Essie Shelly

 
The Cartersville American
Cartersville, Georgia
November 11, 1884, page 3
 
Transcribed by:  
 

A First Class Fiend.
A Beautiful and Innocent Child, Debauched by an Unfeeling and Inhuman Uncle, Dies in Cartersville.

A few years ago a poor but respectable little girl was attending the Acworth high school.  She was the only child of a widowed mother. Distinguished for her amiability, her great personal beauty, and her sweetness of disposition, little Essie Shelly was beloved by all of her school mates and acquaintances. She was a child of more than average intelligence, and this, coupled with close application to her studies, made her progress at school satisfactory alike to both mother and daughter.

Bill Williams, of Rockmart, Georgia, a Mormon and uncle of little Dessie, after frequent importunities, succeeded in gaining the consent of her mother to let her live with him as a companion for his daughter. He professed great affection for the child, and offered to support and school her….Little did she—little did her mother—dream that in going into the home of this fiend incarnate, she was entering the gateway to death and hell. Without means of support, and shorn of her virtue, she was driven from his door last Aug. Her mother found in Cartersville a home for herself and her daughter…Thursday morning last she gave birth to a child…She was buried today. She was barely fifteen years old. Her baby, a little girl, is still alive. [Article continues.]

 

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