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December 5, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiian Settlement and Land Use

“Before the coming of man, native forest clothed the islands from seashore to timber line as it does today in undisturbed areas of certain other Pacific islands.” (Elwood Zimmerman, Insects in Hawaii, 1948)

“After the arrival of the Polynesians, … the rapid retreat of the forests began. Fires set by the natives, as is still being done all over the Pacific, made great advances through the lowland and dry-land forests.” (Elwood Zimmerman)

The “forest was cleared by the Polynesian settlers of the valley, with the aid of fire, during the expansion of shifting cultivation … The cumulative effects of forest clearance and habitat modification through the use of fire led to major changes in lowland ecology.” (Patrick Kirch, Impact of the Prehistoric Polynesians on the Hawaiian Ecosystem)

“As a result of population increase and concomitant agricultural development, the greater part of the lowland landscape of the archipelago had been converted to a thoroughly artificial ecosystem prior to European advent.” (Patrick Kirch)

“It is generally assumed that an oceanic people such as the Hawaiians lived mainly by fishing. Actually fishing occupied a very small part of the time and interest of the majority of Hawaiians.” (Craighill Handy, Native Planters)

“For every fisherman’s house along the coasts there were hundreds of homesteads of planters in the valleys and the slopes and plains between the shore and forest.” (Craighill Handy)

“The Hawaiians, more than any of the other Polynesians, were a people whose means of livelihood, whose work and interests, were centered in the cultivation of the soil. The planter and his life furnish us with the key to his culture.” (Craighill Handy)

“Boys were raised to be farmers rather than fighters. When a boy child was weaned, he was dedicated to the god of agriculture and peace. The planter’s labors on the land and his identification with it were other factors that made the native countryman prefer peace and prosperity to the ravages and excitements of fighting.” (Craighill Handy)

“In their practice of agriculture the ancient planters had transformed the face of their land by converting flatlands and gentle slopes to terraced areas where water was brought for irrigation by means of ditches from mountain streams.” (Craighill Handy)

“Hawaiian homes were scattered through the areas cultivated from forest to sea. Not only was the character of the people and their culture determined by their planting economy, but also by their demography.”  (Craighill Handy)

“The land area with which the Polynesian migrant first became familiar was of necessity that along shore, wherever his voyaging canoe made its landfall. This area he termed ko kaha kai (place [land] by the sea).” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui, Native Planters)

“There appear to be three or four different regions in passing from the sea shore to the summit. The first occupies five or six miles, where cultivation is carried on”. (Joseph Goodrich, Notice of the volcanic character of the Island of Hawaii, American Journal of Science, 1826)

“This might comprise a broad sandy beach and the flats above it, or the more rugged shore of cove or harbor with its rocky terrain – in fact many and varied descriptions might fit, according to locale. Kaha was a special term applied to areas facing the shore but not favorable for planting. (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“The highest numbers of people in the early historic period … are found in this [Coastal Settlement] zone from sea level to roughly 20 to 50 ft elevation or 1/2 mile inland.”  (Holly McEldowney)

“Early descriptions, as well as the distribution of known sites, suggest that structures representing both permanent and/or temporary use occur along the entire coast. … Villages tended to appear either as a compact unit or as an elongate complex paralleling the coastline”.  (Holly McEldowney)

“Next above were the plains or sloping lands (kula), those to seaward being termed ko kula kai and those toward the mountains ko kula uka (uka, inland or upland). Here were the great stretches of waving pili grass, which was used to make the thick rain-repellent thatch for dwellings (hale).”  (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“Before cultivation took over the area, the carpeting grass was interspersed with vines (such as the koali, morning-glory) and many shrubs, all of which found practical uses by the immigrant folk. There were also a few stunted trees.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“On the ko kula uka, the upland slopes, were found the native ginger and other flowering plants, medicinal herbs, and thick-growing clumps of shrubs. Here too the great variety of trees attained to greater height, and their wood became the source of valuable materials for many necessities of life.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“This word kula, used by Hawaiians for sloping land between mountain and sea, really meant plain or sloping land without trees.  (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“In terms of use, from the Hawaiian planter’s point of view it was the area beyond or intersecting the kula lands that was of prime importance in dictating his habitation and his favored type of subsistence.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“This was the kahawai, ‘the place [having] fresh water’ – in other words, the valley stretching down from the forested uplands, carved out and made rich in humus by its flowing stream.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“Here he could find (or make) level plots for taro terraces, diverting stream water by means of ‘auwai (ditches) into the lo’i, or descending series of lo‘i, until from below the whole of the visible valley afforded a scene of lush green cultivation amidst fresh water glinting in the sun.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“The planter might have his main dwelling here, or he might dwell below and maintain here only a shelter to use during periods of intensive cultivation in the kahawai. Here also was a source of many of his living needs and luxuries, from medicinal herbs to flowers for decorative garlands, and with a wide range in between. (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“Strawberries, raspberries, as large as butternuts, and whortleberries flourish in this region …. It is entirely broken up by hills and vallies, composed of lava, with a very shallow soil.” (Joseph Goodrich)

“Although estimates as to the extent of this [Upland Agricultural] zone vary in early journal accounts, most confirm an expanse of unwooded grasslands or a ‘plain’ …. Scattered huts, emphasized by adjacent garden plots and small groves of economically beneficial tree species, dotted this expanse up to 1,500 ft elevation (i.e., the edge of the forest).” (Holly McEldowney, Lava Flow Control Study)

“The cumulative effects of shifting agricultural practices (i.e., slash-and-bum or swidden), prevalent among Polynesian and Pacific peoples, probably created and maintained this open grassland mixed with pioneering species and species that tolerate light and regenerate after a fire.” (Holly McEldowney)

“The constituents of gardens and tree crops in the village basically continued in the upland except that dry-land taro was planted more extensively and bananas were more numerous. Wet or irrigated taro occurred along small streams, tributaries, and rivers that cut into the ash-capped substrates.”  (Holly McEldowney)

“With remarkable consistency, early visitors … describe an open parkland gently sloping to the base of the woods. This open but verdant expanse, broken by widely spaced ‘cottages’ or huts, neatly tended gardens, and small clusters of trees, was comfortingly reminiscent of English or New England countrysides.”  (Holly McEldowney)

“Estimates as to the extent of this unwooded expanse ranged from between five and six miles to between three and four miles above the coast or village, with most falling between four or five miles.” (Holly McEldowney)  “[T]hose woods that so remarkably surround this island at a uniform distance of four and five miles from the shore” (Ledyard, Cook’s Crew, 1779)

“The land we passed in the forenoon rose in a steep bank from the water side and from thence the country stretched back with an easy acclivity for about four or five miles, and was laid out into little fields, apparently well cultivated and interspersed with the habitations of the natives. Beyond this the country became steeply rugged and woody, forming mountains of great elevation.” (Menzies, 3 visits to Hawai‘i onboard Vancouver’s 1792-1794 voyages)

“[T]he central idea of the Hawaiian division of land was emphatically … radial. Hawaiian life vibrated from uka, mountain, whence came wood, kapa for clothing, olona for fishline, ti-leaf for wrapping paper, ie for rattan lashing, wild birds for food, to the kai, sea, whence came ia, fish, and all connected therewith.” (Curtis J Lyons, Islander, July 2, 1875)

“Wao means the wild – a place distant and not often penetrated by man. The wao la‘au is the inland forested region, often a veritable jungle, which surmounts the upland kula slopes on every major island of the chain, reaching up to very high elevations especially on Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui, Native Planters)

“The Hawaiians recognized and named many divisions or aspects of the wao: first, the wao kanaka, the reaches most accessible, and most valuable, to man (kanaka); and above that, denser and at higher elevations, the wao akua, forest of the gods, remote, awesome, seldom penetrated, source of supernatural influences, both evil and beneficent. The wao kele, or wao ma‘u kele, was the rain forest.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“Use of [the Lower Forest – Wao Kanaka] zone, from roughly 1,500 to 2,500 ft elevation, revolved around the gathering of forest resources needed for a variety of wood, feather, and fiber products, and for the collecting of supplemental food crops grown in small forest clearings and along streams.” (Holly McEldowney)

“This includes the celebrated and specialized crafts of cutting koa for canoes and catching birds for feather-decorated objects. Historic accounts suggest that a cluster of small huts, small religious shrines, and numerous paths were frequented by a family unit or group of workers for these purposes.” (Holly McEldowney)

“Here grew giant trees and tree ferns (ama’u) under almost perpetual cloud and rain. The wao kanaka and the wao la‘au provided man with the hard wood of the koa for spears, utensils, and logs for boat hulls; pandanus leaves (lau hala) for thatch and mats; bark of the mamaki tree for making tapa cloth; candlenuts (kukui) for oil and lights …” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“… wild yams and roots for famine time; sandalwood, prized when shaved or ground as a sweet scent for bedding and stored garments. These and innumerable other materials were sought and found and worked by man in or from the wao.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“[T]he zone of timber land … generally exists between the 1,700 feet and 5,000 feet line of elevation. The ordinary ahupuaa extends from half a mile to a mile into this belt.  Mauka and makai are therefore fundamental ideas to the native of an island. Land … was divided accordingly.” (Curtis J Lyons)

“[T]he heaviest general use of the forest took place one-half to one mile above the forest margin”. (Holly McEldowney)  “[I]t should here be remarked that it was by virtue of some valuable product of said forests that the extension of territory took place.”  (Curtis J Lyons)

“For instance, out of a dozen lands only one possessed the right to kalai waa, hew out canoes from the koa forest. Another land embraced the wauke and olona grounds, the former for kapa, the latter for fish line.”  (Curtis J Lyons)

“The upper region is composed of lava in almost every form, from huge rocks to volcanic sand of the coarser kind. Some of the peaks are composed of coarse sand, and others of loose stones and pebbles.” (Joseph Goodrich)

“The term for mountain or mountain range – a mountainous region – is kuahiwi (backbone).” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui) “The earliest accounts … refer to these mountain regions as a vast, uninhabited, and infrequently visited wilderness. … Exceptions are the consistent descriptions of caves used for shelter and as potential water sources”. (Holly McEldowney)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, General, Hawaiian Traditions, Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Kula, Kahawai, Wao Kanaka, Kuahiwi, Ko Kula Kai, Uka, Kai

April 26, 2023 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kula Hospital

“Man vs. Tuberculosis, the strange, uncanny fight two thousand years of age, is, in Hawaii, in favor of Man. The tremendous exertion, the patience, the attention to incalculable minutae that this mere suggestion indicates is hard to realize unless one is in the fight, but success is on the banners of the Anti-Tuberculosis League of Hawaii at last.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 20, 1913)

Tuberculosis attacks the lungs and organs; in the second decade of the twentieth century it was the leading cause of death in Hawaiʻi, with 400 to 500 annual deaths.  (Nordyke)  (Even today, Hawai’i ranks No. 1 with the highest rate of tuberculosis (TB) in the United States.  (HealthTrends))

The campaign against tuberculosis was inaugurated in Hawaii in 1909 as a result of the interest of James A Rath and others at Pālama Settlement in Honolulu.  Stimulated by the Anti-Tuberculosis League of Hawaiʻi, interest steadily grew – the Territorial Government took over the program in 1920.

A number of years ago – though not so very many – when the present Governor Pinkham was president of the Board of health of Hawaii, it was found necessary to survey the ravages of tuberculosis, a disease which to that time had received little attention. A commission was appointed. In an unofficial way it investigated and made a report. The report was alarming.  (MacKaye, Thrum’s Annual 1917)

Tuberculosis was a graver danger than was believed, although since then it has been shown that even that estimate was short of the mark. Mr. Pinkham referred the report to the various counties and urged them to do something to remedy the situation.”

“There was no answer from Honolulu until several years later, from Kauai not until the present day, and from Hawaii not at all, so far as county government went. (MacKaye, Thrum’s Annual 1917)

But the Maui county supervisors had more vision. There was land available on the slopes of mighty Haleakala and some money that could be spent. The territorial government lent a little bit more. A doctor was employed, a nurse secured.”

“The beginnings of the Kula Sanitarium were made at Waiakoa, on the side of the “House of the Sun,” an appropriate site, for medical science has yet to find a substitute for the sun and fair winds in its combat with consumption. (MacKaye, Thrum’s Annual 1917)

“The sanitarium is located at Keokea, Kula, Maui, at an elevation of some 3,000 feet, and is most singularly fortunate in being so situated that the regular trade winds coming between the Island of Lānaʻi and Molokini have a clear ocean sweep of thousands of miles, and reach this elevated area crisp and heavily laden with pure, unused oxygen.”

“It is free from dust, since it does not pass over one acre of cultivated land, and the view, which adds much to the cheer and content of the patients, is simply magnificent.” (McConkey, Report of the Maui County Farm and Sanitarium to the Board of Health, 1911)

The Kula Sanatorium began as a vision of Dr Wilbur Fiske Boggs McConkey, who was a practicing physician treating tuberculosis patients in the Keokea district. During his long drive across the rough roads of Kula in 1909, Dr. McConkey remarked on Kula’s suitable climate for tuberculosis patients and began his quest to start a tuberculosis facility.  (NPS)

This first attempt at a sanitarium was a modest endeavor, a little shack protected with canvas, alone in the midst of a rather desolate countryside.  (MacKaye, Thrum’s Annual 1917)

“Two tent houses were built, with canvas sides, wooden floors, and corrugated iron roofing.  A cook-house of rough one by twelve inch lumber was thrown together; this had no floor but had a corrugated iron roof and was luxuriously fitted with an open lean-to and a rough board table, which served as the sanitarium dining-room.”

“Canvas cots were used in the sleeping quarters; the lights were humble barn lanterns. The cook, a Korean, was a patient himself. Six patients from the plantations were accommodated, who took care of themselves.”  (Long)

The first patients were admitted into the then-named Maui County Farm and Sanitarium on September 14, 1910.   The June 1911 Official Patient Report reported 12-patients; over the years, the ethnicity of the patients reflected the Islands’ growing diversity, Americans, Australians, Hawaiians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Porto Ricans, Portuguese and Norwegian.

“We do not encourage the admission of patients suffering from diseases or injuries of a non-tubercular nature, but owing, in the main, to the difficulty which is met with in arranging for the means of transportation of such patients down the mountain to a general hospital, as well as the emergency cases which have been present from time to time, we have found it necessary to admit and care for these in order to avoid what would have caused hardship and extra suffering.” (Report of the Maui County Farm and Sanitarium to the Board of Health, 1913)

“Early in its history Mr. V. Woodburn Herron, a man with some hospital training, took charge as steward, nurse and non-medical superintendent. The sanitarium was a county institution with Dr McConkey regularly constituted physician.”

“This regime lasted some months, when a change of administration brought Mr WE Foster up from Paia to act as superintendent. His wife, a trained nurse, accompanied him. Mr. Foster’s untimely demise – he was himself a victim of the disease – ended this arrangement, but not before he had lighted the way for future progress.”  (Long)

With public funds and by private subscription, the Sanitarium staff and its Board of Supervisors built and equipped a plant for the treatment of tuberculosis very favorably comparable to anything on the mainland.  A favorite method of fund-raising/facility building was the contribution of a cottage for an individual by the latter’s friends. After the patient has passed through the treatment the cottage became the property of the Sanitarium.  (Long)

In 1926, children were admitted into the Preventorium.  The overall facility was expanded into the Charles William Dickey-designed Kula Sanatorium (one of the largest designed by Dickey in his career,) with the first patients moving in on May 27, 1937.

The facility was designed to accommodate 166-patients in wards and 16-patients in private rooms and had facilities on the porches to accommodate 59-more patients in an emergency.  The primary consideration in treatment was rest, “rest to the body, mind, and lungs.”

The layout of the gardens at Kula Sanatorium was a combination of formal plantings and careful use of indigenous plantings. They were designed by the first registered landscape architect in Hawaii, Catherine Jones Thompson and her husband, Robert O Thompson.

In the 1950s when drugs were developed to control tuberculosis, Kula Sanatorium changed its focus to serving long-term care patients.  In 1960, psychiatric patients were admitted on an experimental basis.

In 1975, tuberculosis services were discontinued and on April 9, 1976, the complex was renamed Kula Hospital.  The Kula Hospital & Clinic is a five story Moderne style hospital (“traditionalism and modernism” popular from 1925 through the 1940s) that serves as a general hospital and clinic to residents within the Kula area.

The complex has acute care beds, 24-hour emergency room and outpatient clinic with lab and x-ray services.  Kula Hospital continues to provide long-term care for its residents.

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, Buildings, Place Names Tagged With: Maui, Kula, Tuberculosis, Kula Hospital, Hawaii

December 29, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nu Kaliponi

“During the pre-contact and early contact periods, Kula was primarily an area for farming. Dryland taro patches grew in elevations up to 3,000 feet.”

“Farmers were reliant on growth of sweet potatoes and when crops failed due to caterpillars, blight, frost or sun, people in Makawao and Kula suffered from famine.”

“The arrival of whalers in the 1840s stimulated great demand for Irish and sweet potatoes. Potatoes were taken to Lahaina and sold aboard ships.”

“The California gold rush also resulted in great demand from prospectors for potatoes, other vegetables, sugar, molasses and coffee.”

“Farmers were doing so well that many Hawaiians were going into business for themselves, shipping their goods to San Francisco.” (DHHL)

“The call for [potatoes] is loud and pressing, as some vessels bound for California have taken as many as a thousand barrels each. The price is high, and the probability is that the market can not be supplied this autumn.”

“Kula, however, is full of people. Strangers from Wailuku, Hāmākua and Lahaina are there preparing the ground and planting, so that if the demand from California shall be as urgent next spring as it is now the people will reap a rich harvest.”

“They often repeat the saying of a foreigner, who, after having visited the mines of California, came back to Maui quite satisfied, and said to his neighbors at Waikapu, ‘California is yonder in Kula.’”

“‘There is the gold without the fatigue and sickness of the mining country.’ True, true.” (Polynesian, November 24, 1849)

“The foreigner’s remark caught the fancy of the Hawaiians and they were soon referring to Kula as ‘Kalifonia’ or ‘Nu Kalifonia’ (Nu Kaliponi) and working with great diligence to extract the wealth from the rich pay dirt on the slopes of Haleakala. “

“To encourage the spirit of enterprise which had been thus awakened among the native people, the privy council voted to have the government lands in Kula surveyed and divided into small lots of from one to ten acres and offered for sale to the natives at a price of three dollars per acre.”

“Rev. WP Alexander, one of the teachers at Lahainaluna, was employed to do the surveying and arrange the sales, and he devoted six weeks or more to this work in the spring of 1850. Other districts of the kingdom produced potatoes, but in lesser quantities than Kula.”

“The demand for potatoes continued strong all through 1850 and the first half of 1851. In the former year the exports of Irish potatoes amounted to 51,957 barrels, of sweet potatoes, 9,631 barrels.”

“In 1851 Irish potatoes were exported to the amount of 43,923 barrels, sweet potatoes to the amount of 56,717 barrels. Eighteen fifty-one was a year of disasters in California and of drought and depression in Hawaii.”

“The potato trade was the only branch of industry that presented a cheerful aspect, and by the fall of the year the potato boom was over. Mrs. Judd reports that in August the market was over-stocked, and there were no purchasers or ships to take [Hawaiian produce] to California.”

“Irish potatoes rotted in the ground, and onions and other vegetables scarcely paid the expense of digging. This was very discouraging to the agriculturists, who had expected to realize fortunes speedily by turning over the soil.”

“From this time, except for a slight revival in 1853 due to floods in California, the export trade in Irish potatoes rapidly dwindled away, but sweet potatoes continued to be exported in small quantities for many years longer.”

“A report to the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society in 1854 stated that the Hawaiian potato growers in 1849-1851, in their eagerness to gain all they could from the trade, shipped many inferior potatoes to California, and Hawaiian potatoes thereby got a bad reputation.”

“A more important reason for the decline of the Irish potato trade between Hawaii and California was the fact that the Californians began to raise potatoes themselves and in addition received large quantities from the neighboring Oregon territory.” (Kuykendall)

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Upcountry Potatoes-Ag Experiment Stn-1913
Upcountry Potatoes-Ag Experiment Stn-1913
Upcountry Potatoes-Ag Experiment Stn-1913
Upcountry Potatoes-Ag Experiment Stn-1913

Filed Under: Economy, General, Place Names Tagged With: Haleakala, Maui, Kula, Lahaina, Potato, Upcountry, Nu Kaliponi, Hawaii

October 22, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Farm Land

For Hawaiians involved with agriculture, there were three types of land available for growing crops. Ko Kaha Kai was land along the shoreline. Kula lands were on the lands above the shoreline. Kahawai lands were in the valleys, where fresh water could also be obtained.

The land area with which the Polynesian migrant first became familiar was of necessity that along shore, wherever his voyaging canoe made its landfall.

This area he termed Ko Kaha Kai (place [land] by the sea). This might comprise a broad sandy beach and the flats above it, or the more rugged shore of cove or harbor with its rocky terrain-in fact many and varied descriptions might fit, according to locale.

Kaha was a special term applied to areas facing the shore but not favorable for planting. Kekaha in Kona, Hawaii, was one so named, and Kekaha on Kauai another. The ko kaha kai was not without its own verdure of a sort, however.

In fact the terrain just above the sandy stretches (pu‘eone) was often called ‘ilima, because of the low-growing, gray-foliaged, golden-flowering ‘ilima bushes found in abundance there.

Pohuehue, the beach morningglory, also had its natural habitation there, along with ‘auhuhu, whose leaves yielded a juice used to stupefy fish for ready catching in the inlets and sea pools.

In fact most of the varied low growth of the ko kaha kai found use in the planter’s or fisher’s economy. (Hand, Handy & Pukui)

Next above were the plains or sloping lands (kula), those to seaward being termed ko kula kai and those toward the mountains ko kula uka (uka, inland or upland).

Here were the great stretches of waving pili grass, which was used to make the thick rain-repellent thatch for dwellings (hale). Before cultivation took over the area, the carpeting grass was interspersed with vines (such as the koali, morning-glory) and many shrubs, all of which found practical uses by the immigrant folk. There were also a few stunted trees.

On the ko kula uka, the upland slopes, were found the native ginger and other flowering plants, medicinal herbs, and thick-growing clumps of shrubs. Here too the great variety of trees attained to greater height, and their wood became the source of valuable materials for many necessities of life.

This word kula, used by Hawaiians for sloping land between mountain and sea, really meant plain or sloping land without trees. There is a large land area in the southerly kula slopes of East Maui that is named Honua-‘ula (Red-earth).

Typically, on all the islands the kula lands are covered with red soil, both on leeward and windward coasts. This is the soil in which sugar cane and pineapples flourish today. It is soil in which sweet potatoes grow well. (In contrast, dark soil, rich in humus washed down from the forests, is what wet taro requires.)

Some kula lands, such as those of southern and eastern Hawaii and the southern slopes of Haleakala on Maui, were covered with lava or soil evolved from the dust of recent volcanic eruptions.

The red soil is oldest geologically, having evolved from decomposed basalt oxidized by sun, rain, and air. Next in age is the humus of valley bottoms.

Most recent is decomposed lava, such as is typical of Kona, Kā‘u, Hilo, and Puna on Hawaii, and of some areas on the southern slope of Haleakala on East Maui.

In terms of use, from the Hawaiian planter’s point of view it was the area beyond or intersecting the kula lands that was of prime importance in dictating his habitation and his favored type of subsistence.

This was the kahawai, ‘the place [having] fresh water’ – in other words, the valley stretching down from the forested uplands, carved out and made rich in humus by its flowing stream.

Here he could find (or make) level plots for taro terraces, diverting stream water by means of ‘auwai (ditches) into the lo‘i, or descending series of lo‘i until from below the whole of the visible valley afforded a scene of lush green cultivation amidst fresh water glinting in the sun.

The planter might have his main dwelling here, or he might dwell below and maintain here only a shelter to use during periods of intensive cultivation in the kahawai.

Here also was a source of many of his living needs and luxuries, from medicinal herbs to flowers for decorative garlands, and with a wide range in between.

Two other descriptive terms applied to land areas, one belonging to the kahawai and one not. The first was pahe‘e, meaning a wet, soft, or slippery area; and the other was apa‘a, meaning arid or dry. From its derivative (pa‘a) meaning firmly bound, the latter became a term of affection for land long lived upon. (All here is from Handy, Handy & Pukui)

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Planter-Herb Kane
Planter-Herb Kane

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Hawaii, Kula, Kahawai, Farm Land, Planter, Ko Kaha Kai

September 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Holy Ghost Catholic Church

Elizabeth (Isabel) was a Spanish princess who was given in marriage to King Denis of Portugal at the age of twelve. She was very beautiful and very lovable. She was also very devout, and went to Mass every day. (Catholic-org)

Queen Elizabeth died on July 4th, 1336. She was 65 years of age, perhaps somewhat older, and had incorporated into her passage through this earth prayers, sacrifices, interventions for peace among monarchs, acts of worship, and works of mercy too numerous to mention in this brief piece.

Almost three centuries after her death, His Holiness Pope Urban VIII inexplicably broke his reported vow that there would be no canonizations during his Pontificate: He canonized St. Elizabeth of Portugal on Holy Trinity Sunday, May 25th, 1625. (SaintsCatholic)

Centuries later, Portuguese began arriving in Hawai‘i in large numbers to work on plantations in 1879. Many continued to be employed by the plantations even after their contracts had been fulfilled.

Others, however, sought to take up independent work and on Maui turned especially to farming and ranching. The middle slope of Haleakala is an exceptionally fertile region and many people of Portuguese ancestry settled here, some homesteading the land.

Before long, this growing Catholic community felt the need for a priest. In 1882 James Beissel, a priest from Prussia, was assigned to Makawao, and his district extended from Ulupalakua around to Huelo. At some time between 1894-1897, he designed the Holy Ghost Church in Kula and supervised its construction. (NPS)

The two acres of land on which it was built were donated by Louis and Randal von Tempsky in Waiakoa, and the building was financed by weekly auctions of cattle by local ranchers. (Kula Catholic Community)

The octagonal shape of the structure, according to local belief, derives from the fact that it corresponded with the shape of a replica of the crown of Queen Elizabeth of Portugal, which the church housed.

The crown of St. Elizabeth plays an important role-in the Portuguese community’s Holy Ghost celebration. According to folk beliefs in the Azore Islands, from which many of Hawaii’s Portuguese population immigrated, Queen Elizabeth gave the Catholic Church her crown after she had prayed to the Holy Ghost and her people were delivered from famine. (NPS)

The richly decorated altar and the Portuguese language Stations of the Cross were commissioned by Father Beissel in 1895 and were carved by the famous artisan and master woodcarver, Ferdinand Stuflesser, from Groden, Tirol, Austria.

Shipped in nine separate crates around the Cape of Good Hope to Hawai‘i, the altar and stations were hauled by oxcart from Kahului Harbor to Waiakoa and reassembled by the faithful members of the parish.

They are recognized now as examples of museum-quality ecclesiastical art of that time. In January of 1899 Bishop Ropert Gulstan of Honolulu arrived to officiate at the formal dedication the church. (Kula Catholic Community)

This frame church, the only known nineteenth-century octagonal-shaped building in Hawai‘i, is approximately sixty feet in diameter. Its steep, corrugated-metal hipped roof is surmounted by a mock clerestory with a blind arcade and terminates with a steeple supported on a round-arched arcade with a balustrade.

Tuscan columns serve as corner posts for the eighteen-foot-high, tongue-and-groove walls, six of which have round-arched stained glass windows. The interior is a large octagonal space with the chancel at the north end opposite the entrance and choir loft.

Four central Tuscan columns carry an octagonal rib-vaulted, tongue-and-groove ceiling. The stations of the cross are unusual in that they are inscribed in Portuguese rather than Latin or English. (SAH Archipedia)

In 1991, under the leadership of Father Michael Owens, a major restoration of the church and altars was initiated, requiring the closure of the church for about one year. In 1995, the parish was able to celebrate its Centennial year in its resplendent, restored condition.

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Holy Ghost Catholic Church
Holy Ghost Catholic Church
Holy Ghost Catholic Church_interior
Holy Ghost Catholic Church_interior
Maui-Kula-HolyGhost-Catholic-Church-WC
Maui-Kula-HolyGhost-Catholic-Church-WC
Holy Ghost Catholic Church_interior-WC
Holy Ghost Catholic Church_interior-WC
Holy Ghost Catholic_Church
Holy Ghost Catholic_Church
Holy Ghost Catholic Church-high alter
Holy Ghost Catholic Church-high alter
St Elizabeth
St Elizabeth

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Holy Ghost Catholic Church, Hawaii, Maui, Kula, Catholicism

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