William Drake Westervelt

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William Drake Westervelt (circa 1916)

William Drake Westervelt (December 26, 1849 – March 9, 1939) was the author of several books and magazines on Hawaiian history and legends. He drew upon the collections of David Malo, Samuel Kamakau, and Abraham Fornander to popularize Hawaiian folklore in his Legends of Maui (1910), Legends of Old Honolulu (1915), Legends of Gods and Ghost-Gods (1915), Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (1916) and Hawaiian Historical Legends (1923).

Biography

Rev. William D. Westervelt was born in

Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1874 with a B.D. degree. Pastor of churches in Cleveland, Ohio and Colorado, he settled in Hawaii in 1899, marrying a missionary descendant, Caroline Dickinson Castle (1859–1941). After the Hawaiian Historical Society was re-formed, he served as the Corresponding Secretary starting in 1908.[1] He would later serve as treasurer and president.[2]

Westervelt's interest in

myths, legends and folk tales
are considered among the best of the English versions of a Hawaiian view of the sacred and profane.

Oberlin College bestowed an honorary Doctor of Divinity on Westervelt in 1926. He died at his Waikiki home in March 1939.

Castle family tree

References

External links

Media related to William Drake Westervelt at Wikimedia Commons