Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Iaukea, Curtis Piehu December 13, 1855 - ************************************************ 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 jessicanorr@gmail.com September 14, 2011, 1:44 pm Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders, published by the Honolulu Star Bulletin, Territory of Hawaii, 1925 Author: Edited by George F. Nellist CURTIS PIEHU IAUKEA, Financial Trustee. A descendant of Hawaiian chiefs, for years chamberlain of the royal Hawaiian household and special crown representative for the rulers of Hawaii, Curtis P. Iaukea, distinguished Hawaiian, has had one of the most eventful, colorful careers of his generation. His services to his mother country began when but a youth, when he attracted the favorable notice of King Kalakaua, and continued throughout the monarchy, through the period of the Revolution and ended only in 1921 when Mr. Iaukea retired from the office of secretary of the Territory of Hawaii. Perhaps no man in recent Hawaiian history was close to the monarchy as Mr. Iaukea. For twenty-one years he had the entrée to the royal palace, remaining there in one capacity or another from 1872 until the overthrow of the reigning house in 1893. Mr. Iaukea was born at Waimea, Hawaii, Dec. 13, 1855, the son of J. W. and Lahapa (Nalanipo) Iaukea. His father was district magistrate of Hamakua, Hawaii, for many years, and the family was well known on the big island. Mr. Iaukea was reared in Honolulu under the direction of his uncle, Kaihupaa, an old-time retainer of the chiefs and a personal attendant upon King Kamehameha III. As a ward of the government, he was educated under Archdeacon Mason of the Anglican Church in Hawaii at Iolani College, then directed by the Church of England. In 1872, upon the death of King Kamehameha V, who had sent Mr. Iaukea to Lahaina to learn sugar boiling, he went to Hilo to live with his sister. It was there that King Kalakaua, on royal tour of the islands, saw the young man and commanded him to resume his place at the royal palace. In 1880 Mr. Iaukea was chief secretary of the department of foreign affairs, and in 1883 he was sent as special envoy to the coronation of the Czar of Russia. He visited all the royal courts of Europe as Hawaiian envoy, and then went to India and Japan to study the immigration question and to open negotiations for a labor convention between Hawaii and those countries. In Japan his mission was most successful, resulting in the admission of Japanese laborers to the sugar plantations of Hawaii. He was collector-general of customs in 1884 and chamberlain of the king’s household, and in 1889 was crown land agent and commissioner. As chamberlain, he had the distinction of taking charge of the royal party attending the jubilee of Queen Victoria of England in 1887, the party including Queen Kapiolani, Princess Liliuokalani, Governor Dominis and several suites, and en route the party visited President and Mrs. Cleveland at the White House. Ten years later Mr. Iaukea went to London with the embassy from the Republic of Hawaii to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, and in 1898 he accompanied President and Mrs. Dole to Washington, D.C., as secretary and military attaché. Mr. Iaukea was county sheriff from 1906 to 1908, and served one term as territorial Senator in 1912. Since 1909 he has been managing trustee and treasurer of the Liliuokalani Trust and business representative for her late majesty. Among the many orders and foreign distinctions that have been conferred upon him are the grand cross and cordon of St. Stanislaus, conferred by the Emperor of Russia at his coronation in 1883; officer of the French Legion of Honor, conferred by President Grevy of France; grad officer’s cross of the crown of Italy; grand cross and ribbon of the Order of Takovo, Servia; jubilee and diamond jubilee medals of Queen Victoria; grand officer of the Order of Rising Sun of Japan; knight commander of the Swedish Order of St. Olaf, and all of the Hawaiian orders and decorations instituted by King Kalakaua during his reign. Mr. Iaukea is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Pacific, Oahu Country and Honolulu Golf Clubs. In 1877 he married Charlotte K. Hanks of Honolulu and they have two children, Mrs. Edward B. Watson of Milton, Mass., and Fred Hanks Iaukea, foreman of the Libby, McNeill & Libby pineapple cannery at Kalihi. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/bios/iaukea414bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/hifiles/ File size: 4.7 Kb