Joseph Heleluhe
{{short description|Hawaiian nobleman (1855–1900)}}
{{good article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Joseph Heleluhe
| image = Joseph Heleluhe at Washington Place, 1898.gif
| image_size = 180px
| caption =
| birth_name = Joseph Hewahewa Kaimihakulani Heleluhe
| birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1855|6|2}}
| birth_place = Kapoho, Puna, Hawaiʻi, Kingdom of Hawaii
| death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1900|7|8|1855|6|2}}
| death_place = Honolulu, Oʻahu, Territory of Hawaii
| resting_place = Kawaiahaʻo Church
| spouse = Wakeke Ululani Heleluhe
| children = Jack Heleluhe
Myra Heleluhe Iona
| parents = Heleluhe and Kanoa
| relatives =
| other_names =
| alma_mater = Hilo Boarding School
| known_for =
| occupation = Secretary of Liliʻuokalani
| signature = Joseph Heleluhe July 1897 signature.jpg
}}
Joseph Hewahewa Kaimihakulani Heleluhe (June 2, 1855 – July 8, 1900) was a member of the Hawaiian nobility who served as a retainer and private secretary of Queen Liliʻuokalani, the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and accompanied her on her trips to the United States and Washington, D.C., from 1896 to 1900 to prevent the American annexation of Hawaii.
{{anchor|Biography|History}}
Life
=Early life=
He was born on June 2, 1855, on the island of Hawaiʻi. English language newspapers claimed he was a native of Kaʻū while the Ke Aloha Aina, a Hawaiian language newspaper, claimed he was born in Kapoho, Puna.{{cite news|title=Mookuauhau O Joseph Kaimihakulani Heleluhe|newspaper=Ke Aloha Aina|location=Honolulu|date=July 28, 1900|volume=VI|issue=30|page=1|url=https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2014/01/15/joseph-heleluhe-1900/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112091148/https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2014/01/15/joseph-heleluhe-1900/|archive-date=November 12, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}{{cite news|title=Death Came On The Way – The Passing of Joseph Heleluhe|newspaper=The Hawaiian Gazette|location=Honolulu|date=July 10, 1900|volume=XXXV|issue=55|page=6|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025121/1900-07-10/ed-1/seq-6/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220060946/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025121/1900-07-10/ed-1/seq-6/|archive-date=December 20, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}; {{cite news|title=Death Came On The Way – The Passing of Joseph Heleluhe|newspaper=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|location=Honolulu|date=July 10, 1900|volume=XXXII|issue=5592|page=1|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1900-07-09/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109054001/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1900-07-09/ed-1/seq-1/|archive-date=January 9, 2017|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}; {{cite news|title=Joseph {{sic|Heleuhe|hide=y}} Dead|newspaper=The Maui News|location=Wailuku|date=July 14, 1900|volume=I|issue=22|page=2|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014689/1900-07-14/ed-1/seq-2/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220030601/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014689/1900-07-14/ed-1/seq-2/|archive-date=December 20, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}; {{cite news|title=Death of Heleluhe|newspaper=The Independent|location=Honolulu|date=July 9, 1900|volume=XI|issue=1554|page=3|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047097/1900-07-09/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=November 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109085253/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047097/1900-07-09/ed-1/seq-3/|archive-date=January 9, 2017|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}; {{cite news|title=Certificates of Death|newspaper=The Independent|location=Honolulu|date=July 21, 1900|volume=XI|issue=1564|page=1|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047097/1900-07-21/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=November 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109085424/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047097/1900-07-21/ed-1/seq-1/|archive-date=January 9, 2017|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}; {{cite news|title=Joseph Heleluhe Dead – For Several Years Secretary of Ex-Queen Liliuokalani|newspaper=The Hawaiian Star|location=Honolulu|date=July 9, 1900|volume=VII|issue=2605|page=3|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015415/1900-07-09/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220050148/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015415/1900-07-09/ed-1/seq-3/|archive-date=December 20, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}} His parents were Heleluhe and Kanoa. He had four known sisters: Keoki, Kaioewa, Kanoa, and Ana. From his mother Kanoa, he descended from Alapaʻinui and his son Keaweʻōpala, the kings of the island of Hawaiʻi prior to the accession of Kalaniʻōpuʻu. His father was possibly the same individual as J. H. Heleluhe, who served in the legislature of the kingdom as a member of the House of Representatives for the district of Puna during the legislative assembly of 1855, 1862, 1864, 1866 and 1867.{{harvnb|Hawaii|Lydecker|1918|pages=64, 86, 103, 107, 109}}; {{harvnb|Osorio|2002|pages=109, 118, 138}}; {{cite news|title=House of Representatives|newspaper=The Polynesian|location=Honolulu|date=June 28, 1862|volume=XIX|issue=9|page=2|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015408/1862-06-28/ed-1/seq-2/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220050107/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015408/1862-06-28/ed-1/seq-2/|archive-date=December 20, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}
He attended the local schools in the Puna district and later studied at the Hilo Boarding School under American missionary David Belden Lyman. After finishing his education, he did physical labor in the district of Kaʻū for a time before going to Honolulu to serve King Kalākaua.
=Service to the Hawaiian monarchy=
After coming to Honolulu, Heleluhe worked as a retainer for the royal family. He served King Kalākaua as an under-secretary. He also worked as a steward for Kalākaua's sister and successor Liliʻuokalani, and accompanied her to the leper settlement at Kalaupapa on Molokai in 1891. He steadily rose in rank until he was appointed her private secretary in 1896.{{cite news|title=The Queen at Molokai|newspaper=The Daily Bulletin|location=Honolulu|date=April 25, 1891|volume=XV|issue=100|page=2|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015408/1862-06-28/ed-1/seq-2/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220050107/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015408/1862-06-28/ed-1/seq-2/|archive-date=December 20, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}} In 1892. Heleluhe was nominated as a National Reform Party candidate for the House of Representatives for Oʻahu's first ward. He lost this election.{{harvnb|Kuykendall|1967|page=517}}; {{cite news|title=List Of Candidates|newspaper=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|location=Honolulu|date=February 3, 1892|page=4|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1892-02-03/ed-1/seq-4/|access-date=July 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171125080827/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1892-02-03/ed-1/seq-4/|archive-date=November 25, 2017|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}; {{cite news|title=Legislature Of 1892|newspaper=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|location=Honolulu|date=February 26, 1892|page=1|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1892-02-26/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=July 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171125080830/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1892-02-26/ed-1/seq-1/|archive-date=November 25, 2017|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}} After the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893, Heleluhe and his wife Wakeke Ululani remained loyal to the royalist cause and supported the deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani.{{sfn|Bonura|Witmer|2013|page=126}} Following the outbreak of the unsuccessful 1895 Counter-Revolution, Heleluhe was arrested, held as a political prisoner, and temporarily imprisoned by forces loyal to the Republic of Hawaii in order for him to "disclose the queen's treachery."{{harvnb|Mellen|1958|page=311}}; {{harvnb|Allen|1982|page=330}} Queen Liliʻuokalani, who was also imprisoned in the former ʻIolani Palace, described the ordeal Heleluhe had to endure in her 1898 memoir Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen:
Mr. Heleluhe was taken by the government officers, stripped of all clothing, placed in a dark cell without light, food, air, or water, and was kept there for hours in hopes that the discomfort of his position would induce him to disclose something of my affairs. After this was found to be fruitless, he was imprisoned for about six weeks; when, finding their efforts in vain, his tormentors released him. No charge was ever brought against him in any way, which is true of about two hundred persons who were similarly confined.{{sfn|Liliuokalani|1898|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NLM4DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT185 270–271]}}
File:Liliuokalani with her lady-in-waiting and secretary.jpg
Between 1896 and 1900, Heleluhe accompanied Queen Liliʻuokalani on her many trips abroad to the United States and Washington, D.C., to campaign against the American annexation of Hawaii and then assisted her in her attempts to reclaim the crown land after 1898. Initially, Elizabeth Kia Nahaolelua was chosen to be her lady-in-waiting but after the trips were extended, Heleluhe's wife Wakeke replaced her in the royal party as lady-in-waiting to the queen.{{harvnb|Mellen|1958|page=331}}: {{harvnb|Allen|1982|pages=355–356, 359}}: {{harvnb|Silva|2004|page=193}}; {{cite news|title=E Huli Hoi Mai Ana|newspaper=Ka Makaainana|location=Honolulu|date=May 3, 1897|volume=VII|issue=18|page=8|url=https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2014/01/14/wakeke-heleluhe-to-take-the-place-of-kia-kahele-nahaolelua-1897/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112150045/https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2014/01/14/wakeke-heleluhe-to-take-the-place-of-kia-kahele-nahaolelua-1897/|archive-date=November 12, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}; {{cite news|title=Mrs. Heleluhe No Amerika|newspaper=Ke Aloha Aina|location=Honolulu|date=May 1, 1897|volume=III|issue=18|page=6|url=https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2014/01/26/more-on-mrs-heleluhe-going-to-take-the-place-of-kahele-nahaolelua-and-name-variations-1897/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112145735/https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2014/01/26/more-on-mrs-heleluhe-going-to-take-the-place-of-kahele-nahaolelua-and-name-variations-1897/|archive-date=November 12, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}} From 1897 to 1898, Heleluke was also actively involved in rallying Hawaiians in signing the Kūʻē Petitions and petitioning against annexation. In 1897, he wrote to US President William McKinley and Secretary of State John Sherman with the petitions collected by Hui Aloha ʻĀina (Hawaiian Patriotic League) and Hui Kālaiʻāina (Hawaiian Political Association).{{cite web|title=Joseph Heleluhe, June 1897 to John Sherman, U.S. Secretary of State|url=http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/protest/liliu7.php|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112144044/http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/protest/liliu7.php|archive-date=November 12, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}; {{cite web|title=Joseph Heleluhe, July 1897 to William McKinley, U.S. President|url=http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/protest/liliu7.php|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112144044/http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/protest/liliu7.php|archive-date=November 12, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}
Following Liliʻuokalani's return to Hawaii in 1900, the 45-year-old Heleluhe succumbed to tuberculosis, on July 8, 1900. When it became evident his death was near, his final request was to die at Washington Place. Although he expired before arrival at the queen's residence, his funeral was held there. He was buried at the Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery.
Family
File:Prince Jack Heleluhe, 1914.jpg
File:Myra Heleluhe (cropped).jpg
Heleluhe married Wakeke Ululani Heleluhe, from Maui, who served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Liliʻuokalani. They had two children: Jack Paokalani Heleluhe (1880–1958) and Myra Kailipanio Heleluhe Iona (1879–1934). Jack, also known as "Prince Jack Heleluhe", worked as a musician and member of the Royal Hawaiian Band; he became one of the first musicians to play Hawaiian music in the United States and was featured on N. B. Bailey's 1914 book A Practical Method for Self Instruction on the Ukulele and Banjo Ukulele.{{cite web|url=http://ukediner.ukulele.org/heleluhe.html|title=Prince Jack Heleluhe—a "kanaka" of the Hawaiian musical scene and road-worthy veteran of the mainland|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514024059/http://ukediner.ukulele.org/heleluhe.html|archive-date=May 14, 2008|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}} Myra, sometimes referred to as Heleluhe's stepdaughter,{{sfn|Winter|2012|page=349}} became a protège of the queen at a young age and accompanied her to Washington, D.C., with her family. She later served as an associate of Princess Elizabeth Kahanu Kalanianaʻole and Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole.{{sfn|Iaukea|2011|pages=70, 102, 116, 123, 126}}
In 1906, Wakeke lost favor with the queen after an attempt to discredit Lydia Kaʻonohiponiponiokalani Aholo, the queen's hānai daughter, backfired, and she was evicted from the houses she occupied at Washington Place and the queen's residence in Waikiki by the queen and her financial agent Joseph O. Carter. The reasons given for the queen's anger was Wakeke's "disloyalty to me and dishonesty"; she had lied to Aholo that the queen never wished to see her again.{{sfn|Bonura|Witmer|2013|pages=123–126}} She may have later reconciled with the queen because Wakeke and Onaʻala were listed as two of her old retainers at the deathbed of the queen. She, her daughter Myra and Lahilahi Webb stood vigil by Liliʻuokalani's casket while her body laid in the Royal Mausoleum prior to her final interment in the vault of the Kalākaua Crypt.{{cite news|title=Death Comes to Hawaii's Queen in Calm of Sabbath Morning|newspaper=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|location=Honolulu|date=November 12, 1917|page=2|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014682/1917-11-12/ed-1/seq-2/|access-date=September 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108164527/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014682/1917-11-12/ed-1/seq-2/|archive-date=November 8, 2017|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}' {{cite news|title=Body of Queen Is Sealed Away In Royal Crypt|newspaper=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|location=Honolulu|date=November 26, 1917|page=4|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014682/1917-11-26/ed-1/seq-4/|access-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220030556/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014682/1917-11-26/ed-1/seq-4/|archive-date=December 20, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}
References
=Citations=
{{reflist}}
=Bibliography=
{{refbegin|30em}}
- {{cite book|last=Allen|first=Helena G.|title=The Betrayal of Liliuokalani: Last Queen of Hawaii, 1838–1917|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2d0AAAAMAAJ|year=1982|publisher=A. H. Clark Company|location=Glendale, CA|isbn=978-0-87062-144-4|oclc=9576325}}
- {{cite journal|last1=Bonura|first1=Sandra|last2=Witmer|first2=Sally|title=Lydia K. Aholo — Her Story Recovering the Lost Voice|journal=The Hawaiian Journal of History|location=Honolulu|publisher=Hawaiian Historical Society|volume=47|year=2013|hdl=10524/36266|oclc=60626541|pages=103–145}}
- {{cite book|author=Hawaii|editor-last=Lydecker|editor-first=Robert Colfax|title=Roster Legislatures of Hawaii, 1841–1918|location=Honolulu|publisher=Hawaiian Gazette Company|year=1918|url=https://archive.org/details/rosterlegislatur00hawarich|oclc=60737418|ref={{harvid|Hawaii|Lydecker|1918}}}}
- {{cite book|last=Iaukea|first=Sydney L.|title=The Queen and I: A Story of Dispossessions and Reconnections in Hawai'i|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2FKqQfm7nZkC|year=2011|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-520-95030-6|oclc=763161035}}
- {{cite book|last=Kuykendall|first=Ralph Simpson|author-link=Ralph Simpson Kuykendall|title=The Hawaiian Kingdom 1874–1893, The Kalakaua Dynasty|url=http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kingdom3&l=en|volume=3|year=1967|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-87022-433-1|oclc=500374815}}
- {{cite book|author=Liliuokalani|author-link=Liliuokalani|title=Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, Liliuokalani|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QrTCvcy0sE4C|location=Boston|publisher=Lee and Shepard|year=1898|isbn=978-0-548-22265-2|oclc=2387226}}
- {{cite book|last=Mellen|first=Kathleen Dickenson|authorlink=Kathleen Dickenson Mellen|title=An Island Kingdom Passes: Hawaii Becomes American|url=https://www.questia.com/library/1943271/an-island-kingdom-passes-hawaii-becomes-american|year=1958|publisher=Hastings House|location=New York|oclc=1238248}}
- {{cite book|last=Osorio|first=Jon Kamakawiwoʻole|title=Dismembering Lāhui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5k6W_6QOFgC|location=Honolulu|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=2002|isbn=0-8248-2549-7|oclc=48579247}}
- {{cite book|last=Silva|first=Noenoe K.|title=Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-G4TZ_hDVfsC|year=2004|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham, NC|isbn=0-8223-3349-X|oclc=834778868}}
- {{cite book|last=Winter|first=Carrie Prudence|editor-last1=Bonura|editor-first1=Sandra|editor-last2=Day|editor-first2=Deborah|title=An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands: Letters of Carrie Prudence Winter, 1890–1893|year=2012|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-8248-3722-8|via=Project MUSE|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/17628|url-access=subscription |oclc=821735443}}
{{refend}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heleluhe, Joseph}}
Category:Hawaiian Kingdom people
Category:People from Hawaii (island)
Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Category:Hilo Boarding School alumni