GRIFFINS, Ruth (Hockens) (died 1939)

HOCKENS, GRIFFINS, HILL, PETRIE, WALLACE, LONG

Posted By: Marilyn O'Connor
Date: 2/2/2011 at 13:11:52

Mother, Daughter,
Former Residents,
Died on Same Day

Death struck twice in the family of Henry Hockens last Saturday February 4. His mother, Mrs. Charles F. Hockens, died that morning at her farm home near Valley Falls, Kansas, and his oldest sister, Mrs. Fred Griffin, died that afternoon at her home in Manistique, Michigan, without learning her mother had preceded her.

Mrs. Hockens had been in failing heath for a number of months, and her son, Henry Hockens, Little Cedar, had gone to her bedside. Mrs. Griffin had suffered a series of strokes during the past two years, so her death was not unexpected, though the fact of her passing so nearly coincident with that of her mother seemed a phenomenon.

Mrs. Hockens was born Sarah Ann Hill at DeKalb, N.Y., April 14, 1857. While a young girl she came with her parents, Henry and Sophie Petrie Hill to Mitchell county, Iowa, where she grew to womanhood, and on March 24, 1880, was married to Charles F. Hockens, who had also come from the state of New York.

Ten children blessed this union, the eldest of whom was Ruth, who fifty-eight years later was to leave the world so nearly simultaneously with her mother. A son Frank (twin brother to Henry) died in childhood as the result of an accident, and another son, Burr, died only a few years ago also as the result of an accident.

Seven survive; Mabel, of Kansas City; Henry, of Little Cedar; Ralph and Josephine, Valley Falls, Kans.; Evaline, Omaha, Nebraska, Mrs. Perry Wallace (Jane), Fort Dearborn, Michigan; Mrs. O. B. Long (Edine), Texarkana, Texas. There are eight grandchildren.

The husband, Charles F. Hockens, preceded his wife in death December 17, 1914, only a few years after the family moved to Kansas from the homestead east of Little Cedar.

Sarah Hockens lived a long and useful life. She united with the Methodist church in Little Cedar early in life, and remained a consistent member of that denomiation until her death. Although she did not transfer her church membership to Valley Falls, she was an active member of the Ladies Aid society. She was interested, and participated in, the work of community organizations to the extent her busy home life would permit; generous of both her time and substance to those less fortunate in life.

Her natural inclination to be of service wherever she could prompted her to take into her home the niece and nephew of her husband, Grace and George Hockens, whose parents had died during a typhoid epidemic in the state of Wyoming some years ago, and these received the same loving care and practical instruction in the art of living that Mrs. Hockens gave to her children.

A funeral service was held in the Champion funeral home at Osage at 2 o'clock on February 6, conducted by the Rev. Benjamin Hoyt, pastor of the Little Cedar Methodist church. Mrs. Charles Kathan, who in her youth had been the Hockens children's school teacher in Liberty township, sang two solos, "We Will Never Say Goodbye In Heaven" and "It Is Well With My Soul".

Interment was made in the cemetery at Little Cedar, where deceased's husband was buried nearly a quarter-century before.

Mrs. Griffin, the daugher who died in Michigan, was buried at Manistique Wednesday, conditions of roads and weather making it impossible for the brothers and sisters to attend the funeral after having laid away their mother here. She is survived by her husband and by one son, Frederick Jr.

All the children were present at the funeral of their mother with the exception of the two youngest, Josephine and Edine.

[ Mitchell County Press- Osage News; Feb. 9, 1939 ]