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William Jonathan Cooper was born to William Humes and Elizabeth (Sission) Cooper on March 22, 1876 in Cochranton, Pennsylvania. He was educated at the University of West Virginia. In 1906, he became a reporter on San Francisco Chronicle and came to Honolulu as a reporter on the Star. He married Lucy C. Vrooman, M.D. in Honolulu on August 3, 1907. In 1908, he served on the Promition Committee and represented the committee at A.-Y.-P. Exposition in Seattle in 1909. From 1910-1912, he was a reporter for the Honolulu Star. In 1912, he and Mrs. Lucy Vrooman Cooper moved to Haiku, Maui where they purchased a homestead. Cooper was appointed assistant manager of Maui Publishing Company, Ltd. and became the editor of Maui News in 1914.

Cooper served on the Territory of Hawaii Industrial Accident Board representing Maui for a 2 year term starting 1915-06-01. He was reappointed 1917-07-01 serving to 1921-09-06.

Cooper passed away on November 6, 1970.

William Harrison Rice was born October 12, 1813 in Oswego, New York to Joseph and Sally Rice. On September 28, 1840, he married Mary Sophia Hyde. Together, they arrived in Honolulu on May 21, 1841 aboard the ship Gloucester in Ninth Company of American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM). The Rices were teachers by training and were stationed at Hana, Maui. In 1844, the Rice family was transferred to become the first secular teachers at Punahou School in Honolulu. In 1854, the Rices resigned from Punahou and moved to Kauai where Mr. Rice was hired to manage Lihue Plantation owned by Henry Pierce and William Little Lee. William Harrison Rice died on May 27, 1862 in Lihue, Kauai.

1855 b. Honolulu
1855 graduated Yale University
1858 professor of Greek, Oahu College
1860 m. Abigail Baldwin of Lahaina.
1864 president, Oahu College
1870 charge of Bureau of Government Survey
1891 author, “A brief history of the Hawaiian people”
1896 author, "History of later years of the Hawaiian monarch and the revolution of 1893”
1896-06-24 / 1905-06-24 Commissioner of Public Instruction.
1900-06-14 to 1901-02-01 Surveyor
1905-11-06 Board of Education member. Reappointed 1887-07-07; 1894-02-19, 1895-08.
1913 d. Honolulu, Feb.21

Act 17 of the 2nd Special Session of 1932 explicitly vested the Board of Prison Directors with responsibility for "the entire government, control and supervision of all territorial prisons and prison camps." Concurrently, it created the position of Warden of Oahu Prison and removed responsibility for prison management from the High Sheriff.

The Vehicle Industry Licensing Board was formerly known as the Motor Vehicle Dealers Licensing Board and
was established on July 1, 1939.

On October 8, 1840, Kamehameha III granted the first constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, which vested the judicial power of government in a Supreme Court, consisting of the King as chief judge, Premier (kuhina nui), and four individuals appointed by the representative body. Island courts held by their respective governors functioned as circuit courts on their respective island. The island governors were given powers to appoint judges who functioned as district magistrates for the island. Chapter XLVII of the Laws of 1842 mandated that the Supreme judges assemble in Honolulu each June and in Lahaina each December to try cases appealed to them. Selection criteria for foreign and native juries were provided for in the Laws of 1842. The Third Act of Kamehameha III in 1847 titled "An Act to Organize the Judiciary Department of the Hawaiian Islands" created four levels of courts - the Supreme Court, the Superior Court of Law and Equity, four circuit court jurisdictions, and district courts.

Theodore Kelsey was born to Helen Lucy (nee Wells) and Henry Evelyn Kelsey at Seattle, Washington on August 4, 1891. He arrived in Honolulu on January 26, 1895 aboard the S.S. Miowera, with his mother, Helen, who went to teach at Hanamaulu, Kaua‘i where her brother William Ira Wells was principal. ON January 19, 1897, his father arrived in Honolulu and joined the family on Kaua‘i.
In 1905, Kelsey began teaching himself the Hawaiian language from a Hawaiian-English language phrase book.
In 1908, Kelsey attended New Mexico Military Institute, Roswell, New Mexico to further his education. In the years that followed, he traveled throughout the western United States, Mexico, and Hawai‘i, eventually graduating from Illinois College in Effingham in 1916.
In 1917, Kelsey returned permanently to Hawai‘i; was offered a year's tuition at Yale by Bishop Museum's Dr. Herbert Gregory, but declined to accept. In November, witnessed the funeral of Queen Liliuokalani. Kelsey eventually settled in Hilo where he worked as a photographer out of a photo studio that his father helped to establish.
In 1921, Kelsey worked for creation of a Hawaiian Legend and Folklore Commission, Acts 61 and 126, S.L.H. 1921.
In 1923-1924, Kelsey assisted Padraic Colum to rewrite Hawaiian legends and helped Helen H. Roberts to record Hawaiian chants used in "Ancient Hawaiian Music," published in 1926.
In 1927, Kelsey recorded chants of George P. Kalama and moved to Honolulu residing with artist Arthur Emerson. Kelsey continued with his photography and began teaching Hawaiian.
From 1933 to 1936, Kelsey resided at George P. Mossman's Lalani Hawaiian Village recording and transcribing Hawaiian chants and lore of James. P. Kuluwaimaka and others.
From 1936 to 1939, Kelsey served as a Works Program Administration (W.P.A.) worker at the Archives of Hawai‘i with Henry E.P. Kekahuna and others. He began a serious study of the Kumulipo creation chant.
From 1939 to 1941, Kelsey resided and studied Hawaiiana with Henry E.P. Kekahuna.
In 1949, work began for the Pukui and Elbert Hawaiian-English Dictionary, published in 1957, on which Kelsey and Henry E.P. Kekahuna were committee members.
In 1956, Kelsey received the first David Malo Award, with Kekahuna, from the East Honolulu Hawaiian Civic Club.
In 1957, Kelsey and Kekahuna mapped Big Island historic sites.
In 1958, Kelsey married Mrs. Esther Kaikai Kanoa Kalaukoa; widow of John Kaipo Kalaukoa.
On April 6, 1960, wife Esther died.
In 1977, Kelsey was declared a "Living Treasure of Hawai‘i" by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission.
In 1978, Kelsey moved to Waianae, Oahu to reside with the family of Hawaiian researcher and author June Gutmanis.
In 1980, Kelsey received a certificate of appreciation from Alu Like for a lifetime of service to the Hawaiian Community.
In 1982, Kelsey received the Na Makua Mahalo ‘Ia award from Brigham Young University Hawai‘i campus.
On February 13, 1987, Kelsey died at the Gutmanis home in Waianae, Oahu.

The Survey Office was originally established in 1870 to prepare maps of the various islands, to determine the extent and location of land held by the government, and to prepare surveys and descriptions of government lands. The division also made harbor surveys, ran street lines, performed engineering jobs for the Minister of Interior and acted as the weather bureau of the Hawaiian Kingdom

Authorized by Organic Act, Section 78, 1900; the Surveyor became successor to the Surveyor-General.

Charged with creating a Hawai‘i general plan dealing with diverse functions such as public facilities and economic potential, including tourism. In 1960, functions transferred to the Department of Planning and Research.

Motivated by the necessity for emergency planning to alleviate the effects of the depression, the National Resources Committee (called National Resources Planning Board after 1939) and forty-six state planning boards were established in the early 1930s. In Hawaiʻi, the Nineteenth Legislature in 1937 enacted Act 207 which authorized the establishment of the Territorial Planning Board. However, ventures into the sphere of civic planning had been made since the turn of the century: in 1906 the Civic Federation Committee on Streets, Parks and Public Works was established, in 1911 the Outdoor Circle was organized, and in 1915 the Honolulu Planning Commission was established.

Act 207 authorized the Governor to appoint nine members to the Territorial Planning Board. The superintendent of Public Works, president of the Board of Agriculture and Forestry, and the federal Public Works Administrator or representative of public works were designated as ex-officio members, Of the other six members who were appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate, at least one had to be an architect and one an engineer. In 1939 the Legislature passed an amendment changing the membership of the Board, but the measure died by pocket veto.

The duties of the Territorial Planning Board were the preparation of a territorial master plan; advisement of territorial and local officials in coordinating territorial development; regulation, coordination and correlation of public works employment; collection and publication of information relating to proper territorial development; and responsibility for conferring and co-operating with federal and military officials in scheduling public works projects. The Board was responsible for the preparation of maps and planning studies and surveys to gather information on matters pertaining to the physical development of the Territory. Because it was charged with the approval of plans relating to public improvement, government agencies were required to submit written notices of contemplated construction to the Territorial Planning Board. The Board was further authorized to accept and use funds provided by the United States government, and was required to submit a report of its plans and recommendations biennially to the Governor and Legislature.

On January 10, 1939 Governor Poindexter appointed Charles D. Rosecrans, chairman, A. L. Burdick, Robert M. Belt, Ray Morris (architect), and Chester K. Wentworth (engineer) to the Territorial Planning Board. The ex-officio members were Louis S. Cain, superintendent of Public Works and Frank H. Locey, president of the Board of Agriculture and Forestry. The Board held its organizational meeting on February 10, 1938. Subsequently, monthly meetings were held which included public hearings and meetings on the outer islands.

The Territorial Planning Board, in practice, functioned as an administrative unit. On March 28, 1938 the Board appointed Joseph F. Kunesh as director to implement the provisions of Act 207. He headed a staff of five until his resignation in January, 1941, and was succeeded by Karl A. Sinclair.

The Territorial Planning Board received assistance from the National Resources Planning Board which provided general advisory and liaison services for state planning boards. In addition to the services of the National Resources Planning Board, the Territorial Planning Board had two advisory committees: Pursuant to a letter from Harold Ickes, chairman of the National Resources Committee, the Land Planning Committee, similar to those previously established on the mainland, was appointed by the Board. The Human Resources Committee was an outgrowth of a meeting called by Frank Midkiff to consider the problem of unemployment in Honolulu.

Following a technique of planned activity adopted from the National Resources Planning Board and existing state planning boards, the Territorial Planning Board initially concentrated on research before attempting to ascertain needed facilities. Accordingly, the first report of the Board to the Governor and Legislature was An Historic Inventory of the Physical, Social, and Economic Industrial Resources of the Territory of Hawaiʻi (Publication No. 1), which was an accumulation of data essential to planning. This was followed by its supplement, Existing Urban Resources and Facilities of the Territory of Hawaiʻi (Publication No. 2) .

In addition to the preceding publications, the Board published nine other reports. Surface Water Resources of the Territory of Hawaii, 1901-1938 (Publication No. 4) also focuses on research. One of the incentives for its publication was the prevention of costly duplication of effort in research and planning that required knowledge of the availability of water. Also pertinent to the subject of water is the "Report of a Subcommittee of the Land Planning Committee on the Molokaʻi Irrigation Project" (Publication No. 3) which evaluates a report made to the Commissioner of Reclamation, Department of Interior.

At the first meeting of the executive committee of the Human Resources Committee, a decision was reached that the efforts of the committee should be focused on the unemployment problem. Collaborating with the Education Committee of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce, an unemployment survey was conducted by John R. Sedgwick. The results are published in Unemployment Survey Honolulu Rural Oʻahu, December, 1939 (Publication No. 5).

In the later publications the Board begins to implement Section 2 of Act 207. The following reports were mandated by the Twentieth Legislature: Lands for Our Public Schools, An Integral Part of the Territorial Master Plan (Publication No. 6) by Joint Resolution 4; Master Plan of the Town of Kapaʻa (Publication No. 8) by Senate Joint Resolution 11 which was included in Act 244 (General Appropriations Act); Master Plan of the City of Hilo (Publication No. 9) by Senate Joint Resolution 12, included in Act 244; and Report of the Executive Legislative Quarters, Civic Center, City of Honolulu, Hawaii (Publication No. 10) by Senate Concurrent Resolution 8. For the Master Flan of the Town of Hanapepe (Publication No. 7) the Board of Supervisors of the County of Kauaʻi solicited the assistance of the Territorial Planning Board when differences in viewpoint arose between the County and private interests during the development of a master plan for the town.

The last publication of the Board was Conservation Development of National Resources: Program for Hawaiʻi (Publication No. 11), which in­cluded a proposed zoning enabling act. It served the multiple purposes of being the first statement of planning objectives by the Board, the second progress report to the Legislature, and answering a request from the National Resources Planning Board for participation in the national "Program for the Conservation and Development of the Resources of the United States.

Under Act 244, $6,000 had been appropriated for a Park, Parkway, and Recreational Area Study, which was made in cooperation with the National; Park Service to implement Public Law 7701/2 [sic] (74th Congress). The study was nearly completed but was not published.

Other special studies and activities included joint sponsorship of a civic center planning contest with the Honolulu Planning Commission, and a development of the Kaimuki Library-Civic Center and the Keehi Lagoon seaport. During the compilation of the 1940 Census, the Board assisted the Census Bureau by supplying maps of centers of population that were prepared for the report on urban facilities.

During the regular session of the Twenty-first Legislature, by request of the Territorial Planning Board, a bill was introduced to appropriate funds for the acquisition of land sites for public buildings, thereby implementing the recommendations in Publication 10. The measure, however, died in committee.

The Twenty-first Legislature by Joint Resolution 22 mandated the preparation of a master plan for the construction of public school buildings. However, funds for the operation of the Board were deleted from the General Appropriations Act in the Senate, thereby leaving the Board without operating funds for the 1941-1943 biennium. On the advice of Governor Poindexter, the members of the Board continued to hold their commissions, and correspondence was continued on a limited basis by Chester K. Wentworth, acting chairman. When the Twenty-second Legislature (1943) failed to appropriate funds, with the consent of Governor Stainback and the superintendent of Public Works, the records and files of the Board were transferred to the newly created Legislative Reference Bureau at the University of Hawaiʻi.

In 1954 the Territorial Planning Board was reactivated by Governor Samuel W. King. Unlike the previous Board, the emphasis of the new Board was on rural land utilization. However, in 1955 the Legislature failed to appropriate funds for the operation of the Board, and its activities lapsed. The same legislature enacted Act 264 which established the Economic Planning and Coordination Authority. It authorized the transference of all funds and equipment, including records, of the Territorial Planning Board to the newly created Authority.

The records include the minutes, reports, and correspondence of the Territorial Planning Board and its advisory committees. The correspondence consists primarily of material accumulated in the process of compiling data for the published reports. In addition, there are materials compiled for the reports which were not published.

In addition to the records of the Territorial Planning Board, the files include the correspondence of Joseph F. Kunesh, director, as a member of various committees in the community. These are generally filed by subjects. Also included in the files is the Industrial and Commercial Survey conducted by the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce in 1935-1936.