I cannot account for whether or not official scorers handled plays differently. Really, that can still be said about today's game, which is why "errors" is probably the most useless stat.
But a lot of stats and their definitions have changed over time. And as of now, 98 errors stands as the single season "modern day" record and is probably never going to broken.
Of course, prior to 1900, some 20 players were actually changed with as many or more, with 122 being the actual record, held by Herman Long (1889) and Billy Shindle (1890)...