Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kalola

Kalola, the highest tabu chiefess of the Maui court, was a daughter of Queen Kekuʻiapoiwa I (a daughter of Keawe of Hawaiʻi) and King Kekaulike of Maui.

She was thus a granddaughter of Kalanikauleleiaiwi, Queen of Hawaiʻi and sister of the King Kahekili II. She was an aunt of the King Kalanikūpule.

When Kekaulike died, Kalola’s brothers Kamehamehanui (an uncle of Kamehameha I) and Kauhi fought each other for rule of Maui in 1738. Battles were fought across West Maui; the war ended with the battle Koko O Nā Moku (“Bloodshed of the Islands;” Kamehamehanui won.

Kalola lived with two brothers, Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Keōua, both Hawai’i island niʻaupiʻo (very high rank) chiefs. From Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the older brother, she had a son, Kalanikauikeaouli Kiwalaʻo (Kiwalaʻo.) From Keōua, the younger brother, she had a daughter, Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha.

The children, Kiwalaʻo and Kekuʻiapoiwa, had the same mother, different fathers, offspring of a naha union (brother-sister mating of niʻaupiʻo chiefs.) These two lived together, and Keōpūolani was born to them, also the offspring of a naha union. (Mookini)

Keōpūolani (granddaughter of Kalola,) who was raised in Wailuku, Olowalu and Hāmākua on Maui, was later queen of Kamehameha I (we’ll get more into that a little bit later.)

At the time of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokai, Lānai and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

In 1782, following the death of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, Kiwalaʻo was briefly ruler of the island of Hawaiʻi. That year, his cousin, Kamehameha I, challenged his authority at the battle of Mokuʻōhai. Kīwalaʻō was killed in combat by Keʻeaumoku, one of Kamehameha’s officers. The victory at the battle of Mokuʻōhai was the start of Kamehameha’s rise to power

After the deaths of Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kiwalaʻo, Kalola left for Maui, taking with her Keōpūolani. Kahekili, brother of Kalola, provided for the family and gave them his protection. After the conquest of Oahu by Kahekili he removed his court to that island, taking with him his sister and her family.

In 1785, they returned to Maui with Kalanikūpule, the son of Kahekili, who had been appointed chief of the island, and there remained, principally at Olowalu, until 1790. (Kalākaua)

At about that time, Simon Metcalf (captaining the Eleanora) and his son Thomas Metcalf (captaining the Fair American) were traders; their plan was to meet and spend winter in the Hawaiian Islands.

The Eleanora arrived in the islands first at Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi. After a confrontation with a local chief, Simon Metcalf then sailed to the neighboring island of Maui to trade along the coast.

Kalola ruled the puʻuhonua of Olowalu and presided over Kaʻiwaloa Heiau. Kahekili, ruler of Maui, lived at Halekiʻi Heiau in Wailuku. This indicates the important spiritual, political and economic connection between ʻIao and Olowalu. Kalola was still ruling at Olowalu in 1790 when Simon Metcalf fired cannons on Honua’ula and Olowalu during the Olowalu Massacre.

Several months after the massacre at Olowalu, Kalola watched the great Battle of Kepaniwai from a panoramic flat area in the back of ʻIao Valley. Kamehameha stormed Maui with over twenty thousand men, and after several battles Maui troops retreated to ʻIao Valley.

Maui Island was conquered and its fighting force was destroyed – Kalanikūpule (Kahekili’s eldest son and heir-apparent) and some others (including Kalola and her family) escaped over the mountain at the back of the valley and made their way to Molokai and Oʻahu.

“The fugitives fled across the sharp ridges of the mountains, the mother carrying the child on her back and the kahu carrying mother and child, until they were able to escape to Molokai.” (Kamakau)

On the island of Molokai at Kalamaʻula, Kalola became ill and they could not carry out their original intention of going to Oʻahu to join Kahekili. Kamehameha followed Kalola to Molokai and asked Kalola for Keōpūolani (Kalola’s granddaughter) to be his queen.

Kalola, who was dying, agreed to give Kamehameha Keōpūolani and her mother Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha, if he would allow the girls to stay at her death bed until she passed. Kamehameha camped on Molokai until Kalola died, and returned to Kona with his high queen Keōpūolani.

At Kalola’s death, “They wailed and chanted dirges, and some were put to sleep with the dead, and the chiefs tattooed themselves and knocked out their teeth. Kamehameha was also tattooed and had his eyeteeth knocked out, and the chiefs and commoners acted like madmen.” (Kamakau)

Kamehameha then formally took charge of and returned to Hawaiʻi with her daughter and granddaughter, not only as a sacred legacy from Kalola, but as a token of reconciliation and alliance between himself and the elder branch of the Keawe dynasty. (Kalākaua)

Later, Liholiho (Kamehameha II,) Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) and Princess Nahiʻenaʻena were born to Kamehameha and Keōpūolani.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mutiny At ʻIolani Barracks

In the 1860s, the Hawaiian military was made up by the Royal Guard, a unit assigned to guard the sovereign.  They were also known as the Household Guard, Household Troops, Queen’s Guard, King’s Own and Queen’s Own – they guarded the king and queen and the treasury, and participated in state occasions.

Later, the Guard was quartered in ʻIolani Barracks (Halekoa.) (Built in 1871 (before ‘Iolani Palace,) the Barracks was located on a site now occupied by the State Capitol behind ʻIolani Palace across Hotel Street, formerly Palace Walk.  In 1965, the coral block building was dismantled piece-by-piece and reassembled on the Palace grounds.)

The Guard was an elite group of 60-men from which the King’s body guards were drawn, with a heritage which extended far back into Hawaiʻi’s history.

In 1873, King Lunalilo became ill. The Guard mutinied – not against the King, but rather, unanimously against their drill master Captain Joseph Jajczay, a Hungarian.

While Lunalilo was convalescing and regaining temporarily part of his lost strength, he stayed at his marine residence at Waikiki. To that seaside resort went his ministers to consult with him on matters of public business; his physicians to watch the state of his health; friends, real and pretended, on simple visits of courtesy or personal advantage.

The mutiny started on Sunday, September 7. The simple origin of it is to be found in the bitter dislike of the Household Troops for their martinet drill-master, Captain Joseph Jajczay, a Hungarian, and resentment over some acts of the adjutant general, Charles H. Judd.

An attempt by the captain to enforce some disciplinary measure was resisted; he was knocked down and otherwise mishandled. The governor of O‘ahu, John O Dominis, and the adjutant general having been called, the latter was attacked and the governor was defied or was simply disregarded.

The other soldiers joined the mutineers and they united in demanding the removal of Jajczay and Judd.  (Kuykendall)

While some reports suggest the mutiny was triggered because the drill-master was very strict and planned to punish some of the men for a breach of duty, other reports suggest otherwise.

No particular action was taken until Tuesday, when a court of inquiry was held, without much result, and a message from the king was read to the mutineers ordering them to return to duty at once; otherwise, to be dismissed from the service, lay down their arms, and vacate the barracks.

Some of them obeyed the order, but thirty-four remained insubordinate, saying the message was only a trick of the officers. Two companies of volunteers, the Honolulu Rifles and the Hawaiian Cavalry, some forty men in all, were called out but were given nothing to do beyond serving as a rather ineffectual guard for parts of two days.

A warrant for the arrest of the mutineers was read to them by Marshal Parke; their response was to slam the door of the barracks in his face.

Shortly after, at the request of the king, a delegation of three of the mutineers went out to see him at Waikīkī; he told them they must submit to orders and trust to his clemency.

The mutineers obeyed his order to stack arms, but they stayed in the barracks, instead of going to their homes as they were expected to do.

Major William Luther Moehonua was placed temporarily in charge of the barracks; late in the day a second delegation visited the king, who said he would put his message to them in writing.

Accordingly, on Friday morning, the King’s letter, addressed “to my subjects now assembled at the Barracks in Honolulu,” was read to the mutineers, who were referred to in the body of the letter as “my loving people”; they were ordered to relinquish possession of all government property and to depart, each by himself, to their homes.

“If you shall implicitly obey this my command, then I will be on your side, as a Father to his children, and I will protect you from injury.” After a little further dickering, the mutineers obeyed the king’s order.  (Kuykendall)

One report noted, “During the reign of Lunalilo a mutiny occurred among the Household Guard which was then occupying the old stone barracks now used by the United States Army Quarter Masters Department.”

“The men mutinied over the kind of poi being issued to them as rations and defied the authority of the king to make them obey orders until new poi was given them.”   (The Independent, March 13, 1902)

“Two companies of volunteers, the Honolulu Rifles and the Hawaiian Calvary, some forty men in all, were called out but were given nothing to do beyond serving as a rather ineffectual guard for parts of two days.”  (Kuykendall)

Lunalilo then issued a decree disbanding the Household Troops, except the band, and the kingdom was thus left without any regular organized military force. (Kuykendall)

But Lunalilo died a year later, and the newly-elected king, Kalākaua, restored the army, and named it the Household Guard.  (It was reported Kalākaua sympathized and sided with the mutineers and advised and instigated them.)

In 1893, the Provisional government disbanded the guards and used the Barracks for munitions storage.  It is unclear how many soldiers made up the Hawaiian army.  Some suggest the 60 Household Guards was the total strength.

Kuykendall put the Hawaiian army at 272; this is consistent with the Blount report that noted an affidavit by Nowlein, commander of the palace troops that put its strength at 272 (with an additional local police force of 224.)

The memory and legacy of the Royal Guard lives on through two venues.  In 1916, the US Army’s 32nd Regiment was first organized on Oʻahu.  At its activation, it was known as “The Queen’s Own” Regiment, a title bestowed by the last queen of Hawaiʻi, Liliʻuokalani.

In addition, the Royal Guard of the Hawaiʻi National Guard is an Air National Guard ceremonial unit which re-enacts the royal bodyguards of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

The unit is structured in the same way as the original organization. The governing body, or “Na Koa Hoomalu Kini O Ka Moi” (King’s Body Guards), is composed of five men elected by the general membership. The five men, in turn, select the “Kapena Moku” (Commander of Troops).

The impact of the re-creation of the Royal Guard on the community was best described by Hawaiʻi’s Governor, John A. Burns when he said, “The traditions of the past are, to me, means by which we gain strength to meet the trials of the present and the future.”  (ngef-org)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Broken Leg

In 1834, John Paty sailed for the first time to Hawai‘i in the brig Avon, of which he was master and part owner, accompanied by his wife and brother, and arrived at Honolulu in June of that year.  (They had three children while in Hawaiʻi, John Henry Paty (1840,) Mary Francesca Paty (1844) and Emma Theodora Paty (1850.)

In 1860, “Capt John Paty, as a ship master out of Honolulu, and the valuable assistance rendered by him in the furtherance of commercial intercourse between the Hawaiian Islands and adjacent ports in foreign countries, as evidenced by the accomplishment of his one hundredth passage across the Pacific.”   (The Friend, November 1, 1860)

In 1865, Paty, on another run to the Islands, hired Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham as first mate on the bark Whistler, on the San Francisco/Honolulu run.

Frank, the son of Benjamin Clark Dillingham, a shipmaster, and Lydia Sears (Hows) Dillingham, was born on September 4, 1844 in West Brewster, Massachusetts. Frank left school at 14 and shipped on his uncle’s vessel for a voyage around the Horn to San Francisco. 

“A brief sojourn in the city enabled me to realize that I had no training in any other vocation, save that of the sea, and learning that Capt. Paty of the bark Whistler plying between the coast and Honolulu was in need of officers, I applied and obtained the position of first mate without delay.”  (Dillingham; Chiddix & Simpson)

Dillingham wrote that he felt at home the first time he came ashore in Honolulu: “After my tempstuous experiences in rounding Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, the trip seemed to me like a pleasure excursion.”

“It felt as if I had anchored in a home port; the cordiality I experienced from all those whom I met removed at once the feeling of being in a foreign land though the streets were filled with several nationalities. The luxuriant foliage, the balmy breezes, the tropical fruits, all afforded such delights that I felt sure I should return.”

He would indeed return, and on his third trip aboard the Whistler, he rented a horse. “Sailors are notoriously unfamiliar with horses” he later wrote—describing his collision with a carriage. Ships and sailors were of economic import in the Islands, and on July 29, 1865, the Pacific Commercial Advertiser ran a short piece on his accident:

“The first officer of the bark Whistler Mr Dillingham, whose leg was broken last Friday night by being thrown from a horse, in a collision with a carriage on the vally road, is now at the American Marine Hospital, where he receives every care and attention, and is in a favorable condition for recovery.”

The Whistler could not wait and sailed without him. Ultimately, and unknown to anyone at the time, this changed to course of economic history in the Islands and resulted in lasting legacies.

While recovering, Dillingham had a long time to reflect upon his options. This time he was more serious about staying ashore. Already in love with these Islands, he had met Emma Louise Smith on an earlier visit.

Despite tales of her nursing him back to health, she was away in New England while Frank was recuperating. She was also engaged to another man whom by all accounts she did not love. Dillingham’s patience in slowly courting Emma demonstrated a determination for which he later became known.

He accepted a job as a clerk in a hardware store called H. Dimond & Son for $40 per month. The store was owned by Henry Dimond, formerly a bookbinder in the 7th Missionary Company. In 1850 Dimond had been released from his duties at the Mission and had gone into business with his son.

Dillingham later bought the company with partner Alfred Castle (son of Samuel Northrup Castle, who was in the 8th Company of missionaries and ran the Mission business office;) they called the company Dillingham & Co (it was later known as Pacific Hardware, Co.)

On April 26, 1869, Dillingham married Emma Smith, daughter of 6th Company missionaries Reverend Lowell and Abigail Smith.

But hard times came on Dillingham with the collapse of whaling and the rise of sugar. Large suppliers pulled Dillingham’s credit lines, and his accounts were paid late.  Then Dillingham was given the opportunity to buy the James Campbell lands in Ewa.

While he couldn’t raise the money to buy it, Campbell leased the land for 50-years.  Dillingham realized that to be successful, he needed reliable transportation.

On September 4, 1888, Frank Dillingham’s 44th birthday, the legislature gave Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad … for the carriage of passengers and freight.”

They laughed at him and called it ‘Dillingham’s Folly.’ But Benjamin Franklin Dillingham’s dream of a railroad into the wilderness of West Oahu carried the promise of a sugar industry and major developments that would change Hawaii forever. (Wagner)

Dillingham formed O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L,) a narrow gauge rail, whose economic being was founded on the belief that O‘ahu would soon host a major sugar industry.

“Among the most important works now in process of rapid construction, is the Oahu railway to Pearl Harbor, which is already approaching completion, so far as grading is concerned. Eleven miles of this line will have the grading completed in two weeks; and of this length ten miles are already finished.”

“The depot itself will be of imposing size and made as ornamental in appearance as convenience and traffic requirements will allow. … The progress of this important work has been so rapid during the month of July that we give it first place among the works in progress during the past month.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 27, 1889)

“Mr BF Dillingham, promoter of the Oahu Railway and Land Company [OR&L], on his birthday a year previous, was accosted by an acquaintance with the remark: ‘Well, Mr. Dillingham, you have got your franchise: when are you going to give us the railway?’”

“Mr. Dillingham replied that on his next birthday, that day one year, he hoped to treat his friends to a railway ride.  … with a strong company now at his back, the originator of the enterprise, having taken the contract to build the road, resolutely pushed operations to their present advanced stage.”

On September 4, 1889, Mr. Dillingham’s forty-fifth birthday, the first train to run out of Honolulu took an excursion party one-half mile into the Palama rice fields.

‘Dillingham’s Folly’ had now become the greatest single factor in the development of O‘ahu and Honolulu.  (Nellist)

“With a shrill blast from the whistle and the bell clanging, the engine moved easily off with its load. Three rousing cheers were given by the passengers, and crowds assembled at the starting point responded.”  (Daily Bulletin, September 5, 1889)

The rail line was extended, reaching Waianae in 1895 and, with Waialua plantation enormously expanded under Mr. Dillingham’s driving leadership, the railroad eventually was extended there and on to Kahuku. (Nellist)

Ultimately, OR&L sublet land, partnered on several sugar operations and/or hauled cane from Ewa Plantation Company, Honolulu Sugar Company in ‘Aiea, O‘ahu Sugar in Waipahu, Waianae Sugar Company, Waialua Agriculture Company and Kahuku Plantation Company, as well as pineapples for Dole.

By the early-1900s, the expanded railway cut across the island, serving several sugar and pineapple plantations, and the popular Haleʻiwa Hotel.  They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Hale‘iwa for picture-taking.

When the hotel opened on August 5, 1899, guests were conveyed from the railway terminal over the Anahulu stream to fourteen luxurious suites, each had a bath with hot-and-cold running water.

Thrum’s ‘Hawaiian Annual’ (1900,) noted, “In providing so tempting an inn as an adjunct and special attraction for travel by the Oahu Railway – also of his (Dillingham’s) creation – the old maxim of ‘what is worth doing is worth doing well’ has been well observed, everything about the hotel is first class …”

The weekend getaway from Honolulu to the Haleʻiwa Hotel became hugely popular with the city affluent who enjoyed a retreat in ‘the country.’

In addition, OR&L (using another of its “land” components,) got into land development.  It developed Hawai‘i’s first planned suburban development and held a contest, through the newspaper, to name this new city.  The winner selected was “Pearl City” (the public also named the main street, Lehua.)

The railway owned 2,200-acres in fee simple in the peninsula.  First they laid-out and constructed the improvements, then invited the public on a free ride to see the new residential community.  The marketing went so well; ultimately, lots were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

“Mr. Dillingham, besides creating the O‘ahu Railway, a line for which he struggled twenty-seven years against a public prejudice that would not see its financial possibilities, established Olaʻa plantation on the Island of Hawai‘i and McBryde plantation on Kauai.”  (Sugar, May 1918) 

On his death in 1918 at age 74, Dillingham was hailed as a “master builder” and Honolulu’s financial district closed its doors out of respect.   (Wagner)  The Islands would have been different, if not for a sailor breaking his leg riding a horse.

The Dillingham Transportation Building was built in 1929 for Walter F Dillingham of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, who founded the Hawaiian Dredging Company (later Dillingham Construction) and ran the Oahu Railway and Land Company founded by his father, Benjamin Franklin Dillingham. (Information in this post taken, in part, from ‘Next Stop Honolulu.’)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Coffin Jones Jr

John Coffin Jones Jr was the only son of a prominent Boston businessman (in mercantile and shipping business) and politician. (John C Jones Sr served as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and was legislative colleague of John Quincy Adams (and one of the signors for Massachusetts of the Ratification of the US Constitution for that State.))

Young Jones was born in 1796 in Massachusetts and seems to have gone to sea at an early age.  He left to work in the sandalwood trade under Captain Dixey Wildes.   (Kelley)

Jones (also known in Hawaiian documents as John Aluli) was appointed US Agent for Commerce and Seamen on September 19, 1820. When he acknowledged his commission as Agent for Commerce and Seamen, he mentioned two previous voyages he had made to Canton and an extended visit to the Sandwich Islands.  (State Department)

He began to serve in October of 1820, at the port of Honolulu.   As Agent for Commerce and Seamen, Jones became the first official US representative in the Hawaiian Islands.  His role was to help distressed American citizens ashore, both seamen and civilians, serving without salary from the US government and required to report on commerce in Hawai‘i.

(The post of commercial agent was raised to Consul effective July 5, 1844, and held by Peter A. Brinsmade, who had already been appointed commercial agent on April 13, 1838.)

Jones was already agent for the prosperous Boston firm of Marshall and Wildes (one of four American mercantile houses doing business in Honolulu,) and by accepting the additional responsibility from his country, the firm and he might hope that through his reports to Washington the voice of commerce in the Pacific would be heard more clearly by the US Government.  (Hackler)

When Jones arrived in 1821 the sandalwood trade with China was still thriving. King Kamehameha I had monopolized, the cutting and exporting of sandalwood during his reign, but after his death in 1819, Kamehameha II was unable to enforce the conservation policies of his father, and unrestricted cutting of sandalwood soon threatened to deplete the hillsides of this rare wood.

But, while the wood lasted and the market held up in Canton, the American merchants in Honolulu competed fiercely with each other for the valuable cargoes, and pressed on the Hawaiians all sorts of goods which were to be paid for in sandalwood.  (Hackler)

He was considered an advocate for commercial interests in Hawaiʻi and immediately collided with the missionary group led by Rev. Hiram Bingham.  For the next couple of decades he contended for commercial advantages for the US. He set up his own trading firm in 1830 and made many voyages to California during the next ten years.  (Kelley)

“Since the discovery of the whale fishery on the coast of Japan, and the independence of the republics of the western coasts of North and South America, the commerce of the United States at the Sandwich islands has vastly increased.”

“Of such importance have these islands become to our ships which resort to the coast of Japan for the prosecution of the whale fishery, that, without another place could be found, possessing equal advantages of conveniences and situation, our fishery on Japan would be vastly contracted, or pursued under circumstances the most disadvantageous.”  (Jones, to Captain Wm B Finch, October 30, 1829)

As US Agent for Seamen, Jones had a burdensome responsibility.  Many seamen were put ashore because of illness, and they became the special concern of Jones. This was a responsibility and an expense.

In his first report to the Secretary of State on December 31, 1821, Jones complained of the commanders of American ships who were in the habit of discharging troublesome seamen at Honolulu and taking on Hawaiian hands.  (Hackler)

In addition, Jones reported to the Department that 30,000 piculs of sandalwood were sent to China in American ships that year, and estimated that the price for this wood in Canton should be about $300,000. The Hawaiian chiefs were becoming increasingly indebted to the American merchants in Honolulu and payment was slow in coming.

To add to his burden, in 1822-23 the crews of three wrecked American vessels were brought to the islands; in 1825 he explained his disbursements at Honolulu on behalf of seamen as being very heavy, as many men were put ashore without funds.  (Hackler)

“The number of hands generally comprising the Company of a whale ship will average Twenty Five; and owing to the want of discipline, the length and the ardourous duties of the voyage, these people generally become dissatisfied and are willing at any moment to join a rebellion or desert the first opportu(nity) that may offer;”

“- this has been fully exemplified in the whale ships that  have visited these islands, constant disertions have taken place and many serious mutinies both contributing to protract and frequently ruin the voyage.”  (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)

He wrote that the only solution was the posting of a US naval vessel at Honolulu, at least during the periods between March and May, and October and December, when the whalers gathered at the port.  (Hackler)

The service of Jones as consular agent in Honolulu put him in the middle of a number of commercial and political causes. Both as government representative and private trader during a formative period, he was an energetic figure and is credited with leadership in opening trade between Hawaiʻi and Spanish California.

By 1829, Jones seemed to have fallen out of favor with the Hawaiian rulers. At that time the King and the principal chiefs addressed a protest to Captain Finch of the USS Vincennes, accusing Jones of maltreating a native and lying about royal morals.  (Hackler)

Jones’ several marriages caused additional concern. He married Hannah Jones Davis, widow of his partner, William Heath Davis Sr, in 1823.  His younger stepson, William Heath Davis, Jr, became a prominent California businessman.

Jones continued to live with Hannah but also lived with Lahilahi Marin, daughter of Don Francisco Marin, and had children by both. In 1838, he married Manuela Carrillo of Santa Barbara, California and deserted Hannah and Lahilahi.

In December, 1838, returning from one of his periodic business trips to California, he introduced Manuela as his wife. This apparently enraged Hannah Holmes Jones, who promptly petitioned the Hawaiian Government for a divorce on grounds of bigamy.

The charge was upheld by the King and led to his writing Jones on January 8, 1839, that “… I refuse any longer to know you as consul from the United States of America.”  (Kamehameha III; Hacker)

Jones left the Islands and settled in Santa Barbara in 1839 and continued as a merchant both in California and Massachusetts. He died on December 24, 1861, leaving his wife and six children.  (Kelley)

The image shows Honolulu Harbor in 1826 (with the Dolphin in the harbor. (Massey))

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Halekūlani Hotel

Historically, Waikīkī encompassed fishponds, taro lo‘i, coconut groves and a reef-protected beach that accommodated Hawaiian canoes.

Waikīkī shifted from agricultural to residential uses, with private residences for the Hawaiian royalty and the well-to-do.  Near the turn of the 20th-century, some of these homes were converted into small hotels and eventually into world class resorts.

Robert Lewers (whose firm Lewers & Cooke supplied much of the lumber for O‘ahu homes) built a two-story wooden frame bungalow with an open veranda overlooking a coconut grove in 1883.  Then, in 1907, Edwin Irwin leased the Lewers’ house and converted it into a small hotel called the Hau Tree.

Nearby, the J Atherton Gilman family bought 3-acres and built a two-story house from a man named Hall.  La Vancha Maria Chapin Gray rented the Gilman house in 1912 and converted it into a boarding house and named it Gray’s-by-the-Beach.  The sandy area fronting it was soon referred to as Gray’s Beach.

In 1917, Clifford and Juliet Kimball acquired the Hau Tree Inn near Gray’s Beach and, in the late 1920s, they decided to expand and bought the Gilman property, including Gray’s-by-the-Sea and an adjacent parcel belonging to Arthur Brown.

When their expansion project was completed, the Kimballs had acquired over five acres of prime Waikīkī beachfront for their resort, which they named Halekūlani, or “house befitting heaven.”

An early guest at the Halekūlani was Earl Derr Biggers, the author of a murder mystery called ‘The House Without a Key’ (1925.)  Biggers’ book title was based on his discovery that no one locked their doors there.  In memory of the author and his novel, the Halekūlani named its seaside bar and lanai “House Without a Key.”

The principal character in the story was Charlie Chan, the celebrated Chinese detective, patterned after a Honolulu detective named Chang Apana.

(Born Ah Ping Chang on December 26, 1871 in Waipiʻo, Oʻahu; he eventually became known as Chang Apana (the Hawaiianized version of the Chinese name Ah Ping.)  In 1898, Chang joined the Honolulu Police Department and the “shrewd and meticulous investigator” rose through the ranks to become detective in 1916.)

The beach in this area is a place of healing called Kawehewehe (the removal.)  The sick and the injured came to bathe in the kai, or waters of the sea.  It’s now a small pocket of sand nestled between the Halekūlani and the Sheraton Waikīkī.

Kawehewehe takes its meaning from the root word, wehe (which means to remove) (Pukui.)  Thus, as the name implies, Kawehewehe was a traditional place where people went to be cured of all types of illnesses – both physical and spiritual – by bathing in the healing waters of the ocean.

There was a Kawehewehe Pond; people with a physical ailment would come to the pond in search of healing.  A kahuna, or priest, would place a lei limu kala around their neck, and instruct them to submerge themselves in the healing waters of the pond.

When the lei came off and floated downstream, it was said that the afflicted ones were healed.  (This area is also typically known as Gary’s Beach.)

Gray’s Channel heading out from the beach was a natural channel through the reef off the Halekūlani Hotel.  It was enlarged by dredging in the early 1950s to allow catamarans to come ashore at Gray’s Beach.   Popular surf sites are just off-shore.

Eventually, the Norton Clapp family of Seattle bought Halekulani, by now consisting of a large Main Building and 37 one and two-story bungalows.

In 1981 the hotel was purchased by Mitsui Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. Today the 456-room Halekūlani Hotel is one of Waikīkī’s premier resorts.  (Lots of info here from Halekūlani and Clark.)

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