A Glimpse into Old Hawaii
By Christine Hitt
March 8, 2010
I found this photo in the 1921 Paradise of the Pacific pages. It is not dated or does it explain where it was taken, but I assume that it was taken within the same year. Although many westerners were moving in during this time, it was still common to see Hawaiian communities living as they had centuries before. And many Hawaiians before and during this time are being moved to locations outside of Waikiki into rural areas. One of my favorite photos yet.
Photo: Courtesy Paradise of the Pacific
It Was Called Kaupo
By Christine Hitt
February 25, 2010
While looking through the 1921 archives of Paradise of the Pacific, I ran across an article by George Mellen titled “Deserted, Nameless and Forgotten.” It was about a deserted village that he had run across by foot between Makapuu and Waimanalo—there was no automobile access through this area at the time.
The picture shows ruined walls of dwellings and compounds and two parallel lines of the sole remaining section of the “ancient King’s Highway,” as it was called in Mellen’s time. He also mentions finding a graveyard and heiau. Can you figure out where this is at? Answer: It’s the parcel of land where Sea Life Park now resides and has been since 1964.
Many of the old walls are overgrown with vines and bushes.
Mellen wrote a follow-up article to his 1921 story in 1922 after he found out more information about the land in an article titled “It Was Called Kaupo.” Below are some excerpts of what he learned of the land from a Hawaiian man named A. D. Toomey, a keeper of the “Diamond Head Light”:
“’That old village has a wonderful history,’ Toomey began. ‘I got it from a very old Hawaiian man—he’s dead now—who was born there more than a hundred years ago. He was the last survivor of the once populous community which included Awawawawamalu on the Koko Head side, where the old man lived in one of the ruined huts on which he had patched a roof of drift wood and old tin as the original grass thatch yielded to the tooth of time and disappeared. He told me of the lively, but reasonably peaceful, times at Kaupo—which was the name of the village on the Waimanalo side which you mention—and at Awawawawamalu when he was a youngster; its history prior to that as it came to him from his elders.
“‘You may perhaps wonder why a village ever existed at Kaupo. There is no land there for taro, and no water except what may be caught from the infrequent rains. Yet Kaupo was a busy and important town because it was the port at which all canoes coming from Molokai, Maui, Lanai and Hawaii landed. They never came to Honolulu, but discharged their freight and passengers at Kaupo. Transportation from there to Honolulu was over land. It was for that purpose the wide, paved road was built, some portions of which remain in good repair today. You surmise it was built by Kamehameha. It was repaired by him, but built many years before his time—how long ago none may say.
Where this great cliff meets the sea marks the end of the automobile road to Kaupo.
Mellen goes on to explain the meaning of the name Kaupo by Toomey:
“’He [Toomey] couldn’t put it into one word, but he said it signified ‘the unknown.’ Kau, in this sense means a shelf or recess, and po means night. So Kaupo literally means the ‘Shelf of Night.’ It was by no means certain, he said, that when a party left Maui for Oahu—which was then known as Kakuhihiwa—he might ever return to the bosom of his family. Landing at Kaupo usually meant battle, principally with bands of robbers who laid in wait along the road to Honolulu, and no citizen of another island was foolish to attempt a landing on these shores without plenty of company.’”
And, Mellen continues in the article to tell Toomey’s family story about the day Kamehameha’s army came to Oahu:
“..on one of those crystal clear mornings which bring Molokai so close that one can make out the white line of its surf, the lookout on Makapuu saw a great brown patch detach itself from the headlands [of Molokai] and float slowly towards Oahu… In due time, he found out. The patch was composed of canoes…. Maui was apparently moving to Oahu lock, stock and barrel. Racing down the trail from the station, the lookout reported that all the canoes in the world were approaching. The mayor of Kaupo thought the lookout was exaggerating, and told him so, but lost no time in appointing a reception committee in case its services were required…
According to our centenarian’s report, which came to him from one who officiated at the reception and lived to tell the tale because a stone from a Maui sling put him sufficiently out of business to be not included in the mopping up proceedings, the battle was neither long nor elaborate, albeit quite thorough. He came to, in time to view the hordes of the conqueror swarming over the trail toward Honolulu. But not till after the warriors of Oahu had been driven up the Nuuanu Valley and over the knife edge cliff of the Pali… This all happened 126 years ago.”
A Man Named Kiaaina
BY Christine Hitt
February 19, 2010
I found this profile in the December 1920, Paradise of the Pacific (now HONOLULU Magazine) pages, so I thought I’d share it:
Here is the real Grand Old Man of the Hawaiian Islands, Kiaaina by name.
He was born on the island of Kauai a long, long time ago–so long ago indeed that he first saw the light two years before the earliest missionaries landed at Kailua, 200 miles away. Kiaaina grew up during the days when old Hawaii was passing from its unsettled state to the adoption of Christianity and rapid progress, and his life is contemporary with that of the successive monarchs who reigned over a united Hawaii, from the great Kamehameha the First down to the last loved occupant of the throne, Liliuokalani.
Look at the rugged deeply lined face of this man as he pulls contentedly at his beloved pipe! Think of the sights he has witnessed and the wondrous changes he has seen during his long lifetime! Do you realize that he is one hundred and two years of age and was a grown man when many of the most venerable figures that grace our islands were fretful babes, restlessly crying in their cradles? In his boyhood days the islands were still primitive, and though rapidly disappearing, the ancient beliefs in the gods and in the tabu system were still rife. Kiaaina is bent and stopped today and perhaps his dim eyes are looking into the future when he shall be once more with those many mighty ones who have passed onward into the shadows.
Sometimes he is in a reminiscent mood, and then from his lips will flow full many a wondrous tale of the days of the early monarchies–history commingled with legend–fiction and fact inextricably mingled together but cunningly word-painted by this old man. It is a rare privilege to talk with him for he is one of the few remaining links with the past and in him there is true greatness.
Kiaaina–the Paradise greets you with Aloha.
Native Hawaiian Fellowships for Scholars
BY Christine Hitt
February 1, 2010
The Kohala Center invites native Hawaiian scholars to apply for the Mellon-Hawaii Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship 2010-11 Program, which provides selected scholars the opportunity to complete their dissertations or to publish original research.
Applications for the 2009-2010 fellowship program are being accepted through February 15. Visit kohalacenter.org for more information.
Links to Look At
BY Christine Hitt
February 1, 2010
Some links of interest:
Hawaii’s Most Endangered Places, including the 33 historic structures to be affected by the Honolulu rail transit project.
Contenders to the Throne. Honolulu Magazine takes a look at the different groups who are operating their own Hawaiian groups.
Unseen Treasures. A photo essay of hidden artifacts from Honolulu’s major museums.
Queen’s Beach
BY Christine Hitt
January 28, 2010
As an employee of HONOLULU Magazine, I have the ease of perusing its extensive archives, which dates back to 1888, under its old title, Paradise of the Pacific. Occasionally, I will flip through the pages and find some interesting articles, or pictures. And, now I can share such finds with you.
Queen's Beach
Everyone’s heard of Queen’s Beach in Waikiki. Above is a photo from the October, 1917 issue of Paradise of the Pacific, now HONOLULU Magazine as it originally looked, and below explains how it was used:
“This is a scene of a fair retreat on the beach at Waikiki, a few miles from the business sector of Honolulu. The spot shown is cut off from the world, on the land side, by a high board fence… The great gathering places of bathers lie some distance beyond the private pier to the left, while the Queen’s Place, as it is called, is reserved for such as Liliuokalani, like any private owner, chooses to permit.
There is seldom a crowd. When the queen tires of the less breezy city precinct, she sojourns at her beach resort. When she is not there, her friends and friends’ friends and acquaintances enjoy the priveleges of the beach retreat… When this picture was taken a bunch of youngsters were holding possession…”
I must note that Liliuokalani passed away in the latter part of the year that this was printed. She was living at Washington Place at the time.
Iolani Palace and the British Country House
Stuart Ching being introduced.
BY Christine Hitt
January 26, 2010
Last week, I attended Experts at the Palace 2010 Lecture Series at the Old Archives building on the Iolani Palace Grounds. Every Thursday at noon, experts discuss various topics during the years of the Kalakaua Monarchy.
“Iolani Palace and the British Country House” was the topic of last week’s discussion with Stuart Ching, an Iolani Palace curator. Here are my notes:
-There are more similarities to the British Country House than differences, in regards to changes of ownership, architecture, furnishings, preservation and authenticity.
-The first palace was built in 1846 and kept the same form/shape as the original shacks that were the first palaces on the grounds.
-The current palace that you see today was completed in 1882. The service quarters were in the basement, principal or reception rooms were on the first floor, family quarters on the second floor and storage space in the higher spaces.
-Many British houses had a family chapel on its grounds but Iolani palace did not. However, during the reign of Liliuokalani, chapel services were held in the basement.
-Like British country houses, furnishings changed with fashion. It was custom to accumulate furnishings from different periods.
-Portraits were displayed around the home to reflect the family’s genealogy, showing strength and power.
-There is a common preservation mantra: Keep things as they are found. Preserve rather than restore. And, adaptation is always done… just as an air conditioning is added into a palace, or security system.
-Many British country homes had gardens. Iolani Palace was once surrounded by gardens, which are not there now.
Another important note that Stuart Ching mentioned is about how both British country houses and Iolani Palace must think of ways to raise money for the restoration and preservation of the building. British homes have done much more in this respect. They’ve been turned into bed and breakfasts, hotels, restaurants, multiple apartments and rented out for films.
Here are the upcoming lectures:
January 28 – Yongthanit Pimosathean – A compromise of East and West: King Rama V and the design of Chakkri Throne Hall in the Grand Palace, Bangkok
February 4 – Neil Dukas – The military forces of King Kalakaua’s Reign
February 11 – Niklaus Schweizer – Kalakaua’s Foreign Policy
February 18 – Nanette Napolean – The Royal Mausoleum
The Case of Hattie Kuoha Akee
Interview Testimony
BY: Christine Hitt
Researching genealogy can be a long quiet process. It involves spending hours or days in libraries or among the many bookcases at the county courthouses. And, most times,the research is being done on ancestors who you and your parents have never met, and on ancestors that your grandparents only have vague recollections of what their own parents may have passed on to them. So, most times, what you know of your ancestors are what is left of their existence–federal and state records.
In 1911, the Certificate of Hawaiian Birth program was established to register all births that had occurred in Hawaii who were one years of age at that time, or older. People were born at home, so there was no documentation. The Territory of Hawaii asked that each person testify and produce witnesses to their birth in Hawaii and the testimony was transcribed into an interview format. As a genealogist, what I love about these records is that it brings life to the people you are researching and I have gotten every single one of them for my family that I can find. I even get copies of people that are related but not a direct ancestor, because there is still always a possibility that your ancestor was their witness or that they are mentioned in the testimony in some way.
They are a charming read while introducing you to some interesting facts. They also verify everything you have done in your own research and these interviews can be used as proof in verification of your Hawaiian blood quantum, which is more important today with Kamehameha Schools, DHHL and OHA.
More importantly, these interviews bring you back to your roots. Here are some excerpts of my great grandmother’s testimony, in “The Case of Hattie Kuoha Akee”:
Testimony of Applicant, conducted in English.
Your correct name?
Mrs. Hattie Haliaka Kuoha Akee
Where were you born?
Peahi, Maui
When?
June 17, 1900
Your father and mother were Maui people?
Mother from Waikapu and father from Kahakuloa
Was he pure Hawaiian?
Yes.
And, testimony from her witness, Rachel Kiakona.
Where were you born?
Waipio, Huelo, Maui
When were you born?
September 10, 1889
How long have you actually known Mrs. Akee?
I knew the mother very well before Hattie was born, and I taught the whole family at Halehaku School.
Do you remember the name of Hattie’s father?
Sam Kuoha
Hawaiian?
Yes. I think he attended Lahainaluna.
About Hawaiian Roots
I started Hawaiian Roots in 2001 after I noticed that there were not many resources online for researching a person’s Hawaiian genealogy. The site received a great response from the public when it first launched and now, I’ve made it a goal to make this site as helpful as possible for those trying to piece together their own family history.
Many people start researching family histories because it is necessary to have documentation for things like scholarships and DHHL, but I’ve always found genealogy to be a fun hobby and it also gives a sense of personal pride.
Like many multi-cultural families in Hawaii, my own roots are Hawaiian, but also include Chinese and Portuguese ancestors. Hawaiian-Roots.com is meant to help people with all races that make up Hawaii’s melting pot of people.
About Hawaiian Roots Blog
The blog specifically covers Hawaii history with a focus on the Hawaiian race, the land, culture and some current events. It is meant to be informative and unbiased, so I hope you enjoy learning about Hawaiian history as much as I do. If anyone has old stories to share from your kupuna, or would like to contribute, please contact me via the ‘contact us’ form.
Christine Hitt
Founder
