The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-04-23
THE HAND !.
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sFrf. a. a. q
James Caa)pbeII Passes
Way ~ ~
THE END ME SATURDAY,
He Was a Kaudas WhoHad Done
Much in Egpbuilding Of 81
thSsads| s

planter, Wen hnQHn. as one OF ktle
makers of Hays died slast Saturday
at his res.dsnee 9d Eqrnia street. aftos
long illness. He WAS one sof the
largest owners 1E Idpl $state}in the
islands. and was afso exHHs sitely inter
ested in many other nx5sressive enter
prizes. He was one vf the most able
and efficient business men who ever
lived on the islands-s-f4ts@b business ca
pacity and especallunis 7sagacity and
iarsishtedness cause htm tdstake up
and push to highly 3uccessful conelu-
sions enterprises whh other men hes
.tated TO atteIpt 9G had an. event
ful and romantic (reer, which in
volved a great val By of occupation
and much travel He was never a
penniless man, so AFnskjs ED04fp, bu1
ne was essentially a Self made man
He worked very hard with his hands
for about half his life; during his last
years he had nominally retired from
business, but he stall made business
deals and new ventures, as will appear
.ater.
James Campbell was born in Lon
donderry. Ireland. about seventy-four
years ago. He seems to have learned
nls trade of carpenter and ships car
penter. and then to have shipped on a
whaler as carpenter. In 1852 he ar
rived on this whaler at Lahaina, then
a mooring ground for vessels of that
class, having with him a few hundred
dollars. He became a resident of the
district, living at first with a white
man whom the natives called Barla,
whose English name Is now forgotten.
Here he followed his vocation of car
penter. He built many of the houses
dt Lahaina, besides working on ships
and at odd jobs. In the course of his
work he made the cradle in which a
certain tiny maiden was to be rocked,
little thinking that she was one day
to be his bride.
After residing at Lahaina a few
years ne married Hannah, the daugh-
,er of the man known as Barla. From
this marriage there was no issue;
Mrs. Campbell dying in 1858 or 1853.
Campbell came into some property
through his first wife, who was Barla' s
only child; and this, together with the
money he had with him on landing
and his savings in the meanwhile, put
him in a position TO engage in some
enterprise more promising than mere
daily labor.
The whaling fleet left Lahaina in
1860 or 1861, anu soon after this he
organized or started the Lahaina sugar
cane plantation, run by mule power.
Thio rNrnypH tn hx n Of III
wealth. Mr.. Campbell had no idea OF
running a Plantation by modern meth
ods, or entirely through the labor of
subordinates. He worked side by side
with his workmen all day, in the fields
or at the grinding mill.
A little later Kamehameha V, who
was then King of the Islands, built a
sugar mill at Lahaina, not very far
from Mr.. Campbell's. There was not
exactly competition between them. at
least as far as the sale of the product
was concerned; but the two mills COM
peted for labor. The curious part of
it was that Kamehameha had to pay
higher for labor than Campbell. The
latter actually bested the King of the
Islands on the question of wages. Mr..
Campbell kept on with his mill, but
Campbell was the sole owner of a sugar
plantation at Lahaina. The land used
to grow the cane for the Kings mill
afterward came into possession of Mr..
Campbell.
A Mr.. Harry Turton went into part
nership with him, and together they
started the Pioneer plantation. They
erected a steam power mill, and en-
larged the plantation to something re-
sembling the modern scale. and later
they bought more land. II was soon
after this that the natives gave him the
first name of a millionaire. ''Ona Mi
Iona" This was all from very modest
beginnings. The first year of the La
haina mill he probably did not grind
100 tons of sugar; there was very little
capital, but abundant plodding irdus-a
try, and hard-headed common sense.
Mr.. Campbell seems to have always
been capable of learning by experience.
lie learned the business OF raising and
grinding sugar as il was done then so
we'll that when he and Turton went in
together. Campbell was always the
; rains of the concern The business.