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The Amoy Mission--1840-1951
Copyright 2001-7 by Sue Brown & Dr. Bill Help Build an online community for foreigners. Join the Xiamen Guide forumOrder Books Common Talk Xiamen Dailys Weekly English SupplementXiamenguide Forum Guide to Xiamen and Fujian business tourism history culture cuisine entertainment investment Guide to Xiamen hsiamen amoy fuhken fukien
Main Page    E-mail  This page contents copyright 2007 by Walter deVelder Family

A Missionary Journey Over Nine Decades
By Walter deVelder
.... This fascinating memoir was provided by Joann Hill. Enjoy!

Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesPart 1: 1900-1910 Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesPart 2: 1910-1920  Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesPart 3: 1920-1930 
Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesPart 4: 1930-1940  Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesPart 5: 1940-1950 Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesPart 6: 1950-1960 
Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesPart 7: 1960-1970  Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesPart 8: 1970-1980 
Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesReturn to The Amoy Mission  Walter Develder Memoirs Nine DecadesI Remember "Wally"

Part 3: 1920-1930

This decade was a tremendous change for the farm boy, known as Wally deVelder. Our small village High School had excellent Christian teachers. There were only forty-three students in the entire High School and we had much individual attention and care. I loved singing and we had a wonderful teacher who came from Sheldon six miles East of us, twice a week. Mr. Huntley got fifteen of us to win several musical competitions.

I loved all sports but we did not have any proper facilities. We ran our races on the street and threw the discus and the shot put in a small grassy field near the school. With all these handicaps we had a pretty good baseball team in our small bandbox gym, and we made a credible showing in the County track meets, too. In fact, I was offered an athletic scholarship in 1924 at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa.

In 1923 I was saddened by the death of "Little Grandma". She was 86 and at times I can still hear the church bell at First Reformed Church toll that number (86) before the funeral.

I was interested in public speaking and won first prize in the County orating William Jennings Byron's "Cross of Gold".

In 1924 our class went to Alton, Iowa, fifteen miles from Boyden to hear Woodrow Wilson give a short speech from the rear of the train. The next day we were to write a short essay on the experience. One of my classmates wrote, "Yesterday we went to Alton where President Wilson stopped for coal and water".

We had a good time in High School, but were short on technology, though we learned a good deal on life.

I did not get to go to Morningside College. Our minister strongly advised my parents not to send a son to a "modern Methodist College". Henry Hoeven persuaded my folks to send me to his Alma Mater, a move which I never regretted.

With good family roots in rural Iowa, I took wings to go to Michigan. I took the train to Chicago in early September 1925 and there changed to the Pere Marquette for Holland, Michigan. I asked the conductor near Benton Harbor when we would reach Holland and he said, "God only knows, this train is mentioned in the Bible, where it says that God made all creeping things". I was not welcomed at the railroad station, but I knew where I was going, to 79 West 11th Street. Hope College had recommended this home to me. As I walked a lot on the farm, and my suitcase was not very heavy, I started off down town on 8th Street. I finally came to River Avenue and a kind person showed me how to go to 11th Street. 79 West 11th was two doors from the historic old Hope Church. The home belonged to Captain and Mrs. Robinson. Captain Robinson had recently retired from Lighthouse service on Lake Michigan. The dear elderly couple shoed me my room with a welcome smile and invited me to supper to get acquainted. Their home was to be my home for the next four years. They were ardent Roman Catholics. They treated me as their own son, who was a Missionary Priest in the Philippines. If I became in later years an exponent of Ecumenical relations, it started in the Robinson home and with my dear mother.

The next day I registered at Hope, taking courses in Latin, Greek, English Literature, Bible and German. As I remember Hope had about four hundred students in 1925 and tuition was $100 a semester. We sampled every eating place in town. The best and cheapest was at the Hitching Post opposite the Post Office.

I liked all sports. I made the football and baseball teams. In the Spring of 1926 I played second base on our baseball team, which practiced and played next to Carnegie Hall. Two days before the opening game in practice I broke my left hand in two places and with a cast on my hand I changed course and went out for Track and Field. I made the track team in the field events.

I joined the YMCA which was strong on campus. The best gift Hope College gave me was Margaret Otte, who came to Hope in her Junior year, a transfer from Elmira College. She was the youngest daughter of the well known medical Doctor, Dr. John A. Otte, pioneer Missionary Doctor in the Amoy Mission in China. Margaret was very active in the YWCA. We became very good friends, and at the end of our senior year we were engaged.

In May, 1928, Jack Schouten, coach of All Sports at Hope, took me to the Olympic tryouts Regional Meet in East Lansing, Michigan. He entered me in the Javelin Throw and the "440 yard dash". I did not qualify in either event, but I had the distinction of running sixth place out of eight places in the "440". The winner was Bar Butti of Syracuse U., who went on to set the olympic record in Amsterdam. My javelin record at Hope College lasted for thirtyseven years. As you can see, I enjoyed Hope College very much.

And, then, Hope College YMCA capped my experiences by providing my $500 a year salary on my short term teaching assignment in China under the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America.

I was on the ship on the way to China when the Stock Market crashed in 1929 but the YMCA and the YWCA friends with hard-earned nickels, dimes, and quarters, never failed me.

I was very glad my mother and dad could come to my graduation in 1929. We graduated from Hope in Dimnent Chapel, the first class to graduate from that very impressive building.

The situation in China was not too stable. In fact in 1929 the communists under Mao Tse Tng, Chou En Lai, Chu Teh, and Lin Piau and their cohorts in Kiang Si Province came out of their Soviet enclave and captured Ling-Na, 100 miles inland from the port city of Amoy. They took Dr. Clarence Holleman prisoner and demanded $10,000 ransom. Fortunately, he managed to escape after ten days. Lung Yon is only 75 miles from Chang chow, where I was going. Dr. Chamberlin, Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions wrote to me and said the situation in Fukien Province is unstable and should you wish not to go to your assignment we will honor your decision. I told him I would go. I left San Francisco on the "Shinyo Maru" of the Japanese Lines in July. My cabin mates were Barney Luben and Jim McAlpine, enroute to Japan. Barney disembarked at Yokohama and Jim at Nagasaki. The twenty-one day trip from San Francisco to Hong Kong was very delightful. In light of today's high transportation rates, $87.50 was a real bargain for three weeks of travel. At dawn on August 31, the Shinyo Maru reached Hong Kong.

We could see many small islands and fishing boats and junks everywhere. As the ship entered the spacious outer harbor, the sun was bright on the deck. As we came into the inner harbor, we saw many freighters from many lands. The water front in Hong Kong Island was very busy. The tallest building was the Sinceres Department store, six stories high. We could see the cable tram car going up The Peak. We docked on the Kowloon side, the mainland of the New Territories. The Hong Kong Star Ferry taking ten minutes to reach Hong Kong, ten Hong Kong cents fare left every fifteen minutes. One could ride a tram car on Hong Kong Island eleven miles for ten cents. Hong Kong, then, with 475,000 people was a very lovely place. For sixty eight years I have never lost my love for this remarkable city.

I took a coastal steamer from Hong Kong to Amoy, making a day's stop over in Swatow. Amoy also, had an excellent outer and inner harbor. I was met by Henry Poppen, who took me up to Chang Chow, thirty miles inland, by launch and bus, on September 4.
Continued....

Please Help the "The Amoy Mission Project!" Please share any relevant biographical material and photos for the website and upcoming book, or consider helping with the costs of the site and research materials.   All text and photos will remain your property, and photos will be imprinted to prevent unauthorized use.  Thanks!  

Dr. Bill   Xiamen University MBA Center
E-mail: amoybill@gmail.com  
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Box 1288  Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian  PRC   361005

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AMOY MISSION LINKS
Click to help Amoy MIssion Project with photos, text, donations
The Reformed Church of China (Amoy Mission, started by the Reformed Church of America (Dutch) in Amoy Hea-mun (aka Ameouy )A.M. Main Menu
List of Amoy Mission Reformed Church of America (Dutch) Missionaries in ChinaRCA Miss'ry List
Reformed Church of China's Amoy Mission 1877 Report by DuryeaAmoyMission-1877
Fifty Years in Amoy Story of Amoy Mission by Philip Wilson Pitcher Reformed Church of ChinaAmoyMission-1893
David Abeel Father of the Amoy Mission, and China's first education for girls and womenAbeel, David
Henry and Sarah Beltman, Amoy Mission 1902-1928?Beltman
Boot Family of the Amoy Mission,South Fujian ChinaBoot Family
Ruth Broekema Amoy Mission 1921 1951Broekema, Ruth
Henry and Sarah Beltman, Amoy Mission 1902-1928?Bruce, Elizabeth
William Burns, Scottish Missionary to China, visited Amoy Burns, Wm.
John Caldwell China Coast Family Caldwells
Henry and Kate Depree Amoy Mission 1907 to 1948DePree
Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Develder, Wally
   Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Wally's Memoirs!
Douglas CarstairsDouglas, Carstairs
Elihu Doty RCA Missionary to Amoy ChinaDoty, Elihu
Rev William Rankin Duryea, D.D. The Amoy Mission 1877Duryea, Wm. Rankin
Joseph and Marion EstherEsther,Joe & Marion
Katherine Green Amoy Mission 1907 to 1950Green, Katherine
Karl Gutzlaff Missionary to ChinaGutzlaff, Karl
Stella Girard VeenschotenHills,Jack & Joann
. Stella Girard VeenschotenHill's Photos.80+
..Stella Girard VeenschotenKeith H.Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Homeschool
Richard and Johanna Hofstra of the Amoy MIssion ChinaHofstras
Tena Holkeboer Amoy Mission, Hope HospitalHolkeboer, Tena
Dr. Clarence Holleman and his wife Ruth Eleanor Vanden Berg Holleman were RCA missionaries on AmoyHolleman, M.D.
Hope Hospital Amoy on Gulangyu (Kulangsu, Koolongsoo, etc.)Hope Hospital
Stella Girard VeenschotenJohnston Bio
Rev. and Mrs. Joralman of the Amoy MissionJoralmans
Wendell and Renske KarsenKarsen, W&R
Edwin and Elizabeth Koeppe Family, Amoy Mission ChinaKoeppes, Edwin&Eliz.
Dr. Clarence Holleman and his wife Ruth Eleanor Vanden Berg Holleman were RCA missionaries on AmoyKip, Leonard W.
William Vander Meer Talmage College Fukien Christian UniversityMeer Wm. Vander
Margaret Morrison, Amoy Mission 1892-1931Morrison, Margaret
John Muilenberg Amoy MissionMuilenbergs
Jean Neinhuis, Amoy Mission Hope Hospital Gulangyu or Ku-long-sooNeinhuis, Jean
Theodore Oltman M.D. Amoy Missionary DoctorOltman, M.D.
Reverend Alvin Ostrum, of the Amoy Mission, Fujian ChinaOstrum, Alvin
Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Otte,M.D.Stella Girard VeenschotenLast Days
Henry and Mary Voskuil Amoy MissionPlatz, Jessie
Reverend W. J. Pohlman, Amoy MIssion, Fujian ChinaPohlman, W. J.
Henry and Dorothy Poppen, RCA Missionaries to Amoy China Amoy Mission Project 1841-1951Poppen, H.& D.
Reverend Daniel Rapalje, Amoy Mission, Fujian ChinaRapalje, Daniel
Herman and Bessie Renskers Amoy Mission 1910-1933Renskers
Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Talmage, J.V.N.
Lyman and Rose Talman Amoy Mission 1916 to 1931Talman, Dr.
Stella Girard VeenschotenVeenschotens
. Nelson VeenschotenHenry V.Stella Girard VeenschotenStella V.
. Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Girard V.
Jeanette Veldman, Amoy Mission ChinaVeldman, J.
Henry and Mary Voskuil Amoy MissionVoskuil, H & M
Jean Walvoord Amoy Mission 1931-1951Walvoord
A. Livingston WarnshuisWarnshuis, A.L.
Nellie Zwemer Amoy Mission 1891-1930Zwemer, Nellie
"The MIssion Cemetery of Fuh-Chau" / Foochow by Rev.J.W. Wiley , M.D. (also mispelled Wylie )Fuh-chau Cemetery
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