Temperance, Suffragettes, Pure Food, Anti-trust Legislation, and Patent Medicines

 January 10, 1911: Missing entry (Diary resumes on January 12)

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

Times were different in 1911. It was before Prohibition, patent medicines containing opium could be purchased without a prescription, and women could not vote. Neither World War I nor World War II had yet occurred.

The unemployment rate 6.2%. Only 3% of the people in the United States had a college degree.

The suffragettes were organizing and marching for their rights—though it would be another 9 years before women won the right to vote.

William Taft was president. He is generally remembered for getting stuck in the White House bath tub. But, he also brought about positive changes by signing anti-trust legislation and breaking up monopolies.  

1911 was a heady time. Corporate greed, led by the robber barons had created many problems and inequities. Muckrakers–in today’s world they’d probably be called investigative reporters–used their pens to highlight the many problems and horrors that may have been caused by monopolies. And, the Standard Oil monopoly was finally broken up in 1911. (In history books this is generally seen as one of the key events in 1911).  

Hatchet-wielding temperance advocate Carrie Nation died on July 9, 1911, but many women’s clubs across the nation continued her efforts–though the law that enacted prohibition wasn’t passed until 1919.

Carrie Nation

Workers had few rights in 1911. Federal child labor laws would not be passed until 1918. Grandma lived in the agricultural portion of Northumberland County–but the far end of the county contained some of the largest anthracite coal mines in the US. Those mines–as well as other industries, but the mines were some of the most notorious–relied upon cheap child labor to do some of the jobs. Muckrakers and photographers were highlighting the horrors of the practice.

In March 1911 a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City killed 146 garment workers because the doors had been locked to keep the workers from leaving early. This led to laws requiring better factory safety standards.

A few years before 1911 Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, which highlighted the horrible conditions in the Chicago meat-packing plants, and the unsafe, adulterated foods coming out of the plants.

In 1911 people were furious about chemically-laden foods and demanding safe, pure food that did not contain chemical preservatives or unfit materials. In July 1911 the use saccharin was banned by the US Department of Agriculture. (The decision would be reversed in 1912).    

Did these national issues affect Grandma? Or as a teen in rural Pennsylvania did she have little overt awareness of the bigger picture? 

McEwensville Has Made the New York Times — Twice!

Saturday, January 7, 1911:  Missing entry: Diary resumes on January 12

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

Since there is again no diary entry today, I thought that it might be fun to see if McEwensville was ever mentioned in the New York Times. I searched the paper’s data base and found two news articles with a McEwensville connection.

Recent photo of the McEwensville United Church of Christ (Reformed Church)

According to the September 11, 1885, New York Times:

A CLERGYMAN DROWNED

The Rev. J. K. Millett, of McEwensville, was drowned in the river at Watsontown yesterday. He was out in a boat with a young girl named Culp, and by some means the boat was upset. Miss Culp succeeded in saving her life by clinging to the boat, but Mr. Millet, although a good swimmer, went under. He was about 46 years old.

 McEwensville was again  mentioned in the New York Times on May 2, 1942:

 BURROWES, TRACK ACE, IS LOST TO PRINCETON

 Edward Burrowes Jr., 21, star Princeton University middle distance runner, was in a satisfactory condition at the university infirmary tonight after physicians found he had punctured a lung in a dressing room accident at Franklin Field, Philadelphia, last Saturday following the Penn Relays.  . . Burrowes entered the infirmary last night complaining of a slight pain in his chest. He said he had slipped on the wet floor of the Franklin Field dressing room and had fallen on a sharp-handled comb. Burrowes is a member of the junior class and lives in McEwensville, Pennsylvania. He holds the I.C. 4-A half-mile championship and university records in the 440-year and half-mile runs.

Grandma grew up on a farm outside of McEwensville. She kept her diary between 1911 and 1914—about midway between McEwensville’s two moments of fame in the New York Times.

McEwensville High School

Friday, January 6, 1911:  Missing entry: Diary resumes on January 12

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

Since there is no diary entry again today, I’ll tell you a little  about the high school that Grandma attended.

Grandma attended McEwensville High School.  The school building is next to the cemetery at the edge of McEwensville. She generally walked the mile and a half or so from her home to school.

Recent photo of the building that once housed McEwensville High School.

 The high school contained only one classroom and it was located on the second floor of the school building—the elementary class was on the first floor. It was a three-year classical high school where students learned Latin, poetry, literature, history, and arithmetic.

In 1911 Rachel Oakes—a friend of Grandma and her sister Ruth—was the elementary teacher.

After they graduated from McEwensville High School some students continued their education by taking a fourth year of high school at Milton or Watsontown. For example, my grandfather went to Milton High School after he graduated from McEwensville.

Milton had a more comprehensive curriculum than McEwensville—and included business courses and other classes that would more directly prepare students for a career.

The last high school class to graduate from McEwensville High School was in 1921. The high school closed because it had few students since most students in the area wanted to attend a comprehensive high school for all four years.  

Twenty or so years after my grandmother wrote her diary, my father attended the school. At that time it was an elementary school. One teacher taught grades 1-4 in the room on the first floor. Another teacher taught grades 4-8 in a classroom on the second floor. 

After the school completely closed in the late 1950s, the building was converted into a fire station. But the fire station is now gone, and in recent years the building has sat vacant and abandoned.

My friends have expressed surprise that my grandmother attended high school. In the early 1900s about half of the children in the United States ended their school careers with an 8th grade education or less.   

However, according to Benjamin Andrews in a 1911 book he wrote about girls’ education, there were more female high school graduates in the early 1900s than male because men could easily get jobs without a degree. A key role of high schools at that time was to prepare students to become teachers.

I don’t know why Grandma’s parents decided to send her to high school. I don’t think that she ever became a teacher.

 

Formerly Pine Grove

Thursday, January 5, 1911:  Missing entry: Diary resumes on January 12

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

Since there is no diary entry again today, I’ll tell you a little more about what I’ve learned about McEwensville.

There is a sign at the edge of town which says that McEwensville used to be called Pine Grove.  I can’t remember the town ever having another name, but I thought maybe it had a different name when Grandma was young. But according to George Wesner’s History of McEwensville the name change occurred much earlier.

The building that once housed Alex McEwen's tavern.

The town was originally called Pine Grove, but there was a problem because another town in Pennsylvania had the same name. So the residents decided that the town needed a name change.

A War of 1812 veteran named Alex McEwen owned a tavern in the hamlet. One evening a number of guests were at the tavern. Alex was a fantastic host and the probably well-lubricated guests were having a wonderful time. The town name issue popped up. It was suggested that the town should be named after Alex—and it has been McEwensville ever since.

McEwensville in 1911

Wedsnesday, January 4, 1911:  Missing entry: Diary resumes on January 12

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

As I’ve prepared to post this diary I’ve discovered a lot of background information about McEwensville–the nearby town where Grandma attended high school. I’ll be posting some of what I’ve learned about McEwesnville’s history over the next several days. 

Today McEwensville is a sedate town where, according to a resident, “It’s a wonderful place to live, but nothing ever happens.”

The building in the foreground was a combination restaurant and boarding house in 1911. The building further down the street used to be Armstrong's Store.

I love to visit McEwensville and find it relaxing to dig into the local history books at the Montgomery House Library while quilters –or other meeting attendees–are busily at work in the library’s community room.   

According to the 2000 census McEwensville has a population of 314. A hundred years ago McEwensville had several stores, a pharmacy, a carriage factory, three churches, and a school. Today it has a diner, a chain saw repair shop, a bicycle shop, a beauty shop, and a church.

In 1911 Armstong’s General Store on Main Street was the center of activity. There was a combination restaurant and boarding house at the corner of Main Street and Watsontown Road. A transportation service using horse-drawn vehicles took residents from McEwensville to their jobs in Watsontown and Milton.

When Grandma was young there were large oil lamps on street posts in McEwensville that were lit each evening. The lamplighter got the job through a sealed bidding process, and the low bidder usually got the position. According George Wesner in his 1976 history of McEwensville, “Johny Phillips was one who filled this position for many years. He was short of stature and used a short ladder while performing his duties as a lamplighter.”

The white building was once Mauser's Carriage Shop.

In 1911 Mauser’s Carriage Shop was at the corner of Maple St. and Main Street. The company made horse-drawn carriages and employed about 12 people.

Advertisement in the January 4, 1911 issue of the Milton Evening Standard

At the corner of Main Street and Potash Road there was a blacksmith and horse shoeing shop. Somewhere along Main Street there was a foundry that manufactured  farm implements (including plows), water troughs, butcher stoves and other cast iron items.  

 Most food was locally produced in Grandma’s day. According to Wesner, “In the early days many families kept a cow to provide milk and butter for themselves and at times extra for neighbors.”

Grandma probably walked past Gold’s  Butcher Shop on her way to school each day.  Wesner wrote,  “Gold’s Butcher Shop was located along the south side of the old Watsontown road, the last building in the borough . . . Gold’s sausage was a favorite of the community. As there was no refrigeration at that time, it was a cold weather project.”

Grandma’s Parents

Tuesday, January 3, 1911: Missing Entry (Diary resumes on  January 12)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later

The 1900 census image for the Muffly family on the Family Search website provides a few interesting clues about Grandma’s parents. Her father Albert Muffly was born in Pennsylvania in November 1857. He was a farmer. Her mother Phoebe (called Febia on the census form) Muffly was born in Pennsylvania in August 1862. At the start of the diary Grandma’s father would have been 53 years old and her mother was 48.

(An aside: According to the Family Search tool the spelling of Muffly also shifted on census forms. On the 1900 census Muffly is spelled Muffly–but on the 1910 and 1920 ones it is spelled Muffley. I’ve also occasionally seen the spelling that includes an “e” on other documents but “Muffly” seems to be the preferred spelling.  I guess the importance of consistent spelling for future family genealogists wasn’t considered back then. But onward–)

It is also possible to figure out that Grandma’s father was 38 years old when she was born and that her mother was 33. Grandma’s oldest sister Besse (called Bessie on the census form) was 6 years older than Grandma; her other sister Ruth was 3 years older. (By the time Grandma was writing the diary she also had a brother Jimmie who was about 9 years younger than she was. Grandma’s mother must have been about 42 years old when Jimmie was born which seems quite old for that era.)

I had always heard that Grandma was the third child (and third daughter) in the family. According to the 1900 census form her mother had had 4 children prior to 1900—and 3 were still living. So Grandma must have had another sibling who apparently did not live very long.

John and Sarah Derr Family. Taken about 1900. L to R. Front Row: John, Annie (Derr) Van Sant, Sarah. Back Row: Miles, Fuller, Alice (Derr) Krumm, Elmer, Phoebe (Derr) Muffly, Judson, Homer. Phoebe was the mother of Helena.

In the early 1900s prominent citizens in a county were sometimes invited to submit biographical sketches that were then compiled into county history books. The individuals were also required to pay a fee if they wanted their sketch included the book. Some of these books are now available online. Two of Phoebe Muffly’s brothers have sketches in county histories and I was able to glean bits of information about Phoebe from them. Historical and Biographical Annuals of Columbia and Montour Counties Pennsylvania (Vol.  II)   had an entry about her brother J. Miles Derr (pp. 753-4) and Bell’s History of Northumberland County  had an entry for her brother Fuller Derr (p. 1085).

Grandma’s mother Phoebe Muffly was one of nine children born to John F. and Sarah (Houseknecht) Derr.  As an adult Phoebe had brothers living in South Dakota (Homer) and Baltimore Maryland (Elmer). Another brother (Fuller) was a physician in Watsontown; while  Miles was a teacher at Limestoneville. One of Phoebe’s sisters (Annie) was married to a physician in Turbotville.

When Grandma Helena began keeping the diary her maternal grandparents John and Sarah Derr were retired farmers living  in nearby Turbotville Pennsylvania.

Helena, Helen, or Grandma?

Monday, January 2, 1911: Missing Entry (Diary resumes on  January 12)

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

There are only a few days of missing entries in the entire four-year diary, and most of them are here at the very beginning of the diary.

Since there are no entries for the next several days–and since I’ve found some interesting contextual information as I’ve worked on this–I’ll periodically post background information over the next week or so. And, then the diary postings will really get going on a daily basis on the 12th.

Grandma’s Name

As I work at posting this diary I’ve struggled with what name to use when referring to the diary’s author.

The diary’s 15-year-old author called herself Helena. My grandmother called herself Helen. I grew up in the farmhouse where my grandmother had lived when my father was a child. When I was a teen I found Helena Muffly’s high school diploma in the attic.

I saw Grandma the next Sunday, and after church I asked her whether her name was Helen or Helena. She said Helen. When I told her about the name on the diploma. She replied, “Oh, that was just kid stuff.”

My cousin Stu did a little research on Grandma’s name using the Family Search tool that the Church of Latter Day Saints has on their website. He found that her name is listed as Helena in the 1900 and 1920 censuses–but that it is Helen in the 1910 one. For the 1900 census the image of the census page is even on the website.  (When I replicated his search, I had the best luck when I used Northumberland County Pennsylvania as her address.)

Helen? Helena? Grandma? It seems strange to call a 15-year-old Grandma, but that’s how I think of her. Maybe I’ll just call the author Grandma when I write about her even though she was many years away from becoming my grandmother.

Ruminations About Why Grandma Didn’t Post for Several Days

 Maybe Grandma had writer’s block and found it difficult to get the diary doing. Maybe she was sick and didn’t feel like writing.

Or, maybe I somehow missed copying a page in the early 1980s when the diary was circulated amongst family members. But how could I have missed copying page 2 of the diary?!?!?

More likely a page or two was removed from the diary. Maybe Grandma herself—or someone else—didn’t want others to read something that she wrote.  What could she have possibly written that she wouldn’t want others to read? . . . a fight with her mother?  . . . a description of potential beau? . . . .or maybe the 15-year-old wrote something that she feared would get her in trouble and tore the page out?  . . . .or maybe her sister read the diary and didn’t like an unflattering comment and tore it out? . . . . or . . . .?