Foreign Mission School

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Hilo_Boarding_School_Shop,_Class_of_June_1901

Hilo_Boarding_School-printing-(75-years)

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Hilo Boarding School and Mission Houses

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Hilo_Boarding_School-(75-years)

Hilo_Boarding_School-garden-(75-years)

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Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School

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Punahou School, Photograph attributed to Charles Burgess-1866-E bldg to left-Old School Hall right

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Punahou-Gardens-1880

Kamehameha School for Boys campus-(KSBE)-before 1900

February 25, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

In June 1810, Mills and James Richards petitioned the General Association of the Congregational Church to establish the foreign missions. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was formed with a Board of members from Massachusetts and Connecticut.

ABCFM had its origin in the desire of several young men in the Andover Theological Seminary to preach the gospel in the heathen world. (The term ‘heathen’ (without the knowledge of Jesus Christ and God) was a term in use at the time (200-years ago.))

“The Board has established missions, in the order of time in which they are now named at Bombay, and Ceylon; among the Cherokees, Choctaws, and the Cherokees of the Arkansaw ….”

It is important to note that in the early nineteenth century all land west of the Ohio Valley was considered foreign territory. Westward continental expansion bled into the Pacific and beyond. (NPS)

By 1816, contributions to the ABCFM had declined. There were several reasons including post-War of 1812 recession and the fact that India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) were too remote to hold public interest. (Wagner)

Folks saw a couple options: bring Indian and foreign youth into white communities and teach them there, or go out to them and teach them in their own communities. They chose the former.

“If the proper means were employed, no doubt can be entertained, that many of these Youths would become the instruments of good, to themselves and to the nations to which they belong. From the declarations o: providence of God, it is reasonable to hope, that some, if favoured with a religious education, would become the subjects of divine grace.”

“The great object in educating these Youths, is, that they may be employed as instruments of salvation to their benighted countrymen. Should they become qualified to preach the Gospel, they will possess many advantages over Missionaries, from this, or any other part of the Christian World.”

Formation of Foreign Mission School

“(W)e have a school at Cornwall, Connecticut, instituted for the purpose of educating youths of Heathen nations, with a view of their being useful in their respective countries. This school commenced in May, 1817. The number of pupils is at present about thirty; fifteen of whom are Indian youths, of principal families, belonging to five or six different Indian tribes …”

“… several of these last receive an allowance from the government; and I beg to commend them all to the favor of the President, as very promising youths, in a course of education, which will qualify them for extending influence, and for important usefulness, in their respective nations. They, as well as the pupils in the schools in the nations, are exercised in various labors, and inured to industry; and the school comprises most of the branches of academical education, and is under excellent instruction and government.” (Morse, 1822)

The object of the school was the education, in the US country, of heathen youth, so that they might be qualified to become useful missionaries, physicians, surgeons, schoolmasters or interpreters, and to communicate to the heathen nations such knowledge in agriculture and the arts, as might prove the means of promoting Christianity and civilization. (ABCFM)

Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School exemplified evangelical efforts to recruit young men from indigenous cultures around the world, convert them to Christianity, educate them and train them to become preachers, health workers, translators and teachers back in their native lands.

The school’s first student was Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia (Obookiah,) a native Hawaiian from the Island of Hawaiʻi who in 1808 (after his parents had been killed) boarded a sailing ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent. In its first year, the Foreign Mission School had 12 students, more than half of whom were Hawaiian.

Curricula operated at various levels, as some of the pupils were more advanced in their studies while others where just learning basic literacy – the more advanced students helped teach the others.

Students rose around 5 or 6 am and ate breakfast together at 7 am in the dining room of the steward’s house. Daily classes ran from 9 am to noon, and again from 2 to 5 pm, with all sessions taking place on the first floor of the main school building just across the street from the steward’s house.

The coming of Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia and other young Hawaiians to the US, who awakened a deep Christian sympathy in the churches, moved the ABCFM to establish a mission at the Islands. When asked “Who will return with these boys to their native land to teach the truths of salvation?”

Bingham and his classmate, Asa Thurston, were the first to respond, and offer their services to the Board. (Congregational Quarterly) They were ordained at Goshen, Connecticut on September 29, 1819; several years earlier from Goshen came the first official request for a mission to Hawai‘i; this ordination of foreign missionaries was the first held in the State of Connecticut.

“During its brief existence, Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School taught over 100 students. More importantly, however, it connected a small town in Connecticut to larger, international events, such as the flourishing Christian missionary movement. Additionally, it reveals the boundaries of tolerance in the early 1800s.” (Connecticut History) By the time the school closed in 1826, only fourteen students remained.

Click HERE for an Expanded View of the ABCFM.

Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School

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Steward’s_House

Cornwall Valley Map Sketch-1825-26

Cornwall Map-1854

Litchfield and Cornwall Map

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Four_Owyhean_Youths-Thomas Hoopoo, George Tamoree, William Tenooe and John Honoree

January 14, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM)

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions had its beginning in the revivals at the end of the eighteenth, and the beginning of the nineteenth century.

During the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century several missionary societies were formed in the United States.

Back then, Williamstown was a frontier village, similar in many respects to any western village of the last half century, composed of men with patriotic hopes and daring wills.”

Twelve years after the incorporation of Williams College in 1793, the Second Great Awakening spread from its origins in Connecticut to Williamstown, Massachusetts. Enlightenment ideals from France were gradually being countered by an increase in religious fervor, first in the town, and then in the College. (Williams College)

In the spring of 1806, Samuel J. Mills, the 23-year old son of a Connecticut clergyman, joined the Freshman class. Mills, after a period of religious questioning in his late teens, entered Williams with a passion to spread Christianity around the globe. (Williams College)

He found the town and college under the influence of a great revival. Though felt but slightly in the college in 1805, in the summer of 1806 it was profoundly stirring men’s souls. Prayer-meetings by groups of students were being maintained zealously.

On Wednesdays, the men met south of West College beneath the willow trees. On Saturdays, the meetings were held north of the college buildings, beneath the maple trees in Sloan’s meadow. (The Haystack Centennial)

On a Saturday afternoon in August, 1806, five Williams College students, Congregationalists in background, gathered in a field to discuss the spiritual needs of those living in Asian countries. The five who attended were Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green.

The meeting was interrupted by the approaching storm. It began to rain; the thunder rolled with deafening sound familiar to those who dwell among the hills; the sharp quick flashes of lightning seemed like snapping whips driving the men to shelter.

They crouched beside a large haystack which stood on the spot now marked by the Missionary Monument. Here, partially protected at least from the storm, they conversed on large themes.

The topic that engaged their interest was Asia. The work of the East India Company, with which they were all somewhat acquainted, naturally turned their thoughts to the people with which this company sought trade.

Mills especially waxed eloquent on the moral and religious needs of these people, and afire with a great enthusiasm he proposed that the gospel of light be sent to those dwelling in such benighted lands

All but Loomis responded to this inspiration of Mills. Loomis contended that the East must first be civilized before the work of the missionary could begin.

The others contended that God would cooperate with all who did their part, for He would that all men should be partakers of the salvation of Christ.

Finally at Mills’ word, ‘Come, let us make it a subject of prayer under the haystack, while the dark clouds are going and the clear sky is coming,’ they all knelt in prayer. (The Haystack Centennial)

‘The brevity of the shower, the strangeness of the place of refuge, and the peculiarity of their topic of prayer and conference all took hold of their imaginations and their memories.’ (Global Ministries)

The students were also influenced by a pamphlet titled ‘An Inquiry into the Obligation of Christians to use means for the Conversion of the Heathen,’ written by British Baptist missionary William Carey.

After praying, these five young men sang a hymn together. It was then that Mills said loudly over the rain and the wind, ‘We can do this, if we will!’ (Williams College)

That moment changed those men forever. Many historians would tell you that all mission organizations in the US trace their history back to the Haystack Prayer Meeting in some way. Yes, these men turned the world upside down. And it all began in a prayer meeting under a haystack. (Southern Baptist Convention)

Though only two of the five Williams students at the Haystack Prayer meeting ever left the United States, the impact of their passion for missions is widespread.

Samuel Mills became the Haystack person with the greatest influence on the modern mission movement. He played a role in the founding of the American Bible Society and the United Foreign Missionary Society.

In 1808, Mills and other Williams students formed ‘The Brethren,’ a society organized to ‘effect, in the persons of its members, a mission to the heathen.’

Upon the enrollment of Mills and Richards at Andover Seminary in 1810, Adoniram Judson from Brown, Samuel Newall from Harvard, and Samuel Nott from Union College joined the Brethren.

Led by the enthusiasm of Judson, the young seminarians convinced the General Association of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts to form The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. (Williams College)

In June 1810, Mills and James Richards petitioned the General Association of the Congregational Church to establish the foreign missions. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was formed with a Board of members from Massachusetts and Connecticut.

“The general purpose of these devoted young men was fixed. Sometimes they talked of ‘cutting a path through the moral wilderness of the West to the Pacific.’ Sometimes they thought of South America; then of Africa. Their object was the salvation of the heathen; but no specific shape was given to their plans, till the formation of the American Board of Foreign Missions.” (Worcester)

“The Board has established missions, in the order of time in which they are now named at Bombay, and Ceylon; among the Cherokees, Choctaws, and the Cherokees of the Arkansaw …” (Missionary Herald)

At this same time, in the Islands, a Hawaiian, ʻŌpūkahaʻia, made a life-changing decision – not only which affected his life, but had a profound effect on the future of the Hawaiian Islands.

“I began to think about leaving that country, to go to some other part of the globe. I did not care where I shall go to. I thought to myself that if I should get away, and go to some other country, probably I may find some comfort, more than to live there, without father and mother.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

‘Ōpūkaha’ia swam out to and boarded Brintnall’s ‘Triumph’ in Kealakekua Bay. After travelling to the American North West, then to China, they landed in New York in 1809. They continued to New Haven, Connecticut. ʻŌpūkahaʻia was eager to study and learn – seeking to be a student at Yale.

The Mills family invited ʻŌpūkahaʻia into their home. Later Mills brought ʻŌpūkahaʻia to Andover Theological Seminary, the center of foreign mission training in New England.

In October, 1816, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) decided to establish the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut, for the instruction of youth like ʻŌpūkahaʻia.

By 1817, a dozen students, six of them Hawaiians, were training at the Foreign Mission School to become missionaries to teach the Christian faith to people around the world. Initially lacking a principal, Dwight filled that role from May 1817 – May 1818.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia was being groomed to be a key figure in a mission to Hawai‘i, to be joined by Samuel Mills Jr. Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died at Cornwall on February 17, 1818, and several months later Mills died at sea off West Africa after surveying lands that became Liberia.

Edwin W Dwight is remembered for putting together a book, ‘Memoirs of Henry Obookiah’ (the spelling of the name based on its pronunciation), as a fundraiser for the Foreign Mission School. It was an edited collection of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s letters and journals/diaries. The book about his life was printed and circulated after his death, becoming a best-seller of its day.

Ōpūkaha’ia, inspired by many young men with proven sincerity and religious fervor of the missionary movement, had wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi; his book inspired missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Hawaiian Islands.

The coming of Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia and other young Hawaiians to the US, who awakened a deep Christian sympathy in the churches, moved the ABCFM to establish a mission at the Islands.

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of ABCFM missionaries set sail from Boston on the Thaddeus to establish the Sandwich Islands Mission (now known as Hawai‘i). Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”), about 184-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

Click HERE for an Expanded View of the ABCFM.

Williams_College_-_Haystack_Monument

Haystack Prayer Meeting

Opukahaia

Four_Owyhean_Youths-Thomas Hoopoo, George Tamoree, William Tenooe and John Honoree

Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School

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Hiram_and_Sybil_Moseley_Bingham,_1819-head of Pioneer Company

Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston

Thomas and Lucia Holman

Samuel and Nancy Ruggles

Samuel and Mercy Whitney-1819

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January 5, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Heathen School at Nantucket

“If there is a missionary ground on earth it is here (in Nantucket).” (Christian Herald and Seaman’s Magazine; April 6, 1822)

The headline ‘Heathen School at Nantucket’ in The Religious Intelligencer, May 4, 1822 would suggest the possibility of a second Foreign Mission School was in Nantucket (to the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall). It possibly served as a feeder to the Cornwall school.

It appears plausible, given Nantucket’s early American leadership in the Pacific whaling fleets following the first American whalers’ visit to Hawai‘i in 1819 (Edmund Gardner, captain of the New Bedford whaler Balaena (also called Balena,) and Elisha Folger, captain of the Nantucket whaler Equator).

Nantucket emerged as the world’s most vigorous whaling port in the colonies, with a substantial fleet dedicated exclusively to pelagic sperm and right whaling on distant grounds, and a highly developed network of merchants and mariners to prosecute the hunt. (Lebo)

Gardner, like other whalers “shipped two Kanakas from Maui and had them the remainder of the Voyage and took them to New Bedford.” (Gardner Journal)

Many Nantucket captains, returning home from their Pacific whaling voyages, also recounted their Hawaiian adventures. Some brought back objects of Hawaiian manufacture, as well as Native Hawaiian seamen. Other Native Hawaiians landed in Nantucket, New Bedford, and nearby ports almost immediately after.

There were more than three hundred Nantucket whaling voyages to Hawai‘i and the Native Hawaiian crewmen aboard. Thousands of Hawaiians shipped out as seamen aboard the whaling ships, so many that the crews were often half Hawaiian. (NPS)

Within a few years, over fifty “natives of the South Sea Islands” reportedly served aboard Nantucket whaleships. By the 1830s, Nantucket whalers employed about fourteen hundred seamen, including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Four or five hundred men arrived or departed annually. (Nantucket Historical Association)

Whaling had been “an economic force of awesome proportions in these Islands for more than forty years,” enabling King Kamehameha III to finally pay off the national debts accumulated in earlier years. (NPS)

In part, it seems that some of the Islanders were also coming for Western education and were part of the enrollment in the First Congregational Church’s Sabbath School. (Nantucket Historical Association)

“Very little is known relative to the history of the first Congregational church and society in Nantucket, (anciently called Sherburne,) prior to the year 1761. The oldest church records that have been preserved, commence June 27th, of that year.”

“The original meeting-house was first located on a spot about a mile from the town in a northwesterly direction, and in 1765 it was moved into town and rebuilt.”

“It has since that period undergone various repairs and alterations, and in 1834 it was moved a few rods from the spot on which it was re-erected.”

“On that spot, called Beacon hill, now stands the new meeting-house built and dedicated in 1834. The old meeting-house has been fitted up in a commodious style, and is now used as a vestry for the church, and is also used for the Sabbath school.” (Deacon Paul Folger; American Quarterly Register, May 1843)

An unknown number of the Hawaiians attended local schools or temporarily resided in town with local families. In 1822, three of the “Heathen Youth” aboard an outbound whaler formerly attended the Sabbath School at the First Congregational Church.

That year, the Nantucket Inquirer reported “7 natives of the Sandwich Islands” at the school, while the Boston Recorder indicated “twenty Society or Sandwich Islanders” in attendance.

Two years later, Henry Attvoi (or Attooi) left for a whaling cruise aboard the Nantucket ship Oeno; he probably lived in the largely nonwhite section of town called New Guinea before his Oeno voyage began. (Nantucket Historical Association)

(The label “New Guinea” was used in numerous cities and towns to designate the section in which people of color resided.) (MuseumOfAfroAmericanHistory)

The Boston Reporter noted, Nantucket “has long been the resort of youth from pagan countries … there resided here twenty Society and Sandwich Islanders, who, on stated evenings when the sky was clear, assembled in the streets, erected the ensigns of idolatry, and in frantick orgies paid their worship to the host of heaven.”

“(A) kind of school has recently been instituted into which 15 natives of Owhyhee and other islands of the Pacific, have been received.”

“ Of these, 7 are still here are mostly between 14 and 17 years of age and generally remarkable for mildness of disposition, cleanliness of person, and symetry and activity of body.”

“They are anxious to learn, but as yet, ignorant of the true God and eternal life, and more or less addicted to idolatry. … Others have discovered emotion at religious truth.”

“Could one of the pious youth in Cornwall School be placed in our academy, he would enjoy the instruction of an able and devoted preceptor, late of the Theological Seminary in Andover, and perhaps render at his leisure as great service to his countrymen, as though he was stationed in Owhyhee.”

“We lamented to hear of the lack of means for the support of a greater number at Cornwall, since it has frustrated our hopes of introducing a very promising candidate from Chili, and another from the Sandwich Islands.”

“Such as might be given up by their master to receive an education, will if permitted to remain here, be sent to sea. Could they therefore be taken into the pious families of pious mechanics in the country, they might earn qualifications for future and extensive usefulness in connexion with some foreign mission.” (Boston Recorder copied in The Religious Intelligencer, May 4, 1822)

There appears to be some connection between the Nantucket and Cornwall schools, The Report of the 15th Annual Meeting of the ABCFM (Pecuniary Accounts, 1824) noted “Expenses of four youth from Cornwall; to Nantucket, and provisions and clothing for three of them, and their passage to the Sandwich Islands $183 55”.

By the 1840s, with Nantucket harbor no longer deep enough to handle newer, larger whaling ships, most of the vessels relocated to New Bedford, while most of the financiers and much of the money and good life stayed in Nantucket. (Lebo)

First Congregational Church Nantucket-North Vespry-1820-WC

December 20, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Seeds to the Hawaiian Mission

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) had its origin in the desire of several young men in the Andover Theological Seminary to preach the gospel in the heathen world. (The term ‘heathen’ (without the knowledge of Jesus Christ and God) was a term in use at the time (200-years ago.))

“The Board has established missions, in the order of time in which they are now named at Bombay, and Ceylon; among the Cherokees, Choctaws, and the Cherokees of the Arkansaw ….” (Missionary Herald)

The following are portions of a December 20, 1809 letter written by Samuel J Mills to the Rev. Gordon Hall, then a student in the Theological Seminary at Andover (he was later a Missionary in the island of Bombay.)

It speaks of ‘Ōpūkaha’ia and his influence in establishing the Hawaiian Islands Mission.

“Very Dear Brother, I received your kind letter, and feel much indebted to you. I have been in this place about two months. When I came, I found my worthy friend E. Dwight here …”

“… I roomed with him about two weeks, and then removed my quarters to the Rev. Mr. Stewart’s, with whom I have lived to the present time. As every day is not so singularly spent by me as this has been, I will notice something not a little extraordinary.”

“To make my narrative understood, you must go back with me to my first arrival in this place. Mr. Dwight, I then found, was instructing a native Owhyean boy. Two natives of this island arrived here five or six months ago, and this was one of them.”

“As I was in the room with Mr. Dwight, I heard the youth recite occasionally, and soon became considerably attached to him. His manners are simple; he does not appear to be vicious in any respect, and he has a great thirst for knowledge.”

“In his simple manner of expressing himself, he says, ‘The people in Owhyhee very bad – they pray to gods made of wood. Poor Indians don’t know nothing.’”

“He says, ‘Me want to learn to read this Bible, and go back then, and tell them to pray to God up in heaven.’ (Not having a place to stay,) I told him he need not be concerned; I would find a place for him. …”

“I told him he might go home with me, and live at my father’s, and have whatever he wanted. He then came with me to my room. I heard him read his lesson, and attempted to instruct him in some of the first principles of Christianity, of which he was almost entirely ignorant. …”

“I told him further, that as my father was one of the Missionary Trustees, he would no doubt obtain for him a support, if it was thought best to educate him, which is my intention to attempt so far as that he may be able to instruct his countrymen, and, by God’s blessing, convert them to Christianity. To this he could hardly object. …”

“He had been talking with the President of the College, and I told him I would see him on the subject … (and I) related to him a part of my plan, which was that Obookiah should go with me to my father’s, and live with him this winter …”

“… and be instructed in the first principles of reading and writing, as well as of Christianity, where he would be abundantly furnished with the means of acquiring both. …”

“The President came fully into the opinion that this was the most eligible course which could be pursued, if Obookiah was willing to go. Obookiah is his Indian name, and he is seventeen years old, I told him he would be glad to go; he was without a home – without a place to eat, or sleep.”

“The poor and almost friendless Owhyean would sit down disconsolate, and the honest tears would flow freely down his sunburn face; but since this plan has been fixed upon, he has appeared cheerful, and feels quite at ease.”

“I propose to leave town in two weeks, with this native of the South to accompany me to Torringford, where I intend to place him under the care of those whose benevolence is without a bond to check, or a limit to confine it. Here I intend he shall stay until next spring, if he is contented. Thus, you see, he is likely to be firmly fixed by my side.”

“What does this mean? Brother Hall, do you understand it? Shall he be sent back unsupported, to attempt to reclaim his countrymen?”

“Shall we not rather consider these southern islands a proper place for the establishment of a mission?”

“Not that I would give up the heathen tribes of the west. I trust we shall be able to establish more than one mission in a short time, at least in a few years; and that God will enable us to extend our views and labours further than we have before contemplated.”

“We ought not to look merely to the heathen on our own continent, but to direct our attention where we may, to human appearance, do the most good, and where the difficulties are the least. We are to look to the climate – established prejudices – the acquisition of language – the means of subsistence, &c. &c.”

“All these things, I apprehend, are to be considered. The field is almost boundless; in every part of which, there ought to be Missionaries.”

“In the language of an animated writer, but I must say, ‘he is of another country – O that we could enter at a thousand gates, that every limb were a tongue, and every tongue a trumpet to spread the Gospel sound!’”

“The men of Macedonia; cry, Come over and help us. This voice is heard from the north and from the south, and from the east, and from the west.”

“O that we might glow with desire to preach the Gospel to the heathen, that is altogether irresistible! The spirit of burning hath gone forth. The camp is in motion. The Levites, we trust, are about to bear the vessels, and the great command is, Go Forward.”

“Let us, my dear brother, rely with the most implicit confidence, on those great, eternal, precious promises contained in the word of God: …”

“‘And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the Gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come, eternal life.’”

“Be strong, therefore, and let not your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. ‘Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty; and in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and thy right hand “shall teach thee terrible things.’” Let us exclaim with the poet:

Come then, and added to thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth.
Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine
By ancient cov’nant, e’er nature’s birth,
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since,
And overpaid its value with thy blood.”

Folks saw a couple options: bring Indian and foreign youth into white communities and teach them there, or go out to them and teach them in their own communities. They chose the former. They formed the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall CT.

The school’s first student was Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia (Obookiah,) a native Hawaiian from the Island of Hawaiʻi who in 1808-1809 (after his parents had been killed) boarded a sailing ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent. In its first year, the Foreign Mission School had 12 students, more than half of whom were Hawaiian.

At the beginning of the school’s tenure, ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia was considered a leader of the student body, excelling in his studies, expressing his fondness for and understanding of the importance of the agricultural labor, and qualifying for a full church membership due to his devotion to his new faith.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia, inspired by many young men with proven sincerity and religious fervor of the missionary movement, had wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi; his book inspired missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Hawaiian 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.) With the missionaries were four Hawaiian students from the Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauaʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i.)

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”), about 184-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Hawaiian Islands.