Miss Halsey Resigns Post

 

1 July 1922

"Miss Abigail F. Halsey, secretary of the Community Building since its opening in this city, will not continue in that capacity after July 1, it was learned today, as she plans to spend the coming year in New York City in study of the work in which she is particularly interested." 

"movement toward encouraging amateur dramatics"

10 Sept 1920 | Olean Evening Herald

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

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

"Nor have the babies been forgotten"

For more than a year, April 1, 1921, to July 1, 1922, Abigail Fithian Halsey (aka Aunt Babbie, sister of Lizbeth May Halsey White & Rev. Jesse Halsey) served as secretary of the Women's Community Building in Ithaca, planning and directing the various activities of the center and, according to the organization's board of directors, successfully fostering "the growth of a real community spirit in Ithaca."

The Women's Community Building housed the City Federation of Women's Organizations, created in 1910 and comprising clubs such as the Women's Club, League of Women Voters, Child Study Club, and Cornell Women's Club. The WCB took as its purpose the provision of "opportunities that enrich the lives of women of all ages and their families through its diverse services." According to the WCB's official history:

The need for a building had been evident from the federation's inception. In 1920, the year the Nineteenth Amendment became law giving women the right to vote, the federation purchased the Winton-Brooks mansion on the corner of Seneca and Cayuga Streets in downtown Ithaca. The mansion served as the federation's center until 1959, when, because of the demand for additional space, the women of the federation raised the funds to build the present Women's Community Building on the same site.

Beginning her work at the WCB shortly after it opened, when the building had "only recently been taking over by the women, and the project had hardly formed," Abigail created a

...home where girls and women from all parts of the city and county have felt free to come for recreation, rest, or meetings, with sleeping accommodations for 14 permanent residents and three or four transients, with recreation rooms for the use of all the girls in the city, a public restroom which, during the first three months it was open, was used by 2,800 women and children, and rooms where 22 organizations have met... -Ithaca Times, June-July 1922

During Abigail's tenure, approximately 500 women and girls participated in classes at the WCB in subjects including sewing, hat making, home making, home nursing, swimming, dance, and drama. Abigail also organized a Young Women's Community Club, the members of which were described as mostly "working girls." She directed the Dramatic club, presenting plays for various audiences around the city; wrote and produced two historical pageants, one at the Tompkins County Fair, the other at the Ithaca City Hospital; conducted a popular Saturday afternoon story hour for the "little tots"; and created an exhibition and discussion series entitled Baby Week.

Prior to working at the WCB, Abigail taught in public and private schools around the country and worked for the Red Cross, Camp Fire Girls, and Girl Scouts.

Upon her resignation from the Community Building in July 1922 to pursue study "of the work in which she is particularly interested" at Columbia University, an article in the Ithaca Times reported this about Abigail's directorship at the WCB:

Girls away from home, working women and their friends have learned to find at the Community Building a home where they can become acquainted, a place where there is always welcome and where special suppers and entertainments are always held on holidays to which new comers in the city are particularly welcome. Then men, too, are learning that they are not to be excluded from the building and many have been attending the musicales and entertainments.