16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, March 17, 1912: Am trying to get my lessons out tonight. This light of mine is going out and tis all I can do to see.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sometimes I’m surprised by the similarities between 1912 and 2012. Other times, I’m reminded of the differences . . .
It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like to study using light from a kerosene lamp.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, March 17, 1912: Today is St. Patrick’s Day. I had some green on this morning. It was so nice out today. Just like spring. I was going away this afternoon, but didn’t go after all.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sometimes I’m surprised how similar some things are across the years.
The weather was beautiful a hundred years ago–just like it is today.
Grandma wore green a hundred years ago– just like I’m wearing green today.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, March 15, 1912: It was out of the ordinary walking to school this morning. It rained so last night that my morning, water was plainly visible everywhere. It was about the same height tonight. I thought this morning I might not get to school after all.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma needed to cross Warrior Run Creek to get to school.
It sounds like the creek had flooded and was out of its banks. However, the water apparently had not covered the road and the bridge so Grandma could get to school.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, March 11, 1912: I heave a sigh of relief when I think examinations are past for this month. I have my doubts about what I will get in geometry.
II. THE ASSUMPTIONS OF ORDER
Assumption I. If point A, B, C are in the order {ABD} they are distinct.
Assumption II. If points A, B, C are in the order {ABC} they are not in order {BCA}.
Modern Mathematics (1911), Edited by J.W.A. Young
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I suppose that Grandma had to do some proofs in geometry. Do students do proofs any more in high school? I get a head-ache just thinking about them.
Here’s the definition of a point in a hundred –year-old mathematics book. It was the first term defined in the book. (I assume that Grandma’s examination was on something more complicated—but I enjoyed reading this definition.)
In geometry a great many technical terms are defined, and each is defined in terms of others. Hence at the beginning of a book on geometry at least one term must be undefined; otherwise the book would have no beginning. We have to leave the undefined term point.
This implies that the reader is free to carry in his mind any image of a point which he can reconcile with what is said about it. We may try to import a notion of our image of a point by saying it has no length, breadth, or thickness, or by like phrases, but these are no part of our book on geometry; they have nothing to do with the logical steps by which the theorems are derived.
Modern Mathematics (1911), Edited by J.W.A. Young
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, March 9, 1912: Ruthie’s friend, Miss Bryson, arrived here on the train. I had to do my sister’s milking. They went to a play in Watsontown this evening. I coughed so today that Ma said I might be getting the whooping cough. It did scare me some.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma’s cough sounds bad. Hopefully she didn’t have whooping cough.
Maybe Grandma tried some home remedies. Here are some old-time cough remedies in the Compendium of Everyday Wants (1908):
COUGH – Below will be found a number of cough cures and syrups that are unfailing and will relieve the worst forms.
Treatment No. 1—One of the most simple remedies is flaxseed lemonade, made by adding two or three tablespoons of flax seed to a lemonade made of two lemons, two tablespoonful’s of sugar and about a quart of water; boil it.
Treatment No. 2—COUGH SYRUP—Mix together one-half pint of honey, 1/2 pint of gin, 1/2 oz. of oil of tar, 1/2 oz. of balsam fir. Take a teaspoonful three times a day. This is one of the most effective and valuable remedies known for coughs and will break up a cold where other remedies fail.
Treatment No. 3—An efficacious remedy for continued cough is found in chewing the bark gotten from the root of sumac. Chew the bark. Several kinds of sumac are poisonous, but use the common upland sumac, having cone-shaped bunches of berries and from which a milky fluid comes when leaves are broken.
I don’t know where to get all of the ingredients for any of these remedies. And, even if I could find Sumac bark—I won’t want to risk something that requires warnings about avoiding the poisonous types.
Miss Bryson refers to Blanche Bryson. She was mentioned several times in the dairy during during 1911. At that time it seemed like she lived in either in or near McEwensville. She apparently had moved somewhere more distant by 1912.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, March 8, 1912: I think I came out fairly in General History today. I remembered all of my speech, but as my custom is I never get enough pauses and proper way of speaking in the thing. This time it was too fast. Are going to have them again next Friday. They ought to be pretty well digested by that time.
Mollie was shorn of her horns today. Poor thing, I hope she won’t kick the bucket. But I don’t think she will.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Mollie was Grandma’s cow. Based on previous diary entries it seems as if each of the Muffly girls owned one the family’s cows.
Mollie had her first calf the previous August, so probably was about 2 1/2 years old when this diary entry was written.
I’m surprised that Mollie’s horns were removed when she was so old. I think that typically horns would either be removed when the cow was younger than this—or the cow would never be dehorned. My gut feeling is that Mollie was acting aggressively toward other cows with her horns—and that as a result ended up being dehorned.
The horns would have been cut off with a tool designed for that purpose. Mollie probably bled quite a bit afterwards—and there would have been the risk of infection.
Dehorning would have been very painful for a few days—though I doubt that there was much chance that the dehorning might actually cause a cow to die (kick the bucket).
The Tennessee Extension Service has a publication that explains how cattle are dehorned. See page 6 for a description of how older cattle are de-horned. I don’t think that the process has changed much in the last hundred years.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, March 6, 1912: Examinations are slowly approaching the horizon, and they will soon be in sight. We have one next Friday just before the awful recitations.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma had a lot on her plate when she wrote this entry. Her February grades were lower than she’d hoped so she wanted to do better on the upcoming exams—and she was struggling to memorize an “abominable piece of poetry.”
At least spring was approaching– and, maybe the essence of spring in the air compensated a little for all of the school drudgery.
