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Chapter 6

THE MINISTERS' SCHOOL

EVEN BEFORE the American Board withdrawal in 1863, the local Congregationalists had clearly perceived the most striking key need of the Hawaiian mission and had so reported to the church association:

In view of the present and prospective wants of Hawaiian churches, in view also of the pressing call for Hawaiian preachers among the benighted islanders of Micronesia and the Marquesas groups, the time appears now to have fully arrived in which it becomes us to make higher efforts than heretofore for the education of a pious and efficient ministry, for the purposes above mentioned.

It is therefore recommended

1. That the pastors and other members of this association, select such pious and educated members of the churches, and who appear to possess the proper talents for the ministry, to be taken under the care of the clerical associations, on trial, as candidates for the ministry, and to be put under a course of instruction for that object.

2. That we elect one of our number as teacher of a Theological school, for the thorough training of these candidates.

3. That we correspond with the secretaries of the Board [ABCFM] soliciting their approval of the above object, and asking for aid in support of the Teacher of the Theological School.¹

A missionary training center at Wailuku, Maui island, in 1863 was the first local effort. The Rev. W. P. Alexander was placed in charge. When he departed for a visit to the Marquesas Islands in 1870 the school was closed. In 1872 the buildings of the U. S. Marine Hospital, 56 Punchbowl Street, between Beretania and Hotel Streets in Honolulu, were purchased at the suggestion of Dr. G. P. Judd and refitted as the Theological Seminary. The Revs. J. D. Paris, Benjamin W. Parker, and A. O. Forbes served successively for short periods through June 1877.

The problems of staffing the school were largely caused by the not unusual subordination of the work to the pressing duties of whatever regular assignment may have prevailed at the time. A full time worker was the only solution and the Rev. Charles McEwen Hyde, D.D. of Haverhill, Massachusetts was appointed.

By strange coincidence the Rev. Mr. Parker, who had acted as one chairman of the Theological School, passed away almost at the hour of the commissioning exercises of Dr. Hyde to the new leadership at Chelsea, Massachusetts, March 23, 1877.

The Rev. Hiram Bingham, Secretary of the Hawaiian Board, treated the arrival of Hyde with an unusual fervency in a letter:

To the Missionaries of the Hawaiian Board cooperating with the American Board,

You will truly rejoice with me that God has sent us an able man to take charge of the North Pacific Institute, in the person of Rev. Charles M. Hyde, D.D. We trust, his efforts among us will result in raising up well qualified reenforcements for the Gilbert and Marshall Islands Missions. Dr. Clarke writes of him, "as a very accomplished scholar, one of the best and most highly esteemed in this state (Mass.) and with ripe experience in the ministry, carrying with him the esteem and confidence of our churches; XXX a first class man, earnestly devoted to the missionary work. We doubt not you will earnestly and frequently remember him and his work in your prayers."²

At the first chance, Dr. Hyde took a quick interested look at his future school home. In the June 19 letter to Boston he stated a few details and included a rough sketch of what must have seemed a disappointing layout. Said he, "The main building is 22 x 56, giving two large rooms, each 22 x 28. The front room is the Recitation room; the rear, is the Library . . . It is whitewashed and on the walls are hung missionary maps and a map of the Holy Land."³

The North Pacific Missionary Institute opened under his leadership October 2, 1877 with a roster of 15 students, 14 Hawaiian and one Chinese, most of whom were married. From letters to the American Board, from the Friend and other sources comes the story of his aptitude for teaching. His simple direct teaching resourcefulness was noted by observers and as faithfully reported. "Dr. Hyde," said the Rev. Mr. Bingham, "has as many students as the premises of the Institute will accommodate. He has entered into his work with all his heart and strength, and we will cease not to hope and pray that his labors may be largely blessed. The efforts of Mrs. Hyde in behalf of the wives of the married students are praiseworthy."⁴

In the same ship mail a Hyde letter was also on its way to that American Board correspondent. In this Dr. Hyde wrote first impressions of the native. ". . . The Hawaiians seem to be a people whom it is very easy to interest. But interesting as they are, there are lacking in their national characteristics some elements, which are indispensable to true and permanent national prosperity. They have more of the French grace vive and dash elan than the English grit and pluck. I cannot but be pleased with the apparent quickness and readiness with which they take any suggestion from me."⁵

Later that year he added further analysis:

The people have no mental training from the past like the Oriental. They have never learned the art of thinking logically, or of thinking properly so-called at all. Yet they are not dull or stupid: on the contrary, they are quick and bright. I have not heard anything striking from them in the addresses or conversation. The student talks the first evening seemed to me like our little children's "Sunday School Meetings!"

They look with reverence to a makua,⁶ and are ready to obey, much more than to command. They allow "friends" to eat them out of house and home because they don't know how to get rid of the intruders.⁷

"I have been troubled," he wrote to Clark later, "as other teachers have in former times, by an influx of makamakas,⁸ friends of the students. No Hawaiian, as a general thing is master of his own house. He is liable at any time to be eaten out of house and home by friends who quarter themselves on him till his food and property are well spent. I have interfered to protect the students, and summarily dismissed some of such unwelcome guests, that in Hawaiian style had camped down in the rooms."⁹

Towards the end of his first school year he detailed some of his adventures in teaching and referred to the role that Mrs. Hyde was taking in backing up his work:

. . . I am greatly disappointed at being unable to give them some English text books to study. My attempt to get a simple Biblical Geography has not succeeded . . . I have Binney's Theological Compend. Improved. It is about the size I should like, but it is not written in as terse and simple English as is needful for immature and uncultivated minds—and it is a Methodist book . . . I have given them orally and on the blackboard what is technically called "Isogogics"—"Introduction" to the Pastoral Epistles, and required them to recite back in Hawaiian and English. When they had finished the study of the two Epistles to Timothy, I invited some of the clergymen in the city to visit the Institute, and without any previous drilling for the performance examined the students in what they had been studying. I was gratified with the manner in which they acquitted themselves, with the blunders they made as well as with the measure of fluency and accuracy they had attained in a few weeks of imperfect instruction.

We have just finished the study of Gallender's Child's Book of Natural Theology (in Hawaiian). I am now leading them on in Biblical Archeology—the chronology of the Scriptures, the Social and Domestic Life of the Jews etc etc giving topics from the Tract Society's Biblical Dictionary (in Hawaiian) and requesting one person each day to give a review (in English) of the previous lesson. I give them a half dozen Hawaiian sentences each day to translate into English and as many English sentences to write from dictation, hoping to prepare them thus to write an Outline Study of Systematic Theology.

. . . I have forgotten that on the evening of the same day (Tuesday Mar 12) in which the students were examined, Mrs. Hyde invited them all to come to the house for a social gathering, the married ones with their wives. There were 22 present and they enjoyed the occasion very much. They had been afraid of awkwardness in the use of knives and forks but sandwiches prevented any need of such timidity. After an hour spent in looking at pictures, conversation and singing after the collation had been disposed of, they left the house with many "alohas" and "ma-halos."¹⁰

A Hyde letter telling of his first session with Sunday School teachers is graphic. He had volunteered to head the Sunday School at Kauma-kapili Church:

At a Sunday School teachers meeting one evening . . . I told them of the books in use in Christ's time. The fact was mentioned that a physician in Honolulu who had visited the Holy Land, had in his possession the book of Esther in Hebrew manuscript . . . I read some of it in the Hebrew, and the corresponding passage in the Hawaiian Bible. Children and grown people gathered around the pulpit at the close of the exercises with eager curiosity to see the words in which the Bible, so familiar to them in their own tongue, was originally written, and the parchment roll, described to them actually seen, and its folds still smoky brown, with the slow consuming touch of time, were reverently handled as a memorial of centuries of bye gone years.¹¹

The first annual report of the Institute was a good report of the initial Hyde year. It was handwritten in English and Hawaiian and read to the annual meeting, the Aha Paeaina, of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association and printed in the proceedings. The report referred to the school as the Ministers' School and Hyde signed as teacher. Excerpts follow:

. . . Hyde taught mostly in English. The students read and translated the English reader, together with the grammar. Hyde taught the Sunday School lesson every week. He explained the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Jude and II and III John. The students memorized some divisions of the Bible dictionary.

All the students worked outside every Friday only one hour, cleaning the premises. They worked every afternoon to get their food. They get almost enough by means of their work without outside help. "If anyone desires to be a minister, he desires a good work." Laziness is unsuited.

The gifts of the Hawaiian Board were insufficient to accomplish everything, but four rooms have been renovated and prepared with funds given by the four churches. C. M. Cooke gave window curtains for the dining room. Rev. E. Bond gave $100 for the new building. Mrs. Dickson and Miss Judd gave material for the rooms—a bed, a bureau and mats.

The Rev. S. B. Dole gave Latin books for the teacher and Mrs. Pogue gave all the books of her late husband, Secretary of the Hawaiian Board, recently deceased. There are almost 300 of these valuable books. Some old books in Hawaiian and English were sent from Lahainaluna, but this school needs books in Hawaiian.

This year we have seen merely the new beginning. Like trees after a storm, this school has begun to bud forth again. We have many reasons for being hopeful. It is not well to forget the words of the Lord, "Pray the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest."

It will be well for this Association to appoint a committee every year to test the qualifications of the students. You all are requested to attend the examinations of the School on Monday at 8:30 a.m.¹²

Immediately following is the brief but heartwarming comment of the examining committee. "The school was examined on June 6 and the committee was wide-awake for the job. We thank God for this school. The work is progressing. Great has been Dr. Hyde's speed in learning Hawaiian, also his power to impress his ideas on his students."¹³

There was no acceptance on his part of the pagan theology of the native but he had an uncanny ability to analyze it in terms of what he wanted to teach. He cited a teaching incident of this kind in a letter to the American Board:

One item I may mention as some encouragement to me in my work that the students now in the Institute seem to be so thoroughly and staunchly devout believers, earnest defenders of the faith of the Gospel. I have commenced talking on Systematic Theology. When considering the fundamental truth of God's existence, wishing them to regard theological study as practical common sense, not merely speculation or dogmatic opinions, I asked them why the Hawaiians worshipped the shark, the owl, big stones etc etc. They told me, "because of the divine power these things had. If any were shipwrecked and called on the shark god for help, they would be brought safely to land; otherwise not. If any fisherman wanted a good haul, and would put his votive offering on a certain stone, he would be successful, otherwise he would labor in vain. If a person was sick and drank awa¹⁴ to the owl he would be cured. And this has been tried so often, people could not help believing in the divine power of these things." They said that many church members, and ministers too, believed this, but all declared it was not believed at all by them. They told me of one minister who had just died of consumption who made the circuit of Hawaii in the effort to regain his health by this pilgrimage in honor of the old divinities! They could not show the absurdity of such a belief. All they could do was to assert their own deep conviction of the truth of Christianity. So I tried to give them a short method of dealing logically with such superstitions and establishing by sound argument their own position as witnesses for God . . .¹⁵

A second year came to a conclusion bringing a second report. This is quoted in some detail for the valuable allusions to the solid progress of the Institute:

In the good providence of God the work of the Institute, has gone on without interruption and without much change from last year. Ten students have been in attendance the whole of the past year. These were all connected with the Institute last year. One other was pronounced a leper and did not return. No new students have entered this year. These students have not by any means devoted themselves to study, in such a way as is expected of young men in the U. S. in their position. But as a general thing they have labored with fidelity and diligence in the work assigned them.

The studies pursued have been after the same general programme as last year. Beginning at 8:30 a.m. the whole morning of each day except Saturday had been devoted to study and recreation. Rev. M. Kuaea and Rev. S. E. Bishop have given their services, this year as last, instructing respectively in Church History and in O. T. Interpretation.

A Catalogue of all the books in the Hawaiian language has been prepared giving titles, pages, editions, and it is hoped to secure copies of all the books. Among these are several valuable manuscripts, one a Commentary on Acts, begun by Mr. Pogue, which has been filled out partially completed in connection with studies and recitations on that Book.

Judge McCully has given a Chandelier for the Recitation Room, and Her Highness Ruth Keelikolani has given a piano, formerly owned by His late Majesty Kamehameha V.

During the coming vacation, arrangements have been made for the students to supply vacant churches. It is hoped that their labors will be blessed both to themselves and to the Churches. Where are the young men to take the places of the class that will graduate next year? The government needs intelligent and ambitious young men for its service. Various industrial interests call loudly for active and enterprising young men. Teachers are needed in the schools. Never was there a time when a young man had so many attractive opportunities offered him as here in Hawaii nei today.

But higher than all other claims is the call of Christ on his disciples to enter into His service. A register has been prepared of all Hawaiians who have been preachers and pastors. The record is a most honorable one. May God in His mercy call many young men, like Saul of Tarsus or Timothy of Derbe, to be the spiritual leaders of this nation turning many to righteousness and in heavenly glory shining like the stars in the firmament for ever & ever.¹⁶

He wrote of writing and teaching, illustrating the motivating force of competitive effort:

. . . I am writing this year Commentaries on Hebrews, Ephesians, and Romans. The students write from dictation and when I have finished the Exegesis of one character, give some suitable "practical remarks and suggestions." I hope in that way to train them to think, and to apply Bible truth for themselves. To the student who shall in the judgment of the Committee have done best in this study, shows the best mss. etc I offer to give "The Portable Commentary" in two vols. (by Jamieson, Fawcett & Brown) in English. The students are reading in English and translating Binney's Theological Compend, and reciting in Hawaiian from questions in Hawaiian . . .¹⁷

A practical teaching device was briefly referred to in another letter. "I propose," he wrote, "to build a model parsonage at the Institute. It will serve the double purpose of adding housing for more students here and give them all a concept of acceptable and essential standards in such housing when they get to their church."¹⁸ He forgot about this for a while; ". . . the chapel, the main building of the School was burned down one night . . .the Government will rebuild at once . . ."¹⁹

By the winter of 1882-1883 the Hydes were ready to plan a "refresher" return to the United States. He worried about the fitness of his students to take summer pastorates in the churches on their home islands while he would be away. "I wish we had a better set but if we are to have Hawaiian ministers we must take them with the characteristics of the Hawaiian people. God's infinite patience bears with our manifold defects and infirmities—why should we—be discouraged . . . with the human weaknesses and follies of our fellow laborers? With all their faults there is something pleasant and lovable in Hawaiians and I shall hope on hope, ever labor, study, & pray for their improvement and progress . . . "²⁰

Leprosy as a subject for correspondence appears for the first time in 1884. ". . . Hitherto I have dealt with it (Leprosy) on my own responsibility, quickly dropping out the individuals I have found from year to year who were tainted with the terrible malady. But now I have found three out of fifteen students are certainly lepers; that another student and two of the wives have suspicious symptoms . . ."²¹

He wrote off in all directions for advice with questions about symptoms, remedies, hospitalization. He assembled the opinions of the experts in a major article in a local paper.²² These writers represented a cross section of the best thinking about leprosy. The disease, its causes and effects, would surface in his mind almost as a nightmare as he was later to become involved in it in a way he could not possibly have foreseen.

By the end of 1884 he could write pragmatically of school conditions and effects. "I am more than ever convinced," he wrote, "of the importance of this work. The churches are the centers of good influence and ought to be supplied with capable and efficient pastors. One third of the parishes have no pastors, one third ought not to have such as they now have. I cannot take more than 15 students at any one time, and as the course of study ought to take generally at least four years, I cannot very soon overtake the needs of these twenty vacant churches. But out of a church membership of over 1250 to get four theological students every year is enough to keep good the supply, were all other conditions favorable.²³

He further analyzed native abilities and shortcomings:

. . . This is the great difficulty in trying to elevate the Hawaiians—in their total lack of our feeling of push and energetic endeavor. I have to put this into these students, and it is gratifying to see how marked a change two years residence at the Institute works in these young men, and in their wives too. You know, perhaps, that this is a Manual Labor Training School. The students take care of the grounds, paint, chop wood, do carpenter work, and thus get enough money to pay their support, about $3.00 per week . . . Last class had some bright ones who worked in printing offices, and as commission buyers . . . Industrious effort to support themselves . . . help to develop such traits of character as fit them for managing their household and church affairs in a business way. Then I have to train them to think and talk correctly, give them lessons in English and logic, so that they get some notion of the elementary principles and laws of language and mind . . .²⁴

Throughout the following spring (1885) he advanced plans for a summer school of practical theology for the benefit of Hawaiian ministers. He blew this idea up into an almost impossible dream:

. . . There is much enthusiasm about my proposed People's University, a sort of Church Correspondence School, a Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle with our Pastor as Head . . . I propose to publish 4 books with 12 lessons each to be recited to the pastor, and at the end of every lesson to have examination papers provided and circulated, the answers to be written and sent to Honolulu for correction: at the end of six months print a list of members and names of those who pass over 75% correct replies . . . This is a project I have had in mind for three years . . . I propose mingling general information with Biblical study and for the first four books have planned a Hawaiian Grammar, a Biblical Geography, a General History, and Biblical Introduction to the Old Testament.²⁵

While the People's University never left the planning boards for the post office, preparation of the suggested materials continued as he created new study helps and texts and refined old ones. He was perennially at this. "I have also prepared a Manual of Parliamentary Proceedings, the Common Rules of Order, for deliberative bodies, and after careful study of the church Manual, the Students have conducted in due form on assigned topics, a church meeting, a committee meeting, association meetings."²⁶

Excerpts from later annual reports bespeak the never ending kaleidoscope of Institute affairs; "In 1886 there were 14 students, all married, some with 3-4 children. The medical examination, now required, cleared all adults and children . . . All gather together for a sunrise prayer meeting, Sundays. A Bible School has been maintained for the children."²⁷

"The Rhetorical Society has held a weekly meeting for training in the management of public assemblies, an effective style of extemporaneous speaking, logical discussion of mooted points, and tersely written homiletical discourses . . ."²⁸

Among visitors registered in the guest book at the Institute for 18881889 was the English portrait painter Edward Clifford. He gave $10 for the use of the school, which spent the money framing photographs of the different classes. A visit to the leper settlement and Father Damien was Clifford's primary purpose in visiting the islands. He was there two weeks and stopped over afterward in Honolulu.²⁹

There was steady growth in the school program. There was little change in enrollment but the preparation of text materials, improvement in instructional methods and the selection of students, summer pastorates in town and country, ordinations for local island parishes and for work in Micronesia, went on apace. A new set of facilities was needed: dormitory space for married students, more and better equipped classrooms, and an improved chapel.

A campaign for funds was launched in 1888. Soon sufficient money was in hand and the contract for the new facility was let for $8327. The same site on Punchbowl Street was used. J. Outerkirk was the contractor, H. W. Mcintosh, the supervising architect. There were 16 suites of rooms included among the other facilities.³⁰

Dr. Hyde liked the new building. "Other forms of faith may advocate and exemplify asceticism and squalor based in sordid notions of human life. But the gospel of the grace of God, as it comes to us, is a gospel of beauty and delight as well as sympathy with affliction and suffering."³¹

He covered other activities in his annual report in 1891. "One pleasing development of practical Christianity is the readiness and success with which some of the students have taken up the work of street preaching. This meeting, face to face, a crowd of men indifferent to religion, or opposed to its claims, has reacted intensely and favorably on the piety of the students themselves. Students visit from house to house for conversation and prayer, Bible reading and distribution of religious reading in connection with the Hawaiian Evangelical Association."³² Dr. Hyde in his Institute had reached an optimum level of performance.

"I enclose a program," he wrote to the American Board, "of the closing exercises of the NPMI. Ten out of the 19 students will graduate this year, and for all of them vacant parishes are ready."³³ There was even greater drama in a parallel excerpt a year later. "But what is better, every one of the present class of students has signified his readiness to go to Micronesia into the foreign missionary work. What theological seminary on the mainland can show a record like that? Eight out of the ten are married, and the wives are equally ready with the husbands . . . It will not be an easy matter for the Hawaiian churches to support them, and so I write to urge again the propriety of the American Board's assuming the support of the Gilbert Islands Catechists, sent out from the G.I. Training School."³⁴

He had foreseen more clearly than anyone the need of an understudy who would be trained in his way of operation and would then be ready to assume the leadership role. His first mention of this was long before, in 1883. He kept up a running barrage of reminders to the point of its being a matter of self-torment. ". . . I hope," he wrote Judson Smith in 1888, "you will see the importance of having someone on the ground in training to take up my work when it may be necessary for me to retire. I never was stronger or better physically than I am now, but no one can tell when the debilitating climate may tell on my strength so severely that I may break down. There is no indication now of anything of that kind, though I feel that brain-work here is so exhausting as to use up one's brain power entirely. I am not wearied merely, but all such power is gone, as utterly, as if the brain were a log of wood. The will is as vigorous as ever, but the tool is blunted past all possible use. I have to stop because I cannot go on: I cannot think. It is a curious sensation to have this full physical vigor, but the brain power all spent . . . "³⁵

He may have been sounding such a note of despair just to provoke action in Boston. His greatest intellectual accomplishments illumined the final and golden decade of his life. Still nothing happened. March 7 he wrote another letter to Boston. He was planning his next mainland trip scheduled for the summer of 1890. ". . . One reason I am asked to go on is to secure some one as a helper in the Institute who can be in training to take my place. I cannot calculate on more than ten years of active work in the future, and some one ought to be in readiness."

Even the pressure of a personal survey that summer produced no results. So absorbed was he in this continuing failure to enlist a helper, that in the comparative seclusion and relaxation of the ship returning him to Hawaii in September, he composed an article for the reputable Congregationalist under the title, "New Times, New Men, New Methods." It was built around the need for strong leaders and constituted a review of the times generally; education, religion, and social and economic life. If it were dated 1970, it would still be applicable.³⁶

Institutions fashioned by the personality and energy of one man are in jeopardy if adequate succession is not assured. And it was likely more of a problem in the Institute since Dr. Hyde did not have a board of directors specifically and solely charged with direction of the work. But he recognized this potential hazard and it became an obsession: ". . . I do wish," he wrote, "That you would secure someone such as I have specified, for an assistant in the NPMI. Some one ought to be here and in training to take my place. No one that might come after me could possibly receive such help as I did from the old missionaries then living, and as I stand ready to give to anyone that comes while I can give help."³⁷

For the next three years a letter seldom went to the American Board without mention of the NPMI succession. He employed any favorable opening to press the matter. Once he capitalized on a personal injury. ". . . I went inside my toolroom last Friday to get some curtain fixtures to repair a broken window shade at the Institute. I was standing on a box and fell . . . "³⁸ He bruised his muscles, dented a pail, etc. Another time he reported availability of $5500 in cash to subsidize an assistant.³⁹ Still with all this, except for one false start, nothing happened.

The Hydes had taken a long respite from Hawaii in the summer and fall of 1893. He was invited to attend the eighty-third annual meeting of the American Board in Worcester, Massachusetts, October 10-13; he accepted, and delayed his Hawaii return accordingly. It was his first visit to such an annual meeting in 17 years. He was 61.

Seemingly his campaign for an associate might be advanced by a personal appearance. It is likely the following portion of the ABCFM Annual Report was prepared by Dr. Hyde:

And we recommend also the early appointment of an associate for Dr. Hyde, in order that the new and increasing work at the islands may be carried on with the energy commensurate with its importance.

The island work illustrates the important influences exerted upon our missions by foreign powers; for example, that German interference should so distract and threaten the work in the Marshall Islands; that Spanish interference should still exclude our missionaries from Ponape; that English protection should so encourage and facilitate work in the Gilbert Islands. All these facts put stress upon the critical political situation in the Hawaiian Islands. It is not too much to say that the results of the works of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in these islands, social, educational, religious, are imperiled by the present political complications. In view of these complications your Committee will submit the following resolution:

Resolved, that without any sense of political interference, the Prudential Committee consider the wisdom of a representation to our government at Washington setting forth the great work accomplished by the Board, at such cost, in the Hawaiian Islands, in part represented by the large American colony, and the claim which these results make for some immediate and vigorous action of the government which shall tend, in the interest of Christian civilization to secure these results from injury or destruction by any intestine confusion in the government of that land.⁴⁰

The report was adopted and he could start the long journey home in the high hope of early realization of his quest. The reference to a communication to the government at Washington was a thinly veiled suggestion for action either in support of the Provisional Government in Hawaii or outright annexation. It had been anticipated that were Queen Liliuokalani to be deposed, annexation would come immediately. This did not occur and some emergency makeshift governmental control was in order; hence, the Provisional Government. Crisis in Hawaiian affairs was coming to a head at the very moment he was sitting in his chair at this annual meeting.

He was forbearant for awhile after his return but the winter of 18931894 passed and still nothing happened. A most unusual idea came to the Hydes. In a carefully worded, well organized letter in his finest penmanship, signed by both, an offer was made to the American Board:

When we gave ourselves to the service of Christ in the public ministry of the Gospel, as our life-work, we had no hesitation in doing so, because of any possible lack of means of support. We have felt it a privilege to be able to do Christian work as the Lord has opened the way, and He has provided abundantly for all our needs. We have tried to do the best work possible in the wisest way. We are interested deeply in the special work we have been doing these seventeen years for Hawaiians, and for the general welfare of this Community in various departments of Christian activity. We feel that the present is a period of special importance in prosecuting Christian work among the Hawaiians. We have for several years looked in vain for an associate in this work.

The work has grown under our care, and so broadened out, that one man alone cannot attend to all the details personally, as ought to be done, if the work is attempted at all. We feel the urgent necessity of speedily securing some one, who can bring special qualifications and experience to the training of young Hawaiian Christians for aggressive work. We regret that the falling off this year in the resources of the Board, seems to discourage the hope or endeavor to secure at this time such a worker as is now imperatively needed here.

For some time, we have been planning, that upon meeting the necessary expenditures for the education of our children, we might relieve the Treasury of the Board from any expense for our support. We have not thought that we were quite ready to do this, but circumstances are such at present, that we have concluded not to wait for any better ability. Our oldest son is occupying such a position of trust and emolument, as not to need any assistance from us. We had hoped that our younger son would fit himself for some public profession: but as he has shown no fondness for books, we hope to have him make his home with us, while earning his livelihood in some active business in this city. Since the death of Mrs. Hyde's mother, there has been received quite an addition to her private means, which with such economies as we have always practiced, will suffice for our present needs. We have never called upon the Board for any additional aid, beyond our salary, whether for repairs, or for our travelling expenses, or our children, or the expenses of their education.

We have therefore decided now to make to you a proposal, which we hope will put your work in these Islands on a more effective basis. We will relinquish our salary entirely, and will devote ourselves wholly to the special Christian work we came to do, under the direction of the Board as heretofore, on condition

(1) That we shall be granted the free use of the home, that has been provided for us, which we have furnished, and occupied all these years, and where we hope to spend the remainder of our life.

(2) That as long as we continue in this work, we shall receive an annual grant of five hundred dollars, from which we will pay the cost of insurance, water rates, taxes, repairs, and care of the premises: that is, all we ask of the Board is a home, and an allowance sufficient to keep it in good repair.

(3) That the fifteen hundred dollars, thus relinquished and made available for other use, shall be applied to the salary of the new worker, whom we hope the Secretaries will try to secure at once. We are confident that with the money, given for the purpose, now held by the Hawaiian Board, a suitable home can be purchased for the associate whom you may send.

If this proposal is accepted by you, it shall take effect on the first of October of the current year, so that the Institute may be opened at that date on this new basis.⁴¹

The commissions of the Bishop trusts allowed the Hydes to make the volunteer surrender of salary.

He had not reached the finish line yet, however. In August, 1894 as another school term was about to open, and another annual meeting of the American Board would follow, his patience was thin. ". . . I see that you are aware that I would like a person of some experience, a vigorous worker, tireless, resourceful, persistent, yet pleasant."⁴² He sounded as if he were enumerating his own personal qualities. "Pray do not send me anyone for the sake of sending somebody," he wrote later. "That will only make the situation worse . . . You will understand how I rejoice with trembling . . . we need now an aggressive piety, evangelistic in spirit and method."⁴³ He finally burst forth in a lament that pleaded for action. "I would like to have some definite expectation," he wrote, "so that I can make the needful preparations. There are students to be secured, if I am to have an associate, a house to be bought, a course of study to be mapped out, hours of work determined, and a new basis of organization adopted. I do not dare go away from Honolulu, for if the mail should bring any definite tidings, I should have all I could do, to make these absolutely necessary preparations. The time is slipping by and nothing has been done. I am like a pent-up stream; but in face of such obstacles can only draw a longer and longer breath, ready for some explosive utterance, bye and bye."⁴⁴

Even as he was placing his letter in the boat mail, the wheels of compliance were turning in Boston. The Rev. John Leadingham was the appointee and arrived in Honolulu November 3, 1894 on the S.S. Australia. He fitted in well under the worrying eye of a critical hopeful leader. "Mr. Leadingham is taking hold of work," he wrote, "in sensible manly fashion, and will work into larger activities as opportunities open. I have been suffering from nervous prostration ever since his arrival till a week ago Sunday when I felt conscious of returning vigor and can now do a full day's work with all the vim and comfort of yore."⁴⁵

Assimilation of the new associate was fully realized with the opening of the next term of the Institute. Hyde could write in settled mood about his relief. He could now reshape his own schedule of work. "Mr. Leadingham will relieve me from much of the personal care of the students, distributing the personal rations of oil, bread, rice, salmon, tea, sugar. For two years I have been obliged to deal in these commodities, as the students could not earn enough to support themselves without this aid. He will relieve me also of all classwork Mondays and Fridays. I want one day for correspondence and literary work, and another day each week for the various duties that have been devolved upon me in connection with Oahu College, the Hawaiian Board, the Kamehameha Schools, the Bishop Museum, and the Bishop Trust."⁴⁶

By the end of 1898 Hyde's health was failing rapidly but Leadingham was sufficiently adjusted to the Institute to allow a drastic curtailment of duties. Doctors advised a change of climate and on May 13, 1899 a very sick Dr. Hyde sailed for the United States mainland. Sick or not he maintained his concerns for the Institute. Upon arrival in San Francisco he got off a letter to W. W. Hall in Honolulu, requesting he submit a resolution to the Hawaiian Board applying income from a recent Charles M. Cooke gift of $50,000 to the operational budget of the Institute.⁴⁷ Dr. Hyde and his travel party then took the train to Ware, Massachusetts.

Unhappily, the Institute story did not run far beyond his decease, five months after this letter was written. The Rev. Mr. Leadingham was an able man but he was no Dr. Hyde. He was unable to mount a campaign for the $150,000 endowment planned by Hyde before the last mainland trip. He did not have the understanding knack of recruiting new students. The Institute came to a quick halt in 1902. Too little, too late!

Dr. Hyde had in his singlehandedness created a religious seminary; he gave it an orderly and intellectually stable program of studies. The products of his teaching skill were scattered in effective mission work throughout the Hawaiian Islands and the mission stations of Micronesia.

NOTES

1. Report, Committee on Theological Education, Minutes Hawaiian Evangelical Association, June 1861.

2. Letter Hiram Bingham to Missionaries of the Hawaiian Board Cooperating with the American Board, April 1877.

3. Letter Hyde to Rev. N. G. Clark, ABCFM, June 19.

4. Letter Bingham to Clark, Feb. 19, 1878.

5. Letter Hyde to Clark, Feb. 17.

6. Makua, a relative in the role of parent, benefactor, provider.

7. Letter Hyde to Rev. E. K. Alden, ABCFM, Oct. 28.

8. Makamaka, intimate friend with whom one is on terms of giving and receiving freely.

9. Letter Hyde to Clark, Nov. 14.

10. Ibid., April 16. Aloha, greeting. Mahalo, thanks.

11. Ibid., Jan. 20, 1879.

12. Hyde, North Pacific Missionary Institute, Annual Report, June 11, 1878.

13. Ibid.

14. Awa, a shrub, its root a source of a narcotic drink.

15. Letter Hyde to Clark, Jan., 20, 1879.

16. Hyde, North Pacific Missionary Institute, Annual Report, June 5, 1879.

17. Letter Hyde to Clark, Oct. 27.

18. Letter Hyde to Clark, Jan. 19, 1880.

19. Ibid., Apr. 8.

20. Ibid., Feb. 12, 1883.

21. Ibid., Jan. 10, 1884.

22. Hawaiian Gazette, May 14.

23. Letter Hyde to Rev. Judson Smith, ABCFM, Oct. 15.

24. Ibid., Nov. 1.

25. Ibid., June, 1885.

26. Ibid.

27. Hyde, NPMI, Ninth Annual Report, June 2, 1886.

28. Hyde, NPMI, Tenth Annual Report, June 9, 1887.

29. Hyde, NPMI, Twelfth Annual Report, June 4, 1889,

30. The Friend, Oct. 1889.

31. Hyde NPMI, Twelfth Annual Report, June 4.

32. Hyde, NPMI, Thirteenth Annual Report, June 11, 1891.

33. Letter Hyde to Smith, June 16.

34. Ibid., Apr. 26, 1892.

35. Ibid., May 3, 1888.

36. Hyde, "New Times, New Men, New Methods," Congregationalist Boston, Oct. 23, 1890. pp. 364-365.

37. Letter Hyde to Smith, Feb. 9, 1891.

38. Ibid., Feb. 2, 1892.

39. Ibid., Oct. 17, 1891.

40. ABCFM, Annual Report, Oct. 10-13, 1893.

41. Ibid., April 28, 1894.

42. Ibid., Aug. 3, 1894.

43. Letter Hyde to Dr. C. H. Daniels, ABCFM, Aug. 18.

44. Ibid., Sept. 15.

45. Letter Hyde to Smith, Dec. 8.

46. Ibid., Oct. 26, 1895.

47. Letter Hyde to W. W. Hall, Honolulu, May 22, 1899.