Anna Ranch

The historic district of Anna Ranch consists of 3.48 acres and is located on Kawaihae Road near the Wai'au'ia Stream, at the base of the Kohala Mountains. Anna Ranch is significant as an intact example of family ranch life and vernacular architecture in Waimea, on the Island of Hawaii. Anna Ranch is one of the earliest ranches founded in Hawai'i.

The history of Anna Ranch exemplifies the history and lifestyle of other small family ranches in Hawai'i and the importance of the Lindsey Family and Anna Lindsey Perry-Fiske in Waimea. Anna Lindsey Perry-Fiske was a unique woman in a male-dominated profession. She was a woman who worked and successfully operated the ranch, bringing innovations and new cattle breeds to Hawai'i and making significant contributions to her community. Her legacy and that of her family are being perpetuated, as set out in her trust, with the formation of "The Anna Ranch Heritage Center" in Waimea.

The house and the outbuildings have retained their integrity from the period of expansion that ended in the 1930s. The buildings convey their sense of the character of early to mid-twentieth-century vernacular ranch architecture. Typical of vernacular architecture of this time period is the use of single-wall construction, post, and pier foundations, elevating the structure above ground level, corrugated-metal roofs, wide overhanging eaves, and double-hung windows. The house, slaughterhouse, barns, and garage were an integral part of the ranch and still are today. The Anna Ranch still operates as a working ranch.

HISTORY OF RANCH

The history of ranching in Hawai'i started in 1793 when Captain George Vancouver introduced the first cattle to the islands. Kamehameha I, in an effort to increase the number of cattle in his kingdom, proclaimed a ten-year kapu (restriction) on the killing of cattle. The end of that kapu coincided with the introduction of horses in 1803 by Captain Richard Cleveland and then the influx of more horses in the 1820s (Bergin 2004:21-23). Hawaiians soon became adept riders but lacked the skills in cattle hunting on horseback. Therefore, early Western settlers in Hawai'i were contracted by Kamehameha III to hunt these wild cattle first for tallow and hides, and later for salt beef to supply visiting ships.

By the 1820s wild cattle were already becoming a huge problem for native Hawaiian horticultural practices. Reverend William Ellis (1926:382) passed through Waimea in 1823 and noted there were "immense herds" in the region that were destroying Hawaiian farming and native forests.

Although the decimation of native forests led to erosion and the introduction of alien plant species to the fragile ecosystem of Hawai'i, it also made way for the budding cattle industry as pasture lands were increased. The cool climate of Waimea was conducive to cattle ranching and as the land was cleared small private herds of domesticated cattle were kept. However, even by 1851, the island of Hawai'i was estimated to have 12,000 wild cattle and only 8,000 domesticated ones (Henke 1929:23) and something had to be done to control the wild population.

To help control the problem of wild cattle, Spanish vaqueros were brought from California to the Island of Hawai'i in the early 1830s by Kamehameha III to teach Hawaiians how to hunt cattle (Bergin 2004:33-34). Those vaqueros would later be called in Hawaiian "paniolos" by the local population. The paniolos introduced the Mexican saddle and oxen cart, leggings, bits, jingle spurs, and braided leather rope. Their techniques and innovations revolutionized cattle procurement and laid the foundation for the beginnings of the ranching industry on Hawai'i Island.

Early Westerners living in the Waimea region like John Palmer Parker, W.W. Harry Purdy, William French, James Fay, and William Hughes worked as bullock hunters or exporters of hides and tallow for the Governor of the Island, Kuakini, and some kept small herds of domesticated cattle. Of these men, John Parker would become the most famous for forming the Parker Ranch, still in existence today and one of the largest ranches in the United States. Others started and developed significant ranches as well and the ownership of these ranches would pass in families from generation to generation. One such ranch was the Lindsey Ranch, now known as Anna Ranch, in Waimea, Hawai'i.

The social history of Anna Ranch begins with Anna Leialoha Lindsey Perry-Fiske's great-grandparents, James Fay and Ka'ipukai'ikapuokamehameha Kahahana (hereafter referred to as Ka'ipukai). The legacy of James Fay in the history of Waimea is a significant one. Exactly when and under what circumstances James Fay arrived in Hawai'i from England is not clear. As most sources place his marriage to Ka'ipukai around 1828 (Duey and Duey 1985:1) or 1830 (Bergin 2004:42), the late 1820s is probably an accurate assessment of his arrival in Hawai'i. It is further speculated that since Ka'ipukai was of ali'i (chiefly) blood from the island of O'ahu, Fay first landed on that island.

It was James Fay who first acquired the land parcel known as Keanu'i'omano (L.C. Aw. 589 Apana 2), where the Anna Ranch house and outbuildings now sit between Wai'au'ia Stream (also known as Kohäköuhau and Keanu'i'omano Stream) and Kawaihae Road. This property is located in Waimea, in the district of South Kohala on the island of Hawai'i.

By 1835 James Fay and Ka'ipukai were living in the Waimea area on the island of Hawai'i because he testified in land documents that Governor Kuakini gave him a small piece of land "on the edge of the gulch called Waikoloa" in that year. This gift of land was for services rendered to the Governor. The Foreign Testimony also states that in 1839 Governor Kuakini gave Fay the 'ili (land division) of Wai'au'ia "for services rendered him in the care of his cattle and the management of his general business (vol. 2 pg. 147)" Wai'au'ia is one of two `ili that makes up part of the current acreage of Anna Ranch. The name Wai'au'ia means "diverted water" in Hawaiian and probably refers to the ancient 'auwai (irrigation system) that can still be seen today on the `ili.

The seven-acre parcel of Keanu'ï'omano, meaning "the coldness of the shark flesh," was acquired by James Fay, or Kimofe as he is called in the testimony, in 1848. According to the Native Testimony records (vol. 4 pg. 47) in the Hawai'i State Archives, a man named Mokuhia sold the parcel to Fay for $100.00. From the testimony, it is also clear that James Fay was already residing on the property. According to Mokuhia he "had two old houses in this lot at the time Kimofe had acquired it and six additional houses were built by him [Fay]. It had a fence which I started and Kimofe had completed."

The "fences" mentioned in the above testimony, refer to the dry-laid stone wall enclosure that surrounds the property which appears on early maps. Because of wild cattle over-running the gardens and house sites in Waimea during the 1820s through 1850s, many such walls were built to keep cattle out, not in. Although subsequent walls were built for interior corrals, most of the old stone wall is still in existence.

On October 1, 1850, James Fay was also awarded 180 acres of land in an area called Hanaipoe in the district of Hamakua where he built a sawmill. A working partnership between Parker and Fay would be forged and Fay's descendants, many of whom were noted cowboys, would contribute significantly to the building and success of Parker Ranch. Fay's mill provided koa (Acacia koa) lumber for some of the old buildings in Waimea and several of these still stand and are on the National Register and/or State Register of Historic Places. These structures include Imiola Church, the original Mänä house of John Parker, and parts of the Frank Spencer house and the Parker Ranch manager's house.2 James Fay also continued his business of exporting bullock hides and tallows that he had started earlier under Governor Kuakini. By at least 1854, as noted in the journal of George Washington Bates, Fay did have his main residence at Hanaipoe.

While living at Hanaipoe, James Fay built a trail between his house and John Parker's Mana family complex (Wellmon 1969:77). He transported lumber and hides to the harbor of Kawaihae and brought back salt processed at the seaside in his bullock carts (ibid.). Fay's carts were based on the Mexican carts introduced by the paniolo. The main route of commerce between Parker and Fay's businesses in the areas of Mänä and Hanaipoe would come through the present town of Waimea, pass in front of the Anna Ranch site, and then on to Kawaihae Harbor. The trip from the town of Waimea to Kawaihae took five hours and it was a much greater distance to Hanaipoe.

It was noted in an account by S.S. Hill in 1853 that Fay kept a residence at the Anna Ranch site and he described visiting him in Waimea. Whereas John Parker would make his fortune in cattle ranching, it is clear from Hill's journal that Fay was one of the earliest sheep ranchers on the Island of Hawaii.

The union of James and Ka'ipukai Fay produced one child, a daughter, named Mary Ka'ala Fay in 1830. At sixteen she defied her parents and married a British seaman named Thomas John Weston Lindsey. They lived on the family property in Waimea and had a son, William Miller Seymour Lindsey. Thomas, who was still in the British Navy, was shipped out to China in 1848 as Master of the ship Amelia. While in China, Thomas died of unknown causes (letter from the British Consulate at Canton, June 28, 1849). Five years later his brother, George Kynaston Lindsey, made his way to Hawai'i from Britain and married the widow of Thomas. Between these two marriages, Mary "cohabitated" with an unidentified man and produced a son John Lindsey (1872 contested estate document). Mary's second marriage produced ten children, giving her a total of twelve children.

A year before James Fay died in 1858, he sold the 'ili of Keanu'i'omano, where the Anna Ranch house is situated, to his son-in-law, George Kynaston Lindsey for $300.00. The rest of Fay's property and personal possessions were willed to his daughter, Mary, with provisions for the care of his wife Ka'ipukai. From the accounting of Fay's estate, it is clear that he owned a significant number of sheep, cattle and horses in addition to his lumber business so it can be said that the beginning of ranching in this family line started with James Fay (Estate of James Fay, May 16, 1860). The exact acreage owned by Fay at his death is difficult to determine, but it appears to be in the neighborhood of a thousand acres.

Family lore states that George Kynaston Lindsey was an early judge in the Waimea area and an amateur painter who delighted in producing portraits of his wife and children. Through the deeds and leases in the Anna Ranch archives, it is obvious that he and Mary were active in accumulating additional lands and running the ranch.

Before his death in 1872, George Lindsey bequeathed his estate to his wife, and prior to her death in 1886, Mary bequeathed her property in equal shares to her children, including the child she had from her first marriage and her illegitimate child, John. Thomas Weston Lindsey, who was named after his deceased uncle, was the oldest son of Mary and George and shortly after his mother's death, he began buying his siblings' share of the estate until he amassed significant land holdings including the ili of Keanu'i'omano and Wai'au'ia. By 1888 when Paul Jarrett took over the management of Parker Ranch, Thomas was considered one of the best cowboys on the island (Wellmon 1969:148). Thomas was made the cowboy foreman for Parker Ranch in the 1880s and 90's and he resided at Keanu'ï'omanö so that he could be in close proximity to the ranch manager who lived at the property next door.

There is a contradiction in historical sources as to exactly where on the 'ili of Keanu'ï'omano Thomas Weston Lindsey lived. Tabrah (1987:6-7) says that Thomas and his family lived in a koa wood house where the Anthony Smart house now sits on the Kawaihae side of the Lindsey family cemetery. According to Wellmon "They lived on the grounds where Anna Lindsey's house is today and Jarrett lived where A.W. Carter built the modern ranch manager's house..." It may be that Thomas Lindsey did have a house on the site where the Anna Ranch house is today and then moved to another location to let William and Mary Rose Lindsey live there. According to Anna's biographer, her older brother, Bill, "was born in the small cottage which, in later years, was remodeled and extended to its present size [meaning the current Anna Ranch house] (Tabrah 1987:10)." This may have originally been Anna's grandfather Thomas' house.

Thomas Lindsey's 1875 marriage to Beke Fredenberg, a part-Hawaiian, woman from a prominent ali'i (chiefly) line of Maui, produced eight children. He kept a small herd of horses and cattle but continued to work for Parker Ranch until he retired in 1903 and was replaced as cowboy foreman by his nephew, John "Keoni Li'ili'i" Lindsey (Welmon 1970:190). Beke preceded her husband in death and prior to Thomas' death in 1912, he bequeathed all his property to his eight children in equal shares.

The eldest of the children of Beke and Thomas Lindsey was William Miller Seymour Lindsey who was named after his great step-uncle. William followed the example of his father and brought out the shares in land owned by his siblings. In 1896 he married a half-Hawaiian woman from Hilo named Mary Leialoha Rose.

Mary Leialoha Rose was the seventh child of Kanaina and William Rose and had been a school teacher prior to marrying William Lindsey and moving to Waimea. The Lindseys had three children; William Jr., or Bill as he was called, born in 1898, Anna Leialoha born in 1900, and Charles Kalanialii born in 1902. Although William was primarily a cattle rancher he was also a prominent Waimea citizen who served as Deputy Sheriff, Special Land Agent for the Territory, Attorney-at-law, District Magistrate, Notary Public and Forest Ranger (certificates in Anna Ranch Archives). When Parker Ranch manager A.W. Carter had to leave the Territory on business in 1918 it was William Lindsey to whom he gave Power of Attorney over ranch matters.

Whereas William Lindsey's father had devoted his life to Parker Ranch, William built up his own stock to develop a formidable ranching operation. The three Lindsey children were all involved in ranching activities regardless of gender. From an early age, Anna Lindsey loved to ride, rope, help mend fences and set fence posts alongside her father and brothers (Tabrah 1987:12-13). She was also trained early on by her mother to be an accomplished homemaker and a socially adept hostess. Both sets of skills would serve Anna well when she later ran the ranch and charity events.

As a young girl, Anna was sent away for her formal education. First, she was sent as a boarding student to Kohala Girls School far from her family ranch. She was then sent to Sacred Hearts Academy in Honolulu on Oahu. While at Sacred Hearts, Anna befriended a Maui girl named Lucy Searle. It was through Lucy that Anna came to meet Queen Lili'uokalani, the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands whose kingdom had been deposed in a coup in 1893. Anna was about twelve when she and Lucy were invited to spend some weekends at the Queen's Washington Place residence. When the Queen died in 1917, Anna was attending St. Andrew's Priory and she was asked to sing in the choir for the Queen's funeral (ibid.30).

At the age of nineteen, Anna married Henry Lai Hipp of Hilo. Henry had been appointed to a judgeship known as the District Court Practitioner for Ola'a near Hilo and later in 1935 won a seat in the Territorial House of Representatives (ibid.51). During her twenty-year marriage to Henry Lai Hipp in Hilo, Anna was particularly active in community beautification projects. She served as a park commissioner for Hawai'i County from 1933-1939 and was an active member of the Hilo Women's Club Outdoor Circle where she served as its chairwoman for eight years (ibid.52-53). Two significant projects Anna took part in were the tree-planting project along Banyan Drive in Hilo and the beautification of the Akaka Falls area."

Anna would return to Waimea often to visit her family and to help with brandings and other ranching activities. She also kept up with her equestrian activities. Anna started and ran Lai Hipp Stables at Ho'olulu Park in Hilo where she charged a dollar per hour for riding lessons (ibid. 41). Through the 1920s and 1930s, Anna trained her own race horses and was one of the few female jockeys in Hawai'i at that time. She won many races and even if she was not in the race herself the horses she trained took top honors.

Anna's mother, Mary Rose, was a noted pä'ü rider and following in her footsteps Anna was a featured pä'ü rider in parades in Hilo from at least the age of fourteen. A list of some of the parades she appeared in regionally, nationally and internationally will appear at the end of this essay. In 1939 while her father was ailing, Anna separated from Henry Lai Hipp to return home to care for her parents. Her father died that year and Anna divorced Henry and took over the running of the ranch. After a court battle over the estate with her older brother, Bill, the judge ruled that Mary Rose Lindsey would be administratrix of her husband's estate and that Anna would be ranch manager. Anna's brother, Charles, had a tragic life and was not alive when this court battle occurred and died at a leprosy colony at Kalaupapa, Molokai in 1934.

When Anna took over the running of the ranch she had no idea that during her father's long illness, the ranch was on the verge of bankruptcy. Mary Rose Lindsey died in 1940 leaving Anna in complete control of the ranch. She was then faced with making the ranch a viable enterprise alone. This Anna did by taking out a loan from Parker Ranch at the suggestion of the then ranch manager A.W. Carter (Tabrah 1987:64). Through the sale of properties she owned in Hilo, some smart investments, and by doing most of the ranch work herself, she was able to save the ranch and pay off the Parker Ranch loan in the allotted time.

In 1941, the year after her mother died, Anna changed the name of the ranch from Lindsey Ranch to Anna Ranch. Anna Lindsey truly was a "cowboy" as she worked six days a week riding the range, mending fences, branding cattle, and buying stock from nearby ranches. She only occasionally hired other cowboys, mainly from Parker Ranch, when she needed help with branding or moving cattle. In the 1950s, Anna did hire a full-time ranch hand, William "Bull" Awa'a, who was a returning Korean War veteran. But it was Anna who would select the cattle to be slaughtered and when she felt that the local butcher was charging too much, she slaughtered her own beef, driving the carcasses to the Hilo Meat Market herself which in those days was a five-hour trip each way. During World War II, Anna was one of the first women in Hawai'i to get her butcher's license.

World War II brought about many changes to Waimea. In 1942, Camp Tarawa was established on Parker Ranch land. At the height of the camp 40,000 men lived in tents and Quonset huts at Parker Ranch.

There are numerous documents and photographs in the Anna Ranch Archives that speak to the war years in Waimea. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, martial law was declared in Hawai'i (Rankin 1943:270). In 1945, Anna wrote to the Central Pacific Base Command complaining of the marines damaging the stone wall cattle pens and the fact that this led to her cattle running loose.

The armed forces did provide a ready market for food production and sales. Crops normally grown in Waimea that appealed to local tastes like daikon, gobo, and Chinese cabbage were shifted to growing cabbage, lettuce, and celery for the military (Wakayama interview with Izumi, August 25, 1983). Anna, who supplied beef to the Hilo Hotel, was informed by her attorney that under Hawai'i Defense Act Rule No. 138, she could only sell 20% of her meat to purveyors and 80% had to go to consumers (letter from Pence to Anna June 26, 1945).

During the war, Anna did her patriotic duty by entertaining the officers and nurses from Camp Tarawa at the ranch. Many photographs of these events exist in the Anna Ranch Archives. These photographs have proven valuable to the archeologists currently excavating Camp Tarawa.

In 1943 Anna Lindsey would marry James Lyman Perry-Fiske. Lyman, also part Hawaiian, had been born and raised in North Kohala. He was also a keen horseman who loved the outdoors.

Anna earned another award in 1975, from the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs. The award was a gold medallion embossed with the seal of Hawai'i and was based on Anna's dedication to ranching and her Hawaiian heritage. They honored her "as a descendant of those Hawaiian people who have their roots deep in the ranch country of Waimea" and as "an outstanding Hawaiian for her contribution to the well-being of all people of Hawai'i."

As soon as Anna became financially secure she turned her energy to humanitarian causes. Probably the charity events she was most noted for were the pageants "Old Hawai'i on Horseback" that she ran from 1964-1983 and her scholarship fundraising for Hawai'i Preparatory Academy. "Old Hawai'i on Horseback" was a lucrative fundraiser for the American Heart Association and for several years running Anna raised more money for the association than any other single individual in the United States. The pageant also brought the community together as cast members were local cowboys and other Hawai'i Island residents. For her efforts, the American Heart Association presented her with three distinguished service medallions, the highest award accorded to a volunteer. In 1978, Congressman Daniel Akaka honored Anna on the floor of Congress for her fundraising efforts (Congressional Record February 2, 1978).

Anna Lindsey Perry-Fiske was on the Board of Governors for Hawai'i Preparatory Academy since its inception in 1945 and continued to serve on its board until a few years prior to her 1995 death. 11 In 1973, when the need for funds for student scholarships became an issue, Anna was approached by the head of the endowment fund, Bernard Nogues. Nogues and Anna organized an auction and solicited contributions from the community. During subsequent auctions, significant monies were raised to assist students who might otherwise not be able to afford the tuition. To acknowledge Anna for her dedication to the school, in 1984 the Board of Governors passed a resolution honoring her "for her long-time support of the school and her belief in the school's mission and purpose." The board also renamed the girl's dormitory which had been simply known as "Upper Dorm" to the "Anna Lindsey Perry-Fiske Hall" and a plaque with her name on it now marks the dormitory.

In addition to the above-mentioned fundraising efforts, Anna also supported Easter Seals and donated her own money to help build an emergency room at the Lucy Henriques Medical Center in Waimea (Stephl March 25, 1990).

Anna championed many causes but one near to her heart was retaining the place name of "Waimea." In 1900 when Hawai'i became a Territory of the United States it was decided to rename the post office in Waimea "Kamuela" to distinguish it from two other Waimeas on O'ahu and Kauai. Kamuela, which means "Samuel" in Hawaiian was given to the town in honor of Samuel Parker who was a noted community member. However, not just the post office but the whole town was called Kamuela. Anna wrote to the Hawai'i State Board of Geographic Names, the Mayor of Hawai'i County, and Hawai'i County Supervisors fighting to retain the name Waimea. In 1967 she won her battle and today Kamuela only refers to the post office and the town has retained the name Waimea.

The legacy of Anna Lindsey Perry-Fiske and that of her family is being perpetuated, as set out in her trust, with the formation of The Anna Ranch Heritage Center in Waimea.