During the Civil War, when my great-grandmother heard that “bushwhackers” and renegades were in the neighborhood, she took her own money and that of her two daughters, who lived nearby, and hid it in an old broken iron teakettle and set it in the children’s playhouse.
Sure enough, a band of thieves came that night and demanded money. When they found none, after tearing up the whole place, they went across the field to my great-uncle’s home and were so incensed at finding no money, they stole their meat and even the older son’s boots.
They upset a barrel of soft soap, turned over a barrel of molasses and even poured kerosene in a barrel of salt and did much other damage.
Lillie B. Reid
9Mountain Grove, Missouri
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.
