N.Y. Herald Tribune 1954

Dr. Halsey, 71 Dies; Teacher of Theology
New York Herald Tribune
Jan. 12, 1954

SOUTHAMPTON, L.I.- The Rev. Jesse Halsey, seventy-one, retired professor of practical theology at the McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, died today at Southampton Hospital. Since his retirement in 1952, he lived here on North Main St.

Born in Southampton, Dr. Halsey was educated at Princeton Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary and Wooster College. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1910, and for the next three years was a member of Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell's Labrador Medical Mission.

In World War I, he was sent to Murmansk, Russia, by the Y.M.C.A. and he remained as consular agent in that city during the Bolshevik Revolution representing the United States and British governments.

After the war he returned to his pastorate at the Seventh Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, a post he held until 1940. In 1953, the church dedicated a chapel to him.

In 1941, he joined the faculty at McCormick Theological Seminary.

Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Helen Isham Halsey; a son, Charles Henry Halsey, of Westhampton, L.I., and two daughters, Mrs. Joseph Haroutunian, of Chicago, and Mrs. James Van Allen, of Princeton.

JH bio on file @Princeton

Jesse Halsey
Father: Charles Henry Halsey
Mother: Melvina D. Terry Halsey
Date of Birth: May 3, 1882, at Southampton, Long Island, NY.

He studied at Southampton High School and joined the First Presbyterian Church there at age 12. He lived on and worked on his father’s farm from 1902 to 1906, covering his college subjects at home due to illness in the family. He came to Princeton, entering the seminary in September 1906 and also taking courses at Princeton University. After studying at Princeton from 1906-1908 he went on to complete his seminary education at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, from which he received his BDiv degree. He was ordained by the Nassau Presbytery on June 6, 1910.

Jesse Halsey served in the Spanish-American War; he worked as a missionary with the Grenfell Labrador Mission in the summer of 1909 and again after his graduation from Union from the summer of 1910 until the winter of 1912; he lectured in the U.S. on behalf of the Grenfell Labrador Mission from the winter of 1912 until June of 1913, and then was called to became pastor of the Seventh Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He served at the Seventh Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati from September 1913 until December 1941, with the exception of a small break around the time of World War I when he served as a Chaplain at a British naval station and worked with the American Red Cross, and then spent some time working in Russia, with the YMCA in Moscow and with the American Consulate in Murmansk (1917-1918). In 1941 he received a call to be Professor of Pastoral Theology and Liturgics at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, where he taught until his retirement in May, 1952. He published articles in theological magazines, newspapers, and the McCormick Seminary official publications, and published two books, “The Living Hope” in 1938 and “Open Prayer” in 1951.

He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Wooster College in Ohio in 1927, and at various times served as a member of the Pension Board of the Presbyterian Church, USA; as Moderator of the Synod of Ohio; as Moderator of the Cincinnati Presbytery; as Vice-Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church; as President of the Cincinnati Council of Churches; as a member of the Board of Lane Seminary; as a member of the Board of Western College; and as a member of the Chaplain’s Board in Washington, DC. After his retirement he returned to Southampton, NY, where he lived until his death in 1954.

He married Helen Caroline Isham on March 28, 1910, at Lake Placid, NY. Children were Charles Henry Halsey, born April 6, 1911, and Frederick Isham Halsey, born August 21, 1912, both at St. Anthony in Newfoundland, Canada; Helen Augusta Halsey, born February 8, 1914, and Wilmun Haynes Halsey, born September 30, 1920, both born in Cincinnati; and Abigail Fithian Halsey, born August 9, 1942, at Southampton, Long Island, NY.

"His heart a skipper's Heart"

In Memoriam
The Rev. Jesse Halsey, D.D.
1882 - 1954

The sea was always in his eyes
As in his blood;
The English earth his heritage,
His sires, the skippers of proud ships
Out of Southampton's
New World port
Two hundred years agone.

He lov'd the salt-tang'd air,
The restless, rolling water drew him
From a thousand miles,
Like tides upon his heart
Toward home and rest and peace.

His hands were seaman's hands,
Busy, apt to any task
To build, to smooth,
To climb where few would dare,
To set a gentle flower,
To bind a wound,
To brush aside a tear,
To pray.

Like season'd oak, his heart,
Handwrought and mellowed,
Weathered fitting by the foul and fair;
He knew his craft - the hearts of men
And like his Master,
No stranger he to ax and plane,
Or storm-toss'd day,
The satisfying weariness of eventide;
His art - the ships he built -
The lives he sent out from his ways
Sound wrought and rigged,
To wrest and bring
A hard-won cargo safely home.

His heart a skipper's Heart,
The Master's Order, his;
And certain as a chart that fact
To all
Who signed on in his company.

No wonder to his mates,
The Master, satisfied,
Called out, "Cast off!"
And he obeyed.

--Dr. Samuel Gregory Warr, associate pastor to Dr. Halsey, Seventh Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1940-1941

A Labrador Doctor

The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell (1919)
"Presentation copy with original mounted photographs. Inscribed and signed by Sir Grenfell on the half-title, with a mounted photograph of "The Doctor on board the 'Stratheona,'" (caption in another hand). Also, inscribed on the front pastedown, "W.J. Brown, Christmas 1919, Best wishes, Jesse Halsey." Halsey was an associate of Grenfell's at the Deep Sea Mission, and inserted before the frontispiece of the book is a 4-page illustrated program for "Illustrated Lectures by Rev. Jesse Halsey" at The Players in Boston."


"Other original photographs mounted on the front endpaper and flyleaves, all captioned, include "Dr. Grenfell greeted by the school children in St. Anthony"; "Jesse Halsey, Labrador & Northern Newfoundland, 1909 to Nov. 1912"; "The 'Boss' and the 'Gang' (boxes of food & clothing from the 'States' being unloaded by U.S. college students)"; "J.H. in Labrador 'dickey,"; and "Tuckamne Croft - Charles Henry & Helen I. Halsey" (a woman with dog sled in front of house)."

"Grenfell (1865-1940) was a noted English physician who had been the house surgeon at London Hospital and then in 1892 became a medical missionary and resident of Labrador, where he also founded hospitals and orphanages."

Pomfret Class of 1932

A Handbook of Private Schools for American Boys and Girls: An Annual Survey (1936) by Porter Sargent

• POMFRET, CONN. Alt 389ft. Pop 1617 (1930).
• Motor Route 101 from Providence, R.L

"This pleasant country town with its many old houses and churches is rich in memories of Israel Putnam. Pomfret School faces the green across from the old Ben Grosvenor Inn. The 140 acre estate of Rectory School is on Pomfret Street."

POMFRET SCHOOL Boys Ages 12-18 Est 1894.
Halleck Lefferts, Ph.B., Yale, Head Master.

• Enr: Bdg 117. Fac: 16. Tui: $1450. Courses 5 yrs: Col Prep
• High Sch 1-4 Grade VTIL Incorporated. Trustees 18. Prizes 45. Episcopal. C E B candidates '35, 45; 7 3o->34, 340.
  
• Entered Col '35, 16; *3o- J 34, 117. Alumni 830. Approved by N E Col Ent Certif Bd. Member N E Assoc Col and Secondary Sch.

"William E. Peck, one of the great schoolmasters of the country, after twelve years as head of St. Mark's resigned to establish this school to more fully carry out his own ideals. William Beach Olmsted, his successor, worked unselfishly and joyously to secure the interest of people of wealth and social prominence, and created for the school a beautiful setting. The old order passed with him in 1029 and Mr. Lefferts, educated at Taft and Yale, was appointed head master. An ardent democrat, non-believer in conformity to type, Mr. Lefferts encourages independent thinking among his boys. He has created a new Pomfret."

"intent to give life all its due"

Because you live, though out of sight and reach,
I will, so help me God, live bravely too,
Taking the road with laughter and gay speech,
Alert, intent to give life all its due.

- Jesse Halsey

a wee motherless bairn

Letter to Jesse Halsey, age 21, in Southampton
[from Mrs. Craven, wife of Rev. Walter Craven]

4 Perry St., Morristown, NJ
Oct. 25, 1903

My Dear Young Friend,
I have never lost interest in you since I saw you a wee motherless bairn trothing in & out the problem of your young sister's heart and life. How wonderfully God has cared for you & brought you to a true manhood.

Your strong desire for the ministry was very precious to me, & since then the inhibitions to your plans have greatly touched me. There is nothing more perplexing than those times in life when we come to a stand still saying "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" & hear no answer.

That we are guided if we truly desire to be I am sure. But the Guidance is not always along the line of our plans & our desires. If God has called you to the ministry of the Gospel you will be a minister of the Gospel though no man lays hand of ordination on your head.

When we were in Southampton my Husband often longed for an assistant, a young man who could aid him in gleaning tho comes of the field. He used often to say if I could send & c-- But there was no one on whom he could depend for more than occasional work. God loves a tired & tested instrument.

He wants you to know your self as He knows you. A young man came to Mr. C one day to say, "I want to be a minister." Mr. C soon found he wanted the ministry as a Profession & God has little use for such men in the great harvest field of the world. So the question every man should answer is Why do I want to be a minister. My Husband answered that, "Because I want to win souls to X." His Father said "You will make a very good business man & a very poor preacher, here is a good business offer." Mr. C answered "I w'd rather live on $300 a year & preach X, win souls to Him, than gain the greatest fortune earth ever saw."

God gave him every whole souls for his hire. --

Do you want soul? Is the cry of your heart "Souls of men, why will ye scatter like a crowd of frightened sheep? Foolish hearts! Why will ye wander from a love so true & deep?" I never cross in a crowded ferry boat, but these lines come to me followed by a prayer for the multitudes over whom Jesus wept.

Souls are every where. There is great need in your own scattered places. North Sea, was a bit of our Parish we longed to do more for. Ask Lord to give you access to that neighborhood. Hold a prayer meeting there every week, add a S.S. we began with the S.S. Prepare carefully for that meeting. Make it a model meeting. Take some real gospel meat to them not so full or deep a dish that no one else will dare to speak. Take some congenial friend with you who can help with singing. Hold gospel meetings, ask for an out pouring of the Holy Spirit & expect it, & God can give you the first prints of your ministry then & there. The first revival Mr. C ever enjoyed was in meetings held when he was yet a young man in his Mother's house while he taught here in NJ between col. & sem. The fire of that little meeting spread, rooms, hall stairs were full. Later it spread out into the church & finally thru the town. That was between college and Sem. God tested & answered thru too worldly Father's injury. Father C was a X man, but he had great ambitions for his children.

Do not be afraid of God's testing times. See God not only as your loving Heavenly Father, your unerring Guide, but the Great Irresistible God -- Read Job. God's answer to Job. See that He has His place & work for you. Put your self absolutely in the Alter of His unchangeable love, to be Molded into His uses for your life. Do not say my plans have been thwarted because God does not want me in His ministry, rather say I will be His minister what ever comes in what ever way is open to my hand. I will begin to serve to the full of my power in the Gospel here & now. The need is so great for souls that turn for Christ. We knew & loved your dear Mother, & your Bro. Mr. C felt him to be his most helpful young man. So I need not apologize for writing you out of a very full heart of interest in you and in the Gospel.

If you feel like writing I shall be most happy to hear from you. Please give my love to your father & believe me very truly your friend.

Mrs. Walter C