The Rev. Joel Hulu Mahoe (1831-1891), for 22 years pastor of Koloa Hawaiian Church and the Hawaiian Congregational Church in Kilauea, Kaua‘i, was born on the Big Island, and was a Hawaiian chief and half-uncle of two of Hawai‘i’s future monarchs, King Kalakaua and Queen Lili‘uokalani.
Having been converted to Christianity at an early age, he became one of missionary the Rev. Hiram Bingham II’s assistants, along with Paul Kanoa, who would later became Kaua‘i’s governor from 1846 to 1877.
In 1857, Mahoe and his wife, Elizabeth, accompanied Bingham and his wife, Minerva, as missionaries to the Gilbert Islands (today’s Kiribati), where the mission gained hold on the islands of Tarawa, Butaritari, Makin and Tapiteuea.
But at Abaiang Island in March 1869, Mahoe was shot and severely wounded by rebel natives attempting to kill him, which forced him to leave Abaiang for Hawai‘i with his family to recover before returning for a short time to conclude his missionary work in the Gilberts.
Later that same year, Mahoe became pastor of Koloa Hawaiian Church, now the site of Koloa Church, and in 1878 was transferred to Kilauea’s Hawaiian Congregational Church, which was once located on the present site of Christ Memorial Episcopal Church.
At Kilauea, Mahoe worked to assist Kaua‘i’s newly arrived Gilbertese sugar-plantation workers, but despite his best efforts, the fixed, methodical routines of plantation labor did not suit them, and Kaua‘i’s climate, cooler and wetter than in their home islands, made the Gilbertese more susceptible to common colds.
Tuberculosis, pneumonia and dysentery also took a toll, as did the enervating effects of liquor and opium, and none became permanent residents of Hawai‘i.
At the time of his death at Koloa, Mahoe was pastor of Koloa Hawaiian Church.
He and Mrs. Mahoe had 11 children.
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