Lanai Leper Colony

MOST OFFICE IN PARADISE - Islands Molokai & Lanai postmark

Molokai and Lanai Island postmark :::::? Return to the Maui, Molokai and Lanai isles? One 5¢ post cover with imprint "Provisional Government/1893" (PS-37; UPSS 19) on April 4, 1895 from Pukoo, Molokai to Norman, Oklahoma Territory, stamped with Pukoo Typ 281.9a1. The Molokai has a steep, well-irrigated and wooded east end and a low-lying, dry west end.

Up to the 20th c. there were no durable colonies on West Molokai. In 1832, the establishment of a missionary base in Kaluaaha began with the establishment of a foreigner colony on East Molokai and was extended to the Kaunakakai area in the 1850s with the establishment of Molokai Ranch, a livestock farm. On the northern coastline of East Molokai there are high rocks and gorges and the colonists from abroad who were living on the gradually declining southern cliff.

There is a southern coastline with reefs that protect large fishing lakes created by the local people. Most of Molokai belonged to the Kamehamehas. A leper colony was founded in 1866 on the Kalaupapa peninsula, which protrudes from the northern coastline under the precipitous, high rocks of Molokai. Situated on the southeast shore of Molokai, the precise nature of the post office formation here is unknown, but it may have been a post office under the jurisdiction of J. Lima, who was the mailmaster in Kaluaaha.

Situated in the leper colony on the northern Molokai coastline on the northern shore of the Molokai. This small bureau was apparently a sequel to the de facto postal service in Kalawao and was transferred to the leprosy colony in the mid-1880s. In 1884-1885 there were no stamps sold, but the Postmeister was awarded a $25 a year wage.

Situated on the Kalaupapa Peninsula, the site of the Roman Catholics built by Father Damien for the leper colony. A de facto mail delivery for the leper colony was provided by the Congregation. In 1882 the offices were shut down and reopened as Kamalo offices in 1884. Location of the first missionary outpost on Molokai, founded in 1833 by Pastor Harvey Hitchcock, followed by Lowell Smith, Bethuel Munn, Peter J. Gulick, C. B. Andrews, Samuel G. Dwight and Anderson O. Forbes.

Later on, after the leper colony on the other side of the Kalaupapa Islands was opened, Father Damien went there to minister to the leper. There was a small international community in the east of Molokai at the postal-station. Postal services to Lahaina on Maui or by land transport to the port of Pukoo.

Stamps sold in the years 1884-1885 were not recorded and no pay was allocated to a post master. The Kaluaaha offices. During the first years, the bureau named only the postman for Molokai under the court of the Lahaina postal master. The Molokai postman, Burrows went on as such until 1868.

Stamps sold in the years 1884-1885 amounted to about 55 dollars per year and the postal master received 50 dollars per year. The Molokai Ranch, which belonged to the Kamehamehas, was headquartered in Kaunakakakai. Once living in Kaluaaha and marrying a high leader, Rudolph Meyer went back to Molokai in 1851 to reside in Kalae, a few leagues from Kaunakakakai.

Meyers was the farm supervisor. He became the head of the leper colony in Kalaupapa when it began in 1866. He passed away in 1897, but the leadership of most of Molokai stayed in the extended group. Kaunakakakai was the most important city on the Molokai from about 1880, but it was still a small village with a general shop and about twenty cabins, in additon to a king's dynasty, which was formerly used by Kamehameha V. for his hunt and outings.

American Sugar Co. started operating in Kaunakakakai on the former Molokai Ranch site in 1899, and a small station was constructed in 1899. There is no time after "MOLOKAI", unlike the original. Stamps sold in 1884-1885 were not recorded, but the post master was assigned a $25 pay.

In the 1850s, Mormons founded a colony on Lanai, but forsook it. Waltman Murray Gibson was a member of the Mormon colony, but in one case of some kind, he ended up with the Isle and the remainder of the colony went elsewhere. For many years, Gibson ran a farm for Lanai ewes and cows before he entered Kalakaua policy.

Meanwhile the farm was kept in the hand of his daugther and his son-in-law, the Heyseldens. The postal services were completely privat, although the Keole head quarter was a postal-station. Lahaina's mails, which were brought from and to Lahaina, were brought to Lahaina by farmcraft.

"Situated on the shores of Lahaina and home of Maunalei Sugar Co. We had a postal service in Keole, the head quarter of the farm in the centre of the isle. Postage stamps sold in Lanai in 1884-1885 were not recorded, but the Postal Master was assigned an average of $25 a year.

It was the shepherd' farm on the isle. Return to the islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai. 1999 - 2012 postoffice in paradise.