title: Beth's Song
author: Kuhnke, Jean L.
description: Elizabeth Anne was eighteen years old when her abusive father threw her out of his house because she wanted an education.  In 1895 "women are good for two things, making babies and pleasuring a man," he said.  Beth, as her mother called her, pushed her out the door before her father could take the whip to her again.  Told to meet in the woods, Beth waited until her mother brought her a handcart carrying things to give her a start on her own.  Agreeing on a new name so they could communicate by letter, Mother gave her a map to an abandoned homestead she knew of.  Beth spent the last night on her father's ranch huddled around a campfire in the woods before embarking on a new life.