Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 4, 1 April 1986 — First Hawaiian Doctor lssue Stirs Debate [ARTICLE]

First Hawaiian Doctor lssue Stirs Debate

An article in the March issue of Ka Wai Ola O OHA stated that "... the late Dr. Thomas M. Mossman was the first person of Hawaiian ancestry to become a medical doctor". Brigadier General Frances Iwalani Mossman, the doctor's daughter and our source for that statement, says no one had ever questioned that elaim and she passed it along in good faith.

However, following publication of our story, Ka Wai Ola received several telephone calls indicating that the title of "First Hawaiian M.D." may actually belong to another doctor. Certainly, Dr. Mossman was one of the first Hawaiians to practice modern medicine in the islands. He received his Hawaii medical license (#99) on Oct. 24, 1929, according to Gen. Mossman.

However, the distinction of being the first Hawaiian medieal doctor in modern times may well belong to Dr. Alsoberry Kaumualii Hanchett, father of the late Episcopal Bishop E. Lani Hanchett and Hana Ranch Manager John Hanchett. Hanchett told us that Dr. Hanchett graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1908, practiced for two years in Rhode Island, then returned to Hawaii where he established a private practice and for many years also was City and County physician. Dr. Hanchett joined the Army in 1914, achieving the rank of Major. Following his discharge at the end of World War I, he established an office in Honolulu at the corner of Beretania and Punchbowl Streets. In 1929 or 1930, Dr. Hanchett moved his family to Molokai where he practiced until his death in 1933. Another Hawaiian pioneer in the field of medicine is Dr.

Kalei Kaonohi Gregory. Dr. Gregory was born in Kona, received his medical degree from Harvard in 1927 and served as resident physician and assistant superintendent at Chapin Hospital for Contagious Diseases in Providence, R.I. From 1945 until his retirement in 1975 at the age of 83, Dr. Gregory had a pediatric practice in Providence. After 70 years on the mainland, in 1984 he moved back to Kona where he lives today with his wife, their son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren.

There may be other candidates for the title of the first Hawaiian to be schooled in western medicine. State statistieian Robert C. Schmitt, writing in the Hawaii Medical Journal of October, 1981 , quotes legislation enacted in 1866 making it unlawful for "native as well as foreign physicians . . . to practice or reward, unless he shall first have presented to the Board of Health . . . evidence of his professional qualifications and good moral character and obtained a certificate of approval from said Board, and a license from the minister of the Interior".

In addition, Schmitt notes that on November 9, 1870, "Dr. Gerrit P. Judd opened Hawaii's first Medical School, with funds provided by the 1868 and 1870 legislatures. The student body numbered 10. The class completed its work in October, 1872, and the school closed". Ka Wai Ola is interested in hearing from any reader who has information about a Hawaiian physician licensed to practice in Hawaii before 1910 when Dr. Hanchett reportedly began his practice in Hawaii.