I wasn’t quite 4 when we traveled by covered wagon from Kansas to a small mining town in Colorado, but I remember those chilly early spring mornings when we sat shivering on the wagon tongue eating the breakfast Mother had cooked over a campfire.
My sister and I would get so tired riding all day that Father tied two ropes to the back of the wagon and would let us out to walk if each of us would hold onto a rope. That helped us keep up with the wagon and not get too far behind.
Not long after we got settled in a little one-room shack, all three of us children came down with scarlet fever. I’ve heard Mother tell how her back nearly broke holding one of her three sick children most of the time with only boxes to sit on. How she longed for a chair!
Ivy Schieck
Wheatland, Wyo.
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.
