Hawai'i Conference Legacy Stories
Children of Japanese Immigrants Remember Pastor Okumura's Legacy
He was a man of vision. 
This is how Rev. Takie Okumura was described by members of Makiki Christian Church who knew him and his ministry with immigrants from Japan.
Aiko Kobayashi was a student living in a dorm Takie and Katsu Okumura built for college students who needed a place to stay. Aiko was raised on Kaua‘i and her family attended Līhu‘e Christian Church. Having heard wonderful things about Rev. Okumura, the Kobayashi family was happy to send Aiko to live in the Okumura home as she continued her education on O‘ahu.
Aiko remembers how Rev. Okumura challenged the Japanese immigrants who were only focused on earning money in Hawai’i so they could then return to Japan.
“He said we shouldn’t concentrate only on going back. He told us that because this beautiful country has opened its doors to us, we should give something back,” she said.
One way Rev. Okumura gave back to the community was through his work to build a hospital for the Japanese community. This hospital, today, is known as Kuakini Hospital. He also started sports programs for youth to give them something constructive to do.
When Rev. Okumura first came to Hawai‘i from Japan in 1894, he worked for two years at Nu’uanu Congregational Church. After leaving Nu’uanu Church, he wanted to start a new church for Japanese immigrants. Aiko said he did this by walking the streets of Waikīkī and talking to people about the Lord. The first church building for this new congregation was located at Kinau and Pensacola Streets in 1904. The sanctuary quickly became too small for the growng congregation so they moved down Pensacola Street to build their new church. Makiki Christian Church still stands today.
Aiko said Rev. Okumura wanted to build the new church to look like Kochi Castle in Shikoku, Japan, from where he had originally come. The congregation began their building plans during the Great Depression when others were not building and the economy was hurting. Aiko said that Rev. Okumura wanted to help the local community and said if City Mill wanted to supply the materials for their new building, the church would appreciate the gift.. City Mill did and even today the relationship between the church and the building supply company is still strong.
Tamie Kawashima, also a member of Makiki Christian Church, was very young when Rev. Okumura was the minister. Tamie regularly attended Sunday School each week and occasionally her father would take her to worship services. She remembers one time Rev. Okumura was preaching on Mary and Martha. After the service her father asked her many questions about the sermon and was surprised that she understood so much.
“My father was surprised because he spoke so simply that even I, a child, could understand,” she said.
Tamie said that although Rev. Okumura was a highly education person, he could relate to the people. The Japanese immigrants who came to church were laborers who worked all day and would often be sleepy in the evenings when they came for church services.
“He said it was all right to doze off but really emphasized they should continue to come to church,” Tamie remembers.
Aiko said it was required of all the students who stayed at the Okumura Home to attend Makiki Christian Church.
“That was no problem for me because I grew up in Līhu‘e Christian Church,” she said. “It was wonderful to be part of Makiki Christian Church.”
Aiko doesn’t remember how many students lived in the Okumura Home but she says there were many. A multi story boys’ dorm, a separate girls’ dorm, and a two-story building to house business school students provided room and two meals a day for hundreds of college students over the 90 years Okumura Home was in operation.
Once a week the students attended a session where they would take turns reading the Japanese Bible, which would be followed by a message from Rev. Okumura.
“All of us who had parents from Japan also learned Japanese growing up so we could read,” said Aiko. “To this day I’m still able to read the Japanese Bible when I visit church members in the nursing home.”
Tamie remembers how they often sang Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?
“I never knew why we sang that so often but later as I grew up I realized it was because he was misunderstood by the Japanese in Hawai‘i,” she said. “He fought for young people to be faithful to America during the war. He was the leader of a movement for young people to support America.”
Tamie said she also went to Japanese school and her teacher was angry when he saw a list of names in the paper for United States citizenship that included her name as well as the names of some of her classmates.
“He asked the whole class if we thought we could make our hair go from black to blond and our eyes from black to blue. He said that we were Japanese and couldn’t be anything else,” she said. “He said, ‘Okumura is the culprit.’ He meant that Rev. Okumura was the reason we became citizens. “
Later, after Tamie had served as a missionary in Osaka and returned to Hawai’i, she visited her Japanese teacher. This teacher, who was so angry at Rev. Okumura during the war, proudly stated that he had become both a U.S. citizen and a Christian.
Tamie remembers how Rev. Okumura loved celebrations.
“He would have parties at his home for birthdays and every year on April 4 he had one for the church for Founders Day,” she said.
In addition to gathering his congregation together for celebrations, Rev. Okumura also tried to visit each of his members once a month.
“He didn’t drive but he would have a driver bring him to each church member’s house,” Tamie said. “If he couldn’t come he would send Miss Ikeda, the Bible teacher, or the driver. He said he liked to come to my parents’ house. He would lay his hand on my head and I really liked that.”
Tamie remembers how well Rev. Okumura communicated with his members. He knew who had phones and who could drive so he would get news from the congregation to those people, who would then share them with others.
Rev. Okumura retired in 1937. Tamie said when she left to be a missionary in Japan, Rev. Okumura, although retired, came to the farewell party the church had for her.
“He shook my hand and said shikari yarinasai, which means “do your best.” That was a big encouragement for me.”
Rev. Okumura died in 1951 but not before leaving an incredible legacy to the people of Makiki Christian Church and to the entire Hawai‘i Conference.
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Iao Congregational Church
By Bill Nakamura
This month’s Legacy Story is written by Iao Congregational Church Member Bill Nakamura based on a 1965 interview with the late Tsumuyo Yatsushiro on the occasion of the church’s 65th anniversary. Mrs. Yatsushiro passed away on July 18, 1985.
The early years of the Wailuku Japanese Christian Church reveal stories of struggle.
“But, there was humor, too,” Tsumuyo recalled of the early church and its ministry in the small growing community of Wailuku. “Our church started where the people were. The men rolled their own cigarettes, smoked and listened to the minister and his sermon.”
Tsumuyo said she began going to church with her father in 1895 at the age of five. Her father worked closely with Mr. Egami, an evangelist called by the Hawaiian Board of Missions from Doshisha Theological Seminary in Kyoto, Japan.
The following year her father and a small group of laymen acquired a plantation home from the Wailuku Sugar Company, moved it and had it reconstructed near the corners of Market and Mill streets.The total cost was $400.00. The building became the “Nihonjin Kurisuto Kyokai” (Wailuku Japanese Christian Church).
She pointed out that other early churches in the community were also founded by racial groupings “because language was hard.”
“Even our own churches were Chinese, Hawaiian, Japanese and Haole in Wailuku,” she said.
“The sermons were all in Japanese and at my age, I didn’t understand it all. In later years, I grasped that the early preachers spoke the word of God from the Bible, [talked] about Jesus, and righteous living. Christians were not the only ones who came. Many others, like Buddhists, came, too, because they had no church then. It did not matter at all as long as they had a church to go to.”
Other memories she shared included that of over-sized shoes bought to last longer and worn only on special occasions, like attending Sunday services; her father earning $10 a month on the plantation, of which the family, like many others, pledged 25 cents a month to the church; of unpaved streets fronting the church on Market Street, muddy during rain, dusty from passing horses from nearby plantation stables; and protruding splinters on boardwalks in town.
“We had oil lamps hanging along the walls because there was no electricity back then,” she said, describing how people met Sunday evenings for services.
Tsumuyo laughed as she remembered how Mr. Egami discouraged hymn singing but allowed smoking.
“We were teased quite often when we were youngsters for being Christians.”
Tsumuyo began attending church in 1895, but was not baptized until 1915 because the evangelists from Doshisha were not ordained and not licensed to perform
communion or baptism services.
Iao Church went on to establish the Kanda Home, a home primarily for girls who would not be able to go to school because of where they lived. The students lived at the home, went to high school, and even learned Japanese cultural skills.
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John Mulholland
First impressions can be deceiving. 
That is the lesson that three Kahu—William (Bill) Kaina, David Kaupu and James (Kimo) Merseberg—learned as students at Kamehameha Schools (KS) over sixty years ago.
Kimo arrived at KS in 1947, the same year that a new Associate Chaplain, John Mulholland, began working at the school.
“My first impression of Papa Kahu [Mulholland] wasn’t very positive,” said David. “It wasn’t negative either. It was more ‘no impression.’ “
The three Kahu laughed as they sat together recently and remembered how the students at KS gave all their teachers nicknames. The Rev. Mulholland’s first nickname was “Manna Geek.”
“Some of us wanted to sit in the first two rows because the pulpits at KS were huge and he was short, so when he stood in the pulpit you couldn’t see him,” said David.
Bill added, “He had a strange, high voice and you needed to listen carefully to understand what he was saying. I kept thinking, ‘What kind of chaplain do we have here?’ “
So how did someone who made this kind of first impression later come to be known with much affection as “Papa Kahu?”
Kimo and Bill said they got to know him better as part of the KS Deputation Teams, which were made up of two juniors and two seniors who were sent out by the chaplaincy department to preach at churches.
“I got to know Rev. Mulholland as a very serious person,” said Bill. “He wanted us to do the best we could and be as natural as possible.
David said his impression changed during senior year, just before graduation.
“Rev. Mulholland, unbeknownst to me, was keeping up with my growth and learned from my parents that I might entertain ministry as a vocation,” he said. “He approached me and we hit it off conversationally.”
KS had a program for students willing to consider pastoral ministry as a vocation. Kimo and Bill were among those invited to attend a meeting about this new program.
“At the time there were sixty Hawaiian churches in the Hawaiian Evangelical Association (HEA) and only a handful of Hawaiian ministers,” said David. “You were really impacted by the need. We were asked if we could consider addressing that need.”
The school enacted a plan to offer a one-year internship and study experience at KS after graduation followed by a five-year college/seminary curriculum at a college on the mainland. This five-year plan was one being used at the time by Evangelical and Reformed Churches and could offer theological education in less time than the traditional four years of college and three years of seminary.
During the study year at KS, students spent one semester taking a course at the University of Hawai’i while assisting the chaplaincy department at KS. The other semester was spent living and working with pastors on Maui and O‘ahu.
The three Kahu said during that intern year at KS, Kahu Mulholland was instrumental in helping them discern their call and prepare for the learning that was to come. He even changed their classification with the draft board so they would be able to go to college and not be drafted into military service.
The three Kahu said although finances were an issue, whenever Kahu Mulholland asked if they were willing to consider Christian ministry as a vocation and one of them would talk about money he would tell them he just needed to know if they were willing to give it a try. They said yes. Then, at some later time, he would call back to say he had airfare, clothes and tuition money.
David said years later when he was serving as Chaplain at KS, he found out from chaplain office records that Kahu Mulholland went to businesses in the community, told them about the KS students wanting to go to study Christian ministry, and asked for their kōkua.
Even after Kimo, Bill, and David went to Yankton College to begin their formal studies, Kahu Mulholland continued to be present in their lives.
“Not only did he send me away to college but he was also instrumental in keeping me at Yankton,” said David.
David said he became very troubled when some fifth year students attempted to have a teacher thrown out. He couldn’t understand how students had a right to do this to someone who was ordained, and he wrote to Kahu Mulholland for advice, telling him he was going to leave the school.
The reply he received encouraged him to stay through the rest of the year and decide if Yankton was a good “fit” for him. Meanwhile, Kahu Mulholland wrote to Doane College in Nebraska, which had a similar program, to see if David could transfer there if he decided he needed to leave Yankton.
“I stayed the rest of the year and it turned out positive enough for me to be able to remain [at Yankton],” said David. “But if it had not been for that advice from him, I may not be sitting here talking to you.”
Bill had a similar experience. When he went to Yankton as a theological student, he expected that other students would observe the sanctity of the space, but instead found himself surrounded by beer cans and girls in dorm rooms.
“I became disillusioned,” he said. “If this is the ministry, forget it. I can’t.”
He shared his troubles with Kahu Mulholland, who told him to hang on to his belief in God and give himself a month. He also told him he would give Bill names of other seminaries he could contact the following month if he still felt the same way.
“After a month I got used to it,” said Bill. “I came to know students taking courses and serving in churches and raised with them all kinds of questions. By the time I called Rev. Mulholland back at the end of the month he asked me if I wanted to leave and I said I would see it through. He said he would see it through with me.”
“And it doesn’t end there,” said Kimo. “After we came back he came to my ordination service in Hāna. It was a real emotional moment for me because the person who when I first met I didn’t think I’d have anything to do with became a very significant person in my life. The thought that came to me that day was he had become my spiritual father.”
All three Kahu eventually returned to Hawai’i to serve HEA churches, which later became the Hawai’i Conference. Kahu Mulholland attended each of their ordinations and continued to support them in ministry, just as he promised. He and his wife Beulah continued to care for their wives and children as well.
“Not only did we see him as our spiritual father but he saw us as spiritual sons,” said David. “That relationship is what bonded the three of us and our families. My children called him Grandpa. He invited all of us to celebrate Thanksgiving every year together.”
After serving KS for 22 years, Kahu Mulholland retired.
Speaking of the couple, who never had any children of their own, Kimo said, “They really loved each other, but it was a quiet love. They never talked of themselves or tried to put themselves forward.”
When Buelah became ill and later fell into a coma, she was moved to a care home. Kahu Mulholland was then living alone at their apartment at 15 Craigside.
“It was not an easy time for him, but he tried to be independent,” said Kimo. “I wanted to help but he wouldn’t let me. He reached out to help all of us but wouldn’t let us help him. I used to get upset.”
In his later years, when he was no longer able to care for himself, the Chaplain’s Office at KS received power of attorney in order to care for Kahu Mulholland in his final days.
As a Chaplain at KS, David said he was finally able to give back to the man who had given them so much love and support. David said he picked Papa Kahu up every Sunday morning and took him to worship at Bishop Memorial and then out to lunch.
“I wanted him to maintain his dignity,” said David.
“Through him many lives have been touched and changed for the good,” said Kimo.
Bill agreed. “He was the influence behind us.”
And David shared these final words. “His is an important story,” he said. “Our ministries are a legacy to him. If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
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Samuel M. Saffery, Sr.
Imagine being a new pastor traveling from Honolulu to Hale‘iwa for Sunday worship at the church to which you have recently been called.
Now imagine the date is December 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed.
This is what happened to Samuel M. Saffery, Sr., father of Central Union Church member Georgia Kay.
“He couldn’t get through the fires to get to church,” said Georgia. “He told the military people stopping traffic, ‘I have to get to Hale‘iwa. My people are expecting me.’ But he had to come home.”
Although he never made it to church that day, Samuel had many more Sundays when he traveled the long road to Hale‘iwa to worship with his people at Lili‘uokalani Protestant Church, where he served for over 30 years.
“Back then church members saw gifts in an individual and nurtured them,” said Georgia. At the time ministers were only paid $25 a month, so it was not possible for Samuel, with a wife and 11 children to work as a full-time pastor.
Instead, he worked part-time as a circuit preacher in Wahiawa, then as supply pastor for Kane’ohe Congregational Church and Hau’ula Church, and finally as called pastor of Lili’uokalani Protestant Church. He did this while being employed full-time with the government, first as a railroad employee and later as a post office employee.
Georgia’s father was born in 1889 on Kaua’i and grew up on Maui. He attended Lahainaluna School through the eighth grade and then, like other youth his age, came to Honolulu to finish his education at McKinley High School. Later that year he married Muilan Ahu, Georgia’s mother.
When Samuel was called to be pastor of Lili’uokalani Church, the Hawaiian Evangelical Association required all pastors serving Hawaiian churches to speak the Hawaiian language.
“My father spoke both Hawaiian and English so it was easy for the church to accept him,” she said.
Since the church didn’t have a parsonage, the family lived in a home rented by the church. Before his retirement from his government job, Samuel would travel from his Honolulu home near Kaumakapili Church to Hale’iwa on Friday evening and return to Honolulu Sunday night so he could return to work at the post office on Monday.
There were seven girls and four boys in the Saffery family. Georgia said by the time her father became pastor of Lili’uokalani Church, only a few of the children were still living at home. She and her siblings would spend the weekends with her parents in Hale’iwa.
Georgia, who was in the seventh grade at the time, said she remembers the trip from Honolulu to Hale’iwa because as they came down the road into Waialua they could see the spire of the church.
“We used to argue who could see it first,” she said. “Weekends were fun. It was country, and teenagers love to play in the country and walk through the taro patch,” she said. “We’d go to the movie and get scolded because we were the minister’s children, so we shouldn’t be going to a movie.”
Recently, Georgia found a picture of the old church building and commissioned well-known artist Susan Cardenas to do a watercolor painting of the church she remembered so well.
“The church was so dark inside it was scary,” she said. “The bell tower was interesting. Mrs. Fujinaka always rang the bell to call people to church and I loved that.”
Although Samuel was ordained in 1941, Georgia said it wasn’t until he was retired, at the age of 59, that he was able to spend a year at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine. When he returned to Hawai’i he became full-time pastor of the church. The family moved north to be closer to the congregation and purchased a home in Mokule’ia, which is still owned today by Georgia, her 10 siblings and their families.
Georgia remembers Hale’iwa as a town with a lot of small “mom and pop stores.” In particular, she remembers Matsumoto Store.
“Dad would give us a coin for offering and sometimes we would go across the street to Matsumoto’s for candy or seed,” she laughed. “He probably knew but he never reprimanded us. He gave it to us and it was our responsibility to decide how to use it. Dad always allowed us to be ourselves—do what we wanted as long as it was correct and honorable. Every one of us had the freedom to do and be who we wanted. I try to remember to do the same with my kids. Be patient, love them, encourage them.”
When Lili’uokalani Church called Samuel to be their pastor, they called him “for life.” Georgia remembers this well because someone in the congregation stood up and asked if the members realized what they were asking of their new pastor.
“People use to say this is Saffery’s church, and my Dad said, ‘No, this is not our church, it’s God’s church.’ Churches need to be open to all God’s people,” she said. “People wonder why I’m not in a Hawaiian church, but Dad always said, ‘Where your soul is fed, this is where you go.’ I love Central Union Church. It’s been my home church for years.”
Georgia remembers that her parents spoke Hawaiian to each other, but she and her siblings asked that they speak English to them so they could understand. She said her father believed if Henry Opukaha’ia had lived long enough to bring the Gospel back to Hawai’i, the Hawaiian language would’ve been perpetuated. Instead, it was the English-speaking missionaries who brought the Gospel to the islands and English came to replace Hawaiian.
When he first came to Lili’uokalani Church, he preached only in Hawaiian. Then, during the war, some of the military chaplains from Schofield Barracks brought soldiers to church and asked if he could preach in English. The church allowed it and Samuel began conducting an English service at 9:30 a.m. followed by the regular Hawaiian service.
Georgia remembers her dad as being both compassionate and sensitive to whomever came to him.
“I loved being with him because he was so intelligent,” she said. “He was a man before his time. His responses to me were always through Scripture.”
Georgia said she learned from him that even though people change, God’s message does not and that she must look for truth in Scripture.
Samuel used to tell his children that the verses of Proverbs 31 describe female children who are born on a particular day. For example, Georgia was born on the nineteenth of the month, and she says verse 19, “She puts her hands to the staff, and her hands hold the spindle,” describes her.
“It talks about holding people together and I try to do that.”
She said her father also believed Proverbs 21 describes male children born on a particular day corresponding to each verse.
Remembering her mother, Georgia describes her as “a perfect minister’s wife.” “She took care of all his personal needs.”
Georgia said her mother was the disciplinarian who always kept the children in order.
“I used to tell my Dad he had a good secretary,” she said. “She kept order and I’m sure they talked to each other about their feelings of ministry.”
Georgia said her father would not allow her mother to become a member of any women’s organization, even Hawaiian ones, although he loved the Hawaiian people.
“He was aware of the way our people (Hawaiian people) were living and he held culture and Christianity together,” Georgia said. “He believed they had to give up the worship of things and images and trust in God, worship God. Every culture or generation has its way of asking for protection. He used to say it’s not our descendents but God who gives us protection. We gain strength from descendants, but we worship God.”
Samuel received several honors for his work in the church, including receiving an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Huntington College in Indiana and being named Hawai’i’s “Father of the Year” in 1962.
Having served Lili‘uokalani Church until his death in 1971, Samuel left a great pastoral legacy to the Hawai‘i Conference. Another legacy that people continue to remember is his work on the red Hawaiian language hymnal. He was a part of the committee and the one who suggested Na Himeni Haipule Hawai‘i as its name. A third legacy for which he and Muilan are remembered is their son Samuel Jr., who followed his father as pastor of Lili‘uokalani Church and served there until 2005 when he retired at age 93.
A September 23, 1971, article of the life of Rev. Samuel Saffery, Sr.. written by former Conference Minister Chester Terpstra and printed in The Friend, remembers a time when Samuel talked to him about his great desire to keep all of the churches of the Hawai’i Conference unified. He offered this advice: “Keep the doors of reconciliation open, work for peace, strive for unity, for love among the brethren.”
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Shiro and Shika Sokabe 
The Rev. Shiro Sokabe and his wife, Shika, came to Japan in 1894 to minister to the Japanese sugarcane plantation workers. Over the next 48 years, they built a legacy that today continues to be enjoyed and appreciated by the entire Hawai’i Conference, and, in particular, Hilo Coast UCC.
In addition to starting the church, which became the center of both Honomu village and plantation life for decades, Rev. Sokabe and Shika, built a school, an orphanage and a refuge for abused wives.
“I was born into Rev. Sokabe’s church,” said Tsuk Ishii, who lived in the neighborhood and came to church with his parents.
Tsuk said when he was four his parents used to bring him to prayer meetings at the church.
“I slept on the table,” he said.
Hilo Coast member Yuki Fujioka remembers some of Rev. Sokabe’s sermons.
“He used to preach about people doing favors for him and about the things he did around campus,” she said. “And he always preached in Japanese.”
Yuki said her parents belonged to the Buddhist church but the reason she started coming to Rev. Sokabe’s church was a family in her neighborhood who had a model T car, which
was very rare in those days.
“He used to bring his kids to Sunday School and we used to jump in and come to church with him,” said Yuki.
Yuki said she remembers the day Rev. Sokabe baptized her in 1935.
“Thirty-five of us lined up after Sunday School and he baptized each one of us,” she said.
Tsuk remembers a different side of Rev. Sokabe.
“He was a strict guy. He was Samurai,” said Tsuk. “He made kids cry.”
Tsuk then went on to explain. During worship or prayer meetings, parents would bring their young children. If they started to cry, the parents would do all they could to make their children be quiet but Rev. Sokabe would tell the parents to let the children cry.
“He said kids are honest and that’s how they let you know when they are hungry or something so let them cry,” Tsuk remembered.
One of the many legacies the Sokabes left the church and the community was a school for children who were not receiving any schooling at all and whose family lives were troubled. Then he built a dormitory to house all those children who needed to be in school but had no home.
Earlier this year, the last of the original buildings used by Rev. Sokabe for the school and the church, was taken down.
“The demolition of the Women’s Building ends a link with the last physical reminder of the many places on this campus where life was lived and ministry was done a century ago,” said Hilo Coast Pastor Chuck Blaisdell during a sermon in March on Sokabe Sunday, the Sunday each year when church members remember the legacy of Shiro and Shika Sokabe. “It was a poignant thing to watch that building come down. It had, of course, become dangerous, with its termite-ridden and sagging floors endangering both those who loved that building and those who used it to get in from the cold and the rain. It needed to come down for safety’s sake, but with it went so much history, so many memories of so much ministry.”
Tsuk remembers Rev. Sokabe, the teacher. He said two things he specifically remembered about Rev. Sokabe as a teacher is he gave all the kids in the church Bibles and he was very strict about discipline. However, Tsuk only remembers seeing him really angry once or twice and both times it was because a boy was teasing a girl.
“He turned over so many of the people because he wasn’t prejudiced,” Tsuk said.
He also remembered that Rev. Sokabe never worried about money because he believed it would always come through.
“He believed in the Japanese way,” said Tsuk. “ ‘Settle all your debt at the end of the year and start the year with no debt.’ “
During another Sokabe Sunday sermon, Chuck Blaisdell challenged church members to always remember the legacy Rev. and Mrs. Sokabe left to the community, the church and the Conference.
“He has invited us to pick up [the mantle] and put it on. He invites us to take the values and the dedication and the courage and the imagination and the mission-mindedness that is all wrapped up in that mantle and put it on and make it our own garment, make it our own cloak for our journey.”
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Jessie MacKenzie 
When asked what people most remember about Jessie MacKenzie, the first answer might be the memory of how she would go to Chinatown and round up children for Sunday School and mothers for Bible study and other classes. The description is of Jessie chasing the boys and girls until she caught them but once caught, they willingly joined her, sharing their problems and learning from her.
Jessie MacKenzie began working with the Chinese immigrants in Chinatown in 1900. Seasons of Light: The History of Chinese Christian Churches in Hawai‘i describes her work this way:
“Jessie walked fearlessly through the district’s notorious Tin Can Alley and other sections,, knocking on doors and visiting with Chinese women confined to their apartments by custom and societal restraints. She shared the story of Christ and the new way of life and invited them to the mission for classes and social events.” (Diane Mei Link Mark, Seasons of Light, University of Hawai‘i Press, 1989, 183)
At the time Jessie arrived in Chinatown in 1900, she faced a District that had been traumatized by the disastrous fires of 1886 and 1900. Thousands of residents lost businesses homes and personal belongings and were living in the Kauluwela Relief Camp and later in a settlement home opened by the Hawaiian Evangelical Association on Liliha Street.
Jewett Yee, a member of United Church of Christ Judd Street, said he was too young to remember Jessie MacKenzie personally but he said his parents talked about her all the time, although he doesn’t remember specific stories.
“She was an ardent mission worker,” Jewett said.
Another UCC Judd Street member, Andrew In described her as a “very motherly person.”
Young children who came to the classes and clubs offered at the Beretania Mission, called Jessie, Ah Po, which means grandmother.
By 1907, focus shifted back to Chinatown and Jessie, who had been living outside of Chinatown, decided to move to Chinatown, recognizing the difficulty of maintaining a connection with the residents while living away from the neighborhood.
To All People by Albertine Loomis describes the activity at the Mission:
“A group of grownup men would come in at the lunch hour to chat with Ah Po and drink a cup of tea. Each club-junior or senior, boys’ or girls’-had its own afternoon or evening. Friday was choir night, when the teenagers flung their eager young voices forth and rejoiced in the harmony they created. The mission, using a playground across Beretania from the settlement house, sponsored outdoor games and practice sessions for the meets in which Beretania’s teams would compete with Kakuluwela or Palama or Kakaako at the Vineyard Street athletic field…Jessie MacKenzie hired a seamstress to teach fine needlework. Women, young and old, began with embroidered pillowcases and went on to dresses.” (Albertine Loomis, To All People, Hawai‘i Conference UCC, 1970, 209)
In 1915, the Mission applied to the Hawaiian Evangelical Association and Second Chinese Congregational Church was founded (now, UCC-Judd Street). Both Andrew and Jewett said their parents were charter members of the church. Andrew even credits Jessie for his parents’ marriage.
“She arranged their marriage. My father was a charter member of the church and my mother’s father was a newspaper editor of the Chinese paper in Chinatown,” Andrew said. “I guess that’s how she knew my mother. She arranged the way and even got all the attendants.”
Jessie was assisted in her work by her husband Elijah, who was superintendent of buildings and grounds at Punahou School. In 1915, illness forced Elijah to resign his position and the couple moved to the west coast.
However, later, Jessie returned to Honolulu to continue her work among the Chinese community. She was a missionary of the Woman’s Board of Mission and, with the help of Ellen Adams, opened a Chinese mission on School Street. In the late 1930’s, Jessie returned to the Beretania Mission, which was now the Second Congregational Chinese Church, and served as the adviser to the Christian Endeavor group. Jessie died in 1941 at the age of 79
Through her three decades of work among the Chinese, Jessie developed a flourishing Sunday School, a Christian Endeavor group, the largest English night school in Hawai‘i and dozens of boys' and girls' clubs.
Andrew said he remembers his parents telling stories about Jessie Mackenzie but he also knew her personally when he was older and attending the Christian Endeavor group at the church.
“I was in high school when she started the Christian Endeavor Society. I used to go to her place and she used to get us on our knees and prayed with us,” he said. “She was quite a force in our lives.”
Jessie MacKenzie’s legacy to the Hawai‘i Conference is evident today when one visits UCC- Judd Street. Every year, members of the church visit O‘ahu Cemetary where Jessie is buried, for a time of remembrance. The new administrative building, MacKenzie Hall, was named in her honor.
“One of the things we did early when we moved to Mackenzie Hall is we had a pageant at Christmas on the back porch,” Andrew said, remembering that a Christmas pageant was one of the special things Jessie MacKenzie as part of her ministry. “We had a nativity scene and all that and even advertised in the newspaper.”
Jessie MacKenzie continues to be remembered with the same love and warmth that she shared with the people of Chinatown. Her legacy has certainly continued through the lives of those she served.
Click HERE to read a song written by UCC-Judd Street Pastor Phil Mark to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Waialua UCC but inspired by the ministry of Jessie MacKenzie
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John D. Paris 
There is something magical about stories that are handed down from generation to generation. When mixed with our own stories and those of our childhood, they become so real to us—as if we had been there ourselves.
That is how it is for William Paris (Billy). He may not have been there to actually see the stories take place first-hand but they are as real to him as if he had been there.
Great-Grandfather John
Billy’s great grandparents, John D Paris and his first wife, Mary Green, arrived in Hawai’i in 1841. They arrived on the same boat as the 9th company of missionaries. They and another couple were had been assigned to the Northwest Territory and were prepared to go on to Oregon on the same ship. The ship stopped in Hawai’i en route. In Hawai’i, they were told that an Indian uprising in Oregon had wiped out the entire mission station. The couples were advised to stay in Hawai’i and were then assigned to the mission field at Ka‘u.
Tragedy struck the family in 1847 when Mary died, leaving John with two daughters, Anna Matilda and Mary Aletta.
In Ka‘u, John built the original Kaua‘aha church. In 1849, he set sail with his daughters to return to live in the United States. This may have been the end of the Paris story in Hawai’i had not a ship’s officer told John about the great need for missionaries in Micronesia. This thought stayed with him as he returned to his family home and eventually married Mary Carpenter, a woman he had known when he was in seminary in Bangor, Maine.
The family sailed to Hawai’i and was assigned to the Kealakekua mission field, where over the course of 15 years, they worked to build a total of ten churches. “The last one they built is the church I go to, Lanakila Church, completed in 1867,” said Billy.
During this time, the couple had two children, John D., II, and Ella Hudson. John D., II, was Billy’s grandfather who later married Hannah Johnson.
Among their accomplishments was the rebuilding of Kahikolu Church which had been badly damaged by earthquakes. John took out a loan for $1,200 to rebuild the church, which was repaid by the members of the church. The ruins of the old church are still visible on the south side.
“It was a tremendous church,” Billy said, remembering the stories of how the members all worked together to rebuild the structure. “A lot of materials used in the church—timber and everything else—came from the forest. It was nothing to see 50 or 100 women and men pulling these logs down the side of the hill. It was a labor of love.”
The stone came from the lowlands at Ke’e and other areas and the lime was made out of the coral from Ke’e. Church members made a kiln and cooked the coral, which was stronger than the uncured lime that had been used in the first building.
“My great-grandfather wrote about Kahikolu that on special times when the bell tolled, up to 1,200 people would assemble,” said Billy. “Just think of how many Hawaiian people we had in the church at that time!”
Although some of the churches have moved from their original locations in the Kealakekua mission field, other churches built during this time include churches known today as Central Kona Union, Helani, Living Stone, Puka’ana and Mauna Ziona churches.
Billy said his great grandfather talked of mission in those days: “I’d save my horse for the longer trips, the shorter ones I’d use shanks mir (meaning, he would walk). He thought nothing of walking from Waiohino to Punalu’u.”
And, John thought nothing of traveling far distances to attend ‘Aha Pae’aina’s, or other gatherings of the churches.
“Sometimes they were held in Waimea,” said Billy. “That wasn’t bad, but when they had to go to Hilo that would take three days. Of course, they would stop along the way and stay with various mission families en route.”
In the late 1870s the Paris family left the mission field in Kona to go to Honolulu and start a theological seminary to educate the youth of Micronesia. However, it became very hard for John to support his family and rather than ask for more money, he chose to return to “my Kona.”
When he left the mission field to live on O’ahu, John gave his original home to John D., II, who was a rancher. On his return to Kona, he built a second home, using the foundation of the old house of the Chiefess Kapi’olani. Both homes remain in the family today.
Remembering Aunt Ella and Aunt Carrie
Billy remembers that his aunt Ella Paris had what we would call a bed and breakfast in the second home. As Billy describes it, the experience for visitors included being met by a limousine with a jump seat in the middle and a tour driver with a coat, tie, breeches and leggings. The tour driver had his own cottage and up to four couples would stay in the house with Aunt Ella.
“It was quite colorful,” Billy said.
Billy said notables who stayed at his Aunt Ella’s house included Jack London and King Kalakaua. The King liked to stay at the home because he, along with Queen Liliu‘okalani, Princess Likelike, and Prince David Lelehoku, had spent a lot of time a children at on this site when it belonged to the Chiefess Kapi‘olani.
Billy describes one such visit, from the Crown Prince of Switzerland, as quite an event “My aunt Carrie Robinson who lived in Honolulu and was kind of the head of the family, took care of details,” he said. “She took a trip to Kona to make sure everything was just right for the Crown Prince. The sheets were ironed with a charcoal iron right on the bed. That’s the way they did things in those days.”
Billy spoke fondly of his Aunt Carrie as well as his ten cousins who remain connected because of her legacy. Aunt Carrie was Caroline Johnson, who married John Robinson on O’ahu. The couple never had children. Upon her death she left all her holdings in a trust, which today, in the form of a limited partnership, is maintained by the heirs of her two sisters, Mary Shipmen and Hannah Paris. The family gets together at least once a year because of the trust and also to remember the legacy of their family.
Another personal memory for Billy in that home is the time he spent there every summer with his grandmother and cousins. “All of us cousins would go there every summer for two weeks and stay with her,” he remembered. “We had a wonderful childhood at Grandma’s learning how to make lei, how to do certain weaving, how to make raw fish, haupia. And we would always make Hawaiian starch, which was quite a tedious process.”
Another fond memory involves a Japanese man named Kanemasu, who helped Billy’s grandmother care for the home. Years earlier Kanemasu had been on a Japanese training ship and when the ship came to Hawai‘i, he jumped.
“He came to my Grandfather Paris and asked if he could take refuge there so Grandpa kept him, and Kanemasu became very loyal,” said Billy. “Grandpa arranged for his immigration papers and he stayed and worked for the family until he died. He was a wonderful cook and gardener and taught us all kinds of mischievous stuff.”
Billy enjoys remembering how Kanemasu made blow guns out of small bamboo for the cousins, and the cousins would then go to the silent movies at night and stand in front of the screen, shooting at the heads of the movie-goers.
Generosity from the Butcher’s Family
Billy also remembers the butcher business his father and uncle had. With no electricity in those days, the cattle were killed in the late afternoon and hung in a screened butcher room. Around 1 or 2 a.m., the men would start cutting the meat, and then all the cousins would get on the back of his uncle’s truck and go up the coffeeland roads to deliver meat.
“They didn’t order t-bone or round, they ordered $1 or 50 cents worth of meat, and father kept a book,” said Billy. “One week they would get meat from forequarter, which is of lesser quality, and the next week they got it form the hindquarter. We took care of them. They got good meat one week and lesser quality meat the next.”
Billy lifted up the importance of taking care of the land as well as caring for and respecting the people around you. He remembered how his aunt Carrie cared for people. She lived in Honolulu but owned cattle in Kona, which Billy’s father tended.
“Every Christmas holiday she would arrange for a shipment of her cattle to Honolulu,” Billy said. “We would ship the cattle there, and when that ship came back we would have cases of oranges and apples and barrels of salt salmon from her. We would deliver this to all her tenants, people who leased the land from her. She’d have my father butcher two animals every year and every one of those people and those in our church (Lanakila Church—her church) would have meat for the holidays. That’s the respect they had for the people to which they were connected. I’m one of the last ones who still butchers two animals every year and gives to the people in our area—members of the church—it’s tradition. It was instilled upon us by our forebears.”
Church Traditions
Billy remembered other gatherings as well, especially, the Sunday School gatherings, or hoikes, where all the children would gather at one church.
“You usually had scriptures you studied for these gatherings and the congregation would compose a hymn that would correspond to these scriptures. When I was a kid all the recitals were given in the Hawaiian language.” said Billy.
This is a tradition Billy believes should continue today. Although not everyone knows Hawaiian, makua’s could say the scripture in Hawaiian and have the opio’s repeat it in English.
“I still try to keep some of that tradition,” he said.
Billy acknowledges that are many hymns composed by the Hawaiian people that are not preserved. He believes it is important to get them written down and copyrighted to share with the rest of the Christian world.
“It’s beautiful stuff,” he said, “We have some beautiful hymns”
Billy’s Aunt Ella Paris was one of the people responsible for the hymns and songs that are part of the Hawaiian tradition today. The pen name she used in translating the hymns was Hualalai, which is the name of the mountain above Kailua-Kona. She took that name because of a visit she made to the mountain once with Billy’s great grandmother, Eliza Johnson. They stayed there for three months, living like nomads off the land and Billy said she fell in love with the mountain.
Aunt Ella served as secretary of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association on Hawai’i Island for many years and worshiped at both Kahikolu Church and Lanakila Church.
“She really taught our people how to write music and everything else,” said Billy. “Aunt Ella is the translator of many hymns in the Na Himeni. She was a devoted Christian, a dear soul. Sometimes I feel our missionaries, to a certain extent, missed the boat. They should’ve incorporated the great Hawaiian love of music, dance and hula and have them portray the biblical stories, a lot like we are doing now.”
Carrying on the legacy handed down from his aunts and grandparents, Billy is very involved in the ministry of Lanakila Church and the Hawai’i Conference. In addition to serving on the Property Management Committee of the Hawai‘i Conference Foundation, Billy is a deacon in his church.
“I do all the Hawaiian ministry in our church (funerals or anything else) because our minister is not well-versed in the Hawaiian language,” said Billy.
He remembered one time going to a funeral with a previous Kahu who commented that there wasn’t even a program. But the Kahu quickly solved the dilemma by telling Billy that he would take the English and Billy could take the Hawaiian and the funeral service would be fine. It was.
Billy said he learned much about Hawaiian ministry from a senior deacon at Lanakila Church, Charlie Aina. “He was a school principal and a wonderful man,” Billy said. “He influenced me and whenever I would have to do a talk in Hawaiian, I’d always go to Charlie for kōkua because he was well-versed and knew how to write properly. I learned so much from him as far as Hawaiian ministry.”
Billy Paris knows the stories of his great-grandparents, his parents and his aunts as if he was there to see it all happen. And these memories, as they’ve been passed down in his family and will continue to be passed down to Billy’s children and grandchildren, will continue to benefit all of us in the Hawai‘i Conference.
“As my cousin always used to say, ‘Billy, aren’t we lucky the Indians were restless in Oregon?’” We all are lucky.
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The Damon Family
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the United Church of Christ and as we launch a new look for The Friend, a feature has been added to The Friend and this website: interviews with members of our Hawai‘i Conference ‘ohana who are descendents of people who made a difference in the Conference throughout history. Our first two-part series will feature the lives of Samuel Chenery Damon and Francis Williams Damon as seen through the eyes of Cyril Francis (Frank) Damon, Jr., great-grandson of Samuel and grandson of Francis. Samuel was the first editor of The Friend.
Part 1: Samuel Chenery Damon: First Editor of The Friend 
“I feel quite honored to bear the [Damon] name.”
Cyril Francis Damon, Jr., grandson of Francis Williams Damon and great-grandson of Samuel Chenery Damon, said this about the two men who left a great legacy to both the communities and churches of Hawai‘i. This two-part series will feature the lives of each of these men and their families as seen through the eyes of Cyril Francis (Frank) Damon, Jr., member of Central Union Church and Honolulu attorney.
The Damon family has published two books in recent years. The first, Seamen’s Chaplain: Reflections on the Life of Samuel C. Damon, was published in 1992. The second book, All Men Are Brothers: The Life and Times of Francis Williams Damon, was published in 2005.
As one of the members of the editorial comittee who created the first book and the person in charge of putting together the second book, Frank says many of his remembrances and the stories he has heard are detailed in these books.
Samuel Chenery Damon was born in Massachusetts in 1815. After graduating from Amherst and Theological Seminary at Andover in Massachusetts, he was sent to Honolulu in 1842 by the American Seamen’s Friend Society in the company of his wife, Julia Mills Damon.
Julia was the niece of Samuel J. Mills, well known as one of the participants in the Haystack Meeting, which was the primary catalyst of the American missionary movement. He was also instrumental in founding the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM), a predecessor body to the Common Global Ministries Board, from which UCC missionaries are sent all over the world today.
However, it was not the ABCFM that sent Samuel Damon to Hawai‘i in 1842 but the American Seamen’s Friend Society founded in 1828. His original hope was to be sent to India as an ABCFM missionary, but former missionary Hiram Bingham urged him to come to Hawai‘i through the Seamen’s Friend Society instead.
“This is interesting, the whole story of the missionaries here,” Frank says. “You think in terms of today when you fly here, but in those days you went around Cape Horn and it took five to six months,” said Frank. “The Congregational Church had a rule, a smart one. Any new missionary to Hawai‘i had to be married before coming out here. And, needless to say, there were a lot of pregnant women who arrived here.”
Samuel and Julia Damon had five sons. The oldest son, Samuel Mills Damon, died as an infant. Because it was a custom in those days that when a child died, the next child born of the same sex was given the same name, the Damon’s second son was also named Samuel Mills. This son went on to become a noted financier who founded what is now First Hawaiian Bank. He was the business partner of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s husband, and as a result, upon her death Princess Bernice bequeathed to him in her will a large tract of land in Moanalua Valley.
“He was very akamai in the financial field,” said Frank of his Uncle Samuel.
The third son was Edward Chenery Damon. Francis, the subject of the book All Men Are Brothers, was Frank’s grandfather and the fourth son born to Samuel and Julia. The fifth son, William Frederick Damon died at the age of 23 from typhoid fever.
“It was very typical in those days, lots of children, lots of deaths,” said Frank.
Although Samuel Damon was not the only person to serve as a seamen’s chaplain, from the day he arrived in Hawai‘i until his death in 1885, he was known by everyone as the “Seamen’s Chaplain.”
In the mid-1800s whaling was a huge American industry. Frank said his great-grandfather had a church on Bethel Street. He would meet every whaling ship that came in and would encourage the captain to come to his church, which was located at Bethel and King Streets, for a Sunday service.
“You can imagine these sailors, many of whom had been at sea for months,” said Frank. “They were only interested in two things, in either order when they arrived here—women and liquor. How many of them he got to his church I don’t know, but obviously when their inner fever waned, some did come to church and there was a lovely little story there.”
Frank went on to describe how during the sermon, Samuel would invite the sailors to come to the writing room after worship. His wife was in charge of the room and would see to it that each sailor received pen, ink and paper.
“She then told them to write a letter home to their mothers, which [the Damons] would mail,” Seamen's Chapel, Honolulu, 1843.
said Frank. “It would take six months for the letters to arrive back East, if at all, but at least they had written.”
Samuel Damon’s Bethel Church is one of the fifteen congregations that later merged to become, today, Central Union Church. The Seamen’s Chaplain reports that two years before his death, Samuel said this about his ministry:
During the period of my ministry I have officiated at 334 marriages, 181 baptisms of infants, 227 have united with the Bethel church, while I have been called upon to officiate at the burial of over 1200 of my fellow beings.
The book then continues: “When laid to his final rest, it was said of the Seamen’s Chaplain that he had performed the last rights…for nearly every person buried in O‘ahu Cemetery, the large cemetery in Nu‘uanu Valley where he was interred” (Seamen’s Chaplain, page 22).
Samuel Damon was the first editor of The Friend, a newspaper that serves the Hawai‘i Conference United Church of Christ today and is identified as “the oldest newspaper west of the Rockies.” Originally named The Temperance Advocate, Samuel Damon was the paper’s sole writer and editor. The newspaper was created for the sailors and included news from both American and English newspapers as well as announcements of upcoming events, reprints of sermons (both Samuel’s sermons and those of other pastors), poetry, local news, editorials, ship arrivals and departures and a listing of marriages and deaths.
The introduction to the Seamen’s Chaplain states that Samuel Damon “published between a half million and a million copies of The Friend, most of which he personally distributed.”
“How did he do that for 40 years?” said Frank. “How did he get things printed?”
Frank said he continues to be amazed that his great-grandfather was also able to receive and print letters written by his son, Francis, when, as an adult, Francis began to travel the world. It is recorded in the Seamen’s Chaplain that between 1876 and 1882, The Friend published sixty-one of his travel letters under the title “Rambles in the Old World.”
Frank knows first hand that his great-grandfather was a prolific writer as he has read some of his publications such as the accounts of his travels to Oregon and California to observe the new settlements taking place and the excitement of the Gold Rush, all of which he published in The Friend. In 1882, Samuel Damon completed a detailed family history and genealogy entitled Damon Memorial, which is included in Seamen’s Chaplain.
Frank tells about how famous people would sometimes visit Hawai‘i and the Damon family became friends with them.
“Two American writers—heroes of mine—Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson both spent time in Hawai‘i and wrote about Hawai‘i,” said Frank. “They were both eloquent writers.”
Frank said that when in Hawai‘i, Mark Twain lived next door to the Damon home, which is the reason the two families became close friends.
Another famous person Samuel Damon had become friends with was Manjiro Nakahama. This man was a Japanese fisherman who had been shipwrecked and then found and educated by Captain Whitfield in America. At that time, because the country of Japan was closed to outside influence, it was said that any Japanese who left Japan and lived in a foreign country would be executed if they tried to return to Japan.
Despite this, when Manjiro expressed a desire to see his mother again, Samuel Damon, who had befriended Manjiro, not only encouraged him to do so, but was instrumental in seeing that he returned.
Manjiro was not executed upon his return to Japan. In fact, his return came at just the right time as Japan was realizing the need to open up to foreign countries, and Manjiro was the only man who could understand both Japanese and English.
Frank remembers a story about him.
“When Commodore Perry went [to Japan] in 1854, the Emperor of Japan met him and behind a closed, black curtain was Manjiro taking notes,” said Frank. “I am told that is just a story, I don’t know.”
Samuel Damon is described as someone who deeply believed in the importance of helping:
the friendless, and downtrodden, emancipator of the enslaved, and the genuine apostle of human freedom and equality among the nations of the earth…His attitudes toward blacks and other ethnic minorities, and toward the status of women and the welfare of working people, were all far ahead of this time (Seamen’s Chaplain, page 74).
The Damon family had a strong connection to Punahou School, founded in 1841, a year after Samuel came to Honolulu. All of Samuel’s and Julia’s surviving children attended Punahou. In addition, Samuel, Francis, Cyril Francis (Frank’s father), and Frank were all trustees of Punahou.
“The mathematical chances of that happening are practically incredible,” said Frank, speaking of the fact that four generations of the Damon family have served as trustees of Punahou. “Among the four of us Damons we have over 100 years of connection to Punahou.”
A former library in the elementary school was named the Damon Library and now there is a Damon Multimedia Room in the Julia Ing Learning Center. Several Damon family members taught at Punahou as well.
The life and legacy of Samuel Damon are forever captured in the words of Seamen’s Chaplain as well as in the hearts of family members like Frank Damon, who realize the importance of the gifts his life and ministry left to the church in Hawai‘i.
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Part 2: Francis and Mary Damon 
“Tackle the dread.”
Frank Damon remembers this as one of his grandfather’s favorite sayings.
“I love that motto,” he said. “Tackle and Dread are both strong words.”
Frank Damon’s grandfather, Francis Williams. Damon, was the son of Julia Mills and Samuel C. Damon, Seamen’s Chaplain and first editor of The Friend. He grew up in Honolulu watching his parents care for sailors who came to Hawai’i. Through his parents’ acquaintances, Francis grew up around members of the royal family as well as famous Americans such as Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson.
But the story of Francis Damon was very much his own in that he lived by his motto and was never afraid to seek out new adventures.
His adventures took him around the world and always wrote remarkable reports that were published in The Friend. These were some of the first glimpses recorded about life in Europe and Asia in the late 19th century.
Frank said his grandfather was a linguist who could speak Chinese, English, German and French. Because of his language skills, he was appointed by King Kalakaua in 1878 to serve with the Hawaiian Legation in Berlin.
It was in China that he met and later married his wife, Mary Rebecca Happer, whose father was Rev. Dr. Andrew P. Happer, who served as a medical missionary in China. Honolulu became their home.
“My grandmother was beloved here,” said Frank. “An attractive woman with blond hair and blue eyes—she was just loved by everyone. I can remember her singing Chinese lullabies to her grandchildren.”
Frank shared a family story about his grandmother. She boarded a street car one day with two young Chinese men.
“One of them said to the other in Chinese as she passed them, something to the effect of, ‘Wow! Look at that babe,’ or something like that,“ said Frank.
The story continues that she sat three or four seats in back of them and could hear them talking. As she left the street car, she gave them a dazzling smile and said in Chinese, “Work hard and be diligent and there are more like me out there.”
Frank said he has shared this story with others, including a co-worker at the law firm where he is a partner. Two weeks later, this co-worker gave him a package. Inside was artwork bearing the Chinese characters for “work hard” and “be diligent”. She explained that after she heard Frank’s story, she called her parents in San Francisco and asked them to have a Chinese calligrapher write out the characters. The framed artwork now hangs in his office.
“To me it’s an important family possession,” said Frank.
Francis and Mary moved to Hawai‘i and raised their children during the troubled times of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and the transformation from kingdom to republic to territory.
Through it all, he lived and carried out another motto of his life: “Within the Four Seas, All Men are Brothers.” In fact, when his grandson, Frank and other family members decided to write a book about Francis’ life, this was the title they decided upon.
Francis and Mary lived much of their lives ministering to the Chinese immigrants who were coming to Hawai‘i. Several members of the Chinese community approached Francis and Mary asking for education for their children. The couple took the children into their home and began to educate them.
This led, in the late 1800s, to the founding of the Samuel J. Mills Institute for Oriental Boys with 15 boys living in a refurbished barn behind the family home on Chaplain Lane. By 1900, the Institute was accommodating 140 students. Eventually, Mills Institute merged with several other Honolulu boarding schools to become today’s Mid-Pacific Institute.
Frank said one of the most notable among his grandfather’s friends was Sun Yat Sen, the first President of the Republic of China. Sun came to live in Hawai’i at the request of his older brother who was a farmer on Maui. His brother eventually gave Sun some land and told him to make his own living.
Francis and Sun Yat Sen met through the Honolulu Chinese community.
“Both men were tenacious about pursuing what they saw as necessary for others; hence, they found a natural common bond.” (All Men are Brothers, pp. 35, Cyril Press, 2006)
At one point, Francis, who had seen the oppression of the Manchus, who were the leaders in China at the time, allowed Sun to use the grounds of Mills Institute to march troops in preparation for a rebellion in China.
In 1911, finally the Manchus were overthrown and SunYat Sen became the first president of the Republic of China.
“We have a letter in the family written by him to my grandfather thanking him for his support,” said Frank. “We have this letter in a vault in San Francisco. Sun Yat Sen is one of the great men of the last century and he and my grandfather were friends.”
In 1892, Francis Damon approached the Board of the Hawai’i Evangelical Association (the predecessor to the Hawai’i Conference) about establishing a kindergarten at the Chinese Church on Fort Street. He had learned about the importance of early education while working in Germany and wanted to bring that model of education to Hawai’i. (Kindergarten translated from German is Children’s Garden.)
This kindergarten opened that same year as the first free kindergarten in Honolulu and, as Francis observed, “the first Chinese kindergarten on earth.” Just 10 years after its opening, the kindergarten would have an enrollment of 167 Portuguese, 124 Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians, 106 Chinese, 87 Japanese and 15 of other nationalities.
Today, Francis’ grandson, Frank, continues to serve as a member of the board of the Kindergarten Children’s Aid Association (KCAA), which continues to provide education and aid to 900 children ages eighteen months to five years, following the tradition that Francis and Mary began with the Fort Street Kindergarten in 1892.
“Tackle the Dread” and “Within the Four Seas, All Men are Brothers.”
“Yes,” said Frank. “I think both of these mottos typify my grandfather.”
The reason Frank worked with other family members to see Seamen’s Chaplain and All Men Are Brothers come out in print?
“A strong aspect of Christianity is about giving to the community and that is what this heritage is,” said Frank pointing to the books that tell the stories of his grandfather and great grandfather. “I strongly believe in this.”
Francis and Mary lived out his mottoes "Tackle the Dread," and "Within the Four Seas, All Men are Brothers." Along with the Damon family, Hawai‘i today has inherited this legacy.
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