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August 20, 2015 by Peter T Young 7 Comments

Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary

“The inception of this school emanated from Mrs Halsey Gulick. In 1863, when living in the old mission premises on the mauka side of King street, she took several Hawaiian girls into her family to be brought up with her own children … The mother love was strong in that little group as some of us remember.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897)

The usefulness of such a school became evident; as the enrollment grew, the need for a more permanent organization was required.

“It might be claimed that the real beginning was when Rev. Dr. Gulick and wife first occupied the Clark house, and on March 6, 1865, opened a family school for girls.” (The Friend, April 1, 1923)

In 1867, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society (HMCS – an organization consisting of the children of the missionaries and adopted supporters) decided to support a girls’ boarding school. An early advertisement (April 13, 1867) notes it was called Honolulu Female Academy.

HMCS invited Miss Lydia Bingham (daughter of Reverend Hiram Bingham, leader of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi) to return to Honolulu to be a teacher in this family school; she was then principal of the Ohio Female College, at College Hill, Ohio.

“Her love for the land of her birth and Interest for the children of the people to whom her father and mother had given their early lives, led her to accept the position, and in March, 1867, she arrived on the Morning Star via Cape Horn.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897)

HMCS appropriated funds for repairs and additions to the buildings; “(t)he old stone buildings which had formerly been used as printing office and bindery by the mission, with the house of Rev EW Clark, then occupied by Dr. H. Gulick, were repaired and remodelled, to enlarge and make more comfortable the necessary rooms for the school now successfully started.”

“It would be impossible to tell those of you who only know the present building, how crowded and uncomfortable some of those rooms were but we rejoiced, for it was improvement! Miss Bingham soon became principal of the school.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897) It was later named Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary.

It started with boarders and day students, but after 1871 it has been exclusively a boarding school. “Under her patient energy and tact, with the help of her assistants, it prospered greatly, and became a success.” (Coan)

At first the school was designed to prepare Hawaiian girls to become ‘suitable’ wives for men who were at the same time preparing to become missionaries and work in the South Seas.

This objective took the back seat to industrial education as new industrial departments were added. This included sewing, washing and ironing, dressmaking, domestic arts and nursing.

The mainstay of the curriculum involved furnishing complete elementary courses, including music, both vocal and instrumental, and training in the household arts. Concerts given by the girls helped the school to make money.

In January 1869, Miss Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu (Lizzie) Bingham arrived from the continent to be an assistant to her sister. Lizzie was a graduate of Mount Holyoke and, when she was recruited, was a teacher at Rockford Female Seminary. (Beyer)

“To those of us who were then watching the efforts of these Christian ladies the school became the centre of great interest. The excellent discipline, the loving care, the neatness and skill shown in all departments of domestic life, the thoroughness of the teaching and the high Christian spirit which pervaded it all caused rejoicing that such an impulse had been given to education for Hawaiian girls.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897)

“Every Sunday one of the teachers accompanied the Girls to Kawaiahaʻo Church diagonally across the street to the morning service.” (Sutherland Journal)

“When Miss Bingham came to Hilo (on October 13, 1873 she married Titus Coan,) the seminary was committed to the charge of her sister, whose earnest labors for seven years in a task that is heavy and exhausting so reduced her strength, that in June, 1880 she was obliged to resign her post.” (Coan)

While Kawaiahaʻo was both growing and changing into an industrial school, two other female seminaries came into existence: Kohala Female Seminary and Maunaʻolu Seminary (East Maui Female Seminary.)

At the end of the century, all the female seminaries began to lose students to the newly founded Kamehameha School for Girls. This latter school was established in 1894.

It was not technically a seminary or founded by missionaries, but all the girls enrolled were Hawaiian, and its curriculum was very similar to what was used at the missionary sponsored seminaries.

Since Kawaiahaʻo Seminary was located only a few miles from this new female school, it experienced the biggest loss in enrollment and adjusted by enrolling more non-Hawaiian students.

In 1905, a merger with Mills Institute, a boys’ school, was discussed; the Hawaiian Board of Foreign Missions purchased the Kidwell estate, about 35-acres of land in Mānoa valley.

By 1908, the first building was completed and the school was officially operated as Mid-Pacific Institute, consisting of Kawaiahaʻo School for Girls and Damon School for Boys.

Finally, in the fall of 1922, a new coeducational plan went into effect – likewise, ‘Mills’ and ‘Kawaiahaʻo’ were dropped and by June 1923, Mid-Pacific became the common, shared name.

Kohala Female Seminary and Maunaʻolu Female Seminary continued to exist through the 1920s, offering a high school diploma to their graduates. (Hiram and Sybil Bingham, parents of Lydia and Lizzie, are my great-great-great grandparent.)

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Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary,_Honolulu,_c._1867
Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary,_Honolulu,_c._1867
Lydia Bingham-1866
Lydia Bingham-1866
Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary
Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary
Kawaiahaʻo_Female-Seminary
Kawaiahaʻo_Female-Seminary
Honolulu Female Academy-PCA-April_13,_ 1867
Honolulu Female Academy-PCA-April_13,_ 1867
Gulick_Home_expanded_to_house-Kawaiahaʻo_Female-Seminary
Gulick_Home_expanded_to_house-Kawaiahaʻo_Female-Seminary

 

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Schools Tagged With: Mid-Pacific Institute, Hiram Bingham, Lizzie Bingham, Damon School for Boys, Hawaii, Oahu, Kawaiahao Seminary, Lydia Bingham

July 14, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Ida May Pope

“Kamehameha Girls School Last Night – The first commencement of the Girls’ School took place in Kaumakapili Church last night before an audience of something like 2,000 people, the largest number ever gathered together in the native place of worship.”

“This very generous attendance showed the interest that the people of Honolulu have in the work that is being done by Miss Pope and her corps of worthy assistants.”

“Miss Pope’s work with the girls cannot be too highly praised, and she and her assistants may feel justly proud that they have sent forth into the world Hawaiian girls who are eminently capable to take their places as trainers of the young Hawaiians.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 6, 1897)

“These are the young ladies of the school who graduated this year: Lydia Aholo, Julia Akana, Kalei Ewaliko, Miriama Hale, Lewa Iokia, Helen Kahaleahu, Elizabeth Kahanu, Malie Kapali, Hattie Kekalohe, Elizabeth Kaliinoi, Keluia Kiwaha, Julia Lovell, Jessie Mahoahoa, Elizabeth Waiamau, and Aoe Wong Kong.” (Kuokoa, July 2, 1897)

Ida May Pope was born in Crestline, Ohio July 30, 1862 to Dr William and Cornelia Waring Pope. She was the third child among seven.

Though her father was a doctor, he also co-patented the Franz-Pope device “to provide an improved mechanism for taking up the slack of the yarn, which occurs in knitting the heels and toes of stockings.” (Franz and Pope)

Ms Pope “was a graduate of Oberlin University and for many months held a responsible position in one of the educational institutions at Columbus supported by the State of Ohio.”

Then, “in August 1890, Miss Ida M Pope left for Honolulu to accept a position in the Kawaiahaʻo seminary. This talented young lady is one of the most efficient teachers ever raised in this community.”

“Miss Pope remained a teacher in the seminary one year. The gentlemen in charge of the seminary appreciated her faithful efforts and appointed her principal of the institution.”

In 1893, Miss Pope was granted a vacation to visit some of the best industrial schools on the continent and was given authority to employ seven young ladies to assist in Kawaiahaʻo Seminary. The education work made rapid progress and the seminary was so successful that it was determined to increase the corps of teachers and add an industrial department to the work.

“Among the seven teachers employed are three well known to the citizens of this community, who left yesterday afternoon with Miss Pope. These are Miss Bertha Sears, Mrs Ida Sturgeon and Miss Jennie Denzer. … They will sail from San Francisco on August 17 and reach Honolulu August 24.” (Bucyrus (Ohio) Journal; Hawaiian Gazette, August 29, 1893)

Then, on December 19 1894, the second stage of establishing the Kamehameha Schools was accomplished when the Kamehameha School for Girls was begun. The site was on the makai of King Street opposite the campus of the then school for boys (across from what is now Farrington High School.)

The first principal of the school was Ida May Pope; she was a strong-minded, energetic Midwesterner who picked her own teachers; the first, like her, were all single women from the mainland.

“Pope set a tone to discipline the Hawaiianness of her girls. ‘Constant and consistent restraint is the way to control the careless, joyous, happy-go-lucky nature of the Hawaiian.’” (Broken Trust)

“The object of the school is to furnish a carefully arranged, practical education to Hawaiian girls of thirteen years of age and over, qualifying them for service at home, for wage-earning in some handicraft, or as teachers in the government schools. The number of pupils is limited to eighty.” (Pope; The Friend)

The school has offered two courses—an English and a Normal course. The schoolroom work includes drill in the common branches, algebra, Hawaiian and general history, literature, elementary science, embracing physiology, botany, zoology, chemistry and physics.

We hope to see a fruit orchard, where the mango, orange, lime, papaya, and pear will flourish, and a garden that will supply vegetables for the table and flowers in abundance.”

“We cannot make farmers of Hawaiian girls, but we can train them to beautify their homes and supply their tables with flowers, fruit, and vegetables raised by their labor; and we can give them an insight into the keeping and caring for well-ordered homes and grounds.”

“The general housework of the school – cooking, laundering, and the care of public and private rooms – is done by the pupils. Games—tennis, croquet, basket and tower ball, afford ample relaxation and recreation. Mondays are holidays. Saturday evenings the pupils gather in the assembly hall or gymnasium for literary or social entertainments.” (Pope; The Friend)

Pope was referred to by the girls as Mother Pope or Mama Pope. During the last few years of her life, she also took on personal responsibility for a young child. The girl, Gladys, was the only daughter in a household with five older sons. Pope took Gladys as her hānai daughter (we knew her as Gladys Brandt (1906-2003.))

Miss Ida May Pope died on July 14, 1914, while on a teacher recruiting trip. “The death of Miss Pope is an irretrievable loss to the Kamehameha Schools and to the Hawaiian race.” (Albert F Judd)

“She gave herself to the cause of mothering Hawaiian girls, so many of whom had no real mothers. In this service she never spared herself and to it she sacrificed her life.” (LC Hudson)

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Ida-Pope
Ida-Pope
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls-makai-Diamond Head corner of King and Kalihi Streets.(KSBE)
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls-makai-Diamond Head corner of King and Kalihi Streets.(KSBE)
KSG-Front-Entrance-at-Kawiula
KSG-Front-Entrance-at-Kawiula
KSG Founder's Day at Mauna 'Ala 1902-KSBE
KSG Founder’s Day at Mauna ‘Ala 1902-KSBE
Girls-Sr.-Cottage
Girls-Sr.-Cottage
KSG sewing-KSBE
KSG sewing-KSBE
KSG nursing class-KSBE
KSG nursing class-KSBE
KSG ironing-KSBE
KSG ironing-KSBE
KSG cooking class c1900-KSBE
KSG cooking class c1900-KSBE
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls_sewing_class,-(WC)_late_1890s
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls_sewing_class,-(WC)_late_1890s
First Graduating Class of the Kamehameha School for Girls-(KSBE)-1897
First Graduating Class of the Kamehameha School for Girls-(KSBE)-1897
Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary
Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary
franz-pope-sock-knitting-machine
franz-pope-sock-knitting-machine

Filed Under: Schools, Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, Ida May Pope

July 11, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

School for the Children of the Missionaries

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”,) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Punahou School
Advertisement-Oahu-College-1895
Advertisement-Oahu-College-1895
Bingham Tablet
Bingham Tablet
Bingham Tablet
Bingham Tablet
Punahou School, Photograph attributed to Charles Burgess-1866
Punahou School, Photograph attributed to Charles Burgess-1866
Oahu College scene of driveway to Old School Hall and E Building, c.1881
Oahu College scene of driveway to Old School Hall and E Building, c.1881
Manual-Arts-Class-James-B-Castle-School-1924
Manual-Arts-Class-James-B-Castle-School-1924
Punahou-Old_School_Hall
Punahou-Old_School_Hall
Punahou-Lily-Pond-and-Tennis-Courts-1916
Punahou-Lily-Pond-and-Tennis-Courts-1916
Punahou-Girls-Court-of-the-E-Building-1877
Punahou-Girls-Court-of-the-E-Building-1877
Punahou-Gardens-1880
Punahou-Gardens-1880
Punahou Street looking toward Round Top-(HSA)-PPWD-17-3-027-1900
Punahou Street looking toward Round Top-(HSA)-PPWD-17-3-027-1900
Oahu_College-Old_School_Hall_at_Punahou_School
Oahu_College-Old_School_Hall_at_Punahou_School

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Schools Tagged With: Hawaii, Missionaries, Punahou

May 15, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Vocational Training

When the missionaries established schools and seminaries (i.e. the female seminaries, as well as Lahainaluna, Hilo Boarding School, Punahou,) they included teaching of the head (‘common’ courses, the 3Rs,) heart (religious, moral) and hand (vocational training, manual labor.)

Lahainaluna was designed first, “to instruct young men that they may become assistant teachers of religion;” second, “to disseminate sound knowledge embracing literature and science;…”

“… third, to qualify native school teachers for their respective duties; fourth, “it is designated that a piece of land shall be connected with the institution and the manual labor system introduced as far as practicable.” (Westervelt)

Later, shortly after the University of Hawaiʻi started (1907,) short courses or ‘special lectures’ of education of “less than college grade” were offered in agriculture as ‘extension’ work.

Nationally, the Cooperative Extension Service was created in 1914 with the passage of the Smith-Lever Act (but it excluded Hawaiʻi.) UH developed its own version of an extension program, which was the basis of a successful appeal to Congress after several years of struggle for Hawai‘i’s inclusion in the Act in November 1928. (CTAHR)

Again, nationally, the Smith-Hughes Act (1917) was “An Act to provide for the promotion of vocational education; to provide for cooperation with the States in the promotion of such education in agriculture and the trades and industries …”

“… to provide for cooperation with the States in the preparation of teachers of vocational subjects; and to appropriate money and regulate its expenditure”. (The law wasn’t effective in Hawaiʻi until March 10, 1924.)

“That for the purpose of cooperating with the States in paying the salaries of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects there is hereby appropriated for the use of the States.”

“(T)hat the controlling purpose of such education shall be to fit for useful employment; that such education shall be of less than college grade and be designed to meet the needs of persons over fourteen years of age who have entered upon or who are preparing to enter upon the work of the farm or of the farm home; that the State or local community, or both”.

“(S)uch schools or classes giving instruction to persons who have not entered upon employment shall require that at least half of the time of such instruction be given to practical work on a useful or productive basis, such instruction to extend over not less than nine months per year and not less than thirty hours per week”. (Smith-Hughes Act, 1917)

Two types of full-time day classes in vocational agriculture were organized in Hawaiʻi. ‘Type A’ classes (primarily for upper elementary and intermediate grades) are those in which pupils spend approximately half of their school time in the classroom where they receive Instruction in English, mathematics, hygiene, geography, vocational agriculture and other subjects.

The remaining time was spent in the field where the pupils do all of the work on a class project in sugar cane or in pineapple production. Field work is closely supervised by the teacher of vocational agriculture, but all money earned was divided among the boys in proportion to the time they work. They also had a home project.

Under the ‘Type B’ plan (typically for high school students,) pupils did not use a portion of the school time for field work. Practical experience was gained through extensive home project programs. Classroom instruction in agriculture is under the teacher of vocational agriculture, but academic subjects were taken with other pupils of the school under regular teachers of these subjects.

Some schools incorporated the program into their curriculum. Then, the 1967 session of the 4th Hawaii State Legislature resolved that “it is of great urgency to the citizens of this State, adults as well as youths, that there be developed a comprehensive state master plan for vocational education.” A ‘State Master Plan for Vocational Education’ was prepared the next year.

Its introductory comments included, “Technologically-induced shifts in job opportunities have imposed new career training demands. The rapid opening of new fields of knowledge has changed the very nature of work itself; the priorities shifting from muscle power to mental powers.”

“We witness a tremendous shift from production-oriented jobs to service jobs; we must now have a corresponding emphasis on the development of the required communicative and social skills.” (Master Plan, 1968)

“Given the apparent inadequacies in education and the accompanying human tragedy and waste, and given the extremely tight local labor market and the desperate long-term need for more educated, more highly trained manpower, there would seem to be a good deal of prophetic wisdom in the expansion of the Community College occupational training programs.”

Recommendations for the Master Plan included: “1. The main responsibility of the DOE in the K-12 programs should be provision of basic and general education. The DOE programs should provide for exploratory and pre-vocational experiences. …”

“2. Vocational education at a secondary school level should be seen as an integral part of total education. At the Community College level, general education should be an integral component of vocational education.” (Master Plan, 1968)

The community college system was brought into being. It replaced the technical schools that had existed previously.

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Hilo_Boarding_School_Shop,_Class_of_June_1901
Hilo_Boarding_School_Shop,_Class_of_June_1901
Hilo_Boarding_School-printing-(75-years)
Hilo_Boarding_School-printing-(75-years)
Hilo_Boarding_School-shop-(75-years)
Hilo_Boarding_School-shop-(75-years)
Punahou-Manual-Arts-Class-1924
Punahou-Manual-Arts-Class-1924
Punahou-Gardens-1880
Punahou-Gardens-1880
Lahainaluna-Time_Clock_for_work_on_Farm
Lahainaluna-Time_Clock_for_work_on_Farm
Lahainaluna_seminary_workshop,_mechanical_printing_press_and_movable_type_in_type_case_in_background,_ca._1895
Lahainaluna_seminary_workshop,_mechanical_printing_press_and_movable_type_in_type_case_in_background,_ca._1895
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls_sewing_class,-(WC)_late_1890s
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls_sewing_class,-(WC)_late_1890s
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls nursing class-KSBE
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls nursing class-KSBE
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls cooking class c1900-KSBE
Kamehameha_School_for_Girls cooking class c1900-KSBE
Kamehameha_School_for_Boys-Carpentry_shop_students_building_a_school_cottage_1902-1903,_(WC)
Kamehameha_School_for_Boys-Carpentry_shop_students_building_a_school_cottage_1902-1903,_(WC)
Kamehameha_School_for_Boys_Print_Shop,-(WC)_1897
Kamehameha_School_for_Boys_Print_Shop,-(WC)_1897
Kamehameha School for Boys-Students working in the Carpentry Shop, 1890, (right) Rev. Wm. Oleson, Principal, (far left) Charles E. King-(WC)
Kamehameha School for Boys-Students working in the Carpentry Shop, 1890, (right) Rev. Wm. Oleson, Principal, (far left) Charles E. King-(WC)

Filed Under: Schools Tagged With: Kamehameha Schools, Punahou, Lahainaluna, Hilo Boarding School, Vocational Training, Hawaii

May 9, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

The First School

God brought Hiram Bingham a woman “he chose himself and bade me take her with a thankful heart, and always remember that God hears prayer. For he had prepared her and her friends to bless the mission with her aid.” (Hiram Bingham to William Jackson, February 1821; Wagner)

“This friend of the heathen was an honor to the town that gave her birth and education. She was a sagacious and successful teacher in Southampton, Mass., Sharon and East Windsor, Conn., Canandaigua, N ., and Honolulu, Sandwich Islands”. (Hiram Bingham to William G. Bates, Westfield, Mass, October 6, 1869; Westfield Jubilee, 1870)

Sybil Moseley Bingham was born September 14, 1792, the daughter of Pliny and Sophia (Pomeroy) Moseley in Westfield, Massachusetts. She was educated at Westfield Academy. By the age of nineteen she had lost both of her parents (1810 and 1811.)

Sybil was a good scholar; and when she arrived at the age of twenty-one, she commenced teaching, in different and distant towns. She was a remarkably mild and gentle person in her manners. (Westfield Jubilee, 1870)

As the eldest of three sisters, she had to work to support herself and her two sisters, who stayed with relatives while she taught school at first at Hartford and later at in Canandaigua, New York.

“The result of her labors there, in conjunction with her fellow-laborers, has been of world-wide importance. Those beautiful islands have been redeemed from heathenism; and, though the population has decreased in its numbers, yet the people have increased in intelligence, and the products of their labor have added to the comforts of the world.”

“I doubt not, but that Mrs. Bingham was not surpassed, in her devotion and zeal, and in her earnest and faithful labors, by any other missionary, who ever went forth to a foreign land. Her whole soul was in the work.”

“She was, in a peculiar manner, fitted for it; and there was a pervading enthusiasm in her mind, which gave to her whole life, the highest impulse of Christian duty.” (Westfield Jubilee, 1870)

Hiram Bingham and his classmate, Asa Thurston, were ordained at Goshen, Ct., September 29, 1819; it was the first ordination of foreign missionaries in the State of Connecticut.

On October 11, Bingham was married, at Hartford, Ct., to Miss Sybil Moseley, who, out of sympathy with the new missionary enterprise, had been led to attend the ordination, and to whom he was first introduced on that occasion. (Congressional Quarterly, 1871)

They sailed for the Hawaiian Islands (then called Sandwich Islands) on October 23, 1819; on March 30, 1820, they anchored off shore of Kawaihae, then sailed to Kailua Kona and anchored there (April 4.) On April 11, King Kamehameha II (Liholiho) gave the missionaries permission to stay. Hiram and Sybil sailed for Honolulu the next day (and arrived April 19.)

It is said that she started the first school in Hawaiʻi in May 1820. (“… Sybil Moseley Bingham, opened the first school in this city in May, 1820, surely an historic date.” (Hiram Bingham II)

Sybil’s June 20, 1820 journal entry notes, “After neglect of my journal for more than two months in a most interesting part of our history too … Very soon I gathered up 12 or 15 little native girls to come once a day to the house so that as early as possible the business of instruction might be commenced. That was an interesting day to me to lay the foundation of the first school ever assembled in this dark land.”

June 21st. “The most which has interested me to-day has been my little school. To see the little things so ready to learn, and so busy with their needles, is very pleasant. I long to know more of their language, that I might be pouring into their tender minds more instruction than ab.”

“I think we make progress in that now. It was impossible to do much on the voyage, as, without books, all our knowledge of it must be acquired as it falls from the lips of the natives. There are a few females who understand a little of English.”

July 20th. “What arrangement we shall make of our family concerns when so large a part has gone, we have not determined. I should like to have this little cottage a few weeks with only my kind husband and pleasant native boy, that so I might attend with more delight to my school which is daily encreasing, and such missionary duties as each day brings with it.”

She did not just teach children, her July 22, 1820 entry notes, “a native woman called Sally in whom we have all been interested. She is the wife of an American – speaks English, and with her two little girls comes regularly every day to learn to read. I earnestly desire to be more faithful in instructing her.”

Sybil was not alone in teaching the native Hawaiians. In 1820, missionary wife Lucy Thurston noted in her Journal, Liholiho’s desire to learn, “The king (Liholiho, Kamehameha II) brought two young men to Mr. Thurston, and said: “Teach these, my favorites, (John Papa) Ii and (James) Kahuhu. It will be the same as teaching me. Through them I shall find out what learning is.”

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

The proliferation of schoolhouses was augmented by the missionaries printing of 140,000-copies of the pi-ʻapa (elementary Hawaiian spelling book) by 1829 and the staffing of the schools with 1,000-plus Hawaiian teachers. (Laimana)

In 1839, King Kamehameha III called for the formation of the Chiefs’ Children’s School (Royal School.) The main goal of this school was to groom the next generation of the highest ranking Chiefs’ children and secure their positions for Hawaiʻi’s Kingdom. The King asked missionaries Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke to teach the 16-royal children and run the school.

Interestingly, as the early missionaries learned the Hawaiian language, they then taught their lessons in the mission schools in Hawaiian, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians. (Sybil Bingham is my great-great-great grandmother.)

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Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Schools Tagged With: Hawaii, Sybil Bingham, Pioneer Company, Missionaries, Education, School

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