Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings | Page 3

August 26, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sweet Home

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there
Which seek thro’ the world, is ne’er met elsewhere

Home! Home! Sweet, sweet home!
There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home!
(Home, Sweet Home; John Howard Payne, 1823)

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).

In 1828, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM) sent 20-people in the Third Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi, including four ministers and their wives.

A physician and his wife accompanied the ministers, Dr. Gerrit Parmele Judd and Laura Fish Judd. Dr. Judd was sent to replace Dr. Abraham Blatchely, who, because of poor health, had left Hawaiʻi the previous year.

Judd, a medical missionary, had originally come to the islands to serve as the missionary physician, intending to treat native Hawaiians for the growing number of diseases introduced by foreigners. He immersed himself in the Hawaiian community, becoming a fluent speaker of Hawaiian. Judd soon became an adviser to and supporter of King Kamehameha III.

In May 1842, Judd was asked to leave the Mission and accept an appointment as “translator and recorder for the government,” and as a member of the “treasury board,” with instructions to aid Oʻahu’s Governor Kekūanāoʻa in the transaction of business with foreigners.

In the mid-1840s Dr. Judd began to make plans for a new house. After he left the mission he had rented for a time the pleasant stone dwelling of the premier, Kekauluohi (Auhea).

This house delighted Mrs. Judd, who wrote, “The high ceiling, large windows, and papered walls afford such a contrast to our little cottage, that I feel like a traveler at a hotel, or on board a finely furnished steamer – a mere lodger for the night.” (Judd) The premier soon decided to occupy the house herself, and the Judds had to move to another next to the palace.

Mrs. Judd commented, “Our new house is not so nice as hers, but in some respects we like it better. The yard is full of rubbish and ruins of adobe walls and pig-sties, and we shall have the pleasure for the fourth time of pulling up thistles and planting roses.”

In many ways this house proved unsatisfactory. Mrs Judd complained particularly that the children needed more privacy. “I must have a more retired home for them. So much anxiety and so much company unfit me for maternal duty.”

By the summer of 1846, the Judds were planning to build their own home in Nu‘uanu Valley, they named it “Sweet Home”, after the popular 1823 song by John Howard Payne. The new home consumed much of his time and strained his finances to the limit. (Judd)

“The house has a chimney and a kitchen within, which is an anomaly in Hawaiian architecture. We had been collecting the materials for two years, a little here and a little there, as we could command the means of payment.”

“The doors, floors, and gates were made in Copenhagen and sent out for sale, and my husband purchased them at auction for much less than we could get them made.”

“The windows, glazed, and blinds already painted were sent out from Boston. … I never felt poorer, even when a missionary, for we were obliged to borrow money to pay carpenters and masons who built our house, and give a mortgage on it for security.”

To finance the house Judd sold some cattle to the government, raised $1,000 on a mortgage from the treasury, and borrowed $5,500 from his colleague Wyllie.

The privy council on February 18, 1847, gave him a fee-simple title to the homesite, amounting to 7.61 acres, for $50.00, a figure which the chiefs named, and the family moved into Sweet Home the following month. At that time the house was far from finished. (Judd)

At Sweet Home the Judd family announced engagements, celebrated weddings, and anxiously awaited the birth of babies. The house was seldom silent, save during the rare and somber visitations of sickness and death. (Judd)

“There we played or busied ourselves with household tasks, or entertained our numerous friends. If the afternoon was fine, we sat on the lawn under the cool shade of the low-boughed trees, or, if one of the numerous valley-showers came, we gathered on the broad verandas to watch over the bright flower-pots the rain as it hurried to the town.”

“Ours was a happy family. In the evening we gathered around the shaded lamp and studied our lessons, or listened with bated breaths while mother read some romantic adventure aloud.”

“My parents were genuinely religious, and gave to our spiritual welfare the greatest possible care. We learned long passages from the Scriptures and recited them with much emphasis. On Sundays we were allowed no playthings, and walked to church, so as to give the horses a day of rest.” (Elizabeth Judd; Judd)

On December 18, 1872, Dr Judd made his will, beginning with the traditional phrase, “In the name of God, amen.” First, he divided his real estate among his seven surviving children. Sweet Home and an adjoining building lot went to Helen Judd, and each of his three other daughters received land in Nu‘uanu Valley. (Judd)

Dr Judd died on July 12, 1873 in Honolulu at the age 70. Aptly descriptive of his lifetime work, the epitaph on his tomb in Nu‘uanu Cemetery (now O‘ahu Cemetery) reads, “Hawaii’s Friend”. (HMAA)

Gerrit and Laura Judd had 9 children: Gerrit Parmele, b. March 8, 1829 (he died at the age of 10); Elizabeth Kinau, b. July 5, 1831; Helen Seymour, b. Aug. 27, 1833; Charles Hastings, b. Sept. 8, 1835; Laura Fish, b. Sept. 8, 1835; Albert Francis, b. Jan. 7, 1838; Allan Wilkes, b. Apr. 20, 1841; Sybil Augusta, b. March 16, 1843; and Juliet Isabelle, b. March 28, 1846 (she died at the age of 10). (Hawaiian Historical Society)

On March 8, 1879, a trust deed over the Sweet Home property was made; the grantors were Helen Seymour Judd and others, but the consideration was paid by Henry AP Carter and it appears from the face of the instrument that the deed was in the nature of a settlement by Henry AP Carter for the benefit of his wife and children. (Carter v Davis, Hawaii Supreme Court)

(On February 27, 1862, Sybil Augusta Judd (4^th daughter and 8^th child of Gerrit Parmele Judd and Laura Fish Judd) married Henry Alpheus Peirce Carter (son of Captain Joseph Oliver Carter and Hannah Trufant Lord Carter.))

(They had 7 children: Frances Isabelle, b. Jan. 18, 1863; Charles Lunt, b. Nov. 30, 1864; George Robert, b. Dec. 28, 1866; Agnes, b. Oct. 15, 1869; Sybil Augusta, b. Feb. 16, 1873 (she died at the age of 1); Cordelia Judd, b. May 18, 1876; and Joshua Dickson, b. Feb. 8, 1880 (he died at the age of 2). (Hawaiian Historical Society))

In part, the trust deed that Henry AP Carter initiated covering Sweet Home stated, “During the life of Sybil Augusta Carter wife of the said Henry AP Carter to allow her to occupy and enjoy the said estate she paying the taxes and all necessary charges and expenses or at her election to pay over to her the net rents and profits thereof …”

“(A)t her death in further trust to allow the children of the said Sybil Augusta Carter by the said Henry AP Carter and such person or persons as their guardian appointed …”

“The plan of the trust deed was to keep the property in the hands of the trustee, as long as it was to be used as a home for Sybil Augusta Carter or any of her minor children …”

“… and whenever the time might occur that it should be no longer needed for this purpose it was to be conveyed to the children then living with suitable provision for the heirs of those who had died meantime.” (Carter v Davis, Hawaii Supreme Court)

Behind Sweet Home, and extending right to the Nu‘uanu Road, is the O‘ahu Cemetery. When Sweet Home was demolished in 1911, its site was added to the cemetery grounds. (HHS)

Judd Street was named for Dr Gerrit Parmele Judd (1803–1873), missionary doctor who arrived in 1837 and became an important adviser to Kamehameha III. His residence, “Sweet Home,” was at Nuʻuanu and Judd streets. (Place Names)

August 5, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Prohibition

The first temperance movement emerged in New England as clergy began to equate drinking alcohol with sins like Sabbath breaking and blasphemy. In 1808, the first temperance society was formed, but it singled-out hard liquor, such as rum, as its only target.

Very early in the temperance movement of Reverend Thomas P Hunt, a Presbyterian minister organized a children’s organization called ‘The Cold Water Army.’ In 1831, the large and influential American Temperance Union urged everyone to only drink cold water (not alcoholic beverages) and take a Cold Water Pledge.

Although Kamehameha III broke it regularly, he made intermittent appeals for abstinence among his fellows. For some years in the 1840s, no liquor was served at official functions. (Daws)

Pūʻali Inuwai (“The water drinking host”) was formed on March 15, 1843 – the Cold Water Army – Hawaiʻi’s version of the Temperance Movement.

Following the model elsewhere, they first looked at the children, suggesting: if you had 100 drunkards and tried to reform them, you would be lucky to save maybe 10; however, if you had 100 children and taught them temperance from a young age, you could save 90 out of the 100.

Hawaiʻi youth were encouraged to join. Thousands of children enlisted in the ‘cold water army.’ Once a year they came together for a celebration. They had a grand time on these anniversary occasions. (Youth’s Day Spring, January 1853)

The Cold Water movement apparently saw some early success. “Recruits to strengthen the ranks of the cold water army, adds real force to this nation; and not-only to this nation, but to every other nation where the principles of total abstinence are making progress. Formerly the Sandwich Islanders were a nation of drunkards; but, as a nation, they are now tee-totallers.” (The Friend, 1843)

However, as time went on the push toward prohibition waned. From the 1850s, it was legal to make wine. In 1864-1865, acts were passed permitting legal brewing of beer and distillation of spirits under license at Honolulu. (Daws)

Later, in hopes that free drinking water would entice sailors to stay out of nearby grog shops, “The Temperance Legion has caused to be erected a Drinking Fountain at the corner of King and Bethel streets, on the Bethel premises – a neat and ornamental fountain. … ‘Free to all.’” [dedicated, June 15, 1867] (The Friend, June 1, 1867)

Through the 1870s, Honolulu was the only place in the kingdom where liquor could be sold legally (another instance of the attempt to isolate vice,) but contemporary comment and court reports make it clear that the illegal liquor traffic was brisk everywhere, from Lāhainā and other port towns to the remotest countryside. (Daws)

Honolulu’s The Friend newspaper began as “Temperance Advocate.” Then, it meant to many, moderate-restrained-use of liquor. Not so in all these years. “It meant total abstinence – nay, even prohibition before there was any such term.” (The Friend, 1942)

Then, came prohibition.

On the continent, into the 1900s, Americans debated whether the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages should be legal. Members of the temperance movement sought to reduce drinking – or even eliminate it. The Civil War disrupted the movement temporarily, but after the war ended, supporters resumed its mission with renewed enthusiasm. (US House)

John Granville Woolley was a prominent figure in the American temperance and prohibition movement – he was nominated for the US presidency on the Prohibition party ticket. The Prohibition party – the only party whose principal aim was a ban on the sale of liquor – was founded at a Chicago convention in 1869.

Woolley lobbied for the Prohibition party nationally from the 1880s to the early 1900s and then for the American Anti-Saloon League, a national organization that supported candidates for legislation restricting liquor sales. In 1907, when Woolley vacationed in Hawai‘i, he started a chapter in the Islands. (Hawai’i Digital Newspaper Project)

The Hawaiian legislature passed a liquor licensing law in 1907 in the hope of slowing liquor traffic in the territory. In 1910 Woolley of the Anti-Saloon League of America testified before Congress that the Hawaiian legislature’s licensing law had failed.

Prince Kūhiō stepped in and noted, “There are many good people in Hawaii who believe in prohibition but who do not believe that Congress should enact it.” Woolley pushed Congress to dismantle territorial home rule and Kūhiō fought for home rule. “We are fully capable of settling all our domestic problems,” Kūhiō declared. (US House)

Congress decided that Hawai‘i should hold a special election on Prohibition. The vote occurred in July 1910. The Hawaiian Gazette ran political cartoons to persuade people to vote for prohibition in Hawai‘i.

The newspaper’s editorials and political cartoons portrayed the saloon owners as profiting from the sale of alcohol, or “The White Man Burden,” and the alcohol bringing societal ills to the native Hawaiians. (HDNP)

Kūhiō argued against the bill, asserting that Hawai‘i was guaranteed a large degree of local self-governance. (Curtis) “There are many good people in Hawaii who believe in prohibition but who do not believe that Congress should enact it.,” (Kūhiō, GovInfo)

Ultimately, the Hawai‘i voters voted against prohibition in Hawai‘i. … The Evening Bulletin reported, “The annihilation of the prohibitionists is increasing. If that he possible, in its overwhelming effect as later reports are being received from the other Islands.”

Not one precinct did the pro-Prohibition vote carry on Hawai‘i and the partial returns also indicate this to be a fact on Maui. … The vote indicated anti-prohibitionists’ vote was 7,283 and supporters of prohibition in the Islands tallied 2,185 votes.

“The overwhelming nature of the defeat that has been visited upon the adherents of the [Prohibition] platform in Hawaii, is best indicated by the fact that the anti-prohibitionists polled more votes on Oahu than the prohibitionists polled in the Territory at large.” Evening Bulletin, July 27, 1910)

Pressure in favor of US prohibition grew; in 1917, when O‘ahu was declared a military zone, serving alcohol on the island was banned. Kūhiō viewed the restriction as unfair, since the manufacture and sale of alcohol were still permitted. (GovInfo)

Kūhiō put up a billboard that stated, “You are aware that I am not one who does not touch liquor, neither do I abstain, and I do not want a law which segregates people because they are not white. The days of those activities are over for Hawaii. Kuhio.”

Later, Congress passed the 18^th Amendment – the constitutional amendment known as Prohibition – on December 18, 1917. But before it could be added to the Constitution, three-fourths of the states needed to ratify – or approve – the measure. (US House)

While the 18^th Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating beverages, it did not outlaw the possession or consumption of alcohol in the United States.

The 18th Amendment split the Country; everyone was forced to choose – you were either “dry”, in support of Prohibition, or “wet.” But one thing was clear, Prohibition had little effect on America’s thirst.

Congress imposed prohibition in Hawai‘i in 1918 as a war measure, about a year and a half before the Eighteenth Amendment became effective on the continent. Then, in 1921 in an act supplemental to the National Prohibition Act, the prohibition Act was specifically applied to Hawai‘i, and the territorial courts were given the necessary enforcing jurisdiction. (LRB)

The 18^th Amendment would eventually be repealed and overridden by the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933 – it is the only Constitutional amendment to have been fully repealed. (Reagan Library)

July 8, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Origin of Species

Charles Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species (1859,) introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection.

The Galapagos Islands are associated with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution; however, “(Hawaiʻi) is where modern evolution started, and people don’t know it.” (Jones, Star-Bulletin)

John Thomas Gulick did the first modern evolutionary study on Hawaiian land snails. Gulick discovered dramatic differences in snails in valleys only short distances apart and developed a theory about speciation, or new species emerging through evolution. (Altonn)

Gulick had been a collector of land snails since his teen years and became a convert to evolutionary thinking even before reading On the Origin of Species.

An acute observer, he noticed that many species and varieties of snails were often restricted to very geographically-limited ranges. (Smith)

He came “to place great emphasis upon every form of isolation or prevention of mingling, and also to emphasize the great significance for evolution of many factors that are of internal origin, such as the unknown intricacies of the process of heredity, and the effects of new choices made by the evolving creatures…” (Addison Gulick; Smith)

“In Manoa there were a number of kukui trees which were the favorite places of one species of the shells. A little beyond, in Makiki, a half mile or so, hardly that, there was a different species.”

“In Pauoa there was a still different species, while in Nuʻuanu there were landshells of allied form, but which had changed their habits, living on the hau trees in preference to the kukui trees, which were the favorites of the Manoa shells. This was in 1852 and 1853.”

“I knew that these shells didn’t come from Noah’s ark. They couldn’t have even come from the other islands. Right here in Manoa we had what you might call a special creation. In Makiki Valley we had another special creation. And yet we had every reason to believe that all were allied. (Gulick, Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

“I began to have the idea that I had found a place of creation. I found out that the shells had no ability to travel from valley to valley. Those which lived on ridges were diffused over a larger area, but would have perished in the valleys. Those in the valleys could not have lived on the ridges.”

“If heavy rains washed some down from the valleys to the plains, they died in a few hours, or a few days at the most. If they were washed out to sea, of course they did not live. We tried to keep Manoa Valley shells alive at the school, but could not do it. They were as completely isolated in each locality as if they had been on separate islands.” (Gulick, Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

Gulick was among the first to recognize the critical role for geographical separation in the diversification of ecologically similar Hawaiian land snails. His ideas were discussed by Darwin, as well as leaders in the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis who saw an important role for geographical isolation in speciation. (Rundell)

“Darwin’s book, ‘Origin of Species,’ was published in ‘59, the year I left college. My mind was ripe for it and had already got started on this subject. I accepted largely the theories of evolution. I accepted natural selection, but in addition I saw the necessity of isolation.” (Gulick, Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

Gulick’s theory of the species-differentiating effects of isolation was regarded by many as a more complete theory of speciation than Darwin’s and others as correcting a fundamental deficiency in Darwin’s theory, namely how groups of organisms diversify one from another.

With his concepts of cumulative segregation (geographical isolation), indiscriminate isolation (the Founder effect) and coincident selection (the Baldwin effect), we should recognize Gulick as one of the earliest and most original and innovative evolutionary biologists. (Hall)

Gulick extended his ideas to societal evolution in human beings. (Smith)

While a leading biologist, an interesting aspect of Gulick’s beliefs is that he was a son of a Hawaiʻi missionary, and was a missionary himself, going to China and Japan under the American Board of Commissions for Foreign Missions (ABCFM – the same organization who sponsored the Hawaiʻi missions.)

Gulick was born March 13, 1832, at Waimea, Kauai, son of Peter Johnson and Fanny (Thomas) Gulick. He first married Emily De la Cour September 3, 1864, at Hong Kong, China, who died in childbirth in 1875 (no children,) then remarried Frances A Stevens May 31, 1880, at Osaka, Japan (they had two children, Addison and Louise.)

Gulick continued a family tradition by attending theological school and then did missionary work in China and Japan for over thirty-five years. But he also carried on a parallel career as a naturalist and, somewhat strange to say, Darwinian evolutionist. (Smith)

One of the world’s foremost scientists, Gulick, peer of Darwin, whose theories he accepted and advanced, and while a missionary still espoused the cause of Darwin and added to the doctrine of evolution the theory of isolation. (Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

Later in 1905, Gulick returned to Hawaiʻi and sold his shell collection to Charles Montague Cooke, Jr the new curator of the Bernice P Bishop Museum. He remained there until his death, on April 14, 1923 in Honolulu. He and his second wife are buried in the Mission Houses cemetery.

John Tomas Gulick circa 1858, age 25–26-Hall

Origin_of_Species_title_page

An engraving from 1847 of Gulick’s birthplace, Waimea, Kauai

Tree snails on the trunk of a guava tree-Hall

The head of Wailupe Valley on Oahu showing on the right the silvery foliage of groves of the kukui-Hall

Gulick-Evolutionist and Missionary-Part_1-Hall

Retired evolutionist and missionary-John Gulick-Hall

JohnThomasGulick gravestone-MissionHousesCemetery

July 2, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Makiki Christian Church

At age 29, Reverend Takie Okumura of Japan set sail for Hawaiʻi in 1894. He was initially appointed to serve as minister of the Japanese Christian Church, the predecessor to today’s Nuʻuanu Congregational Church.

Okumura left there and began his work in the section of Honolulu centering about Makiki district in November, 1902. The work commenced in a little shed on Kīnaʻu Street near a Japanese camp and without a single church member. (The Friend, November 1930)

Within a year, the shed became too small and a cottage across the street was rented which would accommodate about eighty people. By his untiring effort, Okumura was able to organize the Makiki Church with 24-members on April 8, 1904. The church continued to grow and was moved to the present building on the corner of King and Pensacola Streets in 1906. (The Friend, November 1930)

In early-1910, the Makiki Japanese Church (later known as the Makiki Christian Church) introduced the custom of one English sermon per month. The Church acquired property near McKinley High School (at the corner of Pensacola and Elm.) Then, in the 1930, a new, enlarged church was contemplated and then constructed. It was modeled after a Japanese Castle.

The “Makiki Castle” was the inspiration of the Reverend Okumura. Okumura asked Hego Fuchino to design the church.

Born and educated in Japan, Fuchino immigrated to Hawaiʻi at age 17 or 18 and worked his way through ʻIolani School and the University of Hawaiʻi. He worked as a land surveyor and engineer in Honolulu while he taught himself architecture, and became one of the first Japanese architects in Hawaiʻi.

One of Fuchino’s earliest works was the Kuakini Hospital, which he designed in 1919. He designed the Izumo Taisha Mission; commercial buildings; movie theaters such as the Haleiwa Theater; residences and apartments; and schools such as the Hawaiian Mission Academy.

Inspired by the early-Edo period Himeji Castle in Japan, the church is the only Christian church in the United States to be modeled after a sixteenth-century Japanese castle.

The Makiki Christian Church is a five-story redwood building whose main tower rises ninety feet above street level. A three- story parish hall and Sunday school, built four years after the tower, extends out from the tower to give the building a T- shaped floor plan.

“The castle-like edifice with its stone wall and high tower is after the style of the castle built by Oda Nobuuaga, famous Shogun, in 1577 at Omi. A number of years before that the feudal lord of Yaniato, Matsunaga, built a castle with a high tower and called his tower “Tenshukaku,” “ten” meaning heaven; “shu” lord; and “kaku,” lower or the place to worship the Lord of Heaven.” (The Friend, November 1930)

Rather than a building associated with war, Okumura indicated that the castle was a place of defense, meant to provide protection and peace, and that the earliest known building erected in Japan for Christian worship was Tamon Castle.

To the pastor, this design symbolized refuge, security and grandeur. Finally convinced it was not warlike, the congregation raised funds to build the tower, lobby and chapel in 1931. (Hibbard)

At the time of construction, China and Japan were at war; however, as a gesture of goodwill to show that animosity between the two nations did not extend to Hawaiʻi, Okumura specified that all building materials were to be purchased from City Mill, owned by KA Chung. (HHF)

Later, the castle became “A Place To Protect The Country” but it is true that the tower originated as “A Place To Worship God.” The Makiki Church erects its new edifice with its tower indicating the thought of the Psalmist who sang “Jehovah is my fortress—my high tower.” (The Friend, November 1930)

In November 1932 the tower was completed and in 1936 the Parish Hall was added to the church.

The churchyard is entered from the Elm Street side through a munekado (a gable-roofed gate supported by two pillars). The building’s entrance is fourteen feet high with a pair of massive solid wooden doors.

A large vestibule, thirty feet in height, runs parallel to the sanctuary and provides access to the church and the parish hall wing. The interior includes acid-stained concrete floors, columns with elbow brackets, and 164 ceiling panels depicting fruits, flowers, and vegetables painted by Yunosuke Ogura.

Before he died in 1951, Okumura also established the Okumura Boys and Girls Home, which provided young men and women affordable housing; he started the first Japanese-language school and the first AJA baseball league.

Makiki Christian Church is listed on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places (No. 80-14-9719, dated September 30, 1988;) it is one of the most photographed churches in the Islands.

June 30, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Boki (Poki)

Boki (born before 1785 – died after December 1829) was the son of Kekuamanoha, a chief of Maui (but it was rumored that he was the son of Kahekili II.) His original name was Kamaʻuleʻule; his nickname came from a variation on Boss, the name of the favorite dog of Kamehameha I.

“I would just remark respecting the name of Boki that even according to our present rules it may be spelt with the B for the name is of foreign origin. His original name was Ilio-punahele, that is, favourite dog.”

“When the king became acquainted with a large American dog named Boss, he immediately changed the name of the young chief from Ilio-punahele to Boss, which in native language is Boki, pronounced by 99/100 of the people Poki.” (William Richards; Missionary Letters, Vol. 3, Page 725; December 6, 1828)

His older brother, Kalanimōkū, was prime minister and formerly Kamehameha’s most influential advisor. His aunt was the powerful Kaʻahumanu, queen regent and Kamehameha’s favorite wife.

Boki married Chiefess Kuini Liliha (born 1802 – died August 25, 1839,) daughter of Ulumaheihei Hoapili (Kamehameha’s most trusted companion) and Kalilikauoha; her paternal grandfather was Kameʻeiamoku, one of Kamehameha’s four Kona Uncles and a respected advisor; her maternal grandfather was Kahekili, high chief of Maui and later of O’ahu.

King Kamehameha II appointed Boki as governor of Oʻahu and chief of the Waiʻanae district. John Dominis Holt III said Boki was “a man of great charisma who left his mark everywhere he went.”

Boki was skilled in Hawaiian medicine, especially the treatment of wounds, as taught by the kahunas. He was considered very intelligent and a highly persuasive man.

His duties as governor of Oʻahu brought him in frequent contact with foreigners. He became one of the first chiefs to be baptized.

Boki agreed to the breaking of the tabus in 1819 and accepted the Protestant missionaries arriving in 1820, although he had been baptized as a Catholic aboard the French vessel of Louis de Freycinet, along with Kalanimōkū , the previous year.

In 1824, Boki and Liliha were members of the entourage that accompanied Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu on a diplomatic tour of the United Kingdom, visiting King George IV in 1824.

Less than two months after the royal group arrived in England, the king and queen were dead from the measles; it was Boki who lead the Hawaiian delegation to meet with King George IV and receive the King’s assurances of British protection for Hawai‘i from foreign intrusion.

Returning with Lord Byron on the Blonde, Boki brought to Hawaiʻi an English planter, John Wilkinson, and with him began raising sugar cane and coffee beans in Mānoa Valley.

Boki also encouraged the Hawaiians to gather sandalwood for trade, ran a mercantile and shipping business, and opened a liquor store called the Blonde Hotel.

In the late-1820s, Boki came into conflict with Kuhina Nui (Premier) Ka‘ahumanu when he resisted the new laws that were passed, and did not enforce them. In May of 1827, Ka‘ahumanu and the Council charged Boki with intemperance, fornication, adultery and misconduct, and fined him and his wife Liliha.

Just prior to Boki’s sailing to the New Hebrides in search of sandalwood, the lands of Kapunahou and Kukuluāeʻo were transferred to Hiram Bingham for the purpose of establishing a school, later to be known as Oʻahu College (now, Punahou School.)

These lands had first been given to Kameʻeiamoku, a faithful chief serving under Kamehameha, following Kamehameha’s conquest of Oʻahu in 1795. At Kameʻeiamoku’s death in 1802, the land transferred to his son Hoapili, who resided there from 1804 to 1811. Hoapili passed the property to his daughter Kuini Liliha.

Sworn testimony before the Land Commission in 1849, and that body’s ultimate decision, noted that the “land was given by Governor Boki about the year 1829 to Hiram Bingham for the use of the Sandwich Islands Mission.”

The decision was made over the objection from Liliha; however Hoapili confirmed the gift. It was considered to be a gift from Kaʻahumanu, Kuhina Nui or Queen Regent at that time.

The Binghams oversaw the early development of the land and Mrs. Bingham planted the first night blooming cereus, now a symbol of Punahou. The Binghams left Hawaii in 1840, before Punahou School became a reality.

Boki incurred large debts and, in 1829, attempted to cover them by assembling a group of followers and set out for a newly discovered island with sandalwood in the New Hebrides. Boki fitted out two ships, the Kamehameha and the Becket, put on board some five hundred of his followers, and sailed south.

Somewhere in the Fiji group, the ships separated. Eight months later the Becket limped back to Honolulu with only twenty survivors aboard.

Boki and two hundred and fifty of his men apparently died at sea when the Kamehameha burned, possibly when gunpowder stored in the hold blew up as a result of careless smoking.

Liliha then became a widow and governor of Oʻahu. She gave the ahupuaʻa of Mākaha to High Chief Paki. Chief Paki was the father of Bernice Pauahi Bishop. (Lots of info here from waianaebaptist-org; punahou-edu; keepers of the culture and others.) The image shows Boki and Liliha.