Eric Moir’s childhood memories recalled
Born and raised in Poipu, construction contractor and Kauai historian Eric Moir (1931-1996) was the son of Hector Moir, the manager of Koloa Plantation from 1933 to 1948, while his mother, Alexandria Kundsen Moir, was the daughter of Kauai’s “Teller of Hawaiian Tales,” Eric Knudsen.
Kauai school principal, postmaster and agriculturalist Hugh H. Brodie
Originally from New York, Hugh H. Brodie (1855-1940) had graduated from Cornell University and had taught school and served as a principal on the mainland before arriving on Kauai in 1897 to become a teacher and the principal of Hanapepe School.
Kamaaina carpenter John Cook built Lihue courthouse
Born and apprenticed as a carpenter in England, John Cook (1824-1916) went to sea at the age of 19 as a ship’s carpenter in the service of the British Navy.
Kauai’s coldest recorded temperatures recalled
In February 1917, William Hardy, the territorial hydrographic official on Kauai, reported that the temperature at Kokee during the latter part of January had plummeted to a freezing 32 degrees.
Hawaiian Centenarian Kaapu Kolo (1801-1920)
Born on Niihau in 1801, Kaapu Kolo was a young girl when she, her parents and others would sometimes stand on the beaches of Niihau to watch with wonder as strange foreign vessels with great sails glided past their island home.
A History of Lihue Hospital
Kauai’s first hospital, a 20-bed facility, was built in Koloa by Koloa Plantation sometime during the 1880s.
Pat Shannon’s Nawiliwili home shelled during World War II
During World War II, Pat Shannon, along with his wife Sophie and daughter Hannah, were shelled in their Nawiliwili home by a Japanese submarine at around 1:30 a.m. on the moonlit morning of Dec. 30, 1941.
The notorious Honorato-Gasmen feud
The deadly feud between Honorato and Gasmen families of Kauai, which that took place on Kauai between 1976 and 1995, originated when George Honorato testified against Rojelio Gasmen for Gasmen’s part in a 1976 Nawiliwili shooting incident that resulted in Gasmen being sentenced to five years in prison.
Strange happenings at the Pacific Missile Range
When Navy Lt. Cmdr. Bruce Rolfe and his wife, Cora, moved into their quarters at 1204-B Regulus Drive at Kauai’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in the early 1980s, they began to experience unexplainable phenomenon.
Hawaiian singer and steel guitarist Annie Kerr
Trina Elizabeth Sonoda of Wailua, my son Brett’s fiancée, recently told me that she is the great-great-grandniece of Hawaiian singer and steel guitarist Annie Kerr (1906-1967).
Ginger Beralas’ oopu fishing days on the North Shore
My wife, Ginger, was born and raised on Kauai, and during the 1950s and early 1960s she’d often go fishing with her family — at the seashore, in plantation reservoirs or steams in the mountains, or in the Hanalei and Wainiha rivers.
Paul Yamanaka’s hike up to Queen Victoria’s finger
Kauai’s Queen Victoria’s Profile had long been a subject of fascination for Kauai-born Honolulu insurance executive Paul Yamanaka (1929-1996).
Pioneer Kauai tour driver Samuel K. Peahu Sr.
Samuel K. Peahu Sr. (1894-1975), one of Kauai’s very first tour drivers, was born in Waimea, and was originally named Kamuela Kahinu Pokipala, but later settled on the first name Samuel and the surname Peahu, the name of his adopted mother.
Here’s a brief history of the Kalihiwai bridges
In 1902, the Executive Council of the Territory of Hawaii recommended that a bridge of cylinder piers, 160 feet in length, be built at Kalihiwai gulch to replace the ferry that had been in use for a very long time as the sole means of conveying passengers and goods across the Kalihiwai River.
The story of Morgan’s Ponds, the pools at Lydgate Park
In 1958, while vacationing in Europe, Native Hawaiian Wailua Houselots resident Albert S. Morgan Sr. (1908-2001) and his wife, Helen Morgan, visited Sorrento, Italy, located on the coast south of Naples and east of the island of Capri, and noticed that Sorrento’s beaches were protected from the open sea of the Bay of Naples by stone breakwaters lying roughly 100 yards offshore.
Bird lover, amateur ornithologist Alexander H. Isenberg
Bird lover and amateur ornithologist Alexander H. Isenberg (1901-1970) was the son of H. Alexander Isenberg, the managing director of H. Hackfeld & Co. of Honolulu, and Virginia Duisenberg Isenberg of San Francisco, and was the grandson of Kauai sugar industry pioneer Paul Isenberg.
Kauai crop duster Joseph E. Bell Jr. worked for 8 sugar plantations
Born in Oak Park, Illinois, World War II fighter pilot Joseph E. Bell Jr. (1925-1967) had accumulated seven years of experience as a crop duster in Arizona before joining Murrayair Ltd. on the Big Island in 1954.
The hippies of Kauai’s Keapana Valley
In early January 1975, a group of over 100 hippies from Los Angeles calling themselves Aquarians settled on leased land in Keapana Valley, Kauai, and soon aroused public concern by carrying bows and arrows and firing a .45-caliber handgun on their property. They were also accused of making threatening remarks to their neighbors.
Actress Nancy Kwan filmed on Kauai
In May 1965, actress Nancy Kwan — who’d achieved stardom five years earlier for her performance as Suzie Wong in the romantic drama film “The World of Suzie Wong,” also starring William Holden — was interviewed on Kauai by Honolulu newspaperman Sean O’Neill during filming of the comedy “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.,” in which she co-starred with Dick Van Dyke.
Anthropoligist and ethnomusicologist Helen Heffron Roberts
During 1923 and 1924, Helen Heffron Roberts (1888-1985), a trained musician and anthropologist headquartered at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu, recorded for the first time over 700 ancient mele and oli chanted by aged Hawaiians throughout the Hawaiian Islands, which are archived for posterity on wax cylinders at Bishop Museum.