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Unruly Ox Leads Delegation to Group Sunday School Convention

By Capper's Staff
Published on June 14, 2012

Way back in 1856, my father was a single man batching with a friend on a homestead in Nebraska. The two men attended group Sunday school in Table Rock, 10 miles away. One Fourth of July, a Sunday school convention was scheduled in Table Rock, and a prize was offered for the most interesting delegation.

Father had a yoke of oxen broken to ride – the only trouble was that one of the team was not an ox, strictly speaking. Father’s bachelor friend dared him to ride old Mooly and head their delegation, and he did just that. He rode the animal that had been all curried and beribboned. A lane was roped off before the judges’ stand, and Father said that there was yelling and men threw their hats into the air as he rode by. He was afraid Mooly would bolt, but he just put his head down and stoically endured the holiday mood of a pioneer Sunday school convention. And Father’s delegation took the blue ribbon!

The only trouble was that Father’s sweetie was angry and gave him, as they said in those days, a good raking.

Charles Smith Jr.
Nora, Neb.


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.