Joel Hulu Mahoe

Joel Hulu Mahoe (1831 - 1891) was a Hawaiian high chief and half-uncle of two of Hawaii's future monarchs, David Kalakaua and Lydia Kamakaeha Lili'uokalani. He was a noted Hawaiian pastor and missionary.

Early Life

Mahoe was born about December 31, 1831, at Opihihale, South Kona district, Hawaii. He was son of Alii Kamanawa Opio II and Aulani. He was a great-grandson of one of the five Kona chiefs who supported Kamehameha the Great in his uprising against Kiwalao, Kame'eiamoku also known as one of the royal twins on the Coat of Arms of Hawaii. His half-brother was Kaluaiku Kapaakea by his father's first wife Kamokuiki. His sister was Kekahili, the daughter of Kamokuiki and her other husband and ancestress of the House of Kawananakoa.http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Hawaii/kauai.htm]

His family was of high rank. In 1840 his father murdered his wife Kamokuiki because Kamanawa Elua was angry that his wife Kamokuiki slept with another man. Due to the influence of the American missionaries on the royal court, John Papa I'i and Queen Kaahumanu, Kamanawa Elua was hung at Keahualono, North Kona, Hawaii. He was converted at an early age to Christianity and was given the name Joel by father Lyman of Hilo.

Chief turn to a Pastor

He was a devout follower of his new fate. Unlike his brother who took up politics, he became a reverend and a missionary. He was said to have been a patient and dedicated Hawaiian minister.Kauai: The Separate Kingdom By Edward Joesting. Page 224] He, along with Kanoa, started out as one of Hiram Bingham's Hawaiian assistants. His work mostly situated around the Gilbert Islands; serving as the delegate of the Hawaiian Board to the Gilbert Islands. On the 10th of November 1857, they landed in Apaiang, one of the islands of the group, and entered upon the great work to which they had devoted their lives along with their wives. [The Bible in the Pacific: By the Rev. Archibald Wright Murray. Page 262]

In March of 1869, Mahoe, who had been left in charge of Apaiang in Reverend Bingham's absence, was severely wounded and shot by one of a rebel party of natives who sought his life. "The rebellion seems to have arisen, in part at least, from an attempt of the king (of whose Christian character the missionaries had good hope) to enforce a code of laws against murder, theft, adultery and other crimes. The mission houses were destroyed and the cocoanut trees around them cut down. Yet the mission seems to have gained a hold on the islands of Tarawa, Butaritari, Makin, Tapiteuea, and the adverse occurrences at Apaiang may yet turn out for the furtherance of the Gospel." [The Centennial Book: One Hundred Years of Christian Civilzation in Hawaii 1820-1920. Page 49] This wound disabled him for a time and brought him back to his native land for a time before returning and finishing his work in the Gilbert Islands until blindness and old age took the toll on him.Annual Report By Hawaiian Evangelical Association. Page 10]

After many years in the South Pacific, he returned home to Hawaii. There his nephew had become the monnarch of the eight islands. He was known to have assisted the Gilbertese immigrants to Kauai. Mahoe, tried his best to preserve the souls and bodies of the unhappy Gilbertese. He was stationed at Kilauea, although he tried to assist all the Gilbertese on the ilsnad since he was able to speak their language and was familiar with their customs. In his report to the Hawaiian Evangelical Association for 1880, he stated there were 391 South Pacific Islanders on Kauai, with 113 at Kilauea. During the year consumption, pneumonia, and dysentery had killed 34, and Mahoe worried about the damage beign done by liguor, opium, and gambling, as well as the inroads made by the Mormons.

Reverend Mahoe, for twelve years a missionary to the Gilbert Islands, and, subsequently, for more than twenty years a Hawaiian pastor, died at his post in Koloa, Kauai, January 23, 1891. He was buried in the Koloa Hawaiian Church at Koloa, Kauai. [ [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~royalty/hawaii/i276.html#I276 i276.html ] ]

Marriage and Issues

In 1854 he had taken a wife a named Olivia Libbie Kale. She was born at Lahaina, Maui October 16, 1840; she was the daughter of a Hawaiian Chief named Charles Kameeiamokuakeauiaole Mahoe aka Chief Kale, by his wife, Maria Koloakea. She had followed her husband to the Gilbert Islands like most of the missionary wives. She done herself great credits on the island of Tarawa where she taught the natives and formed a promising class of pupils. [ Morning Star Papers By Samuel Chenery Damon. Page 11] She and Mahoe had many children; eleven children total. They were Ruth Aulani Mahoe, the eldest daughter born in Tarawa and who married the Reverend Louis Murie Mitchell; they had five children. Marietta Mahoe, who was born in Honolulu, Oahu, and died as a young child on the Morning Star. The third daughter was Mary Koloakea Mahoe, born at Honolulu and who was married to John Keoua Kalanikau Piimoku Haalou; the fourth daughter, Martha Kaumaka Mahoe who was also born in Honolulu and died at the age of 18 at Kawaiahao Seminary and later taken back to Koloa Hawaiian Church and buried next to her Hawaiian missionary parents. Abigail Kekulani Mahoe, their fourth daughter, begotten at Tarawa; she married to James A. Harper of England and had two daughters Miss Emily Aulani Harper of Waianae, Oahu and Alice Kahalemalihinikalei Harper of Kapaa Kauai; and Mrs. Abigail Kekulani Harper was buried at the Waianae Protestant Church in Waianae, Oahu. The sons of the Reverend Joel Hulu Mahoe and Olivia Mahoe were Joel Hulu Mahoe Jr. aka Joel Hapa who was cared for by his sister Abigail Kekulani Mahoe and her husband James A. Harper; hence the name Hapa for Harper; the next son was Benjamin Hulu Mahoe, born at Kiribati, September 30, 1878 and who married Henrietta Kaaialii and later married Helen Akau; another son by the name of Joseph Kahoohuli Mahoe who lived and died in Ka'u, Hawaii. Other children of the Reverend Mahoe and his wife that died as children were Maria Mahoe, Luukia Mahoe, and another daughter that wa still born. There are numerous of Mahoe descendants still living today. If so, they would be the next closest relatives to the Kalakaua line next to the Kawananakoas. If the House of Kawananakoa dies out they would be the next closest relatives of David Kalakaua and Liliuokalani.

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