Bernice
Pauahi Bishop Estates is a well known estate. It is an estate that was left
behind for the boys and girls of Hawaiian ancestry. Bernice Pauahi Bishop was
a princess that had never ruled she is a part of the Kamehameha legacy. Pauahi
had a passion and her passion was children. She had loved to service the people.On December 19, 1831 in Honolulu a princess was born her parents had named Bernice Pauahi Pākī. Her name came from her aunt who was named Pauahi.² She was a part of royalty she was a part of the Kamehameha legacy.¹ Pauahi was sent to the chiefs’’ children school which was the royal school.¹ For the next ten years should be away from her family and to boarding school she would be sent. This was a critical period in her life because she was going to be away from her family.¹ Here at the royal school Pauahi would learn a new language, develop her intellectual and aesthetic capacities, make new friends, strengthen her faith, acquire new attitudes and values, and discard some of the old.¹ When Kamehameha the III was in reign he wanted all royalty to go to the royal school like it was a mandatory thing. The only language that Pauahi had known was Hawaiian until she went to the royal school and learns the English language which became her second language. The Christian missionaries was the ones that had taught at the royal school and it was the Cooke family that where the teachers for the royal students. While at the royal school Pauahi had learned how to play music. She would play the piano with her kahu which meant her attendant.³ These kahu or in other words attendants lived with the royal children like they where their parents watching over them while them go to school. The decade which Bernice Pauahi spent at the mission school instilled in the young Hawaiian princess the Christian way of life based on faith, hope, and charity. Their favorite sport was horseback riding and swimming. Pauahi had a wide variety of interests and was very eager to learn.³ Pauahi was an excellent writer. While she loved to play her music she liked playing the piano and melodeon.² She taught the young girls to play the piano. Along her learning of music she also learned to cook, clean house, wash and sew her own cloths.² She was fond of children and so she looked out for them. Pauahi loved nature the flowers and the outdoors was the best part of nature to her.
Pauahi had a romance the love of her life was Charles Reed Bishop. She knew she was in love with him when he came to the royal school to enjoy himself in the royal room. When Charles found Pauahi he would call upon the princess constantly. In the royal room on June 4, 1850 Bernice Pauahi and Charles Reed Bishop where married. The princess wore a gown of white muslin and lei of pīkake or jasmine.² Pauahi’s parents had opposed to the wedding and did not attend. Royal children did not have the freedom commoners did to select their own mates based largely on their own personal evaluation.¹ Ali‘i children were pretty well bound to go through with the marriage, since breaking a promise was considered a serious offense.¹ After their wedding Pauahi and Charles boarded the interisland boat Kalama and sailed for Kaua‘i for a taste of their honeymoon. People think that Charles and Pauahi had runaway to Kaua‘i because of her parents Pākī and Konia. But it was not like them to runaway from their problem. If Pauahi’s father Pākī was sincere of their marriage they would have gotten married at Hale‘ākala.¹ Charles Bishop had many properties all over Honolulu. A year had pass and Pākī and Konia had changed their minds of Charles.² As they got to know him they have found that he was a wise, honest, and devoted husband. As they had accepted their marriage it made Pauahi a very happy princess. When Pākī died in 1855 he left everything to the princess Pauahi, she received 6,000 acres of land on O‘ahu and his beautiful home at Hale‘ākala. Two years later when her mother Konia died she had left land for Pauahi which amounted to over 10,000 acres on the island of Hawai‘i, O‘ahu, and Kaua‘i.²
Charles and Pauahi became the social and cultural leaders of Honolulu.¹ People would gather at their house for celebrations. The children would go to Pauahi’s house to take piano lessons. Pauahi and her husband loved to read and so their house was filled with books. Charles was busy with government work therefore Pauahi just managed Hale‘ākala. They had 30 kahus even though she had many attendants she still helped with the work around the house. She was very strict and did not like sloppy work and wanted work to be finished on time. The princess was able to bring two cultures together that was the western and Hawaiian culture.² When Kamehameha the V was about to die he sent for Pauahi. At the bed side he asked her to take his place to become queen. Pauahi told him no no not me.² Therefore Lot had died with out naming a successor.²
The princess was ill with cancer for several months her doctor advised her to travel to San Francisco to undergo operation.¹ When she returned home her condition did not improve it then got worse. On October 16, 1884 she lay unconscious with Charles, her husband of over 34 years, at her bed side.³ The rain steadily fell and 12 minutes past noon Bernice Pauahi Bishop died. Being a direct descendant of Kamehameha the great Pauahi inherited many acres of land from her cousin, her parents, and her aunt ‘Akahi altogether she had 400,000 acres of land.²
The Bishops loved children and until this day the Bishop estate is well known. Pauahi had no children to inherit the land so she had written article 13 of her will.¹ This is how Kamehameha schools came to be!² The money that is gained is now available to Hawaiian students as scholarships to go to school and make something of themselves. This is a big help when not having the fund to go to college there is ancestors of Hawaiian people willing to help the people.
