Statewide County HI Archives News.....African Americans in Hawaii, Part III June 10, 2008 ************************************************ 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: Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 June 17, 2008, 5:00 pm Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands June 10, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 June 10, 2008. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in time of the Hawai'ian Islands by Darlene E. Kelley African Americans in Hawai'i- Part 3. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 3. African Americans of the Hawai'ian Islands A continued study. Just before and after the annexation in 1898, several African Americans from the United States participated in politics and government and made the islands their home. One of these was T. McCants Stewart, an attorney, who was in the cabinet of King Kalakaua and helped in drafting the Organic Act of the territory, and on several occasions aided Hawai'ians in regaining their lost properties. In 1892, Hawai'i enacted the Chinese Exclusionary Law to prevent Chinese from coming to the islands. Stewart was violently against the act. His daughter, Carlotta Stewart Lai was just 18, when she graduated from the Punahou School, after her marriage to Mr Yum Kim Lai, from a well known Chinese family. He died suddenly in 1935 in Hong Kong. She became a principal at Kauai's Hanamaulu School. She is buried in the O'ahu Cemetery. ++++++++++++++++ Willam F. Crockett, another Attorney, came to Hawai'i in 1901 from Alabama, and later became district magistrate of Wailuku, Maui, then a Judge and Territorial Senator. His arrival brought him from Alabama to make him an attorney for the Sprecklesville Plantation on Maui His wife Annie Crockett was a teacher and taught at Wallukee Elemetary School. Her hobby was with flowers and she created nunerous variations of the Hibiscus flower. The Hibiscus Yellow is Hawai'i's State Flower. She died at the old age of 94. Their son, Wendell Frank Crockett, graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and returned to Maui to practice law, interrupted by Military Service in World War I. The son Wendell, married in 1926 to Myrtle Lau, a teacher and mother of three children. Wendell became deputy county attorney of Maui in 1919. +++++++++++++++++++ William Lineas Maples, a physician and musician, was born in Seivierville, Tennessee, on March 31, 1869, the son of Edward Maples and Martha Jane Runions. He graduated in the first class of the segregated high school in Knoxville in 1888. Showing a talent for science, oratory, and music, he recieved the Dodson medal upon graduation. Maples taught school for one year in Austin, Tennessee and then entered medical school at Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1889. He received an M.D. degree in 1893 and returned to Knoxville to establish a medical practice. The Spanish-American War in 1898 interrupted that practice as he joined the U.S. Army's medical unit of the all black Third Regiment of the North Carolina Vounteers. He ended his service a year later and returned to Knoxville to resume his practice. In 1900, agents for the Hwaii Commercial and Sugar Company (HC&S Co.) on Maui traveled through Tennessee and Alabama looking for workers for Hawai'i's plantations. They also sought a Physician to staff the hospital that would serve the contract workers. Maples was recuited as the anesthetist for the HC&S hospital. This hospital was to serve 200 workers of African Americans which were to be employed from the Southern States. His older brother, Samuel, a lawyer, also accepted a position as representative of the black contract laborers recruited for the HC&S plantations. Prior to leaving Knoxville, Maples married Miss. Sadie Williams, who accompanied him on the voyage to Hawai'i. He was assigned to the hospital in Puunene, Hawai'i, and for the first two years lived in plantation housing provided to the medical staff. William and Sadie Maples had not planned on staying in Hawai'i for mre than two contracts, or six years, but he increasingly found the work professionally satisfying. The hospital had installed a new operating room comparable to any found in a small, modern hospital in Tennessee. William and Sadie Maples had two daughters, Gladys and Elizabeth, and the family became active in the community, especially after they purchased a house in the town of Wailuku in 1905. Recognizing the need for a first class drug store in Wailuku, he opened Maples Drug Store in April 1905. The drug store closed after a few years as Maples' respnsibilities at the hospital mounted as the company employed many more African Americans. William Maples was also known locally for his interest in Music. In 1911 he became the manager of the Navarro Orchestra in Wailuku, which provided popular music of the day for the Maui public. He also wrote the Puunene school song for 1931. Maples, the first African American university trained physician to practice in Hawai'i, remained on Maui working for the Hawai'i Comercial and Sugar Company until his retirement in 1931. He died in Wailuku, Maui, in 1943 at the age of 73. Maples Elementry School is named for the family. ++++++++++++++++++++++ James Oliver Mitchell, was born in Koloa, Kauai in 1893. He was a teacher for 46 years on O'ahu , and Maui, Principal, Coach, and finally Athletic Director at Farrington High School in Kalihi on O'ahu He earned the respect of all the students and parents as well, and his athletic talents went a long way. His fellow teachers thought highly of him for his integrity and thoroughness. ++++++++++++++++++ Nolle Smith, cowboy, politician, diplomat, was born on his parents' ranch in Horse Creek, Wyoming in 1888 but grew up in Cheyenne where he graduated as valedictorian of his high school class at Cheyenne High school in 1907. he was the son of a white father and African American mother, Smith attended the University of Nebraska where he studied engineering and math while playing football, and basketball and competing in tract. After graduation, Smith held engineering jobs briefly in River Rock, Wyoming and Denver. In 1915, however, he was offered a job in Hawai'i as an engineer with the Honolulu Department of Public Works. The following year he became the Superintendent of Docks for Matson Navigation Company, a major shipping firm. In 1917, Smith married Eva Beatrice Jones, a childhood friend from Cheyenne who had moved to San Francisco. In 1919 Smith established his own engineering and construction firm and obtained contracts for major projects throughout the territory. Smith was also active in Republican politics and in 1928 he was elected to the Territorial Legislature. He often addressed his constituents in their native Hawaiian language. After Smith left the Territorial Legislature in 1932, he became Hawai'i's Director of the Bureau of Research and Statistics and later Deputy Director of the Bureau of the Budget. In 1942, Smith was appointed head of the Hawai'i Civil Service and in that position instituted numerous reforms including removing Hawai'i's poll tax as a requirement for voting. Four years later Smith accepted an appontmnt as Commissioner of Insular Affairs for the Virgin Islands. In 1955, he accepted the first series of appointments with the United States Department of Satate that took him to Ecudor, Hati and Brazil. He returned from the State Department in 1963. Nole Smith died in Honolulu on February 9, 1982. +++++++++++++++++++ Another African American pioneer was Eva B. Jones Smith, who was also known as Eva Cunningam She was the first woman to have a radio show in Hawai'i and whose piano school was the" Place to go.." before 1920. ++++++++++++++++++++ In the early 1900's, a number of distinguished African Americans came t Honolulu and one was a well known daguerreotype photographer, James P Ball, Sr., who arrived with his son James Jr., who was an attorney in 1902 in Hawaii. James P. Ball, Sr in early 1892, with his son James Ball, Jr; his son's wife , and a daughter Estelle established the Globe Photo studio in Seattle. Their first business announcement appeared in the March 27, 1892 edition of the Post-Intelligencer. The studio was locatd on 2nd Ave and Marion Street, and the family lived in the rear. Each member of the family was a photographer. Then in 1897 the studio moved to 1st and James Street where the business was run by Laura Ball and her offspring. James P. Ball, Jr and Laura had four children. James Ball Sr. helped when the work load became heavy. James Ball, Sr., went about organizing Shrines' Lodges throughout the States His photography is in the Smithsonian exhibition on black photographers in Washington, D.C. In the early 1900's the Ball family moved to Hawai'i for the Sr.'s health reasons He died in the islands May 4,1904 at the age of 79. James P. Ball, Jr and family removed back to Seattle where they continued the Photography business. James P. Ball, Jr's daughter Alice Ball was noteworthy as she was the first to teach at the College at the University of Hawai'i. She was a chemist instuctor. During her laboratory research, she discovered a breath through for Hansen Disease known as Leprosy. This pioneering treatment was called the " Ball Method " found in Chalmoogra seeds. She extracted the ether esters in the fatty acids from the Chalmooga oil. This chemical was injected into leprosy patients to reduce the symptoms they suffered. This discovery brought relief to many patients with suffering from this disease. Her research findings were the beginning of discovering a cure for Hansen Disease. The knowledgde of Alice Ball's research was hidden for more than 80 years before it was coincidently discovered during a literature search. She unfortunately did not know of the acknowledgement and honor she was to receive, as she died in 1916 at the age of 24. in Hawai'i. The cause of death was unknown. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Continued in part 4. 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