18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, September 26, 1913:Still pegging away.
Corn Husking Peg
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The previous day Grandma wrote that she was “on duty out in the corn field.” This diary entry makes it clearer how she was helping with the corn harvest.
Grandma was using a corn husking peg, and “pegging away” at husking corn.
After the corn ears were broken off the stalks, they were husked by hand using a husking peg.
Lehman’s still sells Finger-loop Corn Husking Pegs. According to their website:
To use, slip over first three fingers, push peg under husk, grab with thumb and pull.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, September 25, 1913: Went to Watsontown this morning. I’m on duty now out in the corn field. The beginning took place this afternoon. Somehow or other I imaged I would accomplish more than what I did. This is an opportunity to earn some money of which I always seem in need.
Last year on the farm where Grandma grew up, there was corn in the field right next to the barn. Was Grandma working in the same field a hundred years ago today?
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma, I’m glad you’re earning some money, but exactly what are you doing in the corn field? It’s the right season to harvest corn, so I suppose that you are somehow helping with it.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, September 23, 1913:Don’t know how to express myself.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to share an advertisement for a baby formula, Nestle’s Food, that appeared in the October, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
A few days ago I did a post that showed several pictures of the “right” and “wrong” way raise a baby. Readers’ comments about that post led me to do this post. It contained pictures from the October, 1913 issues of Ladies Home Journal where both the “right” and the “wrong” way showed the baby drinking from a bottle. Several people commented that it was interesting that breastfeeding wasn’t mentioned.
After reading the comments I looked at the magazine again–and I discovered that this ad was positioned right next to the picture article about the right and wrong ways to raise a baby.
Maybe I’m in a cynical mood today, but somehow it feels like the magazine was trying to please the advertiser, and that the advertisement drove the content.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, September 22, 1913: Walked the coats I borrowed yesterday back this morning.
Source: Ladies Home Journal (December, 1912)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The previous day it rained while Grandma and her sister Ruth were at Sunday School at the Baptist Church in McEwensville. They were particularly upset because Ruth “had on her bestest dress.”
Someone who lived near the church must have lent them coats. I wonder if Ruth managed to keep her dress dry.
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, September 21, 1913: Went to Sunday School all afternoon. It rained nearly all afternoon. Ruth and I were in quite a pickle about getting home. She had on her bestest dress. The questions were solved when a nice boy brought us home in his buggy.
A recent stormy day in McEwensville
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma and her sister Ruth usually walked the mile or so home from Sunday School. It would have been a miserable walk if they’d had to tramp home in the rain.
But all’s well that ends well. . . hmm. . . Who was the nice boy who brought them home?
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, September 20, 1913: I picked and picked at the potatoes today till there weren’t any more to pick and then I stopped. My hands presented quite a spectacle by the time I was through from being so badly stained. I don’t care though, Pa gave me a dollar.
Did Grandma rub her hands with tomatoes or tomato juice to try to remove the stains? (Picture Source: Simply Recipes)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Work and more backbreaking work. . . at least the potatoes were all harvested (and Grandma was a dollar richer).
Here’s some advice in a hundred-year-old book about how to remove stains from hands.
To remove stains, dip the hands into a dish of strong tea, rub well with a nailbrush, and rinse in tepid waters. Ripe tomatoes, also the juice of a lemon, will remove stains from the hands.
Housekeeper’s Handy Book (1913) by Lucia Millet Baxter
18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, September 19, 1913:
September 16 – 17 – 18 – 19: Nothing much of importance happened during these days. I have to help Pa some and get put at rolling for one thing. Of course I had my mishaps even to going off of the roller. That work is all done by this time.
Photo Caption: An American Reaper in a Russian Wheat Field.Source:The Book of Wheat (1908)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
This was the fourth of four days where Grandma wrote a single diary entry. Three days ago I described how Grandma rolled the fields in preparation for planting fall wheat. And, two days ago and yesterday, I shared pictures of large and small wheat farms from a hundred-year-old book.
The 1908 book, The Book of Wheat by Peter Tracy Dondlinger, had lots of interesting information. One part I really enjoyed was the description of wheat production in several other countries.
I’m going to share what the book said about Russia. Within the larger historical context it is fascinating to read something about Russia that was written in the years prior to the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union.
Russian Wheat Production
Viewed solely from the point of view of its natural resources and economic aspects, Russia is the United States of Europe. It has immense undeveloped areas that would form ideal wheat lands, lands very similar to those which constitute the wheat belt of the United States.
The similarity between Russia and the United States in the natural resources of the wheat growing regions is quite equaled by the dissimilarity of political practice, social theory and economic condition. The Russian peasantry had had neither means nor opportunity to attain a higher plane of life.
The poor system of land ownership and the antiquated methods of agriculture made Russian wheat a dear wheat in spite of cheap labor and a low standard of living. The future possibilities of Russian wheat production depend upon the social, economic and educational progress of Russia.
There are symptoms of improvement in this direction. The extension of peasant land ownership is improving economic conditions. It seems that political and social conditions are at last changing and popular education is growing. In agriculture, better machinery is being introduced, and the crops are being rotated.
