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January 9, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Henry Poor

Henry French Poor was the eldest son of Henry Francis Poor and Caroline Paakaiulaula Bush; he was born here June 8, [1857].

“Poor received his early education under Mr. Gulick, Sr., father of the late Charles T. Gulick of Honolulu. He afterwards attended Punahou College, at that time under the direction of Professor Church.”

“He left school, however, at the age of 13 and entered the banking house of Bishop & Co. as a clerk, where he remained about eight years.”

“At that time, owing to ill health, Mr. Poor first visited the United States, where he spent some three months. When he returned to Honolulu he entered the mercantile house of Castle & Cooke.”

“At this time he was selected by the Government to act as secretary to Hon. C P. Iaukea, the head of the Hawaiian Embassy to the coronation of Alexander III of Russia.”

“Continuing from there he made a tour of the world, visiting the greater part of Europe, India, Japan, Egypt, the United States and England and meeting many great personages there. His visit to India was immediately connected with the question of securing a labor supply for the plantations of Hawaii.” (PCA, Nov 29, 1899)

“Henry F Poor was one of the most brilliant Hawaiians whose cradle ever rocked in these beautiful Islands.  … He possessed the generous spirit of his race and the keen intelligence of his New England’s forebears.”

“As secretary to Colonel Iaukea on the Kalakaua embassy to the rulers of the world he covered himself with honors and his bright letters were published in the local papers.” (The Independent, Nov 29, 1899)

“While abroad Mr. Poor received several foreign decorations, among which were the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan, the Order of Simon Bolivar of South America, an Austrian and a Russian order and several others. He also held the Hawaiian Order of Crown of Hawaii and Order of Kapiolani.” (PCA, Nov 29, 1899)

“Later on he went to Samoa with Governor Bush and to his tact and gentlemanly action was due the fact that the Kaimiloa incident did not end in an international scandal.” (The Independent, Nov 29, 1899)

“In 1887 [Kaimiloa] was purchased by King Kalakaua, and after being fitted up as a man-of-war, was sent on a mission to Samoa. This mission was a failure …”

“King Kalakaua had just returned from a trip around the world. Sundry people, at all the places he stopped filled him with hot air, and he wanted to be emperor of the Pacific. On his return to Honolulu he promptly set about the work of trying to get control of all the islands which had not yet been seized by European rulers.”

“[Kalakaua’s] Prime Minister, Gibson, induced him to fit out the Kaimiloa as a war ship and send it on a diplomatic mission to Samoa, where Ambassador ‘Ned’ Bush was instructed to either annex the place or induce the King of Samoa to make a treaty acknowledging that Kalakaua was the supreme ruler of a Pacific Island confederacy.”

“On board the warship was ‘Admiral’ Jackson, Ambassador Bush, Henry Poor, secretary of the legation, a big crew, an enormous quantity of gin, a band, and plenty of the King’s dreamy ideas of a Pacific confederacy.”

“To this day the mystery of how the vessel ever reached Samoa has not been solved, and it is a wonder that she ever got there at all, for gin and other drink never flowed freer on a private craft than it did on the Kaimiloa. …”

“Then wild with the dissipation or the voyage, the crew mutinied, and capturing Secretary Poor, chained him to the deck.”    (PCA Aug 8, 1902)


“The officers and crew of the Kaimiloa began to go ashore almost nightly to carouse in the streets of Apia. One night gunner William Cox, on returning to the ship, got into a fight with other officers.”

“He rushed the powder magazine, threatening to blow up the ship. Lt. Frank J. Waiau and ship’s carpenter John Galway stopped him, but the brawling went on. Lt. Sam I. Maikai, nominally in command, went ashore with Waiau to report to the Hawaiian legation.”

“They wanted to resign but Bush would not hear of it. He ordered them back on board and sent along his secretary, H. F. Poor. Jackson also went along with them. He and Poor, revolvers in hand, found the mutineers trying to take over the armory.

“They drove the mutineers out on deck. Waiau over-powered Cox and put him in irons on the bridge.” (Adler)

“The German warship Olga was in the harbor at the time, and her captain, noticing the row on the Hawaiian vessel, sent a longboat over … and threatened to tow the whole outfit bark to Hawaii unless the trouble subsided. …”

“On arrival [back in Honolulu] here [Kaimiloa] was dismantled, and never again used for war purposes. No one knows how many sins were committed aboard the vessel while trading in the South Seas, but many people have heard something of the story of her remarkable cruise as a man-of-war to Samoa.”   (PCA Aug 8, 1902)

Poor hosted Robert Louis Stevenson on his visit to the Islands.  On January 24, 1889, Stevenson arrived in Honolulu and spent the first six months of that year in the Hawaiian Islands (he later settled and lived in Samoa.)

“For the first few days the Stevenson party stayed with Henry Poor and his mother Mrs Caroline Bush, at 40 Queen Emma Street, Honolulu (24-27 January).”

“Then on 27 January 1889 they moved to Poor’s bungalow, Manuia Lanai, at Waikiki, three miles east of Honolulu.  In early February Stevenson decided to send the Casco back to San Francisco and stay on to work in Hawaii.”

“As a result he rented the house next to Henry Poor’s. This too was a one-storey ‘rambling house or set of houses’ in a garden, centred on a lanai, ‘an open room or summer parlour, partly surrounded with venetian shutters, in part quite open, which is the living room’”.  (RLS Website)

Henry French Poor died in Honolulu on November 28, 1899 and is buried at O‘ahu Cemetery.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Hawaii, Kaimiloa, Robert Louis Stevenson, Curtis Iaukea, Henry Poor, Manuia Lanai

June 5, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Curtis P ʻIaukea

No, not Curtis “Da Bull” ʻIaukea (professional wrestler in the 1960s-70s;) this story is about that guy’s great grandfather, Curtis Piʻehu ʻIaukea, born December 13, 1855, at Waimea, Hawaiʻi.  He is the son of JW and Lahapa (Nalanipo) ʻIaukea.  His father was district magistrate of Hāmākua for many years, and the family was well known on the Big Island.

ʻIaukea was reared in Honolulu under the direction of his uncle, Kaihupaʻa, an old-time retainer of the chiefs and a personal attendant to King Kamehameha III.

He was raised at the former Chief’s Children’s School (the school, started in 1840, had been given up in 1850 and used as the home for retainers of the royal family.)   As Kamehameha III’s retainer, Kaihupaʻa lived there and ʻIaukea was reared to also serve as retainer of royalty.

“The place was known as Halepoepoe, (meaning circular or round house) so-called because of the quadrangle or court forming the central portion of the building.”  (ʻIaukea)

“Of the more vivid and enduring of my boyhood impressions, I recall the days when, as a bare footed urchin of five and six, I used to romp around the Palace Grounds, dancing attendance on royalty in the role of page and valet to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Hawaiʻi – Ka Haku-o-Hawaiʻi (Prince Albert, son of Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma,) as he was more familiarly known amongst royalty and Hawaiians, then, well on in his fourth year and in the full enjoyment of health and happy childhood.” (ʻIaukea)

As a ward of the government, ʻIaukea was educated under Archdeacon Mason of the Anglican Church in Hawaii at ʻIolani College, then directed by the Church of England.

In 1872, upon the death of King Kamehameha V, who had sent Mr. ʻIaukea to Lāhainā to learn sugar operations, he went to Hilo to live with his sister. It was there that King Kalākaua, on royal tour of the islands, saw the young man and commanded him to resume his place at the royal palace.  In 1880 Mr. ʻIaukea was chief secretary of the department of foreign affairs.

“One of the most accomplished of the younger Hawaiians, Colonel Curtis Piʻehu ʻIaukea, was on his way around the world as a special envoy on what may be described as a good will mission, to keep alive or reawaken the pleasant feeling brought into being by King Kalākaua’s journey, and to perform certain special diplomatic errands; he was to go first to the United States and Europe, thence to Egypt, India, and, finally, Japan, where he was expected to arrive at the end of 1883 or the early part of 1884. One of his errands was to investigate in London and India the possibilities for Indian immigration.”  (Kuykendall)

Specific duties entrusted to ʻIaukea were: (1) to represent Hawaiʻi at the coronation of the czar of Russia; (2) to serve as Hawaiʻi’s commissioner to the Great International Fisheries Exhibition in London; (3) to negotiate regarding immigration to Hawaiʻi from British India, the Philippine Islands and Japan; (4) to attend to the exchange of decorations between the king of Hawaiʻi and the rulers of several other countries; (5) to deliver commissions to persons selected by him to serve as Hawaiian consuls in several designated areas.

His mission in Japan resulted in the admission of Japanese laborers to the sugar plantations of Hawaiʻi.  Although a formal treaty was not established, Japanese leadership stated they would not block immigration to Hawaiʻi.  (Japan was facing a major economic recession and discontent among farmers in Japan; Japanese leadership felt giving the workers the option of going to Hawaiʻi might relieve some of the domestic stress.)

ʻIaukea has a long list of service to the Monarchy and later the Republic of Hawaiʻi.  A few of his assignments included, Colonel on the King’s personal staff and Tax Collector, 1878; Collector General of Customs, 1884; King’s private secretary, 1886; Chamberlain and Crown Land Agent and Commissioner, 1886; in charge royal party to Queen Victoria’s jubilee, 1887; to London with Embassy from Republic of Hawaii to Diamond Jubilee Queen Victoria, 1897; accompanied President and Mrs. Dole to Washington, as secretary and attaché, 1898; elected County Sheriff, 1906; elected Territorial Senator, 1912; appointed Secretary, Territory of Hawaii, 1917; and acting Governor, 1919.

As chamberlain, he had the distinction of taking charge of the royal party attending the jubilee of Queen Victoria of England in 1887, the party included Queen Kapiʻolani, Princess Liliʻuokalani, Governor Dominis and others; en route, the party visited President and Mrs. Cleveland at the White House.

Ten years later, ʻIaukea went to London with the embassy from the Republic of Hawaiʻi to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, and in 1898 he accompanied President and Mrs. Dole to Washington, DC, as secretary and military attaché.

Among the many orders and foreign distinctions that have been conferred upon him are the grand cross and cordon of St. Stanislaus, conferred by the emperor of Russia on the occasion of the coronation in 1883; officer of the French Legion of Honor, conferred by Pres. Grevy of the Republic of France; grand officer’s cross of the crown of Italy; rand cross and ribbon of the Order of Takovo; jubilee and diamond jubilee medals of Queen “Victoria; grand officer of the Order of Rising Sun of Japan; knight commander of the Swedish Order of St. Olaf, and all of the Hawaiian orders and decorations instituted by King Kalākaua during the monarchy.  (Derby)

His service in Hawaiʻi spanned through several monarchs and thereafter served in a number of republic and territorial positions.  Curtis P ʻIaukea died in 1940.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Curtis Iaukea, Iaukea

November 13, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hanks

Nancy Hanks was born on February 5, 1784 in Hampshire County, Virginia (now Mineral County, West Virginia). By the time she was nine years old, she was orphaned and living in what would become the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

As Nancy grew into womanhood she was employed as a seamstress. It was there that she came to know Thomas Lincoln who was employed as a carpenter.

Thomas lived on a neighboring farm, and, over the years, their friendship grew into something more; they eventually married on June 12, 1806.

The union would produce three children, Sarah, born on February 10, 1807, Abraham, born on February 12, 1809, and Thomas Jr., who died in infancy.

During the first ten years of their marriage, Thomas and Nancy occupied three different farms in Kentucky, but boundary disputes caused them to lose all three.

Thomas finally decided to move his family to Indiana. In the winter of 1816, they settled in present-day Spencer County in what became known as the Little Pigeon community.

After spending the winter in a temporary shelter, Thomas and young Abraham built a sturdy log cabin. In addition to the hard work, life on the frontier often included tragedy as well. They were not immune to the many hazards that threatened all pioneers in the 19th century.

The autumn frosts of 1818 had already colored the foliage of the huge trees of oak, hickory and walnut when neighbors became desperately ill, stricken with the dreaded milk sickness.

The disease resulted when cows ate the white snakeroot plant and the poison from the plant contaminated the milk. People who drank this poisoned milk or ate its products faced death. On October 5, 1818, within two weeks of the first symptoms, Nancy died (Abraham was nine).

Death in a one-room log cabin was a grim experience for the survivors. Nancy’s body was prepared for burial in the very room in which the family lived. Thomas and nine-year old Abraham whipsawed logs into planks, and with wooden pegs they fastened the boards together into a coffin. (NPS)

Abraham married Mary Todd, and they had four boys, only one of whom lived to maturity. In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator. He lost the election, but in debating with Douglas he gained a national reputation.

He won the Republican nomination for President in 1860 and swept the north and was elected president. He was sworn in as the 16th President of the US on March 4, 1861.

On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who somehow thought he was helping the South. (White House)

Relatives of Abraham Lincoln, on his mother’s side (Nancy Hanks), made it to the Islands.

Frederick Leslie Hanks, a New Yorker, was a sailor in the Pacific who recorded some of the important state relations between Japan and the United States in the 1840s. (Iaukea) He became active in Hawaiian affairs during the 1850s. (Hawaiian Church Chronicle, 1939)

His daughter was Charlotte Kahaloipua Hanks. “Her maternal grandfather was Kekualaula and her grand uncle Keawaaua, high chiefs of the islands of Hawai‘i and O‘ahu. Her mother was Akini Wahinekapuokaahumanu.”

Charlotte “was a prominent figure in the picturesque era of the monarchy of Hawai‘i. … On April 7, 1877, she was married to Col. Iaukea, then in the office of the chamberlain of the kingdom.”

“Col Iaukea became adjutant general of King Kalakaua’s army and later become chamberlain and special envoy from the kingdom of Hawai‘i to various European and oriental countries.”

“She naturally spent most of her time at court and was a lady in waiting to Queen Kapiolani, consort of Kalakaua. She was created a knight companion of Kapiolani and also received the Royal Order of Takovo of Serbia.”

“She was closely associated with Queen Lili‘uokalani and after the dethronement and until the death of the former queen was her loyal and devoted friend.”

“She was a member of the Daughters of Hawai‘i and one of her many interests was the Kapiolani maternity hospital.” (Hawaiian Church Chronicle, 1939) Charlotte Kahaloipua Hanks Iaukea, related to Abraham Lincoln, died November 17, 1939.

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Charlotte_K._Hanks_(PP-73-3-022)
Charlotte_K._Hanks_(PP-73-3-022)
Iaukea Headstone
Iaukea Headstone

Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Kapiolani, Abraham Lincoln, Curtis Iaukea, Nancy Hanks, Charlotte Iaukea, Charlotte Kahaloipua Hanks Iaukea

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