1. R. Lanier Britsch, Moramona—The Mormons in Hawaii (Laie, Hawaii: Institute for Polynesian Studies, 1989), 101.

2. Joseph B. Musser, “Laie—Home Place of the Church in Hawaii,” 9, unpublished. Musser’s report, although listed on the inventory of the library at Brigham Young University–Hawaii, was missing when I was at Laie in 1990. It was also missing from the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah (hereafter cited as BYU Special Collections), and from the Archives Division, Church Historical Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City (hereafter cited as LDS Church Archives). A copy of Musser’s report was subsequently obtained from a private source.

3. Comfort Margaret Bock, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Hawaiian Islands” (Master’s thesis, University of Hawaii, 1941), 55, 93.

4. D. James Cannon, “Across the Years” in “The Hawaiian Mission in Review,” Ka Elele O Hawaii (1942): 13.

5. Anna Johnson, “One Hundred Years in Hawaii,” Paradise of the Pacific, August 1950, 6. Johnson’s version is almost identical to Cannon’s found in “The Hawaiian Mission in Review,” and hers is the one most quoted in the literature during the next fifteen years. The slide presentation at the 1950 Centennial Pageant depicted the history of the Hawaiian Mission from 1850 to 1950. A copy of the original script, “One Hundred Years of Mormonism in Hawaii,” is at the Brigham Young University–Hawaii library. The pageant included over five hundred performers and a five-hundred-voice choir. It was presented several times during August 1950 at the University of Hawaii’s Andrews Open Air Theater. Professor Joseph F. Smith, grandson of the prophet, was then the head of the university’s speech department and directed the pageant. See Joseph F. Smith, ed., Script for 1950 Centennial Pageant, unpublished, BYU–Hawaii Archives. See also Arthur Haycock, “Heritage in the Pacific,” Improvement Era 53 (December 1950): 952.

6. Photo Script for Pictorial History of the Hawaiian Mission and Laie, 1980, based upon the 1950 Centennial Slide Script, BYU–Hawaii Archives; and Photo Script for Pictorial History of the Hawaiian Mission and Laie, 1990, based upon the 1950 Centennial Slide Script, BYU–Hawaii Archives.

7. Rex Frandsen, “Thumbnail History of Laie,” Hawaiian Librarian Association 38 (1981): 2.

8. “Mission Home Script,” typescript by staff members of the Polynesian Cultural Center, Laie, Hawaii, 1989, copy in the author’s possession.

9. Other versions that seem to stem from the Cannon version are Clinton Kanahele, “History of the Hawaiian Temple,” unpublished, BYU–Hawaii Pamphlet File/Archives; Dorothea R. Slack, “The Hawaiian Temple—Sacred Symbol of a Promised Land,” Hui Lau Lima News, November 24, 1957, T2, copy in BYU–Hawaii Pacific Islands Special Collections; David W. Cummings, Mighty Missionary of the Pacific (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1961), 257; James E. Talmage, The House of the Lord (reprint, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1962), plate 47 (note that Force Green added plate 47 about the Hawaii Temple when he updated James E. Talmage’s original book); Dorothea R. Slack and Kenneth T. Slack, “Narrative and Historical Materials for the Laie Centennial”; Richard C. Harvey, “The Development of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hawaii” (Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1974); and Lela Dalton, “A Glimpse into the Early Hawaii Mission and Oahu Stake Relief Society,” in Proceedings: Fifth Annual Conference, Mormon History in the Pacific (Laie, Hawaii: Brigham Young University–Hawaii Campus, 1984): 17.

10. The accounts of the prophecy that seem to be descended from Cumming’s version are as follows: Golden Anniversary of the Hawaiian Temple, 1919–1969, pamphlet, copy in the BYU–Hawaii Archives; Eva Kapolohau Bray Makuakane, “A Prophecy by President Joseph F. Smith” [about 1970], copy in Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University; Reuben D. Law, The Founding and Early Development of the Church College of Hawaii (St. George, Utah: Dixie College Press, 1972), 23–24; “Hawaii Temple,” Hawaii Honolulu Mission, Honolulu, about 1975, copy in the BYU–Hawaii Pacific Islands Special Collections; “Dedication—Joseph F. Smith Library,” BYU–Hawaii Campus, October 21, 1977, dedication brochure in the BYU–Hawaii Pacific Island Special Collections; Britsch, “Unto the Islands of the Sea: A History of the Latter-day Saints in the Pacific,” typeset copy of final draft, about 1977, copy in the BYU–Hawaii Pacific Islands Special Collections; Joseph H. Spurrier, “Great Are the Promises unto the Islands of the Sea,” 21, booklet published by the author (1978), copy in the BYU–Hawaii Pacific Islands Special Collections; Lance Chase, “Laie Life 1850–1883,” in Proceedings: Second Annual Conference, Mormon History in the Pacific (Laie, Hawaii: Brigham Young University–Hawaii Campus, 1981), 91; Robert O’Brien, “Hands across the Water—The Story of the Polynesian Cultural Center,” 39, booklet published by the Polynesian Cultural Center, Laie, Hawaii, 1983, copy in the BYU–Hawaii Pacific Islands Special Collections; Robert O. Joy, “The Historical Origins of the Goals of BYU–Hawaii Campus,” in Proceedings: Fifth Annual Conference, Mormon History in the Pacific (Laie, Hawaii: Brigham Young University–Hawaii Campus, 1984), 31; R. Lanier Britsch, Unto the Islands of the Sea (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986), 142; Joseph H. Spurrier, “The Hawaii Temple: A Special Place in a Special Land,” in Proceedings: Seventh Annual Conference, Mormon History in the Pacific (Laie, Hawaii: Brigham Young University–Hawaii Campus, 1986), 30; Russell T. Clement, “Apostle in Exile: Joseph F. Smith’s Third Mission to Hawaii, 1885–1887,” in Proceedings: Seventh Annual Conference, Mormon History in the Pacific, 53; Britsch, Moramona, 101; and Joseph H. Spurrier, Sandwich Island Saints (Hong Kong: By the author, 1989), 55. As mentioned earlier, most accounts are evidently related to either the Cannon or Cummings version, but other random accounts appear that cannot be clearly traced to either version. They are Ralph E. Woolley, “Dedication Program of the Laie Ward Chapel,” March 5, 1950, typescript, 5, copy in the BYU–Hawaii Pacific Islands Special Collections; Henry K. Lindsey, “Prophecies That Will Directly or Indirectly Affect the Destiny of Laie and the Surrounding Areas,” typescript in the BYU–Hawaii Pacific Islands Special Collections, also published by permission of the author in Paul Cheesman and Millie Foster Cheesman, Early America and the Polynesians (Provo, Utah: Promised Land Publications, 1975); Edward L. Clissold, “The History of Efforts to Establish a College in Hawaii,” address given at dedication services, December 17, 1958, Laie, Hawaii, excerpts published in David W. Cummings, Mighty Missionary of the Pacific, 267; 40th Anniversary Dedication of the Hawaiian Temple, pamphlet, November 26, 1959, copy in the BYU–Hawaii Pacific Islands Special Collections; Paul Cheesman and Millie Foster Cheesman, Early America and the Polynesians; Lance Chase, “History of BYU–Hawaii,” video tape presentation, 1985, copy in the BYU–Hawaii media file; and Gordon B. Hinckley, “Dedicatory Address at Iosepa, Skull, Utah,” August 28, 1989, typescript in possession of the author.

11. David W. Cummings, “Centennial History of Laie (1865–1965),” Laie Centennial Committee, June 1965. I believe Cummings himself wrote this version of the prophecy because it appears for the first time in his commemorative booklet and it matches the flamboyant style used in the rest of his history. Cummings certainly had access to Musser’s report because his history contains some information found only there. Cummings’s version of the prophecy almost certainly follows Musser: the texts are identical in number and order of sentences and paragraphs, and the ideas expressed in all but one sentence are similar.

12. Britsch, Unto the Islands of the Sea, 142. Britsch extracted material from this work, including the Laie prophecy, for his book Moramona, 101.

13. Eva Kapolohau Bray Makuakane, copy in possession of the author.

14. Cannon, “Across the Years,” 13.

15. Cummings, “Centennial History of Laie.”

16. Spurrier, Sandwich Island Saints, 55.

17. Edward Partridge Jr., Journal, February 15, 1885, BYU Special Collections.

18. Partridge, Journal, February 15, 1885.

19. Partridge, Journal, January 27, 1885.

20. Mission Home, canoe tour, and Laie tour scripts, Polynesian Cultural Center, Laie, Hawaii, October 1989 (hereafter cited as PCC scripts).

21. Musser, “Laie—Home Place of the Church,” 9.

22. PCC scripts.

23. Francis A. Hammond to President Wells, May 7, 1865, Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star 27 (August 19, 1865): 527.

24. Benjamin Cluff, “The Cluff Family Journal,” vol. 1, 1899 and 1901, BYU Special Collections, 182.

25. State Department of Land and National Resources, Climatological Stations in Hawaii, report R42, 1973. Also State Department of Land and National Resources, Preliminary Report on the Water Resources of the Kahuku Area, Oahu, Hawaii, circular C39, November 1966, 16. The average rainfall at Laie is about fifty inches per year on the lower plain and up to two hundred inches near the top of the Koolau Mountain ridge, which forms the western border of the Laie estate. Journal entries of resident missionaries during the mid-1880s provide a reliable record of general weather conditions at the lower plain, including periods of drought. These journal entries also show that the mid-1870s and mid-1880s were wet years.

26. Edward Partridge, mission president and manager of the Church plantation, recorded in his journal that the first two artesian wells at Laie were drilled in 1881 for Chu Su Lin, who had leased forty-eight acres of marshland for growing rice. The third well was drilled the following year for J. Kapau, a native attorney, on his homestead at Laiemallo (Partridge, Journal, June 14, 1882, and December 27, 1883). Susa Young Gates reported that two more artesian wells had recently been completed down in the cane fields (Susa Young Gates, “Homespun,” Deseret News, August 19, 1886, 530).

27. Jacob F. Gates, Deseret News, November 10, 1886, 685.

28. Jacob F. Gates, Deseret News, November 16, 1887, 702.

29. Jacob F. Gates, Deseret Weekly, May 23, 1888, 295.

30. M. F. Eakel, “Among the Hawaiians,” Deseret Weekly, April 27, 1889, 568.

31. Musser, “Laie—Home Place of the Church,” 9.

32. Cannon, “Hawaiian Mission Review,” 13.

33. A number of the authors who quote the Laie prophecy did not promulgate the legend that Laie was once a dry, barren wasteland but claimed other reasons for the prophecy’s origin. Britsch stated simply that “the prophecy grew out of the problems of the times” (Britsch, Moramona, 101).

34. Matthew and Claire W. Noall, “To My Children,” 1947, BYU Special Collections, 24. Noall served a mission to the Sandwich Islands in 1885 and was mission president there in 1892–95. Joseph F. Smith assisted Noall, who was a carpenter, during several building projects in 1885.

35. Pacific Commercial Advertiser [Honolulu], January 28, 1865, as quoted in Spurrier, Sandwich Island Saints, 46.

36. W[illiam] W. Cluff, “Acts of Special Providence in Missionary Experience,” Improvement Era 2 (March 1899): 364.

37. George Bowser, “Itinerary of the Islands,” in The Hawaiian Kingdom Statistical and Commercial Directory and Tourists’ Guide, 1880–1881 (Honolulu: George Bowser, 1880), 487.

38. Susa Young Gates, “Homespun,” Deseret News, April 14, 1886, 206.

39. Marvin E. Pack, “The Sandwich Islands Country and Mission,” Contributor 17 (1896): 694.

40. “A Look Back in Time at the History of Our Land,” Lihi Lani News [Haleiwa, Hawaii] 2 (Spring 1990).

41. Partridge, Journal, May 13, 1884.

42. Cluff, “Acts of Special Providence,” 364.

43. Partridge, Journal, February 26, 1884. See also Noall, “To My Children,” 32, 36.

44. Partridge, Journal, July 13, 1883, October 8, 1883, February 28, 1884, May 31, 1884, and June 19, 1884.

45. Partridge, Journal, January 26, 1884, March 9, 1884, and January 16, 1885.

46. James Kesler to David O. Calder, Deseret News, October 10, 1877, 570. Kesler served his first mission in 1850.

47. Partridge, Journal, June 18, 1882.

48. “From the Sandwich Islands,” Deseret News, April 8, 1885, 188.

49. Britsch, Moramona, 90.

50. Noall, “To My Children,” 24.

51. W. F. Bailey, conversation with the author, February 13, 1991.

52. Britsch, Moramona, 220 n. 17.

53. Dennis H. Atkins, “Iosepa, a Utah Home for the Polynesians,” in Proceedings: Sixth Annual Conference, Mormon History in the Pacific (Laie, Hawaii: Brigham Young University–Hawaii Campus, 1985): 10. This paper is based upon Atkins’s “A History of Iosepa, the Utah Polynesian Colony” (Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1938).

54. Harvey H. Cluff, “Cluff Family Journal,” 345.

55. Atkins, “Iosepa,” 10.

56. Pioneer colonizing efforts continued into the early twentieth century, with settlements in Summerville, Oregon (1892), Kirtland, New Mexico (1899), the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming (1900), and Kelsey, Texas (1901). See Richard L. Jensen, “Colonization,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, 5 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 1:290–94.

57. Tracey E. Panek, “Life at Iosepa, Utah’s Polynesian Colony,” Utah Historical Quarterly 60 (Winter 1992): 76. Hiram Wallace Severe, an early settler, described Skull Valley as the “land of desolation, that long stretch of alkali desert, greasewood, shadscale, coyotes and cactus.” LDS Church Archives, MS 3591 (1888).

58. Joseph F. Smith letters, trans. William Kaneakala, LDS Church Archives.

59. Joseph F. Smith letters. Five of these letters were written to Elder H. N. Kekauoha, who arrived in Utah during May 1890 and returned to Laie with his family about three years later. Others reveal President Smith’s close ties with and deep concern for his “Hawaiian children”: “We are all well. Our hopes are high. Our spirits are light and we have enough of everything that is good for the body and the Spirit, therefore we are blessed here [at Iosepa]. The members are living right. . . . But there are some folks that have gone backward and they have left Iosepa by night [July 1, 1890].” President Smith sent some cloth pants to another “to keep you warm in the cold days as you carry on the work [November 7, 1890].” Sister Kapukini addressed her letter to “Father Joseph.” Joseph F. Smith received it on July 27, 1888, and annotated it with “answ’d [it] in person.”

60. Joseph F. Smith to Samuela Kii, Joseph F. Smith letters, January 9, 1891.

61. Harvey H. Cluff, Journal, August 5 and 6, 1894, LDS Church Archives.

62. Atkins, “Iosepa,” 16.

63. Francis M. Gibbons, Joseph F. Smith: Patriarch, Preacher, and Prophet of God (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1984), 142. Gibbons apparently had access to President Smith’s diaries, including those for 1885 and 1886 (not available to the general public at the present time). Since there is nothing in Gibbons’s or other biographies about the Laie prophecy and events surrounding its origin, it is assumed that there is nothing in President Smith’s diaries about the prophecy.

64. Musser, “Laie—Home Place of the Church,” 9. Susa Young Gates stated, “The long walk home [from the ocean beach] over the grassy meads and hill, is lovely just as the western sun is dipping behind the wooded mountain tips. And we stand a moment on the brow of the hill, drinking in with grateful ecstasy the soft loveliness of hill and vale, river and sea.” Deseret News, September 8, 1886, 530.

65. Jay M. Todd, “Hawaii,” Improvement Era 69 (May 1966): 333, 385. Todd concluded that “for the next 26 years Iosepa . . . flourished, and contrary to generally accepted opinion, it was extremely successful and called by U.S. government observers ‘a model community.’” See also Panek, “Life at Iosepa,” 77; Leonard J. Arrington, “The LDS Hawaiian Colony at Skull Valley,” Improvement Era 57 (May 1954): 336; Atkins, “Iosepa, a Utah Home,” 17; and Britsch, Moramona, 125.

66. Harvey H. Cluff, “Cluff Family Journal,” 345.

67. Musser, “Laie—Home Place of the Church,” 9.

68. Frederick Beesley, Journal, March 8, 1886, BYU–Hawaii Pacific Islands Special Collections; and Panek, “Life at Iosepa,” 68. Note that Beesley calls the root from which poi is made “kalo,” the Hawaiian name for taro until around the turn of the century. If the “Laie prophecy” had been recorded in the mid-1880s, one would expect to see “kalo” and not “taro” and “Sandwich Islands,” not “Hawaiian Islands,” in the text. This word usage indicates further that the “Laie prophecy” is of modern origin.

69. Joseph H. Spurrier, conversation with the author, July 30, 1990.

70. Cluff, Journal, August 28, 1889. Cluff gives the following names for members of the Kekuku family in his list of colonists: Joseph (father), Miliama (wife),and Hattie, Ivy, Viola, and Edwin (children).

71. Viola Kehau Kawahigashi, interview by the author, September 9, 1990. Viola is Ivy’s daughter.

72. Partridge, Journal, February 16 and 25, 1885. He recorded that Miliama sang at two evening socials attended by President Smith and his wife. Susa Young Gates praised Miliama’s singing talent as follows: “A solo by Mele Ema [sic], whose glorious voice soars out, sweet and clear as a silver bell, full of pathos and beauty. . . . It charms you into forgetfulness of earth and earthly things” (Susa Young Gates, “Homespun,” Deseret News, December 14, 1887, 759).

73. Britsch, Moramona, 90.

74. From “Hymn for Evening,” in “Hymn for Schools.”

Harold S. Davis

BYU Studies Publications