17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, March 6, 1913: I got pretty cold today. My hands got rather chilly coming home from school. Ma and Ruth went up to Oakes.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It sounds like it was a cold day. Did Grandma forget her gloves? Maybe she thought that the day would be warmer than it actually was.
For today’s post, I searched for a hundred-year-old newspaper article about the weather, but I failed to find any anything. Instead I discovered that a hundred years ago today was the 3rd day of President Woodrow Wilson’s presidency.
A hundred years ago the presidential inauguration was in March. Inauguration Day used to be four months after election day. In 1913, it was on March 4. Inauguration day was changed to noon on January 20 by the Twentieth Amendment in 1933.
In November, 1912 Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, beat the incumbent president, Robert Taft in a three-way race. He also beat former president Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was the founder of the Bull Moose Party. For more on the election see:
The 1912 Presidential Campaign: The Republicans, the Democrats, and the Bull Moose Party
Was Grandma excited about the new president? . . unhappy about the change. . .indifferent?
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The Oakes lived on a farm near the Muffly family. They had several children about the same age as the Muffly children. Rachel Oakes was a friend of Grandma and her sister Ruth.
A Hundred Years Ago 
Interesting Sheryl. You’d think it’d be nice in March in Washington. I wonder why they changed?
I think that they thought that “lame duck” federal officials don’t accomplish much, and changed it to reduce the amount of time between the election and the inauguration. In addition to the president, the amendment in 1933 also affected when the terms began for senators and representatives.
ok, now that makes sense. Thanks Sheryl 😀
I guess if Grandma knew we’d all be reading her journal, she would have given us more info about what was going on in the world..?
I often wonder how much she paid attention to what was happening the in the larger world. Information was readily available in newspapers back then about national and international events–but they may have seemed far removed from her life on a farm in rural central Pennsylvania.
I found that interesting that the inauguration was held in March.
I think March would be a better month than January, unless it was today. Heavy snow in the DC area.
How true. 🙂
I don’t think my teenage granddaughters would post much, if anything, about politics, unless it was something that caught everyone’s attention.
Wonder why she didn’t go with Ruth and her mom?
Also, I find it a little weird that an amendment would specify the date for the inauguration…is it just me? I hardly know anything about politics.
XD