Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani – A wayward Princess

Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani was likely born on 9 February 1826¹ as the daughter of High Chiefess Pauahi, a widow of King Kamehameha II, who was also her uncle.

Her mother married Mataio Kekuanaoa, and he recognised her as his daughter. Her father could have also been Kahalaia, who had comforted her during her husband’s absence. Tragically, Pauahi died of complications following a long and painful labour. Keʻelikōlani’s paternity and even her birthdate remain a question of debate. Keʻelikōlani herself celebrated her birthday on 9 February.

Keʻelikōlani’s father remarried the following year to another one of King Kamehameha II’s widows, Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, who was also the King’s half-sister. This marriage would produce three sons and a daughter before Kīnaʻu’s death in 1839. Keʻelikōlani was being raised in the house of Lilia Nāmāhāna under the guardianship of Queen Ka’ahumanu. The Queen died when Keʻelikōlani was six years old, and Keʻelikōlani went to live with her father and his second wife. Kīnaʻu treated Keʻelikōlani like one of her own children.

Shortly before her 16th birthday, Keʻelikōlani married William Pitt Leleiohoku I. He was the same age but had been married once before to Nāhiʻenaʻena. He had been only ten at the time. This time, it was a love match, and they went on to have two sons together: William Pitt Kīnaʻu and a son who died in infancy. Leleiohoku died in an epidemic of measles and dysentery at the age of just 22. Keʻelikōlani was heartbroken, but she inherited a lot of land from her husband. She also became the Governor of Hawai’i while raising her son. Tragedy would strike again in 1859 when Kīnaʻu died in an accident at the age of 16.

In 1856, Keʻelikōlani remarried to Isaac Young Davis, a grandson of Isaac Davis, who had been captured by King Kamehameha the Great in 1790. He was two years older than Keʻelikōlani and very tall. However, their marriage was soon unhappy. Their son, Keolaokalani Davis, was born in 1862 and was hānai (adopted) against his father’s wishes to Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Even her half-brother, the future King Kamehameha V, was against the adoption. He said, “You must go back and tell my sister that on no account is she to give that child to another. I am an adopted child myself, deprived of the love of my mother, and yet I was a stranger in the house of my adoption.”²

It was said that Isaac had hit Keʻelikōlani on the nose during a bad argument. The nose became badly infected, and even an operation could not stop it from disfiguring her. They separated after one year of marriage, although they clearly reunited at least once to conceive their son. They finally divorced in 1868. Their son died at the age of six months.

Keʻelikōlani hānai (adopted) William Pitt Kalahoʻolewa shortly after his birth and legally adopted him in 1862. He was the son of Analea Keohokālole and Caesar Kapaʻakea and a younger brother of Queen Liliʻuokalani and King Kalākaua. Keʻelikōlani renamed him Leleiohoku after her first husband and made him the legal heir to her estate. Despite Keʻelikōlani’s own unwillingness to speak English or convert to Christianity, her adopted son had a modern education. He became the heir to his childless brother but tragically died of pneumonia, which he had contracted while studying in California. He was still only 22 years old.

Keʻelikōlani was described by an English woman named Sophia Cracroft during a visit in 1861. She wrote, “She wore shoes and stockings but nothing on her head, her dark wavy hair being gathered up behind. She was of the usual dark brown complexion but certainly the ugliest as well as the fattest woman we have seen in the land. In general, they have good noses, but hers was quite the exception’ it looks as if the bridge and upper part of the nostrils must have been broken in, as all that part is literally even with her face. (Since writing the above we learn that she has an operation for disease in the nose, which is the cause of the deformity). As to size, she is perfectly enormous with fat and her gait is a mixture of waddle and stately swing remarkable to behold.”³ Twelve years later, another woman wrote, “Her size and appearance are most unfortunate, but she is said to be good and kind.”⁴

Keʻelikōlani was once considered a possible heir to the throne. Her half-brother, King Kamehameha V, died without naming an heir in 1872, but a few months later, Lunalilo, a grandnephew of King Kamehameha I, was elected as the new King. Perhaps they considered her unclear genealogy. During the election, U.S. Minister Henry A. Pierce wrote that Keʻelikōlani was “… a woman of no intelligence or ability.”⁵ Nevertheless, Keʻelikōlani inherited vast estates from her half-brother, which she managed until her death. The new King reigned for just over a year before dying of tuberculosis aggravated by alcoholism. He, too, left no children. King Kalākau, Keʻelikōlani’s adopted son’s half-brother, was chosen to succeed him.

After the death of her adopted son, Keʻelikōlani was heartbroken, and she became bitter. One of her bookkeepers later wrote, “The outstanding thing about Princess Ruth was her temper… it was something awful. She wouldn’t stop short of picking up a calabash and flinging it at her retainers. Her poor servants caught plenty of abuse when she took to one of her tantrums and got her hair in a snarl, which was often. I have seen her pick up a buggy-whip and give anyone within reach a cowhiding…”⁶

After losing so many loved ones, she threw herself into her business matters. Her tenure as governor had ended in 1874, but her vast estates were still in place to manage.

Perhaps one of the most famous acts in her life came in 1881 when the town of Hilo was being threatened by lava. A group of citizens came to Keʻelikōlani, asking her to intercede with Pele, the Goddess of Volcanoes. Keʻelikōlani headed their call and travelled to the edge of the lava on the night of 9 August 1881. The following morning, the flow of the lava had stopped. The people rejoiced, but the missionaries on the island attempted to attribute the miracle to Christian prayers and, so Keʻelikōlani’s story was largely suppressed.

By then, Keʻelikōlani was already in the twilight of her life. Shortly after her adventure at Hilo, she began building a magnificent palace, which was completed on her last birthday. She never got to enjoy it. Shortly after the completion, she travelled to Kailau for her health. At the Hulihe’e Palace, she took to her bed in a grass hut on the grounds. Many concerned Hawaiians came to visit her as she lay propped up on pillows. Her breathing became laboured as her fever rose. King Kalākau visited her on 23 May 1881, but he was assured that her illness was not serious.

Keʻelikōlani was close to her cousin, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, and she had rushed to Keʻelikōlani’s side to care for her. Keʻelikōlani knew she was dying and wrote her own farewell lament. Keʻelikōlani died at 9 in the morning on 24 May 1883 at the age of 57. She had altered her will in January, leaving the majority of her estate to Bernice. Keʻelikōlani’s funeral took place on 17 June. For many, Keʻelikōlani had been the last link to the old Hawaiian ways.

Bernice wrote shortly after Keʻelikōlani’s death, “It was not altogether unexpected but still it came like a shock to me, when it did come. I miss greatly, as a mother misses a child she has watched over, and cared for during illness. So have I missed mine, for she was like a child in many ways, so careless and wayward, and she was the last nearest relative I had…”⁷

1. Notable Women of Hawaii by Barbara Bennett Peterson p.324
2. Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani by Kristin Zambucka p.30
3. Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani by Kristin Zambucka p.27
4. Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani by Kristin Zambucka p.41
5. Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani by Kristin Zambucka p.38
6. Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani by Kristin Zambucka p.91
7. Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani by Kristin Zambucka p.89