Hawai

1830 · réf. 63884 — N.p.: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ca. 1830s. Original Questionnaire for Hawaiian Missionaries A questionnaire produced by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ABCFM directed towards new missionaries to Hawaii. The Board was founded in 1810 by graduates from Williams College and sent its first missionaries to British India in 1812. Beginning in the 1820s the ABCFM sent twelve companies of missionaries to Hawaii many of whom became instrumental figures in the public life of the Islands in the 19th century. The questionnaire consists of two conjugate leaves: the first contains twenty-two questions and is directed at the missionary. The second leaf is headed "For Females" and contains fifteen questions. In addition to personal questions such as nativity and educational background missionaries are asked to provide information about when and where they were converted licensed and ordained when they "first decided in favor of becoming a missionary to the heathen" what their role was in the mission "if not an evangelist physician or printer" and details of their vessel and journey. The questionnaire for females asks mostly similar questions but omits those related to preaching and ministry in favor of questions about children and family. This form is addressed to "J.S. Emerson & Mrs. Emerson." John S. and Ursula Sophia Newell Emerson arrived in Hawaii in 1832 as members of the fifth company of missionaries sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. John S. Emerson 1800-67 was born in Chester New Hampshire and graduated from Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Seminary. In 1831 he married Ursula Sophia Newell 1806-88 of Nelson New Hampshire the couple soon thereafter embarking for Hawaii. Except for an interval at the Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna Maui in the 1840s and a return visit to the United States in 1860-61 the couple spent the rest of their lives in Waialua Oahu. There they founded a Protestant Church and established schools - John instructing the boys and Ursula instructing the girls in not only academics but in singing sewing and other domestic work. A remarkable survival from the early days of Christian missionary activity in Hawaii. Old folds lower fold just beginning to split. Very good plus. unknown