View source for Hiram Bingham II

{{Short description|American Protestant Christian missionary}}
{{One source|date=April 2011}}
{{Infobox person
| name   = Hiram Bingham II
| image     = Hiram and Clara Brewster Bingham in 1887.jpg
| image_size  = 180px
| caption  = Hiram II and Clara Brewster Bingham in 1887
| birth_date  = {{Birth-date|August 16, 1831}} 
| birth_place = [[Honolulu, Hawaii]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1908|10|25|1831|8|16}} 
| death_place = [[Baltimore, Maryland]], [[United States|USA]]
| alma_mater = [[Yale College]]<br />[[Andover Seminary]]
| occupation = Missionary
| known for = 
| spouse = Clara Brewster 
| children = [[Hiram Bingham III|Hiram III]], and one other
| parents  = [[Hiram Bingham I|Hiram I]] and Sybil Bingham 
| signature   = Signature of Hiram Bingham II.svg
}}
'''Hiram Bingham II''' (August 16, 1831 &ndash; October 25, 1908) was a [[Protestant]] [[Christianity|Christian]] [[missionary]] to [[Hawaii]] and the [[Gilbert Islands]].

==Life and career==
Born in [[Honolulu, Hawaii|Honolulu]], Bingham was the sixth child of early missionary [[Hiram Bingham I]] (1789&ndash;1869) and [[Sybil Moseley Bingham]] (1792&ndash;1848).  Both father and mother sailed from [[Boston, Massachusetts]], to Honolulu in 1819.  Only ten years old in 1840, Bingham was sent to the [[United States]] with his siblings Elizabeth Kaahumanu (1829&ndash;1899) and Lydia Bingham (1834&ndash;1915) to attend school.  Bingham was enrolled at [[Williston Seminary]] in [[Easthampton, Massachusetts]], and graduated from [[Yale University]] in 1853.

Bingham was [[ordained]] a [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]] [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]] in [[New Haven, Connecticut]], 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 [[Christianity]] in several [[Pacific Ocean]] 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 book]]s, [[dictionary|dictionaries]] and [[Exegesis|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 [[Baltimore, Maryland]].

Bingham's son, [[Hiram Bingham III]], was an [[explorer]] who made public the existence of the Inca citadel of [[Machu Picchu]] in 1911 with the guidance of local indigenous farmers and later became a [[US Senator]] and (briefly) [[Governor of Connecticut]].  His grandson, [[Hiram Bingham IV]], was the US Vice [[Consul (representative)|Consul]] in [[Marseille]], [[France]], during [[World War II]] who rescued [[Jew]]s from [[the Holocaust]].  Another grandson, [[Jonathan Brewster Bingham]], was a long-time Reform Democratic Congressman from [[The Bronx]] from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s.

==References==
{{commons category|Hiram Bingham (missionary born 1831)}}
*''Fathers and sons, the Bingham family and the American mission'', by Char Miller, Published by [[Temple University Press]], 1982, {{ISBN|978-0-87722-248-4}}

{{Protestant missions to Pacific Islands}}
{{Christianity in Hawaii}}

{{Authority control}}

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