As part of the Preservation Honor Awards, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation recognizes milestone anniversaries of local organizations, companies and historic places. This year marks the 200th year of the arrival of the pioneer company of Christian missionaries to Hawai‘i.

The Bicentennial Anniversary Recognition will be presented to the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site & Archive/Hawai‘i Missionary Children’s Society, Mokuaikaua Church, Waimea Mission Church, Kawaiaha‘o Church, and the Hawai‘i Conference of the United Church of Christ (HCUCC) .

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast United States set sail on the Thaddeus ship bound for Hawai‘i.  After 160 days at sea, on March 30, 1820, the Pioneer Company first sighted and landed at Kawaihae on the Island of Hawai‘i. On April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona.

A model of the Thaddeus displayed at Mokuaikaua Church.

The HCUCC’s history* recounts the events that led to the first company of missionaries:

“When a young Hawaiian by the name of Henry Ōpukaha‘ia sailed to New England, even he did not know the impact he would have on Christianity in Hawai‘i. While in the United States, after making the decision to become a Christian, he begged his teachers to send missionaries back to the Hawaiian Islands.

“Ōpukaha‘ia died before he could see his wishes become reality, but in 1819 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for the Congregational Churches (predecessor denomination of the United Church of Christ) sent its first missionaries to Hawai‘i. The Board charged them ‘…to aim at making people of every class wise and good and happy.’

Historian Peter Young of Hawaiian Mission Houses noted that the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), based in Boston, was founded in 1810, the first organized missionary society in the US.

Young writes:

“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 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Hawaiian Islands.

“The ‘Companies’ were essentially groups of missionaries traveling together.  Several individuals, not part of the 12-companies, also served in the Hawaiian Islands Mission.

“The Missionaries included ordained ministers of the Gospel, physicians, teachers, secular agents, printers, a bookbinder and a farmer.

“Most of them were young people, still in their twenties, full of life and enthusiasm. All were pious and accustomed to ‘lead meetings.’ Some were scholars able, when the native language had been mastered, to put into Hawaiian the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek.”

Young said that:

“One of the earliest efforts of the missionaries 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.

“By 1850, eighteen mission stations had been established; six on Hawaiʻi, four on Maui, four on Oʻahu, three on Kaua‘i and one on Moloka‘i.

“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.”

The earliest churches were Mokuaikaua Church in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i Island; Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu, O‘ahu and Waimea Mission Church in Waimea, Kaua‘i.

The Mokuaikaua Church congregation was founded by Reverend Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy Goodale Thurston. The present structure was started in 1835 and dedicated in early 1837.**

The Waimea Mission Church was the first mission to Kauaʻi, founded by two couples, Nancy and Sam Ruggles and Mercy Partridge and Sam Whitney. The first worship service in the current building was held in 1854 when only the walls and roof were finished.

Kawaiaha’o Church translates as “the water of Haʻo” and comes from the name of a sacred spring located on the church grounds. The foundation for the present coral church was laid in 1839 and completed by 1842 per the design of Reverend Hiram Bingham.***

Sources:

* https://www.hcucc.org/history

** https://historichawaii.org/2014/01/27/mokuaikaua-church/

*** https://historichawaii.org/2014/02/19/kawaiahao-church-and-mission-houses/