Mary Ellen was the daughter of America Mouser and William A. Pruitt. Per family lore and a person who was familiar with the majority of graves in this cemetery, Mary Ellen is actually buried in the "Gillett Sisters" grave due to the notoriety concerning she and her sister's deaths at the hand of their mother on November 22, 1888. While there was a family named Gillett living near the Pruitt's, no evidence has been found that they had daughters.
Article from the Abilene Daily Reflector, Abilene, Kansas, 27 November 1888 reads...
SHOCKING MURDER OF TWO CHILDREN AND SUICIDE OF THE MOTHER
Ozark, Missouri , November 26 - Hon. A. S. Prather and Circuit ClerkkR. S. Bronson, of Taney County, have arrived here from Forsyth, bringing news of a horrible tragedy which occurred on Bull Creek, eighteen miles south of Ozark. William Pruitt, an old citizen of Taney County, who has lived on Bull Creek for nearly thirty years, returned home from a house-raising in the neighborhood, finding his two daughters, Maggie and Ellen, aged eleven and twelve years respectively, lying on the floor, unconscious and shockingly mutilated on the head and face. A bloody hatchet lying on the floor near the prostrate and bleeding bodies of the little girls showed that it had been the instrument used in the savage work. The mother of the girls, Mrs. America Pruitt, who had been at home with the two children during the day, could not be found about the place, and the revolting suspicion at once took possession of the distracted father that she had been the agent of the terrible tragedy. The neighbors were quickly called in to minister to the unconscious children and search for the missing mother. The woman was tracked about a quarter of a mile and found in the woods with her throat cut from ear to ear, the lifeless hand still grasping the razor that did the fatal work. No cause for the unnatural horror, except the sudden frenzy of the mother, can be suggested. Maggie is dead and Ellen is considered hopeless. (Newspaper article sent courtesy Mary Achterhof).
Article from the Abilene Daily Reflector, Abilene, Kansas, 27 November 1888 reads...
SHOCKING MURDER OF TWO CHILDREN AND SUICIDE OF THE MOTHER
Ozark, Missouri , November 26 - Hon. A. S. Prather and Circuit ClerkkR. S. Bronson, of Taney County, have arrived here from Forsyth, bringing news of a horrible tragedy which occurred on Bull Creek, eighteen miles south of Ozark. William Pruitt, an old citizen of Taney County, who has lived on Bull Creek for nearly thirty years, returned home from a house-raising in the neighborhood, finding his two daughters, Maggie and Ellen, aged eleven and twelve years respectively, lying on the floor, unconscious and shockingly mutilated on the head and face. A bloody hatchet lying on the floor near the prostrate and bleeding bodies of the little girls showed that it had been the instrument used in the savage work. The mother of the girls, Mrs. America Pruitt, who had been at home with the two children during the day, could not be found about the place, and the revolting suspicion at once took possession of the distracted father that she had been the agent of the terrible tragedy. The neighbors were quickly called in to minister to the unconscious children and search for the missing mother. The woman was tracked about a quarter of a mile and found in the woods with her throat cut from ear to ear, the lifeless hand still grasping the razor that did the fatal work. No cause for the unnatural horror, except the sudden frenzy of the mother, can be suggested. Maggie is dead and Ellen is considered hopeless. (Newspaper article sent courtesy Mary Achterhof).
Mary Ellen was the daughter of America Mouser and William A. Pruitt. Per family lore and a person who was familiar with the majority of graves in this cemetery, Mary Ellen is actually buried in the "Gillett Sisters" grave due to the notoriety concerning she and her sister's deaths at the hand of their mother on November 22, 1888. While there was a family named Gillett living near the Pruitt's, no evidence has been found that they had daughters.
Article from the Abilene Daily Reflector, Abilene, Kansas, 27 November 1888 reads...
SHOCKING MURDER OF TWO CHILDREN AND SUICIDE OF THE MOTHER
Ozark, Missouri , November 26 - Hon. A. S. Prather and Circuit ClerkkR. S. Bronson, of Taney County, have arrived here from Forsyth, bringing news of a horrible tragedy which occurred on Bull Creek, eighteen miles south of Ozark. William Pruitt, an old citizen of Taney County, who has lived on Bull Creek for nearly thirty years, returned home from a house-raising in the neighborhood, finding his two daughters, Maggie and Ellen, aged eleven and twelve years respectively, lying on the floor, unconscious and shockingly mutilated on the head and face. A bloody hatchet lying on the floor near the prostrate and bleeding bodies of the little girls showed that it had been the instrument used in the savage work. The mother of the girls, Mrs. America Pruitt, who had been at home with the two children during the day, could not be found about the place, and the revolting suspicion at once took possession of the distracted father that she had been the agent of the terrible tragedy. The neighbors were quickly called in to minister to the unconscious children and search for the missing mother. The woman was tracked about a quarter of a mile and found in the woods with her throat cut from ear to ear, the lifeless hand still grasping the razor that did the fatal work. No cause for the unnatural horror, except the sudden frenzy of the mother, can be suggested. Maggie is dead and Ellen is considered hopeless. (Newspaper article sent courtesy Mary Achterhof).
Article from the Abilene Daily Reflector, Abilene, Kansas, 27 November 1888 reads...
SHOCKING MURDER OF TWO CHILDREN AND SUICIDE OF THE MOTHER
Ozark, Missouri , November 26 - Hon. A. S. Prather and Circuit ClerkkR. S. Bronson, of Taney County, have arrived here from Forsyth, bringing news of a horrible tragedy which occurred on Bull Creek, eighteen miles south of Ozark. William Pruitt, an old citizen of Taney County, who has lived on Bull Creek for nearly thirty years, returned home from a house-raising in the neighborhood, finding his two daughters, Maggie and Ellen, aged eleven and twelve years respectively, lying on the floor, unconscious and shockingly mutilated on the head and face. A bloody hatchet lying on the floor near the prostrate and bleeding bodies of the little girls showed that it had been the instrument used in the savage work. The mother of the girls, Mrs. America Pruitt, who had been at home with the two children during the day, could not be found about the place, and the revolting suspicion at once took possession of the distracted father that she had been the agent of the terrible tragedy. The neighbors were quickly called in to minister to the unconscious children and search for the missing mother. The woman was tracked about a quarter of a mile and found in the woods with her throat cut from ear to ear, the lifeless hand still grasping the razor that did the fatal work. No cause for the unnatural horror, except the sudden frenzy of the mother, can be suggested. Maggie is dead and Ellen is considered hopeless. (Newspaper article sent courtesy Mary Achterhof).
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