Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Island Summits

He ‘Ohu Ke Aloha; ‘A‘ohe Kuahiwi Kau ‘Ole
Love is like mist; there is no mountaintop that it does not settle upon

“… as the sun shining in his strength dissipated the clouds, we had a more impressive view of the stupendous pyramidal Mauna Kea, having a base of some thirty miles, and a height of nearly three miles.  Its several terminal peaks rise so near each other, as scarcely to be distinguished at a distance.”

“These, resting on the shoulders of this vast Atlas of the Pacific, prove their great elevation by having their bases environed with ice, and their summits covered with snow, in this tropical region, and heighten the grandeur and beauty of the scene, by exhibiting in miniature, a northern winter, in contrast with the perpetual summer of the temperate and torrid zones below the snow and ice.”

“The shores along this coast appeared very bold, rising almost perpendicularly, several hundred feet, being furrowed with many ravines and streams. From these bluffs, the country rises gradually, for a few miles, presenting a grassy appearance, with a sprinkling of trees and shrubs.”

“Then, midway from the sea to the summit of the mountain, appeared a dark forest, principally of the koa and ʻōhia, forming a sort of belt, some ten miles in breadth-the temperate zone of the mountain.”  (Bingham at first sight of the Islands, 1820)

And when you think about high elevation places in the Hawaiian islands, of course you have to talk about that basic dichotomy between the lower elevation places where people live.

And in old times, the lower elevations would have been called the Wao Kanaka. Wao being a word that means “zone” and “Kanaka” being a person. So the Wao Kanaka is a zone in which people belong.

When you rise above that zone, you enter into a realm in which all of the living things there are not there because of human activity. They flourish as the result of the activity of the gods, or the Akua. And so that zone is called the Wao Akua. And the transition from Wao Kanaka to Wao Akua is not taken lightly.  (Gon)

The Islands’ peaks are considered the piko (summit or center of the land) and are considered sacred.  The places upon which clouds nestle are considered wao akua, the realm of the gods.  Clouds cover the actions of the gods while they walk the earth. The higher the piko, the closer to heaven, and the greater the success of prayers. (Maly)

Let’s look at Hawaiʻi’s peaks, the highest point on each Island as we move down the Island chain.

Niʻihau – Pānīʻau (1,281-feet)

Ni‘ihau was formed from a single shield volcano approximately 4.89-million years ago, making it slightly younger in age than Kaua‘i. It is approximately 70-square miles or 44,800-acres.  It’s about 17-miles west of Kauaʻi.

Pānīʻau, the island’s highest point, is 1,281-feet; approximately 78% of the island is below 500-feet in elevation.   Located inside Kauai’s rain shadow, Ni‘ihau receives only about 20 to 40-inches of rain per year.  Ni‘ihau has no perennial streams.  (DLNR)

Kauai – Kawaikini (5,243-feet)

Geologically, Kauai is the oldest of the main inhabited islands in the chain. It is also the northwestern-most island, with Oʻahu separated by the Kaʻieʻie Channel, which is about 70-miles long. In centuries past, Kauai’s isolation from the other islands kept it safe from outside invasion and unwarranted conflict.

Near the summit (Kawaikini) is Waiʻaleʻale; in 1920 it passed Cherrapunji, a village in the Khasi hills of India, as the wettest spot on Earth (recording a yearly average of 476-inches of rain.)

Oʻahu – Kaʻala (4,025-feet)

The Waiʻanae Mountains, formed by volcanic eruptions nearly four-million years ago, have seen centuries of wind and rain, cutting huge valleys and sharp ridges into the extinct volcano.  Mount Kaʻala, the highest peak on the island of Oʻahu, rises to 4,025-feet.

Today, only a small remnant of the mountain’s original flat summit remains, surrounded by cliffs and narrow ridges. It’s often hidden by clouds.

Molokai – Kamakou (4,961-feet)

The island was formed by two volcanoes, East and West, emerging about 1.5-2-million years ago.  The cliffs on the north-eastern part of the island are the result of subsidence and the “Wailua Slump” (a giant submarine landslide – about 25-miles long that tumbled about 120-miles offshore – about 1.4-million years ago.)

Kamakou is part of the extinct East Molokai shield volcano, which comprises the east side of the island.   It and much of the surrounding area is part of the East Maui Watershed partnership and the Kamakou Preserve.  A boardwalk covers part of the rainforest and bog to protect the hundreds of native plants, birds, insects and other species there.

Lānai – Lānaihale (3,337-feet)

The island of Lānai was made by a single shield volcano between 1- and 1.5-million years ago, forming a classic example of a Hawaiian shield volcano with a gently sloping profile.  (SOEST)  The island of Lānai is about 13-miles long and 13-miles wide; with an overall land area of approximately 90,000-acres, it is the sixth largest of the eight major Hawaiian Islands.

“At the very summit of the island, which is generally shrouded in mist, we came upon what Gibson (an early (1861) Mormon missionary to the islands) called his lake – a little shallow pond, about the size of a dining table.  In the driest times there was always water here, and one of the regular summer duties of the Chinese cook was to take a pack mule and a couple of kegs and go up to the lake for water.”  (Lydgate, Thrum)

Maui – Haleakalā (10,023-feet)

Haleakalā was thought to have been known to the ancient Hawaiians by any one of five names: “Haleakalā,” “Haleokalā,” “Heleakalā,” “Aheleakalā” and “Halekalā.” (Hawaiʻi National Park Superintendent Monthly Report, December 1939)

Haleakalā is best known in stories related of the demi-god Māui; he is best known for his tricks and supernatural powers. In Hawaiʻi, he is best known for snaring the sun, lifting the sky, discovering the secrets of fire, fishing up the islands and so forth.  (Fredericksen)

Kahoʻolawe – Lua Makika (1,477-feet)

Kahoʻolawe is the smallest of the eight Main Hawaiian Islands, 11-miles long and 7-miles wide (approximately 28,800-acres;) it is seven miles southwest of Maui.  The highest point on Kahoʻolawe is the crater of Lua Makika at the summit of Puʻu Moaulanui, which is about 1,477 feet above sea level.

Located in the “rain shadow” of Maui’s Haleakalā, rainfall has been in short supply on Kahoʻolawe.  However, nineteenth century forestry reports mentioned a “dense forest” at the top of Kahoʻolawe.  Historically, a “cloud bridge” connected the island to the slopes of Haleakalā.  The Naulu winds brought the Naulu rains that are associated with Kahoʻolawe (a heavy mist and shower of fine rain that would cover the island.)

Hawaiʻi – Mauna Kea (13,796-feet)

Nani Wale ʻO Mauna Kea, Kuahiwi Kūhaʻo I Ka Mālie (Beautiful is Mauna Kea, standing alone in the calm) expresses the feeling that Mauna Kea is a source of awe and inspiration for the Hawaiian people. The mountain is a respected elder, a spiritual connection to one’s gods.   (Maly)

A significant pattern archaeologists note in their investigations is the virtual absence of archaeological sites at the very top of the mountain. McCoy states that the “top of the mountain was clearly a sacred precinct that must, moreover, have been under a kapu and accessible to only the highest chiefs or priests.”  (Maly)

ʻĀina mauna, or mountain lands, reflects a term used affectionately by elder Hawaiians to describe the upper regions of all mountain lands surrounding and including Mauna Kea.  (Maly)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hanauma Bay

About 4-million years ago, the Waianae volcano started the formation of the island of Oʻahu. About 2.5-million years ago, the Koʻolau volcano erupted on the ocean floor, and continued to grow in elevation until about 1.7-million years ago.

More than 30 separate eruptions flowed out over the eroded landscape and onto the fringing reef about half a million years ago with a series of volcanic vents opened along the southeast shoreline of O‘ahu forming now-identifiable features including Diamond Head, Punchbowl and Hanauma Bay.

It’s not clear how the bay got its name, but there are several varying explanations.  In place names, hana refers to a bay or valley. Uma can have multiple meanings:

1) Uma can refer to a curve, as in the natural geological formation of the crescent shape of the bay.

2) Another meaning refers to the sport of hand-wrestling, uma, where opponents knelt with elbows on the ground and right hands locked together and tried to force the other down. Hanauma Bay was known as a place where ali‘i would gather to play uma, as well as other recreational activities.

“Queen Kaahumanu came by canoe and went to Hanauma where Paki was the konohiki over the realms of the [legendary] chiefesses Ihiihilauakea and Kauanonoula. These were the hula dancers, Mrs. Alapai, Mr. Hewahewa, and Mr. Ahukai, who gathered for the love of and to entertain royalty.”

“The men played the game of uma. One man gripped the hand of the other and pushed to get it down. Women joined in and a whole month was spent there. That was why the place was called Hanauma, a noted place.” (Reportedly in Hoku o Hawaii, February 11, 1930

3) The stern of a canoe is also known by the term uma. Traditional Hawaiian navigators would ride a strong current across the Ka‘iwi Channel from Ilio Point on Moloka‘i to Hanauma Bay with relatively little effort.

Thus, three suggested meanings for Hanauma Bay are: curved bay, hand-wrestling bay and canoe stern bay.

In 1928, the City and County of Honolulu established Koko Head Regional Park – the land encompassing Koko Head, Hanauma Bay and Koko Crater – by purchasing it from Bishop Estate. A deed restriction limited its use to public parks and rights of way.

In the 1930s the road along Hanauma Bay’s corner of Oahu was paved and a few other amenities provided that made it easier to visit the beach and reef. After closure during World War II, the Bay area reopened and became even more visitor friendly after blasting in the reef for a transoceanic cable provided room for swimming.

In 1956, the City sold the Hawaiian Telephone Company an easement through the bay for the first leg of a new trans-Pacific undersea telephone cable. A 200-foot wide channel was blasted through Hanauma Bay for the installation of the first trans-Pacific telephone cable reaching from Hawaiʻi to California.

Hanauma Bay became Hawaiʻi’s first Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD,) in 1967.  Established to conserve and replenish marine resources, MLCDs provide fish and other marine life with a protected area in which they can grow and reproduce.  While state laws restrict the taking of all marine life within the Hanauma Bay MLCD, snorkeling, diving, underwater photography and other similar passive activities are allowed.

More changes in the 1970s by the City cleared more area in the reef for swimming, made an additional parking lot, and shipped in white sand from the North Shore, leaving Hanauma Bay increasingly more attractive for daytime use.

By 1990 overuse of the beach and surrounding area was a real problem, with visitors walking on the reef, swarming the surrounding areas, and parking on the grass and on the sides of the road.

A few years later, in 1998, an admission fee was charged, further reducing the number of visitors. The city charges non-residents (now $7.50 per person) to enter the bay; Hawaiʻi residents get in free. Parking costs $1. Then in August 2002, the Marine Education Center was opened at the entrance to the bay.

Through a mandatory video and displays, all visitors to the park learn about reefs, the nature preserve and its rules, and how to protect the marine life.  The UH Sea Grant Hanauma Bay Education Program is an excellent model and example for effective on-site resource education and protection.

Through these programs, the marine life is protected and park visitors (whether residents or tourists) are provided guidelines for appropriate behavior in the marine environment.  The benefit goes beyond Hanauma, people can apply what they learn every time they enter the ocean.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Helen Keller

Helen Keller (1880–1968) became blind and deaf due to illness before she was two. At seven she began learning language through an alphabet spelled into her hand by her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

On March 3, 1887, Sullivan went to Keller’s home in Alabama and immediately went to work. She began by teaching six-year-old Keller finger spelling, starting with the word ‘doll,’ to help Keller understand the gift of a doll she had brought along. Other words would follow.

In 1890, Keller began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. She would toil for 25 years to learn to speak so that others could understand her.  Keller had mastered several methods of communication, including touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling.

Polly Thompson was her assistant after the death of Sullivan in 1936. Thomson spent 46 years with Keller.  Mary Agnes (Polly) Thomson was born in Glasgow, Scotland on February 20, 1885. In 1913, Thomson came to the United States for a long visit to an uncle who worked as a shoe manufacturer in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

On October 20, 1914, Thomson joined the household as secretary, eventually becoming Keller’s companion and interpreter. Polly helped Helen to communicate with the world despite her blindness and deafness.

Thomson and Keller formed a tremendous bond. They traveled together all over the world and spent countless hours at home responding to correspondence. The pair also, however, settled into a mostly quiet life. They were happy to escape to their respective rooms after dinner to spend the night reading their books.

In 1937 Helen Keller received a request to speak before the Hawai’i legislature for the blind of Hawai’i.  Helen and Polly were already planning a trip to Japan so, she noted, “I shall comply, as the boat stops there for a day.”

“A long cablegram from Honolulu, where [our boat] is to stop for a day. I am to speak before the legislature, urging them to provide a Bureau of Welfare for the blind of Hawaii and an adequate appropriation, and arrangements are being made for me to give an informal talk to the Honolulu Lions at a luncheon.”

“The welcoming committee at Honolulu sent me a cordial ‘Aloha’ by wireless this afternoon. Three times an inquiry has been cabled from there whether I would permit a broadcast of my speech for the people on seven other islands beside Hawaii, and three times I have signified my consent.”

“Whatever the trouble may be, the nearness of Hawaii is now a thrilling reality. Polly is whetting my impatience to reach that Blest Isle by recalling the blue, blue mountains round Honolulu which she saw years ago on a world cruise.”

“We arrived at Honolulu 6 A.M [April 6, 1937]. I was hardly up when a Braille copy of the program for the day was brought to me. I noted that two extra meetings had been put in between that of the legislature and the Lions’ luncheon. That meant remarks to be made on the spur of the moment.”

“Polly and I were on deck at 7 A.M. A committee headed by Commander Todd, aide to the governor of Hawaii, and including representatives of the blind, the deaf and the Lions, welcomed us.”

“The leis – veritable living jewels to my enraptured touch – were heaped upon me until my dress was completely hidden. From Polly’s enumeration of colors they must have had a rainbow glory-white, red, pink, orange, gold.”

“Their blended fragrances intoxicated me-gardenia, pekokee (very much like the scented wisteria), plumeria, mock orange – so that I forgot the weight and the heat of the flowers on my neck. The music of ‘Aloha Oe’ was in every word spoken, every kindness shown, on my first visit to Honolulu.”

“As we drove through the wide, pleasant streets I knew by smell it was a garden city. … Senators Elsie Wilcox, Mrs Cudingham and WJ Heen escorted Polly and me to the governor’s office in the building which was formerly the royal palace. Governor Poindexter greeted us cordially.  I was touched to learn that he had come out of hospital for the occasion.”

“He told me the office used to be Queen Liliuokalani’s bedroom, and that the representatives met downstairs in the sometime throne room. I said I had read her pathetic story as a young girl, and told how I shed tears hearing that the Hawaiians had shut themselves up and wept after her abdication.”

“Again the view from the windows held Polly entranced, and I could imagine how Her Majesty’s eyes must have rested upon their soft, luxuriant greenness with a poet’s intense love.”

“From the office several representatives escorted Polly and me to the House, where we were to speak.”  She started her talk, “For the first time, I know the full meaning of Hawaii.” “Speaking through Miss Thomson, Miss Keller voiced a plea for adequate legislative appropriations for work among the blind of the territory.”

“The response was encouraging, and I am sure the blind of Hawaii will obtain the Bureau of Welfare they need. I felt handsomely complimented when the legislature passed a long resolution extending to me a welcome on behalf of the people of Hawaii.”

“It was very interesting to address a legislative body representing widely different groups on the island – Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiians, Portuguese and Anglo-Saxon.”

“I believe they are working out slowly but surely a solution of interracial problems. Hawaii is fortunate in a geographical situation that sets it somewhat apart from the fettering prejudices and rabid nationalism which retard endeavors to achieve permanent peace.”

“As Polly and I were coming out of the palace we were surrounded by a large crowd of schoolboys and girls, and I was asked to say a few words to them from the balcony.”

“Afterwards we were taken to the Territorial School for the Blind and the Deaf, and fresh leis were rained upon me by delegates from the Honolulu Junior League, the Japanese Junior League, the Hospital Social Service, the Chamber of Commerce and the students.”

“Then I learned what those works of art meant – the wreath weavers rising at dawn, picking masses of blossoms and spending hours threading them together petal by petal. What a lavish, colorful welcome to bestow upon a visitor! And I counted between twenty and thirty leis round my neck.”

“I am sorry that the blind and the deaf are taught in the same school. The combination method does not produce the best results. For it imposes a heavier burden upon those who teach two entirely different groups of handicapped, and it is not possible to give each group the special attention it requires.”

“But I was delighted to find the Territorial School in spacious grounds where the students can exercise freely and develop happily, with beauty calling to the eye or the ear in mountain, sea, bird songs and brilliant vegetation.”

“The luncheon with the Honolulu Lions and the Business and Professional Women’s Club took place at Fuller Hall. Before I spoke the orchestra, led by one of my sightless fellows, sent out deep, sweet vibrations that I could feel a long way off.”

“Our charming hostess was the governor’s daughter, Helen Poindexter. His Excellency placed his automobile at our disposal for a ride round Honolulu. It had grown quite hot, and I was glad when we stopped at the pineapple factory, where we enjoyed the coolest, most delicious pineapple juice I had ever tasted.”

“To my regret I found we did not have time to pay our respects to the active volcano, Kilauea, but we drove far enough into the mountains to be overpowered by their magnificence. Polly said they seemed to float in an ocean of unearthly blue, and the rounded green slopes were beyond description.”

“I felt the car zigzag up corkscrew roads between hibiscus hedges, groves of palm and bamboo, pineapple fields and homes built on the summit or near it for the fascinating view in every direction.”

“Mr Palmer, who teaches the deaf, was of the party. Between his wealth of legend, history and Hawaiian names liquid with vowels, Polly’s color-filled fingers and the smells that flooded my nostrils I received a Niagara of impressions which I have not yet formulated.”

“We got out to visit Queen Emma’s summer palace with its wide cool rooms. I was permitted to touch the enormous beds on which the natives sleep, the cradle of the queen’s heir, her sewing table and her mat-weaving loom.”

“Then we walked into the ‘grass hut’ or pavilion where the king sought refuge from the cares of state. It had many windows as well as dry grass between strong, smooth bamboo logs.”

“What romance it suggested – revelers under the tender dreaming evening sky, graceful slender hula dancers, the ukulele sending its wistful notes out over the sea until the stoutest hearts succumbed to the love spell!”

“We drove on to the great Pali, or cliff, where Laihahee towered majestically close by; and the masses of white surf beating against the rock caught a rainbow glory in the sun.”

“On the exposed side a furious blast buffeted the car. Its vibration, which caused the windows to rattle, was startlingly like the roar of Niagara Falls which I have visited several times. I was told that wind had turned over a number of automobiles.”

“As we returned down the mountain a sudden pungent whiff made my heart jump with delight – the fragrance of eucalyptus trees which mingles with all my memories of Los Angeles.”

“Miss Poindexter drove us to the dock. Reluctantly we said good-by to the warmhearted friends who had made the day a sunburst of hospitality and pleasure for us, but their Alohas cheered us with the knowledge that we would be welcome if we came back for a longer stay.”

“Although Polly and I could scarcely stand from fatigue we went on deck for a glimpse of the beautiful harbor and Laihahee. People were waving to the ship, singing, shouting, the very automobiles seemed to honk ‘Aloha!’ until we were a long way from the shore.”

“When we entered our hot stateroom and saw leis piled high on our beds we groaned – in fact, I could have screamed. I was so surfeited with sweet smells and crazy to stretch out, I simply threw the wreaths on the floor. I understood as I had never before the painful effect of a dazzling spectacle too prolonged upon the eyes of those who see.”

“While we were having dinner in bed two boxes were brought in filled with an odorous miscellany of flowers which I was about to send away when a Braille label caught my finger tips. These are some of the lovely flowers that grow in Hawaii. Territorial School For The Deaf And The Blind.”

“I found they had with Aloha thoughtfulness fastened a Braille card to each blossom, giving its name and colors … All night I dreamed that I was being smothered with sweetness, and this morning I ache every time I recall the leis pressing upon my shoulders.”

“With twitching fingers Polly has done her best to spell the endless pen-written Honolulu messages, and with hands quite as tired I have gone over the Braille Alohas. Now I am oppressed by the prospect of thank you letters I am to write to Governor Poindexter, the school and many others ….”

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Kailua-Kona in 1819

The expedition sailed from Toulon on the 17th of September 1817 … “Finally, (they) arrived at Havre on the 15th, (November 1820) … The duration of the voyage was therefore three years and two months nearly”.

“The principal object of the expedition commanded by Captain Freycinet, was the investigation of the figure of the earth, and of the elements of terrestrial magnetism; several questions of meteorology had also been suggested by the Academy as worthy of attention.”

“Although geography certainly formed but a secondary object in the voyage, it was natural to anticipate that so many experienced and zealous officers, well provided with excellent instruments, would not circumnavigate the globe without making some valuable additions to the existing tables of latitude and longitude.” They came to the Islands in August 1819.

“On the 5th of April 1819, the Uranie sailed from Guam; she cast anchor at Owhyhee, the largest of the Sandwich Islands, on the 8th of August: on the 16th she touched at Mowhee; on the 26th at Woahoo; and on the 30th, finally quitted that Archipelago for Port Jackson”. (Arago)

“It was on the 6th of August that we discovered the island of Owhyhee: we were only a short distance from it; and the land, which we expected to see of a prodigious height, appeared to us as of very moderate elevation.”

“An island which recalled so many unpleasant recollections, necessarily excited our attention; and every one fixed his eye on it. On a sudden, the thick clouds separating, which covered its regularly formed sides and enormous base; Mowna Kah stood, majestically before us ….”

“Karakakooa harbour is spacious and safe; the high mountains which protect it from the winds which blow most generally, namely, Cape Kovvrovva to the north, and Cape – to the south, prevent the sea from ever being very rough. The beach is good, and some buildings, and two considerably projecting piers, offer a secure shelter for shipping.”

“Kayerooa is the largest, most important, and most populous town of Owhyhee … The town of Kayerooa is of considerable extent; but the houses, or rather the huts, are at such distances from each other …”

“… particularly on the descent of the hill, as not to be at all connected with the part in the plain, in which there are some small beaten paths, which may pass as tolerable representations of streets and alleys.”

“There are some houses built of stone, cemented with mortar; the others are made of thin deals, with mats or leaves of palm-trees, closely tied together and made impenetrable to wind and rain.”

“The roofs are in general covered with sea-weed, which makes them wonderfully strong; while they are also very durable, owing to a few beams closely fitted and fastened with cords of the plantain tree.”

“The huts of Owhyhee appear to me the best that we have seen since we have been in these semi-barbarous regions. Almost the whole of them have only one apartment, ornamented with mats, calebashes, and some country cloths.”

“In that room fathers, mothers, boys, girls, and sometimes even hogs and dogs, all sleep together pele-mele: there the mothers offer their daughters to strangers; there the children learn, almost as soon as they are born, what they ought scarcely to know when they are grown up …”

“Two or three buildings, as seen from the roads (anchorage), have a good appearance, and make one rather regret that they are, as it were, solitary in the midst of ruins.”

“The most considerable is a storehouse distinguished by its white front from the other huts; it belongs to the King, who uses it as a sort of repository, without venturing to confide his treasures to its keeping; these he buries in cellars.”

“The second edifice is a morai, situated at the end of a jetty, projecting into the sea; the third is a house belonging to one of the principal chiefs of Riouriou, who had address enough, when he quitted the town, to get it consecrated (tabooed) in order to protect it from intruders and thieves.”

“I was given to understand, that whoever should endeavour to enter it, would be instantly put to death, and that the owner of the house was a very cruel and powerful man. The northern part of the town may perhaps consist of a hundred huts, most of which are only about three or four feet high, and six long ….”

“On reaching the shore, there is a large dock-yard directly opposite, in which a vessel was building, of forty tons burden. Near it are some sheds, which shelter from the rain and wind a prodigious number of canoes, both single and double, remarkably handsome and well finished.”

“They are made by means of an instrument called in this country toe, which may be compared to a carpenter’s adze, though much smaller, and fit to be used by one hand.”

“Our cabinet-makers do not polish the most costly furniture better; and without planes or any of the tools employed by our workmen, those of Owhyhee are capable of competing with the best artisans of Europe.”

“The inside of the bottom of their boats, as far as the thwarts, is painted black, and polished till it becomes very bright, by means of a yellow flower which is found all over the island.”

“The largest canoe was a single one, seventy-two feet long, and three in its greatest breadth. The threads with which the planks were sewed o=together and with which the other parts of the canoes and their outriggers were connected, were twisted and fastened with wonderful skill.”

“After visiting a great number of the houses of Kayerooa, where these people, whose existence is so monotonous and so peaceful, repose from their indolent toils, I directed my steps towards the Governor’s hut, as he had asked me to visit him.”

“It is small, but very clean, and tolerably well furnished; containing rather a handsome bed, two wicker chairs, some Indian cushions, and a great number of mats. …”

“The town of Kayerooa is situated at the foot of a high mountain which protects the anchorage from the North and North-West winds. From this mountain, particularly from the nearest declivity, the inhabitants derive the greater part of their subsistence.”

“It is really melancholy to see the extensive plain which surrounds it on both sides, uncultivated and despised. I cannot conceive how a people so characteristically idle and indifferent can neglect so fertile a spot, which would at once enrich and save them great fatigue and suffering …”

“… a few days’ labour would provide them subsistence for several months; and two years’ perseverance would secure to them for ever those valuable gifts, of which, on the summit of mountains, a violent storm or some other catastrophe may so easily deprive them. …”

“Our botanist, whose zeal augments with the difficulty and fatigue he encounters, has walked over the best part of the heights above the town.”

“He assures us, that vegetation was very powerful there, and that it would be very easy to conduct into the plain, by means of shallow canals, the waters which fertilize these summits, and are entirely lost to the inhabitants, whose means of subsistence are entirely derived from the lands which adjoin the sea. …”

“We left Owhyhee on the 15th of August, at four in the morning, with a very light breeze, which, however, freshened up during the morning.”

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The First Church in Plymouth

The First Parish Church traces its history to a Separatist congregation that formed in Scrooby, England, in the early 17th century, members of which later sailed to Plymouth aboard the Mayflower.

Meetings of the Scrooby congregation first took place in a manor house owned by the Archbishop of York and occupied by William Brewster (ca. 1560-1644), a former diplomat who served as postmaster for the village and bailiff to the archbishop.

In 1606 and 1607, Brewster convened a series of meetings for those who were seeking to practice a more liberal expression of Protestantism, free from the creed and ritual of the Church of England.

They formed their own congregation with Richard Clyfton as its first minster and John Robinson (ca. 1576-1625) as their assistant pastor. Due to continued persecution in England, the congregation fled to Amsterdam in 1608 and from there to Leyden (Leiden) in southern Holland in 1609.

John Robinson was chosen to be their minister in Leyden (Clyfton had remained in England), and William Brewster was chosen to be their Elder.

William Bradford, who would later become the second Governor of the Plymouth Colony, was another prominent member of the Separatist congregation. Bradford is credited with giving them the name “Pilgrims,” although that term would not be commonly applied to the Separatist emigrants until the late 18th century.

After securing a patent from the London Company (later replaced by a charter from the Plymouth Council for New England), the Leyden Separatists (hereinafter referred to as the “Pilgrims”) were among the passengers aboard the Mayflower as it departed for the American colonies from Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620. The arrived in America in November.

The First (and Subsequent) ‘Church’ Buildings

The first public building to be erected by the Pilgrims was a large house, twenty-feet square, which was used for storage and public worship; but shortly after its completion, it took fire, and The Common House was burnt to the ground.

In the month of April “whilst they were bussie with their seed,” Governor Carver was taken suddenly ill, and died, leaving a widow who soon followed him.

The death of the first Governor was a severe loss to the community. He was not only a deeply religious man, but had won their esteem and endeared himself to them, by long and patient service and sacrifice. He was sagacious, skilled in practical affairs, and upright in all his dealings. He was succeeded in office by William Bradford, with Isaac Allerton, as assistant.

In the month of November 1621, the depleted ranks of the colonists were partly filled up by the unexpected arrival of the Fortune, and thirty-five persons were added to the plantation.

The summer of 1622, saw the erection of the Fort. Here on the summit of Burial Hill, the Pilgrims perpetuated the church founded in England under the ministration of Elder Brewster. The ecclesiastical polity of the church was copied, with slight modifications, from that provided by Guillaume Farel and John Calvin, for the Reformed Churches of France.

For several years the Church at Plymouth was without a pastor. It lived upon the truths which John Robinson had taught, with such care and learning, and broke the bread of life in the way which exile had made so precious.

On the Lord’s day, the people gathered in the meeting-house, sang the psalms, had the Scriptures read and explained, and joined in prayers, which flowed spontaneously from grateful hearts, and were born in the depth of an experience, which had made the goodness and mercy of God, and the blessings of his daily providence, the most real and vital of all convictions.

They knew that they were the humble instruments of God for good, and that their successes and failures, joys and sorrows, losses and gains, were included in his immediate purpose, and were to be accepted without murmur or complaint.

The local scattering of the Colonists led to the founding of new churches in and around Plymouth.

In 1648 the first church was built. It was situated behind Bradford’s lot, and facing Leyden St and like every first church, however modest, was raised with becoming pride and joy.  (Cuckson)

All of the land between Burial Hill and Main Street, which included present-day Town Square, originally belonged to William Bradford and John Alden. The land on which the First Parish Church now stands was likely given up by John Alden when he left Plymouth in 1627, after which the land became known as the Town Commons. (NPS)

Seven years before, an ordinance had passed the General Court “that no injunction should be put on any church, or church member, as to doctrine, worship, or discipline, whether for substance or circumstance, besides the command of the Bible.”

It meant that although men met for worship under one roof, it was not to be expected that they should think or feel alike; but whether or not, they were to enjoy such freedom, as was not to be found in any other church of their time.  (Cuckson)

The second meetinghouse was built in 1683 on the site of the present First Parish Church, at the west end of Town Square. This building consisted of a two-story, side-gabled building with a center entrance and cupola.

Cuckson quotes an unnamed source who described this building as having an “unceiled Gothic roof, diamond glass, with a small cupola and bell.”

The third meetinghouse was constructed in 1744 on the same site, replacing the prior building that had fallen into disrepair.

The building was described as “an attempted copy of a Boston church building. A graceful structure, it was the first real church, architecturally speaking.”

In 1831, as membership grew at the First Parish Church, the congregation voted to replace the third meetinghouse with another that would be “larger and more in keeping with the improved taste and broader outlook of the times.”

The Gothic Revival-style fourth meetinghouse was a wood-frame building designed by George W. Brimmer of Boston and included a bell, cast by Paul Revere in 1801, which was controlled and used by the town to mark the time and as an alarm for emergencies. The fourth meetinghouse was destroyed by fire in 1892.

Other denominations in Plymouth offered the temporary use of their churches for worship by the First Parish members. The first service after the fire was held at the Universalist Church on December 4, 1892.

On December 19, 1892, a Parish Committee meeting of the First Parish Church was held, and the initial $5,000 was raised towards the building of a new church.

At that meeting, according to committee member Arthur Lord’s report, it was decided that they should “secure in the church to be built a fitting memorial to that spirit of religious liberty and tolerance which characterized the Pilgrims.” He went on to say that, “The subject cannot be treated as if the church was purely local or denominational.”

On April 4, 1896, the building committee voted to hire John Y. Mainland of Boston as the contractor for construction of the church. Mainland was born in Scotland in 1849, learned the building trade in Nova Scotia in 1866-1867, and moved to Boston in 1868.

The cornerstone was laid on Monday, June 29, 1896. Once again, the perceived importance of this church as a memorial to the Pilgrims was reflected in the address given by Arthur Lord, Parish Committee member and President of the Pilgrim Society.

The first service was held in Kendall Hall on April 25, 1897, before the sanctuary level had been completed, and continued to be held there until the church dedication on Thursday, December 21, 1899.

Mayflower Society Given (and Restoring/Maintaining) First Parish Meeting House

The First Parish Church, completed in 1899, is the fifth meetinghouse built for its congregation, and the fourth built at the current location. (NPS)

When the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD) became aware that the congregation was having trouble with the increasing maintenance and restoration of the building, it approached the congregation about donating the Meetinghouse to GSMD as a place to fulfill its educational mission.

Since the General Society of Mayflower Descendants was founded in 1897, the same year the present structure was built at the top of Leyden Street, families of descendants – our families – have made regular pilgrimages to this spot.

To save the building they love, the First Parish Church congregation has agreed to donate it to GSMD upon the condition that funds be put in place to permanently maintain it, and that they be allowed to continue scheduling their services there.

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants and First Parish Church signed a Joint Venture Agreement, which led to the Charitable Trust, during Congress 2017.

Click the following link to a general summary about the First Church in Plymouth:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/First-Church-in-Plymouth.pdf

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