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

Tuesday, December 19, 1911: Fixed up some for Christmas although I guess no one is coming. I like to have things seem like it ought to. Jimmie is so anxious to know what I got your  highness.

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

I can almost feel Grandma’s pain when she wrote this entry. I wonder why no one was coming—but it makes it feel proud that Grandma did some decorating so that things “looked like they ought to.”

Throughout most of December the diary entries indicated that Grandma was looking forward to Christmas.

What could have possibly been wrong? The diary provides no clues.

Was someone ill? . . . .Had there been a disagreement with someone in the extended family?

People Mentioned in This Post

Jimmie was Grandma’s 6-year-old brother. I think that “your highness” refers to their older sister Ruth. In the diary when Grandma was annoyed with Ruth she used other terms and nicknames (such as Rufus) for her sister.

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

Sunday, December 17, 1911: Went to Sunday School this afternoon taking the longer way up the railroad on account of the awful roads. Besse was out this afternoon to see Ruth’s outfit. Gaugers came down this evening. Must get up early tomorrow morning because Ruthie must depart early. 

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

The mud must still be horrific. The roads between the Muffly farm and McEwensville were not paved in 1911—but the Susquehanna, Bloomsburg, and Berwick railroad tracks crossed the farm, so Grandma sometimes walked the tracks to town when the roads were muddy. People frequently walked the rails a hundred years ago—though it was considered a somewhat dangerous practice.

Grandma’s married sister Besse must have come out to the farm from the nearby town of Watsontown to see the outfit of their other sister, Ruth.

A previous post mentioned that Ruth was going to an institute. Ruth was a teacher at a nearby one-room school house and I think that she was going to a short teacher professional development institute for part of the holiday break. (Schools had a longer winter break back then.)

The Gauger family lived on a farm that was located between McEwensville and Turbotville. That farm was about two miles from the Muffly farm.  Ruth married one of the Gauger children (Bill) several years after the end of this diary . Based upon the diary entries, I don’t think that Ruth was dating Bill Gauger in December, 1911. Also based upon previous posts, I do think that Grandma may have had a crush on Bill in 1911.

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

Tuesday, December 12, 1911: Jake says we have to study harder. It seems to me such tiresome work, but I suppose I could if I tried hard enough. I guess I staid up longer tonight than I did last night, although it is not so very late now.

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

I’m continually amazed how many mysteries about Grandma’s life as a teen-ager I’ve been able to resolve (at least to my own satisfaction) with a little research. However, occasionally I’m totally baffled by things that I feel like I should be able to figure out. Today is one of those days–.

What was Jake’s last name?

The History of the McEwensville Schools by Thomas Kramm indicates that the teacher during the 1910-11 school year was Howard Northrop; and that there were two teachers during the 1911-12 school year—Howard Northrop and D. Forest Dunkle.  And, Leon Hagenbuch in his History of McEwensville lists the same teachers. I suppose they both used the same source—sigh.

I’m not getting anything close to Jake out of those names –but maybe Howard went by a nickname. Grandma’s referred to her teacher several times in the diary as Jake or Jakie. I wonder if she called him Jake to his face or it he was Mr. ____.

Jake seems to be very young for a teacher and almost one of the gang. For example, in the fall Grandma and other girls teased him about drawing a picture of a diamond ring, and the previous winter he fell through the ice while skating one evening with students.

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

Sunday, December 3, 1911: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Coming home it was snowing and I was rather dubious as to whether my new hat would take it all right or not, but it did.

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

It sounds like a blustery winter day. I found the weather data for December, 1911 for Williamsport, Pennsylvania on the National Climatic Data Center website.

Williamsport is about 20 miles northwest of McEwensville. According to the observation sheet, on December 3, 1911 the high was 46 degrees and the low was 31. It also indicated that there was a trace of snow  and that the wind was coming from the southwest.

The sheet said that there was 3 inches of snow on the ground—which seems somewhat surprising because the previous day’s entry did not indicate any snow on the ground.

Williamsport is across a mountain from McEwensville—so maybe the weather wasn’t as bad there as it was where Grandma was walking. But I wouldn’t expect there to be major differences in the weather between the two towns (and in general I think that it would be a little warmer in McEwenville).

I suppose that it really was just a raw day with some snow flurries—but that the mile or so walk between the church in McEwensville and the Muffly farm was pretty miserable (especially if you were worried that your new hat might get ruined).