These are my recollections of how the plantation laborers lived up until about 1950. These stories are from the camps at Kipu Plantation/Ranch here on Kaua‘i. When William Harrison Rice came to Lihu‘e Plantation in 1854 the workers houses were
These are my recollections of how the plantation laborers lived up until about 1950. These stories are from the camps at Kipu Plantation/Ranch here on Kaua‘i. When William Harrison Rice came to Lihu‘e Plantation in 1854 the workers houses were made of latticed bamboo. They had thatched grass roofs. Later houses were made of wood and corrugated iron roofs. The walls were four side rough 1X12 lumber and the seams were covered with battens of wood. The flooring was usually tongue and groove lumber and was pretty good as a barrier against vermin. These houses had corrugated iron roofs. These were much more heavily coated with zinc for protection from the salt air than the ones you buy today. The original roofing came from either Scotland or Germany. Most of the houses did not have ceilings installed in them. At Kipu, the occupants would make a ceiling out of muslin cloth which they painted with a water based paint similar to today’s spackle. In the late 1930’s Grove Farm Plantation built a new section in their in their Puhi Camp where the outer walls were of one inch Canec. Canec was a product produced by certain sugar companies utilizing the bagasse from their milling operations.
As long as a heavy coat of paint was applied these houses were very satisfactory and were still in use until the 1990’s. The buildings were of two to three room construction for families and one room bunkhouses for single men. All of the cook houses were separate from the main houses because of the danger of fire. All of the Kipu houses were stained dark green and the roofs painted with Grove Farm Green roofing paint. The interiors were all painted white. The first paint being white wash-a mixture of lime and water-later with a water based paint.
The camps were all segregated by ethnic background. The Japanese and the Portuguese were clean and neat housekeepers. The Portuguese unfortunately would hose down their houses once a week and here in Hawaii we would get a lot of dry rot because the houses would not dry out fast enough. Therefore there was a lot of repair work to be done. Given the materials and paint, most of the Japanese would do all the minor repairs and also make small additions their houses.
The only inside plumbing was in the cook houses and wash houses. Bathrooms were outhouses with one or two holers for toilets with old newspapers or Sears & Roebuck catalogues for toilet paper. Quick lime was used about once a month to mitigate the smell. One had to make sure he checked the seat before sitting for centipedes and spiders. Our house being the old Head Luna’s house had inside plumbing when we moved in 1948. The water table was so close to the surface that the cesspool was only for the toilets. All of the shower and laundry water went into an irrigation ditch that ran behind the house. We had the most beautiful stand of white ginger where the laundry water entered the ditch.
As I said before the cook houses were separate because of the fire hazard. In the beginning all cooking was done over wood fires until the advent of kerosene. The plantation supplied all the firewood for the camp and with the advent of kerosene each family was given a monthly allotment of eight gallons and, for the single men four gallons. When I first started working for Kipu the monthly kerosene run was part of my duties. One family in each of the camps ran the bath house or furo. These were one small building with a wall separating the men from the women. There was a large open redwood sided box with a copper bottom which held the hot water. The fire that heated the water was under the copper bottom. Everyone would use a small bucket to dip out some water to wet themselves down ad soap themselves clean. Then they would get more water and rinse off before entering the tub for a soak. This tub was also divided through the center so that there was no hanky-panky. The little children were not allowed into the tub and the women were not allowed in until all of the men had bathed.
The family who ran the furo would usually be allowed to leave work early so as to get the fire started and the water hot for the returning workers. All the wood for this operation was supplied by the plantation. A small fee was paid to family for this extra work.
