Hansen’s Disease | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 29, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Miss Ball Won The Fight For Others”

A healer touches people.

A good healer touches a person’s body, mind and spirit.

A great healer touches many people’s lives.

In attempting to describe a healer who touches the lives of thousands of sufferers around the world may lead us to call that individual a saint.

Saint Damien is appropriately recognized for his commitment in easing the suffering and caring for the thousands of suffering souls, banished to Kalaupapa because they had Hansen’s disease.

An almost forgotten healer was a young (24-years old) Black chemist and pharmacist, who made a revolutionary discovery that changed the lives of Hansen’s disease sufferers.

Once known as leprosy, the disease was renamed after Dr. Gerharad Armauer Hansen, a Norwegian physician, when he discovered the causative microorganism in 1873, the same year that Father Damien volunteered to serve at Kalaupapa.

Born on July 24, 1892 in Seattle, Washington, Alice Augusta Ball was the daughter of James P Ball and his wife, Laura; she lived in a middle or even upper-middle class household.

Ball’s grandfather, JP Ball, Sr, a photographer, was one of the first Blacks in the US to learn the art of daguerreotype and created in Cincinnati one of the more famous daguerreotype galleries. During his lifetime, Ball also opened photography galleries in Minneapolis, Helena, Montana, Seattle and Honolulu, where he died at the age of 79.

After moving to Hawaiʻi in 1903 and attending elementary school here, Alice Ball and her family moved back to the continent where she attended high school in Seattle, earning excellent grades, especially in the sciences.

After a stint with the family living in Montana and then returning to Seattle, Alice Ball entered the University of Washington and graduated with two degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1912 and pharmacy in 1914.

In the fall of 1914, she entered the College of Hawaiʻi (later called the University of Hawaiʻi) as a graduate student in chemistry.

On June 1, 1915, she was the first African American and the first woman to graduate with a Master of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Hawaiʻi. In the 1915-1916 academic year, she also became the first woman to teach chemistry at the institution.

But the significant contribution Ball made to medicine was a successful injectable treatment for those suffering from Hansen’s disease.

She isolated the ethyl ester of chaulmoogra oil (from the tree native to India) which, when injected, proved extremely effective in relieving some of the symptoms of Hansen’s disease.

Although not a full cure, Ball’s discovery was a significant victory in the fight against a disease that has plagued nations for thousands of years. The discovery was coined, at least for the time being, the “Ball Method.”

A College of Hawaiʻi chemistry laboratory began producing large quantities of the new injectable chaulmoogra. During the four years between 1919 and 1923, no patients were sent to Kalaupapa – and, for the first time, some Kalaupapa patients were released.

Ball’s injectable compound seemed to provide effective treatment for the disease, and as a result the lab began to receive “requests for their chaulmoogra oil preparations from all over the world.”

“The annals of medical science are incomplete unless full credit is given for the work of Alice Ball. … It was no easy task. One after another the various preparations were tried and put aside. … It led to the discovery of the preparation which bids fair to become a specific in the treatment of leprosy. Miss Ball won the fight for others”. (American Missionary Association, April 1922)

The “Ball Method” continued to be the most effective method of treatment until the 1940s and as late as 1999 one medical journal indicated the “Ball Method” was still being used to treat Hansen disease patients in remote areas.

At the time of her research Ball became ill. She worked under extreme pressure to produce injectable chaulmoogra oil and, according to some observers, became exhausted in the process.

Unfortunately, Ball never lived to witness the results of her discovery. She returned to Seattle and died at the age of 24 on December 31, 1916. The cause of her death was unknown.

On February 29, 2000, the Governor of Hawaiʻi issued a proclamation, declaring it “Alice Ball Day.” On the same day the University of Hawaiʻi recognized its first woman graduate and pioneering chemist with a bronze plaque mounted at the base of the lone chaulmoogra tree on campus near Bachman Hall.

In January 2007, Alice Augusta Ball was presented posthumously the University of Hawaiʻi Regents’ Medal of Distinction, an award to individuals of exceptional accomplishment and distinction who have made significant contributions to the University, state, region or nation or within their field of endeavor.

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August 25, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Charles Hinckley Wetmore

Charles Hinckley Wetmore was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, on February 8, 1820. He was the son of Augustus Wetmore (1784-1887) and Emily T Hinckley Wetmore (1789-1825.)

By teaching school in the winter and studying in the summer, he attained his medical degree, graduating from the Berkshire Medical Institute in Massachusetts in 1846. After graduation he practiced in Lowell, Mass., continuing to teach in school to supplement his earnings.

Wetmore married Lucy Sheldon Taylor on September 25, 1848; three weeks after their wedding, they were off to Hawaiʻi under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM) as a missionary doctor.

They were not attached to any Missionary Company; the Wetmores sailed from Boston on October 16, 1848 on the Leland and landed in Honolulu on March 11, 1849 (a voyage of 146 days).

The Wetmores were assigned to Hilo on the Island of Hawaiʻi and were at their post by May 18. “This morning Hawaiʻi was in sight. It could be distinctly seen by the bright light of the moon but it remained for the sun to reveal in all its grandeur lofty Mauna Kea.”

“We gazed at it with feelings of deep interest. We know not but this very island is to become our future home. Our prayer is that we may be stationed where we shall do the most good.” (Lucy Wetmore’; The Friend, February 1920)

As missionary doctor, his first duty was to the care of the missionary families, then the natives and after that to the foreigners.

His patients were scattered over the entire island and he travelled by canoe or foot, and on many occasions, his wife accompanied him.

When smallpox broke out in the Islands in 1853, Wetmore was appointed by the King to serve as a Royal Commissioner of Public Health. As the outbreak spread to the neighbor Islands, Wetmore was down with varioloid (a mild form of smallpox affecting people who have already had the disease or have been vaccinated against it.)

The Commissioners decided to build a hospital to deal with the anticipated illness; Wetmore, the doctor from the region, was the first to occupy it. Wetmore recovered and was able to later assist in the efforts. (Greer)

In 1855 he severed relations with the ABCFM and continued in practice upon his own account. He was appointed to be in charge of the American Hospital, where sailors from American ships and ether Americans in need were cared for.

After the hospital was given up, the building was turned over to ‘The First Foreign Church of Hilo.’ A founding member of the church, Wetmore was closely identified with it and gave it great financial assistance and much personal work. (Evening Bulletin, May 18, 1898)

Later (December 2, 1886,) Wetmore purchased and presented to the Library Association the frame building formerly occupied by the First Foreign Church. In making the gift of the building with his ‘Aloha,’ Wetmore “‘hoped it would prove very useful to our Hilo community for many many years to come.’” They moved the building to the library site on Waiānuenue street. (Hilo Tribune, October 25, 1904)

The Protestant Wetmore also had ties with the nearby St Joseph Catholic Church. Wetmore and Father Charles Pouzot developed a lasting friendship. Father Charles was tutoring the Wetmore children and Wetmore gave medical basics of caring for diarrhea, dermatitis, respiratory illness and the like.

At one time, Father Charles shocked Father Damien (now St Damien) by revealing he also learned to treat the wounds and ulcers of leprosy. Damien was much surprised since he didn’t know the infection was present in Hawaiʻi. Father Charles promised to show him a case at the next opportunity. (Hilo Roman Catholic Community)

Dr. Wetmore’s family consisted of one son and three daughters. On February 16, 1850, Wetmore administered ether to his wife, Lucy, as she was giving birth to their first child. Dr Wetmore’s subsequent account of this delivery appears to be the earliest known reference to the use of general anesthesia in the Islands. (Schmitt)

Eldest son, Charlie, was an active boy who assisted in his father’s dispensing pharmacy, the first in Hilo. (Hilo Drug Store was reportedly founded by Wetmore; it was situated on ‘Front Street’ (Kamehameha Avenue.) (Valentine)

Charlie planned to follow his father into the profession of medicine. Their first daughter, Frances (Fannie), also worked and enjoyed learning science in the pharmacy.

When Charlie died suddenly at age 14, 12-year-old Fannie (the eldest daughter) stepped up to announce that she would become the next doctor of the family, taking her brother’s place.

She was sent away to school in Pennsylvania, returning to Hilo after graduation to help her father. She eventually returned to the mainland to get her MD, and was the first woman doctor in Hawaiʻi. Frances then practiced medicine in partnership with her father. (Burke)

In the early days of sugar, Wetmore was engaged with the Hitchcocks in the establishment and management of Papaikou plantation. Wetmore was also interested in Kohala and other sugar plantations. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 19, 1898)

After the death of his wife in 1883, Wetmore, serving as a delegate from the Hawaiian Board, and his daughter, Lucy, spent the entire year of 1885 in the Marshall and Caroline Islands.

Dr. Wetmore died on May 13, 1898. “He was trusted by all. Whatever he said he meant, and his word in business was as good as his bond. He was to the front in every good work, and his gospel was one of action rather than of words.”

“His generosity was proverbial and his services as a physician were constantly given to those who were too poor to pay.” (Evening Bulletin, May 18, 1898)

Several years later, the Lydgate family from Kauaʻi donated a stained glass window at the First Foreign Church in Hilo. The image represents the good Samaritan as he bends solicitously over the almost lifeless body of the man who was the victim of thieves.

“The expression on the good Samaritan’s face is a beautiful one, and the picture is typical of the life of the friend in whose memory it was given.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 6, 1907)

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Wetmore-CharlesHinckley

Charles_Hinckley_Wetmore

First Foreign Church-Hilo

First Foreign Church_Hilo

Hilo Drug Co., Ltd. near left started by Wetmore-Hilo-PP-29-3-049-1928

Hilo street scene-L Turner-later-Hilo Drug on left-PP-29-5-016

Envelope to CH Wetmore (aupostalhistory)

August 21, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Until Death Should Us Part

Within the seconds, the minutes, and the hours,
Within your loneliness and sorrow,
Within the flowers, the leaves and everything,
Within you and without, I am with you.

He stood before the officer of the government and said, “I first ask whether my wife will be allowed to go with me, the one I swore before Almighty God to care for, to become one blood with me, from whom only death could part me?”

Denied, he replied, “the cord of my love for her is to be cut, and I am commanded to break my sacred promise before God and live alone in a strange land”.

“The consecrated law of marriage has come to us, and we swore by the holy book to live together in the time of food and of famine, in sickness and in health … until death should part us, and now, the power of the government wants to break the law of man and of God and make the oath before Almighty God as nothing.” (Koʻolau)

He was born in 1862; his name, Kaluaikoʻolau, may be translated as ‘the grave at Koʻolau,’ a commemorative name and, as fate would have it, prophetic. (Frazier) He was a cowboy from Kekaha, Kauai.

He was reared with care and vigilance, and his growth was unrestricted. And when he reached the age he was entered by his parents, in 1868, in the school of Father George Rowell at Waimea, Kauai.

In a very little while at the school he displayed understanding and enthusiasm for his lessons, and his energy and alertness was unfailing. He also was willing and active in the tasks given him by the parents, showing his love and attention to their voices.

In these days of his growth there was planted in his heart the reverence for the word of God, and the beauty of the sacred lessons was wound in his conscience. Therefore, with the growth of Koʻolau’s body, these spiritual qualities grew also.

Thus he sought the learning of the school until he was grown and he was physically ready for work, between sixteen and seventeen years of age, and he spoke to his parents of setting aside school and going to work, and his request was granted by his parents with serenity.

He became the foreman of the cowboys, under Mr. Francis Gay (Palani Ke.) He was also placed in this position over the length and the breadth of Mr. Valdemar Knudsen’s (Kanuka) lands at Kekaha. He divided his duties as Head of the Cowboys between his two employers.

In 1881, at the age of 19, he married Piʻilani (age 17.) A year later, they had a son, Kaleimanu.

In 1889, Koʻolau noticed a little rash on his cheeks – he thought it was because of his work out in the sun. It would later disappear and reappear.

“In a couple of years the disease developed quite noticeably, and in 1891 and 1892 when the gathering of the lepers started, he was in a bad state, and Mr Stolz, the deputy sheriff, told him to go to Doctor Campbell and be examined.” (The Garden Island, December 19, 1916)

Koʻolau and his young son Kaleimanu contracted leprosy; the Hawaiian government’s way of coping with the problem was to attempt to strictly segregate leprosy patients from the rest of the world at Kalawao (Kalaupapa,) on the Island of Molokai.

In the early years of the settlement, those who contracted leprosy were allowed to be accompanied by helpers, or kokua, usually a family member, but this practice caused problems. In 1893, Koʻolau, agreed at first to go to Molokai if Piʻilani, his wife, could accompany him.

The authorities denied this. Koʻolau refused to be parted from his wife. Vowing he would never be taken alive, the husband with wife and young son took refuge in the isolated Kalalau Valley, descending into it by an ancient and most difficult trail.

Government forces pursued them. Koʻolau shot a policeman who had been pursuing them (Louis Stolz (known familiarly by the name of Lui), the Deputy High Sheriff of Waimea.)

“On June 30th the districts of Waimea and Hanalei, which included the village of Kalalau, were placed under martial law and an armed force of police and military, under the command of Deputy Marshal Larsen, was sent to Kalalau to effect the capture of the desperado.”

“It was the intention to secure the murderer alive, if possible, and establish the majesty of the law without further bloodshed. … but Koʻolau sent defiance and a statement that he would never be taken alive.” (Polynesian, July 13, 1893)

The Provisional Government determined to send an army of 35-men, under Capt W Larsen to Kalalau to carry out the orders of the Government; ultimately, 15-soldiers landed and set up ‘Camp Dole.’ All lepers were directed to be taken prisoner within 24-hours. If the lepers failed to obey after the time given them they were to be taken dead or alive. (Frazier)

Hidden in the valley, “We listened quietly to the noise and understood that the soldiers were climbing up to our place where we sat. It was not far, but we could not be seen or see because of the vegetation. Then we were again startled by the firing of guns and the bullets began to strike … but no one harmed us.” (Piʻilani)

Koʻolau shot back, killing three soldiers, P Johnson, JMB McCabe and Hirschberg (Hursberg.)

The firing continued without rest for four full days.

On Friday morning, July 13, the steamship Iwalani arrived from the battle site at Kalalau. The leper Koolau and his wife and son had not been found. Perhaps another search will be made for his hiding place, or perhaps he fell from the cliff. His hiding place had been blanketed by gunfire. There was no sign of refuge, only a very small flat place at the edge of the cliff, protected in front by steep drops and ʻōhia trees. (Frazier)

They fled. “After this we began to wander, never staying anywhere more than one, two, or three days in one place, when we would leave and move on. … During this time of living in loneliness and inaction, for a long time afterwards, my husband would not allow us to show ourselves.”

“It was three years and five or more months of wandering life in the wild valleys and rows of steep cliffs, in the midst of an awesome loneliness. We set aside love of parents and family, cast away our fears and sighs, and I sacrificed my life for my husband and child, so beloved to me.” (Piʻilani)

“During this time of living as a threesome, we were well and we had sufficient to eat and drink.” Then, tragedy struck; “our beloved child began to show the spread of the disease upon his body, and he became very weak in his limbs.”

“(O)ne day, he gestured to me and when I went to his side, he put his arms around my neck and rubbed his cheek against mine, and I saw that his lashes were wet with tears, and he whispered; ‘Where is Papa? I am going to sleep.’”

“We attempted to speak with him, calling him, but his ears were done hearing, his eyes gently closed, his last breath flew away, and he was asleep in the Lord, his Saviour in the beyond.” (Piʻilani)

Then it was Koʻolau’s time. “My cheeks were often wet with tears, seeing the body and the features of my husband quietly ebbing away, without being able to help and save him although I tried, with every means available to me.”

“When the sun began to spread its warming rays over the land that morning, and the palis and ridges of that beloved valley were spread out, Koʻolau slept quietly in death.” (Piʻilani)

“I wandered alone in the cloaking darkness, with the rustling murmurs of the little stones of the stream and the sweet murmuring land shells of the ti-plants, and when the dawn came and the clouds of night crept softly behind the high peaks and the light of the sun flashed forth, I had arrived at a place close to the kamaʻāinas’ homes.” She hid for nearly a month before revealing herself.

In 1906 in Honolulu, Kahikina Kelekona (John GM Sheldon) published a book in the Hawaiian language (later translated by Frances N Frazier) to be preserved in ink and disseminated to the many people of the true story of Kaluaikoʻolau, the one boasted of as “The Fierce Brave One of the Kalalau Cliffs who Glides along the Peak of Kamaile whence the Fire was Flung.” It was the basis of this summary.

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Kaluaikoolau and Family-HSA-HHS

Hawaiian_Provisional_Government_Soldiers_at_Kalalau_Valley,_Kauai

Home of Kaluaikoolau at Mana, Kauai-HSA-HHS

Kaluaikoolau seated on rock, his wife Piilani and son Kaleimanu in pool of Makemake Falls, Kalalau-HSA-HHS

‘Lepers’ captured by police and National Guard in Kalalau Valley, Kauai-HSA-HHS

National Guardsmen guarding trail in Kalalau Valley, Kauai-HSA-HHS

Hawaiian_Provisional_Government_Soldiers_camped_in_Kalalau_Valley,_Kauai

Burning of Koolau’s house in Kalalau Valley, Kauai-HSA-HHS

Firing Squad Company F of the National Guard of Hawaii, Kalalau Valley, Kauai. At grave of three members killed during hunt for Kaluaikoolau-HSA-HHS

Camp of National Guardsmen in hunt for Koolau and others, Kalalau Valley, Kauai-HSA-HHS

June 29, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Peter Young Kāʻeo Kekuaokalani

Peter Young Kāʻeo Kekuaokalani was born March 4, 1836 in Honolulu. His mother was Jane Lahilahi Young, the youngest daughter of John Young (advisor to Kamehameha I;) his father was Joshua Kāʻeo, Judge of the Supreme Court of Hawaiʻi (great-great grandson or great grandson of King Kalaniʻōpuʻu.)

At birth, he was hānai to his maternal uncle John Young II (Keoni Ana) (Kuhina Nui (Prime Minister) (1845-1855) and son of John Young, the English sailor who became a trusted adviser to Kamehameha I)

Kāʻeo was declared eligible to succeed to the Hawaiian throne by Kamehameha III and attended the Chief’s Children’s School. (In 1839, Kamehameha III formed the school to groom the next generation of the highest ranking chief’s children of the realm and secure their positions for Hawaii’s Kingdom.)

King Kamehameha selected Missionaries Amos Starr Cooke (1810–1871) and Juliette Montague Cooke (1812-1896) from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to teach the 16-royal children and run the school.

Another student there was his cousin, Emma Naʻea Rooke (January 2, 1836 – April 25, 1885,) daughter of High Chief George Naʻea and High Chiefess Fanny Kekelaokalani Young and hānai by her childless maternal aunt, chiefess Grace Kamaʻikuʻi Young Rooke, and her husband, Dr. Thomas CB Rooke. (Emma later became Queen, wife of Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV.)

Kā’eo later served as a member of the House of Nobles (1863–1880) and on the Privy Council of King Kamehameha IV (1863–1864.)

At about this time, leprosy (later known as Hansen’s Disease) was noted in the Islands and it rapidly spread on Oʻahu. In response, the Legislative Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands passed “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy” in 1865, which King Kamehameha V approved.

This law provided for setting apart land for an establishment for the isolation and seclusion of leprous persons who were thought capable of spreading the disease.

On June 10, 1865, a suitable location for incurable cases of leprosy came up for discussion. The peninsula on the northern shore of Moloka’i seemed the most suitable spot for a leprosy settlement.

The first shipment of lepers landed at Kalawao (Kalaupapa) January 6, 1866, the beginning of segregation and banishment of lepers to the leper settlement.

Receiving and detention centers were established on Oʻahu. Kalihi Hospital was the first hospital for leprosy patients in Hawaiʻi opening in 1865. Kapiʻolani Home opened in Kalihi Kai in 1891 adjacent to the Kalihi Hospital and Receiving Station; Kalihi Plague Camp (1900-1912) and Meyers Street, Kalihi Uka (1912-1938.) (NPS)

Kāʻeo contracted leprosy and on June 29, 1873 joined the many others exiled to the leper colony at Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai (joining him were two servants.)

During his exile at Kalawao (Kalaupapa,) he and his cousin Emma, exchanged letters. Kāʻeo reported in one such letter to his cousin (dated November 4, 1873) that he recently visited the settlement store and bought several yards of cotton twill “to make me some frocks palaka” this is the first known use of the word palaka to describe the style shirt with no tail and meant to be worn outside of the pants. (Korn)

In another letter (August 11, 1873) calls attention to the conditions at Kalawao: “Deaths occur quite frequently here, almost dayly. Napela (the Mormon elder and assistant supervisor of the Kalaupapa Settlement) last week rode around the Beach to inspect the Lepers and came on to one that had no Pai (poi) for a Week but manage to live on what he could find in his Hut, anything Chewable.”

“His legs were so bad that he cannot walk, and few traverse the spot where His Hut stands, but fortunate enough for him that he had sufficient enough water to last him till aid came and that not too late, or else probably he must have died.”

Mortality rates were confirmed by Dr JH Stallard, Board of Health in 1884: “The excessive mortality rate alone condemns the management (of the settlement.) During the year 1883, there were no less than 150 deaths … more than ten times that of any ordinary community of an unhealthy type.”

“The high mortality has not been caused by leprosy, but by dysentery, a disease not caused by any local insanitary conditions, but by gross neglect.” (Voices of Kaulapapa; SanDiego-gov – 1884)

Father Damien himself succumbed to leprosy on April 15, 1889. Sister Mary Leopoldina Burns describes the place: “One could never imagine what a lonely barren place it was. Not a tree nor a shrub in the whole Settlement only in the churchyard there were a few poor little trees that were so bent and yellow by the continued sweep of the birning wind it would make one sad to look at them.” (Voices of Kaulapapa; SanDiego-gov)

Kāʻeo was released from Kalawao in 1876 and lived the remainder of his life quietly in Honolulu, returning to his seat in the upper house of the Hawaiian legislature. (Korn; Spurrier)

The Hawaiian Gazette, December 1, 1880, noted his death, “The Hon. Peter Y Kaeo died at his residence, Emma street, on Friday night (November 26, 1880.) The funeral took place on Sunday, and was largely attended by the retainers and friends of the family. The hearse was surrounded by Kahili bearers as becomes the dignity of the chief.”

About 8,000 people have been exiled at Kalaupapa since 1865. The predominant group of patients were Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian; in addition there were whites, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Filipino and other racial groups that sent to Kalaupapa. The law remained in effect until 1969, when admissions to Kalaupapa ended.

Peter Young Kāʻeo was interred in the Wyllie Crypt at Mauna ʻAla (Royal Mausoleum in Nuʻuanu) along with many of the Young Family. (Though the names are the same, I am not related to this Young family. On my father’s side, Jack, youngest brother of Young Brothers, is my grandfather; on my mother’s side, Hiram Bingham is my GGG grandfather.)

The image shows Peter Young Kāʻeo Kekuaokalani. In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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March 5, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William (Will) Joseph Arthur Goodhue

“When we pause to consider that here is a studious and altogether competent observer who has had 18 consecutive years of constant and exclusive leprosy practice among 800 to 500 patients, constituting one of the largest segregated colonies in the world, we begin to realize the value of his accumulated experience and his opinions as a leprologist.” (Report of the Governor of Hawaii, To the Secretary of the Interior, 1914)

William (Will) Joseph Arthur Goodhue was born October 4, 1868 in Quebec, Canada and graduated from Rush and Dartmouth Colleges in medicine. He went to Hawaiʻi in 1902 as an intern practicing on Kauaʻi.

He fell in love with Alice Saburo Hayashi, aged sixteen, and she ran off with him to Honolulu where he had been offered a job, and he set up a home with her in Pālama. A child (William Goodhue George) was born in 1903; William paid child support, but did not marry Alice.

Dr Goodhue and John D McVeigh assumed the positions of Resident Physician and Superintendent of Kalaupapa. Goodhue was not only a surgeon in the colony, but spent a great deal of time developing new treatments and improving upon old ones; several of his findings were published in medical journals.

In October 1905, Goodhue married Christina “Tina” Meyer, daughter of Henry and Victoria (Bannister) Meyer. Tina was grand-daughter of Rudolph Wilhelm Meyer, prior Superintendent of the Kalawao settlement (Kalaupapa) (who served with Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope.)

Will and Tina had three children, all born at Kalaupapa: William Walter Goodhue, John D. Goodhue and Victoria Goodhue. They were later divorced.

Sister Leopoldina of Kalaupapa said of Goodhue, “We had been in the work nearly fifteen years and until Dr. Goodhue came we had never been assisted by a doctor only a very few times, as they were so much in dread of leprosy.”

“Dr. Goodhue, a true American brave and fearless, plunged into the work with strong will and whole heart doing wonderful work, and it became like a different place.”

The noted author, Jack London, visited the colony, and wrote of his friend, “Dr. Goodhue, the pioneer of leprosy surgery, is a hero who should receive every medal that every individual and every country has awarded for courage and life-saving. … I know of no other place … in the world, where the surgical work is being performed that Dr. Goodhue performs daily.”

“I have seen him take a patient, who in any other settlement or lazar house in the world, would from the complication of the disease die horribly in a week, or two weeks or three – I say, I have seen Dr. Goodhue, many times, operate on such a doomed creature, and give it life, not for weeks, not for months, but for years and years.”

But that is not all. Goodhue used Alice Ball’s treatment of using chaulmoogra oil at Kalaupapa; and out of the five hundred and twelve patients, one hundred and seventy-five have been taking regular treatment. (London)

(Ball isolated the ethyl ester of chaulmoogra oil (from the tree native to India) which, when injected, proved extremely effective in relieving some of the symptoms of Hansen’s disease. Although not a full cure, Ball’s discovery was a significant victory in the fight against a disease.)

Click HERE for a prior story on the research by Alice Ball.

Goodhue, speaking to members of the legislature visiting Kalaupapa in 1921, said, “With two years’ chaulmoogra oil treatment, I believe sixty-five per cent of the chronic cases of leprosy on Molokaʻi can be cured. And within ten years, all cases should be cured, and Kalaupapa be abandoned as a leper settlement.”

Goodhue retired in 1925. He had contacted Hansen’s disease and left Hawaiʻi for Shanghai, China, to visit his son who was attending college there (he did not wish to be confined to the leper colony where he had worked all those years on Molokaʻi.)

He lived there on his pension and died of a heart attack on March 17, 1941. He had made the request that if he should not recover to bury him there. (Lots of info here from NPS.)

The image shows Kalawao, Molokaʻi (Kalaupapa in 1922.) In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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