George Luther Kapeau

George Luther Kapeau (died 1860) was a noble and statesman in the Kingdom of Hawaii who was one of the first generation of native Hawaiians to receive a Western education at the missionary founded Lahainaluna School.

Foreign visitors often called him a chief,[5] especially during his capacity as royal governor, but most of his contemporaries like Samuel Kamakau, missionary Hiram Bingham I, and even King Kamehameha III considered him a makaʻāinana or commoner.

Those people who have been very helpful in this work are Kamehameha III., Kaahumanu II., Auhea, Liliha, Kekauonohi, Kekūanaōʻa, Governor of Oahu, Paki, and Keohokalole.

His appointment was challenged by Hawaiian historian and fellow Lahainaluna classmate Samuel Kamakau who regarded his rank of Kaukaualiʻi (low-ranking chief) as too inferior for him to sit as a noble.

"[17] When the king refused, Admiral de Tromelin invaded Honolulu, sacked the Fort and caused an estimated $100,000 in damages.

It has a very few more inhabitants than some of the larger villages in the island, though much frequented by the natives living in the vicinity, on account of its being the centre of their civil and religious affairs.

We were not long installed, before the hospitable chief came to pay us a visit, and, as it happened to be a bright moonlight night, he invited us to go at once in his company, to inspect the fort, which was in front of his residence, and which in passable English he called the right arm of his strength.

[19] On the ahupuaʻa or land division of Waiʻaha, Kapeau had built his residence located about two thousand feet above Kailua-Kona on the slopes of the dormant volcano of Hualālai.

In its later days, situated among groves of coffee, orange, breadfruit, and other tropical treas, it was judged "one of the most delightful and healthy spots" in the Islands, "worthy of being made the [king's] Kona country seat."

[21][22] On June 8, 1989, two plaques commemorating the 150th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone at Kawaiahaʻo Church were erected underneath an 1889 slab that honored the life of missionary Hiram Bingham I on the centennial of his birth.