Missionaries | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 17, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

New Wives, New Mothers

The Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) announced that all overseas missionaries were required to have a wife before departure; their reason, the temptations for inappropriate relations were too great on the Polynesian islands.

Stories circulated about failed London Missionary Society stations where single male missionaries “went native” among South Sea islanders. (Brown)

Of the seven men in the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawai‘i, only Daniel Chamberlain was married, the other six men had a little over a month to find brides before the October departure date. Here are the newlyweds wedding dates:

Hiram and Sybil Bingham – October 11, 1819
Asa and Lucy Thurston – October 12, 1819
Samuel and Mercy Whitney – October 4, 1819
Samuel and Mary Ruggles – September 22, 1819
Thomas and Lucia Holman – September 26, 1819
Elisha and Maria Loomis – September 27, 1819

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

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”), the ABCFM sent twelve companies of missionaries, support staff, and teachers – about 184-men and women – to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

The ABCFM included Doctors/Physicians with the missionaries. “[P]hysicians, ordained and unordained, were all expected to be missionary physicians, that is, to make their medical practice subservient to the grand object of the missions. The employing of missionary physicians grows mainly out of the practice of employing married missionaries.”

“Their first care is of the mission families; but they are expected to exert a conciliating influence among the natives by the kindly offices of their profession. Missionary physicians have not been sent where the needful medical attendance was believed to be otherwise attainable.” (First Fifty Years of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions)

After 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi. The first missionaries to the Islands needed to receive permission to land and stay. Discussions and negotiations to allow the missionaries to stay went on for days. On April 10, “All the brethren went on shore to make one more united effort to obtain what appeared to all to be truly desirable.”

They sought and received assistance from some of the other foreigners. “After many inquiries with respect to our designs and to the number of arts which we were able to teach, they seemed to be satisfied that our intentions were good, and that we might be of some service to them.”

“To obviate what had seemed to be an objection, the fear of displeasing G. Britain, they concluded that Mr. Young should write to England to inform the people that American missionaries had come to settle here, not to do any harm but to teach the people of these Islands all good things.”

“They added that we must not send for any more missionaries, from fear that we might be burdensome or dangerous to the government. When we had finished our propositions and made all the statements which we thought proper, we left them to have a general consultation tonight, and to give us their result tomorrow. We believe ‘the Lord is on our side’ and that our wishes will be gratified.” (Thaddeus Journal)

Then, the decision was made …

April 11, 1820, “The king and chiefs held a consultation last night. Today Bro T [Thurston’ and Dr H [Holman] went on shore to hear the result. It was this – that two of the missionaries with their wives should be stationed at Kairooa [Kailua-Kona] together with two of the native youths [Hopu and Kanui].”

“We are to proceed to Hoahoo [O‘ahu] to make the principal establishment, leaving two of our brethren and sisters in this place. (Sybil Bingham Journal)

This raised initial concerns. For all, the initial anticipation was that the missionaries would be together. The king’s decision meant they missionaries would be separated …

“Such an early separation was unexpected & painful. But broad views of usefulness were to be taken, & private feelings sacrificed. At evening twilight, we surrendered ourselves from close family ties, from the dear old Brig, & from civilization.” (Lucy Thurston Journal)

“The separation is painful. – If nature might be allowed to speak, we should say our dear brother and sister Thurston we must have with us. She is a lovely sister. But the Lord’s will be done. We hope we are enabled to say if from the heart. Our physician is the other to be left.” (Sybil Bingham Journal)

“It is indeed trying to be separated from our dear brethren & sisters, & especially from our Physician. But is seems to be the will of the God & we ought cheerfully to submit, if in so doing, we might be more useful.” (Mercy Mhitney Journal)

“We found it very trying to separate after having been so long united, but feel comforted with the hope that we can be more extensively useful by this arrangement; than if we were all settled together.” (Loomis Journal)

“We plead earnestly that we might all go to Oahhoo … and become a little familiarized to the country before we separated – not knowing how a family could live upon a rock of Laver … Our entreaties however were unavailing.” (Lucia Ruggles Holman)

“The king had previously enquired what arts were possessed by the brethren & when he learned that we had a physician with us, it was his wish that he should remain.” (Loomis Journal, entry by Mrs Loomis)

For four of the missionary wives, there was an added (and serious) concern – four of the newlywed missionary wives were pregnant when they arrived. The king’s decision meant they would not have a doctor to assist them with childbirth and then care for the infants.

Maternal mortality was a concern. In addition, the child mortality rate in the United States, for children under the age of five, was 462.9 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that for every thousand babies born in 1800, over 46 percent did not make it to their fifth birthday. (Statista)

Sybil Bingam tried to calm the others (and herself, I suspect) saying, “Our physician is the other to be left. Do not be alarmed, dear sisters, GOD will be our physician. The king insists upon his remaining on account of his art.”

“As much as we may need that, some of the female part of our little band especially, yet, all things considered, I believe we are all disposed to view a kind providence in the present arrangement.” (Sybil Bingham Journal)

Starting a few short months after their arrival, the new missionary wives became new mothers.

The first child was Levi Loomis, born July 16, 1820 at Honolulu (Oʻahu), he was the first white child born in the Islands; the next was Maria Whitney, born October 19, 1820 at Waimea (Kauai), the first white girl born in the Islands; then, Sophia Bingham, on November 9, 1820 at Honolulu (Oʻahu); and then Sarah Ruggles, born December 22, 1820 at Waimea (Kauai).

(A sad side note is that Hiram and Sybil Bingham’s next two children died at early ages: Levi Parsons Bingham lived only 16 days (his was the first burial in the Kawaiaha‘o cemetery missionary plot); their next child (another son), Jeremiah Everts Bingham lived only 16-months.)

July 8, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Origin of Species

Charles Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species (1859,) introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection.

The Galapagos Islands are associated with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution; however, “(Hawaiʻi) is where modern evolution started, and people don’t know it.” (Jones, Star-Bulletin)

John Thomas Gulick did the first modern evolutionary study on Hawaiian land snails. Gulick discovered dramatic differences in snails in valleys only short distances apart and developed a theory about speciation, or new species emerging through evolution. (Altonn)

Gulick had been a collector of land snails since his teen years and became a convert to evolutionary thinking even before reading On the Origin of Species.

An acute observer, he noticed that many species and varieties of snails were often restricted to very geographically-limited ranges. (Smith)

He came “to place great emphasis upon every form of isolation or prevention of mingling, and also to emphasize the great significance for evolution of many factors that are of internal origin, such as the unknown intricacies of the process of heredity, and the effects of new choices made by the evolving creatures…” (Addison Gulick; Smith)

“In Manoa there were a number of kukui trees which were the favorite places of one species of the shells. A little beyond, in Makiki, a half mile or so, hardly that, there was a different species.”

“In Pauoa there was a still different species, while in Nuʻuanu there were landshells of allied form, but which had changed their habits, living on the hau trees in preference to the kukui trees, which were the favorites of the Manoa shells. This was in 1852 and 1853.”

“I knew that these shells didn’t come from Noah’s ark. They couldn’t have even come from the other islands. Right here in Manoa we had what you might call a special creation. In Makiki Valley we had another special creation. And yet we had every reason to believe that all were allied. (Gulick, Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

“I began to have the idea that I had found a place of creation. I found out that the shells had no ability to travel from valley to valley. Those which lived on ridges were diffused over a larger area, but would have perished in the valleys. Those in the valleys could not have lived on the ridges.”

“If heavy rains washed some down from the valleys to the plains, they died in a few hours, or a few days at the most. If they were washed out to sea, of course they did not live. We tried to keep Manoa Valley shells alive at the school, but could not do it. They were as completely isolated in each locality as if they had been on separate islands.” (Gulick, Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

Gulick was among the first to recognize the critical role for geographical separation in the diversification of ecologically similar Hawaiian land snails. His ideas were discussed by Darwin, as well as leaders in the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis who saw an important role for geographical isolation in speciation. (Rundell)

“Darwin’s book, ‘Origin of Species,’ was published in ‘59, the year I left college. My mind was ripe for it and had already got started on this subject. I accepted largely the theories of evolution. I accepted natural selection, but in addition I saw the necessity of isolation.” (Gulick, Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

Gulick’s theory of the species-differentiating effects of isolation was regarded by many as a more complete theory of speciation than Darwin’s and others as correcting a fundamental deficiency in Darwin’s theory, namely how groups of organisms diversify one from another.

With his concepts of cumulative segregation (geographical isolation), indiscriminate isolation (the Founder effect) and coincident selection (the Baldwin effect), we should recognize Gulick as one of the earliest and most original and innovative evolutionary biologists. (Hall)

Gulick extended his ideas to societal evolution in human beings. (Smith)

While a leading biologist, an interesting aspect of Gulick’s beliefs is that he was a son of a Hawaiʻi missionary, and was a missionary himself, going to China and Japan under the American Board of Commissions for Foreign Missions (ABCFM – the same organization who sponsored the Hawaiʻi missions.)

Gulick was born March 13, 1832, at Waimea, Kauai, son of Peter Johnson and Fanny (Thomas) Gulick. He first married Emily De la Cour September 3, 1864, at Hong Kong, China, who died in childbirth in 1875 (no children,) then remarried Frances A Stevens May 31, 1880, at Osaka, Japan (they had two children, Addison and Louise.)

Gulick continued a family tradition by attending theological school and then did missionary work in China and Japan for over thirty-five years. But he also carried on a parallel career as a naturalist and, somewhat strange to say, Darwinian evolutionist. (Smith)

One of the world’s foremost scientists, Gulick, peer of Darwin, whose theories he accepted and advanced, and while a missionary still espoused the cause of Darwin and added to the doctrine of evolution the theory of isolation. (Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1912)

Later in 1905, Gulick returned to Hawaiʻi and sold his shell collection to Charles Montague Cooke, Jr the new curator of the Bernice P Bishop Museum. He remained there until his death, on April 14, 1923 in Honolulu. He and his second wife are buried in the Mission Houses cemetery.

John Tomas Gulick circa 1858, age 25–26-Hall

Origin_of_Species_title_page

An engraving from 1847 of Gulick’s birthplace, Waimea, Kauai

Tree snails on the trunk of a guava tree-Hall

The head of Wailupe Valley on Oahu showing on the right the silvery foliage of groves of the kukui-Hall

Gulick-Evolutionist and Missionary-Part_1-Hall

Retired evolutionist and missionary-John Gulick-Hall

JohnThomasGulick gravestone-MissionHousesCemetery

June 22, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Missionary Travel to the Islands

“What wonder that we so long for release from this little prison-house!” (Laura Fish Judd – 1828)

From 1820 to 1847, there were 12-Companies of missionaries sent under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to the Islands. Every group of missionaries arrived by ship, sailing from New England, around Cape Horn and finally reaching the Hawaiian Islands usually after a five-month sea voyage. (Miller)

The Prudential Committee of the ABCFM in giving instructions 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)

The Pioneer Company, led by Hiram Bingham, left New England on the “Thaddeus” and arrived in the Islands on April 4, 1820, two centuries after their forebears, the pilgrims, landed from the “Mayflower” in New England.

For the most part, the missionaries were married – typically ‘just married’ a few weeks or months of their departure. In the Pioneer Company, by the middle of the trip, four of the wives were pregnant. (The following is a composite from writers from different Companies describing the trip.)

Travel wasn’t easy.

“We were hardly able to stand even by holding on with both hands and every now and then we were called to belch up the contents of our stomachs without discrimination.” Sea sickness was a constant issue for these non-sailors. (Judd; Miller)

Things were stored everywhere. Stephen Shepard observed that “the way to our room is blocked up with potato bags and other provisions, so as to render it almost impassable; having to scramble over a large quantity of luggage to get in or out.” (Miller)

Sleeping quarters were tight. A journal entry by Maria Patton noted, “It (the stateroom – serving 4 people) is 7 feet wide and 5½-feet long, and has a window about the size of a tea cup directly over my berth. … it contains a bureau, 8 trunks, 4 bandboxes, each of us a writing desk, 8 bags, 4 baskets …” (Maria Patton; Miller)

“Last evening, found myself much exhausted in consequence of fatigue through the day in putting order in our little room. To accomplish a little, costs much labor on board a vessel. I am grieved to find it too much the case, that with my bodily strength, my spirits sink. Several such seasons have arisen in my new situation.” (Sybil Bingham)

“… those who occupy the higher berths have to climb before we can get into them. And what is still worse, not a breath of fresh air can get in, and the cockroaches are so thick, they crawl over us and the smell is intolerable. My berth is the highest in the place, so high that there is only 12 inches between my head and the deck.” (Patton; Miller)

The “day commenced (with) the study of the Owhyhee language. … This evening held our first singing school. It is greatly to be wished that we could all join with our hearts and voices too …” (Sybil Bingham)

“After having been out ninety-four days, and witnessing nothing but floating barques like our own, some monsters of the deep, the expansive ocean and the wide-spread heavens, I can not describe to you the joyful emotions which the sight of land has this day produced. We have a fair view of Terra del Fuego on the right, and Staten Land on the left.” (Lucy Thurston)

Then, after many more days at sea, “Memorable day – a day which brings us in full view of that … land so long the object of our most interested thoughts. Between twelve and one this morning, the word was … ‘land appears’ … ‘Owhyhee sight!’”

“There was but little sleep. When the day afforded more light than the moon we were all out, and judge you, if possible, what sensation filled our breasts as we fixed our eyes upon the lofty mountains of Owhyhee!”

“O! It would be in vain to paint them. I attempt it not.”

“A fair wind carried us by different parts of the island near enough to discern its verdure, here and there a cataract rushing down the bold precipice.” (Sybil Bingham)

Upon landing, an observer ashore noted, “They look careworn and feeble; Mr. W- said ‘hungry.’” (Laura Fish Judd)

Intelligence of the arrival of our mission at the Islands, reached the United States seventeen months after we left Boston. (Lucy Thurston)

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.

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.

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 houses 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.

Brig_Thaddeus-Friend19341101

Thaddeus

Portraits_of_Hiram_and_Sybil_Moseley_Bingham,_1819,_by_Samuel_F.B._Morse

Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston

Rocks where Thaddeus landed-Ahuena ruins in background-1928

A_Missionary_Preaching_to_the_Natives,_under_a_Skreen_of_platted_Cocoa-nut_leaves_at_Kairua_by_William_Ellis-1823

Map of Kailua Bay

Terra del Ffuego-Strait of Magellan

Tierra-del-Fuego-Map

May 28, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Keōpūolani Sails to Lāhainā

On the arrival of the American missionaries in April 1820, all the chiefs were consulted respecting the expediency of their establishment in the islands. Some of the chiefs seemed to doubt; but Keōpūolani without hesitation approved their proposals. (Keōpūolani Memoir)

Keōpūolani welcomed them. As the highest ranking ali‘i of her time, her embracing of Christianity set a crucial seal of approval on the missionaries and their god. (Langlas & Lyon)

Keōpūolani was the daughter of Kīwalaʻo. Kīwalaʻo was the son of Kalaniʻōpuʻu by Kalola (sister of Kahekili.) Her mother was Kekuiapoiwa Liliha, Kīwalaʻo sister. She was aliʻi kapu of nī‘aupi‘o (high-born – offspring of the marriage of a high-born brother and sister or half-brother and half-sister.)

Her ancestors on her mother’s side were ruling chiefs of Maui; her ancestors on her father’s side were the ruling chiefs of the island of Hawai‘i. Keōpūolani’s genealogy traced back to Ulu, who descended from Hulihonua and Keakahulilani, the first man and woman created by the gods.

In the year 1822, while at Honolulu, she was very ill, and her attention seems to have been then first drawn to the instructions of the missionaries. (Anderson)

On April 27, 1823, the Second Company (First Reinforcements) arrived in the Islands. On board were missionaries Reverend Artemas Bishop and Mrs. Bishop, Dr. Abraham Blatchley and Mrs. Blatchley, Mr. Levi Chamberlain, Mr. James Ely and Mrs. Ely, Mr. Joseph Goodrich and Mrs. Goodrich, The Reverend William Richards and Mrs. Richards, The Reverend Charles S. Stewart and Mrs. Stewart, and Miss Betsey Stockton.

In May 1823, Keōpūolani and her husband Hoapili expressed a desire to have an instructor connected with them. They selected Taua, a native teacher sent by the church at Huaheine, in company with the Rev.William Ellis, to instruct them and their people in the first principles of the Gospel, and teach them to read and write. (Memoir)

Keōpūolani requested, as did the king and chiefs, that missionaries might accompany her. As Lāhainā had been previously selected for a missionary station, the missionaries were happy to commence their labors there under such auspices. (Keōpūolani Memoir)

Liholiho (King Kamehameha II) was the son of Kamehameha and Keōpūolani. Like his father, Liholiho had loved foreign ships; over time he had collected a sizable ﬂeet of Western vessels, which, with guns and training by the foreigners, were a major asset in unifying and maintaining his kingdom across the islands.

Liholiho purchased Cleopatra’s Barge and her cargo for 1.07-million pounds of sandalwood, worth $80,000 at the time. On January 4, 1821, King Liholiho took formal possession of Cleopatra’s Barge, appointing his personal secretary, Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Rives, as temporary captain. That ship was to take Keōpūolani to Lāhainā.

“On the 26th of May [1823] we heard that the barge was about to sail for Lahaina, with the old queen and princes; and that the queen was desirous to have missionaries to accompany her; and that if missionaries would consent to go, the barge should wait two days for them.”

“A meeting was called to consult whether it was expedient to establish a mission at Lahaina. The mission was determined on, and Mr. [Stewart] was appointed to go: he chose Mr. [Richards] for his companion, who was also appointed the next day. On the 28th we embarked on the mighty ocean again, which we had left so lately.” (Betsey Stockton)

As noted in Rev Stewart’s book of his time in Hawaii “The Cleopatra’s Barge, at sea, May 30, 1823. On Wednesday, the 28th, Mr and Mrs Richards, [Harriet Stewart] and myself, [Betsey Stockton] and [Stewarts’ son Charles – born at sea on the way to the Islands], with William Kamahoula, and Mr. [Elisha] Loomis, who makes the voyage to see us established at our station, embarked with the queen Keopuolani for Maui.”

“Our designation was so unexpected, and departure so sudden, that we had scarce leisure to turn a thought on the separation about to take place from our fellow laborers, or to cast a glance of anticipation at the possible trials that might await us, in a distant and solitary district of the islands.”

“The topsails of the barge had long been unfurled as a signal for sailing, before we had completed our preparations, and the last package was scarcely secured, before the farewell hymn and benedictions of our friends were sounding in our ears, and we hurried to the open bosom of the Pacific.”

“Left to the deliberate contemplation of our position, we almost trembled at the responsibility resting upon us, and at the arduous duties in prospect. Every thought was exquisitely awake to the life on which we had now actually entered.”

“Months indeed had passed since we bade adieu to our country, home, and friends; but during a voyage of 18,000 miles, we had still been surrounded by those we loved; and for the last few weeks, though on heathen shores, we had been calmly reposing in the bosom of a band of intelligent and affectionate Christians, without a participation of their labors and their cares. …”

“We were fully alive to the contrast; and, in the anticipation of the privations and trials, by which we believe the work in which we are engaged must be accomplished, we could scarce refrain exclaiming, ‘Farewell ease – farewell comfort – farewell every wordly joy.’”

“But with these feelings there was no mingling of despondency. No, in the kind providence of God, every circumstance attending our situation is too auspicious to admit the indulgence of any unbelieving fear of the ultimate success of our enterprise.

“We had been on board scarce an hour, before the polite and kind attention of those under whose immediate and express patronage we had embarked, made us almost forget that we were not still in the bosom of beloved friends. …”

“[I]n the evening, while a splendid moon gave a softened beauty to the receding promontories of Oahu, and brought to light the distant shores of Molokai and Lanai, overtopped by the loftier heights of Maui …”

“Previous to our embarcation, we had but little opportunity to judge, from personal intercourse, of the degree of civilization to which the chiefs have attained in minor points, and were somewhat surprised at the ceremonious attentions paid us.”

“Immediately on reaching the vessel, we were informed that the after-cabin was appropriated exclusively to-our use; though there were not less than two hundred persons on board, many of them high chiefs, with their particular friends; …”

“… and we had hardly cleared the harbor, when the steward waited on us, to know what we would order for dinner, and at what hour it should be served.

“Mr [Anthony] Allen had sent us a fine ready-dressed kid, with some melons, for our passage; and Mrs [Hiram] Bingham had kindly prepared coffee and other refreshments; but our table has been so regularly and comfortably spread, that our basket of cold provisions remains untouched.”

“This attention is the more noticeable, because the trouble is entirely on our account, all the natives eating their favorite dishes on their mats on deck. Kalaimoku [Kalanimōku], from courtesy, very politely took his seat with us the first time we sat down. to, meal, but excused himself from partaking of the dinner, by saying that he had eaten above.”

“There was something also in the attentions of the king to his mother, when leaving Honolulu, that had a pleasing effect on our minds. This venerable old lady was the last person that came on board.”

“After we had reached the quarter-deck of the barge, she appeared on the beach, surrounded by an immense crowd, and supported by Liholiho in a tender and respectful manner.”

“He would let no one assist her into the long-boat but himself; and seemed to think of nothing but her ease and safety, till she was seated on her couch, beneath an awning over the main hatch.”

“The king continued to manifest the utmost affection and respect for her till we got under way; and, apparently from the same filial feelings, accompanied us fifteen miles to sea, and left the brig in a pilot-boat, in time barely to reach the harbor before dark.” (Charles Stewart)

“On their passage [Keōpūolani] told [the missionaries] she would be their mother; and indeed she acted the part of a mother ever afterwards. On the evening of Saturday, the clay of their arrival, she sent them as much food, already cooked, as was necessary for their comfort at the time, and also for the next day, which was the Sabbath.”

“In the morning of the 31st, we all came on deck, and were in sight of land. In the middle of the day we came to anchor; the gentlemen left the vessel to see if they could obtain a house, or any accommodations for us. They returned in a few hours with Mr. Butler, an American resident, who had kindly offered us a house.” (Betsey Stockton)

“Immediately on their arrival, [Keōpūolani] requested [the missionaries] to commence teaching, and said, also, ‘It is very proper that my sons (meaning the missionaries) be present with me at morning and evening prayers.’”

“They were always present, sung a hymn in the native language, and when nothing special prevented, addressed through an interpreter the people who were present, when Taua, or the interpreter, concluded the service with prayer.” (Keōpūolani Memoir)

“In the afternoon our things were landed, and we took up our residence in Lahaina. We had not seen a tree that looked green and beautiful since we left home, until we came here.” (Betsey Stockton)

On April 24, 1873, while serving as Sheriff on Maui, William Owen Smith (a son of missionary Lowell Smith) planted Lāhainā’s Indian Banyan to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the first Protestant mission in Lāhainā.

March 22, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Love Always For Hawaiʻi”

When the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame honored ‘Hawaiʻi Aloha’ as one of five traditional songs as a ‘Famous Song’ (1998,) they noted,

“For more than 100 years, love of the land and its natural beauty has been the poetry Hawaiian composers have used to speak of love. Hawaiian songs also speak to people’s passion for their homeland and their beliefs.”

The Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame further noted, Hawaiʻi Aloha is “widely regarded as Hawaiʻi’s second anthem”. (Hawaiian Music Museum)

“It is performed at important government and social functions to bring people together in unity, and at the closing of Hawaiʻi Legislative sessions. Today, people automatically stand when this song is played extolling the virtues of ‘beloved Hawaiʻi.’”

Hawaiʻi Aloha was written by a Protestant missionary, Lorenzo Lyons.

“In 1998, The Advisory Board honored these traditional songs for their beauty and their messages, which have made them popular, with concert performers and recording artists, as well as the public.”

Hawaiʻi Aloha has three verses, but most typically sing the first verse and repeat portions of the chorus:

E Hawaiʻi e kuʻu one hānau e
Kuʻu home kulaiwi nei
ʻOli nō au i nā pono lani ou
E Hawaiʻi, aloha ē

Hui:
E hauʻoli nā ʻōpio o Hawai`i nei
ʻOli ē! ʻOli ē!
Mai nā aheahe makani e pā mai nei
Mau ke aloha, no Hawaiʻi

Reverend Lorenzo Lyons was fluent in the Hawaiian language and composed many poems and hymns; his best known and beloved work is the hymn “Hawaiʻi Aloha” sung to the tune of “I Left It All With Jesus.” He wrote it in about 1852.

Here’s the English translation:

O Hawaiʻi, o sands of my birth
My native home
I rejoice in the blessings of heaven
O Hawaiʻi, aloha

Chorus:
Happy youth of Hawai`i
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Gentle breezes blow
Love always for Hawaiʻi

Click HERE for a link to Hawaiʻi Aloha – sung by Ledward Kaʻapana, Dennis Kamakahi & Nathan Aweau – written by a missionary.

Collaboration between native Hawaiians and the American Protestant missionaries resulted in, among other things, the introduction of Christianity, the creation of the Hawaiian written language, widespread literacy, the promulgation of the concept of constitutional government, making Western medicine available and the evolution of a new and distinctive musical tradition.

Oli and mele were already a part of the Hawaiian tradition. “As the Hawaiian songs were unwritten, and adapted to chanting rather than metrical music, a line was measured by the breath; their hopuna, answering to our line, was as many words as could be easily cantilated at one breath.” (Bingham)

Some songs were translations of Western songs into Hawaiian; some were original verse and melody. Hawaiʻi Aloha is an example of the music left as a lasting legacy by the missionaries in the Islands.

Missionaries used songs as a part of the celebration, as well as learning process. “At this period, the same style of sermons, prayers, songs, interrogations, and exhortations, which proves effectual in promoting revivals of religion, conversion, or growth in grace among a plain people in the United States, was undoubtedly adapted to be useful at the Sandwich Islands. … some of the people who sat in darkness were beginning to turn their eyes to the light”. (Bingham)

“The king (Kamehameha III) being desirous to use his good voice in singing, we sang together at my house, not war songs, but sacred songs of praise to the God of peace.” (Bingham)

Hawaiʻi Aloha was not the only popular song written by the missionaries.

One of the unique verses (sung to an old melody) was Hoʻonani Hole ‐ Hoʻonani I Ka Makua Mau. Missionary Hiram Bingham wrote/translated it to Hawaiian and people sang it to a melody that dates back to the 1600s – today, it is known as the Hawaiian Doxology.

“In 1872, (Lyons) published Buke Himeni Hawaiʻi containing over 600 hymns, two thirds his own composition. Some years later he prepared the Sabbath School Hymn and Tune Book Lei Aliʻi.””

“The Hawaiians owe entirely to his exertions their introduction to modern enlivening styles of popular sacred music.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 19, 1886) The image shows the lyrics in Hawaiian and English