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October 25, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kemo‘o Farm

At the ahupua‘a of Kamananui at Wahiawa are the remains of what McAllister describes as “the longest irrigation ditch of which there is any memory” among modern Hawaiians.

Rice cultivation, extension of the railroad system toward Waialua and the development of commercial sugarcane cultivation with the rise of the Waialua Agricultural Company (later named the Waialua Sugar Company) dramatically altered the landscape of Kamananui Ahupua‘a during the last two decades of the nineteenth century.

Kemo‘o is an ili (land division smaller than an ahupua‘a) of Kamananui. These lands were further modified during the early twentieth century through the development of a military post (Schofield Barracks,) sugar cane cultivation (Kemo‘o Land Company,) a piggery and dairy operation (Kemo‘o Farm) and the pineapple industry with its plantation settlements (Kemo‘o Camp) further re-shaped the landscape surrounding the project area. (Cultural Surveys)

Kemo’o Land Company, Ltd was started in 1910 by ED Tenney, Charles H Atherton, WW Goodale, TH Petrie and JR Gait “to carry on the business of agriculture, manufacturing and mercantile pursuits (generally, operation of mills, sugar works, irrigation systems and railroads.) (Hawaiian Star, May 24, 1907)

Kemo‘o Camp was housing for pineapple workers; it opened sometime before 1920 for Hawaiian Pineapple workers and their families. It closed when the plantation built new homes in Whitmore Village. (Star Bulletin)

In 1914, Percy Martyn Pond started the Kemo‘o Farm for the “conservation of table refuse from Schofield Barracks by the production of pork and eggs.” (Nellist)

“The Kemo‘o farm, located near Schofield Barracks, Oahu, has a swine herd numbering 1,460 animals, 250 of which are brood sows of high grade and 10 are pure-bred Duroc-Jersey and Berkshire boars. Each sow on this farm farrows, on the average, 3 litters in two years and raises 5 or 6 pigs per annum.”

“Eighty cans containing about 300 pounds of garbage each are daily hauled from the military posts to the Kemo’o farm. In 1915 the Kemo‘o farm sold 365 garbage-fed hogs … In 1918 the sales increased to 1,686 head …”

“Kemo‘o farm, where swine raising constitutes the main and a highly specialized line of farming, with dairying and poultry raising ranking next in importance.” (CTAHR, 1923)

In 1920, a young soldier named Leo B Rodby, a newcomer to Hawai‘i, took a part-time job at the farm. In 1930, he bought the controlling interest in the corporation. A year later, he and his wife, Carita Fisher Rodby, had a son named Richard H (Dick) Rodby.

The farm was discontinued in 1934. The next year, a dining room overlooking the lake was opened, prompting long lines of soldiers eager for one of their sizzling steaks. During World War II, even the generals stood in line.

Dick graduated from Leilehua High School in 1948. After graduation, he served in the army and had his basic training at Schofield.

From there he attended Woodbury College in Los Angeles to become an accountant. After graduating from Woodbury Business College and San Francisco Hotel and Restaurant College, he went to work at the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel.

He was first in the accounting department, but then transferred into Food and Beverage and worked his way up the ladder becoming Executive Assistant General Manager for the property.

In 1953, Leo passed away. His mother called and said he was needed back home to run Kemo‘o Farm Restaurant. Dick became the president of Kemo‘o Farm in 1958. (Kemo‘o Pub)

In 1953, From Here to Eternity came out; it is about the peacetime Army on O‘ahu and culminating with the Japanese surprise attack (it’s one of only two Pacific movies to win Academy Awards for Best Picture (the other film is Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935.)

The movie used the restaurant (named Choy’s in the novel and film – after Kemo‘o’s chef;) where the fight scene takes place in the movie and where the novel opens.

Dick was delivered by Dr Arthur Davis who was the Waialua Plantation doctor and father to Charles KL and Francis Davis. He knew Charles KL Davis well from growing up in Waialua.

When Davis returned from the mainland they got together which led to nearly a 12 year run at Kemo’o Farm of music, fun and a whole new venue for Kemo’o Farm.

Big Wednesday buffet lunch shows were selling out weeks in advance of up to 150-180 people per show, weekend nights were packed. Dad started adding guests to the show with Charles with all the local Hawaiian entertainers. (Borthwick)

The family sold Kemo‘o Farm in 1992 and concentrated on the Happy Cakes until 2002 when they sold the company to Owen O’Callaghan.

Today, there are three different bars to choose from at the Kemo’o Farms Pub and Grill: The Pub, Lakeside Lanai or The Barn. (Lots of information here is from Borthwick, Happy Cake, Star Advertiser and Washington Post.)

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Kemoo_Farm-1938
Kemoo_Farm-1938
Garbage-fed pigs at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923
Garbage-fed pigs at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923
Vats for steaming garbage at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923
Vats for steaming garbage at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923
Kemoo Farm milk bottles
Kemoo Farm milk bottles
Kemoo Farm-Patrons wait for 1st beer delivery-1933
Kemoo Farm-Patrons wait for 1st beer delivery-1933
Kemoo Farm
Kemoo Farm
Kemoo Farm-1985
Kemoo Farm-1985
Kemoo Farm-Kamaaina56
Kemoo Farm-Kamaaina56
Kemoo Farm ashtray
Kemoo Farm ashtray
Happy_Cake
Happy_Cake
Wahiawa Area Map-1938
Wahiawa Area Map-1938

Filed Under: General, Military, Place Names, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Schofield Barracks, Wahiawa, Percy Pond, Kemoo Farm

June 15, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Percy Martyn Pond

“‘I could not do office work,’ he said, ‘and so I had to get out of door occupation. And I thought that I would try and see whether the land right here close to town would not yield results.’” (He had a farm “around the shoulder of Diamond Head.”)

“Mr. Pond has made the land give results, too, in produce, in eggs, in chickens, in taro, in small fruits in all those things that the people who will frankly admit possibilities know can be made to come from the soil here.”

Percy Pond studied the situation here, and thought that his first show for profit was to devote the major portion of his attention to dairy farming. And the Jersey dairy farm, which is the name of his place, is a dairy conducted on strictly scientific principles.” (Advertiser, June 4, 1905)

In 1914, Pond started the Kemoo Farm for the conservation of table refuse from Schofield Barracks by the production of pork and eggs, producing more than a million pounds of pork during the war. He also served on the Territorial district draft board during the war period. (Nellist)

“The Kemo‘o farm, located near Schofield Barracks, Oahu, has a swine herd numbering 1,460 animals, 250 of which are brood sows of high grade and 10 are pure-bred Duroc-Jersey and Berkshire boars. Each sow on this farm farrows, on the average, 3 litters in two years and raises 5 or 6 pigs per annum.”

“Eighty cans containing about 300 pounds of garbage each are daily hauled from the military posts to the Kemo’o farm. In 1915 the Kemo‘o farm sold 365 garbage-fed hogs … In 1918 the sales increased to 1,686 head …”

“Kemo‘o farm, where swine raising constitutes the main and a highly specialized line of farming, with dairying and poultry raising ranking next in importance.” (CTAHR, 1923)

But farming is not what Pond is generally known for – Percy Martyn Pond, was born on Feb. 2, 1870, in Medina, Medina County, Ohio, the son of Reverend Chauncey Pond and Harriet Permelia Perkins Pond. He graduated from Oberlin College (Ohio) in 1892.

Coming to Hawaii in 1896, Pond was a luna at Ewa plantation until 1897, when he joined Castle & Cooke, Ltd., as merchandise cashier.

He was bookkeeper and clerk for the S. N. Castle Estate in 1899 and 1900, and in the latter year entered the real estate business, when the firm of McClellon & Pond was formed.

Pond married Edith O Eldredge, November 26, 1900, in Chicago. They had two sons, Eldredge B and Richard C Pond.

In conjunction with Castle & Lansdale, Pond opened up the College Hills tract, lower Manoa Valley. From 1903 to 1904 Pond was affiliated with the Waterhouse Trust Co., Ltd., leaving there to start his dairy, which he conducted until 1914, when the retail business was disposed of and the enterprise was combined with the Honolulu Dairymen’s Association.

Pond was one of the first men in Honolulu to engage in real estate promotions on a big scale. He realized years ago that the city was to have a future then foreseen by few residents, and that room for expansion was a vital necessity.

Acting on this conviction, in 1911 he bought land in Kālia, Waikiki and filled in the ponds and wetlands there. He subdivided the property makai of Kalākaua Avenue and between Lewers Street and Saratoga Road and called it Beach Walk.

Many small homes were built in the area, some of which were rented out as vacation cottages. The tenants, who generally arrived for long stays on a Matson steamer, had close access to Waikiki Beach by means of the foot right-of-way that still exists on the Diamond Head side of the Outrigger Reef Hotel. (Kelley)

Pond later purchased and developed the Royal Grove tract, in the Waikiki district, where values have also greatly increased. The Clark tract at Wahiawa, Dewey Court tract and ʻĀinahau tract were also promoted by Pond. In 1923, he financed Prospect Terrace, and in 1924 he opened the Castle tract in Honolulu.

Real estate development, however, is only one of a number of business ventures financed and promoted by Mr. Pond.

In 1916 Smoot & Steinhauser was formed; Pond became Vice President (the firm later became Pond Co., Ltd., an automobile sales agency, (Story of Hawaii and Its Builders, Nellist)).

A new building was built by the company on Beretania street in 1921, and in 1924 Pond organized the Hawaiian Finance Co., Ltd., a corporation dealing in installment automobile paper, of which he was president.

The 1940 census noted Pond’s occupation as ‘Realatar.’ Pond returned to the mainland at the outbreak of the war after disposing of his property in Hawai‘i.

Percy Pond died on July 3, 1945, in Orlando, Florida, after an illness of more than two years. (Overlin) (Lots of information here is from Nellist)

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Percy Pond-MidPacificMag-1916
Percy Pond-MidPacificMag-1916
Vats for steaming garbage at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923
Vats for steaming garbage at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923
Pond Farm-Milking Shed-Diamond Head-Adv-June 4, 1905
Pond Farm-Milking Shed-Diamond Head-Adv-June 4, 1905
Pond Cows in kiawe pasture-Diamond Head-Adv-June 4, 1905
Pond Cows in kiawe pasture-Diamond Head-Adv-June 4, 1905
Pond Cows going for milking-Diamond Head-Adv-June 4, 1905
Pond Cows going for milking-Diamond Head-Adv-June 4, 1905
Garbage-fed pigs at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923
Garbage-fed pigs at Kemoo Farms-CTAHR-1923
Colllege_Hill-Alexander_Reg2134-1906
Colllege_Hill-Alexander_Reg2134-1906
Beach_Walk_Subdivision-1914
Beach_Walk_Subdivision-1914

Filed Under: Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: Beach Walk, Hawaii, Schofield Barracks, College Hills, Percy Pond, Kemoo Farm

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