Posted on: Sunday, October 3, 2004

OUR HONOLULU

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Today the Mormons in Hawai'i will revisit a forgotten chapter of their colorful history on a dry, sun-baked plain on Lana'i. Look for a stone monument about 3 feet high along the highway in the land division known as Palawai.

If you get there in time, you'll hear the Mormon choir on Lana'i sing "Come, Come, Ye Saints," the hymn that brought 10 Mormon missionaries from the gold fields of California to mine souls in Hawai'i.

Understand, the Mormons were not panning gold in California to get rich. These missionaries sent gold dust back to Utah. Their main purpose was to talk other gold miners into becoming Mormons. Winter rolled around. The streams swelled from snowmelt. Panning came to a halt.

The Mormons decided it would be as cheap to winter in Hawai'i where Mormons had never panned for souls before. They landed in Honolulu in December 1850.

They didn't have much luck converting haoles, but the missionaries were soon baptizing Hawaiians and elevating them to (Latter-day) Saints. Riley Moffat, librarian at Brigham Young UniversityiHawaii and president of the Mormon Pacific Historical Society, said he didn't know why the Mormons were so successful — 3,000 to 4,000 conversions in the first few years.

One reason may have been that a Hawaiian could become a Mormon "saint" in only one year. The Protestant church waited more than 30 years before ordaining the first Hawaiian.

Now the saints needed a place to gather. One of the flock visited Lana'i and chose a fertile basin at the foot of the mountains called Palawai. Some 300 Hawaiians established a Mormon community there in 1854. This became the City of Joseph in the Valley of Ephraim.

The settlers had visions of supplying food to whaling ships at Lahaina. But crops wilted in the sun for lack of water. Produce had to be taken by whaleboat to Maui, impossible in rough weather. Then the original missionaries, leaders of the settlement, were called back to Utah because the U.S. Army was advancing on the Mormons.

Into this vacuum popped Walter Murray Gibson, a recent convert with credentials as a Mormon missionary. He turned out to be an opportunist and a con man. Gibson assumed leadership of the settlement and proclaimed himself president of the Mormon Church in Hawai'i. He also put the land leased for the church at Palawai in his own name.

The settlers complained to Utah. Gibson was excommunicated. That's when the settlement moved to Lai'e. Gibson went on to become prime minister of Hawai'i; Lai'e turned into a highly successful Mormon enclave.