Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Castle, James Bicknell November 27, 1857 - April 4, 1918
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J. Orr orr@hawaii.com August 31, 2009, 6:41 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

JAMES BICKNELL CASTLE, Builder of Industries. An intellectual giant, of 
dynamic and driving force in the conception and execution of big undertakings, 
perhaps no other figure in the industrial history of Hawaii read the future of 
these islands with broader vision and a more accurate estimation of their 
latent possibilities than the late James B. Castle. One of the outstanding 
individuals in the story of Hawaii’s development, a man with the courage and 
financial ability to carry through the largest projects, the Territory owes 
much of its present industrial stability and prosperity to Mr. Castle.
  From his pioneer father, Samuel N. Castle, founder of the firm of Castle & 
Cooke and the first of the Castle line in Hawaii, James B. Castle inherited 
his ambition to serve his homeland. His was a faith in the soil, and an 
abiding conviction that the principle of “back to the land” would upbuild 
Hawaii to greatness and give it the highest type of citizenship.
  In this faith Mr. Castle backed numerous plantations and land colonizations, 
and in order to connect the agricultural interests with proper shipping 
points, thus bringing Hawaii’s back country to its centers of population, he 
built on the island of Oahu the Koolau railway. This line joined with the Oahu 
railway at Kahuku, and was the most important step in the development of the 
agricultural resources of the Koolauloa district. 
  Mr. Castle further planned to extend the railway to Honolulu by means of a 
tunnel through the mountains back of Manoa Valley and to establish a steamship 
line which would serve as a shipping medium for the entire stretch of country 
from Kahuku to Waimanalo. He wished to see the greatest sugar plantation in 
Hawaii in this district, and, with this in mind, acquired huge land holdings 
at Kaneohe, Kailua, Heeia, Punaluu and adjoining tracts, and brought them 
under cultivation.
  He founded the Koolau Agricultural Co. plantation, directed the planting of 
a large acreage to sugar cane, and shipped the cane on his own railway. In 
later years Mr. Castle relinquished much of this land, selling the Koolau 
plantation to the Mormon church.
  Another master feat of Mr. Castle’s was the acquisition of the Hawaiian 
Commercial & Sugar Co. from the late Claus Spreckels and associates at a cost 
of $2,000,000. Into this venture he put virtually all of his own capital, and 
all that he could obtain from others. Some time later he turned over the 
agency of it and of Kahuku plantation to Alexander & Baldwin, sugar factors, 
receiving in return a large share of Alexander & Baldwin stock. He was also 
one of the founders of the great Ewa plantation.
  Perhaps Mr. Castle’s greatest single achievement was the financing of the 
Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co., an enterprise that was placed in operation 
in 1901 and which has given to Honolulu a traction system second to none in 
American cities of its class. The franchise for the transit system had been 
granted and with stock selling at fifty cents on the dollar and bankruptcy 
proceedings threatening, Mr. Castle stepped into the breach with his capital 
and his energy, together with his brother, William R. Castle, and the Castle 
Estate, whom he had interested in the project, invested several hundred 
thousand dollars and placed the company on a sound financial basis and insured 
its success.
  Not satisfied with the mere amassing of wealth, Mr. Castle invariable turned 
over properties as soon as they were brought to the point of financial 
stability, and launched new enterprises. He was always less interested in the 
income he derived from a successful project than in the project itself, and 
with his imperial vision he could not be bound by details of operation, but 
must ever have new plans afoot for the development of the islands and the 
betterment of their people.
  One enterprise of which he was especially proud was the development of the 
Kona coast of the island of Hawaii. With his usual faith and resourcefulness, 
Mr. Castle staked much on the theory that this land should be made to yield 
sustenance and support to its people. He wanted white immigration, and he 
wanted a better class of immigrants than had been brought in previously. He 
favored the idea of central mills with smaller planters furnishing the cane, 
these financed and aided by the central plantations. It was to carry into 
effect these theories that he undertook his Kona and Windward Oahu projects. 
He was the first to advocate profit sharing with laborers, and introduced the 
plan on the plantations in which he held interests. In conjunction with his 
brother, William R. Castle, he attempted to rehabilitate the Kona plantations, 
a tremendous amount of sugar was produced, and although this particular 
enterprise did not become extremely profitable to him, it justified its 
founder’s high hopes by successfully caring for many hundreds of laborers and 
developing what had been waste tracts.
  Mr. Castle became interested in members of a Russian sect called the 
Molokans, living near Los Angeles, Calif., forced the opening of the Kapaa 
lands on Kauai for homesteading, and himself spent $30,000 to bring a group of 
Molokans to Kauai. Eventually the project failed, and he met the expense of 
shipping the Molokans back to California, but the cane lands that he caused to 
be planted by this colony afterward became the nucleus of the plantation now 
operated by the Makee Sugar Co.
  During a period of failing fortunes, Mr. Castle was appointed Collector of 
Customs in Honolulu, and he also served his home land as secretary of the 
Hawaiian delegation in Washington, D. C., during the ministry of Lorrin 
Thurston, his lifelong friend.
  Behind all the push and energy of business Mr. Castle possessed a fine 
intellectual nature. He gradually collected a splendid library of 10,000 
volumes. He was an omniverious and intelligent reader, and besides keeping 
abreast of the times in books on art, science, religion, economics and 
history, he was a subscriber to forty-eight monthly magazines. He had great 
artistic appreciation, and under the influence of one of these moods he spent 
$225,000 in the building of “Kainalu”, the Castle home almost on the point of 
Diamond Head, now the property of Honolulu Lodge of Elks.
  Born at the Castle home in Kawaiahao, now the Y.W.C.A. homestead, Honolulu, 
on Nov. 27, 1857, Mr. Castle was one of the ten children of Samuel N. and Mary 
Castle. He was educated at Punahou and Oberlin College. While on a European 
tour he met and married Miss Julia White, daughter of Nelson D. White, a 
prominent cotton manufacturer of Winchendon, Mass. Returning to Honolulu, he 
entered the firm of Castle & Cooke, and in his younger years was a factor in 
its growth. Mr. Castle died on April 4, 1918. His widow and a son, Harold K. 
L. Castle, rancher, capitalist and polo player of note, still reside in 
Honolulu.


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