Rev. Hans Isenberg (1855-1918) was born and educated in Germany, and accepted a call to a Lutheran church at St. Andreasberg, Germany, in 1882.
In 1886, he visited Hawai‘i, where his brother, Paul Isenberg (1837-1903), had become a successful entrepreneur.
And in 1887, he accepted the pastorate of the Lutheran church at Lihu‘e, Kaua‘i, which was started in 1881 when a group of German immigrants arrived on Kaua‘i to work at Lihu‘e Plantation.
Later, in 1903, Rev. Isenberg’s business interests commenced when brother Paul Isenberg died and he became president of Lihue Plantation and Koloa Plantation.
Molokoa was the home of Rev. Isenberg and his wife, Mary Dorothea Rice Isenberg.
It was located above the Lutheran Church on German Hill, approximately 400 yards north of the end of today’s hardtop road, but was torn down by Lihu‘e Plantation during the 1970s.
Rev. Isenberg also built a mountain house he named Kukaua that was once situated on the rim of Kilohana Crater above the old German Forest, but it, too, was demolished by Lihu‘e Plantation.
According to articles published in the “Honolulu Star-Bulletin,” “The Honolulu Advertiser,” and “The Garden Island” newspaper at the time of his death, “Rev. Isenberg’s death … brings sadness to a large circle of family connections and regret to a much wider circle of acquaintanceship.
“Throughout an active life he had been interested in a great variety of community matters … where he had carried out a quiet but effective philanthropy and had built-up many community institutions such as … Lihu‘e hospital.
“Probably never in the history of Lihu‘e has there been a larger and more democratic funeral than that of the late Rev. Hans Isenberg on Sunday afternoon at the Lutheran Church.
“The church was entirely inadequate for the concourse of people, who gathered from all parts of the Island and from all conditions of life.
“Various groups of widely differing races … were gathered about the church in attitudes of respectful reverence to testify their regard for the dead.”
Rev. Isenberg’s grave is on the grounds of the Lihu‘e Lutheran Church.
