Welcome to Court Appointed Special Advocates of Grayson County
The Case of Mary Ellen
Her name was Mary Ellen.
Mary Ellen's case took place in 1874. She's the reason child advocates are all here today. Although Mary Ellen is not actually with us today, she's here in spirit because her case is regarded as the beginning of public concern for the plight of abused and neglected children in the United States.
Mary Ellen was an illegitimate child whose mother and father died when she was a toddler. The New York Commission of Charities and Corrections gave her to a Mr. and Mrs. Connolly who were to care for her and report each year on her progress.
Instead, Mr. and Mrs. Connolly abused her. She was beaten, locked in a room, rarely allowed outside, and given very inadequate food and clothing.
A neighbor, upset by the child's screaming, told a mission worker about Mary Ellen, but the mission worker couldn't find anyone to intervene. The police had no grounds because no crime was being committed. The agencies wouldn't get involved because they didn't have legal custody.
An appeal was finally made to Henry Burgh, the founder and president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). He believed Mary Ellen should be entitled to at least the same protection against cruelty that was already given, by law, to animals. He took up her cause, and was able to persuade a judge to hear her case.
Mary Ellen was carried into the courtroom wrapped in a horse blanket. According to a news report, this is what she told the judge:
"My father and mother are dead. I don't know how old I am. I call Mrs. Connolly "Mama". I have never had but one pair of shoes, but I cannot recollect when that was... My bed at night has been only a piece of carpet stretched on the floor underneath a window. Mama has been in the habit of whipping and beating me almost every day. She used to whip me with a twisted whip - a rawhide. (Mama) struck me with the scissors and cut me ... I have no recollections of ever having been kissed by anyone... have never been kissed by Mama. Whenever Mama went out, I was locked up in the bedroom. I do not want to go back to live with Mama, because she beats me so."
Mary Ellen was removed from the Connolly's home. Her case stirred public attention, and complaints began to pour in to Henry Burgh. In fact, so many cases of child abuse came to light, a community meeting of citizens was called and an association "for the defense of outraged childhood" was formed. That association gave rise to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which was formally incorporated a year after Mary Ellen's case.
The need for child advocates continues. Read "Still Without a Voice".
