18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, November 21, 1913: Ruth and I went to Turbotville this morning on the train to attend the funeral.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma’s 90-year-old grandfather, John Derr, died on November 17. He was her mother’s father. Grandma and her sister Ruth would have taken the the Susquehanna Bloomsburg and Berwick train to Turbotville for the funeral. It was about a five mile trip. There was a whistle stop at the feed mill near their home where they would have flagged the train down.
How did the rest of the family get to the funeral? One thought—
Maybe her mother, father, and little brother Jimmie had gone ahead to the funeral—but Ruth and Grandma had to stay home and milk the cows before they could go.
John Derr had a big family, so the funeral would have been large. It was probably held at a church or the family home—though it might possibly have been held at a funeral home. He was buried in the Turbotville Cemetery.
John’s wife Sarah was still living. Were family members worried about how she was taking her husband’s death? In 1913, Sarah was only 79 (and she would live another 14 years until she died in 1928 at the age of 93).
Eight of John’s nine children were still living. Did they all manage to get home for the funeral? Five of the children lived nearby: Phoebe (Grandma’s mother), Alice, Annie, Miles, Judson, and Fuller; but two were more distant.
The 1910 census indicates that one son, Homer, was a college professor living in Brookings, South Dakota. How did he get the message about his dad’s death? . . . by telegraph? Was it possible for him to get back to Pennsylvania in only four days for a funeral?
And, records indicate that Elmer was a “sales manager – harvester” in Baltimore, Maryland.