17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, May 19, 1912:Must go to Sunday School this afternoon. Wore my white dress. Uncle Sam was here this afternoon.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Well, we now know a little more about the new dress. It was white.
Sam Muffly was a brother of Grandma’s father, Albert. In 1912, he would have been 45 years old. He was single and lived in the small hamlet of Ottawa (Pennsylvania) with his younger brother George and his widowed sister and her two children. I think that he was a farmer.
Ottawa is about 10 miles east of McEwensville. He probably came on the Susquehanna, Bloomsburg and Berwick train since its route took it through both the Muffly farm and Ottawa. The train had a whistle-stop at a feed mill which was located very near the farm.
A Hundred Years Ago 
The comment about the new dress was so short. I hope she enjoyed wearing it and will get many wears.
After all of the diary entries about making the dress, it does somehow seem like a let-down that she wrote so little about the first time she actually wore it . . . If only Grandma could have known that we’d be reading it a hundred years later, maybe she would have included more detail.
Congratulations Sheryl! I have nominated you for the “Beautiful Blogger Award”…for your dedication to your Grandmother’s memory and keeping that alive for your family. It is a wonderful tribute! For information about the award…check out my latest post. Hugs!
Thank you! I’m honored.
We know how taken Helena was with her new dress, but I do wish she had said more about Uncle Sam. I wonder if he was a favourite uncle of the childrens, who would have gifts for them when he visited….
I don’t think that she was very close to him. For example, on Aug. 24, 1911 she’d written, “Ruth and I went over to Ottawa on the train in spite of the silvery rain drops. I have two bachelor uncles living there and wanted to go over so bad after an absence of seven year anyway, if not more. Our visit was but of short duration, but we intend however to visit them again this coming fall. Making a longer visit than this one and to visit a certain park not far away.”