Joseph Kaiponohea ʻAeʻa

Joseph Kaiponohea ʻAeʻa (June 22, 1882 – November 14, 1914) was the adoptive son of Queen Liliʻuokalani under the Hawaiian tradition of hānai. He was considered her favorite hānai son.

Biography He was born on June 22, 1882, to Joseph Kapeau ʻAeʻa and his wife Kaheo ʻAeʻa. After his failure, Wilcox chose part Native Hawaiians: E. Vivian Richardson, who declined the nomination, and later Clarence Kumukoa Lyman, who became the first Native Hawaiian to attend West Point.

ʻAeʻa worked as a stenographer and clerk in the Honolulu clerk's office. In 1909, he was named in the queen's deed trust as a beneficiary in which she willed him Kealohilani, her Waikiki residence, and the fishery grounds of Hamohamo. He never married or had children. While at the Waikiki home of Kealohilani, Kaipo died on November 14, 1914, at the age of thirty-two. The cause of death was Bright's disease. Following a funeral service at St. Andrews Cathedral, he was buried the following day at the upper Manoa cemetery. Too ill to attend the funeral, Liliʻuokalani remained in at Washington Place in mourning for her hānai son.