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 — Not the first attempt at establishing a sugar plantation, but the first long-lived enterprise, Ladd & Company developed all the elements that distinguished a typical Hawaiian sugar plantation.
Three young men from New England — Peter Alan Brinsmade, William Ladd and William Hooper — established the mercantile firm Brinsmade, Ladd, and Hooper in Honolulu in 1833. In 1835, they established Ladd & Company for the purposes of growing and processing sugarcane in Koloa.
Hooper, the only single man, became the overseer of this enterprise. The area was chosen as it already had wild cane growing and there was adequate rainfall.
They leased 1,000 acres in Koloa from the king for the purpose of growing cane. The 50-year lease allowed for the use of the waterfall and adjoining mill site at Maulili pond, the right to build roads, and the privilege of unrestricted buying and selling, and freedom from harbor dues. The company could hire native workers provided they paid the king, Kamehameha III, and Kaikioewa, the governor of Kaua‘i, a tax for each man employed and paid the men satisfactory wages. The workers were to be exempt from all taxation except the tax paid by their employers. This was significant as it was the first labor contract of its kind in Hawai‘i.
At this time, the Hawaiian commoner was subject to the whims of the chiefs that held land through their association with the king. Rent for farmland was provided by working a set number of days per month doing what their landlord desired. Because these men worked for the plantation and still farmed their own lands, they were obligated to work for their landlords too.
Hooper often came to work and found that his workers had been called to service of their landlord or Gov. Kaikioewa. Kaikioewa managed Kaua‘i as he saw fit, regardless of the lease between the king and Ladd & Company.
Another problem was the nature of the hard and long days expected of workers. Manager Hooper used the company store to entice Hawaiians with exotic western goods that could only be obtained with company script. The catch was it had to be earned at 12.5 cents a day. Hooper was hard pressed to find new and exciting merchandise to keep men working.
One of the Protestant missionaries, Peter Gulick, took pity on the enterprise and taught the men how to harness the wild cattle to the plow after watching 12 men pulling a heavy plow. The first wooden mill rollers were replaced the next year with iron rollers and animal power replaced by water power. A stone furnace was built to provide heat for cooking the juice. Slowly the enterprise grew and proved that commercial sugar planting was possible.
Hooper’s old nemesis Gov. Kaikioewa, too, experimented with sugar planting and had an enterprise in Waimea. At the time of his death, he had been working on establishing a plantation at Lihu’e.
In 1847, the Koloa enterprise went bankrupt and the lease was sold to its major creditor, Dr. R.W. Wood, who later purchased the property and adjacent lands when fee simple land ownership was possible.
Ladd & Company paved the way for all other enterprises, serving as an example of what was and what wasn’t successful.
