Juliette Montague Cooke
Title
Juliette Montague Cooke
Description
Juliette Montague Cooke (March 10, 1812 - August 11, 1896)
Juliette Montague was a resourceful young woman in Sunderland, Massachusetts when she met Amos Starr Cooke in 1835. She had lost her father ten years earlier and had immediately begun supporting herself as a seamstress, after which she worked at a school in Amherst, Massachusetts, in order to attend classes. She was also allowed to attend lectures at the nearby Amherst College, as well as being associated with Ipswich Seminary, then run by Mary Lyon, who went on to form Mount Holyoke Seminary. She was a teacher and a faithful member of her church, and had thought to become a missionary before meeting Amos Cooke, a young man determined to join the missionaries already settled in Hawaiʻi. Thus they were suited for their journey with the Hawaiian Islands Mission.
Juliette and Amos married in 1836 and sailed three weeks later, aboard the ship Mary Frazier, arriving in Honolulu as members of the eighth company of missionaries sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1837.
The aliʻi, the Hawaiian ruling class, desired that the missionaries create a school for their children who would one day represent and rule over the islands. The ali’i wanted their children to be able to move in the larger world, fluent in the English language and with a knowledge of western culture. After some time teaching general education classes, the Cookes were singled out to take on the schooling of twelve children at what was called the Chiefs’ Children’s School, later known as the Royal School, assisted by John Papa ʻĪʻī and his wife Sarai. With these guardians, the children blossomed. The youngest would become Liliʻuokalani, the last queen of Hawaiʻi.
The school closed in 1850 when the last child eligible to rule the islands came of age. Juliette and her husband moved to the frame house which you see across the street from this cemetery. Amos joined forces with Samuel Northrup Castle to form Castle and Cooke, a mercantile company which survives today. Juliette raised her seven children while teaching the royal children, and when the family returned to the Mission Houses, continued to teach by overseeing Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary and teaching Sunday School.
She made three voyages to her native America.
Juliette Montague Cooke
Born March 10, 1812, Sunderland, Massachusetts
Died Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, August 11, 1896
Sources:
Partners in Change, David Forbes, Ralph Kam, Thomas Woods, editors; Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, 2018
Notable Women of Hawaii, Barbara Bennett Peterson, editor, University of Hawaii Press 1984
Juliette Montague was a resourceful young woman in Sunderland, Massachusetts when she met Amos Starr Cooke in 1835. She had lost her father ten years earlier and had immediately begun supporting herself as a seamstress, after which she worked at a school in Amherst, Massachusetts, in order to attend classes. She was also allowed to attend lectures at the nearby Amherst College, as well as being associated with Ipswich Seminary, then run by Mary Lyon, who went on to form Mount Holyoke Seminary. She was a teacher and a faithful member of her church, and had thought to become a missionary before meeting Amos Cooke, a young man determined to join the missionaries already settled in Hawaiʻi. Thus they were suited for their journey with the Hawaiian Islands Mission.
Juliette and Amos married in 1836 and sailed three weeks later, aboard the ship Mary Frazier, arriving in Honolulu as members of the eighth company of missionaries sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1837.
The aliʻi, the Hawaiian ruling class, desired that the missionaries create a school for their children who would one day represent and rule over the islands. The ali’i wanted their children to be able to move in the larger world, fluent in the English language and with a knowledge of western culture. After some time teaching general education classes, the Cookes were singled out to take on the schooling of twelve children at what was called the Chiefs’ Children’s School, later known as the Royal School, assisted by John Papa ʻĪʻī and his wife Sarai. With these guardians, the children blossomed. The youngest would become Liliʻuokalani, the last queen of Hawaiʻi.
The school closed in 1850 when the last child eligible to rule the islands came of age. Juliette and her husband moved to the frame house which you see across the street from this cemetery. Amos joined forces with Samuel Northrup Castle to form Castle and Cooke, a mercantile company which survives today. Juliette raised her seven children while teaching the royal children, and when the family returned to the Mission Houses, continued to teach by overseeing Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary and teaching Sunday School.
She made three voyages to her native America.
Juliette Montague Cooke
Born March 10, 1812, Sunderland, Massachusetts
Died Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, August 11, 1896
Sources:
Partners in Change, David Forbes, Ralph Kam, Thomas Woods, editors; Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, 2018
Notable Women of Hawaii, Barbara Bennett Peterson, editor, University of Hawaii Press 1984
Files
Collection
Citation
“Juliette Montague Cooke,” Hawaiian Mission Houses Digital Archive, accessed November 2, 2024, https://hmha.missionhouses.org/items/show/14114.