Hiram Bingham II (August 16, 1831 – October 25, 1908) was a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

Christian missionary to

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and the Gilbert Islands.

Life and career

Born in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

, Bingham was the sixth child of early missionary Hiram Bingham I (1789–1869) and Sybil Moseley Bingham (1792–1848). Both father and mother sailed from

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, to Honolulu in 1819. Only ten years old in 1840, Bingham was sent to the

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with his siblings Elizabeth Kaahumanu (1829–1899) and Lydia Bingham (1834–1915) to attend school. Bingham was enrolled at Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1853. Bingham was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

a Congregationalist minister in

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, on November 9, 1856. Nine days later on November 18, Bingham married Clara Brewster (1834-1903) in Northampton, Massachusetts. The newlyweds arrived in Honolulu on April 24, 1857, where they both ministered to the native Hawaiians as part of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. They eventually traveled and spread

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in several

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island communities, notably at the end of 1857 at the Gilbert Islands. After a brief return to the United States in 1865, they arrived in Honolulu on March 13, 1867, for a stopover en route to the Marquesas Islands. They went through Micronesia and returned to Honolulu again in 1868. There they settled. Bingham was the first to translate the Bible into Gilbertese, and wrote several hymn books,

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and commentaries in the language of the Gilbert Islands. From 1877 to 1880, Bingham served as Secretary of the Hawaiian Board and in 1895, Yale University awarded him the Doctorate of Divinity. He died October 25, 1908, in

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. Bingham's son, Hiram Bingham III, was an

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

who made public the existence of the Inca citadel of

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in 1911 with the guidance of local indigenous farmers and later became a US Senator and (briefly)

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. His grandson, Hiram Bingham IV, was the US Vice

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, during

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who rescued

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s from

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. Another grandson, Jonathan Brewster Bingham, was a long-time Reform Democratic Congressman from

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s.

References

*''Fathers and sons, the Bingham family and the American mission'', by Char Miller, Published by

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, 1982, {{DEFAULTSORT:Bingham 02, Hiram Protestantism in Hawaii 1831 births 1908 deaths Williston Northampton School alumni American Congregationalist missionaries Christians from Hawaii Christians from Maryland Congregationalist missionaries in Hawaii Congregationalist missionaries in Kiribati Translators of the Bible into Gilbertese People from Hawaii American people of English descent Yale Divinity School alumni Yale College alumni 19th-century American translators American missionary linguists