Editor’s note: On Dec. 3, the Kaua‘i Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary. Museum leaders have chosen 50 stories from exhibits, collections and the archives of the museum to share with the public. One story will run daily through Dec. 3.
Editor’s note: On Dec. 3, the Kaua‘i Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary. Museum leaders have chosen 50 stories from exhibits, collections and the archives of the museum to share with the public. One story will run daily through Dec. 3.
LIHU‘E — Being the only western doctor on Kaua‘i for most of 40 years, Dr. James Smith of Koloa kept a horse and buggy ready to be called away at a moments notice.
At sunrise, one Monday morning in 1865, a frantic and exhausted rider arrived, having traveled throughout the night with the news that Robert Cockran Wyllie had slit his throat but still lived. Smith recorded in his journal, “I left home about quarter before 8 o’clock … changed horses at Wailua and reached Princeville at half past 12. Only 4 and a half hours from Koloa.” The distance was 45 miles over rough terrain with numerous rivers to cross. It was a remarkable ride.
Smith found his patient conscious but in a very bad way. The cut made with a heavy razor caused the trachea to separate and the loss of blood was so great that he couldn’t imagine the poor man having any more to bleed. Only the barest thread of a pulse existed. Dr. Smith tried, but couldn’t stitch up the throat so that there was no way to feed the man. By evening Wyllie became delirious and Tuesday he became rational but then was delirious all night. He finally died about 6:05 on Wednesday evening. Dr. Smith entered in his journal, “I pray I never see another such case.”
The cause for the man’s attempted suicide was that his uncle’s estate at Princeville with its new $40,000 mill was deeply in debt. The mill was more for show and the plantation was not capable of bringing in the profits necessary pay down the debt. Wyllie was despondent for weeks when some visiting friends discovered him with his throat slit by his own hand. Their quick action in binding his wounds and sending the rider to Koloa, allowed young Wyllie the opportunity to write his will.
The notice in the Hawaiian Gazette mentioned he died “suddenly.” Robert Wyllie was buried in the Wai‘oli churchyard in an unmarked grave surround by an iron fence.
