{"id":36,"date":"2012-09-25T18:51:55","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T18:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/?page_id=36"},"modified":"2013-10-02T19:17:26","modified_gmt":"2013-10-02T19:17:26","slug":"history-of","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/legacy\/history-of\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Parker Ranch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of Cows and the King<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a>It began with five cows\u2014brought across the ocean by British Captain George Vancouver in 1788, just ten years after James Cook first landed in Hawai\u2018i.\u00a0 Vancouver presented the cows to King Kamehameha I, who ruled the eight Hawaiian Islands as one kingdom for the first time. The King set his cows free to roam Hawai\u2018i Island, and declared them to be kapu<\/em> (off limits).<\/p>\n

Over the next 20 years, the King\u2019s cows multiplied into thousands.\u00a0 And when Massachusetts sailor John Palmer Parker, 19, jumped ship to visit Hawai\u2018i in 1809, maverick cattle dominated the countryside, wreaking havoc on family farms and gardens.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
John Palmer Parker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Parker stayed for a time, tended fishponds for the King and went to sea again during the War of 1812\u2014and when he returned to Hawai\u2018i to live, he brought a new, state-of-the-art American musket.\u00a0 The King gave Parker exclusive permission, not only to shoot the wild cattle, but to supply meat and hides for local and foreign consumption.\u00a0 The musket is still in possession of Parker Ranch.<\/p>\n

In less than a year, a thriving salt beef industry replaced sandalwood as the Island\u2019s chief export, and Parker quickly grew into a respected man of wealth and influence.\u00a0 He learned to speak Hawaiian, adopted Hawaiian ways and in 1816, married Chiefess Kipikane, granddaughter of King Kamehameha I.\u00a0 They were awarded two acres of land on the slopes of Mauna Kea where they built the homestead \u201cMana Hale,\u201d had three children, and began the Parker dynasty that would play a prominent role in the next two centuries of Hawaiian history.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Continue to “The Monarchy”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of Cows and the King It began with five cows\u2014brought across the ocean by British Captain George Vancouver in 1788, just ten years after James Cook first landed in Hawai\u2018i.\u00a0 Vancouver presented the cows to King Kamehameha I, who ruled the eight Hawaiian Islands as one kingdom for the first time. The King set his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":4,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1060,"href":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions\/1060"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkerranch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}