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December 19, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Founder’s Day

Pauahi Pākī was born on December 19, 1831 in Honolulu, Hawai‘i to high chiefs Abner Pākī and Laura Kōnia Pākī. She was the great-granddaughter of Kamehameha I. (KSBE)

Pauahi was hānai (adopted) to her aunt, Kīnaʻu (the eldest daughter of Kamehameha, who later served as Kuhina Nui as Kaʻahumanu II, a position similar to a Prime Minister.) Pauahi lived with Kīnaʻu for nearly eight years, then Kīnaʻu died suddenly of mumps (April 4, 1839.)

High Chief Caesar Kapaʻakea and his wife High Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole had three children, a daughter was Lydia Liliʻu Kamakaʻeha (born September 2, 1838.)

Liliʻu was hānai (adopted) to the Pākīs, who reared her with their birth daughter, Pauahi. The two girls developed a close, loving relationship.

“…their only daughter, Bernice Pauahi … was therefore my foster-sister. … I knew no other father or mother than my foster-parents, no other sister than Bernice.” (Lili‘uokalani)

They lived on the property called Haleʻākala, in a two-story coral house that Pākī built on King Street. It was the ‘Pink House,’ (the house was name ʻAikupika (Egypt.)) It later became the Arlington Hotel.

The girls attended the Chief’s Children’s School, a boarding school, and were known for their studious demeanor. Founded in 1839 during the reign of King Kamehameha III, the original Chief’s Children’s School was on what is now the capitol grounds.

Mr. and Mrs. Amos Cooke, missionaries from New England, were commissioned to teach the 16 royal children (others who joined the Pākī sisters were Alexander Liholiho (later Kamehameha IV,) Lot Kapuāiwa (later Kamehameha V,) Queen Emma, King William Lunalilo and Liliʻu’s brother, David (later King Kalākaua.) In 1846 the school’s name was officially changed to Royal School; it was opened to the general public in 1851.

In 1850, at the age of 19, Pauahi married Charles Reed Bishop, a young American businessman who had made his way to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i from Glens Falls, New York.

Charles became a pillar in the kingdom government and was a successful businessman, banker and philanthropist. He and Pauahi enjoyed traveling the world with particular fondness for museums and art. With no children of their own, they shared a deep commitment for the well-being and education of kamali‘i — young ones. (KSBE)

When her cousin, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani, died, Keʻelikōlani’s will stated that she “give and bequeath forever to my beloved younger sister (cousin), Bernice Pauahi Bishop, all of my property, the real property and personal property from Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi, all of said property to be hers.”

The total land bequest included about 353,000 acres. Keʻelikōlani had previously inherited all of the substantial landholdings of the Kamehameha dynasty from her brother, Lot Kapuāiwa (King Kamehameha V.)

Bernice Pauahi died childless on October 16, 1884. She foresaw the need to educate her people and in her will she left her large estate of the Kamehameha lands in a trust “to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha Schools.”

She further stated, “I desire my trustees to provide first and chiefly a good education in the common English branches, and also instruction in morals and in such useful knowledge as may tend to make good and industrious men and women”.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop, by founding the Kamehameha Schools, intended to establish institutions which should be of lasting benefit to her country; and also to honor the name Kamehameha.

After Pauahi’s death, Charles as president of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate’s board of trustees, ensured that his wife’s wish was fulfilled. He generously provided his own funds for the construction of facilities and added some of his own properties to her estate.

Until his death in 1915, he continued to guide her trustees in directions that reinforced her vision of a perpetual educational institution that would build a vibrant future for her people. (KSBE)

Today, December 19, is Pauahi’s birthday; it is also known as Founder’s Day at Kamehameha Schools.

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Bernice_Pauahi_Bishop-HerbKane
Bernice_Pauahi_Bishop-HerbKane

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Prominent People, Schools Tagged With: Kamehameha Schools, Liliuokalani, Queen Liliuokalani, Princess Ruth Keelikolani, Pauahi, Hawaii, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Charles Reed Bishop

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)

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Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Hawaiian Traditions, Schools, Economy, General Tagged With: Hawaii, Noah Webster, Education, Literacy, Pi-a-pa, Collaboration

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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Ramage Press replica at Mission Houses
Ramage Press replica at Mission Houses
Hawaiian Alphabet
Hawaiian Alphabet
Baibala
Baibala
Kaahumanu-(HerbKane)
Kaahumanu-(HerbKane)
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Missionaries_preaching_under_kukui_groves,_1841

Filed Under: General, Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Schools, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Missionaries, Literacy, American Protestant Missionaries

November 26, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

President William McKinley High School

McKinley High School (Oʻahu’s oldest public high school) was officially established in 1865, as the Fort Street English Day School by Maurice B. Beckwith. In November 1869, the English Day School moved from the basement of the old Fort Street Church to a new stone building on the corner of Fort and School Streets.

The Fort Street School was split in 1895 into Kaʻiulani Elementary School and Honolulu High School (the high school moved into Keōua Hale – former residence of Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani.)

In 1907, Honolulu High School moved to the corner of Beretania and Victoria Streets. The school’s name was then changed to President William McKinley High School, after President William McKinley, whose influence brought about the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States.

McKinley High School enjoyed the use of an “imposing” building opened in 1908. In an article which appeared in Thrum’s “Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1909” (published in 1908), CE King said:

“A very marked improvement has been attained in the architecture of buildings recently erected in Hawaii … This is notably true of the imposing McKinley High School, a building which compares most favorably with any of its kind in the world. …”

“In addition there is a principal’s office, ladies’ retiring room, each provided with all conveniences, two hat rooms for the use of students, a specimen and apparatus room for the physics laboratory, a private chemistry laboratory and a dark room connected with the chemical laboratory.”

That former McKinley High School building is still there. McKinley was later relocated, the old site (Beretania and Victoria) was occupied by the Linekona (“Lincoln”) Elementary School (that later relocated to the Makiki District.) In 1990, the building was renovated as the “Academy Art Center,” the largest art private school in Hawaiʻi, under the administration of the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

With growing enrollment, the school quickly outgrew its new building and a new and bigger school was necessary. In 1921, the present site on King Street was acquired through territorial condemnation. In 1923, the school was moved from the Beretania/ Victoria site to its present location, nearby on King Street.

At that time, McKinley had no auditorium; however, in 1927 the Marion McCarrell Scott Auditorium was dedicated. This new auditorium was then the largest theater in Hawaiʻi with a seating capacity of 1,114 (it served not only the students but the community at large.)

The school’s swimming pool was the students’ pride of the 1920s because they played an active part in its construction. Armed with picks, shovels and determination, the students began the excavation for a pool in 1923. The pool was completed in 1926 and named in honor of the late Honolulu Mayor Fred Wright.

Through the 1920s, more than half of the high school students in Hawaiʻi attended McKinley.

December 8, 1941 the US Government commandeered the nearby St Louis campus for the use of the 147th General Hospital. Elementary students attended classes at Saint Patrick School and St Louis high school classes shared classes at McKinley High School.

Sharing a campus by the high schools led to a fierce rivalry. To ease some of the tension, reportedly, Saint Louis football coach (later Honolulu Mayor) Neal Blaisdell created the “poi pounder trophy,” to go to the winner of the annual Saint Louis/McKinley football game (this continued from 1942 to 1969.)

The Second World War proved to bring other challenges to the students of McKinley. They wanted to do their part in the nation’s war effort. A savings bond drive was conducted, and the students responded by buying over $200,000 in bonds and stamps.

The overwhelming success of the bond drive instigated a new project; the goal was to purchase a fighter bomber for the US Air Force. Students raised an additional $333,000 in war bonds to cover the cost of a Liberator bomber. In February 1944, the plane, christened “Madame Pele,” was presented to the US Air Force.

With the ending of WW II, Veterans’ School was begun on campus to help the McKinley young men who had left school for the war. One hundred and five veterans came back to McKinley and finished their education.

In the 1960s, the students had an opportunity to choose from a wider range of subjects in preparation for their post-high school education. McKinley continued to be a comprehensive public high school in Hawaiʻi.

Comprehensive high schools are meant to serve the needs of all students; typical comprehensive high schools offer more than one course of specialization in its program and usually have a college preparatory course and one or more scientific or vocational courses.

The school colors, black and gold, were selected when McKinley High School was very young. Gold was chosen for McKinley’s close association with Hawaiian royalty. Not only was the school started during the reign of Kamehameha V, but also Honolulu High School, the predecessor of McKinley High School, used the home of Princess Ruth for a school house.

In searching for a color to compliment the gold, black was agreed upon. Part of the reason for the selection was that many McKinley graduates continued their education at Princeton University, whose colors are also black and gold. The nickname, “Tigers”, was possibly derived from the close association with Princeton.

Another proud aspect of McKinley’s history is the Code of Honor written in 1927 by student Mun Chee Chun. The code expressed the high standard of behavior which McKinley students tried to maintain. The original plaque of the code is proudly displayed in the main foyer of the Administration building.

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McKinley High School-level-Babcock
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Keoua Hale
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Filed Under: Schools Tagged With: McKinley High School, Keoua Hale, Neal Blaisdell, Fort Street Church, Linekona, Hawaii, Oahu, Abraham Lincoln

November 18, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Oh, father, dear father, do take me back!”

From 1820 to 1848, 12-Companies of missionaries, under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), arrived in the Islands. Every group of missionaries arrived by ship, sailing from New England, around Cape Horn and finally reaching the Hawaiian Islands usually after a five-month sea voyage. (Miller)

For the most part, the missionaries were married – typically ‘just married’ a few weeks or months of their departure. In the Pioneer Company, by the middle of the trip, four of the wives were pregnant.

After 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Hawai‘i’s “Plymouth Rock” is about where the Kailua pier is today.

Starting a few short months after their arrival, the new missionary wives became mothers.

The first child was Levi Loomis, son of the Printer, Elisha and Maria Loomis; he was the first white child born in the Islands. Here is the order of the early missionary births:

July 16, 1820 … Honolulu (Oʻahu) … Levi Loomis
October 19, 1820 … Waimea (Kauai) … Maria Whitney
November 9, 1820 … Honolulu (Oʻahu) … Sophia Bingham
December 22, 1820 … Waimea (Kauai) … Sarah Ruggles
March 2, 1821 … Waimea (Kauai) … Lucia Holman
September 28, 1821 … Honolulu (Oʻahu) … Persis Thurston

More missionaries, and more children, came, later.

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)

This was fine for the Hawaiians who were beginning to learn to read and write, but the missionary families were looking for expanded education for their children.

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. From 1826 until 1842, young missionary parents began to make a decision seemingly at odds with the idealizing of the family so prevalent in the 19th century; they weighed the possibility of sending them back to New England. The trauma mostly affected families of the first two companies.

“(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)

“Owing to the then lack of advanced schools in Hawaii, the earlier mission children were all ‘sent home’ around Cape Horn, to ‘be educated.’ This was the darkest day in the life history of the mission child.”

In 1840, as the ship carrying the missionaries’ offspring pulled away from the dock, a distraught seven-year-old, Caroline Armstrong, looking at her father on the shore, the distance between them widening every moment … “Oh, father, dear father, do take me back!”

Her plea echoed in the hearts of the community. In June of that year the mission voted to establish a school for the missionary children at Punahou.

The Missionary Period lasted from 1820 to 1863; during the first 21-years of the Missionary Period, no fewer than 33 children were either sent or taken back to the continent by their parents.

Click HERE to view/download Background Information on Missionary Children

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Sophia Bingham-photo of original painting
Sophia Bingham-photo of original painting

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Schools Tagged With: Sophia Bingham, Hawaii, Hiram Bingham, Missionaries

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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