Genealogy researchers delight in uncovering the mysteries of their ancestors.
Grandma Doris Brayton, who taught me to knit, crochet and play canasta, often mentioned that Gen. George Custer was part of our family tree.
I remember talking about my long lost relative at show and tell in elementary school.
Diane Head of Camano Island has a tall tale to share about her roots. Her cousin, Ella Ewing, known as the “Missouri Giantess,” is a person of legend. She was said to be either 7 feet, 6 inches tall or 8-foot-4.
Shaquille O’Neal is 7 feet, 1 inch tall.
Her height probably goes down in history at 8-4, as that is engraved on her tombstone. An only child, her mother was 5-foot-6 and her father was said to be 6-2.
“Our cousin, Pete Cameron, was the first to tell me about Ella,” Diane Head said. “My older brother, Bert Ewing, remembers family talk of Ella when we were visiting our grandparents.”
Here’s the best that I could put together.
Ella Ewing was born in 1872. She was the tallest person in her neighborhood at age 14. As happened to many folks of unusual stature or looks at the time, she made her living traveling with the Barnum and Bailey Circus, appearing in the human oddities tent.
Ewing built a home with her earnings, with a 9-foot-tall front door so she wouldn’t bump her head.
Ever the lady, she never traveled without a female companion for propriety’s sake. She was said to be a splendid conversationalist, retelling stories of her travels around her social circle.
She died in 1913 on a cold January morning of tuberculosis and pneumonia. Her death was more chronicled than her life.
Kathy Jenkins of Ohio collected information online about Ewing.
“She went to the same church as my grandmother,” Jenkins said by e-mail. “My grandmother was a little girl when she knew her. Ella and my grandparents and father, and other relatives, are buried in the same cemetery.”
Ella Ewing’s father, Ben, asked Fred Gerth to do the embalming at the family home.
“My husband’s grandfather, Fred Gerth, has long since passed away, and so has my husband’s father,” said relative Janet Gerth by e-mail. “My husband is John Frederick Gerth III, and we are continuing the funeral home that started in 1904.”
Fred Gerth rode in a buggy to the Ewing home. He brought a 6-foot-long table on which to place the body. Luckily, the family dining room chairs were so tall that the seat of the chairs was the same height as the portable table, called a cooling board. One of the specially built chairs at each end of the table did the trick to hold the 260-pound body.
Her father could not bear to honor his daughter’s wish for cremation. Ella Ewing feared robbers would vandalize her grave.
Gerth found an oversized display vault from the Embalming Burial Case Company in Iowa. A special casket was built.
The oversized casket was too long to fit on the horse-drawn hearse. Gerth, a clever fellow, maneuvered the casket under the driver’s seat so the coffin did not extend off the loading end.
At the cemetery, folks set up stoves in the yard to keep the large crowd warm at Harmony Grove Baptist Church.
Cement was poured over the vault so no one could snatch the body.
A statue of Ella Ewing may be found at Jefferson City, Mo. Ella Ewing Lake is good for fishing in Gorin, Mo. The Scotland County Historical Society, located in the Downing House in Memphis, Mo, displays items about Ewing. Downing House used to be a hotel, where Ewing would stay before returning home to Gorin after being on tour.
One of her specially made high-top shoes is a top attraction. Jenkins said Delaus Jesse Buford, her great-great uncle, traveled with Ewing through the West as her manager. He also donated one of her shoes to the museum.
It’s a size 24.
Shaquille O’Neal is said to wear a size 23.
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
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