Hawaii | Page 412 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 19, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Singing to Me is a Paradise’

Despite the title here, this story is about a writer, not a singer. In fact, her Biography notes, “the Washington Post names Kate Fields ‘one of the foremost women of America,’ and the New York Tribune called her ‘one of the best-known women in America’”. (Moss) (Her name was Mary Katherine Keemle Field, but was generally know as Kate Field.)

“Kate Field, known to all the nation as one of its most wide-awake, progressive women, died a few weeks ago in Honolulu. She died suddenly, among friends for her friends are everywhere but far from her native land and all associations endeared to her by close ties of kinship.”

“Some strange foreboding filled her mind before leaving this city for her pleasure trip to the Islands, and she asked strangely, it seemed then that if she should die in a foreign land her remains might lie in the soil of her own country.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, August 17, 1896)

“Kate Field was born in St Louis, Mo., October 1, (1838). When a young girl she with her mother and sister removed to Chicago, where Miss Field adopted the stage as a profession, appearing first at McVicker’s Theater.”

“Being a woman of strong individuality, the doubtful success to be achieved as an actress made her abandon the stage for the rostrum, delivering lectures through the United States, meeting with success wherever she spoke.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

In a June 9, 1868 note to Charles Warren Stoddard, she notes, “I thank you for your kind words and am more than pleased that my little books should have strayed off to California. If I live I hope to do something more worthy of praise.”

“I can say nothing to you, a stranger, that will be worth the reading. Everyone must work out his own salvation and in his own particular way.”

“My motto is Emerson’s ‘Hitch your wagon to a star.’ If you do you will rise sooner or later. Try it and see if the effect is not a beneficial one in character. I am Very truly yours, Kate Field” (Stoddard; National Magazine, January 1906)

“For six years prior to her coming to (Hawai‘i) she owned and edited ‘Kate Field’s Washington’… It was during this time that she toured the country lecturing … As a public woman and a writer she was known all over the world. In Washington she was a recognized power in the lobby during the Republican administrations of the last twenty years.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

“Field worked for several years as a freelance journalist before grabbing another set of literary coattails: those of Charles Dickens. Field covered his 1867-68 American reading tour with such rhapsodic brio that she earned ‘wide, spasmodic notoriety’ …”

“… as Mark Twain put it, becoming ‘a celebrity at once.’” (Downing) some suggest she was “a more prominent journalist than Clemens [Mark Twain].” (Weber)

“(S)he headed west, writing a series of anti-Mormon articles and lectures and another series in praise of Alaska. She also won a lucrative contract to promote California wines — to preach “the gospel of the grape,” as she put it.”

“Eventually Field swung back east, this time to Washington, which she predicted was ‘destined to be the social, literary and artistic center of this country.’ … There she founded an influential weekly paper, Kate Field’s Washington, which ran from 1890 to 1895.” (Downing)

She came to the Islands “to personally investigate the condition of the Hawaiians and obtain their views of annexation.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896) However, “she contracted (pneumonia) on the Island of Hawaii.”

“The first appearance of the disease which resulted in the death of Miss Field was in Kailua, while at the boarding house of Miss Paris. This was on Wednesday, May 13th. Deceased complained of feeling pains in her chest but did not consider the matter serious.”

“With her usual zeal for work, she told Miss Paris that it was her intention to go on to Kaawaloa and from there to the volcano on the journey that she had mapped out in the beginning.”

“Miss Paris accompanied Miss Field to Kaawaloa. Upon arrival at that place Miss Field went to the Greenwell’s. It was there that her condition began to grow worse, and Miss Paris remonstrated with her as to the inadvisability of going on to the volcano, to such good effect that she heeded the advice and decided to return to Honolulu.”

“As soon as she arrived aboard, Dr. Adriance took charge of her and kept administering restoratives, to which the disease yielded but temporarily.”

“During the evening some of the Coronet party grouped in the neighborhood of Miss Field’s stateroom on the port side of the steamer, and began singing familiar songs. When it was suggested that it might disturb her, she answered in a manner characteristic of the woman …”

“‘No, indeed! Singing to me is a paradise compared with the quiet of the country. Don’t talk to me about the quiet of the country, with chickens cackling, roosters crowing and dogs barking wow! wow! wow!’ After this utterance she seems to have responded to the soothing effect of the music, and went off to sleep.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

“She died on the 19th of May, 1896, in the fifty-seventh year of her age. She once said: ‘I want to live every day as if it were my last,’ she also said: ‘I am a cremationist, because I believe cremation is not only the healthiest and cleanest, but the most poetical way of disposing of the dead. Whoever prefers loathsome worms to ashes, possesses a strange imagination.’”

“That her visit to Honolulu resulted in materially lengthening list of friends and she had made was evidenced by the number of people who attended the funeral services at Central Union Church yesterday. The assembly was not one made up of curious ones, but of those who knew her in life.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

She was initially embalmed and buried in a casket in the John Paty vault at O‘ahu Cemetery. The San Francisco Press Club set up ‘The Examiner Kate Field Memorial Fund’ to return her remains to the continent.

Later, “A small copper box containing the ashes was placed in a grave beside that of Miss Field’s mother. … There was no ceremony at the grave. … It is all over now. Kate Field has been interred in an unmarked grave” in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 1897)

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Kate_Field

Kate_Field_with_signature,_1898

Kate_Field

Kate_Field,_1897

Kate Field-Hawn Gazette-May 22, 1896

Kate_Field-Stoddard

Kate Field headstone

Paty Vault-Hawn Gazette-May 22, 1896

May 17, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Belgian Company of Colonization

Peter Allan Brinsmade, 25, accompanied by his wife and child; William Ladd, 26, with his wife and child, and William Hooper, 24, single, arrived on Kauai on July 27, 1833, on the Brig Velocity. Brinsmade and Ladd were from Hallowell, Maine and Hooper from Boston, Massachusetts.

They started the firm Brinsmade, Ladd and Hooper; the name of the firm was changed in 1835 to Ladd & Company. On September 13, 1835, Ladd & Co., began the first major (and successful) Hawaiian sugar plantation.

In 1836, the Koloa Sugar Plantation consisted of 25 acres of sugar cane, 20 houses for laborers, 1 house for a superintendent, carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, mill dam, sugar house, boiling house, and the mill. (Ladd & Co)

They ran a sugar plantation for 12 years. In addition to the enterprise at Kōloa, Kauai, the company ran a profitable mercantile operation in Honolulu.

On November 24, 1841, Ladd and Company signed an agreement with the Hawaiian Kingdom. Then on May 17, 1843, an agreement was signed in the city of Brussels, in the kingdom of Belgium, between the Sandwich Islands Government, the Belgian Company of Colonization, and Ladd and Company.

The ‘Belgian Contract,’ signed in Brussels May 17, 1843, was a tripartite agreement between Kamehameha III (represented by Ha‘alilio and William Richards), Ladd and Company, and the Belgian Company of Colonization.

Ladd and Company transferred all of their properties and rights in the Hawaiian islands to the Belgian Company of Colonization, and the latter company agreed to organize a subsidiary corporation, called the ‘Royal Community of the Sandwich Islands.’

Its intent was “to develop as promptly as possible, the civilization and resources of the Sandwich Islands, by creating agricultural, manufacturing and commercial establishments, and by instituting commercial relations between these Islands and Belgium.” (Kuykendall)

“It was really a gigantic sale of Ladd and Co.’s property, involving all concessions and privileges obtained by them, the price for which, taken in the contract, was $1,067,000, or £42,680.”

“The manner of proceeding was, the transfer by Brinsmade of all property material and immaterial which he had power to pass, together with rights and concessions over which Mr. Richards had power, to the Belgian Company of Colonisation.”

“The contract or treaty was tripartite, the three parties to it being the King of Hawaii, represented by Haalilio and Richards; the house of Ladd and Co., acting by Brinsmade; and the Belgian Company of Colonisation, by its deputies, the Count of Hompesch and M. Joseph Vanderburghen de Binckum.”

“The Colonisation Company was only instrumental in this transaction. Its office was to organise the ‘Royal Community of the Sandwich Islands’ and to transfer to that society, when formed, the property, rights, and titles which it was to possess.”

“The community was, however, on its European side, to remain under ‘the patronage and high administration of the Belgian Company of Colonisation;’ whilst in the scene of its activity, it would he under the patronage and protection of the Hawaiian king.”

“Four interests were to be created in the undertaking, namely, the King of Hawaii; the Belgian Colonisation Company; the Labourers and Employes; and the Stockholders. “

“The property acquired by the Belgian Colonisation Company was to be divided into 500 titles, 100 of which were to be given to the King of Hawaii, so that His Majesty would still possess a share of his own country.” (Hopkins)

“By the 28th article, ‘all persons, of whatever profession in the service of the community, and introduced into the islands under the auspices of the community, with the approbation of the King of the Sandwich Islands, shall receive in fee simple twenty hectares of land.’”

“By the 27th article, 100 titles were set apart to support schools for the children of the labourers, a health establishment, an orphanage, and pensions for impotent and superannuated employes.” (Hopkins)

On April 13, 1844, at Brussels, the “Statutes of the Royal Community of the Sandwich Islands” were signed by Haalilio, Richards, Brinsmade, and the president of the board of directors of the Belgian Company of Colonization. (Kuykendall)

“(T)he effect of which, had it actually become operative, would have been to have destroyed the independence of the islands and to have gradually vested all property in them in the proprietary of the Belgian Company.” (Hopkins)

“Ha‘alilio signed the contract with great reluctance, and the king and chiefs were highly displeased over its execution. This Belgian contract gave a great deal of trouble before it was finally discredited.” (Jarves)

“Fortunately for the people of Hawaii, this new South Sea scheme never went into operation.” (Hopkins)

“The first blow which fell on its promoters was the news of Lord George Paulet’s occupation of the islands; then came delays until October 1844, when some merchants wanted to re-construct the plan ‘as a purely commercial company.’”

Nothing, however, came of the last proposition. (Hopkins)

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Belgium Colonization Ambitions in Central America

May 16, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Married Women’s Property Bill

Lorrin A Thurston introduced the Married Women’s Property Bill in the 1886 legislature to reverse what he saw as a grave injustice in early Hawaiian law that gave all of a woman’s property to her husband on marriage. (Twigg-Smith)

The Bill stated, “The real and personal property of a woman shall, upon her marriage, remain her separate property”.

“Mr. Palohau said if the bill passed it would cause domestic trouble.”

Mr. Kaunamano moved the bill be indefinitely postponed. It makes the woman the head of the house, and that was contrary to holy writ. The man would have to take a back seat. The present law was definite, and was well understood. Why not let well enough alone.”

“Mr. Nahinu said he opposed the bill from beginning to end. This law sets aside the law of God. Woman was made for man, and not man for woman. If it got into effect it would break up families. …”

“Third reading of an Act relating to the property of married women. Mr. Kalua moved the bill pass.”

“Mr. Palohau thought the bill should be considered section by section. He did not approve of section 2, as it says that, ‘a married woman may make contracts, oral and written, sealed and unsealed, in the same manner as if she were sole.’”

“The Attorney General seemed to be looking at the speaker with some astonishment, but he did not understand Hawaiian women as well as the speaker did, or the Minister of Finance or the Interpreter.”

“Mr. Thurston said that when he introduced the bill he expected some of the members would be afraid of it, but he never expected that Mr. Palohau, the biggest member in the House, would be one of them. …”

“Mr. Thurston said that if the bill was properly understood there would be no objection. It was for the protection of every woman. It provides that a man going into business cannot use his wife’s property in that business.”

“Mr. Thurston then cited several cases that had come under his own personal notice, to show that this bill would be very effective.”

“Mr. Kauhane spoke in favor of the bill He thought it very good law.”

“Mr. Kaulukou thought perhaps that the members did not understand the bill, therefore he moved it be considered section by section. Agreed to.”

“Section 1. The real and personal property of a woman shall, upon her marriage, remain her separate property, free from the management, control, debts and obligations of her husband …”

“… and a married woman may receive, receipt for, hold, manage and dispose of property, real and personal, in the same manner as if she were sole.”

“On motion of His Excellency Mr. Dare, the section was passed.”

“Section 2. A married woman may make contracts, oral and written, sealed and unsealed, in the same manner as if she were sole, except that she shall not be authorized hereby to make contracts with her husband.”

“Mr. Kaai moved the section pass.”

“Mr. Kaunamano moved it be indefinitely postponed.”

“Mr. Kaai was in favor of the section. In justice to women, they should have some control of their own property.”

“Mr. Palohau moved to insert at the end of the section, ‘if the husband fails to provide for her or her family.’”

“Mr. Nahinu moved to strike out the words ‘in the same manner as if she were sole,’ and inert, ‘with the consent of her husband.’”

“Mr. Richardson moved the section pass as is the bill, he remembered a woman who owned some sugar land. Her husband sold it, and is now living with another woman in a foreign country, enjoying himself on the proceeds. Mr. Richardson also quoted other instances of a similar nature.”

“His Excellency Mr. Dare said it afforded him pleasure to be in accordance with Mr. Thurston. He (the speaker) signed the committee report to pass this bill.”

“He did so, believing the bill was in advance of the state of this community. Any temporary inconvenience that might attend the passage of such a law at this time would be more than compensated for in the future by the beneficent of the law.”

“They did not contemplate a reversal of things by this bill, but they did contemplate that the Hawaiian woman should take her place alongside of her sisters of the United States, England and other countries.”

“It was oftener the man than the woman who squanders the substance. This bill provides that if a man raises a family, and is saving, so as to be able to endow his daughter, and she should marry a spendthrift, the latter could not squander her money.”

“He believed the bill to be a wise one, and on the inarch to civilization, and it should be on the statute books of the Kingdom.”

“The motions to indefinitely postpone the section and the amendments were lost.”

“The section passed as in the bill.”

“Section 3. All work and labor performed or services rendered by a married woman for or to a person other than her husband and children shall, unless there is an express agreement on her part to the contrary, be presumed to be performed or rendered on her separate account.”

“On motion of Mr. Kaai the section passed.”

“Section 4. A married woman may be an executrix, administratrix, guardian or trustee, and may bind herself and the estate she represents without any act or assent on the part of her husband.”

“On motion of Mr. Dickey the section passed.”

“Mr. Kalua said that as the objections were confined to the first three sections, he moved the balance of the bill pass.”

“Mr. Dole said he had an amendment to make to section 7. He moved the words “her property shall immediately descend to her heirs as if she had died sole” be stricken out. The motion prevailed, and the section passed as amended.”

“The bill then passed as amended. (September 9, 1886)” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 10, 1886)

Present law is similar, “§572-25 Separate property. The real and personal property of a spouse, upon marriage, shall remain that spouse’s separate property, free from the management, control, debts, and obligations of the other spouse …”

“… and a spouse may receive, receipt for, hold, manage, and dispose of property, real and personal, in the same manner as if that spouse were sole.” (HRS)

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May 15, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mahiole Pōheoheo

“In every day life the ancient Hawaiian trusted to the protection of his thick, coarse hair and wore no hat. When the conch-shell trumpet called to battle, however, the chiefs donned a head-covering both ornamental and useful.”

“While it was firm and thick enough to resist a severe blow, it was remarkable for beauty of form. … It was a custom to cut the hair close at the sides of the head leaving a ridge of stiff, erect hair, like a mane on the top of the scalp), and this mane-like ridge was called mahiole, the same name that was given to a helmet.”

“Originally this personal decoration was a mark of rank, but like all such exclusive tokens was in course of time seized by the aspiring democracy.”

“At the period when feather helmets were in vogue the mahiole was a token of chieftainship, and it covered by any cap, the latter would repeat the token. Hence the skullcap was supplemented by a ridge which often … became an imposing crest.” (Brigham)

The mahiole represented the political status of male chiefs who had various authority.

Mahiole were constructed of the aerial roots of the ʻieʻie vine, woven into a basketry frame. They were perfectly fitted to an individual, and protected the most sacred part of the body, the head.

A net of olonā fibers was laid over the framework, and feathers attached in bundles in the same way as for the cloaks. The featherwork starts from the bottom, so each new row conceals the quills of the feathers below. (Museum of New Zealand)

“It was probably the cherished armor of a king as noble as any of the Hawaiian line. and yet it is not all yellow, as one or two authors claim that the helmet of a king should always be: it is of red, as are the most of those which retain any of their original feathers, and not a single one of all is exclusively yellow.”

“It may seem strange that articles so highly valued should have so little history connected with them … it would add greatly to the interest which must ever attach to these beautiful examples of patient and long-continued work by a primitive people if we knew …”

“… what chief first ordered the construction, how long the hunters collected, how many years the deft fingers of the high chiefesses plaited the precious feathers into the network, what rejoicings at the completion of the long task, in what battle it first was worn, and then the changing ownership when murder, fraud, or theft transferred the garment …” (Brigham)

There are many different kinds of mahiole that can be seen today found in museums around the world from the mahiole haka (short crested helmet,) mahiole pōheoheo (knobbed helmet,) mahiole haka kahakaha (striped short crest helmet,) spoked crescent helmet and others.

The mahiole pōheoheo has mushroom-like ornaments on top, or which were decorated with human hair, were worn by warriors or lesser chiefs. (National Museum of Australia)

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Mahiole Pohoehoe-Arago_–_Guerrier_des_Iles_Sandwich-1817

May 13, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

A Statement of Values

“It may very truly be said that the story of the Hawaiian Mission is the ‘old, old story of Jesus and his love.’ Using the words of St. Paul, it may be said that the Love of Christ ‘constrained’ a certain number of men and women in New England and States near by …”

“…to sail for a group of Islands in the far off Pacific whose people were in spiritual darkness. and in bondage to a system of idolatry which in many respects was peculiarly hard.”

“From stories which they had heard the Missionaries expected, as one of them wrote, ‘sacrifice, trials, hardships and dangers.’ It certainly was a great venture of faith to sail away in 1820 on the Brig ‘Thaddeus’ for Islands more distant from the mainland than any other group in the world.”

“But the love of Christ constrained them for service as it constrained those companies of men and women which came around the Horn in 1822, 1827 and so on to the last group in 1848.”

“We do not say that there were no mistakes made, nor that the strict requirements of the Puritan representation of Christianity were not hard on a primitive people, nor that they did not lead to hypocrisy on the part of many, a hiding of their real lives that they might not be turned out of the Church.”

“The missionaries had not only to contend with old superstitions and habits of life but with the licentiousness and intemperance of the men of the whaling fleet, whose ships in these waters often numbered a hundred or more.”

“Then there were the difficulties arising with the representatives of certain powers who accused the missionaries of interfering and who often considered themselves above the native. laws.”

“There was also the hindrance arising from teachers of other religious organizations who entered the field later and who undoubtedly told the Hawaiians that they were being taught falsehood. But still the work went on.”

“One body, whose men go two by two, lived with the Hawaiians, gained their confidence, and took many. White priests of another body devoted in self-sacrificing work, often in lonely places where no one else would live, won hundreds.”

“As to values in character: There were Hawaiians of whom the older missionaries’ children speak in high terms. It is true that workers in the past and present have often been saddened by seeing young people who gave promise in the mission schools tum out indifferent, negligent or bad.”

“The number of schools which are directly as well as indirectly the result of missionary foundation and influence is very great in proportion to the population.”

“These include not only private schools, such as Hilo Boarding School, Lahainaluna, Kawaiaha‘o Seminary, Mills Institute, the Kamehameha Schools, the Punahou Schools, Kohala Seminary, Maunaolu Seminary …”

“… but also all the excellent public schools which were in their inception, the special charge of the mission. And all these schools have behind them records of which they may well be proud.”

“The value of the Hawaiian Mission has been not only in producing strong Christian character in individual cases, but also in the steady improvement in the moral conditions of the Islands despite all drawbacks.”

“The ideas of women as to sexual morality have changed wonderfully in the past twenty years … As a matter of fact, from a somewhat wide knowledge of three continents I affirm that in this respect these Islands, to say the least, need not fear comparison with most countries of older civilization.”

“One chief reason to my mind is that while now if a girl makes a false step there is a sense of shame on the part of the girl and her relatives, yet she is not treated as an outcast by them and others and usually she settles down later to a decent home life.”

“In manners, courtesy, kindliness and racial comity there is no place which compares with Hawaii. The preponderance of Japanese has lately somewhat disturbed this, but only as affecting them.”

“This brotherliness, this idea of a family whose members are of different ideas and manners but who are relations, has been one remarkable feature of the value of this missionary work which treated all as children of God who had value as individuals.”

“Today when tourists come to the Islands they are told by those ignorant of the facts, that the missionaries were received kindly by the Hawaiians and then took their country away from them and got rich.”

“These tourists do not learn that by the term missionary as used in Hawaii the descendants of the missionaries are not alone meant.”

“The word since the overthrow of the monarchy and to some degree before included all who stood for good government, whether they were Christians or not.”

“As a matter of fact, by far the greater part of the land of the Islands belongs to the government or to estates left and held in trust for Hawaiian families or institutions for the benefit of Hawaiians.”

“The plantations, all except a few small ones, are held by stock companies, in some of which the descendants of the missionaries hold a large interest, but in many of which they have little or none.”

“The missionaries introduced industries in order to give work to their converts who lived in a primitive way. By force of circumstances and their ability some of their children grew wealthy.”

“One value of the Hawaiian Mission is the industries of the group, without which the natives must have remained primitive children of the soil, as they are on many nominally Christianized Islands of the Pacific.”

“This we can say from personal knowledge – that nowhere are employers more interested in the welfare of the employees than in Hawaii. Laborers who came here as coolies make every sacrifice to educate their children, and if they do not stay here, they go away to become leaders of their people.”

“But if the Hawaiians gained from the Americans, the descendants of the missionaries and other white residents gained much from the Hawaiians.”

“They gained a forgiving spirit, a generous way of looking at faults, and a helpfulness to those in need. In no place in the world has there been more done for education, relief of distress and in late years in scientific helpfulness, and if the list of names of those prominent in bringing this about and supporting it, is gone over, the value of the mission will be seen.”

“The story of the Hawaiian Mission has not passed into history – it is going on. It has gone out into the Islands of the Pacific, into countries bordering on that great Ocean, and into other far distant lands …”

“… and the influence of those twelve companies and their children and grand-children is potent not only in Hawaii, but East and West, North and South.” (Restarick, Episcopal Bishop, First American Bishop of Honolulu; he presided over the funeral of Queen Liliuokalani in 1917)

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