Ellen Smith:1892, Winston Salem, North Carolina

    

   Fans of bluegrass music have probably heard multiple versions of the song “Poor Ellen Smith” over the years. It’s a bluegrass standard and part of a long tradition of Appalachian Murder Ballads. (Don’t let anyone tell you that the interest in true crime stories is a fad. People have always been drawn to the genre.) 

   But, did you know that Ellen Smith was a real person? 

   Ellen Smith was a young woman who lived in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was a servant in the home of Mr. Kennie Rose of 5th Street. 

   On July 20th, 1892, she went out to a rural area for a picnic at a spring. It was a Wednesday and a good day for the young servant to have her day off. She and the fellow she was with might have eaten cold fried chicken, pickles, fruit and biscuits. They might have cooled their feet in the spring. They were seen seated on the grass. Ellen was sitting upright and her date was reclining with his head on Ellen’s lap. 

  It sounds like a lovely summer day. Two young people who were happy and perhaps in love. But the day turned from delight to horror. Only the young man walked away from that idyllic picnic. 

   Ellen Smith was found at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday July, 20th,1892  by a lady named Hattie Pratt. Ms. Pratt was a laundress at a hotel in town called The Zinzindorf.

   Ellen had been shot in the chest. She was laying in a wooded area about a mile and a half behind the Zinzindorf Hotel. She was described as fully clothed. She was wearing a white cotton shirt waist with black pinstripes and a brown skirt. Her hat had been placed over her face or had fallen to that position. 

  Her hat pin was found nearby. Was she trying to defend herself with the hat pin? A white apron was found tied to a shrub nearby. 

  One article reported that she was found face down. 

   The sheriff was sent for. He called together a jury right then to go to the scene of the crime. Jury members poked around the body of Ellen Smith and asked questions of Ms. Hattie Pratt. Someone grabbed the apron that was tied to a shrub and placed it over Ellen’s face. They tramped around looking for clues. They found a red handkerchief. They all waited for a stretcher to arrive so that Ellen’s body could be taken into town to whatever room served as a morgue. 

 

   Ms. Pratt, the lady who originally discovered Ellen’s body, was an African American woman and I am sure that this questioning had to be nerve wracking for her. Perhaps the crowd would blame her. 

   Peter DeGraff was the young man seen with Ellen on Wednesday, July 20th, 1892. Another young man came forward to state that he had written a letter for Ellen to Peter DeGraff. (It seems that Ellen must not have been literate. Most of the population in 1892 was not able to read and write. She was a servant and from a poor and rural upbringing so this isn’t too surprising.) The letter that was dictated by Ellen stated that she never wanted to see DeGraff again and was returning his handkerchief. 

  Who was Peter DeGraff? He was the son of a basket maker. He had grown up in the Winston-Salem area and had worked as a bartender in some of the smaller taverns scattered around the area. Some newspaper articles call him Col. Peter DeGraff.  I am not sure that he was actually a Colonel, though. His father claimed to be a descendant of Count DeGrasse. (Francois Joseph Paul DeGrasse was a French Admiral who won a crucial battle in the Revolutionary War against the British at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781.)

  If you are anything like me; you’re wondering about the motive. Was Ellen pregnant? Was DeGraff jealous of someone else? She was only a servant so robbery was not a motive. She was found fully clothed so sexual assault is likely ruled out. 

  It seems that Ellen had returned to town recently from her childhood home in Yadkin County. Months earlier she had been pregnant by Peter DeGraff. He had helped her get home to Yadkin County after her employer, Mr. Kennie Rose, had turned her out due to her out of wedlock pregnancy. Ellen had given birth at home but the child sadly died not long afterward. Ellen Smith then returned back to Winston-Salem and back to work cooking for the Rose family. Peter DeGraff and she continued their tumultuous relationship. They were seen fighting on a few occasions. 

   I imagine that Ellen was hoping that Peter DeGraff would shape up and possibly marry her. The social mores at the time dictated that it was his duty to marry her. But, Peter DeGraff was not a man who cared about being an upstanding member of society. 

   After the murder of Ellen Smith, Peter DeGraff took to the woods and cornfields and hid successfully from the sheriff and his deputies. He would pop into town now and then for a drink or two at a local bar. DeGraff even jokingly drank a toast to the health of Sheriff Teague at one of the bars with his friends. 

   People would spot him and report it but still no arrest was made. The general public was becoming increasingly outraged.  Ellen Smith had not had a good reputation and did not have many close friends in town but public sympathy definitely fell in her favor. Victim blaming was not winning in 1892 Winston- Salem.

   

   On November 24th of 1892, the Hotel Zinzindorf burned to the ground. The loss was estimated to be $140,000 dollars. It was hoped that the hotel would help Winston-Salem become a popular resort town. Most of the contents of the hotel were saved. 

   Peter DeGraff was captured in June of 1893 and people hoped that Ellen Smith would finally get some Justice. 

   Finally in August of 1893, Peter DeGraff was tried and convicted for the murder of Ellen Smith. Her Aunt, Miss Rose Smith, had traveled from Yadkin County and was in the stifling hot courtroom each day. 

  DeGraff was found guilty and was scheduled to hang on October 21st 1893 but an appeal successfully put that hanging date off. 

  One of Peter’s friends had a poem published in the paper that tried to elicit sympathy for Peter. 

  In 1893, the United States experienced an economic depression that began with The Panic of 1893. Railroads were being built at a fast pace after the Civil War. Not all of these railroad building developments were profitable. There was a considerable amount of debt and default on loans. There was also a lack of faith in the gold standard as well. A severe economic depression enveloped the nation. Public sentiment was definitely not on the side of those who had power and influence and friends in high places. Peter DeGraff had all of those things. 

  People all over the country were very much feeling that the powerful often got away with murder whether that was literally or figuratively. The poor, weak and downtrodden were usually the victims. 

  On Friday, February 9, 1894, Peter DeGraff was hanged for the murder of poor Ellen Smith.  A crowd of about 6,000 people had gathered to watch the hanging that took place about three miles outside the city. That’s a big crowd. It seems many people were very interested in seeing Justice done. (Perhaps some just wanted to see a gruesome hanging.) It is remarkable that 6,000 people came out on a cold February day to watch this man hang. 

  At 12:52 p.m. “the drop fell, his neck was broken and life declared extinct within 7 minutes”. (It sounds to me like his neck wasn’t actually broken but that he was strangled if it took seven minutes.) 

  The author of the song about Ellen is not known.  But, it gained popularity over time. It was recorded by many bluegrass and folk artists and is a Bluegrass standard. Murder ballads were a way to encourage empathy for victims. Most were about the murders of women or children. Encouraging more empathy and compassion was a way to help influence society. And in a time when many people could not read a song went a lot farther than an editorial in a newspaper. People who couldn’t read could still sing a song and remember lyrics. And so, Ellen Smith is remembered even today. 

  Rest in Peace, Ellen.