Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hāpuʻu and Kalaʻihauola

 

Hiʻiaka, looking towards the uplands, where she saw Hāpuʻu and Kalaʻihauola – “I do not want you to say I did not acknowledge you, so here are the chanted regards from the traveler.” Then Hiʻiaka offered up this kanaenae (chant of praise.)

O Hāpuʻu and Kalaʻihauola
O women who dwell on the Koʻolau range
Residing upon the pathway
I offer this chant for those who pass that way.

Hāpuʻu and Kalaʻihauola were supernatural grandmothers of Piʻikea, wife of ʻUmi-a-Līloa.  They wanted to have a grandchild to take back to Oʻahu to raise, because the mother of Piʻikea, Laieloheloheikawai, belonged to Oʻahu. (Laieloheloheikawai sent Hāpuʻu and Kalaʻihauola to the Island of Hawaiʻi to bring back one of Piʻikea’s children.)  ʻUmi refused.

Then, people in the village started to die at night; the supernatural personages of Hāpuʻu and Kalaʻihauola murdered the people … this continued every night, the people dying without cause.

Piʻikea then said to ʻUmi-a-Līloa: “There is no other cause of death. My grandmothers, Hāpuʻu and Kalaihauola, did the killing. They were sent by my mother to bring one of our children, but you have withheld it, and that is why the people are murdered.”

Then, when Hāpuʻu and Kalaihauola were at the house with Piʻikea, the latter being pregnant with child, the old women slapped on Piʻikea’s knees and the child was delivered in front of one of the old women.

The child being a girl, it was taken away by the deities and lived in Oahu. Thus the child Kahaiaonui-a-Piʻikea, or Kahaiaonui-a-ʻUmi, became the adopted of Laielohelohekawai.  (Fornander)

“Within a few yards of the upper edge of the pass, under the shade of surrounding bushes and trees, two rude and shapeless stone idols are fixed, one on each side of the path, which the natives call ‘Akua no ka pali,’ gods of the precipice”.

“They are usually covered with pieces of white tapa, native cloth; and every native who passes by to the precipice, if he intends to descend, lays a green bough before these idols, encircles them with a garland of flowers, or wraps a piece of tapa round them, to render them propitious to his descent”.

“All who ascend from the opposite side make a similar acknowledgment for the supposed protection of the deities, whom they imagine to preside over the fearful pass. This practice appears universal for in our travels among the islands, we have seldom passed any steep or dangerous paths, at the commencement or termination of which we have not seen these images, with heaps of offerings lying before them.”  (Ellis, 1834)

“At the bottom of the Parre … offerings of flowers and fruit are laid to propitiate the Akua Wahini, or goddesses, who are supposed to have the power of granting a safe passage.” (Bloxam, 1826)

“… the old people said that their ancestors had been accustomed to bring the navel cords of their children and bury them under these stones to insure protection of the little ones from evil, and that these were the stone women …”  (Westerfelt)

The two stones, believed to embody two kupua goddesses, Hāpuʻu and Kalaʻihauola, on each side of Kalihi Stream, are also associated with the ‘E‘epa (small folks related to the Menehune,) that would cause rain if the proper offerings were not left near these stone.

“They (Hāpuʻu and Kalaʻihauola) were said to be mysterious people from this side of the valley of Nuʻuanu. They left Nuʻuanu with others of their kind because there was a war in Nuʻuanu and some fled.  Some settled in the uplands of Kalihi.”  (Joseph Poepoe; Cultural Surveys)

Mary Kawena Pukui states that the latter should be pronounced “Kala‘iola,” because of the word ola (‘life’) reflects that those who placed navel cords here were seeking life for their babies.   (pacificworlds)

The stones stood in an area of pools of spring water. One pool was icy cold, others warm, Hawaiian mothers brought their newborn babes to the spot and bathed them in the warm spring.  (Clarice Taylor, Honolulu Star Bulletin, August 18, 1954)

Travelers to the area placed lei and flowers upon the stones, at the same time asking the ʻEʻepa not to play tricks on them.  A favorite lei offering was made of the sweet smelling pala palai fern.

The pools marked the spot where the great god Kane struck the earth and brought forth water. It is called Ka puka wai o Kalihi, the water door of Kalihi.

The two famous stones were destroyed by bulldozers in October 1953 when the men first cleared the area for the approach road for the Wilson Tunnel.

“Their destruction was probably the cause of the drought which gripped this Island during the Fall months and the heavy rains which have been falling this summer (1954) and caused the Wilson Tunnel cave-in, the Hawaiians say.”  (Clarice Taylor, SB, August 18, 1954)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

“The Prophet”

The headline in the October 24, 1868 Pacific Commercial Advertiser boldly stated “Insurrection on Hawaiʻi.”

“For several years past, one (Joseph Ioela) Kaʻona … imbibed the idea that he was a prophet sent by God to warn this people of the end of the world. For the three years he has been preaching this millerite doctrine on Hawaiʻi, and has made numerous converts.”    (PCA, October 24, 1868)

Kaʻona was born and brought up in Kainaliu, Kona on the island of Hawaiʻi. He received his education at the Hilo Boarding School and graduated from Lahainaluna on Maui.

Following the Māhele, Kaʻona was employed surveying kuleana (property, titles, claims) in Kaʻū and Oʻahu. He was well-educated and was later employed as a magistrate, both in Honolulu and in Lāhainā. (Greenwell)

Then, he felt possessed with miraculous powers.

“By the mid-1860s, Kaʻona claimed to have had divine communications with Elijah, Gabriel, and Jehovah, from whom he’d received divine instructions and prophetic.”  (Maly)  Followers called him ‘The Prophet;’ his followers were referred to as Kaʻonaites.)

“Some months ago he was arrested and sent to the Insane Asylum in this city as a lunatic, but the physician decided that he was as sane as any man, and he was therefore set at liberty again.”  (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“He returned to Kona, and the number of his followers rapidly increased, till now it is over three hundred. They are mostly natives, but some are probably foreigners, as we received a letter a few weeks ago from one of them ….”

“These fanatics believe that the end of the world is at hand, and they must be ready. They therefore clothe themselves in white robes, ready to ascend, watch at night, but sleep during the day, decline to cultivate anything except beans, corn, or the most common food.”

“They live together in one colony, and have selected a tract of land about half way between Kealakekua Bay and Kailua, which the prophet told them was the only land that would not be overrun with lava, while all the rest of the island is to be destroyed.”  (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“Kaʻona was received by (Reverend John Davis) Paris and congregation at Lanakila Church, and he once again drew many people to him with his powerful doctrine. But his claims of prophetic visions, unorthodox methods of teaching, questionable morality, soon caused the larger congregations from Kailua to Kealakekua to become suspicious of his intentions.”  (Maly)

“Some three years ago, the neat little church at Kainaliu was built, by subscription …. Paris, the Pastor preached on certain Sundays, and Kaʻona … one of the Lunas, would preach on others.”

“For a time, all went on smoothly enough, until Kaʻona began to introduce some slight innovations in the form of worship, which were opposed by Mr. Paris and minority of the congregation and the church became split into two factions. … The feud continued to increase …” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 18, 1868)”

When asked to leave Lanakila Church, Kaʻona and his followers refused, Governess Keʻelikōlani was forced to intercede and called upon local sheriff Richard B. Neville.  In September 1867, Kaʻona and followers vacated Lanakila, and moved to an area below the church.  (Maly)

The Kaʻonaites settled on the kula and coastal lands at Lehuʻula, south of Keauhou (near present-day Hokuliʻa.)  “There they built a number of grass houses, erected a flag, and held their  meetings, religious and political … he and his adherents were claiming, cultivating and appropriating to themselves the products of the lands leased and owned by others….”  (Paris; Maly)

Neville was sent to evict them from there.

Kaʻona was arrested and returned to O‘ahu for a short time, but by March 1868, he, again, returned to Kona.

On April 2, 1868, a destructive earthquake shook the island, causing significant damage and tidal waves, and numerous deaths (the estimated 7.9 magnitude quake was the strongest to hit the Islands.)

Kaʻona described it as the final days.

“(The Kaʻonaites) have taken oath, that they will all be killed before they surrender. I am ready to start from here at any time, with quite a company of men. If we hear that there is need for more help. We are badly off for good firearms here.”

“Kaʻona’s party have threatened to burn all the houses in Kona & to take life. It may not be as bad as it is represented”.  (Governor Lyman of Interior Minister Hutchinson, October 25, 1868; Maly)

On October 19, Sheriff Neville, his deputy and policemen, approached Kaʻona once again to evict them, and Kaʻona encouraged his followers to fight. A riot took place.

“Neville was felled from his horse by a stone, which struck him on the head … (an assistant) tried to get Neville, but the stones were too many, and so he fled likewise, and was pursued ….” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 23, 1869)  Neville and another were both brutally killed.  The event has been referred to as Kaʻona’s Rebellion, Kaʻona Insurrection and Kaʻona Uprising.

Kaʻona eventually surrendered; he and sixty-six of his followers were arrested, and another 222 were released after a short detention.  Kaʻona was returned to O‘ahu, convicted and sentenced to ten years of hard labor.

But in 1874, shortly after David Kalākaua (he and Albert Francis Judd had been appointed Kaʻona’s defense attorneys in 1868) became King, he pardoned Kaʻona. By 1878, Kaʻona had once again taken up residence at Kainaliu vicinity, and undertook work with the poor.  Kaʻona died in 1883.  (Maly)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honuaʻula

The moku (district) of Honuaʻula includes the Southeastern portion of the island of Maui from the coastal bay of Keawakapu (modern day South Kihei area) to the rocky shoreline of Kanaloa point, seven miles south of Keoneʻoʻio (La Perouse) Bay.

The moku of Honuaʻula extends inland to what is now the southeastern face of Haleakala National Park and includes the upland regions of Ulupalakua and Kanaio. It also includes the Island of Kahoʻolawe a few miles away across the ʻAlalakeiki channel (the “rain shadow” of Maui’s Haleakalā, a “cloud bridge” connects Kahoʻolawe to the slopes of Haleakalā.)

The upper areas were in sandalwood and koa forests. Prior to European contact, early Hawaiians farmed sweet potatoes, dry land taro and harvested wood, birds and pigs from these forested areas.

Researchers believe that in the era from AD 1300 to 1800 native forests in southeast Maui areas like Honuaʻula began much lower- around the 2,300 to 2,800 foot elevation. These views are based upon analysis of bird and snail remains, common species represented in studies of Honuaʻula’s neighboring moku (district) of Kahikinui.

The areas below the west and south slopes of Haleakalā (Kula, Honuaʻula, Kahikinui and Kaupo) in old Hawaiian times were typically planted in sweet potato. The leeward flanks of Haleakalā were not as favorable for dry or upland taro. However, some upland taro was grown, up to an altitude of 3,000 feet.

The district was one frequented by droughts and famines. Hawaiians supported themselves by cultivating in the uplands, and fishing, with some lowlands agriculture when rains fell. They also traded woven goods and other items for kalo from Na Wai ʻEhā (Waikapū, Wailuku, Waiʻehu and Waiheʻe.)  (Maly)

Archaeologists have proposed that early Polynesian settlement voyages between Kahiki (the ancestral homelands of the Hawaiian gods and people) – Kahikinui, the district neighboring Honua‘ula to the south, is named because from afar on the ocean, it resembled a larger form of Kahiki, the ancestral homeland.  (Maly)

Honuaʻula (literally, Red-land or earth) is comprised of twenty traditional ahupuaʻa.  Honuaʻula was a legal-judicial district throughout the nineteen century. In modern times, Honuaʻula has been joined with portions of the traditional moku of Kula, Hamakuapoko and Hamakualoa to form Maui County’s Makawao land management district.  (de Naie)

The Honuaʻula lands are tied to the legend of the great voyaging chief, Moʻikeha, who sailed to Kahiki (Tahiti) after the devastation of his homelands in Waipiʻo Valley on the island of Hawaiʻi. One of Moʻikeha’s voyaging companions, a chief named Honuaʻula, is said to have given the Maui district its name when he asked to be put ashore there.  (Fornander)

“Where the wind dies upon the kula (plains) is the sub-region of Makena and Kula, where the mists are seen creeping along the plain. This is a land famous with the Chiefs from the distant past.”  (From the tale of Ka-miki, Maly, de Naie)

Because of its proximity to Hawaiʻi Island, favorable wind conditions, long coastline with sandy beaches and several sheltered bays, it is likely that the Honuaʻula district received voyagers from these early excursions. Perhaps this is why it was described in the ancient (AD 1200-1300) name chant of Ka-miki as being “a land famous with the Chiefs from the distant past.“

 “In ancient times, the land was covered with people. From the summits of the mountains to the shore are to be found the remains of their cultivated fields and the sites of their houses.”  (Kamakau, de Naie)

Honuaʻula’s earliest history is tied to the importance of Puʻu Olaʻi (“Red Hill” and “Miller’s Hill”.) Puʻu Olaʻi has its origin in the legendary battle between the volcano goddess Pele and the local moʻo (supernatural lizard) goddess Puʻuoinaina.

Puʻu Olaʻi, a 360-foot cinder cone forms a point and separates Oneloa “Makena” Beach from Oneuli “Black Sand” Beach. A portion of Puʻu Olaʻi further divides Makena Beach into ‘Big Beach’ and ‘Little Beach.’

Honuaʻula is also home to a number of traditional Hawaiian fishponds, most adapted from natural wetlands along the shore. Three of these are shown in old maps in the Honuaʻula, and several more were shown just to the south of Puʻu Olaʻi.

Based upon this cultural view, the earliest population levels of Honuaʻula would have been linked to availability of food from the sea and the land and fresh water resources, as well as the influence of spiritual forces and familial ties.

The presence of trade resources such as dried sea salt, volcanic glass and canoe building materials as well as safe landing areas and favorable currents would all be part of the mix of conditions to determine the extent of population.

In 1789, 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.  After a confrontation with a local chief on Hawaiʻi Island, Simon Metcalf then sailed to Maui and anchored the Eleanora off shore, probably at Makena Bay.

Someone stole one of Metcalfe’s small boats and killed a watchman. Captain Metcalfe fired his cannons into the village, and captured a few Hawaiians who told him the boat was taken by people from the village of Olowalu.

He sailed to Olowalu but found that boat had been broken up, enraged, Metcalfe indicated he wanted to trade with them; instead, he opened fire, about one hundred Hawaiians were killed, and many others wounded.  Hawaiians referred to the slaughter as Kalolopahu, or spilled brains; it is also called the Olowalu Massacre.

From 1800 to the 1840s (in the period prior to the Māhele ʻĀina), the land here was managed for members of the Kamehameha household and supporting high chiefs by  konohiki—lesser chiefs appointed by Kamehameha III and Ulumäheihei Hoapili. (Maly)

Up to the early 1840s, land use, access, and subsistence activities remained as it had from ancient times. But by the middle 1840s, land use transitioned from traditional subsistence agriculture to business interests, focused on ranching and plantations (the latter occurring in the cooler uplands).

Modern agricultural began on the slopes of Haleakalā in 1845 when Linton L Torbert, an active member of the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, farmed potatoes and corn, primarily to supply island merchant ships and California’s ’gold rush’ era.  He later planted sugar.  (The 2,300-acres had first been leased from King Kamehameha III in 1841.)

On January 23, 1856, “Kapena Ki” (Captain James Makee) purchased at auction Torbert’s plantation.  He sold his Nuʻuanu residence. (He was active in Oʻahu business and, later, was the Kapiʻolani Park Association’s first president (they even named the large island in the Park’s waterways after him.))

The Stone Meeting House at Keawakapu (also called Honuaʻula or Makena Church) was completed in 1858.  In 1944, the church known as the Stone House, Honuaʻula, Keawekapu, Makena and Kaʻeo was renamed Keawalaʻi – the name it retains today.  (Lots of information here from ‘Project Kaʻeo’ (de Naie, Donham) and He Mo‘olelo ‘Āina No Ka‘eo (Maly))

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaʻahumanu’s Coffin

While on a trip to the continent, Queen Kamāmalu (age 22) died on July 8, 1824; King Kamehameha II (Liholiho, age 27) died six days later on July 14, 1824.  (Prior to his death he asked to return and be buried in Hawai‘i.)

Upon their arrival in Hawai‘i, in consultation between the Kuhina Nui (former Queen Kaʻahumanu) and other high chiefs, and telling them about Westminster Abbey and the underground burial crypts they had seen there, it was decided to build a mausoleum building.

In 1825, Pohukaina (translated as “Pohu-ka-ʻāina” (the land is quiet and calm)) was constructed on what is now the grounds of ʻIolani Palace to house the remains of Kamehameha II (Liholiho) and Queen Kamāmalu.

The mausoleum was a small 18 x 24-foot Western style structure made of white-washed coral blocks with a thatched roof; it had no windows.   Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were buried on August 23, 1825.

About this same time, April 25, 1825, Richard Charlton arrived in the Islands to serve as the first British consul. He had been in London during Kamehameha II’s visit in 1824.

Nearly 10-years later, in 1832, Kaʻahumanu died; her death took place at ten minutes past 3 o’clock on the morning of June 5, “after an illness of about 3 weeks in which she exhibited her unabated attachment to the Christian teachers and reliance on Christ, her Saviour.”  (Hiram Bingham)

The Kaʻahumanu services were performed by Bingham.  After the sermon in Hawaiian, he addressed the foreigners present and the mission family.  After the close of the services, the procession was again formed and walked to Pohukaina, where the body was deposited, with the remains of others in the Royal family.  (The Friend, June 1932)

The above helps set the stage for subsequent events that happened there.

Nearly 10-years later, in 1840, Charlton made a claim for several parcels of land in Honolulu.   At the time the lease was made, Kaʻahumanu was Kuhina Nui and only she and the king could make such grants.  The land was Kaʻahumanu’s in the first place, and Kalanimoku certainly could not give it away.  (Hawaiʻi State Archives)  The dispute dragged on for years.

This, and other grievances purported by Charlton and the British community in Hawai‘i, led to the landing of George Paulet on February 11, 1843.

He noted in a letter to the King, “I have the honor to notify you that Her Britannic Majesty’s ship Carysfort, under my command, will be prepared to make an immediate attack upon this town at 4 pm tomorrow (Saturday) in the event of the demands now forwarded by me to the King of these islands not being complied with by this time.”

On February 25, the King acceded to his demands.  Under the terms of the new government the King and his advisers continued to administer the affairs of the Hawaiian population.

It soon became clear that Paulet had no intention of limiting his rule to the affairs of foreigners.  New taxes were imposed, liquor laws were relaxed.   Paulet refused to restore the old laws.  After raising multiple objections to the actions by Paulet, Judd resigned from the commission on May 11.  (Daws)

Fearing that Paulet would seize some of the archives and other national records, Gerrit P Judd took them from the government house, and secretly placed them in the royal tomb at Pohukaina.  He used the mausoleum as his office.

By candlelight, using the coffin of Kaʻahumanu for a table, Judd prepared appeals to London and Washington to free Hawaiʻi from the illegal rule of Paulet.

Dispatches were sent off in canoes from distant points of the island; and once, when the king’s signature was required, he came down in a schooner and landed at Waikīkī, read and signed the prepared documents, and was on his way back across the channel, while Paulet was dining and having a pleasant time with his friends.  (Laura F Judd)

For about five months the islands were under the rule of the British commission set up by Lord George Paulet.  Queen Victoria, on learning these activities, immediately sent an envoy to the islands to restore sovereignty to its rightful rulers.  Finally, Admiral Richard Thomas arrived in the Islands on July 26, 1843 to restore the kingdom to Kamehameha III.

Then, on July 31, 1843, Thomas declared the end of the Provisional Cession and recognizes Kamehameha III as King of the Hawaiian Islands and the Islands to be independent and sovereign; the Hawaiian flag was raised.  This event is referred to as Ka La Hoʻihoʻi Ea, Sovereignty Restoration Day, and it is celebrated each year in the approximate site of the 1843 ceremonies, Thomas Square.

Nearly 20-years later, Pohukaina was the final resting place for the Hawaiʻi’s Kings and Queens, and important chiefs of the kingdom.  Reportedly, in 1858, Kamehameha IV brought over the ancestral remains of other Aliʻi – coffins and even earlier grave material – out of their original burial caves, and they are buried in Pohukaina.

In 1865, the remains of 21-Ali‘i were removed from Pohukaina and transferred in a torchlight procession at night to Mauna ‘Ala, a new Royal Mausoleum in Nu‘uanu Valley.  In a speech delivered on the occasion of the laying of the Cornerstone of The Royal Palace (ʻIolani Palace,) Honolulu, in 1879, JH Kapena, Minister of Foreign Relations, said:

“Doubtless the memory is yet green of that never-to-be-forgotten night when the remains of the departed chiefs were removed to the Royal Mausoleum in the valley.”

“Perhaps the world had never witnessed a procession more weird and solemn than that which conveyed the bodies of the chiefs through our streets, accompanied on each side by thousands of people until the mausoleum was reached, the entire scene and procession being lighted by large kukui torches, while the midnight darkness brought in striking relief the coffins on their biers.”

“Earth has not seen a more solemn procession what when, in the darkness of the night, the bodies of these chieftains were carried through the streets”.  (Hawaiian Gazette, January 14, 1880)

In order that the location of Pohukaina not be forgotten, a mound was raised to mark the spot.  After being overgrown for many years, the Hawaiian Historical Society passed a resolution in 1930 requesting Governor Lawrence Judd to memorialize the site with the construction of a metal fence enclosure and a plaque.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Room 120

Amasa Leland Stanford was born and grew up in New York; he was a lawyer.  Stanford married Jane Eliza Lathrop on September 30, 1850; they first lived in Port Washington, Wisconsin, then New York, and then they moved West after the gold rush, like many of his wealthy contemporaries.

Stanford made his fortune in the railroads; he co-founded and was president of the Central Pacific Railroad (it formed part of the “First Transcontinental Railroad” in North America; It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad.) He served as California Governor and US Senator.

In 1868, the Stanfords had their only child, a son, Leland DeWitt Stanford (later known as Leland Stanford Jr.)  In 1876, Stanford purchased the Rancho San Francisquito for a country home and began the development of his famous Palo Alto Stock Farm.

Tragically, in 1884, while travelling in Italy, young Leland died of typhoid fever (2-months before his 16th birthday.)

Within weeks of his death, the Stanfords decided that, because they no longer could do anything for their own child, “the children of California shall be our children.” They quickly set out to find a lasting legacy to memorialize their beloved son.

Ultimately, they decided to establish two institutions in Leland Jr’s name.  The ‘Leland Stanford Junior University’ was founded in 1885; on October 1, 1891, it opened its doors with 15 faculty and more than 400 students (David Starr Jordan served as president.)  The Leland Stanford Junior Museum opened in 1894.

They were built on the 8,000-acre Palo Alto Farm; a provision in the school’s founding grant stipulated that the land could never be sold.  The campus still carries the nickname ‘the Farm,’ it is more commonly called, ‘Stanford.’

The university was coeducational, in a time when most were all-male; non-denominational, when most were associated with a religious organization; and avowedly practical.

The Founding Grant states the university’s objective is “to qualify its students for personal success, and direct usefulness in life” and its purpose “to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence in behalf of humanity and civilization.”

On June 21, 1893, Leland Stanford died at his Palo Alto home at the age of 69.  For a decade following her husband’s death, Jane Stanford was the sole trustee of the University; she doted on the fledgling institution with “the commanding meddlesome love which an unbridled maternal instinct thrusts upon an only child.”  (Wolfe)

Jane involved herself in Stanford’s daily management, corresponding with Jordan on every operational matter. When she disapproved of a faculty member, she told Jordan to oust him. And when she began to second-guess some of Jordan’s decisions, she found a faculty confidant, German professor Julius Goebel, to keep a paper trail on him.  (Wolfe)

On June 1, 1903, Jane granted control of the university’s endowment and management to the Board of Trustees, although she remained a member of the board and continued to be involved in its operation.

By 1904, it appears that Mrs Stanford had lost her toleration for Jordan. In June, Goebel had reported in a letter to her that Jordan’s favoritism and political patronage were endangering faculty recruitment. In a letter to trustee Horace Davis, who was another in her inner circle, Goebel wrote that she had reached the point of “final remedy … the removal of the President.”  (Wolfe)

Then a small story appeared in a couple out-of-town papers, reporting on a January 14, 1905 incident, “… private detectives are working on an alleged attempt to murder Mrs Jane Stanford … in her home here, by placing poison in mineral water.”

“The contents vomited from the stomach and found in the water were analyzed and showed sufficient poison to kill a dozen people.”  (Spokane Press, February 18, 1905.)

Of the incident, Mrs Stanford said: “How dreadful if I had died that time. People might have thought I committed suicide.”  (The San Francisco Call, March 7, 1905)  Following the incident, she planned a trip.

“If I am not to stay in my San Francisco home, and as the wet season is coming on, rendering it inadvisable for me to go to my country residence, I prefer to go to Honolulu, as it is warmer there.” (Jane Stanford; San Francisco Call, March 7, 1905)

“Mrs Stanford arrived in Honolulu … accompanied by her maid and her secretary (Bertha Berner,) and went at once to the Moana, announcing that she had come here to rest for a few weeks.”

“She seemed, however, very cheerful and received the many friends who called on her in that spirit, although to one at least of the more intimate ones she threw aside her cheerfulness and spoke of the fears that beset her (the prior poisoning attempt.)”

“Mrs Stanford went on a drive to the Pali, and down into Koʻolau, where the party had a picnic dinner. Mrs Stanford ate very heartily, and seemed to enjoy every moment of the drive. The party returned to the Moana hotel, and at dinner time Mrs Stanford went into the dining room.”

“She did not remain more than three minutes, but made no complaint of feeling ill. In fact, she said that she felt remarkably well. … Leaving the dining room, Mrs Stanford sat on the lanai talking very cheerfully until bed, time. At a little after ten o’clock … she went to her room on the second floor of the hotel, and retired.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 1, 1905)

“After Mrs. Stanford retired on February 28 I was aroused from my sleep by hearing my name called. I recognized Mrs Stanford’s voice calling out: “Bertha – May – l am so sick.’“

“We rushed out and found her clinging to the frame of her door. Mrs Stanford said: ‘Bertha, run for a doctor.’  Mrs Stanford walked two steps and then said: ‘Bertha, I am so sick.’“  (Bertha Berner; San Francisco Call, March 7, 1905)

Doctors were called; but Jane Lathrop Stanford died in room 120 of the Moana Hotel on February 28, 1905.  (The room numbering system has changed at the Moana Hotel; her room is still used in the hotel pool.)

After a 3-day Coroner inquisition, a unanimous verdict in less than two minutes was returned, “The Coroner’s jury to-night returned a verdict that Mrs Jane L Stanford died from … strychnine poisoning, the poison having been introduced into a bottle of bicarbonate of soda with felonious intent by some person or persons to the jury unknown.”  (San Francisco Call, March 10, 1905)

Dr Robert WP Cutter wrote a book, ‘The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford,’ wherein he implies that Stanford’s President at the time, David Starr Jordan, was involved in a cover-up of the circumstances surrounding Mrs Stanford’s death.

Immediately following her death, Jordan was en route to Honolulu.  Jordan and Timothy Hopkins, Stanford Trustee, stated, “In our judgment, after careful consideration of all facts brought to our knowledge, we are fully convinced that Mrs Stanford’s death was not due to strychnine poisoning nor to intentional wrong doing on the part of any one.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 16, 1905)

“We think it probable that her death was due to a combination of conditions and circumstances.  Among these we may note in connection with her advanced age, the unaccustomed exertion, a surfeit of unsuitable food and the unusual exposure on the picnic party of the day in question.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 16, 1905)

Jordan also said, “Dr Humphris (the hotel Doctor) and his associates don’t know what they are talking about.”  (Evening Bulletin, March 15, 1905) And later said, “Mrs. Stanford died a natural death in Honolulu”.  (Hawaiian Gazette, January 2, 1906)

However, Honolulu papers suggested a bribe, “Hopkins interviewed the physicians and told them that if things were satisfactory, their bills would be paid at once.”

“In different interviews it was plainly shown that it would be satisfactory … if the physicians could arrange to revise their findings and agree that poison had nothing to do with the tragedy, and, in that event the amount of the bills would not be questioned, but it happened that not one of the medical men could or would change what he had said In the first place.”  (Hawaiian Star, August 23, 1905)

The Stanford website, in telling the life story of Jane Stanford notes, while “Trace amounts of strychnine were found in her body and in her bottle of bicarbonate … Her cause of death was never conclusively determined.”  (Lots of information here from Stanford.)

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