Niihau-born Kaapu Kolo (1801-1920) witnessed wooden idols being burned and heiau being demolished on Kauai following the collapse of the ancient Hawaiian kapu system in 1819.
And, in 1820, she observed the ship “Thaddeus,” with Kauai’s first missionaries Samuel Whitney and Samuel Ruggles aboard, anchored offshore of Waimea.
Kaapu later lived in Kekaha, practiced the art of mat-making, and died at age 119.
In 1837, Kauai-born Mary Maihiai (1830?-1912) set out from Kauai with her uncle to “go look see” Molokai in a canoe, and was driven far out to sea in a storm, but was rescued days later by a ship bound for China.
Her short “go look see” Molokai excursion would blossom into her traveling extensively about China, and residing in New York, California and Mexico, before she finally returned home to Hawaii in 1850.
Mary then settled in Honolulu, where she married four husbands.
Born at Anahola, Kauai, Mary Kaumana Widemann (1833-1899) was a highly esteemed woman whose lineage could be traced through the Kamehameha and Kaumualii dynasties.
Her husband, Herman A. Widemann (1822-1899), was appointed cabinet minister by King Kalakaua, and Queen Liliuokalani made him her Minister of Finance.
Mrs. Lilia Wahapaa Kaneihalau (1835-1944) was born in Waimea Valley, Kauai.
Lilia’s family were kuaaina, people of the countryside, with little interaction with folks living elsewhere on Kauai.
Yet, as a child, when whaling ships visited Waimea, Lilia accompanied her grandfather in a canoe to trade with whalers anchored offshore.
Famed as a healer, she lived to be 109.
Keokilele Ukeke Malina (1839-1913) was born at Wainiha, Kauai.
She married John William Malina, a Filipino musician who’d arrived in Hawaii in the 1860s and became head paniolo at William Hyde Rice’s Kipu Ranch.
Among her many descendants were prima donna soprano Nani Alapai (1874-1928), polo great John Malina (1885-1940), Sarah Kailikea (1911-2004), proprietor of the Menehune Garden at Papalinhoa, Kauai, and Hawaiian translator Frances Frazier (1914-2015).
Born in Koloa, Kauai, kumu hula, dancer and chanter Keahi Luahine (1877-1937) is credited with mastering and passing on to succeeding generations the traditions of the ancient Kauai form of hula.
Source: The Garden Island
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