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August 28, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kauai Coffee

The first reference to an attempt to cultivate coffee in Hawai’i was made by the Spaniard, Don Francisco de Paula y Marin, who recorded in his journal dated January 21, 1813, that he had planted coffee seedlings on the island of O’ahu. Evidently his planting was not successful.

When H.M.S. Blonde was bringing the bodies of Liholiho and Kamāmalu, they stopped in Rio de Janeiro Brazil and brought 30 live coffee plants in May, 1825, this introduction was referred to as the first successful introduction of coffee plants into Hawai’i, with an additional remark that ‘if the plant had been introduced before, it had become extinct.’

These live coffee seedlings were brought by John Wilkinson, an Englishman who was commissioned by Governor Boki of O‘ahu to develop and supervise a plantation type of farming in Hawai’i. (Goto)

In 1842, to encourage the production of coffee, the government enacted a law to allow payment of land taxes in coffee as well as in pigs, which had been the common tax payment up to that time. The Act also imposed a three percent duty on all foreign coffee imported into the Kingdom. (This tax was increased to five percent in 1845.)

Response to the government’s policy of encouraging coffee growing was good. Small areas of coffee were planted wherever possible, even in remote and neglected ravines and valleys on O‘ahu, Maui and Hawai‘i. But it was on Kauai where the most impressive development took place.

Godfrey Rhodes, an Englishman, and John Bernard, a Frenchman, started the first large-scale coffee plantations in the beautiful valley of Hanalei. Eventually, when Titcomb also moved to Hanalei, the plantations in the valley became a continuous planting of a thousand acres of coffee trees. (Goto)

“This was a new industry for Kauai, although coffee berries had been brought to Honolulu from Brazil in 1825 on the British frigate Blonde, and a few plants had then been started in Mānoa Valley on Oahu.”

“Four or five years later the missionaries at Hilo and other planters in Kona on the island of Hawaii had begun to grow coffee around their houses, but it was from the original source in Manoa Valley that the seed and young were obtained for Hanalei.”

In October of 1845, Godfrey Rhodes and John von Pfister formed a partnership. By 1846, the Rhodes and Company Coffee Plantation covered seven hundred and fifty acres, so that the two plantations counted over one hundred thousand trees and “a great part of the valley, at least to the extent of a thousand acres, was under cultivation in coffee at this time.” (Damon)

But after a promising start a series of misfortunes in the next decade doomed the Hanalei coffee enterprises.

The first major set-back came in 1846 when, through lack of planning, a shortage of coffee pickers to harvest that year’s huge crop caused a disastrous financial loss.

“In May, 1847, just as the trees were in good condition of full bearing, they had “severe rains for two weeks which did much damage to the valley, flooding the coffee plantations.”

“Masses of rock, trees and earth were loosened and carried by force of water, crushing several hundred trees and doing much other damage.”

“Recovering from this pullback another difficulty was met with the following year by the California gold fever, rendering labor scarcer and dearer.” (Thrum)

Left behind were the aged and crippled, who took advantage of the labor shortage and demanded wages as high as five dollars a day.

The year 1852 was the beginning of the end of the coffee plantations at Hanalei. The drought-weakened coffee trees were attacked by the white scale and its companion, the black fungus smut, which lives on the secretion of the scale.

At that time, there were no control measures for the infestation and the damage continued unabated, spreading throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

In 1856, Rhodes and his associates finally sold their interest in the coffee plantations to RC Wyllie, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom. He abandoned the entire coffee planting of Hanalei and planted the land in sugar cane.

Ultimately, others shifted their interest from coffee to the more secure sugar industry. By 1860, coffee literally disappeared from Kauai and the decline continued in the other islands in the Kingdom. Sugar took its place. (Goto)

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Godfrey Rhodes and his daughter-TGI
Godfrey Rhodes and his daughter-TGI

Filed Under: Place Names, Economy, General Tagged With: Hawaii, Kauai, Hanalei, Coffee, Godfrey Rhodes, John Bernard

December 7, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Charles Hall

In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson arrived in Hawai‘i on the frigate Blonde; on the way from England, they stopped in Brazil where he obtained coffee seedlings.

They first landed in Hilo and left some coffee there. Wilkinson went on Oahu and is noted for starting the first commercial coffee in the Islands in Mānoa.

Coffee was planted in Mānoa Valley in the vicinity of the present UH-Mānoa campus; from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of O‘ahu and neighbor islands.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings of the same kind of coffee from Hilo and brought them to Kona. Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) later described the region in his Letters from Hawaiʻi …

“The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

“Mr Hall (was) among the first and oldest coffee growers and (his) brands were considered the best.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 13, 1866) Farming in Hokukano, near Kainaliu, Kona in the 1830s, he took a risk and planted fifty acres of coffee. (Teves)

“Some 4 or 5 miles beyond Keauhou I reached Mr Hall’s place where he has an extensive coffee plantation. His thatched house or rather houses is pleasantly located among beautiful shade trees, among them the Pride of India, Kukui, &c &c.”

“He has many thousand coffee trees & after 5 years labor is beginning to find it profitable. He has a native wife & a family of several children.”

“His wife is a daughter of Mr Rice of Kailua. Mr R[ice] was formerly intemperate & his family was left to go to ruin. This daughter was particularly vicious. On his reformation from intemperance he set about the reformation & discipline of his family.”

“This daughter, before he could bring her to submission to his authority he was obliged to keep chained by the ankle in his house for some 3 months; at last she gave up & the effect on her subsequent life was very salutary.” (Lyman)

While he later was a coffee farmer, in 1834, Hall was still practicing his trade of carpentry and was also hunting bullocks, so he was familiar with the mountain. (Greenwell)

Hall “is an American & has spent many years on the Island, has been employed in beef-catching & is familiar with the mountainous regions.”

It was then that naturalist David Douglas (for whom the Douglas fir tree was named), On July 12, 1834, while exploring the Island; “Douglas, a scientific traveller from Scotland, in the service of the London Horticultural Society, lost his life in the mountains of Hawaii, in a pitfall, being gored and trampled to death by a wild bullock captured there. (Bingham)

“When the death of Douglass was known at Hilo (Hall) was sent by the Missionaries to the pit to gather information. There had been a heavy rain the day before he reached the place & all tracks &c were obliterated.” (Lyman)

Some have suggested it was not an accident. “(T)he dead body of the distinguished Scottish naturalist, Douglas, was found under painfully suspicious circumstances, that led many to believe he had been murdered for his money.” (Coan)

“Hall says that he saw Douglass have a large purse of money which he took to be gold. None of any consequence was found after his death.” (Lyman) “Mr. Hall says he has no doubt in his own mind that Douglas was murdered”. (Fullard-Leo)

Hall, a native of Virginia, died at his residence at Kainaliu on March 19, 1880 at the age of 69 year. “He had resided on these lslands for over fifty years, having arrived here in 1829, as a seaman on board an American ship.”

“He was carpenter by trade, and soon got employment with the chiefs. He married the daughter of small chief at Pahoehoe, North Kona, and after her death, he married Hannah, the daughter of the late Samuel Rice, Gov Kuakini’s black-smith, who survives him and by whom he had large family of children, seven of whom are now living.”

“Up to an advanced age and until he was crippled by an accident, Mr Hall was ‘a mighty hunter’ of wild cattle on the mountains of Hawaii, and could outwalk most men of half his years. He was kind and affectionate husband and father and good neighbor. (The Friend, May 1880)

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Coffee
Coffee

Filed Under: General, Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Kona, Kona Coffee, Coffee, David Douglas, Charles Hall

October 31, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Pohoiki

Early settlement patterns in the Islands put people on the windward sides of the islands, typically along the shoreline. However, in Puna, much of the district’s coastal areas have thin soils and there are no good deep water harbors. The ocean along the Puna coast is often rough and windblown.

As a result, settlement patterns in Puna tend to be dispersed and without major population centers. Villages in Puna tended to be spread out over larger areas and often are inland, and away from the coast, where the soil is better for agriculture. (Escott)

This was confirmed on William Ellis’ travel around the island in the early 1800s, “Hitherto we had travelled close to the sea-shore, in order to visit the most populous villages in the districts through which we had passed.”

“But here receiving information that we should find more inhabitants a few miles inland, than nearer the sea, we thought it best to direct our course towards the mountains.” (Ellis, 1826)

Dry land farming was practiced in coastal Puna during the late prehistoric and early historic period. Table-land areas aong the lower slopes of Hawaii Island were used for cultivation of un-irrigated taro, sweet potatoes, yams, bananas, breadfruit, olona, sugarcane and wauke (paper mulberry.) (Lantinis)

“The whole population of this section of the country was by the wayside, which gave me an opportunity of judging of their number; this is much larger than might be supposed from the condition of the country, for with the exception of the point at Kapoho, very little ground that can be cultivated is to be seen.”

“The country, however, is considered fruitful by those who are acquainted with it, notwithstanding its barren appearance on the road sides. The inhabitants seemed to have abundance of bread-fruit, bananas, sugar-cane, taro, and sweet-potatoes.”

“The latter, however, are seen to be growing literally among heaps of stones and pieces of lava, with scarcely soil enough to cover them; yet they are, I am informed, the finest on the island.”

“At Puna, there is a large church; but no appearance of a village, the houses being much scattered. The church, it is said, will contain two or three thousand persons.” (Wilkes, 1845)

“Our stopping place for the night was at Pohoiki (‘small depression’) … The natives bro’t us the Ki or Ti root baked. It is very sweet and juicy. There are fine groves of cocoa nut trees and the situation of a hamlet on an inlet of the sea is very pleasant.” (Chester Lyman, 1846)

In August of 1878, Robert Henry Rycroft stated that he made improvements to the Pohoiki landing and wanted to buy property here. The original landing was destroyed by a tsunami in August 1885. (DLNR)

The improvements to Pohoiki landing allowed the Puna Sugar Company to ship in their seed cane to Kapoho around 1898. The landing was the only means of transportation. The railroad and roads from Hilo came later. (Red Road CMP)

“This district presents some features which are well worth the exertion which the traveler will have to make in order to see them. The general appearance from the road is sterile, especially in the southern part, where there are considerable tracts covered with lava rock supporting the scantiest of vegetation.”

“Some eighteen miles from Hilo the country begins to improve, and away from the main road, upon the slopes of the mountain, there are many acres of excellent land, suitable for coffee and fruit growing.”

“The south-eastern part of Puna has some celebrity for its groves of coconuts, the trees being more abundant here than in any other part of the islands. The traces of volcanic action are extremely prominent in this district.”

“The tourist who plans to go through Puna, should obtain letters for either Kapoho or Pohoiki, where the first night would be spent … A number of coffee planters have located in this vicinity, and groves of coffee trees may be seen every few miles.” (Whitney, 1895)

In the Puna District in 1880, Hawaiians maintained small-scale traditional farms, and other settlers invested in commercial properties like coffee plantations on approximately three dozen land grants. (ORNL)

Rycroft constructed a coffee mill in 1891 to process the coffee then being planted in Puna. One serious difficulty of coffee growing was that it required a large work force only when the coffee was to be picked. Keeping men employed when not picking coffee was a serious economic drain on the fledgling industry. (Matsuoka, ORNL)

However, for some unknown reason, the coffee boom ended in 1899, leaving the mill basically without a product to process. Then, probably, the Rycrofts had to find an alternate crop to process in the new coffee mill.

Presumably, then, the Rycroft guava business in Puna was started in about 1900 to use the coffee mill, and possibly was abandoned after 1910.

Rycroft and his son, Walter, should be credited with the first commercial production of guava at Pohoiki in Puna; they produced guava jam and jelly in the ‘coffee mill.’ (Shigemura & Bulloock)

The Pohoiki area has remained mostly undeveloped except for the 23-year period of commercial development under Robert Rycroft. Rycroft’s ventures between 1877 and 1899 included ‘awa, cattle, sawmill, coffee and guava. The Pohoiki commercial activity appears to have ended when Rycroft moved to Honolulu in 1899. (DLNR)

This area was used as a whaling port and was always a fishing village. Many families in the area would contribute to the sharing of fish with other families. It has been said that if you even touched the canoe you would get some fish.

Old fishing practices included using the canoes. One practice that is documented in this area is opelu fishing. The families would take out the canoe and feed the opelu koʻa (house) with the ʻopae ula (red shrimp.) This was done to ensure that there was always fish and the fish were well taken care of. The families of these areas were subsistence fisherman.

Pohoiki is a small 1,000-foot long bay located approximately three miles south of Kapoho. During the thirties fewer canoes went out to catch opelu. Eventually a boat ramp was constructed at Pohoiki and the canoes were replaced by motorboats. (Matsuoka, ORNL)

By 1940, the wharf at Pohoiki had been abandoned as a commercial stop, but the bay was used as a canoe landing by local fishermen. (Clark)

World War II had a profound effect on Hawai’i. In Puna, those who remained behind were made to fear a Japanese invasion by sea. The coastline were watched and guarded by soldiers stationed, in the Kalapana area.

There were 100 to 150 soldiers stationed in Kalapana and they were rotated every three months. Some camped in tents on Kaimu beach and Kalapana beach, some lived in the school cafeteria, and others in the gym and the priest’s house at the Catholic Church.

Other forms of subsistence production continued after the war, such as pole-fishing from shore, gathering limu and opihi, and crab and raising stock. Hunting of wild pigs remained an important source of meat. Native plants were gathered for herbal teas and medicine. (Matsuoka, ORNL)

Here is the “Isaac Kepoʻokalani Hale Beach Park.” It was established in 1951 to honor Isaac Hale who was a soldier killed in the Korean War.

Traditional fishing practices started to dissipate in the 1950s with the introduction of fishing boats. Families began to start fishing with boats during these times. (Red Road CMP)

During the 1950s, boating traffic from outside the area began to increase substantially as commercial and recreational fishers began buying smaller boats that could be trailered to parts of the Island. (Clark)

Pohoiki Warm Spring is a natural hot pond in the jungle near a popular Pohoiki surfing beach. It’s a couple hundred yards from the Park to the pool, which is only about 20 yards from the ocean.

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across-pohoiki-400
across-pohoiki-400
Pohoiki-aerial
Pohoiki-aerial
Pohoiki_ramp
Pohoiki_ramp
Rycroft Pohoiki guava mill-CTAHR
Rycroft Pohoiki guava mill-CTAHR
Rycroft Coffee (Guava) Mill- Pohoiki-Bertram
Rycroft Coffee (Guava) Mill- Pohoiki-Bertram
pohoiki-warm pond
pohoiki-warm pond
August 7, 2014 - Pohoiki, Hawaii: A spectator watches Hurricane Iselle generated surf pound the Puna shoreline at Pohoiki this afternoon. Waves were ranging in 10-12 foot range and increasing.
August 7, 2014 – Pohoiki, Hawaii: A spectator watches Hurricane Iselle generated surf pound the Puna shoreline at Pohoiki this afternoon. Waves were ranging in 10-12 foot range and increasing.
Pohoiki-GoogleEarth
Pohoiki-GoogleEarth

Filed Under: General, Place Names, Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: Guava, Hawaii, Puna, Coffee, Robert Rycroft, Pohoiki

August 26, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mānoa – Home of Hawai‘i’s Commercial Agricultural Ventures

Mānoa translates as “wide or vast” and is descriptive of the wide valley that makes up the inland portion of the ahupuaʻa of Waikiki. The existence of heiau and trails leading to/from Honolulu indicate it was an important and frequently traversed land.

Mānoa Valley was a favored spot of the Ali‘i, including Kamehameha I, Chief Boki (Governor of O‘ahu), Ka‘ahumanu, Ha‘alilio (an advisor to King Kamehameha III), Princess Victoria, Kana‘ina (father of King Lunalilo), Lunalilo, Ke‘elikōlani (half-sister of Kamehameha IV) and Queen Lili‘uokalani.

In early times Mānoa Valley was socially divided into “Mānoa-Aliʻi” or “royal Mānoa” on the west, and “Mānoa-Kanaka” or “commoners’ (makaʻāinana) Mānoa” on the east. The Ali‘i lived on the high, cooler western (left) slopes; the commoners lived on the warmer eastern (right) slopes and on the valley floor where they farmed.

Mānoa is watered by five streams that merge into the lower Mānoa Stream: ‘Aihualama (lit. eat the fruit of the lama tree), Waihī (lit. trickling water), Nāniu‘apo (lit. the grasped coconuts), Lua‘alaea (lit. pit [of] red earth) and Waiakeakua (lit. water provided by a god). (Cultural Surveys)

In 1792, Captain George Vancouver described Mānoa Valley on a hike from Waikīkī in search of drinking water: “We found the land in a high state of cultivation, mostly under immediate crops of taro; and abounding with a variety of wild fowl chiefly of the duck kind … “

“The sides of the hills, which were in some distance, seemed rocky and barren; the intermediate vallies, which were all inhabited, produced some large trees and made a pleasing appearance. The plains, however, if we may judge from the labour bestowed on their cultivation, seem to afford the principal proportion of the different vegetable productions …” (Edinburgh Gazetteer)

The well-watered, fertile and relatively level lands of Mānoa Valley supported extensive wet taro cultivation well into the twentieth century. Handy and Handy estimated that in 1931 “there were still about 100 terraces in which wet taro was planted, although these represented less than a tenth of the area that was once planted by Hawaiians.” (Cultural Surveys)

“(T)he valley is under almost complete cultivation of taro”. “(T)he whole valley opens out to view, the extensive flat area set out in taro, looking like a huge checker-board, with its symetrical emerald squares in the middle ground.” (Thrum, 1892)

In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson, who in his younger years had been a planter in the West Indies, arrived at Honolulu on the frigate Blonde. He had made some arrangement with Governor Boki, while the latter was in England, to go out and engage in cultivating sugar cane … and, probably, rum. (Kuykendall)

Although sugar cane had grown in Hawaiʻi for many centuries, its commercial cultivation for the production of sugar did not occur until 1825. In that year, Wilkinson and Boki started a plantation in Mānoa Valley. Within six months they had seven acres of cane growing and processing. The sugar mill was later converted into a distillery for rum. (Schmitt)

Over the years, sugar‐cane farming soon proved to be the only available crop that could be grown profitably under the severe conditions imposed upon plants grown on the lands which were available for cultivation. (HSPA 1947)

At the industry’s peak a little over a century later (1930s,) Hawaii’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.

The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures. Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix.

Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places on the globe. And remember, commercial-scale sugar production started in Mānoa.

That was not the only plantation-scale agriculture started in Mānoa. In 1885, John Kidwell started a pineapple farm with locally available plants, but their fruit was of poor quality. That prompted him to search for better cultivars; he later imported 12 ‘Smooth Cayenne’ plants.

An additional 1,000 plants were obtained from Jamaica in 1886, and an additional 31 cultivars, including ‘Smooth Cayenne’, were imported from various locations around the world. ‘Smooth Cayenne’ was reported to be the best of the introductions.

Kidwell is credited with starting Hawai‘i’s pineapple industry; after his initial planting, others soon realized the potential of growing pineapples in Hawaii and consequently, started their own pineapple plantations.

The “development of the (Hawaiian) pineapple industry is founded on his selection of the Smooth Cayenne variety and on his conviction that the future lay in the canned product, rather than in shipping the fruit in the green state.” (Canning Trade; Hawkins)

The commercial Hawaiian pineapple canning industry began in 1889 when Kidwell’s business associate, John Emmeluth, a Honolulu hardware merchant and plumber, produced commercial quantities of canned pineapple.

Emmeluth refined his pineapple canning process between 1889 and 1891, and around 1891 packed and shipped 50 dozen cans of pineapple to Boston, 80 dozen to New York, and 250 dozen to San Francisco.

By 1930 Hawai‘i led the world in the production of canned pineapple and had the world’s largest canneries. And remember, the first commercial cultivation of pineapple and subsequent canning of pineapple started in Mānoa.

Other smaller scale agriculture activities across the Islands also started in Mānoa. Wilkinson, noted for starting commercial sugar in Mānoa, also started commercial coffee in the Islands in Mānoa Valley.

Coffee was planted in Mānoa Valley in the vicinity of the present UH-Mānoa campus; from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of O‘ahu and neighbor islands.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings of the same kind of coffee from Hilo and brought them to Kona. Henry Nicholas Greenwell grew and marketed coffee and is recognized for putting “Kona Coffee” on the world markets.

At Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (World Exhibition in Vienna, Austria (1873,)) Greenwell was awarded a “Recognition Diploma” for his Kona Coffee. (Greenwell Farms)

Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) seemed to concur with this when he noted in his Letters from Hawaiʻi, “The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

By the 1930s there were more than 1,000 farms and, as late as the 1950s, there were 6,000-acres of coffee in Kona. The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaiʻi. And remember, ‘Kona Coffee’ was the same as that in Mānoa Valley.

Another commercial crop, macadamia nuts, also has its Island roots in Mānoa. Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaiʻi in 1882 by William Purvis; he planted them in Kapulena on the Hāmākua Coast. A second introduction into Hawaii was made in 1892 by Robert and Edward Jordan who planted the trees at the former’s home in Nuʻuanu Honolulu. (Storey)

“Brought in ‘solely as an addition to the natural beauty of Paradise’ (Hawaiian Annual, 1940,) it was not until ES (Ernest Sheldon) Van Tassel started some plantings at Nutridge in 1921 that the commercial growing of the plant began. On June 1, 1922, the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company Ltd. was formed.” (NPS)

The Van Tassel plantings were at ʻUalakaʻa on a grassy hillside of former pasture land (what we call Round Top on the western slopes of Mānoa Valley.)

Mo‘olelo (Hawaiian stories) indicate that Pu‘u ‘Ualaka‘a was a favored locality for sweet potato cultivation and King Kamehameha I established his personal sweet potato plantation here. ‘Pu‘u translates as “hill” and ‘ualaka‘a means “rolling sweet potato”, so named for the steepness of the terrain.

In order to stimulate interest in macadamia culture, beginning January 1, 1927, a Territorial law exempted properties in the Territory, used solely for the culture or production of macadamia nuts, from taxation for a period of 5 years.

In just over 10-years (1933,) “the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company has about 7,000 trees in its groves at Keauhou, Kona District, Hawaii, which are now coming into profitable bearing. The company has also approximately 2,000 trees growing and producing in the Nutridge grove on Round Top, Honolulu, or a total of 9,000 trees.” (Mid-Pacific, October 1933)

Macadamia nut candies became commercially available a few years later. Two well-known confectioners, Ellen Dye Candies and the Alexander Young Hotel candy shop, began making and selling chocolate-covered macadamia nuts in the middle or late 1930s. Another early maker was Hawaiian Candies & Nuts Ltd., established in 1939 and originators of the Menehune Mac brand. (Schmitt)

In 1962, MacFarms established one of the world’s largest single macadamia nut orchards with approximately 3,900-acres on the South Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

Today, about 570 growers farm 17,000 acres of macadamia trees, producing 40 million pounds of in-shell nuts, valued at over $30 million. Additionally, nuts are imported from South Africa and Australia, who currently lead the world market, with Hawai‘i at #3. (hawnnut) And remember, commercial cultivation of macadamia nut’s started at Mānoa.

One last thing, Mānoa was home to the Islands’ first dairy; William Harrison Rice started it at what was then O‘ahu College (now Punahou School.) Later, Woodlawn Dairy was the Islands’ largest dairy (1879.)

As you can see, what became significant commercial-scale agricultural ventures in the Islands – Sugar, Pineapple, Coffee and Macadamia Nuts – all had their start in the Islands, in Mānoa.

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Manoa_Valley_from_Waikiki,_oil_on_canvas_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry_Jr.-1860s
Manoa_Valley_from_Waikiki,_oil_on_canvas_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry_Jr.-1860s
Taro Lo'i Agriculture in Mānoa Valley-(UH_Heritage)-ca_1890
Taro Lo’i Agriculture in Mānoa Valley-(UH_Heritage)-ca_1890
Manoa_valley-BM
Manoa_valley-BM
Manoa-back of valley
Manoa-back of valley
Manoa-Lantana and Kiawe-PP-59-6-006
Manoa-Lantana and Kiawe-PP-59-6-006
Buggies on Mt. Tantalus, Honolulu, 1900s.
Buggies on Mt. Tantalus, Honolulu, 1900s.
Old Manoa Valley-1924
Old Manoa Valley-1924
Manoa-PP-59-6-001-00001
Manoa-PP-59-6-001-00001
Manoa-PP-1-4-024
Manoa-PP-1-4-024
Workers loading sugar cane-1905-BM
Workers loading sugar cane-1905-BM
Chinese_contract_laborers_on_a_sugar_plantation_in_19th_century_Hawaii
Chinese_contract_laborers_on_a_sugar_plantation_in_19th_century_Hawaii
Pineapple_1900
Pineapple_1900
Hawaiian Pineapple Company Canning Lines, Honolulu, O‘ahu, 1958
Hawaiian Pineapple Company Canning Lines, Honolulu, O‘ahu, 1958
Coffee
Coffee
Coffee
Coffee
Nutridge-Van_Tassel_Tantalus Home-HonoluluMagazine
Nutridge-Van_Tassel_Tantalus Home-HonoluluMagazine

Filed Under: General, Place Names, Economy, Prominent People Tagged With: John Emmeluth, Sugar, John Wilkinson, Kona Coffee, Samuel Ruggles, Coffee, Pineapple, Manoa, Macadamia Nuts, Ernest Sheldon Van Tassel, Hawaii, John Kidwell, Oahu

September 27, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Rycroft

Robert Henry Rycroft (April 27, 1843 – February 3, 1909) emigrated to the United States from Leeds, England, when he was 16 years old. After serving 16 months in the U.S. Cavalry during the Civil War, he arrived in Honolulu.

He first went to work in the Honolulu Iron Works and afterwards went into the plumbing business, which was his profession. He was also proprietor of the Fountain restaurant and Temperance saloon on Fort Street in an old one story frame building

Failing in the restaurant and saloon business on Fort Street in Honolulu he went to Brisbane, Australia, to establish an ice works and was nearly successful in establishing his system on steamers to carry frozen mutton to Europe.

“(H)e erected an ice machine at Brisbane, which was the first ammonia machine there using a pump to compress the gas. After remaining, there about two years he returned to Honolulu and soon after removed to the Island of Hawaii in 1877.”

“There he went into the ‘awa shipping business. The trade in ‘awa at that time was so large that many tons were handled each year, much of it going to foreign ports, mostly to the United States, for medical purposes.”

“About the year 1881 Mr. Rycroft went into the cattle business, having purchased the Pohoiki and Keahialeka tracts in Puna, Hawaii, containing about nine thousand acres.”

“He also erected a large saw mill at Pohoiki and furnished the Government with all of the hard wood used in the public works. He also furnished the wood supply of Honolulu for several years by the Allen & Robinson line of schooners. The ties of the O. R. & L. Co. came from this mill.”

“Soon after things were running smoothly Mr. Rycroft again branched out and was one of the first, if not the very first, who went into the systematic cultivation of coffee, upon a large scale.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 9, 1900)

Rycroft launched a boom in coffee production during the late 19th century; between 1896 and 1906, most of the 300 land grants made to speculators were for coffee.

In the Puna District in 1880, Hawaiians maintained small-scale traditional farms, and other settlers invested in commercial properties like coffee plantations on approximately three dozen land grants. (ORNL)

He constructed a coffee mill in 1891 to process the coffee then being planted in Puna. However, for some unknown reason, the coffee boom ended in 1899, leaving the mill basically without a product to process. Then, probably, the Rycrofts had to find an alternate crop to process in the new coffee mill.

Presumably, then, the Rycroft guava business in Puna was started in about 1900 to use the coffee mill, and possibly was abandoned after 1910.

Rycroft and his son, Walter, should be credited with the first commercial production of guava at Pohoiki in Puna; they produced guava jam and jelly in the ‘coffee mill.’ (Shigemura & Bulloock)

Rycroft also funded improvements at Pohoiki Landing to support his commercial ventures, although the original landing was destroyed by a tsunami in August 1885. (DLNR)

The Pohoiki area has remained mostly undeveloped except for the 23-year period of commercial development under Robert Rycroft. Rycroft’s ventures between 1877 and 1899 included ‘awa, cattle, sawmill, coffee and guava. The Pohoiki commercial activity appears to have ended when Rycroft moved to Honolulu in 1899. (DLNR)

When he sold out in 1899 he had in lower Puna sixty-five acres and in Ola‘a 170 acres of bearing coffee. This venture, however, did not prove as profitable as most of Mr. Rycroft’s enterprises. Messrs. H. Hackfeld & Co purchased his Olaa property.

“Last year upon the formation of the Puna Sugar Co. an offer was made Mr. Rycroft for his 9,000 acres of land in lower Puna and he determined to sell out and remove to Honolulu.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 9, 1900)

Rycroft returned to Honolulu in 1899, starting the Fountain Soda Works. “Since coming to Honolulu Mr. Rycroft has purchased six lots in the old base ball ground, where he is now erecting a fine residence, which will be competed as rapidly as the work can be done.”

“Mr. Rycroft will go into business in Honolulu and will become a permanent resident. He has not as yet thoroughly settled upon his future plans, but will make his debut in business circles in the near future.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 9, 1900)

For some years his eldest son conducted the soda business (in the vicinity of what is now Rycroft Street) while Rycroft attended to his investments in general. (Hawaiian Star, February 3, 1909)

“Robert Rycroft, one of the oldest residents of the Hawaiian Islands, died of heart trouble early this morning at his home on Wilder avenue. He leaves a wife, three sons, Henry, Mark and Walter, and two daughters Sophia and Gladys. Mrs. Rycroft is a sister of AN Campbell, Treasurer of Hawaii, and was married to Mr. Rycroft in 1872.” (Hawaiian Star, February 3, 1909)

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Rycroft Coffee (Guava) Mill- Pohoiki-Bertram
Rycroft Coffee (Guava) Mill- Pohoiki-Bertram
Rycroft Pohoiki guava mill-CTAHR
Rycroft Pohoiki guava mill-CTAHR
Puna_District-DAGS-1808-1893-portion
Puna_District-DAGS-1808-1893-portion
Puna-DAGS_Reg2191-Cooke-1902-portion-noting Rycroft
Puna-DAGS_Reg2191-Cooke-1902-portion-noting Rycroft
Rycroft guava jar-CTAHR
Rycroft guava jar-CTAHR
Rycroft-Fountain Mineral & Soda Works-Ad-PCA-Sep_28,_1901
Rycroft-Fountain Mineral & Soda Works-Ad-PCA-Sep_28,_1901
Rycroft-ginger beer bottle
Rycroft-ginger beer bottle
Rycroft-ginger beer bottle
Rycroft-ginger beer bottle
Rycroft-seltzer bottle
Rycroft-seltzer bottle
Robert Rycroft-CTAHR
Robert Rycroft-CTAHR
Walter Rycroft-CTAHR
Walter Rycroft-CTAHR

Filed Under: Economy, Place Names, Prominent People Tagged With: Coffee, Hawaii Invasive Species Council, Robert Rycroft, Pohoiki, Guava, Hawaii, Puna

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