Hiram Bingham Sr.

1789-1869. Pioneer missionary to Hawaii. Born in Bennington, Vermont, he reached Hawaii (then known as the Sandwich Islands) under the American Board in 1820. He helped create a written language for the people and set up schools for their instruction. With other missionaries he completed a translation of the Bible in 1839. He built the first church in Honolulu in 1821. As trusted adviser to the chiefs, he came into conflict with godless Americans and others who flocked to the islands for personal satisfaction and gain. After twenty- one years, his wife's health forced return to the States. Bingham has been much maligned by recent writers unsympathetic to the strict New England morality he sought to inculcate.