16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, February 24, 1912: I fixed over a dress for myself this afternoon. It was one of my Aunt Annie’s cast-offs. I had one trying time a getting the waist and skirt together. I have it fixed now and tried it on to see the result. I’m not so much pleased with my sewing. It seems rather short in the back.
Click on photo to make larger.
Annie Van Sant is the woman in white in the center of the photo.
John and Sarah Derr Family. Taken about 1900. L to R. Front Row: John, Annie Van Sant, Sarah. Back Row: Miles, Fuller, Alice Krumm, Elmer, Phoebe Muffly, Judson, Homer. Phoebe (Derr) Muffly was the mother of Helen (Muffly) Swartz.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I suppose that Annie was relatively well-to –do since she was a doctor’s wife—and had some relatively nice cast-offs to give her niece.
It’s amazing how people often remodeled clothes a hundred years ago. Clothing was much more expensive back then—and people often remodeled outfits instead of buying new items.
A hundred years ago, women’s shirts were called waists. Based upon the wording of this diary entry the top part of a dress apparently was also called waists.
An aside–I apologize for using this photo several times over the past year or so. I wish that I had more photos of my ancestors–but I have very few so sometimes need to use the same photo a couple times to illustrate entries.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, February 22, 1912: Such a time as I had getting to school this morning. It was terribly icy. Pa went along to help Jimmie along. They both went down together. It looked so comical. We observed Washington’s Birthday today by some pupils reciting different accounts of his life. Coming home tonight my cap flew off my head and I had to race after it four or five rods before I captured it.
Saw a possum tonight. That was after he met his fate.
Did Grandma's cap look like this? (Source: Ladies Home Journal--November, 1911)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Wow, Grandma actually thought about distances in terms of rods. A rod equals 5 1/2 yards. So Grandma had to chase the cap about 22 – 27.5 yards.
The use of rods as a unit of measurement apparently was widely used early in the 20th century—but had become largely archaic prior to the latter half of the 20th century. I have never, ever thought in terms of rods.
I can remember having composition books when I was a child that listed all sorts of mysterious weights and measures on the back—rods, perches, and so on. But word problems in math class only referred to inches, feet, yards and other commonly used units.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, February 21, 1912: It rained and snowed today. Pa came for us tonight. He got there too soon. Made me so mad. Had to miss a class as he didn’t want to wait.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sounds like a miserable, raw late winter day. It’s interesting that Grandma didn’t want to miss a class, but that her father won’t wait. Was the weather that bad? . . . or was he just in a hurry?
I assume that he took Grandma and her brother Jimmie home in a horse-drawn buggy.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, February 19, 1912: I believe our teacher is just as good as the other one. He goes slow with our studies but explains so they will be more apt to stay.
Building that once housed the McEwensville Schools. The high school was on the second floor.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It’s always difficult when a teacher quits mid-year, but Grandma seemed pleased with the new teacher, Forest Dunkel, after the first day.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, February 17, 1912: Uncle Ben and Aunt Annie were here today. I was very anxious to see Uncle Ben as I hadn’t seen him since I was a little kid, so you see I really wanted to see what he looked like. He is a great tease, but doesn’t look like it at all. Puts him arms around you and strokes your hair. Really, I was surprised.
Annie (Derr) Van Sant (circa 1900)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
This diary entry refers to Benjamin and Annie Van Sant. Annie was the youngest sister of Grandma’s mother. Ben was a physician in Turbotville which is located about 6 miles northeast of the Muffly farm.
In February 1912, Ben was 48 years old and Annie was 35. They did not have any children.
Since they lived so near the Muffley’s it is amazing that Grandma had not seen her uncle in many years.
That said, I’m not exactly sure what to make of this entry. . .
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, February 11, 1912: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. A lawyer from Sunbury was there. He was an excellent speaker. Ruth had some unusual news to impart after she arrived. Carrie was over a little while this afternoon. Gave her one of my pictures. Also gave my Sunday School teacher one.
Recent photo of McEwensville
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sunbury is the county seat of Northumberland County. It is about 20 miles from McEwensville.
The lawyer may have spoken about the leadership.
As I mentioned last week, in 1912 the Country Life Movement was actively working to revitalize rural communities since many youth were leaving for jobs in the cities.
We’ll never know what the lawyer said, but I can tell you what was written in a magazine published in 1912 about the leadership skills needed to revitalize rural communities.
A well-organized personality reflects its efficiency in the organization in which it dominates, and vice versa.
Such are the qualifications of leadership and the organizing capacity which may be described as the ability to build and operate human machinery. It has its roots in tact and skill in dealing with men, in tenacity and in a certain instinct for construction.
One who possesses it sees a new person as social material and is likely to know what can be made of him better than he knows himself.
This type of ability was never in any such demand as it now is, particularly in the rapid rise of the Country Life Movement.
Rural Manhood (January 1912) (A Magazine Published by the YMCA)
Pictures
Carrie Stout was a friend of Grandma’s. Grandma had her photo taken by a professional photographer in January.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, February 9, 1912: I am disgusted with the marks I made in my examination, but although my marks are low I am not losing faith for I can truthfully say, “I didn’t cheat.” I had not much of a desire to cheat after that awful lecture and what desire I had left I managed to trample down. I intend to improve for next month and make my next teacher happy. Jake is going to stay one week longer.
Recent photo of building that once housed McEwensville School.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
In January Grandma got caught cheating. Even though these events happened a hundred years ago and logically it makes no sense—I feel bad that Grandma wasn’t rewarded with good grades when she studied hard.
Jake was Grandma’s teacher. It sounds like he was quitting and that she was soon going to have a new teacher.
Grandma indicated that she was going to continue studying hard to impress her new teacher. Hmm . . . I can’t help wondering if she might have failed to trample all temptation at some point and “tested” her new teacher to see if he let her get away with cheating.
