Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....McKay, William Archibald January 15, 1848 - 
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Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Published by the Honolulu Star Bulletin Ltd., Territory of Hawaii, 1925.
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

WILLIAM ARCHIBALD MCKAY, Jurist and Agriculturist. Former district magistrate 
of Wailuku, corporation organizer and director, and a member of important 
civic commissions, William A. McKay has been active in several lines of 
endeavor on the Island of Maui.
  He came to Hawaii in 1879 on the schooner “Rosario,” seeking health and 
intending to remain but a brief period. Obtaining a position as team overseer 
at the Pacific Sugar Mill, Kukuihaele, Island of Hawaii, he remained there 
until 1882, when he became business manager of the Artesian Ice Works in 
Honolulu. In 1888 he was appointed tax collector for the district of Wailuku, 
Maui, serving one year.
  Always an advocate of homesteading and diversified farming, Judge McKay 
early in the 90’s established a small herd of dairy cows in Wailuku and from 
time to time imported high grade California dairy stock. He also grew alfalfa 
and other forage crops at Wailuku, and for several years farmed at Kula, Maui, 
growing corn, potatoes and beans, and introducing new varieties of seeds from 
California and other states. He also grew wheat, oats, barley and other crops 
at Kula experimentally. In 1896 he started planting coffee at Olaa. When he 
disposed of his two-hundred acre holdings at Olaa in 1900, he had forty acres 
planted to coffee.
  On Nov. 1, 1897, he was appointed district magistrate of Wailuku, and served 
for twelve successive terms, resigning in 1921. From 1899 to 1900 he bridged 
the Hanawei stream and graded a road to the top of the Pali under contract 
with the Territory, and also built more than six miles of road from Kuhiwa 
Gulch to the junction of the lower road at Kaileku, both contracts requiring 
the construction of twenty bridges. In June, 1905, Judge McKay organized the 
Koolau Rubber CO. at Nahiku, Maui, and served as managing director during its 
first year of operation.
  Aside from his many business activities, he has long been prominent in civic 
and political affairs. From 1883 to 1897 he was acting postmaster and 
postmaster at Wailuku, Maui, and on July 23, 1900, he was appointed president 
of the tax appeal court for the islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai. In 1912 he 
was appointed chairman of the tax appeal board for the county of Maui, and 
when the workmen’s compensation laws of the Territory became effective on July 
1, 1915, he was appointed a member of the Industrial Accident Board for Maui. 
At the expiration of a four-year term he was then reappointed for five years, 
and served as chairman of the board from its first meeting in 1915 until Oct. 
24, 1921, when his resignation was accepted.
  Born at Fraser’s Mountain, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, on Jan. 15, 1848, Mr. 
McKay is the son of Samuel Daniel and Isabella (Stewart) McKay. He attended 
the New Glasgow Academy, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. In 1893 he married 
Catharine Louise Ritchie. Judge McKay is a charter member and past chancellor 
of Aloha Lodge No. 3, Knights of Pythias.


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