Wai‘oli Mission House: Master Bed Room

The Master bedroom. Wai‘oli Mission House photo.

"This was Lucy and Abner's bedroom," Roger explains. "Eleven missionary children were born in this home, four of which were the Wilcox boys They had eight boys. One died at ten months, so they had seven sons."

Close-up of the quilt.

"This quilt was purchased by Ms. Mabel. She bought it in 1933 for $75.00. Right there in the Depression that was a heck of a lot of money. It’s called the Kentucky Pinwheel. The flax and thread was probably raised by slaves in Kentucky. When she bought it, it was over 200 years old. So now in 2016 it’s very old.

"None of the quilts are original. There is one quilt that is original and it’s in Grove Farm in Līhu‘e. It’s called the Album quilt. When Abner took the boy back to get operated on, Lucy’s sister and all of their friends each made a little square, wrote a psalm in the middle—or a verse or a note—and then Lucy’s sisters sewed all of the patches together and made a big quilt, and Abner brought it back with the boy."

"This green case is an original piece of the house. It was a trunk that they brought with them, it has been around the Horn twice. Their fourth son Albert was born with club feet, so Abner had to take him back to Boston in 1850 when he was five years old and had them operated on. He was gone for a year and a half. Lucy held the fort down with the other three boys."

"This was her time-out corner, so she did read, rock and sew. Watched the kids in the nursery room. That’s a sewing basket.

"The nursery room became a school room where they tutored their children in English,where the other schools at the station all used the Hawaiian language. Until the last son, Luther Wilcox. Then they said 'Go play with them.' So he learned Hawaiian and became bi-lingual playing with the children while he grew up.

"He became an interpreter in the courts and later an honorary judge, until he died in Honolulu. He had the largest funeral procession in Honolulu history of the time. He had married a Hawaiian women and defended the poi vendors in Honolulu from eviction."

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