Widemann was born in
Hanover, Germany on December 24, 1822. As a teenager, he went to work on a
whaling ship. He came to live in the
Hawaiian Islands in 1846, after stopping in 1843. He came briefly to the
California Gold Rush in 1849, but returned after his companion John von Pfister was murdered. in 1854 and lived in
Līhue. He became sheriff of the
island of Kauai in 1854, was elected to the house of representatives in the
legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1855, and in 1863 appointed its circuit judge. He started one of the first
sugarcane plantations in Hawaii known as
Grove Farm. During the
American Civil War he supported the Confederate States. After leasing Grove Farm to its manager
George Norton Wilcox in 1865, he moved to
Honolulu to work in the capital. On July 10, 1869, he was appointed to the kingdom's supreme court, despite never having any formal law school training. On February 18, 1874, he was appointed to the cabinet as minister of the interior until May 28, 1874, as well as on the
Privy Council, the board of education, commissioner of
crown lands, president of the bureau of immigration, and board of health. In 1879, H.A. Widemann (President), S. G. Wilder, (Vice President), and C. O. Berger founded the first telephone company in the Hawaiian Islands. It was incorporated under the name of "The Hawaiian Bell Telephone Co." and on December 30, 1880, began providing service to the City of Honolulu. It Started with thirty instruments in operation and would quickly grow. Widemann and Berger would leave The Hawaiian Bell Telephone Co. to found The Mutual Telephone Co. in May 1883. A charter was granted in August of the same year. A new plant was built and in March 1885 operation began with 100 subscribers. The installation of The Mutual Telephone Co.'s plant made Honolulu one of the first, if not the first, city in the world to have a dual telephone system. The fight was on for ten years, until August 2, 1894, when the consolidation of the two companies was effected by The Mutual Telephone Co. acquiring the control of The Hawaiian Bell Telephone Co. On February 25, 1891, he was appointed as Minister of Finance to
Queen Liliuokalani, but had to resign two weeks later on March 10. He was temporarily replaced by
Samuel Parker, and then
John Mott-Smith. After Mott-Smith was sent to
Washington, D.C., to attempt to negotiate a trade treaty, Parker served again briefly until Widemann resumed his duties as minister of finance. He also filled in briefly as
Attorney General from July 27 to August 29, 1892. He was the first to experiment with the
Guatemalan variety of
coffea tree, which turned out to be well-adapted to higher elevations; it became the most popular variety through modern times. He died February 7, 1899. After a funeral in the
Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, he was buried in
Oahu Cemetery. He was survived by two sons and seven daughters. A street is named for him in
Mākaha at . ==See also==