Ruth Knudsen Hanner (1901-1995) was the granddaughter of Valdemar Knudsen, a Norwegian who settled on Kaua‘i in 1852 and became konohiki of over 100,000 acres of west Kauai, and Annie Sinclair, the daughter of Eliza Sinclair, who purchased Ni‘ihau from Kamehameha V in 1864.
Valdemar Knudsen built his homestead at Waiawa, near the foot of Ho‘ea Valley, about a mile west of Kekaha, and when he died in 1898, his son — rancher, legislator and the “Teller of Hawaiian Tales” Eric Knudsen — resided, ran a cattle ranch and hosted Knudsen family gatherings there.
Ruth spent many happy childhood days at Waiawa with her parents Augustus and Margaret Knudsen, and later recalled a nearby water well, where an old chief lived, and grass houses, a taro patch, and very old coconut trees situated about it.
In summer, she said the Knudsens packed up and moved by horseback and horse and mule wagon from Waiawa to their cabin at Halemanu in Koke‘e, where in olden times, Hawaiian bird catchers collected feathers for the cloaks and helmets of their ali‘i.
The first part of their journey was on a horse trail up Waiawa ridge, but a greater portion of the trip followed an old Hawaiian trail.
This trail extended from Koke‘e, past Puu Ka Pele, down to the ridge just above Poki‘i, and onward to the beach at Kekaha makai of the sugar mill.
Long ago, Hawaiians constructed a shed alongside this trail just below Puu Ka Pele, where they would make canoes by hollowing-out koa logs they’d harvested in the Miloli‘i forest and had dragged to Puu Ka Pele.
When they were finished, two rows of men would carry the finished canoe between them down to the beach.
The Knudsens followed this trail upward nearly to Halemanu Ridge, and then proceeded to their cabin on horseback.
Years later, the Knudsens relinquished their Waiawa lease to Kekaha Sugar Co. and their Waiawa homestead was demolished and replaced by sugarcane.
Ruth was a co-founder, with Joseph M. Souza Jr. and Isabel Fayé, of the Koke‘e Natural History Museum, which opened in 1953.
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Hank Soboleski has been a resident of Kauai since the 1960s. Hank’s love of the island and its history has inspired him, in conjunction with The Garden Island Newspaper, to share the island’s history weekly. The collection of these articles can be found here: https://bit.ly/2IfbxL9 and here https://bit.ly/2STw9gi Hank can be reached at hssgms@gmail.com
Enjoyed reading about the history of Ruth. Very interesting. From Indiana
can anyone tell me how Knudsens came to own so much of Kauai. was it purchased from the King?