"the spiritual side of eugenics"

 

"Flippancy is the curse of the rising generation. the most sacred things for the home are held up to ridicule. Marriage is treated as a joke."

New York Tribune | 13 Nov. 1913

Women's Political Union Splits from NY State Woman Suffrage Association

NY Tribune | Nov. 13, 1913

Nassau Presbytery | June 1913

3 June 1913 | Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The Reverend Jesse Halsey was dismissed to the Presbytery of Cincinnati.

The Rev. Jesse Halsey of Southampton Gets Important Pulpit

21 May 1913 | Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Jesse Halsey Installation

The Cincinnati Enquirer | 24 October 1913

Episcopal Pastor to Take Part at Installation Service in Seventh Church

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October 2, 1913 | The Continent

Letter from Charles H. Brown, Welfare Director of the R.K. LeBlond Machine Tool Co.

November 13, 1941

With thanks to: The Jesse Halsey Manuscript Collection. Special Collections, Princeton Theological Seminary Library.

Parish Paragraphs, In Lieu of a Pastoral Epistle

March 22, 1931

The Seventh Presbyterian Church

In Cincinnati

Jesse Halsey, Minister

“I wish that you would put up with a little ‘folly’ from me. Do put up with it, for I feel a divine jealousy on your behalf.” –II Cor. 11: 1-2.

It is eighteen years ago Sunday that the present minister first preached in this church. Mr. Garvey and Mr. Besuden met him at the door. On the afternoon of the following Sunday (Easter Day) Judge Hollister and Mr. Ballantyne talked with him about the possibility of his becoming the minister . . .

This is from Ian Maclaren, my patron saint. (An elder is speaking to a young minister.) “There is just on thing that the brethren laid upon me to say, and you will not be considering it a liberty from the elders. You are never to be troubled in the pulpit, or to be thinking about anything but the Word of the Lord and the souls of the people, of which you are the shepherd. We will ask you to remember, when you stand in your place to speak to us in the name of the Lord, that as the smoke goeth up from the homes of the people in the morning, so their prayers will be ascending for their minister, and, as you look down upon us before you begin to speak, maybe you will say to yourself, “They are all loving me.’”

. . .

The acoustics in the church are bad. Two thousand dollars worth of acoustical material would cure it. But there is another way—a full house, and all hear perfectly! The hard surfaces are too many; but four to five hundred people will cure it. On Easter Day, with its crowd, you can hear a pin drop. If one day, why not other days?

The Canvass comes on March 22. The preacher will talk about money. Nothing sordid in that. The Romance of the Kingdom is tied up with its use. “Good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

This from Carl W. Petty: he is describing two ministers, acquaintances: “one gives a brilliant performance. His sermons are literary gems, his delivery is faultless. But when he is through that is the end of it. He has a metropolitan pulpit, but he preaches in the suburbs of the great realities. He juggles skillfully with secondary issues. There is no urgency in his preaching. And there is B--, his sermons show carful preparation, but preparation for an event rather than a performance. His sermons do not scintillate, but they stab into the heart of things. Preaching for him means wrestling with stern reality, asking no quarter nor giving any. When he is through you go out convinced something ought to be done about it, and that you are a partner in the responsibility of getting it done.”

from "Among the Deep Sea Fishers" | 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.

***A Labrador Doctor: The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell (Boston 1919)

*Presentation copy with original mounted photographs. Inscribed and signed by 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. G. 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 "Tuckamore 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.

Daily Princetonian, Volume 38, Number 29, 4 April 1913

WORK OF DR. WILFRED T. GRENFELL IN LABRADOR

Dr. Jesse Halsey of the Mission's Medical Staff Explains its Nature

REMARKABLE RESULTS

In Spite of Hardships, Well-Regulated and Sanitary Community Has Been Developed

Dr. Jesse Halsey, a member of the medical staff of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen at Labrador addressed the regular midweek meeting of the Philadelphian Society last night. His subject was "The Work of Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell in Labrador." Dr. Grenfell's Heroic Work

Passing briefly over the life of Dr. Grenfell, the speaker bent every effort to make clear to all the intensely interesting, as well as heroic, work which is being done under Dr. Grenfell's inspiration among the deep sea fishermen along the barren coasts north of the St. Lawrence. His entire talk was profusely illustrated by lantern slides depicting the surroundings of these people and the mission work which is being done among them.

The purpose of this work is to help these people to help themselves and in order to accomplish this purpose it is essential that sanitary and economic conditions be improved. The average home of the fishermen is no more than a hut and during the long winter months their diet consists of the supply of dried fish which they have collected during the summer. In fact the fish are the most important factor in the life of the native. If his luck deserts him in the fishing season, the winter is one of dire necessity and this is one of the many times at which the mission lends a helping hand to the suffering Dr. Grenfell has built up a community among these people, which is well-regulated and sanitary in every way possible.

His attention has been given to the erection of hospitals, cooperative stores and orphans homes as well as saw mills, and other laborsaving institutions. The various phases of the work are combined under the religious influence exerted by the mission staff. Dr. Grenfell, as his own skipper travels along the coast each, year personally coming in touch with the needs of the fishermen.

The Spirit of the Mission

Dr. Halsey closed with an explanation that the term, mission, should be applied to this work in its larger sense. The workers in this great field are seeking in every possible way to make life easier and more livable for these rough and simple people. The whole spirit is expressed in the motto painted on the Mission hospital. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." *

Hildreth-Whitaker | 1913

Published: May 11, 1913Copyright © The New York Times