Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands - Queen Kaahumanu (Part 3)

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 3
First Arrival of Missionaries
by Darlene E. Kelley
November 20, 2000

http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374

------------------------------------------------------------------------

As told by the ancients --
Queen Kaahumanu -- part 3
Missionaries--

Dr. Thomas Holman-- [ 1793-1826 ]

First medical missionary to Hawaii. Holman was born in New Haven,
Connecticut, and educated at Cherry Valley Medical School, New York. He
spent the summer of 1819 at the Cornwall Mission school, Connecticut,
before embarking in October on the Thaddeus as a member of the First
Company to Hawaii. The previous month he had married Lucia Ruggles, a
sister of his fellow worker and shipmate Samuel Ruggles. After only four
months in the islands, the Holmans had not adjusted to the spirit of the
mission and he was excommunicated. The couple departed on a whale ship
with their daughter. [ Later they had two sons ] The Mentor sailed via
Canton, China, and the Cape of Good Hope to Boston. Lucia Holman is
considered to be the first American woman to circumnavigate the globe.
******************************************************
Samuel Whitney -- [ 1793- 1845 ]

Whitney, born in Brandford, Connecticut, was educated at Yale College
and with his wife, Mercy Partridge Whitney [1795-1872 ] were members of
The first Company of American missionaries arriving in Hawaii in 1820.
The Whitneys established the mission station at Waimea, Kauai, with the
Samuel Ruggles family. With the exception of a journey to the South
Pacific in 1832, Whitney remained on Kauai until he died while seeking
health at Lahaina, Maui. Four children were born of the couple. His wife
remained on Kauai, where she died after a residence of fifty-two years,
having made only one visit back to the United States. Whitney translated
a number of books into Hawaiian betwen 1832 and 1836.
******************************************************
Samuel Ruggles -- [ 1795-1871 ]

Born in Brookfield, Connecticut, Ruggles studied at the Mission school
at Cornwell before sailing with the First Company of American
missionaries in 1820. He and his wife, Nancy Wells Ruggles [1791-1873 ]
were future parents of six children, helped to establish two mission
stations in the Islands; One at Waimea, Kauai, with Samuel Whitneys, and
another at Hilo with the Joseph Goodriches. Ruggles, who was so beloved
by the Hawaiians that they called him " Keiki"
[ child ],struggled with ill health and finally returned to the United
States wth his family in 1834. Ruggles was a brother of Mrs. Thomas
Holman.
******************************************************

Elisha Loomis [ 1799 - 1836 ]

Born in Rushville, New York, Loomis became at the age of sixteen an
apprentice printer in Canadaigua. In 1819 he attended the Foreign
Mission School at Cornwall, Connecticutt. During the summer before he
and his wife, Maria Sartwell Loomis, whom he had married in September,
sailed with the First Company of American missionaries to Hawaii in
1820.

The couple were stationed at Kawaikae, Hawaii, on their arrival, but
moved their school to Honolulu in November 1820. After the missionaries
worked out a roman alphabet for writing the Hawaiian language, Loomis
set up his second-hand Ramage press and compossed a few pages of type
for an elementary spelling book. On January 7,1822, in a grass-roofed
hut at Kawaiahao, the first printing in the North Pacific region was
struck off. Chief Keeaumoku ll [ Governor Cox ] pulled the lever that
put pressure on the form, and the first page of millions put out by the
Mission Press wa lifted off. In December, 1823, the press was moved into
the first building regularly used as a printing office.

The Loomis family [ their son Levi was the first white child born in the
islands ] left for the United States in 1827, but Elisha supervisied the
printing of books in Hawaiian from 1828 to 1829 at Rochester, New York.
For two years he was a missionary with the Ojibway Indians at Mackinac
Island, Michigan. 
******************************************************
Daniel Chamberlain -- [ 1782 --1860 ]

Chamberlain was born at Westboro, Massacusetts, and was a Captain in the
War of 1812. He was a skilled farmer. During the summer previous to
leaving with the First Company of American Missionries in 1819,
Chamberlain and his two older sons attended the Mission School at
Cornwell, Connecticutt.
he and his wife, Jerusha Burnap Chamberlain, and their five children
sailed on the Thaddeus and on their arrival in Honolulu were stationed
in that town from 1820 to 1823. Farming by mainland standards was not
feasible and Chamberlain turned his efforts to building houses and
caring for mission property. Because the climate was unsuited to his
health and because his large family needed schooling, Chamberlain was
released from his duties and the family returned to The United States in
1823.
******************************************************
George P[rince] Kaumalii --[ 1798 -1826 ]

Son of King Kaumualii of Kauai, the boy, around the age of seven, was
sent to America to save him from the malice of the Queen. He enlisted in
the United States Navy and was wounded in action. He found himself at
the Cornwall School in Connecticut along with three other young men from
Hawaii, and there obtained further education. He had acquired his
father's name " George" and the initial P to stand for " prince."

George landed on Oahu with the First Company of American missionaries in
1820. Soon afterwards he was taken to Kauani, where his greatful royal
father rewarded the ship's Captain with a load of sandalwood worth a
thousand dollars. The King placed George second in command only to
himself on Kauai, and was pleased when his son showed such
accomplishments as playing on a bass viol during hymn-singing sessions.
George fell into bad habits, however, and once set fire to the house of
a ship Captain, because he had been denied a bottle of gin. After the
death of his royal father in 1824 under suspicious circumstances, George
led a brief rebellion on Kauai. It was soon put down and he and his wife
Betty, a daughter of Isaac Davis, were taken prisoners of Kaahumanu to
Honolulu.
He died there of influenza on May 3,1826.
******************************************************