Mary Ellen Wilson: Difference between revisions

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-[[File:McCormack-MaryEllen 001a.jpg|thumb|300px|Mary Ellen McCormack in 1874]]
-'''Mary Ellen Wilson''' (March, 1864 – October 30, 1956) or sometimes '''Mary Ellen McCormack''' was an [[United States|American]] whose case of [[child abuse]] led to the creation of the [[New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children]].<ref name=light>{{cite news |author= |coauthors= |title=Case Shined First Light on Abuse of Children  |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/health/15abus.html?ref=science |quote=In fact, though, the quotation is from the 1874 case of Mary Ellen McCormack, below, a self-possessed 10-year-old who lived on West 41st Street, in the Hell’s Kitchen section of Manhattan. It was Mary Ellen who finally put a human face on child abuse — and prompted a reformers’ crusade to prevent it and to protect its victims, an effort that continues to this day. |work=[[New York Times]] |date=December 14, 2009 |accessdate=2009-12-15 | first1=Howard | last1=Markel}}</ref> At the age of eight, she was severely abused by her foster parents, Francis and Mary Connolly.<ref name="amhum">{{cite web
-|url=http://www.americanhumane.org/about-us/who-we-are/history/mary-ellen-wilson.html |title=How One Girl's Plight Started the Child-Protection Movement |publisher=[[American Humane Association]] |accessdate=2009-05-18}}</ref> Due to the fact that laws protecting children from abuse did not exist at the time, statutes preventing [[cruelty to animals]] were invoked to remove her from the home. Hers was the first recorded case of [[child abuse]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite book
- | last = Regoli, Hewitt, DeLisi
- | first = Robert M., John D., Matt
- | author-link =
- | title = Delinquency in Society
- | publisher = Jones & Bartlett Learning
- | series =
- | volume =
- | edition = 9th
- | date = 2014
- | location = Burlington, MA
- | pages = 7–8
- | language =
- | url =
- | doi =
- | id =
- | isbn = 978-1-4496-4549-6
- | mr =
- | zbl =
- | jfm = }}</ref>
-==Biography==
-Mary Ellen was born March, 1864 to Frances and Thomas Wilson of [[Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan|Hell’s Kitchen]] in [[New York City]].<ref name=light/> Following Thomas' death, Frances had to take a job and was no longer able to stay at home to raise her infant daughter. She boarded her daughter, a common practice at the time, with a woman named Mary Score. When Frances Wilson's financial situation worsened, she began to miss her visitation dates with her daughter and was no longer able to make [[child care]] payments to Score. Score turned Mary Ellen, now almost two, in to the [[New York City Department of Charities]].<ref name="amhum" />
-The Department placed Mary Ellen under the care of Thomas and Mary McCormack. (Mary went on to marry Francis Connolly following Thomas' death.) According to Mary Connolly's court testimony, Thomas McCormack, Mary Connolly's first husband, claimed to be Mary Ellen Wilson's biological father.<ref name="nyt0411">{{cite news
-|url=https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D01E2D61039EF34BC4952DFB266838F669FDE
-|title=The mission of humanity. Continuation of the proceedings instituted by Mr. Bergh on behalf of the child, Mary Ellen Wilson
-|date=April 11, 1874|work=[[New York Times]]
-|accessdate=2009-05-18
-| format=PDF}}</ref> The Department of Charities placed Mary Ellen into the McCormacks' care illegally, without the proper papers or receipts served. Thomas McCormack signed an "indenture" agreement upon retrieving Mary Ellen from the Department of Charities' care, but did not explain his or his wife's relationship with the child to the Commissioner of Charities and Correction. The McCormacks were required to report the child's condition annually to the Department, but, according to Mary Connolly's later court testimony, this only occurred once or twice during Mary Ellen's stay.<ref name="nyt0411" />
-==Investigation into abuse==
-After Mary Ellen came into the McCormacks' care, Thomas McCormack died. Mary McCormack married Francis Connolly, moving herself and Mary Ellen to an [[apartment]] on West 41st Street. It was at this address that neighbors first became aware of young Mary Ellen's mistreatment. Her foster mother forced her to do heavy labor, repeatedly beat, burned and cut the child,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=20041006&id=c28pAAAAIBAJ&sjid=StAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1890,2441358&hl=en|title=Mary Ellen Wilson: drawing attention to child abuse in the 19th Century|access-date=September 3, 2016|newspaper=Herald Journal|date=October 6, 2004}}</ref> and locked her in a closet.<ref>Out of the darkness; the story of Mary Ellen Wilson</ref> When the Connollys moved to a new address, one of the concerned neighbors from their 41st Street apartment asked [[Etta Angell Wheeler]], a [[Methodist]] missionary who worked in the area, to check in on the child. Under the pretext of asking Mrs. Connolly's help in caring for Connolly's new neighbor, the chronically ill and home-bound Mary Smitt, Wheeler gained access to the Connollys' apartment to witness Mary Ellen's state for herself. When Ms. Wheeler saw evidence of severe [[physical abuse]], [[malnourishment]], and [[neglect]] in Mary Ellen's condition - she was seen barefoot in December<ref>Out of the darkness: the story of Mary Ellen Wilson pg. 189</ref> for example - Wheeler began to research legal options to redress the abuse and protect the young girl. After finding the local authorities reluctant to act upon the child cruelty laws currently in place, Wheeler turned to a local advocate for the animal humane movement and the founder of the [[American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]], [[Henry Bergh]]. With the help of neighbors' testimony, Wheeler and Bergh successfully removed Mary Ellen from the Connolly home and took Mary Connolly to trial.<ref name="amhum" />
-==New York State Supreme Court==
-[[Elbridge Thomas Gerry]] of [[American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]] took her case to the [[New York State Supreme Court]] in 1874. At the time of the trial Mary Ellen was 10 years of age.<ref name=light/><ref>{{cite news |author= |coauthors= |title=Mr. Bergh Enlarging His Sphere |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9502E3D61039EF34BC4852DFB266838F669FDE |quote=It appears from proceedings had in Supreme Court, Chambers, yesterday, in the case of a child named Mary Ellen, that Mr. Bergh does not confine the humane impulses of his heart to smoothing the pathway of the brute creation toward the grave or elsewhere, but that he embraces within the sphere of his kindly efforts the human species also. |work=[[New York Times]] |date=April 10, 1874 |accessdate=2009-12-15 }}</ref>
-The deliberate cruelties and deprivations inflicted on Mary Ellen Wilson by her adopted parents included the following:
-* regular and severe beatings
-* insufficient food
-* being forced to sleep on the floor
-* having no warm clothes to wear in cold weather
-* being frequently left alone inside a darkened, locked room
-* being forbidden to go outdoors, except at night in her own yard
-The child [[testimony|testified]] in court regarding the abuse she had suffered, and afterward – on April 10, 1874 – she said:
-{{quotation|
-My father and mother are both dead. I don’t know how old I am. I have no recollection of a time when I did not live with the Connollys. Mamma has been in the habit of whipping and beating me almost every day. She used to whip me with a twisted whip—a [[rawhide (material)|rawhide]]. The whip always left a black and blue mark on my body. I have now the black and blue marks on my head which were made by mamma, and also a cut on the left side of my forehead which was made by a pair of scissors. She struck me with the scissors and cut me; I have no recollection of ever having been kissed by any one—have never been kissed by mamma. I have never been taken on my mamma's lap and caressed or petted. I never dared to speak to anybody, because if I did I would get whipped. I do not know for what I was whipped—mamma never said anything to me when she whipped me. I do not want to go back to live with mamma, because she beats me so. I have no recollection ever being on the street in my life.<ref name="amhum"/>
-}}
-Mrs. Connolly was sentenced to jail for one year. That year the [[New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children]] was founded, the first organization of its kind.<ref name="amhum"/>
-==Later life and death==
-Following the conviction of Mary Connolly, Mary Ellen was initially placed in a juvenile home, before Etta Wheeler and her relatives successfully obtained custody of her.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/health/15abus.html?_r=0/ New York Times.com]</ref> Mary Ellen named her daughter, Etta, after Etta Wheeler.
-In 1888 at age 24, Mary Ellen married Lewis Schutt. They had two children together. Schutt had three children from his previous marriage, and they later adopted an orphaned girl. Mary Ellen died in 1956, at 92.<ref name=light/>
-== See also ==
-{{col-begin}}
-{{col-break}}
-* [[Child abuse]]
-* [[Physical abuse]]
-{{col-break}}
-* [[Timeline of young people's rights in the United States]]
-{{col-end}}
-== References ==
-{{reflist}}
-==Further reading==
-* ''Out of the Darkness: The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson'' (1999). Dolphin Moon Publishing. Authors: Eric A. Shelman & Stephen Lazoritz, M.D.[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0966940008]
-* ''Case #1: The Mary Ellen Wilson Files'' (2012). Dolphin Moon Publishing. Authors: Eric A. Shelman & Stephen Lazoritz, M.D.[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0984925538] (This book previously released as "The Mary Ellen Wilson Child Abuse Case and the Beginning of Children's Rights in America.)
-==External links==
-* [http://www.americanhumane.org/about-us/who-we-are/history/mary-ellen-wilson.html American Humane Association]
-* [https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A05E1D61039EF34BC4952DFB266838F669FDE Waifs and Strays], ''The New York Times'', April 11, 1874
-* [https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D03EFD61039EF34BC4A52DFB266838F669FDE Mary Ellen Wilson; Further Testimony As To The Child's Ill Treatment By Her Guardians], ''The New York Times'', April 12, 1874
-* [https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F01E7DF1139EF34BC4C52DFB266838F669FDE Mary Ellen Wilson; Further Testimony In The Case—Two Indictments Found Against Mrs. Connolly By The Grand Jury], ''The New York Times'', April 14, 1874
-* [https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9800EEDF1139EF34BC4E52DFB266838F669FDE Our City Charities Versus The Case Of Mary Ellen], ''The New York Times'', April 16, 1874
-* [https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9904E6DE1139EF34BC4F52DFB266838F669FDE Prevention Of Cruelty To Children], ''The New York Times'', April 17, 1874
-* [https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9903EEDD1139EF34BC4051DFB266838F669FDE Mary Ellen Wilson; Mrs. Connolly, the Guardian, Found Guilty, And Sentenced To One Year's Imprisonment At Hard Labor], ''The New York Times'', April 28, 1874
-* [https://www.amazon.com/Out-Darkness-Story-Ellen-Wilson/dp/0966940008/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431695694&sr=8-1&keywords=Mary+Ellen+Wilson+Out+of+the+Darkness],"Print, Kindle and Audiobook links for Out of the Darkness: The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson."
-{{Authority control}}
-{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Mary Ellen}}
-[[Category:1864 births]]
-[[Category:1956 deaths]]
-[[Category:Child abuse in the United States]]
-[[Category:Crimes in New York City]]
-[[Category:New York Supreme Court]]