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May 19, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiian Woods – Hawaiian Royal Residences

Most houses at the time of Cook’s contact consisted of a framework of posts, poles and slender rods – often set on a paving or low platform foundation – lashed together with a coarse twine made of beaten and twisted bark, vines, or grassy fibers.  This was then covered with ti, pandanus or sugarcane leaves, or a thatch of pili grass or other appropriate material.

When covered with small bundles of grass laid side by side in overlapping tiers, these structures were described as resembling haystacks.  One door and frequently an additional small “air hole” provided ventilation and light, while air also passed through the thatching.  Grass or palm leaves covered the raised earth floors of these houses.

When a chief needed a house, his retainers assembled the materials and erected the structure under the direction of an individual (kahuna) expert in the art of erecting a framework and applying thatch.

Many of these more modern royal residences were named – some were named after the material they were made from.  Here are three such royal residences.

Hale Kauila (Downtown Honolulu – Queen Kīna‘u)

Hale Kauila (house built of kauila wood) once stood on the street in downtown Honolulu that still bears the name of this large council chamber or reception room (some refer to it as Kina‘u’s house.)

While the thatch is attached in the usual way, the posts are much higher than usual and have squared timber; but the most foreign touch, apart from the windows, are the cross braces at the top and between the posts and the plate (they were never used in genuine native work.)

The description by Captain du Petit-Thouars of this house (which he calls the house of the Queen Kīna‘u:) “This house, built in wood and covered with dry grasses, is placed in the middle of a fortification closed with a fence.”

“The platform on which it rests is high above the ground in the yard about 30 centimeters and it is surrounded, externally, a covered gallery which makes it more pleasant.”

“Its shape inside, is that of a rectangle lengthens; in one end, there is a flat shape by a wooden partition which does not rise to the roof.”

“This piece serves as a bedroom, in the remaining of the area, box, and at the other end, there is a portion of the high ground from 28 to 30 centimeters, which is covered with several mats: it is this kind of big couch that was placed the ladies and they are held lying on one side or stomach, or they stand to receive and to make room.”

Hale Lama (Waikīkī – King Kamehameha V)

King Kamehameha V’s Waikīkī home was built in 1866.  It was called Hale Lama.  As described by George Kanahele, the residence “was quite modest with only one bedroom, but was notable for its neo-Hawaiian architecture – a low, rectangular-shaped structure, with a high-pitched, hipped roof that was thatched and descended to the poles of the lanai that sounded three of the four exterior walls.”

“The design suited Waikiki’s climate perfectly.  The high pitched roof allowed for the upward expansion of warm air, thus cooling the inside of the house, and the wide overhanging eaves kept out both sun and rain, while inviting the serenity and beauty of the natural setting.”

“It has been mentioned that the lama wood was especially used for building houses of the gods, that is, the thatched houses within the enclosures of the heiau or luakini, and its use in building the house for King lot, Kamehameha V, gave an excuse for its reported use by an old kahuna in the King’s establishment, for a house of prayer, and I am assured by an old resident that prayers to the gods were frequently offered therein”.

After the Kamehameha V’s death in 1872, the house and property went to went to Princess Ruth who bequeathed the property to Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.  The Princess and her husband Charles Bishop renovated and enlarged the house with servant quarters.

Hale Kamani (Lāhainā – Princess Nahiʻenaʻena)

When Keōpūolani returned to Maui to live her final years, she had a house on the beach in Lāhainā; her daughter, Nahiʻenaʻena, lived in her own home next door – Nahiʻenaʻena called her house Hale Kamani.

It had an early and convenient addition to the common grass house in a land where the people lived so generally in the open air, was the lanai, with extensions of the rafters at the same or a slightly reduced slope.

This verandah was, generally speaking, the most comfortable part of the house.  This lanai was often detached as in the Hale Kamani and was sometimes large with walls of coconut leaves intertwined, and a nearly flat roof of similar substance which was intended to furnish shade rather than shelter from heavy rain.

At least one other Royal Residence was named after a native wood ‘Āinahau (Princess Kapi‘olani’s home in Waikīkī;) however, it was named such because it was situated in a hau grove, not that its wood was used in the structure.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Hawaiian Traditions, Place Names Tagged With: Lahaina, Nahienaena, Keopuolani, Kaiulani, Ainahau, Kinau, Kauila, Hawaii, Helumoa, Oahu, Lama, Kamehameha V, Kamani, Maui

May 6, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Robert Crichton Wyllie

Robert Crichton Wyllie was born October 13, 1798 in an area called Hazelbank in Dunlop parish of East Ayrshire, Scotland. His father was Alexander Wyllie and his mother was Janet Crichton.

He earned a medical diploma by the time he was 20.  In 1844, he arrived in Hawaiʻi and stayed in the Hawaiian Islands for the rest of his life.

Wyllie first worked as acting British Consul. During this time he compiled in-depth reports on the conditions in the islands. Attracted by Wyllie’s devotion to the affairs of Hawaiʻi, on March 26, 1845, King Kamehameha III appointed him the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Kamehameha IV reappointed all the ministers who were in office when Kamehameha III died, including Robert C. Wyllie as Minister of Foreign Relations.  Wyllie served as Minister of Foreign Relations from 1845 until his death in 1865, serving under Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

Within five years after taking the helm of the office he had negotiated treaties with Denmark, England, France and the United States whereby Hawaiʻi’s status as an independent state was agreed.

Wyllie eventually gave up his allegiance to Queen Victoria and became a naturalized Hawaiian subject.

In 1847, Wyllie started collecting documents to form the Archives of Hawaii.  He requested the commander of the fort in Honolulu and all the chiefs to send in any papers they might have.  Two of the oldest documents included the 1790 letter of Captain Simon Metcalf and a letter by Captain George Vancouver dated 1792.

The foundation of the Archives of Hawaiʻi today are based almost entirely upon the vast, voluminous collections of letters and documents prepared and stored away by Wyllie.

Wyllie built a house in Nuʻuanu Valley he called Rosebank. He entertained foreign visitors at the house, and the area today still has several consular buildings.

In his role in foreign affairs, Wyllie was seen as a counter to the American influence.  Wyllie wrote in the early part of 1857, “There are two grand principles that we aspire to; the first is that all nations should agree to respect our independence and consider the Archipelago strictly neutral in all wars that may arise – and the second is, to have one identical Treaty with all nations.”  (Kuykendall)

Of these two principles, the second was auxiliary to the first. Wyllie’s great ambition was to set up some permanent barrier against any possible threat to Hawaii’s national independence. He had a clear idea as to the direction from which danger was most likely to come.  (Kuykendall)

In the latter part of 1857 he wrote, “If we be left to struggle for political life, under our own weakness and inability to keep up an adequate military and naval force, in the natural course of things, the Islands must sooner or later be engulfed into the Great American Union, in which case, in time of war, the United States would be able to sweep the whole Northern Pacific.”  (Kuykendall)

Wyllie, above all other men in Hawaiʻi, succeeded in compelling the powers to maintain an attitude of “hands off”, leaving the kingdom in the list of independent nations.  (Taylor)

In March 1853, he bought a plantation on Hanalei Bay on the north shore of the island of Kauaʻi. In 1860, he hosted his friends King Kamehameha IV, Queen Emma and their two-year-old son, Prince Albert, at his estate for several weeks. In honor of the child, Wyllie named the plantation the “Barony de Princeville”, the City of the Prince (Princeville.)

Originally the land was planted with coffee; eventually it was planted with sugarcane.  Princeville became a ranch in 1895, when missionary son Albert S Wilcox bought the plantation.

A bachelor all his life, Wyllie died October 19, 1865 at the age of 67; Kamehameha V and the chiefs ordered the casket containing his remains be buried at Mauna ʻAla, the Royal Mausoleum, adjacent to those of the sovereigns and chiefs of Hawaiʻi.

Members of Queen Emma’s family are also interred in the crypt with Mr. Wyllie: Queen Emma’s mother, Kekelaokalani; her hānai parents, Grace Kamaikui and Dr. Thomas Charles Byde Rooke; her uncles, Bennett Namakeha and Keoni Ana John Young II; her aunt, Jane Lahilahi; and her two cousins, Prince Albert Edward Kunuiakea and Peter Kekuaokalani.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Rooke, Rosebank, Prince Albert, Princeville, Hawaii, Kamehameha V, Kamehameha IV, Mauna Ala, Queen Emma, Kamehameha III, Robert Wyllie

December 11, 2021 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Ni‘ihau – 1863

Ni‘ihau was formed from a single shield volcano approximately 4.89-million years ago, making it slightly younger in age than Kaua‘i. It is approximately 70-square miles or 44,800-acres.  It’s about 17-miles west of Kauaʻi.

The island’s highest point is 1,281-feet; approximately 78% of the island is below 500-feet in elevation.   Located inside Kauai’s rain shadow, Ni‘ihau receives only about 20 to 40-inches of rain per year.  Ni‘ihau has no perennial streams.  (DLNR)

“There was no appearance of any running stream; and though they found some small wells, in which the fresh water was tolerably good, it seemed scarce. The habitations of the natives were thinly scattered about; and, it was supposed, that there could not be more than five hundred people upon the island, as the greatest part were seen at the marketing-place of our party, and few found about the houses by those who walked up the country.”  (Cook’s Journal)

With limited rainfall and no perennial streams, for people to survive on the island, they likely farmed ʻuala (sweet potato) and/or uhi (yams.)  The evidence indicates Niʻihau produced excellent ʻuala and/or uhi.

“The eastern coast is high, and rises abruptly from the sea, but the rest of the island consists of low ground; excepting a round bluff head on the southeast point. It produces abundance of yams, and of the sweet root called Tee … they brought us several large roots of a brown colour, shaped like a yam, and from six to ten pounds in weight.”

“The juice, which it yields in great abundance, is very sweet, and of a pleasant taste, and was found to be an excellent substitute for sugar. The natives are very fond of it, and use it as an article of their common diet … We could not learn to what species of plant it belonged, having never been able to procure the leaves ….”  (Cook’s Journal)

For many years Niʻihau was called Yam Island by Western sailors because of the high quality of yams grown there.  A map of Yam Bay and the island of Niʻihau appeared in Captain George Dixon’s journal in 1788.  (Joesting)

So, while the island has limited rainfall, it was sufficient to grow food and sustain a population of around 500 (according to Cook.)  Niʻihau had a population of 790 people in 1853.  The census of 1860 reported a Niʻihau population of 647.

In the Māhele (1848,) Victoria Kamāmalu (sister of Kamehameha IV and V) claimed Niʻihau, however returned it and the land was retained by the government.  A couple Land Commission Awards were made to Koakanu, as well as a sale to Papapa.

Following the Māhele, the Kuleana Act of 1850 encouraged makaʻāinana to file claims with the Land Commission for land they were cultivating, plus an additional quarter acre for a house lot.  Islands-wide a total of 14,195 claims were filed and about 8,421 awards were approved; there were no Kuleana awards granted on Niʻihau.   (Van Dyke)

A couple things happened in 1863 that changed things on the island.

Through a letter dated September 22, 1863, Niʻihau residents petitioned Prince Lot (later Kamehameha V) “for a new lease of the land.”  The petition was signed by 105 of the residents of Niʻihau.

They selected one resident to represent them to negotiate the terms.  (Jonah Roll found this letter in his late father’s (Warren Roll) files.  It is not clear how Warren got it, or if it ever presented to the Prince.)

The letter also notes, “… the people from here on Niihau are leaving their long established residence on the land to be with the foreigners, or to be on Hawaii, Maui, Oahu and Kauai.  At tax time, they do not pay their taxes.  Some just make a small payment.”

At about this same time, the Sinclair clan sailed from New Zealand, with the idea of possibly relocating to Hawaiʻi.  The family was anxious to find land on which to settle and they were offered several large tracts on Oʻahu (at Kahuku, Ford Island and ʻEwa.)

When King Kamehameha IV heard the family might leave the Islands, the King offered to sell them the island of Niʻihau.  (Joesting)  (Later, the family includes the Sinclairs, Gays, Robinsons and Knudsens.)

A final purchase price of $10,000 was agreed upon, but Kamehameha IV died on November 30, so Royal Patent No. 2944 shows his brother, Kamehameha V, completed the transaction on January 23, 1864, giving fee simple title to James McHutchinson Sinclair and Francis Sinclair for all the government lands on Ni‘ihau.

These “government lands” did not include two large parcels of land set off for Koakanu during the Great Māhele in 1848 and a tract of land containing 50 acres previously sold to Papapa.  (Niʻihau Cultural Heritage Foundation)

Papapa apparently agreed to sell his acreage to the Sinclairs without incident, but it seems Koakanu refused to allow anyone to cross any portion of his land and even forbade boats to come in closer than one-half mile off the shoreline of his property.

The story goes that it was his wife who finally convinced him to accept an offer of $1,000 (or $800 according to other records) for his lands.  (Niʻihau Cultural Heritage Foundation)

“The whole island is now owned by a Presbyterian family of Scotch origin, who received me very kindly, & who will assist our work there very materially & very heartily.  The native population now remaining there is about 250 in number.” (Gulick to Anderson ABCFM (1865,) Joesting)

As he signed the contract, the king said: ‘”Niihau is yours. But the day may come when Hawaiians are not as strong in Hawaii as they are now. When that day comes, please do what you can to help them.’”  (New York Times)

“It is said that the transfer of the island involved some hardships, owing to a number of the natives having neglected to legalize their claims to their kuleanas, but the present possessors have made themselves thoroughly acquainted with the language, and take the warmest interest in the island population.”  (Isabella Bird, 1894)

The Sinclairs “bought sheep and cattle from the big ranches on Hawaii, and took them, with some fine sheep (they) brought with (them) from New Zealand, (began a) new ranch on Niihau.”  (Von Holt)  They hired the Hawaiians to help with the ranch and the island.

“The natives on Niihau and in this part of Kauai, call Mrs. (Sinclair) “Mama.” Their rent seems to consist in giving one or more days’ service in a month, so it is a revival of the old feudality. … It is a busy life, owing to the large number of natives daily employed, and the necessity of looking after the native lunas, or overseers.”  (Isabella Bird, 1894)

Today, Niʻihau has about 130-people who live at Pu‘uwai village, on the western (leeward) side of the island.  Niʻihau is nicknamed the “Forbidden Island,” because the Robinsons (present owners and descendents of the original Sinclairs) strictly limit access to the island.

The island lacks basic municipal infrastructure.  There are no paved roads (walking, horseback or bicycle are the only transportation options on Ni‘ihau.)  No water and wastewater systems.  No stores.  No restaurants.  No doctors.  No police.  No fire department.

But it has a school – the only school in Hawai‘i that relies entirely on solar power for its electricity (a 10.4-kW photovoltaic power system with battery storage was installed in December 2007.)  This enabled reliable refrigeration and use of technological hardware (yes, they have computers – however, no internet or email system is available to Niʻihau School, as of yet.)  School enrollment fluctuates between 25-50 students.

© 2021 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Filed Under: Place Names, Economy, Prominent People Tagged With: Gay, Sinclair, Hawaii, Victoria Kamamalu, Kamehameha V, Kamehameha IV, Niihau, Knudsen, Robinson

April 1, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaumakapili Church

From its first thatched-roof adobe structure erected in 1839 on the corner of Smith and Beretania Streets, to its present day structure built in 1910, the people of Kaumakapili have survived Hawaiʻi’s most turbulent times.

Starting in 1837, “the common Hawaiian folk of Honolulu” started petitioning Rev. Hiram Bingham, head of the Hawaiian Mission, to establish a second church or mission in Honolulu (Kawaiahaʻo being the first).

Governor Kekuanaoa “begged to express his manao that it should be in the village” (Honolulu); specifically, in the district of Kaumakapili where 12,000 to 13,000 people lived.  (The Friend)

They requested that the Rev. Lowell Smith be their pastor.  The 1837 annual ʻAha Paeʻaina (the annual meeting and gathering of the churches and ministers) granted their request.

The Reverend Lowell Smith and wife, Abigail Tenny Smith, arrived in Honolulu in 1833, as members of the Sixth Company. (Reverend Smith served as the first minister of Kaumakapili Church until his retirement in 1869.)

Chief Abner Pākī and wife, Konia, granted the lot on the corner of Smith and Beretania Streets for this mission – the area then known as Kaumakapili.  Pākī and Konia were parents of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, founder of the Kamehameha Schools.

On April 1, 1838, the first Sabbath of the month, the Rev. Hiram Bingham assisted Rev. Lowell Smith in organizing the church, “twenty-two persons were received by letter from Kawaiahao church two from Ewa and one from Kauai and forty-nine were received on profession of faith.”  (Smith)  This was the commencement of Kaumakapili Church.

“In early days the church was spoken of as “Smith’s Church.”  Moreover it was long thought of as the church of the common people, as distinguished from Kawaiahaʻo, known as the Chiefs’ Church.”  (The Friend)

The first Church building was constructed of adobe with a thatched pili roof and was large enough to accommodate 2,500 people.  On August 29, 1839 the church building was dedicated.

In 1865, as King Kamehameha V was nearing death, he asked High Chiefess Bernice Pauahi to be his successor, but she refused.  According to law, an election was held and Kaumakapili was used as Honolulu’s town hall during this and many future political crises.

The adobe building was torn down in 1881 to make way for a new brick edifice.

King Kalākaua took great interest in the church and wanted an imposing church structure with two steeples.  His argument was, “…that as a man has two arms, two eyes, two ears, two legs, therefore, a church ought to have two steeples.”

The cornerstone for the new church was laid on September 2, 1881 by Princess Liliʻuokalani (on her birthday.)  Seven years later the new building was completed.

It was an imposing landmark, first of its kind, and visible to arriving vessels and land travelers.  It was dedicated on Sunday, June 10, 1888.

This church played an ironic role during Kalākaua’s reign.

The Honolulu citizens held a meeting in this building protesting Kalākaua’s capriciousness and appointment of an Italian-American adventurer named Moreno as his Minister of Foreign Affairs and the appointment of a new cabinet, whose “grotesque unfitness” caused the people to be up in arms.  The result was the dismissal of Moreno four days after his appointment.

In January, 1900, disaster struck.  The presence of bubonic plague in the Chinatown area caused the health authorities to take drastic measures by burning sections of Chinatown.  Sparks fell on the wooden steeples and fire engulfed the entire building leaving only the brick walls standing.

Honolulu’s landscape was changing, so the old site at Smith and Beretania Streets was sold and a new one bought at the corner of King and the then Simerson (now Pālama) Streets in Pālama.   Services were held in a temporary small wooden chapel on Austin Lane, behind the old Palama Fire Station.

Here, for the next 10 years, the church developed its ministry with a strong emphasis on Sunday School ministering; particularly to the girls from the old Reform School that was situated on the site of the present Kaʻiulani Elementary School.

During these years and the years to follow Rev. Poepoe fostered the idea of enlisting young Hawaiian men into the Christian ministry.  This time of Kaumakapili’s history enjoyed a very active Sunday School under several outstanding superintendents – among whom were Augustus Smith, only son of Founders Rev. Lowell and Abigail Smith, and one of their daughters, Mrs. Benjamin F. Dillingham.

On May 7, 1910, Master Harold R. Erdman, great grandson of the Rev. Lowell Smith, broke ground for the third church building.  It was dedicated on June 25, 1911, the same day in which the 89th Annual Conference of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association (ʻAha Paeʻaina) was hosted by the church.

On the day of dedication of the original two stained glass windows, the great grandson of Rev. Lowell Smith, Lowell S. Dillingham, was baptized on September 13, 1912.

The Gothic Revival-style church is the most prominent feature of the urban Kalihi-Palama neighborhood. The bell tower steeple stands 96 feet above the surrounding properties. The campus features an expanse of grass lawn at the front of the building bordered by two paved parking lots and is surrounded by a low dressed-basalt wall with piers at the walk and driveway openings.

In the late twenties and early fifties, Kaumakapili was known as the “Queen of the Hawaiian Churches for she had begun missions and sister churches’ relationships as her witness to the community.” The inspiration and information on this post came primarily from kaumakapili-org and The Friend.

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Chinatown from King and River Streets. Only the shells of Kaumakapili Church (2nd) and the fire station remain standing-1900
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Kaumakapili Church (2nd) in ruins after Chinatown fire of 1900
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Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Kalakaua, Hiram Bingham, Kaumakapili, Kamehameha V, Kawaiahao Church, Paki, Chinatown, Lowell Smith

February 3, 2020 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

The Sinclairs

The family dates back to early-Europe. They took the name of Saint Claire from the place, probably Normandy, where their estate was located. (Von Holt)

A senior Saint Claire married a daughter of Richard Duke of Normandy, father of William the Conqueror (their son fought in the Battle of Hastings, 1066.) By 1481, the spelling of their name started to appear as Sinclair. (Von Holt)

OK, let’s bring this closer to home.

Looking at genealogies and relationships between folks in Hawaiʻi, you tend to see a pretty tight group of people who are either related to each other, or the families had worked together for a long time.

On Kauai, you hear the names, but the relationships aren’t evident.

Sinclair – Gay – Robinson – Knudsen

Keeping track of these folks is best done with the family tree.

You’ll see that the gang above are all in the family. And, they link back to the Saint Claire clan of old.

It started in January 1824 when Captain Francis S Sinclair married Elizabeth (“Eliza”) McHutchison (sometimes spelled McHutcheson) – they were both from Glasgow, Scotland.

In 1840, the Sinclairs and their three sons and three daughters – George, Jane, Helen, James, Francis and Anne – made the move to New Zealand. Exchanging their Scotland land, they established the farm ‘Craigforth’ in a cove on the western side of Pigeon Bay on South Island.

Craigforth was largely self-sufficient. There were no servants and the Sinclairs made their own shoes and clothes. The Sinclair girls “could manage a boat as well as their brothers, they were fearless riders…crack shots, and capable workers, so that the hardships and roughing of those early years were not too much for their buoyant spirits.” (TeAra-govt-nz)

In 1846, Eliza’s husband and her eldest son, George, set off for Wellington. The ship, loaded with produce and with all the family’s savings on board, was wrecked somewhere along the coast. There were no survivors.

Under the shadow of this tragedy, the widow and family persevered.

One of the captains of the whaling ships that regularly visited Pigeon Bay, Thomas Gay, married Jane Sinclair in 1848 and they built a house at the bay. Then, Helen Sinclair married Charles Barrington Robinson, the former magistrate at Akaroa and the owner of extensive land holdings in Canterbury.

Are you starting to see the connections? Wait, there’s more.

In 1863, the Sinclairs decided to sell the Pigeon Bay farm and settle in Canada. Eliza and 13 members of her family sailed for Canada via Tahiti (captained by her son-in-law, Thomas Gay.) California was considered as an alternative place to settle, but they were persuaded to try Hawaiʻi. They travelled to Honolulu via Los Angeles, arriving there in September 1863.

The family was anxious to find land on which to settle and they were offered several large tracts on Oʻahu (at Kahuku, Ford Island and ʻEwa.) When King Kamehameha IV heard the family might leave the Islands, the King offered to sell them the island of Niʻihau. (Joesting)

After inspecting the place, they offered $6,000. The government countered – $10,000 outright, or a lease at $750 per year. Brothers James and Francis Sinclair bought it for the government’s price, $10,000. (Joesting)

Kamehameha IV died on November 30 before the closing, so Land Grant No. 2944 shows his brother, Kamehameha V, completed the transaction in 1864.

As he signed the contract, the king said: ‘”Niihau is yours. But the day may come when Hawaiians are not as strong in Hawaii as they are now. When that day comes, please do what you can to help them.’” (New York Times)

“It is said that the transfer of the island involved some hardships, owing to a number of the natives having neglected to legalize their claims to their kuleanas, but the present possessors have made themselves thoroughly acquainted with the language, and take the warmest interest in the island population.” (Isabella Bird, 1894)

Sinclairs also bought land at Makaweli and Hanapepe on the adjoining Island of Kauai. Ownership was subsequently passed down through the family.

Eliza Sinclair’s daughter, Anne Sinclair, married Valdemar Knudsen on Niʻihau in 1867. Later, that family (with 5 children) lived in Waiawa and Halemanu in Kokeʻe (on Kauai.)

The connections of the family names got a bit tighter when Aubrey Robinson (son of Helen Sinclair and Charles Robinson) married his cousin, Alice Gay (daughter of Jane Sinclair and Thomas Gay.)

The legacy continues.

Francis Gay formed a company with his brother-in-law (and cousin) Aubrey Robinson – Gay & Robinson.

Today, although the state records list them separately, if you combined the Robinsons’ holdings of nearly 51,000 acres on Kauai and some 46,000 acres on Niʻihau, the family would be the sixth largest landowner in the state. (sfgate-com)

The 2011 report lists Aylmer Robinson as the owner of Niʻihau, although he left it to his brother’s family when he died in 1967, and nephews Bruce and Keith Robinson assumed control several years before the death of their mother, Helen, in 2002. (sfgate-com)

Eric Knudsen, son of Anne Sinclair and Valdemar Knudsen, established the Eric A Knudsen Trust with extensive land holdings on Kauai, as well.

Niʻihau isn’t the only island this extended clan owned in the Islands.

After methodically buying up individual parcels, by 1907, Charles Gay, youngest son of Captain Thomas Gay and Jane Sinclair Gay, acquired the island of Lānaʻi (except for about 100-acres.) He was the first to establish the single-ownership model for Lānaʻi (with roughly 89,000 acres.)

Around 1919, Gay experimented with planting pineapple on a small scale. He eventually sold his interest and James Dole’s Hawaiian Pineapple Company, Ltd. began the subsequent establishment of its pineapple plantation.

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Sinclair_family_at_Makaweli_House,_1893
Sinclair_family_at_Makaweli_House,_1893
Anne_Sinclair_Knudsen,_c._1875
Anne_Sinclair_Knudsen,_c._1875
Knudsen Family Group, Vienna-(knudsen-trust)-1885
Knudsen Family Group, Vienna-(knudsen-trust)-1885
Aubrey_Robinson_(Hawaii)
Aubrey_Robinson_(Hawaii)
Captain_and_Mrs_Sinclair-1843
Captain_and_Mrs_Sinclair-1843
Craigforth-(knudsen_trust)
Craigforth-(knudsen_trust)
Craigforth-Pigeon_Bay_New_Zealand-(NLA)
Craigforth-Pigeon_Bay_New_Zealand-(NLA)
Eliza_Sinclair-late-1860s
Eliza_Sinclair-late-1860s
Halemanu_House-Kokee-(knudsen_trust)
Halemanu_House-Kokee-(knudsen_trust)
Lanai-Pineapple_Planted_By_Charles_Gay-1919
Lanai-Pineapple_Planted_By_Charles_Gay-1919
Makaweli_House-Sinclair
Makaweli_House-Sinclair
Sinclair's_Home_on_Niihau
Sinclair’s_Home_on_Niihau
Villages_in_Niihau,_William_Ellis-(WC)-ca._1778
Villages_in_Niihau,_William_Ellis-(WC)-ca._1778
Niihau-WC
Niihau-WC
Robinson-(Kauai-blue;Niihau-green)-Knudsen-(pink)
Robinson-(Kauai-blue;Niihau-green)-Knudsen-(pink)
Sinclair_Family_Tree
Sinclair_Family_Tree

Filed Under: Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Kamehameha V, Kamehameha IV, Kauai, Lanai, Niihau, Knudsen, Robinson, Gay, Sinclair

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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