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January 10, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Oʻahu Charity School

Andrew Johnstone, born in Dundee, Scotland in 1794, came to the US in 1813; he and his wife (Rebecca Worth Johnstone) were members of the Fourth Company of missionaries to the Islands, arriving on June 7, 1831. (Mission Houses)

The missionaries stationed at Honolulu were overwhelmed with working with the native Hawaiian population, preaching, translating the Bible, preparing text books and superintending the Hawaiians in schools. (Alexander)

The missionaries taught their lessons in Hawaiian to the Hawaiians, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians.

Johnstone, by a previous understanding, devoted part of his time to visiting seamen and distributing Bibles and other books among them. During one of these visits, he met the 12 or 14-year-old son of Captain Carter, commanding the English Cutter ‘William Little’ then in port.

Johnstone offered young Carter some books and invited him to his house; in a day or two he brought with him another lad, the son of a foreign resident, who asked Johnstone to teach him to read.

Johnstone agreed, and very soon one and another boy came asking the same favor, to the point where a regular class was formed. (Alexander)

Meanwhile, “(m)arriages between foreigners and Hawaiians appear of late to be rapidly increasing, and it has been the custom of many parents to send their offspring to the United States to receive an education.” (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

Some of the parents of half-Hawaiian/half-foreign children wanted their children to learn the English language. There was an evident and growing need for an English language school. (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

Soon, a subscription was opened to raise funds for the creation of a school house for the instruction of English-speaking children. Generous donations were made by some of the residents, and an orphan-school fund was created. This led to the establishment of the ‘Oʻahu Charity School.’

The missionaries supported Johnstone’s efforts at their June 1832 ‘General Meeting,’ resolving “That the Mission approve of Mr and Mrs Johnstone’s continuing their attention to the instruction of the children of foreigners, making annually such a report to the Mission of the school and their labors, as is required of the rest of our number in our respective spheres of action.”

The King granted a lot for the school in an area of Honolulu known as Mililani. On September 3, 1832, the subscribers met and approved the construction of a schoolhouse. (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

“It is a neat substantial building of stone, 56 feet long and 26 feet wide, fitted up with benches, and other conveniences, for a school-room”. (Sailor’s Magazine, August 1838) (It stood in a lane running from King to Queen Street near the Waikiki end of the Judiciary building. (Goodale))

“On looking around the room, it appeared well furnished with cards, maps, books, slates, &c, of an excellent character and in sufficient variety.” (Polynesian, November 14, 1840)

“Thirty five children of both sexes having been admitted, the school was opened on the 10th Jan. 1833. … The children were all beginners, and nearly all entirely ignorant of the language of their teachers.” (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

“Until the establishment of this institution, the education of (the children of Hawaiian mothers and foreign fathers) was almost entirely neglected, but now they appear to be in a fair way to become fitted for stations of usefulness and respectability in life.) (Polynesian, November 14, 1840)

Oʻahu Charity School was the first school in the Islands and the first school on the Pacific where the English language was used (it was one of six English language schools west of the Rockies.) In fact, it received pupils from the US, Alaska and Mexico. (NEA, February 1922)

In 1842, nine boys from the best families of California were sent here to be educated at the Oʻahu Charity School. One of these boys was José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco, Jr. He came to the Islands when he was 7-years old, and was in the Islands for five years. He later became the 12th-Governor of American California.

The School continued to increase in numbers and usefulness; however, there was a falling out and the Johnstones left (January 22, 1844) and formed their own school.

During the years Pacheco attended the School, its good reputation and numbers steadily increased. Students were arriving from the Russian settlement of Kamchatka, while others were coming from California and the other Hawaiian Islands.

The school had dormitories for the students who were either orphans or who had been sent from distant places. The curriculum was comprehensive and substantial, including classes to teach the Hawaiian language, writing, reading, mathematics, sciences, the arts and geography. (Hartmann & Wright)

Later, other schools offered English language education. Oʻahu Charity School experienced financial difficulties, with the rise of various competing private schools, and in 1851 was provided with public assistance.

A special tax was imposed on all foreigners of legal age residing in Honolulu: $3 for every individual without children, and $5 for every individual having children within the school age. This plan met with general approval. (Alexander)

The school’s name then changed to the Town Free School, but its board maintained control over the school until 1859, when it passed into the Superintendent of School’s domain. (NPS)

In 1865, the Board of Education split the school into separate boys and girls (the Town Free School became Mililani Girls School.) In 1874, that school closed and the girls went to a new school called Pohukaina. (Alexander)

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Oahu Charity School-MissionHouses
Oahu Charity School-MissionHouses
Oahu Charity School-Sailor's Journal-Aug_1838
Oahu Charity School-Sailor’s Journal-Aug_1838
Oahu Charity School-Emmert-1854
Oahu Charity School-Emmert-1854

Filed Under: Schools Tagged With: Hawaii, Missionaries, Oahu Charity School ., Andrew Johnson, Town Free School

September 8, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiian, American missionary, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean & Filipino

Hawaiʻi is the world’s most-isolated, populated-place; the Islands are about: 2,500-miles from the US mainland, Samoa & Alaska; 4,000-miles from Tokyo, New Zealand & Guam, and 5,000-miles from Australia, the Philippines & Korea.

Using stratigraphic archaeology and refinements in radiocarbon dating, studies suggest it was about 900-1000 AD that “Polynesian explorers first made their remarkable voyage from central Eastern Polynesia Islands, across the doldrums and into the North Pacific, to discover Hawai‘i.” (Kirch)

Then, in the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

At the time of Cook’s arrival, the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four chiefdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Four decades later, inspired by ʻŌpūkahaʻia, a Hawaiian who wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi, on October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of missionaries, from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from the northeast United States, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.)

Then, something more significant in defining the social make-up of Hawaiʻi took place.

Sugar changed the social fabric of Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places on the planet.

The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i in 1835. It was to change the face of Hawai‘i forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of monocropping that lasted for well over a century.

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.

What encouraged the development of plantations in Hawaiʻi? For one, the gold rush and settlement of California opened a lucrative market. Likewise, the Civil War virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s, enabling Hawai‘i to compete with elevated prices for sugar.

In addition, the Treaty of Reciprocity-1875 between the US and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market. Through the treaty, the US gained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into US markets.

However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

Several waves of workforce immigration took place (including others:)
•  Chinese 1852
•  Portuguese 1877
•  Japanese 1885
•  Koreans 1902
•  Filipinos 1905

The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures. Of the nearly 385,000-workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix.

The Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens is a peaceful place to experience various cultural buildings; it was created as tribute and a memorial to Maui’s multi-cultural diversity.

Started in 1952, the park contains several monuments and replica buildings commemorating the Hawaiian, American missionary, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Filipino cultures that make up a significant part of Hawaiʻi’s cultural mix.

Attractions include an early-Hawaiian hale (house), a New England-style missionary home, a Portuguese-style villa with gardens, native huts from the Philippines, Japanese gardens with stone pagodas and a Chinese pavilion with a statue of revolutionary hero Sun Yat-sen (who briefly lived on Maui.)

It is situated near the entrance to ʻIao Valley in the West Maui Mountain, just above Wailuku. It is open daily from 7 am to 7 pm; admission is free.

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Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens- Gardens
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens- Gardens
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens - Gardens
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens – Gardens
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Banyan
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Banyan
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Hawaiian Hale
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Hawaiian Hale
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens missionary house
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens missionary house
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-missionary house
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-missionary house
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens - New England
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens – New England
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Chinese
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Chinese
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens - Sun Yat-sen
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens – Sun Yat-sen
Kepaniwai-Japanese_sugarcane_workers-Statue
Kepaniwai-Japanese_sugarcane_workers-Statue
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens Japanese
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens Japanese
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Portuguese
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Portuguese
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens - Korean
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens – Korean
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Korean
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Korean
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens Korean
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens Korean
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens Korean Garden
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens Korean Garden
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Filipino
Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens-Filipino

Filed Under: Economy, General Tagged With: Hawaii, Japanese, Missionaries, Maui, Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, Hawaiian, Korean

July 28, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Davis Paris

John Davis Paris was born to George and Mary (Hudson) Paris, September 22, 1809 near Staunton, Virginia, the eldest of six sons. His father was a farmer of Scotch-Irish extraction, originally from France; his mother’s parents came from Wales and the north of England.

“My father was very industrious, working hard early and late. His farm was on the main valley road leading to Lexington; he owned about ninety acres which he improved and to which he added in after years. On it he erected a saw mill and a flour mill and did an enormous business for one man.”

“He and my mother were members of Hebron church, strict Presbyterians, and known by all as consistent Christians. My father’s house was a home for ministers and missionaries, and under its hospitable roof all good men ever found a hearty welcome.”

“From a little boy I had a secret desire to he a minister of the gospel, partly I think because my parents always spoke in the highest terms of those who preached the gospel.” (Paris; The Friend, April 1, 1926)

At the age of nineteen, his father gave him permission to go to school. He carted firewood and lumber on Saturdays to pay tuition and extras.

In 1835, he distributed bibles and religious books for the American Bible Society. “Traveling once in North Carolina, I came to a hotel about sun set. … I was requested to offer prayers … In the morning I was again requested to lead the family worship, which I was glad to do.”

“Then calling for my horse which had been well fed and groomed, I was about to pay my bill, when the Landlord very courteously said, ‘No, I never charge ministers of the gospel. … we have all enjoyed family worship with you…’ I protested that I was not a minister, but he declared that I was equal to one”. (Paris; The Friend, April 1, 1926)

Paris entered Bangor Theological Seminary in 1836, graduating in 1839 with Rev Daniel Dole and was ordained the same year.

That year, he offered to serve as a missionary in Africa. He was accepted by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, but, after consultation, was appointed to the Indian Mission in Oregon Territory.

He was married to Miss Mary Grant of New York City, on October 25, 1840, and sailed from Boston November 14 in the company of Dole, Bond and Rice. They arrived in the Islands on May 21, 1841.

“News had just been received at the Island of the unsettled and hostile state of the Indians which afterwards terminated in the tragical and terrible massacre of Dr. Whitman ma! (Ma, the Hawaiian collective, means ‘with all his family or associates.’)”

“Mr. William Rice and his wife, together with ourselves, who had been destined for the Oregon Mission, were advised to remain at the Islands where there was urgent need.” (Paris; The Friend, April 1, 1926)

Paris was first stationed in Kaʻū. It was a remote district, difficult of access. He was the first resident missionary there.

“In these years of 1843 and 44, while our own dwelling was in building and not yet finished, we undertook the great work of building a stone House of Worship at Waiohinu. This first Christian temple was built entirely by the natives … “

“Since that time I have builded and consecrated nine houses of worship and crowned them with sweet-toned bells, ordered from the United States and paid for by the people”. (Paris; The Friend, May 1, 1926)

Mrs Paris died on February 18, 1847; Paris returned with two daughters to the U.S. On September 7, 1851, Paris married Miss Mary Carpenter of New York City; they returned to the Islands in 1852 and he was stationed at Kaʻawaloa.

One notable incident is worth mentioning – “For several years past, one (Joseph Ioela) Kaʻona … imbibed the idea that he was a prophet sent by God to warn this people of the end of the world. For the three years he has been preaching this millerite doctrine on Hawaiʻi, and has made numerous converts.” (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“By the mid-1860s, Kaʻona claimed to have had divine communications with Elijah, Gabriel, and Jehovah, from whom he’d received divine instructions and prophetic.” (Maly) Followers called him ‘The Prophet;’ his followers were referred to as Kaʻonaites.)

“These fanatics believe that the end of the world is at hand, and they must be ready. They therefore clothe themselves in white robes, ready to ascend, watch at night, but sleep during the day, decline to cultivate anything except beans, corn, or the most common food.” (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“For a time, all went on smoothly enough, until Kaʻona began to introduce some slight innovations in the form of worship, which were opposed by Mr. Paris and minority of the congregation and the church became split into two factions. … The feud continued to increase …” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 18, 1868)”

Eventually a riot broke out and Sheriff Neville and another were both brutally killed. The event has been referred to as Kaʻona’s Rebellion, Kaʻona Insurrection and Kaʻona Uprising. Kaʻona eventually surrendered; David Kalākaua and Albert Francis Judd had been appointed Kaʻona’s defense attorneys.

Here’s a summary on Kaʻona and the rebellion: http://wp.me/p5GnMi-8e

Until 1870, Paris had the general supervision of the mission work on Western Hawaiʻi. That year he moved to Honolulu where he lived for some time in the old mission house. He started a Theological Seminary there.

He later returned to Kona. The last eleven years of his life were spent in the upper Kaʻawaloa. The house was built on the foundations of Kapiʻolani’s home.

Davis died at his home at Kaʻawaloa at 9:30 am, July 28, 1892, after an illness of seven days. “He took a severe cold, which settled on his lungs. His strength failed rapidly, and he was unable to take nourishment to keep.” (The Friend, September 5, 1892)

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John_Davis_Paris

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Hawaii Island, Missionaries, John Davis Paris, American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, ABCFM

July 23, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mission Stations

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM,) based in Boston, was founded in 1810, the first organized missionary society in the US.

One hundred years later, the Board was responsible for 102-mission stations and a missionary staff of 600 in India, Ceylon, West Central Africa (Angola,) South Africa and Rhodesia, Turkey, China, Japan, Micronesia, Hawaiʻi, the Philippines, North American native American tribes, and the “Papal lands” of Mexico, Spain and Austria.

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of ABCFM missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus to establish the Sandwich Islands Mission (now known as Hawai‘i.)

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.

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.

As an example, in June 1823, William Ellis joined American Missionaries Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich on a tour of the island of Hawaiʻi to investigate suitable sites for mission stations.

On O‘ahu, locations at Honolulu (Kawaiahaʻo,) Kāne’ohe, Waialua, Waiʻanae and ‘Ewa served as the bases for outreach work on the island.

By 1850, eighteen mission stations had been established; six on Hawaiʻi, four on Maui, four on Oʻahu, three on Kauai and one on Molokai.

Meeting houses were constructed at the stations, as well as throughout the district. Initially constructed as the traditional Hawaiian thatched structures; they were later made of wood or stone.

One of the first things the first missionaries did was begin to learn the Hawaiian language and create an alphabet for a written format of the language.

Their emphasis was on preaching and teaching.

Interestingly, as the early missionaries learned the Hawaiian language, they then taught their lessons in the mission schools in Hawaiian, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English‐speaking Hawaiians.

The missionaries established schools associated with their mission stations across the Islands. This marked the beginning of Hawaiʻi’s phenomenal rise to literacy. The chiefs became proponents for education and edicts were enacted by the King and the council of Chiefs to stimulate the people to reading and writing.

The instruction of students in schools (initially, most of whom were adults,) in reading, writing and other skills initially fell to the missionaries.

The schools generally served as both native churches and meeting houses, and were established in most populated ahupua‘a around the islands; native teachers and lay-ministers were appointed to oversee their daily activities.

The most difficult problem was that of obtaining enough competent teachers. As far back as 1825 the missionaries had taken steps to establish teacher training classes at the various stations, but the plan of station schools was not very fully carried out until after 1830.

There were never enough missionaries to make the plan uniformly effective. Station schools were intended not only to train teachers but to serve as model schools, and much attention was given to children. In some places there were two station schools, one for teachers and one for children. (Kuykendall)

In eight years from the date of the landing of the Pioneer Company there were 32-missionaries, 4,455-native teachers, 12,000-Sabbath hearers, and 26,000-pupils in schools in the islands.

Many influences were at work, the Bible was circulated, high chiefs were converted and began to work vigorously, the people gathered from great distances in crowds to hear the Word, and in 1828, simultaneously and without communication, a revival unexpectedly commenced in Hawaiʻi, Oʻahu, and Maui.

For weeks and months the missionaries could scarcely get time for rest and refreshment. (Bliss)

By 1831, in just eleven years from the first arrival of the missionaries, Hawaiians had built over 1,100‐schoolhouses. This covered every district throughout the eight major islands and serviced an estimated 53,000‐students. (Laimana)

By 1840, the decline of the Hawaiian population, financial restraints, and a move to separate church and school operations led to the consolidation of the church-school meeting houses.

On October 15, 1840, Kamehameha III enacted a law that required the maintenance and local support of the native schools (the Constitution of 1840).

The Constitution provided a “Statute for the Regulation of Schools,” which required that in a village with 15 or more students, the parents were to organize and secure a teacher. (Maly)

By 1853, nearly three-fourths of the native Hawaiian population over the age of sixteen years was literate in their own language. The short time span within which native Hawaiians achieved literacy is remarkable in light of the overall low literacy rates of the United States at that time. (Lucas)

The image shows Meeting House at Lāhainā, the first stone Church in Hawaiʻi (corner stone laid in 1828.)

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Meeting-House at Lahaina, On Maui. The First Stone Church in Hawaii. Corner Stone laid in 1828-(1845)

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, Missionaries

July 17, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Edwin Welles Dwight

Edwin Welles Dwight was born on November 17, 1789 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the second son and child of Henry Williams Dwight and Abigail (daughter of Ashbel and Abigail (Kellogg) Welles, of West Hartford, Connecticut.)

His grandmother was a half-sister of Colonel Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams College, and he spent the first three years of College there. He then attended Yale, and graduated from Yale in 1809.

He remained in New Haven, Connecticut after graduation; it was then that he met ʻŌpūkahaʻia, a Hawaiian who was orphaned by war on Hawaiʻi and “thought to (him)self that if (he) should get away, and go to some other country, probably (he) may find some comfort;” he escaped the Islands on a trading ship.

On board, he started to learn English from Russell Hubbard of New Haven. After travelling to the American North West, then to China, they landed in New York in 1809. They continued to New Haven, Connecticut. ʻŌpūkahaʻia was eager to study and learn – seeking to be a student at Yale.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia “was sitting on the steps of a Yale building, weeping. A solicitous student stopped to inquire what was wrong, and Obookiah (the spelling of his name, based on its sound) said, ‘No one will give me learning.’”

The student was Dwight, distant cousin of the college president. “(W)hen the question was put him, ‘Do you wish to learn?’ his countenance began to brighten and … he served it with eagerness.” (Haley) Dwight helped him.

Dwight began to study theology over the following years and on October 17, 1815 was licensed to preach by the South Association of Litchfield County ministers, and then made Schenectady his headquarters for further study.

In 1816 he did some missionary service in Western New York, and later was preaching in Woodbury, Connecticut, where the North Church was organized in December.

In October, 1816, it was decided to establish the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut, for the instruction of youth like ʻŌpūkahaʻia; initially lacking a principal. Dwight filled that role from May 1817 to May 1818.

Later in 1818 Dwight was called to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Richmond, Massachusetts, in the immediate vicinity of his birthplace and he was ordained and installed there on January 13, 1819.

He married Mary, daughter of Henry and Lois (Chidsey) Sherrill, of Richmond, on April 24, 1821. They had four daughters and three sons. The eldest son died in infancy, and the eldest daughter in early womanhood.

In April, 1837, on account of poor health, he had to resign his pastoral charge, and they moved to Stockbridge (where his wife died of a malarial fever on October 11, 1838, at the age of 37.)

In these last years he preached with some regularity at Housatonic village, in the northern part of Great Barrington, where a Congregational church was organized shortly after his death.

Dwight died in Stockbridge, on February 25, 1841, in his 52nd year. Mr. Dwight was a man of tender and refined feelings, and a solemn and earnest preacher. (Yale)

Dwight is remembered for putting together a book, ‘Memoirs of Henry Obookiah’ (the spelling of the name based on its pronunciation.)

Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died in 1818; the book was put together after ʻŌpūkahaʻia died. It was an edited collection of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s letters and journals/diaries.

It inspired the New England missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi.) In giving instructions to the first missionaries, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM,) noted:

“You will never forget ʻŌpūkahaʻia. You will never forget his fervent love, his affectionate counsels, his many prayers and tears for you, and for his and your nation.”

“You saw him die; saw how the Christian could triumph over death and the grave; saw the radient glory in which he left this world for heaven. You will remember it always, and you will tell it to your kindred and countrymen who are dying without hope.”

On October 23, 1819, a group of northeast missionaries, led by Hiram Bingham, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) With the missionaries were four Hawaiian students from the Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauaʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i.)

When the Pioneer Company of missionaries arrived, the kapu system had been abolished; the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs – and effectively weakened belief in the power of the gods and the inevitability of divine punishment for those who opposed them.

Christianity and the western law brought order and were the only answers to keeping order with a growing foreign population and dying race.

Kamehameha III incorporated traditional customary practices within the western laws – by maintaining the “land division of his father with his uncles” – which secured the heirship of lands and succession of the throne, as best he could outside of “politics, trade and commerce.” (Yardley)

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.

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Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, Missionaries, Henry Opukahaia, Edwin Welles Dwight

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.

Info@Hookuleana.com

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