ISLAND HISTORY: Old-time Kaua‘i district magistrate William Huddy

William Huddy (1855-1924) was born in Honolulu to William Henry Harrison Huddy, his American father from Rhode Island, and Kahea, his Hawaiian mother.

He acquired a grammar school education and had been employed as a butcher, cowboy, commissioner of private ways and water rights, livestock manager at Kilauea Sugar Co., and road supervisor of the Hanalei district, prior to being appointed District Magistrate at Hanalei by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawai‘i Antonio Perry in 1911.

As District Magistrate at Hanalei, he presided over lower level criminal cases and some civil matters at Hanalei, and was also admitted to practice in the Hanalei District Court as an attorney in that same year.

In 1875, he married Elizabeth Kahele at Moloa‘a, and they had 13 children.

Notable among them was his son, George Huddy, who became head luna at Hawaiian Sugar Co. of Makaweli.

Another son, Herman Huddy, was head luna at Kilauea Sugar Co.

While employed at Kilauea Sugar Co. in 1904, Huddy witnessed a crazed laborer attack an overseer with a cane knife and took quick action to save the overseer’s life by promptly releasing his lasso — of which he was expert — upon the attacker to restrain him.

Then, in 1916, he narrowly escaped death while heading down into Moloa‘a gulch on horseback, when he came up against an overflowing stream and was caught in it.

Only by sheer luck did he escape uninjured, although his horse was drowned under him.

Up until just a few days before his death, he had never known a sick day in his life and had recently been quite active, having often been seen in the Hanalei district driving his single-horse buggy.

When severe pains in his head suddenly incapacitated him, he was confined to his bed at his home in Moloa‘a, where he soon passed away in April 1924.

Huddy was survived by his wife, six sons, three daughters and over 40 grandchildren.

He had also been deacon of Anahola’s Ko‘olau Hui‘ia Protestant Church and a member of Kaumualli Chapter No. 3, Order of Kamehameha I.
Source: The Garden Island