Tag: 100 years ago

Did People Get Sick More a Hundred Years Ago?

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

Monday, December 2, 1912:  Wasn’t feeling very well today. Think cold is improving.

DSC06504

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

Did people get sick more a hundred years ago than they do now?  This was Grandma’s four cold since the beginning of September. And, her mother and brother Jimmie also were sick.

Here’s a summary of the Muffly family ailments during Fall 1912:

September 1

. . . I have one cracker jack of a cold. Got the worst part of it yesterday going to the picnic without a coat. Hope it doesn’t last long.. . .

October 11

 I’ve fully awakened to the startling fact that I’m getting another cold. It’s on its way. . .

November 4

 . . . Had croup this evening so you see that put my studies back somewhat . . .

November 19

Poor little Jimmie got sick last night and had to miss his first day of school.

November 27

Guess we aren’t going to have much of a Thanksgiving tomorrow cause Ma is sick and we haven’t got a turkey.

December 2

Wasn’t feeling very well today. Think cold is improving.

Did Grandma Write December Poem?

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

Saturday, November 30, 1912:  

It often seems the best comes last,

And so it must be with December.

As the end of the year recedes into the Past,

We see her last holiday, Remember.

Wanted to go to McEwensville tonight but Ruth won’t, so I didn’t. Made me feel sore for awhile.

McEwensville at dusk on a December evening

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

The first day of each month, Grandma began the diary entry with a poem.  I’m still trying to figure out if she wrote them herself or copied them from somewhere. This month it almost seems like Grandma struggled to find a word to rhyme with December—so I’m leaning towards her writing the poems herself.

Why did Grandma want to do in McEwensville on a Sunday evening? . .  to visit friends? . . .  to attend an evening church service ? (Though, based on the diary, I don’t think that there generally were evening church services.)

And, (I guess I have more questions than answers) why did Grandma  feel like she couldn’t go if her sister Ruth won’t go with her?

Angry! Lost the Debate

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

Friday, November 29, 1912:  Came out a licked dog in the debate. Did feel so mad at first. Felt crosser than the dickens this evening.

Helena Muffly

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

GRANDMA, WHY DIDN’T YOU WRITE MORE?!?! Your frustration and anger are so clear, and you’ve been preparing for a week, yet you never told us what the debate was about.

Okay, that’s unfair.  I know that you were writing for yourself and couldn’t have possibly known that we’d read this a hundred years later. . .  And, I know that I can’t talk to a dead person. . . .

But, one thing that I do know is that your future husband, Raymond Swartz, was one of the other students in your small senior class. Did you debate against him?

I’m going to imagine that the debate was about women’s suffrage—and that the debate was the guys against the gals. Did the guys make “obvious” points during that debate that would horrify us today, but that you were unable to rebut to the satisfaction of the teacher and other students?

I sympathize—Sometimes I also can’t adequately explain things that are really important to me in ways that others understand.

Notes to my readers—

1. For more about Raymond and Helana’s marriage, see a previous post about their 40th wedding anniversary.

2. I don’t usually  “talk” directly to my Grandmother in these posts, but I had so many questions and it seemed like the best way to write what I was thinking.  Does it work when I talk to her? . . .or are my usual more straight-forward descriptions better?

Hundred-Year-Old Thanksgiving Poem

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

Wednesday, November 27, 1912:  Guess we aren’t going to have much of a Thanksgiving tomorrow cause Ma is sick and we haven’t got a turkey.

Recent fall photo of fields on the farm where the Muffly’s once lived.

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

Dang it—Thanksgiving was a week later in 1912 than it was in 2012.

From a blog post perspective, it works much better when the dates of holidays are the same for both years—and floating holidays like Easter and Thanksgiving are problematic.

This year Thanksgiving is history—and we’ve moved past Black Friday and Cyber Monday to holiday parties and decorating Christmas trees . But, on the off-chance that you’re willing to read about Thanksgiving at this late date, here is a lovely  Thanksgiving poem that was in the November, 1912 issue of Farm Journal.

Our Thanksgiving Day

By Emma A. Lente

The harvests yielded bounteous store,

In spite of all our trembling fears

Lest this, from drought and storms, might be

One of the fruitless, barren years.

.

But kindly sun and rain and dew

Have ministered to all our need

The fertile earth has given full store

Her countless multitudes to feed.

.

No pestilence has stormed our shores,

No wars have racked our hearts with fears;

Strength have been given for minor ills

And smiles have followed transient tears.

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So, let us render fervent thanks

For sheltering homes, and kindred dear,

And say with heartfelt gratitude:

“This year has been a goodly year.”

Don’t Want to Miss School

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

Tuesday, November 26, 1912:  Ma’s so sick. Hope I don’t have to miss school. That would spite me something dreadful.

Her mother probably needed help with both housework and barn work

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

I wonder what’s wrong with Grandma’s mother.  Maybe she caught whatever ailment her little brother Jimmie had the previous week. On November 19 Grandma wrote:

Poor little Jimmie got sick last night and had to miss his first day of school.

It seems like Grandma’s parents were quicker to consider having their children miss school when extra help was needed than parents today. For example, on November 18, 1912 Grandma also was concerned that she might need to miss school:

I’m half way out of something I’m worrying about since before school started and that was that I was afraid I’d have to miss school when Pa had his threshing done. They started today and well I went to school today too. So glad I don’t have to miss, that would be too bad for me.

(A positive note about Grandma’s parents–Even though Grandma periodically worried that her parents would make her miss school for one reason or another, I don’t think that she ever actually missed school because they needed her at home.)

The Roman Empire in a Hundred-Year-Old History Book

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

Wednesday, November 20, 1912:  Had an exam in General History and although I looked over it some last evening, I got some questions that I was unable to answer correctly.

Picture of Roman Fleet and Harbor in the the hundred-year-old textbook

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

What was the test on?

Well . . . <<<drum roll please>>>>. . . . Grandma might have been studying the downfall of the Roman Empire.

Here’s how I figured it out:

I found a General History textbook published in 1909. (I bet Grandma’s book was at least a couple of years old).  Since it’s  about one-third of the way through the school year, the class was probably about one-third of the way through the book.

Hmm. . .. the book’s 476 pages long, so a third of the way through the book would have been  around page 159. Page 159 is in a chapter titled,  The Decay of the Roman Republic and the Growth of One-Man Power.

The chapter begins:

Political and Social Conditions of Rome After the Punic Wars.—The republican constitution of Rome was made for the government of a small city state. When the great part of the Mediterranean countries fell under the sway of Rome, her municipal government proved quite inadequate for the task of ruling so vast an empire. The earliest political result of the foreign wars was that the senate assumed almost exclusive control of the government. The popular assemblies could not understand the difficult questions  of foreign policy, and were glad to leave their settlement to the senate, which was made up of experienced statesmen and generals . . .

Outlines of General History by V.A. Renouf (1909)

Threshing

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

Monday, November 18, 1912:  I’m half way out of something that I worried about before school started, and that was that I was afraid I’d have to miss school when Pa had his threshing done. They started today and well I went to school today, too. So glad I don’t have to miss, that would be too bad for me.

Picture of an antique threshing machine demonstration (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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

In the days before combines, threshing machines separated wheat (and other small grains)  from the straw.  Huge steam-operated threshing machines went from farm to farm. It took lots of labor to operate them —and the men who came to help expected a big meal.

I’m amazed that Grandma had worried about the possibility of missing school for months. (I think that I might have looked forward to missing school when the threshers came, rather than dreading the possibility). In any case, I’m glad Grandma didn’t have to stay home and help with the cooking, serving, and cleaning up if she didn’t want to.

The wheat would have been cut in late July and put into sheaves to dry for a while before it was threshed. I’m surprised how late in the year it was threshed. The previous year, it was done on September 13.

Here’s a YouTube video that shows a demonstration of how wheat was threshed years ago.