HUGO STANGENWALD

Hugo Stangenwald was born in Dresden, Germany, on February 19, 1829. He began his medical studies in Vienna but a revolution forced him to flee, and he emigrated to the United States with a party of German political exiles in 1848. In 1849 he went to the California gold fields, and the following year he came to Hawaii. He then returned to Vienna to complete his medical studies.

Dr. Stangenwald was a talented daguerreotypist, and it was his ability in this field that led to permanent settlement in Hawaii. In 1853 the doctor and a fellow daguerreotypist, Mr. Goodfellow, were passengers aboard a British brig bound from San Francisco to Australia which stopped in Hilo. While the brig was in port, the doctor and Mr. Goodfellow gave an exhibition of their work which was so successful that they were persuaded to abandon their trip and remain in Hilo and set up a studio there. Soon the two artists decided to go to Honolulu to go into business there. On February 10, 1853, Mr. Titus Coan of Hilo wrote to Mr. Armstrong in Honolulu introducing the two men, and in this letter stated that Dr. Stangenwald was a German by birth, a citizen of Pennsylvania, a physician, a member of the Presbyterian church and an elder of the church in Oregon. If Mr. Coan had his facts right, it would indicate that the doctor became a citizen in Pennsylvania and that he had also spent some time in Oregon. In any case, Dr. Stangenwald did locate in Honolulu where he not only had a daguerreotype gallery but also practiced medicine.

On May 17, 1854, Dr. Stangenwald married Miss Mary Catherine Dimond, daughter of Henry and Ann Maria Dimond, in Honolulu. Their first two sons, Charles Gustaf and Frank Dimond, died at an early age.

In 1858 Dr. Stangenwald went to New York where he entered the New York Medical college and graduated in March 1859. In his class of 22 he took the first of two prizes awarded. The subject of his thesis was "Pathology of the Heart". Following his graduation, he spent some time in Europe in additional study.

Returning to Honolulu aboard the "Comet" on August 8, 1860, he opened an office at Dr. Judd's Drug Store on Fort Street. In a business card appearing in the "Advertiser" on September 13, 1860, he described himself as "physician and surgeon, late New York City dispensary physician, and member of the Medico-Chirurgical College and of the Pathological Society of New York." In 1862 Dr. Stangenwald was elected assistant surgeon for a new cavalry company, and on December 22, 1863, was appointed to the Board of Health.

On May 31, 1865, Mrs. Stangenwald died, shortly after the death of their third infant son. So grief stricken was the doctor by the death of his young wife that he closed his office and a few months later left for Germany never intending to return to the Islands. His sister-in-law, Ann Maria Dimond, kept up a correspondence with the doctor and her letters were so comforting that he decided to come back to Honolulu. On January 4, 1868, he arrived aboard the "Comet", and on March 10, 1868, he and Miss Dimond were married in Honolulu.

Once again he opened an office and soon had a large and successful practice. On April 4, 1872, Dr. Stangenwald was appointed a trustee of Queen's Hospital to fill out the unexpired term of Mr. Moffitt. In June 1875, he was reappointed to the board but resigned in September 1876. Apparently, his own health was giving him some cause for concern in 1872 when he ran a notice in the "Advertiser" for November 9th stating that he was giving up family practice and limiting himself to those patients whose ailments could be treated in the office. He added, however, that a complete chemical laboratory would be connected with his office for the "manufacture of rare and valued medicinal prescriptions and for the performing of any operations required in pathological and analytical chemistry."

Dr. Stangenwald was always intensely interested in scientific experiments, especially chemical and electrical, and was considered by some to be an eccentric while others credited him with possessing rare scientific wisdom. The following is a description ** of the laboratory attached to his home in Nuuanu Valley when it was opened for inspection (for the first time since his death) in 1915, prior to putting the entire property up for sale. "Every window and every lanai was guarded with broad-mesh wire netting. The first room was full of scientific apparatus of the most costly kind, most of it unused. There were a dozen cubby-holes of rooms added onto the main chamber and connected by a labyrinth of passages. In one of the rooms was a blast-furnace, a great metal tank with a block and pulley, collections of Hawaiian rocks, and what looked like low-grade copper ore, collections of native woods, earths and sands. Thousand of dollars of electrical instruments were found. Each room had a peephole and the connecting doors could be barred. In one room was found a great easy chair with a foot-rest, in which the queer old medico probably took forty winks."

Dr. Stangenwald died at his home on June 1, 1899, at the age of 70. In the Spring of 1897, aware that he had a weak heart, he predicted the time of his own death to within a week. An astute business man, he left an estate valued at $56,000.
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*Some sources give the date as February 18, 1829.
**Advertiser July 1, 1915

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