16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, April 2, 1911: I went to Sunday school this morning. It was kind of lonesome this afternoon. Ruth and I went up to church this evening to hear the baccalaureate sermon.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The school year is winding down—and the baccalaureate service for the senior class (of which Grandma’s sister Ruth was a member) at McEwensville High School occurred on this Sunday before graduation.
Since there were three churches (Baptist, Lutheran, Reformed) in McEwensville in 1911, I’m not sure where the baccalaureate service was held. The Baptist church building is long gone, but the buildings that housed Messiah Lutheran and St. John’s Reformed still exist.
2010 photo of St. John's United Church of Christ Church (In Grandma's day it was St. John's Reformed Church.)2010 photo of the building that once housed Messiah Lutheran Church. It is now an antique shop.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, April 1, 1911:
Oh the dawning of April so warm and so bright
Recalls to our minds a glad welcome sight
Of seeing spring hats
Both large and both small
Quite ready for buyers to make them a call.
April fool’s day: I went to Watsontown this afternoon to do some much needed shopping. Rastus went to Milton, and didn’t get home until six o’clock, so I had to do all the milking.
Recent photo of downtown Watsontown. The same buildings probably were there a hundred years ago when Grandma was shopping. (I apologize for the poor quality of this photo--I shouldn't have taken it at dusk-- but it's the only one I have of this scene.)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Throughout the diary there is a poem on the first day of every month. I’m still trying to figure out whether Grandma copied these poems from some source or whether she composed them. Previously I thought that she just copied them—this month I’m inclined to think that she composed the poem since both the poem and the entry discuss shopping.
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A hundred years ago today Grandma was probably fretting about how much money she had spent on wedding and commencement gifts.
Grandma had received an invitation to her friend Edith’s wedding. And, her sister Ruth was graduating from high school—as well as other people she knew. On March 28 she wrote, “I got an invitation to the commencement today, and now I’ll be in for getting another present. Alas my pocketbook.”
In many ways the young woman who wrote the diary seems very different from the elderly grandmother that I remember—but this is one place where I can really recognize my grandmother. She always tried not to waste money—I’ve even heard people say she was a tightwad–and both in her youth and as an elderly woman she would have worried about her “pocketbook”.
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It’s amazing how many different names Grandma used when referring to her sister Ruth–Rastus, Rufus, her highness, etc. etc. In today’s entry Grandma’s upset that her sister didn’t get home in time to help milk the cows–therefore she’s Rastus.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, March 31, 1911: I got kicked today, and it was such a violent one that it caused me to land on my back. It was by a modest cow, who happened to kick me and the bucket at the same time. I guess I was as much surprised as she was.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Whew, that sounds like it hurt. I continue to be amazed at how seldom Grandma mentioned her routine farm chores in the diary. Even though she probably milked cows twice a day—it only merited recording when an unexpected or painful event occurred.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, March 30, 1911: I saw a rainbow this evening. I am trying to prepare myself for my final examinations. It’s a most difficult task when you don’t feel like it. I just happened to get a spot of ink on the bureau spread. I soon fixed it though.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
In the old days the top of a bureau (tall chest that held clothes) was covered with a decorative embroidered or crocheted cloth. I suppose that Grandma was using a fountain pen—ball point pens won’t be invented for another forty years or so–to write the diary entry and a little ink dripped on the bureau cloth.
It can be tricky to successfully remove ink stains. A book published in the early 1900s explained how to get them out:
To Remove Ink Stains
Whenever ink is spilled, salt should be thrown upon it at once and renewed frequently until as much of the ink has been absorbed as is possible. It is impossible to give an unfailing rule for the removal of ink stains for the reason that the solvent to be applied varies with the composition of the ink. The following processes have, however, been pursued with success. . .
With Common Household Materials. Soak in lemon juice and salt, vinegar and salt, or pieplant juice and salt. [an aside: Pieplant is an archaic term for rhubarb.] Rub for a time, apply more salt, rub again, so continuing until the ink disappears. These acids may any of them exert a harmful action and should, therefore, in all cases, be tried upon a small sample of the goods, before being applied to the whole article.. . .
To Remove Ink Stains from Colored Goods. If ink is spilled on colored goods, wash in milk (either sweet or sour) and salt. Rub for a time, apply more salt, allow to soak, then rub again; continue this process until the stain disappears.
To Remove Purple Ink. Absorb all possible with blotting paper or salt, while the ink is fresh. Afterwards apply alcohol and glycerine in equal parts, and rub and sponge the stained spot with this mixture until the ink disappears.
Juanita Shepperd in Laundry Work for Use in Homes and School (1909)
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The school year was shorter a hundred years ago than it is now. Back then the school year ended in early April because families needed their children at home on the farm to help with the spring planting.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, March 29, 1911: Nothing of importance, not one thing. Ruth gave me a piece of her mind tonight. She wants me to keep my mouth shut, not that I say too much, for I am rather bashful, but I’m to breathe though my mouth instead of through my–Darn it, I don’t mean that, I mean vice versa.
McEwensville Cemetery with old McEwensville High School building in background
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
My son and I visited McEwensville over the week-end. We stopped by the abandoned building that once housed McEwensville High School. Now—just as it did a hundred years ago—the school sits next to a cemetery that is filled with the stories of the past. Each marker has its own story to tell . . .
Tombstone of Helen(a) Muffly Swartz and Raymond Swartz
Earlier in the diary I mentioned that Grandma lived her entire life within a 5 mile radius of the farm her family lived on when she kept this diary. The same probably could be said for her sister Ruth. I find it even more amazing how close together they are buried.
Grandma and Ruth are buried within 50 feet of each other in McEwensville Cemetery–and within a few hundred yards of the school they attended when they were young. Both sisters married men who also attended McEwensville High school (and who are also buried in the same cemetery).
Tombstone of Ruth (Muffly) Gauger
Over the years there were times when Grandma and Ruth were close confidants and other times when they were less close; there were “spats” and reconciliations—but for perpetuity in McEwensville Cemetery they will remain close.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, March 28, 1911: W.J. Dentler was up at our school awhile this morning. We hustled at our lessons but fortunately he left before we had any classes. He also came down to see Ruth and bid her good-bye I suppose.
I got an invitation to the commencement today, and now I’ll be in for getting another present. Alas my pocketbook.
Recent photo of abandoned building that once housed McEwensville High School.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Entries like this one are very frustrating. They raise many questions—none of which I’ve found any answers to.
W.J. Dentler is mentioned nowhere else in the diary and I have no idea who he is. Since W.J visited McEwensville High School, my first thought was that he was a school official (country superintendent, school board member), but then Grandma discusses him coming to the Muffly farm to say good-bye to her sister Ruth.
Was W.J. a former or potential beau of Ruth’s? Where was he going? Maybe he was someone who graduated from the high school a year or two prior to the diary entry—and came back as an alumni to visit.
Two days previously Grandma’s diary entry mentioned Ruth “chasing” another guy—James Oakes. It seems like there may have been some sort of mismatch between the guys that Ruth thought were cute and the guys who thought she was cute. (Ah—I’m glad that I’m past all of intrigues of the teen-aged years.)
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, March 27, 1911: I got caught in a rainstorm while coming home from school this evening, but I soon got out of it. Bessie was out this afternoon to freshen Rastus up with some news.
