1900 - Frank & May Simcox and Children

June 30, 1900

Baoding, Hebei

Frank Simcox.

May Gilson was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, in 1868. The previous year Frank Edison Simcox had been born in nearby Venango County. At the age of just 15, young Frank Simcox was deeply burdened by the death of his beloved mother. Two years later a revival swept through Grove City College where Simcox was studying. One of approximately seventy students who professed faith in Christ for the first time, Simcox stood up in the college chapel and boldly announced, “I promised my mother on her deathbed that I would meet her in heaven, and by the grace of God I intend to do so.”[1] A college roommate said of him:

“I knew him to be one of the sincerest of men. He gave himself with all his strength to every task he undertook. He was indeed faithful. He never shirked the greatest or the smallest duty. He was loyal. He was loyal to the truth. He was loyal to his friends. I never knew him to turn his back upon a friend. I never knew him in the slightest particular to deceive or defraud a friend or foe. And he was loyal to his God…. In all our acquaintance I never heard from his lips an unclean word, an unclean story, an unclean suggestion.”[2]

At the same time that Frank’s character was being chiselled by the hand of God, May Gilson was described as being

“in the first bloom of young womanhood. Beautiful and attractive beyond the common lot of women, she was perfectly free from affectation, or vanity. A sweet, loving, sprightly girl of gifted mind and gracious manners,—in her presence was a charm irresistible, and in her heart a well-spring of the purest loves and the noblest aspirations.”[3]

At the age of just 16, May wrote these words in a classmate’s album:

Life is a leaf of paper white

On which each one of us may write

His word or two, and then comes night.

Although they hadn’t met each other at the time, the Holy Spirit brought Frank and May together in marriage. They were united in matrimony and in a common goal to serve Christ in China. At his graduation from college in 1893, Frank Simcox was asked to make a speech. He took a Bible in his hands, raised it above his head, and boldly declared to his teachers and fellow students:

“God only knows whether we shall live to learn the Chinese language so as to be able to proclaim the Gospel in the Chinese tongue. If we shall not live long enough to learn the language and shall only live to place our feet on Chinese soul and hold up this dear old Book in the sight of a perishing race, I shall feel that our going to China has not been in vain.”[4]

Every heart was inspired by Simcox’s words, and the reality of his pledge became more apparent later when he spilled his blood on China’s soil.

On September 1, 1893, a farewell service was held for Frank and May Simcox. On the 18th they boarded the steamer Empress of China in Vancouver, British Columbia, and commenced their journey across the Pacific to China. The journey took just 19 days. Technology had improved so rapidly that just 30 years previously, Dr. Calvin Mateer (the only other missionary sent out from Simcox’s home church at the time) had taken 167 days to reach Shanghai.

May Simcox.

Two boys were born to the Simcox family in China. Paul was born first, followed three years’ later by Francis. The refined May Simcox struggled to adapt to life in China. One of her co-workers wrote:

“Mrs. Simcox was a woman of very sweet spirit, of delicacy of feeling and of gentleness of nature. There were many things in China that were hard for her, that grated and jarred on her nature. The uncleanliness, the untruthfulness, the insincerity, the foulness of speech of heathen peoples touch a mother’s heart as they do not others. She had an intense love for her children and a profound sense of a mother’s duty…. She endeavoured in every way she could to make up to her boys what they lacked in surroundings. She kept a constant watch over them.”[5]

The two Simcox boys—Paul and Francis—saw that one of their friends had a baby sister, so they decided they wanted one too! Every night they prayed to God, asking him to send a little sister to them. Their prayers were duly answered, and baby Margaret was born. Paul and Francis were proud of their role in the whole affair, and didn’t hesitate to tell people that their sister had come about solely as a result of their prayers! On April 16, 1900, May Simcox wrote:

“It is wonderful the way the Lord keeps us, even from the fear of evil men. Another placard has been put up in the city, declaring the intention to destroy us. But we do not have fear. The city is full of rumours and there is great unrest all about us, but we are kept in perfect peace.”[6]

On the afternoon of Saturday, June 30th, a group of Chinese Christians was gathered in the Simcox home. They prayed together, asking the Lord to protect them, and, if that was not in His plan, to prepare them for a death that would honour Jesus. At about four o’clock in the afternoon a group of 20 Boxers and a mob of ruffians descended on the Simcox house. To gain entry they struck the elderly gatekeeper dead, and “with horrid, unearthly yells they forced their way into the Compound, and quickly surrounded the Simcox dwelling, the missionaries well knew the end had come.”[7]

Paul and Francis Simcox.

What happened next is unclear, but it seems the Christians managed to barricade themselves inside the building for three hours, while the Boxers looted everything of value. One source says the missionaries defended themselves with a hunting rifle, by which the Boxer leader was killed and ten others wounded. Finally, at around seven o’clock, the Boxers set fire to the building where the Christians were holed up. It is said that May Simcox,

“with baby Margaret in her arms, in full view of the mob, pleaded, as only a mother can plead, that they would spare the life of her little daughter, asking no other mercy…. She offered them her jewels and the silver which the house contained, if they would but grant this one request, but their hearts were steeled against the faintest promptings of humanity or mercy. Baby Margaret was refused by the mob, and with her mother passed into the heavenly home in a chariot of fire.”[8]

One eyewitness account says,

“Paul and Francis, aged respectively about five and seven years, rushed from the building into the open air to escape suffocation from the dense clouds of smoke. They were immediately set upon by the crowd, cut down and their bodies thrown into the cistern…. The other inmates of the house perished in the flames. The Chinese Christians and servants, to the number of perhaps twenty, living in the Compound also perished.”[9]

The entire Simcox family was martyred for Jesus Christ. Francis was seven-years-old, Paul five, and Margaret just eleven months.

1. Forsyth, The China Martyrs of 1900, 416.
2. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 25-26.
3. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 27.
4. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 42.
5. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 222-223.
6. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 351.
7. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 374-375.
8. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 374-375.
9. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 379-380.