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Laysan King’s Kin Recount Family Tales 
By CHRIS KISSEL 
A reunion with her nine brothers and 
sisters brought back some childhood mem¬ 
ories of a very adventurous family for a 
former Honolulu woman who returned to 
her Island home after 27 years. 
Mrs. John James of San Francisco and 
her husband arrived March 21 on the Lei- 
lani with their friends, Captain and Mrs. 
Elbert Davis of Vancouver, Washington, 
where the captain is a river pilot on the 
Columbia River. ' | , 
Mrs. James, the former Eva Schlemmer, 
is the daughter of the late Max Schlemmer, 
known at the turn of the century as the 
“King of Laysan.” The four have been 
guests of various members of the Schlem¬ 
mer family who make their home’ here. 
BETWEEN VISITS they toured the Island 
of Hawaii and spent a week end with the 
Thomas Ungers of Hilo and tried some 
fishing at Kona. 
Adventure started at a very early age. 
in the Schlemmer clan, for when Max 
Schlemmer was 15 years old, he ventured 
to New York on his own in 1870 on a sailing 
vessel from Scheibenhardt, Germany, 
where he “grew up.” 
He loved the rolling seas and joined a 
whaling crew several years later and ar¬ 
rived in Honolulu in 1892. Eva’s father 
then took a trip to Kauai and married a 
daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. August 
Bomke, who also had migrated from Ger¬ 
many. They had three children, when the 
mother died. And he then married his 
widow’s younger sister, Therese, who was 
16 years old. 
MAX AND THERESE returned to Hono¬ 
lulu, where he was to represent a Honolulu 
firm which imported guano, a phosphate to 
enrich the soil. He was appointed, manager- 
of the Guano Industry in the early 1900's, 
which took him and his wife to Laysan in 
the Hawaiian Archipelago, 810 miles from 
Honolulu. 
With them on the sailing vessel were 
some Japanese workers, whom he hired, 
and enough supplies to last several months. 
The island was uninhabited except for mil* 
lions of birds which infested the island, 
mainly albatross, commonly known as 
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gooney birds. 
With Mr. Schlemmer’s pioneering spirit, 
they set up living quarters. He was loved j 
and respected by his young workers. They j 
called him the “King of Laysan,” for he j 
governed the island, was their counselor, j 
doctor, minister and friend. 
“The King had a terrific sense of humor,” 
recalls Mrs. James, “and was a good philos¬ 
opher when faced with difficulties.” 
“And there arose quite a few problems 
when they raised 15 children and our three 
half-sisters arid brothers,” Mrs. William 
Bredehoft, one of the daughters comment¬ 
ed. Nine members of the Schlemmer family 
live here and three on the Mainland. 
“Dad took the role of doctor and de¬ 
livered all of us except two children who 
were born in Honolulu,” Mrs. Bredehoft 
said’. 
She was born on Laysan and recalls a 
few trips back to Honolulu she made with 
her father. 
» 
ONE EXPERIENCE which was recalled 
at the family reunion was of their father’s 
departure from Laysan for Seattle to pick 
up a sailing vessel he had built. It was 
her maiden voyage. Mrs. Schlemmer and 
her four young children waited in Laysan 
for his return. Everyday they would walk 
to the beach to see if they sighted the ship. 
.“One morning we walked to the beach 
and saw a large sailing vessel wrecked on 
the coral reef just off the' coast,” Mrs. 
Bredehoft recounted. “It was Dad’s ship 
and even though we knew he was an ex¬ 
perienced sailor, he was the only one on 
the crew who couldn’t swim.” 
He was rescued by two Japanese crew 
members and there were no casualties. 
But the vessel.was a total loss and on board 
were food and supplies for three months. 
After the excitement was over, the chil¬ 
dren joined their father daily walking 
around the island searching for supplies 
which drifted to 1 shore. 
“It was like a treasure hunt,” Eric 
Schlemmer, an older brother recalled, who 
knows every inch of the island. In fact, 
he conducted a recent scientific trip there 
when a group of scientists came here from 
Washington, D.C. 
. IT WAS ONLY NATURAL to look through 
the family album and talk over early 
1 family experiences at the gathering, for 
Mrs. Bredehoft is writing an autobiography 
on her father entitled “King of Laysan.” 
When not writing, she has a busy schedule 
as school counselor to 1,550 Navy person¬ 
nel’s children at the Pearl Harbor Elemen¬ 
tary School. i 
Members of the family living in Honolulu ! I 
are Mrs. Frank J. Unger, Mrs. Henry Froeh- j f 
lich, Mrs. Albert Brown, Mrs. Donald How- : \ 
ell, Mrs. Bredehoft and brothers, Eric, | 
Pinkham and Norman. Another brother, j ■ 
Edward, lives in Kailua. 
Mr. ana Mrs. James got together Friday 
night with members of the family, their 
husbands and wives for an aloha dinner 
in the Chiefs’ Club at Pearl Harbor. Also 
honored were Captain and Mrs. Davis. 
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