Statewide County HI Archives News.....Important people of Hawai'i -- Part 1. July 21, 2008
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 August 3, 2008, 7:18 pm

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands July 21, 2008

Contributed for use in
USGenWeb Archives 
by Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
July 21, 2008

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Historical Collections of Hawai'i
Keepers of the Culture
A study of the Hawai'ian Islands
Important people of Hawai'i -- Part 1
by Darlene E. Kelley

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Part 1--

Important People of Hawai'i

ALEXANDER ADAMS
(1780-1870)

Born in Forfarshire,Scotland, Adams went to sea at the age of twelve and
served in the Royal Navy until 1810, when he arrived in Hawai'i on the
American ship 
Albatross. He took up residence ashore and through the good offices of
John Young was placed in command of the small collection of vessels owed
by Kamehameha I. Adams sailed the king and crew of the brig Kaahumanu to
Kauai in 1816 to expel the Russian filabusters under Georg Anton
Scheffer. Adams is supposed to have inspired the design of the present
Hawai'ian flag, putting the Union Jack in the upper corner. On a voyage
to China in 1817 with a cargo of Sandlewood, Adams was refused entrance
to the harbor of Macao because the colors were not recognized.

Along with Young, Adams advised Kamehameha II to allow the American
missionaries to remain in the kingdom. When that monarch left for
England in 1823, Adams was asked to act as pilot for the port of
Honolulu, a post he held for nearly thirty years. He then retired to his
estate of more than two thousand acres granted to him by Kamehameha I in
Kalihi, O'ahu. Adams married three times, twice to daughters of John
Harbottle, harbor pilot; the sisters had been reared at the court by
Queen Kaahumanu.


HENRY ADAMS
(1838-1918)

A member of the famed Adams family of New England, Henry was a historian
and traveler. In company with painter John La Farge, Adams toured the
Pacific in 1890. He rode around O'ahu, sailed to the Big Island, visited
the volcanic district,and ha audience with Kalakaua. Reported with
letters written about Hawai'i to New England's newspapers. These were
published during 1858-1891 in Boston and New York.


JOHN ADAMS
(1791-1844)

Known as Kuakini.
He was the youngest son of Keeaumoku and Namahana and brother of
Kaahumanu; He was also known as Kaukiniokalani or Kuakiniikonahale.
He was a high chief and governor of the island of Hawai'i from 1820
until his death. He was one of the first chiefs to read and write
English and Hawai'ian. He became acting governor of O'ahu in 1831 and
was a diligent supporter of missionary ideals. He had a wagon road built
from Waimea to Kawaihae on the Kona Coast with a labor force comprised
of men sentenced for breaking the seventh commandment. Kuakini built a
fort at a site near the official temple of Kamehameha I and armed it
with cannon. He also built many schools and a large meetinghouse near
the mission at Waimea,Hawai'i. He conceved in 1835 an attempt to grow
cotton and set up a textile industry on that island, and two years later
had a spreading field of cotton at Waimea and a factory that produced
and wove yarn, but the projected industry came to nothing.


ROMANZO ADAMS  
(1868-1942 )

Born in Bloomingdale, Wisconsin, Adams attended the University of
Michigan and Western College, Toledo, Ohio, and obtained a doctorate at
the University of Chicago in 1904. He was proffessor of economics and
socialogy at the University of Hawai'i from 1920 until he retired as
head of the Department of Socialogy in 1935. Adams was author of several
books on social problems in the islands, such as 
"The Peoples of Hawai'i."


CHUN AFONG
(1825-1906)

The founder of a large Honolulu family that arrived from China in 1849,
to work in his uncle's store. He went into business for himself and in
spite of adversity set up a shop called Afong & Ahchuck, that sold
brocades and fine silks. After being naturalized as a Hawai'ian subject,
he married his Hawai'ian-Caucasian wife,   
Julia Hope Fayerweather, the same year. The house he built for her was a
showplace, with a garden that held the first lichee tree planted in the
Islands. 

Afong operated a ship between Hawai'i and China and was a partner in
sugar and coffee plantations. He helped Kalakaua, his wife's foster
brother, to be eleced King and encouraged a reciprocity treaty between
Hawai'i and the United States. He was made a noble of the Kingdom in
1879, but resigned in order to serve as commercial agent for Imperial
China the following year. After the death of his first-born son in 1889,
he sold almost all his wide holdings and sailed for China, leaving his
friend, Samuel M. Damon as administrator of his estate for the benfits
of his wife and many offspring. Afong remained in China fro the rest of
his life and handled his extensive business interests without returning
to Hawai'i.

He fathered more than a dozen children, mainly daughters, for whom he
often arranged comfortable marriages. Afong inspired a well-known story,
" Chun Ah Chun," by Jack London, and a musical play " Thirteen
Daughters," by Eaton Magoon.


HAMILTON POPE AGEE
(1884-1942)

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Agee obtained a batcholor's degree from
Louisiana State University in 1904. He married Fannie Heaslip Lea, a
fiction writer, in New Orleans in 1911. Agee began his career as a sugar
technologist in Cuban and Puerto Rican mills before serving as assistant
director from 1909 to 1911 at the Louisiana Sugar Experiment
Station. He began a career at the Hawai'ian Sugar Planters' Association
Experiment Station in 1911 and was a director from 1913-1935. He was
also a consultant for Castle & Cooke and the Hawai'ian Pineapple
Company. Agee was prominent in promoting the technical training of young
men entering the sugar industry.


CHUNG KUN AI
(1865-1961) 

Chung Kun Ai was born in Saisan, Kwantung Province, China and was
brought to Hawai'i at an early age. He was educated at Iolani College in
Honolulu and began a merchandising career in 1883 when he opened a dry
goods store and tailoring shop. He became a clerk in 1887 in the store
of James Isaac Dowsett, but in 1898 opened a importing business. He also
organized a company to bore wells for the irrigation of sugar and
pineapple plantations. With his associates he founded City Mill Co. He
entered the business of pineapple canning as president of the Honolulu
Fruit Co.

Ai was active in a number of other enterprises and was president of the
Chinese Hospital and the Chinese United Society, He was founder of the
Chung Kun Ai Foundation, organized to promote Christian missions and
churches. He was
recipient of the Order of the Splintered Paddle from the Honolulu
Chamber of Commerce. He married Seu Shee in Honolulu in 1895 and they
had ten childen. He lived in Hawai'i 79 years.


ALAPAINUI 
( ? --1754 )

Son of Kauauanuia Mahi and Kalanikauleleaiwinui, he was called in full
Alapainui A Kauaua to distinguish him from another chief named Alapai.
Ruler of the island of Hawai'i, he led expeditions to fight against the
chief of Mau'i and Moloka'i, as well a O'ahu ( his mother was related to
the chief of this island.) After the defeat by Kalaniopuu in a last
battle, Alapai retired to Kawaihae and there died, leaving the rulership
of Hawai'i to his son, Keaweopala.


STEPHEN ALENCASTRE
(1876-1940)

Born in Madeira, Portugal, son of a ouple that emigrated to Hawai'i in
1882, the future Bishop attended St. Louis College in Honolulu and in
1895 continued his studies at the University of Louvain in Belgium.
Returning to the islands, to serve a parish in Wailuku, Mau'i,
Alencastre was ordained in 1902 in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in
Honolulu. He helped to raise funds to build the Church of the Sacred
Heart on Wilder Ave and served there for a dozen years. In recognition
of his contributons to the Catholic Church, at his consecretion in 1924,
he was named Bishop of the See of Arabissus and Vicar Apostolic of the
Islands. He was awarded the title of Officer of the Royal Crown of
Belgium in 1940.


SAMUEL THOMAS ALEXANDER
( 1836-1904 )

Third son of William Patterson Alexander and brother of William de Witt
Alexader, Samuel was born at Waioli, Kaua'i. He was educated at Punahou
School, the normal school at Westfield, Massachusetts, and Williams
College. He married Martha Eliza Cooke, daughter of Amos Starr Cooke, in
1864; they were to have five children. In 1863 he began his career as a
sugar planter by becoming manager of Waihee Plantation, Mau'i. Then in
partnership with his brother-in-law
Henry Perrine Baldwin -- a connection recalled by the international
conglomerate of Alexander & Baldwin today --- Alexander started the
Haiku Sugar Co., on Mau'i in 1864.

Early Hawai'ians had irrigated their fields on a small scale, but sugar
cultivation required a large supply of water. The task of constructing
the Hamakua-Haiku Ditch began in 1876. It extended seventeen miles
through mountainous and heavily wooded country, but was finished at the
end of the year.

The aaociates expanded in 1894 to form a new firm in San Francisco under
the name of Alexander & Baldwin, for the purpose of conducting a general
commercial business, and in 1897 a branch was established in Honolulu.
The firm was incorporated in 1900 as Alexander & aldwin, Ltd, with
Baldwin as President.
At that time Alexander was living in Oakland, California, having left
Hawai'i in 1883 to improve his health. However, in hs later years he
spent much of his time in world travel. He died far from hisnative
islands, meeting with a fatal accident at Victoria Falls in East Africa.


William De Witt Alexander
(1833-1913)

Born in Honolulu, eldest son of William Patterson Alexander, William
grduated fromYale University in 1855 and two years later returned to his
birthplace as professor of Greek at Punahou School. he continued as
professor for six years, became president for seven years, and then
headed the Bureau of Government Survey for almost thirty years. He
married Abigail Charolette Baldwin, daughter of Reverand Dwight Baldwin,
in 1860; the couple had three sons and three daughters. He was a member
of the privy council under Kalakaua and Lili'uokalani and a
distinguished geographer and historian. As surveyor-general of the
Territory of Hawai'i, he assisted the geodetic survey made by the United
States. He was also an author of several books.


WILLIAM PATTERSON ALEXANDER   
(1805-1884)

Born in Paris, Kentucky, Alexander was educated at Centre College of
Kentucky and Princeton Theological Seminary, and was ordained a few
weeks before leaving with members of the Fifth Company of Missionaries
that arrived in Honolulu in May,1832. A month previous to sailing, he
married Mary Ann McKinney, and the couple had nine children.

After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a mission school in the
Marquesas group, Alexander was assigned to Waioli, Kaua'i
(1834-1843), and to Lahainaluna Seminary (1843-1856). For health reasons
left to manage Ulupalakua Ranch on Mau'i but continued unpaid church
work and taught at Lahainaluna on Saturdays to educate his children. He
also acted as pastor of the church at Wailuku, where in 1863 he founded
the Theological School. He continued to be active in church work until
his death, long after Hawai'i had ceased in 1863 to be a field for
American Mssionary efforts. Alexander was a busy translator of tracts ad
texts. Mrs Alexander lived in the Islands for fifty-one years and was a
devoted teacher and accomplished singer, as well as the mother of a
family still flourishing in Hawai'i. Among the sons were Samuel Thomas
Alexander and William De Witt Alexander.


ANTHONY ALLEN
(? -1835)

Formally a black slave in Schenectady, New York, Allan arrived in
Hawai'i in 1810. He married a Hawai'ian girl, acquired land and
livestock, and became one of the most prosperous foreign residents in
O'ahu during the next quarter of the century. When the first American
Missionaries arrived in 1820, he prepared a feast to welcome them, and
continued his aid by supplying vegetables abd fruit. He operated a farm
on the plain toward Waikiki in assocation with Hewahewa, ran a small
boarding house for seamen, and sold goat's milk in the town.


ELISHA HUNT ALLEN
(1804-1883)

As American Consul in Honolulu, Allen was asked to go to Washington in
1851 to discuss with Secretary of State Daniel Webster the possibility
of annexation o Hawai'i by the United States. In 1853 he was appointed
minister of finance in the King's cabinet, and in January, 1854, he
notified David L. Gregg,United States Commissioner, that although he was
in favor of annexation, he feared current efforts might result in
revolution. The death of Kamehameha III made the discussion moot for
many years. In 1877 Allen became the first Hawai'ian minister to the
United States.

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Continued in part 2.


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