How Grandmother hid money from the bushwhackers is our favorite Civil War story. She was the second wife of Grandfather and much younger. He did not fight in the war, but had several brothers fighting for the South. He had turned against slavery when he was a boy on his father’s plantation in Virginia. Grandmother’s brothers were fighting for the North. Soldiers of both families sent what money they could to her for safekeeping. She had long, thick hair that she wore in rolls, wrapped around currency. Bushwhackers turned the place upside down, including the smokehouse floor and the ash hopper, but Grandma held her head high as she sat on the porch churning.
Sorry to say, some she saved was worthless.
Mrs. Paul Morrow
Boonville, 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.
