Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-10-15
THE Remarkable history
OF ELLIS GLEN, TO BE PUT ON
TRIAL FOR FORGsERYiIN
WOOD COUN4rY.
IF FACTS ALLEGEDaARE TRUE
SHE WAS -CONyICTEgo AS A MAN
IN ILLINOIS.
Born In Webster County in 1856
Her Real Name Being Cora Alice
Cunningham-A Detailed and Re-
markably TnterestinEsStory of an
Unique Parsonage.

0DCCtQi = LllC
PARKERSBURG, W. Va, October IA.
The trial of Ellis Glenn for forgery,
which will be begun in the Criminal
Court Of Wood county tomorrow, will
bring before the public again one of
the most remarkable women Of the
present age The story of her career
is stranger than fiction, and there is
about her q mystery which has never
yet been solved.
Ellis Glenn is charged with being,
and is supposed to'be, the same person
who was convicted as in Hills
boro, HIS, last fall and was sentenced
to the Illinois penitentiary for~forg-
cry. When the prisoner was taken to
the penitentiary it was discovered that
instead OF Being a man she was a wo-
man, and the warden declined to re-
ceive her. Vale the officers were try
ing to determine what to do with her,
the Governor of West Virginia issued
his reQuisition for her, and it being
honored, she was brought here for trial
ON a charge Of forgery committed in
this county.
Her defense is that she is the wrong
person. She says she was never in
West Virginia until she was brought
here a prisoner and that at the time the
forgery is alleged to have been COM
mited she was travelling in England
as a Gypsy queen. She says she has a
twin brother who looks SO much like
her that they can not be distinguished
when dressed alike, and her counsel
says that it is this brother who com
mitted the crime and was convicted
in Illinois and that On his way to the
~penitentiary he was switched by the
sister, who took his place and who is
now here on trial for another crime
of which, if either OF them is guilty,
he is. He also says that if Ellis Glenn
is convicted the twin brother, E. B.
Glenn, will appear and save her from
the p~enitentiary.
If Ellis Glenn is the person she is
believed to be, she was born in Web
ster county, w. Va, in 1865, and her
name was Cora Alice Cunningham.
She married M. C. RAIDER, and while
divorce proceedings were pending he
was killed by Bill Coe, who recently
died in the ~penitentiary. After two
o marital experiences she was re-
ported to have died in Florida and her
child was sent to her mother, who still
resides in Webster county. 1t was
after her reported death that the mys-
ferrous E. B. Glenn sprang into motor
iety, and it is supposed that his birth
dates from her death. In an account
of her life she states that she died and
was buried in Florida and was dug up
by grave robbers.
In the fall Of 1896, if the charge
against her be true, Ellis Glenn went
to Williamstown, a small town in this
county, and in mans attire, represent
ing herself to be a man, going by the
name of Bert Glenn and signing her
name E. B. Glenn, she remained there
for more than six months. During
that time she performed a mans work
for her employer, courted and became
engaged to a young woman, visited
saloons and pleasure resorts with the
young men, slept for several weeks in
the same oom and in the same bed
with a man and until the story appear
ed in the papers of her discovery at
the Illinois ~penitentiary and her pic
ture was printed, no one suspected
that she was not a a M. J.. Byersf
at whose hotel she spent most of the
time while she was at WilliamstoWn.
says that she was .one Of the most
competent persons he even had about
the place. When she arrived there Mr..
Byers was adding to his hotel and she
secured employment as a carpenter.
She built an addition to his hotel al
most without help, laid the flooring,
put up the ceilings and was a very
good carpenter. The addition she
built still stands.
When the addition was put up Mr..
Byers wanted gas in it. so she plufnbed
the house and the fixtures she put in
are still in use.
With the spirit of improvement ON
him, Mr.. Byers wanted the hotel paint
ed, and Ellis painted it on the outside
and then went over all the woodwork
on the interior. Then she took up the
work of sign painter and painted a neat
large sign for the hotel.
AAhOhS buC ONuC improvements 10 UQo
house Mr.. Byers had his guest rooms
newly papered, and it was Glenn who
did the work. She papered every room
in the house, and did a good job. She
would often work after hours and do
w-all-papering or other work for per-
sons in the town. Once she was on a
step-ladder papering the house of
Squire Beeson after 1ler hours for work
at the hotel were over. She had her
a off, and the Squire, walking by,
remarked: Glenn, you are a chunky
little fellow, aren't your" Coming
down from the ladder, she put on her
coat with the remark that she was not
built like most men, and she was never
afterward seen with her coat off.
After the repairs to the hotel were
completed, Glenn laid the brick side
walk in front of the house and the stone
walk at the side, both Of which are
still in use, and attest the character of
the work she did.
During the winter of 1867 Mr.. Byers
opened a meat shop in the small room
that Glenn had built, plumbed and
painted. Glenn was put in charge of
the meat shop, and Mr.. Byers says he
never saw anyone who could put up
meat so well and so easily as she.
Later on, when the meat shop ceased
to be profitable, it was closed and a
barber shop opened in the room. Here