Mary Pitman Ailau

Mary Pitman Ailau
Born 1838/March 1841
Hilo, Hawaiʻi, Kingdom of Hawaiʻi
Died (1905-02-11)February 11, 1905
Hilo, Hawaiʻi, Territory of Hawaiʻi
Burial February 12, 1905
Homelani Cemetery, Hilo
Spouse John Keakaokalani Ailau
Full name
Mary Ann Kinoʻole Kaʻaumokulani Pitman Ailau
Father Benjamin Pitman
Mother Kinoʻoleoliliha

Mary Ann Kinoʻole Kaʻaumokulani Pitman (1838/March 1841 – February 11, 1905), later Mrs. Mary Pitman Ailau, was a high chiefess of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, of part Native Hawaiian and American descent. She was raised and educated in Hilo and Honolulu and served as maid of honor and lady-in-waiting of Queen Emma, the wife of Kamehameha IV. In 1861, she returned to the United States with her father and lived most of her adult life in New England before returning in 1881 to Hawaiʻi where she married musician John Keakaokalani Ailau, better known as Jack Ailau. In later life, she became invested in Hawaiian curio shops and many of her collections are preserved in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.

Early life and family

Portrait of Mary and her brother Henry at the Peabody Essex Museum

Born in Hilo, on the island of Hawaiʻi, Pitman was the eldest child and only daughter of Benjamin Pitman and Kinoʻoleoliliha, a high chiefess of Hilo.[1][2] Her birth year has been given as 1838[1][3][4][5][6] or March 1841.[7] In the Hawaiian language, her name Kinoʻole means "thin" or "without body" while Liliha means "heartsick" or "rich, oily".[8][9]

Originally a native of Salem, Massachusetts, her father was an early pioneer, businessman and sugar and coffee plantation owner on the island of Hawaiʻi, who profited greatly from the kingdom's booming whaling industry in the early 1800s.[10][11] On her mother's side, she was a descendant of Kameʻeiamoku, one of the royal twins (with Kamanawa) who advised Kamehameha I in his conquest of the Hawaiian Islands, and also of the early American or English sea captain Harold Cox, who lent his name to George "Cox" Kahekili Keʻeaumoku II, the Governor of Maui.[12][13] Her maternal grandfather Hoʻolulu along with his brother Hoapili, helped conceal the bones of King Kamehameha I in a secret hiding place after his death.[14] Her siblings were Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman (1845–1863), Benjamin Franklin Keolaokalani Pitman (1852–1918), half-sister Maria Kinoʻole Pitman Morey (1858–1892), half-brothers Charles Brooks Pitman (1860–1918) and Harold Albert Pitman (1865–1948).[15][2][16][17][18]

Because of her father's success in business and her mother's descent from Hawaiian royalty, the Pitman family was considered quite prosperous and were host to the royal family when they visited Hilo.[19][20] Besides being one of the leading merchants in town, her father also served the government as district magistrate of Hilo, Kinoʻole, had inherited control over much of the lands in Hilo and Ōlaʻa from her own father, and King Kamehameha III had granted her use of the ahupuaʻa of Hilo after her marriage.[19] During Mary's early childhood, the family lived in the mansion that Benjamin Pitman had built in 1840, in an area known as Niopola, one of the favored resort spots of ancient Hawaiian royalty. The residence also became known as the Spencer House after Pitman sold it to his business partner Captain Thomas Spencer.[note 1] In the 1850s the family moved to Honolulu, where Benjamin Pitman took up banking and built a two-story house that he named Waialeale ("rippling water") at the corner of Alakea and Beretania Streets.[19]

Education and role in royal court

Mary Pitman around the time she was maid of honor to Queen Emma, c. 1856

While in Hawaiʻi, Mary and her younger brother Henry attended Mrs. Wetmore's children's school in Hilo. The school was located at the Wetmores' residence on Church Street. Taught by Lucy Sheldon Taylor Wetmore, the wife of American missionary doctor and government physician Charles Hinckley Wetmore, who had come to Hawaiʻi in 1848 with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), the two elder Pitman children received their education in English rather than Hawaiian. This was unusual since Hawaiian was the official language of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, and all of the other schools in Hilo were conducted in the Hawaiian language. Mrs. Wetmore taught the children reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic and singing, while also reinforcing the curriculum with a strong adherence to the principles of the Protestant faith. Like the Pitman siblings, many of their classmates were also of half-Hawaiian (hapa-kanaka) descent with a majority of them being Chinese-Hawaiians (hapa-pake).[22][23] She was also educated in private schools in Honolulu.[3]

In her youth, Mary was known as the "Belle of Hilo Bay".[24][25] She became a intimate friend of Emma Rooke, who became Kamehameha IV's queen. Alongside Princess Victoria Kamāmalu and Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī (the future Queen Liliʻuokalani), she served as a maid of honor in the royal wedding of Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma on June 19, 1856.[26][27] She also served as one of the lady-in-waiting of the queen in the young court of the royal couple. Writing in 1910, historian Albert Pierce Taylor, who married Emma Ahuena Taylor, a relative of hers, noted "Miss Pittman [sic] was considered a very beautiful girl, her complexion being marvelously clear."[28]

Return to Massachusetts

After the death of Pitman's mother, Kinoʻole, in 1855, her father remarried Maria Louisa Walsworth Kinney, the widow of American missionary Rev. Henry Kinney. The Kinneys were part of the Twelfth Company of missionaries from the ABCFM to arrive in 1848. The marriage aligned the Pitman children with the American missionary community. They were called "cousins" by the children of the missionaries and considered part of the extended missionary family of Hawaiʻi.[15][29][30] Kinney died in 1858 after giving birth to their father's fourth child, a daughter named Maria Kinoʻole (1858–1892).[16][31] The Pitman family returned to Massachusetts in 1861 after her father remarried to his third wife Martha Ball, giving his four children another stepmother.[7][32] The Pitman traveled back to the United States with British traveler Sophia Cracroft and her aunt Lady Jane Franklin who was traveling around the world in search of her husband's lost expedition. Cracroft's letter indicated that the Pitman family left for San Francisco, on June 25, 1861, aboard the ship Comet with Cracroft and Lady Franklin and that the elder Pitman "now has a third wife with a baby [Charles Brook Pitman]."[33] Cracroft wrote down her impression of Mary: "Miss Pitman is very dark—i.e., her Hawaiian descent is perfectly evident, though she has much of the American character in feature."[34]

The family settled down in Massachusetts in the towns of Roxbury and Somerville.[35][36] Her siblings continued their education in their new home and Mary herself enrolled in a Boston area school where she finished her education.[5][37] Her brother Henry fought for the Union Army in the American Civil War from 1862 to 1863 and died after being released from Libby Prison.[35][38] The Pitman family lived in Germany for a period of time.[39] She was noted for her ability of swimming and attracted much attention for her aquatic skills when she visited the recreation sea bathing spots on the New England coast.[4][40]

By 1875, Mary was living in New Bedford while her father and his third wife were still in Europe.[36] During the state visit of King Kalākaua to the United States, Mary Pitman called on the king when he arrived in New Bedford on January 1, 1875. She was escorted by the king at an afternoon dinner reception at the Parker House which was attended by 60 guests.[41] The following day, she paid a morning visit to the king at his hotel in Boston where she had breakfast with Kalākaua.[42] The Boston Daily Globe claimed "Miss Mary Pitman of New Bedford, who is of the blood royal, and who claims as good a right to the Hawaiian throne as the reigning monarch."[43] She and Kalākaua were distant cousins, both descending from High Chief Kameʻeiamoku.[44]

Return to Hawaii

Mary Pitman Ailau in later life

Mary Pitman returned to live in Hawaiʻi in 1881.[3] She married John Keakaokalani Ailau (1855–1894) around 1883. Better known as Jack Ailau, her husband was a newspaper printer, musician and member of the Hawaiian Quintet Club. They had no children although she had an adopted daughter.[45] He died of heart disease on January 17, 1894 while they were visiting San Francisco during the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894.[46][47]

Prior to the 1883 coronation of Kalākaua and Queen Kapiʻolani, Mary Pitman and Princess Poʻomaikelani, the queen’s sister, helped fashioned ʻahuʻula (feather cloaks) and kāhili (feather standards) for the ceremony. The two women used goose and duck feathers which were dyed in traditional colors of the extinct or endangered native birds originally used to fabricate the cloaks. Many of these pieces are now preserve in the Kalanianaʻole Collection at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.[48][49][7]

From her marriage to her final illness, Mary collected and sold goods and artifacts of Hawaiiana in curio stores in Honolulu and Hilo. At Hilo, she partnered with the “Victor girls” in a curio shop located on Pitman Street near the Hilo Hotel. Many of her wares and artifacts are now in the Bishop Museum.[7][3]

Mary died on February 11, 1905, at the home of Cecelia Neilson Arnold, the mother of future Honolulu mayor Charles N. Arnold. Her funeral was held the following afternoon at the Arnold residence and she was buried at the Homelani Cemetery in Hilo.[45] A memorial service was held at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Honolulu on February 24, 1905.[50]

In 1917, her younger brother Benjamin Keolaokalani Pitman and his wife Almira Hollander Pitman returned to Hawaiʻi for a visit. The Hawaiian press heavily covered the visit and the history of the family.[17] In one issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the newpspaer wrote: "Mrs. Allau was acknowledged to be one of the brightest women Hawaii has produced."[51]

Notes

  1. ↑ During a trip to Hawaiʻi in 1917, Almira Hollander Pitman, his sister-in-law, wrote "The hotel in Hilo is the old home of the Pitmans, and Dad [Benjamin Keolaokalani Pitman] remembered it all. Of course the old garden is nearly gone, and houses are built on the grounds, but many of the old trees are still growing."[21]

References

  1. 1 2 Kai 1974, p. 64.
  2. 1 2 Pitman 1931, pp. 149–154.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Summers 1999, p. xii.
  4. 1 2 The Hawaiian Star 1905.
  5. 1 2 The Pacific Commercial Advertiser 1905a.
  6. ↑ Paradise of the Pacific 1905.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Hilo Tribune 1905.
  8. ↑ Pukui & Elbert 1986, pp. 153, 206.
  9. ↑ Pukui, Elbert & Mookini 1974, pp. 112, 132.
  10. ↑ Merry 2000, pp. 156–163.
  11. ↑ Kuykendall 1965, pp. 307–310.
  12. ↑ Pitman 1931, pp. 149–154; McKinzie 1983, pp. 46–47
  13. ↑ Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1917a; Ka Makaainana 1896; Kapiikauinamoku 1956
  14. ↑ Kuykendall 1965, p. 63.
  15. 1 2 Hawaiian Mission Children's Society 1863, p. 35.
  16. 1 2 Walworth 1897, p. 96.
  17. 1 2 Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1916; Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1917a; Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1917c
  18. ↑ Pitman Family Marker. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Mount Auburn Cemetery.
  19. 1 2 3 Pitman 1931, p. 20.
  20. ↑ Kanahele 1999, p. 76.
  21. ↑ Pitman 1931, pp. 74–75.
  22. ↑ Kai 1974, pp. 62–64.
  23. ↑ Merry 2000, pp. 174–175.
  24. ↑ Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1917a.
  25. ↑ Pitman 1931, pp. 21.
  26. ↑ Kuykendall 1953, pp. 78, 83–84.
  27. ↑ Kanahele 1999, p. 68; Haley 2014, pp. 177, 190; Liliuokalani 1898, p. 12; Taylor 1922, p. 204
  28. ↑ Taylor 1910.
  29. ↑ Manning & Vance 2014, pp. 161–162.
  30. ↑ Hawaiian Mission Children's Society 1901, pp. 86, 88.
  31. ↑ Hawaiian Mission Children's Society 1901, p. 88.
  32. ↑ Pitman 1931, p. 21; Merry 2000, p. 156; Wood 2007; Cracroft, Franklin & Queen Emma 1958, pp. 78–79, 172, 332
  33. ↑ Cracroft, Franklin & Queen Emma 1958, pp. 78–79, 172, 332.
  34. ↑ Cracroft, Franklin & Queen Emma 1958, pp. 78–79.
  35. 1 2 Vance & Manning 2015, pp. 146–149.
  36. 1 2 The Boston Daily Globe 1875a; The Boston Daily Globe 1875b; Boston Post 1875
  37. ↑ The Pacific Commercial Advertiser 1913.
  38. ↑ Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1917c.
  39. ↑ The Boston Daily Globe 1888.
  40. ↑ San Francisco Chronicle 1905.
  41. ↑ Boston Post 1875.
  42. ↑ The Boston Daily Globe 1875b.
  43. ↑ The Boston Daily Globe 1875a.
  44. ↑ The Junction City Weekly Union 1875.
  45. 1 2 Hilo Tribune 1905; The Hawaiian Star 1905; The Pacific Commercial Advertiser 1905a; Paradise of the Pacific 1905; San Francisco Chronicle 1905; The Scranton Republican 1905
  46. ↑ Evening Bulletin 1894.
  47. ↑ San Francisco Chronicle 1894.
  48. ↑ Taylor 1935.
  49. ↑ Peterson 1984, p. 370.
  50. ↑ The Pacific Commercial Advertiser 1905b.
  51. ↑ Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1917b.

Bibliography

Books and journals

  • Cracroft, Sophia; Franklin, Jane; Queen Emma (1958). Korn, Alfons L., ed. The Victorian Visitors: An Account of the Hawaiian Kingdom, 1861–1866, Including the Journal Letters of Sophia Cracroft: Extracts from the Journals of Lady Franklin, and Diaries and Letters of Queen Emma of Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. hdl:10125/39981. ISBN 978-0-87022-421-8. OCLC 8989368.
  • Haley, James L. (2014). Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-4668-5550-2. OCLC 886879619.
  • Hawaiian Mission Children's Society (1863). Eleventh Annual Report of the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society. 11. Honolulu: Hawaiian Mission Children's Society. OCLC 7859883.
  • Hawaiian Mission Children's Society (1901). Portraits of American Protestant Missionaries to Hawaii. Honolulu: The Hawaiian Gazette Co. OCLC 11796269.
  • Kai, Peggy (1974). "Chinese Settlers in the Village of Hilo Before 1852". The Hawaiian Journal of History. Honolulu: Hawaiian Historical Society. 8: 39–75. hdl:10524/221. OCLC 60626541.
  • Kanahele, George S. (1999). Emma: Hawaii's Remarkable Queen. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2240-8. OCLC 40890919.
  • Kuykendall, Ralph Simpson (1965) [1938]. The Hawaiian Kingdom 1778–1854, Foundation and Transformation. 1. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-87022-431-X. OCLC 47008868.
  • Kuykendall, Ralph Simpson (1953). The Hawaiian Kingdom 1854–1874, Twenty Critical Years. 2. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-87022-432-4. OCLC 47010821.
  • Liliuokalani (1898). Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, Liliuokalani. Boston: Lee and Shepard. ISBN 978-0-548-22265-2. OCLC 2387226.
  • Manning, Anita; Vance, Justin W. (2014). "Hawaiʻi at Home During the American Civil War". The Hawaiian Journal of History. Honolulu: Hawaiian Historical Society. 47: 145–170. hdl:10524/47259. OCLC 60626541.
  • McKinzie, Edith Kawelohea (1983). Stagner, Ishmael W., ed. Hawaiian Genealogies: Extracted from Hawaiian Language Newspapers. 1. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-939154-28-5. OCLC 12555087.
  • Merry, Sally Engle (2000). Colonizing Hawaiʻi: The Cultural Power of Law. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00932-5. OCLC 231845368.
  • Peterson, Barbara Bennett, ed. (1984). Notable Women of Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0820-4. OCLC 11030010.
  • Pitman, Almira Hollander (1931). After Fifty Years: An Appreciation, and a Record of a Unique Incident. Norwood, MA: Priv. print., The Plimpton Press. OCLC 3703871.
  • Pukui, Mary Kawena; Elbert, Samuel H. (1986). Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0703-0. OCLC 12751521.
  • Pukui, Mary Kawena; Elbert, Samuel H.; Mookini, Esther T. (1974). Place Names of Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0524-1. OCLC 1042464.
  • Shively, Carol A., ed. (2015). "Pacific Islanders and the Civil War". Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civil War. Washington, D. C.: National Park Service. pp. 130–163. ISBN 978-1-59091-167-9. OCLC 904731668.
    • Vance, Justin; Manning, Anita. "Henry Hoolulu (Timothy) Pitman". In Shively (2015), pp. 146–149.
  • Summers, Catherine C. (1999). Material Culture: The J. S. Emerson Collection of Hawaiian Artifacts. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press. ISBN 978-1-58178-006-2. OCLC 260032891.
  • Taylor, Albert Pierce (1922). Under Hawaiian Skies: A Narrative of the Romance, Adventure and History of the Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu: Advertiser Publishing Company, Ltd. OCLC 479709.
  • Walworth, Clarence Augustus (1897). Walworths of America: Comprising Five Chapters of Family History, with Additional Chapters of Genealogy. Albany, NY: Weed-Parsons Printing Co. OCLC 10910899.
Newspapers and online sources

  • "Ancient Hawaiian Lineage in Bostonian Coming Today". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. XXIV (7737). Honolulu: Oahu Publications, Inc. January 30, 1917. p. 10. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "At New Bedford". The Boston Daily Globe. Boston. January 2, 1875. p. 1. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Death of an Old Kamaaina". Hilo Tribune. 10 (16). Hilo, HI: Hilo Tribune Publishing Company. February 14, 1905. p. 1. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Death of John Ailau". Evening Bulletin. Honolulu. January 27, 1894. p. 3. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "DIED". The Hawaiian Star. Honolulu. February 14, 1905. p. 7. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Died Of Heart Disease - Death of John Ailau, a Hawaiian Musician". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco. January 18, 1894. p. 7. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Editorial Notes". The Junction City Weekly Union. Junction City, KS. January 30, 1875. p. 1. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Had Blood Of Hawaiian Chiefs – Death of Mrs. Mary Pitman Ailau of High Rank Who Was One of Queen Emma's Maids". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco. March 1, 1905. p. 4. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • Kapiikauinamoku (June 21, 1956). "Peleuli II Brought Up In Kamehamehaʻs Court – The Story of Maui Royalty". The Honolulu Advertiser. Honolulu. p. 18. Retrieved July 4, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. (Subscription required (help)).
  • "Local Brevities". The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu. February 23, 1905. p. 9. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Mookuauhau Alii – Na Iwikuamoo o Hawaii Nei Mai Kahiko Mai" (PDF). Ka Makaainana. VI (5). Honolulu. August 3, 1896. p. 2. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Pitman "At Home"". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. XXIV (7753). Honolulu: Oahu Publications, Inc. February 17, 1917. p. 9. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Mrs. M. A. K. K. P. Ailau". Paradise of the Pacific. Vol. XVIII no. 2. Honolulu: Press Publishing Co. February 1905. p. 10. OCLC 6372692.
  • "Mrs. Mary Ailau Passes Away On Island of Hawaii". The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu. February 14, 1905. p. 2. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Of Hawaiian Ancestry". The Scranton Republican. Scranton, PA. March 18, 1905. p. 6. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Personals". The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu. September 9, 1913. p. 6. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "The Reception Dinner". Boston Post. Boston. January 2, 1875. p. 3. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Returning Home After Fifty Years". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. XXIV (7707). Honolulu: Oahu Publications, Inc. December 26, 1916. p. 9. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Saturday's Proceedings". The Boston Daily Globe. Boston. January 4, 1875. p. 8. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Society". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. XXIV (7738). Honolulu: Oahu Publications, Inc. January 31, 1917. p. 5. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • "Sudden Death of Benjamin Pitman". The Boston Daily Globe. Boston. January 18, 1888. p. 1. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  • Taylor, Albert Pierce (June 12, 1910). "Court Beauties of Fifty Years Ago". The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. VII (388). Honolulu. p. 13. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
  • Taylor, Emma Ahuena (February 23, 1935). "Kalakaua's Coronation Plans Were Subject For Wide Criticism". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Honolulu. p. 5. Retrieved July 4, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. (Subscription required (help)).
  • Wood, Ben (March 17, 2007). "Museum given manuscript of early Hilo businessman". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 12 (76). Honolulu: Oahu Publications, Inc. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
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