 The Oahu Sugar Company ( also known as the Oahu Sugar Cane Plantation ) leased about 300 acres ( 120 ha ) from the John Papa ʻĪʻī estate ( after their purchase of the island in 1891 ) to harvest sugar in 1899 . The business was successful , and the company sublet land from Benjamin Dillingham on the <unk> 'o peninsula ( southeast of present <unk> ) to build a 12 @-@ roller mill and railroad . Sugarcane was grown and harvested on Ford Island with a network of aqueducts from freshwater reservoirs , transported to <unk> by barge and then by rail to the mills . 
