 Because of his father 's success in business and his mother 's descent from Hawaiian royalty , the Pitman family was considered quite prosperous and were host to the royal family when they visited Hilo . Besides being one of the leading merchants in town , his father also served the government as district magistrate of Hilo . Henry 's mother , Kinoʻole , had inherited control over much of the lands in Hilo and <unk> from her own father , and King Kamehameha III had granted her use of the <unk> of Hilo after her marriage . During Henry 's early childhood , the family lived in the mansion that Benjamin Pitman had built in 1840 , in an area known as <unk> , one of the favored resort spots of ancient Hawaiian royalty . The residence also became known as the Spencer House after Pitman sold it to his business partner Captain Thomas Spencer . The property later became the site of the Hilo Hotel , built in 1888 and torn down in 1956 . In the 1850s the family moved to the capital of Honolulu where Benjamin Pitman took up banking and built a beautiful two @-@ story house that he named <unk> ( " <unk> water " ) at the corner of <unk> and <unk> Streets . 
