ABCFM | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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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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”

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

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).

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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)

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Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains-Parker

March 10, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Asa Thurston Turns to a Christian Life

“John Thurston came to Fitchburg from Rowley, Mass., about 1765, with his wife, Lydia, and seven children. He settled on the farm … in the easterly part of the city, and entered with enthusiasm into the pursuit of agriculture, raised the finest apples in this region, and owned a cider mill.”

“He had been a soldier in the French and Indian war, and was enrolled as a minute man in 1775. He was also one of the first deacons of the first church in Fitchburg.”

“His fifth son was Thomas (generally called Captain Tom Thurston), who grew up on the farm until he was of an age to leave the paternal roof, when his father apprenticed him to a Mr. Brown of Concord, Mass., to learn the shoemaker’s trade.”

“The homestead of Captain Thomas Thurston was … in the northwest part of Fitchburg, at the end of the Thurston road, leading from the Ashby West road”.

“Here Asa Thurston was born on the twelfth day of October, 1787, the fourth child and second son of Thomas Thurston, and here he grew up in a large family of good New England stock, in a typical New England home. His brothers and sisters were Thomas, Hannah, Elizabeth, Ebenezer, Polly, Cyrus, Sylvania, Mahala and Maria.”

“When he reached the age of fourteen years there was a change in his life. He was apprenticed for seven years to John and Joseph Farwell, scythe makers (a long curving blade to cut grass/grain), whose shop was on the south side of what is now West Main street, a short distance above the River street bridge, and he boarded with Joseph Farwell”.

“He enjoyed life and action. Always fond of active sports, he early became proficient in wrestling, and seldom was there found an antagonist who was his superior.”

“In those days wrestling was one of the principal diversions of the young men, and these trials of strength and agility were of common occurrence at the store, or after work at the shop, or at any place of general gathering.”

“As he grew older, Asa’s temperament led him into social life and made him a leader there. At dances and social gatherings he was brim full of life, and if there was any young man in Fitchburg who thoroughly enjoyed life it was probably Asa Thurston.”

“But disease and death are factors to be reckoned with in this world. In the autumn of 1805 typhoid fever was prevalent in Fitchburg, and to quite a number it proved fatal. Asa contracted the disease and for some time his life trembled in the balance.”

“It is related that his elder brother, Thomas, who was studying for the ministry, watched with him one night, and that he spent a greater part of the time in prayer. The next morning, when asked about his brother, he said: ‘Asa will get well and be a missionary, but I shall not live long.’”

“Mrs. Thurston nursed her son with a mother’s care and devotion, and he recovered, but she was taken down with the same disease and died January 19, 1806. This sad loss to him was quickly followed by the death of his brother Thomas, February 15, and thirteen days later by the death of his sister Elizabeth, both of the same disease.”

“These sad events had a powerful and lasting effect upon him. Now Asa Thurston began to feel the effect of character and environment. With a deeply affectionate disposition, fond of music, a natural lover of pleasure, and possessed of a keen sense of humor, he had also a tender conscience and a vein of strong and serious feeling.”

“For years his mind had been at times turned to the subject of religion; members of his family had urged him to profess a Christian life, and now, again, his thoughts turned in that direction, and most seriously. But it was hard for him to give up worldly pleasures and take only the will of God for his guide.” (Bailey)

Asa wrote some words of his life … “I lived almost entirely unconcerned about my precious soul till I was past sixteen years of age. I sometimes thought that religion was of importance and that I would attend to it at some future period, but I felt disposed to put off repentance to a more convenient season.”

“I thought that after I had become old I should have nothing else to do but to attend to religion, but could not bear the thought of attending to the concerns of eternity so young. I thought that I was as good as many others, and that I should fare as well.”

“When I was about sixteen years old it pleased God to send his Holy Spirit to convince and convict many in this place of their sins, by which I was alarmed.”

“I began to think religion was of some importance, that I would attend to it. Seeing some of my young friends and connexions embracing the Saviour and singing the wonders of redeeming love, I thought I should like to be one of the happy number.”

“I felt somewhat anxious about being prepared for death and eternity, but I had very little if any conviction of sin by the law. I knew that I was a sinner, but I had no realizing sense of the opposition of my heart to God and holiness.”

“I knew that I must repent of my sins or perish forever, but notwithstanding all this knowledge, I soon lost all my serious impressions and anxious thoughts about myself and became as careless as ever. But I could not go on in sin with so calm a conscience as before.”

“Some of my friends and connexions that formerly had been my most intimate companions in sin became faithful witnesses against me, and in particular my sister. She would often reprove me for my folly.”

“And thus I went on in my own chosen way till at length God appeared in judgment against me and visited me with sickness, at which time few, if any, expected I should recover; but God, being rich in mercy, saw fit to for bear, and restored me to health.”

“I felt somewhat rejoiced, but had no heart to sing praises to God for his mercy. My spared life, which ought to have been devoted to God, was spent in the service of Satan. I expected I should have no more to trouble me, but I was soon arrested by a most solemn providence.”

“God was pleased to take from me a most affectionate and loving mother. This, indeed, was a most solemn scene to me. To think that but a few weeks before she was in sound health, and I, to all appearance, on the verge of eternity, and then to look back and behold the hand of God in restoring me to health, while she was called into the eternal world!”

“Twenty-two years of my precious life had been trifled away … I was brought, as I humbly hope and trust, to feel willing to say,
with my heart, to my God, ‘Glorify thyself with me, do with and for me that which shall be most for thine honor and glory.’”

“I thought I felt willing that God should take the throne that I had been long contending with him about, likewise I was willing to cast myself down at the foot of sovereign mercy.” (Thurston; Bailey)

“Asa Thurston now felt that he must become a minister of the gospel, and to that end he must obtain a suitable education. He entered Yale college in 1812. … He graduated in 1816, and immediately entered Andover Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1819, ready to enter upon his chosen career of a missionary.”

On October 23, 1819, Asa Thurston was in the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US that set sail from Boston on the Thaddeus for the Hawaiian Islands. They landed at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.

“After forty years of missionary work he was stricken with paralysis, and was obliged to go to California for health and rest. He was there in 1863, but soon returned to Honolulu, where he passed the remainder of his life.”

“The disease made progress, till at last it affected his brain. At times he would seem to behold crowds of people, and pointing, would exclaim, ‘Ke Aupini, Ke Aupini,’ (the kingdom, the kingdom).”

“For the last two days of his life he could not speak, and he passed quietly away on the eleventh day of March, 1868, at the age of eighty years, – a veteran in the service of the Lord.” (Bailey)

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Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston

February 12, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Opukahaia – The Inspiration for the Hawaiian Mission

In about 1807, a young Hawaiian man, ʻŌpūkahaʻia, swam out to the ‘Triumph’, a China-bound seal skin trading ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay. Both of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s parents and his younger brother had been slain during the battles on the island.

Also on board was Hopu, another young Hawaiian. They set sail for New York, stopping first in China. Russell Hubbard was also on board. “This Mr. Hubbard was a member of Yale College. He was a friend of Christ. … Mr. Hubbard was very kind to me on our passage, and taught me the letters in English spelling-book.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

They landed at New York and remained there until the Captain sold out all the Chinese goods. Then, they made their way to New England.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia was eager to study and learn. He “was sitting on the steps of a Yale building, weeping. A solicitous student stopped to inquire what was wrong, and Obookiah (the spelling of his name, based on its sound) said, ‘No one will give me learning.’”

The student was Edwin Dwight. “(W)hen the question was put him, ‘Do you wish to learn?’ his countenance began to brighten. And when the proposal was made that he should come the next day to the college for that purpose, he served it with great eagerness.” (Dwight)

Later, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) formed the Foreign Mission School; ʻŌpūkahaʻia was one of its first students. He yearned “with great earnestness that he would (return to Hawaiʻi) and preach the Gospel to his poor countrymen.” Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died on February 17, 1818.

Dwight put together a book, ‘Memoirs of Henry Obookiah’ (the spelling of the name based on its pronunciation). It was an edited collection of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s letters and journals/diaries. The book about his life was printed and circulated after his death.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia, inspired by many young men and women with proven sincerity and religious fervor of the missionary movement, had wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi; his book inspired missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Hawaiian Islands.

In giving instructions to the first missionaries, the ABCFM, noted: “You will never forget ʻŌpūkahaʻia. You will never forget his fervent love, his affectionate counsels, his many prayers and tears for you, and for his and your nation.”

“You saw him die; saw how the Christian could triumph over death and the grave; saw the radient glory in which he left this world for heaven. You will remember it always, and you will tell it to your kindred and countrymen who are dying without hope.”

Click HERE to view/download Background on ʻŌpūkahaʻia & the Mission

Missionary Period

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from the northeast United States, set sail on the Thaddeus for 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 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. Collaboration between Native Hawaiians and American Protestant missionaries resulted in, among other things, the

Introduction of Christianity;
Development of a written Hawaiian language and establishment of schools that resulted in widespread literacy;
Promulgation of the concept of constitutional government;
Combination of Hawaiian with Western medicine; and
Evolution of a new and distinctive musical tradition (with harmony and choral singing)

On August 15, 1993, ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s remains were returned to Hawai‘i from Cornwall and laid in a vault facing the ocean at Kahikolu Church.

Saturday, February 17, 2018 marks the Bicentennial of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s death.

Hawaiian Mission Houses will be hosting a Free Open House that afternoon.

10 am (HST), February 17, 2018 State-wide bell ringing;
10 am, Feb 17, Haili Church, Kawaiaha’o Church & Hawaiian Mission Houses;
10:15 am, Feb 17, Mokuaikaua Church, Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia Memorial Concert;
3 pm (Eastern) Feb 17, Remembrance at original ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s gravesite at Cornwall, CT;
9:30 am, February 18, 2018, commemoration services at Kahikolu Church;
9 am & 11 am, Feb 18, Mokuaikaua Church Services, Speaker to discuss Life of ‘Ōpūkaha’ia;
10 am, Feb 18, service at Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia Memorial Chapel/Hokuloa Church, Punalu‘u;
10 am (Eastern), February 18, 2018 Services at UCC Cornwall;
6 pm, February 17, 18, 24, 25 at Kalihi Union Church, a musical drama on life of ʻŌpūkahaʻia.

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