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February 1, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Raising the United States Flag

A Command from Captain Wiltse to Lieutenant Commander Swinburne; USS Boston, Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, February 1, 1893 …

“Sir: You will take possession of the Government building, and the American flag will be hoisted over it at 9 am. Very respectfully, GC Wiltse, Captain US Navy, Commanding USS Boston.”

The following is a summary of a report prepared by Lieut. Commander Swinburne in preparation and response to that order and the events that followed (as recorded in the Report of the Committee of Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 1894.)

In accordance with that order, the battalion of the Boston landed at Brewers Wharf, in the city of Honolulu, at 5 pm January 16.

The following summarizes the forces that landed: Company A, Artillery, 40 men; Company B, Infantry, 35 men; Company C, Infantry, 34 men; Company D, Marines, 30 men;  Color guard, 4 men; hospital corps, 1 apothecary, 4 stretchermen; signalmen, 2; music, 3. Total, 153 men, 11 officers.

Each man carried the regulation knapsack, with blanket and change of clothing, haversack with mess gear and ration of hard bread, and filled canteen. Those armed with Lee rifle wore the double webbing belt carrying 60 cartridges in the loops and 20 in magazines. The marines were fitted out with the same belts, but the loops only were filled.

The ammunition boxes of the Gatling gun contained four filled Accle’s Feeds and 1,380 extra rounds of .45 caliber in pasteboard boxes. The ammunition boxes of the 37 mm contained 64 cartridges, common shell. Reserve ammunition in 37 mm. caisson was as follows: After compartments, 112 37 mm. cartridges, common shell; forward compartment 1,600 caliber .45 cartridges in pasteboard boxes; top or center compartment, four filled Accle’s Feeds, and 800 .38 caliber revolver cartridges.

After the battalion was formed, they marched first to the United States consulate, where Lieut. Draper, with his company, was detached with orders to proceed to the legation and leave half his command in charge of the orderly sergeant, returning with the remainder to the United States consulate, himself, and remain there as a guard until further orders.

The remainder of the battalion then marched down King Street. In passing the palace the battalion, in column of companies, gave a marching salute, trumpeters sounding four ruffles in honor of the royal standard, which was flying there.

On arriving at the residence of Mr. JB Atherton, an American, the command was halted, and permission having been obtained, was marched into the grounds, arms stacked and ranks broken.  About 8 in the evening the battalion marched to Arion Hall and camped there.

During the night the men were kept ready for an instant’s call, but there were no disturbances of any kind.

At reveille the next morning, 17th, the camp routine was published and has been strictly carried out in all its details. Latrines were built in the yard and every sanitary precaution taken.

At 2:30 pm, a civilian, armed, reported that a policeman had been shot while attempting to stop a wagonload of ammunition which was being conveyed to the old armory where the civilian forces enrolled by the committee of safety were then assembling, and that a large crowd was collecting on Merchant Street.

The battalion was immediately assembled under arms in the yard in rear of the building to await developments. Until nearly 6 o’clock, the men leading the citizens’ movement had assumed charge of the Government building without opposition of any kind; the civilian companies under arms had marched in and established a line of sentries about the Government building.

The Boston’s battalion was kept in rear of the camp, at their company parades, with arms stacked. About 1 pm, they were notified that a Provisional Government, of which Mr. SB Dole was presiding officer, was in complete possession.  A letter from the United States minister recognized it as the de facto government of the Hawaiian Islands, and the battalion was to consider it as such.

During the night, again, officers and men were kept ready for a moment’s call, but the city was perfectly quiet.

During the day of the 18th the royal standard was hauled down over the palace, and the household troops disbanded, by order of the Provisional Government, except a small guard of honor, who accompanied the ex-Queen to her residence on Beretania street.

On January 19 new quarters were provided for the battalion at the unoccupied house on King street, the property of Mr. CR Bishop.  Having thoroughly policed the old camp, the battalion moved into the new quarters at 1:30 pm.  Daily routine followed.

In accordance with verbal orders given the evening of January 31, the battalion was paraded on the morning of February 1, at 8:30, in front of the quarters – ‘A’ Company as artillery with Gatling and 37 men; the rest as infantry in light marching order.

As the line was formed, a written order, dated February 1, was given; in obedience to those orders the battalion marched to the Government building, where we were received by the civilian troops, who presented arms as they entered. President Dole and all members of the ministry and advisory council were also present.

According to the order, Col. Sofer, Commander in Chief of the Provisional Government forces, at once turned over the custody of the building to Lieut. Commander Swinburne.

A proclamation from Minister Stevens establishing a protectorate over the Hawaiian Islands in the name of the United States, pending negotiations with the Hawaiian Commissioners at Washington, was read.

At 9 am, the United States ensign was hoisted over the building, the battalion and civilian forces presenting arms.  The Hawaiian flag, hoisted on the pole in the grounds, received the same salute.

The civilian forces of the Provisional Government were then withdrawn and the custody of the building turned over to Lieut. Draper with his company of 25 marines, which were withdrawn from the United States consulate for the purpose, the guard at the United States legation being continued but reduced to 5 men. The blue jacket companies of the battalion then returned to their quarters.

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Military Tagged With: Hawaii, Charles Reed Bishop, Arlington Hotel, Wiltse, C Brewer, Atherton, Arion Hall, Camp Boston

October 6, 2021 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Big Five (plus 2)

“By 1941, every time a native Hawaiian switched on his lights, turned on the gas or rode on a street car, he paid a tiny tribute into Big Five coffers.” (Alexander MacDonald, 1944)

The story of Hawaii’s largest companies dominates Hawaiʻi’s economic history. Since the early/mid-1800s, until relatively recently, five major companies emerged and dominated the Island’s economic framework. Their common trait: they were focused on agriculture – sugar.

They became known as the Big Five:

C. Brewer & Co.
Founded: October 1826; Capt. James Hunnewell (American Sea Captain, Merchant; Charles Brewer was American Merchant)
Incorporated: February 7, 1883

Theo H. Davies & Co.
Founded: 1845; James and John Starkey, and Robert C. Janion (English Merchants; Theophilus Harris Davies was Welch Merchant)
Incorporated: January 1894

Amfac
Founded: 1849; Heinrich Hackfeld and Johann Carl Pflueger (German Merchants)
Incorporated: 1897 (H Hackfeld & Co;) American Factors Ltd, 1918

Castle & Cooke
Founded: 1851; Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke (American Mission Secular Agents)
Incorporated: 1894

Alexander & Baldwin
Founded: 1870; Samuel Thomas Alexander & Henry Perrine Baldwin (American, Sons of Missionaries)
Incorporated: 1900

Some suggest they were started and run by the missionaries. Actually, only Castle & Cooke had direct ties to the mission – Castle ran the ‘depository’ and Cooke was a teacher.

Alexander & Baldwin were sons of missionaries, but not a formal part of the mission. Brewer was an American sea captain and merchant; the founders of Davies were English merchants and the founders of Amfac were German merchants.

Hawaiʻi’s industrial plantations began to emerge at this time (1860s;) they were further fueled by the Treaty of Reciprocity – 1875 between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market. Through the treaty, the US obtained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into U.S. markets for their sugar.

As the sugar industry pushed ahead, something else new was introduced into the economic scheme of things. In Honolulu two or three new firms began business solely to handle the affairs of the scattered plantations.

They began by acting as selling agents for the planters. Gradually they took over other functions: financing crops, importing labor, purchasing machinery for the planters and serving in all ways as their business agents. The new businesses soon found themselves running the sugar industry.

By the 1880s, five of these concerns, called factors, eventually dominated the field. How effectively the Big Five could band together as one against outside forces whether the enemy was foreign capital, insects, labor, competing products or disease was well demonstrated by their Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association, more familiarly known as the HSPA. (MacDonald)

This group organization for Hawaii’s sugar industry was founded in 1882 as the Planters’ Labor and Supply Company when the planters found they had common problems in irrigating the sugar lands, growing the cane, and finding labor. That was its immediate official purpose.

“Everything that comes into the territory comes through a large corporation. The independent businessman who attempts to enter business here immediately finds that even nationally advertised lines from the mainland are tied up by the Big Five. It is almost impossible to get an independent line of business as they have everything – lumber paint, right down the line.” (Edward Walker, High Sheriff of Hawaiʻi, 1937; Kent)

Acting as agents for thirty-six of the thirty-eight sugar plantations, the Big Five openly monopolized the sugar trade. Twenty-nine firms, producing seven out of every eight tons of sugar exported from the Islands, refined, markets and distributed through the Big Five’s wholly owned California and Hawaiian Sugar Company, whose refinery, the largest in the world, was on San Francisco Bay. (Kent)

They branched out into other businesses. To squeeze additional profits out of the sugar trade, they started their own refinery in California; it was to become the largest in the world. They built up a fleet of ships, the Matson line, to carry the sugar away and to bring back goods and passengers.

They developed inter-island shipping, built hotels, put capital into insurance, cattle, pineapples, banking. They took over bodily the wholesaling of goods coming into the Islands; ninety percent of retail stock came from their warehouses.

Their capital started the public utilities. Their street railway transported Hawaiians, their gas and electric plants lighted the city, they acquired the communications systems. (MacDonald)

The sugar industry was the prime force in transforming Hawaiʻi from a traditional, insular, agrarian and debt‐ridden society into a multicultural, cosmopolitan and prosperous one. (Carol Wilcox)

With statehood in 1959 and the almost simultaneous introduction of passenger jet airplanes, the tourist industry began to grow rapidly.

The industry came to maturity by the turn of the century; the industry peaked in the 1930s. Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar. (That plummeted to 492,000-tons in 1995.)

A majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s. As sugar declined, tourism took its place – and far surpassed it. Like many other societies, Hawaii underwent a profound transformation from an agrarian to a service economy.

There were a couple other associated entities that were associated with the Big 5” Dillingham (Benjamin Franklin Dillingham) and Campbell (James Campbell) and their associated companies.

Click HERE to view/download for more information on Hawai‘i’s Big 5 (plus 2).

© 2021 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownersh
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownersh
Alexander & Baldwin-logo
Alexander & Baldwin-logo
Alexander & Baldwin Building-PP-7-4-006-00001
Alexander & Baldwin Building-PP-7-4-006-00001
Amfac-logo
Amfac-logo
American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-019-00001
American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-019-00001
C Brewer-logo
C Brewer-logo
Brewer Building-Burlingame-SB
Brewer Building-Burlingame-SB
Castle & Cooke-logo
Castle & Cooke-logo
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-008-00001
Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-008-00001
Theo Davies-logo
Theo Davies-logo
Theo. H. Davies Co., Bishop St-PP-8-3-010-00001
Theo. H. Davies Co., Bishop St-PP-8-3-010-00001
James_Campbell_Building-(Williams, Adamson)-1967
James_Campbell_Building-(Williams, Adamson)-1967
Dillingham Transportation Building-PP-8-4-003-00001
Dillingham Transportation Building-PP-8-4-003-00001

Filed Under: Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: American Factors, Dillingham, Castle and Cooke, Hawaii, James Campbell, Big 5, Alexander and Baldwin, Theo H Davies, C Brewer, Amfac

May 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Downtown Honolulu In 1950

A picture is worth a thousand words; they (and maps) tell stories. This map tells lots of stories … and brings back some great memories.

OK, I wasn’t even born when the map was printed. But a few years later, when I was a kid, there are a lot of familiar places (and associated stories) depicted on this map.

Take some time looking at the ownership and operations up and down the streets. There have been lots of changes since then – but the memories are still here.

Back then, Bishop only went to Beretania – with no further mauka extension (it finally popped through and extended/ connected to the Pali Highway and became the windward gateway into “Town.”)
Bishop Street was the home of the Big 5. Bishop Street was and continues to be the center of Hawai‘i commerce and banking (in the center of the map, running up/down.)

Did you notice their placement on Bishop Street (and to each other) back then (as well as the battling banks across Bishop Street from each other?)

Five major companies emerged to provide operations, marketing, supplies and other services for the plantations and eventually came to own and manage most of them. They became known as the Big 5:

  • Amfac (1849) – Hackfeld & Company – a German firm that later became American Factors Ltd (Amfac.) It was started by a young German selling goods to whalers and grew to manage and control various sugar operations.
  • Alexander & Baldwin (1870) – started by Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of missionaries. It was the only Big 5 that started in sugar. Their irrigation project sent water 17-miles from Haleakala to 3,000-dry sugar cane acres in central Maui.
  • Theo H. Davies (1845) – a British firm that started as a small isle trading company and expanded into other businesses including sugar, transportation and insurance.
  • Castle & Cooke (1851) – founded by missionaries (Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke,) which originally sold sewing machines, farm tools and medicine in Hawaii. It later bought stock in sugar plantations and focused on sugar companies.
  • C. Brewer – (1826) founded by James Hunnewell, an officer on the Thaddeus that brought the original missionaries to Hawai‘i in 1820. He returned in 1826 to set up a trading company specialized in supplying whaling ships but then moved into sugar and molasses. The firm’s namesake, Capt. Charles Brewer, became a partner in 1836.

Another Hawai‘i family and company, Dillingham, started in the late-1800s, although not a “Big Five,” deserves some attention – it’s offices were down there, too (next to the Big 5.)

They played a critical role in agricultural operations through leasing land and controlling some operations, but mostly moved the various goods on OR&L.

Back in the ‘50s, Fort Street was “it” for shopping (to the left of Bishop Street, also running mauka/makai – now, it’s mostly a pedestrian mall.)

You can read the names of old Honolulu retail iconic institutions – Liberty House, McInerny, Watumull and Andrade – along with Kress, Woolworths, National Dollar and Longs Drugs.

I remember the “moving windows” during Christmas season; we’d pile in the station wagon and take a special trip over the Pali to downtown to Christmas shop (the Pali Tunnels and Ala Moana Center weren’t open until 1959.)

We’d walk up and down Fort Street and look at all the animated window displays, then stop in at a restaurant for dinner (one of our favorites was Fisherman’s Wharf at Kewalo Basin.)

‘Iolani Palace is on the site labeled Territorial Executive Grounds (we’re still nine years away from statehood;) mauka of it had different uses – it’s now the State Capitol and Hotel Street walkway.

The YWCA (just to the left of ‘Iolani Palace) is still going strong and nearby was the YMCA, now converted to the Hawai‘i State Art Museum and state offices.

The Alexander Young Hotel, opened in 1903 (on Bishop between Hotel and King,) was later converted hold offices and was demolished in 1981.

You can see some roads have changed or have been consolidated into adjoining properties. Did you notice, back then, Ala Moana/Nimitz on the map was called Queen Street?

In my early years in real estate (while still a student at UH, I used to do research in the Tax Office and Bureau of Conveyances (lower right of map.) Fifty-years later, I directed DLNR which now has the Bureau of Conveyances under its management umbrella.

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Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950
Bishop Street ended at Beretania in 1959
American Factors Building was demolishe
American Factors Building was demolishe
Amfac-Building-corner-of-Fort-Queen-Streets
Amfac-Building-corner-of-Fort-Queen-Streets
Theo H Davies Building-1920s
Theo H Davies Building-1920s
Queen-Street-view-of-C.-Brewer-Building
Queen-Street-view-of-C.-Brewer-Building
c brewer & co ltd
c brewer & co ltd
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
Alexander&Baldwin-Building
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)
Dillingham_Transportation_Building
Dillingham_Transportation_Building
Queens_Hospital-1954
Queens_Hospital-1954
Schuman Carriage-corner of Beretania and Richards-the entire block was torn down to build the State Capitol Building-1950s
Schuman Carriage-corner of Beretania and Richards-the entire block was torn down to build the State Capitol Building-1950s
McInerny
McInerny
Alexander Young Building
Alexander Young Building
Honolulu Iron Works 1960. Today it is the location of Restaurant Row.
Honolulu Iron Works 1960. Today it is the location of Restaurant Row.
Honolulu Harbor-1950s
Honolulu Harbor-1950s
Fort Street looking mauka from King street-11-08-59
Fort Street looking mauka from King street-11-08-59
Downtown Honolulu in 1956. McInerny on the left, and the overhead lines are for trolley buses
Downtown Honolulu in 1956. McInerny on the left, and the overhead lines are for trolley buses
Bishop_Street-1954
Bishop_Street-1954
Bishop_Street_Looking_Makai-Dillingham_Transportation_Bldg-1940
Bishop_Street_Looking_Makai-Dillingham_Transportation_Bldg-1940
Honolulu_Harbor-Downtown-aerial-1950s
Honolulu_Harbor-Downtown-aerial-1950s
Downtown_Honolulu-1957
Downtown_Honolulu-1957
Honolulu and Vicinity-Transit-Map-1949
Honolulu and Vicinity-Transit-Map-1949
Honolulu-HVB-map-1952
Honolulu-HVB-map-1952

Filed Under: General, Buildings, Economy Tagged With: Dillingham, Castle and Cooke, Hawaii, Honolulu, Downtown Honolulu, Alexander and Baldwin, Theo H Davies, C Brewer, Amfac, Bishop Street

June 4, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Hunnewell

“James Hunnewell was early associated with the commercial interests of these islands, and his long and useful life was marked by such constant goodwill to my kingdom, That I shall always cherish his memory with sincere regard.”

“Although he was only removed in the fulness of time, I deeply sympathize with you in the loss of such a parent, but I congratulate you in the inheritance of such an honored name.” (King Kamehameha IV to Hunnewell’s son)

His Early Life

“A distinctly adventurous Boston group with which the Frothinghams intermarried was the Hunnewell family. Like the Frothinghams, the Hunnewells had much to do with Charlestown. … ‘Hunnewell’s Point’ on the western shore of the Kennebec River, not far south of Bath, Maine, was named. This ‘Point’ was the site of Lieutenant Richard Hunnewell’s garrison at the time of Benjamin Church’s expeditions against the Indians.” (Crawford)

“James Hunnewell was the youngest but one of the seven children of William and Sarah, and he it is who justifies our description of the Hunnewells as ‘adventurous.’ Before his time none of the family had been interested in a seafaring life, but he studied navigation with the distinct intention of journeying to distant countries”. (Crawford)

“As a boy, he was bright and active, of slight figure; at the age of fifteen years, when he first went to sea, weighing but ninety pounds. He was offered attractive situations in stores, but his decided predilection was for the sea.”

“His purpose to go to sea, however, was not prompted by a desire to be free from the parental restraints and the influences of home. He was not a wild, reckless youth, of a roving disposition. On the contrary, his affection for home and kindred was singularly strong.” (Seamen’s Friend)

Going to Sea

‘In early life, although none of my relatives, on either my father’s or mother’s side, had ever been to sea, I had a strong desire for a seafaring life, and, more than any other way, enjoyed being on board boats and vessels.’ (Hunnewell)

“In October, 1816, he started on his first voyage to the Pacific. On that voyage he visited California and the Sandwich Islands, and was absent from home two years.”

“(I)t was urged by some of the chiefs that knew me on my previous voyage that I should remain instead of a stranger to trade with them.” (Hunnewell) He traded his boat and cargo for sandalwood, “We were the only traders on shore at Honolulu that had any goods to sell.” There was no currency at the time, so they generally traded for sandalwood. (Hunnewell, The Friend)

Hawai‘i Business Interests – the Foundation for the Formation of C Brewer

“During his first residence at the Islands, he had formed the determination to establish there an independent commercial house”. (Seamen’s Friend)

The company Hunnewell formed in the Island’s had a lasting legacy. The following are the various names which the firm was known: James Hunnewell, Hunnewell & Peirce, Peirce & Hinckley, Peirce & Brewer, C Brewer & Co, SH Williams & Co, C Brewer 2d, C Brewer & Co Ltd. (The Friend, January 1, 1867)

It eventually became C Brewer & Co., Ltd., incorporated on Feb. 7, 1883. The company grew, as did a handful of others. They became known as the Big 5: Amfac – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Alexander & Baldwin (1870;) Theo H. Davies (1845;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and C Brewer (1826.)

Hunnewell and the Hawaiian Islands Mission

“In October (23), 1819, he embarked on his second voyage to the Pacific, in the noted brig Thaddeus, of which he was an officer, and which vessel and her cargo were the first in which he had an interest as owner. This voyage of the brig Thaddeus will be memorable through all coming time …”

“Although he and they did not have the same purpose in visiting those distant islands, yet, it is not strange, he seems to have caught something of their spirit; for from that time until the close of his life, the missionaries and the cause of missions in the islands, found in him a faithful and sympathizing friend, an untiring, efficient and ready helper.” (Seamen’s Friend)

“March 30, 1820 – Let us thank God and take courage. Early this morning the long looked for Owahyee and the cloud capt and snow spt Mauna Keah appear full in view to the joy of the animated multitude on board …”

“… Capt. B. (Blanchard) this afternoon sent off a boat to make inquiries respecting the king &c. Mr. Hunnewell, a mate, Thos. Hopoo, J. Tamoree and others, went nearly to the shore and fell in with 10 or 12 native fishermen in their canoes who readily gave the important information that the aged King Tameamaah is dead – that Reehoreeho his son succeeds him – that the images of his Gods are burned …” (Thaddeus Journal)

“It was Mr. Hunnewell’s privilege to hear from the lips of Hewahewa, the last High Priest of the old idolatrous system, an account of the causes which induced the destruction of idolatry.”

“He says: ‘This Chief told me he knew the wooden gods could not send rain, or cause food to grow, or send fish, or take care of the old men and women, and he knew there was but one great God dwelling in the heaven; and that in this persuasion he cautiously conversed with the King, Kamehameha II., when he found the King was of the same belief with himself.’”

“And, adds Mr. Hunnewell, ‘I had the pleasure of bringing from the shore to the mission the glad tidings that Hawaii’s idols were no more.’” (Seamen’s Friend, October, 1869)

Click HERE for more information on James Hunnewell.

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Captain James Hunnewell-(MissionHouses)
Captain James Hunnewell-(MissionHouses)

Filed Under: Economy, Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Big 5, Thaddeus, C Brewer, James Hunnewell, Hawaii, Missionaries

October 24, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Onomea Sugar

Onomea Plantation was started in 1863 by Judge Stafford L Austin and EH Allen. Austin “was the eldest of three sons of an attorney who was a self-made man, and who rose from the ranks of the laboring men, of Buffalo, New York.” (Judd, Supreme Court)

“Two brothers followed him to this country and left honorable records on the pages of Island history. Benjamin Hale Austin … was one of the Associate Judges of the Supreme Court, and Jonathan Austin was for a short time one of the Ministers of State under the late monarchy.” (Friend, October 1, 1896)

“(Austin) came to this country in 1852, he being then only 27 years of age, and was admitted to the Bar of the highest Court here.” He later became a Circuit Court Judge.

“As regards the matter of the various improvements, transportation of the cane in flumes, which had its origin in Hilo, I think he may well be said to have been one of the most enterprising and intelligent of the planters.” Onomea Plantation had a reputation for being one of the most advanced and best-equipped estates in Hawaii during its time.

“He worked hard and intelligently to make his plantation, the Onomea plantation a success.” (Judd, Supreme Court) During the early days, Onomea’s crushing plant was water driven. A metal water wheel and boiler had been shipped from Glasgow, Scotland in 1862.

Water from the flumes provided the power to turn the wheel, which in turn moved the sugar cane crusher. The water-driven crushing plant was much larger and heavier than those of other mills. The mill was situated just below Pāpaʻikou at the foot of a gulch, which opened out to the ocean.

It was the first nine-roller mill erected on the island. The mill was connected by rail to one of the best landings and loading devices on the coast.

The sugar cars were hauled to the landing by a cable and sugar could be sent over the main cable to the hold of a ship without rehandling. By means of this device about 1,600 bags of sugar could be loaded in an hour.

In 1888, Onomea consolidated with Paukaʻa, and Pāpaʻikou plantations and was reorganized into the Onomea Sugar Company. (Pāpaʻikou Plantation was originally owned by Charles Whetmore and EG Hitchcock and Paukaʻa Plantation was owned by Jonathan Austin.)

Onomea Sugar Company was situated in the Hilo district on the Island of Hawaii. The plantation property extended along the ocean front a distance of six miles and was at one point three miles deep terminating at the forests.

The elevation ranged from 20 to 1,500 feet. The rainfall in the vicinity was extremely heavy, from 200-250 inches per year, so no irrigation was required.

Water from Honolii, Pahoihoe, Kapue, Kaieie, Hanawi, Kahalii, Kawai-Nui and Waiaama streams was used for fluming and electrical power. Onomea was probably one of the most beautiful plantations with its abundance of streams, waterfalls, forests, ferns, and tropical plants.

A distinctive feature of Onomea was its system of flumes, which spanned gorges and carried cane down the slopes to the mill. Fifty-five miles of stationary and portable flumes were constructed.

The trestle, which carried the main flume across Hanawainui Gulch, was the largest wooden bridge in the territory and the one spanning Kawainui Gulch was the highest, 176 feet.

Onomea’s location in a heavy rainfall belt made it difficult to mechanize cane harvesting and transportation easily. The heavy rainfall also tended to wash topsoil away and leach it out. Onomea was the first Hawaiian sugar plantation to use commercial fertilizer on its fields.

Later on efforts to protects Onomea’s topsoils resulted in the invention of a plow which was adapted to the peculiar topography of the county and the nature of the soil. The shallow, clay-like soils were subject to washing unless properly cultivated.

Onomea was one of the last plantations to stop hand cutting cane. However, progress was made and the extensive road building program begun in 1903 was finally completed in 1956.

Onomea developed into one of Hawaii’s major producers of sugar cane. By 1926, the plantation had grown from 300 acres to 27,427 acres. Since it owned most of the land, its future was not dependent on the favorable extension of leases.

Onomea employed workers who came from China, Japan, Portugal, Philippines, Puerto Rico, and other countries. By 1941, over 3,000 men, women and children were living in six villages on the plantation.

There were 450 company owned houses, which included garden space. Free medical services were also provided. The advent of the labor unions also helped to improve the working conditions of the workers.

After World War II, the company experienced financial problems due to labor scarcity and later to high wage raises. During the course of time, C. Brewer & Co. had acquired controlling interest in the company.

In May of 1965, a proposal was made to merge Onomea Sugar Co. and Hilo Sugar Co. into a single C. Brewer subsidiary to be called Mauna Kea Sugar Co. The goal was to achieve greater operating efficiency and cost savings.

On July 26, 1965, the two companies were merged and the new Mauna Kea Sugar Co. became the third largest in acreage (13,000 acres) on the Big Island. (Lots of information here is from HSPA Plantation Archives – UH.)

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Onomea sugar plantation, Hamakua Coast, Hawaii Island-PP-28-11-008-1935
Onomea sugar plantation, Hamakua Coast, Hawaii Island-PP-28-11-008-1935
Onomea Bay-1920s
Onomea Bay-1920s
Onomea-Mill
Onomea-Mill
Onomea Landing, Onomea, Hawaii Island-PP-30-5-018
Onomea Landing, Onomea, Hawaii Island-PP-30-5-018
Onomea Bay-PP-30-5-012-1930
Onomea Bay-PP-30-5-012-1930
Onomea Sugar Company Laborer's Village Standard House-UH
Onomea Sugar Company Laborer’s Village Standard House-UH
Flume above Onomea, Hawaii island-PP-30-5-019
Flume above Onomea, Hawaii island-PP-30-5-019
Onomea-Arch-with-flume-in-foreground-PP-30-5-030-1935
Onomea-Arch-with-flume-in-foreground-PP-30-5-030-1935

Filed Under: General, Place Names, Economy Tagged With: Onomea Sugar, Stafford L Austin, EH Allen, Mauna Kea Sugar, Hawaii, Hilo, C Brewer, Onomea

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