Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Shingle, Robert W. August 10, 1876 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com January 5, 2012, 3:34 pm

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

ROBERT W. SHINGLE, Financier and Political Leader. As journalist, business 
man, politician and financier, Robert W. Shingle has been active for thirty 
years in the affairs of Hawaii.
  His first work was as a “Cub” reporter on the Cheyenne Tribune, published by 
his father. From 1893 to 1896 he was State House and railroad reporter on the 
Denver Republican. In 1896 he came to Honolulu as city editor of the Hawaiian 
Star. Two years later, by appointment of President Sanford B. Dole of the 
Republic of Hawaii, he served as Commissioner to the Trans-Mississippi 
Exposition. After this service, he was employed on the editorial staff of the 
Advertiser until Jan. 1, 1899, when his career in the larger business life of 
Honolulu began.
  He found his opening in Henry Waterhouse & Co., a real estate and investment 
firm, of which, under the name of Henry Waterhouse Trust Co., Ltd., he was 
president for almost a quarter of a century. On May 11, 1925, Mr. Shingle 
retired from the presidency of the trust company because of the pressure of 
personal business affairs but retains his interest in the corporation and 
remains on its board as a vice-president and director. When the trust company 
was formed in 1903, Mr. Shingle and Albert N. Campbell obtained its control by 
purchasing the Waterhouse holdings. Associated in the reorganization were W. 
R. Castle, the late S. M. Damon, Colonel William F. Allen, the late Bruce 
Cartwright, Sr., Charles L. Wight, former president of the Wilder Steamship 
Co., and the late Thomas S. Kay, former manager of the Pacific Sugar Mill and 
Halawa Plantation on the island of Hawaii. The company today holds several 
sugar plantation and ranch agencies, conducts a real estate and trust 
business, and holds a seat on the Honolulu Stock and Bond Exchange. Mr. 
Shingle was president of the stock exchange for the year ending in June, 1924.
  Throughout his business life, Mr. Shingle has been interested in politics. 
In 1909 he was elected to the House of Representatives of the Territorial 
Legislature, serving as chairman of the committee on Agriculture, Forestry and 
Immigration. From 1911 to 1913 he was treasurer of the city and county of 
Honolulu. By appointment of Mayor John C. Lane, he filled the unexpired term 
of James C. Quinn as supervisor of Honolulu. In 1916 he ran for the 
territorial senate and was elected. He was again elected to the Senate in 1922 
by a large majority.
  As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the Senate, Mr. Shingle 
assisted actively in working out several large problems. He was the originator 
of the “gentleman’s agreement” with the Department of Public Instruction, 
increasing the salaries of public school teachers, and was the author of the 
present charter of the City and County of Honolulu. He was unanimously elected 
president of the Senate in 1925.
  As a Republican he has participated actively in every political campaign 
since the annexation of Hawaii by the United States. He became a close adviser 
of the late Prince Kuhio Kalanianaole in business and politics. He has served 
as chairman of the territorial Republican Central Committee, was chosen to 
succeed R. W. Breckons as Republican National Committeeman in the fall of 1918 
and has been twice re-elected to this position, his present term expiring in 
1928.
  With the late Prince Kuhio, Senator John Wise and E. Faxon Bishop, Mr. 
Shingle succeeded in having the Republican National Convention of 1920 adopt a 
party pledge to give Hawaii home rule. The following year as a member of 
Hawaii’s legislative commission to Washington, D. C., he helped obtain the 
enactment by Congress of the Hawaiian Rehabilitation Act, which also carried a 
rider making obligatory the appointment of residents of Hawaii only to the 
judgeships and all the important federal positions, and also made mandatory 
the employment of citizen labor upon all federal government work in Hawaii.
  In addition to his connection with the Henry Waterhouse Trust Co., Mr. 
Shingle is an officer or director, or both, of various other large industrial 
and mercantile corporations, and is a trustee of the James Wight Estate, the 
James Campbell Estate, Ltd., and the Charles Notley Estate. He is a member of 
the Pacific, Commercial, Oahu Country, Ad, and Hawaii Polo and Racing Clubs; 
and the Masons, Shriners, Elks, Knights of Pythias, Eagles and Chiefs of 
Hawaii.
  Born in Cheyenne, Wyo., Aug. 10, 1876, the son of John K. and Mattie M. 
Shingle, he was educated in the public schools of Cheyenne. In 1909 he married 
Muriel Campbell, daughter of James Campbell, daughter of James Campbell, one 
of the pioneer industrial leaders of Hawaii. Their children are Melvia Muriel, 
Robert W. Jr., Beatrice Alicia, Fred Campbell, Dorothy Louise, Gilmer Kurtz, 
Walter Seymour, and James Campbell Shingle.


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