Alexander Young

Alexander Young (December 14, 1833July 2, 1910) was a mechanical engineer and politician in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. He began as an apprentice for Alexander Chaplin & Co. in Glasgow, and then Anderson & Co. in London. He married Ruth Pearce in early 1860 and traveled to Vancouver Island on August 26, 1860, to construct a sawmill. The two (with one child) traveled to Hawaii in February 1865. They had nine surviving children. Young had operated a small foundry and machine shop in Hilo, Hawaii, with William Lidgate, and business expanded with the growth of Hawaii's sugar plantations. He moved to Honolulu around 1869 and bought the Honolulu Iron Works from Thomas Hughes, who had revived the business after a devastating fire in 1860. In 1875 Theophilus Harris Davies refinanced the Honolulu Iron Works and hired Young as manager. The two then organized the Waiakea Mill Company. Around 1900 he formed the von Hamm-Young Company. Principals were Young's son Archibald Alfred Young and son-in-law Conrad Carl von Hamm. An early project was the Alexander Young Hotel.