Kauai missionary teacher Miss Marcia Maria Smith (1806-1896) arrived in Honolulu aboard the barque “Mary Frazier” out of Boston on April 9, 1837 as a member of the Eighth Company of American Protestant missionaries and was initially stationed at Kaneohe,
Kauai missionary teacher Miss Marcia Maria Smith (1806-1896) arrived in Honolulu aboard the barque “Mary Frazier” out of Boston on April 9, 1837 as a member of the Eighth Company of American Protestant missionaries and was initially stationed at Kaneohe, Oahu.
Around 1840, she was transferred to the Koloa, Kauai Missionary Station, led at that time by the Rev. Peter Gulick.
There, she ran a school for the children of missionaries. Among them were the older Gulick boys, and two of the oldest Alexander boys from the Waioli Missionary Station of their father, Rev. William Patterson Alexander.
When Punahou School was organized in 1842, Miss Smith, the Rev. Daniel Dole and his first wife, Emily, were its first teachers. Miss Smith also served as matron of Punahou until 1852, when she returned to the United States.
Another relatively obscure missionary teacher who taught on Kauai was Miss Maria Ogden (1792-1874), a member of the Third Company of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions that arrived in Honolulu from Boston on March 30, 1828.
Miss Ogden was first assigned to the Waimea, Kauai Missionary Station to assist the Rev. Peter Gulick, who served at Waimea until 1835, when he transferred to Koloa.
She remained at Waimea for a year, during which time she commenced her study of the Hawaiian language and taught Hawaiian women and girls to write in the Hawaiian language, as well as to sew. At Waimea, she also devoted herself to nursing sick Hawaiians.
Miss Ogden later taught in Lahaina, Maui and at the Wailuku Female Seminary, Maui. On Oahu, she served as manager of domestic affairs at Punahou and established the Makiki Female Seminary.
She passed away in Honolulu after steadfastly serving others in the Hawaiian Islands for 46 years.
