New Year's | 1918 |
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Thursday, December 18, 2014
"she came and scrubbed and washed when Bill went"
Jan. 1931 | Jesse Halsey to Abigail Fithian Halsey |
Cincinnati c.1924
275th Anniversary of Southampton | 1915
"the place for their descendants to possess both freedom of body and mind--Long Island." | |
Brooklyn Daily Eagle | 14 March 1915 |
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Operation “Westward-Ho” 1960
December 1960 |
Last July we flew Jet back to Southampton, Long Island, where we spent the summer at Helen’s home on Main Street, sorting and packing household treasures for shipment to California.
This operation also involved finding a buyer for “Saltaire,” which had been the summer home for Ralph and his former wife, Jessie, for many years. The new occupants are Mr. and Mrs. Philip Sabatelli and their two children from Whitestone, New York—and we wish them continued health and happiness! Many of you have visited us here in years past so you can understand how hard it was to part from such pleasant memories.
Before going East we had the good fortune of finding a place in Riverside at 4652 Granada that we could really call home and now that we have lived in it since the first part of October we find it most charming.
There always has to be a “fly in the ointment,” and our trip West was no exception. While driving on “66” against the setting sun in Ft. Morgan, Colorado, Ralph overshot an intersection which threw us in the hospital for two days. Fortunately, however, no one was seriously hurt. Only Helen suffered lacerations and bruises, which by now are pretty well cleared up.
“Westward-Ho” is now a closed chapter in our lives and we cordially invite you to visit us whenever you are in our vicinity.
A Happy Christmas and a New Year full of God’s blessings to you all is our sincere wish for you.
Cordially,
Ralph & Helen Quass
Labels:
1960,
California,
Helen Isham,
Ralph Quass,
Saltaire
"the spiritual side of eugenics"
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Friday, December 12, 2014
"I do not believe East Enders ever get really moved from L.I."
Hendersonville, N.C.
Oct. 11, ‘50
Dear Cousin Jesse,
It is sweet and dear of you, in the midst of your busy life
to take time to keep me a bit in touch with your interesting life and family.
You cannot know how much it means to me, in my very quiet life, and of course
my children are interested also. You wrote something of your plans for the
summer and I thought to write you in Aug. when you were pretty sure to be on L.I.
but the week skipped by. I sit in an easy chair in the bay window and watch the
birds and squirrels and bunnies, and just now the brilliant foliage. (I wish
you could see our sugar maple, it lights up the whole hill) and I write long
letters to my friends in my mind, and then doze off. Very rarely anything gets
on paper. Perhaps my eighty ninth birthday last month has some connection.
A handsome young Irishman named Gratton came to Southold
when I was a girl, married one of our nicest Irish girls, and raised twelve
children who all made good citizens so far as I remember. Mary happened to eat
supper at their house one evening while she and Mother lived alone so long—and it
was an interesting experience. I did not know them personally.
Our neighbor considered the barn a menace to his property,
so we reluctantly had it torn down. I feel wicked to own a vacant house, but
the farm is well rented, and we are still hoping to remodel into a two apartment
house, furnish one for our summers and rent the other. The disastrous year soon
after my husband’s death went hard with us, but we are still hoping. Frank and
Caroline are both only children, each with an aging Mother to watch over, and
they have their hands full I guess. Mrs. Taylor is younger than I, but with
more ailments, so can not go to a home of her own, to her great disappointment.
I am thoughtful to be comfortable and contented. Though not much account. Sleeping
to much is better than waking too much. “The hours o’er which we have least
cause to weep, Are those we spend in childhood and in sleep.”
How pleasant all around that you could all be together more
or less in the summer! I do not believe East Enders ever get really moved from
L.I.
It is encouraging to have your school crowded. This world
certainly needs preachers.
Usually I listen to a long, weather report every morning—and
am interested to learn what variety of weather Chicago is getting. The radio is
a very good companion, so easily turned on and off.
Sat. night
This scrawl awaited the arrival of the map you mentioned,
and for which I am really grateful. It is afar cry from the big black Atlas of
L.I. that was published when I was a child. How proud I was then to find a
black dot labeled “E. Hunting” on the Southold page! Southampton is opposite,
and I looked today for H. Halsey and was surprised to find how many other
Halseys there were. No wonder you found a “remote cousin” to go riding with.
(O.O. split infinitive) Time I said good night. And thanks again. I am grateful
for the days when you used to come to that mission school in Tennessee. Good
night. Love to cousin Helen as well as your kind self.
Helen [Hunting Bly]
Furniture
This table belonged to my grandmother, Eliza Halsey, born in 1803. It was given to my grandfather, Captain Harry Halsey, born also at Watermill in 1803. My grandmother’s maiden name was also Halsey. They were married January 21, 1828. Grandfather and his two brothers, Jesse and Edward (grandfather of Frank Burnett) and his sister Elizabeth (grandmother of Marian O’Connor) were taken to New York by their widowed mother where the two boys learned the mason’s trade. Eventually they built many of the houses in Greenwich Village, in one of which on Grove Street (house still standing) my father, Charles Henry, was born October 10, 1830.
Grandfather built many of the stores on what is now Canal Street, then a development in the northern suburbs. One of these stores, built for “an old Dutchman,” so pleased the owner that he took Grandfather into his new furniture shop and told him to pick out a piece of furniture for his wife. This table was his selection. Then the “Dutchman” told him to pick another piece, and that little stand with the two drawers that “Babbie” left to Abbie (Van Allen) was selected. Then the “Dutchman” said “that is not enough, take something big,” and he pointed to the big mahogany bureau that now belongs to Ibbie (Elizabeth White Adams) and said, “how would you like that?” Then the three pieces were delivered to the house on Grove street while the “Dutchman” took Grandfather into a tobacconist’s shop and told him to pick out some cigars. Grandfather took two of his favorite brand and said “Thank you.” The “Dutchman” said, “Hold your hat,” and he dumped the contents of the box into the hat.
My father, Charles Henry, told me this story years ago.
--Jesse Halsey
Grandfather built many of the stores on what is now Canal Street, then a development in the northern suburbs. One of these stores, built for “an old Dutchman,” so pleased the owner that he took Grandfather into his new furniture shop and told him to pick out a piece of furniture for his wife. This table was his selection. Then the “Dutchman” told him to pick another piece, and that little stand with the two drawers that “Babbie” left to Abbie (Van Allen) was selected. Then the “Dutchman” said “that is not enough, take something big,” and he pointed to the big mahogany bureau that now belongs to Ibbie (Elizabeth White Adams) and said, “how would you like that?” Then the three pieces were delivered to the house on Grove street while the “Dutchman” took Grandfather into a tobacconist’s shop and told him to pick out some cigars. Grandfather took two of his favorite brand and said “Thank you.” The “Dutchman” said, “Hold your hat,” and he dumped the contents of the box into the hat.
My father, Charles Henry, told me this story years ago.
--Jesse Halsey
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Camp at Whalebone
Property owned by Jesse Halsey, Abigail Fithian Halsey, Lizbeth Halsey White at Whalebone Landing in 1903 |
Dec 1837 Jesse Halsey and wife Mary [Budd] give 2 acres at Whalebone to CH Halsey (b. 1830)
The acreage
is bordered by: N, Stephen Harris; E&S, David H. Rose (2 acres) [wife Mary
Halsey is CHH’s sister]; W, Ed. W. Halsey [Jesse and Henry’s brother]. Charles's father, Henry Halsey, purchased 4 acres from his brother Edward W. Halsey's son (Ed. J Halsey) and this portion of approximately 6 acres was split between Lizbeth
Halsey White and Abigail Fithian White.
In 1882, Elizabeth [Aunt Libby Halsey] Fowler gave her
6 acres to CHH (her three sons went to sea and never returned, Charles was her favorite nephew), and in 1903, CHH left the remaining 5 of those acres to Jesse Halsey. Nearby property is owned by the descendents of many of Henry Halsey's siblings, among others: E&S Wilmun Halsey (CHH's brother) heirs (Aunt Gus); Wm. S.
Halsey; David Rose (wife, Mary was CHH's sister); W.S. Foster; J. Herrick; John
J. Morgan; Theo. A. Halsey (related via Eliza Halsey, wife of Henry Halsey and
daughter of Barzillai Halsey); Gladys Beckwith, and Elaine Beecham (Harris heirs).
Labels:
1837,
1882,
Aunt Gussie,
Captain Edward Halsey,
Captain Jesse,
Charles Henry Halsey,
David H. and Mary Rose,
Eliza Halsey,
Foster,
Harris,
Herrick,
Libby Fowler,
Theodore Halsey,
Whalebone,
Wilmun Halsey
Season's Greetings | 1944
1944 Christmas Card | Westhampton |
Westhampton, N.Y.
Christmas Day
1944
Dear Dad—
Merry Christmas! Wish we could all be there to wish you all
that greeting. Maybe some Christmas we can all be together in the old homestead.
What fun that would be. Somehow Christmas just doesn’t seem like Christmas
without you and Mother, Honey, Abbie, and dear old Freck and Bill. I look back
on those days in Cincinnati, what a job you and Mother must have had selecting
the things for your children, trying to satisfy each and everyone of us. Then
too we had a lot of Fairy God Fathers and Mothers whose Christmas gifts were
usually those of untold splendor. I am using today a toolbox and a beautiful
set of augur bits, given to Freck and me by Mrs. Smythe or Miss Becky many
years ago. Even Freck’s old lathe that “Santa” brought him works in my shop.
Somewhere in Southampton a train engine locomotor waits for future use given by
Mrs. Reed. There are other things I don’t remember, but which I still have
around.
Today we received a present that has been the trump of the
day and the grandest gift imaginable from the swellest person I know. War Bonds
for all four of us from My Dad—I can’t begin to thank you . . . I don’t know how,
but any way we appreciatie them more than words can express.
Today I am lazy and nearly exhausted—for nearly a month my
machines have been busy sawing, drilling, etc., making toys. Then week before
last I stayed in on my work full time usually from 9 AM to after midnight. In
that time I made a barn, a train, a farm wagon model with team, a doll house,
and drilled several cradles, in addition to the one that went to Sophie. Each
and every item was sold representing about 50 dollars worth of toys. On top of
that I made a gun for Chaddie and a rocking horse for Billy. I finished the
latter at 11 last night. It is a cute little horse and cuter still when its
young master swings into the saddle and rides away. He can really make it go.
Abbie certainly showered Chaddie with presents, we had a box
from her and in it was a machine gun, a helmet, and a periscope. He is tickled
pink with the helmet as well as the other equipment.
It looks as though we might have a white Christmas. It
snowed last Monday and it snowed quite a bit, although there is still quite a
bit on the ground it is going fast.
Today has been above freezing and it’s a heavy fog all day and
occasional rain.
THANK YOU FOR MY BOND –BILLY
Fran just plopped his majesty in my lap and I thought he
better learn to write early—
Friday morning I played Santa at the school party. Charlie
is not at all sure it was Santa in fact he had a darn good notion it was me.
When he came home I was working in my shop when I came upstairs he looked me
over very closely. I had make up on, but washed it all off. My lips however
showed signs of having been actual.
He mentioned the fact that I had paint on my face and he was quite positive
that I was Santa. We changed the subject so may be he has forgotten.
There has been ice in the bay for a week or so, at last maybe
with this thaw we are having I will break up enough to be able to go out and
make a couple of dollars. If N.Y. has a meat shortage, which is threatened by
the dealers or something, maybe clams should sell at a good price.
I wish you all could have been here today to help eat our
32# turkey. Next year I will have to raise some so that you can have one for
Thanksgiving day and Christmas. Maybe a goose for New Years.
Our box went express last Thursday I hope it arrived in time
to greet you today. Yours will be here I guess sometime this week as you said
it was sent express on Thursday.
Before I forget.
Charlie’s Birthday Aug. 5, 1936
Billy’s Birthday Nov. 3, 1943
Jean Grace Raynor May 16, 1944
Thanks again the 4 of us for your wonderful gifts.
A Merry Christmas—belated but in time to wish you a very
Happy New Year.
Love from us all.
Your son,
Charles
"Where the hearth is warm and friends are near . . ."
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Dinner for Head of National Society of D.A.R. at Amsterdam
January 1944 | Abigail Fithian Halsey to Jesse Halsey
Sunday Afternoon
Dear Jesse,
Well, this week our good friend Dr. Nugent left us, the
funeral was yesterday. He has been bed ridden and I guess stricken on one side
since Nov.—Only last week I went in and he said, “Come up.” He and Helen and I
had such a good time. I had had a call from Ada Bishop and regaled him with her
account of Henry losing his false teeth at night. He lay prone on his bed, but
chuckled away and enjoyed it. Helen has been so fine all thru and called me and
asked me to write an article for the Press—says it is one of her greatest
comforts, it’s so like old times.
I told her I tried to write something he’d like to read and
that she and Liz would approve of.
I’ve been shut in the house all week with bronchitis—that
ends in a wracking cough, but it’s letting up and I shall get out tomorrow.
Jerry had chicken pox and now Jean is down with it, well broken out. Ibby is
the valiant one of us all, but is expecting her call any time, is very well.
Jerry was home Thurs. after working all night and so tired he slept most of the
day. But a great comfort to Ib. to have him come.
The Rulands celebrated their January birthdays by going to Tobey’s
(Camp) for supper last night and took Jerry with them. The Herricks are happy
today with John and Dorie and Connie all at home. Adelaide spent a day with us
and is grand and Ethel takes lovely care of her going and coming. They came in
after Dr. Nugent’s funeral Friday.
Dan Halsey and all of them were sick but are better now, also
Mr. Van Brunt. Days are very late in the morning, but the sun stays up a little
longer.
Let me know your plans, when and where you will be coming out
next month—would you be home sometime to get some oysters if I could get any to
send? Henry hasn’t been along for two weeks, but the ice must be out now for it
is mild for a change.
I have loved Dunnybrook
and wish Adelaide Wentworth [of Cincinnati] were here to read of her Kittery.
Of course, you knew Dr. Kennon Dunham’s son [Harry] was lost in aviation [while serving in New Guinea]. Sarah Withrow’s letters are full of it, says Mrs. D.
stands it wonderfully, Dr. Dunham not so well. A lovely letter finally from
Mrs. [W. E.] Stilwell [in Cincinnati] who is broken hearted over the University
School going out.
So ends my weekly chronicle with my love for you and all, am
anxious to know Abbie’s plans. I hope you all are well and I look forward to
being with you all, but feel I am in the right place, and Ibby is certainly
fine. Ed is in Wash. And last week had Eddie and Helen and Anita Howell down to
N.Y. for a lovely weekend all together Eddie was in and looks well, goes into
the Navy tomorrow. Take care of yourself and take time to rest.
Lovingly,
Abbie
Miss Halsey Resigns Post
14 April 1949 | Jennie Lawton Scarsdale to JH re AFH
April 14, 1949
Scarsdale, N.Y.
Dr. Halsey:
Brother of my very dear friend Abigail Halsey. My dear Sir:
just last Christmas I first heard of your sister’s death through the kindness
of her Attorney-at-Law, W.B. Platt, who upon request sent me your address. For
the past few years neither of us had written letters and I deeply regret this
as only in this way did I keep in touch with her .
Several years ago 1919-’21, I was closely associated with her.
I was in Social Hygiene mode with the Government and my duties in connection
with the Camp Upton covered Suffolk Co. travel orders over Long Island, office
in Patchogue. My headquarters in Southampton were the Post House and I knew and
loved dearly the White family. All a vivid happy memory. Abigail Halsey was the
first President of the Social Workers Club and I Vice Pres. My home is in Athol
Massachusetts but during the past winters I have lived with my brother—Arthur
L. Lawton, 80 Anderson Ave., Scarsdale, N.Y., and am at that address at the
present time. Both your sisters Mrs. White and Abigail motored to Athol and we
had a lovely time together in my home next to Cong’l Church in the Upper
Village. This note can only express to you the deep loss I felt at losing such
a mutual friend, that her beautiful expressions in verse and in many letters
revealed the greatness of a noble woman and that the great blessing that came
with my life by knowing her.
This is a very poor expression and I can only ask that you
will see beyond the writing and through it with an understanding of how much
tribute I would like to give my dear, dear, Abigail.
That she is now with the Savior we loved and served and
receiving the greatest blessings any of us can hope for, is a joy to me.
She spoke to me often about you and of her deep affection.
Most sincerely,
(Miss Jennie) E. Lawton
(80 Anderson Ave., Scarsdale, N.Y.)
Abigail Fithian Halsey | 1873-1946
Southampton Press
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).
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 2nd, 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 |
Abigail Fithian
Halsey publishes Bulletin on Pageants with NY State College of Agriculture in
Ithaca
Plan to Bring All Programs to Prevent Juvenile Delinquency Into One Bureau
Social Hygiene Board
Suffolk County News | Sayville, N.Y. | 12 Dec 1919 |
"From 1911 to 1934, the Bureau of Social Hygiene (BSH) funded research and sought to influence public policy on a number of issues related to sex, crime and delinquency. Although the BSH received contributions from a number of organizations, including the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), the Bureau was largely dependent upon the patronage of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who created the organization to address many of his own personal concerns and interests.
"The idea for the BSH originated in 1910, following JDR Jr.’s participation in a grand jury investigation of white slavery in New York City. Motivated by frustration with temporary public commissions that could only recommend governmental action, JDR Jr. established a permanent and private body to deal directly with a variety of social ills, including prostitution, corruption, drug use and juvenile delinquency."
1939 General Assembly
Montauk Community Church Dedicated
7 Sept 1929 | Brooklyn Life |
Dr. Halsey is a one-time Southampton boy, the Halsey home having been built something more than a hundred years ago and having been used by the successive generations. Dr. Halsey is now a pastor of the Seventh Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. While a student at Princeton College he became interested in Sir Wilfred Grenfell's work in Labrador and went with him into the north during his college years. After studying at Princeton Seminary and later at Union Theological Seminary, he went again with Dr. Grenfell into Labrador, this time taking with him Mrs. Halsey, and staying there for three years. From this work he went to Cincinnati, and has been there ever since. His message at the dedication was that of one who knows and is deeply interested in Montauk, and came also from the experience of a man who has traveled widely and has become well known both as a missionary and as a pastor.
“The saint in overalls”
25 May 1912 |
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
-->
The Rev. Jesse
Halsey of St. Anthony’s, Labrador, one of Dr. W. T. Grenfell’s right-hand men,
is just now on a visit to New York in the interests of the Grenfell mission.
After a ten days run with the dogs he reached the coast and sailed for Boston
in a small sailing craft, arriving there three weeks ago. He departs again in a
few days for Labrador. Mr. Halsey, after two years in Princeton, graduated from
Union Theological Seminary in 1910. He distinguished himself in his theological
course and had excellent opportunities for work in the States, many influential
Presbyterian pulpits being open to him. He elected, however, to go to Labrador.
Here he has done “a man’s work,” not only doing the usual duties of pastor and
preacher, but donning his overalls and working whenever occasion required as
carpenter, plumber, and odd-jobber. “The saint in overalls” is the name bywhich he is known by his Labrador colleagues. Mr. Halsey is married and has one
child. He will preach on Sunday for the Rev. Gwilym O. Griffith of the Sixth
Avenue Baptist Church, who was a fellow student of his at Princeton. On Sunday
evening he will give an illustrated address on the work of the Grenfell
mission.
Nassau Presbytery | June 1913
L.I. Society, Daughters of Revolution, Heard Mrs. Suffren
17 Nov 1910 |
"Suffrage arguments were presented to the Long Island Society, Daughters of the Revolution, by Mrs. Martha Wentworth Suffren, yesterday afternoon, at the home of Mrs. Russell Benedict, 104 Buckingham road.
"'Daughters of the Revolution,' she said, 'ought to have some desire for their own freedom," and all were cordially invited to add their names then and there to the Suffrage lists. Many of those present accepted Mrs. Suffren's invitation and became enthusiastic supporters of the Suffrage cause.'"
"Southampton public school has distinction of having two Labrador children on its roll."
The children were brought here by Mrs. Jesse Halsey, wife of a minister at Dr. Grenfell's station at St. Anthony's, Newfoundland. The Rev. Mr. Halsey is a native of Southampton and has been located in Labrador for a number of years and tkaes a great interest in the education of the children at the Far North Mission. He will soon join his wife here, having been granted a leave of absence. | ||||||
4 Nov. 1912 | Brooklyn Daily Eagle |
Helen I. Halsey on board The Geo. B. Cluett |
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