Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Teacherages

The teacher’s home stands in almost the same relation to the school that the parsonage or manse does to the church.

Various names, such as teacher’s home, manse, teacherage, attic apartment, “lean-to,” and dominage, are applied to the district-owned buildings or to rooms in the schoolhouse that provide living quarters for teachers.  (Muerman)

In the New England States the academies of the early days usually provided dormitories for the pupils. In these dormitories rooms were frequently set apart for members of the faculty who had supervision over the students who lived in the dormitories.

Several of these academies have been purchased by the school committees for use as public-school buildings, and with this purchase a home is provided for the teacher.

In the year 1894 rural school district No. 1, in Hall County, Nebraska, built a teachers’ home at a cost to the district of $1,000. This is perhaps the first one built by a school district for this purpose.

100 years ago, “It is not difficult to secure the services of competent teachers for such schools as have been supplied with teachers’ homes …”

“… and when good teachers schools as have been supplied with teachers’ homes, and when good teachers have been hired for these schools there seems to be less difficulty in retaining them for a greater number of years than they would be willing to stay in schools where teachers’ homes have not been provided.”

“The teachers who live at these homes are able to do better work; they live at a lower cost; they are happier; they have a place in which to prepare their work undisturbed …”

“… they are free from liability to entanglement in neighborhood differences; they are not so apt to make enemies during the school year because of a change of boarding places …”

“… they have a place in which to entertain patrons of the school, who as a rule are inclined to call on the teachers more often than where they are expected to go to the homes of their neighbors in order to do so …”

“… they go home less frequently on Friday evenings; in fact they live at home, feel at home, act at home, and are at home at the school.”  (Muerman)

As part of the national discussion about teacherages 100 years ago, “The discourse about the cottages reveals that the issue is larger than just providing housing for teachers.”

Some saw them as a way to accomplish the goal of integrating scientific management techniques into the education system.   “For them, teacherages provided an opportunity to put into practice their theories about home economics, vocational training and the cultivation of community life through schools.”

Others, particularly women, saw teacher housing as one of the several reforms needed to remediate women’s position in education and society.  (Felber)

“The system of providing teachers’ cottages is an old one in Hawaii, going back to the middle of the last century.  The teachers’ residence was built on the school lot, which was owned either by the Mission or by the Crown. The first cottages were small and primitive, in keeping with the simple architecture of the time.”

“It must be remembered that Hawaii had a highly developed educational system long before the western States were extensively settled. At one time, children were sent from the Northwest and from California to Hawaii to receive their education.”

“From those early days down to [100-years ago], there has been a steady growth in the number and character of the teachers’ cottages.”

100 years ago in Hawai‘i, “constructed cottages compare favorably with the better suburban bungalows and cottages. For example, the type of cottage [then] provided at a number of our larger rural schools would rent in Honolulu for from sixty to ninety dollars per month.” (MacGaughty)

“The school cottages are almost invariably built on the school lot adjacent to the regular school buildings. In most of the larger rural schools, the principal has a separate cottage for himself, or herself, and family.”

“[T]here is no other part of the United States where the teachers’ cottage system has been developed to the degree found in Hawaii. Here, it is a regular feature of all rural schools throughout the Territory.”

“The teachers who are assigned to the rural schools are given lodgings gratis, with no additional charge and in addition to their regular salary.” (MacGaughey)

The following letter from a group of mainland teachers, who came to the Islands 100-years ago, will indicate one reaction of newcomers to the teachers’ cottage system in Hawaii: “To the Editor of the Hawaii Educational Review” …

“Dear Sir: From the deepest gratitude we write this public testimony to the unexpected and very generous welcome the six coast teachers received. No one can fully appreciate the pleasure that we felt unless she too has been a coast girl plunged into the new and not altogether easily adaptable circumstances of a teacher in a plantation school of the Hawaiian Islands.”

“From the moment we crossed the landing place, where we were met by some kindly citizens with cars, and given the best breakfast obtainable at one of the local hotels, until we crossed the threshold of the cottage which was to be our home for the next year, we have felt welcome and wanted.”

“But more especially when we entered the cottage did we see evidences on every side of the thoughtfulness of the men and women of the interior of the cottage had been freshly painted, the necessary furniture had been made the previous school year by the manual training boys and nicely stained during the summer.”

“The windows shone clear and were hung with dainty curtains, and the dressers and tables were fitted out with covers to match. The kitchen was almost completely equipped with the needed utensils, and there was a very complete set of tasteful and pretty dishes – all of which girls especially appreciate.”

“From the outset of the school year, we have been called upon by the women of the plantation, and we really have felt an enthusiasm for entering into community affairs.”

“The clean and dainty appearance of our cottage as we explored it made us long to do the best we could for the boys and girls whose parents had been so thoughtful of us who were almost strangers to them.”

“Since all these things have been done for our comfort, we feel that it would be the least we could do in return to give their boys and girls the best we have of ourselves, our ideals, and our advantages”. (signed, the teachers)

“The effects of the teachers’ cottage system in stabilizing the teaching force are obvious.”

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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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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Literacy was Sought by the People

“One young man asked (a missionary) for a book yesterday, and (he) inquired of him who his teacher was. He replied, ‘My desire to learn, my ear, to hear, my eye, to see, my hands, to handle, for, from the sole of my foot to the crown of my head I love the palapala.’” (KSBE)

“Not long after the passing of Kamehameha I in 1819, the first Christian missionaries arrived at (Kawaihae), Hawaiʻi on March 30, 1820. (They finally anchored at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.) Their arrival here became the topic of much discussion as Liholiho, known as Kamehameha II, deliberated with his aliʻi council for 13 days on a plan allowing the missionaries to stay.

“Interestingly, the missionaries promised a printing press and to teach palapala, or reading and writing. Because Liholiho had learned the alphabet prior to the missionaries’ arrival, he had a notion of the value of a printing press and literacy for his 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.”

“To us it has been a matter of pleasing wonder that the rulers and the people were so early and generally led to seek instruction through books furnished them by our hands, not one of which was designed to encourage image worship, to countenance iniquity, or to be at variance with the strictest rules of morality. It was of the Lord’s mercy.”

“With the elements of reading and writing we were accustomed, from the beginning, to connect the elements of morals and religion, and have been happy to find them mutual aids”. (Hiram Bingham)

“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.”

“The English New Testament was almost our first school book, and happy should we have been, could the Hawaiian Bible have been the next.” (Hiram Bingham)

“In connexion with this general mode of instruction, we could, and did teach English to a few, and have continued to do so. We early used both English and Hawaiian together.”

“For a time after our arrival, in our common intercourse, In our schools, and in our preaching, we were obliged to employ interpreters, though none except Hopu and Honolii were found to be very trustworthy, in communicating the uncompromising claims and the spirit-searching truths of revealed religion.” (Hiram Bingham)

As the missionaries learned Hawaiian, they taught their lessons 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. In later years, the instruction, ultimately, was in English.

“By August 30, 1825, only three years after the first printing of the pīʻāpā, 16,000 copies of spelling books, 4,000 copies of a small scripture tract, and 4,000 copies of a catechism had been printed and distributed.”

“On October 8, 1829, it was reported that 120,000 spelling books were printed in Hawaiʻi. These figures suggest that perhaps 90 percent of the Hawaiian population were in possession of a pīʻāpā book!”

“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.”

“In fact, while Liholiho was on his ill–fated trip to England, Kaʻahumanu, the kuhina nui (regent), and Kalanimōku reiterated their support by proclaiming that upon the completion of schools, ‘all the people shall learn the palapala.’”

“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.

Manu Ka‘iama then noted:

“I think I hear what you are saying, and it is an important point to make and to remember is that their mission was very different, that first generation of missionaries. Their mission or their reason to be here, and the assistance that they provided the ali‘i goes without saying. I guess these letters probably pretty much show that.”

“You can see the relationship and you can see how they worked together and that they learned from each other. And, I would assume that is so and I think we are hard on the missionaries because of maybe the next generation of missionaries …”

“We do, many times, kind of just brush over that earlier history, and we shouldn’t make that mistake, because the fact that these letters show a relationship that you think is honorable….” (Manu Ka‘iama)

Jon Yasuda then added,

“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.”

Shifting Paradigm Noted by Kaliko Martin

“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)

Puakea Nogelmeier had a similar conclusion. In remarks at a Hawaiian Mission Houses function he noted,

“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)

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Armstrong Appointment

“The Missionaries have been the fathers, the builders and the supporters of education in these Islands, and (William Lee) thought it proper that their wishes in reference to the appointment of a person to superintend Education should in some degree be consulted”. (William Lee)

“Mr Richards the Minister of Public Instruction is sick and has been given up to die, though he still lives. The Minister of the Interior has been appointed to act for him provisionally”. (Gerrit Judd)

“Mr. Wyllie rose and said a sense of duty to the King induced him to state that the appointment of a Minister of Public Instruction, in the peculiar circumstances of the Islands, was the most important under the Crown.”

“On public instruction was based the Security of His M’s Crown, and the progress of His subjects in civilization and christianity. That, therefore, an appointment so momentous for good or evil, ought not to be precipitately made.” (Two names were discussed, Lorrin Andrews and Richard Armstrong.)

“That the man of greatest talent, most moral worth, most devoted to the King and to His Subjects and best acquainted with the language should be selected and he believed that man to be Mr Armstrong.”

“He gave this opinion as if speaking in presence of his Maker and having to answer for it, at the great day of Judgement. But he
hoped that whoever might be appointed, the appointment should be considered provisional, so as to meet the case of the possible recovery of Mr Richards.” (Richard Wyllie)

Lee “Said it was his mind that this matter is the most important one that can come before the Privy Council. With the Minister of Public Instruction rested the weighty responsibility of moulding the mind and character of this Nation for generations to come.”

“How necessary then, that we select the best man the Kingdom affords. He had looked around him to see who this man was, and his mind and heart were fixed upon Richard Armstrong.”

“He was his first choice, and in his humble opinion the Man of all men best adopted to discharge the high duties of this Post. He gave his preference to Mr Armstrong because he was a good Man, a wise Man and an industrious Man.”

“He would say nothing in disparagement of Mr Andrews of Molokai, for he knew little or nothing about him. But he did know Mr Armstrong, and thought he should certainly have the first offer.”

“He was a tried and devoted to this Nation and one whom we could not mistake – A question of such vast importance required our most sober deliberations, and he trusted that in whatever we did, we might not move with precipitation.”

“He most heartily concurred with Mr Wyllie in his remarks, and would end as he began, in stating it as his firm conviction, that Richard Armstrong was the Man.” (Lee)

“Mr (John Papa) Ii spoke very eloquently in favor of both candidates – said that either of them do well, but that Mr Armstrong was a good fisher of Men and that his loss would be severely felt in the Church.” (Ii)

Richards died – “the oldest, the most devoted, faithful and tried servant of His Majesty. He had given all the best energies of his body, mind & soul to this Nation, and what was more, he had died in poverty”. (William Lee)

“Kekuanaoa states that in his opinion Mr Armstrong be appointed and so notified. In his opinion, Mr Armstrong was the best Man and that he ought to be appointed at once.” (Kekuanaoa)

“Mr Wyllie stated that notwithstanding all that had been said, he could not without violence to his conscience, do otherwise than support the views of Governor Kekuanaoa and John Ii. Their views were r that Mr Armstrong should be appointed subject to the approval of the Missionaries at their next General Meeting.”

“He (Mr Wyllie) supported those views, both because he considered Mr Armstrong the best man, & because the whole Missionary body thought him to be the best Man. …” (Wyllie)

“It was, therefore, due, no less in gratitude than in policy, for the Government, to act so as to cultivate the good opinion & continue the sympathy of the American Board of F. Missions in the U. S. and the good will of the Missionaries here.”

“Nothing would do that more effectually than the appointment of M. Armstrong, whom all the Missionaries considered the fittest Man for the Post, although from the value they attach to him, they did not like to part with him.”

“He believed and Mr Armstrong also believed that by waiting till the next General Meeting, the Missionaries would so far consent to his separation, as to enable him to take office with their approval.” (Wyllie)

“Mr Wyllie moved the following Resolution ‘Resolved that the Reverend Mr Armstrong’s offer to assist the Minister of the Interior until the next General Meeting of his brethren, be accepted; and that if he can then obtain the approval of his brethren, he be appointed to the Office of Minister of Public Instruction.’” (Wyllie)

“The Rev. Mr. Armstrong, having by letter to Judge Lee, dated May 1848, accepted the office of the Minister of Public Instruction, tendered him by Resolution of the 2nd of December 1847 – took the Oath of Allegiance.” (All from Privy Council Minutes)

Armstrong left the mission and became Minister of Public Instruction on June 7, 1848. Armstrong was to serve the government for the remainder of his life. He was a member of the Privy Council and the House of Nobles and acted as the royal chaplain.

He set up the Board of Education under the kingdom in 1855 and was its president until his death. Armstrong is known as the “the father of American education in Hawaiʻi.”

The government-sponsored education system in Hawaiʻi is the longest running public school system west of the Mississippi River. To this day, Hawaiʻi is the only state to have a completely-centralized State public school system.

Armstrong helped bring better textbooks, qualified teachers and better school buildings. Students were taught in Hawaiian how to read, write, math, geography, singing and to be “God-fearing” citizens. (By 1863, three years after Armstrong’s death, the missionaries stopped being a part of Hawaiʻi’s education system.)

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Slate

“Not long after the passing of Kamehameha I in 1819, the first Christian missionaries arrived at (Kawaihae), Hawaiʻi on March 30, 1820. (They finally anchored at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.)”

“Their arrival here became the topic of much discussion as Liholiho, known as Kamehameha II, deliberated with his aliʻi council for 13 days on a plan allowing the missionaries to stay.”

“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)

“There was a frankness and earnestness on the part of some, in commencing and prosecuting study, which agreeably surprised us, and greatly encouraged our first efforts.”

“On the Sabbath, very soon after our arrival, Pulunu came to attend our public worship, and brought two shy, but bright looking little daughters, and after the service, she desired us to take them under our instruction.”

“We readily consented; and both mother and daughters became interesting members of the school. In a few weeks the mother conquered the main difficulty in acquiring an ability to read and write, and the others before many months.” (Bingham)

“On the 1st of August (1820), the slate was introduced, and by the 4th, Pulunu wrote on her slate, from a Sabbath School card, the following sentence in English; ‘I cannot see God, but God can see me.’”

“She was delighted with the exercise, and with her success in writing and comprehending it. The rest of the pupils listened with admiration as she read it, and gave the sense in Hawaiian. Here was a demonstration that a slate could speak in a foreign tongue, and convey a grand thought in their own.” (Bingham)

Demand for slates skyrocketed … “Our house has been thronged with natives applying for books & slates – Our yard has sometime presented the appearance of a market stocked with goats, pigs, poultry, melons & bananas brought to be exchanged for the means of instruction.” (Levi Chamberlain, July 18, 1826)

“Sabbath Augt 27 (1826). At the close of the native service in the morning notice was given that some of the mission would meet in the afternoon those persons who might desire to write down the text.”

“After dinner from 50 to 75 persons assembled with their slates and wrote the text which was given out sentence by sentence. A few remarks were made and the exercise concluded by prayer.” (Levi Chamberlain, August 27, 1826)

Writing material (slates) were a medium of exchange … “A very busy week this has been to me. On Wendnesday the ship began to discharge our supplies – and more or less have been landed every day since. Most of the packages and barrels have been delivered and a little more than half the lumber.”

“I have employed from 8 to 12 natives a day and have paid them at the rate of about 50 cts. per day in books or slates.” (Levi Chamberlain, May 1, 1830)

Saturday May 29th 1830. Since the last date I have been very much engaged. Our yard and the premises have been a scene of labor. Mr. Clark has been superintending the erection of houses in the enclosure in which my house stands.”

“The frames of three native houses are now put up, one of which is designed for a dwelling for himself, another for a study and the last for the accommodation of the natives belonging to his family.”

“The two former buildings are separated from the other houses in the yard by a ti fence. A cook house is soon to be built for the accommodation of his family and ours and it will stand about mid way between our two dwelling houses.”

“A front gate has been put up which will serve for us both, without the necessity of passing out by the printing house.”

“I have also come to the conclusion of building a new store house to be connected with a dwelling for myself to be built of stones & carried up two stories.”

“The stones I am now collecting. I purchase them for Gospels & Slates, to be cut & left on the beach -1 to draw them up. For a Gospel 6 stones 2 feet sq. – for the smallest size slates 10 stones & for the next large -12 stones. More than 1000 have been cut. I shall need at least 3000.” (Levi Chamberlain, May 29, 1830)

“Monday (June) 21st (1830). To day a company of men with whom I have made a bargain to dig the cellar of the new Store & dwelling house for myself commenced their work. I am to pay them 2 ps. unbld. factory cotton & 10 middling size slates.”

But, it was not always positive … “(Lyman) says, ‘We have no calls for books not enough to get the common work done of mahi ai. We cannot even hire common work for slates.’”

“It is evident for this that the business of learning is becoming to the natives an irksome business. Piopio the head woman is thought to be an opposer to that which is good.”

“The course which she has taken with a teacher whom the brethren have favored, & whom she had been seeking an occasion against and unfortunately for him had found, evinced a great deal of hatred.”

“This young man she has sent to Lahaina and Mr. Lyman adds. ‘We do not expect that she will attempt to remove us, but want of power alone will prevent.’ Her influence is of no doubtful character.” (Levi Chamberlain, September 19, 1833)

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Writing Slate-1800
Writing Slate-1800