Hawaii | Page 314 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 25, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sky Ranch

It’s not clear when it opened, but in the 1940s and ‘50s, there is clear evidence of the “Kailua Airport” on the Windward side of O‘ahu, reportedly, privately-owned and operated by Bob Whittinghill.

When work was started in 1948 on the new airport in Kailua-Kona, to avoid confusion with the Kailua Airport on Oʻahu, the Big Island’s airport was named “Kona Airport.”

In 1954 it was “enlarged and improved to handle an expected resurgence of prospective fliers. (T)he airport is prepared to offer flying lessons under a complete ‘pay-as-you-fly’ program.” (Advertiser, May 23, 1954)

It was generally referred to as ‘Sky Ranch’ and “was a grass field in Kailua, windward side of Oahu. It was located parallel to the southern fence of Kaneohe Marine Base, near the Mōkapu gate to the base, and west of Mōkapu Boulevard.”

“The runway was where the east/west portion of ‘Aikahi Loop is now. It would have appeared in any sectional published pre-1960. It had a 200′ asphalt strip & about 1,800′ of grass, and power lines at the East end, along Mōkapu Blvd.”

“There was a large Quonset hut as a hangar, shop combination, and a small raised house that served as the office & bathroom. There was a gasoline-powered pump & 3,500 gallon tank of 80/87 avgas.”

“The field was operated by Robert Whittinghill, who was an instructor at the state aircraft mechanic school at Honolulu Airport.” (Hurd; Freeman)

“One man who’s licked the commuting problem over the Pali is Bob King of Kailua who lives a block away from the Kailua Sky Ranch landing strip and works at Honolulu airport. He usually flies to work.”

“It takes him an average of seven minutes over the Pali, about 16 minutes by way of Koko head. He claims flying is six time safer that driving a car, 12 times safer than driving across the Pali.” (Krauss, March 2, 1959)

Besides recreational and commuter flying, there were other aviation activities there. “(N)ews has arrived from Hawaii of the formation of the Hawaii Soaring Club with Woody Brown as President.”

“Plans call for the operation of Pratt-Reads from Kailua Sky Ranch on Oahu with Kipapa Field as a secondary base of operations. We are glad to hear these beautiful islands which have in the past been the site of some interesting soaring flights will once again be the scene of soaring activity.” (Soaring, Jan-Feb, 1959)

Likewise, “Parachuting is rapidly becoming a very popular sport. Quite ordinary young men – and women – are jumping from aircraft every weekend all over the United States, including Hawaii.”

The Aloha Sky Divers “meets every Sunday at the Kailua Sky Ranch, a short walk from the Pali Palms. Its members, floating down under colored canopies, have become a familiar sight in these parts.” Star Bulletin, July 14, 1961)

In addition, “Oahu’s only Air Scout squadron has been launched at Kailua Sky ranch, where a model plane meet is scheduled. … a clubhouse with work shop has been made available for both the Boy Scouts and the model plane enthusiast of Windward Oahu.”

“Bob Whittinghill is adviser for the aero squadron, composed of Boy Scouts 14 and over … the model plane meet set for today is the third held by Kailua Sky ranch. The two earlier meets drew about 1,000 persons at each event”. (Advertiser, May 24, 1954)

“Robert Whittinghill (leased) Kailua Sky Ranch from Kaneohe Ranch Company on a short-notice basis.” (Star-Bulletin, October 29, 1956) While pressure was building to keep the air field for recreational flights, ultimately, pressure for residential home development overcame that.

“About 15 planes will leave this weekend on a final, nostalgic flight from the Kailua Sky Ranch, Oahu’s only remaining private airport for light planes.”

“The planes will head for temporary quarters at busy Honolulu Airport as bulldozers move in to plow the Sky Ranch airstrip for a housing subdivision.” (Star-Bulletin, July 20, 1961)

“‘Aikahi Park, a prestige home development designed for families growing in stature and size, is being opened this Labor Day weekend by Centex-Trousdale.” (Prices ranged from $25,050 to $27,350, “on low rent Kaneohe Ranch Co 55-year leasehold land.”)

“Homes in the park have been designed by Vladimir Ossipoff, FAIA, who has won many architectural awards for local residences. They are in Hawaiian styles with three and four bedrooms, the latter containing fireplaces.” (Star-Bulletin, September 2, 1962)

Whittinghill also ran (since 1947) the Aero-Tech Division of Honolulu Technical School, a State education arm for training aviation mechanics, situated in a hanger at Honolulu International Airport. (Advertiser, September 18, 1963)

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January 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Lanihau

“I started looking for property in Kona in 1921 when I graduated from Yale [University] and I think between then and 1932, why, I must have seen every beach property from Milolii to Kawaihae, no matter how you got to it–by air or by sea or by boat or by donkey or by mule or on foot.”

“And I finally decided on [William] Doc Hill’s place down at Keauhou as being the ideal spot that I wanted to live in but through a long combination of funny circumstances, why, I didn’t get it.”

“I’d inquired about this place from Mr. Childs who was then local head of American Factors. He said, ‘Oh hell, that property’s so tied up with owners you never could clear title.’”

“‘Well,’ I said, ‘you live here’ – and he was a big shot of the community at the time. ‘Tell you what I’ll do. If you can clear the titles, I’ll put up the money and we’ll subdivide the thing into large pieces and go fifty-fifty on it.’ And he said, ‘Well, that’s fair enough. That doesn’t cost me anything.’”

“So I waited seven years and nothing happened. Then I happened to meet an old-timer from up here who’d been in the tax office and knew land problems–who my father helped to keep out of jail–and he was very fond of the Thurstons.”

“So I said, ‘Who owns that property next to Factors?’ ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘that belongs to so-and-so and so-and-so. You want to buy it?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know whether I can afford it or not.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘the girl right at this moment needs money badly, I know, and I’m quite sure she would sell.’”

“So, this was four in the afternoon and at 9:30 the next morning I got a call and he said, ‘If you’ll have so much money available by eleven o’clock, I can buy her half-interest in thirty-eight acres.’”

“So I said, ‘Well, I don’t know where I’m going to get the money but I’ll have it.’ I did. Five years later, for five times as much, I bought the other half. So that brings us up to about 1938 and going into 1939.”

“An old kahuna who lived down at Kahaluu – I can’t remember his name at the moment but it’ll come to me – through his grandson who worked for [Theo. H.] Davies and Company, said that his grandfather wanted to come see me.”

“His grandfather had known my great-grandfather as a little boy and his great-grandfather was, at that time, in his late nineties and Asa [Thurston] died when he was well along in the eighties, so there is quite a span there. So I said I’d be delighted.”

“So the old man came over and his grandfather … he was ashamed to speak English so he spoke in Hawaiian and I spoke English. I could understand him and he could understand me. So he said, ‘I would like to know what Mr. Thurston’s plans are for the development of this property,’ which was translated duly.”

“And I replied and gave him a general idea of what I was trying to accomplish here. We’d planted quite a few trees at that time.
So the old man sat here for quite a long time and just nodded his head; and then he started in talking Hawaiian very rapidly and he talked for about ten minutes without taking a breath.”

“So the old man thanked me with tears in his eyes and we talked a little bit about his remembering my grandfather. He was a young man at the time. And he died, oh, within two or three months after that down at Kailua.”

“The name of this place is Lanihau. L-A-N-I-H-A-U. There’s Lanihau-nui which is next door and this is Lanihau-iki, meaning little Lanihau, and Lanihau-nui is back of it [and means large or great Lanihau]. That belongs to the Greenwells.”

“The name puzzled me. Lani means heavenly; beauty. Hau–H-A-U–is normally the tree from which they make the Hawaiian outriggers or the amas [float for canoe outrigger] or ‘iako [canoe outrigger]. H-A-0 is iron or steel or very strong.”

“So I submitted this to John Lane, who was then alive, and Mary Pukui, who’s still alive, and Reverend Henry Judd and two others … and asked them what this name meant, because many times Hawaiian meanings were hidden.”

“They asked a great many questions about the place. Was it on a point? Yes. You had a beautiful view up and down the coast? Yes. You had a beautiful view of the ocean? Yes. And the surf? Yes.”

“And out on the point at times it’s enormous; and is there a current that comes past that you can see sometimes? Yes, you can see it coming down the coast, coming around the point. And you have a beautiful view of the sunrise and of the sunset?”

“They finally came up with this hidden meaning which I think is very interesting; Lanihau is the place where the forces of the heavens and of the earth meet and all is quiet and peaceful. The moonlight and the sunshine, the waves, the grand weather, the storms, and so on, which is rather interesting, I think.”

“I would say that you are really in a very blessed spot.”

“I started to work here on the 28th of December of 1939. It was all just lava, nothing else. And this place evolved as a result of exposure and watching the surf and studying and seeing what one could do.”

“I always wanted a harbor for a boat to go fishing and to go swimming. And so, this gradually evolved and then I began to find out things about it.”

“Kamehameha the Great lived right here for some time – seven years – prior to his death. This is where he slept and over there was where he ate and over where the guest house is, is where his servants lived; and over at the far end there, beyond the entrance to the pond – going into the King Kamehameha [Hotel] lot – was the old heiau.”

“So he was self -contained and nobody was allowed on this place in the old days. You had to go around it. It was tabu. … Sacred.”

Back to the old man and his grandfather … “His grandson laughed when the old man ran down and said, ‘Well, my grandfather has said quite a few things. I will try to translate.’”

“In essence, what he said was this, that he will now die happy and he now understands why the good Lord never let anybody buy this over all the years.”

“He said, ‘He was waiting till you could come – till you had the money to come – and till you could develop this place, which certainly is even farther than Kamehameha would have been able to had he chosen to do it, and it will become a place of great beauty.’”

“‘I will now die happy because this property is in the hands of the man the Lord intended it to go to.’” (Lorrin P Thurston; Watumull Oral History)

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January 23, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Jargon

“Soon after James Cook’s visit to Vancouver Island in 1778, non-Natives began fur trading in the Northwest. Trade ships, after stopping in Hawaii, sailed to Vancouver Island to trade manufactured goods for sea otter pelts. … Besides sea otter there were beaver and other furs.” (Holton)

“It did not take long for the Northwest Coast fur traders to discover at Hawaii a new medium for the Canton market. That market was, of course, the prime object of our Northwest fur trade.”

“China took nothing that the United States produced; hence Boston traders, in order to obtain the wherewithal to purchase teas and silks at Canton, spent eighteen months or more of each China voyage collecting a cargo of sea-otter skins, highly esteemed by the mandarins.” (Massachusetts Historical Society)

“In the 1800s there were over one hundred different languages spoken in the Pacific Northwest. It was one of the most diverse linguistic areas in the world.” (Holton)

“Every visitor to Oregon will very soon after his arrival, learn that there is in use a new language, which has been created by the necessities of the situation in which emigrants, Hudson Bay Company officers, and others found themselves, in relation to the aborigines of the country.”

“Indians have learned a few English and French words, foreigners have learned a few Indian words, so that ere long a mode of communication was introduced, which answered all the common purposes of trading and intercourse between the Indians and the white population.” (Damon)

“The origin of this Jargon, a conventional language similar to the Lingua Franca of the Mediterranean, the Negro-English-Dutch of Surinam, the Pigeon English of China, and several other mixed tongues”.

“I was particularly struck with the frequent use which was made of this jargon (as this language is called), in the intercourse of the white inhabitants among themselves.” (Damon)

“The peoples of the Northwest Coast traded extensively among themselves and with communities in the interior. A large proportion, if not most, of Chinook Jargon vocabulary was taken from Chinook proper.”

“It is thought that Chinook Jargon predates indigenous contact with Europeans and European Americans, which was initiated in the 18th century pursuant to the fur trade.”

“The English and French elements in the pidgin’s lexicon (vocabulary) seem to be primarily borrowings into Chinook Jargon after it had become widely adopted as the lingua franca for the fur trade.” (Mufwene; Britannica)

“Chinook Jargon is a Native American pidgin language spoken in the Pacific Northwest. The story of Chinook Jargon is the story of Native American culture and Pacific Northwest history.” (Holton)

“‘This is a tongue, spoken by a few in each tribe residing in the middle and lower divisions of Oregon. It is also used by the French, and nearly all old settlers in the country.’” (Palmer’s Journal; Damon)

“The heyday of Chinook Jargon could be referred to as the ‘hop days.’ New agriculture, such as hop farming, changed the economy of the Northwest even more than the fur trade.”

“Changes in the economic and social conditions of Native Americans perpetuated Chinook Jargon and spread it around the Northwest in the later 1800s.”

“The earliest immigrant settlers to the Northwest learned Chinook Jargon out of necessity. Before 1850 these settlers had daily dealings with Native Americans. Much conversation was in Chinook Jargon.”

“After 1850, the spread of Chinook Jargon was based on the new movement and settlement patterns of Native Americans. Native Americans spread Chinook Jargon outward from the Columbia River, Willamette Valley and Puget Sound areas.” (Holton)

“Chinook Jargon was the primary means of communication in many industries in the Northwest from 1860 to 1890. Native Americans furnished the bulk of hired labor for seasonal agriculture, especially hop picking, in Washington and British Columbia until 1890.”

“Fishing, canning, sealing, ranching and timber also employed many Native Americans who used Chinook Jargon as a common language.”

“Non-Natives who worked with Native Americans in these industries learned and used Chinook Jargon. Merchants who served Native Americans spoke Chinook Jargon.” (Holton)

“The conditions that made Chinook Jargon such a vibrant language eventually led to its decline. The expanding economy demanded a more efficient way of moving goods to and from the Northwest.”

“In the first half of the 1800s one had to travel for months by foot, horse, wagon, or sailing ship to get in or out. This restricted immigration to the area.”

“In 1865 this changed with the completion of the first transcontinental train track between the eastern US and California. This was soon followed by track to Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. A journey that used to take three months could now be made in a week.”

“Native American communities nurtured Chinook Jargon while mass immigration changed the balance of the economy against them.”

“The official population of Washington jumped from 23,000 in 1870 to 357,000 in 1890. By 1910 it had climbed to 1,141,000. Oregon and British Columbia experienced similar growth. But Native American populations remained level.”

“Native Americans now played a smaller role in a larger economy. New immigrants to the Northwest no longer had to learn Chinook Jargon to survive. The reverse was true. The Native Americans had to learn English.” (Holton)

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January 22, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sufferings of an Exile

“The Governor of Woahoo (Boki) is brother to the minister Pitt (Kalanimoku); and following his example, as soon as he was informed in what consisted the ceremony of baptism, he also became a Christian, and returned on shore with a full sense of the advantage he had derived from it.”

“The occupations of this Governor are surprising; they scarcely leave him a moment’s time to give to strangers who have to treat with him.”

“In the morning he intoxicates himself with ava; in the evening, and during the night he does the same: during the intervals of these copious libations, he proceeds reeling to the square of Anourourou, with an ample supply of knives and fish-hooks …”

“… there, in the midst of the numbers who are subject to him, he joins in the different. games, and lays bets with such of his officers as will take them.”

“He never recollects his rank but when the chances are unfavourable to him; then, under some pretext or other, he contrives to obtain restitution of part of the property which he has lost at play.”

“With the great, it is said often to be the wisest part to allow one-self to be in the wrong.”

“Commerce has attracted to this place some Americans, who, in the hope of speedily making their fortunes, established themselves here several years ago.”

“I cannot say that they carryon any regular trade here, but rather contraband: they can obtain whatever they want at so cheap a rate!”

“In the morning they take half a dozen of wine to the Governor, and the good sow is soon stretched at their feet: they make presents of a few hatchets and muskets to the principal Chiefs; all the rest of the population are then quite at the disposal of these gentlemen.”

“Some strong and active men are sent to the mountains; the forests are examined, and some sandal-wood trees are cut down: these are conveyed to the water’s edge at night by about twenty women, who are paid for either carrying or dragging them along, with a few ells of European cloth or linen; thence to be embarked on board a vessel that is always stationed in the harbour.”

“On the arrival of spring, their correspondents on the North-West coast of America come here with a cargo of furs, to obtain provisions, and increase their rich ventures with the acquisitions of their partners …”

“… and, sure of an immense profit, they push on to Macao, or Canton, to sell their cargoes to the lazy Chinese for dollars, sugar, or silks, which they know how to transmit speedily to Europe.”

“However lucrative this species of commerce may be in appearance, it has great drawbacks; nor do I know to whom the perilous activity of some, or the long solitude of others would offer attractions.”

“We are all of us much delighted with the Sandwich Islands; some new object present itself every day: we study the manners, and customs of this singular people; and the moments of relaxation which our occupations leave us, are never long enough to allow ennui to have any share in our excursions.”

“But how soon would this life of uniformity become tiresome to us; how disgusting would be these savage customs; how gloomily would pass our days, how mournfully our nights! – not a soul with whom to share our pleasures …”

“… not a friend whose cares we might alleviate; and our country, that expects us! – how much more attractive to me is a moderate fortune in my native land, than the greatest riches on a foreign shore!”

“Remote from the paternal soil, the air is frozen, nature discoloured, the fruits tasteless, even the very waters bear with them a slow poison.”

“The sky, the earth, the trees, the clouds, every thing presages evil, and seems to attack the springs of life. The most trifling event is regarded as an extraordinary occurrence; the fruit that withers, the leaf that falls, congeals your soul …”

“… the lessening sail seems to bear away your last hope; and you die, vainly calling upon a country, which you are destined never to see more. Alas! What must be the sufferings of an exile!”

All is from ‘Narrative of a Voyage Round the World’ by Jacques Arago (March 6, 1790 – November 27, 1855), a French writer, artist and explorer who joined Louis de Freycinet on his 1817 voyage around the world aboard the ship Uranie.

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Na Mokupuni O Hawaii Nei-Kalama 1837

January 21, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Scotch Coast

Answering a recruiting call from Hawai‘i for teachers, Marsue McGinnis McShane arrived at Laupahoehoe School in September of 1945. … “We were invited to all the parties and they gave a big party for us, the plantation.”

“(W)e went up to the [plantation] manager’s house. They were expecting us and we had tea and everything. [The area] was called the Scotch Coast, [because] a lot of the people were real Scotsmen.”

“And there were these Scotsmen and I remember they put on their kilts for us and did the dances. One guy, the one who was head of the sugar processing, the raw sugar, played the bagpipes.” (McShane)

“It has been said that ‘Scotland’s greatest export product is Scotsmen’ and many of them turned up in Hawaii beginning with the two Scots aboard Capt. James Cook’s Resolution when he discovered Hawaii for the West.” (LA Times)

“One well-known Scotsman was Capt. Alexander Adams, a wide-ranging navigator and friend of Hawaii’s first monarch King Kamehameha I.”

“In the 19th century a Scot, Robert Crichton Wyllie of Ayeshire, was Minister of Foreign Affairs under Kings Kamehameha III and IV.”

“From Edinburgh came Archibald Scott Cleghorn, who became governor of Oahu and husband of Princess Likelike. He was also father of a famous beauty, Princess Kaiulani, to whom another Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, dedicated a poem.”

“The Hawaiian island that drew the most Scots was the Big Island of Hawaii. Some Scots undoubtedly found pleasure in settling in the island’s Waimea-Kohala area because its cool, misty upland climate reminded them of their own misty isles.” (LA Times)

“Unlike other large ethnic groups, the Scots never came in large groups or by the shipload. And in a society where ethnicity was easily identified, the Scots were simply part of the ‘haoles’”. (Orange County Register)

“The Scots came for various reasons. Some came for the pleasure of Hawaii. Others followed kinsmen already in Hawaii when economic conditions became poor in Scotland.”

“The Scottish emigrants came mostly from rural areas of Scotland and settled in country areas of Hawaii, particularly on the sugar plantations.”

“Eventually, so many Scots settled on the plantations along the Hamakua Coast that the area became known as the ‘Scotch Coast.’”

“On Saturday nights the Scots came into Hilo, the island’s main city, and congregated at the end of the railroad line at the corner of Kamehameha Street and Waianuenue Avenue. It was eventually known as the ‘Scotsmen’s corner.’” (LA Times)

“The Scots kept their ties to the mother country by letter, and by occasionally recruiting kinsmen to come to the islands to join them. They kept their traditional foods, as did other ethnic groups, and scones, oatmeal and shortbread were common on the island.”

“But the Scots also were canny enough to assimilate, or at least acculturate. An observer of the Scots in Hawaii, George Mair, described what a new Scot did when he arrived on the Island of Hawaii.

“‘He would get outfitted, learn about cane, learn pidgin.’ Only a few Scots maintained their British citizenship and most quickly worked at becoming American citizens.” (Orange County Register)

“A period of intense emigration was 1880 to 1930, when many of the Scots on the island sent back to Scotland for friends and relatives.”

“Most came from eastern Scotland – Kirriemuir, Aberdeen, Portknockie, Inverness, Angus and Perth. A few came from the Highlands.” (LA Times) “On the plantations the Scots worked quickly into managerial positions.” (Orange Coast Register)

“The calibre of these men were recorded by others, in particular the plantation owners. John T Moir said, ‘They were reliable men and whenever they were given a job to do, they saw it through. There was no slacking.’”

“At one time there were 26 sugar plantations along the ‘Scotch Coast’ and every one had Scots at some managerial level.” (LA Times)

“Over the Big Island, with Hawaiian Air Lines – ‘You’re now flying over the Hamakua coast, better known as the Scotch coast,’ said our purser. ‘Below us is the most productive soil in the world. As much as 300,000 pounds of sugar cane have been grown per acre on these plantations.’”

“He could have added that from an 180-mile square area, slightly larger than that of New York City, Hawaii produces over a 1,000,000 tons of sugar, manufactured in the US,’ pointed out my fellow passenger, Roy Leffingwell, of the Hawaii Sugar Plantations association. ‘It’s Hawaii’s main industry ….’” (Burns; Medford Mail Tribune)

Large coastal sugar promoter Theo H Davies hired as manager a Scotch engineer then operating a small Hilo foundry. The new manager was Alexander Young with whom Davies joined forces to organize Waiakea Mill Company.

Years later Davies was a stockholder with Young in the organization of von Hamm-Young Company, forerunner of The Hawaii Corporation. Principals were Young’s son Archibald, and Conrad C. von Hamm. An early project was the Alexander Young Hotel. (Greaney)

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