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Peter Allan Brinsmade was born in Hallowell, Maine on April 1, 1804. He graduated from Bowdoin College and did post-graduate studies at Andover Theology Seminar and Yale Divinity School. On July 25, 1833, arrived in Honolulu with William Ladd and William Hooper, the establish a mercantile trading house in Honolulu. Organized firm Brinsmade, Ladd & Hooper, later known as Ladd & Company. In 1835, with partners, leased land from King at Koloa, Kaua‘i for raising sugar cane. In 1837, went to Europe, sold lease of land holdings to Belgian stock company (Belgian Contract), took his pay in shares, made King Kamehameha III also large stockholder. In 1846, Ladd & Company went bankrupt. He returned to the United States and died on October 6, 1859 in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Married to Victor S. K. Houston

The Plans Office first appears in the interim organization chart of the newly created Department of Land and Natural Resources in 1961. The unit was renamed the Planning Office later that year.

It was a separate office reporting directly to the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR).

The Planning Office was reorganized into the Office of Conservation and Environmental Affairs (OCEA) in fiscal year 1985-1986. OCEA coordinates the Department's environmental responsibilities and processes Conservation District Use Applications (CDUA).

The first mention of a postal system in Hawai‘i was an enactment of the Legislature (4th Article, Second Act) on April 27, 1846, relating to the handling of inter-island mails. It was entitled "An Act to Organize the Executive Departments of the Hawaiian Islands,"and stated: "The collector general of customs and the collectors of the respective ports of entry and departure...shall be, ex-officio post masters, and entitled to receive and open, at their respective ports, the mail bags hereinafter specified. The minister of the interior shall appoint some trustworthy and discreet person, residing conveniently, on each of the islands where no port of entry and departure is established ••• to be the post master thereof."

The act further provided for furnishing leather postal bags, setting up schedules for closing of mails, and posting of lists of mail received by the postmaster.
By 1850, it was clear that the 1846 statute governing internal correspondence was insufficient. The Privy Council passed a decree in December 20, 1850 and the 1851 Legislature enacted a law that established a Post Office in Honolulu. The Privy Council appointed a postmaster, Henry M. Whitney, setting up rates for renumeration to ships' captains for carrying
the mails.

In 1870, the Post Office building at Merchant and Bethel streets was built and the post office remained there until May 1, 1922, when it relocated to the King and Richard street site in the newly constructed Federal Building.

Postmaster Generals through Annexation.
Henry M. Whitney (December 22, 1850 - July 1, 1856)
J. Jackson (July 1, 1856 - August 14, 1859) (Jackson died August 14, 1859)
A.K. Clarke {August 27, 1859 - June 30, 1863)
David Kalakaua (June 30, 1863 - March 18, 1865)
A.P. Brickwood (March 18, 1865 - July 20, 1881)
John M. Kapena (July 20, 1881 - February 13, 1883)
Henry M. Whitney (February 16, 1883 - April 15, 1886)
J.L. Kaulukou (April 15, 1886 - July 31, 1886)
Luther Aholo (July 31, 1886 - October 15, 1886)
F. Wundenberg (October 15, 1886 - May 2, 1891)
Walter Hill (May 2, 1891 - April 1, 1893)
Joseph Morton Oat (April 1, 1893 - April 30, 1905)

The U.S. assumed charge of the mail system on June 14, 1900.

The Post-War Planning Division was established: On January 4, 1944. Under the powers of the Hawaii Defense Act of 1941, the Governor set up Rule No. 87 providing for a Post War Planning Division of the Territorial Department of Public Works. The division ceased to exist after reports were generated in 1945.

By Joint Resolution of May 4, 184 7, the Legislature amended the Act to Organize the Executive Departments by transferring control of the Marshal from the Attorney General to the Minister of the Interior, which latter official was given the duty of nominating the Marshal for appointment by the King. The Marshal was simultaneously designated as the Sheriff of Oahu and the Prefect of Police of Honolulu.
This arrangement was confirmed and clarified in detail in the Compiled Laws of 1859, which specified that the Marshal was the Chief of Police of the Kingdom, and which gave the Marshal the authority to appoint the island sheriffs, with the approval of the respective island governors. The Combined Laws also explicitly assigned the duties of the island sheriffs on their islands, cited in the first paragraph, supra, to the Marshal with respect to the Kingdom as a whole, and required that the Marshal submit to the Minister of the Interior a quarterly report of accounts and such other matters relating to the police department as he deemed proper.
Act 8 of 1888 transferred control of the Marshal back to the Attorney General, and confirmed the Marshal as the Chief of Police of the Kingdom.

The Privy Council, authorized by the Act to Organize the Executive Ministries on October 29, 1845, was composed of the executive ministers and governors of islands serving as honorary members. With the King in Council, it received foreign policy documents and approved the declaration of embargoes, orders of nobility, cutting of timber and use of coral reefs, prices for the sale and leases of government land, audit of internal taxes, the budget, assessment and minting of coins, regulations, compensation of teachers and diplomatic agents, granting of letters patent of denization, and appointments of the local officials. Ministerial proposals were presented in the Privy Council. The duties of the Privy Council lapsed when the monarchical government was abrogated by the Proclamation of the Committee of Safety on January 17, 1893.

The reorganization of the government of Hawaii, which took place following statehood, placed 27 independent boards and commissions under the Department of Treasury and Regulation for administrative purposes. This permitted consolidation of many administrative and housekeeping functions at the Division level and permitted the individual boards to concentrate on their primary functions of examining and licensing. These boards and commissions are presently consolidated within the Professional and Vocational Licensing Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

The Public Utilities Commission was established by Act 89, Laws of the Territory of Hawaii, 1913.

In 1976 the Commission was placed under the administrative powers of the Department of Budget and Finance.

The 1900 Organic Act for the Territory of Hawaii abolished the Office of the Minister of Interior and empowered the Governor of Hawaii to appoint a Superintendent of Public Works. The Superintendent of Public Works succeeded to the powers and duties of the Minister of Interior relating to streets, highways, harbor improvements, wharves, landings, waterworks, railways, electric light and power, telephone lines, fences, pounds, brands, weights and measures, fires and fireproof buildings, parks and cemeteries, and other grounds and lands previously under the control and management of the Minister of Interior. The Superintendent also assumed the powers and duties of the Minister of Finance and Collector General of Customs relating to pilots and harbor masters.

The Reorganization Act of 1959 abolished the Office of Superintendent of Public Works and its functions passed on to the Public Works Engineer.