Statewide County HI Archives News.....Important People - Part 5. July 27, 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, 7:26 pm Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands July 27, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 July 27, 2008. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i. Keepers of the Culture A study in time, of the Hawai'ian Islands. Important People -- part 5. by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 5 Important People -- JOHN HERBERT BEAUMONT (1894-1957) Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, Beaumont obtained a bachelor's degree at the University of West Virginia in 1917. He came to Hawai'i in 1936 after teaching at the University of Maryland. He was director of the Hawai'i Agricultural Experiment Station from 1939 to 1950 and senior horticulturist fron 1950 until his death. He was a leader in the development of such crops as coffee, passion fruit, and papaya, and helped devise means to control the oriental fruit fly. During a Fulbright year at the University of Queensland, Australia, in 1952, he obtained valuable information about the macadamia tree, native to that region, which soon becme an important crop in Hawai'i. Beaumont was a membr of a number of scientific societies. ++++++++++++++++ EMMA K. METCALF BECKLEY (Mrs Moses Nakuina ) (1847-1929). The first woman judge of the Territory of Hawai'i was the daughter of Theophilus Metcalf, a sugar planter and government surveyor, and the Chiefess Kaili Kapuolono. Emma was educated at Sacred Hearts Academy, Punahou School, and Mills Seminary in Oakland, California. She first married Frederick William K. Beckley, descended from George Beckley, an Englishman who was commandant of the fort begun by the Russians in Honolulu in 1816. Emma's husband was chamberlain under King Kalakaua and was later governor of the island of Kaua'i. She had intimate friends among royalty, and under the monarchy became judge of the Court of Records and commissioner of private ways and water rights. She served in this post for eighteen years, continuing after anexation. During the 1880's and 1890's she was in charge of the government library and was the first curator of the Hawai'ian National Museum, later incorporated within the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Emma's second husband was Rev. Moses Nakuina, a deputy registrar of conveyances. Emma published a number of articles on Hawai'iana both as Emma Beckley and as Emma Nakuina. Her son Frederick William Beckley was born in 1874 and became an educator and historian. +++++++++++++++++++ MARTHA WARREN BECKWITH (1871-1959) Martha Beckwith, who spent her childhood in Hawai'i with her parents, was born in Massachusetts. She was the grandniece of Lucy Goodale Thurston. For many years she was a proffesor of folklore at Vassar College. She workd with Mary Kawena Pukui and others, and became a leading authority on the oral Polynesian narritives of the islands. ++++++++++++++++++ CHARLES O. BERGER Oragnized the Hawai'ian Bell Telphone Co., which was incorporated on December 30, 1880; Soon thereafter, a telephone was installed in 'Iolani Palace in Honolulu. +++++++++++++++++++ HENRY (HEINRICK) BERGER (1844-1929) The future leader of the Royal Hawai'ian Band, was born in Berlin, Germany. He joined the Prussian Army as an assisstant musician in 1861, 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 a bandmaster for Kamehameha V. Berger gave his first public concert in Honolulu on June 11, 1872, and thereafter led the band for forty-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 amost ten thousand concerts. He became very fast friends with Liliu'okalani and the two composed " Aloha Oe" and himself wrote the national anthem, " Hawai'i Ponoi." He also acted as organist at the Kawaiahao Church as was attended by the choir led by Liliu'okalani. In 1899, Berger married Rose Clark of New Zealand a good friend of the Queen Liliu'okalani. Berger and Rose had one daughter. He retired in 1916, having served as band leader under Kalakaua, Liliu'okalani,the republic, and the Territory. The Royal Hawai'ian Band that Berger founded still performs for the public today. ++++++++++++++++++ JOHN BERNARD (? -1845 ) A Frenchman; along with British subject and sea captain Godfrey Rhodes obtained a 50 year government lease of 90 acres of land on the east side of the Hanalei River and 60 acres on the west side of the river; on this Hanalei land, Bernard and Rhodes began the first commercial coffee plantation in the Hawai'ian Islands on September 8, 1842; In 1843 -1844 Gottfried Federick Wundenberg and Archibald Archer leased a portion of the Bernard/Rhodes land and also grew Coffee in an area on the east side of Hanalei Valley, known as Kuna; Rhodes left for Austraila in 1844, selling his interest in the coffee operation to Bernard; the following year, Bernard traveled to Honolulu to deal with finacial troubles; when he left Honolulu to return to Kaua'i on April 18, 1845 the ship Paalua sank, just few hundred yards offshore of Hanalei, killing Bernard and several others. On June 16,1845, Frenchman John Bernard's estate in Hanalei, Kau'i was bought by John K. Von Pfister and Godfrey Rhodes. ++++++++++++++++++++ EARL DERR BIGGERS (1884-1933) Biggers graduated from Harvard in 1907 and worked in newspaper and advertising offices, and wrote plays and novels as well. He visited Hawai'i in 1919, and six years later the first of his mystery novels appeared dealing with the deductions of Charlie Chan, supposed to be modeled on Chang Apana, a celebrated and picturesque member of the Honolulu Police department It was entitled " The House Without A Key." In the book. the house is the beach residence of the murderee, where poeple could come and go in the days when burglary was uncommon in Waikiki. The name was later attached to a portion of an inn which becme part of the Halekulani Hotel. Biggers went on to publish five more volumes in which Charlie Chan was the detective hero. Films based on this character appeared on many Television shows for years. ++++++++++++++++ LEONORA NEUFFER BILGER (1893-1975) Born in Cincinnati, Leonora Neuffer recieved three degrees, including the PH.D. in 1916, from the University of Cincinnati, and also studied at Cambridge University in England. After teaching at Sweet Briar College, Virginia, and at her alma mater, she arrived at The University of Hawai'i in 1929, where her future husband. Earl M. Bilger (1898-1964), was also a professor in Chemistry, Leonora Bilger acted as chairman of the Department of Chemistry and dean of women. She was the first woman to be elected as chairman of the Hawai'ian section of The American Chemical Society. For her work in hawa'i she received the Francis P. Garvin Medal of that society in 1953 and the William H. Taft Medal from the University of Cincinnati in 1966. She retired in 1958. Bilger Hall at the Manoa campus of the University of hawai'i is named jointly for Leonora and Earl Bilger. ++++++++++++++++++ STEEN BILLE Arrived in the Hawai'ian Islands on October 5, 1846 in command of the Danish Navy corvette Galathea; signed a treaty with the Hawai'ian government on October 16, 1846. +++++++++++++++++++ HIRAM (BINAMU) BINGHAM (1789-1869) Born in Bennington, Vermont, Hiram workd his father's farm until he came of age. He belatedly attended Middlebury College and graduated at the age of twenty-six. He spent thre years more at the Andover Theological Seminary before being accepted for the American mission to Hawai'i under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, centered in Boston. Since the men of the First company had to be married, he proposed to Sybil Moseley. who happened to attend his ordination; they were married a fortnight later. Sybil ( 1792-1848) had been born in Westfield, Massachusetts, and orphaned at the age of nineteen. The couple were the foremost members of the group that arrived on the brig Thaddeus in Hawai'i in 1820. Bingham was destined to spend two decades in active mission work. He was a popular preacher and teacher and was especially influential among the ruling chiefs of the time. He helped to devise the sventeen letter alphabet ( later reduced to twelve ) used to translate the Bible and many other works into printed Hawai'ian, and assisted Elisha Loomis in developing the printing trade, even himself carving crude woodcuts to illustrate tracts.A month after the press provided reading matter for scholors, Bingham estimated that he had more than five hundred students chosen from the upper class of Hawai'i ( children were not schooled until mush later). The first edition of the New Testament was competed in 1832, and the complete Bible was first available in 1839. Bingham was pastor of the First church, Kawaiahao, in Honolulu. His severe upholding of the laws of Jehovah put him in the bad graces of whaling captains and other foregners. He was attacked when sailors from the U.S.S. Dolphin under John Percival broke into the house of Kalanimoku on February 26,1826. The Binghams reared seven children, including Hiram Bingham II. Mrs Bingham, who had been a teacher and a midwife as well, began failing in health and the family left for New England in 1840. She died in 1848 and Hiram married Naomi E. Morse in 1852. The history of the islands from the point of view is told in the classic book, " A residence of twenty-one years in the Sandwich Islands." ( New York; Sherman Converse, 1847 ). ++++++++++++++++++ HIRAM BINGHAM II ( 1831-1908) Born in Honolulu, son of the fisrt Rev. Hiram Bingham, the young man graduated from Yale College in 1853 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1856. He married Minerva Clarissa Brewster in the same year and sailed to Honolulu on the brig Morning Star, first of a series of vessels of that name that served the mission stations inthe South Pacific, financed by Sunday school students in Hawai'i and the United States. In 1863 Hawai'i became a " home mission" and workers were sent to other parts of the Pacific under the auspices of the Hawai'ian Evangelical Association. Hiram II was the first Captain of the second " Morning Star " durin 1867,when the couple were doing mission work in the Gilbert Islands. He later served the home mission in Honolulu and finished translating the complete Bible into the Gilbertese language in 1893. These Binghams had two sons,including Hiram III ( 1875-1956), who had a distinguished career in the United States and as an archeologist discovered the Machu Picchu ruins in Peru. +++++++++++++++++++++++ ARTEMAS BISHOP (1795-1872) Born in Pompey, New York, Bishop graduated from Union College, New York, in 1819 and from Princeton Theological Seminery in 1822. He married Elizabeth Edwards in November of that year and the couple sailed the same month with the Second Company of American missinaries. They were stationed at Waimea, Kaua'i from 1823 to 1824 and at Kailua, hawai'i from 1824 to 1836. For the next twenty years they lived at Ewa, O'ahu, and even after moving to Honolulu, Bishop frequently preached at Ewa. At his request, however, he was released from the American Board in 1848. During his stay at Kailua, he traslated into Hawai'ian a dozen books of the Bible and eight textbooks. When his wife died at Kailua in 1828 he married Delia Stone. By his first wife, Bishop had two children, including Sereno Edwards Bishop. +++++++++++++++++ BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP (1831-1884) Princess Pauahi was born in Honolulu, a great-granddaughter of Kamehameha I. Her parents were Paki and Konia. She was named Pauahi after her aunt whose daughter was Princess Ruth. At the age of eight Bernice began attending the Royal School along with other young people of ruling group. She was married at the school in 1850 to Charles Reed Bishop. On the death bed of Kamehameha V in 1872, he offered to name Bernice his successor to the throne, but she declined. She received in 1875 the Grand Cross o the Order of Kamehameha from King Kalakaua. At the death of Ruth in 1883, Bernice inherited the bulk of her estate and thus became heiress to most of the Kamehameha lands, totaling close to nine percent of the area of the Hawai'ian Islands. Her will established the endowed Kamehameha Schools, to educate young people of Hawai'ian blood. The boys' division opened in 1887 and the girls' division in 1894. +++++++++++++++++++ CHARLES REED BISHOP (1822-1915) Bon in Glens Falls, New York, of New England stock, Bishop was orphaned in early childhood and reared by his grandparents. He left home at the age of fifteen, and after holding several small jobs, sailed in 1846 for Oregon to seek his fortune in the West. He stopped off at Honolulu, obtained his first position in the islands, and began to contribute to the economic history of Hawai'i. His first task was posting government books. He became a naturalized subject in 1849. Soon Bishop became Collector General of Customs at Honolulu and then opened a mercantile business in partnership with W.A. Aldrich. The firm of Aldrich & Bishop was formed in 1858. Through Bishop's insight into the need for a bank in the city, the company later became the Bank of Bishop and then was incorporated as the Bank of Bishop & Co., Ltd. Today it has the name of the First Hawai'ian Bank. Bishop gave strong financial support to the growing sugar industry and his influence grew. It was augmented by his marriage in 1850 to Princess Bernice Pauahi, who in 1883 inherited from Princess Ruth the bulk of the Kamehameha landed property. In 1860, Bishop was made a oble of the Kingdom and life member of the upper house of the Legislature. He was a member of the Privy Council during the reigns of four kings and one queen, and was throughout his life an advisor to royalty. He and his princess traveled abroad in 1876; they were presented at the court of Queen Victoria and received by Pope Pius IX. Widely known for his philanthropy, Bishop built as a memorial to his wife the world renown Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu and in his will left funds for its support through the Bishop Trust Co. After the death of his wife in 1884, he made frequent trips to the mainland and in 1894 he moved to San Francisco, where he died in 1915. His body was returned to Honolulu and he was given an impressive state funeral. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Continued in part 6. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/importan26nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 15.3 Kb