James Campbell Building

A story in the July 26, 1916 Honolulu Star-bulletin had more impact than a simple subject of road widening, “The Hotel street widening project took on new life when Supervisor Charles N Arnold, chairman of the roads committee, requested that it be referred to his committee.”

“We have a new project, or rather we have dug up an old one, and want to carry it through," he said. "We intend to straighten Hotel street, not only on the Ewa side of Fort street, but also on the Waikiki side.”

“A piece about eight feet deep of the property occupied by the Mott-Smith building will be condemned as well as the 12 foot piece of the Campbell building.  The cost will be distributed among the benefited property owners up and down Hotel street and along Fort street.”  (Honolulu Star-bulletin, July 26, 1916.)

In 1917, buildings housing Hollister & Company, wholesale and retail druggist, tobacconist, and photographic retailer and Benson, Smith & Company, seller of drugs, medicines, and chemicals were demolished to make way for the new James Campbell Building on the makai-ewa corner of Fort and Hotel Streets.  (honolulu-gov)

Then on September 28, 1917, the Honolulu Star-bulletin reported, “On the corner of Hotel and Fort streets, the new Campbell Estate building will soon be under construction.  The workmen are still excavating, and some of the foundation work has been started, but it will be several months before definite results begin to show.”

“The walls of the Hollister Drug company’s buildings are down and the scaffolding that the workmen have erected is practically all that remains of the front of the old building.   When complete: the new Hollister building will be three stories high, with a grey-white exterior, similar in appearance to the new Ehlers' building.”

It’s not clear if World War I delayed construction, but the building helped with the war effort.  The Hawaiian Gazette on May 14, 1918 noted the Campbell building served as the War Savings and Thrift Stamp committee’s demonstration for its “dig it up in our dug out” campaign.

“The new headquarters are a replica of a dug out on the western front, copied from a photograph of General Leonard Wood's conference with Genera) Mandolon of the French army on one of General Wood's visits to the front.”

“The dug out occupies the corner of the unfinished Campbell Building. It is revetted with sand bags and camouflaged with green boughs but the committee hopes that, in spike of the camouflage, the people of Honolulu will find its range, and the heavier the bombardment, the better.”

“The dug out is the work of Jay Elmont, whose window displays in behalf of the Red Cross at Ehlers, Lewers and Cooke, and the Red Cross Drive headquarters have drawn much attention during the last week.”  It was set up to encourage savings and buying War Savings Stamps and Baby Bonds.  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 14, 1918)

By the next year, merchants in the new Campbell Building were advertising for customers to visit them in the new building.

This building is not to be confused with the “Campbell Block” (which was also on Fort Street, but closer to the Harbor between Queen and Merchant Streets.)

The lower town Campbell Block building started out as Mr. William French’s (the “merchant prince”) Honolulu premises extending from Kaʻahumanu to Fort Street.  It was surrounded by a high picket fence with some hau trees standing just within the line of the fence.

The building was quite a sizable one of wood, with a high basement and large trading rooms above. Mr. French was one of the oldest residents and a person of considerable influence.  (Maly)

The property was sold to James Austin, who sold it in 1882 to James Campbell, who owned the adjacent land on the Diamond Head side (fronting Fort Street.)  He built the “Campbell Block,” a large building that included uses such as storage, shops and offices.

Merchant Street was once the main street of the financial and governmental functions in the city, and was Honolulu's earliest commercial center.  Dating from 1854, the remaining historic buildings along this road help tell the story of the growth and development of Honolulu's professional and business community.

A great deal of the economic and political history of Hawaiʻi was created and written by the previous occupants of these buildings. Ranging from banks to bars and post office to newspapers, they have paid silent witness to the creation of present day Hawaiʻi.  (NPS)

Today, we still see these remnants of the past in lower downtown:  Melchers (1854,) the oldest commercial building in Honolulu; Kamehameha V Post Office (1871;) Bishop Bank (1878,) now known as the Harriet Bouslog Building; The Friend Building (1887 and 1900,) the site of the Oʻahu Bethel Church established in 1837; Royal Saloon (1890,) now Murphy’s; TR Foster Building (1891,) forerunner to Hawaiian Airlines;  Bishop Estate Building (1896;) Stangenwald Building (1901,) the tallest structure in Hawaiʻi until 1950; Judd Building (1898;) Yokohama Specie Bank (1909) and Honolulu Police Station (1931,) one of the earliest police forces in the world, dating to 1834.

The Campbell Block survived a fire, but on October 11, 1964, the Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser noted, “Office-Parking Building Planned by Campbell Estate on Fort Street.”

Plans called for a combined office and parking structure to replace the 2-story Campbell Block on Fort and Merchants Streets; this new building was considered an important part of the redevelopment of downtown Honolulu.  (Adamson)   The new building was completed in May 1967.

Back to upper downtown and the “Campbell Building.”  Today, the Campbell building (the same building is still there, however with a slightly different look) is home to Fisher Hawaiʻi (for its downtown facility.)

The image shows the James Campbell Building  I added a couple of other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Sunny Jim, John and Link

Three sons of Thomas McCartney McCandless and Elizabeth Ann (Newman) McCandless, James Sutton (‘Sunny Jim’) McCandless, John Andrew McCandless and Lincoln Loy (‘Link’) McCandless formed McCandless Brothers in 1881.

Thomas McCartney McCandless (September 6, 1821 - September 5, 1907) was born in Pennsylvania; he was a descendant of the McCartney family, who were the principal owners and founders of Indiana County, Pennsylvania.  Eliza Ann Newman (April 25, 1826 - October 26, 1891) was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Peter Newman, a miller, born in Heidelberg, Germany, and of Jane Ferguson Newman.

They had seven children – this story is about three of the boys and their ties to Hawaiʻi.   Jim arrived in the islands first (1880,) followed by John (1881) and Link (1882.)

A chance call on the late Samuel G Wilder, a pioneer shipping man of Hawaiʻi (and then-Minister of the Interior under King Kalākaua) who was visiting in San Francisco in 1880, brought Jim to the islands.  “He told us the story of the first well drilled in the Islands, and the manner in which the new work was developing. Then we told him what we knew about drilling wells.”

James Campbell was owner of the Honouliuli Ranch; it was mostly dry plains, needing only water to make it fertile. In July, 1879, John Ashley started drilling the first artesian well in the Hawaiian Islands in the rear of the James Campbell Ranch House at Honouliuli, Ewa District, on the flat land close to the sea.

At a depth of about 250 feet, they found fresh water, which flowed in a small stream over the top of the pipe, the first well in Hawaiʻi, and also the first flowing well in the Hawaiian Islands.

“We were, of course, strangers to (Wilder) and he had only our word for what we knew about drilling wells, but after looking us over he seemed to feel that we would be able to deliver the goods. Consequently, on that Saturday in December, 1880, we sailed with Mr Wilder for Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands”.  (McCandless)

“When (Jim) got to Honolulu on December 30, 1880, after a voyage of nine and a half days, the port was quarantined against small-pox. Instead of landing at the dock, we were taken over to the reef at the place where the drydock now stands. A sort of boardwalk was built out into the harbor, but the water was too shallow for ships' boats to reach it; so each passenger was carried ashore on the back of a Hawaiian.”

Jim first partnered with Captain William D Braden, later his brothers came to help.  Their first well was at Mahukona on the Island of Hawaiʻi.  “We stayed on the job at Mahukona until the well was finished, but found only salt water. At 800 feet, Mr. Wilder stopped the work on the well and we came back to Honolulu.”

“After we had returned to Honolulu from Mahukona, Mr. Wilder helped us in securing contracts for five wells, to be drilled for His Majesty, King Kalākaua: one in the Palace grounds, one at his home in Waikiki, and three others located on his properties in the outside districts.”

Over the next 55-years, McCandless Brothers drilled more than 700 good wells across the Islands.  Their wells helped support and water the growing and expansive sugar and pineapple plantations including ʻEwa, Kahuku, Oʻahu, Waialua and other large producers, and also on the Islands of Maui, Hawaiʻi, Kauaʻi and Molokai.

ʻEwa plantation was the first plantation in Hawaiʻi that installed pumping plants for irrigation from artesian wells; in its day, it pumped four times as much water as the City of Honolulu used. (Nellist)

“Among the crowding memories of the more than fifty-five-years that we have lived in Hawaiʻi is the thought that we came here as young men seeking our fortunes, and trying to better our fortunes, and trying to better our condition in life.”  (McCandless)

“Since 1880, we have witnessed several changes in the government of Hawaiʻi. King Kalākaua, a jolly monarch, was on the throne when we arrived. He was followed by Queen Liliʻuokalani, who reigned until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893.”

“Annexation did not come until the Spanish-American war. Then the United States suddenly woke up and annexed Hawaiʻi, the Gibraltar of the Pacific. (It has been claimed that we are not a real territory of the United States, yet I often wonder how many other countries would like to own us.)”

“We three brothers each took active parts in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. We belonged to the first company of sharpshooters in the National Guard of Hawaiʻi, and were proficient in the art of shooting and handling guns. We participated in several skirmishes”.  (McCandless)

John was a member of the "Committee of Thirteen," which took an active part in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy in 1893. From 1894 to 1898 he held an office under President Sanford B Dole, in his cabinet, and later became a member of the Senate.

He was the first superintendent of public works under the territorial government, and while holding this office built the first road around Diamond Head on the sea side of the crater, and the lighthouse there.

Link, as a boy, had a great desire to own land and cattle. His ambition has also been achieved. It was not long after he arrived in the Islands that he leased the lands here and there and formed huis to buy more.

With a hui, he bought land of Waikāne and Waiāhole on the north side of the island of Oʻahu. He bought this land with the water rights, later selling part of this right to the Oʻahu Sugar Company.  John ended up controlling thousand acres on his own (and a lot more through various partnerships.)

Link conceived the feasibility of diverting water from Waiāhole, Waikāne and Kahana, on the windward side of Oahu, through the mountain divide to the rich sugar lands on the leeward side of Oahu by means of a tunnel.

Link fathered the Torrens Land Court Law in the territorial senate in 1903, thus establishing the right of individuals to prove title to their land holdings. (Nellist)

John and Jim partnered on a downtown Honolulu lot and built the first modern office building in Honolulu, in 1907. It is five stories high (and also reported as one of only a few Honolulu buildings to feature a full basement,) built of lava rock - the McCandless Building (it is still standing at 925 Bethel Street.)  Nearby is the still existing McCandless Block at 9 North Pauahi Street.

Jim took an interest in the Masonic Lodge and became a member of the Aloha Temple in 1904.  At the meeting in Washington, DC, of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America, he was elected to receive the 33° of the A and A Scottish Rite of Free Masonry (conferred upon him at Līhuʻe, on February 16, 1934.)

A descendant in the family is Maxwell (Max) McCandless Unger; Seattle Seahawks center, he’s a ProBowler, Super Bowl winner and graduate of Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy.  His family manages McCandless Ranch in South Kona.

The image shows a McCandless drill rig and water. (McCandless)  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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The Mess

Early Honolulu was not a city of Clubs; although residents of various nationalities had started several, their existence has not been of long duration. The British, Germans and Americans each had their respective club houses.

In 1852, the British first opened their "Mess" rooms (it was not called a “Club” back then;) it started in a one-story wooden building off of Maunakea street, which was reached by a lane leading to the rear of the premises known as Liberty Hall (also known as Bugle Alley.)

The original Mess consisted of fourteen members; they were Stephen Spencer, WA Cooper, SH Cooper, Robert Moffitt, Dr Richard H Smythe, James E Chapman, JK Dallison, William Webster, John Janion, Charles Gordon Hopkins, H Fosbrooke, James Almon and Thomas Harding.

William L Green was the head of the Mess; he was prominent in official, civic and social life, and was for a time acting British Commissioner and Consul General, and President of the Chamber of Commerce of Honolulu.

The Mess was what might have been termed "movable" property; about 2-years after its Maunakea Street location, it moved to an old building on Alakea Street, and moved again to a building on Adams Lane.

In 1861, the Mess moved from Adams Lane further up the road to a 2-story building (that had been originally built for a club house) facing on Union street.

Mess membership declined down to only 4 in 1865; through the persistent efforts of two of these four members, the Mess was kept together and in a few months later had regained its strength.

By July 1867, the Mess had more members and was renamed “The British Club.”  Member subscriptions were sought, so the club could purchase its own premises.

Fifteen members (some of Honolulu’s notables of the day) subscribed to the purchase fund: Stephen Spencer, Archibald S Cleghorn, H Prendergast, Robert Moffitt, J Bollman, Thomas Cummins, James I Dowsett, Wm L Green, John Ritson, HA Widemann, John Montgomery, Robert Stirling, John O Dominis, Dr FW Hutchinson and Dr Robert McKibbin.

A charter of incorporation under the name of “The British Club” was granted in 1879; charter members were Thomas Cummins, Henry May and Archibald S Cleghorn.

Club life in the earlier days was somewhat different to what it is now; the club house was used as a home where members spent their evenings in a social manner and receiving their friends.

This club has had the honor of entertaining several distinguished and prominent visitors during its existence; among them was the Duke of Edinburgh, who visited Hawaii in 1869.

Kings Kamehameha IV & V were frequent visitors to the club; Kalākaua and his brother Leleiōhoku, were reportedly members, as were members of the diplomatic corps.

At one time, a faction of Club members considered selling their property and leasing the “Paki” premises, formerly the home of Bernice Pauahi Bishop and Charles R Bishop (also known as the Arlington Hotel.)  The move was overruled.

Later, the Club purchased the former Cleghorn property on Emma Street (Princess Kaʻiulani, daughter of the Cleghorns, was born there in 1875.)  Another prior owner was James Campbell, who bought the home from the Cleghorns and lived there for a number of years.

The Club later merged with the University Club (1930.)  Organized in 1905, the University Club was an exclusive association that admitted members who had graduated from recognized Universities, including military academies.

The club was “an organization that would tend to cement the business interests of Hawaiʻi,” it soon evolved into a business center that provided meeting, reading, entertainment and dining room facilities to its members and to groups with business connections.  (ASCE)

In 1961, a new club house was built; it was designed by Vladimir Ossipoff (he received a Hawaiʻi Society AIA award for its design.)

To keep the Club going, while at the same time constructing the new structure, they built the new around the old (losing only one day of Club operations during the final construction/move.  The lawn and terrace mark where the old club house once stood.)

Starting as a Gentlemen’s club (for whites,) the racial policy was scrapped in 1968 (Philip Ching and Asa Akinaka joined the club;) in 1983 (under a threat of legislative action,) the Club voted to admit women (in 1984, Andrea L Simpson was the first woman member.)

Oh, in 1892, “British” in the club’s name was changed to “Pacific.” At that time, the older members of the club were outvoted by the newer and later members. (The members at the time of the renaming it “The Pacific Club” had representatives of several nationalities.)  The Pacific Club is the oldest organization of its kind in the United States west of the Mississippi River. (Lots of info here from Thrum.)

The image shows the Cleghorn, then Campbell home – prior to 1959, it served as The Pacific Club’s clubhouse.  In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Honouliuli

The island of Oʻahu is divided into 6 moku (districts), consisting of: ‘Ewa, Kona, Koʻolauloa, Koʻolaupoko, Waialua and Waiʻanae. These moku were further divided into 86 ahupua‘a (land divisions within a moku.)

‘Ewa was divided into 12-ahupua‘a, consisting of (from east to west): Hālawa, ‘Aiea, Kalauao, Waimalu, Waiau, Waimano, Mānana, Waiʻawa, Waipi‘o, Waikele, Hōʻaeʻae and Honouliuli.

‘Ewa was at one time the political center for O‘ahu chiefs. This was probably due to its abundant resources that supported the households of the chiefs, particularly the many fishponds around the lochs of Puʻuloa (“long hill,) better known today as Pearl Harbor. (Cultural Surveys)

Each had fisheries in the harbor, floodplains with irrigated kalo and fishponds, and interior (lower kula valley streams/gulches) and mountain forests.  One of these, Honouliuli, had a large coastal area, including what it is typically referred to as the “ʻEwa Plains.”  (Kirch)

Honouliuli includes lands extending from the mountains, to the watered plains where loʻi kalo (taro pond fields) and loko ia (fishponds) were developed, to the arid plains and rich fisheries on the ocean. Along the ocean-fronted coast of Honouliuli are noted places in lore and ancient life, such as Keahi, Kupaka, Keoneula (Oneula), Kualakai, Kalaeloa and Koʻolina.  (Maly)

Honouliuli (dark bay) includes a wide plain back of Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) and Keahi (a point west of Pearl Harbor) where the homeless, friendless ghosts were said to wander about. These were the ghosts of people who were not found by their family ʻaumakua or gods and taken home with them, or had not found the leaping places where they could leap into the nether world.  (Pukui)

In 1793, Captain George Vancouver described this area as desolate and barren:  “From the commencement of the high land to the westward of Opooroah (Puʻuloa – Pearl Harbor) was … one barren rocky waste, nearly destitute of verdure, cultivation or inhabitants, with little variation all to the west point of the island. …”

In 1839, Missionary EO Hall described the area between Pearl Harbor and Kalaeloa as follows: “Passing all the villages (after leaving the Pearl River) at one or two of which we stopped, we crossed the barren desolate plain”.  (Robicheaux)  In the 1880s, these lands were being turned over to cattle grazing and continued through the early-1900s.

Nearby Moku ʻUmeʻume (Ford Island) provided pili grass for house thatching. Ewa's house builders gathered their pili grass for house thatching here until the time came when foreign shingles were introduced, then thatching was discontinued.

It was also covered with kiawe trees; it was noted that the kiawe forests there and the Honouliuli region supplied much of the fuel for kitchen fires in Honolulu.

Reported in 1898, a few fishermen and some of their families built shanties by the shore where they lived, fished and traded their catch for taro at ‘Ewa.  Their drinking water was taken from nearby ponds, and it was so brackish that other people could not stand to drink it. (Cameron; Maly)

James Campbell, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1850, ended up in Lāhainā and started a sugar plantation there in 1860 (later known as Pioneer Mill.)  He also started to acquire lands in Oʻahu, Maui and the island of Hawaiʻi.

In 1876, he purchased approximately 15,000-acres at Kahuku on the northernmost tip of Oʻahu from HA Widemann and Julius L Richardson. In 1877, he acquired from John Coney 41,000-acres of ranch land at Honouliuli.

Many critics scoffed at the doubtful value of his Honouliuli purchase. But Campbell envisioned supplying the arid area with water and commissioned California well-driller James Ashley to drill a well on his Honouliuli Ranch.

In 1879, Ashley drilled Hawaiʻi’s first artesian well; James Campbell's vision had made it possible for Hawaiʻi's people to grow sugar cane on the dry lands of the ʻEwa Plain.

“At 240 feet the water commenced to overflow. The bore was continued to 273 feet, the flow increasing and coming to rise from one-half to two-thirds of an inch crown above the pipe, 7 inches in diameter.  This success was a happy surprise to the community. (There was) a sheet of pure water flowing like a dome of glass from all sides of the well casing, and continuing to flow night and day, without diminution.”  (Congressional Record, 1881)

What they discovered was vast reservoirs of artesian water; the groundwater here is composed of a freshwater lens that generally moves toward the ocean but is impeded by a wedge of caprock that overlies the volcanic rock near the coast.  (Nellist, Bauer)

When the first well came in at Honouliuli the Hawaiians named it "Waianiani" (crystal waters.)  (Nellist) The ʻEwa Plain has been irrigated with ground water since 1890. By 1930, Ewa Plantation had drilled 70 artesian wells to irrigate cane lands; more were drilled later.

It was some years after the first artesian wells were brought in before there was a general understanding of the formation of the coastal caprock and its vital importance in the creation and functioning of the artesian reservoirs.

Discovery of artesian water at Honouliuli was beyond question the most important single contribution to the development of Oʻahu and Honolulu as we know the island and city today.  (Nellist)  (The flow from the well continued for 60-years until it was sealed by the City and County of Honolulu in 1939.)

In 1889, Campbell leased about 40,000-acres of land for fifty years to BF Dillingham (of Oʻahu Railway and Land Co;) after several assignments and sub-leases, about 7,860-acres of Campbell land ended up with Ewa Planation.

By 1923, Ewa Plantation was the first sugar company in the world to raise ten tons of sugar per acre and, by 1933, the plantation produced over 61,000-tons of sugar a year.

Ewa Plantation was considered one of the most prosperous plantations in Hawaiʻi and in 1931 a new 50-year lease was executed, completing the agreement with Oʻahu Railway and Land Company and beginning an association with Campbell Estate.

By 1936, ʻEwa Plantation Company was the first plantation to have a fully mechanized harvesting operation and by 1946 tests were made to convert the hauling of cane from railroads to large trucks.

During WWII, Japanese Americans were put in internment camps in at least eight locations on Hawaiʻi; one of those sites was at Honouliuli Gulch.  The forced removal of these individuals began a nearly four-year odyssey to a series of camps in Hawaiʻi and on the continental United States.

They were put in these camps, not because they had been tried and found guilty of something, but because either they or their parents or ancestors were from Japan and, as such, they were deemed a "threat" to national security.

In 1962, Castle and Cooke purchased majority control of ʻEwa Plantation Company stock and in 1970 ʻEwa Plantation Company merged with Oʻahu Sugar Company in Waipahu (the ʻEwa mill closed in the mid-1970s after the sale; the mill was demolished in 1985.)

Campbell became known by the Hawaiians as “Kimo Ona-Milliona” (James the Millionaire).  Despite his success in sugar, his interests turned to other matters, primarily ranching and real estate.

When James Campbell died on April 21, 1900, the Estate of James Campbell was created as a private trust to administer his assets for the benefit of his heirs (in 2007, the James Campbell Company succeeded the Estate of James Campbell.) The Estate played a pivotal role in Hawaiʻi history, from the growth of sugar plantations to the growing new City of Kapolei.

The image shows an early (1873) map of Honouliuli (DAGS.)  In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Kimo Ona-Milliona

James was son of William and Martha (Adams) Campbell, descended from the Scottish Campbell clan, the eighth child in the family of eight boys and four girls (born in Ireland, February 4, 1826.)  His father was a carpenter who operated a furniture and cabinet shop adjacent to the home where he and his wife raised their family.

With limited opportunities on that island, at the age of 13, he stowed away on a schooner for Canada and later wound up on a whaler out of New Bedford and was bound for the Pacific.  He survived a shipwreck in the South Pacific (Tuamotus) on the way.

He and two shipmates immediately were seized by the Islanders and bound to trees to await their fate.  After Campbell fixed the chief’s broken musket, they were freed and accepted as members of the community. A few months later Campbell left the Island by drifting out to a passing schooner that took him to Tahiti, and later (1850) he went to Hawaiʻi.

He settled in Lāhainā, Maui and honed his skill as a carpenter in building and repairing boats and constructing homes.  He boarded with a European named Barla and married Barla’s only child, Hannah. There were no children of this marriage, which ended with the death of young Hannah Barla Campbell in 1858.

He expanded beyond carpentry and ventured into the Islands’ fledgling sugar industry.  In 1860, Campbell, with Henry Turton and James Dunbar, established the Pioneer Mill Company (Dunbar later left;) they not only invested capital in the business, they also worked alongside employees in the field and mill.

When Campbell and Turton were starting the plantation, the small sugar mill consisted of three wooden rollers set upright, with mules providing the power to turn the heavy rollers. The cane juice ran into a series of boiling kettles that originally had been used on whaling ships.

By 1876, the annual production had increased to 1,708-tons of raw sugar and the World's Fair in Philadelphia awarded Pioneer Mill a prize for its fine quality sugar that year. In 1882, Honolulu Iron Works built an iron three-roller mill for the factory and soon there were six boilers generating steam power to drive the machinery.

Pioneer Mill Company not only survived but thrived and enabled Campbell to build a palatial home in Lāhainā.  Despite his success in sugar, his interests turned to other matters, primarily ranching and real estate and he started to acquire lands in Oʻahu, Maui and the island of Hawaiʻi.

In 1876, he purchased approximately 15,000-acres at Kahuku on the northernmost tip of Oʻahu from HA Widemann and Julius L Richardson. In 1877, he acquired from John Coney 41,000-acres of ranch land at Honouliuli.

In 1877, he sold his interest in Pioneer Mill Company to his partner, Turton; he married Abigail Kuaihelani Maipinepine (age 19) and soon after moved to a home on Emma Street in Honolulu, which Campbell purchased from Archibald S Cleghorn in 1878.  (Now the site of the Pacific Club.)

Princess Kaʻiulani, daughter of the Cleghorns, was born there in 1875. The Campbells’ first daughter, Abigail Wahiikaahuula, later Princess Abigail Kawānanakoa, was born in the same room as Princess Kaʻiulani. (Other children included Alice, Beatrice and Muriel; four other children were born to the couple but died in infancy.)

In 1883 he built the Campbell Block Building at the corner of Merchant and Fort Streets, Honolulu, where he established his office. (This building was headquarters for the Campbell Estate until 1967, when the Estate constructed the modern James Campbell Building at this site to house its offices.)

In 1885, Pioneer Mill Company, cultivating about 600 of its 900 acres of land and producing about 2,000 tons of sugar a year, encountered difficulties and Turton declared bankruptcy.  To protect his mortgage, Campbell, with financial partner Paul Isenberg of Hackfeld and Company, acquired all the stock and Campbell again took on management of the operation.

With major interests on Maui and Oʻahu, Campbell split his time between the Islands.  He was a member of the House of Nobles representing Maui, Molokai and Lānaʻi in the special session of 1887 and the regular session of 1888.

Back on Oʻahu, critics scoffed at the doubtful value of Campbell’s purchase of Honouliuli. But he envisioned supplying the arid area with water and commissioned California well-driller James Ashley to drill a well on his Honouliuli Ranch.  In 1879, Ashley drilled Hawaiʻi’s first artesian well; Campbell's vision had made it possible for Hawaiʻi's people to grow sugar cane on the dry lands of the ʻEwa Plain.

In 1889, Campbell leased about 40,000-acres of land for fifty years to BF Dillingham (of Oʻahu Railway and Land Co;) after several assignments and sub-leases, about 7,860-acres of Campbell land ended up with Ewa Planation.

(ʻEwa Plantation was considered one of the most prosperous plantations in Hawaiʻi and in 1931 a new 50-year lease was executed, completing the agreement with Oʻahu Railway and Land Company and beginning an association with Campbell Estate.  The ʻEwa mill closed in the mid-1970s; the mill was demolished in 1985.)

After a lengthy illness, Campbell died on April 21, 1900, in his Emma Street home. On the afternoon of his funeral the banks and most of the large business houses closed.  (In January of 1902, Abigail Campbell married Colonel Sam Parker.)

“We knew him then as a very capable and industrious mechanic at Lahaina. By hard work and sound judgment, twenty years later he had built up a valuable sugar plantation in Lahaina. From that beginning of wealth he became the possessor of more than three millions of property, all of it, to the best of our knowledge, honestly gained without detriment to others.”

“Mr. Campbell was a good citizen, although not a religious man. He was remarkable for sound business judgment, capacity for hard persistent effort, and for great personal courage, qualities very commonly accompanying Scotch descent.”  (The Friend, May 1, 1900)

When Campbell died, the Estate of James Campbell was created as a private trust to administer his assets for the benefit of his heirs (in 2007, the James Campbell Company succeeded the Estate of James Campbell.) The Estate played a pivotal role in Hawaiʻi history, from the growth of sugar plantations to the growing new City of Kapolei.

Over the years, Campbell became known by the Hawaiians as “Kimo Ona-Milliona” (James the Millionaire.)  Campbell himself said that the principle upon which he had accumulated his wealth was in always living on less than he made.  (Lot of information here from Campbell Estate publications.)

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

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Kāʻanapali

When chief Kekaulike died, his younger son Kamehamehanui (uncle to Kamehameha I) was named heir to rule Maui. In 1738, Kauhi‘aimokuakama (Kauhi,) his older brother, began to wage war to win the title of ruling chief.

Battles were fought across West Maui, from Ukumehame to Honokowai.  Kamehamehanui engaged the forces of his uncle from Hawai‘i to fight with him, whose troops numbered over 8,000, and Kauhi brought troops of warriors from O‘ahu.

The war ended with the battle Koko O Nā Moku (“Bloodshed of the Islands.”) Over several days, the blood of fallen warriors from both sides flowed from a stream into the shorebreak and caused the ocean to turn red.  (Kamehamehanui won.) (Kāʻanapali Historical Trail)

This occurred in the moku (district) of Kāʻanapali ("divided cliffs.")  A prominent feature noted at the beach is Pu‘u Kekaʻa (“the rolling hill”) - the outcrop that separates portions of the beach (commonly known as “Black Rock.”)

It was “ka leina a ka ‘uhane” - the place where a person’s soul left the earthly realm for the afterlife (these were usually at the westernmost point of the island.)

It was also a place for “lele kawa” (cliff jumping;) Kahekili gained respect from many warriors for his leaps from Pu‘u Kekaʻa, as most were frightened of the spirits who were in the area.  (Kāʻanapali Historical Trail)

The island of Maui is divided into twelve moku; Kāʻanapali, Lāhainā, Wailuku, Hāmākuapoko, Hāmākualoa, Koʻolau, Hāna, Kīpahulu, Kaupō, Kahikinui, Honuaʻula and Kula.

An area in the moku of Kāʻanapali is referred to as Nā Hono A Piʻilani (The Bays of Piʻilani (aka Honoapiʻilani.))  In the 1500s, Chief Piʻilani (“stairway to heaven”) unified West Maui and ruled in peace and prosperity.  His territory included the West Maui bays, a place he frequented.

From South to North, six of the identified bays are Honokōwai (bay drawing fresh water), Honokeana (cave bay), Honokahua (sites bay,) Honolua (two bays), Honokōhau (bay drawing dew) and Hononana (animated bay).

In the late-1800s and early-1900s there was a horse racing track (Koko O Na Moku Horse Racing Track) at Kāʻanapali Beach that stretched from the present day Kāʻanapali Beach Hotel to the present day Westin Maui Resort. Horse races ended in 1918.

In 1860, James Campbell started the Pioneer Mill Company; sugar cultivation proved to be very profitable.  He later sold his interest in the Mill and, after subsequent transfers, in 1960, Pioneer Mill Company became a wholly owned subsidiary of American Factors (Amfac - one of Hawaiʻi’s Big 5.)

Kāʻanapali was the terminus for the plantation railroad; a landing on the northerly side of Puʻu Kekaʻa with a wharf and off-shore moorings served as the primary loading spot for shipping processed sugar from the island and bringing in supplies for the plantation camps.

After the sugar industry's peak in 1930, production, acreage in sugar and profits declined.  Seeing hard times ahead, Amfac took 1,200-acres of Pioneer Mill Company land out of cane to develop as a visitor resort destination (in 1999, Pioneer Mill closed its sugar operations.)

Then, a few years before Hawaiʻi became a state, before Maui County even had a mayor, in 1956, Pioneer Mill's board of directors got together for a lūʻau on the beach near Puʻu Kekaʻa. There, they sketched out the whole Kāʻanapali Beach Resort master planning venture.  (mauitime-com)

Seven years later, the grand opening for the Sheraton (the second, following the Royal Lāhianā completed the year before) put Kāʻanapali on the map as a resort area and featured celebrities like Bing Crosby, golfer Sam Snead and then-California Governor Pat Brown. It was a groundbreaking place, in more ways than one.  (mauitime-com)

The land set-aside by Amfac became Hawaiʻi's first master-planned resort.  When it opened in 1962, it became known as the Kāʻanapali Beach Resort.

Today, along its 3-mile coastline, this self-contained resort has over 5,000 hotel rooms, condominium suites, timeshares and villas; 2-championship golf courses (in 1962, Bing Crosby took the inaugural shot on the Royal Kāʻanapali Course) and 35-tennis courts.  It accommodates over half-a-million visitors each year.

Kāʻanapali Beach was ranked “Best Beach in America” in 2003 (Dr. Beach.)  A beach walk runs parallel with the sand the entire length of Kāʻanapali interconnecting the five major resort hotels and six condominiums and timeshares, as well as the numerous recreational, shopping, dining and other activities in the area.

Twenty-five years after it started, the Urban Land Institute recognized Kāʻanapali Beach Resort with an Award of Excellence for Large-Scale Recreational Development.

In the early years, Kāʻanapali Airport, built on an old coastal road in 1961, serviced the resort first by transporting workers and materials for the new development and then it brought guests in/out.

Take-offs and landings were a thrill for pilots and passengers; the Airport’s runway (01-19) started just 30-feet from the shoreline and extended north a short 2,615-feet.  Kahekili Beach Park now sits on the former Airport site.

The Airport was used exclusively by the commuter aircraft of Royal Hawaiian, initially using Cessna 402 aircraft.  In 1987, Hawaiian Airlines built the nearby Kapalua Airport; the State took over that facility in 1993.

They must be doing something right, Maui and the visitor destinations of Lāhainā-Kāʻanapali-Kapalua continue to lead the neighbor islands in room occupancy and they lead the state in average daily room (ADR) rates and revenue per available room (ADR x occupancy rate.)

At the same time properties like the Kāʻanapali Beach Hotel are recognized as Hawaii’s Most Hawaiian Hotel for demonstrating an ongoing responsibility, commitment and dedication to honoring and perpetuating the Hawaiian culture for generations to come.

The image shows an early aerial view overlooking Kāʻanapali (Lozoff.)  I have added other images to a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Sliver of a Building

In 1841, on the makai side of the road (Merchant Street,) from Nuʻuanu to Kaʻahumanu Street (now the breezeway through the Harbor Court,) were empty lots, with blocks of coral for fences near the corner of Merchant and Fort streets, on the makai side of the street, were the premises of Mr. William French.  (Maly)

French first came to Hawaiʻi in 1819.  He settled in Honolulu and established himself as a leading trader. Financial success during the next decade made French known as "the merchant prince."  He also had property in Kawaihae, on the Island of Hawaiʻi.  There, in 1835, French hired John Parker as bookkeeper, cattle hunter and in other capacities.  (Wellmon)

John Parker later purchased 640-acres (1850,) then another 1,000-acres (1851) and leased land in the Waikoloa region from Kamehameha III – these formed the foundation for the future Parker Ranch.

By 1840, French made numerous shipments of live cattle to Honolulu. These cattle were fattened in the pasture close to Waimea then driven to Kawaihae and transported to Honolulu to supply the numerous whaling ships that visited the port each fall.  (Wellmon)

French’s Honolulu premises extended from Kaʻahumanu to Fort Street, surrounded by a high picket fence with some hau trees standing just within the line of the fence. The building was quite a sizable one of wood, with a high basement and large trading rooms above. Mr. French was one of the oldest residents and a person of considerable influence.  (Maly)

The property was sold to James Austin, who sold it in 1882 to James Campbell, who owned the adjacent land on the Diamond Head side (fronting Fort Street.)  He built the “Campbell Block,” a large building that included uses such as storage, shops and offices.

Merchant Street was once the main street of the financial and governmental functions in the city, and was Honolulu's earliest commercial center.  Dating from 1854, the remaining historic buildings along this road help tell the story of the growth and development of Honolulu's professional and business community.

A great deal of the economic and political history of Hawaiʻi was created and written by the previous occupants of these buildings. Ranging from banks to bars and post office to newspapers, they have paid silent witness to the creation of present day Hawaiʻi.  (NPS)

Today, we still see these remnants of the past:  Melchers (1854,) the oldest commercial building in Honolulu; Kamehameha V Post Office (1871;) Bishop Bank (1878,) now known as the Harriet Bouslog Building; The Friend Building (1887 and 1900,) the site of the Oʻahu Bethel Church established in 1837; Royal Saloon (1890,) now Murphy’s; TR Foster Building (1891,) forerunner to Hawaiian Airlines;  Bishop Estate Building (1896;) Stangenwald Building (1901,) the tallest structure in Hawaiʻi until 1950; Judd Building (1898;) Yokohama Specie Bank (1909) and Honolulu Police Station (1931,) one of the earliest police forces in the world, dating to 1834.

Then, in 1902, near tragedy struck when “One of the hardest fights in the history of the Honolulu Fire Department was experienced Saturday afternoon, when a fire broke out in the middle of the Hawaiian Hardware Company's warehouse.  For two hours the whole block bounded by Merchant and Queen, Fort and Kaahumanu streets, was in danger.” (Hawaiian Star, August 25, 1902)

“The fire is said to have been caused by an accident with gasoline in the warehouse. An order for gasoline for Young Bros. launch had been received and was being filled.”  (Hawaiian Star, August 25, 1902)

The Campbell Block survived (at least that fire.)

Then, on October 11, 1964, the Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser noted, “Office-Parking Building Planned by Campbell Estate on Fort Street.”

Plans called for a combined office and parking structure to replace the 2-story Campbell Block on Fort and Merchants Streets; this new building was considered an important part of the redevelopment of downtown Honolulu.  (Adamson)   The new building was completed in May 1967.

So, the Campbell Block is gone … well, sort of.

You see, a fragment of the Campbell Block remains.  It was interconnected with the adjoining Bishop Estate Building and removing it all would harm its neighbor; so, a part was retained in-place.

As you walk down Merchant Street, between Fort and Bethel (across from the Pioneer Plaza loading and parking structure access,) take a look at the (now obvious) sliver of a building; it was once the Campbell Block (and the area of the former establishment of merchant William French.)

The image shows the cast-iron pilaster fragment of the Campbell Block.   In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Pioneer Mill

The early Polynesians brought sugarcane with them to the Islands.  Kō (sugarcane) was planted as a subsistence crop - with domestic, medicinal and spiritual uses.

In 1802, processed sugar was first made in the islands on the island of Lānaʻi by a native of China, who came here in one of the vessels trading for sandalwood and brought a stone mill and boilers.  After grinding off a small crop and making it into sugar, he went back to China the next year.

It was not until ca. 1823 that several members of the Lāhainā Mission Station began to process sugar from native sugarcanes, for their tables.  By the 1840s, efforts were underway in Lāhainā to develop a means for making sugar as a commodity.  (Maly)

Sugar was being processed in small quantities in Lāhainā throughout the 1840s and 1850s; in 1849, it was reported that the finest sugar in the islands could be found in Lāhainā.  (Maly)

James Campbell, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1850 - having served as a carpenter on a whaling ship and then operated a carpentry business in Lāhainā, started a sugar plantation there in 1860. The small mill, together with cane from Campbell's fields, manufactured sugar on shares for small cane growers in the vicinity.

Soon after the establishment of the new plantation, Henry Turton and James Dunbar joined Campbell. Under the name of Campbell & Turton, the company grew cane and manufactured sugar.

The small sugar mill consisted of three wooden rollers set upright, with mules providing the power to turn the heavy rollers. The cane juice ran into a series of boiling kettles that originally had been used on whaling ships.

When the nearby Lāhainā Sugar Company, a small company founded by H Dickenson in 1861, went bankrupt in 1863, its assets were acquired by Campbell and his partners.

In 1865, the plantation became known as Pioneer Mill Company (that year Dunbar left the company.)  By 1874, Campbell and Turton added the West Maui Sugar Company, a venture of Kamehameha V, to the holdings of Pioneer Mill Company.

The Pioneer Mill Company was extremely profitable, enabling Campbell to build a large home in Lāhainā and to acquire parcels of land on Maui and Oʻahu.

Campbell became known by the Hawaiians as “Kimo Ona-Milliona” (James the Millionaire).  Despite his success in sugar, his interests turned to other matters, primarily ranching and real estate.

Over the years, Campbell acquired property in Kahuku, Honouliuli, Kahaualea and elsewhere, amassing the holdings that eventually became 'The Estate of James Campbell.'

In 1877, James Campbell sold his half interest to partner Henry Turton for $500,000 with agents Hackfeld & Company holding a second mortgage of $250,000. The company's charter was dated in 1882, but by 1885, Mr. Turton declared bankruptcy and sold the property back to James Campbell and to Paul Isenberg, who was associated with Hackfeld & Co. Mr. CF Horner was selected to manage the plantation.

With later acquisitions of additional West Maui lands, Pioneer Mill was incorporated on June 29, 1895.  Horner sold his interest to American Factors, formerly Hackfeld & Co., and in 1960, Pioneer Mill Company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Amfac.

Irrigation of Pioneer Mill Company's fields, an area that eventually extended 14-miles long and 1 1/2-miles wide with altitudes between 10 and 700 feet, was accomplished with water drawn from artesian wells and water transported from the West Maui Mountains. The McCandless brothers drilled the first well on Maui for Pioneer Mill Company in 1883.

Pioneer Mill Company was one of the earliest plantations to use a steam tramway for transporting harvested cane from the fields to the mill. Cane from about 1000-acres was flumed directly to the mill cane carrier with the rest coming to the mill by rail.  (The Sugar Cane Train is a remnant of that system.)

In 1937, mechanically harvested cane was bringing so much mud to the factory that Pioneer Mill Company began the development of a cane cleaner.

Between 1948 and 1951, a rock removal program rehabilitated 3,153 acres of Pioneer land to permit mechanical planting, cultivating, and harvesting. In 1952, the railroad was eliminated and a year later new feeder tables were conveying cane directly from cane trucks into the factory.

Lāhainā Light and Power Company, Lāhainā Ice Company, the Lāhainā and Puʻukoliʻi Stores, and the Pioneer Mill Hospital were associated with the plantation, providing services to employees as well to Lahaina residents.

Faced with international competition, Hawaiʻi's sugar industry, including Pioneer Mill Company, found it increasingly difficult to economically survive.

At the industry's peak in the 1930s, Hawaiʻi's sugar plantations employed more than 50,000-workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.  That plummeted to 492,000-tons in 1995.  A majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s.

Seeing hard times ahead, Pioneer Mill Company took 2,000-acres out of cane during the 1960s to develop Kāʻanapali as a visitor resort destination.

By 1986, the plantation had reduced its acreage down to 4,000-acre (which at its height had 14,000-acres planted in cane.)  After years of losing money, in 1999, Pioneer Mill closed its operations.

Recently, the Lāhainā Restoration Foundation and others worked to preserve the Pioneer Mill Smokestack.  It remains tall above the Lāhainā Community as a reminder of the legacy of sugar in the West Maui community.  (Lots of information here from the UH-Manoa, HSPA Plantation Archives.)

The image shows Pioneer Mill (kapolei-com.)   In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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