Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory

Chapter 24. Entitled to Every Consideration: Mr. McVeigh and Dr. Goodhue

281 24 Entitled to Every Consideration­ Mr. McVeigh and Dr. Goodhue three weeks after he became superintendent of Kalaupapa in April 1902, Jack McVeigh wrote that three baseball teams were practicing and a series of Kalaupapa League games had been scheduled with a $20 prize for the winning team. Six weeks after arriving at Kalaupapa, he commented to J. S. B. Pratt, president of the Board of Health, “Everything is quiet here. All Horse race crazy.”1 Within nine weeks, he wrote to Pratt that he had taken the problem of “swipe drinking” in hand: “We have had so much swipe drinking lately with the usual fights thrown in that the decent people in the settlement of which I believe I am one had to keep inside our respectable homes or be insulted. Well I put it up to the Police department to either make a round up or resign. Result 19 arrests made.”2 In later years, when the costs of Kalaupapa were questioned, McVeigh commented,­ Of course, this is a mighty lot of money to be asking for, but these people are not segregated for their own benefit. They did not petition the territorial­government to send them here that they might live at the expense of the taxpayers of the territory. . . . I submit, therefore that they are entitled to every consideration that the territory can give them.3 282   chapter twenty-four Ambrose Hutchison had finally succeeded in getting rid of C. B. Reynolds. In March 1902, he had written to the attorney general and made severe charges against Reynolds relating to Pilipo Mikila, who had been kept in jail under inhumane conditions despite his worsening illness. Hutchison noted that Pilipo had died as “the result of wrongful detention and heartless treatment” and noted that this should call forth “the severest censure of some one responsible for this inhuman­ act.”4 While Dr. Oliver claimed that no one was to blame, Father Wendelin also Jack McVeigh in front of his house on Staff Row. A. Law Collection. Entitled to Every Consideration    283 protested­the situation, and Reynolds and Dr. Oliver were discharged for official neglect. Despite­protests from the bishop and residents of Kalaupapa, Father Wendelin was also removed from the settlement for what was referred to by Reynolds as “interference with his management.”5 In contrast to Reynolds, who did not live full-time at Kalaupapa, Jack McVeigh took up residence and stayed for twenty-three years. He was a man of determination who used his sense of humor and likeable, informal nature to get things done. McVeigh knew the workings of the Board of Health, having been employed by them for ten years prior to his appointment at Kalaupapa. His familiarity with members of the board facilitated his dealings with them, for they were friends to whom he could turn for favors in his attempt to improve the quality of life at Kalaupapa. In August 1902, he wrote to “Chip” Charlock, secretary of the Board of Health, with regard to securing prestamped envelopes and concluded by saying, “Hustle them along old man.”6 Later that month he wrote to Pratt asking him to let a man named Wilson come to Kalaupapa as a kokua to his wife: “I want you to assist this proposition along. Have it turned over to me. I require him here bad, he is an a. no. 1 Blacksmith something which we want here in the worst way. I am confident we can get a lot of good honest work out of him. If you don’t kokua this you don’t eat venison next time you come up.”7 A few days later, he again wrote to Pratt: “When is Dr. Goodhue coming up? These good people want to know what you mean having them without a Physician.­. . . If you don’t send up a Doctor next week send me up that Latin Dictionary—­ so I can give proper names in causes of death.”8 Upon Goodhue’s arrival four days later, McVeigh commented, “Dr. Goodhue arrived here all O.K. and got into Harness at once. . . . I am very much pleased with him and shall do everything I can to help him along in his work.”9 Characterized as a “rough diamond” by his granddaughter Marie May,10 Dr. Goodhue with assistants.­ A. Law Collection.­ 284   chapter twenty-four McVeigh never hesitated to speak his mind. He...