User:KAVEBEAR/William Charles Keeaumoku Crowningburg

William Charles Keʻeaumoku Crowningburg (died October 7, 1881) was a high chief during the Kingdom of Hawaii and cousin of King Lunalilo. He contracted leprosy in later life and exiled to the leper colony of Kalaupapa.

Family
His parents were Jesse Crowningburg, a German-American settler of Hawaii, and the High Chiefess Miriam Auhea Kekāuluohi II, the daughter of High John Harold Kaiheʻekai and High Chiefess Namahana. Through his maternal grandfather, he was a descendant of Kameʻeiamoku, one of the royal twins (with Kamanawa) who advised Kamehameha I in his conquest of the Hawaiian Islands. On his maternal grandmother's side, he was a descendant of Kalaʻimamahu, half-brother of Kamehameha I, and thus related to King Lunalilo and his mother Kekāuluohi. His surviving sister was Elizabeth Keomailani Crowningburg (1859–1887), married Englishman Wray Taylor and had descendants who are the present kahu or guardians of the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii.

He and his wife Lydia Pahau had a daughter Miriam Peleuli Crowningburg who married Samuel Apolo Amalu and had descendants.



According to a letter written by Queen Emma to her cousin Peter Kaeo, he was one of the few attendants allowed in the presence of dying King Lunalilo along with Eliza Meek, Becky Meek, Horace Crabe, Waiaha, Kapahu, Honokaupu's wife and a grey-head old woman, and one of Victoria Mahiole's boys named Kawika.

By August of 1874, he was at Kalaupapa.

"William Charles Crowningburg (d. ?1876), also called Ke'eaumoku IV, named after Ke'eaumoku I, most noted among the five warrior chief who supported Kamehameha I in his conquest of the island of Hawaii. He was of mied Hawaiian and German (or German-American) ancestry, descended on hi smother's side from Kala'imamahu, son of a half-brother of Kamehameha I. His mother, Auhea Kekauluohi II, was a niece and namesake of Kekauluohi, mother of William Charles Lunalilo; his father, an early maui settler of obscure background, was William Isaac Jesse Crowningburg (1819–?1856). Ke'eaumoku IV as kinsman-aide in the household of King Lunalilo at the time of the barracks mutiny in 1873. He was an elder brother Emma's young protegee, Lydia Keomailani Crowningburg (1859-1887), later Mrs. Wray Taylor, who in 1873-1874 was being educated in England at Ascot Priory, at Emma's expense, by the Devonport Sisters, an order of Anglican nuns. For further details, sometimes confusing, concerning various Ke'eaumoku-Crowningburg descendants and their intermarriages and family ramifications with other alii and kamaaina families, see miscellaneous newspaper writings by Samuel Crowningburg Amalu (b. 1919), especially Honolulu Advertiser, June 21,22, 1956, but these should be compared with later articles and, if possible, sometimes verified.

Satuarday 22. — As I was writing this letter Yesterday, I was interupted by the appearance of William Crowningburg at my door, and as I could not help it, I asked him in. This is the first time that I had a good opportunity to look fairly at him and to ask him about this disease. He showed me his Skin and other parts, and I must really confess that he is better than two Thirds of the Lepers here. He is not disfigured about the face, which is a little swolen, but half of each Eye brow is gone. Both of his Hands are perfectly well and no Sores, which is one of the things which Dr. Trousseau told me always to look first before I shake anyone by the Hand. He has a sore on the Instep of his foot, which he said he got by being drunk with Ragsdale on the day of his arrival. I do not write in his favour in order to win your approval and assosiate with him, but I let you know of this so that you may know that he is not so bad as he was probably pictured to you. And if you had seen him, then you can judge for yourself how bad the majority must be, when I say that he is better in appearance then Two Thirds of the Lepers here. After he had stoped a while, he went Home into Kalawao, and as I did not feel incline to renew the writing I rested till this Morning. [P. Y. K.]

William Charles Crowningburg, also called Ke'eaumoku IV after the most noted of the five warrior chiefs who supported Kamehameha I in conquest of Hawai'i. He was the son of a German-American settler on Maui and a Hawaiian woman descended from Kala'imamahu, son of a half-brother of King Kamehameha 1. His family had maintained close ties with the reigning monarchs and his sister was Queen Emma's protdgd (Korn 1976:231). He arrived as a patient on 16 August 1874 at the age of 42, from Makawao, Maui, and died 7 October 1881. He worked at the Mololca'i store until he was caught taking money and assigned to a less tempting position. Crowningburg used both his English and Hawaiian name on letters.

Around the 1870s, her son William Charles Keʻeaumoku Crowningburg contracted leprosy, which was incurable at the time. He was exiled to the leper colony at Kalaupapa on the island of Molokaʻi in 1874, a year after Father Damien arrived on the island. Peter Kaeo, cousin of Queen Emma, was also a patient on the colony. Because of his aliʻi ancestry, Keʻeaumoku was given a paid position and appointed the head constable or sheriff of Kalaupapa by the colony's luna (supervisor) William Kealoha Sumner. However, he was known to have abused his power and position, encouraging drunken binges and the distilling of ʻōkolehao by the patients. Other patients petitioned for him to be removed from office. He was charged with excessive use of force toward fellow police officers and the inmates, especially J. K. Kahuila, a patient and Protestant minister who Father Damien had imprisoned, led Sumner to finally dismiss him. Keʻeaumoku eventually died on Kalaupapa, although the date is not mentioned.

Wm. Crouningberg, aged 46, male, nativity Lahaina; mother Hawaiian, father American, both were healthy. C. healthy from youth up. In 1869 had an anaesthetic spot on right foot. In 1873 one appeared upon face. Went to Honolulu for examination. In 1874 sent to Kalawao. He is covered with salmon-colored spots. Hands afl'ected, fingers off one hand. Skin dry, shrivelled, cracking. Vaccinated a very long time before leprosy appeared. During 4 months used Hoang Nan pills with wonderful effect for amelioration. Looks somewhat different from his appearance when his photograph was taken; now covered with scales, longest finger of right hand gone, both hands sore. The above cases I hope will prove of interest to such of the profession as are giving some attention to this rapidly increasing disease. , They are necessarily more meagre than I could wish to have them, but even those whose histories were taken by a non professional gentleman, illustrate many of the most interest ing symptoms of leprosy, and every little helps to swell the total amount of knowledge possessed of a disease. It will be noted that syphilis or any syphilitic cachexiae were in every case diligently sought for, for there are some on these islands, as well as in India and elsewhere, who hold to an intimate connection between syphilis and leprosy. If there is any such relation as they claim, then is it unnecessary to speculate as to the manner of introduction of leprosy into this kingdom, for though my experience in foreign lands is confined to these Islands, I am not prepared to read of a country where syphilis is so prevalent, so grounded into the whole native population as here. The problem, then, would be, how long the disease—s_vphilis—left to itself‘, would require to become elaborated into leprosy. But I am not willing yet to adopt such an hypothesis, for then should leprosy be more general in the families of those affected, as well as more common in other countries, where there is a certain proportion of families thoroughly imbued with syphilis, and from which they have not been exempt for several generations. Again, anti-syphilitic treatment should give some good results, which is not the case, save when syphilis is added to the disease. Moreover, the symptoms of the two diseases do not coincide in a way to warrant such an opinion.

His great-grandson was Sammy Amalu (1917–1986), a con man and longtime columnist at The Honolulu Advertiser. A self-proclaimed royal, who titled himself High Chief Kapiikauinamoku, Prince of Keawe and Duke of Konigsberg, he attempted to buy up several Waikiki hotels with phony checks in the 1940s and ended up in jail for the scheme. Under the alias Kapiikauinamoku, he wrote "The Story of Hawaiian Royalty" and "The Story of Maui Royalty," in a series of columns written for the The Honolulu Advertiser, which accounts much of the genealogy of Hawaii's aliʻi families including his ancestress Auhea.

Descendants.