Statewide County HI Archives News.....Germans in Hawai'i -- Part 1. July 19, 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 August 3, 2008, 7:09 pm Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands July 19, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 July 19, 2008. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in time, of the Hawai'ian Islands Germans in Hawai'i -- Part 1. by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 1 Germans in Hawai'i. The Germans explored Hawai'i in the early days of Western contact, developing shipping, sugar plantations and factories. As scholors and artists, and as settlers who married into Hawai'ian families, they contributed to the multicultural fabric of life in Hawai'i. Heinrich Zimmerman sailed with Captain James Cook, who discovered the Sandwich Islands for the west in 1778. Zimmerman published his own journels three years before Captain Cook's official English version was released. Zimmerman's tales of Hawai'i sparked an interest in the distant Sandwich Isles among the German people. In another first for Germany, another author, who was a popular author, out of Leipzig, wrote of Cook's 1779 death at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island. In 1796, a ship grounding led a German name, given to a geographical location in Hawai'i. German ship Captain Henry Barber ran aground near a Hawai'ian village known as Kalaeloa, near O'ahu. Barber was from Bremen, Germany, and was sailing an English ship. This site is now called Barber's Point. Adelbert von Chamisso, a German scholor, took an early interest in Hawai'i, He was a naturalist aboard the Russian brig Rurik, in which Captain Otto von Kotzebue sailed to the islands in 1815. Von Chamisso wrote one of the first Hawai'ian grammer books. A notorious German, who sailed to the islands was Anton Georg Scheffer. who arrived on Kaua'i in 1815, to recover the cargo of a Russian trading ship wrecked at Waimea. He become acquainted and befriended Kaumuali'i, Kaua'i's last King. Scheffer attempted to take over Hawai'i. He built the Russian Fort, now a historic site, in Waimea, Kauai'i, and attempted to establish a villiage called Schefferthal along with the Russian Fort, on the north shore of Kaua'i at Princeville. Under Kamehameha's orders, however, Scheffer was forced off Kaua'i and away from Hawai'i by 1818. The discipline, leadership, and technical skills of the 19th century German immigrants in Hawai'i, played an important role in the Islands' sugar industry. The Germans were builders and tool and dye makers who constructed sugr mills. They also served as bosses , who managed and controlled the field workers. Several were visionary sugar growers, who brought the industry to a prosperous maturity. Agriculturist Paul Isenberg was born in Dransfeld, Germany, the son of a Luthern minister. He was recruited to work as a boss at Lihu'e Plantation on Kaua'i inthe late 1850's. He married Hannah Maria Rice, the daughter of missionary, turned sugar plantation owner, William Harrison Rice. Isenberg became manager of Lihu'e Plantation in 1862. His wife died in 1867 and he started taveling between Germany and Kaua'i. Along with his brothers, Hans, Otto and Carl, Isenberg played a prominent role in developing sugar plantations on Kaua'i's west side. The family's German heritage is best remembered at Lihue's German Hill, just west of the sugar mill. This area recalls the time when Lihu'e was known as German Town. The prim, white, oldest Lutharn Church in Hawai'i was built in the 1880s and still stands on German Hill, which once boasted its own German language school. In 1881, Isenbergg and Captain Heinrich Hackfeld became partners, forming what would become American Factors, one of Hawai'i's " Big Five " companies that owned sugar plantations, shipping and other entities, including the department stores throughout Hawai'i that are now called Liberty House. However, with the company's ties to Germany, the Isenbergs and Hackfelds lost control of their company during World War I. Hackfeld was an adventurer, born in Dalmenheret, in Oldenberg, Germany. He was a sea Captain on the China run, when he sailed into Honolulu Harbor for provisions. By 1850, he had been in Hawai'i three times. His third visit was aboard the ship of John Dominis, the father of John Dominis, Jr., the husband of Queen Liliu'okalani. Hackfeld returned home and loaded cargo for Honolulu aboard his own merchant ship. He sailed back to Hawai'i and made his fortune, soon becoming a business agent for sugar growers. Hackfeld's brother-in-law was another German, Johann Carl Pflueger, who arrived in Hawai'i at the age of 16. Through living a highly disciplined life, young Pflueger quickly advanced in business in Honolulu. Hackfeld and Pflueger both became close friends of the Hawai'ian monarchy. Pflueger's descendants owned the Honolulu automobile agency of the same name. Dr. Wilhelm Hillebrand, a German researcher, played an important role in public health. He was the founding physician of Queen's Hospital in Honolulu during the 1860s. He also played a important role in selecting the workers who would be imported to Hawai'ian sugar plantations. He traveled on a german expedition to the Madeira Islands in 1871. His letters back to Hawai'i suggested importing workers from the rocky Atlantic Islands where the grape orchards were suffering from a blight. By the end of the decade thousands of people known as Hawai'i's Portuguese had arrived to work on the sugar plantations. Hillebrand also suggested importing German workers. In 1881, a band of 124 Germans aboard the ship, Cedar, sailed to Hawai'i, and about half stayed past the expiration of their work contracts. The new German immigrants rose quickly from the ranks of sugar workers, becoming bosses, machinists, engineers and managers. Later they moved to towns and became tradesmen, builders, writers, teachers, lawyers, clerks and took up other white collar professions. The efforts of the early Germans are clearly displayed in the restoration and exhibits at the Randolph Wilham Meyer Sugar Mill on the island of Moloka'i. Meyer married a Hawai'ian women, Kalama Waha, of Mapulehu Valley, and established a sugar mill in 1878 in the foothills of Kala'a, where rainfall is abundant. Meyer diversified into coffee, fruit and vegetable growing. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Continued in Part 2. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/germansi16nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 7.0 Kb