Christopher Blom Hofgaard was born in Skien, Norway, on October 5, 1859. His parents were Gerhard Didrik and Didrikka (Blom) Hofgaard. He received his education at high school and at the Christiana Handelsgymnasium.
Hofgaard arrived in Hawai‘i on January 22, 1882. The first job of the newly-arrived young man in the islands was on the Wailuku sugar plantation where he worked several months, leaving to accept a clerkship in CH Dickey’s store at Haiku. Later, he was promoted to manager of the Dickey store at Paia.
In April 1885, he left Dickey’s employ to enter business for himself. He moved to Kauai and started the firm of CB Hofgaard & Co, in October of 1885.
In addition, from 1885 to 1886 he was a clerk in the post office and served as postmaster at Waimea, Kauai, from 1886 to 1918. With respect to his postmaster role, Hofgaard wrote,
“Mrs MJ Rowell was postmaster in Waimea when I started the store in 1885, but in May 1886, she wrote to Fred Wunderberg, the postmaster general, that she desired to get rid of the postoffice and proposed to him that he appoint me postmaster.”
“Mrs Rowell turned over the postoffice and handed me the letter from the postmaster general as authority for the act, and I started to act at once.”
“Everything went on all right till some time in 1887, when I was suddenly arrested for accepting money under false pretenses. The women had started a ‘Hui Kuonoono’ and when the first installment came in, the treasurer of the hui deposited the money in the postal savings bank and I receipted for the money signing CB Hofgaard, postmaster.”
“Appeared in court the following morning and had my case postponed one week and wrote to the postmaster general to send me a commission in return mail, and date it back some six months, as I was arrested for impersonating an officer of the government.”
“By return mail I received the commission but the sheriff maintained it was a forgery.” It was an embarrassing moment, but with no apparent consequence. (SB, June 12, 1930)
The CB Hofgaard Store was so successful that he was enabled to retire from active management twelve years later, but retained the presidency of the company, which was incorporated in 1901.
For more than 30 years Mr. Hofgaard was the representative of the Equitable Life Assurance Society in the islands. In addition to the presidency of the Hofgaard firm he also was treasurer of Waimea Stables.
In addition to his business and public offices, welfare and church work drew much of Mr. Hofgaard’s attention. He was a member of the district committee of the Hawaiian Board of Missions, a member of the YMCA committee, president of the board of trustees of the Waimea foreign church society, a trustee of the Mahelona hospital, and a member of the Kauai board of child welfare. (Nellist)
Hofgaard served as auditor for the county of Kauai in 1905 and road supervisor from 1886 to 1898. He was appointed district magistrate in 1904.
Waimea’s Hofgaard Park, that narrow strip of land in Waimea that has the statue of Captain James Cook and other historical plaques is named for Hofgaard.
It seems the Hofgaard Store had a role in Hawai‘i’s banking industry … “Mr and Mrs Wilson P Cannon and little son arrived from Berkley en route to Waimea Kauai, where Mr Cannon, who is a dry goods man, will be associated with the Hofgaard store.”
“Mrs Cannon was born on Kauai and has not been in the islands for 17 years. She is the niece of Mr and Mrs CB Hofgaard of Waimea.” (SB, January 1, 1921)
The son, Wilson P Cannon Jr, was born in Berkely on August 25, 1919 and grew up on Kauai and Maui and was graduated from Maui High School in 1937. After WWII, he worked his way through the ranks at Bank of Hawai‘i and later became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the bank.
American Factors (Amfac) bought the store in 1921. (SB, August 18, 1928) During WWII, the store was used by the Army as a quartermaster warehouse.
Businessman HS Kawakami bought and renovated the Hofgaard store in 1947 and moved his retail business into it. In 1966, the Hofgaard building was demolished to make way for a newer building opened by Kawakami in 1967 that would house the Bank of Hawai‘i, HS Kawakami Stores, and Big Save market. (Soboleski)
