"I sometimes wish that modern female youth were not so conscious of its modernity."

 

4 July 1939 | Sir Wilfred Grenfell to Jesse Halsey

Dear Jesse:

Thanks for your little affectionate thought and action. What big things little things may be. Don’t I wish you were coming on the journey. We sail on Monday.

 

When I get back, most certainly come down and bring Mrs. Halsey and put in a few days with us. I know the communion would be helpful to me. 

 

The wops keep up in number, and I am still as optimistic as ever about the coming of the Kingdom of God. Christ still means to me the hope of humanity. I sometimes wish that modern female youth were not so conscious of its modernity.

 

Be sure to come. You can drive here so easily on route #7.

 

My love to you both.

 

Yours ever, 

Wilfred Grenfell

147th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. panoramic photograph.

From the Presbyterian Historical Archives

Detail of photo, Jesse Halsey back row in flat cap

 

Jesse Halsey 1935

  

"Twenty-five years ago, I was ordained. A quarter of a century and I have seen the overturning of all the substantial verities of my youth and of that generation into which I was born. The greatest war in history, in it I had a little part; the eternal verities of many centuries have been challenged—who can say how successfully; the Bible, the bulwark of my fathers faith, for twelve generations has been entirely re-edited (as it were) and the swift succession of mechanical invention and scientific knowledge has revolutionized the world of communication of transportation and of travel. I pinch myself to see if I am I." --Reverend Jesse Halsey 1935 

Church Has Own Print Shop and Issues Paper

 

The Seventh Church, Rev. Jesse Halsey, D.D., Pastor

22 May 1930 | The Presbyterian Banner

The Seventh Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati is looked upon as one of the most influential in Cincinnati. For sixteen years the present pastor has led his people on in a steady forward march.

 

There is no more modest man in the ministry, nor more princely in character. His influence permeates into every nook and corner and particularly where there is need. In some mysterious way he has an intuition for sensing homes of sorrow and need—and his sense of duty draws him away from everything else and carries him to those whom he can help. His congregation is the wealthiest in the Presbytery, but the pastor is ever alert for the needs of the humble. Jesse Halsey has not an enemy in the world and all who know him cherish his friendship as a choice treasure. Like the Master, he goes about doing good.

Reverend Jesse Halsey c1925

 

Church Service is Cut Short by $5,000 Blaze in Annex; Memorial Painting is Saved

17 March 1941 | Cincinnati Enquirer 

Fire of undetermined origin cause $5,000 damage to the two-and-one-half-story stucco annex of Seventh Presbyterian Church, Madison Road and Cleinview, Walnut Hills at noon yesterday during services.

 

The annex, which connects with the church, houses the pastor’s study, a library, a music room, an auditorium, and storage quarters.

 

The fire, starting in the upper half story of the storage room, burned fiercely under the slate roof, Assistant Chief Edward Shearwood and Marshal William Cunningham reported.

 

First news of the fire was given to Fire Company 23, a square away at Madison Road and Hackberry Street, when a motorist, George Hack, stopped to report that smoke was pouring from the building. The company hurried to the scene, followed immediately by other companies.

 

So quietly did the firemen approach that few among the congregation attending services were aware of the blaze until the pastor, Rev. Jesse Halsey, curtailed the almost completed service as smoke started to filter into the edifice.

 

The congregation filed out of the structure in orderly manner. Many then joined spectators on the sidewalk to watch the fire.

 

Rev. Mr. Halsey had been informed of the blaze some time before by the assistant pastor, Rev. Samuel Warr. Rev. Mr. Warr told his superior that firemen were on hand and that everything was under control.

 

Rev. Mr. Halsey and Mrs. Halsey thanked fireman and the Salvage Corps for protecting an oil mural in Rev. Mr. Halsey’s study with tarpaulins. The mural hung immediately below the point where the fire was most intense. The picture is one that Cleveland Woodward painted as a memorial to the Halseys’ son. William Halsey, who, when 7 years old, was killed by an automobile in front of the church in 1927. The building in which the fire started had been used earlier in the morning for children’s Sunday school classes. The children were out of the building, however, when the fire was detected.

Marshal Louis Schraffenberger and Captain Carl Rogers started an immediate inquiry . .   . 

Persons associated with the church were summoned to a hearing in Deputy Feldmeann’s office this morning.

 

Too Much Competition!

“There’s too much competition!”

Thus did Rev. Jesse Halsey, pastor of Seventh Presbyterian Church, impart to his congregation yesterday the knowledge that a fire in the edifice was too intense to permit him to complete the morning worship service. 

 

Rev. Mr. Halsey had been informed of the blaze previously by an assistant pastor, Rev. Samuel Warr. The clergymen had hoped that firemen, already on the scene, would be able to keep the flames under control sufficiently to avoid disruption of the services. 

 

New Citizens’ Day

 

16 June 1935 | Cincinnati Enquirer

Social Activities of Greater Cincinnati

Mr. Eugene S. Howard, who has been spending the week in Montreal, Canada, will return home today. Mr. Howard has been present at the National Conference of Social Work, and as Director of Cincinnati Citizen Council was asked to take part in the program.

He talked before the assembled delegates on Tuesday, describing the interesting classes that are conducted in Cincinnati for the foreign-born, the socializing effect that they have had, especially upon the women, who are now visiting outside their homes and organizing English circles in an effort to carry on their class work.

Upon his return Mr. Howard will devote a large part of his time to preparing for New Citizens’ Day, which will be celebrated at the Zoo June 30. He is working with Mr. Carl Giesse, General Chairman of the celebration, in making plans for the program. Mayor Russell Wilson will make a speech of welcome to all of those who have become citizens within the past year.

The reception and program will be open to American as well as foreign-born citizens and Mr. D. B. Meacham, Chairman of the Citizenship Council, extends a cordial invitation to all civic-minded men and women to enjoy the reception.

Among those working with Mr. Giesse on his committee are Mrs. F. E. Mackentepe, Miss Alice Sterne, Mrs. Alice Burtner, Mrs. Esther Gardner, Dr. David Philipson, Miss Anna M. Crouse, Miss Charlotte Haupt, Miss Lucille Patronis, Mr. M. F. Candioto, Mrs. William Duning, Mr. Harmon Hartmann, Mr. John P. Harritos, Miss Margaret Johnnes, Miss Julia Wehby, Mr. Frank Mohaupt, mr. William Herbert, Miss Helen Bottigheimer, Miss Sophia Chakiris, Mr. Eric L. Schulte, and Miss Vera Jacobson.

Officers serving with Mr. Meacham and members of the Board of Trustees of the Citizenship Council include Dr. Earle E. Eubank, Vice Chairman; Mr. Frank P. Goodwin, Treasurer; Mr. Thomas M. Muir, Secretary; Mr. Robert S. Marx, Judge Robert Nevin, Rabbi Philipson, Mr. George Puchta, Mr. Edward D. Roberts, Mrs. Siegfried Geismar, Rev. Jesse Halsey, Dr. Thomas P. Hart, and Mr. Giesse.

Jesse Halsey Chapel

20 October 1952

Cincinnati Enquirer

(4) Carl Zimmerman, artist, confers in his Loveland studio with John A. Riordan, right, Cincinnati manufacturer of stained glass, on a work-drawing of a window for the Jesse Halsey Chapel of the Seventh Presbyterian Church, Madison Road, Cincinnati.

New Church Window Depicts the Risen Christ

4 April 1953
Cincinnati Enquirer

This Te Deum window, depicting the triumphant, risen Christ surrounded by angels, martyrs, apostles, and others, is in the new Jesse Halsey Chapel of Seventh Presbyterian Church on Madison Road. It was designed by Carl Zimmerman, Cincinnati artist, and was given in memory of Pgc. Robert R. Pogue, who died in World War II, by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Pogue; in memory of Mrs. Helen Collord Taylor by Mr. and Mrs. August Marx; and in memory of August Edeler by his widow, Mrs. August Edeler.

A Living Hope

30 March 1929 | Cincinnati Enquirer

A Living Hope by Dr. Jesse Halsey, Minister of the Seventh Presbyterian Church

God and Father—Our Lord Jesus Christ—A Living Hope—The Resurrection—An

Inheritance Incorruptible—I. Peter 1:3-4

Easter comes with its message of Hope and Courage; like all deep things it begins in mystery. We don’t pretend to understand all that happened on the first Easter Day nineteen centuries ago, but we believe that the Lord Jesus showed Himself alive to his friends, and that in their new-found faith they went out to transform the world. Faith in God leads one to expect the great and mysterious. We live in no simple world; mystery—the mystery of life and death—surrounds us. We reach out beyond the things we see.

I believe first of all because I want to believe. One, at times, may argue the question of immortality and consider the case unproven, but let some one of his own flesh and blood pass within the veil and reason surrenders the place to love, so that many a hard man has set his face toward God in hope of one day seeing a little head on which the sun is ever shining. Napoleon said that the heart was a place in the body where two large veins met, and that a statesman needed to have his heart in his head. The same ideal possesses the formal philosopher. It is only when one says with Tennyson, “I have felt,” that he will experience the strong urge of the unseen world. “I can’t and I won’t disbelieve.”

This does not mean that our hopes are unreasoned and are but a fond imagination. There are good and sufficient reasons for believing, but first comes the attitude of mind and heart that is positive, constructive, and desirous.

We are citizens of two worlds. One is material and tangible, like water; the other is spiritual, unseen, intangible, like air. But the latter is no less real than the former. Our bodies are of the earth earthy, but we are spirit, living in a transitory earthly tenement. Some day we will slip off this “body of humiliation,” but the eternal spirit will take its way to God, who is the Author of life and our Eternal Home.

It is not selfishness that makes us want to live on, but a stern conviction that the best that the universe knows is that spiritual reality, which we vaguely call personality. The faith and hope and love that we have experienced in life—our friendships, all convince us of the value of persons. If anything in the universe has permanence, it ought to be these supreme values. Such values we enthrone at the heart of things in God.

And in Jesus Christ we have seen all lovely qualities incarnate. His life—so beautiful, so strong—we call divine. Is it reasonable to think that reality like this goes out in death? Can a few nails and a Roman spear end such a life? If death could destroy Jesus Christ I find my essential faith destroyed—faith in the reality of all human values; faith in God; faith in reason; faith in an ordered universe. Then the materialist is right—biochemistry explains everything in the realm of human life and faith and love and hope mean nothing!

So while we keep the feast of the Savior’s Immortality we pause in grateful remembrance of all the pure and beautiful souls who have walked with us in strength and gentleness and love. We are strengthened in the assurance that what was bound up with our life and made a dear part of our being cannot be lost; that they and we are safe in the hands of God our Father, who brought Jesus Christ through the experience of death into a new life which those who follow Him may share. God is the God of this and every world, visible and invisible. Character like Christ’s resides in Him, and He is pledged by the very nature of His being to honor the supreme qualities for which the whole creation labors.

Rev. Jesse Halsey Resigns; To Teach At Chicago School; Cincinnati Pastor 28 Years

12 May 1941

"If aught I have said be true, bind it unto your hearts. Listen to the voice of the past, know the needs of today, and have a vision of the future."

17 June 1929 | Cincinnati Enquirer

"Character Is Formed In School of Hard Knocks," Rev. Jesse Halsey Says

17 June 1929 | Cincinnati Enquirer

To Show Traffic Accidents

5 November 1928 | Cincinnati Enquirer

Former Paris Pastor Called To Replace Rev. J. D. Halsey

13 November 1941 | Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnatians Visit Miami | 28 September 1934 | Cincinnati Enquirer

1925 Cincinnati City Council Race

25 September 1925 | Cincinnati Enquirer

Protests Against Poland's treatment of her Jews Adopted

28 June 2012 | The American Israelite

New Citizens' Day | 1941

11 June 1941 | Cincinnati Enquirer

Final arrangements for the tenth annual celebration of New Citizen’s Day at 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon at the Zoo will be discussed at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Citizenship Council at 4 o’clock tomorrow . . Dr. Jesse M. Halsey, who has been a member of the board for 20 years, will be principal speaker Sunday. Dr. David Philipson, Chairman, will preside tomorrow, welcoming those who have received naturalization papers in the last year. Siegfried Gelsmar is Chairman of the event. An election will be held tomorrow for a new Vice Chairman to succeed Dr. Earle E. Eubank, who resigned. Dr. Eubank remains a member of the board. . .