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Guide to the Alexander Family Papers, 1818-1956
BANC MSS P-N 105 FILM
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Table of contents
Collection Title: Alexander Family Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1818-1956
Collection Number: BANC MSS P-N 105 FILM
Creator:
Alexander Family
Extent:
Number of microfilm reels: 6
Repository: The
Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Include papers of William P. Alexander, pioneer missionary to the Sandwich Islands (letters and journals); letters written
by his wife, Mary Ann (McKinney) Alexander; and papers of their son William DeWitt Alexander, including letters from Hiram
Bingham, James Dwight Dana, George Davidson, Nathaniel Bright Emerson, Chester S. Lyman, Susan Lincoln Tolman Mills, William
E. Safford, Cyrus Thomas, etc.
Languages Represented:
English
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
[identification of item], Alexander Family Papers, BANC MSS P-N 105 FILM, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
Both William Patterson Alexander (1805-1884) and Dwight Baldwin (1798-1886) were pioneer missionaries to the Sandwich Islands.
In December, 1830, Dr. Baldwin, having just completed his medical studies at Harvard, married Charlotte Fowler and set sail
with three other bridal, missionary couples aboard a whaler from New Bedford, Massachusetts (The American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions had recently decreed that only missionaries accompanied by their wives should be sent out.). In November
1831, William P. Alexander and his bride of less than a month, Mary Ann McKinney, also sailed from New Bedford on a whaler,
in company with eight other missionary couples. In each case bride and bridegroom were practically strangers to each other,
for neither couple had even met each other until a few weeks before embarking together, not only on a long and perilous journey,
but upon a life-long association in strange and savage lands far from family and friends. However, both of the marriages turned
out to be singularly happy, and the families, united by their mutual labors and also by marriages of their children, unusually
close-knit and harmonious.
Dr. Baldwin was chiefly associated with Lahaina on the island of Maui; William P. Alexander with Waioli (Kauai), Wailuku and
Lahainaluna (also on Maui) and with the Marquessas, to which he went several times. Both couples spent the rest of their lives
in the Islands and contributed much to the growth and culture of the communities in which they lived and worked.
The eldest Alexander son, William De Witt, and eldest Baldwin daughter, Abigail Charlotte (both born in 1833) were married
in 1860. Both young people had been sent to the States for schooling. William De Witt Alexander graduated from Yale in 1855,
and after various teaching positions in the East and Middle West, returned to become Professor of Greek, and later President,
of the famous Punahu School, Honolulu. Abigail Baldwin had attended Mt. Holyoke Seminary, much favored by the daughters of
the Islands' missionary families. Yale and Williams College were favorites for many of the Island youths, particularly Baldwin
and Alexander sons. Both families have been closely associated with the Punahu School; children of several generations have
been pupils and a number have returned to teach there.
Yet another marriage linked the Baldwin and Alexander families -Emily Alexander married Henry Perrine Baldwin in 1870. The
sons and daughters of both families, at least in the earliest generation, tended to marry within the fold of the missionary
families. Most remained in the Islands but some came to the States, particularly to California. Some became teachers and clergymen;
others associated with the raising of cane and pineapples or with the banking and mercantile life of the Islands, while still
others entered political life.
William De Witt Alexander (1833-1913), in addition to his pedigogical career, was largely responsible for the Coast and Geodetic
surveys of the Islands and was appointed Surveyor General of the Republic. He is also noted for his publications on the linguistics
and history of the Hawaiian Islands. Yale granted him an honorary degree in 1903. He had previously served as one of the Islands'
Commissioners to the United States to work out problems of annexation.
James McKinney Alexander (1835-1911) graduated from Williams College and for some time managed the family lands in the Islands.
Although he had a long and successful pastorate in East Oakland, California, he retained a scientific and practical interest
in agriculture.
These papers of the Alexander and Baldwin families are only part of the family archive assembled by Miss Mary Charlotte (daughter
of William De Witt and Abigail) Alexander for the biographies she published of her pioneer grandfathers and for the history
of Punahu School which she prepared with Charlotte Peabody Dodge. Most of the whole collection is now in the safe-keeping
of The Hawaiian Mission Children's Society (more popularly known as The Cousins' Society) in Honolulu. Not only are the details
of family life recorded -the trials and hardships of the missionary pioneers, the experiences of the children in pursuit of
their education, their life in various Island communities (including the administration of Punahu School) -but interesting
glimpses of the political life of the Islands are revealed. Unfortunately, although there are later letters to Miss Alexander
from her brother, Arthur Chambers Alexander, there are none for the period covering World Wars I and II.
Correspondence and Papers of William Patterson Alexander (1805-1884) and Dwight Baldwin (1798-1886), pioneer missionaries
to the Hawaiian Islands, and of their descendants. A few early Alexander family letters, 1818-1849, included. Much of the
correspondence is that of William DeWitt Alexander (1833-1913) and of his wife, Abigail Charlotte (Baldwin) Alexander.
From the estate of Mary Charlotte Alexander and lent for filming, 1961-1963, by DeWitt Alexander.
Originals now in the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society Library, Honolulu.