Cemeteries
The ancient Hawaiians usually buried their dead in shallow beach graves or hid them away in caves. Western-style cemeteries did not appear for several decades after Captain Cook’s arrival. Eventually, however, foreign visitors and residents began dropping off in sufficient numbers to warrant establishment of a real graveyard. This was located about a mile east of the Mission Houses, possibly near the present intersection of Pi‘ikoi and South King Streets. Early burials at this site included Captain Charles Derby, who died in 1802; Isaac Davis, a haole advisor to Kamehameha who may have been poisoned in 1810; and possibly Captain John Kendrick, accidentally killed aboard his ship in Honolulu Harbor in 1794.
The long-neglected graveyard was cleared around 1900. Derby’s handsome tombstone—his bones could not be found—was moved at that time to the small cemetery behind Kawaiaha‘o Church, where it still stands, the oldest such marker anywhere in the state.
Soon the Hawaiians began to adopt Western burial practices. In 1821, Maria Loomis watched a funeral procession, and recorded, “This is the first instance of natives burying their dead after the manner of civilized nations.”
O‘ahu Cemetery, sometimes described as the “first public cemetery,” was opened in Nu‘uanu in 1845. Two years later, a newspaper article listed four graveyards then in use on O‘ahu.
The first undertaker in the kingdom was C. E. Williams, who, in 1859, opened his furniture and mortuary business on Fort Street.