Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings | Page 2

December 5, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Great Stone Church’

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of the American Protestant missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus for Hawai‘i – (two Ordained Preachers, Hiram & Sybil Bingham and Asa and Lucy Thurston; two Teachers, Samuel & Mercy Whitney and Samuel & Mary Ruggles; a Doctor, Thomas & Lucia Holman; a Printer, Elisha & Maria Loomis; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain (and his family.)

With the missionaries were four Hawaiian students from the Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Humehume. They arrived in Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820. On May 3, 1820, Ruggles and Whitney took Humehume home to Kauai.

“Visited the king (Kaumuali‘i) and read to him in his Bible. He expresses an earnest desire to know all that is contained in the Bible, saying frequently, I want to understand it; and when you learn my language I shall know it.”

“He often says he wants Atooi (Kauai) to be like America. Today he told me he would support all the mission family if they would come to Atooi—that he would build as many school-houses as we wished, and a large meeting-house, and have a sabbath day and have prayers and singing.” (Ruggles, May 16, 1820)

Kaumuali‘i gave land for the first mission building. This land was on the east side of the Waimea River near the Russian Fort and included enough farmland to grow the food needed for sustaining the mission. The first building was a thatched structure.

After ten years of using the thatched structure, Reverend Samuel Whitney constructed a stone and mud building on the present site of the church. Unfortunately, the stone walls were not soundly stacked and the building toppled over and had to be rebuilt. (Waimea UCC)

In 1846 the Reverend George Berkeley Rowell came from the Waioli Mission to rebuild the stone church. He was an architect and cabinetmaker as well as a pastor. He planned for a grand church that would be the most beautiful building on the island.

The lehua timbers for the roof would be cut down with stone adzes from the steep cliffs of Koke’e and floated in the ocean to treat the wood against termites. (Waimea UCC)

The Great Stone Church was constructed of local sandstone. Its simple rectangular plan is capped by a gable roof with returns, surmounted by a truncated steeple. (SAH)

Limestone blocks would be cut from a ledge about a mile away and dragged to the site by oxen. Mortar was made by diving into the sea a dozen fathoms from canoes to bring up coral to be crushed and burned in a limekiln.

The church members earned money by raising and shipping potatoes to people who had come to California to search for gold. With this new source of income, the work on the church continued.

After seven years of planning and labor, the walls went up in 1853. The building was completed in 1854 (except for the floor, added in 1858), and was dedicated with a worship service.

The building was built in Victorian style as can be noted in the large pointed arches of the windows. The coral-colored exterior stood out and could be seen from some distance at sea.

However the church has become more russet colored over time because of the staining effect of the red earth in the area. The completed church attained a bell that had been created in 1836 for the original stone structure and shipped from New England.

The inscription reads from Psalm 100: “E hele mai imua o kona ale me ke oli ana i ike oukou o Jehova oia no ke akua” (Come before His presence with singing that you may know Jehovah is God). (Waimea UCC)

Rowell presided over it until 1865, when he was suspended from the Hawaiian Evangelical Association on account of his suspect theological positions and reports that he had had illicit relations with a Hawaiian woman.

A number of Hawaiians stood by Rowell, and the pastor and his congregation tried to hold control over the stone church. However, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled against them and, in 1867, Rowell and his followers formed the Waimea Hawaiian Church, building a Victorian frame church at the corner of Kaumualii Highway and Halepule Road.

Rowell continued as its pastor until his death in 1884. In 1992 Hurricane Iniki collapsed this charming building; the congregation rebuilt it along the lines of the original.

Following Rowell’s discharge, the Great Stone Church’s congregation greatly declined, and between 1873 and 1889 it had no regular minister. It became the Waimea Foreign Church in 1894.

The church was remodeled around 1920, with the belfry being rebuilt and the openings given shallow Gothic arches. Hurricane Iniki decimated the roof and, in turn, the interior, leading to its restoration in 1993. (SAH)

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Waimea UCC

Waimea UCC-AlanRichards

December 3, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Webster’s Way

On July 14, 1826, the missionaries established a 12-letter alphabet for the written Hawaiian language, using five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p and w) in their “Report of the committee of health on the state of the Hawaiian language.” The report was signed by Bingham and Chamberlain. The alphabet continues in use today.

“To one unacquainted with the language it would be impossible to distinguish the words in a spoken sentence, for in the mouth of a native, a sentence appeared like an ancient Hebrew or Greek manuscript-all one word.”

“It was found that every word and every syllable in the language ends with a vowel; the final vowel of a word or syllable, however, is often made so nearly to coalesce or combine with the sound of the succeeding vowel, as to form a dipthongal sound, apparently uniting two distinct words.”

“The power of the vowels may be thus represented: – a, as a in the English words art, father; e, as a in pale, or ey in they; i, as ee or in machine; o, as o in no; u, as oo in too. They are called so as to express their power by their names – Ah, A, Ee, O, Oo.”

“The consonants are in like manner called by such simple names as to suggest their power, thus, following the sound of the vowels as above – He, Ke, La, Mu, Xu, Pi, We.” (Bingham)

Learning the Language by Syllables

Noah Webster (1758-1843) was the man of words in early 19th-century America. He compiled a dictionary which became the standard for American English; he also compiled The American Spelling Book, which was the basic textbook for young readers in early 19th-century America.

In the beginning part of his American Spelling Book, several signed a ‘Recommendation,’ stating, “Having examined the first part of the new Grammatical Institute of the English Language, published by Mr. Noah Webster we are of opinion, that it is far preferable, in the plan and execution, to Dilworth’s or any other Spelling Book, which has been introduced into [o]ur schools.”

The Speller’s Preface notes the priority in learning, “The syllables of words are divided as they are pronounced, and for this obvious reason, that children learn the language by the ear. Rules are of no consequence but to printers and adults. In Spelling Books they embarrass children, and double the labour of the teacher.”

“The whole design of dividing words into syllables at all, is to lead the pupil to the true pronunciation: and the easiest method to effect this purpose will forever be the best.” (Webster’s Speller)

“As far back as one can trace the history of reading methodology, children were taught to spell words out, in syllables, in order to pronounce them.” Webster wrote.

And so it was with the American Protestant Missionaries teaching the Hawaiians to read and write their own language.

Just as American schoolchildren spelled aloud by naming the letters that formed the first syllable, and then pronouncing the result: “b, a – ba,” so did Hawaiian learners. (However, back then, Webster used ‘y’ as a vowel; the missionaries did not.)

Pī ʻā pā

In the initial instruction, the missionaries taught by first teaching syllables – adding consonants to vowels, just as Noah Webster noted in his speller.

The classroom exercise of spelling aloud also focused on syllables: Pupils first pronounced each letter of the syllable, and then put the sounds together and pronounced the syllable.

This practice of spelling aloud gave the Hawaiian alphabet its name. Just as American schoolchildren taught with Webster’s speller began their recitation by naming the letters that formed the first syllable, and then pronouncing the result: “B, A – BA,” so did Hawaiian learners.

The early missionary teacher said to his pupil, b, a – ba; the Hawaiian would repeat, pronouncing “b” like “p” and said “pī ʻā pā; hence the word that is now known as the Hawaiian alphabet and the name of the book. (Schultz)

Webster’s way of teaching was practiced in Hawai‘i, as described by Andrews, “The teacher takes a Piapa (i.e., speller, primer,) sits down in front of a row or several rows of scholars, from ten to a hundred perhaps in number, all sitting on the ground, furnished perhaps with Piapas, perhaps not.”

“The teacher begins: says A. The scholars all repeat in concert after him, A. The teacher then says E. They repeat all together, as before E, and so on, repeating over and over, after the teacher, until all the alphabet is fixed in the memory, just in the order the letters stand in the book; and all this just as well without a book as with one. The abbs and spelling lesson are taught in the same way.” (Andrews; Schultz)

The Hawaiian version also used the names of the letters and the resultant syllable: bē ā – bā; by 1824, this had become the Hawaiian word for ‘alphabet’. However, after b had been eliminated from the alphabet, p took its place in this new name.

One result of applying this methodology to Hawaiian is that it produced a new word: Pi a pa. From that time on, the word for ‘alphabet’ has been pī‘āpā, first appearing with this spelling (minus the kahakō and ‘okina) in a book title in 1828.

The purpose of all these first exercises was to teach the mechanics of pronouncing words, one by one – syllable by syllable.

This is a summary; click HERE for more on Webster’s Way.

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Pi-a-pa-01

Pi-a-pa-02-03

Pi-a-pa-04-05

Pi-a-pa-06-07

Pi-a-pa-08-09

Pi-a-pa-10-11

Pi-a-pa-12-13

Pi-a-pa-14-15

Pi-a-pa-16

November 29, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cherokee Mission

The first of the missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) on the continent was to the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians of the southeast.

“Other Indian missions were begun shortly after this; in fact the next two decades saw the most widespread efforts of the Board upon the American continent. Many of these missions to Indian tribes were short lived and not very productive but there are three which stand out as of special interest: the mission to the Cherokees. the Oregon mission and the mission to the Dakotas.”

“Only one of these is still continuing, the Dakota work which has been carried on by the American Missionary Association since 1883. The Oregon mission was ended by massacre in 1847 and the general break-up which followed the massacre.”

“The Cherokee enterprise was the scene of some of the most stirring events in the history of our country and also of some of the most tragic and shameful actions. When the tribe was deported to the west in 1838 the mission continued but the great promise of earlier days was never fulfilled and the tribe ceased to be the significant nation that it once had been.”

“When Cyrus Kingsbury went to the land of the Cherokees in 1817 the tribe had already had a long and discouraging experience with the white man.”

“Their land had been taken from them piece by piece, treaties had been repeatedly broken – and that was to continue – and they had been in one way or another involved and had suffered in the wars between the French and the English and between the British and the Americans.”

“The Cherokee nation at that time was located mainly in the western and northwestern part of Georgia, in southern Tennessee and northeastern Alabama. The pressure of white settlers was increasing yearly especially upon the part of the nation located in the state of Georgia.”

“But if relations with white settlers and governments had been adverse to the Indians there were already established missions, especially that of the Moravians, which gave support and encouragement to Kingsbury and those who soon followed him.”

“Their first station was located on Chickamauga Creek not far from the present city of Chattanooga and was named the Brainerd Mission after the early evangelist to Indians in the north. This became the center of a work that extends into Georgia and Alabama and other stations in Tennessee.”

“Cyrus Kingsbury went through Washington on his way to Tennessee and secured approval for the opening of a mission. President Monroe himself was interested in it.”

“Later after a surprise visit to the Brainerd station he declared himself to be more than satisfied with its program and promised to have means supplied for the building of a substantial frame house to take the place of the log structure then in use, a promise that was fulfilled.”

“Robert Sparks Walker declares that ‘the Brainerd Mission has the distinction of being the first school in North America to give instruction in systematic and scientific agriculture, also trades, domestic science and domestic arts.’ This educational program lay at the root of the ‘civilizing’ the mission felt that it must do.”

“Among tribes that never settled down to a life of work and discipline such as is involved in farming and the trades little progress has ever been made in the teaching which is necessary to the introduction of an ordered Christian life.”

“(T)he Brainerd mission was at once a school, a farm and a place of apprenticeship to such necessary trades as carpentry and blacksmithing. The long day of the Indian students was divided between study and work. … Both boys and girls, in separate schools, made up the industrious community.”

“Some of the test friends and helpers of the mission program were half breeds. One of these, Charles R. Hicks, was a chief of the Cherokees and a Christian.”

“Every one who reported on the progress of his people has called him the best friend of the mission and the most helpful in all dealings with the Indians. Elias Boudinot probably had some white blood in his veins. He studied in the mission school at Cornwall, Connecticut, married a daughter of one of the best families of that town and returned to be a leader of his people.”

“It is of interest to note that the school at Cornwall came into existence largely because of the plea that the Hawaiian, Obookiah, made for an education. Its function was to train both American students and young men from mission fields for the work of the mission.”

“It was closed in 1827 and at least one reason for its abandonment was the Opposition created in the town by the marriage of Cornwall girls of good family to Indian students. One of these students was Elias Boudinot; the other was John Ridge. Despite the opposition of the people of Cornwall both these marriages were successful.”

“The most noted Cherokee, however, was Sequoia, or George Guess as he was known among white people. Sequoia could neither read nor speak English. He was greatly distressed that his own language had no written form.”

“So he proceeded to create an alphabet of eighty-six characters which represented the language phonetically so well that it was soon adopted in preference to one upon which missionaries were at work. This became and remains the medium of all written or printed Cherokee. The Bible, of course, was translated into the language with the use of Sequoia’s alphabet.”

“The achievement of Sequoia’s deserves at least to be compared to the Laubach invention. To honor this Cherokee Indian, Stephen I. Endlicher in 1847, gave the name of Sequoia to the big trees in California.”

“The mission inevitably suffered from the encroachment of the citizens and the state of Georgia upon the lands of the Cherokee nation and their eventual deportation west of the Mississippi.”

“A law was passed by the Georgia Legislature requiring an oath of allegiance to the state by anyone who wanted to live within its boundaries and declaring null and void all laws and customs of the Cherokees.”

“As a result of refusal to take the oath several of the missionaries were arrested and Dr. Samuel A. Worcester and Dr. Elizur Butler were sentenced and kept in prison for more than a year.”

“Meantime, the lands of the Cherokees within the state of Georgia were divided up and opened to white settlers and the properties of the missionaries and mission were taken over by them.”

“The end of the mission in Tennessee and Georgia, however, was in sight. In final violation of the rights of the Cherokees as often affirmed in treaties, the whole tribe was transported to the Indian territory.”

“Some had gone west many years before and a mission was begun there in 1821. But the tribe disintegrated and the mission was closed in 1860. A mission to the Choctaws was also discontinued at about the same time.” (All from Hugh Vernon White, Secretary, The Congregational Church)

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Indian_Removal-Trail of Tears-map

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Carmel_Mission-1827)

Brainerd Station

ABCFM Mission Arkansas

November 25, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Early Recollections of Missionary Life in Kailua, Hawaii

“As a settlement of some 4000 people crowded along one third mile of sea-shore, Kailua was the only place in Hawaii worthy the name of town, except perhaps the one at Hilo Bay.”

“Kailua consisted of native houses thatched either with pili or lauhala, the majority in various stages of decay. The aspect of the people was sordid, evincing ignorance, degredation, poverty and much ill health.”

“Here and there were dwellings of petty chiefs in whose yards were, cocoanut and kou trees of great luxuriance, as well as an occasional puhala.”

“When the pioneer missionaries in 1820 made their first landing at Kailua, it had recently been the chief residence of the aged Kamehameha, and was still in some degree the capital city of the group.”

“It was the permanent residence of Kuakini, the imperious Governor of the island, whose stone house stood at the north end beyond the little bay, which has always been the principal landing.”

“Beyond the Governor’s house, was Kamehameha’s old habitation where he died. Seaward still was a platform upon which stood five gigantic and hideous wooden idols, elaborately carved.”

“(These) had ceased to be worshipped but for some reason, probably respect for the deceased monarch, had escaped the general destruction of the idols in 1819.”

“I recall few names or faces of the native people. Very distinct in memory is the benevable face of a line old Christian lady Kekupuohi.”

“She had been a young wife of King Kalaniopuu, and had personally witnessed the death of the unfortunate Capt. James Cook, on the 4th of February, 1779, when he rashly attempted to force the King on board of his ship as a hostage.”

“I also well remember the immense and portly form of Governor Kuakini, who used to make a periodical foreonn visitation at our home, some times sitting at our table.”

“This royal chief was estimated to weigh not less than 500 pounds. The Governess Keoua, somewhat less ponderous, also of royal lineage frequently visited us.”

“Kuakini used to occupy my father’s large arm-chair into which he could hardly squeeze.”

“Missionary Work – I remember the Thurstons and Bishops as very busy in labors among the people. The two ministers held meetings twice on Sabbath in the immense thatched tabernacle at Kailua as well as every Wednesday afternoon.”

“The congregations in Kailua church were large, often over a thousand present. Sunday school was held after morning service, the natives having many copies of portions of scripture which they commit to memory quite diligently.”

“Much time was spent by Messrs. Thurston and Bishop in school work. They occupied many hours a week in personally teaching, and many more in superintending the work of the very incompetent native teachers whom they had trained and located in various districts.”

“Very great occasions indeed were the quarterly hoikes or school exhibitions, when, the schools and teachers assembled from the districts and displayed their proficiency in the presence of the Governor and the missionaries.” (Sereno Bishop; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 23, 1897)

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View of Kailua-Thurston

November 23, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Beehive

When Brigham Young and the Latter-day Saints arrived in Salt Lake Valley in July of 1847, Young chose the name “Deseret” for their new home, and the beehive as its emblem, symbolizing the kind of cooperative work that would be required to make the desert bloom.

Mark Twain commented on the Utah beehive symbol in his book on the 1860s American West, Roughing It, “The Mormon crest was easy.”

“And it was simple, unostentatious and it fitted like a glove. It was a representation of a Golden Beehive, with all the bees at work.”

On October 11, 1881 an article in the Deseret News explained the symbolism: “The hive and honey bees form our communal coat of arms. …”

“It is a significant representation of the industry, harmony, order and frugality of the people, and of the sweet results of their toil, union and intelligent cooperation.”

When Utah territory became a state in 1896, it retained the beehive symbol in its state seal and on its flag. The state adopted the beehive as its official symbol in 1959, designated the honeybee as the state insect, and even named the “beehive cluster” as the state’s astronomical symbol.

Utah is known as “The Beehive State,” and businesses continue to name themselves after the antique skep, many of them without knowing what a bee skep is, or where the bees are. (Salt Lake Magazine)

The Beehive House was built between 1853 and 1855 and served as home to Brigham Young when he was President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and governor of the Utah Territory.

Liliuokalani was a guest at the Beehive House on November 23, 1901. “Perhaps fifty natives of the Sandwich Islands were in attendance at the reception last evening, and they were given the first chance to greet the Queen.”

“Some merely bowed low as they grasped her hand, while other stooped to kiss the white kid glove. Many gave expressions of love and loyalty.”

“Although she surrounds herself with an air of hauteur and reserve, the former queen at times unbent and chatted pleasantly with different persons who came to meet her specially with President Joseph F Smith, who was able to converse with her in her native tongue.”

“President Joseph F Smith (of the Mormon Church) made a short speech of welcome to the ex-Queen. It is a coincidence which was not brought out last evening that President Smith is just nineteen days older than Liliuokalani.”

“The president spoke of the time when, in 1854, as a boy of sixteen, he had gone to the Sandwich Islands to labor as a missionary.”

“He told how he had been kindly treated by the natives of the Islands, and one Hawaiian woman had become a foster mother to him, taking him into her home while he was learning the new tongue.”

“For this hospitality he had always been grateful, and he was glad to extend a welcome to the former queen of the people who had been so kind to him and the people of his faith.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 11, 1901)

On July 7, 1906, Elder Abraham Kaleimahoe Fernandez baptized and then confirmed Queen Lydia Kamakaeha Liliuokalani a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Although technically she was no longer the queen of Hawai’i in 1906, Elder Fernandez recorded and reported to President Samuel E. Woolley that he had baptized Her Majesty Queen Liliuokalani. (Walker)

Although she is first monarch to join the Mormon church, she also joined other churches in her last years.

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