Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Spencer House

Francis (Frank) McFarland Spencer (November 25, 1819 – May 19, 1897) was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and was early apprenticed to the carpenter’s trade.  In 1849, with many others in the colonies, he set sail and sought fortune from the California gold rush.

On the way, their vessel was wrecked on the reef outside Honolulu; all her passengers were saved. Spencer decided to remain in the Islands and went to work at his trade.  (Evening Bulletin, May 20, 1897)

In 1850, he opened a store on Hotel Street known as the Spencer House. His dry goods business flourished; marketing “the most useful and cheapest goods … (promising) Quick Sales and Small Profits.”

But that is not the Spencer House of this story.

To get to this one, however, we need to step back a bit; we go back to 1819.

That was the time when whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.  Rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands.  Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile fields.  The whaling industry was the mainstay of the island economy for about 40 years.

William French arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1819 and settled in Honolulu.  He became a leading trader, providing hides and tallow, and provisioning the whaling ships that called in Honolulu.  Financial success during the next decade made French known as “the merchant prince.”

French also had property on the Island of Hawaiʻi, with a main headquarters there at Kawaihae, shipping cattle, hides and tallow to Honolulu; he hired John Palmer Parker (later founder of Parker Ranch) as his bookkeeper, cattle hunter and in other capacities.  (Wellmon)

When French made claims before the Land Commission regarding one of the properties (identified as “slaughter-house premises” that he bought from Governor Kuakini in 1838,) testimony supporting his claim noted it was “a place for a beautiful house which Mr French would not sell for money. … It was enclosed by a stone wall.  There were two natives occupying houses on his land.”  (Land Commission Testimony)

The 2.8-acre property is in an area of Waimea known as Puʻuloa; French built a couple houses on it, the property was bounded by Waikoloa Stream and became Parker’s home while he worked for French.  (In addition, in 1840, this is where French built his original home in Waimea.  (Bergin))

At Puʻuloa, Parker ran one of French’s stores, which was nothing more than a thatched hut.  Although this store was less grandiose than the other one at Kawaihae, it became the center of the cattle business on the Waimea plain.

Here, French employed a saddle-maker and operated a tannery. Parker kept busy supervising this operation and collecting beef, tallow and leather to supply the needs of French’s growing business.  (Wellmon)

There was no surplus of currency in Waimea at this time, and most of the business at the Puʻuloa store consisted of bartering for goods and services. Long-term credit and buying on time was the rule rather than the exception in these transactions.  (Wellmon)

Back in Honolulu, in 1840, French entered into a partnership with John Greenway; it was dissolved “in a manner involving the most disastrous consequences to Mr French.”

In a report of enquiry, a committee that reviewed the matter found “the investigation has ended in a conviction, that Mr. French stands before you fully vindicated, and cleared of all the imputations that were cast upon his honest intentions, that this is proved by the indisputable evidence of every written document found, from the 7th April, 1842”.  (Polynesian, August 10, 1844)

French died at Kawaihae on November 25, 1851.  “Many who have made their fortunes in these Islands have owed their rise in the world to the patronage of Mr French.”  (Polynesian, December 6, 1851)

OK, back to Spencer – in addition to his Honolulu ‘Spencer House’ selling “fancy and staple goods,” Spencer acquired land and started to get into business on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

When French died, Spencer and a partner took over French’s livestock (his partner was James Louzada (one of the first español (paniolo,) Mexican cowboys to Hawaiʻi.))  (Bergin) Spencer also acquired some of French’s property when French died.  (Mills) (Presumably, included was French’s home at Puʻuloa we now call Spencer House in Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island.)

Spencer was granted a lease on government lands in 1859 that gave him “…a monopoly on all sheep and wild cattle on Mauna Kea and the mountain lands, including uses of the Pōhakuloa plateau lands, Kalaiʻeha, Keanakolu, Hanaipoe, and smaller stations in between these areas”.  (Cultural Surveys)

Later, on August 1, 1861, the Hawaiian Government leased Humuʻula and Kaʻohe lands (including the summit of Mauna Kea) to the newly-formed Waimea Grazing and Agricultural Company (WGAC.) (Mills & Maly)

WGAC was formed in May 1861 through a merger of Louzada, Spencer and Co and Robert C Janion.  By 1873, it had a house and wool barn. (In 1883, the operation was incorporated as the Humu‘ula Sheep Station Company and was later acquired by Parker Ranch.)

In 1864 or 1865, Spencer sold his Honolulu dry goods business and moved permanently to the Island of Hawaiʻi, making his home at Waimea, where he engaged in the business of raising sheep, and afterwards cattle. For a number of years he held the office of District Magistrate of Waimea. (Evening Bulletin, May 20, 1897)

In 1865, Spencer obtained a lease of the entire ahupua‘a of Pu‘u Anahulu “excepting the land rights of the native tenants thereon…” (a total leased area of about 83,000-acres.)  The addition of Pu‘u Anahulu to Spencer’s holdings gave him almost continuous grazing coverage from Hilo, Hāmākua, South Kohala and Kona.   (Cultural Surveys)

On June 1, 1898, Robert Hind Jr and Eben Low acquired Spencer’s interest in Pu‘u Anahulu, and the leasehold Government Lands were added to their inventory of the Pu‘u Waʻawaʻa Ranch holdings. (DLNR)

WGAC sold hides, tallow, salted beef, wool and mutton, and maintained several company stores.  The market for sheep and cattle products was in flux in the 1860s and 1870s, with the value of sheep eventually rising above that of cattle.  (Mills)

Spencer continued with his cattle and sheep operations on the Island of Hawaiʻi.   However, owing to ill health, Spencer came from his home at Waimea, Hawaiʻi, to reside with his daughter.  He died May 19, 1897.   (Evening Bulletin, May 20, 1897)

Spencer’s daughter, Frances “Fanny” Tasmania Spencer had married Richard Fredrick Bickerton (he later became an Associate Justice for the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court – 1886-1895.)  Reportedly, Spencer’s Waimea “Spencer House” was briefly known and used as Bickerton Hotel.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Maunawili

While the valley is known as Maunawili, the word itself is a contraction of “twisted mountain.”

Archaeologists tell us that inland migration in the eleventh and twelfth centuries generally followed Maunawili and Kahanaʻiki streams into Maunawili valley with population concentrated at Kukanono (around the Castle Hospital area) and Maunawili, where fresh water was plentiful in both places.

In ancient times, the natural springs of Maunawili fed a network of streams that laced the valley: Makawao, furthest back in the valley; Ainoi, Maunawili, Omao and Palapu, all of which flowed into a common tributary to Kawainui.  A separate branch further toward the Pali, Kahana’iki, also fed the marsh.

Irrigated loʻi – interspersed with ti and popolo (black nightshade herb) plantings – stretched to Kawainui’s fishponds. There the streams fed nutrient-rich water into the ponds to nurture limu (algae) for the fish as well as to sustain lepo’ai’ai, edible mud the color of poi and the texture of haupia.

James Boyd, a British seaman (and Kamehameha confidant) is believed to be the first white landowner in the Kailua area. He and his descendants operated the Maunawili Ranch until it was acquired by William G. Irwin, a sugar factor.

The ranch was one of the largest cattle operations on Windward Oahu in the 19th century.  Irwin bought up the valley in the early-1890s as watershed to irrigate a Waimanalo sugar plantation.

In addition, he and others experimented with other crops.  At first, rice paddies replaced the taro lo’i (starting in about the 1860s.)  In 1894, Irwin’s Maunawili ranch manager, George Gibb, began planting coffee.

He expanded his planting each year thereafter until 1900, by which time over 110-acres were planted in Liberian beans (a coffee mill was later added.)  Gibb’s records show he planted “300 Carica papaya” in December of 1902, suggesting he was the first to plant solo papayas in Hawai’i.

Avocado and cacao were planted the following year.  In 1904, Kona oranges were attempted along with Eucalyptus Robusta; more Kona oranges and mangosteen, possibly for the first time in Hawaii, were tried in 1905. Koa and Chinese banyan were planted in 1906 and Kola nut in 1910.

Some of these early plantings took decades to mature. In April of 1939, the ranch manager reported fruits on trees dating back to 1905. But by then he had lost hope for Brazilian Cherries dating to 1903, an Apple variety of approximately the same time, and several other trees going back as far as 1900.

All this experimentation was a sideline to Maunawili’s value as the only promising water source for the perpetually-parched Waimanalo plantation. In 1900, to explore that promise Irwin retained M. M. O’Shaughnessy, a civil engineer celebrated for building early dams and tunnels in California and Hawaii.

O’Shaughnessy learned that, in addition to 43 inches of average annual rainfall, the plantation was irrigated by Maunawili spring “and all springs and streams east of it to the Ranch boundary, amounting in all to 1.5 million (gallons) in ordinary times and in dry seasons to one million gallons.”

If Maunawili could be tapped for another four million gallons during a four-month dry season, plantation manager George Chalmers forecast another 1,000 tons in annual sugar production.

C Brewer acquired a stake in the valley in 1910 when the sugar factor acquired Irwin’s business when he retired.  In a June 27, 1924 report, the ranch was described as “sparsely forested foothills close to the mountain wall” with indigenous Hawaiian trees: koa, kukui and some lehua.

The remaining area was largely “overrun with staghorn fern, and lower portions have a substantial growth of low guava.”

The report continued: “Here and there Java plum, waiawi, a few eucalyptus, iron wood, coffee and rubber trees are apparently thriving.”

A forest reserve line was proposed that would take in ranch land then used for pasturage, “a large portion of which . . . suitable for pineapple cultivation.” But the benefits of a reforestation program to stabilize water flow for the summer months at Waimanalo out-weighed this consideration.

Under Brewer, from 1924 through 1926, there was a massive cultivation effort with nearly 80,000 trees in the three year period. Juniper, Mahogany, Australian cedar and tropical ash were among them.

From 1927 through 1932 a total of 45 different varieties of fruit trees were introduced to the valley by Brewer ranging from Allspice to water apple. By 1931, a large number of solo papaya trees and many varieties of banana were growing plus a total of nearly 11,000-cashew trees.

The cashew plantings had resulted in “excellent growth” but a serious blight affected the blossom “if the blossom season occurs during wet weather;” the cashew nut crops had been poor.

Australian Macadamia plantings were placed between the solo papaya trees in 1936; at that time, avocados, limes, banyan and coconut trees also were carried on the ranch’s rolls.

In the summer of 1939 the UH College of Agriculture advised Brewer to embark on the cultivation of papaya at Maunawili on a large scale and the ranch manager was instructed to give the proposal serious evaluation.

That fall, the Territorial Board of Agriculture & Forestry asked for Hayden mango tree branches for propagation and permission to release pheasants in the valley.

The ranch manager was against introducing any further pheasants because they damaged young growing plants, especially papaya, and suggested doves as a better choice because they fed on weed seeds rather than plants.

Lili‘uokalani used to visit friends at the Boyd estate in Maunawili.  She and her brother King David Kalākaua were regular guests and attended parties or simply came there to rest.  Guests would walk between two parallel rows of royal palms, farewells would be exchanged; then they would ride away on horseback or in their carriages.

On one trip, when leaving, she witnessed a particularly affectionate farewell between a gentleman in her party and a lovely young girl from Maunawili.

As they rode up the Pali and into the swirling winds, she started to hum a melody weaving words into a romantic song.  The Queen continued to hum and completed her song as they rode the winding trail down the valley back to Honolulu.

She put her words to music and as a result of that 1878 visit she wrote “Aloha ‘Oe.”  (Lots of info here from Maunawili Community Association.)  The image shows ‘Maunawili Peaks (Olomana) from Kailua’ by D Howard Hitchcock (1910s.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Described in the First Decade of the Unified Hawaiian Islands

1810 marked the unification of the Hawaiian Islands under single rule when negotiations between King Kaumuali‘i of Kauai and Kamehameha I at Pākākā took place.  Kaumuali‘i ceded Kauai and Ni‘ihau to Kamehameha and the Hawaiian Islands were unified under a single leader.  There was peace in the Islands.

On the American and European continents, war was waging.  Twenty-nine years after the end of the American Revolution, conflict between the new US and Britain flared up, again – it lasted until 1815.

A lasting legacy of the War of 1812 was the lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the US national anthem. They were penned by the amateur poet Francis Scott Key after he watched American forces withstand the British siege of Fort McHenry, Baltimore (named for James McHenry, Secretary of War, 1796 – 1800.)

In Europe, in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of France.  In 1815, as part of ongoing series of conflicts and wars in Europe, African and the Middle East, Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo (in what is now present-day Belgium.)

Back on the American continent, later in the decade (1818,) the US and Canada came to an agreement on their common boundary and used the 49th parallel to mark their border.  The next year, Spain ceded Florida to the US.

In the Islands, Kamehameha I, who had been living at Waikiki, moved his Royal Residence to Pākākā at Honolulu Harbor in 1809.

That year, Archibald Campbell described the Honolulu surroundings:  “Upon landing I was much struck with the beauty and fertility of the country … The village of Hanaroora (Honolulu,) which consisted of several hundred houses, is well shaded with large cocoa-nut trees.”

“The king’s residence, built close upon the shore, and surrounded by a palisade upon the land side, was distinguished by the British colours and a battery of sixteen carriage guns …”

“This palace consisted merely of a range of huts, viz. the king’s eating-house, a store, powder magazine, and guard-house, with a few huts for the attendants, all constructed after the fashion of the country.”

Kamehameha’s immediate court consisted of high-ranking chiefs and their retainers.  Those who contributed to the welfare and enjoyment of court members also lived here, from fishermen and warriors to foreigners and chiefs of lesser rank.

Today, the site is generally at the open space now called Walker Park at the corner of Queen and Fort streets (there is a canon from the old fort there) – (ʻEwa side of the former Amfac Center, now the Topa Financial Plaza, near the fountain.)

ʻEwa side of Pākākā (where Nuʻuanu Stream empties into the harbor) was the area known as Kapuʻukolo.  This is “where white men and such dwelt.”  Of the approximate sixty white residents on O‘ahu at the time, nearly all lived in the village, and many were in the service of the king.

Among those who lived here were Don Francisco de Paula Marin, the Spaniard who greatly expanded horticulture in Hawaiʻi, and Isaac Davis (Welch,) friend and co-advisor with John Young (British) to Kamehameha.

Campbell noted, “(Isaac Davis’) house was distinguished from those of the natives only by the addition of a shed in front to keep off the sun; within, it was spread with mats, but had no furniture, except two benches to sit upon. He lived very much like the natives, and had acquired such a taste for poe (poi,) that he preferred it to any other food.”

In those days, this area was not called Honolulu.  The old name for what is now the heart of downtown Honolulu was said to be Kou, a district roughly encompassing the present day area from Nuʻuanu to Alakea Streets and from Hotel to Queen Streets.

Honolulu Harbor, also known as Kuloloia, was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.  He named the harbor “Fair Haven.”  The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

A large yam field (what is now much of the core of downtown Honolulu – what is now bounded by King, Nuʻuanu, Beretania and Alakea Streets) was planted to provide visiting ships with an easily-stored food supply for their voyages (supplying ships with food and water was a growing part of the Islands’ economy.)

A couple years later, John Whitman noted in his journal (1813-1815,) “… Honoruru is the most fertile district on the Island. It extends about two miles from the Harbour where it is divided into two valleys by a ridge of high land. The district is highly cultivated and abounds in all the productions of these Islands.”

“The village consists of a number of huts of different sizes scattered along the front of the Harbour without regularity and the natives have lost much of the generous hospitality and simplicity that characterize those situated more remotely from this busy scene.”

Whitman goes on to note, “… everything necessary for the subsistence and comfort of man is found in the (Nuʻuanu) valley, watered by a rivulet it produces the best taro in great abundance, the ridge dividing the taro patches are covered with sugar cane.”

“The high ground yields sweet potatoes and yams and all the other productions of the Island are found in the various situations and soils adapted to their nature.”

In 1816-1817, Otto Von Kotzebue in command of a Russian exploratory expedition spent three weeks in the “Sandwich Islands.”  He gave a description of the loʻi kalo in the Nuʻuanu area:

“The valley of Nuanu (Nuʻuanu,) behind Hanarura (Honolulu,) is the most extensive and pleasant of all. … The cultivation of the valleys behind Hanarura is remarkable.  Artificial ponds support, even on the mountains, the taro plantations, which are at the same time fish-ponds; and all kinds of useful plants are cultivated on the intervening dams.”

In 1818, Peter Corney, who resided on O‘ahu as a representative of the Northwest Company and engaged in the sandalwood and other trade, noted:

“The Island of Woahoo (Oʻahu) is by far the most important of the group of the Sandwich Island, chiefly on account of its excellent harbours and good water. It is in a high state of cultivation; and abounds with cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, horses, etc., as well as vegetables and fruit of every description.”

“The ships in those seas generally touch at Ohwhyhee, and get permission from Tameameah (Kamehameha,) before they can go into the harbor of Woahoo.”

“He sends a confidential man on board to look after the vessel, and keep the natives from stealing; and, previous to entering the harbor of Honorora (Honolulu), they must pay eighty dollars harbor duty, and twelve dollars to John Harbottle, the pilot…”

“The village consists of about 300 houses regularly built, those of the chiefs being larger and fenced in. Each family must have three houses, one to sleep in, one for the men to eat in, and one for the women, – the sexes not being allowed to eat together.”

“Cocoanut, bread-fruit, and castor-oil-nut (kukui) trees, form delicious shades, between the village and a range of mountains which runs along the island in a NW and SE direction.” (Corney)

Jacques Arago, who visited Hawai‘i in 1819 with Captain Louis Claude de Saulses de Freycinet on the French ships L’Uranie and L’Physicienne, described some of the daily activities:


“At sunrise, men, women, and children quit their dwellings; some betake themselves to fishing (chiefly the women) on the rocks, or near the shore; others to the making of mats …”

“… the rest offer their little productions to, or solicit employment from, strangers, in exchange for European articles; while the masters of families repair to the public square, to witness or participate in amusements, of which they are astonishingly fond…”

The first decade of the Islands under single rule ended with the death of Kamehameha.  Prior to his death (May 8, 1819,) Kamehameha decreed that that his son, Liholiho, would succeed him in power; he also decreed that his nephew, Kekuaokalani, have control of the war god Kūkaʻilimoku.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Margaret Clarissa Shipman

William Cornelius Shipman was born at Wethersfield, Connecticut, on May 19, 1824. He was one of five children of Reuben and Margaret Clarissa (Bulkley) Shipman. In 1832 the family moved to western Illinois.

In 1846 young Shipman enrolled in the Mission Institute in Quincy, Illinois, and at the New Haven Theological Seminary.  On May 14, 1854, he was ordained at the Howe Street Church in New Haven, and on July 31, 1853, he married Jane Stobie at Waverly, Illinois.

Mr. and Mrs. Shipman and Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Doane, who were also designated for the Micronesian mission, embarked on the ship Chasca (Capt. Merrill) at Boston on June 4, 1854, and arrived at Lahaina on October 19, 1854.

At that time, the Wai‘ōhinu Station on the island of Hawai‘i was vacant due to the death of Rev. Henry Kinney, and by action of the Hawaiian Mission, the Shipmans were offered this position. This they accepted, while the Doanes continued to Ponape and Ebon.

“During his missionary life of six years, [Shipman] had established a reputation for great efficiency, eminent practical common sense, and sincere devotion to the temporal and spiritual welfare of his people.”

Shipman died of typhoid fever at Punalu‘u, Ka‘ū, on December 21, 1861. When her husband died, Mrs. Shipman was in poor health and had three small children to care for: William ‘Willie’ Herbert Shipman, b. Dec. 19, 1854, at Lahainaluna, Maui; Oliver Taylor Shipman, b. Dec. 15, 1857, at Wai‘ōhinu, Ka‘ū; and Margaret Clarissa ‘Clara’ Shipman, b. Oct. 10, 1859, at Wai‘ōhinu.

Jane then moved to Hilo where she stayed with the Coan family. In February 1862, she decided to put up a house in Hilo, and opened a boarding and day school on Pleasant Street. She continued the school until July 1868, just before she married William H. Reed on July 7, 1868, in Hilo.

There is not a lot of information about the early life of daughter Margaret Clarissa ‘Clara’ Shipman. However, in February 1884 she married Lorrin Andrews Thurston, whom she had known at Punahou.

Lorrin Andrews Thurston was a notable grandson of missionaries, the Thurstons and Andrews. His father was Asa Goodale Thurston, and his mother was Sarah Andrews, daughter of Lorrin and Mary Ann Andrews, also missionaries.

Lorrin’s father, son of Kona missionaries Asa and Lucy Thurston, was born 1827 in Kona.  His father left the Islands in 1840 to go to school for ten years; prep school, Yale, and in 1849 became Hawai‘i’s first graduate from Williams College.  Lorrin’s father died at 32 in 1859, sixteen months after Lorrin was born.

Thurston had a three-generation background in his native land, Hawai‘i. He was the grandson of four missionaries to these Islands. His parents, missionary descendants, were not themselves missionaries. (Twigg-Smith)

Lorrin Thurston became a lawyer and immersed himself in politics; he was elected to House of Representatives in 1886 at age 28.

One piece of legislation he introduced reversed what he saw as a grave injustice in early Hawaiian law that gave all of a woman’s property to her husband on marriage. His new law enabled women to retain their property and also to carry out independent careers as businesswomen.

Lorrin and Clara’s first son Robert Shipman Thurston was born on February 1, 1888, but on May 5, 1891, Clara died in childbirth with their second child, who also died.

Thurston remarried to Harriet Potter of St. Joseph, Michigan, April 5, 1894, and of this union Margaret Carter Thurston (she married William Twigg-Smith) and Lorrin Potter Thurston were born. (Mid-Pacific)

Thurston was one of the authors of the so-called “Bayonet Constitution” in 1887, helped form the Committee of Safety, and was a leader of the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Thurston descendants became owners of the Honolulu Advertiser.

There is another side to Thurston … he first visited Kīlauea in 1879 at the age of 21 with Louis von Tempsky.  Thurston wrote that “we hired horses in Hilo and rode to the volcano, from about eight o’clock in the morning to five in the afternoon.”  (NPS)

Ten years later Thurston’s first mark upon the Volcano landscape appeared. In 1889, using his position as Minister of the Interior, he oversaw the construction of an improved carriage road from Hilo to Volcano.

The road was completed in 1894 allowing four-horse stages to transport visitors from Hilo to Volcano in seven hours. This feat would greatly increase the number of people able to view the volcano at Kīlauea.  (NPS)

The cave/lava tube he later found is also known as Keanakakina (Cave of Thurston – keana meaning cave and kakina the Hawaiian name for Thurston.)

“On Aug. 2nd a large party headed by LA Thurston explored the lava tube in the twin Craters recently discovered by Lorrin Thurston, Jr. Two ladders lashed together gave comparatively easy access to the tube and the whole party, including several ladies, climbed up.”

“No other human beings had been in the tube, as was evidenced by the perfect condition of the numerous stalactites and stalagmites. Dr. Jaggar estimated the length of the tube as slightly over 1900 feet. It runs northeasterly from the crater and at the end pinches down until the floor and roof come together…”  (Thayer, Kempe)

Thurston and George Lycurgus (Uncle George) were instrumental in getting the volcano recognized as a National Park.  Starting in 1906, the two were working to have the Mauna Loa and Kilauea Volcanoes area so designated.  In 1912, geologist Thomas Augustus Jaggar arrived to investigate and joined their effort.  (Takara)

On August 1, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the country’s 13th National Park into existence – Hawaiʻi National Park.  At first, the park consisted of only the summits of Kīlauea and Mauna Loa on Hawaiʻi and Haleakalā on Maui.

Eventually, Kīlauea Caldera was added to the park, followed by the forests of Mauna Loa, the Kaʻū Desert, the rain forest of Olaʻa and the Kalapana archaeological area of the Puna/Kaʻū Historic District.

On July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. (Lots here is from Partners in Change, NPS and Twigg-Smith.)

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King of Laysan

Kauō (Laysan Island) is the second largest land mass in the NWHI (1,015 acres) just behind Sand Island at Midway Atoll. It is about 1 mile wide and 1-1/2 miles long and roughly rectangular in shape (shaped like a poi board).

Laysan Island is a member of the Hawaiian archipelago situated 790 sea miles to the northwest of Honolulu, latitude 25” 2’ 14” N, longitude 170” 44’ 06” W.

The island has a maximum elevation of about 30 feet. A fringing reef surrounds the island protecting its shores from violent wave action.  (Baldwin)

Kauō (egg) describes both the shape of this island and, perhaps, the abundant seabirds that nest here. The island also previously harbored five Hawaiian endemic land birds, of which two, the endangered Laysan finch and the endangered Laysan duck, still survive. (PMNM Management Plan)

In the Main Hawaiian Islands, sugar‐cane farming proved to be a crop that could be grown profitably under the severe conditions imposed upon plants grown on the lands which were available for cultivation.  (HSPA 1947)  A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.

“After the experiment station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association was started in 1895, analysis of soils and fertilizers became one of its major functions. On the basis of the chemical analyses. fertilizers were prescribed, and when necessary specially compounded to suit the requirements of each plantation.”

From 1890 two local fertilizer companies started: The North Pacific Phosphate and Fertilizer Company (when first organized in 1890 by George N Wilcox and later called the Pacific Guano and Fertilizer Company); and The Hawaiian Fertilizer Company (started by Amos F Cooke).  (Kuykendall)

This leads us to Maximilian “Max” Joseph August Schlemmer (April 13, 1856 – June 13, 1935).  Max was born in the French province of Alsace Lorraine to German parents. In 1871, as the Prussian army crossed the French border, Max set sail for New York.

After traveling on whaling ships for several years, in 1885, he settled in Hawaii.  He lived and worked on Kauai at a sugar mill and applied his mechanical skills to a small railroad system for transporting material at the mill.

Max later got a job with the North Pacific Phosphate and Fertilizer Company which extracted nitrate from the guano obtained from islands where birds nested in large numbers, particularly Laysan Island.

In his early years in Hawaii, he gained “squatter’s rights” to Laysan Island. Later he established his home on this tiny, distant, and isolated island. (Unger)

Max lived and worked on the island intermittently from 1893-1915. He became known as the “King of Laysan Island.” As the company he worked for began to turn elsewhere for fertilizer, he took full charge of the mining of guano on Laysan.

Japanese pirates began visiting this island and neighboring Lisianski Island to kill the birds for their skins, which brought a hefty profit. Max also tried to use the birds for profit, but all his attempts failed. (Smithsonian)

The island’s easy access and large number of seabirds made it a base for traders of guano (bird droppings used as fertilizer) and feather harvesters in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In addition, approximately two million seabirds nest here, including boobies, frigatebirds, terns, shearwaters, noddies, and the world’s second-largest black-footed and Laysan albatross colonies. (PMNM Management Plan)

Laysan has a large saltwater lagoon occupying about one-fifth of the island’s central depression. It is well vegetated (except for its sand dunes) and contains a hyper-saline lake, which is one of only five natural lakes in the State of Hawai‘i. (PMNM)

In February of 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt declared Laysan and the other islands in the Hawaiian archipelago to be the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation, thus hoping to stop the destruction of the feathered inhabitants. However, bird pirating continued.

“The Hawaiian Islands Reservation was established by Executive order in 1909 to serve as a refuge and breeding place for the millions of sea birds and waders that from time immemorial have resorted there yearly to raise their young or to rest while migrating.”

In 1909 a party of feather hunters landed on Laysan, one of the twelve islands comprising the reservation, and killed more than 200,000 birds, notably albatrosses, for millinery (women’s hats – feathers for hats were popular at the time) purposes.”

“Through the prompt cooperation of the Secretary of the Treasury, the revenue cutter Thetis, under the command of Capt. W. V. E. Jacobs, was dispatched to the island and returned to Honolulu in January, 1910, with 23 poachers and their booty, consisting of the plumage of more than a quarter of a million birds.” (Expedition to Laysan, 1911)

Max introduced rabbits to the isolated island as a potential source of food, and as amusement for his children while he was overseeing guano extraction activities. (PMNM) (Max married a daughter of German immigrants, who bore three children. After she died, he married her 16-year-old sister, who bore fourteen more children (17 children total.))

By 1918 the rabbits had eaten nearly everything on the island and only a few hundred rabbits remained. Over the course of 20 years the rabbits wiped out 26 species of plants and the once abundant Laysan Millerbird, which became extinct around this time. By 1923 Laysan had become a wasteland. (PMNM)

Schlemmer was indicted for poaching of bird feathers, and other dealings with Japanese feather hunters; he did not return to the island.  (Lots of information here is from Alchetron, Unger and Papahānaumokuākea MNM.)

A lot of good work by many people eliminated pests, rats, rabbits, and weeds, and restored native vegetation. As a result, finch and duck populations are increasing.  Folks at the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument say Laysan is the poster child for restorative island efforts, is considered one of the “crown jewels” of the NWHI.

Access is limited in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, including Laysan – rather than having people come to the place, here is a link that helps to bring the place to the people:

https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7731755,-171.7407481,3a,75y,336.77h,81.86t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s48tjtFdMGKDiUKc_IOKPYg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

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