Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hotel Fairview

“I remember the sign out there said Fairview. And then father changed it to Lihue Hotel and then to the Kauai Inn.”  (William Harrison Rice II)

An 1890 newspaper article noted, “A resort for Tourists and Travelers situated about a mile from Nawiliwili, upon the slope of a hill.  The location is specially fortunate.”

“The Hotel is 40×26 an 8ft. veranda round the house. On the first floor is a large reception room, light and airy dining room and a cosy billiard room.”

“In the rear of these rooms is the culinary department, which is fitted up with all the conveniences.  The second floor is devoted to sleeping rooms. Six in all. Bath room with hot and cold water.”

“The Hotel is one of the most convenient resorts for tourists, and reflects great credit on the architect Mr PA Anderson. [C]onnected with the hotel is a livery stable where you can get saddle horses or teams for excursion parties.”

“Mr CW Spitz the proprietor has not spared money or pains to make ‘The Fairview’ the best on the Islands.” (Hawaiian Gazette, April 29, 1890)

A native of Hungary, Charles W. Spitz (1854-1942) immigrated to Hawai‘i in 1880, following a long voyage around Cape Horn, and soon found employment at Kilauea Sugar Plantation on Kauai.

The Fairview Hotel (initially opened by Charles W Spitz in 1890) was the first full-fledged hotel on Kauai providing rooms and a restaurant.  However, a year later, the newspaper reported, ‘Bankruptcy of CW Spitz’.

This was followed in an 1891 newspaper advertisement noted “For Sale!” “Fairview Hotel” by Theo J Lansing, Assignee Bankrupt Estate of CE Spitz. (Daily Bulletin, June 26, 1891) (Spitz later branched into the automobile business.)

Spitz sold the Fairview Hotel in 1894 William H Rice.  Rice is a descendant of a missionary teacher who came to the Hawaiian Islands in 1841; he was also the sheriff of Lihue for forty-three years. (Watumull Oral History)

Rice renamed it Lihue Hotel. In 1926, Rice rebuilt the original building to include a number of rooms and suites of various sizes.  An additional building was constructed to house the hotel lobby, dining room and kitchen. The capacity of the hotel rose to 100 people.  (Soboleski)

In those days, an operation had to be self-sufficient and a farm behind the hotel raised cattle, pigs and chickens along with fruits and vegetable grown for the restaurant.   After Rice’s death in 1946, the family sold the hotel to Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company.  (Kauai Museum)

In 1948, Lihue Hotel was renovated and renamed Kauai Inn, which remained in operation on Rice Street until 1963. (Soboleski)

Later, Inter-Island “made an effort to sell the Inn, without much success. … [I]ts location was fine.  But most visitors to Hawaii want to be on the beach, no matter what Island they’re on.”  (Dudley Child, Inter-Island Resorts, Advertiser, Oct 17, 1965))

In 1960, a new ten-story hotel, Inter-Island’s Kauai Surf, opened, thus signifying the beginning of Kauai’s commitment to tourism. (Salazar)

Inter-Island Resorts then moved “five of the double-deck hotel buildings from Kauai Inn to the Kauai Surf. … [They] cut each building in half, move it down to the beach area and reassemble it there. …”

“[T]he buildings will eventually surround the Kalapaki Beach lagoon which fronts the hotel.” (Advertiser, Nov 22, 1963)

“With the old site of the Inn cleared, Inter-Island negotiated its exchange with American Factors for 60 acres of plantation property surrounding Kauai Surf.” (Advertiser, Oct 17, 1965)

By 1970, the annual visitor count for Kauai was up to 426,000 and tourism workers outnumbered those on Kauai sugar plantations for the first time. Resorts at Po‘ipu, Hanalei, and Wailua were built to host these visitors.

The Coco Palms served as the setting for Elvis Presley’s, “Blue Hawaii,” which, along with other films, helped to popularize the island. (Strazar)

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Buffalo Soldiers Trail

In early 1911, geologist named Thomas A Jaggar convinced Frank A Perret, a world-famous American volcanologist he had met on Vesuvius Volcano in Italy, to travel to Hawai‘i to begin the observations of Kīlauea’s volcanic activity.

From July to October 1911, Perret conducted experiments and documented the lava lake activity within Kïlauea’s Halema‘uma‘u Crater, paving the way for Jaggar to pursue his life’s goal of using multiple scientific approaches and all available tools for the observation and measurement of volcanoes and earthquakes.

In 1911, the first scientific laboratory at Kilauea consisted of a crude wooden shack constructed on the edge of Halema‘uma‘u that was called the Technology Station. The next year saw the construction by Jaggar of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. 

When Jaggar came to the Islands, he joined the efforts of George Lycurgus (operator of the Volcano House) and newspaperman Lorrin Andrews Thurston who were working to have the Mauna Loa and Kilauea Volcanoes area made into a National Park. 

Jaggar had tried to lead several expeditions to the top of Mauna Loa in 1914 but was unsuccessful due to the elevation (13,678 feet) and the harsh conditions: rough lava, violent winds, noxious fumes, shifting weather, extreme temperatures and a lack of shelter, water and food.  (Takara)

In September 1915, Jaggar, Thurston and a US Army representative conducted a survey to determine a route for a trail up Mauna Loa.

The following month, a local paper noted, “Soldiers Building Mountain Trail.  Negro soldiers of the Twenty-fifth Infantry to the number of 150 are at work constructing a trail from near the Volcano House to the summit of Mauna Loa.”

“It is estimated that three or four weeks will be devoted to this work. The soldiers are doing the work as a part of their vacation exercises.”  (Maui News, October 29, 1915)

Immediately after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, many African Americans found themselves newly freed from bondage. In 1866, congress created four military regiments made up of Black troops, the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry – they were known colloquially as the Buffalo Soldiers. (NPS)

“Although Native Americans bestowed the name upon the troopers, there are differing accounts as to the reason. One account suggests the name was acquired during the 1871 campaign against the Comanches, when Indians referred to the cavalrymen as “Buffalo Soldiers” because of their rugged and tireless marching.”

“Other accounts state that Native Americans bestowed the nickname on the black troopers because they believed the hair of the black cavalrymen resembled the hair of the buffalo.”

“Another suggests that the name was given because of the buffalo-hide coats worn by the soldiers in cold weather. The troopers took the nickname as a sign of respect from Native Americans, who held great reverence for the buffalo, and eventually the Tenth Cavalry adopted the buffalo as part of its regimental crest.” (Plante)

“The generous cooperation of the United States Army has made the trail to the top of Mauna Loa and the rest houses at the top and midway thereto a certainty.” (Hawaiian Gazette, Sep 24, 1915)

“The overpowering feature of the landscape, however, is the immediate foreground to the north and east. The trail up to Red Crater is through ordinary and rather monotonous lava flows; but from the top of the hill there literally bursts into view a scene of most violent volcanic activity that I have seen anywhere.”

“It is similar to the interior of Haleakala crater; and the top of Hualalai, but while those are old and faded, this is fiery red and inky black.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, Nov 11, 1915)

“During the past summer [in 1915] the promotion committee and Research Association formulated and presented its plan to the authorities of the County of Hawaii and the newly created Hawaii Publicity Committee …”

“… proposing that these two organizations with the assistance of private subscriptions should furnish the money necessary for the material involved, the work to be done by the county prisoners.”

“The county authorities and the publicity committee each agreed to contribute $500 toward the enterprise.  Then the Governor came in with a contribution of $500 from the contingent fund and private subscriptions have been received in excess of $1000.”

“No decision had been arrived at concerning the availability of the county prisoners, however.” (Hawaiian Gazette, Sep 24, 1915)  (The practice in Hawai‘i and elsewhere was to use prison labor for public works projects, including road building.)

(Later Territorial law stated, “All prisoners sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor shall be constantly employed for the public benefit, on public roads or other public works or other wise, as the high sheriff, with the approval and subject to the control of the board of prison directors, may deem best.”)

Then the military offered aid in the form of a “tentative proposition that, if transportation was furnished from Honolulu to Hilo and return, Company E of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, consisting of between 140 and 150 men would volunteer to go to Volcano, and do the work of building the trail and erecting the rest houses without further expense to the promoters or enterprise.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, Sep 24, 1915)

Building the Buffalo Soldiers Trail (now called Mauna Loa Trail) from the 4,000-ft. summit of Kīlauea to the 13,677-ft. summit of Mauna Loa was no easy task. (NPS)

“The soldiers are constructing a trial three feet wide across the a-a, crushing it down with twelve pound hammers, filling in hollow, cutting down ridges and putting on a finish of fine a-a and earth, quarried along the line or parked in gunny sacks, carried on the men’s backs – in some places being carried as far as a quarter of a mile.”

“The Mauna Loa trail and rest house project is making steady and substantial progress. It must be remembered that it is through a section of territory never before inspected, much less traveled over, except the lower portion thereof, and that only by a few surveyors, cattle men and catchers of wild goats.”

“No one wants to run away with the idea that the job which the men of Company E of the Twenty-fifth Infantry have volunteered to do is all picnic. They are having a picnic all right; but incidentally they are doing a lot of good hard work in a pure pro bono publico spirit.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, Nov 11, 1915)

The Buffalo Soldiers built the 18-mile trail to the summit of Mauna Loa. They also built the ten-man Red Hill Cabin and a twelve-horse stable, so scientists could spend extended periods of time studying the volcano.

“[D]uring the period of 1915 to 1921, the trail was managed and maintained by a loose consortium consisting of Hawaii Volcano Research Association, Lorrin Thurston, Hilo businessmen, and Thomas Jaggar, then it was managed by the National Park Service.” (Tuggle)

Between 1930 and 1932, the National Park carried out major improvements and realignments of the Mauna Loa Trail to fall completely within the park boundary. Over the past century, the evolving needs of the National Park and changes in available

technology have resulted in ongoing modifications to the physical footprint of the trail.

The uppermost portion of the original trail footprint has been nearly obliterated since the 1970s by a series of large lava flows in 1975, 1984, and 1985. (Tuggle)  (The inspiration and sources to information here came primarily from a study by Myra Tomonari-Tuggle.)

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‘We stopped, and trembled’

“Messrs (William) Ellis, (Asa) Thurston, (Artemas) Bishop and (Joseph) Goodrich made a tour round the island of Hawai‘i, examining its various districts, conversing with the natives, and preaching the gospel 130 different times.”  (History of ABCFM)

“Hitherto we had travelled close to the sea-shore, in order to visit the most populous villages in the districts through which we had passed. But here receiving information that we should find more inhabitants a few miles inland, than nearer the sea, we thought it best to direct our course towards the mountains.”

Makoa, their guide, “objected strongly to our going thither, as we should most likely be mischievous, and offend Pele or Nahoaarii, gods of the volcano, by plucking the ohelo, (sacred berries,) digging up the sand, or throwing stones into the crater, …”

“… and then they would either rise out of the crater in volumes of smoke, send up large stones to fall upon us and kill us, or cause darkness and rain to overtake us, so that we should never find our way back.”

“We told him we did not apprehend any danger from the gods … If we were determined on going, he said, we must go by ourselves, he would go with us as far Kapapala, the last village at which we should stop, and about twenty miles on this side of it …”

“… from thence he would descend to the sea-shore, and wait till we overtook him. The governor, he said, had told him not to go there, and, if he had not, he should not venture near it, for it was a fearful place. … [W]e proceeded on our way, leaving Makoa to wait for them, and come after us as far as Kapapala, where we expected to spend the night.”

In 1823, they were the first Westerners to visit Kilauea volcano.  Ellis describes his first impressions, “After walking some distance over the sunken plain, which in several places sounded hollow under our feet, we at length came to edge of the great crater, where a spectacle, sublime and even appalling, presented itself before us“.

“‘We stopped, and trembled.’”

“Astonishment and awe for some moments rendered us mute, and, like statues, we stood fixed to the spot, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below.”

“Immediately before us yawned an immense gulf, in the form of a crescent, about two miles in length, from north-east to south-west, nearly a mile in width, and apparently 800 feet deep.”

“The bottom was covered with lava, and the south-west and northern parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific ebullition; rolling to and fro its ‘fiery surge’ and flaming billows.”

“Fifty-one conical islands, of varied form and size, containing so many craters, rose either round the edge or from the surface of the burning lake.”

“Twenty-two constantly emitted columns of grey smoke, or pyramids of brilliant flame; and several of these at the same time vomited from their ignited mouths streams of lava, which tolled in blazing torrents down their black indented sides into the boiling mass below.”

“The existence of these conical craters led us to conclude, that the boiling caldron of lava before us did not form the focus of the volcano; that this mass of melted lava was comparatively shallow; and that the basin, in which it was contained was separated, by a stratum of solid matter, from the great volcano abyss, which constantly poured out its melted contents through these numerous craters into this upper reservoir.”

“We were further inclined to this opinion, from the vast columns of vapour continually ascending from the chasms in the vicinity of the sulphur banks and pools of water, for they must have been produced by other fire than that which caused the ebullition in the lava at the bottom of the great crater …”

“… and also by noticing a number of small craters, in vigorous action, situated high up the sides of the great gulf, and apparently quite detached from it.”

“The streams of lava which they emitted rolled down into the lake, and mingled with the melted mass there, which, though thrown up by different apertures, had perhaps been originally fused in one vast furnace.”

“The sides of the gulf before us, although composed, of different strata of ancient lava, were perpendicular for about 400 feet, and rose from a wide horizontal ledge of solid black lava of irregular breadth, but extending completely round.”

“Beneath this ledge the sides sloped gradually towards the burning lake, which, was, as nearly as we could judge, 300 or 400 feet lower. It was evident, that the large crater had been recently filled with liquid lava up to this black ledge, and had, by some subterranean canal, emptied itself into the sea, or upon the low land on the shore.”

“The grey, and in some places apparently calcined, sides of the great crater before us; the fissures which intersected the surface of the plain on which we were standing; the long banks of sulphur on the opposite side of the abyss; the vigorous action of the numerous small craters on its borders …”

“… the dense columns of vapour and smoke, that rose at the north and south end of the plain; together with the ridge of steep rocks by which it was surrounded, rising probably in some places 300 or 400 feet in perpendicular height, presented an immense volcanic panorama, the effect of which was greatly augmented by the constant roaring of the vast furnaces below.”

“After the first feelings of astonishment had subsided, we remained a considerable time contemplating a scene, which it is impossible to describe, and which filled us with wonder and admiration at the almost overwhelming manifestation it affords of the power of that dread Being who created the world, and who has declared that by fire he will one day destroy it.”

“We then walked along the west side of the crater, and in half an hour reached the north end.”  (All here is from William Ellis’ Narrative of a Tour Through Hawaii.)

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Colonizers?

Colonialism is defined as “the act or process of sending people to live in and govern another country.” (Cambridge Dictionary) Merriam-Webster says it is an effort “to take control of (a people or area) especially as an extension of state power: to claim (someone or something) as a colony.”

A review of historical correspondence between the US representative in Hawai‘i, Luther Severance, and US Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, puts a new light on the present spin about ‘colonization’ of Hawai‘i by America.  Webster makes clear what the US position is – and it is not colonization of the Islands.

Severance wrote, “There is considerable British interest here. Formerly the King and chiefs put great reliance on the protection of England , which was promised verbally to Liholiho, the immediate predecessor of the present King, when he visited England with several of his chiefs.”

“William IV was then on the British throne, I believe; but since then they have had a great deal of difficulty with Mr. Charlton, the British consul, and some with Gen. Miller, the present consul.”

“So they have also with my predecessors, Brown and Ten Eyck; yet the American interest, missionary, mercantile, and otherwise, is altogether paramount. …”

“Three-fourths, at least, of the business done here is by Americans, and they already own much of the real estate. The sugar-planters are nearly all Americans, and have a strong interest in annexation to the United States, as in that event they will supply our Pacific coast with sugar at an advantage of 30 per cent over all other sugars from the East Indies or elsewhere.”

“The subject of annexation is here often hinted at, and sometimes freely discussed in private; but it is known only to a very few that the King and his Government have the matter under consideration. If the action of the French should precipitate a movement here, I shall be called on, perhaps, to protect the American flag.”

“I was indeed requested to go and see the King on Monday night, and in the presence of the council to give him assurance of protection should he raise the American flag instead of his own; but I preferred to keep away, so as to avoid all appearance of intrigue to bring about a result which, however desirable, and as many believe ultimately inevitable, must still be attended with difficulties and embarrassments.”  (Severance, US Commission, No 6, March 11, 1851)

“The King, his chiefs, and ministers, had a consultation at the palace on Monday night, and again on Tuesday night. It was the desire of the chiefs to appeal to Gen. Miller for British protection. This was promised them verbally by William IV, when they were in England. …”

“I find he is beginning to be a little jealous of us. They say he complains of the partiality of the Government to Americans. … Already I hear through a French channel that Perrin has no fear of England in this business.”

“They both see that the natural tendency of events will be to thoroughly Americanize the islands , a process which will go on more rapidly when we get a steam communication with San Francisco.” (Severance, March 12)

US Secretary of State, Damiel Webster, on July 14, 1851 replied to these and other correspondence from Severance, stating, unequivocally, “The Government of the United States was the first to acknowledge the national existence of the Hawaiian Government, and to treat with it as an independent state.”

“Its example was soon followed by several of the Governments of Europe; and the United States, true to its treaty obligations, has in no case interfered with the Hawaiian Government for the purpose of opposing the course of its own independent conduct, or of dictating to it any particular line of policy.”

“In acknowledging the independence of the islands, and of the Government established over them, it was not seeking to promote any peculiar object of its own. What it did, and all that it did, was done openly in the face of day, in entire good faith, and known to all nations.”

“It declared its real purpose to be to favor the establishment of a government at a very important point in the Pacific Ocean, which should be able to maintain such relations with the rest of the world, as are maintained between civilized states.”

“From this purpose it has never swerved for a single moment, nor is it inclined , without the pressure of some necessity, to depart from it now, when events have occurred giving to the islands and to their intercourse with the United States a new aspect and increased importance.”

“This Government still desires to see the nationality of the Hawaiian Government maintained, its independent administration of public affairs respected, and its prosperity and reputation increased.” (Daniel Webster, No 4, July 14, 1851)

Webster then writes to Severance, “You inform us that many American citizens have gone to settle in the islands; if so, they have ceased to be American citizens.” [That doesn’t sound like an organized colonization effort by America.]

“The Government of the United States must, of course, feel an interest in them not extended to foreigners, but by the law of nations they have no right further to demand the protection of this Government.”

“Whatever aid or protection might under any circumstances be given them must be given, not as a matter of right on their part, but in consistency with the general policy and duty of the Government and its relations with friendly powers.”

“You will therefore not encourage in them, nor indeed in any others, any idea or expectation that the islands will become annexed to the United States. All this, I repeat, will be judged of hereafter, as circumstances and events may require, by the Government at Washington.” (Webster, July 14, 1851)

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Sunny Jim, John and Link

Three sons of Thomas McCartney McCandless and Elizabeth Ann (Newman) McCandless, James Sutton (‘Sunny Jim’) McCandless, John Andrew McCandless and Lincoln Loy (‘Link’) McCandless formed McCandless Brothers in 1881.

Thomas McCartney McCandless (September 6, 1821 – September 5, 1907) was born in Pennsylvania; he was a descendant of the McCartney family, who were the principal owners and founders of Indiana County, Pennsylvania.  Eliza Ann Newman (April 25, 1826 – October 26, 1891) was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Peter Newman, a miller, born in Heidelberg, Germany, and of Jane Ferguson Newman.

They had seven children – this story is about three of the boys and their ties to Hawaiʻi.   Jim arrived in the islands first (1880,) followed by John (1881) and Link (1882.)

A chance call on the late Samuel G Wilder, a pioneer shipping man of Hawaiʻi (and then-Minister of the Interior under King Kalākaua) who was visiting in San Francisco in 1880, brought Jim to the islands.  “He told us the story of the first well drilled in the Islands, and the manner in which the new work was developing. Then we told him what we knew about drilling wells.”

James Campbell was owner of the Honouliuli Ranch; it was mostly dry plains, needing only water to make it fertile. In July, 1879, John Ashley started drilling the first artesian well in the Hawaiian Islands in the rear of the James Campbell Ranch House at Honouliuli, Ewa District, on the flat land close to the sea.

At a depth of about 250 feet, they found fresh water, which flowed in a small stream over the top of the pipe, the first well in Hawaiʻi, and also the first flowing well in the Hawaiian Islands.

“We were, of course, strangers to (Wilder) and he had only our word for what we knew about drilling wells, but after looking us over he seemed to feel that we would be able to deliver the goods. Consequently, on that Saturday in December, 1880, we sailed with Mr Wilder for Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands”.  (McCandless)

“When (Jim) got to Honolulu on December 30, 1880, after a voyage of nine and a half days, the port was quarantined against small-pox. Instead of landing at the dock, we were taken over to the reef at the place where the drydock now stands. A sort of boardwalk was built out into the harbor, but the water was too shallow for ships’ boats to reach it; so each passenger was carried ashore on the back of a Hawaiian.”

Jim first partnered with Captain William D Braden, later his brothers came to help.  Their first well was at Mahukona on the Island of Hawaiʻi.  “We stayed on the job at Mahukona until the well was finished, but found only salt water. At 800 feet, Mr. Wilder stopped the work on the well and we came back to Honolulu.”

“After we had returned to Honolulu from Mahukona, Mr. Wilder helped us in securing contracts for five wells, to be drilled for His Majesty, King Kalākaua: one in the Palace grounds, one at his home in Waikiki, and three others located on his properties in the outside districts.”

Over the next 55-years, McCandless Brothers drilled more than 700 good wells across the Islands.  Their wells helped support and water the growing and expansive sugar and pineapple plantations including ʻEwa, Kahuku, Oʻahu, Waialua and other large producers, and also on the Islands of Maui, Hawaiʻi, Kauai and Molokai.

ʻEwa plantation was the first plantation in Hawaiʻi that installed pumping plants for irrigation from artesian wells; in its day, it pumped four times as much water as the City of Honolulu used. (Nellist)

“Among the crowding memories of the more than fifty-five-years that we have lived in Hawaiʻi is the thought that we came here as young men seeking our fortunes, and trying to better our fortunes, and trying to better our condition in life.”  (McCandless)

“Since 1880, we have witnessed several changes in the government of Hawaiʻi. King Kalākaua, a jolly monarch, was on the throne when we arrived. He was followed by Queen Liliʻuokalani, who reigned until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893.”

“Annexation did not come until the Spanish-American war. Then the United States suddenly woke up and annexed Hawaiʻi, the Gibraltar of the Pacific. (It has been claimed that we are not a real territory of the United States, yet I often wonder how many other countries would like to own us.)”

“We three brothers each took active parts in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. We belonged to the first company of sharpshooters in the National Guard of Hawaiʻi, and were proficient in the art of shooting and handling guns. We participated in several skirmishes”.  (McCandless)

John was a member of the “Committee of Thirteen,” which took an active part in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy in 1893. From 1894 to 1898 he held an office under President Sanford B Dole, in his cabinet, and later became a member of the Senate.

He was the first superintendent of public works under the territorial government, and while holding this office built the first road around Diamond Head on the sea side of the crater, and the lighthouse there.

Link, as a boy, had a great desire to own land and cattle. His ambition has also been achieved. It was not long after he arrived in the Islands that he leased the lands here and there and formed huis to buy more.

With a hui, he bought land of Waikāne and Waiāhole on the north side of the island of Oʻahu. He bought this land with the water rights, later selling part of this right to the Oʻahu Sugar Company.  John ended up controlling thousand acres on his own (and a lot more through various partnerships.)

Link conceived the feasibility of diverting water from Waiāhole, Waikāne and Kahana, on the windward side of Oahu, through the mountain divide to the rich sugar lands on the leeward side of Oahu by means of a tunnel.

Link fathered the Torrens Land Court Law in the territorial senate in 1903, thus establishing the right of individuals to prove title to their land holdings. (Nellist)

John and Jim partnered on a downtown Honolulu lot and built the first modern office building in Honolulu, in 1907. It is five stories high (and also reported as one of only a few Honolulu buildings to feature a full basement,) built of lava rock – the McCandless Building (it is still standing at 925 Bethel Street.)  Nearby is the still existing McCandless Block at 9 North Pauahi Street.

Jim took an interest in the Masonic Lodge and became a member of the Aloha Temple in 1904.  At the meeting in Washington, DC, of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America, he was elected to receive the 33° of the A and A Scottish Rite of Free Masonry (conferred upon him at Līhuʻe, on February 16, 1934.)

A descendant in the family is Maxwell (Max) McCandless Unger; former Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints center, he was a ProBowler, Super Bowl winner and graduate of Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy. His family owns/manages McCandless Ranch in South Kona.

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