Statewide County HI Archives News.....Important People - part 38. October 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 October 23, 2008, 12:48 am Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands October 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 October 22, 2008 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in Time, of the Hawai'ian Isalnds Important People - Part 38 by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 38 Important People ABNER WILCOX 1808 -1869 Born in Harwinton, Connecticutt, Wilcox, a teacher married Lucy Elizabeth Hart in 1836, shortly before sailing with the Eighth Company of American missionaries. The couple was stationed at Hilo from 1837 until 1844, where both taught school. They were transferred in 1844 to Waialua, O'ahu, where Wicox ws put in charge of the Manual Labor Boarding School. Two years later they were stationed at Waioli, Kaua'i, where he taught a select school for Hawai'ian boys for more than twenty years and preached on Sundays. The couple made a trip back to Connecticut in 1869 and died tere within a week of each other. The eght Wicox children founded an enduring clan associated with Kaua'i. +++++++++++++++ ALBERT SPENCER WILCOX 1844 -1919 Born in Hilo, son of Abner Wilcox, Albert attended Punahou School and joined his elder brother, George Norton Wilcox in a cane-planting venture at Hanalei, Kaua'i. Albert then became manager of Hanamaulu Plantation; later he was associated with the Princeville Plantation. In 1898 he settled at his stock ranch at Kilohana, Lihue, Kaua'i. Wilcox held a number of other business interests, and was a member of the House of Represntatives of the kingdom from 1891 to 1892. He founded the San Mahelona Hospital at Kapaa, Kaua'i, as a memorial to a stepson, and aso established the Kauikeolani Children's Hospital in Honolulu. In 1898 Wicox married Emma Kauikeolani Napoleon Mahelona, a widow. ++++++++++++++ GEORGE NORTON WILCOX 1839 -1933 Born in Hilo, son of Abner Wilcox, George as a young man spent several months at Jarvis Island with the American Guano Co., a pioneer attempt by Honolulu businessmen to deveop the export of fertilizer from Pacific Islands. Later in life, as a result of hs efforts, Wilcox became president of the Pacific Guano & Fertilizer Co., which supplied many Hawai'ian plantations. After a year at Yale, Wilcox became a prominent planter on Kaua'i. In 1864 he leased Grove Farm from H.A. Wiedemann; he developed irrigatin water, enlarged the holdings from 7,000 to 12,000 acres, and evenually became sole owner of the property. His scientific training made him a leader in vrios projects for better living conditions on Kaia'i. Wicox held other business interets but also found time for public service. he was a member of every legislative body from 1888 until 1898; he was prime miniter of the Kalakaua cabinet of 1892. he was also a noted philanthropist, especially promoting religious and educatinal efforts. He never married. ++++++++++++ SAMUEL WHITNEY WILCOX 1847 -1929 Like his elder brothers, Albert and George Wilcox, sons of Abner Wilcox, Samuel was born at Waioli, Kaua'i,attende d Punahou School and became a sugr planter. For many years he was manager of the cattle-raising breanc of Grove Farm Plantation in association with his brother George. He became sheriff of the isalnd of Kaua'i in 1872 and held that office for twenty five years . He was a member of the House or Representatives from 1901 to 1902 and a senator from 1903 to 1907. he married Emma Washburn Lyman of Hilo, of the mssionary family, in 1874 and the couple had six children. The parents were the donors of the Lihue Parish House as a memorial to their deceased sons Ralph and Charles. ++++++++++++ ROBERT WILLIAM WILCOX 1855 -1903 The future firebrand of the islands was born at Honuaula, Mau'i, son of Captain William Wilcox and Kalua Makoleokalani , a descendant of Mau'i royalty. He went to school at Wailuka at the age of eight and two years later attended an English school on a ranch. He was one of the first pupils of the Haleakala School in 1869 and graduated in 1875. he taught school at Ulupalakua and was elected to the legislature in 1880. Wilcox was one of the three students sent by Kalakaua to Italy under the guardianship of Celso Caesar Moreno. Wilcox graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Turin and began two years at the Royal Application School for Engineer and Artillery Officers. He married the Baroness Gina Sobrero in 1887 and returned to Hawai'i. In July, 1889 rebelling against the Constitution of 1887, Wilcox resplendant in his Italian cadet uniform, and about a hundred and fifty followers surrounded the government buildings and barricaded a bungalow on the Palace grounds. Seven revolutinaries were killed and a dozen wounded. Wilcox surrendered the next day and was tried for treason, but was acquitted when he pleaded that he acted with the King's sanction. Wilcox represented Honolulu in the legislaure in 1890 and Koolauloa in 1892 as head of the Liberal Party. After Lili'uokalani was deposed, Wilcox ld an abortive counter-revolution in 1895 and was condemned to death, but the United States Congress intervened. Preisdent Sanford B.Dole of the Republic of Hawai'i communited the sentence to thirty-five years' imprisonment at hard labor and a fine of $10,000, but the firebrand and all the rebels were pardoned within a few months. While Wicox was in prison, his Italian wife obtained an annulment of the marrige and in 1896, Wilcox married Princess Theresa Owana Kaohelelani, a direct decendant of Keoua Kalani, father of Kamehmeha I. Wilcox was elected the first delagate to Congress in 1900 undre the Home Rule Party with the slogan "Hawai'i for the Hawai'ians," but was defeated in 1902 by a Hawai'ian, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kakanianaole. ++++++++++++++ GARRIT PARMELE WILDER 1863 -1935 Bon in Honolulu, son of Samuel Garener Wilder, Garrit attended Atkinson Valley School and Punahou. He worked for the Kahului Railroad Co., on the island of Mau'i in 1884 and became president of the entire estate of S.G. Wilder, Ltd., and retired from active business to devote his time to horticulture. In 1924, after earning a master's degree at the University of Hawai'i, he became an associate in botany at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. he made expeditions to the South Pacific the West Indies, Ceylon, and other areas and introduced many plants and trees into Hawai'i. He hybridized and created many new varieties of Hibiscus. ++++++++++++ JAMES AUSTIN WILDER ( KIMO ) 1868 -1934 Born in Honolulu, son of Samuel Gardner Wilder, James graduated from Punahou School and planning a career in law, attended Harvard from 1893 to 1895. he became interested in art, however, and later studied under prominent painters in Paris. Returning to Honolulu in 1895, he was not interested in the family shiping business and made a trip to Japan; a year laterhe joined an expedition to Okinawa and Borneo. During the Spanosh American War, when Wilder was on a six month stay in Guam, he was condemned to death as an American spy, but survived to supply a full report on conditions in Guam that led to the sizure of that island by the United States. After his Paris studies, Wilder had lived in New York City and had become a leader in the Boy Scout movement, being granted at length the title of Chief Sea Scout. he served in World War I and then he and his family toured Spain and other European countries. In 1922 they reurned to settle in Honolulu, where Wilder oened a studio as a portait painter. In 1899 he married Sara Harnden in California and they had two children. +++++++++++ SAMUEL GARDENER WILDER 1831 -1888 Born in Leominister, Massachusetts, Wildre lived in the wstern states and for a time was one of the daring riders for the Pony Express. H was with the Adams Express Co., in California until he made his first visit to Hawai'i in 1856. A year later he married Elizabeth Kinau Judd, daughter of Dr. G.P. Judd, and thereafter was prominent in business affairs in Hawai'i. He was an pioneer in the shipping of guano from the South Pacific to New York to be used as fertilizer. He also was associated with hisfather-in-law in starting a sugar plantation at Kualoa, O'ahu. In 1871, when Wilder was in charge of the firm of James Isaac Dowsett and was agent for the government steamer Kilauea, he saw the opportunity of setting up a private shipping line. In 182, with the aid of Christopher H. Lewers, he purchased the Dowsett interests and establihed Wilder & Co., wich later to over the government steamers and began operations that merged in 1905 with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co., founded in 1882. Wilder went on to develop railways on the island of Hawai'i in 1881 and in Mau'i in 1884, and conceived the idea of building a maine railway in Honolulu which was competed in 1883, the first in Hawai'i. Wilder was appointed to the House of Nobles by King Lunalilo in 1873 and continued as a member when the office became elective in 1887. Kng Kalakaua made Wilder minister of the interior from 1878 to 1880. Wilder also served for years on the Board of Health and vistied the leper colony on the island of Moloka'i every three months. The five children of the Wilders, formed a clan promininent in the history of the islands. +++++++++++++ CHARLES WILKES 1798 -1877 Born in New York, Wilkes entered the United States Navy as a midshipman and became an authority on Oceanography While still a lieutenant he was appointed to command an expedition to survey the Northwest Coast of America and the Pacific region. The most ambitious scientific expedition hitherto sent out by any nation, it consisted of the flagship Vincennes and five other vessels, which sailed in 1838 and spent four years on the work. The ships arrived in Haonolulu in the autumn of 1841 and teams of scientists explored O'ahu, Mau'i, and the Big Island; Dr.G.P. Judd led a party that spent three weeks on Mauna Loa volcano. many social and cultural observations are found in the eleven volumns of his report. +++++++++++++ JOHN WILKINSON A middle-aged English gardner who was brought to Hawai'i on the Blonde in 1825 by Chief Boki and was a pioneer sugar planter. Wilkinson had lived in the West Indies and had been a captain in the Peninsular War against Napoleon. He laid out an area in Manoa Valley,O'ahu, and in spite of poor health and a lack of tools and laborers, he put one hundred acres under cultivation in eighteen months. he also began the growing of coffee trees and the distilling of rum. The strain of the enterprise was too much for him and he died in November 1826; the palntation was abandoned in 1829. Wilkinson's work antedated by a decade the first serious cultivation of sugar cane at Koloa on Kaua'i. ++++++++++++++ JAMES J. WILLIAMS 1853 -1926 Born in England, Willaima came to Honolulu from Cleveland around 1878 to work for Dixon Brothers. He bought the firm and changed the name to J.J. Williams Studio. He was the leading photographer in Honolulu for forty-five years, acquired hundreds of thousands of rare plates, and possessed one of the greatest collections of photographs of Hawai'ian royalty and oldtime Honolulu, as well as views of volcano eruptions and events. He was the first person to operate a travel agency in the territory, and with Thomas G. Thrum established in 1888 the monthly Paradise of the Pacific, designd to attract visitors to Hawai'i. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Continued in part 39. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/importan80nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 12.3 Kb