I came to western Kansas in the fall of 1879 with my widowed mother, two sisters and three brothers. We had two covered wagons, four cows and half a dozen hens. The boys made a place to live by digging a room about 30-by-40 feet in a steep bank. We fixed it up, and we really thought it was pretty nice!
Mother, two brothers and one sister took homesteads of 160 acres apiece. We had to haul our water five miles. Our meat for the first few years was mostly rabbit and antelope. Our family is all gone but one – and I will soon be 90!
Esther Andrews
Norcatur, Kansas
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.
