Two Friends … Fellow Adventurers

The older was born February 25, 1821 in Sandy Hill, New York (In 1910, the village's name was changed to Hudson Falls.)  Stone quarried from there was used to construct the Brooklyn Bridge (1883.)  The younger was born January 25, 1822 in Glens Falls, New York, about 3-miles away; his father was a toll collector who worked on a toll booth in the middle of the Hudson River.

The older, William Little Lee, was the first Chief Justice of the Superior Court (1847-52) and then the Supreme Court (1852-57.)  The younger, Charles Reed Bishop, was primarily a banker (he has been referred to as "Hawaiʻi’s First Banker.”)  He met and married Bernice Pauahi in 1850.

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Founder’s Day

(The following is an address delivered on Founder’s Day at Kamehameha Schools by Charles R Bishop – published in Handicraft.)

The trustees of the estate of the late Hon. Bernice Pauahi Bishop, deeming it proper to set apart a day in each year to be known as Founder’s Day, to be observed as a holiday by those connected with the Kamehameha Schools, and a day of remembrance of her who provided for the establishment of these schools, have chosen the anniversary of her birth, the 19th of December, for that purpose, and this is the first observance of the day.

If an institution is useful to mankind, then is the founder thereof worthy to be gratefully remembered. Kamehameha I by his skill and courage as a warrior, and his ability as a ruler, founded this nation.

Kamehameha II abolished the tabu and opened the way for Christianity and civilization to come in. Kamehameha III gave to the people their kuleana and a Constitutional Government, and thus laid the foundation for our independence as a nation.

Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma were the founders of the Queen's Hospital. Kamehameha V was a patriotic and able sovereign, and Lunalilo was the founder of the Home which hears his name. All these should be held in honored remembrance by the Hawaiian people.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop, by founding the Kamehameha Schools, intended to establish institutions which should be of lasting benefit to her country; and also to honor the name Kamehameha, the most conspicuous name in Polynesian history, a name with which we associate ability, courage, patriotism and generosity.

The founder of these schools was a true Hawaiian. She knew the advantages of education and well directed industry. Industrious and skillful herself, she respected those qualities in others. Her heart was heavy, when she saw the rapid diminution of the Hawaiian people going on decade after decade, and felt that it was largely the result of their ignorance and carelessness.

She knew that these fair islands, which only a little more than a century ago held a population of her own race estimated at 300 000 or more would not be left without people; that whether the Hawaiians or not, men from the East and from the West would come in to occupy them: skilful, industrious, self-asserting men, looking mainly to their own interests.

The hope that there would have come a turning point, when, through enlightenment, the adoption of regular habits and Christian ways of living, the natives would not only hold their own in numbers, but would increase again like the people of other races, at times grew faint, and almost died out.

She foresaw that, in a few years the natives would cease to be much if any in the majority, and that they would have to compete with other nationalities in all the ways open to them for getting an honest living; and with no legal preferences for their protection, that their privileges, success and comfort, would depend upon their moral character, intelligence and industry.

And so, in order that her own people might have the opportunity for fitting themselves for such competition, and be able to hold their own in a manly and friendly way, without asking any favors which they were not likely to receive, these schools were provided for, in which Hawaiians have the preference, and which she hoped they would value and take the advantages of as fully as possible.

Could the founder of these schools have looked into the future and realized the scenes here before us this day, I am sure it would have excited new hopes in her breast, as it does in my own.

If the Hawaiians while continuing friendly and just toward all of those of other nationalities, are true to themselves, and take advantage of the opportunities which they have, and are governed by those sound principles and habits in which they have been instructed, and in which these youths now present are here being taught day by day both in precept and example, there is no reason why they should not from this time forth, increase in numbers, self-reliance and influence.

But on the other hand, if they are intemperate, wasteful of time, careless of health and indifferent as to character; and if they follow those evil examples, of which there are so many on every side, then, nothing can save them from a low position and loss of influence, in their own native-land, or perhaps from ultimate extinction as a race.

But let us be cheerful and hopeful for the best, and see to it that from these schools as well as from the other good schools - shall go out young men fitted and determined to take and maintain, a good standing in every honest industry or occupation in which they may engage.

These schools are to be permanent and to improve in methods as time goes on. They are intended for capable, industrious and well-behaved youths; and if Hawaiian boys of such character fail to come in, other boys will certainly take their places.

We look to those who may be trained in the Kamehameha Schools to honor the memory of the founder and the name of the schools by their good conduct, not only while in school, but in their mature lives as well.

So long as we are in the right, we may reasonably trust in God for his help; let us always try to be in the right.

The image shows Charles Reed Bishop and his wife Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.  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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William L Lee

William Little Lee did not plan to go to Hawaiʻi, let alone spend his life there.  (Dunn)

Lee had received the best legal education available for an American of his time. He had been a law student at Harvard under US Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story and the renowned law teacher Samuel Greenleaf.  After a year's practice in Troy, New York, his recurring illness caused him to leave.  (Silverman)

In February 1846, he sailed for the Oregon Territory with his friend and fellow adventurer, Charles Reed Bishop. After a long and stormy voyage, their ship (the Henry,) after about eight months at sea, arrived in Honolulu harbor October 12, 1846, needing extensive repairs.  (Dunn)

While waiting there, Lee was consulted by some American residents on a legal question.  He caught the attention of officials in the Hawaiian kingdom and was recruited by Attorney General John Ricord and Dr. Gerrit Judd, the Minister of Finance for Kamehameha III. Lee, then 26 years old, was only the second trained attorney in the Islands (after Ricord).  (Dunn)

After some persuasion, he consented to stay, provided his friend could also be provided with employment. This was done, and Lee and Bishop made their home in Honolulu.  (Bishop later married a Princess, Bernice Pauahi, founded Bishop & Company (what is now known as First Hawaiian Bank) and became a well-known financier and philanthropist.)

On December 1, 1846, Governor Mataio Kekūanāoʻa appointed Lee a judge in the newly organized court system.  The appointment of Lee marks the beginning of a new era in the history of the Hawaiian judiciary. His character and attainments were such that under his leadership the courts won and retained public confidence.  (Kuykendall)

The greater part of the Statute Laws of His Majesty, Kamehameha III was drafted by Attorney General Ricord before he resigned from the government; it was completed by Judge Lee. (Kuykendall)

The Act of 1847 expressly provided that the judges should be entirely independent of the executive department, and that the
King in his executive capacity should not control the decisions of the judges.

Following this, Lee presided over the Superior Court of Law and Equity (this court was later elevated to become the Supreme Court.)  Lee served as Chief Justice (the Islands’ first CJ,) Lorrin Andrews and John ʻĪʻi as associate justices.  The three justices heard all cases of original or appellate jurisdiction above the district court level.  Lee was appointed to the Privy Council.

He strenuously urged upon the king and chiefs the policy of giving up to the common people a third of their land, and when a law to that effect was passed, he was appointed president of the Board of Commissioners to Quiet Land Titles (the Land Commission) to carry out its provisions, but he declined to accept any compensation for his services.  (Ellis)

As much as anyone, Lee was responsible for carrying into effect the system of private property ownership. All of his deepest beliefs came together in his support of land ownership by commoners. He felt that "merely to preserve" their rights "would be no gain." He wanted to go forward to "define their rights—to separate them from those of their chiefs."

He sought “to give them what they have as their own, to inspire them with more self respect, more independence of character, and to lead them if possible to work, and labor, and cultivate, and improve their land.”  (Silverman)

In 1851, he was elected to the Legislature and became Speaker of the House of Representatives.  Among his labors were the framing of the revised constitution of the kingdom, and the task of drafting criminal and civil codes for the kingdom.  (Ellis)

Lee brought major areas of substantive Western law into the Hawaiian legal system by drafting legislation which was frequently passed without alteration.

He wrote the Masters and Servants Act (1850) which governed the terms of contract labor of thousands of Hawaiian and immigrant plantation workers. He drafted the Marriage and Divorce law (1853) which liberalized divorce grounds to include several causes, instead of adultery only. He undoubtedly drafted basic business legislation, such as the bankruptcy law (1848.)  (Silverman)

As Chief Justice, first of the Superior Court (1847-52) and then the Supreme Court (1852-57,) Lee administered the court system. He created the position of clerks in the Supreme and Circuit courts and placed them under centralized control.

By the time of the 1852 Constitution, aliʻi authority combined with Western precedents to create a Hawaiian judicial system that was Western in philosophy, structure and procedure.

Soon after the 1852 Constitution went into effect, Chief Justice Lee moved into the newly constructed coral block courthouse located near the harbor. This courthouse was the first structure in the islands built expressly for court purposes. It was built on the site of Halekauwila, a large Hawaiian house belonging to Kamehameha III, where earlier court sessions had been held.  (Silverman)

Judge Lee's health, always delicate, gave way as a result of undue exposure in attendance upon sick natives during an epidemic of smallpox in 1853.

This brought on a return of his early malady, and in 1855, in order to obtain medical advice, he accepted an appointment as minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to negotiate a treaty with the US by which sugar from the islands was to be admitted free of duty, in return for the admission to the islands of lumber, fish and some other productions of the Pacific states.  (Ellis)

He went to the continent; however, his health did not improve and he returned to the Islands, where he died (May 28, 1857; he is buried as Union Cemetery, Fort Edward, Washington County, New York.)

The image shows William Little Lee.    In addition, I have included other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Liliʻuokalani, Her Early Years

She was born September 2, 1838 and named Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha.   (The following is a summary of some of her early years – as told by her.)

At that time, children often were named in commemoration of an event.  Kuhina Nui Kīnaʻu had developed an eye infection at the time of Liliʻu's birth.  She gave the child the names Liliʻu (smarting,) Loloku (tearful,) Walania (a burning pain) and Kamakaʻeha (sore eyes.)

“My father's name was (Caesar Kaluaiku) Kapaʻakea, and my mother was (Analeʻa) Keohokālole; the latter was one of the fifteen counsellors of the king, Kamehameha III, who in 1840 gave the first written constitution to the Hawaiian people.”

“My great-grandfather, Keaweaheulu, the founder of the dynasty of the Kamehamehas, and Keōua, father of Kamehameha I, were own cousins (he was also brother of Mrs Bishop's ancestress, Hākau,) and my great-grandaunt was the celebrated Queen Kapiʻolani, one of the first converts to Christianity.”

“As was then customary with the Hawaiian chiefs, my father was surrounded by hundreds of his own people, all of whom looked to him, and never in vain, for sustenance. He lived in a large grass house surrounded by smaller ones, which were the homes of those the most closely connected with his service.”

“But I was destined to grow up away from the house of my parents. Immediately after my birth I was wrapped in the finest soft tapa cloth, and taken to the house of another chief, by whom I was adopted.”

In her youth she was called "Lydia" or "Liliʻu." (She was also known as Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī, with the chosen royal name of Liliʻuokalani, and her married name was Lydia K Dominis.)  As was the custom, she was hānai (adopted) to Abner Pākī and his wife Laura Kōnia (granddaughter of Kamehameha I.)

“…their only daughter, Bernice Pauahi (born December 19, 1831,) afterwards Mrs Charles R Bishop, was therefore my foster-sister. … I knew no other father or mother than my foster-parents, no other sister than Bernice.”    The two girls developed a close, loving relationship.

“(W)hen I met my own parents, it was with perhaps more of interest, yet always with the demeanor I would have shown to any strangers who noticed me.”

“My own father and mother had other children, ten in all, the most of them being adopted into other chiefs’ families; and although I knew that these were my own brothers and sisters, yet we met throughout my younger life as though we had not known our common parentage. This was, and indeed is, in accordance with Hawaiian customs.”

Liliʻu and Bernice lived on the property called Haleʻākala, in the house that Pākī built on King Street.  It was the 'Pink House,' made from coral (the house was named ʻAikupika (Egypt.))  (It is not clear where the ʻAikupika name came from.)

“At the age of four years I was sent to what was then known as the Royal School, because its pupils were exclusively persons whose claims to the throne were acknowledged. It was founded and conducted by Mr Amos S Cooke, who was assisted by his wife. It was a boarding-school, the pupils being allowed to return to their homes during vacation time, as well as for an occasional Sunday during the term.”

“Several of the pupils who were at school with me have subsequently become known in Hawaiian history.  There were four children of Kīnaʻu, daughter of Kamehameha I, the highest in rank of any of the women chiefs of her day; these were Moses, Lot (afterwards Kamehameha V,) Liholiho (afterwards Kamehameha IV) and Victoria”.

“Next came Lunalilo, who followed Kamehameha V as king. Then came Bernice Pauahi, who married Hon Charles R Bishop. Our family was represented by Kaliokalani, Kalākaua, and myself, two of the three destined to ascend the throne.”

“From the year 1848 the Royal School began to decline in influence; and within two or three years from that time it was discontinued, the Cooke family entering business with the Castles, forming a mercantile establishment still in existence.”

“From the school of Mr and Mrs Cooke I was sent to that of Rev Mr Beckwith, also one of the American missionaries. This was a day-school, and with it I was better satisfied than with a boarding-school.”

“I was a studious girl; and the acquisition of knowledge has been a passion with me during my whole life, one which has not lost its charm to the present day.  In this respect I was quite different from my sister Bernice.”

“She was one of the most beautiful girls I ever saw; the vision of her loveliness at that time can never be effaced from remembrance; like a striking picture once seen, it is stamped upon memory's page forever.”

“She married in her eighteenth year. She was betrothed to Prince Lot, a grandchild of Kamehameha the Great; but when Mr Charles R Bishop pressed his suit, my sister smiled on him, and they were married.  It was a happy marriage.”

“At this time I was still living with Pākī and Kōnia, and the house now standing and known as the Arlington Hotel was being erected by the chief for his residence. It was completed in 1851, and occupied by Paki until 1855, when he died.”

“Then my sister and her husband moved to that residence, which still remained my home. It was there that the years of my girlhood were passed, after school-days were over, and the pleasant company we often had in that house will never cease to give interest to the spot.”

The comments in quotes are from Liliʻuokalani from her book “Hawaiʻi’s Story by Hawaiʻi’s Queen, Liliʻuokalani.”

Fast forward … on the afternoon of January 16, 1893, 162 sailors and Marines aboard the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor came ashore.  The home that Liliʻuokalani was raised in (later known as Arlington Hotel) served as the headquarters for the USS Boston's landing force (Camp Boston) at the time of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, January 17, 1893.

The image shows Lydia Paki in her youth.  I added some other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Charles Reed Bishop

Born January 25, 1822 in Glens Falls, New York, Charles Reed Bishop was an orphan at an early age and went to live with his grandparents on their 120-acre farm learning to care for sheep, cattle and horses and repairing wagons, buggies and stage coaches. Academically, he only attended the 7th and 8th grades at Glens Falls Academy, his only years of formal schooling.

After leaving school, he becomes a clerk for Nelson J. Warren, the largest business in Warrensburgh, New York. He learned bartering, bookkeeping, taking inventory, maintenance and janitorial duties.  Bishop became an expert in barter, and ran the post office, lumber yard and farm. He becomes a capable businessman.

By January 1846, Bishop was ready to broaden his horizons. He and a friend, William Little Lee, planned to travel to the Oregon territory, Lee to practice law and Bishop to survey land.  They sailed aboard the ‘Henry’ from Newburyport, Massachusetts, around Cape Horn on the way to Oregon.

The vessel made a stop in Honolulu on October 12, 1846; both decided to stay.  (Lee later became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.)

Bishop soon found work, first at Ladd and Company, a mercantile and trading establishment, then at the US Consulate in Honolulu. In 1849, Bishop signed an oath to "support the Constitution and Laws of the Hawaiian Islands" and was appointed collector of customs for the kingdom.

Bishop met Bernice Pauahi while she was still a student at the Chiefs’ Children’s School (they probably met during the early half of 1847,) and despite the opposition of Pauahi's parents who wanted her to marry Lot Kapuāiwa (later, Kamehameha V,) Bishop courted and married Pauahi in 1850.  (His letters that mention Pauahi reveal a deep respect and affection for his wife and suggest she was a major source of his happiness throughout their 34-year marriage.)

Their home, Haleakala, became the "greatest centre of hospitality in Honolulu." They graciously hosted royalty, visiting dignitaries, friends and neighbors as well as engaged in civic activities such as organizing aid to the sick and destitute and providing clothing for the poor.

Bishop was primarily a banker (he has been referred to as "Hawaiʻi’s First Banker.”)  An astute financial businessman, he became one of the wealthiest men in the kingdom from banking, agriculture, real estate and other investments.

However, his industrious nature and good counsel in many fields were also highly valued by Hawaiian and foreign residents alike. He was made a lifetime member of the House of Nobles and appointed to the Privy Council. He served Kings Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V, Lunalilo and Kalākaua in a variety of positions such as: foreign minister; president of the board of education; and chairman of the legislative finance committee.

Bishop believed in the transforming power of education and supported a number of schools: Punahou, Mills Institute (now known as Mid–Pacific Institute), St Andrews Priory and Sacred Hearts Academy.  He not only contributed money to his causes, he provided sound advice and financial expertise.

He even sent presents of food or clothing to schools like Kawaiahaʻo Seminary at Christmas, "It is my wish that Mr. Raupp should send them plenty of mutton…also that they should have two turkeys or some ducks, some oranges and cakes…"

Next to her royal lineage, no other aspect of Pauahi's life was as important to her fulfillment as a woman - and as the founder of the Kamehameha Schools - as her marriage to Charles Reed Bishop. He brought her the love and esteem she needed as a woman and the organizational and financial acumen she needed to ensure the successful founding of her estate.  (Kanahele)

Soon after Pauahi’s death in 1884 he wrote: "I know you all loved her, for nobody could know her at all well and not love her. For myself I will only say that I am trying to bear my loss and my loneliness as reasonably as I can looking forward hopefully to the time when I shall find my loved one again."

Immediately after Pauahi’s death, Bishop, as one of first five trustees she selected to manage her estate and co-executor of her will, set in motion the process that resulted in the establishment of the Kamehameha Schools in 1887.  (The other initial trustees were Charles Montague, Samuel Mills Damon, Charles McEwen Hyde and William Owen Smith.)

Because Pauahi’s estate was basically land rich and cash poor, Bishop contributed his own funds for the construction of several of the schools’ initial buildings on the original Kalihi campus: the Preparatory Department facilities (1888,) Bishop Hall (1891) and Bernice Pauahi Bishop Memorial Chapel (1897.)

Bishop is best known for his generous contributions to his wife's legacy, the Kamehameha Schools (when he died, he left most of his estate to hers,) and the founding of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum (1889.)

In a letter to Samuel Damon, 1911, he noted, “Being interested in her plans…I decided to carry out her wishes regarding the schools and promised to do something toward a museum of Hawaiian and other Polynesian objects…in order to accomplish something quickly … I soon reconveyed to her estate the life interests given by her will and added a considerable amount of my own property…”

In 1894, Bishop left Hawai`i to make a new life in San Francisco, California. Until he died, he continued, through correspondence with the schools’ trustees, to guide the fiscal and educational policy-making of the institution in directions that reinforced Pauahi’s vision of a perpetual educational institution that would assist scholars to become "good and industrious men and women." (Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s Will, 1883)

In 1895, Bishop established the Charles Reed Bishop Trust.  The beneficiaries of the Trust consist of 8-designated entities: Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Maunaʻala, Central Union Church, Kaumakapili Church, Kawaiahaʻo Church, Kamehameha Schools, Mid-Pacific Institute (his original beneficiaries, Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary and Mills Institute merged in 1907 to form Mid-Pac) and Lunalilo Trust.

By the time Pauahi died in 1884, Maunaʻala, the Royal Mausoleum in Nuʻuanu was crowded with caskets. Bishop built an underground vault for Pauahi and members of the Kamehameha dynasty.

Charles Reed Bishop died June 7, 1915; his remains rest beside his wife in the Kamehameha Tomb.  A separate monument to Charles Reed Bishop was built at Maunaʻala in 1916.   (Lots of information here is from KSBE.)

The image is the wedding portrait of Bernice Pauahi Charles Reed Bishop (June 4, 1850.)  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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Kaʻōleiokū

At the time of ‘contact’ (Captain Cook’s arrival (1778,)) the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

On the Big Island, one of Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s wives was Kānekapōlei (Kāne in the circle of beloved ones (ksbe.))  She is claimed by some to have been the daughter of Kauakahiakua of the Maui royal family and his wife Umiaemoku; some suggest she is said to have been of the Kaʻū family of chiefs.

According to Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau, her father Kauakahiakua owned the sea cucumber (loli) ovens of the district of Kaupo on the island of Maui.

Kalaniʻōpuʻu was born about 1729.  His brother was Keōua.  When Keōua (the father of Kamehameha) died, he commended Kamehameha to the care of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who received him, and treated him as his own child. (Dibble)

Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kānekapōlei had two sons, Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and Keōua Peʻeale.

In accordance with the ways of the high chiefs at the time, in his youth, Kamehameha had sexual relations with Kānekapōlei and had a son, Pauli Kaʻōleiokū (1767.)

(Among the chiefs, a boy was not only trained in warfare and government but when he was grown physically, a matured chiefess was chosen to train him in sexual practices. This was part of his education. Should a child result, he or she was reared by the mother.  (Handy & Pukui))

Thus it was that Kamehameha claimed Kaʻōleiokū as “the son of my beardless youth,” at the dedication of the heiau of Puʻukohola. This was the son borne to him by Kānekapōlei, one of the wives of his uncle Kalaniʻōpuʻu.  (Handy & Pukui)  He was known as ‘keiki makahiapo’ (first-born child) of Kamehameha.  (Stokes)

On December 1, 1778, Kaʻōleiokū, his brother Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and cousin Kamehameha, slept on board Captain Cook's vessel ‘Resolution,’ when off the Maui coast. Since Cook's vessels were regarded as "temples," the stay overnight probably had a religious significance to the Hawaiians, because their worship ordained spending certain nights in the temples.  (Stokes)

Lieut. King says Kaʻōleiokū was about twelve years old in 1779, and “used to boast of his being admitted to drink ava, and shewed us, with great triumph, a small spot in his side that was growing scaly. … (the) young son pointed to us some places on his hips that were becoming scaly, as a mark of his being long indulged in this Liquor.”

Kaʻōleiokū witnessed Cook's death on February 14, 1779, with Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Keōua; he had already accepted Cook's invitation to spend the day on board and proceeded ahead to the pinnace (a tender boat,) where he was seated at the time of the massacre. Greatly frightened at the firing, he asked to be put ashore again, which was done.  (Stokes)

Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and his younger brother Kaʻōleiokū had for many years resisted Kamehameha's attempts to conquer the whole of Hawaiʻi Island, after the death of Kiwalaʻo in the Battle of Mokuʻōhai (1782.)  Keōua escaped the battle to relatives in the Kaʻū district to the South.  (Stokes)

Keōua was killed in 1791, when Kamehameha invited him to the Puʻukoholā Heiau in Kohala.  Kamakau tells of how Pauli Kaʻōleiokū was spared:
“On the arrival of the canoe of Pauli Kaʻōleiokū, in the vicinity where Keōua was killed … Kamehameha said: ‘He shall not die, as he is the son of my youth and this is the payment for my food on which I was reared.’ … (he then) proclaimed the Māmalahoe Law: the law of life in Kamehameha’s kingdom. When the people on board Pauli Kaʻōleiokū’s canoe heard the law proclaimed, they came ashore, and wails of mourning for the death of Keōuakū‘ahu‘ula resounded.”

Kamehameha had been living on Hawai‘i for four years when the news of the attempts of the Russians to set up a compound at Honolulu Harbor reached him (1815.) He sent Kalanimōku, Ulumāheihei, Nāihe, Kaikioʻewa, Kaʻōleiokū and Keʻeaumoku with numerous warriors equipped with foreign weapons. (Desha)

These aliʻi were commanded to go and fight with those foreigners if they opposed them, and to expel them from the land.  They expelled the Russians. Kalanimōku, with the help of Kaʻōleiokū and other high chiefs built a fort at Honolulu, setting up some cannons on it. (Desha)

Pauli Kaʻōleiokū is said to have married twice, first Keōuawahine and then Luahine.  With Luahine they had one child, Princess Konia; Princess Konia married Abner Paki, they had one child, Princess Bernice Pauahi. (He was also the maternal grandfather of Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani.)

Great granddaughter of Kamehameha I and granddaughter of Kānekapōlei, Princess Bernice Pauahi officially was eligible to the throne by order of Kamehameha III; she was offered the throne by Kamehameha V, but refused it.  (Stokes)

In 1850, the princess was married at the Royal School to Mr Charles Reed Bishop of New York, who started the bank of what is now known as First Hawaiian Bank. A small wedding was conducted with only a few attending.

Princess Bernice Pauahi died childless on October 16, 1884.  She foresaw the need to educate her people and in her will she left her large estate of the Kamehameha lands in trust to establish the Kamehameha Schools for children with Hawaiian blood.

(Some suggest Kaʻōleiokū was the son of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, not Kamehameha.  Kalākaua suggests Kaʻōleiokū had four fathers, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, Kamehameha, Keawemauhili and Kaukamu, suggesting Kānekapōlei was sleeping with all of them.)

The image shows Konia, daughter of Kaʻōleiokū.  In addition, I have included other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Kānekapōlei

At the time of ‘contact’ (Captain Cook’s arrival (1778,)) the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

On the Big Island, one of Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s wives was Kānekapōlei (Kāne in the circle of beloved ones (ksbe.))  She is reported to be the daughter of Kauakahiakua of the Maui royal family and his wife Umiaemoku; some suggest she is said to have been of the Kaʻū family of chiefs.

According to Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau, her father Kauakahiakua owned the sea cucumber (loli) ovens of the district of Kaupo on the island of Maui.

Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kānekapōlei had two sons, Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and Keōua Peʻeale.

In addition to instruction in all Hawaiian knowledge, not merely in fishing, agriculture, warfare, history and so forth; young chiefs were instructed in sex life.

The latter instruction was imparted by some older woman in the family or attached to it, when the pupil had reached a suitable age (puberty.)  Some suggest Kānekapōlei was the one to instruct Kamehameha, and Pauli Kaʻōleiokū was the result of that and known as ‘keiki makahiapo’ (first-born child) of Kamehameha.  (Stokes)

During Captain Cookʻs visit to Hawaiʻi on his third voyage of exploration in 1779, then-Lieutenant King (later Captain) mentioned Kalaniʻōpuʻu's favorite wife Kānekapōlei. He and his men spelled her name many different ways including "Kanee-Kabareea," "Kanee-cappo-rei," "Kanee Kaberaia," "Kainee Kabareea," "Kahna-Kubbarah."

"During the following night, the cutter belonging to the Discovery was stolen, so that their depredations seemed confined to what belonged to that ship. This irritated captain Cook, and he gave orders to stop all the canoes that should attempt to leave the bay, intending to seize and destroy them, if he could not recover the cutter by fair means."  (Captain King's Journal)

Ashore, "Captain Cook's orders to Mr. King were, to endeavour to quiet the minds of the natives on the side of the bay where he was going, by assuring them that they should not be hurt; to keep his people together; and to be upon his guard. The captain proceeded, with the lieutenant and nine marines, to the village where the king resided. He found him calm and unruffled, to all appearance ignorant of the theft committed on the cutter."  (Captain King's Journal)

"He (Kalaniʻōpuʻu) readily accepted of an invitation to spend the day on board the Resolution, and accompanied the captain to the beach. His two sons (Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and Kaʻōleiokū) were already in the pinnace (a tender boat,) and the rest of the party were advanced near the water-side, when an elderly woman, called Kanee-Kabareea (Kānekapōlei,) the mother of the boys, and one of the king's favourite wives, came after him, and, with many tears and entreaties, besought him not to go on board; at the same time two chiefs, who came along with her, laying hold of the king, forced him to sit down, insisting that he should go no farther."    (Captain King's Journal)

“The natives now collected in vast numbers along the shore, and began to throng round captain Cook and their king; upon which the lieutenant of marines, by the permission of his captain, drew the men up along the rocks, close to the water's edge, in a line, at the distance of about thirty yards from the place where the king was sitting. At length the captain gave up all thoughts of prevailing upon Terreeoboo (Kalaniʻōpuʻu) to accompany him, observing to Mr. Phillips, that it would be impossible to compel him to go on board, without the risk of killing a great number of the inhabitants.”    (Captain King's Journal)

Shortly after, “Captain Cook, the last time he was seen distinctly, was standing at the water's edge … he was desirous of preventing any farther bloodshed … whilst he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but having turned about to give his orders to those in the boats, he was stabbed in the back”.  Cook was killed.    (Captain King's Journal)

Kalaniʻōpuʻu died in 1782.  Before his death, Kalaniʻōpuʻu gave an injunction to Kiwalaʻo (another son) and Kamehameha (his nephew,) and to all the chiefs, thus: “Boys, listen, both of you. The heir to the kingdom of Hawaii nei, comprising the three divisions of land, Kaʻū, Kona and Kohala, shall be the chief Kiwalaʻo. He is the heir to the lands.” (Fornander)

Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and his younger brother Kaʻōleiokū had for many years resisted Kamehameha's attempts to conquer the whole of Hawaiʻi Island, after the death of Kiwalaʻo in the Battle of Mokuʻōhai (1782.)  Keōua escaped the battle to relatives in the Kaʻū district to the South.  (Stokes)

Keōua was killed in 1791, when Kamehameha invited him to the Puʻukoholā Heiau in Kohala.  Pauli Kaʻōleiokū was spared.

Pauli Kaʻōleiokū married Luahine, they had one child, Princess Konia; Princess Konia married Abner Paki, they had one child, Princess Bernice Pauahi.  (Kaʻōleiokū was also the maternal grandfather of Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani.)  (Stokes)

Great granddaughter of Kamehameha I and Kānekapōlei, Princess Bernice Pauahi officially was eligible to the throne by order of Kamehameha III; she was offered the throne by Kamehameha V, but refused it.

In 1850, the princess was married at the Royal School to Mr Charles Reed Bishop of New York, who started the bank of what is now known as First Hawaiian Bank. A small wedding was conducted with only a few attending.

Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop died childless on October 16, 1884.  She foresaw the need to educate her people and in her will she left her large estate of the Kamehameha lands in trust to establish the Kamehameha Schools for children with Hawaiian blood.

The image shows Cook’s death, witnessed by Kānekapōlei and her sons and husband.

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Two Wills, Two Outcomes

Prince Lunalilo was born on January 31, 1835 to High Chiefess Miriam ‘Auhea Kekauluohi (Kuhina Nui, or Premier of the Hawaiian Kingdom and niece of Kamehameha I) and High Chief Charles Kanaʻina. Lunalilo’s grandparents were Kalaʻimamahu (half brother of Kamehameha I) and Kalākua (sister to Kaʻahumanu). His great grandfather was Keōuakupupailaninui (Keōua, father of Kamehameha I.)

Lunalilo was educated at the Chiefs’ Children’s School, and at age four, became one of its first students. He was known as a scholar, a poet and a student with amazing memory for detail. From a very young age, he loved to write with favorite subjects in school being literature and music. He composed Hawai’i's first national anthem, E Ola Ke Ali`i Akua, or God Save the King.

He also developed a sense of justice and love for people. These traits were recognized by the age of six in the unselfish and caring manner in which he interacted with his servants. As a young man, he was courteous and intelligent, generous and friendly. His close friends affectionately called him “Prince Bill”. His native people called him ”Lokomaikaʻi”, meaning “generous or benevolent”.

When Lunalilo died in 1874, while he was king, he was the first of the large landholding aliʻi to create a charitable trust for the benefit of his people.

His estate included large landholdings on the five major islands, consisting of 33-ahupuaʻa, nine ʻili and more than a dozen home lots. His will, written in 1871, established a perpetual trust under the administration of three trustees to be appointed by the justices of the Hawaiian Supreme Court.

The purpose of the trust was to build a home to accommodate the poor, destitute and infirm people of Hawaiian (aboriginal) blood or extraction, with preference given to older people. The will charged the Trustees to sell all of the estate’s land to build and maintain the home.

His will states "all of the real estate of which I may die seized and possessed to three persons ...  to be held by them in trust for the following purposes, to wit: to sell and dispose of the said real estate to the best advantage at public or private sale and to invest the proceeds in some secure manner until the aggregate sum shall amount to $25,000, or until the sum realized by the said trustees shall with donations or contributions from other sources, amount to the said sum of $25,000." (District Court Records)

"The will leaves the testator's real estate to his Trustees in trust to sell the same at public or private sale and invest the same till the amount realized from such sale or by additions from other sources shall be $25,000, and then directs that they shall expend the whole amount in the purchase of land and in the erection of a building or buildings on the Island of Oahu for specified eleemosynary purposes."  (Supreme Court Records)

His will notes, "Then I order the trustees to exceed the whole amount in the purchase of land and in the erection of a building or buildings on the Island of Oʻahu, of iron, stone, brick or other fireproof material, for the use and accommodation of poor, destitute and infirm people of Hawaiian blood or extraction, giving preference to old people.”  (District Court Records)

According to the instructions in the will, the Estate trustees sold the land, built Lunalilo Home and invested the remaining proceeds in mortgages, securities and government bonds.

Unfortunately, those investments went sour, and today the Lunalilo estate has limited assets, other than Lunalilo Home in Hawaiʻi Kai and the land under it, and the trust must constantly raise funds to maintain the operation of the home.  (Byrd)

Reportedly, Lunalilo left an estate even larger than the one left by Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, founder of Kamehameha Schools.  However, the outcome of her estate has had a different ending.

High Chief Abner Pākī and his wife High Chiefess Laura Kōnia (Kamehameha III's niece) had one child, a daughter, Bernice Pauahi Pākī (born December 19, 1831.)

When her cousin, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani, died,  Keʻelikōlani's will stated that she "give and bequeath forever to my beloved younger sister (cousin), Bernice Pauahi Bishop, all of my property, the real property and personal property from Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi, all of said property to be hers (about 353,000 acres.)" (Keʻelikōlani had previously inherited all of the substantial landholdings of the Kamehameha dynasty from her brother, Lot Kapuāiwa (King Kamehameha V.))

Pauahi died childless on October 16, 1884.  Her will formed and funded the Kamehameha Schools; “I give, devise and bequeath all of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate real and personal ... to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha Schools.”

Bernice Pauahi Bishop's will (Clause 13) states her desire that her trustees "provide first and chiefly a good education in the common English branches, and also instruction in morals and in such useful knowledge as may tend to make good and industrious men and women".

That same Clause gives the "trustees full power to make all such rules and regulations as they may deem necessary for the government of said schools and to regulate the admission of pupils, and the same to alter, amend and publish upon a vote of a majority of said trustees."

She directed "that the teachers of said schools shall forever be persons of the Protestant religion, but I do not intend that the choice should be restricted to persons of any particular sect of Protestants."

However, in order to support her vision, her will did not require her trustees to sell the land; rather, they can only sell “for the best interest” of the estate.  Clause Seventeen notes, "I give unto the trustees  ... the most ample power to sell and dispose of any lands or other portion of my estate, and to exchange lands and otherwise dispose of the same ... I further direct that my said trustees shall not sell any real estate, cattle ranches, or other property, but to continue and manage the same, unless in their opinion a sale may be necessary for the establishment or maintenance of said schools, or for the best interest of my estate."

Today, the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate has net assets of nearly $7-billion and annual operating revenue of $1.34-billion.

“Had Lunalilo directed its trustees, as Princess Pauahi Bishop did, to retain the land and sell it only as necessary to run the home for the aged, the Lunalilo Trust today would rival the Bishop Estate in its net asset value, and it would be able to assist many more than the approximately fifty elderly Hawaiians who now live in Lunalilo Home.”  (Takabuki)

“Princess Pauahi was wise when she directed her trustees to retain the "ʻĀina," her primary endowment, and sell it only when necessary for the Kamehameha Schools or the best interest of the trust. Real estate has been, and will continue to be, a sound, prudent, long-term investment.”  (Takabuki)

This summary is intended to address one key differing statement in the respective wills.  While each called for trustees selected by the Supreme Court (thereby not knowing who would eventually carry out its instruction,) Lunalilo instructed his trustees to sell his land; on the other hand, Pauahi gave her trustees that right, but only in the “best interest” of the trust.

The image shows Lunalilo and Pauahi.  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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Kamehameha Schools

Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani inherited all of the substantial landholdings of the Kamehameha dynasty from her brother, Lot Kapuāiwa; she became the largest landowner in the islands.

At her death, Keʻelikōlani’s will stated that she "give and bequeath forever to my beloved younger sister (cousin), Bernice Pauahi Bishop, all of my property, the real property and personal property from Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi, all of said property to be hers." (about 353,000 acres)

Bernice Pauahi was the birth daughter of Abner Pākī and his wife Laura Kōnia (Pauahi was the great-granddaughter and direct royal descendant of Kamehameha the Great.)

She was reared with her parent’s hānai child, Lydia Liliʻu Kamakaʻeha (birth daughter of High Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole and High Chief Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea, who later became Queen Liliʻuokalani.) The two girls developed a close, loving relationship. They attended the Chief’s Children’s School, a boarding school, together, and were known for their studious demeanor.

Pauahi’s will formed and funded the Kamehameha Schools; “Thirteenth.  I give, devise and bequeath all of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate real and personal, wherever situated unto the trustees below named, their heirs and assigns forever, to hold upon the following trusts, namely: to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha Schools.”  (KSBE)

Bernice Pauahi Bishop's will (Clause 13) states her desire that her trustees "provide first and chiefly a good education in the common English branches, and also instruction in morals and in such useful knowledge as may tend to make good and industrious men and women".

She directed "that the teachers of said schools shall forever be persons of the Protestant religion, but I do not intend that the choice should be restricted to persons of any particular sect of Protestants."

On November 4, 1887, three years after her death, the Kamehameha School for Boys, originally established as an all-boys school on the grounds of the current Bishop Museum, opened with 37 students and four teachers.  A year later the Preparatory Department, for boys 6 to 12 years of age, opened in adjacent facilities.

In 1894 the Kamehameha School for Girls opened on its own campus nearby.  Between 1930 and 1955, all three schools moved to its present location - Kapālama Heights - less than a mile mauka of the old Bishop Museum campus. In 1965 the boy’s and girl’s campuses became co-ed and the curriculum was increasingly geared to college preparation.

Prior to 1897, Kamehameha students attended Sunday services at Kaumakapili Church, then located about a mile from campus at the corner of Nuʻuanu and King Streets. It took about 20 minutes to cover the distance on foot - with the boys wearing their heavy West Point-style uniforms designed for "long lasting quality, not comfort."

On December 19, 1897, a new campus chapel dedication took place on the sixty-sixth anniversary of Bernice Pauahi Bishop's birth. KS scholars, teachers, administrators and community representatives filled the whole building.

Reverend William Brewster Oleson (1851–1915), former principal of the Hilo boarding school (founded by David Belden Lyman in 1836,) helped organize the schools on a similar model.

At the first Founder’s Day ceremony in December, 1889, Charles Reed Bishop, Pauahi’s husband and a member of Kamehameha’s first Board of Trustees, elaborated on her intentions.

“Bernice Pauahi Bishop, by founding the Kamehameha Schools, intended to establish institutions which should be of lasting benefit to her country…The founder of these schools was a true Hawaiian. She knew the advantages of education and well directed industry. Industrious and skillful herself, she respected those qualities in others.”  (KSBE)

“The hope that there would come a turning point, when, through enlightenment, the adoption of regular habits and Christian ways of living, the natives would not only hold their numbers, but would increase again … And so, in order that her own people might have the opportunity for fitting themselves for such competition, and be able to hold their own in a manly and friendly way, without asking any favors which they were not likely to receive, these schools were provided for, in which Hawaiians have the preference, and which she hoped they would value and take the advantages of as fully as possible.” (KSBE)

In 1996 two new campuses were established on the neighbor islands of Maui and Hawai‘i, and they now serve students in grades K-12. The three campuses enroll about 5,400 students and an additional 40,000 are served annually through community-based and scholarship programs, and collaborations with educational and community organizations.

Kamehameha subsidizes a significant portion of the cost to educate every student. Although modest tuition and fees are charged, nearly 60 percent of preschool and K-12 families qualify for and receive need-based financial aid.

In addition to three campuses, Kamehameha operates 31 preschool sites enrolling 1,500 3- and 4-year-old children statewide; and serves thousands more students through community outreach and scholarship programs, and collaborations with educational and community organizations.  (Lots of info and images from KSBE.)

The image shows a pre-1900 image of the Kamehameha School for Boys, the beginning of the Kamehameha Schools system (KSBE.)  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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Two Early Museums in Hawaiʻi

The display of objects of interest had an earlier history in post-contact Hawai‘i. In 1833, Seaman’s chaplain, Rev. John Diell, began displaying artifacts in the basement of the Seaman’s Bethel (church) in Honolulu, attracting the occasional interested visitor.

Diell enlarged his collection in 1837, seeking to preserve the objects of what he saw as a dying race. He named his new “museum” The Sandwich Islands Institute. It opened with among other odd curiosities, a large black bear and snow shoes.

(These were owned by the late David Douglas, who discovered the Douglas fir tree. He had left them at the home of the Reverend Diell shortly before being killed in a cattle trap near Hilo on July 12, 1834.)

After a short time, the museum at the Bethel closed; relics of its brief existence may have found their way into Bishop Museum and the Hawaiʻi Public Library.

In later decades, the Hawaiian Kingdom government came to recognize the value that a museum might offer as a site of cultural preservation and national voice.

On July 29, 1872, King Lot Kapuāiwa (Kamehameha V) signed into law an “Act to establish a National Museum.”

The Hawaiian National Museum opened in 1875, during the reign of King David Kalākaua, as a small collection with a meager budget. It was housed in an upper room of Ali‘iolani Hale, the government building.

As Kalākaua began to focus his attention on nationalistic projects he would increase the museum’s budget ten-fold and name Emma Nakuina, the museum’s first native curator, as head of the institution.

However, in 1887, the newly imposed “Bayonet Constitution” greatly curtailed the king’s power and slashed funding for the National Museum. Discussions soon began concerning a possible transfer of the government collection to Charles Bishop’s proposed museum.

Charles Reed Bishop founded the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in 1889 in honor of his deceased wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (1831-1884.)

Pauahi, as a member of the royal family and mo‘opuna kuakahi (great granddaughter) of Kamehameha I, had inherited many treasured objects, including the collection of her cousin, Princess Ruth Ke‘elikōlanii (1826-1883).  The preservation and display of these objects had been a desire of both of these chiefly women.

When a third high ranking chiefess, the former queen, Emma Rooke (1836-1885), passed only a year after Pauahi her significant artifacts joined the others, forming the foundational collection of the proposed new museum.

Construction of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum began in 1889 in Kalihi-Pālama on the grounds of the campus of the Kamehameha School for Boys. The museum opened to the public in 1892, and later added Polynesian Hall in 1894, and the “Victorian masterpiece” named Hawaiian Hall in 1903.

In January of 1891, word arrived by ship of the death of King Kalākaua.  Museum Director William T. Brigham, reportedly anxious over what might become of the national collection, collected and transferred many of the artifacts to the newly founded museum now under his direction.

On June 22 of that same year the museum opened to the public with a mission to “preserve and display the cultural and historic relics of the Kamehameha family that Princess Pauahi had acquired.” The nation’s new sovereign, Queen Lili‘uokalani, was the first guest.

After a 3-year facelift, the museum’s 3-floor, Hawaiian Hall was reopened.  The first floor is the realm of Kai Ākea (which represents the Hawaiian gods, legends, beliefs and the world of pre-contact Hawai‘i.)  The second floor, Wao Kanaka, represents the realm where people live and work; focusing on the importance of the land and nature in daily life.  The third floor, Wao Lani, is the realm inhabited by the gods; here, visitors learn about the aliʻi and key moments in Hawaiian history.

Then, recently, the Pacific Hall, a gallery of two floors representing the peoples of Pacific cultures across Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, was renovated, restored and reopened.

Founded in 1968, the Hawai‘i Museums Association (HMA) coordinates communication and cooperation among the staffs and supporters of Hawai‘i's museums.

HMA is the primary provider of museum training programs in the state of Hawai‘i. It serves the museum field with an annual conference on current issues in the museum field and seminars in specialized areas of museum work such as collections management, exhibition design, and educational programming.

The inspiration and much of the information here is from Bishop Museum (the image shows the museum in 1891.)  In addition, I have included some other images of the Bishop Museum in a folder of like name in the Photos section on Facebook and Google+.

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Mākaha

The ahupuaʻa of Mākaha, between Waiʻanae Ahupuaʻa to the southeast and Keaʻau Ahupua‘a to the northwest, extends from the coastline to the Waiʻanae Range.

Pukui noted Mākaha means “fierce;” Roger C. Green suggests it relates to “fierce or savage people” once inhabiting the valley.

Green refers to “…the ʻŌlohe people, skilled wrestlers and bone-breakers, by various accounts [who] lived in Mākaha, Mākua, and Keaʻau, where they often engaged in robbery of passing travelers.”  (Cultural Surveys)

Earliest accounts describe Mākaha as a good-sized inland settlement and a smaller coastal settlement.  These accounts correlate well with a sketch drawn by Bingham in 1826 depicting only six houses along the Mākaha coastline.

Green describes Mākaha’s coastal settlement as “…restricted to a hamlet in a small grove of coconut trees on the Keaʻau side of the valley, some other scattered houses, a few coconut trees along the beach, and a brackish water pool that served as a fish pond, at the mouth of the Mākaha Stream.” (Cultural Surveys)

This stream supported traditional wetland agriculture – kalo (taro) - in pre-contact and early historic periods

Supporting this, Māhele documents note Mākaha’s primary settlement was inland where waters from Mākaha Stream could support lo‘i and kula plantings. Although there is evidence for settlement along the shore, for the most part, this was limited to scattered, isolated residents.

A “cluster” of habitation structures was concentrated near Mākaha Beach, near the Keaʻau side of Mākaha where there is also reference to a fishpond.

John Papa ʻĪʻī described a network of Leeward O‘ahu trails, which in early historic times crossed the Waiʻanae Range, allowing passage from Central O‘ahu through Pōhākea Pass and Kolekole Pass.

The old coastal trail probably followed the natural contours of the topography. With the introduction of horses, cattle and wagons in the 19th century, many of the coastal trails were widened and graded to accommodate these new introductions.  The Pu‘u Kapolei trail gave access to the Waiʻanae district from Central O‘ahu, which evolved into the present day Farrington Highway.

Kuhoʻoheihei (Abner) Pākī, father of Bernice Pauahi, was given the entire ahupuaʻa of Mākaha by Liliha after her husband, Boki, disappeared in 1829.

In 1855, after Chief Pākī died, the administrators of his estate sold the Mākaha lands to James Robinson and Co. Later, in 1862, one of the partners, Owen Jones Holt, bought out the shares of the others.

The Holt family dominated the social, economic and land-use activities in Mākaha until the end of the 19th century. During the height of the Holt family presence, from about 1887 to 1899, the Holt Ranch raised horses, cattle, pigs, goats and peacocks.

Mākaha Coffee Company bought land for coffee cultivation in the Valley, although coffee never caught on. On Holt’s death in 1862, the lands went into trust for his children.

By 1895 the OR&L rail line reached Waiʻanae.  It then rounded Kaʻena Point to Mokuleʻia, eventually extending to Kahuku.  Another line was constructed through central O‘ahu to Wahiawa.

The Holt Ranch began selling off its land in the early-1900s.

In 1908, the Waiʻanae Sugar Company moved into Mākaha and by 1923, virtually all of lower Mākaha Valley was under sugar cane cultivation.  The plantation utilized large tracks of Lualualei, Waiʻanae and Mākaha Valley.

In the 1930s, Waiʻanae Plantation sold out to American Factors Ltd (Amfac.)  They started looking for a water source to increase production of the thirsty crop.  They tunneled for water; Glover Tunnel, named for the contractor, was 4,200-feet long and had a daily water capacity of 700,000-gallons. The water made available was mainly used for the irrigation of sugar.

For a half century, Mākaha was predominantly sugarcane fields.  However, by the middle of the century, the operations were no longer profitable and the plantation started to liquidate.

In 1946, the Dillinghams announced that they were discontinuing rail service, citing decline in tonnage, rising labor costs and tsunami damage in the system. On October 17, 1946 the stockholders of American Factors (owners of the Waiʻanae Sugar Company) voted to liquidate.

Chinn Ho’s Capital Investment Corporation bought the Mākaha lands and looked to resort development in the Valley.  He envisioned a travel destination that would be the next Kaʻānapali or even Waikiki, with golf courses, condominiums and hotels.

When the Mākaha big surf break was discovered and the eventual Mākaha International Surfing Championship was underway, tourists starting coming to Waiʻanae in the 1950s, as pioneer surfers made Mākaha Beach famous.

In 1969, the Mākaha Resort was built, including Mākaha Inn and Country Club, with an 18-hole course with tennis courts, restaurant and other golf facilities was opened for local and tourist use.

Over the decades, the resort has had several starts and stops, as well as a number of transfers of ownership.  Recent reports note the hotel is in foreclosure and closed, however, golf is open for play on the Valley’s two courses.

The image shows a portion of Mākaha Valley.  In addition, I have added other images and maps in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Pākī Sisters

High Chief Abner Pākī and his wife High Chiefess Laura Kōnia (Kamehameha III's niece) had one child, a daughter, Bernice Pauahi Pākī (born December 19, 1831.)

High Chief Caesar Kapaʻakea and his wife High Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole had three children, a daughter was Lydia Liliʻu Kamakaʻeha (born September 2, 1838.)

As was the custom, Liliʻu was hānai (adopted) to the Pākīs, who reared her with their birth daughter, Pauahi. The two girls developed a close, loving relationship.

They lived on the property called Haleʻākala, in the house that Pākī built on King Street.  It was the 'Pink House,' made from coral (the house was name ʻAikupika (Egypt.))  It later became the Arlington Hotel.

The two-story coral house was built by Pākī himself, from the original grass hut complex of the same name at the same site; he financed the construction through the sale of Mākaha Valley (ʻAikupika would later become the primary residence of his daughter Bernice Pauahi and her husband.)

The girls attended the Chief’s Children’s School, a boarding school, and were known for their studious demeanor.

Founded in 1839 during the reign of King Kamehameha III, the original Chief's Children's School was in the area where the ʻIolani barracks now stand. Mr. and Mrs. Amos Cooke, missionaries from New England, were commissioned to teach the 16 royal children (others who joined the Pākī sisters were Lot Kapuāiwa (later Kamehameha V), Queen Emma, King William Lunalilo and Liliʻu’s brother, David (later King Kalākaua.)

In 1846 the school's name was officially changed to Royal School; attendance was restricted to descendants of the royal line and heirs of the chiefs. In 1850, a second school was built on the site of the present Royal School; it was opened to the general public in 1851.

These two women left lasting legacies in Hawaiʻi.

In 1850, Pauahi was married to Mr. Charles Reed Bishop of New York, who started the bank that is now known as First Hawaiian Bank.

When her cousin, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani, died,  Keʻelikōlani's will stated that she "give and bequeath forever to my beloved younger sister (cousin), Bernice Pauahi Bishop, all of my property, the real property and personal property from Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi, all of said property to be hers." (about 353,000 acres)  (Keʻelikōlani had previously inherited all of the substantial landholdings of the Kamehameha dynasty from her brother, Lot Kapuāiwa (King Kamehameha V.))

Bernice Pauahi died childless on October 16, 1884.  She foresaw the need to educate her people and in her will she left her large estate of the Kamehameha lands in a trust "to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha Schools."

She further stated, "I desire my trustees to provide first and chiefly a good education in the common English branches, and also instruction in morals and in such useful knowledge as may tend to make good and industrious men and women".

On September 16, 1862, Liliʻu married John O. Dominis. Dominis’ father, a ship’s captain, had built a New England style home, named Washington Place, for his family.  They lived with his widowed mother.  The home became the official residence of Hawai‘i's Governor and today serves as a museum.

On February 12, 1874, nine days after the passing of King Lunalilo, an election was held between the repeat candidate David Kalākaua (her brother) and Queen Emma - widow of King Kamehameha IV.  Kalākaua won.

At noon of the tenth day of April, 1877, the booming of the cannon was heard which announced that King Kalākaua had named Liliʻuokalani heir apparent to the throne of Hawaiʻi. (Liliʻu's brother changed her name when he named her Crown Princess, calling her Liliʻuokalani.)

King Kalākaua died on January 20, 1891; because he and his wife Queen Kapiʻolani did not have any children, his sister, Liliʻuokalani succeeded him to the Hawaiian throne.  Queen Liliʻuokalani was Hawaiʻi’s last monarch.

In 1909, Queen Liliʻuokalani executed a Deed of Trust that established the legal and financial foundation of an institution dedicated to the welfare of orphaned and destitute children of Hawaiʻi - Queen Liliʻuokalani Trust.

Her Deed of Trust states that “all the property of the Trust Estate, both principal and income … shall be used by the Trustees for the benefit of orphan and other destitute children in the Hawaiian Islands, the preference given to Hawaiian children of pure or part-aboriginal blood.”

The trust owns approximately 6,200-acres of Hawaiʻi real estate, the vast majority of which is located on the Island of Hawaiʻi.  92% is agriculture/conservation land, with the remaining land zoned for residential, commercial and industrial use.

The trust owns approximately 16-acres of Waikīkī real estate and another 8-acres of commercial and residential real estate on other parts of Oʻahu.

The image shows the Pākī sisters, Bernice Pauahi Paki and Lydia Kamakaʻeha Paki, in 1859.  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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Keʻelikōlani - Princess Ruth

A great-granddaughter of Kamehameha, a grand-niece to Kamehameha II and III, and a half-sister of Kamehameha IV and V, Ruth Keʻelikōlani was born in Pohukaina, O‘ahu on February 9, 1826.

Ruth’s heritage was controversial.  She was the poʻolua (“two heads”) child of Kāhalaiʻa and Kekūanāoʻa.  (Johnson)

Her mother, Pauahi, was said to be carrying the child of Kāhalaiʻa when she married Kekūanāoʻa. Kekūanāoʻa claimed Keʻelikōlani as his own in court, and the matter was officially settled, though it would be debated again in later years, even by her own half-brother, Lot.  (Nogelmeier)

After Pauahi’s death, Kekūanāoʻa married Kīna‘u, and they became the parents of Lot Kapuāiwa, Alexander Liholiho, and Victoria Kamāmalu, making Keʻelikōlani a half-sister to these three.

Her mother, Pauahi, died while giving birth to Keʻelikōlani, who was then cared for by Kamehameha’s wife, Ka‘ahumanu, who herself died six years later. The Princess was then sent to live with her father, Kekūanāoʻa, and her stepmother, Kīnaʻu.

At the age of sixteen, Keʻelikōlani married William Pitt Leleiōhoku. While serving as governor of Hawai‘i Island, Leleiōhoku died, only twenty-two years old. They had two children, only one of whom - William Pitt Kīnaʻu - survived childhood. Tragically, he died at the age of seventeen in an accident on Hawai‘i.

Keʻelikōlani’s second husband was the part-Hawaiian Isaac Young Davis, grandson of Isaac Davis (a Welsh advisor to King Kamehameha I.)

In 1862, they had a son, Keolaokalani (‘The Life of the Heavenly One.’)  (No one knew then that Keolaokalani would be the last baby born into the Kamehameha line.)  Keʻelikōlani gave him as a hānai to Bernice Pauahi.

Lot (Kamehameha V,) forced Ruth to renounce all ties with Keolaokalani as her heir. (But six months was all the time Pauahi would have with her son. He died on August 29, 1862.)

Then Lot insisted that she adopt William Pitt Leleiōhoku II, King Kalākaua’s youngest brother and heir apparent.    She did; however, Leleiōhoku predeceased Ruth.

Determined to uphold the honor of her ancestors, she retained many traditional religious practices. Although she learned English among other subjects at the missionary-run Chief’s Children’s School, she was a staunch supporter of the Hawaiian language and traditional cultural practices.

Able to speak and write English, she chose not to. Trained in the Christian religion, she held fast to practices and beliefs that were considered pagan, including her patronage of chanters and hula dancers.  (Nogelmeier)

When Madame Pele threatened the town of Hilo with a lava flow in 1881, the people asked Keʻelikōlani to intercede. The Hawaiian-language newspaper Ko Hawai‘i Pae Aina published a letter with the heading "Ka Pele ai Honua ma Hilo" (Pele, devourer of land at Hilo) that describes the immediate danger, “Hapalua Mile ka Mamao mai ke Koana aku” (the distance from town being only one half mile). Ke‘elikōlani offered traditional oli (chants) and hoʻokupu (tribute) to Pele and later reportedly camped at the foot of the flow. The flow stopped just short of town.  (Bishop Museum)

She was a member of the Privy Council (1847,) the House of Nobles (1855-1857) and served as Governor of the island of Hawaiʻi (1855-1874.)

She was godmother to Princess Kaʻiulani. At Kaʻiulani's baptism, Ruth gifted 10-acres of her land in Waikīkī where Kaʻiulani's father Archibald Cleghorn built the ʻĀinahau Estate.

Keʻelikōlani was respected as one of considerable rank, and as time passed, she was said to be “Ka Pua Alii Kiekie pili ponoi o ko Kamehameha Hale - the highest-ranking descendant of Kamehameha’s line ... ke Alii kahiko aku i ko na Alii e ae a pau - the chiefess with the most historic lineage of all”.  (Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, 1883 – Nogelmeier)

Throughout her life she was regularly addressed by all as Ka Mea Kiʻekiʻe - Highness. Foreigners knew her as “Princess Ruth.”

By the time King Kalākaua was elected, Keʻelikōlani was the richest woman in the kingdom, having inherited the estates of her parents and siblings.

Despite owning Huliheʻe Palace, a Western-style house in Kailua-Kona, she chose to live in a large, traditional grass home on the grounds of that oceanfront property.

She later chose to build Keōua Hale, a large, ornate mansion on her land in Honolulu.  Keōua Hale was a Victorian-style mansion, and the most expansive residence of the time; it was larger than ʻIolani Palace.

The house was completed in 1883; however, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani never lived in the palace. She became ill immediately after the house warming and birthday luau.

Her doctors recommended that she return to Huliheʻe, her Kailua-Kona residence, where they believed she would more quickly regain her health.  She died in 1883 at Haleʻōlelo at her large native-style home (thatch house) on the grounds of Huliheʻe Palace in Kailua, Hawaiʻi.

At her death, Keʻelikōlani's will stated that she "give and bequeath forever to my beloved younger sister (cousin), Bernice Pauahi Bishop, all of my property, the real property and personal property from Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi, all of said property to be hers." (about 353,000 acres)

This established the land-base endowment for Pauahi's subsequent formation of Kamehameha Schools at her death.  Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop passed away a year later.

The image shows Keʻelikōlani in 1877; in addition, I have added related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Liliʻuokalani

She was born Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha to High Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole and High Chief Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea on September 2, 1838.

At that time, children often were named in commemoration of an event.  Kuhina Nui Kīnaʻu had developed an eye infection at the time of Liliʻu's birth.  She gave the child the names Liliʻu (smarting,) Loloku (tearful,) Walania (a burning pain) and Kamakaʻeha (sore eyes.)

In her youth she was called "Lydia" or "Liliʻu." (She was also known as Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī, with the chosen royal name of Liliʻuokalani, and her married name was Lydia K. Dominis.)  As was the custom, she was hānai (adopted) to Abner Pākī and his wife Laura Kōnia.

The Pākīs reared her with their birth daughter, Bernice Pauahi. The two girls developed a close, loving relationship. They attended the Chief’s Children’s School (Royal School,) a boarding school, together, and were known for their studious demeanor. Liliʻu’s brother, David Kalākaua, also was among the royal students educated there.

There Liliʻu learned and became fluent in English and studied music and the arts. (Her talent for music blossomed and she eventually wrote more than 150 songs including, "Aloha Oe.")

At 24, on September 16, 1862, Liliʻu married John O. Dominis. Dominis’ father, a ship’s captain, had built a New England style home, named Washington Place, for his family.  They lived with his widowed mother.  The home later served as the former official residence of Hawai‘i's Governor and today serves as a museum.

On February 12, 1874, nine days after the passing of King Lunalilo, an election was held between the repeat candidate David Kalākaua (her brother) and Queen Emma - widow of King Kamehameha IV.  Kalākaua won.

At noon of the tenth day of April, 1877, the booming of the cannon was heard which announced that King Kalākaua had named Liliʻuokalani as heir apparent to the throne of Hawaiʻi. Liliʻu's brother changed her name when he named her Crown Princess, calling her Liliʻuokalani, "the smarting of the royal one".

From this point on she was referred to as Crown Princess with the name Liliʻuokalani. One of her first acts as Crown Princess was to tour the island of Oʻahu with her husband, sister and brother-in-law.

King Kalākaua died on January 20, 1891; because he and his wife Queen Kapiʻolani did not have any children, his sister, Liliʻuokalani succeeded him to the Hawaiian throne.

Kalākaua had been a staunch supporter of native Hawaiian civil rights.  In part, this led to a rebellion in 1887 forcing him to sign a new constitution relinquishing his powers as head of state and relegated him to a figurehead.

Queen Lili‘uokalani sought to amend the constitution to restore some of the power lost during the reign of her brother. Local sugar planters and businessmen feared a loss of revenue and influence and instigated an overthrow.

On the afternoon of January 16, 1893, 162 sailors and Marines aboard the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor came ashore under orders of neutrality.

To avoid bloodshed, the Queen yielded her throne on January 17, 1893 and temporarily relinquished her throne to "the superior military forces of the United States".  A provisional government was established.

The Queen issued a statement yielding her authority to the United States Government rather than to the Provisional Government:
“I Liliuokalani, by the Grace of God and under the Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the Constitutional Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons claiming to have established a Provisional Government of and for this Kingdom.”

“That I yield to the superior force of the United States of America whose Minister Plenipotentiary, His Excellency John L. Stevens, has caused United States troops to be landed a Honolulu and declared that he would support the Provisional Government.”

“Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by said force yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.”

In 1895, Lili‘uokalani was imprisoned for eight months in ʻIolani Palace for her alleged knowledge of a counterrevolutionary attempt by her supporters.

On May 18, 1896, at 6:30 am, Lili‘uokalani was baptized and confirmed by Bishop Willis into the Episcopal Church, although she had been a long-time member of Kawaiahaʻo Church.

In her Deed of Trust dated December 2, 1909, which was later amended in 1911, Liliʻuokalani entrusted her estate to provide for orphan and destitute children in the Hawaiian Islands, with preference for Hawaiian children. Her legacy is perpetuated through the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center.

Queen Lili‘uokalani died at Washington Place on November 11, 1917, at the age of 79.  After a state funeral, her remains were placed in the Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla.

The image shows Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1891.  I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

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© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Bishop Street

On the continent or in the Islands, in the early-1800s there was limited private and public transportation and it was expensive. Thus, workers’ homes were always within two miles of downtown - less than an hour’s walk.   For these reasons cities of the mid-1800s were virtually all small, dense and on the water.

Hawaiʻi's streets, for the most part, started out as trails that were widened and straightened, as horses, buggies and then transit became available.  In Honolulu, over time, trails headed mauka following and crossing the Nuʻuanu River, or headed southerly (to Kālia - Waikīkī) or easterly (toward Mānoa.)

Some of the present downtown Honolulu street alignments have origins dating back to 1809. It was about this time that Kamehameha the Great moved his capital from Waikīkī to what is now downtown Honolulu.

A large yam field (pa uhi), footpaths and other sites that existed then, served as the alignment for future streets.  The field's rock walls along its edges would later border King, Alakea, Beretania and Nuʻuanu Streets.

In 1825, Andrew Bloxam (naturalist aboard the HMS Blonde) noted in Honolulu that, "The streets are formed without order or regularity.  Some of the huts are surrounded by low fences or wooden stakes ... As fires often happen the houses are all built apart from each other.  The streets or lanes are far from being clean ..." (Clark, HJH)

In 1838, a major street improvement project was started. Honolulu was to be a planned town. Kinaʻu (Kuhina Nui Kaʻahumanu II) published the following proclamation: "I shall widen the streets in our city and break up some new places to make five streets on the length of the land, and six streets on the breadth of the land... ." She designated her husband, Governor Mataio Kekūanāoʻa, to head the project.

As early as 1838, sidewalks along Honolulu streets were constructed, usually of wood.  Paved streets were unknown until 1881; in that year, Fort Street was paved.

In 1845, Commander Charles Wilkes criticized the city by saying: "The streets, if so they may be called, have no regularity as to width, and are ankle-deep in light dust and sand ... and in some places, offensive sink-holes strike the senses, in which are seen wallowing some old and corpulent hogs."

It wasn't until 1850 that streets received official names.  On August 30, 1850, the Privy Council first named Hawaiʻi's streets; there were 35-streets that received official names that day (29 were in Downtown Honolulu, the others nearby.)

Before that, many of the streets had multiple names – mostly related to who or what was on them.  Honolulu's first street names were printed on wooden sign posts, in both English and Hawaiian.  In that same meeting, they officially named the City of Honolulu and designated it the capital of the kingdom.

The first sidewalk made of brick was laid down in 1857 fronting a shop on Merchant Street; Hawaiʻi’s first concrete sidewalk (it already had a brick sidewalk) was poured in front of a store on Queen Street in 1886.

As Honolulu grew, so did the number of streets.  One relative latecomer to that list was Bishop Street - running mauka-makai, through what is now the core of the downtown business district.

In earlier times, the main streets were Fort or Nuʻuanu (mauka-makai) and Beretania, Merchant and Queen (heading relatively northwest-southeast.)  Back then, if you wanted to go up to Nuʻuanu, you took … Nuʻuanu Street.

Bishop Street came into existence around the turn of the century (about 1900.)  Initially, it was only a couple of blocks long, between Queen and Hotel Streets.

By 1923, it extended makai to the harbor (absorbing (and realigning) the former Edinburgh Street) - still no further extension mauka.  By 1934, it extended mauka to Beretania (it absorbed (and realigned) Garden Street.)

In 1949, Bishop only went to Beretania - with no further mauka extension (it finally popped through and extended/connected to the Pali Highway and became the windward gateway into “Town.”)

Named for Charles Reed Bishop (1822 - 1915), banker, financer, philanthropist and public official and his wife Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (1831-1884), great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I and last surviving heir - whose will and landholdings established the Kamehameha Schools.

The couple lived for many years near the site of Bishop Trust Building (1000 Bishop Street) - their property was known as Haleʻākala (built by Pauahi's father Abner Paki;) the building itself is called Aikupika.)  When Bishop Street was created, it cut through their property.

CR Bishop came to Honolulu just before the California gold rush of 1849. Mr. Bishop married Bernice Pauahi Paki, daughter of high chief Abner Paki.  In 1853, he founded Bishop and Company Bank, now First Hawaiian Bank.

Do you remember the Big Five?

Look at the 1950 map of Honolulu.  Did you notice their placement on Bishop Street (and to each other) back then?

Five major companies emerged to provide operations, marketing, supplies and other services for the plantations and eventually came to own and manage most of them.  They became known as the Big 5: Amfac - Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Alexander & Baldwin (1870;) Theo H. Davis (1845;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and C. Brewer – (1826.)

Although it took a while to be formed, Bishop Street was and continues to be the center of Hawai‘i commerce and banking - and "the" address to have for your business.

The image is a view toward Diamond Head looking from Fort Street down King Street;   Haleʻākala (the Bishop’s house, is marked as “2”.  This was taken in 1855.  In addition, I have added other images and maps in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

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© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC