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his community was "wretchedly poor"30. Those who could afford it fled Kohala to Lahaina and Honolulu
<br />where whalers and traders accelerated the new economy.
<br />Bond felt he could not leave his flock, mission, and school and sought to find ways to support the
<br />community. He attracted the support of his Mission friend Samuel Northup Castle. Together, they raised
<br />capital for the Kohala Sugar Company. Bond then entered into the sugar business, known by some as the
<br />"Missionary Plantation", and by the early 1870's, the Kohala Sugar Plantation profited. Bond gave
<br />money back to schools and the Mission board.31 Eleven years earlier, Castle had resigned from the
<br />Mission to start a business venture with another ex -missionary. Bond sold his land and bought stock in
<br />Kohala Sugar Company.
<br />Bond insisted on strict plantation rules that kept his primary missionary purpose in the foreground.
<br />Bond was told to go easy on his strict religious rules, and Dwight D. Baldwin, the son of a Waimea -based
<br />missionary who used to visit Kohala prior to Bond, managed with a softer heart than other managers.
<br />While Baldwin left it losing money, (but well liked), The Kohala Sugar Company climbed out of debt
<br />shortly after and Bond lost influence as George CC Williams became manager in 1872. James Wight was
<br />the first to become independent, separating himself from his agreements with Bond to open Halawa
<br />Mill and Plantation in 1873. Other haole businessmen moved in, and new mills followed. Niulii Mill
<br />(1877), Union Mill (1874), Star Mill and Hawi Mill (both 1881) opened.32 Subsidiary plantations and
<br />independent entrepreneurs organized, growing and selling cane to nearly mills.
<br />In addition to Protestant missions, Father Damien de Veuster served from March 1865 to 1873 when he
<br />left for Kalaupapa on Molokai to help the people who had contracted Hansen's disease (leprosy). He is
<br />now canonized as Saint Damien for his work. James Hawkins and John Stillman Woodbury were the first
<br />Mormons to arrive as missionaries. Brother Rice was sent to reopen mission efforts for the Mormon
<br />Church, along with mainland Elders Nathan Tanner and Thomas Karren, in company with newly ordained
<br />Elder John W. Kahumoku, and established their mission in Kohala. While the different ministries held
<br />strong to the belief of saving lives through conversion, and increasing their members through
<br />conversion, the likely biggest reduction in the flock of each church was not one of economy or one of
<br />religion, it was the diseases carried over. Measles, whooping cough, dysentery, influenza, and small pox
<br />spread death across the islands. Samuel M. Kamakau, a Hawaiian historian, reported, "In September,
<br />1848, an American warship brought the disease known as measles to Hilo, Hawaii. It spread and carried
<br />away about a third of the population.1133 In 1949, M.A. Taff, Jr., then head of the Territorial Health
<br />Department's vital statistics office, stated that "the (1848-49) measles epidemic alone killed off one-
<br />quarter of the native population. By the end of the major epidemics, the Hawaiian population was
<br />30 Kohala 'Aina, Sophia V. Schweitzer and Surety Kohala Corporation. Mutual Publishing, November 2003
<br />31 Coffee times, referenced from http://www.coffeetimes.com/aug98.htm
<br />32 Kohala 'Aina, Sophia V. Schweitzer and Surety Kohala Corporation. Mutual Publishing, November 2003
<br />33 Schmitt. For 1990 estimates of the "pure" and part Hawaiian populations, see Robert C. Schmitt, "How Many
<br />Hawaiians Live in Hawaii? Pacific Studies19, no. 3 Sept.1996. referenced from
<br />https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/5014607.pdf
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