Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Getting Around in Kona … in the Old Days

“While in the old days, you walked to school and you walked home. There wasn’t any time for anything else. … Nobody got a ride to school unless they lived five miles away from the school.”  (Sherwood Greenwell, Social History of Kona)

“[We’d] go down swimming … Straight down [from up mauka to Kainaliu beach] of we used to walk down to Keauhou Beach. That’s five of six miles.  Yeah, we used to walk.”  (William Ishida, Social History of Kona)

“I grew up with my aunts and uncles living in a big house with my grandparents and my parents. We walked to school, and we would chit-chatter. In the morning, we never played on the roadside because we had to get to school on time.”

“But coming home after school from Japanese[-language] school, it was different. We’d look around the roadside for thimbleberries, rose apple or mountain apple, or guavas. We didn’t encounter too much animosity growing up together with other nationalities.”

“Hōlualoa was a real multicultural community. We lived among many different races, and we did many things together in the neighborhood.”

“I grew up doing things with my aunties and uncles. It was more family togetherness. We didn’t have anything like television; we couldn’t afford to buy things. We picked seeds on the roadside, and we’d save them to do some craft things.”

“As a teenager, going to movies at the Hōlualoa Theater was a treat. I never went alone; always as a group. We enjoyed visiting our neighbors to sing songs and exchange stories.”

“My childhood days was very simple. It wasn’t like, oh we have to go someplace to have fun. It was a joy to visit my girlfriends’ home and do some embroidery or stitchery; picking guavas and mountain apples from the fields.”

“We would just go in the coffee field and we’d play with simple things, like getting a guava branch for sticks, or whatever. … It was a little community and we all knew the families in Hōlualoa. We knew everyone and we trusted everyone”.

“Coffee season, we’d never go anywhere. From early in the morning we’d go out to pick coffee; it was like we had to do it. We never say, ‘Oh, we don’t want to pick coffee.’ We’d get up and it’s our responsibility, it’s part of our life.”

“We’d pick every day; there’s no Sundays. If it rained, there were other chores, like bagging all the coffee underneath the hoshidana [large coffee sun-drying platforms with retractable roofs] to take it to American Factors.”

“When we were done with our coffee picking, we’d help families in Kainaliu. I remember going to my relative, the Takeguchis, near Konawaena School. The whole crew, my brothers and even my grandmother, we’d all go and help pick their coffee.”

“I remember asking my grandma, ‘How did you come from Hilo to Kona?’ And she said she and my grandfather walked from Hilo. I said, ‘You mean you walked all the way?’”

“She said they walked to Honu‘apo. You know, Ka‘ū? There’s a landing, Honu‘apo. And I said, ‘Oh, what did you do for sleeping and for food?’ She said they just walked, and during the evening before it gets real dark, they see a dim light here and there.”

“They’d go up, and many of the Hawaiians were very nice. They gave them a place for them to rest on the porch, and I guess they gave them whatever food. They made it to Honu‘apo, rode the boat, and landed at Nāpō‘opo‘o.” (Alfreida Kimura Fujita, Kona Heritage Stores)

“I think on my father’s side, the grandparents, after they finished their contract with the Plantation [in East Hawaii], then they were free, so they came to Kona.”

“But I think – on my mother’s side – I think they took off before their contract was over. My mother was the eldest – she had five brothers. And the one below her, they had to walk all the way [to Kona].”

They walked “From Hilo [to Honu‘apo]. … [T]they had a boat going in and out those days. So, they rode on the boat at Honu‘apo and then came to Kona. … Probably they slept over one night or two nights. Especially when you have a family, you know, it’s hard.“

“[W]e used to make our own fun. Go down the beach, we used to walk all the way. No more cars like today. And everything was nature in the raw. We go down there, and coming home it’s hot.”

“We all walked to school. Like, from Kainaliu till Konawaena – it was up where First Hawaiian Bank is now [next to the Kealakekua Public Library]. That used to be the old Konawaena School.”

“But that’s nothing. There were some people living farther away. They had to walk all the way. And the road was not much of a road, either, you know. Not paved road at all. All gravel road, and rough.” (Norman K. Okamura, Kona Heritage Stores)

“[F]ortunately, my father had two sisters who were schoolteachers, and they didn’t have a car. So every morning my father had to take them to school. So we used to ride in the car and go to school, same way.  So we were real fortunate that my father had a taxi business and we were able to hang on and go to school. Didn’t have to walk.” (Susumu Oshima, Kona Heritage Stores)

“Well, I was really fortunate because the place we live is centralized. They call it central Kona, because all my friends, they all surrounded me. All my classmates and all that we always stood by each other for fun.”

“In fact, in my gang we had about fifteen to twenty of us and in the morning before we go to school, we always got together at the store.”

“We talk story, play cards, and we used to walk to school every day. And I remember because I love my sports, and the way we had to entertain ourselves is those days, we didn’t have any basketball. Tennis ball was available, … in the garage we made a basket out of a Crisco can. And we used to play basketball in that area.”

“And since it was war days when I was about twelve, thirteen, there was no field to play in. The [Māmalahoa] Highway was next to my store, so we played football in the highway because we could see the cars coming. Half an hour later or so (laughs), we own the field. Our field was a road.” (Sukeji Yamagata, Kona Heritage Stores)

“Of course, those days didn’t have many cars so you could take up the whole road to walk.”  (Alfreida Kimura Fujita, Kona Heritage Stores)

“[My father would make] me watch the store. Well, I was old enough to watch. And he goes down, early in the morning, walk – there’s a trail from the church here.”

“And there’s a trail going all the way down. When I grew up, I wanted – I was so curious how to get there. Two girls and I, we took that trail.”

“I said, “Gee, and here my father went all the way to get food.” The walking down is okay but coming home with that basket of fish. . . . [it would take] about half an hour [to walk the trail].” (Madeline Fujihara Leslie, Kona Heritage Stores)

“[L]ots of the Japanese people had donkeys, and so did some Hawaiians, they would come shop, and put [the groceries] on, tie ’em up, so the donkey would pack those things home for them.”

“After they buy their groceries, they put ’em in a bag and then have two bags with some kind of thing around. And then it would balance, and the donkey go back home, up the hill.”

“That was their transportation like. They buy canned goods, like corned beef, cracker, those needed items, they buy. And people live way up, about a mile up the hill. And only by trail, no cars. So they would bring their donkey.”

“And I’ve seen them put two bags across. Then the donkey would go home with an even weight. Yeah, all had donkeys. I used to ride them, too.” (Madeline Fujihara Leslie, Kona Heritage Stores)

“And we used to go fishing right down here; we walked down. … Yeah, we walked down, because no cars those days. Went down fishing. … And later on when the war stopped, they had surplus jeeps, then we started buying those jeeps. Then we didn’t have to walk anymore.” (Sukeji Yamagata, Kona Heritage Stores)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kona Oranges

The orange is one of the oldest of cultivated fruits; although its nativity is not known, it probably originated in the Indo-Chinese region. It is now widely distributed.

Native to Asia, oranges were introduced to Hawaii by Captain George Vancouver; in 1792 he came from Tahiti, where it had long grown, having received a large store of supplies from the natives there.

Arriving on Hawaii Vancouver left with the native chiefs of Kona a number of valuable seeds and ‘some vine and orange plants.’ A few days later he left some ‘orange and lemon plants’ on the island of Niihau.

It is supposed that these plants were the parents of the famous russet Kona oranges that are such general favorites among islanders. On Molokai, far back in the mountains, an old orange grove was seen in a fairly thrifty state.

Some of the trees were two feet in diameter at the height of my shoulder. Everything about them indicated their great age, and it is highly probable that this grove antidates the introduction of the plants by Vancouver.  (Bryan, Natural History of Hawaii)

As noted in Captain Vancouver’s journal in March 1792:

The retinue of Tianna (Ka‘iana) on this occasion was to consist of a considerable number; part were to attend him on board the Discovery, and, the remainder was to proceed in the Chatham. His residence was a little to the north of Karakakooa (Kealakekua); and as it was proposed his suite should be taken on board the next afternoon …

As Tianna had several goats, I did not present him with any of these animals, but made him very happy by giving him some vine and orange plants, some almonds, and an assortment of garden feeds, to all of which he promised the most particular care and attention. (Vancouver (Vol 1, 1792)

“The orange flourished in the dry climate, similar to that found in the Valencia region of Spain from which the variety originated.”

“Many acres of what came to be known as ‘Kona oranges’ were grown and, for many decades during the nineteenth century, these oranges were a major export from the region.”

“Many of these oranges were bound for the West Coast, with some making their way into the goldfields of California. A few Kona orange trees still exist, bearing fruit to this day.” (Nagata, WHT)

The California gold rush brought an economic boom to Hawaii agriculture; Irish and sweet potatoes, onions, pumpkins, oranges, molasses, and coffee were shipped to the West Coast. (DOA)

Then, “In the late 1880s and 1890s Holualoa was an agricultural region settled by Chinese, Portuguese and Japanese immigrants who planted coffee, cotton, grapes, breadfruit and Kona oranges for export to support their growing community.”

“From 1899 to 1926 coffee was replaced by sugar cane, which then supported their local economy very well. Coffee later saved the Holualoa economy after the sugar market collapsed.” (Burt, Western Express)

Oranges continued to grow and be sold in Kona, “the orange tree branches are real strong. They won’t break, and you can rely on it. We used to climb the trees, pick it by hand.”

“But another thing, what [my father] did was, to save time instead of getting the basket going up, he made basket on the top with a funnel like thing made out of cloth and the thing would drop all the way to the ground.”

“And what we did was, with the basket we just spin the thing round and around, and when we picked the orange, the orange would come down whirling, whirling, no damage to the orange. So, when you get down there, you know no damage.  So that’s the way we were picking the orange.”

“And the biggest success from the orange was when the Second World War came on, the army wanted our oranges and they wanted it real bad. So we just had to go pick, even half-ripe ones, whatever came up to the station up here. The thing just went on the truck and gone. We had four years of good [business].”

[Interviewer Question:] “So wartime, oranges was good then.  [Answer]; Oh yeah, couldn’t keep up. … Yeah, in Kona. Kona Orange. …”

“Well, after school, because we were so busy those days. Coming back from school we had to grade the oranges and watch the store when my mother was cooking. My dad wasn’t around, so we all pitched in and did all the things that had to be done.”

“We were lucky because all our brothers stood by, never did go anyplace. But one of the setbacks was, since we had to work on the farm, my second oldest brother couldn’t volunteer for the army because they classified him 4-F.”

“They wanted somebody to run the farm because my father wasn’t here. So, he stayed back and then my other brothers were drafted. The oldest was [a member of] the 100th [Infantry] Battalion. The other one, he just got into the army when the war was over….”

“Yamagata Store was not only general merchandise, [my mother] went into material, and oranges were sold in the store too. In fact, the oranges had their own place in the veranda. We had a rack made just for the oranges; people would just stop and buy the oranges….”

“Tourists used to stop by because of the oranges, we displayed the oranges. A lot of tourists. … [Question]: So it’s mostly tourists buying the oranges? … [Answer] “Yeah.”

“It’s a small quantity going to the tourists, but most of them we had to ship them out to Honolulu, all over. They used to go out, by the truckload they used to ship them out. So we had to make the crates and everything.”

[Oral History Question]: “It wouldn’t make sense for a Kona person to come buy oranges, yeah?” [Answer]: “We used to give them. You know, when the oranges getting a little too old or something, ‘Here, take ‘em home.’”  (Sukeji Yamagata, N. Yamagata Store, Kona Heritage Stores Oral History)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kona Sugar

Kona’s first sugar plantation was started by Judge C. F. Hart in 1869; a small mill was erected and a  dozen horses were used to pull the rollers. The plantation, which covered 50 acres, was unprofitable and soon abandoned. (Social History of Kona)

In 1899, Kona’s first and only sugar mill was built in Wai‘aha.  Sugarcane was grown mauka of a railroad track that was built to support the mill. (Maly)

The Kona Sugar Co, was established for the purpose of cultivating sugar cane and manufacturing sugar and generally to carry on a sugar plantation and general agricultural business. (Hawaii Supreme Court)

In the early 1900s, the Kona Sugar Co, under the auspices of a number of affiliated companies, constructed a railway line from Wai‘aha, North Kona, to Keōpuka in South Kona. The railway was built at approximately the 700-foot elevation. The train that ran on this railroad was a 3 ft. wide narrow gauge. (Birnie, Maly) The railway was intended to run 30-miles.

“The Kona Sugar Company failed completely”.  (Hawaii Supreme Court) In 1906, the West Hawaii Railway and the Kona Development Company were formed. “The Kona Development Company is a successor of the old Kona Sugar Company and will take over its property.” (Hawaiian Star, Apr 5, 1906)

“The Kona Development Co. has its prime field of operations in North Kona, and the Kona Agricultural Co. a corresponding relation to South Kona, the two being closely allied, while the railroad is primarily designed to connect them up and carry sugar cane from their respective plantations to the mill of the Kona Development Co which is situated in North Kona.”

“Seven miles of the track have been built, three miles more is under construction and it is proposed, from the proceeds of the bonds, to build an extension of twenty-two miles, making a total of thirty-two miles. As stated it will be a general public road and do a common carrying business as well as the transportation of cane for its owning companies.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Oct 30, 1907)

The railway ended up to be a total of about 11-miles.  “they have a railroad track somewhere around – below Kainaliu. From just below Konawaena School, that’s quite a ways down, toward the ocean, they had the railroad. They used to haul the cane on the train to Holualoa. KD [Kona Development Company] Mill. They call KD Mill.”

“That’s where they crush the cane. But until then, they have a station built. They used to slide the cane – bundle up the cane with a chain – and then they slide through the cable, down to the train track.”  (Yosoto Egami; Social History of Kona)

“The cane was cut in the fields. They had a cable wire from way up here or whatever field they had, reach down to the railroad. The railroad had cars. Up here, they bundle the cane, and they hook it on the wire with a roller. The wire had enough slope, so they grease that roller all the time. It went down fast. Then, it went down there [to the railroad]. Had a switch there.”

“The bundle of cane dropped right into the truck [railroad car], see? (And one man would pick up the rollers and take it back up to the field.) Then, the train hauled it back to the sugar mill to grind it. Oh, was quite a job.” (John DeGuair, Sr, Social History of Kona)

“Mr. Kondo was the owner of the railroad … In Kona, the sugar was transported to the railway by means of cables, cultivation took place mauka of the railway. Mr. Ide remembers hearing from Jack Greenwell, that Masao Kuga invented a trigger on the cable from which the sugar would fall when it reached its destination near the railway.” (Maly)

“Although the greater part of the work on the plantations of the [Islands] is done by Japanese, there is but one plantation in the Islands exclusively owned and managed by men of that race.”

“This is the Kona Development Company property which has about 2500 acres under cultivation in the Kona district. From an area of 1285 acres this plantation produced 3205 tons of sugar in 1919.”

“The plantation is managed by T. Konno, a Japanese who gained his knowledge of the sugar industry as a contract planter at Papaaloa on the Hilo coast of Hawaii. He, with a number of countrymen, organized a company and took over the property from J. B. Castle and associates in 1915.”

“The cane land of the Kona Development Company lies amidst fields of coffee for which the Kona district is most noted, industrially. The Kona Development Company, with lands cultivated by small farmers, gives employment to several hundred persons.”

“At the end of the last grinding season, the Kona Development Company began making some needed improvements in its mill. The old brick and stone foundations of the power room were removed and a new boiler was installed. The mill has a capacity for making 30 tons of sugar in 12 hours.”

“Arrangements have been made recently for the saving and marketing of all the molasses from the mill. To do this tanks, with a capacity of 100,000 gallons have been erected at the mill, which is situated just above Kailua. Previously the only use made of the molasses was its consumption for feed and fuel.”

“The Kona plantation is favored by the fertility of its soil which does not make replanting at the end of two or three crops necessary. The stools of the cane continue to bear for many years. Under the management of T Konno the planted area has increased 500 acres.”

“Throughout the district under cultivation the plantations operates a narrow gauge railway upon which the cane is hauled to the mill to be ground.”

“The Waterhouse Trust Company are the Honolulu agents of the Kona Development Company.  The skilled employees are as follows: T. Uchimura, bookkeeper; T. Kudo, office Assistant; A.N. Smith, chemist; F. Sato, engineer; N. Tokunaga, sugar boiler; C. Suzuki, mill and railroad superintendent …”

“… D. Tatsuno, head luna; K. Sasaki, Kainaliu section timekeeper; T. Iseri, Holualoa section timekeeper; Manuel Silva & Frank Mederios, lunas; Henry deAguiar, Holualoa section luna; Y. Hatanaka, private secretary to T. Konno.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Centenary Number, April 12, 1920)

The Kona Development Mill quit operations on July 3, 1926.  “As the concern has been bankrupt for some time, the 1927 crop had been entirely neglected”. (Hawaii Tribune Herald, June 25, 1926) The companies went into foreclosure and receivership and the assets were sold at public auction.

“Sugar cane, it is feared, is a thing of the past in Kona, and energies are next to be devoted to raising coffee and cotton more extensively.”  (Hawaii Tribune Herald, June 25, 1926)

Then (1928), the Treasurer of the Territory of Hawaii issued notices of the intent to dissolve the Kona Development Company and West Hawaii Railroad Company.  Shortly thereafter (1931), the County Engineer surveyed the abandoned West Hawaii railroad right-of-way for road purposes.

Today, Hienaloli Road follows the alignment of the West Hawaii Railway and remnants of the sugar mill may be seen along that road (as well as a stacked rock truss near Hualalai Road).

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kona in the Early 1820s and 1830s

Artemas Bishop and his family were first permanently stationed at Kailua, Hawaii, in 1824, being transferred to Ewa, Oahu, in 1836, and to Honolulu in 1855, where Mr. Bishop died, Dec. 18, 1872.

Mrs. Bishop died at Kailua, Feb. 28, 1828, the first death in the mission band. She left two infant children, including Sereno Edwards Bishop, who was born at Ka‘awaloa, Hawaii, Feb. 7, 1827. The following are some of Bishop’s “Reminiscences of Old Hawaii” that he included in his book named such.

“Kailua In The 1820s … Kailua was the capital of the Island. It is situated on the west coast, twelve miles north of Kealakekua, where Captain Cook perished. It lies at the base of the great mountain Hualalai, 8,275 feet high.”

“The entire coast consists of lava flows from that mountain, of greater or less age. Here and there in the village were small tracts of soil on the lava, where grew a few cocoanut, kou, and pandanus trees.”

“There were no gardens, for lack of water. Heat and general aridity characterized the place. But it pleased the natives, on account of the broad calm ocean, the excellent fishing, and the splendid rollers of surf on which they played and slid all day.”

“North of the town, the whole region seemed to be occupied by an ocean of black billowy lava which at some recent period had flowed down from the mountain. This bounded that end of the village.”

“A vast breadth of this lava-sea had invaded the ocean for miles, beyond the older shore line of Kailua. A wide tongue of lava had bent around and partially enclosed the little cove with its deep sand beach where was the chief landing of the town.”

“Surfing And Canoes … This was a universal sport of the chiefs and common people alike. The ponderous chiefs had very large boards of light wood.”

“In the Bishop Museum may be seen today an immense surf board of the cork-like wili-wili wood, on which the famous Paki used to disport himself at Lahaina fifty years ago. I doubt whether Kuakini, with his 500 pounds, was agile enough to attempt it.”

“In handling canoes the natives were most adroit. Kona, with its great koa forests inland abounded in canoes. There were no boats. The people were skilled fishermen and often went many miles to sea, in pursuit of the larger deep-deep-sea fish.”

“A name given to Mt. Hualalai behind us, was “Kilo-waa,” or Canoe-descrier. The canoes were of elaborate form and smoothness. Most of them were single canoes with outriggers. Many large ones, however, were rigged double, six or eight feet apart, with a high platform between them.”

“All the fastenings were of carefully plaited sinnet or cocoanut fiber, the lashings being laid with great care and skill. The mast was stepped in the platform. The common people had mat sails. Those of Kuakini’s canoes were of sail-duck.”

“Appearance Of Chiefs And People … The relative rank of other natives could be approximately estimated by their stature and corpulence. There were quite a number of large fat men and women of some rank among our neighbors.”

“The leading women met weekly at our house, most of them wearing the lei-pa-Iaoa, consisting of a thick bunch of finely plaited hair passed through a large hole in a hooked polished piece of whale-tooth, and tied around the neck, forming an insignium of rank.”

“They also carried small kahilis to brush away the flies. Any chief of high rank was attended by one or more fly-brushers, by a spittoon-bearer, and other personal attendants.”

“The spittoon holder was the most honored, being responsible to let none of the spittle fall into the possession of an evil-minded sorcerer, who might compass the death of the Alii therewith. Broad, elastic cocoanut leaf fans were in constant play.”

“Hawking and spitting were continued in any gathering of natives, and were apt seriously to disturb public worship at church. But the great crowd of the common people were miserably lean, and often very squalid in appearance. “

“They were too much in the sea to appear filthy, although the heads of both high and low were thoroughly infested. It was a daily spectacle to see them picking over each other’s heads for dainties. Their vicinity rendered necessary the frequent use of a fine-toothed comb on us children, much to our discomfort. But I believe our ancestors at no remote period were little better off.”

“Styles Of Clothing … The common multitude wore no foreign cloth. Their few garments were wholly of tapa. The younger women were rarely seen uncovered beyond decency, although old crones went about with the pa-u only. The smaller children had nothing on. The men always wore the half-decent malo, and nothing more.”

“At meetings, they wore the little kihei, or shoulder cape. Before 1836, simple cotton shirts would not unfrequently be seen in the church. I never saw but two Hawaiians wearing trousers in Kailua. One was Kuakini and the other Thomas Hopu, from the Cornwall School, who came out with Bingham and Thurston.”

“The national female costume was the pa-u, which was worn by all at all times. It was a yard wide strip of bark-cloth wound quite tightly around the hips reaching from the waist to the knees, and secured at the waist by folding over the edges. Foreign cloth was also used. At one great ceremonial, a queen had her body rolled up in a pa-u of one hundred yards of rich satin.”

“Sources Of Drinking Water … The drinking water of the people was very brackish, from numerous caves which reached below the sea level.”

“The white people, and some chiefs had their water from up the mountain where were numerous depressions in the lava, full of clear, sweet rain water.”

“There were also many tunnel-caves, the channels of former lava-streams. The air from the sea, penetrating these chill caverns, deposited its moisture, and much distilled water filled the holes in the floor.”

“Sometimes the fine rootlets of ohia-trees penetrating from above, festooned the ceilings of these dark lava-ducts as with immense spider webs. If in a dry season, water was lacking on the open ground, it could always be found higher up on the mountain in such caves.”

“Twice a week one of our ohuas or native dependants went up the mountain with two huewai, or calabash bottles, suspended by nets from the ends of his mamaki or yoke, similar to those used by Chinese vegetable venders.”

“These he filled with sweet water and brought home, having first covered the bottles with fresh ferns, to attest his having been well inland. The contents of the two bottles filled a five-gallon demijohn twice a week.”

“Source Of Food Supply … The people had ample cultivable land in the moist upland from two to four miles inland at altitudes of one thousand to twenty-five hundred feet.”

“It is a peculiarity of that Kona coast that while the shore may be absolutely rainless for months gentle showers fall daily upon the mountain slope.”

“The prevailing trade-winds are totally obstructed by the three great mountain domes and never reach Kona. There are only the sweet land breeze by night, and the cooling sea-breeze by day.”

“The latter comes in, loaded with the evaporations of the sea, and floats high up the mountain slopes. As it rises, the rarification of the air precipitates more and more of its burden of vapor, so that at two thousand and three thousand feet, there are daily copious rains, and verdure is luxuriant.”

“The contrast is immense and delicious between the arid heat of the shore, and the moist cool greenness of the near-by upland. The soil is most fertile, being formed from the decay of recent lava flows.”

“There the natives found their chief means of subsistence, and, in good seasons, were sufficiently fed. In bad seasons there were drought, and more or less of ‘wi,’ or famine. The uala or sweet potatoes, and the taro, which constituted their chief food grew best on the lower and warmer ground, where was more liability to drought.”

“How Fire Was Obtained … The people commonly procured fire by friction of wood, although some of them had old files, from which they elicited sparks by strokes from a gun-flint. It was common to carry fire in a slow-burning tapa-match, especially when they wanted to smoke.”

“I first saw fire obtained from wood at our camp on Mauna Kea. A long dry stick of soft hau or linden wood was used. A small stiff splinter of very hard wood was held in the right hand, and the point rubbed with great force and swiftness in a deep groove formed in the soft wood by the friction.”

“A brown powder soon appeared in the end of the groove, began to smoke and ignited. This was deftly caught into a little nest of dry fibre and gently blown into a flame, which soon grew into an immense camp-fire.” (Bishop)

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View of Kailua from Laniakea-1836
View of Kailua from Laniakea-1836
Persis_Goodale_Thurston_Taylor_–_Kailua_from_the_Sea,_1836
Persis_Goodale_Thurston_Taylor_–_Kailua_from_the_Sea,_1836
Kaawaloa, Kealakekua Bay. A copperplate engraving from a drawing by Lucy or Persis Thurston about 1835
Kaawaloa, Kealakekua Bay. A copperplate engraving from a drawing by Lucy or Persis Thurston about 1835

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

“The Prophet”

The headline in the October 24, 1868 Pacific Commercial Advertiser boldly stated “Insurrection on Hawaiʻi.”

“For several years past, one (Joseph Ioela) Kaʻona … imbibed the idea that he was a prophet sent by God to warn this people of the end of the world. For the three years he has been preaching this millerite doctrine on Hawaiʻi, and has made numerous converts.”    (PCA, October 24, 1868)

Kaʻona was born and brought up in Kainaliu, Kona on the island of Hawaiʻi. He received his education at the Hilo Boarding School and graduated from Lahainaluna on Maui.

Following the Māhele, Kaʻona was employed surveying kuleana (property, titles, claims) in Kaʻū and Oʻahu. He was well-educated and was later employed as a magistrate, both in Honolulu and in Lāhainā. (Greenwell)

Then, he felt possessed with miraculous powers.

“By the mid-1860s, Kaʻona claimed to have had divine communications with Elijah, Gabriel, and Jehovah, from whom he’d received divine instructions and prophetic.”  (Maly)  Followers called him ‘The Prophet;’ his followers were referred to as Kaʻonaites.)

“Some months ago he was arrested and sent to the Insane Asylum in this city as a lunatic, but the physician decided that he was as sane as any man, and he was therefore set at liberty again.”  (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“He returned to Kona, and the number of his followers rapidly increased, till now it is over three hundred. They are mostly natives, but some are probably foreigners, as we received a letter a few weeks ago from one of them ….”

“These fanatics believe that the end of the world is at hand, and they must be ready. They therefore clothe themselves in white robes, ready to ascend, watch at night, but sleep during the day, decline to cultivate anything except beans, corn, or the most common food.”

“They live together in one colony, and have selected a tract of land about half way between Kealakekua Bay and Kailua, which the prophet told them was the only land that would not be overrun with lava, while all the rest of the island is to be destroyed.”  (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“Kaʻona was received by (Reverend John Davis) Paris and congregation at Lanakila Church, and he once again drew many people to him with his powerful doctrine. But his claims of prophetic visions, unorthodox methods of teaching, questionable morality, soon caused the larger congregations from Kailua to Kealakekua to become suspicious of his intentions.”  (Maly)

“Some three years ago, the neat little church at Kainaliu was built, by subscription …. Paris, the Pastor preached on certain Sundays, and Kaʻona … one of the Lunas, would preach on others.”

“For a time, all went on smoothly enough, until Kaʻona began to introduce some slight innovations in the form of worship, which were opposed by Mr. Paris and minority of the congregation and the church became split into two factions. … The feud continued to increase …” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 18, 1868)”

When asked to leave Lanakila Church, Kaʻona and his followers refused, Governess Keʻelikōlani was forced to intercede and called upon local sheriff Richard B. Neville.  In September 1867, Kaʻona and followers vacated Lanakila, and moved to an area below the church.  (Maly)

The Kaʻonaites settled on the kula and coastal lands at Lehuʻula, south of Keauhou (near present-day Hokuliʻa.)  “There they built a number of grass houses, erected a flag, and held their  meetings, religious and political … he and his adherents were claiming, cultivating and appropriating to themselves the products of the lands leased and owned by others….”  (Paris; Maly)

Neville was sent to evict them from there.

Kaʻona was arrested and returned to O‘ahu for a short time, but by March 1868, he, again, returned to Kona.

On April 2, 1868, a destructive earthquake shook the island, causing significant damage and tidal waves, and numerous deaths (the estimated 7.9 magnitude quake was the strongest to hit the Islands.)

Kaʻona described it as the final days.

“(The Kaʻonaites) have taken oath, that they will all be killed before they surrender. I am ready to start from here at any time, with quite a company of men. If we hear that there is need for more help. We are badly off for good firearms here.”

“Kaʻona’s party have threatened to burn all the houses in Kona & to take life. It may not be as bad as it is represented”.  (Governor Lyman of Interior Minister Hutchinson, October 25, 1868; Maly)

On October 19, Sheriff Neville, his deputy and policemen, approached Kaʻona once again to evict them, and Kaʻona encouraged his followers to fight. A riot took place.

“Neville was felled from his horse by a stone, which struck him on the head … (an assistant) tried to get Neville, but the stones were too many, and so he fled likewise, and was pursued ….” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 23, 1869)  Neville and another were both brutally killed.  The event has been referred to as Kaʻona’s Rebellion, Kaʻona Insurrection and Kaʻona Uprising.

Kaʻona eventually surrendered; he and sixty-six of his followers were arrested, and another 222 were released after a short detention.  Kaʻona was returned to O‘ahu, convicted and sentenced to ten years of hard labor.

But in 1874, shortly after David Kalākaua (he and Albert Francis Judd had been appointed Kaʻona’s defense attorneys in 1868) became King, he pardoned Kaʻona. By 1878, Kaʻona had once again taken up residence at Kainaliu vicinity, and undertook work with the poor.  Kaʻona died in 1883.  (Maly)

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