Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Henry Poor

Henry French Poor was the eldest son of Henry Francis Poor and Caroline Paakaiulaula Bush; he was born here June 8, [1857].

“Poor received his early education under Mr. Gulick, Sr., father of the late Charles T. Gulick of Honolulu. He afterwards attended Punahou College, at that time under the direction of Professor Church.”

“He left school, however, at the age of 13 and entered the banking house of Bishop & Co. as a clerk, where he remained about eight years.”

“At that time, owing to ill health, Mr. Poor first visited the United States, where he spent some three months. When he returned to Honolulu he entered the mercantile house of Castle & Cooke.”

“At this time he was selected by the Government to act as secretary to Hon. C P. Iaukea, the head of the Hawaiian Embassy to the coronation of Alexander III of Russia.”

“Continuing from there he made a tour of the world, visiting the greater part of Europe, India, Japan, Egypt, the United States and England and meeting many great personages there. His visit to India was immediately connected with the question of securing a labor supply for the plantations of Hawaii.” (PCA, Nov 29, 1899)

“Henry F Poor was one of the most brilliant Hawaiians whose cradle ever rocked in these beautiful Islands.  … He possessed the generous spirit of his race and the keen intelligence of his New England’s forebears.”

“As secretary to Colonel Iaukea on the Kalakaua embassy to the rulers of the world he covered himself with honors and his bright letters were published in the local papers.” (The Independent, Nov 29, 1899)

“While abroad Mr. Poor received several foreign decorations, among which were the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan, the Order of Simon Bolivar of South America, an Austrian and a Russian order and several others. He also held the Hawaiian Order of Crown of Hawaii and Order of Kapiolani.” (PCA, Nov 29, 1899)

“Later on he went to Samoa with Governor Bush and to his tact and gentlemanly action was due the fact that the Kaimiloa incident did not end in an international scandal.” (The Independent, Nov 29, 1899)

“In 1887 [Kaimiloa] was purchased by King Kalakaua, and after being fitted up as a man-of-war, was sent on a mission to Samoa. This mission was a failure …”

“King Kalakaua had just returned from a trip around the world. Sundry people, at all the places he stopped filled him with hot air, and he wanted to be emperor of the Pacific. On his return to Honolulu he promptly set about the work of trying to get control of all the islands which had not yet been seized by European rulers.”

“[Kalakaua’s] Prime Minister, Gibson, induced him to fit out the Kaimiloa as a war ship and send it on a diplomatic mission to Samoa, where Ambassador ‘Ned’ Bush was instructed to either annex the place or induce the King of Samoa to make a treaty acknowledging that Kalakaua was the supreme ruler of a Pacific Island confederacy.”

“On board the warship was ‘Admiral’ Jackson, Ambassador Bush, Henry Poor, secretary of the legation, a big crew, an enormous quantity of gin, a band, and plenty of the King’s dreamy ideas of a Pacific confederacy.”

“To this day the mystery of how the vessel ever reached Samoa has not been solved, and it is a wonder that she ever got there at all, for gin and other drink never flowed freer on a private craft than it did on the Kaimiloa. …”

“Then wild with the dissipation or the voyage, the crew mutinied, and capturing Secretary Poor, chained him to the deck.”    (PCA Aug 8, 1902)


“The officers and crew of the Kaimiloa began to go ashore almost nightly to carouse in the streets of Apia. One night gunner William Cox, on returning to the ship, got into a fight with other officers.”

“He rushed the powder magazine, threatening to blow up the ship. Lt. Frank J. Waiau and ship’s carpenter John Galway stopped him, but the brawling went on. Lt. Sam I. Maikai, nominally in command, went ashore with Waiau to report to the Hawaiian legation.”

“They wanted to resign but Bush would not hear of it. He ordered them back on board and sent along his secretary, H. F. Poor. Jackson also went along with them. He and Poor, revolvers in hand, found the mutineers trying to take over the armory.

“They drove the mutineers out on deck. Waiau over-powered Cox and put him in irons on the bridge.” (Adler)

“The German warship Olga was in the harbor at the time, and her captain, noticing the row on the Hawaiian vessel, sent a longboat over … and threatened to tow the whole outfit bark to Hawaii unless the trouble subsided. …”

“On arrival [back in Honolulu] here [Kaimiloa] was dismantled, and never again used for war purposes. No one knows how many sins were committed aboard the vessel while trading in the South Seas, but many people have heard something of the story of her remarkable cruise as a man-of-war to Samoa.”   (PCA Aug 8, 1902)

Poor hosted Robert Louis Stevenson on his visit to the Islands.  On January 24, 1889, Stevenson arrived in Honolulu and spent the first six months of that year in the Hawaiian Islands (he later settled and lived in Samoa.)

“For the first few days the Stevenson party stayed with Henry Poor and his mother Mrs Caroline Bush, at 40 Queen Emma Street, Honolulu (24-27 January).”

“Then on 27 January 1889 they moved to Poor’s bungalow, Manuia Lanai, at Waikiki, three miles east of Honolulu.  In early February Stevenson decided to send the Casco back to San Francisco and stay on to work in Hawaii.”

“As a result he rented the house next to Henry Poor’s. This too was a one-storey ‘rambling house or set of houses’ in a garden, centred on a lanai, ‘an open room or summer parlour, partly surrounded with venetian shutters, in part quite open, which is the living room’”.  (RLS Website)

Henry French Poor died in Honolulu on November 28, 1899 and is buried at O‘ahu Cemetery.

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Ni‘ihau Lei Pūpū

Privately-owned by the Robinsons, with strict limited access, Ni‘ihau is the island that is least known and visited, and as such has the most intrigue (and thus referred to as the Forbidden Isle.)

In 1863, King Kamehameha IV put Ni‘ihau up for sale.  A purchase price of $10,000 was agreed to with buyers James and Francis Sinclair.  But Kamehameha IV died on November 30 before the closing, so Royal Patent No. 2944 shows his brother, Kamehameha V, completed the transaction in 1864.  Ownership was subsequently passed down through the family.

The 70-square-mile island (about half the size of Lāna‘i and twice as large as Kaho‘olawe) is the smallest inhabited island in Hawai‘i with 84 residents (mostly Native Hawaiian) and 35 houses (DBEDT & Census.)

The island lacks basic municipal infrastructure.  There are no paved roads (walking, horseback or bicycle are the only transportation options on Ni‘ihau.)  No water and wastewater systems.  No stores.  No restaurants.  No doctors.  No police.  No fire department.  (Ni‘ihau Cultural Heritage Foundation)

“‘Ni‘ihau shells’ means seashells harvested from the island of Ni‘ihau, its waters, or its beaches. [N]o person shall offer, display, expose for sale, or solicit for sale any product or jewelry item fabricated, processed, or manufactured with seashells …”

“… that is described, labeled, or identified using the term ‘Ni‘ihau’ or ‘Niihau’, either alone or in conjunction with other words, or in a trade or brand name …”

“… unless: (1) One hundred per cent of all shells in the product or jewelry item are Ni‘ihau shells; and (2) The product or jewelry item is fabricated, processed, or manufactured entirely within this State.”  (Hawai‘i Revised Statutes, §486-118.5)

Pu‘uwai village, on the western (leeward) side of the island, is the population center of Ni‘ihau.  On this side of the island are the main beaches where Ni‘ihau shells are collected that make the famous and collectible Ni‘ihau lei pūpū.

The origin of the Ni‘ihau shell lei is lost in antiquity, but it is clear that at the time of Captain James Cook first contact in 1778, shell lei were in existence.

A Ni‘ihau shell lei is in the British Museum and was most likely collected by Cook during one of his several visits to the island of Ni‘ihau.

Although ‘shell ornaments’ described by early visitors were primarily made of seashells, some were also made of land shells which were once common throughout the Islands. In the mid-1800s, hula dancers were described as wearing necklaces of shells as well as flower garlands and feather ornamentation.

There are three different shells primarily used to make Ni‘ihau shell lei: kahelelani, momi and laiki. The color of the shells range from bright pink to pale yellow, and can have various types of markings on them.

Fabricating shell lei was not limited to Ni‘ihau, but it was there that this Hawaiian art flourished, most likely due to the abundance of shells available on the island’s beaches and the scarcity of flowers because of the arid climate.

In 1887, Queen Kapi‘olani had a formal portrait taken in New York on her way to attend Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. In the portrait, she wore a multi-strand lei of ivory-colored Ni‘ihau shells which complemented her formal Victorian dress.

Queen Emma, who showed more appreciation of Hawaiian crafts than any other of the Hawaiian royalty, also wore Ni‘ihau shell lei for formal portraits as well as when she was presented to Her Britannic Majesty.

It should be noted that during this time the shell lei was adapted to Victorian jewelry styles which included adding a clasp, thus elevating the traditional lei to the status of a piece of fine jewelry which was worn with the most elegant Western dress.

It is also interesting to note that later, particularly during the early- and mid-1900s, shell lei were more commonly reserved for occasions when Hawaiian attire was worn.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pono Pineapple

Kapa‘a was the final home of the legendary chief Mō‘īkeha. Born at Waipi‘o on the island of Hawai‘i, Mō‘īkeha sailed to Kahiki (Tahiti), the home of his grandfather, Maweke, after a disastrous flood. On his return to Hawai‘i, he settled at Kapa‘a, Kauai.

Kila, Mō‘īkeha’s favorite of three sons by the Kauai chiefess Ho‘oipoikamalanai, was born at Kapa‘a and was considered the most handsome man on the island. It was Kila who was sent by his father back to Kahiki to slay his old enemies and retrieve a foster son, the high chief La‘amaikahiki.

Mō‘īkeha’s love for Kapa‘a is recalled in the ‘olelo no‘eau: Ka lulu o Mo‘ikeha i ka laulã o Kapa‘a “The calm of Mō‘īkeha in the breadth of Kapa‘a ” (Pukui 1983: 157) (McMahon)

The sugar industry came to the Kapa‘a region in 1877 with the establishment of the Makee Sugar Company and subsequent construction of a mill near the north end of the present town. Cane was cultivated mainly in the upland areas on former kula lands

The first crop was planted by the Hui Kawaihau, a group composed of associates of King Exploration Associates Ltd. David Kalākaua. The king threw much of his political and economic power behind the project to ensure its success.

The Hui Kawaihau was originally a choral society begun in Honolulu whose membership consisted of many prominent names, both Hawaiian and haole.

It was Kalākaua’s thought that the Hui members could join forces with Makee, who had previous sugar plantation experience on Maui, to establish a successful sugar corporation on the east side of Kauai. Captain Makee was given land in Kapa‘a to build a mill and he agreed to grind cane grown by Hui members.

Kalākaua declared the land between Wailua and Moloa‘a, the Kawaihau District, a fifth district and for four years the Hui attempted to grow sugar cane at Kapahi, on the plateau lands above Kapa‘a.

Kapa‘a town was founded by immigrant sugar workers who left their sugar mill towns and set up small private businesses. It is one of only two towns on Kauai that sprang up independent of sugar production.

Pineapple became the next largest commercial enterprise in the region. In the early 1900s, to help with the growing plantation population, government lands were auctioned off as town lots in Kapa‘a.

The first pineapple company on the island of Kauai was established in 1906.  In 1913, Hawaiian Canneries Company, Ltd opened in Kapa‘a. Through the Hawaiian Organic Act, Hawaiian Canneries purchased land they were leasing, approximately 8.75 acres, in 1923.

Hawaiian Canneries Co. cultivated pineapple scattered over 35 miles from Hanamaulu to Hanalei and processed and canned its pineapple at Kapa‘a canneries (now the site of Pono Kai Resort). (McMahon)

The Kapa‘a Cannery provided employment for many Kapa‘a residents. By 1960, 3400 acres were in pineapple and there were 250 full time employees and 1000 seasonal employees for the Kapa‘a Cannery.

On August 21, 1929, a US trademark registration was filed for ‘Pono’ by Hawaiian Canneries. The description provided to the trademark for Pono is ‘canned sliced and crushed pineapple and pineapple juice used for food-flavoring purposes’. (Trademarkia)  By 1956, the cannery was producing 1.5 million cases of pineapple.

Factory by-products – the crowns & skins from the processed pineapples – were loaded onto train carts and hauled up the coast to a pier.  The pineapple rubbish was then dumped into the ocean from the end of the pier. (Kauai Path)

As canned pineapple from other countries began filling the market, Hawaiian canneries began to close and plantations, once located on Maui, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, and Kauai, began to shrink.

In 1962, Hawaiian Canneries went out of business due to foreign competition. (Exploration) Other smaller Kauai and Maui pineapple companies closed in the late-1960s.

In 1969, Hawaiian Fruit Packers (which was formed in 1937 by the reorganization of a company initially started by a group of ethnic Japanese growers) on Kauai, the last cannery remaining there, announced plans to cease planting. The cannery was closed in October 1973.  (Bartholomew etal)

Del Monte cannery closed in 1985, and Dole cannery in Iwilei closed in 1991. The Kahului cannery of Maui Land and Pineapple Company was the last remaining pineapple cannery in Hawai‘i.

The Hawaiian pineapple industry has gone from its early days as a primarily fresh product, through most of the 20th century as principally a canned product and a major supplier of the worlds canned pineapple market, to the 21st century when it is once again grown mostly for fresh consumption.  (HAER)

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Kaua Kūloko (Civil War 1895)

Following the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893, the Committee of Safety established the Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi as a temporary government until an assumed annexation by the United States.

The Provisional Government convened a constitutional convention and established the Republic of Hawaiʻi on July 4, 1894. The Republic continued to govern the Islands.

From January 6 to January 9, 1895, patriots of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the forces that had overthrown the constitutional Hawaiian monarchy were engaged in a war that consisted of three battles on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.

This has frequently been referred to as the “Counter-revolution”.  It has also been called the Second Wilcox Rebellion of 1895, the Revolution of 1895, the Hawaiian Counter-revolution of 1895, the 1895 Uprising in Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian Civil War, the 1895 Uprising Against the Provisional Government or the Uprising of 1895.

In their attempt to return Queen Liliʻuokalani to the throne, it was the last major military operation by royalists who opposed the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.  The goal of the rebellion failed.

The chief conspirators who conducted the planning were four: CT Gulick, a former Cabinet Minister of Kalākaua, an American; Samuel Nowlein, a hapa haole, former Captain of the Queen’s Guard; WH Rickard, an Englishman long resident in Hawaiʻi; and Major Seward, an American long domiciled with John A Cummins, a wealthy hapa haole.

For three months, these four held frequent meetings at Gulick’s house and settled upon a plan for the capture of the city and public buildings.

Capt. Nowlein was to be commander of the rebel forces. Major Seward was to procure arms, Rickard was generally useful and Gulick was the statesman of the party.

Gulick, with the others, drew up a new Constitution, wrote a Proclamation restoring the Queen’s Government and prepared written Commissions for a number of chief officials.

On December 20th, after several days watching by five of Seward and Cummins’ men on Mānana (Rabbit Island, near Waimānalo,) the schooner signaled and was answered. The men gave the pass word “Missionary.”

They received two cases containing eighty pistols and ammunition which they first buried on the islet, but afterwards carried to Honolulu. The schooner then lay off outside for twelve days.

On the 28th, the little steamer Waimānalo was chartered by Seward and Rickard, and on New Year’s Day intercepted the schooner about thirty miles NE of Oʻahu, and received from her 288-Winchester carbines and 50,000-cartridges.

Captain Nowlein had secretly enlisted Hawaiians in squads of thirty-eight. About 210 of them assembled at Waimānalo during Saturday night and Sunday, the 6th. They captured and detained all persons passing or residing beyond Diamond Head.

Robert Wilcox, of former insurgent fame, had joined the rebels, and was placed in command under Nowlein.

Beginning on the night of January 6, 1895, several skirmishes ensued, with slight victory for the Royalists.  However, their benefit of surprise was now lost and they were out-numbered and out-gunned.

On January 7, 1895 martial law was declared in Hawaiʻi by Sanford B Dole.

Three major battle grounds were involved.  First, Wilcox and about 40 of his men were on the rim and summit of Diamond Head firing down on the soldiers.

Seeing no tactical importance in remaining on Diamond Head, Wilcox ordered his men to retreat to Waiʻalae. The new strategy was to move north into Koʻolau mountains then west, avoiding the Government forces in the south.

On January 7, the Royalists moved into Mōʻiliʻili where they were involved with additional skirmishes.  Then, on January 8, Wilcox and his men were discovered crossing into Mānoa Valley (they were hoping to get above the city, as well as rouse more supporters.)

Wilcox and his men then escaped up a trail on the precipice to the ridge separating Mānoa from Nuʻuanu. On that ridge his men dispersed into the mountain above; Wilcox and a few others crossed Nuʻuanu that night, eluding the guards.

Some 400 of the Government forces guarded the valleys from Nuʻuanu to Pālolo for more than a week, and scoured the mountain ridges clear to the eastern Makapuʻu point.

This resulted in the capture of all the leading rebels.

As evidence against conspirators accumulated, some forty whites and 120 Hawaiians were arrested. Four foreigners and 140 Hawaiians were taken prisoners of war. The prisons were supplemented by the use of the old Barracks.

Liliʻuokalani was put under arrest on the 16th, and confined in a chamber of ʻIolani Palace.

A tribunal was formed and evidence began to be taken on the 18th.  Nowlein, Wilcox, Bertelmann and TB Walker all pleaded guilty, and subsequently gave evidence for the prosecution.

On January 24, 1895, in an effort to prevent further bloodshed, Liliʻuokalani executed a document addressed to President Sanford B Dole, in which she renounced all her former rights and privileges as Queen and swore allegiance to the Republic.  The president pardoned the royalists after serving part of their prison sentence.

Convicted of having knowledge of a royalist plot, Liliʻuokalani was fined $5,000 and sentenced to five-years in prison at hard labor. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment in an upstairs bedroom of ʻIolani Palace.

After her release from ʻIolani Palace, the Queen remained under house arrest for five-months at her private home, Washington Place. For another eight-months, she was forbidden to leave Oʻahu, before all restrictions were lifted.

Lots of the information here comes from an article in The Friend, February, 1895.

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Palolo Municipal Golf Course

The first public golf course in the US was the Van Cortlandt Golf Course in the Bronx, New York in 1895.  Since that time many other cities developed their own facilities both for local use and the tourist industry.

Honolulu’s first golf course was a private course built by Samuel Damon in 1898 at Moanalua Valley.  Built four miles beyond the nearest trolley line (which ended at Pālama), it was too far outside of town to use for those without private transportation.

Another private course, located in Manoa Valley, was begun in 1904, as well as O‘ahu Country Club opened in 1906 and Waialae in 1928.

Planning for a Honolulu municipal golf course was underway in 1925.  The City Planning Commission wanted a location that was not too far away from the center of the population that had access from the transit system.

They decided to concentrate their efforts for a site in Kalihi, but the price was unmanageable.  “In March 1926 Palolo Valley landowners CF Wright and CA Long approach the [Planning] Commission with a proposal to sell their land to the City for a golf course site at 8 cents per square foot”.

“The Commission decided to recommend that the Board of Supervisors [equivalent to what we call the City Council] take advantage of the Palolo Valley site for an eighteen hole golf course.” (Stephenson)

“[T]he City Planning Commission on May 13, 1926, decided to formally endorse the Palolo Valley golf course site to the City Board of Supervisors. … On December 6, 1931, the Palolo Municipal Golf Course was officially opened.” (Stephenson)

“Honolulu’s new municipal golf course, a nine-hole layout off Palolo avenue, will be thrown open to the public today with a team match bringing together the best golfers on this island as the attractions.”

“The match begins promptly at 8 am, and the players will start off in fivesomes, representing teams of Haoles, Hawaiians, Japanese, Chines and the Braves.”  (Honolulu Advertiser, December 6, 1931) “Senator Francis Brown, one of Hawaii’s best golfers, will shoot the first ball”. (Star Bulletin, Dec 5, 1931)

“You turn off Waialae road onto the Palolo belt road which branches off Waialae opposite the King’s Daughter’s home. You then drive straight up the valley on the Palolo road, the links being on the right hand side of the road about a mile from Waialae.” (Star Bulletin, Dec 5, 1931)

“Eventually the Palolo course should be extended to 18 holes.  As it is now Honolulu has a regulation nine hole municipal course.”

“This is a fine start and it won’t be long before the links start bringing money into the revolving fund, even with the low fees that are to be charged.” (Star Bulletin, Deb 9, 1931)

“The demise of the Palolo Municipal Golf Course began during World War II.  On September 22, 1944, the Honolulu City Planning Commission granted variances from existing zoning regulations to allow construction of temporary prefabricated houses on 2400 to 2500 square foot plots on the golf course.”

“This was done to help alleviate the existing wartime housing shortage.  The continued shortage of housing precluded reopening the golf course.”  (Stephenson)

Interest then went to the Territorial Fair Grounds, just mauka of the Ala Wai Canal, and the ultimate expansion of the Ala Wai Golf Course as the municipal course.

The first Territorial Fair was held during June 10-15, 1918; over a six-day period, one hundred and eighteen thousand tickets of admission were sold.  With that initial success, the Chamber sought “A Bigger and Better Fair.”

A second fair was held June 9-14, 1919.  “Help Win the War!” was the slogan that made the first Fair a success and it was based on common sense and a real need.

In 1921, the Territorial legislature appropriated funds from the “general revenues of the Territory of Hawaii for the purpose of purchasing and improving land to be used for territorial fair and amusement park purposes.”

A site was selected and “set aside for territorial fair and amusement park purposes that portion of the government lands lying mauka of the proposed Waikiki drainage canal (Ala Wai) and adjacent to Kapahulu road.”

Then field work was undertaken for the Fair Commission in connection with improvements of the fairgrounds and amusement park: polo field and race track; grandstand site was surveyed; two baseball diamonds and two indoor baseball diamonds were staked out.

The Territorial fair continued for a number of years.  However, it’s not clear why the use of the site transitioned from a Fair Grounds to something else – but a transition appears apparent, starting in 1923.

Reportedly, golf started at the Fair Grounds in 1923, when someone placed a salmon can down as its first hole.  A year later, three more holes were built for a total of four.  By 1931 five more holes were designed and it became a nine-hole course.   It was renamed the Ala Wai Golf Course.

The second nine was added in 1937, and the original clubhouse followed in 1948. In the 1980s, a new water feature was added and the course was also fitted with a new sprinkler system. The driving range was relocated to make room for expansion of the Honolulu Zoo in 1989 and, finally, a new clubhouse was built in 1990.

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