How a native Hawaiian found a purpose in life in Siberia Russia: Part One

Part One: Growing up caught between two worlds on the Island of Hawaii

Henry Hoolulu Pitman Beckley from a very young age, had to discover for himself the answers to some really important questions.? As a member of Hawaii’s royal family, “alii” in Hawaiian, how was he to behave?? When Henry was seventeen in 1893, the United States invaded the Hawaiian Islands and removed Hawaii’s queen and its royal families from power.? How should Henry preserve his Hawaiian language and culture?? As a Pitman Beckley whose family was also related to English and American cowboys and ranch owners on the island of Hawaii, what sort of profession should Henry learn? His father, Admiral Mooheau Beckley, was in charge of the Wilder family’s fleet of Hawaiian Inter-Island steamships. ?What did it mean to be captain of a ship, and should Henry become one??? Throughout his life, Henry struggled to find answers to these questions. The answers he found would one day help him rescue many people from death, including 272 Russian boys and girls who found themselves in great danger.

Born in 1876, Henry spent much of his early years aboard the steamships that traveled the fourteen hour trip between the Hawaiian Islands of Oahu and Hawaii.? His father handled all aspects of the ferry service for the Wilder Family aboard their steamship Kinau.? When the Beckley family was not at school or work, they often spent their days staying at the Volcano House Inn and exploring the active volcanoes Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea high above the shores of the Big Island of Hawaii.?

After attending the private schools Ionia and Punahou on Oahu, Henry Beckley passed the exams necessary for him to attend Stanford University in California in 1897.? There he became a freshman football star athlete.? His exploits were written up by the San Francisco Examiner.? As a member of one of Hawaii’s important royal families, Henry’s activities were frequently mentioned in Hawaii’s newspapers as well.?

In California, newspapers for the first time in Henry’s life, described him with racial terms.? The sports writer for the San Francisco Examiner commented: “A Hawaiian football player by the name of Henry Beckley, whose brunette complexion harmonizes with the crimson of Stanford, made the freshmen eleven of Berkeley look like 20 cents in Confederate money.”? Henry left Stanford after a year and returned to the ranches of Waimea on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Meanwhile Henry’s father Mooheau continued to take influential roles in the Inter-island ferry service.? Aboard his ship the Kinau, Mooheau rescued passengers from boat and received a lifesaving medal in 1900.? He also donated money for the creation of two parks in Hilo on the big island, naming them Hoolulu and Mooheau.? Hawaiians enjoy Hawaiian words that have a surface meaning and a deeper meaning.? These were the native names of Henry and his brother, but they were also important ancestral family names of warriors who were important in Hawaii’s past.? Henry’s father wanted his son to join a masonic lodge. In 1903, the local lodge leader, Judge Hill after initiating Henry into the Masons said: “The lessons which our newly made brother this night received recalls to each one of us the tenants of our obligations. ?The beautiful story of Masonry can be read in every line of life.”? For Judge Hill the essence of Masonry teaches, “benevolence,” “love of truth” “broadmindedness” “to labor and appreciate labor’s rewards as well as the benefits and pleasures of refreshments” and of the need to plant “flowers and fruits of life in the garden of the soul” to “fill all nature with love and beauty.”

By 1903 Henry was making a name for himself as a sheep rancher, a “cracker jack broncobuster” and was winning local horse races.?? Henry continued to explore the erupting peaks of Hawaii’s volcanos.? He endured snow and frigid temperatures to develop a new trail to the top of Mauna Loa.? In 1905 he summited the peak of Mauna Kea.

In 1908 Henry married a fellow native Hawaiian, Mabel Woods, who ran the local post office in Kohala. They would have two children Mary in 1909 and Henry Jr. in 1911. Throughout her life, Henry's wife Mabel would be an important philanthropist, founding St. James Episcopal Church in Waimea Hawaii, and finding homes for orphaned children and animals with the Hawaii Humane Society.? She also introduced many Islanders who were not native, to Hawaii’s ancient traditions and foods as a way of preserving Hawaiian culture. Mabel's daughter Mary became Mrs. Mary May and her family continues to live on the Hawaiian Islands and preserve the family’s native Hawaiian traditions.??

While working on Hawaii’s ranches, Henry became interested in automobiles and tourists.? In 1909 he purchased one of Hawaii’s first automobiles, a five-passenger touring car called a Chalmers-Detroit.? Henry found roads and trails that would enable the car to take tourists to the tops of the volcanoes he loved to visit.? Working out of the Volcano House stables, he built new roads and public work projects to help make Hawaii Island more accessible to tourists. Working alongside renowned African American volcano guide Alec Lancaster, Henry learned how to handle all of the logistics for a tourist trip: food, transportation, and ways to safely get close to spraying lava fountains and creeping lava flows.?

Henry Beckley was a popular young man, and his road-building skills were being noticed.? In 1910 he joined the Republican party’s reform-minded leaders, and won elected office as a Hawaii County Supervisor.? In his new role, Henry managed the complex financial, legal, and political tasks of managing public work projects.? He built new roads and helped bring waterways to new parts of the island.?

Then in 1915, Henry’s world collapsed.? He became seriously ill and bedridden for over a year.? Unable to care for himself or his family, the Beckley were forced to leave Waimea and the island of Hawaii.? Henry’s mother was a trained nurse, she took Henry and his family into her home on Diamond Head in Honolulu Oahu and cared for her son.? Over the next year, Henry slowly recovered.?

In 1916 Queen Elisabeth of Belgium appealed for help.? Her people were being horribly treated by an invading German army. Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii could relate.? She had seen her lands invaded by the United States a few years earlier and she had lost her throne and her lands.? Despite her official status as an ex-queen, she still held considerable unofficial power within the Hawaiian Islands.? Queen Lili'uokalani asked Hawaiians to begin to make clothing and raise money for relief supplies to aid the people of Belgium.? This was a request that everyone on the Hawaiian Islands could get behind, including those who had supported the Queen and those who had removed her from power.? The Queen’s former palace was opened to volunteers to come and make clothing and local churches such as Honolulu’s Central Union Church, became knitting centers on the weekdays.? Surfer Duke Kahanamoku was photographed in the local newspaper on the beach, knitting clothing for the people of Belgium.

By 1917, the aid operation on the Hawaiian Islands had grown so large that the American Red Cross requested that Hawaii form its own chapter of the organization.? They reached out to the Wilder family, one of the most loyal supporters of Queen Lili'uokalani, to help found the organization.? In September Lillian Kimball Wilder was photographed presenting Queen Lili'uokalani with a card of thanks for her donation of $100 and for joining the Red Cross. The Queen made a Red Cross flag and presented it to the group and had the flag flown above her former palace, endorsing the new movement. It would be one of her last public activities before her death in November 1917.

?As a member of Hawaiian Royalty, Henry Beckley was asked to participate in a prominent way in the many ancient rituals at Queen Lili'uokalani’s funeral.? Like his Beckley cousins, he also desperately wanted to find a way to serve as a warrior or a volunteer in the World War that was enveloping the globe in 1917.? His cousin George Beckley managed to enlist in the British Army where he was awarded many times for bravery in combat.? His cousin Ben volunteered with the Canadian air force repairing air planes.? Henry figured that his auto repair experience would be of use, so he too traveled to Vancouver Canada and attempted to volunteer, but was turned down. ?At age forty-one, and having just recovered from a serious illness, he was unable to join the US military.?

As the United States entered into World War One, Lillian Wilder threw herself into raising funds to aid the refugees of the war. Her husband Gerrit Wilder, a botanist, became field director of the Hawaiian Red Cross chapter, aiding local National Guard soldiers stationed at nearby forts.? Likely through his connections to the Wilder family, Henry Beckley was able to join the American Red Cross.? By the spring of 1918 he was volunteering at the local National Guard camp Armstrong, helping new soldiers grow accustomed to Army life.? Finding work was a struggle, his life in politics seemed over.? The only job he could find was as an assistant printing clerk in the Hawaii Senate office building.

In the summer of 1918 Alfred Castle, one of Gerrit Wilder’s coworkers in Hawaii’s Red Cross, was summoned to Washington.?? He was informed that troops stationed in the Hawaiian Islands would soon be sent to Russia, to the region of Siberia. The purpose of the military operation was to provide medical support for the Czech troops attempting to evacuate Russia.? American soldiers would guard the trains and medical supplies while Red Cross doctors and nurses would aid sick and wounded Czech soldiers. Because most American Red Cross staff were already serving in war torn Europe, Alfred Castle was asked to recruit doctors, nurses, and other aid workers from the Hawaiian Islands to join the Red Cross and head to Siberia.?

Alfred Castle went right to work.? Rushing to Siberia he made a rapid assessment of the situation there.? He soon saw that not only was there a need to aid soldiers, but the Russian Revolution had begun and thousands of refugees from all over Russia were struggling to flee the fighting by heading into Siberia.? With the rest of America focused on helping the needy in Europe, Castle realized that Hawaii would have to somehow shoulder, for at least the first year of work, the immense burden of supplies and staff needed to help the Czech soldiers and the people of Russian Siberia.? Upon his return to Honolulu, that summer, Castle alerted his friend, newspaper editor Riley Allen that publicity would be crucial in building support for this massive new aid operation and to recruit Red Cross staff.? Allen immediately began to run articles in his newspaper the Honolulu Star-Bulletin with photos of Hawaii’s Red Cross nurses serving in Europe.? Other articles highlighted the upcoming operation in Siberia and the enormous need Alfred Castle uncovered there. Star-Bulletin reporters noted that this was Hawaii’s chance to spread its unique form of love, which native Hawaiians described as a caring spirit, something they called Aloha Nui, or great love, out to the world.

Henry Beckley saw joining this Siberian expedition as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.? Even though he was older than most of the Hawaiian volunteers going to Siberia, he was a smart choice for the Hawaiian Chapter of the Red Cross.? As the only native Hawaiian among the group of Red Cross workers, he would be seen as representing Hawaii’s native community.? As a member of Hawaiian Royalty, he could be counted on to make sure that Hawaiian donations of food, money, and supplies would not be wasted or stolen in Siberia.

Part Two: Henry Beckley Uses his Hawaiian cultural skills to rescue hundreds of lost children in Siberia