Peter T Young

September 21, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Haleʻakala

Orphaned when young and with only an 8th grade education, Charles Reed Bishop arrived in the Islands on October 12, 1846 and became an astute financial businessman, and one of the wealthiest men in the kingdom from banking, agriculture, real estate and other investments.

In early 1847, Bishop met Bernice Pauahi Paki (she was still a student at the Chiefs’ Children’s School;) despite the opposition of Pauahi’s parents who wanted her to marry Lot Kapuaiwa (later, Kamehameha V,) Bishop courted and married Pauahi in 1850.

For the first few months of their marriage, Pauahi and Charles lived in homes of Judge Lorrin Andrews, first in his downtown residence, and later in a cottage in upper Nuʻuanu Valley, opposite the site of the present Maunaʻala (Royal Mausoleum.)

Like many Hawaiian homes of the time, this one had a name, Wananakoa, for the grove of koa trees in the yard. This was only temporary – they were building a home on property Bishop bought on the Diamond Head/Mauka corner of Hotel and Alakea Streets.

Meanwhile, Pauahi’s father, Paki, had completed the construction of his new residence on King Street (between Fort and Alakea.) (Bishop Street had not been built, yet, the property would be on the ʻEwa/Mauka corner of what is now Bishop and King Streets.)

This new home replaced Paki’s prior modest, thatched-roof home he called ʻAikupika (‘Egypt’) that had been on the same piece of property. (ʻAikupika is where Pauahi was born.)

The name Paki gave his new home has been translated by some as ‘House of the Sun’ or Haleakala, but he probably meant it to be Haleʻakala or the ‘Pink House,’ after the color of the stone used in its construction. (Kanahele)

By the standards of the day, Haleʻakala was a splendid structure that was probably the equal of any of the better homes and gardens in town.

It was a large two-story stone-and-frame building with lanai (porches), supported by pillars on both first and second floors, extending around at least three sides of the house. Its extensive gardens combined shrubbery, flowers and trees and included the special tamarind tree planted at Pauahi’s birth.

Clarice B Taylor stated that he really built the house “hoping Pauahi would marry Prince Lot and make her home with her parents.” It was bigger than he and his wife needed; Paki had sold his lands at Mākaha to raise the money for its construction. (Kanahele)

Paki and his wife Laura Konia raised Pauahi there. When Liliʻuokalani was born, she was hanai (adopted) to Paki and Konia. The two girls attended the Chief’s Children’s School (Royal School,) a boarding school, together, and were known for their studious demeanor.

The history of the home goes beyond the Paki family living quarters; some other interesting bits of Hawaiian history happened here.

Liliʻuokalani and John Dominis were married at Haleʻakala, “I was engaged to Mr Dominis for about two years and it was our intention to be married on the second day of September, 1862. … our wedding was delayed at the request of the king, Kamehameha IV, to the sixteenth of that month”.

“It was celebrated at the residence of Mr and Mrs Bishop, in the house which had been erected by my father, Paki, and which … is still one of the most beautiful and central of the mansions in Honolulu.”

“To it came all the high chiefs then living there, also the foreign residents; in fact, all the best society of the city. My husband took me at once to the estate known as Washington Place, which had been built by his father, and which is still my private residence.” (Queen Liliʻuokalani)

“There was a Baptism at the Residence of the Honorable CR Bishop, “Haleʻakala;” baptized was the child of the honorable (Princess Ruth) Keʻelikolani and JY Davis, and he was called, “Keolaokalani Paki Bihopa.”

The Honorable CR Bishop and Pauahi were those who bestowed the name, and Rev C Corwin is the one who performed the baptism.” (Hoku o ka Pakipika, February 2, 1863) (Keolaokalani was hanai to Pauahi; unfortunately, he died later that year.)

Duke Kahanamoku was born at Haleʻakala on August 24, 1890. (With respect to his name “Duke,” he was named after his father. The elder Kahanamoku was born during the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit to the islands in 1869 and was named after him.)

Haleʻakala was converted to Arlington Hotel.

On the afternoon of January 16, 1893, 162 sailors and Marines aboard the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor came ashore. The property that Liliʻuokalani was raised in (Haleʻakala) served as ‘Camp Boston,’ the headquarters for the USS Boston’s landing force at the time of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, January 17, 1893.

In 1901, Honolulu had three high-class hotels, the Hawaiian Hotel (in downtown Honolulu, now the State Art Museum on Hotel Street,) the Arlington Hotel and the Moana Hotel (in Waikiki.)

“The Arlington Hotel has, for its principal building, a house once occupied by a Hawaiian princess, by whose estate it is now leased to the hotel proprietor (Thomas E Krouse.”) (Chipman, 1901) Krouse, unfortunately, committed suicide at the Arlington the next year.

“A Mrs Dudoit ran the place for a while as a boarding house, and she was followed by a Mr Hamilton Johnson. Both these houses were, however, on a small scale. Just seven and a half years ago it became known as the Arlington, six cottages were attached, the aviary and the cages of animals so familiar to us all were added.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 6, 1900)

“The place was maintained as a chief’s residence for many years. It can only have been turned to other uses during the past fifteen years at the outside. Mrs Bernice Pauahi Bishop left the estate to her husband, who turned the property over to the Kamehameha estates.” (Sereno Bishop; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 6, 1900)

“(Haleʻakala) has a most unique and interesting history. It is one of the most historic spots in all Honolulu, embracing as it does the scenes of joyousness under royalty, through the stirring days of ’93 … the pettinesses of a boarding house and down to the present day as the Arlington Hotel.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 6, 1900)

“The estate which had been so dear to us both in my childhood, the house built by my father, Paki, where I had lived as a girl, which was connected with many happy memories of my early life, from whence I had been married to Governor Dominis,”

“I could not help feeling ought to have been left to me. … This wish of my heart was not gratified, and at the present day strangers stroll through the grounds or lounge on the piazzas of that home once so dear to me.” (Liliʻuokalani)

September 20, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cane Trash

When we were kids and went fishing (trolling), I remember the frustrating – and repeated – need to pull in and clean the lines from floating bagasse (cane trash) that entangled at the lures.

It wasn’t a new thing, floating masses of bagasse have littered beaches/shorelines, affected fishers, and impacted marine resources for decades before. Several attempts to use bagasse rather than dump it (fuel to operate the mill, canec, etc) helped, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that the dumping finally stopped.

Sugar was a canoe crop; the early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in the islands.

In pre-contact times, sugarcane was not processed as we know sugar today, but was used by chewing the juicy stalks. Its leaves were used for inside house thatching, or for outside (if pili grass wasn’t available.) The flower stalks of sugar cane were used to make a dart, sometimes used during the Makahiki games. (Canoe Crops)

The first written record of sugarcane in Hawaiʻi came from Captain James Cook, at the time he made initial contact with the Islands.

On January 19, 1778, off Kauai, he notes, “We saw no wood, but what was up in the interior part of the island, except a few trees about the villages; near which, also, we could observe several plantations of plantains and sugar-canes.” (Cook)

Cook notes that sugar was cultivated, “The potatoe fields, and spots of sugar-canes, or plantains, in the higher grounds, are planted with the same regularity; and always in some determinate figure; generally as a square or oblong”. (Cook)

Sugarcane, a tall perennial grass, is grown in tropical and semitropical climates. (USDA) “Sugar cane, described in botany as Saccharum officinarum, is a giant-stemmed perennial grass that grows from eight to twenty-four feet long. … As a rule, sugar cane consists of about eighty-eight per cent of juice and twelve per cent of fiber”. (Rolph)

The first reported processing of sugar was noted … “in 1802 sugar was first made at these islands, by a native of China, on the island of Lanai. He came here in one of the vessels trading for sandal wood, and brought a stone mill, and boilers, and after grinding off one small crop and making it into sugar, went back the next year with his fixtures, to China.” (Torbert; Polynesian, January 31, 1852)

As production grew, the early sugar ventures were either Hawaiian-owned or regulated by Hawaiian rulers. In most instances, the Hawaiian-owned sugar processing was managed by either Chinese sugar boilers or American shopkeepers in rural districts. (MacLennan) Although sugar cane had grown in Hawaiʻi for many centuries, its commercial cultivation for the production of sugar did not occur until 1825.

In that year, John Wilkinson and Governor Boki started a plantation in upper Mānoa Valley. Within six months they had seven acres of cane growing, and by the time Wilkinson died, in September 1826, they had actually manufactured some sugar. The sugar mill was later converted into a distillery for rum, prompting Kaʻahumanu to have the cane fields destroyed around 1829. (Schmitt)

Shortly thereafter, King Kamehameha III, seeking to encourage commercial cultivation of sugar by native Hawaiians offered the “acre system,” giving “out small lots of land, from one to two acres, to individuals for the cultivation of cane.”

“When the cane is ripe, the King finds all the apparatus for manufacturing & when manufactured takes the half. Of his half one fifth is regarded as the tax due to the aupuni (government) & the remaining four fifths is his compensation for the manufacture. These cane cultivators are released from all other demands of every description on the part of chiefs.” (Armstrong (1839;) MacLennan)

About this time, the initial signs of commercial sugar are found on Maui, in Wailuku. In 1840, the King ordered an iron mill from the US, and it was erected by August. Hung & Co in 1841 advertised the sale of sugar and sugar syrup from its 150-acre plantation in Wailuku. More than likely, this was sugar from the King’s Mill. (MacLennan)

Early plantations were small and didn’t fare too well. Soon, most would come to realize that “sugar farming and sugar milling were essentially great-scale operations.” (Garvin)

Then, the King sought to expand sugar cultivation and production, as well as expand other agricultural ventures to support commercial agriculture in the Islands. In a speech to the Legislature in 1847, the King notes:

“I recommend to your most serious consideration, to devise means to promote the agriculture of the islands, and profitable industry among all classes of their inhabitants. It is my wish that my subjects should possess lands upon a secure title; enabling them to live in abundance and comfort, and to bring up their children free from the vices that prevail in the seaports.”

“What my native subjects are greatly in want of, to become farmers, is capital with which to buy cattle, fence in the land and cultivate it properly. I recommend you to consider the best means of inducing foreigners to furnish capital for carrying on agricultural operations, that thus the exports of the country may be increased …” (King Kamehameha III Speech to the Legislature, April 28, 1847; Archives)

A few things helped kick-start this vision – following finding gold in 1848, the California gold rush stimulated a small boom in commercial agriculture for the Islands – particularly in potatoes and sugar. However, by the end of the 1850s, the boomlet became a depression (California started to supply its own needs.)

The American Civil War virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s. Hawaiian-grown sugar soon replaced much of this southern sugar through the duration of the conflict.

By the end of the war, over thirty extremely prosperous plantations were in operation and expanded to new levels previously unheard of before the war’s commencement.

Hawaiʻi’s industrial plantations began to emerge at this time (1860s;) they were further fueled by the Treaty of Reciprocity – 1875 between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market.

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.

The industry came to maturity by the turn of the century; the industry peaked in the 1930s. Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

Sugarcane is crushed in the mill to extract and process the sugar. Several waste products are produced by the sugar industry – one was bagasse (the fibrous residue that remains after sugarcane stalks are crushed to extract the juice), and the mills would flume it out of the mill and simply dump it in the ocean.

Later, some of the bagasse was made into fiber board. In 1929, Hawaiian Cellulose Ltd, a subsidiary of the Waiākea Mill Company applied for a patent for the manufacture of it. (County of Hawai‘i) They made ‘canec.’

Canec was originally the brand name for pressed fiber board made by Hawaiian Cane Products, Ltd, but it became commonly used to refer to all pressed board of this type.

Also, later, “After passing through the last mill, as much cane pulp (bagasse) as needed is fed into the mill fireroom for use as fuel.” (EPA) The bagasse was pelletized and fueled the boiler.

In 1971, ecological studies of coral communities along the Hamakua Coast of the island of Hawaii resulted in the instigation of a number of Environmental Protection Agency restrictions regarding ocean disposal by sugar mills.

These included, among other things, the elimination of bagasse discharge into the ocean and significant reductions in total suspended solid (TSS). Compliance with EPA standards was achieved in 1979. (Grigg)

Mats of bagasse no longer clogged and smothered rocky bottom habitats. Also mats of bagasse on the ocean surface no longer fouled fishing boats and fishing gear. (Grigg)

September 19, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

About 250 Years Ago … Battles of Saratoga

The failure of the American invasion of Canada in 1775–76 left a large surplus of British troops along the St. Lawrence River. In 1777 these troops were to move south for an attack on Albany, New York.

In 1777, British strategy called for a three-pronged attack seeking to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River Valley, with three separate groups converging near Albany.

By August, British General John Burgoyne had captured Fort Ticonderoga, defeated fleeing American troops at Hubbardton (Vermont) and occupied Fort Edward, on the edge of the Hudson River. After a contingent of Burgoyne’s troops was defeated in the Battle of Bennington, his reduced forces marched south toward Saratoga in early September.

To disrupt the British advance south, Gates had his troops erect defenses on the crest of Bemis Heights, a series of bluffs from which both the Hudson River and the road can be seen. From there, American artillery had the range to hit both the river and the road.

The Americans also erected a fortified wall a little less than a mile from Bemis Heights. The wall extended about three-quarters of a mile, creating a line shaped like a large “L”. Twenty-two cannons were placed behind this defense, providing the Americans with artillery cover.

The two armies engaged in combat at Freeman’s Farm on September 19. While the British held off the Americans, their losses were great. Burgoyne’s battered forces dug trenches and waited for reinforcements, but none came.

Following intense fighting with the Continental Army in September, at Freeman’s Farm, the British Army fortified themselves behind two defensive redoubts (protective barriers) – the larger, better-defended Balcarres Redoubt and the weaker Breymann Redoubt. American forces, led by General Benedict Arnold, managed to take the Breymann Redoubt, which gave them a strong position behind the British lines.

Benedict Arnold galloped into the fray and rallied the Americans in the attack on the Breymann Redoubt. A fellow officer in the Continental Line said that Arnold “behaved more like a madman than a cool and discreet officer.” During this engagement, he sustained a serious wound in his left leg.

By early evening, the Americans secured possession of the Breymann Redoubt and gained a tactical advantage, as it was the far right flank of the British lines.

From here the Americans could easily get behind British lines. Realizing their plight, the British pulled back into their Great Redoubt near the river and held out for several weeks. (Battlefields)

On October 7, Burgoyne launched a second, unsuccessful attack on the Americans at Bemis Heights. On the morning of October 8, General John Burgoyne’s army attempted to escape north, but a cold, hard rain forced them to stop and encamp near the town of Saratoga. Cold, hungry and weary, they dug in and prepared to defend themselves, but within two days the Americans had them surrounded.

With no means of escape, Burgoyne eventually surrendered to Gates on October 17. (Battlefields)

Why was it important?

American troops battled and beat a British invasion force, marking the first time in world history that a British Army ever surrendered. (NPS) It was one of the most decisive American battles of the Revolutionary War.

Saratoga was unquestionably the greatest victory yet won by the Continental Army in terms of prisoners and captured arms and equipment. Nearly 6,000 enemy soldiers were taken, along with 42 cannon and massive quantities of stores. (Army-mil)

Following the American victory, morale among American troops was high. With Burgoyne’s surrender of his entire army to Gates, the Americans scored a decisive victory that finally persuaded the French to sign a treaty allying with the United States against Britain, France’s traditional enemy.

The entrance of France into the war, along with its financial and military support, in particular its navy, was in the end crucial to Washington’s victory at the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781, which effectively ended the war.

But the French were not alone in supporting the Americans following the Battle of Saratoga. The Spanish and later the Dutch provided support as well, eager to seize the opportunity to weaken their British rival.

It also had a direct impact on the career of General George Washington. Without the victory at Saratoga, American forces would likely not have received critical assistance from the French, and faith in the war effort would have been weakened.

On a personal side note, I am a descendant of Israel Moseley (he is my 4^th Great Grandfather). Israel Moseley was a Patriot who fought in the American Revolution. Born in 1743, Israel graduated from Yale in 1766.

He served as a private in Captain Daniel Sacket’s company, Colonel Woodbridge’s regiment from August 20 to October 23, 1777 in the Northern department. He fought in the Battles of Saratoga.

Click the following links to general summaries about the Battles of Saratoga:

Click to access Battles-of-Saratoga-1777-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Battles-of-Saratoga.pdf

September 18, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Spanish Lake

While there is only one global ocean, the vast body of water that covers 71 percent of the Earth is geographically divided into distinct named regions. The boundaries between these regions have evolved over time for a variety of historical, cultural, geographical, and scientific reasons.

Historically, there are four named oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. However, most countries – including the United States – now recognize the Southern (Antarctic) as the fifth ocean. The Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian are the most commonly known. (NOAA)

The first Europeans to arrive in North America were likely the Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is thought to have explored the northeast coast of what is now Canada and spent at least one winter there.

While Norse sagas suggest that Viking sailors explored the Atlantic coast of North America down as far as the Bahamas, such claims remain unproven. In 1963, however, the ruins of some Norse houses dating from that era were discovered at L’Anse-aux-Meadows in northern Newfoundland, thus supporting at least some of the claims the Norse sagas make.

Portuguese mariners built an Atlantic empire by colonizing the Canary, Cape Verde, and Azores Islands, as well as the island of Madeira. Merchants then used these Atlantic outposts as debarkation points for subsequent journeys.

From these strategic points, Portugal spread its empire down the western coast of Africa to the Congo, along the western coast of India, and eventually to Brazil on the eastern coast of South America.

It also established trading posts in China and Japan. While the Portuguese didn’t rule over an immense landmass, their strategic holdings of islands and coastal ports gave them almost unrivaled control of nautical trade routes and a global empire of trading posts during the 1400s.

The history of Spanish exploration begins with the history of Spain itself. During the fifteenth century, Spain hoped to gain advantage over its rival, Portugal. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469 unified Catholic Spain and began the process of building a nation that could compete for worldwide power.

Their goals were to expand Catholicism and to gain a commercial advantage over Portugal. To those ends, Ferdinand and Isabella sponsored extensive Atlantic exploration. Spain’s most famous explorer, Christopher Columbus, was actually from Genoa, Italy.

Columbus (who was looking for a new route to India, China, Japan and the ‘Spice Islands’ of Indonesia to bring back cargoes of silk and spices (ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon)) never saw the mainland United States.

Spain’s drive to enlarge its empire led other hopeful conquistadors to push further into the Americas, hoping to replicate the success of Cortés and Pizarro.

The exploits of European explorers had a profound impact both in the Americas and back in Europe. An exchange of ideas, fueled and financed in part by New World commodities, began to connect European nations and, in turn, to touch the parts of the world that Europeans conquered. (Lumen)

“On May 3, 1493, Pope Alexander VI, to prevent future disputes between Spain and Portugal, divided the world by a north-south line (longitude) 100 leagues (300 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands.”

“In 1494, by the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain and Portugal agreed to move that line to a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands [in the Atlantic].” (Lloyd)

“Strictly speaking, there was no such thing as ‘the Pacific’ until in 1520-1 Fernao de Magalhãis, better known as Magellan, traversed the huge expanse of waters, which then received its name.” (Spate)

On November 28 1520, Ferdinand Magellan entered the “Sea of the South” (Mar Del Sur, which he later named the Pacific) and thereby opened up to Spain the possibility of an alternative route between Europe and the spices of the Orient.” (Lloyd)

“After Magellan’s daring voyage round South America and across to the Philippines (1519-1521), the magnet of Pacific exploration was Terra Australis Incognita, the great southern continent supposed to lie between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan.” (The Journal; Edwards)

With the conquest of Mexico in 1522, the Spanish further solidified their position in the Western Hemisphere. The ensuing discoveries added to Europe’s knowledge of what was now named America – after the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, who wrote a widely popular account of his voyages to a “New World.”

By 1529, reliable maps of the Atlantic coastline from Labrador to Tierra del Fuego had been drawn up, although it would take more than another century before hope of discovering a “Northwest Passage” to Asia would be completely abandoned. (Alonzo L Hamby)

“Alvaro de Mendana, the Spanish voyager, sailed from Callao in Peru in 1567 and reached the Solomon Islands. It was not until 1595 that he went back, with Pedro Fernanadez de Quiros, found the Marquesas and got as far as the Santa Cruz Islands.” (The Journal; Edwards)

Then, almost 50 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, Manila Galleons finally fulfilled their dream of sailing west to Asia to benefit from the rich Indian Ocean trade.

“The Spanish Galleons were square rigged ships with high superstructures on their sterns. They were obviously designed for running before the wind or at best sailing on a very ‘broad reach.’”

“Because of their apparently limited ability to ‘beat their way to windward’ (sail against the wind), they had to find trade routes where the prevailing winds and sea currents were favorable.” (Lloyd)

Starting in 1565, with the Spanish sailor and friar Andrés de Urdaneta, after discovering the Tornaviaje or return route to Mexico through the Pacific Ocean, Spanish Galleons sailed the Pacific Ocean between Acapulco in Nueva España (New Spain – now Mexico) and Manila in the Philippine islands.

The galleons leaving Manila would make their way back to Acapulco in a four-month long journey. The goods were off-loaded and transported across land to ships on the other Mexican coast at Veracruz, and eventually, sent to European markets and customers eager for these exotic wares. (GuamPedia)

Spain had a long presence in the Pacific Ocean (1521–1898). The Pacific coastline of Nueva España and Peru connected to the Philippines far to the west made the ocean a virtual Spanish Lake.

The “Spanish Lake” united the Pacific Rim (the Americas and Asia) and Basin (Oceania) with the Spanish in the Atlantic. (Buschmann etal)

The great wealth that poured into Spain triggered great interest on the part of the other European powers. With time, emerging maritime nations such as England, drawn in part by Francis Drake’s successful raids on Spanish treasure ships, began to take interest in the New World. (State Department)

The USA is named after an Italian, Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512,) an explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. He sailed in 1499, seven years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the West Indies.

Columbus found the new world; but Vespucci, by travelling down the coast, came to the realization that it was not India at all, but an entirely new continent.

Later, it was a German clergyman and amateur geographer named Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann, his Alsatian proofreader, who are reported to have first put the name “America” (a feminized Latin version of Vespucci’s first name) on the new land mass (April 25, 1507.)

The name ‘United States of America’ appears to have been used for the first time in the Declaration of Independence (1776.) At least no earlier instance of its use in that precise form has been found. (Burnett)

September 17, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

New Wives, New Mothers

The Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) announced that all overseas missionaries were required to have a wife before departure; their reason, the temptations for inappropriate relations were too great on the Polynesian islands.

Stories circulated about failed London Missionary Society stations where single male missionaries “went native” among South Sea islanders. (Brown)

Of the seven men in the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawai‘i, only Daniel Chamberlain was married, the other six men had a little over a month to find brides before the October departure date. Here are the newlyweds wedding dates:

Hiram and Sybil Bingham – October 11, 1819
Asa and Lucy Thurston – October 12, 1819
Samuel and Mercy Whitney – October 4, 1819
Samuel and Mary Ruggles – September 22, 1819
Thomas and Lucia Holman – September 26, 1819
Elisha and Maria Loomis – September 27, 1819

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.)

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”), the ABCFM sent twelve companies of missionaries, support staff, and teachers – about 184-men and women – to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

The ABCFM included Doctors/Physicians with the missionaries. “[P]hysicians, ordained and unordained, were all expected to be missionary physicians, that is, to make their medical practice subservient to the grand object of the missions. The employing of missionary physicians grows mainly out of the practice of employing married missionaries.”

“Their first care is of the mission families; but they are expected to exert a conciliating influence among the natives by the kindly offices of their profession. Missionary physicians have not been sent where the needful medical attendance was believed to be otherwise attainable.” (First Fifty Years of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions)

After 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi. The first missionaries to the Islands needed to receive permission to land and stay. Discussions and negotiations to allow the missionaries to stay went on for days. On April 10, “All the brethren went on shore to make one more united effort to obtain what appeared to all to be truly desirable.”

They sought and received assistance from some of the other foreigners. “After many inquiries with respect to our designs and to the number of arts which we were able to teach, they seemed to be satisfied that our intentions were good, and that we might be of some service to them.”

“To obviate what had seemed to be an objection, the fear of displeasing G. Britain, they concluded that Mr. Young should write to England to inform the people that American missionaries had come to settle here, not to do any harm but to teach the people of these Islands all good things.”

“They added that we must not send for any more missionaries, from fear that we might be burdensome or dangerous to the government. When we had finished our propositions and made all the statements which we thought proper, we left them to have a general consultation tonight, and to give us their result tomorrow. We believe ‘the Lord is on our side’ and that our wishes will be gratified.” (Thaddeus Journal)

Then, the decision was made …

April 11, 1820, “The king and chiefs held a consultation last night. Today Bro T [Thurston’ and Dr H [Holman] went on shore to hear the result. It was this – that two of the missionaries with their wives should be stationed at Kairooa [Kailua-Kona] together with two of the native youths [Hopu and Kanui].”

“We are to proceed to Hoahoo [O‘ahu] to make the principal establishment, leaving two of our brethren and sisters in this place. (Sybil Bingham Journal)

This raised initial concerns. For all, the initial anticipation was that the missionaries would be together. The king’s decision meant they missionaries would be separated …

“Such an early separation was unexpected & painful. But broad views of usefulness were to be taken, & private feelings sacrificed. At evening twilight, we surrendered ourselves from close family ties, from the dear old Brig, & from civilization.” (Lucy Thurston Journal)

“The separation is painful. – If nature might be allowed to speak, we should say our dear brother and sister Thurston we must have with us. She is a lovely sister. But the Lord’s will be done. We hope we are enabled to say if from the heart. Our physician is the other to be left.” (Sybil Bingham Journal)

“It is indeed trying to be separated from our dear brethren & sisters, & especially from our Physician. But is seems to be the will of the God & we ought cheerfully to submit, if in so doing, we might be more useful.” (Mercy Mhitney Journal)

“We found it very trying to separate after having been so long united, but feel comforted with the hope that we can be more extensively useful by this arrangement; than if we were all settled together.” (Loomis Journal)

“We plead earnestly that we might all go to Oahhoo … and become a little familiarized to the country before we separated – not knowing how a family could live upon a rock of Laver … Our entreaties however were unavailing.” (Lucia Ruggles Holman)

“The king had previously enquired what arts were possessed by the brethren & when he learned that we had a physician with us, it was his wish that he should remain.” (Loomis Journal, entry by Mrs Loomis)

For four of the missionary wives, there was an added (and serious) concern – four of the newlywed missionary wives were pregnant when they arrived. The king’s decision meant they would not have a doctor to assist them with childbirth and then care for the infants.

Maternal mortality was a concern. In addition, the child mortality rate in the United States, for children under the age of five, was 462.9 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that for every thousand babies born in 1800, over 46 percent did not make it to their fifth birthday. (Statista)

Sybil Bingam tried to calm the others (and herself, I suspect) saying, “Our physician is the other to be left. Do not be alarmed, dear sisters, GOD will be our physician. The king insists upon his remaining on account of his art.”

“As much as we may need that, some of the female part of our little band especially, yet, all things considered, I believe we are all disposed to view a kind providence in the present arrangement.” (Sybil Bingham Journal)

Starting a few short months after their arrival, the new missionary wives became new mothers.

The first child was Levi Loomis, born July 16, 1820 at Honolulu (Oʻahu), he was the first white child born in the Islands; the next was Maria Whitney, born October 19, 1820 at Waimea (Kauai), the first white girl born in the Islands; then, Sophia Bingham, on November 9, 1820 at Honolulu (Oʻahu); and then Sarah Ruggles, born December 22, 1820 at Waimea (Kauai).

(A sad side note is that Hiram and Sybil Bingham’s next two children died at early ages: Levi Parsons Bingham lived only 16 days (his was the first burial in the Kawaiaha‘o cemetery missionary plot); their next child (another son), Jeremiah Everts Bingham lived only 16-months.)