J Mabel Brown, Matawan Journal, Visited Hawaii (1928)

Schofield Barracks Salute (Honolulu Magazine)

J Mabel Brown and her sister went to Hawaii in 1928. There is a lengthy write up on pg 7 of the 4 May 1928 edition of The Matawan Journal. Part travelog, part history lesson, the three-column article has the occasional personal or local tidbit.

The sisters visited in Honolulu with Mr and Mrs Edgar Schanck, formerly of Holmdel.

Ms Brown tells an amusing story of taking the wheel of their chauffeured vehicle so that their driver could play them songs on his ukelele. She hadn't noticed that it was a powerful 12 cylinder car and she was totally unfamiliar with the terrain, but she was soon cruising along while the driver played for two hours.


They dropped in at Pearl Harbor. It was 13  years before the Japanese surprise attack, but already politics were surrounding the naval base there. Ms Brown reported, "The Federal government maintains a large army post with quarters for a division of 30,000 men at Schofield barracks and subsidiary forts. Here we spent a day, and a fine lot of men they are. The navy base at Pearl Harbor is one of the most discussed problems by our Government. There are also aviation fields and a powerful radio station."

Before they left Hawaii, the sisters met with Governor Wallace Rider Farrington. Ms Brown, editor of The Matawan Journal, found lots to talk about with the Governor, who was an "old newspaper man." She had a letter of introduction from Secretary of State Frank B Kellogg, which she carried at the insistence of Senator Walter Evans Edge, also a former journalist, but she didn't need it to get in to see the Territorial Governor. She also carried a letter of introduction from former Congressman Stewart H. Appleby, who had read about the sisters' trip in a piece in The Asbury Park Press.