Mormon | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 1, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

City of Joseph in the Valley of Ephraim

“This is the place,” and joy seemed to fill all.

Elder Johnson then suggested that it should be called the Valley of Ephraim (a name that President Lewis had suggested to Brigham Young a few weeks before) and that the city be called Joseph. All agreed. (Britsch)

But we are getting ahead of ourselves, let’s step back.

In September 1850, Elder Charles C. Rich, one of the Church’s Twelve Apostles (the leading councils of the Church are the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles), visited a group of Mormon gold miners who were working on the American River near Sacramento, California.

Rich suggested to them that it would be well for them to spend the winter, when mining had to stop, on missions to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi) because expenses were smaller in Honolulu than they were in the gold fields of California.

The next day eight miners were ordained to fill missions to Hawaiʻi, others were added and the whole group sailed for the islands. They arrived on December 12, 1850, the first group of Latter-day Saints missionaries to set foot on that land. (Britsch)

On October 17th, 1853, a special committee made a trip to Lānaʻi to inspect the ahupua‘a (native land division) of PāIāwai, which belonged to the chief Levi Ha‘alelea. On November 2nd, 1853, the committee reported back to Brigham Young in Utah, that:

“…They found the place well adapted in many respects for this purpose, the soil being good, the situation a central one and having ready intercourse with the two principal markets, Honolulu and Lahaina, and sufficiently isolated to be comparatively free from the surrounding evil influences…” (Maly)

In August 1854, Elder Ephraim Green (1807-1874), a Latter-day Saint missionary to Hawaiʻi, moved to Pālāwai Basin on Lānaʻi with the intention of establishing a new settlement. Ephraim Green described laying out the city on October 3, 1854 as follows:

“I tuck my cumpas and commenst to lay out a town at the fut of the mountain and laid out one stret runing south to the sea three mildes to a fine litle harbour whare we land out boats hear we intendt to build a (storehouse) to leave our produse. I then laid out three more streats thruing (turning) the town in to blocks fore acres each with the streats fore rods wide. This is a butiful location for a town.”

“This valley is supposed to be of sufficient altitude to admit the growth of wheat, corn, sweet potatoes; with many of the tropical fruits, and we hope that it will prove sufficiently moist to admit of the cultivation of the coffee and grape.” ((Lewis to Young; Britsch)

“We are situated on this Island, nearly two thousand feet above the level of the sea, in a beautiful valley containing three thousand acres of land. Here we catch the mountain breeze and the climate is beautiful and healthy. In many places in this country as high and alleviated as this, the rain makes it disagreeable. But here there is no inconvenience felt on that account. Only some times there is a lack for the want of it.” (Maly)

Over the next year the pioneers planted an amazing variety of seeds, slips, and starts. The list included wheat, oats, barley, grapes, sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes, beans of several kinds, peas, squash, pumpkins, bananas, corn, melons, peaches, plums, quinces, pears, tomatoes, cabbage, and “many kinds of garden seed.” (Britisch)

But, the weather, particularly the rainfall, had serious consequences – sometimes there was too much, most of the time there was too little. A spring was about 1-mile from where they lived and farmed.

“… there is not a single stream or spring in this district, and it is with much difficulty that the people manage to get enough drinking water. Sometimes they have brought water from Lāhainā, and lugged it four miles from the beach to their homes in Pālāwai valley.” (Gibson)

“The threatenings of war in Utah in 1857 induced every white Mormon Elder to return home. The native church was left to its own guidance.”

“The Utah Elders invariably told the natives that they did not come to establish themselves here, like the missionaries, but simply to teach them what they felt to be the truth, and then go their way to teach others.” (Gibson, Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 24, 1861)

Walter Murray Gibson was sent on a mission by Brigham Young to the Far East and came to the Hawaiian Islands in 1861. He subsequently declared himself the “Chief President of the Islands of the Sea and of the Hawaiian Islands, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints.”

The Church sent a group to investigate Gibson’s activities. Upon arrival to the island of Lanai, Joseph F Smith described the situation as follows:

“We found that he had ordained twelve apostles. High priests, seventys, elders, bishops, and “priestesses of temples,” all of whom had to pay a certain sum corresponding to the various degrees of honor bestowed upon them….”

“Gibson had bought the district of Palawai (6,000 acres) by the donation of the Saints, assuring them he was doing it all for them for the Church. He persuaded them to give all they had to the Church and made it a test of fellowship….”

“Brothers Benson and Snow required him to sign the land over to the Church as it was deeded to him and his heirs. This he flatly refused to do informing them he should take his own course.”

Gibson was excommunicated from the Church, although he retained the land which was purchased under the auspices of the Church. (Mormon Sites)

In later years, Pālāwai Basin was planted in pineapple. In 2004, the Mormon Pacific Historical Society and the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation erected a monument to the Pālāwai Saints paying tribute to those early members who established the first gathering place for Mormons in Hawaiʻi.

June 25, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lāʻie

During ancient times, various land divisions were used to divide and identify areas of control. Islands were divided into moku (districts;) moku were divided into ahupuaʻa. A common feature in each ahupuaʻa was water, typically in the form of a stream or spring.

The Island of Oʻahu has six Moku (districts:) Kona, Koʻolaupoko, Koʻolauloa, Waialua, Waiʻanae and ʻEwa. The Moku of Koʻolauloa extends from Kalaeokaʻoiʻo (ʻOiʻo Point) in Kualoa to Waimea Bay.

Situated on the koʻolau (windward) side of the island, much of Koʻolauloa had ample rainfall, rich forests, streams, sheltered valleys, broad flat lands, reef protected shores, and rich estuarine environments to support nearshore fisheries.

The area that we refer to today as Lāʻie in Koʻolauloa (short for “lau ʻie; ʻie vine leaf; Pukui – referring to the red-spiked climbing pandanus tree) is made up of two ahupuaʻa, Lāʻiewai (wet Lāʻie) and Lāʻiemaloʻo (dry Lāʻie.)

Hawaiian mythology notes the ʻie vine is sacred to the god Kāne, the procreator, and the goddess of hula, Laka. The area of Lāʻie, prior to Western contact, provided rich resources with its many lo‘i kalo (taro terraces) and ke kai (the ocean ) filled with marine life. In historical times, it also provided sanctuary as a puʻuhonua, a sacred place where fugitives could seek safety from their pursuers. (Benham)

Early descriptions of of this area of Oʻahu were noted by Captain Clerke in 1779, who, following the death of Captain Cook, had succeeded command of the Resolution:
“Run round the Noern (northern) Extreme of the Isle (Oʻahu) which terminates in a low Point rather projecting (Kahuku Point;) off it lay a ledge of rocks extending a full Mile into the Sea … the country in this neighborhood is exceeding fine and fertile; here is a large Village, in the midst of it run up a large-Pyramid doubtlessly part of a Morai (heiau.)”

Lieutenant King also noted the north side of Oʻahu: “We…sailed along its NE & NW sides but saw nothing of the Soern (Southern) part. What we did see of this Island was by far the most beautiful country of any in the Group … Nothing could exceed the verdure of the hills, nor the Variety which the face of the Country display’d.”

“… the Valleys look’d exceedingly pleasant, near the N Point (Kahuku Point) we were charmd with the narrow border full of Villages, & the Moderate hills that rose behind them … the low land extended far back, & was highly cultivated. Where we Anchord was a charming Landscape (Waimea Bay.)”

With its favorable climate and environment, the Lāʻie area was traditionally divided into a number of smaller sections, each with a sizeable permanent population engaged in intensive cultivation of the relatively flat, low-lying lands between the hills and the coastline.

The area just mauka of the present day Mormon Temple was formerly the largest single wet taro location in the ahupuaʻa. As evidence of kalo cultivation in the area, just south of Lāʻie, towards Hauʻula, extensive systems of stone terraces for wet taro cultivation (loʻi) were widely distributed, from prehistory into historical times.

After the conquest of Oʻahu in 1795 by Kamehameha I, Lāʻie was given to his half-brother, Kalaʻimamahū who eventually passed it on to his daughter, Kekāuluohi, who in turn passed it to her son with Charles Kanaʻina, Lunalilo. The entire ahupuaʻa remained under the control of Lunalilo until the Great Māhele.

In March 1865, Brigham Young (President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877,) in a letter to King Kamehameha V, requested permission to locate an agricultural colony in Lāʻie. The king granted his request.

Mormon missionaries purchased 6,000-acres of the ahupuaʻa of Lāʻiewai to Lāʻiemaloʻo for the Mormon Church. One thousand acres were arable the remaining land was used for woodland and pasture for 500-head of cattle, 500-sheep, 200-goats and 25-horses.

By 1866, 125 Hawaiian members were living on property and helping with the planting and picking of a substantial cotton crop the land was considered to have a good potential for growing sugarcane.

At the time in the Islands, sugar production was growing in scale; in addition to farming for food for the mission, the Lāʻie land was considered to have a good potential for growing sugar cane. In 1867, the first sugar cane was planted; in 1868 a mule-powered mill was installed.

Sugar played a central role in providing early members of the Church of Jesus Chris of Later-day Saints (Mormons) on the Lāʻie Plantation with income and financial sustainability.

In less than two years the little colony had grown to seven families from Utah, a Scotsman and 300-Polynesians. By 1871, a store, dairy and several frame houses had been built there was also a school that nearly 100 boys and girls attended regularly. During 1883, a substantial new meeting house was built and dedicated the King Kalākaua attended the dedication

In 1890, Kahuku Plantation Company and Oʻahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L) worked together to establish a railroad connecting the sugar industry facilities between Kahuku to the north and Kahana to the south – passing through Lāʻie. (This served as a common freight carrier until 1931.)

By 1895 the old sugar mill had stood idle almost six years. The cane was being processed by the Kahuku mill at a much cheaper price than the Lāʻie plantation could produce it.

By the turn of the century many changes had taken place in Lāʻie. The old mission home was gone, although a new one was in its place; the old sugar mill was no longer functioning; the cane crop was being processed at the Kahuku mill; 450-acres were planted in cane; the homes of the Polynesians had been removed from the sugarcane fields; 250 acres of rice was being cultivated by Chinese families. (Berge)

The Mormon Temple in Lāʻie – started in 1915 and dedicated on Thanksgiving Day 1919 – was the first such temple to be built outside of continental North America. The over 47,000-square-foot temple’s exterior is concrete made of crushed lava rock from the area and tooled to a white cream finish. It attracted more islanders from throughout the South Pacific.

When the Mormon missionaries bought Lāʻie, they hoped to create a gathering place where Native Hawaiian converts could settle, grow strong in their faith, and learn Western-styled industry. (Compton)

Today, the Temple, Brigham Young University – Hawaiʻi, Polynesian Cultural Center and a variety of other Mormon facilities and followers dominate the Lāʻie landscape.

October 18, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Mormon Mission

New England Congregationalists first brought Protestant Christianity to the Islands in 1820. Roman Catholic missionaries came to Hawaiʻi in 1827. Quakers came in 1835; Methodists came in 1855 and members of the Church of England arrived in 1862.

As early as 1844, missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (popularly called the Mormons or LDS Church) were working among the Polynesians in Tahiti and surrounding islands.

“The Mormons are said to have commenced their mission in 1850. Their converts are scattered over all the islands. They number about nine per cent of all those who in the census returns have reported their religious affiliations. This mission owns a small sugar plantation at Laie, on the island of Oʻahu.” (The Friend, December 1902)

The Church traces its beginnings to Joseph Smith, Jr. On April 6, 1830 in Western New York, Smith and five others incorporated The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fayette, New York.

In the summer of 1850, in California, elder Charles C Rich called together more elders to establish a mission in the Sandwich Islands. They arrived December 12, 1850. Later, more came.

The first gathering place for Mormon missionaries was established in the Palawai Basin on the island of Lānaʻi, in 1854. By 1855, the church claimed about 4,650 Hawaiian converts with more than 50 organized congregations scattered through several villages in the Islands.

In 1855, a Hawaiian edition of the Book of Mormon was printed through the help of George Q. Cannon, William Farrer and a native Hawaiian named Jonatana H. Napela. (Mormonism Research Ministry)

That year, Mormon missionaries (Francis Asbury Hammond and George Nebeker) purchased 6,000-acres of the ahupuaʻa of Laiewai to Laiemaloʻo (in Koʻolauloa) from Mr. Thomas T Dougherty for the Mormon Church.

One thousand acres were arable the remaining land was used for woodland and pasture for 500-head of cattle, 500-sheep, 200-goats and 25-horses (which were all included in the price ($14,000.))

At the time, sugar production was growing in scale; in addition to farming for food for the mission, the Lāʻie land was considered to have a good potential for growing sugar cane.

In 1867, the first sugar cane was planted; in 1868 a mule-powered mill was installed. This provided income and financial sustainability. A new mill was built in 1881 and production increased. Sugar provided the positive economic impact and gave financial support to the Mormon Church in Hawaiʻi.

The sugar produced at the mill had to be transferred by oxen teams to a landing where it was placed on a small boat carried through the surf and loaded on a steamship for transport to JT Waterhouse Company, agent of the plantation, in Honolulu.

Part of the area of the plantation now serves as the location for the Hawaiʻi Temple, the campus of Brigham Young University-Hawaii and one of the most popular locations in Hawaiʻi for visitors, the Polynesian Culture Center.

On October 16, 1875, the Mormon Church organized Brigham Young Academy at Provo, Utah. It eventually became Brigham Young University. On September 26, 1955, the Mormons started the two-year “Church College of Hawaiʻi” (CCH) in Lāʻie in war surplus buildings with 153 students and 20 faculty/administrators.

In 1889, several Hawaiian members of the Mormon faith were interested in being closer to the temples and headquarters of the Church in Utah and left Hawaiʻi and established the Iosepa Colony in Tooele County’s Skull Valley.

“Iosepa,” meaning Joseph in Hawaiian and named for the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and for Joseph F Smith, who went to the Hawaiian Islands as a missionary in 1854.

Former Queen Liliʻuokalani was baptized a member of the LDS Church on July 7, 1906.

The LDS Temple in Lāʻie – started in 1915 and dedicated on Thanksgiving Day 1919 – was the first such temple to be built outside of continental North America.

The 47,224-square-foot temple’s exterior is concrete made of crushed lava rock from the area and tooled to a white cream finish. It attracted more islanders from throughout the South Pacific.

Utah’s Iosepa Colony lasted as a community until 1917, at which time the residents returned to Hawaiʻi where the Hawaiian Mormon Temple was under construction.

By the 1920s, LDS Church missionaries had carried their Christian teachings to all the major island groups of Polynesia, by living among the people and speaking their languages.

In 1960, CCH students performed in “The Polynesian Panorama” at the Kaiser Dome in Waikīkī (this program was the forerunner to the performances at Polynesian Cultural Center.)

Then in 1963, the Polynesian Cultural Center opened in Lāʻie. On April 13, 1974, Church College of Hawaiʻi was renamed Brigham Young University-Hawaiʻi Campus.

There are now about 75,000-Mormons living in Hawaiʻi, or about 5 percent of the overall population. There are 143 congregations, two temples and 26-Family Centers.

Worldwide Church membership today is over 17-million; 88,000-Mormon missionaries are currently serving in 350 missions.

October 11, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Polynesian Cultural Center

The Mormon mission purchased approximately 6,000-acres of land in Lāʻie in 1865; at the time, sugar production was growing in scale; in addition to farming for food for the mission, the Lāʻie land was considered to have a good potential for growing sugar cane.

In 1867, the first sugar cane was planted and was later expanded with the Lāʻie Plantation. Sugar provided the positive economic impact and gave financial support to the Mormon Church in Hawaiʻi. However, in the 1920s, the plantation had financial problems and the Church later leased sugar lands to Kahuku Plantation Company.

As the Lāʻie sugar industry declined, tourism to Hawaiʻi was growing,

Looking for new sources of revenue to the Church and its members, they looked to exploit the tourism market through the ‘hukilau’ at Lāʻie Bay (visitors pulling (huki) an arced net with leaves (lau) from the beach -to pull [a] rope with ti leaves [and a net attached.])

Each hukilau attracted several hundred tourists from Honolulu. After the tourists helped pull the nets and the fish to shore, the residents of Lāʻie entertained them with songs, dances, activities, storytelling and feasting. (Webb)

Then, in 1955, the Mormons started the “Church College of Hawaiʻi” (CCH) in Lāʻie (in 1974, the school changed its name to Brigham Young University-Hawaiʻi Campus (BYU-Hawaiʻi.) Church officials looked for ways to provide jobs for the growing student population.

The success of the hukilau and the diversity and number of Polynesian students at the College led to expanded entertainment, including free tram rides to the nearby temple grounds.

In 1959 students and faculty at the Church College of Hawaiʻi organized the “Polynesian Institute” (later renamed “Polynesian Panorama”) and took the show on the road. CCH students performed first at the International Market Place, then put on larger performances in the Kaiser Hawaiian Dome in Waikīkī.

Two years of shuttling Church College students back and forth to Waikiki for performances convinced decision-makers that a spirited, tourist-oriented Polynesian revue with a student cast was definitely marketable. And although some argued that La’ie was too far from Honolulu, others insisted that the success of the hukilau demonstrated that they could draw audiences large enough to make the venture profitable. (Webb)

The Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) was born.

Over 100 “labor missionaries” volunteered to help build the Polynesian Cultural Center’s original 39 structures on a 12-acre site that had previously been planted in taro. Skilled artisans and original materials from the South Pacific were imported to ensure the authenticity of the village houses.

When it opened on October 12, 1963, the PCC adopted some of the successes of the hukilau. The general pattern of cultural activities, a sumptuous meal and a culminating performance of songs and dances became the basic PCC program. Many of those who performed at the hukilau became part of the Center’s original cast. (Webb)

Since opening, million of visitors have been introduced to the Polynesian people, their arts and customs, and tens of thousands of BYU-Hawaiʻi students have helped finance their educational objectives while working as the friendly guides, performers and other PCC employees serving people from all over the world.

Each of the major Polynesian cultures has its own section, centered on a traditional village. Hourly performances and cultural learning experiences take place in these villages. Villages include: Hawaii, Samoa, Aotearoa (present-day New Zealand,) Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga and the Marquesas Islands.

In addition to the villages, the PCC has a special exhibit dedicated to Rapa Nui (Easter Island or Isla de Pascua) and a tribute to the 1850s LDS mission.

Over the years, the program and PCC footprint expanded. An amphitheater built in 1975 now seats almost 2,800 guests. A 1,000-seat restaurant opened in 1979, and IMAX films, shopping plaza and other features were added.

Now, there are things to do and shows to see, day and night (with Kamaʻaina rates).

September 25, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Walter Murray Gibson

Walter Murray Gibson was born at sea, the son of English emigrants, en route to the United States (March 6, 1822.) His early years were spent in New York, New Jersey and South Carolina; and his youthful imagination was kindled into a flame of romantic ambition by tales of the East Indies. (Kuykendall)

While still a young man, he had been imprisoned by the Dutch in Java for more than a year, found guilty of plotting to stir up a rebellion against their rule. From that time in 1850-51 he had carried a dream of becoming the savior of the island races of Oceania, of gaining power to rescue them from the misrule of their white masters. (Adler – Kamins)

In 1861, he came to Hawaiʻi after joining the Mormon Church the year before; he was to serve as a missionary and envoy of the Mormon Church to the peoples of the Pacific Ocean. He landed in Lānaʻi and eventually created the title “Chief President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Islands of the Sea.” He more regularly went by the name Kipikona.

The experience with the Church was relatively short-lived; in 1864, he was excommunicated for selling priesthood offices, defrauding the Hawaiian members and misusing his ecclesiastical authority (in part, he was using church funds to buy land in his name.)

By the 1870s, Gibson focused his interests in ranching in the area called Koele, situated in a sheltered valley in the uplands of Kamoku Ahupuaʻa. As the ranch operation was developed, Koele was transformed from an area of traditional residency and sustainable agriculture to the ranch headquarters. (Lānaʻi Culture and Heritage Center)

Herds of sheep were managed from Koele, and during shipping season, wool and mutton for the meat markets in Honolulu, were shipped from the coastal village of Awalua, at the northern end of the island. (Lānaʻi Culture and Heritage Center)

In 1872, Gibson moved from Lānaʻi to Lāhainā and then to Honolulu.

He established a small bilingual newspaper, Ka Nuhou (News,) and wrote, edited and ran it for 14-months (1873-1874.) It grew in circulation to about 5,000, double the size of any other Hawaiian language periodical to and for the Hawaiian people. Its slogan was – Hawaiʻi for the Hawaiians.

Not everyone enjoyed its content. “The Nuhou is scurrilous and diverting, and appears ‘run’ with a special object, which I have not as yet succeeded in unraveling from its pungent but not always intelligible pages.” (Isabella Bird)

He denounced, as enemies of the kingdom, those who favored ceding Pearl Harbor to the US as an inducement to enter into the reciprocity treaty with Hawaiʻi so eagerly sought by the sugar planters to gain access to the American market. (Adler – Kamins)

He used the newspaper to support, first, Lunalilo, then, King Kalākaua in their election campaigns.

Following that, he ran for political office and served in the House of Representatives, representing Maui (the only haole in the 27-member Legislative Assembly – 1878-1882.)

He made his way to become as Finance Committee Chairman and under his leadership allocations of public funds showed his concern for the national pride of Hawaiians: $500 to Henri Berger, leader of the Hawaiian Band, for composing the music for Hawaii Ponoʻi, the new national anthem; $10,000 for a bronze statue of Kamehameha I; and $50,000 to begin construction of a new ʻIolani Palace, to house King Kalākaua and Queen Kapiʻolani, and all their successors. (Adler – Kamins)

Public service did not stop there. He was later Member of Privy Council and Board of Health (1880, Health President 1882;) Commissioner of Crown Lands (1882;) Board of Education, President (1883;) Attorney General (1883;) House of Nobles (1882-1886;) Secretary of War & Navy (1886;) Premier and Minister of the Interior (1886) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1882-1887.)

In his new capacities, Gibson’s first notable accomplishment was his development of a new monetary system for the island nation. The new money was printed in San Francisco and the bills featured Kalākaua. This was followed by the creation of a postal system; Gibson himself designed and printed the postage stamps for the Hawaiian kingdom. (Lowe)

Then, the good times ended. “A conspiracy against the peace of the Hawaiian Kingdom had been taking shape since early spring.” (Liliʻuokalani) In 1887, the struggle for control of Hawaiʻi was at its height as David Kalākaua was elected to the throne. But the businessmen were distrustful of him.

“So the mercantile element, as embodied in the Chamber of Commerce, the sugar planters, and the proprietors of the “missionary” stores, formed a distinct political party, called the “down-town” party, whose purpose was to minimize or entirely subvert other interests, and especially the prerogatives of the crown, which, based upon ancient custom and the authority of the island chiefs, were the sole guaranty of our nationality.” (Liliʻuokalani)

The Hawaiian League (aka Committee of Thirteen, Committee of Public Safety & Annexation Club) were unhappy with the rule of Kalākaua and used threats to force the king to adopt a new constitution. The Hawaiian League came into control of the Honolulu Rifles (made of about 200 armed men.) The Hawaiian League used the Rifles to force King Kalākaua to enact the Bayonet Constitution. (Kukendall)

On July 1, Kalākaua asked his entire cabinet to resign. Gibson, a strong and vocal supporter of the King was also an early target. He was captured by the Honolulu Rifles and almost lynched; instead, he was banished from the Islands.

He left Honolulu on July 12, 1887 on the sugar freighter JD Spreckels and arriving in San Francisco on August 6, 1887. He spent the following five months in and out of St Mary’s Hospital and died January 21, 1888 of tuberculosis of the lungs.

When his body was returned to Honolulu, he lay in state and thousands lined up to view his remains through a windowed coffin. “The place has been thronged with visitors, many of whom were natives, who expressed a kindly aloha for the departed Premier.” (Daily Bulletin, February 18, 1888)