Humane Society Finds Crippled Girl Tied to Chair for 'Mother's Sin'

February 5, 1938

UNIONTOWN, Pa., Feb. 5
Humane agencies today investigated the strange case of a 5-year-old girl who, they charged, had been hidden in a room of a farmer's home since infancy.

E. M. Smith of the Western Pennsylvania Humane society said the child, crippled and undernourished, had been found tied to an old chair in a storage room on the second floor of the home of David Harris, about 17 miles from Uniontown.

Smith brought charges of negligence to a minor against Harris and his daughter, Martha. Both will receive a hearing Monday before a justice of the peace.

Smith quoted Harris as saying the child was illegitimate and had been kept in the room as "a sort of punishment" for his daughter's "second sin."

The humane officer reported he found the child after a complaint had been received from the woman's club of Star Junction, nearby. He said the child was wedged into the chair, which was tilted backwards to rest on a coal bucket, her spindly arms tied above her head. She was unable to talk or move, he said

Martha, he reported, said she fed and cared for the child.

Drs. J. F. Kerr and D. P. Newell said the child was undernourished, that the bones in her legs were softened and twisted out of normal shape and that she was suffering from rickets.

Humane society officers reported that Harris believed his action waa justified.

Smith and Mrs. Helen Reagan, a probation officer, quoted Harris as saying:

"I made her keep it up there, care for it and feed it as a sort of punishment. I forgave her first sin, but not the second."

The mother said the girl's father was a well-to-do farmer. Humane society officials withheld his name.

The tot's only semblance to normal expression was a lusty wail when given a tub bath at the county home where she was taken.

The child weighed 31 pounds. An attending physician said the normal child of her age weighs 52 pounds.

Dr. James B. Van Gilder said, "this is a case of malnutrition, I think with capable nursing she will pull through in about six months.