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January 9, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Courthouse

Up to late-1840s, the Judiciary found quarters in other people’s houses.

At the end of 1846 the King’s Privy Council resolved to authorize funds and have Governor Kekūanāoʻa’s stone house within the old fort of Honolulu “be turned into a court house for the foreign judges and Hopkins’ house for a district court house, said houses however to be put in good condition.” Back then this was at the water’s edge.

An act to organize the judiciary department of the Hawaiian Islands was passed in September, 1847. It set up a superior court and otherwise assembled the machinery of law and order.

Beginning early in 1851, as a combined courthouse and jail, work was soon halted “on account of the depth of water found upon the foundation rock, which rendered it impracticable to proceed.”

When work was recommenced in June, the jail had been dropped and the plans for the new building called only for one that would “serve the purposes of the Legislative Assembly, as well as for holding the Courts.”

In October, sixty prisoners were used to cut coral blocks for the Courthouse. One night while staying in houses near their work place (in order to take advantage of a low tide very early in the morning,) forty men overpowered the guards and seized the gun batteries overlooking Honolulu.

Loaded cannon were trained on prominent buildings. But the prisoners lacked fire to set off the pieces. The prisoners were captured and order was restored in the morning.

On July 5, 1852, the superior court of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi met for the first time. At the time, it was the second largest building in the kingdom and served concurrently as a courthouse, parliament house and civic center.

Judge Lee opened the session of the superior court with an address in which he asked those in attendance to “pause a moment, as we meet for the first time in this temple dedicated to justice, and reflect upon our duties as lawyers, as jurors, and as judges.”

In concluding his address, Judge Lee referred briefly to the new courthouse: “I well remember when I landed on these shores, now nearly six years ago, the court met in an old grass house, floored with mats, without benches, seats or comforts of any kind …”

“… with one corner partitioned off with calico, for judge’s office, clerk’s office, police court, and jury room, standing on the very ground where now stands this substantial edifice erected at a cost of upwards of forty thousand dollars, and which would do credit to any land.”

He continued, “Justice in a grass house is as precious as justice in one of coral, but no one can fail to agree with me, that the latter with all its comforts and conveniences is greatly to be preferred, inasmuch as it tends to promote that dignity and propriety of manners so essential to secure a proper respect for the law and its administration.”

“May this Hall ever be the temple of Justice – may its wall ever echo with the accents of truth – may its high roof ever look down upon us in the faithful discharge of our duties — and may the blessing of Him who builded the Heavens and whose throne is the fountain of all justice ever rest upon us.”

When the court house was built, the city gained a new and bigger set of public rooms. The result was that the chambers dedicated to the government’s judicial and legislative processes were the scene of a variety of private and community functions.

In addition to its official function as a courthouse and legislative hall, the building was frequently used for public meetings. The congregation of the Second Foreign Church of Honolulu announced it would use the new court house for its services.

Among the more colorful events to be held at the courthouse were the festivities given during the reign of King Kamehameha IV. On November 13, 1856, the Chinese merchants of Honolulu and Lāhaina combined to give a grand ball to their majesties King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, in honor of their recent marriage.

Almost the last official action to take place in the courthouse was the special session of legislature, called for February 12, 1874, to elect a successor to King Lunalilo, who had died without having designated an heir to the throne.

Lunalilo himself had been elected king in this building on January 8, 1873, after Kamehameha V died without issue and without having proclaimed an heir on December 11 of the preceding year.

In accordance with the provisions of the constitution in cases where the previous occupant of the throne failed to nominate or proclaim a successor, the cabinet of the late king called a meeting of the legislative assembly to “elect by ballot some native alii of the kingdom as successor to the throne.” Such a meeting was ordered by the cabinet for noon Feb. 12.

With the Court and Legislative functions in the old Courthouse ended, the regular session of the legislature for 1874 met on April 30, 1874 in the legislative hall of the new government building – Aliʻiolani Hale.

The old Courthouse was advertised for sale at auction in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of May 9, 1874. The courthouse property was sold to H. Hackfeld & Co., predecessor of American Factors, Ltd. (AmFac – one of Hawaiʻi’s Big Five,) at the upset price of $20,000. As reported by the Hawaiian Gazette, “It is the best business stand in Honolulu.”

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Filed Under: Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Honolulu, Downtown Honolulu, Old Courthouse, Hackfeld, Amfac

September 21, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Germans

The first Oktoberfest, held from October 12–October 17, 1810 in Munich, was to celebrate the occasion of the wedding of Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen.

Because of its success, it was repeated annually, later also with an agricultural fair, dance, music and amusement rides. The Germans call it “die Wiesn.”

Largely due to coincidence, the festival now generally starts in September and ends on or near October 3. Since the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, the day has been recognized as the Day of German Unity and is a German public holiday.

While I suspect Germans and others in Hawaiʻi celebrated the annual beer-based parties in the past, I have not yet found references to them (I am still looking.)

However, I’ll use this occasion (between my sips of lager) to relate some history of Germans in Hawaiʻi.

Three Germans were among the sailors and crew aboard Captain James Cook first visit to the islands in 1778. Johann Heinrich Zimmermann sailed on HMS Discovery and subsequently wrote an account of the voyage (his journals were published 3-years before Cook’s.)

A few years later, on a voyage to China in October 1796, Captain Henry Barber, from Bremen, Germany, sailing the English ship, Arthur, ran aground at Kalaeloa on Oʻahu. Captain Barber and his crew of 22 men took to the life boats. Six drowned.

Today, we refer to the location of where the survivors landed as “Barber’s Point,” however, the traditional name, Kalaeloa, is coming back into more common use.

In 1815, German scholar, Adelbert von Chamisso, was aboard the Russian brig Rurik, which Captain Otto von Kotzebue sailed to Hawaiʻi. He was one of the first western scholars interested in the Hawaiian language, and reportedly wrote one of the first Hawaiian grammar books.

In a summary of his visit to the Islands, Chamisso noted, “’Arocha’ (Aloha) is the friendly greeting with which each man salutes the other and which is answered by a like expression. Upon each occasion that one is greeted with ‘Arocha’ one answers ‘Arocha’ and goes ones way without turning around.”

Around this same time, a notorious German, Georg Anton Schäffer, representing the Russian-American Company of Alaska, arrived in Hawaiʻi to recover the cargo of a Russian trading ship wrecked at Waimea, Kauaʻi.

After first attempting to build a fort in Honolulu, he sailed to Kaua‘i and gained the confidence of King Kaumuali‘i. Kaumuali‘i also used the engineering skills of Schäffer to lay out a plan for a fort (commonly referred to as Fort Elizabeth) which Kaumualiʻi had constructed next to his own residence.

The Russian flag was raised over his fort. Hearing this, Kamehameha sent Captain Alexander Adams, a Scotsman who served in the navy of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i to gain control of the fort. Schäffer was forced to leave Hawaii and Adams raised the Kingdom of Hawai‘i flag over the fort in October 1817.

German-born Paul Isenberg came to Kauaʻi in the 1850s to work at Līhuʻe Plantation on Kauaʻi. He married Hannah Maria Rice, daughter of missionary-turned sugar-plantation owner William Harrison Rice.

Isenberg became manager of Līhuʻe Plantation in 1862. Along with his brothers, Isenberg played a prominent role in developing sugar plantations on Kauaʻi’s west side.

In 1881, Isenberg became a business partner with earlier German merchant Heinrich Hackfeld. Through his business H. Hackfeld & Company, Hackfeld is one of the most prominent, and prosperous, Germans to Hawaiʻi.

His company would become American Factors, shortened to Amfac, one of Hawaiʻi’s “Big 5” companies (with interests in sugar plantations, shipping and other entities.) This included the Liberty House department store, originally called “B. F. Ehlers”, after Hackfeld’s nephew.

World War I proved catastrophic for the Germans in Hawai’i who with the entry of the United States into the war had become enemy aliens overnight; the Isenbergs and Hackfields lost control of their company during World War I.

Dr. William Hillebrand, a German researcher, played an important role in public health. He was the founding physician of Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu during the 1860s. Hillebrand was an avid collector of plants; his property eventually became Foster Botanical Garden.

Claus Spreckels (1828–1908) was perhaps the most successful German-American immigrant entrepreneur of the late-nineteenth century; he was one of the ten richest Americans of his time.

The first industry in which Spreckels succeeded was quite typical for German immigrants: beer brewing. Though profitable, he sold his beer operation in 1863 and switched to a new field that would make him rich: sugar.

Spreckels founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company, which quickly became the largest and best-equipped sugar plantation in the islands. The career of the “sugar king” of California, Hawaiʻi and the American West consisted of building and breaking monopolies in sugar, transport, gas, electricity, real estate, newspapers, banks and breweries.

In more cultural contributions, Captain Henri Berger of Berlin is well remembered in for his decades of conducting the Royal Hawaiian Band.

He was called “The Father of Hawaiian Music” by Queen Liliʻuokalani. Among others, he wrote music to lyrics by King Kalākaua for the state anthem “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻi.”

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Gates, installed in Walker Park, for Fort Street grey stone H Hackfield Co from 1902 until 1970 (later known as American Factors, Ltd.
Gates, installed in Walker Park, for Fort Street grey stone H Hackfield Co from 1902 until 1970 (later known as American Factors, Ltd.
Chamisso_Adelbert_von_1781-1838
Chamisso_Adelbert_von_1781-1838
Zimmerman_Journals_on_Captain_Cook_Voyage-1781
Zimmerman_Journals_on_Captain_Cook_Voyage-1781
American Factors Building-Corner of Fort and Queen
American Factors Building-Corner of Fort and Queen
Georg_Anton_Schäffer
Georg_Anton_Schäffer
Russian_Fort_Elizabeth-Fort_Survey-Map-Reg-1360 (1885)
Russian_Fort_Elizabeth-Fort_Survey-Map-Reg-1360 (1885)
Barbers-Point-Lighthouse
Barbers-Point-Lighthouse
Honolulu-Barbers_Point_to_Diamond_Head-Malden-Reg437-431 (1825)
Honolulu-Barbers_Point_to_Diamond_Head-Malden-Reg437-431 (1825)
Claus_Spreckels
Claus_Spreckels
Royal Hawaiian Band on the steps of Iolani Palace with Henry Berger, 1916
Royal Hawaiian Band on the steps of Iolani Palace with Henry Berger, 1916
Paul_Isenberg_(1837-1903)
Paul_Isenberg_(1837-1903)
Paul Isenberg Monument-Lihue
Paul Isenberg Monument-Lihue
The original Queen’s Hospital, shortly after being built, was sparsely surrounded in 1860
The original Queen’s Hospital, shortly after being built, was sparsely surrounded in 1860
William Hillebrand (1821–1886) was a German physician.
William Hillebrand (1821–1886) was a German physician.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Zimmermann, Isenberg, Oktoberfest, Amfac, Liberty House, Ehlers, Spreckels, Berger, Hilldebrand, Schaffer, Germans, Hawaii, Chamisso, Hackfeld

October 25, 2018 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Amfac Center

The story of Hawai‘i’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 (1826;) Theo H Davies (1845;) American Factors (Amfac) – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and Alexander & Baldwin (1870.)

“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) Things changed.

On June 3, 1968, the first increment of Mililani’s single-family homes went on sale; 112 houses were originally offered for purchase at $25,000 to $35,000 each.

In its time, Mililani was one of the biggest signifiers that the Big Five were abandoning agriculture in Leeward and Central Oahu in favor of suburban development. Castle & Cooke created Mililani out of pineapple fields it had owned since 1948. (In 1976, the H-2 Freeway opened.)

On June 19, 1970, following the changes in travel that the introduction of jetliners in 1959 made another Big Five company, Alexander & Baldwin, was seeing changes. Just 6-years previously, A&B bought out the interests of other Big Five ownership in Matson (Castle & Cook, C Brewer and Amfac). (NY Times)

In 1970, A&B’s Matson line’s Lurline had her last voyage – it was the end of the era (dating back to 1933) of Matson’s 5-day luxury liner travel between Hawai‘i and the West Coast, and the end of Boat Days at Honolulu Harbor. (Honolulu Magazine)

About this time, other changes were going on in downtown Honolulu, around the waterfront – Amfac was redeveloping its headquarters building.

Previously (1901), Amfac-predecessor Hackfeld built a stone and concrete building that covered the mauka-Ewa corner of the block and had its main public entrance on the Queen-Fort Street corner, beneath a fourth-level dome.

Another entry closer to the harbor on the Fort Street side opened to the company’s three floors of offices, many occupied by managers and clerks for the once immense operations of one of the largest of Hawai‘i’s Big Five sugar companies.

Oliver Traphagen came up with a both ornate and solid design for U-shaped structure to extend the whole of the Fort Street frontage and continued in along the Queen Street and Halekauwila Street (now Nimitz) sides.

The project was completed in March 1902. For over half a century, the Hackfeld Building (later renamed American Factors (Amfac) Building) dominated the harbor edge of downtown Honolulu. (Fort Street Mall)

Then, starting in the late-1960s, Amfac was redeveloping its headquarters in a joint venture (under the name Center Properties) with Seattle developer Richard H Hadley. The new complex eventually filled the entire block bounded by Bishop, Queen Fort and Halekauwila (now Nimitz) Streets.

The new complex, named Amfac Center, was built in two distinct phases between 1968 and 1971; the towers are marble-faced skyscrapers, now recognized as late International Style or, alternatively, as “Formalist.”

The first of the two 20-story buildings, the Amfac Tower (Amfac Building), was completed in 1968 at the corner of Bishop and Halekauwila (now Nimitz) streets.

The old stone Hackfeld/Amfac Building came down in 1969 to prepare for the construction of the second of the two Amfac Center buildings, the Hawaii Tower (Hawaii Building), completed in 1971.

After subsequent sales of controlling interests in the company and liquidation of land and other assets, in 2002, the once dominant business in Hawaiʻi, the biggest of the Hawaiʻi Big Five, Amfac Hawaiʻi, LLC filed for federal bankruptcy protection. (TGI)

That year, John Edward Anderson, purchased the Amfac Center and renamed it the Topa Financial Center. Topa comes from the Topatopa mountain range in Ojai, east of Santa Barbara, California, where Anderson has a ranch of the same.

Topa means gopher in the language of the Chumash, American Indians who live in the Santa Barbara area. As part of the name change, Amfac’s 20-story twin towers were renamed the East Tower and West Tower. (Ruel)

(There is some suggestion that there is a connection between the Amfac Center and the former World Trade Center (completed in 1973), reportedly through the architect who was apparently associated with each. If so, more to come on that.)

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American Factors (formerly H.Hackfeld)-PP-7-5-018-00001
American Factors (formerly H.Hackfeld)-PP-7-5-018-00001
American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-019-00001
American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-019-00001
American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-023-00001
American Factors (formerly H.Hackfield)-PP-7-5-023-00001
American Factors Building was demolished in 1970
American Factors Building was demolished in 1970
Fort St. from Aloha Tower-Amfac_is_domed_bldg-PP-39-4-001-1937
Fort St. from Aloha Tower-Amfac_is_domed_bldg-PP-39-4-001-1937
Amfac Gate-Old Courthouse-SB-05-29-67
Amfac Gate-Old Courthouse-SB-05-29-67
Amfac_Building-removing_H_Hackfeld_from_Building-1918
Amfac_Building-removing_H_Hackfeld_from_Building-1918
TOPA-Financial-Center-Colliers
TOPA-Financial-Center-Colliers
TOPA-Financial-Center-in-Honolulu
TOPA-Financial-Center-in-Honolulu
Downtown and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 2-Map-1891-Hackfeld
Downtown and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 2-Map-1891-Hackfeld
Honolulu and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 02-Map-1906-Hackfeld
Honolulu and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 02-Map-1906-Hackfeld
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950-Amfac-LH
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950-Amfac-LH

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld, Topa Center, Hawaii Building, Amfac Building, Hawaii, Big 5, Hackfeld, Amfac, American Factors

April 13, 2018 by Peter T Young 9 Comments

Pszyk

Geologic evidence suggests that the modern caldera of Kīlauea formed shortly before 1500 AD. Repeated small collapses may have affected parts of the caldera floor, possibly as late as 1790. For over 300-400 years, the caldera was below the water table.

Kīlauea is an explosive volcano; several phreatic eruptions have occurred in the past 1,200 years. (Phreatic eruptions, also called phreatic explosions, occur when magma heats ground or surface water.)

The extreme temperature of the magma (from 932 to 2,138 °F) causes near-instantaneous evaporation to steam, resulting in an explosion of steam, water, ash and rock – the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was a phreatic eruption.

There were explosions in 1790, the most lethal known eruption of any volcano in the present United States. The 1790 explosions, however, simply culminated (or at least occurred near the end of) a 300-year period of frequent explosions, some quite powerful. (USGS)

Keonehelelei is the name given by Hawaiians to the explosive eruption of Kilauea in 1790. It is probably so named “the falling sands” because the eruption involved an explosion of hot gas, ash and sand that rained down across the Kaʻu Desert. The character of the eruption was likely distinct enough to warrant a special name. (Moniz-Nakamura)

The 1790 explosion led to the death of one-third of the warrior party of Kaʻū Chief Keōua. At the time Keōua was the only remaining rival of Kamehameha the Great for control of the Island of Hawaiʻi; Keōua ruled half of Hāmākua and all of Puna and Kaʻū Districts. They were passing through the Kilauea area at the time of the eruption. (Moniz-Nakamura)

Camped in Hilo, Keōua learned of an invasion of his home district of Kaʻū by warriors of Kamehameha. To reach Kaʻū from Hilo, Keōua had a choice of two routes one was the usually traveled coastal route, at sea level, but it was longer, hot, shadeless and without potable water for long distances. (NPS)

The other route was shorter, but passed over the summit and through the lee of Kilauea volcano, an area sacred to, and the home of, the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele. Keōua chose the volcano route, perhaps because it was shorter and quicker, with water available frequently. (NPS)

… Fast forward … “Despite the network of Pre-Western contact trails that covered the island, Hawaiʻi lacked a comprehensive system of interior roads for overland travel before 1846.”

“In that year, the Kingdom established the Department of the Interior and the office of Superintendent of Internal Improvements (the forerunner of Public Works) to oversee the construction of piers, harbors, government buildings, roads, and bridges.” (Terry)

Like the times of Keōua, “Two routes may be taken to the crater Kilauea, on the slope of Mauna Loa, one by Puna, the other by ‘Ōla‘a. It will be advisable to combine both, by going one way and returning the other.”

“Time being an object, the trip to and from the crater via ‘Ōla‘a can be accomplished in three days, which will give one day and two nights at the volcano house.” (Whitney, 1875)

“A critical step toward developing agriculture in ʻŌlaʻa was the creation of a new road between Hilo and Kīlauea located mauka of the Old Volcano Trail.” (Terry)

Work on the road began in 1890 using mainly prison labor, and in September of 1894 the entire road was completed. As the new Volcano Road through ʻŌlaʻa was being built, the Crown made a large portion of potential agricultural lands in ʻŌlaʻa available for lease and homesteading.”

“Three hundred eighty-five ʻŌlaʻa Reservation lease lots were created mauka and makai of the new Volcano Road, as well as an additional forty homesteads.” (Terry)

The ‘Ōla‘a Sugar Company was incorporated on May 3, 1899; the promoters purchased 16,000 acres in fee simple land and nearly 7,000 acres in long leasehold from WH Shipman. The plantation fields extended for ten miles along both sides of Volcano Road as well as in the Pāhoa and Kapoho areas of the Puna District.”

‘Ōla‘a Sugar Company began as one of Hawai‘i’s largest sugar plantations with much of its acreage covered in trees. Previous to cane, coffee was the primary agricultural crop grown in the region. After purchase of these lands, the company uprooted the coffee trees and cleared it for planting sugarcane.”

“The town of Mountain View grew with the sugar trade, as immigrant laborers were imported from Japan, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to work on the sugar plantation.”

“Another lesser known group also came to ʻŌlaʻa. In 1897, the Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs approved a request by H.F Hackfeld and Company (who acted as a recruiting agency for the “Planters Association”) to bring in European laborers for a number of sugar plantations.”

“Between 1897 and 1910, a number of Ukrainian families and single workers were recruited to work for ʻŌlaʻa Sugar Company. Most Ukrainian immigrants left ʻŌlaʻa for the US mainland in 1905 and 1906, but a few remained.” (Terry)

Among those who stayed in Mountain View were Michael and Annie Pszyk. (Terry) They a fifty-acre farm and in addition to work on the plantation they began to clear some land and go into developing a small herds of cows.

It was rather isolated, about 1 ½ miles from the highway. They first blazed a path so that they were able to walk out to Volcano
road.

He then widened it into a trail, but it wasn’t very satisfactory to haul wood to the village for which there was good demand, and take milk and other products.

“My father approached the council to have them make the trail into a road, but there was little interest in such a project.”

“He, eventually, widened the trail himself and made it into a passable road. Then the council took it over and named it Pszyk Road, and rightly so …” (Helen Richardson-Pszyk; Ewanchuck)

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Pszyk Road Sign
Pszyk Road Sign
View from Olaa-Volcano-Rd-DAGS1665a-1892
View from Olaa-Volcano-Rd-DAGS1665a-1892
Michael Pszyk headstone
Michael Pszyk headstone
Annie Pszyk headstone
Annie Pszyk headstone
Puna_District-DAGS-1808-1893
Puna_District-DAGS-1808-1893
Olaa-Keaau-Proposed Volcano Road-DAGS1665-1893
Olaa-Keaau-Proposed Volcano Road-DAGS1665-1893

Filed Under: Economy, General, Place Names, Prominent People Tagged With: Pszyk Road, Ukraine, Mountain View, Hawaii, Olaa Sugar, Hackfeld, Olaa

September 15, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Grand Canyon

“Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, and for all who come after you, as the only great sight which every American … should see.” (Teddy Roosevelt)

It was the home of a group of people that some call the Anasazi, a Navajo word for ‘Ancient Ones.’ About 2,000 years ago, the Pueblo people learned to survive in extremely harsh conditions and for more than 1,000 years thrived there. Then, they simply disappeared. (Shields)

The Hopi, Yavapai, Navajo, Apache, Zuni, Paiute (Kaibab,) Havasupai and Hualapai are among the tribes that call the canyon home, each with their own language, customs and beliefs. (NPS)

The Colorado River began carving a course to create the Grand Canyon, 4 to 6-million years ago. The nearly 300-river-miles long Colorado cut the 1-mile deep, 10-miles wide canyon, exposing rock and sediment formations that are nearly 2-billion years old. (Stampoulos)

In 1540, a Spanish Nobleman, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, led the first expedition of Europeans into the southwest, in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola that were reputed to contain great riches.

Spanish explorer Don Pedro de Tovar accompanied Coronado and led an expedition to Hopi country. Tovar is credited with as being the first European to learn of the existence of the Grand Canyon. But the Spanish left, unable to cross its impassable void.

Later, more foreigners came.

In 1869, Major John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran and his nine companions became the first to record the 1,000-miles of the Green and Colorado River from Wyoming through the Grand Canyon. Powell was the first American to consistently use and publish the name, ‘Grand Canyon.’ (NPS)

Miners discovered valuable mineral resources in the Grand Canyon in the late-1800s; but extraction was dangerous and expensive. Mining claims waned and tourism increased.

In the early days, reaching the Grand Canyon was difficult. Initially, horses, mules, river rafts and stagecoaches brought people to the canyon. The 73-mile trip from Flagstaff to the canyon rim took 10 to 12-hours. (Stampoulos)

In 1876, the Santa Fe railroad was one of the fastest expanding railroads in the country. In 1889, Fred Harvey had a contract for exclusive rights to manage and operate the eating houses and lunch stands with the Santa Fe, west of the Missouri River.

Passengers on the Santa Fe ate well because of Harvey’s special refrigerated boxcar that supplied fresh California fruits and vegetables. He had ‘Harvey Girls’ (“young (unmarried) women between 18 and 30-years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent”) as waitresses and salesgirls.

The Fred Harvey Company operated all of the hotels and restaurants along the Santa Fe railroad lines, as well as many dining cars. (Stampoulos)

Soon, the Santa Fe Railway (and others railways) reached the South Rim of the canyon. In 1901, Harvey died, and his son Ford Harvey took over the company. After Fred’s death, the company’s good reputation for fine food and service grew even more. (Armstrong)

Newspapers across the country heralded the passenger trains carrying visitors to the Grand Canyon; the story stirred public interest, instigating what would later become a ‘boom’ of visitors to the canyon – more than half of them arrived by train at the Santa Fe Station. (Shields)

The company decided to go ahead with plans for a first-class hotel at the Grand Canyon. Ford was in charge of what became the company’s crown jewel, the El Tovar Hotel (named after the early Spanish explorer) – the Charles Whittlesey-designed log structure opened its doors on the canyon rim (and at the rail station) on January 14, 1905.

The hotel soon became the mecca for travelers from all over the world. In order to serve the large number of visitors. The Fred Harvey Company had to maintain a fairly large staff. To accommodate them, men and women’s dormitories were built near the hotel.

The Harvey Company continued its growth well into the 20th century.

So, what’s the Hawai‘i connection? … In 1968, Amfac (one of Hawai‘i’s ‘Big Five’ companies) bought the Fred Harvey Company (and with it, the concession for El Tovar and other hotels, shops and activities at the Grand Canyon.)

Amfac had its beginning in the Islands when, on September 26, 1849, German sea captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld arrived in Honolulu with his wife, Marie, her 16-year-old brother Johann Carl Pflueger and a nephew BF Ehlers.

Hackfeld opened a general merchandise business (dry goods, crockery, hardware and stationery,) wholesale, as well as retail store.

Hackfeld later developed a business of importing machinery and supplies for the spreading sugar plantations and exported raw sugar. H Hackfeld & Co became a prominent factor – business agent and shipper – for the plantations.

A few years later, with the advent of the US involvement in World War I, things changed significantly for the worst for H Hackfeld & Co. In 1918, using the terms of the Trading with the Enemy Act and its amendments, the US government seized H Hackfeld & Company and ordered the sale of German-owned shares. (Jung)

The patriotic sounding “American Factors, Ltd,” the newly-formed Hawaiʻi-based corporation (whose largest shareholders included Alexander & Baldwin, C Brewer & Company, Castle & Cooke, HP Baldwin Ltd, Matson Navigation Company and Welch & Company,) bought the H Hackfeld stock. (Jung) At that same time, the BF Ehlers dry goods store also took the patriotic “Liberty House” name.

American Factors shortened its name to “Amfac” in 1966. The next year (1967,) Henry Alexander Walker became president and later Board Chairman of Amfac.

Over the next 15-years, Walker took Amfac from a company that largely depended on sugar production in Hawaiʻi to a broadly diversified conglomerate (which included the acquisition of the Fred Harvey Company in 1968.)

Later, the resort management company became known as Xanterra Parks and Resorts (the present concessionaire and operator of hotels (including El Tovar) and other functions at the Grand Canyon, and elsewhere.)

In 1893, President Benjamin Harrison established it as a forest reserve. On January 11, 1908, President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt placed the Grand Canyon under public protection, declaring it a national monument. Congress updated the Grand Canyon to national park status and doubled the protected area in 1975. It was named a World Heritage Site in 1979.

They say the average length of stay for visitors to the Grand Canyon is 3-hours; take some time to see and experience what some suggest is one of the 7 Wonders of the Natural World (Grand Canyon, Mount Everest, Northern Lights, Harbor at Rio de Janeiro, Great Barrier Reef, Paricutin and Victoria Falls) – it is something to behold, that neither words, nor pictures, can adequately describe.

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Tourist at the edge of the Grand Canyon, ca. 1914
Tourist at the edge of the Grand Canyon, ca. 1914
Grand Canyon-1872
Grand Canyon-1872
Grand View Trail, Grand Canyon, 1906
Grand View Trail, Grand Canyon, 1906
Grand_Canyon_Dorie_In_Marble_Gorge_1964
Grand_Canyon_Dorie_In_Marble_Gorge_1964
grand-canyon-harvey-girls
grand-canyon-harvey-girls
Harvey Girls - Grand Canyon National Park - Fred Harvey Company
Harvey Girls – Grand Canyon National Park – Fred Harvey Company
Grand Canyon Train
Grand Canyon Train
Vintage-Grand-Canyon-Bus
Vintage-Grand-Canyon-Bus
Vintage-Grand-Canyon-look out
Vintage-Grand-Canyon-look out
El Tovar Hotel-facing Canyon
El Tovar Hotel-facing Canyon
El_Tovar_Hotel_in_early_1900s
El_Tovar_Hotel_in_early_1900s
El_Tovar_Hotel_1968
El_Tovar_Hotel_1968
El_Tovar_Hotel-snow
El_Tovar_Hotel-snow
El_Tovar_Hotel-menu-1953
El_Tovar_Hotel-menu-1953

Filed Under: Economy, General, Buildings, Place Names Tagged With: Fred Harvey Company, Grand Canyon, El Tovar, Hawaii, Big 5, Hackfeld, Amfac, Liberty House, American Factors

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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