Kauai court records saved …by prisoners? 1911.

RECORDS OF THE KAUAI DISTRICT COURT SAVED ONLY BECAUSE OF SOME PRISONERS.

In some news received from Kauai, it told of the saving of the records of the court of Kauai from being destroyed by fire on the night of the 14th, that being this past Friday, through the quick action of a prisoner sentenced for attempted murder.

At 11 o’clock that night, the desk of Judge C. S. Dole in the courthouse of Lihue was on fire; the cause of the fire is unknown. The courthouse and the court records within it were saved because of the quick action taken by some of the prisoners in the jail; if the jail was located far away, there would have just been a pile of ashes. The prisoner who noticed it and went to go save it was Jona Davis, a prisoner sentenced a day earlier for attempted murder; he was assisted by some other prisoners.

(Kuokoa, 7/21/1911, p. 6)

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke XLVII, Helu 29, Aoao 6. Iulai 21, 1911.