Posted by Charles Ano on September 3, 2009 at 9:00pm
My great grandmother's sister was shot & killed by her 3rd husband on March 4, 1924. These two articles appeared in the Kuokoa Newspaper and were written by my great great grandmother, Emma Fern. After many long years descendants of Lui Hookano (the 3rd husband), had a friend of theirs translate it.Names are bolded when they first appear and places are underlined.Kuokoa Newspaper, HonoluluOctober 9, 1924Mr. Sol Hanohano, a big aloha to you:Please, if there is available space for my dear tearful package of love for my child, then indeed carry the sorrowful freight, and display to the outermost corners of my beloved land, from the rising of the sun in Kamukahi all the way to its setting at Lehua, for the multitude of friends of my beloved child to see.During my return and stay at Ko’olau with my grandchildren for a vacation September 15, 1922, I stayed in Wailau until February 9, 1923, and my daughter Emma L. K. Kawaha stayed with me, her mama.On February 11, Lui Ho’okano came to ask for my daughter as his wife and the suggestion was decided between them and from that time they lived happily together until April 14, 1923, when they married.The family of the man gathered, and likewise me, her mama, her children, her older sister, Perpetua Antonia Kapu’ali’ilani Silva Lachance, her brother Samuel Sapito Antony Silva, and her younger sisters Mary Kekulamanu Silva Sales, Victoria Kahilihiapo Silva Ano, Annie Sarah Kekelaonalani Silva Wood, and Agnes Mamie Kahikulani Silva.Her friends also gathered and prepared the meal, and the preacher, J. K. Paele, married them in the holiness of his profession as priest, with great joy as all the people came.After those days, they returned and lived in Mahuahale, the place Lui Ho’okano lived, not far from where we lived, and their quarreling began.Then I told Lui Ho’okano, if he couldn’t care for my child, then, I said, he could care for the children of my child. The treacherous thing nevertheless inflicted pain to the mind of his wife. If he was angry at his wife on going to a restaurant with her children to eat, there was nothing even my daughter could do. Therefore, my daughter and her children endured hunger. I had many problems meeting my child, and helping her and my many grandchildren.There was much to endure-the evil deeds of her husband and the threats from Lui Ho’okano’s mouth regarding my child, me and my many children. And for those reasons my daughter went right out to meet with the sheriff of Ko’olau, and since he couldn’t correct the issues, she sent all the way to Honolulu to Sherriff Trask, and he ordered the Ko’olau police to bring Lui Ho’okano to meet with him.The sheriff asked Lui Ho’okano to tell him if it was true that he threatened his wife; he admitted his fault, and the police strongly counseled Lui Ho’okano not to do these things to his wife again, not to continue to issue threats, and he agreed to completely stop those things, but didn’t fulfill that agreement.Lui Ho’okano revealed in front of Sheriff Trask, that he had no love for the oldest child of his wife, Antony, because he returned with me to live sometimes, and I sometimes stayed in Ho’olau; indeed, I returned to Honolulu to stay for many days. For these reasons, my child couldn’t be patient, went right to the police with these words, and my daughter was told to return to live with me.She lived with me and her younger sisters until our return to Ko’olau to live at Wailau, with my large household, my children and grandchildren, until on February 3, 1924, Lui again saw his wife, and with our thoughtless agreement, continued to torture my daughter.While Lui came to persuade his wife that they live together again, his wife said, “I agree if you stop your ideas of trouble towards me, but if we return to live together with your same ideas, pretending, because of fear of you and your threatening words, I’ll be lucky to have more months to live. Therefore, perhaps you don’t love me as your wife. Here is the thing, you urge me to return to your home to live, but for my part, I don’t want to, because you know no one else who can wash your clothes, no one who will stay home, therefore it’s not my intention to live in servitude agaiin, because you have said many times to me that I myself will be dead to you. I love my children and my mama, being only one in a multitude of her children, because your thoughts were steadfast to cause my death. For these reasons, I and my children don’t want to live together again in servitude, there is perhaps some time.” Those words my daughter spoke to her husband Lui Ho’okano.Lui said, “I am completely finished with those things that I said to you, it is right for you to agree to return and then I can search for a home for us”, those are Lui’s words heard with goodness.At that time, his wife answered, “If I return as you propose, then it is best for us to live with mama, because that house of mama’s has enought bedrooms, we could have room for us to live”.Lui refused, he didn’t want to live with happiness, “Not with your family, not with my family”, those were the words I heard between the two of them.On February 9, Friday evening, Lui arrived again to my home, with the demand again to his wife, that the two of them should go back together. The wife perhaps didn’t agree, Lui wept, pretending to howl in his loud voice - the loudness of his voice could easily be heard - and Lui continued to roar at the thought his wife perhaps refused again, his actions ignorant, thinking perhaps that therefore she would agree to return with him.Before the fifth of February, her uncle J. K. Paele visited to see the grandchildren and my daughter, in order to appeal to my daughter to end her obstinacy and return with her husband to live. My child refused in front of J. K. Paele, her uncle, “You don’t understand, but for myself, luckily I have obtained more months to live as, Lui told me. If I died what about my children”, was the reply to her uncle’s advice. “He agreed he won’t do evil to you, because the sheriff admonished him forcefully, therefore you must end those thoughts”, were J. K. Paele’s words of conversation. The reply of my child was this: “If I return again with Lui, I am afraid death would be near”.Lui Ho’okano confirmed the truth in his words of conversation to my daughter. On February 11, 1924, Lui Ho’okano fetched my daughter to return and stay in Ka’alaea to live in a rented Japanese room, in his words between the two of them, he didn’t want a lot of children, the deceitful thing - Lui Ho’okano’s child live together with him, and the children of my daughter lived with me.The morning of February 23, 1924, my daughter fetched the children to return with me to live for only one week. Then, I was happy because I kept remembering the children during the nights when I couldn’t sleep for my love, because she was separated from me. Therefore, you agreed for mama to return that evening, Lui agreed for me to return if I wanted, then I fetched the babies, that was a plot that I return from you then, happy about the babies.But the days weren’t long, the days of my child shortened. On Saturday February 23, I went to Honolulu to the doctor for my weakness, and for nine days was away from my daughter and my grandchildren, until I returned on Monday March 3 to Ko’olau with one of my daughters. My daughter was at the store with her uncle J. K. Paele when I returned the rental car. I saw someone familiar, my child, and called “Emma, mama has returned home”, and hearing I returned, she was startled to see her mama and her younger sister.Then the last sight of my daughter, in conversation with her good cousins Mrs. Victoria Kukahilihiapoaliilani Silva Ano, Miss Agnes Mamie Kahikualiilani Silva, and one of her children. Perhaps half an hour was filled with her stay with me and her cousins, until at 3:30 she was ready for her return to the place the two of them were living, and she said to me she would return to wash the babies’ clothes the next day. I agreed without thinking of a problem until early morning. The telephone rang, and my daughter Mamie Answered that call.My daughter Emma Lahelaka’akauali’ilani Silva Ho’okano, asked her cousins “Where is mama?”, her cousin replied, “Right here, I want gossip, you want mama”.I am standing, “This is mama speaking”.“This is Emma speaking, mama, Lui told me I ate with you, mama, I won’t be going to your house mama”.Therefore I asked what was the reason, I don’t understand. I ask my child, “Where is Lui?”.The answer of my child: “Here, he is right here”.My response is, “Tell Lui I want to speak to him.”I heard my child speak to Lui, “Mama wants you.”Lui’s answer was heard responding to his wife “Shut up”, heard the words from Lui’s mouth.My child replied to tell me, her mama, “Lui doesn’t want to talk to you mama” and the conversation was over.Then, after my conversation with my daughter is finished, the voice changed again - in less than ten minutes after our conversation. The telephone rang again for the second time, while I still stood there.Then there was my grandchild: “Grandma, mama is shot with a gun by Lui.”In that moment I was full of love and grief, as I hung up my telephone, called the telephone operator to give me the number to the Kaneohe courthouse. It wasn’t long before I received the answer, Mr. Aiu was the one who answered. I said I was Mrs. Fern, my daughter had died, shot by Lui Hookano. At the end of my conversation with Aiu, I called the operator again to give the number, 48557, and it wasn’t long before I received the reply...the voice of that child of mine, “This is mama, your older sister Emma is dead”. After hanging up, I called again to ask the operator to give me the Honolulu phone. Honolulu accepted, she gave me the number 79586, the operator dialed, I waited a few minutes, and got the order to insert a dime, I put it in, and the local association was there for children’s matters, and also publishing resting news: Emma had died, shot by Lui Ho’okano.After a little while my phone rang, telling me “Lui ran with the gun in his hand” -alas my trouble -”and hasn’t returned for a long time.” We saw a car, my grandchildren with an aunty of theirs came and met me and implored me to flee, not to stay in the house, because Lui had run. We drove in the car until Kaalaea, the place my daughter was shot until cruelly dead after the hatred of the man who didn’t know love for his wife. We saw it full of a crowd and a government man, Kukahilo. I asked for the police. “How can I go to see”, he said that I can go and I climbed up the house above with my daughter Mamie, until we came to the lanai and searched on a side suitable for a room, and my child was lying there. Alas my child, my grief, the love lying without being seen, aloha my child lying in blood, alas an act without love, persuading her to return again to live with him, a torturing thing to the very best, so close to death. While I was crying, Police Chief Robert W. Davis of Koolau entered and heard the call to me, “Mrs. Fern, please return to wait a little until the doctor finishes seeing her.”The doctor saw this sort of act, a torturous shooting, agitating the head of the doctor for these things: shooting without love, and this man without reason for hatred, none at all, a crime done to my daughter, killing by the hand of Lui Ho’okano. Not a siege of sickness until death follows, Lui purging his place, a disaster for the children going to school and Lui’s children, for Lui indeed inflicted continuous pain on the children and my daughter until her marriage was nothing. Therefore he killed my daughter, with her baby in her hands, the seventh of her children. The greatest thing to her were her children, abandoned after crying....For my daughter it’s not possible to come to see me. Amazing it is over. Her uncle J. K. Paele asked to return with her to Waiahole, unhealthy for me, to return with his true parent to Kalihi, to telephone Silva to fetch me and return. The trouble is, the road couldn’t be opened until five o’clock in the evening. Alas, it was from seven o’clock in the morning until five o’clock, until my beloved child, one small portion, was moved from the place the cold body of my child was left, and set upon the car.(Not finished)Kuokoa Newspaper, HonoluluOctober 16, 1924Loving thoughts of her beloved childMrs. Emma Lahelakaakaualiilani Silva Hookano(continued)I, my cousin Mrs. Kukahiko, and the friends in that place left the room of those atrocities. My child and I were in the first car behind her uncle with some of the grandchildren, the children my daughter left behind. We left Ka’alaea and turned towards Honolulu, arrived at Kaneohe, and parked the car to wait to obtain the death certificate from the agent.While I was still parked, the Harata car drove up…one of my children and her husband and children slowed and received a paper for the movement of our car, sadly acknowledging the place my child lay.“Aloha”, her voice called, “mama, Lui said she would not go again to your house, mama, and it’s true. I don’t think that will ever happen again. Aloha to the Po’aihale rain of Kahalu’u, you are sick to see Emma Lahela Kaakaualiilani again, but she has vanished from our sight for all seasons.”We arrived at the tip of Nu’uanu, saw again the Ko’olau, turned towards Honolulu, and arrived – Kahuailanawai was the name of the place, and we parked the car there. We waited half an hour to get the credential from the officer to display while driving and left that place.We arrived at the Silva place at 5:30, very happy to be away from the morgue. I stayed to wait until the Silva children returned, and met them to understand the discharge time. I asked if I could go to see my girl again and they agreed that was a good idea. I saw her with the teachers of my child, my grandchildren and their uncle also, the people accompanying from Ko’olau behind my child’s procession, and not one of the family of the husband came. And like that she was carried to her resting place in Kalihi. Saying goodbye to my child, for me and for the multitude living in Wailau, this is the end of again hearing her voice, the end of ever seeing her return to my home.My daughter was born at Kapaia, Kaua’i December 4, 1895, and died on March 4, 1924, a full thirty years and three months.Oh Kaua’i, you will never again see Emma, never again see her in your surging waves. Alas, my child loved traveling to this place.Oh Maunalua, perhaps you have seen my child Emma, going to the uplands of Kamilokapu, the beloved place my child stayed with my first-born, Mr. G. Kalailohe, who had first come here.Oh esteemed Kawaihoa, you will never again see Emma at the water’s edge of Maunalua, and likewise you Kuli’ou’ou, will never again see her traveling to the water’s edge of my beloved birthplace.Here is her mama crying at the place my child stayed with my older sisters and their husbands, Mr. And Mrs. Makea Paao and Mr. And Mrs. Mahinalau.Wailupe, where she went to search for wisdom, aloha to the place my child lived in Wailau, where we all stayed in the cool swaying of the wind of the Ko’olau. There she grasped the hand of the man, not knowing the one she loved was evil in body and pondering acts that shortened her days of living and breathing. Within her pleasure with no thought of trouble, my little girl grasped the uncompassionate hand of Lui Hookano, who took the life breath of my girl, Emma Lahela Kaakaualiilani Silva Hookano. He abandoned the cold body for me, her mother to gaze upon her, and my children and loving friends to see afterwards. Alas my sorrow!Here was the attack on my child, his wife, his object of torture. If she had heard in advance the plan of Lui, than my child would not be dead. Here she became accustomed to his threatening of her, and cruelty to me.Not one from the family of Lui came to see my daughter in her last hours until she was carried away, and put to rest with her true father, Antony Silva. With my child, my darling.Aloha to the place my child stayed in Hawaii with her husband Mr. Jos Kawaha.Aloha to the Kanilehua rain of Hilo, you will never again see my darling. You will never again soak the beloved cheeks of my child.Aloha to the home of her in-laws at Pahala, Kau, the place my daughter lived with her beloved husband Joseph Kawaha, who has already left this life. Aloha to the place my child lived for a long time with her in-laws Mr. And Mrs. J. L. K. Kawaha, of Kau, Pahala, a home that welcomed tourists arriving there, a comfortable place to stay for parents caring for children.Aloha to the place my child stayed upland of Olaa, with her cousins Mr. and Mrs. C. Warren Apela. And likewise Keaukaha, a place my child stayed with my cousins. It is finished, she has vanished from our eyes, the day had passed not to return, my beloved little child has passed away!Remember those place of the song verse:Hewn down by the sea are the pandanus trees of Puna.They are standing there like men.Like a multitude in the lowlands of Hilo.Step by step the sea rises above the Isle-of-life.So life revives once more within me, for love of you.*Alas, my child!Aloha to the low hanging breadfruit of Kalapana,The cold sun that rises at Kumukahi.The love of my child is indeed above all else.*The one that is most beloved.The lehua blossoms were braided with the maile of Panaewa,Unjustly, the face of the woman has passed on,For our love for one another was all we had.The rain only fell at Leleiwi,As it came creeping over the hala trees at Pahoa.*Alas my child!Aloha to the places my child lived,My child from the leaping cliffs of Piikea,From the waters of Wailuku where the people are carried under,Which we had to go through to get to the many cliffs of Hilo,Those solemn cliffs that are bare of people.*Aloha to the places my child went. Our time to see her again is ended, and likewise Mooeheau park, a place my child stayed to look at the amusements of that place.Alas my grief!Aloha to the sea of Alenoihaha and Pailolo, you will never again drench the body of my child, the last time to see her in your surging billows of beloved Hawaii has passed.Aloha my daughter, never to see her again.Ko’olau is made hot by the storm of love,A native land where she dwells,Partly pecked by the birds,By it’s speechless messenger, the storm,*Alas, my grief is endless.Alas my love, and for her perhaps, the places woven into these song verses:Enjoying the Kaniko’o rain of He’eia,That rain that makes the awa leaves of Moelana glitter,*Fragrant the grasses of AhulimanuBind with finger deft as the Waikaloa wind.Waikaloa, the wind that cools the air of my child,**Aloha to all the places my child has stayed.Likewise you, Kaneohe, famous at the center of Ko’olau, you will never again see my child, alas the pain remembering the things done upon the body of my child.Aloha to the zigzag roads of Nu’uanu, the place my child drove to town, and to Waipuhia and Waipuilani, you will never see her again.Kukalahale rain, you perhaps saw my child Emma as she passed the mountain ridges, Kuahine rain of Manoa, she is gone, vanished.Kewalo, you perhaps saw my child Emma, you were familiar with her, and you Kalia, she has left me to weep my alohas, never to see her again, the beloved places my child stayed with her beloved ones abandoned already, the place she lived first and had four children and one dead leaving three, and lived again with her second husband had three children, and the second husband dead, and then this husband returns one child, the baby, and my child secure into my hands beaten by Lui Ho’okano, the one not known as a loving person.My child has left her friends and children, namely my seven grandchildren, beloved children of my child.Kaimuki, perhaps you are puzzled Emma does not return to see the home of her mama, Mrs. Emma K. Fern, you will never again see your child.Lililehua rain of Palolo, you will never again dampen the cheeks of my beloved one, my daughter Emma Lahela Kaakau, alas my child, you have vanished from my eyes.She has abandoned me, her true parent, and her older sister, her brother, and her younger sisters, her family and friends grieving here, with sorrow for my child gone forever.Above all, we the family give many thanks to all the people who have come together to lament my beloved, and likewise the families and friends giving gifts of beautiful flowers for adornment, and also the friends who sent flowers for my lei, thank you so very much.Our help is from God, and He will give us His blessing and ease the pain of our sorrow and bereavement.From us with sorrow,Mrs. Emma K. FernMrs. P. A. K. S. LaChanceSamuel Sapino SilvaMrs. Mary K. S. SalesMrs. Victoria K. S. AnoMrs. Sarah A. K. S. WoodMiss Agnes M. K. SilvaNotes from the translator, not from original articles:MRS. EMMA L. K. HOOKANO - Services for Mrs. Emma Lahela Kaakau Hookano, who was shot and killed, the police allege, at her home in Kahaluu, this island, Tuesday by her husband, will be held at 4 o’clock this afternoon at the Kalihi-waena Catholic church, Kamehameha IV road. Burial will be in the cemetery of this church. Mrs. Hookano was born on Kauai and was 30 years and 3 months old.-Honolulu Advertiser, Thursday morning, March 6, 1924, page 5.*See “Legend of Halemano”, Hawaiian Antiquities & Folklore, by Elbert & Fornander**See “Anklet Song”, Unwritten Literature of Hawaii: The sacred songs of the hula by Emerson.
Aloha - When I had read this story it had brought tears to my eyes. I remember my grandmother told me that mayor Fern was her granduncle. I want to know more about the family history. My Kupuna was a Burgess and her mother was a Lincoln and her mother was a Fern and her mother was a Luahoomae. Mahalo......
HI I AM THE REAL QUEEN EMMA FAMILY TOO I AM HANAKHI GOES TO KAPEKA AND SMITH AND CNIER SINCLAIR AND CAMPBEL KAHELES IS MY FAMILY BOTH SIDES I ALSO HAVE BEATRICE KAWAHA AND JOEOPHKAWAHA WHO MARRIED EMMA SMITH I AM FROM THE FIRST LINE Y GREAT GRAND MA IS CAROLINE KAWAHA 2N D ARRAIGE AND KAPEKA FIRST MARRAIGE , THEN YOU ARE MY CUSINS FROM THE THIRD MARRAIGE AND YES I HEARD ABOUT THIS AND SMEONE TOLD ME YOU DIED WHEN IO WROTE TO YOU THAT LADY SHARON TOLD ME THIS
So unfourtunate that during these early times of oppression our women/people struggled with domestic violence and abuse, no different then the problems of domestic violence today. Thank you for sharing this.
“If I return again with Lui, I am afraid death would be near”.
Mahalo so much for sharing, at first I was interested in the 'transfer of language' but I decided to continue reading differently. Much of what is written I am familiar with.
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Mahalo so much for sharing, at first I was interested in the 'transfer of language' but I decided to continue reading differently. Much of what is written I am familiar with.
Aloha Kaohi