Collection 200 [September 15, 2000]
Hockman, Robert William (1906-1935) and Winifred Thompson (1906- )
Papers; 1933-1936, 1982
1 Box (D.C.; .25 cubic feet); Audio Tapes; Negatives, Photographs
Restrictions
There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPTS TO THE INTERVIEWS IN THIS COLLECTION ARE
AVAILABLE.
Biography
Robert William Hockman was born at Chentu, Szechwan, China on October 29, 1906, the son of William Halleck (1873-1945) and Katie Elizabeth Rogers Moses (1872-1944) Hockman, missionaries under China Inland Mission. Dr. and Mrs. Hockman, he a bachelor and she a widow, met in China and married there in 1904. They were the parents of Margaret Emily (1905-08), Robert William, Charles Frederick (1908-53), Kathleen Elizabeth (1910- , later Mrs. Paul D. Friederichsen), and Ronald Edward (1914- ). Robert Hockman entered the CIM school at Chefoo in 1916, and took a year of undergraduate work at Pitman's College, England in 1924-25. In the autumn of 1925, he entered Muskingum College in New Concord, OH, where his parents had temporarily settled following their return from China. The next year, William Hockman accepted the Missions Department chair at Moody Bible Institute and moved to Wheaton, IL, but Robert remained in New Concord, graduating from Muskingum in 1928. He received an M.D. from Northwestern Medical School, Chicago, in 1932 and interned at West Suburban Hospital, Oak Park, IL, 1932-33.
Winifred Thompson was born September 24, 1906, in Cambridge, OH, the daughter of druggist Charles Milton Thompson (1879-1964) and Jessie Winifred Barnes (1881-1909). Her mother died when she was three, and she lived with her grandparents Barnes in rural Guernsey County, Ohio until her father's remarriage to Armintha Hammond in 1911. She graduated from Cambridge High School, and received her B.A. in speech from Muskingum College in 1929. She taught school in Sebring, Ohio, prior to her marriage. Robert Hockman and Winifred Thompson were married in New Concord on June 8, 1932, shortly after his graduation from medical school. During his internship, they made their home with his parents in Wheaton, IL, and Winifred took classes at Moody Bible Institute in preparation for mission work.
The Hockmans applied to and were accepted by the Foreign Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church in the summer of 1933. At Muskingum College, Robert had become friends with fellow student Malaku Bayen, a ward of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, and through this friendship he developed an interest in Ethiopian missions. They sailed October 14, 1933 from New York on the maiden voyage of the Italian S. S. Rex, and arrived October 25 in Alexandria, Egypt. Following a two-week orientation at mission hospitals in Assuit and Tanta, Egypt, they traveled by water and train to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, arriving there November 16. Robert was assigned as a surgeon on the staff of George Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa where Dr. A. W. Pollock was director. Pollock's retirement and sudden death in early 1935 placed Hockman in the directorship.
With the outbreak of the Italo-Ethiopian War in mid-1935, Hockman offered his services to Haile Selassie to head up a Red Cross unit. On loan from the mission to the International Red Cross for this purpose, he set up a medical station for Ethiopian forces along the battle front in the autumn. On December 13, 1935, he was killed while attempting to defuse an Italian bomb which had been dropped near his station.
Winifred Hockman was evacuated from Addis Ababa to Egypt in July, 1935, where she gave birth
to a daughter, Ruth Winifred (later Mrs. Gordon Bell) on October 30. Robert never saw his only
child. Winifred and Ruth left Egypt for America in March, 1936, and settled with the William
Hockmans in Wheaton. She delivered her first address about her mission experiences in Moody
Church, Chicago, in May of that year. She taught at Westmont College in California, 1938-39,
and returned to Wheaton due to ill health. In 1940 she began working primarily as Director of
Student Housing. She retired in 1971, and in 1982 resided at her home in Wheaton.
Scope and Content
[NOTE: In the Scope & Content section, the notation "folder 2-5" means box 2, folder 5.]
This collection consists of 500 pages of letters written by Robert Hockman to his parents, 1933-1935, miscellaneous correspondence, a scrapbook concerning the life, work, and death of Robert Hockman, two interviews with Winifred Hockman taped in 1982, and books about the Hockman family by Kathleen Hockman Friederichsen.
The correspondence (folders 1-1 through 1-6) was numbered consecutively page-by-page by Ruth Hockman Bell, ca. 1980. A few letters extant at that time, are not included in this collection. On several letters, Winifred has written postscripts. Topics of interest are listed below in the order in which they appear in th correspondence. Some topics are so pervasive that they are not noted each time they appear. These include: detailed descriptions of medical work and hospital evangelism (November 1933 and after); the trumpet quartet which Hockman directed (September 1934 and after); the Italo-Ethiopian War and missionary reaction to the political situation (June 1935 and after); and the work of the Red Cross (October 1935 and after). Fellow missionaries frequently mentioned include: Dr. and Mrs. A. W. Pollock, Dr. and Mrs. Harold J Wilson, Dr. and Mrs. John A. Cremer, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Lambie, Donald and Ruth Davies, Christian and Mary Kenneweg, Misses Dora Arveson, Ruth Nichol and Marjorie Faught, Frederick russell, Dr. Stuart Bergsma, Mrs. Ruth Walker, and Harold Street (of Sudan Interior Mission). Topics discussed in the correspondence are as follows.
Oct-Dec 1933 (folder 1-1)
Jan-Apr 1934 (folder 1-2)
May-Aug 1934 (folder 1-3)
Sept-Dec 1934 (folder 1-4)
July-Dec 1935 (folder 1-6)
Miscellaneous correspondence (folder 1-7) includes a 1935 letter from Robert Hockman to W.B. Anderson, director of the United Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board in Philadelphia, protesting the decision of the Women's Board to order evacuation of its missionaries in the wake of the Italo-Ethiopian War. Anderson's reply is also present. The folder further contains a sympathy letter form Anderson to Winifred Hockman, 1936, and two essays: "New Methods for the New Day" by Winifred, and "Three Weeks in Southern Ethiopia" by Robert.
The scrapbook (folder 1-8) contains material dated 1933 to 1936, although it was put together into its present format by Ruth Hockman Bell many years later. This material is a photocopy of the original, and each page of the original appears her on two sheets, right side and left side, which must be matched up to reconstruct the whole. The pages are numbered (by Archives staff) in the order in which they appeared in the original. The scrapbook contains correspondence, a memorial written by Winifred Hockman, a bulletin of the memorial service for Robert held at Wheaton Bible Church, a copy of the official black-bordered announcement of his death issued by the American Mission in Ethiopia, written in English and in the native tongue, sympathy telegrams received by Winifred in Egypt and by the William Hockmans in Wheaton, letters of sympathy including one from the Christian Medical Society, and a letter from John Cremer to the William Hockmans describing Robert's funeral in Addis Ababa. Newspaper clippings in the scrapbook document the Hockmans' going to the mission field, their work there, Haile Selassie and his family, the Italo-Ethiopian War, Red Cross work, Robert's death, tributes, Winifred's return home and adjustment to a new life. Of special interest is a tribute from the Communist Party published in the Daily Worker accompanied by a sympathy letter from the Party.
Four books authored by Kathleen Hockman Friederichsen have been transferred to the Graham
Center Library, see Location Record: Books. This includes two works about the life of Robert
Hockman, one about the life of William and Katie Hockman and their work in China under the
China Inland Mission, and one about the Paul Friederichsens' experiences on the Philippine
mission field and internment in a Japanese prison camp during World War II.
*****
Interviews
Winifred Hockman was interviewed by Galen Wilson at the Graham Center on January 21 and 28, 1982. The "familiarity" which is apparent on some sections of the tapes is explained by the fact that both Mrs. Hockman and Mr. Wilson lived in New Concord, OH, for a time, were both United Presbyterians, both graduated form Muskingum College (she in 1929 and he in 1978), and knew certain people in common. The column to the left of the topics indicates time elapsed from the beginning of the tape.
Tape T1 - side 1 (Click to
link to the transcript of this tape)
00:00 Beginning of tape
00:05 Introduction
00:30 Personal background. birth, early religious training in United Presbyterian Church. Age 9
or 10, she decides after hearing a missionary speak in church that she would like to be a
missionary. college career; teaching after college in Sebring, Ohio; marriage
03:00 Because he grew up in China, Bob Hockman looks toward mission career in China; meets
Malaku at Muskingum and is influenced to go to Ethiopia; Winnie is happy with that
choice
04:45 Bob Hockman's childhood in China; early interest in missions; Mother Hockman nurses
Hudson Taylor in his last illness; death of her first husband; she meets R. Hockman in
China. Children; effect of mission upbringing on children. Hockmans leave China, come
to New Concord, OH, and live for a year in a missionary furlough home under invitation
of Dr. Kelsey, chairman, Bible Department, Muskingum college. Dr. Hockman asked to
chair Missions Dept. at Moody Bible Institute; Bob stays in New Concord to finish college
10:30 Experiences at Muskingum College; New Concord described
13:15 Malaku and the other Ethiopian boys at Muskingum (all wards of Haile Selassie):
description of them, how they came to Muskingum, and what became of them. Malaku --
marries a black American which was seen in Ethiopia as a mixed marriage; his mental
illness and early death to pneumonia
18:15 Muskingum College's efforts at channeling students into mission field in 1920's; president
J. Knox Montgomery's own desires to go to field thwarted; missionary speakers in chapel;
similarities between Muskingum and Wheaton College in 1920's.
21:15 China mission stories as told by Bob's parents: a shooting incident during civil unrest;
closeness of Hockman family (despite son Charles feeling estranged)
24:30 Bob Hockman's interest in music
25:30 He helps to found Christian Medical Society while a student at Northwestern; purposes of
society and history
26:45 They apply and are accepted by United Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board; meet with W.
B. Anderson, August 1933, for interview; they go directly to mission field, bypassing
standard six months of training for tropical diseases in London; description of interview
with Anderson questions and answers
30:15 August, 1933 -- they go to New Wilmington Missionary conference where they speak and
mention that they must pay off Bob's medical school debts before mission board will
permit them to go; Dr. McCleery
34:00 Three weeks for preparation due to urgency of getting a doctor in Addis Ababa; the
Senior Hockmans' initial skepticism of a denominational mission (Winnie was a
Presbyterian; Bob was independent); Winnie's admiration for many evangelicals in United
Presbyterian Church; reasons for going out to Ethiopia under Presbyterian board
36:45 Bob plays trumpet outside at dusk during Muskingum days; "Redwing," "Abide with
Me," and "Taps"
37:45 Preparations -- dishes to buy, kitchen utensils, yard goods; striking a balance between
having a comfortable and attractive home while avoiding ostentation. furniture made in
Ethiopia. Pros and cons of a missionary taking own mattress. Winnie's early life on the
farm made her suited to some "deprivations" she was to encounter on the field. Bob
constructs much of their furniture himself
41:45 Reasons why she never returned to Addis Ababa after July, 1935; history of George
Memorial Hospital compound after Italo-Ethiopian war broke out
42:45 They sail on maiden voyage of Italian ship Rex; description of voyage; time spent in Assuit
and Tanta, Egypt, learning ropes
44:45 Fellow missionaries Ruth Nichol and Marjorie Faught -- nurse and schoolteacher,
respectively; description of mission school -- boarding school for national girls;
curriculum; evangelism work done through school
48:00 End of side 1
Tape T1 - side 2
00:00 Beginning of side 2
00:05 Overlap from side 1
03:30 Travel from Egypt to Ethiopia via Suez Canal and then train inland 300 miles (two-day
trip); description of train accommodations
05:30 First impressions of Addis Ababa and mission compound; early days; Sudan Interior
Mission leprosarium; tennis at 9000 ft. altitude; Dr. and Mrs. Hooper of SIM mission are
immediate fast friends; monthly formal dinner at mission to keep alive Western customs;
missionary interaction -- dinners, prayer meetings, Rook
10:15 Food: western vs. local
10:45 Value in having servants who don't know English -- you can converse in their language
with them, but they can't always understand you. Necessity of a missionary having
servants; servants do not cross over to do other tasks, i.e. they are "specialized." Servants
help them learn local language; stories about the cook; protocol in having to call on
American ambassador, consul, etc.; entertaining
16:45 Story of an Ethiopian misunderstanding directions
17:15 Keeping servants busy; necessity of thorough cleaning done often in order to keep fleas
down; other household chores; pay scale; servants do the marketing (nationals wouldn't
understand if missionaries did own marketing)
20:45 Horses--chief mode of transportation. Types of marketing which were allowable for
missionaries; Addis Ababa street scenes
22:00 Religion of servants; afternoon evangelizing via interpreters; interpreter may have the
fervor, but lacks the training to know how to go about evangelism
25:15 Personal efforts at telling the gospel bed-to-bed in the hospital; another missionary
disapproves of Winnie's doing this
26:30 Subsequent career of one of Bob's trainees, a national
27:00 Language study: Galla and Amharic; Bob's proficiency at Galla; morning prayers done in
Galla; private family devotions in English; servant involvement in family
29:45 Intermissionary relationships; some differences of medical opinion among mission doctors;
death of Dr. Pollock; hospital administration; arrival of Dr. John Cremer
34:45 Administration of mission compound--Fred Russell, administrator, also active in
evangelism work
35:45 Pros and cons of compound life vs. living among natives
36:45 Adjustments necessary to get into mission lifestyle; high altitude a problem; constant
activity; classes (taking and teaching), sewing, pharmacy, standing-in for cook during her
vacation
40:00 Contacts with other Addis Ababa missions--Swedish mission, SIM leprosarium (Winnie
teaches lepers through interpreter), Seventh Day Adventist. Relations good with all, but
little contact made with Adventists due to doctrinal differences
44:00 Concluding remarks
45:30 End of tape
Tape T2 - side 1 (Click to
link to the transcript of this tape)
00:00 Beginning of tape
00:05 Introduction
00:30 Description of George Memorial Hospital facilities; begun by Dr. Lambie; clinic run by
Ato Gubrey, a national who was a Christian although not very deeply
02:30 Hockman's interest in starting a laboratory; money raised in honor of Dr. Orr, who had
died of typhus on mission field; Haile Selassie comes to open lab. Bob Hockman's general
shaping-up of hospital; Winnie fixes up some private rooms for patients
05:00 Bob operates on Winnie (removes her appendix)
05:15 When Dr. Pollock dies, Bob is left alone on staff; experience of making arrangements,
etc.; several months pass before Dr. Cremer joins him; Cremer-Hockman relations;
routines and recreation; hospital rounds; nationals on hospital staff
09:15 Difficulty of instilling cleanliness into nationals' minds; difference in personal cleanliness
seen in converts, "As the inside was cleansed, so was the outside."
10:00 Opportunities for evangelistic work in operating room; language barrier--difficulty getting
teachers, plus, they weren't able to afford luxury of time for intensive language study
12:15 Ethiopian laxity concerning efficiency and keeping of appointments and schedules; Bob's
difficulty in getting gun out of customs; his love of hunting; description of available game
14:45 Christmas dinner destroyed by a patient who was playing with dynamite
15:45 Winnie's assistance in operation room
17:00 Opportunities for evangelism via hospital; evangelist comes on staff; Winnie's duties in
teaching children; music--list of songs sung; type of hymns used; Ethiopian music
21:30 Trumpet quartet; music in Ato Gubrey's family; description of the trumpeters; how they
rounded up four trumpets; Bob trains them to read music
26:15 Indian merchants come to mission hospital; status of women in their society; evangelism
efforts of Bob with one particular Indian
28:00 Evangelism: statistics of the success with Ethiopians; Coptic Church is a drawback
because many feel they already are Christians; presence of paganism; difficulty in getting
concept of sin (morality) across; pagan fear of evil spirits
33:00 Specific instances of a person coming to Christ through hospital
34:45 Drain on missionaries when spiritual results are few
35:30 Bob's hospital's fame prior to his death; his red motorcycle and helmet gets him into
trouble with some bulls on an Addis Ababa street
37:15 Political situation in Ethiopia -- not tense when they went out in 1933 but problems
gradually develop; Winnie has a dream that Bob is killed just the way he eventually was;
orders for missionary evacuation; Winnie and Ruth Nichol leave July 9, 1935, for Egypt
42:30 Red Cross under Dr. Lambie; Bob's work with Red Cross; his last birthday party, October
29, 1935
44:00 Hockmans' night together, July 9, 1935; missionary response to evacuation orders
47:00 End of side 1
Tape T2 - side 2
00:00 Beginning of side 2
00:05 Overlap from side 1
02:30 Bob and Winnie's correspondence with each other, July to December, 1935; his
experiences on the front
05:30 Irony of Red Cross: symbol meant house of ill repute in Addis Ababa
05:45 Bob's defusing of bombs; description of how he was killed; Winnie is given the word by
Dr. Giffen, whom she had known in New Concord; Bob's burial; difficulty involved in her
not being able to be there for funeral and breaking up of housekeeping; awaiting decisions
of Board
12:15 May 1936; uprising of local folks against everybody in general in Addis Ababa; mission is
abruptly closed
14:00 Winnie comes home, March 1936; three-week voyage; Dr. and Mrs. Wilson in cabin next
to hers; description of voyage in caring for baby Ruth and the Wilson children as well
when everyone came down with seasickness
17:00 Dr. and Mrs. Harry Ironside aboard same ship -- their great support of her at this time
18:30 At Naples, two Italian newspapermen come on board and want to interview her; purser
won't reveal her identity
20:15 May 1936: Winnie speaks about her missionary experiences at Moody Church (her first
public missionary address); subsequent addresses at other places, including Muskingum
College, where she had to address a group including her speech teachers Charles and
Ferne Layton; discussion of her speech major at Muskingum
22:30 She teaches at Westmont College, 1938-39; supports self largely by weekend speaking
jaunts; comes near to nervous breakdown (actually anemia) from the pressures of the
schedule and constant reliving of events; recap of her speaking career
25:30 Haile Selassie -- her assessment of him and memories of him as a genuine Christian;
opportunities to meet him and his wife while in Ethiopia; his interest in the mission work
29:15 Slavery in Ethiopia
30:00 Status of women; Ethiopian status symbols; little public contact of men and women
31:45 Rowland Bingham and Bob go on trip through mission stations in outback
34:45 Winnie's career after 1936: Westmont College, 1938-39, Wheaton College, 1940-
38:15 Single parenting; drawbacks of raising daughter in same house with Bob's parents
40:00 God's provision in allowing her to buy and finance a home in Wheaton
41:15 Duties as Director of Student Housing at Wheaton College; experiences of counseling
students with roommate problems, etc.
45:30 She expresses the thought that forty-six years later, she still misses her husband greatly
47:15 End of tape
*****
Provenance
The materials in this collection were received by the Center from Mrs. Winifred Hockman in January, February, and August 1982. The materials in folders 1-1 through 1-8 are photocopies of the originals, which were returned to Mrs. Hockman.
Accession 82-8, 82-10, 82-11, 82-30, 82-125
August 30, 1982
Galen R. Wilson
LOCATION RECORD
Accession 82-8, 82-10
Type of Material: Audio Tapes
The items listed below are located in the AUDIO TAPE FILE:
T1 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips, 90 minutes. One side only. Interview with Winifred Thompson Hockman by Galen Wilson. Discussion includes Hockman's background, her husband's background, experiences at Muskingum College, Christian Medical Society, mission work with United Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, preparations for and adjustments on the mission field; January 21, 1982.
T2 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips, 92 minutes. One side only. Interview with Winifred Thompson
Hockman by Galen Wilson. Discussion includes George Memorial Hospital, Haile Selassie,
medical mission work, sex roles, evangelism, Ethiopian political situation, Hockman's evacuation,
her husband's death, slavery in Ethiopia, and work at Westmont College and Wheaton College;
January 28, 1982. LOCATION RECORD
*****
Accession 82-8, 82-30, 82-125
Type of Material: Books
The following items have been given to the BGC LIBRARY unless otherwise noted:
Friederichsen, Kathleen Hockman. Doctor Bob Hockman: Surgeon of the Cross. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1937.
Friederichsen, Kathleen Hockman. Doctor Bob Hockman: Surgeon of the Cross. (Sequel, 1981) Privately printed [1981].
Friederichsen, Paul D. and Kay Hockman. Like Them That Dream. Privately published, 1945; reprinted 1972.
Friederichsen, Kathleen Hockman. Treasures of Darkness. "The true story of a missionary
mother, Katie E. Hockman, written by her missionary daughter Kathleen Hockman Friederichsen
in 1946; updated in 1981." Privately printed, 1981. Xerox copy, 1982. LOCATION RECORD
*****
Accession 82-11
Type of Material: Negatives
The following items are located in the NEGATIVE FILE; request by Folder Titles at the
beginning of each entry below:
ETHIOPIA. Negatives of the thirty-one photographs (see Location Record: Photographs) LOCATION RECORD
*****
Accession 82-11
Type of Material: Photographs
The following items are located in the PHOTO FILE; request by Folder Titles at the beginning
of each entry below:
ETHIOPIA. One proof sheet, containing the following 31 photographs:
CONTAINER LIST
| Box | Folder | Description | |
| Correspondence | |||
| 1 | 1 | pp. 1-95 (Oct-Dec 1933) | |
| 1 | 2 | pp. 96-189 (Jan-Apr 1934) | |
| 1 | 3 | pp. 190-269 (May-Aug 1934) | |
| 1 | 4 | pp. 270-356 (Sep-Dec 1934) | |
| 1 | 5 | pp. 357-441 (Jan-Jun 1935) | |
| 1 | 6 | pp. 442-513 (Jul-Dec 1935) | |
| 1 | 7 | Miscellaneous; 1935-36 | |
| 1 | 8 | Scrapbook; 1933-36 | |