Statewide County HI Archives News.....Germans in Hawai'i -- Part 2. 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, 7:11 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 20, 2008. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in time, of the Hawai'ian Islands Germans in Hawai'i -- Part 2. by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Germans in Hawai'i Part 2.-- The farm was a good example of the life of an entrepreneurial German horticulturalist in Hawai'i. Many of them married Hawai'ians and it was not uncommon to meet Polynesian -looking people with German names like Meyer, Brandt, Smith and Hanneman. The R.W. Meyer Sugar Mill is open to the public, featuring antique, circular cane crushers that were driven by oxen, on the island of Moloka'i. A wealthier and more famous German fortune seeker in Hawai'i was Claus Spreckles, a California sugar refiner, who found his business greatly threatened by the Kingdom of Hawai'i's reciprocity treaty with the United States that was signd in 1876. The treaty allowed Hawai'ian sugar to come into the United States duty free and out of Spreckles' profit. Rather than fight the treaty, Spreckles sailed to Hawai'i aboard the ship, City of San Francisco, immediately and purchased half of the sugar crop of 1877, just before it skyrocketed. Between 1878 and 1882 the sugar baron enhanced his Hawai'i fortunes with an outright purchase of 41,000 acres in and around Wailuku, Maui. East of Wailuku, he built Sprecklesville and constructed a $4 million sugar mill, creating the world's most modern, efficient, and biggest sugar factory. Claus Spreckles, was born in Lamstedt, Hanover, Germany in 1828. He became a financier in California and was associated with the California Sugar refinery in San Francisco before arriving in Hawai'i in 1876. He had fought the proposed reciprocity treaty that would give favorable terms to Hawai'ian exporters to the United States, but when it became a reality, he invested heavily in sugar land, sugar mills, railway lines, and irrigation systems, such as the one he built below the Hamakua Ditch of Alexander & Baldwin on the island of Maui. By 1878 this project had reclaimed some seventeen thousand acres of leased crown lands and led to the establishment of the Hawai'ian Commercial $ Sugar Co., operaters of the finest plantation in all the islands. His son, John D. Spreckles, founded the Oceanic Steamship Co., which ran between the Islands and San Francisco for many years and later extended its operations to Australia and New Zealand. Claus Spreckles also established a banking and agency house in Honolulu, later operated by his partner, William G. Irwin, under Irwin's name; in 1882 Irwin claimed that the firm had a complete monopoly of the Hawai'an Sugar crop. In 1878, King Kalakaua, poker playing friend of Spreckles, began a dangerous course of dismissing cabinets that did not agree with his habit of raising money by dubious means. Spreckles applied for an extensive water privilege on his Maui sugar lands. When it was rejected, he made a personal loan to the King and a new cabinet promptly granted the requested rights for thirty years at $500 a year. Along with men like Celso Ceasar Moreno and Walter Murray Gibson, Spreckles encouraged corruption. In 1882 the legislature conveyed to him some twenty-four thousand acres of crown lands in Wailuku, Maui, to settle a claim that he had purchased from Princess Ruth for $10,000. As the result of another bill, one million dollars in silver coins bearing the head of Kalakaua was minted in San Francisco and circulated; Speckles made a profit of from $100,000 to $200,000 from this coinage deal. Spreckles become known as " the power behind the throne " and " the uncrowned King of Hawai'i," even after his political influence waned he remained " the sugar king of Hawai'i." When friction arose between the king and the " Spreckles party." the fiancier returned to San Francisco in 1886, but sometimes came back to survey his Hawai'ian properties. He supported Queen Lili'uokalani after she was deposed and gradually withdrew his money from the islands finally sellng the H.C. & S. Co to Alexander & Baldwin. is last visit to Hawai'i came in 1905 when he transfered funds for his sugar beet interests in southern part of California, where here too, he invested highly in the raising of sugar beets and sugar production. Hugo Stangenwald was born in 1829 in Germany and as a young man left Germany with a group of exhiles led by Carl Schurz. After living in various parts of the mainland he arrived in Hawai'i in 1851. He practiced medicine successfully, the Hawai'ians called him " the instantaneous healer." His office was first set up on Merchant Street near Fort, where was later erected the Stangenwald Building, a six story structure called Hawai'i's first skyscraper. Dr. Stangenwald experimented with photography and was the first to make daguerreotypes in the Islands. In 1854, he married Mary Catherine Dimond, daughter of the merchant, Henry Dimond. In the more cultural contributions was Captain Henrich Berger. He was born in Berlin, Germany in 1844 and 1861 joined the Prussian Army as an assistant musician. He saw service in several wars, and in 1867 attended the Conservatory of Music in Berlin to study for bandmaster. At the request of Kamehameha V, Berger was selected by Wilhelm I of Germany to be sent to Hawai'i to serve as bandmaster for Kamehameha V. Berger gave his first public concert in Honolulu on June 11,1872, and thereafter led the band for thirty-three years. He took the group on several mainland tours and did much to popularize Hawai'ian music. Between 1872 and 1900 the band led by Berger gave almost ten thousand concerts. Berger became a fast friend of Lili'uokalani and helped her compose "Aloha Oe." and he himself wrote the National Anthem, " Hawai'i Ponoi." He also acted as organist at Kawaiahao Church. In 1899 Berger married Rose Clark of New Zealand under encouragement of Queen Lili'uokalani, and the couple had one daughter. Berger retired in 1916, having served as band leader under Kalakaua, Lili'uokalani, the Republic, and the Territory. The Royal Hawai'ian Band that Berger founded still performs for the publc today. Conrad Carl Von Hamm was born in Bremen Germany and attended the Realschule in that city and went to work in the Deutschen Bank in 1885. As result in correspondence with his cousin William Maertens, senior partner in the importing firm of Hoffschlaeger & Co., in Honolulu. aboout their mutual interests in collecting stamps, Von Hamm came to Honolulu in 1891 to work in his cousins firm. He was offered a partnership after ten years, but instead Von Hamm launched his own business in1899 with Archibald A. Young under the name of Von Hamm-Young Co., Ltd. The company lost extensively in the Chinatown Fire in 1900 but carried on. They imported automobiles and gasoline, and in 1907 opened a garage. The business thrived, and branches were opened in Hilo and Mau'i and Kaua'i. Von Hamm became president of the Compny in 1925 and chairman of the board. His estimate of personal wealth was twenty million dollars. He married Bernice Young, daughter of Alexander Young and the marriage lasted for sixty-five years. The couple had two daughters. In visual arts, Germans have painted and drawn Hawai'i for many years. Encounters with Paradise, published by the University of Hawai'i Press and Honolulu Academy of Arts, describes Bavarian newspaper artist Henry Nappenbach, who visited Hawai'i in 1898. His watercolor sketches are some of the few gerne scenes of Honolulu's Chinatown. Landscape painter Henry Otto Wix is famous for Kaua'i and O'ahu landscapes from 1900s. He was a guest of the Isenberg family on Kaua'i and was one of the earliest artists to paint Waimea Canyon. Hermann J. F. Von Holt was born in Hamberg, Germany in 1830. He was the founder of the Hawai'i branch of the family. He came to Honolulu in 1851 with a cargo of merchandise and stayed to open a successful store. He married Alice Brown and the couple had one son and two daughters. These are just a few that became part of Hawai'i's history. Successful, intelligent, industrious, people who contributed to Hawai'i's growth and prosperity. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/germansi17nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 9.0 Kb