C Brewer | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 23, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Peter Cushman Jones

Peter Cushman Jones was born in Boston on December 10, 1837; his father was Peter Cushman Jones, a Boston merchant, and his mother, Jane (Baldwin) Jones.

Young Jones was sent to the Boston Latin School and to “Bakers” School, in preparation for Harvard, but the lure of business was too strong, and as a young man he went to work as an office boy (at a salary of $50 a year.)

Led by an adventurous instinct, he set sail for Hawaiʻi, landing in the Islands on October 2, 1857 on the ship ‘John Gilpin.’

On the day of his arrival, as he passed up Fort Street jingling his 16-cents in his pocket, Henry P Carter, a clerk in C Brewer & Co, remarked, “Another Boston young man come to town to seek his fortune. We had better give him $10,000 and send him home again.” (Story of Hawaiʻi)

Jones and Carter later became fast friends and close business associates for 20 years at Brewer. Interestingly, Jones worked his way to the presidency of C Brewer & Co.

In 1892, with his son, Edwin A Jones, he formed a partnership under the name of The Hawaiian Safe Deposit and Investment Co., which has since become the Hawaiian Trust Co.

It was in 1893 that Jones, a 60-year-old businessman, persuaded close friends Joseph Ballard Atherton and Charles Montague Cooke to join him in organizing a new bank in the Islands. Four years later on December 27, 1897, Bank of Hawaiʻi became the first chartered and incorporated bank to do business in the Republic of Hawaiʻi.

The charter was issued by James A King, Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Hawaiʻi, and signed by Sanford Ballard Dole, president of the Republic. Bank of Hawaiʻi operated its first office from a two-story wooden building in downtown Honolulu. (BOH)

But all was not business for Jones; strongly religious, he served for years as a member of various church boards, a deacon of Central Union Church, president of the Board of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association and director of the YMCA.

Jones gave money for the establishment of the Portuguese Mission, and built the Pālama Chapel, which later grew to become Pālama Settlement, where social welfare work of every nature is still carried on.

A call into political activities came early in his career.

“I never cared for politics although I have always felt it my duty since I became a voter, to cast my vote for those I believed to be the best men, and at all times during the reign of Kalākaua, I felt that it was safe to vote against his followers.” (Jones, LDS-org)

He was sent to Washington, DC, as the bearer of dispatches from the kingdom having to do with the final signing of the Reciprocity Treaty, which gave Hawaiʻi free trade with the United States.

On November 8, 1892, Queen Liliʻuokalani appointed him Minister of Finance. He was a member of the Wilcox-Jones cabinet until January 12, 1893.

(That cabinet resisted the distillery, lottery, and opium bills, and was dismissed on January 12, 1893 when a Noble of the Reform Party switched allegiance, allowing the Queen to dismiss the cabinet that was preventing her from passing those bills.)

Mr. Jones was an influential figure in the revolution and served on the executive and advisory council of the provisional government.

He helped take over the government building including the treasury and financial records. All four of the Queen’s cabinet ministers came to the government building and agreed to turn over the station house and barracks to the Provisional Government. (Morgan Report)

In testimony in the Morgan Report, Jones stated, “It took about ten minutes to read the proclamation of the Provisional Government, which was read from the steps of the government building facing the Palace. During that 10 minutes about 50-60 armed men supporting the revolution arrived. Within 30 minutes there were 150-200 armed men. The reading of the proclamation finished at 2:45 on January 17.”

When later questioned about these events, “Senator Frye asked. ‘You were at the Government building frequently. Did you ever see, during this revolution, any of the American soldiers marching on the streets?’ Mr. Jones. ‘No.’”

“The Chairman. ‘Did you, as a member of the new Government, expect to receive any assistance from them?’ Mr. Jones. ‘No.’ The Chairman. ‘Do you know whether or not your fellows were looking for any help?’ Mr. Jones. ‘I never knew that they were.’ Senator Frye. ‘As a matter of fact, did they give any assistance to the revolution at all?’ Mr. Jones. ‘No’.”

“The Chairman. ‘Let me ask you right there, is it your belief that that revolution would have occurred if the Boston had not arrived in the harbor?’ Mr. Jones. ‘I believe it would have gone on just the same if she had been away from the islands altogether.’” (Morgan Report)

Jones served briefly as Minister of Finance in the Provisional government. However, “The strain of office and my utter unfitness for the high position caused me to entirely break down, and that with the sudden death of my only son Edwin on July 10, 1898, made me unfit for business for several years, culminating in a severe sickness in November 1902, and it was not until 1906 that I felt like assuming any responsibility.” (Jones; LDS)

On February 26, 1902 Peter Cushman Jones, Ltd leased the vacant lot it owned at Merchant and Alakea Streets to Joseph William Podmore (a former English sailor who opened his own firm for insurance, shipping, commission and as agent for others, and, a real estate investor.) He built the Podmore Building.

Jones later acquired the building and donated it to the Hawaiian Board of Missions for use as a permanent home. It was later used by the Advertiser Publishing Co. Ltd who published the Honolulu Advertiser there until 1928.

Jones Street, near University and Oʻahu was named for Peter Cushman Jones. The name was changed when a prospective renter of a fine house on this street said: “I’ll not live in Honolulu on Jones Street!” The landlady got busy with a petition and had the name changed to Alaula Way (Way of the Dawn.) (Clark)

Peter Cushman Jones died in Honolulu on April 23, 1922 at the age of 84.

September 28, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William G Irwin

William G Irwin was born in England in 1843; he was the son of James and Mary Irwin. His father, a paymaster in the ordnance department of the British army, sailed with his family for California with a cargo of merchandise immediately after the discovery of gold in 1849. The family then came to Hawaiʻi.

Irwin attended Punahou School and as a young man was employed at different times by Aldrich, Walker & Co.; Lewers & Dickson; and Walker, Allen & Co.

In 1880, he and Claus Spreckels formed the firm WG Irwin & Co; for many years it was the leading sugar agency in the kingdom and the one originally used by the West Maui Sugar Association.

In 1884, the firm took over as agent for Olowalu Company. William G. Irwin and Claus Spreckels constituted the partnership in the firm, which maintained offices in Honolulu. The role of the agent had greatly expanded by this time.

William G Irwin and Company acted as a sales agent for Olowalu’s sugar crop as previous agents had done. It also was purchasing agent for plantation equipment and supplies and represented Olowalu with the Hawaiian Board of Immigration to bring in immigrant laborers.

In addition, Irwin and Company acted as an agent for the Spreckels-controlled Oceanic Steamship Company and required, for a time, that Olowalu’s sugar be shipped to the Spreckels-controlled Western Sugar Refinery in San Francisco by the Oceanic Line.

In 1885, Irwin and Spreckels opened the bank of Claus Spreckels & Co., later incorporated under the name of Bank of Honolulu, Ltd., that later merged with the Bank of Bishop & Co.

In 1886, Mr. Irwin married Mrs. Fannie Holladay. Their only child, Hélène Irwin, was married to industrialist Paul Fagan of San Francisco.

A close friend of King Kalākaua, Irwin was decorated by the King and was a member of the Privy Council of Hawaiʻi in 1887.

In 1896, the Legislature of the Republic of Hawaiʻi put Kapiʻolani Park and its management under the Honolulu Park Commission; William G Irwin was the first chair of the commission.

In 1901 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government in recognition of his services as Hawaiʻi’s representative to the Paris Exposition.

By 1909, William G Irwin and Company’s fortunes had declined and, reaching retirement age, Irwin reluctantly decided to close the business. In January 1910, the firm of William G. Irwin and Company merged with its former rival C. Brewer and Company.

Irwin moved to San Francisco in 1909 and served as president and chairman of the board of the Mercantile Trust Company, which eventually merged with Wells Fargo Bank.

In 1913, Mr. Irwin incorporated his estate in San Francisco under the name of the William G. Irwin Estate Co., which maintained large holdings in Hawaiian plantations. He had extensive business interests in California, as well as in Hawaiʻi, and was actively associated with the Mercantile National Bank of San Francisco in later years.

William G Irwin died in San Francisco, January 28, 1914.

Irwin had a CW Dickey-designed home makai of Kapiʻolani Park. In 1921, the Territorial Legislature authorized the issuance of bonds for the construction, on the former Irwin property, of a memorial dedicated to the men and women of Hawaiʻi who served in World War I. It’s where the Waikīkī Natatorium War Memorial now sits.

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project, introduced by Governor Lucius E Pinkham and the Board of Harbor Commissioners in 1916, was declared to be the “most important project ever handled in Honolulu Harbor.”

The project began in 1916 with the construction of new docks; it continued in 1924 with the construction of Aloha Tower as a gateway landmark heralding ship arrivals.

On September 3, 1930, the Territory of Hawaiʻi entered into an agreement with Hélène Irwin Fagan and Honolulu Construction and Draying, Ltd. (HC&D), whereby HC&D sold some property to Fagan, who then donated it to the Territory with the stipulation that the property honor her father and that it be maintained as a “public park to beautify the entrance to Honolulu Harbor.”

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project was completed in 1934 with the creation of a 2-acre oasis shaded by the canopies of monkeypod trees (shading a parking lot;) Irwin Memorial Park is located mauka of the Aloha Tower Marketplace bounded by North Nimitz Highway, Fort Street, Bishop Street and Aloha Tower Drive.

The William G Irwin Charity Foundation was founded in 1919 by the will of his wife to support “charitable uses, including medical research and other scientific uses, designed to promote or improve the physical condition of mankind in the Hawaiian Islands or the State of California.” The 2010 Foundation report for the Foundation indicated its value at over $100-million.

Among other activities, it funds the William G Irwin Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine, which was created with gifts from the William G Irwin Charity Foundation of San Francisco, and, with a transfer of funds in 2003, the Hélène Irwin Fagan Chair in Cardiology at the Stanford School of Medicine.

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.

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).

Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownersh

Alexander & Baldwin-logo

Alexander & Baldwin Building-PP-7-4-006-00001

Amfac-logo

American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-019-00001

C Brewer-logo

Brewer Building-Burlingame-SB

Castle & Cooke-logo

Castle_&_Cooke-PP-8-1-008-00001

Theo Davies-logo

Theo. H. Davies Co., Bishop St-PP-8-3-010-00001

James_Campbell_Building-(Williams, Adamson)-1967

Dillingham Transportation Building-PP-8-4-003-00001

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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