The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-12-08
BOARDING SCHOOL
Continued from page one.)

made by Rev. C. e. Shields, all joining
in the doxology at the close of the ex-
| ercises.
The Hilo Boarding School ad its in
ception in 1885, when Father Titus
Coan and Father D. B. Lyman, early
| American missionaries to these islands,
established a school of eight or nine
Hawaiian boys. Hilo was a mere viii
lage in those days. There was only
two wooden houses in the place, the
Coan house built by Mr.. Goodrich, and
the house built by Father Lyman, now
the DIR. Wetmore home. The streets of
Hilo were mere footpaths, and the viii
! layers lived in grass huts.
The first school building was a grass
house with matched roof and sides.
| The boys slept within the building and
Father Lyman and his good wife were
the first teachers. Two Hawaiian as
sistants, KAPPA and Barenaba, the lat
ter having been trained as an Hawaiian
priest, performed valuable service
During the first year, the school in
creased to forty students, when it be-
come necessary to seek larger quar-
| ters. There were no carpenters at Hilo
at this time, and the only available
| lumber was the rough hewn boards
taken from the forests. About this
time an American carpenter, James
{ astle by name, started saw mill in
! the heart of the wilderness about 70
miles from Hilo on a branch of the
Waikiki river. He was engaged to
build the new school building, which
he completed in 1887 on the premises
where r. A. Lyman now resides. The
new building was one and a half
stories high, 25 feet wide by IS feet
! long, floored with oha boards, having
a matched roof and walls. The doors,
tables and desks We're made from koa
boards. Another one-story building
was erected for Father Lyman's resi-
dence.
| AT this time Mr.. Wilcox, a teacher
| of the American Board, established a
small school in the former Lyman
| home, and Mrs. Coan started school
for girls in a matched building on their
premises, both of which continued for
many years.
In a few years the growing classes
made it necessary to add a wing to
Father Lyman's Boarding School. The
membership then numbered from 70 to
! so scholars. Whale oil lamps and tall
low candles furnished the light in
those early days.
The. boys raised the taro, bananas,
| sugar cane and other articles of foods
as they do now. In 1S4S, the advent of
! the American warship Independence"
! Commodore Dupont, commanding, with
a brass band, gave the inhabitants of
| Hilo for the first time the novel eX-
perience of band music. The students
of the Boarding School were stirred to
emulation and soon constructed from
! squash stems and bamboo reeds,
! crude set of musical instruments. They
! devised flutes, flies, clarionets, dageo-
lets and even a sliding trombone, on
which they played. subsequently and
from time to time, Father Lyman pick
ed up from passing whale ships flutes
and other musical instruments, until
quite a respectable orchestra, includ-
! ing a violin and base viol, was created.
These musicians led the choir in the
HALL church for many years. Most of
the boys bought their own instru-
ments, which they took to their homes
in various parts of the island.
In the fall of 1853, the matched school
building was completely burned to the
| ground and for time it seemed that
the school would have to disband. The
! American Board of Missions had with
drawn assistance from the institution,
which was self-supporting. But the 70
to so boys volunteered to build a tenn
porary school building, which they did
/ and used for several years.
Subscriptions for rebuilding the
school were received from Hawaii to
| Nlihau, and in 1856 a large school
building was constructed by Henry
Williams and Charles e. Richardson,
two carpenters from oahu. This was
two-story frame structure with stone
basement and an iron roof. During
the process of construction a mighty
volcanic eruption occurred, lava flow
poured down from the summit of Ma
una Loa. 1t stopped after a years
! duration, within seven miles of HilO,
wiplng out the south branch OF the
! Waikiki river.
This old school building still stands
in tie rear of the present magnificent
) structure and has been converted into