Mills School for Boys | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

“It was a little acorn, planted in missionary soil, watered by some trials and tears, nourished by the prayers and gifts of many friends, protected and blest, we trust, by one who is our Master, even Christ.”

“A vigorous oak, it is soon to be transplanted to the hills, to spread its branches under the sunshine, the showers and the rainbows of beautiful Manoa Valley.”

“May the blessing of the Lord ever rest upon it, and upon her through whose munificence it is to find its new home.” (Lydia Bingham, 1907)

“Honolulu Female Academy (is) another of the schools provided by Christian benevolence for the benefit of the children of this highly favored land. This institution will, it is hoped, supply a felt need for a home for girls, in the town of Honolulu, yet not too near its center of business.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 13, 1867)

“The inception of this school emanated from Mrs Halsey Gulick. In 1863, when living in the old mission premises on the mauka side of King street, she took several Hawaiian girls into her family to be brought up with her own children … The mother love was strong in that little group as some of us remember.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897)

The usefulness of such a school became evident; as the enrollment grew, the need for a more permanent organization was required. It became known as Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary.

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)

What is not generally known is that Lydia and Lizzie’s niece, Clara Moseley, came to Hawai‘i to help at the school.

“(B)efore I was fifteen, a wonderful thing happened to me which probably changed the whole course of my life. Two of my mother’s sisters, Aunt Lydia and Aunt Lizzie, returned to Honolulu, the home of their birth and engaged in teaching in a school for Hawaiian girls which was called Kawaiahaʻo Seminary.”

“It was located at that time on King St. just opposite the Old Mission house where the Mission Memorial Building now stands.”

“My Aunt Lydia was Principal of this school and she wrote to my mother asking if she couldn’t spare me and let me come out and teach music to her girls, knowing that I was musically inclined.”

“When my aunt wrote asking for me, she said she wanted me to have a teacher for a few months intervening before I should leave home, and she would pay for my lessons, so I took lessons … for about three months.”

“Of course my parents were willing to let me go, knowing it was too fine an opportunity for me to miss. A friend of my aunt’s, Miss Julia Gulick, was coming to the states that year so it was planned that I should go back with her.”

“I had planned to stay five years when I first went out to the Islands (however) ‘Old Captain Gelett) felt he must do something to change the course of my life. So he persuaded my aunts to let him send me away to school as soon as I had finished my third year at the Seminary.”

“Accordingly, in August, 1875, I sailed from Honolulu on the ‘DC Murray’ with a group of other young people who were going over to school. This sailing vessel was twenty one days in getting to San Francisco”. (Clara Lydia (Moseley) Sutherland)

Those weren’t the only Binghams involved with the school. Lydia and Lizzie’s brother, Hiram Bingham II, and his wife Minerva (Minnie) Brewster Bingham (she was also called Clara) lived and helped at Kawaiaha‘o Female Seminary.

Their son, Hiram III was born at Kawaiaha‘o Female Seminary. (On July 24, 1911, Hiram III rediscovered the “Lost City” of Machu Picchu (which had been largely forgotten by everybody except the small number of people living in the immediate valley). Hiram III has been noted as a source of inspiration for the ‘Indiana Jones’ character.)

In 1905, a merger with Mills Institute, a boys’ school, was discussed; the Hawaiian Board of Foreign Missions purchased the Kidwell estate, about 35-acres of land in Mānoa valley.

By 1908, the first building was completed, and the school was officially operated as Mid-Pacific Institute, consisting of Kawaiahaʻo School for Girls and Damon School for Boys.

Finally, in the fall of 1922, a new coeducational plan went into effect – likewise, ‘Mills’ and ‘Kawaiahaʻo’ were dropped and by June 1923, Mid-Pacific became the common, shared name.

The Bingham children involved at Kawaiaha‘o, Lydia, Lizzie and Hiram, are my GG Aunts &Uncle. Young Clara Moseley is my great grandmother. I was fortunate to have served as the president of the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society for 3 ½ years.

Mills School for Boys was started as a small downtown school in 1892, by Mr. and Mrs. Francis W Damon (descendant of missionary Rev Samuel C Damon), who took into their home a number of Chinese boys with the aim of giving them a Christian education.

Frank Damon, who was born in Hawai‘i, toured the world with Henry Carter, and married Mary Happer, a missionary’s daughter, who had been born and reared in Kuangzhou, China, and spoke fluent Cantonese. Frank Damon was appointed by the Hawaiian Evangelical Association as the superintendent of Chinese work in 1881. (Fan)

Damon (fluent in Chinese) recognized the need for special educational opportunities for the young Chinese, who were barred from public schools because of their inability to speak English.

“Frank Damon, the superintendent of the Chinese Mission, who was the most serious and tireless worker, traveled all over the Islands, wherever there were Chinese. His footsteps reached to Hilo, Ka‘ū, Kona, Hāmākua, Kohala, Wailuku, Pa‘ia, Makawao, Lahaina, Kula, Waimea, Hanapepe, and Kekaha.” (Fan)

Then, “six Chinese youths fired with the passion for knowledge, knocked at the door of the Damon home in Honolulu and asked to be taken in and taught. A room was found, instruction began, the six multiplied slowly until they have become more than four hundred who have found Mills a blessed home of light and truth.”

“The influence of this school upon our Territory can never be told. Its graduates are found in all walks of life, occupying positions of influence here, on the Pacific coast and in China.” (The Friend, October 1905)

This new school was named Mills Institute (named after Samuel J Mills, a founder of the American Board of Foreign Missions.) Among the Chinese, it was known as Chum Chun Shu Shat (The Searching after Truth Institute.)

Later, because of growing enrollment by Japanese and Korean boys, courses in Japanese and Korean were added to the curriculum.

“Mills School came into being through the efforts of Mr. Damon, who was then Superintendent of Chinese work for the Hawaiian Board, to make it possible for worthy Chinese boys from the country districts to find both a school and a home.” (John Hopwood, Mid-Pacific President, April 1923)

“At the time we were boys, we thought the rules and regulations promulgated by our beloved teachers rather strict, but as we grow older, after having tasted bitter lessons in life, we value the ideas of Mr. Damon more and more.’”

“‘I do not know a single Chinese who has not a good word for the valuable work which Mr. Damon and you have done in uplifting the standards not only in the living, but also in the morals of all those who have come into contact with both of you.”

“Ever since I left Mills Institute, it was my ambition to commemorate Mr. Damon with some kind of fitting remembrance for his entire unselfish life spent for the benefit of the Chinese of Honolulu, or rather of Hawaii …”

“… and I am happy to inform you that some of the old Mills Institute boys here in Shanghai have pledged themselves with me to raise a subscription for a memorial to Mr. Damon.” (Former Students; The Friend)

Mills School and the Kawaiaha‘o Female Seminary had much in common – they were home schools; founded by missionary descendant couples; and had boarding of students.

With these commonalities, in 1905, a merger of the two was suggested, forming a co-educational institution in the same facility.

In order to accommodate a combined school, the Hawaiian Board of Foreign Missions purchased the Kidwell estate, about 35-acres of land in Mānoa valley.

“The site forms an ideal location within one block of the Rapid Transit line. The ground commands a beautiful view of mountain and sea, and there is ample room for the agricultural features which have been planned.”

“The land contains a fine spring of water yielding some 100,000 gallons a day, and is further supplied with the use of an auwai for part of the time.” (Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society)

Through gifts by GN Wilcox, JB Atherton and others, on May 31, 1906, a ceremony was held in Mānoa Valley for the new school campus – just above what is now the University of Hawaiʻi (the UH campus was not started in the Mānoa location until 1912.)

By 1908, the first building was completed, consisting of Kawaiahaʻo School for Girls and Damon School for Boys, and began to be known as Mid-Pacific Institute.

Finally, in the fall of 1922, a new coeducational plan went into effect – likewise, ‘Mills’ and ‘Kawaiahaʻo’ were dropped, and by June 1923, Mid-Pacific became the common, shared name.

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