ISLAND HISTORY: Pioneer aviator Rosco C. Wriston, the first pilot to fly to Ni‘ihau
As an Army Air Service aviator stationed at Luke Field on Ford Island, O‘ahu, during the 1920s and 1930s, Lieutenant Roscoe C. Winston (1895-1974) made the first flight over Kilauea Volcano, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, and the first flights to Kaho‘olawe and Ni‘ihau.
ISLAND HISTORY: Kenneth Emory — a pioneer anthropologist of Polynesia
Anthropologist Kenneth Emory (1897-1992) was born in Massachusetts and in 1900 moved with his parents to Honolulu, where he attended Punahou and became fluent in Hawaiian.
ISLAND HISTORY: Whaleboat captain Kapahe shipwrecked in Kaulakahi Channel
When teller of Hawaiian tales Eric Knudsen (1872-1957) of Kauai was a young man, it was his pleasure to listen to the past exploits of an elderly, former Hawaiian whaleboat captain named Kapahe.
ISLAND HISTORY: Eleanor Kaikilani Coney — a famous beauty at the court of Kalakaua and Kapi‘olani
A famous beauty of 19th century Hawai‘i, Eleanor Kaikilani Coney (1867-1943) was born at Nawiliwili, Kaua‘i, one of six children of High Chiefess Laura Amoy Kekuakapuokekuaokalani Ena Coney (1843-1929) of the Big Island and American John Harvey Coney (1820-1880).
ISLAND HISTORY: ‘Paradise, Hawaiian Style’ was filmed on Kauai
The movie “Paradise, Hawaiian Style,” starring Elvis Presley (1935-1977), was filmed during 1965 in Los Angeles and in Hawaii, with several scenes shot on Kauai featuring the Coco Palms and the Hanalei Plantation hotels.
ISLAND HISTORY: Author, newspaperman Charles Nordhoff visited Kaua‘i in 1873
In 1873, American newspaperman and author Charles Nordhoff (1830-1901) booked passage on the 75-ton sugar schooner, “Fairy Queen,” which sailed one afternoon from Honolulu, bound for Waimea, Kauai.
ISLAND HISTORY: The Hawaiian sugar plantation newspaper era – 1919-83
From 1919, when Kaua‘i’s Hawaiian Sugar Co., aka Makaweli Plantation, first published the “Makaweli Plantation News,” Hawai‘i’s original sugar plantation newspaper, until 1983, when the Waialua Sugar Mill plantation published its final edition of the “Waialua Sugar Scoop,” a total of 55 Hawaiian sugar plantations published their own in-house newspapers.
ISLAND HISTORY: Mabel Wilcox, health care pioneer and philanthropist
The granddaughter of American Protestant missionaries, Abner & Lucy Wilcox, who settled on Kaua‘i, and the youngest of Samuel and Emma Wilcox’s six children, Mabel Wilcox was born in 1882 at Grove Farm, Kaua‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: A look at the life of a Kaua‘i-born suffragist
Hawaiian suffragist Wilhelmina Kekelaokalaninui Widemann Dowsett (1861-1929) was born in Lihue, Kauai to parents Hermann A. Widemann (1822-1899) and Mary Kaumana Pilahiulani (1833-1899).
ISLAND HISTORY: Radio announcer Mike Ashman authored ‘Kauai: As It Was In The 1940s and ’50s’
In 1940, with a couple of years experience as a radio announcer at KSAN in San Francisco under his belt, California-born Mike Ashman (1921-2018) joined Kauai’s first radio station – KTOH (Kauai Territory of Hawaii) – which began broadcasting on May 8, 1940 on Ahukini Road.
ISLAND HISTORY: A history of the famous Hamura Saimin restaurant
Kaua‘i’s Hamura Saimin restaurant was opened for business by Mr. & Mrs. Charles Susumu Hamura (1906-1980) and Aiko Hamura (1910-2002) in a converted Army barracks on Kress Street, Lihu‘e in 1952.
ISLAND HISTORY: The famous Club Jetty restaurant and nightclub in Nawiliwili, Kaua‘i
Years ago, when patrons arrived at the Club Jetty restaurant and nightclub in Nawiliwili, Kaua‘i, they were welcomed by a hand-written sign at the door that read, “No Tank Tops, No Shorts, No Bare Feet, And No Bare Feet Dancing!”
ISLAND HISTORY: English shipwreck survivor and Honolulu shipyard owner James Robinson
I first learned of English shipwreck survivor and Honolulu shipyard owner James Robinson (1799-1876) from Kapahi, Kauai resident Beatrice Kauilani Lemke-Newman, who informed me that Mr. Robinson was her great uncle, several generations removed.
ISLAND HISTORY: The Kapa‘a First Hawaiian Church was founded by Queen Deborah Kapule
An ali‘i, Deborah Kapule (1798?-1853), known also as Kekaihaakulou, was born on Kaua‘i, likely at Waimea, her parents being the high chief, Haupu, and the chiefess, Haea.
ISLAND HISTORY: 19th century Kaua‘i medical doctor James W. Smith
Dr. James W. Smith, Kaua‘i’s only medical doctor for much of the 19th century, was born in Connecticut in 1810, educated at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, and sailed to Hawai‘i from Boston, Massachusetts with the “Tenth Company” of American missionaries, arriving on Kaua‘i with his wife, Melicent, in 1842.
ISLAND HISTORY: Family man and Kaua‘i Board of Supervisors Chairman Raymond X. Aki
Kaua‘i Board of Supervisors (now County Council) Chairman (now Mayor) Raymond X. Aki (1919-2006) was born in Wailua, the son of Henry K. Aki (1891-1967) and Lucy Kupihea Aki (1893-1984).
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.