Missionaries | Page 28 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 23, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Aliʻi Letters – from 15 Chiefs to ‘Our Friends in America’ (1836)

Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives (Mission Houses) collaborated with Awaiaulu Foundation to digitize, transcribe, translate and annotate over 200-letters written by 33-Chiefs.

The letters, written between 1823 and 1887, are assembled from three different collections: the ABCFM Collection held by Harvard’s Houghton Library, the HEA Collection of the Hawaii Conference-United Church of Christ and the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society.

These letters provide insight into what the Ali‘i (Chiefs) were doing and thinking at the time, as well as demonstrate the close working relationship and collaboration between the aliʻi and the missionaries.

In this letter, fifteen Chiefs (including Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III) write to the ‘our friends in America’ (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM)) asking the mission to send more teachers. It was sent August 23, 1836 to the American missionaries.

“Regards to you, our friends in America,”

“Here is our hope for the improvement of the lands here in Hawaii. Give us more instructors like those you have in your land, America. These are the kinds of instructors we are considering:”
A carpenter
A tailor
A house builder
A cobbler
A wheelwright
A paper maker
A maker of lead printing type
Farmers who know the planting and care of cotton and silk, and sugar refining.
A maker of fabric, and carts suitable for heavy work.
A teacher for the chiefs in matters of land, comparable to what is done in enlightened lands.
And if there are other things appropriate for those endeavors, those as well.
If you agree and send these teachers, we will protect them when they arrive, provide the necessities to make their professions viable and give our support to these needed endeavors.”

(The letter is signed by 15-chiefs, including Kauikeaouli (King Kamehameha III.)
• Na Kauikeaouli
• Nahiʻenaʻena
• Na Hoapili Kane
• Na Malia Hoapili (Hoapili Wahine?)
• Gov Adams Kuakini
• Na Kaahumanu 2 (Kīnaʻu)
• Kekāuluohi
• Paki
• Liliha
• ʻAikanaka
• Leleiōhoku
• Kekūanāoʻa
• Kanaʻina
• Kekauōnohi
• Keliʻiahonui”

Shortly after, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) sent the largest company of missionaries to the Islands; including a large number of teachers. The Eighth Company left Boston December 14, 1836 and arrived at Honolulu, April 9, 1837 on the Mary Frasier from Boston. Among the missionaries were:
• Physician Seth Lathrop Andrews (1809–1892) and wife Parnelly Pierce (1807–1846)
• Teacher Edward Bailey (1814–1903) and wife Caroline Hubbard (1814–1894)
• Rev. Isaac Bliss (1804–1851) and wife Emily Curtis (1811–1865)
• Samuel Northrup Castle (1808–1894) and first wife Angeline Tenney (1810–1841)
• Rev. Daniel Toll Conde (1807–1897) and wife Andelucia Lee (1810–1855)
• Amos Starr Cooke (1810–1871) and wife Juliette Montague (1812–1896), (Later asked by Kamehameha III to teach the young royals at the Royal School)
• Rev. Mark Ives (1809–1885) and wife Mary Ann Brainerd (1810–1882)
• Teacher Edward Johnson (1813–1867) and wife Lois S. Hoyt (1809–1891)
• Teacher Horton Owen Knapp (1813–1845) and wife Charlotte Close (1813–1846)
• Rev. Thomas Lafon (1801–1876) and wife Sophia Louisa Parker (1812–1844)
• Teacher Edwin Locke (1813–1843) and wife Martha Laurens Rowell (1812–1842)
• Teacher Charles MacDonald (1812–1839) and wife Harriet Treadwell Halstead (1810–1881)
• Teacher Bethuel Munn (1803–1849) and wife Louisa Clark (1810–1841)
• Miss Marcia M. Smith (1806–1896), teacher
• Miss Lucia Garratt Smith (1808–1892), teacher, later married to as his second wife Lorenzo Lyons
• Teacher William Sanford Van Duzee (1811–1883) and Oral Hobart (1814–1891)
• Teacher Abner Wilcox (1808–1869) and wife Lucy Eliza Hart (1814–1869)

Here’s a link to the original letter, its transcription, translation and annotation:

https://hmha.missionhouses.org/files/original/a47d68757f961696269ac9181e9be1d1.pdf

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US, led by Hiram Bingham, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) They arrived in the Islands and anchored at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.

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 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Hawaiian Islands.

One of the earliest efforts of the missionaries, who arrived in 1820, was the identification and selection of important communities (generally near ports and aliʻi residences) as “stations” for the regional church and school centers across the Hawaiian Islands.

Hawaiian Mission Houses’ Strategic Plan themes note that the collaboration between Native Hawaiians and American Protestant missionaries resulted in the
• The introduction of Christianity;
• The development of a written Hawaiian language and establishment of schools that resulted in widespread literacy;
• The promulgation of the concept of constitutional government;
• The combination of Hawaiian with Western medicine, and
• The evolution of a new and distinctive musical tradition (with harmony and choral singing).

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Chiefs to Mission (Send Teachers-Farmers) Aug 23 1836-1

Chiefs to Mission (Send Teachers-Farmers) Aug 23 1836-2

Chiefs to Mission (Send Teachers-Farmers) Aug 23 1836-3

August 21, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Did the Missionaries Ban Surfing?

Did the Missionaries really stop Surfing in Hawaiʻi, as we are most often led to believe?

Invariably there are definitive statements that the missionaries “banned” and/or “abolished” surfing, hula, even speaking the Hawaiian language.

However, in taking a closer look into the matter, most would likely come to a different conclusion.

First of all, the missionaries were guests in the Hawaiian Kingdom; they didn’t have the power to ban or abolish anything – that was the right of the King and Chiefs.

Most will agree the missionaries despised the fact that Hawaiians typically surfed in the nude and that hula dancers were typically topless; they also didn’t like the commingling between the sexes.

So, before we go on, we need to agree, the issue at hand is surfing and hula – not nudity and interactions between the sexes. In keeping this discussion on the actual activity and not sexuality, let’s see what the missionaries had to say about surfing.

Let’s look at surfing …

Here is what Hiram Bingham had to say about surfing (Bingham was leader of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi, he was in the Islands from 1820 to 1840 – these are his words):

“On a calm and bright summer’s day, the wide ocean and foaming surf, the peaceful river, with verdant banks, the bold cliff, and forest covered mountains, the level and fertile vale, the pleasant shade-trees, the green tufts of elegant fronds on the tall cocoanut trunks, nodding and waving, like graceful plumes, in the refreshing breeze …”

“… birds flitting, chirping, and singing among them, goats grazing and bleating, and their kids frisking on the rocky cliff, the natives at their work, carrying burdens, or sailing up and down the river, or along the sea-shore, in their canoes, propelled by their polished paddles that glitter in the sun-beam, or by a small sail well trimmed, or riding more rapidly and proudly on their surf-boards, on the front of foaming surges, as they hasten to the sandy shore, all give life and interest to the scenery.” (Bingham – pages 217-218)

“(T)hey resorted to the favorite amusement of all classes – sporting on the surf, in which they distinguish themselves from most other nations. In this exercise, they generally avail themselves of the surf-board, an instrument manufactured by themselves for the purpose.” (Bingham – page 136)

“The inhabitants of these islands, both male and female, are distinguished by their fondness for the water, their powers of diving and swimming, and the dexterity and ease with which they manage themselves, their surf-boards and canoes, in that element.” (Bingham – pages 136-137)

“The adoption of our costume greatly diminishes their practice of swimming and sporting in the surf, for it is less convenient to wear it in the water than the native girdle, and less decorous and safe to lay it entirely off on every occasion they find for a plunge or swim or surf-board race.” (Bingham – page 137)

Missionaries also Surfed

Another of the missionary group at the time was Levi Chamberlain, the mission quartermaster in the 1830s;) here is what he had to say:

“The situation of Waititi (Waikīkī) is pleasant, & enjoys the shade of a large number of cocoanut & kou trees. The kou has large spreading branches & affords a very beautiful shade. There is a considerable extension of beach and when the surf comes in high the natives amuse themselves in riding on the surf-board.” (Chamberlain – Vol 2, page 18)

“The Chiefs amused themselves by playing on surfboards in the heart of Lahaina.” (Chamberlain – Vol 5, page 36)

Another set of Journals, belonging to Amos S. Cooke, also notes references to surfing (Cooke was in the 8th Company of missionaries arriving in 1837:)

“After dinner Auhea went with me, & the boys to bathe in the sea, & I tried riding on the surf. To day I have felt quite lame from it.” (Cooke – Vol 6, page 237)

“This evening I have been reading to the smaller children from “Rollo at Play”–“The Freshet”. The older children are still reading “Robinson Crusoe”. Since school the boys have been to Waikiki to swim in the surf & on surf boards. They reached home at 7 o’clk. Last evening they went to Diamond Point – & did not return till 7 1/2 o’clock.” (Cooke – Vol 7, page 385)

“After dinner about three o’clock we went to bathe & to play in the surf. After we returned from this we paid a visit to the church which has lately been repaired with a new belfry & roof.” (Cooke – Vol 8, page 120)

James J Jarvis, in 1847, notes “Sliding down steep hills, on a smooth board, was a common amusement; but no sport afforded more delight than bathing in the surf. Young and old high and low, of both sexes, engaged in it, and in no other way could they show greater dexterity in their aquatic exercises.”

“Multitudes could be seen when the surf was highest, pushing boldly seaward, with their surf-board in advance, diving beneath the huge combers, as they broke in succession over them, until they reached the outer line of breakers …”

“… then laying flat upon their boards, using their arms and legs as guides, they boldly mounted the loftiest, and, borne upon its crest, rushed with the speed of a race-horse towards the shore; from being dashed upon which, seemed to a spectator impossible to be avoided.” (Jarvis – page 39)

Even Mark Twain notes surfing during his visit in 1866, “In one place we came upon a large company of naked natives, of both sexes and all ages, amusing themselves with the national pastime of surf-bathing. Each heathen would paddle three or four hundred yards out to sea, (taking a short board with him), then face the shore and wait for a particularly prodigious billow to come along …”

“… at the right moment he would fling his board upon its foamy crest and himself upon the board, and here he would come whizzing by like a bombshell! It did not seem that a lightning express train could shoot along at a more hair-lifting speed. I tried surf-bathing once, subsequently, but made a failure of it. I got the board placed right, and at the right moment, too; but missed the connection myself.–The board struck the shore in three quarters of a second, without any cargo, and I struck the bottom about the same time, with a couple of barrels of water in me..” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1880)

As you can see, there were foreigner reports on surfing throughout the decades. Obviously, surfing was never “banned” or “abolished” in Hawaiʻi. These words from prominent missionaries and other observers note on-going surfing throughout the decades the missionaries were in Hawaiʻi (1820 – 1863.)

Likewise, their comments sound supportive of surfing, at least they were comfortable with it and they admired the Hawaiians for their surfing prowess (they are certainly not in opposition to its continued practice) – and Bingham seems to acknowledge that he realizes others may believe the missionaries curtailed/stopped it.

So, Bingham, who was in Hawaiʻi from 1820 to 1840, makes surprisingly favorable remarks by noting that Hawaiians were “sporting on the surf, in which they distinguish themselves from most other nations”. Likewise, Chamberlain notes they “amuse themselves in riding on the surf-board.”

Missionary Amos Cooke, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1837 – and was later appointed by King Kamehameha III to teach the young royalty in the Chiefs’ Children’s School – surfed himself (with his sons) and enjoyed going to the beach in the afternoon.

In the late-1840s, Jarvis notes, “Multitudes could be seen when the surf was highest, pushing boldly seaward, with their surf-board in advance”.

In the 1850s, Reverend Cheever notes, surfing “is so attractive and full of wild excitement to the Hawaiians, and withal so healthy”.

In the mid-1860s Mark Twain notes, the Hawaiians were “amusing themselves with the national pastime of surf-bathing. Each heathen would paddle three or four hundred yards out to sea, (taking a short board with him), then face the shore and wait for a particularly prodigious billow to come along; at the right moment he would fling his board upon its foamy crest and himself upon the board, and here he would come whizzing by like a bombshell!”

Throughout the decades, Hawaiians continued to surf and, if anything, the missionaries and others at least appreciated surfing (although they vehemently opposed nudity – likewise, today, nudity is frowned upon.)

Above text is a summary – Click HERE for more information on Surfing and the Missionaries

Planning ahead … the Hawaiian Mission Bicentennial – Reflection and Rejuvenation – 1820 – 2020 – is approaching (it starts in about a year)

If you would like to get on a separate e-mail distribution on Hawaiian Mission Bicentennial activates, please use the following link:

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‘Hawaii,_The_Surf_Rider’,_woodblock_print_by_Charles_W._Bartlett,_1921

Alphonse_Pellion,_Îles_Sandwich;_Maisons_de_Kraïmokou,_Premier_Ministre_du_Roi;_Fabrication_des_Étoffes_(c._1819)

Surfing-Bathing_scene,_Lahaina,_Maui,_watercolor,_by_James_Gay_Sawkins-1855

Hawaiin surfing-(culturemap-org-au)-early 1800s

Hawaii_Harden_Melville-Surfing-1885

Hawaiian with surfboard and Diamond Head in the background-(WC)-c. 1890

Diamond_Head-Surfers-1900

Charles_W._Bartlett_-_’Surf-Riders,_Honolulu’.,_1919

August 5, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘History Presents No Parallel’

“History repeats itself” … however, here, “history presents no parallel.”

“(D)estruction of idolatry and the abolition of the Tabu system … is one of the most remarkable events not only in the history of the Hawaiian but of the world. It is without a parallel, either in ancient or modern times.”

“It was altogether an unheard of event in the history of idolatrous nation, for any one to cast aside its Idols, unless others were adopted in their place, or their idols were cast aside for the people to embrace Christianity.”

“Hawaiians cast aside theirs, and did not take others in their place, nor were influenced thereto by the messengers of gospel truth, for as yet the missionaries had not landed on these shores, and it was not known that they were on voyage hither.”

“‘Hath a nation changed their gods, which are as yet no gods?’ asks the prophet Jeremiah. He did not ask, ‘Hath a nation cast aside their gods?’”

Here was a heathen and savage nation, without a written language and far removed and isolated from all the other nations, of the earth, which was led by some mysterious influence to engage in a transaction totally unlike any other upon the world’s records. ‘History repeats itself,’ is the oft-quoted saying, but in this instance history presents no parallel.”

“Viewing this subject from a purely historical standpoint, without reference to a Divine influence, why were the Hawaiians led to abolish their Tabu system and cast their ‘idols to the moles and bats?’ I will mention the following among the causes contributing to this unlooked for result.”

“First. Reports of the abolition of idolatry at Tahiti, had reached these islands and circulated among the people.”

“Secondly. Foreigners from Christian lands had settled upon the islands, and although most of them were utterly regardless of Christianity themselves, yet they did not hesitate to denounce idolatry and the Tabu system.”

“Thirdly. The inhabitants had become convinced of the utter vanity of idolatry.”

“In the very first communication written by the Missionaries to their patrons in Boston, and dated, the day after, their landing on the shores of Hawaii, I find this statement:”

‘The sight of these children of nature, drew tears from eyes that did not intend to weep. Of them we enquired, whether they had heard anything of Jehovah, who made Owhyhee and all things?”

“They replied that Rehoreho (Liholiho), the King had heard of the great God of the white men, and spoken of him; and that all the chiefs but one had agreed to destroy their idols, became they were convinced that they could do no good since they could not save the King.”

“Idol worship is therefore prohibited and the priest hood entirely abolished. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord hath done it.’”

“Reference was here made to the King Kamehameha, who died May 8, 1819, and idolatry was abolished the next November, the month following the embarkation of the Missionaries from Boston.”

“Perhaps another reason may be assigned, in addition to the foregoing, before I speak of that Divine Power and influence, which it becomes us to recognize in this most remarkable transaction. The people, both Chiefs and common people, had become heartily wearied and tired of the system. It was burdensome, offensive, cruel and absured.”

“But what is most remarkable, Hewahewa, the high priest of the idolatrous system, was led to be the very first to light the torch which should burn the nations idols. Unless he had led the van in the rabble of iconoclasts, or idol destroyers, it is doubtful whether the project would have been carried through.”

“‘The tabu is broken burn the idols!’ was the watchword that started at Kailua, Hawaii, and was repeated to the limits of the Kingdom.”

“I have now taken the naturalistic, or the human view of this wonderful event. But are we not justified in the introduction of a superhuman and Divine influence, in bringing about this unlooked for result.”

“At the period when this event occurred, all Christian Missionaries and writers, did not hesitate to recognize a Divine influence. All the Missionary and Religious publications of that period, abound with expressions of acknowledgement to a Divine Providence.”

“The God of Missions – the Great Head of the Church – was every where recognized as having prepared the way for the introduction of the gospel among Hawaiians. Ancient Hebrew prophets had foretold, ‘The isles shall wait for His law.’ Could there be a more complete and exact fulfillment of this prophecy of Isaiah?”

“The American Minister, Mr. Bancroft, at Berlin, who is acknowledged as one of the most calm, and philosophical of historical writers of this or any age, remarks:

“‘Sometimes, like a messenger through the thick darkness of night, Omnipotence steps along mysterious ways; but when the hour strikes for a people or mankind to pass into a new form of being, unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates of futurity;’”

“‘… an all subduing influence prepares the minds of men for the coming revolution; those who plan resistance find themselves in conflict with the will of Providence rather than with human desires; and all hearts and all understandings, most of all the opinions and influence of the unwilling, are wonderfully attracted, …’”

“‘… and compelled to bear forward the change, which becomes more and more an obedience to the law of universal nature than submission to the arbitriments of man.’”

“How forcibly and aptly this paragraph, describes the event now under consideration. If the philosophic historian had been writing upon this special subject, he could not have employed more fitting and felicitous language.“

“The hour had struck for the Hawaiian people to pass into a new form of being. Internal agencies, and foreign influences, were contributing to this result, and through those agencies and influences, bow clearly maybe traced the first fruits, as ‘Omnipotence steps along mysterious ways, and unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates of futurity.’”

“No wonder the enthusiastic Puritan Missionaries were wonder-struck as they listened to the report: ‘Kamehameha is dead – His son Liholiho is King – the tabus are abolished – the images are destroyed – the heiaus of idolatrous worship are burned, and the party that attempted to restore them by force of arms, has recently been vanquished.’”

“In view of this event let no one he surprised at Mr. Bingham’s language. ‘The hand of God! How visible in thus beginning to answer the prayer of his people for the Hawaiian race!’”

“‘In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert, a highway for our God.’”

“Attempts have been made in a review of universal history, to find some parallel to this unprecedented conduct of the High priest Hewahewa, lighting the torch to kindle the flames which should destroy the idols of Hawaii.”

“The nearest approach is that precedent, cited by Mr. Manley Hopkins in his history of Hawaii, when Paulinus, went as a Missionary to Britain in the days of Edwin of Northumbria. The King had embraced Christianity, and he then exclaimed ‘who shall first desecrate the altars and temples?’”

“‘I’ answered the High priest ‘for who more fit than myself through the wisdom which the true God hath given me, to destroy for the good example of others, what in foolishness I worshipped?’”

“There is one essential point wherein the parallel fails. The old British High priest of idolatry acknowledges, that he had been enlightened by wisdom from the true God.”

“Hewahewa, however rushed forth to his work of destruction, ere, the messengers of Jehovah had landed upon Hawaiian shores.” (All of the information here is from a presentation given by Rev Damon and the Jubilee celebration (1870) of the arrival of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaii; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 25, 1870.) (The image by Brook Parker shows Hewahewa and the dismantling of the heiau.)

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July 24, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Missionary Lands

At the same time that the Hawaiian Kingdom was addressing distribution of lands to the King, Chiefs and Maka‘āinana in the Great Māhele, they were also looking at land for the missionaries.

“Some conversation then took place on the expediency and policy of granting lands to Missionaries at a price cheaper than lands are disposed of to other parties.” (Privy Council Minutes, November 23, 1849)

Non-Hawaiians were not permitted to own lands until 1850. In that year certain missionaries made application to the Hawaiian Government for permission to purchase lands.

At its August 19, 1850 Privy Council meeting, “Mr Wyllie brought forward & read a report of a committee appointed on the 29th April & powers enlarged on the 24th June to report respecting lands applied for by Missionaries.” The report was received and it was Resolved that it be left by the cabinet to publish when they see fit. The ‘Report on Missionary Lands’ was published in the Polynesian on May 7, 1852.

In part, that report notes, “The missionaries who have received and applied for lands have neither received and applied for them, without offering what they conceived to be a fair consideration for them.”

“So far as their applications have been granted, your Majesty’s government have dealt with them precisely as they have dealt with other applicants for land, that is, they have accepted the price where they considered it fair, and they have raised it where they considered it unfair.”

“It will not be contended that missionaries, because they are missionaries, have not the same right to buy land in the same quantities and at the same price as those who are not missionaries.”

“The question occurs, have greater rights been allowed to the missionary applicants that to the non-missionary applicants. To solve this question satisfactorily, requires that the undersigned should give some statistics.”

After review of some comparative sales it was concluded “that the missionaries generally have had their lands on somewhat easier terms than those who are not missionaries, but the undersigned, allowing for probable difference of quality, would hesitate to say that they have had their lands as much as 50 cents per acre under the price that non-missionary applicants have had theirs. …”

“But, besides what is strictly due to them, injustice and in gratitude for large benefits conferred by them on your people, every consideration of sound policy, under the rapid decrease of the native population, is in favor of holding out inducements for them not to withdraw their children from these islands. “

“One of the undersigned strongly urged that consideration upon your majesty in Privy Council so far back as the 28th of May, 1847, recommending that a formal resolution should be passed, declaring the gratitude of the nation to the missionaries for the services they had performed, and making some provision for their children.”

“Your majesty’s late greatly lamented Minister of Public Instruction (and former missionary). Mr. Richards, with that disinterestedness which characterized him personally in all his worldly interests, was fearful that to moot such a question would throw obloquy upon the reverend body to which he had belonged, and hence to the day of his death, he abstained from moving it.”

“Neither has any missionary, or any one who had been connected with the mission, ever taken it up to this day; but the undersigned, who are neither missionaries, nor have ever been connected with them, hesitate not to declare to your majesty that it will remain, in all future history …”

“… a stain upon this Christian nation if the important services of the missionaries be not acknowledged in some unequivocal and substantial manner. This acknowledgment should not be a thing implied or secretly understood, but openly and publicly declared.” (RC Wyllie, Keoni Ana)

Privy Council Resolution for Discounted Price to Missionaries

“The undersigned would recommend that the following, or some similar resolutions, should be submitted to the Legislature.

“1. Resolved, That all Christian missionaries who have labored in the cause of religion and education in these islands, are eminently benefactors of the Hawaiian nation.”

“2. Resolved, That, as a bare acknowledgment of these services, every individual missionary who may have served eight years on the Islands, whether Protestant or Catholic, who does not already hold five hundred and sixty acres of land, shall be allowed to purchase land to that extent at a deduction of fifty cents on every acre from the price that could be obtained from lay purchasers …”

“… but that for all land beyond that quantity, he must pay the same price as the latter would pay; and that those who have served less than eight years be allowed to purchase land on the same terms as laymen, until the completion of the eight years, after which they are to be allowed the same favor as the others.”

“3. Resolved, That all Christian missionaries serving on these islands shall be exempt from the payment of duties on goods imported for their use in the proportion following, for every year, viz: on goods to the invoice value of one hundred dollars for every active member of the mission, excluding servants.”

“On goods to the value of thirty dollars for every child above two years of age. (Signed,) R.C Wyllie, Keoni Ana.” (Privy Council Chamber, August 19th, 1850.; Report on Missionary Lands; Polynesian, May 7, 1852)

Above text is a summary – Click HERE for more information on Missionary Lands

Planning ahead … the Hawaiian Mission Bicentennial – Reflection and Rejuvenation – 1820 – 2020 – is approaching (it starts in about a year)
If you would like to get on a separate e-mail distribution on Hawaiian Mission Bicentennial activates, please use the following link:

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Na Mokupuni O Hawaii Nei-Kalama 1837

July 14, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Dole Street

The beginning of the original Dole Street was just below the Punahou School campus and was part of a small subdivision of lots the school developed to raise money for the school’s endowment.

“In 1880 the ‘lower pasture,’ containing 31.3 acres, was divided into building lots, and streets laid out in it. The sale of these lots has added twenty-one thousand four hundred ($21,400.00) to the endowment.” (Alexander, 1907)

The Punahou Lots development was surveyed in 1880 by SE Bishop (Reg 848) – streets within the subdivision were named for prior leaders of the school.

Dole, Beckwith, Alexander and Bingham Streets, were named for prominent men associated with Punahou School.

Rev. Daniel Dole (1841-1854), Rev. Edward Griffin Beckwith (1854-1859) and William DeWitt Alexander (1864-1871), were initial and early leaders of the school.

Another street within the Punahou Lots development, Bingham, was named for Rev. Hiram Bingham, the initial recipient of the land grant, on behalf of the American Protestant mission, that eventually became Punahou School.

Apparently, some at the University of Hawaiʻi are trying “to restore Dole Street to its Hawaiian name” – suggesting Dole Street was originally named Kapaʻakea Street. (HNN)

“University of Hawaiʻi graduate student Kepoo Keliipaakaua found it on an 1882 survey map of the Mānoa area. Kapaʻakea means coral bedrock or limestone.” (HNN) The students also suggest the street was named for Sanford Dole.

That is not true. The history is clear; Dole Street was formed in 1880 by Punahou School and was named for Rev. Daniel Dole, the first teacher/administrator of Punahou (it was not named for Dole’s son, Sanford).

Regional maps from 1887, 1893, 1912 and 1923 (and others) show Dole Street and its subsequent extensions in the direction of where the University of Hawaiʻi is presently situated.

None of those early maps show any roads around or below where the UH is today (keep in mind the University didn’t make it to Mānoa until 1912); and none of these maps show a Kapaʻakea Street at all.

There is a 1934 map noting a short street as part of the St Louis Heights that Dole Street was proposed to extend to – however, that street in St Louis Heights was not named Kapaʻakea Street.

The ‘1882’ map noted by the UH students shows a notation for a road segment noted as Kapaʻakea Street – suggesting the road was there in 1882 (although all other mapping clearly note otherwise).

In addition, that ‘1882’ map also includes references on it dated in 1927, 1928 and 1930, suggesting edits made to the map over time.

Those edits relate to executive orders and other actions for the University – again, the UH campus wasn’t built until 1912 (well after the ‘date’ of the map).

Even an untrained, casual observer will see that the delineation of the ‘Kapaʻakea Street’, the printing of its name and the surrounding notations are in a different style than most of the other writing on the map.

So that map, over time, was obviously updated, although some suggest it carries only the 1882 time-reference.

And, it’s not clear when that text and portion of the map were put on the map; it is also not clear if Kapaʻakea Street was ever built.

In the broader area, there is a short road segment below King Street, generally running mauka-makai, called Kapaʻakea Lane; it is well removed from the University campus area and is (was) not possibly interconnected with Dole Street.

Some of the old maps note wetland area identified as Kapaʻakea. Kapaʻakea Spring was originally known as Kumulae Spring (later Hausten Spring/Pond). In 1944, the Willows Restaurant opened there.

As noted, starting in 1880, Dole Street in Mānoa was named for Rev. Daniel Dole, the initial teacher/administrator at Punahou School – other nearby streets in the Punahou Lots subdivision (below the existing Punahou campus) are named for other early school leaders.

Suggestions that the ‘original’ name of Dole Street was Kapaʻakea Street are simply wrong and not consistent with the clear history of the road and its subsequent extensions.

The image is a portion of an 1892 map of the area. It notes Dole Street and the Punahou Lots subdivision (on the left); note that there are no roads on the right, and definitely nothing labeled Kapaʻakea, other than the wetland. Check out the full story and multiple maps that show the same – Dole Street, but no Kapaʻakea Street below UH.

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