Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Near Abdication

“In referring to the several journals of the day one is struck with the absence of any account of the occurrence at the time”. (Thrum)

While local papers appear to have had stories squashed by a “pocket veto” of the King, a couple mainland papers ran short stories on the tragic events and follow-up.

“No legal notice of the event was in any way taken; no person would have been foolhardy enough to propose it. It is not my purpose to defend the right of the king to this execution of summary vengeance …”

“… especially as it was done in a moment of anger; yet beyond the sadness of the act, it has a certain bearing on this sketch of my life as one of the descendants from the ruling families of Hawaii.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“On Sunday, September 11th, 1859, occurred a melancholy and tragical affair at Lahaina, which, as a matter of history, should not be omitted in these recollections.” (Thrum)

“The first news we received was that the king in a fit of passion had shot and mortally wounded one of the party, his own secretary, Mr. HA Neilson.”

“After the occurrence all that the tenderest of brothers could have done was proffered by the king to the wounded man; but after lingering for some months, Mr. Neilson died.“ (Liliʻuokalani)

“(T)he community was electrified by the intelligence, from Lahaina, that his Majesty had shot, and dangerously, if not fatally, wounded Henry A Neilson, formerly of New York, but since the accession of the King … his private secretary and constant attendant, confident and friend.” (New York Times)

“Much more might be said, were I disposed to report every flying rumor. Conjecture is alive to the motive of such an imprudent, impolitic act. The first supposition of all is that it was jealousy – whether well-founded or baseless.”

“But no breath of suspicion lights upon the young Queen. She is by every one acquitted of such a folly and dishonor as giving any cause of vengeance to her lord. She is above reproach.” (New York Times)

“I incline to the opinion that the act was committed under the influence of ungovernable passion, accompanied by more or less of temporary mental aberration brought on by brooding on his troubles.”

“There seemed to be a distinct intention to kill the man he shot. For this some assign as the cause jealousy, created by ill-disposed persons in his train; others anger at indiscretions of Neilson. All feel deeply for the Queen.” (New York Times)

The Honolulu Advertiser ventured an editorial on September 28 and actually mentioned the act (“the king shooting his secretary”) but with no details. They said the act was “an open contradiction to the laws of God and man, which can under no pretext be justified.” Yet, it concluded: “He has erred, so we are all liable to commit acts of error.” (Theroux)

On October 12 the king wrote a letter to Neilson in which he “regretted” this “great false act of my life … the act committed by me was premeditated, founded upon suspicions long harrowed up and extending for a length of time.” (Theroux)

King Kamehameha IV (Alexander Liholiho) announced that he would make a public proclamation, submit to a trial and abdicate the throne. A flurry of letters were exchanged between the king and his minister of foreign affairs, Robert Wylie.

The King listed his reasons for abdication, but Wylie begged him not to exaggerate the gravity of the affair and opposed the proclamation. He insisted that “no emergency has occurred,” that “abdication” would be “a shame on himself” and “annihilation on the sovereignty of the nation.” (Theroux)

The Privy Council and the House of Nobles, the legislatures of the day, advised against “abdication.” One of the few items that appeared in the papers was a notice from the Privy Council that, despite rumors, the king would not abdicate his throne.

“We are authorized to state, for the purpose of allaying any anxiety that may exist in the public mind, that the rumors in regard to his Majesty’s abdication are, we are happy to say, without foundation.” (New York Times)

By October 20, McKibbin reported to the king that Neilson was “feverish and in low spirits.” On November 20, he suffered a relapse and the wound opened “afresh.”

“There were causes which were apparent to any of our people for something very like righteous anger on the part of the king. His Majesty was trying to make us each and all happy; yet even during moments of relaxation, undue familiarity, absence of etiquette, rudeness, or any other form which implied …”

“… or suggested disrespect to royalty in any manner whatsoever, would never be tolerated by anyone of the native chiefs of the Hawaiian people.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“To allow any such breach of good manners to pass unnoticed would be looked upon by his own retainers as belittling to him, and they would be the first to demand the punishment of the offender.”

“It was in this case far too severe. No one realized that more than the king himself, who suffered much distress for his victim, and was with difficulty dissuaded from the abdication of his throne.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“If ever mortal man suffered the pangs of remorse it was Liholiho the king. From the first sober moment, if he was drunk, he never forgot the deed, and all that he could order done for the poor unfortunate sufferer was done to relieve him.” (Gorham D. Gilman, in Thrum)

“I used to visit Mr. Neilson and never a word did I hear him utter against the king. I believe that they were two friends until that fateful night. … In my recollection Kamehameha IV was the most of a gentleman in his manner of the five kings I was favored to be acquainted with. He was so from boyhood.” (Gorham D. Gilman, in Thrum)

“The (then) seaside cottage of the king, on the present site of the Enterprise Mill, was assigned to him for a residence. Subsequently he was moved to a cottage on Alakea street, just below the Wicke’s premises, and which he occupied to the time of his death, which occurred February 12th, 1862, as shown by the following notice in the Advertiser of the 13th:”

“‘Yesterday morning, Mr. Henry A. Neilson died in this city. In former years he was well known, but for two and a half years past has been confined to his room by the unfortunate occurrence which is familiar to all.’” (Thrum)

There was never an official investigation into the shooting of Henry Neilson.

On the 27th of August, 1862, Prince Albert, the four-year-old son of Alexander Liholiho and Emma died. “The king and queen had the sympathy of all parties in their bereavement; but Kamehameha IV completely lost his interest in public life, living in the utmost possible retirement until his death.” (Liliʻuokalani)

The king became a recluse, suffering from asthma and depression. He died on St. Andrew’s Day, November 30, 1863, two months’ short of his 30th birthday. Emma ran unsuccessfully for the throne in 1874, losing to David Kalākaua. She died in 1885 at the age of 50.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Sarah Rhodes von Pfister

Sarah Rhodes von Pfister was not only a tutor and governess, but also a trusted mentor and confidante to one of Hawaiʻi’s Queens. Sarah played an important role in her growing up during her adolescence. (Kanahele)

Let’s look back.

Siblings, (the boys) Henry and Godfrey Rhodes, and (the girls) Mary Ann, Annie, Sarah and Sussannah (Mrs Brown, Mrs. Covington, Mrs. von Pfister, and Mrs. Robinson) were children of a prominent officer of the Bank of England.

The von Pfister family came of good stock and was among the early settlers in New York; the brothers were Frank M, Edward H and John R von Pfister. (Brown)

Members of both families came to the Islands. John von Pfister courted and married Sarah Rhodes. They had two children, Ida and Ramsay.

In 1842, George Rhodes and Frenchman John Bernard “obtained a lease from the government for fifty years, on two parcels of land, ninety acres east and sixty acres west of the (Hanalei) river, and there started a coffee plantation.”

“This was a new industry for Kauai, although coffee berries had been brought to Honolulu from Brazil in 1825 on the British frigate Blonde, and a few plants had then been started in Manoa Valley on Oahu.

“Four or five years later the missionaries at Hilo and other planters in Kona on the island of Hawaii had begun to grow coffee around their houses, but it was from the original source in Manoa Valley that the seed and young were obtained for Hanalei.”

In October of 1845, Godfrey Rhodes and John von Pfister formed a partnership. By 1846, the Rhodes and Company Coffee Plantation covered seven hundred and fifty acres, so that the two plantations counted over one hundred thousand trees and “a great part of the valley, at least to the extent of a thousand acres, was under cultivation in coffee at this time.” (Damon)

“In May, 1847, just as the trees were in good condition of full bearing, they had “severe rains for two weeks which did much damage to the valley, flooding the coffee plantations.”

“Masses of rock, trees and earth were loosened and carried by force of water, crushing several hundred trees and doing much other damage.”

“Recovering from this pullback another difficulty was met with the following year by the California gold fever, rendering labor scarcer and dearer.” (Thrum)

John caught the Gold Fever and headed to California.

Placards posted around told the sad news, “Posted around San Francisco was a placard stating that a reward of $5,000 would be paid for the apprehension of Peter Raymond, who murdered John R von Pfister at Sutter’s Mill, or for his head in case he could not be taken alive.” (Grimshaw)

Widowed, Sarah managed to get along by teaching school, which filled a long-felt want in the community. (Brown)

Sarah moved to Honolulu and set up a “select” school for the children of Honolulu’s elite, which was located on Smith and Beretania Streets. (Kanahele)

Smith Street was opposite the old Kaumakapili church, and was named after its pastor, Rev. Lowell Smith. Sarah lived nearby and had a school there. (Unfortunately Sarah’s building burned down, but she was able to get a new school site.) (Brown)

Then came the new special student for Sarah Rhodes von Pfister. At the age of five, the child had entered the Chiefs’ Children’s School.

That school was created by King Kamehameha III; the main goal of the 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 to board in the Chief’s Children’s School.

The Chiefs’ Children’s School was unique because for the first time Aliʻi children would be brought together in a group to be taught, ostensibly, about the ways of governance.

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.

The school closed in 1849; then, when the school closed, Thomas Rooke, hānai father of Emma Naʻea Rooke, hired Sarah Rhodes von Pfister to tutor his daughter for the next four years.

As noted above, Sarah not only taught the young girl, she also became her friend.

On June 19, 1856, Emma married Alexander Liholiho (who a year earlier had assumed the throne as Kamehameha IV) and became Queen Emma.

In March 1853, Robert Crichton Wyllie bought the coffee plantation at Hanalei. In 1860, he hosted his friends King Kamehameha IV, Queen Emma and their two-year-old son, Prince Albert, at his estate for several weeks. In honor of the child, Wyllie named the plantation the “Barony de Princeville”, the City of the Prince (Princeville.)

Members of Queen Emma’s family are interred in the Wyllie Crypt at Mauna Ala: Queen Emma’s mother, Kekelaokalani; her hānai parents, Grace Kamaikui and Dr. Thomas Charles Byde Rooke; her uncles, Bennett Namakeha and Keoni Ana John Young II; her aunt, Jane Lahilahi; and her two cousins, Prince Albert Edward Kunuiakea and Peter Kekuaokalani.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Queen Emma

In 1836, Honolulu wasn’t really a city; it was just a large village with only one main street, King Street, and less than 6,000 people – about 500 were white foreigners.

It was a major port for whaling ships, and as one writer put it, one of the most “unattractive” places in the world.

Emma, the future queen, was born “Emma Naea” in Honolulu on January 2, 1836 to Fanny Kekelaokalani Young, daughter of John Young, King Kamehameha I’s counselor, and Kaʻoanaʻeha, Kamehameha’s niece. Her father was high chief George Naea.

As was the custom, she was offered to her mother’s sister, Grace Kamaikui Rooke and her husband, Dr. T.C.B. Rooke as hānai daughter. Unable to have children of their own, the Rookes adopted Emma.

Emma grew up speaking both Hawaiian and English, the latter “with a perfect English accent.” She began formal schooling at age 5 in the Chief’s Children’s School, where she was quick and bright in her studies.

At age 13, Dr. Rooke hired an English governess, Sarah Rhodes von Pfister, to tutor young Emma. He also encouraged reading from his extensive library. As a writer, he influenced Emma’s interest in reading and books.

At 20, Emma became engaged to the king of Hawai‘i, Alexander Liholiho, (Kamehameha IV,) a 22-year-old who had ascended to the throne in 1855.  The couple had known each other since childhood.

At the engagement party, accusations were made that Emma’s Caucasian blood made her not fit to be the Hawaiian queen, and her lineage was not suitable enough to be Alexander Liholiho’s bride.

However, the wedding was held as planned however, and the new queen soon became involved in the business of the kingdom, particularly that of saving the Hawaiian people from extinction.

In his first speech as King, Kamehameha IV stated the need for a hospital to treat the native population.  Due to introduced diseases, the Hawaiian population had plummeted since the time of Captain Cook’s arrival to 70,000, with extinction a very real possibility.

The treasury was empty, so the king and his queen undertook the mission of soliciting enough funds to establish a proper hospital in Honolulu. Within a month, their personal campaign had raised $13,530, almost twice their original goal.

To recognize and honor Emma’s efforts, it was decided to call the new hospital “Queen’s.”

The King and Queen rejoiced at the birth of their son, Albert Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha, on May 20, 1858. The entire populace welcomed the new heir to the throne with joy, only to be stricken by utter grief four years later when the little boy died suddenly of “brain fever.”

Just 15 months later, Alexander Liholiho, (Kamehameha IV,) weakened by chronic asthma, died at age 29.  In her grief, Queen Emma took a new name, Kaleleonalani, which means “flight of the heavenly chiefs.”

To ease her pain, Emma dedicated herself to many worthy causes, among which was organizing a hospital auxiliary of women to help with the ill. She also helped found two schools, St. Andrews Priory in Honolulu and St. Cross on Maui.

Her work included the development of St. Andrews Cathedral. She journeyed to England where she and her friend, Queen Victoria, raised $30,000 for the construction or the cathedral.

“Queen Emma, or Kaleleonalani, the widowed queen of Kamehameha IV … refined by education and circumstances … is a very pretty, as well as a very graceful woman. She was brought up by Dr. Rooke, an English physician here, and though educated at the American school for the children of chiefs, is very English in her leanings and sympathies …”

“… an attached member of the English Church, and an ardent supporter of the “Honolulu Mission.” Socially she is very popular, and her exceeding kindness and benevolence, with her strongly national feeling as an Hawaiian, make her much beloved by the natives.”  (Bird)

When King Lunalilo died in 1874, Emma became a candidate for the throne (the Kingdom had become a constitutional democracy). Lunalilo had wanted her to succeed him, but he failed to make the legal pronouncement before he died.

An election for a new sovereign was held.  Although she campaigned actively, she lost the throne to David Kalākaua.

Politics was not her strong suit — humanitarianism was.  Queen Emma was much loved by the people and hundreds of mele have been composed in her honor.  Her humanitarian efforts set an example for Hawaii’s royal legacy of charitable bequests.

After her death on April 25, 1885 at age 49, she was given a royal funeral and laid to rest in Mauna ʻAla beside her husband and son.

“She was different from any of her contemporaries. Emma is Emma is Emma. There’s no one like her. A devout Christian who chose to be baptized in the Anglican church in adulthood, and a typically Victorian woman who wore widow’s weeds, gardened, drank tea, patronized charities and gave dinner parties, she yet remained quintessentially Hawaiian.”  (Kanahele)

“In a way, she was a harbinger of things to come in terms of Hawaii’s multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society. You have to be impressed with her eclecticism — spiritually, emotionally and physically. She was kind of our first renaissance queen.”  (Kanahele)

Queen Emma left the bulk of her estate, some 13,000 acres of land on the Big Island and in Waikiki on Oahu, in trust for the hospital that honors her.  (Lots of good information here came from Queen’s Hospital)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka Haku O Hawaiʻi

The marriage of Alexander Liholiho and Emma was one of mutual love.  They had common interests in literature, music, opera, religion and theater.  According to Emma, “Our happiest hours were spent reading aloud to each other.”

On May 20, 1858, the king and queen were blessed with the birth of a son, Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa a Kamehameha.

He was named Albert Edward, after the husband of Queen Victoria of England, and Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa, after his hānai grandfather Kamehameha III.

However, the Hawaiian people called young Albert “Ka Haku O Hawaiʻi,” “The Lord of Hawaiʻi.”

His mother and father affectionately called him “Baby.”

He was an honorary member of the Fire Engine Company Number Four and was given his own red Company Number Four uniform.

In 1860, Robert Crichton Wyllie, hosted his friends King Kamehameha IV, Queen Emma and their two-year-old son, Prince Albert at his plantation estate for several weeks.

In honor of the child, Wyllie, founder of the plantation, named his estate the “Barony de Princeville,” the City of the Prince (Princeville on Kauaʻi.)

Alexander Liholiho and Emma had hoped to have Albert christened by a bishop of the Church of England.

The prince became ill.  As Albert became sick, and the bishop’s arrival was delayed; he was baptized on August 23, 1862 by Ephraim W. Clark, the American minister of Kawaiahaʻo Church.

Queen Victoria of England had previously sent a silver christening vessel used at his christening.  The British Queen and her husband, Prince Albert, were the godparents of the young prince.

On the 27th of August, 1862, Prince Albert, the four-year-old son of Alexander Liholiho and Emma died, “leaving his father and mother heartbroken and the native community in desolation”. (Daws)  

The actual cause of death is not known.

Initially thought to have been “brain fever,” now called meningitis, today, some believe the prince may have died from appendicitis.  Whatever the cause, the young prince suffered for ten days and the doctors could not help him.

The King then ordered the construction of the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla, in Nuʻuanu Valley to house his son’s body, since Pohukaina had become too full.

After Prince Albert, no child was born to a reigning Hawaiian monarch.  “The last of the line of Kamehameha the Great is at rest with his fathers.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 17, 1903)

“The king and queen had the sympathy of all parties in their bereavement; but Kamehameha IV completely lost his interest in public life, living in the utmost possible retirement until his death.”  (Liliʻuokalani)

The king became a recluse, suffering from asthma and depression. He died on St. Andrew’s Day, November 30, 1863, two months’ short of his 30th birthday.

Following her son’s death and before her husband’s death, Emma was referred to as “Kaleleokalani”, or “flight of the heavenly one”.

After her husband also died, it was changed into the plural form as “Kaleleonālani”, or the “flight of the heavenly ones”.

Mauna ‘Ala (fragrant mountain) was completed in January 1864 and a State funeral was held for Kamehameha IV on February 3, 1864.

Mauna ‘Ala is the resting place for many of Hawai‘i’s royalty.  On October 19, 1865, the Royal Mausoleum chapel was completed.

Emma ran unsuccessfully for the throne in 1874, losing to David Kalākaua. In 1883, Emma suffered the first of several small strokes and died two years later on April 25, 1885 at the age of 49.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Robert Crichton Wyllie

Robert Crichton Wyllie was born October 13, 1798 in an area called Hazelbank in Dunlop parish of East Ayrshire, Scotland. His father was Alexander Wyllie and his mother was Janet Crichton.

He earned a medical diploma by the time he was 20.  In 1844, he arrived in Hawaiʻi and stayed in the Hawaiian Islands for the rest of his life.

Wyllie first worked as acting British Consul. During this time he compiled in-depth reports on the conditions in the islands. Attracted by Wyllie’s devotion to the affairs of Hawaiʻi, on March 26, 1845, King Kamehameha III appointed him the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Kamehameha IV reappointed all the ministers who were in office when Kamehameha III died, including Robert C. Wyllie as Minister of Foreign Relations.  Wyllie served as Minister of Foreign Relations from 1845 until his death in 1865, serving under Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

Within five years after taking the helm of the office he had negotiated treaties with Denmark, England, France and the United States whereby Hawaiʻi’s status as an independent state was agreed.

Wyllie eventually gave up his allegiance to Queen Victoria and became a naturalized Hawaiian subject.

In 1847, Wyllie started collecting documents to form the Archives of Hawaii.  He requested the commander of the fort in Honolulu and all the chiefs to send in any papers they might have.  Two of the oldest documents included the 1790 letter of Captain Simon Metcalf and a letter by Captain George Vancouver dated 1792.

The foundation of the Archives of Hawaiʻi today are based almost entirely upon the vast, voluminous collections of letters and documents prepared and stored away by Wyllie.

Wyllie built a house in Nuʻuanu Valley he called Rosebank. He entertained foreign visitors at the house, and the area today still has several consular buildings.

In his role in foreign affairs, Wyllie was seen as a counter to the American influence.  Wyllie wrote in the early part of 1857, “There are two grand principles that we aspire to; the first is that all nations should agree to respect our independence and consider the Archipelago strictly neutral in all wars that may arise – and the second is, to have one identical Treaty with all nations.”  (Kuykendall)

Of these two principles, the second was auxiliary to the first. Wyllie’s great ambition was to set up some permanent barrier against any possible threat to Hawaii’s national independence. He had a clear idea as to the direction from which danger was most likely to come.  (Kuykendall)

In the latter part of 1857 he wrote, “If we be left to struggle for political life, under our own weakness and inability to keep up an adequate military and naval force, in the natural course of things, the Islands must sooner or later be engulfed into the Great American Union, in which case, in time of war, the United States would be able to sweep the whole Northern Pacific.”  (Kuykendall)

Wyllie, above all other men in Hawaiʻi, succeeded in compelling the powers to maintain an attitude of “hands off”, leaving the kingdom in the list of independent nations.  (Taylor)

In March 1853, he bought a plantation on Hanalei Bay on the north shore of the island of Kauaʻi. In 1860, he hosted his friends King Kamehameha IV, Queen Emma and their two-year-old son, Prince Albert, at his estate for several weeks. In honor of the child, Wyllie named the plantation the “Barony de Princeville”, the City of the Prince (Princeville.)

Originally the land was planted with coffee; eventually it was planted with sugarcane.  Princeville became a ranch in 1895, when missionary son Albert S Wilcox bought the plantation.

A bachelor all his life, Wyllie died October 19, 1865 at the age of 67; Kamehameha V and the chiefs ordered the casket containing his remains be buried at Mauna ʻAla, the Royal Mausoleum, adjacent to those of the sovereigns and chiefs of Hawaiʻi.

Members of Queen Emma’s family are also interred in the crypt with Mr. Wyllie: Queen Emma’s mother, Kekelaokalani; her hānai parents, Grace Kamaikui and Dr. Thomas Charles Byde Rooke; her uncles, Bennett Namakeha and Keoni Ana John Young II; her aunt, Jane Lahilahi; and her two cousins, Prince Albert Edward Kunuiakea and Peter Kekuaokalani.

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