Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings | Page 129

July 28, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Davis Paris

John Davis Paris was born to George and Mary (Hudson) Paris, September 22, 1809 near Staunton, Virginia, the eldest of six sons. His father was a farmer of Scotch-Irish extraction, originally from France; his mother’s parents came from Wales and the north of England.

“My father was very industrious, working hard early and late. His farm was on the main valley road leading to Lexington; he owned about ninety acres which he improved and to which he added in after years. On it he erected a saw mill and a flour mill and did an enormous business for one man.”

“He and my mother were members of Hebron church, strict Presbyterians, and known by all as consistent Christians. My father’s house was a home for ministers and missionaries, and under its hospitable roof all good men ever found a hearty welcome.”

“From a little boy I had a secret desire to he a minister of the gospel, partly I think because my parents always spoke in the highest terms of those who preached the gospel.” (Paris; The Friend, April 1, 1926)

At the age of nineteen, his father gave him permission to go to school. He carted firewood and lumber on Saturdays to pay tuition and extras.

In 1835, he distributed bibles and religious books for the American Bible Society. “Traveling once in North Carolina, I came to a hotel about sun set. … I was requested to offer prayers … In the morning I was again requested to lead the family worship, which I was glad to do.”

“Then calling for my horse which had been well fed and groomed, I was about to pay my bill, when the Landlord very courteously said, ‘No, I never charge ministers of the gospel. … we have all enjoyed family worship with you…’ I protested that I was not a minister, but he declared that I was equal to one”. (Paris; The Friend, April 1, 1926)

Paris entered Bangor Theological Seminary in 1836, graduating in 1839 with Rev Daniel Dole and was ordained the same year.

That year, he offered to serve as a missionary in Africa. He was accepted by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, but, after consultation, was appointed to the Indian Mission in Oregon Territory.

He was married to Miss Mary Grant of New York City, on October 25, 1840, and sailed from Boston November 14 in the company of Dole, Bond and Rice. They arrived in the Islands on May 21, 1841.

“News had just been received at the Island of the unsettled and hostile state of the Indians which afterwards terminated in the tragical and terrible massacre of Dr. Whitman ma! (Ma, the Hawaiian collective, means ‘with all his family or associates.’)”

“Mr. William Rice and his wife, together with ourselves, who had been destined for the Oregon Mission, were advised to remain at the Islands where there was urgent need.” (Paris; The Friend, April 1, 1926)

Paris was first stationed in Kaʻū. It was a remote district, difficult of access. He was the first resident missionary there.

“In these years of 1843 and 44, while our own dwelling was in building and not yet finished, we undertook the great work of building a stone House of Worship at Waiohinu. This first Christian temple was built entirely by the natives … “

“Since that time I have builded and consecrated nine houses of worship and crowned them with sweet-toned bells, ordered from the United States and paid for by the people”. (Paris; The Friend, May 1, 1926)

Mrs Paris died on February 18, 1847; Paris returned with two daughters to the U.S. On September 7, 1851, Paris married Miss Mary Carpenter of New York City; they returned to the Islands in 1852 and he was stationed at Kaʻawaloa.

One notable incident is worth mentioning – “For several years past, one (Joseph Ioela) Kaʻona … imbibed the idea that he was a prophet sent by God to warn this people of the end of the world. For the three years he has been preaching this millerite doctrine on Hawaiʻi, and has made numerous converts.” (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“By the mid-1860s, Kaʻona claimed to have had divine communications with Elijah, Gabriel, and Jehovah, from whom he’d received divine instructions and prophetic.” (Maly) Followers called him ‘The Prophet;’ his followers were referred to as Kaʻonaites.)

“These fanatics believe that the end of the world is at hand, and they must be ready. They therefore clothe themselves in white robes, ready to ascend, watch at night, but sleep during the day, decline to cultivate anything except beans, corn, or the most common food.” (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“For a time, all went on smoothly enough, until Kaʻona began to introduce some slight innovations in the form of worship, which were opposed by Mr. Paris and minority of the congregation and the church became split into two factions. … The feud continued to increase …” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 18, 1868)”

Eventually a riot broke out and Sheriff Neville and another were both brutally killed. The event has been referred to as Kaʻona’s Rebellion, Kaʻona Insurrection and Kaʻona Uprising. Kaʻona eventually surrendered; David Kalākaua and Albert Francis Judd had been appointed Kaʻona’s defense attorneys.

Here’s a summary on Kaʻona and the rebellion: http://wp.me/p5GnMi-8e

Until 1870, Paris had the general supervision of the mission work on Western Hawaiʻi. That year he moved to Honolulu where he lived for some time in the old mission house. He started a Theological Seminary there.

He later returned to Kona. The last eleven years of his life were spent in the upper Kaʻawaloa. The house was built on the foundations of Kapiʻolani’s home.

Davis died at his home at Kaʻawaloa at 9:30 am, July 28, 1892, after an illness of seven days. “He took a severe cold, which settled on his lungs. His strength failed rapidly, and he was unable to take nourishment to keep.” (The Friend, September 5, 1892)

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July 23, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mission Stations

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM,) based in Boston, was founded in 1810, the first organized missionary society in the US.

One hundred years later, the Board was responsible for 102-mission stations and a missionary staff of 600 in India, Ceylon, West Central Africa (Angola,) South Africa and Rhodesia, Turkey, China, Japan, Micronesia, Hawaiʻi, the Philippines, North American native American tribes, and the “Papal lands” of Mexico, Spain and Austria.

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of ABCFM missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus to establish the Sandwich Islands Mission (now known as Hawai‘i.)

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.

One of the earliest efforts of the missionaries, who arrived in 1820, was the identification and selection of important communities (generally near ports and aliʻi residences) as “stations” for the regional church and school centers across the Hawaiian Islands.

As an example, in June 1823, William Ellis joined American Missionaries Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich on a tour of the island of Hawaiʻi to investigate suitable sites for mission stations.

On O‘ahu, locations at Honolulu (Kawaiahaʻo,) Kāne’ohe, Waialua, Waiʻanae and ‘Ewa served as the bases for outreach work on the island.

By 1850, eighteen mission stations had been established; six on Hawaiʻi, four on Maui, four on Oʻahu, three on Kauai and one on Molokai.

Meeting houses were constructed at the stations, as well as throughout the district. Initially constructed as the traditional Hawaiian thatched structures; they were later made of wood or stone.

One of the first things the first missionaries did was begin to learn the Hawaiian language and create an alphabet for a written format of the language.

Their emphasis was on preaching and teaching.

Interestingly, as the early missionaries learned the Hawaiian language, they then taught their lessons in the mission schools in Hawaiian, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English‐speaking Hawaiians.

The missionaries established schools associated with their mission stations across the Islands. This marked the beginning of Hawaiʻi’s phenomenal rise to literacy. The chiefs became proponents for education and edicts were enacted by the King and the council of Chiefs to stimulate the people to reading and writing.

The instruction of students in schools (initially, most of whom were adults,) in reading, writing and other skills initially fell to the missionaries.

The schools generally served as both native churches and meeting houses, and were established in most populated ahupua‘a around the islands; native teachers and lay-ministers were appointed to oversee their daily activities.

The most difficult problem was that of obtaining enough competent teachers. As far back as 1825 the missionaries had taken steps to establish teacher training classes at the various stations, but the plan of station schools was not very fully carried out until after 1830.

There were never enough missionaries to make the plan uniformly effective. Station schools were intended not only to train teachers but to serve as model schools, and much attention was given to children. In some places there were two station schools, one for teachers and one for children. (Kuykendall)

In eight years from the date of the landing of the Pioneer Company there were 32-missionaries, 4,455-native teachers, 12,000-Sabbath hearers, and 26,000-pupils in schools in the islands.

Many influences were at work, the Bible was circulated, high chiefs were converted and began to work vigorously, the people gathered from great distances in crowds to hear the Word, and in 1828, simultaneously and without communication, a revival unexpectedly commenced in Hawaiʻi, Oʻahu, and Maui.

For weeks and months the missionaries could scarcely get time for rest and refreshment. (Bliss)

By 1831, in just eleven years from the first arrival of the missionaries, Hawaiians had built over 1,100‐schoolhouses. This covered every district throughout the eight major islands and serviced an estimated 53,000‐students. (Laimana)

By 1840, the decline of the Hawaiian population, financial restraints, and a move to separate church and school operations led to the consolidation of the church-school meeting houses.

On October 15, 1840, Kamehameha III enacted a law that required the maintenance and local support of the native schools (the Constitution of 1840).

The Constitution provided a “Statute for the Regulation of Schools,” which required that in a village with 15 or more students, the parents were to organize and secure a teacher. (Maly)

By 1853, nearly three-fourths of the native Hawaiian population over the age of sixteen years was literate in their own language. The short time span within which native Hawaiians achieved literacy is remarkable in light of the overall low literacy rates of the United States at that time. (Lucas)

The image shows Meeting House at Lāhainā, the first stone Church in Hawaiʻi (corner stone laid in 1828.)

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Meeting-House at Lahaina, On Maui. The First Stone Church in Hawaii. Corner Stone laid in 1828-(1845)

July 17, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Edwin Welles Dwight

Edwin Welles Dwight was born on November 17, 1789 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the second son and child of Henry Williams Dwight and Abigail (daughter of Ashbel and Abigail (Kellogg) Welles, of West Hartford, Connecticut.)

His grandmother was a half-sister of Colonel Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams College, and he spent the first three years of College there. He then attended Yale, and graduated from Yale in 1809.

He remained in New Haven, Connecticut after graduation; it was then that he met ʻŌpūkahaʻia, a Hawaiian who was orphaned by war on Hawaiʻi and “thought to (him)self that if (he) should get away, and go to some other country, probably (he) may find some comfort;” he escaped the Islands on a trading ship.

On board, he started to learn English from Russell Hubbard of New Haven. After travelling to the American North West, then to China, they landed in New York in 1809. They continued to New Haven, Connecticut. ʻŌpūkahaʻia was eager to study and learn – seeking to be a student at Yale.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia “was sitting on the steps of a Yale building, weeping. A solicitous student stopped to inquire what was wrong, and Obookiah (the spelling of his name, based on its sound) said, ‘No one will give me learning.’”

The student was Dwight, distant cousin of the college president. “(W)hen the question was put him, ‘Do you wish to learn?’ his countenance began to brighten and … he served it with eagerness.” (Haley) Dwight helped him.

Dwight began to study theology over the following years and on October 17, 1815 was licensed to preach by the South Association of Litchfield County ministers, and then made Schenectady his headquarters for further study.

In 1816 he did some missionary service in Western New York, and later was preaching in Woodbury, Connecticut, where the North Church was organized in December.

In October, 1816, it was decided to establish the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut, for the instruction of youth like ʻŌpūkahaʻia; initially lacking a principal. Dwight filled that role from May 1817 to May 1818.

Later in 1818 Dwight was called to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Richmond, Massachusetts, in the immediate vicinity of his birthplace and he was ordained and installed there on January 13, 1819.

He married Mary, daughter of Henry and Lois (Chidsey) Sherrill, of Richmond, on April 24, 1821. They had four daughters and three sons. The eldest son died in infancy, and the eldest daughter in early womanhood.

In April, 1837, on account of poor health, he had to resign his pastoral charge, and they moved to Stockbridge (where his wife died of a malarial fever on October 11, 1838, at the age of 37.)

In these last years he preached with some regularity at Housatonic village, in the northern part of Great Barrington, where a Congregational church was organized shortly after his death.

Dwight died in Stockbridge, on February 25, 1841, in his 52nd year. Mr. Dwight was a man of tender and refined feelings, and a solemn and earnest preacher. (Yale)

Dwight is remembered for putting together a book, ‘Memoirs of Henry Obookiah’ (the spelling of the name based on its pronunciation.)

Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died in 1818; the book was put together after ʻŌpūkahaʻia died. It was an edited collection of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s letters and journals/diaries.

It inspired the New England missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi.) In giving instructions to the first missionaries, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM,) noted:

“You will never forget ʻŌpūkahaʻia. You will never forget his fervent love, his affectionate counsels, his many prayers and tears for you, and for his and your nation.”

“You saw him die; saw how the Christian could triumph over death and the grave; saw the radient glory in which he left this world for heaven. You will remember it always, and you will tell it to your kindred and countrymen who are dying without hope.”

On October 23, 1819, a group of northeast missionaries, led by Hiram Bingham, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) With the missionaries were four Hawaiian students from the Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauaʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i.)

When the Pioneer Company of missionaries arrived, the kapu system had been abolished; the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs – and effectively weakened belief in the power of the gods and the inevitability of divine punishment for those who opposed them.

Christianity and the western law brought order and were the only answers to keeping order with a growing foreign population and dying race.

Kamehameha III incorporated traditional customary practices within the western laws – by maintaining the “land division of his father with his uncles” – which secured the heirship of lands and succession of the throne, as best he could outside of “politics, trade and commerce.” (Yardley)

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.

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July 11, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

School for the Children of the Missionaries

One of the first things the first missionaries did was begin to learn the Hawaiian language and create an alphabet for a written format of the language. Their emphasis was on preaching and teaching.

The missionaries established schools associated with their missions across the Islands. This marked the beginning of Hawaiʻi’s phenomenal rise to literacy. The chiefs became proponents for education and edicts were enacted by the King and the council of Chiefs to stimulate the people to reading and writing.

However, the education of their children was a concern of missionaries.

There were two major dilemmas, (1) there were a limited number of missionary children and (2) existing schools (which the missionaries taught) served adult Hawaiians (who were taught from a limited curriculum in the Hawaiian language.)

“During the period from infancy to the age of ten or twelve years, children in the almost isolated family of a missionary could be well provided for and instructed in the rudiments of education without a regular school … But after that period, difficulties in most cases multiplied.” (Hiram Bingham)

Missionaries were torn between preaching the gospel and teaching their kids. “(M)ission parents were busy translating, preaching and teaching. Usually parents only had a couple of hours each day to spare with their children.” (Schultz)

“(I)t was the general opinion of the missionaries there that their children over eight or ten years of age, notwithstanding the trial that might be involved, ought to be sent or carried to the United States, if there were friends who would assume a proper guardianship over them”. (Bingham)

“This was the darkest day in the life history of the mission child. Peculiarly dependent upon the family life, at the age of eight to twelve years, they were suddenly torn from the only intimates they had ever known, and banished, lonely and homesick, to a mythical country on the other side of the world …”

“… where they could receive letters but once or twice a year; where they must remain isolated from friends and relatives for years and from which they might never return.” (Bishop)

During the first 21-years of the missionary period (1820-1863,) no fewer than 33 children were either taken back to the continent by their parents. (Seven-year-old Sophia Bingham, the first Caucasian girl born on Oʻahu, daughter of Hiram and Sybil, was sent to the continent in 1828. She is my great-great-grandmother.)

Resolution 14 of the 1841 General Meeting of the Sandwich Islands Mission changed that; it established a school for the children of the missionaries (May 12, 1841.) Meeting minutes note, “This subject occupied much time in discussion, and excited much interest.”

The following report was adopted: “Whereas it has long been the desire of many members of this mission to have a school established for the instruction of their children, and this object received the deliberate sanction of our last General Meeting; and”

“(W)hereas the Providence of God seems to have opened the way for this undertaking, by providing a good location for the school, suitable teachers to take charge of it, and a sufficiency of other means for making a commencement. Therefore,”

“Resolved 1, That the foundation of this institution be laid with faith in God, relying upon his great and precious promises to believing parents, in behalf of their children, commending it to his care and love from its commencement, and looking unto him to build it up, cherish it, and make it a blessing to the church and the world.”

“Resolved 2, That the location of the school be at Punahou, in the vicinity of Honolulu.”

“Resolved 3, That $2,000 be appropriated from the funds of the mission, to aid in erecting the necessary buildings, and preparing the premises for the accommodation of the school, as soon as possible; but as this sum is inadequate to the wants of the school, even in its commencement, that it be commended to the private patronage of the brethren of the mission.”

“Resolved 4, That a Board of five Trustees be chosen, of whom the teacher shall be one, ex officio, whose duty it shall be to devise a plan for the school, carry it into operation, as soon as possible, watch over its interests, and regulate its affairs generally.” (Resolution of the General Meeting of the Sandwich Islands Mission, 1841)

A subsequent Resolution noted “That Mr (Daniel) Dole be located at Punahou, as teacher for the Children of the Mission.”

On July 11, 1842, fifteen children met for the first time in Punahou’s original E-shaped building. The first Board of Trustees (1841) included Rev. Daniel Dole, Rev. Richard Armstrong, Levi Chamberlain, Rev. John S Emerson and Gerrit P Judd. (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1916)

By the end of that first year, 34-children from Sandwich Islands and Oregon missions were enrolled, only one over 12-years old. Tuition was $12 per term, and the school year covered three terms. (Punahou)

By 1851, Punahou officially opened its doors to all races and religions. (Students from Oregon, California and Tahiti were welcomed from 1841 – 1849.)

December 15 of that year, Old School Hall, “the new spacious school house,” opened officially to receive its first students. The building is still there and in use by the school.

“The founding of Punahou as a school for missionary children not only provided means of instruction for the children, of the Mission, but also gave a trend to the education and history of the Islands.”

“In 1841, at Punahou the Mission established this school and built for it simple halls of adobe. From this unpretentious beginning, the school has grown to its present prosperous condition.” (Report of the Superintendent of Public Education, 1900)

The curriculum at Punahou under Dole combined the elements of a classical education with a strong emphasis on manual labor in the school’s fields for the boys, and in domestic matters for the girls. The school raised much of its own food. (Burlin)

Some of Punahou’s early buildings include, Old School Hall (1852,) music studios; Bingham Hall (1882,) Bishop Hall of Science (1884,) Pauahi Hall (1894,) Charles R. Bishop Hall (1902,) recitation halls; Dole Hall and Rice Hall (1906,) dormitories; Cooke Library (1908) and Castle Hall (1913,) dormitory.

Dole Street, laid out in 1880 and part of the development of the lower Punahou pasture was named after Daniel Dole (other nearby streets were named after other Punahou presidents.)

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Advertisement-Oahu-College-1895

Bingham Tablet

Punahou School, Photograph attributed to Charles Burgess-1866

Oahu College scene of driveway to Old School Hall and E Building, c.1881

Manual-Arts-Class-James-B-Castle-School-1924

Punahou-Old_School_Hall

Punahou-Lily-Pond-and-Tennis-Courts-1916

Punahou-Girls-Court-of-the-E-Building-1877

Punahou-Gardens-1880

Punahou Street looking toward Round Top-(HSA)-PPWD-17-3-027-1900

Oahu_College-Old_School_Hall_at_Punahou_School

May 22, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Gideon Laʻanui

“There were born to Nuhi and Kaohele first a daughter and then a son, the girl being named Kekaikuihala and the boy Laʻanui. Kamehameha, although fierce and cruel in war, was disposed to be conciliatory toward those he conquered, aiming to make amends in a measure for the wrongs he inflicted and to establish friendly relations with families to which he had brought misfortune.”

“He extended a welcoming hand and opened his heart to many, men and women alike, who flocked to his hospitable court. Alliances in this way were created, and one by one new homes spread over the lately deserted countryside once more, through the influence of which contentment was made to rule supreme in the land.”

“Among the visitors to the royal court was (Namahana) Kekuwai-Piʻia, who had just become a widow, coming as a guest of her sister, Queen Kaʻahumanu. Laʻanui was a boy growing to maturity.”

“The king had not forgotten the great wish of his heart, coveting possession of Waimea and hoping to gain it, if not in battle, through a matrimonial alliance. His failure to accomplish this end through Kaohele was a sting to the old warrior’s pride, and now he chose a new agent of his ambition by inviting Laʻanui to the court.”

“The invitation was gladly accepted and the visit lasted for months. Kamehameha was loath to have Laʻanui depart while he was slyly intriguing with Kaʻahumanu to negotiate a marriage between Piʻia and Laʻanui.”

“Piʻia is described as being a person heavily built and not prepossessing in appearance like her sisters Kaahumanu and Kaheiheimalie. When at last the proposition was put squarely to Laʻanui, that it was the united wish of the king and queen that the marriage should take place, for a moment he was dejected.”

“To wed a woman very many years his senior was not the desire of his heart. Yet realizing that it might be perilous to go contrary to the express desire of the powerful monarch he quietly consented ‘to take the bitter pill.’” (Pratt)

“The couple took up their residence at Waialua, permanently, upon one of the divisions of land which Piʻia had received as her portion out of her father’s large estate.”

“Soon afterward the old conqueror’s death occurred, upon which Kaʻahumanu became regent of the whole group. The first party of missionaries had just arrived. Piʻia and Laʻanui, together with Queen Kaahumanu and several other chiefly persons, were among the first converts to Christianity.” (Pratt)

Laʻanui and Piʻia were one of the first couples to be married by Hiram Bingham.

Laʻanui was also part of “a number of serious men … willing to be known as seekers of the great salvation, and as, in some sense, pledged to one another to abstain from immoralities and to follow the teachings of the Word of God, united in an association for prayer and improvement similar to that formed by the females a month earlier.”

“Among its earliest and leading members were Kalanimoku, Laanui, Kalaikoa, Kealiiahonui, Hoaai, Kupalu, and Kaomi, whose father was a resident Tahitian, John Ii, Kaaia, Punihaole, and others.” (Bingham)

Then, “More than a hundred at Honolulu station offered themselves as candidates for baptism. Amongst these, Kaahumanu, Kalanimoku, Kalkua, Namahana, Laanui, Kapiolani, Kapule, Kaiu, Kealiiahonui, and Richard Kalaaiaulu …”

“… in the early part of June, while the chiefs and missionaries were generally assembled at Honolulu, being permitted, came before the congregation and the only organized church then in the island, and made a statement of their religious views, and their desire to join themselves to the Lord’s people, and to walk in his covenant.” (Bingham)

“Before the close of the fifth year of the mission, Kapule and her husband and her former husband’s son, Keliiahonui, and Kaahumanu, all gave evidence of being disciples of Christ. The two latter separated, as by Christian rules it was not lawful for a son to have his father’s wife.”

“The four made a public profession of their faith in Christ together, and as first fruits, were baptised, with Opiʻia, Laʻanui and Richard Karaaiaulu. Kaʻahumanu ever after lived a single life, adorned her profession, and died as she had lived, a Christian, after several years of useful exertion as a Christian ruler.” (Missionary Herald)

Laʻanui “was an interesting young chief of the third rank, well featured, and a little above the middling stature.” (Bingham)

“I could not refrain from tears to see the happy meeting of this interesting pair, after their separation for so lamentable a cause. His protection and restoration they both now piously ascribed to the care of Jehovah – the Christian’s God.”

“After a few expressions of mutual joy and congratulation, and a few words as to the state of affairs at Kauai, at Namahana’s suggestion, with which her husband signified his concurrence, we sang a hymn of praise, and united in thanksgiving to the King of nations for his timely and gracious aid to those who acknowledge his authority and love his Word.” (Bingham)

“Laʻanui, by his correct behavior for more than five years, has given us much satisfaction. He is a good assistant in the work of translation; we consult him and others of his standing, with more advantage than any of the youth who have been instructed in foreign school.” (Bingham)

An early convert to Christianity, “Laʻanui was the paramount chief of the Waialua division from 1828 to his death in 1849, as well as the particular ‘lord’ (hakuʻāina) of Kawailoa, the district (ahupuaʻa) corresponding to the Anahulu River valley.” (Kirch)

On June 5, 1832, Laʻanui, Piʻia, former Queen Kaʻahumanu and a couple others “came before the congregation (of Kawaiahaʻo Church) and the only organized church then in the island, and made a statement of their religious views, and their desire to join themselves to the Lord’s people, and to walk in his covenant.” (Bingham)

On July 24, 1832, Rev John and Ursula Emerson arrived in Waialua. They were greeted by Laʻanui in his canoe. In the fall of 1832 the first church in Waialua was dedicated and began with sixteen members.

The first “Hale pule,”— a large thatched building which would seat 1,000 persons on the floor of mats or rushes, was located near where the Haleiwa Hotel now stands, a. few rods from Laʻanui’s residence.”

“Laʻanui was very friendly and thoughtful and offered Father the choice of several spots for his residence, and he selected a location near some beautiful springs called Ka “Waipuolo”, where a small grass thatched house was soon erected.”

“Among the converts of the great Revival year of the mission in 1838, was Hewahewa, the great Kahuna of the time of Kamehameha, who advised Kaʻahumanu and Liholiho to abolish the Kapu. He lived in the valley of Waimea, a faithful, consistent follower of the new light.” (The Friend, March 1, 1914)

Over 2,000 natives attended the dedication of the hale pili (grass house.) This hale pili stood on the corner of Kamehameha Highway and Haleiwa road where the Haleʻiwa Hotel once stood and now Haleʻiwa Joe’s. (Liliuokalani Church)

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