While the Church was being established in Samoa in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sacrificed and some suffered great loss because of their devotion to their faith as they sought to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Some gave their lives in the Lord’s service. Their grave markers are a reminder of their hardships and the great price that was paid so that many in Samoa could be taught the truths that were so dear to them.
At the edge of a long descending hill that then overlooked the sea on the island of Upolu is the Fagali’i Cemetery where many have come to visit. They come to a reserved location there for early missionaries and family members who died in Samoa to reverently remember the great sacrifices they made.
On May 21, 2017, senior missionary couples from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visited the cemetery where some of the early missionaries to Samoa and their family members are buried. Stories were shared and thoughts were tender as they visited the different graves.
Of this sacred place, Elder Loren C. Dunn recorded in his journal in 1975, “We drove a few miles from the mission home and climbed the brow of a small hill to a place that was isolated by palm trees and other tropical vegetation. I suddenly realized that we were in a very old graveyard. At the centre of this graveyard was a plot that was surrounded by a cement wall low enough to step over.”
Men, women and children have been laid to rest in that cemetery. One family that suffered great personal tragedy while serving as missionaries in Samoa from 1892 to 1895 was the Thomas H. and Sarah M. Hilton family. They lovingly buried their 7 month-old daughter, Jeanette, their 17 month-old son, Thomas, and their one-week old son, George, in that plot that is part of the Fagali’i Cemetery.
A family friend, Elder David O. McKay (Church leader), visited Samoa in 1921, having first promised Sarah Hilton that he would visit the graves of their children left behind. After returning home he wrote these words to her, “As I looked at those three little graves, I tried to imagine the scenes through which you passed during your young motherhood here in old Samoa. As I did so, the little headstones became monuments not only to the little babes sleeping beneath them, but also to a mother’s faith and devotion to the eternal principles of truth and life.”