This is a continuation of the research by my late sister, Bonnie Stevens, on the location and fate of Loch View Cemetery, in 2007.

Note: Many things have changed over the years. Tax Map Key numbers assigned to parcels of land in the area have changed, as have land uses. The Hawaiian Cemetery Association, which operated Loch View Cemetery and Sunset Memorial Park, was involuntarily dissolved by the state in 2010, state business registration records show.

One thing is clear. Government regulation of cemeteries was woefully inadequate over the past century. In a community where so many cultures honor their ancestors, this is rather shocking neglect.

BURIAL RECORDS

There are two books listing burials at Loch View Cemetery.

• One is the book compiled by the Cemetery Research Project in 1986 under sponsorship of the Hawaiian Historical Society, OHA, etc. with Nanette Napoleon Purnell as coordinator. Work by this group is considered the ‘definitive work’ in Hawaiian cemetery surveys. For most cemeteries this is a basic survey of STONES ON THE GROUND. If it’s not there to read – or if the surveyors could not read the stone – it is not included in the inventory. “Can’t read the stone” includes those stones marked using something other than western alphabet. Stones written in Kangi/Hanzi (Japanese or Chinese characters), for example, are specifically excluded. For Loch View Cemetery there are two lists in the Cemetery Project book. Part B is a very short list of 12 names and includes only stones found at the site. Part A, 562 names more or less, is drawn from records in the Hawaii State Archives and clearly states at each entry “grave no longer exists”. George Galbraith does not appear on this list.

• The second study is a typed Index of Loch View Cemetery burials prepared in 1991 by staff at the Hawaii State Archives apparently using the same records made available to the Cemetery Survey Project. In August 1961 (sic) the Hawaii State Archives received from Oahu Railway and Land Co. (OR&L) “several boxes of files” from the Hawaiian Cemetery Association/Loch View Cemetery aka Pearl City Cemetery and Lock View Cemetery. The index consists of 68 typewritten pages of burials, with an estimated average of 50 names on each page, suggesting 3000-4000 burials. In most cases, there is a death certificate number or equivalent and a removal permit allowing removal of the body from place of death to mortuary and/or place of burial. There are 32 “unknown” burials. These individuals have no known name, but most are identified with at least gender and age; for some there is also a death date. For 28 individuals there are disinterment permits, listed separately after the burial records. George Galbraith is named in the general index, but not in the disinterment list.

ON THE GROUND

• Hawaiian Cemetery Association owned Loch View Cemetery. Today they own nearby Sunset Memorial Park (see the note above).

• Someone at Williams Mortuary told me by telephone in 2007 that he knew at least one cemetery in the Pearl City area had been removed to build the H-1 Freeway, but he did not know if it was Loch View. The present owners of Williams Mortuary were not the owners when Loch View was removed, nor could they tell me when the removal happened or possible disposition of remains. A concrete bridge abutment at Waimano Stream on Kamehameha Hwy near Sunset Memorial Park is marked 1962. If Loch View Cemetery lost land due to highway construction, there is a more direct relationship between Loch View and the widening of Kamehameha Hwy than between Loch View and the construction of the H-1 Freeway. .

• The existing remains of Loch View Cemetery are on the Pearl Harbor (south) side of Kamehameha Hwy and Diamond Head (east) of the junction of Kamehameha Hwy., Waimano Home Road, and Lehua Avenue in Pearl City. It looks like a vacant lot Diamond Head of the Chevron gas station, except for the large stone cross, obviously once a grave marker, against the back fence. There is no parking at the site. Even allowing for property taken for widening of Kamehameha Hwy., there is no way that this little parcel could have accommodated more than 3000 burials.

• The existing Sunset Memorial Park on 3rd Street in Pearl City is owned by the Hawaiian Cemetery Association Ltd. and is bisected by Waimano Stream.

• Hale Mohalu, site of the former leprosy hospital, is at the end of 3rd Street and abuts Sunset Memorial Park.

• A large (11+ acre) parcel, TMK 97019035, lies between Hale Mohalu and the businesses fronting on Kamehameha Hwy. – including the parcel containing what is left of Loch View Cemetery. It is separated from Hale Mohalu by Waimano Stream. A bridge with a locked gate, accessible from the Hale Mohalu grounds, seems to provide direct access between Hale Mohalu and Kamehameha Hwy.