Kahului Railroad | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 11, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Samuel G Wilder

Samuel Gardner Wilder was born June 20, 1831 in Massachusetts. Wilder arrived in Honolulu in the clipper ship White Swallow in the year 1857, that same year he married Elizabeth Kinaʻu Judd, daughter of missionary doctor and politician Gerrit P. Judd.

Their honeymoon voyage to New York on the chartered White Swallow went via Jarvis Island, where Wilder picked a load of guano for sale on the continent.

“Samuel G Wilder has had the career of a man of more than ordinary ability and energy whose private enterprises and public services have both in a large degree been a benefit to the country of his adoption.” (Hawaiian Gazette July 31, 1888.)

Upon returning to the islands, in 1864, Wilder and his father in law (Judd) set up a partnership for a sugar plantation at Kualoa, and built the mill and the stone chimney together.

The mill is associated with a tragedy when Willy Wilder, the nine year old son of Samuel Wilder, fell into a vat of boiling syrup during processing. He died a few days later from his severe burns.

By 1867, the decision to end the Judd-Wilder venture at Kualoa was made. The mill ground its last crop during the summer of 1868. After the failure of the plantation, the land was used a pasture for cattle and horses under the name of Kualoa Ranch.

He was later in the lumber business, but his wealth and prominence started in the interisland steam transportation business. Starting with the Kilauea, then the Likelike, then many more, he formed a flotilla of interisland carriers and later organized them under the Wilder Steamship Company.

The Wilder organization had strong competition from the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, which developed from the activities and interests of Captain Thomas R. Foster.

In 1905, the Wilder Steamship Company merged with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, forming the largest fleet of steamers serving Hawaiʻi. That company started the first scheduled commercial airplane service in 1929 as Inter-Island Airways and became Hawaiian Airlines in 1941.

His life included politics and King Lunalilo appointed Wilder to the House of Nobles. King Kalākaua later appointed Wilder to his Cabinet, where he served as Minister of the Interior from 1878-1880.

He was a businessman rather than a politician, and his watchword was efficiency and economy in administration. He applied to the business of government the same ability and energetic leadership that won him success in his private business enterprises. (Kuykendall)

Mr. Wilder’s administration of the Department of the Interior was characterized by a well-defined policy of extensive internal improvements. Wilder vigorously pushed forward the construction of roads and bridges with other public conveniences, including the Marine Railway. (Hawaiian Gazette July 31, 1888)

During his term in office that Kulaokahuʻa, the “plains,” between Alapaʻi and Punahou streets mauka of King Street in Honolulu, was opened for settlement. Work on ʻIolani Palace was begun and preliminary railroad surveys were made on the island of Hawaiʻi. Wilder’s influence was felt in all departments of the government. (Kuykendall)

In 1878 Wilder established the first telephone line on Oʻahu, from his government office to his lumber business. King Kalākaua then purchased telephones for ʻIolani Palace. (Charles Dickey in Haiku, Maui had the first phones in the islands (1878;) connecting his home to his store.)

In 1881, Wilder initiated a railroad connecting the Mahukona port with the plantations in North Kohala on the Big Island (Niuliʻi to Mahukona;) he later bought the Kahului Railroad Company.

Wilder was appointed and later elected to the legislative assembly and served as its president. “He was a practical parliamentarian; just, prompt and precise in his rulings combining rare tact with energy in the dispatch of business.” Hawaiian Gazette July 31, 1888)

At this time, the Bayonet Constitution was enacted which created a constitutional monarchy much like that of the United Kingdom – this stripped the King of most of his personal authority and empowered the legislature.

The 1887 constitution made the upper house of the legislature elective and replaced the previous absolute veto allowed to the king to one that two-thirds of the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom could override. Wilder supported the monarchy and told the King that he did not think the monarchy could last much longer. (Kuykendall)

Mr. Wilder had advised the King to enter at once into negotiations with the United States to part with the sovereignty of the country while he was in a position to do so with advantage, and before affairs became more complicated. Kalākaua did not follow the advice given to him by Wilder. (Kuykendall)

King Kalākaua conferred upon Mr. Wilder the distinctions of a Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Kalākaua and Grand Officer of the Royal Order Crown of Hawaiʻi.

“This generous and many-sided man tended with loving care to the deserving, with charitable purpose to the poor and with patriotic conscientiousness to the wants of his country.” (Daily Bulletin August 7, 1888)

The former Kaʻahumanu Wall, from Punchbowl to Mōʻiliʻili, followed a trail which was later expanded and was first called Stonewall Street. It was also known as “Mānoa Valley Road;” later, the route was renamed for Samuel G. Wilder (and continues to be known as Wilder Avenue.)

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Honolulu Harbor Wilder's Steamship Company structure on far right-(HSA)-PP-39-10-026-1890

Honolulu_Harbor_to_Diamond_Head-Wall-Reg1690 (1893)-(portion_development_in_Kulaokahu‘a-and-wetlands_below_in_Kewalo)

Honolulu_Harbor-InteriorDept-Wall-Reg_1119 (1886)-noting_Wilder's_Wharf-Marine_Railway-GoogleEarth

Honolulu_Harbor-Wall-(1893)-noting_Wilder's_Wharf-Marine_Railway-(yellow_line_is_1893_shoreline)

'Marine Railway'-north_end_of_Kakaako-1885

No._2._View_of_Honolulu._From_the_Catholic_church._(c._1854)-Honolulu_to_Waikiki

Railroad from Kahului to Wailuku, Maui-(HSA)-PPBER-2-8-006-1895

Railroad tracks and harbor at Mahukona Landing, Kohala, Hawaii-(HSA)-PP-88-3-025-1882

Wilder_Shipped_Guano_from_Jarvis_Island_here_is_Tramway

September 17, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Dream City”

In 1843, as kids, Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of pioneer missionaries, met in Lahainā, Maui. They grew up together, became close friends and went on to develop a sugar-growing partnership that spanned generations and left an indelible mark on Hawaiʻi.

Fast forward 100-years to 1949, Alexander & Baldwin formed Kahului Development Co., Ltd. (KDCo) (the predecessor of A&B Properties, Inc.) to serve as a development arm of the agricultural-based entity.

This timing coincided with the sugar company’s plan to close down some plantation camps. To provide for housing for its sugar workers, as well as meet post-WWII housing demand, KDCo announced a new residential development in Central Maui, in the area we now refer to as Kahului.

“Dream City,” a planned residential community was launched and over the next couple decades 3,500+ fee simple homes were offered for sale in 14-increments of the new development.

While the community originally was planned to house the company’s workers from Hawai‘i Commercial and Sugar (mills and plantations) and Kahului Railroad Co., the company decided to not limit ownership to their own employees.

Part of the prior plantation philosophy was to house imported laborers in camps, usually segregated by ethnic groups. However, one goal of Dream City was to bring together the then-existing 25 plantation communities into a single planned modern urban setting.

Planning for the project took 2-years, under the services of Harland Bartholomew of Harland Bartholomew & Associates, St. Louis – a nationally recognized planning firm.

The first task was to identify the housing and living problems in central Maui, then develop a master plan on how best a new community could be designed.

Under this 25-year plan, Kahului quickly became one of the first and most successful planned towns west of the Rockies – and the first in Hawai‘i.

The homes were concrete and hollow-tile construction and thoroughly modern. There are 17 different designs available. Each had three bedrooms and a floor space of 1,090 square feet, plus a garage.

The price (generally $6,000 to $9,200 – with terms of $600 down and payments of $50 per month) included all the bathroom fixtures, the kitchen sink, laundry trays, clothesline, all the fixtures, including switches and floor plugs.

The price did not include the landscape or furniture or kitchen appliances. The landscape work was to be done under the direction of the University of Hawaiʻi agricultural extension service, Maui branch.

The plan for Kahului included spaces for modern business and shopping centers, schools, churches, playgrounds and recreation facilities. In 1951, the company built and opened the Kahului Shopping Center – Hawaiʻi’s third shopping center (behind Aloha (in Waipahu) and ʻĀina Haina.)

In January of 1948, Franklin D Richards, Director of the Federal Housing Administration described the new Kahului town housing project as the Nation’s “outstanding” development.

Mr. Richards said, “That house in Kahului is absolutely the best of its kind I have seen in 15 years’ experience as head of the FHA. I sincerely believe the Kahului home to represent the maximum in low-cost housing. There is nothing better in my experience in the continental United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, or Hawaii.”

Reportedly, on July 25, 1950, Masaru Omuri carried his wife Evelyn over the threshold of their new home. It made the headlines in the local paper. The Omuris were the first of many residents to move into the Dream City (the “new Kahului.”)

As the development proceeded, the plantation villages were closed down, one by one, according to a schedule that gave the workers and the workers unions ten years’ advance notice.

It was announced that the plantation planned to be out of the housing business within ten years of the start of the project, and February 1, 1963, was the date it was all supposed to shut down. It took a little longer than that, but the schedule was implemented pretty much as planned.

The first homes were built along each side of Puʻunene Avenue on lots between 9,000 and 10,000 square feet. The average price of these homes, as announced in July, 1949, was $7,250 each.

The development outpaced all of the planners’ expectations. At its peak, it was reported, houses and lots were being sold every two minutes.

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Kahului-Dream_City-Master_Plan-(co-maui-hi-us)-1947

Puunene Store (left) and Kahului Railroad Station and post office (right). Kahului, Maui (KatsugoMiho)

Waialeale, Inter-Island Steamship. Pier 2. Kahului, Maui. Pre-World War II-(KatsugoMiho)

Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Amaral and Son, “'Dream City,' Maui, 1958

Kahului_Town_Development-1st_Increment-1949

Kahului_Town_Development-2nd_Increment-1951

Kahului_Town_Development-3rd_Increment-1952

Kahului_Town_Development-4th_Increment-1953

Kahului_Town_Development-5th_Increment-1955

Kahului_Town_Development-6th_Increment-1960

July 17, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kahului Railroad Company

Wū-wū Kaʻa Ahi Kahului
Ke alahao a i Wailuku
Wū-wū Kaʻa Ahi Kahului
Chūkū-chūkū mua o Hawai`i

Chorus:
Woo-woo! Kahului Railroad
Tracks all the way to Wailuku
Woo-woo! Kahului Railroad
The first train of Hawaiʻi
(Kaʻa Ahi Kahului; Palani Vaughan)

Less than a decade after the construction of the first transcontinental railway in the US, the first steam railroad line in Hawaii was established. (Akinaka)

On July 17, 1879 Captain Thomas H Hobron ran the first train line from Kahului to Wailuku; the 3-foot-wide was eventually extended to over 15 miles in length along the north coast to Kuiaha with a number of branch lines. (AASHTO)

That year, Hobron issued in 12 ½ cent copper tokens bearing the initials ‘T. H. H.’ and ‘12 ½’ on the obverse. In the same year he also issued a 2 ½ cent copper token, intended also for use on the Kahului railroad.

Within a year or two the line was extended eastward from Kahului to Pāʻia. The enterprise was incorporated, July 1, 1881, as the Kahului Railroad Company.

Since then, railroad lines have been built on the four larger Islands connecting the sugar plantations and other industrial communities with their shipping points. (Akinaka)

But passengers were not the primary part of the rail’s business. The isthmus between Haleakala and West Maui contained rich soils ideal for crop cultivation. Within a few short years, the region soon supported one of the largest sugar plantations in the world.

In 1876, following the Reciprocity Treaty, other Westerners gained interest in Maui’s agriculture potential, including Claus Spreckels (who came to Hawaiʻi from San Francisco.)

Spreckels leased land from the government and obtained the water rights needed to build a large irrigation ditch that provided water for crops. These events set the stage for the establishment of Maui’s first railroad system. Rail transported cane from the fields to the harbor.

The Kahului station was located southeast of the harbor at Hobron Point (the east side of the harbor (which includes Pier 1) and tracks extended through Spreckelsville as well as to the sugar mill at Puʻunene.

By 1889, the company reported more miles of track plus three locomotives, two passenger cars, one baggage-mail car, 14 platform cars and 60 boxcars. (JoDorner)

By the turn of the 19th century, Kahului supported a new customhouse, a saloon, a Chinese restaurant and a small but growing population.

In 1901, Kahului Railroad purchased its first tugboat, the Leslie Baldwin, to tow lighters to and from vessels. The railroad company was instrumental in Kahului Harbor development.

The final stretch of line even included a steel bridge over the Maliko Gorge which, at nearly 230-feet, was the highest railway bridge in Hawaiʻi. (AASHTO)

Besides rail equipment, “the Kahului Railroad Company owns and operates the steamer Leslie Baldwin, two wharves with the necessary appliances for handling freight, and nine lighters of 65 tons capacity each.” (Report of Governor, 1903)

Hobron, who also was postmaster of Kahului, allowed mail to be sent free over the railroad. Later, in 1884, a subsidy of $25 per month was paid for hauling mail. Mail carried on the railroad was in closed bags for delivery to postmasters along the route. Probably loose letters were also carried. (HawaiianStamps)

In 1894, the Kahului Railroad decided to obtain a set of stamps and turned to the American Bank Note Company to produce lithographed stamps for special use on the railroad to pay freight and packages sent outside the mail. (HawaiianStamps)

Hobron also owned Grove Ranch Plantation in Makawao. (Hobron Drug Company, that was based in Honolulu, was owned by TW Hobron, the son of Thomas H Hobron.)

Steam locomotive No. 12 was built in 1928 for the Kahului Railroad Company in Hawaii by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Kahului Railroad hauled sugar from the fields to a mill and then took the finished sugar to the port of Kahului. Later extensions of the line allowed it to haul other commodities, such as pineapple, to the port. No. 12’s Hawaiian background has earned it the nickname “Pineapple Princess”. (MCRR)

Trains hauled goods to stores and mills, pineapple from field to cannery, and passengers to school or work. The military took over the rails during World War II, transporting everything from food to amphibious vehicles. (Engledow)

The Kahului Railroad outlasted its fellow railways in the state, in addition to the honors of being the first railway, it was also the last public railroad in operation. Today, some of the tracks and equipment are used for a tourist train that was constructed on the west side of Maui. (AASHTO)

Engine No. 12 made its last run on May 24, 1966 and in 1967 was sent to the mainland. Eventually, Silverwood Theme Park in Athol, Idaho purchased the engine. Now Engine No. 12 is a part of Colorado history and has been returned to service as part of the Georgetown Loop Historic Mining & Railroad Park. (JoDorner)

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Kahului_Railway-hawaii-gov

Kahului Railroad engines line up for a picture taking session in 1911.

Kahului Railroad Steam Locomotive-WC-1911

Kahului_Railway-No._12-hawaii-gov

12_in_Hawaii

Kahului, Maui. Puunene Store, left. Kahului Railroad Station and post office, right-hawaii-edu-Circa 1930s

1879 Thomas Hobron Kahului & Wailuku Railroad_Token

1879 Thomas Hobron Kahului & Wailuku Railroad Token

SS Claudine docked at the Claudine Wharf-(MasterPlan2025)

April 22, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kahului Harbor

Before European contact, ‘Iao Stream served to irrigate lo’i in terraces that extended well up into ‘Iao Valley. Nearby is Kanaha Fishpond, which is said to have been built by Chief Kiha-Piʻilani, son of Piʻilani and brother-in-law of ʻUmi, (in about the 16th century.)

After contact, the port and town of Lāhainā was the first trading location to become established on Maui. As early as 1819, whaling lured thousands of sailors to Lāhainā. Meanwhile, even by 1837, Kahului was described as a settlement of 26-pili grass houses.

During King Kamehameha’s campaign to unify the Hawaiian Islands, the principal military encounter on Maui took place within Kahului Bay. For two days, there was constant fighting between the two sides until Kamehameha conquered them with the help of the western military expertise and firearms of his western advisors, John Young and Isaac Davis.

It was a bloody battle and by the time it was over, the beach between Kahului and Pāʻia was covered with the canoes and bodies of fallen warriors.

With the success of the first oil wells in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the whaling trade began to decline in the 1860s. It was about at this time when Maui turned to the emerging sugar industry to fill its economic void.

The isthmus between Haleakala and West Maui contained rich soils ideal for crop cultivation. Within a few short years, the region soon supported one of the largest sugar plantations in the world.

In 1876, following the Reciprocity Treaty, other Westerners gained interest in Maui’s agriculture potential, including Claus Spreckels (who came to Hawaiʻi from San Francisco.)

Rail transported cane from the fields to the harbor. Passenger cars were added to the rail system and in 1879 Thomas Hobron founded the Kahului Railroad Company, the first railroad in Hawaiʻi that provided passenger service between the population centers at Wailuku and Kahului Harbor.

Early development at Kahului Bay started in 1863 with the construction of the first western building, a warehouse near the beach.

In 1879, to facilitate the loading and unloading of goods and passengers, the first small landing was constructed in Kahului Bay. By the turn of the 19th century, Kahului supported a new customhouse, a saloon, a Chinese restaurant, and a small but growing population. (DOT)

When Bubonic Plague was noted in Kahului on February 10, 1900, “we found that the inhabitants of Chinatown, where the disease was discovered, had been moved to a detention camp some distance from the town, Chinatown destroyed by fire”. (Carmichael) The rebuilding of Kahului town coincided with the evolution of Kahului Bay into a full-scale commercial harbor. (Noda; DOT)

Kahului Commercial Harbor is a man-made port, dredged from naturally occurring Kahului Bay. As a harbor, its chief advantage was a narrow break in the coral caused by the fresh water from the Waikapu River, which emptied into Kahului Bay at one time. The break allowed ships to anchor inside the protecting reef.

The anchorage was less than ideal. It was exposed to the full force of the trade winds, there was very little deep water and a heavy surge as well. The harbor has a long history of development, including construction of breakwaters and harbor dredging dating back to the early 1900s. (DOT)

The development of the harbor began in earnest under the leadership of Henry Baldwin. During this time, the railroad and harbor depended on each other to provide service to the merchants and the sugar cane plantations. (Noda; DOT)

The harbor complex originated in 1900 when a 400-foot long east breakwater was constructed by the Kahului Railroad Company.

In 1901, the rail company purchased its first tugboat, the Leslie Baldwin, to tow lighters to and from vessels. Harbor development was initiated three-years later by Kahului Railroad Company, who was at the time a subsidiary of Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company.

“(T)he growing commercial importance of Kahului Harbor, a seaport of this Territory, in the Island of Maui, demands that adequate facilities be provided for the proper handling of freight and passenger traffic under government supervision and control”.

The Territorial Senate then addressed a Resolution, asking “That the sum of $100,000.00 be inserted in the Appropriation Bill for the purpose of defraying all costs incidental and necessary to condemn the new Claudine Wharf and moorings in Kahului Harbor, Maui, now owned and controlled by the Kahului Railroad Company, Limited”

“… whereby said wharf and moorings shall become the property of the Territory of Hawaiʻi; and also to construct a new wharf in said harbor at which large vessels may dock and load or discharge freight and passengers.” Wm T Robinson, Senator 2nd District; February 23, 1911.

Pier 1 was initially 500-feet in length and was constructed between 1921 and 1924, along with a pier shed that was 374 feet long. Subsequent construction lengthened Pier 1 to 929-feet.

The first 627-feet of Pier 2 was constructed in 1927 at the location of the old “Claudine Wharf,” and extended in 1929 by 894-feet.

The first involvement of the Army Corps of Engineers with the project came in 1913 when the east breakwater was extended 400-feet. The west breakwater was constructed to 1,950-feet in 1919, and the structures were extended to their current lengths in 1931. (DOT)

The harbor basin has been widened and deepened at various times to reduce navigational hazards due to increased traffic within the harbor and to accommodate larger vessels.

Kahului Harbor is one of nine commercial harbors (seven deep-draft and two medium-draft) found throughout the state. Because of Hawaiʻi’s geographic isolation, nearly all of its imported goods arrive via island ports.

Honolulu Harbor serves as the hub of Hawaiʻi’s commercial harbor system from where inter-island cargo distribution branches out to serve the neighbor islands. (Lots of information here is from Hawaiʻi DOT Harbors Master Plan.)

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