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April 25, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

General Meeting

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 Mission (ABCFM) in the Hawaiian Islands.

One of the earliest efforts of the missionaries, who arrived in 1820, was the identification and selection of important communities (generally near ports and aliʻi residences) as “stations” for the regional church and school centers across the Hawaiian Islands.

The missionaries were scattered across the Islands, each home was usually in a thickly inhabited village, so that the missionary and his wife could be close to their work among the people. Meeting houses were constructed at the stations, as well as throughout the district. Initially constructed as the traditional Hawaiian thatched structures; they were later made of wood or stone.

By 1850, eighteen mission stations had been established; six on Hawaiʻi, four on Maui, four on Oʻahu, three on Kauai and one on Molokai.

Very prominent in the old mission life was the annual “General Meeting” where all of the missionary families from across the Islands gathered at Honolulu from four to six weeks.

“The design of their coming together would naturally suggest itself to any reflecting mind. They are all engaged in one work, but are stationed at various and distant points on different portions of the group, hence they feel the necessity of occasionally coming together, reviewing the past, and concerting plans for future operations.”

“Were it not for these meetings, missionaries at extreme parts of the group might never see each other, and in some instances we know that persons connected with the Sandwich Island Mission, have never seen each other’s faces, although for years they have been laboring in the same work.” (The Friend, June 15, 1846)

The primary object of this gathering was to hold a business meeting for hearing reports of the year’s work and of the year’s experiences in more secular matters, and there from to formulate their annual report to the Board in Boston. Annual General Meetings of the mission fixed policy – “the majority ruled”.

The General Meeting was held in an adobe school house (constructed during the period 1833-1835) still standing south of the Kawaiaha‘o Church, on Kawaiaha‘o Street.

An important object of the General Meeting was a social one. The many stations away from Honolulu were more or less isolated – some of them extremely so. Perhaps a dominant influence in the consumption of so much time was the appreciation of the social opportunity, and the unwillingness to bring it unnecessarily to a speedy close. (Dole)

“Often some forty or more of the missionaries besides their wives were present, as well as many of the older children. … Much business was transacted relating to the multifarious work and business of the Mission. New missionaries were to be located, and older ones transferred.” (Bishop)

Mission Houses Annual Meetings

The annual gathering of the Cousins, descendants of the early missionaries, continues. Today, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, a nonprofit educational institution and genealogical society, exists to promote an understanding of the social history of nineteenth-century Hawai‘i and its critical role in the formation of modern Hawai‘i.

The annual gathering of the Cousins, descendants of the early missionaries, continues. Hawaiian Mission Houses will be holding its annual meeting on April 25, 2020; however, due to present circumstances it will be held via video conference and not on the Mission Houses grounds, a stone’s throw from the old General Meeting house across Kawaiahaʻo Street.

The Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, a nonprofit educational institution and genealogical society, exists to promote an understanding of the social history of nineteenth-century Hawai‘i and its critical role in the formation of modern Hawai‘i.

The Society operates the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, comprised of three historic buildings and a research archives with reading room. The Society also compiles the genealogical records of the American Protestant missionaries in Hawai‘i and promotes the participation of missionary descendants in the Society’s activities.

Through the Site and Archives, the Society collects and preserves the documents, artifacts and other records of the missionaries in Hawai‘i’s history; makes these collections available for research and educational purposes; and interprets the historic site and collections to reflect the social history of nineteenth century Hawai‘i and America. Lots of stuff is online – click HERE.

When we are allowed to reopen, we plan to continue the guided tours of the houses and other parts of the historic site, Tuesday through Saturday, starting on the hour every hour from 11 am with the last tour beginning at 3 pm.

Click HERE to view/download Background Information on General Meeting

Old School House-General Meeting-Site-Centennial Book
IMG_2106
IMG_5585

Filed Under: General, Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, General Meeting, Hawaiian Mission Childrens Society

April 18, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

General Meeting

The Prudential Committee of the ABCFM in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said: “Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. … Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high.”

“You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.” (The Friend)

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

The missionaries were scattered across the Islands, each home was usually in a thickly inhabited village, so that the missionary and his wife could be close to their work among the people.

In the early years, they lived in the traditional thatched houses – “our little cottage built chiefly of poles, dried grass and mats, being so peculiarly exposed to fire … consisting only of one room with a little partition and one door.” (Sybil Bingham) The thatched cottages were raised upon a low stone platform. Later, they lived in wood, stone or adobe homes.

Very prominent in the old mission life was the annual “General Meeting” where all of the missionary families from across the Islands gathered at Honolulu from four to six weeks.

“The design of their coming together would naturally suggest itself to any reflecting mind. They are all engaged in one work, but are stationed at various and distant points on different portions of the group, hence they feel the necessity of occasionally coming together, reviewing the past, and concerting plans for future operations.”

“Were it not for these meetings, missionaries at extreme parts of the group might never see each other, and in some instances we know that persons connected with the Sandwich Island Mission, have never seen each other’s faces, although for years they have been laboring in the same work.” (The Friend, June 15, 1846)

The primary object of this gathering was to hold a business meeting for hearing reports of the year’s work and of the year’s experiences in more secular matters, and there from to formulate their annual report to the Board in Boston.

Another important object of the General Meeting was a social one. The many stations away from Honolulu were more or less isolated-some of them extremely so. Perhaps a dominant influence in the consumption of so much time was the appreciation of the social opportunity, and the unwillingness to bring it unnecessarily to a speedy close. (Dole)

“Often some forty or more of the missionaries besides their wives were present, as well as many of the older children. … Much business was transacted relating to the multifarious work and business of the Mission. New missionaries were to be located, and older ones transferred.”

“Expenditures upon schools, printing, dwellings, etc., were decided upon. Assignments of work were made in translating, revising and writing books.” (Bishop)

As an example, in 1835, at the General Meeting of the Mission, a resolution was passed to promote boarding schools for Hawaiians; several male boarding schools and two female boarding schools were begun. One of them, Wailuku Female Seminary on the island of Maui, was the first female school begun by the missionaries.

In 1839, the membership discussed “Instruction for the young Chiefs.” The meeting minutes note, “This subject was fully considered in connection with an application of the chiefs requesting the services of Mr. Cooke, as a teacher for their children; and it was voted:”

“That the mission comply with their request, provided they will carry out their promise to Mr. Cooke’s satisfaction; namely, to build a school house, sustain him in his authority, over the scholars, and support the school.”

This became the Chiefs’ Children’s School (later known as Royal School,) founded by King Kamehameha III as a boarding school to educate the children of the Hawaiian royalty (aliʻi). The school was first located where the ʻIolani Barracks stand now.

The annual gathering of the Cousins, descendants of the early missionaries, continues. Our family is part of the Society and Cousins. Hiram and Sybil Bingham (Hiram was leader of the first 1820 group of missionaries to Hawai‘i) are my great-great-great grandparents.

Today, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, a nonprofit educational institution and genealogical society, exists to promote an understanding of the social history of nineteenth-century Hawai‘i and its critical role in the formation of modern Hawai‘i.

The Society operates the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, comprised of three historic buildings and a research archives with reading room. The Society also compiles the genealogical records of the American Protestant missionaries in Hawai‘i and promotes the participation of missionary descendants in the Society’s activities.

Through the Mission Houses, the Society collects and preserves the documents, artifacts and other records of the missionaries in Hawai‘i’s history; makes these collections available for research and educational purposes; and interprets the historic site and collections to reflect the social history of nineteenth century Hawai‘i and America.

Guided tours of the house and other parts of the historic site are offered Tuesday through Saturday, starting on the hour every hour from 11 am with the last tour beginning at 3 pm.

Nominal fees include: General – $10; Kamaʻaina, Senior Citizens (55+) & Military – $8 and Students (age 6 to College w/ID) – $6; Kamaʻaina Saturday (last Saturday of the Month) 50% off admission for residents. (Reservations for groups of 10 or more are required.)

The tradition of the annual gathering of cousins continues … today is the annual meeting for the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society. As part of the gathering, the names of the missionary families are called out, in the order of the company that they arrived in the Islands.

Our family is part of the Society and cousins. Hiram and Sybil Bingham (Hiram was leader of the first 1820 group of missionaries to Hawai‘i) are my great-great-great grandparents.

I am honored and proud to serve on the Mission Houses Board of Trustees. Please also consider visiting the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives (on King Street, adjoining Kawaiahaʻo Church.) Take a tour, have a bite to eat in the Mark Noguchi run Mission Social Hall and Cafe, visit the gift shop/book store.

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Old School House-General Meeting-Site-Centennial Book
ABCFM-Missionary_Companies_to_Hawaii
ABCFM-Missionary_Companies_to_Hawaii
Kauikeaouli_Letter_Asking_Cooke_to_Teach_at_Chiefs_Childrens_School_1839
Kauikeaouli_Letter_Asking_Cooke_to_Teach_at_Chiefs_Childrens_School_1839
Commemorative Plaque to Amos and Juliette Cooke - listing students they taught at Royal School
Commemorative Plaque to Amos and Juliette Cooke – listing students they taught at Royal School
Royal School layout
Royal School layout
Photograph_of_the_Royal_School,_probably_after_1848
Photograph_of_the_Royal_School,_probably_after_1848
Wailuku Female Seminary-MissionHouses
Wailuku Female Seminary-MissionHouses
Wailuku Female Seminary-Mission Houses
Wailuku Female Seminary-Mission Houses

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: General Meeting, Hawaii, American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, ABCFM, Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives

March 3, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

A Day in the Life

“June 29th. A busy day. – – – -”

In part, the sole entry for that day in Sybil Bingham’s journal (1820) helps to describe what life was like for the families of the early missionaries in Hawaiʻi.

The Prudential Committee of the ABCFM in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said: “Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. … Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high. You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.” (The Friend)

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

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

The missionaries were scattered across the Islands, each home was usually in a thickly inhabited village, so that the missionary and his wife could be close to their work among the people.

In the early years, they lived in the traditional thatched houses – “our little cottage built chiefly of poles, dried grass and mats, being so peculiarly exposed to fire … consisting only of one room with a little partition and one door.” (Sybil Bingham) The thatched cottages were raised upon a low stone platform. Later, they lived in wood, stone or adobe homes.

The missionaries did not bring much furniture with them (and there were no stores or lumber yards,) so boxes in which their goods had been packed coming to the Islands served as tables and chairs.

However, “To-day I have been presented with what I may call an elegant chair …. My husband, I believe, was never a chair-maker before, but happy for me and the Mission family that he is every thing.” (Sybil Bingham, June 22, 1820)

(When the Binghams left the Islands in 1840, they took the chair with them; Sybil refused to part with it. Her wish was that when the last summons came she might be found in that chair, and her wish was granted when she died in 1848. (Bingham Journal))

The missionary family’s day began at 4 am (… it continued into the night, with no breaks.)

The mission children were up then, too; in the early morning, the parents taught their children. “We had one tin whale-oil lamp between us, with a single wick…. Soon after five we had breakfast.” (Bishop)

By 9 am, after accomplishing all domestic duties and schooling of the children, the wives would begin the instruction of the Hawaiian children – and taught them for six solid hours, occasionally running into the house to see that all was straight.

“Very soon I gathered up 12 or 15 little native girls to come once a day to the house so that as early as possible the business of instruction might be commenced. That was an interesting day to me to lay the foundation of the first school ever assembled”. (Sybil Bingham)

These early missionaries 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.)

“It has been a busy day – have done fitting work, of gowns, for two or three native women, – attending to the reading of others, – instructing our school children, entertaining Mr. Allen, and his little Peggy who has been with us through the day, writing a little, etc., etc. The days glide smoothly with us inwardly.” (Sybil Bingham)

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

“Owing to the then lack of advanced schools in Hawaii, the earlier mission children were all ‘sent home’ around Cape Horn, to ‘be educated.’ This was the darkest day in the life history of the mission child.”

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

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

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

Very prominent in the old mission life was the annual “General Meeting” where all of the missionaries from across the Islands gathered at Honolulu from four to six weeks.

“Often some forty or more of the missionaries besides their wives were present, as well as many of the older children. … Much business was transacted relating to the multifarious work and business of the Mission. New missionaries were to be located, and older ones transferred.” (Bishop)

The annual gathering of the Cousins, descendants of the early missionaries, continues. Our family is part of the Society and Cousins. Hiram and Sybil Bingham (Hiram was leader of the first 1820 group of missionaries to Hawai‘i) are my great-great-great grandparents.

Today, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, a nonprofit educational institution and genealogical society, exists to promote an understanding of the social history of nineteenth-century Hawai‘i and its critical role in the formation of modern Hawai‘i.

The Society operates the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, comprised of three historic buildings and a research archives with reading room. The Society also compiles the genealogical records of the American Protestant missionaries in Hawai‘i and promotes the participation of missionary descendants in the Society’s activities.

Through the Site and Archives, the Society collects and preserves the documents, artifacts and other records of the missionaries in Hawai‘i’s history; makes these collections available for research and educational purposes; and interprets the historic site and collections to reflect the social history of nineteenth century Hawai‘i and America.

Guided tours of the house and other parts of the historic site are offered Tuesday through Saturday, starting on the hour every hour from 11 am with the last tour beginning at 3 pm.

Nominal fees include: General – $10; Kamaʻāina, Senior Citizens (65+) & Military – $8 and Students (age 6 to College w/ID) – $6; Kamaʻāina Saturday (last Saturday of the Month) 50% off admission for residents. (Reservations for groups of 10 or more are required.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn 

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2015 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Persis_Goodale_Thurston_Taylor_–_Kailua_from_the_Sea,_1836
Persis_Goodale_Thurston_Taylor_–_Kailua_from_the_Sea,_1836
Kailua, about 1836. As it appeared to one of Mrs. Thurston's daughters.
Kailua, about 1836. As it appeared to one of Mrs. Thurston’s daughters.
P-03-View of Country back of Kailua
P-03-View of Country back of Kailua
Kaawaloa, Kealakekua Bay. A copperplate engraving from a drawing by Lucy or Persis Thurston about 1835
Kaawaloa, Kealakekua Bay. A copperplate engraving from a drawing by Lucy or Persis Thurston about 1835
P-06 View of Waimea-Engraved at Lahainaluna
P-06 View of Waimea-Engraved at Lahainaluna
Lahainaluna from Dibble
Lahainaluna from Dibble
P-11 Lahaina as seen from Lahainaluna-noting_whaling_ships_off-shore
P-11 Lahaina as seen from Lahainaluna-noting_whaling_ships_off-shore
The Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna on Maui in the 1830s, from Hiram Bingham I's book
The Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna on Maui in the 1830s, from Hiram Bingham I’s book
P-15 Lahainaluna
P-15 Lahainaluna
fig-11_hhs-003 Kaluaaha Molokai
fig-11_hhs-003 Kaluaaha Molokai
P-01 Hilo Mission Houses
P-01 Hilo Mission Houses
MISSION HOUSE AND CHAPEL-from 'Eveleth's History of the Sandwich Islands,' Philadelphia-(LOC)-1831
MISSION HOUSE AND CHAPEL-from ‘Eveleth’s History of the Sandwich Islands,’ Philadelphia-(LOC)-1831
P-27 Honolulu_puawaina (View of Honolulu from Punchbowl)-1837
P-27 Honolulu_puawaina (View of Honolulu from Punchbowl)-1837
P-32_hmcs Meetinghouse&School Kaneohe
P-32_hmcs Meetinghouse&School Kaneohe

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Missionaries, Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, General Meeting

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