Ella Ewing

Lore & Background

Ella Ewing was born in La Grange, Missouri, the only child of Benjamin F. and Anna Eliza Ewing. While a toddler, her family moved to the small Scotland County community of Rainbow, southeast of Gorin, Missouri. She was of normal size as a baby and young child, with the first signs of abnormality appearing shortly after her seventh birthday. At age fourteen she towered over not only other children but her parents and other adults, measuring 6 feet 10 inches. The people of the Rainbow and Gorin area met her fast growth with compassion; however, in 1885 Ewing learned that would not always be the case in the world at large. Asked to read the Declaration of Independence at a July 4 celebration in Wyaconda, Missouri, she was met with shocked gasps, snickers and laughter when she stood to read. Led away in tears, the incident had a profound effect on her life.

Ewing initially resisted exhibiting herself in public but eventually concluded that if people were going to stare, she might as well earn a living from it. Her Baptist faith remained central to her life, and throughout her career she refused to appear on Sundays. In 1892, at age 20, she began her professional career when Chicago showman Lewis Epstein offered her $1,000 for a 27-day engagement at his museum. The agreement allowed her parents to accompany her, and the family treated the trip as both work and a vacation. After returning to Gorin, Epstein offered her a second contract worth $5,000 for a five-month engagement, a sum her father believed would have taken him several years to earn through farming. For the next two decades, Ewing toured with museums, fairs, and circus exhibitions throughout the United States, promoted as the 'Missouri Giantess' and, for a time, by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as the 'Tallest Woman on Earth.' Away from the platform, contemporary accounts described Ewing as 'handy with her needle' and fond of music.

The income from her exhibitions allowed Ewing to support her parents financially, purchase a 120-acre farm near Gorin, and build a custom-designed home with extra-high ceilings, doors, and windows to accommodate her stature. Her travels also exposed her to places she otherwise would not have seen and broadened her education. By the early 1910s, declining health gradually forced her to reduce her public appearances. She died at her home near Gorin on January 10, 1913, at age 40 from tuberculosis and pneumonia. Ewing requested cremation because she feared her body would become the object of scientific examination or public curiosity after death, but her father instead chose a traditional burial. Because no commercially manufactured casket was large enough, a custom-built casket and matching burial vault were commissioned, and a horse-drawn hearse was modified to accommodate the unusually long casket. Three days later, large crowds attended her funeral despite a severe winter storm, and ten pallbearers were needed to carry the casket. She was buried at Harmony Grove Baptist Church Cemetery near Gorin in the sealed burial vault, which was lined with concrete to discourage grave robbing.

Reader's Guide

Ella Ewing's significance lies in her status as the world's tallest female of her era and her career as a sideshow performer who turned public curiosity into a livelihood. Her height, likely due to pituitary gigantism, was never conclusively documented, leading to varying estimates—from 7 feet 4.5 inches to 8 feet 4 inches—and preventing official recognition by Guinness World Records as the tallest woman in history. Ewing's story illustrates the challenges faced by individuals with extraordinary physical differences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including public ridicule and the pressure to exhibit oneself for income. Her legacy endures in Scotland County, Missouri, where an 'Ella Ewing Reservoir' for fishing and an arts festival in Memphis, Missouri, are named for her. Her life also highlights the tension between personal dignity and commercial exploitation, as well as the practical difficulties of living with extreme stature, from custom-made shoes and rings to a specially designed home and casket.

Did You Know?

• Ewing was of normal size until shortly after her seventh birthday, when she began growing unusually quickly.
• At age 14, she stood 6 feet 10 inches tall, towering over her parents and other adults.
• Her father, Benjamin Ewing, chose a traditional burial over her request for cremation, and the casket was custom-built because no commercially manufactured one was large enough.