Bethel Chapel | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 29, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Samuel Chenery Damon

In the Colonial Records in the Boston Libraries relating to the founders of Scituate, Massachusetts, and their descendants, the name John Damon was spelled Daman. He came to the colony of Plymouth probably as early as 1628, with his sister Hannah and Uncle William Gilson who was their guardian.

After the ‘Boston Tea Party’ the Colonists enrolled themselves into companies of ‘Minute Men’ to assemble at a moment’s warning, which was to be given by the ringing of bells, firing of guns, etc; Samuel Damon and Simeon Damon, his brother, were under the command of Capt. Joseph Stetson.

Among the men to respond to the ‘Lexington Alarm’ on April 19th, 177 5, enrolled in Captain John Clapp’s Company of Minute men, appear the names of Samuel Damon, Daniel Damon, John Damon (brothers), and Stephen Damon.

“In the year 1793, Samuel Damon with his family consisting of his wife and eleven children, came from Scitnate, Mass. And located a farm on what was known as Parker’s Hill, near Springfield. Here he built a log house in which he reared his family. This farm was known for many years as the Damon farm”. (Damon)

Samuel Chenery Damon, son of Colonel Samuel Damon, was born in Holden, Massachusetts, February 15, 1815. He was graduated from Amherst College in 1836, studied at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1838-39, and was graduated at Andover Theological Seminary in 1841. He was an American missionary.

He was 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 September 15, 1841, and he decided to accept the position at Honolulu.

He married Julia Sherman Mills of Natick, Massachusetts on October 6, 1841. 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.

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

In 1842, the Damons moved to Honolulu at the direction of the American Seamen’s Friend Society – Damon served as the chaplain at O‘ahu Bethel Church (Seamen’s Bethel) for 42 years, serving the sailors of vessels who entered the port of Honolulu.

“Beth-el” was designated as a refuge for sojourners. At that time more than 100 whaling vessels with approximately 6,000 sailors aboard entered the port of Honolulu annually.

Materials for the building had been contributed by several ship owners in Norwich and New London, Connecticut. A residence for the chaplain was also built nearby.

The chapel was of average size, measuring 48 feet by 30 feet. The main hall seated 300 persons; the basement had a reading room, a book depository, and a marine museum. Dedicated in 1833, the chapel stood until 1886. (Watson)

Damon preached two sermons on Sunday with an additional service on Wednesday. He ministered to the needs of the visiting sailors, which could include food, clothing, and temporary shelter.

He encouraged sailors to refrain from liquor and carousing while on leave. He also collected the sailors’ mail until a post office was established in 1851. Concerned with educating his seagoing flock, he collected books on spelling and arithmetic.

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. They first built a church across from Washington Place (1891,) then built the present Central Union in 1920.)

Perceiving a need for a newspaper, Damon founded ‘The Temperance Advocate and Seamen’s Friend’ (later reduced to ‘The Friend,’) which published local and world news, announcements, messages from the visiting sailors, and articles and sermons written by the chaplain himself. Printed regularly, the newspaper totaled an estimated one-half million copies over the years. (Watson)

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.

In the mid-1800s, many professing Christians migrated to Hawaii from South China looking for a better life working on the Sugar Plantations. In February 1869, with the support of Damon, Sabbath Evening meetings for the Chinese were held under the guidance of Samuel Aheong, a Chinese plantation worker.

Aheong returned to China in 1870. Damon made the facilities of the Bethel Church available for Sunday afternoon services and personally taught a small group of Chinese English in a night school in the parish hall. (FirstChinese)

Samuel and his wife Julia visited missions overseas in Egypt and Syria. They also made a trip to the United States to observe the settlements in California. In 1849 revisited Holden during a trip to the centennial celebration in Philadelphia, to which he was a delegate.

Damon passed away in 1885 at the age of seventy and lies buried at O‘ahu Cemetery. Three years after his passing, his brother-in-law Samuel C Gale gave the citizens of Holden the beautiful Damon Memorial that housed both the Gale Free Library and the Holden High School. The library, said Gale in his dedicatory speech, was Damon’s inspiration.

Click the following link of a portrayal of Reverend Samuel Chenery Damon (portrayed by David C Farmer) as a Mission Houses Cemetery Pupu Theatre (recorded on cellphone, sound is weak:)

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Samuel_C._Damon_(PP-70-7-001)

Samuel-Chenery-Damon

The Seamen’s Bethel Chapel-1896

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

The_Friend_Building-approximate_location_of_Bethel_Chapel-926_Bethel_Street

July 13, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sailor’s Home and Seamen’s Institute

“Resolved, That the Petition for a lot of land for a Sailor’s Home be granted, provided it shall be a rule established in such home, and strictly enforced …”

“… That no intoxicating liquors shall be drunk on the promises; no women of lewd character admitted; no gambling allowed, nor any other disorder tolerated.” (By order of Privy Council, this 20th day of November, 1854.)

“One old sailor mentioned that he had been at sea for forty-two years and that this is the best sailor’s home he has ever known … we have now a Home and Institute that is much better fitted for our work, and is said by sailors to be the most homelike place of its kind that they have been in ’round the world.”

“Sailors from twenty nationalities were received from every class of vessel visiting the port: liners, army transports, America; and foreign cargo vessels, timber ships etc., and from these many interesting and encouraging details of successful work accomplished by Seamen’s Institutes in different parts of the world have been received …”

“… showing that the great chain of Seamen’s Missions of different Societies, by co-operation with one another, are having a steady and firm spiritual and moral influence upon the lives of those who go down to the sea in ships. (Superintendent’s Annual Report, 1921)

It opened September 11, 1856, “That little affair at the Sailor’s Home came off on Thursday, and if the house is ever again so full of merry laughter and innocent enthusiasts, it may congratulate itself upon being the scene of a second triumph.”

“We have not yet heard what the receipts were. If ever an institution was introduced to public notice under happy patronage it is the Sailor’s Home. Long may it flourish. (Polynesian, September 13, 1856)

The nearby Seamen’s Bethel Chapel was built by the American Seamen’s Friend Society of New York, in 1833, the materials having been shipped from New London, Ct, for Honolulu via Cape Horn. It was the first edifice for the public worship of English-speaking people, erected in Polynesia. It was open to both seamen and foreign residents. (Damon Memorial)

The Honolulu Sailor’s Home provided mariners with room and board at a reasonable price. In this building were the offices of “Hawaiian Board and Bible Society;” office of the Friend; the “Bible and Tract Depository,” and YMCA Reading Room. (Damon Memorial)

“One of the most important effects of such a well conducted boarding house for seamen was the speedy improvement of other lodgings in town for sailors, which ceased to be the disreputable dens which they had been.”

“The institution was fairly prosperous financially, under the administrations of a succession of stewards. The building was a three story one, of wood.”

“It came near being destroyed by the fire of 1886, and indeed was seriously damaged by explosives in an effort to destroy it, so that it remained unused until pulled down. It is of interest to know that its materials were used in constructing the house above Punchbowl street, now occupied by the Portuguese Mission.”

“In exchange for the land the Government gave some money and a spacious lot on the made ground between Richards and Alakea streets, just above the new Fish Market. On this lot, surrounded by a beautiful lawn, stands the new Sailors’ Home, finished a year ago, but only of late fairly in use for seamen.”

“In the front part of the lower story is a Library and Reading Room, also a Billiard room. In the rear of the west side are three living rooms for the Superintendent and his family. On the east side is dining room accommodating forty at table, and in its rear the pantry and kitchen with every facility to cook for a hundred men.”

“As just the person for this department has not yet been secured, seamen stopping at the Home for the present receive meal tickets on some good restaurant.”

“In the main seamen’s ward up-stairs are sixteen excellent iron beds with spring mattresses. A number of so-called ‘mate’s rooms’ also furnish private lodgings at low rates. Opening on the upper front veranda are a few more stylishly furnished apartments for captains and their friends.”

“This upper floor is supplied with every convenience, bath rooms, etc. All the rooms have incandescent lights. Grading of the adjacent streets will soon be completed, and that part of the town will become an attractive one.” (The Friend, April 1895)

It soon took on a partner, “When Bishop Nichols came here in April, 1902, to receive the transfer of the Anglican Church in Hawaii to the American Episcopal Church he consulted T. Clive Davies and others about starting a branch of the Seamen’s Church Institute in Honolulu.”

“The Sailors’ Home was lodging sailors and Captain Bray was managing it but it was not doing the work for seamen which the Seamen’s Institute does in its branches all over the world where British ships call.”

“Committees from each organization met and an agreement was reached to the effect that the Sailors’ Home would lease their land and building to the Seamen’s Institute for a nominal sum and that the Institute should carry on its work and that of the Home. This agreement was made in 1907.”

“Those who are not familiar with the many-sided work of the Seamen’s Institute have little idea of what is done in the building, and outside on ships … The sailor on shore, the world over, knows that he will find friends and brotherly treatment at a Seamen’s Institute.” (The Friend, June 1, 1933)

A summary in the Seaman’s Handbook for Shore Leave, 1920, gives a sense of the cost: “Seamen’s Homes. Sailors’ Home and Seamen’s Institute, Alakea St. Accommodations for about 25 officers and men. …”

“Rates per night, 25c and 50c; per week, $1.00 to $2.50, not including subsistence. Check-room, reading-room, writing-room, library, pool tables and indoor games; concerts and entertainments every week.” (Seaman’s Handbook for Shore Leave, 1920)

The Honolulu Sailor’s Home remains on Alakea (now a ground floor space in a Honolulu high-rise at 707 Alakea, near Nimitz) as a non-profit lodge for merchant seamen (rates start at $25 per night for a single room.) Their website notes they are accepting retired seamen to lodge for a duration of up to 3 months at any one time (with certain limitations).

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Sailor’s Home (Bethel) MissionHouses

Sailor’s Home and Seamen’s Institute -1895(HonoluluTown)

Sailor’s Institute at Honolulu (AnglicanHistory)

‘Good Luck’ Off to Sea Again (AnglicanHistory)

Depositing Money for Safe Keeping (AnglicanHistory)

Cadets USS Training Ship Brookdale (AnglicanHistory)

A ‘Sing’ at Honolulu (AnglicanHistory)

A Happy Crowd and the Seamen’s Institute in Honolulu (AnglicanHistory)

Bethel_Block-DAGS_Reg1158-1886-noting Sailors’ Home

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

January 27, 2013 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’. The image shows Central Union Church in 1924.

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