19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, October 9, 1914: About once a week take the notion to write. Well, there really wasn’t anything important. Ruth and I went to an entertainment given in Watsontown. Some fine music I listened to.
Here’s a picture of Watsontown–though I don’t know where the Opera House was located. Perhaps the building no longer exists.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Welcome back, Grandma! We’ve missed you. The day-to-day happenings in your life are more important than you think.
Did you and your sister Ruth go to the Watsontown Opera House? I’ve heard that the theatre’s name is more presumptuous than the actual building—but that it’s the best place in town to see good performances.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Tweet was the nickname of Helen Wesner. She was a friend of Grandma’s who was occasionally mentioned in the diary. Based on the diary, and other sources, here’s what I know about her:
Helen was three years older than Grandma. Helen never married—and worked on her family’s farm and in their small dairy processing plant that produced bottled milk. She died in 1976 at the age of 84.
Anyone with the nickname of Tweet had to have been a fun person. Here are two previous diary entries that mentioned Tweet or the Wesner’s.
The whole family was invited out for dinner today. We all went except Pa. It was up at Tweet’s place. We had something that I always had a curiosity to know what they tasted like. It was waffles.
Made a call this afternoon, so that the time wouldn’t be so tedious. I’m wishing and longing for a sleigh ride, now that there is sleighing.
Ruth and I went up to Wesner’s this evening. There were some other girls there too. Renewed my acquaintance with a former school mate whom I hadn’t seen for over three years I guess, until I saw her on Christmas eve. Had a good time.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, May 24 – Thursday, May 28, 1914: Nothing much doing.
Recent photo of Watsontown Cemetery.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
This is the second of five days that Grandma lumped together into one diary entry. Her infant niece, the daughter of her sister Besse, died on May 23–and she apparently didn’t feel like writing.
Did they have a funeral for the baby? . . . I don’t know where is she buried.
I haven’t had a chance to get to the library to go through the microfilms to see if I can find the obituary—but I know that when I looked two years ago after the death of Besse’s first baby that I wasn’t able to find anything.
I also know that Besse and her husband Curt are buried in the Watsontown Cemetery—and that the two infants are not buried in that plot.
Memorial Day wasn’t until May 30 in 1914, but on this Memorial Day week-end I thought you might enjoy seeing some additional photos of the Watsontown Cemetery. It is on a hill overlooking the town—and has an awesome view of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and the mountains in the distance.
The statue in the distance is a Civil War monument that was erected in 1902.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, April 11, 1914: Nothing much doing.
Source: Watsontown Star and Record (April 3, 1914)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The previous day Grandma went to shopping in nearby Watsontown. Did she walk past the Mansion House? It’s still around—though it’s morphed over the years from being a “modern” hotel to being a bar and grill.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, February 3, 1914: We went to an entertainment in Watsontown this evening. At first I doubted whether we would really get there. It was inclined to be rainy. T’was very good, but I missed part of it because we occupied a back seat.
Here’s a Watsontown Opera House Ticket. I’m not sure what year it is from.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Hmm . . . missed part of the show? Who was “we”? . . . Since Grandma often did things with her sister Ruth, probably the two of them went to town, but the entry doesn’t really say that.
And, what was the “entertainment”? . . . a movie? . . . a variety show. . . a play? . . . a lecture?
Throughout the diary Grandma has only gone to movies and other “entertainments” occasionally—but only 10 days earlier, on January 24, Grandma went to a movie in Watsontown.
Grandma seems to be having a fun winter. Her social life was the busiest it’s been since she graduated from high school.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, December 11, 1913:Went to Watsontown this afternoon. Admired the Xmas fixings and other things, but I’m not going Xmas shopping until next week. Then I won’t have to keep them so long.
Recent photo of downtown Watsontown. In my mind I can see a bustling street filled with holiday shoppers admiring all the fixings.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Watsontown is a nearby town that was a little larger than McEwensville.
Watsontown is a charming town, but the downtown area is very quiet today. It was a little busier when I was a child, but it wasn’t a major shopping destination. In some ways, it’s difficult to imagine a time when Watsontown had “Xmas fixings” worth admiring.
A Hundred Years Ago 