Valdemar Knudsen

Valdemar Emil Knudsen (August 5, 1820 – January 5, 1898) was a sugarcane plantation pioneer on west Kauai, Hawaii.

The Kingdom of Hawaii contracted with Knudsen for the removal of armaments from Russian Fort Elizabeth, east of the town of Waimea.

Knudsen also served as a member of the House of Representatives under the Monarchy and joined the Provisional Government after Queen Liliuokalani was deposed in 1893.

[9] 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.

In 1945, his son Eric Alfred Knudsen published Kanuka of Kauai, a book on the life of his father, as well as the Hawaiian natives who befriended him.