Dr. James William Smith, Physician Missionary in Hawaii: A Connecticut Ancestry

Dr. James William Smith, Physician Missionary in Hawaii:

A Connecticut Ancestry

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead, CSG #13607

Submitted September 27, 1997 

to the Connecticut Nutmegger, 

Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc.

Published: March 1998.

Map of the Hawaiian Islands dated 1837. Source: Library of Congress. 

American Congregational missionary physicians journeyed to many parts of the nineteenth century world. Among those who answered the call to serve God and distant peoples was Dr. James William Smith of Stamford, CT. His calling brought him to Hawaii in 1842.

One of the earliest known ancestors of James William Smith was Nathaniel Smith, Jr. He was born 11 November 1729, son of Caleb and Susana (Scofield) Smith, who were married 11 February 1719/20.

Nathaniel married on 5 June 1752 Abigail Scofield, born 27 December 1730, daughter of Samuel and Hannah (Weed) Scofield at Rye, New York. Abigail died on 12 February 1766. Nathaniel's second wife, Sarah, died sometime after 1812. Nathaniel Smith served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War as a private in the 1st Company, Fifth Continental Regiment. He served from 11 May to 2 November 1775.(1)

His children with Abigail Scofield were Nathaniel, born 25 September 1752, had died by 1803; Abigail, born 28 July 1752, married James Scofield 3rd, born 14 March 1746/7, son of John and Sarah (Holly) Scofield; Isaac, born 16 January 1757; Caleb, born 24 April 1758, was dead by 1838; Susanna, born 12 August 1759, married William White; Daniel, born 11 March 1763.(2)

Isaac Smith is next in line. He was born at Stamford 16 January 1757. He married 21 January 1778 to Abigail Waring, born 25 February 1761, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Richards) Waring. Isaac died 15 February 1805. His widow married a second time on 1 May 1807 to Rev. Nathaniel Finch, who died 10 August 1829. She died 5 August 1842.(3)

As a Revolutionary War soldier, Isaac Smith enlisted on 1 April 1775 in Col. Thomas’s regiment. He served for eight months at Fort Independence in Westchester County, New York. Isaac used his medical talents as a surgeon’s mate in the Connecticut Troops under Cols. Waterbury, Thomas, and Mead.(4)

Dr. Isaac and Abigail (Waring) Smith had nine children. They were: Caleb, born 2 April 1779; Isaac, born 19 July 1781; Pamela, born 14 November 1782, married Nathaniel Ferris; Mary, born 25 March 1785, married Sylvanus Marshall, Jr.; Ruth, born 14 April 1787, married Solomon Palmer in 1804. 

He was born in 1776 in Greenwich son of Denham and Ann Palmer; Philander, born 4 December 1788, died 13 September 1841, and married Clarissa Holly, born 27 October 1790, died 25 November, 1858, daughter of Stephen and Deborah (Ferris) Holly; Alva, born 1 November 1796, of Westchester County; Edwin, born 1 November 1796, of Westchester County; Jesse, born 24 June 1799; Elizabeth, who married James Place Anderson. (5)

Philander Smith was the father of James William Smith. He was born 4 December 1788, died 13 September 1841. Philander married Clarissa Holly, born 27 October 1790, daughter of Stephen and Deborah (Ferris) Holly. She died 25 November, 1858. (6)

Philander Smith sold his son James 3 parcels of land in Stamford, totaling 12 acres, for $720 and 13 November, 1830.(7) Seven years later, and 17 April, 1837, Philander and Clarissa Holly Smith sold James 16 acres with buildings in Stamford for $1837.(8)

Source: FindAGrave. 

James William Smith was born July 8, 1810 in Stamford.(9)

Of his early life Smith wrote, “Until I was 17 years old I usually attended school in the winter & worked on the farm in the summer,” he wrote. “At this time at this age I begin school teaching. When I was about 19 it pleased the Great Head of the church to arrest me in my sins & as I humbly trust to bring me to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Soon after I connected myself with the Congregational Church in Stanwich where I came onto the pastoral care of the Rev. Platt Buffett. After a year, I think was after this, I commenced studying in preparation for the ministry. I entered the Academy of O.H. Olmstead, Esq., of Wilton where I studied in all about 3 years. Occasionally I was obliged to engage in teaching for a few months in order to supply myself with the necessary funds. In the spring of 1834 my health failed me & to my great grief I was compelled to relinquish my studies.” (10)

He studied medicine in Stamford and at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, now Columbia University. "I commenced the study of medicine as my health would permit it, thinking that in this profession next after the ministry I should have the greatest field of usefulness.” (11)

Dr. Smith decided to go on a mission for several reasons. "I would say 1st: The Saviour’s command ‘go teach all nations.’  2nd: The wants of the heathen; a Physician if I understand the case is greatly needed at the Sandwich Islands at the present time & no one seems ready to go.  3rd: The fact that I commenced preparation for the ministry under the circumstances I did, was aided by benevolent friends & was the subject of many prayers and ardent expectations, this fact gives additional weight to other considerations & I feel as if the Lord had a claim on me.” (12)

He married Melicent Knapp, the daughter of Jared and Mary Owen of Round Hill, Greenwich. (13) She was born 15 October 1816. They were married by Rev. Chauncey Wilcox at the Knapp homestead on 18 April 1842.

Within three weeks of their wedding they were on the brig Sarah Abigail out of Boston for a 143 day journey to Hawaii. They were members of the Tenth Company, and arrived in Honolulu on September 12, 1842. (14)

In November they were stationed at Koloa on the island of Kauai. From 1842 to 1882 Dr. Smith was the only physician on Kauai. He was prone to hasty and regular calls on horseback and on foot. Sometimes his visits took him to Hanalei, 40 miles away on Kauai's North Shore, or to Waimea, 12 miles in the other direction. (15)  In February 1866 he made a 40 mile ride to attend to a young boy at Princeville Plantation and 4.5 hours. Dr. Smith was 55 years old at the time.

In a letter he penned to Obadiah Mead of North Greenwich, dated October 20, 1843, Dr. Smith said “…we find our field of labor in many respects very pleasant. I might speak of the mild and affectionate disposition of the natives & of their readiness to receive instruction -traits which soon endear them to the heart of the missionary.” (16)

From 1854 to 1869 he also served as the first ordained minister on Kauai and pastor of the Koloa Mission (Hawaiian Church of Koloa). Dr. Smith was entirely supported by Hawaiian parishioners, growing and harvesting sugarcane to support the church.

In 1862, James and his wife Melicent establish the Koloa Boarding School for Girls. Melicent labored as its superintendent and a teacher for ten years. (17)

On April 20 Dr. Smith penned a letter to relatives in Connecticut. "It is 21 years today since we left home. I remember the morning well. It was cloudy with some showers, we took breakfast, had prayers, bade you “goodbye,” got in the old 2-horse wagon, cast a last look at the old family cottage and proceeded to Rocky Neck. To the steamboat to New York, and there bid goodbye to one of my brothers and other friends, and then and barked for Boston. Towards evening we passed Greenwich. So Horseneck meeting house and took our last look but those familiar shores, by the light of the setting sun. Twenty-one years have passed since that day, how strange it seems, and how soon, too, they have passed…I am now 52 years old and begin to feel myself almost an old man.” (18)

"In many respects our situation here at the Islands has always been pleasant," he continued. "Koloa is one of the most desirable places of residences on the whole group. My field of labor is not arduous, but it is large enough to keep me fully employed. For 12 years now we have got along comfortably without drawing anything from the funds of the American Board for our support.” (19) 

Dr. and Mrs. Smith had nine children with seven surviving through adulthood. Their children were: Emma Clarissa, 1843-1920; Charlotte Elizabeth, 1845-1896, married A. S. Hartwell; Mary Arabella, 1846 -1848; William Owen, 1848-1929; Jared Knapp, 1849-1897; Mary Eliza 1851-1852; Alfred Holly, 1853-1928; Melicent Philena, 1854-1943, married William Waterhouse; Anna Juliet, 1857-1900, married J.K. Farley. (20)

In 1880 Dr. Smith made a brief visit to his old New England home. He died in Koloa on 30 November, 1887, and is buried in the Smith-Waterhouse Cemetery in Koloa.

Citations 

1 Wicks, Edith, & Olsen, Virginia. Stamford Soldiers: Genealogical Biographies of Revolutionary War Patriots from Stamford, Connecticut. p. 265.
2 Ibid., p. 265.
3 Ibid., p. 258.
4 Ibid., p. 258.
5 Ibid., p. 258.
6 Ibid., p. 258. 
7 Stamford Land Records, Volume W, page 230. Philander Smith to James W. Smith, 13 November, 1830.  
8 Stamford Land Records, Volume V, page 656-657. Philander & Clarissa Smith to James W. Smith of New York City, 13 April, 1837.
9 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, p. 176. 
10 Smith, Dr. James William. Letter of Candidacy, New York, Sept. 28, 1840. Microfiche: Collections of the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, Honolulu, HI. Transcript: Collections of the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Ct. 
11 Ibid., Sept. 28, 1840, p. 258.
12 Ibid., Sept. 28, 1840, p. 258.
13 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, p. 176.
14 Ibid., p. 176.
15 Ibid., p. 176.
16 Smith, Dr. James William, Koloa, Kauai. Letter to Deacon Obadiah Mead, North Greenwich, CT, Oct. 20, 1843. Typed manuscript: Smith Family Papers, Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, Honolulu, HI. Transcript: Collections of the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich. 
17 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, p. 176.
18 Smith, Dr. James William. Koloa, Kauai. Letter to Mary (Owen) Knapp, , Round Hill, CT, Apr. 20, 1863. Typed manuscript: Smith Family Papers, Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, Honolulu, HI. Transcript: Collections of the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich.
19 Ibid., Apr. 20, 1863.
20 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, p. 176.