Kawaihau is not a place-name native to Kauai. The area that now comprises the Kawaihau district, including Kapaa but extending from the Wailua River northward to Moloaa, was mostly part of the larger Puna district in ancient times. So how
Kawaihau is not a place-name native to Kauai. The area that now comprises the Kawaihau district, including Kapaa but extending from the Wailua River northward to Moloaa, was mostly part of the larger Puna district in ancient times. So how did Kawaihau get its name?
The story begins in Honolulu where King David Kalakaua’s brother, Prince Leleiohoku, established a “choral society” which was christened the Hui Kawaihau, the “Ice Water Club.” This congenial society of royal courtiers was probably dedicated as much to drinking and carousing as it was to music, although Leleohoku himself was an accomplished singer and composer. The name, Kawaihau, was a derisive one, chosen to “honor” a white woman, a friend of the King, who drank only ice water and did “not court some of his royal favors,” — in other words she was as cold as ice water.
The Hui Kawaihau was formed in 1876, just before Kalakaua became king and the same year that he traveled to the United States to begin negotiations for a treaty that would remove the duty on sugar exported to the U.S. The result was to suddenly transform the Hawaiian sugar industry into a real moneymaker. Among those who wished to take advantage of the sugar boom was Kalakaua himself.
So he partnered with his good friend Cpt. James Makee, a sugar planter on Maui, to build a sugar mill on Crown lands in the ahupuaa of Kapaa — lands that the king controlled. As part of this venture, Kalakaua also encouraged the young men of the Hui Kawaihau to abandon the frivolities of Honolulu for farming opportunities on Kauai, and in the summer of 1877 more than 30 of them, with their wives and children, disembarked at Wailua Bay and hauled their luggage and their tools to the uplands above Kapaa where they constructed housing and a clubhouse and began planting cane. Thus, the Hui Kawaihau and the mill constructed near the coast, across from the present Otsuka Furniture store, laid the foundations for the modern town of Kapaa.
The Hui Kawaihau did not prosper. Cane was planted, but after one successful harvest the enterprise floundered. Fire destroyed a second crop; Cpt. Makee, the only experienced planter among them, died in 1879; drinking, dancing and the lives of urban courtiers did not mesh well with farming on Kauai; acrimony and power struggles tore the Hui apart.
By 1881, the last of the members of the Hui Kawaihau were gone. Col. Zephaniah Spalding, son in law of Cpt. Makee, established a mill in the adjacent ahupuaa of Kealia which he bought, and it became the center of Makee Plantation.
But the Hui Kawaihau left a legacy: The town of Kapaa was born from the merchant community that sprang up around the mill, and the name Kawaihau was bequeathed to the district in 1877 by Kalakaua, himself. The Hawaiian Legislature confirmed the name in 1878. Perhaps it’s fitting that this district, with its many cool mountain streams is named after a woman who was “cold as ice water.”
Major source: Judge Charles F. Dole, “The Hui Kawaihau,” The Friend, Vol. LXXVII, No. 4, April 1, 1920.
Articles, puzzle contest celebrate history
This story on the Kawaihau district is the second of 12 leading up to the 100th anniversary of the Kauai Historical Society.
The highlight will be a multicultural festival on May 10, when there will be dances, music, food and stories on the front lawn of the Historic County Building.
In the meantime, The Garden Island is working with the Kauai Historical Society on a centennial crossword puzzle contest. Here’s how it will work:
The Garden Island will publish 12 articles on Kauai history on successive Thursdays. The first was published Jan. 23. A crossword puzzle will be published by April 17 and also be available at the office of the Kauai Historical Society, Old County Building Ste. 101, Lihue. Answers to the puzzle will be found in the articles.
Here are the contest rules:
• The puzzle must be submitted by May 5 to KHS.
• Submissions may be mailed to P.O. Box 1778, Lihue, HI 96766 or to the office of the historical society.
• Winners will be determined by date and time of submission. If mailed, date will be the postmark and time will be 6 p.m. If delivered to the historical society office, the date and time will be stamped on the submission. Three prizes will be awarded, determined by the earliest date and time of submission.
• Winners will be announced at the centennial celebration May 10, Historic County Building.
