Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whitman Mission

During the first ten or fifteen years of the nineteenth century, the US was swept by religious revivalism and many people were converted in the wake of the newly born religious fervor.  The Second Great Awakening spread from its origins in Connecticut and led to the establishment of theological seminaries and mission boards.

In the fall of 1819, the brig Thaddeus was chartered to carry the Pioneer Company of missionaries to the Islands.  There were seven American couples sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity.

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period,”) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

Since work with any non-English speaking people in the US was classified as being foreign missions by most Protestant denominations throughout the nineteenth century, the ABCFM also looked to missions for the American Indians.  The Board began its Indian work in 1816, when a few missionaries were sent to the Cherokee.

Then, on January 12, 1835, “…one of our elders expects shortly to leave us to join the company of Missionaries to go beyond the Rocky Mountains.” (Hotchkin, Report to American Home Missionary Society)  Dr Marcus Whitman had volunteered to go.

Upon return from a short investigative trip, Whitman had observed that it was possible to take women over the Rockies, hence he could return, be married to Narcissa Prentiss to whom he was engaged, and take her with him to Oregon.

Marcus hoped to find another couple to join them in their Oregon venture. He heard of Henry and Eliza Spalding who were to be missionaries among the Osage people; they had already started for their destination, but Marcus caught up to them and convinced them to join the Oregon missions.

The Whitmans and Spaldings formed the forerunners of the ABCFM’s missionary effort in the Pacific Northwest.  In April 1836 Whitman’s party set out from Liberty, Missouri. In May they overtook an American Fur Company caravan near the junction of the Platte River and the Loup Fork, in Nebraska.

Traveling via Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and across South Pass, they arrived at the Green River Rendezvous in July. Escorted by two Hudson’s Bay Company traders, the party then set out on a long journey via Fort Hall to Fort Vancouver, where it arrived in September.  (LegendsOfAmerica)

Whitman chose a spot in southeastern Washington on Mill Creek on the north bank of the Walla Walla River, 22-miles above its junction with the Columbia and the Hudson’s Bay Company post of Fort Walla Walla. The local Indians, the Cayuse, called the spot Waiilatpu (“Place of the Rye Grass.”)  Spalding chose a site 110-miles farther east, where he founded among the Nez Perce Indians what came to be known as the Spalding Mission, Idaho. (LegendsOfAmerica)

The two wives were the first US women to travel across the continent.  The next March, Mrs. Whitman gave birth to a daughter, Alice Clarissa, the first US child born in the Pacific Northwest.  (Two years later the child died in a tragic drowning accident.)

Several Hawaiians lived at the Whitman Mission; a Hawaiian known as “Jack” and another Hawaiian whose name is unknown worked for a fur-trading company called the North West Company and helped Whitman establish the Waiilatpu mission; first they helped to build the Whitman’s home.

When Narcissa first saw it, she wrote home to her parents, “Where are we now, and who are we that we should be thus blessed of the Lord? I can scarcely realize that we are thus comfortably fixed, and keeping house …”

“We arrived here on the tenth-distance, twenty-five miles from Walla Walla. Found a house reared and the lean-to enclosed, a good chimney and fireplace, and the floor laid. … My heart truly leaped for joy as I alighted from my horse, entered and seated myself before a pleasant fire.”  (PBS)

In addition, the Whitmans knew an individual named Mungo Mevway; he was the son of a Hawaiian father and a Native American mother.  (Mevway married a member of the Spokane tribe around October 1842.)

Iosepa Mahi and his wife, Maria Kewau Mahi, were two later arrivals from Hawaiʻi.  “At Waiilatpu they had the pleasure of being waited on by two native Hawaiians, Iosepa Mahi and wife, from Mr. Bingham’s Kawaiahaʻo Church, who had come to Oregon the year previous to assist Dr and Mrs Whitman in their domestic concerns.”  (Edwin Hall Journal, 1839)

The Mahis were two of the charter members of the original Oregon Mission Church, being admitted by letter from the Kawaiahaʻo Church at its organization on August 18, 1838.

When Mahi died, Mrs. Whitman wrote of him in a letter to her mother on October 9, 1840, “Our loss is very great. He was so faithful and kind – always ready to relieve us of every care, so that we might give ourselves to our appropriate missionary work – increasingly so to the last. He died as a faithful Christian missionary dies – happy to die in the field – rejoiced that he was permitted to come and labour for the good of the Indians …” (His wife returned to Hawaiʻi in January 1842.)

There are more ties to Hawaiʻi beyond the help given to build the mission.  After the Oregon missionaries had found that their earliest ideas of instructing the Indians in the Gospel by teaching them English, without reducing their own language to writing,
were not only impracticable but absolutely impossible, they wrote to their brethren of the Sandwich Islands mission asking if it were not possible to have a second-hand printing press given to them.  (The Friend, May 1923)

On April 19, 1839, Hiram Bingham, head of the Hawaiʻi mission wrote, “The church & congregation of which I am pastor has recently sent a small but complete printing and binding establishment by the hand of Brother Hall, to the Oregon mission, which with other substantial supplies amount to 444,00 doll.” (This is not the same press that Bingham brought on their initial voyage to Hawaiʻi.)

“The press was a small hand press presented to this mission but not in use. The expense of the press with one small font of type, was defrayed by about 50 native females including Kīnaʻu or Kaʻahumanu 2d. This was a very pleasing act of Charity. She gave 10 doll. for herself & 4 for her little daughter Victoria Kaʻahumanu 3d.”  (Bingham) (The press remained at Lapwai until 1846, when it was sought to be used for printing a paper in Salem.)

“The Press was located at Lapwai, and used to print portions of Scripture and hymn books in the Nez Perces language, which books were used in all the Missions of the American Board. Visitors to these tribes of Indians, twenty-five years after the Missions had been broken up, and the Indians had been dispersed, found copies of those books still in use and prized as great treasures.”  (Nixon)

The Whitmans at Waiilatpu and the Spaldings at Lapwai carried on their work in their separate stations for about two years with but little outside help beyond that of a few Hawaiians and an occasional wandering mountain man. (Drury)

The Cayuse were a semi-nomadic people who were on a seasonal cycle of hunting, gathering and fishing.   Whitman introduced agriculture in order to keep the Cayuse at the mission and introduce Christianity.

They needed to be self-sufficient and spent a lot of time growing crops and looking after farm animals. These animals included a flock of sheep that were sent to Waiilatpu by some of the ABCFM missionaries in Hawaiʻi (Maki and his wife accompanied these sheep on their long journey to the Whitman Mission.)

In 1843, Whitman accompanied the first major overland immigration from the US to Oregon, successfully guiding the first immigrant wagons to reach the Columbia River; the mission at Waiilatpu was a major stop on the immigrant trail.  Their small expedition was the first to bring families to Oregon by wagon.

In 1847, one of those emigrant wagon trains brought measles to the mission. The white children recovered, but the local Cayuse tribe had no resistance. Half the tribe died.

Marcus was considered to be a te-wat, or medicine man, to the Cayuse people. His medicines did not work when trying to cure Cayuse infected with measles. It was Cayuse tradition that if the patient died after being treated by the medicine man, the family of the patient had the right to kill the medicine man.

On November 29, 1847, eleven Cayuse took part in what is now called the “Whitman Killings” and “Whitman Massacre.” The majority of the tribe was not involved in the deaths of the Whitmans and the eleven others, however, the whole tribe was held responsible until 1850. In that year, five Cayuse were turned over to the authorities in Oregon City and hanged for the crime of killing the Whitmans.

The story of the Whitman mission came to an end, however, the legacy of Dr Whitman lived on. Stories of his 1842 ride east to stop the ABCFM from closing some of the Oregon missions became a legend that “Whitman saved Oregon for the Americans”, making it seem that Whitman promoted a manifest destiny for America.

Cushing Eells, an associate of Whitman, built Whitman Seminary on the grounds of the old mission; it later moved to Walla Walla and became Whitman College. A statue of Dr. Whitman was erected in Statuary Hall in Washington DC.  (My mother, a Hiram Bingham descendant, attended Whitman College.)  (Lots of information here from NPS)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Ka‘ahumanu’s Death

Almost 200 years ago, the American Protestant missionaries arrived in the Islands. Their leader was Reverend Hiram Bingham – Sybil … his wife of 2-weeks … joined him. They are my great-great-great grandparents.

They were preachers and teachers. It was important to them that Hawaiians had a personal experience reading the written “Word of the God of Heaven;” but back then, Hawaiian was only spoken, not written. That meant that each needed to learn to read.

So, Hiram and others developed an alphabet and formulated a written language, taught Hawaiians to be literate in their own language and translated the Bible for them to read. The missionaries learned the language, and were soon teaching their lessons in Hawaiian, rather than English.

As teaching expanded, the missionaries’ focus was on the Head, Heart and Hand. In addition to the rigorous academic drills (Head,) the schools provided religious and moral guidance (Heart,) and manual and vocational training (Hand.)

In collaboration with the aliʻi, Hiram and the other missionaries:
• Introduced Christianity to the Islands
• Created the written Hawaiian language and brought about widespread literacy
• Helped formulate a constitutional government
• Made Western medicine available, and
• Introduced a distinctive musical tradition with harmony and choral singing

About a year after Hiram arrived, Kaʻahumanu visited the mission and gave them supplies; it was the first time she showed interest in the teachings of the missionaries, and her first request for prayer. From that point on, Kaʻahumanu came into constant contact with the mission.

Hiram found a friend in Kaʻahumanu – she and other ali‘i visited often. In the wood frame house at Missions Houses, you can correctly say, “Kaʻahumanu slept here.”

A little side story on Hiram and Kaʻahumanu … shortly after arriving in the Islands, with a piece of driftwood, Hiram made a rocking chair for his wife – in describing it, Sybil said, “A box or trunk has been our only seat. My husband, I believe, was never a chair-maker before, but happy for me and the Mission family, that he is everything.”

On Sundays, the rocker was taken to the thatched Kawaiahaʻo church as a seat for Sybil, the pastor’s wife. Her wish was that when she died, she might be found in that chair … her wish was granted when she died in her rocker on February 27, 1848.

The rocker had its admirers, including Kaʻahumanu. She asked Hiram to make her one just like it – he did, it is one of the earliest known pieces of koa furniture in Hawaiʻi.

That was not the only gift Hiram gave Kaʻahumanu.

In 1825, Kaʻahumanu was baptized. Lucy Thurston noted, “She became distinguished for her humility, kindness and the affability of her deportment, regarded the missionaries as her own children, and treated them with the tenderness of maternal love.”

Lucy continued, “Her influence and authority had long been paramount and undisputed with the natives, and was now discreetly used for the benefit of the nation.”

In mid-1832, Kaʻahumanu became ill and was taken to her home in Mānoa. Hiram came to her bedside. “Her strength failed daily.”

Hiram noted, “About the last words she used were: ‘Here, here am I, O Jesus, … Grant me a gracious smile.’”

“A little after this she called (Hiram) to her and as (he) took her hand, she asked. ‘Is this Bingham?’ (He) replied, ‘It is I.’”

She finished, “‘I am going now.’” Hiram replied: “‘May Jesus go with you, go in peace.’”

Hiram noted, “The slow and solemn tolling of the bell struck on the pained ear as it had never done before in the Sandwich Islands.”

“In other bereavements, after the Gospel took effect, we had not only had the care and promise of our heavenly Father, but a queen-mother remaining, whose force, integrity, and kindness, could be relied on still.”

“But words can but feebly express the emotions that struggled in the bosoms of some who counted themselves mourners in those solemn hours; while memory glanced back through her most singular history, and faith followed her course onward far into the future.”

Her death took place at ten minutes past 3 o’clock on the morning of June 5, 1832, “after an illness of about 3 weeks in which she exhibited her unabated attachment to the Christian teachers and reliance on Christ, her Saviour.” (Hiram Bingham)

Hiram’s gift to Kaʻahumanu … and one that he shared with all Hawaiians across the Islands … was love … and hope … and guidance to the way of the Lord, salvation and eternal life.

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Kaahumanu,_retouched_image_by_J._J._Williams_after_Louis_Choris
Kaahumanu,_retouched_image_by_J._J._Williams_after_Louis_Choris

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Brother Matthias Newell

“Victoria is the county seat of Victoria County, and is situated in the southeastern part of Southwest Texas, on the right bank of the Guadalupe River, about 114 miles southwest of San Antonio, and 28 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.”

“It is one of the oldest towns in the state, having been founded in 1822 and incorporated in 1836, the first year of the independent Republic of Texas. The actual history of the school in Victoria goes back to the time of Reverend A Gardet who took over the care of St. Mary’s Parish in Victoria in 1857.”

“After building a church and a convent of the Incarnate Word Sisters he erected a building of two stories on the corner of Main and Church streets. In this building he started a day school for boys.”

“[I]n 1870 a group of three Brothers, on their way from New Orleans to San Antonio, went through Victoria. One of these Brothers [was] Matthias Newell …. The Brothers spent several days with the pastor whom Brother Matthias described as a ‘very friendly old man.’”  (Pariseau)

Matthias Newell ( 1854-1939) was born in Zerf, Bavaria, where his father was a forest warden. The Newell family immigrated to the US while Matthias was still a child. In 1868 he joined the Society of Mary at Dayton, Ohio. (Texas Ornithology Society)

“Brother Matthias, as Mr. Newell is familiarly known to the Catholic brotherhood, came to the [Hawaiian] Islands some seventeen years ago [1885] from San Antonio, Texas, where he had already gained the local title of ‘Rattlesnake-catcher,’ owing to his zeal in the various branches of natural history.”

“From the Brothers at the college I learn that after a year’s residence in Honolulu he moved, to Wailuku on Maui, where he spent fourteen years in the Catholic mission in Iao valley. … From Wailuku Mr. Newell was removed to Hilo on Hawaii”. (Bryan)

“When the Sacred Hearts sisters discussed hiring lay teachers, math and science were the fields they most willingly abandoned. Even when a competent science teacher found his way onto a faculty roster, he was unlikely to transform his class with innovative methods.”

“Brother Matthias Newell, who taught at St. Mary’s School from 1896 to 1924, supplemented the brothers’ income by practicing applied science. He was the agricultural inspector at Hilo’s wharf, cared for the Territorial Nursery there, and monitored the seismograph machine.” (Alvarez)

“In August 1909, Brother Mathias Newell was appointed to establish a tree nursery in Hilo by the Territorial Board of Agriculture and Forestry. He was given a small stipend for supplies and compensation for his time.”

“Brother Mathias was an avid cataloger of species, having recorded specimens of birds and moths endemic to the islands in the 38 years he spent in Hawai‘i.  …”

“The nursery proved successful as in the first year Brother Mathias distributed 3,500 trees to residents in Hilo and Hāmākua. Around this time, homesteading was booming across the island – there was a great demand for fruit and timber trees – while there was also a curiosity about what could grow in the range of Hawai‘i Island’s climates.”

“Charles S. Judd’s interest in testing exotic trees on Hawai‘i Island led him to Brother Mathias. Charles was the Territory of Hawai‘i superintendent of forestry from 1915 until his death in 1939. He was born and raised in Hawai‘i, and after graduating from the Yale School of Forestry, returned to direct the administration of the forest reserve program.” (Anderson, Ke Ola)

But it was the ‘A‘o that is more memorably linked to Brother Newell.  “The ‘A‘o went unnoticed by foreign naturalists for a long time, given the fervor by outsiders in the last decade of the nineteenth century to document bird life in the islands.”

“‘I have described a new Puffinus from Maui,’ mainland transplant Henry Henshaw wrote in 1900 to Ernst Hartert, the ornithology curator at Walter Rothschild’s private museum in Tring, England, referring to the bird’s first published description.”

“‘It ought to be common but if so how did [collectors Henry] Palmer, [Scott] Wilson and [RCL] Perkins overlook it?’ … Henshaw named the bird after its discoverer, Brother Matthias Newell, a missionary in Wailuku, in 1894.”

“One of the sugar plantation workers employed by Werner von Graevemeyer, a manager, caught one of the birds, skinned it, and had it sent immediately to Newell to be stuffed.”

“Henshaw noted at the time that the species was ‘numerous enough’ but that the mongoose was rapidly exterminating the birds.”

“The ‘A‘o had been first discovered by nonnatives in 1893 when one blew ashore on Maui after strong southerly winds and heavy rain,  but nothing came of it until the following year. It had apparently been long known to the natives.”

“William Bryan and Alvin Seale noted in their report on a 1900 collecting trip on Kauai.  ‘The fact that the native name of this bird has come down to us through all these years …”

“… but that the species to which it had been applied by the kanaka naturalists should but so recently come to the light of science speaks much in the favor of those skilled old bird-catchers who had worked out the ornithology of their land with such exactness.’”

“Very little was known about the ‘A‘o, and Henshaw noted in 1900 that ’as to nests and notes upon the breeding habits of Hawaiian birds I assure you the gaps will be long in filling.’ By 1908 it was thought to be extinct.”

“However, a trio of the birds was sighted offshore in the summer of 1947 between Kauai and Ni‘ihau.  Eight years later the bird was confirmed to exist, and in 1967 it was discovered by none other than John Sincock to be breeding on Kauai.” (Unitt)

“The field biologist located the bird’s long-lost breeding grounds and would go on to fill in just the kinds of gaps Henshaw had lamented decades earlier.”

“As a result, more than sixty years after Henshaw’s initial description of the bird (the 1947 sighting) buried in a report on Alaskan birds, went almost entirely unnoticed), the shearwater received some renewed attention.”

“The nesting locations of the Newell’s shearwater on Kauai and other islands had been known to both natives and foreigners in the early twentieth century, but were forgotten. It was later discovered that colonies existed on other islands, but mongoose predation, feral cats, and Barn Owls had dramatically reduced their numbers there.”

“Henry Henshaw noted that natives had found the birds in the burrows on Maui and brought them to Matthias Newell alive. Ornithologist William Bryan, writing to Richard Sharpe at the British Museum, observed in 1908 that …”

“…‘P newelli … nest[s] in the high cliffs 2000-4000 [feet elevation, on Molokai in holes under the roots of etc in the tangle trees – undergrowth and vines and are very hard to locate.’”  (Lewis)

“Newell’s Shearwater nests only in the Hawaiian Islands, primarily on Kauai. Its pelagic range lies primarily in the Equatorial Countercurrent, between 4° and 10° N. It occurs mainly between 160° and 120° W, but small numbers range east to 106° W, well to the east of the longitude of California.” (Unitt)

“It breeds in at least 20 colonies on mountain slopes in the Hawaiian Islands. The main colonies are on Kauai, on slopes around the Alaka‘i Plateau and probably in the Mokolea Mountains. Its distribution on the other islands is uncertain but it is known to breed on Molokai and the island of Hawai‘i and may breed on O‘ahu, Maui and Lānai. “

“From April to November it can be seen in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands, particularly around Kauai. Outside the breeding season, it disperses into the tropical Pacific Ocean. Its distribution at sea is little known but many move south and east into the waters of the Equatorial Counter Current.”  (Ramel)

“The species has been collected or photographed as far west as Guam and Saipan in the Mariana Islands. It has been collected as far south as Tutuila, American Samoa, and Dargaville Beach, New Zealand. There are no previous records of Newell’s Shearwater for the coast of North America or as far north as the latitude of Del Mar (32.95° N).”

“A Newell’s Shearwater (Puffinus [auricularis] newelli) captured alive on land at Del Mar, California, on 1 August 2007 was the first of its species to reach the continent of North America or a latitude so far north.” (Unitt)

The Newell’s Shearwater has been declining at an accelerating pace on its breeding islands, principally as a result of depredation by introduced predators, habitat deterioration and hurricanes. Therefore, it is listed as Critically Endangered.  (BirdLife)

“In 1924, Newell returned to the University of Dayton where he taught until his retirement. His collection of plants, birds and insects went to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu.” Newell died in Dayton, Ohio, on October 12, 1939. (Texas Ornithological Society)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Crossing Anahulu Stream

When the Reverend John Emerson and his wife Ursula arrived in Hawai‘i in 1832, they were assigned to establish an American Protestant missionary station in Waialua. (Clark)

“[T]wo new houses are building which we shall occupy as soon as they are finished. Only a few rods from them is a fine spring of running water, which feeds a small river large enough for canoes.”

“This is the Anahulu which, bending and broadening, empties about a third of a mile away into Waialua Bay, where the ocean waves roll in upon a sandy beach.” “The home was known thereafter as ‘Waipuolo,’ ‘The Bubbling Spring.’” (Emerson)

“The Anahulu river (cave of the hulu – a kind of fish) is a narrow estuary averaging forty feet wide, which makes up from Waialua Bay a mile or more to the mouth of the Kawailoa stream.”

“On its opposite banks were two homes facing each other. On one side were the Gulicks, and on the other the Emersons. In each family there were seven boys and a younger sister, the Gulicks ranging three or four years older than the Emersons.” (Emerson)

Later it was found that a “need of the Waialua farmers was easier access to the Honolulu market, which could only be reached by a horse-trail leading through deep gulches and streams, or by small coasters that had to contend with currents and baffling winds.”

“Accordingly, after much urging, it was decided by the Government to develop the horse-trail into a road and bridge the streams. Of course this work required supervision. The only man at hand who could plan it and handle both native and white workmen, was my father, so he was asked to add to his other duties that of being the road supervisor of the district.”

“During the two years my father held this office, the road up and down the sides of five gulches was graded and made fit for carriages and oxcarts, and over the streams five bridges were built. Eighteen miles of roadway were constructed to connect with the road already built from Honolulu to Ewa.”

“Some of the time my father had a gang of fifty or more natives under him making the road, and several white carpenters at work building the bridges. When all was finished, business in Waialua began to boom.” (Emerson)

Later, “the law declares that vehicles weighing more than 15 tons shall not cross public bridges or traverse public roads … (Star Bulletin, July 22, 1915) The bridge crossing Anahulu Stream in Haleiwa was designed to carry horse-drawn carriages.  (Griffin)

Then, “traffic was stopped … when the Anahulu bridge between Waialua and Waialee collapsed under the weight of a twenty two ton plow tractor owned by the Waialua plantation.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 20, 1915)

Around-the-island traffic stopped, “The Anahulu bridge, over the Anahulu stream at Waialua on the main road between Haleiwa and Kahuku; will be closed to traffic until further notice.” (Star Bulletin, July 20, 1915)

Then a new reinforced concrete bridge was planned across Anahulu Stream. George E Marshall was given a $62,000 contract to build the double arched span (each 80 feet long). (Advertiser, Aug 26, 1920)

During construction, the bridge was almost lost. “Working in the pouring rain from 9 o’clock Thursday night to 2 o’clock Friday morning, a gang of workmen directed by George e Marshall saved the new Haleiwa bridge, for which Marshall is the contractor, from probable destruction.”

“[T]he stream, usually low, became a raging torrent due to the kona storm, and was fully 100 yards wide and 10 feet deep. Masses of sugar cane, wooden flumes, boards and debris of various kinds were buried against the bridge by the storm waters and desperate work was necessary to keep the debris from backing up the flood.” (Star Bulletin, Dec 27, 1920)

The bridge later faced a different threat, “The old bridge channels through itself all the life around it. Spanning the Anahulu River, it pulls together the banks of Haleiwa.”

“It remembers the old and sees the new.  Its too-narrow arches funnel the tide of progress filtering through the town. ‘Slow down’ it says ‘look at me.’  Built in 1921 when Haleiwa was a sleepy town, the bridge tries to lessen the pace of the traffic it channels through the still sleepy town.”

“The bridge still hears the plop of boots through the taro patches and the lap of waves against the orange and white sampans. The shrill whistle of the cane train is gone, and the clanking rumble of the Tournahauler is fading.”

“The bridge heard the Big-City folk call its neighboring buildings ‘delapidated’  but only scoffed. ‘Old things are good things,’ it said. ‘They allow the old to remember and the young to learn.’

“The bridge feels the surge of the tide below and the stain of red mud on its once-white arches. It feels the weight of small boys jeering the long tour cars or quietly fishing.”

“As the new small boat harbor was carved into the earth at its side, the bridge watched in wonder. Man diverted its river.  Man cut off a chunk of the ocean for quiet waters. Man could easily have blown up the too-narrow bridge. Fortunately he didn’t.”

“Beautification once meant to the bridge a new coat of white paint. Now it may mean survival to the matron of Haleiwa, the guardian of the rotting buildings.”

“Like all structures the bridge once faced destruction in the face of bigger and more modern thoroughfares. But plans were changed. The new highway that will bring new faces in search of recreation will pass through Haleiwa nearer the mountains.”

“The old Kamehameha Highway will become a scenic route, a roadway of the past, if the young people of Haleiwa have their way.”

“The rebuilding and new construction in Haleiwa will take on a theme, so have decided the young men who once fished from the bridge. The most dominant scene will be the harbor, the sampans, the fishing village. The other scene, further up the river,  will be the taro patches, the small riverside vegetable farms.”

“The new life that grows up along the shores of the river and beaches will share the laziness and quiet of the old life. And standing as a guardian between the two scenes will be the bridge, listening, seeing, feeling.”  (Star Bulletin, Feb 14, 1967)

Due to its shape, it earned the name ‘Rainbow Bridge’ – a little more appealing that its technical name, ‘Kamehameha Highway Bridge #603.’  It is one of the most recognized symbols of Hale‘iwa. (Historic Hawai‘i Foundation)

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Settling in at Kawaiaha‘o

When the missionaries arrived on O‘ahu in April 1820 they lived in the grass houses provided by traders and ship captains in an area just mauka of the fort (mauka of what is now the Aloha Tower area). The king controlled all construction in the Kingdom, and had given orders to Boki, the Governor of Oʻahu, to construct a group of houses for the missionaries.

Governor Boki delayed building any hale pili [grass house] for the missionaries. Governor Boki wanted no interference and rejected the mission’s requested location just inland of the main village. Boki argued that his farmers already used the land for growing kalo. (Leineweber)

April 22, 1820. “The governor [Boki] does not yet step forward to furnish us with houses of any kind, and we are a little embarrassed. Find some difficulty in procuring store rooms for all our baggage, because those storehouses, which are safe, are generally occupied; and we fear to expose many articles, in what are generally termed ‘straw-houses;’ as these are so liable to destruction by fire, and so easily broken open.”

“Part we have deposited in a framed house of capt. Babcock, two stories high, inclosed in the governor’s yard; – part in Mr. Oliver’s mud-house; – part in Mr. Beckley’s; – part in Mr. Marin’s straw house; and the rest, in the different houses where we lodge.” (Missionary Herald, 1821)

May 8. “Capt. Starbuck and capt. Pigot offered to make a vigorous effort to build us convenient houses, and to promote our more comfortable establishment; the governor neglecting to build for us, but giving us leave to choose our ground where we pleased, on the uncultivated plain.”

May 9. “Selected a pleasant spot, back of the village, for the site of our buildings. Concluded that a united effort to erect them might be secured with the least exposure to suspicion, by calling a general meeting, and proposing the object publicly.”

May 10. “Boka [Boki] presented us a patch of taro, and proffered such assistance, in the way of supplies, as we might, from time to time, be disposed to ask of him.”

“A circular was issued this morning, which invited the co-operation of the friends of humanity and truth, and requested the European and American residents, both temporary and permanent, masters and officers of vessels of different flags, together with the chiefs of the island, to assemble at the house of Mr. Bingham, and hear a statement of our views, and of the views of the government, with respect to our enterprise.”

“The meeting would then take measures to secure such immediate and efficient aid to our object, as our friends might be inclined to render; and, if it should be thought advisable, would appoint a committee to superintend whatever might be undertaken. At five o’clock, P. M. a general meeting was assembled, and organized by choosing capt. Adams moderator, and brother Loomis scribe.”

“The business of the meeting having been proposed, and explained by an interpreter, to the governor, he replied, that, in regard to the houses, he intended to superintend the building of them himself; as he had orders from Rehoreho [Liholiho], to build them.”

“It was then stated, on our part, that, although the government were friendly to our object, and disposed to patronize it; yet, as we knew, that, at present, they were embarrassed with other claims; as we wished neither to become burdensome to them, or detrimental to the claims of foreign traders, whom they owed …”

“… and as several gentlemen stood ready to lend a friendly hand, in the erection of buildings for the promotion of our object; – we desired to give all the opportunity to afford whatever assistance their kindness should dictate, and their ability allow.”

“The governor again said, No. He chose to build the houses himself, according to the orders from the king.”

“Capt. Pigot then inquired, whether the governor intended soon to build comfortable houses for the mission entirely free of our expense; and he answered plainly that he did.”

“Thus far the business was settled. A committee was then appointed to consult with Boka [Boki], respecting the place, the form, and the manner of building.”

“He said that the ground, which we had chosen, could not be granted us, because it belonged to the farmers; but named a particular part of the plain, where he thought it would be best for us to have our houses.”

May 11. “Today the village of Hanaroorah [Honolulu] has been in an uproar; but we have been unmolested. There has been considerable commotion in the streets; but our habitations have enjoyed peace.”

“We are happy in the assurance that neither we, nor the efforts which were made yesterday to promote our benevolent objects, were the cause of this commotion; though the lion might take occasion to roar, at this time, to prevent the good intended.”

“The prevalence of multiplied jealousies gives currency to invidious declarations and reports; and the collision of opposite interests is often followed by agitation and violence.” (Missionary Herald, 1821)

Boki suggested a spot, “three quarters of a mile from H[onolulu] on the high road to Witeti [Waikīkī] on an extensive plain with a view of the open sea in front & lofty mountains & fertile valleys in the rear.”

It was “on the arid plain, about half a mile east of the landing, then some distance from the village, but now included in it. After a few months, he erected three temporary habitations for the mission family, residing on that island.” (Bingham)

Maria Loomis saw the benefits of Boki’s suggested location, as it would put them away from the bustling activity of the harbor and village.

The curious and social nature of the Hawaiians challenged the women, and being further away from the town had its advantages. In the traders’ houses, Loomis recorded, “our doors and windows are daily darkened by gazing natives.”

Boki began to build this row of connected houses some three months after their arrival. The typical construction of several weeks moved into several months. In late September, the mission family finally moved from the houses of the ship captains to the new hale pili [grass houses]. This line of buildings became known as Missionary Row. This was at a place called Kawaiaha‘o.

By this time Samuel Whitney and Samuel Ruggles and their wives had left to begin a Mission Station on Kauai and Elisha Loomis to Kawaihae.

So only Hiram Bingham, Daniel Chamberlain with his wife and five children and Maria Loomis and child needed to be housed in the new location. The women immediately adapted each house to their own spatial requirements. (Leineweber)

“[W]e took possession of the premises assigned us by the government, and the buildings which had been chiefly erected by Boki, in the course of four months from our landing.”

“These houses, cottages or huts, tabernacles, barns or sheds, for it is somewhat difficult to say what term would give the true idea of the structure, were built in the usual style of Hawaiian architecture, by natives; the light timbers being brought on their shoulders some 14 miles, and the grass three.”

“Had we paid for them, as they came from their hands, they might have cost us sixty dollars each.”

“To describe them justly, would be to describe, in the main, the habitations of the whole nation – which may, perhaps, as well be done here as anywhere. The Hawaiian mode of building habitations was, in a measure ingenious, and when their work was carefully executed, it was adapted to the taste of a dark, rude tribe, subsisting on roots, fish, and fruits, but by no means sufficient to meet their necessities, even in their mild climate.”

“Round posts, a few inches in diameter, are set in the ground about a yard apart, rising from three to five feet from the surface. On a shoulder, near the top, is laid a horizontal pole, two or three inches in diameter, as a plate; on this, directly over the posts, rest the rafters. A point of the post, called a finger, rises on the outside of the plate, and passes between two points of the rafter projecting over the plate and below the main shoulder.”

“The joint thus constructed is held together partly by the natural pressure of the roof, and partly by lashings of bark, vines, or grassy fibres beaten, and by hand twisted and doubled into a coarse twine, and put on manifold so as to act as four braces – two from the post, and two from the rafter, extending to the plate, all being attached six to twelve inches from the joint.”

“Three poles or posts, about three times the length of the side posts, are set in the ground, one in the centre of the building, and the others at the ends, on which rests the nether ridge pole, supporting the head of the rafters. These crossing each other, the angle above receives the upper ridge pole, which is lashed to the nether and to the head of the rafters.”

“Posts of unequal length are set at the ends of the building, sloping a little inward and reaching to the end rafters, to which their tops are tied. A door-frame, from three to six feet high, is placed between two end or side posts.”

“Thatch-poles are tied horizontally to the posts and rafters, from an inch to three inches apart, all around and from the ground to the top ridge pole. At this stage the building assumes the appearance of a huge, rude bird cage. It is then covered with the leaf of the ki, pandanus, sugarcane, or more commonly (as in the case of the habitations for us) with grass bound on in small bundles, side by side, one tier overlapping another, like shingles.”

“A house thus thatched assumes the appearance of a long hay stack without, and a cage in a hay mow within. The area or ground within, is raised a little with earth, to prevent the influx of water, and spread with grass and mats, answering usually instead of floors, tables, chairs, sofas, and beds. Air can pass through the thatching, and often there is one small opening through the thatch besides the door, for ventilation and light.”

“Such was the habitation of the Hawaiian, – the monarch, chief, and landlord, the farmer, fisherman, and cloth-beating widow, – a tent of poles and thatch – a rude attic, of one apartment on the ground – a shelter for the father, mother, larger and smaller children, friends and servants.”

“Such a habitation, whose leafy or grassy covering readily contracted mould, dust, and vermin, was insufficient to secure the inmates from dampness and the oppressive heat of the vertical sun. Such houses, snugly built and in prime order, and much more, thousands of the same model, small, indifferently built …”

“… or falling to decay, by the force of wind, rain, and sun, or the rotting of the thatching, flooring, and the posts in the ground, – are ill adapted to promote health of body, vigor of intellect, neatness of person, food, clothing or lodging, and much less, longevity.”

“They cannot be washed, scoured, polished, or painted to good purpose, nor be made suitable for good furniture, pantry, or wardrobe, nor for the security of valuable writings, books, or treasures.”

“Nothing, therefore, would be more natural than that a heathen people occupying such habitations, and going bare-headed in the sun, should feel a depression or heaviness, – a tendency to listlessness, and even lethargy, which demands the stimulus of tobacco, rum, or awa, to give a temporary relief, or to add a zest to the few low pleasures within their reach.”

“Such habitations being erected for the pioneer missionaries, they introduced some improvements – partitions, window-frames, shutters, &c. (which have been copied to some extent), and afterwards gave them better models.”

“About as destitute of chairs, at first, as any of the natives, we made long seats of plank by the sides of one room, which we used for a school and for social and public worship for a time.” (Bingham, 21-years)

To help remember and learn from the past, as well as best portray the mission experience, Hawaiian Mission Houses has a Hale Pili under construction on the Hawaiian Mission Houses grounds, in about the same place as the hale pili of Missionary Row.

It is a representation of the hale described in journals and letters of William and Clarissa Richards, Charles and Harriet Stewart, and Betsey Stockton, all of whom lived in the hale that this reproduction represents. The dimensions primarily follow the Richards’ description.

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