Oahu Cemetery

The Oʻahu Cemetery is the resting place of many notable early residents of the Honolulu area. They range from missionaries and politicians to sports pioneers and philosophers. Over time it was expanded to become an area known as the Nuʻuanu Cemetery.

History

It was the first public cemetery in Honolulu, founded in November 1844. Due to the growth in the whaling industry, discussion had started in 1836 on the need for a new burial ground that was not associated with a specific church. The 4.38 acres (1.77 ha) site was purchased for $300 and $350 granted for a house. The money was raised by selling subscriptions on 59 plots of $12 each. Later another 3 acres (12,000 m²) were purchased from Gerrit P. Judd to expand in 1860. Rev. Samuel C. Damon served on the cemetery association in the early days. The first recorded burial was American sailor H. Wolley, for $2.50.

In 1906, the first public crematory in the Hawaiian Islands, designed by architect Oliver G. Traphagen opened at the cemetery.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, all paper currency on the islands was withdrawn and replaced with Hawaii overprint notes, in case the Japanese invaded. Faced with the task of quickly destroying $200 million of cash, the crematory at the cemetery was used to burn it, instead of risking transport to the mainland. However, progress was too slow, so the larger furnace at the Aiea sugar mill was also used.

An area called the Seamen's Lot contains many unmarked graves for sailors, provided by the Honolulu Sailor's Home. Another plot is dedicated to firefighters, marked by a monument 15 feet (4.6 m) high. Two dozen were killed by strafing in the December 7, 1941 attack.

Oʻahu Cemetery is located at 2162 Nuʻuanu Avenue, at the base of the Nuʻuanu Valley at coordinates 21°19′27″N 157°51′1″W. In 1863 King Kamehameha IV built the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii across the street for the Hawaiian royal family. In Punchbowl Crater (to the south) the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific was founded in 1948. Just north of the Royal Mausoleum, the "Nuʻuanu Memorial Park" was added in 1949, with its own funeral home. In 1958 a Japanese cemetery was added on adjacent land called "Honolulu Memorial Park". In 1964, two Columbaria (buildings to store cremated remains) called the Kyoto Gardens were constructed.

One of the buildings is a replica of a Buddhist temple. They are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Strictly speaking, the original 1844 cemetery is called "Oʻahu Cemetery", although the extended area is often called "Nuʻuanu Cemetery" after the area.

In 1989 a funeral for Ferdinand Marcos was planned at the mortuary, but instead the body was kept refrigerated at the Byodo-In Temple until it was flown back to the Philippines in 1993.

Notable burials

Captain Alexander Adams (1780–1871), Scottish sea captain
R. Alexander Anderson (1894–1995), composer
Lorrin Andrews (1795–1868), missionary, publisher, judge
Andrew Auld (1799–1873), Scottish shipbuilder
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987), philosopher
George R. Carter (1866–1933), Territorial Governor
Alexander Cartwright (1820–1892), baseball pioneer
John F. Colburn (1859–1920), businessman and politician
William H. Cornwell (1843–1903), politician
Samuel C. Damon (1815–1885), missionary
Benjamin Dillingham (1844–1918), industrialist
Mary Jones Dominis (1803–1889) mother of Prince Consort John Owen Dominis
Wilhelmine Kekelaokalaninui Widemann Dowsett (1861–1929), founder of the National Women's Equal Suffrage Association of Hawai'i, the first Hawaiian suffrage organization
Kenneth Emory (1897–1992), anthropologist
Jean Erdman (1916–2020), dancer and choreographer
Elizabeth P. Farrington (1898–1984), legislator
Joseph Rider Farrington (1897–1954), publisher
Wallace Rider Farrington (1871–1933), 6th Territorial Governor (1920–28)
Grace Crosby Hamman (1899–1983), director of services to the blind in Hawaii, 1935–1955
Victor S. K. Houston (1876–1959), naval officer, congressional delegate
John Papa ʻĪʻī (1800–1870), educator, jurist
Gerrit P. Judd (1803–1873), missionary physician, diplomat
Lawrence M. Judd (1887–1968), Territorial Governor
Elizabeth Kahanu Kalanianaʻole (1879–1932), Hawaiian princess by marriage
Stanley Kennedy Sr. (1890–1968), Founder of Hawaiian Airlines
Oren E. Long (1889–1965), Governor, Senator
J. R. Kealoha (d. 1877), a Native Hawaiian veteran of the Civil War
Lincoln Loy McCandless (1859–1940), industrialist, congressional delegate
Bina Mossman (1893–1990), entertainer, musical protegee of Queen Liliʻuokalani, political office holder
Paul Neumann (c. 1839–1901), royal lawyer and attorney general
Arthur P. Peterson (1858–1895), lawyer and politician
Joseph Rock (1884–1962), explorer
Martha Root (1872–1939), Bahá'í teacher
Ingram Stainback (1883–1961), Territorial Governor
Lorrin A. Thurston (1858–1931), businessman, politician
Jules Tavernier (1844–1889), painter
Horace Worth Vaughan (1867–1922), Texas politician, Hawai'i judge
Four British Royal Navy personnel of World War II.