Valdemar Emil Knudsen (August 5, 1819 – January 5, 1898) was a

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

pioneer on west

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Background

Valdemar Emil Knudsen was born in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

, in

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway up until 1 January 2020, when it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total population of Norway. I ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. He was college-trained in

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. Knudsen was successful both as a publisher in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and as a merchant during the

California gold rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

of the 1840s. He learned the languages of the local Indians and helped them with advice in legal matters. In November 1849, he was part of the

California Constitutional Convention The California Constitutional Conventions were two separate constitutional conventions that took place in California during the nineteenth century which led to the creation of the modern Constitution of California. The first, known as the 1849 ...

Career

Knudsen arrived in

Kekaha Kekaha (literally, "the place" in Hawaiian) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 3,715 at the 2020 census, up from 3,175 at the 2000 census. History For most of the 20th century, the Ke ...

in 1856. He managed the Grove Farm Plantation which was then owned by Hermann A. Widemann. The

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island ...

contracted with Knudsen for the removal of armaments from

Russian Fort Elizabeth Pā'ula'ula State Historical Park (Russian Fort Elizabeth) is a National Historic Landmark and is administered as the Pā'ula'ula State Historical Park just southeast of present-day Waimea on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. It is located at the si ...

, east of the town of Waimea. In a letter sent to

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, Knudsen listed an inventory of the guns at the fort following a survey made in 1862. Knudsen subsequently bought a 30-year lease on Hawaiian crown lands in the Waimea district where he established a ranch. He worked in partnership with ship captain Henrik Christian L’Orange (1843-1916) from

Halden Halden (), between 1665 and 1928 known as Fredrikshald, is both a town and a municipality in Viken county, Norway. The municipality borders Sarpsborg to the northwest, Rakkestad to the north and Aremark to the east, as well as the Swedish muni ...

. Using an old Hawaiian ditch at Waiele, Knudsen drained and reclaimed about on which he planted sugarcane in 1878. This cane, of the Lahaina variety, was the first commercially grown sugarcane in Kekaha. This plantation formed the basis of th
Kekaha Sugar Company
Knudsen's nephew, Hans Peter Faye, drew up much of the plantation's design. Kekaha Sugar was initially seen as a shaky investment with a need for great amounts of capital to build an infrastructure of canals, pumps, water systems and other facilities needed to overcome its inherent physical disadvantages. These pioneering years were rough ones for the growers who lacked an abundant water supply on Kauai. The plantation railroad was started in 1884. Mules pulled the cane cars until 1886, when they were replaced with German-built locomotives. Valdemar Knudsen forwarded birds to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

as early as 1866. Knudsen's efforts put Kauai ahead of the other Hawaiian islands in terms of

ornithological Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

knowledge for a time. He first collected the

Kauaʻi ʻakialoa The Kauai ʻakialoa (''Akialoa stejnegeri'') was a Hawaiian honeycreeper in the subfamily Carduelinae of the family Fringillidae. It was endemic to the island of Kauai, Hawaii. It became extinct in the 20th century due to introduced avian disea ...

(''Akialoa (ellisiana) stejnegeri'').

Leonhard Stejneger Leonhard Hess Stejneger (30 October 1851 – 28 February 1943) was a Norwegian-born American ornithologist, herpetologist and zoologist. Stejneger specialized in vertebrate natural history studies. He gained his greatest reputation with reptiles ...

first described the species from a specimen collected by Valdemar Knudsen. The

Hawaiian stilt The Hawaiian stilt (''Himantopus mexicanus knudseni'') is an endangered Hawaiian subspecies of the black-necked stilt (''H. mexicanus'') species. It is a long-legged, slender shorebird with a long, thin beak. Other common names include the Hawai ...

(''Himantopus mexicanus knudseni'') is named for him. Knudsen was appointed by the King

Kalākaua Kalākaua (David Laʻamea Kamananakapu Mahinulani Naloiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua; November 16, 1836 – January 20, 1891), sometimes called The Merrie Monarch, was the last king and penultimate monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Kin ...

to a seat in the House of Nobles. Knudsen turned down the seat but served as an elected representative of the people in 1860. His knowledge of law and the fact that he spoke the 3 Hawaiian languages fluently suited him for office. Knudsen also served as a member of the House of Representatives under the Monarchy and joined the Provisional Government after

Queen Liliuokalani Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mothe ...

was deposed in 1893.

Personal life

Valdemar Knudsen and family, Vienna, 1885

During February 1867, Knudsen married Anne McHutcheson Sinclair, with whom he had five children: Ida, Augustus, Maud, Eric and Arthur, born between 1868 and 1875. Following his death, there were claims of allegedly illegitimate children which resulted in failed attempts of taking over the Kekaha Sugar Company.''Kauai: The Separate Kingdom'' (Joesting, Edward. University of Hawaii Press: 1984
) Valdemar Knudsen was known to the Hawaiians as ''Kanuka''. In 1945, his son

Eric Alfred Knudsen Eric Alfred Knudsen (July 29, 1872 – February 12, 1957) was an American writer, folklorist, lawyer and politician who grew up and lived on Kauai, Hawaii. His father was Valdemar Knudsen, a west Kauai sugar plantation pioneer. He married ...

published ''Kanuka of Kauai'', a book on the life of his father, as well as the Hawaiian natives who befriended him.

References

Other sources

* Gripsland, Torbjorn (2004) ''Forgotten Norwegians in Hawaii'' (emgirantforlaget) *Knudsen, Eric A. and Gurre P. Noble (1945) ''Kanuka of Kaua‘i: The Story of a True Pioneer'' (Mutual Publishing) *Mills, Peter R. (2002) ''Hawaii's Russian Adventure: A New Look at Old History'' (University of Hawaii Press) *Moe, Jon (1975) ''Akamai: Sagaen om den norske utvandring til Hawaii'' (Gyldendal) * *Stejneger, Leonhard Hess (1887) ''Birds of Kauai Island, Hawaiian Archipelago collected by Mr. Valdemar Knudsen'' (Washington: Smithsonian Institution) *Wilcox, Carol (1998) ''Sugar Water'' (University of Hawaii Press)

External links

Valdemar Knudsen and Anne Sinclair Knudsen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knudsen, Valdemar 1819 births 1898 deaths People from Kristiansand Agriculture in Hawaii Businesspeople from Hawaii Norwegian emigrants to the United States Norwegian emigrants to the Hawaiian Kingdom Members of the Hawaiian Kingdom House of Representatives 19th-century American businesspeople