ABCFM | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

Williams_College_-_Haystack_Monument

Haystack Prayer Meeting

Four_Owyhean_Youths-Thomas Hoopoo, George Tamoree, William Tenooe and John Honoree

Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School

Cornwall-home_of_the_Foreign_Mission_School-by_Barber-(WC)-1835

Hiram_and_Sybil_Moseley_Bingham,_1819-head of Pioneer Company

Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston

Thomas and Lucia Holman

Samuel and Nancy Ruggles

Samuel and Mercy Whitney-1819

departure_of_the_second_company_from_the_american_board_of_commissioners_for_foreign_missions_to_hawaii

January 5, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ABCFM Early Missions

“The Board was instituted in June, 1810; and was incorporated, by the Legislature of Massachusetts, June 20, 1812. Its beginnings, as is well known, were small, and the anticipations of its supporters not remarkably sanguine:”

“but its resources and operations have regularly increased, till, in respect to the number of its patron – the amount of its funds – and the extent of its influence, it is entitled to a place among the principal benevolent institutions of the earth.”

“The American Board of Foreign Missions, however, can neither claim, nor does it desire exclusive patronage. There are other Foreign Missionary Societies, for whom there is room, for whom there is work enough, and for whose separate existence there are, doubtless, conclusive reasons.”

“Christian charity is not a blind impulse but, is characterized in Scripture, as ‘the wisdom from above’, such wis – as is in heaven, – which is ‘pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.’”

“The system of operation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions may be considered under two divisions, – its Home Department, and its Foreign Missions.”

“The Board has established missions, in the order of time in which they are now named at Bombay, and Ceylon; among the Cherokees, Choctaws, and the Cherokees of the Arkansaw; at the Sandwich Islands and in Western Asia.”

In 1812, the ABCFM sent its first missionaries – Adoniram and Ann Hasseltine Judson; Samuel and Roxana Peck Nott; Samuel and Harriet Atwood Newell; Gordon Hall, and Luther Rice – to British India.

When they reached Calcutta in June 1812, they and their fellow missionaries Adoniram and Ann Judson, Gordon Hall, and Samuel and Rosanna Nott, were ordered to leave by the British East India Company.

Samuel Newell sailed to Ceylon, where he spent a year preaching and investigating mission opportunities. Learning that Hall and Nott had succeeded in establishing residence in Bombay, he joined them in 1814, inaugurating the first American mission station overseas. (Boston University)

“Mission at Bombay”

“This mission became fixed in 1814. It was commenced by Messers. Hall, Newell, and Nott. Messers. Bardwell, Graves, Nichols, and Garrett, joined it at different periods since that time. … The mission has three stations – Bombay, Mahim, and Tannah.”

“The missionaries are engaged in three principal objects – the translation of the Scriptures, the superintendance of schools; and the preaching of the Gospel.”

“Mission in Ceylon”

“The mission is established in the district of Jaffna, which is in the norther extremity of the island if Ceylon, October 1816. The original missionaries were Messers. Richards, Warren, Meigs, and Poor. … The mission has five stations – Tillipally, Battcotta, Oodooville, Panditeripo and Manepy.”

“The Mission Among the Cherokees”

“On the 13th of January, 1817, Mr Kingsbury arrived at Cbickamaugah, since called Brainerd, and commenced preparations for an establishment there. ‘’The weather was extremely cold for this climate,’ says Mr K, ‘and I felt the want of comfortable lodgings, having only a skin spread upon the floor, and a thin covering of blankets; but my health was kindly preserved.’”

Messers Hall and Williams soon after joined him. Several have been united to this mission, and, for various reasons, have left, whose names do not appear in this survey. his mission has three stations, Brainerd, Creek-Path, and Taloney.”

“Mission Among the Choctaws”

The mission among the Cherokees being in successful operation, Mr. Kingsbury and Mr. Williams left Brainerd, about the first of June, 1818, for the Choctaw nation.”

“They selected a scite for their station, and about the 15th of August, felled the first tree. ‘The place was entirely new, and covered with lofty trees; but the ancient mounds, which here and there appeared, shewed, that it had been once the habitation of men.’”

“The station was named Elliot, in honor of the ‘Apostle of the American Indians.’ – The mission has now four stations, – Elliot, Mayhew, the French Camps, and the Long Prairies.”

“Mission Among the Cherokees of the Arkansaw”

“Commenced in 1820. There is only the station of Dwight – On the west side of Illinois Creek; four miles north of the Arkansaw river, 200 miles above the Arkansaw Post; and 500 miles from the junction of the Arkansaw with the Mississippi.” (Missionary Herald, January 1823)

“Mission at the Sandwich Islands”

(“One of the principal events which seems to have led to the establishment of this mission was the religious education of Henry Obookiah (‘Ōpūkaha‘ia,) a native of Owyhee, by the Rev. S. J. Mills, a zealous friend of missions. (Barber))

“Established in April, 1820. It has two stations – Hanaroorah and Wymai. Hanaroorah – On the island of Woahoo – Rev. Hiram Bingham and Rev. Asa Thurston, Missionaries; Messer, Daniel Chamberlain and Elisha Loomis, Assistant Missionaries; and Thomas Hopoo and John Honooree, Native Assistants.”

“Wymai – On the island of Atooi. Messers. Samule Whitney and Samuel Ruggles, Assistant Missionaries; and George Sandwich, Native Assistant.”

“On the 19th of November, Rev William Richards, Rev Charles S Stewart and Rev Artemis Bishop, Missionaries, Dr Abraham Blatchley, Physician; Messers Joseph Goodrich, and James Ely, Licensed Preachers and Assistant Missionaries; Mr Levi Chamberlain, Superintendant of secular concerns and Assistant Missionary; and four natives of the Sandwich Islands – embarked at New Haven, Con. To join the mission at the islands.”

“Mission to Palestine”

“The first missionaries, Messers Fisk and Parson, arrived at Smyrna in January, 1820. Rev Pliny Fisk and Dev Daniel Temple, Missionaries. … Rev William Goodell and Rev Isaac Bird, Missionaries, embarked at New York, in the early part of last month, for the mission in Western Asia.” (Missionary Herald, January 1823) (The image shows the Caravan, leaving Salem MA for India, February 19, 1812.)

The Judsons, Newells, and Luther Rice set sail for India from Salem, MA on the Caravan-Feb 19, 1812

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)

Click HERE for a link to the original letter, its transcription, translation and annotation.

Indian_Removal-Trail of Tears-map

Cherokee-Georgia-map

Cherokee-Arkansas-marker

Carmel_Mission-1827)

Brainerd Station

ABCFM Mission Arkansas

March 18, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Alii Letters – Liholiho to ABCFM (1823)

Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives (Mission Houses) collaborated with Awaiaulu Foundation to digitize, transcribe, translate and annotate over 200-letters written by 33-Chiefs.

The letters, written between 1823 and 1887, are assembled from three different collections: the ABCFM Collection held by Harvard’s Houghton Library, the HEA Collection of the Hawaii Conference-United Church of Christ and the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society.

These letters provide insight into what the Ali‘i (Chiefs) were doing and thinking at the time, as well as demonstrate the close working relationship and collaboration between the aliʻi and the missionaries.

In this letter, King Liholiho expresses gratitude to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for sending the missionaries and introducing the word of God. He reports that his people are happy to have learned the word of God.

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was a Christian organization that sent companies of missionaries to Hawaiʻi beginning in 1820.

Liholiho, Kamehameha II, was the son of Kamehameha I. He inherited his father’s rule and was the sovereign of Hawaiʻi at the time of this letter.

“Oahu March 18, 1823”

“To those of the American Board,”

“Deep regards to all of you dwelling there in America. Here is my bit of message to all of you. We have recently learned literacy, we have seen and heard the good word of Jehovah.”

“We really desire the good teachings of Jesus Christ. What he has taught all of us is excellent indeed and we have finally become learned.”

“We were shown compassion by Jehovah, who sent Mr. Bingham and Mr. Thurston and all the teachers. And they dwelled with us here and our lands have become enlightened.”

“Our hearts rejoice for their good teaching to us. Our hearts are joyful at Jehovah’s words to us. That bit of message is finished. Here is another message: you may have already heard. I will clarify so that you all hear.”

“We had wooden deities before, during my father’s time. In my time, I have abandoned wooden deities. It turns out my abandoning of them beforehand was appropriate, for Mr. Bingham, Mr. Thurston and all the teachers were arriving.

“It is through our father that I may greet all of you. Jesus Christ was good in speaking to you, saying to you all, ‘Go and teach throughout the islands, and preach the good word of salvation.’”

“The ministers sailed here to do good things for us, we were overjoyed. And later on we may well be fully virtuous. We observe the sacred day of Almighty God in heaven, savior of us all.”

“Greatly beloved are all of you for thinking of us, for sending them here. Thankfully you sent teachers or our lands would be completely ignorant. But no, you showed us compassion.”

“Our lands have become enlightened. Deep regards to all of you. May we have salvation through Jehovah and Jesus Christ our Lord.”

“Tamehameha King of Hawaiʻi”

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US, led by Hiram Bingham, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) They arrived in the Islands and anchored at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”,) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (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.

Hawaiian Mission Houses’ Strategic Plan themes note that the collaboration between Native Hawaiians and American Protestant missionaries resulted in the
• The introduction of Christianity;
• The development of a written Hawaiian language and establishment of schools that resulted in widespread literacy;
• The promulgation of the concept of constitutional government;
• The combination of Hawaiian with Western medicine, and
• The evolution of a new and distinctive musical tradition (with harmony and choral singing).

Liholiho – ABCFM Mar 18, 1823-1

Liholiho – ABCFM Mar 18, 1823-2

March 14, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Parker’s Tour

“The wide extent of country beyond the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, with its inhabitants and physical condition, has been a subject of interesting enquiry …”

“Many things, relating to the possession of this country, its future probable importance in a political view, its population and trade, have occupied much attention.”

“The Christian public have not been in attentive to the interests, moral and religious, of those whom the God of providence has placed in these remote regions, and who are without the blessings of civilization and Christianity.”

“The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions appointed an exploring mission (led by Rev Samuel Parker and Dr Marcus Whitman) to ascertain by personal observation, the condition of the country, and the character of the Indian nations and tribes, and the facilities for introducing the gospel and civilization among them.”

“That difficulties and dangers would be incident to a journey through a country of such extent, uninhabited except by wandering bands of Indians, where no provisions could be obtained besides uncertain game, could not be doubted.”

“It was not a consciousness of undaunted courage, or indifference to suffering, or the love of romance, which fixed my purpose; but it was the importance of the object.”

“Although it was painful to bid adieu to my family and friends, unapprised of the events of the future, yet committing all to the guidance and protection of an all-wise Providence, the enterprise was undertaken without reluctance, on the 14th of March, 1835.”

“Pursuing the journey by the way of Buffalo, and Erie, I arrived at Pittsburgh on the 25th … Leaving Pittsburgh, which, from its multiplied manufactories, may be styled the Birmingham of America …”

“Having traveled over a greater extent of territory than any who had preceded, and with the express object of exploring the condition of the aboriginal population, this position can not be considered as assumed.”

“Messrs. Lewis and Clarke passed the Rocky Mountains under a governmental appointment to explore the country, more than thirty years since … yet their opportunities beyond the mountains were somewhat limited.”

“They passed over the great chain of mountains from the head waters of the Missouri between the 45° and 46° of north latitude, and came upon the head waters of the Cooscootske, and followed that river to its junction with the Lewis or Snake river …”

“… and then proceeded by water to the Pacific ocean at the mouth of Columbia river, wintered upon the south side of the bay, and early the following spring returned to the mountains by the same route which they pursued on their outward journey. …”

“As it was the principal object of my tour to ascertain the character and condition of the Indians beyond the Rocky Mountains, their numbers, and prospects of establishing the gospel among them, it will not only be proper but important to give a full and connected description of these particulars.”

“These live in the upper country from the Falls of the Columbia to the Rocky Mountains, and are called the Indians of the plains, because a large proportion of their country is prairie land.”

“The principal tribes are the Nez Perces, Cayuse, Walla Wallas, Bonax, Shoshones, Spokeins, Flatheads, Cceur De Lions, Ponderas, Cootanies, Kettlefalls, Okanagans, and Carriers.”

“In their persons the men are tall, the women are of common stature, and both men and women are well formed. While there is a strong natural as well as moral resemblance among all Indians, the complexion of these is much the same as other Indians, excepting a little fairer.”

“There is a great resemblance in their dress, which generally consists of a shirt, worn over long, close leggins, with moccasons for their feet. These are of dressed leather made of the skins of deer, antelope, and mountain goats and sheep; and over these they wear a blanket or buffalo robe.”

“They appear to have less of the propensity to adorn themselves with painting, than the Indians east of the mountains; but still at their toilet, vermilion, mixed with red clay, is used not only upon their faces, but also upon their hair.”

“The dress of the women does not vary much from the men, excepting, that instead of the shirt, they have what may be called a frock coming down to the ancles. Many of them wear a large cape …”

“As regards the religion of the Indians, (they resemble that of the) ancient Jews, that they believe in one God, in the immortality of the soul, and in future rewards and punishments.”

“They believe in one Great Spirit, who has created all things, governs all important events, and who is the author of all good; and who is the only object of religious homage.”

“They believe he may be displeased with them for their bad conduct, and in his displeasure bring calamities upon them. They also believe in an evil spirit, whom they call cinim keneki meohōt cinmo-cimo; that is, the black chief below …”

“They believe in the immortality of the soul, that it enters the future world with a similar form, and in like circumstances to those under which it existed in this life. They believe that in a future state, the happiness of the good consists in an abundance and enjoyment of those things which they value here, that their present sources of happiness will be carried to perfection …”

“Taking the various circumstances under deliberate and prayerful consideration, in regard to the Indians, we came to the conclusion, that, though many other important stations might be found, this would be one.”

“So desirable did this object appear, that Doct. Whitman proposed to return … and to obtain associates to come out with him the next year, with the then returning caravan, and establish a mission among these people, and by so doing, save at least a year, in bringing the gospel among them.” (Parker)

Upon return from his shorten investigative trip, Whitman had observed that it was possible to take women over the Rockies, hence he could return, be married to Narcissa Prentiss to whom he was engaged, and took her with him to Oregon.

Whitman hoped to find another couple to join them in their Oregon venture. He heard of Henry and Eliza Spalding who were to be missionaries among the Osage people; they had already started for their destination, but Marcus caught up to them and convinced them to join the Oregon missions.

The Whitmans and Spaldings formed the forerunners of the ABCFM’s missionary effort in the Pacific Northwest. In April 1836 Whitman’s party set out; he ultimately chose a spot in southeastern Washington on Mill Creek on the north bank of the Walla Walla River, 22-miles above its junction with the Columbia and the Hudson’s Bay Company post of Fort Walla Walla.

The local Indians, the Cayuse, called the spot Waiilatpu (“Place of the Rye Grass.”) Spalding chose a site 110-miles farther east, where he founded among the Nez Perce Indians what came to be known as the Spalding Mission, Idaho. (LegendsOfAmerica)

Parker continued his journey and ultimately, as part of his exploring mission came to the Hawaiian Islands, as well as other areas in the south Pacific. “On the 18th of June, according to previous arrangements, I took passage in the steam-boat Beaver, for Fort George to join the barque Columbia for the Sandwich islands.” (Parker)

Parker returned to the continent in 1837; he wrote a book that went through five editions, and was published in England, and with his subsequent lectures through the East.

In his later days Mr. Parker did much volunteer missionary work, and preached with his old vigor far past his three-score-and-tenth year. He was a plain, practical, prayerful, and earnest man. He died at Ithaca, 1866. (ancestry)