Joel Hulu Mahoe

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Joel Hulu Mahoe (1831 - 1891) was a Hawaiian high chief and half-uncle of two of Hawaii's future monarchs, David Kalakaua and Lydia Makaeha Lili'uokalani. He was a noted Hawaiian pastor and missionary.

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[edit] Early Life

Mahoe was born about December 31, 1831. He was son Alii Kamanawa Opio II and Aulani. He was a great-grandson of one of the five Kona chiefs who supported Kamehameha the Great in his uprising agaisnt Kiwalao, Kame'eiamoku also know as one of the royal twins on the Coat of Arms of Hawaii. His half-brother was Kaluaiku Kapaakea by his father's first wife Kamokuiki. His half-sister was also the High Chiefess Kekahili by his mother's first husband, High Chief Alapaimaloiki [1]

His family was relatively of high rank and reputation until it was tarnished in 1840 when his father murdered his wife Kamokuiki. Due to the influence of the American missionaries on the royal court and the imperious nature of the Queen Kaahumanu, he and his brother convert to Christianity. He tooked the Christian name of Joel and his brother took the name Caesar.

[edit] Chief turn to a Pastor

He was a devout follower of his new fate. Unlike his brother who took up politics, he became a reverend and a missionary. He was said to have been a patient and dedicated Hawaiian minister.[2] He, along with Kanoa, started out as one of Hiram Bingham's Hawaiian assistants. His work mostly situated around the Gilbert Islands; serving as the delegate of the Hawaiian Board the Gilbert Islands. On the 10th of November 1857, they landed in Apaiang, one of the islands of the group, and entered upon the great work to which they had devoted their lives along with their wives.[3]

In March of 1869, Mahoe, who had been left in charge of Apaiang in Reverend Bingham's absence, was severely wounded and shot by one of a rebel party of natives who sought his life. "The rebellion seems to have arisen, in part at least, from an attempt of the king (of whose Christian character the missionaries had good hope) to enforce a code of laws against murder, theft, adultery and other crimes. The mission houses were destroyed and the cocoanut trees around them cut down. Yet the mission seems to have gained a hold on the islands of Tarawa, Butaritari, Makin, Tapiteuea, and the adverse occurrences at Apaiang may yet turn out for the furtherance of the Gospel." [4] This wound disabled him for a time and brought him back to his native land for a time before returning and finishing his work in the Gilbert Islands until blindness and old age took the toll on him.[5]

After many years in the South Pacific, he returned home to Hawaii. There his nephew had become the monnarch of the eight islands. He never gain or loss anything from his nephew's ascession and lived the rest of his life as a pastor in Kauai. He was known to have assisted the Gilbertese immigrants to Kauai. Mahoe, tried his best to preserve the souls and bodies of the unhappy Gilbertese. He was stationed at Kilauea, although he tried to assist all the Gilbertese on the ilsnad since he was able to speak their language and was familiar with their customs. In his report to the Hawaiian Evangelical Association for 1880, he stated there were 391 South Pacific Islanders on Kauai, with 113 at Kilauea. During the year consumption, pneumonia, and dysentery had killed 34, and Mahoe worried about the damage beign done by liguor, opium, and gambling, as well as the inroads made by the Mormons.[6]

Reverend Mahoe, for twelve years a missionary to the Gilbert Islands, and, subsquently, for more than twenty years an Hawaiian pastor, died at his post in Koloa, Kauai, January 23, 1891. [7]

[edit] Marriage and Issues

In the 1850s he had taken a wife a named Olivia. She had followed her husband to the Gilbert Islands like most of the missionary wives. She done herself great credits on the island of Tarawa where she taught the natives and formed a promising class of pupils.[8] She and Mahoe had many children, most born in outside of Hawaii.

[edit] Reference

  1. ^ http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Hawaii/kauai.htm
  2. ^ Kauai: The Separate Kingdom By Edward Joesting. Page 224
  3. ^ The Bible in the Pacific: By the Rev. Archibald Wright Murray. Page 262
  4. ^ The Centennial Book: One Hundred Years of Christian Civilzation in Hawaii 1820-1920. Page 49
  5. ^ Annual Report By Hawaiian Evangelical Association. Page 10
  6. ^ Kauai: The Separate Kingdom By Edward Joesting. Page 224
  7. ^ Annual Report By Hawaiian Evangelical Association. Page 10
  8. ^ Morning Star Papers By Samuel Chenery Damon. Page 11