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February 21, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The ‘Big House’ at Riverside Park

Within what is now called Hilo Bay is a small bay referred to as ‘Reed’s Bay.’  It is named after William H Reed. Born in 1814 Belfast, Ireland, Reed was a businessman. He created Reed’s Landing, which he used to moor boats carrying lumber for one of his businesses.  (Hawaiʻi County)

Reed arrived in the Islands in the 1840s and set up a contracting concern specializing in the construction of wharfs, landings, bridges and roads.  Other interests included ranching, trading and retailing.  (Clark)

Across Hilo Bay, on January 1, 1856, Reed leased a 26-acre island – originally known as ‘Koloiki’ (‘little crawling,’) – it was once surrounded by the Wailuku River and Waikapu Stream.

Reed cleared a portion of the site and had a cattle pasture; he then purchased the island for $200 on February 18, 1861, and it became known as Reed’s Island.  (Warshauer)

Reed married Jane Stobie Shipman on July 8, 1868 (she was a widow, previously married to William Cornelius Shipman, a missionary assigned to Waiʻōhinu in the district of Kaʻū.  Shipman died in 1861, leaving Jane with her three children, William Herbert, Oliver Taylor and Margaret Clarissa.)

(Son William Herbert (1854-1943) was an important businessman on the Island of Hawaii; son Oliver Taylor (1857-1942) became a tax assessor and county supervisor, and daughter Margaret Clarissa (1859-1891) married politician Lorrin Thurston who organized the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Jane was born in Scotland. At an early age she came to the US with her parents, lived in Quincy, Illinois, and was educated to be a teacher; and in 1853 was married to Reverend Shipman.  (The Friend, December, 1902)

Following his death, Jane moved to Hilo, with her three children and maintained the family by keeping a boarding school until 1868 (when she was married to Reed.)  (The Friend, December, 1902)

William Reed died on November 11, 1880 with no children of his own; Jane inherited the Reed land holdings.  (In 1881, Reed’s stepson William Herbert Shipman and two partners (Captain J. E. Eldarts and Samuel M Damon) purchased the entire ahupuaʻa of Keaʻau, about 70,000-acres from the King Lunalilo estate.)

“[B]efore Reed’s Island was in demand for residence sites DH Hitchcock grew a crop of pineapples there that was sufficient to supply the demand in Hilo.” (Hawaii Herald, June 29, 1899)

Apparently, upon the death of Reed, the land was under the control of his stepson, WH Shipman, who sold the island to AB Loebenstein.   (Warshauer)

The November 6, 1897 Hilo Daily Tribune reported that “Mr CS Desky has purchased Reed’s Island, in the Wailuku River, and the same will be subdivided and sold.  It is proposed to construct a fine bridge to span the stream, and lay out streets and otherwise make this pretty spot an ideal one for homes.” For a while the development was renamed Riverside Park.

JR Wilson, owner/operator of the Volcano Stables, who operated a daily stage between Hilo and Volcano, “purchased of Bruce Waring & Co the celebrated lot on the Riverside Park, on the point near the bridge”.  (Hilo Daily Tribune, March 11, 1899)

The April 6, 1899 Hawai‘i Herald reported, “The handsome steel bridge over the Wailuku was finished last week.” It goes on to report, “JR Wilson was the first person to drive over the bridge at Riverside Park and the around the Island.  In spite of this Mr Pratt felt that it is necessary to test the bridge by running the steam roller over it.”

On April 20, 1899, the Hawaii Herald reported, “The recent improvements made by Bruce Waring & Co upon the Riverside Park property, commonly called Reed’s Island, makes this by far the most attractive residence property in Hilo.”

“The plans for the Wilson residence are to be placed in the hands of local contractors this week … a representative of this paper was permitted to see the plans drawn by a local architect [KL Kerr] and which Mr Wilson took with him to Honolulu for revision, and they show a residence unique and attractive in every way designed especially for the lot, which commands a view extending over the harbor on the east, and the mountains westward.”

“It promises to be the handsomest residence in town at present, and the interior plans show it to be as commodious and convenient as it is handsome.”  (Hilo Daily Tribune, May 27, 1899)

Wilson’s was the first house to be built in the new subdivision. They moved into the house in mid-April, 1900. (Hawaii Heald)  “The Wilson residence built where it commands a view of all Hilo and the country from the sea to mountain is completed and Mr Wilson and family are enjoying ‘all the comforts of a home.’” (Hawaii Herald, April 19, 1900)

Then, on March 1, 1901, the newspaper reported, “Mr WH Shipman has purchased the Wilson residence at Riverside Park, for $12,000.”  (Hilo Daily Tribune, March 1, 1901)

The newspaper further noted, “Mr Shipman had previously been contemplating the erection of a new home on the site of is present dwelling, at Waiakea, but for various reasons has decided to make a home nearer town.” (Hilo Daily Tribune, March 1, 1901)

The ‘Big House,’ as the early Shipmans called it, stands at the lower end of Reed’s Island, a landlocked area within walking distance of downtown Hilo but cut off by the deep gulches of the Wailuku River and the Waikapu Stream. (Thompson)

Around this time, Wilson was formulating and developing the Ho‘olulu Race Track.  “Hilo is going to have a race track and base ball grounds. … Mr Wilson selected a site at Waiakea … The track will be almost circular in form”. (Hawaii Herald, March 1, 1900)  The baseball field was located inside the race track.  (Hilo Daily Tribune, March 17, 1900) That venture was considered a success.

A possible motivation for selling the home after only 1-year was noted in the newspaper, “JR Wilson has disposed of his interests in the Volcano Stables Co and will retire from the management of the corporation on April 1 next. The change on the part of Me Wilson was made solely on account of his health which has not been good since his return from the Coast.”  (Hawaii Herald, January 17, 1901)

Several April 1901 notices in the paper noted, “During my absence from the islands WS Wise will act for me under full pwer of attorney.” (Dated April 3, 1901) (Hawaii Herald)  In 1902, the paper reported, “JR Wilson formerly of this city, now in Nevada …” (Hilo Tribune, March 7, 1902)

(So, the land that had once been owned by his stepfather and, then, at the stepfather’s death transferred to his mother and WH Shipman sold it in 1897 to Loebenstein and Wilson built a house on the best part of it, returned back to WH Shipman and became his home.  The house is still owned by members of the Shipman family.)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Place Names, Prominent People, Economy, General, Buildings, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: AB Loebenstein, JR Wilson, Hawaii, Hilo, Reed's Island, William Reed, Charles Desky, William Herbert Shipman, Herbert Cornelius Shipman

February 10, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tsunami in Hawai‘i

A tsunami is a series of ocean waves generated by sudden displacements in the sea floor, landslides or volcanic activity.  In the deep ocean, the tsunami wave may only be a few inches high.  The tsunami wave may come gently ashore or may increase in height to become a fast moving wall of turbulent water several meters high.
 
In Hawaii, tsunamis have accounted for more lost lives than the total of all other local disasters.  In the 20th century, an estimated 221 people have been killed by tsunamis.  Most of these deaths occurred on the Big Island during the tsunamis of 1946 and 1960, two of the largest tsunamis to strike in the Pacific.
 
Here is a brief summary of some recent tsunami and their impacts in Hawai‘i:
 
1946
The tsunami of 1946 was generated by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands.  This tsunami struck the Big Island of Hawaii on April 1st.  The tsunami flooded the downtown area of Hilo killing 159 people and causing more than $26-million in damages.
 
1952
On November 4, 1952 a tsunami was generated by a magnitude 8.2 earthquake on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the USSR.  In Hawaii, property damage from these waves was estimated at $800,000-$1,000,000 (1952 dollars); no lives were lost.  The waves beached boats, caused houses to collide, destroyed piers, scoured beaches and moved road pavement.
 
1957
On March 9, 1957 a tsunami was generated by a magnitude 8.3 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands.  It generated a 24-foot tsunami that did great damage on Adak Island, especially to the fuel and oil docks.  The Hawaiian Islands incurred about $5,000,000 of damage in 1957 dollars.  The highest wave in Hawaii was 12-feet.
 
1960
The tsunami of May 23, 1960 was generated by a magnitude 8.3 earthquake in Chile.  The 35-foot tsunami struck Hilo, Hawaii causing severe damage.  61-deaths were recorded and $23-million in damage occurred.  In the area of maximum destruction, only buildings of reinforced concrete or structural steel and a few others sheltered by these buildings, remained standing – and even these were generally gutted.  Frame buildings were either crushed or floated nearly to the limits of the flooding.
 
1975
On November 29, 1975, an earthquake occurred off the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.  When the quake-generated tsunami struck, 32 campers were at Halape Beach Park.  The sound of falling rocks from a nearby cliff, along with earth movement caused the campers to flee toward the ocean.  They were then forced back to the cliff by rising ocean waters.  The first wave was 5-feet high, but the second wave was 26-feet high and carried the unfortunate campers into a ditch near the base of the cliff, where they remained until the ordeal ended.  Two campers died and 19 suffered injuries.
 
2011
An earthquake measured at 9.0 magnitude, the sixth biggest since 1900, struck Japan on March 11, 2011.  The first tsunami waves reached Kaua‘i shortly after 3 a.m. and took about 30 minutes to sweep through the island chain.  Waves above 6-feet were recorded at Kahului on Maui and 3-feet at Haleiwa on the north shore of Oahu.  Lost homes, sunken boats, Kona Village Resort damage, and damaged piers and roads caused tsunami damage into the tens of millions of dollars; no one was killed or injured during the tsunami.
 
The earliest historical account of a Hawaii tsunami was from a 16th century Hawaiian chant that described a huge wave that struck the coast of Molokai.
 
The earliest confirmed tsunami was on Dec 21, 1812, when a wave from Southern California was observed at Ho‘okena on the west coast of the Big Island (Hawai‘i island). Maximum runups in excess of 15 m were measured for the 1946 and 1957 distant tsunamis and the 1975 local tsunami.
 
The record shows that damaging tsunamis from distant earthquakes reached Hawaii these years: 1837, 1841, 1868, 1869, 1877, 1883, 1906, 1918, 1923, 1933, 1946, 1957, and 1960. Other smaller tsunamis that caused no significant damage in Hawaii were generated by distant earthquakes in 1896, 1901, 1906, 1919, 1922, 1923, two in 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1938, 1944, 1952, and 1964.
 
In a period of 157 years, a damaging or destructive tsunami struck the Hawaiian Islands on the average of once in every twelve years.
 
© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Hawaii, Hilo, Tsunami, Kailua-Kona

December 16, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka Wailele ʻO Waiānuenue

The Wailuku is the longest river in Hilo (twenty-six miles.) Its course runs from the mountains to the ocean along the divide between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The Wailuku is the boundary between Hilo Palikū in the north and Hilo One on the south.

The earliest recorded bridge in Hawai‘i was a crude footbridge across the Wailuku River in Hilo and was reported by missionary C. S. Stewart in 1825. (The first major bridge on O‘ahu appears to have been one extending North Beretania Street across Nuʻuanu Stream, erected in 1840.) (ksbe)

“About a hundred yards above the beach, it (the stream) opens into a still deep basin, encircled by high cliffs. Into this basin the whole stream is projected by two cascades … A rude bridge crosses the stream just above the falls; and it is a favorite amusement of the natives to plunge from it, or from the adjoining rocks, into the rapids, and pass head foremost over both falls, into the lower basin.” (Stewart, Schmitt)

The Wailuku River bridge must have existed for only a short time, and it was quickly forgotten. Sereno Bishop, born on the Big Island in 1827, later recalled, “There were no bridges in these islands until after 1840.” Titus Coan, the pioneer missionary who settled in Hilo in 1835, wrote, “For many years after our arrival there were no roads, no bridges, and no horses in Hilo”. (Schmitt)

Hilo’s Wailuku River was finally spanned again in September 1859, this time by a 196-foot-long suspension bridge. Less than seven weeks after it was opened, this bridge collapsed while a party of eight or ten persons and their horses were attempting to cross. The group narrowly averted drowning and death by falling timbers.

This was not the first disaster or near-disaster at the site of the Wailuku Bridge. Weakened by earthquakes and a tsunami, the railroad bridge over the Wailuku River collapsed on March 31, 1923 – immediately after a loaded passenger train had crossed and another was approaching.

Two of the largest bridges on the Hawai‘i Consolidated Railway were destroyed by the 1946 tsunami, a disaster which effectively put that railroad out of business. (ksbe)

Waiānuenue Avenue (rainbow (seen in) water) in Hilo town is named for the most famous waterfall in Hilo, Ka Wailele ʻO Waiānuenue, Rainbow Falls. There is a legend about this falls, the goddess Hina, her son Māui and the lizard-man Kuna.

Hina once lived in the cave beneath and behind the waterfall. Kuna would throw logs and boulders over the edge of the falls to try to cause harm to Hina. She called to her son Māui and he came quickly to her aid. He chased Kuna upland along the river, where they engaged in many battles.

Finally, Māui emerged the victor, though only because he was aided by the volcano goddess Pele. Hina was now safe. Many places along the Wailuku were named to commemorate different parts of the story so that the legend would not be forgotten. (Zane)

The local utility Hawaii Electric Light Co (HELCO) owns and operates two hydroelectric facilities arranged in tandem along the lower reach of the Wailuku River near Hilo. The Waiau plant was constructed in 1920 and upgraded in 1947. The Puʻueo plant downstream was built in 1910 and upgraded in 1941. The Wailuku River Hydroelectric Power Company plant began commercial operation in 1993. It is located at the junction of the Wailuku River and the Kaloheahewa Stream.

A 6-foot-diameter intake pipe for HELCO is located about 100 feet above Ka Wailele ʻO Waiānuenue. The intake feeds the utility’s Puʻueo Hydroelectric Plant located down on Wainaku Street, several blocks from the ocean.

About a mile upstream is a section of river called Boiling Pots, as well as the Peʻepeʻe Falls.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Hilo, Wailuku River, Rainbow Falls

December 3, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Matson Navigation Company

Born in Sweden, Captain William Matson (1849–1917) arrived in San Francisco in 1867, at the age of 16.  There, he began sailing in San Francisco Bay and northern California rivers.
 
Captain Matson became acquainted with the JD Spreckels family and was asked to serve as skipper on the Spreckels yacht, Lurline.  The Spreckels family later assisted Captain Matson in obtaining his first ship, the Emma Claudina.
 
In 1882, when Matson sailed his three-masted schooner Emma Claudina from San Francisco to Hilo, carrying 300 tons of food, plantation supplies and general merchandise, Matson Navigation Company started its long association with Hawai‘i.
 
That voyage launched a company that has been involved in such diversified interests as oil exploration, hotels and tourism, military service during two world wars and even briefly, the airline business.  Matson’s primary interest throughout, however, has been carrying freight between the Pacific Coast and Hawai‘i.
 
In 1887, Captain Matson sold the Emma Claudina and acquired the 150-foot brigantine Lurline from his employer, JD Spreckels – this was the first of several famous Matson vessels to bear the name Lurline.
 
Matson met his future wife, Lillie Low, on a yacht voyage he captained to Hawai‘i; the couple named their daughter Lurline Berenice Matson.
 
As the Matson fleet expanded, new vessels introduced some dramatic maritime innovations. The bark ‘Rhoderick Dhu’ was the first ship to have a cold storage plant and electric lights. The first Matson steamship, the ‘Enterprise,’ was the first offshore ship in the Pacific to burn oil instead of coal.
 
Increased commerce brought a corresponding interest in Hawai‘i as a tourist attraction. The second Lurline, with accommodations for 51 passengers, joined the fleet in 1908. The 146-passenger ship SS Wilhelmina followed in 1910, rivaling the finest passenger ships serving the Atlantic routes.
 
More steamships continued to join the fleet. When Captain Matson died in 1917 at 67, the Matson fleet comprised 14 of the largest, fastest and most modern ships in the Pacific passenger-freight service.
 
When World War I broke out, most of the Matson fleet was requisitioned by the government as troopships and military cargo carriers. Other Matson vessels continued to serve Hawai‘i’s needs throughout the war.
 
After the war, Matson ships reverted to civilian duty and the steamers Manulani and Manukai were added to the fleet – the largest freighters in the Pacific at that time.
 
The decade from the mid-1920s to mid-1930s marked a significant period of Matson expansion.  In 1925, the company established Matson Terminals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, to perform stevedoring and terminal services for its fleet.
 
With increasing passenger traffic to Hawai‘i, Matson built a world-class luxury liner, the SS Malolo, in 1927. At the time, the Malolo was the fastest ship in the Pacific, cruising at 22 knots. Its success led to the construction of the luxury liners Mariposa, Monterey and Lurline between 1930 and 1932.
 
Matson’s famed “white ships” were instrumental in the development of tourism in Hawai‘i.  In addition, beginning in 1927, with the construction of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Matson’s Waikīkī hotels provided tourists with luxury accommodations both ashore and afloat.
 
Immediately after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the passenger liners Lurline, Matsonia, Mariposa and Monterey, and 33 Matson freighters were called to military service.
 
Matson, as General Agent for the War Shipping Administration, was given the responsibility for manning, provisioning, maintaining and servicing an important part of the government’s rapidly expanding fleet of cargo vessels. Matson was soon operating a fleet of more than one hundred vessels.
 
The post-war period for Matson was somewhat difficult. The expense of restoration work proved to be very costly and necessitated the sale of the Mariposa and Monterey, still in wartime gray. In 1948, the Lurline returned to service after a $20-million reconversion.
 
Two new Matson hotels were built on Waikiki in the 1950s, the Surfrider in 1951 and the Princess Kaʻiulani in 1955.
 
In 1955, Matson undertook a $60-million shipbuilding program which produced the South Pacific liners Mariposa and Monterey, and the rebuilt wartime Monterey was renamed Matsonia and entered the Pacific Coast and Hawai‘i service.
 
On August 31, 1958, Matson’s SS Hawaiian Merchant departed San Francisco Bay carrying 20 24-foot containers on deck.
 
The historic voyage marked the beginning of an ambitious containerization program that achieved tremendous gains in productivity and efficiency from the age-old methods of break-bulk cargo handling.
 
The container freight system that Matson introduced to Hawai‘i in 1958 was a product of years of careful research and resulted in the development of a number of industry innovations that became models worldwide.
 
Containerization brought the greatest changes to water transportation since steamships replaced sailing vessels.
 
Concurrently, shore side innovations were introduced, including the world’s first A-frame gantry crane, which was erected in 1959 in Alameda, California and became the prototype for container cranes.
 
In 1959 (the year Hawai‘i entered statehood and jet airline travel was initiated to the State,) Matson sold all of its Hawaiʻi hotel properties to the Sheraton hotel chain.
 
© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Filed Under: Economy, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Matson, Honolulu Harbor, Hawaii, Hilo

November 3, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

John Ena

Shortly after the arrival of Captain James Cook and his crews in 1778, the Chinese found their way to Hawaiʻi.  Some suggest Cook’s crew gave information about the “Sandwich Islands” when they stopped in Macao in December 1779, near the end of the third voyage.

As more ships came, crewmen from China were employed as cooks, carpenters and artisans; and Chinese businessmen sailed as passengers to America. Some of these men disembarked in Hawaiʻi and remained as new settlers.

The growth of the Sandalwood trade with the Chinese market (where mainland merchants brought cotton, cloth and other goods for trade with the Hawaiians for their sandalwood – who would then trade the sandalwood in China) opened the eyes and doors to Hawaiʻi.  The sandalwood trade lasted for nearly half a century – 1792 to 1843.  (Nordyke & Lee)

The Chinese pioneered another Hawaiʻi industry – sugar.  Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

Among the Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands before the importation of sugar labor in 1852, there was a group who settled in Hilo. They were all sugar manufacturers or “sugar masters”; they all married Hawaiian women.

The Chinese names of the men in this group were Hawaiianized; one of them, Zane (or Tseng) Shang Hsien (pronounced In) became known as John Ena.  (Chinese ‘Shang’ sounds like John; the last name Ena is pronounced as a long e; he also went by Keoni Ina and a couple other variations of the name.)

John Ena was one of the group of Chinese men who had a sugar plantation and mill on Ponahawai hill; he may have been in Kohala before coming to Hilo.

This early sugar mill was started in 1839 by Lau Fai (AL Hapai,) Zane Shang Hsien (John Ena Sr) and Tang Chow (Akau) along Alenaio stream by today’s Hilo Central Fire Station. Zane Moi (Amoi) had the plantation producing 20,000-lbs of sugar by 1851. But the mill burned down in 1855 and they abandoned the property.  (Narimatsu)

In addition to John Ena’s association with the other Chinese in the Ponahawai sugar plantation, he was also associated at various times with Chinese groups in the plantations at Paukaʻa, Pāpaʻikou and Amauʻulu. (Kai)

It is not known how much influence these early sugar plantations had upon the later development of the sugar industry in Hawaiʻi, but it is known that they were the pioneers, struggling with the problems of labor, droughts, fluctuating prices, water supplies, and probably insects, rats and other difficulties that plague the commercial growing of sugar.  (Kai)

Sometime before 1842, Ena married Kaikilani “Aliʻi Wahine O Puna;” she is said to be part of the Kamehameha line, going back to Lonoikamakahiki.  The Enas had three children: daughters, Amoe Ululani Kapukalakala, born in 1842 (later married to High Chief Levi Haʻalelea and Laura Amoy Kekukapuokekuaokalani, born in 1844 or 1845 (later, Laura Coney.)

An interesting insight into John Ena’s attitude toward the education of his children is noted in a letter written by the Reverend Titus Coan to Dr Charles H Wetmore in 1850, when Dr Wetmore was away from Hilo: “Keoni Ina is anxious to get a strip of land 8 fathoms wide on the makai side of your makai field running from Punahoa Street (formerly Church Street, now Haili) to More’s fence. He says he only wishes to put a dwelling house … (so) that his children may be nearer school.”  (Kai)

Dr. Wetmore was apparently not interested in selling this land, but John Ena did get land near to the school. In 1851, he leased almost an acre from a Hawaiian man named Kalakuaioha for twenty years. This was on the Puna side of the present Haili Street, between Kinoʻole and Kilauea Streets.  (Kai)

These Chinese settlers were written about by the editor of the Polynesian in 1858 (possibly referring to Amoe Ululani Ena):  “In Hilo, I was told, over and over again, the girls of half-Chinese and half-Hawaiian origin were the best educated, the most fluent in the English language, the neatest housewives, and the most likely young ladies. …”

“One young lady of such origin … was married just before I arrived to a chief of considerable wealth, and if all that is said about her is true, he ought to be looking upon himself as one of the happiest and luckiest of men, for besides being possessed of the usual attractions, the bride, they say, is sensible.”

“The gossip in the village Hilo … was that she laid down some most excellent conditions, and only upon receiving a promise that they would be observed, did she consent to renounce her parents care. …”

“But fancy a young country girl, whose world had been the village of Hilo, with an ardent, not to say remarkably well-off lover at her feet, dictating the terms upon which she would consent to become rich, dress handsomely and live in a large house in the metropolis! Ah, John Chinaman, your pains were not thrown away.” (Kai)

A son to John Ena Sr and Kaikilani, John Ena Jr, was born November 18 1845 in Hilo.  He is the subject of the rest of this summary.

John Ena Jr worked at various trades until at the age of thirty-four he became a clerk for TR Foster & Co of Honolulu.

This firm owned a fleet of seven schooners plying among the islands and soon acquired its first steamer in 1883 as the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co, and Ena invested heavily in the stock.  He became president of Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co in 1899.

Inter-Island’s ships traveled to Kauai and the Kona and Kaʻū Coasts of the island of Hawai‘i.  The Wilder Company served the island of Maui and the windward port of Hilo.

In 1905, Ena merged Inter-Island with the Wilder Company, under the Inter-Island name.  (Later, Inter-Island became Inter-Island Airways (1941,) then Hawaiian Airlines (1947.))

Ena was a member of the House of Nobles and the Privy Council under the Kalākaua and Liliʻuokalani and was decorated in 1888 by King Kalākaua.

He served with the Board of Health under the Provisional Government and was a member of the constitutional convention that set up the Republic of Hawaiʻi.  He reportedly circulated and published the newspaper Ka Naʻi Aupuni in 1905.

Ena died on December 12, 1906 in Long Beach, California.

When Henry J Kaiser planned and developed his Waikīkī resort in 1954, he and his partner purchased 7.7-acres of Waikīkī beachfront property from the John Ena Estate and several adjoining properties.

In mid-1955 the first increment of what is now the Hilton Hawaiian Village opened for business; the first self-contained visitor resort in Waikīkī.  A nearby road, Ena Road, was named after John Ena (Jr.) Image shows John Ena Jr.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, Prominent People Tagged With: Waikiki, Hawaii Island, Hilo, Sugar, Chinese, John Ena, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Hawaii

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