:Samuel Thomas Alexander

In November 1831, the Reverend William Patterson Alexander (1805–1884) and Mary Ann McKinney Alexander (1810–1888) arrived in April 1832 as missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands.{{cite book |author=James McKinney Alexander |title=Mission life in Hawaii: Memoir of Rev. William P. Alexander |url=https://archive.org/details/missionlifeinha01alexgoog |year=1888 |publisher=Pacific Press Publishing Company }} Samuel Thomas was born October 29, 1836, at the Wai{{okina}}oli mission in what is now Hanalei on the northern coast of Kaua{{okina}}i island.

In 1843 the family moved to the Lahainaluna School, where they became friends with the family of Dwight Baldwin who had arrived in the previous company in 1831.{{cite book |title=The pilgrims of Hawaii: their own story of their pilgrimage from New England |author=Orramel Hinckley Gulick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehE3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA341 |pages=341–347 |publisher=Fleming H. Revell company |year=1918}} Alexander's education was sporadic; he went to Punahou School for various times between 1841 and 1859{{cite book |author=Punahou School |title=Catalogue of the teachers and pupils of Punahou school and Oahu College for twenty-five years: ending 1866, with an account of the quarter century celebration held at Punahou June 15th, 1866 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_siEBAAAAYAAJ |year=1866 |publisher=Printed by H.M. Whitney |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_siEBAAAAYAAJ/page/n6 5]}} In 1857 he and Frederick S. Lyman (son of missionary David Belden Lyman) went to California in a late wave of the California Gold Rush, but came back empty handed.{{cite book |title=Hawaiian Kingdom 1778-1854, foundation and transformation |author= Ralph Simpson Kuykendall |url= http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kingdom1&l=en |volume=1 |publisher= University of Hawaii Press |year= 1965 |orig-year=1938 |isbn= 0-87022-431-X |page= 320}}

He then went to Williams College for one year, and then Westfield School in Massachusetts. He followed his father's footsteps and taught at Lahainaluna briefly.{{cite book |title= The Missionary herald at home and abroad |page=9 |chapter= Survey of Missions of the Board: The Hawaiian Islands |date= January 1865 |publisher= American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions |volume= LXI |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=CovNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA9 |issue= 1 }}

In 1863 Alexander became manager of the Waihe{{okina}}e sugarcane plantation near Wailuku, hiring Henry Perrine Baldwin (1842–1911) as assistant.{{cite web |url=http://www.alexanderbaldwin.com/our-company/history.php |work=on Alexander & Baldwin corporate web site |title=Our company: History |access-date=2010-04-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090713213340/http://www.alexanderbaldwin.com/our-company/history.php |archive-date=2009-07-13 }}

On January 26, 1864, Alexander married Martha Eliza Cooke, daughter of Amos Starr Cooke, one of two former missionary who founded the Castle & Cooke company. Abigail Charlette Baldwin (1847–1912) married his older brother William DeWitt Alexander (1833–1913) in 1861. William was a teacher and then president of Punahou School. In 1869 his sister Emily Whitney Alexander married Henry Perrine Baldwin.

In 1870 he formed the Pā{{okina}}ia plantation under the name Samuel T Alexander & Co. With Baldwin, he purchased 561 acres (2.3 km²) between Pā{{okina}}ia and Makawao, where they cultivated sugarcane. In 1871 Alexander managed the Haʻikū sugar mill which had been constructed in 1861 by Castle & Cooke.{{cite web|author= Robert M. Kiger |url={{NRHP url|id=86000189}} |title= Haiku Mill nomination form |work=National Register of Historic Places |publisher=National Park Service |date= May 27, 1985 |access-date=2010-01-18 }}

The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 removed tariffs on sugar exported to the United States. But to raise their production a steady supply of water was needed for the semi-arid dry forests of Pā{{okina}}ia. Alexander realized that rain was plentiful miles away in the rainforests on the windward slopes of Haleakalā mountain. Alexander proposed a {{convert|17|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}} irrigation aqueduct that diverted water from that part of Haleakalā to their plantation. Alexander knew about irrigation systems used since ancient Hawaii while he was at Lahainaluna, but this was on a much larger scale. He negotiated a lease of water rights from King Kalākaua and raised financing from other partners. It was initially a 20-year lease for $100 per year. His brother James did a survey.{{cite book |title=Hawaiian Kingdom 1874-1893, the Kalakaua Dynasty |author= Ralph Simpson Kuykendall |url= http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kingdom3&l=en |volume=3 |publisher= University of Hawaii Press |year= 1967 |isbn= 978-0-87022-433-1 |page= 64 }} Work started on the aqueduct in 1876 and was completed two years later in 1878 (at over three times the estimated cost), just before a deadline in the lease.{{cite book |title= Sugar Water: Hawaii's Plantation Ditches |author= Carol Wilcox |publisher= University of Hawaii Press |year= 1998 |isbn= 978-0-8248-2044-2 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6lZO0HSgF7UC&pg=PA55}}

In 1883 the Alexander family moved to Oakland, California, to get medical attention for his father, who died there August 13, 1884.{{cite book |title= The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders |year=1925 |publisher= Honolulu Star-Bulletin |editor= George F. Nellist |url= http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/bios/alexande2gbs.txt |chapter= Alexander, Samuel Thomas }}

After completion of the aqueduct, the company grew by selling water to adjacent plantations, and was eventually renamed Alexander & Baldwin Plantation. In 1884 Alexander arranged for the partners to buy the small American Sugar Refinery in California, and later organized a group of Hawaiian planters called the Sugar Factors which became the California and Hawaiian Sugar Company (C&H).{{cite book |title= Islands in transition: the past, present, and future of Hawaii's economy |author1= Thomas Kemper Hitch |author2= Robert M. Kamins |page=92 |publisher= University of Hawaii Press |isbn= 978-0-8248-1498-4 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jhWW0SwDyv0C&pg=PA92 |year= 1992 }} Between 1872 and 1900, the company took over more land and sugar mill operations. In 1898, Alexander and Baldwin purchased a controlling interest in one of its rival companies, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) from Claus Spreckels.{{cite web |title= HC&S History - The Company |publisher= Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company |work= web site |url= http://www.hcsugar.com/history.shtml |access-date= October 20, 2010 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121106113007/http://www.hcsugar.com/history.shtml |archive-date= November 6, 2012 }} By 1899, the company bought two of Maui’s railroad lines. On June 30, 1900, Alexander & Baldwin, Ltd. was incorporated.

Alexander left running the company to others, and became an adventurer. In 1893 he bicycled through Europe. He traveled through the Pacific Ocean in 1896, including the Marquesas Islands where his parents traveled before he was born,{{cite news |hdl= 10524/498 |title= Hawaiian Missionaries in the Marquesas |work= Hawaiian Journal of History |publisher=Hawaii Historical Society |volume= 13 |author= Nancy J. Morris |year= 1979 |pages= 46–58}} China, and Japan. He also had a winter home on Maui called Olinda,{{cite web |url= http://wehewehe.org/cgi-bin/hdict?a=q&j=pp&l=en&q=olinda |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120801115332/http://wehewehe.org/cgi-bin/hdict?a=q&j=pp&l=en&q=olinda |url-status= dead |archive-date= 2012-08-01 |title= lookup of olinda |work= on Place Names of Hawai'i |author= Mary Kawena Pukui and Elbert |year= 2004 |publisher= Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii |access-date= 2010-04-28 }} and a summer home in Shasta County, California.{{cite book |author=David L. Durham |title=Durham's Place Names of California's North Sacramento Valley: Includes Butte, Glenn, Shasta, Siskiyou & Tehama Counties |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_7RP-vsl4PcC&pg=PA207 |date=November 2000 |publisher=Quill Driver Books|isbn=978-1-884995-34-7 |page=207}}

{{Big Five Hawaii}}

Alexander & Baldwin became one of the "Big Five" corporations that dominated the economy of the Territory of Hawaii. A&B is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and was added as part of the Dow Jones Transportation Average{{cite web |title= Dow Jones Transportation Average |work= official web site |url= http://www.djaverages.com/?view=transportation&page=overview |access-date= 2010-04-28 }} after purchasing Matson Navigation Company. It continues to produce sugar and founded a museum on Maui in 1980 which is now an independent non-profit organization.{{cite web |title= Sugar on Maui |work= Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum web site |year= 2008 |url= http://www.sugarmuseum.com/sugar.html/sugaronmaui.html |access-date= 2010-04-28 }}

Alexander had two sons and three daughters. Wallace M. Alexander went on to serve as chairman of Alexander & Baldwin and as a trustee of Stanford University,{{cite web |title= Memorial resolution: Wallace M. Alexander (1869-1939) |work= Stanford University web site |url= http://histsoc.stanford.edu/pdfmem/AlexanderW.pdf |access-date= 2010-04-27 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100707005843/http://histsoc.stanford.edu/pdfmem/AlexanderW.pdf |archive-date= 2010-07-07 }} as director of the California and Hawaiian Sugar Company and Pacific Gas and Electric Company,{{cite news |title= Wallace McKinney Alexander |work= The San Francisco Bay Region |year= 1924 |publisher= The American Historical Society, Inc. |pages= 249–251 |author= Bailey Millard |url= http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~npmelton/sfbale.htm }}

and died November 22, 1939.{{cite book |title= The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders |year=1925 |publisher= Honolulu Star-Bulletin |editor= George F. Nellist |url= http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/bios/alexande86bs.txt |chapter= Alexander, Wallace McKinney }}{{cite news |title= Alexander Bequests Disclosed |newspaper= Berkeley Daily Gazette |date= December 14, 1939 |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5jgyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=C-QFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1057%2C3691066 }}

Wallace's daughter Martha Alexander Gerbode (1909–1971) became an environmental activist and philanthropist.{{cite book |title= Martha Alexander Gerbode (1909-1971), environmentalist, philanthropist, and volunteer in the San Francisco Bay Area and Hawaii |publisher= Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley |year= 1995 |author= Harriet Nathan |url= https://archive.org/details/gerbodemartha00alexrich }}

Alexander's daughters were Juliette Alexander (1865–1948), Annie Montague Alexander (1867–1950), and Martha Mabel Alexander (1878–1970). A second son, Clarence Chambers, died young (1880–1884).

In 1904, Samuel Alexander arranged a trip with daughter Annie and Thomas L. Gulick, son of another missionary Peter Johnson Gulick (1796–1877). The men were looking forward to hunting big game in Africa, while Annie was developing an interest in paleontology. Gulick became ill and died August 15, 1904, in Kijabe, Kenya. On September 8 the Alexanders reached Victoria Falls. The next day they crossed the Zambezi river and climbed down the canyon for a better view. While posing for a picture, Samuel was hit by a boulder tossed down from workers above that crushed his foot.{{cite news |newspaper= The Friend |title= The death of Mr. Samuel T. Alexander |author= James M. Alexander |date= December 1904 |page= 5 |number= 12 |volume= LXI |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=fuDkAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA419 }} He was buried at the Old Drift cemetery after dying a day later on September 10, 1904.{{cite web |title= Plaque from Old Drift |work= Zambia & Rhodesia Genealogy leads web site |date= December 5, 2009 |url= http://a-brickwall.blogspot.com/2009/12/plaque-from-old-drift.html |access-date= 2010-04-27 }} (name is Samuel Taylor Alexander on memorial)

Annie continued to go on expeditions through her 80th birthday, and founded two museums.{{cite book |author= Barbara R. Stein |title= On Her Own Terms, Annie Montague Alexander and the Rise of Science in the American West |publisher= University of California Press, Berkeley |year= 2001 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=u2Birc8VA48C |isbn= 978-0-520-22726-2 }} Samuel also has a monument in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland where other family members are buried.{{cite web |title= Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, Alameda County, CA |date= August 8, 2006 |author= David Johnson |work= California Tombstone Project, US Genweb archives |url= http://files.usgwarchives.org/ca/alameda/cemeteries/mtvview-a1.txt |access-date= 2010-04-27 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110816080030/http://files.usgwarchives.org/ca/alameda/cemeteries/mtvview-a1.txt |archive-date= 2011-08-16 |url-status= dead }}

Martha Mabel married John Thomas Waterhouse (1873–1945) in 1900. The swimming pool at Punahou School was named for their daughter Elizabeth Pinder Waterhouse (1903–1920) who was a student there when she died. The track field is named for Samuel.{{cite news |newspaper= The Friend |title= Punahou's Physical Plant and the Goodhue Block Plan |author= Walter F. Dillingham |date= March 1924 |page= 66 |number= 3 |volume= XCIV |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BO3kAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA66 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=2757|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720190219/http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=2757|url-status=dead|archive-date=2011-07-20|title=Punahou School: Alexander Field|date=2011-07-20|access-date=2018-08-07}}

{{Alexander & Baldwin family tree}}

• Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum

{{reflist|2}}

• {{cite book |title= Alexander & Baldwin, Ltd. and the predecessor partnerships |author= Arthur Lyman Dean |publisher= Alexander & Baldwin |year= 1950 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NCfRAAAAMAAJ }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Samuel Thomas}}

Category:Businesspeople from Hawaii

Category:1836 births

Category:1904 deaths

Category:American expatriates in the Hawaiian Kingdom

Category:People from the Republic of Hawaii

Category:Independent (Kuokoa) Party politicians

Category:Republic of Hawaii politicians

Category:Williams College alumni

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:Hawaiian Kingdom businesspeople