In 1839, at age 13, James Campbell left his parents, turned his back on Ireland, and headed off to sea. After numerous harrowing ocean adventures, Campbell wound up shipwrecked on a South Seas island.
By the time he reached Lahaina, he was a proven survivor and well on his way to becoming a self-made man. In 1861, with money saved working as a carpenter, Campbell began his own sugar plantation — the first of many financial ventures.
Quick to understand the value of land in the Islands, Campbell eventually owned much of Lahaina, where he came to be known as Kimo-ona-milliona, or James the millionaire.
But Campbell had only just begun. Moving to Honolulu in the mid-1870s and taking a wife, Abigail Kuainelani Maipinepine, in 1877, he sired four daughters, acquired two ranches and bought huge tracts of seemingly worthless land along the 'Ewa plain.
On that land he successfully cultivated sugar cane by boring the first flowing artesian well in Hawai'i — ultimately making him one of the richest men and largest landowners in the Islands. The estate established upon his death is one of Hawai'i's largest private landowners and today is the prime mover behind residential and commercial developments in Kapolei.
Late in life, Campbell was brutally kidnapped in San Francisco. He escaped. His captors spent the rest of their lives in prison.
