Sister to all the world: that is how Dorothy Dix wished to be known. But more properly speaking she was a mother confessor--one to whom the troubled fled for advice and consolation. She was the archetypal Mary Worth, the progenitor of Abigail Van Buren and Ann Landers, the standard by which the advisors of today's lovelorn generation may be judged. She was said to have had the largest following of any newspaper columnist in her day. But it was a difficult road by which she gained this pinnacle.

Elizabeth Meriwether was born 18 November 1861 in Montgomery County, Tennessee, on a farm whose land crossed over into Todd County, Kentucky. She was the firstborn of three children of William Douglas and Maria Winston Meriwether; Mary was the middle child and Charles Edward was the youngest. The three children were cared for by the black house servant, Mammy.

Elizabeth's education was...