown by the homesteaders and independent land-holders in the vicinity of the mill.”

“The mill had just been completed, and … the mill machinery was to be started up for the first time and it was decided by the manager, after consultation with several of the directors of the company, who approved of the plan, that this occasion, which was of great interest to the company as well as to the community, should be duly celebrated.”

“On the day mentioned the mill machinery was started in operation, a bottle of champagne was broken over the rollers, speeches were made and a general feast was indulged in.” (Supreme Court)

“As so many Japanese were taking part in the celebration it was determined to have one part of the ceremonies devoted to them and for this purpose a small platform had been built upon the top of the mill tower … who would throw small ceremonial (rice) cakes to the crowd.”

“Before the eyes of two or three hundred men, women and children, four men tumbled from a lofty platform on the top of the tower of the Kaiwiki Sugar mill … falling forty or more feet to a shed roof and thence to the ground.”

“All four were rushed to the Hilo Hospital, where it was thought at first that two at least were fatally injured”. (Hawaiian Gazette, July 21, 1916)

Later, the future of the company looked promising, “According to the estimate of AM Cabrinha, president and manager of the Kaiwiki Milling Company, of Hawaii, this season crop of cane ground at the mill will amount to 1000 tons of raw sugar. … ‘The prospects of the company are very good.’” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 6, 1917)

Then, bad news, “A Kaiwiki Milling Company warehouse was destroyed by fire last night.” (Folks were on alert for arson.) (Star-Bulletin, March 20, 1917) Kaiwiki Milling eventually was absorbed into Hilo Sugar, then Mauna Kea Sugar/Hilo Coast Processing.

Kaiwiki Milling Company should not be confused with Kaiwiki Sugar Company; the latter started in the 1860s and later became O‘okala Sugar (1869,) then owned by the Hitchcock brothers (1875.)

The latter declared bankruptcy in 1909 and the plantation was bought out by Theo H Davies & Co (and renamed Kaiwiki Sugar Company,) then it merged with Laupāhoehoe Sugar Co. in 1957 and then ended up as part of Hāmākua Sugar. (HSPA)

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Kaiwiki-DAGS-HTS_HSS-0755-1915