ISLAND HISTORY: A brief history of Makee Sugar Co.
In 1876, Capt. James Makee (1813-1879) and his son-in-law, Col. Zephaniah S. Spalding (1837-1927), founded Makee Sugar Co. on several thousand acres of land at Kealia they’d purchased from the estate of rancher and dairy farmer Ernest Krull for $30,000, and on substantial acreage acquired at Kapaa.
ISLAND HISTORY: Tribute to Pacific magazine and editor Bud Bendix
It was Bud Bendix (1931-2016), the managing editor at Honolulu based Pacific Magazine, who in 1996 gave me my first break as a writer, when he accepted my historical nonfiction article “Surviving Among the Cannibals” for publication in the September-October issue of the magazine.
Mrs. Elizabeth Stone Bahr, a descendant of Kauai Governor Paul P. Kanoa
Mrs. Elizabeth Stone Bahr, a resident of Northern Virginia and an attorney with the U.S. Department of Defense specializing in international and treaty law, is a descendant of Kaua‘i Gov. Paul P. Kanoa (1832-1895) and his wife, Kaleipua Kanoa (1843-1897), through their daughter and heir Ho‘omalu Kanoa Kreuter (1880-1945).
Kauai Champion Boxer Placido D. Valenciano’s Recollections
Placido D. Valenciano (1917-2012) of Makaweli, Kauai, fought in the ring on Kauai, Honolulu and the Big Island as an amateur from the ages of 16 to 22 during Kauai’s “Golden Age” of boxing in the 1920s and 1930s, was crowned the Kauai Junior Featherweight Boxing Champion in 1939, and compiled a career record of 31 wins, 15 by knockout, and 8 losses.
Kauai boxing champion Placido Dias Valenciano
Kauai Junior Featherweight Boxing Champion Placido D. Valenciano (1917-2012) was born in Ilocos Norte, Philippines and immigrated to Hawaii with his parents Faustino and Patricia Valenciano, and his brother, Mariano, in 1928 aboard the ship “President Cleveland” and settled at Makaweli, Kauai.
The wreck of the steamer C.R. Bishop off Kaua‘i
At around 2 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 1894, the inter-island steamer C. R. Bishop, running at full speed of about 10 knots, was totally wrecked after striking rocks off shore of Kaua‘i just south of Hanama‘ulu Bay and approximately three miles north of Nawiliwili Harbor.
Old-time Kaua‘i Judge Jacob Hardy
Jacob Hardy, for whom Hardy Street in downtown Lihu‘e is named, was born at Peabody, Massachusetts, in 1827, of English immigrant parents, and after graduating from Amherst College in 1849, he sailed to Hawai‘i on the advice of a physician who’d suggested a warmer climate would improve his poor health.
Here are some notable accounts of early Hawaiian, Kaua‘i history
Beginning circa 400 AD and continuing over a number of succeeding centuries, Polynesian sea voyagers from the Marquesas and Tahiti became the first people to inhabit the Hawaiian islands.
SOBOLESKI: Ethel Damon, author of ‘Koamalu,’ her history of Kaua‘i
Historian Ethel Damon (1883-1965) was born in Honolulu, the daughter of Edward Chenery Damon, a retailer with JT Waterhouse and Company, and Cornelia Beckwith Damon.
SOBOLESKI: Nani Malina Alapai, prima donna of the Royal Hawaiian Band
Born in Lihue, Kauai, the daughter of Filipino paniolo John Malina Sr. and Keokilele Halemanu Punana Ukeke, Nani Malina Alapai (1874-1928) was for over 20 years the prima donna soprano of the Royal Hawaiian Band.
Peter Malina, jail-keeper at the old Lihu‘e Jail
Peter Malina (1877-1950), born in Lihue, Kauai, the son of John Malina and Keokilele Halemanu Ukeke Malina, was a jailor from 1909 until the mid-1920s at the old Lihue Jail, once located in Nawiliwili on what is now the site of Guardian Self Storage.
The ‘Hawaiian Legends’ of Kaua‘i’s William Hyde Rice
Born at Punahou, Oahu, the son of missionary parents William Harrison and Mary Sophia Hyde Rice, William Hyde Rice (1846-1924) was a rancher, the last governor of Kauai under Queen Liliuokalani, and the author of “Hawaiian Legends,” published in 1923 by the Bernice P. Bishop Museum.
Eric Knudsen, Kauai’s ‘Teller of Hawaiian Tales’
Rancher, sugar planter, lawyer and politician, and Kauai’s “Teller of Hawaiian Tales” Eric Alfred Knudsen (1872-1957) was born at Waiawa, Kauai, at that time the Knudsen family homesite about a mile west of Kekaha.
Acclaimed Kaua‘i artist Isami Doi
Born on O‘ahu, the son of Japanese immigrants who ran a general store, but raised in Kalaheo, Kaua‘i, Isami Doi (1903-1965) went on to become one of Hawai‘i’s most outstanding and beloved artists.
The “Southern Cross” and its stopover on Kaua‘i in 1928
The first crossing of the Pacific by air was accomplished in 1928 by Australian pilot Charles Kingsford Smith, copilot Charles Ulm, navigator Harry Lyon and radio operator James Warner flying the Fokker trimotor monoplane “Southern Cross.”
Women’s Air Raid Defense veteran Anne Martha Rapozo Caires
Anne Martha Rapozo Caires (1918-1978), the daughter of Antone and Rosalia Rapozo of Kilauea, Kauai, served in the Women’s Air Raid Defense (WARD) on Kauai during World War II.
Kaua‘i-born warrior chief, Governor Kaikioewa
An alii, Kaikioewa was born in 1765 at Waimea, Kauai, but he’d moved to Hilo by 1782, the year his cousin Kamehameha I had embarked upon his conquest of Hawaii.
A brief history of Kauai’s Waita Reservoir
Waita Reservoir, with an area of 425 acres located on a site overlooking Koloa, Kauai, and bound on three sides by hills and a 28-foot-high dam on the fourth, is second in size in the State of Hawaii only to Halalii Lake on Niihau with its 841 acres of area.
Pioneer Kaua‘i sugar planter H.P. Fayé
Born and raised in Norway, H. P. (Hans Peter) Fayé (1859-1928) arrived in the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1880, and soon after leased land at Mana from his uncle, Valdemar Knudsen, and settled there.
The USS Saginaw’s rescue crew reached Kauai on Dec. 19, 1870
In March 1870, the Navy’s USS Saginaw arrived at Midway Atoll with a construction crew aboard assigned the mission of blasting, widening and deepening the channel entrance through Midway’s encircling reef.