18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, August 18, 1913: Left Alma’s this morning and walked over to Ottawa. Called on my uncles this afternoon. Came home on the afternoon train. I met quite a few people while away.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
This was the last day of a three-day trip that Grandma took to Montour County to visit her cousin Alma.
They visited their uncles, Samuel and George Muffly. Samuel and George were brothers of Grandma’s father, and lived on a farm at the very small hamlet of Ottawa. According to the 1910 census Samuel Muffly was a 43-year-old single male, and George was a 34-year-old single male.
A Hundred Years Ago 
So lovely~
A whistle stop–I’ve heard the term but didn’t know what it meant. That would have been convenient for them to travel by train.
I’m amazed how many stops there were on the rail route. It appears that upon request/flagging that the train would stop at any feed mill or cluster of several homes along the route.
Grandma is busy these days. I loved all my uncles and gained a great amounts of positive self esteem from them .
Uncles (and aunts) can play such an important role in the development of their nieces and nephews.
I love old whistle stops and train depots!
So do I. . .
A nice little trip to break up the monotony of summer chores.
I agree! Grandma had to work so hard, and it’s nice that she was able to take a little vacation.
Hurrah! An outing for Gandma to break up the boredom. I’ll bet she was thrilled for days to come.
A vacation can be rejuvenating.
I’m glad she got to visit and meet with other people. Farm life could be isolating.
Farm life had both advantages and challenges. , , and isolation can be a major challenge for some.
Visiting will cure the boredom for a few days.
Yes, a vacation can be a good (at least short-term) antidote for boredom.
Thinking about the life of an average male back then, those guys would have been middle aged.
Yes, they would have been middle-aged. According to the 1920, census the younger brother (the one who was 34 in 1910) got married sometime prior to 1920–the older did not.
Great picture. I grew up in a town that was literally a whistle stop.
Sounds like a fun place to grow up. I love tiny hamlets.
What a shame that we lost the passenger trains. One doesn’t have to go back 100 years to be in the times when we could get on a train almost anywhere and go to almost anywhere else. No security checks and no advance reservations. Just go to the depot and get on board and you could even pay your fare after you were on the train. At the larger stations there were cars standing by so that if the train became full they would simply put on another car. As recently as the late 1950’s I boarded a train in Kansas City shortly after 5:00 p.m. on a Friday evening and was in Tulsa before midnight. I spent the weekend with friends and returned to Kansas City Sunday evening, all at very reasonable cost.
The passenger trains in the 1950s sound wonderful. We’ve lost something valuable across the years.