Kamehameha IV | Page 7 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 31, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Timeline Tuesday … 1850s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1850s Kuleana Act, Smallpox Epidemic, death of Kamehameha III and growth in rice cultivation. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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January 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kalākua

“Kalākua, a widow of Kamehameha … asked (the missionary women) to make a gown for her in fashion like their own.” (Bingham) “(She) was told that it was the Lord’s day, and that they would make it tomorrow.” (April 2, 1820, Thaddeus Journal)

The next day, the first Hawaiian sewing circle was held on the decks of the Thaddeus, “Kalākua brought a web of white cambric to have a dress made for herself in the fashion of our ladies, and was very particular in her wish to have it finished while sailing along the western side of the island, before reaching the king.”

“Monday morning April 3d (1820,) the first sewing circle was formed that the sun ever looked down upon in the Hawaiian realm. Kalākua was directress. She requested all the seven white ladies to take seats with them on mats, on the deck of the Thaddeus.”

“The dress was made in the fashion of 1819. The length of the skirt accorded with Brigham Young’s rule to his Mormon damsels, – have it come down to the tops of the shoes. But in the queen’s case, where the shoes were wanting, the bare feet cropped out very prominently.” (Lucy Thurston, part of the Pioneer Company)

Kalākua (also Kaheiheimālie) (c. 1778–1842) was daughter of Keʻeaumoku, a chief from Hawaiʻi Island and Namahana, from the royal family on Maui. She was described as physically being ‘tall and gigantic,’ like her siblings. (Bingham)

“(Kalākua) was never a woman to indulge in flirtations, and her name was never coupled with gossip. She may have had her longings, but she remained true to her husband; and her children were never rumored to have been born of a double paternity like so many of the chiefs.”

“Double paternity was considered an honor because it gave a double or triple line of chiefly descent, thick and intermingled, and formed an honorable ancestry doubly blessed in such riches and knowledge as chiefs desire.”

“Not so (Kalākua,) who considered herself sufficiently honored with the root already established. Kamehameha was her uncle, and both he and Keʻeaumoku were directly descended from Haʻae.” (Kamakau)

Kalākua’s siblings included Queen Kaʻahumanu, Hawaiʻi Island Governor John Adams Kuakini, Maui Governor George Cox Kahekili Keʻeaumoku II and Lydia Namahana Piʻia. She first married Kalaʻimamahu, the younger brother of Kamehameha I.

They had a daughter, Kekāuluohi; Kekāuluohi became Kamehameha’s youngest wife. Liholiho (Kamehameha II) later took her as one of his wives and around 1821 Kamehameha II gave Kekāuluohi to his friend Charles Kanaʻina. By Kanaʻina, Kekāuluohi had a son William Charles Lunalilo (future king of the Islands.)

Kekāuluohi succeeded her half-sister Kīnaʻu as Kuhina Nui. Initially, she was considered something of a “place-holder” for Kīnaʻu’s infant daughter Victoria Kamāmalu, who would later assume the office. (Archives)

With Kamehameha I, Kalākua had four children: their two sons died as infants; the oldest daughter, Kamāmalu, became wife of Liholiho (Kamehameha II,) and the youngest daughter, Kīnaʻu, later became Kuhina Nui.

Kīnaʻu later married Mataio Kekūanāoʻa; they had several children, including Lot Kapuāiwa (afterwards Kamehameha V,) Alexander Liholiho (afterwards Kamehameha IV) and Victoria. (Liliʻuokalani) That made Kalākua mother of another Queen consort, and grandmother of three future Kings.

“The death of Kamehameha made the first separation from the man she had lived with for twenty years. There was no woman of his household whom Kamehameha loved so much as (Kalākua.)”

“Kamehameha is never known to have deserted (Kalākua,) but it has often been said that she did not love him so much as her first husband Kalaʻimamahu from whom Kamehameha took her away.” (Kamakau)

“In September, 1823, she heard in Hawaii of Keōpūolani’s death and sailed at once for Lāhainā to attend the burial ceremonies. The chiefs had all assembled at Lāhainā, the body of the chiefess had been concealed, and (Hoapili) was in mourning.”

“After the days of mourning were ended (Kalākua) became the wife of (Hoapili) (October 19, 1823,) they became converted, were married under Christian vows, and took the names of Hoapili-kāne and Mary Hoapili-wahine [the Hawaiian form of Mr. and Mrs.]”

“At this time she had not thought much about religion. The chiefs took to drinking and sensual indulgence after the death of the chiefess [Keōpūolani], but (Kalākua) listened to the word of God as taught by the missionaries although in her heart she still enjoyed life and fun.”

“Hoapili had accepted the word of God because of Keōpūolani. (Kalākua) turned to Christianity first, and Kaʻahumanu followed.” (Kamakau)

In 1823, Kalākua (Kaheiheimālie and Hoapili-wahine) offered the American missionaries a tract of land on the slopes surrounding Puʻu Paʻupaʻu for the creation of a school.

Betsey Stockton founded a school for makaʻāinana (common people) including the women and children. The site of the school is now Lahainaluna School.

A good work for which Hoapili-kāne is celebrated was the building of the church at Waineʻe; the cornerstone was laid on September 14, 1828, for this ‘first stone meeting-house built at the Islands.’

It was dedicated on March 4, 1832 and served as the church for Hawaiian royalty during the time when Lāhainā was effectively the Kingdom’s capital, from the 1820s through the mid-1840s (it was destroyed by fire in 1894.) In addition, he erected the Lāhainā fort to guard the village against rioting from the whalers off foreign ships and from law breakers. (Kamakau)

When Lot Kapuāiwa was born to Mataio Kekūanāoʻa and Kīnaʻu, he was hānai by his grandmother Kalākua (Kaheiheimālie and Hoapili-wahine) and step-grandfather Hoapili-kāne. (Lot Kapuāiwa later became King Kamehameha V.) Kalākua died January 16, 1842 and is buried at Waine‘e (now Waiola) Cemetery.

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Hoapiliwahine_by_C._C._Armstrong

October 2, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The King’s Cape

“Centuries ago, when the rest of the world went to battle in iron clothing, the great seven-foot warriors of Hawaii donned gay war capes, fashioned of thousands of colorful feathers.”

“The principal colors used were red and yellow. The more yellow, the higher the rank of the wearer. … The first kings maintained a corps of trained ‘birdmen’ who lived in the forests and hunted these creatures.”

“They learned to imitate the call of the male and thus lure the birds close to their hiding place where they previously ‘doctored’ a flower particularly delectable to the bird they wished to catch.”

“Then they waited until the bird thrust his bill into the flower … Then the birdmen carefully removed the desired feathers and released the bird.” (Oakland Tribune, July 21, 1929)

Hawaiian featherwork consists of leis (or strings of feathers worn in the hair or around the neck,) kāhili (plumes of feathers used as royal insignia,) ahuʻula (cloaks or capes,) mahiole (helmets,) images of the god Kūkaʻilimoku (war god of Kamehameha,) or mat-like objects and other temple objects.) (Brigham)

The ‘ahuʻula (cloak or cape) was durable and comparatively small in bulk. Olonā (a fiber) was universally the basis of the Hawaiian feather capes. The Hawaiian had not looms, so a fiber net was formed as the foundation of the cape.

It was a common custom to net bands of a width from 8 to 12 inches and this was cut and joined. Regular and irregular pieces were put together to form the cape. (Brigham)

Hawaiian feather capes and cloaks were constructed by tying bundles of small feathers, usually 6-10 per bundle, to a foundation of netting. The ‘ahu‘ula of Kamehameha consists of approximately 450,000 feathers. (Bishop Museum)

To fasten feathers to this net much finer thread, often single fibers, was used and the feather was bound by 2 or 3 turns of the thread on the shaft of the feather. On the reverse, the feather did not show.

As in medieval Europe the vanquished knight was despoiled of his armor by the victor, so the chief who killed or captured his enemy took as spoils his feather cloak, helmet or lei. Generous Hawaiian chiefs often gave ‘ahuʻula as token of their friendship. (Brigham)

During the British warship Calypso’s three-and-a-half-month stay in Hawai‘i beginning on Oct. 2, 1858, its surgeon, WH Sloggett, was presented with a royal feather shoulder cape by King Kamehameha IV in gratitude for medical service he’d rendered the seriously ill King. (Soboleski)

“Sir Arthur Sloggett, surgeon-general of the British Expeditionary Forces during the World War, has presented, through a nephew who resides in the islands, the cape of Kamehameha IV, given to Sloggett’s great grandfather by the monarch.” (Oakland Tribune, July 21, 1929)

On occasion, the ship would carry King Kamehameha IV and his retinue to Hawai‘i Island. Taking advantage of the presence of the surgeon, the King requested an examination by Sloggett.

Sloggett declined to accept a fee. He felt he already was paid by the Navy so he didn’t need to be paid by the King for doing his job. (Faye)

However, as a gift Kamehameha IV delivered to the Calypso on its departure an ‘ahuʻula (red and yellow feather cape.) He hung it at his home in England. The King also gave him a small portrait of Queen Emma. (Faye, KauaiGold)

The Sloggett cape measures 15.5 inches in depth, 33 inches across at its widest width, and is made of the yellow and black feathers of the ‘o‘o (a now extinct black bird with one yellow feather indigenous to Hawai‘i), with yellow used as the background and black as ornamentation.

‘I‘iwi (a scarlet honeycreeper also indigenous to Hawai‘i) feathers also appear as ornamentation, while a network of olona fiber, intricately knotted, forms the foundation. The cape’s outside surface gleams like satin and its texture is as smooth as velvet.

Dr. Sloggett took the cape home to England, where he framed and hung it upon a wall in his house. Then in 1926, his son, Sir Arthur Sloggett, removed it from the drawing-room wall of his home in England and gave it to his nephew, Grove Farm Plantation director Henry Digby Sloggett, who returned it to Hawai‘i.

Henry Digby Sloggett passed the cape on to his son, Richard Henry Sloggett Sr, and for a time it was on loan to Honolulu’s Bishop Museum. The Sloggett cape can now be seen in the Kaua‘i Museum. (Soboleski) (Lots of information here is from Chris Faye and Kauai Museum. The image shows the Kamehameha IV ahuʻula given to Sloggett. (Faye – Kauai Museum))

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kamehameha-iv-cape-given-to-sloggett-christinefaye-tgi

April 14, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Huliheʻe, Its Owners and Visitors

John Adams Kuakini was born about 1789 with the name Kaluaikonahale, the son of Keʻeaumoku and his wife Nāmāhana. His sisters were Queen Kaʻahumanu (Kamehameha’s favorite wife who later became the powerful Queen Regent and Kuhina nui,) Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and Namahana-o-Piʻia (also queens of Kamehameha) and brother George Cox Kahekili Keʻeaumoku.

He married Analeʻa (Ane or Annie) Keohokālole; they had no children. (She later married Caesar Kapaʻakea. That union produced several children (including the future King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani.))

In 1838, Kuakini built Huliheʻe as his primary residence; a structure that exemplified Hawaiʻi’s ability to build modern structures; it is a two-story stone structure with a symmetrical floor plan that has strong similarities to a New England style house. These similarities were readily apparent to foreign visitors.

In 1838, a visitor who witnessed the palace under construction wrote: “It is of stone and as handsome a building as I have seen in the islands …. It is two story, has three rooms above and below, a lanai in front the whole length and a piazza back, the lower part painted marble color and the upper green. He has much of the Koa in it which is almost as nice as mahogany.” (NPS)

Huliheʻe Palace was a source of great pride for its builder and he would regularly show the palace off to foreign visitors to the island. Kuakini died December 9, 1844 in Kailua-Kona; Huliheʻe passed to his hānai son, William Pitt Leleiōhoku.

Leleiōhoku died a few months later, leaving Huliheʻe to his wife, Princess Ruth Luka Keʻelikōlani. It became a favorite retreat for members of the Hawaiian royal family.

Following Kuakini’s death, Amos Cooke and Thomas Rooke took the children of the Chiefs’ Childrens’ School (Royal School) on a visit to Kona, arriving on July 11, 1846. Cooke noted in his journal:

“… we landed at Kailua, & were escorted to the large stone house, builed by John Adams. It had been cleared of its furniture, but mats were plenty & we occupied them for beds. Our meals were cooked on board the vessel & brought on shore.”

“The house had three large rooms above 5 below. The boys took one end room above & the girls the other. The room under the girls was used as a dining hall while we were there. It was a large & commodious house & must have cost $10,000.”

Later, Kamehameha IV (Ruth’s half-brother, who had visited Huliheʻe as a student at the Royal School) and Queen Emma particularly enjoyed their time vacationing at Huliheʻe, and visited the palace many times with their son, Prince Albert.

Kamehameha IV signed a lease with Princess Ruth for Huliheʻe at $200 per year, with the agreement that additions and repairs made would be deducted from the rental. (Daughters of Hawaiʻi)

The King and Queen purchased the ahupuaʻa of Waiaha; in 1858 they moved to Kona for a 4-month stay. (That visit was cut short with the untimely death of Queen Emma’s hānai father, Dr Rooke.)

In May, 1861 Lady Jane Franklin, widow of a famed explorer, visited the palace. Lady Franklin describes Huliheʻe as “a huge house, with excellent rooms, standing within a grassy enclosure close upon the shore and faced to the sea by a wall of lava blocks. “

“We have the great house all to ourselves, every door and window open, scanty furniture (only a bed, a sofa, tables and chairs).” The future king and future owner of the palace, David Kalākaua, accompanied Lady Franklin on the trip. (NPS)

Shortly after being elected King in 1873, Lunalilo became ill and at the urging of Princess Ruth and Queen Emma went to Huliheʻe to recover. Lunalilo brought the Henry Berger and the Royal Hawaiian Band to the palace throughout Christmas and the New Year to entertain the royalty during the holiday season. Lunalilo never recovered from his illness and died shortly after returning to Honolulu.

Despite owning Huliheʻe Palace, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani chose to live in a large hale pili (traditional grass home) on the same oceanfront property. When she became ill in Honolulu, her doctors recommended that she return to Huliheʻe, her Kailua-Kona residence, where they believed she would more quickly regain her health.

She received medical attention, but did not recover. On May 24, 1883, Keʻelikōlani died at the age of fifty-seven at Haleʻōlelo, her hale pili. Per her will, Huliheʻe Palace went to Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (who died within a year of inheriting the palace.)

Shortly after King Kalākaua finished building ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu (1882,) he purchased Huliheʻe from Pauahi’s estate in 1885 and turned Huliheʻe into his summer residence.

He completed some major renovations so that the palace would more closely resemble the modern structures he saw during his travels. He stuccoed the entire lava rock exterior and plastered over the koa-paneled walls. He felt that the palace was outdated and that these renovations were necessary so that Hawai’i could portray itself to the world as a modern society.

Other changes included enlarging the lanais, and hanging crystal chandeliers, like those he had seen in the United States and Europe, in the entry ways. The ceiling of the palace was given an ornamental cornice and gold leaf picture molding was added in some of the rooms.

Kalākaua felt that these larger and more modern palaces were more comparable to those that he saw when he was abroad, and that they were better suited for the aliʻi to live in. (During the renovation he also demolished Princess Ruth’s grass house that still stood on the property.)

The same year he finished renovation to Huliheʻe (1887,) Kalākaua, under threat of force, signed the ‘Bayonet Constitution.’ The King spent the majority of his time at Huliheʻe Palace after he signed the new constitution.

He continued to make improvements to Huliheʻe while living there and had a telephone line installed in the palace in 1888, which was one of the first telephones on the island of Hawai’i. He continued to entertain foreign visitors at the palace.

In 1889 the Prince and Princess Henri de Bourbon, members of the Austrian royal family, visited the palace and were entertained by the King. Kalākaua died in 1891 and his wife, Queen Kapiʻolani, inherited the palace. Kapiʻolani resided at Huliheʻe throughout the period of the subsequent overthrow.

Upon her death in 1899, the property went to her nephews, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole and Prince David Kawānanakoa. Fifteen years after the Princes inherited the palace they sold it to a wealthy woman, Mrs Bathsheba Alien, for $8,600. (She died just one month after the transaction.)

For years the property sat vacant and eventually fell into a state of disrepair. In 1925, the Territory of Hawaiʻi purchased the property then turned it over to the Daughters of Hawaiʻi to run it as a museum (which they continue to do today.)

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Hulihee_Palace,_before 1884

‘John Adams’ Kuakini, royal governor or the island of Hawai’i, circa 1823

Bayside_view_of_Hulihee_Palace,_prior_to_1884

Huliheʻe_Palace,_Kona,_Hawaiʻi,_c._1859._Watercolor_by_Paul_Emmert

WLA_haa_James_Gay_Sawkins_Kailua-Kona-1852

Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani (1826-1883)

Hulihee_Palace_with_Princess_Ruth_Keelikolani’s_grass_house,_ca._1885,_by_C._J._Hedemann

Princess Ruth slept in a pili grass house rather than Hulihee Palace

Visit to Hulihee Palace, Kona, Hawaii by Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole (1871-1922) and party-(HSA)-PP-97-1-012

King_Kalakaua

Hulihee Plaque

Hulihee_Palace,_Kona-entry-gate

Hulihee Palace(left)-Mokuaikaua Church(right)

Hulihee in background-the girl sitting (left) is my mother-sitting next to her(in hat) my grandmother-1928

Esther Julia Kapiʻolani Napelakapuokakaʻe (1834–1899) was Queen consort of King Kalākaua

Chris J. Willis, John Maguire, and his son Charles Maguire-on_Hulihee_Palace-Lanai-(HSA)-PP-97-1-025

Map of Kailua Bay, noting Hulihee Palace

April 4, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kīnaʻu

Kīnaʻu was the daughter of Kamehameha and Kalākua Kaheiheimālie (Hoapili Wahine.) She was a niece of Kaʻahumanu. Kīnaʻu was born probably in 1805 at Waikiki.

She was first married to her half-brother Liholiho (1797–1824) who became King Kamehameha II with the death of their father 1819. Liholiho died in London with his favorite wife (Kīna‘u’s sister) Queen Kamāmalu.

Her second husband was Kauai Governor Kāhalaiʻa Luanuʻu, a grandson of Kamehameha I. Her third husband was O‘ahu Governor Mataio Kekūanāoʻa’s (1791–1868.)

Kīna’u was the highest in rank of any of the women chiefs of her day. With Kekūanāoʻa she had several children, including Lot (afterwards Kamehameha V,) Alexander Liholiho (afterwards Kamehameha IV) and Victoria. (Liliʻuokalani)

Pauahi was born to Pākī and Kōnia and was hānai (adopted) to her aunt, Kīnaʻu. (Bernice Pauahi lived with Kīnaʻu for nearly eight years.) On September 2, 1838, Lydia Liliʻu Kamakaʻeha was born to Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea and Analeʻa Keohokālole; Liliʻu was hānai to Pākī and Kōnia (she later became Queen Liliʻuokalani.)

“When I was taken from my own parents and adopted by Pākī and Kōnia, or about two months thereafter, a child was born to Kīnaʻu. That little babe was the Princess Victoria, two of whose brothers became sovereigns of the Hawaiian people.”

“While the infant was at its mother’s breast, Kīnaʻu always preferred to take me into her arms to nurse, and would hand her own child to the woman attendant who was there for that purpose.”

“So she frequently declared in the presence of my adopted mother, Kōnia, that a bond of the closest friendship must always exist between her own baby girl and myself as aikane or foster-children of the same mother, and that all she had would also appertain to me just as if I had been her own child”. (Liliʻuokalani)

Kīnaʻu “was sedate, courteous, and reliable, a little haughty in her deportment toward strangers, but a loving, exemplary wife, a tender mother, and a warmhearted, unwavering friend.” (Judd)

“June 5, 1832, was an epoch in the nation’s history, although the death of the Queen Regent (Kaʻahumanu) was not followed by any outbreak or disorder. Kīnaʻu, eldest daughter of Kamehameha I, was publicly recognized as her lawful heir and successor, with the title of Kaahumanu II.” (Judd)

“Hear ye, ye head men, common people, chiefs, and men from foreign countries … The office that was held by my guardian (Kaʻahumanu) until her departure, now belongs to my mother (Kīna’u) from Hawai‘i to Kauai. …”

“We two, who have been too young and unacquainted with the actual transaction of business, now for the first time undertake distinctly to regulate our Kingdom.” (Kauikeaouli; Joint Proclamation by Kamehameha III and Kīna‘u)

“The office which my mother (meaning Kaʻahumanu, actually her aunt) held until her departure is now mine. All her active duties and authority are committed to me.”

“The tabus of the king, and the law of God, are with me, and also the laws of the king. My appointment as chief agent is of long standing, even from our father (Kamehameha) ….” (Kīna‘u, Joint Proclamation by Kamehameha III and Kīna‘u)

She acted as the Regent for her brother Kauikeaouli when he became King Kamehameha III, from June 5, 1832 to March 15, 1833. She was responsible for enforcing Hawaiʻi’s first penal code, proclaimed by the king in 1835.

Her term of office was marked by discord as the young King Kamehameha III, her half-brother, struggled with her and the chiefs for political power. (Archives)

Kīnaʻu soon found herself opposed by Kamehameha III, a still unsettled, self-indulgent eighteen year old. (Kelley) “Kīna‘u stood nobly in defense of virtue, decency, and good order, but the king refused to listen to her advice, and even threatened her with personal violence, if she dared to venture into his presence.” (Judd)

”ln her despondency she made us a visit one day, and said: ‘I am in straits and heavy-hearted, and I have come to tell you my thought. I am quite discouraged, and can not bear this burden any longer. I wish to throw away my rank, and title, and responsibility together, bring my family here, and live with you, or we will take our families and go to America; I have money.’” (Judd)

Mrs Judd referred her to the story of Esther, and pointed out to her the necessity of maintaining her rank and responsibility as the only hope of her people.

Fortunately for the country, she accepted this advice and remained at her post. Like the great queens of England, both she and
Kaʻahumanu displayed much wisdom in their choice of advisers, whose opinions both respected. (Krout)

Kīnaʻu became a Christian in 1830, and was involved in the persecution of Hawaiian Catholics and attempts to expel French priests. This contributed to a diplomatic confrontation with France that threatened Hawaiian sovereignty. (Archives)

Kīnaʻu died on April 4, 1839, not long after the birth of her youngest child, Victoria; her father Kekūanāoʻa then raised Victoria. She was educated at Royal School along with all her cousins and brothers.

At the age of 17, Victoria Kamāmalu was appointed Kuhina Nui by her brother Kamehameha IV soon after he ascended the throne in December 1854.

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