Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings | Page 105

October 19, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honoli‘i

Honoli‘i (John Honoli‘i, ‘Honoree’) arrived in Boston in the fall of 1815. He came over in a ship belonging to Messrs. Ropes & Co merchants of Boston. He was taken on board the ship by the consent of his friends, and replaced a sailor, who died before the ship arrived at Hawai‘i. He was curious and wanted to see the world.

“Another of his countrymen set out with him, but was lost on the passage. He was about to return to his own country, but was providentially found by Mr Henry Gray and other gentlemen, who interested themselves in his behalf and with the approbation of Messrs. Ropes & Co took him under their care; and as soon as an opportunity presented, they sent him to New Haven, to the care of the Hon. E. Goodrich.”

“A place was soon found for him at the Rev. Mr. Vaill’s of Guilford, where he began to learn the first rudiments of the English language. Messrs. Ropes & Co., in whose ship he came to this country, not only cheerfully released him for the purpose of being educated, but very generously gave one hundred dollars towards the expense of his education.”

“He was supposed to be about 19 years of age on his arrival, and has now been in the country about one year.”

“He was ignorant of our language. And of every species of learning or religion, when he began to study. In about six months he began to read in a broken manner in the Bible. In the mean time, he also learned to write, which cost him but little time or labour.”

“In about eleven months from the time he first-began the alphabet, he composed a letter to his honoured patroness, Mrs. Goodrich, of New Haven. In this letter he gives vent to his feelings of gratitude to his benefactors, and especially to God, for his goodness in bringing him to this country.”

“It was about the middle of May, 1816, that his mind began to be impressed with a sense of sin. … In the course of the summer, he hopefully found by faith, that Saviour of whom a few months before he had never heard. He gives very pleasing and satisfactory evidence of hatred to sin, and love to Christ.”

“No person can be more punctual in reading the scriptures and private devotion, than he has been, from the time he received his first impressions. And he appears to grow in knowledge, as his ability to read and understand the scriptures increases. He possesses a mild and affectionate temper, is uncommonly ingenious in all the imitative arts.”

“He is industrious, faithful, and persevering, not only in his studies, but in whatever business he undertakes. He is at present with his comrades, at South Farms, in Litchfield, under the instruction of the Rev A Pettengill, expecting to join the school for heathen youth, as soon as it shall be established.” (Five Youths, 1816)

Honoli‘i became a valuable Hawaiian language instructor because, having come at a later age, he still had good command of his native tongue. He also won praise for his considerable vigor and intellect and his discreet and stately deportment. (Kelley)

Having joined the Pioneer Company to return home; on March 30, 1820, Honoli‘i was the first to see the Islands, “March 30th, 1820. – Memorable day – a day which brings us in full view of that dark pagan land so long the object of our most interested thoughts. Between twelve and one this morning, the word was from Thomas who was up watching, ‘land appears’.”

“When the watch at four was called, Honoree came down saying, ‘Owhyhee sight!’”

“There was but little sleep. When the day afforded more light than the moon we were all out, and judge you, if possible, what sensation filled our breasts as we fixed our eyes upon the lofty mountains of Owhyhee! O! it would be in vain to paint them. I attempt it not.”

“A fair wind carried us by different parts of the island near enough to discern its verdure, here and there a cataract rushing down the bold precipice—some huts, natives and smoke. I would I could put my feelings, for a little season, into your bosoms. No boats coming off as usual, Capt. B (Blanchard) thought it advisable to send ashore to inquire into the state of things, and where he might find the king.”

“Our good Thomas (Hopu) and Honoree, with Mr. Hunnewell and a few hands, set off. Our hearts beat high, and each countenance spoke the deep interest felt as we crowded around our messengers at their return.”

“With almost breathless impatience to make the communication, they leap on board and say, Tamaahmaah is dead! The government is settled in the hands of his son Keehoreeho-Krimokoo is principal chief—the taboo system is no more–men and women eat together! – the idol gods are burned!!” (Sybil Bingham Journal)

Honoli‘i, shuttling between his home island of Hawaii and Maui, labored for the Church longest of all his companions. He proved an important assistant at Kailua, Honolulu, and briefly at Kauai, during those early days while the missionaries were still acquiring their later expertness in the Hawaiian tongue and faithful to the Christian training, he walked irreproachably with his church.

Adjoining the Ka‘ahumanu Church in Wailuku is Honoliʻi Park. It is believed that John Honoliʻ is buried in an unmarked grave in the Kaʻahumanu Church cemetery. (Honoliʻi died in 1838.)

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October 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Thomas Nettleship Staley

“The voyage (from San Francisco to Honolulu) was one of pleasure throughout, the weather beautiful, and our passage only thirteen days.”

“We had choral service morning and evening every day, which served as a practice for the future Honolulu ‘cathedral;’ and the passengers always gladly attended, without exception.”

“On Friday, October 10th (1862,) we sighted, first, Molokai – a most picturesque island, with bold precipitous rocks to the sea down which glided many a waterfall, and broken by ravines and caverns; then Maui appeared in view, and at daybreak on Saturday we were off Oahu.”

“Our voyage was now at an end, and we offered up our hearty thanksgivings to Him who had borne us in safety, health, and comfort to our new island-home.” (Thomas Nettleship Staley Journal; AnglicanHistory, 1863)

Let’s look back …

Thomas Nettleship Staley was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, on January 17, 1823, the son of Rev William Staley. Staley entered Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1840, earned his BA in 1844, his MA in 1847 and his DD in 1862.

From 1844-1850 he was tutor at the Training College of St Mark, Chelsea; from 1851-1861 he was principal at Wandsworth collegiate school, and Chaplain Wandsworth Union.

The Revd William Denton, parish priest at St Bartholomew Cripplegate London, recommended the appointment of Staley as 1st
Bishop (appointment of a missionary bishop was deemed possible under the legal ruling delivered in support of the appointment of missionary bishops to territories outside the reach of British rule.)

In November 1861, Staley was not consecrated as announced, as his appointment lacked necessary legal status which would have been provided by a (British) Crown license – which was ‘not available.’

Queen Victoria’s license for the consecration of Staley on December 11, 1861 empowered John Bird, Archbishop of Canterbury, to make him “Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, and all other the dominions of the King of Hawaii.” (Mammana)

From 1862‐1871 the Sandwich Islands diocese was legally incorporated as ‘the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church;’ Staley was the first Bishop for missionary district of Honolulu (which included Hawaiian islands, Guam, Okinawa, Taiwan and Kwajalein.) (Blain)

Staley set to work in building a diocese from scratch along strong Anglo-Catholic lines. He began the use of eucharistic vestments and established daily worship; he wore a cope and mitre on episcopal occasions — acts that would have been all but impossible at the time in England. (Mammana)

(Back in Europe the ‘Great Church Crisis’ was going on and Roman Catholic ritualism, including vestments) in the Anglican Church was frowned upon by many. (Tanis))

He baptized Queen Emma and confirmed her along with King Kamehameha IV. Staley laid the foundation of what is now the Cathedral Church of St Andrew in Honolulu.

He oversaw the printing of the king’s translation of the Book of Common Prayer into Hawaiian. He advised the royal family on educational matters, and recruited the Anglican nuns of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity (the Devonport Sisters) to open a school for girls.

The nascent Diocese of Honolulu became a brief test-case for the viability of a missionary model that planted a complete diocese on foreign soil. (Mammana)

But Staley’s stay in the Island was not without conflict – Rev Rufus Anderson, a Congregationalist minister and foreign secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions referred to him as a ‘ritualist.’

But it wasn’t just the members of the ABCFM that were concerned, the king’s promotion of dancing and traditional customs (and Staley’s tolerance of that) outraged the Catholics and Mormons, as well. (Blain)

Even journalist and novelist Mark Twain weighed in, describing the Anglican diocese of Honolulu as ‘a pinchbeck thing, an imitation, a bauble, an empty show. It had no power, no value for a king.”

“It could not harry or burn or slay… It was an Established Church without an Establishment; all the people were Dissenters”. Twain attacked Staley in a newspaper article, noting …”

“… Staley has shown the temerity of an incautious and inexperienced judgement, rushing in here fresh from the heart and home of a high civilization and throwing down the gauntlet of defiance before a band of stern, tenacious, unyielding, tireless, industrious, devoted old Puritan knights who had seen forty years of missionary service.” (Twain, 1866)

“Mr. Staley, my Lord Bishop of Honolulu – who was built into a Lord by the English Bishop of Oxford and shipped over here with a fully equipped “Established Church” in his pocket – has frequently said that the natives of these islands are morally and religiously in a worse condition to-day than they were before the American missionaries ever came here.”

“It is easy to see, now, that the missionaries have made a better people of this race than they formerly were; and I am satisfied that if that old time national spree were still a custom of the country, my Lord Bishop would not be in this town to-day saying hard things about the missionaries.”

“For forty years before the Bishop brought his Royal Hawaiian Established Reformed Catholic Church here the kings and chiefs of this land had been buried with the quiet, simple, Christian rites that are observed in England and America, and no man thought of anything more being necessary.” (Twain, 1866)

If I may speak freely, I think this all comes of elevating a weak, trivial minded man to a position of rank and power – of making a Bishop out of very inferior material – of trying to construct greatness out of constitutional insignificance.”

“He gossips habitually; he lacks the common wisdom to keep still that deadly enemy of a man, his own tongue- he says ill-advised things in public speeches and then in other public speeches denies that he ever said them …”

“… he shows spite, a trait which is not allied to greatness; he is fond of rushing into print, like mediocrity the world over, and is vainer of being my Lord Bishop over a diocese of fifteen thousand men and women (albeit they belong to other people’s churches) than some other men would be of wielding the world-wide power of the Pope …”

“… and finally, every single important act of his administration has evinced a lack of sagacity and an unripeness of judgment which might be forgiven a youth, but not a full-grown man – or, if that seems too severe, which might be for given a restless, visionary nobody, but not a Bishop. My estimate of Bishop Staley may be a wrong one, but it is at least an honest one.” (Twain, 1866)

Staley defended his actions in an 1865 New Year’s Pastoral Address, noting, “The bitter hostility which ‘the American Board’ displays to our mission is doubtless accounted for, in part, by the fact that the two bodies of which it is composed, have ever been the most relentless in their hatred to the Anglican Church, whether in England or in America.”

“We have read many discussions of late on the action of the royal supremacy in matters spiritual in the English church. But our Puritan friends in America seem to stretch its prerogatives to the very furthest conceivable limits …”

“… when they suppose that the Primate of the church is under a ‘political necessity’ to consecrate, whenever he is ordered to do so by the British Government! …”

“… while the British Government is under a ‘political necessity,’ to grant whatever favours the King of Hawaii may choose to ask! It would therefore seem possible, that the supremacy of the English Crown over the church, might, under given conditions, be found flowing from the sole will ‘of the Hawaiian Monarch, a view which has, at least, the recommendation of novelty.”

“I shall not condescend to follow the author (Rufus Anderson) through his remarks on the ritual and teaching of the Church in these islands. Suffice it to say that they are strictly in conformity with the laws and usages of the Church in England and America, and that no where can be found services heartier, more devotional, and more regularly frequented. “

“Let me Say Once For All, That On No Occasion Whatever Have I Ever Offered His Majesty Political Advice, Or Influenced His Measures in the slightest.”

“I will say further, that were I to attempt to use the sacred relation in which I stand to the King as a means for political intrigue, or for influencing his Government in any way, I should lose whatever respect or weight that relation now carries in the estimation of his Majesty.”

“The only serviced which I render to the State in the Privy Council, are as its acting Chaplain and as a member of the Bureau of Public Instruction, the King having been pleased to make use of my familiarity with the subject of popular education, acquired in England. (Staley, Pastoral Address, January 1, 1865)

Staley was frustrated with the politics and sought to resign; he hoped to be replaced by an American Episcopal bishop, but none could be found.

The bishop left Honolulu for the last time in mid-1870, leaving behind a diocese with High Church-Low Church fault lines that would continue to crack well through the beginning of the 20th century and the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States. (Mammana) He was replaced by Alfred Willis.

Staley retired with his large family to England, where he served a succession of parishes. He resided in Croxall and never returned to Hawaii. Staley died on November 1, 1898, at Bournemouth.

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Bishop_T._N._Staley by Mason & Co (Robert Hindry Mason), albumen carte-de-visite, mid 1860s

Bishop_T._N._Staley

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October 12, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Asa and Lucy Thurston Get Married

“… two of similar aspirations, introduced at sunset as strangers, to separate at midnight as interested friends.”

Let’s look back …

For a while, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) prohibited unmarried persons from entering the mission field. The Board believed that married missionaries could cope better with hardships and resist sexual temptations.

Thus, they required young men to be engaged at least two months before entering the mission field. To help the would-be missionaries find wives, the ABCFM had an ongoing list of “missionary-minded” women who were considered “young, pious, educated, fit and reasonably good-looking.” (Christian History Institute)

“Three weeks have elapsed since the departure of my sister Persis. Yesterday, during my noontide intermission, I received, at my boarding house, an unexpected call from cousin Wm. Goodell.“

“He gave me information that a Mission to the Sandwich Islands was to sail in four or six weeks, dwelt upon it with interest and feeling, and notwithstanding his efforts to assume his usual cheerfulness, now and then I saw the tear start in his eye. His conversation and appearance made me tremble.”

“At length, having prepared my mind, the proposition was made. ‘Well Lucy, by becoming connected with a missionary now an entire stranger, attach herself to this little band of pilgrims, and visit the far distant land of Obookiah?’”

“Now I feel the need of guidance. Oh, that Persis were here! Never did I so much long to see her.”

“The gentleman proposed as the companion of my life is Mr. Thurston, member of the Senior Class, in Andover Theological Institution. He had recently become an accepted missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, soon to sail for the Sandwich Islands.”

“This has all come suddenly upon him. Now that he knows the situation he is called to fill, he has no personal knowledge of one who is both willing and qualified to go with him to a foreign land. Some of his classmates were admitted to his private confidence.”

“One of them, in passing back and forth, had been entertained at Dea. Goodale’s. He spoke of his daughter Lucy, as being fitted for such a position. It proved a hinge to act upon. They knew that Goodell of the Middle Class was a relative of the family. They admitted him into their counsel to speak of the missionary qualifications of Lucy Goodale.”

“Most closely and seriously, during the last year, he has pressed the subject on my consideration, of personally engaging in the missionary enterprise. In his very last letter, recently received, he wrote thus:”

“‘When I say I hope cousin Lucy will be of the next company that go to the heathen, instead of imputing it to any desire of never seeing her again, she will rather think, that I believe her to adopt from the heart the favorite language of Spencer,—‘Where He appoints, I’ll go.’”

“The result of the whole matter was, that Wm. Goodell was appointed to obtain permission for a personal interview. So here he was, delivering his message ; adding, ‘Rebecca said, I will go.’”

“What could I say? We thoroughly discussed the subject, after which I gave permission for a visit.”

“Next week on Thursday is the anticipated, dreaded interview of final decision. Cousin William walked with me, and, as we approached the school house, bade me good-bye. I immediately entered the school, but how I longed to find my chamber, that I might give vent to the feelings of an almost bursting heart. Last night I could neither eat, nor close my eyes in sleep.”

“The subject has been to my mind utterly overwhelming, and I all alone during this season of conflict. Situated six miles from my father’s, I have no confidential friend near me to whom I can unfold my feelings.”

“Wm. Goodell fully informed my family that the waters were troubled. During the week, my two sisters from home, Eliza and Meliscent, called on and comforted me with their sympathy’ and affection. I have received, too, communications from my father.”

“But they all leave me to myself, to act agreeably to my own judgment and inclination.”

“Dear to my heart are my friends and country. Yet, all this side the grave, how transient! The poor heathen possess immortal natures, and are perishing. Who will give them the Bible, and tell them of a Savior? Great as must be the sacrifices, trials, hardships, and dangers of such an undertaking …”

“… I said, ‘If God will grant His grace, and afford an acceptable opportunity, Lucy and all that is hers, shall be given to the noble enterprise of carrying light to the poor benighted countrymen of Obookiah.’ After this decision, I could contemplate the subject with a tranquil mind and unmoved feelings.”

“The close of this day brought our expected Andover friends, Wm. Goodell and Mr. Thurston to our door, and established them in our parlor. That was a strictly private family interview. I returned home, and alone entered the house the night before. Our dwellings was completely isolated from neighbors, and not a word had been dropped of expected company.”

“We were alone in our little world. There were my father and my two brothers and their wives, all belonging to the house. There, too, was uncle Wm. Goodell, cousin William’s own father, who had lived with my father for several years, and who was in sympathy and confidences as one of us.”

“Wm. Goodell had now accomplished his mission.”

“Under the most favorable circumstances, he had opened the way and brought Mr. Thurston to Dea. Goodale’s, brought Lucy to her father’s house to interview the stranger in the bosom of her own family, amid a band of six close confidential friends, where no prying eyes or ready tongues were admitted to give intelligence to the outside world.”

“The early hours of the evening were devoted to refreshments, to free family sociality, to singing, and to evening worship. Then one by one the family dispersed, leaving two of similar aspirations, introduced at sunset as strangers, to separate at midnight as interested friends.”

“In the forenoon, the sun had risen high in the heavens, when it looked down upon two of the children of earth giving themselves wholly to their heavenly Father, receiving each other from his hand as his good gift, pledging themselves to each other as close companions in the race of life, consecrating themselves and their all to a life work among the heathen.”

“And it came to pass after that decision, that there met together a committee of Ways and Means. The first thing to be fixed upon was a programme. That was Friday, Sept. 24th.”

“Sept. 26th, Oct. 3d and 10th, would furnish three Sabbaths for publication. Then the 11th was Monday, not a convenient day, but the 12th, Tuesday, was fixed upon as the day of the wedding, and after the ceremony, the party was to proceed directly to Boston.” The image shows the Thurstons in their later years. (All from Life and Times of Mrs Lucy Thurston; Lucy Goodale Thurston)

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Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston

October 6, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First American Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe

Jeanne Baret, a French woman from the Loire Valley, and her lover, botanist Philibert Commerson, implemented an elaborate plot so she could join him on a French expedition around the world, led by explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville.

Just before Bougainville’s ship, the Etoile, set sail in December 1766, Baret dressed as a man and showed up on the dock to offer her services – introducing herself as “Jean.”

They set sail, and over the couple of years amassed more than 6,000 plant specimens – including one they named for the expedition’s commander, bougainvillea. Although later found out to be a woman, and disembarked along the way, she later made it back to France – the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. (Cohen)

The credit of first American woman to circumnavigate the globe is given to Lucia Ruggles Holman – like Jeanne Baret’s, her trip around the world had its complications.

The 1819 departure of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to the Islands missionary was in danger of indeterminate delay because they lacked a physician.

One in the company, Samuel Ruggles, thought of Lucia, his sister, and her suitor, Thomas Holman, a physician practicing in Cooperstown, New York. If the doctor could be persuaded to join the missionary cause, events could proceed on schedule.

Ruggles thought Lucia and Thomas could marry, and then he would have the company of kin on this endeavor. However, Holman, a recent graduate of Cherry Valley Medical School in New York could not marry due to the debts incurred by the doctor’s unsuccessful practice. Then, a solution appeared in the guise of becoming missionaries.

The Prudential Committee acting on behalf of the American Board assumed the debts, purchased the necessary medical books, instruments, drugs, and supplies, and sent Holman to the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall for training. (Wagner-Wright)

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US set sail on the Thaddeus for the Hawaiian Islands.

Dr Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia joined two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

After rounding Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America) and 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Hawai‘i’s “Plymouth Rock” is about where the Kailua pier is today.

On April 11, King Kamehameha II gave the missionaries permission to stay. However, “The King gives orders that Dr. H. and our teacher must land at Kiarooah – the village where he now resides, and the rest of the family may go to Oahhoo, or Wahhoo.”

“(H)e wanted the Dr. to stay with them, as they had no Physician and appeared much pleased that one had come; as to pulla-pulla (learning), they knew nothing about it. Consequently it was agreed that Dr. H. & Mr. Thurston should stay with the King and the rest of the family go to Oahhoo.” (Lucia Ruggles Holman)

Things did not go smooth for the Holmans and the rest in the mission – it started on the trip over – “Long before the close of the voyage this little community began most sensibly to feel the unpropitious influence of a most refractory spirit in (Dr Holman) …”

“… (who declared) determination not to comply with the principles established by the Board, & expressed to us in the instructions of the prudential committee, for the regulation of our economical policy.”

“Both the Dr. & his wife spoke often of acquiring personal wealth & returning early if they should succeed, to their own country. The Dr. objected to subscribing to our byelaws founded on the above named principles, because he said they cut him off from his original plans.”

“He wished to acquire the miens of returning at pleasure to America, & to educate his children there &c. … When he was referred to the general tenure of our instructions, he replied … that he had not subscribed them all &c. Sister H. too, from the time of leaving Boston repeatedly talked loudly of returning to her friends.”

“He has now received the 2nd admonition – Br. Thurston says ‘it is most manifestly our duty to proceed in our course of discipline with him even to excision if he does not confess his faults & evidence repentance future amendment’”. (Bingham to Samuel Worcester, October 11, 1820)

Dr. Holman, contrary to the unanimous advice and request of the brethren, left them, and went to reside on the island of Maui, more than 80 miles from any of them. This they considered an abandonment of the mission.

“The subject is too painful to dwell on, except when imperious duty demands – All the mission family is exhausted with it and with one voice, much as they need a physician, they would desire the Dr & his wife were safely landed on their native shore.” (Bingham to Evarts, November 2, 1820)

After only four months in the islands, the Holmans had not adjusted to the spirit of the mission. (Kelley) He withdrew from the mission on July 30, 1820 and returned to the US with his family (including Lucia Kamāmalu Holman born in 1821).

On October 2, 1821, Dr. Holman and family accepted free passage home on the Mentor, a whaleship, via China and the Cape of Good Hope. Mrs. Lucia Ruggles Holman is believed to be the first American woman to circumnavigate the globe. (Portraits)

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September 29, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

When Hiram Met Sybil

“Missionaries are ambassadors of Jesus Christ, beseeching people to be reconciled to God. Their business is not with believers, but unbelievers; they are not pastors or rulers, but evangelists.”

“Their first duty is to gather a local congregation. They will be spiritual leaders to it, but will leave it to a native minister and move on to preach the gospel in some other place. The sole exception is when a church is organized and there is no suitable native pastor available.”

“The missionary should raise up ministers and give them responsibility. Too many missionaries in any area will retard the development of the churches. Missionaries should be married, and their home will be a model of Christian family life.” (Legacy of Rufus Anderson; Beaver)

“How to improve the social life of a nation so demoralized and degraded, was a problem not easy of solution. Uncouth manners were to be corrected, and modes of dress and living to be improved. Only married missionaries could do this. Living models of domestic Christian life were indispensable.” (Anderson, 1872)

Augustine George Hibbard, in his history of the town of Goshen (where the ordination took place), notes the description of the time that Hiram met Sybil (his future wife), at the ordination (September 29, 1819) of then-single missionary Hiram Bingham (as told by Reverend AC Thompson).

“Nor was there wanting a touch of romance. Next to the singing of Melton Mowbray, the incident which lingered most vividly in the recollections of the people is one which they rightly regarded as a marked interposition of God’s good providence.”

“Oral traditions in regard to it have so many slight variations of detail, that I give what will be accepted as authentic and final, an extract from a letter written, at my request, by Mr. Bingham, many years since:”

“On leaving Andover, at the close of my course there, I took a rough journey to Goshen, and as the friends were gathering thickly there, in the afternoon previously to my ordination, Mr. Thurston and myself submitted to the requisite examination which was somewhat extended to meet the rising interest in the cause of our contemplated mission.”

“I was quartered at the Rev. Mr. Harvey’s. He and others attended, in the evening, a Bible Society meeting; but fatigued with closing all up at Andover, my journey and examination, I chose to stay quietly at the house of Mr. Harvey.”

“In the course of the evening, a gentleman, Rev. Mr. Brown, called and asked for lodgings for himself and a young lady, whom he had brought with him from the valley of the Connecticut. I stepped over to the meeting, and privately asked Mr. Harvey what should be done with them.”

“He replied laconically, and with little interruption to the routine of Bible meeting business, ‘Take them to Deacon Thompson’s.’ I offered, therefore, to accompany them thither.”

“Mr. Brown went to the public house, and brought out the young lady, introduced her to me, and took us into his vehicle, and, at my direction, drove to Deacon Thompson’s.”

“I had taken cold by a night’s ride over the mountains, and I wrapped a handkerchief about my neck, chin, and mouth, that cold evening, and this awakened ready sympathy in the sensitive heart of the young lady, who had for years been warmly interested in the missionary cause.”

“Mr. Brown had introduced her as Miss (Sybil) Moseley, the name of a lady teacher at Canandaigua, NY, whom Rev. Levi Parsons had mentioned to me as a most amiable, and thoroughly qualified companion for a missionary.”

“During the whole interview, the ride, and the call at your father’s, my mind was intently querying whether this could be the very same.”

“When introduced by your kind parents into the parlor, and seated by a hospitable fire, we sat and conversed for a few minutes. I measured the lines of her face and the expression of her features with more than an artist’s carefulness, and soon took leave of her, and Mr. Brown, and the family, receiving some very generous cautions from her respecting my cold.”

“The next day I learned that she was the young lady of whom Brother Parsons had spoken so highly. I saw her in the course of the next day most intensely interested in the missionary cause, and learned a good deal about her from Mr. Harvey, Brother S. Bartlett and wife, and Brother Ruggles and wife, about to embark for the Sandwich Islands.”

“I mentioned the case to Dr. Worcester, Mr. Evarts, and my brother, and asked their counsel. A prayer-meeting was arranged at Mr. Harvey’s while I authorized Dr. Worcester to ascertain from her whether a private and special interview with me would be allowed.”

“He saw her while prayers were offered for Divine guidance. He stated my case, held up the great work at the Islands with which her soul was already filled, and left her with the words, ‘Rebecca said, I will go.’”

“Returning to Mr. Harvey’s, he told me I could see her. I gave her some account of myself, put into her hands a copy of my statement to the Prudential Committee, in offering myself to the work, asked her to unite with me in it, and left her to consider till the next day whether she could give me encouragement, or not.”

“The next day she said she would go with me to her friends, and, if they did not object, she thought she should not. It was arranged for us to ride in a chaise to Hartford. The result you know (they married less than 2-weeks later).” (Hiram Bingham)

On October 23, 1819, Hiram and Sybil, and the rest of the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries, set sail on the Thaddeus for Hawai‘i. By the middle of the trip, four of the wives were pregnant.

Sybil was pregnant when they arrived at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820. That first child of Hiram and Sybil, Sophia Mosely Bingham, is my Great-Great Grandmother.

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Portraits_of_Hiram_and_Sybil_Moseley_Bingham,_1819,_by_Samuel_F.B._Morse