Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Cartwright, Alexander Joy April 17, 1820 - July 13, 1893
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J. Orr orr@hawaii.com August 31, 2009, 6:31 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Published by Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd., Territory of Hawaii, 1925.
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

ALEXANDER JOY CARTWRIGHT, “The Father of Baseball.” To this California forty-
niner, early Hawaiian whaling agent, intimate friend of the Kamehamehas, and 
founder of many Honolulu business and welfare organizations, belongs the 
distinction of fathering the great American game of baseball.
  In 1845 Alexander Joy Cartwright, son of Captain Alexander Joy Cartwright 
and Esther Burlock Cartwright of New York, laid out the first baseball diamond 
as it is now used and planned the new game. He also organized the 
Knickerbocker Baseball Club, rightful ancestor of the big league teams of 
today.
  The lure of California gold called young Cartwright to California in 1849. 
Crossing the plains, he reached Fort Sutter on July 4, 1849. Gold mining 
claimed his interest but a short time. Sensing the romance and adventure of 
the sea, Mr. Cartwright set sail on a round-the-world cruise, landing in 
Honolulu, Aug. 18, 1849.
  The ship went on without him, for an old New York friend offered him a 
position in a commission house here. Two years later he engaged in business 
for himself, chartered a ship and took a cargo of potatoes to San Francisco. 
With funds from this successful venture, he returned to Honolulu and 
established the firm of Alexander Joy Cartwright, whaling agent and commission 
merchant. It prospered, and its owner had leisure to join in the founding of 
the Queen’s Hospital, the American Seaman’s Institute, the Honolulu Library 
and Reading Room. He founded the Honolulu Fire Department in 1851. He became a 
large stockholder in the Waimanalo Sugar Plantation and was prominent in 
Masonry.
  Very close to the heart of King Kamehameha IV did Mr. Cartwright come, and 
his grandson, Bruce Cartwright, Jr., who succeeded to the firm, still handles 
former royal properties through the Queen Emma Estate. 
  Alexander Joy Cartwright was born April 17, 1820. In 1842 he married Eliza 
Ann Gerritse Van Wie of Albany. They had three sons, DeWitt Robinson 
Cartwright, Bruce Cartwright and Alexander Joy Cartwright, and two daughters, 
Mary Groesbeck (Cartwright) Maitland and Kate Lee Cartwright. At the age of 
73, July 13, 1893, the first Cartwright in Hawaii died and was succeeded in 
business by his sons, Bruce and Alexander Joy III.
  The elder Bruce Cartwright, born in Honolulu, November 18, 1853, was 
educated at Punahou College, Honolulu, and the University of Vermont. The old 
firm of Alexander Joy Cartwright slowly grew into a concern mainly interested 
in insurance and estates. Bruce Cartwright was a leader in many business 
ventures. He was one of the founders of the First National Bank, the Henry 
Waterhouse Trust, Co., Ltd., and the Honolulu Rapid Transit Co.
  He married Mary Louise Wells of Oakland, California, in 1881. Their two 
children were Bruce Cartwright, Jr., now engaged in business in Honolulu, who 
was born in 1882, and Kathleen De Witt (Cartwright) Allan, born in 1884. Mr. 
Cartwright’s affiliations included membership in the Pacific Club, Commercial 
Club, Society of California Pioneers and the Sigma Phi Fraternity. He died 
Dec. 11, 1919.


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