Lorenzo Lyons | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 4, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

He Akua Hemolele – Ke Akua no kakou

“(O)ur mission was providentially favored with a visit from Mr. Ellis, a missionary from (the London Missionary Society), and Messrs. Tyreman and Bennet, who had been sent thither as the deputed agents of the London Missionary Society.”

“Without their contrivance or ours, they, while seeking to convey and accompany teachers from the Society to the Marquesas Islands, found an opportunity to touch at the Sandwich Islands in their course.” (Bingham)

“Four or five hymns having been prepared in Hawaiian by Mr. Ellis, were introduced into public worship with manifest advantage. On the 4th of August, these were read and sung, and I addressed the throne of grace in the language of the country.”

“In my early efforts to do this, it seemed that an invisible power granted the needed assistance. The language was found to be favorable to short petitions, confessions, and ascriptions of praise and adoration.”

“On the next day, while many of our friends, over oceans and continents, were remembering us at the monthly concert, the king and his attendants applied themselves to then new books.”

“A number of natives, already able to teach them, joined with the missionaries as teachers, and we rejoiced to see the king’s thatched habitation, under the guns of the fort at Honolulu, become a primary school for the highest family in the land. Naihe, Kapiolani, Nāmāhāna, and La‘anui, at then own houses in the village, were endeavoring to learn to read and write.” (Bingham)

“The London Missionary Society’s “talents, experience, kindness, and courtesy, rendered the Christian intercourse of these brethren with our missionaries, so isolated and secluded from civilized society, a peculiar privilege, long to be remembered with pleasure. Prejudices had been allayed, and the confidence of the rulers in our cause, increased.”

“Mr. Ellis, being some four years in advance of us, in acquaintance with missionary life, among a people of language and manners so similar to those whom we were laboring to elevate, and being peculiarly felicitous in his manner of communication with all classes …”

“… greatly won our esteem, awakened a desire to retain him as a fellow laborer, and made us grateful for the providence that kindly made the arrangement, for a season, by which the language was sooner acquired, and our main work expedited.” (Bingham)

“On the 4th of February, 1823, the Rev. Mr. Ellis and family from the Society Islands, as had been expected, arrived at Honolulu on board a small vessel, the Active, Richard Charlton master, and were kindly welcomed both by the missionaries and the rulers.”

“They were accompanied by three Tahitian teachers, Kuke, and Taua, having their wives with them, and Taamotu, an unmarried female.”

“Mr. Ellis entered at once into the labors of the mission, and with much satisfaction, we could unitedly say, ‘Let us see the great work done in the shortest possible time.’” (Bingham)

“(The) hymn He Akua Hemolele originated on the arrival of Mr. Ellis in Honolulu harbor. A canoe from the shore brought Mr. Bingham out to the vessel.”

“Mr. Ellis called down to him ‘He Akua Hemolele,’ God is good, or perfect. Mr. Bingham replied, ‘Ke Akua no kakou,’ He is our God.”

“And so in the typical fashion of a Hawaiian ki’ke, this dialog of greeting continued for several phrases which were later worked over into the four short stanzas of the hymn.”

“And a member of the Green and Parker families reminds us that this old hymn was a lullaby often hummed in Hawaiian by the first Mother Rice, in the days before cradles went out of style and mothers still took time to sing their babies to sleep.” (Damon; Ululoa)

“As early as 1823 a small hymn-book of 60 pages (Na Himeni Hawaiʻi; He Me Ori Ia Iehova, Ke Akua Mau) was prepared by the Revs. H. Bingham and W. Ellis.” (Julian)

“It had been my privilege to labour in harmonious cooperation with the able and devoted American missionaries first sent to the Sandwich Islands.”

“Having a knowledge of the language of Tahiti, which varies but slightly from that of Hawaii, I had assisted in forming the Hawaiian alphabet, and fixing the orthography of the native language, as well as in other departments of missionary labour.”

“More than thirty years had passed away since I had left those islands, and it was an unexpected satisfaction to my own mind to find that the Christian sentiments embodied in a simple hymn …”

“… which had been prepared chiefly with a view to implanting seeds of truth in the minds of the young, had afforded consolation and support to the mind of a native of those islands in the lonely solitude of a distant ocean, amidst the perils of shipwreck, and the prospect of death …”

“… and I mention this circumstance for the encouragement of other labourers in the cause of humanity and religion, that they may cast their bread upon the waters and labour on, in the assurance that no sincere effort will be altogether in vain, though its results should never be known. (Ellis) Lorenzo Lyons later penned the hymn He Akua Hemolele.)

Ellis and Bingham

September 10, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Imiola

During the mid-nineteenth century, Imiola Congregational Church at Waimea, Hawaii became the main base for Congregational missionary activities in the Hāmākua and South Kohala Districts of Hawaii. (Imiola means ‘seek salvation.’)

The first Imiola Church was a grass hut built by order of the local chiefs for traveling missionaries. No construction date has been found for the first church, although it had been built and dedicated by King Kamehameha III before 1832.

It contained a rough pulpit and a crude window. Congregations sat on mats on the ground and often were so large that the tiny structure could barely accommodate them.

Reverend Lyons wrote in his journal that at least one hundred little grass schoolhouses were scattered around his church in the immediate Waimea area.

Imiola Church’s membership, combined with that of Reverend Titus Coan’s church in Hilo, accounted for three out of every four church members on all islands in May, 1838. Lyons’ triumph was short-lived, however. Of the nearly 5,000-natives who became members during the peak period of religious revival, only 1,197 were in good standing by 1841.

By February of 1843, the first church had been torn down and was replaced by a stone structure with thatched roof and windows. Hundreds of natives helped in the collection of stones, often carrying them miles to the construction site.

It was “A large stone edifice whose extension of stately walls and two large panel doors and smiling windows, presents an imposing form and whose interior …”

“… with the addition of a boarded floor and well-arranged seats and neat simple pulpit, furnishes new attractions to the native worshipper.” (Lyons, September 15, 1841; Gulick)

Difficult as the raising of the second church was, the structure lasted for only a little over twelve years. At the end of April, 1855, it was determined to be unsafe and was abandoned.

On June 11 of that year, the roof collapsed and was described by Lyons as “a mass of ruins”. On August 29, 1855, the cornerstone of the new church was laid.

“Under the cornerstone (SW corner) was deposited a tin box wrapped in mamaki kapa – Hawaiian Bible, hymn books, newspapers, laws, etc.”

By 1857, the church was completed and dedicated. The ceiling rafters, floor, and exterior clapboard were made of koa, a Hawaiian hardwood.

Lyons’ recollections of the construction of the building list two important figures. Mr. Cairr “was engaged to put up the new building” and Alani was responsible for planing the clapboard siding. The church was constructed by the help of church members who did most of the heavy work.

Imiola Congregational Church is a rectangular wooden gabled structure which makes use of indigenous construction materials. The church measures approximately 40 by 60 feet and is set on stone footings and a dry fieldstone wall.

It is sheathed with bevel siding. Shingles cover the solid NE end and located on the opposite end is a small gabled entrance way with a curved lintel piece. A rectangular tower with crenellations and a cross crown the high-pitched gable.

By 1882, the church required repairs and between the money donated and funds collected at a church fair, Imiola was reshingled, repainted and rematted.

“There were no doors to Imiola church in Laiana’s time, and when I was little the entrance was always open. There was no other church like it, for the benches all had horse hair cushions, covered with brocaded material. We youngsters used to go in and run around and pick out the best cushions and drag them along and change them to our own pew.” (Helen Lindsey Parker; Makua Laina)

Competition with the Catholic Church, the drastic drop in the Hawaiian population, as well as the movement of many natives to coastal urban centers accounted for the dwindling congregation.

Two years before his death, a crowd which included Waimea’s young, old, middle aged, Catholics, Mormons, Protestants, and non-believers all came to one of Lyons’ services to honor him.

As was the practice, the early missionaries learned the Hawaiian language and taught their lessons in Hawaiian, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians. In later years, the instruction, ultimately, was in English.

Lyons was an avid supporter of the Hawaiian language. He wrote a letter to the editor in The Friend newspaper (September 2, 1878) that, in part noted:

“An interminable language…it is one of the oldest living languages of the earth, as some conjecture, and may well be classed among the best…the thought to displace it, or to doom it to oblivion by substituting the English language, ought not for a moment to be indulged. … Long live the grand old, sonorous, poetical Hawaiian language.”

He was lovingly known to Hawaiians as Ka Makua Laiana, Haku Mele o ka Aina Mauna – Father Lyons, Lyric Poet of the Mountain County.

Lyons was fluent in the Hawaiian language and composed many poems and hymns; his best known and beloved work is the hymn “Hawaiʻi Aloha” sung to the tune of “I Left It All With Jesus” (circa 1852.) The song was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1998.

“Widely regarded as Hawaiʻi’s second anthem, this hymn is sung in both churches and public gatherings. It is performed at important government and social functions to bring people together in unity, and at the closing of Hawaiʻi Legislative sessions.”

“The first appearance of “Hawaiʻi Aloha” in a Protestant hymnal was in 1953, nearly 100 years after it was written. Today, people automatically stand when this song is played extolling the virtues of ‘beloved Hawaiʻi.’” (Hawaiian Music Museum).

In 1886, Lyons died at the age of 79. He was buried some distance from the church on the grounds of his old homestead. With the help of Parker Ranch management, his remains were removed to the grounds of Imiola Church in April, 1939. (Nelia and I were married at Imiola, seventeen years ago, today.)

P-06 View of Waimea

Imiola_Church-(EthanTweedie)

Imiola_Church,_Waimea,_Hawaii-(WC)

Imiola_Church_interrior,_Waimea,_Hawaii

Imiola_Church,_Waimea

Imiola_Church-PTY-Nelia-Group

Imiola_Church-PTY-Nelia-Group-leaving

Imiola_Church-PTY-Nelia-Wagon

Imiola_Church-PTY-Nelia-Wagon-riding into sunset

Grave site of Lorenzo Lyons, at the ‘Imiola congregational church in Waimea (Hawaii County), Hawaii. He designed the church and died in 1886-(WC)

March 20, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hokuloa Church

Lorenzo and Betsy Lyons arrived in the Hawaiian Islands as missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) on the ‘Averick’ on May 17, 1832. They were part of the large Fifth Company, including the Alexanders, Armstrongs, Emersons, Forbes, Hitchcocks, Lymans and others.

Ultimately, 17 missionary stations were created throughout the Islands; these became the centers for establishing outlying churches (each church served as a community gathering area and was typically accompanied by a school.)

By 1831 eleven hundred schools had been established by the missionaries. The schools were organized in the most populated areas and native teachers and lay-ministers were appointed to administer them.

On July 16 1832, Lyons replaced Reverend Dwight Baldwin as minister at Waimea, South Kohala, Hawai‘i. Lyons’ “Church Field” was centered in Waimea, at what is now the historic church ‘Imiola.

On October 15, 1840, Kamehameha III enacted a law that required the maintenance and local support of the native schools in all populated areas. By this time, one church and school each were established in Kawaihae and Puakō.

By 1851, the lands on which the churches and schools were situated were formally surveyed and conveyed to their respective administrative organizations. (Maly)

Lyons built fourteen churches in the expanse of his mission station including Waipi‘o Valley, Honokaʻa, Kawaihae and Puakō. Each of the churches represented the designs of New England congregational churches.

Each church was constructed of materials found where the church was built. Some were constructed of lava rock and some of wood. The churches at Kawaihae and Puakō were built of lava rock.

The construction of the Hokuloa Church (Hoku loa – ‘evening star’) in Puakō began in 1858 and was completed and dedicated March 20, 1860. It’s the oldest functioning lava rock structure in the district of South Kohala.

The building is rectangular in shape, approximately 25 feet by 40 feet. The original wooden floor was repaired several times; seriously damaged during the tsunami of 1960 and in 1967, it was replaced with concrete.

The 10-foot walls are constructed of lava rocks bound with burnt coral mortar. The side walls vary from two to three feet thick with the gabled ends being the thinner part.

Most of the wood used for construction of the building was hauled from forests growing at higher elevations. Some of the wood was brought by ship from the northwest US. The ships delivered the wood to the edge of the Puakō reef where it was dropped into the ocean and dragged to land.

The original shingled roof was replaced several times with metal sheet roofs and then again in 1990 with a fireproof shingle made of a composite material.

The bell tower houses the original bell purchased from New England for the church by Rev Lyons and installed for the dedication in 1860.

“The stone church, with its whitened walls, and reddened roof and humble spire give the place an air of civilization and religiousness, and the school house in close proximity with its similar walls though thatched roof, makes something of a show, and indicated the existence of a school.” (Lyons, 1863)

“This school carries 18 children on the register, but only 10 attended on the day I was there. The proficiency of the scholars was not very satisfactory. I am inclined to believe that ‘the Schoolmaster is abroad’ too much of his time, he living at Kawaihae too far from the school; but none other was to be had.” (School Inspector Gulick, 1865)

“Puakō is a village on the shore, very like Kawaihae, but larger. It has a small harbor in which naive vessels anchor. Coconut groves give it a verdant aspect. No food grows in the place. The people make salt and catch fish. These they exchanged for vegetables grown elsewhere.” (Lorenzo Lyons, 1835)

“This parish is from 13 to 18 miles SW of Waimea and consists of several small villages, one of which is Puakō. These villages are mostly beautified by tall waving coconuts groves – the lauhala , the loulu or low palm tree – and Kou tree – and some other shrubbery. “

“There are also fish ponds where the delicious mullet etc sport and valuable salt grounds, that furnish employment for both sexes.” (Lyons, 1863)

“This is the poorest parish in my field, rendered still poorer of late by the frequent rains that have prevented the people from making salt – one of their chief dependencies …”

“… the wind – rough weather, and the heat of the volcanic stream that entered the sea near this place have killed or frightened away all their fish and the second source of wealth. There remain the fruit of a few cocoa nut trees, and the lauhala from their leaf of which the women busy themselves in making mats.” (Lyons, 1859)

Rev Lyons died in 1886 at the age of 79. After Lyon’s death the trained ministers and lay leaders of the Imiola Church continued to lead regular worship services at the Puakō Church; the school also continued.

The Puakō school was closed in the 1920s and Ihe children from Puakō were sent to the Kawaihae school. However, students who wanted to progress beyond the ninth grade went to Kohala and Honoka‘a for the upper grades.

The Hokuloa Church was not completely abandoned, although regular services were no longer held. Church members from Imiola from time to time would come to the Puakō church to hold small worship and prayer gatherings. The building lost its roof and bell tower.

In the early 1950s Puakō lands were subdivided into more than 165 house lots and sold at public auction. But it wasn’t until the 1960s when most of the lots had been sold that they began to be used for vacation hideaways.

In 1960 a tsunami which originated in Chile inundated the northern end of Puakō and did extensive damage to the inside of the Hokuloa Church. By 1966, the National Park Service had surveyed the building, and a group of Puakō residents formed to begin repairs of the Hokuloa Church.

In 1990 the building was completely restored and a new congregation was established. (Lots of information here is from the Hokuloa National Register Nomination form.)

Click HERE for a link to Hawaiʻi Aloha – sung by Ledward Kaʻapana, Dennis Kamakahi & Nathan Aweau – written by a missionary.

Hokuloa Church

Hokuloa Church HABS-LOC General View

Hokuloa Church HABS-LOC Window

Hokuloa Church HABS-LOC Remnants of Belfry

Hokuloa Church HABS-LOC Entrance Door

Hokuloa Church HABS-LOC Cover

Hokuloa Church HABS-LOC Elevations

Hokuloa Church HABS-LOC Sections

Hokuloa Church HABS-LOC Plan-Details

Hokuloa Church – Site Plan -NPS

Hokuloa Church-HVB Warrior Marker

August 17, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Love Always For Hawaiʻi”

When the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame honored ‘Hawaiʻi Aloha’ as one of five traditional songs as a ‘Famous Song’ (1998,) they noted, “For more than 100 years, love of the land and its natural beauty has been the poetry Hawaiian composers have used to speak of love. Hawaiian songs also speak to people’s passion for their homeland and their beliefs.”

The Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame further noted, Hawaiʻi Aloha is “widely regarded as Hawaiʻi’s second anthem”. (Hawaiian Music Museum)

“It is performed at important government and social functions to bring people together in unity, and at the closing of Hawaiʻi Legislative sessions. Today, people automatically stand when this song is played extolling the virtues of ‘beloved Hawaiʻi.’”

Hawaiʻi Aloha was written by a Protestant missionary, Lorenzo Lyons.

“In 1998, The Advisory Board honored these traditional songs for their beauty and their messages, which have made them popular, with concert performers and recording artists, as well as the public.”

Hawaiʻi Aloha has three verses, but most typically sing the first verse and repeat portions of the chorus:

E Hawaiʻi e kuʻu one hānau e
Kuʻu home kulaiwi nei
ʻOli nō au i nā pono lani ou
E Hawaiʻi, aloha ē

Hui:
E hauʻoli nā ʻōpio o Hawai`i nei
ʻOli ē! ʻOli ē!
Mai nā aheahe makani e pā mai nei
Mau ke aloha, no Hawaiʻi

Reverend Lorenzo Lyons was fluent in the Hawaiian language and composed many poems and hymns; his best known and beloved work is the hymn “Hawaiʻi Aloha” sung to the tune of “I Left It All With Jesus.” He wrote it in about 1852.

Here’s the English translation:

O Hawaiʻi, o sands of my birth
My native home
I rejoice in the blessings of heaven
O Hawaiʻi, aloha

Chorus:
Happy youth of Hawai`i
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Gentle breezes blow
Love always for Hawaiʻi

Collaboration between native Hawaiians and the American Protestant missionaries resulted in, among other things, the introduction of Christianity, the creation of the Hawaiian written language, widespread literacy, the promulgation of the concept of constitutional government, making Western medicine available and the evolution of a new and distinctive musical tradition.

Oli and mele were already a part of the Hawaiian tradition. “As the Hawaiian songs were unwritten, and adapted to chanting rather than metrical music, a line was measured by the breath; their hopuna, answering to our line, was as many words as could be easily cantilated at one breath.” (Bingham)

Some songs were translations of Western songs into Hawaiian; some were original verse and melody. Hawaiʻi Aloha is an example of the music left as a lasting legacy by the missionaries in the Islands.

Missionaries used songs as a part of the celebration, as well as learning process. “At this period, the same style of sermons, prayers, songs, interrogations, and exhortations, which proves effectual in promoting revivals of religion, conversion, or growth in grace among a plain people in the United States, was undoubtedly adapted to be useful at the Sandwich Islands. … some of the people who sat in darkness were beginning to turn their eyes to the light”. (Bingham)

“The king (Kamehameha III) being desirous to use his good voice in singing, we sang together at my house, not war songs, but sacred songs of praise to the God of peace.” (Bingham)

Hawaiʻi Aloha was not the only popular song written by the missionaries.

One of the unique verses (sung to an old melody) was Hoʻonani Hole ‐ Hoʻonani I Ka Makua Mau. Missionary Hiram Bingham wrote/translated it to Hawaiian and people sang it to a melody that dates back to the 1600s – today, it is known as the Hawaiian Doxology.

“In 1872, (Lyons) published Buke Himeni Hawaiʻi containing over 600 hymns, two thirds his own composition. Some years later he prepared the Sabbath School Hymn and Tune Book Lei Aliʻi.””

“The Hawaiians owe entirely to his exertions their introduction to modern enlivening styles of popular sacred music.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 19, 1886) The image shows the Hawaiʻi music and lyrics.