Editor’s note: On Dec. 3, the Kaua‘i Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary. Museum leaders have chosen 50 stories from exhibits, collections and the archives of the museum to share with the public. One story will run daily through Dec. 3.
Editor’s note: On Dec. 3, the Kaua‘i Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary. Museum leaders have chosen 50 stories from exhibits, collections and the archives of the museum to share with the public. One story will run daily through Dec. 3.
LIHU‘E — Ko‘olau the Leper’s defiance of a government bent on banishing him to Kalaupapa, Moloka‘i is a well-known story.
Louis H. Stolz, deputy sheriff of Waimea District, was shot by Ko‘olau in Kalalau Valley in 1893.
Stolz raised, bred and trained horses as well as worked for his brother W.E. Rowell at the Waimea Dairy. His government job was something he was called up to do from time to time.
In 1891-92 the Hawaiian government began segregating all cases of leprosy by sending them to Moloka‘i. The Waimea-Makaweli area victims were being rounded up in 1893 and Stolz was asked to stay back and finish the job prior to leaving for the Mainland with his family. Some who had leprosy had moved into Kalalau Valley and Ko‘olau was their leader.
Refusal of the Hawaiian authorities to allow Ko‘olau’s wife Pi‘ilani to go with him to Moloka‘i was the reason for Ko‘olau’s staunch stand against leaving Kaua‘i, although he convinced the other lepers to go quietly with the authorities. Ko‘olau was respected by many of the haole ranchers whom he had worked with including Stolz.
In 1916, Judge C.B. Hofgaard presented a paper to the Kaua‘i Historical Society, “The Story of Pi‘ilani.” Hofgaard was well acquainted with Pi‘ilani, who he’d admired as a courageous woman, and had started jotting down her story as early as 1901. “Pi‘ilani was of a very quiet and reticent nature and to get her to talk about her husband, his doings and their wanderings in the wilds of Kalalau was often difficult.”
The Kaua‘i Museum has on display a pair of binoculars on loan from the Stolz Estate. The record for it reads, “Pair of Antique Binoculars said to have been used by Sheriff Stolz in the attempted capture of Koolau the Leper.”
Isabel Faye, in her 1981 oral history, notes that the binoculars were in her family’s things, as they had been left at their home along with his horse on that last fateful trip into Kalalau. She had returned the binoculars to the family some years later.
Hofgaard mentions in his tale that Stolz stopped at the home of H.P. Faye at Mana. “Mr. Faye told him to be careful, as Koolau was not a man to be fooled with and reminded him of the fact that Koolau was a famous hunter and marksman. Stolz expressed the belief that Koolau would never carry out his threat. ‘But,’ said Stolz, ‘if he kills me, I will send my ghost to tell you.’”
Soon after, in the dead of the night, “the dogs made a terrible noise, and Faye got up to find out the cause for all the barking and he heard a voice saying ‘E Paea, ua make o Lui’ (Faye, Louis is dead). On account of the cloudiness of the sky, Faye could not see anybody at the place under the trees where the voice came, so it sounded like Stolz was carrying out his promise.”
Kaumeheiwa, a witness to the event, had rowed his canoe to Mana arriving at Faye’s in the small hours of the morning to report the news, unwittingly scaring him. Faye had the only telephone in that area to notify George N. Wilcox, the acting sheriff of Kaua‘i.
Many things in the museum’s collections are like this. Pieces come from different sources and fitted together make rich stories.