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most girls living in seemingly bucolic towns across America at the time. But if, as certain “big city” social critics and hopeful prophets claimed, a sea change in social mores and sensibilities was seeping through the widening cracks of not-so-ironclad Victorianism, the greater part of hardworking, God-fearing Christians throughout America were still living in communities like Tarentum with populations of fewer than 2,500 people.
    Like other young girls “from the provinces,” Florence Evelyn went to picnics and spelling bees and attended Sunday school, where she sang in the choir. She fantasized about running off with the traveling circus in the summer, went ice-skating and sledding in the winter, and attended her first Pirates baseball game with her father when she was five. Part princess, part prizefighter, depending on her mood, Florence Evelyn lived for her father’s praise, and he in turn doted on her. Of course as the head of the house and sole wage earner, Win was the central figure in the family and the dominant force in Florence Evelyn’s life.
    Unusually progressive about the intellectual capabilities of “the weaker sex,” Winfield encouraged his daughter’s early interest in reading by building a small library at home of her favorite books. The majority were the typical childhood fairy tales and fantasies, such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, with wonderfully vivid illustrations, charming princes, and happily-ever-afters. But Florence Evelyn read anything her father brought home for her, including the Arabian Nights, Arthurian legends, Greek myths, and popular dime novels, even though the latter were considered “books for boys.” With pithy titles such as Ragged Dick, Slow and Sure, Do and Dare, and Mark, the Match Boy, the rags-to-riches stories the little girl read were full of high sentiment and often ludicrous plots that extolled the virtues identified as “pluck and luck.” Their foremost literary proponent was Horatio Alger Jr., who sold more than 200 million copies of his prescriptive fantasies to post-Civil War American dreamers who wanted a blueprint for success. Of course, none of his faithful reading public knew that before he came to New York City, Alger had been run out of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, accused of “the abominable and revolting crime of gross familiarity with boys.”
    A vivacious and free-spirited child, Florence Evelyn bounced headfirst into all activities, particularly those she thought would please her father— singing, dancing, drawing, reciting from her books, playing the piano. She began music and dance lessons with her father’s encouragement and practiced in earnest to learn “The Amorous Goldfish” and “Chin, Chin Chinaman” to please him. She knew in her heart that she was her father’s favorite, although Win made a point of always praising both children for their efforts. Her mother, on the other hand, visibly favored Howard, whose sometimes distracted disposition and nervous temperament mirrored her own and threatened to make him into a mamma’s boy. The children often accompanied their mother on visits to various relatives’ farms in the outlying areas of Donnellsville and Allegheny, where young Florence Evelyn’s inherent self-assurance made an immediate and lasting impression on those around her. One cousin remembers a comment her own mother made: she “despaired of Florence ever learning how to milk a cow,” not because it was hard work, but because “the cow took up too much of her space.”
    When Florence Evelyn was around eleven, a change in her father’s job meant the family would have to relocate to Pittsburgh. The Nesbits moved into a modest two-story saltbox house unexceptionally similar to the one they had left, and life continued to be pleasantly predictable. The children were enrolled in the grandly named Shakespeare Elementary School, and every day Win went to his offices on Diamond Street in the family’s rockaway carriage,