Death and two state funerals of Kalākaua

Aboard the U.S.S. Charleston 1890: (left to right) Colonel G. W. Macfarlane, King Kalakaua, and Colonel R.
H. Baker.

Kalākaua, the last king of Hawaii, died on January 20, 1891, while visiting in California.
President Benjamin Harrison ordered the United States Navy and United States Army to conduct
a state funeral in San Francisco. The funeral attracted an estimated 100,000 spectators who
lined the streets to watch the cortege pass. When the United States military escorted his body
back to Honolulu, no one knew Kalākaua had died. The homecoming celebration Honolulu had
been planning for their monarch was replaced by funeral preparations. He received a second
state funeral in the throne room of Iolani Palace, entirely in the Hawaiian language, and was laid
to rest at the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii. News reports stated that the Honolulu funeral cortege
was so massive it took 75 minutes for its entirety to pass any given point.

Death[edit]
King Kalākaua, the last king of Hawaii, sailed for California aboard the USS Charleston on
November 25, 1890. Accompanying him were his friends George W. Macfarlane and Robert
Hoapili Baker. The account given by his sister and heir-apparent Liliuokalani is that he told her on
November 22 that he intended to travel to Washington, D.C. to discuss the McKinley Tariff. She
had been bedridden three weeks with her own health issues, was already aware he was
suffering from ill health, and begged him not to go. In his absence, she once again was named
Princess Regent as she had been during Kalākaua's 1881 world tour.[1]
The King checked into the Palace Hotel on December 5.[2] During the next month in California, he
met with Hawaii's Minister to the United States Henry A. P. Carter, and traveled up and down the
coast visiting with friends.[3] On January 5, 1891 he suffered a stroke while visiting the olive ranch
of Ellwood Cooper outside Santa Barbara,[4] and returned to San Francisco. Kalākaua fell into a
coma in his suite on January 18. He died on January 20, surrounded by Macfarlane,
Baker, Claus Spreckels, Reverend and Mrs. J. Sanders Reed. Admiral George Brown, Charles
Reed Bishop, his handmaiden Kalua, and his valet Kahikina,[5] Mrs. Swan, Consul and Mrs.
David Allison McKinley, and Dr. George W. Woods, surgeon of the United States Pacific fleet,
Lieut. Dyer, Godfrey Rhodes, Judge Hart, Senator George E. Whitney, Mrs. Price.[6] The cause of
death, listed by US Navy officials was that the King had died from Bright's Disease (inflammation
of the kidneys).[7]
Newspapers in the United States were announcing it by the next day. The Evening Star in
Washington D. C. ran a 4-column coverage on his death, and a recap of his reign.[8] He
subsequently received two state funerals, one in San Francisco and the second in Honolulu. The
news of his death would not be known in Hawaii until his body arrived on January 29.

Funeral in San Francisco (January 22)[edit]

Kalākaua's body was embalmed at the mortuary of Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco,
where he lay in state.[9] Acting on behalf of President Benjamin Harrison, the United States
Navy and United States Army assumed full responsibility for funeral arrangements, including
guarding the casket inside the church. He was to be accorded full military honors, and the
military was given charge of transporting the body back to Hawaii.[10]
On January 22, the day of the funeral, all federal, state and municipal government offices closed,
as did many San Francisco businesses. General John Gibbon oversaw security, and San
Francisco police were brought in to handle the hoards of people who jammed the area around
the church in hopes of being allowed inside. San Francisco Mayor George Henry Sanderson was
in charge of arranging the invitations and requested that attendees meet at the Palace Hotel and
travel in groups to the services by carriage. Attendees responding to Sanderson's invitation were
heads of commerce, trade organizations, foreign and domestic government representatives of all
levels, trade unions, the court system on all levels, and representatives of civic, fraternal and
social organizations.[11]
Rev. E. B. Spaulding, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church read from 1 Corinthians15:20–55.
"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept."[12] Rev. J.
Sanders Reed conducted the services. At the end of the clergy messages, the choir sang the
hymn "Rock of Ages".[10]
In order to allow the funeral cortege to pass, police cleared a path through the streets, as an
estimated 100,000 spectators gathered on the sides. The Fourth United States Cavalry and the
Fifth United States Artillery led the cortege. Approximately 1,600 military men participated,
including the First Infantry, Fifth Infantry, Fourth United States Cavalry, Light Battery F of the
United States Artillery. The local Knights Templar fraternal organization drove the hearse, while
funeral attendees followed in 38 carriages. At the water-front, the casket was transferred to the
lighthouse steamer Madrona, which shuttled it to the USS Charleston. Gun salutes rang out from
the Presidio of San Francisco and Alcatraz Island, as the USS Charleston sailed out towards
Hawaii.[13]