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One-Room Schoolhouse Threatened By Raging Waters

By Capper's Staff
Published on March 12, 2013

One thing that stands out in my memory is the time I was teaching in a school located in the bottom of a canyon. I boarded with a family one-half mile away. A dark cloud rolled in from the north early one morning. I ran most of the way down that long hill and got to school just before the rain hit. I could hear the water raging down the canyon, it kept getting higher and higher. It got up to the top of the fence post, the barn was standing in a foot of water. Water came almost to the schoolhouse.

There being no telephone I had no way of knowing if any of the pupils had started to school. I couldn’t get across the draw. Finally a little after noon a few pupils walked in wearing hip waders. Needless to say, there wasn’t much school that day.

Lorraine Priddy
Stratton, Nebraska


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.