An ali‘i, Deborah Kapule (1798?-1853), known also as Kekaiha‘akulou, was born on Kaua‘i, likely at Waimea, her parents being the high chief, Ha‘upu, and the chiefess, Ha‘ea.
Sometime between 1815 and 1820, she married Kaumuali‘i, Kaua‘i’s last king, and thus became Queen Deborah Kapule, and she officially remained queen until 1821, when Liholiho abducted Kaumuali‘i to Honolulu.
In 1836, she founded a Christian church in a simple grass hut constructed on her Wailua property, now the site of the ruins of the Coco Palms Hotel.
With her when she established her church were her husband, Simeona Ka‘iu, a half-brother of Kaumuali‘i, and 16 members of the Waimea church congregation.
That grass hut church she built is the original predecessor of the present Kapa‘a First Hawaiian Church, which is located in downtown Kapa‘a.
Deborah Kapule later replaced her grass hut church with a wood-frame church, and in 1880, the wood-frame church was dismantled and moved to the current site of the Kapa‘a First Hawaiian Church.
Then in 1948, the wood-frame church was demolished and replaced by the present church building.
Five years later, in 1953, a program honoring the memory of Deborah Kapule was held at the Coco Palms Lodge, the forerunner of the Coco Palms Hotel, in which Isaac S. Ka‘iu (1885-1958) participated.
During the program, he rang a bell that had once hung in the old wood-frame church, which, by the way, had been located behind the coconut grove during Deborah Kapule’s time.
It was the first time the bell had been rung in 100 years.
Isaac S. Ka‘iu is noted for being the grandson of Simeona Ka‘iu and Deborah Kapule.
When he died, he was survived by six sons: Isaac, Abraham, David, Simeon, Clement and William, and four daughters: Mrs. Jean Akau, Genevieve Ka‘iu, Mrs. Elaine Owens and Mililani Ka‘iu, and an adopted sister, Mrs. Chris Holt.
My primary source for Isaac S. Ka‘iu’s ancestry are the records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Also, during his lifetime, it was recognized that he was, indeed, a descendant of Deborah Kapule and Simeona Ka‘iu.
