Statewide County HI Archives News.....Important People - part 34. October 17, 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 23, 2008, 12:45 am Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands October 17, 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 October 17, 2008 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in Time, of the Hawai'ian Islands Important People - part 34 by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 34 Important People ANTONIO V. SOARES 1860 - 1930 Born in St. Jorge in the Azores, Soares was one of the many Protestants persecuted in his native land who became refuges in the United States. He ad his wife, Rachel Fernandez Soares, came to Hawai'i in 1890. He was asked by the Hawai'ian Board of Missions to care for the Portugese Prrotestsnts. He was ordained at Central Union Church in 1891, and after five years of meeting in temporary quarters, the cornerstone of hs church was laid in July, 1896. Soares assisted in the development of Portugese churches on Mau'i and at Hilo, and for forty years helped his minority group to establish themselves in the larger community. The son, Olive P. Soares, became a well-known lawyer in Honolulu. +++++++++++ YASUTARO SOGA 1873 -1957 Born in Tokyo, Soga attended the Tokyo Pharmacy School and the English Law Institute. He arrived in Hawai'i in 1896 and after four years as clerk in stores became an assistant Editor of the Hawai'i Shimpo; he was editor by 1906. As a result of the strike by Japanese laborers on sugar plantations of O'ahu in 1909 and 1910, Soga was imprisioned with three other Japanese laders on March 10, 1910, but was pardoned by Governor Walter F. Frear on July 4. Soga attended the coronation of Emporor Taiso in 1915 and the Washington Conference on Limitation of Naval Armaments in 1921, and was the only japanese from Hawai'i to be invited to the Imperial Chrysanthemum Party in Tokyo in 1934. In 1919 Soga became editor, president, and publisher of the Nippu Jiji and egan a section in English, the first published by any Japanese newspaper. The name was changed to Hawaii Times in 1942, during World War II. +++++++++++++ JOHN HARRIS SOPER 1846 -1944 Born in Plymouth, England, Soper was brought by his parents to new York and then to Illinois, where he attended normal school. he went to California in 1861 and was active in mining and engineering until he came to Hawai'i in 1877. He began a career in raising sugar cane by becoming manager of the Pioneer Mill at Lahaina, Mau'i. He was first appointed mrshall of the kingdom in 1884 to succeed William C. Parke; two years he resigned to re-enter business, but King Kalakaua again called him to post in 1888. Soper was head of the force that suppresed the Robert W. Wilcox rebellion of 1889, but resigned once more in 1890. When the critical year of 1893 arrived Soper was called upon by the Provisional Government to head their forces, and under his command the monarchy was bloodlessly overthrown. He was commissioned in january, 1894, as general in the National Guard and suppressed the counter-revolution of 1895. He continued in this office until 1907, when he retired with the rank of brigadier general by authorization of the War Department in Washington. During all these years, Soper's business intersts prospered. he married Mry Wundenberg of Vallejo, California in 1871, and the couple had five children. Soper lived for almost a century, and spent two thirds of his career in Hawai'i. ++++++++++++ ZEPHANIAH SWIFT SPALDING With the Civil War rank of a lieutenant colonel, Spalding, son of a United States Congressman,arrived in Honolulu, in December, 1867, to secretly sound out opinion concerning a reciprocity treaty then being studied in washington. He was in favor of outright annexation and felt tat it would be hastened by rejection of the proposed treaty. He became acing United States vice council in Honolulu in 1868 and received a regular comission the following year. However, Spalding joined a group to develop sugar growing on the island of Mau'i and by 1870 he had been converted into a strong supporter of reciprocity. He built a two story house on a ninty acre estate, but eventually went to live inEurope, where his tree daughters married Italian noblemen. His wife was a Makee of Ulupalakua, Mau'i. ++++++++++ EPHRAIM SPAULDING 1802 -1840 Born in Ludlow, Vermont, Spaulding graduated from Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1828 and from Andover Theological Seminary, Massachusetts, in 1831. He married Julia Brooks in November of that year, shortly before the couple sailed with the Fifth Company of American missionaries. They were stationed in 1832 at Lahaina. Mau'i , where he worked among the schools and churches and was chaplain for the many sailors tht thronged the port during the whaling season. Ill health compelled him to return to the United States in 1837. the Spauldings had four children. +++++++++++ CLAUS SPRECKLES 1828 -1908 Born in Lamstedt, Hanover, Germany, Spreckels became a financier in California and was associated with the California Sugar Refinery in San Francisco before arriving in Hawai'i in 1876. He had fought the proposed reciprocity treaty that would give favorable terms to Hawai'ian exporters to the United States,but when it became a reality he invested heavily in sugar land, sugar mills, reilway lines, and irrigation systems such as the one be built below the Hamakua Ditch of Alexander & Baldwin on the island of mau'i. By 1878 this project had reclaimed some seventeen thousand acres of leased crown lands and led to the establishment of the Hawai'ian Commercial & Sugar co., operators of the finest plantation in all the islands. His son, John D. Spreckles, founded the Oceanic Steamship Co., which ran between the islands and San Francisco for many years and later extended his operations to Australia and New Zealand. Claus Spreckles also established a banking and agency house in Honolulu, later operated by his partner, William G. Irwin, under Irwin's name; in 1882 Irwin claimed that the firm had a complete monopoly of the Hawai'ian sugar crop. In 1878, King Kalakaua, poker-playing crony of Spreckles, began a dangerous course of dismissing cabinets tat did not agree with his habit of raising money by dubiuos means. Spreckles applied for an extensive water privilege on his Mau'i sugar lands. When it was rejected, he made a personal loan to the King and a new cabinet promptly granted the requested rights for thirty years at $500 a year. Along with men like Celso Caeser Moreno and Walter Murray Gibson, Sprecles encouraged corruption. In 1882 the legislature conveyed to him some twenty-four-thousand acres of crown lands at Wailuku, Mau'i, to settle a claim that he had purchased from Princess Ruth for $10,000. As the result of another bill, one million dolars in silver coins bearing the head of alakaua was minted in San Francisco and circulated; Spreckles made a profit of from $100,000 to $200,000 from this coinage deal. Spreckles became known as " the power behind the throne " and " the uncrowned King of Hawai'i "; even after his political influenece waned he remained " the sugar King of Hawai'i." When friction arose between the King and the Spreckles party the finacier returned to San Francisco in 1886, but sometimes came back to survey his Hawai'ian properties. he supported Queen Lili'ukalani after she was disposed and gradually withdrew his money from the islands finally selling the H.C.& S Co to Alexander & Baldwin. His last visit to Hawai'i was in 1905. ++++++++++++ THOMAS NETTLESHIP STALEY 1823 -1898 Staley was born in Yorkshire, England, became a fellow of Cambridge University. He was selected in 1861 by Archbishop Sumner to act as the first Anglican bishop of Honolulu. He and his wife, Catherine W. Shirley Staley arrived in Honolulu in October 1862, a few weeks after the death of Albert, Prince of Hawai'i. The bishop was appointed to the privy council and to the board of education, and began two church operated boarding schools. He retired from this post in 1870. ++++++++++ HUGO STRANGEWALD 1829 -1899 Born in Germany, the young man left with a group of exiles led by Carl Schurz. Afer living in various parts of the mainalnd, he arrived in Hawai'i in 1851. he practiced medicine successfully; the Hawai'ians called him " the instantaneous healer." His office was first set up on Merchant Street near Fort, where was later erected the Stranenwald Building, a six story structure called Hawai'i's first skyscraper. Dr. Stangewald experimented with photography and was the first to make daguerreotypes in the islands. In 1854, he married Mary Catherine Dimond, daughter of the merchant Henry Dimond. ++++++++++++ JOHN LEVITT STEVENS 1820 -1895 Born in Mount Vernon, Maine, Stevens studied at the Waterville Liberal Institute and the Maine Weslyean Seminary. He discontinued his studies for the ministry and began a career in journalism in 1855 as owner of the Kennebec Journal. After a career in politics he was appointed minister to Uruguay and Paraguay from 1870 to 1874; from 1877 to 1883 he was minister to Norway and Sweden. Stevens arrived in Hawai'i in 1889, first as minister, then as an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary. On January 16, 1893, the day before the Provisional Government took over the rule in the islands, Minister Stevens caused American Troops to be landed in Honolulu for the protection of American lives and property. He was, in fact, friendly with the annexationit cause and quickly recognized the new government. He was repalced by President Grover Cleveland's appointment of Albert S. Willis, and left the islands in 1893. ++++++++++++++ ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 1850 -1894 The world famous Scottish author First arrived in Hawai'i with his family on his chartered yacht Casco in 1889 and spent five months exploring the islands and writing some of his best fiction and essays. Stevenson's step-daughter, Isabel Osbourne Strong, wife of King Kalakaua's court painter Joseph Strong, had arrived earlier, and Stevenson and his wife Fanny were immediately accepted as a part of the royal circle. He chatted with the half-Scottish, half-Hawaiian Princess Kaiulani under her father's banyan tree in Waikiki and wrote her a poem still treasured. " Forth from her land to mine she goes," He sailed to the Kona Coast, rode around the City of Refuge, and then spent a week in the guest house of the leper colony on the island of Moloka'i soon after the death of Father Damien. Stevenson made a five week return visit to Hawai'i in 1893, a year before his death in Samoa, and found his loyal friend Lil"uokalani deposed and pro-American Provisional Government in power. Two of Stevenson's best short stories--- " The Bottle Imp " and " The Isle of Voices" -- have settings in Hawai'i, and the inspiration for his Pacific novel of adventure " The Wrecker, written in collaboration with is stepson Lloyd Osbourne, came from an incident reported in the Honolulu newspapers during his residence at Waikiki. The most notorious of Stevenson's writings about Hawai'i, however, was his attack upon Rev. Charles McEwen Hyde of Honolulu, who had written a letter defaming Damien. The best account of the activities of "R.L.S. " during his two visits is "Stevenson in Hawai'i " by Sister Martha Mary McGaw. +++++++++++ CHARLES SAMUEL STEWART 1795 -1870 Born in Flemington, New Jersey, Stewart studied law, graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was ordained in 1821. He married Harriet Bradford Tiffany and the couple arrived in Hawai'i with the Second Company in 1823. Stewart was a pioneer preacher at Lahaina, Mau'i, along with William Richards. The illness of his wife compelled their return to the United States in 1825, where he lectured as a missionary. He revisited the islands in 1829 a chaplain of the U.S. Sloop Vincennes, the first American naval vessel to tour the world, and remained in the employ of the mission until 1830. Stewart had three children by Harriet and one daughter by a second wife, Sarah Ann Stewart Skillman Stewart, who died in 1854. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To be continued in Part 35 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/importan76nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 13.0 Kb