Valdemar Knudsen
Norwegian sugar cane plantation pioneer on west Kauai, Hawaii (1819–1898)
Valdemar Emil Knudsen (August 5, 1820 – January 5, 1898) was a sugarcane plantation pioneer on west Kauai, Hawaii.
Background
Valdemar Emil Knudsen was born in Kristiansand, in Vest-Agder county, Norway. He was college-trained in botany and science in Copenhagen. Knudsen was successful both as a publisher in New York City and as a merchant during the California gold rush of the 1840s. He learned the languages of the local Indians and helped them with advice in legal matters. In November 1849, he was part of the California Constitutional Convention.
Career
Knudsen arrived in Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii in 1856. He managed the Grove Farm Plantation which was then owned by Hermann A. Widemann. The Kingdom of Hawaii contracted with Knudsen for the removal of armaments from Russian Fort Elizabeth, east of the town of Waimea. In a letter sent to Honolulu, Knudsen listed an inventory of the guns at the fort following a survey made in 1862.
The public source identifies “Valdemar Knudsen” as norwegian sugar cane plantation pioneer on west Kauai, Hawaii (1819–1898). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Valdemar, Knudsen and Norwegian.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7909373. VIAF identifies the subject as 228143852. The Library of Congress control number is nb98052477. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1820, 1898, 1849 and 1856.
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This entry incorporates text from “Valdemar Knudsen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.