Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kānekapōlei

At the time of ‘contact’ (Captain Cook’s arrival (1778,)) the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms:

(1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui;

(2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokai, Lanai and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili;

(3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and

(4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

On the Big Island, one of Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s wives was Kānekapōlei (Kāne in the circle of beloved ones (ksbe.))  She is reported to be the daughter of Kauakahiakua of the Maui royal family and his wife Umiaemoku; some suggest she is said to have been of the Kaʻū family of chiefs.

According to Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau, her father Kauakahiakua owned the sea cucumber (loli) ovens of the district of Kaupo on the island of Maui.

Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kānekapōlei had two sons, Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and Keōua Peʻeale.

In addition to instruction in all Hawaiian knowledge, not merely in fishing, agriculture, warfare, history and so forth, young chiefs were instructed in sex life.

The latter instruction was imparted by some older woman in the family or attached to it, when the pupil had reached a suitable age (puberty.)  Some suggest Kānekapōlei was the one to instruct Kamehameha, and Pauli Kaʻōleiokū was the result of that and known as ‘keiki makahiapo’ (first-born child) of Kamehameha.  (Stokes)

During Captain Cookʻs visit to Hawaiʻi on his third voyage of exploration in 1779, then-Lieutenant King (later Captain) mentioned Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s favorite wife Kānekapōlei. He and his men spelled her name many different ways including “Kanee-Kabareea,” “Kanee-cappo-rei,” “Kanee Kaberaia,” “Kainee Kabareea,” “Kahna-Kubbarah.”

“During the following night, the cutter belonging to the Discovery was stolen, so that their depredations seemed confined to what belonged to that ship.”

“This irritated captain Cook, and he gave orders to stop all the canoes that should attempt to leave the bay, intending to seize and destroy them, if he could not recover the cutter by fair means.”  (Captain King’s Journal)

Ashore, “Captain Cook’s orders to Mr. King were, to endeavour to quiet the minds of the natives on the side of the bay where he was going, by assuring them that they should not be hurt; to keep his people together; and to be upon his guard.”

“The captain proceeded, with the lieutenant and nine marines, to the village where the king resided. He found him calm and unruffled, to all appearance ignorant of the theft committed on the cutter.”  (Captain King’s Journal)

“He (Kalaniʻōpuʻu) readily accepted of an invitation to spend the day on board the Resolution, and accompanied the captain to the beach. His two sons (Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and Kaʻōleiokū) were already in the pinnace (a tender boat,) and the rest of the party were advanced near the water-side …”

“… when an elderly woman, called Kanee-Kabareea (Kānekapōlei,) the mother of the boys, and one of the king’s favourite wives, came after him, and, with many tears and entreaties, besought him not to go on board …”

“… at the same time two chiefs, who came along with her, laying hold of the king, forced him to sit down, insisting that he should go no farther.”    (Captain King’s Journal)

“The natives now collected in vast numbers along the shore, and began to throng round captain Cook and their king …”

“… upon which the lieutenant of marines, by the permission of his captain, drew the men up along the rocks, close to the water’s edge, in a line, at the distance of about thirty yards from the place where the king was sitting.”

“At length the captain gave up all thoughts of prevailing upon Terreeoboo (Kalaniʻōpuʻu) to accompany him, observing to Mr. Phillips, that it would be impossible to compel him to go on board, without the risk of killing a great number of the inhabitants.”    (Captain King’s Journal)

Shortly after, “Captain Cook, the last time he was seen distinctly, was standing at the water’s edge … he was desirous of preventing any farther bloodshed …”

“… whilst he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but having turned about to give his orders to those in the boats, he was stabbed in the back”.  Cook was killed.    (Captain King’s Journal)

Kalaniʻōpuʻu died in 1782.  Before his death, Kalaniʻōpuʻu gave an injunction to Kiwalaʻo (another son) and Kamehameha (his nephew,) and to all the chiefs, thus: “Boys, listen, both of you.”

“The heir to the kingdom of Hawaii nei, comprising the three divisions of land, Kaʻū, Kona and Kohala, shall be the chief Kiwalaʻo. He is the heir to the lands.” (Fornander)

Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and his younger brother Kaʻōleiokū had for many years resisted Kamehameha’s attempts to conquer the whole of Hawaiʻi Island, after the death of Kiwalaʻo in the Battle of Mokuʻōhai (1782.)  Keōua escaped the battle to relatives in the Kaʻū district to the South.  (Stokes)

Keōua was killed in 1791, when Kamehameha invited him to the Puʻukoholā Heiau in Kohala.  Pauli Kaʻōleiokū was spared.

Pauli Kaʻōleiokū married Luahine, they had one child, Princess Konia; Princess Konia married Abner Paki, they had one child, Princess Bernice Pauahi.  (Kaʻōleiokū was also the maternal grandfather of Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani.)  (Stokes)

Great granddaughter of Kamehameha I and Kānekapōlei, Princess Bernice Pauahi officially was eligible to the throne by order of Kamehameha III; she was offered the throne by Kamehameha V, but refused it.

In 1850, the princess was married at the Royal School to Mr Charles Reed Bishop of New York, who started the bank of what is now known as First Hawaiian Bank. A small wedding was conducted with only a few attending.

Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop died childless on October 16, 1884.  She foresaw the need to educate her people and in her will she left her large estate of the Kamehameha lands in trust to establish the Kamehameha Schools for children with Hawaiian blood.

The image shows Cook’s death, witnessed by Kānekapōlei and her sons and husband.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nānākuli

There are lots of theories are out there about what Nānākuli means – several suggest it relates to looking at knees – others reference other body parts.

A common perception is that Nānākuli was a poor land with little agriculture, leading the few residents to instead rely on marine resources. One translation of the naming of the ahupua‘a, which seems to support this perception, is that Nānākuli means, “to look deaf”.

This is said to refer to the behavior of Nānākuli residents, who, embarrassed about not being able to offer food to passing strangers, pretended to be deaf.  (Cultural Surveys)

The ahupua‘a of Nānākuli encompasses a little over 1,000-acres and is bounded on the east by Honouliuli in the ‘Ewa District and on the west by Lualualei in the Waiʻanae District

This leeward area is especially noted for its susceptibility to drought and famine. In valleys such as Nānākuli, where perennial streams are lacking, agricultural resources would have been sparse due to poor water and land resources.

It is probable that there were small, scattered settlements here and there whose main subsistence was the ‘uala (sweet potato.)  (Cultural Surveys)

“The eastern slopes of the southern end of the Waiʻanae Mountains below Pu‘u Puna were famous for sweet potato growing. Although there was a little taro grown in the valleys of Wai‘anae-uka, sweet potatoes grown on the kula lands were the main food of the people here.”

“On the other side of the Waiʻanae Mountains sweet potatoes were planted on the dry slopes of Nānākuli, Lualualei, Waiʻanae-kai, and the other small valleys as far as Mākua. With the exception of Waiʻanae-kai, the sweet potato was the staple for the inhabitants of this dry section.”  (Handy, Cultural Surveys))

Pukui related a story told to her by Simeona Nawaʻa in 1945: “In the olden days, this place was sparsely inhabited because of the scarcity of water. The fishing was good but planting very poor. When it rained, some sweet potatoes would be put into the ground, but the crops were always poor and miserable.”

“There were a few brackish pools from which they obtained their drinking water and it is only when they went to the upland of Waiʻanae that they were able to get fresh water. They carried the water home in large calabashes hung on mamaka or carrying sticks and used their water very carefully after they got it home.”

“They spent most of their time fishing and most of the fish they caught were dried as gifts for friends and relatives in the upland. Sometimes they carried dried and fresh fish to these people in the upland and in exchange received poi and other vegetable foods. As often as not, it was the people of the upland who came with their products and went home with fish.”  (Cultural Surveys)

To make up for this agricultural deficit, the coastal areas were rich in marine resources and there was always an abundant supply of fish.

Accounts of early foreign observers give only a generalized picture of the late pre-contact/early historic patterns of population and activity within the Waiʻanae District and Nānākuli Ahupua‘a. Captain George Vancouver, sailing along the Waiʻanae Coast in 1793, noted:

“The face of the country did not…promise an abundant supply (of water;) the situation was exposed.” He described the coast as “one barren rocky waste nearly destitute of verdure, cultivation or inhabitants”.

The only village Vancouver observed was “at Waianae, located in a grove of coconut and other trees on the southern side of a small sandy bay”. It is probably this village that was visited in 1815 by John B. Whitman, who described the western coast of O‘ahu between Waiʻanae and Honolulu:

“After proceeding for some time over an uncultivated plain, we arrived at small village situated on the sea shore. It consisted of about twenty huts occupied by fishermen”.  (The “uncultivated plain” Whitman observed before reaching Waiʻanae likely encompassed Nānākuli.)

In 1816, Boki was made governor of O‘ahu (and chief of the Waiʻanae district) and served in that capacity until 1829, when he sailed in search of sandalwood.

In the mid-1800s, the back of Nānākuli Valley used primarily for ranching purposes and probably did not support permanent habitation. Tax records from the mid-1800s for coastal Nānākuli indicate that possibly as many as 50-people resided along the shore.

The population in the area dropped precipitously during the 1800s, and in 1888, the Hawaiian Island Directory referenced only four residents of Nānākuli.

O‘ahu Railway and Land Company’s Benjamin Dillingham, a prominent business man and developer, envisioned populating the western side of O‘ahu by introducing agriculture; however, the lack of water proved to be an obstacle until the discovery of artesian water solved the issue in the early 1880s.

Dillingham saw that reliable transportation was needed to move crops from the west side of the island into Honolulu; he formed the O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L) in February 1889 and the rail stretched around Kaʻena Point as far as Kahuku by 1899.

The families returned.  In 1895, the Republic of Hawai‘i decided to open up lands for homesteading.  The Dowsett-Galbraith ranch lease was set to expire in 1901, and the Hawaiian Government intended to auction off these lands to the highest bidder.

There were two waves of homesteading on the Waiʻanae Coast. The first had more of an impact on Lualualei, while the second resulted in development of Nānākuli as a residential area.

The early wave of homesteading passed by dry, barren Nānākuli; however, despite an insufficient water supply, Nānākuli was an attraction to some people:  Because of its water shortage, parched Nānākuli had never attracted many residents. It remained a kiawe wilderness.

Yet, the very fact that nobody wanted it turned the area into a kind of informal public park. Some came for the summer; others camped all year round.

In 1916, Benjamin Zablan was appointed as Waiʻanae District Manager. He moved his family to Nānākuli and made his home on a beach stretch, now the stretch adjacent and south of Nānākuli Avenue. The southeastern end of this stretch was a safe swimming spot and was soon known as “Zablan’s Beach”.

The beach was eventually named Nānākuli Beach, but local residents wished to give it a more specific name. In 1940, local residents petitioned the board of supervisors to name the park Kalanianaʻole, in honor of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, the “father of the Hawaiian Homestead Act.” In recent years, Kalanianaʻole was combined with nearby Piliokahe Park to the south to form the Nānākuli Beach Park.

In 1917, the US Government set aside land located where Nānāikapono Elementary School is presently located as ‘Camp Andrews.’  It was used as a rest and recreation (R&R) area for military personnel, both prior to and during World War II.

The retreat at Camp Andrews consisted of cabins, cook house, a canteen, septic systems, a barber shop, armory, etc.   The Navy acquired the property from the Army in 1952. All structures on the property were demolished. The Navy transferred the property to the State of Hawai‘i in 1962.

World War II greatly affected the Waiʻanae coast. Military troops were sent in to train and practice maneuvers. Concrete bunkers and gun emplacements were built on the beaches and ridges, and barbed wire was strung along the beaches.

After WWII ended, the lower portions of Nānākuli and Lualualei Valleys were further developed into residential lots after Chinn Ho bought the Waiʻanae Sugar Plantation.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ala Wai Canal

A son of Mā’ilikūkahi (who ruled about the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic) was Kalona-nui, who in turn had a son called Kalamakua. Kalamakua is said to have been responsible for developing large taro fields in what was once a vast area of wet-taro cultivation on Oʻahu: the Waikiki-Kapahulu-Mōʻiliʻili-Mānoa area.

The early Hawaiian settlers gradually transformed the marsh above Waikīkī Beach into hundreds of taro fields, fish ponds and gardens.  For centuries, springs, taro lo‘i, rice paddies, fruit and vegetable patches, duck ponds and fishing areas were a valuable means of subsistence for native Hawaiians and others.

Formerly the home of Hawaiian royalty, including King Kamehameha, Waikīkī, meaning “spouting waters,” once covered a much broader area than it does today.

The ahupuaʻa, or ancient land division, of Waikīkī actually covered the area extending from Kou (the old name for Honolulu) to Maunalua (now referred to as Hawai’i Kai).

Waikīkī’s marshland, the boundaries of which changed seasonally, once covered about 2,000-acres (about four times the size of Waikīkī today) before the marshes were drained.

During the first decade of the 20th-century, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation called Fort DeRussy.

They drained and filled the area, so they could build on it.  Thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground.

In the early-1900s, Lucius Pinkham, then President of the Territorial Board of Health and later Governor, developed the idea of constructing a drainage canal to drain the wetlands, which he considered “unsanitary.”  This called for the construction of a canal to reclaim the marshland.

The Waikīkī Reclamation District was identified as the approximate 800-acres from King and McCully Streets to Kapahulu Street, near Campbell Avenue down to Kapiʻolani Park and Kalākaua Avenue on the makai side (1921-1928.)

The dredge material not only filled in the makai Waikīkī wetlands, it was also used to fill in the McKinley High School site.

During the 1920s, the Waikīkī landscape would be transformed when the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal, begun in 1921 and completed in 1928, resulted in the draining and filling in of the remaining ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

The initial planning called for the extension of the Ala Wai Canal past its present terminus and excavate along Makee Island in Kapiʻolani Park, connecting the Canal with the ocean on the Lēʻahi side of the project.

However, funds ran short and this extension was contemplated “at some later date, when funds are made available”; however, that never occurred.

By 1924, the dredging of the Ala Wai Canal and filling of the wetlands stopped the flows of the Pi‘inaio, ‘Āpuakēhau and Kuekaunahi streams running from the Makiki, Mānoa, and Pālolo valleys to and through Waikīkī.

Walter F. Dillingham’s Hawaiian Dredging Company dredged the canal and sold the material he had dredged to create the canal to build up the newly created land.  The canal is still routinely dredged.

During the course of the Ala Wai Canal’s initial construction, the banana patches and ponds between the canal and the mauka side of Kalākaua Avenue were filled and the present grid of streets was laid out.  These newly created land tracts spurred a rush to development.

With construction of the Ala Wai Canal, 625-acres of wetland were drained and filled and runoff was diverted away from Waikīkī beach.  The completion of the Ala Wai Canal not only gave impetus to the development of Waikīkī as Hawai‘i’s primary visitor destination, but also expanded the district’s potential for residential use.

During the period 1913-1927, the demand for housing in Honolulu grew along with the city’s population.  Waikīkī helped satisfy this demand; the large kamaʻāina landholdings virtually disappeared and the area started to be subdivided.

Before reclamation, assessed values for property were at about $500-per acre and the same property was reclaimed at ten cents per square foot, making a total cost of $4,350-per acre.  The selling price after reclamation, $6,500 to $7,000-per acre, showed the financial benefit of the reclamation efforts.

From an economic point of view, without the Ala Wai Canal, Waikīkī may never have developed into the worldwide tourist attraction it is today.

In 1925, the City Planning Commission requested the citizens of Honolulu to submit suitable Hawaiian names for the renaming of the Waikīkī Drainage canal; twelve names were suggested.

The Commission felt that Ala Wai (waterway,) the name suggested by Jennie Wilson was the “most euphonic”.  (An engineer with the Planning Commission was quick to note that, “the fact that Mrs. Wilson is the mayor’s wife had nothing to do with the choice of the name.”)

In November 1965, a storm, classified as a 25-year event, overflowed the Ala Wai Canal banks and flooded Ala Wai Boulevard.

Ala Wai Canal and the historic walls lining the canal are owned by the State of Hawaiʻi. The promenades on the mauka side of the Ala Wai Canal are owned by the State, and by, Executive Ordered to the City and County of Honolulu, the promenades on the makai side are owned by the City.

The promenades on both sides of the Ala Wai Canal are maintained by the City Department of Parks and Recreation.  The Ala Wai Canal is listed in the National and State registers of historic places.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

It was a dark and stormy night …

“It was said that on a certain night of heavy down pouring rain – the lightning struck its wrathful flashes into the sky – the thunder pounded with all its might – the stormy wind veered every which way – the red water churned in the streams.”  (Poepoe, Ahlo)

The child born that night was of royal blood, and was destined to become not only the king of Hawaiʻi, but the conqueror and sovereign of the group.

They say the child was poʻolua, “that is, a child of two fathers, (it) was considered a great honor by chiefs of that period.” (Luomala)  Some say that his mother, Kekuʻiapoiwa (married to Keōua,) had a liaison with Kahekili (ruler of Maui.)

Though Kahekili was thought to possibly be his biological father, he was raised by his parents (and was considered the son of Kekuʻiapoiwa and Keōua.)

The exact year of his birth is not known; different historians/writers place the year of his birth from about 1736 to 1759.

He was said to be born at Kokoiki (”little blood,” referring to the first signs of childbirth – Kokoiki is one of the star names listed in the Kumulipo chant.)

Another notes, “(A) bright and beautiful star, appeared at Kokoiki on the night before the child was born and is hence called Kokoiki.”  (Kūʻokoʻa Home Rula, Ahlo)  (Scientific study places Halley’s Comet in the same relative position in the Hawaiian sky on December 1, 1758.  (Ahlo))

Keʻāulumoku predicted that he “would triumph over his enemies, and in the end be hailed as the greatest of Hawaiian conquerors.”  (Kalākaua)

Word went out to find and kill the baby, but the Kohala community conspired to save him.

“A numerous guard had been set to wait the time of birth. The chiefs kept awake with the guards (for a time,) but due to the rain and the cold, the chiefs fell asleep, and near daybreak Kekuʻiapoiwa went into the house and, turning her face to the side of the house at the gable end, braced her feet against the wall.”

“A certain stranger (Naeʻole) was outside the house listening, and when he heard the sound of the last bearing-down pain (kuakoko), he lifted the thatch at the side of the house, and made a hole above.”

“As soon as the child was born, had slipped down upon the tapa spread out to receive it, and Kekuʻiapoiwa had stood up and let the afterbirth (ewe) come away, he covered the child in the tapa and carried it away.”  (Kamakau)

The young child, Kamehameha, was carried on a perilous journey through Kohala and Pololū Valley to Awini.  (KamehamehaDayCelebration)

Hawi, meaning ”unable to breathe,” was where the child, being spirited away by a servant, required resuscitation and nursing. Kapaʻau, meaning ”wet blanket,” was where heavy rain soaked the infant’s kapa (blanket.)  Halaʻula (scattered blood) was the town where soldiers were killed in anger.  (Sproat – (Fujii, NY Times))  Some believe Kamehameha also spent much of his teen years in Pololū (long spear.)

“Kamehameha (Kalani Pai‘ea Wohi o Kaleikini Keali‘ikui Kamehameha o ‘Iolani i Kaiwikapu Kaui Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea) was a man of tremendous physical and intellectual strength. In any land and in any age he would have been a leader.”  (Kalākaua, ROOK)

While still in his youth, Kamehameha proved his right to rule over all the islands by lifting the Naha Stone at Pinao Heiau in Pi‘ihonua, Hilo (c. 1773.) (ROOK)

By the time of Cook’s arrival (1778,) Kamehameha had become a superb warrior who already carried the scars of a number of political and physical encounters. The young warrior Kamehameha was described as a tall, strong and physically fearless man who “moved in an aura of violence.” (NPS)

The impress of his mind remains with his crude and vigorous laws, and wherever he stepped is seen an imperishable track. He was so strong of limb that ordinary men were but children in his grasp, and in council the wisest yielded to his judgment. He seems to have been born a man and to have had no boyhood.  (Kalākaua)

He was always sedate and thoughtful, and from his earliest years cared for no sport or pastime that was not manly. He had a harsh and rugged face, less given to smiles than frowns, but strongly marked with lines indicative of self-reliance and changeless purpose.  (Kalākaua)

He was barbarous, unforgiving and merciless to his enemies, but just, sagacious and considerate in dealing with his subjects. He was more feared and admired than loved and respected; but his strength of arm and force of character well fitted him for the supreme chieftaincy of the group, and he accomplished what no one else could have done in his day.  (Kalākaua)

In 1790 (at the same time that George Washington was serving as the US’s first president,) the island of Hawaiʻi was under multiple rule; Kamehameha (ruler of Kohala, Kona and Hāmākua regions) successfully invaded Maui, Lanai and Molokai.

He sent an emissary to the famous kahuna (priest, soothsayer,) Kapoukahi, to determine how he could conquer all of the island of Hawaiʻi.  According to Thrum, Kapoukahi instructed Kamehameha “to build a large heiau for his god at Puʻukoholā, adjoining the old heiau of Mailekini.”

It is estimated that the human chain from Pololū Valley to Puʻukohola had somewhere between 10,000-20,000 men carrying stones from Pololū Valley to Kawaihae. (NPS)

After completing the heiau in 1791, Kamehameha invited Keōua to come to Kawaihae to make peace.  However, as Keōua was about to step ashore, he was attacked and killed by one of Kamehameha’s chiefs.

With Keōua dead, and his supporters captured or slain, Kamehameha became King of Hawaiʻi island, an event that according to prophesy eventually led to the conquest and consolidation of the islands under the rule of Kamehameha I.

It was the koa (warriors) of Hilo who supported Kamehameha in his early quest to unite Moku O Keawe. After gaining control of Moku O Keawe, Kamehameha celebrated the Makahiki in Hilo in 1794.  (ROOK)

The village and area of Hilo was named by Kamehameha after a special braid that was used to secure his canoe. Kamehameha and Keōpūolani’s son, Liholiho (Kamehameha II) was born in Hilo (1797.)  (ROOK)

Kamehameha’s great war fleet, Peleleu, that was instrumental in Kamehameha’s conquest, was built and based at Hilo (1796-1801). After uniting all of the islands under his rule in 1810, Hilo became Kamehameha’s first seat of government.  (ROOK)

It was in Hilo that Kamehameha established his greatest law, the Kānāwai Māmalahoe (Law of the Splintered Paddle).  (ROOK)  Kamehameha’s Law of the Splintered Paddle of 1797 is enshrined in the State constitution, Article 9, Section 10:  “Let every elderly person, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety”.

It has become a model for modern human rights law regarding the treatment of civilians and other non-combatants.  Kānāwai Māmalahoe appears as a symbol of crossed paddles in the center of the badge of the Honolulu Police Department.  The image shows Kamehameha as a young warrior (HerbKane.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Homeless

An often-repeated statement is, “The missionaries came to do good, and they did very well.”  (Suggesting the missionaries personally profited from their services in the Islands.)  It is simply not true.

A review of the facts shows that the missionaries were forbidden to “engage in any business or transaction whatever for the sake of private gain” and they did not, and could not, own property individually. Many sold what they had before taking the long trip to serve in the Islands.

To supply the mission members, a Common Stock system was initiated, a community-based economic system designed to enable the missionaries to accomplish their goals without having to worry about finding sustenance and shelter.  It was a socialistic, rather than capitalistic, economic structure.

Mission family members were allowed to keep personal gifts from family and friends as private property, but those gifts were subtracted from what they would otherwise be entitled to receive from the Depository.  (Woods)

In essence, except for the gifts of individuals to individuals, virtually no private property was actually held by the individual missionaries.

The missionaries were constantly reminded of Matthew Chapter 6, verse 24: “No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon (money.)”  (Woods)

Hiram and Sybil Bingham were part of the Pioneer Company of missionaries who came to the Islands in 1820. “Life in the Paradise of the Pacific was anything but healthy in the years when Honolulu was a village of grass huts on a dusty plain.”  (Bingham) 

“Sybil was frail to begin with, if one can judge from her likeness in the portrait of the Binghams painted by Samuel FB Morse (of the Morse code and telegraph) before their departure for the Pacific: where an idealized Hiram gazes confidently from the little oval frame, Sybil’s long thin nose and watery blue eyes make her look as if she had a cold.”  (Bingham)

“For twenty years she worked with him and for him and bore his children, but the cost to nature was a wasted body that finally came to seem to Hiram more important than his mission.”

“Hiram anticipated that a few months rest in what they considered the more healthful climate of New England would put her on her feet, and they would return to carry on the great work with which the Mission Board had originally charged them.”  (Bingham)

On August 3, 1840, they sailed back to the continent on the Flora.  “The cabin of the Flora is very small, having three state-rooms, one of which belonging to the captain is the only one whose dimensions were intended, for comfort.”  (Olmstead)

They returned to New England. “Sybil’s health did not improve. … (she went to) Hartford to be nursed by her sister. She had a chronic cough. Whether she or Hiram knew it, she was dying of the prevailing malady, ‘consumption’ (tuberculosis).”  (Bingham)

The Binghams did not go back to a family estate and had not accumulated any money (or any context of wealth) while in the Islands.  (The missionaries were not paid under a salary system until 1848, well after the Binghams left.)

Back on the continent, the Binghams were effectively homeless.

Right after they arrived back at the continent, their son “nine-year old Hiram was shipped off to relatives and then to a succession of schools willing to take a penniless missionary’s son, and from then on his contact with his parents was mostly by letter.”

Sybil and the girls “had come to North Haven … hoping to board with a farmer who might allow them milk, but no farmer wanted to take in boarders, and the family where she has been staying, ‘with four hungry children, the fifth in arms, around a small kitchen table,’ can only afford to buy half a pint of milk a day and ‘one pound of cheese in the month.’”

They relied on “the hospitality of relatives and friends, placing his children in a succession of schools, and carrying on a voluminous correspondence with his children, with friends and supporters”.

“Sybil, committed to their ‘joint endeavor,’ went along while her waning strength lasted [and moved from] Boston, to Brooklyn, to Philadelphia, to upstate New York, to New Haven, to Norwich, to Boston again, then to Hartford to be nursed by her sister.”  (Bingham)

The separation of the family and movement from house to house and school to school lasted for about eight years.

Then, in 1847, “Hiram and Sybil had found a ‘refuge’ in Easthampton (Massachusetts) with ‘kind friends.’”

“This was the time of Mr [Samuel] Williston’s ‘benevolences.’ He may have admired Mr Bingham, but he had more personal feeling for Sybil, with whom he was connected on her mother’s side of the family.”

“He must have realized what it meant for her to have her children forever scattered, living with relatives, off at distant boarding schools as pensioners.”

Hiram Jr, “his parents and his sisters Lizzie and Lydia arrived and for a few months the dream of a family under one roof was realized.”

“With his button factory a success and his fortune growing, [Williston] had recently founded in Easthampton, his home town, the ‘Seminary’ that bore his name, and built himself a handsome mansion next door.”

“He arranged for the admission of the three younger Bingham children, and helped the family find a house nearby to rent. And so, for the last year of her life Sybil had a home, and three of her children with her. … Sybil died in her rocking chair on February 27, 1848 in Easthampton, Massachusetts.”

In 1852, Hiram married Naomi Morse and helped at her Seminary for Young Ladies in New Haven.  Hiram Jr was ordained in New Haven and married Minerva Clarissa (Clara) Brewster; together they sailed from Boston, December 2, 1856, bound, via Cape Horn, not for the Sandwich Islands, only 18,000 miles away, but for the Gilbert Islands in Micronesia, 2,500 miles farther. (Bingham)

In 1867, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society (HMCS – an organization consisting of the children of the missionaries and adopted supporters) decided to support a girls’ boarding school.

HMCS invited Miss Lydia Bingham (daughter of Reverend Hiram Bingham, leader of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi) to return to Honolulu to be a teacher in this family school; she was then principal of the Ohio Female College, at College Hill, Ohio.

In January 1869, her sister, Miss Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu (Lizzie) Bingham, arrived from the continent to be an assistant to her sister. Lizzie was a graduate of Mount Holyoke and, when she was recruited, was a teacher at Rockford Female Seminary.  (Beyer)  Hiram I died later that year.

Later, Lydia and Lizzie’s niece (daughter of Hiram’s first child Sophia Bingham), Clara Lydia Moseley (later Sutherland), joined them at Kawaiaha‘o.

“When Miss Bingham came to Hilo (on October 13, 1873 she married Titus Coan,) the seminary was committed to the charge of her sister (Lizzie), whose earnest labors for seven years in a task that is heavy and exhausting so reduced her strength, that in June, 1880 she was obliged to resign her post.”  (Coan)

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