"J.S. Gillis, Kamaaina, from the days of the Gay Nineties and known to hundreds of old timers as “Jack”, sits on the lanai of his Mc Donald Hotel* cottage and frets away the days. He isn’t so happy about his life, although he can still laugh and become eager in telling about the olden days. Down in his heart he is mad, fighting-mad, and there is nothing nature will let him do about it. Some years ago he was injured in an accident, and now he is practically paralyzed from the hips down. He doesn’t mind the inconvenience so much. His gripe against life is that now, when he should be doing so much, he can’t do anything that seems to be of a worthwhile and patriotic nature, except buy War Bonds. “Of all the times in the world to have this happen to me.” he growls. “ There is a war to be fought and I could be doing a man’s work.

He brought his bride here in the early days, to whom four children were born on the Island. One, Miss Dorothy Gillis, is employed by the Oahu Railway and Land Company. Another, young Douglas Ivan Gillis, is a candidate for representative from the Fourth District- and Jack wishes he could be out turning a few political tricks among the old timers of other days in behalf of his son.

He loves Hawaii and has seen the Island grow and prosper. Waikiki in his early days here was, he says, made up of duck ponds and swamps. In those days Sans Souchi , run by George Lycurgus, now presiding at the Volcano House was a mecca as was Henry Alemy’s Waikiki Tavern. The latter in those days could only be reached by horse and buggy, or Pain’s tram cars, which were drawn by two mules.

When Mr. Gillis first came to the Island in 1893 he joined the Provisional Guard and remained in this organization until the Annexation. He served with such men as Sanford B. Dole, (Interesting commentary obtained from the Hawaiian Public Library: "While the annexation of Hawaii by the United States occurred on August 12, 1898, the subject held the attention of the US government for several years, and was fiercely debated in Congress and back on the islands themselves, with many claiming that the annexation was solely to benefit the financial interests of Sanford B. Dole, the legendary "Sugar King.") later the first governor of Hawaii and with Colonel Soper(Gent in the derby above), Harry Fisher, Arthur Coyne and others who all were pioneer business men.

During some of these years Mr. Gillis worked for W.C. Peacock in the wholesale and retail liquor business ( It has been said that he was a bootlegger at one time.) , which was situated next to the Mc Innery Clothing Store.

At that time, he says, Fort Street had few business establishments, some of them being the J.W. Mc Donald Blacksmith Shop, the Wheelrite owned by W.W. Wright, father of the late Mayor Fred Wright and a few of the Kamaaina places such as C. Brewer and Company, H.F. Wichman, American Factors and a few others.

In those days, he related, June 11- Kamehameha Day, was always a holiday of prime importance and almost every citizen went out to Kapolani Park for a community Laua, and to the horse races in buggies and hacks.

He built several houses in the Manoa District and looks forward with pride on its growth from the two small cottages to the community of the present. Mr. Gillis also worked for the City and County as a pipe inspector during the administrations of Mayor Wilson, the late Charles Arnold and Fred Wright.

He believes in the future of Hawaii and of America, but he is down right disgusted with fate for crippling him up when, he says, there is so much that every citizen, humble or great should be accomplishing for home and community.

And each day he looks forward to those children of his coming by with newspapers, books and other gifts to brighten his long hours of just sitting along that lanai-fuming and fusing, and sometimes doing some rugged cussing."

* The Mac Donald Hotel has been mentioned before by various members of our family and I suspect one of our relatives might have owned it.

Jack Mc Adam, son of John, and nephew of my grandmother, was one of a group of the first five boys in Kings County to be drafted into WWl. He was married at the time and exhibited a great many entrepreneurial skills. He, at various times, managed the local opera house, billards' parlor and a skating rink.Prior to leaving for Camp Lewis, Washington, the town gave them a lavish dove and roast pig banquet. Jack can be seen directly in back of the roast pig.

“September 7—Tonight the City of Lemoore did honor to five Kings County boys who leave Sunday for Camp Lewis: Jack Mc Adam, Ivor Ford Tarrey, Lemoore; C. T. Biddleand R.Evans, Hanford. One hundred guests attended. After dinner, dancing was held in the streets, lasting 'til midnight and featured Shetaquas and Jennings’

A Tent Show played that night and made up a song about Jack's gallantry. John McAdam expressed the spirit of the boys when he said, "Uncle Sam called me to go and we are going to war. If I am brought back, I want to be brought back in that...," pointing to "Old Glory."

The day following the dinner the boys marched down the main drag to the railroad station where they got the train to Camp Lewis. They were wildly cheered along the route.

Jack went on to exhibit considerable gallantry through two bitter battles, St. Michiel and The Argonne. He reached the rank of sergeant in the Wild West Division and was later singled out for special recognition by General Pershing and, then San Francisco Mayor, Rolph."

(There is an interesting story connected with the auto shown in the picture above. This was a local taxi and it got a lot of use. Hanford was “dry” and Lemoore was “wet” so the good old boys from Hanford would come over to Lemoore on the train and usually missed their ride back and, therefore, were in need of this hack.)

Last month I received this fascinating letter from Cousin Francis nee Mc Donald Santos de Dios who lives in Sacramento. She was down in Chalome, which is in East San Luis Obispo County, visiting cousins.
Dear Bill,

When Grandpa (Francis Mc Donald) was out in the back country he scraped his initials on a rock with the date 1907. We thought the location was lost when Buster Twisselman died. But it turns out he told his daughter, Jill, and she told her Uncle Raymond Twisselman. We had been out about 4 hours when Raymond pulls up and says, "You know, I think those initials may be on the back side of that rock." You could have knocked us over with a feather. Sure enough - there they were. Only the "9" in the year is easily visible but the initials are in great shape and Kodak will love me. I took a lot of pictures. I attach two of them. It is very hard to get to this place and I can't imagine going again. What a special day seeing my grandfather's petroglyph
Francis

(The letters R MD are scratched in black and are in the SW quadrant)

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