Titus Coan | |
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| Born | February 1, 1801 |
| Died | December 1, 1882 (aged 81) |
| Occupation | Missionary |
| Spouses |
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| Children | Titus Munson, Harriet Fidelia, Sarah Eliza, Samuel Latimer |
Titus Coan (February 1, 1801 – December 1, 1882) was an American minister from New England who spent most of his life as a Christian missionary to the Hawaiian Islands.
Titus Coan was born on February 1, 1801, in Killingworth, Connecticut, the son of Gaylord Coan and Tamza Nettleton. In June 1831, he entered the Auburn Theological Seminary in Auburn, New York, and was ordained in April 1833. In August of that year he sailed on a mission to Patagonia for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
In 1834 Coan returned to the United States, where he married Fidelia Church. In December 1834 they left on the merchant ship Hellespont, part of the seventh company from the American Board to the Hawaiian Islands, then known as the "Sandwich Islands", arriving on June 6, 1835. [1]
Their son Titus Munson Coan, born in 1836, became a physician who served in the American Civil War and died in 1921. [2] Daughter Harriet Fidelia was born in 1839 and died in 1906. Daughter Sarah Eliza was born in 1843 and died in 1916. Son Samuel Latimer Coan was born 1846 and died in 1887. The mother Fidelia died in September 1872. [3]
Coan married second to Lydia Bingham, the daughter of the Rev. Hiram Bingham I (an earlier missionary), on October 13, 1873. He completed his autobiography in 1881, the year before he died. His book was digitized in 1997 by his great-great grandson Edward J. Coan. [4]
The Coans arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, in June 1835. They sailed to Hilo, Hawaii, in July, where they stayed most of the rest of their lives. He learned the Hawaiian Language and helped educate the residents of the area and recruit them into Christianity. When the United States Exploring Expedition visited Hilo in 1840–1841, Coan met the geologist James Dwight Dana. Over the next four decades they corresponded, and Coan regularly sent Dana observations of eruptions of volcanoes on Hawaii. [5] These contributed to Dana's development of the Hawaii hotspot theory for the geologic evolution of the island chain.
His book includes descriptions of the heavy tropical rains, eruptions of the Kīlauea volcano, earthquakes, and tsunamis, such as the one caused by the 1868 Hawaii earthquake. Coan was known as "the bishop of Kilauea," and his observations were invaluable to subsequent scientists. Both Fidelia and his second wife Lydia wrote a piece about the volcano, as well as his sons, Titus M. and Samuel. [5] Fidelia Coan was among the first American women to publish in a scientific journal: an 1852 article in the American Journal of Science . [6]
Titus Coan directed the construction of Haili Church from 1855 to 1859. He visited the Marquesas Islands in 1860 and 1867. From 1870-1871, he and Fidelia returned to the United States, where they gave an extensive speaking tour. [7]
Hawaii is the largest island in the United States, located in the eponymous state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of 4,028 square miles (10,430 km2), it has 63% of the Hawaiian archipelago's combined landmass. However, it has only 13% of the archipelago's population. The island of Hawaiʻi is the third largest island in Polynesia, behind the north and south islands of New Zealand.
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Formerly called the Sandwich Islands by Europeans, the present name for the archipelago is derived from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi.
Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Mauna Loa is Earth's largest active volcano by both mass and volume. It was historically considered to be the largest volcano on Earth until Tamu Massif was discovered to be larger. Mauna Loa is a shield volcano with relatively gentle slopes, and a volume estimated at 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km3), although its peak is about 125 feet (38 m) lower than that of its neighbor, Mauna Kea. Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, and tend to be non-explosive.
Kīlauea is an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. It is located along the southeastern shore of Hawaii Island. The volcano is between 210,000 and 280,000 years old and grew above sea level about 100,000 years ago. Since the islands were settled, it has been the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island and among the most active volcanoes on Earth. The most recent eruption occurred on June 3, 2024, along fissures that opened on the volcano's southwest rift zone.
Lorrin Andrews Thurston was an American-Hawaiian lawyer, politician, and businessman. Thurston played a prominent role in the revolution that caused the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom that replaced Queen Liliʻuokalani with the Republic of Hawaii, guided by American ideas. He published the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, and owned other enterprises. From 1906 to 1916, he and his network lobbied with national politicians to create a national park to preserve the Hawaiian volcanoes.
Hiram Bingham, formally Hiram Bingham I, was leader of the first group of American Protestant missionaries to introduce Christianity to the Hawaiian Islands. Like most of the missionaries, he was from New England.
Thomas Augustus Jaggar Jr. was an American volcanologist. He founded the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and directed it from 1912 to 1940. The son of Thomas Augustus Jaggar, Jaggar Jr. graduated with a PhD in geology from Harvard University in 1897. In 1902, he was one of the scientists that the United States sent to investigate the volcanic disasters at La Soufrière volcano, St Vincent, and Mont Pelée, Martinique, which he credited with inspiring him to make a life's work out of geology. He became head of the department of geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1906.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) is an agency of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and one of five volcano observatories operating under the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. Based in Hilo, Hawaii, the observatory monitors six Hawaiian volcanoes: Kīlauea, Mauna Loa, Kamaʻehuakanaloa, Hualālai, Mauna Kea, and Haleakalā, of which, Kīlauea and Mauna Loa are the most active. The observatory has a worldwide reputation as a leader in the study of active volcanism. Due to the relatively non-explosive nature of Kīlauea's volcanic eruptions for many years, scientists have generally been able to study ongoing eruptions in proximity without being in extreme danger.
Asa Thurston was a Protestant missionary from the United States who was part of the first company of American Christian missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands with his wife Lucy Goodale Thurston.
The Waiākea Mission Station was the first Christian mission on the eastern side of the Island of Hawaiʻi. Also known as the Hilo Station, the latest structure is now called Haili Church.
Volcano House is the name of a series of historic hotels built at the edge of Kīlauea, within the grounds of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawai'i. The original 1877 building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now houses the Volcano Art Center. The hotel in use today was built in 1941 and expanded in 1961.
George Lycurgus (1858–1960) was a Greek American businessman who played an influential role in the early tourist industry of Hawaii. After Queen Lili`uokalani was overthrown in a coup by the Committee Of Safety, he ran afoul of the government of the Republic of Hawaii and was accused of treason. Later he was instrumental in the development of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
David Belden Lyman was an early American missionary to Hawaii who opened a boarding school for Hawaiians. His wife Sarah Joiner Lyman (1805–1885) taught at the boarding school and kept an important journal. They had several notable descendants.
William Herbert Shipman (1854–1943) was a businessman with an American background who was from Hawaii. He grew up and conducted his business on the island of Hawaii. One estate of his family was used to preserve the nēnē, an endangered species of Hawaiian goose. A historic house associated with his family for over a hundred years is called the W. H. Shipman House in Hilo, Hawaii. Another of his historic estates called the Ainahou Ranch, built in 1941 as a refuge from World War II, is preserved within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
High Chiefess Kapiʻolani was an important member of the Hawaiian nobility at the time of the founding of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the arrival of Christian missionaries. She was one of the first Hawaiians to read and write, as well as sponsor of a church. She made a dramatic display of her new faith, which was the subject of a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Benjamin Franklin Pitman was an American businessman who married Hawaiian nobility.
Frederick Schwartz Lyman was a surveyor, rancher, judge, and politician on Hawaiʻi Island.
Sybil Moseley Bingham was an American teacher in the Hawaiian Islands, a member of the first company of missionaries sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).
Kenneth Hon, usually known professionally as Ken Hon, is a geologist and the 21st Scientist-in-Charge (SIC) of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), serving since 2021; succeeding Tina Neal (SIC) and David Phillips. Hon has often been a contact from the Observatory to the news media, and as such is often quoted as an authority figure in the field of Hawaiian volcanology.
Johnson, Rossiter, ed. (1906). "Coan, Titus Munson". The Biographical Dictionary of America . Vol. 2. Boston: American Biographical Society. p. 302.Titus Coan, Fidelia Coan and Lydia Coan on pages 184-90.
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