Guests of Honor at Tea

14 June 1941 | Cincinnati Enquirer

Guests of Honor at Tea

Mrs. Jesse H. Halsey and her two interesting daughters, Miss Helen Halsey and Miss Abigail Halsey, were the charming guests of honor at a tea given yesterday afternoon at Blue Hills, Mrs. Dwight Hinckley’s attractive residence in Mount Washington.

This tribute to Mrs. Halsey, who with Rev. Mr. Halsey, pastor of Seventh Presbyterian Church, will be leaving soon to take up their residence in Chicago, and the two daughters of this household was arranged by Mrs. W. E. Talbert’s Bible Class. It assembled the women of the parish.

Masses of fragrant flowers sent as a tribute of admiration and friendship, combined with some of the superb lilies and other summer flowers from Mrs. Hinckley’s garden, were used to decorate the spacious living room, the dining room, and the terrace.

Mrs. Halsey, who is pictured above, with Miss Helen Halsey at the left and Miss Abigail Halsey at the right, wore a afternoon gown of chiffon flowered in vivid tones. Her should bouquet was of orchids.

Miss Helen Halsey and her sister wore gowns of soft blue, similar in design. Outlining the square neckline were inset bands of narrow lace, a broader panel of white lace being appliquéd to the souffant skirts. With these becoming frocks each wore a strand of waxy white camellias . . .

Abigail Fithian Halsey | 1873-1946

Southampton Press

Friday, Sept. 27, 1946

Miss Abigail F. Halsey Dies Following A Short Illness

Miss Abigail Fithian Halsey, teacher and historian, widely-known for her production of historical pageants, and author of Southampton’s Tercentenary Pageant, passed away Tuesday afternoon after a short illness.

Born October 2^nd, 1873, the daughter of Charles Henry Halsey and Melvina Terry Halsey, she was a direct descendant of one of Southampton’s earliest families; her brother is the Rev. Jesse Halsey, D.D., professor of Pastoral Theology at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, for 28 years pastor of the Seventh Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati. She leaves, besides her brother, three nieces and three nephews: Mrs. Gerald Adams, Mrs. Joseph Haroutunian, Mrs. James Van Allen, Harry Halsey White, Commander Edward P. White, Charles H. Halsey.

Funeral services were held yesterday afternoon at 3:30 o’clock at her home, North Main Street.

***

A Distinguished Southamptoner

With the death of “Miss Abbie” as she was affectionately known by everyone, Southampton, where she has been a source of wise counsel in historical fields for over two decades, loses a splendid woman and a true “lady of the old school.” Her poise, kindliness and dignity marked her so. Though more of the old school she had kept abreast with the modern and this, with her sense of humor, endeared her to young and old alike among her host of friends.

She and her sister, the late Mrs. Edward P. White, who wrote under the pen name Lizbeth Halsey White, early recognized the richness of Southampton’s history and preserved its traditions for future generations in their writings.

Miss Halsey was especially well-known for her dramatic accomplishments as author and director of historical pageants. For her ability to in this field she was sought, not only by her home village, but by distant communities wishing to depict their historical background in pageantry. These included extension work through Cornell University where many up-State County Fairs featured pageants of local history done by their own people, rather than commercial entertainment. At the request of Governor Al Smith, Miss Halsey wrote and produced the Pageant at Kingston to mark the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution.

Women's Community House | Ithaca, N.Y. | 1921

Educated at Newburgh (NY) girls school, New Paltz Normal and Columbia, Miss Halsey taught not only at Southampton, but in Westfield, N.J., at The Boy’s School, Haverford, Pa., the Northrup School in Minneapolis, and helped found the University School in Cincinnati. She founded the Community House at Ithaca, N.Y., which next week celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary (wheres he was to have been the guest of honor).

**4 August 1922 |Ogdensburg Republican-Journal

Abigail Fithian Halsey publishes Bulletin on Pageants with NY State College of Agriculture in Ithaca

List of Southampton Folks Influential to Jesse

from the folder marked "HALSEY AUTOBIOGRAPHY Carbons," this half page of notes reads:

Ed Foster – Natural Prayer

Miss Mallory – Cheating Boy

Frank Corwith – Fold Paper

Pop Johnson – Black Shoes

Madison - Boy like that.

Jen Baird- Ella Bennett

Father and 46 Psalm

Dr. Campbell – Leave it there

Wilson – Any other way

Edgar Hildreth

M Jagger-

Lil Halsey

Chas Foster – Pro Bono Publico

Encouragement – M. Jagger

Chas A. Jagger

Wm H Pierson

M. A Herrick – Thank God; best part of Education

Warren Hildreth – Don’t you think you ought to?

Honesty. Encouragement –

Abigail and Book – Poetry

Hatchment

by Jesse Halsey

“They heard not the voice of Him that spake to me.”

{Jack Gardner [is a] soldier who joins church on return because of sunset experience; boy at the wood-pile.}

Hog—swine

Pig—Pork

Cow—beef

Hash—Popui; Webster in one of his definitions of hash, frankly says “A mess.”

Not to tarry over definition—a best this is, but popui—with sauce or without, a hash of experience. No horse meat, we trust—though we can testify it’s not so bad when you don’t know it. We had a sausage factory improvised in Siberia during the War, supposedly and actually we used reindeer meat, but I have a suspicion that ex cavalry equines go in at times, rabbits (arctic hares that is), and when one is skun a mongrel Eskimo dog looks just the same and if you don’t know it—tastes the same or similar. (I have eaten snakes in Japan, didn’t know the difference, thinking they were eels—which I catch thru the ice on Long Island, skin and fry—a delectable morsel.)

Why this dietetic metaphor—I can’t say; we started with hash. And this is just a sample here and there out of an oldster’s reminiscences of things grave and gay; res sacra and res secularia, unrelated likely to any logic, but tied into the stream of life for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, till death doth part soul and body and memory fades out of fructifies into heavenly harvest—or hellish (most hells of any gripping reality to men since Dante are constructed of memories).

But to get on; or rather to go back. Some one asked Duncan Spaeth, coach of the Princeton Crew why it was that rowing was his favorite sport—“Only thing I know where by looking back you can get ahead.” (Parenthesis, no two. The very time that Henry Ford called all history “bunk” he, nonetheless, was putting little concave mirrors on the front of the drivers [side] so he could see the road behind; that’s the only way to drive safely to at least glance on the road behind.)

With this recurring justification or alibi or reminiscence, we start again. A new England kitchen, big fireplace, brick oven, Saturday night and baked beans and brown bread. A red damask spic and span table cloth on a square walnut table; four persons seated. Kerosene lamp, flickers from the smoldering fireplace; the lazy hum of the tea kettle, now that the tea is brewed. A boy maybe twelve, and his older sister back to the wall, facing the fire; bewildered father at one end of the table, elderly aunt at the other.

Melvina Terry Halsey, 1842-1887

Father seemed old to the boy whose mother was dead, he himself as one born out of due time; father seemed old, he was old, looked old, felt old (rheumatism; its antidote a jug of hard cider with whittlings of barberry in it; the boy often went a mile down the lane to Uncle Harvey's barberry for twigs and bark for the decoction). Mother had died, quite young, when boy was five or less; father lived ever under its shadow; older sisters always thought that if father had been less stubborn (loyal) and had the new doctor who had come fresh from Ann Arbor and never lost a case of pneumonia, likely mother would have lived--who knows.

Aunt Gussie’s (her husband father's brother, she was mother's sister) husband, Uncle Will, our favorite out of a baker's dozen, at least, of uncles, had taken the boy, od six, his adult brother (and a neighbor's boy of five—Lewis Hildreth—on a clamming expedition. One horse box wagon, two wash tubs with ropes attached and down to Sebonac "gut" where the tide cuts in and out between the big bay and the cold spring, scallop bond—Ram Island and other ramifying creeks. (They say cricks down east, our way.) . . .

The men go out on the flats and beyond, the crop is plentiful and the tubs soon filled—a long hour or so—the boys play on the shore, shells and stones in many shapes and colors collected and arranged, and houses built and paddling in the lapping wash of the tiny waves; swimming lessons will come later when the men get back. Uncle Will is nearing the shore, crossing the channel, when he throws up his hands and flounders in the tide rip. The boys think he is playing a trick to amuse them. (He was always up to making them laugh—our favorite uncle.) He goes down “for the third time” as the saying goes and Lewis says (I can hear his lisp now), “I guess he’s gone down to look for his hat.” Alarmed, they begin to run up and down the beach wafting their coats like the old folks do when they sight a whale, shouting till finally Harry comes slowly thru the teeming water but fast he can, reaching the flat he kicks off the tub handle half of it, thus free from the rope and tub he plunges in the deep water of the gut and though the tide has carried tub and body far into the inlet he reaches the tub, now empty, tied to uncle Will and brings the body to the shore; the boys following the shoreline come to the place and stand helpless by while Harry rolls the body on the tub trying to extract the water from the lungs. (No Red Cross training in those days; only sailor’s methods.) Some furtive clam diggers from another township across the bay whose sloop is hidden behind Ram Island, hearing the boys’ shouts finally come and they and Harry work on half an hour without avail. The boy hears his brother now, across the intervening half century plus, as Harry lifts our uncle’s lifeless body into the one horse farm wagon, carefully bedded with dry seaweed from the shore—a fitting coach for an old whaler, but still (brothers sob) it seems inappropriate for a man just entering middle life. The long slow drive home, Harry and the boys on the seat, the body in the wagon shrouded in the horse blanket. The boys eat the lunch—wondering why Harry doesn’t. (They were six and five.) We stop at the first house from the shore and tell Cap’n ‘Lias (White), he saddles his horse and rides to the village to find Father, who like the elder brother of the parable only in this one regard was “in the field,” after going to tell his sister-in-law and her daughter, joins us at the foot of the lane as we come up to the house.

No professional morticians in those days—not there at least—and old Aunt Libbie who had ushered us all into the world and our parents before us—Aunt Libbie takes over. The boy at her direction goes across the street to Father’s barn to show the men where to find the rough pine plank 48’’ x 6’ on which his mother had been “laid out” some months before; stored up there in the hay mow (the east end where a great round shiny ships spar tied the hand hewn oak rafters together. What a job for a boy—or boys, for “Little Lewis” went along, too. (He died the next year.) But that’s another story; we wander too far; let’s get back to the kitchen table. There are shadows in the room you see; not of westerning sun’s making for the flicker of the fireplace logs—Father at one end of the table, Aunt Gussie at the other, going their best for the others’ sake to be cheerful.

. . . No levity; but much wisdom in the meagre conversation. Meagre is the gossip ("Gossip" says father, who studies the dictionary and knew his Latin from Academy days, "'Gossip' was once a good word akin to Gospel"--let's make it that and when some really unpleasant sure enough bit of unsavory morsel of truth filtered in, Father would say, "As Biney (his wife, my mother) used to say, 'Maye, for we all have a crook in the elbow.'" Then he would add as was his Scriptural custom, "Charity covereth a multitude of sins."

"go forward toward that larger, freer, nobler, happier Southampton that is to be.”

“And so, upon this holiday, Southampton, to you and to the future I commit this charge. Be loyal to the ideals of your past as you go forward toward that larger, freer, nobler, happier Southampton that is to be.”

SINGING OF “AMERICA”

Note on THE PARADE from Lizbeth Halsey White

The parade which succeeded the pageant was, without exception, the most brilliant spectacle Southampton has ever witnessed.  Immediately after the singing of "America," in which the several thousand present had so heartily joined, the marshal and his aides on horseback led the way from the park to Monument Square, where the parade was formed.  These, closely followed by the band, led the line of march, with the veterans and the boys in blue of the Civil War episode coming after. Then came the pageant characters, each in their respective groups, marching two and two, led by the Herald and the Spirit of Southampton, two most impressive figures, each representing so perfectly the parts represented. Following the pageant characters came the fire department, with decorated automobiles bringing up the rear.   

It was estimated that at least 10,000 people visited Southampton that day. Almost as many were turned away from the grounds as could be admitted, and these were lined up along the street to view the parade. The line of march continued from Monument Square through Job's lane and Main street, down Bridgehampton road and Elm street to the railroad station, from thence back by Main street to disband at Monument Square. Crowds were assembled all along the line, especially on Job's lane and Main street, and cheered most enthusiastically as each group appeared. From the wood nymphs in the lead to the hundred children representing the future of America in the final episode, it was difficult to decide which group received most attention. The Puritans and Indians were ever popular figures, while the sailor boys and the wedding party seemed to be especial favorites. The veterans and the boys in blue won loud applause, while the boys of Southampton's efficient fire department, never in better form than on this occasion, received their full share of approval.   

It was, indeed, a beautiful spectacle. The rich colors of the pageant costumes in the fading light of a perfect June day, made an impression which can never be forgotten by the many who witnessed it — a day in which a splendid community spirit, assisted by all which nature can offer at this season of the year, had combined to make a complete success far beyond the hopes of its promoters. Just a word as to the author of the pageant, Miss Abigail Fithian Halsey.  

A student of history and a native of old Southampton, for her its local history had always peculiar charm. The idea of the pageant as the most appropriate way of celebrating the 275th anniversary had been in her mind for a long time. When her plan was proposed to the committee in charge of the event, it seemed so much more of an under-taking than could be carried to ultimate success, that it was thought quite impracticable; but Miss Halsey’s conviction and enthusiasm won such confidence that exactly one month before the time for the celebration it was decided to follow the plan proposed, which was done almost to the letter.  The committee was most fortunate in securing the co-operation of Mr. Robert K. Atkinson, of the Sage Foundation in Sag Harbor, who, as pageant master, carried out so sympathetically and to such successful conclusion the event which gave color to a day of celebration which will be long remembered by all who had participated in it.   L. H. W. 

Lizbeth Halsey White | June 12, 1915 | Celebration of the Two Hundred and Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Founding of the Town of Southampton, N. Y.

"Historical Association Aftermath"

Southampton Press | Thursday, October 27, 1932 

Written by the Late Mrs. Edward P. White on the Day of Her Death, Tuesday, October 25, 1932

L. Emory Terry, Lizbeth Halsey White, Col. Walter Barnes

With the removal of the signs which for several weeks have given to the village a suggestion of environment, which is her historic right, we engage our minds to reflect upon what this week of history has left to us which will remain and be of permanent value to the future?

The sign committees of the different villages are to be highly commended for interpreting so successfully the historic places along the route of the tour, which our visitors and many of our own residents found so interesting. Each village erected its own signs so that each was quite individual in design.

Southampton was fortunate in having a committee for its signs the enthusiasm of which knew  no bounds. W.D. Van Brunt, chairman, has had long familiarity with activities of this kind, ever since, as village president, he gave careful attention to the placing of signs designating the streets and compiling the Village Book in which among other valuable information we find a list of historic events which have occurred in Southampton from the beginning of her history in 1640 until 1908, when that book was compiled. One of our D.A.R. members has referred to this book as Mr. Van Brunt’s bible,” and the many to whom it has become most useful believe it has been well named.

As well as an historic, the sign had also an artistic value which was much appreciated. The weatherworn shingles provided by Dick Foster and Cortland Smith, shaped and touched by the magic brushes of Eli H. Fordham, were appropriate reminders of those early houses, gray with the ocean salt and damp of two hundred years and more. Abigail F. Halsey and Dr. David H. Hallock also made the contributions to the work. Since the signs are stored away until another historic occasion shall call them forth, it is not out of place remember that of all the committees which contributed so much to make the Historical Conference an outstanding success, none gave greater enthusiasm to the work than those who marked the historical places, of which Southampton had 38.

 

The Water Mill committee also did excellent work for their markings were so legible that they could be read with much more rapid driving than the 25 miles made on the Historic Tour. Would it not be interesting indeed if 1644 could be made permanent on the old watermill—our oldest landmark on Eastern Long Island? When the windmill on the green is restored by the community committee, surely the date of the building—1800—will be placed conspicuously thereon.

Southampton Press, October 6, 1932

In speaking of markers we desire to most appreciatively commend to the attention given by the Village Board to the renewing and replacing of the street signs, several of which were much in need of repair, while a few had disappeared altogether for all of the substantial appropriation made in the village budget for this purpose each year.

For instance, in view of the coming to Southampton of the State Historical Conference this Fall, and the incentive to refurbish our historical housekeeping, it was discovered late in the Summer that very substantial signs declaring the s sites at Old Town of the earliest settlement (1640) and that of the earliest church building (1644) had but lately fallen down.

Old Post House

These had been erected during the early days of the Southampton Village Improvement Association (1885) and so substantially made that they had withstood the element for more than 40 years. In view of the coming of a conference of historically-minded people it was, indeed, a calamity to discover that these very important signs had disappeared and their renewal must wait for next year’s budget.

The village officials, however, were more than equal to the occasion when the matter was brought to their attention and voted the needed funds wherewith to replace these and also others which needed repair. The committee on street signs, Elmer W. Van Brunt, for the village, gave much time and untiring effort to the replacement of the signs and in erecting them. This could not have been done without the assistance of C. Wesley Baily, whose interest and persistent overtime effort saw the painting finished in time for the coming of the visitors on October 6^th.

Especial appreciation is hereby given for the guide post on which “Southampton—founded 1640” may be read by all who pass on the Montauk Highway at either entrance to the village.

The Hollyhocks | built 1662 | home of Thomas Halsey

Since the erection of this most valuable reminder of our historic beginnings, we can but wonder why we have not used it before, for 1640 is the proud inheritance of every one who has a living interest in Southampton.

There are other markers, too, which if rightly placed would help to make Southampton as interesting as the date of her birth. 1640 is an altitude to attain unto and so many of our oldest landmarks have disappeared. We should be eternally grateful to those of our Summer colony who have appreciated many of our old houses enough to restore them, thus preserving to the village these landmarks which speak of her history and mark the contrast between the old and the new, all of which helps to make the village more attractive.

Sign marking site of British Fort during Revolutionary War

We have in times past thought we had no Revolutionary history worthy of preservation, because Long Island was under British supremacy until after the close of the war. We have awakened to realize that the history of Long Island during the Revolution is unique, that to live if one must, under British supremacy was heroic and that he story of the Refugees who fled to the patriot soil of Connecticut is one of the most thrilling of the Revolutionary War. The old Fort cast up by the British on the hill back of the colored church was removed only two years ago to make way for a new street which will open up for settlement many choice building sites in a newer Southampton. The fort is gone, but historic sentiment can still make attractive the site with the placing of a marker to the memory of those who, though their husbands and brothers were away in the lines—they managed to live in peace under very trying circumstances until the return of their protectors; or, we may erect most worthily if we will, a marker in memory of the British General, Wm. Erskine, who declared from the first of his coming that he and his solders had not come to make war on defenseless women and children, and who, during his stay on Eastern Long Island, became so impressed with the justice of the patriot cause that he resigned his commission and returned to England before the war was over.

Herrick House, North Main Street

The William Smith Pelletreau house which stood in North Main Street, where General Erskine made his headquarters during the occupation, has disappeared but the Herrick house, across the street, is standing with its huge fireplace unchanged since the days when General Erskine and his officers had their mess from over its blazing logs.

This house was built in 1760 by David Howell, who went as a refugee to Connecticut, during the Revolution and so far as is known, did not return. It has been well cared for by several generations of the Herrick family. During the historical Conference, Mr. and Mrs. John A. Herrick were good enough to open their home on two occasions and nearly a hundred visitors enjoyed their hospitality—with its many reminders of Revolutionary history.

Let us not wait o long before we erect on the triangle near, a marker to the Revolutionary era in Southampton.

The Charles B. Foster collection at Littleworth is receiving more frequent visits as it becomes better known. Here are preserved the homely implements of the early housekeeping and farms which so many have given to the bonfire. The exhibit contains also a very complete collection of guns, especially of Winchesters and implements of the whale fishery. The collection is an interesting and valuable one and Mr. Foster is most generous in his invitation to open it to any who so desire.

Southampton Press, June 1931

On the impulse given by the coming of the Historical Association, the Southampton Colonial Society has completed two very important project which have for some time been under consideration—the restoration of the stones in the old South End Burying Ground, the fund for which has been met by the accumulated dues of its members, and the completion of the fence marking the boundary of the right-of-way to Conscience Point.

In 1910, the Society incorporated and purchases from Charles Reeves at North Sea the peninsula of upland and meadow known as Conscience Point, and the right-of-way there. The society placed there a boulder in honor of the landing there of the colonists, who in June, 1640, settled Southampton.

With the increase of traffic and building it became necessary to visibly define the boundary line of the right-of-way and a board fence has been completed by placing near the main highway an entrance which is ornamental and appropriate and altogether a great improvement. The entrance is of Colonial design—the drawing for which was the contribution of William I. La Fon, Jr.

First Presbyterian Church of Southampton

The carrying out of the design was done by Builder Lester E. Raynor and the result is both appropriate and attractive, wholly in keeping with its purpose. The committee from the Colonial Society, who have had the matter in charge, President L. Emory Terry, and Mrs. Hugh Halsey, are to be congratulated upon the success of the undertaking. The boundary line is now well defined, the entrance to the Point is dignified and inviting, and speaks of an interest in Southampton's beginnings, which as been given permanent emphasis.

Southampton Press, October 6, 1932

* * *

In as many as half a hundred homes each quarter of the coming year will come the State Association Quarterly—New York History—to those who during the past few months have become members of this Association. In this will be found interesting account of the recent Conference; the papers read and there will be enjoyed even more when read for oneself, and many items of current historical interest appear which are most enlightening. A membership in the Association places New York History in the home of the subscriber and this is more than worth the $3.00 which is the annual membership dues.

First National Bank of Southampton c 1939

Surely there are still those who in attending the meetings have gained a more definite knowledge of the important activities of the New York State Historical Association and would like to give their endorsements.

Lizbeth May Halsey White & Edward Pearson White 
c1929 | 34 Post Crossing

Credentials for membership are an interest in the history of New York State and the signature of one who is already a member. A call the Library and your subscription can be arranged. L.E. Terry at the Southampton Bank or Mrs. Edward P. White, 34 Post Crossing, will be glad to arrange it for you and forward your membership to Frederick B. Richards, secretary, Glens Falls, N.Y.

October 25, 1932

LIZBETH H. WHITE

Historic newspaper and scrapbook images courtesy Lizbeth Halsey White Files, Southampton Historical Museum Archives and Research Center. 

"the past will be restored, the lost will be found"

Lizbeth May Halsey White

Lizbeth May Halsey White

Lizbeth Halsey White (6 Apr 1869 - 25 Oct 1932) was the sister of Harry, Abigail Fithian, and Rev. Jesse Halsey, daughter of Charles and Melvina. Lizbeth was 18 when her mother died, and for the six years following Melvina's death, Lizbeth helped her father tend the home, cared for her younger siblings, and worked on the farm. In 1892, when Lizbeth was 23, she married Edward White, then 27, and they and what would be their three children lived with Edward's parents, his uncle, three servants, and six or so boarders in the Old Post House a few blocks down Main Street from the Halsey family home in Southampton. Later, Abigail (Aunt Babbie) lived with Lizbeth and her family in the Post home, too, despite Jesse having built Abigail "the bungalow" behind the Halsey family home at 49 No. Main. Edward was a justice of the peace, as well as founder of the Southampton Colonial Society.

Edward Post White, Sr.

Lizbeth was the town historian of Southampton during the '20s and early '30s, the second person to hold said position and the first woman. The dedication page to Abigail Fithian Halsey's 1940 book "In Old Southampton," published by Columbia University Press and chronicling the history of the town of Southampton from its founding in the 1640s through its role in the Revolutionary War, reads:

MY SISTER, LIZBETH HALSEY WHITE
HISTORIAN OF THE TOWN OF SOUTHAMPTON 1923-1932
BEGAN THESE STORIES IN 1932
IT HAS BEEN A LABOR OF LOVE TO COMPLETE THE SERIES
IN HER MEMORY

Lizbeth with son Edward Post White, Jr. and Dorothy Pearson, March 1923
Cap'n Eddie and Dot were married in July 1924

From the memorial written by Robert Keene at Annual Meeting of Southampton Colonial Society, May 17, 2985:

Lizbeth White was the founding Regent of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and it was Lizbeth White who was instrumental in bringing to the attention of the Town Board in 1928 the design of the Town Flag, as presented by the D.A.R. . . .
And it was Lizbeth who revealed that the first woman to step ashore at what was later to be called Conscience Point was Eleanor, the wife of the leader of the first settlers, Edward Howell.

In advocating for the creation of an organization dedicated to the preservation of historical landmarks in 1915, Lizbeth wrote:

"Many of our Town's most precious memorials have vanished forever. Our fathers were too busy planting and colonizing, wrestling life from hard conditions, to think much about leaving behind them personal souvenirs . . . Then into this repository let every native and every citizen take a pride in gathering whatever shall preserve the memory of the past or throw a light upon its life . . . Begin with today and work backward as fast as possible. Gradually the past will be restored, the lost will be found."

Photographs of Lizbeth and Edward Post White, courtesy of Con Crowley, from a collection of photos belonging to his grandfather, Captain Ed White, Jr. Apparently, Cap'n Eddie kept the photograph album with him at sea, as he spent a lifetime in the Navy, Merchant Marine, and Coast Guard.  

1910 United States Federal Census Record 
1930 United States Federal Census Record
Pedigree view for Lizbeth May Halsey White on Ancestry.com

Van Allen—Halsey

Southampton Press

Friday, Aug. 31, 1945

The Reverend Dr. and Mrs. Jesse Halsey of Chicago and Southampton , Long Island, formerly of Cincinnati, announce the engagement of their daughter, Abigail Fithian, to James Alfred Van Allen, Lt., U.S.N.R., son of Mr. and Mrs. A.M. Van Allen of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.

Miss Halsey is a graduate of the Lotspeich and Hillsdale Schools of Cincinnati and of Mt. Holyoke College. For the past year she has contributed to the war efforts thought the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Silver Springs, Md.

Lt. Van Allen is a graduate of the Iowa Wesleyan University. After acquiring his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Iowa, he was awarded a Carnegie Institute Fellowship in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington, D.C. Following sixteen months active service in the Pacific he is now stationed in Washington. The wedding will take place early in October at the First Presbyterian Church in Southampton.

Abigail Fithian Halsey

Abigail Fithian Halsey

Abigail Fithian Halsey

2 Oct 1873 - 14 Oct 1946

“Miss Halsey, previous to her coming to Ithaca, had served some time in Red Cross work, and had taught in public and private schools [in MN, OH] of the [NY] state. She had also had experience both in Camp Fire and Girl Scout work.”

Founding member of Southampton Colony Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution.

April 1, 1921-July 1, 1922 | founding secretary of the Community Building in Ithaca, NY

July 1, 1922 | Ithaca, NY, “Miss Halsey Resigns Post As Secretary: Executive of Committee Building Leaves July 1 to Study in New York City—Record of Work Accomplished at Local Home is Highly Commendable”

1922 | Study in New York City of “the work in which she is particularly interested”

1927 | “Miss Halsey Has Had Wide Drama Experience”

“Miss Halsey, who has been engaged by the Farm and Home Bureau to put on the Historical Drama for the Sesquicentennial Celebration which takes place at the Drama [Club] for the Sesquicentennial [on September] 10, was selected by the State Historian, with the enthusiastic endorsement of the State College, as a drama director of state-wide reputation and experience. She has, for a number of years past been connected with the Hecksher Foundation of New York City, in its Educational Drama department.

Miss Halsey wrote and staged the great Pageant in 1924 at East Hampton, L.I., and also the one given at Ithaca under the auspices of the State College of Agriculture in 1922. She is the author of the booklet issued from the press of the State College of Agriculture “The Historical Pageant in the Rural Community.” Her efficiency as well as her personal charm and tact, have already won her friends on every side in Kingston and throughout the county, and are brining in recruits daily for the wonderful scenes in the making of our state government that will be depicted in the stirring drama.”

September 3, 1921 | Ithaca, “49,000 Attended Tompkins Fair President Says,”

Saturday, September 3, 1921 | Editorial: A Successful Fair

“If public interest and support are proper criterions the Tompkins County Fair this year was a great success. Attendance records seem to have been broken all the way down the line.

That the pageant played no small part in attracting the public to the fair grounds is beyond question. Indeed it was the pageant that made this fair distinctive from all other similar enterprises. The pageant certainly made good. It was well worth while not alone as an educational entertainment, but as an agency for stimulating community pride and solidarity.

Considering the relatively short time available for preparation and rehearsal, the pageant was a most creditable success and Miss Halsey and all associated with her in the enterprise well deserve the applause and appreciation one hears expressed on every hand. And had it been possible to provide better lighting facilities the pageant would have been even more effective. It is to be hoped that if something of the sort is attempted again the lighting problem will be adequately met.”

1932 | Chairman of Southampton’s George Washington Bicentennial Celebration

1932-1946 | Historian, Town of Southampton

1940 | Author, In Old Southampton, Columbia University Press

Two Poems | Abigail Fithian Halsey

THE PROOF

How would I prove my love?

By some fair deed,

Some joyous sacrifice,

Some swift relief

Unto your utmost need,

Some glowing revelation

That, like sunlight on a distant hill,

Should show you all my heart

In one glad moment yours.

How do I prove my love?

By standing just aside,

By seeing you go on,

Day after day,

In ways I may not tread;

By watching your dear feet

Stumble in paths

My word could save you from,

Yet never speaking it;

By knowing past all doubting

That the day will come,

When, all else gone,

Alone,

Deserted,

You will turn your face

To meet my waiting eyes,

And there

Behold your own.

THE SOURCE

Dear comrade, do they call you dead?

Ah no, not I.

Last night the moon lay white on all the land,

A boat was anchored

Here beside the stream.

Oh, ‘twas a merry party

Setting forth,

And you were here,

And those we loved,

And I.

One took the oars

And rowed us toward the hills.

The woods closed in,

The stream grew dark,

And then

The boat was grounded sudden on the shoals,

And I

Said quickly that perhaps

We’d come too far.

Too far, they all agreed,

And turned us back.

Then quietly you rose and stepped ashore,

And with a smile to me,

Said,

“I am going on

To find the source,”

And left us there,

And I—

Dear comrade, do they call you dead ?

Ah no, not I!

By Abigail Fithian Halsey

Published in Contemporaneous Verse, Jan. 1917, p. 8-9 —

"The Old Mill" by Abigail F. Halsey

"The Old Mill"

On the hill stood the mill a watch tower of old,

In the door stood the miller all dusty and bold,

Up the hill came the farmers with grist to be ground

As the wings of the mill turned so merrily round.

Oh, life had a flavor in days long ago,

A tang and a savor we never shall know.

All the news of the village was ground into flour,

The wind and the weather, the tide and the hour,

The crops and the crews and the favoring breeze,

The births and the deaths the ships on the seas.

A tang and a savor we never shall know.

There was plenty of time and plenty of work,

And “plenty” to do it and no one to shirk,

Then no one was rich and no one was poor,

Religion was real and hell-fire was sure,

Oh, talk had a flavor in days long ago,

A tang and a savor we never shall know.

The news from New York when it came once a week

Was turned with the cud to the sou’ sou’ west cheek,

But the sight of a whale from the top of the mill

Sent a blast that would waken the dead down the hill,

When the Whale Rally sounded at night or at morn

The call was a rival of Gabriel’s horn.

Alas for the darkness that shrouded the mill

In the strange march of “Progress” it moved with the hill,

Alone in its exile and shorn of its wings,

The old mill sits brooding on far away things—

On life and its flavor in days long ago,

Its tang and its savor we never shall know.

Let us bring back the mill while the old beams are strong,

Let us give back its wings for the days that are gone,

That our sons may remember the good old days of old

When millers were seamen and semen were bold,

To give life a flavor of days long ago

Whose tang and whose savor we never shall know.

ABIGAIL F. HALSEY

Long Island, N.Y. Thursday, March 14^th, 1929

Letter from Abigail Fithian Halsey re: 88 Grove Street

34 Post Crossing

Southampton, L.I.

December 17, 1936

My dear Mr. Stokes,

This is a letter I have intended to write a long time giving you some information about your house which was built by my grandfather Henry Halsey and his brothers Jesse and Edward in 1827.

Their father had died and their mother Phoebe, unable to give her boys a college education, although she owned much land here, took them to New York and apprenticed them to a master mason. They built 88 Grove Street for themselves, buying Lot No. 52 from Thomas R. Mercein at the time, I think when Greenwich Village was taken into the city. Henry brought his bride there, and his mother, brothers and two sisters lived on one floor, he and his wife on the other. My father, Charles Henry Halsey was born there in 1830. In ’33 the two younger brothers went to sea, became whaling captains, the others came home to Southampton where Henry built the house my brother, Rev. Jesse Halsey of Cincinnati, still owns.

It may interest you to know that the cornice in the old house in Southampton is the same as in yours. I know because one day long ago as I passed, I plucked up my courage and called to tell you all this. Neither you nor Mrs. Stokes were home, but your faithful Anna gave me a glimpse of the lovely interior of these old rooms.

It is in gratitude for your preservation of that which is beautiful and precious to us that I write at this Christmas season to wish you Joy in the old house.

Very sincerely,

Abigail Fithian Halsey

275th Anniversary of Southampton: "a more sympathetic understanding between neighbors"

On June 12, 1915, the citizens of Southampton, N.Y., staged a historical pageant written and directed by my Great Great Aunt Abigail Fithian Halsey, commemorating the town's 275th Anniversary. In addition to being a teacher and one-time Southampton town historian, "Aunt Babbie" made a living writing stories, poems, and pageants.

Edward Post White, Sr., far right

According to the catalog of Babbie's papers held in the New York State historical archive, organizations which sponsored her pageants include: "The Dairymen's League Cooperative Association, the Heckscher Foundation for Children, City History Club of New York, the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs, and other civic or cultural organizations in Southampton, Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Riverhead, Ithaca, Kingston, Tappen, N.Y., and Cincinnati, OH." Among the topics covered in the programs were the Shinnecock Indians in Southampton, and the Women's Community Building and the Tompkins County Fair in Ithaca, N.Y.

One of the publications to which Babbie contributed was the Cornell University Extension Bulletin. Her article, "The Historical Pageant in the Rural Community," from Bulletin No. 54 in June 1922, features a photo of a woman in Puritan garb, accompanied by two children similarly clad. The photo depicts a scene from the 1916 Southampton pageant. I'm certain the boy in the photo is 10th-generation son of Southampton Charles Henry Halsey II, my grandfather, age 4.

In the article Babbie writes, "Fifty years ago the street procession was the usual form of American pageantry. Now the pageant is the dramatic representation of the life of a community, or of the development of an art, expressed historically, allegorically, or symbolically. This is a simple definition, but, for our purpose, a satisfactory one. Whether it is an historical pageant, an allegorical pageant, or a symbolical pageant depends upon the form in which we choose to present the life of our community. It is easy to look up the historical facts and portray them in a series; but the pageant will lose its best lessons if we depend upon facts alone for our materials. There are meanings below the surface of men's lives which can be expressed only in living pictures that represent spiritual qualities. This is allegory. There are lessons for the future which no portray of facts, nor even pictures of spiritual qualities, can teach, but which can be made clear only by some strong, symbolical episode which will for all time leave in the minds of its beholders a truth which cannot be forgotten. There, while it is perfectly possible to make a community pageant which shall be entirely allegorial or symbolical in form, it is better for our purpose to take the facts from the historical background of the community and use the other forms of pageantry 'to suggest the ideals and aspirations which have had a place in the development of the community.'"

According to a review of her article carried in the November 1922 issue of The Playground--the monthly publication of the Playground and Recreation Association of America--Babbie "offers practical and encouragement to rural communities desirous of making local history live through an historical pageant." Focusing on the "construction, presentation, music, costumes, committees, etc., of pageants," she claims as the pageant's purpose the development of a "local history as well as a more sympathetic understanding between neighbors."

"Southampton Honors Lizbeth White"

Lizbeth May Halsey White & Edward Pearson White 
c1929 | 34 Post Crossing

from "Southampton Honors Lizbeth White"

By Portia Flanagan

Long Island Traveler-Watchman

23 May 1985

SOUTHAMPTON—The Contents of the Southampton Historical Museum were designated officially as the Lizbeth White Memorial by members of the Southampton Colonial Society at their annual meeting held in the museum’s spacious drawing room Friday night, May 17.

The members’ unanimous action was taken to honor the late Mrs. White who, as Town Historian in the 1920s, uncovered numbers of long-hidden treasures and urged the community to preserve its rich heritage for future generations.

Society Trustee Roy L. Wines Jr. told the 100 persons present that it was “a privilege to offer the motion” to designate the museum’s contents in Mrs. White’s memory. His motion also provided for the creation of “an appropriate bronze plague” to be mounted in the museum building, known as The Captain Rogers Homestead, at Meeting House Lane.

Preceding the establishment of the memorial, Society president Robert Keene, who is the current town historian, described Mrs. White as “one of my heroines.” It was in his own search of town records that revealed her accomplishments and foresight, along with her remarkable grasp and concept of local history, that endeared her to me, three Town Historians and some 50 years later,” Mr. Keen said.

Reading from a prepared statement, Mr. Keene said that in 1915, when Southampton celebrated its 275^th anniversary, the local paper, the Sea-Side Times, published a piece written by Mrs. White that he said, “proved to me that she had the understanding and inspiration that, over 35 years later, resulted in the founding of the Southampton Historical Museum.

In it Mrs. White noted that  “Many of our town’s most precious memorials have vanished forever. Our fathers were too busy planting and colonizing, to think much about leaving behind them personal souvenirs . . . The golden opportunities for constructing the infant history of our colony have for the most part passed away. Those which remain ought to be seized with the greatest avidity.”

She would like to see, she wrote 70 years ago, “The fairest lot of land to be found between Long Springs and the beach devoted to a memorial use. Spare an acre or two from your generous farms, upon it to be erected a modest but dignified structure of stone, or brick, fireproof, which shall contain primarily a library. Then into this repository let every native and every citizen take a pride in gathering whatever shall preserve the memory of the past or throw light upon its life. The place and time to begin are here and now.

“Begin with today and work backward as fast and as far as possible,” she wrote, continuing: “Gradually the past will be restored, the lost will be found. Long hidden treasures will leap from their hiding places and find their companions and congenial associations.”

She noted in the article that the Colonial Society, established in 1898, had sponsored two loan exhibitions of “a rare and beautiful collection of articles and relics of earlier days  . . . These exhibitions have proved our locality rich in treasures of the past and the Society has long looked forward to making permanent an exhibit of the kind of thing which historical societies everywhere are doing, with a background of incidents far less picturesque than that Southampton possesses.”

It was not until 1951, however, 19 years after Mrs. White’s death in October, 1932, that the Colonial Society was able to open the doors of the Historical Museum, its first permanent home, which Mr. Keene said on Friday is “this truly magnificent museum complex which has become a fitting memorial for all that Lizbeth White ever dreamed of. And furthermore, he said, “it is a tribute to Lizbeth White, the first woman historian of the Town and the meticulous recorder of our history and heritage.”

It was Mrs. White, Mr. Keene said, who was instrumental in bringing to the attention of the Town Board in 1928 the design of the town flag; it was her “small typewritten note” that he found among the papers of the late Town Historian William K. Dunwell that led to the adoption of the first Southampton Town Flag in 1982, Mr. Keene added.

And it was Mrs. White, he said, who discovered that the first woman to step ashore at what is now Conscience Point in North Sea in 1640 was Eleanor Howell, the wife of the leader of the first white settlers, Edward Howell. It was she who identified the small boy in the boat as the Howell’s eight-year-old son, Arthur, he said.

Mrs. White, who was born Lizbeth Halsey, live din what is today the Post House at North Main Street, and raised her family there. She was the founding Regent of the Southampton Colony Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and it was, appropriately, the chapter that presented the flag to the town.

Tercentenary Pageant of Southampton Town

Alma E. Bishop, knocking on door; Abbie Halsey, seated on left

The Book of the Tercentenary Pageant of Southampton Town

“Founded For Freedom”

August 14-15, 1940

By Abigail Fithian Halsey

Episode One

The XVIIth Century

Scene 1

The Founding

The Commentator:

Behold an Indian village at the head of North Sea Harbor. The wigwam of Nowedanah, chief of the Shinnecocks, is in the foreground. In front of it the young women of the tribe are engaged in a corn planting ceremony while the elder ones go about their daily tasks. Soon the warriors return from the hunt. They lay their spoils before the fires and commence a dance of Happy Hunting.

During the dance we perceive a sloop coming up the harbor. A brave runs in bringing the news and hard on his arrival we see a band of English Puritans land Conscience Point. The first woman on shore exclaims, “For conscience sake we’re on dry and once more.”

The Puritans approach the Indians. They signify their desire for land. Some men of the party come forward with a chest containing sixteen coats. At the sight of the splendor the Indians agree to sell.

They draw up an agreement. “We do absolutely and forever grant to the parties above the mentioned, to them and their heirs and successors forever, all lands, woods and waters from the place where the Indians hayle their canoes out of the north Bay to the south side of the Island, from thence to possess all lands lying eastwood, to have an to hold forever.”

But the Indians also demand corn to be paid after the second harvest and the Puritans promise to give the Indians protection from their enemies.

They then smoke the pipe of peace and guide the colonists to Old Towne where the settlement is made.

Original Undertakers:

Edward Howell

Edmund Needham

George Welbe

John Cooper

William Harker

Thomas Newell

Thomas Terry

Josiah Stanborough (who came later)

Daniel Howe, Captain of the vessel

Edmond and John Farrington

Thomas and Job Sayre

Hentry Walton

Allen Bread

Thomas Halsey

Richard Odel

Philip and Nathaniel Kyrtland

Thomas Farrington

Episode One

Scene III

Early Days and Early Ways

The Narrator:

The new Towne Street in 1649.

The Colony has grow ad prospered. Each freeholder owns his three acres of land on the street but farms and woodland are still common. Incomers must buy on the Great Plains. We see two fence-viewers “perambulating the bounds” nd with them a small boy who will be spanked at the bound, the better to impress his memory. The chimney viewers and cow keepers are busy. A group of young women are quilting a bride quilt for Margaret Howell whose banns are up. Next month she will marry Rev. John Moore of Southold. The unhappy Edmund Shaw sits despondent in the stocks ffor his excessive indulgence at John Cooper’s Tavern. Young Peregrine Stanborough takes his stripes for stealing green apples from Thomas Sayre’s orchard. Sarah Veale, attended by her faithful husband, Thomas, sits with a cleft stick on her tongue, while the Constable recites publicly “exhorbitant words of imprecation” she ahs used to the village reprobate, George Wood.

The Commentator:

Into this peaceful scene break two Pequot Indians. Phoebe Halsey (wife of Thomas) is coming from her home with her little daughter, Elizabeth. The Indians drag phoebe into the house and scalp her. The child escapes. Thomas Halsey, his three sons, and the nearby men puruse the murderers. They are met by Wyandanch, Chief of the Montauks, friend of the white man, who has caught the murderers. He delivers them to the Magistrates, who put them into the pillory until they can be sent to Hartford.

First Interlude

Children Play In The Olden Way

Their Games:

Farmer in the Dell

Looby Lou

London Bridge

Bull in the Ring

Once there was a Lassie

Episode Two

The XVIIth Century

Scene I

Town Meeting Day During the American Revolution

The Narrator:

Our great day of the year has come again. The street is filled with men, women and children from the length and breadth of the town of Southampton. Peddlers crying their wares and visiting Indians scurry about. The Town crier calls the meeting. The election is interrupted by a rider brining news of Lexington. Jesse and Elias Halsey and a friend set off by row boat to Connecticut. Scarcely are they out of sight when the post rider gallops in with news that Fort Ticonderoga has fallen to the Americans.

At once Captain John Hulburt assembles his Company of Minute Men. The first Stars and Stripes made by the women of Southampton Town is presented to the departing company.

Col. William Erskine of his Britannic Majesty’s Army rides in with his Aides coming to demand provender, to be refused at the Town’s peril.

When he has ridden away the dejected people return to their homes while Captain Elias Pelletreau, the old silversmith, organizes a home defense.

SECOND INTERLUDE

An Anthem to Liberty Sung by the United Choirs of Southampton, Hampton Bays, Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor