Walter M. Gibson

Walter Murray Gibson (January 16, 1822 – January 21, 1888) was an American adventurer and a government minister in the Kingdom of Hawaii prior to the kingdom's 1887 constitution.

Early life Gibson was born January 16, 1822, at sea between Gibraltar and England. He was christened on March 6 in England in Stamfordham, Northumberland, though he sometimes claimed to have been born in England. As a young man, he taught a school in Elbert County, Georgia, though the land later became a part of Hart County, Georgia. He spent his young adulthood in Anderson District, South Carolina. He was the captain of a ship and became involved in gunrunning in the Caribbean. Later, he was jailed in the East Indies by the Dutch on charges of fomenting rebellion, was sentenced to death, In 1859, he went to Utah Territory and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), persuading church president Brigham Young to allow him to establish a Mormon colony in the Pacific.

LDS Church colony Gibson arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1861, and founded a colony among members of the LDS Church who were already in the islands. He purchased land on the island of Lanai with funds from the colony in his own name, but was excommunicated after an investigation by the church regarding accusations of preaching false doctrine, maladministration of the colony, and embezzlement of church funds. and began angling for secular political office and power.

Political career

In 1873, Gibson started his own newspaper to extol his virtues in English and Hawaiian called the Nuhou. His acquiring of the Malay language during his time in Java led to a notable Hawaiian translation of the Hikayat Hang Tuah epic, Ke Kaao o Lakamana ('The Story of Laksamana') published in this newspaper from November 1873 to April 1874. He successfully ran for the House of Representatives in 1878 as a candidate of the King's Party, allying himself with King Kalakaua and portraying himself as the "voice of Hawaiians". In 1880 he bought the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (forerunner to the Honolulu Advertiser).

In 1882, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, and then in May 1882, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hawaii by King Kalākaua. He also served on various boards, as Attorney General, Minister of the Interior, and Secretary of War.

Personal life On July 10, 1838, the sixteen-year old Gibson married the twenty-year old Rachel Margaret Lewis (1818–1844), daughter of Jesse and Hannah Lewis. Prior to their marriage, Gibson had been a boarder with the Lewises in their home in Sandy Springs, outside of Pendleton, South Carolina. They had three children: John Lewis (1838–1877), Henry (died 1893) and Tallulah (later changed to the Hawaiianized Talula, 1843–1903), who married the Sheriff of Maui, Frederick H. Hayselden and became Talula Hayselden. Rachel died in 1844, possibly from the cold conditions of the family's cabin floors or complications from her last pregnancy.

Death Though the 1887 Bayonet Constitution dislodged Gibson from all cabinet positions, undying loyalty to Hawaiian sovereignty kept him in the crosshairs of pro-annexationists, a majority of which were either American or New England missionary descendants. Animosity peaked and Gibson was abducted to a Honolulu wharf where he escaped lynching by conceding to forced exile and promptly retreated to San Francisco in July 1887. Convalescing there between the Occidental Hotel and St. Mary's Hospital the penultimate Prime Minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom succumbed to pneumonia and a private battle with tuberculosis January 21, 1888.

His body was returned to Hawaii for a funeral and burial.

In film Sam Neill played Gibson in the 1999 film Molokai: The Story of Father Damien.