17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, December 29, 1912: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Jimmie went along.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Jimmie was Grandma’ brother. On pictures, he looks like an adorable (though probably slightly spoiled child).
Jimmie was the only son in the family and by far the youngest child. In 1912, Grandma’s oldest sister Besse was 24 and married. The next sister, Ruth lived at home, and was a teacher at a nearby one-room school house. Grandma (Helena) was 17-years –old. And, Jimmie was 7-years-old.—a full ten years younger than Grandma.
One fun thing about doing family history research is that I often know what happened to the people in the diary.
In Jimmie’s case, he went to the University of Pennsylvania and then became a veterinarian in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Lewisburg is about 10 miles from McEwensville. Much of his veterinary work involved taking care of farm animals.
Jimmie–known as Jim as an adult– married twice, but never had any children. His first wife died many years ago. Jim died in 1988. His second wife Ruth (she had the same name as his sister) died in 2010 at the age of 99. Her obituary is available in the online version of the Sunbury Daily Item.
A Hundred Years Ago 
I think it is great that you know who the people were and who they became.
Sometimes I’m surprised that even though she was writing a hundred years ago that I knew many of the people that she was writing about. Maybe it just means that I’m no longer young. . . sigh. .
I am sure you have some great memories of your Great Uncle Jim.
I am very fortunate to have had some wonderful great-uncles and aunts.
Wow, he was a great looking 77 (??) in that photo…lucky you, good family genes.
I think your math is right–and that he was about 77-years-old when the photo was taken. I think that he needed to be spry to keep from getting kicked by cows and horses when he treated them.
I’ve been working with what I call my ‘Hallie box’ all afternoon. It’s the earliest of 7 huge containers of research into my aunts murder in 1924. I looked at a lot of pictures, and like you, found it interesting to know how many lives turned out. I find it interesting that obituaries of yesterdays gone by contained the cause of death while present day obituaries rarely site the cause of death.
I’ve also noticed that the old obituaries contain much more information than recent ones–sometimes the details must have been painful for the families to read; other times they probably made family members feel very proud.
So fascinating! And how fortunate you are to have access like this to the past.
I am enthralled each time your blog pops onto my screen. Thank you for sharing. You are enjoying the story as well and that shows through the pieces you write.
Thanks for the nice note. I do have a wonderful time doing this blog, and it’s always nice to hear when others enjoy it.
I love these posts with then an now pictures!
It is fun to see how someone has changed over the course of many years.
John Shaw is one of our pastors in our Presbytery. I don’t know him too well, but he is the part time Pastor at Mooresburg Presbyterian Church in Danville and he still has his funeral home. That was interesting to read. It was interesting learning about Jimmy.
It’s a small world. Mooresburg is a lovely little town. It must be about the same size as McEwensville. I went to a festival in Mooresburg a few years ago and bought a fun cookbook that community members compiled called “Recipes, Reminiscence, & Remedies: Mooresburg Bicentennial Cookbook.”
I will have to check with a few ladies I know from there to see if that is still available, it sounds interesting. Mooresburg is a cute little community. I am so glad there are many little towns left to enjoy.
As I studied the photo, I noticed the dog was looking in another direction. I wonder what was going on in the yard? Love the photos – you work hard on this! Happy New Year.
I hadn’t thought about it, but you’re right, the dog is looking at something in another direction. It brings back memories of trying to take family photos that included our dog for Christmas cards–and finding it to be almost impossible to get him to look at the camera.
I grew up in Lewisburg and remember Dr. Muffly. He took care of a couple of our dogs over the years. I will never forget the time – when I was about 12 years old – a neighbors dog bit our dachsund, and we took her to Dr. Muffly to get stitches. I was trying to be brave and told him that I could be in the room with the dog while he did the stitching. About 2 minutes later he was escorting me outside to the curb – and telling me to sit down and put my head between my legs because I had almost fainted. 🙂 Nonetheless, our little dog recovered fully… Another dog got a round bone stuck around her lower jaw and Dr, Muffly had to sedate her and saw the bone off. Years later, when I left for Philadelphia for college I had a cat that I would bring home and take to Dr. Muffly for shots, etc. That cat, Chaucer, lived to be 20 years old.
Anyway, he was a great vet! Joan
Thanks for sharing the wonderful stories. They give me a much better idea of what my great-uncle was like as a veterinarian. He sounds like a really special vet.
How nice that you have photos of him both as a child and an adult.
So glad you posted the link back to Jimmy, with photos too