Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Normal School

One of the first ‘Normal’ schools, the École Normale Supérieure (“Normal Superior School,”) was established in Paris in 1794. Based on various German exemplars, the school was intended to serve as a model for other teacher-training schools. Later it became affiliated with the University of Paris. (Britannica)

On July 3, 1839, three young women reported to Lexington, Massachusetts, with hopes of attending the first state funded school specifically established for public teacher education (what were then referred to as ‘normal’ schools.)

A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name. Most such schools are now called teachers’ colleges.

In Hawaiʻi, as early as 1845, a Department of Education was organized with its own Minister. Two years later, the position of Inspector General of Schools was established.

In 1895, it was decided that the work of instructing the teachers already in the employ of the Department should be undertaken by the Summer School and the preparation of those wishing to enter the service, by a special Normal class in the High School.

This class has developed into the Normal and Training School, the only Normal School in the Territory (1895,) it trained elementary school teachers; it was first housed at Honolulu High School (former Hale Keōua, home of Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani – the site of the present Central Middle School.)

James L Dumas was hired by the Department of Public Instruction to head the government’s normal school (he had been teaching teachers at Lahainaluna.) In his initial year, he had 29-students, ten of whom were only 16-years of age and with an eighth-grade education.

At his request, the Board of Education agreed to build a ‘practice school’ for his teacher students; two classrooms were added to the site as a training school for the normal school. A later disagreement with the Board led to Dumas’ resignation. (Logan)

In 1899, the Normal and Training School moved to the old Fort Street School. This change of location made possible a much needed enlargement of the training department as well as a considerable development of the other departments.

The course was changed from a two years’ course to a four years’ course for graduates of the grammar school and a one year course for graduates of a regular four years’ course in a High School. Certificates were granted to those completing three years of the four years’ course. (TN&TS, 1910)

In 1900, when Hawaiʻi became a territory of the US, the position of Minister of Education became that of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Although changes in the school system have taken place from time to time, the large administrative unit as a whole, has remained. (Wist, 1922)

Honolulu Normal and Training School relocated to Lunalilo and Quarry streets in 1905 and was given a new name, Territorial Normal and Training School. (TGI)

The purpose of the school was (a) to aid the student in acquiring the art of teaching by practice under intelligent direction, and to instruct him in the science of education; (b) to teach the subject-matter of the elementary and High School courses, and such subject-matter of collegiate rank as will give background for the work of teaching and supervision. (TN&TS)

The Normal and Training School occupied two buildings; the main building was 100 by 70 feet and had three stories and a basement. It is of Flemish bond brick with terra cotta trimmings.

On the first floor are six class rooms, an office, a supply room, a library, and a cloak room. On the second floor are eight class rooms, and on the third two class rooms and an assembly hall.

The Manual Training building, near the main building, had two rooms. One room was devoted to woodwork and the other to domestic science. There are benches for about twenty pupils per period in the woodworking room, and accommodations for the same number in the room devoted to domestic science. (TN&TS, 1910)

Although the program had grown steadily, it had not been able to furnish enough teachers to keep pace with the rapidly increasing population. The Department appointed approximately 200-new teachers yearly; about half of these were trained locally in the Normal School, the other half being imported from the mainland US. (Wist)

Since the Normal School trains elementary teachers only, the University  opened a department of education for the training of high-school teachers, all of whom had previously been imported. (Wist, 1922)

“During the past year (1924,) the Territorial Normal School was placed on the list of accredited teachers’ colleges of the United States. It is rapidly becoming an institution that will rank with the best mainland normal schools.”

“High-school graduation is the entrance requirement for all students. The two-year Course is equivalent to two years of college work. (Report of the Governor, 1924)

“In 1929, the Territorial Normal School, which had outgrown its buildings on the side of Punchbowl, acquired land at the corner of University Avenue and Metcalf Street, and a building plus an annex were erected.”

“A large campus with several buildings was planned for the site. However, in 1931, the legislature merged the TNS with the University (of Hawaiʻi,) creating the Teachers College (TC) … (in 1951) the Regents named the TC Building Wist Hall.” (UCLA)

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Andover Theological Seminary

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the people of New England were taking a new interest in religion. The devotion to their Puritan faith, which was characteristic of the first generation of colonists, had yielded long since to the claims of everyday living. (Rowe)

At the time, there were three schools of religious thought among Congregationalists. The first was known as the Old or Moderate Calvinists (with convictions of their Puritan ancestors.)

A second group was called Hopkinsians (from their spokesman, Samuel Hopkins) stressed certain Puritan principles to an extreme, like divine sovereignty and predestination; and a third party in Congregational circles was more liberal in its theological interpretations.

Although Massachusetts had stayed fairly true to its Calvinistic Puritan beginnings in the form of Congregationalism, by 1800 a new sect had swept Boston by storm: Unitarianism. This form of Protestantism rejected the aspects of Calvinism inherent to Congregationalism at the time.

Rather than accepting that all people were fallen and could only be chosen by God to be saved – predestination – early Unitarians emphasized reason, free will and the power of people for both good and evil. Also, as the name suggests, they disavowed the idea of the Trinity, believing instead that Jesus was solely a prophet and an example to live by. (Balboni)

The Old Calvinists were especially desirous to have a theological school at Andover. The Legislature of Massachusetts on June 19, 1807, authorized the Trustees of Phillips Academy to receive and hold additional property “for the purpose of a theological institution and in furtherance of the designs of the pious founders and benefactors of said Academy.”

The Phillips family was loyal to religion, as well as to education. They provided a gift to erect two buildings for the Seminary, the first American foundation for a chair in theology outside a university (a foundation for purely theological education was almost unknown in America.) (Rowe)

The Seminary was built on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover. The Academy was founded during the American Revolution as an all-boys school in 1778 by Samuel Phillips, Jr (the oldest incorporated boarding school in the US.) The great seal of the school was designed by Paul Revere.

The purpose of the Founders for the Seminary, according to their constitution, was to increase “the number of learned and able defenders of the Gospel of Christ, as well as of orthodox, pious, and zealous ministers of the New Testament ; being moved, as we hope, by a principle of gratitude to God and benevolence to man.” (Rowe)

Seminary students partook in three years of study and four major subjects: the Bible, church history, doctrinal theology, and practical arts of the ministry. (Balboni)

The Andover Theological Seminary was dedicated September 28, 1808. The establishment of a school of divinity was a part of the original plan of the founders of Phillips Academy, although not to make it a distinct institution. (Bailey)

In addition to ministers, the seminary also produced hundreds of missionaries. Over the school’s 100-year stay in Andover, its graduates proselytized in Greece, Bulgaria, Armenia, Palestine, Turkey, India, Burma, China, Japan and all over Africa and Latin America. (Balboni)

Two notable graduates were part of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi. Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston were classmates at Andover Theological Seminary (completed Seminary courses 1819;) they were ordained on September 29, 1819 at Goshen, Connecticut. (Joesting)

“On Saturday the 23d of October, the mission family, with a large concourse of spectators, assembled on Long Wharf; and after a prayer by the Rev. Dr. Worcester, Messrs. Bingham and Thurston sung, “When shall we all meet again?” and took a final farewell of their friends.”

“In this far distant land of strangers … it is a comfort to us to look back to that radiating point of missionary light and love, and to remember the privileges which we enjoyed, when treading, like you, on consecrated ground. The rising palaces of that hill of Zion, its treasures of learning and wisdom, and its fountains of consolation are still dear to us, though we shall never look upon its like again.”

“But it is the noble purposes of benevolent action, formed, matured, or Cherished and directed there, which gives us the most impressive view of its beauty and strength, and inspires our liveliest hopes, that that institution will be the most important to the church, and the most useful to the heathen, which the world has ever seen.”

“When we look at the history of that Seminary and of the American Board; when we see their connexion and their joint influence, hitherto so powerful, and so well directed, and the peculiar smiles which the Redeemer has bestowed upon them …”

“… our ears are open to hear the united song of heathen lands,—‘How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.’” (Letter from Bingham and Thurston to the Society of Inquiry, February 20, 1821)

In 1908, the Seminary moved to Cambridge and in the fall of 1931 shared a campus with Newton Theological Institution in Newton, Massachusetts. In 1965, after three decades together on one campus, the two schools officially merged, becoming Andover Newton Theological School.

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Punahou Taro Patch

“Long ago an aged couple dwelled near the present spring. At a time of drought and famine, the people were obliged to search the mountains for ti root and wild yams for food, and to trudge to Kamo‘ili‘ili to fill their calabashes with drinking water.”

“One night the old woman dreamed that a man appeared to her, to whom she complained bitterly about having to go so far for water, whereupon he said: “He wai no” (“There is water”) and told her that beneath the trunk of an old hala tree nearby she would find it.”

“She awoke her husband and told him the dream, but he made light of it. The next night he had a similar dream. The apparition directed him to go to the sea and catch some red fish, to roast them in ti leaves, reserving a part as an offering to the family deities, and then to pull up the old hala tree by the roots.”

“He awoke, and lo! it was a dream. But the impression it made on him was so strong that in the morning he hastened to carry out the directions which he had received, and when at last he pulled up the hala tree, water oozed out from beneath its roots.”

“He dug out the place, and thus formed the spring, which was named Kapunahou. A pond was formed below the spring, and by it were irrigated a dozen or more taro patches.” (Sterling and Summers)

Prehistorically and historically, the area of densest population in all the Hawaiian Islands was that flanking Waikīkī on the island of O‘ahu. Here the chiefs had their residences near the now famous beach and the offshore waters where conditions were ideal for their prized sport of surf riding.

A whaling captain, FD Bennett says that in Mānoa Valley yams were grown ‘chiefly for the supply of shipping.’ Menzies with Vancouver in 1792, described the plantations behind Waikīkī as ‘little fields planted with taro, yams, sweet potatoes, and the

cloth plant.’ (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

This in early times idyllic area was flanked by the great wet-taro lands of Mānoa, and the area between that valley and the sea which was one continuous spread of taro land and fishponds; by Pauoa, Nu‘uanu, Waiolani, Kapalama, and Kalihi. (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

Mānoa, due to its broad, well-watered valley, was probably settled early by the Hawaiians, who probably cleared much of the lower areas near streams for wetland taro cultivation.

“In upper Manoa the whole of the level land in the valley bottom was developed in broad taro flats . The terraces extended along Manoa Stream as far as there is a suitable land for irrigating.”

“Some of the lower portion of the old taro area, in land from the slightly elevated land south west of Rocky Hill, is now covered by streets and houses. But except for this, the extensive terrace area is still intact and could be replanted.”

“Most of it is under grass and unused. About 100 terraces are still being cultivated, but these do not constitute more than one tenth of the total area capable of being planted.”  (Sterling and Summers)

There was a famous terraced area below what is now the Punahou School campus. “Kauawaahila afterwards made some kalo patches [there], and people attracted by the water and consequent fertility of the place came and settled about ….”

“More and more kalo patches were excavated and the place became a thriving settlement. The spring became known as Ka Punahou, and gave its name to the surrounding place”. (Nakuina, Thrum 1892)

The first recorded landlord (Konohiki) of Kapunahou was Kame‘eiamoku, one of the twin supporters of Kamehameha I. This was in 1795.  The twins were originally Kamehameha’s guardians (Kahus) and later supported his rise to power.

In recognition of this support, Kamehameha gave Moanalua and Kapunahou to Kame‘eiamoku. Kameʻeiamoku died at Lahaina in 1802. Kapunahou passed on to his son, Ulumaheihei. Ulumaheihei was renamed Hoapili by Kamehameha I.

Hoapili lived at Kapunahou for, some twenty years and when Kamehameha I stayed at Waikīkī (1804-1811) he visited Hoapili there. Hoapili gave Kapunahou to his daughter, Liliha. This probably happened when Hoapili moved to Lahaina to become the Governor of Maui.

Liliha was married to Boki, the Governor of O‘ahu.  Shortly after this, Ka‘ahumanu, Queen Regent, became an ardent supporter of the missionaries who had arrived in 1820.

In 1829, she wished to give Hiram and Sybil Bingham a gift of land and consulted Hoapili. He suggested Kapunahou (although he had already given it to Liliha).

According to A. F. Judd, “Not unnaturally, Liliha demurred the proposal, but Boki consented. And Liliha’s resentment could avail nothing against the wish of her father, her husband, and the highest chief of the land.” The land was given to the Binghams, but by missionary rules, it was really given to the mission as a whole.

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Pre- and Early-teen Pineapple Workers

Child employment is regulated by both federal and Hawaii state laws. When the laws overlap, employers are required to follow the one that provides more protection. It’s also essential to know that the regulations vary significantly depending on the youth’s age.

Children under 14 are generally prohibited from working in non-agriculture operations, with some exceptions. Fourteen- and 15-year-olds are subject to limited types of work and limited working hours.

Teens ages 16 and 17 can generally work any number of hours in any job unless it’s considered hazardous, which we’ll touch on later. Once someone turns 18, they’re no longer subject to child labor laws.

Hawaiʻi law requires anyone under 18 to have a child labor certificate, or work permit, before their first day on the job. This is a way for the state to ensure the work isn’t hazardous and won’t interfere with a teenager’s schooling. (ALTRES)

It used to be different … “I worked when I was eleven …. Of course, I was already cleaning haole houses, so this work was steady income. You work, you carry your canvas bag, and your lunch, and your bottle of water. Gloves, everything you need.”

“When we had to go picking, you would climb through all the plants to get to the center of the field. You pick the pineapple, you throw it to the next line.”

“[I]f you caught a field with a lot of ripe pineapples, boy, you work fast, you can earn a lot of money because you get a bonus for the number of crates you crate up.”

“I was only eleven, and the other people were twelve. But then, I’m in the same grade they are; we’re in the sixth grade. I remember I was paid ten cents less, because I wasn’t twelve years old yet”. (Jane Lee Gabriel, UH Oral History, Lānai: Reflecting on the Past)

Another pre-teen worked in the fields, “I remember working in the pineapple fields when I was eleven years old. So, at eleven I would be a sixth-grader [in 1944].”

“The war is still going on, yes. We had to wear canvas pants, a long-sleeved denim jacket because we would get pierced by those long, pointed pineapple leaves. We also had to wear wire goggles to protect our eyes. Then a hat, because we would be out in the sun.”

“We had to do weeding and putting fertilizer into the pineapple plant, and picking the ripe pineapples from the plant. … My classmates, because they were already twelve, were getting sixty-seven cents.”

“I remember grumbling about it. I went to the luna, and said, ‘You know, my pay is not fair. How come they’re getting more money than me?’”

“‘We’re in the same grade at school, and I’m going to be twelve in November. But then, this is the summer, so I’m only eleven.’” (Jane Nakamura, UH Oral History, Lānai: Reflecting on the Past)

Another preteen worked in the fields … [I was] ”Twelve years old. My pay I believe was something like thirty-five cents an hour. The war was still going on and I went to get my physical. I was so proud. I’m going to work and they gave me a number, aluminum tag with my work number [bango].”

“[We did] Everything from picking pineapples to cutting grass. Especially in the summertime, it was never cutting grass, it was always picking pineapple.”

“When you’re twelve years old, you don’t weigh even one hundred pounds. I didn’t. We had these big bags we put the pineapples in. The weight of it would weigh—if I wasn’t set and leaning a certain way, I couldn’t put any pineapples in there without [Tipping over].” (Takeo Yamato, UH Oral History, Lānai: Reflecting on the Past)

Another Lanai youth noted, “When I was twelve, pineapple field were picking up kids up to – well when I was eleven, they picked up kids up to twelve years old to work in the pineapple field.”

“So I said next year, I can work in the pineapple field cause all the kids look forward to going to work into pineapple field cause that’s about all you had on the island besides playing sports or whatever.”

“So I said, well, next year, I’ll be able to work in the pineapple field. That year, they picked (kids) up till thirteen and they stopped. And I said, well, I will have to wait the following – following year, they stopped at fourteen.”

“When I got to be fourteen, they had this law, something about you had to go to the labor board and everything, so it stopped at fifteen.”

“When I was fifteen, they said up to sixteen, and that’s it. So by the time I worked in the pineapple field, I was sixteen years old. I worked about two years (in the pineapple fields). I graduated from school when I was eighteen and I left (Lānai) and (joined) the army (in summer of 1956) and that’s it.”

“But my sister, I think she started (working in the pineapple fields) when she was twelve or eleven. Every time I wanted to be the age so I can go and work (in the) pineapple field, they stopped at the age before me.” (Charlotte Richardson Holsomback; UH Oral History, Lānai Ranch)

Maui Land & Pineapple used to have similar success in recruited youthful workers …“In years past, we had to turn kids away. There wasn’t anything else to do. Now going to work for a plantation is the last thing they want to do.” (Hnl Adv-Jun 14, 1973)

”We put on a big campaign on Kauai and Hawaii for local boys. From the Big Island we wanted 30 boys and got six. We anticipated 20 boys from Kauai and got four.” (Shuji Seki, recruiting and personnel supervisor for Maui Pine)

Hawai‘i youth were not filling the needs … “Until five years ago Maui Pine recruited 100 per cent of its labor from the island. With the rapid increase in hotels and the resulting decrease in local agricultural labor the company was forced into recruiting from the off islands and finally from the Mainland.” (Hnl Adv-Jun 14, 1973)

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Dartmouth

“It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it!” (Daniel Webster)

The rolling hills and plentiful foliage of New Hampshire are home to over 20 colleges and universities.  New Hampshire’s first school, founded seven years before the country, is Dartmouth College, an Ivy League institution along the banks of the Connecticut River in the small town of Hanover. (Messier, SeaCoastOnLine)

Dartmouth’s first classes, consisting of just four students, were held in a single log hut in Hanover in 1770. (LOC) The college was named in honor of William Legge, the British Earl of Dartmouth, a friend of Wentworth’s and an important benefactor.

Dartmouth College has its origins in More’s (later Moor’s) Indian Charity School, an educational enterprise established in the year 1754 at Lebanon, Connecticut, by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, a minister of the Congregational faith and a graduate of Yale.  (Christopher DeLuca)

“Wheelock … first founded a private ‘Latin’ school, aimed at educating both colonists and natives in the classics, including a young Samson Occom, a Mohegan who became trained as an excellent minister.”

“In time, Wheelock realized his passion, founding Moor’s Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut. The sole purpose of this small school was to prepare students to become Protestant missionaries, including Natives among their own tribes and colonists where Native numbers were lacking.”

“This school was open to male and female students of many ages and was free to attend, operating upon donations (both monetary and farm product-based). Despite English being the only language necessary to preach, Wheelock insisted upon teaching his pupils Latin, Greek, and Hebrew as well. “

“The Reverend also taught his charges farming and agricultural skills, despite complaints from some students’ parents, who were themselves farmers. Underlying the obvious paternal motivations behind these curricular choices, we can see the nucleus of what would become a liberal arts curriculum.” (Dartmouth Review)

“[T]he Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, of Lebanon, in the colony of Connecticut, in New England, aforesaid, now doctor in divinity, did, on or about the year of our Lord 1754, at his own expense, on his own estate and plantation, set on foot an Indian charity school …”

“… and for several years, through the assistance of well-disposed persons in America, clothed, maintained and educated a number of the children of the Indian natives, with a view to their carrying the Gospel, in their own language, and spreading the knowledge of the great Redeemer, among their savage tribes …”

“[T]he said Eleazar Wheelock thought it expedient, that endeavors should be used to raise contributions from well disposed persons in England for the carrying on and extending said undertaking …”

“… and for that purpose the said Eleazar Wheelock requested the Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, now doctor in divinity, to go over to England for that purpose, and sent over with him the Rev. Samson Occom, an Indian minister, who had been educated by the said Wheelock.”

“… considering the premises and being willing to encourage the laudable and charitable design of spreading Christian knowledge among the savages of our American wilderness, and also that the best means of education be established in our province of New Hampshire, for the benefit of said province …”

“… do, of our special grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, by and with the advice of our counsel for said province, by these presents, will, ordain, grant and constitute that there be a college erected in our said province of New Hampshire by the name of Dartmouth College …”

“… for the education and instruction of youth of the Indian tribes in this land in reading, writing, and all parts of learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing and christianizing children of pagans, as well as in all liberal arts and sciences, and also of English youth and any others.” (Dartmouth Charter)

Fast forward … “Since 2012, the Native and Indigenous Pre-Orientation program has served incoming Indigenous students in their transition to Dartmouth.”

“As our community continues to grow, and increasingly represents more and more Indigenous communities, we are dedicated to building a Native and Indigenous Pre-Orientation program that meets the changing needs of Indigenous students.”

“The purpose of the Native and Indigenous Pre-Orientation is to connect incoming Native American, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, and Indigenous first year students with the key offices and resources that will guide and support them throughout college.”

“The Native American Program in collaboration with the Admissions Office, works with various campus partners to provide community-based resource structures and programs that holistically support our students, in their total academic, social, and emotional wellbeing.”  (Dartmouth)

“Hōkūpa‘a is a student-led organization at Dartmouth greatly supported by the Native American Program (NAP). It was created by and for students who are from or are connected to the Pacific Islands.”

“‘Hōkūpa‘a,’ meaning ‘steadfast star,’ is the name of the North Star, Polaris, in the Hawaiian language. This particular star has great importance to traditional seafaring and navigation — Indigenous Islanders throughout the Pacific relied on this star to find their way about the ocean.”

“We bring light to the story behind the name Hōkūpa`a to reiterate our commitment to our pan-Pasifika family and our time-honored interconnectivity. Navigation, the ocean, and the stars are some of the main connecting forces of the Pacific Islands and its peoples. As an organization, Hōkūpaʻa aims to create a similar space for Pacific Islander students on Dartmouth’s campus.”

“The Dartmouth Lūʻau is an annual event that celebrates the existence and representation of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander identity on the Dartmouth campus. Since its initiation, the Dartmouth Lūʻau has brought together communities from across campus, as well as regionally, to celebrate, honor, educate, and share their Native heritage.” (Dartmouth)

The college as it stands today almost ceased to exist in the 1800s, when the state of New Hampshire attempted to change Dartmouth’s original charter to make it a state university.

The case of Dartmouth College vs. Woodward eventually worked its way up to the US Supreme Court, where Dartmouth College prevailed under the leadership of alumnus and lawyer Daniel Webster, who re-founded the college in 1819. (Messier, SeaCoastOnLne)

As of 2023 there were approximately 4,500 undergraduates and 2,200 graduate students enrolled in the four-year, private, liberal arts college.

The school has more than 40 undergraduate academic departments and programs in the arts and sciences. Dartmouth College is the home of one the nation’s oldest professional schools of engineering, the first graduate school of management, and one of the nation’s top medical schools. (LOC)

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