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Friendly Snakes on a Kansas Homestead

My Grandmother Zeck, a homesteader on a Marshall County, Kansas homestead, told us that before she put her children to bed during the hot summer, she took the bedding outdoors and shook out the snakes. She did that so often, she said, that the snakes became friendly snakes. They slithered away, only to return and drop thru the roof again to the cool interior of the sod house.

Mrs. Henrietta Swim
Marysville, Kansas


Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then Capper’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.