John Ena

Shortly after the arrival of Captain James Cook and his crews in 1778, the Chinese found their way to Hawaiʻi.  Some suggest Cook’s crew gave information about the “Sandwich Islands” when they stopped in Macao in December 1779, near the end of the third voyage.

As more ships came, crewmen from China were employed as cooks, carpenters and artisans; and Chinese businessmen sailed as passengers to America. Some of these men disembarked in Hawaiʻi and remained as new settlers.

The growth of the Sandalwood trade with the Chinese market (where mainland merchants brought cotton, cloth and other goods for trade with the Hawaiians for their sandalwood – who would then trade the sandalwood in China) opened the eyes and doors to Hawaiʻi.  The sandalwood trade lasted for nearly half a century – 1792 to 1843.  (Nordyke & Lee)

The Chinese pioneered another Hawaiʻi industry – sugar.  Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed "An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants," a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

Among the Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands before the importation of sugar labor in 1852, there was a group who settled in Hilo. They were all sugar manufacturers or "sugar masters"; they all married Hawaiian women.

The Chinese names of the men in this group were Hawaiianized; one of them, Zane (or Tseng) Shang Hsien (pronounced In) became known as John Ena.  (Chinese 'Shang' sounds like John; the last name Ena is pronounced as a long e; he also went by Keoni Ina and a couple other variations of the name.)

John Ena was one of the group of Chinese men who had a sugar plantation and mill on Ponahawai hill; he may have been in Kohala before coming to Hilo.

This early sugar mill was started in 1839 by Lau Fai (AL Hapai,) Zane Shang Hsien (John Ena Sr) and Tang Chow (Akau) along Alenaio stream by today’s Hilo Central Fire Station. Zane Moi (Amoi) had the plantation producing 20,000-lbs of sugar by 1851. But the mill burned down in 1855 and they abandoned the property.  (Narimatsu)

In addition to John Ena's association with the other Chinese in the Ponahawai sugar plantation, he was also associated at various times with Chinese groups in the plantations at Paukaʻa, Pāpaʻikou and Amauʻulu. (Kai)

It is not known how much influence these early sugar plantations had upon the later development of the sugar industry in Hawaiʻi, but it is known that they were the pioneers, struggling with the problems of labor, droughts, fluctuating prices, water supplies, and probably insects, rats and other difficulties that plague the commercial growing of sugar.  (Kai)

Sometime before 1842, Ena married Kaikilani "Aliʻi Wahine O Puna;" she is said to be part of the Kamehameha line, going back to Lonoikamakahiki.  The Enas had three children: daughters, Amoe Ululani Kapukalakala, born in 1842 (later married to High Chief Levi Haʻalelea and Laura Amoy Kekukapuokekuaokalani, born in 1844 or 1845 (later, Laura Coney.)

An interesting insight into John Ena’s attitude toward the education of his children is noted in a letter written by the Reverend Titus Coan to Dr Charles H Wetmore in 1850, when Dr Wetmore was away from Hilo: "Keoni Ina is anxious to get a strip of land 8 fathoms wide on the makai side of your makai field running from Punahoa Street (formerly Church Street, now Haili) to More's fence. He says he only wishes to put a dwelling house … (so) that his children may be nearer school."  (Kai)

Dr. Wetmore was apparently not interested in selling this land, but John Ena did get land near to the school. In 1851, he leased almost an acre from a Hawaiian man named Kalakuaioha for twenty years. This was on the Puna side of the present Haili Street, between Kinoʻole and Kilauea Streets.  (Kai)

These Chinese settlers were written about by the editor of the Polynesian in 1858 (possibly referring to Amoe Ululani Ena):  “In Hilo, I was told, over and over again, the girls of half-Chinese and half-Hawaiian origin were the best educated, the most fluent in the English language, the neatest housewives, and the most likely young ladies. …”

“One young lady of such origin … was married just before I arrived to a chief of considerable wealth, and if all that is said about her is true, he ought to be looking upon himself as one of the happiest and luckiest of men, for besides being possessed of the usual attractions, the bride, they say, is sensible.”

“The gossip in the village Hilo … was that she laid down some most excellent conditions, and only upon receiving a promise that they would be observed, did she consent to renounce her parents care. … But fancy a young country girl, whose world had been the village of Hilo, with an ardent, not to say remarkably well-off lover at her feet, dictating the terms upon which she would consent to become rich, dress handsomely and live in a large house in the metropolis! Ah, John Chinaman, your pains were not thrown away." (Kai)

A son to John Ena Sr and Kaikilani, John Ena Jr, was born November 18 1845 in Hilo.  He is the subject of the rest of this summary.

John Ena Jr worked at various trades until at the age of thirty-four he became a clerk for TR Foster & Co of Honolulu. This firm owned a fleet of seven schooners plying among the islands and soon acquired its first steamer in 1883 as the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co, and Ena invested heavily in the stock.  He became president of Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co in 1899.

Inter-Island’s ships traveled to Kauaʻi and the Kona and Kaʻū Coasts of the island of Hawai‘i.  The Wilder Company served the island of Maui and the windward port of Hilo.  In 1905, Ena merged Inter-Island with the Wilder Company, under the Inter-Island name.  (Later, Inter-Island became Inter-Island Airways (1941,) then Hawaiian Airlines (1947.))

Ena was a member of the House of Nobles and the Privy Council under the Kalākaua and Liliʻuokalani and was decorated in 1888 by King Kalākaua.

He served with the Board of Health under the Provisional Government and was a member of the constitutional convention that set up the Republic of Hawaiʻi.  He reportedly circulated and published the newspaper Ka Naʻi Aupuni in 1905.

Ena died on December 12, 1906 in Long Beach, California.

When Henry J Kaiser planned and developed his Waikīkī resort in 1954, he and his partner purchased 7.7-acres of Waikīkī beachfront property from the John Ena Estate and several adjoining properties.

In mid-1955 the first increment of what is now the Hilton Hawaiian Village opened for business; the first self-contained visitor resort in Waikīkī.  A nearby road, Ena Road, was named after John Ena (Jr.)

The image shows John Ena Jr.  I have added other images to a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Kālia

In traditional times, Pi‘inaio Stream was the dominant feature of the eastern area of Waikīkī.

It entered the ocean as a wide, ribboned kahawai (wide delta,) bringing fresh waters from the mountain valleys and creating an area of abundance. The early-Hawaiians found this plentiful land and marine resources as an excellent place to settle (the early settlers arrived around 600 AD.).

The Stream played a vital role in the geography, and cultural usage, of the ‘ili of Kālia. The meaning of Pi‘inaio is uncertain but it could be an allusion to going inland (pi‘i), to the location of a naio (a sandalwood-like tree - as may have commonly grown in the vicinity.)  (Cultural Surveys)

Waikīkī was famous for its fishponds with one listing citing 45 ponds.  The ten fishponds at Kālia were loko puʻuone (isolated shore fishponds formed by a barrier sand berm) with salt-water lens intrusion and fresh water entering from upland ʻauwai (irrigation canals.)

The shallow relatively-protected reefs of Waikīkī and the availability of the riparian resources of the Pi‘inaio estuary made the back dune ponds easily adaptable into fish ponds.

The inland ponds may have formed along the coast where existing depressions in the sand were chosen to make the loko puʻuone, and brush was cleared out. During traditional times, the ponds were used to farm fish, usually for the Hawaiian Ali‘i (royalty). The ʻamaʻama (mullet) and the awa (milkfish) were the two types of fish traditionally raised in the ponds.

Kālia was once renowned for the fragrant limu līpoa, as well as several other varieties of seaweed such as manauea, wāwaeʻiole, ʻeleʻele, kala and some kohu.

Limu kala was harvested to make lei for offerings.  The lei limu kala was and is still offered at the kūʻula [stone god used to attract fish] by fishermen or anyone who wishes to be favored by or is grateful to the sea.

John Papa ʻĪʻī relates an account from the early-1800s of a catch at a Kālia fishpond: “so large that a great heap of fish lay spoiling upon the bank of the pond.” (The waste was disapproved of.) This abundance of fishponds may have required significant maintenance and would have provided a potentially huge source of food for distribution at chiefly discretion.

The name of the area “Kālia” translated as “waited for” has a sense of “waiting”, “loitering” or “hesitating.” While the nuance is uncertain, one could imagine that the mouth of the Pi‘inaio Stream would be a logical place for travelers to pause.

An ʻōlelo noʻeau (Hawaiian proverb/saying) speaks of the pleasant portion of the coast of Kālia in Waikīkī:  Ke kai wawalo leo leʻa o Kālia, The pleasing, echoing sea of Kālia.  (Pukui)

Kālia is also mentioned in a story about a woman who left her husband and children on Kīpahulu, Maui, to go away with a man of O‘ahu. Her husband missed her and went to see a kahuna (priest) who was skilled in hana aloha (prayer to evoke love) sorcery.

The kahuna told the man to find a container with a lid and then speak into it of his love for his wife. The kahuna then uttered an incantation into the container, closed it, and threw it into the sea. The wife was fishing one morning at Kālia, O‘ahu, and saw the container. She opened the lid, and was possessed by a great longing to return to her husband. She walked until she found a canoe to take her home (Pukui): Ka makani kāʻili aloha o Kīpahulu; The love-snatching wind of Kīpahulu (Cultural Surveys)

In Fragments of Hawaiian History John Papa ʻĪʻī described “Honolulu trails of about 1810,” including the trail from Honolulu to Waikiki. He said that: Kawaiahaʻo which led to lower Waikiki went along Kaʻananiau, into the coconut grove at Pawaʻa, the coconut grove of Kuakuaka, then down to Piʻinaio; along the upper side of Kahanaumaikai‘s coconut grove, along the border of Kaihikapu pond, into Kawehewehe; then through the center of Helumoa of Puaʻaliʻiliʻi, down to the mouth of the Āpuakēhau Stream.

Based on ʻĪʻī‘s description, the trail from Honolulu to Waikiki in 1810 coursed through the makai side of the present Fort DeRussy grounds in the vicinity of Kālia Road. It is likely that this trail was a long-established traditional route through Waikiki.

Toward the beginning of the 1900s, downtown Honolulu was the destination for Hawaiian visitors, who numbered only about 3,000. While Honolulu had numerous hotels, there were few places to stay in Waikiki.

In 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikiki to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped in 1928 as the Niumalu Hotel; the site eventually became the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

In 1911, the Army acquired 70-acres for the construction of Fort DeRussy and started filling in the fishponds which covered most of the Fort - pumping fill from the ocean continuously for nearly a year in order to build up an area on which permanent structures could be built.

Then, as part of the government’s Waikīkī Land Reclamation project, the Waikīkī landscape was further transformed with the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal – begun in 1921 and completed in 1928 – resulted in the draining and filling in of the ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

Dredging for the project was performed by Hawaiian Dredging Company, owned by Walter F. Dillingham, who then sold the dredged sediments to Waikīkī developers. The dredge produced fill for the reclamation of over 600-acres of land in the Waikīkī vicinity.

The ʻili of Kālia runs from the ʻEwa end of today’s Ala Moana Center (near Piʻikoi Street) to the vicinity of the Halekūlani Hotel (makai of Kalākaua Avenue.)  (Lots of information here from Cultural Surveys.)

The image shows the ʻili of Kālia over a Google Earth image.  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Henry J Kaiser

In 1954, a bold, rotund tourist arrived on Hawaiʻi’s shores.

Vacationing with his second wife, he rented a Diamond House, rather than the scarce hotel accommodations.  He made Hawaiʻi his home.

While, today, we look back at Henry J Kaiser for his developments such as Hawaiʻi Kai and the Hilton Hawaiian Village, these things are part of his later legacy.

Kaiser had a long successful career prior to coming to Hawaiʻi.

Before getting here, he had several successful enterprises as wartime shipbuilder, automaker, steelman and millionaire chief of a vast industrial empire.

Kaiser was born on May 9, 1882 in Sprout Brook, New York; at 13, he left school to work to help support his parents and three sisters, by working in a dry goods store.

He moved to the West in 1906, and his sales jobs led him into the construction business and the first company he formed in 1914.

Let’s fast-forward a bit through several of his endeavors.

Through the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, California during World War II, Kaiser built “Liberty Ships” and “Victory Ships” (cargo ships.)

His operations built more ships than any other during the war (now part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Park.)  (He formed Kaiser Steel to supply steel plate for the shipbuilding.

He also made automobiles (including jeeps,) and later formed Kaiser Aluminum (where the operations included mining, refining, aluminum production and fabricated aluminum parts.)

In addition to building medical hospitals, centers and school, he formed a foundation focusing on health care needs in the country and also founded Kaiser Permanente.  (In 1958, he opened Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Honolulu.)

A consortium, called Six Companies, Inc., with Henry J. Kaiser as chairman of the executive committee, was formed to build Hoover (Boulder) Dam on the Colorado River.

This group, with Kaiser at the helm, also collaborated on the building of Bonneville, Grand Coulee and Shasta Dams, natural gas pipelines in the Southwest, Mississippi River levees, and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge underwater foundations.

The two most notable Kaiser products in Hawaiʻi are the Kaiser Hawaiian Village Hotel (today known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village) and Hawaiʻi Kai.

Back in 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikīkī to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped (1928) as the Niumalu Hotel.  Kaiser bought it and adjoining property and started the Kaiser Hawaiian Village.

He sold to Hilton Hotels in 1961 and the property (now totaling 22-acres) continues to be known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

That year, Bishop Estate leased a 6,000-acre area, which included Kuapā Pond, to Kaiser Aetna for subdivision development. The development is now known as "Hawaiʻi Kai."

Kaiser Aetna dredged and filled parts of Kuapā Pond, erected retaining walls and built bridges within the development to create the Hawaiʻi Kai Marina.

Henry J Kaiser died on August 24, 1967 at the age of 85 in Honolulu.

By the time of his death, Henry J. Kaiser had founded more than 100 companies, which operated 180 major plants in 32 states and 40 foreign countries, employing 90,000 people and making 300 products and services, with assets of $2.5 billion.

The Kaiser pink … it was reportedly the favorite color of his wife Alyce Chester Kaiser (his second wife.)  Since Kaiser often wore pink, it was likely also a favorite of his.

The image shows Henry and Bess Kaiser (his first wife, she died in 1951.)  In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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