by Nicholas Freeman

The Rev. Titus Coan or Father Koana as he was known by his church members at Haili Church in Hilo, had a long and wonder-filled ministry beginning in 1835, leading what was once known as the largest church in the world with over 20,000 members. While much has been written about his ministry, including an autobiography by Coan and a memorial by his second wife Lydia, as well as countless others including an extensive biography by historian Phil Corr[1], none of these sources appear to have mentioned perhaps his last and greatest battle as the pastor of the Haili Church.

While visiting the Library of Congress in June 2025, this writer was reviewing the Titus Coan Collection and discovered an undated letter Rev. Coan had sent to his close friend and fellow missionary Rev. Lorenzo Lyons, in which he details his sadness after hearing rumors of fellow pastor, and member of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, Edward Kekoa’s, charge that he had embezzled funds from the Haili church and invested the sum in a Honolulu investment firm. Based on this accusation, Kekoa and a small group of members from the Haili church were asking Coan for his resignation as pastor. Coan wrote to Lyons describing his dilemma stating:

“You have heard that some members of the Haile church wished me to resign. Edward Kekoa has come to Hilo as a lawyer…When he came to Hilo, I received him kindly and with all due respect, inviting him into my pulpit and also to preach now and then in our apana chapels. I soon heard, through others, that he did not wish Koana to send him out to preach without pay. By and by I heard that he was going about among my people advising them to sign secretly, a call for Kalana to be their pastor and to present it to our association in April. He was rebuked by some of our people and his acts were reported to me and he was hoka. At length he circulated reports that I had embezzled 1,000 dollars of the church’s monies…”[2]

In response to this accusation, Pastor Coan immediately called a full meeting of the members of the Board of Trustees, which included Kekoa himself, as well as President Kalana and the Honorable Nawahi, and then proceeded to lay out all his receipts and opened each accounting record for the group to review. Although Kekoa had searched through seven years of Coan’s accounting records, after careful examination it was decided that Coan was not guilty of any improprieties, and was cleared of all accusations. Afterwards, not long after this meeting, Kekoa and his family left the church. In a letter to missionary Alexander dated July 14, 1881, Coan again spoke of the attempted coup of his leadership stating:

“How I wish I could see you and your precious wife, face to face, and tell you of the malicious and wicked conduct of our mens lawyer, Kekoa. He has joined hands with our wickedest men, to seek every occasion to oppose the church and brethren who know the facts call him devilish. When he found that he could not destroy me by alienating the church and people he turned against us all and withdrew his wife and children from all our religious services.”[3]

Coan also shared in his letter to Lyons that this wasn’t the first time Kekoa had tried something similar, in that missionary Parker had revealed to Coan that “Kekoa tried the same game here some two or three years ago.”[4]

The President of the board, J.S. Kalana, made his view known of the situation in a letter to missionary A.O. Polepe (A.O. Forbes), writing in May 1881, that E. Kekoka “did not hesitate anymore in his unethical work. But he still thinks that he is in a bad way because everyone is disappointed in him for suing our father, Titus Coan.”[5]

It was noted too, in the minutes of the January 1881 meeting of the East Hawaiian Evangelical Association meeting that “E. Kekoa has a petition for the guardian father of the church of Haili to terminate his guardianship,[6]” which was apparently another attempt by Kekoa to remove Rev. Coan from his position as pastor. It is unclear at this time what the source of Kekoa’s animosity for Coan originated, but he nevertheless seems to have attempted several times to remove Coan from his pastorship at Haili church.

Considering these events however, in the twilight of his life, God was still faithful to Father Koana, as He had always been, and had delivered from harm and had kept the Haili church at Hilo intact. Later the following year, after a lifetime of battles and victories, in December 1882, Coan succumbed to the effects of a stroke, and was laid to rest in Homelani Memorial Park, after serving faithfully without incident, for over fifty years as the senior pastor of Haili Church.

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Nicholas Freeman is a PhD candidate in his final months of study, who has been researching for his dissertation on The Great Hawaiian Revival on the Big Island of Hawaii and the Library of Congress for the last year and the expected completion date is December 2025.