Was a College Degree Worth More a Hundred Years Ago than it is Now?

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

Monday, October 13, 1913:

10/13 – 10/17: Nothing worth writing about for these days. Don’t go any place or do anything of much importance.

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

Some days are just like that—they barely seem worthwhile. Today I hear so many recent college graduates worrying about whether it was worthwhile getting a college degree since the job market is so tight.

Was a college degree worth more a hundred years ago than it is now?

1913

According to a 1913 book called Rural Arithmetic by John E. Calfee:

A business man who has studied the productive power of intelligent labor in New York reports that the man with a common-school education is able to produce one and one-half times as much wealth as the illiterate man, the high-school man two times as much, and the college man four times as much.

2013

According to Frontline on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), today:

The average dropout can expect to earn an annual income of $20,241, according to the US Census Bureau. That’s a full $10,386 less than the typical high school graduate, and $36,424 less than someone with a bachelor’s degree.

Comparison

There’s more of an income benefit of earning a high school diploma today than back then—and the value of getting a college has also increased slightly.

In other words, today someone with a high school diploma earns on average 1.5 times as much as a high school graduate and someone with a college degree earns 2.8 times as much.

This can be compared to 1913 when (after the base was converted to 1 for a high school dropout), a high school graduate on average earned 1.3 times as much as the dropout, and the college graduate earned 2.7 times as much as the dropout.

For those who care about the details–

I assumed that the benefit of a college degree didn’t change much between 2012 and 2013. The data I used was from a 2012 article.

Rural Arithmetic is a math textbook. A subheading in one of the chapters was “Educated Labor”. The quote above was pulled from the introduction to that subsection. It was followed by a series of word problems about the value of education.

The 1913 book used the term “common school graduate” to refer to someone who had completed 8 years of education. For the purposes of this analysis I considered a common school graduate to be a high school dropout.

And, here is a chart that contains a crosswalk between the base (salary of illiterate person=1) used in the 1913 book, and the base (salary of a high school dropout = 1) that I used in the chart at the top of this post.

An aside–We must be doing something right with education today since we no longer even think about what the salary would be for an illiterate person.

Walking Home with Friends on a Moonlit Night

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

Sunday, October 12, 1913: Went to Sunday School this morning. Ruth and I went up to church this evening. It was so nice and moonlight. Some of the girls walked down the road with us coming home.

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

This diary entry makes me feel both good and worried. Let me explain.

First, why it makes me feel good—

I can picture Grandma, her sister Ruth, and their friends ambling down the road from McEwensville toward the Muffly farm on a beautiful ,unseasonably warm, October evening.

I don't have an evening picture of the road that went from McEwensville toward the Muffly farm, but here's a daylight picture of the road . — I don’t have an evening picture of the road, but here’s a daylight picture of it.

I imagine a group of five or six girls in long skirts chatting and giggling about guys, friends, clothes, work, and all of the other important things that teens talk about. And, in my mind, I envision that as they neared the midpoint between town and the Muffly farm that the group separated with Grandma and Ruth continuing on—and the other girls returning to McEwensville.

Now why it makes we worry—

This entry reminds me that Grandma often had to walk home alone in the dark after church, community, and (before she graduated) school events. Some of those nights were in the dead of winter—and it must have been excruciatingly cold.

Maybe people were just used to walking at night in rural areas back then, but I worry about her safety. (I know it’s a hundred years too late to worry—but I do it anyhow). Did Grandma ever feel scared during the mile or so walk home through the dark countryside?

Were Children Paid for Working on Their Family Farms a Hundred Years Ago?

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

Saturday, October 11, 1913: Received part of my pay today. It amounted to twelve dollars. I feel quite rich now. This surely ought to help me out in a pinch.

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

Grandma—

You’ve sure worked hard husking corn, and you deserve every penny you earned. According to an online inflation calculator, $12 in 1913 would be worth about $285 now.

You are extremely fortunate to be paid for doing farm labor. Your parents must have been progressive thinking. Many young women working on their family farms probably received no compensation.

—

I’d like to thank Gallivanta for giving me the idea for this post. Let me share a story—

Gallivanta reads this blog and regularly makes comments. And, I’ve discovered her blog, Silkannthreads. She recently did a post on the lack of appreciation of the domestic work that women do, and on how women generally are not paid for this work (doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.).

I made a comment on her post, and she responded:

. . . By the way, I have been thinking how great it is that Helena is being paid for her work during the corn harvest. She is not being treated as free family labour.

And, a light bulb went off in my head—

Wow, I’ve been feeling sorry for Grandma, when I should have recognized that she was incredibly fortunate to be paid.

Thank you, Gallivanta, for giving me valuable new insights.

—

You may also enjoy reading a previous post that I did on teaching farm kids the value of money.

Fried Pears Recipe

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

Friday, October 10, 1913: About the same as other days.

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

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a recipe for Fried Pears that I found in the August, 1913 issue of Farm Journal.

Fried pears—Fried pears are delicious. Prepare in the following manner: Remove peel, seeds and core. Slice and fry to a delicate brown in drippings or melted butter. Arrange upon a dish and sprinkle powdered sugar on each piece.

I fried the pears in melted butter. At first I used a medium temperature, but then turned it up to medium high to brown the pears. This was hotter than what I normally use when frying with butter—but the pears won’t brown until I turned the heat up.

I used a spatula to turn the pears—and probably cooked them for about 3-5 minutes on each side. Since I used such a high temperature, I watched the pears like a hawk—because I wanted them to brown but not burn.

The powdered (confectioner’s) sugar sweetened the Fried Pears slightly—but did not garnish them for very long. The sugar dissolved in less than a minute.

The Fried Pears were yummy—though very similar to what I think hot canned pears would taste like. If I made this recipe again I would skip the sugar.

The Secrets of Sight Reading Music

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

Thursday, October 9, 1913: About the same as other days.

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

Grandma was still husking corn using a hand-held corn peg. She’d been husking corn since September 25.

In the past Grandma often struggled to practice her piano lessons.—even when she didn’t seem particularly busy. On the days when she “worked for wages” and had lots to do, did she somehow still manage to find time to practice the piano?

—-

I can remember taking piano lessons for six years when I was a child—and I didn’t like practicing much either. But my goal was to be able to sight read music, so that I could just play songs that my friends might ask me to play.

I never reached that goal and ended up seldom playing the piano once I quit taking lessons.

Did Grandma also want to sight read music? I can’t remember her ever playing the piano, so my guess is that she also never reached that point.

I recently was looking at an old issue of The Etude magazine and came across these tips for sight reading music. Some parts of it really resonated with me and I thought you might also enjoy it:

The Secrets of Sight Reading

Far too much attention seems to be paid to technique these days, and far too little to musicianship. There are scores of young pianists who can play the Liszt Second Rhapsody with much dash and seeming brilliance, but who cannot read a fourth grade piece at sight.

The fact is a musician is not a musician until he can read.

A knowledge of harmony is not essential to good sight reading, but it unquestionably helps very frequently a work that is peppered with accidentals will absolutely fog a student who has no knowledge of harmony, while one who has will go sailing along with the utmost abandon.

A good sight reader reads music phrase by phrase, not note by note.

There is a tendency these days among publishers and editors to avoid putting in too many signs of expression. The less gifted musician needs some signs, but too many fluster him and he ignores them altogether. Nevertheless, it is essential when reading at sight to be careful to observe all fortes and pianos, crescendos, diminuendos, rallentandos, etc. Music which has not variety of expression has no life.

Playing wrong notes is a crime in a piece that has been studied, but in sight-reading a wrong note now and then can scarcely be avoided. If you play a wrong note, however, do not stop, and do not let it get you “rattled.” Go on as if nothing had happened.

The Etude (March, 1914)

Sign. . . I wish I’d somehow learned those lessons about sight reading when I was young.

Tulip Varieties a Hundred Years Ago

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

Wednesday, October 8, 1913:

10/6 – 10/8: I’ve husked about ten loads of corn by this time. My hands are sore and roughened, but I didn’t care very much. I’m thinking of what I’m earning.

Source: McCall's Magazine (September, 1913) — Source: McCall’s Magazine (September, 1913)

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

Since Grandma didn’t write a diary entry specific for this date, I’m going to go off on a tangent—

I found this advertisement for tulip bulbs in the September, 1913 issue of McCalls magazine. I wondered if I could buy these old varieties so I googled them. Here’s what I found:

Crimson King

Nothing popped up when I googled “Crimson King tulip”. I wonder if the Crimson King tulip and the Red Emperor tulip are slightly different names for the same variety. The Red Emperor tulips are so common today.

White Queen

I couldn’t find any place where I could buy the White Queen tulip, but I did find a photo of them on The Tulip Gallery website.

Yellow Prince

I found a picture of the Yellow Prince tulip on the Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulbs website—though I don’t think that they had any bulbs available for sale this year.

Cottage Maid

I couldn’t find any place where I could buy the Cottage Maid tulip, but I did find a photo of them on the Hortus Tulipus Old Tulips website.

Keiser’s Kroon

The Keiser’s Kroon tulip is still sold by several companies—though it generally goes by its Dutch name, Keizerskroon. One source for the bulbs is Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulbs.

Tulip.Keizerskroon — Keiser’s Kroon Tulip

Corn Stored in Corn Cribs

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

Tuesday, October 7, 1913:

10/6 – 10/8: I’ve husked about ten loads of corn by this time. My hands are sore and roughened, but I didn’t care very much. I’m thinking of what I’m earning.

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

(This is the second of three days that Grandma combined into one diary entry.)

After the corn was harvested and husked, the corn ears would have been stored in a corn crib. Corn cribs had wooden slats that let the air circulate to dry the corn.

Did Grandma also have to shovel the husked corn from the wagon into the crib? Corn was shoveled in through small doors near the top of the crib. Whew, I get tired just thinking about shoveling corn into the crib.

Double corn crib on the farm where Grandma lived on when she wrote the diary. — The building on the right is a double corn crib on the farm where Grandma lived when she wrote the diary. I wonder if the corn Grandma husked was stored in this exact building. (My gut feeling is that this building was built less than a hundred years ago. I think that high double cribs became popular after farmers began using elevators to move the corn into the crib.)