Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kahakuloa

There were several major population centers on the Island of Maui: Kahakuloa (West Maui) region; the deep watered valleys of Nā Wai ‘Ehā (Waiheʻe, Wai‘ehu, Wailuku and Waikapū;) the ‘Olowalu to Honokōhau region of Lāhainā; the Kula – ʻUlupalakua region and the Koʻolau – Hana region.  (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

Kahakuloa is a valley that sits between Nā Hono A Piʻilani, The Bays of Piʻilani (aka Honoapiʻilani – the six hono bays (uniting of the bays:) from South to North, Honokōwai (bay drawing fresh water), Honokeana (cave bay), Honokahua (sites bay,) Honolua (two bays), Honokōhau (bay drawing dew) and Hononana (animated bay) to the West) and Na Wai ʻEha to the East.

The importance of the region is reflected by the number of heiau that were reportedly present in precontact times.  There were a total of seven heiau that were recorded in the Kahakuloa area. These heiau included Hononana, Kaneaola, Kuewa, Keahialoa, Pakai, Waipiliamoo and Kukuipuka.  (Kukuipuka heiau was reported to have been a place of refuge for West Maui.) (Xamanek)

According to Handy the name Kahakuloa refers to a small and famous loʻi about one-half-mile inland in the bottom of Kahakuloa Valley.

This irrigated kalo patch belonged to the haku or lord of the land. Because of the isolation of the area, the haku became known as the “far away master” – ka haku loa.  Kahakuloa was “one of the most genuinely native communities still extant in the islands [with] a population of about 20 families, all Hawaiian and all taro planters.”   (Xamanek)

Descriptions differ on whether Kahakuloa is an ahupuaʻa or another type of land division.  The island (mokupuni that is surrounded by water) is the main division.  Islands were divided into sections within the island called moku; typically, there was a Kona on the lee side and one called Koʻolau on the windward side of almost every island.

These districts were further divided into ʻokana or kalana (smaller districts.)  The next subdivision of land is the ahupua’a, which has been termed the basic unit of land in the Hawaiian system.  Portions of ahupuaʻa were called ʻili.)

The region as Kahakuloa was known for extensive taro loʻi (irrigated taro cultivation.)  Here the taro that grew in the sacred patch of the aliʻi was reputed to be of great size. (Maly)  In addition, it was known for ʻUala (sweet potato cultivation.)

The Māhele land records indicate that much of the lands here were Crown lands with several properties going to Victoria Kamāmalu (daughter of Kīnaʻu, the wife of Kamehameha II) and a number of small awards were granted in the Kahakuloa Village region; many of these awards were granted for taro loʻi cultivation.

During the mid-1800s, a large portion of the surrounding region was used for sugar cane and macadamia nut agriculture, as well as extensive cattle grazing.

Haiku Fruit and Packing Co. utilized some lands in Kahakuloa to grow pineapple. Pineapple production in this part of Maui went into decline after the Great Depression in the 1930s and appeared to have ceased by the 1960s.

Kahakuloa is a small isolated village at the end of a valley – it is described to be a “cultural kīpuka that survived the onslaught of development after Hawaiʻi became a state.”  (McGregor)

Standing tall and overlooking the coastal shoreline is Kahakuloa Head, 636-feet high and known historically for a King Kahekili’s Leap.

During the late-18th century, Maui chief Kahekili, a rival of Kamehameha, was known for many legendary feats in the ancient Hawaiian sport of lele kawa (to leap feet first from a cliff into water without splashing.)  Legend says that in the early morning, the King would climb up the hill and “leap” into the ocean below from about the 200 foot height.

Access continues to be limited to this area (some suggest rental car agencies do not allow rentals to attempt to traverse the region.)

Coming from the West, you start on Honoapiʻilani Highway (Highway 30 – with ascending mile markers,) but as you travel through, the road transforms to Kahekili Highway (Highway 340 – with descending mileage markers.)

A lot of the way is single file on a single lane road – often without makai barriers.  There are hairpin turns, steep ocean-side drops and narrow one-lane sections.  Along the way are the Bell Stone, Olivine Pools and Nakalele Blowhole; in the valley is the Kahakuloa Congregational Church, founded in 1887.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

George Robert Carter

George Robert Carter was born on December 28, 1866 in Honolulu, his mother was Sybil Augusta Judd (1843–1906,) daughter of Gerrit P. Judd, and his father was businessman Henry Alpheus Peirce Carter.

“His grandfather was Oliver Carter, an American sea captain engaged in the whaling industry, who first came to Honolulu during one of his whaling voyages in the late twenties or early thirties of the last century, and settled here in the thirties.”  (Hawaiian Star, May 28, 1904)

“Carter went to school first in Nuʻuanu Valley … later he attended St. Alban’s College (forerunner to ʻIolani) and attended Fort Street School (which eventually became McKinley High School.)”  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1903)

From the Honolulu schools Carter went to Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and graduating there in 1885, entered the Sheffield Scientific school of Yale University where he finished a three years’ course in 1888.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1903)

 “Carter, always took a healthy interest in athletic sports and while at Yale was a member of the Varsity football teams of ’86, ’87 and ’88 and was also a member of the Yale boat crews of ’87 and ’88.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1903)

He formed a rowing club with a few friends, including a friend from Hawaii Hiram Bingham III (my great uncle.) (Yale-edu)  (Hiram Bingham III married into the Tiffany fortune, taught history and politics, and on July 24, 1911 rediscovered the “Lost City” of Machu Picchu – and, reportedly, was the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character.)

Carter married Helen Strong, daughter of Eastman Kodak president Henry A Strong on April 19, 1892. They had four children: Elizabeth (born August 25, 1895), Phoebe (born September 27, 1897), a daughter who died on June 17, 1903, and George Robert, Jr. (born November 10, 1905).

In 1895 Carter returned to Hawaiʻi to become the cashier of C Brewer & Co., where his father had been a senior partner from 1862 to 1874. From 1898 to 1902, he helped organize and manage the Hawaiian Trust Company, and was managing director of the Hawaiian Fertilizer Company. In addition, he served as a director for Bank of Hawaii, C. Brewer and Alexander & Baldwin.

Carter was elected to the Hawaii Territorial Senate, representing Oʻahu, in 1901. While a territorial senator, he was sent to Washington as an unofficial agent to discuss territorial matters with President Teddy Roosevelt.

Roosevelt later appointed Carter Secretary of the Territory in 1902 and then Territorial Governor in 1903, succeeding Sanford B. Dole who resigned to become a federal judge (Carter was Governor from 1903 – 1907.)  (Yale-edu)

In 1905, during Carter’s administration, the current system of county governments was created; the five county governments (Oʻahu, Maui, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi and Kalawao) took effect on January 1, 1906. (Oʻahu County later became the City and County of Honolulu in 1909.)

In the late-1920s, Carter built ‘Lihiwai’ (water’s edge) with 26 major rooms and over 26,000-square feet under roof, it is reportedly “the largest and finest private residence ever constructed in Hawaiʻi (with the exception of ʻIolani Palace.)”  (NPS)

Two waterways (an ʻauwai and Nuʻuanu Stream) flow through the property, thus the property’s name.  You cross the ʻauwai over a coral bridge.

Completed in 1928 (and occupied by the Carters from 1928-1945,) the home was designed by Hardie Phillip (he was the architect for the Honolulu Academy of Arts (built at the same time (1927-28), and the C. Brewer and Co. Building (1929.))

The entire building is built of shaped bluestone set in concrete and steel reinforced cement, and all the perimeter walls are 2 – 3-feet thick with the exception of the end walls, which are 6-feet thick.

Originally, the building was connected to two smaller structures — by a breezeway on the eastern side and by the porte-cochere on the western side (these structures were separated in 1957.)

The roof over the front portion of the house is a double pitched hipped style roof made of flat Spanish terracotta tiles. The beams in the attic that support the roof are all steel I beams, and the hand carved eave beams (and supporting wood) are all teak. One concrete chimney rises from the roof and serves all 3 interior fireplaces.

The floors of the vestibule, downstairs foyer, upstairs foyer, upstairs hallways, and upstairs rear balcony are made of stone. The drawing room floors are ʻōhiʻa (ʻŌhiʻa lehua) parquet, and the formal dining room, music room, and upstairs bedrooms and guest suites have ʻōhiʻa strip flooring; slate is in other rooms.

The property was originally 10-acres, all professionally landscaped, but the estate was subdivided and sold in 1945 after the death of Helen Strong Carter. Today, the property includes the original house on a little over 1-acre.

Carter died February 11, 1933; he is buried at Oʻahu Cemetery.  (Lots of information from Yale-edu and NPS.)

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hulihe‘e Palace

Hulihe‘e Palace is Kona’s only existing royal residence and one of three palaces in the United States.  (The other two are ‘Iolani Palace and Queen Emma’s Summer Palace, both on O‘ahu.) 
 
Hulihe‘e, built in 1838, was the residence of Governor John Adams Kuakini and a favorite retreat for Hawai‘i’s royal families.
 
The Palace was constructed by foreign seamen using lava rock, coral, koa and ōhi‘a timbers.  Kuakini oversaw the construction of both Mokuaikaua Church and Hulihe‘e Palace and these landmarks once shared a similar architectural style with exposed stone.
 

After Kuakini’s death in 1844, the Palace passed to his adopted son, William Pitt Leleiohoku.  Leleiohoku died a few months later, leaving Hulihe‘e to his wife, Princess Ruth Luka Ke‘elikōlani.  It became a favorite retreat for members of the Hawaiian royal family.

Flanked to the north by Niumalu and to the south by Kiope Fish Pond, Hulihe‘e Palace was also the site of the observation of the Transit of Venus (when the planet Venus crosses between the Earth and the Sun) in 1874 by British astronomers, one of the most important astronomical observations of the 19th century (helping to calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth.)
 
When Princess Ruth passed away in 1883 leaving no surviving heirs, the property passed on to her cousin, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.  Princess Bernice died the following year and the home was purchased by King David Kalākaua and Queen Kapi‘olani.
 
Extensive remodeling by King Kalākaua and Queen Kapi‘olani in 1884 transformed the original structure to suit the Victorian tastes of the late 19th century (with stucco and plaster, widened lanai, and much to the interior décor.)
 
Early description of Hulihe‘e Place (Hawai‘i Nei, by Mabel Clare Craft Deering – 1898:)
 
”There is a fine royal residence there, now the property of the dowager Queen Kapiolani. It is a big house with a wide hall and immense rooms. The kitchen and servants’ quarters are detached, and there is an open lanai a little way from the house where Kalakaua gave famous luaus and hulas, and where his celebrated red chairs were set in rows.”
 
“The house is marked by the tabu-sticks set up at the doors, sticks with white balls at the top, in imitation of the old days when balls of white kapa at the top of the sticks marked the residence of the king, within which common people could not go on pain of death.”
 
“Inside, the house is a marvel of polished woods. There is a table of satiny koa, the mahogany of the Pacific, the” royal tree,” fit to make you weep. This table stands in the center of the drawing-room, and around the walls are elaborate carved chairs, vases, and fine pottery from China and Japan. There are portraits of Kalakaua, Kapiolani, and Liliuokalani, as well as busts of royalty. At the windows are exquisite lambrequins of the finest kapa I saw on the islands, painted in patterns, and some of it extremely old.”
 
“The big dining-hall across the vestibule has a fine carved sideboard, and on it are a number of koa calabashes, polished, and marked inside with the crown and royal coat – of- arms, etched with a poker. These calabashes all have covers, and were designed for pink poi.”
 
In 1925, Hulihe‘e was purchased by the Territory of Hawai‘i to be operated as a museum by the Daughters of Hawai‘i. (My mother was a Daughter.)
 
Most of the furnishings were originally in the Palace during the Monarchy.  Hulihe‘e Palace was placed on the National Register of Historic Sites in 1973.
 
Hulihe‘e Palace contains a fine collection of ancient Hawaiian artifacts, as well as ornate furnishings that illustrate the lifestyle of the Hawaiian nobility in the late 19th century.  Intricately carved furniture, European crystal chandeliers and immense four-poster beds fill the rooms.
 
Hulihe‘e Palace reveals the Hawaiian nobility’s passion for western fashions and is a reminder of Kailua’s past as a favorite royal residence.
 

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Robert Crichton Wyllie

Robert Crichton Wyllie was born October 13, 1798 in an area called Hazelbank in Dunlop parish of East Ayrshire, Scotland. His father was Alexander Wyllie and his mother was Janet Crichton.

He earned a medical diploma by the time he was 20.  In 1844, he arrived in Hawaiʻi and stayed in the Hawaiian Islands for the rest of his life.

Wyllie first worked as acting British Consul. During this time he compiled in-depth reports on the conditions in the islands. Attracted by Wyllie’s devotion to the affairs of Hawaiʻi, on March 26, 1845, King Kamehameha III appointed him the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Kamehameha IV reappointed all the ministers who were in office when Kamehameha III died, including Robert C. Wyllie as Minister of Foreign Relations.  Wyllie served as Minister of Foreign Relations from 1845 until his death in 1865, serving under Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

Within five years after taking the helm of the office he had negotiated treaties with Denmark, England, France and the United States whereby Hawaiʻi’s status as an independent state was agreed.

Wyllie eventually gave up his allegiance to Queen Victoria and became a naturalized Hawaiian subject.

In 1847, Wyllie started collecting documents to form the Archives of Hawaii.  He requested the commander of the fort in Honolulu and all the chiefs to send in any papers they might have.  Two of the oldest documents included the 1790 letter of Captain Simon Metcalf and a letter by Captain George Vancouver dated 1792.

The foundation of the Archives of Hawaiʻi today are based almost entirely upon the vast, voluminous collections of letters and documents prepared and stored away by Wyllie.

Wyllie built a house in Nuʻuanu Valley he called Rosebank. He entertained foreign visitors at the house, and the area today still has several consular buildings.

In his role in foreign affairs, Wyllie was seen as a counter to the American influence.  Wyllie wrote in the early part of 1857, “There are two grand principles that we aspire to; the first is that all nations should agree to respect our independence and consider the Archipelago strictly neutral in all wars that may arise – and the second is, to have one identical Treaty with all nations.”  (Kuykendall)

Of these two principles, the second was auxiliary to the first. Wyllie’s great ambition was to set up some permanent barrier against any possible threat to Hawaii’s national independence. He had a clear idea as to the direction from which danger was most likely to come.  (Kuykendall)

In the latter part of 1857 he wrote, “If we be left to struggle for political life, under our own weakness and inability to keep up an adequate military and naval force, in the natural course of things, the Islands must sooner or later be engulfed into the Great American Union, in which case, in time of war, the United States would be able to sweep the whole Northern Pacific.”  (Kuykendall)

Wyllie, above all other men in Hawaiʻi, succeeded in compelling the powers to maintain an attitude of “hands off”, leaving the kingdom in the list of independent nations.  (Taylor)

In March 1853, he bought a plantation on Hanalei Bay on the north shore of the island of Kauaʻi. In 1860, he hosted his friends King Kamehameha IV, Queen Emma and their two-year-old son, Prince Albert, at his estate for several weeks. In honor of the child, Wyllie named the plantation the “Barony de Princeville”, the City of the Prince (Princeville.)

Originally the land was planted with coffee; eventually it was planted with sugarcane.  Princeville became a ranch in 1895, when missionary son Albert S Wilcox bought the plantation.

A bachelor all his life, Wyllie died October 19, 1865 at the age of 67; Kamehameha V and the chiefs ordered the casket containing his remains be buried at Mauna ʻAla, the Royal Mausoleum, adjacent to those of the sovereigns and chiefs of Hawaiʻi.

Members of Queen Emma’s family are also interred in the crypt with Mr. Wyllie: Queen Emma’s mother, Kekelaokalani; her hānai parents, Grace Kamaikui and Dr. Thomas Charles Byde Rooke; her uncles, Bennett Namakeha and Keoni Ana John Young II; her aunt, Jane Lahilahi; and her two cousins, Prince Albert Edward Kunuiakea and Peter Kekuaokalani.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ABCD

“The New Navy of the United States was launched in the waters of uncertainty.”  (New American Navy, Long, 1903)

Following the Civil War, the US Navy rapidly demobilized, and for the next 15 years the fleet was shrinking and becoming technologically obsolete.

A law of 1883 had signaled the end of the old Navy. Repairs were prohibited on wooden warships whenever the cost would exceed 20% of the cost of a new ship of the same size and type.  New construction favored steam while still carrying sails.  In addition, American ships were to be built of American-made steel. Then, naval shipbuilders were introducing a new policy, new ships.

Bids for the new vessels were opened on July 2, 1883. Eight firms participated in the competition. The proposal of John Roach, whose shipyard was at Chester, Penn., was the lowest, and it was accepted.

The unfortunate financial failure of John Roach in 1885 forced the government to take over and complete the first of the new fleet.  (Long, 1903)

“The United States started a squadron of cruisers … the sole purpose of which, sailing under the euphonious title of ‘the Squadron of Evolution,’ will be to demonstrate in a peaceable sort of a way to the rest of the world that the United States Government has a navy, or rather the nucleus of a navy.” (New York Times, November 19, 1889)

The first four vessels of the “New Navy” came to be known as the ABCD Ships because their names began with the first four letters of the alphabet – Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Dolphin.

They were also known as the “White Squadron” (named for the group’s white-painted hulls.)  Later, other ships were added to the growing, modernizing Navy.

Three years later the Squadron was strengthened by the addition of the cruiser Baltimore and the gunboat Vixen and was ordered to prepare for action by Undersecretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt.

There are some Hawaiʻi ties to a couple of the ABCDs – the Atlanta and the Boston.

Named for a city in northwestern Georgia (originally called Terminus and later Marthasville,) the community was renamed Atlanta when it was incorporated as a city in 1847.

The ship was the second to carry the City’s name (the first was a gunboat acquired by the Navy in the autumn of 1858 and later renamed Sumpter.)  The new Atlanta was part of the new Navy.

When Queen Kapiʻolani traveled to celebrate the Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in England in 1887, while on a stop in New York, Commodore Bancroft Gherardi invited the Queen to visit the Brooklyn Navy Yard – he wanted to show off some of the new Navy ships.

Queen Kapiʻolani was able to adjust her schedule and visited the facility on her last day in New York.  “Seldom has the yard looked so well.  The commodore’s residence and the Lyceum building had been profusely decorated by Sailor Douglass with the colors of the two nations.”

“Just before the royal party reached the yard a battalion of marines arrived from the Minnesota.  At the same time out came the naval band and discoursed some popular music.”

“The masts, spars and rigging of the Atlanta and Boston were then manned, and Commodore Gherardi and staff in full uniform advanced to the wharf to meet their guests, who were taken on board the Atlanta.”  (The Day, May 25, 1887)

“The Atlanta had been just put into commission and her majesty was shown how quickly the great guns could be handled. Close alongside was the Boston, her powerful propeller churning the water incident to the breaking in of her.”  (Iron Trade Review May 5, 1898)

In a follow-up thank you note (May 30, 1887) from Henry Alpheus Peirce Carter (who coordinated the Queen’s state visits) to US Secretary of State Thomas Francis Bayard notes, “Her Majesty Queen Kapiʻolani (requests) you to convey to the honorable Secretaries for War and of the Navy, her grateful thanks for the attentions and honor paid her … by Commodore Gherardi and officers of the United States Navy at the navy-yard at Brooklyn, on the occasion of her visit”.

“… Her Majesty was the recipient of the kindest attentions, both public and private, and she desires that her very sincere acknowledgments may be properly conveyed to those officers of the Army and Navy of the United States stationed (there.)”  (HAP Carter, May 30, 1887)

A later sight of the Boston was not as pleasant.

It happened in the Islands; Captain Wiltse gave the order … “Sir: You will take possession of the Government building, and the American flag will be hoisted over it at 9 am. Very respectfully, GC Wiltse, Captain US Navy, Commanding USS Boston.”

In accordance with that order, the battalion of the Boston landed at Brewers Wharf, in the city of Honolulu, at 5 pm, January 16, 1893.

After the battalion was formed, they marched first to the United States consulate, where Lieut. Draper, with his company, was detached with orders to proceed to the legation and leave half his command in charge of the orderly sergeant, returning with the remainder to the United States consulate, himself, and remain there as a guard until further orders.

The remainder of the battalion then marched down King Street. In passing the palace the battalion, in column of companies, gave a marching salute, trumpeters sounding four ruffles in honor of the royal standard, which was flying there.

At 2:30 pm the next day, a civilian, armed, reported that a policeman had been shot while attempting to stop a wagonload of ammunition which was being conveyed to the old armory where the civilian forces enrolled by the committee of safety were then assembling, and that a large crowd was collecting on Merchant Street.

The battalion was immediately assembled under arms in the yard in rear of the building to await developments. Until nearly 6 o’clock, the men leading the citizens’ movement had assumed charge of the Government building without opposition of any kind; the civilian companies under arms had marched in and established a line of sentries about the Government building.

The Boston’s battalion was kept in rear of the camp, at their company parades, with arms stacked. About 1 pm, they were notified that a Provisional Government, of which Mr. SB Dole was presiding officer, was in complete possession.  A letter from the United States minister recognized it as the de facto government of the Hawaiian Islands, and the battalion was to consider it as such.

On January 19 new quarters were provided for the battalion at the unoccupied house on King street, the property of Mr. CR Bishop.  That home was formerly the home of Abner Pākī and his wife Laura Kōnia (Kamehameha III’s niece.)  Their child, Bernice Pauahi Pākī and hānai daughter, Liliʻu (later Queen Liliʻuokalani) were raised as sisters.  The battalion of the Boston named this former home of the Queen Camp Boston.

A proclamation from Minister Stevens establishing a protectorate over the Hawaiian Islands in the name of the United States, pending negotiations with the Hawaiian Commissioners at Washington, was read.

At 9 am, the United States ensign was hoisted over the building, the battalion and civilian forces presenting arms.  The Hawaiian flag, hoisted on the pole in the grounds, received the same salute.  (Lots of information from the Report of the Committee on Foreign Relations.)

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