WEST MAUI - Maui: Including Molokai and Lanai - page 131

sending their children to boarding school on the mainland was expensive and lo-
gistically difficult. With the issue of supporting their children weighing heavily on
them, nearly half of the missionaries were threatening to abandon their posts by the
1840s.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (which had foun-
ded and funded the endeavor) agreed in 1848 to allow missionaries to engage in eco-
nomic pursuits-including owning property. In an alignment of the economic stars,
a momentous event known as the Great Mahele was planned by the Hawaiian mon-
archy in 1848. According to the terms of the Mahele-or division-a system of land
ownership was established in Hawai'i to subdivide lands between the crown, the
chiefs, and private citizens. Though native residents had two years to lay claim to
their kuleana , or homestead lands, many citizens literally “didn't get the memo.” By
1850 much of these lands became available for foreign purchase. Suddenly, what
was once a religious mission began to take on the outline of a colony.
Though their parents remained dutifully devoted to the faith, the Hawaiian-
born children of missionaries instead focused on economic opportunity. Samuel
Alexander and Henry Baldwin-children of missionaries who arrived in 1831 and
1832-pooled their money in 1869 to buy 12 acres of Makawao sugar land for the
grand total of $110. Today, the Alexander & Baldwin company has over 88,000
acres of land and assets of over $1.4 billion, is traded on the New York Stock Ex-
change, and has been listed as one of the 1,000 largest companies in America.
Another missionary child-Sanford Dole-became a central figure in the 1893
overthrow of the Hawaiian government and ultimately the president of the short-
lived Republic of Hawaii. His cousin, James Dole, turned the island of Lana'i into
the world's largest pineapple plantation.
Today, the legacy of Hawai'i's missionaries lives on in the real estate, business,
agriculture, and ranching industries of Hawai'i. Names such as Baldwin, Dole,
Cooke, Castle, and Rice are plastered on everything from arts center to high schools
to public parks.
Think about this while you stand in the Baldwin Missionary House. The people
who founded and inhabited these sites would ultimately end up changing the course
of Hawai'i's history-for better or for worse.