Bokum, Hermann

Bokum, Hermann a German Reformed minister, was born at Konigsberg, Prussia, Jan. 2, 1807. He received an excellent classical education, and came to America in 1826. After a few years, he became professor of the German and French languages in the University of Philadelphia. He was licensed to preach in 1842, and was ordained pastor of Columbia and Marietta, Lancaster Co., in 1843. After two years he removed to Cincinnati, O., where he was engaged in teaching, and in 1854 pursued similar labors in Knoxville, Tenn. At the breaking-out of the Rebellion his property was confiscated by the Confederacy, and he came North. He was engaged by. the Federal government in various capacities, chiefly as chaplain in the army, and labored efficiently in the hospital at Turner's Lane, Philadelphia. He received, at the close of the war, the appointment of commissioner of immigration in Tennessee, and returned to Knoxville. The office being discontinued in 1869, he removed to Atlanta, Ga., and became pastor of a German congregation. In 1873 he returned to Philadelphia, where he engaged in general missionary work, devoting a portion of his time to teaching and literary work, until his death in Germantown, Aug. 5, 1878. He was a sincere and devoted Christian, and a man of fine literary attainments. He was author of a German and English Grammar, and translated McIlvaine's Evidences of Christianity into German, besides writing extensively for several religious papers. See Harbaugh, Fathers of the Germ. Ref. Church, 5, 314.