Old Sugar Mill of Koloa - Demise

Demise

Ladd & Co. shut down in 1844 after a failed attempt to colonize the rest of the Hawaiian Islands. The Kōloa plantation was repossessed by the Hawaiian government and sold to Dr. Robert Wood, Hooper's brother-in-law, who ran it until 1874. In 1853 a steam engine was used to power a mill for the first time in Hawaii. Samuel Burbank developed a deep plow to increase production.

Koloa Agricultural Company was purchased by the Duncan McBryde family in 1899, who added it to their estate and the Eleʻele Plantation. Their agent was Theo H. Davies & Co. In 1910 Alexander & Baldwin became the agent, and would eventually buy out the other partners. The old mill was replaced by a much larger one to the east in 1912, which was acquired from the planned American Sugar Company plantation on Molokaʻi island. Frank A. Alexander managed the company from 1912 to 1937. Cedric B. Baldwin managed the company from 1938 until World War II, when he was killed in Iwo Jima. McBryde merged with the Grove Farm Company in 1948. The plantation was shut down in 1996. In 2000 Grove Farm was sold to Steve Case, whose grandfather A. Hebard Case had worked on the plantation. He paid US$25 million and assumed $60 million of debt, but was sued by other shareholders since his father had served as lawyer for the company. The lawsuit went to court but was dismissed in 2008.