Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Kopke, Ernst January 7, 1854 - ************************************************ 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 28, 2011, 9:21 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 ERNST KOPKE, Consulting Engineer. As the first engineer in Hawaii to initiate the use of pumping plants for the irrigation of cane fields, a work done while associated with Ewa plantation in its first years, and as consulting engineer with the Honolulu Iron Works, Ltd., in charge of many large projects for that company since 1899, Ernst Kopke for a long period has been a prominent factor in the development and advancement of engineering in Hawaii. His work, from 1889 to 1894, when engaged as engineer for the Ewa plantation, was of historic importance, for he installed the first large units of pumps for the irrigation and artesian well system in Hawaii, Ewa being the first plantation that made use of pumped water exclusively for irrigation purposes on an extensive scale. Besides laying out the pump sites and wells for the first three pumping stations at Ewa, Mr. Kopke also supervised the installation of pumping plants at the mill site, and became superintendent engineer of the sugar factory. Immediately following this, Mr. Kopke was made works superintendent of the Honolulu Iron Works, and assisted in devising plans for the irrigation installations for the Oahu Sugar Co., which was then being promoted by the late B. F. Dillingham and others. In the same year he rearranged the pumping plants and irrigation system of the Kahuku plantation, improved and extended the water supply for the Pioneer Mill Co., on Maui, and served as factory superintendent of the Pioneer Mill. In 1898 he erected several pumping stations for the Oahu Sugar Co. and the following year returned to the Honolulu Iron Works to take charge of the erection of its new plant in Kakaako, Honolulu. Since that time Mr. Kopke has been continuously associated with the iron works as consulting engineer, attending especially to sugar factory engineering. Prior to his notable work at Ewa, Mr. Kopke held various positions. His first work in the islands, immediately after his arrival here in 1871, was as field overseer at the Lihue Plantation, Kauai, where he later had charge of the milling and was assistant engineer. In 1872 he first joined the Honolulu Iron Works as an apprentice machinist, finished his training and worked for two years as a journeyman machinist, during which time he also studied mathematics and English. In order to complete his engineering studies, he went to the Free Institute of Technology in Worcester, Mass., in 1877, and after finishing the third year course in mechanical engineering, went to Germany to attend technical schools, studying mechanical and steam engineering. On Christmas Day, 1879, Mr. Kopke returned to Honolulu and was a journeyman at the Honolulu Iron Works until May, 1880, when he was appointed chief engineer of Lihue Plantation and the Hanamaulu Mills, Kauai. He was employed there for six years, and in 1886 signed a contract with the cane planters of Kekaha, Kauai, to furnish water for irrigation by pumping from springs and wells. Following this, his association with Ewa plantation began, inaugurating one of the outstanding epochs of his career. Mr. Kopke holds several patents, of which the most valuable ones are on centrifugal separators, and is president of the Kopke Clarifier Co., Ltd., of Honolulu, which owns his patents on centrifugal clarifiers that have been used to some extent for the treatment of cane juices. The oath of allegiance to King Kalakaua was taken by Mr. Kopke on Aug. 1, 1877. He was made a member of the Citizens’ Guard, Republic of Hawaii, on June 17, 1895, and the record of his United States naturalization was entered on Jan. 16, 1903. Born in Verden, Hanover, Germany, on Jan. 7, 1854, Mr. Kopke is the son of Georg and Margaret (Winter) Kopke. His father was an agriculturist and floriculturist. Mr. Kopke attended the common schools until he was fifteen. In 1882 he married Mary Jane Hines of Melbourne, Australia, and they have six children, Mrs. Albert Waterhouse, Mrs. E. A. R. Ross, E. W. Kopke, president of the Bank Centrals of Manila, P.I.; Mrs. Sherwood Lowrey, Mrs. D. P. R. Isenberg and Miss Esther H. Kopke of Palama Settlement. Mr. Kopke is an Odd Fellow, a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, and he presided at the reorganization in 1923 of the Hawaiian sugar mill engineers and the factory chemists and their amalgamation into the present Association of Hawaiian Sugar Technologists. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/bios/kopke72gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/hifiles/ File size: 5.2 Kb