Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bison

Bison had survived for 2 million years until humans arrived.  In the 1500s, an estimated 30-60 million of these shaggy brown beasts roamed widely across the interior of Canada, the United States, and far Northern Mexico.  (BBC, Ogden)

Scientists and historians estimate that there were at least 30 million bison roaming the country before Euro-American settlement of the West. (NPS, McAfee)

Then, Buffalo Started to Disappear

The 1849 discovery of gold in California initiated a relentless stream of prospectors and other settlers through the Platte River Valley. Heavy subsistence hunting along the trail divided the existing bison herd into separate Southern and Northern herds.  (PERC)

In just a few short years, cattle replaced the American bison as the leading, cloven-hoofed, grass-eating mammal on the Great Plains. In 1850, millions of bison ranged the grasslands and were the main natural resource for the region’s American Indians.

By 1850, subsistence hunting and habitat destruction had removed all of the bison east of the Mississippi, leaving perhaps 15 million on the Great Plains. (PERC)

“Buffaloes travel in a straight line. When they were moving and encountered a herd of Texas cattle they invariably bored right through the herd, turning neither to right nor left. It was just the same if but one or a dozen buffaloes were on the move – they walked straight through.” (James H. Cook as told to Eli S. Ricker, May 23, 1907)

In 1868, the steel rails of the transcontinental railroad created a barrier that bison did not like to cross.  (Nebraska Studies)  Construction of the Union Pacific through the valley made the division of the herd permanent, as the wary bison simply evacuated the railroad corridor.  (PERC)

Prior to 1870, hunting pressure on bison west of the Mississippi was modest. Plains Indians effectively managed bison herds as common property, engaging in subsistence hunting and in harvesting the vaunted “buffalo robe” (used for carriage throws and heavy fur coats) for sale to eastern markets.

Though the robes were valuable, they could be harvested only in the winter and only from bison living in high northern latitudes—an arduous and risky undertaking at best. Hence, the western bison continued to thrive.  (PERC)

Then in 1870, a process was developed that so bison hides could be commercially tanned into soft, flexible leather. This happened at the same time there was a high demand for leather to make the belts that powered machines in the Industrial Revolution.

There were huge markets in England, France, and Germany. Bison hunters poured onto the Great Plains.  (Nebraska Studies)

Bison hides from which the hair had been removed (called flint hides) were superb for making the soles of boots and industrial belts.  European armies and factories were a huge market, and within months of the tanning innovation, orders for bison hides poured into America.  (PERC)

Most people tend to think the hides were valued because they made fine robes or coats. But that wasn’t really the case.  During the 1870s,  industrial growth skyrocketed in the US and Europe, and demand for leather industrial belts expanded.

Cowhide tended to stretch and factory workers would have to occasionally stop production to tighten belts by cutting out sections.

The epidermal layer in buffalo hide is up to three times thicker than that of cattle and has wider spaced sub-dermal collagen fibers making it more durable and flexible, and better suited for use in industrial conveyor and drive belts.  (Bell, Dodge City Daily Globe)

The price that hunters received for a flint hide jumped from $0 in 1870 to about $2.80 in 1871, and stayed in the range of roughly $2.30 – $2.80 for the next 15 years.

A good hunter could bring several thousand hides to market in a season, but could expect pay of only about $50 per month as a ranch hand. It is little surprise then, that many hundreds of men quickly entered the business of hunting bison. (PERC)

“Commercial hunting by North American aboriginals and Euroamericans for meat and hides was the primary cause of the decline. Other contributing factors included subsistence hunting, indiscriminate slaughter for sport, and transection of the plains by railroads.” (Isenberg)

“Environmental factors such as regional drought, introduced bovine diseases, and competition from domestic livestock and domestic and wild horses also played a role.”

“Additionally, because bison provided sustenance for North American aboriginals and commodities for their barter economy, the elimination of bison was viewed by Euroamericans as an efficient method to force the aboriginal population onto reserves and allow for continued western development.”  (Isenberg)

In the Islands at this Time – ‘A City in a Grove’

“When the whalers began to frequent (Honolulu Harbor) place in numbers, a town soon sprung up, and by the year 1820, Honolulu contained some six or seven thousand inhabitants.  To-day its population is reckoned at 17,000, a larger number than the capital of the important British Colony of New Zealand could recently boast.”

“The First view of Honolulu, on approaching it from the sea, has been variously described by visitors, some of whom have expressed great disappointment, whilst others have gone into raptures over the scene.

“Unless, however, from exaggerated descriptions the traveler has been led to expect something extremely wonderful and unusual, I do not understand how anyone can fail to be charmed with the view of Honolulu and its surrounding scenery as seen from the deck of an approaching vessel, especially after many days’ confinement on shipboard, with nothing but the waste of waters around him.”

“It is true that the hills of Oahu have not the same luxurious clothing of vegetation that is common in many of the island groups of the Southern Pacific. It is true also that the town has no characteristic buildings of a striking nature to arrest attention.”

“Nevertheless, Honolulu is a prettier place to look at from the sea than nineteen out of twenty port tropics or elsewhere. It has rightly been called ‘a city in a grove.’”

Click the following link for more on Bison and the Islands at the time:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Bison.pdf

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kanakea Pond

In the Waiākea area called Keaukaha (‘passing current’) at Hilo on the Island of Hawaiʻi a legend refers to a hole called Kaluakoko beneath the water.

A man and a woman lived nearby, and later a second woman came to live with them.

The new wife became jealous of the first, and convinced her to go net fishing one day when the husband was fishing, though the husband had forbidden it because it would affect his fishing.

As she caught shrimp at the edge of a large hole, the second wife pushed her into the hole and covered the entrance with a rock, killing her. Blood spread through the sea foam and the fisherman, followed its trail in his canoe, moved the stone, and saw what had happened.

He confronted the second wife, who lied, and then beat her to death. According to the story, the hole has been referred to as Kaluakoko (‘the Hole of Blood.’) (Cultural Surveys)

Here, Kanakea (‘wide stream’) pond is located. A freshwater subterranean spring rises from a large sinkhole and feeds cold water into the bay at a former fishpond.

Due to apparent remnant of a seaward rock wall at the narrowest point of the channel to the ocean, it is believed to be a loko kuapā.  A cobble field, submerged except during low tide, is in a linear pattern, suggesting they may have been in the formation of the pond wall.  (However, the cobbles may have simple accumulated there by currents or tsunami.)

“There are plenty of ducks in the ponds and streams, at a short distance from the sea, and several large ponds or lakes literally swarm with fish, principally of the mullet kind.”

“The fish in these ponds belong to the king and chiefs, and are tabued from the common people. Along the stone walls which partly encircle these ponds, we saw a number of small huts, where the persons reside who have the care of the fish, and are obliged frequently to feed them with a small kind of muscle, which they procure in the sands round the bay.”  (Ellis, 1823)

“On the nights of high tides every keeper slept by the mākāhā of which he had charge. It was the custom to build small watch houses from which to guard the fish from being stolen at high tide, or from being killed by pigs and dogs; when the tides receded the fish would return to the middle of the pond, out of reach of thieves.”

“On these nights, the keeper would dip his foot into the water at the mākāhā and if the sea pressed in like a stream and felt warm, then he knew that the sluice would be full of fish.”  (Kamakau; Maly)

Railway tracks crossed the pond from about 1916 until 1946 (when they were destroyed by a tsunami;) remnants of the railroad trestle are still visible within and above the surface of the pond.  (Hawaiʻi County)

The pond’s modern name is ‘Ice Pond’ (due to the cold spring-fed waters.)  It is brackish (that word comes from the Middle Dutch root ‘brak’ (‘salty.’))

The adjoining small bay consists of white sand and coral rubble; between 1925 and 1930, coral material dredged from Hilo harbor was deposited on the western side.

The small bay is now referred to as ‘Reed’s Bay.’  It is named after William H Reed. Born in 1814 Belfast, Ireland, Reed was a businessman. He created Reed’s Landing, which he used to moor boats carrying lumber for one of his businesses.  (Hawaiʻi County)

Reed arrived in the Islands in the 1840s and set up a contracting concern specializing in the construction of wharfs, landings, bridges and roads.  Other interests included ranching, trading and retailing.  (Clark)

Across Hilo Bay, Reed also bought an island in 1861, originally known as ‘Koloiki’ (‘little crawling,’) once surrounded by the Wailuku River and Waikapu Stream.

Reed married Jane Stobie Shipman on July 8, 1868 (she was a widow, previously married to William Cornelius Shipman, a missionary assigned to Waiʻōhinu in the district of Kaʻū.  Shipman died in 1861, leaving Jane with her three children, William Herbert, Oliver Taylor and Margaret Clarissa.)

Jane was born in Scotland. At an early age she came to the US with her parents, lived in Quincy, Illinois, and was educated to be a teacher; and in 1853 was married to Reverend Shipman.  (The Friend, December, 1902)

Following his death, Jane moved to Hilo, with her three children and maintained the family by keeping a boarding school until 1868 (when she was married to Reed.)  (The Friend, December, 1902)

William Reed died on November 11, 1880 with no children of his own; Jane inherited the Reed land holdings.  (In 1881, Reed’s stepson William Herbert Shipman and two partners (Captain J. E. Eldarts and Samuel M Damon) purchased the entire ahupuaʻa of Keaʻau, about 70,000-acres from the King Lunalilo estate.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honokahua

The traditional moku (district) of Kāʻanapali consisted of five major stream valleys Honokōwai, Kahana, Honokahua, Honolua and Honokōhau), all of which were extensively terraced for wet taro (loʻi) in early historic and later times.

Honokahua Valley has been described as having wet taro (loʻi) lands, although not in great abundance.  Sweet potatoes were reportedly grown between Honokōhau and Kahakuloa Ahupuaʻa, presumably on lower kula lands. South of Kapalua Resort, Kahana Ahupuaʻa, was known as a place of salt gathering for the people of Lāhainā.

There are six bays located on Maui’s west shore whose names begin with the word Hono. These bays and coves are collectively known as Hono a Piʻilani.  From South to North, six of the identified bays are Honokōwai (bay drawing fresh water), Honokeana (cave bay), Honokahua (sites bay,) Honolua (two bays), Honokōhau (bay drawing dew) and Hononana (animated bay).

The Kāʻanapali District is noted for an alaloa (a path or trail) that reportedly encircled the entire island. Walker wrote: “The north end of Maui also is traversed by a paved trail. Sections of it can be seen from Honolua to Honokōhau to Kahakuloa. It is paved with beach rocks and has a width of four to six feet.”  (PBR)

According to oral tradition, Piʻilani unified the entire island of Maui, bringing together under one rule the formerly-competing eastern (Hāna) and western (Wailuku) multi-district kingdoms of the Island.   In the 1500s, Chief Piʻilani (“stairway to heaven”) unified West Maui and ruled in peace and prosperity.  His territory included the six West Maui bays, a place he frequented.

Piʻilani’s prosperity was exemplified by a boom in agriculture and construction of heiau, fishponds, trails and irrigation systems.  Famed for his energy and intelligence, Piʻilani constructed the West Maui phase of the noted Alaloa, or long trail (also known as the King’s Highway.)

His son, Kihapiʻilani laid the East Maui section and connected the island.  This trail was the only ancient pathway to encircle any Hawaiian island (not only along the coast, but also up the Kaupō Gap and through the summit area and crater of Haleakalā.)

Four to six feet wide and 138-miles long, this rock-paved path facilitated both peace and war.  It simplified local and regional travel and communication, and allowed the chief’s messengers to quickly get from one part of the island to another.  The trail was used for the annual harvest festival of Makahiki and to collect taxes, promote production, enforce order and move armies.

Missionaries Richards, Andrews and Green noted in 1828, “a pavement said to have been built by Kihapiʻilani, a king … afforded us no inconsiderable assistance in traveling as we ascended and descended a great number of steep and difficult paries (pali.)” (Missionary Herald)

When chief Kekaulike died, his younger son Kamehamehanui (uncle to Kamehameha I) was named heir to rule Maui. In 1738, Kauhi‘aimokuakama (Kauhi,) his older brother, began to wage war to win the title of ruling chief.

Battles were fought across West Maui, from Ukumehame to Honokōwai.  Kamehamehanui engaged the forces of his uncle from Hawai‘i to fight with him, whose troops numbered over 8,000, and Kauhi brought troops of warriors from O‘ahu.

“What was this war like? It employed the unusual method in warfare of drying up the streams of Kaua‘ula, Kanaha and Mahoma (Kahoma – which is the stream near Lahainaluna.) The wet taro patches and the brooks were dried up so that there was no food for the forces of Ka-uhi or for the country people.”  (Kamakau)

“The hardest fighting, even compared with that at Napili and at Honokahua in Kāʻanapali, took place on the day of the attack at Puʻunene.”   (Kamakau)

The war ended with the battle Koko O Nā Moku (“Bloodshed of the Islands.”) Over several days, the blood of fallen warriors from both sides flowed from a stream into the shorebreak and caused the ocean to turn red.  (Kamehamehanui won.) (Kāʻanapali Historical Trail)

In 1765, Kahekili inherited all of Maui Nui and O‘ahu and was appointed successor to his brother Kamehamehanui’s kingdom (not to be confused with Hawai‘i Island’s Kamehameha I.)

Kapalua Resort is situated along this coast between Honokahua and Honokeana.

Agricultural use of the property for pineapple cultivation began in approximately 1912 when Honolua Ranch (which included the property) was converted from a cattle ranch into a pineapple plantation. By the 1920s, pineapple had been planted across West Maui from Miihinahina ahupua’a to Kahakuloa ahupua’a A cannery was built in Honokahua in 1914 and, in 1923, Honolua Ranch became Baldwin Packers, Ltd.

In 1962, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. was formed when Baldwin Packers merged with Maui Pineapple Company. Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc., created the wholly-owned subsidiary named Kapalua Land Company, Ltd., which conceived of and developed the master-planned Kapalua Resort featuring the Kapalua Bay Hotel at the shore of Honokahua ahupuaʻa. The hotel opened in 1978, beginning the change of the former ranch and pineapple lands of Honokahua into a world-class destination resort complex.

Starting in 1987, to prepare for proposed ocean-side construction of the Ritz Carlton at Kapalua more than 900 ancestral native Hawaiian burials were excavated from sand dunes at Honokahua, Maui.  When the extent of the burials became more widely known, native Hawaiians from around the state staged protests.

Eventually a plan was devised in September 1989 for the proper reburial of the native Hawaiian remains disinterred.  Associated with that, the state paid $6-million for a perpetual preservation easement and restoration of the burial site.  A 14-acre site is now a historical and cultural landmark.

In addition, as a result of this, Hawaiʻi’s burial treatment law, passed in 1990, gives unmarked burials, most of which are native Hawaiian, the same protection as modern cemeteries. The law:

  • Burial Sites Program was set up within DLNR’s Historic Preservation Division
  • Burial Councils were set up at Kaua’i-Ni’ihau, O’ahu, Maui-Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi and Big Island
  • Procedures to deal with the inadvertent discovery of human skeletal remains were established
  • If human remains are found during a construction project, construction, there stops and if the remains appear to have been buried 50 or more years, procedures were established to preserve them in place or relocate them
  • Provided penalties for unauthorized alteration, excavation or destruction of unmarked burial sites

“Honokahua changed the history of Hawaiʻi. They have set precedent that we will never ever go back to this complacency and complete disregard for the iwi of our kupuna. Honokahua has created the laws, Honokahua is the law, this stands as the kahili (feather standard, a sign of royalty) for all burial sites from here on to perpetuity. This is the battleground, this is the piko (navel, umbilical cord) of these new laws.”  (Naeole, DLNR)

Now, Kapalua at Honokahua includes The Ritz-Carlton, the Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences at Kapalua Bay, the Kapalua Spa, eight residential subdivisions, two championship golf courses (The Bay and The Plantation,) ten-court tennis facilities, several restaurants, and over 800 condominiums, single-family homes and residential lots.  (In 2006, the Kapalua Bay Hotel was taken down.)  Fleming Beach Park is at Honokahua Bay.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Fifteen Days in the Islands

In January, 1778, Captain Cook was travelling from Christmas Island (“As we kept our Christmas here, I called this discovery Christmas Island” (Cook,)) heading across the north Pacific to the Oregon coast of North America, he wasn’t looking for Hawai‘i.

“On the 2d of January, at day-break, we weighed anchor (at Christmas Island,) and resumed our course to the north; having fine weather, and a gentle breeze at east, and east-south-east …”

“We continued to see birds every day … sometimes in greater numbers than others; and between the latitude of 10° and 11% we saw several turtle.”

“All these are looked upon us signs of the vicinity of land.”

“However, we discovered none till day-break, in the morning of the 18th, when an island made its appearance, bearing northeast by east (O‘ahu;) and, soon after, we saw more land bearing north (Kauai,) and entirely detached from the former. Both had the appearance of being high land.”

“On the 19th, at sunrise, the island first seen, bore east several leagues distant. This being directly to windward, which prevented our getting near it, I stood for the other, which we could reach; and not long after discovered a third island (Ni‘ihau) in the direction of west north-west, as far distant as land could be seen.”

“We had now a fine breeze at east by north; and I steered for the east end of the second island ; which at noon extended from north, half east, to west northwest, a quarter west, the nearest part being about two leagues distant.”

“At this time, we were in some doubt whether or no 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.”

“I immediately brought-to, to give them time to join us.” … Contact.

“They had from three to six men each; and, on their approach, we were agreeably surprised to find, that they spoke the language of Otaheite, and of the other islands we had lately visited. It required but very little address, to get them to come alongside ; but no intreaties could prevail upon any of them to come on board.”

“I tied some brass medals to a rope, and gave them to those in one of the canoes, who, in return, tied some small mackerel to the rope as an equivalent.”

“This was repeated; and some small nails, or bits of iron, which they valued more than any other article, were given them. For these they exchanged more fish, and a sweet potatoe; a sure sign that they had some notion of bartering; or, at least, of returning one present for another.”

“Seeing no signs of an anchoring place at this eastern extreme of the island, I bore away to leeward, and ranged along the south east side, at the distance of half a league from the shore.”

“As soon as we made sail, the canoes left us; but others came off, as we proceeded along the coast, bringing with them roasting pigs, and some very fine potatoes, which they exchanged, as the others had done, for whatever was offered to them.”

“Several small pigs were purchased for a sixpenny nail; so that we again found ourselves in a land of plenty; and just at the time when the turtle, which we had so fortunately procured at Christmas Island, were nearly expended.”

For the next 15-days, Cook and his crew effectively took the time to barter for provisions – water and food.

“The very instant I leaped on shore, the collected body of the natives all fell flat upon their faces, and remained in that very humble posture, till, by expressive signs, I prevailed upon them to rise.”

“They then brought a great many small pigs, which they presented to me, with plantain-trees, using much the same ceremonies that we had seen practised, on such occasions, at the Society and other islands …”

“… and a long prayer being spoken by a single person, in which others of the assembly sometimes joined. I expressed my acceptance of their proffered friendship, by giving them, in return, such presents as I had brought with me from the ship for that purpose.”

“As soon as we landed, a trade was set on foot for hogs and potatoes, which the people of the island gave us in exchange for nails and pieces of iron, formed into something like chisels.”

“We met with no obstruction in watering; on the contrary, the natives assisted our men in rolling the casks to and from the pool; and readily performed whatever we ‘required.”

Cook was concerned about his men infecting the Hawaiian women with venereal disease, “(The women) would as readily have favoured us with their company on board as the men; but I wished to prevent all connection, which might, too probably, convey an irreparable injury to themselves, and through their means, to the whole nation.”

“Another necessary precaution was taken, by strictly enjoining, that no person, known to be capable of propagating the infection, should be sent upon duty out of the ships … I had been equally attentive to the same object, when I first visited the Friendly Islands; yet I afterward found, with real concern, that I had not succeeded.”

“(A)bout seven o’clock in the evening the anchor of the Resolution started, and she drove off the bank. As we had a whole cable out, it was some time before the anchor was at the bows; and then we had the launch to hoist up alongside, before we could make sail.”

“By this unlucky accident, we found ourselves, at daybreak next morning, three leagues to the leeward of our last station; and foreseeing that it would require more time to recover it than I chose to spend, I made the signal for the Discovery to weigh and join us.”

“This was done about noon; and we immediately stood away to the northward, in prosecution of our voyage.”

“Thus, after spending more time about these islands than was necessary to have answered all our purposes, we were obliged to leave them before we had completed our water and got from them such a quantity of refreshments as their inhabitants were both able and willing to have supplied us with.”

“But, as it was, our ship procured from them provisions, sufficient for three weeks at least; and Captain Clerke, more fortunate than us, got of their vegetable productions, a supply that lasted his people upward of two months.” The Discovery and Resolution left Hawai‘i on February 2, 1778.

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An Inland View of Atooi-Webber
An Inland View of Atooi-Webber

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Clay Company

In the beginning, things looked good – very good.

“In view of the enormous demands New Honolulu will soon be making upon both building and paving material, the establishment of the brick making industry here at this juncture seems highly opportune.”

“It is the Honolulu Clay Company that is starting this new local enterprise, the partners in it being HL Kerr, ML Smith, CG Ellison and FL Litherland. The deposits of clay to be worked are up Nuuanu valley, where the brickyard is to be established. In actual substance the raw material is decomposed volcanic rock.” (Evening Bulletin, Feb 15, 1900)

Kerr and Smith were the promoters and Ellison and Litherland were the clay and brick experts.  After prospecting and experimenting, they obtained the necessary land, machinery, etc., and incorporated on May 24, 1900, under the name of the Honolulu Clay Company, Limited.

By 1906, they were bankrupt.  Let’s look back …

“By the steamer Australia from San Francisco yesterday [February 14, 1900] there arrived the machinery complete for manufacturing brick of Hawaiian clay. The making of the article will begin whenever the plant can be set up, which will be done without any avoidable delay.” (Evening Bulletin, Feb 15, 1900)

“The machinery employed by the incorporation was originally intended for the Paris Exposition, but the Honolulu Clay Company, having sent in their order just as the manufacturers were about to crate it and send it across the Atlantic, were persuaded to send the machinery west instead of east.” (PCA, August 6, 1900)

“[A] native Hawaiian, stated that in earlier times, and more particularly at the battle of Nu‘uanu, when Kamehameha I and his invading army drove the forces of O‘ahu over the Pali , the district was called Laimi.”  (Jardin, HHR)

The district was generally referred to as the ‘Brick Yard.’  (Jardin, HHR)  The brick factory stood on the site now occupied by St. Stephen Catholic Church at 2747 pall Highway and Laimi Road – just below Hānaiakamalama (Queen Emma Summer Palace).

“There is enough clay in sight for the manufacture of at least 150,000.000 brick. All of the ingredients necessary for the marking of an extra good class of brick are found either on the premises upon which the plant is located, or upon some one of the various properties of the company, of which there are several in the neighborhood.”

“The situation of the establishment is most ideal for such an enterprise. It is within fifteen minutes’ drive of the business center of the city and is close to the main business center of the Territory. Water is found on the place in abundance, the Nuuanu stream flowing across it on the lower side.” (PCA, August 6, 1900)

“The manufacture of brick in Honolulu has caused no little amount of interest among business men and contractors in this city. From the first the present company met with many discouragements, for they were told that there was no clay on the Island of Oahu suitable for the purposed desired.”

“Considerable, opposition was met among many of the builders in city, many of them even declaring that under no circumstances would the new brick be used by them. Still the Honolulu Clay Company kept on, and now after fifteen months are enabled to put bricks on the market at $16 per thousand against $22.50, the price demand elsewhere.”

“Many of the new buildings at the Navy Yard at Pearl City are to be constructed of them. Engineer USG White of the Naval Station speaks in the highest terms of the character of output.”

“When asked what his opinion of the brick might be,  Captain White said: ‘I am free to say that the brick made by the Honolulu Clay Company is not only as good but much better than the bricks shipped into the Islands.’”

“‘I made several experiments, testing their ability to stand strains and pressure, and was highly pleased with the result. The bricks, as you have no doubt noticed, are excellent in color, while their weight is more than half that of the ordinary bricks found in the States.’”

“The company is fortunate in having for its manager Mr FL Litherland of Portland, Oregon, who for many years has been recognized as one of the leading brick and tile-makers on the Pacific Coast.”

“Mr. Litherland is giving the work his personal attention and is to be found on the grounds from early in the morning until late in the evening, looking after the thousand and one little details that only a practiced eye can see, but which are so necessary to be properly attended to in order to insure success.” (PCA, August 6, 1900)

“Clay for the brick-making came from a pit behind the drying shed, close to the Nuuanu Stream. The material came up from the pit on chain conveyors. Before long it was discovered that the pit contained only a small deposit of clay, and it soon gave out. This necessitated the bringing in of clay from Palolo Valley and from Puunui.”  (Jardin, HHR)

“The made specimens contradict a statement that has often been repeated, that there is no clay suitable for brick making in the group.” (Evening Bulletin, Feb 15, 1900)

“The clay, however, proved not to be as good as it was believed to be and some contractors specified for California bricks, thus excluding Honolulu bricks. Conditions changed also in other respects.”

“Building operations fell off in Honolulu and the demand for brick decreased in consequence. The cost of making bricks was found to be higher than was anticipated. A long spell of rainy weather, prevented the bricks from drying properly.”  (Supreme Court of the Territory of Hawaii)

“From the beginning of the operation the quality of the clay was unsuited for brick-making. The finished bricks would often crumble when exposed to heavy rain. They lacked ‘body.’”

“Many attempts were made to introduce other materials to prevent the crumbling, but they all failed. This disappointment, added to the fact that Honolulu was not then erecting many permanent buildings, hastened the doom of the venture.” (Jardin, HHR)

Finally it was a question whether to continue or give up the business.

“As time went on, the storage yard became filled with bricks that were not being sold, and the plant shut down. Eventually the entire factory was dismantled and moved away. This last operation took place about 1905 and closed the chapter on brick manufacture in Honolulu.” (Jardin, HHR)

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