Ambrose Kanoealiʻi or Ambrose Kanewaliʻi Hutchison ( – July 17, 1932) was a long-time Native Hawaiian resident of the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement on the island of Molokaʻi who resided there for fifty-three years from 1879 to his death in 1932. During his residence, he assumed a prominent leadership role in the patient community and served as luna or resident superintendent of Kalaupapa from 1884 to 1897.
Early life
Ambrose Hutchison was born in Honomāʻele, Hāna, Maui, in 1856, the son of Ferdinand William Hutchison and Maria or Malie Moa, a Native Hawaiian woman. His father, originally from Edinburgh, was an influential politician during the reign of King Kamehameha V and served as president of the Board of Health during the early development and management of the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement. His mother died when he was young and his father left Maui for Honolulu to pursue a political career, leaving Ambrose and his siblings William and Christina in the care of their mother's relatives.
Hutchison was given at one month old to be raised by his mother's sister who was a kahuna known for herbal cures. He wrote, in later life, that he may have contracted leprosy from a man "with large ears and bloated face, swollen hands and feet", who his aunt had treated. Another possible source was a vaccination using the lymph fluid from the arm of another boy. From an early age, Hutchison was sent to boarding school in Honolulu under the auspices of the Anglican Archdeacon George Mason. At this time, the first symptoms of leprosy developed in 1868 when he was twelve years old and developed slowly until he became an adult.
His father and his sister Christina left Hawaii for Australia in 1875. Hutchison never mentioned his father by name in later life, possibly to shield him from the stigma of being related to a leper.
Life at Kalaupapa
In December 1878, Hutchison was arrested for being a suspected leper and detained at Honolulu's Kalihi Hospital for examination. Hawaiian law required anyone suspected of contracting leprosy to report for medical examination or face arrest. On January 5, 1879, the diagnosed Hutchison was sent to the leper settlement of Kalaupapa on the island of Molokaʻi to be isolated with others with the disease. He worked as chief butcher and beef dispenser and head storekeeper of the Kalawao store until 1884 when he was appointed as resident superintendent succeeding Clayton Strawn and Rudolph Wilhelm Meyer. Hutchison became the first government appointed superintendent of Native Hawaiian descent. Although Hawaiians had held the positions as luna or resident superintendent prior to 1884, they were all subordinate to Meyer and not trusted with financial affairs. From 1884 to 1890, he served alone in this post with the continued support of Meyer. Between 1890 and 1892, he served as assistant superintendent with Maui sheriff Thomas Evans and Evans' successor William Tell, the former head of Honolulu police. After 1892, Hutchison was reappointed as acting superintendent, a position he held until replaced by Board of Health official C. B. Reynolds after the death of his main supporter Rudolph Meyer in 1897. Hutchison was highly regarded by the Native Hawaiian patient community and the Board of Health in Honolulu. According to resident physician Arthur Albert St. Mouritz, he "displayed marked ability and highly creditable administrative powers for a man so young." In 1898, Hutchison and his wife along with more than seven hundred people at Kalaupapa signed the famous Kūʻē Petitions against the annexation of Hawaii to the United States.
During his residency on Kalaupapa, Hutchison worked with Father Damien, whom he had met on his arrival in 1879, and became one of the closest friends of the Catholic priest. Dr. Mouritz described the partnership of the two men and how they greeted new arrivals "steaming hot coffee and warm food". Their friendship lasted until the latter's death in 1889 and Hutchison was possibly one of the eight pallbearers at his funeral. Hutchison noted: