Pulehunui

Pulehunui is an ahupuaʻa in central Maui; it extends from the rim of the crater of Haleakala, the western portion reaches to the low land of the Island and grows broader up to the western boundary joining the lands of Waikapu. During pre-contact times, agricultural uses were basically wetland or dryland.

Pulehunui does not have regular streams or springs; it is in the area known as Kula.  Kula was widely famous for its sweet-potato plantations; ʻuala was the staple of life here.  Here was the Maui Airport.  It was later abandoned and the old runway was used for drag races and time trials starting in May 1956.

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Benjamin Douglas Baldwin

Benjamin Douglas Baldwin (grandson of the Rev Dwight Baldwin) was born at Kohala, Hawaii, April 12, 1868, son of David D and Lois M Baldwin. Baldwin began his career in the sugar cane industry on Haiku Sugar Co plantation, Hāmākuapoko, Maui, on January 1, 1889.

Then, “Mr Benjamin D Baldwin, head luna of Hāmākuapoko plantation has accepted the position of assistant manager of the Hawaiian Commercial Company”.  He later “settled as manager of Makaweli plantation of Kauai.” “Makaweli is the banner plantation of Kauai” and by the end of Baldwin's management, in 1928, the company was noted as one of the most profitable and progressive in the Territory.

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Wailuku Female Seminary

In 1835, at the general meeting of the Mission, a resolution was passed to promote boarding schools for Hawaiians; several male boarding schools and two female boarding schools were begun (Wailuku Female Seminary on the island of Maui and the Hilo School for Girls on the island of Hawai'i.)

Wailuku Female Seminary (or the Central Female Seminary, as it was first called) was the first female school begun by the missionaries. In 1837 the missionaries opened the Wailuku Female Seminary to educate girls to be “good Christian wives” for the graduates of Lahainaluna a school for boys at Lahaina. A boarding school, they thought, would have a deeper influence than day classes.

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Kahikinui

“The district that resembles Kahiki (Tahiti,) is to Kahiki-nui (Great Tahiti,) the district which is said to be made silvery by the winds (descriptive of the winds bearing salty sea-spray from the ocean.)”  Some archaeologists and historians believe the first Polynesians to arrive at Hawaiʻi came ashore at Kahikinui (Maui;) the place name illustrates the historical ties between Kahikinui (Great Tahiti) and the islands of Tahiti.

Kahikinui was arid along the coast but well-forested above the cloud line. Fishing was good along its rugged shores. Hawaiians lived in isolated communities on the broken lava, scattered from one end of the district to the other close to the sea or slightly inland, wherever potable water was found in a brackish well or a submarine spring offshore.  The ocean off Kahikinui is a wealth of marine resources.

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Georgia O’Keeffe

James Drummond Dole founded Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901. The ad agency for Dole was looking for something special for a national magazine advertising campaign; in exchange for an all-expense-paid trip, they asked Georgia O’Keeffe to submit two paintings from Hawai‘i. O’Keeffe became one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century. Best known for her still-life paintings, she painted natural settings at their most basic: large-scale flowers, bones and landscapes.

In Hawaiʻi, she was hosted by the Willis Jennings family (he was manager of the Hāna sugar plantation;) twelve-year-old Patricia Jennings became her companion and guide for the next ten days.  O’Keeffe had produced 20-paintings, not one included a pineapple and she subsequently “submitted depictions of a papaya tree and the spiky blossom of a lobster’s claw heliconia” for the Dole ads.

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Kahana

In the 1500s, Chief Piʻilani (“stairway to heaven”) unified West Maui and ruled in peace and prosperity.  His territory included the six West Maui bays, a place he frequented.  In this area, between that ahupuaʻa of Honokōwai and Honokeana, was Kahana (cutting or turning point,) another ahupuaʻa of the moku (district) of Kāʻanapali.

Historically Maui’s second largest industry, pineapple cultivation, had also played a large role in forming Maui’s modern day landscape. The pineapple industry began on Maui in 1890 with Dwight D Baldwin’s Haiku Fruit and Packing Company on the northeast side of the island.

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ʻEke Crater

Early Hawaiians considered ʻEke Crater near the summit of the West Maui Mountain to be Heaven's Gate, or a doorway between the physical and spiritual worlds.  "Mauna ʻEke is the name given to the circular range in the bosom of which lies the valley, whose sides, moistened with mists and trickling streams, are perennially green.”

ʻEke Crater is an extinct volcanic dome with eroded sides and gently concave summit. The summit bog is underlain by a clay hardpan over a compressed lava core and is characterized by numerous pits and open water ponds.  Towering at nearly 4,500 feet in elevation, the name 'Crater' is quite deceiving, as no visible crater remains today. The mountain is actually the remnants of an eroded volcanic cone.

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Sereno Edwards Bishop

Sereno Edwards Bishop was born at Kaʻawaloa on February 7, 1827; he was son of Rev. Artemas and Elizabeth (Edwards) Bishop (part of the Second Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi (arriving April 27, 1823) and first stationed at Kailua, on the Big Island.)

Mrs Bishop had been a girlhood friend of Mrs Lucy G Thurston, who had preceded her to Hawaii as a missionary, some four years earlier. Mrs Bishop died February 28, 1828 at Kailua, the first death in the mission.

Mr. Bishop, Sr subsequently married Delia Stone, who was a member of the Third Company of missionaries (December 1, 1828.)

The missionaries’ house was usually in a thickly inhabited village, so the missionary and his wife could be close to their work among the people; the missionary children were typically cooped up in their home.

With hundreds of children all about them, missionary children had no playmates except the children of other missionaries, most of whom were scattered over the Islands, meeting only a few times a year.  (Thurston)

“In the early-(1830s,) Kailua was a large native village, of about 4,000 inhabitants rather closely packed along one hundred rods of shore (about 1,650-feet,) and averaging twenty rods inland (about 330-feet.)”

“Near by stood a better stone house occupied by the doughty Governor Kuakiui. All other buildings in Kailua were thatched, until Rev. Artemas Bishop built his two-story stone dwelling in 1831 and Rev. Asa Thurston in 1833 built his wooden two-story house at Laniākea, a quarter of a mile inland.”

“The people had ample cultivable land in the moist upland from two to four miles inland at altitudes of one thousand to twenty-five hundred feet. It is a peculiarity of that Kona coast that while the shore may be absolutely rainless for months gentle showers fall daily upon the mountain slope.”  (Bishop)

Sereno Bishop was sent back to the continent at age 12 for education (he graduated from Amherst College in 1846 and Auburn Theological Seminary in 1851,) he married Cornelia A Session on May 31, 1852 and returned to Hawaiʻi on January 16, 1853.

His observation of Honolulu at the time noted, “The settled portion of the city was then substantially limited by the present
Alapaʻi and River streets and mauka at School street. There was hardly anything outside of those limits and the remainder was practically an open plain.”

“Above Beretania street, on the slopes and beyond Alapaʻi street, there was hardly a building of any nature whatever.”

“At that time there was a small boarding school for the children of the missions at Punahou, under direction of Father Dole. This little structure alone intervened between the city and Mōʻiliʻili, where about the church there were a few houses.”  (Bishop)

Bishop assumed the position of Seaman’s Chaplain in Lāhainā.  The Bishops remained nine years at Lahaina, where five children were born to them (two of the boys died at a young age.)

After 10-years in Lāhainā, he moved to Hāna and later returned to Lāhainā and served from 1865 to 1877 as principal of Lahainaluna. Mr. Bishop considered the work which he did among the native students at Lahainaluna was among the most fruitful of his life.

He left his mark at Lahainaluna, physically, in the shape of the grand avenue of monkey pods on the road to Lahaina, which he personally planted.  (Thurston)

Bishop had a reputation as an amateur scientist with interests particularly in geology.  Bishop’s contributions as an atmospheric scientist were sufficiently prominent to be mentioned in the Monthly Weather Review.  (SOEST)

Rev. Sereno Bishop, a missionary in Hawaiʻi, was the first to provide detailed observations of a phenomenon not previously reported - he noted his observation on September 5, 1883.  It was later named for him – Bishop’s Ring (a halo around the sun, typically observed after large volcanic eruptions.)

Bishop’s observations followed the eruption at Krakatoa (August 23, 1883.)  His findings suggested the existence of the ‘Jet Stream’ (this used to be referred to as the 'Krakatoa Easterlies.')

"It now seems probable that the enormous projections of gaseous and other matter from Krakatoa (Krakatau) have been borne by the upper currents and diffused throughout a belt of half the earth's circumference, and not improbably, as careful observation may yet establish, even entirely around the globe."  (Sereno Bishop)

Bishop made other volcanic observations; a hundred years ago, he noted Diamond Head was made in less than a hour’s time and is “composed not of lava, like the main mountain mass inland, but of this soft brown rock called tuff.” (Bishop, Commercial Advertiser, July 15, 1901)

In 1887, he moved to Honolulu and became editor of "The Friend," a monthly journal, founded in Honolulu in 1843, "the oldest publication west of the Rocky Mountains."

Bishop was identified as “the well-known mouthpiece of the annexation party” and criticized by royalists for his comments.  He remained in Honolulu and died there March 23, 1909.

The image shows Sereno Bishop. (1902)   In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

© 2015 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Lāhainā Banyan Tree

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 - the “Missionary Period,”) the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM) sent twelve Companies of missionaries – 184-missionaries; 84-men and 100-women - to the Hawaiian Islands.

By the time the Pioneer Company arrived (1820,) Kamehameha I had died (1819) and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished, through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho, his son,) with encouragement by his father’s wives, Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother.)) Keōpūolani later decided to move to Maui.

“On the 26th of May (1823) we heard that the barge (Cleopatra's Barge, or "Haʻaheo o Hawaiʻi," Pride of Hawaiʻi) was about to sail for Lahaina, with the old queen (Keōpūolani) and princess (Nāhiʻenaʻena;) and that the queen was desirous to have missionaries to accompany her”.

“A meeting was called to consult whether it was expedient to establish a mission at Lahaina. The mission was determined on, and Mr S (Stewart) was appointed to go: he chose Mr R (Richards) for his companion … On the 28th we embarked on the mighty ocean again, which we had left so lately.”  (Betsey Stockton Journal)

Keōpūolani is said to have been the first convert of the missionaries in the Islands, receiving baptism from Rev. William Ellis in Lāhainā on September 16, 1823.  Keōpūolani was spoken of “with admiration on account of her amiable temper and mild behavior”.  (William Richards)   She was ill and died shortly after her baptism.

The tenth ABCFM Company arrived in the Islands on September 24, 1842 on the Sarah Abagail from Boston.  On board were Rev George Berkeley Rowell (1815-1884) and wife Malvina Jerusha Chapin (1816-1901) and Physician James William Smith (1810–1887) and wife Melicent Knapp Smith (1816–1891.)  They were assigned to the station on Kauai.

Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1810 to a farm family, James William Smith became a school teacher at 17, and had a religious conversion at 19. He studied religion for about 3-years until he became ill in 1834 and was unable to complete his studies to enter the ministry.

Turning to medicine, he attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, and proceeded to practice there for about five years. He applied for missionary work in 1840, and married Melicent Knapp. The couple would provide missionary, educational and medical help to the islands for the next 45 years.

Their son, William Owen Smith, born at Kōloa, Kauai, was educated at Rev David Dole’s school at Kōloa, later attending Punahou School in Honolulu; Smith left school to go to work on a sugar plantation for three years to learn the sugar industry, working in the boiling house in winter and in the fields in summer.

Smith was Sheriff of Kauai for two years and Maui for two years.  He later became a lawyer and state legislator.

During the revolutionary period, Smith was one of the thirteen members of the Committee of Safety that overthrew the rule of Queen Liliʻuokalani (January 17, 1893) and established the Provisional Government.

He then served on the executive council of the Provisional Government and was sent to Washington DC when the proposed Organic Act for the Government of Hawaiʻi was pending before Congress.

When not filling public office, Mr. Smith had been engaged in private law practice and was affiliated with various law firms during his long career.

Smith and his firm wrote the will for Princess Pauahi Bishop that created the Bishop Estate. As a result of this, Pauahi recommended to Queen Liliʻuokalani that he write her will for the Liliʻuokalani Trust (which he did.)

As a result, Liliʻuokalani and Smith became lifelong friends; he defended her in court, winning the suit brought against her by Prince Jonah Kūhiō. (KHS)

Speaking of his relationship with the Queen, Smith said, “One of the gratifying experiences of my life was that after the trying period which led up to the overthrow of the monarchy and the withdrawal of Queen Liliʻuokalani, the Queen sent for me to prepare a will and deed of trust of her property and appointed me one of her trustees”.  (Nellist)

Smith was also a trustee of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate from 1884-1886 and 1897-1929, the Lunalilo Estate, the Alexander Young Estate and the Children’s Hospital.

He died at his Nuʻuanu home on April 13, 1929 after catching a cold that developed into bronchial pneumonia. His funeral was held at Kawaiahaʻo Church.  (ksbe)

Oh, the Lāhainā Banyan Tree …

On April 24, 1873, while serving as Sheriff on Maui, William Owen Smith planted Lāhainā's Indian Banyan to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission in Lāhainā.

Today, shading almost an acre of the surrounding park and reaching upward to a height of 60 feet, this banyan tree is reportedly the largest in the US.

Its aerial roots grow into thick trunks when they reach the ground, supporting the tree's large canopy. There are 16 major trunks in addition to the original trunk in the center.

The image shows the Lāhainā banyan tree.  In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Banana Patch

Some of the surfers and hippies were intent on inventing a new culture. Others were simply escaping from Mainland restrictions during and after “the summer of love.”  (Youngblood)

It was part of the commune culture that started in the early-1960s on the continent, initially in the cities, then expanding into other areas, including Hawaiʻi.  By 1969, Newsweek estimated that there were 10,000 hippies in more than 500 communes.  (Miller)

On Maui, David Joseph made the Banana Patch available to them, “an Open Land community set in a valley of banana trees.”  It was called the Banana Patch (or simply the Patch.)

“Since (1964,) a dozen homemade houses had been built by young people … The owner, an older man … was a native Hawaiian who shared (the) big-hearted attitude towards the homeless”.  (Ramon; diggers)

“I was 21 years old when I came here.  I met a family on Maui.  Mr and Mrs Joseph extended an invitation to me to live on their Banana Patch in Haiku.”

“My boyfriend and I were homeless and without work at the time.  It was a wonderful opportunity for someone like me. … .  He loved to build shacks and let people live for free in them.”  (Reyes)  “There were only two rules: don't touch the bananas and don't strike your brothers.”  (Quayle)

Twenty-six houses were scattered across the floor and up both sides of the valley.  Ginger, taro, corn, okra, cucumbers, squash, broccoli, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, radishes, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, lima beans, black-eye peas, papayas, plums, mountain apples, grapes, oranges, bananas, lemons, passion fruit and blackberries were planted in small clearings.

Joseph “bought the land in 1950 from my father-in-law. It was a very lonesome spot. After 14 years these children came. They were peaceful and wanted no violence, were vegetarians and liked to live alone, exploring the world.”

“I talked to them and they were very good children. I invited them to the Patch and told them you must build a roof over your heads.  During the next five years, I met about 2,000 people in and out. I now have friends all over the world.”  (Joseph; Quaye)

The late-1960s saw an invasion of hippies, which came as “quite a shock to the local community.  There was a lot of conflict.” Problems included complaints from longtime residents that hippies were dirty, collected welfare and didn't work.  (Maui News)

Nudity was the norm.  The strange newcomers clashed with the establishment and were accused of freeloading and stealing.   (Hurley)

There were two major encampments on Maui. One was in the kiawe scrub behind Oneloa Beach at Makena. The other was “Banana Patch” in Haiku, where a kindhearted landowner allowed the construction of a shanty town.  (Youngblood)

Local Police conducted raids at Banana Patch, as well as Makena and Honolua.  Charges ranged from indecent exposure, trespassing or both.  Sentences were up to 60-days in jail, but would be commuted if the person left Maui immediately.  (Schou)

“The County doesn't like what I'm doing”, said Joseph, who has allowed all comers to live on his land and build their dwellings according to personal taste.

“The County Attorney's office said Joseph was given the opportunity to comply with regulations and Joseph sought to show that the shacks were exempt from the codes because they were built in a farm zone.”

“He took an adamant stand, positive that he was 'doing a good thing,' and his lawyers argued during several hearings in Second Circuit Court that the County was acting against the Banana Patch because it disliked the inhabitants.”  (Honolulu Star-Bulletin; Quayle)

Faced with fines nearing $15,000 and two years in jail on 28 violations of building codes, land use laws and health regulations, Joseph felt it was time to sell.  His public defender attorney, Phil Lowenthal bought the property.

A deal was made between Joseph’s attorneys and the government.  “The deal, Joseph disclosed, involves the dropping of all charges against him if he tears down the Patch homes.”  (Quayle)

After a hepatitis outbreak at Banana Patch, state health workers quarantined the site.  (Schou)  The Patch was closed.  The 25 shacks in the banana patch that were in violation of County regulations were taken down and trees planted in their stead.  (Quayle)

Joseph described the closing of the Banana Patch as “an insane disgrace of political power on the part of the Mayor” and “a blow to freedom” which would “do more harm than good”.

With constant court battles since June, 1969, and personal appearances in court “about four times”, Joseph estimates it ”cost Maui County $100,000 easy” to prosecute the case.  (Quayle)

After leaving the Banana Patch, David Joseph went to live in Kokomo, Maui near Makawao. His Hawaiian wife Hanamaikai, from Hana, had a stroke and passed away.  Joseph passed away on July 6, 1981. (Quayle)  The image shows David Joseph in 1978 (Banana Patch Fantasy Productions.)

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Manaiakalani

A messenger sent by Maui,
Sent to bring Kane and his set,
Kane and Kanaloa, Kauokahi,
And Maliu.
Throwing out sacred influences, uttering prayers,
Consulting oracles, Hapuʻu the god of the king.
The great fish-hook of Maui,
Manaiakalani,
The whole earth was the fish-line bound by the knot
(A Song for Kualiʻi – Kualiʻi was a celebrated chief of Oahu, who reigned in about 1700 AD. (Journal of the Polynesian Society))

The demi-god Māui is the subject of extraordinary stories throughout Polynesia. In many of the accounts he is a mischievous trickster, stealing the secret of fire and helping his mother to dry kapa by lassoing the sun to slow its progression across the sky.  (Bishop Museum)

A Manaiakalani story suggests that Maui pulled up the islands by tricking his brothers into letting him come out to fish with them.

The brothers never took him out because whenever they did he would catch a scrawny little fish.  He said he sought to prove that he is as skilled as they were.

He prepares the sacred hook, baiting it with the wing of the pet bird of the goddess Hina. Māui tells his brothers that once he starts to haul in the catch, not to look back until he is finished.

Māui casts the hook into the water and catches the enormous ulua fish Pimoe.

The brothers strain against the fish and soon parts of Pimoe are above the surface of the water, immediately turning to stone. The brothers cannot resist any longer and turn around to see their catch.

But when they do, the line breaks and rather than one enormous island, Māui, the earth-fisher, is only able to raise up the eight separate Islands of Hawaiʻi.

Another story related to Manaiakalani tells of Māui’s attempt to rearrange the Islands of the group and assemble them into one solid mass.”

“Having chosen his station at Kaʻena Point, the western extremity of Oʻahu, from which the island of Kauai is clearly visible on a bright day, he cast his wonderful hook, Mana-ia-ka-Iani, far out into the ocean that it might engage itself in the foundations of Kauai.”

“When he felt that it had taken a good hold, he gave a mighty tug at the line. A huge boulder, the Pōhaku O Kauai, fell at his feet.”

“The mystic hook, having freed itself from the entanglement, dropped into Pālolo Valley and hollowed out the crater, that is its grave.”  (Manaiakalani, therefore, formed Kaʻau Crater.) (Emerson)

Finally, in frustration, Māui throws his hook into the sky where it becomes a constellation, still easy to see in the spring and summer months, known by Western astronomers as the tail of Scorpio.  (Bishop Museum)

In the Hawaiian sky of Kau (summer season, May to October), Manaiakalani (The Chief's Fishline) is visible for most of the night, just as Ke Ka o Makali‘i (The Canoe- Bailer of Makali'i) is visible for most of the night in the sky of Hoʻoilo (winter season, November to April.)

Like other stars and groups of stars, Manaiakalani is used in celestial navigation as directional clues when they rise and set. On cloudy nights, when only parts of the sky are visible, navigators may recognize isolated stars or star groups and imagine the rest of the celestial sphere around them.  The image shows a depiction of Maui and Manaiakalani.

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Makawao

Makawao (literally ‘forest beginning’) is an ahupuaʻa in Hāmākuapoko, Maui.  It’s an area with both wet and dry forests.

Growing here were koa, sandalwood and ʻōhiʻa lehua; maile and ferns thrived in these forests.  In the drier regions of Makawao, sweet potato was cultivated extensively, as it was in Kula.

The landscape began its transformation following the gift of (and subsequent kapu on killing) cattle and sheep from Vancouver to Kamehameha in 1793.

The cattle numbers increased, in places to the point of becoming a dangerous nuisance.  Roaming wild cattle destroyed gardens, scared the population and were a general nuisance.

Then, on June 21, 1803, Captain William Shaler (with commercial officer Richard Cleveland,) gave Kamehameha a mare and a stallion at Lāhainā.   Soon the horses, like the cattle, were roaming freely across the Islands.

Kamehameha I employed “a varied crew with unsavory reputations who had immigrated to the islands to escape their pasts” as bullock hunters to capture the animals.  (DLNR)  The earliest Hawaiian bullock hunters hunted alone, on foot, and used guns and pit traps.  (Mills)

Most histories credit Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) with the idea of hiring vaqueros to manage the cattle.   Joaquin Armas arrived in Hawai‘i on April 4, 1831 and stayed in Hawai‘i at the bequest of the King.

Armas had grown up in Monterey, where undoubtedly he learned how to rope cattle and process hides.  He and others began working for the Hawaiian monarchy and teaching the Hawaiians their techniques.  (Mills)

Hawaii's cowboys became known as paniolo, a corruption of español, the language the vaquero spoke. The term still refers to cowboys working in the Islands and to the culture their lifestyle spawned.

Missionary Hiram Bingham noted, “several striking exhibitions of seizing wild cattle, chasing them on horseback, and throwing the lasso over their horns, with great certainty, capturing, prostrating, and subduing or killing these mountain-fed animals, struggling in vain for liberty and life.”

By the 1800s, agriculture in the region had transitioned from a subsistence activity to a commercial one.  A market was developed to supply whalers who stopped to replenish their supplies; Upcountry Maui provided vegetables, meat and fruit.

In the early days only sweet potatoes had been obtainable at the Islands, but after 1830, if not sooner, cultivation of the Irish potato was taken up and during the 1840s and 1850s became of great importance.

It was shortly before 1840 that Irish potatoes were first grown in Upcountry, which proved to be so well adapted to them that it soon came to be called the ‘potato district.’ (Kuykendall)

“I had here the first glimpse at the extensive Irish potatoe region. It ranges along the mountain between 2,000 and 5,000 feet elevation, for the distance of 12-miles. The forest is but partially cleared, and the seed put into the rich virgin soil.  The crop now in the ground is immense.”  (Polynesian, July 25, 1846)

Despite claims that “the soil in this area of Maui grows rocks” due to the many areas of exposed bedrock and scattered boulders and gravels in the surrounding fields, crop production expanded exponentially in the first half of the nineteenth century with sweet potato, potatoes, corn, beans and wheat.  (DLNR)

In addition to the changing landscape, there were changes in land tenure.

Kameʻeleihiwa stated that Makawao District was the first area in Hawai‘i to experiment with land sales. In January 1846, land was made available for eventual ownership to the makaʻāinana (commoners.)

Makawao land was reportedly sold for $1-per acre; this would mark the beginning of land grants. Experimental lots purchased by Hawaiians ranged from 5 to 10-acres, with a total land area of approximately 900-acres of grant lands purchased in Makawao.  (DLNR)

Today, Makawao continues the Paniolo tradition and proudly proclaims its community as Paniolo Country.

The community participates in an annual Independence Day rodeo and parade (2015 will be its 50th annual parade and 60th annual rodeo celebrations.)  Likewise, there are regular ‘Makawao Third Fridays on Baldwin Avenue, closed between Brewer Road and Makawao Avenue.

The image shows a street scene in Makawao.  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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Alexander & Baldwin

In 1843, Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of early missionaries to Hawaiʻi, met in Lāhainā, Maui. They grew up together, became close friends and went on to develop a sugar-growing partnership.

Alexander was the idea man, more outgoing and adventurous of the two. He had a gift for raising money to support his business projects.

Baldwin was more reserved and considered the “doer” of the partners; he completed the projects conceived by Alexander.

After studying on the Mainland, Alexander returned to Maui and began teaching at Lahainaluna, where he and his students successfully grew sugar cane and bananas.

Word of the venture spread to the owner of Waiheʻe sugar plantation near Wailuku, and Alexander was offered the manager’s position.

Alexander hired Baldwin as his assistant, who at the time was helping his brother raise sugar cane in Lāhainā. This was the beginning of a lifelong working partnership.

In 1869, the young men – Alexander was 33, Baldwin, 27 – purchased 12-acres of land in Makawao and the following year an additional 559-acres.  That same year, the partners planted sugar cane on their land marking the birth of what would become Alexander & Baldwin (A&B.)

In 1871, they saw the need for a reliable source of water, and to this end undertook the construction of the Hāmākua ditch in 1876.

Although not an engineer, Alexander devised an irrigation system that would bring water from the windward slopes of Haleakala to Central Maui to irrigate 3,000 acres of cane – their own and neighboring plantations.

Baldwin oversaw the Hāmākua Ditch project, known today as East Maui Irrigation Company (the oldest subsidiary of A&B,) and within two years the ditch was complete.

The completed Old Hāmākua Ditch was 17-miles long and had a capacity of 60-million gallons per day.  A second ditch was added, the Spreckels Ditch; when completed, it was 30-miles long with a capacity of 60-million gallons per day.

Before World War I, the New Hāmākua, Koʻolau, New Haiku and Kauhikoa ditches were built. A total of ten ditches were constructed between 1879 and 1923.

Over the next thirty years, the two men became agents for nearly a dozen plantations and expanded their plantation interests by acquiring Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company and Kahului Railroad.

In 1883, Alexander and Baldwin formalized their partnership by incorporating their sugar business as the Paia Plantation also known at various times as Samuel T Alexander & Co, Haleakala Sugar Co and Alexander & Baldwin Plantation.

By spring of 1900, A&B had outgrown its partnership organization and plans were made to incorporate the company, allowing the company to increase capitalization and facilitate expansion.

The Articles of Association and affidavit of the president, secretary and treasurer were filed June 30, 1900 with the treasurer of the Territory of Hawaiʻi. Alexander & Baldwin, Limited became a Hawaiʻi corporation, with its principal office in Honolulu and with a branch office in San Francisco.

Shortly after, in 1904, Samuel Alexander passed away on one of his adventures. While hiking with his daughter to the edge of Victoria Falls, Africa, he was struck by a boulder. Seven years later, Baldwin passed away at the age of 68 from failing health.

After the passing of the founders, Alexander & Baldwin continued to expand their sugar operations by acquiring additional land, developing essential water resources and investing in shipping (Matson) to bring supplies to Hawaii and transport sugar to the US Mainland markets.

A&B was one of Hawaiʻi’s five major companies (that emerged to providing 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 Five.

Hawaiʻi's Big Five were: C Brewer (1826;) A Theo H Davies (1845;) Amfac - starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and Alexander & Baldwin (1870.)

What started off as partnership between two young men, with the purchase of 12 acres in Maui, has grown into a corporation with $2.3 billion in assets, including over 88,000 acres of land.

(In 2012, A&B separated into two stand-alone, publicly traded companies – A&B, focusing on land and agribusiness and Matson, on transportation.)

A&B is the State's fourth largest private landowner, and is one of the State's most active real estate investors.  It’s portfolio includes a diversity of projects throughout Hawaiʻi, and a commercial property portfolio comprising nearly 8-million square feet of leasable space in Hawaiʻi and on the US Mainland.

It is also the owner and operator of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar plantation, the state’s largest farm, with 36,000 acres under cultivation and Hawaiʻi’s sole producer of raw and specialty sugar.  (Information here is from Alexander & Baldwin.)

The image shows the sugar harvesting in the early years.  (A&B)  In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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House of Nobles

The first Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi adopted in 1840 replaced the informal council of chiefs with a formal legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom and cabinet.

The Hawaiian government was a constitutional monarchy comprised of three branches: Executive (Monarch and Cabinet), Legislative (House of Nobles and Representatives) and Judicial (Supreme Court and lower courts).

The King also had a private council - the Privy Council is distinguished from a modern cabinet of the executive; in the monarchical tradition, a Privy Council lent legislative powers to the monarch and served judicial functions.

While the first official record of the Privy Council began in July 1845, the body existed previously as the council of chiefs (the House of Nobles similarly comprised of the members of the council of chiefs.)

Under the leadership of King Kamehameha III, the Privy Council was authorized by the Act to Organize the Executive Ministries on October 29, 1845.  The Kingdom of Hawai`i’s Privy Council was a body comprised of five ministers and the four governors along with other appointed members that served to advise the King.

Kingdom of Hawai‘i Constitution of 1852, Article 49 noted, “There shall continue to be a Council of State for advising the King in the Executive part of the Government, and in directing the affairs of the Kingdom, according to the Constitution and laws of the land, to be called the King's Privy Council of State.”

The Legislative Department of the Kingdom was composed of the House of Nobles and the House of Representatives. The King represented the vested right of the Government class, the House of Nobles were appointed by the King and the House of Representatives were elected by the people.  (puhnawaiola)

The cabinet consisted of a Privy Council (officially formed in 1845) and five powerful government ministers.  Gerrit P Judd was appointed to the most powerful post of Minister of Finance; Lawyer John Ricord was Attorney General; Robert Crichton Wyllie was Minister of Foreign Affairs; William Richards Minister of Public Instruction and Keoni Ana was Minister of the Interior.

Under the 1840 Constitution the Kuhina Nui's (position similar to "Prime Minister" or "Premier") approval was required before the "important business of the Kingdom" could be transacted; the king and the Kuhina Nui had veto power over each other's acts; the Kuhina Nui was to be a special counselor to the king; and laws passed by the legislature had to be approved by both before becoming law. The Kuhina Nui was ex-officio a member of the House of Nobles and of the Supreme Court.  (Gething)

The former council of chiefs became the House of Nobles, roughly modeled on the British House of Lords. Seven elected representatives would be the start of democratic government.

(The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.  It is independent from, and complements the work of, the elected House of Commons – they share responsibility for making laws and checking government action.  Members of the House of Lords are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister.)  (parliament-uk)

The 1840 Hawaiʻi Constitution stated: “House of Nobles. At the present period, these are the persons who shall sit in the government councils, Kamehameha III, Kekāuluohi, Hoapiliwahine, Kuakini, Kekauōnohi, Kahekili, Paki, Konia, Keohokālole, Leleiōhoku, Kekūanāoʻa, Kealiʻiahonui, Kanaʻina, Keoni Ii, Keoni Ana and Haʻalilio.”

“Should any other person be received into the council, it shall be made known by law. These persons shall have part in the councils of the kingdom.”

“No law of the nation shall be passed without their assent. They shall act in the following manner: They shall assemble annually, for the purpose of seeking the welfare of the nation, and establishing laws for the kingdom. Their meetings shall commence in April, at such day and place as the King shall appoint.”

“It shall also be proper for the King to consult with the above persons respecting all the great concerns of the kingdom, in order to promote unanimity and secure the greatest good. They shall moreover transact such other business as the King shall commit to them.”

“They shall still retain their own appropriate lands, whether districts or plantations, or whatever divisions they may be, and they may conduct the business on said lands at their discretion, but not at variance with the laws of the kingdom.”

Members of its companion body, the House of Representatives, were elected by the people, with representatives from each of the major four islands. Proposed laws required majority approval from both the House of Nobles and the House of Representatives, and approval and signature by the King and the Premier.  (Punawaiola)

This body was succeeded by a unicameral legislature in 1864, which also imposed property and literacy requirements for both legislature members and voters; these requirements were repealed in 1874.  (Punawaiola)

That there even was a constitution, plus the basic outline of the government it established, clearly reflected the counsel of the American missionaries. Yet, many of the older Hawaiian traditions remained (ie the concept of the council of chiefs.)  (Gething)

The House of Nobles originally consisted of the king plus five women and ten men (women did not get the right to vote in the US until 1920).  After the overthrow and the subsequent annexation, it was renamed the Senate.

The first meeting of the House of Nobles was on April 1, 1841 in the ‘council house’ at Luaʻehu in Lāhainā.  The image shows Lāhainā at about that time.)

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Haʻikū

It’s melted away;
This Buddha of snow is now
Indeed a true one
(Yamazaki Sokan (1464-1553))

A traditional Haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.

Wait ... that's not what this is about.  However, this is about a place (Haʻikū) at about the time the Haiku above was written.

According to oral tradition, Piʻilani unified the entire island of Maui, bringing together under one rule the formerly-competing eastern (Hāna) and western (Wailuku) multi-district kingdoms of the Island.   In the 1500s, Chief Piʻilani (“stairway to heaven”) ruled in peace and prosperity.

Among other accomplishments, Piʻilani built interconnecting trails.  His son, Kihapiʻilani laid the East Maui section and connected the island.  This trail was the only ancient pathway to encircle any Hawaiian island (not only along the coast, but also up the Kaupō Gap and through the summit area and crater of Haleakalā.)

"Hāmākua Poko (Short Hāmākua) and Hāmākua Loa (Long Hāmākua) are two coastal regions where gently sloping kula lands intersected by small gulches come down to the sea along the northern coast line of East Maui."

"Stream taro was probably planted along the watercourses well up into the higher kula land and forest taro throughout the lower forest zone. The number of very narrow ahupuaʻa thus utilized along the whole of the Hāmākua coast indicates that there must have been a very considerable population."

"This would be despite the fact that it is an area of only moderate precipitation because of being too low to draw rain out of trade winds flowing down the coast from the rugged and wet northeast Koʻolau area that lies beyond."

"It was probably a favorable region for breadfruit, banana, sugar cane, arrowroot; and for yams and ʻawa in the interior. The slopes between gulches were covered with good soil, excellent for sweet-potato planting. The low coast is indented by a number of small bays offering good opportunity for fishing."  (Handy)

At the boundary of Hāmākaupoko and Hāmākualoa (within the Hāmākualoa moku) is the ahupuaʻa of Haʻikū (lit. speak abruptly) and Haʻikū Uka (inland.)

At the time of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), 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.

In the battles between Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kahekili, "Kalaniʻōpuʻu decided to go on to Koʻolau, Maui, where food was abundant.  He went to Kāʻanapali and fed his soldiers upon the taro of Honokahua...."

"At Hāmākualoa Kalaniʻōpuʻu landed and engaged in battle, but Kahekili hastened to the aid of his men, and they put up such a fierce fight that Kalaniʻōpuʻu fled in his canoes. Landing at Koʻolau he slew the common people and maltreated the captives".

Of the wars, it was noted, "Like the fiery petals of the lehua blossoms of Pi‘iholo were the soldiers of Kahekili, red among the leaves of the koa trees of Liliko‘i or as one glimpses them through the kukui trees of Ha‘ikū."   (Kamakau)

During Kamehameha's later conquest of Maui at Wailuku and ʻIao Valley, his canoe fleet landed at various places along the Hāmākua coast.

A notable feature along and through Haʻikū is Maliko Gulch; it apparently had a pre-contact canoe landing at the mouth of the gulch.  (Xamanek)

"Maliko is a place with a good stream, it is also an anchorage for seafaring boats, and there is a wharf on one side. The cliff is quite steep, but the flat lands below, are beautifully adorned with groves of kukui."  (A Journey, 1868; Maly)

By 1858, The Haʻikū Sugar Plantation was formed, at the time, there were only ten sugar companies in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Five of these sugar companies were on the island of Maui, but only two were in operation. The five were: East Maui Plantation at Kaluanui, Brewer Plantation at Hāliʻimaile, LL Torbert and Captain James Makee's plantation at ʻUlupalakua, Hāna and Haʻikū Plantation.

The Haiku Mill, on the east bank of Maliko Gulch, was completed in 1861; 600-acres of cane the company had under cultivation yielded 260 tons of sugar and 32,015 gallons of molasses. Over the years the company procured new equipment for the mill.

Click HERE for a link to a prior post on Haiku Plantation.

(In 1853, the government of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i had set aside much of the adjoining Hāmākuapoko to the Board of Education. The Board of Education deeded the Hāmākuapoko acreage which was unencumbered by native claims to the Trustees of Oʻahu College (Punahou) in 1860, who then sold the land to the Haʻikū Sugar Company (Cultural Surveys))

In 1871 Samuel T Alexander became manager of the mill. Alexander and later his partner, Henry Perrine Baldwin, saw the need for a reliable source of water, and started construction of the Hāmākua ditch in 1876.

With the completion of the ditch, the majority of Haʻikū Plantation's crops were grown on the west side of Maliko gulch. As a result in 1879 Haʻikū mill was abandoned and its operations were transferred to Hāmākuapoko where a new factory was erected, which had more convenient access to the new sugar fields.

Other ditches were later added to the system, with five ditches at different levels used to convey the water to the cane fields on the isthmus of Maui. In order of elevation they are Haʻikū, Lowrie, Old Hāmākua, New Hāmākua, and Kailuanui ditches.   (They became part of the East Maui Irrigation system.)

Click HERE for a link to a prior post on East Maui Irrigation.

Although two missionaries (Richard Armstrong and Amos Cooke) established the Haʻikū Sugar Company in 1858, its commercial success was due to a second-generation missionary descendant, Henry Perrine Baldwin. In 1877, Baldwin constructed a sugar mill on the west side of Maliko Gulch, named the Hāmākuapoko Mill.

By 1880, the Haiku Sugar Company was milling and bagging raw sugar at Hāmākuapoko for shipment out of Kuau Landing. The Kuau Landing was abandoned in favor of the newly-completed Kahului Railroad line in 1881, with all regional sugar sent then by rail to the port of Kahului.

Brothers Henry Perrine and David Dwight Baldwin laid the foundation for the company in the late-1800s through the acquisition of land.  Experimentation with hala kahiki (pineapple) began in 1890, when the first fruit was planted in Haʻikū.

In 1903 the Baldwin brothers formed Haʻikū Fruit & Packing Company, launching the pineapple industry on Maui.  Maui’s first pineapple cannery began operations by 1904, with the construction of a can-making plant and a cannery in Haʻikū.

1,400 cases of pineapple were packed during the initial run. In time, the independent farmers for miles around brought their fruit there to be processed.

Haʻikū Plantation remained in operation until 1905 when it merged with Pāʻia Plantation, to form Maui Agricultural Company. (In 1948, Maui Agricultural Company merged with HC&S (Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company.))

At the outbreak of WWII, the Army rented 1,600-acres from various landowners in the Haʻikū area.  Buildings went up for offices, tents for living quarters; mess halls were constructed and roads carved out. Post Exchanges opened up; movie screens and stages were built and baseball diamonds were laid out.

The 4th Marine Division was deactivated November 28, 1945.  In April 1946, the Camp Maui land was returned to the owners.  Today, the grounds are now a public park named “Kalapukua Playground” (“magical playground”;) Giggle Hill has a large children's playground (and some claim they can still hear the laughter of Marines and their girlfriends on dark nights.)  The centerpiece of the park is the memorial to the Fourth Marine Division.

Click HERE for a link to a prior post on Camp Maui.

The image shows the ahupuaʻa of Haʻikū, over Google Earth)    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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Dwight Baldwin

Dwight Baldwin was born on September 29, 1798 to Seth Baldwin (1775 –1832,) (a framer) and Rhoda Hull Baldwin in Durham, Connecticut, and moved to Durham, New York, in 1804. His father, He was the second of 12 children.  (Baldwin Genealogy)

He was employed with his father on the farm, enjoying the benefits of the common school, and generally in winter of a select school, till the age of sixteen. In the fall of 1814, he commenced the study of Latin, with a view to prepare for College.

The last of his teachers being a graduate of Williams College, he was induced to enter at Williams, where he spent two years; and then he left Williams and entered Yale College, where he graduated in September, 1821.

By the recommendation of President Day, the next two years he was employed as Principal of the Academy in Kingston, Ulster County, NY. A third year was spent in teaching a select school in Catskill, Greene county. He then devoted himself to the study of medicine, at the same time teaching a select school in Durham, NY.

Then, he got caught in the religious fervor; about the first of March, 1826, he found relief in believing in an Almighty Redeemer, a hope which has never forsaken him. Religion became the all-absorbing subject of his thought by day and by night.  (Baldwin Genealogy)

He soon came to the decision to join a mission, and September 3, of that year, he united with the Congregational Church in Durham, NY, and soon after he entered the Theological Seminary at Auburn, where he spent three years, offering his services into the American Board of Boston for a Foreign Mission … and they were accepted.

He did not have time to await official recognition of his medical degree so at direction of the Prudential Committee he took his diploma as Master of Science.  He was ordained at Utica, NY on October 6, 1830.

He was introduced by a friend to Charlotte Fowler, daughter of Deacon Solomon Fowler of North Branford, Connecticut, and a few weeks later was married to her on December 3, 1830. Twenty-five days later they set sail with the Fourth Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi on the ship ‘New England;’ he arrived at Honolulu, June 7, 1831.  (Baldwin)

Soon after their arrival, the Missionaries were assigned to different stations over the group, wherever there seemed to be the greatest opportunity of doing good.  After a few months in Honolulu he was assigned to help Lorenzo Lyons in Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island. He remained there three years, from 1832 to 1835.  (The Friend, December 1922)

In 1835, ill health caused Baldwin to leave Waimea and seek recovery in the Society Islands. “Such was the opinion of all I consulted at Honolulu, & though I could preach & attend to other duties, & it was trying to part with my dear family, yet I was afraid I might hereafter repent, should I not go; so I came to the conclusion to go.”  (Baldwin, November 20, 1835)

“We sailed from Honolulu the 14th of July (1835) ... We anchored at Papeete bay, on the NW side of Tahiti, in just one month from the time we sailed. ... During the ten days we were at Tahiti, I did all I could, to visit the several stations”.  (Baldwin)

“From Tahiti we sailed to Huahine, (then) we set sail for these islands. We were favored with good winds & in 20 days saw Hawaii ... I landed Sept. 20th thankful at finding wife & little ones safe & well.”  (While he was in Tahiti, his family had settled into their new home at Lāhainā.)  (Baldwin, November 20, 1835)

The Lāhainā mission was started in 1823; William Richards had been pastor for 13-years.  Lāhainā was then the favorite Royal Center of the King, and nearly all the high Chiefs of the Islands; it was the Kingdom’s capital (from the 1820s through the mid-1840s.)

It was also a thriving harbor in those days, being a port of call for the whale ships which sometimes filled the bay so full that one could jump from one deck to another.

Father and Mother Baldwin as they were often called, opened their home to all. Officers and masters of ships were the recipients of their wholehearted hospitality. Dr. Baldwin was physician for the mission families, and the government physician for Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi.  (The Friend, December 1922)

“A barrel of whale oil furnished light for a year.  The flour brought by the missionary steamer Morning Star came once a year and several times it had been so wetted in the storms off Cape Horn that it had hardened and it was necessary to chisel off the daily measure for cooking.”

“Vegetables, however, grew in their own garden and there was an abundance of fruit, such as bananas, grapes, and watermelons, and one does not hear that they suffered from their poverty.”  (Baldwin)

Baldwin preached at the Waine‘e Church (“Moving Water;”) the cornerstone was laid on September 14, 1828, for this ‘first stone meeting-house built at the Islands,’  It was dedicated on March 4, 1832.  The Hawaiian royalty attended services there.

(After fire destroyed the church in 1894, Baldwin’s son, Henry Perrine Baldwin, helped fund its restoration. Damaged and restored several times, the Church finally changed its name from Waine‘e Church, to Waiola Church (“Water of Life”) in 1954, and has safely-stood since.)

A series of epidemics swept through the Hawaiian Islands in the 1840s, whooping cough and measles, soon after followed by waves of dysentery and influenza; then, in 1853, a terrible smallpox epidemic. Although precise counts are not known, there were thousands of smallpox deaths on O‘ahu; Baldwin is credited with keeping the toll to only a few hundred on Maui.

“My journal has been long laid aside - not because I have not had thousands of things to record but mainly because press of cares has left little leisure to record what is passing in & what we are engaged. ... 1853 was wonderfully taken up with our war with small pox on the islands.”  (Baldwin, October 8, 1854)

“(Baldwin) was constant in his ministrations, taxing his strength almost to its limit. He was obliged to cross the channel to Molokai and Lanai often when the weather was very stormy, and too, very dangerous.”

“He never hesitated for a moment when the call came, night or day, but hurried on with his little bag, stepped into a double canoe and was off to Lanai and from there he took a whaleboat to Molokai. It was not unusual for Dr. Baldwin to take a trip of 80 or 90 miles on horseback to visit patients in Hana.”  (The Friend, December 1922)

In 1856 the health of Father Baldwin, who had worked thirty-six years without a vacation, failed and the “American Board” granted him a year's leave of absence. He and his wife left the Islands for a year's visit in “the states.”  (Baldwin)

In 1859 Baldwin belatedly received an honorary medical degree from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Without having this he had suffered much embarrassment at the hands of the medical society of Honolulu who, despite the fact that he had been combining an exhausting medical practice for 27-years with his ministry, would not recognize him with a medical license unless he could produce documentary evidence of his medical degree. (HMCS)

It was with regret that Baldwin resigned his pastorate at Lāhainā, in September, 1868.  That year Father Baldwin became associated with Reverend Benjamin Parker in the conduct of the native Theological Seminary at Honolulu; the Baldwins moved to Honolulu in 1870.

Mother Baldwin died on October 2, 1873; the inscription on her tombstone reads, “A life of work, love and prayer;” Dwight Baldwin died on January 3, 1886.

The Baldwins had eight children: David Dwight (1831–1912), Abigail Charlotte (1833–1913), Charles Fowler (1837–1891), Henry Perrine (1842–1911), Emily Sophronia (1844–1891) and Harriet Melinda (1846–1932). A daughter, Mary Clark died at about 2½ years of age in 1838; a son, Douglas Hoapili, died at almost 3 in 1843.

The Baldwin’s coral and stone Lāhainā Home, Baldwin House, is the oldest house in Lāhainā (completed in 1835.)  It is now home to Lāhainā Restoration Foundation; they oversee and maintain 11 major historic structures in Lāhainā and provide tours of the Baldwin House.  (Lots of information here from Baldwin Journals, Baldwin Genealogy and Mission Houses.)

The image shows Dwight Baldwin.  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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Kūkaʻemoku

Maui is the second largest of the Hawaiian Islands, and covers about 730 square miles.  Maui consists of two separate volcanoes with a combining isthmus between the two.

The Mauna Kahālāwai (West Maui Mountain) is probably the older of the two; Haleakala (East Maui) was last active about 1790, whereas activity on West Maui is wholly pre-historic.

The West Maui Mountain’s highest peak, Puʻu Kukui, towers 5,788-feet; it is one of the wettest spots on earth (average yearly rainfall at the rain gage since 1928 is about 364-inches.)  The rain carved out valleys on either side, one of these, ʻĪao Valley ("cloud supreme,") has a narrow entrance facing toward Wailuku that opens into a much larger expanse in the back.

For centuries, high chiefs and navigators from across the archipelago were buried in secret, difficult-to-access sites in the valley’s steep walls.

ʻĪao valley in the West Maui Mountain is the first place mentioned in the historical legends as a place for the secret burial of high chiefs. Kapawa, the ruling chief of Hawaiʻi about 25-30 generations ago, was overthrown by his people, assisted, perhaps, by Pāʻao.  (Westervelt)

His body was said to have been taken to ʻĪao and concealed in one of the caves of that picturesque extinct crater. From that time apparently this valley became a "hallowed burying place for ancient chiefs."  (Westervelt)

For centuries, aliʻi (chiefs) were laid to rest in secret burial sites along the valley's steep walls. The practice of burying aliʻi in the valley began in the eighth century and reportedly continued until 1736, with the burial of King Kekaulike.

Commoners were not permitted into ʻĪao, except during the annual Makahiki festival, which was held on the grassy plateau above the Needle.

Then, in the late-1780s into 1790, Kamehameha conquered the Island of Hawai‘i and was pursuing conquest of Maui and eventually sought to conquer the rest of the archipelago.  At that time, Maui’s King Kahekili and his eldest son and heir-apparent, Kalanikūpule, were carrying on war and conquered O‘ahu.

In 1790, Kamehameha travelled to Maui.  Hearing this, Kahekili sent Kalanikūpule back to Maui with a number of chiefs (Kahekili remained on O‘ahu to maintain order of his newly conquered kingdom.)

“Kamehameha marched overland to Hāna. His army is said to have contained 16,000 men. Nelson's famous exhortation to his men at Trafalgar (1805) fifteen years later was: "England expects every man this day to do his duty," but Kamehameha's command to his battle-scarred veterans was: "Imua e nā pōkiʻi a inu i ka wai ʻawaʻawa" (Onward brothers until you taste the bitter waters of battle.)”   (Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

After a battle in Hāna, Kamehameha landed at Kahului and then marched on to Wailuku, where Kalanikūpule waited for him.  The ensuing battle was one of the hardest contested on Hawaiian record.  The battle started in Wailuku and then headed up ‘l̄ao Valley – the Maui defenders being continually driven farther up the valley.

Kamehameha ordered his army to advance, the Maui army met the invaders, but the Maui defenders were so powerless in the face of musketry that they retreated up the valley with the Kamehameha army following them.

Kamehameha's superiority in the number and use of the newly acquired weapons and canon (called Lopaka) from the ‘Fair American’ (used for the first time in battle, with the assistance from John Young and Isaac Davis) finally won the decisive battle at ‘Īao Valley.

The Maui troops were completely annihilated, and it is said that the corpses of the slain were so many as to choke up the waters of the stream of ‘l̄ao - one of the names of the battle was "Kepaniwai" (the damming of the waters.)  Kalanikūpule fled.

Kamehameha left for Moloka‘i to secure it under his control, and there received Keōpūolani as his wife.  Then, in 1795, Kamehameha moved on in his conquest of O‘ahu, meeting and defeating Kalanikūpule, at Nuʻuanu.

Visiting Wyoming Senator Clark once declared ʻĪao Valley to be the Yosemite of Hawaiʻi. “These words of adulation were not inspired by momentary flattery, for many others who have feasted their eyes on that famous place, thousands of miles away, were also of the same opinion.”    (Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

“In order to properly understand the significance of the Yosemite Valley or any of the well-traveled picturesque places of the mainland, there is always some historical fact attached to give added interest.”

“We all know that the Yosemite is named after an enormous grizzly bear who made his last stand against the Indians in the fastnesses about the celebrated falls. And so it is in Hawaiʻi, nearly every one of the beautiful and sometimes overpowering pieces of scenery is associated with some historical fact that gives food for thought.“ (Overland Monthly, July 1909)

A hundred years ago, visitors had the opportunity to travel to the back of the ʻĪao, “After leaving the needle, the traveler crosses the stream, and up the narrow, winding path leading to the plateau several hundred feet above. This table land is called Kaalaholo. Around its entire base gently flows streams of pure, crystal-like, mountain water.”

“When the top is reached the visitor views a scene so grand, inspiring and majestic that its equal cannot be found within the bounds of the Hawaiian Islands. It is beautiful beyond comparison.”

“Imagine oneself standing at the bottom of a huge basin four miles wide and about five miles long, and looking up with awe at the crest of the Iao mountains above, rising to a height of five thousand feet. The circumference of the ridges which encompass Iao Canyons is about twenty miles.”

“They rise up perpendicular all around and are inaccessible except in a few places. And from the summits of these tall, lofty precipices, called "Palilele-o-Koae," or the home of the seabirds, play myriads of tiny waterfalls in mid-air, which as they reach the bottom, form part of the mighty stream.”    (Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

From the present viewing area within the State Monument at ʻĪao (and in all the photos showing the valley,) you can see Kūkaʻemoku (more commonly called ‘Iao Needle.)  From this perspective, Kūkaʻemoku appears to stick up from the valley floor like a ‘needle,’ thus its modern name.

Actually, what people see is a bump on a side-ridge on the right-side of ʻIao Valley with a large protrusion that sticks up on top; it stands about 1,200-feet tall.  It looks like a ‘needle’ of rock, but really isn’t (it’s part of the ridge.)

The Valley and volcanic rocks within it were selected to serve as a National Natural Landmark (1972.)  It also serves as a Hawaiʻi
Monument operated under DLNR’s State Parks system.  It is at the end of ‘Īao Valley Road (Highway 32.)  Free parking for Hawai‘i residents, $5 per car for others (open 7 am to 7 pm.)

The photos show Kūkaʻemoku (“ʻĪao Needle”) – the viewing area perspective and a bit of a side view (alexinwanderland.)  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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Tauʻā

William Ellis (August 24, 1794 – 1872) applied to train as a Christian missionary for the London Missionary Society and was accepted to the school.  After attending Homerton College he was ordained in 1815; later that year, he married Mary Mercy Moor (November 9, 1815.)  He served the London Mission in the Society Islands, Hawaiian Islands and Madagascar.

From 1816, when he first entered on his missionary career, until 1825, he devoted himself to “service of the Lord as a missionary” among the South Pacific Islands.

“It was the morning of the Sabbath when we embarked.  Our friends in Gosport were preparing to attend public worship, when we heard the report of a signal-gun. The sound excited a train of feeling, which can be understood only by those who have been placed in similar circumstances. It was a report announcing the arrival of that moment which was to separate, perhaps for ever, from home and all its endearments, and rend asunder every band which friendship and affection had entwined around the heart.”  (Ellis on departing for the South Pacific)

First landing in Eimeo (Moorea,) and travelling throughout the area, he served the London Mission for the next 6-years in the Society Islands (so named by Captain James Cook in honor of the ‘Royal Society,’ “as they lay contiguous to one another.”)

After an initial brief visit in 1822 to Hawaiʻi, arrangement were made between the American Board of Commissions for Foreign Mission, London Missionary Society and local chiefs, Ellis returned to Hawaiʻi to join the American mission there.

On April 16, 1822, the schooner Mermaid, arrived at Honolulu from Tahiti; on board were Ellis, other English missionaries and Auna and Matatore, Tahitian chiefs and teachers. After providing support for a few months to the American missionaries in the Islands, they returned to Tahiti, giving up their original plan of visiting the Marquesas Islands.

February 4, 1823, Ellis returned to the Islands, bringing his wife with him as well as Tahitian teachers, including Tauʻā. (Ellis remained at this time for about eighteen months; then returned to England, with his family.)

Tauʻā, originally known as Matapuupuu, was born in about 1792 and was by birth a raʻatira or landowner.  He had been a principal Arioi (secret religious order of the Society Islands,) and succeeded his elder brother as chief priest of Huahine.  (Gunson)

In August 1813 he joined John Davies’s school at Papetoʻai, and later accompanied Ellis to Huahine, where he became a prominent church member and was appointed deacon. He was also appointed first Secretary of the Huahinean Missionary Society.  His speeches at prayer meetings and May meetings were reported with some pride.  (Gunson)

Shortly after Ellis and Tauʻā arrived in Hawaiʻi, the Second Company of American missionaries arrived, bringing the Reverend William Richards and the Reverend Charles Stewart (April 1823.)

About this time, Queen Mother Keōpūolani (mother of Kamehameha II and III) began to accept many western ways.  She wore western clothes, she introduced western furniture into her house and she took instruction in Christianity.

But her health began to fail, and she decided to move her household from the pressures of the court circle in Honolulu to the tranquility of Waikīkī. With her she took Hoapili (her husband) and Nahiʻenaʻena (her daughter.)

Each Sunday the missionaries walked across the hot plain from Honolulu to Waikīkī to hold divine service and to instruct the Queen Mother in Christian doctrine. Keōpūolani decided, however, that these Sunday meetings did not suffice; she asked that a religious instructor be attached to her household. Her choice was Tauʻā; the mission approved.  (Sinclair)

In May of 1823, Keōpūolani decided to make her last move, this time back to the island of her birth, Maui.  She chose Lāhainā, with its warm and sunny climate - another place traditionally a favorite with the chiefs.  (Sinclair)

Before leaving, Keōpūolani requested the Americans to assign teachers to go with her. She wanted a mission established in Lāhainā, and further instruction in reading and writing for herself; she also wished to have a man of God to pray with her. The Honolulu mission selected Charles Stewart and William Richards to accompany the queen.  (Sinclair)

Immediately on their arrival in Lāhainā, she requested them to commence teaching, and also said, “It is very proper that my sons (meaning the missionaries) be present with me at morning and evening prayers.”

They were always present, and sung a hymn in the Hawaiian language.  Often in conversation she would introduce the subject which had been discussed, and ask important questions respecting it.  (Memoir of Keōpūolani)

She became more attentive to the Gospel as she was resting. It was Tauʻā who became the teacher she relied on as perhaps they were able to converse with each other in the Polynesian language.  (Mookini)

Tauʻā proved a faithful teacher, and he did much to establish her in the Christian faith.  He answered several of her questions on the subject of Christianity.

She said to Tauʻā, “My heart is much afraid I shall never become a Christian.” He replied, “Why, what is in the way?”  She said, “I think I am likely to die soon.”  He replied, “Do you not love God?” She answered, “O yes, I love - I love him very much.”  Tauʻā then communicated farther instruction to her. At the close of the conversation she said, “Your word, I know, is true.  It is a good word; and now I have found, I have obtained a Saviour, and a good King, Jesus Christ.”

She asked him for advice about her having two husbands (at the time she was married to Kalanimōku and Hoapili.) Tauʻā  answered: “It is proper for a woman to have one husband, man to have one wife.”   She then said: “I have followed the custom of Hawaiʻi, in taking two husbands in the time of our dark hearts. I wish now to obey Christ and to walk in the right way. It is wrong to have two husbands and I desire but one. Hoapili is my husband, hereafter my only husband.”  (Memoir of Keōpūolani)

To Kalanimōku she said: “I have renounced our ancient customs, the religion of wooden images, and have turned to the new religion of Jesus Christ. He is my King and my Savior, and him I desire to obey. I can have but one husband. Your living with me is at an end. No more are you to eat with my people or lodge in my house.”  (Mookini)

She was asked, “How do you feel, as you are about leaving the world?”  She answered, “I remember what my teachers told me.  I pray much to Jesus Christ to be with me and take me to himself.  I am now about to leave my three children, my people and my teachers.  But it is not dark now.  It would have been, had I died before these good times.  You must pray for me, and all the missionaries must pray for me. I love you. I love them. I think I love Jesus Christ, and I trust he will receive me.”  (Memoir of Keōpūolani)

In Keōpūolani’s earnest inquiries after truth, and the increasing experience of its power on the heart, Mrs. Ellis had, in common with other members of the Mission, ever taken a lively interest, and she shared with her companions at Lāhainā in the hallowed joy which was felt by the growing meetness for heaven which the first convert in Hawaiʻi had manifested, as the signs of her approaching dissolution became more frequent and decisive.  (Mary Mercy Ellis Memoir)

In the presence of the royal family and the chiefs, Ellis delivered a short address to explain the meaning of baptism; he sprinkled Keōpūolani with water in the name of God - Ellis administered the rite of baptism to Keōpūolani. She had earlier chosen Harriet, the name of Mrs. Stewart, to be her baptismal name.  (Sinclair)

The King (Liholiho, her son) and all the heads of the nation listened with the most profound attention, and when they saw that water was sprinkled on her in the name of God, they said, “Surely she is no longer ours, she formerly gave herself to Jesus Christ.  We believe she is his, and will go to dwell with him.”  (Memoir of Keōpūolani)

The ceremony was performed at five in the afternoon of September 16, 1823; at six o'clock the Queen was dead.

The funeral ceremonies, after the Christian manner, were held two days later with chiefs, missionaries and foreigners surrounding the corpse. (Mookini)

It was a season of much spiritual enjoyment to all present, it was peculiarly solemn and impressive; especially from the number of native chiefs and others who were present, some of whom were among the most earnest inquirers after truth, and all of whom seemed much affected, and anxious to ask the meaning of an observance to them so new and strange.  (Mary Mercy Ellis Memoir)

After her death, Tauʻā joined the household of Hoapilikane and remained with that chief until his death in 1840. He then joined the household of Hoapiliwahine.  (Tauʻā died in about 1885.)

The image shows the initial burial tomb for Keōpūolani; she was later reburied there in Waineʻe Church cemetery (now known as Waiola Church) in Lāhainā.

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US Marine Hospital

“Lāhainā (anciently called Lele, from the short stay of Chiefs there) is pleasantly located on the western shore of West Maui … It may be considered as the second port of the Hawaiian Islands, as, next to Honolulu, it is most generally frequented by the whaling fleet which touch at the islands in the spring and fall for recruits and refreshments.”

“This town was selected by Kamehameha III and his chiefs to lie the seat of government of the group … It has two churches, a hospital, a “palace,” which from the anchorage looms up and appears a stately building … There are three ship chandlery stores, some fifteen retail stores, and three practicing physicians.”  (The Friend, April 30, 1857)

“As near as we can ascertain, the first whale ships that visited these islands and touched at this port were the “Bellina,’ Capt, Gardner, and (unknown) Capt. Worth, which was some where about 1819.”

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between the continent and Japan whaling grounds brought many whaling ships to the Islands.  Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

Several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour ‘on Japan,’ ‘on the Northwest’ or into the Arctic.   (Thrum)

Between the 1820s and the 1860s, the Lāhainā Roadstead was the principal anchorage of the American Pacific whaling fleet.  During that time, up to 1,500 sailors at a time were on the streets of the small town.

One reason why so many whalers preferred Lāhainā to other ports was that by anchoring in a roadstead from half a mile to a mile from shore they could control their crews better than when in a harbor.

“To whale ships no port at the islands offers better facilities for all their business (with the exception of heavy repairs) than does Lāhainā.  As it is on this island, and but a short distance that the extensive potato fields are located that have furnished an almost inexhaustible supply … and fine herds of cattle …”    (The Friend, April 30, 1857)

About this same time (1831,) Joaquin Armas came to Islands from Mexico (California) to catch cattle for Kamehameha III.  His later reward for years of service to the King was several parcels of land, including a site in Lāhainā.  (Pyle)

It is suggested that in 1833 Kamehameha III commissioned the construction of a two-story stone building on a property left to Armas, about a mile from the central core of Lāhainā, to serve as a store and inn to cater to visiting sailors.  (Lāhainā Restoration Foundation)

During Armas’ occupation, on January 24, 1841, the first Catholic mass on Maui was celebrated in the house.  (Bergin)  Armas left the Islands in 1844.

On February 4, 1844, Milo Calkin was appointed US Vice Commercial Agent for the port of Lāhainā by William Hooper, acting United States Commercial Agent.  One of his duties was to arrange for medical care for sick sailors.

In the beginning, sick and destitute sailors were being boarded out at some private establishment and being given medical care by a physician hired by the Agent.  Calkin soon requested the ability to contract for a hospital to attend to the growing numbers.  (HABS)

By August 1844, the US Marine Hospital was opened on the Armas site.  Back then, the hospital business was divided into three major sections. The Commercial Agent (Calkin was the first) was responsible for recommending seamen to the hospital, keeping necessary papers and books, and handling the financial transactions.

A physician of the hospital (the first in Lāhainā was Dr Charles Winslow) had a contract with the US States Government which guaranteed him exclusive treatment of American seamen at US expense.

The third person involved in the hospital management was the purveyor (the first at Lāhainā was John Munn,) supplying food, clothing, shelter, maid service, laundry service and assorted other necessities.  All of these services were charged to the US government.  (Pyle)

The hospital (sometimes referred to as the ‘Seamen’s Hospital’) continued until 1862.  A couple things caused it to close – (1) demand was dwindling (in 1859, an oil well was discovered and developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania; within a few years this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry) and (2) a festering scandal surfaced accusing misuse of government funds.

Part of the scandal started with some questions about the exorbitant amounts charged by Dr Winslow.  Winslow evidently made his fortune in Lāhainā and left.  In a November 19, 1847 letter (Rev Baldwin to EB Robinson, “…. tomorrow morning they (Winslow) embark … for the U. States. Dr. W. came out four years since from Nantucket—has had the Seamenʻs hospital here and other practices who have probably yielded him $20,000 or more, and now feels rich enough to go home.”

Calkin was not only Commercial Agent, he was a successful ship chandler; however, he abruptly dissolved his business in February, 1846 and departed from Hawaiʻi in November of that same year.  “It seems unlikely that Calkin was actually involved in the fraud, but he must have known about it.”  (Pyle)

After Charles Bunker of Massachusetts arrived as US consul to Lāhainā in 1850 (which had recently been elevated to a Consulate from an Agent) costs at the consulate skyrocketed. By 1852, officials at the Treasury Department had become suspicious. The costs to care for seamen at Lāhainā were nearly double per person than those in Honolulu.  (US Archives)

The situation continued for a few more years, but when the total amount spent for the hospitals in Honolulu, Lāhainā and Hilo reached more than $150,000 per year, an investigation was demanded by the Treasury Department.

US Commissioner in Hawaii, James W Borden, investigated the workings of the United States hospital and consular system in Honolulu, Lāhainā and Hilo.

In part, Borden reported, “A careful examination of the evidence will, I believe, satisfy you that the Physician as well as the Purveyor, in this respect, and also in that of obtaining from the seamen blank receipts, have been engaged in defrauding the Government, and I have therefore no hesitation in recommending the removal of them both …” (Borden, April 27, 1860; US Archives)

“It is a notorious fact that … many of our citizens deprecated the system which has been so long pursued by the consuls in the expenditures of the fund so wisely appropriated by Congress for the relief of sick and disabled American seamen, and the exaction of illegal fees and unjust charges from the seamen…”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 28, 1861)

“The testimony disclosed the long mooted fact, that the consulates of Honolulu and Lāhainā have a large patronage and that therefore the temptation to illegal practices is consequently very great; that the offices of physician and purveyor, highly lucrative positions …”

“…they possessed power to embarrass the operations of the merchants and shipmasters … therefore, the corrupt and unwarranted practices of the consuls has been heretofore winked at by them…”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 28, 1861)

The US Marine Hospital (Seamen’s Hospital) in Lāhainā officially closed on September 10, 1862.

In 1865 the Anglican sisters founded St. Cross School for Girls at the Marine Hospital premises, at first leasing the property and finally purchasing it in 1872. The Sisterhood opened a similar school - St Andrew's Priory – on May 30, 1867.  The Lāhainā school continued to operate until 1877.

After the school closed, the building was used for many years as a vicarage for the Anglican ministers and was later exchanged with Bishop Estate for another piece of property in 1909.  (HABS)  It has also been used as a private home and a meeting room for civic groups. Today, the property is leased for business use.  (Lāhainā Restoration Foundation)

The image shows the US Marine Hospital (Seamen’s Hospital.) (National Library Of Medicine)  In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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