Statewide County HI Archives News.....Important People - Part 31. October 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 October 6, 2008, 2:44 pm Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands October 2, 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 Oct 2, 2008 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in Time, of the Hawai'ian Islands Important People - Part 31. by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 31 Important People HENRY AUGUSTUS PEIRCE 1808-1885 A successful merchant in Honolulu in the 1830s, Peirce returned to Boston but stopped in Hawai'i in 1849 on a trading voyage to China. Seeing the possibilities of growing sugar cane, he organized the firm of H.A. Peirce & Co. in partnership with Judge William I. Lee and Charles R. Bishop; from this beginning grew the present Lihue Plantation. In 1850, Peirce, James Hunnewell, and Charles Brewer, than all three residing in or near Boston, formed a partnership to conduct a freighting business between Boston and the leading ports of the Pacific; the Honolulu agent for this group was the firm of C. Brewer & Co. In 1853 Peirce supported the efforts of David M. Weston in founding the Honolulu Iron Works. In the summer of 1869 Peirce, who had kept in touch with Hawai'ian interests in Washington, D.C., replaced General Edward M. McCook as American monister to Hawai'i and served until 1878. He was a strong supporter of the idea of annexation of the islands by the United States, especially during the final years of Kamehameha V, last of the line of the conqueror. Peirce saw the need for a strong reciprocity treaty with the United States, and during the brief reign of Lunalilo advocated the inclusion of a clause that would cede the Pearl River lagoon as an American naval base; however, the signing of such a treaty did not come until the reign of Kalakaua, whose election Peirce strongly supported and immediately rcognized officially. Peirce was invited to accompany Kalakaua on his tour of the United States in 1874 and went with the party as far as Washington, D.C. After his replacement as American minister, Peirce acted as Hawai'ian minister of foreign affairs for a few months in 1878 but was replaced by John M. Kapena at the instigation of Walter Murray Gibson. +++++++++++++ JOHN PERCIVAL 1779-1862 Percival, who went to sea at the age of thirteen, was pressed into the Royal Navy and later fought as an American against this force during the War of 1812. He served as first lieutenant of Commodore Isaac Hull's flagship, U.S.S. United States, as part of the Pacific Exploring Squadron. He had achieved the nickname of " Mad Jack " or " Roaring Jack," and his temper matched his reputation. In command of the armed schooner Dolphin, he and his crew rounded up surviving mutineers of the whale ship Globe in the Marshall Islands and then headed north through the Hawai'ian Chain. The Dolphin, first American warship to visit Hawai'i, arrived in Honolulu on January 16, 1826. The crew spent four months at the capital, refitting and carrying on business ashore. One result was the acknowledgement by the chiefs that they had run up a debt to American merchants of more than $300,000; this was the orgin of the national debt of the Hawai'ian kingdom. As a result of a missionary-inspired ban of visiting of ships by Hawai'ian women, a large group of sailors from the Dolphin and other ships broke into the house ofPrime minister Kalanimoku on Sunday, February 26, and attacked the Rev. Hiram Bingham. Percival finally broke up the riot but the ban was revoked. When the captain returned to the United States he faced a court-martial for his behavior but was acquitted because he had helped to quell the mischief of his men. The cruise of the Dolphin was related by the first officer, Hiram Paulding. +++++++++++++ PIERRE FRANCOIS PERON 1769 - 1830? Peron was a French trading captain who owned his ship until it was captured by the British. He served as first officer under Captain Ebenezer Dorr of the Boston ship Otter. After cruising the Northwest Coast of America and California ( the Otter was the first American ship to enter a California port ), Dorr's ship reached Hawai'i on December 2, 1796, and departed on New Year's Day for China. In his book, " Memoires du Capitaine Peron sur ses voyages," printed in two volumes in Paris in 1824, Peron reports that in 1796 about twenty seven foreigners were residing in the islands, most of them quite happily. He gives a favorable description of Kamehameha I and stresses the power of the royal kapu. He mentions they sailed past small islands named Nicker and Ni'ihua, Mokumanamana, and the islands beyond, where they procured sweet potatoes from the islanders, whom were in the Northwestern portion of the Sandwich Island Chain. Peron settled in his native country and served as mayor of the town of Saumur; his death date is unknown. ++++++++++++++ LOUIS EMILE PERRIN 1810 -1862 The future French consul and commissioner first came to Hawai'i in 1846 to sign a treaty on behalf of the French government. He succeeded Guillaume Patrice Dillon in 1851, arriving aboard the French warship Serieuse on February 1 and repeating the famous demands of Legoarant de Tromelin. When Perrin found the King Kamehameha III had signed a secret proclamation putting the islands under American protection, he modified his demands and returned to France. This ended the efforts of the French to annex Hawai'i as they had annxed the Society and Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. +++++++++++++ JASON PERRY 1826 -1883 Born on the island of Fayal in the Azores, Perry left home at seventeen on a whale ship and sailed around the Americas until he arrived in Honolulu in 1852 to live with his uncle. After a few years, Perry established himself in a drygoods store. He was appointed first council for Portugal in Honolulu and served until he resigned because of poor health shortly before his death. His son, Antonio Perry, became a justice of the Hawai'i Supreme Court. ++++++++++++++ ABEL DU PETIT-THOUARS Captain of the French warship Venus, Petit-Thouars arrived off Honolulu in July, 1837, at the same time as Captain Edwad Belcher of the British ship Sulhur. The two captains gave written pledges that the Catholic priests Bachelot and Short would leave the islands at the first opportunity. Although Petit-Thouars had no authority to make a treaty, he signed a document on July 24 giving French subjects the same rights in Hawai'i as those of the most favored other nation. The captain also appointed Jules Dudoit as French consul. Petit-Thouars later took over the Society and Marquesas Islands as French protectorates. ++++++++++++ LESTER PETRIE 1878 - 1956 Petrie was born in San Francisco but was brought to Hawai'i as an infant. He attended the Fort Street School and for fifty years was employed by the O'ahu Railway & land Co., retiring as general shop superintendant. He was a member of the Honolulu Board of Supervisors from 1913 to 1930, a territorial senator for four years, and mayor of the city for six years, 1941 to 1947. He served on various commissions and helped to establish the Shriner's Hospital for Crippled Children. ++++++++++++++ DAVID KAHALEPOULI PIIKOI Piikoi was the husband of Kinoiki Kekaulike ( 1843 -1884 ) and the father of David Kawananakoa, Edward Keliiahonui (1869-1887), and Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole. ++++++++++++++ FORREST JAY PINKERTON 1892 -1974 Born in Lowell, Indiana, Pinkerton earnd a degree at the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery. He first came to Hawai'i during World War I to serve at Schofield Barracks and Tripler Hospital in the Army Medical Corps. In 1920 he joined the staff at Queen's Hospital in Honolulu and served for twty-six years. He was widely known as an ophthalmologist and was active in a number of medical ad civic efforts. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, he helped to establish the Hawai'i Blood Bank and was president and director for many years; the Blood Bank is still an important institution in Honolulu. ++++++++++++++++ LUCIUS EUGENE PINKHAM 1850 -1922 Pinkham came to Hawai'i from the mainland in 1891 and spent three years. He returned in 1898 and engaged in business until his retirement in 1903. He was president of the territorial Board of Health for two terms, and was concerned with the betterment of lepers at the Molokai colony. He also was in charge of methods to control bubonic plague and cholera epidemics. He was named fourth governor of Hawai'i by President Woodrow Wilson in November, 1913, and served until June 22, 1918. Since World War I broke out only a few months ater he was appointed, Pinkham's administration was concerned with " preparedness " and Hawai'i's participation in the war. One successful effort was the building up of a strong National Guard in the territory. Pinkham was also interested in the deveolpment of a civic center in Honolulu and in the beginning the reclamation of Waikiki areas by draining and filling a large area of swamp land back from the beach. After his term ended, Pinkham continued wold travels by touring Asia, Europe, and America. +++++++++++++++ JOHN FAWCETT POGUE 1814 -1877 Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Pogue graduated from Maretta College, Ohio, in 1810 and from Lane Theologcal Seminary Ohio, in 1843. He was an unmarried member of the Eleventh Company of American missionaries that arrived in Hawai'i in 1844. He was stationed at Koloa, Kaua'i, and in 1848 was transferred to Kaawaloa, Hawai'i, and married Maria Kapule Whitney of the First Company, she was the first missionary daughter born in the islands, who after sixteen years in the United States had come back to Hawai'i on the same ship as Pogue. The Pogues remained on the Big Island until 1850 and then were stationed at Lahainaluna from 1851 to 1866. They were then assigned to Waiohinu, Hawai'i, from 1866 to 1868, and after a visit to Micronesia went to Honolulu, where Pogue was secretary of the Hawai'ian Board from 1870 until he resigned from the Hawai'ian Evangelical Association in 1877. The Pogues had four children. ++++++++++++++++ JOSEPH POINDEXTER 1869 - 1951 Born in Canyon City, Oregon, Poindexter was educated at Ohio Wesleyan University and earned a law degree from Washington University, St. Lous in 1892. He won distinction at the Montana bar and was an attorney general of that state when named a judge of the United States District Court in Hawai'i in 1917. In 1924 he began private law practice for a decade. he was named governor of the territory by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 and reappointed in 1938. Poindexter's first term fell during the depression years and the policy of frugality was continued. However, he helped to develop Keehi Lagoon as a seaplane base and greatly enlarged the Honolulu airport. Realization that the territory was not free of adverse Congressional action further encouraged the statehood idea. The threat was enforced by the enactment in the spring of 1934 of the Jones-Costigan sugar control bill. The statehood movement was halted by the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when Hawai'i was immediately put on war footing. In October of that year the Hawai'i Defence Act, commonly called the M-Day Bill, giving the governor extended emergency powers, had been passed. At 11:30 a.m. on December 7, Poindexter proclaimed the existence of a defense period, and at 3:30 that aftenoon, having talked with the president, he envoked martial law and requested Walter C. Short to take over all powers normally exercised by the governor. Thereafter for four years, civil government ceased to exist in Hawai'i. Poindexter's second term expired in March, 1942, but he was not replaced until the inauguration on August 24 of Ingram M. Stainback. Poindexter returned to private practice until his death in 1951; he became a trustee of the Bernice P. Bishop Estate in 1943. ++++++++++++++ NATHANIEL PORTLOCK 1748? -1817 Born in the American Colonies, Portlock, like his fellow captain, George Dixon, sailed on the third Pacific voyage of James Cook. Both Captains returned to the islands in 1796 as masters of vessels makng trading voyages between the Northwest Coast of America and China. Portlock, in commnd of the King George, and Dixon, in command of the Queen Charlotte, were sent out by a group o English gentlemen who, under the name of the King George's Sound Company, had been given exclusive trading privileges on the Northwest Coast to avoid conflict with the South Sea Company and the East India Company. Later British ships on that coast thus had to sail under foreign flags. The two vessels left England in September, 1785, and touched at the islands the following spring. The King George arrived May 24 and departed June 13; another visit it arrived November 16 and wintered in the islands, departing on March 3, 1787. On a third visit it arrived September 27, 1787, and departed October 7. Portlock and Dixon were the first foreign captains to visit the islands after the death of Captain Cook seven years earlier. The frigates of La Perouse arrived off the island of Mau'i a few days after Portlock touched at the Big Island. The crews of Portlock and Dixon were the first to describe the life of the Hawai'ians of the southern coast of O'ahu. After returning from this voyage, Portlock served in 1791 in command of the brig Assistant on the second breadfruit voyage of William Bligh in the Providence. ++++++++++++++ PETER PUGET Puget at the age of twelve enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1778 a a midshipman. As a lieutenant, he commanded the armed tender Chatham on the expedition of George Vancouver that visited Hawai'i in 1792,1793, and 1794. Puget first raised the British flag over Hawai'i. After more than forty years of service he was promoted and commissioned Rear Admiral of the Blue. Puget Sound in the state of Washington, explored by Puget commanding sixteen men in two small boats in May, 1792, was named for him. +++++++++++++ IKUA PURDY 1873 -1945 Born in Mana on the Big Island's Parker Ranch, the outstanding Hawai'ian cowboy, learned to ride before he could walk. He worked on this ranch and later on the Ulupalakua Ranch on Mau'i. He won the world steer-roping championship at the Cheyenne Frontier Days celebration in 1908 by roping, busting, and hog-tying his animal in fifty-six seconds. ++++++++++++++ HENRY BOND RESTARICK 1854 - 1933 Born in Holcomb, England, the future Episcopal bishop of Honolulu was educated at King James School, Bridgewater. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1879 and after attending Griswold College at Davenport, Iowa, was ordained as a priest in 1882. In the same year he married May L. Baker and they had three children. Restarick was given charge of the Parish of San Diego, California, which at the time was larger than the State of Massachusetts. He was granted a divinity degree from King's College, Nova Scotia, in 1903. After the annexation of hawai'i, it was decided that the American Episcopal Church should have charge of the formally autonomus Anglican Church in the Islands, and on April 16, 1902, Restarick was elected the first American bishop of Honolulu. He was a friend of Queen Lili'uokalani and conducted her funeral services. Menbership in the church quadrupled under his eighteen years as bishop; he retired from active work in 1920. +++++++++++++ STEPHEN REYNOLDS 1782 -1857 Born in Massachusetts, Reynolds made three visits to Hawai'i on is ship New Hazard in 1811 and 1812, during the war between the United States and Great Britian. During a fourth visit in 1813 he arrived on the Isabella and returned onthe New Hazard. In 1822, he returned to reside in Hoolulu as merchant, lawyer, and harbor master. He was fond of sports and games and collided with missionaries who ruled against such pleasures. His first wife was Hawai'ian; after her death in 1829, he married Susan Jackson. In August, 1845, he was declared a lunatic; his business was put in the hands of trustees, and he was sent back to Boston in May,1856. ++++++++++++ WILLIAM HARRISON RICE 1813 -1862 Born in Oswego, New York, Rice married Mary Sophia Hyde in October, 1840, and six weeks later the couple sailed from Boston with the Ninth Company of American missionaries. Arriving in Honolulu in 1841, they declined assignment to the Oregon Mission and were stationed at Hana, Mau'i, from that year until 1844. Rice was then a teacher at Punahou School until 1854, when he completed his term with the mission and moved his growing family to the island of Kaua'i. There he took over management of the Lihue Sugar Plantation, originally owned by H.A. Peirce & Co. Like his son, William Hyde Rice, the father was a student of Hawai'ian legends, especially the myth of Pele. His eldest daughter married Paul Isenberg. +++++++++++++++ WILLIAM HYDE RICE 1846 -1924 Eldest son of William Harrison Rice, the future governor of Kaua'i was born in Honolulu. He attended a boarding school at Koloa, Kaua'i, Punahou School, and Braton's College in Oakland, California. he married Mary Waterhouse in 1872, and they reared eight children. For two years Rice was the manager of the ranch at Lihue Plantation under Paul Isenberg, his brother-in-law, and later was president of William Hyde Rice & Co, which owned Kipu Plantation and Lihue Ranch. He bred cattle and fine horses. Rice was for eight years a member of the ouse of Representatives under the monarchy. he was appointed governor of Kaua'i by Queen Liliu'okalani and later helped to draw up the constitution of the Republc of Hawai'i. Rice spoke Hawai'ian fluently and is known today as author of a valuable collection of Hawai'ian Legends. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Continued in part 32. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/importan57nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 18.7 Kb