Maria Ogden
Title
Maria Ogden
Description
Maria Ogden (February 17, 1792 - April 3, 1874)
“By her own estimate, she had under her training in her various schools over a thousand Hawaiian girls.” So ran the article in The Friend, the mission newspaper, of Maria Ogden.
Miss Ogden grew up in Philadelphia and New Jersey. She found a calling to missionary life and with glowing references was accepted as part of the Sandwich Island Mission. She sailed to Honolulu in 1828, part of an unusual contingent that included four unmarried women.
Maria Ogden began her missionary life at Waimea, Kauaʻi, living with Peter and Fanny Gulick. Soon, however, she began to teach small classes, and in 1829 was reassigned to Lahaina, Maui, where she once more assisted a mission family, this time the William Richards family. She taught day school and Sunday school to a large group of children.
She was called to teach, and within the decade had moved on to lead the Wailuku Female Seminary, where she remained for twenty years. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission closed that school in 1849. Miss Ogden then opened a smaller school, still in Wailuku.
She adopted two orphaned sisters, Ellen and Isabella Holden. One of her students, Naomi Maka, became a missionary to the Marquesas Islands when she married a young Hawaiian pastor, James Kekela. Their first child they named Maria Ogden Kekela, such was their affection for Miss Ogden. When the Kekelas sailed for the Marquesas they were warned not to bring the children because the situation in the Marquesas, as far as safety was concerned, was uncertain. Maria Ogden took in Maria Ogden Kekela and her younger sister Susan to join the Holden sisters and raised them as her own.
When she was called to Honolulu to assist the principal of Oahu College (Punahou School) in 1858, the children went with her and helped her in the creation of a school for girls in Makiki. She led this school for another ten years, and then enjoyed a further seven years of peaceful retirement.
Maria C. Ogden
Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 17, 1792
Died Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, April 3, 1873
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
https://nupepa-hawaii.com/tag/maria-ogden/
“By her own estimate, she had under her training in her various schools over a thousand Hawaiian girls.” So ran the article in The Friend, the mission newspaper, of Maria Ogden.
Miss Ogden grew up in Philadelphia and New Jersey. She found a calling to missionary life and with glowing references was accepted as part of the Sandwich Island Mission. She sailed to Honolulu in 1828, part of an unusual contingent that included four unmarried women.
Maria Ogden began her missionary life at Waimea, Kauaʻi, living with Peter and Fanny Gulick. Soon, however, she began to teach small classes, and in 1829 was reassigned to Lahaina, Maui, where she once more assisted a mission family, this time the William Richards family. She taught day school and Sunday school to a large group of children.
She was called to teach, and within the decade had moved on to lead the Wailuku Female Seminary, where she remained for twenty years. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission closed that school in 1849. Miss Ogden then opened a smaller school, still in Wailuku.
She adopted two orphaned sisters, Ellen and Isabella Holden. One of her students, Naomi Maka, became a missionary to the Marquesas Islands when she married a young Hawaiian pastor, James Kekela. Their first child they named Maria Ogden Kekela, such was their affection for Miss Ogden. When the Kekelas sailed for the Marquesas they were warned not to bring the children because the situation in the Marquesas, as far as safety was concerned, was uncertain. Maria Ogden took in Maria Ogden Kekela and her younger sister Susan to join the Holden sisters and raised them as her own.
When she was called to Honolulu to assist the principal of Oahu College (Punahou School) in 1858, the children went with her and helped her in the creation of a school for girls in Makiki. She led this school for another ten years, and then enjoyed a further seven years of peaceful retirement.
Maria C. Ogden
Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 17, 1792
Died Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, April 3, 1873
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
https://nupepa-hawaii.com/tag/maria-ogden/
Files
Collection
Citation
“Maria Ogden,” Hawaiian Mission Houses Digital Archive, accessed April 19, 2024, https://hmha.missionhouses.org/items/show/14116.