On this date …
In 1758, American lexicographer Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut. (Missionaries to Hawai‘i used his teaching technique in turning the Hawaiian language from solely an oral language to also a written form.)
In 1793, during the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, was beheaded.
In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what was then a part of western Virginia. (Ten of Brown’s men were killed and five escaped. Brown and six followers were captured; all were executed.)
In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba. (AP)
In the Islands, there were also happy and not-so-happy events on this date …
Victoria Kaʻiulani Kawekiu I Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Cleghorn was born on October 16, 1875. She was the only child of Princess Miriam Likelike (the sister to King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani).
Ka‘iulani’s father, Archibald Scott Cleghorn, was a Scottish businessman. At the age of 15, Kaʻiulani was proclaimed Crown Princess of Hawaiʻi by Queen Liliʻuokalani and was a future ruler of Hawaiʻi. (KSBE)
One of her godmothers, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani, gave her the famed 10-acre Waikīkī estate, ‘Āinahau, as a birthday. Originally called Auaukai, Princess Likelike (Kaʻiulani’s mother) named it ʻĀinahau; Princess Kaʻiulani spent most of her life there.
The stream that flowed through ʻĀinahau and emptied into the ocean between the Moana and Royal Hawaiian Hotels (where the present Outrigger Hotel is located,) was called ʻApuakehau (the middle of three rivers that used to run through Waikīkī.)
The family built a two-story home on the estate. At first the home was used only as a country estate, but Princess Kaʻiulani’s family loved it so much, it soon became their full-time residence.
Kaʻiulani became a friend of author Robert Louis Stevenson. He had come to Hawaiʻi due to ill health. In his writings, Robert Louis Stevenson endearingly recalled that Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani was “…more beautiful than the fairest flower.”
He was a frequent guest and used to read passages of poetry to the young Princess under the banyan tree. Reportedly, the first banyan tree in Hawaiʻi was planted on the grounds of ʻĀinahau.
As many as fifty peacocks, favorites of the young Princess, were allowed to roam freely on the grounds.
Ka‘iulani was the self-proclaimed “favorite niece” of Mr. Charles Reed Bishop, husband of Bernice Pauahi Bishop.
Her aunt, Princess Pauahi, had passed away on Kaʻiulani’s birthday (October 16) in 1884.
Pauahi Pākī was born on December 19, 1831 in Honolulu, Hawai‘i to high chiefs Abner Pākī and Laura Kōnia Pākī. She was the great-granddaughter of Kamehameha I. (KSBE)
Pauahi was hānai (adopted) to her aunt, Kīnaʻu (the eldest daughter of Kamehameha, who later served as Kuhina Nui as Kaʻahumanu II, a position similar to a Prime Minister.) Pauahi lived with Kīnaʻu for nearly eight years, then Kīnaʻu died suddenly of mumps (April 4, 1839).
High Chief Caesar Kapaʻakea and his wife High Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole had three children, a daughter was Lydia Liliʻu Kamakaʻeha (born September 2, 1838), the onters, as noted were Likelike (Ka‘iulani’s mother) and Kalakaua.
Liliʻu was hānai (adopted) to the Pākīs, who reared her with their birth daughter, Pauahi. The two girls developed a close, loving relationship.
“…their only daughter, Bernice Pauahi … was therefore my foster-sister. … I knew no other father or mother than my foster-parents, no other sister than Bernice.” (Lili‘uokalani)
They lived on the property called Haleʻākala, in a two-story coral house that Pākī built on King Street. It was the ‘Pink House,’ (the house was name ʻAikupika (Egypt.)) It later became the Arlington Hotel.
In the months after Queen Liliʻuokalani was overthrown in 1893, Mr. Bishop, Cleghorn, and her kahu, Theophilus Davies, tried to get Kaʻiulani on the throne as a compromise with the newly self-instated Provisional Government in order to maintain Hawaiian leadership in the islands, to no avail. (KSBE)
Sadly, Kaʻiulani died, March 6, 1899.
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