Pioneer Company | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

Click HERE to view/download Background on the Four Young Hawaiians

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Independence 74

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March 25, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hopu – Kanui – Honoli‘i – Humehume

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 Hawaiian Islands. Four young Hawaiians joined the Pioneer Company.

Hopu (Thomas Hopu) ‘ Hopoo’

Hopu, “was born about the year 1795, in Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands.”

“Among the American traders who frequently visit the Sandwich Islands, was Captain Brintnall, of New-Haven, (Conn.) who … touched and tarried some time at Owhyhee, one of these Islands.” In 1808, Hopu and Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia sailed with Captain Brintnall on the ‘Triumph.’

The ship returned to America by the way of China. “After Hopoo had lived for a season in New-Haven, his disposition seemed inclined rove than to study.” After returning from his last voyage, he returned to New-Haven, joined ʻŌpūkahaʻia and resumed his studies, including religious instruction.

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus for the Islands. Hopu was part of the Pioneer Company of missionaries and returned to Hawai‘i with them.

Throughout those early missionary years in Hawaiʻi, Hopu appears here and there preforming his duties; forcibly delivering a sermon, spreading cheer, comforting and aiding to those suffering.

Kanui (William Kanui) ‘Tennooe’

Kanui “was born on the Island of Oʻahu, about the close of the last century. His father belonging to the party of a defeated chief, fled with his son to Waimea, Kauai, while there (1809,) an American merchant vessel … touched for supplies.” Kanui and his brother caught a ride on the ship and ended up in Boston. (The Friend, February 5, 1864)

“Soon after their arrival, they attracted the attention of the friends of foreign missions, and when the mission school was opened … they were received as pupils (Kanui, ʻŌpūkahaʻia, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, and Prince Humehume (son of Kauaʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i”.)) (The Friend, February 5, 1864)

The boys were taught to read and write, but the only available textbooks were in the English language – there was not yet an appropriate alphabet, nor was there a single printed page in Hawaiian. For 2 ½ years, Kanui was totally immersed in studies. (Warne)

Kanui joined the Pioneer Company – he stayed in Kailua with the Thurstons. In the Kailua mission at Kona Lucy Thurston noted, “In the morning the two Hawaiian youth (Kanui and Hopu) walked away to see the gentry; and having an eye to influence, they put on their best broadcloth suits and ruffled shirts, their conspicuous watch chains, of course, dangling from the fobs of their pants.”

On July 23, 1820, Kanui was the first to return to the “old ways.” Bingham excommunicated Kanui from the church. Kanui later returned to the Islands and the first person he looked up was Hiram Bingham. Kanui was welcomed back.

Kanui died at Queen’s Hospital, January 14, 1864, at the age of about 66 years. “(H)e departed this life leaving the most substantial and gratifying evidence that he was prepared to die. His views were remarkably clear and satisfactory. Christ was his only hope, and Heaven the only desire of his heart.”

Honoli‘i (John Honoli‘i) ‘Honoree’

Honoli‘i arrived in Boston in the fall of 1815. He came over in a ship belonging to Messrs. Ropes & Co merchants of Boston. He was taken on board the ship by the consent of his friends, and replaced a sailor, who died before the ship arrived at Hawai‘i. He was curious and wanted to see the world.

“A place was soon found for him at the Rev. Mr. Vaill’s of Guilford, where he began to learn the first rudiments of the English language. Messrs. Ropes & Co., in whose ship he came to this country, not only cheerfully released him for the purpose of being educated, but very generously gave one hundred dollars towards the expense of his education.”

“He was ignorant of our language. And of every species of learning or religion, when he began to study. In about six months he began to read in a broken manner in the Bible. In the mean time, he also learned to write, which cost him but little time or labour.”

“He is industrious, faithful, and persevering, not only in his studies, but in whatever business he undertakes. He is at present with his comrades, at South Farms, in Litchfield, under the instruction of the Rev A Pettengill, expecting to join the school for heathen youth, as soon as it shall be established.”

Honoli‘i became a valuable Hawaiian language instructor because, having come at a later age, he still had good command of his native tongue. He also won praise for his considerable vigor and intellect and his discreet and stately deportment. (Kelley)

When getting back to the Islands with the Pioneer Company, Honoli‘i, shuttling between his home island of Hawaii and Maui, labored for the Church longest of all his companions. He proved an important assistant at Kailua, Honolulu.

Adjoining the Ka‘ahumanu Church in Wailuku is Honoliʻi Park. It is believed that John Honoliʻ is buried in an unmarked grave in the Kaʻahumanu Church cemetery. (Honoliʻi died in 1838.)

Humehume (George Prince) ‘Tamoree’

Humehume was born on Kauai in about 1797 to King Kaumuali‘i and, apparently, a commoner wife. For the first six years of his life he was known as Humehume. At the time of his birth his father, the young king, is believed to have been about eighteen years of age.

His father, King Kaumuali’i, suggested he be called George (after King George of England) when he went abroad. (Warne) During his short life, this son of King Kaumuali‘i was known by at least five names: Humehume, Kumoree, George Prince, George Prince Tamoree and George Prince Kaumuali‘i.

George was about six years old when he boarded the Hazard that ultimately sailed into Providence, Rhode Island on June 30, 1805 after a year-and-a-half at sea. Over the next few years he made his way to Worcester, Massachusetts.

Tamoree eventually enlisted in the US Navy and was wounded during the War of 1812. Humehume was “discovered” and taken under the wing of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).

Humehume left the Islands as a young child and spent years around English speakers; he lost the knowledge of speaking Hawaiian. With this interaction with the Hawaiians at the school, He began “learning the Owhyhee language. This friend that lives here with me is a great benefit to me, for he can learn me the Owhyhee language. I can learn him the English language.”

Three years later, Humehume joined the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries. The Company first landed in Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820. After the Thaddeus departed for Honolulu, Humehume remained in Kailua-Kona and took Betty Davis, the half-Hawaiian daughter of Isaac Davis, as his wife, or his “rib” as he described her. In a short time they rejoined the missionary party in Honolulu.

On May 3, 1820, Humehume returned to Kauai and was reunited with his father after many years apart. Shortly following the death of King Kaumuali‘i (May 26, 1824,) Humehume joined a group of Kauai chiefs in an unsuccessful rebellion.

The closing year and a half of George’s life were spent in Honolulu under the custody of Kalanimōku, prime minster of the kingdom. A victim of influenza, George died on May 3, 1826, six years to the day of his return to Waimea, Kauai.

Four_Owyhean_Youths-Thomas Hoopoo, George Tamoree, William Tenooe and John Honoree

December 14, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Samuel Whitney’s Death

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of the American Protestant missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus for Hawai‘i – (two Ordained Preachers, Hiram & Sybil Bingham and Asa and Lucy Thurston; two Teachers, Samuel & Mercy Whitney and Samuel & Mary Ruggles; a Doctor, Thomas & Lucia Holman; a Printer, Elisha & Maria Loomis; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain (and his family.)

On the boat was Humehume, son of Kauai’s King Kaumuali‘i. On May 3, 1820, Ruggles and Whitney took Humehume home to Kauai. Whitney primarily stayed on Kauai as a missionary teacher.

Then, “(Samuel Whitney) was taken ill on the island of Kauai, on the 21st of September last (1845). His symptoms, from the first, indicated a disordered liver.”

“After trying a change of air at his summer retreat at Hanapepeluna and employing various remedies, he, with his family, sailed on the 21st of October for Honolulu, where he arrived in three days, very much exhausted by bilious vomiting and diarrhoea, which continued for several weeks to pull down his strength.”

“It then received a temporary check, and for a little while he was better; but soon a renewed attack of vomiting and diarrhoea prostrated him again. From this, however, he partially recovered, and he was induced, by an earnest invitation, to come to Maui, to try the effects of a residence at the cool and elevated retreat of Mount Ball, above Lahainaluna.”

“He and his family (wife and daughter) accordingly sailed for Maui, Dec. 1st, and in less than twenty-two hours were at anchor at Lahaina.”

“When he arrived, he was quite fatigued, and he was ever afterwards confined mostly to his bed. He now rapidly wasted away under the influence of disease, though his friends generally hoped he would soon begin to mend. He seems to have understood better than they the serious nature of his disorder.”

“Almost a week before his death, he said one morning, ‘I am sinking, and if you have anything more to do for me, you must do it during the few remaining days of this week.’”

“On Friday morning, he was distinctly informed that his physician did not think he would recover, and when Mr. Baldwin, who had watched with him the night previous, came to take his leave, he said, ‘I am sinking,’ to which Mr. B. replied, ‘Well, perhaps your work is done, the Lord only knows.’”

“In the course of the day, he sent for his domestics (a man and woman, who had lived with him nineteen years) and said to them in the Hawaiian tongue, ‘The physicians have just told me that I am about to die. Here is my dying charge to you. Take care of her (pointing to his wife); she will act as my successor; obey her as you have obeyed me.’”

“At another time, he requested his dying, affectionate farewell to be given to all his flock, among whom he had labored and over whom he had been placed as a shepherd, to feed and guide them, naming with much tenderness various individuals.”

“Being asked by his wife whether he had any message to send to his surviving brothers and sisters, and to his own dear children in America, he answered, ‘Yes,’ and lying for a few moments apparently in deep thought, he said, …”

“‘Those dear children of Mr. Chamberlain, remember me affectionately to them. I little thought, when I parted with them, that it would be the last time I should ever see them. Dear children! – how I love them!’”

“He had lodged in Mr. Chamberlain’s family, while at Honolulu, and had ever manifested a deep interest in his children. It would seem that the tender recollection of these dear little ones made him forget his own children, or perhaps he was exhausted by the effort he had made.”

“In the evening, his wife said to him, ‘I have often thought that you I would outlive me, but you are about to go first and leave me behind.’ He replied, ‘Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight.’”

“She added, she thought it would not be long before she should follow him, and I hoped they should have a happy meeting in heaven.”

“Saturday night, the night previous to his death, the north-east storm, which had been blowing for several days, increased to a gale and filled the air with dense clouds of dust, which added much to his suffering. But within, all was calm and peaceful.”

“After midnight, as the storm was raging, he was told that the Sabbath had arrived. ‘Blessed Sabbath,’ he said, ‘type of the rest above! Here it is dark and stormy; how sweet the contrast there! Peace and joy are there, and no pain, and there I will soon be. Yesterday I had some clouds, but now all clouds are brushed away. All is light and peace.’”

“Towards morning, on receiving some little attention, he said, ‘How kind you all are! I am under great obligation to you all.’ To which was replied, ‘We esteem it a great privilege to take care of you, on your way to your Father’s house,’ when he said with much energy, ‘Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits.’”

“After getting relief from a severe fit of vomiting, he said, ‘It is hard work to die. This close union of soul and body, which has so long existed, is hard to dissolve.’”

“He bid farewell to his native man, enjoining upon him to prepare to meet him in heaven, saying he wished all his domestics and all the people of his charge to meet him there, that he was going soon, and it had been his desire all night to depart and be with Christ.”

“When his physician, who had attended him with tender solicitude, went to bid him farewell, he grasped his hand and said, ‘Doctor, Jesus Christ is the star of the universe; He is my hope, my life, my all.”

“Thirty-six years ago I set my affections on Him, and nothing has ever made me I swerve. Nothing can separate me from Him. The devil has tried to baffle me, but Jesus Christ is near to help me, Jesus Christ is here.’”

“About an hour before his death, his wife went to his bedside, but as his sight seemed to have failed, he did not at first notice her; but when told who she was, he raised his arms, and clasped them around her neck, and pressed her to his bosom.”

“Our departed friend and brother was blessed with a robust constitution and generally enjoyed good health, which enabled him so constantly to perform the great amount of labor which he kept up during more than a quarter of a century.”

“He also possessed a strong intellect, a well-balanced mind, and a sound judgment, united with firmness of purpose. He never engaged in visionary schemes; his projects were generally wise and well-digested, and with steadiness of purpose carried into execution.”

“He had a warm heart. His friendship was ardent. He was a whole soul man. In whatever he engaged, all his energies were summoned. What his hands found to do, he did with all his might. No trait in his character was more prominent than that of enlarged benevolence – a benevolence bounded only by his ability to confer happiness.”

“It was this that prompted him to abandon friends and country, and all the blessings of Christian society, and cast in his lot with a little band, who purposed to carry the Gospel of Jesus to the darkened savages of Hawaii. It was this which led him so often to strip himself of comforts and bestow them on his friends whom he thought more needy than himself.”

“Few have become acquainted with him, who have not received substantial tokens of his kindness and friendship. Most of the permanent houses of public worship on the islands contain a deposit from his benevolence. Few have been found more ready than he, to deny themselves, in order to do good to others.”

“He embarked in the missionary work as a work of self-denial, and cheerfully adopted the resolution that he would engage in no business for the purpose of private gain.”

“His whole life was an illustration of this resolution, and on his dying bed he charged his wife, saying, ‘You will remember, we own nothing at Waimea. The house, herd, &c., are, all, the property of the American Board.’”

“Confidence in God sustained him amid all the trials through which he passed. He was calm and unmoved, however dark the clouds that overhung the horizon. This confidence was the legitimate fruit of walking with God.”

“He told his daughter, on his dying bed, that from the time that he first covenanted to be the Lord’s, he had never, for a single day, I neglected prayer. That God whom he had honored in secret, rewarded him openly, and took him up from us in triumph to His rest above.” (Alexander; The Friend, January 15, 1846)

Samuel Whitney died in Lahaina on December 15, 1845; he was buried in the Lahainaluna School cemetery.

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October 1, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Holmans

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

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

In addition, the company’s departure from Boston in 1819 was in danger of delay because they lacked a physician for the mission. Samuel Ruggles thought of his sister, Lucia, and her suitor, a physician practicing in Cooperstown, New York.

If the doctor could be persuaded to join the missionary cause, events could proceed on schedule; Lucia could marry, and the Ruggles would have the company of kin on this endeavor.

Lucia Ruggles at twenty-six years of age was an independent and strong-minded woman. She was not indifferent to religion or the cause of foreign missions.

Her brother, Samuel, was a teacher at the Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, Connecticut, and she had been active in the Society of Butternuts, a fund-raising organization for the Cornwall school, prior to opening a girls’ school in Cooperstown, New York.

There Miss Ruggles met Dr. Thomas Holman, a recent graduate of Cherry Valley Medical School in New York. The couple fell in love but could not marry due to the debts incurred by the doctor’s unsuccessful practice.

Then a solution appeared in the guise of becoming missionaries. Reportedly refusing his father’s offer of three thousand dollars to clear his debts, Dr. Holman signed on with the American Board. (Wagner-Wright)

Dr. Holman, the physician, conveniently married fellow Pioneer Company member Samuel Ruggle’s older sister, Lucia Ruggles Holman and joined the mission.

After rounding Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America) and 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Hawai‘i’s “Plymouth Rock” is about where the Kailua pier is today.

On April 11, King Kamehameha II gave the missionaries permission to stay. However, “The King gives orders that Dr. H. and our teacher must land at Kiarooah – the village where he now resides, and the rest of the family may go to Oahhoo, or Wahhoo.”

“(H)e wanted the Dr. to stay with them, as they had no Physician and appeared much pleased that one had come; as to pulla-pulla (learning), they knew nothing about it. Consequently it was agreed that Dr. H. & Mr. Thurston should stay with the King and the rest of the family go to Oahhoo.” (Lucia Ruggles Holman)

Things did not go smooth for the Holmans and the rest in the mission – it started on the trip over – “Long before the close of the voyage this little community began most sensibly to feel the unpropitious influence of a most refractory spirit in (Dr Holman) …”

“… (who declared) determination not to comply with the principles established by the Board, & expressed to us in the instructions of the prudential committee, for the regulation of our economical policy.”

“Both the Dr. & his wife spoke often of acquiring personal wealth & returning early if they should succeed, to their own country. The Dr. objected to subscribing to our byelaws founded on the above named principles, because he said they cut him off from his original plans.”

“He wished to acquire the miens of returning at pleasure to America, & to educate his children there &c. … When he was referred to the general tenure of our instructions, he replied … that he had not subscribed them all &c. Sister H. too, from the time of leaving Boston repeatedly talked loudly of returning to her friends.”

“He has now received the 2nd admonition – Br. Thurston says ‘it is most manifestly our duty to proceed in our course of discipline with him even to excision if he does not confess his faults & evidence repentance future amendment’”. (Bingham to Samuel Worcester, October 11, 1820)

Dr. Holman, contrary to the unanimous advice and request of the brethren, left them, and went to reside on the island of Maui, more than 80 miles from any of them. This they considered an abandonment of the mission.

“The subject is too painful to dwell on, except when imperious duty demands – All the mission family is exhausted with it and with one voice, much as they need a physician, they would desire the Dr & his wife were safely landed on their native shore.” (Bingham to Evarts, November 2, 1820)

After only four months in the islands, the Holmans had not adjusted to the spirit of the mission. (Kelley) He withdrew from the mission on July 30, 1820 and returned to the US with his family (including Lucia Kamāmalu Holman born in 1821).

On October 2, 1821, Dr. Holman and family accepted free passage home on the Mentor, a whaleship, via China and the Cape of Good Hope. Mrs. Lucia Ruggles Holman is believed to be the first American woman to circumnavigate the globe. (Portraits)