19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, March 27, 1914: Called on Carrie this afternoon.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Carrie Stout was a friend of Grandma’s who lived on a nearby farm—but I can’t really show you where it was.
In the late 1960s, Interstate 180 was built through the area. The farm where the Stout’s once lived was divided into two, and the house was in the shadow of the highway. A few years later the house burned—so nothing is the same as it was in Grandma’s day.
Many days I’m surprised how little has changed over the past hundred years—but other times, like today, everything has changed and it’s difficult for me to even get my bearings.
Reminds me of friends in Iowa who lived in a house that was moved when they built a highway through the town. Their house was moved to the country, but at one time was right beside a house we later lived in.
Reminds me of a joke. Ole and Lena lived on the border between IA and MN, just barely inside MN. Surveyors came one day to check the border position. They told Ole and Lena a mistake was made years ago. Their house was going to be in IA from now on. They both exclaimed how delighted they were saying ‘We were getting tired of the cold MN winters.”
It’s fun to hear an Ole and Lena joke from the Iowa side–I’ve always heard them from the Minnesota perspective.
We also have a collection dedicated to the neighbors to our south. 🙂
It must have been difficult to move the house.
I often look at my own community and wonder what it was like a century ago. There are lots of photos from that time and you can see where the older houses were. If you put Helena on her road and told her to go to her friend’s house, think how eerie it would be. Jane
She probably would think that she was lost. 🙂
I remember my Grandma speaking of her friends some of whom remained her friends into her 90s.
The long-term relationships are one of the really special characteristics of many rural communities.
The little community where I lived for my first 23 years hasn’t really changed. Except many of the people who live there now don’t take pride in their property like the previous owners did. Sad.
It’s too bad that some people haven’t kept their properties up.
Just when I think I know every turn and every building where I live now, something changes – and that’s during my own lifetime. I would really love to come back 100 years from now and see what’s what then. 🙂
I have the same feeling. . .. and I’m always surprised which things end up changing.
Oh dear, how sad for their descendants to not be able to go to their homestead. I hope they were sufficiently compensated by the state when the hi-way was built.