Central Pennsylvania | A Hundred Years Ago

Went Shopping in Milton

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Sheryl

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Thursday, June 22, 1911: Mother and I went to Milton this morning. I got a dress and a pair of shoes and some other accessories. Mother was so fatigued when we got home, but I was far from that.

Old postcard showing corner of Broadway and Front Street, Milton (Source: Milton Historical Society)

Recent photo of the corner of Broadway and Front Street, Milton

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

See the May 2 entry for a 1911 advertisement and photo from a shoe store in Milton.

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The Lutheran Church in McEwensville

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Sheryl

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Sunday, June 18, 1911: Went to Sunday school this morning. Was over Stout’s this afternoon, and went up to the Lutheran church to witness their children’s day services this evening. Ma was my chaperone.

This used to be the Lutheran Church in McEwensville.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

There is no longer a Lutheran church in McEwensville. Messiah Lutheran merged with the other church in the parish—St. John’s Lutheran (Turbotivlle) a few years ago. The combined congregation is now called Holy Spirit Lutheran. Holy Spirit built a building in out in the county half way between McEwensville and Turbotville.

The building is now used for antique storage.

An aside: I can remember eating snacks on this porch when I attended Vacation Bible School there as a child. (I wonder why minor random events sometimes pop into my memory.)

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Didn’t Go Shopping

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Sheryl

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Thursday, June 15, 1911: Wanted to go to Milton today and get some things to wear but mommie wouldn’t go.

Old real picture post card of Milton--Grandma wanted to shop here a hundred years ago today, but she didn't make it. (Postcard source: Milton Historical Society)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since Grandma mentioned several times in previous diary entries that she went to Milton by herself, I’m surprised that she didn’t just go alone when her mother won’t go. I suppose that her mother would only pay for whatever Grandma wanted to buy (clothes?) if she went along.

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Carpenters and Circus Recap

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Sheryl

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, June 2, 1911: I would like to rub up an acquaintance with one of the young carpenters. There are two of ‘em, but seems an impossibility. Dear, dear me.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

I’m really struggling with our age difference today. My grandmother was about 40 years younger than what I currently am when she wrote this entry. A hundred years ago she was a teen jotting down her thoughts about cool guys who were helping build the addition on the Muffly barn—while I’m a mother with adult children.

I’m just going to let this entry stand without any comments—and instead will go back to yesterday’s entry about the circus in Milton. I would like to share two articles in the June 2, 1911 issue of the Milton Evening Standard:

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The Circus

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Sheryl

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Tuesday, June 1, 1911:

Of all the months, my favorite is

The radiant glorious month of June.

How many are the joys it brings,

And also tells that the year is noon.

Every cloud has a silver lining. Ruth and I went to the circus, accompanied by Miss R. O. You see my darling sister sometimes changes her mind for the better. I though the circus was great even if you did blow 60 cents.

Article in June 1, 1911 issue of the Milton Evening Standard.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Yeah! I’m glad that Grandma was able to go to the circus after all. R.O. refers to Rachel Oakes—a friend of Grandma and her sister.

The circus came to Milton on the train. There then was a parade as the entertainers, the animals, and their equipment went through town to the fairground (where the actual circus was held).

Recent photo of railroad tracks and an old railroad station building. A hundred years ago today, the circus train probably sat on a siding here--and the parade would have begun in this area.

The parade apparently was awesome and the focus of the front page story in the June 1, 1911 edition of the Milton Evening Standard.

Somewhat surprisingly there don’t seem to be photos of the actual circus in either the June 1 or June 2 issue of the paper. I suppose the paper “went to bed” too early for photos on June 1—though I’m not sure why there were none on June 2. Maybe newspaper photographers weren’t allowed under the big tent to help encourage people to buy tickets and attend the circus rather than just viewing it vicariously by reading the newspaper.

It sounds like Grandma enjoyed the circus—though she doesn’t seem ecstatic about it since she mentions blowing 60 cents. She seems to doing some sort of cost-benefit analysis in her head—and almost wishing that she still had the 60 cents.

Sixty cents in 1911 dollars would be about $17 in 2011. A dollar today is worth about 1/28th what it was worth a hundred years ago. In other words, there has been an average annual inflation rate of 3.4% per year over the past hundred years.

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The Circus is Coming! But May Not Go :(

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Sheryl

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, May 31, 1911: Was so very disappointed this evening. Ruth said she was not going to the circus which is to be held this month at the Milton fairground, and I intended to go if she would go.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Ad in May 27, 1911 issue of Milton Evening Standard

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Memorial Day: Watsontown Cemetery

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Sheryl

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Tuesday, May 30, 1911: Carrie and I went over to the Watsontown cemetery this afternoon. Am rather tired and sleepy.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma and her friend Carrie may have gone to the cemetery to put flowers on the graves of deceased relatives for Memorial Day–or maybe there was a Memorial Day ceremony held there.

Grandma’s paternal grandparents are buried in the Watsontown cemetery. Her grandfather had died before she was born, but Grandma would have remembered her grandmother, Charlotte Muffly, who died in 1905 at the age of 78.

I wonder what Grandma’s memories are of her grandmother—Had she been close to her grandmother? . . . or not? Had her grandmother been in ill health for years prior to her death? . . . Or had she died suddenly?

Watsontown Cemetery is on very high hill that overlooks the town of Watsontown. Grandma and Carrie would have had a bird’s eye view of the entire town. They would have been able to look over downtown Watsontown to the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and the looming mountains beyond. Now, just as they did a hundred years ago, the sound of trains rumbling through town periodically breaks the silence.

The cemetery is dominated by a memorial to Civil War veterans. According to the engraving on the base of the monument the memorial was built in 1902—so it would have been less than 10 years old when Grandma and Carrie visited the cemetery. The memorial probably was built with funds raised by aging GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) veterans who didn’t want the war to be forgotten after they passed on.