The following is from a ‘Story’ by Clara Lydia (Moseley) Sutherland, granddaughter of Hiram Bingham and daughter of Hiram’s first child Sophia). She gives glimpses of life as a teacher at Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary and a look of Honolulu in the early-1870s.
Before she “was fifteen, a wonderful thing happened to me which probably changed the whole course of my life. Two of my mother’s sisters, Aunt Lydia and Aunt Lizzie, returned to Honolulu, the home of their birth and engaged in teaching in a school for Hawaiian girls which was called Kawaiahaʻo Seminary.”
“My Aunt Lydia was Principal of this school and she wrote to my mother asking if she couldn’t spare me and let me come out and teach music to her girls, knowing that I was musically inclined.”
She left her home in Union City, Michigan to join them. “Uncle Hiram (II) met us at the wharf that Sunday morning we arrived, and when we reached the house my three aunts gave me such a warm and cordial welcome that I was no longer homesick, but oh! so glad to be here on terra firma.” (Clara Lydia Sutherland)
“Very soon after my arrival in Honolulu I began taking piano lessons from Mr. Mueller, a German teacher. I also took some French lessons from him.”
“Aunt Lydia wished to give me every advantage in the way of music, so she had me take pipe organ lessons from Mr. Atkinson, the organist at Kawaiaha‘o Church.”
“The organ then in use had to be pumped by hand, so when I went over to the church to practice I always took one of the school girls to do the pumping.”
“After I had gained some confidence in the use of the pedals I substituted occasionally for Mrs. Agnes Judd, who was the regular organist at Fort Street Church.”
“This church was thus named because it stood on the corner of Fort and Beretania streets nearly opposite the Catholic Church. Mr. Frear, father of Judge Frear was its pastor at that time.”
“Some years after, it merged with Bethel Church of which Rev. S. M. Damon was pastor. They built a beautiful church on the corner of Beretania and · Richards St. and named it Central Union, and Dr. Beckwith was its first pastor.”
“About two miles out from town at the entrance of Manoa Valley was a school called Punahou (meaning ‘new spring’) and thus named because of the spring which has existed there from time immemorial.”
“This property, consisting of several acres, was given by Boki, one of the chiefs, to my grandfather for educational purposes, so in 1842, a school was started there for the benefit of the children of the missionaries.”
“When I came to the Islands in 1872 this was as yet a small school, compared to its present status. There were only about fifty pupils and there were only two buildings, both built of adobe.”
“One of these was for the Principal and the three teachers and the few pupils who came from the other Islands. The other was the Schoolhouse. The latter is still in existence and is now used by the Music Faculty and called ‘Old Music Hall’.”
“At that time the upper floor was one big schoolroom, and the rooms downstairs were used for classrooms. Mr. E. P. Church was the Principal, and his wife and Miss Haven and Mr. Chickering were the other three teachers.”
“Here I went to school for two years, and it is one of my happy memories, as I loved my teachers and my studies and made friendships which have lasted all my life.”
“Mr. Chickering, my Latin teacher, was my ideal of all that was fine and noble and manly, and I nearly lost my heart to him even at the age of 16.”
“There were no street cars in Honolulu in those days, so the school kept two omnibuses driven by boys living at the school. One went up Nuʻuanu Valley to pick up all the scholars living in that section, and the other took those of us who lived in town, and in the few scattered houses on the plains between Punahou and town.”
“There was not much to be seen but algeroba (kiawe) trees on that dry and dusty plain. King Street was the only thoroughfare.
There was no one living in Manoa Valley except a few natives in their grass huts.”
“That was only a place where we went for picnics on horseback. The bus called for some of us about 8:30 am as school began at 9 o’clock. We used to have some pretty jolly times riding back and forth, and I can remember how certain girls would have a crush on the driver and want to sit up next to him.”
“Human nature has not changed since time began, and there was plenty of flirtation and romance in those days, but we would have been considered very discreet and modest by the present generation.”
“We would take an orange or banana to school to eat at noon, but no regular lunch, so I used to come home between two and three PM nearly starved.”
“They always kept my dinner warm for me in the oven and how I did enjoy the taro! We had it nearly every day instead of potato or rice. That is probably what made me gain in weight so fast, as I had not then learned to eat poi.”
“I was a very busy girl at this time, for besides my school and my piano and organ practice I was giving piano lessons to ten or twelve of the girls in my aunt’s school.”
“I would give one before going to school in the morning, and one or two more in the afternoon. There was an old piano in the dining room where I taught, and on which the girls practiced.”
“In the back parlor was a new one, belonging to Sally King, a half white, and one of my pupils. She and I did our practicing on this.”
“Our nearest neighbors were the Castles and Cookes. The Castles lived next door and the Cookes just across the street in the old Mission House, where my grandparents and some of the other missionaries had lived.”
“This was the first frame house erected in Honolulu, the material for it having been sent around Cape Horn in 1821. It is still in existence, having been carefully preserved by the friends of the missionaries on account of its associations.”
“‘Mother Cooke’, as she was lovingly called by all who knew her, was living here at this time with her three sons, Charlie, Frank and Clarence.”
“The three daughters and oldest son, Joe, had all left the family roof, and were living in homes of their own. Charlie was married but living in the same house with his mother and occupying a three room apartment or wing which had been built onto the east end of the house.”
“These rooms should have been called ‘Honeymoon Haven’ as it is where each of Mother Cooke’s four sons began their married life.”
“The Castles were a large family of nine children, and I came to know them very well, especially the younger ones, George, James, Carrie, Helen and Henry.”
“Carrie, who was nearest my age, was as fond of music as I, and we enjoyed playing duets together …. Mr. Barnard, Clerk of the Court, an elderly gentleman who played the violin, used to give us each an evening a week when he would come to the house and play with us, thus helping us greatly in reading and in our appreciation of good music.”
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