Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 5 Comments

James Wight

James Wight was born in India in 1814 of Scotch-Irish parentage; he received liberal education at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1836.

At 22 years of age, he went to Australian with the intention of practicing his profession as physician, but his interest was for business pursuits.  After thirteen years practicing medicine, there he abandoned the profession and migrated to Hawaiʻi.  (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)

Wight, with the initial intent to go to the gold fields of California, came to Hawaiʻi in 1850 with his wife (Jane Tompkins Wight – formerly of Cape Colony, South Africa, now called Cape of Good Hope.)

On August 2, 1850, they went from Honolulu to Kawaihae and from there to Mahukona in an open boat.

While attempting to land ashore at Mahukona on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, the small boat was ship wrecked during a storm.  Their 13-month old daughter Ada Wight drowned during the tragedy.

Once ashore, Dr. Wight was made aware of white parishioners living close by. He made the decision to venture out and get help for his ailing family.  (Restarick)

They were given a grass house and there during the night, Jane Wight gave birth to a child while the dead one lay in the room.  (The Wights had 13 children, six of whom died before they were grown.)

The Wights were persuaded to stay in Hawaiʻi; he became an influential community leader, serving as postmaster, circuit judge (1852-1863,) representative to the territorial government (1886) and a member of the house of noble (1886-87.)  In the House, he was noted for his independent stand and those were trying times.

He enjoyed remarkably good health during his long life and Dr. Wight’s home was noted for its hospitality. His word was his bond and during his long residence he was seldom involved in litigation. Of the thousands who have been in his employ, all speak of him as a generous though firm employer.

Although he had no inclination to practice medicine, he was always ready to assist any sufferer needing the services of a physician.    (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)

He had initially established a store with a pharmacy and carried on business until 1884, when he sold it to SG Wilder.  Wight then turned his business interest to land investments and Hawaiʻi’s emerging sugar and cattle industries.

He became interested in sugar when the Kohala Plantation was started and paid quite an interest in that concern. He established the Hālawa Plantation and conducted it for a number of years.    (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)

Wight bought Puakea and built the first animal mill on the Island to process sugar and began raising cattle.  (Wight’s daughter Clara and her husband Howard Rattenbury Bryant continued the cultivation of sugar cane at Puakea until 1930 when the last crop was milled and the operation closed.)  Parker Ranch later leased the Puakea lands from the Estate and finally purchased the ranch in 1944.

Wight was reportedly one of the first to import orchids from England and ironwood trees from Australia.  Mrs. Wight owned the first carriage seen in Kohala. It had a single seat with a perch forward for the driver.

In approximately 1860, the family purchased a large parcel of land that looked out over the ocean on which to build their homestead.

They built a home, Greenbank, on 22-acres in Kohala; it was once a showcase home and social center of the Kohala district for many years.  (The property is reportedly haunted; a stone shark god idol at the property was later given to Bishop Museum.)

Several buildings were added to the estate, including additional residence, caretaker quarters and a carriage house for his buggy. Later years would include a greenhouse adjacent to the main house where some of the first botanical species in the state were grown.

Dr. James Wight passed away on the morning of September 2, 1905 at Kohala; he was the oldest and one of the most respected of the foreign settlers in that district.

He had been closely identified with the progress of the islands for more than fifty-five years.  (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)  (Lots of images and information here from greenbankhawaii.)

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First Interisland Air Passengers

“Until 1929, people traveled between the Hawaiian Islands by steamboat, schooner, or outrigger canoe. But seas could be rough and the trip took days.” (Michelle Liu)

Throughout the years of late-prehistory, AD 1400s – 1700s, and through much of the 1800s, the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi.  Canoes were used for interisland and inter-village coastal travel.

Most permanent villages initially were near the ocean and at sheltered beaches, which provided access to good fishing grounds, as well as facilitating convenient canoe travel.

As long-distance voyaging declined, the need shifted from voyaging canoes to large canoes for chiefly visits and warfare within the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in changes in canoe design.

Then, competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different steam ship routes, rather than engage in head-to-head competition.

Inter-Island operated the Kauai and Oʻahu ports plus some on Hawaiʻi.  Wilder took Molokai, Lānai and Maui plus Hawaiʻi ports not served by Inter-Island. Both companies stopped at Lāhainā, Māʻalaea Bay and Makena on Maui’s leeward coast.  (HawaiianStamps)

Mahukona, Kawaihae and Hilo were the Big Island’s major ports; Inter-Island served Kona ports, Kaʻū ports and the Hāmākua ports of Kukuihaele, Honokaʻa and Kūkaʻiau.  Wilder served Hilo and the Hāmākua stops at Paʻauhau, Paʻauilo and Laupāhoehoe.

Then, on April 27, 1927, “Mr and Mrs WE Eklund of Hilo are returning home from Maui this morning via airplane. They are passengers on the first commercial airplane trip to be made between the two islands, their pilot being Martin M Jensen.” (Star Bulletin, April 27, 1927)

Jensen was in the Islands as a result of the Dole Derby.  In April 1927, the Hawaiian Pineapple Co began a national advertising campaign, independent of the Association of Hawaiian Pineapple Canners.

The advertisements were centered on the brand name “Dole,” which was stamped in bas-relief on the top of every can of pineapple produced by the company. The advertising was designed to enable consumers to identify the Hawaiian Pineapple Co’s products from other company’s products, no matter what label the can carried.

The advertising campaign was launched in a spectacular way.  At the time, Charles Lindbergh successfully completed his solo flight across the Atlantic, leaving New York and landing at Le Bourget Field, near Paris, on May 21 at 10:21 pm. Thousands of cheering people had gathered to meet him. He had flown more than 3,600 miles in 33 ½ hours.

On May 25, 1927 James D. Dole offered $25,000 to the first flyer to cross from the North American continent to Honolulu, Hawai‘i, in a nonstop flight (second place would receive $10,000.)

Four airplanes were in the race, winging across the Pacific: Aloha, Golden Eagle, Miss Doran and Woolaroc … later, only two landed in Hawai‘i. (Woolaroc  was the first finisher that landed August 17, 1927 at Wheeler Field after a flight of 26 hours, 17 minutes and 33 seconds.)

Honolulu’s Martin Jensen in the Aloha, with Paul Schluter as navigator finished second.  The Aloha was previously christened with a bottle of Waikiki water, complete with Hawaiian singers and hula dancers.

Miss Ruby Smith, an Oakland beauty queen, broke the bottle amidst Hawaiian strains and dances.  Jensen was particularly proud of the painted Hawaiian flower lei which draped comfortably around the plane’s nose.

Unfortunately, the other two contestants were lost, Dole put up a $10,000 reward for anyone finding each of the missing planes. A huge search party was set up, soon swelling to 42 ships and planes.  The search was to no avail.

In Honolulu, the following day, the Star Bulletin carried James Dole’s statement: “Hawaii is on the lips of the world today, in the minds of countless millions of people.”

“Aviation during this year 1927 has definitely brought our own Hawaiian territory closer than ever before into the consciousness of the whole American people.  Time and distance between Hawaii and the Pacific Coast are magically shortened.”

“I feel that this has great practical as well as sentimental value to the people of Hawaii.  Business and commerce, social and civic relations, national and international contacts, are the better served, the more greatly inspired and stimulated.”

“Mrs Walter Eklund, now of Kona, was to become the first woman in Hawaii to make an inter-island trip by commercial plane.  Mr Eklund in May, 1927 persuaded Jensen to give him and his wife a ride in Jensen’s plane from Wailuku, Maui to Hilo.”

“Eklund, manager of the then Von Hamm-Young Motor Co, and his wife crossed the Channel in Jensen’s one-engine Lewis plane, the ‘Malolo.’ They landed on Wainaku baseball field (Ho‘olulu Park) without difficulty.”  (Hawaii Tribune Herald, Nov 3, 1965)

Mr and Mrs Ralph Wilson of Wailuku (he was Von Hamm-Young manager on Maui) took the return flight back to Maui. “‘Mr. Jensen made one little flight to warm up his plane. Again we crawled in, baggage and Mary Louise.  Out hopped directly over the ocean leaving out of sight almost instantly the few who had gathered down to see us take off wondering.’”

“‘Mary Louise looked down at the water, misgivingly, ‘Mother are we, going to fall in the water’ l assured her that the man was holding the plane up, so she cuddled down into my arms and went to sleep.’” (Wilson, HTH May 15, 1927)

“Inter-Island commercial flying, with passenger and mail service, is not far distant. This is the declaration of all who follow the signs of the future, for the prospects for such progress are excellent at this time. An appropriation of $25,000 has been made for the field at Waiakea, and when this is in shape, the last link in inter-island aviation will have been made.” (HTH, May 15, 927)

In 1928, Stanley C Kennedy, a Silver Star Navy pilot, convinced the board of directors of Inter-Island Steam Navigation of the importance of air service to the Territory and formed Inter-Island Airways.

Young Kennedy had visions of flying for many years.  But it was not until the Great War that Stanley Kennedy was to pilot an airplane.  Dissatisfied with a Washington desk job, the naval officer talked his way into flight training in Pensacola, Florida.  In short order, Ensign Kennedy sported wings as Naval Aviator No. 302.  (hawaii-gov)

On November 11, 1929, Inter-Island Airways, Ltd introduced the first scheduled air service in Hawaiʻi with a fleet of two 8-passenger Sikorsky S-38 amphibian airplanes. The first flight from Honolulu to Hilo with stops on Molokai and Maui took three hours, 15 minutes.  (It was later renamed Hawaiian Airlines.) (hawaii-gov)

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Shipwrecks at Holoikauaua (the Pearl and the Hermes)

Holoikauaua (literally, Hawaiian monk seal that swims in the rough) is an atoll now known as Pearl and Hermes.  Its modern name reflects the twin wrecks of British whalers, the ‘Pearl’ and the ‘Hermes,’ lost in 1822.

Holoikauaua is a large oval coral reef with several internal reefs and seven sandbar/islets above sea level along the southern half of the atoll. The land area is just under 100-acres (surrounded by more that 300,000-acres of coral reef) and is 20-miles across and 12-miles wide.

The highest point above sea level is about 10-feet. The islets are periodically washed over when winter storms pass through.  Its estimated age is 26.8-million years.

As American and British whalers first made passage from Hawai‘i to the seas near Japan, they encountered the low and uncharted atolls of the NWHI. There are 52 known shipwreck sites throughout the NWHI, the earliest dating back to 1822 – the Pearl and the Hermes.

During the night of April 26, 1822, these British whaling ships ran aground almost simultaneously.  The 327-ton Pearl (with Capt. E. Clark) grounded into a sandy coral groove, pressing its wooden keel into the sediment, while the smaller 258-ton Hermes (with Capt. J. Taylor) hit the hard sea bed.

The British whaler ‘Pearl’ was originally built as an American ship in Philadelphia at least as early as 1805. At some time after that, the ship may have been captured by the French during the aftermath of the Quasi-war and renamed La Perla.

She was subsequently taken by the British privateer Mayflower and from there put into service in the British South Seas whaling industry out of London.

The two ships had been making a passage from Honolulu to the newly discovered Japan Grounds, a track which took them through the uncharted Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

The Pearl and the Hermes (wrecked to the west of the Pearl) are the only known British South Sea whaling wreck sites in the world.

The Hermes was not cradled by the reef, but disintegrated as she pounded across the sharp reef. The Pearl, sailing close by and striking the reef only a few minutes later, was more fortunate. She seems to have lodged firmly in place in a deeper groove with her stern seaward, and then she broke up more gradually over time.

Ship’s carpenter James Robinson commented in a letter to his mother, “When the vessel (Hermes) struck she was thrown on her beam end and being endangered by the masts falling – but God ordained it otherwise.”

The combined crews (totaling 57) made it safely to one of the small islands and were castaway for months with what meager provisions they could salvage.

Using salvaged timbers and other parts of the lost ships, one of the carpenters on board the Hermes, James Robinson, supervised the building of a small 30-ton schooner named ‘Deliverance’ on the beach.

Before launching the beach-built rescue vessel, the castaways were rescued by a passing ship.

Though most of the crew elected to board the rescue ship, Robinson and 11 others were able to recoup some of the financial losses from the wrecks by sailing the nearly finished Deliverance back to Honolulu, and eventually selling her there for $2,000.

From there, Robinson went on to found the highly successful James Robinson and Company shipyard in 1827 (the first shipyard at Honolulu) and became an influential member of the island community (his descendants became a well-known island family and his fortune founded the Robinson Estate.)  (This family is different than the Robinson’s associated with Niʻihau.)

In 2004, NOAA divers in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands came across the two whaling vessel wreck sites at Pearl and Hermes Atoll.

The wreck of the Pearl lies seaward of the reef crest, but in the proximity of the surf zone, the Hermes site was to the west of the Pearl.

Artifacts were found at the sites, however they are quite deteriorated.  Large iron try pots (for rendering the whale blubber into oil,) blubber hooks, anchors, brick and iron ballast pieces and fasteners were found around each site.

Cannons (four from the Hermes and two from the Pearl) and numerous cannon balls indicate the nature of hazards faced during early 19th century whaling voyages to the Pacific.

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Queen Emma

In 1836, Honolulu wasn’t really a city; it was just a large village with only one main street, King Street, and less than 6,000 people – about 500 were white foreigners.

It was a major port for whaling ships, and as one writer put it, one of the most “unattractive” places in the world.

Emma, the future queen, was born “Emma Naea” in Honolulu on January 2, 1836 to Fanny Kekelaokalani Young, daughter of John Young, King Kamehameha I’s counselor, and Kaʻoanaʻeha, Kamehameha’s niece. Her father was high chief George Naea.

As was the custom, she was offered to her mother’s sister, Grace Kamaikui Rooke and her husband, Dr. T.C.B. Rooke as hānai daughter. Unable to have children of their own, the Rookes adopted Emma.

Emma grew up speaking both Hawaiian and English, the latter “with a perfect English accent.” She began formal schooling at age 5 in the Chief’s Children’s School, where she was quick and bright in her studies.

At age 13, Dr. Rooke hired an English governess, Sarah Rhodes von Pfister, to tutor young Emma. He also encouraged reading from his extensive library. As a writer, he influenced Emma’s interest in reading and books.

At 20, Emma became engaged to the king of Hawai‘i, Alexander Liholiho, (Kamehameha IV,) a 22-year-old who had ascended to the throne in 1855.  The couple had known each other since childhood.

At the engagement party, accusations were made that Emma’s Caucasian blood made her not fit to be the Hawaiian queen, and her lineage was not suitable enough to be Alexander Liholiho’s bride.

However, the wedding was held as planned however, and the new queen soon became involved in the business of the kingdom, particularly that of saving the Hawaiian people from extinction.

In his first speech as King, Kamehameha IV stated the need for a hospital to treat the native population.  Due to introduced diseases, the Hawaiian population had plummeted since the time of Captain Cook’s arrival to 70,000, with extinction a very real possibility.

The treasury was empty, so the king and his queen undertook the mission of soliciting enough funds to establish a proper hospital in Honolulu. Within a month, their personal campaign had raised $13,530, almost twice their original goal.

To recognize and honor Emma’s efforts, it was decided to call the new hospital “Queen’s.”

The King and Queen rejoiced at the birth of their son, Albert Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha, on May 20, 1858. The entire populace welcomed the new heir to the throne with joy, only to be stricken by utter grief four years later when the little boy died suddenly of “brain fever.”

Just 15 months later, Alexander Liholiho, (Kamehameha IV,) weakened by chronic asthma, died at age 29.  In her grief, Queen Emma took a new name, Kaleleonalani, which means “flight of the heavenly chiefs.”

To ease her pain, Emma dedicated herself to many worthy causes, among which was organizing a hospital auxiliary of women to help with the ill. She also helped found two schools, St. Andrews Priory in Honolulu and St. Cross on Maui.

Her work included the development of St. Andrews Cathedral. She journeyed to England where she and her friend, Queen Victoria, raised $30,000 for the construction or the cathedral.

“Queen Emma, or Kaleleonalani, the widowed queen of Kamehameha IV … refined by education and circumstances … is a very pretty, as well as a very graceful woman. She was brought up by Dr. Rooke, an English physician here, and though educated at the American school for the children of chiefs, is very English in her leanings and sympathies …”

“… an attached member of the English Church, and an ardent supporter of the “Honolulu Mission.” Socially she is very popular, and her exceeding kindness and benevolence, with her strongly national feeling as an Hawaiian, make her much beloved by the natives.”  (Bird)

When King Lunalilo died in 1874, Emma became a candidate for the throne (the Kingdom had become a constitutional democracy). Lunalilo had wanted her to succeed him, but he failed to make the legal pronouncement before he died.

An election for a new sovereign was held.  Although she campaigned actively, she lost the throne to David Kalākaua.

Politics was not her strong suit — humanitarianism was.  Queen Emma was much loved by the people and hundreds of mele have been composed in her honor.  Her humanitarian efforts set an example for Hawaii’s royal legacy of charitable bequests.

After her death on April 25, 1885 at age 49, she was given a royal funeral and laid to rest in Mauna ʻAla beside her husband and son.

“She was different from any of her contemporaries. Emma is Emma is Emma. There’s no one like her. A devout Christian who chose to be baptized in the Anglican church in adulthood, and a typically Victorian woman who wore widow’s weeds, gardened, drank tea, patronized charities and gave dinner parties, she yet remained quintessentially Hawaiian.”  (Kanahele)

“In a way, she was a harbinger of things to come in terms of Hawaii’s multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society. You have to be impressed with her eclecticism — spiritually, emotionally and physically. She was kind of our first renaissance queen.”  (Kanahele)

Queen Emma left the bulk of her estate, some 13,000 acres of land on the Big Island and in Waikiki on Oahu, in trust for the hospital that honors her.  (Lots of good information here came from Queen’s Hospital)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Olopua

Athens was named for goddess Athena after she disputed Poseidon’s claim (he plunged his trident into the ground and unleashed a salt water spring to symbolize his power as god of the sea.)   Athena planted an olive tree, saying that it represented peace and prosperity.

Zeus intervened and asked the other gods and goddesses to settle the matter by deciding who had given them the better gift. All of the gods voted for Poseidon and the goddesses for Athena, but as Zeus abstained, the women’s votes outnumbered the men’s by one, and Athena won.

Today, the olive branch continues as a symbol of peace and prosperity.

Hawaiʻi has an endemic olive, the Olopua (it is found only in Hawaiʻi.)  It belongs to the Oleaceae or Olive family which include olives, as well as forsythia, ash, privet, jasmine and pīkake.

The early Hawaiians had a number of uses for the very durable hard wood. Though it was difficult to work with and they fashioned spears (ihe,) digging sticks (ʻōʻō,) adze handles (ʻau koʻi,) daggers for warfare (pāhoa) and rasps for making fish hooks.

The strong wood was also used for posts, rafters and thatching posts or purlins in house (hale) construction. It was a preferred firewood, as it burned with a hot flame even when green.

Olives were also imported to Hawaiʻi – for its leaf tea, fruit and oil.  Don Francisco de Paula Marin (known to the Hawaiian as “Manini”) was a Spaniard who arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1793 or 1794 (at about the age of 20.)

Marin was known for his interest in plant collecting and brought in a wide variety of new plants to Hawai‘i.  His gardens were filled with trees, vines and shrubs – including olives.

Another early olive importer was another Kamehameha ally, Captain Alexander Adams (he arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1811;) among other crop plants, he brought olives from California.

Later, attempts were made (and/or encouraged) to expand Hawaiʻi’s agricultural diversity.

“We welcome His Honor Judge Jones back from his trip to Oliva Wainiha, Kauai, whither he went last week to plant olive trees and grape vines on his plantation.”

“We are glad to know that our people are taking a lively interest in the matter of introducing  fruits from abroad, and that a spirit of enterprise has taken hold which, if persevered in, will in due time bring forth good results. Every man should remember that ‘he who causes one more blade of grass to grow is a benefactor,’ and has not lived in vain.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 19, 1879)

“We noticed in our last Issue that a number of olive trees in fine condition had been imported by Mr. Bush. We have since learned that they were imported by Mr. Bush for Judge Jones, who has started a new Industry at Wainiha, Kauai.”

“He has a vineyard of 10,000 assorted vines and several hundred olive trees now growing and in a flourishing condition. We understand that be intends to add yearly to the number of his olives and vines, and for that purpose the late importation was made.”  (Pacific Commercial, March 6, 1880)

Then a newspaper article raised an interesting perspective, “In Southern California at the present time there are 2,500,000 olive trees, and the product of these trees is in ever increasing demand. The trees yield to the owner from three to seven dollars each, according to age.”

“The California pickled olive is gaining in favor in the East and is competing strongly with the olives from the Mediterranean seaboard, the fruit from the Pacific Slope being of finer quality. If Southern California can raise olives, undoubtedly the Hawaiian islands can.”  (Hawaiian Star, March 11, 1898)

Some took on the challenge, “Some years ago olives were grown up on this Island and shown to be a practical success. The trees were sturdy although not scientifically grown and bore fruit that an expert from Greece stated to be superior to any grown in Ionia.”

“’The trees were first planted by Judge Jones,’ said John Emmeluth this morning ‘and afterwards came into my hands. The growing of olives seems to be satisfactory and easy enough in these islands but in this instance were not properly looked after in the Initiatory stages of their growth.’”  (Hawaiian Star, December 16, 1901)

“From my observation it takes about twelve years for the trees to bear, a long time for the small farmer to wait for his profits, but It must be remembered that the trees can be cultivated as a subsidiary Issue for the first few years and that they will grow on the rocky uplands that could not be cleared and used for ordinary crops.”

“The greatest trouble we experienced and on which among other causes finally stopped the growing of olives was the destruction of the fruit by the birds, the trees flowered readily and if, as soon as the olive showed in fruitage, I covered the branch with netting and kept off the depredations of the birds, the fruit yield was most satisfactory.”

“I don’t think it was the mynahs that did the damage but rather the small rice birds that roosted in the branches over night and made their breakfasts on my young olives in the morning.  I imagine that they have similar troubles elsewhere and have found means of counteracting the difficulty. I think that there is little doubt but what the olive could he grown here successfully and profitably.” (Hawaiian Star, December 16, 1901)

Reportedly, Eben Parker Low planted olive trees around his hometown of Waimea on the Island of Hawaiʻi around 1895.

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