John Davis Paris

John Davis Paris
Church builder on island of Hawaii
Born	September 22, 1809 Staunton, Virginia
Died	July 28, 1892(1892-07-28) (aged 82) Nāpoʻopoʻo
Spouse(s)	Mary Grant Mary Carpenter
Children	Anna Matilda Mary Aletta Ellen Hudson John Davis Jr.
Parent(s)	George Paris Mary Hudson

John Davis Paris (Septembsr 22, 1809 – July 28, 1892) was an American Christian missionary to the island of Hawaii. Coming to the island by accident, he supervised construction of several historic churches, some of which survive today.

John Davis Paris was born on September 22, 1809, in Staunton, Virginia. His father was George Paris and his mother was Mary Hudson. He graduated from Hanover College in Indiana in 1833, and Bangor Theological Seminary in 1839. He married Mary Grant in October 1840, and they had two daughters: Anna Matilda (1843–1917) and Mary Aletta. Mary and John embarked in November 1840, and arrived in Honolulu on May 21, 1841, on the Gloucester, along with the ninth company sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Other members of this company included William Harrison Rice and Daniel Dole and their wives.

They and the Rice family had been assigned to the Oregon Territory, but were told that an uprising had wiped out the mission station there, so were advised to stay in Hawaii. The family was assigned to the remote southern-most station at Waiʻōhinu in the Kaʻū district of the island of Hawaiʻi. There Paris built the Kauahaʻao Church (named for a nearby spring).

Mary Paris died in 1847, and John Paris returned to the United States with his two young daughters on the ship Montreal in 1849. In September 1851 Paris married Mary Carpenter (1815–1896) of New York. They decided to return to Hawaii, left in November and arrived in March 1852. This time he was posted to the slightly less remote Kona District on the same island. They had a daughter Ellen (known as Ella) Hudson (1852–1938) and a son John Davis, Jr. (1854–1918).

A large stone church had been built in 1839 on land donated by Chiefess Kapiʻolani, in an area known as Kuapehu, inland from the town now known as Nāpoʻopoʻo, on the south end of Kealakekua Bay) but it had fallen into ruin after six years without a pastor. Paris built a smaller but longer-lasting stone church called Kahikolu on the foundation of the old one. In the Hawaiian language kahikolu was the name for the Holy Trinity. He also rebuilt a house at a cooler, higher elevation which he called Mauna ʻAlani, on Kapiʻolani's former house site. A cistern and kitchen were completed in 1852, and a two-story house built of wood from mountain forests was finished in 1853. Paris also constructed a kiln to bake coral, which was made into lime mortar. This material would prove to be stronger than the previous materials. The workers trained in these new techniques were applied to more projects in the area.