The 1910s
The 1910s was a period of growth. C. Brewer and Company took over control of the Hakalau Plantation, thus doubling its sugar assets. This was the final step giving Hawaiian sugar agencies and growers control over sugar refining--a strategic move. Key infrastructure developed, including completion of the railroad to Hakalau, improvement of roads, and erection of numerous plantation buildings, including 30% of camp dwellings (tabulated from the insurance valuation files from the early to mid-1950s), as well as schools and social halls. Over time, the railroad replaced ships as the means of transporting cane. During this period, camps were ethnic-specific, e.g., Kamaee Korean Camp, Wailea Spanish Camp. Immigration of Europeans, arriving with larger families, led to building larger homes to support them. Challenges for the plantation included unpredictability of crop size due to the independence of homesteaders and the formation of the Wailea Milling Company.
Winter storms threaten the mill causing damage and underscoring the risk associated with the location of the mill.
By 1917, World War 1 was impacting Hakalau Plantation. Emphasis was placed on growing food crops and workers were drafted or volunteered to join the fight. Patriotism ran high, as Hakalauans contributed funds to support the war effort.
Included in this detailed timeline of the 1910s are excerpts from the annual reports sent to C. Brewer by John M. Ross, manager, Hakalau Plantation Company, starting with 1911. John M. Ross played a prominent roll at Hakalau, serving as head overseer from 1884-1905, manager from 1905-1942. Annual reports provided courtesy of the Edmund Olson Trust Archive. Additional sources used include: photos from the Lyman Museum, A History of C. Brewer & Company, Ltd.: One Hundred Years in the Hawaiian Islands, 1826-1926, by Josephine Sullivan, Walton Advertising and Printing Company, Boston, 1926 and The Story of C. Brewer and Company, Limited, Scott C.S. Stone, Island Heritage Publishing, 1991 and various newspapers cited below.
Winter storms threaten the mill causing damage and underscoring the risk associated with the location of the mill.
By 1917, World War 1 was impacting Hakalau Plantation. Emphasis was placed on growing food crops and workers were drafted or volunteered to join the fight. Patriotism ran high, as Hakalauans contributed funds to support the war effort.
Included in this detailed timeline of the 1910s are excerpts from the annual reports sent to C. Brewer by John M. Ross, manager, Hakalau Plantation Company, starting with 1911. John M. Ross played a prominent roll at Hakalau, serving as head overseer from 1884-1905, manager from 1905-1942. Annual reports provided courtesy of the Edmund Olson Trust Archive. Additional sources used include: photos from the Lyman Museum, A History of C. Brewer & Company, Ltd.: One Hundred Years in the Hawaiian Islands, 1826-1926, by Josephine Sullivan, Walton Advertising and Printing Company, Boston, 1926 and The Story of C. Brewer and Company, Limited, Scott C.S. Stone, Island Heritage Publishing, 1991 and various newspapers cited below.
1910
- C. Brewer and Company, Limited acquired Hakalau Plantation, effective January 1, 1910:
Irwin & Company is amalgamated with C. Brewer and Company, Limited, resulting in a stronger financial position for C. Brewer and Company, Limited, which increases its capital stock and takes the Irwin Company's assets and business. (Source: The Story of C. Brewer and Company, Limited, Scott C.S. Stone, Island Heritage Publishing, 1991, p. 222.)
This was an epochal event in the history of C. Brewer and Company. The consolidation doubled the amount of sugar handled by the firm and, what was more important, afforded a field for expansion in the investment of its surplus earnings in shares of the plantations which had formerly been represented by Irwin & Company...
At the time of the amalgamation, C. Brewer and Company, Limited, represented the following plantations: Onomea Sugar Company, Honomu Sugar Company, Wailuku Sugar Company, Pepeekeo Sugar Company, and Hawaiian Agricultural Company. All of these were Hawaiian corporations controlled by local stockholders. The plantation agencies acquired by the consolidation were: Hutchinson Sugar Plantation Company, Paauhau Sugar Plantation Company, Hakalau Plantation Company, Kilauea Sugar Plantation Company, Olowalu Company, Waimanalo Sugar Company, Honolulu Plantation Company, and Hilo Sugar Company. Five of these were California corporations, and all eight were controlled by residents of San Francisco.
In the evolution of the Hawaiian Sugar industry, the function of the agent had at that time broadened. The sale of sugar and arrangements for shipping space had become a minor routine service. By the present system, the agent not only handles the plantation finances, keeps necessary corporate records, makes out tax returns, attends to the purchase of merchandise and to other routine matters, but also acts as general supervisor of the plantations which it represents. This service extends to rendering engineering and legal advice to the managers, assistance in supplying and organizing the plantations' personnel, suggestions regarding methods of cane cultivation, bookkeeping, laborers' quarters, dairies--in fact, the agent stands as a ready and willing advisor on any problems confronting the management of the plantations, and further sees to it that maximum efficiency both in field and factory is maintained.
...Yet it is this centralization of the plantation interests in the agencies that has made possible the existing thorough cooperation in the sugar industry of the Hawaiian Islands. This was necessary for the development of the industry, and without it the establishment of a unique experiment station, the importation of labor, and the sale of sugar on a cooperative basis could not have been accomplished.
(Source: A History of C. Brewer & Company, Ltd.: One Hundred Years in the Hawaiian Islands, 1826-1926, by Josephine Sullivan, Walton Advertising and Printing Company, Boston, 1926, pp. 170-172.
In Claus Spreckels: The Sugar King in Hawaii, author Jacob Adler notes:
Brewer took over eight Irwin plantation agencies: Hutchinson Sugar Plantation Company, Hawaii; Hakalau Plantation Company, Hawaii; Paauhau Sugar Plantation Company, Hawaii; Hilo Sugar Company, Hawaii; Olowalu Sugar Company, Maui; Waimanalo Sugar Company, Oahu; Honolulu Plantation Company, Oahu; and Kilauea Sugar Company, Kauai. The important agencies for the Oceanic Steamship Company and that for the Baldwin Locomotove Works were also taken over.
One aspect of the merger deserves special notice. The move was a final step toward unified control by the Hawaiian agencies and planters over refining of their sugar. Claus Spreckels had dominated the refining of Hawaiian sugar on the West Coast throughout the last quarter of the nineteenth and the opening of the twentieth centuray. The planters had made sporadic, abortive attempts to break this control. When not being ground down by Spreckels, the planters found themselves crushed between both Spreckels and the United States sugar trust. Spreckels and the sugar trust joined forces in the 1890's; together they operated the Western Sugar Refinery in San Francisco (formerly Sprekels' California Refinery).
...Most of the Honolulu sugar agencies began sending their sugar to Crockett, but the Irwin Firm continued to send its sugar to Western Sugar Refinery. The merger of William G. Irwin and Company thus marked the end of an era--the Honolulu agencies had gained control of Hawaiian sugar refining.
(Source: Clause Spreckels: The Sugar King in Hawaii, by Jacob Adler, Mutual Publishing Paperback Series, Tales of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1966, p. 103)
The Hawaiian Star, April 25, 1910, accessed via Newspapers.com.
The Hawaiian Star, May 25, 1910, accessed via Newspapers.com.
Hawaii Herald, June 16, 1910, accessed via Newspapers.com.
The Honolulu Advertiser, December 1, 1910, accessed via Newspapers.com.
The Hawaiian Gazette, December 30, 1910, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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The Hawaiian Star, July 5, 1910, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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1911
- Storm damage periodically caused disruption at the plantation, usually the mill and the various flumes.
The Hawaiian Star, February 17, 1911, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Honolulu Star Bulletin, August 8, 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- Meanwhile, the Hakalau Plantation tried some new technology, a caterpillar tractor, to solve problems related to steep terrain and deep mud.
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The Honolulu Advertiser, August 12, 1911, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- Finally...train service to Hakalau started in December 1911 and was extended to Paauilo in 1913. Continued progress was reported frequently in both Big Island and Oahu newspapers.
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Hawaii Herald, August 31, 1911, accessed via Newspapers.com.
Passenger train heading to Hilo over the Kolekole Bridge. Photo included in Sugar Town.
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The Honolulu Advertiser, October 7, 1911, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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The Hawaiian Gazette, December 8, 1911, accessed via Newspapers.com.
Hawaii Herald, December 14, 1911, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Train with two cars in center of Hakalau railroad trestle. Below is bridge with cart drawn by two horses. Date unknown probably sometime between 1911-1920. Courtesy of the Lyman Museum.
Hawaii Herald, December 28, 1911, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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William Ross [Hakalau Store Manager] family members picnicking under the Hakalau railroad bridge, 1910s. Photo courtesy of Kim Kohl, granddaughter of William Ross.
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William Ross [Hakalau Store Manager] family members traversing the new tracks in Hakalau Upper Camp, 1910s. Photo courtesy of Kim Kohl, granddaughter of William Ross.
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From the Hakalau Plantation Annual Reports...
Plantation Buildings: Much improvement has been done in this line, especially for European immigrants, both in additional houses as well as sanitary arrangements by way of wash and bath houses for them. With more European immigrants arriving, together with such large families as the majority of them have, we are not yet finished with house building, and are now under way with an entirely new camp on the Honohina division; no European laborers having heretofore been sent to that division on account of lack of house accommodation. |
Hakalau Upper Camp house 120, built 1911.
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1912
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From the Hakalau Plantation Annual Reports...
Homestead Matters: In previous Annual Reports I have regretted my inability to give definite and reliable figures as to the area of the Crop to be planted. The complicated Homestead matters that have been and are, responsible for these conditions are still with us, and, if anything, more intensified, if such were possible. |
Yamagata Camp house #822, built in 1912.
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1913
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Honolulu Star Bulletin, January 31, 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- Plantations continued to look for ways to improve processes, in this case, plowing. Hakalau was the only plantation with a tractor, purchased in 1911, and therefore was the location for testing a new plow.
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Hawaii Herald, April 18, 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Kaiwiki Homestead sometime between 1911 and 1920. Photo courtesy of Kim Kohl, granddaugher of William Ross, Hakalau Store, clerk in 1902, manager from 1903-1935.
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The Honolulu Advertiser, May 8, 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Honolulu Star Bulletin, June 13, 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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The Honolulu Advertiser, June 16, 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- Community engagement and mutual support continued, with Hakalau School being the site for a benefit of the Hakalau Church . The program featured many patriotic songs and Christian hymns.
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Hawaii Herald, July 4, 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- Luckily, concerns expressed in January about the potential for undue influence of the Hakalau Plantation in the purchase of Hakalau-Iki houselots were not realized. Purchasers of Hakalau-Iki lots sold at auction were legitimately entitled to the lots and not "dummies" purchasing the lots on behalf of the Hakalau Plantation.
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Hilo Daily Tribune, November 25, 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- Hakalau Plantation diligently worked to improve operations, whether, as in this case, milling, or cultivating, harvesting, or transporting.
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Hilo Daily Tribune, November 25, 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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From the Hakalau Plantation Annual Reports...
Plantation Buildings: During the year 1913 we erected eleven laborer’s cottages 19 feet by 24 feet; one stable; one overseer’s cottage 24 feet by 38 feet, with dining room, three bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom; one garage for auto truck and caterpillar engine. |
Hakalau Upper Camp house #127, built 1913.
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1914
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Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 7, 1914, accessed via Newspapers.com
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Hawaii Herald, May 29, 1914, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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The Honolulu Advertiser, November 4, 1914, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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From the Hakalau Plantation Annual Reports...
Plantation Buildings: In addition to the yearly repairs to buildings, the following new laborers’ cottages were erected this year, principally at Honohina:
12 Cottages 20x24 of 4 rooms with a 6 ft veranda and a 12x18 kitchen and dining room detached.
3 two-story houses 24x24 of 8 rooms each with a 6-ft veranda, with suitable kitchen and dining room detached.
3 small cottages 10x20 with suitable kitchens and dining room.
2 room addition to Sugar-boiler’s cottage.
1915
Hilo Daily Tribune, June 29, 1915, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- The growing population, resulting primarily by importation of immigrant labor for the plantations, required more police to address increasing crime. The strain of this growth in both population and crime fueled negative attitudes by some regarding immigrants.
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Hilo Daily Tribune, June 29, 1915, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Hilo Daily Tribune, August 17, 1915, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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From the Hakalau Plantation Annual Reports...
Plantation Buildings: We erected during the year:
3 Laborers’ Cottages, new, 12x24, of four rooms each, with portch and suitable dining rooms and kitchens.
2 Cottages, as above, 18x24, in addition to various repairs to cottages, kitchens, dining rooms, etc.
1 New Cart and Wagon Shed.
1916
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Hilo Tribune Herald, January 11, 1916, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Hilo Tribune Herald, November 18, 1916, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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From the Hakalau Plantation Annual Reports...
Plantation Buildings: We erected during the year: |
Hakalau Upper Camp Social Hall and Pool Hall, built 1916.
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1917
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Hilo Daily Tribune, March 7, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- With the war going on, the interest and emphasis on growing food was showcased in the schools. Hakalau School excelled.
 Honolulu Star Bulletin, March 24, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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 Honolulu Star Bulletin, May 5, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- Tennis was popular among plantation management and other community leaders.
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Hawaii Herald, August 3, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Honolulu Star Bulletin, July 4, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Hilo Tribune Herald, November 23, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Hawaii Herald, October 19, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Honolulu Star Bulletin, June 26, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
Hawaii Tribune Herald, September 20, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Hilo Tribune Herald, October 26, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
Hilo Tribune Herald, November 2, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
- Simplicio Cucui, Hakalau
- John Halela, Wailea, Hakalau - Simon Valdez, Hakalau 
Hawaii Tribune-Herald, November 5, 1917, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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From the Hakalau Plantation Annual Reports...
Plantation Buildings: One overseer’s cottage of three rooms, kitchen and dining room.
Two camp houses for Koreans 12 feet by 70 feet.
Seven double cottages 20 feet by 24 feet, for Japanese.
One sugar warehouse 54 feet by 190 feet.
Domestic Water Supply System:...to Hakalau main camp one 80,000-gallon tank and 3000 feet of 4 inch piper (old boiler tubes) 600 feet 1 ½ inch to ½ inch pipe supply the entire camp with spring water.
Wailea Spanish camp, 800 feet of 1 ½ inch to ½ inch pipe for better domestic supply.
Kamaee camp, 1200 feet of 4 inch pipe (old boiler tubes) and 2000 feet of 2 inch to 1 inch pipe for supply of spring water to Korean and Japanese camp.
1918
- Tennis is a major attraction for the plantation managers in East Hawaii.
Tennis Court in Hakalau Upper Camp on what is now Hanamalo Loop. Photo courtesy of the Lyman Museum.
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Hilo Tribune Herald, February 3, 1918, accessed via Newspapers.com
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- LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. The Hakalau Mill was located in a precarious location.
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Hilo Tribune Herald, March 3, 1918, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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- Yet another example of the Hakalau Spirit and patriotism...
Hilo Tribune Herald, July 21, 1918, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Hilo Tribune Herald, June 29, 1918, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Hilo Daily Tribune, October 15, 1918, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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Hilo Tribune Herald, November 13, 1918, accessed via Newspapers.com.
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From the Hakalau Plantation Annual Reports...
Plantation Buildings: During the year we built:
3 houses at Korean Camp, of four rooms each with 6-foot veranda and detached kitchen.
2 houses as above at Chin Chuck Stable Camp for Japanese teamsters.
2 houses as above a Kamaee Korean Camp.
1 house at Hakalau Upper Camp of two rooms, veranda and kitchen.
4 new kitchens at Chin Chuck Camp.
6 new kitchens at Honohina.
1 new school house for Koreans at Kamaee, 20 feet by 30 feet.
1 new cottage for night sugar boiler, 20 feet by 30 feet, containing bedroom, sitting-room and bathroom, with 6-foot veranda.
1 new bedroom to engineer’s house.
1 new kitchen and dining-room to assistant bookkeeper’s house.
Reconstructed old landing warehouse, renewing all sides of building and putting it under one roof. In fact, it is an entirely new building except the old floor and foundations.
1 social hall and billiard room, 28 feet by 51 feet, in which there is included a kitchenette, ladies’ and gentlemen’s dressing rooms with shower-baths, billiard table, reading table and Victrola.
We have practically completed the painting of the inside and outside of all skilled employees’ houses on both sections, together with the usual extension repairs to all laborers’ quarters.
1919
- The Wailea Milling Company was established by Tatsuji Kawachi (succeeded by son, Satoru Kurisu) to support independent growers. The creation of the Wailea Milling Company, in direct competition with the Hakalau Plantation, created uncertainty for the Plantation. The newspapers in the summer and fall of 1919 recounted the disputes between the two, differing views of the business issues involved, and the role of the independent growers, the homesteaders.The press coverage of the Hakalau sugar industry in 1919 focused on the battle between the Wailea Milling Company and the Hakalau Plantation Company. Nearly 75% of these articles appeared in articles in June, July and August. The themes are common even today:
- some newspapers consistently favored one side over another;
- intense emotions on both sides interfered with achieving common ground;
- "business analysis" stoked fear versus the perception of unfair treatment;
- the small farmer (homesteader/independent grower) versus corporate agriculture (Hakalau Plantation and C. Brewer & Company) where the small farmer perceived he was being not being paid a fair price;
- the small farmer wanted control over production and payment and corporate agriculture did not intend to give up any control.
- legal issues in motion: independent growers sued Hakalau Plantation, land swap for Wailea Mill site questioned
- Hakalau Plantation, having born all the overhead costs, explained that these costs impact what was paid to the independent grower.
- Hakalau Plantation included disincentives for independent growers to align with Wailea Milling Company. Independent growers signed up with Wailea Milling Company anyway.
- The Wailea Mill was erected and served independent growers until 1944 when the Hakalau Plantation acquired it and closed the mill.
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From the Hakalau Plantation Annual Reports...
Homestead Matters: The crop of 1920: It is impossible for the subscriber to estimate at this time exactly what the area for the 1920 crop will be, for the reason that some of the homesteaders and planters on our outside lands have entered into an agreement, through a Board of Trustess, with the so-called “Wailea Milling Company”. This company so far is not in a position to handle any of the cane from these outside planters, and there is no evidence at the present time that a mill will be ready to take care of even the 1921 crop. We understand that in the event that the Wailea Milling Company do not have their mill ready in time to grind the 1921 crop of the homesteaders and planters who have contracted with them through their Trustees, it will be possible for the parties to these agreements to withdraw and again contract with us. So far we have not signed any agreements to handle any of the 1920 crop grown upon the lands controlled by any of the people who are tied up with the Wailea Milling Company. |
Hakalau Upper Camp house #139, double cottage, built 1918 or 1919?
Kamaee Korean Camp house #542, double cottage, built 1919? or 1920.
Chin Chuck Stable Camp house #431, double cottage, built 1919.
Sanborn Map of Hakalau Mill and Lower Hakalau Facilities, 1919. https://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/savedmaps/Pages/viewimage.php?img=355&famNum=24
Click on map for larger view.
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