"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

"And economic independence must be followed by spiritual independence, before woman will be perfectly free."

New York Tribune | 2 April 1914

"I hope that when women vote we can change conditions in industry . . ."

New York Tribune | 27 December 1914

"Better Babies, Better Mothers, Better City!"

New York Tribune | 20 June 1914

"Sea Cliff club is one of the shining examples of the suffrage club ..."

New York Tribune | 20 June 1914

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

NY Tribune | Nov. 13, 1913

6 May 1911 | Suffrage Parade

New York Tribune

Abigail Fithian Halsey | 1873-1946

Southampton Press

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 2^nd, 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

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).

**4 August 1922 |Ogdensburg Republican-Journal

Abigail Fithian Halsey publishes Bulletin on Pageants with NY State College of Agriculture in Ithaca

Woman Suffrage Day Parade

Martha Wentworth Suffren | May 1914

L.I. Society, Daughters of Revolution, Heard Mrs. Suffren

17 Nov 1910

Her Arguments Caused Many of Those Present at Flatbush Meeting to Become Suffragists

"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.'"

Mrs. Suffern Says Liquor Dealers Are Raising Funds to Fight Women

23 May 1914

Mrs. Dreier Criticises Anti-Suffragist Views

The Woman Voter

Long Island Suffrage Movement

"Edna Kearns worked as a suffrage editor for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and a columnist for many New York metropolitan newspapers. She was active in Long Island suffrage clubs, wrote and distributed press releases for local and state suffrage campaigns, and became a congressional representative for Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party on Long Island in the campaign for the 19th amendment. The story of the “Spirit of 1776” horse-drawn wagon used by Edna Kearns to organize on Long Island and participate in NYC suffrage parades received newspaper coverage, including in the New York Times, Long Island and other metropolitan papers."

from "Suffrage History: Long Island’s Three Wagon Women" by Marguerite Kearns 

Suffrage History: Long Island’s Three Wagon Women

By Marguerite Kearns - See more at: http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2014/04/09/suffrage-history-long-islands-three-wagon-women/#sthash.Vqv3SBfH.dpu

Edna Kearns worked as a suffrage editor for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and a columnist for many New York metropolitan newspapers. She was active in Long Island suffrage clubs, wrote and distributed press releases for local and state suffrage campaigns, and became a congressional representative for Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party on Long Island in the campaign for the 19th amendment. The story of the “Spirit of 1776” horse-drawn wagon used by Edna Kearns to organize on Long Island and participate in NYC suffrage parades received newspaper coverage, including in the New York Times, Long Island and other metropolitan papers. - See more at: http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2014/04/09/suffrage-history-long-islands-three-wagon-women/#sthash.Vqv3SBfH.dpuf

Edna Kearns worked as a suffrage editor for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and a columnist for many New York metropolitan newspapers. She was active in Long Island suffrage clubs, wrote and distributed press releases for local and state suffrage campaigns, and became a congressional representative for Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party on Long Island in the campaign for the 19th amendment. The story of the “Spirit of 1776” horse-drawn wagon used by Edna Kearns to organize on Long Island and participate in NYC suffrage parades received newspaper coverage, including in the New York Times, Long Island and other metropolitan papers. - See more at: http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2014/04/09/suffrage-history-long-islands-three-wagon-women/#sthash.Vqv3SBfH.dpuf

Edna Kearns worked as a suffrage editor for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and a columnist for many New York metropolitan newspapers. She was active in Long Island suffrage clubs, wrote and distributed press releases for local and state suffrage campaigns, and became a congressional representative for Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party on Long Island in the campaign for the 19th amendment. The story of the “Spirit of 1776” horse-drawn wagon used by Edna Kearns to organize on Long Island and participate in NYC suffrage parades received newspaper coverage, including in the New York Times, Long Island and other metropolitan papers. - See more at: http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2014/04/09/suffrage-history-long-islands-three-wagon-women/#sthash.Vqv3SBfH.dpuf

7 July 1917 | The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Report on SuffrageDay

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Monday, May 11, 1914

Southampton, L.I., May 11--On Saturday afternoon the regular monthly meeting of the Southampton Woman's Political Union was held, at the home of Mrs. Edward P. White. The principal business was the report of the two delegates--Mrs. Edward P. White and Miss Helen T. Halsey--who represented the union at the Suffrage Day celebration in New York.

Votes For Women

  Suffragists meeting at Grant's Tomb, held as part of Woman Suffrage Day events in New York City, May 2, 1914. (Source: Library of Congress; Flickr Commons project, 2010; and New York Times, May 3, 1914)

Suffolk Workers at Riverhead Expect Victory--and the Vote--in 1917

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |Sunday, June 18, 1916

"Owen R. Lovejoy, secretary of the National Child Labor Committee, in an excellent address declared that as the women are better than men we need them in our civic and political affairs. He added that 'when mothers get the ballot the children will get better educations, bad tenement conditions will be removed, child labor will be reduced to a minimum, and we need the women's ballot to help rejuvenate our democracy in America.'"

"District officers were elected by ballot as follows: Mrs. G. S. Baxter, Bellport, Vice leaders, Miss Grace Homan, Patchogue; Miss Louise Painter, Sag Harbor; Mrs. W. C. Atwater, Westhampton Beach; Mrs. D. T. Hinckley, Wading River; and Mrs. J. Bonelli, Port Jefferson; secretary, Mrs. Edward White, Southampton; treasurer, Miss Dorothy Canfield, Patchogue."

Jesse Halsey on “Flappers”

The Cincinnati Enquirer

14 May 1922

Emma L. Fetta

A minister, Rev. Dr. Jesse Halsey, of Seventh Presbyterian Church was approached about the flapper. Yes, he, too, had seen her, and this is what he had to say about her:

“The flapper is one of our post-war inheritances. She will pass with time. In the meantime she is helping along the depression of moral acuteness that made her possible. No people can survive repeated attacks upon their ideal, and our highest ideals are represented in our traditional (call it ‘puritan’ if you will) attitude toward women. Chivalry is impossible if our girls and women are unworthy of chivalrous treatment, and anything that tends to lower womenkind in the estimation of men is detrimental to morals.

“Men of the better sort inwardly despise the flapper and her class. They will talk of her, play with her, but not marry her. When a young man thinks about his future home seriously he finds the flapper type too shallow—he wants the kind of wife that reminds him of mother.

“The flapper has marked a distinct letting down of American tradition, a minister pointed out to me. In the Colonial days the life in the New England States and that in the South was different, but, if anything, the daughter and wife of Virginia even was more protected than their Puritan sisters. The thing which the flapper stands for to-day in the way of living and thinking is a direct detour from our national standards. Sadly enough, it is not a forward step; a change forward would certainly not be regrettable, but under present interpretation the step can mean nothing more than retrogression.

“Of course there are many fake flappers who are not really so bad as they pretend to be, or as they paint themselves to be literally—and figuratively. There are many fake flappers who do not actually get drunk. The extraordinary thing is that they will lead you to believe they do. Their insinuations about hip pockets and the ‘devilish men’ they know invite their own placement among the lowest class of women.

“Why do they deliberately invite this classification? Ah, there you have asked a question! Hearsay has made up many a mind and hearsay has said it is fashionable, chic, smart, what you will, to be ‘fast.’ So far as I can see it is merely that at which the flapper is aiming. As the ‘Gentleman With the Duster’ said: ‘We are all in the hands of cynicism. All those high and beautiful things which the noblest sons of men have cherished in all generations now stand at the peril of brutality; and no statesmanship along can save them. The one insurance against calamity is a new climate of opinion universal as the air breathe. The mind of humanity must live.”