Place Names | Page 41 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 2, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William Ellis’ Account of ‘Contact’ and the Initial Days of Western Experiences in Hawai‘i

William Wade Ellis was a surgeon’s mate during Captain James Cook’s third voyage, first on the Discovery and later on the Resolution, and gives quite a good history of this expedition. Ellis wrote a book and added illustrations. Here is his account of ‘Contact’ and description of what he saw.

Just prior to reaching Hawai‘i, they landed at Christmas Island – Ellis reminds us of signs of land … “we observed a greater number of birds than usual, which increased as we continued our course; and most of them being such as never fly very far from land, we concluded ourselves to be in the neighbourhood of some.”

“Orders were given to keep a good look out; and we stood on, the birds (which were boobies, men of war birds, egg birds, and tropic birds) becoming more numerous … This place … we called Christmas Island (having spent that anniversary there)”.

They left Christmas Island and “Our course from hence was nearly north; we had a fine steady breeze, and the weather was fine and pleasant. … The next day (Jan. 18, 1778) … we saw land to the eastward … but night coming on, we tacked and stood off till morning (Jan. 19th), when we proceeded to trace the coast [of Kauai] in a SW and W direction.”

“The land at first presented rather a barren appearance, but upon a closer view it improved upon us, particularly on the western side, which consisted of a large tract of fine level plains, and beyond them a double range of hills, which were covered with trees.”

“Upon the shore we saw a few clusters of coco nut trees, but by no means so abundant as at the Society Isles. As we drew nearer in-shore, some of the inhabitants put off in their canoes, and very readily came along side.”

“Their colour was more of the copper cast than that of the natives of Taheitee, and they wore their hair long, and of different hues, like the people of the Friendly Isles. Their dress was nothing more than a narrow slip of cloth round their middle, and they were marked or tattowed in different parts of their body.”

“Their cloth was stamped or printed in various patterns, not much unlike our printed linens; their language nearly resembled that of Taheitee. They were easily persuaded to come on board, and, like all other Indians soon began to thieve, but nothing of any consequence was lost.”

“We saw no weapons among them, nor did they behave abruptly or disagreeably, but in their disposition seemed friendly and good natured. We purchased a few pigs and sweet potatoes of them, for which we gave them a hatchet or two, and a few small nails, with which they appeared very well satisfied. In the evening we stood off, intending to examine the place more closely the next day.”

“In the morning (Jan. 20th) at six, captain Cook made a signal for the Discovery’s fix-oared cutter, which, accompanied with the Resolution’s pinnace and large cutter, was sent to look for a safe place for the ships to anchor, and to try what soundings were to be found nearer in shore.”

“During their absence, we stood off and on, being fearful of venturing too near. The natives came off as yesterday, and we bought a few hogs, tarrow, sweet potatoes, and sugar cane, of all which they appeared to have plenty, and excellent of their kind.”

“At three in the afternoon the boats returned, having found a tolerable birth, and at four both vessels came to. Soon after captain Cook went on shore in the pinnace, attended by the Discovery’s cutter, both well-armed.”

“He was received on shore very cordially by the natives, who treated him during his stay with great respect and attention , and brought many small hogs, potatoes, tarrow, or eddoes, and sugar-cane, all which were purchased at a very easy rate.”

“The women were rather ordinary, and in general masculine, and will scarce bear a comparison with the fair dames of Taheitee.”

“Their dress is the same as that of the men, only the cloth is wider, and reaches down to the knees. Their hair is cut short behind, and long before, but turned back like our toupees, which mode of wearing it does not set them off to the greatest advantage.”

“Many, who were along-side in their canoes, pleaded hard to come on board, but captain Cook had given strict orders, previous to his anchoring, not to suffer a single woman to be admitted into the ships, as there were several people in both, who still had the venereal disease.”

“But, notwithstanding every precaution, many of our men contrived to have connexions with them, in consequence of which we found this terrible disorder raging among them when we arrived there the second time.”

“The next day (Jan. 21st), the launches were sent to fill water, which could be procured without much difficulty, from a fine river at no great distance from the ships, and parties were dispatched to the shore to trade with the natives, while others were to superintend the market on board the ships.”

“They supplied us with abundance of every thing the island produced, and in the evening our trading parties returned with abundance of fine hogs, potatoes, sugar-cane, &c.”

“The 22d was very windy, with much rain, which prevented our boats from landing, as a heavy surf broke upon the shore. Our friends however came off in the midst of it, and a brisk trade was carried on, on board.”

“We also purchased many of their ornaments, such as fans, necklaces, bracelets, cloaks, and caps, composed of red and yellow feathers, which were very curious, the latter being made in form of helmets.”

“They also brought off some spears, which were about ten feet long, admirably polished, and the end intended for execution was about eight or ten inches in length, had many barbs, and was pointed.”

“Early the next morning (Jan. 24^th,) … About nine, the king of the island came alongside in a double canoe; captain Clerke, understanding who he was, requested him much to come on board, which he appeared willing to do, but his attendants were so fearful of his receiving some hurt or other, that they intreated him not to do it.”

“He ventured however as far as the gangway, where he sat down, and presented the captain with a curious carved bowl; in return for which he received some large nails, a cut-glass bowl, and some other trifles, which pleased him exceedingly. After a short stay; his attendants bore him in their arms to his canoe, and he went ashore.”

“His name was Tomahana; he appeared to be about thirty years old, and was above the middle size; he was clothed in the same manner as the meanest of his subjects, and could only be distinguished by the great respect they paid him. Soon after his departure, the queen arrived in another canoe, and in the same manner was permitted to go no farther than the gangway.”

“She likewise made captain Clerke a present of some elegant ruffs made of various coloured feathers, for which he gave her some beads, looking glasses, and a piece of scarlet cloth; after which she was carried into her canoe, and proceeded to the shore. She was young, and had a pleasing countenance, but her dress was not remarkable.”

They then headed to Ni‘ihau. “This island was considerably smaller than the other, and had rather a wretched appearance; the south point of it is terminated by a high bluff rock, the interior parts are low, with here and there a small elevation, and not a tree is to be seen.”

“In the morning (30th), our new acquired friends came off with sweet potatoes, yams, and salt; in the two latter articles they seemed to abound. The yams were large, and the salt was equal to any we ever saw, both for colour and quality.”

“The boats were sent on shore to trade as usual, but they found the landing far more difficult than at the last place, on account of a very heavy surf, which, when the wind varies in the least to the westward, rolls in at so terrible a rate, as totally to cut off all communication with the shore.”

“In the evening, they brought off what few articles they conveniently could, but left two or three of the gentlemen behind, who superintended the market, till the weather should be more moderate.”

“This morning (Feb. 1st), the weather being more moderate, the boats were sent on shore, and in the afternoon brought off the gentlemen, with some yams and salt, but were obliged to leave the principal part of their purchases behind.”

“A number of the natives came off to the Discovery the next day (Feb. 2d), with their canoes laden with salt, yams, sweet potatoes, and fish dried and salted, of the roots, a sufficient quantity were purchased to supply the ship’s company two months at least.”

“A’towi, which is the name of the largest island, is composed, on the NW side, of a large tract of level land, the interior parts, as has been observed, before, consisting of a double range of hills.”

“The houses of the natives are in general situated near the shore, and placed in clusters, so as to form small towns or villages. Their external appearance greatly resembles the top of a barn placed upon the ground, with a small entrance in the middle.”

“Some of them were elevated upon posts about three feet high, particularly those nearest the sea; from which we may conclude, that they are, during some parts of the year, subject to inundations. They are well thatched on the outside with dry grass, so as totally to prevent the entrance of rain.”

“The floor is also well strewed with dry grass, upon which mats of various sizes and dimensions are placed. These mats are of a very close, compact texture, and made of different patterns, some of which are really elegant. They vary greatly in their degree of fineness.”

“Their canoes or boats are the neatest we ever saw, and composed of two different coloured woods, the bottom being dark, the upper part light, and furnished with an out-rigger.”

“Besides these, they have another mode of conveying themselves in the water, upon very light flat pieces of board, which we called sharkboards, from the similitude the anterior part bore to the head of that fish. Upon these they will venture into the heaviest surfs, and paddling with their hands and feet get on at a great rate. Indeed, we never saw people so active in the water, which almost seems their natural element.”

“O’neehow, which is the westernmost island, is very small, and rather low. It produces sugar-cane, plaintains, sweet potatoes, yams, and salt; in the two latter articles it exceeds A’towi. The inhabitants are not numerous; their houses, &c. are exacty like those of the above mentioned isle.”

“In the afternoon of the 2d of February, the Discovery joined her consort, and proceeded in a NNE and NE direction for the coast of America.”

January 31, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Moananuiākea

Moananuiākea is the domain of Kanaloa, god of the ocean. It is the ancestral home of the Hawaiian people. Kealaikahiki is the name of an ancestral sea road that forms a heritage corridor connecting Hawaiʻi and the Kahiki Homeland. (KSBE)

“Kahiki” or “Kahiki Homeland” is a specific reference to the ancestral region that includes the Society Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago, and the Marquesas Islands, and may generally refer to other closely-related island groups. (He Kama Na Kahiki Symposium)

Kahoʻolawe (Kanaloa) is an important ancestral marker for the Kealaikahiki pathway. The ʻili, the point, and the channel known as Kealaikahiki, as well as the island of Kahoʻolawe itself, constitute these markers. (He Kama Na Kahiki Symposium)

“Polynesian explorers first made their remarkable voyage from central Eastern Polynesia Islands, across the doldrums and into the North Pacific, to discover Hawai‘i.” (Kirch)

“Most important from the perspective of Hawaiian settlement are the colonization dates for the Society Islands and the Marquesas, as these two archipelagoes have long been considered to be the immediate source regions for the first Polynesian voyagers to Hawai‘i. …”

“In sum, the southeastern archipelagoes and islands of Eastern Polynesia have a set of radiocarbon chronologies now converging on the period from AD 900–1000.” (Kirch)

Research indicates human colonization of Eastern Polynesia took place much faster and more recently than previously thought. Polynesian ancestors settled in Samoa around 800 BC, colonized the central Society Islands between AD 1025 and 1120 and dispersed to New Zealand, Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui and other locations between AD 1190 and 1290. (Hunt; PVS)

“There is also no question that at least O‘ahu and Kauai islands were already well settled, with local populations established in several localities, by AD 1200.” (Kirch)

On November 28 1520, Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to enter “Sea of the South” (which he later named the Pacific (meaning peaceful)) and thereby open up to Spain the possibility of an alternative route between Europe and the spices of the Orient.” (Lloyd)

Ferdinand Magellan is often credited as being the first person to have circumnavigated the globe; his expedition of five ships and crew of 270 set sail on September 20, 1519 as part of an attempt to find a western route to the spice-rich East Indies in modern-day Indonesia.

Some history books still say Ferdinand Magellan “is most known for being the first explorer to circumnavigate the world.” (The Brave Magellan: The First Man To Circumnavigate The World – Biography 3rd Grade Children’s Biography Books)

However, although he had masterminded the first expedition to sail around the world, he didn’t complete the voyage. Along the way, Magellan was killed on April 27, 1521 on Mactan Island, Cebu, Philippines.

The first European to complete the circumnavigation was Magellan’s second-in-command, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, who took over after his death. At that point, the final crew had only 18 men. (Royal Museums Greenwich and PennToday)

Almost 50 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, Manila galleons finally fulfilled their dream of sailing west to Asia to benefit from the rich Indian Ocean trade.

Starting in 1565, with the Spanish sailor and friar Andrés de Urdaneta, after discovering the Tornaviaje or return route to Mexico through the Pacific Ocean, Spanish galleons sailed the Pacific Ocean between Acapulco in New Spain (now Mexico) and Manila in the Philippine islands.

Once a year, gold and silver were transported west to Manila in exchange spices (pepper, clove and cinnamon), porcelain, ivory, lacquer and elaborate fabrics (silk, velvet, satin), collected from both the Spice Islands (Indonesia) and the Asian Pacific coast, in European markets.

The galleons leaving Manila would make their way back to Acapulco in a four-month long journey. The goods were off-loaded and transported across land to ships on the other Mexican coast at Veracruz, and eventually, sent to European markets and customers eager for these exotic wares. (GuamPedia) The Manila Galleon Trade lasted for 250 years and ended in 1815 with Mexico’s war of independence.

“The English circumnavigations by Drake (1577-1580) and Cavendish (1586-1588) were not rich in discoveries. The Dutch merchant Isaac Ie Maire, with Willem Corneliszoon Schouten, reached the Pacific in 1615 via Cape Horn (which they named)”.

“Sailing from there, the Dutch had made several sightings of the coast of Australia, north, west and south, in the early seventeenth century, and Anthony van Diemen, governor-general of the Dutch East Indies from 1631 to 1645, was responsible for a number of expeditions”.

“[L]ater, another Dutch expedition, under Jacob Roggeveen, left the Netherlands in 1721 in search of the southern continent. Roggeveen went through the Strait of Le Maire and found Easter Island and Samoa before reaching Batavia after a year’s voyage.”

“The English had now come strongly on the scene, with the expeditions of Narborough up the South American coast (1669-1671), a mixed assembly of buccaneers, adventurers and privateers, including Dampier, Wafer, Cowley, Ringrose, Woodes, Rogers and Shelvocke, followed by the grand naval expedition of 1740-1744 under Anson.”

“As far as discoveries go, the most important of these men was the remarkable amateur William Dampier, whose painfully assembled New Voyage Round the World (1697) set alight the imagination of eighteenth-century England.”

“On this first voyage Dampier had touched on Australia (New Holland), ‘a very large Tract of Land’, and had thought the inhabitants ‘the miserablest People in the World’. He returned on his second voyage but was only able to make a cursory investigation of the north-western and northern coasts.”

“The major period of English exploration in the Pacific followed the ending of the Seven Years War with France in 1763. The Earl of Egmont, First Lord of the Admiralty from 1763 until 1766, sent out John Byron in the Dolphin in 1764, and on its return from a speedy circumnavigation in 1766, sent the ship out again under Samuel Wallis, with Philip Carteret in the Swallow as consort.”

“James Cook, thirty-nine years of age, a master in the Navy engaged on the survey of Newfoundland, was proposed by the Navy, and during April and May 1768 it was agreed that he should become leader of the expedition.” (The Journal; Edwards)

In the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

Hawaiian lives changed with sudden and lasting impact, when western contact changed the course of history for Hawai‘i.

Following the American Revolutionary War, American Captain John Kendrick was among the first citizens of the new nation to sail into the Pacific. The new nation needed money and a vital surge in trade.

In 1787, a group of Boston merchants decided to send him on a two ship mission around Cape Horn and into the Pacific Ocean, to establish new trade with China, settle an outpost on territory claimed by the Spanish and find the legendary Northwest Passage.

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were to be mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods to be sold in the US.

Kendrick visited Hawai‘i a number of times and is credited for initiating the sandalwood trade (Hawai‘i’s first commercial export). He died at Honolulu Harbor, December 12, 1794.

January 26, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

First Descriptions of the Islands and the People

“On the 19th (of January, 1778,) at sunrise, the island first seen, bore east several leagues distant. … At this time, we were in some doubt whether or not the land before us was inhabited; but this doubt was soon cleared up, by seeing some canoes coming off from the shore, toward the ships”.

“In the course of my several voyages, I never before met with the natives of any place so much astonished, as these people were, upon entering a ship. Their eyes were continually flying from object to object …”

“… the wildness of their looks and gestures fully expressing their entire ignorance about every thing they saw, and strongly marking to us, that, till now, they had never been visited by Europeans, nor been acquainted with any of our commodities except iron …”

” Of what number this newly-discovered Archipelago consists, must be left for future investigation. We saw five of them, whose names, as given to us by the natives, are Woahoo (O‘ahu,) Atooi (Kauai,) Oneeheow (Ni‘ihau,) Oreehoua (Lehua) and Tahoora (Ka‘ula.)”

“Besides these … which we can distinguish by their names, it appeared, that the inhabitants of those with whom we had intercourse, were acquainted with some other islands both to the eastward and westward. I named the whole group the Sandwich Islands, in honour of the Earl of Sandwich.”

“The inhabitants are of a middling stature, firmly made, with some exceptions, neither remarkable for a beautiful shape, nor for striking features, which rather express an openness and good-nature, than a keen, intelligent disposition.”

“Their visage, especially amongst the women, is sometimes round; but others have it long; nor can we say that they are distinguished, as a nation, by any general cast of countenance.”

“Their colour is nearly of a nut-brown, and it may be difficult to make a nearer comparison, if we take in all the different hues of that colour; but some individuals are darker.”

“They are vigorous, active, and most expert swimmers; leaving their canoes upon the most trifling occasion; diving under them, and swimming to others though at a great distance.”

“It was very common to see women, with infants at the breast, when the surf was so high that they could not land in the canoes, leap overboard, and without endangering their little ones, swim to the shore, through a sea that looked dreadful.”

“They seem to be blest with a frank, cheerful disposition; … They seem to live very sociably in their intercourse with one another; and … they were exceedingly friendly to us.” “(T)hey spoke the language of Otaheite, and of the other islands we had lately visited.”

Men wore a ‘maro’ (malo,) “pieces of cloth tied about the loins, and hanging a considerable way down.” “The only difference in (women’s) dress, was their having a piece of cloth about the body, reaching from near the middle to half-way down the thighs, instead of the maro worn by the other sex.”

“The habitations of the natives were thinly scattered about … (part of Cook’s crew) had an opportunity of observing the method
of living amongst the natives, and it appeared to be decent and cleanly.”

“Though they seem to have adopted the mode of living in villages, there is no appearance of defence, or fortification, near any of them; and the houses are scattered about, without any order, either with respect to their distances from each other, or there position in any particular direction.”

“Their amusements seem pretty various; for, during our stay, several were discovered. The dances … from the motions which they made with their hands, on other occasions, when they sung, we could form some judgment that they are, in some degree at least, similar to those we had met with at the southern Islands”.

“They did not, however, see any instance of the men and women eating together; and the latter seemed generally associated in companies by themselves.”

“They eat off a kind of wooden plates, or trenchers; and the women, as far as we could judge from one instance, if restrained from feeding at the same dish with the men … are at least permitted to eat in the same place near them.”

“It was found, that they burnt here the oily nuts of the doee dooe for lights in the night, … and that they baked their hogs in ovens”.

“They met with a positive proof of the existence of the taboo (or as they pronounce it, the tafoo), for one woman fed another who was under that interdiction.”

“They also observed some other mysterious ceremonies; one of which was performed by a woman, who took a small pig, and threw it into the surf, till it was drowned, and then tied up a bundle of wood, which she also disposed of in the same manner. The same woman, at another time, beat with a stick upon a man’s shoulders, who sat down for that purpose.”

“They have salt, which they call patai; and is produced in salt ponds. With it they cure both fish and pork; and some salt fish, which we got from them, kept very well, and were found to be very good.”

“Fish, and other marine productions were, to appearance, not various; as, besides the small mackerel, we only saw common mullets; a sort of a dead white, or chalky colour; a small, brownish rock-fish, spotted with blue; a turtle, which was penned up in a pond; and three or four sorts of fish salted. The few shellfish that we saw were chiefly converted into ornaments”.

“Of animal food, they can be in no want; as they have abundance of hogs, which run, without restraint, about the houses ; and if they eat dogs, which is not improbable, their stock of these seem to be very considerable. The great number of fishing-hooks found among them, showed, that they derive no inconsiderable supply of animal food from the sea.”

“Judging from what we saw growing, and from what was brought to market, there can be no doubt that the greatest part of their vegetable food consists of sweet potatoes, taro, and plantains; and that bread-fruit and yams are rather to be esteemed rarities.”

“(T)he vale, or moist ground, produces taro, of a much larger size than any we had ever seen; and the higher ground furnishes sweet potatoes, that often weigh ten, and sometimes twelve or fourteen pounds; very few being under two or three.”

(This summary comes entirely from the Journals of Captain Cook, explaining what he saw immediately after contact.)

View of the Sandwich Islands_Webber-Achorage at Atooi

January 14, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Waialua Sugar Operations

The first mission schools were not established as industrial or manual training institutions, but in the 1830s the American Protestant Missionaries perceived the importance of agriculture and industry in raising the living standard of the nation.

In their general meeting held at Lahaina in 1833 they proposed a manual labor system, as a means both of desirable improvement and self-support, to be instituted at the high school. The secular agent was instructed to engage an artisan to oversee the work, take charge of the stock, tools, etc.

Between 1830 and 1850, the demands of the ali‘i on the maka‘āinana (common people) were severe. The missionary, John Emerson, commenting on the burdensome taxes on the people, wrote that the ruling chiefs “get hungry often and send a vessel to Waialua for food quite as often as it is welcomed by the people”. (Cultural Surveys)

The chiefs also demanded food be brought to them: “Last Sat some 2 or 300 men went from this place to H[onolulu] to carry food for the chiefs and this [is] often done … Each man carried enough food to maintain 4 persons one week … 70 miles travel to get it to H[onolulu]”. (Cultural Surveys)

John Emerson began growing sugarcane on his land in Waialua as early as 1836. He “made his own molasses, grinding a few bundles of cane in a little wooden mill turned by oxen, and boiling down the juice in an old whaler’s trypot”. (Sereno Bishop)

As we’ll see, here, this early sugarcane plantation later passed through several hands, including the Levi and Warren Chamberlain Sugar Company, established 1865, Halstead & Gordon, and the Halstead Brothers. (Cultural Surveys) This eventually became Waialua Sugar.

In a general letter to the Board, dated June 8, 1839, the members of the Sandwich Islands Mission observed that “at many stations the state of things is becoming such, that the missionary, by directing the labor of natives …”

“… and investing some fifty or a hundred dollars in a sugar-mill, or in some other way, might secure a portion and often the whole of his support, and would thus be teaching the people profitable industry.” (Tate)

Two years later the mission recommended that a farmer be procured to teach agriculture and to conduct the secular concerns of the school and that the scholars be required to cultivate the land or earn their own food by their personal industry.

One area for such a school was Waialua. “The whole district of Waialua is spread out before the eye with its cluster of settlements, straggling houses, scattering trees, cultivated plats & growing in broad perspectives the wide extending ocean tossing its restless waves and throwing in its white foaming billows fringing the shores all along the whole extent of the district.” (Levi Chamberlain, Cultural Surveys)

A school designed to be self-supporting and agricultural was organized at Waialua, on Oahu, opened August 28, 1837, with one hundred children and six teachers.

Two hours each working day were devoted to instruction in natural history, geography and arithmetic, while four hours were set aside for supervised labor in the field. By 1842 the institution was entirely self-sufficient. Two years later, the death of Mr Locke caused the manual labor school to be discontinued. (Tate)

The Hawaiian leadership saw opportunities. King Kamehameha III sought to expand sugar cultivation and production, as well as expand other agricultural ventures to support commercial agriculture in the Islands. In a speech to the Legislature in 1847, the King notes:

“I recommend to your most serious consideration, to devise means to promote the agriculture of the islands, and profitable industry among all classes of their inhabitants. It is my wish that my subjects should possess lands upon a secure title; enabling them to live in abundance and comfort, and to bring up their children free from the vices that prevail in the seaports.”

“What my native subjects are greatly in want of, to become farmers, is capital with which to buy cattle, fence in the land and cultivate it properly. “

“I recommend you to consider the best means of inducing foreigners to furnish capital for carrying on agricultural operations, that thus the exports of the country may be increased …” (King Kamehameha III Speech to the Legislature, April 28, 1847; Archives)

Later, Warren & Levi Jr, Chamberlain began a Waialua sugar mill operation in 1864. They supplied sugar for the Northern States during the Civil War. (The South had cut off all sugar production in the states to the North forcing them to import it from the islands.)

The prosperity ended with the end of the Civil War and the Chamberlains surrendered the mill to the bank in 1870. Robert Halstead bought the Chamberlain plantation in 1874 for a reported $25,000 under the partnership of Halstead & Gordon.

Robert Halstead was a pioneer sugar planter of Hawaii and was one of the first men with the vision to realize the future importance of cane culture in the financial development of the islands.

Halstead was born in Todmorden, England, on August 10, 1836. Halstead married Sarah Ellen Stansfield (born in May 1840 at Todmorden, England) on January 2, 1858 in Lancashire England.

Mr. Halstead brought his family to Hawaii in 1865, and for many years was a factor in the building of an industrial era responsible for the prosperous and highly developed Hawaii.

Going first to Lahaina, Maui, Mr. Halstead spent seven years there as plantation manager for Campbell and Turton, a partnership formed by James Campbell, one of the prominent figures in the early history of the sugar industry.

Severing his connections with business interests in Hawaii early in 1873, Mr. Halstead moved to the Pacific Coast, but returned in 1874 to engage in a plantation venture at Waialua, forming the partnership of Halstead & Gordon. (Nellist)

Upon the death of his associate, Mr. Halstead took over the entire business in 1888 and it was continued as Halstead & Sons, Edgar (born on March 1, 1862 at Manchester, Lancashire, England) and Frank (born on April 13, 1864 at Manchester, Lancashire, England) joining their father. Robert was the proprietor and manager; Edgar was superintendent and Frank was sugar house manager. (Polk 1890)

Halstead retired from the firm, and it was carried on by his sons under the name of Halstead Brothers. Later, Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham believed that the Halstead Brothers’ land could be turned into a profitable sugar plantation, especially since there was now a rail line to Honolulu.

The Waialua Agricultural Company was established in 1898 by JB Atherton, ED Tenney, BF Dillingham, WA Bowen, H Waterhouse and MR Robinson and was incorporated by the company Castle & Cooke. They bought the Halstead Brothers’ land and mill, and began to buy or lease the adjacent lands. (Cultural Surveys)

“Waialua is reached either by railroad, a distance from Honolulu of 58 miles, or wagon road, 28 miles. The plantation lands extend along the seacoast 15 miles and 10 miles back toward the mountains. The plantation has a good railway system.”

“There are nearly 600 cane cars and five locomotives: with 30 miles of permanent track and eight of portable track. One stretch of road is nine miles long.”

“The brick smokestack of the old original mill still stands as a relic of the past. The present day plant is a 12-roller mill of late type. … The mill has a capacity of 150 tons of sugar per day. The mill has been so constructed that its capacity can be doubled without adding to the building itself.” (Louisiana Planter, May 7, 1910)

Waialua Sugar reported in early 1987 that it would shut down over a two year period. An effort to buy the plantation through an employee stock ownership plan fell through in July 1987.

However, on September 24, 1987 Castle & Cooke announced that Waialua would be operating for at least two more years unless world sugar prices fell drastically. (LRB) (The Waialua mill stayed in operation up until 1996.)

January 13, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Spencer House

Francis (Frank) McFarland Spencer (November 25, 1819 – May 19, 1897) was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and was early apprenticed to the carpenter’s trade. In 1849, with many others in the colonies, he set sail and sought fortune from the California gold rush.

On the way, their vessel was wrecked on the reef outside Honolulu; all her passengers were saved. Spencer decided to remain in the Islands and went to work at his trade. (Evening Bulletin, May 20, 1897)

In 1850, he opened a store on Hotel Street known as the Spencer House. His dry goods business flourished; marketing “the most useful and cheapest goods … (promising) Quick Sales and Small Profits.”

But that is not the Spencer House of this story.

To get to this one, however, we need to step back a bit; we go back to 1819.

That was the time when whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips. Rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile fields. The whaling industry was the mainstay of the island economy for about 40 years.

William French arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1819 and settled in Honolulu. He became a leading trader, providing hides and tallow, and provisioning the whaling ships that called in Honolulu. Financial success during the next decade made French known as “the merchant prince.”

French also had property on the Island of Hawaiʻi, with a main headquarters there at Kawaihae, shipping cattle, hides and tallow to Honolulu; he hired John Palmer Parker (later founder of Parker Ranch) as his bookkeeper, cattle hunter and in other capacities. (Wellmon)

When French made claims before the Land Commission regarding one of the properties (identified as “slaughter-house premises” that he bought from Governor Kuakini in 1838,) testimony supporting his claim noted it was “a place for a beautiful house which Mr French would not sell for money. … It was enclosed by a stone wall. There were two natives occupying houses on his land.” (Land Commission Testimony)

The 2.8-acre property is in an area of Waimea known as Puʻuloa; French built a couple houses on it, the property was bounded by Waikoloa Stream and became Parker’s home while he worked for French. (In addition, in 1840, this is where French built his original home in Waimea. (Bergin))

At Puʻuloa, Parker ran one of French’s stores, which was nothing more than a thatched hut. Although this store was less grandiose than the other one at Kawaihae, it became the center of the cattle business on the Waimea plain.

Here, French employed a saddle-maker and operated a tannery. Parker kept busy supervising this operation and collecting beef, tallow and leather to supply the needs of French’s growing business. (Wellmon)

There was no surplus of currency in Waimea at this time, and most of the business at the Puʻuloa store consisted of bartering for goods and services. Long-term credit and buying on time was the rule rather than the exception in these transactions. (Wellmon)

Back in Honolulu, in 1840, French entered into a partnership with John Greenway; it was dissolved “in a manner involving the most disastrous consequences to Mr French.”

In a report of enquiry, a committee that reviewed the matter found “the investigation has ended in a conviction, that Mr. French stands before you fully vindicated, and cleared of all the imputations that were cast upon his honest intentions, that this is proved by the indisputable evidence of every written document found, from the 7th April, 1842”. (Polynesian, August 10, 1844)

French died at Kawaihae on November 25, 1851. “Many who have made their fortunes in these Islands have owed their rise in the world to the patronage of Mr French.” (Polynesian, December 6, 1851)

OK, back to Spencer – in addition to his Honolulu ‘Spencer House’ selling “fancy and staple goods,” Spencer acquired land and started to get into business on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

When French died, Spencer and a partner took over French’s livestock (his partner was James Louzada (one of the first español (paniolo,) Mexican cowboys to Hawaiʻi.)) (Bergin) Spencer also acquired some of French’s property when French died. (Mills) (Presumably, included was French’s home at Puʻuloa we now call Spencer House in Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island.)

Spencer was granted a lease on government lands in 1859 that gave him “…a monopoly on all sheep and wild cattle on Mauna Kea and the mountain lands, including uses of the Pōhakuloa plateau lands, Kalaiʻeha, Keanakolu, Hanaipoe, and smaller stations in between these areas”. (Cultural Surveys)

Later, on August 1, 1861, the Hawaiian Government leased Humuʻula and Kaʻohe lands (including the summit of Mauna Kea) to the newly-formed Waimea Grazing and Agricultural Company (WGAC.) (Mills & Maly)

WGAC was formed in May 1861 through a merger of Louzada, Spencer and Co and Robert C Janion. By 1873, it had a house and wool barn. (In 1883, the operation was incorporated as the Humu‘ula Sheep Station Company and was later acquired by Parker Ranch.)

In 1864 or 1865, Spencer sold his Honolulu dry goods business and moved permanently to the Island of Hawaiʻi, making his home at Waimea, where he engaged in the business of raising sheep, and afterwards cattle. For a number of years he held the office of District Magistrate of Waimea. (Evening Bulletin, May 20, 1897)

In 1865, Spencer obtained a lease of the entire ahupua‘a of Pu‘u Anahulu “excepting the land rights of the native tenants thereon…” (a total leased area of about 83,000-acres.) The addition of Pu‘u Anahulu to Spencer’s holdings gave him almost continuous grazing coverage from Hilo, Hāmākua, South Kohala and Kona. (Cultural Surveys)

On June 1, 1898, Robert Hind Jr and Eben Low acquired Spencer’s interest in Pu‘u Anahulu, and the leasehold Government Lands were added to their inventory of the Pu‘u Waʻawaʻa Ranch holdings. (DLNR)

WGAC sold hides, tallow, salted beef, wool and mutton, and maintained several company stores. The market for sheep and cattle products was in flux in the 1860s and 1870s, with the value of sheep eventually rising above that of cattle. (Mills)

Spencer continued with his cattle and sheep operations on the Island of Hawaiʻi. However, owing to ill health, Spencer came from his home at Waimea, Hawaiʻi, to reside with his daughter. He died May 19, 1897. (Evening Bulletin, May 20, 1897)

Spencer’s daughter, Frances “Fanny” Tasmania Spencer had married Richard Fredrick Bickerton (he later became an Associate Justice for the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court – 1886-1895.) Reportedly, Spencer’s Waimea “Spencer House” was briefly known and used as Bickerton Hotel.