Spreckels | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 6, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Gay Queen Of The Waves

A 2020 Proclamation issued by Governor Ray Cooper of North Carolina states, “Whereas, North Carolina was a pioneer of East Coast surfing;”

“the April 2, 1910 edition of Colliers Weekly includes a letter from Wrightsville Beach resident Burke Haywood Bridgers describing surfing activity in our state as early as 1909;”

“an announcement in the Wilmington Morning Star on June 30, 1910 includes mention of one of the earliest surfboard riding competitions in the mainland United States and direct communications with Alexander Hume Ford”.

However, that claim appears to be suspect, given other publications that predate the 1900s claim. In the summer of 1888, several newspapers report a girl surfing at Ashbury Park, New Jersey – they refer to her as the “Gay Queen of the Waves.”

“A group of summer loungers on the beach at Ashbury park were watching the extraordinary antics of a dark-eyed bronzed-faced girl in the sea this morning. The object of all this interest and solicitude was beyond the line of breakers and standing on a plank that rose and fell with the swelling waves.”

“Her bathing dress was of some dark material, fitting close to the figure, the skirts reaching scarce to the knee. Her stockings wore of amber hue, adorned with what from the shore seemed to be vines and roses in colored embroidery. She wore no hat or cap.”

“Her hair, bound across the forehead and above the ears by a silver fillet, tumbled down upon her shoulders or streamed out upon the wind in black and shining profusion. Her tunic was quite sleeveless , and one could scarcely fail to observe the perfect development and grace of her arms.”

“As a wave larger than those which had gone before slowly lifted the plank upon its swelling surface, she poised herself daintily upon the support, her round arms stretched out and her body swaying to and fro in harmony with the motion of the waters.”

“As the wave readied its fullest volume she suddenly, quick as a thought, and with a laugh that rang full into shore, drew herself together, sprang into the air, and, her hands clasped together and clearing her way, plunged into the rolling sea.”

“There was a little cry from timid feminine watchers on the sand, but the smiling face was above water again while they cried, and the daring Triton was upon the plank again in another moment and waiting for a second high roller.”

“So she has been amusing herself and interesting the mob for three mornings. She is as completely at ease in the sea as you or I on land, and the broad plank obeys her slightest touch.”

“When she has had enough of it she will bring the plank into shore, she riding upon the further end and guiding it like a goddess over the erects and through the foam of the biggest breakers.”

“She comes from the Sandwich Islands and is making a tour of the country. Her father is an enormously rich planter. She arrived in the park a week ago with the family of a wealthy New York importer. She is at a fashionable hotel and is one of the most charming dancers at the hotel hops, as well as the most daring swimmer on the Jersey coast.”

“She is well educated and accomplished, and, of course, speaks English perfectly, and with a swell British accent that is the despair of all the dudes.”

“She learned to be mistress of the waves in her childhood at her native home by the sea, where, she modestly says, all the girls learn swimming as a matter of course, quite as much as girls in this country learn tennis and croquet.” (Morning News from Philadelphia Press, August 17, 1888)

Although she is not identified, historian Vincent Dicks has apparently suggested that the young first-ever East Coast surfer was Emma Claudine Spreckels, the only daughter of Hawai‘i sugar baron Claus Spreckels.

Claus Spreckels (1828-1908), a German-born immigrant, made his fortune by starting a brewery and later founding the California Sugar Refinery. When he went to Hawaii in 1876 he managed to secure sole supply of sugar cane and with it much of the West Coast refined sugar market. In 1899 he founded the Spreckels Sugar Company, Inc.

The businessman gave over $25 million to his five grown children but his favorite child was the only daughter, Emma Claudine Spreckels.

He gifted an entire city block in Honolulu to her and an endowment worth almost $2 million. However, in 1893, when Emma eloped with Thomas Watson, many years her senior, she failed to tell her father. (House and Heritage)

Then, Emma “returned to her father all property, bonds, etc., which he had placed in her name. These gifts amounted to nearly $2,000,000, and were, it is said, relinquished by a single stroke of the pen by Mrs. Watson after her marriage.”

“It is reported that Mr. Spreckels was opposed to his daughter’s union with Watson, and that upon his chiding her for her seeming ingratitude in marrying against his wishes, she decided to give up her fortune, and did so, it is understood, upon the advice of her husband.” (Mount Holly News, Jan 12, 1897)

Emma ultimately married three times: after Watson died in 1904 she later married John Ferris (with her father’s blessing) and then Arthur Hutton in 1922. Emma died on May 2, 1924 at Nuffield England.

November 17, 2021 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Closing Years of Spreckelsville in Spreckels’ Hands

Claus Spreckels (1828–1908) was perhaps the most successful German-American immigrant entrepreneur of the late-nineteenth century; he was one of the ten richest Americans of his time.

The career of the “sugar king” of California, Hawaiʻi and the American West consisted of building and breaking monopolies in sugar, transport, gas, electricity, real estate, newspapers, banks and breweries.

The first industry in which Spreckels succeeded was quite typical for German immigrants: beer brewing. In the spring of 1857, together with his brother Peter Spreckels and Claus Mangels, among others, he founded the Albany Brewery, the first large-scale producer of beer in San Francisco.

Though profitable, he sold his beer operation in 1863 and switched to a new field that would make him rich: sugar. That year, he started the Bay Sugar Refining Company, but sold it three years later.

He then constructed the California Sugar Refinery in 1867 to process sugar. While grocers, then, sold “sugar loaves,” Spreckels introduced the European process of packaging granulated sugar and sugar cubes (so customers could more easily divide the portions.)

Spreckels came to Hawaii in 1876 on the same ship that brought favorable news of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. In effect, the treaty gave Hawaiian sugar planters a price increase of two cents a pound and thus set off an economic boom in the island kingdom.

Spreckels had originally opposed the treaty; but after it passed, he quickly made up his mind to take advantage of it. He decided that the arid central plains would be suitable for a sugar plantation if he could get water. Two years later he returned to Hawaii accompanied by a well-known California irrigation engineer, Hermann Schussler. (Adler)

In 1878, through his friendship with King Kalākaua, Claus Spreckels secured a lease of 40,000-acres of land on Maui and by 1882 he acquired the fee simple title to the Wailuku ahupuaʻa.

That same year, Spreckels founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company, which quickly became the largest and best-equipped sugar plantation in the islands.

As a vehicle for carrying out his plans, Spreckels incorporated the Hawaiian Commercial Company in San Francisco on September 30, 1878. The authorized capital stock was $10,000,000, represented by 1,000 shares having a par value of $10,000 each. Claus Spreckels was the majority stockholder. At par, his holdings amounted to $5,200,000.

His interest and investment prompted the Hawaiian Gazette to say, “With an aggregation of brains, business enterprise and capital, this new company will infuse new life and health into the great sugar industries of Hawaii. …”

“It is more than probable that the Island production can be increased six-fold.” (Hawaiian Gazette. October 30, 1878) (The six-fold increase in production was realized in 11 years. (Adler))

In 1880 Spreckels engaged Joseph and Andrew Moore of the Risdon Iron Works, San Francisco, to build a mill with a capacity of about twenty tons a day. Construction of three more mills got underway the next year, with improved design based on experience with the first mill.

These mills were completed by 1882, and capacity was thus increased to about 100 tons a day. The crop for that year was estimated at 12,000 tons, a four-fold rise over the yield for 1880. (Adler)

The Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company was incorporated (1882) in San Francisco and went public; it took over the assets of the Hawaiian Commercial Company. Capital stock of the new company consisted of 100,000 shares of $100 par value. Purposes of the company as stated in the charter were much the same as those of Hawaiian Commercial.

After the incorporation of the Hawaiian Commercial Company, Spreckels moved swiftly to make his plantation the most modern and the most productive in the kingdom. (Adler)

Spreckels was the first island planter to achieve nearly complete control of sugar from growing to marketing. In this he set the pattern which the Hawaiian sugar industry.

The plantation, with its vast fields of cane irrigated by the Spreckels ditch, was the first link in the chain of vertical integration. The second link was the Honolulu firm of William G. Irwin and Company (Spreckels and Irwin), which acted as agent for the Spreckelsville plantation and also for others.

In the 1880’s and 1890’s it was one of the leading sugar agencies of the kingdom. The Irwin company also acted as agent for the Spreckels Oceanic Steamship Line, which during the last two decades of the nineteenth century dominated the transport of Hawaiian sugar.

Oceanic thus formed the third link in the chain of control. The last link was the Spreckels refinery in San Francisco, where most island sugar was refined.

Besides setting the pattern for vertical integration, Spreckels made many pioneering contributions to Hawaiian sugar technology.

Spreckels was the first to use a five-roller mill, instead of the usual three-roller of the time. (This increased the percentage of juice extraction from the cane, that also resulted in better drying of the bagasse (which could then be used for fuel)). (Adler)

Spreckels was the first to use electric lights in the mill. (Electric lights permitted the mills to operate night and day, and thereby avoided the expense of shut-down during the height of the grinding season. His use of electric lights in 1881 preceded the lighting in Iolani Palace by five years.) (Adler)

Spreckels was the first to use rail in hauling cane. (An ingenious system of permanent and portable track connected up with the existing railroad running to the port of Kahului.)

(At Spreckelsville, rails radiated in all directions from the mill buildings and also connected them with each other. Thus Spreckels found a solution for intra-plantation cane hauling, inter-mill and intra-mill transport, and for getting sugar directly to the wharf at Kahului.) (Adler)

Spreckels was the first to use a steam plow. (Among the advantages of the plow were that a greater area could be plowed per day than with oxen or mule teams; more effective plowing increased the sugar yield per acre; and there was a saving of man power.) (Adler)

Spreckels knew water was key to growing sugar and he built the largest irrigation ditch that had ever been undertaken in the islands. On his last trip to Spreckelsville, in August, 1893, Spreckels was making plans for an electric power plant to operate pumping stations. This would enable him to increase the water supply and hence the acreage in cane. (Adler)

The Advertiser observed, “The company means business. … A vast improvement will be noticeable in the commerce of this kingdom, and ere long, these islands so little known beyond the Coast states will be distributing their staple products all over the American continent.” (PCA, April 2, 1882)

The Gazette agreed, “Claus Spreckels has certainly made out of what was once considered worthless land a waving plain of cane. One must ride through these acres and acres of cane to fairly understand how great the enterprise is …”

“If this is gathering wealth to the owners and projectors, it is also scattering money among the Hawaiian people. We learned that during the construction of the mills the payroll of the plantation rose … A large portion of this must find its way into the pockets of the Maui people, native and foreign, another portion must come to Honolulu.” (Hawaiian Gazette, August 23, 1882)

In 1892 the plantation was called “the largest sugar estate in the world.” It contained 40,000 acres, of which 25,000 were good cane land. Twelve thousand acres were under cultivation. The fields extended for fifteen miles and were several miles wide.

The mills had a capacity of 30,000 tons a year, and were “fitted with the most perfect machinery and appliances which the ingenuity of man has yet devised.” (Adler)

But all was not rosy for Spreckels and his sugar plantations.

Upon public issue in 1882, the stock sold around $60. By the fall of 1884 the company was deep in debt, and the price was down to 25 cents. A personal loan by Spreckels of $1,000,000 and authorization by the directors of a bond issue moved the price up again. Good crop reports in 1885 reinforced this upward movement.

Then, in 1890, the U.S. Congress enacted the McKinley Tariff, which allowed raw sugar to enter the United States free of duty and established a two-cent per pound bounty for domestic producers.

The overall effect of the McKinley Tariff was to completely erase the advantages that the reciprocity treaty had provided to Hawaiian sugar producers over other foreign sugar producers selling in the U.S. market. The value of Hawaiian merchandise exports plunged from $13 million in 1890 to $10 million in 1891 to a low point of $8 million in 1892. (La Croix)

In the 1892 report of the board of directors, the stockholders were told in effect that the stock was valueless and the corporation deeply in debt.

The depressing effect of the McKinley bill on the price of sugar and the lack of water (no rain having fallen on the Hawaiian islands in a long period) were the main reasons given as an explanation for the disastrous turn which affairs had taken. (Adler)

“Fifteen gentlemen representing over eight thousand shares of stock in the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company met yesterday (17th inst.) in the law offices of Blake, Howison & Williams and expressed themselves very freely concerning the board of directors, who had permitted the affairs of the great corporation to become badly entangled”.

“It appears that at a meeting held when the report was ready for presentation several of the stockholders declined to accept the situation and suggested that an assessment might be levied and tile money thus raised be used to carry the corporation through the financial breakers.”

“This was agreed to and it was anticipated that the assessment would be about $1 a share. The good people who had invested their wealth in the Hawaiian Commercial Company were horrified by an invitation to come forward and yield up $5 a share.”

“This, the directors argued, would bring $500,000 into the treasury and would be needed, every cent of it. The date on which the assessment became delinquent was fixed at January 27th.”

“The levy was considered exorbitant, and a few days ago a number of stockholders, representing 10,000 shares out of a total of 100,000, met and appointed a committee to wait on Claus Spreckels, who is popularly supposed to have possession of 60,000 shares, or a controlling interest in the corporation, and ask him to withdraw the assessment altogether or reduce it to $1.”

“As Attorney Williams explained to the meeting yesterday: ‘Mr. Spreckels declined to listen to a paper which I had drawn up with care, and after investigation of the situation, politely requested them to vacate his office. They left.’” (Hawaiian Gazette, January 31, 1893)

Then, “a bitter family feud erupted, pitting Spreckels and his sons Adolph and John against his sons Rudolph and Claus A. ‘Gus’ Spreckels.” (Hamilton)

“There is litigation in the family of Claus Spreckels, the sugar king.”

“C. A. Spreckels, the youngest son, has begun it by filing a complaint against his father, Claus Spreckels, charging that the latter has conspired with John D. and A. B. Spreckels and other directors of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company to crowd the plaintiff and other stockholders out of the corporation.”

“Allegations of fraud to secure the desired end are made, with various revelations in connection with the business of the sugar company.”

“Claus Spreckels and the two elder sons are asked to pay $2,500,000 to the corporation as damages for their fraudulent conspiracy, and a demand is made upon the Court for an injunction to prevent the carrying out of the plans.” (Hawaiian Gazette, December 12, 1893)

An out-of-court settlement of the suit in January, 1894, gave Gus Spreckels control of Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company. His brother Rudolph became a director. Claus Spreckels and his other sons, John and Adolph, were ousted.

Hackfeld and Company replaced Irwin and Company as Hawaiian agent for the Spreckelsville plantation. Control of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company and of the Spreckelsville plantation thus slipped from the hands of the elder Spreckels. (Adler)

The upstart triumph was short lived, however, for in 1898 a competing firm bought out the company and ousted the brothers from its management. (Hamilton)

The buyers of HC&S included James B. Castle, S. N. Castle estate, William R. Castle, Henry P. Baldwin, and Samuel T Alexander. The firm of Alexander and Baldwin became Honolulu agent for the plantation in place of Hackfeld and Company.

“Stock once 25 cents, is up from $28 to $34 and over and will go to $50.” (PCA, October 13, 1898) “The stock of the company now passes largely into the hands of residents of Honolulu.” (PCA, October 15, 1989)

At the time of these last events Claus Spreckels was 70 years old. In his declining years, then, he saw the magnificent plantation which he had founded slip not only from his grasp but from that of his family. (Adler)

October 13, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Claus Spreckels

Claus Spreckels (1828–1908) was perhaps the most successful German-American immigrant entrepreneur of the late-nineteenth century; he was one of the ten richest Americans of his time.

Though profitable, he sold his beer operation in 1863 and switched to a new field that would make him rich: sugar. That year, he started the Bay Sugar Refining Company, but sold it three years later.

In 1878, through his friendship with King Kalākaua, Claus Spreckels secured a lease of 40,000-acres of land on Maui and by 1882 he acquired the fee simple title to the Wailuku ahupuaʻa.

That same year, Spreckels founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company, which quickly became the largest and best-equipped sugar plantation in the islands.

The Spreckelsville Mill was actually four mills in one complex (it was located just to the northeast of the present Kahului Airport, near the intersection of Old Stable Road and Hana Highway.) The town of Spreckelsville built up around it.

Part of the production innovation was the use of electric lights; the first recorded onshore use of electric lighting in Hawaiʻi was at Mill Number One of the Spreckelsville Plantation on Maui on Aug. 21, 1881.

To satisfy the curiosity of people anxious to see the “concentrated daylight,” Capt. Coit Hobron ran a special train from Kahului, and King Kalākaua, Widow Queen Emma and Princess Ruth were among those who came to view the lights.

Spreckels modernized and mechanized the sugar production process, from hauling cane to the mill, to extracting the juice, reducing the juice to syrup and producing sugar grains. The raw sugar was then packed and shipped to his refinery in San Francisco. (Miller)

Sugar is a thirsty crop and Spreckels built the Haiku Ditch that spanned thirty miles and delivered fifty million gallons of water daily, irrigating twenty times as much land as had previously been irrigated.

Looking to upgrade from the mule and oxen means of moving sugar to the mill (as well as reduce costs,) Spreckels built a narrow-gauge railroad to haul the sugar from the plantation to the mill.

By 1881, twenty miles of iron track were completed. The rail line also transported the processed sugar to Maui’s major port, Kahului. By 1885, Spreckelsville had forty-three miles of railroad, four engines and 498 cars for hauling cane.

Needing transportation to move his Hawaiʻi sugar for refining on the continent, he formed JD Spreckels & Bros. shipping line in 1879, which was incorporated as the Oceanic Steamship Company in 1881.

It was the first line to offer regular service between Honolulu and San Francisco, and his sons managed to reduce travel time immensely. While the sailing ship Claus Spreckels made a record run of less than ten days in 1879, by 1883 the new steam vessel Mariposa needed less than six days.

Spreckels incorporated the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company in 1884; it included four sugar mills, thirty-five miles of railroad with equipment, a water reservoir and the most advanced ditch system in the Pacific region. (Spiekermann)

Spreckelsville was the largest sugar estate in the world by 1892.

The late-1890s saw internal family conflicts. Spreckels lost control of HC&S and in 1898; it became a part of Alexander & Baldwin Co. Following the 1948 merger of HC&S and Maui Agriculture Co., HC&S became a division of Alexander & Baldwin.

Claus Spreckels was a controversial figure. For friends, he was a man “with a fine presence, an open, pleasant countenance and a cheerful word for everybody.” Others, however, characterized him as impatient, implacable, and ruthless, driven by “Dutch obstinacy.” (Spiekermann)

Hawaiʻi served as only one of the venues for the Spreckels holdings. During the 1880s and early 1890s, he bought and built up several blocks of office buildings in San Francisco.

Claus Spreckels was a financial and an industrial capitalist. Obtaining, investing and multiplying money was his main business, and his role as a pioneer of Hawaiian sugar planting and Californian beet sugar production was merely an outgrowth of his desire to increase his fortune. (Spiekermann)

Although none of his firms survived, his name today is still mentioned in San Francisco and Hawaiian travel guides as an example of an exceptional self-made man: “The life of Claus Spreckels is one of the interesting and absorbing personal histories of which America is so proud.” (Spiekermann)

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September 21, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Germans

The first Oktoberfest, held from October 12–October 17, 1810 in Munich, was to celebrate the occasion of the wedding of Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen.

Because of its success, it was repeated annually, later also with an agricultural fair, dance, music and amusement rides. The Germans call it “die Wiesn.”

Largely due to coincidence, the festival now generally starts in September and ends on or near October 3. Since the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, the day has been recognized as the Day of German Unity and is a German public holiday.

While I suspect Germans and others in Hawaiʻi celebrated the annual beer-based parties in the past, I have not yet found references to them (I am still looking.)

However, I’ll use this occasion (between my sips of lager) to relate some history of Germans in Hawaiʻi.

Three Germans were among the sailors and crew aboard Captain James Cook first visit to the islands in 1778. Johann Heinrich Zimmermann sailed on HMS Discovery and subsequently wrote an account of the voyage (his journals were published 3-years before Cook’s.)

A few years later, on a voyage to China in October 1796, Captain Henry Barber, from Bremen, Germany, sailing the English ship, Arthur, ran aground at Kalaeloa on Oʻahu. Captain Barber and his crew of 22 men took to the life boats. Six drowned.

Today, we refer to the location of where the survivors landed as “Barber’s Point,” however, the traditional name, Kalaeloa, is coming back into more common use.

In 1815, German scholar, Adelbert von Chamisso, was aboard the Russian brig Rurik, which Captain Otto von Kotzebue sailed to Hawaiʻi. He was one of the first western scholars interested in the Hawaiian language, and reportedly wrote one of the first Hawaiian grammar books.

In a summary of his visit to the Islands, Chamisso noted, “’Arocha’ (Aloha) is the friendly greeting with which each man salutes the other and which is answered by a like expression. Upon each occasion that one is greeted with ‘Arocha’ one answers ‘Arocha’ and goes ones way without turning around.”

Around this same time, a notorious German, Georg Anton Schäffer, representing the Russian-American Company of Alaska, arrived in Hawaiʻi to recover the cargo of a Russian trading ship wrecked at Waimea, Kauaʻi.

After first attempting to build a fort in Honolulu, he sailed to Kaua‘i and gained the confidence of King Kaumuali‘i. Kaumuali‘i also used the engineering skills of Schäffer to lay out a plan for a fort (commonly referred to as Fort Elizabeth) which Kaumualiʻi had constructed next to his own residence.

The Russian flag was raised over his fort. Hearing this, Kamehameha sent Captain Alexander Adams, a Scotsman who served in the navy of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i to gain control of the fort. Schäffer was forced to leave Hawaii and Adams raised the Kingdom of Hawai‘i flag over the fort in October 1817.

German-born Paul Isenberg came to Kauaʻi in the 1850s to work at Līhuʻe Plantation on Kauaʻi. He married Hannah Maria Rice, daughter of missionary-turned sugar-plantation owner William Harrison Rice.

Isenberg became manager of Līhuʻe Plantation in 1862. Along with his brothers, Isenberg played a prominent role in developing sugar plantations on Kauaʻi’s west side.

In 1881, Isenberg became a business partner with earlier German merchant Heinrich Hackfeld. Through his business H. Hackfeld & Company, Hackfeld is one of the most prominent, and prosperous, Germans to Hawaiʻi.

His company would become American Factors, shortened to Amfac, one of Hawaiʻi’s “Big 5” companies (with interests in sugar plantations, shipping and other entities.) This included the Liberty House department store, originally called “B. F. Ehlers”, after Hackfeld’s nephew.

World War I proved catastrophic for the Germans in Hawai’i who with the entry of the United States into the war had become enemy aliens overnight; the Isenbergs and Hackfields lost control of their company during World War I.

Dr. William Hillebrand, a German researcher, played an important role in public health. He was the founding physician of Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu during the 1860s. Hillebrand was an avid collector of plants; his property eventually became Foster Botanical Garden.

Claus Spreckels (1828–1908) was perhaps the most successful German-American immigrant entrepreneur of the late-nineteenth century; he was one of the ten richest Americans of his time.

The first industry in which Spreckels succeeded was quite typical for German immigrants: beer brewing. Though profitable, he sold his beer operation in 1863 and switched to a new field that would make him rich: sugar.

Spreckels founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company, which quickly became the largest and best-equipped sugar plantation in the islands. The career of the “sugar king” of California, Hawaiʻi and the American West consisted of building and breaking monopolies in sugar, transport, gas, electricity, real estate, newspapers, banks and breweries.

In more cultural contributions, Captain Henri Berger of Berlin is well remembered in for his decades of conducting the Royal Hawaiian Band.

He was called “The Father of Hawaiian Music” by Queen Liliʻuokalani. Among others, he wrote music to lyrics by King Kalākaua for the state anthem “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻi.”

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Gates, installed in Walker Park, for Fort Street grey stone H Hackfield Co from 1902 until 1970 (later known as American Factors, Ltd.

Chamisso_Adelbert_von_1781-1838

Zimmerman_Journals_on_Captain_Cook_Voyage-1781

American Factors Building-Corner of Fort and Queen

Georg_Anton_Schäffer

Russian_Fort_Elizabeth-Fort_Survey-Map-Reg-1360 (1885)

Barbers-Point-Lighthouse

Honolulu-Barbers_Point_to_Diamond_Head-Malden-Reg437-431 (1825)

Claus_Spreckels

Royal Hawaiian Band on the steps of Iolani Palace with Henry Berger, 1916

Paul_Isenberg_(1837-1903)

Paul Isenberg Monument-Lihue

The original Queen’s Hospital, shortly after being built, was sparsely surrounded in 1860

William Hillebrand (1821–1886) was a German physician.

October 9, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Mansion

“(I)n 1893, a placard was discovered hanging on one of the now padlocked gates of the property, the warning consisting of a skull and cross-bones, across which, written in red ink, were the words …”

“’Gold and Silver Cannot Stop Lead.’”

“This, added to the chagrin of being thwarted politically, resulted in the departure on the next Oceanic liner to leave for San Francisco of the whole Spreckels family.” (Advertiser, December 27, 1893) He vowed “not to return until Lili‘uokalani was seated upon the throne”. (Advertiser, April 3, 1904)

“Claus Spreckels, the Sugar King,… was for many years, intimately connected with the political and industrial history of Hawaii.”

“He was … connected in many important ways with the commercial and industrial life of the Islands, and he had, during the thirty-two years since he first extended his interest to the Mid-Pacific, rendered great services to the leading industry of this Territory.” (Hawaiian Gazette, December 29, 1908)

His first business venture was beer brewing, founding the Albany Brewery, together with his brother Peter Spreckels and Claus Mangels, among others; it was the first large-scale producer of beer in San Francisco.

He sold his beer operation in 1863 and switched to sugar, starting the Bay Sugar Refining Company. After selling that, he constructed the California Sugar Refinery in 1867 to process sugar, introducing the European process of packaging granulated sugar and sugar cubes (so customers could more easily divide the portions.)

In 1878, through his friendship with King Kalākaua, Claus Spreckels secured a lease of 40,000-acres of land on Maui and by 1882 he acquired the fee simple title to the Wailuku ahupuaʻa. He then founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company, which quickly became the largest and best-equipped sugar plantation in the islands.

Needing transportation to move his Hawaiʻi sugar for refining on the continent, his sons formed JD Spreckels & Bros. shipping line in 1879, which was incorporated as the Oceanic Steamship Company in 1881. (It became a subsidiary of Matson in 1926.)

Claus Spreckels was a controversial figure. For friends, he was a man “with a fine presence, an open, pleasant countenance and a cheerful word for everybody.” Others, however, characterized him as impatient, implacable and ruthless, driven by “Dutch obstinacy.” (Spiekermann)

Hawaiʻi served as only one of the venues for the Spreckels holdings. During the 1880s and early 1890s, he bought and built up several blocks of office buildings in San Francisco.

Back in the Islands, “Claus Spreckels was advocating the restoration of the monarchy, after the formation of the Provisional Government in 1893. He was a warm Royalist, and some one suggested in a joking manner that it would help the cause if Spreckels was put out of the way.”

“The sugar magnate heard the story and became alarmed at the threat. His alarm was intensified a few days later when, coming out of the gate of his Punahou street residence, he found a warning signal staring him in the face.” (Advertiser, April 3, 1904)

“In leaving Honolulu as he did, Mr Spreckels demonstrated his own faith in the belief that the condition he named for his return might be some day met with, by simply closing up his beautiful mansion on Punahou street and refusing to either sell or lease it.”

“The house has been opened since that time, however, once on the occasion of a visit here of his son, John D Spreckels, and later, a few years ago, when the Sugar King and his wife returned to pay a visit to Honolulu.”

“The mansion, erected on a tract of Punahou property purchased from O‘ahu College (Punahou,) was for many years the finest private residence in the city, being the only second to that of the King’s palace.”

“For years, until the hundreds of palms and other trees set out by the owner grew so as to practically hide the residence, the white three-story house of the Sugar King was one of the things pointed out to, tourists as a Honolulu landmark.” (Advertiser, December 27, 1893)

This wasn’t Spreckels’ only mansion, “Claus Spreckels has just bought a large block pf property on the swell part of Van Ness avenue and intends to build a magnificent mansion there (in San Francisco.)”

“Every one who knows Mr. Spreckels knows that he has long been casting his eye on Van Ness avenue with a view to buying a fine place of residence property.”

“It has taken him a long time to make up his mind, but he has made it up now, and as a result frontage on the owns the largest avenue of any property owner from Market to Union, and where ex-Alcalde Burr has blocked the march of progress.”

“When Mr. Spreckels does a thing he does it – and that’s what has happened in this case. He has gone in for residence property on Van Ness avenue, and has gone in for it heavily.” (Hawaii Holomua, January 11, 1894)

“One of the most valuable holdings, apart from the Claus Spreckels building, at Third and Market streets, is the family mansion at Van Ness avenue and Clay street.”

The Punahou mansion, two stories with cupola, frescoed ceilings and stained glass windows, was later purchased by Jonah Kumalae (businessman, politician and ukulele manufacturer,) who dismantled the three-story structure by sections in order to move it from Punahou Street to Mōʻiliʻili, where it was reassembled on Isenberg Street. (SB)

The St. Louis Alumni Association purchased the Kumalae home in June 1937. It was named Dreier Manor, in honor of philanthropist August Dreier, who founded Oahu Ice & Cold Storage Co. (SB) It then served as the St. Louis Alumni Clubhouse until it accidentally burned in 1954. (Mitchell)

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