At about 10 p.m. on Sept. 24, 1897, Dr. Jared K. Smith of Koloa, a physician and the Republic of Hawai‘i’s Board of Health agent for Kaua‘i, was shot and killed at his home by a 20-year-old man named Kapea.
At about 10 p.m. on Sept. 24, 1897, Dr. Jared K. Smith of Koloa, a physician and the Republic of Hawai‘i’s Board of Health agent for Kaua‘i, was shot and killed at his home by a 20-year-old man named Kapea.
Kapea murdered Smith to prevent him from making a report to the Board of Health indicating that a young female relative of Kapea’s — whom Smith had recently examined and whom Kapea deeply cared for — was afflicted with Hansen’s Disease.
Smith’s report would have resulted in the girl’s banishment from Kaua‘i to the leper colony at Kalaupapa, Moloka‘i, for the remainder of her life, as was required by the Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy — an action Kapea would not accept.
Dr. Smith was shot at close range through the left side, heart and both lungs with a .38-caliber pistol in the outside doorway of his office and collapsed to the floor.
His sister, Emma, ran from her bedroom in time to see Smith die within minutes of the shooting. Another sister, Juliette, heard the murderer galloping away on horseback.
A criminal investigation was launched. Kapea was arrested, tried and found guilty of Smith’s murder on Nov. 13, 1897, and was executed by hanging on April 11, 1898.
Born in Koloa in 1849, a son of Protestant missionaries Dr. James William Smith and Milicent Knapp Smith, Smith was held in high esteem by native Hawaiians and foreigners.
Also, the Kaua‘i Industrial School for Hawaiian Boys at Malumalu was founded by Smith and his sister, Juliette Smith, in 1890 and remained in operation until 1898.
Until it was razed in 1920, its three-story school house stood on the south side of Hulemalu Road, about a quarter-mile east of the intersection of Puhi and Hulemalu roads.
