Koloa | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

June 24, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kauai’s South Shore

“The history of Koloa is in many ways Hawai‘i’s history in microcosm.” (Wilcox) The focus of interest is the region‘s history and the role this area played in helping to shape Hawaiʻi‘s socio-economic past, present and future.

The South Shore of the island of Kauai has many scenic, natural and recreational qualities that travelers may experience and enjoy. Along the coastal area of Poʻipu there are popular beaches for swimming, surfing, snorkeling, scuba or sunset watching.

You enter the historic Old Koloa Town and Poʻipu Beach, Kauai’s premier resort destination, through a tree-formed tunnel. The native Hawaiian history, archaeology and culture can be seen throughout the area and are the foundation of the historic events that followed.

Scattered throughout the area are remnants of pre-contact ancient Hawaiʻi life in the forms of heiau (Hawaiian temples) the Koloa Field System (agricultural) and culturally-significant natural geologic features in the forms of peaks, hills, streams, caves, bays and coastal features.

The native Hawaiians along the Koloa shore were the first to see the white man in Hawaiʻi. It was in 1778, along Kauai’s South Shore, that Captain James Cook first traveled, landed and made “contact”, introducing Hawaiʻi to the rest of the world. His arrival was the beginning of multiple changes in Hawai‘i’s socio-economic framework.

Koloa Landing at Hanakaʻape Bay (the Kingdom’s first Royal Port of Entry) became the favored and major port of call on the island – because of the ability to maneuver in and out of the anchorage – whatever the wind direction, and the region had ample water and food crops to provision the ships. This led to a series of economic activities that shaped the history of the islands.

One of the first exports from Hawaiʻi was sandalwood trees that grew throughout the islands; exported primarily to China. Sandalwood was a desirable cash crop in Hawaiʻi because it could be harvested year round and did not have to be irrigated or cultivated.

Starting in 1790, trade in Hawaiian sandalwood became an important export item. As trade and shipping brought Hawaiʻi into contact with a wider world, it also enabled the acquisition of Western goods, including arms and ammunition, by the Hawaiian leaders.

However, by 1830, the trade in sandalwood had completely collapsed for two reasons: Hawaiian forests were exhausted and sandalwood from other areas drove down the price in China which made the Hawaiian trade unprofitable.

On October 23, 1819, the first group of missionaries from the northeastern United States set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) There were seven couples sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity.

With them were four Hawaiian youths who had been students at the Foreign Mission School, including Prince Humehume (son of Kauai’s King Kaumuali‘i.) In modern times, three churches on Poʻipu Road all trace their roots to the same Christian denomination – Congregational.

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 and replaced the sandalwood trade. At that time, whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

Whalers, seeking water and food supplies, called at Koloa Landing, the Island’s foremost port. Koloa was a center for agriculture and, as such, became the center of activity for Kauai. The whaling industry was the mainstay of the islands’ economy for about 40 years.

Sugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid-19th century and became the principal industry in the islands. The early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully.

In 1835, the first commercially-viable sugar plantation was started in Hawaiʻi at Koloa. Other plantations soon followed. Sugar was the dominant economic force in Hawaiʻi for over a century. Several sites found in this area highlight the historic past of the sugar economy.

Koloa Plantation was the birthplace of the Hawaiian sugar industry. By 1883, more than 50 plantations were producing sugar on five islands.

However, during this growth, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing sugar plantations became a challenge; the only answer was imported labor. It is not likely anyone then foresaw the impact this would have on the cultural and social structure of the islands.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese (1850,) Japanese (1885) and Filipinos (1905.) Several smaller, but substantial, migrations also occurred: Portuguese (1877,) Norwegians (1880,) Germans (1881,) Puerto Ricans (1900,) Koreans (1902) and Spanish (1907.)

Sugar changed the social fabric of Hawai‘i. Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix. Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places on the planet.

Old Koloa Town grew up around the Plantation industry. Plantation workers not only labored, lived and shopped on the plantation, they also received medical care. Koloa’s buildings housed plantation stores, services and churches for these people, including Kauai’s first hotel.

When Hawaiʻi became a US territory, at the turn of the century, it drew adventuresome cruise ship travelers in a tourism boom. Hotels blossomed.

1959 brought two significant actions that shaped the present day economic make-up of Hawai‘i, Statehood and jet-liner service between the mainland United States and Honolulu. These two events helped guide and expand the fledgling visitor industry.

Tourism is the activity most responsible for Hawaiʻi’s recent economic status and standard of living. Koloa-Poʻipu hosts an organized, supportive Poʻipu Beach Resort Association that organizes and promotes destination marketing and promotion of visitor accommodations/activities on behalf of its membership.

Poʻipu Beach coastal roads have visitor accommodations including hotels, condominium and vacation rental homes. The Visitor Industry remains the primary economic influence in the islands.

We prepared a corridor management plan for the Holo Holo Koloa Scenic Byway. We were honored and proud when the Plan received the Community-Based Planning Award from the American Planning Association‐Hawaiʻi Chapter and a Historic Preservation Commendation from Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation.

Click to access Kauai-South_Shore_Background_Summary.pdf

South_Shore-Aerial Image – Ed Gross

Aerial view of Lawai Beach, Kauai-(HSA)-PPWD-10-6-007-1929

South_Shore_Kauai,_William_Ellis,_ca__1778

Hanakaape_Bay-Koloa_Landing-Ships-1898

Lawai_Beach-1935

Spouting_Horn-Puhi

Mahaulepu

KoloaLanding

Kaneiolouma-aerial

Wakauwahi_Cave

Maka’uwahi_Cave-(Sacred_Caves)

Old Koloa Town

NTBG

Koloa-Sugar-Monument

Koloa_Mill-DMY-1880-1890

Koloa_Plantation_Camp-StateArchives

August 27, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Old Koloa Town

“Koloa is the product of all of the peoples and cultures who have come to live there … ‘Families were close, and there was more than enough love for children and the elderly. . . . Hard work and character were respected as were other old fashioned values such as cleanliness, decency and courtesy.’”

“‘Crime was virtually unknown . . . the people of Koloa did not have to contend with the negative aspects we have in so many parts of our country today: illegitimacy, drug use, senseless violence at a presumed slight, or the rioting and looting that destroy a community . . .”

“. . . those who were old enough to remember Koloa as children and are still with us agree the high water-mark was in the thirties; and the tide has been receding slowly since’”. Donohugh; Bushnell)

“The last direct hit [to Kauai] was by Hurricane Dot in 1959. Dot passed south of Oahu but took a sudden turn to the north and hit Kauai, its eye passing right over Lihue.”

On November 23, 1982, “Hurricane Iwa aimed winds gusting to 110 mph at Hawaii Tuesday and 5,000 residents of Kauai island were evacuated from the storm that posed the fiercest threat to the islands since 1959.” (UPI)

“Property loss was estimated at $130 million by Thomas C. Hamner, the Federal emergency relief coordinator. … Some landmarks are gone, particularly along the island’s south coast, which were hit by the strongest winds.” (NY Times)

Old Kōloa Town grew up around the Plantation industry, attracting people to come work there from many different countries. Plantation workers not only labored, lived and shopped on the plantation, they also received medical care.

Kōloa’s buildings housed plantation stores and services for these people, including Kauai’s first hotel. Kōloa was the center of agriculture and, as such, became the center of activity for Kauai.

“Of course, we heard there was going to be a hurricane, so I had the radio on. And I was watching. And they start telling that, ‘You people better be prepared with candles or something because the lights going off.’ And I looked around all over the place, and I just couldn’t find one candle. And I thought, ‘I better go up to the store and get one.’”

“When I opened the door, it was just cats and dogs. It was raining and blowing. I said, ‘Oh, no. I’m not going.’ So I shut the door, and then I looked in all the drawers, and finally I found one big one that in the restaurants, in the hotels, they use in the cup?”

“Those, yeah. I had one of those, so I thought, ‘Oh, this should last.’ So I had it here. I sat here and I looked outside and it was blowing gales. And I thought, ‘Chee, I better sit here. And just in case the house should come down, then if I lay down between here, then it will protect me.’”

“Then, next morning, early, I went out, I see my neighbor’s house, Aoki’s house, the roof had all flown away, the living room. And then, the roof flied, was way over on the other side of the bridge and some was on the bushes.” (Kōloa resident, Masako Hanzawa Sugawa; UH Oral History)

Hurricane ʻIwa damaged some of the structures in the town, most were simply old. Then, a group called Kōloa Town Associates (KTA) persuaded the Smith‐Waterhouse Family Partnership to grant the group a long-term lease on the property comprising the core of the town.

The stated intention was to restore the historic structures in this part of Kōloa. Project architect Spencer Leineweber and landscape architect Michael S Chu collaborated in preparing the overall master plan and detailed design work for the restoration and repair of Old Koloa Town.

The challenge for the design team was to preserve the town without imposing twentieth century aesthetics. The focus for the development was on three major principles: design, organization, and economic restructuring. (Leineweber & Chu)

“As he had done with several Chinatown properties, Gerrell is trying out his ‘preservation and profit’ formula to ‘return Koloa Town to its original appearance’ and attract more visitors to Kauai.” (SB, May 12, 1983)

“[Bob] Gerell … doing business as Koloa Town Associates, has signed a 67-year lease with the Mabel P Waterhouse Trust. Waterhouse has owned much of the town’s commercial property since 1850.”

“Gerell has begun refurbishing 18 buildings on four acres of land in the original town … He plans to demolish some ‘unsalvageable’ structures and build six or seven new structures with space for up to 25 tenants.” (SB May 12, 1983)

“When we took over, there were 18 original plantation-style buildings. Our intent was to renovate them back to this original appearance. We were able to save 13, but the rest were in such bad condition that they had to be torn down.” (Gerell, SB, Aug 29, 1984)

“The design development of the oldest area, known as the Kahalewai Court, concentrated on restoration of the old general store and the old hotel building. Since the Yamamoto Store has the strongest visual image for Koloa, this area will become the visual gateway to the development.”

“The area will have an open lawn for outdoor performances. A dry stream bed will meander through the area to provide a necessary relief drainage system. It is quite common in older developments that the buildings are not always positioned in the most ideal locations for drainage.”

“Since the existing relationship with the ground was critical to the overall perception and scale of the buildings, a secondary drainage system that was not foreign to the old town was added so that the original ground drainage patterns could remain.”

“The second area in the town’s development was the Plantation House Shops. As the plantation expanded, housing for the workers began to develop around the town. A portion of these residential buildings will be developed into small craftsman-style shops. The landscape development in this area will be residential in scale and have that ‘chopsuey’ look of many plantation villages.”

“The last area of the town to develop was the false front ‘old west’ commercial structures. These buildings will once again have canopies over the sidewalk and boardwalks connecting the buildings to each other. Large shop windows that have been boarded up for years will once again display merchandise.” (Leineweber & Chu)

The wooden walkway along Kōloa Road in front of the buildings was added to facilitate tourist shopping. Some attention was paid to exterior features such as false fronts to give an appearance from the street similar to the original. Kōloa Town Associates named the resulting group of new buildings ‘Old Kōloa Town’ and leased them to businesses catering to tourists.

Although the majority of the structures were in an extremely dilapidated condition when the project began, the emphasis of the renovation was to bring the historic assets of the town back into focus. Techniques for accomplishing this include the careful repair of cornice moldings, small window panes, decorative rail work, as well as substantial replacement of structural beams and roofings. (Leineweber & Chu)

“One of the distinct advantages of a shopping center, organization of the tenants, was applied to Koloa. Since the developer, Mr. Robert Gerell, has a sixty-seven-year master lease with the landowner, all of the shops can have a similar lease. This arrangement gives them common marketing advantages (promotions, sales, common store hours, signage).”

“The merchants begin to give up the idea of being the biggest and the best on the block and seek a stronger image of being part of a larger whole.”

“The revitalization of any area cannot happen overnight. The emphasis is not on instant solution to problems that have taken years to develop. A gradual but steady program of improvements based on a flexible master plan is essential in anticipating the dynamics of this town of Koloa.” (Leineweber & Chu)

Monkeypod trees are the signature of Kōloa Town. The trees line Kōloa, Weliweli, Waikomo and Po‘ipū Roads. They enhance the character and atmosphere of Hawai‘i’s first plantation town.

Two monkeypod seeds were been brought to Hawai‘i from Mexico by Mr. Peter Brinsdale who was the American Consul in 1847. The seeds were germinated and the seedlings planted. One was planted in Kōloa. The second seedling was planted in Honolulu. This tree was removed when the Alexander Young Hotel was built on the site.

Old Koloa Town is part of the region’s Holo Holo Kōloa Scenic Byway. We prepared the Corridor Management Plan for the Byway. The CMP was recognized with a “Preservation Commendation” from Historic Hawai‘i Foundation and the American Planning Association – Hawaiʻi Chapter presented Hoʻokuleana LLC with the “Community-Based Planning” award.

August 23, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Sugar Production

He keiki aloha nā mea kanu

Beloved children are the plants

(ʻŌlelo Noʻeau 684)

In the past two decades, significant advances in radiocarbon dating and the targeted re-dating of key Eastern Polynesian and Hawaiian sites has strongly supported a “short chronology” model of Eastern Polynesian settlement.

It is suggested that initial Polynesian discovery and colonization of the Hawaiian Islands occurred between approximately AD 1000 and 1200. (Kirch)

Sugar was a canoe crop; the early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in the islands.

In pre-contact times, sugarcane was not processed as we know sugar today, but was used by chewing the juicy stalks. Its leaves were used for inside house thatching, or for outside (if pili grass wasn’t available.) The flower stalks of sugar cane were used to make a dart, sometimes used during the Makahiki games. (Canoe Crops)

The first written record of sugarcane in Hawaiʻi came from Captain James Cook, at the time he made initial contact with the Islands. On January 19, 1778, off Kauai, he notes, “We saw no wood, but what was up in the interior part of the island, except a few trees about the villages; near which, also, we could observe several plantations of plantains and sugar-canes.” (Cook)

Cook notes that sugar was cultivated, “The potatoe fields, and spots of sugar-canes, or plantains, in the higher grounds, are planted with the same regularity; and always in some determinate figure; generally as a square or oblong”. (Cook)

It appears Cook was the first outsider to put sugarcane to use. One of his tools in his fight against scurvy (severe lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in your diet) was beer.

On December 7, 1778 he notes, “Having procured a quantity of sugar cane; and having, upon a trial, made but a few days before, found that a strong decoction of it produced a very palatable beer, I ordered some more to be brewed, for our general use.”

“A few hops, of which we had some on board, improved it much. It has the taste of new malt beer; and I believe no one will doubt of its being very wholesome. And yet my inconsiderate crew alleged that it was injurious to their health.” (Cook)

While the crew “would (not) even so much as taste it”, he “gave orders that no grog should be served … (he) and the officers, continued to make use of this sugarcane beer, whenever (they) could get materials for brewing it.” (Cook) Others later made rum from the sugarcane.

But beer and rum were not a typical sugar use; “in 1802 sugar was first made at these islands, by a native of China, on the island of Lanai.”

“He came here in one of the vessels trading for sandal wood, and brought a stone mill, and boilers, and after grinding off one small crop and making it into sugar, went back the next year with his fixtures, to China.” (Torbert; Polynesian, January 31, 1852)

While HSPA – HARC states, “The first successful sugarcane plantation was started at Kōloa, Kauai in 1835. Its first harvest in 1837 produced 2 tons of raw sugar, which sold for $200”, others suggest the first commercial production actually started on Maui. (Hawaii Agriculture Research Center (HARC) (successor entity to Hawaii Sugar Planters Association (HSPA))

A couple guys named Ah Hung and Ah Tai, who combined their names in order to identify their company – a 1939 news ‘Short’ says Hungtai “is said to have been one of the earliest manufacturers of sugar in the islands, at Wailuku, Maui in 1823.” (Star Bulletin, April 6, 1939) Others say Hungtai started commercial sales in 1828; still, seven years before Koloa.

Hungtai had a plantation and a water-powered mill in Wailuku, and sold the sugar in their store at Merchant and Fort Streets in Honolulu. They were still selling that sugar as late as 1841, when they were advertising in local newspapers. (TenBruggencate)

Early plantations were small and didn’t fare too well. Soon, most would come to realize that “sugar farming and sugar milling were essentially great-scale operations.” (Garvin)

Then, King Kamehameha III sought to expand sugar cultivation and production, as well as expand other agricultural ventures to support commercial agriculture in the Islands. In a speech to the Legislature in 1847, the King notes:

“I recommend to your most serious consideration, to devise means to promote the agriculture of the islands, and profitable industry among all classes of their inhabitants. It is my wish that my subjects should possess lands upon a secure title; enabling them to live in abundance and comfort, and to bring up their children free from the vices that prevail in the seaports.”

“What my native subjects are greatly in want of, to become farmers, is capital with which to buy cattle, fence in the land and cultivate it properly. I recommend you to consider the best means of inducing foreigners to furnish capital for carrying on agricultural operations, that thus the exports of the country may be increased …” (King Kamehameha III Speech to the Legislature, April 28, 1847; Archives)

Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880. These twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system. Basic features of rural factory life were established.

This was a period of rapid growth for the sugar industry, building upon the momentum triggered by the Māhele of 1848, the Kuleana Act of 1850, and the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875. Likewise, the Civil War virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s, enabling Hawai‘i to compete with elevated prices for sugar.

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. Sugar‐cane farming proved to be the only available crop that could be grown. However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese 1852; Japanese 1885 and Filipinos 1905. Several smaller, but substantial, migrations also occurred: Portuguese 1877; Norwegians 1880; Germans 1881; Puerto Ricans 1900; Koreans 1902 and Spanish 1907.

It is not likely anyone then foresaw the impact this would have on the cultural and social structure of the islands; the sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures.

At the industry’s peak in the 1930s, Hawaii’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar. That plummeted to 492,000 tons in 1995.

With statehood in 1959 and the almost simultaneous introduction of passenger jet airplanes, the tourist industry began to grow rapidly.

A majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s.

As sugar declined, tourism took its place – and far surpassed it. Like many other societies, Hawaii underwent a profound transformation from an agrarian to a service economy.

August 4, 2023 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kōloa Heritage Trail

The Kōloa District is the name of a modern political-judicial district encompassing the south shore of Kauai.

In ancient times, the Kōloa District was part of a larger district called Kona. The Kōloa Heritage Trail travels through four ahupuaʻa. From east to west, they are: Māhāʻulepu, Paʻa, Weliweli and Kōloa.

Poʻipū is part of the Kōloa ahupua’a. One meaning of the name Poʻipū is crashing, as in waves crashing.

The Kōloa Heritage Trail is a 10-mile walk, bike ride or drive which includes 14 stops and monuments describing the significance of the location.

1. Spouting Horn Park

Spouting Horn Park was called puhi, or blowhole, by early Hawaiians. Legends tell of a huge mo‘o, or lizard, caught in this puhi, which was formed when waves eroded softer, underlying rock and wore through the harder top rock. Water rushing into the hole is forced through the narrow opening and shoots skyward.

2. Prince Kūhiō Birthplace & Park

Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole was born in Kōloa in a grass hut near this beach to Princess Kinoike Kekaulike and High Chief David Kahalepouli Pi‘ikoi. He became a delegate to U.S. Congress after Hawai`i became a Territory in 1900, serving for 19 years. He worked tirelessly on behalf of the Hawaiian people.

3. Hanakaʻape Bay & Kōloa Landing

Once, Kōloa Landing was the third largest whaling port in all of Hawai`i and the only port of entry for foreign goods. The Sugar industry increased its use until 1912, when better facilities became available elsewhere. Goods and people were transferred by hand and small boat to ships in Hanaka‘ape Bay.

4. Pa‘u a Laka – Moir Gardens

What began as a hobby garden by the Kōloa Plantation Manager’s wife became celebrated as one of the world’s best of its kind. Numerous cactus planted in the 1930s thrived in the arid, rocky soil here. Many escaped to surrounding areas to become naturalized over time. You’ll also find water lily-filled lava rock ponds, koi and a variety of orchid and cactus species.

5. Kihahouna Heiau

The walled heiau (temple) that once stood here was 130 feet by 90 feet; dedicated to Kane, a major god of Hawaii; Hulukoki, a bird god; and Ku-hai-moana and Ka-moho-alii, two shark gods. Three hala-lihilihi-ula trees situated on the outside of the naupaka hedge mark the heiau perimeter.

6. Po‘ipū Beach Park

Abundant, easy-to-view marine life in calm waters is a major attraction at Po‘ipū Beach. The endangered native Hawaiian Monk seal and threatened Green sea turtle are frequent visitors. From November through May, the endangered Humpback whale appears. Ancient Hawaiians fished and played here and harvested salt in dug-out evaporating pans nearby.

7. Keoneloa Bay

Between 200 and 600 A.D., early visitors arrived at Keoneloa Bay, meaning long sand, likely from the Marquesas Islands. They used the area as a temporary fishing camp, leaving behind stone-age tools, remnants of heiau, or temples, and ahu, or altars. They prayed to Kane‘aukai, an important fishing god.

8. Makawehi & Pa‘a Dunes

The lithified sand dunes of Makawehi, calm face, and Pa‘a, hard rock, yield fossilized plant roots, bird bones, crab claws and other treasures. Prior to extensive wave erosion, this prominent limestone ridge extended across Keoneloa Bay. During March through November, water birds visit and sea birds nest and roost in the dunes.

9. Pu‘uwanawana Volcanic Cone

More than 5 million years ago, a hotspot in the earth spewed lava upward to form the volcanic mountain island of Kaua‘i. Nearby Ha‘upu Ridge and Mountain contain some of the oldest geologic formations. Look for the youngest volcanic cones such as Pu‘uwanawana, within view. Weathered volcanic material produced rich agricultural plains.

10. Hapa Road (Hapa Trail)

Lava rock walls near Hapa Road signify Hawaiian habitation ca. 1200 AD, while the road dates to the late 1800s. Nearby tracks once held trains hauling cane to Kōloa Plantation for milling. Hapa Road served as a supply and emergency evacuation route during World War II, and at various times a foot- and bicycle path.

11. Kōloa Jodo Mission

Buddhist temples provided Japanese immigrants a place to worship, study their language, learn martial arts and participate in social events. This Jodo Mission used a specialist in temple architecture from Japan to build the large temple’s interior. Hand-painted, wooden ceiling tiles were a gift from the Japanese artist who rendered them.

12. Sugar Monument

Ancient Polynesians were the first to bring sugar cane to Hawai’i. Starting with its first cane seeding in 1835, Kōloa Plantation was the first in Hawai’i to successfully mill cane commercially for export. It set the precedent for free housing and medical benefits for its immigrant employees from China, Japan, East and West Germany, Portugal and the Philippines.

13. Yamamoto Store & Kōloa Hotel

Built at the turn of the 20th century, The Yamamoto Building functioned at various times as a plantation camp store and general store with service station. Behind it, the Kōloa Hotel offered rooms to traveling salesmen and actors. The o-furo, or hot tub, provided a relaxing soak to guests.

14. Kōloa Missionary Church

Kōloa Missionary Church sanctuary is part of a homestead once owned by Dr. James W. Smith, a medical missionary. In 1842, he began a practice of over 40 years, later becoming an ordained minister at The Church at Kōloa. His grandson, Dr. Alfred Herbert Waterhouse, added a clinic to the homestead in 1933.

The Poʻipū Beach Resort Association and its Po‘ipū Beach Foundation are the major sponsors of the trail map and brochures.

All of these sites are Points of Interest in the Holo Holo Kōloa Scenic Byway; we worked with the Kōloa and Poʻipū communities and prepared the Corridor Management Plan for their Scenic Byway.

July 8, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Charles Titcomb

Charles Titcomb was a practical Yankee of considerable ability (born in Boston, July 24, 1803), a watchmaker by trade, who had reached the Hawaiian Islands as a sailor on the bark Lyra that was wrecked in the ‘false passage’ (apparently around Maui) in 1830. (Damon and PCA March 31, 1883) He lived/worked at various places on Kauai.

Koloa

He initially settled at Koloa, Kauai. At the time, “Clusters of native dwellings are scattered on the plain, but the principal village is situated a mile from the beach, at a short distance from the missionary buildings.”

“Fields of sugar cane, taro, yams, and other vegetables, bespeak a more than usual attention to agriculture. The population of Koloa, which is about three thousand, is increasing rapidly by emigrations from other districts. But the principal attractions here are the estates of Messrs. Ladd & Co. and Messrs. Peck & Titcomb, American gentlemen.”

“From Ladd and Company Messrs. Peck and Titcomb subleased about 400 acres on which, from 1836 to 1840, they conducted careful experiments in raising cotton, coffee and silk.”

“Their mulberry trees throve so that one of the little hills on their land was soon called Mauna Kilika, or Silika, as it still is on old maps. … Beset by one difficulty after another, such as drought, blight and failure of the silkworm eggs to hatch even when taken in bottles to the mountain tops for a lower temperature, silk culture was abandoned about 1840.”

“Mr. Titcomb then transferred his equipment across the island to Hanalei to begin similar attempts there. And sugar thus remained the one active commercial enterprise in Koloa.” (Damon)

Hanalei

“In the course of time other white settlers were attracted to the fertile and well-watered region of Hanalei and Waioli, among whom the first to undertake a business venture systematically was this same Charles Titcomb of Koloa.”

“While his interests were frankly commercial, and it was of course essential that his silk worms should be fed on Sunday, as on every other day, it is not true, as has sometimes been alleged, that the missionaries of Hanalei attempted to thwart his industrial efforts.”

“The refutation of this charge is made on the indisputable authority of Mr. G. N. Wilcox, who grew up in one of the two mission homes at Waioli and knows the history of Kauai as it is known to no other living person today.”

The missionaries at Hanalei, as at Koloa, rejoiced that Hawaiians had now some means of profitable labor by which they could free themselves from the restrictions of the konohiki, or overlord. And while the missionaries regretted that a certain amount of labor was necessary on the Sabbath, it came to be regarded as an inevitable accompaniment of economic change.”

“And when on, or even perhaps before, the blighting of his mulberry trees at Koloa, Mr. Titcomb started cuttings in the Hanalei river bottom, a prodigiously rapid growth was the result, even also as ratoons.”

“Mr. Jarves states that Mr. Titcomb had obtained his lease of Hanalei river lands from the king as early as 1838. A fairly good quality and quantity of silk was soon produced, the Hawaiian women proving skilful in the art of reeling the delicate threads from the tiny cocoons, and the first export was made in 1844, but profits were too slow to warrant the necessary outlay of capital.”

“Securing berries from the Kona fields of Messrs. Hall and Cummings, Mr. Titcomb gradually replaced his mulberry orchards with coffee plants, and thus opened direct competition with his immediate neighbors.”

“Another commercial venture, somewhat farther afield, was made by Mr. Wundenberg in company with Messrs. Titcomb and Widemann late in 1848, when the three gentlemen left their families on Kauai and proceeded to join the gold rush to California. The net result seems to have been chiefly in the realm of experience, for it was not long before all three had returned to their former agricultural pursuits. …”

“In 1853 [Robert Wyllie] bought the Crown lands at Hanalei which were leased by the Rhodes Coffee Plantation, and two years later Captain Rhodes sold out his financial interest in it to Mr. Wyllie.”

“After the visit of the royal personages at Hanalei in 1860, Mr. Titcomb’s plantation became known as Emmasville and Mr. Wyllie’s as Princeville Plantation, in honor of the event. And Princeville is the name which persists to this day as the title of the estate.”

“In 1862 the Princeville plantation, following Mr. Titcomb’s lead, was converted from coffee to sugar and the face of the river valley took on a materially different aspect. Mr. Wyllie added the two ahupuaas, land divisions, of Kalihikai and Kalihiwai, to his Princeville estate, and sent to Glasgow for his sugar mill.” (Damon)

“Foremost in enterprise, Mr. Titcomb was the prime mover in introducing the Tahitian variety of cane, which for so many years was the backbone of the industry.”

“The whaling captain entrusted with the importation of this new cane chanced to make port at Lahaina, whence the samples were distributed throughout the islands. Hence the name, Lahaina cane, for that staple variety which was in reality from Tahiti.”

“[T]he coffee plantation of Mr. Titcomb at Hanalei was reported, just before the drought, as in excellent order and always a model of good management and thrift.” (Damon)

Coffee was grown successfully at Hanalei during the 1840s and 1850s until a blight caused by aphids wiped out over 100,000 coffee trees. (Soboleski, TGI)

“In 1852 Irish potatoes constituted the largest export from the islands to California, but two years later the Hawaiian planters ‘were eating potatoes from California of better quality and less price.’”

“By the process of the survival of the fittest, sugar was becoming Hawaii’s staple product. Yet even that finally proved unsuited to the cool, wet climate of Hanalei.”

“Mr. Titcomb, in the lead as usual, sold the Emmasville Plantation of over seven hundred acres to Mr. Wyllie in 1863 and moved to Kilauea, further to the eastward on the Kauai shore. Here he bought the Kilauea land grant from the king and established himself in cattle ranching.” (Damon)

Kilauea

“He built himself a house, which until very recently was used as the Kilauea plantation hospital; and when Mr. Widemann came to Hanalei in 1864, Mr. Titcomb secured his herd of cattle from Grove Farm.”

“Capt. Dudoit and Mr. Titcomb of Hanalei also met with considerable success at Kilauea, but the former moved his family to Honolulu in 1862.”

“These two gentlemen had become discouraged with the struggles in sugar at Princeville and were attempting the somewhat drier climate to the eastward.”

“In 1877, when Titcomb sold his Kilauea ranch to English Capt. John Ross and Edward Adams for the purpose of growing sugar cane, Kilauea Sugar Plantation was founded, with Titcomb staying on to build the plantation’s first sugar mill.” (Damon) Kilauea Plantation closed in 1971. (Soboleski, TGI)

“Having primitive works, his whole product was for many years put into syrup, during which time ‘Titcomb’s Golden Syrup’ was the choice article of our groceries. … Titcomb was an industrious, law-abiding citizen; a neighbor to be desired, and an affectionate husband and father.” (Daily Honolulu Press, March 24, 1883)

Titcomb married Kanikele Kamalenui in 1841; they were the parents of at least 3 sons and 5 daughters. Kanikele died January 16, 1881; Charles died March 21, 1883.