This little sketch of Miss Ellis's life and work owes its first
suggestion to Rev. J. Ll. Jones, of Chicago, who soon after her death
wrote: "Why not try for a little memorial of her, to be accompanied with
some of the most touching and searching extracts from the letters both
received and written by her, and make it into a little booklet for the
instruction of Post Office Mission Workers?... Can you not make it
something as touching as 'Miss Toosey,' and far more practical,--that
is, for our own little household of faith?... We do not want it
primarily as a missionary tool, but as a wee fragment of the spiritual
history of the world,--something that will lift and touch the soul of
everybody.... In short, give us an enlightened Miss Toosey; her mission
being as much stronger as Sallie Ellis was more rational and mature than
the original 'Miss Toosey'!"
No one knowing Miss Ellis could read the touching little story of "Miss
Toosey's Mission" without being struck by a resemblance in the
characters, though a resemblance with a marked difference. As one said,
"I never saw her going up the church aisle Sundays, with her audiphone,
her little satchel, her bundle of books and papers, and her hymn-book,
without thinking of Miss Toosey." In both lives a seemingly powerless
and insignificant personality, through the force of a great yearning to
do a bit of God's work in the world, achieved its longing far beyond its
fondest dreams. As I read the many letters from all over the country
that have come since Miss Ellis's death, as I realize how the spiritual
force that burned in the soul of this small, feeble, seemingly helpless
woman reached out afar and touched many lives for their enduring
ennoblement, her life, so meagre and cramped in its outward aspect, so
vivid and intense within and on paper, seems to me not without a touch
of romance. To perpetuate a little longer the influence of that life is
the object of this sketch.
* * * * *
SALLIE ELLIS was born in Cincinnati, March 13, 1835. The old-fashioned
name Sallie, at that time popular in the South and West, was given her
in honor of an aunt. She disliked sailing under the false colors of
"Sarah." In letters she usually signed herself "S. Ellis," because, as
she explained to one correspondent, "I do not know myself as _Sarah_,
and Sallie is not dignified enough in writing to strangers; so I usually
prefer plain S." Late in life, however, for reasons of dignity, she
sometimes felt forced to adopt Sarah as what she called her "official
signature."
Her father, Mr. Rowland Ellis, was born in Boston, but while yet young
removed to Cincinnati, where he still lives in a vigorous and honored
old age. Although his mother, in all her later years at least, was a
devoted attendant upon Theodore Parker's services, Mr. Ellis in early
life was a Baptist. But when the Unitarian Church was founded at
Cincinnati, in 1830, his name appears among the organizers, of whom he
is almost the sole survivor. Of that church he has always been a devoted
supporter and constant attendant. He was a leading banker of the West,
and Sallie was born into one of the most elegant and luxurious homes in
Cincinnati. The Ellises kept open house, exercised the most generous
hospitality, and made, as one says who knew them well then, "such a
beautiful use of their money. The Ellises were just the people who
_ought_ to have money." Mrs. Ellis is described as a woman of unusual
loveliness of character. Out of the eight children, Sallie was thought
to be the mother's favorite, because, it was supposed, she was always
puny, shy, and delicate. "Sallie shall always have what she wants," said
the mother, "because she wants so little." But mothers _know_, and
undoubtedly the mother saw deeper than others into the rare spiritual
quality concealed from the world under her delicate child's quiet,
reserved exterior. Her older sister remembers of Sallie's childhood: "As
a very young child she exhibited strongly marked peculiarities of
character. Her affection, conscientiousness, piety, and love of duty
made her different from the rest of us as children. I remember well that
at home or at school there were never any rebukes for Sallie. Though
very social by nature, as young as at five and six years of age she
loved to be alone, and would sit in the corner of her mother's room,
with face turned to the corner, musing, and talking in a low tone to her
doll. When our father and mother would take the children to
entertainments of various descriptions, such as children enjoy, Sallie
would invariably express her preference to remain at home. If she
thought her parents wanted her to go, she went."
For some years Sallie attended the private school of Mrs. Anne Ryland,
an English Unitarian (a former parishioner, I think, of Rev. Laut
Carpenter, and connected by marriage with Rev. Brooke Herford), a lady
of noble character, and a teacher whose culture and methods were in
advance of her age. In a volume of poetry presented Sallie by this
teacher, is this inscription, whose old-fashioned quaintness of phrase
pictures for us the Sallie Ellis of thirteen, then, as always, faithful
to duty.
"Mrs. Ryland has been much gratified by the general deportment of
Miss Sallie Ellis since she has been under her charge. Miss Ellis
has evinced an evident desire to please, by a strict observance of
the rules of the school, and by assiduous and persevering attention
to all her studies. She has made improvement in them all fully
commensurate with her laudable endeavors, in Grammar, Geography,
and Orthography particularly. It is with unfeigned regret that Mrs.
Ryland has to add, to the foregoing expression of her approval of
her dear pupil's conduct, the last word,--Farewell."
Later, she attended the private school of Rev. William Silsbee, who says
of her, "She was always studious and well-behaved, one of the most
faithful of all my pupils." Mr. M. Hazen White, for so many years
superintendent of the Unitarian Sunday school, was also one of her
teachers. When seventeen, she was sent to Mrs. Charles Sedgwick's
school, in Lenox, Mass. A schoolmate describes her then as a quite
pretty, black-eyed girl, of delicate physique, a good and studious but
not brilliant scholar, very quiet and retiring, and almost morbidly
reserved. The few friends she made here, however, were life-long, and
she corresponded with some of the Lenox schoolmates until her death.
"She was a perfect dancer," says the schoolmate.
Treasured among Miss Ellis's papers were found some pages of a
schoolgirl's album, marked, "At Mrs. Sedgwick's School, Lenox, Mass.,
March, 1852." It contains verses descriptive of each pupil, written
apparently by Mrs. Sedgwick. The little pen-picture of the schoolgirl
paints well the woman of later years.