16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, March 4, 1912: I have my first cold of the winter now. It seems to have all gone to my throat. We are going to have recitations next Friday, but our teacher instead of having some interesting speeches favors dried up pieces of poetry. Oh it will be stupid from beginning to end.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Colds aren’t fun. Maybe Grandma used some cough drops to soothe her throat. Amazingly Smith Brothers’ Cough Drops were available a hundred years—and are still available today.
Rainy Day
Cough at Night
5 cents a box
Never be without a box of S.B. cough drops during the Fall and Winter– during damp, chilly weather when sore throats, coughs and hoarseness are so prevalent. Take a few of these drops on your way home from the heated theatre, dance hall, office, etc. Far better than medicine, more pleasant, too. Good to take before the “forty-winks.” They loosen the phlegm.
Smith Brothers’
S.B. Cough Drops
Containing Only Pure Medicinal Oils–No Glucose
Makers of S.B. Chewing Gum and Lasses Kisses
Smith Brother of Poughkeepsie
Your Grandpa Knows Us
I absolutely love the last line of the ad–“Your Grandpa Knows Us.” Smith Brother cough drops have been around for a long, long time if that’s how they were advertising them in the early 1900s!
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, March 3, 1912: Went to Sunday School this morning. Took Jimmie along with me. He seems to like going very much, but looked afraid at first.
Carrie was over this afternoon. Ruth and I accompanied by Tweet went over to church this evening. Coming home we got a ride with a young friend of Ruth’s.
Jimmie Muffly
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
There are lots of names in this diary entry. In case you don’t have them all straight I’ll recap who everyone was. Ruth was Grandma’s older sister, and Jimmie was her 6-year-old brother. Carrie Stout and Tweet (Helen) Wesner were friends of Grandma and Ruth.
It’s somewhat surprising that Jimmie didn’t typically go to Sunday School. Actually, based upon the diary entries, it seems as if their parents didn’t generally go to church or Sunday school. Grandma probably was attending Sunday School at the McEwensville Baptist Church.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, March 2, 1912: Well I really think I worked pretty good today. I put things in order and washed up and a lot more that comes under Saturday duties .Ruth was up to Turbotville attending Teachers’ Institute so you see I had to be busy. Tweet is here this evening.
Recent photo of Turbotville Community Hall. The building was once a high school and the Teachers' Institute probably was held here.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma’s 20-year-old sister Ruth was a teacher at one of the one-room schoolhouses near McEwensville. Ruth had graduated the previous spring from high school and immediately got a teaching position.
A hundred years ago teachers weren’t required to attend college, though they had to pass tests in various content areas. The Saturday teachers’ institute would have provided training and professional development. And, it would have been a wonderful opportunity for the teachers in scattered isolated schools to gather, compare notes, and provide support for one another.
Tweet refers to Helen Wesner. She was a friend of Grandma and Ruth.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, March 1, 1912:
March
This month signifies that the winter is passing.
And soon will be the Springtime
With all its bright scenes and soul stirring dreams,
And memories so long and so dear.
After a whole week of trying to get a theme in readiness, I finished the thing at noon. It came under General History. Cleopatra was what I had to write about. I got it so as to suit my satisfaction. But of course there were some mistakes.
Late 19th century painting of Cleopatra by Jean-Leon Gerome--Maybe this is what Grandma pictured Cleopatra looking like. (Source: Wikipedia)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
How did Grandma end up writing about Cleopatra? Did she choose the topic? (If so, why?) . . . or did her teacher assign it? (If so, why did he assign it to her instead of to another student?)
The way I picture Cleopatra is strongly affected by the 1960s movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.—and I can’t quite envision how people thought about her a hundred years ago.
Was Cleopatra’s beauty, charm and ability to control men generally seen in a positive or a negative light back then? The suffragettes were very active a hundred years ago. Do they see Cleopatra as a role model or as a failure of the past to allow women appropriate roles?
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, February 29, 1912:I was quite conscious of the fact that this comes only once in four years. This day I mean. We had a visitor at school today. Two I may say. One was the county superintendent. By good luck he wasn’t there, when we had a hard study to go through.
A hundred years ago the country superintendent probably came down this road with a horse and buggy as he entered the McEwensville. The road wasn't paved back then.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It’s interesting that it was also a leap year a hundred years ago. (If I had thought about it, I would have been able to easily figure out that both years were leap years, but somehow I was surprised.)
Counties were the intermediary unit between the state and the schools a hundred years ago in Pennsylvania. There were not large school districts back then. Many of the consolidated districts—including the Warrior Run School District that now includes McEwensville— were formed in the 1950s.
The superintendent of schools for the county probably visited McEwensville High School because of the mid-year change in teachers. McEwensville High School got a new teacher just ten days prior to the writing of this entry. The superintendent probably came to see how the new teacher was doing. I hope that he passed with flying colors!
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, February 27, 1912: Quite uneventful. Ruth went up to Oakes this evening, but I staid at home and studied my lessons.
Devil's Food Cake (Hundred-Year-Old Recipe)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since this diary entry is self-explanatory, I’m going to go off on a tangent.
I recently bought a 1912 cookbook off EBay. My daughter glanced through it and noticed that the devils food cake recipe seemed very different from today’s recipes.
So we decided to compare a devils food cake made with a modern recipe with one made using a hundred year old recipe.
In the early 1900s angel food cakes and devils food cakes were seen as the polar opposites—one was white and light; the other dark and heavy.
The cake made with the hundred year old recipe was a dense chocolate spice cake. The recipe called for mashed potatoes (mashed potatoes ?!?!), cinnamon, nutmeg and nuts. It reminded us of gingerbread–though ginger was not an ingredient. I’ve never eaten anything exactly like it—but the cake was very good and I’d make it again.
100 Year-Old-Recipe
Calumet Devil’s Food Cake (Chocolate Spice Cake)
2 cups flour
2 level teaspoons Calumet (or any other brand) baking powder
2 level teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup warm mashed potatoes
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour baking pan, 13 X 9 X 2 inches. Melt butter and chocolate. Combine with all of the other ingredients except nuts. Beat until well-blended. Stir in nuts.
Pour into pan. Bake approximately 45-50 minutes or until pick comes out clean.
Adapted from the recipe in Calumet Baking Powder Reliable Recipes (1912)
The modern devils food cake recipe that my daughter made was from my Betty Crocker Cookbook. The recipe called for red food coloring—but otherwise seemed similar to other modern chocolate cake recipes. The cake was awesome.
Devils Food Cake
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 1/2 teaspoons soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate (cool)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon red food color
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour baking pan, 13x9x2 inches, or two 9-inch or three 8-inch round layer pans. Measure all ingredients into large mixer bowl. Blend 1/2 minute on low-speed, scraping bowl constantly. Beat 3 minutes high-speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan(s).
Bake oblong about 40 minutes, layers 30-35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.
(Recipe suggests using chocolate or cream cheese frosting.)
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, February 26, 1912: Went through the snow to school this morning and came home through the rain. One good things I didn’t have to walk this evening. Received my report card today. I knew what my marks were for I had caught a glimpse of them some time previous. Mine has the downward tendency this month. Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
How did Grandma know what her grades were going to be prior to receiving the report card? Was she again snooping around the teacher’s desk?
Rainy Day
