Mrs. Elizabeth Stone Bahr, a resident of Northern Virginia and an attorney with the U.S. Department of Defense specializing in international and treaty law, is a descendant of Kaua‘i Gov. Paul P. Kanoa (1832-1895) and his wife, Kaleipua Kanoa (1843-1897), through their daughter and heir Ho‘omalu Kanoa Kreuter (1880-1945).
An ali‘i, Paul Puhiula Kanoa was Kaua‘i’s governor from 1881 to 1886 during the reign of King David Kalakaua.
In his day, his Niumalu estate, upon which Niumalu Beach Park is now situated, was the site of many a lively, late-night party with dancers, singers, musicians, ship captains, dignitaries and Hawaiian royalty, including the “Merrie Monarch” King David Kalakaua in attendance.
When Gov. Kanoa died, Kaleipua Kanoa inherited his Niumalu estate, and when she passed away in 1897, her heirs were: Ho‘omalu (Mrs. Bahr’s great-grandmother), Kanehiwa, Kaleipuali‘ili‘i, Eva Kapualanilehua and Lukela.
Mrs. Bahr’s great-grandfather, Ho‘omalu Kanoa’s husband, was Charles Conrad Kreuter (1875-1966) — a musician who was a member of the Royal Hawaiian Band from 1893 to 1904 as its lead corenetist under the direction of Henri Berger, the royal bandmaster of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i from 1872 to 1915.
Great-grandfather Charles Conrad Kreuter — a first-generation American whose parents had immigrated to America from Alsace-Lorraine, then part of Germany — was also a member of the band that played at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition World’s Fair held in San Francisco in 1914.
It is also noted that great grandmother Ho‘omalu Kanoa Kreuter served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Lili‘uokalani from 1891 to 1893.
While Mrs. Bahr was growing up in California, she got to know her grandfather, Donald R. Kreuter, one of Charles and Ho‘omalu’s sons.
To her he embodied what she knew of her Hawaiian roots.
He was a gregarious man, and she fondly recalls him speaking to her in Hawaiian, playing the ukulele, and his soft, dark skin.
Mrs. Elizabeth Stone Bahr, the daughter of Charlene and Mike Stone of California, is married to U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Joshua Bahr.
They have three children — Evelyn, Bridger and Colter.
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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
