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Chapter 7

THE HAWAIIAN BOARD

THE NORTH PACIFIC Missionary Institute was the compelling care of Dr. Hyde's multi-phased religious beat in Hawaii. He never slackened his efforts on its behalf. He never failed it as he stalked the whole field of religious objects moving across his horizon. He was omnipresent, he was available, and as much as anything he was willing to serve. He could endure long hours of work. These qualities, permeated with an unusual intellectual and judicious grasp, drew him into almost every religious activity in the American Board program in Hawaii. The Institute was his primary mission but the church community work in which he deeply involved himself constituted a second career.

A starting point was membership in the Fort Street Church and its successor, Central Union Church. This was his "parish" church, not a base for operations but a home church. He became a member of Fort Street Church at Communion in December, 1877. In writing of this step he also mentioned attending "worship at one of the native churches. I also have a class of young (native) men in the Sunday School. Mrs. Hyde has one of young (native) girls at Kawaiahao. In the afternoon I visit some out district and take part in the Sunday School teaching and the conference talk of these afternoon meetings. I have also accepted appointment as one of the Trustees of Kawaiahao Female Seminary. I was chosen President."¹

None of his scheduled religious activity was part of the Fort Street Church-Central Union Church program. He served his parish church only on special occasions. He was elected Moderator of a Council to ordain Mr. E. N. Dyer as minister for Kohala Foreign Church on Hawaii island.² Another time he gave the pastoral charge to the Rev. E. G. Beckwith who was called as pastor.³ He preached by invitation occasionally; once on Foreign Missions, in which he sketched the missionary work of the Hawaiian and American Boards, another time on Idolatry Among the Hawaiians.⁴ One of the most touching of his Central Union messages was given on December 12, 1898 when he extended "William Morris Kincaid the right hand of fellowship as pastor of Central Union Church."⁵ He himself was a sick man and scarcely able to weather a pulpit experience. This enumeration is selective and merely suggestive of his Central Union role. He was speaking elsewhere two or three times every Sunday of his life but it was usually a special purpose that lured him back to his own church.

When Bethel Union Church was destroyed in the disastrous downtown fire, April 16, 1886, the Hydes were everywhere about, working with the victims of the fire, housing, feeding and clothing them. Later when Bethel Union and Fort Street Churches merged into the new Central Union Church, they became charter members.

This merger and the see-sawing preceding it was not a simple transaction. Bethel Union members were invited to use Fort Street facilities. Initially, each congregation had its own worship and Sunday School, but burned-out Bethel people also immediately entered into plans of fund raising and rebuilding and this had the full support of Dr. Hyde. A year passed and the Fort Street hosts liked their Bethel guests. Almost a year to the day, he wrote some of the circumstances of a proposed merger and his regret in the matter:

. . . Another complication has arisen. The Bethel people undertook to rebuild after the fire. Their pastor, Mr. Oggel, has made strenuous efforts and has raised $16,000. Before engaging in the work they discussed the advisability of uniting with the Fort St. Church and decided against it. Negotiations with the Government and the Seaman's Friend Society enabled them to dispose of their right and title to the site of the old Bethel in such a way as to receive in exchange a new and very eligible site. They had perfected their plans and were to meet and vote on the propositions of the contractors. Just then Mr. Cruzan (pastor of Fort St. Church) resigned. It was proposed in a prayer meeting at Fort St. Church to unite with the Bethel and join in building a new church for the united congregation. It was so voted and a committee was appointed to carry out the project . . . I have no responsibility in the matter but I deeply regret it. The mere proposal voted by the Fort Street prayer meeting was sufficient to kill the Bethel people's enterprise.⁶

Dr. Hyde doubted the merger would be approved, but it was. There was some discord arising in and from the fusion proceedings and he was relieved that the Rev. E. G. Beckwith was called as the first pastor. This man was one of Punahou's most gifted leaders. Although he had left the school and the islands 28 years before, he was remembered for his levelheadedness and tact. The imprint of his schoolmastering on his Punahou students aided in his return. Beckwith did a great job and laid the groundwork for a noble and enduring Congregational effort. Dr. Hyde could recognize this and wrote to the American Board, ". . . Dr. Beckwith's influence was telling on the people . . . The prayer meetings are taking on a more spiritual type . . . Dr. B's sermons are of a high type, and such truths must finally tell on character and conduct. The change is very great from what it was under the former pastorate. Dr. B is orthodox to the back-bone."⁷

Hyde was just as orthodox in his views, ". . . this talk of liberality," he continued, "reminds me very much of some small patterned men that are all the while talking about their dignity, and ready to pick a quarrel with any who disregards their ideas of their own dignity. When in organizing the Central Union Church this article of faith in regard to eternal punishment came up, it is my impression that the majority were ready to vote it down. But the few of us who did believe it were so evidently and so fully decided in our convictions of the truth of the doctrine (not the plausibility of some hypothesis) that the matter was not pressed."

The American Board in Boston had been experiencing a liberality revolution of its own and elicited this comment from Dr. Hyde: "I am very sorry to hear of the revival of theological differences, but it seems to be 'in the air' everywhere. I doubt whether Central Union Church here has another 'orthodox' evangelical pastor, whenever Dr. Beckwith shall retire."⁸

But there were also varieties of orthodoxy that displeased him. ". . . Elder Starr of the Central Bible Institute, Chicago, has been giving 'bible readings' insinuating the principles of interpretation of the Seventh Day Adventists. It seems too bad to admit such schismatics to the Central Union Church and the YMCA, but our good Christian people are so afraid of being denounced as 'Sectarian' that they give place to the messenger of a perverted Gospel and see no difference."⁹

While doctrine was being debated, the masons and other artisans were following the plans on the trestleboard. The magnificent new church building with walls of dressed lava from Yoachim quarry and Kapena Falls was completed and readied for dedication. At the service, Dr. Hyde gave an address, "The House for a Church." A congregation numbering 1037 "seated" was in attendance that December 4th, 1892.

Dr. Beckwith handled Central Union's first years with marked success but retirement was inevitable. Prospect of this worried Dr. Hyde. "The special item of interest is Dr. Beckwith's resignation. While it appears to be his own voluntary action, yet he could have wished to have spent three years more in the pastorate here, retiring when he reached the age of 70. But the coming of Mr. Rader (Dr. McLean's assistant at Oakland) to occupy the pulpit during Dr. Beckwith's vacation, has precipitated matters. Some of our younger and more flighty people want such a minister, rather than one of Dr. B's mature piety, intellectual superiority, and judicious conservatism. It comes to me as a personal loss."¹⁰

Grumble as he did, Dr. Hyde needed the heartiness and understanding inherent in the circle of agreeable friends at the church. The understanding of his intimates and trusted acquaintances, re-enforced by his religious faith, equipped him to strike out with ever fresh zest.

It was the native Hawaiian who called him and as was his nature, his approach was rarely that of circumambulation. It was "attack, attack, attack!" His North Pacific Missionary Institute was his attack route but the flanks bristled with unfilled needs and opportunities not altogether free of booby traps and mine fields.

Kaumakapili Church was, in a sense, the second-ranked Hawaiian church. Kawaiahao Church was the largest, but aside from occasional sermons and incidental meetings Hyde did not include it in his tour of duty. At Kaumakapili he found work. "I have been chosen S.S. Superintendent at Kaumakapili and after consultation with friends have accepted the position and begun the work."¹¹ In 1879 the congregation raised $14,000 of a needed $15,000 for a new church. His first year in the Sunday School was then coming to a close. He agreed to stay on but intense dissension developed over the political inclinations of the Kaumakapili pastor, over the questionable handling of the building fund, and even over Dr. Hyde's participation in the work of the church ". . . I thought it best to decline peremptorially to serve any longer as S.S. Supt. I was chosen unanimously, however, and it was gratifying to know the reason. They wanted someone who could teach them Bible truths I consented to take charge of the Teachers' Meetings as before. I think I shall also take charge of the Women's Bible Class."¹²

But things would not smooth out. The Congregational tenet of local autonomy was sorely tried in a situation such as this at Kaumakapili. It was so serious, it was carrying the practice of autonomy into a grotesque weakening of the very mission itself. This happened in many Hawaiian native churches, "We are nonplussed as to what to do about Kaumakapili, he wrote. "Nominally the church has the charge and responsibility of its own affairs but if any Hawaiian Church is left to run itself without any supervision from time to time, records are lost, funds are made away with, parsonages sold, churches mortgaged, discipline neglected, unworthy and disreputable persons get control of church work and church affairs."¹³

A growing racism was edging between the natives and the foreigners Hyde was in mental turmoil, and King Kalakaua was definitely promoting this cleavage. The King had gone so far as to attempt to persuade the Hawaiian churches to place a religious stamp of approval on his political actions. This, of course, outraged Hyde's sensibilities and tended to estrange him from this native church.

The Board of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, more commonly called the Hawaiian Board of Missions or just simply the Hawaiian Board, was the broad working base, the real vehicle, for Dr. Hyde in his work with the native churches. His effort with Kaumakapili was an independent, personal gesture.

The Hawaiian Board coordinated the work of the Congregational Church in Hawaii, except those projects directed by the American Board such as the North Pacific Missionary Institute. Work of the Board was carried on largely at the level of the individual churches in island associations, a division of which was the island ministers' association. Here the ministers could get together on their own in semiannual meetings. The first of the ministers' meetings that Hyde could attend was in March, 1878. He wrote his impressions to the American Board:

I was very much pleased with my first attendance at a meeting of the Oahu Association of Ministers. It was the semiannual meeting held this year at Waikane, 16 miles N.W. of Honolulu. Accompanied by one of the students as guide, I left home [horseback] last Tuesday at 6 AM. The morning was lovely and we had frequent dashes of rain. But we were only too thankful for the rain so long withheld and would not have been disappointed if it had poured down in torrents. I presume you have taken the same ride through Nuuanu Valley, down the Pali, across the plains of Kaneohe below, and along the seaside to the charmingly sweet and peaceful nook, with the long stretches of green rice fields from beyond which stands out conspicuous from the whole distance of the plain the white spire of the pretty little church . . . the evident freshness of the paint on the church building and the newness of the fence around the church grounds of the Evangelical Society betokened enterprise and thrift . . . There was no great depth of thought in anything said at the gathering but there was genuine Christian humility, kindness, and interest.¹⁴

He was asked to preach the Home Missionary sermon at the annual meeting of the Hawaiian Board in June 1878. He was also chosen Recording Secretary at that meeting. In 1879 and 1880 he was elected Moderator of the Association Churches.

The idea of a Biblical Museum occurred to him and he presented, not only an expanded outline of the project to the American Board, but described some preliminary steps he had taken to get it underway:

. . . Another project has occurred to me in taking up the study of the Life of Christ. I want very much a Biblical Museum to illustrate the manners and customs to which allusion is made in the Bible. Cannot your Secretaries secure from our missionaries in Turkey a collection of coins, utensils, clothing, manufactures, jewelry etc. which would be of service to me. Why not have such a collection available at the Rooms of the Board in Boston as a Loan Museum for Sunday Schools, Institutes, Conventions etc? I have written to our Hawaiian Missionaries to send a collection of such things from their various islands. When the Morning Star (steamer) comes back from her trip, she will probably bring me such a collection that I may be able to make out a duplicate set and forward to Boston.

Then if any special information is desired about the Micronesian Mission, little books could be prepared to accompany the collection for exhibition in various missionary gatherings. I have already many items gathered up which might easily be arranged into such a pamphlet illustrating life in these Pacific Islands before the Advent of the Gospel and its civilizing influences. Do you think favorably of this project?¹⁵

While nothing came of the proposed Biblical Museum, as such, it served to stimulate his conception of organizing the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. Artifacts from the mission stations in the Pacific accumulated in the storage spaces of the Charles R. Bishop homes in Honolulu, while simultaneously a collection of materials from missions around the world piled up in the rooms of the American Board in Boston.

The two unclassified sets of Polynesian treasures were eventually absorbed in the Bishop Museum. Hyde, whether the museum would be Biblical or Bishop, was in the vanguard of museum thinking for his day.

About this time the American Board inquired if the Hawaiian churches could assume more of the Micronesian mission work. His reply was largely discouraging. He first listed the obstacles; among them: the native women were unwilling to go to Micronesia, the support of Micronesia would slow up the work in Hawaii, the pecuniary ability of the Hawaiian churches was diminishing, the population (of natives) was decreasing, the price of sugar in the world markets was down, salaries and budgets of the "foreign" churches were at too low a level, and there was added work with the newly arrived immigrants of several races. He followed this enumeration with a broad sweep across the Hawaii horizon of community income and outgo:

. . . In Honolulu, we have the various national charitable societies with expenses of $2000 a year, Free Masons and Odd Fellows with their halls and monthly dues, the Hospital, the Ladies Benevolent Society, the Stranger's Friend Society, the Sailor's Home, the Public Library, Kawaiahao Seminary, Oahu College etc etc besides daily calls to help individual cases of special need. The Bethel Church is making a heroic effort for that small handful of people to raise $2400 salary for their pastor, the Fort Street Church pays Mr. Cruzan $3200 besides a large sum for music, sexton etc. Under Mr. Cruzan's leadership that church is spending on itself and its city missionary work as much as $1500 or $1800 a year. Their sympathies are not with Foreign Missionary work, as was true of Mr. Frear. We have also to pay $1500 to the General Secretary of the YMCA and $500 to the Janitor, $200 to the Reading Room. Besides the contributions from churches and individuals to the Hawaiian Board, the Woman's Board raises annually $700 mostly for Micronesia. The Gleaners get $400 most of which goes to Rand on Ponape. Mrs. Hyde's little Hawaiian girls' sewing society supported last year 3 girls in Kawaiahao Seminary at $50 each, and gave $40 to Mrs. Lono, the wife of the returning Hawaiian missionary stationed at the Gilbert Islands mission. The Cousins Society raises annually $2000 mostly given to the Micronesian Mission, and every time the Morning Star goes, she takes individual remembrances of more or less value to every one of the Micronesian missionaries. Do you think we are now doing our part for the Micronesian Mission, generously and not neglecting either the pressing necessities of the work in our own community? What one church in the States will you find that begins to do what Fort Street Church has done for years and years, without a single member that can be called wealthy?

It ought to be considered that the total population of Honolulu [1885] is only 20,487, of this 10,853 are natives, 1164 only are Americans, 5265 are Chinese, 791 are British, 580 Portuguese. The whole white population is less than 3200. The American residents would represent a population about the same size as Brimfield, Massachusetts, where I was formerly pastor. You know the town. Think of that community doing anything like what I have shown above this community has been doing for years.¹⁶

The American Board had been reading his optimistic reports on NPMI activity, in preparing successfully its graduates for ministries in native churches in Hawaii and Micronesia. On its own side it was attempting to satisfy ever-increasing pleas from its far flung missions. It had built up the sanguinary hope that the Hawaiian Board might have by now accumulated sufficient funds to shoulder the burden of direct aid to the Micronesian cause.

This hoped-for takeover was not possible, but the Hawaiian work among the Micronesians, buffeted by the occupation forces of the French, Spanish and Germans, and also subjected to political changes under American leadership, would never cease. The propinquity trail to Micronesia would dim, but the dollars, clothes barrels and men and women of Hawaiian churches would find their way there over the years, even to this year, 1972, when this book is being written.

Dr. Hyde, ever so often in his letters to the American Board, would burst into a religious lyricism graphically depictive of his idealistic nature. One such reflection appeared in a letter to Judson Smith:

. . . Fifteen years have passed since the public celebration here of fifty years of missionary work in the North Pacific. We are making no such missionary history now as the fathers did. Our monumental stones are more likely to be like those that the disciples saw in Herod's temple, and of which the Master said, "Not one shall be left upon another." If it is true that God buries the workman but carries on the work, it is also true that our ideals are often lost in the fullness of a larger hope. This Hawaiian people may fade away, but as in growth of vegetation, the primitive gives place to the higher. The black coals of primeval forests are turning the wheels of varied industry and developed arts, that are transforming the face of the earth, and making it neglect the thought of man as well as the glory of Man. Oh for the coming of the day when every thought of man shall be holiness unto the Lord!¹⁷

He also stood on solid ground in explanation of the transfer of two church workers from plantation towns. "Rev. H. S. Jordan has given up the foreign church at Kohala, and goes to the coast on the next steamer, Feb. 20. Rev. Isaac Goodell also gives up at Honokaa, Hamakua, Hawaii. The fact is there is no possibility of building up a church on our sugar plantations. They have but few white men, and these very often are 'hard characters.' A minister's work is like a chaplain of a state prison, except that the chaplain is sure of an audience, and a minister on a plantation is not."¹⁸

Church land holdings were another problem of the Hawaiian Board. "My interest," he wrote, "in the Hawaiian Churches (Land titles) led me to prepare at the last annual meeting the appointment of a committee of investigation, and the Ass'n appointed me immediately."¹⁹ He asked the Hawaiian Board to authorize him to secure a complete record of all the land titles of the ABCFM in Hawaii.²⁰

This was a matter plaguing the Board then. It still does. Properties were held under different kinds of grants, titles, trust deeds, provisions and much could and did happen to dissipate the ownership and controls. Hyde grasped the serious lack of orderly inventory and spent much time in gathering title data.

One result of this title search was a decision of the Hawaiian Board to create a Finance Committee, the first in its history, which "shall decide what investments shall be made of the special and permanent funds of the Board . . . have charge of the real estate held by the Board in fee simple or in trust. . . ." It was provided for on November 5, 1889 but was slow in getting under way. It had its first meeting in 1893 and Hyde picked up another secretaryship. He maintained his usual standards here: never missed a meeting, wrote the minutes longhand and signed each set. The precedent established in this modest plan of management of church properties has been followed continuously. In 1969 a companion foundation was chartered devoted solely to this purpose.²¹

Seldom was a Board meeting held at which he failed to suggest a new enterprise. He usually came away as the appointed chairman of whatever project he espoused. One looked to the reorganization of Christian work in the islands. Still another came out of the Committee on Evangelization. His comment on this was a bit ingenuous: "The Committee on Hawaiian Evangelization have met and organized as you will be duly informed. That I should be chosen chairman of the Committee was an idea that had never occurred to me. I did not like to oppose the suggestion lest I should seem churlish and ungracious in relation to this new work, which you well know has never been my attitude. The additional burden of responsibility involved makes me shrink from accepting the position; but for the present it seems best."²² At this time he was a member of several standing committees of the Hawaiian Board, including foreign missions, home missions, education, appropriations from ABCFM, and he was chairman of the publications committee. He could have enjoyed a full life just being a committee man!

Had he not made a career of the ministry he would have gone down in history as an educator. He was an astute organizer, programmer and teacher. Despite the channels of ocean separating the islands, despite the lava coasts and the tangled vegetation and rough mountains, he worked up an educational landscape which encompassed the island chain. His interests extended from boys' and girls' boarding schools on Hawaii island through schools on Maui and Oahu to a seminary on Kauai. Most of these enrolled and housed native children. His mission to the natives was perhaps more effectual through the medium of the schools than the churches.