During the Civil War, my great-grandfather and others of his troop were in an old fort surrounded by the enemy. They ran out of food and before long were desperate. They kept thinking help would come. The old fort was badly infested with rats. As starving men have no choice, they killed rats, skinned them and cooked them in a big iron kettle.
Grandfather has been dead many years, but I remember sitting on his lap to hear the story and him saying, “1 do declare, that was good soup, but we were hungry enough to eat anything!”
P.S. They were rescued before the rats played out.
Norma Johnson
Sentinel, Oklahoma
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.
