Names and Connections and Sometimes Photos
Cover Image: Detail of the masthead of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa published on March 29, 1923.
Aloha Nūhou Monday!
Dear Reader, these days there is a lot of genealogical information online—some can only be accessed for a fee, while a few sources are available at no cost. The Hawaiian language newspapers can be freely searched online, and are filled with all kinds of information (with genealogies being just one of them). However, the variety of names and aliases that people were known by can pose a challenge for family looking for information on kūpuna, and even for experienced researchers.
Zachariah Kapule, a clarinet player in the Royal Hawaiian Band for 36 years, was variously known as Zakalia, Zakaria, and it seems Zerubabela as well. Death announcements are a good place to find genealogical information. After 1900, there is sometimes even a photograph attached to the announcement! Here is a death announcement for Zachariah Kapule [Zakaria Kapule] along with a photograph found in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa on March, 29, 1923. It was submitted by his wife, Kane Hanawahine Kapule.
The article reads:
Zachariah Kapule, My Dearly Beloved Husband, Has Passed On.
My dear Solomon Hanohano, Editor of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Aloha to you:–Please allow me some space in your pride for my parcel of tears that appears above, and make it known to the four corners of our beloved land, so that the many friends and companions of my dearly beloved who live from Hawaiʻi until Niʻihau will see that Mr. Zakalia Kapule has gone to the other side of life; alas for my dear husband!
Without any notice that the angel of destruction would appear at our door, and at 10:00 o’clock p. m. on Thursday, Mar. 22, last week, Mr. Z. Kapule, my dearly beloved, my husband left me his wife, family, and many friends who grieve for him with minds heavy and sad. Alas for me!
My dear husband, Mr. Z. Kapule, was born in Kailua, North Kona, Hawaiʻi, the island of Keawe, in the month of February, 1853, and when he left me and our family and our friends, he had spent some 70 years breathing in the cool air of this world of hardships.
In his young days, he was educated at the Hawaiian school where he was born, and when he grew older, he moved here to Honolulu and was educated at the Catholic school of ʻĀhuimanu, over there at Koʻolau. He returned to here to Honolulu after graduating.
While here in Honolulu, he joined the Royal Hawaiian Band, during the reign of King Kalākaua, and it was in that employ that he remained until he was released from long service in the Band, and received a pension from the City and County of Honolulu.
He was a husband who loved his wife and cared for her without complaint. He was full of kindness and was welcoming to his friends and all who visited our home, and at his passing, he has left a heavy burden for me, his wife, to carry after him, that being grief in aloha. He a husband for me and I, a wife for him in the covenant of marriage.
And like the words of the Great Book, a man’s life is like vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away; and for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, but more than those previous revelations of our loving Heavenly Father, I hold close the words of Rev. Samuel K. Kamaiopili, the one who joined us in marriage, “You two take each other in holy matrimony, and what the Almighty God joins together, it is only death that will separate the two of you. All that was foretold came to be.
From me and the family, we extend our boundless thanks to the officers and members of the Hui Poʻe ʻImi Pōmaikaʻi, for their loving assistance afforded me by them for my beloved, my husband; and their standing in vigil by the side of companion who has gone afar. So too I extend my thanks to the friends of my dear husband in the band and the many friends who helped to lift my agony. To all of you goes my sincere appreciation from my heart for your gifts of flowers for my beloved and for coming along on his last journey to the Catholic cemetery at Kōʻula.
With a heavy mind,
Mrs. Kane Z. Kapule,
and Family.
Kawaiahaʻo and Cummins Streets, Kewalo, Honolulu. Mar. 26, 1923.
(Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, March 29, 1923, p. 4)
The article reads:
Zachariah Kapule, My Dearly Beloved Husband, Has Passed On.
My dear Solomon Hanohano, Editor of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Aloha to you:–Please allow me some space in your pride for my parcel of tears that appears above, and make it known to the four corners of our beloved land, so that the many friends and companions of my dearly beloved who live from Hawaiʻi until Niʻihau will see that Mr. Zakalia Kapule has gone to the other side of life; alas for my dear husband!
Without any notice that the angel of destruction would appear at our door, and at 10:00 o’clock p. m. on Thursday, Mar. 22, last week, Mr. Z. Kapule, my dearly beloved, my husband left me his wife, family, and many friends who grieve for him with minds heavy and sad. Alas for me!
My dear husband, Mr. Z. Kapule, was born in Kailua, North Kona, Hawaiʻi, the island of Keawe, in the month of February, 1853, and when he left me and our family and our friends, he had spent some 70 years breathing in the cool air of this world of hardships.
In his young days, he was educated at the Hawaiian school where he was born, and when he grew older, he moved here to Honolulu and was educated at the Catholic school of ʻĀhuimanu, over there at Koʻolau. He returned to here to Honolulu after graduating.
While here in Honolulu, he joined the Royal Hawaiian Band, during the reign of King Kalākaua, and it was in that employ that he remained until he was released from long service in the Band, and received a pension from the City and County of Honolulu.
He was a husband who loved his wife and cared for her without complaint. He was full of kindness and was welcoming to his friends and all who visited our home, and at his passing, he has left a heavy burden for me, his wife, to carry after him, that being grief in aloha. He a husband for me and I, a wife for him in the covenant of marriage.
And like the words of the Great Book, a man’s life is like vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away; and for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, but more than those previous revelations of our loving Heavenly Father, I hold close the words of Rev. Samuel K. Kamaiopili, the one who joined us in marriage, “You two take each other in holy matrimony, and what the Almighty God joins together, it is only death that will separate the two of you. All that was foretold came to be.
From me and the family, we extend our boundless thanks to the officers and members of the Hui Poʻe ʻImi Pōmaikaʻi, for their loving assistance afforded me by them for my beloved, my husband; and their standing in vigil by the side of companion who has gone afar. So too I extend my thanks to the friends of my dear husband in the band and the many friends who helped to lift my agony. To all of you goes my sincere appreciation from my heart for your gifts of flowers for my beloved and for coming along on his last journey to the Catholic cemetery at Kōʻula.
With a heavy mind,
Mrs. Kane Z. Kapule,
and Family.
Kawaiahaʻo and Cummins Streets, Kewalo, Honolulu. Mar. 26, 1923.
(Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, March 29, 1923, p. 4)
Kapule’s obituary published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on March 24, 1923 gives his name as Zerubabela Kapule. He is also referred to as Zerubabela [Zerubbabel] on a number of occassions. The many ways in which people were referred to in Hawaiʻi past is complicated and often confusing. Look for more posts on the subject in the future.
Before I end this post, there is a related online resource found on OHA’s Papakilo Database that I wanted to touch on: the Sullivan Collection in Bishop Museum Library & Archives. The collection consists of photos taken of Hawaiians across the archipelago by anthropologist Louis R. Sullivan between 1920 and 1921. Within it I found two images of Zachariah Kapule (listed this time as Zacariah Kapule). There is an exhibit running now until October 24, 2021 at Bishop Museum speaking about the complex history of these images, and how they have been given a new and positive life today. For more information on (Re)Generations: Challenging Scientific Racism in Hawaiʻi, see: bishopmuseum.org/regenerations/
—Post by Bishop Museum Library & Archives Staff
Image: Zachariah Kapule, clarinet player for the Royal Hawaiian Band; Oʻahu. Photo by Louis R. Sullivan, 1920–1921. Bishop Museum Archives. SP 6424.
Image sharing on social media is welcome, however out of respect for those pictured and their living descendants we do ask that you share not only their images but their names and stories as well. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
Image: Kōʻula Cemetery, more commonly known as the King Street Cemetery, the last resting place of Zachariah Kapule. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, 2021.
