Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands - Queen Kaahumanu (Part 2) The US GenWeb Archives provide genealogical and historical data to the general public without fee or charge of any kind. It is intended that this material not be used in a commercial manner. All submissions become part of the permanent collection. Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands " Keepers of the Culture " A study in time of the Hawaiian Islands As told by the ancients-- Queen Kaahumanu -- Part 2 First Arrival of Missionaries by Darlene E. Kelley November 19, 2000 http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As told by the ancients-- Queen Kaahumanu -- part 2. The first group of missionaries arrived April 14, 1820 aboard the ship " Thaddeus " under the Captainship of Captain Blanchard. His first officer was James Hunwell. This was the first group to arrive out of 12 ships commissioned to bring missionaries from Boston, Massachusetts the first was to be on a trial basis because of the taboo restrictions of the old law The coming of the missionary ship caused a great stir. The Thaddeus was not a merchant ship. Liholiho was not sure that he should alllow the strangers to remain. He feared the English government might not like their coming, since they were Americans. But when John Young assured him that there was no trouble between England and America, and that the English King would approve of the desire of the missionaries to be helpful to the people, he consented to talk things over. The royal family were invited to dine aboard the Thaddeus. They were received cordially and the King was seated at the head of the table. This was the first time that the Islanders had ever seen white women. The missionaries sang for them. The next day a committee of both men and women from the Thaddeus called upon the King. They talked to him and with the chiefs about what they hoped to do if they were allowed to stay. But Liholiho said that he could give no decision until Queen Kaahumanu returned from her fishing trip and he had an opportunity to consult with her about the matter as they were both the Hawaiian Leaders. With an interpreter present, the missionary leaders met Queen Kaahumanu in conference with the King. Liholiho asked the Kaahumanu be told what had been said to him of the reasons for their coming to the Islands and of the useful things which they would teach. After a long discussion, the missionaries were told that they would be allowed to perform an experiment for one year, and if by the end of that time the King felt it was unwise for them to stay longer, they would go elsewhere or return to America They carefully explained that they had no desire to interfere in any way with the policies or government of the kingdom. They also asked if part of their company might remain at Kailua and the rest go to Honolulu on the island of Oahu, which, from what they had heard, would be one of the most important points of which to begin their work of education. The King replied; " White men all prefer Oahu. I think the Americans would like to have that island." And so it was that the American mission was established in the Sandwich Islands. The first group of missionaries was not formidable in number. They were men and women of staunch character with a great mission in their hearts. All told, there were seventeen in number. The missionary ladies, with their queer-looking clothes and peculiar manners, did not appeal to Kaahumanu. While greeting them with courtesy, she kept strictly to the reserve of her rank. She was the Queen and they must understand. She reasoned that, if they made trouble, they could easily be sent away. So it was that Manini was sent to build houses for them and help get them settled. Kaahumanu had more important things to attend to. First Missionaries; Reverand Hiram Bingham, spokesman of the group and his wife, Sybil [ Moseley ] Bingham. Reverand Asa Thurston, preacher, and his wife, Lucy [ Goodale ] Thurston. Dr. Thomas Holman, Physician, and his wife, Lucia [ Ruggles ] Holman. Samuel Whtney, teacher, and his wife, Mercy [Partridge] Whitney. Samuel Ruggles, teacher, and his wife, Nancy [ Wells] Ruggles. Mr. Elisha Loomis, Printer, and his wife, Maria Theresa [ Sartwell ] Loomis. Daniel Chamberlain, farmer, and his wife, Jerusha [ Burnap] Chamberlain, and 5 children. George P. Kaumualii, Son of King of Kauai who had been a student at Cornwall. Interperter and language teacher. 2 other Hawaiian boys, who also attended school at Cornwall. Assistants and students. **************************************************** Hiram Bingham [ Binamu ] --1789 - 1869 Born in Bennington, Vermont, Hiram worked on his father's farm until he came of age. He belately attended Middlebury College and graduated at the age of twenty six. He spent three years more at Andover Theological Seminary before being accepted for the first American mission to Hawaii under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions centered in Boston. Since the men of the First Company had to be married, he proposed to Sybil Moseley, who happened to attend his ordination; they were married a fortnight later. Sybil [1792-1848] had bee born in Westfield, Massachusetts, and orphaned at the age of nineteen. The couple were the foremost members of the group that arrived on the brig Thaddeus in Hawaii in 1820. Bingham was destined to spend two decades in active mission work. He was a popular preacher and teacher and was especially influential among the ruling chiefs of the time. He helped to devise the seventeen-letter alphabet [ later reduced to twelve] used to translate the Bible and many other works into printed Hawaiian, and assisted Elisha Loomis in developing the printing trade, even himself carving crude woodcuts to illustrate tracts. A month after the press provided reading matter for scholars, Bingham estimated that he had more than five hundred students chosen from the upper class of Hawaii. [ children were not schooled until much later ]. The first edition of the New Testament was completed in 1832, and the complete Bible was first available in 1839. Bingham was pastor of the first church, Kawaiahao, in Honolulu. His severe upholding of the laws of Johovah put him in the bad graces of whaling Captains and other foreigners. He was attacked when sailors from the U.S.S. Dolphin under John Percival broke into the house of Kalanimoku on February 26,1826. The Bingham's reared seven children, including Hiram Bingham ll. Mrs, Bingham who had been a teacher and a midwife as well, began failing in health and the family left for New England in 1840. She died in 1848 and Hiram married Naomi E. [Morse] in 1852. He wrote his history " A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands " [ New York: Sherman Converse, 1847]. ***************************************************** Asa Thurston -- [ 1787 -1868 ] Born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Thurston graduated from Yale College in 1816 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1819. He and Hiram Bingham, with whom he was ordained, were leaders of the First Company selected by the American mission to work in Hawaii. A few weeks before sailing, he married Lucy Goodale, a cousin of a classmate. The Thurstons, unlike most missionay couples, were fated to spend the rest of their lives in the Islands. The Thurstons were first to Kailua, Hawaii, then to Oahu, and finally back to Kailua in 1823. He was one of the leading translators of the Bible in Hawaiian. He worked as a missionary for forty years, returning to New England only for the period 1840 to 1842, and built schools, churches, and a following among the people. His wife Lucy [1795-1876], daughter of a deacon of the Congressional Church, compiled in her old age [ she lived until the centennial of the Declaration of Independence] one of the most vivid accounts of the early mision days in Hawaii. "The Life and Times of Lucy G. Thurston" [ Ann Arbor, Mich.,S.C.Andrews, 1882] . The Thurstons with five children began a family prominent in history of the Islands up to the present.