Hawaiian Mission Children's Society

Funded by the Hawaiian Evangelical Society, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and by the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society, the mission commenced when B.G. Snow, A.A. Sturges and Luther H. Gulick and their wives sailed out of Boston in November 1851. In Honolulu Rev. Ephraim Clark, Secretary of the Hawaiian Missionary Society, Rev James Kekela and two other Hawaiian missionaries, Daniela Opunui and Berita Kaaikaula and their wives joined the party which sailed for the Carolines, Marshalls and the Gilbert Islands on 15 July 1852. Mission stations were established in Kosrae and Ponape in August and September 1852. In 1857 George Pierson opened the first Protestant mission station on Ebon in the Marshalls. In the same year Hiram Bingham Jr. with his wife set up a mission station on Apaiang in Kiribati (then the Gilbert Islands), but poor health forced Bingham to return in 1864. He was replaced by two other American missionaries, Horace Taylor and Alfred Walkup, and several native Hawaiian pastors. In all nineteen Hawaiian families went to Kiribati more than twice the combined number who travelled to the Marquesas, Marshalls and Carolines. The missionary work was gradually given up owing to changes in sovereignty in the Micronesian islands. The last missionary to work in Kiribati was Daniel P. Mahihila who went to Maiana in 1892 and returned to Hawaii in 1904. (From notes by Kanani Reppun, Librarian, Hawaiian Mission Children's Society Library, Honolulu.) ·

Funded by the Hawaiian Evangelical Society, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and by the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society, the mission commenced when B.G. Snow, A.A. Sturges and Luther H. Gulick and their wives sailed out of Boston in November 1851. In Honolulu Rev. Ephraim Clark, Secretary of the Hawaiian Missionary Society, Rev James Kekela and two other Hawaiian missionaries, Daniela Opunui and Berita Kaaikaula and their wives joined the party which sailed for the Carolines, Marshalls and the Gilbert Islands on 15 July 1852. Mission stations were established in Kosrae and Ponape in August and September 1852. In 1857 George Pierson opened the first Protestant mission station on Ebon in the Marshalls. In the same year Hiram Bingham Jr. with his wife set up a mission station on Apaiang in Kiribati (then the Gilbert Islands), but poor health forced Bingham to return in 1864. He was replaced by two other American missionaries, Horace Taylor and Alfred Walkup, and several native Hawaiian pastors. In all nineteen Hawaiian families went to Kiribati - more than twice the combined number who travelled to the Marquesas, Marshalls and Carolines. The missionary work was gradually given up owing to changes in sovereignty in the Micronesian islands. The last missionary to work in Kiribati was Daniel P. Mahihila who went to Maiana in 1892 and returned to Hawaii in 1904. (From notes by Kanani Reppun, Librarian, Hawaiian Mission Children's Society Library, Honolulu.).