Lucy Kaopaulu Peabody

Lucy Peabody (center) with Grace Kamaikui Kahoalii, a relative of Queen Emma, and an unidentified woman

Lucy Kaopaulu Peabody[note 1] (1840–1928) was a high chiefess and courtier of the Kingdom of Hawaii. She served as a maid of honour and lady-in-waiting to Queen Emma of Hawaii. In 1905, she helped re-established and became the second founder of the Kaʻahumanu Society, a female-led civic society that had been chartered during the Hawaiian monarchy.

Early life and family

She was born in 1840, the daughter of Dr. Parker Peabody (1805–1849) and Elizabeth Kamakaila Davis.[1] During her early childhood. she resided with her maternal grandparents at Waimea and Kawaihae, on the island of Hawaii. She was of mixed Native Hawaiian, American, and Welsh descent, known as hapa-haole in Hawaiian.[7][8]

Her father was an American physician from New York who established a short-lived partnership with English physician Thomas Charles Byde Rooke, the uncle and hānai (adoptive) father of the future Queen Emma of Hawaii.[9][10] Emma and Lucy were also both descended from the Hawaiian unions of King Kamehameha I's foreign advisors.[11] Lucy's mother was the daughter of Kahaʻanapilo Papa, a scion of the Waimea line of chiefs, and George Hūʻeu Davis, the part-Hawaiian son of Isaac Davis, a Welsh sailor from Milford Haven, who alongside Englishman John Young (the grandfather of Emma) served as military advisor of King Kamehameha I during his conquest of the Hawaiian Islands.[12][13]

Her niece and namesake was Lucy Kalanikumaikiekie Davis Henriques (1878–1932), better known as Kalani Henriques,[note 2] who married Edgar Henriques, an American politician and businessman during the Territory of Hawaii.[14][15][16] The exact genealogy of Kalani Henriques is not specified. One source described the younger Lucy as the granddaughter of her mother's brother George Davis. The younger Lift lived in Kona, before going to Honolulu to be raised by her aunt and learn English.[8]

Service to the Hawaiian court

The Royal Family of Hawaii, c. 1863–6. Her patron Queen Dowager Emma is standing the center.

She developed a close friendship with Queen Emma, the wife of King Kamehameha IV who ruled from 1855 to 1863. During Emma's lifetime, she served as the queen's maid-of-honor and lady-in-waiting, serving the traditional role of kahu (caretaker) and as a member of her royal retinue.[17][11] She was present at the sickbed of King Lunalilo in Kailua-Kona, and after his death in 1874, she supported Emma's unsuccessful candidacy against Kalākaua in the monarchial election which followed.[18] Many of the letters written between Lucy and Emma were later used by historians and biographers of the queen's life.[19][20] After Queen Emma's death, she named Lucy as one of her devisees in her will and provided her with an annuity of 900 dollars.[21][22]

Even after her royal patron's death in 1885 and the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893, Lucy continued to represent Queen Emma's side of the royal family including the repairs to the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in 1903.[23] Along with her niece, Maria Beckley Kahea and Stella Keomailani Cockett, she represented the Young family and adherents of the Kamehameha royal line at the consecration of the Wylie tomb, where many of Queen Emma's extended relations were interred.[24]

During the 1890s, she became a member of Hui Aloha ʻĀina o Na Wahine (Hawaiian Patriotic League for Women), a patriotic group founded shortly after the overthrow of the monarchy to oppose annexation and support the deposed queen Liliuokalani. This organization helped collected the Kūʻē Petitions, which consisted of over 21,000 signatures opposing the annexation treaty of 1897. After the failure of the treaty, Hawaii was instead annexed by means of a joint resolution called the Newlands Resolution. She served as Treasurer of the Delegates’ Funds for the organization.[25][26]

Lucy worshipped at St. Andrew's Cathedral, as did her niece, Lucy Kalani Henriques.[27] In later life, she devoted her time and resources to raising Native Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian young ladies of the former aristocracy in the manners of the old Hawaiian court. These protégés included her niece Lucy Henriques, Emma Weed Holt and Olga Keahikuni Kekauonohi. She owned property around the Nu‘uanu Stream facing Vineyard Street in Honolulu from which she derived income.[28][29]

Legacy

In 1905, Lucy Peabody re-established the Kaʻahumanu Society (ʻAhahui Kaʻahumanu), a female-led civic society that was founded in 1864 during the monarchy by Princess Victoria Kamāmalu, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, and the future Queen Liliuokalani.[30][31] It had remained disbanded since the princess' death in 1866 until Lucy and a group of eleven women re-chartered the organization at Kawaiahaʻo Church, on June 14, 1905. She was elected as the president of the civic organization.[32][31] The organization chose not to invite the deposed Queen Liliuokalani even though she had been an original member of the 1864 club. Historian Helena Allen reasoned that this was the result of the contentious genealogy trials of 1883 which had soured the relationship between the House of Kalākaua and factions loyal to Queen Emma, of which Lucy still considered herself to be.[33]

Memorial to Isaac Davis and his descendants, Oahu Cemetery

In later life, Lucy Peabody served as a wealth of knowledge to later historians during the Territorial period. Ethel Moseley Damon, author of Koamalu: A Story of Pioneers on Kauai, noted that she was "a Hawaiian of rank revered by us all, and one deeply learned in the lore of her native country".[34] She inherited many artifacts from Welsh great-grandfather including his Anglican prayer book and a letter from Captain George Vancouver.[27] Her private collections including the letters and personal writings of herself, Parker Peabody, Isaac Davis, John Young, Dr. Rooke, and Queen Emma were inherited by her niece and later acquired by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, becoming known today as the Lucy Kaopaulu Peabody, Edgar and Kalani Henriques Collection. This collection also consisted of 1,300 ethnological specimens, many which were cataloged by Edgar Henriques, geological specimens, samples of Hawaiian wood and many artifacts of historical importance including swords, pictures and medals.[3][35]

In her final years, she moved in with her niece Lucy Henriques and her husband Edgar Henriques, possibly at the Edgar and Lucy Henriques House.[8] Lucy Peabody died in 1928, although her obituary in the Hawaiian newspaper Ke Alakai o Hawaii confused her with her niece.[36] She was buried in the Oahu Cemetery in the Davis family plot under a marker with the inscriptions "Lucy K. Peabody" while a separate memorial for Isaac Davis and his descendants list her as "Lucy Kaopaulu Peabody".[2][37] In her will she left twelve acres of land in Makahikilu, Waimea to her niece to establish a medical facility in the North Hawaii area, where both women had lived and grown up. After Henriques' death in 1932, the Lucy Kalanikumaikiʻekiʻe Henriques Charitable Trust was established to fulfill the legacy of the two women. The Lucy Henriques Medical Center finally opened in 1977, eventually merging with North Hawaii Community Hospital in 1999.[38]

Notes

  1. ↑ Her name was most commonly abbreviated as Lucy K. Peabody[1] or Lucy Kaopaulu Peabody (the version used here)[2][3] in the Bishop Museum collection name and the inscription on the Davis family memorial in Oahu Cemetery; alternatives of her full name include Lucy Kaopaulu Kalanikiʻekiʻe Peabody[4] or Lucy Kaopauli Kalanikiʻekiʻe Peabody.[5] Her name is often transliterated as "Luke Pibode" in the Hawaiian language.[6]
  2. ↑ Also spelled Kalaniikumaiiluna. (Restarick 1924, pp. 241–242)

References

  1. 1 2 Emerson & Beckwith 1924, p. 16.
  2. 1 2 Isaac Davis Memorial. Honolulu, HI: Oahu Cemetery.
  3. 1 2 Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum (1971). Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, Issues 104–107. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press. p. 29.
  4. ↑ "Benefit Concert Saturday Night". The Hawaiian Star. Honolulu. January 26, 1909. p. 6.; Rose 1992, p. 25; Rose 1978, p. 31; McKinzie 1986, p. 156
  5. ↑ Kaeo & Queen Emma 1976, p. 19; Kanahele 1999, p. 68
  6. ↑ "Komo i ka Poai Mare". Ka Makaainana. VII (21). Honolulu. May 24, 1897. p. 1.
  7. ↑ Winne 1928, pp. 18–19.
  8. 1 2 3 Damon, Ethel M. (June 1, 1932). "Memories of Father Lyons". The Friend. CII (6). Honolulu. p. 423.
  9. ↑ Kaeo & Queen Emma 1976, p. 19.
  10. ↑ Kanahele 1999, pp. 67–68.
  11. 1 2 Stokes 1939, p. 27.
  12. ↑ Day 1984, p. 32.
  13. ↑ "Pedigree A La Advertiser". Home Rule Republican. I (3). Honolulu. January 7, 1854. p. 1.
  14. ↑ Pratt 1920, p. 40.
  15. ↑ Siddall 1921, p. 193, 196–197.
  16. ↑ "Local Brevities". The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. XXVII (4954). Honolulu. June 24, 1898. p. 7.
  17. ↑ Kanahele 1999, pp. 19, 67–68, 246.
  18. ↑ Kanahele 1999, p. 274.
  19. ↑ Kaeo & Queen Emma 1976, p. 332.
  20. ↑ Kanahele 1999, p. 438.
  21. ↑ Van Dyke 2008, p. 332.
  22. ↑ "Queen Emma Estate in 1906". The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu. February 15, 1907. p. 8.
  23. ↑ "Scene That Was Weird". The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu. August 26, 1903. p. 3.
  24. ↑ Restarick 1924, pp. 241–242.
  25. ↑ Silva, Noenoe K. (1998). "The 1897 Petitions Protesting Annexation". The Annexation Of Hawaii: A Collection Of Document. University of Hawaii at Manoa. Archived from the original on December 30, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Kokua No Na Elele". Ke Aloha Aina. IV (9). Honolulu. February 26, 1898. p. 5.; "Lokahi Io No Ka Lahui". Ke Aloha Aina. IV (1). Honolulu. March 19, 1898. p. 19.
  27. 1 2 Restarick 1924, p. 20.
  28. ↑ Holt 1993, pp. 28–29.
  29. ↑ "Young Chiefess Lying in State". The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu. May 9, 1907. p. 7.
  30. ↑ "Ahahui Kaahumanu.". Ka Nupepa Kuokoa. III (34). Honolulu. August 20, 1864. p. 4.
  31. 1 2 "History". ʻAhahui Kaʻahumanu. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  32. ↑ Peterson 1984, pp. 192–194; Kanahele 1999, p. 188; Allen 1982, pp. 98, 255, 387
  33. ↑ Allen 1982, p. 387.
  34. ↑ Damon 1931, p. 407; Griffin 2012, pp. 61–64, 74–75; Winne 1928, pp. 17–18; Restarick 1914, pp. 39–40; Stokes 1935, pp. 24, 44; Stokes 1939, p. 27
  35. ↑ United States. Dept. of the Interior (1934). Annual Report of the Department of the Interior. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 43.
  36. ↑ "Aloha Wale Ia Alii Piha Aloha". Ke Alakai o Hawaii. 1 (27). Honolulu. November 1, 1928. p. 1.
  37. ↑ Grave Marker for Lucy K. Peabody. Honolulu, HI: Oahu Cemetery.
  38. ↑ "Our Benefactor – Lucy Kalanikumaikiekie Henriques". Retrieved December 10, 2016.

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.