Daniel Dole was born September 9, 1808, in
Skowhegan, Maine. His father was
Wigglesworth Dole (1779–1845) and mother was Elizabeth Haskell. In 1836 he graduated from
Bowdoin College, and in 1839 from the
Bangor Theological Seminary. On October 2, 1840, he married Emily Hoyt Ballard (1808–1844). They sailed in the ninth company of
missionaries to Hawaii from the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions on the ship
Gloucester, leaving from
Boston on November 14, 1840, and arriving to
Honolulu on May 21, 1841. Also in this company were
John Davis Paris,
Elias Bond, and
William Harrison Rice. The school was the first to use the English language to educate children of missionaries instead of the
Hawaiian language. After his first wife died from childbirth complications on April 27, 1844, he married Charlotte Close Knapp (1813–1874) in 1846. Academic politics also grew with the Punahou School's enrollment. Originally intended only for children of missionaries, Dole allowed other non-Hawaiian children to enroll. Dole responded to cutbacks in funding by employing students to grow their own food. By May 23, 1853, the school was re-chartered with the name
Oahu College, administered by a board of trustees and in September, Reverend Edward Griffin Beckwith was named president. He never learned the Hawaiian language, but conducted services at two small English language churches in the area. He died in his son George's house in
Kapaa on August 26, 1878. He was buried in what is now the
Līhuʻe cemetery. ==Legacy==