William Hyde Rice: Last governor of Kaua’i by Hank Soboleski Special to The Garden Island William Hyde Rice was born in 1846 at Punahou, O’ahu and moved with his missionary family to Kaua’i in 1854. Willy, as he was called
William Hyde Rice: Last governor of Kaua’i
by Hank Soboleski
Special to
The Garden Island
William Hyde Rice was born in 1846 at Punahou, O’ahu and
moved with his missionary family to Kaua’i in 1854.
Willy, as he was
called then, grew up playing with Hawaiian children and speaking Hawaiian, but
he also learned the language from older Hawaiians who chanted while he listened
silently. In these ways, he became thoroughly fluent in Hawaiian and was, in
fact, more at ease speaking it than English; in later years he said that until
he was twenty he never thought in English and had to mentally translate from
Hawaiian to English to express himself.
He also learned much of the
history and folklore of Kaua’i from his good friend, Governor Paul Kanoa
(Governor of Kaua’i from 1846 to 1877 and a Hawaiian scholar), during long
talks at the governor’s home at Nawiliwili Bay. And, it was Governor Kanoa who
taught Rice obscure meanings of the Hawaiian language, as well as its more
complicated grammatical constructions and variations in pronunciation.
The Governor’s help was invaluable when Rice wrote the manuscripts of his
Hawaiian legends. A few were translated by him into English in 1923 and
published as Hawaiian Legends, which is available at local public libraries and
is considered to be the book of legends closest to the original Hawaiian in
flavor, phrasing and rhythm.
William Hyde Rice was not a scholar by
profession, however; he was a rancher who got his first job in 1867 taking care
of cattle on the Lihue Plantation Ranch for Manager Paul Isenberg at $25 a
month. An expert horseman, he could pick a silver dollar off the ground on
horseback while on the move and he was very much at home with the Hawaiian
paniolos.
His career as a rancher continued when he purchased a large
makai section of the Kalapaki ahupuaa from Princess Ruth Keelikolani in 1879
and ran Lihue Ranch on it. By 1881, he’d sold most of this land to Lihue
Plantation and bought Kipukai and Kipu from Princess Ruth, where he raised
cattle and fine horses and grew sugarcane on Kipu Plantation.
When Queen
Liliuokalani visited Kaua’i in 1891, she was the honored guest of Rice and his
wife, Mary. After she came ashore at Nawiliwili, a horse-drawn carriage took
her to Rice’s home, Hale Nani, in Lihue. There, hundreds of children passed
before her and a great luau was served. Later, in the evening, the Royal Band
performed for her.
During her visit, Rice also drove her to Haena in his
carriage pulled by a span of magnificent white stallions. And, at a farewell
luau in her honor that was attended by 2000 people at Kalapaki, Rice’s home on
Nawiliwili Bay, Rice sent for drinking water for her from a spring in Kipukai
that was sacred to the Hawaiian gods and royalty.
In the same year, 1891,
Queen Liliuokalani appointed Rice to be the Governor of Kaua’i, a position he
held until after the revolution of 1893. Mr. Rice was the last Governor of
Kaua’i and he’d served the Kingdom in the Hawaiian Legislature for many years
as a Representative from Kaua’i.
It’s also noted that Rice, George N.
Wilcox and Dr. Smith of Koloa were, in the 1870’s, the first people on Kaua’i
to install telephones in their homes. And, King Kalakaua and Rice gave the
addresses in Hawaiian at the dedication ceremonies of the Kamehameha Schools in
1887.
William Hyde Rice married Mary Waterhouse in 1872 and they had
eight children. He passed away on June 15, 1924 and his monument on Kipu Road
nears rows of great, old Norfolk pines was “Erected In Loving Memory By
His Japanese Friends” on June 15, 1925.
Hank Soboleski is a
history buff and part-time writer.
On the first anniversary of his
death, this monument to William Hyde Rice was erected “in loving memory by his
Japanese friends” on Kipu Road near a stand of Norfolk pines. (Photos by Dennis
Fujimoto)
