JAMES WIGHT

James Wight was born in India in 1814 of Scotch-Irish parentage. He received his medical education at the University of Edinburgh from which he graduated in 1836. The young doctor then went to Australia where he practiced for 13 years.

In 1850 Dr. Wight set out for the gold fields of California with his family. Their ship was wrecked off Mahukona, and doctors being needed in that part of the Big Island, they were persuaded to remain. Settling in Kohala, Dr. Wight soon gave up medicine in favor of business. He first established a store with a drug department, which he later sold to S.G. Wilder, but then became interested in the cultivation of sugar cane and had a large interest in the Kohala Plantation as well as establishing a plantation at Halawa. In 1879 when the planters and mill owners of the district banded together for mutual benefit, Dr. Wight was selected president of the group and Dr. Lyman Thompson was elected vice-president. The doctor also raised cattle and had a ranch at Puakea.

Greenbank, his home in Kohala, was patterned after an English country estate and was a social center in Kohala for many years. Dr. and Mrs. Wight had a large family, several of whom died before reaching adulthood. Those who survived were: Mrs. R.H. Atkins (Alice), Mrs. H.R. Bryant (Clara), Mrs. Arthur Mason (Mary), Mrs. Harry P. Woods (Emma), Mrs. J.H. Mackenzie (Eliza), Mrs. W.H. Patten (Florence), Mrs. George Bucholtz (Maude), Catherine, and James. The doctor had the children taught by private tutor, and he imported pianos and piano teachers so that his daughters could have music lessons.

From 1852 to 1863 Dr. Wight held the position of Circuit Judge. Keenly interested in politics, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, where he was remembered for his independent stand, and in 1887 became a member of the House of Nobles. It was reported in 1894 that the doctor strongly opposed annexation, but later this was denied, but not, it was noted, by the doctor.

Dr. Wight died on September 2, 1905, at Kohala at the age of 91.

While he did not formally practice medicine for most of his years at Kohala, he was always ready to assist anyone needing the services of a physician and often attended members of the royal family when they were in that area. Remembered not only as a planter and rancher but as a horticulturist, Dr. Wight is credited with being one of the first to import orchid plants from England and also brought the first ironwood tree to Hawaii from Australia. He was a member of the British Benevolent Society and of the Lehua Club, which was devoted to "promoting common interest and fellowship between natives and foreigners".

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