James Bicknell Castle

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James Bicknell Castle (November 27, 1855 – April 5, 1918) was a Hawaiian businessman who lived during the Kingdom, Republic, and Territory of Hawaii. He was born in Honolulu to Samuel Northrup Castle and Mary Tenney Castle. He went to Punahou School and then attended Oberlin College in Ohio.

Castle helped grow the family business, Castle & Cooke, in sugar and railroad work. In 1898 he gained control of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company from Claus Spreckels and later sold it to Alexander & Baldwin for a large share of their stock. This move led to a lawsuit from the plantation’s former manager, William J. Lowrie. He also bought large tracts of land, including Kaneohe Ranch, and played a significant role in various public roles.

He served as an officer in the Kingdom of Hawaii army in 1890, worked for the Bureau of Immigration, and was acting Auditor General in 1891 and Collector General of Customs from 1893 to 1897. In 1897 he went to Washington, D.C., as secretary of the Hawaiian delegation to lobby for annexation, at the request of Lorrin Andrews Thurston. In the years that followed, he tried to attract white laborers to Hawaii, including a failed Russian labor project organized by Peter Demens that cost him about $30,000.

Castle built a large home called Kainalu near Diamond Head and helped keep the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co. afloat financially. He married Julia Matilda White on November 2, 1879; she lived from 1849 to 1943. They had several children, including Harold Kainalu Long Castle (1886–1967), who expanded the family business and donated land for schools, and two sons who died young, Nelson Northrop (1885) and Kenneth Kingsbury (1888).

James B. Castle died on April 5, 1918, at age 62. Two days later, Benjamin Dillingham died; the two men were connected through marriage and business. They are buried in the cemetery at Kawaiahaʻo Church, near the place where Castle was born. James B. Castle High School and the Castle Medical Center are named in his honor.