The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-07-30

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28th, at a quarter past 7 o'clock. For
more than month the solicAude of the
whole community had centered around
the sick bed of one of it's most prominent
and useful figures, yet when the end
came it had the force of a sudden blow.
1t was heard to realize that the busy
man of public and private affairs, who
but a few weeks ago occupied his seat as
President of the Legislature, whose pro-
jected enterprises were SO great as to be
national concern, had passed away.
The sad event Immediately cast a palpa-
BILE gloom over the whole town, the out
ward manifestations of which were the
interchange of mournful reflections
among groups of citizens; Government,
| consular, marine and private flags flying
| at half-mast, and the closing of the
| places of business for the latter half of
the day. The Legislative Assembly
took appropriate action with regard to
the loss of its distinguished member
| which is reported elsewhere in the
account OF proceedings.
Samuel g. Wilder has had the career
ola man of more than ordinary ability
and energy, whose private enterprises
and public services have both, in a
| large degree, been a benefit to the
country OF his adoption. He was born
at Leominster, Massachusetts,, June 10th,
| 1881. The family in 1914 joined the
| great stream of emigration trending to-
ward the setting sun, settling in Illinois
| then on the frontier of Westwardly
| advancing civilization. With freshly
kindled aspirations for independent ven
lures after fortune, the subject of this
| sketch crossed the almost trackless
mountains and plains to California in
1852. There he was employed in the
| business of the Adams Express Com
pany, having as an associate therein his
future Honolulu fellOw-citizen, Mr.. r. w.
Lame.
Mr.. Wilder arrived in Honolulu in
the clipper ship White Swallow in the
year 1857. The same year he married
here Miss Elizabeth, daughter of DR.. G.
P. Judd, the bridal couple making their
honeymoon tour in the White Swallow to
New York, via Bakers Island, whence
the groom had the ship chartered to
carry cargo of guano, and return
1ICI1CI lIOln N6M OTh.
On returning to the Islands Mr..
Wilder went into sugar planting at Ma
kawao, Maui, but this enterprise was
unfortunately terminated in the destruc-
ton by fire of the plantation. After
ward in company with DR.. Judd he
started a plantation at Kuoloa, Oahu,
but, owing to the soil being none of the
best, this was abandoned after a few
years struggle. He is next heard of in
the auCtiOneer business with Z. z. Adams
& Co., and later was engaged in Hon.
}. L. DOwsett's lumber business, being
so only about six months until in April, |
1872, he bought Mr.. Dowsett out. This |
continued one of his leading branches of |
business till the last.
In nothing was Mr.. Wilder more iden- |
tilted with the life of this country, prob |
ably, than in the remarkable deveI- |
opment of inter-island steam navigation. |
His career in this regard began with the |
agency of the Government steamer XII |
Iauea, which he managed with thor
Ough success during 1912. In 1877 he |
had the steamer Likelike built on the
Coast for the Government, and buying
her afterward that vessel was the first of |
his later fleet. He next had the Mo-
kolii and Lehua built, then bought the
iron steamship Kinau, while on the
stocks at Cramps yard, Philadelphia,
laid down to the order of Col. Spreckels
The steamers just named, with the XII
lauea HOu Cor new Kilauea), form the
inter-island f1otilla accrued from the be-
ginning mentioned. After the arrival of |
the Kinau in 1888 Mr.. Wilder formed |
the Wilder Steamship Company, that
has since conducted the business under
his Presidency. The corporation has
lately acquired the bark J. A King, en-
ploying her in the large lumber bust
ness of Wilder & Co. between here and
Puget Sound.
Mr.. Wilder's political record is not less
marked by his vigorous individuality
than his commercial career. AS pub
lie man he had clear and strong convic-
tons and great decision of character. |
He took great interest in the election by
jhe people of a King in 1873, throwing |
MS active services into the scale in favor
If W. @. Lunalilo, the successful candi- I
late. Lunalilo requited his assistance
by appointing Mr.. Wilder to the House
II Mobiles. In that position the follow
ng year, when the throne became again
Tacant by the death of Lunalilo, Mr.. .
Wilder espOused the cause of the late
Kings rival, David Kalakaua, who was =
elected by the Legislative Assembly. c
The present King summoned Mr.. | f
Wilder to his Cabinet in 1878, in which | !
lie was Minister of the Interior until | +
August, 1880, when he was retired sud- :
enly at the inception of the Moreno f
asc0. He had been raised in the mean q
lme to membership of the Privy Council i
f State, continuing a member of the y
louise of Mobiles, also, until by the q
evolutionary Constitution of 1887 that n
Ody was made elective, when Mr.. "
Wider was returned at the head of the n
oil as one of the nine Mobiles for the f.
sland of Oahu-this distinction being / z
ne more marked from the fact that, r.
ON date antecedent to the revolution ~
} one subsequent to the election, he was f.
bsent in England trying to float his
reat project of the Hilo and Hamakua
.ailroad Mr. Wildes's administration
the Department of the Interior was