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Andover Theological Seminary

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the people of New England were taking a new interest in religion. The devotion to their Puritan faith, which was characteristic of the first generation of colonists, had yielded long since to the claims of everyday living. (Rowe)

At the time, there were three schools of religious thought among Congregationalists. The first was known as the Old or Moderate Calvinists (with convictions of their Puritan ancestors.)

A second group was called Hopkinsians (from their spokesman, Samuel Hopkins) stressed certain Puritan principles to an extreme, like divine sovereignty and predestination; and a third party in Congregational circles was more liberal in its theological interpretations.

Although Massachusetts had stayed fairly true to its Calvinistic Puritan beginnings in the form of Congregationalism, by 1800 a new sect had swept Boston by storm: Unitarianism. This form of Protestantism rejected the aspects of Calvinism inherent to Congregationalism at the time.

Rather than accepting that all people were fallen and could only be chosen by God to be saved – predestination – early Unitarians emphasized reason, free will and the power of people for both good and evil. Also, as the name suggests, they disavowed the idea of the Trinity, believing instead that Jesus was solely a prophet and an example to live by. (Balboni)

The Old Calvinists were especially desirous to have a theological school at Andover. The Legislature of Massachusetts on June 19, 1807, authorized the Trustees of Phillips Academy to receive and hold additional property “for the purpose of a theological institution and in furtherance of the designs of the pious founders and benefactors of said Academy.”

The Phillips family was loyal to religion, as well as to education. They provided a gift to erect two buildings for the Seminary, the first American foundation for a chair in theology outside a university (a foundation for purely theological education was almost unknown in America.) (Rowe)

The Seminary was built on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover. The Academy was founded during the American Revolution as an all-boys school in 1778 by Samuel Phillips, Jr (the oldest incorporated boarding school in the US.) The great seal of the school was designed by Paul Revere.

The purpose of the Founders for the Seminary, according to their constitution, was to increase “the number of learned and able defenders of the Gospel of Christ, as well as of orthodox, pious, and zealous ministers of the New Testament ; being moved, as we hope, by a principle of gratitude to God and benevolence to man.” (Rowe)

Seminary students partook in three years of study and four major subjects: the Bible, church history, doctrinal theology, and practical arts of the ministry. (Balboni)

The Andover Theological Seminary was dedicated September 28, 1808. The establishment of a school of divinity was a part of the original plan of the founders of Phillips Academy, although not to make it a distinct institution. (Bailey)

In addition to ministers, the seminary also produced hundreds of missionaries. Over the school’s 100-year stay in Andover, its graduates proselytized in Greece, Bulgaria, Armenia, Palestine, Turkey, India, Burma, China, Japan and all over Africa and Latin America. (Balboni)

Two notable graduates were part of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi. Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston were classmates at Andover Theological Seminary (completed Seminary courses 1819;) they were ordained on September 29, 1819 at Goshen, Connecticut. (Joesting)

“On Saturday the 23d of October, the mission family, with a large concourse of spectators, assembled on Long Wharf; and after a prayer by the Rev. Dr. Worcester, Messrs. Bingham and Thurston sung, “When shall we all meet again?” and took a final farewell of their friends.”

“In this far distant land of strangers … it is a comfort to us to look back to that radiating point of missionary light and love, and to remember the privileges which we enjoyed, when treading, like you, on consecrated ground. The rising palaces of that hill of Zion, its treasures of learning and wisdom, and its fountains of consolation are still dear to us, though we shall never look upon its like again.”

“But it is the noble purposes of benevolent action, formed, matured, or Cherished and directed there, which gives us the most impressive view of its beauty and strength, and inspires our liveliest hopes, that that institution will be the most important to the church, and the most useful to the heathen, which the world has ever seen.”

“When we look at the history of that Seminary and of the American Board; when we see their connexion and their joint influence, hitherto so powerful, and so well directed, and the peculiar smiles which the Redeemer has bestowed upon them …”

“… our ears are open to hear the united song of heathen lands,—‘How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.’” (Letter from Bingham and Thurston to the Society of Inquiry, February 20, 1821)

In 1908, the Seminary moved to Cambridge and in the fall of 1931 shared a campus with Newton Theological Institution in Newton, Massachusetts. In 1965, after three decades together on one campus, the two schools officially merged, becoming Andover Newton Theological School.

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Queen of the Silver Strand

Everybody loves the circus …

Howard R Valentine “was 17 when he went to Ringling Brothers Circus as a member of the famous 16-man Jackson family.  After a year with Ringling a partner act called Valentine and Dooly began a six-month tour of South and Central America. The pair played Panama during construction of the Panama Canal.”

“When the partnership dissolved, Valentine returned to the United States to marry Rae Bell another member of the Jackson family.” (SB, May 23, 1956) “The little lady is unusually attractive while the expert cyclist is a wizard as an equilibrist.” (Montgomery Adv, Jan 30, 1920)

“Valentine and Bell became a hit as a bicycle comedy and in 1911 played Hammerstein’s Victoria Theatre in New York – at that time tops in billing.”  (SB, May 23, 1956)

“No well balanced vaudeville bill would be complete without a big laugh act. This is provided in those comedy cyclists, Valentine and Bell. … Incidentally, it is remarkably clever and unusual bicycle riding.”

“Their act is a novelty and their string of stunts a long and daring one, But laughter is the main thing that was considered by these artists.  They will please you.” (Portland Telegram, March 21, 1915)

Travelling across the country. the Valentine and Bell “comedy … trick bicycle riders” act included “a comedy cycling oddity called the ‘Furniture Removers’”. (Louisville Courier-Journal, Jan 4 & 6, 1920)

A “unique feat which was thrilling to the extreme was the fancy bike riding of Valentine and Bell, who performed the astonishing stunt of riding about the stage on various articles of furniture …

“… in addition to the exhibition of bicycle feats that for daring and grace have not been equaled in Montgomery in many months.” (Montgomery Adv, Jan 30, 1920)

 “Valentine and Bell have perhaps the best bicycle act seen on a local stage this season. It has an unusual setting. And along with regular stunts which all bicyclists know, this pair of acrobats has several tricks which are uncommonly difficult.” (The Tennessean, Jan 9, 1920)

“The couple was getting top billing with Haag Brothers Circus … when a daughter, Patricia [‘Pat’ Adrienne Valentine], was born [May 9, 1919].  The Valentines were back in Honolulu with EK Fernandez shows in 1935 – 36.”

“In 1941 the Valentines decided it was time to settle down and picked the Islands as an ideal spot.” (SB, May 23, 1956)

They “had first set foot [in the Islands] in 1912, and where in 1915 they had performed at the Old Opera House at the present site of Honolulu’s main post office.” (Alton Slagle, SB, Feb 23, 1960)

“Patricia was born in Chicago … She went on the road at the delicate age of 10 weeks.  There followed a childhood of tinsel and glitter, sawdust and one-night stands, spills and thrills as Patricia learned the tricky operation of walking a tight rope.”

‘‘’At first I went on the road as excess baggage,’ she said. ’Then I joined the act.’ (Pat Valentine). … Soon she was riding a unicycle on the wire.” (Alton Slagle, SB, Feb 23, 1960)

“To circus goers a few years back she was known as ‘Patricia Valentine, Queen of the Silver Strand.’” (Alton Slagle, SB, Feb 23, 1960)  She was also called the Wizard of the Wire.  (SB, June 16, 1942)

In 1942,  Patricia married Herman Meyers, who ‘worked the circus as a sort of stage manager.’  She attended Cannon’s Business School, worked for several years as secretary to the Central YMCA physical director, and joined the Board of Water Supply … ‘In civil service there’s security,’ she explained. (Alton Slagle, SB, Feb 23, 1960)

“Patricia wouldn’t trade her circus upbringing, but she’s happy now to be settled down away from it, she confided.”

“‘I am very happy where I am,’ she said. ‘Besides, they’ve been kidding me that I’d never get all this up on that wire now.’ She patted her ample frame and laughed heartily.”

“‘I wouldn’t want to try after all these years.’” (Alton Slagle, SB, Feb 23, 1960) Pat V Meyers died January 5, 1994.

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Lanai Tsunami

The name Kaluakapo Crater or “Kalua Kapo” means “hole of darkness” (according to the field notes of Stearns, 1936; Keating & Helsley).

Three ancient shorelines (the Mahana, Kaluakapo and Manele) have been described at elevations of 365, 190 and 170 m [1,200, 625, and 560 feet] in the Kaluakapo Crater. Original observations/theories of a fossil-bearing outcrop at 1,200-feet was interpreted as an ancient shoreline.

Subsequently, some argued that this fossil evidence represented the highest inundation of tsunami waves associated with the collapse of the flanks of the Hawaiian Islands chain. (Keating & Helsley)

“Geologists have long debated whether the Hawaiian Islands have been periodically hit by ‘megatsunamis,’ triggered by massive landslides plunging into the ocean.”

“Indeed, several such slides have cascaded from the western flanks of the Big Island–including the 350-cubic-kilometer Alika 2 slide about 120,000 years ago.”  (Robert Irion)

“Some researchers think that a megatsunami from that slide deposited coral and seashells high on the slopes of the island of Lanai more than 100 kilometers away.”

“Others reject that interpretation, claiming that the deposits mark the level of shorelines carved into Lanai before tectonic processes lifted the island.”  (Robert Irion)

“[T]he giant wave hypothesis (GWH) suggests a submarine landslide southeast of Lanai triggered three ‘giant waves’ that rushed toward Lanai with initial velocities of 149 m/s, at intervals of only one and a half minutes.”

“The first wave reached 190 m elevation on Lanai and eroded the soils and churned up boulders. The second wave reached the 375 m elevation, and picked up the gravels in suspension and stripped the terrain.”

“The third wave reached 190 m high on the island slope taking boulders in suspension, then accelerated down slope, stripping soil and molding the boulders into mound-shaped bed forms.” (Keating & Helsley)

“Computer simulations show that the tsunami would have swamped the other islands as well. ‘These waves were truly catastrophic,’ [Geologist Gary McMurtry of the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa] says.”

“Still, [McMurtry] notes, they would be about as rare as megatsunamis from asteroids hitting the ocean–grave threats, but extremely unlikely in our lifetimes.” (Robert Irion)

Giant tsunamis, generated by submarine landslides in the Hawaiian Islands, have been thought to be responsible for the deposition of chaotic gravels high on the southern coastal slopes of the islands of Lanai and Molokai, Hawai‘i. Investigators  used uranium-thorium dating and a study of stratigraphic relationships.

That late investigation showed that deposits were formed by multiple events, separated by considerable periods of time, thus invalidating the main premise of the ‘giant wave’ theory.

Instead, the gravels were probably deposited during interglacial periods (when sea level was relatively high) by typical Hawaiian shoreline processes such as seasonal wave patterns, storm events and possibly ‘normal’ tsunamis, and reached their present height by uplift of Lanai. (Rubin, et al)

While the general consensus seems to be that a megatsunami was not the culprit, there have been other ‘normal’ tsunami that have impacted Lanai and other Islands.

“It was quite a severe earthquake as I remember. Another scary thing that happened on Lanai was a tidal wave during the building of Kaumalapau Harbor.”

“They were building the breakwater and they had a small locomotive that with the tracks ran out to the end so they could carry boulders out to build up the breakwater.”

“And this tidal wave came and later, we went down to see what damage had been done. And the tracks were twisted in knots and the locomotive was on its side. Ever since then, I’ve been very frightened of tidal waves.”

“No one was injured; it was just this damage because no homes were knocked down where the harbor was. (The homes were built on higher ground, so they were not damaged.)”

No one was working at the time … “I believe that tidal wave came during the middle of the night at a time when there was nobody down there.” (Jean Forbes Adams; UH Oral History, Lanai Ranch)

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Maliko Gulch Inverted Siphon

At the time of Haiku Sugar Company’s charter in 1858, there were only ten sugar companies in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.  Five of these sugar companies were located on the island of Maui:  East Maui Plantation at Kaluanui; Brewer Plantation at Haliʻimalie; LL Torbert and Captain James Makee’s plantation at Ulupalakua; Haiku Plantation; and Hana.

In 1869, Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin became business partners and bought 12-acres in Hāmākuapoko (an eastern Maui ahupuaʻa (land division.))  (They later formed Alexander & Baldwin, one of Hawai‘i’s ‘Big Five’ companies – and the only Big Five still in Hawai‘i.)

“The early years of the partnership of Alexander & Baldwin, represented a continual struggle against heavy odds. Haiku plantation had to have water.” (Men of Hawaii)

Then, the government granted Haiku Plantation the right to use the water flowing in streams down the broad slopes of Haleakala to the east of the plantation, and work was at once commenced on a ditch.

“The line, some seventeen miles in extent, with the exception of a few miles near the plantation, passes through the dense forest that covers the side of the mountain, and in running the levels for the work many large ravines and innumerable small valleys and gulches were encountered.”

“In the smaller of these the ditch winds its way, with here and there a flume striding the hollow, while through nine of the larger the water is carried in pipes twenty-six inches in diameter.”

“The digging of the ditch was a work of no small magnitude. A large gang of men, sometimes numbering two hundred, was employed in the work, and the providing of food, shelter, tools, etc, was equal to the care of a regiment of soldiers on the march.”

“As the grade of the ditch gradually carried the work high up into the woods, cart-roads had to be surveyed and cut from the main road to the shifting camps.”

“All the heavy timbers for flumes, etc., were painfully dragged up hill and down, and in and out of deep gulches, severely taxing the energies and strength of man and beast, while the ever-recurring question of a satisfactory food supply created a demand for everything eatable to be obtained from the natives within ten miles, besides large supplies drawn from Honolulu and abroad.”

“At the head of the work many difficult ledges of rock were encountered, and blasting and tunneling were resorted to, to reach the coveted water.” (FL Clarke, Thrum’s Annual, 1878)

Then came Maliko Gulch.

Maliko Gulch was too wide (and it was too expensive) to pipe the water via a bridge. They installed an inverted siphon in order to cross Maliko Gulch.  Maliko Gulch is a deeply incised stream valley with some sections of the valley floor more than 400 ft below the upland surface. (USGS)

“As the East Maui Irrigation Company report notes, Alexander planned to ‘pipe water across the gulch by means of a 1,110-foot-long inverted siphon.” (Witcher, Civil Engineering)

An inverted siphon uses a leakproof pipe that the ditch water flows into; the pipe is laid down, across and back up the Gulch ( and ends at a lower elevation than the where the ditch collects the water) – gravity pushes the water up the other side, into another ditch at the other side of the gulch.

“While work on the ditch was thus progressing, pipe makers from San Francisco were busied riveting together the broad sheets of iron to make the huge lengths of tube fitted to cross the deep ravines.” 

“These lengths had each to be immersed in a bath of pitch and tar which coated them inside and out, preserving the iron from rust, and effectually stopping all minute leaks.”

“The lengths thus prepared being placed in position in the bottom of the ravines, the upright lengths were fitted to each other (like lengths of stove-pipe) with the greatest care, and clamped firmly to the rocky sides of the cliffs.”

“Their perpendicular length varies from 90 feet to 450 feet; the greatest being the pipe that carries the water down into, across, and out of Maliko gulch to the Baldwin and Alexander Plantations.”

“At this point every one engaged on the work toiled at the risk of his life; for the sides of the ravines are almost perpendicular, and a ‘bed’ had to be constructed down these sides.”

“Then each length of pipe was lowered into the ravine and placed carefully in position; after which the perpendicular lengths were built up to the brink.”  (FL Clarke, Thrum’s Annual, 1878)

“When the ditch builders came to the last great obstacle, the deep gorge of Maliko, it became necessary in connection with the laying of the pipe down and up the sides of the precipices there encountered, for the workmen to lower themselves over the cliffs by rope, hand over hand.”

“This at first they absolutely refused to do. The crisis was serious.”

Just a few years before, “In 1876, while engaged in adjusting machinery at the sugar mill at the Pā‘ia plantation. Mr. Baldwin almost lost his life by being drawn between the rolls.”

“The engineer fortunately witnessed the accident and reversed the engine, but not before the right arm had been fearfully mangled almost up to the shoulder blade. The amputation was not followed by any serious results, but the handicap was a severe one to so energetic a worker as was Mr. Baldwin all his life.” (Mid Pacific, February 1912)

Back to the Maliko Gulch inverted siphon installation … while the workers initially refused, “[the one-armed] Baldwin met it by himself sliding down the rope, using his legs and his one arm, with which he alternately gripped and released the rope to take a fresh hold lower done.” (Arthur Baldwin)

“This was done before his injured arm had healed and with a straight fall of two hundred feet to the rocks below! The workmen were so shamed by this exhibition of courage on the part of their one armed manager, that they did not hesitate to follow him down the rope.”

“To keep the heart in them and to watch the progress of the work, Mr. Baldwin day after day went through this dangerous performance.” (Arthur Baldwin)

“Straining their financial resources almost to the breaking point, the young partners [Alexander and Baldwin] succeeded in bringing to completion the Hāmākua-Haiku ditch, the first important irrigation project in the islands.”

“The eventual enormous success of this enterprise made possible the great future of Alexander and Baldwin. Pā‘ia plantation was started and other extensive acreages were added to the partners’ holdings.” (Men of Hawaii)

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Kahanu

“The Alii Kahanu displayed her true aristocracy by being always unpretentious, even humble. She was a living example of the motto of Hawaiian Kings … The king is a king because of the chiefs, and chiefs are chiefs because of the people.” (Taylor, SB, Feb 20, 1932)

“Always her thoughts were of the people.  She was active in anything that could do good for them … She  was constantly engaged in private charities, although we never heard of them except indirectly.  All of her pension money was used for charity and once she referred to it as a monument to the prince.” (Taylor, SB, Feb 20, 1932) (In March, 1923, the Hawaiian Legislature granted a pension of $500 a month to the Princess. (NY Times).)

“The Alii Kahanu – that was her name and title by the old Hawaiian royalty nomenclature – always referred to her husband Prince Kuhio as ‘my alii’ to intimates, or as ‘the prince’ to strangers.” (Taylor, SB, Feb 20, 1932)

“The king and queen [Kalakaua and Kapiolani] were caring for four children.  There were three boys, Kuhio, Kawananakoa and Edward (who died) and then the little girl, Elizabeth. They were all cousins …. She was a timid little thing, but they all played together around the garden of Honuakaha.” (Curtis Iaukea, SB, Feb 20, 1932)

Elizabeth Kahanu Kaʻauwai was born on May 8, 1878 in Maui and was cousin to Queen Kapi’olani.  Her parents were George Kaleiwohi Kaauwai and Ulalia Muolo Keaweaheulu Laanui Kaauwai. She hailed from a prominent Maui aliʻi family.

On January 5, 1895, protests took the form of an armed attempt to derail the annexation but the armed revolt was no match for the forces of the Republic troops and police. Amongst the Hawaiian Kingdom loyalists was Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole who was twenty four years old at the time.

Kūhiō, other leaders of the revolt and those involved in the rebellion were captured and imprisoned – along with Queen Lili‘uokalani who was additionally charged for failing to put down the revolt. Kūhiō was sentenced to a year in prison while others were charged with treason and sentenced with execution.

Death sentences were commuted to imprisonment. Kūhiō served his full term. He was visited daily by his fiancée, Elizabeth Kahanu Ka‘auwai. They were married on October 9, 1896 at the Anglican Cathedral and she became Princess of Hawai‘i. (Iolani Palace and Native Kauai LLC)

Shortly after their wedding, Kūhiō and Kahanu left Hawai`i to travel throughout Europe and Africa.  Kūhiō later returned from his self-imposed exile to dedicate the rest of his life to politics. By September 1, 1902, Kūhiō decided to align himself with the powerful Republican Party.

Kūhiō joined the convention as a nominee for Delegate to Congress, announcing, “I am a Republican from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.” Republicans nominated him by acclamation and Kuhio and Kahanu went to Washington.

During his tenure as delegate, Kūhiō restored the Royal Order of Kamehameha I in 1903; introduced the first bill for Hawai‘i statehood (1919); introduced the Hawaiʻi National Park bill in 1916, covering land on Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and Haleakala; and worked to get funds for the construction of the Pearl Harbor naval base. His landmark achievement was working to introduce the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (1920). (LOC)

Kahanu was an attendant of Queen Emma and the protégé of Queen Kapiʻolani. (OHA)  She was known for her exceptional hosting skills in both Honolulu and Washington, DC, where her husband represented the Territory of Hawaiʻi in Congress from 1903 until his death.

Charmian London (Jack London’s wife) noted that Kahanu was “the gorgeous creature at [Kuhio’s] side …  The bigness of her was a trifle overwhelming to one new to the physical aristocracy of island peoples.”

“You would hesitate to call her fat – she is just big, sumptuous, bearing her splendid proportions with the remarkable poise I had already noticed in Hawaiian women, only more magnificently.”

“Her bare shoulders were beautiful, the pose of her head majestic, piled with heavy, fine, dark hair that showed bronze lights in its wavy mass. She was superbly gowned in silk that had a touch of purple or lilac about it, the perfect tone for her full, black, calm eyes and warm, tawny skin.”

“For Polynesians of chiefly blood are often many shades fairer than the commoners. Under our breath, Jack and I agreed that we could not expect ever to behold a more queenly woman.”

“My descriptive powers are exasperatingly inept to picture the manner in which this Princess stood, touching with hers the hands of all who passed, with a brief, graceful droop of her patrician head, and a fleeting, perfunctory, yet gracious flash of little teeth under her small fine mouth.”

“Glorious she was, the Princess Kalanianaole, a princess in the very tropical essence of her. Always shall I remember her as a resplendent exotic flower, swaying and bending its head with unaffected, innate grace.” (Charmian London)

“She presided with charm and distinction and sincerity at the Hawaiian meetings of [the Honolulu Citizens’ Organization for Good Government]. Urging adherence to American principles and institutions and orderly processes of the law.” (Adv, Feb 20, 1932)

An influential leader in the Hawaiʻi suffragist movement, Kahanu traveled around Hawaiʻi to teach local women about their rights to vote. After women were granted the right to vote, she created the Hawaiian Women’s Republican Auxiliary, whose mission was to educate women on political issues. 


She was appointed President of the Kapiʻolani Maternity Home, after the passing of Queen Kapiʻolani, and later filled her husband’s place as a member of the Hawaiian Home Commission, upon his death.

She was an active leader in many community organizations such as: Native Sons and Daughters of Hawaiʻi, the Kaʻahumanu Society, Hui Kalama, the Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors, and ʻAhahui o nā Māmakakaua. (OHA)

Prince Kūhiō passed away on January 7, 1922 at his home in Waikīkī. He is buried at Mauna ‘Ala, the Royal Mausoleum in Nu‘uanu, and was given the last State funeral held in Hawai‘i for an Ali‘i.  (DHHL)

After Kuhio’s death Kahanu married Frank Woods. (HSA) “Her second marriage to James Frank Woods was a happy one.  Mr Woods and the prince had been like brothers and the first Mrs Woods, formerly Miss Eva Parker, was a cousin of the princess. They were all chiefly families and had always formed a little group of intimates.”  (SB, Feb 20, 1932)

Elizabeth Kahanu Kalaniana‘ole Woods died at Queen’s Hospital on February 19, 1932, and is buried in the O’ahu Cemetery next to her second husband.

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