The connection between Cornwall, Connecticut and Hawaii’s Big Island: who knew?

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Hawaii, I’m reading Sarah Vowell’s book  Unfamiliar Fishes which traces the history of the U.S. annexation/Americanization of  Hawaii  in 1898, which began with the efforts of  New England missionaries in the 1820’s to Christianize the islanders.

To date, I’ve learned that some of the Yanks who arrived, full of Christian fervor, in 19th century Hawaii – first landing their boat on the Big Island’s western shore, where I will be landing in a plane in January –  had spent time in Cornwall, Connecticut, a sleepy little village in the state’s bucolic northwest corner where my husband and I happened to stop en route to the Berkshires in September.  Small world.

There’s even a plaque in  Cornwall marking the former grave site of  Hawaiian Henry Opukahaia – credited with helping bring the Yankee missionaries to his homeland – who was originally buried there in 1818.  An orphan, he found his way to New Haven where he converted to Christianity, got swept up in the missionary fervor, and went to a school run by missionaries in Cornwall. He ended up dying at 26 in Cornwall before he could return to Hawaii to spread the Good Lord’s word. His remains were transferred to Hawaii in 1993 where they’re in a vault facing the seat at Kahikolu Church in the town of Nao’opo’o, Kona on the Big Island. (Might be worth a visit.)

Overall, I’m finding  Vowell’s book a good preparation for Hawaii (both in understanding Hawaii’s  history and culture and in figuring out what to see  there) and a good read, although it is definitely not your typical historical tome, punctuated as it is by Vowell’s  rambling digressions, oft-witty asides and commentary linking the past and present, plus her apparent disdain for organizing her dense copy into chapters.  (I’m half way through and so far the book is one very long chapter.)

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