John Adams Cummins

October 8, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Adams Kuakini Cummins was born March 17, 1835 in Honolulu. He was a namesake of island governor John Adams Kuakini (1789–1844), who had taken the name of John Quincy Adams when Americans first settled on the islands in the 1820s.

His father was Thomas Jefferson Cummins (1802–1885) who was born in Lincoln, England, raised in Massachusetts and came to the Hawaiian Islands in 1828. His mother was High Chiefess Kaumakaokane Papaliʻaiʻaina (1810–1849) who was a distant relative of the royal family of Hawaiʻi.

In the 1840s, his father first developed a cattle ranch and horse ranch. Facing diminishing returns in the cattle market, in the 1880s, John began to grow sugar cane in place of cattle. This plantation was known as the Waimanalo Sugar Company.

He married Rebecca Kahalewai (1830–1902) in 1861, also considered a high chiefess, and had five children with her, four daughters and one son.

Cummins was elected to the House of Representatives in the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1874. King Kalākaua appointed him to the Privy Council on June 18, 1874 shortly after Kalākaua came to the throne.

Even though Cummins voted against former Queen Emma in the election, she asked him to manage a trek for her around the islands in November 1875.

He had staged a similar grand tour the year before for Kalākaua. Emma was not disappointed.

Although many ancient Hawaiian customs had faded (due to influence of conservative Christian missionaries, for example), Cummins staged great revivals of ceremonies such as traditional hula performance.

In the legislature he advocated for the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 with the United States, which helped increase profits in the sugar industry, and his fortunes grew.

The sugar industry became a huge success and gave way to other innovations in the area. For instance, the use of railway tracks and locomotive were due to the boom of the sugar business.

Cummins left the sugar business to William G Irwin, agent of Claus Spreckles, and developed a commercial building called the Cummins Block at Fort and Merchant streets in Downtown Honolulu.

In 1889, he represented Hawaiʻi at the Paris exposition known as Exposition Universelle. On June 17, 1890 Cummins became Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kalākaua’s cabinet and thus was in the House of Nobles of the legislature for the 1890 session.

When Kalākaua died and Queen Liliʻuokalani came to the throne in early 1891, she replaced all her ministers. Cummins resigned February 25, 1891. He was replaced by Samuel Parker who was another part-Hawaiian.

Cummins was elected to the 1892 session of the House of Nobles, on the Hawaiian National Reform Party ticket. He also organized a group called the Native Sons of Hawaii which supported the monarchy.

After the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in early 1893, Liliʻuokalani asked Cummins to travel to the continent to lobby for its help in restoration of the monarchy.

The task, which included Parker and Hermann A Widemann, ended in failure. However, on the voyage to the west coast, William T Seward, a former Major in the American Civil War who worked for Cummins and lived in one of his homes, smuggled guns and ammunition for the failed 1895 counter-revolution.

Thomas Beresford Walker, Cummins’ son-in-law (married to his eldest daughter Matilda,) was also implicated in the plot. Cummins was arrested, charged with treason and convicted. He was sentenced to prison, but released after paying a fine and agreeing to testify against the ones actively involved in the arms trading.

He died on March 21, 1913 from influenza after a series of strokes and was buried in Oʻahu Cemetery. Well liked, even his political opponents called him “the playmate of princes and the companion and entertainer of kings”. The territorial legislature had tried several times to refund his fine, but it was never approved by the governor.

His funeral was a mix of mostly traditional symbols of the Hawaiian religion, with a Christian service in the Hawaiian language, attended by both royalists and planners of the overthrow.

Cummin’s great-grandson (through his daughter Jane Piikea Merseberg) was Mayor Neal Blaisdell.

June 18, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Grand Tour of Oʻahu

In October 1875, Queen Emma (widow of King Kamehameha IV) decided to take a trek around the islands. She asked John Adams Cummins (a member of the House of Representatives, the son of an English settler and a Hawaiian mother, and also one of Kamehameha V’s closest friends) to organize the trek and to accompany her. (Kanahele)

Called the “Prince of Entertainers” and the “entertainer of princes,” Cummins was a prominent Waimanalo sugar planter known for his generous and lavish hospitality to royalty and commoner alike and for his knowledge and love of Hawaiian traditions.

Cummins made sure meticulous arrangements were in place as twenty men safeguarded the Queen around the clock. The Queen had a head steward who had twenty men under him, ten of whom guarded by day and ten by night.

Then on November 5, 1875, the festivities began. Leading a vibrant procession into Waimanalo were Cummins, Queen Emma and her mother.

“The streets of Honolulu were thronged with people to witness the grand sight, and it would appear that the whole city and many from the country had turned out to see the departure. We rode down Nuʻuanu street and along King and up into Beretania and thence out towards Kamōʻiliʻili.” (Hawaiian Gazette)

A huge celebration took place at Mauna Loke (Cummins Waimanalo home,) the first stop of a two-week “Grand Tour of Oʻahu” by the Queen. She stayed three days, by which time the number present – both invited and uninvited – was in the hundreds.

Cummins had built two large, thatched lanai that seated 200 people. The lūʻau and hula performances were followed by fireworks and rockets fired from the surrounding Koʻolau Mountains at Waimanalo.

Along their circle-island journey, preceding the procession, posters were placed at different parts of the island noting the respective dates of arrival so that local folks would be ready with food, entertainment and accommodations.

After breakfast, everybody went sea bathing or into the mountains to gather maile, ʻawapuhi, ʻohawai and palapalai for lei. Fishermen caught honu (turtle), ʻopihi, ʻokala, uhu, palani, heʻe, lole, ʻohua, manini and kumu. (Krauss)

As the cavalcade moved from Lanikai and Makapuʻu to Kāneʻohe, then to Waikāne, Punaluʻu and beyond, the people continued to arrive with Hoʻokupu (gifts) of food stuffs for the Queen. (Kanahele)

At Punaluʻu, the Queen agreed to ride with Cummins in a canoe; it was tied with hundreds of feet of rope to two horses who galloped parallel to the water for four miles on the beach.

“The Queen left her shoes and stockings and got into the canoe and sat down, holding firmly by the out-rigger. The beach was crowded with people to witness the great sight of a Queen taking a perilous ride in the surf.” (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

“We got away for Kahuku … This is the land of the hala tree. We had four very large houses, and all the walks around and from house to house were covered with matting called ‘ue’. Every one took care of his own horse and all were welcome. … At night I had all the torches burning, which lighted up all Kahuku.”

“Our party by this time had increased to over three hundred, and the number of visitors and friends from the neighborhood was very large. At the midnight luau I sent word around among the people that there should be no one leaving here for Waimea or Waialua who had not a wreath of hala-fruit, and that we would leave after breakfast on the morrow.”

“The inhabitants of Waialua district were exceedingly kind to the Queen and her party. … Natives from distant Waiʻanae brought to Her Majesty quantities of their famous fine-flavored cocoanuts, called poka-i. …”

“Assuredly Waialua never saw such a sight before and never will again. Every surfboard in the vicinity was in use, and there were some rare actors amongst this mass of people, who hailed from all parts of the island.” (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

Oxcarts loaded with hoʻokupu arrived from the countryside. Torch bearers renewed their stock of kerosene at every Chinese store on the route. Waialua had never seen a procession of 400 women on horseback in bright-colored costumes wearing lei and maile, every face wreathed in smiles. (Krauss)

“(A)fter another great breakfast, the cavalcade was formed for the ride towards Honolulu. It was one of the most beautiful sights ever seen, to look back on the procession from the uplands; and Her Majesty was continually looking back at the bright colored procession which followed us, four abreast.” (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

The next day, parties from Honolulu joined the group for a grand lūʻau hosted by Princess Keʻelikōlani at Moanalua. “Here all the Hawaiian luxuries were ready for a final lūʻau on an exceedingly grand scale. I never saw such an abundance of leis made of lehua blossoms, and cannot imagine where they came from.”

“Just as the party were ready to partake of the viands a very heavy shower of rain, accompanied with thunder and lightning, fell, which drenched everyone to the skin. Still we determined to sit through it. I should state that we were here joined by about two hundred people on horseback from town.”

After the lūʻau, they resumed their march towards town. “Her Majesty and the horse were covered with leis of lehua and pikaki, and every one of the seven or eight hundred were likewise bedecked with leis.”

“We led the procession, followed by the whole cavalcade, along King street, up Richards and along Beretania to Her Majesty’s house. All dismounted and bade Her Majesty farewell”. (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

“It is unlikely that such (a Hawaiian holiday) could ever be repeated.” (Cummins)

It lasted 15 days.

October 10, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Mauna Loke

Called the “Prince of Entertainers” and the “Entertainer of Princes,” John Cummins was a prosperous businessman known for his generous and lavish hospitality to royalty and commoner alike and for his knowledge and love of Hawaiian traditions.

John Adams Kuakini Cummins was born on O’ahu on March 17, 1835, the son of High Chiefess Kaumakaokane Papali‘ai‘aina and Thomas Jefferson Cummins, Jr.

He was a namesake of island governor John Adams Kuakini (1789–1844,) who in turn took the name of John Quincy Adams.

His mother was a descendent of the Lonoikahapu‘u line and was a cousin of King Kamehameha I. His father was a wealthy and aristocratic Englishman, born in Lancashire and reared in Massachusetts, who came to the Islands in 1828.

Cummins married Rebecca Kahalewai (1830–1902) in 1861, also considered a high chiefess, and had six children: Matilda Kaumakaokane, Jane Pi‘ikea, Kaimilani, ‘Imilani, Thomas Puali‘i and May Ka‘aolani. When she died, her pallbearers included Princes David Kawānanakoa and Jonah Kalaniana‘ole. In 1903, he married his son-in-law’s sister, High Chiefess Elizabeth
Kapeka Merseberg.

Cummins was a staunch monarchist, who, in his later years, was arrested, tried, imprisoned and heavily fined by the new Republic of Hawaiʻi.

Thomas Cummins purchased or leased lands known as the Waimanalo Sugar Plantation; the first record of this was March 27, 1842, when High Chief Pākī leased Cummins a parcel of land on which to build a house.

This residence was later named Mauna Loke, or Rose Mont. (He had another home, Ahipu‘u, named after the hill and caves behind the house. Today it is the site of the O’ahu Country Club.)

However, it was Mauna Loke, the family home in Waimānalo that was the scene of lavish Hawaiian-style living and entertaining that was synonymous with Cummins’s name.

It was said that the food served there excelled that of the best in San Francisco, and the wines were of the choicest vintage. Although always offering plenty to drink, Cummins himself never touched a drop.

His guests included royalty, starting with Kamehameha V, as well as foreign visitors. This included German Princes and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869.

“Cavalcades of horsemen and horsewomen braved the dangers of the steep pali and the rocky trail in order that they might reach the fertile valley and beach where John Cummins kept open house for all who came his way.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 21, 1913)

King Kalākaua often enjoyed Cummins’s hospitality at the spacious home. There were several grass houses scattered throughout the grounds, one for the exclusive use of Kalākaua and one exclusively for Princess Kaʻiulani.

As a child, Kaʻiulani helped “Uncle John” erect a flagpole nearby, then she raised the Hawaiian flag and christened it with a bottle of champagne.

King Kamehameha V also liked to visit Mauna Loke. In order to avoid the difficult trip over the Pali trail, the king purchased a small steamboat in which to ride around the island from town and had a short railway line installed from the boat landing to the house.

A huge celebration took place at Mauna Loke in November 1874, the first stop of a two-week “Grand Tour of O’ahu” by Queen Emma.

The queen stayed three days, by which time the number present – both invited and uninvited – was in the hundreds. Guests brought food by the wagon load: hogs, bullocks, ducks, turkeys and poi.

Three hundred torches burned throughout the night of the lū‘au. (By the way, Pukui notes, “lū‘au” is not an ancient name, but goes back at least to 1856, when so used by the Pacific Commercial Advertiser; formerly a feast was called pāʻina or ʻahaʻaina.)

There were fireworks, bonfires, swimming, surfing, stream fishing, lei making, horse racing, rifle shooting and hula troupes performing one after another until daylight the next day.

Cummins then escorted Emma on the rest of the tour around the island.

Cummins was elected representative for his Koʻolau district in 1873 and assisted in the election of King Lunalilo that same year. The following year, he aided in the election of King Kalākaua and eventually served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Cummins was instrumental in helping King Kalākaua effect a reciprocity treaty with the United States in 1874, after which the sugar industry prospered and the value of Waimānalo Plantation was greatly enhanced.

John Adams Cummins died March 21, 1913, his obituary read, in part, “Being one of the last of the high chiefs, whose youth was spent in associating with the kings and princes of the realm, if he had no love for the Hawaiian flag and of the traditions of his country, then no one had. He had been dandled on the knee of Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III.”

“Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV, and his gentle Queen Emma were his most intimate friends and companions. Kalākaua owed his election largely to the instrumentality of Mr. Cummins, and would gladly have had him near him continually.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 21, 1913)

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Mauna_Loke_(Rose_Mont),_Waimānalo,_Hawai'i

Kaiulani,_Liliuokalani,_and_Poomaikelani_at_Mauna_Loke_1880s

Princess Ruth Keelikolani with hapa-haole chiefs Samuel Parker and John Adams Cummins as kāhili bearers

March 17, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Two Cummins Schools – Now None

Today, Washington Intermediate and Liholiho Elementary serve their respective communities in Pawaʻa and Kaimuki.

But they weren’t known as such (at least by conflicting claims of the City and Territory.) Depending on who you talked to, each was known as Cummins School, named after John Adams Kuakini Cummins.

Cummins, born March 17, 1835 in Honolulu, was a namesake of Hawaii Island Governor John Adams Kuakini (1789–1844 – Queen Ka‘ahumanu’s brother,) who had taken the name of John Quincy Adams when Americans were settling on the Islands in the 1820s.

In the 1840s, Cummins’ father (Thomas Jefferson Cummins (1802–1885)) first developed a cattle ranch and horse ranch on the windward side. By the 1880s, facing diminishing, John began to grow sugar cane in place of cattle. That plantation was known as the Waimanalo Sugar Company.

On June 17, 1890, Cummins became Minister of Foreign Affairs in King Kalākaua’s cabinet. When Kalākaua died and Queen Liliʻuokalani came to the throne in early 1891, she replaced all the ministers.

Cummins resigned February 25, 1891. He was replaced by Samuel Parker who was another part-Hawaiian. (There is a photo of both Cummins and Parker serving as kāhili bearers for Keʻelikōlani (Princess Ruth.))

Cummins supported the constitutional monarchy; after the overthrow in early 1893, Liliʻuokalani asked Cummins to travel to the continent to lobby for its restoration. Cummins died March 21, 1913. His great-grandson was Mayor Neal Blaisdell.

OK, back to the schools … here’s how the confusion, and correction, came about:

Both schools were built the same year, 1926.

Back then, the Territorial Department of Public Instruction (now the DOE) provided the instruction in schools and the City, through the Board of Supervisors (now the County Council,) owned the school properties and buildings.

The Department named the Pawaʻa school first – consistent with their policy, they called it Washington Intermediate (it was the first Intermediate school on O‘ahu.)

However, the Board of Supervisors wanted the school to be called Cummins Intermediate. (The Pawaʻa school is built on land that was formerly owned by Cummins and the City wanted to recognize that.)

Actually, before Cummins owned it, Anthony D Allen (a former slave from the continent) had his home there (including about a dozen other houses.) Several references note his property as a “resort;” “… it is a favourite resort of the more respectable of the seamen who visit Honoruru. …” (Reverend Charles Stewart) It may have been Waikiki’s first hotel.

Allen entertained often and made his property available for special occasions. “King (Kauikeaouli – Kamehameha III) had a Grand Dinner at AD Allen’s. The company came up at sunset. Music played very late.” (Reynolds – Scruggs, HJH)

Missionaries Hiram and Sybil Bingham (my great-great-great grandparents) also visited. Sybil noted in her diary, “He set upon the table decanters and glasses with wine and brandy to refresh us”. They ended dinner “with wine and melons”.

OK, back to the new schools … as a compromise to the naming issue, the Department kept the Washington name for the Pawaʻa school and named the new elementary school in Kaimuki, Cummins School.

That didn’t go over very well with the City and County and they refused to recognize the name – and they continued to call the Pawaʻa school Cummins Junior High School, while the Territory called that school Washington Intermediate.

The Kaimuki school was referred to by the City and County as Liholiho School, and the Territorial Department of Public Instruction called it Cummins School.

To further add to the confusion, the PTA for the Kaimuki school was known as the ‘Liholiho Parent Teacher Association of Cummins School.’

Effectively, there were two Cummins Schools, depending on who you talked to. The issue was resolved (somewhat) in 1935.

“Ending a longstanding uncertainty, the public school at Maunaloa and 9th avenues, Kaimuki, which has been variously known as Cummins School and Liholiho School since its establishment several years ago, will henceforth be known as Liholiho School.”

For some, the Pawaʻa school on King Street continued to be called Cummins Junior High School, and the name appeared over its door, although the education department clung to its policy of naming Intermediate schools after American Presidents or members of the Hawaiian Royal family, and called it Washington.

Reconstruction of the buildings at Pawaʻa seemed to settle the matter and the school is now referred to as Washington Middle School; and, Liholiho Elementary continues to operate in Kaimuki.

Neither, now, is referred to as Cummins. (Lots of information here is from Star Bulletin, June 3, 1935.)

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