My mother, the woman of a Nebraska homestead in the early 1880s, was called to a neighbor’s home to help in delivering a baby. It was her first time to attend the birth of a child solo. In her excitement she cut the navel cord a trifle short and it started to bleed badly. Mother reached into the dough pan, pinched off a chunk of dough, stuck it on the baby’s navel, and applied a tight binder.
The baby lived and was always called “Dough Belly George.”
Inez Wade Coleman
West Point, Iowa
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.
