Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

James Walker Austin

James Walker Austin (1829-1895) was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, January 8, 1829, son of William Austin (1778- 1841) and Lucy Jones (1802-1853).

“My father died in my boyhood (in Charlestown, June 27, 1841), and now, after nearly fifty years, his pleasant smile, his kind heart, and the light of his countenance are still living memories.” (James Walker Austin)

James was prepared for college in the schools of Charlestown and at the Chauncy Hall School, Boston, and was graduated from Harvard College in 1849, and from the Law School two years later, and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1851.

He went in 1851 to California, and thence to the Hawaiian Islands. He was attracted by the beauty and fertility of the islands, and he determined to settle there.

Austin arrived in Hawaii and was quickly thereafter enlisted by Kamehameha III for his legal services. He served the monarchy in that capacity through the reigns of Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

On July 18, 1857, he married Ariana Elizabeth Smith Sleeper (1829-1911) who was the daughter of John Sherborn Sleeper (1794-1878) and Mary Folsom Noble (1798-1885). They were the parents of five children.

He rose rapidly in the public esteem, and was soon chosen to places of trust and honor. In rapid succession he was made District Attorney, Member of Parliament, Speaker of the House, and a Justice of the Supreme Court.

He was also placed on two important Commissions, — one for revising the Civil Code, the other for revising the Criminal Code of the Kingdom. (Edes; Colonial Society of MA, 1895)

In honor of his work for Kamehameha V, James Walker Austin was given the land upon which Kapualei Ranch sits on July 10, 1868. (Kapualei Ranch)

He was admitted to the Bar in that country, and was appointed district attorney. He was elected to the Hawaiian Parliament, and reelected for three sessions. He was speaker of the House one session.

He was the guardian a number of years, of Lunalilo, heir to the throne. “Prince Bill had many fine qualities. In spite of his many fine qualities he was overcome by one weakness. He became addicted to liquor.”

“In 1858 Kanaʻina, out of love and concern for his son, petitioned the court to appoint guardians for him. Prince Bill agreed to this idea even though he was twenty-three years old. So the court appointed his father and two others, Dr. Richard Armstrong and James W Austin, as guardians.” (Galuteria)

In 1868 Austin was appointed judge of the Supreme Court by a special act of the Legislature, and he was chosen to revise the criminal code of the islands, in connection with two other judges of the Supreme Court.

He had been a member of the commission to revise the civil code two years before. These codes were modeled on those of the State of Massachusetts.

He returned to the United States in 1872 for the education of his children. The Austins made 9 Arlington in Boston their home. Their children lived with them: Herbert Austin, who would become an iron and steel dealer; Walter Austin, who would become an attorney and author; William Francis Austin; and Edith Austin.

“Judge Austin was a man of strong character, and of many accomplishments. His integrity was unimpeachable. He had a large circle of friends at the islands, where he had much to do in building up a vigorous and well-ordered community.”

“He was highly esteemed for his many noble qualities. His rugged honesty of opinion and positive ideas were sometimes veiled by his gentle manner; but they never lacked vigorous expression upon all proper occasions, and he always had the courage of his convictions.”

“Frankness, purity of mind and of heart, loyalty to every duty and to friends, and sincerity were marked traits of his character. His sympathies were as tender and quick as a woman’s. Censoriousness had no place in his fine nature; and when he could not approve the actions of others, he cultivated that silence which is golden.”

“He was as generous in his judgments of others as in his gifts to many worthy objects; and in all the relations of life he furnished an example deserving emulation.” (Edes; Colonial Society of MA, 1895)

Austin went to Europe the last year of his life, with his wife and daughter, and they were with him at the time of his death. He died in Southampton, England, October 15, 1895. (New England Historic Genealogical Society)

“In every relation of his long and active life he was an example to be imitated and followed. Sincerity, truthfulness, and frankness spoke in every accent of his voice, in the pressure of his hand, in his manly and gentle spirit.”

“His affections, when once placed, were deep and lasting. His charity of thought and feeling and act seemed instinctive, but it rested on solid and enduring principles.”

“No one who knew him intimately in public or in social life could ever doubt that he was a man of positive opinions, or that he had any hesitancy, when occasion required, in expressing them; but he never unduly pressed his own views, and was eminently tolerant of the opinions, and even the prejudices, of his associates.”

“No man loathed selfishness, deceit, or treachery more than he; but while he condemned the act he pitied the offender. He avoided controversy, and strove to be a peace-maker.”

“After more than twenty years of acquaintanceship – for many years seeing him almost daily – the writer of these lines does not recall an instance of hearing Judge Austin utter a censorious remark upon any man or woman.”

“And it is said that this temper and manner characterized him through his entire career, – in his boyhood days, at the university, at the bar, on the bench, and in all the various associations of his life, – public, social, and domestic.”

“But who can adequately express in words the prompt and unfailing sympathy he manifested for every form of woe and suffering? To many hearts surcharged with sorrow his ready and tender ministries have been a source of hope and courage, of comfort and of strength.

“He was, indeed, a rare man, and the world is poorer now that he has left us.” (Hoyt; New England Historic Genealogical Society)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hoʻomana Naʻauao

Hoʻomana Naʻauao o Hawaiʻi was the first independent Hawaiian Christian organization in the Islands. It was founded by John Kekipi Maia; he named his denomination “Hoʻomana Naʻauao,” which members translate as meaning “reasonable service.”

It started with the help of John Hawelu Poloailehua.

Poloailehua was born in Kukuihaele, Hamakua, Hawaiʻi in about 1838; at the age of 14 he moved to Honolulu. In February of the next year, when he was incapacitated by a violent fever, he asked for and received a Bible; it was placed on his chest.

He prayed while keeping his eyes closed and holding the Bible, as soon as he opened the Bible, read a verse and pledged his faith, he recovered from his illness.

April 16, 1853 (the date which Kekipi considers was the beginning of the church) is when Poloailehua, still a 15-year-old boy, started his mission work after he recovered from his illness.

He stayed in Honolulu to carry out mission work in his neighborhood where smallpox was prevalent at that time; his family was also afflicted with the illness – all died except for Poloailehua. (Inoue)

On April 16, 1881, Poloailehua met John Kekipi Maia of North Kohala and told him “Whatever secret you have within you, you must bring it out.” (Ritz)

Kekipi moved to Oʻahu and joined the Kaumakapili Church; he seemed to develop his work inside the congregation as he had in Kohala, Hawai’i.

However, in 1890, he left Kaumakapili Church, taking his followers with him. He built a meeting house on the seaside of Kālia and started his mission work as an independent group. (Inoue)

On July 31, 1897, a new church building (on Cooke Street in Kaka’ako) was sanctified and named Ke Alaula O Ka Mālamalama. With this church as a mother church, more than ten sister churches were founded on Hawaiʻi, Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi.

It was officially recognized as a religious organization on February 16, 1911 whose purposes “are purely those of religion, charity, education and general relief” and that “its main church and mission is at Koula, near King and South Streets in said Honolulu, with branch missions and churches at various places throughout the Territory of Hawaii.”

Hoʻomana Naʻauao was established on the concept of “reasonable service,” based on the passage in Romans: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Ritz)

Church members believed that Hawaiians were descended from Hebrews and Egyptians and that ancient Hawaiian religion evolved from the same source as Christianity. Teaching that the causes of illness and misfortune could be discerned after praying and fasting, the church gained many adherents among prominent individuals in the Hawaiian community.

The church emphasized repentance as a premise to salvation. In the practices of Hoʻomana Naʻauao, the importance of visions was one of the main characteristics.

Another significant characteristic of the practices of Hoʻomana Naʻauao was the opening of the Bible to a random page to see the divine will in sacred phrases on the page. (Inoue)

Some may call this “the Hawaiian Christian science,” and others say the teachings most resemble that of the Congregationalist Church. But at its simplest form, Hoʻomana Naʻahuao is a mixture of Protestant Christianity and Hawaiian. Members espouse a belief in the trinity and follow the Bible, as well as Hawaiian values. (Ritz)

It was the largest independent Hawaiian Church; several offshoot churches broke away in the 1930s and the 1940s.

Other Hoʻomana Naʻauao o Hawaii churches include Ke Kilohana oka Mālamalama in Hilo, Ka Hoku oka Malamalama, Paipaikou, Ka Nani oka Malamalama, Kohala, Ka Elele oka Malamalama, Kapoho, and Ka Mauloa oka Malamalama in Kurtistown, and Ka Lanakila oka Malamalama and Ka Lokahi oka Malamalama on the island of Lanaʻi (there were others.)

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Jack Roosevelt Robinson

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” (Jack (‘Jackie’) Roosevelt Robinson)

He was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia, the fifth, and last child of Mallie and Jerry Robinson. (In 1936, his older brother Mack won an Olympic silver medal in the 200-meter dash (behind Jesse Owens.))

Jackie was a four-sport athlete in high school and college; during a spectacular athletic career at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA,) he had starred in basketball, football, track, and baseball (and became the first student to earn varsity letters in four sports: football (1939 and 1940,) basketball (1940 and 1941,) track (1940) and baseball (1940.)

After exhausting his sports eligibility, Jackie decided to leave UCLA before attaining his degree, despite his mother’s objection, because he wanted to repay her for supporting him during his college career.

Jackie found a job in the winter of 1941 in Honolulu, where he played in the semipro Hawaii Senior Football League for the Honolulu Bears, who had joined the league in 1939 as the Polar Bears or the Hawaiian Vacation Team. (Ardolino)

Unlike the other three teams, the University of Hawaii Rainbows, the Na Aliis (Chiefs) and the Healanis (the Maroons,) the Bears signed their players to contracts, giving Robinson a paying sports job. (Ardolino)

He was paid a $150 advance (deducted from his salary,) a fee of $100 per game, a bonus if the team won the championship and a draft-deferred construction job near Pearl Harbor.

He arrived to great fanfare as the league’s all star, had some superb moments, but succumbed to a recurring injury and faded in the last games.

He stayed at Palama Settlement, rather than with the team in Waikiki (the hotels barred him entry because of the color of his skin.) (PBS)

Their first exhibition game was in Pearl Harbor. Jackie left Honolulu on December 5, 1941, just two days before the Japanese attacked. He was on the Lurline on his way home when Congress formally declared war. He was shortly thereafter inducted into the Army.

Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, he was originally denied entry into Officer Candidate School despite his college background. Intervention by a fellow soldier, boxing great Joe Louis, who was also stationed at the base, managed to get the decision reversed. (Swaine)

While in the Army, he had an incident similar to Rosa Parks – on July 6, 1944, Robinson, a twenty-five-year-old lieutenant, boarded an Army bus at Fort Hood, Texas.

He was with the light-skinned wife of a fellow black officer, and the two walked half the length of the bus, then sat down, talking amiably. The driver, gazing into his rear-view mirror, saw a black officer seated in the middle of the bus next to a woman who appeared to be white. Hey, you, sittin’ beside that woman,” he yelled. “Get to the back of the bus.”

Lieutenant Robinson ignored the order. The driver stopped the bus, marched back to where the two passengers were sitting, and demanded that the lieutenant “get to the back of the bus where the colored people belong.”

Lieutenant Robinson told the driver: “The Army recently issued orders that there is to be no more racial segregation on any Army post. This is an Army bus operating on an Army post.”

The man backed down, but at the end of the line, as Robinson and Mrs. Jones waited for a second bus, he returned with his dispatcher and two other drivers. Robinson refused, and so began a series of events that led to his arrest and court-martial and, finally, threatened his entire career.

Later, all charges stemming from the actual incident on the bus and Robinson’s argument with the civilian secretary were dropped. He had still to face a court-martial, but on the two lesser charges of insubordination arising from his confrontation in the guardhouse.

The court-martial of 2d Lt. Jackie Robinson took place on August 2, 1944. After testimony, voting by secret written ballot, the nine judges found Robinson “not guilty of all specifications and charges.” (Tygiel) In November 1944, he received an honorable discharge and then started his professional baseball career.

He played for the Kansas City Monarchs as a part of the Negro Leagues until Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey decided he wanted to integrate baseball. (Hall of Fame)

On October 23, 1945, it was announced to the world that Robinson had signed a contract to play baseball for the Montreal Royals of the International League, the top minor-league team in the Dodgers organization.

Robinson had actually signed a few months earlier. In that now-legendary meeting, Rickey extracted a promise that Jackie would hold his sharp tongue and quick fists in exchange for the opportunity to break Organized Baseball’s color barrier. (Swain)

Robinson led the International League with a .349 average and 40 stolen bases. He earned a promotion to the Dodgers. (Hall of Fame)

On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers in their opening-day game against the Boston Braves. In so doing, he became the first African-American to play in the major leagues since an abortive attempt at integration in 1884. (Schwarz)

At the end of his first season, Robinson was named the Rookie of the Year. He was named the NL MVP just two years later in 1949, when he led the league in hitting with a .342 average and steals with 37, while also notching a career-high 124 RBI. The Dodgers won six pennants in Robinson’s 10 seasons. (Hall of Fame)

Playing football was not Robinson’s only sports experience in Hawaiʻi; immediately following the 1956 Worlds Series (that the Dodgers lost to the Yankees,) on October 12, 1956, the Dodgers went on a Japan exhibition tour.

Along the way, Robinson and the Dodgers stopped for pre-tour exhibitions in Hawaii with games against the Maui All-Stars, the Hawaiian All-Stars and the Hawaiian champion Red Sox. (Jackie Robinson died on October 24, 1972 at the age of 53.)

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Plantation Camps

“I want (my children) to remember that the parents, grandparents were part of that company, the sugar company. The parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, you know, down the line, the older generation.”

“I want (my children) to think about the older generation, what they gone through for make you possible, as a young generation coming up, eh? That the sugar made you a family, too.” (John Mendes, former Hāmākua Sugar Company worker; UH Center for Oral History)

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the Hawaiian landscape. A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America. There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese 1852; Japanese 1885 and Filipinos 1905.

Several smaller, but substantial, migrations also occurred: Portuguese 1877; Norwegians 1880; Germans 1881; Puerto Ricans 1900; Koreans 1902 and Spanish 1907.

The different languages and unusual names created problems; because of this, sugar plantation owners devised an identification system to keep workers sorted out. Upon each laborer’s arrival, a plantation official gave them a metal tag called a bango.

The bango was made of brass or aluminum and had a number printed on one side. It was usually worn on a chain around their neck. Bangos came in different shapes. The shape you wore was determined by your race. Every plantation used bangos. (Lassalle) “They never call a man by his name. Always by his bango, 7209 or 6508 in that manner.” (Takaki)

Plantation camps, developed to house workers and their families, were once scattered among the cane fields. The plantation camps were segregated by ethnicity as well as by occupational rank. Most had the “Japanese camp,” “the Puerto Rican camp,” “the Filipino camp.” (Merry) “There was one called ‘Alabama Camp.’ “Alabama?” “Yeah; we used to have Negroes working on the plantation.” (Takaki)

Supervisors, called lunas, were generally haole (white,) native Hawaiian or Portuguese until the early twentieth century, or Japanese by midcentury. They lived in special parts of the plantation housing, divided from those of other backgrounds by roads and by rules not to play with the children across the street.

The plantation manager typically lived in the “big house” across the street, and although his children might sneak out to play with the workers, his social life revolved around visits with other haole manager families. (Merry)

After cane railroads came into use, field camps were discontinued almost entirely and everyone lived close to the mill. (MacDonald)

While the emigration of Japanese women during the picture bride era changed the composition of the plantation camps there still remained a large community of single male laborers. In 1910 men outnumbered adult women 2-to-1 in the Territory and in some communities, the sex ratio was even more skewed. (Bill)

The canefields were a social space as well as worksite. With families to care for, women had little free time and fieldwork offered daily contact with other women. The companionship of others is what women most often remember about their field work days. (Bill)

The camps were self-sufficient and resources, hours, and pay were tightly controlled by the plantation management. As their contracts expired, members of these ethnic groups either moved back to their home countries, or moved to “plantation towns” and began mercantile business, boarding houses bars, restaurants, billiard halls, dance halls and movie theaters. (Historic Honokaa Project)

Company towns with schools, churches, businesses, hospitals, and recreational facilities emerged as workers raised families on the plantations. (Bill)

“We bought most of our food and clothing from the plantation stores and, if our families were short of cash, credit would be provided. Some children were born at home, but most of us were born in and treated for our illnesses at the plantation hospital.”

“We were entertained (in a) recreational building provided by the plantation. Our young people, especially the males, enjoyed the ballparks provided – again – by the plantations. … (W)e worshiped in church building provided by plantation management for the large groups who worshiped and conducted religious instruction in the language of their members.” (Nagtalon-Miller)

While the public schools in the rural areas of Hawaii were not under direct control of plantation management, they were looked upon as an extension of the plantation because virtually every child had parents who worked on the plantation.

School principal and teachers were often included in the social milieu of the plantations hierarchy, and school program tended to represent middle-class American values of hard work and upward mobility, which have motivated second generation children from the early 1930s to the present.

Although immigrants did not own their own homes or lots (everything was owned by the plantations, which provided for most of their needs), our families were largely content with this economic support system. In any case, for most people there was no alternative.

Most laborers had little or no schooling. We lived in groups where language and cultural values were shared. While wages were meager, women took in laundry, made and sold ethnic foods, and did sewing to supplement their husbands’ pay, and many people were able to send money regularly to parents, siblings, or wives and children who remained in the Philippines, enabling them to buy property or finance an education. (Nagtalon-Miller)

“The plantation took care of us. The plantation was everybody’s mom over here. They held us. I mean, you had plantation life, and then you get the real world. And we were so sheltered.” (Dardenella Gamayo, Pa‘auhau resident; UH Center for Oral History)

Make no mistake; life on the plantation was hard.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Voyaging … and Returning

“In the South Pacific the North Star cannot be seen – north is a dark area of the sky over which stars arch on their nightly paths. One night the navigator discovers a new star just above the horizon in the center of the place of darkness.”

“And as time passed the new star did not appear to move. … Soon everyone was awake to see this miracle; this star that did not move. … Could it have been placed by the gods to light our way to new land?”

Later, “… a massive cloud bank on the western horizon appeared to be standing still, not moving in the wind – a sign that it might be building over an unseen island. … Then we saw a bird, it was homeward bound after its day of fishing. Flying over the water it headed straight for the strange cloud bank in the west and we knew land was near.”

“Looking anew at the clouds we saw a sight difficult to comprehend. What had appeared as an unusual could formation was now revealed as the peak of a gigantic mountain, a mountain of unbelievable size, a white mountain …” (Herb Kane; The Discovery of Hawaiʻi)

Using stratigraphic archaeology and refinements in radiocarbon dating, recent studies suggest it was about AD 900–1000 AD that “Polynesian explorers first made their remarkable voyage from central Eastern Polynesia Islands, across the doldrums and into the North Pacific, to discover Hawai‘i.” (Kirch)

The motivations of the voyagers varied. Some left to explore the world or to seek adventure. Others departed to find new land or new resources because of growing populations or prolonged droughts and other ecological disasters in their homelands. (PVS)

By the time European explorers entered the Pacific in the 15th century almost all of the habitable islands had been settled for hundreds of years and oral traditions told of explorations, migrations and travels across this immense watery world. (Kawaharada)

According to Hawaiian oral traditions collected in the 19th century, voyaging continued between Hawai‘i and the South Pacific after the original settlement of Hawai‘i. The motives given for voyaging are various:

Maintaining Family Connections

The earliest traveler mentioned in oral tradition is the goddess Papa, or Walinuʻu; according to tradition she returned to Kahiki because her parents were from there; in Kahiki she became a young woman again; after her rejuvenation, she returned to Hawai‘i. (Kamakau; PVS)

Moʻikeha is said to have sent his son Kila to Tahiti to bring his grandson Laʻamaikahiki to Hawai‘i. (Fornander; PVS)

Marriage

Hawaiʻiloa voyaged from Hawai‘i to Tahiti to search for husbands or wives for his children. He brought back his brother Ki’s first born son Tu-nui-ai-a-te-Atua as a husband for his daughter O‘ahu. (Fornander; PVS)

Keanini (whose mother was from Hawai‘i) sailed from Kahiki to Hawai‘i to marry Ha‘inakolo; he and Ha‘inakolo returned to Kahiki. After they had a child called Leimakani, Ha‘inakolo and Leimakani returned to Hawai‘i. (Kamakau; PVS)

Family Quarrels and Unhappy Love Affairs

Pele, the volcano goddess, quarreled with her sister Namakaokaha‘i, a sea goddess, and left her homeland (the mystical land of Kuaihelani) to come to Hawai‘i. (Emerson; PVS)

Pāʻao feuded with his brother Lonopele. After each killed the other’s son, Pāʻao migrated to Hawai‘i. (Kamakau; PVS)

Burial in Homeland

Laʻamaikahiki took Mo‘ikeha’s bones back to Tahiti for burial. (Fornander; PVS)

Acquiring Mana from the Homeland

Pāʻao, who brought the war god Kūkaʻilimoku to Hawai‘i, returned to Tahiti to bring back a chief of pure blood (Kamakau; PVS)

Escaping Flood and Famine

Pupu-hulu-ana left Kauai during a famine and searched for islands to the east (Kamakau; PVS) ‘Olopana left Waipi‘o for Kahiki after a flood brought on a famine (Kalakaua; PVS)

Maka‘ika‘i – Sightseeing and Adventure

Kaulu “traveled throughout Kahiki, saw all the kingdoms of the world” (Kamakau; PVS) Paumaukua “was a chief who traveled around Kahiki and brought back with him several foreigners”. (Kamakau; PVS)

Mo‘ikeha’s grandson Kaha‘i-a-Ho‘okamali‘i went sightseeing to Tahiti and brought back with him a breadfruit tree from ‘Upolu (Taha‘a in the Society Islands) and planted it at Pu‘uloa, ‘Ewa district, O‘ahu. (Kamakau; PVS)

Obtain Materials or Plants not Available on one’s home island

The tradition of Aka describes a voyage from Hiva (Marquesas) to Rarotonga to obtain highly prized red feathers; the story of Pepe-iu describes a voyage made to bring the breadfruit plant from Hiva to Rarotonga. (PVS)

By the time Europeans arrived in Hawai‘i in the 18th century, voyaging between Hawai‘i and the rest of Polynesia had ceased for more than 400 years, perhaps the last voyager being Pāʻao or Moʻikeha in the 14th century. The reason for the cessation of voyaging is not known. (PVS) (Lots of information here from Polynesian Voyaging Society)

The image shows a Herb Kane depiction of readying a canoe for a voyage. (Herb Kane)

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