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No where else was wealth so highly
concentrated than in the Hawaiian islands. Sugar and pineapple plantations were wholly
owned or controlled subsidiaries of five parent companies—American Factors (Amfac),
C. Brewer, Alexander & Baldwin, Castle & Cooke, and the smallest, with only four
plantations, Theo H. Davies & Co.
The immense wealth produced by sugar and pineapple workers went to line the pockets of the
descendants of four families—Alexander, Baldwin, Castle, and Cooke—direct
descendants of the missionaries who came to Hawaii from 1830-1837. Willam Alexander and
Dwight Baldwin were missionaries. Amos Cooke was a teacher and Samuel Castle handled the
finances and purchasing for the mission companies.
In the second generation, the families began to intermarry: Samuel Alexander married
Martha Cooke, brother William married Abigail Baldwin, and sister Emily married Henry
Baldwin. Other family members married into prominent families—Wilder, Lydgate,
Thurston, Damon, Tenney, Rice, Atherton, Atwater. In the third generation, Joseph Cooke
married Maud Baldwin. Other family alliances through marriage included: Spalding, Judd,
Richards, Waterhouse. In the fourth generation, Asa Fred Balwin married Virginia Castle
and Mary Cooke married Harold Dillingham.
By the second generation, the family fortune included Castle & Cooke, Castle Estate,
Alexander & Baldwin, Honolulu Gas Company, Oahu Railroad, Honolulu Rapid Transit,
Lewers & Cooke, Bank of Hawaii, and C. Brewer. By the third generation, the families
controlled the four major sugar holding companies, which controlled 27 of Hawaii’s 33
sugar plantations and 88% of an annual sugar crop worth $100 million.
Besides sugar, the families’ business extended into almost every economic activity of
the islands. In addition to the companies listed above, business also included Kahului
Railway, Waterhouse Trust, C&H Cockett Refinery, Hawaiian Development Company, Kaneohe
Ranch, Hawaiian Western Steel, Molokai Ranch, Hawaiian Trust, Hawaiian Electric, CM Cooke
Ltd., Wall & Dougherty, Mutual Telephone, Young Brothers, Atherton Estates, Home
Insurance, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Kahului Development, Maui Pine, Baldwin Ltd., Matson
Navigation, McCabe, Bishop Trust, Ulupalakua Ranch, Haleakala Ranch, and Haiku Fruit &
Packing.
Many of the 49 children and grandchildren held large blocks of stock, sat on the board of
directors of these companies, or served in the Hawaii legislature.
While plantation families lived in simple aging wooden shacks, the missionary descendants
began to build fabulous mansions in Nuuanu that would match the mansions of high society
in New York or Chicago. The mansions were filled with imported crystal chandeliers,
Italian marble, and works of art. The building spree created a mini-construction boom in
Honolulu.
While plantation children labored in the fields, the children of the missionaries sent
their children to Harvard, Yale and finishing schools in England. The class of owners and
the class of workers lived in two different worlds.
In the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Report of 1939, James Shoemaker detailed the
management structure of Hawaii’s economy:
- “There has been a considerable degree of intermarriage among the more influential families of the Territory, possibly because of the relative isolation of Hawaii. Interfamily relationships, as well as intrafamily holdings, are thus an additional significant feature in the integration of industry.
- “But it should be noted that, because of the intercorporate relations mentioned above, the centralization of control is not confined to the sugar industry alone, but extends into practically every aspect of the economic life of Hawaii.
- “Over half the pineapple industry is island-owned, and it is closely connected through interlocking directors, and intrafamily holdings, with the sugar industry. The same may be said of the public utilities, the Matson and Inter-Island steamship companies, the large hotels, and a great variety of minor corporate enterprise.”
- Thus the Territory of Hawaii possesses a strongly centralized industrial structure...not only in the economic, but even the social and political aspects of island life.“