My father-in-law served during the Civil War, and he told me about having measles and sleeping on a brush pile in a clearing with about eight inches of snow on the ground. I thought, “Poor fellow, how did he live through all that?” I heard him tell a neighbor, who was also a veteran, about his regiment passing through a little village in the Deep South. There was a small church and some people were gathered for a funeral. They rode out by the cemetery and took a look around, rode on and made camp about four miles from the cemetery. Under cover of darkness 20 or more men and boys went back and opened the grave. They found a wooden box about four feet wide and deep and eight feet long filled with country cured hams. They took them all back to camp.
Dolly Sanders
Doniphan, 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.
