Statewide County HI Archives News.....Important People - Part 29. September 22, 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 September 24, 2008, 4:09 am Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands September 22, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 September 22, 2008 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in Time, of the Hawai'ian Islands Important People - Part 29. by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 29. Important People WILLIAM MATSON 1849-1917 Born in Lysekil, Sweden, the boy, like his viking ancestors, went to sea at the age of ten. At twenty-one, he was captain of a San Francisco schooner and for some years operated a fleet between that city and Pugent Sound ports. He saw the need for a shipping line between Hawai'i and California, and obtained support for the effort that still links his name with a fine fleet under the American flag, a subsideriary of Alexander & Baldwin. In 1882, Matson acquired the 299 ton schooner, Emma Claudine, nucleus of the Matson Navigation Co., Ltd. Other siling vessels were added to carry bulk sugar, canned pineapple, other cargo, and passengers. In 1902, Captain Matson acquired his first steamer, Enterprise,which with rare foresight, he converted it into a burner of fuel oil. He was also the first Pacific operator to equip his ships with radio telegraphy. The first steamer built by the company was the Lurline, named for the Captain's daughter, which went into service in 1908. Other steamers were soon added -- Wilhelmina, Matsonia, Manoa, and Mau'i. When America entered World War I, in 1917, Matson offered his entire fleet to the government, and made splendid records as troop transports. In 1923 the Matson Building, one of the largest at the time in San Francisco, became the firm's headquarters. During his shipping career, Matson also found time to become a developer of California petroleum; in 1903, he put five oil tankers into service to make deliveries from Monterey, California, to various Pacific Coast ports as far north as Nome, Alaska. In 1910, he amalgamated all his petroleum interests under the name of Honolulu Consolidated Oil Co. He was also instrumental in substituting oil for coal on the Hawai'ian sugar plantations served by his fleet. +++++++++++ JOHN MEARES A former lieutenant in the British Navy, Meares was one of the earliest fur traders on the Northwest Coast. He first came to Hawai'i in 1788 in the Calcutta snow Nootka on his way to China. He returned a master of the Felice Adventurer, in 1788, in company with the Iphigenia, one of his vessels, captained by William Douglas. +++++++++++++ HERMAN MELVILLE 1819-1891 Melville, one of the formost American authors writing about the Pacific, was born in New York City. He went to sea and in July, 1842, with one companion deserted the forecastle of the whale ship Acushner at the island of Nakuhiva in the Marquesas group. After less than a month in the valley of Typee, he signed on another vessel, Lucy Ann, and as descibed in his novel, he was put ashore at Tahiti as a mutineer. He was dscharged from a third whaler, Charles and Henry, at Lahaina, Mau'i, in May 1843. He soon went to Honolulu, where he was serving as a pinsetter in a bowling alley and then signed on as a clerk in a general store run by a young English merchant, Isaac Montgomery. Melville sided with the British view during the occupation of the islands by Lord George Paulet. In his novel, Melville describes his shock at the celebrations following the restoration of the monarchy by Admiral Richard Thomas. After ten weeks, Melville enlisted in an American warship and returned home to become author of Moby Dick and a number of other works of fiction. +++++++++++++ ARCHIBALD MENZIES 1754 -1842 Born in Scotland, Menzies first came to Hawai'i on the Prince of Wales in 1788. As naturalist with Captain George Vancouver, he returned in 1792,1793, and 1794 and supplied seeds to the people. He was the first non-Hawai'ian to climb to the summit of Mauna Loa, almost fourteen thousand feet above sea level. The party required ten days in 1794 to reach thetop, over a trail still bearing his name. He wrote a novel about Hawai;ian agriculture and believed that sugar cane could be cultivated in the islands without resort to slave labor. ++++++++++++++ SIMON METCALFE Metcalfe was one of the earliest traders on the Northwest Coast of America. He may have been the first captain to take sandalwood from Hawai'i to Asia. In February, 1790, when he was in command of the snow Eleanora, one of is boats was srolen and in revnge he committed the " Olowalu Massacre " off the island of Mau'i. He attrcted scores of canoes to one side of the ship and his cannon fire killed at least a hundred Hawai'ians. Later, off the coast of te Big Island, he whipped chief Kameeiamoku for some offense abroad ship. Several weeks later, Simon's eighteen years old son Thomas, in command of the little schooner Fair American, was attacked by Kameeiamoku, and Thomas and all his crew were killed except Isaac Davis. Metcalfe lef his boatswain, John Young, ashore and sailed from the islands without learning the fate of his son. The Fair American was taken over by Kamehameha I, who also enlisted Young and Davis in his corps of foreign supporters. +++++++++++++++ WILLIAM MILLER 1795-1861 General Miller, an English soldier, who had taken part in a revolution in Peru, became British Consul General in hawai'i in 1844. He arrived just before the departure of Admiral Richard Thomas after the restoration of Kamehameha III. Miller brought with him a treaty, almost the same time as the one that the king had been forced to sign in 1839, but the governmant had no choice except to affirm it on February 12. ++++++++++++++ JOHN TROUP MOIR 1859-1933 Born in Cookney, Kincardineshire, Scotland, Moir left school before he was twelve to labor on his father's farm. He worked on a railroad for four years before returning to the farm . he arrived in Honolulu in 1888 and began serving as a field foreman at the Waiakea Plantation near Hilo. After rising in rank on several other plantations, Moir finally became manager of the Onomea Sugar Co,, at Papaikou. He was also president of the Hilo Electric Light Co. and a director of several other local concerns. He married Louisa Silver in 1889 and the couple had five sons, several of whom continued the family tradition in agriculture. +++++++++++++ JAMES MELVILLE MONSARRAT 1854-1943 Born in Honolulu, Monsarrat was descended on his father's side from a noble French family that emigrated to Ireland in 1755. The father came to Hawai'i from Canada and in the 1850's was at one time duputy collector of customs and a member of the lumber firm of Dowsett & Co. The mother of James was Elizabeth Jane Dowesett, daughter of Samuel James Dowsett. James attended Punahou School, studied for two years at Kilkenny College in Ireland. and obtained a law degree from Harvard in 1878. He opened a practice in Honolulu the following year, and was secretary of the legislative assembly in 1880. he drew up the wills of Queen Doeager Emma and of Princess Miriam Likelike. After annexation he was district magistrate in Honolulu from 1911 to 1917. +++++++++++++ CELSO CAESAR MORENO 1830-1901 The Italian adventureer, whose influence on King Kalakaua paralleled that of Moreno's friend Walter Murray Gibson, was born in the Piedmont and educated ny his uncle, a Catholic bishop. he was highly gifted as a linguist. He graduated from the Iralian naval academy in Genoa and served in the Crimean War. He obtained a degree in civil engineering at the University of Genoa and began a career as a filabuster in Samatra and a promoter of trans-Pacific cable from California to China. Moreno arrived in Honolulu in November,1879, to seek support for his floundering cable project, and fed the king a proposal for a Pacific steamship line and other dubious programs, such as the importation and sale of opium. When several such suggestions were opposed by the cabinet in 1880, Kalakaua on August 14, disolved the body and appointed Moreno as minister of foreign affairs. Moreno's term lasted only five days; he resigned under pressure, revolution loomed, and the Italian was threatened with lyncing. At the end of the month Kalakaua sent Moreno to Italy to supervise the education of three young Hawai'ians at crown expense; one of the three was Robert W. Wilcox, Moreno carried letters to the governments of the United States, Great Britain, and France, asking them to recall their consuls from Hawai'i for their failure to recognize Moreno, but the cabinet forestalled such acts. Moreno's guardianship ended in a scandal when Kalakaua visited Italy in 1881. His career collapsed whenhe was a small-time lobbyist in Washington, D.C. ++++++++++++ JOHN MOTT-SMITH 1824-1895 Born in New York, Mott-Smith was educated in the public schools. he taught himself to pass the state dental examinations and practiced in Albany until the news of the gold rush caused him to depart for California. He arrived in Hawai'i in 1851 and opened an office at thecorner of Fort and Hotel Streets in Honolulu; for many years he was the only dentist in the islands. He became first editor of the Hawai'ian Gazette when it was established to defend the Constitution of 1864. He was appointed minister of finance three years later. He was an intimate friend of both Kalakaua and Lili'uokalani and was sent to Washington D.C., to advance the interests of the Kingdom. He returned to the islands in 1891 to become minister of finance under Lili'uokalani, and upon the death of H.A.P. Carter became minister plenipotentiary to Washington until succeeded in 1893 by Lorrin A. Thurston. Dr. Mott-Smith in 1859 married Ellen Dominis Paty and they had seven children. Some of whose descendants still reside in Hawai'i. ++++++++++++ NAEOLE A chief of Kohala, Hawai'i, fearful of threats to the life of the infant Kamehameha I and wishing the honor o rearing the child, Naeole stole away the baby and placed it under the care of a woman named Keaka. For ive years Naeole thus acted as kahu, or tutor, of the future conqueror. ++++++++++++ PAUL NAHAOLELUA 1806-1875 Born at Kawaihae, Hawai'i, Nahaolelua studied at Lahainaluna Seminary and ten served as district and circuit judge on the island of Mau'i. He acted as deputy to the governor, James Young Kanehoa, and succeeded him in 1852, serving until 1874. During the election of 1874, Nahaolelua became president of the legislative assembly that voted for Kalakaua rather than Emma. He was soon appointed minister of finance but retired from the cabinet in October. +++++++++++ NAHIENAENA [ HARRIET KEOPUOLANI ] 1815-1836 Daughter of Kamehameha I and his kapu wife Keopuolani and sister of Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III, Princess Nehienaena was the darling of the court and was educated by the America missionaries. In 1824, the year following the departure of her brother Kamehameha II for England, she reverted to the belief in ancient deities, and the conflict between the two clashing doctrines disturbed her throughout her short life. She was excommunicated by the Protestants in May, 1835. Many of the chiefs felt that she should marry her brother Kamehameha III, to concenrate the royal blood, but this Hawai'ian custom was opposed by the christians. In November, 1835,she married the high chief Leleiohoku and in September of the following year she gave birth to a stillborn son. Nahienaena died a few months later at the age of twenty-one. +++++++++++ NAIHE ? -1831 A high chief of Kealakekua, orator for the first three Kamehamehas, Naihe was the husband of the Kapiolani who defied the volcano goddess Pele. He was acting governor of the island of Hawai'i in 1831. He and his wife accompanied Kamhemeha II from O'ahu to Kaua'i in 1821 in a small sailing vessel that was nearly swamped in a storm, but the King refused to turn back and reached Kaua'i for meetings with Kaumualii. ++++++++++++ NAHIOLEA A brother and supporter of Kaiana, Nahiolea was the father of Kekuanaoa, who accompanied the Royal party to London in 1823. +++++++++++ MANJIRO NAKAHAMA 1827-1898 As a youth, Nakahama was rescued from a wrecked fishing vessel and taken to Honolulu. From there he went to Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and was given an American education and learned navigation. He was the first Japenese to come to the United States to be educated there. He later rose to leadersip in Japanese diplomacy and navel affairs. ++++++++++++ NAMAHANA A chiefess of Mau'i, Namahana was a wife of Kamehameha I and later of Keeaumokui, by whom she was the mother of Kaahumanu, Kalakua, Keeaumoku II (COX), and Lydia Pila Namahana. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To be continued in Part 30 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/importan53nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 13.8 Kb