My husband’s parents lived on adjoining homesteads in western Oklahoma. The young man had come from Kansas to farm 120 acres, and the young woman had moved with her parents from Illinois. Two years later they were married.
Because the claim did not have much timber, the young couple lived in a mud hut. They started housekeeping with a stove for cooking, a bed, and a wooden table they made. They dug their wells by hand.
Two children were born there; the young mother was attended by a midwife in each case. After the birth of a son, they traded for land on a Missouri homestead, in the community where I was growing up. I met my husband when we were first-graders.
Neva Myers
Hartville, 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.
