The Memory of the Just is Blessed

Charles Henry Halsey
B: Oct. 10, 1830
D: Aug. 9, 1906

Melvina D. Terry
B: Jun. 5, 1840
D: Jun. 2, 1887
His Wife



Joanna Augusta Halsey
B: Dec. 25, 1845
D: May 27, 1929
Widow of Wilmun Halsey

Wilmun Halsey
B: Jan. 12, 1836
D: Aug. 2, 1889

Harry T. Halsey
B: Nov. 12, 1864
D: Sept. 30, 1903








Abigail Fithian Halsey
B: Oct. 2, 1878
D: Oct. 14, 1946








Rev. Jesse Halsey D.D.
B: 1882
D: 1954
A Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ







Frederick Isham Halsey
B: 1912
D: 1239
Be Thou Faithful







Wilmun H. Halsey
B: 1920
D: 1928
The Child Ministered unto the Lord

Among the Deep Sea Fishers: II

Volume 10, Issue 4 (January 1913): Items from the New England Grenfell Association:

• "St. Anthony is losing this year the services of our beloved friend, chief of outside workers, and "private parson," the Rev. Jesse Halsey. His house stands empty, and we lament his absence every time we look at it. We have never had any man whose Christ-like spirit in everything he touched has more gripped the love and imagination of our men. It is only a question of finances which makes us obliged to cut down this small salary. The price of a single dinner in so many of the large houses would add a year of his invaluable work.

• "The coming of the schooner Geo. B. Cluett for the winter supplies was anticipated by Boston friends with more interest than usual. Her passenger list was a large one for this time of the year, among the passengers being Dr. and Mrs. John Mason Little, Jr., with their infant son of three months; Mrs. Halsey and her two boys (the youngest two months of age), and two native children whose father is a reindeer herder at St. Anthony and whose mother is not living. These two children (a girl and a boy) Mr. and Mrs. Halsey are to shepherd: the girl being old enough to act as a nursery maid, and both will attend school in Southampton, N.Y., which is the home of the Halseys this year!

Rev. Jesse & Charles Henry II, Newfoundland 1911

The voyage was the longest and most tedious ever reported by any of the Mission schooners, because of the constant and continuous head winds, and occupied twenty-one days between St. Anthony and Boston: the boat arriving on October 15th at noon . . . Beside a small amount of freight, the Cluett brought from St. Anthony a young black bear in the hold. The bear was for the Zoo in the Franklin Park of Boston. It was no small amount of labour to take the bear from the schooner to the park, and although it was all done in a scientific manner, by three of the men from the Zoo, the time occupied was no less than three hours, and young bruin showed some fight before he was finally placed behind bars in the cage brought in which to transport him.

Charles Henry Halsey II, Newfoundland 1911

• Rev. Jesse Halsey returned early in November after superintending the building of the little home for the medical officer at St. Anthony, which was begun early in the season. The house was roofed before Mr. Halsey left, and the work in the interior will go on early in the spring. It is hoped that it will be ready for Dr. Little upon his return in the coming summer. Mr. Halsey's three years of service have increased the possibilities for greater efficiency not only in the hospital but also the school, the orphanage, and the homes for the general workers. He has been the one man able to teach the native men about the plumbing, etc., etc. He is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary with a decided turn for mechanics--indeed, he might be called the Christian plumber of the Mission, for he has put furnaces into the orphanage and hospital at St. Anthony and has constructed a reservoir from which he has brought running water into these buildings. Skillful as he is in the mechanical line, he was no less successful when acting in the capacity of Christian teacher, in the absence of Dr. Grenfell, on Sundays in the church and hospital, and in teaching winter evening school, preparing the young men coming to Pratt Institute. It was a fortunate happening for both the Mission and the man when Mr. Halsey heard Dr. Grenfell lecture as he was graduated from Union Seminary, and he at once decided to join the volunteers in the Mission.

Rev. Jesse & Charles Henry II, Newfoundland 1911

Volume 11, Issue 1 (April 1913): Items from the New England Grenfell Association:

• Because Dr. Grenfell is in charge of St. Anthony Hospital this winter, deep in surgical and medical work and the running of his various institutions, while the regular doctor at St. Anthony is having a much needed vacation, the Rev. Jesse Halsey, who has served as a helper at St. Anthony of four years, has been helping at this end of the line this winter by giving lectures with and without the lantern slides. Dr. Grenfell has so many responsibilities in the North that he can do nothing about raising money this winter at such along range and under such a handicap. Mr. Halsey has proved himself a real friend to the Mission and is an earnest man with long experience at St. Anthony. He has spoken at Dartmouth and Wellesley Colleges and before a few Men's Clubs as well as the Women's club in Dudham, Mass. He is available still by making appointments a few weeks in advance.

Rev. Jesse & Charles Henry II, Newfoundland 1911

Volume 12, Issue 4 (January 1915): The Candy Lady, short story by Jesse Halsey, winner of a $25 Satterlee Prize

• "One day in mid October, when the rush of early monthly accounting was over . . ."

Volume 16, Issue 4 (January 1919): The World Wide Influence of Grenfell by Jerome Davis

• I have just come back from service in Russia, which would be one of the last regions that one would expect to find influenced by Dr. Grenfell. Yes here we find American men who have caught the vision of service to others in work with Dr. Grenfell who are now translating this same spirit into deeds of love and kindness for the Russian people.
• Dr. Halsey, a former Grenfell man, was up in the North, amid the darkness and the ice and snow, working for the English, French, American and Russian men. He was rendering a typical Association service to men who had no other place to go except the Association, and incidentally he was showing the same spirit of friendship which he had seen demonstrated by Dr. Grenfell in the North.
• This little illustration of how the spirit of Jesus Christ, as it has been translated into action by Dr. Grenfell, has permeated even the throbbing life of the far off Russian revolution, is typical as showing how Dr. Grenfell's spirit is coming in every country throughout the world.
• The wealth of man is the number of things he loves and blesses, which he is loved and blessed by.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (July 1940): Alumni News

• The REV. JESSE HALSEY was host to Sir Wilfred during the latter's visit to Cincinnati in April. Though he did not accept the position, Dr. Halsey was recently offered a Professorship of Practical Theology at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Chicago.

Volume 38, Issue 4 (January 1941): The Adventure (In Memoriam, Sir. Wilfred Grenfell, from the Presbyterian, October 24, 1940), by Jesse Halsey

• "It started in a Moody meeting, "his Adventure," as he called it.

October 5, 1939, cont.

Letter: Charles Halsey to Justine Comstock Halsey (14 pages total)

Thursday night
October 5, 1939
CHH : 552 Riverside Dr, NYC
JCH: 435 Riverside Street, Reno
Page 12

This vacation you’re on is the best for all concerned that it true, but darling not a permanent separation; not that. If you want a month–right. But tell me in three weeks that you will be back. You’ll make us both so happy and when you return I will make you doubly happy.

I almost feel that [this] has been brewing and finally culminated and acted upon in order to open my eyes and to make me realize more fully my duties as a husband and a father. I hope that is it, I still love you. I’ll hang on if you will—

Will you take another chance[?] I can promise you you won’t regret it.

Yours,
C.

Unfortunately for you and fortunately for me you took his keys from your bureau which are of no value to you and which are the keys to the garage in Southampton. Dad had to use my * to break the lock and put a new one in its place. You have the keys. You need not send them but bring them with you when you return on the October 19th or 20th. I’ll have the spotted calf killed. They are attached to a small metal ring. Yours are on a string and are larger.

In deep thought and concentration,
from this we have strayed far a field
and thus our trouble
To see thee more clearly—
Love the more dearly.
Follow thee more nearly.
--Richard of Winchester

Apart from thee all gain is loss
All lack or vainly done
The solemn shadow of the cross
Is better than the sun.
Amen

To such belongeth the kingdom of heaven. Matt 19:14

Quote—the little boy of eight had transgressed one of the major roles of the household code. Straightforwardly he confessed it, and held out his hand for punishment. After three sharp blows from the razor strap, the father was washing the boys hand in soap suds and warm water. “That’s the way we do it, isn’t it”? ventured the little fellow, chocking back his sobs.” That’s the way: wash it off and begin again.” So let us begin again together in a deeper relationship. Are you willing—I am—not you.

“Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love: Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee:” end quote.

“he called him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye turn, and become as little children ye shall not enter in the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever there for shall humble himself as this little child, the same in the great in the kingdom of heaven. And who so shall receive one such child in my name recureth me.” Matt 18: 2-5

We have received our child, darling, but we have not received God—Let’s try over again with God helping us. It can be done, I know it can. Will you try, please for our sakes. Don’t give up yet you can’t. You must give us a chance, one more chance, to make a comeback.

Love,
Charles

Writing you has been like talking, it has helped—thank you.

2:15 AM Still sleepless **
Sleep came at 2:30 or 2:45 AM and at 5 o’clock Cameron cried out something but it woke me up he was crying and I heard Sheff leaving it is now 6:30. Oh! Darling Please tell me where you are you must I beseech you. If you won’t tell me and I have to endure one more week of this I will be a nervous wreck. I have tried to face it bravely, but it is slowly getting me. Can’t you see darling that you are the only one. You you you. May God bring you safely back to us again. You and you alone can mend my broken and distraught heart. Won’t you try---

"It must have weighed heavily on her"

Mt. Vernon-Lisbon Sun
Family, 'Net results in successful sibling search for longtime Mt. Vernon resident
by Dave Morris
December 10, 2008

It has all the elements of a good mystery: a boy whose mother left when he was young, a trunk of photos and letters stored in an attic and a meeting with a relative the boy never knew he had.

That boy grew up to be Charles Halsey, longtime Mount Vernon High School science teacher and volleyball official.

Now retired, but still active in the Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service, Halsey knew there was a hole in his past, but he never knew the details.

The search
After using the genealogy website www.ancestry.com that involved input from daughters Anne Helgeson of Chicago and Gail Bertram of Oshkosh, Wis., as well as Halsey’s wife, Linda, a half-sister, Laura Lynch of Cape Cod, Mass., was located.

But the story is not as simple as that.

What Halsey learned about his past was this: His father, Charles Henry Halsey, worked on a farm in Southampton and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. His mother, whose maiden name was Justine Comstock, left his father and him and their New York home in October 1939, when Halsey was 3.

“Dad (came home and) found me playing on the living room floor,” Halsey said. “A woman who we think was a nanny was there. My mother was gone. It was the last time I saw her.”

His mother went to Reno and obtained a divorce in November 1939 so she could marry a man named Myron Smith, who was an old college friend.

“Smith didn’t want anyone to know she’d been married and had a child,” Halsey said, noting that the man felt it would hurt his career as a sales manager with a company known as General Radio.

“My father never told me of this,” Halsey said. “I knew my mother’s name from my birth certificate.”

His father was remarried to a woman named Frances Raynor, who Halsey always believed to be his birth mother. When he was 6 or 7, he was told by a friend’s mother that that was not the case, but he had few other details.

Sixty-plus years later, on July 13, 2008 – the Monday after Mount Vernon Heritage Days – turned out to be a turning point in the search. Linda suggested that the online search should include Myron Smith’s name. When his name was entered in the search, up popped information on his and Justine Comstock’s dates of birth and death.

It was a match.

The information had been submitted to the website years earlier by a woman named Laura Lynch. The Halseys’ daughter Anne e-mailed Laura, and it became clear that there was indeed a connection. Soon, the e-mails were flying between Cape Cod-based Laura Lynch, 66, and Charles Halsey, 72, in Mount Vernon. Laura is the daughter of Halsey’s mother and Myron Smith. Another daughter, Bonnie, died about 10 years ago.

To say that Halsey was surprised to find a living relative might be understating it.

“I had no inkling – zip, zero,” he said.

It apparently wasn’t as big of a surprise to Laura as it was to Halsey. She had seen her mother occasionally going through a trunk in the attic reading letters and looking at photos. After her mother’s death, Laura and her sister opened the trunk to find pictures of a little boy, a boy’s outfit, letters from the elder Halsey and a bank book with young Halsey’s name and her mother’s on it. When the daughters asked their father if their mother had been married before, he would only answer “maybe.”

It also turned out that it was during the year of Justine Comstock’s death – 1971 – that Halsey’s father briefly mentioned her to him.

Halsey has few memories of his earliest days, but one in particular had stuck with him: It was a long car trip in a Willys to a big white house with a turret. Laura, too, had memories of that home, which was their mother’s parents’ (their grandparents) home in Winsted, Conn.

The meeting
After many e-mails and phone calls, Laura Lynch arrived on Sept. 12 at the airport in Cedar Rapids. Charles and Linda were there holding a sign that simply read “Laura.” They spotted each other from a distance, and before they could even say hello, Laura shot a photo of Halsey with the sign. After a big hug, they spent a few days getting to know each other. On hand were the Halseys’ daughters and their families. The visit happened to coincide with a memorial service for Halsey’s aunt, Abigail Fithian Halsey Van Allen (widow of James Van Allen), so Laura met many of Halsey’s relatives.

“We had a remarkably wonderful time. She brought lots and lots of letters and pictures that were in the trunk,” Halsey said. Laura also confirmed that a photo given to him by his aunt was indeed his mother.

While here, the Halseys took Laura on a tour of flood-ravaged parts of Cedar Rapids. This was of particular interest to Laura, since she and her husband travel in their RV to disaster-stricken areas of the nation as FEMA employees.

The Halseys also showed her around the Mount Vernon area, but the time was mostly spent getting to know each other.

“We really had a good time,” Linda said.

“It was just a wonderful experience,” Halsey added. “It answered a lot of questions I’d always had. I’d always wondered what my birth mother was like. It closes one chapter of my life and opens a brand new one.”

Halsey understands why his mother made the choices she did.

“I hold no animosities whatsoever. Justine did whatever she felt she needed to do,” he said. “It must have weighed heavily on her – I hope it didn’t hurt her in any way.”

The future
The Halseys continue to communicate by e-mail and phone with Laura, who currently is with her husband in Texas doing FEMA work.

Plans are brewing to attempt to meet again in March and to perhaps get the two families together this summer.

“It’s been a rather remarkable, interesting and fun experience,” Halsey said.

DRAFT 2: Oct. 31, 1939

DRAFT 2: Justine Comstock Halsey to Myron Barbour, Esq.
Oct. 31, 1939
JCH: 435 Riverside Street, Reno
MB: Cincinnati, Ohio

Dear Myron—
Thank you for your letter of the twenty-third and for your again taking an interest in us. Now I will be waiting for more definite news from you and hoping that Charles signs the power of attorney soon as the case is scheduled for November sixteenth. [Deleted: All of my expenses have run higher than I had planned upon so additional days, beyond the six weeks will be difficult to finance and I am asking aid of no one in that respect.]

I do not understand there being any difficulty regarding the custody of the child, [Deleted: I am willing to cooperate with the Halseys.] All I want is to safe guard Cameron in case anything should happen to both Charles and Dr. Halsey.

Charles said in a letter to me that he was considering coming to Reno. I certainly hope he does not and in case he did I would see him only in the presence of Judget Lundsford—and only to discuss legal questions.

Thanking you again for your interest—I will never forget your share in trying to start us off right.

Sincerely,
J

DRAFT 1: Oct. 31, 1939

DRAFT 1: Justine Comstock Halsey to Myron Barbour, Esq.
Abt Oct. 31, 1939
JCH: 435 Riverside Street, Reno
MB: Cincinnati, Ohio

Yesterday I was in Judge Lundsfords office and [he] suggested my writing to you.

Can you advise me in regard to the delay in Charles['s] signed power of attorney? Time is passing so quickly and the sixteenth will soon be here.

It is very important that [I be freed] I am free to reestablish myself as soon as possible because living and other expenses have been far higher than anticipated and any added expense will be hard to meet.

October 5, 1939

Letter: Charles Halsey to Justine Comstock Halsey (14 pages total)

Thursday night
October 5, 1939
CHH : 552 Riverside Dr, NYC
JCH: 435 Riverside Street, Reno
Page 10, last paragraph:

P.S. God Bless you darling and don’t do anything you will be sorry for later. Come back to us when you are rested and then decide the next step after we have tried to make another go of it. Read the clipping enclosed. It might have happened to ours once. But if could be worse now if his mommie doesn’t come back. He knows, and he doesn’t forget easily. I wish our little baby* could talk. I’ll bet he could reveal a lot. Don’t you think so. How is Florida weather--or perhaps you wouldn’t know. Maybe it is Colorado or Georgia or it might be right here in New York. I have had that feeling all week. But one never knows, does one. I hope I will soon tho dearest for the suspense is driving me batty. I feel shaky all over—do at least that for me and then on the 19th come back and we will be waiting. I pull[ed] the wish bone on that. The [other] one [is] too green to break, [from] Friday of last week. The other one I have saved for us both to pull when you come back.

May God guide you and keep you and bring you home to Cameron and me in a short time. The days will be eternities but well worth surviving just to see you and know you are here again. No one else will take your place for a long long time and Margaret is no exception.

Cameron says “I love my mommie. Mommie come home pretty soon.” Charles says, “I love you Justine my darling wife. Please return to two children that need a mother like you our hearts are open and so is our door.” May God grant you safe return.

Still your adoring and bewildered, but still loving husband,
Charlie

P.S.S. I kiss your lips and hand madam, take one from Cam too. xxxxx

P.S.S.S. I will reread your farewell note: I wish I could believe you darling “This is for the best of all of us. Believe me.” It will be the best for all of us if I you come back to us mommie. You love Cameron so very much—I know you do—Prove that you do dear one, try returning. We want you. I’ll take care of him, but I can not do it all. It takes both of us together – I”ll fight for him and do all in my power, but I will also fight for fury on ‘came(?) you can and have to do that which I can’t. It takes two to bring them into the world. It takes two to raise them and you are the only one who can rightfully do that at my side. Mrs. Van Dorn still thinks you’re home* [and will be] mighty surprised. Incidentally I have mail here for you—where do I send it? Please tell me--I’ll be grateful to you if you will—

It will get easier, but easiest when you have come back.

I have some good pictures to show you if you will return—one enclosed to make you think you will miss him if you can’t watch him grow—Came home honey. God will help you to come back to us. Just give him a chance.

Charlie