Father Kaiheʻekai Parents Kaiheʻekai | Mother Namahana | |
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Spouse Jesse Crowningburg
Paul Kamai Issue William Charles Keʻeaumoku Crowningburg
Elizabeth Keomailani Crowningburg Taylor
Albert Edward Kameeiamoku Kamai Died 16 May 1899, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States Children Albert Edward Kameeiamoku Kamai Places of burial Lunalilo Mausoleum, Kawaiahao Church and Mission Houses, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States | ||
Miriam Auhea Kekāuluohi Crowningburg Kamai (c. 1839–1899) was a high chiefess during the Kingdom of Hawaii. She was a cousin of King Lunalilo and namesake of his mother Kekāuluohi, however was rarely referred to as Kekāuluohi II.
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Ancestry
Born in 1839, Auhea's parents were the High Chief John Harold Kaiheʻekai and High Chiefess Namahana. Kaiheʻekai was the son of Hoʻolulu, son of Kameʻeiamoku, one of the royal twins (with Kamanawa) who advised Kamehameha I in his conquest of the Hawaiian Islands. Hoʻolulu and his brother Hoapili were chosen to conceal the bones of King Kamehameha I in a secret hiding place after his death and her family have become the traditional kahu (guardians) of the royal burial sites. Kaiheʻekai's mother was Charlotte Halaki Cox, whose father lent his name to Keʻeaumoku II, the Governor of Maui. Through this great grandfather Captain Harold Cox, Auhea was either one-eighth English or American descent. Her mother Namahana was the daughter of Peleuli, daughter of High Chief Kalaʻimamahu, half-brother of Kamehameha I. Her grandmother was the half-sister of Kuhina Nui Kekāuluohi thus making her a second cousin of King Lunalilo. It was alleged that she was betrothed to Lunalilo but eloped instead with Jesse Crowningburg. After Lunalilo's death during his short reign as King, Auhea was considered to have a claim to the throne herself. In fact, her descent from a collateral line of the House of Kamehameha made her granddaughters possible claimants to the Crown Lands of Hawaii during the Hawaiian Territorial days.
Marriage and descendants
Auhea married Jesse Crowningburg (a German-American settler in Hawaii), sometime before 1859. He served a tax collector for Lahaina and Wailuku. They had two children: William Charles Keʻeaumoku Crowningburg (died 1881) and Elizabeth Keomailani Crowningburg (1859–1887). Another daughter Lydia Kalola died at Lahaina on November 21, 1859, at the age of eight months and twenty-seven days. Their marriage ended in divorce. On January 20, 1873, she remarried to Paul Kamai, a maternal uncle of Helen Manaiula Lewis Isenberg and her half-sister Abigail Kuaihelani Campbell. They had a son named Albert Edward Kameeiamoku Kamai or Charles Harold Kameeiamoku-Kaiheekai, who died young.
Auhea's descendants survive today through her first two children. Her maternal grandson William Edward Bishop Kaiheʻekai Taylor (1882–1956), who Bernice Pauahi Bishop unsuccessful attempted to hānai (adopt), would later serve as a trustee for the Lunalilo Home. Taylor would succeed the Kaheas', descendants of Auhea's aunt Kahinu-o-Kekuaokalani Beckley, as the kahu (caretaker) of the Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla in 1947, serving till his death. All subsequent kahu of Mauna ʻAla have been descendants of Auhea and her ancestor Hoʻolulu except for Taylor's widow and Hawaiian kumu hula ʻIolani Luahine.
Later life and death
After the death of her cousin Lunalilo, Kalākaua was elected as the new Hawaiian monarch in 1874. The new king and Auhea shared a common ancestor in Kameʻeiamoku. However, from the start, Kalākaua and his siblings were openly challenged by Hawaiians loyal to Queen Emma, the widow of Kamehameha IV and a collateral descendant of the Kamehamehas in her own right. Wishing to quiet oppositions in the Hawaiian community to the new reigning family in regards to their genealogy, Auhea along with Ruth Keʻelikōlani openly acknowledged the House of Kalākaua. In later life, Auhea became the kahu (caretaker or guardian) of the Lunalilo Mausoleum, her cousin's personal family tomb on the grounds of the Kawaiahaʻo Church. The aging chiefess witnessed the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the establishment of the Republic of Hawaii and finally Hawaii's annexation to the United States in 1898. High Chiefess Auhea died in Honolulu on May 16, 1899. In acknowledgement of chiefly status, she was buried in the lot outside the vault of Lunalilo's Mausoleum. Her grandson William Bishop Taylor is also buried near the mausoleum. After her death, her cousin High Chiefess Maria Beckley Kahea, the kahu of Mauna ʻAla since 1893 and another scion of the Hoʻolulu line, replaced her as kahu of the Lunalilo Mausoleum. Hoʻolulu Street, near Kapahulu, Honolulu, was named by Auhea after her ancestor.