Tag Archives: Hilo

Nawahi paints Hilo Town, 1868.

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[Found under: “NU HOU KULOKO.”—”Oahu.”]

Painting of the Hilo Town.—We saw the beautiful painting of the town of Hilo of the Kanilehua rain, in the drug store of G. P. Judd [G. P. Kauka] here in Honolulu. The painting was painted by a Hawaiian boy, named Joseph K. Nawahi [Iosepa K. Nawahi], and he used his brush with detail in all the intricacies the painting. When you see it, it is so beautiful, and admiration for that Hawaiian painter wells in the hearts of all who sees it. This youth was not intensely educated in great art schools, but while he attended Lahainaluna Seminary, he was trained in that skill, drawing and painting, and his expertise in that exceptional discipline of the haole is clear for the first time. His name will become famous through his paintings.

[We all have heard about the awesome story of the 1888 painting by Nawahi of Hilo Town which was featured on Antique Roadshow, now displayed up on the campus of Kamehameha Schools, but the painting described here seems to be the one in the care of the Mission Houses Museum!

Check out this story about two more Nawahi paintings. The whereabouts of these two painting are not known (at least publicly) today… I really want to see the one with the Hiiaka sisters!]

(Kuokoa, 10/31/1868, p. 3)

Ke Kii o ke Kulanakauhale o Hilo.

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke VII, Helu 44, Aoao 3. Okatoba 31, 1868.

Engine Company #1 of Hilo and the Fourth of July, 1865.

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[Found under: “HUNAHUNA MEA HOU O HAWAII NEI.”]

Engine Company Number 1 of Hilo.—J. A. Kealohanui of Hilo, Hawaii wrote of the appearance of the cheerful boys of that Company on this past 4th of July. On the night of the third, they went to the house of Poonahoahoa [Thomas Spencer], and there they played their horns and drums, which woke him up, and he came outside and thanked them. On the next day, they went there again, and from there to the place of the Governor [Keelikolani] and gave her three cheers, and three for the Hawaiian Flag. She remarked that this is a fine Company. With them go our warm aloha.

(Kuokoa, 7/22/1865, p. 2)

Ahahui Puali Kaawai Helu 1 o Hilo.

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke IV, Helu 29, Aoao 2. Iulai 22, 1865.

A Hawaiian dies far away from home, 1917.

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Passed Away.

It was from the steamer Ventura that news was heard of the passing of a Hawaiian mother well known by those of Hilo and Honolulu, that being Mrs. Meleana Keomailani Kenuwe, and her bones will be left in foreign lands where she lived for a long time, for 17 or more years. She left her beloved community of her homeland in 1888 to go live with her daughters, Jessie Kamokukaha Wilson and Mrs. Mary Kinoole Shotlz. Her sons-in-law worked planting fruits in the county of Santa Clara, an area in California that is fifty miles from San Francisco. She was born in Honolulu in 1829, and died at 76 years old. Mrs. Caroline Paakaiulaula Bush of this town is her younger sister, and here also is her son Alfred Kapahukapu Kenway. She has ten surviving grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. How sad for that beloved mother who has passed; she is a native and well-acquainted with living in the Lanipili rains of Hilo. When her daughters were young, she was a travel companion of the Lady Treasurer of this Aloha Aina newspaper [Emma Nawahi], and she was a favorite in the bosom of that beloved lady who has passed on. Aloha no. That path which she has taken is one we must all take. The Aloha Aina shares in the sorrow of the family of that beloved mother who has gone.

[It is good to note that sometimes there is the same Hawaiianization for different haole names. When one hears Kenuwe, we would usually think Greenwell, but here we see that it is what Hawaiians called Kenway.

It is also good to remember that there are at times more than one Hawaiianization for a single haole name.]

(Aloha Aina, 7/8/1905, p. 5)

O Mrs. Meleana Kenuwe Ua Hala.

Ke Aloha Aina, Buke XI, Helu 27, Aoao 5. Iulai 8, 1905.

Hawaiian returns home to Hilo after living in Boston for 50 years, 1917.

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RETURNED ONCE AGAIN TO THE LAND OF HIS BIRTH

In the morning of last Friday, the steamship Matsonia docked in Hilo nei, and aboard the ship was Mr. Benjamin Keolaokalani Pitman [Pittman], the brother of the recently deceased Mrs. Mary Ailau. He left left Hilo when he was 10 years old, and went back with his father to the city of Boston, and he has lived there for a full 50 years, and this is the first time he has returned to see the place where he was born.

He is a direct cousin to George Mooheau Beckley, as their mothers were sisters; Kinoole is Mr. Pitman’s mother, and Kahinu is George C. Beckley’s. The two of them were daughters of the Alii Hoolulu who hid the bones of Kamehameha Ka Na’i Aupuni. He [Pittman] went with his people on a tour to see the fire of the enchanting woman of the pit, and on their return, they were entertained at the home of Mrs. Maraea Wilipaona [? Mrs. Maria Wilfong], and Mrs. J. D. Lewis and Mrs. Wilfong put on a luau to honor this Hawaiian Alii. On this trip of his to his homeland, accompanying him were his wife and some friends from Boston. On Saturday evening, he and his wife left for Honolulu, and from their they will return to his home in Boston. He is now a Millionaire living in Boston.

[Unfortunately, the digital images of the Hoku o Hawaii newspaper are only available online from 5/31/1917, and so the issue in which this story appears is not available yet (along with the ten years of newspapers that come before it).]

(Hoku o Hawaii, 2/8/1917, p. 2)

HOEA HOU I KA AINA HANAU.

Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Buke 11, Helu 37, Aoao 2.

Hilo Hawaiian Civic Club’s Annual Holoku Ball, 1941.

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HOLOKU
BALL

Sponsored by

Hawaiian Civic Club

Scholarship Fund

featuring

CLARA INTER

(HILO HATTIE)

Hilo Hotel —Hilo Armory

April 5, 1941

(Hoku o Hawaii, 4/2/1941, p. 4)

HOLOKU BALL

Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Volume XXXV, Number 49, Aoao 4. Aperila 2, 1941.

Hilo Hattie on her way to Hilo, 1941.

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On Her Way

The picture above is of CLARA INTER, the Hawaiian champion of comedy, and she is coming to Hilo nei, for the first time in 26 years, on the 5th of this coming April; and this is when she will be showing her humor before the people of Hilo, and what she was made famous for in America some years ago. She is nicknamed Hilo Hattie.

Clara Inter is part of a Dance [Holoku Ball] put on for the second year by the Hawaiian Civic Club of Hilo [Hui Kiwila Hawaii o Hilo].

(Hoku o Hawaii, 3/26/1941, p. 1)

E Hoea Mai Ana

Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Volume XXXV, Number 48, Aoao 1. Maraki 26, 1941.

More celebrating of the Queen’s 74th birthday, 1912.

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Kauikeaouli Society

On this past Labor Day, the birthday of Queen Liliuokalani, the members of the Liliuokalani Society and the women of the Kauikeaouli Society gave a luau at Mooheau Hall. Invited to that luau were the heads of the other Societies. They partook of the kindness of the Sisters until their stomachs were filled [ua lawa loa ka lua o ka inaina]. The following night, a European dance was held and many people assembled there, and the event that night was let out peacefully. We pray that the ways of this Society will be followed for the good of the public.

(Hoku o Hawaii, 9/5/1912, p. 3)

Ka Hui Kauikeaouli

Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Buke 7, Helu 14, Aoao 3. Sept. 5, 1912.

More on Liliu’s 73rd birthday celebration, 1911.

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BIRTHDAY OF LILIUOKALANI

Honolulu, Sept. 2—The commemoration of Queen Liliuokalani’s birthday was held today, and according to what the Queen said to some of her friends:

“This is my seventy-third birthday, and i am in good health; i have left behind the disturbing things of this world in which we live, and have surrounded myself with many friends.”

The Queen’s health is fine indeed, and in the morning, the Band of the County [? Royal Hawaiian Band] arrived to play while she dined on breakfast until 10 a. m. Several associations arrived to giver their congratulations to the Alii; and at 11 o’clock, the procession of haole friends to see the Alii began, and this perhaps is the grandest royal audiences of haole giving their congratulations to the Queen.

The Queen was attired in a beautiful garments fitting of her stature, and attended by the Princess Kalanianaole and Mrs. Irene Holloway and Mrs. C. P. Iaukea. The place where the Queen sat was surrounded by many different kahili, and it was her steward, the Honorable C. P. Iaukea who introduced the many strangers. The Alii, the Queen, met each one who came to visit her and she placed a kind smile upon her Royal visage. When the writer for the Hoku [this newspaper, Hoku o Hawaii] appeared before the Alii, she immediately asked, “How are the famous lehua of the land, the lehua of Hilo; are the famous blossoms of the land still beautiful?”

The Queen wore a white lehua [lehua puakea] lei from Hilo, and on her Royal countenance was happiness. On that morning of her birthday, she presented the water leaping land of Waikahalulu as a Park for the public, and it will be administered for the benefit of the people.

The Hoku o Hawaii prays for the long life of the beloved Queen of Hawaii, and although she has no throne upon to rule, hers is the throne of aloha within the hearts of her loving people. May the Queen live in God.

[Unfortunately the issues of Hoku o Hawaii from 1906 to the early part of 1917 (including this article) are not available online! The more people talk about the importance of the information in the Hawaiian-Language Newspapers and the need to rescan those newspapers clearly and make them accurately searchable, the more chance there will be funding for it!]

(Hoku o Hawaii, 9/7/1911, p. 2)

LA HANAU O LILIUOKALANI.

Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Buke 6, Helu 18, Aoao 2. Sept. 7, 1911.

Healing Stone (?) of Wahiawa, 1927.

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Supernatural Rock of Wahiawa

Honolulu, Oct. 26—This rock being visited by people to worship these days is becoming something that truly is stirring the thoughts of some people here in Honolulu, and some who are living near Wahiawa are appealing to the Government and to the power of the Board of Health to move that rock from where it first stood, because in their opinion, this action by the people will cause an epidemic to grow here where all ethnicities are going and touching themselves against the bodies of others, and this will perhaps cause sicknesses to spread from one to another.

The Board of Health refused to step in and block this action by people who believe their ailments will be healed by touching the sick area to that rock of Wahiawa, and the birthing stones of the High Chiefs of this land in ancient times.

Some people have said that their weakness due to rheumatism by them going there and touching their areas of pain to that rock. Some say that their weak areas were not cured by touching the rock.

If the Naha Stone was not moved to the mauka side of the Hilo Library here, and it was left where it was from olden times, then the healing powers of these Birthing Stones of the sacred Alii of Hawaii and the Stone that Kamehameha the Great flipped over and which became a symbol of his victory over this entire Archipelago, and for which Kamehameha spoke these words:

“He Naha oe, a he Naha hoi kou mea e neeu ai. He Niau-pio hoi wau, ao ka Niau-pio hoi o ka Wao.”¹

With these words did Kamehameha put his shoulders up to the Naha Stone [Naha Pohaku], and flipped it over, being this was a stone that could not be moved by five men. Perhaps some sick with rheumatism will rub up their ailing places against the Naha Stone in the future.

[I was reminded of this by a picture of two stones with the caption “Sacred Stones at Wahiawa” from the Lani Nedbalek Collection displayed at the Pineapple Festival today.]

¹”You are a Naha, and it will be a Naha who will move you. I am a Niaupio, the Niaupio of the Forest.”

(Hoku o Hawaii, 11/1/1927, p. 3)

Ka Pohaku Kupua o Wahiawa

Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Buke XXI, Helu 23, Aoao 3. Novemaba 1, 1927.

May Day in Hilo town, 1942.

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Our Lei Day

According to what we understand and hear pertaining to the celebration of Lei Day, that being this Friday, the show put on will be great.

There will be two hula groups that will hula on that day, that being the hula troupe [Hui Lokelani] of Mrs. Rose Kuamoo and the Hui Huapala led by Albert Nahale-a. Other than these groups will be the Police Glee Club led by William K. Kahimoku (Kualii), and also the children of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kalima, and also perhaps some duets and some solos.

Last year, this show was held in the evening, beginning at 6:00, but this year, it can’t be put on in the late evening, but instead will be held at 3:00  p. m. This is times of blackout in this land, and we are not to turn on lights outside.

This show and hula will be held at Kalakaua Square, and we are lucky to have the military band join in and commemorate this day. There is nothing to be said about our County Band, for they have not dropped out of the activities of the day.

The activities of the day will begin with a concert put on by the military band at port here in Hilo, at 2:30 p. m. until 3:00 p. m., and the County band until 3:30 p. m. and followed by the other parts.

Here below is the program of events of that afternoon

MAY DAY IS LEI DAY
IN HAWAII
Directed by the Hawaiian Civic Club of Hilo
Friday, May 1, 1942,
at the Hour of 3:30 P. M.
KALAKAUA PARK

Part I, Old Hawaiian Hula

1. “Ka La o Mei He La Lei Ia Ma Hawaii” [May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii] Police Glee Club, Lokelani, and Huapala.

2. “Oli” by Mary Ahiena

3. Old Hawaiian Hula, by the Hui Lokelani.

—a. Olapa — Niihau, Pua Hau o Maleka

—b. Puili — Malualua

—c. Iliili — Kona Hema

—d. Uliuli — Moku Kia Kahi, Alekoki

4. Combined Old Hawaiian Hula, by the Hui Huapala

—a. Puili & Uliuli — Nani Wale Na Hala

5. “Pua Mohala” by the Hilo Police Glee Club

Part II, Hawaiian Hula of Modern Times

1. “Kuikahi” by Huapala

2. A Hula for President Roosevelt, Lokelani

3. “Ua Hoomaka lakou i Kekahi Mea,” Frank Kahili

4. Holoholo Kaa, Huapala

5. “Loke Honesakala,” Ernest Hanaike and his Guitar

6. Nani Hilo, Lokelani

7. “Mele Maka Lalau” by Baby Kaieie

9. “Wiliwili Wai,” William Kualii

8. Aloha Ia No O Maui, Lokelani

10. Kona Hema, Huapala

11. My Sweet Sweetie, Three Children of Kalaima

12. Oahu, Lokelani

13. Ke Kali Nei Au, duet by Miss Kuaana Nathaniel and Joseph Kalima

14. Maikai Wale No Kauai, Lokelani

15. “TAHUAHUAI,” Abraham Laeha

16. Sasa & Somemore o Samoa, Huapala

17. THE CONCLUSION

—a. Hilo March — Lokelani

—b. “I Lei Nou” — Police Glee Club

—c. Leahi, Hanohano Hanalei — Huapala

18. ALOHA OE

19. STARS SPANGLED BANNER

(Hoku o Hawaii, 4/29/1942, p. 2)

Ka La Lei O Kakou

Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Volume 37, Number 1, Page 2. Apelila 29, 1942.