Ladd—Drew—On the 5th inst., by the Rev. Father Hermann, Mr. W. N. Ladd to Miss Joanna Drew, both of Honolulu.
Davidson—Fayerweather—In Honolulu, July 4th, by Rev. S. C. Damon, Mr. Benoni R. Davidson to Miss Mary Jane Fayerweather, both of Honolulu.
(PCA, 7/9/1864, p.2)
The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Volume IX, Number 2, Page 2. July 9, 1864.
(Continued from Page 5)
Dr. Ed. Hoffmann as chairman of the general committee, we went to the ball. There I met Miss Mary Burbank, Dr. Hoffmann’s young niece, who was assisting him to do the honors of the evening. It seemed in those days no function was complete without Dr. Hoffmann, who was a prominent gentleman here. He was deeply interested in Hawaiian affairs. A few years later, sometime in the 70s, he encouraged us to send Hawaiian fancy work to the Berlin exposition. I made pumpkin straw flowers made from the white, satiny fiber of the pumpkin stalks and a few months afterward I received a gold locket and chain as a prize. It was sent on in care of Dr. Hoffmann. Continue reading
BY MARY JANE FAYERWEATHER MONTANO
(Continued from last Sunday)
A year or more after the smallpox epidemic, which swept our Islands in 1853, came a greater shock to the Hawaiian nation. King Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III, died, the loved one of the Hawaiian people. Every man, woman and child wept. After a few days the Palace gates were opened to the public and there was also a call to all to cover the streets with fine grass. I went out for grass which was to be found in the kalo patches. The kalo patches were not very far from Beretania street in those days. I did not follow the others, but I went right into the King’s gardens, called Beretania, where the Episcopal Cathedral now stands. I stepped into a kalo patch and picked an armful of the soft grass. Tears blinded my eyes. I thought of the day when His Majesty called to see my mother. He ran his fingers through my hear, and asked my mother, “Is this your little ‘white hair'”? Mother answered, “Yes”. Continue reading
On Wednesday, October 24th, Thomas Lindsey a boy eighteeen years of age, son of William Lindsey of Waimea, Hawaii, was chasing a wild bull on Mr. Holmes ranch, when his horse struck a single rock bedded in the sand, throwing the boy off. Continue reading
Ike aku i ka ono o ka wai o ia pua,
Upu ae ka manao e kii aku e ako.
[I know of the sweet nectar of that flower,
The desire wells up to go and pluck it.]
[The use of lines of well-known mele like from Thomas Linsey’s “Honesakala” above is a feature of Hawaiian storytelling. They elicit a feeling or mood to help the flow of the moolelo. This particular translation of one of the Frank Reade Jr. stories ran in Hawaiian in the Kuokoa from 5/25/1895 to 11/9/1895 under the title “He Moolelo no Frank Reade Opio: Ka Mea Nana i Hana ka Moku Lele ma ka Lewa-lani…”]
(Kuokoa, 8/17/1895, p. 1)
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke XXXIV, Helu 33, Aoao 1. Augate 17, 1895.
Did you see last week Monday’s post on Welo Hou? It is funny how mele written by someone from a long time ago can stir up personal memories, both good and bad. Thomas Lindsey’s “Honesakala” is timeless. Does anyone know which Thomas Lindsey this was.
MS SC Roberts 2.2, p. 3. “Honesakala”
(Continued from Page 9)
together at his town home on Fort street, and decided as they had heard about the gold rush in California, they would go there to dig gold, because of the taking of their lands in Hawaii.
They went to California and never returned. They all died over there. My aunt Maria Kaiponuikaipoliilii Beckley, was the wife of the High Chief Kamakahonu Kane, and when she was left a widow with her orphan son, George Kekapalahaole II, she called that home (Fort street), Maunakula, meaning “Mountain of Gold.” That is where she lived and she died there about 1887 or 1888.
CHIEFS’ COUNCIL RECALLED
I remember as a child seeing these magnificent Hawaiians as they sat there in the shade of the mango trees, on soft mats, in just their malos, because they were at home, a happy lot, all seated and chanting one another’s chants, and using their eyes and hands to interpret the songs. They were all so cheerful because they felt they would bring home a great deal of wealth, not only for themselves, but to share again with their king.
But the Great Mahele, after all, was just, for the Government could not be effectual without lands and finances, but it imposed many hardships on the chiefs who were dispossessed of many of their lands that were dear to them. Had it not been for the spears of these chiefs and their loyalty to their king, Kamehameha I, there would not have been so early a consolidation of the group.
BIRTH RECORDS KEPT
Captain Beckley’s children, as he wrote their births in his family Episcopal prayer book, which is still in Honolulu, were:
William, August, 1814; Mairia January 25, 1817; Nancy, January 25, 1818; Mary, October 1, 1820; George F., January 1, 1823. then comes an entry with no date of the year: “April, this day, Saturday, Emiline Marie Guadalupe was born at sea in lat. 28.40 North, and Long. 116.40 W., at 1 o’clock p.m.”
I am writing of this will, to show you how methodical Capt. Beckley was. The will and the list of this property were in the hands of Alexander Adams and at the request of my father, Abram Fayerweather, he gave the will over to him.
Coming back to the time I returned to Honolulu from Kohala and became acquainted with my own father and my mother: The first school I attended while my parents were alive was that conducted by Mrs. Gummer and her mother, Mrs. Davis, a select school. It was on King street almost to the corner of Alakea. The house was owned later by the MacIntyres, father and mother of Hugh MacIntyre. My little classmate was Rebecca Meek, youngest daughter of my father’s friend, Captain Meek. She became Mrs. Horatio Crabbe, wife of the chamberlain of Kamehameha V.
DIDN’T LIKE DRESSING
When I look back to my first coming back to Honolulu, I realized how much I had to learn of the ways of my father’s house. First I had to be dressed in little white dresses in the afternoon, with shoes and stockings. Goodbye to my little calico muumuus. After being dressed I was fussed about uncomfortably until I would go out to the well where there was a big tub of water, duck my head into it, throwing my wet hair back, dripping the water all over my pretty dress. My poor beautiful mother would open her large, black eyes and call out to the servants to bring me in and change my dress. It was repeated many times to her vexation until I got used to it.
There was one thing I never forgot. The retainers said that the clouds that blew from the east came from Hawaii, so at every opportunity when I could leave the other children I would run back of the house and look for those clouds, and weep for my Hawaii home.
I would watch my sisters at the table and imitate them, and soon learned to do as they did, for I had only learned the ways of my Hawaiian people at the table. Sometimes I would make a mistake and my mother would say: “Abram, look at her; it is not my fault; you gave her away; I didn’t.”
HAD HINDU COOK
Father’s cook was a Hindu. He was a puzzle to me. He would pick me up and say: “Miss Mary you mustn’t eat too much butter, you see me, I am dark, that’s for eating too much butter.” I wondered how butter could make me dark, for at Little Mexico, which was my uncle’s ranch on Hawaii, our Spaniolas always made butter for us to eat, and I wasn’t black.
After I had been placed with the family of Consul Reynolds, by the Masons, my father’s cousin, Mrs. Horton Knapp, who afterwards became Mrs. Daniel Dole, came and saw that our dresses were nicely arranged for our going to Mr. Reynold’s school. She was the stepmother of Sanford B. Dole, who afterwards became president of the Republic of Hawaii, and the first governor of the territory of Hawaii. I was so proud to feel that one of my people helped to bring him up.
SYSTEM OF ADOPTION
I have told much about my having been taken away from my mother shortly after I was born and raised by my foster mother. The custom of adoption was a great thing amongst the Hawaiian gentry. Not only children, but grown folks were adopted, as Capt. George Beckley was adopted by the king, as a son. Kinau Judd Wilder was claimed by Queen Kinau and called after her, although Dr. Gerrit P. Judd, her father, would not give her up. Hawaiians would not only adopt one another as friends, but as brothers. Hence the mixup in some genealogies.
Adoptions caused unusual loyalty. They were bound to stand by one another’s lives in time of battle. If one was captured and taken prisoner, the other friend or brother would surely see that his adopted brother’s life is spare, if he knew that he was a captive. If that captive were at court he would be given all the distinction and honor of his rank.
ENEMY’S LIFE SAVED
I have heard it told of the sworn friendship of great cousin of mine (Kupunakane). His name was Kalaualu. During the battle of Nuuanu, in 1795, he was with the right wing of the army in the mountains above the valley, serving with High Chief Keikioewa. He is what the Hawaiians called, Kanaka o ke ‘lii’, one of the younger brothers.
The upena, or net, had been drawn from one side of Nuuanu Valley to the other, drawing it all around Kahaukomo. The royal twins, Kameeiamoku and Kamanawa and their younger brothers were on the left wing. Keikioewa ha decided to give no quarter, and told his men so, although his king, Kamehameha the First, had asked him not to kill Kalanikupule, King of Oahu, if he found him.
Keikioewa’s men descended down to Waimanalo and as they went, Kalaualu captured a most handsome young chief by the name of Kahakaiomakaiwa, sometimes called Kukui, a young Kauaian, who was part Oahuan, and a relative of the King of Oahu. He had come over from Kauai, landing on the Koolau side of Oahu, to help the Oahuans. It would have been death for him had Kalaualu not adopted him as his friend and pleaded with Keikioewa for his life, which was spared.
He was afterwards taken to Hawaii by Keikioewa and given a wife of the island of Hawaii. He was the ancestor of Levi Kukahi, who is employed at the Honolulu post office, and was at one time private secretary to King Kalakaua for the Naua society.
KILLED ON KAUAI
Speaking of Kalaualu, it was he and his wife Kaunuohua, who reared Alexander Iolani Liholiho. They were his nurses. Kalaualu planted bananas in every valley on the islands for his young prince, because it was the latter’s favorite fruit, so that when he went to these places he would have bananas to eat. At the time of George Kaumualii’s rebellion on Kauai, Kalaualu went over with High Chief Keikioewa, and was killed there. He was buried at Kapaaula with the rest of those who perished. He was a homely man. When the Kauaians saw Kalaualu they asked: “O wai te la” (Who is that?). The answer came from another Kauaian, “O, te tanata o te ‘lii’ he piipii luna a he moowini lalo,” (meaning “The man of the chief Keikioewa. He is curly at the top, (meaning the head), and spindly down below, (meaning spindle legged).
Kalaualu, like Kaha, father of Ahia Beckley, (whose wife, Makaloao, was the aunt of Kalaualu) was given a portion of Kalihi from the mountain to the sea, by Kamehameha the First, after the battle of Nuuanu. His wife, Kaunaohua was married again to that fine old man, Major Moehonua, and it was known later as a part of the Moehonua estate.
During the battle of Nuuanu, Kaha was with his king, Kamehameha the First, like all of the Kohalas but when he saw the Oahuans fleeing, he chased after them, up the valley. He left his king at Laimi. As they climbed the mountains, “flying” as the Hawaiians said, he followed. The birds were frightened by the stampede. As he attempted to capture an Oahuan, an owl flew at him, and clawed at his face. He stood and struck his spear on the ground to balance himself, when he saw he was on the edge of the precipice, and the Oahuans were surging over. He went all the way back to his king and cried out to him: “E kalani e, kalele anae ala ke Oahu!” (The Oahuans are flying over the cliffs like mullets).
Then the King said: “Kaha, from this day your name is Huha o ke Kaua a Kaua,”meaning the “reporter of the battle,” and he was called Huha ever afterward until his dying day, and never again Kaha. There is one man in Honolulu today who is named after this warrior of Kamehameha. He is Eaton Huha Magoon, assistant United States Attorney.
GREAT SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC
The great epidemic of smallpox occurred in 1853, which I remember from several incidents in my own life. The first case was reported and all the schools were closed. No one was allowed to wash our clothes, so we had to do the best we could. I remember our clothing hung on a line for a week, forgotten, and everybody must be vaccinated by a Doctor Smythe, whose place of business was on Smith lane. By watching him I learned how to make scratches on my arm, and then put some of the matter from the vaccine on my arm. I had vaccinated many little boys and girls with a piece of glass as a knife, and doctor Smythe called me “Little Doctor.” During my lifetime I have often wondered how many I may have saved, for it was awful to see big cartloads of men and women taken away, never to come back. I think the toll of death from Hawaii to Kauai was many thousands. Some did get well but, O, their faces were all rotted with pockmarks.
WAGONLOADS OF DEAD
The Chiefess Kinoole, who was Mrs. Benjamin Pittman, wrote in one of her poems on the return of the people:
Ai inoino ke akua maunauna ka nahele
O ke ao hanuunuu kupukupu hawea
(The Gods have badly eaten the woodland
And they are like the uneven clouds
Or the drill flower, with uneven pointers.
Doctor Hunter, Mr. Reynolds’ Fort and Merchant streets, on the physician, located on the corner of Waikiki side, where Castle & Cooke now have their office, made camphor bags for us children to wear during the epidemic, and told us to smell the bags so that we would not be sick. We used to watch the dead wagons going by, filled with the dead, and the Hawaiian children used to be hanging on the back of those carts, just for a prank, but very thoughtless.
Rev. Lowell Smith, I have heard used to go into where the sick were and administer medicines to them. He used to give sweet oil to rub on their bodies so they would not be pockmarked.
(To be continued.)
(Honolulu Advertiser, 12/9/1923, Second News Section, p. 10)
Honolulu Advertiser, 68th Year, Number 12,905, Second News Section, Page 10. December 10, 1923.
By MARY JANE FAYERWEATHER MONTANO
(Continued from last Sunday)
CAPT. GEORGE BECKLEY, my grandfather, concerning whom I dwelt at length in the beginning of my story of olden Hawaii, keeps well in the foreground of my thoughts, for not only was he the first haole to become a member of our Hawaiian family, but he played an important part in the affairs of the Hawaiian Islands, for whenever the King held council (and I am referring to Kamehameha the Great), he called his haoles in, and Captain Beckley was one of them.
In 1870, whilst I was on a visit to Kona, Hawaii, visiting the home of Judge Hoapili, at Keauhou, we went to see our alii, Ruth, at Hulihee. She pointed out to me the large hau tree back of the house, the old royal palace, and said: Continue reading
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Booth’s dancing hall. The schoolhouse had a cross on the front. From 9 to 12, noon, we had book studies, and from 1 to 4 p. m. we did fancy work in which or teacher was an expert. I was very fond of fancy work and finished my first piece to hang in my guardian’s hall. The picture was of a lamb lying down, holding a flag, with clouds below and sun rays around its head. The picture was large. Continue reading
DRAMA OF OLD HAWAII MADE REAL IN FASCINATING STORY OF PICTURESQUE EARLY ACTORS
Englishmen, Americans, Russians and Men of Other “Haole” Nations Move In Interesting Array Through Reminiscences of Grande Dame of the Old Regime.
Vivid pages of history of the Hawaiian Islands the period when Englishmen, Americans and Russians when ashore from trading ships and men-o’-war of foreign nations, during that romantic period preceding the arrival of the first American missionaries in 1820, for to them must be given the credit for revealing the first glimpses of the civilization of the outer world to the subjects of Kamehameha, the Iron Man of the Pacific.
While much has been written of a few of the early foreigners, particularly of John Young and Isaac Davis, who remained in the service of the Conqueror for decades, and of navigators who visited the Islands on semi-official and official cruises, yet the stories of many who lived here were practically untouched by the early writers. What may have caused them to minimize the roles they played in the formative civilization period, has never been made plain.
OBSCURED BY ZEAL
Possibly the glamor of the Godly mission in which the American missionary-historians were engaged, their zeal in carrying the gospel to every part of the Islands, their desire to preserve the actual history of the Hawaiian people themselves, in view of the fact that Kamehameha, the greatest of all Hawaiians, had died just before they arrived, and with the feudal era, brilliant and picturesque already passing, made them stress upon those phases of life and merely mention what the foreigners had done.
It is one of these foreigners, Captain George Beckley, an Englishmen, that Mrs. Mary Jane Fayerweather Montano, his granddaughter, writes. She has written of her recollections of her grandfather, the story as she heard it from the lips of her mother and other relatives, for her mother was the daughter of Captain Beckley and Ahia, a high chiefess, who married the foreigner, the romance of whose meeting and marriage forms an interesting bit of history of the Islands.
DESIGNER OF FLAG
She writes of Capt. Beckley, of whom Prof. W. D. Alexander in his History of the Hawaiian Islands, describes as the first commander of the fort which was erected at the time of Kamehameha the Great at the foot of Fort street; whom Kotzebue, the Russian navigator, describes as his host and guide, appointed by Kamehameha, during his visit to Honolulu in 1816; whome his granddaughter and several historians, including Thomas G. Thrum, credit with being the designer of the Hawaiian flag, the flag which was first carried on a Hawaiian vessel to foreign ports, particularly to China, by Captain Adams, about 1816; the Englishman who had a stone house in Honolulu years before the missionaries arrived and upon the walls of which were beautiful paintings, one of which was a rare Madonna and The Christ, supposed to be of Florentine or Spanish origin.
Mrs. Monatno, who is now 83 years of age, a Hawaiian poetess, and author of many Hawaiian melodies, retains a vivid memory of her childhood and of many of the interesting episodes of Hawaiian history of which she was an eye-witness, or concerning which she heard the tales from her Hawaiian relatives. This is her narrative:—(Editorial Note.)
By MARY JANE FAYERWEATHER MONTANO
CONCERNING the coming to Hawaii of my grandfather, Capt. George Beckley, I think it was before the year 1805, as it was between 1810 and 1811 that Capt. Beckley and Capt. W. Sumner were walking in Kohala, on the island of Hawaii, when they saw two beautiful Hawaiian girls being chased by a cow, descendent of the herd left here by Captain Vacouver as a gift to Kamehameha. The two captains interposed, drove the cow away and saved the girls from harm. One of the girls was Ahia, who afterwards became my grandmother, and the other was Keakuaaihue, afterwards the mother of William and John Sumner. The girls were so grateful that they invited the young men to their home.The sea captains fell in love with them. Captain Beckley asked Kaha Huha o ka kaua a Kamehameha for the hand of Ahia, and Captain Sumner made a similar request for the hand of Keakuaaihue, both of which were granted.
CAME FOR SON-IN-LAW
In 1812 Captain Beckley returned to Kailua where Kamehameha the Great was then residing. A rumor reached Kohala that a Hawaiian chiefess in Kohala was endeavoring to have her daughter marry Captain Beckley. Ahia’s father loaded two canoes with pigs, chickens, poi, potatoes and other edibles, and sailed to Kailua. Kamehameha asked him the reason for this visit. Kaha replied that he came first to see his king, and also to take his “son-in-law” home. The king asked if Captain Beckley was the little girl’s intended husband. If so, he granted him leave to take the Englishman with him. Continue reading
nupepa 