Earlier this month we celebrated Labor Day. In the United States this holiday was created, quoting from the U.S. Department of Labor, "as a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country." These days however, it seems more like just a day off from work and an opportunity to put a few steaks on the barbeque.
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| Labor Day parade float (Courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Labor) |
In Laie, we have many laborers to be thankful for, foremost among them being our spouses and parents who work hard, in whatever capacity, in our behalf. In speaking of gratitude for those whose shoulders we stand on, President Gordon B. Hinckley wrote, "it is good to reflect upon the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world, but out of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries" (July 1984 Ensign).
When we think upon these words, we are quick to remember the two famous waves of labor missionaries who came in 1955 and again in 1960 to build the Church College of Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center. Their work and their lives have left an enduring legacy in our community.
But before we discuss their many accomplishments, let us turn our attention to the very first wave of labor missionaries to bless our community. At the time the two ahupua'a of Laie (6,000 acres) were purchased in 1865, President Brigham Young made it clear that the community was to be not only a gathering place, but a place of industry -- successful enough to produce profits which would sustain missionary work throughout the islands.
Such a charge would require the presence of men who knew how to work the land, build irrigation systems, raise cash crops, operate and repair machinery, care for horses, saddlery, and other livestock.
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Early missionary families assigned to the Plantation
(Courtesy of Church History Library)
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Soon after Elders Nebeker and Hammond completed the purchase, they returned to Salt Lake City to organize the first party of "labor missionaries." The men were chosen for their knowledge as farmers and mechanics (and later for their knowledge of sugar refining).
Together with their wives and children, totaling 35, they set out for Hawaii, ultimately arriving by small schooner. From Sister Louisa Nebeker's journal, we read: "Upon the morning of July 7th (1865) we lay one mile offshore, taking turns going ashore, each one of us having to jump from the schooner to a small fishing boat (when the waves brought the two boats together) and were then rowed ashore. After we had all landed (took most of the day) we started for the plantation house (on Lanihuli Pl.), seventeen of us at a time, in a large ox-cart."
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The Williams and Cole labor missionary families in front of a four-plex; each family was assigned a 12' x 12' room
(Courtesy of BYU-Hawaii Archives)
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It was several days before their personal effects arrived. One can only imagine how crowded and primitive the conditions must have been. Here they were, thousands of miles from their homes, in a foreign land and among a people they could not understand. Life was tough, but these hardy souls were tougher. Such was Elder Hammond's optimism: "If we are permitted to dwell here in peace, in a few years we can make a grand garden of this place. Our enterprise is well received by both king and people."
Indeed, within several years the missionaries had small dwellings to live in, a small chapel, the plantation had a small mule-driven sugar mill, and its first harvest of sugar was sold in Utah. Of course, the success of the early years was due, in no small part, to the work of the missionaries' wives (whose duties were no less strenuous, including teaching in Laie's early schools) and to the stalwart efforts and leadership of men such as J.W. Kaleohano, Ionatana Napela, and J.W. Kou.
Over the next several decades, many more missionaries came to Hawaii -- a few to proselyte, but mostly to work on the plantation.
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Elder Williams operating Laie's first modern water pump
(Courtesy of Church History Library)
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In the 1920's when the plantation land and its work became increasingly the purview of the Kahuku Plantation Company, the remaining responsibility for Laie's lands came under the direction of Zion's Securities Corporation -- created in 1922 by the LDS Church to manage its non-ecclesiastical property worldwide. Laie settled into a relatively peaceful existence as a small village on Oahu and ceased to need labor missionaries . . . until 1955, that is.
Stay tuned for Part 2, about the next waves of Laie's Labor Missionaries . . .
