Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings | Page 40

January 13, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tea Party

The mission compound at Kawaiaha‘o was always a bustling place. There were many duties to attend to by the mission women: cooking cleaning teaching, entertaining guests and visitors, and raising their own children to name just a few.

These many domestic labors were hard on the mission women, so many of them hired for wages, Native Hawaiians to aid them in this domestic work. This interface between Native Hawaiians and Missionaries, and the women in particular was a major one, as it occurred on a daily basis, and occurred within the 1821 Mission House. (Mission Houses)

Then, they invited the leading chiefs to a tea …

“On Tuesday of last week (December 11, 1827,) Mrs. Bingham & Mrs. Richards, undertook to make a ‘tea party’ to bring all the chiefs in the place & the members of the mission family together to join in a friendly & social cup of tea, to shew Christian kindness & civility to our Sandwich Island neighbors and to promote kind feelings among the chiefs themselves now assembled from the different Islands.”

“The two sisters with their native domestics spent most of today in preparing biscuit, cakes &c. & making such arrangements as seemed to them desirable.”

“We sent out our billets in due form in the morning to the king & Ka‘ahumanu, and all the chiefs of the first & second rank and to some others connected with them by marriage. As soon as Kaahumanu received her invitation she sent over a supply of good white sugar for the occasion.”

Those in attendance included, Ka‘ahumanu, Kalākua, Pi‘ia, Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III,) Nahienaena, Kuakini, Naihe, Kapi‘olani, Hoapili, Kaikioewa, Keaweamahi, Kapule, Kaiu, Kekāuluohi, Kīna’u, Kekauōnohi, La‘anui, Keli‘iahonui, Kana‘ina, Leleiōhoku and Kamanele.

“But look, for a few moments, at the present group: twenty-one chiefs of the Sandwich islands mingling in friendly, courteous and Christian conversation with seven of the mission family, whom you have employed among them. Contemplate their former and their present habits, their former and their present hopes. They have laid aside their vices and excesses, and their love of noise and war.”

“(T)o this interesting group we should have been happy to have introduced you, or any of our Christian friends; and I doubt not you would have been highly gratified with the interview. …”

“Listen, and you will not only hear the expressions of gratitude to us and to God for the privileges they now enjoy, but you will hear these old warriors lamenting that their former kings, their fathers, and their companions in arms, had been slain in battle, or carried off by the hand of time, before the blessed gospel of Christ had been proclaimed on these benighted shores.”

“Your heart would have glowed with devout gratitude to God for the evidence that, while our simple food was passing round the social circle for their present gratification, the minds of some of these children of pagans enjoyed a feast of better things; and your thoughts, no doubt, like ours, would have glanced at a happier meeting of the friends of God in the world of glory.”

“When our thanks were returned at the close of our humble repast, though you might not have been familiar with the language, you would have lifted up your heart in thank-fulness for what had already appeared as the fruits of your efforts here, and for the prospect of still greater things than these.” (Bingham, December 15, 1827)

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December 30, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ali‘i Gifts to the Missionaries

In pre-contact Hawaiian culture, cooking was done by men, men and women ate in separate hale, and certain “male” foods were forbidden to women. Everything was based upon the ‘ai kapu (eating or food kapu). The ‘ai kapu ended in November of 1819 when King Kamehameha II ate with Ka‘ahumanu and Keōpūolani and let them eat forbidden foods ‘ai noa, free eating, and the kapu came to an end.

Like New England though, there was a gendered division of labor in pre-contact Hawai‘i. The labor of clearing fields and digging up the land was done by men, while the actual planting of plants was usually done by women.

Hawaiian food crops included: sweet potato, kalo, bananas, sugar cane, ‘awa, yam (uhi), arrowroot (pia) coconut, breadfruit (ulu), mountain apple, and bitter gourds. Other plants that Hawaiians cultivated were ‘ie and olona for fiber and cordage, wauke for making kapa, and many other plants and vegetables. The staple food was kalo. Kalo was made into poi and pa‘i ‘ai. It was also baked, roasted, and fried. Other foods included luau leaf, chicken, pig, and dog. (Smola)

The missionaries had to adapt to a new diet; for the most part, the missionaries had a very Hawaiian diet. Fish (i‘a), taro (kalo), poi, pigs (pua‘a), chickens (moa), bananas (mai‘a), sweet potatoes (‘uala) were regular parts of the missionary diet. (HMCS)

In addition, the missionary diet included: melons, squashes, cabbages, cucumbers, green corn, beans, fresh pork, goat, goat’s milk, bread, rice, mountain apples, bananas, pineapples, butter, wine, plus spices such as cinnamon and allspice, beef, and fish. Also, the missionaries ate New England foods shipped to them: dried apple rings, sea biscuits, salted beef and pork, and things made from wheat flour. (Smola)

Some food came from the missionaries buying food with money, from trading or bartering items like cloth and books, and from agricultural land given to the mission. The items of New England food that they got came by supply shipments from the ABCFM usually brought out in whale ships or merchant ships that were already headed to Hawai‘i or were brought here to be planted once the missionaries landed. (HMCS)

Much of the food came in the form of gifts from the ali‘i. According to the account books, these gifts of food from the ali‘i occurred virtually daily for over 10 years. (HMCS)

This meticulous listing of ‘Donations’ (as Chamberlain labeled his list in his account book), shows the regular interactions between the ali‘i and the missionaries – as well as the constant conveyance of gifts. Click to see the attachment that shows a later listing of food and other donations to the mission.

Notable names on the prior and following listing include, Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III), Ka‘ahumanu and Kalanimōku (noted as Karaimoku in the account books). You can also see here that others contributed, as did Captain Osborne (10-gallons of cider on November 24, 1825).

“(T)he missionaries described a seemingly endless bounty of provisions. The gifts were undeniably generous; their quantity and abundance attested to this.”

“In the first weeks and months after their arrival, missionaries received a host of gifts, ranging from fruit to potatoes and sugar cane to an ‘elegant’ fly brush. The gifts that ali‘i provided to American missionaries during the initial stages of contact suggest the political and diplomatic savvy developed in the decades leading up to the missionaries’ arrival.”

“(G)ift giving and generosity appeared as a means by which ali‘i might engage in a display of mana – that is, divine power. In the extension of gifts, Hawaiian royalty provided not just for the needs of their guests but, in the process, simultaneously created a debt between themselves and the missionaries while enhancing their own status.” The missionaries developed a reciprocal gift-giving relationship.

“(M)issionaries were well aware of the ways in which the gift of clothing might allow them to begin in earnest the process of transforming and converting the Hawaiian people. Additionally, they hoped to win the favor of the Hawaiian people through the strategic placement of things”.

“(A)s the mission period progressed (the) missionaries developed a close association with ali‘i …“The relationships constituted around gift giving and exchange created a necessary favorable link between American missionaries and ali‘i in this period.” (Thigpen)

Check out the Mission Account Books for yourself; click HERE.

Click HERE for more information on Gifts from the Ali‘i.

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Portion of Depository Book-Gifts-Donations

Portion of Depository-Book-Gifts-Donations

December 26, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Benjamin and Mary Parker

From the time of early Polynesian settlement the ahupuaʻa of Kāneʻohe was a desirable place to live.

With its fertile land and abundant water sources, it is estimated that the 1779 population of the Kāneʻohe Bay area was probably somewhere between 15,000 and 17,000 people.

When foreigners began to settle in Hawaiʻi, Kāneʻohe was relatively isolated. The Bay did not provide a good anchorage and the trail over the Pali was treacherous.

The American Protestant missionaries decided to open a mission in Kāneʻohe.

The Rev. Benjamin Wyman Parker (born October 13, 1803 in Reading, Massachusetts) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Parker (known in Hawaiʻi as “Mother Parker” – of Branford, Connecticut) were in the Sixth Company of the Sandwich Island Mission, arriving in Honolulu on May 1, 1833 on the ship “Mentor.”

Almost immediately they joined the Alexander and Armstrong families to open a mission in the Marquesas, on July 21, 1833. Their first and only son, Henry Hodges Parker was born there. They returned to Honolulu and were assigned to the “Kāneʻohe Station” on Windward Oahu.

“We reached this little nook after a voyage of two days in safety. This little bay—Kaneohe—is now our home. The people speak to us in an unknown tongue, yet are exceedingly kind. We have a large grass house to live in, without a window, partition or floor—not one fixture—not even a shelf.”

“Almost all we had was left behind … Surely we may live and feel like pilgrims without any difficulty. Our cookhouse is two stones sheltered only by the open heavens.” (Mary Parker, The Friend, May 1933)

When the Kāneʻohe Mission Station first opened in 1835, “high chief Liliha, who officiated as a sort of ‘Mother-superior’ of the place [Koʻolaupoko], located her ‘new teachers’ [Missionary Parker and his family] on a little bluff on the edge of a beautiful bay [Kaneohe Bay]”

In 1835, Parker opened a school for 60 children; and another for men and women. The following year, he had 100 children.

“The high Chiefess Liliha had located her “New Teachers,” as she called them, on this bluff overlooking a beautiful bay. The locality was called “Aipaakai,” literally an invitation to eat salt. Here they began the work of a lifetime.”

“The Hawaiians from Waimanalo, one extreme, to Kualoa, the other extreme of the district, numbered about 10,000. The barrier of language was soon removed as they learned to speak the Hawaiian language; and within a few weeks (Parker) preached his first sermon to his people.” (The Friend May, 1933)

The school was initially in a grass hut. Later, they moved into a stone mission house provided again by Liliha, a quarter mile inland.

“Our new stone meeting-house, now nearly finished, is 95 feet in length by 42 in width. It has been erected by the voluntary effort of the church members. Our old grass house, in which we had worshipped eight years, had become too poor to allow of our assembling in it much longer. …”

“The people are poor, and destitute of every facility for erecting a permanent house. Yet they entered more than willingly upon the work … not more than 75 (of the 100 male members) are able to labor at such work, a number being aged and infirm.

“Yet these 75 have collected the materials for the house, consisting of stone, wood, and lime; they have assisted in laying the walls; they have been to the mountains to cut and draw timber, besides contributing in other ways to pay the carpenters and masons. The female members of the church have contributed monthly 12 ½ cents in money, or in some available articles, for the same object.” (The Friend, May 1933)

“(Parker) preached to large congregations; organized schools; taught classes; took long journeys either on foot or horseback to outlying districts, going from house to house, advising, helping, instructing his people; inspected the schools, guided the Hawaiian teachers; collected timber in the mountains for building purposes; superintended the building of churches and schoolhouses; planted trees; laid out roads; and directed the course of a stream of water from the mountains.”

“The brook which runs its way in front of the modern public school is due to his foresight.” (The Friend, May 1933) He also helped survey the Koʻolau lands for the Great Māhele.

Their three daughters were born at the Kāneʻohe Station, Mary in 1835, Harriet in 1837 and Caroline in 1840. All of their children carried on their parents work. Mary and Caroline were in charge of a boy’s reform school in Pālama. Their son, Henry became pastor of Kawaiahaʻo Church in 1863 and served in that position for 54-years.

“A telescope leveled on the pali for coming visitors told the Parker girls how much taro and sweet potato to prepare for dinner. That telescope and the handbell used as a signal for the sexton to ring the church bell, were part of the family belongings for years.” (The Friend, May, 1933)

In 1848, Rev. Parker reported the foreign population of Koʻolaupoko to be only seven (one Swede, two Englishmen and four Americans) , three of whom were married , each having one child. One was a house carpenter and the others “cultivate the soil to some extent”.

Following the Māhele, Parker acquired Koʻolaupoko lands, the ʻili of Lilipuna and other Kāneʻohe lands (over 55-acres total in 1851) and almost 650-acres of Waiheʻe, in 1855. By 1869 Parker owned all the land of Waiheʻe except for the kuleana lands.

His son Henry formed the Parker Sugar Company and had about 80-acres in cultivation in 1880; they were only planters, the grinding was done at the nearby Kāneʻohe Sugar Plantation.

In 1894, the Parker family, the major landholder in Waiheʻe, leased rice property to the Sing Chong Company, a hui that also possessed or leased lands in Kaʻalaea and Kahaluʻu

In 1853, the Hawaiian Missionary Society reopened the Marquesas mission; Reverend Parker accompanied local emissaries in 1853 and 1867. Later in 1867, he retired and moved to Honolulu. He died in Honolulu March 23, 1877 at the age of 74.

In December 1905, the Hawaiian Mission celebrated the one-hundredth birthday of Mother Parker, noting, “For many years you have remained the sole survivor of that large band of missionaries with whom you labored more than sixty-five years ago …”

“… for the spiritual and social uplifting, through Christ, of these beloved Hawaiian people, while children who remember those early days have grown aged or gone on before.” Governor Carter came with congratulations, and a call from the former Queen was highly appreciated.

In 1927, The Reverend Benjamin Parker School (originally called Kāneʻohe School) opened in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, on land donated by the Parker family. It is the first school in the Windward district. It started as an elementary and intermediate school, grades 1-8.

Over the years, it expanded in size and grades taught; in 1937 it became an elementary and high school, grades 1-12. In 1951, when Castle High School opened, Parker reverted to an elementary school, serving grades K – 6.

A fire destroyed portions of the school and it was reconstructed in 1973. (Lots of stuff here from The Friend, Kāneʻohe: A History of Change and the Benjamin Parker School website.)

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December 16, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Webster’s Way

On July 14, 1826, the missionaries established a 12-letter alphabet for the written Hawaiian language, using five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p and w) in their “Report of the committee of health on the state of the Hawaiian language.” The report was signed by Bingham and Chamberlain. The alphabet continues in use today.

“To one unacquainted with the language it would be impossible to distinguish the words in a spoken sentence, for in the mouth of a native, a sentence appeared like an ancient Hebrew or Greek manuscript-all one word.”

“It was found that every word and every syllable in the language ends with a vowel; the final vowel of a word or syllable, however, is often made so nearly to coalesce or combine with the sound of the succeeding vowel, as to form a dipthongal sound, apparently uniting two distinct words.”

“The power of the vowels may be thus represented: – a, as a in the English words art, father; e, as a in pale, or ey in they; i, as ee or in machine; o, as o in no; u, as oo in too. They are called so as to express their power by their names – Ah, A, Ee, O, Oo.”

“The consonants are in like manner called by such simple names as to suggest their power, thus, following the sound of the vowels as above – He, Ke, La, Mu, Xu, Pi, We.” (Bingham)

Learning the Language by Syllables

Noah Webster (1758-1843) was the man of words in early 19th-century America. He compiled a dictionary which became the standard for American English; he also compiled The American Spelling Book, which was the basic textbook for young readers in early 19th-century America.

In the beginning part of his American Spelling Book, several signed a ‘Recommendation,’ stating, “Having examined the first part of the new Grammatical Institute of the English Language, published by Mr. Noah Webster we are of opinion, that it is far preferable, in the plan and execution, to Dilworth’s or any other Spelling Book, which has been introduced into [o]ur schools.”

The Speller’s Preface notes the priority in learning, “The syllables of words are divided as they are pronounced, and for this obvious reason, that children learn the language by the ear. Rules are of no consequence but to printers and adults. In Spelling Books they embarrass children, and double the labour of the teacher.”

“The whole design of dividing words into syllables at all, is to lead the pupil to the true pronunciation: and the easiest method to effect this purpose will forever be the best.” (Webster’s Speller)

“As far back as one can trace the history of reading methodology, children were taught to spell words out, in syllables, in order to pronounce them.” Webster wrote.

And so it was with the American Protestant Missionaries teaching the Hawaiians to read and write their own language.

Just as American schoolchildren spelled aloud by naming the letters that formed the first syllable, and then pronouncing the result: “b, a – ba,” so did Hawaiian learners. (However, back then, Webster used ‘y’ as a vowel; the missionaries did not.)

Pī ʻā pā

In the initial instruction, the missionaries taught by first teaching syllables – adding consonants to vowels, just as Noah Webster noted in his speller.

The classroom exercise of spelling aloud also focused on syllables: Pupils first pronounced each letter of the syllable, and then put the sounds together and pronounced the syllable.

This practice of spelling aloud gave the Hawaiian alphabet its name. Just as American schoolchildren taught with Webster’s speller began their recitation by naming the letters that formed the first syllable, and then pronouncing the result: “B, A – BA,” so did Hawaiian learners.

The early missionary teacher said to his pupil, b, a – ba; the Hawaiian would repeat, pronouncing “b” like “p” and said “pī ʻā pā; hence the word that is now known as the Hawaiian alphabet and the name of the book. (Schütz 2017a:12)

Webster’s way of teaching was practiced in Hawai‘i, as described by Andrews, “The teacher takes a Piapa (i.e., speller, primer,) sits down in front of a row or several rows of scholars, from ten to a hundred perhaps in number, all sitting on the ground, furnished perhaps with Piapas, perhaps not.”

“The teacher begins: says A. The scholars all repeat in concert after him, A. The teacher then says E. They repeat all together, as before E, and so on, repeating over and over, after the teacher, until all the alphabet is fixed in the memory, just in the order the letters stand in the book; and all this just as well without a book as with one. The abbs and spelling lesson are taught in the same way.” (Schütz 1994:163)

The Hawaiian version also used the names of the letters and the resultant syllable: bē ā – bā; by 1824, this had become the Hawaiian word for ‘alphabet’. However, after b had been eliminated from the alphabet, p took its place in this new name.

One result of applying this methodology to Hawaiian is that it produced a new word: Pi a pa. From that time on, the word for ‘alphabet’ has been pī‘āpā, first appearing with this spelling (minus the kahakō and ‘okina) in a book title in 1828.

The purpose of all these first exercises was to teach the mechanics of pronouncing words, one by one – syllable by syllable.

This is a summary; click HERE for more on Webster’s Way.

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Schütz 1994. Albert Schütz – The voices of Eden: A history of Hawaiian language studies. 1994 Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.

Schütz 2017a. Albert Schütz – Reading between the lines: A closer look at the first Hawaiian primer (1822). In Palapala-He puke pai no ka ‘olelo me ka mo ‘olelo Hawai’i (A journal for Hawaiian language and literature)

Pi-a-pa-01

Pi-a-pa-02-03

Pi-a-pa-04-05

Pi-a-pa-06-07

Pi-a-pa-08-09

Pi-a-pa-10-11

Pi-a-pa-12-13

Pi-a-pa-14-15

Pi-a-pa-16

December 2, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Literacy

“It was like laying a corner stone of an important edifice for the nation.” (Bingham)

“I think literacy was … almost like the new technology of the time. And, that was something that was new. … When the missionaries came, there was already contact with the Western world for many years…. But this was the first time that literacy really began to take hold.”

“The missionaries, when they came, they may have been the first group who came with a [united] purpose. They came together as a group and their purpose was to spread the Gospel the teachings of the Bible.”

“But the missionaries who came, came with a united purpose … and literacy was a big part of that. Literacy was important to them because literacy was what was going to get the Hawaiians to understand the word of the Bible and the written word became very attractive to the people, and there was a great desire to learn the written word. … Hawai‘i became the most literate nation at one time.”

Click HERE for a link to comments by Manu Ka‘iama and Jon Yasuda.

“The Ali‘i Letters project “changed my perspective on the anti-missionary, anti-Anglo-Saxon rhetorical tradition that scholarship has been produced, contemporary scholarship, and it is not to discredit that scholarship, but just to change a paradigm, to shift the paradigm, and it shifted mine.” (Kaliko Martin, Research Assistant, Awaiaulu)

Click HERE for a link to comments by Kaliko Martin.

“The missionary effort is more successful in Hawai‘i than probably anywhere in the world, in the impact that it has on the character and the form of a nation. And so, that history is incredible; but history gets so blurry …”

“The missionary success cover decades and decades becomes sort of this huge force where people feel like the missionaries got off the boat barking orders … where they just kind of came in and took over. They got off the boat and said ‘stop dancing,’ ‘put on clothes,’ don’t sleep around.’ And it’s so not the case ….”

“The missionaries arrived here, and they’re a really remarkable bunch of people. They are scholars, they have got a dignity that goes with religious enterprise that the Hawaiians recognized immediately. …”

“The Hawaiians had been playing with the rest of the world for forty-years by the time the missionaries came here. The missionaries are not the first to the buffet and most people had messed up the food already.”

“(T)hey end up staying and the impact is immediate. They are the first outside group that doesn’t want to take advantage of you, one way or the other, get ahold of their goods, their food, or your daughter. But, they couldn’t get literacy. It was intangible, they wanted to learn to read and write”. (Puakea Nogelmeier)

Click HERE for a link to comments by Puakea Nogelmeier.

Many Are the People – Few Are the Books

“Having just begun to learn to read, Ka‘ahumanu, about this time (1822), embarked with her husband, and visited his islands with a retinue of some eight hundred persons, including several chiefs, and Auna, and William Beals, whom the queen requested us to send as her teacher.”

“On their arrival, the next day, at Waimea, they gave a new impulse to the desire among the people to be instructed, much to the surprise and gratification of Messrs. Whitney and Ruggles, who said their house for several days was thronged with natives pleading for books.”

“They immediately took three hundred under instruction. Their former pupils were now demanded as teachers for the beginners. Ka‘ahumanu, spurring on these efforts, soon sent back to Kamāmalu at Oahu the following characteristic letter.”

“‘This is my communication to you: tell the puu A-i o-e-o-e (posse of Long necks) to send some more books down here. Many are the people – few are the books.”

“I want elua lau (800) Hawaiian books to be sent hither. We are much pleased to learn the palapala. By and by, perhaps, we shall be akamai, skilled or wise. Give my love to Mr. and Mrs. Bingham, and the whole company of Long necks.’” (Ka‘ahumanu; Bingham)

Printing Press

“The first printing press at the Hawaiian Islands was imported by the American missionaries, and landed from the brig Thaddeus, at Honolulu …. It was not unlike the first used by Benjamin Franklin, and was set up in a thatched house standing a few fathoms from the old mission frame house”. (Hunnewell; Ballou)

Without the printing press, the written Hawaiian language, and a learned people of that time, we would know little about the past. (Muench)

“Perhaps never since the invention of printing was a printing press employed so extensively as that has been at the Sandwich islands, with so little expense, and so great a certainty that every page of its productions would be read with attention and profit.” (Barber, 1833)

In the meantime, a Wells-model press arrived at Lahainaluna in 1832 and it carried the major load of the printing there. The mission press also printed newspaper, hymnals, schoolbooks, broadsides, fliers, laws, and proclamations. The mission presses printed over 113,000,000 sheets of paper in 20 years. (Mission Houses)

Literacy was Sought by the People

“A key point in Liholiho’s plan required the missionaries to first teach the aliʻi to read and write. The missionaries agreed to the King’s terms and instruction began soon after.” (KSBE)

The arrival of the first company of American missionaries in Hawai¬ʻi in 1820 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.

“That the sudden introduction of the Hawaiian nation in its unconverted state, to general English or French literature, would have been safe and salutary, is extremely problematical.”

“The initiation of the rulers and others into the arts of reading and writing, under our own guidance, brought to their minds forcibly, and sometimes by surprise, moral lessons as to their duty and destiny which were of immeasurable importance.” (Hiram Bingham)

“This literacy initiative was continually supported by the aliʻi. Under Liholiho, ships carrying teachers were not charged harbor fees. During a missionary paper shortage, the government stepped in to cover the difference, buying enough paper to print roughly 13,500 books.”

“During this period, there were approximately 182,000 Hawaiians living throughout 1,103 districts in the archipelago. Extraordinarily, by 1831, the kingdom government financed all infrastructure costs for the 1,103 school houses and furnished them with teachers. Our kūpuna sunk their teeth into reading and writing like a tiger sharks and would not let go.” (KSBE)

“This legendary rise in literacy climbed from a near-zero literacy rate in 1820, to between 91 to 95 percent by 1834. That’s only twelve years from the time the first book was printed!” (KSBE)

It was through the cooperation and collaboration between the Ali‘i, people and missionaries that this was able to be accomplished.

Click HERE to view/download more on Literacy.

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