Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Alexander, Samuel Thomas October 29, 1836 - September 10, 1904 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: J. Orr orr@hawaii.com August 19, 2009, 8:33 pm Source: Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd. Author: George F. Nellist, editor SAMUEL THOMAS ALEXANDER, Industrial Builder. The history of the important Honolulu firm of Alexander & Baldwin, Ltd., and of a number of Hawaii’s most successful sugar plantations is the story of friendship, and that story is woven about the characters of the late Samuel T. Alexander and the late Henry P. Baldwin, two of the greatest human factors in the development of the Territory’s principal industry to its present standard, the highest in the world. To the broad vision, abiding faith and untiring industry of these two men, Hawaii owes much of its present prosperity, its social advancement and the spirit of loyalty and mutual good faith between employer and employee which distinguishes the industrial life of the community. Alexander and Baldwin, considered as individuals, were creators of community wealth. They made arid lands productive, created new opportunities for labor and, in large part, gave to the sugar industry the impetus which in the past half century has carried Hawaii to its present era of substantial prosperity. From modest beginnings, as wage earners on the small and struggling plantations of that period, the partners accumulated fortunes, but of far greater importance was their contribution to the upbuilding of Hawaii and the development of its natural agricultural resources. Samuel Thomas Alexander, the subject of this sketch, was a native of the Hawaii he so long served. He was born at Waiole, Kauai, on Oct. 29, 1836, the son of Rev. and Mrs. William Patterson Alexander, who came to the Islands with the fifth company of New England missionaries, arriving at Honolulu May 17, 1832. Both were of American Revolutionary stock and Scotch-Irish descent. Their son, Samuel T. Alexander, received his education at Punahou School, Honolulu; the Normal School at Westfield, Mass., and at Williams College. His history as an outstanding figure in the development of the sugar industry dates back to 1863, when he became manager of Waihee plantation, where one of the first experiments in the cultivation of sugar cane in Hawaii had been made. Prompted by a determination to engage in business for himself, he resigned his position and, in partnership with H. P. Baldwin, his brother-in-law and boyhood friend, whom he had employed at Waihee, the Haiku Sugar Co. was started on Maui in 1869. Years of adversity followed, a period which would have broken the spirit and courage of less resolute men. Their plantation was small and arid. They were confronted with the desperate problem of producing sugar cane on unwatered lands. Necessity, proverbial mother in invention, suggested a solution. Alexander & Baldwin devised a plan to bring water to their plantation from the district northeast of Haleakala, drenched throughout the year by rain. Work was started on the Hamakua-Haiku ditch in 1876. It was a gigantic undertaking for those days. The ditch extended seventeen miles through a mountainous and heavily wooded country and when completed at the end of a year it had cost $80,000 instead of the estimated $25,000. Water was placed on the Haiku fields on July 4, 1877. The partners had successfully completed the first important irrigation project undertaken in Hawaii but had almost ruined themselves financially. However, the Hamakua-Haiku ditch brought success in greatest measure to Mr. Alexander and his partner. They had more water than was required for Haiku plantation and were enabled to acquire additional lands, practically worthless without irrigation, for cane planting. This expansion resulted in the organization of another plantation, Paia. On these two estates, Haiku and Paia, was built the great success of Alexander and Baldwin. The Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. (formerly owned by Mr. Claus Spreckles), now one of the largest sugar producers in the world, was acquired by Alexander and Baldwin, and Kihei plantation was also added to their holdings. For many years, Mr. Alexander and his associate confined themselves to the production of sugar, but in 1894 the partners formed a new firm in San Francisco under the name of Alexander & Baldwin, for the purpose of conducting a general commercial business and handling their plantation interests on the mainland, and in 1897 a branch was established in Honolulu, where the main offices are now located. The firm was incorporated in 1900 as Alexander & Baldwin, Ltd., with Mr. Baldwin as president. Mr. J. B. Castle of Honolulu at that time became associated with the firm through his interest in the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. Mr. Alexander was then making his home in Oakland, Calif., having left Hawaii in 1883 because of ill health and to give his children educational advantages on the mainland. A close business association continued, however, with Mr. Alexander exercising general supervision over the firm’s interests in California and Mr. Baldwin devoting his attention to the plantations in Hawaii. In his later years, Mr. Alexander spent much of his time in traveling, touring England, Scotland, Ireland, Egypt, India, the Holy Land, South America, the Orient, Iceland, Alaska, the South Seas and Africa. He died far from his native country, meeting with a fatal accident at Victoria Falls, East Africa, where he died on Sept. 10, 1904. He was buried in Africa. Mr. Alexander married Martha E. Cooke, daughter of Amos Starr Cooke, early missionary to Hawaii and a founder of Castle & Cooke, at Honolulu, on Jan. 26, 1864. They were the parents of five children, Wallace McKinney Alexander, Annie M. Alexander, Juliette Alexander, Martha (Alexander) Waterhouse and Clarence Chambers Alexander, all of whom are now living except Clarence, who died when a baby. Miss Annie Alexander was her father’s travel companion and was with him when he died in Africa. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/bios/alexande2gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/hifiles/ File size: 6.5 Kb