“Two hundred years ago in central Russia a group of farmers defied the Russian Orthodox Church by drinking milk whenever they pleased, even on holy days. Despised and persecuted, they were called Molokans – milk drinkers.” “The Molokans have been compared to Protestants for rejecting the parent church’s orthodoxy, and also have been likened to Presbyterians for having lay ministers and a loose council of dominant elders.” “In about 1905, thousands of Molokans left Russia to escape religious intolerance and the threat of the military draft, which violates their religious principles. Church prophets instructed the Molokans to migrate to ‘the promised land.’”

James B Castle became interested in the Molokans, “and immediately began efforts to induce some of them to come to Hawaii, and to that end invited Captain Demens (formerly a Russian nobleman and liberal leader, who has been a resident and citizen of the US for the past 30-years) to come and examine conditions here to see if he could recommend them to his fellow countrymen.” “The first detachment Molokan settlers for these Islands arrived yesterday afternoon the China from San Francisco (Feb 19, 1906.) Exactly 110-men, women and children composed the party, representing about 30 families.” The ‘Molokan Experiment’ ended about as fast as it started … “(it) seems now pretty well at an end, although twelve families still remain on Kauai.”