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Mary Pitman Ailau

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Mary Pitman Ailau
Born1838/March 1841
Hilo, Hawaiʻi, Kingdom of Hawaiʻi
Died(1905-02-11)February 11, 1905
Hilo, Hawaiʻi, Territory of Hawaiʻi
BurialFebruary 12, 1905
Homelani Cemetery, Hilo
SpouseJohn Keakaokalani Ailau
Names
Mary Ann Kinoʻole Kaʻaumokulani Pitman Ailau
FatherBenjamin Pitman
MotherKinoʻoleoliliha

Mary Ann Kinoʻole Kaʻaumokulani Pitman (1838/March 1841 – February 11, 1905), later Mrs. Mary Pitman Ailau, was a high chiefess of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, of part Native Hawaiian and American descent. She was raised and educated in Hilo and Honolulu and served as maid of honor and lady-in-waiting of Queen Emma, the wife of Kamehameha IV. In 1860–1861, she returned to the United States with her father and lived most of her adult life in New England before returning in 1881 to Hawaiʻi where she married musician John Keakaokalani Ailau, better known as Jack Ailau. In later life, she became invested in Hawaiian curio shops and many of her collections are preserved in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. She died childless in Hilo in 1905.

Early life and family

Portrait of Mary and her brother Henry at the Peabody Essex Museum

Born in Hilo, on the island of Hawaiʻi, she was the eldest child and only daughter of Benjamin Pitman and Kinoʻoleoliliha, a high chiefess of Hilo.[1][2] Her birth year has been given as 1838[1][3][4][5][6] or March 1841.[7] In the Hawaiian language, her name Kinoʻole means "thin" or "without body" while Liliha means "heartsick" or "rich, oily".[8][9]

Education and role in royal court

Mary Pitman around the time she was maid of honor to Queen Emma, c. 1856

She was also educated in private schools in Honolulu.[3]

In her youth, Mary was known as the "Belle of Hilo Bay".[10][11] She became a intimate friend of Emma Rooke, who became the queen of Kamehameha IV. Alongside Princess Victoria Kamāmalu and Lydia Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī (the future Queen Liliʻuokalani), she served as a maid of honor in the royal wedding of Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma on June 19, 1856.[12][13] She also served as one of the lady-in-waiting of the queen in the young court of the royal couple. Writing in 1910, historian Albert Pierce Taylor, who married Emma Ahuena Taylor, a relative of hers, noted "Miss Pittman [sic] was considered a very beautiful girl, her complexion being marvelously clear."[14]

Return to Boston

The Pitman traveled back to the United States with British traveler Sophia Cracroft and her aunt Lady Jane Franklin who was traveling around the world in search of her husband's lost expedition. Cracroft's letter indicated that the Pitman family left for San Francisco, on June 25, 1861, aboard the ship Comet with Cracroft and Lady Franklin and that the elder Pitman "now has a third wife with a baby [Charles Brook Pitman]."[15] Cracroft wrote down her impression of Mary: "Miss Pitman is very dark—i.e., her Hawaiian descent is perfectly evident, though she has much of the American character in feature."[16]

The family settled down in Massachusetts in the towns of Roxbury and Somerville.[17][18] Her siblings continued their education in their new home and Mary herself enrolled in a Boston area school where she finished her education.[5][19] Her brother Henry fought for the Union Army in the American Civil War from 1862 to 1863 and died after being released from Libby Prison.[17][20] The Pitman family lived in Germany for a period of time.[21] She was noted for her ability to swimming and attracted attention for her aquatic skills when she visited the New England coast.[4]

By 1875, Mary was living in New Bedford while her father and his third wife were still in Europe.[18] During the state visit of King Kalākaua to the United States, Mary Pitman called on the king when he visited New Bedford in January 1, 1875. She was escorted by the king at an afternoon dinner reception at the Parker House which was attended by 60 guests.[22] The following day, she paid a morning visit to the king at his hotel in Boston where she had breakfast with Kalākaua.[23] The Boston Daily Globe claimed "Miss Mary Pitman of New Bedford, who is of the blood royal, and who claims as good a right to the Hawaiian throne as the reigning monarch."[24] She and Kalākaua were distant cousins, both descending from High Chief Kameʻeiamoku.[25]

Return to Hawaii

Mary Pitman Ailau in later life

Mary Pitman returned to live in Hawaiʻi in 1881.[3] She married John Keakaokalani Ailau (1855–1894) around 1883. Better known as Jack Ailau, her husband was a newspaper printer, musician and member of the Hawaiian Quintet Club. They had no children although she had an adopted daughter.[7][4][5][6] He died of heart disease on January 17, 1894 while they were visiting San Francisco during the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894.[26][27]

Prior to the 1883 coronation of Kalākaua and Queen Kapiʻolani, Mary Pitman and Princess Poʻomaikelani, the queen’s sister, helped fashioned ʻahuʻula (feather cloaks) and kāhili (feather standards) for the ceremony. The two women used goose and duck feathers which were dyed in traditional colors of the extinct or endangered native birds originally used to fabricate the cloaks. Many of these pieces are now preserve in the Kalanianaʻole Collection at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.[28][29][7]

From her marriage to her final illness, Mary collected and sold goods and artifacts of Hawaiiana in curio stores in Honolulu and Hilo. At Hilo, she partnered with the “Victor girls” in a curio shop located on Pitman Street near the Hilo Hotel. Many of her wares and artifacts are now in the Bishop Museum.[7][3]

Mary died on February 11, 1905, at the home of Cecelia Neilson Arnold, the mother of future Honolulu mayor Charles N. Arnold. Her funeral was held the following afternoon at the Arnold residence and she was buried at the Homelani Cemetery in Hilo.[30] A memorial service was held at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Honolulu on February 24, 1905.[31]

In 1917, her younger brother Benjamin Keolaokalani Pitman and his wife Almira Hollander Pitman returned to Hawaiʻi for a visit. The Hawaiian press heavily covered the visit and the history of the family.[32] In one issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the newpspaer wrote: "Mrs. Allau was acknowledged to be one of the brightest women Hawaii has produced."[33]

Notes

References

  1. ^ a b Kai 1974, p. 64.
  2. ^ Pitman 1931, pp. 149–154.
  3. ^ a b c d Summers 1999, p. xii.
  4. ^ a b c The Hawaiian Star 1905.
  5. ^ a b c The Pacific Commercial Advertiser 1905a.
  6. ^ a b Paradise of the Pacific 1905.
  7. ^ a b c d Hilo Tribune 1905.
  8. ^ Pukui & Elbert 1986, pp. 153, 206.
  9. ^ Pukui, Elbert & Mookini 1974, pp. 112, 132.
  10. ^ Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1917a.
  11. ^ Pitman 1931, pp. 21.
  12. ^ Kuykendall 1953, pp. 78, 83–84.
  13. ^ Kanahele 1999, p. 68; Haley 2014, pp. 177, 190; Liliuokalani 1898, p. 12; Taylor 1922, p. 204
  14. ^ Taylor 1910.
  15. ^ Cracroft, Franklin & Queen Emma 1958, pp. 78–79, 172, 332.
  16. ^ Cracroft, Franklin & Queen Emma 1958, pp. 78–79.
  17. ^ a b Vance & Manning 2015, pp. 146–149.
  18. ^ a b The Boston Daily Globe 1875a; The Boston Daily Globe 1875b; Boston Post 1875
  19. ^ The Pacific Commercial Advertiser 1913.
  20. ^ Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1917c.
  21. ^ The Boston Daily Globe 1888.
  22. ^ Boston Post 1875.
  23. ^ The Boston Daily Globe 1875b.
  24. ^ The Boston Daily Globe 1875a.
  25. ^ The Junction City Weekly Union 1875.
  26. ^ Evening Bulletin 1894.
  27. ^ San Francisco Chronicle 1894.
  28. ^ Taylor 1935.
  29. ^ Peterson 1984, p. 370.
  30. ^ Hilo Tribune 1905; The Hawaiian Star 1905; The Pacific Commercial Advertiser 1905a; Paradise of the Pacific 1905; San Francisco Chronicle 1905; The Scranton Republican 1905
  31. ^ The Pacific Commercial Advertiser 1905b.
  32. ^ Cite error: The named reference Keolaokalani was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  33. ^ Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1917b.

Bibliography

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