Hilo Boarding School | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 1, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William Brewster Oleson

On April 1, 1886, Reverend William Brewster Oleson was hired from Hilo Boarding School to become the first principal of the Kamehameha School for Boys.

Oleson was born in Portland, Maine, September 9, 1851, educated at the University of Maine, and graduated from the Theological Seminary at Oberlin, Ohio, in 1877; after a short pastorate at Gambler, Ohio, came to Hawaiʻi.

For eight years he held the principalship of Hilo Boarding School, so long occupied by Father David Belden Lyman, resigning only to accept the pioneer work of organizing the Kamehameha Schools. (HMCS)

“Only a limited number of Students will be received this year, and those desiring to enter the School in the future must apply on the 1st day of September 1887.”

“Each student will occupy a separate room furnished with bed, table, and chair; and a list of items to be furnished by each student will be sent if asked for in advanced to the teacher.”

“Each student will be allowed to carry out 12 hours a week of manual labor. For industrial arts, two hours a day, and five days a week. Military drilling and physical education will be a portion of the curriculum everyday.”

“Arithmetic, English Language, Popular Science (Akeakamai,) Elementary Algebra (Anahonua,) Free-hand and Mechanical Drawing (Kakau me Kaha Kii,) Practical Geometry (Moleanahonua,) Bookkeeping (malama Buke Kalepa,) tailoring (tela humu lole,) printing (pai palapala,), masonry (hamo puna,) and other similar things, and blacksmithing.” (Kuokoa, June 28, 1887)

Oleson brought nine of his most prized pupils with him to Kamehameha Schools to create the school’s inaugural class. By then, Hilo Boarding School was the model for educating students at Hampton Institute in Virginia and Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

On October 3, 1887, Kamehameha Schools for Boys opened for students and holds classes. By October 12, 37 boys over the age of twelve are enrolled; there were 4 teachers. On November 4 1887, opening day ceremonies take place with much pomp and circumstance.

Oleson was the principal, WS Terry served as superintendent of shops, Mrs F Johnson was a matron, instructor Miss CA Reamer would later become the principal of the preparatory school and Miss LL Dressler also served as an instructor. (KSBE)

At the opening ceremonies, “Prof Alexander on being asked for remarks expressed his regret that Hon C R Bishop who had such an interest in the school was absent on the Coast. The institution of a technical school had often been discussed in Honolulu>”

“He rejoiced that the wishes of the noble lady foundress had been so successfully carried out. Founded upon a rock the institution he hoped would long stand on the rock and that it would keep the memory of its foundress green until generations yet unborn should call her blessed.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 8, 1887)

A year later the Preparatory Department, for boys 6 to 12 years of age, opened in adjacent facilities. (Organization of the Kamehameha School for Girls was delayed until 1894.)

During a visit to see General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, Hampton’s founder, Oleson picked up the idea of including military training in Kamehameha’s curriculum (1888.) (Rath)

Officers were appointed by Oleson and were responsible for discipline and marching to and from town. Oleson was in charge of drills, but teachers joined in the marches to church or other meetings. In September 1899, the boys wore their uniforms to class and drills.

He was disciplinarian, nurse, mother and father to each boy, and he attended every baseball game.

Oleson wrote the Kamehameha Schools alma mater, “Sons of Hawaiʻi” together with Theodore Richards, who adapted the tune from Yale’s “Wake, Freshman, Wake” and chose the school colors based on Yale school colors (‘Yale Blue’ and white.)

“Into this noble institution he threw the whole of his ability and energy for another eight years, and then returned to the continent for the education of his children.”

There he served as pastor at Worcester, Ware, Holyoke and for other Congregational churches for about fourteen years. He came again to Honolulu in 1908 and was elected Secretary of the Hawaiian Board of Missions, a position he has filled with honor till called to higher service.

Oleson’s executive ability, his clear thinking and good judgment, his firmness and decision, his ability to understand human nature, his optimism, his kindness, all combined to make him an excellent instructor.

His clear, concise statements also, so helpful for an educator were equally effective as a speaker, as a counselor, and as a leader of thought among men with whom he had later to deal. His courteous manners and winsome personality made for him many friends, while his courageous portrayal of the “faith of the fathers” won for him the respect of all. (HMCS)

Oleson was outspoken and politically active, becoming a member of the Reform Party, a founding member and executive officer of the Hawaiian League, and one of the “persons chiefly engaged in drawing up the (Bayonet) constitution.” (Williams)

On December 19, 1907, Reverend William B Oleson delivered a stirring address at an impressive and well-attended Founder’s day ceremony (alumni have raised funds among themselves to defray the expense of the Oleson’s trip from the continent to Hawaii:)

“For twenty years our youth have had a training that has justified itself in the results. Work has been treated as an honorable and necessary thing. Self-mastery in work-shop and class-room has been the constant goal.”

“Constantly widening opportunities have been afforded here for the development of aptitude, and that always in the direction of ability to earn a living. And this training has not been in vain. There are men and women all over these islands today who are living industrious and useful lives for which they gained the incentive and preparation here.” (Oleson; KSBE)

Reverend William Brewster Oleson died on the eastward-bound train at Seligman, Arizona, on March 19, 1915. His health had not been good and he was anticipating a six months’ vacation among the scenes of his youth. (HMCS)

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Rev. William Oleson is the first principal to serve at Kamehameha Schools

Early Teachers at Kamehameha Schools

v2_7B [Dormitory Row]-(KSBE)

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

L2R-Dormitory A, Dormitory B, the Dining-Kitchen-Classroom Building, Dormitory C-ksbe

Bishop Memorial Chapel-(KSBE)-1897

Teacher’s Cottage is visible behind this grove of trees on the Kaʻiwiula campus

Reunion of Kamehameha Schools 1st graduating class-kuokoa-06_16_1916

Kamehameha_School_for_Girls_sewing_class,-(WC)_late_1890s

Kamehameha_School_for_Boys_Print_Shop,-(WC)_1897

Kamehameha Schools Advertisement-HawnGazette-May 31, 1887

September 23, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Student Farmers

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of missionaries from the northeast US, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Islands. There were seven couples sent by the ABCFM to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity.

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.

They quickly reduced the Hawaiian language to written form and established schools in which the native Hawaiians were taught to read and to write.

Their instruction was not confined, however, to the ‘three R’s.’ Included in the original band of missionaries was a New England farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, indicating the importance they attached to giving some instruction in western agriculture to the native Hawaiians.

Effectively, they were teaching to the Head, Heart and Hand. Let’s look at some examples.

In 1823, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie (ke Aliʻi Hoapili wahine, wife of Governor Hoapili) offered the American missionaries a tract of land on the slopes surrounding Puʻu Paʻupaʻu for the creation of a high school.

Betsey Stockton from the 2nd Company of Protestant missionaries initially started a school for makaʻāinana (common people) and their wives and children on the site.

Later, on September 5, 1831, classes at the Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna (later known as Lahainaluna (Upper Lāhainā)) began in thatched huts with 25 Hawaiian young men.

Each scholar was expected to furnish himself with food and clothing by his own industry. Accompanying the work in the fields, a small amount of organized instruction in western agriculture was given. (History of Agricultural Education)

In September 1836, thirty-two boys between the ages of 10 and 20 were admitted as the first boarding students, from the neighbor islands, as well as from the “other side of the island” thus, the beginning of the boarding school at Lahainaluna.

It soon was apparent to the missionaries that the future of the Congregational Mission in Hawaiʻi would be largely dependent upon the success of its schools. The Mission then established “feeder schools” that would transmit to their students’ fundamental reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, and religious training, before admission to the Lahainaluna.

In 1835, they constructed the Hilo Boarding School as part of an overall system of schools (with a girls boarding school in Wailuku and boarding at Lahainaluna.)

On January 6, 1835 “our children’s school commenced, eighty children present, sixty knew their letters. A number of the more forward children are employed as monitors to assist the less forward. (ie. advanced)” (Sarah Lyman)

The school was operated to an extent on a manual labor program and the boys cultivated the land to produce their own food. (The boys’ ages ranged from seven to fourteen.)

“Mr. Lyman who was brought up on a farm had an abiding faith in the value of manual labor; and his work in Hilo had convinced him that such activity in both primitive and introduced vocation was as necessary as book learning during the period of transition from one culture to another.” (Lorthian)

Rev. William Brewster Oleson had served as principal of the Hilo Boarding School for 8 years. Then, on November 4, 1887, Kamehameha School for Boys opened with 37 students and four teachers – Oleson was appointed its first principal and helped organize the school on a similar model.

Manual labor has a regular feature of the activities of the Kamehameha Boys’ School. Between 1889 and 1893 the school experimented with the raising of cows, pigs, chickens, and vegetables.

Later, the Kamehameha School flocks and herds were improved, and they began the production of forage crops, vegetables, and fruits on a larger scale, and strengthened the classroom work. (History of Agricultural Education)

Punahou, another boarding school, formed in 1841, required that “All students who entered the Boarding department were required to take part in the manual labor of the institution, under the direction of the faculty, not to exceed an average of two hours for each day.” (Punahou Catalogue, 1899)

“We had a dairy, the Punahou dairy, over on the other side of Rocky Hill. That was all pasture. We had beautiful, delicious milk, all the milk you wanted.” (Shaw, Punahou)

Later, in January 1925, Punahou bought the Honolulu Military Academy property – it had about 90-acres of land and a half-dozen buildings on the back side of Diamond Head. (The Honolulu Military Academy was originally founded by Col LG Blackman, in 1911.)

It served as the “Punahou Farm” to carry on the school’s work and courses in agriculture. “We were picked up and taken to the Punahou Farm School, which was also the boarding school for boys. The girls boarded at Castle Hall on campus.” (Kneubuhl, Punahou) The farm school was in Kaimuki between 18th and 22nd Avenues.

In addition to offices and living quarters, the Farm School supplied Punahou with most of its food supplies. The compound included a big pasture for milk cows, a large vegetable garden, pigs, chickens, beehives, and sorghum and alfalfa fields that provided feed for the cows. Hired hands who tended the farm pasteurized the milk in a small dairy, bottled the honey and crated the eggs. (Kneubuhl, Punahou)

While the programs of ‘manual labor’ and farming have been dropped by almost all of the respective school’s curriculums, a lasting legacy and reminder of the prior farming is seen in the Lahainaluna Time Clock.

Between 1941 and 1976, Lahainaluna boarders punched in their “in” and “out” times (according to their assigned student number) to keep track of their daily hours worked for their room and board. (It stopped when the only repairman familiar with the clock passed away.)

While Lahainaluna still has farming activity (raising pigs and cultivating dryland taro, corn, butter lettuce, beans, ti and other crops (Advertiser,)) they don’t punch in/out with the clock.

However, according to the Boarder’s Handbook (2014-2015,) every weekday afternoon and Saturday morning, boarders are to “Check in at the time clock” before they start their 3 ½ hours of work. Likewise, “All Boarders must report to the Time Clock every day and sign out with the Farm Manager when working Overtime until all hours are cleared.”

“Boarders will be evaluated on their dorm and farm work performances; farm and school attendance records; dorm, school, and farm discipline records; school academic effort and achievements; and their overall attitude and behavior in the Boarding Program.” (Lahainaluna High School Boarder’s Handbook, 2014-2015)

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Lahainaluna_Time-Clock

Lahainaluna-Kahu Earl Kukahiko (right), teaches students about farming -1980s-(mauinews)

Lahainaluna boarding student Josh Arata, 16, a senior from Ha’iku, tends to the 5-month old pigs-(advertiser)

Lahainaluna_Time-Clock

Lahainaluna-Chef Paris Nabavi-Sangrita Grill+Cantina-donated $1,200 to Lahainaluna High School’s Agriculture Program-(mauitime)

Hilo_Boarding_School_and_Gardens-from_Haili_Hill-(Lothian)-1856

Hilo_Boarding_School-(75-years)

Hilo_Boarding_School-garden-(75-years)

Kamehameha-Campus of the three historical schools-(KSBE)-1932

Kamehameha [Dormitory Row]-(KSBE)

Kamehameha School for Boys, 1890, (right) Rev. Wm. Oleson, Principal, (far left) Charles E. King-(WC)

Punahou-Gardens-1880

Punahou-Manual-Arts-Class–1924

Punahou-Campus-from-the-air-1939

May 15, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Vocational Training

When the missionaries established schools and seminaries (i.e. the female seminaries, as well as Lahainaluna, Hilo Boarding School, Punahou,) they included teaching of the head (‘common’ courses, the 3Rs,) heart (religious, moral) and hand (vocational training, manual labor.)

Lahainaluna was designed first, “to instruct young men that they may become assistant teachers of religion;” second, “to disseminate sound knowledge embracing literature and science;…”

“… third, to qualify native school teachers for their respective duties; fourth, “it is designated that a piece of land shall be connected with the institution and the manual labor system introduced as far as practicable.” (Westervelt)

Later, shortly after the University of Hawaiʻi started (1907,) short courses or ‘special lectures’ of education of “less than college grade” were offered in agriculture as ‘extension’ work.

Nationally, the Cooperative Extension Service was created in 1914 with the passage of the Smith-Lever Act (but it excluded Hawaiʻi.) UH developed its own version of an extension program, which was the basis of a successful appeal to Congress after several years of struggle for Hawai‘i’s inclusion in the Act in November 1928. (CTAHR)

Again, nationally, the Smith-Hughes Act (1917) was “An Act to provide for the promotion of vocational education; to provide for cooperation with the States in the promotion of such education in agriculture and the trades and industries …”

“… to provide for cooperation with the States in the preparation of teachers of vocational subjects; and to appropriate money and regulate its expenditure”. (The law wasn’t effective in Hawaiʻi until March 10, 1924.)

“That for the purpose of cooperating with the States in paying the salaries of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects there is hereby appropriated for the use of the States.”

“(T)hat the controlling purpose of such education shall be to fit for useful employment; that such education shall be of less than college grade and be designed to meet the needs of persons over fourteen years of age who have entered upon or who are preparing to enter upon the work of the farm or of the farm home; that the State or local community, or both”.

“(S)uch schools or classes giving instruction to persons who have not entered upon employment shall require that at least half of the time of such instruction be given to practical work on a useful or productive basis, such instruction to extend over not less than nine months per year and not less than thirty hours per week”. (Smith-Hughes Act, 1917)

Two types of full-time day classes in vocational agriculture were organized in Hawaiʻi. ‘Type A’ classes (primarily for upper elementary and intermediate grades) are those in which pupils spend approximately half of their school time in the classroom where they receive Instruction in English, mathematics, hygiene, geography, vocational agriculture and other subjects.

The remaining time was spent in the field where the pupils do all of the work on a class project in sugar cane or in pineapple production. Field work is closely supervised by the teacher of vocational agriculture, but all money earned was divided among the boys in proportion to the time they work. They also had a home project.

Under the ‘Type B’ plan (typically for high school students,) pupils did not use a portion of the school time for field work. Practical experience was gained through extensive home project programs. Classroom instruction in agriculture is under the teacher of vocational agriculture, but academic subjects were taken with other pupils of the school under regular teachers of these subjects.

Some schools incorporated the program into their curriculum. Then, the 1967 session of the 4th Hawaii State Legislature resolved that “it is of great urgency to the citizens of this State, adults as well as youths, that there be developed a comprehensive state master plan for vocational education.” A ‘State Master Plan for Vocational Education’ was prepared the next year.

Its introductory comments included, “Technologically-induced shifts in job opportunities have imposed new career training demands. The rapid opening of new fields of knowledge has changed the very nature of work itself; the priorities shifting from muscle power to mental powers.”

“We witness a tremendous shift from production-oriented jobs to service jobs; we must now have a corresponding emphasis on the development of the required communicative and social skills.” (Master Plan, 1968)

“Given the apparent inadequacies in education and the accompanying human tragedy and waste, and given the extremely tight local labor market and the desperate long-term need for more educated, more highly trained manpower, there would seem to be a good deal of prophetic wisdom in the expansion of the Community College occupational training programs.”

Recommendations for the Master Plan included: “1. The main responsibility of the DOE in the K-12 programs should be provision of basic and general education. The DOE programs should provide for exploratory and pre-vocational experiences. …”

“2. Vocational education at a secondary school level should be seen as an integral part of total education. At the Community College level, general education should be an integral component of vocational education.” (Master Plan, 1968)

The community college system was brought into being. It replaced the technical schools that had existed previously.

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