By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Some of the best stories haven't been published. It's certainly true for the autobiography of former Attorney General Bob Fukuda's mother, Hisaya Hirashima Fukuda, who died at age 91 in 1982. She left behind a wealth of information about high society in Our Honolulu 100 years ago.

The part about Princess Abigail Kawananakoa being sweet on an attorney named Frank Thompson caught my eye. Thompson, a widower, must have been very eligible because quite a few women competed for him. He was a dashing character who drove a topless, four-seater car painted fire-engine red — a gift of E.J. Lord, who made a mint dredging the entrance to Pearl Harbor. Thompson was in the social whirl, a member of the fashionable Healani Rowing Club.

At this time, Hisaya had graduated from normal school at the head of her class. But she worked in the cannery because nobody hired Japanese girls for well-paying jobs. Thompson needed a nursemaid and companion for his 5-year-old son, Frank. After an interview, he hired Hisaya on the spot.

The job cast her into high society. Thompson paid her $4 a week for the snap job. He and his son lived in a suite at the Alexander Young Hotel downtown. No housework, laundry or help in the kitchen. Just take little Frank to school on the Rapid Transit. In the afternoon, they played with his toys or went visiting.

An old maid named Miss Powers lived across the hall. A terrible gossip, she knew everything about everybody at the hotel, the elite of the land.

One Friday afternoon, Hisaya took little Frank on the OR&L railroad to the Haleiwa Hotel to join his father. They drove back to Honolulu in his red car over the Pali. On one Sunday ride they got stuck in a mud puddle. Ten husky Hawaiians picked up the car and carried it to firm ground.

Sometimes they stopped on the way home at the Macfarlane mansion in 'Ahuimanu. Hisaya said Alice Macfarlane was in love with Thompson so she and her mother went all out to entertain them at dinner. The Macfarlanes had a Chinese cook.

Another lady sweet on Thompson was Princess Kawananakoa, who lived in a mansion on Pensacola Street. A taxi driver, George Beckley, was in love with Beatrice, daughter of the princess, Hisaya said. She wrote that the princess sent Beatrice to the Mainland so she couldn't be with George.

"Ah, yes, the Princess was very much in love with Mr. Thompson but was afraid to approach him directly," Hisaya explained. "So she elected to use me as a go-between." One day Hisaya suggested to him that he marry the princess. He gave her a disgusted look and said he'd never marry a kanaka.

Many families wanted to marry their daughters to white men. Hisaya said the 13 wealthy Afong daughters married white men. Frank Thompson eventually married the sister of William Roth, who took over Matson Lines from his father-in-law, William Matson.

Correction: Robert Fukuda was U.S. attorney in Hawai'i from 1969 through 1973. George Beckley, who was a descendant of a pioneer Island steamship captain, married Beatrice Campbell, one of the four surviving daughters of James Campbell. Beatrice Campbell was Princess Abigail Kawananakoa's sister, not her daughter. Information in a previous version of this column was incorrect.