Charlotte Close Knapp Dole, Connecticut Missionary to Hawaii

Charlotte Close Knapp Dole:

Connecticut Missionary to Hawaii.

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead, CSG #13607

The Connecticut Nutmegger, 

Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc.

Published: March 1997.

Among the numerous missionaries who departed for the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in the 19th century was Charlotte Close Knapp of Greenwich. 

Her original ancestor was Goodman Close, born 1600 and Yorkshire, England. He married Elizabeth ______, born 1606. Both arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1642. He died 4 Sept., 1656. (1)

Their son, Thomas Close, was born in 1637. He married Sarah Hardy 1669, and died in Greenwich in 1709. (2)

Joseph Close was born 20 Nov. 1676 in Greenwich and died there 4 Oct. 1760. In 1701 he married Rebecca Tompkins, who was born in 1679 and died 13 Nov. 1761. (3)

Joseph Close, Jr.,  was born 20 Sept.,  1702 and died 4 Jan. 1760. He married twice; first to Eunice Hait, on 29 May, 1728. She died March 7, 1740. Joseph married his second wife, Mary Merritt on July 26, 1744.(4)

The line of descent for Charlotte Close Knapp Dole continues through the second marriage of Joseph Close, Jr.,  and Merry Merritt. 

Revolutionary War Captain Odle Close was born 22 Oct. 1738. He was appointed a member of Greenwich’s Committee of Safety and Inspection at the Town Meeting held on 3 Dec. 1775 (5) At age 18 years he eloped with Bethia Reynolds, daughter of Gideon Reynolds when young Miss Reynolds was only 14 years old!  She was born 27 Feb. 1742. (6)

Her father was deacon of Greenwich’s Second Congregational Church and a member of the Connecticut Legislature. Odle Close died 26 April 1812. the Bethia Reynolds Close died 17 Feb. 1832, aged 89 years, 11 months, 17 days. Both are interred in the Close Family Cemetery off Lake Avenue in Greenwich. (7)

Gilbert Close was born 7 Mar. 1765. He first married Charlotte, daughter of Theophilus and Rebecca Peck on 10 Apr. 1788. (8) She died on 26 Sept. 1806, and is interred in the Peck Family Cemetery of Round Hill Road in Pecksland. 

Gilbert’s second marriage took place on 26 Nov. 1807 to Sally, daughter of Isaac and Lucy (Mead) Howe. (10) Gilbert was a farmer in Round Hill and served as a Justice of the Peace, and was one of the founders of the North Greenwich Congregational Church in 1826. (11) Gilbert Close was named an honorary member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1833. (12) He died 22 December 1845. (13)

Sally Howe Close was born 18 August 1779. (14)  She was a member of the Female Foreign Mission Society (15) and was also constituted an honorary member of the ABCFM in 1840. (16)  She died 17 Apr. 1846. (17) Sally and her husband are both interred in the cemetery of the North Greenwich Congregational Church. It is from this marriage that Charlotte and her siblings originated. 

Charlotte Close was born 26 May 1813. (18) She was probably named after her father's first wife. She was baptized 27 Aug. 1813. (19) in Greenwich’s Second Congregational Church by Rev. Isaac Lewis. 

As all departing missionaries were required to be married, she married Horton Owen Knapp, son of Jared Knapp (15 March 1779- 8 Apr. 1839) and Mary Owen (died 16 Oct. 1870) of Round Hill, (20)  on 24 November 1836 (21) by Rev. Chauncey Wilcox of the North Greenwich Congregational Church. In less than one month’s time they departed as members of the 8th Company Reinforcement for missionary life in the Hawaiian Islands under the sponsorship of the A.B.C.F.M. They arrived in Honolulu on board the barque Mary Frazier on 9 April 1837. (22) 

Both were initially stationed at Waimea, Hawaii. Horton Knapp’s poor health caused them to be relocated to Lahaina, Maui, and eventually to Honolulu, Oahu. Horton Knapp never recovered from his illnesses, and he died of consumption (tuberculosis) at age 32 years on 28 Mar. 1845. (23) There were no children from this marriage. 

The gravestone of Horton Owen Knapp, Charlotte Close Knapp Dole's first husband.

In 1846 (24) Charlotte Close Knapp married a second time to Rev. Daniel Dole, a fellow missionary and first president of Punahou School. She and Rev. Dole labored there as teachers to the children of other the missionaries. By this marriage she became a step-mother to Rev. Dole’s two sons George and Sanford Ballard Dole. Sanford would eventually rise in prominence as a lawyer and judge in the Hawaiian Kingdom, and in 1893 led the revolt which toppled Queen Lilioukalani and established the Hawaiian Republic, and eventually territorial status with the United States. 

After her second husband resigned from Punahou School, Charlotte Close Knapp Dole lived her years in Hawaii. On 5 July, 1874, (25) appropriately on Sabbath morning, Charlotte died at the home of her stepson, George Dole. Her remains were buried in the Missionary Cemetery behind the historic Kawaiahao Church, not far from the grave of her first husband, Horton Owen Knapp. 

This is the Missionary Cemetery behind Kawaiahao Church, Honolulu, Hawaii. 

Citations 
1 Mead, S.P. Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1911, page 518.
2 Mead, S.P., page 518.
3 Mead, S.P., page 519.
4 Mead, S.P., page 519-520.
5 Greenwich, Connecticut Town Meeting Minutes. 
6 Mead, S.P., page 522.
7 Mead, S.P., Abstract of Tombstones in the Town of Greenwich, 1913. 
8 Mead, S.P., page 523.
9 Mead, S.P., Abstract, 1913. 
10 Mead, S.P., page 523.
11 Simerl, Linton and Martha. Congregationalists on Quaker Ridge, p.37.
12 Missionary Herald, January, 1833, p. 38.
13 Gilbert Close is buried in the North Greenwich Congregational Church Cemetery. 
14 Mead, S.P., Ye Historie, p. 571.
15 List of Members: The Female Foreign Mission Society (orig. manuscript). 
16 Missionary Herald, January, 1841, p. 45.
17 Sally Close is buried next to her husband in the cemetery of the North Greenwich Congregational Church.
18 Missionary Album, p. 133.
19 Baptismal Records of the Second Congregational Church, Greenwich, Connecticut. 
20 Nicholas Knapp Genealogy.
21 Nicholas Knapp Genealogy.
22 Missionary Album, p. 133.
23 Knapp’s marble gravestone is in the Missionary Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii, behind Kawaiahao Church. 
24 Missionary Album, p. 85.
25 Charlotte Close Knapp Dole is interred in the Missionary Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii, behind Kawaiahao Church. 

Bibliography
Mead, S.P. Abstract of Tombstones of Greenwich, 1913.

Mead, S.P., Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1911. 

Missionary Album: Portraits and Biographical Sketches of the American Protestant Missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands: Sesquicentennial Edition. The Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, Honolulu, 1969.

Missionary Herald, Published by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions: Years 1833 and 1841.

Nicholas Knapp Family Genealogy.

Simerl, Linton and Martha, ed. Congregationalists on Quaker Ridge: The History of the North Greenwich Congregational Church. Greenwich, 1977.