I have a Civil War story. My mother was not quite six years old when the Battle of Wilson Creek was fought. My grandmother and her sister, with their children, were visiting that day in the home of their parents, which was near enough to the battlefield to hear the cannons roar. My grandfather was fighting with the North and his brother-in-law (and many other relatives) fought on the other side. Both were in that battle. Naturally, the women were very nervous, and Grandmother said, “Just think, they may kill each other.”
When it came time to call the children in from play to go home that evening, Mother was missing. At last, one little cousin said, “She went to get Uncle Bailey a long time ago.” Just as Great-grandmother was saddling her horse to go after her, a Rebel Colonel, who knew Grandfather, brought her home. He had met her more than two miles from home. She was crying. He stopped and asked her who she was and where she was going. She told him she was going to get her father before the Rebels killed him. He persuaded her to get on his horse with him, telling her that they would go and ask her mother, and if her mother consented he would take her to find her father.
Later, when they spoke of the Rebel Colonel bringing Mother home, she said, “Oh, no he wasn’t a Rebel, he was a nice man; Rebels kill people.”
Lillie B. Reid
Mountain Grove, 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.
