Jessie Luther | St. Anthony, May 10th, 1910

Our comfortable sense of isolation is over. An uneasy anticipation of impending change is in the air. The general upheaval will begin with the arrival of the Prospero, which is expected to bring a part of the summer contingent. We hear rumors of hordes: collegians, volunteers, nurses, medical students. There will also be an exodus. Mr. Evans will leave us and is already inspecting locks on his trunk and suitcase. His feeling savors of emancipation. Mrs. Grenfell plans to go home for a visit and return in late June with visitors for the summer. Miss Kennedy, after long and devoted service, is going home for a much-needed vacation. Mrs. Manager departs with her baby in June, and Mr. Manager will travel from place to place on the schooners to oversee business affairs at little settlements connected with the Mission. The Doctor will stay here but plans to go north on the Strathcona after Dr. Little returns in June with one of his sisters.

An interesting arrival will be Mr. Jesse Halsey, a Presbyterian minister who after an intensive course in plumbing and kindred practical crafts is to serve the Mission by superintending drainage installation. He will arrive with his bride in June to stay for a year, probably located at the Guest House. Also in June, Dr. Wakefield will reappear with his bride, and still another reappearance will be Dr. Grenfell’s cousin, Mr. Spencer, who is returning to direct agricultural development and enlist enthusiastic co-operation from the students if anyone can. He has the personality to bring results. The semi-annual kaleidoscopic shift of personnel is beginning. It will be interesting to see how the pieces fall into place and what the ultimate picture will be.”

from Jessie Luther at the Grenfell Mission, an annotated edition of a travel journal that Luther wrote from 1906 to 1910, edited by Ronald Rompkey (2001)

from "Among the Deep Sea Fishers" | April 1911

Toronto, April, 1911

Dr. Grenfell’s absence in England has meant the cessation of the “log” and there is but little information to hand of the winter doings at the hospitals. The Christmas festivities at St. Anthony seem to have been most successful. A member of the staff writes: “We are now well started on the new year and bright Christmas season when so far away from our own kith and kin. I must tell you about our employees’ dinner which we served in the waiting room on Monday following Christmas to forty-three people. I had the room cleared and picnic tables made in such form that Dr. Little and Mr. Halsey were able to sit at the two ends and carve. It gave more dignity to the occasion and was a great joy to the people. The tables we made as pretty as possible with our simple decoration of paper napkins, mottoes, pickles, cheese, berries, raisins, figs, etc. Then we served soup, venison, potatoes, cabbage, plum pudding, ice cream, etc. At the end of the meal each person received a box of candy and a gift as well. Mr. Forbes managed the phonograph throughout the meal, and before they all departed a flashlight was taken. All went quietly and smoothly and from what I have heard was evidently a great success. Dr. Little I know was pleased. The orphans’ tree followed at 4 p.m. and gave a tremendous deal of pleasure, not only to children, but to the grown people as well, for Santa Claus in the person of Mr. Halsey and his two sons, Mr. Write and Mr. Evans, came flying down the Fox Farm Hill on a komatik drawn by two reindeer. It was so very real and made it so much more impressive.”

Dr. Little writes under date of the 15^th of January: “All goes well at St. Anthony. Dr. Wakefield started yesterday for the Straits with ten fine dogs and Aleck Simms as driver. . . We have all been struggling through a grippe epidemic but it is over and all are well. There is no special news. Things are pretty well started. Night school with two classes, men and boys; club for the men; Legion of Frontiersmen; Bible class for the girls; choir, etc. etc. All are awfully good about doing anything.”

While in England the Kin honoured him [Grenfell] by giving him a long and special audience, and though he was ostensibly taking a holiday he did not by any means neglect the opportunity of arousing interest in his work. The following report of one magnificent meeting in Queen’s Hall, London, shows that his simple earnest tale of the needs of his people and his aims for their betterment has lost none of its power:

“An expectant crowd that filled Queen’s Hall from area to top gallery welcomed ‘Grenfell of Labrador’ with British enthusiasm on Monday evening. Norman Duncan has made Dr. Grenfell’s work known far and wide in this country, and although one of the journalists who interviewed the Doctor last week confessed to an absolute ignorance of the geographical situation of Labrador, probably every one in the audience could have come through an examination with better results than that. From the first row Field Marshal Lord Grenfell followed his relative’s story with keen interest, and there were many well known people in the audience.

Sir Ernest Shackleton presided with that peculiar sea-dog air of his. He told us that there were five members of his Antarctic expedition present, and not a few of us who have read his book would have dearly liked to see those men paraded on the platform. Standing in the centre of the platform, his broad shoulders on the slant and his hands clasped for all the world as if he were hauling in the slack of the mainsheet, the hero of the South Polar expedition declared, in his bluff way, that the mass of the civilized world had come to appreciate the great work done by a man who was trying to do his best for the bodies and the souls of ‘nameless men who nameless rivers travel, and in strange valleys meet strange deaths alone.’ A happy, poetical description of Dr. Grenfell’s life work!

from "Among the Deep Sea Fishers" | July 1911

St. Anthony Items

Evening classes have been held for older persons, and for the more advanced of the boys and girls by Mr. Halsey, and Mr. Wright. Miss Brown has also held dressmaking classes for the maids, with the object of enabling them to save expense by manufacturing their own clothing.

The Methodist Church choir has been taken in hand by Mrs. Wakefield, aided by Miss Keese and Mr. Evans, and has now become self-supporting and independent of the fluctuating musical talent of the constantly changing mission staff.

…On April 6^th a new member of the mission staff appeared in the person of Master Charles Henry Halsey! Congratulations all round to the parents, to the mission, and to the new member!

Mr. Halsey has spent a useful winter in superintending our missionary plumbing, finishing up the cement floors, etc., of the new hospital, mending burst pipes, and doing innumerable little things, which, if perhaps not much noticed at the time, would, however, be very much noticed if left undone! He has also held a regular weekly Bible class, and has been very good in reading, etc., to the patients.

A. W. Wakefield

Jesse Halsey & Charles Henry

Some additional information is given by Dr. Little in a letter to Dr. Grenfell of the 19^th of February, 1911, the following extracts from which we have been permitted to print:

Halsey has an advanced class in night school, geometry, physics, chemistry, etc. Dr. Coker has been illustrating lectures with experiments—very interesting. Wright has from twelve to eighteen in the lower classes of night school. He is a great help in every way. Evans has full charge of the camps., keeping records, etc. Miss Storr and Mrs. Wakefield have the Bible class for women, Halsey for the men.

…We have just had a very good service in the wards, Halsey preaching. I am wondering what sort of a crowd there will be here next summer and what your plans will be. I expect you will find your hands full when you resume the reins.

from "Among the Deep Sea Fishers" | July 1912

St. Anthony Items

March 1^st, 1912

Dear Mr. Editor,

Our chief is away. We get occasional hurried glimpses of his activities by letter, but we wish he were here. However it can’t be helped so we have to do the best we can without him. This is the first day of spring and I am writing a few of our doings through the winter to try and interest those interested in us. It does not seem much like spring, as the poets describe it. The mail has just arrived and it has taken the mail man with his team of dogs five days to bring it on its last relay of eighteen miles for it has been blowing north-east and “dirty.”

. . .The fuel problem gets more and more difficult as the wood gets cut out so that this winter the people found it impossible to keep their own fires going and provide ten sticks for each child for the school. We had therefore to close the school and divide the children between a big room at the orphanage and the lower ward at the hospital, both of which buildings, thanks to Mr. Halsey, are now steam heated. In this ward at the hospital also is held the night school five evenings a week, where Mr. Halsey, Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Fallon teach. I meant to say that Mr. Fallon also came on the last boat.  . . .Mr. Evans has had complete charge of the reindeer; has not only made trips and proved their speed in travelling under adverse conditions, but has taken charge of and driven our second dog team, doing much hauling and courier service.

Helen I. Halsey with Charles Henry

Mr. Halsey has been our general manager and overseer and besides his night school, holding services and preaching has generally had his coat off to help along some job or do a kindness to whoever comes within his radius. Mrs. Halsey takes care of the music in church and out, giving music lessons in her spare time and at present is mother two infants besides her own Charles Henry, while their mother has a much needed rest in the hospital.  . . . Mrs. Little took on the new job ob teaching me this winter instead of sixty children and I guess wishes she was “back on the old job.” Modesty forbids me to talk about myself. Too bad!

We are a happy busy family and only wish we had more of the friends and workers of the mission along with us to enjoy the winter. . .

This has proved a very vague outline of our winter’s doings. The life is so different from that at home that it is difficult to describe, but I shall have failed utterly if my readers do not understand that the mission is trying to teach Christ’s love through service in many forms and that its members are tasting the happiness that comes in doing it.

John M. Little, Jr.

from "Among the Deep Sea Fishers" | July 1912

Items from the Grenfell Association of America

The George B. Cluett, after discharging her cargo in St. John’s, sailed for New York, bringing Mr. Karnopp down to look after the shipping of the furnishings for the Institute. 

She had a hard battle to fight coming through the fields of ice, so was somewhat longer on the way than had been anticipated. Her log showed that she was only about one hundred miles from the Titanic when the latter went down. Capt. Pickels brought her safely through, however, and after spending some time in Bridgeport having her engine repaired and other necessary work done, she finally reached New York. Mr. Karnopp was obliged to return to St. John’s before the loading was completed, but it was looked after by Mr. Halsey, who had come down from St. Anthony to purchase the summer’s supplies, and Capt. Pickels. After many delays such as seem incident to the running of boats, the Cluett, which had to stop at Boston to take on institute furnishings, finally go on her way to St. John’s. . . .

Mr. Halsey left St. Anthony by dogteam about the middle of April, coming about half the way with the dogs and the other half on foot, until he reached the railroad arriving in New York the latter part of April. This was rather strenuous travelling, and he found the paved streets of New York rather hard on feet that had grown accustomed to the soft seal skin boots in the north. Mr. Halsey has had charge of the purchasing of supplies for the mission and is now waiting for the Geo. B. Cluett to arrive so that he can superintend the loading of the cargo. The boat will come to Boston, where Mrs. Fowler’s party will go aboard. They hope to get away by the 25^th of June. 

J. L. G., Secretary

Items from the New England Grenfell Association

My dear Miss White:

 

 .. . . As one of my pupils wrote later in an English exercise: “Our fingers was so cold that we couldn’t write.” The best we could do was to play games, sing songs, recite “verses” (anything with a jingle or a rhyme in it delights the hearts of these children) and read in relays around the stove, until far on into the day when things began to get warmed up. As soon as we told this story to Dr. Little and Mr. Halsey, they began to plan different arrangements for us. . . .

Our new schoolroom, as no doubt Mr. Halsey will tell you, was the new downstairs ward in the hospital, which, it happens, has not been needed for patients this winter. It is a large, pleasant room well lighted with southwestern exposure and a goodly supply of radiators. We now learned what it was to be too warm, for almost as soon as we had moved the weather began to grow mild and continued unseasonably moderate all through February. . . .

Affectionately yours,

Betsy L. Copping

***

February 22^nd, 1912.

My dear Miss White:

Mr. Halsey has had entire charge of opening all boxes sent here since Mr. Webster left, so I have been unable to find out about hose you referred to, but I am sure all have been acknowledge as great care has been taken in that line since the St. Anthony Committee took charge.

… Sincerely yours,

John J. H. Evans