Henry Martyn Whitney

June 4, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa

Ka Lama Hawaii and Ke Kumu Hawaii were the papers of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM,) mainly New England Calvinist missionaries, but produced by and for their students at Lahainaluna School in Maui.

The Hawaiian language newspapers were not the only early papers in Hawai’i. Although Ka Lama and Ke Kumu Hawaii were the first two newspapers to be published in Hawai’i, English language newspapers soon followed.

Ka Nonanona and Ka Elele Hawaii were both edited by Reverend Richard Armstrong, who later became the superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction. Ka Hae Hawaii, official newspaper of that department under Armstrong, also conveyed a Protestant slant.

Some English language papers supported Christianity. The Polynesian (1840-41, 1844-64), was published by James Jackson Jarves of Boston. From 1844 to 1860 it became the official printer of laws and notices of the Hawaiian government. The Friend (1843-1954) was begun by Reverend Samuel Chenery Damon.

In contrast, the Honolulu Times (1849-1851) published by Henry L Sheldon, originally of Rhode Island, opposed the influence of American Protestants, as did the earlier English language newspapers supported by the business community.

After the Honolulu Times ceased publication, Abraham Fornander, who had written for Sheldon, published the Weekly Argus (1851-53). Fornander’s objective was to provide in the Weekly Argus a voice against the government’s Polynesian. From 1853 to 1855 it was published as the New Era and Weekly Argus.

In 1856 Henry Whitney began the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (1856-), which was renamed the Honolulu Advertiser in 1902. In 1882 Whitney also started the Daily Bulletin (1882-) which was later renamed the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Henry Martyn Whitney (1824-1904), son of Samuel and Mercy Whitney of the Pioneer Company of ABCFM missionaries, was born on Kauai, and educated in Rochester, New York.

He worked on the American newspaper New York Commercial Advertiser and for the publisher Harper and Brothers, then returned to Hawai‘i where he served as head printer at the Hawai’i government printing plant and business manager of the English-language newspaper, The Polynesian.

In 1861, while he continued to publish the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Whitney commenced publication of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa.

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa has been described as “the first independent Hawaiian newspaper”, in the sense that it was independent of American Protestants, French Catholics and the government of the Hawaiian kingdom (although published by a missionary son and edited by him, as well as students from the Mission’s Lahainaluna.)

“It is true that a foreign publisher in this city has offered to issue a journal in the Hawaiian language to supply the intellectual want of the native people, and that his offer has been most warmly seconded and espoused by the Missionaries, but as a general thing the natives repudiate it …”

“… not because it may not prove a valuable and instructive journal, but because it is calculated to drive their own paper out of the field, and because they apprehend that it will not be a true reflex of their own opinions and thoughts upon matters and things.” (Polynesian, November 23, 1861)

Henry Whitney’s far-reaching influence as publisher of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa is described by Helen Chapin as being due to his practice of hiring capable Hawaiian editors, such as Joseph Kawainui, SK Mahoe, and JM Poepoe, who published what turned out to be materials of the greatest importance to Hawaiian history. (Chapin; Hori)

In 1861 the editor of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa was L H Gulick. He announced in the paper that Kuokoa would continue where Ka Hae Hawaii had left off, in its support of the missionary position.

In 1866, while still editor of Kuokoa, Gulick started the Hawaiian language newspaper Ke Alaula, with coeditors Anderson O. Forbes and Lorenzo Lyons. All three were also agents and distributors of Kuokoa on outer islands. Ke Alaula was from the Hawaiian Board of Missions.

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, the Hawaiian language newspaper with the longest publication history, first appeared in 1861. While published with Christian mission support and demonstrating a haole, or European-American stance, it had a long history of publishing information about Hawaiian, or Kanaka Maoli, tradition and culture.

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa published monthly in October, November, and December of 1861, and weekly thereafter until December 29, 1927. In the course of its history it would absorb a number of its rival newspapers.

In Kuokoa were genealogies, tales of gods and goddesses, vivid descriptions of Hawaiian birds, bird catching and fishing practices, instructions on canoe building, summaries of medical practices, accounts of travel through the Islands, and how to speak the Hawaiian language correctly.

In its pages, too, first appeared the stories of John Papa Ii and Samuel M Kamakau, which were later gathered together respectively as Fragments of Hawaiian History (1959) and The Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii. (Chapin; Hori) (The inspiration and information in this summary are largely from Hori.)

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Nupepa Kuokoa-Jan 1, 1862

March 4, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mailable Matter

In early colonial times, correspondents depended on friends, merchants, and Native Americans to carry messages among the colonies. In 1639, Richard Fairbanks’ tavern in Boston was designated the first official repository of mail brought from or sent overseas (consistent with the European practice of using coffee houses and taverns as mail stations.)

On July 26, 1775 (shortly after the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775,) the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War,) members of the Second Continental Congress agreed that a Postmaster General be appointed for the United Colonies. That year, Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General of the Postal Service.

A couple years later (January 20, 1778,) Captain James Cook, made ‘contact’ with the Islands and anchored his ships near the mouth of the Waimea River on Kauai’s southwestern shore. After a couple of weeks, there, they headed to the west coast of North America.

Like early mail exchange in the American Colonies, following Cook’s contact, mail in Hawaiʻi was handled privately by employing forwarders or by making arrangements directly with a ship captain; most letters were folded inward and sealed so the address could be written on the blank outer side. (HawaiianStamps)

Hawaiʻi and the United States agreed on a ‘Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation and Extradition, December 20, 1849;’ among other things, Article 15 of the Treaty created an arrangement for delivery of mail. (State Department)

“Whereas a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation, between the United States of America and his Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, was concluded and signed at Washington, on the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine”.

“Mail arrangements – So soon as steam or other mail packets under the flag of either of the contracting parties shall have commenced running between their respective ports of entry, the contracting parties agree to receive at the post-offices of those ports all mailable matter, and to forward it as directed …”

“All mailable matter destined for the Hawaiian Islands shall be received at the several post-offices in the United States, and forwarded to San Francisco, or other ports on the Pacific coast of the United States, whence the postmasters shall despatch it by the regular mail packets to Honolulu …”

“It shall be optional to prepay the postage on letters in either country, but postage on printed sheets and newspapers shall in all cases be prepaid. The respective post-office departments of the contracting parties shall in their accounts, which are to be adjusted annually, be credited with all dead letters returned.” (US Statutes at Large and Treaties, 1845-1851)

On November 2, 1850, The Polynesian, “Official Journal of the Hawaiian Government,” announced it was keeping a letter bag open to receive letters and promised to place on board reliable vessels any letters deposited in its letter bag.

By 1850, almost all mail was being sent to/from Hawaiʻi via San Francisco to enter the mail stream there and be carried in the US mail via Panama to New York. (HawaiianStamps)

Hawaiʻi opened a post office at Honolulu and Henry Martyn Whitney (who worked at the Polynesian) was appointed Postmaster of Honolulu (December 22, 1850.) The location of the new post office was at the office of The Polynesian. (Whitney later left the Polynesian and started his own newspaper, the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (forerunner of Honolulu Advertiser.))

During the fifty years of Hawaii’s independent postal system from 1850 to 1900, the post office occupied three premises: a room in The Polynesian Office (1850-1854;) rooms in Honolulu Hale, situated next door to The Polynesian Office (1854-1871;) and about half of the ground floor in the “New Post Office” (Kamehameha V Post Office, 1871-1922,) situated on the former site of The Polynesian Office.

On June 14, 1900, the Kamehameha V Post Office officially became a unit of the United States Post Office (the year that Hawaii became a Territory of the US.)

In 1922, the United States Post Office was moved to the Federal building and control of the old building was returned to the Territory of Hawaii. It was remodeled as a postal substation and for use as the Territorial Tax office. (NPS)

When Whitney was postmaster, he conceived and produced Hawaiʻi’s first stamps, issued in 1851 (the stamps are now called ‘Hawaiian Missionaries,’ all printed locally by letterpress at the Government Printing Office.

The stamps were in three denominations: a 2-cent stamp paid the newspaper rate, a 5-cent stamp paid the rate for regular mail to the United States, and a 13-cent stamp paid the rate to the US East Coast.

The first three stamps in the issue were announced for sale on October 1, 1851, at the Honolulu and Lahaina post offices. By early April, 1852, the fourth stamp was printed to correct confusion and state clearly the 13¢ value was to pay both Hawaiian and United States postage through to any East Coast United States destination.

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Folded Letter to C Brewer-October 18, 1850

First-day cover of The Polynesian letter bag – postmarked November 2, 1850

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Pacific-Henry_Whitney-1890

Kamehameha_V_Post_Office_(NPS)

Kamehameha_V_Post_Office-(WC)

Kamehameha_V_Post_Office-plaque

August 17, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Henry Martyn Whitney was the son of the Rev. Samuel and Mercy Whitney, a teacher and mechanic of New Haven, Connecticut, who was a member of the Pioneer Company of missionaries that arrived in Honolulu on the brig Thaddeus in 1820. (His sister, Maria Pogue, was the first white girl born in the Hawaiian Islands.

Whitney was born at Waimea, Kauai, on June 5, 1824; as a very young boy, he left Hawaii to get his education on the continent, staying with relatives in New England. At an early age, he learned the printing trade and practiced his trade on the continent.

Then the opportunity arrived to return to the Islands; Whitney married Catherine Olivia March (1821–1896) in June 1849, and travelled via Panama to San Francisco. He met Dr Garret Parmele Judd who was then travelling abroad with the two young princes who later became the King Kamehameha IV & V.

Judd wanted a practical man to take charge of the Polynesian, the government’s paper; several editors had left the paper to join the Gold Rush in California – Whitney joined the Polynesian.

Hawaiʻi opened a post office in Honolulu and Whitney was appointed Postmaster of Honolulu (December 22, 1850;) the location of the new post office was at the office of The Polynesian.

When Whitney was postmaster, he conceived and produced Hawaiʻi’s first stamps, issued in 1851 (the stamps are now called “Hawaiian Missionaries,’ all printed locally by letterpress at the Government Printing Office.

Whitney later left the Polynesian and started his own newspaper, the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (forerunner of Honolulu Advertiser – first issue July 2, 1856.)

“The whalemen desired an American paper and the white residents wanted one which was not run ‘by authority.’ Whitney gave such a paper to them calling it the Pacific Commercial Advertiser.” (The Independent, August 18, 1904)

“Early in the fifties the writer of this article was strongly urged to publish an independent paper, free from government control. This finally resulted in the establishment of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser; named after the well known New York Advertiser, with which the writer had been connected.” (Whitney, Hawaiian Gazette, August 19, 1904)

“He got from New York a Washington hand press … which had a capacity of only 600 papers an hour and this had to be propelled by hand power. The first number of the paper was a little four page five column sheet. It was weekly.” (The Independent, August 18, 1904)

In its first two and a half months, on its last page, The Pacific Commercial Advertiser ran a Hawaiian-language section, “Ka Hoku Loa o Hawaii” (The Morning Star of Hawaiʻi.) Whitney was fluent in Hawaiian and wrote most of the Hawaiian-language page’s content under his Hawaiianized name, ‘Heneri M Wini.’

In an earlier issue, Whitney wrote in Hawaiian, ‘Aloha, o you close friends living in the towns, the country, the valleys and beaches from Hawaii to Kauai. Great aloha to you. Behold today there is opening the dawn of the Morning Star of Hawaii, to be a torch illuminating your home …’

Whitney did say that the Hawaiian-language page might not survive long. After it ran for 2 ½- months, on September 25, 1856, Whitney announced that he would discontinue the Hawaiian-language page because the newspaper needed space for foreigners when whaling ships arrive in Hawaii. After 5-years, Whitney would publish an entire Hawaiian-language newspaper, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa. (Digital Newspaper Project)

“In 1850 the Polynesian – a weekly owned by the government – was the principal paper here, though there several other small weekly and monthly papers issued, the only one among them that has survived to this date being The Friend, which is really the oldest publication here.”

“The paper had not been established two months before the young publisher had fought and won out of court his first libel suit, in which RG Wylie, Minister of the Interior, was the complainant.” (The Independent, August 18, 1904)

During the Civil War in the US, the cost of cotton rose to “an almost fabulous price.” Whitney received a “quantity of Sea Island cotton seed and distributed the seed widely, at the same time agreeing to purchase all of the seed cotton produced at a good price. For a time the industry flourished.”

“Whitney had set up a number of foot-power gins for removing the seed preparatory to shipping the lint to Boston. The quality of the fiber was considered very fine, and realized upwards of $1.00 in currency per pound. … The customs records show that the largest shipments of cotton made in a single year amounted to a little over 22,000 pounds; this was in 1866.”

“With the decline in prices, the production fell off gradually, until in 1874, the last shipment, amounting to about 2000 pounds, was made.” (Hawaiian Almanac)

Whitney sold the Advertiser in 1870 to Black & Auld, but took charge of it in 1878 and did finally give up his connection with it until 1896. He also (1885) took the editorship of the Planters’ Monthly.

Whitney was also editor and publisher of the Hawaiian Gazette (1873-1878.) In the mid-1870s, the paper turned decidedly anti-monarchy when the views of King Kalākaua and those of the local oligarchy–a powerful contingent of pro-American, pro-annexation sugar interests–began to diverge. (Chronicling America)

Besides the Postmaster General position (1850-1856,) Whitney served in the House of Representatives (1855) and the Privy Council (1873-1891.) Whitney died August 17, 1904 in Honolulu.

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