User:W Nowicki/Henry Opukahaia

Henry Ōpūkahaia (circa 1792–1818) was one of the first native Hawaiians to become a Christian, inspiring American Protestant missionaries to come to the island during the 19th century. His name was usually spelled Obookiah during his lifetime.

Life-
Ōpūkahaia was born in the village of Nīnole (near Punaluu beach) in the now remote southern Kaū district of Hawaii Island about 1792. While Ōpūkahaia was growing up, Kamehameha I was forming the Kingdom of Hawaii by defeating other local rulers with the help of Western-style military weapons. When Ōpūkahaia was 10 to 12 years old, both his parents were killed trying to flee from a battle of the civil war. An infant brother he was carrying was also killed. He went to live with an uncle who was a kahuna (practitioner of the Hawaiian religion) at the religious center at Hikiau Heiau on Kealakekua Bay.

In 1807, he swam from the shore to the American merchant ship Triumph with Captain Caleb Britnall (1774–1850), also spelled Brintnall. Hopu, spelled Hopoo at the time, who later took the name Thomas, was serving as a cabin boy. The ship first sailed to the Pacific Northwest during the summer, and back to Hawaii for the winter. From there, they sailed to Macao, a major trading port in China. From there they sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Atlantic Ocean to New York. While on the ship he adopted the name Henry learned English, from one of the few books on board, the Bible. Although writings at the time spell his name Obookiah or other ways, scholar Mary Kawena Pukui suggests the name comes from (using modern orthography) ōpū kaha ia which means roughly "slit stomach".

Captain Britnall took Ōpūkahaia to his home in New Haven, Connecticut in the fall of 1809.

He had heard about Yale, but was frustrated when he was refused entrance. The story is often told of a group of students finding him weeping on the steps. One was Edwin Welles Dwight (1789–1841) who offered to help teach him to read and write. E. W. Dwight was brother of politician Henry Williams Dwight (1788–1845); their father was also named Henry Williams Dwight (1757–1804) and mother was Abigail Welles (1763–1840). Dwight introduced Ōpūkahaia to distant cousin Timothy Dwight IV who was president of Yale, and Ōpūkahaia spent some time in his home. In 1810 Ōpūkahaia stayed at the home of Reverend Samuel Mills, whose son was Samuel John Mills. .

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was also founded in 1810 by the group gathered at the Haystack Prayer Meeting of 1806. Kaumualii had enlisted in the United States Marines in the War of 1812. From 1814 to 1815 he stayed at the house of Reverend Joseph Harvey in Goshen, Connecticut. In 1816, a pamphlet titled "A Narrative of Five Youths from the Sandwich Islands" was published to raise funds for the mission board. It included portraits of each of the five students drawn by Samuel F. B. Morse. Ōpūkahaia was in the first class of the Foreign Mission School when it opened in 1817, with E. W. Dwight as its first principal. William Kanui (spelled Tennooe at the time), another Hawaiian living in New Haven was also recruited into the church and joined the school. John Honolii (spelled Honoree at the time) He lived in the John Hasseltine home at Bradford. Ann Hasseltine, the daughter of Deacon Hassletine, married Adoniram Judson, and the couple were among the first missionary party sent out by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, heading to India in 1812.

Ōpūkahaia translated the Book of Genesis into Hawaiian directly from the biblical Hebrew, and started learning Latin. Samuel Ruggles worked out an alphabet for the Hawaiian language and a grammar with Ōpūkahaia. Ōpūkahaia died on February 17, 1818 (with the others at his bed side) so could not make the voyage. Probably from Typhoid fever, which was called "Typhus fever" at the time. Reverend Lyman Beecher spoke at his funeral service. He was buried at the Cornwall, Connecticut Congregational Church cemetery.

Legacy
Hopu, Kanui, and Honolii returned to Kailua with two other Hawaiians educated at the school. Kaumualii came along as a passenger. Asa Thurston 1820 Honolii was assigned to Ka'ahumanu Church Kanui was dismissed from the church in June 1820, came to California in 1849 for the California Gold Rush, trying to be a missionary for the miners. In 1854 he moved to San Francisco, but lost his life savings in a bank failure. He returned to Hawaii in 1863 and died January 14, 1864.

His memoir was compiled and published by E. W. Dwight to raise money for the missions. The book included several of Ōpūkahaia's own letters that were replies to others (on spiritual matters, of course), showing an eloquent command of English. Its cover included a portrait of Ōpūkahaia as a bright young man in dress attire that was fashionable in New England at the time. Dwight was was replaced as principal of the Foreign Mission School after one year, and became a Congregational minister at Richmond, Massachusetts in 1819. He married Mary Sherril on April 24, 1821 and had seven children. Their grandson, also named Edwin Welles Dwight (1863–1931) became a surgeon who wrote several textbooks.

Ōpūkahaia's story became widely reprinted and read in religious schools in the United Sates. Even Mark Twain mentions it as he visited Kealakekua Bay:"Obookia was a young native of fine mind, who, together with three other native boys, was taken to New England by the captain of a whaleship during the reign of Kamehameha I, and they were the means of attracting the attention of the religious world to their country... That incident has been very elaborately painted in many a charming Sunday School book—aye, and told so plaintively and so tenderly that I have cried over it in Sunday School myself..." The book was translated into Hawaiian and distributed back on the islands in 1867.

Ōpūkahaia Memorial Chapel, known as Hōkūloa or Hokuao, was dedicated on April 20, 1957. It is located Near Punaluu beach, at coordinates 19.13333°N, -155.50722°W. The collection of Pacific-Asian studies at the library of Andover Newton Theological School is named for him.

A descendant of a cousin, Deborah Lee, suggested a more appropriate resting palce would be closer to the home to which he wished to return. In July 1993 a team led by Connecticut state archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni carefully exhumed the remains. The bones were carefully placed into a new Acacia koa shipped from Hawaii. His remains were re-interred in the Kahikolu Church cemetery, on August 15, 1993. The church was finally restored and opened again for use in 1999. A historical marker was added in 2003. The United Church of Christ designated the third Sunday of February as "Henry Obookiah Day" In 2009 a historical documentary titled Native of Owhyhee was written and directed by Jo Danieli that includes a description of his life.