Maunalei | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 21, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lānai – Lāhainā Ferry

In ancient times, the windward coast of the island of Lānai was home to many native residents. Maunalei Valley had the only perennial stream on the island and a system of loʻi kalo (taro pond field terraces) supplied taro to the surrounding community.

Sheltered coves, fronted by a barrier reef, provided the residents with access to important fisheries, and allowed for the development of loko iʻa (fishponds), in which various species of fish were cultivated, and available to native tenants, even when the ocean was too rough for the canoes to venture out to sea. (Lānai Culture and Heritage Center)

The history of Lānai is rich and diverse, spanning first, some 800 years of native Hawaiian residency and subsistence practices (ca. 1000 – 1800 A.D.). Then following 1800, there was a decline in the native population as foreign influences began to grow.

In 1861, Walter Murray Gibson came to Hawaiʻi after joining the Mormon Church the year before; he was to serve as a missionary and envoy of the Mormon Church to the peoples of the Pacific.

The experience with the Church was relatively short-lived; in 1864, he was excommunicated for selling priesthood offices, defrauding the Hawaiian members and misusing his ecclesiastical authority (in part, he was using church funds to buy land in his name.)

By the 1870s, Gibson focused his interests at Koele, situated in a sheltered valley in the uplands of Kamoku Ahupuaʻa. As the ranch operation was developed, Koele was transformed from an area of traditional residency and sustainable agriculture to the ranch headquarters. (Lānai Culture and Heritage Center) In 1872, Gibson moved from Lānai to Lāhainā and then to Honolulu.

After Gibson’s death in 1888, the ranch was turned over to his daughter and son-in-law, Talula and Frederick Hayselden. As early as 1896, the Gibson-Hayselden interests on Lānai, which held nearly all the land on the island in fee-simple or leasehold title, began developing a scheme to plant and grow sugar on Lānai.

They chose the ancient fishing community of Keōmuku for the base of operations. However, before completing the construction of the mill and associated facilities, and prior to the first harvest being collected for processing, the Maunalei Sugar Company went bankrupt.

In the period between 1899 to the 1920s, Keōmuku served as the hub of residency and commerce. Several motor-driven boats were engaged in providing transportation of people and goods between Lānai and Lāhaina. (Lānai Culture and Heritage Center)

Navigating the rough seas and near shore reef waters took exceptional skill. With names like “Akamai” (Smart,) “Naheihei” (The Racer,) “Mikioi” (Skillful,) “Lokahi” (Unity) and “Manukiiwai” (Bird That Fetches Water,) the boats regularly made runs to Lāhainā from Halepalaoa.

The return trip from Lāhainā brought back the mail, various food supplies, along with poi, rice and flour, fresh water in bottles, and passengers – including family members and visitors to the island.

Kupuna, Venus Leinaala Gay Holt, born at Keomoku in 1905 recalled that: “No matter how rough, Noa Kaopuiki knew how to wait. He would keep the engine running and everything. He’d wait. He knew how to count the waves. And we would all hold right there, see everything. And all the sudden, he’d go! He was gone. Right through the channel, gone. And the big waves are coming right after that. Gone on his way to Lāhaina.”

“Our boats ran twice a week to Lāhainā. They always came back with a barrel of poi, bags of flour, or whatever, whatever, whatever. We had sort of a store room with all the things in it… The boat went over and we bought most of our supplies from Lāhainā.”

“We brought in large supplies, by cases. Case of corned beef, case of canned salmon… Every Wednesday and every Saturday, they bought fresh supplies, poi, a whole barrel of poi once a week. We always had rice, and we grew a lot of things down here. We grew a lot of vegetables. We grew sweet potatoes, even down at the beach house. Lots of sweet potatoes were grown for the pigs…” (Venus Leinaala Gay Holt, January 28, 2006; Lānai CHC)

September 21, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pioneer Inn – Maunalei Sugar Connection

Getting a little back into posting historical summaries, I have wanted to correct the record on a couple of the prior posts …

I previously posted a summary on the Maunalei Sugar Company on Lanai. I also did one on the Pioneer Inn in Lahaina.

I never knew of a connection between the two.

Then, Rick Towill loaned me a book and I was shocked to learn of their connection – something that never showed up in any of the research I did on each.

You can read the prior posts on each. I’ll let Ruth Tabrah (who wrote a book on Lanai that Rick loaned me) tell the rest of the story …

“The Hayselden venture was named Lanai Sugar Company. Later, the name was changed to Maunalei Sugar Company. The lands, like much of the old Gibson holdings, were on lease. The annual ground rent on the beach portions was $10 an acre, that of the valley lands $5 an acre.”

“Fred Hayselden had renegotiated many of the Gibson leases in his own name. He 78 bought several small kuleanas outright.”

“Lanai, which had the reputation thirty years earlier of being the sheep raising center of the kingdom, still supported a population of livestock far larger than the human population.”

“There were nearly 50,000 sheep, large herds of goats and hogs, flocks of wild turkeys, but only 174 people on Lanai when Maunalei Sugar Company began.”

“Hayselden worked hard to boost the water resources and the reservoir capacity of the island. Water was the key to high sugar yield and one of the three wells advertised in the prospectus was already in operation. It produced between one and two million gallons of water a day. This was fortunate, since the other two wells did not turn out.”

“The decision was made not to build a mill, but to ship the cane to Olowalu, Maui for grinding. A wharf was built at Halepalaoa and a railroad between there and Keomuku to haul the harvested cane and plantation supplies.”

“Had Walter Murray Gibson been alive, or had Talula been consulted, the engineer would never have torn down the walls of Kahe‘a heiau to make the roadbed. The Hawaiians of Keomuku predicted that because of this, there would be trouble.”

“At first, everything prospered.”

“A spacious verandahed two story building went up. The plantation offices and the company store were on the ground floor. On the second floor were rooms for visitors, a company boarding house and quasi-hotel.”

“Camp houses and barracks were built as the population of Lanai ballooned with contract laborers. Those Lanaians who applied were hired, but the majority of the work force had to be brought in.”

“There were Gilbert Islanders, the first Japanese to arrive on Lanai, and fellow countrymen of that first sugar maker of them all, Wu Tsin, who had been the first Chinese on Lanai nearly a century before.”

“By August 1899 there were 710 laborers at Maunalei. Wages varied for each ethnic group.”

“Chinese were paid either $18.75 or $20 a month depending on their jobs. Japanese field laborers were paid $15 a month for men, $10 a month for women. Cooks earned $15 a month. Carpenters were paid at the rate of $1.50 a day.”

“Since the company made all deductions for room and board in advance, and allowed workers to run up accounts at the company store, many sugar workers on Lanai like their counterparts on the other islands, were always in debt to their employer.”

“The only cash that seemed to reach and stay in working hands was that earned by the Chinese. In Honolulu the most affluent of the merchants were Chinese, and they invested their money in the Maunalei venture to such an extent that they soon owned seventy-five per cent of the shares.”

“For its first year, the company did well.”

“Then, plague flared up among the Chinese laborers.”

“The shacks they lived in were burned, but this did not stop the epidemic. The church at Keomuku was turned into a dispensary. Those who were not already too sick to do so, fled.”

“The curse predicted when the walls of Kahe’a were broken fell heavily now on the plantation. The water in the well turned brackish. The sugar content of the cane was too low to make it worthwhile to harvest.”

“By June of 1900 the payroll of Maunalei Sugar Company carried only 38 men and by March 1901, 12 were left to shut the plantation down.”

“The two-storied company store and hotel was left up until 1905 when it was carefully dismantled, a section at a time, and floated on rafts to Lahaina. There it was hammered together again to become the Pioneer Inn.” (Tabrah)

Whoa … Who knew the Pioneer Inn was originally a structure on Lanai?

All prior research did not note the Maunalei building and Pioneer Inn connection.

In fact, newspaper accounts of that time only noted the formation and construction of the hotel in Lahaina, not that it was formerly built on Lanai and floated to Lahaina and then reassembled.

A notice in the Hawaiian Star, October 9, 1901, noted “New Hotel For Lahaina. Articles of association were filed yesterday by the Pioneer Hotel Company, with the principal place of business at Lahaina, Island of Maui.”

“The object of the association is to conduct a general hotel and restaurant business, and billiard tables. … The officers and principal stockholders are J. J. Newcomb, president, twenty-five shares; A Aalberg, secretary, twenty-five shares; P. Nicklas, treasurer, two shares; George Freeland, thirty-five shares.”

Three weeks later, the newspaper reported “George Freeland, manager of the Pioneer hotel at Lahaina, is in town for the purpose of purchasing supplies and furniture for the establishment. He will return to Lahaina nest Tuesday. (Honolulu Republican, October 31, 1901)

“Lahaina now boasts two new and up-to-date hotels. Matt. McCann has just finished and moved into his new hosterie (Lahaina Hotel,) and is not able to handle all the travel at present, consequently he is compelled to turn away guests this week.”

“The Pioneer Hotel is practically completed and under the management of Mr. Freeland, will be thrown open for the reception of guests about December 1.” (Maui News, November 23, 1901) Thanks, Rick.

March 21, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Maunalei Sugar

In ancient times, the windward coast of the island of Lānaʻi was home to many native residents. Maunalei Valley had the only perennial stream on the island and a system of loʻi kalo (taro pond field terraces) supplied taro to the surrounding community.

In 1861, Walter Murray Gibson came to Hawaiʻi after joining the Mormon Church the year before; he was to serve as a missionary and envoy of the Mormon Church to the peoples of the Pacific. He landed in Lānaʻi and eventually created the title “Chief President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Islands of the Sea.” He more regularly went by the name Kipikona.

By the 1870s, Gibson focused his interests in ranching in the area called Koele, situated in a sheltered valley in the uplands of Kamoku Ahupuaʻa. As the ranch operation was developed, Koele was transformed from an area of traditional residency and sustainable agriculture to the ranch headquarters. (Lānaʻi Culture and Heritage Center) In 1872, Gibson moved from Lānaʻi to Lāhainā and then to Honolulu.

After Gibson’s death in 1888, the ranch was turned over to his daughter and son-in-law, Talula and Frederick Hayselden. As early as 1896, the Gibson-Hayselden interests on Lānaʻi, which held nearly all the land on the island in fee-simple or leasehold title, began developing a scheme to plant and grow sugar on Lānaʻi.

They chose the ancient fishing community of Keōmoku for the base of operations, and in early-1899, the Maunalei Sugar Company was formally incorporated. Gear, Lansing & Co was the largest stockholder (Gear was President, Lansing was Treasurer – W Stodart was the plantation manager)

“The plan is that a sugar company will be incorporated at once with a capital of $1,000,000 and that 1,000 acres will be put into cane without delay. There will be no “wildcat” business in the enterprise and all persons signing for shares will be obliged to put down 10 percent of the amount desired. It is the intention of the promoters to avoid gambling in Lanai stocks as much as possible.” (Gear & Lansing, The Independent, February 28, 1899)

They developed larger support communities along the coast, cleared the lands, developed a narrow gauge railroad between Keōmoku Village and Kahalepalaoa (where the boat landing was situated,) and planted sugar cane, irrigated by water from Maunalei Valley.

“At the landing a very substantial wharf has been built, and a railroad to the camp two miles distant is in operation with a rolling stock of a locomotive and nineteen cars. Including the laborers quarters we have at the plantation fifty buildings, and the new buildings in contemplation are the pumping plants and the mill, a very respectable town and a very busy one.” (Stodart in Evening Bulletin, October 13, 1899)

Work on the plantation was largely done by immigrant Japanese laborers. “We have 400 laborers … and will have 200 more in a few weeks. The first crop will be ready to grind in 1901 and I have no doubt the yield per acre will be entirely satisfactory. The land is proving all that was promised and I have no doubt of the substantial returns to the stockholders.” (Stodart in Evening Bulletin, October 13, 1899)

Both men and women were brought from Japan, and a finder’s fee of $27- $36 per male employee, and $23 – $30 per female employee was paid to the immigration companies. Laborers were typically paid around $0.70 to $0.75 per day, with expenses for merchandise and board deducted from pay at the end of the month.

All did not go as planned.

Before completing the construction of the mill and associated facilities, and prior to the first harvest being collected for processing, the Maunalei Sugar Company went bankrupt. Sugar is a thirsty crop and the necessary water resources for the plantation were never realized.

Additional hardships arose following an outbreak of the bubonic plague in Honolulu, which led to a devastating fire and the closure of many Chinatown businesses (many of whom had invested in the Lānaʻi sugar operation.)

But those were not the major shareholders’ only financial concerns. A heading “Business Concern is in Difficulties” called attention to the financial problems of Gear, Lansing & Company; a sub-heading notes, “Failure of Maunalei Sugar Co. a Leading Factor in the Corporation’s Trouble Kaimukī and Other Large Real Estate Transactions”. (Honolulu Republican, June 19, 1901)

The story noted, “The corporation has, since its organization a few years ago, dealt heavily in real estate, besides participating largely in the boom of general stocks that two years ago strained the entire financial situation.”

“Gear, Lansing & Co.’s largest real estate deal was the exploitation of the Kaimukī residence tract. They laid out streets and installed a modern water works plant. A large proportion of the lots sold readily, but the hope deferred of rapid transit communication prevented a full measure of, success to the enterprise.”

Plantation records during the three year period of the plantation’s operation, some 70 employees (most of Japanese origin) died and were buried on Lānaʻi. In 1932, members of the Lānaʻi Hongwanji Mission built a memorial for Japanese employees of the sugar plantation near the grave sites.

Some other unfortunate consequences resulted from the Lānaʻi sugar endeavor. A part of the plantation’s work resulted in the introduction of the algarroba (kiawe) tree – the hardwood was to have been used as fuel for the furnaces, and the seeds as feed for the livestock. Left untended, the trees became an invasive pest on the island.

Following the sugar failure, Keōmoku was used as ranchland until 1954. The nearly 3,000 acres of cleared land led to significant erosion and siltation that spread from the uplands to the shore, burying sites and the reef under as much as nine feet of silt. (Lānaʻi Culture and Heritage Center)

The image shows a map of Maunalei Sugar (Lanai Culture and Heritage Center.) Here is a link to more images.

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