Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Tenney, Edward Davies January 26, 1859 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com January 10, 2012, 6:00 pm

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

EDWARD DAVIES TENNEY, Industrial Builder. Hawaii was at the threshold of its 
period of greatest development when Edward D. Tenney, President and Manager of 
Castle & Cooke, Ltd., and President of Matson Navigation Co., first arrived at 
Honolulu, June 26, 1877, a boy of 18 with his future in his own hands. In the 
almost half a century that has since elapsed, Mr. Tenney has been in the 
forefront of the movement which has carried on that development to its present 
stage.
  His first three years in the islands were spent by Mr. Tenney on Hawaii, 
where he engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane at Onomea plantation, near 
Hilo.
  His real business career began on Dec. 8, 1880, when he entered the firm, 
which he now heads, as a junior clerk. In 1889 Mr. Tenney was enabled to 
acquire an interest in the then firm of Castle & Cooke, from the late J. B. 
Atherton, whose policy it was to encourage the advancement of young men of 
proven ability.
  When the rapidly expanding firm was incorporated in 1894, Mr. Tenney was 
elected its Secretary, becoming Vice-President and Manager in 1903 and 
President of Oct. 27, 1916, succeeding Mr. George P. Castle, who desired to 
retire from the presidency of the corporation.
  With the enormous growth of the sugar industry, there was a demand for 
greater shipping facilities, and in July, 1907, Castle & Cooke, Ltd., became 
agents for the Matson Navigation Co. of San Francisco, with Mr. Tenney later 
taking a place on its directorate. An almost spectacular expansion of the 
Matson Navigation Co. followed the acquisition of its Honolulu agency by 
Castle & Cooke, Ltd. In 1907 the Matson Navigation Co. operated two vessels; 
today it has a fleet of fifteen fine passenger and freight steamers operating 
between Hawaii and the Pacific Coast, and is now planning what will be the 
finest steamer of the Pacific; furthermore, one of the finest and newest 
skyscrapers in San Francisco now bears the name of Matson.
  Mr. Tenney became President of the Matson Navigation Co in 1917 upon the 
death of Captain William Matson, founder of the line.
  A significant event in the history of Castle & Cooke, Ltd., was its 
occupancy in 1924 of its handsome new (office) building, at the corner of 
Merchant and Bishop streets.
  In addition to his connection with Castle & Cooke, Ltd., and the Matson 
Navigation Co., Mr. Tenney is President of the Hawaiian Trust Co., Ltd.; Vice-
President of the Bank of Hawaii, Ltd., and is an officer and director of the 
Ewa Plantation Co., the Waialua Agricultural Co., Ltd., the Kohala Sugar Co., 
Theo. H. Davies & Co., Ltd., and other Hawaiian industrial enterprises. He 
served three terms as president of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, 
of which he is a Trustee, and was president of the Honolulu Chamber of 
Commerce for the 1904-5 term.
  During the period of the Provisional Government, following the revolution 
which terminated the Hawaiian monarchy, Mr. Tenney was a member of the 
Advisory Council. He is a member of the Pacific Union Club of San Francisco 
and the Pacific, Commercial and Country clubs of Honolulu.
  The son of Lucian Pomeroy and Mary Elizabeth (Davies) Tenney, Mr. Tenney was 
born in Plainfield, N.Y., Jan. 26, 1859. He married Rose Williams Makee in 
Honolulu, March 5, 1889, and has two children, Wilhelmina and Vernon Edward 
Tenney.


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