Something to Shout About

Ottenberg, a fledgling gold-mining town in Montana Territory in 1875, provides the setting for Patricia Beatty’s spirited tale of a group of townswomen with a mission. At the suggestion of the new doctor, J. Marah, and inspired by thirteen-year-old Hope Foster, whose family owns the town general store, the “shebang,” the women set out on a fund-raising drive. Their goal is $1250, the sum needed to buy a prefab schoolhouse and get their children out of the improvised chicken-coop school. Aided in their efforts by an out-of-town lawyer and a news reporter, both female, the Ottenberg ladies storm all thirty-eight saloons soliciting donations. The consequences of their resolve, woven together with some surprising twists, make for exciting reading indeed.


Based on actual incidents in history, the story illustrates the surprisingly modern roles that women played amid the untamed atmosphere of the Old West. Written with Mrs. Beatty’s characteristic verve, humor, and warmth, Something to Shout About can only add to the author’s following among today’s readers.