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November 4, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Eben’s Glove

“He was always immaculately dressed and tailored when I saw him.” (Lucas; Watumull)

He was married to Elizabeth Pu‘uki Napoleon (“really Napoli. … Became known as Napoleon later.”)

“She was always known as Lizzie Low. My mother’s people were not well known to us because she was hanaied by Judge and Mrs. Sanford B. Dole when she was about twelve years of age [circa 1879].”

“Judge Dole was a teacher at Kawaiaha‘o Sunday School and had in his class a little girl of about six whose name was Lizzie Napoleon. And he became very attached to this little girl so when she got a little older, he asked her mother if she wouldn’t allow her to live with them.”

“She didn’t want to go at first but she did finally become attached to both Judge and Mrs. Dole and lived there until she was married.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“My father was known as Rawhide Ben because ever since he was knee high to a grasshopper, I guess, he loved the ranch life. And he was brought up as a member of the family in Mana and Kamuela with the rest of them.”

“So as a little boy he always had a chance to do something with animals. And this was his whole life. All he ever thought about was his cowboy experiences. But he became known as Rawhide Ben …”

“… I think, because even though he was sent to Maui and then to Honolulu later, at Iolani School, to get educated when he was a little fellow, he always went back to the ranch and that was all he wanted to do.”

“And as soon as he became an adult, his first job – big job – was given him by Theo. H. Davies and Company as manager of Puakea Ranch which is in Kohala – South Kohala there.”

Eben Parker Low was born in Honolulu, a great grandson of John Palmer Parker I and his Hawaiian wife, Kipikane. He spent his early years on Parker Ranch, Handling cows and calves by the time he was six years old.”

“He had very little education; in his own words, ‘… just plain common sense plus some English grammar and arithmetic and writing.’”

“At the age of 26 he became manager of Pu‘uhue ranch in Kohala, and began a career that made him one of the big island’s most famous and colorful paniolo.” (Hawaii Cattlemen’s Hall of Fame)

Unfortunately, he lost a portion of his left arm while roping … “he was trying to get a wild bullock that they had been chasing for a long time and he finally caught it but it was very wild and the thing was just swishing around this way (she indicates to the right and around the back of her) …”

“… so he had just enough time to duck down and the rope (with which the bullock was lassoed) went over his head. But he had the rope tied at the end of his pommel, which he never does ordinarily but he did that time because he didn’t want to lose it. And it caught his hand, see, ‘cause the loop was around his hand and it just tore the thing right off.”

“So then, there was one man with him and I don’t know how long they had – about two hours before they could get to anyplace. And of course he had this thing up and was bleeding like a cut pig.”

“And when they finally found the doctor and could get him up there, hours had passed and gangrene was starting to come in, so they cut it. They had to cut it down here (indicates forearm) and had to cut it again at the elbow.”

“But he got through that and, well, he was a young man then. I think he was about twenty-five when that happened, so he had a lot of time to get over it, too.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“Low was known as ‘one of the better artists with a rope, horse and steer’. Low had lost his left hand in a roping accident, but ‘managed to excel at roping despite his handicap of the one missing hand’”. (Marion Kelly)

“(H)e had that one arm that had to be amputated forearm and so he’d … usually wore a … false hand with a glove on his left hand and then when he roped he had a thing he’d put on with a hook it just you know a mean hook it you’d look like a pirate you look at the pictures of old pirates”. (Billy Paris; Hawaii Cattlemen’s Association)

“And I remember that leather glove. I always remembered that leather glove. I can just see him so clearly.”

“Yeah, he was a rascal with that glove because obviously, you know, there was an artificial arm. Let’s see now, his arm was cut here (indicates it was just below the elbow) so there was just a little leverage here, right below the elbow, and would give him leverage, so this thing – this gloved hand – would fit right into the end of this stump.”

“And so, he could twist it and take it off or not as he pleased. And half the time he would take it off and put a hook on it because he could handle a hook more easily than he could a glove. But oh, he used to do terrible things with that glove.”

“For instance, I remember one time when a woman – I can’t remember who she was now but it was someone that I thought should not have been in any way fooled with because she was very dignified and she was very well dressed and she was so sedate, so prim and proper …”

“… and my father just couldn’t stand it and so he just twisted this thing off and threw the [gloved] hand in her lap. That woman nearly died of a heart attack.” (Lucas; Watumull)

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Eben 'Rawhide Ben' Low-PP-75-5-007-1939
Eben ‘Rawhide Ben’ Low-PP-75-5-007-1939

Filed Under: Economy, General, Prominent People Tagged With: Rawhide Ben, Hawaii, Cattle, Eben Low, Ranching

March 19, 2018 by Peter T Young 7 Comments

Ebenezer Parker Low

“He described sitting on the veranda there at that ranch. It’s on the slopes going down to Mahukona from Kohala and you could look and late in the afternoon when the sun used to hit the Hualalai Mountains …”

“(H)e would see this funny little sponge cake-looking hill sticking out in the side of Hualalai. And he used to just dream about getting over to that place that had a perfect fascination for him.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“My father was known as Rawhide Ben because ever since he was knee high to a grasshopper, I guess, he loved the ranch life. And he was brought up as a member of the family in Mana and Kamuela with the rest of them.”

“So as a little boy he always had a chance to do something with animals. And this was his whole life. All he ever thought about was his cowboy experiences.”

“And as soon as he became an adult, his first job – big job – was given him by Theo. H. Davies and Company as manager of Puakea Ranch which is in Kohala – South Kohala there.”

“Eben Parker Low was born in Honolulu, a great grandson of John Palmer Parker I and his Hawaiian wife, Kipikane. He spent his early years on Parker Ranch, Handling cows and calves by the time he was six years old.”

“He had very little education; in his own words, ‘… just plain common sense plus some English grammar and arithmetic and writing.’”

“At the age of 26 he became manager of Pu‘uhue ranch in Kohala, and began a career that made him one of the big island’s most famous and colorful paniolo.” (Hawaii Cattlemen’s Hall of Fame) Unfortunately, he lost a portion of his left arm while roping.

Back to the sponge cake hill … “finally he found a Hawaiian who knew how to go across the lava flows there. I don’t know if he went on a mule or on a horse. But this man took him with him and they one day got across all that long lava flow by a trail and got to Puuwaawaa Ranch – Puuwaawaa Hill.” (Lucas; Watumull)

Then, he and Robert Robson Hind finally got a chance to take control of it … they picked up the Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a lease (General Lease No. 186; March 1, 1894) covering 40,000 acres for 25 years, and established a ranch. (Marion Kelly)

“(I)t was just a wilderness and lava and really rough country and they had to begin from scratch. But my father loved it. He just loved every minute of it. … What food was available in the rocks there up in that mountainside was very rich, evidently, very nutritious, because the cattle that came up to that ranch were always very fat.”

“Then they finally decided to split up after nine years because they couldn’t work together and my father didn’t have enough money to buy out Mr. Hind (his brother-in-law, Robbie married Low’s sister, Hannah.) But they finally split up and my father came to Honolulu from Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a. “ (Lucas; Watumull)

Eben was instrumental in bringing the talent of the Hawaiian paniolo to the national scene when he sent Archie Ka’au’a, Jack Low and Ikua Purdy to the Frontier Days World Championship Roping Competition in Cheyenne Wyoming in 1908.

Mid-westerners watched the Hawaiians compete. Purdy won the World’s Steer Roping Championship – roping, throwing, and tying the steer in 56 seconds flat. Ka‘aua and Low took third and sixth place.

“His confidence and pride in them were expressed by his own words, “’one cannot imagine the noise of the applause our boys received from those 30,000 watchers . . . The kanakas had won!’” (Hawaii Cattlemen’s Association)

“(B)efore my father died he asked his nephew, Archie Ka‘aua, to take care of his ashes when he died . Archie’s family lived in Kamuela and his family still own property right in the village there at Kamuela, forty acres out in the homestead section there.”

“Archie at that time was a young man and seemingly very well. Archie promised to take his ashes and scatter them up at Mauna Kea. But Archie had a funny feeling that he wasn’t going to outlive my father and he went to Willie Kaniho, who was the head cowboy of Parker Ranch.”

“So Willie Kaniho was given the assignment by Archie. … So sure enough, Archie Ka‘aua did die before my father died. But when my father passed away, Willie Kaniho was ready to do this.”

“There was no way of getting up there unless you got up on horseback. So Anna Lindsey [Perry- Fiske] who is, of course, one of my father’s pets too, came forth … Well, the family went up. … and Reverend Akaka–Abraham Akaka–went with us.”

“We got to the very top of that mountain – the very top – Reverend Akaka said a prayer and read a little bit from Scriptures and then Kaniho and Reverend Akaka scattered the ashes right at the top of the mountainside. It was really very impressive.” (Lucas; Watumull)

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© 2018 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Eben 'Rawhide Ben' Low-PP-75-5-006-1931
Eben ‘Rawhide Ben’ Low-PP-75-5-006-1931

Filed Under: Economy, General, Place Names, Prominent People Tagged With: Eben Low, Ebenezer Parker Low, Rawhide Ben, Puuwaawaa, Hawaii

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