Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaiopihi

Reverend Elias and Ellen (Howell) Bond sailed with the Ninth Company of Missionaries from Boston.  The Bonds arrived in Honolulu in May of 1841. They were then assigned to Kohala.

Reverend Isaac Bliss, an elderly missionary in Kohala, had already completed a main house of what is known as the Bond Homestead compound when Bond arrived in Kohala in June 1841.

The compound eventually included the Bond Homestead (1841) Kalāhikiola Church (completed in 1855) and Kohala Seminary (Kohala Girl’s School – complex founded in 1872.)

The area was described in an 1849 account (in ‘The Island World of the Pacific’) as follows: “It stands in the center of an area of some five or six acres, enclose with a neat stone wall, and having a part of it cultivated as a garden, adorned with flowering shrubs and trees, as the pineapple, guava, acacia, mimosa, tamarind, kukui, mulberry, geranium, banana, Pride of China, sugar cane, etc.”

“The house is thatched with long leaves of the hala-tree (Pandanus), and has a very pretty, neat appearance, in connection with that tasteful keeping of the walks and grounds, like the pictures we have of thatched cottages and rural scenes of Old England.”

To provide employment to the people in the region and support his church and schools, Reverend Bond founded Kohala Sugar Company, known as “The Missionary Plantation,” in 1862.

“On December 23rd, 1876 there arrived for the Kohala plantation thirty Christian Chinese, four with their wives, and two children. The following year the little Oriental colony had increased to forty-five, the second company of Christian Chinese arriving in January.”

“How eagerly Father Bond welcomed them to his fold and how he rejoiced in the greater freedom of action furnished by plantation dividends, may be seen in a letter of October 17, 1877:”

“‘I sent in August for a minister to preach to our English speaking population. …. Now I write to see if we can obtain from the coast a Chinese Evangelist for these growing numbers of Chinese among us with no possible medium through which we may speak to them of Jesus.’”

“‘The Master has wonderfully helped us in all our plans and I will trust Him. I think I have learned more and more to trust Him, of late.’”

“And soon the long anticipated arrival and labors of Kong Tet Yin were announced: ‘March, 1878. … My errand to Honolulu was to get a Chinese, Colporteur and Evangelist. It was an unexpected opening, the man with highest testimonials from China and Australia.’”

“‘The Master favored my errand. I secured the man, and secured from the Kohala Sugar Company the means for paying his salary. Thanks to God for all.’”

“‘April, 1879. …. Our Chinese work is gradually getting into shape. I am much pleased with the Evangelist, though I sorely feel the difficulty involved in our inability to communicate freely, he having no knowledge of the English.  ‘He is a good speaker and manifestly a man of character.’”

“‘We have just arranged for an independent Chinese service on the Sabbath, excepting on Communion and Monthly Concert Sabbaths when they will meet with us. This arrangement will probably draw in more of the pagan element among our Chinese population.’”

“‘My idea was to have them meet with us only on Communion Sabbaths, but they wished to meet also on Monthly Concerts, and probably, till they attain to a somewhat enlarged measure of the habit and grace of giving for religious purposes, it will do them no harm to meet with our native congregation on such Sabbaths.’”

“Thus, all went well, if slowly, with the little ‘Chinese Zion’ in Kohala. February of 1883 saw a plot of ground given by the plantation and set off for a church building for the Chinese [a chapel called Kaiopihi] the first in the Islands.” 

“In May of the same year a visit was recorded from ‘Father Damon’, who shared to the full Mr. Bond’s interest in the Chinese and was one of the first to organize Christian work among them in Honolulu.  On July 29th of this same year the Chinese church body of Kohala was formally organized.” (Damon, Father Bond)

Kohala is a good example of the development of churches in a plantation community. Kalahikiola Church was the Hawaiian church where Father Elias Bond was pastor.

When the plantation was started, a Chinese church soon came. Later Kohala Union Church came into being for English-speaking residents, followed by a Japanese church in 1894 and a Filipino church in 1933.

By 1942 all churches except the Filipino church were having services in English. The Japanese and Chinese churches merged, and a few years later all except the Filipino church merged with Kalahikiola.  (Mulholland)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Farewell to thee … Until we meet again

In the early-nineteenth century there were three routes from Honolulu to Windward Oʻahu: around the island by canoe; through Kalihi Valley and over the pali by ropes and ladders; and over Nuʻuanu Pali, the easiest, quickest and most direct route.

The first foreigner to descend the Pali and record his trip was Hiram Bingham.  His zeal for spreading the word of God led him to take a group of missionaries over the Pali to the Koʻolaupoko moku (district) in 1821.

The current Pali Highway is actually the third roadway to be built there.  A large portion of the highway was built over the ancient Hawaiian foot paths that traversed the famous Pali pass.

In 1845 the first road was built over the Nuʻuanu Pali to connect Windward Oʻahu with Honolulu.  It was jointly financed in 1845 by the government and sugar planters who wanted easy access to the fertile lands on the windward side of Oʻahu.  Kamehameha III and two of his attendants were the first to cross on horseback.

A legislative appropriation in 1857 facilitated road improvements that allowed the passage of carriages.  The Rev. E. Corwin and Dr. G. P. Judd were the first to descend in this manner on September 12, 1861.

Lili‘uokalani used to visit friends at their estate in Maunawili.  She and her brother King David Kalākaua were regular guests and attended parties or simply came there to rest.

Guests, when leaving the home, would walk between two parallel rows of royal palms, farewells would be exchanged; then they would ride away on horseback or in their carriages.

On one trip, when leaving, Liliʻu witnessed a particularly affectionate farewell between a gentleman in her party and a lovely young girl from Maunawili.

As they rode up the Pali and into the swirling winds, she started to hum a melody weaving words into a romantic song.  The Queen continued to hum and completed her song as they rode the winding trail down the valley back to Honolulu.

She put her words to music and as a result of that 1878 visit, she wrote “Aloha ‘Oe.”

The melody may have been derived from Croatian folk song (Subotika region) Sedi Mara Na Kamen Studencu (Girl On The Rock,) in 1857 published in Philadelphia by Charles Crozat Converse as The Rock Beside The Sea.

Aloha ʻOe was first introduced in America in 1883 by the Royal Hawaiian Band with Heinrich (Henry) Berger conducting.

“Though I was still not allowed to have newspapers or general literature to read, writing-paper and lead-pencils were not denied; and I was thereby able to write music, after drawing for myself the lines of the staff.”

“At first I had no instrument, and had to transcribe the notes by voice alone; but I found, notwithstanding disadvantages, great consolation in composing, and transcribed a number of songs.”

“Three found their way from my prison to the city of Chicago, where they were printed, among them the “Aloha Oe,” or “Farewell to Thee,” which became a very popular song.”  (Liliʻuokalani while imprisoned)

The future Queen was born Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha to High Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole and High Chief Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea on September 2, 1838.

Although she didn’t own the property in Maunawili, it is often referred to as the Queen’s Retreat.

The Maunawili property is also referred to as the Boyd/Irwin/Hedemann house, due to the subsequent list of owners of the property.

Major Edward Boyd and his wife bought the land in 1869, it served as their estate.  Sugar baron William G Irwin next purchased the estate in 1893, starting up a coffee mill, there.

C Brewer later owned the estate in the 1920s and 1930s, using it as a retreat.  Kāneʻohe Ranch bought it in 1941, when the military used it as a headquarters and rest area.  Even the Girl Scouts used it as a camp in the late-1940s.

The Hedemann family was the last to live there, until 1985, when the estate was purchased by a Japanese investor, who developed much of the surrounding area as the Luana Hills Country Club.

Since 2000, the property has been owned by HRT Ltd., the for-profit arm of the Jeanette and Harry Weinberg Foundation.

Uninhabited since about 1985, the structures and grounds of the estate are rapidly decaying and being absorbed by the forest of Maunawili.  On June 26, 2022, fire destroyed the Queen’s Retreat.

Here is a link to an early (1904) rendition Aloha ʻOe:

Ellis Brothers Glee Club Quartet (men) (1904)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mānā, Kauai

Mānā is a coastal plain with an ancient sea cliff at its inner edge, which extends from Waimea in the south to Barking Sands in the north on the western shores of Kauai.

This region has been identified as a leina-a-ka-uhane (paths-for-leaping-by-the-spirit). These were almost always on bluffs looking westward over the ocean, from which the spirits of the dead were believed to plunge in order to enter the spiritual realm.

Throughout prehistory, large areas of the Mānā Plain were covered by the great Mānā swamp, allowing the ancients to canoe as far south as Waimea.

Up until the mid-1880s, the great Mānā swamp, east of the plain, covered large areas of the lowlands.  Approximately 1,700-acres of permanent, semi-permanent and seasonal wetlands were present on the Mānā Plain.

It is believed that these wet conditions encouraged the independent invention of aquaculture on Kauai and the construction of stone and earthen ponds for growing staples such as taro, yam and sweet potatoes.

Historically, native Hawaiians constructed four different types of fishponds – freshwater taro ponds, other freshwater ponds, brackish water ponds and seawater ponds.

Aquaculture was employed to supplement their other fishing activities, and permanent fishponds guaranteed a stable food supply for populations in lean times.  Tended ponds provided fish without requiring fishing expertise, and harvesting the pond, unlike fishing at sea, was not weather dependent.

Evidence suggests that Hawaiian fishponds were constructed as early as AD 1000, if not earlier, and continued to be built until the 1820s.

After the arrival of Europeans to the island, aquaculture transitioned to agriculture through the eventual draining of the swamp and the cultivation of sugar cane and rice.

One of the first successful sugar plantations to export from the islands was established at Kōloa in 1835, and by the 1930s, nearly all of the Mānā swamp had been filled to produce this crop.

Up until the mid-1880s, the great Mānā swamp covered large areas of the lowlands.  One of the first European settlers, Valdemar Knudsen, drained a portion of the Mānā swamp by excavating a ditch through to the ocean at Waiele.  The first sugarcane was planted in Kekaha in 1878.

Hans Peter (HP) Faye was a Norwegian immigrant (arriving in 1880) who started a small plantation at Mānā and eventually helped form Kekaha Sugar, incorporated 1898, and became its first manager.

It was his vision that created the Kekaha and Kokeʻe Ditch Systems and the intricate drainage canals that drain the large swamps of Mānā.

To keep the groundwater table below the root zone of the sugar cane, thousands of feet of canals were excavated to drain excess water from the soil.  The water is then pumped into canals such as the Nohili Ditch for release into the ocean.

The drainage system, with two pumps at the Kawaiele and Nohili pumping stations, was constantly running to lower the groundwater table, which made possible for sugarcane cultivation.

Rice was planted in the drained swamplands from the mid-1860s to 1922.  By the 1930s, nearly all of the Mānā swamp had been filled in and planted in sugarcane.

The need to keep the area drained continues today.  These pumping stations must continue running to keep the groundwater table from rising too high, which could result in root rots and hence low crop yields. During storm season, with five inches of rain in one day would result in flooding.

Nearby wetlands form the Kawaiele Sand Mine Sanctuary (a State Waterbird Refuge for Hawaii’s four endangered waterbird species – Hawaiian duck, coot, stilt and moorhen;) this was created during a sand removal program.

When I was at DLNR, we authorized the sale of sand licenses to allow contractors to remove sand for construction projects (golf courses, concrete mix and beach replenishment) within the waterbird sanctuary that, in turn, created a beneficial mixed terrain and expanded the waterbird habitat.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kū‘au

Oral histories and ethnohistoric accounts indicate that while primary activities occurred within the Wailuku area, coastal areas like Pā‘ia and Kū‘au supported smaller-scale agricultural endeavors such as sweet potato cultivation, and were a primary source of a variety of readily available marine resources. (Hart)

The ahupua‘a lands of Hali‘imaile, Pā‘ia, Kū‘au (‘handle’) and Hula‘ia (also spelled Hule‘ia) were made a part of the larger Hāmākua Poko Ahupua’a sometime prior to the land division known as the Great Mahele, in 1848.

In traditional times, Hāmākua Poko Ahupua’a formed a natural and political land division between the six major “Kula” land divisions which extended from the leeward shoreline to the upper reaches of Haleakala to the south, and the traditional region known as Hāmākua Loa, a collection of thirty narrow windward land divisions that include five perennial streams.

(‘Kula’ lands were the farmlands above the shoreline, on the plains or sloping lands; those to seaward being termed ko kula kai and those toward the mountains ko kula uka (uka, inland or upland.) An act of 1884 distinguished dry or kula land from wet or taro land.)

Hāmākua Poko measures four miles in width along the shoreline, and is roughly pie shaped, with both north-south boundaries joining at Pu‘u O Kaka‘e, some 4,800 ft. above mean sea level.  (Cultural Surveys)

The growth of the sugar industry was augmented by imported labor from foreign lands. The various ethnic groups that provided needed labor to fuel a large plantation economy is reflected in the names of the various labor camps surrounding the Pā‘ia area: Hawaiian Camp, Russian Camp, Spanish Camp, Portuguese Camp, Chinese Camp, and Japanese Camp.

A total of thirteen camp communities were formed and situated throughout the sugar lands and towns appeared at Pu‘unēnē and Spreckelsville.

Railroads constructed by the sugar companies facilitated communication between the camps and provided transportation for hauling sugar cane. Remnants of the railroad bed are still evident at the western end of Puna Road in Pā‘ia.

Labor camps were consolidated and relocated over time, with some having developed into modem urban centers such as Kahului and Wailuku.  (Hart)

Remnants of these former camps remain in the form of small, scattered cemeteries that occur along the coastline near Pā‘ia and Kū‘au. Historic period artifacts, including ceramics, bottle glass, metal objects, square nails, marbles, and other objects relating to daily activities in the sugar camps. have been documented in nearby sugar cane fields. (Hart)

On May 31, 1858, H Holdsworth, Richard Armstrong, Amos Cooke, G Robertson, MB Beckwith and FS Lyman (shareholders in Castle & Cooke) met to consider the initiation of a sugar plantation at Haiku on Maui.

Shortly after (November 20, 1858,) the Privy Council authorized the Minister of the Interior to grant a charter of incorporation to them for the Haiku Sugar Company.

At the time, there were only ten sugar companies in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Five of these sugar companies were on the island of Maui, but only two were in operation. The five were: East Maui Plantation at Kaluanui, Brewer Plantation at Haliimaile, LL Torbert and Captain James Makee’s plantation at ʻUlupalakua, Hāna and Haiku Plantation.

The mill, on the east bank of Maliko Gulch, was completed in 1861; 600-acres of cane the company had under cultivation yielded 260 tons of sugar and 32,015 gallons of molasses. Over the years the company procured new equipment for the mill.

Using the leading edge technology of the time, the Haiku Sugar Mill was, reportedly, the first sugarcane mill in Hawaiʻi that used a steam engine to grind the cane.

Their cane was completely at the mercy of the weather and rainfall; yield fluctuated considerably. For example it went from 970-tons in 1876 to 171-tons in 1877.

(In 1853, the government of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i had set aside much of the ahupua‘a of Hāmākuapoko to the Board of Education. The Board of Education deeded the Hāmākuapoko acreage which was unencumbered by native claims to the Trustees of Oʻahu College (Punahou) in 1860, who then sold the land to the Haiku Sugar Company (Cultural Surveys))

In 1871 Samuel T Alexander became manager of the mill. Alexander and later his partner, Henry Perrine Baldwin, saw the need for a reliable source of water, and started construction of the Hāmākua ditch in 1876.

With the completion of the ditch, the majority of Haiku Plantation’s crops were grown on the west side of Maliko gulch. As a result in 1879 Haiku mill was abandoned and its operations were transferred to Hāmākuapoko where a new factory was erected, which had more convenient access to the new sugar fields.

Other ditches were later added to the system, with five ditches at different levels used to convey the water to the cane fields on the isthmus of Maui. In order of elevation they are Haiku, Lowrie, Old Hāmākua, New Hāmākua, and Kaluanui ditches.

The “Old” Hāmākua Ditch was the forerunner to the East Maui Irrigation System.   This privately financed, constructed and managed irrigation system was one of the largest in the United States. It eventually included 50 miles of tunnels; 24 miles of open ditches, inverted siphons and flumes; and approximately 400 intakes and 8 reservoirs.

Although two missionaries (Richard Armstrong and Amos Cooke) established the Haiku Sugar Company in 1858, its commercial success was due to a second-generation missionary descendant, Henry Perrine Baldwin. In 1877, Baldwin constructed a sugar mill on the west side of Maliko Gulch, named the Hāmākuapoko Mill.

By 1880, the Haiku Sugar Company was milling and bagging raw sugar at Hāmākuapoko for shipment out of Kū‘au Landing. The Kū‘au Landing was abandoned in favor of the newly-completed Kahului Railroad line in 1881, with all regional sugar sent then by rail to the port of Kahului.

Today, Kū‘au is in the vicinity, and mauka of the Kū‘au Store and Mama’s Fish House.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ala Moana Beach Park and ʻĀina Moana (Magic Island)

In 1899, the coastal road from Honolulu Harbor to Waikīkī, formerly called the “Beach Road,” was renamed “Ala Moana.”

At the beginning of the twentieth-century, this stretch of coast makai of Ala Moana Boulevard was the site of the Honolulu garbage dump, which burned almost continually.  The residue from burned rubbish was used to reclaim neighboring wetlands (which later were more commonly referred to as “swamp lands.”)

In the 1920s, Kewalo Basin was constructed and by the 1930s was the main berthing area for the sampan fleet and also the site of the tuna cannery, fish auction, shipyard, ice plant, fuel dock and other shore-side facilities.

In 1928, a channel was dredged through the coral reef to connect the Ala Wai Boat Harbor and the Kewalo Basin, so boats could travel between the two.  Part of the dredge material helped to reclaim swampland that was filled in with dredged coral.

When the area became a very popular swimming beach, the channel was closed to boat traffic.

The City and County of Honolulu started cleaning up the Ala Moana area in 1931. They used funds provided by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal Project to create a city park in the Ala Moana area.

Back in the early twentieth century, most playgrounds consisted of large areas of pavement used to get children off of the street and had no aesthetic value.

In 1933, Harry Sims Bent was chosen as the park architect for the City and County of Honolulu.  Bent’s design went beyond the modern level and into the realm of art deco, allowing for play, as well as contact with nature.  His works at Ala Moana include the canal bridge, entrance portals, sports pavilion, banyan courtyard and the lawn bowling green.

President Roosevelt participated in the dedication of the new 76-acre “Moana Park” in 1934 (it was later renamed Ala Moana Park in 1947.)  During his visit to the islands, Roosevelt also planted a kukui tree on the grounds of the ʻIolani Palace.

Ala Moana Park was developed on a swamp and the Honolulu garbage dump.

In the mid-1950s, reef rubble was dredged to fill in the old navigation channel (between Kewalo and the Ala Wai); it was topped with sand brought from Keawaʻula Beach (Yokohama Beach) in Waianae.

At the same time, a new swimming channel was dredged parallel to the new beach, extending 400-feet offshore; in addition, the west end of the fronting channel was closed by a landfill project that was part of the Kewalo Basin State Park project.  A large fringing reef remained off-shore protecting the beach area.

Reportedly, in 1955, Henry Kaiser was the first to propose building two artificial islands and six hotels over the fringing reef.  His proposal included inlets for boats, walkways and bridges. He called it Magic Island and offered to pay the $50-million cost.  (Sigall, Star-Advertiser)

In 1958, a 20-page booklet was sent to Congress to encourage them to turn back Ala Moana Reef to the Territory of Hawaiʻi for the construction of a “Magic Island.”  Local businessmen and firms paid half the cost and the Territory paid half through the Economic Planning & Coordination Authority)   (Dillingham interests were among contributors, Henry J. Kaiser interests were not.)   (Honolulu Record, February 13, 1958)

The booklet puts forth the argument that “Tourist development is our most important immediate potential for economic expansion,” and displays pictures of the crowded Waikiki area to show the lack of room for expansion.  Then it directs the reader’s attention to land that can be reclaimed from the sea by utilizing reefs, especially the 300-acre area of Ala Moana Reef.  (Honolulu Record, February 13, 1958)

It was supposed to be part of a new high scale beachfront resort complex with a half-dozen hotels that would have included two islands built on the fringing reef, offshore of the Ala Moana Park.

The Interest of the Dillingham’s in developing off-shore areas is obvious, since Hawaiian Dredging is the only local company large enough to undertake such sizable dredging operations.

The Dillingham interest in the current “Magic Island” project is more obvious because of the immediate increase in value it would bring to Dillingham land mauka of Ala Moana Boulevard.  (Honolulu Record, February 13, 1958)

The Dillinghams figure to do the dredging and construction of Magic Island, itself, of course, and it must be recalled that the original Dillingham idea was to use Ala Moana Park for hotels and apartments and build the reef island for a park.  (Honolulu Record, May 15, 1958)

But now that Magic Island is being proposed as a hotel and apartment site, it doesn’t mean for a moment the first plan has necessarily been abandoned. There is good reason to fear Ala Moana Park may be wiped out entirely so far as the people of Oahu are concerned if they don’t keep alert and guard” against every effort to encroach upon it.  (Honolulu Record, May 15, 1958)

Substantial changes were made from the more extensive original plan for the Ala Moana reef; rather than multiple islands for several resort hotels built on the reef flat off of the Ala Moana Park, in 1964 a 30-acre peninsula, with “inner” and “outer” beaches for protected swimming, was constructed adjoining the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor and Ala Wai Canal outlet.

The project stopped after the development of “Magic Island,” leaving the State with a man-made peninsula, which they converted into a public park.

In 1972 the State officially renamed Magic Island to ‘Āina Moana (“land [from the] sea”) to recognize that the park is made from dredged coral fill. The peninsula was turned over the city in a land exchange and is formally known as the ‘Āina Moana Section of Ala Moana Beach Park, but many local residents still call it Magic Island.

Between 1955 and 1976 the beach eroded, and in 1976, more sand was brought in from Mokuleʻia on the north coast of Oʻahu.

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