Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Barefoot Football

“Barefoot football occupied a special niche in Hawaiian sports from 1924 through the Depression and World War II years, but has been out of style since the early ‘50s – a memory to oldtimers and unbelievable in the minds of late-comers to the Islands.”

“The first barefoot football league was ·organized in 1924 by AK Vierra to fill a need of young men not playing in high school or with the senior club teams which provided competition for the University of Hawaii.”

“It was called the Spalding League and Vierra had the insight to draw teams from the various neighborhoods – Kalihi, Kakaako, Palama, Pawaa, Pauoa and Liliha – assuring bitter rivalry and fierce support from the fans.”  (Gee, SB, Oct 28, 1975)

“Thousands of young men, ranging in age from 15 to 30 on O‘ahu, Maui, Hawai‘i and Kauai, participated in hundreds of barefoot football leagues … [it was] the ‘fastest, wildest, scrappiest brand of football in the United States.’” (Soboleski, TGI, May 10, 2020)

“[T]he nucleus of that Kalihi Thundering Herd were generally boys, young men, that were from the Kalihi-Waena area, although they did attract players from Kalihi-Kai. Some from Kalihi-Uka. I don’t think anybody from Fern Park was on the Thundering Herd team.”

“We did have a couple from the Palama area before Palama had their own team. We had a very good player there named Bill Flazer. Tall, skinny fellow. He was a very good punter. It was the barefoot leagues. They played barefoot, the leagues.” (Adolph ‘Duffie’ [rhymes with ‘Goofy’] Mendonca, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

Standard equipment consisted of a jersey and sailor-moku pants – no head gear, no shoulder pads. The weight limit was 150 pounds. Shoes, of course, were prohibited.”  (Gee, SB, Oct 28, 1975)

“There was a senior league, they was called Kalihi Thundering Herd. They were the 150 pounds. And I’ m pretty sure they had that weight limit, too. If you couldn’t make ‘em, you was disqualified for that game, that’ s all.” (Albert O Adams, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“The shoeless game achieved such wide popularity that weight divisions were established for the smaller players, with limits of 120, 130 and 140 pounds. A barrel weight league for the 175-pounders also was formed.”  (Gee, SB, Oct 28, 1975)

The Kalihi Thundering Herd was the senior team. … “And Benny Waimau was the coach [of the seniors]. … Yeah, he was a good coach. Boy, he’d make them pull the car right around the block. Fernandez [Park].”

“That old Essex car–he would get maybe about couple guys, just pull ‘em. Pull that car right around the block. I’d say it’s good – about pretty close to quarter mile.” (Albert O Adams, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“They had a clinic, and this Knute Rockne came down. The Kalihi club sent Benny Waimau to the clinic with other good coaches, you know, coaches coaching high school. I guess maybe Otto Klum was there, too. He used to coach University of Hawaii.”

“What we heard afterwards [was] that Knute Rockne asked the coaches some questions, you know, and then they would answer. Then, Benny Waimau asked him a question, and he looked at Benny, and he told [asked] Benny what team he was coaching.”

“And Benny said, ‘Oh, the barefoot Kalihi Thundering Herd … He [Knute Rockne] said, .. Well, you better get in something bigger

than that … Because he [Benny] was really a good coach.” (Albert O Adams, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“[W]e had this guy, Tommy Beck, he lived right up there. He used to work in Pearl Harbor – he had the loot that time, he had the money. You know when you work that kind place, you get the money, eh? He would sponsor – he would buy the jerseys for the Thundering Herd. I think that time maybe the jerseys only cost two, three dollars one, I think. Good jerseys.” (Peter Martin, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“One time we had a fight in the [Honolulu] stadium. … So, they want to throw us out of the league. The guy was running this Spalding League, so he told them guys …”

“‘Any time you throw out this Kalihi Thundering Herd, there will be no more barefoot league.’  Because they figure that we the one draw the crowd and all that. I don’t know why they blame us because most time, it’s the Kakaako guys troublemakers.”  (Peter Martin, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“I played one year. And then I helped Benny Waimau, and Julian Judd and them to help coach the team after that. Because when I played for McKinley, I couldn’t play for the Kalihi Thundering Herd.”

“Because the first time they started they was under, I think, the Wilson Sporting Goods sponsored that. Till after that, then they came under Spalding. Then they formed the Spalding League. The Spalding League was connected with E.O. Hall & Son.” (Alexander Beck, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

The barefoot football was also on the neighbor  islands, “Barefoot football which proved so popular in Hilo last year will be continued again this coming grid season … Plans have already been made for a ‘barefoot’ game between the best team on this islands and the best on Maui.” (Hilo Tribune Hearld, Aug 16, 1927)

“[I]n this little bull session a few days ago, and quite an interesting discussion it was until one soldier boy, in reference to the not-too-bright football situation in Hilo, remarked: ‘We’ve got to have real football here this season. What good at all is barefoot foot going to do anybody the way they play it here?’”

“… well, Toma, you could’ve seen the blood in my eyes at 50 paces when I realize the full implication of that crack … in my rage, I could say no more that to let him know that ‘barefoot football is as big to us here in Hilo as Notre Dame football is to South Bend fans.’”

“‘[N]ow that you’re a fighting man on Uncle Sames team, I know that you realize more than ever before, what our little leagues have meant and will continue to mean to our boys … you’ve always championed this anyway …’”

‘”Our ‘senseless’ football has developed its quota of fine men for the armed forces, just as Notre Dame and California and Michigan and Yale teams have turned in theirs … the harder the officials find it to form a league this season, the more solid is our proof that we have contributed much toward helping Uncle Sam score his winning touchdown.”

“[M]any of our boys are today faced with the toughest battle of their lives, and you can bet your last bit if K-ration, Toma, that they are using football strategy very handily under fire from time to time … yep, Toma, the same football strategy that they would have been otherwise ignorant of it weren’t for the barefoot football they played back home.”

“… barefoot football has been the best Hilo has been able to offer, but it offered the same fundamental benefits as football of the intercollegiate calibre … it is, most important of all, American football.” (Bert Nakaji, Hilo Tribune Herald, Aug 25, 1944)

Then, “With the slow demise of barefoot football leagues, the likes of which there has been only one here for several years past, the advent of the Pop Warner program is bound to be just the shot in the arm the sport in general has needed …”

“… it’ll be good for the kids, just as Midget and little league and Colt and Pony baseball have been, and it’ll be good for prepskol football . . . on these Pop Warner teams will be the future stars of the Big Island Interscholastic Federation …” (Nakaji, HTH, Dec 22, 1963)

@old.hawaii

The Hawaii Barefoot Football League emerged in the mid-1920s with approximately 100 different teams across the islands. . In the video, it shows a match between the Palama Settlement ( plain colored shirts) team and an unidentified opponents. . Bill Flazer one of the most well known punters for the Palama Settlement team. (he’s shown in the beginning of the video) . #hawaii #hawaiian #kanaka #hawaiitiktok #hawaiiantiktok #fyphawaii #808viral #palamasettlment #footballtiktok #football #barefootfootball #oldhawaii #kalihi #fyp #foryoupage #foryourpage #viralhawaii #foryoupageofficiall #foru #4u #fypage #virall #viraltiktok #viralvideos #viral_video #hawaiifootball

♬ original sound – Panaewa

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Arthur Akinaka

Arthur Akinaka was born in 1909 in Kapalama, Oahu. His mother, Haru Yokomizo, and father, Rinichi Akinaka “were next-door neighbors in a sparsely settled farming area. Before they could leave Japan to better their economic circumstances, their parents felt (it) best that they should get married.”

“My parents came here newly married in 1906 from the back farming area of Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. They boarded (the steamer,) America-Maru, from Kobe”.

“Upon arrival they were met by my (uncle’s business) partner at the wharf. They were encouraged by my uncle, who was operating a soda (water bottling) works with his partner, not to struggle at some sugar plantation, but to try to get started in Palama.”

“So, knowing only one occupation, my mother, then age sixteen, my father, age nineteen, started a small tofu factory (in the hopes of making) a living. Of course, the work was very hard.”

“My sixteen-year-old mother had to get up two o’clock in the morning. And then, after the tofu, aburage [deep fried tofu], and konnyaku [a type of jelly made from the konjac] were made, (my father) would carry (them in) cans around Palama.”

“It was (only) a few months (later) that Judge (William) Rawlins, who owned that building at the intersection of Beretania and King Streets, saw my father (passing by daily) and asked (him) whether he would want to – together with my mother – move over to the premises of Mr. Harry Roberts, who was looking for a replacement (for) his (yard keeper), who was retiring to Japan.”

“And so, that’s how my parents moved (here) to (the corner of Houghtailing and School Streets,) where I was born.” (Akinaka, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

Arthur grew up on Mr. Roberts’ two-acre estate, “It was a two-acre site, (where) Mr. Roberts, (after) his retirement from the Honolulu Advertiser (as) a commercial artist due to failing eyesight, (had) very thoroughly interested himself in horticulture. My earliest recollections (are of) this two-acre site.”

“This area has always been known as the makai portion of Kapalama. Kapalama extended from the mountain to the sea. The Kamehameha Schools (are located in the mauka portion of Kapalama).” (Akinaka, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“As I remember it, both School Street and Houghtailing Road were dirt roads. School Street extended (Ewa only) as far as Kalihi Street, and Kalihi Street went up into Kalihi Valley. In the Waikiki direction – this was before McInerny Tract was subdivided – there (were) a (few) scattered houses.”

“I’m thankful to have been born in this point in time (and not during previous times). When (I was) a youngster, my mother had to prepare food on wood stoves and (I) had to chop (kiawe) firewood (and thence there was) the gradual changeover to kerosene stove and kerosene lamps.”

“When I was born and for many years, we had no electricity, no drinking water. But with McInerny Tract (being opened up), water (mains) came in, sewers came in, electric system came in.”

“It (was) quite interesting to meet up with schoolchildren from near the school site, mostly from mauka of School (Street), as well as down on Vineyard, Kukui Street, all the way toward King Street. They were far more urbanized than I was.”

“In fact, I was looked on as more of a country boy and was finding it difficult to make too many new friends. Of course, there were always boys that are friendly to you, but by and large, I minded myself and studied, which was what my parents and also Mr. Roberts emphasized.”

“[I]n 1917, Queen Lili’uokalani passed away. Of course, that would have made me eight years old. I walked all the way to Nuuanu Street to witness the funeral procession that laid the Queen to rest up Nuuanu Mausoleum.”

Akinaka attended Japanese “language school [that] was on Nuuanu Street, halfway between School and Vineyard [Streets] on premises which now have been taken over by Foster Gardens. It was known as Japanese Central Institute and was started by those (first-generation Japanese) who were Christians.”

“However, when Palama Gakuen was built, in my sixth year of language school, I moved to that school (since it was nearer to home). From there, I continued at Hongwanji [Japanese-language (high) school] on Fort Street. So, I have had ten years of Japanese schooling to a degree where I began to (understand) Japanese culture.”

“[M]y mother had jogakko or middle school education. My father, being the only child and having to leave school after only four years of grammar school education (to tend the family farm,) felt very strongly about all his children at least getting as good education as he could afford. So, there was no question that we (should) continue (on to) college (if we could).”

“When I entered University [ of Hawai‘i], I thought I should try to take up premedicine. But I came to the (early) conclusion that our family finances would not permit (my) being financed through a Mainland medical school, (and) so I shifted to something (in) which I could graduate in (four years) and make a living.”

“So, from one year of pre-medical courses such as chemistry, zoology and botany, I shifted over to whatever engineering subjects they would allow me to take. It was a constant [effort] trying to catch up.”

“I’m very grateful with the teachers (and principals) that I had all through grammar school, high school and university, and how they helped me appreciate the value of a good education and being a good citizen.”

“I graduated in 1930 after the disastrous 1929 stock crash and work was hard to come by. I had always wanted to go into building construction because in that field there were, perhaps, better opportunities. Engineering (was) not (then) open to too many Orientals.”

“But then, the (contracting) firm I (started with) had a very minimum salary [and] was not able to even pay that salary. So it was fortunate that I had, at the University, taken up advanced (ROTC) [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] training (and) upon graduation had (received) a (reserve) commission in the Army.”

“The Corps of Engineers here needed (an additional) young man (for) their staff. The major in charge of the local office took a liking (to me) and hired me. So, I worked for five years (with the) Corps of Engineers on harbor work. But then, come the year ’35, (and) with increasing war consciousness, it was (thought) better that I stay back instead of being assigned to the (more sensitive) Pacific islands. (I was transferred) laterally to Hickam Field (where a military airfield was to be built).”

“But after eight years (with the) Federal civil service I shifted over (in 1938) to the first Territorial Planning Board. … There was (then) a national trend (in long-range planning) among the forty-eight states; all of them had state planning boards.”

“At that time (for the territory,) it was desirable to make an inventory of the resources – (geographic), social, economic, and industrial. So, using (Mainland state reports) as a pattern, the Territory of Hawaii made its own report. One of the important things about statewide planning is (that) unless it is implemented subsequently with (projects and funding) it (soon is) forgotten and filed away on shelves.”

“The Territorial Planning Board was a creature of the Legislature. The Legislature, realizing that war (was) imminent, decided there was not the need to put (further) human resources to further planning.  So, that office was closed in June 1941.”

“And rather than try to, in a frustrating manner, make a go in the government service with a career, I was advised, being still young, to try my luck out on my own. That’s how I started out.”

“I, having a reserve commission, approaching earning a captaincy, volunteered to (join) the military right (after) the Pearl Harbor (attack). But since my father and my younger brother (were) in Japan, (I was) not (a) welcome volunteer.”

Following the attack on Pearly Harbor, “the first year, we, together with couple other construction firms, produced these sixteen-men pre-fabricated (military) housing units. (Our company) must have produced a thousand of (them), which were fabricated in that block, (then a large empty lot), just makai of Blaisdell Center.”

“Army units would come, with their trucks, and haul (them away) and assemble (them) wherever they were assigned. And then, with that first year program over, came construction of warehouses, office additions, (a) cold storage building, hospital additions, all of which kept me busy. As I take inter-island plane trips and fly over [the island], I notice next to the airport, still standing and in use, many of the warehouses that (we) had built.”

Following the wars, “I ran for the Senate [in 1948]. There were six of us, and I didn’t qualify with the first three, but I didn’t come

in last. It [the campaign] was a last-minute assignment. It was not something which I had preplanned and programmed.”

“But as a result of that, I guess I won the respect of Mayor [John H.] Wilson. He invited me to succeed a department head who had reached compulsory retirement age. [But] at that time [because the position was] only a two-year appointment, requiring me to give up my business because it was too related, I had to thank the mayor and refuse it.”

“My business was something I had built up over a period of close to ten years. But when I went to see the mayor after, he told me to think it over. He (said), ‘Arthur, you are privileged to be an American citizen, and with it, you have had the benefit of public education and protection in police, health, and so on’”

“He would think, (that) when (one were) asked – and not many people get asked – there should be but one answer. And my answer to him was, irrespective of the way I felt, ‘Yes, sir.’” (From 1951 to 1955, Akinaka served two terms as a building department head.)  Following that, he remained in private practice for the rest of his career.

In his long engineering career, Arthur was recognized for not only his professional endeavors, but his contributions to the community. He dedicated his time and energy to various organizations including the UH Alumni Association, Kamehameha Lions Club, Kalihi-Palama Community Council, Kalihi YMCA, Advisory Group for the Prison Correctional Industries, and Board of Trustees for Kuakini Medical Center, to name a few. (Akinaka & Associates)

In 1966, the firm was incorporated and since 1984 led by his son, Robert Y. Akinaka.  Today, the company is a locally owned firm headed by Ken C. Kawahara. (Akinaka & Associates)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Food Administration

“When war began in summer 1914, the United States declared its neutrality, seeing the conflict as European.  That position held, despite the mid-1915 death of 128 Americans in the Lusitania sinking.  The campaign slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War” helped re-elect Pres. Woodrow Wilson in 1916.”

“Neutrality was soon impossible: in early 1917 Germany began unrestrained submarine attacks on Atlantic shipping … the United States entered The Great War on April 6, 1917”.   (Manning, WWI Centennial Commission)

The US Food Administration was created by Executive Order No. 2679-A (August 10, 1917), under authority of the Food and Fuel Control (Lever) Act of the same date, with Herbert Hoover as Food Administrator. Hoover had already established a headquarters for the agency on May 4, 1917, following his return from a fact-finding tour of Europe. (National Archives)

The Food Administration was given broad powers to control the production, distribution, and conservation of food. It also had responsibilities for preventing monopolies and hoarding and maintaining governmental control of foods by means of voluntary agreements and a licensing system for the importation, manufacture, storage, and distribution of foodstuffs.  (National Archives)

The Food Administration had very little enforcement powers and relied primarily on encouraging voluntary cooperation in conservation and sales with posters for outdoor and indoor display with slogans such as “Food Will Win The War” and pledge campaigns to “enroll all men, women, and children …in a food conservation army.” (National Archives)

These programs relied heavily on using the “weapon of publicity” to appeal to the “patriotism and loyalty of citizens.”  Prices were controlled mainly through local price interpreting (“fair price”) committees which prepared and published fair price lists and “retail price reporters” who investigated violations.  (National Archives)

Local food administrators tried to “hold in check the forces of speculation and avariciousness” and prevent “extortionate profits” by merchants by publicizing the names of business that did not follow the price guidelines. (National Archives)

In the Islands, in a cable sent in April, 1917, Secretary of Agriculture Lane asked Governor Lucius E Pinkham that Hawaii make itself as self-supporting as possible and increase its exports of foods, especially sugar to the mainland.

Legislation was rushed through the closing days of the Legislature and Act 221, which created the Territorial Food Commission and allotted it $25,000, was approved by Governor Pinkham on May 2, 1917. (Hawai‘i State Archives)

One of the first tasks undertaken by the Hawai‘i Commission was an inventory of the different food supplies on hand in the Islands and a comparison of it with the Custom House imports of the same goods, to see which island products could be increased and imports of it decreased.

It also undertook the investigation of such things as hoarding, wasting of food and excessively high costs and prices.  In this endeavor, it used its powers to fix a ceiling on the price of Hawaiian grown rice and taro. (Hawai‘i State Archives)

The Food Control Act of August 10, 1917 and subsequent Presidential proclamations did give the Food Administration the authority to license the manufacture, storage, and distribution of  “certain necessaries” including …”

“… the milling of corn, oats, barley and rice; the manufacture of “near-beer” and similar cereal beverages; operation of warehouses to store food or food commodities; baking; cotton ginning; salt water fishing and the distribution of seafood; importation of flour; and use of commercial feeds for livestock, cattle, and hogs.” (National Archives)

“An ongoing 1917-18 effort was food conservation.  Herbert Hoover, Pres. Wilson’s ‘Food Administrator,’ exhorted Americans to stretch and increase available food.  Food saved by civilians could feed frontline troops.  Patriots would plant Victory Gardens, avoid waste, and not horde.” (Manning, WWI Centennial Commission)

“Hawaii must feed more troops, stationed here or passing through.  Shipping food to Hawaii took valuable cargo space.  Better to use less, eat local foods, and dry or can fresh produce.”

“Key military ration ingredients were targeted for conservation. ‘The woman handling the home food supply is equal to the man who handles a battlefield gun,’ wrote an advocate.  Housewives were encouraged to observe Meatless Monday and Wheatless Wednesday.”

“While an egg saved in Hawaii might not reach the troops, flour not needed here could.  Ways to stretch flour, and avoid waste were pushed.  A patriotic Love’s Bakery experimented with a recipe for a ‘Victory Loaf’ – sandwich bread made from bananas.”

“Patriotic letters to the editor pushed ‘Bread Economy’: a slice a day per person saved in Hawaii translated into food for thousands.  Love’s Bakery ads suggested ideas for cooking with stale bread – ‘Don’t Waste.’”

“To ‘Do Your Bit,’ Love’s said, buy their ‘Truly Patriotic Loaf’ – Graham Bread made with ingredients not used in white breads.  If all Honolulu ate Love’s Graham 2 days a week, 10,000 lbs. of wheat would be saved ads bragged.” (Manning, WWI Centennial Commission)

Most of the enforcement powers of the Food Administration were ended by a Presidential proclamation of January 1, 1919. (National Archives)

The US Food Administration officially existed for less than 24-months and yet its legacy included momentous impacts to the political, social, and economic landscape of the nation, along with a profound influence on peace negotiations and international affairs.  (Buschman)

Perhaps the Territorial Food Commission’s most important project was the initiation of the county agent system for the purpose of advising and instructing planters of crops other than sugar cane and pineapple, about matters pertaining to planting, cultivating, spraying, harvesting and marketing.

These agents, one each on Oahu, Maui and Kauai, and two on Hawaii, also served as marketing demonstrators for the Marketing Division of the Board of Agriculture and Forestry.

They supplied them with information about crops that were planted or about to be marketed and other data of interest …. County agents also acted as representatives of the Federal Food Administration in 1918. (Hawai‘i State Archives)

The Cooperative Extension Service (CES) and the University of Hawai‘i developed its own version of an extension program, which was the basis of a successful appeal to Congress after several years of struggle for Hawai‘i’s inclusion in the Act.

The CTAHR Cooperative Extension Service is a part of the world’s largest non-traditional education system, the Cooperative Extension System. CES is the third major component of land grant universities, along with instruction and research.

It is a partnership between federal, state, and local governments and has responsibility for providing science-based information and educational programs in agriculture, natural resources, and human resources.  (CTAHR)

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Lanai City Schools

The schools in Pālāwai, Kō‘ele, and Lānai City underwent changes in name and location. The schools had their start around 1904 when Charles Gay started Pālāwai School, a one-room schoolhouse for his own children and children of ranch employees. (UHM Center for Oral History)

The Pālāwai School was built near the lower end of Keaaku Gulch where it opens into Pālāwai basin, about two miles south of Kō‘ele. The school was built like a house and had one classroom.  (The Pālāwai School building had been moved three times.)

Pālāwai was chosen for the location of the school because of its central location; students came from Kō‘ele, Malauea, and Waiapa‘a.  (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612)

Violet Gay was the eighth of eleven children born to Charles Gay and Louisa Kala Gay; some of her sibling went to school on O‘ahu. As she notes, “there were five of us that stayed on Lanai and went to [Pālāwai] School.”

“My oldest sister, Amelia, is Mrs. Dickson. And they all came to Punahou, you know. My grandmother put them all in Punahou, see. And they were boarders up at Punahou.”

“Then when she [Amelia] left, she came back to Lanai, that’s when they started the school. Down Palawai, started a school. And I was six years old when I went to the school.”

“About twelve or fifteen children, I think, went to that school. And we walked all the way from Ko’ele, you know, where Kahonu is, past Kahonu down there to Palawai.”  (Violet Keahikoe Gay, UHM Center for Oral History)

“It was a one-room schoolhouse, a short walk from our home. And they put me in school so that we could have fifteen children in order to get a schoolteacher. The schoolteacher lived with us because there was no other place for her to stay.”

“Well, it was a little white house with several windows around it and inside we had these desks and blackboards on the walls, the back wall with no windows. … We were put in rows of desks by age, and the teacher would go row by row teaching. Each row, just a different subject.”

“And we had two little outhouses (laughs) away from the school. One for boys and one for girls. … There was a flagpole out in front. … We put the flag up every morning and learned the Pledge of Allegiance. And then we’d march into class . And that’s about all I remember of that.” (Jean Forbes Adams, UHM Center for Oral History)

Sometime about 1920-22, the Pālāwai School was moved to Kō‘ele, and set up at a site near where the 7th green of the Cavendish Golf Course is today.  (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612) It then became generally known as Kō‘ele School.

In 1922 the school became part of the public school system of the Territory of Hawaii. The Kō‘ele School ceased functioning as a classroom in 1927, when the two-room Kō‘ele Grammar School was built a short distance away. (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612)

Around 1927, with the construction of the new Kō‘ele Grammar School, the Pālāwai/Kō‘ele) School was moved to the Kō‘ele Ranch Camp and became a residence.  The building underwent numerous alterations since the time it was a one room school house, including a kitchen addition, bathroom, and the partitioning of the original single class room.  (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612)

The Kō‘ele Grammar School was a single-story, gable roof, wood building with an 8′ wide lanai along the front long side of the building.  The interior of the main portion of the Kō‘ele Grammar School is divided into two 24’ x 26’ classrooms by a partition wall with a doorway (no door).

“When I was ready for the sixth grade [in 1927] we went over to the [Ko’ele Grammar] School [located near the present Cavendish Golf Course clubhouse], which was about another half mile away.”

The building was financed by the County of Maui. It was built about a half mile from the Kō‘ele Ranch Camp, to the south, across Iwiole Gulch on the site of what would become the Cavendish Golf Course.  Students from Kō‘ele Ranch and from Lānai City attended. Eighth grade graduation ceremonies from Kō‘ele Grammar School were held at the Lanai Theater in Lānai City.

“I think there were six of us [in 1928]. And it was the first class to graduate from [Ko‘ele Grammar] School, so we had a big ceremony down at the one and only theater. We had chairs set up on the platform … we had these lovely leis, leis you don’t often see anymore.” (Jean Forbes Adams, UHM Center for Oral History)

In September 1928, the people of Lanai City petitioned the Maui County board of supervisors to have the school’s name changed to Lanai City School.

By the mid-1930s, school children of Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (HAPCo) employees had expanded public school enrollment on Lanai to such a degree that additional classes were held in the Lanai Japanese School and in the HAPCo plantation gymnasium.

By about 1937, “There were two buildings and the smaller building had two classes and the other building must have had four classes. … And new teachers were brought in, they had to build a cottage for these new teachers. Because prior to that, the teacher at [the old] Ko‘ele School stayed with us.”

“At the Ko‘ele [Grammar] School, by the golf course. When we’d go to school, we had to make a garden. We had a project. We’d go out and make our garden and plant vegetables.” (Jean Forbes Adams, UHM Center for Oral History)

“[W]hen we used to be naughty, we had to go pull weeds. And during our Ko‘ele [Grammar] School days – not the old cottage, maybe we were too young, but the other school – if you were naughty or were to be punished, we had to go pull weeds, you know. And then we always took turns to clean the rooms. Young as we were, we used to mop.”  (Warren Nishimoto, UHM Center for Oral History)

“[M]ost of the kids, from sixth grade into seventh grade, most of the kids would leave. The ones that (the family) could afford it, their parents either send them to Lahainaluna (in Maui), Punahou (or) Kamehameha School in Honolulu. That’s about it. We might lose maybe five or six (children per school year).”  (Charlotte Richardson Holsomback, UHM Center for Oral History)

“I was pau with school after the sixth grade. … most of them [the girls] quit after the sixth grade. However, if there were older sisters who could take care of the house, sometimes a girl could go on to intermediate school.”  (Tama Teramoto Nishimura, UHM Center for Oral History)

In January 1938, the Lānai High and Elementary School was opened at its present location on Fraser Avenue. The buildings of the Kō‘ele Grammar School complex were moved, in sections, to this new high school site.

During the 1970s the Kō‘ele Grammar School, on its second site at the high school campus near 7th and Fraser Avenues, was used as a meeting hall for the Lanai City chapter of the Boy Scouts of America.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Happy Mother’s Day!

The image shows my mother, grandmother, grandfather and some of their friends in 1928 in front of Moku‘aikaua Church. (My mother is the littlest girl sitting near the middle, her mother is sitting next to her near the middle (wearing a hat) and her father is on the right.

This stone and mortar building, completed in 1837, is the oldest surviving Christian church in the state of Hawaiʻi, started by the first Protestant missionaries to land in Hawaiʻi and the oldest intact Western structure on the Island of Hawai‘i.

With the permission of Liholiho (Kamehameha II), the missionaries first built a grass house for worship in 1823 and, later, a large, thatched meeting house.

Missionary Asa Thurston directed the construction of the present Moku’aikaua Church, then the largest building in Kailua-Kona. Its massive size indicates the large Hawaiian population living in or near Kailua at that time.

Built of stones taken from a nearby heiau and lime made of burned coral, it represents the new western architecture of early 19th-century Hawaiʻi and became an example that other missionaries would imitate.

The original thatch church which was built in 1823 but was destroyed by fire in 1835, the present structure was completed in 1837. Moku‘aikaua takes its name from a forest area above Kailua from which timbers were cut and dragged by hand to construct the ceiling and interior.

In 1910, a memorial arch was erected at the entrance to the church grounds to commemorate the arrival of the first missionaries.

My mother was the great-great grand-daughter (and her father was great grandson) of Hiram Bingham, leader of first missionaries to Hawaiʻi who first landed in the Islands, here at Kailua-Kona in 1820.

Happy Mother’s Day!