Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings

August 18, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Christianized Nation

“It is no small thing to say of the Missionaries of the American Board, that in less than forty years they have taught this whole people to read and to write, to cipher and to sew.”

“They have given them an alphabet, grammar, and dictionary; preserved their language from extinction; given it a literature, and translated into it the Bible and works of devotion, science and entertainment, etc., etc.”

“They have established schools, reared up native teachers, and so pressed their work that now the proportion of inhabitants who can read and write is greater than in New England …”

“… and whereas they found these islanders a nation of half-naked savages, living in the surf and on the sand, eating raw fish fighting among themselves, tyrannized over by feudal chiefs, and abandoned to sensuality …”

“… they now see them decently clothed, recognizing the law of marriage, knowing something of accounts, going to school and public worship with more regularity than the people do at home …”

“… and the more elevated of them taking part in conducting the affairs of the constitutional monarchy under which they live, holding seats on the judicial bench. and in the legislative chambers, and filling posts in the local magistracies.”

“”It is often objected against missionaries, that a people must be civilized before it can be Christianized; or at least that the two processes must go on together, and that the mere preacher, with his book under his arm, among a barbarous people, is an unprofitable laborer.”

“But the missionaries to the Sandwich Islands went out in families, and planted themselves in households, carrying with them, and exhibiting to the natives, the customs, manners, comforts, discipline, and order of civilized society.”

“Each house was a centre and source of civilizing influences; and the natives generally yielded to the superiority of our civilization, and copied its ways …”

“… for, unlike the Asiatics, they had no civilization of their own, and, unlike the North American Indians, they were capable of civilization.”

“Each missionary was obliged to qualify himself, to some extent, as a physician and surgeon, before leaving home; and each mission-house had its medicine-chest, and was the place of resort by the natives for medicines and medical advice and care.”

“Each missionary was a school-teacher to the natives in their own language; and the women of the missions, who were no less missionaries than their husbands, taught schools for women and children …”

“… instructing them not only in books, but in sewing, knitting, and ironing, in singing by note, and in the discipline of children.”

“These mission families, too, were planted as garrisons would have been planted by a military conqueror in places where there were no inducements of trade to carry families; …”

“…so that no large region, however difficult of access, or undesirable as a residence, is without its head-quarters of religion and civilization.”

“The women of the mission, too, can approach the native women and children in many ways not open to men – as in their sickness, and by the peculiar sympathies of sex – and thus exert the tenderest, which are often the most decisive, influences. …”

” The educational system of the Islands is the work of the missionaries and their supporters among the foreign residents, and one formerly of the mission is now Minister of Education.”

“In every district are free schools for natives. In these they are taught reading, writing, singing by note, arithmetic, grammar, and geography, by native teachers.”

“At Lahainaluna is the Normal School for natives, where the best scholars from the district schools are received and carried to an advanced stage of education, and those who desire it are fitted for the duties of teachers. This was originally a mission school, but is now partly a government institution.”

“Several of the missionaries, in small and remote stations, have schools for advanced studies, among which I visited several times that of Mr. Lyman, at Hilo, where there are nearly one hundred native lads; and all the under teachers are natives.
“

“These lads had an orchestra of ten or twelve flutes, which made very creditable music. At Honolulu there is a royal school for natives, and another middle school for whites and half-castes; for it has been found expedient generally to separate the races in education. Both these schools are in excellent condition.”

“But the special pride of the missionary efforts for education is the High School or College of Punahou. This was established for the education of the children of the mission families, and has been enlarged to receive the children of other foreign residents, and is now an incorporated college with some seventy scholars. …”

“Among the traders, shipmasters, and travellers who have visited these Islands, some have made disparaging statements, respecting the missionaries; and a good deal of imperfect information is carried home by persons who have visited only the half-Europeanized ports, where the worst view of the condition of the natives is presented.”

“I visited among all classes – the foreign merchants, traders, and shipmasters, foreign and native officials, and with the natives, from the king and several of the chiefs to the humblest poor, whom I saw without constraint in a tour I made alone over Hawaii, throwing myself upon their hospitality in their huts.”

“I sought information from all, foreign and native, friendly and unfriendly; and the conclusion to which I came is, that the best men, and those who are best acquainted with the history of things here, hold in high esteem the labors and conduct of the missionaries.”

“The mere seekers of pleasure, power, or gain, do not like their influence; and those persons who sympathized with that officer of the American navy who compelled the authorities to allow women to go off to his ship by opening his ports and threatening to bombard the town, naturally are hostile to the missions.”

“I do not mean, of course, that there is always unanimity among the best people, or perhaps among the missionaries themselves, on all questions; e. g., as to the toleration of Catholics, and on some minor points of social and police regulation.”

“But on the great question of their moral influence, the truth is that there has always been, and must ever be, in these Islands, a peculiar struggle between the influences for good and the influences for evil.”

“They are places of visit for the ships of all nations, and for the temporary residence of mostly unmarried traders; and at the height of the whaling season the number of transient seamen in the port of Honolulu equals half the population of the town.”

“The temptations arising from such a state of things, too much aided by the inherent weakness of the native character, are met by the ceaseless efforts of the best people, native and foreign, in the use of moral means and by legislative coercion.”

“It is a close struggle, and, in the large seaports, often discouraging and of doubtful issue j but it is a struggle of duty, and has never yet been relaxed. Doubtless the missionaries have largely influenced the legislation of the kingdom, and its police system; it is fortunate that they have done so.”

“Influence of some kind was the law of the native development. Had not the missionaries and their friends among the foreign merchants and professional men been in the ascendant, these Islands would have presented only the usual history of a handful of foreigners exacting everything from a people who denied their right to anything.”

“As it is, in no place in the world that I have visited are the rules which control vice and regulate amusements so strict, yet so reasonable, and so fairly enforced.”

“The government and the best citizens stand as a good genius between the natives and the besieging army.”

“As to the interior, it is well known that a man may travel alone, with money, through the wildest spots, unarmed. Having just come from the mountains of California, I was prepared with the usual and necessary belt and its appendages of that region, but was told that those defences were unheard of in Hawaii.”

“I found no hut without its Bible and hymn-book in the native tongue, and the practice of family prayer and grace before meat, though it be over no more than a calabash of poi and a few dried fish, and whether at home or on journeys, is as common as in New England a century ago.”

“It may be asked whether there is no. offset, no deduction to be made from this high estimate of the American missionaries.”

“As to their fidelity and industry in the worst of times, and their success up to the point they have now reached, I think of none.”

“As to the prospects for their system in the future, and the direction the native mind may take in its further progress, there are some considerations worthy of attention.” (Richard Dana, Boston, 1860)

In 1863, “The state of things at the Islands is peculiar. They have been Christianized. The missionaries have become citizens. In a technical sense they no longer are missionaries, but pastors, and as such on an official parity with the native pastors.” (Rufus Anderson)

Anderson wrote to inform Kamehameha IV of the Hawaiian Evangelical actions and dissolution of the mission in his July 6, 1863 letter noting, in part: “I may perhaps be permitted, in view of my peculiar relations to a very large body of the best friends and benefactors of this nation, not to leave without my most respectful aloha to both your Majesties.”

“The important steps lately taken in this direction are perhaps sufficiently indicated in the printed Address …. I am happy to inform your Majesty that the plan there indicated has since been adopted, and is now going into effect, — with the best influence, as I cannot doubt, upon the religious welfare of your people.”

“My visit to these Islands has impressed me, not only with the strength, but also with the beneficent and paternal character of your government. In no nation in Christendom is there greater security of person and property, or more of civil and religious liberty.”

“As to the progress of the nation in Christian civilization, I am persuaded, and shall confidently affirm on my return home, that the history of the Christian church and of nations affords nothing equal to it.”

“And now the Hawaiian Christian community is so far formed and matured, that the American Board ceases to act any longer as principal, and becomes an auxiliary,— merely affording grants in aid of the several departments of labor in building up the kingdom of Christ in these Islands, and also in the Islands of Micronesia.”

“Praying God to grant long life and prosperity to your Majesties, I am, with profound respect, Your Majesty’s obedient, humble servant, R. Anderson”

Later (October 1863), the ABCFM “Resolved, That, in taking this additional step toward the conclusion of our work in the Sandwich Islands, we record anew our grateful and adoring sense of the marvelous success, which our missionaries there have been enabled to achieve by the blessing of God, to whom be all the glory.”

“Resolved, That while we rejoice, with all our surviving missionaries, ill the results of which we and the world are witnesses, we offer our special congratulations to the two venerable fathers of the mission, the Rev. Hiram Bingham, and the Rev. Asa Thurston …”

“… who, having been consecrated and commended to the grace of God for that work by our predecessors, forty-four years ago, are still among the living, to praise God with us and with all the saints, for this great victory of the gospel, and to say, ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servants depart in peace, according to thy word, for our eyes have seen thy salvation.’” (Action of the Board; Proceedings of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association)

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Hiram Bingham I preaching to Queen at Waimea, Kauai, in 1826

August 12, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Female Seminaries

Hawaiian female seminaries grew out of the evolution of education of middle class white women in the US. Because the primary educators responsible for developing the education system of Hawai’i were Americans, the educational practices for Hawaiian girls tended to mirror, but not necessarily duplicate, what was taking place on the continent. (Beyer)

It was believed that women would have to be educated to understand domestic economy because they were to play the major role in educating the young, primarily in their homes, and later as the school population rose and there was a shortage of teachers, as school teachers.

The founders of the female seminaries were at first men who were committed to providing education for women, but as time went by, more of the founders were women. The financial backing for these seminaries were typically from private sources and the tuition charged the students. Enrollment varied between 50 to 100 students.

The men of the mission to Hawai’i were prepared for the work by education, work experience, and the sense of a calling. Their backgrounds were usually rural, and often farming had been the family livelihood. They were from the middle class. Their education had been preceded by engagement in various kinds of work: the employment with charitable or religious concerns; and traveling the northeast with tracts, Bibles, and the missionary message, or the call to revival.

The women of the mission were quick, efficient, and multi-talented. Also from rural, middle-class backgrounds, they were adaptable in terms of skills, worked to fund their own education, and were not accustomed to leisure or easy living. Most had secured their education at intervals, while supporting themselves by teaching, by farm labor, or skilled trade.

When the daughters of these missionaries or new recruits from the US took over the education of Hawaiian females during the last 40 years of the 19th century, many more were trained in the female seminaries of the US.

In the Islands, the first female seminary students were adult Hawaiian women. Patricia Grimshaw states: “… that (s)oon after their arrival in Hawai’i in 1820, and over the next three decades, New England missionary women embarked on an ambitious plan to transform Hawaiian girls and women to notions of femininity upheld by their culture.”

“The plan and design of the Female Seminary is to take a class of young females into a boarding school—away in a measure from the contaminating influence of heathen society, to train them to habits of industry, neatness, and order …”

“… to instruct them in employments suited to their sex, to cultivate the minds, to improve their manners and to instill the principles of our holy religion – to fit them to be suitable companions for the scholars of the Mission Seminary and examples of propriety among the females of the Sandwich Islands.” (Dibble)

In 1835, at the general meeting of the Mission, a resolution was passed to promote boarding schools for Hawaiians; several male boarding schools and two female boarding schools were begun.

Wailuku Female Seminary (or the Central Female Seminary, as it was first called) was the first female school begun by the missionaries (1837). It received support at a time when the missionaries were experimenting with both boarding schools and a manual labor system.

Fidelia Coan, the wife of Reverend Titus Coan, began Hilo Girls’ Boarding School in 1838. The Hilo school was opened for 20 girls from seven to 10 years old. Hilo residents helped erect and furnish the school building, and arranged to supply food for the pupils.

On January 16, 1860, the Privy Council authorized the chartering of the Makiki Family School. In family schools, young girls lived in the homes of the instructors; the instruction included both academics and domestic craft. It later closed, with the formation of Kawaiaha’o Seminary.

In 1862, Orramel Hinckley Gulick and his wife, Ann Eliza Clark Gulick began the Kaʻū Seminary on the Island of Hawai‘i. Both were the children of missionaries (Peter Johnson Gulick and Fanny Hinckley Thomas Gulick; Ephraim Weston Clark and Mary Kittredge Clark.)

Due to the isolated location of the seminary, it was difficult to attract many students to the school. In 1865, after struggling to fill the school, it was decided to move the school to Waialua, Oʻahu, on the Anahulu Stream.

“Honolulu Female Academy (is) another of the schools provided by Christian benevolence for the benefit of the children of this highly favored land. This institution will, it is hoped, supply a felt need for a home for girls, in the town of Honolulu, yet not too near its center of business.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 13, 1867)

In 1867, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society (HMCS – an organization consisting of the children of the missionaries and adopted supporters) decided to support a girls’ boarding school.

Miss Lydia Bingham (daughter of Reverend Hiram Bingham, leader of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi) became teacher and principal.

It was later named Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary. In January 1869, Miss Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu (Lizzie) Bingham arrived from the continent to be an assistant to her sister. Lizzie later became principal.

The Kohala Girl’s School was Reverend Elias Bond’s last major undertaking. For 30-years prior to the 1874 founding of the Kohala Girl’s School, Reverend Bond ran a boarding school for boys. His decision to build a separate facility to educate native Hawaiian women in Christian living and housekeeping was made in 1872.

The last of the female seminaries that was begun by the missionaries was initially called the Makawao Family School. Later called Maunaʻolu Seminary, it was an out-growth of the “East Maui Female Seminary

At the end of the century, all the female seminaries in Hawai‘i began to lose students to the newly-founded Kamehameha School for Girls.

This latter school was established in 1894; it was not technically a seminary or founded by missionaries, but all the girls enrolled were Hawaiian, and its curriculum was very similar to what was used at the missionary-sponsored seminaries.

Above text is a summary – Click HERE for more information

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Bailey_House-right-Seminary_-left-_painting-NPS-1880

Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary-MissionHouses-400

Gulick_Home_expanded_to_house-Kawaiahaʻo_Female-Seminary

August 10, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Why did you not teach the nation English?’

“Our ignorance of the language of the people, and their ignorance of ours, was, of course, an impediment in the way of intercourse between the teacher and the pupil, at first very great …”

“… and the absolute destitution of suitable books for the work of teaching the nation, was an embarrassment rarely or never to be found among Asiatic tribes …”

“Desirous to teach them thoroughly, through the best medium then available, we undertook with the English, with zeal, and with some success, in the case of a very limited number.”

“But our object was not to change the language of the nation but to bring to their minds generally, the knowledge of the Christian religion, and induce them to embrace and obey it.”

“The sounds of the English being so different from their own, and so much more difficult of utterance, their ignorance of the meaning of English words, and the impracticability of learning them from English dictionaries …”

“… together with the intricacies of English orthography, presented insurmountable obstacles to the speedy accomplishment of the main object of a Christian Mission, if the nation were to be confined to that medium.”

“What could French Protestant missionaries do in teaching English and American seamen the doctrines and duties of the Gospel, through the medium of the French alone?”

“Clearness, accuracy, and force in religious teaching we deemed so essential to success, that the vernacular tongue, or a language understood by the learner, must needs be employed to be successful; for a miracle is required to give sense and cogency to unknown words and phrases, before they can enlighten the mind or impress the heart in respect to the will of God.”

“The Hawaiians might indeed have been taught to cross themselves, repeat Pater nosters and Ave Marias in Latin, to dip the finger in water, gaze on pictures, bow before images, and buy indulgences with great formality and punctuality …”

“… and still have been as ignorant of the volume of inspired truth as the Aborigines of California and South America, or the youthful Spanish Franciscan monk, now a protestant missionary at Gibraltar …”

“… who, at twenty-five years of age, though studying for the priesthood, had never seen the Bible, and did not know that such a book existed: and they might, moreover, have been still just as idolatrous as their fathers were in the days of Cook, and as ready to visit with poison, fire, or bonds, any who should oppose or ridicule their folly.”

“The plan of teaching the mass of children exclusively, while neither children, adults, nor rulers knew the practicability and utility of learning; and the plan of teaching children exclusively in a language unintelligible to their parents; and the mass of the community around them, would have been chimerical …”

“… and a perseverance in such an attempt would have given over the adult and aged population to incurable ignorance and hopeless degradation, or left them to rush en masse to pagan or papal polytheism, and thus have defeated the education of the children and the education of the nation.”

“To have neglected the rulers, and taught the children of the plebeians a new religion in a language unknown to the nation, would have arrayed prejudice and opposition against us in high places, and thus defeated our cause, or greatly retarded our success.”

“To change the language of a people is a work of time. Even in a conquered province, with the favoring influences of colonization, commercial intercourse and literary institutions, with an impulse from a new government and fashion, such a thing is effected but slowly and imperfectly.”

“With how much less hope of success could a few missionaries, with no help from circumstances like these, attempt it. The progress of a generation or two may so alter the circumstances of the nation as to make the use of the English more feasible and useful.”

“This, then, is our answer to the oft-repeated and not unimportant question, ‘Why did you not teach the nation English, and open to them, at once, the rich stores of learning, science and religion, to be found in that language?’ …”

“… and here we show our warrant for applying ourselves to the acquisition of the Hawaiian language, reducing it to a written form, and preparing books of instruction in it, for the nation, and teaching all classes to use them as speedily as possible.”

“In connexion with this general mode of instruction, we could, and did teach English to a few, and have continued to do so. We early used both English and Hawaiian together.”

“For a time after our arrival, in our common intercourse, in our schools, and in our preaching, we were obliged to employ interpreters, though none except Hopu and Honolii were found to be very trustworthy, in communicating the uncompromising claims and the spirit-searching truths of revealed religion.”

“Kaumualii, Kuakini, Keeaumoku and a few others could speak a little barbarous English, which they had acquired by intercourse with sea-faring men. But English, as spoken by sailors on heathen shores at that time, was the language of Pandemonium …”

“… and the thought of making young men and women better able to comprehend and use that language, while subjected to the influence of frequent intercourse with an ungodly class of profane abusers of our noble English, was appalling.”

“We could not safely do it until we were able to exert a strong counteracting influence.”

“It is worthy of a grateful record that King Kaumualii, though accustomed, like other heathen who stammer English, to use profane language, on being faithfully taught that it was wrong, broke off, and abandoned the vile habit.”

“How chilling to a missionary’s heart, to hear a heathen father curse his own little child in profane English, and to hear his own fellow-countrymen teaching the heathen that awful dialect, by which profane men anathematize one another, and insult their Maker!”

“That the sudden introduction of the Hawaiian nation in its unconverted state, to general English or French literature, would have been safe and salutary, is extremely problematical.”

“To us it has been a matter of pleasing wonder that the rulers and the people were so early and generally, led to seek instruction through books furnished them by our hands, not one of which was designed to encourage image worship, to countenance iniquity, or to be at variance with the strictest rules of morality.”

“It was of the Lord’s mercy.”

“With the elements of reading and writing we were accustomed, from the beginning, to connect the elements of morals and religion, and have been happy to find them mutual aids.”

“The momentous interests of the soul were the commanding reason for learning what God has caused to be written for its salvation, and for regulating its duty to him.”

“The initiation of the rulers and others into the arts of reading and writing, under our own guidance, brought to their minds forcibly, and sometimes by surprise, moral lessons as to their duty and destiny which were of immeasurable importance.”

“The English New Testament was almost our first school book, and happy should we have been, could the Hawaiian Bible have been the next.” …

“During the first year, no suitable system of orthography was fixed upon for writing the language of the country. It was difficult, even, to write out in native, the meaning of words and sentences of English lessons.”

“It was no small labor, not only to teach simply the enunciation of a lesson, but to teach the meaning of a column of words, or a page of sentences constituting their English lesson, which, without such an interpretation, must have been, to such pupils, too forbidding.”

“But this was so far accomplished as to make the school pleasant to most of those who attended, partly by means of the slate, and partly by writing out short lessons on paper, with an imperfect orthography.”

“There was a frankness and earnestness on the part of some, in commencing and prosecuting study, which agreeably surprised us, and greatly encouraged our first efforts.” …

“On the 1st of August, the slate was introduced, and by the 4th, Pulunu wrote on her slate, from a Sabbath School card, the following sentence in English; ‘I cannot see God, but God can see me.’”

“She was delighted with the exercise, and with her success in writing and comprehending it. The rest of the pupils listened with admiration as she read it, and gave the sense in Hawaiian. Here was a demonstration that a slate could speak in a foreign tongue, and convey a grand thought in their own.” (Bingham)

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Hawaiian Alphabet

August 1, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honorary Member of the Mission

In 1840, a land dispute between Mr. Richard Charlton, the first British ambassador to Hawaiʻi, and the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi would spark the infamous “Paulet episode” which led to the forced cession of the Hawaiian Islands to Britain in 1843. (KSBE)

“Admiral Thomas, immediately on hearing of the usurpation by his inferior officer, without waiting for instructions from his government, hastened to the Islands, resolved to atone for the indignity done to the king and his people as effectually and speedily as possible.”

“The king was at once, in the most formal and honorable manner, reinstated in his authority. This was on the 31st of July, 1843. The king and chiefs then repaired to the great Stone Church to offer thanks for the gracious interposition of Providence.”

“The deportment of Admiral Thomas toward all parties, while at the Islands, was honorable to his character, and he has ever since been gratefully remembered.” (Anderson)

“The restoration of the Hawaiian Monarchy in July 1843 – ending the five-months-long illegal seizure and occupation by the Englishman, Lord George Paulet – created the chief, and indeed the only, notable site in Kulaokahu‘a.” (Greer)

It was later (1850) named Thomas Square.

“The king made a short address, stating that according to the hope expressed by him when he ceded the Islands, ‘the life of the land’ had been restored to him…”

“… that now they – the people of his Islands – should look to him, and his rule over them should be exercised according to the constitution and laws.”

“This address was followed by the interpretation of Admiral Thomas’s declaration; after which John Ii delivered an animated address suited to the joyful occasion.”

“He referred to the gloom which had shrouded the nation, and the despondency which had brooded over many minds; these were now dispelled; joyful hope had sprung up, making every thing around bright and smiling.”

“He referred to the auspicious event of the restoration as of the Lord, who had been mindful of the nation in its low estate, and as demanding from all grateful thanks and praise.”

“The whole deportment of Admiral Thomas while at the Isl. ands, towards the king and his people, and the mission, was of the most courteous and honorable character …”

“…and his example, counsels, and influence will long be gratefully remembered. Law and order were restored, the nation has been inspired with new courage, and all measures for its improvement have received a fresh impulse.” (ABCFM, Report 1844)

“Hawaii’s sovereignty had been restored.” (Greer)

“‘Her Majesty’s Government, we learn in a letter from the Earl of Aberdeen, ‘viewed with the highest approbation, the whole of his proceedings at the Sandwich Islands, as marked by a great propriety and an admirable judgment throughout …’”

“‘… and as calculated to raise the character of British authorities for justice, moderation, and courtesy of demeanor, in the estimation of the natives of those remote countries, and of the world.’” (Polynesian, August 3, 1850)

“Richard (Darton) Thomas was born at Saltash, county of Cornwall. … This officer entered the navy the 26th of May, 1790, on board the Cumberland 74, Captain John M. Brule, and sailed in the course of the same year with a squadron under Rear Admiral Cornish, for the West Indies”. (Polynesian, August 3, 1850)

“The King too, Kamehameha III, moved by gratitude, intimated a wish that the Rear Admiral would sit for his portrait in full uniform, that His Majesty ‘might have and preserve in his palace the likeness of a British officer who …’”

“‘… in restoring to him his kingdom, dared to act on his own sense of right, counting upon the approval of his magnanimous, Queen, in which he was not disappointed.’” (Polynesian, August 3, 1850)

“No nobler men ever touched those Islands, than some of the officers of the American and English navies.” (Richard Armstrong)

“(Armstrong’s) home ‘Stone House’ was named after the English residence of Admiral Thomas, of the British Navy, who restored the national flag which his subordinate, Lord George Paulet, had, in his absence, hauled down, taking possession of the Islands in the name of the Queen.”

“Lord George was compelled by the Admiral to restore the flag and salute it with his own guns. The day was thereafter kept as a national holiday, and the name of Admiral Thomas is held in grateful remembrance.” (Richard Armstrong)

“(T)he Rear Admiral (Richard Thomas) received the thanks of the Government of the United States for his conduct relative to the American residents in the Sandwich Islands; and that he was elected an ‘honorary member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.’” (Polynesian, August 3, 1850)

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Admiral-Richard-Darton-Thomas

July 29, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Mission Stations

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of ABCFM missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus to establish a mission in the Hawaiian Islands; they anchored at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”), about 184-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

One of the earliest efforts of the missionaries, who arrived in 1820, was the identification and selection of important communities (generally near ports and aliʻi residences) as “Stations” for the regional church and school centers across the Hawaiian Islands.

As an example, in June 1823, William Ellis joined American Missionaries Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich on a tour of the island of Hawaiʻi to investigate suitable sites for mission stations.

On O‘ahu, locations at Honolulu (Kawaiahaʻo), Kāne’ohe, Waialua, Waiʻanae and ‘Ewa served as the bases for outreach work on the island.

By 1850, eighteen mission stations had been established; six on Hawaiʻi, four on Maui, four on Oʻahu, three on Kauai and one on Molokai.

Meeting houses were constructed at the stations, as well as throughout the district. Initially constructed as the traditional Hawaiian thatched structures; they were later made of wood or stone.

One of the first things the first missionaries did was begin to learn the Hawaiian language and create an alphabet for a written format of the language. Their emphasis was on preaching and teaching.

The instruction of students in schools (initially, most of whom were adults), in reading, writing and other skills initially fell to the missionaries. The schools generally served as both native churches and meeting houses, and were established in most populated ahupua‘a around the islands; native teachers and lay-ministers were appointed to oversee their daily activities.

The missionaries were scattered across the Islands, each home was usually in a thickly inhabited village, so that the missionary and his wife could be close to their work among the people.

In the early years, they lived in the traditional thatched houses – “our little cottage built chiefly of poles, dried grass and mats, being so peculiarly exposed to fire … consisting only of one room with a little partition and one door.” (Sybil Bingham) The thatched cottages were raised upon a low stone platform. Later, they lived in wood, stone or adobe homes.

The missionary family’s day began at 4 am (… it continued into the night, with no breaks).

The mission children were up then, too; in the early morning, the parents taught their children. “We had one tin whale-oil lamp between us, with a single wick…. Soon after five we had breakfast.” (Bishop)

By 9 am, after accomplishing all domestic duties and schooling of the children, the wives would begin the instruction of the Hawaiian children – and taught them for six solid hours, occasionally running into the house to see that all was straight.

“Very soon I gathered up 12 or 15 little native girls to come once a day to the house so that as early as possible the business of instruction might be commenced. That was an interesting day to me to lay the foundation of the first school ever assembled”. (Sybil Bingham)

“During the period from infancy to the age of ten or twelve years, children in the almost isolated family of a missionary could be well provided for and instructed in the rudiments of education without a regular school … But after that period, difficulties in most cases multiplied.” (Hiram Bingham)

“Owing to the then lack of advanced schools in Hawaii, the earlier mission children were all ‘sent home’ around Cape Horn, to ‘be educated.’ This was the darkest day in the life history of the mission child.”

“Peculiarly dependent upon the family life, at the age of eight to twelve years, they were suddenly torn from the only intimates they had ever known, and banished, lonely and homesick, to a mythical country on the other side of the world …”

“… where they could receive letters but once or twice a year; where they must remain isolated from friends and relatives for years and from which they might never return.” (Bishop)

Missionaries were torn between preaching the gospel and teaching their kids. “(M)ission parents were busy translating, preaching and teaching. Usually parents only had a couple of hours each day to spare with their children.” (Schultz)

Very prominent in the old mission life was the annual “General Meeting” where all of the missionaries from across the Islands gathered at Honolulu from four to six weeks.

“Often some forty or more of the missionaries besides their wives were present, as well as many of the older children. … Much business was transacted relating to the multifarious work and business of the Mission. New missionaries were to be located, and older ones transferred.” (Bishop)

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