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On my farm near Youngstown, Ohio in 1880, I read in the Pittsburgh Gazette about a free love community near Steubenville. I was eighteen and laughed at the thought, but it was no laughing matter across Ohio. Some people wanted to run those people out of the state.

I mean free love was fine for bulls and cows and for the dogs that ran around the farm, mounting whatever bitches who were available, but free love for people, no.

My name is Eliza Morehouse. I may have been a farm girl, but growing up on a farm, I wasn't naïve about sex. I'm writing this because I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be around. By that I mean, I guess it was about 10 years ago I celebrated my100th birthday.

When I was a girl, my dearest friends Agatha McFarland and Charlotte Beckworth were both married, and they told me all about married sex. Charlotte even showed us a dog-eared, torn book with drawings. I giggled. Charlotte and Agatha just smiled.

At night, in bed, I thought about those drawings. Did people really do some of the things those illustrations showed? I didn't believe it, but then the way Charlotte and Agatha faces lit up as we turned the pages, I was certain they were familiar with just about every sketch.

As for me, I didn't have a boyfriend; no boys called on me. Even at the once-a-month Saturday night dances not one boy asked me to dance.

In our area on February 29th, girls could ask boys to a dance. It happened every four years. I was eighteen when Leap Year came around.

I planned on asking George Washington Addison. He was cute; his family owned a big farm and I knew he wasn't seeing anyone. He'd be a good catch.

As soon as he saw me coming up the road, he got on his horse and rode away.

I wasn't just disappointed; I was devastated. I cried and cried.

I knew why. To be kind, people called me big-boned. To be unkind people called me a cow. In an age when the average man was 5'7", I was 5'11".

In an age when the average man weighed 145 lb., I weighed 175 lb. I wasn't fat. There was so much work to do on the farm, you were always running around doing something.

People described my face as masculine.

I re-read the news article about that free love community, I was certain, I could find a boy there; maybe not a boy, but a man.

Early the next morning, even before my dad was awake, I packed my few belongs on my horse and started south for Steubenville. Other than a few clothes, the only other thing I carried was my shotgun.

The chickens were my responsibility and when I was twelve my dad taught me how to shoot. We always had to worry about foxes and other varmints getting in the hen house. When I was fifteen, he bought me a shotgun.

Sure, I was looking for love and affection like Agatha and Charlotte were getting, but a girl couldn't be too careful.

It took me four days to reach Steubenville.

I was welcomed, but they wanted to make sure I was of legal age and that I understood what they meant by free love. Three women took me aside and explained it to me. One was just a few years older than me, but the other two were closer to my mom's age or older.

From looking at those drawings in Charlotte's book, I thought I knew everything. Of course, I didn't know anything.

"Eliza, Mr. Carlisle will be the first. He will be the first, won't he?"

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