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 1850 - 1913 |
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| Birth |
26 Sep 1850 |
Apia Samoa  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Died |
21 Jul 1913 |
Monte Carlo |
| Person ID |
I23 |
JMC Forsayth |
| Last Modified |
20 Feb 2016 |
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| Notes |
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Saturday 26 July 1913 p 16
SOUTH SEA PIONEERS.
DEATHS OF MR. AND MRS. KOLBE.
Cable news has been received from the Riviera of the deaths of Mrs. E. E. Kolbe of Ralum, New Britain, and her husband, Mr. Paul Kolbe, two of the most prominent planters and traders of the South Seas.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kolbe had gone to Europe in search of health. Mr. Kolbe died on the 15th inst. from Bright's disease and heart failure, and his sudden decease evidently accelerated Mrs. Kobe's death, which took place from heart failure on the 21st inst.
"Queen Emma," as she was affectionately called throughout the Western Pacific, was one of the most notable figures in South Sea circles. She was born in Samoa, being the daughter of Mr. J. M. Coe, the first American
Consul there.
After her first marriage with Mr. Forsayth she engaged in trading pursuits in the Pacific, finally settling in New Britain, in its earlier days, long before the establishment of any settled Government, being, in fact, the pioneer of planting in the Western Pacific. One of her earlier achievements was the rescue of the survivors of the ill-fated "Marquis de Ray" expedition at New Ireland.
These unfortunate castaways owed their lives entirely to "Queen Emma's" high spirited and prompt action in rescuing and conveying them to her home at Mioko, Duke of York Group, where she cared for them until they were sent to Australia, where many
of them still reside.
Mrs. Kolbe was the founder and head of the firm of E. E. Forsayth, of Ralum, New Bri- tain, whose trading interests and plantations extended throughout the German New Guinea protectorates. She married Mr. Paul Kolbe about 1895, and in 1910 she sold out her inter- ests to the Forsayth Gesellschaft, and retired from business, settling in Mosman. She has left one son, Mr. J. M. Forsayth, of Neutral Bay.
QUEEN EMMA.
Amongst the most successful traders of an early period were the German South Sea skipper Hernsheim and Mrs. Forsayth commonly known as "Queen Emma." Starting in a small way, they gradually widened their nets of operation, scattering traders over a considerable part of the Archipelago, and founding respectively the now so important trading concerns "Hern- sheim and Co." and "Forsayth and Co.," both of which in a material degree have contributed to the development of German New Guinea. Hernsheim as well as Queen Emma, accumulated immense wealth, while the latter, in addition, gained fame.
Probably no name is so well known in the Pacific as that of Queen Emma, and it can truly be said that her life is one of the most interesting romances of the South Seas. The Samoan race is renowned-the men for their harmonious build, the
women for their natural charm-and thus
it needs no apology that the young Ameri- can Consul, Mr. Coe, shortly after having taken up his duties in Apia, fell in love with a little Samoan maiden. Emma was their second child. She is said to have grown up to be the cleverest and prettiest girl in Samoa. After having been educated in San Francisco she married a Britisher, Mr. Forsayth, by whom she had a son. Later on she fitted out a schooner and went in search of pastures new. Passing through the Solomon Islands, she arrived at the Duke of York Group, where she com- menced trading with the natives. Some time later she went to New Britain, and, in spite of the ferocity of the native popu- lation, effected a landing close to where Herbertshohe later on sprang into being. From the chiefs, she bought, for a few trivialities in the usual kanaka trade, an extensive area of land, the purchase of which Emma registered at the office of the American Consul in Sydney, and upon which in time arose the first cocoanut plantation in German New Guinea. When the Germans took possession of the Archi- pelago they recognised Mrs. Forsayth's legal right to all land acquired by her. Subsequently Mrs. Forsayth married the handsome German ex-officer, Herr Kolbe, in years much her junior. In 1912 Queen Emma sold most of her interests in the Island to a syndicate in Hamburg for £175,000. Her achievement in the pos- session were recognised by the German Government and colonists in New Britain giving her a most magnificent "send off" before she, with her husband, embarked upon what proved to be their final trip to Europe. Both died in Monte Carlo with but a day between them. The mystery surrounding their sudden death probably never will be disclosed. A remarkable career was thus ended, to which was given the finishing touch by their bodies being cremated, and their ashes interred at the same place in New Britain where Emma, 33 years earlier, had landed a young and charming woman.-"Rabaul Record."
The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946) Saturday 2 August 1913 p 32
Cable news has been received from the Riviera of the deaths of Mrs. E. E. Kolbe. of Ralum, New Britain; and her husband, Mr. Paul Kolbe, two of the most prominent planters and traders of the South Seas.. "Queen Emma," as Mrs. Kolbe was affec tionately called throughout the Western Pacific, was one of the most notable figures in South Sea circles.
Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 - 1918) Thursday 20 June 1918 p 6
Visiting Melbourne is Mrs. Kaumann, a wealthy woman who has an extensive cocoa nut plantation near Rabaul, New Britain. This visitor is a descendant of Queen Emma, the Samoan, who married a rich merchant, and who afterwards made herself a large fortune by obtaining grants of land from the natives, and establishing plantations and trading stations in the islands of the North-West Pacific. In a wonderfully pretty bungalow, decorated all the year round with the bougan villea creeper, and perfumed by the frangl panni blossoms in the garden, Mrs. Kaumann frequently entertained the late Sir Samuel Pethebridge and his staff officers. Last week she called on Lady Pethebridge to" express her undying regret that the wise adminis trator was lost to the inhabitants of New Britain.
The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954) Saturday 23 October 1954 p 2 (Note: some of the detals in this account apear incorrect and in in conflict with other facts about Queen Emma's life)
POOR QUEEN EMMA
by GEORGE BLAIKIE
THE American Government selected Mr. Coe in the early 1850s as a young man likely to succeed in its consular service, and sent him to Samoa.
He was a steady type of chap designed by nature to resist the complications often brought on by swaying palms, grass skirts, and the fermented juice of the fruit of the coconut. I cannot tell from this distance whether Mr. Coe was affected to any de- gree by the palms and the liquor, but what the grass skirts did to him makes classic reading in the annals of the US Consular Service. Before anyone, includ- ing Mr. Coe himself, knew what was to do, he had taken to himself a dusky Samoan wife. Hav- ing one, he later got him- self another one. From the second union sprang six little females, who ran round in sarongs and spoke with an Ameri- can accent. The pick of the bunch was Emma. Even when she was very small, the oldest inhabitants agreed that she was the prettiest creature who had ever lived in Samoa. Emma was sent to America for a mite of education, and returned home, aged 15, a most sophisticated young crea- ture. Every male from 15 to 80 wanted to marry Emma. Wealthier individuals were prepared to give Mr. Coe as many as a dozen cows and a couple of hundred coco- nuts in return for his fair daughter. Penniless citi- zens were eager to kidnap her. None of these proposi- tions appealed to Mr. Coe, who plotted to get Emma a rich European husband. He had no great bother arranging for a planta- tion owner, Mr. Forsayth, to marry Emma, in 1871, when she was 16. THIS was a very satisfactory arrangement for Mr. Forsayth, but as far as Emma was con- cerned, it was a poor show. The marriage quickly became wobbly. You can gauge something of the situation, perhaps, by the fact that Mr. Forsayth took to fishing as a hobby. This hobby proved fatal to Mr. Forsayth. One day, when out on the deep, he fell overboard and stayed there. Emma's father, Mr. Coe, immediately rushed forward to organise a second respectable mar- riage, but his so beautiful daughter neatly fore- stalled him. A rugged ex-miner from New Zealand named
Farrell had opened a saloon in Samoa. He had none of the late Mr. For- sayth's respectability and had no interest in deep- sea fishing. But he did have a quick eye for a pretty young widow with an inclina- tion to roguishness. The pair soon had Mr. Coe rushing round pro- testing violently. He felt that his poor, foolish, and innocent little daughter needed protection from the wicked New Zealand saloonkeeper. No one at the time gave a thought to providing protection for the rugged Farrell. But then, at the time, no one dreamed the power hidden behind Emma's beautiful smile. Before Farrell knew it, he found that he had sold his saloon, invested in a small steamer, and was trading with the na- tives of the Duke of York Islands. Sharing his hardships and the profits was Emma. In 1879, the steamer sailed into Rabaul Har- bor. Emma liked the
look of the place and told Mr. Farrell that they would settle there. From this moment, the tradition of “Queen Emma of New Britain” began to grow. She established the first coconut plantation in German New Guinea. The natives bowed before her and Mr. Farrell wasn't far behind. She imported large quantities of pink cham- pagne and, if anyone worth entertaining turned up, she would throw a series of lavish parties that would stop Rabaul dead for days, even weeks. Even if no one turned up, she would still run her parties. It didn't take her long to convince herself that she was indeed a queen. She imported a team of tough native boys from Bougainville to work for her. A local native woman called at the “palace” selling taro roots. Queen Emma didn't want any that day and sharply told the visitor to go disap- pear into the jungle. The woman didn't wish to leave empty-handed and, in retiring helped herself to a portion of washing off the “royal” clothes line. Emma, in running a business-like eye over her domain, noted the gap on the line. She shouted for her big, tough Solomon Islanders. Several of them came running. “I have been robbed,” she told them. “A wicked, local, native woman has stolen some clothing off my line. You go catch that woman. The great Queen Emma had spoken. Her slaves hotfooted away into the bush. She got her piece of linen back. The story soon tra- velled widely in New Bri-
tain. There was wide pity in the jungles for the local woman who had been caught by the Solo- mon Islanders. A few afternoons later, Queen Emma felt she had earned a little siesta. Emma awoke suddenly. Her room was full of fierce-looking jungle types. She tried to scream, but a big, black hand clamped over her mouth. Vines were bound round her ankles and wrists. A thick piece of bam- boo was produced and passed between her shackled wrists and ankles. At a sign, bearers stepped forward and took hold of the ends of the pole. Emma was lifted from her elegant bed and, in the manner of a
captured pig, carried out of her palace. The significance of the transport was obvious. Emma was destined for the cookpot as punish- ment for the sentence she had passed on the thiev- ing woman taro seller. The last of her captors were disappearing into the jungle when Mr. Farrell turned up by chance and demanded his wife's release. The raiders dropped their dinner and accele- rated away to parts un- known. Queen Emma thus was saved to continue her peculiar destiny. Farrell died about 1890. Emma immediately set- tled her crown more squarely on her head and began to really go ahead. She turned on bigger pink champagne dinners than ever. She developed a fleet of trading ships that traded widely throughout the Pacific. To aid her in her enterprises, she brought a team of her relatives over from Samoa. Her all-time peak was reached around 1900. She was then 45, tremendously wealthy and still beautiful. Men were still her willing slaves, as they had always been. Then, as is always the case in a story like this, a man turned up who didn't start performing back flips when she fluttered her eyelashes. He was Herr Kolbe, an ex-German Army officer. Kolbe was young, calcula- ting, an expert with horses and women and flat broke. Queen Emma was en- tranced by his looks. She immediately flashed him her No. 1 eyelash flutter. Herr Kolbe, whose sophistication had been deve- loped in the best salons in Europe, regarded her as though she were a speckled trout. His look- expertly calculated - stopped just short of a sneer. Quite soon she was almost out of ammunition and Herr Kolbe was still standing fast. Before coming to grips with that galling problem, she decided to make one more effort. She jingled her money-bags. Ha! What was this! Did she see the proud Prussian give ground just one millionth of a millimetre? Experimenting further along these lines, she soon found that she had the perfect secret weapon in her bank. Herr Kolbe was a man of considerable honor. He could not share her life outside the blessings of the married state. Herr Kolbe then raised another point of honor. He could not become married to a woman while the shadow of a debt hung heavily over his so beautiful blonde head. Queen Emma's business sense began to collapse. She appreciated his predicament and settled all his debts. Now only one thing stood between Herr Kolbe and marriage. That was the small matter of a marriage settlement. Emma broke down again and agreed to leave him half her wealth. From there on, Herr Kolbe found the going fairly easy. IF the marriage was to be a proper one, it would have to take place in Berlin. Queen Emma sold all her interests to a Hamburg syndicate for £175.000 (maybe half a million pounds in modern money). If only shrewd Pappa Coe had still been around he might have been able to make a few illuminating comments of what seemed to be cooking without Queen Emma's knowledge. But he was absent, and Herr Kolbe was doing the advising. The couple were wed in Berlin in 1912. Even if the marriage hadn't been made in heaven, its foundation hard cash was secure. Indeed, for a year or so, things went quite nicely. Then, when Mr. and Mrs. Kolbe were having fun at Monte Carlo, a very young, beautiful, and determined German woman arrived to create a problem for them. Just what happened is far from clear. It is evident that the German girl considered she had considerable claim on Herr Kolbe. It is possible that she considered herself his wife. Seemingly Herr Kolbe was not prepared to haggle over the matter. He preferred to let bygones be bygones. The present was good enough for him. I gather the German lady then shot him on the general pretext that he had done her wrong. All this was too much for Queen Emma, who died a few months later. It seems a pity, in a way, that young Mr. Coe wasn't sent to some unromantic consular post in, say Lapland, rather than to exotic tempting Samoa. Then there wouldn't have been any Emma to get into bother. NEXT WEEK - “The Third Ambassador”.
SOUTH SEA PIONEERS.
DEATHS OF MR. AND MRS. KOLBE.
Cable news has been received from the Riviera of the deaths of Mrs. E. E. Kolbe of Ralum, New Britain, and her husband, Mr. Paul Kolbe, two of the most prominent planters and traders of the South Seas.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kolbe had gone to Europe in search of health. Mr. Kolbe died on the 15th inst. from Bright's disease and heart failure, and his sudden decease evi- dently accelerated Mrs. Kobe's death, which took place from heart failure on the 21st
inst.
"Queen Emma," as she was affectionately called throughout the Western Pacific, was one of the most notable figures in South Sea circles. She was born in Samoa, being the daughter of Mr. J. M. Coe, the first American
Consul there.
After her first marriage with Mr. Forsayth she engaged in trading pursuits in the Pacific, finally settling in New Britain, in its earlier days, long before the establishment of any settled Government, being, in fact, the pioneer of planting in the Western Pacific. One of her earlier achievements was the rescue of the survivors of the ill-fated "Marquis de Ray" expedition at New Ireland.
These unfortunate castaways owed their lives entirely to "Queen Emma's" high spirited and prompt action in rescuing and conveying them to her home at Mioko, Duke of York Group, where she cared for them until they were sent to Australia, where many
of them still reside.
Mrs. Kolbe was the founder and head of the firm of E. E. Forsayth, of Ralum, New Bri- tain, whose trading interests and plantations extended throughout the German New Guinea protectorates. She married Mr. Paul Kolbe about 1895, and in 1910 she sold out her inter- ests to the Forsayth Gesellschaft, and retired from business, settling in Mosman. She has left one son, Mr. J. M. Forsayth, of Neutral Bay.
Queen Emma Of The South Seas
Queen Emma Eliza Coe was born Sept, 26 1850 in Apia, Samoa. Queen Emma is well known in the South Pacific for establishing vast coconut plantations in Papua, New Guinea, in the 1880s.
Soon after birth, the Malietoa family, in Solemn ceremony, named Princess Tui Malietoa Coa, of the royal line. This gave her title to certain lands, and to status and privileges to which she clung all her life. She inherited the warm blood of her highborn Polynesian mother and the shrewdness of her American father, Jonas M. Coe in the 1850s. In her early life and loves, her Polynesian traits prevailed, but in her mature years, when she became Queen Emma of New Guinea, Coe qualities generally shaped her extraordinary career.
Born of Samoan royalty and an American trader, Queen Emma's tale mirrors European quests in the Pacific in the 19th Century. Emma was to rise to prominence, an awed queen of the European South Pacific. A princess, Emma was second of twenty children to American Jonas Coe and his Samoan wives. Her father was anointed the American commercial agent in Samoa in the 1850s. Emma was blessed with connections, a good education and jaw dropping good looks. Stunning, the young Emma was also headstrong, choosing her men and her future with shrewdness. The people of the area were in awe of her power in the early days of the European Pacific and accolade her "Queen."
Emma came of age surrounded by her large family as European influence was permeating Samoan culture. On her father's knee she learned commerce. It was time now also for her schooling and soon marriage. To finish school Emma was sent to Sydney and later San Francisco.
In 1869, at age 19, Emma was home in Samoa with her formal education complete. Expected to marry, she showed her first signs of fierce independence, that became her hallmark. She thought marriage silly. Yet, with her beauty and her allure, European men in Samoa thought otherwise. It didn't help that she was known to perform "Samoan style." Concerned, her father ordered her to marry respectable, handsome, American Captain Henry James Forsayth. She became pregnant straight-away. It was an unhappy marriage. Captain Forsayth died in New York in 1873. A widow at 23, Emma kept his surname and her American Passport.
In 1874 Emma Forsayth-Coe was a nubile 23. Into the picture strode Colonel Albert Barnes Steinberger, sent by President Ulysses S. Grant to check the progress of American interest in Samoa. After many affairs with local girls, Emma included, he managed to secure from Emma some land in "a pillow arrangement," much to Jonas Coe's anguish. It was prime land overlooking Pago Pago Harbor. Emma had agreed to forfeit it to Colonel Steinberger, who was keen on making sure American interests were well served. He departed with Emma's deed in fist. Stupidly smitten, Emma then followed Steinberger back to America.
In 1875 Steinberger returned with a letter from the president that he was to become the American Consul of Samoa. Emma was with him on the return voyage, which strengthened his stead, as she was a Samoan princess. Steinberger met with Emma's grandfather, King Malietoa, and the Samoans were happy with the guns that Steinberger presented them with. This strengthened his rule. But the Colonel's rule was short. Other Europeans despised the American, who had appeared suddenly with Princess Emma to establish American sway. A revolt against Colonel Steinberger started to brew.
An Englishman named Foster was first to make the feelings of the other Europeans apparent. The jealous Europeans kidnapped King Malietoa, sending spies to nearby Fiji with letters of dissent against Colonel Steinberger. The Samoans, however, were very happy with Steinberger, who had started to pass laws forbidding Europeans from grabbing Samoan lands. The whole affair came to a violent head. With other Europeans, backed by troops from British Fiji, they captured and deported both Americans - Steinberger and Jonas Coe - defeating the king and installing British rule. Emma had to flee. She left with another of her lovers,
Captain Thomas Farrell. The Steinberger affair was a coup d' etat that saw Emma move to New Britain for a life that was to see her remembered as "Queen Emma of the South Seas."
Emma went into business with Capt. Farrell in the Bismarck Archipelago (northeast of Papua, New Guinea, in the South Pacific), where they made extensive investments in plantations. Emma was 28 when she arrived in the Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain, after fleeing Samoa. Papua, New Guinea, is blessed with a ethereal climate and rich soils - ideal for growing coconuts for copra (dried coconut) and oil. In 1878 Emma and Farrell were the first Europeans to set foot in the area. They established their base, at first in the Dukie of York Islands, between New Ireland and New Britain. Then they moved onto the mainland, new present - day kokopo. Savagery surrounded them, with cannibals lurking everywhere and fetid malarial jungles in the background.
Emma witnessed the success of copra plantations in her native home of Samoa so she decided now the time was ripe to bring copra to New Britain. Captain Farrel was unsure as it takes eight years for a coconut tree to bear fruit. They had been in the area already for three arduous years. If it was not for new blood arriving from Germany to build Rabaul they might have given up. Simple trading of goods with the new migrants was working but the real wealth was in the rich soils and the promise of copra bounty. It was Emma's masterstroke when she planted the first of her copra plantations that was to see her retire to wealth.
After Farrell's death, Emma alone managed the property and commercial enterprises with great ability and signal success. Simple trading with Germans in the area, however, was not enough for headstrong Emma. She dreamed of a day when vast coconut plantations would bring her opulence. She secured lands from friendly cannibal chiefs, who were gradually coming under the spell of civilization, eschewing their flesh-hungry ways.
Three thousand acres of plantations on the prime land of the Gazelle Peninsula were hers. Rabaul was now the capital of German New Guinea, with thousands pouring into the place each day and grand buildings being built. In 1880 marauding parties came into the area capturing their victims alive. To prevent escape, they cut off their feet, searing the stumps over a fire so they would not prematurely bleed to death. In this, lingering agony those destined for the cannibal feast were thus kept until required, then tortured until merciful death overtook them. At one village a man and wife from enemy territory had been captured. The man was promptly killed and the wife added to the chief's harem. At the wedding feast she helped eat her husband. People-hungry cannicals circled Emma in her quest to establish her fortune.
In New Ireland there arrived several hundred colonists from the ill-fated expedition of Marquis de Ray. The ships landed about three hundred miles south of Emma's trading post on New Ireland's southern tip. A pure disaster, Emma had to deal with the consequences. Marquis de Ray had promised his countrymen a new start in a place he knew nothing about. He had taken monies, loaded ships and sent them sailing for distant New Ireland. Conditions were grim. Starvation, malaria and cannibals ravaged those who came to this god forsaken land. Emma was the only person who could help. She rescued a few who managed to survive and dealt with the painful truth that was now reaching Europe. The affair was a turning point in the region's history as it brought New Ireland and New Britain to the attention of European authorities and a cannibal tabloid hungry public.
By 1895 queen Emma had acquired in various islands over a hundred and fifty thousand acres of plantations. Her products were sold at large profit in Australia and Europe, transported in a fleet of her own vessels. Waited on by a thousand servants, she possessed the largest tropical mansion in the South Pacific, sponsored legendary parties frequented by the king and Lily Langtry, who bathed in champagne, and had the honor of serving a twenty-eight course dinner on golden crockery to the German Navy.
In her final years Queen Emma had established herself as a monarch and fabulously rich trader. With her second husband and son she made a tour of the world in 1898, being received with marked attentions. As if by some uncanny twist of good luck, and a demonstration of amazing intuition, she sold all in 1913 for several million pounds cash. She retired to gorgeous Mosman, Sydney. A year later Germany was brought into World War I. Australia invaded the Gazelle Peninsula requisitioning Emma's former lands. She died on July 21, 1913, in Monte Carlo, after a devastating car accident with her then husband August Kolbe of Stade, Germany, who was 15 years her junior.
She married (1), at Apia, Samoa, Oct 27, 1869, Henry James Forsayth, born at Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, son of Capt. William and Sarah (Ely) Forsayth; he was a mariner and died on Long Island New York, in 1873. Children Amy Rose Forsayth born at Apia, Sept 15, 1870, died there January 5, 1875; Jonas Mynderse Coe Forsayth born Apia, June 14, 1872, was educated in Europe and was involved in the management of his mother's interests in Ralum, Bismarck Archipelago.
She married (2), August Carl Paul Kolbe, born at Stade, Germany, July 5, 1865, son of Felix and Lina (Stolting) Kolbe. He was formerly a Lieutenant in the German service, and after marriage was involved in the management of the plantations in the Bismarck Archipelago. They had no children.
FATHER: JONAS MYNDERSE COE Born 12 Feb 1823 in Troy, Rensselaer County. NY. USA.
MOTHER: LE 'UTA MALIETOA Born Jan 1829 in Salesatele, Samoa.
Marriage 1 Henry James Forsayth. Born in Mauritius.
Married 27 Oct 1869 in Apia, Samoa.
Children: 1. Amy Rose Forsayth born 15 Sept 1870 in Apia, Samoa.
2. Jonas Mynderse Coe Forsayth born 14 June 1872 in Apia, Samoa.
Marriage 2 August Carl Paul Kolbe. Born 5th July 1865 in Stade, Germany.
Married in Samoa.
(We have investigated Queen Emma's place of rest.....and have successfully communicated with her. Queen Emma is Jeanette's mothers Great cousin).
ID: I5518
•Name: Emma Eliza Coe
•Prefix: Queen
•Sex: F
•Birth: 26 SEP 1850 in Apia,Samoa
•Death: 21 JUL 1913 in Monte Carlo,Monaco
•Note:
Queen Emma Eliza8 Coe (Jonas Mynderse7, Edward Morris6, Rev. Jonas5 D.D., Hon. John4, Lieut. Samuel3, Capt. John2, Robert1) was born Sept. 26, 1850, in Apia, Samoa. Queen Emma is well known in the South Pacific for establishing vast coconut plantations in Papua, New Guinea, in the 1880s. Pacific Publications, Sydney, Australia, in 1973 published R. W. Robson's book "Queen Emma: The Samoan-American Girl who Founded a Commercial Empire in 19th Century New Guinea."
Soon after birth, the Malietoa family, in solemn ceremony, named her Princess Tui Malietoa Coe, of the royal line. This gave her title to certain lands, and to status and privileges to which she clung all her life. She inherited the warm blood of her highborn Polynesian mother and the Yankee shrewdness of her American father, Jonas M. Coe. In her early life and loves, her Polynesian traits prevailed; but in her mature years, when she became Queen Emma of New Guinea, Coe qualities generally shaped her extraordinary career.
Born of Samoan royalty and an American trader, Queen Emma's tale mirrors European quests in the Pacific in the 19th Century. Emma was to rise to prominence, an awed queen of the European South Pacific. A princess, Emma was second of twenty children to American Jonas Coe and his Samoan wives. Her father was anointed the American commercial agent in Samoa in the 1850s. Emma was blessed with connections, a good education and jaw dropping good looks. Stunning, the young Emma was also headstrong, choosing her men and her future with shrewdness. The people of the area were in awe of her power in the early days of the European Pacific and accolade her "Queen."
Emma came of age surrounded by her large family as European influence was permeating Samoan culture. On her father's knee she learned commerce. It was time now also for her schooling and soon marriage. To finish school Emma was sent to Sydney and later San Francisco.
In 1869, at age 19, Emma was home in Samoa with her formal education complete. Expected to marry, she showed her first signs of fierce independence, that became her hallmark. She thought marriage silly. Yet, with her beauty and her allure, European men in Samoa thought otherwise. It didn't help that she was known to perform "Samoan style." Concerned, her father ordered her to marry respectable, handsome, American Captain Henry James Forsayth. She became pregnant straight-away. It was an unhappy marriage. Captain Forsayth died in New York in 1873. A widow at 23, Emma kept his surname and her American passport.
In 1874 Emma Forsayth-Coe was a nubile 24. Into the picture strode Colonel Albert Barnes Steinberger, sent by President Ulysses S. Grant to check the progress of American interests in Samoa. After many affairs with local girls, Emma included, he managed to secure from Emma some land in, "a pillow arrangement," much to Jonas Coe's anguish. It was prime land overlooking Pago Pago Harbor. Emma had agreed to forfeit it to Colonel Steinberger, who was keen on making sure American interests were well served. He departed, with Emma's deed in fist. Stupidly smitten, Emma then followed Steinberger back to America.
In 1875 Steinberger returned with a letter from the president that he was to become the American Consul of Samoa. Emma was with him on the return voyage, which strengthened his stead, as she was a Samoan princess. Steinberger met with Emma's grandfather, King Malietoa, and the Samoans were happy with the guns that Steinberger presented them with. This strengthened his rule. But the colonel's rule was short. Other Europeans despised the American, who had appeared suddenly with Princess Emma to establish American sway. A revolt against Colonel Steinberger started to brew.
An Englishman named Foster was first to make the feelings of the other Europeans apparent. The jealous Europeans kidnapped King Malietoa, sending spies to nearby Fiji with letters of dissent against Colonel Steinberger. The Samoans, however, were very happy with Steinberger, who had started to pass laws forbidding Europeans from grabbing Samoan lands. The whole affair came to a violent head. With other Europeans, backed by troops from British Fiji, they captured and deported both Americans - Steinberger and Jonas Coe - defeating the King and installing British rule. Emma had to flee. She left with another of her lovers, Captain Thomas Farrell. The Steinberger affair was a coup d'état that saw Emma move to New Britain for a life that was to see her remembered as "Queen Emma of the South Seas."
Emma went into business with Capt. Farrell in the Bismarck Archipelago (northeast of Papua, New Guinea, in the South Pacific), where they made extensive investments in plantations. Emma was 28 when she arrived in the Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain, after fleeing Samoa. Papua, New Guinea, is blessed with a ethereal climate and rich soils - ideal for growing coconuts for copra (dried coconut) and oil. In 1878 Emma and Farrell were the first Europeans to set foot in the area. They established their base, at first in the Duke of York Islands, between New Ireland and New Britain. Then they moved onto the mainland, near present-day Kokopo. Savagery surrounded them, with cannibals lurking everywhere and fetid malarial jungles in the background.
Emma witnessed the success of copra plantations in her native home of Samoa so she decided now the time was ripe to bring copra to New Britain. Captain Farrell was unsure as it takes eight years for a coconut tree to bear fruit. They had been in the area already for three arduous years. If it was not for new blood arriving from Germany to build Rabaul they might have given up. Simple trading of goods with the new migrants was working but the real wealth was in the rich soils and the promise of copra bounty. It was Emma's masterstroke when she planted the first of her copra plantations that was to see her retire to wealth.
After Farrell's death, Emma alone managed the property and commercial enterprises with great ability and signal success. Simple trading with Germans in the area, however, was not enough for headstrong Emma. She dreamed of a day when vast coconut plantations would bring her opulence. She secured lands from friendly cannibal chiefs, who were gradually coming under the spell of civilization, eschewing their flesh-hungry ways.
Three thousand acres of plantations on the prime land of the Gazelle Peninsula were hers. Rabaul was now the capital of German New Guinea, with thousands pouring into the place each day and grand buildings being thrown up. In 1880 marauding parties came into the area capturing their victims alive. To prevent escape, they cut off their feet, searing the stumps over a fire so they would not prematurely bleed to death. In this lingering agony those destined for the cannibal feast were thus kept until required, then tortured until merciful death overtook them. At one village a man and wife from enemy territory had been captured. The man was promptly killed and the wife added to the chief's harem. At the wedding feast she helped eat her late husband. People-hungry cannibals circled Emma in her quest to establish her fortune.
In New Ireland there arrived several hundred colonists from the ill-fated expedition of Marquis de Ray. The ships landed about three hundred miles south of Emma's trading post on New Ireland's southern tip. A pure disaster, Emma had to deal with the consequences. Marquis de Ray had promised his countrymen a new start in a place he knew nothing about. He had taken monies, loaded ships and sent them sailing for distant New Ireland. Conditions were grim. Starvation, malaria and cannibals ravaged those who came to this godforsaken land. Emma was the only person who could help. She rescued a few who managed to survive and dealt with the painful truth that was now reaching Europe. The affair was a turning point in the region's history as it brought New Ireland and New Britain to the attention of European authorities and a cannibal tabloid hungry public.
By 1895 Queen Emma had acquired in various islands over a hundred and fifty thousand acres of plantations. Her products were sold at large profit in Australia and Europe, transported in a fleet of her own vessels. Waited on by a thousand servants, she possessed the largest tropical mansion in the South Pacific, sponsored legendary parties frequented by the king and Lily Langtry, who bathed in champagne, and had the honor of serving a twenty-eight course dinner on golden crockery to the German Navy.
In her final years Queen Emma had established herself as a monarch and fabulously rich trader. With her second husband and son she made a tour of the world in 1898, being received with marked attentions. As if by some uncanny twist of good luck, sheer acumen and a demonstration of amazing intuition, she sold all in 1913 for several million pounds cash. She retired to gorgeous Mosman, Sydney. A year later Germany was brought into World War I. Australia invaded the Gazelle Peninsula requisitioning Emma's former lands. She died July 21, 1913, in Monte Carlo, after a devastating car accident with her then husband August Kolbe of Stade, Germany, who was fifteen years her junior.
She m. (1), at Apia, Samoa, Oct. 27, 1869, Henry James Forsayth, b. at Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, son of Capt. William and Sarah (Ely) Forsayth; he was a mariner and d. on Long Island, NY, in 1873. Children: Amy Rose Forsayth, b. at Apia, Sept. 15, 1870, d. there Jan. 5, 1875; Jonas Mynderse Coe Forsayth, b. at Apia, June 14, 1872, was educated in Europe and was involved in the management of his mother's interests at Ralum, Bismarck Archipelago.
She m. (2), August Carl Paul Kolbe, b. at Stade, Germany, July 5, 1865, son of Felix and Lina (Stolting) Kolbe. He was formerly a lieutenant in the German service, and after marriage was involved in the management of the plantations in the Bismarck Archipelago. They had no children.
R.W. Robson, "Queen Emma: The Samoan-American Girl who Founded a Commercial Empire in 19th Century New Guinea" (Sydney, Australia: Pacific Publications, 1973) ISBN 085807012X
•Change Date: 18 FEB 2010 at 18:42:04
Father: Jonas Mynderse Coe b: 12 FEB 1823 in Troy,Rensselaer County,NY USA
Mother: Le'uta Malietoa b: JAN 1829 in Salesatele,Samoa
Marriage 1 Henry James Forsayth b: in Mauritius• Married: 27 OCT 1869 in Apia,Samoa
Children
1.Amy Rose Forsayth b: 15 SEP 1870 in Apia,Samoa
2.Jonas Mynderse Coe Forsayth b: 14 JUN 1872 in Apia,Samoa
Marriage 2 August Carl Paul Kolbe b: 5 JUL 1865 in Stade,Germany •Married: in Samoa
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Saturday 19 September 1953 p 7
Queen Of The Islands
By SIDNEY J. BAKER
THE resemblance between the lives of the Pacific's two Queen Emmas is, in some ways, so close that their stories deserve to be told side by side. It is not so much that they were both named Emma or were queens, but that each in her own way, helped to change the course of Pacific history.
An important point of similarity between them is that neither Emma of Hawaii nor Emma of New Britain was a queen in her own right.
Emma of Hawaii was the granddaughter of one of the Pacific's first beachcombers an English sailor named Young who had been abandoned by his ship. Among the children with whom Young endowed Hawaii was a daughter named Fanny, who married George Naea, a native chief. Emma Naea was born to them on January 2, 1836.
New Britain's Emma also had beachcombing antecedents. Her father was an American named Jonas Coe who, in 1853, set out from San Francisco for the Australian goldfields.
When his ship called at Apia, (Samoa), Coe lost his interest in gold. Among his offspring was a brown-eyed half-caste named Emma. Jonas subsequently found himself a job as American consul at Apia and, in due course, be- came a respected local figure.
Records say that both Emmas were beautiful, intelligent, charming. Both were given an American education, Emma of Hawaii at the first school established by U.S. missionaries in Hawaii, the other Emma in San Francisco.
By another coincidence, both girls were married when they were 20, the honours going to Emma of Hawaii, who made a match with a drunken libertine named King Kamehameha IV. Emma Coe married a British trader named William Forsayth, who is reputed to have had an earnest interest in alcohol.
FROM this stage the similarity between their lives is less evident, for Queen Emma of Hawaii dedicated herself to the service of others, while Emma Forsayth was doggedly devoted for most of her life only to herself.
Where one gave her energies to the social development of her people, to the establishment of hospitals and improvement of education in Hawaii, the other sought little more than gratification of her personal whims and pleasures. Which probably explains why Emma Forsayth tired of her husband after a year or two of marriage and ran away with an ex-New Zealand miner named Thomas Farrell, who owned an Apia hotel.
They settled first in the Duke of York group, a collection of islands lying between New Britain and New Ireland. In 1880, they moved to New Britain, and settled on Blanche Bay, close to where Rabaul now stands. There they commenced the planting and trading which ultimately led to Emma's vast
wealth.
Tom Farrell is reputed to have died about 1890.
While doubtless a good businessman, Farrell lacked Emma's intelligence and shrewdness.
In the early 1880s, Germany and Britain were taking interest in the New Guinea group, with the odds in favor of Germany since Whitehall refused to be bustled. Emma stepped in with a business venture which came to be known as the German New Guinea Development Company.
Although it was not entirely responsible for German coloni- sation of areas known as Kaiser Wilhelmsland (North-east New Guinea), Neu Pommern (New Britain), Neu Mecklenburg (New Ireland) and Neu Lauenburg (Duke of York Islands), it hasten- ed this colonisation. And this colonisation, in its turn, cost many Australian lives after the outbreak of World War 1.
Emma was never a woman to trifle with small deals. She lusted after notability and power. Into her Development Company were roped no lesser figures than the German Kaiser and his brother, Prince Henry. With such encouragement German capital was quickly forthcoming.
As Emma had had foresight to purchase large areas of land from the natives in exchange for trinkets, is was scarcely likely that she could fail to benefit from this German interest in colonial expansion. Reports have it that one stretch of country near where Rabaul now stands she bought for a box of trade goods. Tanu or Mortlock Island became hers for 5lb. of tobacco, worth about 10/. Native chiefs in the French Islands sold her the whole group for £50.
EMMA was something of a colonial pioneer in another way. She opposed German tactics of ill-treating the natives. She became their protector, an arro- gant, tempestuous protector at times, but opposed to physical cruelty. It was the first big step on the way to her apotheosis as
a queen.
By the middle of the l«90s Emma was undeniably a power.
She had brought many of her relatives from Samoa to join her in her business operations. Her trading schooners ranged over the north-west Pacific. Her bungalow was crowded with suitors, admirers, friends and enemies, who, whatever their own feelings or whatever Emma's feelings towards them, found her home a gay nodal point in the wilderness of New Britain.
Many men, wealthy and other- wise, tempted her to leave the island. They promised her the charms of Europe, homes on the Riviera, court life in Berlin. But Emma refused. Why, she asked, should it be necessary to go out into the world when the world came to her door?
There was another and more important reason, of course, why she did not go. She was a half caste; and she felt in advance the shame and humiliation of curious European eyes. Here, in New Britain, she was a jewel in her own setting. Abroad . . . no, she shook her head. She preferred to remain.
As she grew older her hair whitened. By the time she was 45 it was a thick white crown, contrasting with her olive skin and the intense brown of her
eyes.
Traders no longer laughed when they called her Queen Emma. The tradition had been established. The title had been earned in terms of hard cash, for she was immensely rich. The scale of entertainment at her bungalow became fabulous; meals of interminable courses, the choicest wines of France, gold-inlaid plate from the China coast, tapestries from India and Arabia, thick carpets, a special cooling system, books and bric- a-brac. She accepted them as a normal part of her life, just as she accepted the overtures of in- numerable admirers.
She might have ended her life in the islands if she had not fallen in love.
He was a German army cap- tain, nearly 15 years her junior, who had been drafted for a few years' service in Neu Pom- mern. He was as handsome as the hero of a novel, his dress impeccable, his manners perfect.
Being a man of good taste in matters where others' feelings were concerned, he refrained from mentioning that he was al- ready engaged to a German girl whose quarterings included a trace of German royal blood.
As Captain Heinrich Kolbe was a man of considerable means. Emma was assured that he was not interested in her for her money alone. In the New Year of 1910, to the accompaniment of a fireworks display and native festivities, Queen Emma became Frau Kolbe, thereby ensuring (though it was not apparent at the time) that she would not die of old age.
Emma had always set herself against leaving her beloved island. Not even the knowledge that the Emperor and Empress were interested in her, that not- able German families whose heirs or relations had been her guests would welcome her, that her wealth would insulate her against the hoi polloi, could spur her de- sire to leave.
But Herr Kapitan Kolbe had other ideas. When, at the end of 1911, his term of service in Neu Pommern was completed, told Emma that he would take her to Europe. She accepted his decision with little protest.
Emma opened negotiations for the sale of her interests in the islands. These were brought by a Hamburg syndicate for £ 175,000; Emma was now worth about £500,000.
In Berlin, their home was suitably magnificent. Emma found that her expectations of shame because she was a half-caste were unfounded. She enjoyed the favour of the Emperor and Em- press and, as a consequence,
people who mattered in the im- perial court.
The years passed ... 1912, 1913. Early in June, 1913,
she and her husband set off to the Riviera to dodge the oppres- sive Berlin summer. They visit- ed Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo, where they lived in an ex-
quisite world of wines, society, sunshine and roulette wheels.
THEY were days full of music and laughter, a last fling at happiness as the world blundered into war.
As "the Queen," Emma Kolbe had become a figure among Europe's social elite. Her photo graph appeared in illustrated papers, often in company with her husband.
It so happened that one of
these happy photographs came into the hands of a woman who had been a former friend of Cap- tain Kolbe. In fact, she had been engaged to him. It so hap- pened also that she was holiday- ing on the Cote d'Azur.
Perhaps it was something less than a coincidence that one day she happened to meet Captain Kolbe in a secluded lounge of the Hotel Monaco. After a brief con- versation, they went out and en- tered a carriage which was wait- ing nearby.
Now, whether Emma heard of this meeting by accident or
whether her husband told her he was tired of being the spouse of an aged queen when there were younger females in the world, will never be known.
The fact remains that, fo?? days before Kaiser Wilhelm ?? out to win the world, Captain Heinrich Kolbe, ex-officer of the Imperial Army, was shot through the head in his hotel suite and apparently died instantly. Frau Emma Kolbe was also shot through the head, but took 16 hours to die.
In view of the fact that Europe had played her falsely, as she had once feared it would, it was per- haps justice that Emma's ashes should have been sent back to New Britain.
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