Jesse Halsey Diary: May 1933

[Cincinnati]

Sunday afternoon, May 28, at two o’clock, Helen, Abby, and I left here for Berea, stopping a few minutes with the Herrmanns. After a hurried supper in Berea, I preached in the college chapel for the closing service of the year—fifteen hundred mountain boys and girls. Talked to them on Zechariah 2, “The City without Walls.”

Next morning about 10:30 started for Hendersonville, going by way of Knoxville and the Smoky Mountain Park. The road across Smoky Mountains into Ashville is not finished, but we skirted the northern edge, which is very beautiful, and at 10:30, passing through a heavy rain, arrived at Hendersonville.

Cousin Mary has almost lost her eyesight through cataracts. Two years ago she broke her hip and gets around with difficulty. We spent most of the day with them, leaving at five o’clock. We drove through the mountains to Chimney Rock, back to Ashville, and so on along the French Broad River in the sunset, arriving at Newport, Tennessee, just after dark. Here we spent the night and about five o’clock the next morning started for home (400 miles).

We stopped several places along the way to see interesting things, brought home a few laurel and holly plants, stopped at Berea a few minutes and arrived her at 6:10 P.M.