15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, January 14, 1911. Here’s to another monotonous day. It rained instead of snowing. I like things to come in some kind of order, but things won’t always come as you would want them to.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Weather Underground forecast for McEwensville for today, January 14, 2011:
Low: 11; High: 29; partly cloudy
15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, January 13, 1911: Jakie, that’s my teacher had a siege of moving our seats today. I didn’t get mine moved, although I expected to be. It really was a wonder that I didn’t. Some wonderful things happen in this every day world.
Local newspaper article exactly 100 years ago today:
Miss Helen Wesner, Miss Jennie E. Guinn, and Howard Guinn spent Wednesday evening at the home of Clem Baylor.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
A hundred years ago people also wanted to keep their friends informed about what they were doing. The tweets of that day were brief items in the local newspaper. A fun evening that a friend of Grandma’s had is mentioned in the Milton Evening Standard exactly a hundred years ago today. You’ll meet Helen Wesner—Grandma calls her Tweet— in the diary in a few weeks. Tweet or one of the other people mentioned in the paper must have given the information to the McEwensville reporter for inclusion.
I remember when I was a child that when we had out-of-town guests my mother would always inform the Watsontown reporter of the Milton paper. At the time small town newspapers that included minor social happenings were seen as being really backwards and old-fashioned, but perhaps tweeting–either in the newspaper or electronically– is really back to the future.
15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, January 12, 1911: Finished taking examinations today for this month. I don’t believe I made very good marks. It seems to me as if I am going backwards every month instead of going forward.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It’s hard to envision schools without the ubiquitous multiple choice and true/false tests, but the examinations that Grandma took WERE NOT multiple choice tests. Multiple choice items were invented in 1915. And the exams probably did not include true/false, matching or fill in the blank items. All of these question types were popularized during the 1920s by educational psychologists who promoted the concept of scientific testing.
Grandma’s exams probably included arithmetic tests that contained math problems which students copied off the blackboard. Portions of the exam were probably oral since mental math was valued prior to the development of calculators.
The examinations that Grandma took probably included recitations and oral responses. For example, a student might be required to recite a poem that he or she memorized. Or the teacher may ask a student questions about material that has been covered in class.
Discussion tests gave students the opportunity for free, organized, and individualized expression on the topics involved.
Martin Stormzand
In other subjects there probably were essay or ‘discussion’ tests. Sometimes students were directed to merely outline their response rather than write a polished essay.
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.
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?
