Henry Opukahaia | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 21, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hopu

Hopu, “was born about the year 1795, in Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands. After my mother had left me, she went and told one of my sisters to take my life away … (however, his) aunt took a blanket with her … (took him in her arms and took him) into her own brother’s house.” (Hopu)

“Then her brother said unto his wife, this child shall be our son, for his name shall be called Nauhopoouah Hopoo, and we will be his feeders. So they nourished (him)”. He lived with his uncle until he was four; then returned to his parents until he was eight (later living with his brother.)

“Among the American traders who frequently visit the Sandwich Islands, was Captain Brintnal, of New-Haven, (Conn.) who in 1807, touched and tarried some time at Owhyhee, one of these Islands.” That year, Hopu and Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia sailed with Captain Brintnall on the ‘Triumph.’

The Triumph set sail for the Pacific Coast of North America to pick up sealers, one of whom, Russell Hubbard, was a Yale student from Connecticut. Six months later the ship returned to Hawaiʻi, then went on to China, and finally New York. During the long voyage Hubbard tutored Henry and Hopu in English, and taught them about the Bible. (Cook)

The ship returned to America by the way of China, and arrived at New-Haven early in the fall of 1809. On their arrival on the continent, Hopu was given an additional name Thomas.

“After Hopoo had lived for a season in New-Haven, his disposition seemed inclined rove than to study. He rejected an invitation of Obookiah to go with him to Andover and be taught.” (ABCFM) However, he learned to write and spell some basic words. He chose the life of a sailor – he served on an American ship in the War of 1812.

After returning from his last voyage, he hired himself out in several families as a servant or coachman. For about nine months, Hopu settled down with a Grangor family at Whitestown, NY. He lived with various families, until September 1815, when he returned to New-Haven, joined ʻŌpūkahaʻia and resumed his studies, including religious instruction. (Narrative of Five Youth, 1816)

“In this place I become acquainted with many students belonging to the College. By these pious students I was told more about God than what I had heard before … I could understand or speak, but very little of the English language. Friend Thomas (Hopu) went to school to one of the students in the College before I thought of going to school.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

Hopu and ʻŌpūkahaʻia stayed together in school at Litchfield Farms from the late-1816 until April 1817, when they started their training at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall. Of the four Hawaiian boys who came with the pioneer party, Hopu was best prepared to serve, for he had proved a good scholar, even in theology. (Kelley)

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus for the Islands. These included two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

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.) (Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died suddenly of typhus fever in 1818 and did not fulfill his dream of returning to the islands to preach the gospel.)

They reached Hawaii on March 30, 1820. When the boat which they had sent to a landing on the Kohala coast, returned to the vessel, these were the tidings given to the missionaries: “Kamehameha is dead; his son Liholiho is king. The tabus are at an end; the idols are burned; the temples are destroyed. There has been war. Now there is peace.” (HEA) They later landed in Kailua-Kona, April 4, 1820.

Hopu and Kanui remained with the Thurstons and Holmans at Kailua to serve as interpreters and aides to the king. Hopu was reunited with his father, who moved his family to Kailua, where Hopu cared for him teaching him to know Jesus and praying with him faithfully. He also served the king’s household and aided Thurston by translating his teachings and preaching. (Kelley)

Later at Lāhainā, “Hopu, in visiting the back part of Maui with the king, was particularly attracted by one of the daughters of the land. When he returned to Honolulu, he brought to our cottage the girl of eighteen, wishing to commit her to me for special training.” (Thurston)

Hopu declared “since the Almighty has excited in my heart such yearnings for her, I think it is his will that I marry her.” Lucy Thurston named her Delia.

“Their marriage (August 11, 1822) was publicly solemnized in the church. The king and principal chiefs were there. (It was the first Christian marriage in the Islands.)”

“Hopu appeared as usual in his gentlemanly black suit. By his side stood Delia, dressed in a … complete and fashionable dress in white, was added a trimmed straw bonnet. It was the first native woman’s head that had been thus crowned.” (Thurston)

After helping Bingham in Honolulu for some time, Hopu settled in Kailua where he kept busy teaching, holding Sabbath meetings for the governor, assisting in translating the Bible, and caring for his father (who died after four years at the age of 80. His funeral service was the first missionary one to be held in Hawaiʻi.) (Kelley)

Throughout those early missionary years in Hawaiʻi, Hopu appears here and there preforming his duties; forcibly delivering a sermon, spreading cheer, comforting and aiding to those suffering.

Chester Lyman, visiting the islands in 1846 found Hopu working in a store in Honolulu. He reports he was over 50 and an interesting man. He has been a consistent and useful man since he returned and is now one of the deacons of the Kailua Church where he resides. (Kelley) The image shows Thomas Hopu.

September 17, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM)

There are three prominent names associated with the history of Missions in America, Eliot of the 17th century, Brainerd of the 18th century and Mills of the 19th century.

John Eliot (c. 1604 – 21 May 1690) was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians. His efforts earned him the designation “the apostle to the Indians.”

David Brainerd (April 20, 1718–October 9, 1747) was an American missionary to the Native Americans who had a ministry among the Delaware Indians of New Jersey.

Samuel John Mills (1783-1818) was the key instigator of American foreign missions. He grew up in Torringford, Connecticut, where his father, also named Samuel John Mills (1743-1833,) was pastor of the Congregational Church.

In the early-1800s, the US was swept by religious revivalism and many people were converted in the wake of the newly born religious fervor. 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 Williams College.

In 1806, Mills headed off to Williams College in Massachusetts; he shared his thoughts on a missionary life with a few friends at college.

In the summer of 1806, in a grove of trees, in what was then known as Sloan’s Meadow, Mills, James Richards, Francis L Robbins, Harvey Loomis and Byram Green debated the theology of missionary service. Their meeting was interrupted by a thunderstorm and they took shelter under a haystack until the sky cleared.

That event has since been referred to as the “Haystack Prayer Meeting” and is viewed by many scholars as the pivotal event for the development of Protestant missions in the subsequent decades and century.

The first American student missionary society began in September 1808, when Mills and others called themselves “The Brethren,” whose object was “to effect, in the person of its members, a mission or missions to the heathen.” (Smith) Mill graduated Williams College in 1809 and later Andover Theological Seminary.

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.

In February, 1812, Rev. and Mrs. Judson, Rev. and Mrs. Newall, Rev. and Mrs. Nott, Rev. Gordon Hall and Rev. Luther Rice were commissioned as the Board’s first missionaries and set sail for Calcutta, India. (williams-edu)

In 1818, following a brief stay in England, Mills sailed to the west coast of Africa to purchase land for the American Colonization Society, then embarked for the United States on May 22 – he died at sea on June 16, 1818.

The story of the Foreign Mission School (1817-1826) connects the town of Cornwall, Connecticut, to a larger, national religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening. 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 1809 (at the age of 16, 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.

The next year, the enrollment doubled to 24 and, in addition to Chinese, Hindu and Bengali students, also consisted of seven Native Americans of Choctaw, Abnaki and Cherokee descent. By 1820, Native Americans from six different tribes made up half of the school’s students.

Once enrolled, students spent seven hours a day in study. Subjects included chemistry, geography, calculus and theology, as well as Greek, French and Latin. They were also taught special skills like coopering (the making of barrels and other storage casks), blacksmithing, navigation and surveying. When not in class, students attended mandatory church and prayer sessions and also worked on making improvements to the school’s lands.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia died suddenly of typhus fever in 1818; the “Memoirs of Henry Obookiah” served as an inspiration for missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Sandwich 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 Kauai’s King Kaumuali‘i.)

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 184-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

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.

Here is a link to some more on the ABCFM
https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/ABCFM.pdf

April 4, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Pioneer Company

The coming of Henry Obookiah (ʻŌpūkahaʻia) and other young Hawaiians to the continent had awakened a deep Christian sympathy in the churches and moved the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to establish a mission in the Hawaiian Islands.

Among the other Hawaiian students at the Foreign Mission School were Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauaiʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i.)

When asked “Who will return with these boys to their native land to teach the truths of salvation?” Hiram Bingham and his classmate, Asa Thurston, were the first to respond and offer their services to the Board. (Congregational Quarterly)

Bingham and Thurston were ordained at Goshen, Ct on September 29, 1819; it was the first ordination of foreign missionaries in the State of Connecticut.

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.)

There were seven American couples sent by the ABCFM to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity in this first company.

These included two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

Although a large part of the motivation for the Hawaiʻi missionary movement, Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia unfortunately died of typhus fever in 1818 and didn’t return home to teach the gospel. However, his book, “Memoirs of Henry Obookiah,” was the inspiration for this and subsequent Hawaiian missionary companies.

After 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Hawai‘i’s “Plymouth Rock” is about where the Kailua pier is today.

By the time the Pioneer Company arrived, Kamehameha I had died and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished; through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho,) with encouragement by former Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother,) the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs.

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

On July 14, 1826, the missionaries selected 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 is signed by Hiram Bingham and Levi Chamberlain.

The arrival of the first company of American missionaries in Hawaiʻi 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.

By 1831, in just eleven years from the first arrival of the missionaries, Hawaiians had built 1,103 schoolhouses. This covered every district throughout the eight major islands and serviced an estimated 52,882 students. (Laimana)

The proliferation of schoolhouses was augmented by the printing of 140,000 copies of the pīʻāpā (elementary Hawaiian spelling book) by 1829 and the staffing of the schools with 1,000-plus Hawaiian teachers. (Laimana)

Interestingly, these same 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.

Within five years of the missionaries’ arrival, a dozen chiefs had sought Christian baptism and church membership, including the king’s regent Kaʻahumanu. The Hawaiian people followed their native leaders, accepting the missionaries as their new priestly class. The process culminated in Hawaiian King Kamehameha III’s adoption of Christianity and a Biblically-based constitution in 1840. (Schulz)

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.

As did all residents of the Islands, the Missionaries had to surrender their American citizenship before they could preach. They, and their children…and their childrens’ children were Hawaiian subjects – not Americans.

US Secretary of State Daniel Webster wrote to the Commissioner in Hawaiʻi in 1851, “You inform us that many American citizens have gone to settle in the islands; if so they have ceased to be American citizens.”

“The Government of the United States must, of course, feel an interest in them not extended to foreigners, but by the law of nations they have no right further to demand the protection of this Government.”

“Whatever aid or protection might under any circumstances be given them must be given, not as a matter of right on their part, but in consistency with the general policy and duty of the Government and its relations with friendly powers.” (Webster, July 14, 1851)

In 1844, as Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Gerrit Judd wrote the ABCFM encouraging it to allow missionaries to become naturalized Hawaiian citizens, “[The missionary] children born here are native born subjects of the king and would many of them settle here were it not for the anxiety of their parents.” (Schulz)

The image shows the early Mission house and Chapel in Honolulu (the precursor of today’s Kawaiahaʻo Church.)

April 12, 2023 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Threes and Eights

No, it’s not a typo (I don’t mean black Aces and Eights, Wild Bill Hickock’s “dead man’s hand”;) this relates to Noah Webster, Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia, and Hawaiian grammar and spelling.

How in the world are these in common? … Let’s look.

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.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia, in 1809, boarded a sailing ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent. ʻŌpūkahaʻia latched upon the Christian religion, converted to Christianity in 1815 and studied at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut (founded in 1817) – he wanted to become a missionary and teach the Christian faith to people back home in Hawaiʻi.

A story of his life was written (“Memoirs of Henry Obookiah” (the spelling of his name prior to establishment of the formal Hawaiian alphabet, based on its sound.)) This book was put together by Edwin Dwight (after ʻŌpūkahaʻia died.) It was an edited collection of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s letters and journals/diaries.

This book inspired the New England missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Sandwich Islands.

On October 23, 1819, the pioneer Company of missionaries from the northeast United States, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i) – they first landed at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820. (Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died suddenly (of typhus fever on February 17, 1818) and never made it back to Hawaiʻi.)

OK, so what about the 3s and 8s – and Hawaiian grammar and spelling?

It turns out that a manuscript was found among Queen Emma’s private papers (titled, “A Short Elementary Grammar of the Owhihe Language;”) a note written on the manuscript said, “Believed to be Obookiah’s grammar”.

Some believe this manuscript is the first grammar book on the Hawaiian language. However, when reading the document, many of the words are not recognizable. Here’s a sampling of a few of the words: 3-o-le; k3-n3-k3; l8-n3 and; 8-8-k8.

No these aren’t typos, either. … Let’s look a little closer.

In his journal, ʻŌpūkahaʻia first mentions grammar in his account of the summer of 1813: “A part of the time [I] was trying to translate a few verses of the Scriptures into my own language, and in making a kind of spelling-book, taking the English alphabet and giving different names and different sounds. I spent time in making a kind of spelling-book, dictionary, grammar.” (Schutz)

So, where does Noah Webster fit into this picture?

As initially noted, Webster’s works were the standard for American English. References to his “Spelling” book appear in the accounts by folks at the New England mission school.

As you know, English letters have different sounds for the same letter. For instance, the letter “a” has a different sound when used in words like: late, hall and father.

Noah Webster devised a method to help differentiate between the sounds and assigned numbers to various letter sounds – and used these in his Speller. (Webster did not substitute the numbers corresponding to a letter’s sound into words in his spelling or dictionary book; it was used as an explanation of the difference in the sounds of letters.)

The following is a chart for some of the letters related to the numbers assigned, depending on the sound they represent.

Long Vowels in English (Webster)
..1……..2…….3………4……….5…….6………7……….8
..a……..a…….a………e……….i……..o………o……….u
late, ask, hall, here, sight, note, move, truth

Using ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s odd-looking words mentioned above, we can decipher what they represent by substituting the code and pronounce the words accordingly (for the “3,” substitute with “a”(that sounds like “hall”) and replace the “8” with “u,” (that sounds like “truth”) – so, 3-o-le transforms to ʻaʻole (no;) k3-n3-k3 transforms to kanaka (man;); l8-n3 transforms to luna (upper) and 8-8-k8 transforms to ʻuʻuku (small.)

It seems Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia used Webster’s Speller in his writings and substituted the numbers assigned to the various sounds and incorporated them into the words of his grammar book (essentially putting the corresponding number into the spelling of the word.)

“Once we know how the vowel letters and numbers were used, ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s short grammar becomes more than just a curiosity; it is a serious work that is probably the first example of the Hawaiian language recorded in a systematic way. Its alphabet is a good deal more consistent than those used by any of the explorers who attempted to record Hawaiian words.” (Schutz)

“It might be said that the first formal writing system for the Hawaiian language, meaning alphabet, spelling rules and grammar, was created in Connecticut by a Hawaiian named Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia. He began work as early as 1814 and left much unfinished at his death in 1818.” (Rumford)

“His work served as the basis for the foreign language materials prepared by American and Hawaiian students at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut, in the months prior to the departure of the first company of missionaries to Hawai’i in October 1819.” (Rumford)

It is believed ʻŌpūkahaʻia classmates (and future missionaries,) Samuel Ruggles and James Ely, after ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s death, went over his papers and began to prepare material on the Hawaiian language to be taken to Hawaiʻi and used in missionary work (the work was written by Ruggles and assembled into a book – by Herman Daggett, principal of the Foreign Mission School – and credit for the work goes to ʻŌpūkahaʻia.)

Lots of information here from Rumford (Hawaiian Historical Society) and Schutz (Honolulu and The Voices of Eden: A History of Hawaiian Language Studies.)

I encourage you to review the images in the folder; I had the opportunity to review and photograph the several pages of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s grammar book.

August 15, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mokuʻaikaua Church

This stone and mortar building, completed in 1837, is the oldest surviving Christian church in the state of Hawaiʻi, started by the first Protestant missionaries to land in Hawaiʻi.

With the permission of Liholiho (Kamehameha II), the missionaries built a grass house for worship in 1823 and, later, a large thatched meeting house.

Missionary Asa Thurston directed the construction of the present Mokuʻaikaua Church, then the largest building in Kailua-Kona. Its massive size indicates the large Hawaiian population living in or near Kailua at that time.

Mokuʻaikaua, with its 112-foot-tall steeple, is a reminder of the enthusiasm and energy of the first American missionaries and their Hawaiian converts.

Built of stones taken from a nearby heiau and lime made of burned coral, it represents the new western architecture of early 19th-century Hawaiʻi and became an example that other missionaries would imitate.

The original thatch church which was built in 1823 but was destroyed by fire in 1835, the present structure was completed in 1837. Mokuʻaikaua takes its name from a forest area above Kailua from which timbers were cut and dragged by hand to construct the ceiling and interior.

Mokuʻaikaua Church is centered in a small level lot near the center of Kailua. Its high steeple stands out conspicuously and has become a landmark from both land and sea.

Huge corner stones, said to have been hewn by order of King ʻUmi in the 16th century for a heiau, were set in place and offers evidence of the heavy labor which contributed to the Church’s construction.

The central core of the steeple is polygonal with alternating sections of wide and narrow clapboard. The wider sections are articulated with louvered arches. The 48 by 120 feet lava rock and coral mortared church is capped with a gable roof.

Construction beams are made from ʻōhiʻa wood. Pieces of the wooden structure were joined with ʻōhiʻa pins. The spanning beams are fifty feet long and are made from ʻōhiʻa timbers. Corner stones were set in place 20 to 30 feet above the ground.

Mokuʻaikaua Church is the first and one of the largest stone churches in Hawaiʻi, outstanding for its simple, well-proportioned mass and construction.

The interior open timber structure with high galleries is a fine architectural and engineering design. The architectural interest is further enhanced by the church’s historical significance (it is on the Register of Historic Places.)

In 1910, a memorial arch was erected at the entrance to the church grounds to commemorate the arrival of the first missionaries.

Congregationalist missionaries from Boston crossed the Atlantic Ocean, rounded Cape Horn, aboard the Brig Thaddeus. A replica of the Thaddeus is in Mokuʻaikaua Church.

On the morning of April 4, 1820, 163 days from Boston, the Congregational Protestant missionaries, led by Hiram Bingham, aboard the Thaddeus, came to anchor off the village of Kailua.

They came ashore at the “Plymouth Rock” of Hawaiʻi, where Kailua Pier now stands. Christian worship has taken place near this site since 1820. Mokuʻaikaua is known as the “First Christian Church of Hawaiʻi.”

Inspired by the dream of Hawaiian Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia, seven couples were sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity.

Two Ordained Preachers Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; Two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; A Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; A Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; A Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

The Thurstons remained in Kailua, while their fellow missionaries went to establish stations on other Hawaiian islands.