User:Lkdaue/sandbox/John C. McColgan

John C. McColgan (December 24, 1814-February 28, 1890), also referred to as John H. McColgan, John N. McColgan, and John Kamanoulu, was a tailor and agriculturalist in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was the biological father of Royal Court hula dancer Kini Kapahu Wilson. --cite Imada--

Life
John C. McColgan was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on December 24, 1814. He immigrated to the United States in the 1830s and, in 1849, joined the California Gold Rush. He left California for Hawaii later that year due to ill health. Shortly thereafter, he began work as a tailor on the Island of Oahu. He is credited with bringing the first sewing machines to Hawaii in 1853, and later became the personal tailor of the King.

McColgan and his Hawaiian wife Kalaiolele Kamanoulu had sixteen children, eight of whom survived into adulthood. Their son John K. Kamanoulu, Sr. (1867-1927) served in the Territorial House of Representatives in 1909 and 1911 and was a member of the Order of Kamehameha. He married Deborah Kamālie Pahau (d. 1923), the daughter of Alexander Kekolomoku Pahau and Mary Purdy Lamiki Aimoku (1831-1923), on November 17, 1907.

John McColgan's and Kalaiolele Kamanoulu's daughter Ana Kini Kapahukulaokamamalu Kuulalani McColgan Huhu (1872-1962) was a world-renown hula dancer originally trained in King Kalākaua's court. She married Honolulu mayor John H. Wilson on May 8, 1908, and became known as the honorary "First Lady of Hawaii." She was also widely known in Hawaii as an advocate for women's suffrage.

In addition to his children with Kalaiolele, McColgan had at least one additional child, John Hiram McColgan, who was the adoptive grandfather of Old Hollywood actor Robert Cabal.

McColgan died at his home in Honolulu on February 28, 1890. He was buried at the Roman Catholic cemetery on Fort Street, Downtown Honolulu.

Agriculture in Hawaii


By 1873, John C. McColgan was engaged in sugarcane farming on the Island of Oahu, operating a mill and plantation in the Ewa district on the northern shore of the Pearl Lochs.

In July of 1873, McColgan was reported to have leased 4,000 acres of land on Molokai from the estate of the late King Kamehameha V for the purpose of farming sugarcane. This land, situated between Kaunakakai and Kaluaaha, became the settlement of Kamalō, Molokai and the site of the Kamalō Sugar Plantation. McColgan's plantation, managed by Irish-born brothers Hugh and Daniel McCorriston, was the first reported sugarcane plantation and mill on Molokai, followed by Moanui Plantation in 1875 and Kalae Sugar Plantation in 1876.

Relationship with Kini Kapahu Wilson
Upon the birth of their daughter Kini, McColgan and Kalaiolele gave her in hānai to Kapahukulaokamāmalu, a childless woman who assisted in her birth, and Kuula, Kapahu's husband. As the couple had no children of their own, Kalaiolele argued that she and McColgan should give the baby to the childless couple.

Regardless, McColgan remained involved in Kini's life: he arranged for her Baptism into the Roman Catholic church, and he provided for her education at the Catholic school at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace. In several interviews conducted in the 1950s, Kini Kapahu Wilson referred to McColgan as "my father."