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3 The Story of the Waioli Mission Complied from Documents and Oral Records by Ethel L. Damon I continued from last week) The Great Year of 1838 It Is the year of the great revival. In his memoir ot his father, Mr. James Alexander states: "Mr, Alex ander made tours through the ad joining districts, and soon held reg ular meetings at two out stations, at one ot which, Pilaa, in Koolau, 8 miles distant, he was accusomed to preach under the shade of a noble kukul grove, to a congregation seated on the ground." Of this out-door church service a well known sketch was made about this time by one of the artists ot the United States exploring expedition. "Mr. Alexander has related that during those years the natives were accustomed to come incessantly from early In the morning until late at night, to converse on the subject of religion. The desire to unite with the church became so strong that his effort came to be; rather to pre vent their joining the church when they should not than to persuade them to join." In his own report ot the year, the young pastor continues: "I have spent a considerable portion of time in visiting from house to house and made that a department of system atic labor. My experience thus far leads me to believe that the people are much more likely to be benefitted by our Instructions when we visit them at their homes, than when we receive visits from them. But the whole system called "hai-manao" (telling thoughts, that Is, making public confession of even the most trivial sins as a meanB of conver sion) I have labored to suppress, be lieving It to be productive of very many and serious evils, and ot very little good. "During the month of December and part ot January we were cheer ed by the presence of Brother and Sister Lafon when Brother Lafon preached to us In English every Sab bath, a privilege we highly prized Much of my time has been occupied in administering to the bodily as well as the spiritual diseases of the people. Mrs. Alexander has continu ed a weekly meeting with about 100 women for reading the scrip tures, religious conversation and prayer. A maternal meeting every two weeks, and a children's Sab' bath school. As domestic duties multiply, she finds her public labors of necessity diminished. "In July 1837, ten were admitted to communion for the first time, one restored who had been suspended, and four children baptized, the first native children that have ever been baptized at this place. The church at Waioli now numbers 38 adults, all in good standing." The Waioli School The school work was growing al so, In proportion. Besides the Wai oil school of 90 boys and 70 girls, the latter under Mrs. Johnson. Mr. Johnson had the supervision ot na tive schools from Waioli to Koloa. To some ot his perplexities he gives voice in his first report, of the year 1838. "The native assistants are some of them from the high school (Lahainaluna Seminary) and some only from the common schools. How are we to pay them? Our gov ernor has granted four acres of good land near the Waioli school and allows the school to work the boys one hour each day. I have four companies of about 30 each, with a native teacher at the head of each company. The school master from the high school, who is now teaching at Anahola, has a cotton field which will bring him more year ly than either of the other teachers receive. A comfortable school house has been erected at Waioli during the year, 40 by 24 feet, covered with grass. It has a board floor; we hope to lath and plaster this summer; no seats have yet been provided, but we may have some, it our land produc es well. We clung to the old school house till fairly driven out by long and powerful rains that fell during the month of March, and by the hogs that made constant encroach ment upon our borders. We need maps and books, or will one of the more experienced brethren instruct me how to teach without maps?" This new school house, blown down by the Kona storm in November of the same year, was again erected and thatched as a free-will offering by the people. This year also saw the erection of a new frame house for the Johnsons, 45 x 20 feet, one story with a room in the garrett for a study which was a particular bless ,lng. Many ot the foundation stones may still be seen where it stood not tar from Mr. Alexander's house, to the left as seen from the road. Later, a full second story was add ed; the house is still in use, having been moved some years since to the beach sear the landing. Beyond it, TiTTaiimtniniinm;Tn;iig:ini:innrimii:' on its original site stood the new school building just mentioned. Among other pastoral duties Mr. Alexander translated into Hawaiian, text books and treatises on geome try, trigonometry and navigation for use at Lahainaluna, a certain am ount of such work being assigned to the brethren at every General Meeting. This for the Mission Press. To the bindery he sent one year 400 tanned goat skins purchased at an expenditure of 60, for binding many ot the mission texts. Records for 1839 are brief and in teresting: "Although the great body of people have professed anxiety for their souls, yet upon careful investi gation, it is evident that they have been more concerned, how to get into the church than how to secure eternal life. Last year the pastor visited Niihau, and spent five days among the people, during which time most of the population heard the gospel, many of whom seemed to re ceive it gladly. The New Church "The Waioli congregation have been gathering materials tor a fram ed meeting house. Most ot the tim bers have been collected, and seven acres of sugar cane have been planted, which will be ready for manufacture this fall, and from which we hope to obtain funds to wards erecting the building. "Our common schools, taught by native teachers, are in a languishing condition. This arises mainly from the want of means to support the teachers. We have not tundB at our disposal as a mission to enable us to pay teachers wages, and they cannot work for nothing. In my par ish I have five graduates from the Lahainaluna Seminary. A contribu tion is made by the church and con gregation at our monthly concert for prayer for the conversion of the world. Some bring a "kapa,' othors a fish, or a canoe paddle, another a handle for the spade used in culti vating taro, and .very rarely a piece of money is brought. Such are the materials offered to rouse the liter ary energies of the Hawaiians." Mention is also made of the tem porary embarrassment caused by great quantities of dried fish receiv ed in payment for books. From the fact that this first Wai oli sugar cane was about to be har vested, it is evident that it had been planted as early as 1837. Even more than this had been done in that ear ly year, for the pastor writes to the Missionary Herald: "The people in our vicinity are now planting cotton, with the governor's approbation, for the purpose of raising funds to build a permanent school house and church and get a bell. I have recently en deavored to Instruct the church more particularly in their duty to support the gospel among them. But they can do very little, as they have no money and no means of getting it. They can supply my table with the native productions ot the island; but if they do this gratuitously they will have no means left to purchase books tor themselves. Until the government of the islands becomes more liberal and encourages indus try by securing to the people the fruits of their labor, the people can not do much to support the gospel." The school house having been suc cessfuly completed, there remained $100 in the little treasury toward a "new church and a bell." The im portance of the church bell was clear ly recognized by the early mission fathers. Not only did they long for the loved tone of their New England bells in this adopted land where the thrumming ot the hula drums and the rythmic stroke ot the tapa beat ers could be heard for miles, and where only the melancholy blast of the native conch shell called them to school and church, but they felt that the solemn intoning of the "church-going bell" would be an add ed attraction to attend the house of God and would inevitably effect its purpose of intimate, beloved associ ation. Gradually, at Waioli, interest and effort began to accumulate to ward the building of the second church edifice with its belfry, both of which stand today, with the sub stitution of shingles for thatch, in almost their original condition of 80 years ago. Early in 1841, in a letter to the Missionary Herald, the young pastor writes: "Our present tabernacle was overthrown by the winds last winter and is now un safe when the wind is strong." The huge old thatched house had served well its purpose for over six years All hands were now raised toward the construction of a more perman ent one to succeed It. The early cotton planting had doubtless availed but little in the wet region ot Wai oli, the valley of singing waters. No record at least tolls us its story. The open field in front of the house which is to be used as a com munity playground But the first sugar crop and its re sults are vividly described in the memoir of Mr. Alexander: "There were two white men on the island who were good carpenters. One of these made a mill to grind by horse power, and the pastor furnished them his horse. They boiled tne cane Juice in iron pots, obtained from a whale ship, and dried the sugar in mat bags hung up to drain. Part of the money realized, $ 13, was applied to building a school house and the rest to paying the carpenters for building the church. The lumber was brought from the mountains. The men would go up and cut it; and when it was ready to be brought down, the women would go and help drag it. It was an exciting time in Waioli, when the whole population, with long ropes, with shouts and chanting, dragged the heavy timbers Into place for the church, and also earlier for Mr .Alexander's dwelling, house. Coral stone was obtained by divers from the sea, and made It into lime for the masonry." Contributions To this the pastor's station report of 1841 adds some detail: I am happy to state that we have a pros pect of soon assembling to worship God in a more comfortable house. Our frame meeting house is erected and covered. The frame is substantial and well put together. The $103.00 derived from the sale of sugar was paid for the erection ot the school house, leaving the balance for the meeting house. In addition to this, Mr. Whitney contributed $50 and his congregation kukui nuts valued at $90, Mr. Gulick $36, Mr. Tltcomb $20, besides other smaller sums. The walls are to be lathed and plastered Inside and out, and we hope in a short time to have it completed. Much of my time has been occupied in superintending the work, and see ing that the various materials were ready when needed." Mrs. Alexander, sharing her hus band's joy, writes to her mother in the East, under the date of Novem ber 10, 18414 giving incidentally the nearest approxlmatation to the date of dedication. "Our meeting house is nearly completed," she writes. "It will be dedicated in a fortnight, and there seems to be more interest than usual in the subject ot religion. We feel much rejoiced at having a com fortable house to worship in. It is a frame house covered with grass. It is neatly plastered inside, and on the walls outside as we could not afford to clapboard it. As we have no pews, most of the people Bit on settees of their own making, and some on the floor. The preacher has to stand with a table before him. We are obliged to adopt this plan as lumber is very expensive out here. When the house is finished, the people will try and raise mon ey to buy a bell." Lauhala Thatched Roof No picture of the old Waioli church would be adequate which did not portray the soft, contrasting colors of its thatched roof. And by a mar vel of nature, such a picture has been preserved for us to this day, quite as exact and far more full of color than it kodaks had existed In the middle of the last century. This pic ture was taken by a small boy, who in 1850 was very small indeed. Less than four years before he had been born in the plain old New Eng land home at Waioli, the fifth son of the mission school master. He was endowed with one of Heaven's greatest gifts, a keen eye tor accu racy of detail which was evident ev en when as a little fellow, wearing his home-made "turkey-red dress," he would wander about the mission with a particular friendliness for the workmen on the roof of the church. Although strictly forbidden to speak Hawaiian) he had no difficulty iu un derstanding what the workmen said to him, nor in making himself un derstood. He is an old man now, but his memory is as keen as his power of observation. Not long since, when the Hawaiian Board appealed to him for a history of the Waioli church, he gave me this picture. I will give it to you as he gave it to me, regretting that I cannot show you also his reminiscent smile and the kindly twinkle in his eye at some ot my ignorant questions. "Well, of course," he said, "that church was built long before we came to Waioli. I was a little bit ot a fellow, but I remember their shingling it afterwards. You say that was in '51? Well, I daresay you know, I don't recall exactly. They dipped the shingles in hot oil, I re member, even in those days. The roof had been thatched before. And that was a beautiful thatch to look at when it was all on. No, not of pill grass. There was not much of that at Waioli. It was lauhala. I've watched the Hawaiians so often. They would bring the leaves in bundles, tied cleverly with a special kind of knot, then wet them, and lay them out very exactly so that they over lapped. Each leaf was tied separate ly to the small thatching sticks, "aho" the natives called them. They worked all the way along the length of the roof, bending the thick but end of each leaf down around the "aho" and tying it lirmly with a peculiar twist of the stoat aloe fiber. They could work pretty fast too, it they'd a mind to. No, they never bothered to strip off the thorns. They were very clever and quick about it. A "lauhala" is like a cat, you know, it won't scratch, it you stroke it the right way! And it made a good thick thatch, often 18 inches thick. No, they did not use "olona" fiber much. That was too scarce. To bind the rafters they had no nui's in those days they used the ground root of the "puhala.'' That Is very strong, you know. They would soak these roots, pound them a little, and bind the rafters together with the fiber still wet. Then when it dried, it was as taut and tough as iron. For the thatch they were more apt to use the fiber from leaves of the aloe, or century plant. They would soak them and pound them, extracting consider able very tough fiber. And with that they would bind the leaves one by one to the root. I could tie that knot now, I think, I have watched the Hawaiians so often. Then last of all, to cover the ridge-poles outside above the thatch, they would bring down from the mountains quantities of the soft, reddish "pulu-ar.iau," and bind it on very thick along all the ridges. That roof was a pretty sight when it was done. Except for the ridg es, it was the yellow straw color of "lauhala," which the reddish ridges marked off distinctly, the long cen ter ridge and the four shorter ones closing down at the ends ot the long roof." Progress of the Work With the years 1842 and 1843, new complications beset the work of the Waioli Mission. The entrance of the Catholic priests into the field was a cause ot great anxiety, although Mr. Alexander said fairly: "Those who become papists are forming a distinct body not only in religion but also in civil affairs, and it Is to be regretted that protestant officer: of government so often through ignor ance pursue measures adapted to pro duce hostility between the parties. Ardent spirits, another of Satan's engines, has begun to creep insid iously Into our field, and unless the strong arm of law is more vigorously exercised, it will do immense evil " The problem, too, of educating the missionaries' children, was becoming acute. Should they grow up in ignor ance, or was the missionary justi fied in spending much of his time and strength, as was done in some of the South Sea missions, on their education? For some time, the two Alexander sons, William Dewitt and James Mackinney, about six and four years old, had been taken to a small mission school at Koloa con ducted by Miss Marcia Smith for the Gulick and Tinker children. Mr. Al exander, having only one horse, which he rode himself, would place each small boy in a large "unieke" or calabash, which, attached to either side of a pole, was carried the 40 miles swung on the shoulders of two strocg natives. Halt was always made at Chletess Deborah's home on the Wailua river, where a hearty wel come and a night's rest refreshed the eager pilgrims. In 1842. the found ing of a missiun school at Puuuhou solved many educational problems. In his special branch of the mis sion work, Mr. Johnson, finding thai Luliainnluna was too plnw In turning out teachers for the common schools, started a Saturday session for teach ers in his large district. The attend ance of boys in the Waioli school he reported as follows: "Nine from Wal mea, six from Koloa, six from Lihue, and thirteen from Waioli. The schol ars from abroad were fed and watch ed over by members of the Waioli church. The school would be put on a plan of manual labor, could a ready market be found for such produce ns might be raised." Change of Pastors During 1843, Mrs. Alexander was seriously ill, and the whole family was obliged to be away from Waioli most of the year. The pastor suffered also from acute asthma, and at Gen eral Meeting it was deemed expedi ent to transfer him to the Lahalna station. His last report from Waioli shows, however, undiminished inter est in his first parish: "We have re ceived a bell during the year for our meeting house, in payment for which I have in hand $70 from the people. I have no doubt but the whole sum which is $150 will yet be collect ed. The school has made good prog ress in all ways, the manual labor paying for books, and fence, and cul tivating the school house yard. Ap parent interest in religion felt am ong the people has been as great, perhaps greater, than at any period since I commenced my labors among them. Sixty-eight have been received into the church, 14 children baptized, one person excommunicated, and sev en suspended, some for quarreling and fighting, some for more serious offenses. Four church members have died, among their number, Davida Papohaku, a ruling elder of our church, one of the most decided Christians and substantial helpers that have been raised up in our Poly nesian zion. His end was peaceful and triumphant." After General Meeting in 1843, Rev. George B. Rowell and his wife, came to occupy the parsonage. And with a courage similar to that of his pre decessor, the new pastor, as yet quite unversed in Hawaiian, plunged into the task of three Sunday services and added to his ministrations dur ing the week the subject of sacred music at the Waioli school. An out standing difficulty of the year follow ed a visit of the king to Hanalel. "A great rage for awa-planting pre vailed, and several members of the church were excommunicated for at tending horse-races and taking mon ey on the same.'' Two innovations in the school work are noticeable from the report which states:. "The com mon schools now come less under the cognizance of the mission than ot the government, which also grants a small subsidy to the Waioli school on condition that English be taught at least to the most promising pupils. The school has entered into an a greement with Mr. Titcomb, a coffee planter in our neighborhood, to take charge of his coffee plants after they are set out. The boys are fur nished with hoes and the privilege of planting beans between the rows of coffee for the profit ot the school. And Mr. Titcomb gives them be sides, what is equal to about $500 in paper currency or trade." For purposes of retrenchment, doubtless, as in 1838, no general meet ings of the mission were held in Ho nolulu in 1845 and 1847. The reports ot 1846 show progress in Christian civilization. "The Waioli Select School has now been conducted four years on its present plan. Eight stu dents have gone to Lahinaluna, and 20 have taken charge ot common schools on Kauai, where the teachers, although nominally well paid by law, are in reality very ill supported by the people. The Waioli school culti vates a large taro patch, and four acres of yams, potatoes,, beans, corn, and bananas, besides giving commen dable attention to the three R's, geo graphy, geometry, astronomy, mor al philosophy, and a select class in English. A few whale ships are our The guests ot many racua at only market. We nerd desks, a plow, nnl throe dozen hoes. Mrs. Johnson meets with the women once a week. "The Sabbath schools of adults and children are prosperous, having re cently held an anniversary procession of 200 people. Rewards of books were given for attendance. Our meeting house has been re-thatched." Transfer of Mr, Rowell This same year there came another change in the transfer of Mr. Rowell to Waimea, to fill the vacancy made by the death of Mr. Whitney the previous year. Mr. Johnson was li censed nt the time of General Meet ing to preach in the Waioli pulpit. To the task of school master anoth er member of the great reinforce ment of 1837 was appointed. This was Mr. Abner Wilcox, who had been stationed first at the HIlo school for boys, and later at the school at Waialua. Oahu. With his wife and family of four small boys, he occu-' pied the house built ten years be fore by Mr. Alexander. The following year, Mr. Johnson became a regularly ordained pastor at Waioli, a position which he filled until his death in 1867. During this year, 1849, an epidemic of measles and whooping-cough decimated the Hawaiian population of almost every section of the islands. Waioli suffer ed keenly the first part of the year. No deaths occurred, howover, in the school, from whose 48 pupils seven were sent out as teachers. A gradu ate of Lahainaluna assisted in teach ing. Three afternoons a week were devoted to manual labor, the pupils being paid in cloth. Reaching out be yond their own parish, the church people, after contributing cash and subscriptions toward repairs on the church building, sent $80 to aid in erecting a house of worship at Wai mea ,and $15 to help support the na tive minister at Koloa. Repairs on the Church For three years, beginning in 1849, the people collected funds for repairs on the church in which heavy rains had quite destroyed the plaster on the ceiling. By 1852, all was in order again over $1,300 having been paid for repairs. From the outside there had been contributed: $29 from Ko loa, $25 from Kaumakapili church in Honolulu, and $145 for services ren dered to the land commission by the Waioli pastor, who also turned over to the church his remuneration as treasurer ot the government school funds. The innovation of Chinese la borers Is mentioned in the report, about 40 of whom comprised the first group to be Introduced to Wai oli. "A few," it was reported, "came to church, but not understanding the language, tended to drift away and traffic with the natives." Hawaiian Theological Student In 1854, David Nuuhiva, a graduate of the theological class at Lahaina luna, became Mr. Johnson's assist ant, the first Hawaiian minister to be sent to the Waioli field. He was a valuable helper and well received by the people, who erected a frame house for him. The small-pox epi demic which scourged the islands during this year was far less violent in Waioli than on Oahu, where some whole families were cut oft, and thousands died in Honolulu. Some of the Waioli mission children, in Ho nolulu at the time, still remember the phenomenon of yellow flags which seemed to fill the air ot the town. In their annual requests to the Mission which, though still un der the American board, had chang ed its name to the Hawaiian Evan gelical Association, both Mr. John son and Mr. Wilcox ask for an in crease of salary in order to support their children at Punahou. And that the original system of common property for the missionaries still obtained in part at least, is evidenced by the fact that Mr. Wilcox requests permis sion to use the "avails from the Wai oli mission herd" toward the "ex pense of repainting the house and clapboarding the cook house built by Mr. Alexander." Continuc I on page 5 the opening ot the Waioli Community center