Rachel Oakes and Red Hill School

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

Thursday, August 8, 1912: Hardly worth while and not worth the effort.

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

Since Grandma didn’t have much to say a hundred years ago today, I’m again going to go off on a tangent. I’m always intrigued by what happened to the friends that Grandma mentioned in the diary.

I recently found a picture of one friend, Rachel Oakes, when she was an elderly woman. (She’s the one on the left.) It was taken in 1978 at a Red Hill School reunion. Red Hill School was a one-room school located at the southern end of McEwensville.

According to the History of the McEwensville Schools, Rachel taught at Red Hill School during the 1909-10 school year. Later, during the 1910-11 and 1911-12 school years, she was the primary school teacher at McEwensville School. I suppose that it was considered more prestigious to teach at the larger McEwensville School.

Rachel must have been a few years older than Grandma and her sister Ruth. (Ruth graduated from high school in 1911—and Grandma graduated in 1913.)

Note that the article mentions Ruth Gauger—that was Grandma’s sister Ruth’s married name. According to the History of the McEwensville Schools, Ruth taught at Red Hill School during the 1914-15 school year (and her other sister Besse taught there from 1906-09).

Recent photo of building that once housed Red Hill School. It is now a home.

Hand-me-down Shoes

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

Wednesday, August 7, 1912:Was donated with a pair of shoes. First time since I don’t know when. Ma and I had sort of a scrap this afternoon!

Marsh.shoes — Here’s an ad for shoes in the Milton Evening Standard from May 4, 1911. Maybe the “donated” shoes looked like the ones in the picture. Were they still in style in 1912?

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

Poor Grandma, she wants to look stylish and instead gets a pair of hand-me-down shoes.

I bet that her mother didn’t think that she was appropriately appreciative of the donated shoes—and gave her a hard time about it.

Who gave the shoes to Grandma? . . . were they her mother’s old shoes . . . her sister’s shoes. . . or someone else’s? In February, 1912 Grandma mentioned that her Aunt Annie, who was married to a doctor, gave her an old dress. Maybe Aunt Annie also handed down shoes.

100-Year-Old “Everyday” Dress Pictures

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

Tuesday, August 6, 1912: Ma cut out a dress for me or rather a part of it. When it’s finished I suppose I’ll wear it to school.

Source: Ladies Home Journal (December, 1911)

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

Grandma was going to begin her senior year at the end of August. I bet that she wanted to look really nice for this special year.

Did Grandma think that the dress her mother was making for her was stylish? . . .or was it just going to be a run-of-the-mill everyday dress? Did she select the pattern and fabric—or did her mother do it?

A Friend Came to Visit, But Not To See Grandma

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

Monday, August 5, 1912:Didn’t go very much today. Miss Tweet was down, but not to see me.

Recent photo of the road Tweet would have walked down to get from McEwensville to the Muffly farm. (It wouldn’t have been paved back then.)

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

Tweet was the nickname of Helen Wesner, a friend of Grandma and her sister Ruth.

It sounds like Tweet came to see Ruth, but not Grandma. Do a sense a bit of jealousy?

I did a previous post on Tweet that you might enjoy:

Tweet “Tweeting” in 1911

Does Gaping Mean Yawning?

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

Sunday, August 4, 1912:Went to Sunday School this morning. Carrie and I went over to see Florence Crawford this afternoon. I feel so drowsy now, just like gaping.

DSC02828.crop — A recent view of a road into McEwensville

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

Carrie refers to Grandma’s close friend Carrie Stout. She is regularly mentioned throughout the diary. I don’t know anything about Florence Crawford. This is the first time (and maybe the only time) that she is mentioned in the diary.

Sounds like Grandma had a nice time with her friends; and that she had that happy, relaxed, sleepy feeling that I sometimes get after a good day.

Is gaping an archaic slang term for yawning?

How Much Should I Eat? Hundred Year Old Advice

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

Saturday, August 3, 1912: Let me see, what did I do today? Not very much, anyway. Twas it easy this afternoon.

DSC03255.crop — Mold of Rice Filled with Chopped Meat (Source: The Butterick Cook Book,1911)

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

Since Grandma again didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to go off on a tangent. It’s kind of amazing, but sometimes I find a hundred year old advice really useful and it sticks in my mind.

Here’s some advice about how much to eat:

Temperate people with good digestion never feel their stomachs, forget that they have stomachs, while big eaters are always hungry or faint, or bloated or troubled with heart burn, derangement of the bowels or some other conditions showing a morbid state of the digestive apparatus.

National Food Magazine ((June, 1912)

I saw this quote a month or so ago—and since then when I’m tempted to overeat, I often think that I’d better stop before I feel my stomach. (And, sometimes I forget the advice and feel my stomach—and only then do I remember that I should have followed the advice in that old magazine.)

Previous posts on eating and obesity:

Dieting a Hundred Years Ago

1911 Weight Loss Tip: Fletcherize Your Food

Are You Obese? 1911 and 2011

Driving Horses

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

Friday, August 2, 1912: Had to does some work today, but I guess anyone would get tired of playing all the time. Was out helping in the field this afternoon.

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

I think that I know what Grandma was doing in the fields She was probably leading horses that were pulling a roller over a recently plowed field. It probably was a field from which oats had been harvested in July.

The field would have been plowed, and a roller was smoothing the soil, so that wheat could be planted in September. Back then farmers typically followed a four-year crop rotation: corn, oats, wheat, hay.

How do I know what Grandma was doing?

Farm work varies by season—corn is planted in the spring, wheat and oats are harvested in July, and so on.

Amazingly exactly one-year prior to this diary entry on August 2, 1911 Grandma wrote about driving horse through the dust of a plowed field. That post is repeated below:

Grandma wrote:

Wednesday, August 2, 1911: Took lessons in driving, but even though I would like to learn to drive, I did not like that kind of lesson for the horses were old and slow, and I had to drive them in the field behind choking clouds of dust.

My Comments

I read this entry to my father and asked him what Grandma was doing. He says that she probably was using a roller on a plowed field. The roller would level the plowed earth in preparation for planting winter wheat seeds.

The horses would have been hitched to the roller and Grandma would have needed to tighten one rein or the other to make the horses go in a straight line.

I can almost picture the clouds of dust stirred up by the roller swirling around Grandma as she drove the horses.