^'^i-?ri/iv'v-v, JU;v 1 3 p. Hawaiian Historical Society ^mi^pii (§lmt Qlart^r THE FOUNDER OF THE (Hwcttv Jffamtlg IN HAWAH Prepared at the request of the GENEALOGICAL COMMITTEE OF THE HAWAIIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY I I%iti I t i i •^:if«'if^WffS'j!Wj?^:ffttlffr.i>r^^fl;^^ THE FOUNDER OF THE IN HAWAII WITH A BRIEF GENEALOGY By G. R. Carter Printed by the Star-Bulletin Honolulu, T. H. September 1, 1915. 500 Copies 1 dlnB^pIj Wixun (Unttn THE progenitor of the Carter family in Hawaii was born in Charlestown, Mass., on September 15th, 1802. His father was the great-great-great-grandson of Rev. Thomas Carter of Woburn, Mass. His mother was Rebecca Wellington, a descendant of the famous Roger Wellington and Richard Palgrave. He was the third child in a family of five, three of which did not survive their infancy. Anne Rebecca, his sister, was born on April 26th, being two years younger than himself. When twenty-three years of age, his father died, January 28th, 1825, and the following year, in January, 1826, his mother also passed away in Charlestown. In Paige's History of Cambridge, Mass., mention is made of their home. His childhood was passed in surroundings of culture and refinement, if not of luxury. What prompted him to go to sea or to go out to the Sandwich Islands is not known, nor is the date of his first arrival here. Like other young men of good family in and around Boston at that time, young Carter may have been stimu lated to seek his fortune in the Pacific, preferring the risks of this great ocean and the returns on its commerce rather than to remain quietly at home in Charlestown. American ships had already made large fortunes for the bold mer chants of Salem and Boston. He mav have heard that the Northwest fur-traders often wintered at these Islands, or perhaps some sea-captain had told him of the sandal wood trade, how this wood could be bought in the Sand wich Islands bv the cord and sold in China by the ounce. Again, it may have been the love of adventure that caused this young Massachusetts man to finally venture forth into the great basin of the little-known Pacific. There is a family tradition that he first went to sea in the U. S. Frigate "Constitution" as chaplain's assistant. This vessel being a training-shio, as assistant chaplain it was young Carter's duty to help teach the sailors reading and writing. The Carter Genealogy* states that "Captain Carter com manded merchant vessels in trade with China, Mexico, Cali fornia and Sitka from 1825 to 1835." If so, he went to sea before his father died and was out in the Pacific when his life-long friend, Mr. Henry A. Peirce, first came to these Islands in the "Griffin," on March 25, 1825. The earliest record of his being in the Pacific is found in Wil liam H. Davis' "Sixty Years in California," wherein, de scribing his first visit to California in 1 83 1 , the author states that while at San Diego they obtained many hides in trade from the American bark "Volunteer," under Captain J. O. Carter, owned by J. C. Jones, a merchant of Boston. Thus at twenty-eight he was in command of a vessel, occupying a position of responsibility and trust. Little else is known of his career up to his marriage on November 24, 1833, in Honolulu, to Miss Hannah Tru- fant Lord, who was born on December 25, 1809, in the town of Hallowell, Me. Mrs. Robert Lewers, the captain's only daughter, tells the story of this romance as follows: While visiting rela tives m Boston who had already picked out the girl for him to marry. Captain Carter met in Maine Miss Lord, and as such stories always go, he immediately fell in love with her in spite of all the relatives. At the time she was recovering from typhoid fever and, in order to secure per mission to go to the Sandwich Islands to be married, feigned consumption. She finally got permission from her relatives to take the trip under the care of a captain's wife. A coffin was put aboard the vessel for her if she should not survive the hardships of the voyage. The death of this cap tain's child prevented his wife from taking the trip, so Miss Lord was finally chaperoned by Mr. and Mrs. William Ladd, who, with their son, Newton, were passengers on this same ship, the name of which no one as yet has been able to give.^ Mrs. Lucretia Ladd was a townsmate of Miss Lord's, and being only two years her senior they were prob ably old friends. Miss Lord left Boston before Captain Carter. Her ves sel stopped at various ports and was perhaps not so well *"Carter Genealogy," Clinton, 1887 (p. 272). navigated, for when she arrived at Honolulu the young cap tain was on the shore to meet her. They were married at the residence of the American Consul by the "'pastor of the Seaman's Chapel. Shortly afterwards Captain Carter and his bride sailed for China. In confirmation of Mrs. Lewers' account, the "Sailor's Magazine" of June, 1834, published in New York City (p. 323), there is the following notice: "Married on No vember 24th at the residence of Mrs. Perkins, Honolulu, by Reverend John Diell, chaplain to American Seaman, Captain J. O. Carter of Brig "Diana" of Boston to Miss Hannah T. Lord of Hallowell, Maine." There is also mention of Captain Carter's donation of $5 toward the pur chase of a bell for the Seaman's Chapel, which was pre sented January 1, 1835, evidently after his departure, for Mr. Diell writes from Honolulu, February 3, 1834, "Sent by kindness of Captain Carter about to sail tomorrow for Canton in the Brig "Diana." Hannah Lord was in all probability a descendant of Rob ert Lord and Mary Waite of Ipswich, Mass. She was the oldest child in her family. Her father, John Lord, died when she was quite young, and her mother (nee Hannah Johnson) married a second time to Samuel Mower, and the family moved to the town of Greene in Maine. Hannah's life at home was said to be unhapoy; at all events she was willing to take a long voyage full of hardships when only twenty-one years of age, out into the middle of the Pacific to these Islands, where she spent the rest of her life. She died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Robert Lewers, at Waikiki, in Honolulu, on January 29, 1898, shortly after her eighty-eighth birthday. About a month after the marriage of Captain Carter, ac cording to the testimony of the British Consul Charlton be fore the Land Commission, that is about December 10, 1833, Carter paid the King one hundred dollars for the premises on which he built his residence. This was a wooden house of some pretension for those days, with its four-sided sloping roof and platform at the apex. It was one of those shipped out from Boston. Its location was in the most fash- ionable part of the village, in the center of the residential section on the Waikiki corner of Garden Lane and Bere- tania Street, and in after years became known as the "Man sion House." His neighbor on the makai side was Captain James Bancroft, later killed by the Indians in Oregon. In 1835, on December 20th, their oldest child, Joseph Oliver, Jr., was born in Honolulu, and this was during the same month that Mr. H. A. Peirce took Captain Brewer into partnership, under the firm name of "Peirce & Brewer," which for a period of seven years was the leading mercan tile house of Honolulu. Both partners of the firm were evi dently close friends of Captain Carter, though Carter was two years the senior of Brewer and six years older than Peirce. At this time the sandalwood trade had dwindled consid erably, but merchandise from China could be sold at a profit in Kamschatka and Honolulu. Whaling, which became later so profitable, was not yet fully under way, although Cap tain Brewer (who came out first in the "Paragon," August 23, 1823), in one of his earlier voyages to the Russian set tlement, had seen immense numbers of whales, and this in formation was slowly making its way to New Bedford. Just to what extent Captain Carter was financially en gaged in these early voyages and mercantile ventures cannot be ascertained. There is in existence a protested draft, dated Honolulu, March 7th, 1836, for one thousand dol lars, drawn by Hinckley & Smith in Carter's favor on Joshua Thompson of Canton, China, for the account of the ship "Rasselas." Now, this ship was purchased in 1834 at Honolulu jointly by Peirce & Brewer, and it is possible that Carter was interested in her cargo. We know she was sent on her first trip to Canton two years before the date of this draft, and that the vessel afterwards made many voyages and became well known in the various ports of the Pacific, under the commands of both Captain Brewer and Captain Carter. It is possible that Carter may have visited Hong kong in her, accompanied by his wife, for J. O. Carter, their oldest son, during 1897 told the writer that he had been baptized when a baby in Hongkong by the captain of 7 ; a British vessel and that he thought the certificate was among his papers. While Captain Carter was returning from Kamschatka, on August 7, 1837, in Honolulu was born their second son, Henry A. P., who (according to another statement by J. O. Carter) was taken while still a baby at the breast on a voy age to Monterey, Cal., and owing to lack of proper nour ishment on this voyage had his health impaired for life. The "Sanwich Island Gazette" shows that the ship "Rasselas" sailed under Carter's command for California on October 2, 1837, with Mrs. Carter and two children, and that they re turned with deck load of horses, arriving April 23, 1838. We know that in December of 1 838 Captain Carter was one of a list of subscribers to a fund of $450 for the pur chase from S. D. Mcintosh of the "Sandwich Island Ga zette," which had been published weekly since July, 1836, and ceased its career with the issue of July 27, 1839. On December 1 st of 1 838 the ship "Oscar," of Fair- haven, Conn., was wrecked on the north side of the entrance of Honolulu harbor. After being hauled o.. the reef she was purchased on December 7th by Captain Carter, who undertook the difficult work of her repairs. While thus engaged his third son was born on December 27th. He was named Samuel Morrill, after the captain's brother-in-law. On the 1 1 th of April, 1 839, Captain Carter sailed in the "Oscar" as master on a voyage to China, taking as passen gers the Rev. Mr. Diell, lady and child. There are certi fied copies of letters written by Whetmore & Company to Captain Carter at Whampoa in October of 1839, which show that Carter owned a third interest in the "Oscar," and that he expected to leave shortly for Honolulu, thence to visit the United States, while the "Oscar," which had been running the blockade, between Whampoa and Canton, due to the opium war, was to take a cargo of general merchan dise and tea direct to New York City. At this time he probably intended to retire from the sea, as we do not find him again commanding vessels until he purchased one of his own. On January 18, 1840, the brig "Bellhaven," Captain Crawford, arrived in Honolulu, fifty-nine days from Hong kong; among the passengers was Captain J. O. Carter. In June of the same year H. A. Peirce and Captain Carter were passengers together on the schooner "Clarion," owned by Peirce & Brewer, on a trip to the Island of Kauai, and the newspapers of that period show that they returned to Honolulu on July 6th. On August 3d of 1840 "Captain Carter, lady and child" left on the brig "Harlequin" for Kamschatka, evidently leaving the two older boys behind. This was the same day that Rev. H. Bingham, wife and three children, Mrs. Thurston and five children, left Hono lulu in the bark "Flora" for New York. Captain Carter and family returned to Honolulu in the "Harlequin" en October 14th. One month later the "Polynesian" had a notice of an auction sale of household furniture to be held on the 20th at the residence of Captain Carter, and that paper shows that on December 9th, the ship "Caliope,"* Captain Clapp, sailed for Boston, with Captain Carter, lady and children as passengers. Later, Captain Jones of the brig "Lama" reported the "Caliope" as leaving Tahiti on Feb ruary 3, 1841, with all well on board. Fifty-six years after the Carter family started for Boston, the oldest son, J. O. Carter, speaking from memory, told the writer that "the whole Carter family left Honolulu for Bos ton in 1840 on the ship 'Alciope,' with Captain Clapp in command. Besides Captain Carter, Mrs. Carter and the three boys (Joe, Sam and Henry), there was a Hawaiian servant, Sam Matutu. Alfred was born on the way, I think just after leaving Tahiti (February 27, 1841), and accord ing to Tom Cummings, who was one of the ship's company, Mrs. Carter was up two days after the birth, on deck, wash ing the new baby's linen. There is in existence a bill of sale, dated Boston, October 14, 1841, of the brig "Delaware," a hundred and fourteen tons, built in 1822 at Biddeford, Me., from Joseph Baker & Son to Joseph O. Carter for four thousand dollars. There is also a receipt for $261.55 for family board of Captain *A^o/