Bethel Chapel | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 18, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Central Union Church

Although Central Union Church does not owe its existence directly to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM,) its connection with that organization has always been so intimate that the two have worked hand in hand in the islands.

The history of Central Union Church dates back to the days of the Seaman’s Bethel Church.

In 1828, churchmen in Boston had founded the American Seamen’s Friend Society to supply Bibles and religious messages to the whaling and trading ships leaving for foreign waters.

In 1833, practically the only commercial interest in these islands centered around the fleet of whalers which each season filled Honolulu Harbor or anchored off-shore. That year, the Seamen’s Friend Society sent Rev. John Diell to establish a chapel in Honolulu.

The Bethel Chapel and the seamen’s chaplaincy were dedicated on November 28, 1833, in a service attended by “the king, Kinau, and the principal chiefs … together with a respectable number of residents, masters of vessels and seamen.”

The growing population of the town led some to believe that it was time to leave the fold of the Seamen’s Friend Society and form a separate and self-supporting church, and by their efforts, in 1852, the Second Foreign Church in Honolulu came into existence.

Worshiping for four years in the old Court House, for many years known as the store of H. Hackfeld & Co., in 1856, they built a permanent house of worship at the corner of Fort and Beretania streets and the name of the organization was changed to the Fort Street Church of Honolulu.

In April 1887, Fort Street Church extended a formal proposal to unite in a new organization, and from that time until the formal union, two churches worshipped together. Selection of the new church’s name was settled by vote; the final result was Central Union 28, Church of the Redeemer 18, and Bethel Union 1.

Thus, Central Union Church began its existence. The original congregation numbered 337 members—250 from the Fort Street Church, 72 from Bethel Union, 13 from other churches and 2 on confession of faith at the first service.

By 1888, increased church membership made it apparent that the Central Union congregation was outgrowing the Fort Street building.

Central Union owned a lot on the makai-Diamond Head corner of the intersection directly across Beretania from Washington Place, home of the heir-apparent to the throne of Hawaiʻi, Mrs. John Dominis, later Queen Liliʻuokalani.

Plans for the new church were discussed repeatedly over the ensuing several years, as wishes for a “commodious and substantial church edifice” outgrew the site.

But the lot was too small for a new stone structure and enough room for churchgoers’ horse-drawn carriages; so they negotiated with Punahou Preparatory School located across Beretania Street between Washington Place and the present St. Andrew’s Cathedral, to allow churchgoers to hitch their horses in the back of the school grounds (but not in the front yard.)

Plans were completed and work begun. A special service on June 3, 1891, marked the laying of the cornerstone, placed by the oldest member of the church, Samuel Northrup Castle, and the youngest, Sophie B. Judd.

Central Union’s growth in membership and consequent increase in attendance created a real problem of overcrowding at the Richards Street location. Increased traffic noise on Beretania Street and congestion in downtown increased frustration in the congregation and they decided to move, again.

There was much searching for the “perfect” site for a new church building. Members even took to the air and flew over Honolulu in an airplane to survey possibilities. The site committee reported on May 26, 1920; it judged one location outstanding in all respects.

This 8.3-acre parcel was part of the Dillingham estate (known as Woodlawn) at the corner of Beretania and Punahou streets, “well away from the center of town” but within easy reach of the new residential areas.

The senior Dillinghams had both been members of the Bethel Union congregation before their marriage in 1869 and therefore were early members of Central Union.

To design a building that would express the church’s New England heritage, the congregation retained the Boston architectural firm of Cram and Ferguson. EE Black, Ltd. was the general contractor. Seating was planned for 750 on the main floor and 250 in the balcony.

The cornerstone was laid in 1922 following retrieval and opening of the cornerstone from the Richards Street church. Stone from the old church were transferred to the new one and were placed in the foundation of the new Central Union. The 1891 cornerstone itself was embedded high in the wall of the entrance.

“Open Air Services” were held on the new church grounds as early as June 1922, so that the congregation could watch the construction progress and enjoy the new property.

By the end of March 1924, the new building was essentially complete, and during the week of May 18, Central Union Church, also known as the “Church in a Garden”, moved to its present location on Beretania Street.

The idea of a Children’s Chapel arose, “to accommodate extensions of all the services of Central Union Church, including use by all age groups for any church function which would be better served in a small, intimate setting.” The cornerstone of the Atherton Memorial Chapel was finally laid in November 1949 (Information and images here came from ‘Central Union Church 1887-1988’.)

August 10, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Two Early Museums in Hawaiʻi

The display of objects of interest had an earlier history in post-contact Hawai‘i. In 1833, Seaman’s chaplain, Rev. John Diell, began displaying artifacts in the basement of the Seaman’s Bethel (church) in Honolulu, attracting the occasional interested visitor.

Diell enlarged his collection in 1837, seeking to preserve the objects of what he saw as a dying race. He named his new “museum” The Sandwich Islands Institute. It opened with among other odd curiosities, a large black bear and snow shoes.

(These were owned by the late David Douglas, who discovered the Douglas fir tree. He had left them at the home of the Reverend Diell shortly before being killed in a cattle trap near Hilo on July 12, 1834.)

After a short time, the museum at the Bethel closed; relics of its brief existence may have found their way into Bishop Museum and the Hawaiʻi Public Library.

In later decades, the Hawaiian Kingdom government came to recognize the value that a museum might offer as a site of cultural preservation and national voice.

On July 29, 1872, King Lot Kapuāiwa (Kamehameha V) signed into law an “Act to establish a National Museum.”

The Hawaiian National Museum opened in 1875, during the reign of King David Kalākaua, as a small collection with a meager budget. It was housed in an upper room of Ali‘iolani Hale, the government building.

As Kalākaua began to focus his attention on nationalistic projects he would increase the museum’s budget ten-fold and name Emma Nakuina, the museum’s first native curator, as head of the institution.

However, in 1887, the newly imposed “Bayonet Constitution” greatly curtailed the king’s power and slashed funding for the National Museum. Discussions soon began concerning a possible transfer of the government collection to Charles Bishop’s proposed museum.

Charles Reed Bishop founded the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in 1889 in honor of his deceased wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (1831-1884.)

Pauahi, as a member of the royal family and mo‘opuna kuakahi (great granddaughter) of Kamehameha I, had inherited many treasured objects, including the collection of her cousin, Princess Ruth Ke‘elikōlanii (1826-1883). The preservation and display of these objects had been a desire of both of these chiefly women.

When a third high ranking chiefess, the former queen, Emma Rooke (1836-1885), passed only a year after Pauahi her significant artifacts joined the others, forming the foundational collection of the proposed new museum.

Construction of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum began in 1889 in Kalihi-Pālama on the grounds of the campus of the Kamehameha School for Boys. The museum opened to the public in 1892, and later added Polynesian Hall in 1894, and the “Victorian masterpiece” named Hawaiian Hall in 1903.

In January of 1891, word arrived by ship of the death of King Kalākaua. Museum Director William T. Brigham, reportedly anxious over what might become of the national collection, collected and transferred many of the artifacts to the newly founded museum now under his direction.

On June 22 of that same year the museum opened to the public with a mission to “preserve and display the cultural and historic relics of the Kamehameha family that Princess Pauahi had acquired.” The nation’s new sovereign, Queen Lili‘uokalani, was the first guest.

After a 3-year facelift, the museum’s 3-floor, Hawaiian Hall was reopened. The first floor is the realm of Kai Ākea (which represents the Hawaiian gods, legends, beliefs and the world of pre-contact Hawai‘i.) The second floor, Wao Kanaka, represents the realm where people live and work; focusing on the importance of the land and nature in daily life. The third floor, Wao Lani, is the realm inhabited by the gods; here, visitors learn about the aliʻi and key moments in Hawaiian history.

Then, the Pacific Hall, a gallery of two floors representing the peoples of Pacific cultures across Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, was renovated, restored and reopened. (The inspiration and much of the information here is from Bishop Museum.)

March 4, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Julia Sherman Mills Damon

The inscription on a headstone in Oʻahu Cemetery made me curious about her story: “Died in Cheyenne City, Wyoming USA, June 19, 1890.”

How did the daughter of a teacher to Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia, niece of the founder of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, wife of a prominent preacher in Honolulu and mother of a successful Honolulu businessman die in Wyoming? Before we go there, here is some of her background.

Julia Sherman Mills was born on August 17, 1817 in Torringford, Connecticut, the daughter of Eleanor Welles Mills (1785-1831) and Jeremiah Fuller Mills (1777-1833) (brother of Samuel John Mills Jr (1783–1818.))

Julia’s uncle, Samuel John Mills Jr, was one of five participants in the famous 1806 Williams College “Haystack Prayer Meeting” that led to the beginning of a secret missionary fraternity called the Society of Brethren, the first Protestant foreign missions organization in America.

He later led in the formation the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions or ABCFM (the Protestant Missionaries who came to Hawaiʻi in 1820.)

We should also recall that Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia (Obookiah,) a native Hawaiian from the Island of Hawaiʻi who in 1809, at the age of 16, after his parents had been killed, boarded a sailing ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent.

He traveled throughout New England and was greatly influenced by many young men who were active in the Second Great Awakening and the establishment of the missionary movement.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia lived with Samuel John Mills Jr and was studying at the Foreign Mission School to become a missionary (with other Hawaiians.) ʻŌpūkahaʻia noted that he continued his “study in spelling, reading, and writing to Mr. Jeremiah Mills (Julia’s father,) … “

“… whom (he) was acquainted with at the first. Here (he) learned some sort of farming-business: cutting wood, pulling flax, mowing, &c. – only to look at the other and learn from them.” (Memoirs)

ʻŌpūkahaʻia died suddenly of typhus fever in 1818, the “Memoirs of Henry Obookiah” served as an inspiration for missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Sandwich Islands. On October 23, 1819, a group of northeast missionaries led by Hiram Bingham, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.)

Julia was orphaned of both parents, at the age of fourteen. On October 16, 1841, Julia Sherman Mills married Samuel Chenery Damon. The Damons sailed from New York March 10, 1842 aboard the Victoria and arrived in Honolulu October 19, 1842.

“Of the social and religious life of this city, Mrs. Damon became a most important component part. The Chaplaincy on Chaplain Street, became under her ministration, a place of constant, simple, cordial hospitality …”

“… which multitudes of guests will ever remember, both travellers from abroad, visitors from our Pacific merchant and whaling fleets, and missionaries in transit, and from other islands.”

“That open parlor was always a place of warm and homelike welcome, while the table in the next room was almost never without one or more guests, often those sojourning in the house.” (The Friend, August 1, 1890)

Julia Damon, was for many years head of the Strangers’ Friend Society, a leading charitable organization to aid the sick and destitute stranger in Honolulu’s early days.

“Those Ladies of Honolulu have become interested in the enterprise, whose benevolence and capability are a sure pledge that it will succeed. The term “stranger” will not be narrowed down to signify only a select few, but it is intended that Charity shall spread wide her mantle.”

“We have bespoke for the sick sailor a berth, and feel confident that his case will be always attended to, whenever the Foreign Consuls in Honolulu do not make provision for him.” (The Friend, July 2, 1852)

“Mrs. Damon found an especial sphere of activity in aid and direction to the needy and suffering. … Dr. Damon was surely blessed in the sweet home his wife made for him, in her strong support and judicious counsel, and in her practical aid in his multifarious Church and Chaplaincy work …”

“… in the latter of which especially, her gift of free and graceful hospitality fell in accord with his own cordiality, and gave influence to them both. In the sacred relation of Mother, her children indeed rise up and call her blessed, and in their own lives and happy homes are testimonies to the excellence of their maternal training.” (The Friend, August 1, 1890)

About Julia’s death … she was widowed on February 7, 1885.

“Overtaken by a nervous depression, for which a change was the prescribed relief, she accompanied eastward, a son and his wife. …”

“Starting in her active way, to say, as is supposed, good bye to some friends leaving the train at a very early hour in the depot at Cheyenne, the car moved as she was leaving it; she fell with one arm under the wheel.”

“Amputation was necessary. After a very few hours of suffering, with no rational consciousness, her spirit took flight from all the clouds of earth into the light of heaven.” (The Friend, August 1, 1890)

A little side note; in 1843, Samuel Chenery Damon founded The Friend and served as editor and publisher of the monthly journal, which continued to be published for more than 100 years.

The Friend began as a monthly newspaper for seamen, which included news from both American and English newspapers, and gradually expanded to adding announcements of upcoming events, reprints of sermons, poetry, local news, editorials, ship arrivals and departures and a listing of marriages and deaths. Rev. Damon published between a half million and a million copies of The Friend, most of which he personally distributed.

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November 17, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Seamen’s Bethel Chapel

The American Seamen’s Friend Society (ASFS) of New York, organized in May 1828 (though not officially incorporated 1833;) in 1832 sent the Rev. John Diell to Hawai’i as its first chaplain to the port of Honolulu.

He constructed a two story chapel for the Seamen’s Bethel on a lot given by Kamehameha III – on what we now call Bethel Street. The site was the approximate location of “The Friend” Building (926 Bethel Street – West side of street between Merchant and King.)

Situated on what was then the waterfront, it was started by the American Seamen’s Friend Society to minister to English-speaking sailors from whaling and trading ships.

The worship services attracted a number of English-speaking townspeople who in 1837 organized themselves as Oʻahu Bethel Church – the earliest regular church services in English in the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Poor health forced Diell to leave Hawai’i, and he died at sea in 1841. Rev. Samuel C. Damon was selected as his replacement.

Damon had been preparing to go to India as a missionary and was studying the Tamil language for that purpose, when an urgent call came for a seaman’s chaplain at the port of Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands.

He was ordained to the Congregational ministry on September 15, 1841 and he decided to accept the position at Honolulu; he arrived in late-1842.

Throughout the 1840s there averaged over 400 ships in port each whaling season, with a record high of over 600 in 1846. Damon’s report from Honolulu in 1851 recorded the visits of 558 whale ships and barks, 27 brigs and 35 schooners, bringing approximately 15,000 men into the port during the year.

Reverend Damon also founded the English-language paper “The Friend” in 1843 and ran the paper from the Seamen’s Bethel Church until his death in 1885.

The Friend described itself as the “Oldest Newspaper West of the Rockies” in the early 1900s; it was a monthly newspaper for seamen which included news from both American and English newspapers as well as announcements of upcoming events, reprints of sermons, poetry, local news, editorials, ship arrivals and departures and a listing of marriages and deaths.

Between 1840 and 1870, an annual 6,000 seamen visited Honolulu, many worshiping at first Reverend Diell’s and then Reverend Damon’s church.

As Oʻahu Bethel’s numbers grew, and ship calls increased, need for a separate church became evident. In 1852 some Oʻahu Bethel members left to form what was to become Fort Street Church. Oʻahu Bethel continued to conduct services, later renaming itself Bethel Union Church.

In 1886 a raging waterfront fire destroyed the Seamen’s Bethel, which was still Bethel Union’s home. The idea surfaced of combining Bethel Union, now without a home, with the well-established Fort Street Church (at what is now the ʻEwa Makai corner of Fort Street and Beretania at the top of the Fort Street Mall.)

In 1887 a formal merger of Bethel Union and Fort Street Church created Central Union Church, with 337 members.

In 1892 Central Union Church moved into a new “blue-stone” (volcanic basalt) building across from Washington Place, Queen Liliuokalani’s residence. Within 15 years, however, rapid growth plus noise and ventilation problems created pressures to move.

In 1920, Central Union’s then-pastor, Dr. Albert Palmer, chose a desirable 8.3-acre site at Punahou and Beretania streets. The site was “Woodlawn,” for years the residence and dairy farm of prominent businessman BF Dillingham and his family.

Mrs. Emma Louise Dillingham, by then a widow, agreed to sell – she had been a member since Bethel Union days. In 1922, the cornerstone was laid, and the present sanctuary, designed in traditional New England style, was completed in 1924.

In 1924, Central Union Church, also known as the “Church in a Garden”, moved to its present location on Beretania Street.

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Bethel's Church, Honolulu, Hawaii, founded in 1833 as Seamen's Bethel Church

Julia_Sherman_Mills_Damon-Samuel_Mills_Damon-Samuel_Chenery_Damon-1850

The_Friend_Building-approximate_location_of_Bethel_Chapel-926_Bethel_Street

Chinese Christian Church in Honolulu. Also known as the 'Fort Street Church'-1898

Downtown Honolulu MapHawaiian_Historical_Society-OP20-1843

August 8, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hawai‘i State Library

The earliest libraries in Hawaiʻi appear to have been reading rooms provided for ships officers and crews. In Lāhainā, the Seamen’s Chapel and Reading Room was built in 1834 following an appeal by William Richards and Ephriam Spaulding (it was built two years later.)

In Honolulu, the Sandwich Islands Institute, organized in November 1837, fitted up a room at the Seamen’s Bethel in downtown Honolulu as a library and a museum of natural history and Pacific artifacts.

A newspaper article in October 1840 referred to this as a “Public Library, three to four hundred volumes” and also listed a “Reading Room for Seamen,” presumably at a different location.

A decade later, in 1850, residents of Honolulu organized the Atheneum Society, which for a year or two maintained a reading room and library. The Atheneum was succeeded in 1853 by the Honolulu Circulating Library Association.

In 1879, a group of men founded the Honolulu Library and Reading Room Association. In the local newspaper, the Commercial Pacific Advertiser, editor JH Black wrote, “The library is not intended to be run for the benefit of any class, party, nationality, or sect.”

Some of the founders wanted to exclude women from membership, but Alexander Cartwright disagreed, writing to his brother Alfred: “The idea keeps the blessed ladies out and the children. What makes us old geezers think we are the only ones to be spiritually and morally uplifted by a public library in this city?”

It wasn’t long before the committee changed the wording of the constitution to make women eligible for membership.

Early in its history, the organization had established a solid economic foundation, and over time it was able to obtain the moral and financial support of both the Hawaiian government and wealthy citizens.

King Kalākaua, Queen Kapiʻolani, Queen Emma, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Regent Lili‘uokalani, Minister of the Interior F. W. Hutchinson and Charles R. Bishop were just a few of its notable and highly influential supporters.

From 1879 to 1912, library service was provided by the Honolulu Library and Reading-Room Association.

In 1909, Governor Frear helped pass the “Act to Provide for the Establishment of the Public Library of Hawaii”. On May 15, 1909 the Honolulu Library and Reading Room and the Library of Hawaiʻi signed an agreement by which the former agreed to turn over all books, furnishings and remaining funds to the latter.

A few months later, the Honolulu Library and Reading Room, Library of Hawaiʻi and the Historical Society jointly signed and submitted a letter to Andrew Carnegie requesting a grant for the construction of the Library of Hawaiʻi.

The request to Carnegie was for funds to build the new Library; Carnegie responded that the sum of $100,000 would be made ready as soon as a site was selected and plans drawn up.

The building’s final location, though, was not immediately settled. Several possible sites were considered. Ultimately, Governor Frear made a lot available on the corner of King and Punchbowl streets.

He picked a site that in 1872 had been purchased by the Government of Prince Lunalilo and transferred its control to the Board of Education.

The site was the location of Hāliʻimaile, the residence of Boki and Liliha and later Victoria Kamāmalu and her father and brothers before they ascended Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

In 1874, the government-supported Pohukaina School for Girls was started. Just up the street was the Royal School for Boys.

In order to accommodate the new Library of Hawaiʻi, after 36-years at King and Punchbowl, Pohukaina School was moved to Kakaʻako; the new school opened in 1913.

Ultimately, the Library of Hawaiʻi was completed at a cost of $127,000, with the local legislative funding providing the difference.

The building opened its doors on February 11, 1913, and Hawaiʻi at last joined those states of America that offered free library services to their communities. The library, now known as the Hawaiʻi State Library, still stands today.

Greco-Romanesque columns in front mark it as a Carnegie library, and within its lobby, a bust of Andrew Carnegie, the man who made it possible is on the grounds.

In 1921, the County Library Law established separate libraries on the islands of Kauaʻi, Maui and Hawaiʻi, under minimal supervision by the Library of Hawaiʻi, which restricted its services to Oʻahu. Even so, the latter quickly outgrew its quarters.

In 1927, the Territorial legislature approved funding to expand and renovate the building. Construction was completed in 1930. Architect CW Dickey tripled its size by adding new wings to create an open-air courtyard in the center.

After statehood in 1959, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature created the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System, the only statewide system in the United States, with the Hawaiʻi State Library building as its flagship branch.

My grandmother worked at the State Library, from 1920 to 1948; she retired after serving as Assistant Head Librarian and Director of the Extension Department. Part of her duties included the expansion of the Library to the Neighbor Islands in 1921. My mother received a degree in Library Science and was archivist at Punahou School.

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