Grand Tour of Oʻahu

In October 1875, Queen Emma (widow of King Kamehameha IV) decided to take a trek around the islands.  She asked John Adams Cummins (a member of the House of Representatives, the son of an English settler and a Hawaiian mother, and also one of Kamehameha V’s closest friends) to organize the trek and to accompany her.  (Kanahele)

Called the "Prince of Entertainers" and the "entertainer of princes," Cummins was a prominent Waimanalo sugar planter known for his generous and lavish hospitality to royalty and commoner alike and for his knowledge and love of Hawaiian traditions.

Cummins made sure meticulous arrangements were in place as twenty men safeguarded the Queen around the clock.  The Queen had a head steward who had twenty men under him, ten of whom guarded by day and ten by night.

Then on November 5, 1875, the festivities began.  Leading a vibrant procession into Waimanalo were Cummins, Queen Emma and her mother.

“The streets of Honolulu were thronged with people to witness the grand sight, and it would appear that the whole city and many from the country had turned out to see the departure. We rode down Nuʻuanu street and along King and up into Beretania and thence out towards Kamōʻiliʻili.”  (Hawaiian Gazette)

A huge celebration took place at Mauna Loke (Cummins Waimanalo home,) the first stop of a two-week "Grand Tour of Oʻahu" by the Queen.  She stayed three days, by which time the number present - both invited and uninvited - was in the hundreds.

Cummins had built two large, thatched lanai that seated 200 people. The lūʻau and hula performances were followed by fireworks and rockets fired from the surrounding Koʻolau Mountains at Waimanalo.

Along their circle-island journey, preceding the procession, posters were placed at different parts of the island noting the respective dates of arrival so that local folks would be ready with food, entertainment and accommodations.

After breakfast, everybody went sea bathing or into the mountains to gather maile, ʻawapuhi, ʻohawai and palapalai for lei. Fishermen caught honu (turtle), ʻopihi, ʻokala, uhu, palani, heʻe, lole, ʻohua, manini and kumu.  (Krauss)

As the cavalcade moved from Lanikai and Makapuʻu to Kāneʻohe, then to Waikāne, Punaluʻu and beyond, the people continued to arrive with Hoʻokupu (gifts) of food stuffs for the Queen.  (Kanahele)

At Punaluʻu, the Queen agreed to ride with Cummins in a canoe; it was tied with hundreds of feet of rope to two horses who galloped parallel to the water for four miles on the beach.

“The Queen left her shoes and stockings and got into the canoe and sat down, holding firmly by the out-rigger. The beach was crowded with people to witness the great sight of a Queen taking a perilous ride in the surf.”  (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

“We got away for Kahuku … This is the land of the hala tree. We had four very large houses, and all the walks around and from house to house were covered with matting called ‘ue’. Every one took care of his own horse and all were welcome. … At night I had all the torches burning, which lighted up all Kahuku.”

“Our party by this time had increased to over three hundred, and the number of visitors and friends from the neighborhood was very large. At the midnight luau I sent word around among the people that there should be no one leaving here for Waimea or Waialua who had not a wreath of hala-fruit, and that we would leave after breakfast on the morrow.”

“The inhabitants of Waialua district were exceedingly kind to the Queen and her party. … Natives from distant Waiʻanae brought to Her Majesty quantities of their famous fine-flavored cocoanuts, called poka-i. …"

“Assuredly Waialua never saw such a sight before and never will again. Every surfboard in the vicinity was in use, and there were some rare actors amongst this mass of people, who hailed from all parts of the island.” (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

Oxcarts loaded with hoʻokupu  arrived from the countryside. Torch bearers renewed their stock of kerosene at every Chinese store on the route.  Waialua had never seen a procession of 400 women on horseback in bright-colored costumes wearing lei and maile, every face wreathed in smiles.  (Krauss)

“(A)fter another great breakfast, the cavalcade was formed for the ride towards Honolulu. It was one of the most beautiful sights ever seen, to look back on the procession from the uplands; and Her Majesty was continually looking back at the bright colored procession which followed us, four abreast.”  (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

The next day, parties from Honolulu joined the group for a grand lūʻau hosted by Princess Keʻelikōlani at Moanalua. “Here all the Hawaiian luxuries were ready for a final lūʻau on an exceedingly grand scale. I never saw such an abundance of leis made of lehua blossoms, and cannot imagine where they came from.”

“Just as the party were ready to partake of the viands a very heavy shower of rain, accompanied with thunder and lightning, fell, which drenched everyone to the skin. Still we determined to sit through it. I should state that we were here joined by about two hundred people on horseback from town.”

After the lūʻau, they resumed their march towards town.  “Her Majesty and the horse were covered with leis of lehua and pikaki, and every one of the seven or eight hundred were likewise bedecked with leis.”

“We led the procession, followed by the whole cavalcade, along King street, up Richards and along Beretania to Her Majesty's house. All dismounted and bade Her Majesty farewell”.  (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

“It is unlikely that such (a Hawaiian holiday) could ever be repeated.”  (Cummins)

It lasted 15 days.

The image shows Queen Emma.  In addition, I have included more related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Waimānalo Sugar Plantation

High Chief John Adams Kuakini Cummins was born on Oʻahu on March 17, 1835, the son of High Chiefess Kaumakaokane Papaliʻaiʻaina and Thomas Jefferson Cummins, Jr.  His mother was a cousin of King Kamehameha I.  His father was a wealthy and aristocratic Englishman, born in Lancashire and reared in Massachusetts, who came to the Islands in 1828.

Thomas Cummins first acquired interests in land in Waimānalo (meaning potable water) on March 27, 1842, when High Chief Paki leased Cummins a parcel of land on which to build a house (that he named Mauna Loke, or Rose Mount)

On November 25, 1850, Cummins leased 970 acres in the same vicinity from King Kamehameha III.  This property extended from Popoʻokaʻala Point to the hills of Kaʻiwa and Kaʻakaupu of the Koʻolau district.  Over the years more land was acquired.  In 1890, Cummins leased nearly 7,000-more acres for his sugar operation.

The land was first used as cattle pasture and horse breeding ranch.  After attending the Royal School, Cummins worked on his father's ranch, becoming manager in 1855.

One of the goals in horse breeding related to racing, an item of interest to the royalty and elite in Honolulu.  Cummins had one of the largest stocks of race horses (and introduced some blooded stock to the islands) and was a promoter of horse racing.  In about 1872, a horse racing track was laid out at Kapiʻolani Park. He was a Charter member of the Hawaiian Jockey Club in 1885.

Cummins was elected representative for his Koʻolau district in 1873 and assisted in the election of King Lunalilo that same year.  The following year, he aided in the election of King Kalākaua.

Cummins was instrumental, in helping King Kalākaua effect a reciprocity treaty with the United States in 1874, after which the sugar industry prospered.

John conceived the idea of converting the ranch into a commercial sugar venture in 1877, two years after King Kalākaua had concluded a reciprocity treaty with the United States, greatly enhancing the sugar industry in the kingdom. Its first mill started grinding cane in January 1881.

The mill stood near Poalima Street behind present-day Shima's Market on Kalanianaʻole Highway. Homes were on both sides of the highway.   Rail tracks were laid out and three locomotive engines were brought in to haul cane to the mill and the wharf.

The sugar industry became a huge success.

The sugar plantation required more water than was easily available and a ditch was built to divert water from Maunawili Stream to Waimanalo.  Two million gallons of water per day was pumped through a 2-mile long tunnel through Mount Olomana and into a reservoir where it was tapped to Waimanalo Sugar Company until the 1950s.

In the 1870s, Waimānalo Sugar Company built a 700-foot pier, Waimānalo Landing (near what is now the intersection of Huli Street and Kalaniana’ole Highway,) to use to transport the sugar, as well as serve as a landing for inter-island steamers (it was dismantled in the early 1950s.)

The railroad tracks from the mill culminated at a long wooden pier; at the end of the pier, winches and cranes lifted the bags of sugar onto the vessel alongside.  Today, the line of broken pilings and all the landing’s machinery and crane and rigging, lies submerged beneath 12-15 feet of water at Waimānalo Beach Park.

The 86-foot ocean steamer "SS Waimānalo" (later renamed "SS John A. Cummins" or "Kaena") owned by John Adams Cummins of the Waimanalo Sugar Plantation Company, made trips twice a week between stops in Koʻolaupoko (Heʻeia and Waimānalo) and Honolulu, exporting sugar and returning with supplies and goods.

Control of the plantation passed to W. G. Irwin and Co. in 1885, with Cummins continuing as manager.  Cummins was ahead of the time in adopting a sort of "social welfare" plan for his employees, building a large structure containing a reading room and a section for dances and social gatherings for the plantation laborers.

It was decorated with Chinese and Japanese fans on the ceiling and pictures of King Kalākaua and other members of the royal family on the walls, and contained books, tables, an organ and singing canaries.

John Cummins left the sugar business to William G. Irwin, agent of Claus Spreckles, and developed a commercial building called the Cummins Block at Fort and Merchant streets in Downtown Honolulu.

In 1889 he represented Hawaiʻi at the Paris exposition known as Exposition Universelle. On June 17, 1890 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kalākaua's cabinet, and thus was in the House of Nobles of the legislature for the 1890 session.

He died on March 21, 1913 from influenza after a series of strokes and was buried in Oʻahu Cemetery.

Due to security concerns, an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1917 significantly changed Waimānalo and Waimānalo Sugar Company - more than 1,500-acres belonging to the Waimānalo Sugar Company were converted to a military reservation.

In 1947, the plantation was shut down.

One lasting remnant of those plantation days is the Saint George Catholic Chapel. It is among the oldest parishes in Waimānalo. Built in 1842, it still has a sizable congregation, many of them descendants of the Portuguese and the Filipinos who worked for the sugar company.

The image shows the cane being hauled via temporary train tracks to the mill.  I have added other images on this in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

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