Zephaniah Swift Spalding (September 2, 1837– June 19, 1927) was a veteran of the American Civil War, who was first sent to Hawaii on a clandestine mission for US Secretary of State William H. Seward.

[3] During the reign of Kamehameha V, debates heated up in both Honolulu and Washington D. C. over a proposed sugar tariff reciprocity treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawaii, versus outright American annexation of the island nation.

With the passage of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, he returned to Hawaii as an agent for the "Sugar Refineries of the city of San Francisco" bidding for the total year's crop.

[9] The Makee Company was sold in 1916 for an undisclosed sum, but speculators at the time believed the sale price was in the area of $2,000,000 (equivalent to $56,000,000 in 2023).

[10] Several individuals over the decades put forth proposals to lay a telegraph cable from San Francisco to each of the Hawaiian islands.

The Republic of Hawaii contracted with Spalding in 1895, allotting a modest annual subsidy for the project, with a stipulation of a November 1, 1898 completion deadline.

Additional funding was needed from the US government, but Congress failed to act on Spalding's request, and the terms of the contract could not be met.