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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Owen_Smith
William Owen Smith (August 4, 1848 – April 13, 1929) was a lawyer from a family of 
American missionaries who participated in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He 
served as attorney general for the entire duration of the provisional Government of 
Hawaii and the Republic of Hawaii.
Smith was born August 4, 1848 in Koloa on the island of Kaua?i. His mother was 
Millicent Knapp (1816–1891). His father was physician James William Smith (1810–
1887).[1] His parents were in the tenth set of missionaries to Hawaii from the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions who arrived in 1842.[2] His sister 
Charlotte Elizabeth "Lottie" Smith (1845–1896) married Alfred Stedman Hartwell 
(1836–1912), who was a former general in the American Civil War, on January 10, 
1872. His brother Jared Knapp Smith (1849–1897) became a physician and carried on 
his father's medical practice. His sister Melicent Lena Smith (1854–1943) married 
William Waterhouse (1852–1942). Waterhouse served as mayor of Pasadena, 
California 1904–1906.[3]

He attended Daniel Dole's missionary school at Koloa, Punahou School from 1863 to 
1866,[4] and then Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of 
Massachusetts Amherst).[5] On his return he worked as a clerk in his brother-in-law 
Hartwell's law office. He served as sheriff on Kaua?i in 1870 and then Maui in 1872 
through 1874. While working at the Lahaina Courthouse, on April 24, 1873 he planted 
a banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrival 
of Christian missionaries on the island.[6]

On March 23, 1876, he married Mary Abbey Hobron. They had five children: Clarence 
Hobron Smith, Ethel Frances Smith born November 17, 1879, Pauline Melicent Smith, 
Anna Katherine Smith, and Lorrin Knapp Smith.[7] He founded the law firm of Smith, 
Thurston & Kinney with Lorrin A. Thurston and William Ansel Kinney in Honolulu in 
1887.
He acted as deputy attorney general, and was elected as a representative from Maui 
to the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom from 1878 to 1884. He helped draft the 
1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which King Kalakaua was forced to sign, 
giving it the name "Bayonet Constitution". His law partner Thurston then became 
minister in the new cabinet.[8] In the 1887 and 1888 sessions he was elected to the 
upper House of Nobles. In 1892 he was elected as representative from Kaua?i.[9]

Overthrow[edit]


four men and desk 


 Provisional cabinet: (left to right) J. A. King, Dole, Smith, P. C. Jones
He was a member of the Committee of Safety that organized the overthrow of the 
Kingdom of Hawaii on January 14, 1893. On January 17, he was appointed to the 
executive council (the new cabinet) of the Provisional Government of Hawaii under 
president Sanford B. Dole, the son of his former teacher. Dole's stepmother, Charlotte 
Close Knapp (1813–1874), was widow of Smith's uncle Horton Owen Knapp (1813–
1845), who had been a missionary teacher himself on Kaua?i.[10] Smith served as 
Attorney General of Hawaii from the creation of provisional government through the 
Republic of Hawaii. On December 18, 1895 he became a member of the board of 
health, and later its president. He had no formal training except for having a father 
and brother as practicing physicians.[9]

Murder in the family[edit]

His brother Jared Knapp Smith was shot dead on September 24, 1897. It was 
suspected to be in retaliation for ordering patients suspected of leprosy to have tests 
that might send them to exile in Kalaupapa. Similar tensions had ignited the Leper War 
on Kaua'i four years earlier. His former law partner Kinney sailed to Kaua?i island and 
was appointed special prosecutor. A native Hawaiian suspect Kapea Ka?ahea was 
arrested, tried on November 13, 1897, and found guilty of murder in the first degree.
[11]

Instead of waiting for next scheduled term of the circuit court, a special session had 
been called. Honolulu English-language newspapers said "there seems no doubt of 
the guilt of the chief prisoner" even before the trial.[12] The objections brought to the 
Supreme Court of Hawaii were quickly rejected on February 3, 1898.[13] Kapea was 
hanged on April 11, 1898. The rushed nature of the prosecution was thought to be an 
attempt to show the United States that the government was in firm control. Only a few 
months later in July 1898, the Newlands Resolution would annex the islands. Of the 
four executions for capital punishment between 1889 and 1903 in Hawaii, all four were 
of non-whites within a four-month period.[11]

Return to private practice[edit]

In August 1898 Smith offered to resign, but although now annexed, the old republic 
government continued to operate.[14] On March 20, 1899, Smith was replaced as 
attorney general by Henry Ernest Cooper and returned to private practice. Smith was 
elected to one term of the Territory of Hawaii senate from 1907 to 1909.[9]

Smith was a trustee of the Kamehameha Schools, founded from the estate of Bernice 
Pauahi Bishop, from 1884 to 1886 and from 1897 to 1929.[15] He was a trustee of the 
Lunalilo Estate, the Alexander Young Estate and the Honolulu children's hospital. He 
was on the board of the Guardian Trust Company, Bishop Trust Company, Inter-Island 
Steam Navigation company and Alexander & Baldwin. Despite his role in the 
overthrow, deposed Queen Lili?uokalani selected him to be a founding trustee of her 
own estate when she made her will in December 1909.[16] Her personal assets were 
left in a trust to benefit orphans.[17]

On November 30, 1915, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana?ole challenged the will in 
court, saying she was "of weakened mind" under the influence of the trustees. This 
was known as case 23 Haw. 457 in the Supreme Court of Hawaii. The feisty queen 
demanded a public hearing of her sanity in February 1916. The firm, now Smith, 
Warren & Sutton, successfully defended Lili?uokalani.[18] His law partners at the time 
were Louis J. Warren and Edwin White Sutton.[19] Lili?uokalani's charity still operates 
today.[20]
His daughter Ethel Frances Smith (1879–1967) married Henry Alexander Baldwin, 
known as "Harry" Baldwin who briefly became the congressional delegate for Hawaii. 
Daughter Anna Katherine Smith (1888–1960) married Harry's brother Samuel Alexander 
Baldwin (1885–1950) and lived on Maui. The father of his two sons-in-law was Henry 
Perrine Baldwin, founder of Alexander & Baldwin. Clarence Hobron Smith married 
Margherita Adele Browning May 7, 1908 in New York. They then moved to Italy.[21] 
Youngest son Lorrin Knapp Smith was born October 10, 1890, married Sila Pratt 
(1890–1952), became a ranch manager on Maui, and died October 27, 1930. The Maui 
branches of the family are buried in the cemetery at Makawao Union Church.[22] His 
niece Madeline Perry Hartwell married Albert Francis Judd, Jr., son of Chief Justice of 
the Hawaii Supreme Court Albert Francis Judd on July 21, 1899.[23]

His ties to the oligarchy known as the "Big Five" that dominated the island economy 
led the opposition press to call him "King Bill the First". They described him using a 
mix of stereotypes:


He was narrow-minded as a New Englander, domineering as a Russian Czar, yet suave 
as a Frenchman. He was obstinate as a Scotchman, generous as a Southerner, and at 
times vicious as an Indian. But he was withal the hardest working official we have 
ever heard of—next to the Devil.[14]

In 1926 he was appointed to help organize the public archives of Hawaii.[9] He 
donated many of his papers to the collection, including drafts of the 1887 
constitution.[8]

Smith died April 13, 1929 in his home in the Nu?uanu Valley near Honolulu from 
pneumonia. After a number of partner changes, his law firm survives as Case Lombardi 
& Pettit.[24] Partner Daniel H. Case is the father of Steve Case and uncle of 
Congressman Ed Case. Case was lawyer for Grove Farm, when it was bought by his 
son.[25] It includes the area where Smith grew up. Other notable members of the firm 
through the years included Cyrus Nils Tavares, Alan Cooke Kay, and W. F.L. Stanley.
[24]


Marriage To HOBRON Mary Abby ()
    m.  

Notes


Children by HOBRON Mary Abby 
SMITH Lorrin Knapp (10 Oct 1890 - 27 Oct 1930)

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