ISLAND HISTORY: Humehume – prince, world traveler, military veteran, and rebel leader
Humehume, known also as Prince George Kaumualii, was born on Kauai circa 1797, the son of a commoner mother and King Kaumualii, Kauai’s last king.
ISLAND HISTORY: Charles W. Spitz opened Kaua‘i’s first hotel in 1890
A native of Hungary, Charles W. Spitz (1854-1942) immigrated to Hawai‘i in 1880, following a long voyage around Cape Horn, and soon found employment at Kilauea Sugar Plantation on Kaua‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: Wailua – one of the most sacred places in Hawai‘i
One of the oldest inhabited and most sacred places in all Hawaii is an area that begins where the Wailua River empties into Wailua Bay, and extends inland up the Wailua River Valley for about 2 miles on the southern and 3 miles on the northern side of the river.
ISLAND HISTORY: Robert Allerton, founder of National Tropical Botanical Garden
In 1937, wealthy sixty-four-year-old patron of the arts and philanthropist Robert Allerton (1873-1964) bought the 125-acre McBryde Estate located on Lawai Bay, Kauai, paying $50,000 for the property that had once belonged to Queen Emma.
ISLAND HISTORY: Eliza Sinclair purchased Ni‘ihau from Kamehameha V in 1864
Eliza Sinclair (1800-1892) had prospered as a rancher in New Zealand after arriving there from Scotland in 1841, but she’d not been content there since the deaths at sea in 1846 of her husband and her eldest son.
ISLAND HISTORY: ‘Akamai’ crewman William Brash’s recollections of 19th century Kaua‘i
Born in New Zealand, the son of William and Mary Brash, William Brash (1842-1929) arrived in Honolulu with his parents on the American whaler “Fame of New London” in 1844.
ISLAND HISTORY: Francis Gay, co-founder of Gay & Robinson, Inc.
Francis Gay (1852-1928), Kauai sugar planter, stock raiser, and co-founder of Gay & Robinson, was born in New Zealand, the son of Thomas Gay and Jane Sinclair Gay.
ISLAND HISTORY: Gov. Paul Kanoa’s famous voyage aboard the schooner ‘Excel’
Gov. Paul Kanoa (1802-1885) was born in 1802 in South Kona, Hawaii and served as clerk to the governor of Oahu, Mataio Kekuanaoa, prior to being appointed governor of Kauai in 1846 by Kamehameha III.
ISLAND HISTORY: Grace Buscher Guslander, renowned manager of Kaua‘i’s Coco Palms Hotel
When Lyle Guslander bought the Coco Palms Hotel and hired Grace Buscher as manager in 1953, the hotel contained only 24 rooms and employed a staff of four.
ISLAND HISTORY: The story of a long ago incident in the Kaulakahi Channel
One summer, long ago, when Kaua‘i’s teller of Hawaiian tales Eric Knudsen (1872-1957) was still a boy, his mother, Anne Sinclair Knudsen of Waiawa, Kaua‘i, decided to visit her mother, Eliza Sinclair, at her home in Kiekie, Ni‘ihau.
ISLAND HISTORY: American Protestant missionaries William Harrison Rice and Mary Sophia Hyde Rice of Koamalu, Kaua‘i
Missionary teacher William Harrison Rice and his wife, Mary Sophia Hyde Rice, were born in rural New York – he in 1813 at Oswego, and she in 1816 at Seneca Village, and both were educated in New York State.
ISLAND HISTORY: American Protestant missionaries Abner and Lucy Wilcox of Waioli
Missionary teacher Abner Wilcox was born in Harwinton, Connecticut, in 1808, and was raised there on a farm in a colonial-style house that still stands.
ISLAND HISTORY: Valdemar Knudsen’s westside Kaua‘i of long ago
Norwegian Valdemar Knudsen (1819-1898) settled on Kaua‘i in 1856 and at one time held government leases to over 100,000 acres of western Kaua‘i that was home to several hundred Hawaiians.
ISLAND HISTORY: Chiyo, Sato, and Misao Kamada’s Lihu‘e School memories
Kaua‘i-born sisters Chiyo Kamada Oyagi, Sato Kamada Nakao, and Misao Kamada Kawakami attended Lihu‘e School in Pua Loke, Kaua‘i, during the early 1900s and later married, raised children, and became longtime Kauai school teachers.
ISLAND HISTORY: The story of King Kaumuali‘i’s spear bearer
Kaua‘i’s teller of Hawaiian tales, Eric Knudsen (1872-1957), possessed a long, black, kauila-wood spear that was given to him by his father, Valdemar Knudsen (1819-1898).
ISLAND HISTORY: Hawai‘i-born Broadway star, singer and actor Ed Kenney Jr.
A number of years ago, I phoned Broadway star, singer and actor Ed Kenney Jr. (1933-2018) at his home in Kapaa, and when he picked up his phone and I introduced myself he surprised me by singing the opening lines of the song “You Are Beautiful” from the musical “Flower Drum Song.”
ISLAND HISTORY: Solo hula dancer and singer Lorraine “Lani” Keaoulilani Rodrigues Custino
Born in Hawai‘i, Lorraine “Lani” Keaoulilani Rodrigues Custino (1931-1998) was the daughter of singer, musician, composer, and song archivist Victoria Kealiikaapunihonua Ii and Clarence L. Rodrigues.
ISLAND HISTORY: Keith Smith’s book is all about ‘Plantation Kids’
Keith Smith’s book, “Plantation Kids,” is a comprehensive account of his personal recollections, etched with detail, of the days of his youth while growing up in the plantation town of Kilauea, Kauai during the 1950s and 1960s, with much historical information weaved into the narrative.
ISLAND HISTORY: Mary Anderson’s account of her visit to Kaua‘i in 1863
In 1863, the Rev. Rufus Anderson of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions visited the Hawaiian Islands in the company of his wife, Eliza, and his daughter, Mary Anderson.
ISLAND HISTORY: Kaua‘i of long ago recalled by William Owen Smith
William Owen Smith (1848-1929), the eldest son of Kaua‘i missionaries Dr. and Mrs. James W. Smith, was born and raised at Koloa.