The Lindsays of Kauai

Born and raised in rural Scotland into a Scottish clan whose tartan often appears in skirts and shirts, Alexander Lindsay (1840-1930) became a skilled blacksmith and wheelwright in his native land.

Then, about 1879, after reading a publication offering work for skilled laborers to build a sugar mill at Kilauea, Kauai, he immigrated to the Garden Isle with his wife, Isabella Bonnar Lindsay (1836-1911), and their children, after which he joined Kilauea Sugar Co. as a millwright.

He also operated a cattle ranch and dairy at Moloaa, where he and his family lived in a house that once stood on a site now occupied by a stand of giant Norfolk pines, situated alongside Kuhio Highway on the Kilauea side of the former Meadow Gold dairy property.

Of Mrs. Lindsay it was said that she was a woman of “rare character and ability which combined the good Scotch qualities of thrift and energy with staunch loyalty and high moral integrity.”

Alexander and Isabella Lindsay had seven children: Adam, Andrew, Katherine, Margaret, Isabella, Alexander and Edith.

In 1893, their daughter Margaret Lindsay (1874-1961) married Kauai sugar pioneer Hans Peter Faye (1859-1928), who had about that time convinced her father to move his Moloaa dairy to Waimea to consolidate with Waimea Dairy.

When Faye purchased Waimea Dairy from E. Olmstead, and its dairy pastures from the Rowell family, and gained controlling interest in Waimea Sugar Mill Co. in 1904 —while managing Kekaha Sugar Co. — he invited Alexander Lindsay to move from Moloaa into a house at the Waimea Dairy and manage the dairy.

Mr. Hans Peter Faye and Mrs. Margaret Lindsay Faye’s sons Lindsay A. Faye Sr. (1898-1979) and Alan Faye Sr. (1905-1968) followed their grandfather and father in the dairy and sugar businesses on Kauai.

From 1928 until the late 1960s, Alan managed Waimea Dairy and Waimea Sugar Mill Co., while Lindsay managed Waimea Sugar Mill Co. from 1922 to 1928, and Kekaha Sugar Co. from 1935 to 1963.