Ellen Pucell Unthank
submitted by: Perry Kauffman
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Her mother, Margaret Pucell joined the Church of Jesus Christ & Latter Day Saints and got baptized in England. She was the second woman to be baptized there. When she got married to a man named Samuel, Ellen's mother kept a secret that she was baptized from Samuel. When Samuel told her that he was baptized too, they took Ellen when she was nine years old and her sister on a long path to get to Utah. On the way, her mother got very sick and her dad had to pull her in a hand cart. She died on the trail. Her father fell in a river in the cold and died too because of food shortage and the cold during the winter. On the trail a lot more people died in the cold.
Ellen Pucell’s feet were so frozen when they went to a doctor and took off her shoes, pieces of flesh came off so they strapped her to a board and used no anesthesia to cut off her legs below her knees. They didn't put the flesh back on the bone that was left.
She was always in pain but very tough. She walked on her knees by her next birthday. After a couple years. She got married and had kids. She wanted to be independent with her life. Her husband was poor so she had to do lots of work. She had six kids and she cleaned the floor of the log cabin she had in the lower end of Cedar City. She hardened the dirt floor so it was like concrete and she washed it while her kids did the windows and the walls. She was very proud and never asked for free things or favors. If someone gave her something, she always tried to give something back to them. There is a statue of her on the SUU campus to remember Ellen Pucell’s strength, bravery and courage, and she worked not to be expected to have anything fancy. And that is one of my ancestors Ellen Pucell Unthank.