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" | October 1910

Items from the Grenfell Association of America

Miss Brown writes from St. Anthony on August 28^th: “The enlargement of the hospital is a great success. The lower ward is open and at present nearly all the beds are full in it. We have one tent up and have three men in it, and two tuberculosis shacks are being planned for to be placed on the hillside. It is fine, I think. Mr. Halsey has put in most of the plumbing; the staff bathroom is finished and is truly the joy of our hearts! Dr. Little simply dotes on it! We have the large bath, gorgeous white toilet, wash-basin, and doctor’s scrub-up basin all in one room, and a toilet and wash-basin in the patients’ bathroom. Many of Mr. Halsey’s things not having arrived, keeps the work at a standstill . . . The new stove and boiler are fine . . .”

J. L. G., Office Secretary

***

Items from the New England Grenfell Association

. . . The operating room, given entirely by Miss Meta O. Fowler of Baltimore in memory of her mother, is in the process of completion. The walls and the floor are to be in keeping with the rest of the room. The work will be a credit to Mr. Halsey and his assistants, who are striving to make it the best that can be had in so remote a corner of the country, and it will greatly aid the surgeons who are so faithfully rendering help. The Prospero, which arrives fortnightly during open water, is bringing patients by the thirties. Eight operations in one day is a good record for this little place and many a poor man gives thanks to God for the comforts and relief found here.

E. E. W., Secretary