Statewide County HI Archives News.....Important People - Part 11. August 2, 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, 7:31 pm Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands August 2, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 August 2, 2008 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collection of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in Time, of the Hawai'ian Islands Important People - Part 11. by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 11. Important People ROBERT DAMPER (1800 - 1898 ) Robert Damper was a Ship's Artist under Lord Byron on the H.M.S. Blonde. Damper kept a journel and made a number of drawings of Hawai'i in 1824. ++++++++++++++++ RICHARD HENRY DANA ( 1815 - 1882 ) Dana, a Boston lawyer and author of " Two Years before the Mast " (1840 ), came to Hawai'i on a round-the-world trip in the autumn of 1859. He presented letters of introduction and soon was a visitor at the homes of a number of prominent residents. He was given a special audience by Kamehamea IV. Dana also visited the prison, various churches, the Royal School and Punahou School. He took a schooner to the Big Island, crossed the Ka'u Desert and viewed Kilauea Crator, and suffered a riding accident during his stay in Hilo. He wrote a journal regarding his stay, and was published and reprinted in 1968. ++++++++++++++++ THEOPHILUS HARRIS DAVIES ( 1833 -1898 ) Davies was born in England and left Liverpool for Hawai'i in 1856. He was under a five year contract to Robert Janion, who had returned to England after setting up a merchandising business in Honolulu with various partners. Davies became a close friend of Kamehameha V during his five year term and after a short absence returned to Honolulu. He opened a store under the name of Theo H. Davies in 1868 with Janion as a silent partner. In 1870, Janion, Green & Co was merged with Theo H. Davies, which was incorporated in 1894. The firm acted as financial agent for twent two sugar plantations on several Islands. Davies was a prominent member of the Episcopal Church of Honolulu. By 1890, he had accumulated a large fortune and retired from active management. He returned to England, where he became the guardian of Kaiulani for four years while she studied there. He escorted her to Washington, D.C., in 1893 to help advance her claim to the throne of Hawai'i abdicted by her aunt, Lili'uokalani. Theo. H. Davies & Co. was considered one of the Big Five firms of Hawai'i. ++++++++++++++++++ ISAAC DAVIS [ AIKAKE ] ( c. 1758 -1810 ) Davis, born in Milford, England, was the sole survivor of the massacre in 1790 of the crew of the Fair American because he fought bravely. He was found tied to a canoe, half blind and half dead. He was nursed back to health by an American beachcomber named Isaac Ridler. Like his friend Young, Davis was made a high chief and helped Kamehameha I in his wars of conquest. Davis married a relative of the king and founded a prominent family in the islands. He held estates on Hawai'i, Mau'i, Moloka'i, and O'ahu, and for a time was a governor of O;ahu. His daughter, Betty, married George P. Kaumualili, and was said that Davis was poisoned and died bcause he warned King Kaumualili of a plot to kill him when the ruler of Kaua'i came to Honolulu in 1810 to confirm the cession of his island to Kamehameha. Three children of Davis's second marriage ( to Kalukuna, also known as Grace Kamaikui ) were adopted by John Young after Davis died. Isaac Young Davis, a grandson and one of nineteen children, was the second husband of Princess Ruth. ++++++++++++++ WILLIAM HEATH DAVIS, Sr. ( ? - 1822 ) Davis, a genial Boston ship Captain, arrived in the islands in the Isabella in 1812 and is credited along with Jonathan and Nathan Winship, with setting up the market for sandalwood in that year. Davis was popular at first with Kamehameha I and his son Liholiho, but often neglected busness in favor of heavy drinking. In 1817, Davis brought from Boston a ship named Eagle and soon afterwards the middle aged captain married seventeen year old Hannah Holmes, daughter of Oliver Holmes. Two sons were born of this union; Robert G. Davis ( Lopaka ), a member of the Hawai'i legislature and justice of the supreme court, and William Heath Davis, Jr., a pioneer builder in California. During 1818 and 1819, Davis in the Eagle voyaged to Sitka, California, and Mexico. In 1821 and 1822, John Coffin Jones, twice chartered another Eagle, a schooner, to Davis. On the second vayage under a captain named John Rogers, the crew failed to recapture another vessel, the Cossack, and was wrecked. Jones accepted the loss for his firm but Davis, broken by the news, litterally drank himself to death in November, 1822. +++++++++++++++ ARTHUR LYMAN DEAN ( 1878 -1952 ) Born in Southwick, Massachusetts, Dean obtained a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1900 and a doctorate from Yale in 1902. He taught chemistry at Sheffield Scientific School at Yale before coming in 1914, to serve as president of the College of Hawai'i, which became the University of Hawai'i in 1920. He reigned from the presidency in 1927. Dean was chosen executive director of the Territorial Food Commission in 1917 and director of the Association of Hawai'ian Pineapple Canners in 1927. In 1930, he became a vice president of Alexander & Baldwin and head of the pineapple division. Dean was a founder of the Institute of Pacific Relations and a preident of the Honoulu Council of Social Agencies, as well as a member of local and national societies. He solved the problem of refining chaumoogra oil into specific use as a palliative in treatment of leprosy. Dean married Leora E. Parmalee and they had three children. +++++++++++++++++ STEPHEN LANGHERNE DESHA Sr., ( 1859 -1934 ) Desha was born at Lahaina. Mau'i, son of John Rollin Langherne Desha of a Kentucky family and Eliza (Brewer ) Desha. Stephen attended the Royal School and the North Pacific Institute.He married Mary K Kemumano in 1884 and they had three children, includinng Samuel L. Desha Jr. After which his first wife died in 1915, he then married Julia Keonaona. Desha was one of the eloquent contemporary orators in the Hawai'ian language. He began his career as pastor of the Napoopoo Church at Kona in 1884 and served there for five years, when he was called to the pastorate of the Haili Church at Hilo. He was supervisor of the County of Hawai'i when county governemnt was begun in 1905. Hewas elected to the third Board of Supervisors in 1909. Later he served for tree terms in the territoral senate. In 1907, he bagan acting as editor and business management of the newspaper Ka Hoku o Hawai;i and was known as an authority on Hawai'ian legends, He was a member of various Hawai'ian civic groups. ++++++++++++++++ Stephen Langherne Desha Jr. ( 1885 -1957 ) Born in Napoopoo, Hawai'i, son of Sephen L. Desha Sr., Stephen Jr. was educated at the Kamehameha School for Boys and Punahou School. He taught public schools and became a clerk of the District Court of South Hilo from 1910 to 1913. He then attended George Washington University and obtained a bachelor degree in law in 1917. He established in 1919 the law firm of Desha & Desha with his brother, udge John R. Desha.From 1920 to 1934 Stephen served as District Judge in South Hilo, as well as United States commissioner for the district. he dcided in 1934 to enter the ministry and attended San Francisco Theological Seminary and served as a minister at large for West Hawai'i before taking his father's post in 1950 as pastor of Haili Church in Hilo. Desha was secretary of the Republican Committee for the County of Haai'i and a member of various Hilo organizations. ++++++++++++++++ EARNEST G. DE SILVA ( 1873 -1955 ) Born in Madeira, Portugal, De Silva came to Hawai'i at the age of fifteen. he worked as a jeweler with H.S. Wichman & Co., in Honolulu while studying for the ministry with the Hawai'ian Board of Missions. he was ordained in1899 and, except for a few years on the island of Mau'i, he was associated with the central Christain Church in Hilo, Hawai'i from 1899 until his death. +++++++++++++++++ SHELDON DIBBLE ( 1809 - 1845 ) Born at Skaneateles, New York, Dibble graduated from Hamilton College in 1827 and obtained a master's degree at uburn Theological Seminary in Massachusettsin 1830. In the same year he married Maria M. Tomlinson and sailed for hawai'i with the Fourth Company of American missionaries. The couple was stationed at Hilo in 1831 and at Lahainaluna Seminary, Mau'i in 1834. After the death of his wife in 1837, he traveled to the United States in search of improved health. He married Antoinette Tomlinson in 1839 before returning to Lahaina in 1840. Dibble taught history in the seminary and introduced the seminar method to the islands by having his students return to their homes and collect oral history from their elders. He assisted in the tanslation of the Bible and from 1832 to 1840 translated more than a dozen voumes of scholarly and scriptual works for the benifit of Hawai'ian readers. +++++++++++++++ CHARLES WILLIAM DICKEY ( 1871 -1942 ) Born in Alameda, California, Dickey attended public schools in Oakalnd and obtained a bachelor's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1894. He married Frances Greene in 1899. Dickey came to Hawai'i and designed business buildings, churches, hotels, schools, public buildings, and private homes. Among these were the Kamehameha School for Boys; Montague Hall at Punahou School; Castle & Cooke Building; Tayo, Varsity, Hilo, and Waikiki Theaters; Halekulani Hotel; Kona Inn; Naniloa Hotel in Hilo; Wilcox Memorial Hospital at Lihue; and Kula Sanatorium on Mau'i. He was assocated with the design of Honolulu's City Hall and central fire station, as well as Mayor Wright Homes and Kamehameha Homes. He was a member of the Honolulu City Planning Commission from 1931 to 1938. In addition to contributing much to architecture in the islands, Dickey was a sailing enthusiast and book collector. ++++++++++++++ JOHN DIELL ( 1808 -- 1841 ) Born in Cherry Valley, New York, Diell graduated from Hamilton College in 1827 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1832. He married Caroline A. Platt in July of that year and the couple sailed with the Sixth Company in November. He was the first chaplain of the American Seaman's Friend Society in Honolulu in 1833. He organized the O'ahu Bethel Church in 1837, the first church opened for foreigners in the islands. The Bethel hall could hold five hundred people, and te Diells distributed Bibles, tracts, and even spelling books to help sailors to read. Diell was succeeded by the Rev. Samuel C. Damon in 1842. The Diells left for the United States in 1840 and he died at sea in the Pacific. They had four children ++++++++++++++++++ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN DILLINGHAM ( 1844-1918 ) The founder of the Dillingham clan in Hawai'i, who stayed in the islands as a result of a broken leg, was born in West Brewster, Massachsetts, of old Puritan stock. He left the public schools of Worcester at the age of fourteen for a voyage around Cape Horn. As an officer on a Northern ship during the Civil War, he was landed in Brazil when a vessel was burned by the raider Alabama. As first officer of the bark Whistler, which stopped at Honoulu in 1864, Dillingham was thrown by a horse when riding ashore and began a long stay in the hospital. He was befriended by the Rev. Lowell Smith, whose daughter, Emma Louise, married Dillingham in 1869. The former sailor began a business career as a clerk in a hardware store owned by Henry Dimond on a six month trial. With the financing of his partner Alfred Castle, a son of Samuel Northrop Castle, Dillingham bought Dimond's business and changed the name to Dilingham & Co. In 1889, Dillingham gave his full attention to linking Honolulu with the north shore of O'ahu by means of a railroad. Part of his plans called for an acquisition of six thousand acres of agricultural land in the Ewa plain, to be cultivated by laborers brought from Portugal. Despite opposition, both parts of the plan were successfully carried out, Dillingham and his associates obtained a franchise for the O'ahu steam railway in 1888, and its roadbed reached Ewa within a year. Called " Dillingham's Folly." with 170 miles of track, became the greatest single factor in the agriculturial development of the island of O'ahu. By 1890, railroads were in operation not only in O'ahu, but in Mau'i and Hawai'i. The development of artesian wells at Ewa was a boon to Dillingham. Pumping of underground water made possible the irrigation of spreadin cane fields on Ewa Plantation. Dillingham turned his energies to furnishing more frieght for the railroad by developing other plantations at Kahuku, Honolulu, and Waialua. Later, he extended his operations to neighbor islands and promoted McBryde Sugar Co., Kihei Plantation Co., Ltd., Puna Sugar Co.Ltd., and Olaa Sugar Co.Ltd. He also built on Hawai'i what was later known as the Hawai'i Consolidated Railway. Such operations extended Dillingam's credit to a point wherein 1903, his obligations totaled more than the public debt of the Republic at the time of annexation. Fortunately, his son Walter F. Dillingham was able to assume responsibility for the financial direction of the many family enterprises. The father was free to retire and enjoy the realization of his dreams, but remained as president of the O'ahu Railway & Land Co. until his death. Other children of the Dillinghams were Harold Garfield Dillingham; Mary Emma Dillingham Frear: and Marion Dillingham Erdman. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To be continued in part 12. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/importan32nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 14.4 Kb