When Ms. Etta Wheeler went to the police in December of 1873 they denied her request for an intervention. When she asked charities for assistance, they said what she was doing was illegal, and they refused involvement. Ms. Wheeler soon turned to the philanthropist Mr. Henry Bergh, and beseeched him for assistance. Finally, after three months, the two were able to accomplish her goal. What? you ask, could have been the cause for Ms. Wheeler’s concern, the motive for her request to the police, charities, and the founder of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Animals (NYSPCC)? A stray dog? An underfed horse? No, Ms. Wheeler had been attempting to help a child, a violently physically and emotionally abused human being.
During the early existence of the United States, laws against assault and therefore abuse did not have jurisdiction in a home, no matter the situation. Legal guardians had total control over the treatment of their children. Judges were loath to separate families, so few children were ever protected from abuse by the law, and the abuse of orphans was widespread in New York City. In 1866 Bergh created the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, giving a confidence boost to children’s rights proponents. As the factors began to converge, one little girl stood out to Ms. Wheeler. Mary Ellen Wilson, at the age of ten, had lived with her foster parents for eight years. The treatment of Mary Ellen Wilson by her guardians prior to her rescue sparked the movement to create the NYSPCC.
Because New York was a densely populated city with many orphans, altruistic citizens had created orphanages for the parentless youth. However, there was little regulation, so when Mary McCormack and her husband Thomas showed up at the Department of Charities to select a child, no questions were asked. They left that day with little Mary Ellen Wilson, an abandoned orphan. By 1873 Thomas had died and Mary Connolly had remarried one Francis...