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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
Traditions on the island of Oʻahu note Mā’ilikūkahi was a ruling chief around 1500 (about the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic.) Māʻilikūkahi is said to have enacted a code of laws in which theft from the people by chiefs was forbidden.
A son of Mā’ilikūkahi was Kalona-nui, who in turn had a son called Kalamakua. Kalamakua is said to have been responsible for developing a large system of taro planting across the Waikīkī-Kapahulu-Mōʻiliʻili-Mānoa area. The extensive loʻi kalo were irrigated by water drawn from the Mānoa and Pālolo Valley streams and large springs in the area.
In 1792, Captain George Vancouver described Mānoa Valley on a hike from Waikīkī in search of drinking water: “We found the land in a high state of cultivation, mostly under immediate crops of taro; and abounding with a variety of wild fowl chiefly of the duck kind …”
“The sides of the hills, which were in some distance, seemed rocky and barren; the intermediate vallies, which were all inhabited, produced some large trees and made a pleasing appearance. The plains, however, if we may judge from the labour bestowed on their cultivation, seem to afford the principal proportion of the different vegetable productions …” (Edinburgh Gazetteer)
One century later, before it was urbanized, Mānoa Valley was described by Thrum (1892:) “Manoa is both broad and low …”
“… with towering hills on both sides that join the forest clad mountain range at the head, whose summits are often hid in cloud land, gathering moisture there from to feed the springs in the various recesses that in turn supply the streams winding through the valley, or watering the vast fields of growing taro, to which industry the valley is devoted.”
“The higher portions and foot hills also give pasturage to the stock of more than one dairy enterprise.”
Handy (in his book Hawaiian Planter) writes that in ancient days, all of the level land in upper Mānoa was developed into taro flats and was well-watered, level land that was better adapted to terracing than neighboring Nuʻuanu. The entire floor of Mānoa Valley was a “checkerboard of taro patches.” “The terraces extended along Manoa Stream as far as there is a suitable land for irrigating.”
The well-watered, fertile and relatively level lands of Mānoa Valley supported extensive wet taro cultivation well into the twentieth century. Handy and Handy estimated that in 1931 “there were still about 100 terraces in which wet taro was planted, although these represented less than a tenth of the area that was once planted by Hawaiians.” (Cultural Surveys)
Mānoa Valley was a favored spot of the Ali‘i, including Kamehameha I, Chief Boki (Governor of O‘ahu), Haʻalilio (an advisor to King Kamehameha III,) Princess Victoria, Kanaʻina (father of King Lunalilo), Lunalilo, Keʻelikōlani (half-sister of Kamehameha IV) and Queen Lili‘uokalani. The chiefs lived on the west side, the commoners on the east.
Queen Kaʻahumanu lived there; her home was called Pukaʻōmaʻomaʻo (Green Gateway.) It was situated deep in the valley (lit., green opening; referring to its green painted doors and blinds – It is alternatively referred to as Pukaʻōmaʻo.)
“Her residence is beautifully situated and the selection of the spot quite in taste. The house … stands on the height of a gently swelling knoll, commanding, in front, an open and extensive view of all the rich plantations of the valley; of the mountain streams meandering through them … of the district of Waititi; and of Diamond Hill, and a considerable part of the plain, with the ocean far beyond.” (Stewart; Sterling & Summers)
It was doubtless the same sort of grass house which was in general use, although probably more spacious and elaborate as befitted a queen. The dimension in one direction was 60 feet. The place name of the area was known as Kahoiwai, or “Returning Waters.”
“Immediately behind the house, and partially flanking it on either side, is a delightful grove of the dark leaved and crimson blossomed ʻŌhia, so thick and so shady … filled with cool and retired walks and natural retreats, and echoing to the cheerful notes of the little songsters, who find security in its shades to build their nests and lay their young.”
“The view of the head of the valley inland, from the clumps and single trees edging this copse, is very rich and beautiful; presenting a circuit of two or three miles delightfully variegated by hill and dale, wood and lawn, and enclosed in a sweep of splendid mountains, one of which in the centre rises to a height of three thousand feet.”
“In one edge of this grove, a few rods from the house, stands a little cottage built by Kaahumanu, for the accommodation of the missionaries who visit her when at this residence. … (It) is very frequently occupied a day or two at a time, by one and another of the families most enervated by the heat and dust, the toil, and various exhausting cares of the establishment at the sea-shore.“ (Stewart; Sterling & Summers)
“Not far makai … High Chief Kalanimōku, had very early allotted to the Mission the use of farm plots thus noted in its journal of June, 1823: “On Monday the 2d, Krimakoo and the king’s mother granted to the brethren three small pieces of land cultivated with taro, potatoes, bananas, melons, &c. and containing nineteen bread-fruit trees, from which they may derive no small portion of the fruit and vegetables needed by the family.” (Damon)
Then, in mid-1832, Kaʻahumanu became ill and was taken to her house in Mānoa, where a bed of maile and leaves of ginger was prepared. “Her strength failed daily. She was gentle as a lamb, and treated her attendants with great tenderness. She would say to her waiting women, ‘Do sit down; you are very tired; I make you weary.’” (Bingham)
“The king, his sister, other members of the aliʻi and many retainers had already arrived at Pukaomaomao and had dressed the large grass house for the dying queen’s last homecoming. The walls of the main room had been hung with ropes of sweet maile and decorated with lehua blossoms and great stalks of fragrant mountain ginger.”
“The couch upon which Kaahumanu was to rest had been prepared with loving care. Spread first with sweet-scented made and ginger leaves, it was then covered with a golden velvet coverlet. At the head and foot stood towering leather kahilis. Over a chair nearby was draped the Kamehameha feather cloak which had been worn by Kaahumanu since the monarch’s death.” (Mellon; Sterling & Summers)
“The slow and solemn tolling of the bell struck on the pained ear as it had never done before in the Sandwich Islands. In other bereavements, after the Gospel took effect, we had not only had the care and promise of our heavenly Father, but a queen-mother remaining, whose force, integrity, and kindness, could be relied on still.”
“But words can but feebly express the emotions that struggled in the bosoms of some who counted themselves mourners in those solemn hours; while memory glanced back through her most singular history, and faith followed her course onward, far into the future.” (Hiram Bingham)
Her death took place at ten minutes past 3 o’clock on the morning of June 5, 1832, “after an illness of about 3 weeks in which she exhibited her unabated attachment to the Christian teachers and reliance on Christ, her Saviour.” (Hiram Bingham)







by Peter T Young Leave a Comment











by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
William Henry Harrison Huddy immigrated from Rhode Island and became a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1850; he married Kahea, a Hawaiian from the island of Kauai. Their son, George Herman Huddy – the youngest of a large family, was born in Honolulu in 1869; as a young man he lived on Kauai and was educated in Honolulu.
After distinguishing himself as a student in high school, he sought more education and professional training and moved to San Francisco and apprenticed himself to a dentist in that city.
After little more than a year, he qualified for entrance to the College of Dentistry at the University of California Medical School. After three years of study and internship, he became the first Hawaiian to earn a full Degree in Dental Surgery from a Dental School in the US.
After graduation he returned to Hawai‘i and went into practice for himself as a dental surgeon. In February 1903, Dr George Huddy was appointed by the Governor as a Representative to the Hawai‘i Territorial Legislature from Kauai. (Dr Huddy, continued to be elected as a Territorial Representative, first from Kauai and later from Hilo, until his retirement from that office in 1917.)
On April 25, 1903, the legislature of the territory of Hawaii, at the instigation of the dental society, enacted a law to regulate the practice of dental surgery. This statute gives the dental society a recognized standing, as the members of the state dental board are appointed by the governor upon recommendation of this society. Huddy was an initial member. (History of Dental Surgery, Koch)
On May 13, 1903, Huddy and his good friend, Prince Kūhio, helped reestablish the Order of Kamehameha I (originally organized in 1867 by Kamehameha V).
Kūhiō chose Huddy to preside at this initial session as a charter member where a constitution was written and adopted, and officers elected; Kūhiō was elected as the President.
“Credit for the founding of this order, which dates from May, 1903, or a little more than ten years after the close of the monarchy and a little less than five years after annexation to the United States, belongs to Dr George H Huddy, who has served the territory faithfully and well as a representative in the legislature, first from Kauai and then from Hawaiʻi”
“Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, delegate to congress, was the first aliʻi ʻaimoku, or sovereign head of the revived order.” (Star-Bulletin; June 10, 1913)
In 1905, the Order of Kamehameha brought solemnity to the holiday (Kamehameha Day) by draping a lei on the statue of Kamehameha in front of Aliʻiolani Hale and standing watch throughout the day. (Stillman)
On July 16, 1907, they petitioned for a Charter for the Hawaiʻi Chapter No. 1, Order of Kamehameha. “… the object for which the same is organized is as follows, 1. To inculcate the cardinal principles of Friendship, Charity and Benevolence; to provide for Sick and Funeral Benefits …”
“… to aid the widows and orphans; and to improve the social and moral conditions of its members.” (Hawaii Chapter No. 1, Order of Kamehameha; Petition for Charter, July 16, 1907) (An announcement in the Hawaiian Star, shortly after, noted similar language for the Māmalahoa Chapter. No. 2)
In March 1915, “Mrs. Henrietta E Sullivan of Honolulu nei [the daughter of John Hassinger, the long time and well-known Chief Clerk for the Interior Ministry, during the Monarchy and into the Territorial times] and Representative George H Huddy of Hilo became one in the bond of marriage”.
“For the first time in the history of the legislature of Hawaii nei, wed were the Honorable Dr George H. Huddy in the covenant of marriage with Mrs. Henrietta E Sullivan, in the throne room [of Iolani Palace].”
“The one who bound the couple tightly together in the three-stranded cord of matrimony was Father Steven of the Catholic faith, and while the newlyweds were surrounded by their many friends, the priest spoke the words which made the two one, and it is only death that will part them.”
“After the marriage took place, hands were shook with aloha with congratulations from their friends, with prayers that they live their lives in happiness.” (Kuokoa, 03-12-1915) Theirs is the only wedding ever to take place in the Throne Room of the Palace.
Dr Huddy continued in his dental surgery practice in Honolulu until in 1922 (at the untimely death of his wife, June 20, 1922). On September 1, 1922, Huddy signed on with the Territorial Board of Health as the Resident Dentist at Kalaupapa, serving alongside Dr Goodhue.
“In December, 1922, Dr George Huddy, a dentist employed by the board of health, began work at the [Kalihi] hospital and spent five months attending to the dental needs of the patients.”
“The employment of this officer meets a very pressing need of the patients, as the teeth of many of the inmates were in bad condition and required the services of a competent dentist. Already a beneficial effect from this work can be noted.”
“I wish to record my unqualified approval of the inauguration of dental service for the patients and to acknowledge the full and free cooperation of the dental officer with the medical officers at Kalihi Hospital.”
“The dentist [Huddy] employed by the board of health for Kalihi Hospital and Kalaupapa settlement has given a great amount of relief to the patients.” (Report of the Governor to Dept of Interior, 1923)
For the next 8 years, Huddy worked full time for the Board of Health. During these years he rotated between living at Kalaupapa for 2 – 3 months at a time and then back to Honolulu where he served as Dentist at the Old Prison and at the Leper Intake Hospital in Kalihi.
Huddy remarried in 1926 to a resident of Hawai‘i with German origins. On June 30, 1929, Dr Huddy retired from the Board of Health, having worked himself into ill health and left for Europe for a two year ‘cure’ in Germany.
Returning in early 1932 in somewhat restored health, he reopened his dental surgeon offices in the Boston Building on Fort Street and practiced there until leaving for Germany again in late-1935.
This latter trip turned fatal, and Huddy died in Bremen, Germany. (His ashes were brought back to Hawai‘i and interred in Hilo at Homelani Cemetery.) (Lots of information here is from Tatibouet.)



by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
“We have built this building so that everyone who looks upon it will say, not: ‘Is that a library, or a club house, or a school, or city hall?’ but, promptly and without question, ‘That is a church!’”
“And we have built it after the colonial style of architecture so that all might say with equal assurance, ‘And it is a church with a New England background!’- for we wanted this church to be a fitting tribute to the missionaries who came to these Islands from New England over a century ago bringing Christian civilization with them.”
“We were greatly pleased when Ralph Adams Cram, our artist-architect, assured us that the colonial style was fitting for our climate because its essential elements had grown up in the semi-tropic lands around the Mediterranean and it had been used successfully in the extreme South as well as in New England.”
“We have put this building not on some noisy dusty corner but in a beautiful eight acre garden. One comes back from Japan deeply impressed by the beautiful setting of the temples of that beautiful land.”
“Why not, in Hawaii also where things grow so wonderfully, why not a Christian Church surrounded by the beauty of nature? And so the garden around the church is a symbol of natural religion. We come to worship through the beauty of nature and we say with the poet, as we approach the sanctuary,
‘A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot, fringed pool,
Ferned grot! The veriest school
Of peace. And yet the fool
Contends that God is not—
Not God? In gardens? When the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign
‘Tis very sure God walks in mind!’
“For a long time we were uncertain as to whether or not we could afford a spire. Now that it is built we all realize how incomplete would have been the picture without the spire like ‘a sacrament of hope,’ as Dr. Ross called it, pointing above the trees of the garden. How wonderfully Mrs. Frear has caught the symbolism of it in her poem!
‘Lo here among the palm-trees
Our isle has flung a spire—
A slender bud of beauty
Pointing higher, higher—
A lifted torch awaiting light
From Heaven’s altar fire.”
“At the entrance to the church is a broad and simple porch of welcome – yet only one door, with a cross above the grille work. That door stands open every day and is the symbol of Christ who says, ‘I am the door, by me if any man shall enter in, he shall be saved; and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture!’”
“But the approach to the door is through four columns and lighted by three great lanterns. The columns are the four gospels through which we come to know the character of Christ and hear his voice and, as to the three lanterns, they may symbolize the mystery of the Trinity – one God, one light, yet revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or …”
“… if you are practically minded rather than theological, let them stand for the three Christian graces of faith and hope and love which, seen from afar and shining upon the church, shall draw men unto the door.”
“High in the lantern of the spire is another light shining out over land and sea as though One said, ‘I am the Light of the world – he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness.’ “And above the spire flies the dove as a weather-vane – the dove of peace and symbol of the Holy Spirit.”
“Once inside, each man can make his own interpretation for this is a church of freedom in the quest of truth, but, if you are interested, I will give you mine. I find a symbolism of world fellowship in the different countries represented in the wonderfully beautiful interior.”
“The general design is clearly English, yet the chaste white beauty of it all reminds me of churches in Holland. The basilica form and vaulted ceiling are Roman but the columns speak of Greece and, back of that, of Egypt. Corinthian are the capitals, yet the details are copied not from the acanthus but from the pineapples and coconut palm fronds of Hawaii.”
“New England contributed the small paned, round topped windows but the redwood pews and chancel are from California and the lighting fixtures are old Italian sanctuary lamps, slightly modified to burn electricity in place of oil.”
“‘What a mixture!’ one might say who reads this in cold type. But look about you – all is harmonious, all fits together as a symbol of the unity of all men and races in Christ Jesus.”
“To continue the symbolism may I suggest that the twelve great columns shall stand here as long as the church shall last calling to mind the twelve apostles and that the thirteen lamps represent thirteen churches – the lamp has ever been a symbol of the church.”
“You can make up your thirteen any way you choose. Take the seven churches of Asia and add those others which figure so largely in Paul’s letters – Philippi, Berea, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Rome. Think of their light shining down upon us through the centuries!”
“Or take thirteen churches of today – the Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Disciples, Lutherans, Unitarians, Christian Scientists, Episcopalians, Dutch Reformed, Greek Orthodox, and Roman Catholic. Let them all shine with the light of a common love of Jesus Christ.”
“Even though we may not follow them in all details of liturgy or doctrine we will welcome their light upon the world – ‘Many are the lamps, but the light is one.’”
“There are four plain panels at the rear of the church. It might be perilous to paint pictures on them in reality but let us paint them there in our imagination. On one will be Buddha, meditating on the sorrows of life beneath the sacred Bo tree, on another Confucius writing down the wisdom of China, on a third Moses coming down from Sinai and on another Mohammed kneeling in prayer. All to remind us that there is a kinship and a common aspiration in all religions.”
“You may notice that there are ten glass doors opening directly out into the garden – five on either side. They are the ten commandments – we look out into life through the clear and transparent doors of the moral law.
“‘Oh,’ someone says, ‘But here is another door at the mauka end of the aisle upon the right.’ Yes and over that door the eyes of faith see written: ‘A new commandment I give you, that ye love one another even as I have loved you!’”
“Above the doors are fourteen windows through whose clear glass we look up to the blue sky and flying clouds of heaven. They are for the saints and heroes of the faith who served their day and generation and are now delivered from the labors and struggles of this life. Let us put them there, not in colored glass, but in the fairer colors of our imagination.”
“Here above the choir is St. Paul and around the corner, still to the left of the pulpit, St. Augustine. Looking directly down into the pulpit, to remind the preacher of all humility and tenderness, is St. Francis of Assisi and just beyond, to make him brave and fearless, come Joan of Arc, Savonarola, Wyclif and John Huss.”
“On the other side of the church stand Luther, John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims, David Livingstone, the representative of all missionaries, Florence Nightingale and General Booth.”
“Above the gallery is a triple window reserved for the saints of our own land. Just now we will place in the center panel Abraham
Lincoln and on either side Booker Washington and Alice Freeman Palmer.”
“But these are not all the windows. High in the clerestory are twelve more. We will put no names upon them. They are reserved for the future! New saints and heroes must arise in the new days that lie ahead.”
“We reserve one for some American Pasteur who shall win the battle against cancer and tuberculosis. One for some prison reformer who shall make our jails true hospitals for moral disease. One for some social leader who shall solve the conflict of capital and labor and bring justice and good-will to industry.”
“Another shall yet be dedicated to some President or Senator who shall lead America out into fellowship with an organized world. Another is reserved for some Saint who shall so reveal the awfulness of the city slums that the conscience of the people shall be aroused to abolish them, and yet another window awaits the great prophet who shall burn into the souls of his generation the folly and impiety of race-prejudice and make humanity to be a real brotherhood at last.“
“Do not forget, young men and women of the future, these unnamed windows high above you. They set the goal for
tasks yet unaccomplished and challenge you with unattained ideals.”
“As one approaches the chancel in this beautiful church home of ours the symbolism deepens. Here is the lectern with the Bible on it, reminding us of what we owe to the inspiration of the past. Here is the pulpit – for the prophetic message looking toward the future. And here in the center and focus of it all is the Communion Table ever reminding us of the mystic presence of the Christ who says, ‘Lo, I am with you alway.’”
“High above all is the cross, the supreme symbol of our holy religion – a symbol of suffering, yet a symbol of hope. It is not a crucifix with a dead Christ upon it. Our cross is empty.”
“Our Christ is not holden of death- He is risen and triumphant. Our cross has trefoil ends that touch it with a beauty that was not present at Calvary because for us the cross is not a symbol of defeat but of victory – Even as the text says, high above it, we hold the sublime faith that, even though crucified, ‘Love never faileth.’”
“One word more! It says in Acts, ‘God dwelleth not in temples made by hands’ and again in First Corinthians, ‘Ye are a temple of God.’”
“It is not the buildings that make the city but the people in it and no church can serve apart from the men and women who gather beneath its over-arching roof. Not only the church must stand in friendly welcome in its garden in the midst of the city – its members must have the friendly heart as well.”
“It is not enough to write ‘Love never faileth’ upon its walls – we who worship here must believe it and practice it. Even the uplifted cross may be mute to men who do not find its power changing the lives of those who look upon it.”
“‘Ah, friend, we never choose the better part
Until we set the cross up in the heart.’”
“How long will this church endure and speak its magic unto men? Only so long as the people who use it are themselves first of all temples of the living God!” (All here is, in part from a sermon preached by Albert W. Palmer, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D. Central Union Church, Honolulu, Hawaii, June 1, 1924.)








