WHEREAS, Ira Barnes Dutton, better known as "Brother Joseph of Molokai" was born on April 27, 1843, in Stowe, Vermont, and spent his formative years in Janesville, Wisconsin; and

WHEREAS, after the Civil War broke out, Ira Barnes Dutton enlisted in the Union Army in September of 1861 as part of Company B of the 13th Wisconsin Infantry and was discharged in 1866 as the military was downsized after the war; and

WHEREAS, Ira Barnes Dutton was an expert horseman, showed leadership and administrative skills, and advanced rapidly in the military hierarchy; and

WHEREAS, Ira Barnes Dutton served in the Quartermaster Corps and was mentioned with respect by many Generals of the Union Armies; and

WHEREAS, in June of 1864, Ira Barnes Dutton was assigned to the command of General Robert S. Granger in Decatur a few miles from Atlanta and with a small detachment managed to blow up bridges, railroad lines, and stockpiles of ammunition, which allowed the Union Army to recapture Decatur and General Sherman to enter Atlanta soon thereafter; and

WHEREAS, following the Civil War, Ira Barnes Dutton volunteered to find the dead that were scattered on the battlefields and bring them to a common burial site; and

WHEREAS, after years of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other personal problems, Ira Barnes Dutton, at the age of 40, sought atonement for his transgressions and converted to the Catholic faith, taking the name of his favorite Saint, Joseph, when baptized; and

WHEREAS, after hearing about the work of Father Damien on Molokai, Brother Joseph Dutton gave away all of his possessions, made his way by foot to San Francisco, and boarded a steamer bound for Hawaii, arriving at Kalaupapa in July of 1886, where he stayed for the next 45 years; and

WHEREAS, word of Brother Joseph Dutton's self-imposed exile on Molokai swept through the United States, and on July 18, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the Great White Fleet, which was on a round-the-world voyage to demonstrate that the United States was a world power, to divert their course and sail past Kalaupapa and dip their colors in salute to this heroic patriot and the residents of Kalaupapa; and

WHEREAS, Brother Joseph Dutton served as a lay brother on Kalaupapa and, when Father Damien died in 1889, assumed the duties of administrative assistant, striving to improve the living conditions of the residents and, among his many accomplishments, founded the Baldwin Home, a residence for men and boys suffering from Hansen's Disease; and

WHEREAS, when Brother Joseph Dutton died on March 26, 1931, he was buried in a grave next to Saint Damien at Saint Philomena Church at Kalaupapa; and

WHEREAS, Captain Ira Barnes Dutton, also known as "Brother Joseph of Molokai", has become a role model and inspiration for veterans today due to his status as a military veteran and the struggles he overcame; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2014, that this body recognizes Captain Ira Barnes Dutton and urges the National Park Service to work toward relocating his statue from its current location at Saint Joseph Church in Kamalo to the Kalaupapa Peninsula; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior, Director of the National Park Service, and Secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Relocation of the Ira Barnes Dutton Statue

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	50
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014
STATE OF HAWAII