Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Keʻelikōlani

Keʻelikōlani’s heritage was controversial. She was the poʻolua (“two heads”) child of Kāhalaiʻa and Kekūanāoʻa. (Johnson)

Her mother, Pauahi, was said to be carrying the child of Kāhalaiʻa when she married Kekūanāoʻa. Kekūanāoʻa claimed Keʻelikōlani as his own in court, and the matter was officially settled, though it would be debated again in later years, even by her own half-brother, Lot. (Nogelmeier)

After Pauahi’s death, Kekūanāoʻa married Kīna‘u, and they became the parents of Lot Kapuāiwa, Alexander Liholiho, and Victoria Kamāmalu, making Keʻelikōlani a half-sister to these three.

Her mother died during her childbirth (February 9, 1826,) and she was raised by the Kuhina Nui and favorite wife of Kamehameha I, Kaʻahumanu. (Kaʻahumanu died six years later; she was then sent to live with her father, Kekūanāoʻa, and her stepmother, Kīnaʻu.)

Keʻelikōlani was an important figure during her lifetime, known for her high rank in the Kamehameha lineage, her social position as a governor and woman of means, and for her character as a woman of dignity, both strong-willed and kind.

She was held in high regard by the general populace, and treated lovingly or respectfully by the ranking chiefs, government officials, and the people of her time.

She was a great-granddaughter of Kamehameha, a grand-niece to Kamehameha II and III, and a half-sister of Kamehameha IV and V. (Nogelmeier)

As a Kamehameha descendant, Keʻelikōlani was part of the royal family and the court for as long as the Kamehameha dynasty ruled. Following the death of Kamehameha V, William Charles Lunalilo ascended the throne by election in 1873.

A Kamehameha through his mother Kekāuluohi, Lunalilo proclaimed the royal family to consist of himself, his father Kanaʻina, Dowager Queen Emma and Keʻelikōlani. His official royal court included these four, along with the king’s treasurer, H. G. Crabbe. (Nogelmeier)

When mentioned in the press, Keʻelikōlani was usually listed as Ka Mea Kiʻekiʻe, Ke Ali‘i Ruta Keʻelikōlani – Her Highness, Chiefess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. Foreigners knew her as “Princess Ruth.” (Nogelmeier)

At the age of sixteen, Keʻelikōlani married William Pitt Leleiōhoku. While serving as governor of Hawai‘i Island, Leleiōhoku died, only twenty-two years old. Their surviving son, William Pitt Kīnaʻu, died at the age of seventeen in an accident on Hawai‘i. (Silva)

Keʻelikōlani’s second husband (June 2, 1856) was the part-Hawaiian Isaac Young Davis, grandson of Isaac Davis, a British advisor to King Kamehameha I. The two had a son (1862,) Keolaokalani, whom Keʻelikōlani gave as a hānai to Bernice Pauahi. Keolaokalani died in about 6-months and Leleiōhoku died of pneumonia in 1877.

She was also the adoptive mother of Leleiōhoku, brother to Kalākaua, Liliʻuokalani and Likelike, and heir apparent, whom she had renamed in honor of her first husband. (Nogelmeier)

“Princess Ruth, daughter of Pauahi and Kekūanāoʻa, who had adopted Leleiōhoku, asked of the king (Kalākaua) if she herself could not be proclaimed heir apparent; and this suggestion was placed before the king’s counsellors at a cabinet meeting, but it was objected that …”

“… if her petition was granted, then Mrs. Pauahi Bishop would be the next heir to the throne, as they were first cousins. At noon of the tenth day of April, 1877, the booming of the cannon was heard which announced that I was heir apparent to the throne of Hawaii.” (Liliʻuokalani)

Keʻelikōlani died in 1883 at Haleʻōlelo, her large hale pili native-style home on the grounds of Huliheʻe Palace in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i.

At her death, Keʻelikōlani’s will stated that she “give and bequeath forever to my beloved younger sister (cousin), Bernice Pauahi Bishop, all of my property, the real property and personal property from Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi, all of said property to be hers.” (about 353,000 acres)

This established the land-base endowment for Pauahi’s subsequent formation of Kamehameha Schools at her death. Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop passed away a year later.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Victoria Kamāmalu

There were four children of Kīnaʻu, daughter of Kamehameha I, the highest in rank of any of the women chiefs of her day; these were Moses, Lot (afterwards Kamehameha V,) Alexander Liholiho (afterwards Kamehameha IV) and Victoria. (Liliʻuokalani)

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

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

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

Victoria Kamāmalu, the only daughter of Kīnaʻu, Kaʻahumanu II and her third husband Mataio Kekūanāoʻa, was born at the Honolulu Fort, on November 1, 1838.

Through her mother she was granddaughter of King Kamehameha I; she was named after her maternal aunt Queen Kamāmalu, the wife of Kamehameha II, who died in London from the measles.

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

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

The Kuhina Nui was a unique position in the administration of Hawaiian government and had no specific equivalent in western governments of the day. It has been described in general terms as “Prime Minister,” “Premier” and “Regent.”

The Kuhina Nui held equal authority to the king in all matters of government, including the distribution of land, negotiating treaties and other agreements, and dispensing justice.

Since 1845, by legislative act, the office of Kuhina Nui had been joined with that of the Minister of Interior. Given her young age, it would have been clear to the King, Privy Council and Legislative Council that Victoria was not suited to be Minister of Interior.

Therefore, on January 6, 1855, an act was passed to repeal the earlier legislation. She received her appointment ten days later. (Hawaii State Archives)

Article 45 of the 1852 Constitution of Hawaiian Kingdom stated: “Art. 45. All important business of the kingdom which the King chooses to transact in person, he may do, but not without the approbation of the Kuhina Nui. The King and Kuhina Nui shall have a negative on each other’s public acts.”

The Constitution of 1852 further clarified some of the office’s responsibilities, including its authority in the event of the King’s death or minority of the heir to the throne. The office of Kuhina Nui functioned from 1819 to 1864, through the reigns of Kamehameha II, III, IV and V.

Kaʻahumanu was such a powerful person and Kuhina Nui that subsequent female Kuhina Nui adopted her name, Kīna‘u (Kaʻahumanu II) (1832-1839,) Kekāuluohi (Kaʻahumanu III) (1839-1845) and Victoria Kamāmalu (Kaʻahumanu IV) (1855-1863.) (Keoni Ana (1845-1855) and Mataio Kekūanāo‘a (1863-1864) were the male Kuhina Nui.)

The Constitution (1852 – Article 47) further stated that the Kuhina Nui (Premier), in absence of a Monarch, would fill the vacant office. “Whenever the throne shall become vacant by reason of the King’s death, or otherwise, and during the minority of any heir to the throne, the Kuhina Nui, for the time being, shall, during such vacancy or minority, perform all the duties incumbent on the King, and shall have and exercise all the powers, which by this Constitution are vested in the King.”

This situation occurred once, when Kuhina Nui Victoria Kamāmalu (Kaʻahumanu IV) assumed the powers of the monarchy – and, was conceptually “Queen” for a day (November 30, 1863) – the first sole-ruling female of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

‘Prince Bill’ (later King Lunalilo) and Victoria Kamāmalu were betrothed to each other in their childhood at the behest of Kamāmalu’s mother Kīna‘u.

The seemingly inevitable marriage was thwarted by Kamehameha IV – Kamāmalu’s brother Alexander Liholiho. The king feared that his own line of succession would be jeopardized by the ardor of prince and princess.

Because he would be outranked by the offspring of their union (as would any children of his own marriage to Emma Rooke), he forced his sister into breaking off her relationship with Lunalilo. (de Silva)

“Kamāmalu died at 10 am on May 29, 1866, at Papakanene house at Mokuʻaikaua… She was in bed for three weeks before she was taken.”

“On Sunday evenings the members of her two churches pleaded with the Lord, but the trouble was too grave for their petitions. The doctors, too, were unable to make her well. The length of her life was 27 years and seven months.” (ʻIʻi; de Silva)

She died without a written will, so her vast landholdings, including much of the original private lands of her mother and Queen Kaʻahumanu, were inherited by her father and eventually passed to her half-sister Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani who willed them to Bernice Pauahi Bishop and where they became part of the Kamehameha Schools.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lot Kapuāiwa

December 11, 1830, Lot Kapuāiwa was born. His mother was Kīnaʻu, the daughter of Kamehameha I (she became the Kuhina nui, in 1832.) His father was Mataio Kekūanāoʻa, a descendent of the Chiefs of the Island of Oʻahu (he was governor of Oʻahu, as well as a member of the House of Nobles and the Privy Council.)

Lot Kapuāiwa was hānai to Chief Hoapili of Lāhainā and Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena.  (Kapuāiwa means mysterious kapu (taboo) or sacred one protected by supernatural powers.)

He was 9-years-old when he entered the Chiefs’ Children’s School. The aliʻi wanted their children trained in Western, as well as Hawaiian traditions and Kamehameha III asked missionaries Amos and Juliette Cooke to teach the young royals.

In 1849, Lot and Alexander Liholiho (his brother) began their year-long trip to the United States and Europe. When he returned he was appointed a member of the House of Nobles and began government service.

He ascended to the throne as Kamehameha V on November 30, 1863, on the death of his brother.  “He was a master in the beginning, & at the middle, & to the end.  The Parliament was the “figure-head,” & it never was much else in his time. … He hated Parliaments, as being a rasping & useless incumbrance upon a king, but he allowed them to exist because as an obstruction they were more ornamental than rival.”  (Twain)

“He surrounded himself with an obsequious royal Cabinet of American & other foreigners, & he dictated his measures to them &, through them, to his Parliament; & the latter institution opposed them respectfully, not to say apologetically, & passed them.”  (Twain)

Kamehameha V modeled his leadership after that of his grandfather, Kamehameha I, believing that it was the right and duty of the chiefs to lead the common people. He refused to support the Constitution of 1852. By supporting the controversial Constitution of 1864, he expected to regain some of the powers lost by previous kings.  (ksbe)

“He was not a fool.  He was a wise sovereign; he had seen something of the world; he was educated & accomplished, & he tried hard to do well for his people, & succeeded.  There was no rival nonsense about him; he dressed plainly, poked about Honolulu, night or day, on his old horse, unattended; he was popular, greatly respected, & even beloved.”  (Twain)

In 1865, a bill to repeal the law making it a penal offense to sell or give intoxicating liquor to native Hawaiians was brought before the legislature.  Strongly supported by some, Kamehameha surprised the supporters saying, “I will never sign the death warrant of my people.” The measure was defeated in the second reading.  (Alexander)

Kamehameha V founded the Royal Order of Kamehameha on April 11, 1865 in commemoration of his grandfather, Kamehameha I. The stated purpose of the order was “to cultivate and develop, among our subjects, the feelings of honour and loyalty to our dynasty and its institutions and … to confer honorary distinctions upon such of our subjects and foreigners as have rendered, or may hereafter render to our dynasty and people, important services.”  (Royal Order)

Hansen’s Disease was rapidly spreading on Oʻahu.  In response, the legislature passed “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy” in 1865, which King Kamehameha V approved. This law provided for setting apart land for an establishment for the isolation and seclusion of leprous persons who were thought capable of spreading the disease.  The first shipment of lepers landed at Kalaupapa January 6, 1866, the beginning of segregation and banishment of lepers to the leper settlement.

By 1866, the need for a new courthouse government building in the Hawaiian Kingdom was apparent.  The legislature appropriated funds towards a new palace and a new government building. Delays ensued.  Plans for a new palace were postponed, but the new courthouse moved forward.  On February 19, 1872, Kamehameha V laid the cornerstone for Aliʻiolani Hale (now home to the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court.)

King Kamehameha V encouraged the revival of native practices. On Maui, a group of eight Hawaiians founded the ʻAhahui Laʻau Lapaʻau.  In 1868, the Legislature established a Hawaiian Board of Health to license kahuna laʻau lapaʻau. Kahuna practices including lomilomi massage and laʻau kahea healing remained legal for the next twenty years.  (princeton-edu)

Later, his summer home in Moanalua Gardens became the home of the annual Prince Lot Hula Festival, the largest non-competitive hula event in Hawai‘i.  It honors Lot Kapuāiwa who helped to revive hula by staging pāʻina (parties) at his summer home.  (Save the date, July 19, 2014, for the 37th annual event at Moanalua Gardens.)

The Kamehameha V Post Office (built in 1871, one of the oldest remaining public buildings in Hawaiʻi, and so named because it was built at the direction of Kamehameha V) was the first post office building in Hawaiʻi. For many years, it also housed the publishing and printing office of the Hawaiian Gazette and other small companies and organizations needing office space.  (NPS)

December 11, Lot Kapuāiwa celebrated the first Kamehameha Day in 1871 as a day to honor his grandfather; the first celebration fell on Lot’s birthday.  Because the weather was better in the summer, the decision was made to move the Kamehameha I celebration six months from the King Kamehameha V’s birthday (so it was moved to June 11 – the date has no direct significance to Kamehameha I.)  The 1896 legislature declared it a national holiday.  (Kamehameha Day continues to be celebrated on June 11.)

He had a law passed by the Legislative Assembly in 1872 that funded and authorized the acquisition of the hotel on the corner of Hotel Street and Richards Street by the Hawaiian government, which he named the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.  (The “Pink Palace” in Waikīkī was a different/subsequent Royal Hawaiian, built in 1927.)

Bernice Pauahi was betrothed to Lot Kapuāiwa; but when Mr Charles R Bishop pressed his suit, Pauahi “smiled on him, and they were married. It was a happy marriage.”  (Liliʻuokalani)  Lot Kapuāiwa never married.

“On the 10th (of December, 1872,) (Liliʻuokalani and her husband) were summoned to the palace to attend the dying monarch; one by one other chiefs of the Hawaiian people, with a few of their trusted retainers, also arrived to be present at the final scene; we spent that night watching in silence near the king’s bedside. The disease was pronounced by the medical men to be dropsy on the chest (hydrothorax, accumulation of fluid in the chest.”)  (Liliʻuokalani)

“Although nearing the end, the mind of the king was still clear; and his thoughts, like our own, were evidently on the selection of a future ruler for the island kingdom, for, turning to Mrs. Bishop, he asked her to assume the reins of government and become queen at his death.”  She declined. “… he relapsed into unconsciousness, and passed away without having named his successor to the throne.”  (Liliʻuokalani) (Lunalilo was shortly after elected King of Hawaiʻi.)

December 11, 1872, Lot Kapuāiwa died; it was his 42 birthday.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Richards Street

Some suggest it was named after missionary William Richards (later, advisor to King Kamehameha III – instructor in law, political economy and the administration of affairs generally;) others note it was named for a man selling luggage to tourists in his shop on that street.

One thing is certain, in looking at early maps of Honolulu, Richards Street was different.  Let’s look back.

Honolulu Harbor, also known as Kuloloia, was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.  He named the harbor “Fair Haven.”  The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

Hawaiʻi’s streets, for the most part, started out as trails that were widened and straightened, as horses, buggies and then transit became available.  In Honolulu, over time, trails headed mauka following and crossing the Nuʻuanu River, or headed southerly (to Kālia – Waikīkī) or easterly (toward Mānoa.)

Some of the present downtown Honolulu street alignments have origins dating back to 1809. It was about this time that Kamehameha the Great moved his capital from Waikīkī to what is now downtown Honolulu.

A large yam field (what is now much of the core of downtown Honolulu – what is now bounded by King, Nuʻuanu, Beretania and Alakea Streets) was planted to provide visiting ships with an easily-stored food supply for their voyages (supplying ships with food and water was a growing part of the Islands’ economy.)

On the continent or in the Islands, in the early-1800s there was limited private and public transportation and it was expensive. Thus, workers’ homes were always within two miles of downtown – less than an hour’s walk.   For these reasons cities of the mid-1800s were virtually all small, dense and on the water.

In 1825, Andrew Bloxam (naturalist aboard the HMS Blonde) noted in Honolulu that, “The streets are formed without order or regularity.  Some of the huts are surrounded by low fences or wooden stakes … As fires often happen the houses are all built apart from each other.  The streets or lanes are far from being clean …” (Clark, HJH)

In 1838, a major street improvement project was started. Honolulu was to be a planned town. Kinaʻu (Kuhina Nui Kaʻahumanu II) published the following proclamation: “I shall widen the streets in our city and break up some new places to make five streets on the length of the land, and six streets on the breadth of the land… .” She designated her husband, Governor Mataio Kekūanāoʻa, to head the project.

In 1845, Commander Charles Wilkes criticized the city by saying: “The streets, if so they may be called, have no regularity as to width, and are ankle-deep in light dust and sand … and in some places, offensive sink-holes strike the senses, in which are seen wallowing some old and corpulent hogs.”

It wasn’t until 1850 that streets received official names.  On August 30, 1850, the Privy Council first named Hawaiʻi’s streets; there were 35-streets that received official names that day (29 were in Downtown Honolulu, the others nearby.)

So, what was different about Richards Street?

Tradewinds blow from the Northeast; the channel into Honolulu Harbor has a northeasterly alignment.  Early ships calling to Honolulu were powered only by sails.

The entrance to the harbor was narrow and lined on either side with reefs.  Ships don’t sail into the wind.  Given all of this, Honolulu Harbor was difficult to enter.

Although Bloxam said Honolulu “streets are formed without order and regularity” and Wilkes confirmed they “had no regularity in width”, early mapping notes Richards was the exception.

Richards Street is, alone of Honolulu streets, in the combination of being straight, of even width and reaching to the water-front; also  it is in line with the edge of the reef bordering the harbor channel.  (Clark)

In the early years, boats either anchored off-shore, or they were pulled into the harbor (this was done with canoes (it might take eight double canoes with 16-20 men each)) or it meant men (different accounts give the number from 200 to 400.)

In 1816 (as stories suggest,) Richards Street alignment was the straight path used to pull ships through the narrow channel into the harbor, working in the pre-dawn calm when winds and currents were slow.

Effectively, the street was the inland tow path.

Later, Governor Kekūanāoʻa organized an ox-team to pull the larger vessels up the narrow channel into the harbor basin.

“The ox-team waited on the eastern point of the harbor entrance until connected by a hawser (rope) with the vessel anchored in the deep water outside. The hawser necessarily was very long because the shoal water extended outward for quite a distance.”

“When all was ready, the team walked along the channel reef but, as such towing must be in straight line, on reaching the beach the cattle could only proceed straight inland until the long hawser had drawn the vessel right into the basin.”  (In one account the team numbered twenty oxen.)  (Clark)

“… a rope of great length was used, and it was a never-to-be-forgotten sight to see yokes of oxen, teams of horses and natives tugging at the rope. A time was consumed in making a start, but when once in motion, it was a steady walk-away.”  (Brown)

In 1854 the first steam tug was used to pull sail-powered ships into dock against the prevailing tradewinds.  Captain Jacob Brown was captain of the towing tug “Pele.” The “Pele” was the first steam tug used in Hawaiʻi (screw tug with thirty-horse power.)

Its primary use was for towing vessels in and out of the harbor and replaced the use of men or animals to bring ships into the harbor against the prevailing northeast tradewinds.

In 1856, the Pele was also used to tow barges about the harbor in connection with the Honolulu Harbor dredging operations. Pele served, with short interruptions, as the sole tug for shipping at Honolulu until after 1882.

Piers were constructed at the base of Richards Street in 1896, at the site of Piers 17 and 18 in 1901 to accommodate sugar loading and at Piers 7 and 12 in 1907.

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Moses Kekūāiwa

Mataio Kekūanāoʻa (1793–1868) and Kīnaʻu (1805-1839) each served as Kuhina Nui, a position generally described as “Prime Minister,” “Premier” and “Regent.”  They were each born of chiefs; in Kīnaʻu’s case, she was the daughter of Kamehameha I.

They were also husband and wife.

They had five children: four boys, David Kamehameha (1828–1835), Moses Kekūāiwa (1829-1848,) Lot Kapuāiwa (1830–1872,) Alexander Liholiho (1834–1863,) and a girl, Victoria Kamāmalu (1838–1866.)

Consistent with custom, each of the sons were hānai (adopted) to other families – David by Kaʻahumanu, Moses by Kaikioʻewa, Lot (later Kamehameha V) by Nahiʻenaʻena, and Alexander (later Kamehameha IV) by Kauikeaouli.  (Luomala)

When Kīna‘u’s last child, Victoria Kamāmalu, was born she refused her maternal uncle Kuakini’s request to take the child to the island of Hawaii to rear. Defying custom, she herself nursed her and her adopted daughter Pauahi (but made John Papa ʻĪ‘ī and his wife Sarai her child’s kahu.)  (Luomala)

Moses Kekūāiwa was born July 20, 1829.  His hānai father, Kaikioʻewa, was a trusted and loyal advisor and warrior to Moses’ grandfather, Kamehameha I.  When Kamehameha died, Kaikioʻewa was one of the few there with him.

“After lying there three days, his wives, children and chiefs, perceiving that he was very low, returned him to his own house. … The chiefs requested him to give them his counsel … Then Kaikioʻewa addressed him thus:  ‘Here we all are, your younger brethren, your son Liholiho and your foreigner; impart to us your dying charge, that Liholiho and Kaʻahumanu may hear.’”

“Then Kamehameha inquired, ‘What do you say?’ Kaikioʻewa repeated, ‘Your counsels for us.’ He then said, ‘Move on in my good way and–.’ He could proceed no further. … The sick king was once more taken to his house, when he expired; this was at two o’clock.” (Jarves)  (Kaikioʻewa later became governor of Kauai. Moses Kekūāiwa was also known as Moses Kaikioʻewa.)

As a child, Prince Moses Kekūāiwa, apparently “developed a violent and uncontrollable nature. … (while) embarking for Kauai early in 1839 in company with Mr. and Mrs. Amos Cooke and the old governor of Kauai, Kaikioʻewa, who was the official Kahu, or guardian of little Prince Moses. The youngster had made up his mind to go with his guardian.”

“He came down to Robinsons’ wharf where we were about to set sail, and laid hold of the side of the brig, yelling and howling. His guardian all the time continued to dissuade and expostulate. No one dared to use force upon the furious child. This continued for more than two hours, until nearly night. Finally his father, the governor Kekūanāoʻa, sent down a file of soldiers with orders to arrest and convey the little prince home to the palace near by.”  (Sereno Edwards Bishop)

Moses Kekūāiwa was educated at Chiefs’ Children’s School (Royal School.)  Founded in 1839, the original school was located on the grounds of the present Hawaiʻi State Capitol.  The school was created by King Kamehameha III; the main goal of this school was to groom the next generation of the highest ranking chief’s children of the realm and secure their positions for Hawaii’s Kingdom.

Seven families were eligible under succession laws stated in the 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i; Kamehameha III called on seven boys and seven girls of his family to board in the Chief’s Children’s School (two more students were added in 1842.)

Amos Starr Cooke (1810–1871) and Juliette Montague Cooke (1812-1896), missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, were selected by the king to teach the 16 royal children and run the school.

In this school were educated the Hawai‘i sovereigns who reigned over the Hawaiian people from 1855: Alexander Liholiho (King Kamehameha IV,) Queen Emma, Lot Kamehameha (King Kamehameha V,) King William Lunalilo, King David Kalākaua and Queen Lydia Lili‘uokalani.

In addition, the following royal family members were taught there: Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Princess Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau Pratt, Prince Moses Kekūāiwa, Princess Jane Loeau Jasper, Princess Victoria Kamāmalu, Prince Peter Young Kaeo, Prince William Pitt Kīnaʻu, Princess Abigail Maheha, Prince James Kaliokalani and Princess Mary Polly Paʻaʻāina.

At times, all was not smooth at the school.  Cooke writes in his diary, “Yesterday I became a little more stern with my scholars, & had to strike Moses to make him mind. To day I struck Alexander on his head & Moses replied “he keiki a ke alii oia nei” (He is the son of the chief.) I replied I was king of the school.”

However, Cooke also notes, “Moses received quite a number of letters from Kauai, in which they call him their chief.” (Cooke Diary, August 26, 1840)

Some people say that the Kamehamehas won the kingdom through successful warfare. Kamehameha made the daughters of his war counselors, who gave him the kingdom, his wives; and their descendants thus became heirs to the kingdom for which Kamehameha had striven. …  Kekūāiwa was considered in the succession of ruler. (Kamakau)

“Moses Kaikioʻewa … (was) by far (one of) the most important young chiefs of the country. (He was heir) to existing chiefs’ rights in very large and numerous estates or lands.”  (McCully, Supreme Court Decision, Hawaiian Gazette, January 22, 1889)

At the Māhele, among other properties, the ahupua‘a of Kapālama was awarded to Moses Kekūāiwa. The land passed down in turn to his sister Victoria Kamāmalu, to her brother Lot Kamehameha, to his half-sister Ruth Keʻelikōlani, and then to her first cousin, Bernice Pauahi Bishop. The will of Mrs. Bishop established a trust founding Kamehameha Schools.  (Cultural Surveys)

Moses Kekūāiwa, the eldest male of his generation and a lineal descendant of Kamehameha I, was expected to marry a high chiefess of rank to continue the royal line.

He was engaged to the Tahitian Princess Ninito Teraʻiapo.  “Ninito was a member of the royal family of Tahiti.  She came here … betrothed to Prince Moses…”  (Hawaiian Gazette, July 22, 1898)

However, she arrived too late to be wed Moses.  In September, 1848, someone infected with measles on an American warship arrived. It spread and killed about a third of the population.

A notice in the newspaper noted the sad news, “DIED – In this town, on Friday, the 24th, inst., Moses Kaikioʻewa, son of Kekūanāoʻa and Kīnaʻu, aged 19 years and 6 months.  The deceased was the expectant governor of Kauai, and was educated at the Royal School.”  (Polynesian, November 25, 1848)  Moses Kekūāiwa is buried at Mauna ʻAla.

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