There's a claim I've seen mentioned on several websites considering a "Nellie Fortune" who, they allege, was a nun that escaped from a nun's convent in the United States but then was forced back there against her will in 1927. As is often the case with these sorts of things, it's difficult to figure out who first put it up because it's largely just copy/pasted. This isn't something that's really posted in too many places, but as I haven't seen anyone else do a real examination of this, I think it could be useful to explain the error in the claim that's posted.
So what is this error? Well, simply it's the fact it's false. She was never a nun, and rather than being imprisoned in a convent, she went back to Ireland, her home country.
Before I get into the specifics, however, I suppose I should post the account that gets copy/pasted around, in case anyone reading this is unaware of what I am talking about, and also to help people searching for information about it to find this post. So here it is.
Rome has won another victory, a victory which forever places a dark blot upon the history of one of the strongest Protestant counties in one of the strongest Protestant States in the Union Tipton County, Indiana.
Little Nellie Fortune, a girl of twenty years, Convent Number 096, saw a chance to escape. Although the night was bitter cold she made her way across fields, through woodlands and over streams, finally reaching a farm house a distance of five miles away, before the coming of daylight forced her to seek shelter She crept into an out-building and was found by a kindly farmer and was taken in and given food and clothing. This man was preparing to move and Nellie was taken to the home of a neighbor, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Fuller of the Rock Prairie community. Here she was welcomed and given a home by this good Protestant family.
She related the many things which take place behind the convent walls of St. Joseph's Convent, and said she could stand the conditions there no longer and resolved to escape or die in the attempt. She had come to America from Northern Ireland, and stated that conditions in the convents here were far worse than they were in Ireland.
She was happy in her new home, telling her benefactors that "it felt good to be a Protestant." Plans had been made for her to attend church and "be a real Protestant", as she expressed it.
Life was beginning to take on a brighter aspect for poor little Nellie Fortune. She had a good home. she had freedom, and what was more, human love and companionship. But her joy was to be short lived. The unrelenting hounds of Rome were hot on the trail. At last she was located. Sheriff Claud Louks, of Tipton, (elected on a 100 per cent ticket and sworn to defend the American home, etc.) was called and without a warrant or any authority, save the request of the church of Rome, went straightway to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fuller and seized the pleading, crying defenseless girl, who begged for her liberty and fought with her last ounce of strength to be permitted to remain with those who had befriended her. Mr. and Mrs. Fuller also pleaded and begged but to no avail.
Nellie was dragged back to the convent of St. Joseph, to face God alone knows what.
Where is Nellie Fortune tonight? What happened when she was dragged back to the convent ? What tortures did she have to suffer? Is she alive or has she told too much? God alone knows. She will never be permitted to see the light of day again. Probably if alive, she lies in a lonely, loathsome cell, hope all gone, longing for death to relieve her suffering.
What if she were your daughter, your sister? What are you going to do? Tomorrow may be too late. Let's do it now ! Will the world ever hear of Nellie Fortune again or is her life a sealed book. Abe Lincoln freed the slaves and we need another John Brown.
You may be wondering exactly what the "Menace, Feb., 1927" means. This presumably is saying that this was an article taken from The Menace, a Missouri newspaper that was extremely critical of Catholicism. I am not sure if some of the typos (e.g. the lack of a period between "shelter" and "she") were present in the original article or if they were added in the transcription of whoever first posted it online.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to confirm that this article was in it. Online archives of The Menace that I can find, even in subscription services, only go up the year 1919. While there are libraries with archives of The Menace near me, they do not include those from the year 1927. I also am unable to send in a request through a library to get digitally scanned copies from another library because I do not know what issue it was--I believe this was a weekly newspaper, but the week is not specified! Further, it leaves me unable to look at any subsequent issues, to see if perhaps they issued some kind of retraction or clarification. Still, I'll assume that this article was in fact from The Menace.
Before anything else, it is important to note that the above article is the only source offered for this, meaning this all comes from a highly sensationalist article attributed to a source with considerable bias. Even without any further investigation, someone should be very cautious to accept such an article like the above uncritically.
But with further investigation, a more full picture emerges. Thanks to newspapers.com and newspaperarchives.com, I was able to find some contemporary references to the incident that did not come from such a biased source. I'll offer links to the articles so you can see them; "N" will be newspapers.com and "NA" will be newspaperarchives.com. Unfortunately, neither service has all of the articles that will be cited, though all but one will be found on newspaperarchives.com. Both services currently offer a free trial, if your goal is to only look at these specific links and do not want to pay.
Anyway, first, here is a brief synopsis of the entire sequence of events offered by the The Indianapolis Times, March 3 p. 8 (NA) under "Tipton Academy Sends Girl Home":
TIPTON, Ind. March 3.–Sheriff Claude Louks has received word that Miss Nellie Fortune, who recently fled from St. Joseph's Academy here, has arrived in Ireland, her home.
Miss Fortune was one of several girls sent over from Ireland to enter the academy.
The girl became homesick and fled to the home of Charles Fuller. She was returned to the academy and a Tipton lawyer instituted habeas corpus proceedings, charging the girl was being held against her will. Circuit Judge Mount ruled in favor of the academy.
In the meantime academy authorities arranged to have Miss Fortune returned to her native country. Sister De Salles accompanied her to New York City, where she sailed for Ireland.
This is a quite different picture than the alarmist depiction that The Menace offers. (as a quick note, while The Menace uses "Charlie Fuller," the other newspapers that relate on this incident refer to him as Charles Fuller). She was a student at an academy, not a nun at a convent. Now, nuns did play a part in managing the school and had a convent adjacent to it, but they were still not the same thing. As explained here "In 1910 the St. Joseph Convent was built adjacent to the Academy." Further, The Indianapolis Times states she ran off because of homesickness, not because of poor treatment. And she wasn't locked up to "never be permitted to see the light of day again", but was returned to Ireland.
But you might claim that is only one source and that it is quite brief. Here is a more in-depth article found in February 28 of The Kokomo Tribune, page 1 (NA) and continued on page 3 (NA). It states, following some introductory material I'm omitting:
Nellie Fortune was brought to America a few months ago from Ireland to be placed in St. Joseph's Academy as a student. She acquired no rights of citizenship in this country, being admitted under that clause of the immigration law which permits foreigners to enter who bear good faith credentials for admission to an educational institution in this country. Miss Fortune was one of a number of Irish girls who came over together, all for the same purpose. All came as students and everyone of them was subject to deportation in the event of leaving the institution having their training in charge.
From the first, it is said, the Fortune girl was homesick. Usually that malady is overcome after a little while. Such was not the experience in her case. According to reports she wept almost constantly, finding nothing agreeable in her life in the academy, becoming unfit for the studies she was supposed to pursue and growing steadily more melancholy. Finally she slipped away from the institution, leaving no word as to her intentions. The academy authorities appealed to Sheriff Loucks for assistance in finding her. The girl had gone to the home of Charles Fuller five miles north of Tipton, where she had been taken in and cared for. She was there, it is understood, about a week. She was then brought to the home of Frank J. Kuntz in Kokomo.
While she was here, the fact of her presence became known to the police department. Desiring advice, Chief Benson and Kuntz went to Attorney J. C. Herron. When the facts were revealed to Herron, he informed them that the girl had no status of citizenship in this country, that by leaving the academy she had violated the clause of the immigration law under which she had been admitted, and that the prudent thing in order to avoid complications with the Federal officers, would be to return the girl to the academy to the end that it become responsible for her safety and welfare pending deportation.
The girl, it is understood, was returned to the Fuller home, and taken thence by Sheriff Loucks to the academy and committed to the care of those in charge there. In the meantime, it is said, certain persons who conceived the idea that the girl was being forcefully restrained at the academy and not realizing that the case was one for the Federal authorities, through a Tipton lawyer named Fletcher instituted a habeas corpus proceeding, designed to compel the academy authorities to produce the girl in the Tipton circuit court. Attorney Herron appeared in behalf of the academy at the heating before which the writ was sought. His presentation of the facts led to the proceedings being dropped.
While all this was going on, it is understood, the academy authorities were arranging to send the girl back to her home in Ireland, which they were bound to do as a matter of good faith with the Federal government, she having violated the terms of her admission to this country by secretly leaving the institution to which she had been committed as a student, and manifestly with a view to remaining away permanently.
The girl was brought to the Good Samaritan hospital in Kokomo, where she was cared for pending the completion of arrangements for her deportation. This consumed a day or two. When everything was in readiness, one of the sisters of the institution accompanied Miss Fortune to New York and saw her safely aboard a ship bound for an Irish port and with all steps necessary to her arrival home arranged for.
The word received by Sheriff Loucks reveals that the girl reached her destination on scheduled time, and it is assumed that back there, in the environment of her childhood, she is already fully recovered from the effects of the nostalgia which led to her novel adventure while in this country.
All of this blows a giant hole in the claim that she was a nun who was forcibly dragged back to a convent and imprisoned. As noted before, she was not a nun, which makes me wonder where the "Convent Number 096" came from... was that simply made up? Further, The Menace's claim that "she will never be permitted to see the light of day again" is clearly false, as were its speculations about her possibly being killed. And its declaration that the sheriff acted "without a warrant or any authority, save the request of the church of Rome" is false also, given that the federal government is an authority over immigration law. She was in America on what was effectively a student visa, and as people know, if you're no longer a student the visa no longer applies.
What of the claim that she was dragged against her will from the Fuller house? According to the sheriff's account (part of an article published in The Tipton Daily Tribune, February 28, p. 2 (NA) (N), he says:
I found by inquiry of the girl that she had no grievance against the school or those in charge of the same, but had reached that degree of homesickness that she had undertaken to leave the institution and in some manner–she knew not how–to return to Ireland. Knowing that a girl without funds or relatives to assist her had no possibility of getting back to her native land and that it was not to her interests to thus be at large, and without any force or corection [sic] I persuaded her to return to St. Joseph's Academy.
So according to him, she came willingly with him.
Obviously, the sheriff has incentive to make his portrayal positive, so we have to take it with a bit of a grain of salt. It seems that Charles/Charlie Fuller, who she was staying with, believed it was against her will as he was among those who brought the claim to court she was being restrained against her will, as was stated in The Tipton Daily Tribune, February 18, p. 8 (NA) (N):
The next day a party of men composed of Charles Fuller, his son William and two members of the Ku Klux Klan called on Sheriff Louks and demanded of that official that he go to the Convent and secure the girl, but the officer refused to do so explaining he had no authority to act. At the time it was stated a suit would be brought to secure the release of the girl, whom the committee from the Klan stated was being held against her will.
So his interpretation of the matter was that she had been taken away forcibly, and he enlisted the aid of the Ku Klux Klan to issue the lawsuit. However, this was denied in court, as stated in the earlier citations but also as reported more specifically in February 23 of The Noblesville Ledger, p. 1: (N)
Charles Fuller, who signed the Habeas Corpus petition, admitted the girl had never given him authority to bring the action.
(this article does have a misprint in referring to her as Nelle Fortune rather than Nellie Fortune) This article, notably, has "JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF MISS FORTUNE: No Evidence That She Wants Out of Catholic School" as its headline, giving credence to the claim that she returned willingly. However, other newspapers carrying the exact same article (it is credited to "United Press" so presumably various newspapers could run it; the others omit the typo) do not use that headline, so I am not sure if the headline was an addition by the newspaper or if that was something in the original issuance by United Press (e.g. the Indianapolis Times on February 22 p. 1 (NA) carried the same article, but had "CONVENT WINS GIRL'S CUSTODY: Judge Rules in Habeas Corpus Proceedings")
Nevertheless, it is affirmed that Fuller was never acting on the request of Nellie Fortune, but rather was acting on his own impetus. Still, it means his impression of the events was that she was being taken away by force, though he could have of course misunderstood the situation.
I am going to guess that the claim of The Menace that Nellie Fortune "begged for her liberty and fought with her last ounce of strength to be permitted to remain with those who had befriended her" as well as the more specific claims like that she said "it felt good to be a Protestant" came directly or indirectly from Fuller... well, assuming that The Menace didn't simply make them up. When I say "indirectly" from Fuller I mean the possibility he didn't say anything to The Menace, but rather someone may have heard information from him (or from him via someone else) and then talked to The Menace, possibly embellishing things along the way. Given the fact that The Menace made some pretty big goof-ups in their article, I have to be dubious about the accuracy of their more specific claims about the situation.
But even if we accept that she was perfectly happy at the Fuller home and wanted to stay there, and we further accept that had to be forced back to the academy (and then back to Ireland), we need to remember: She wasn't a nun and she didn't stay at the academy for long after being returned from the house, so for the purposes of this examination it doesn't matter. The worst interpretation one can make of it was that she was treated poorly at the academy so she ran off, was happy where she ran to and content to remain there, but then she got forced to go back to the academy and then forced back to Ireland. But even this worst interpretation does not support the narrative of her being a runaway nun forced back into the convent by the government on the behest of Rome.
I did do some research to try to find out what happened to her after she returned to Ireland. Of course, that's tricky to do when I only have the name, and with Nellie probably being a nickname for Ellen. Also, I had to figure out which Ireland she was from (at this point in history, Northern Ireland was part of the UK but the rest of Ireland was its own country). The Menace claims Northern Ireland but the other sources all say Ireland... while for obvious reasons I'm more inclined to trust the other sources, they could simply be counting Northern Ireland as part of Ireland; after all, it was in 1921 (only 7 years prior!) that Ireland was split into two countries. So, was it Northern Ireland or Ireland?
All of the sources agree that she was twenty years old during the events in 1927, which means she was born in either 1906 or 1907. Now, if I search at irishgenealogy.ie which has Irish birth records, I find two Ellen Fortunes born in this time period (there is no Nellie Fortune listed, but again Nellie is a nickname for Ellen, so Ellen would be what is listed on her birth certificate). One (found here; if this or other links to that site doesn't work you'll have to search manually) was born August 26 1906 in Enniscorthy to a Patrick Fortune and... actually, I can't quite read what the mother's first name is, but her mother's maiden name is Busher. Looking at marriage records on that site, I see a marriage between a a Patrick Fortune and Catherine/Katherine Busher on June 20, 1898 in Enniscorthy (weirdly, on one part of the form it says Catherine, but on the other it says Katherine). So her name was Catherine or Katherine. With this information in mind, it looks like the mother's name on the birth certificate was probably supposed to be Catie or Katie or something like that.
The other Ellen Fortune was born December 24 1906 in Belfast to... again, the handwriting is hard to read, but it looks like Albert Fortune and Ellen Fortune (maiden name Davidson).
Next I search at the specifically Northern Ireland birth records, at geni.nidirect.gov.uk. Here we have an Ellen Fortune born on December 24 1906 in Belfast to a mother with the maiden name of Davidson... in other words, this is the latter one we saw above. It presumably is included in the specifically Ireland records on the
grounds that Ireland had not yet been split up at that time. Direct links are not really possible on this site (you have to do a manual search) but the "Registration number" is U/1907/51/1007/56/149 so you'll know you're looking at the right one if it says that.
Now, in the Northern Ireland records site (geni.nidirect.gov.uk), there is listed an Ellen Fortune who died on June 29 1918 at the age of 10 in Belfast (date of birth is not listed on the death certificate, which is D/1918/49/1007/95/310). This is also listed on the irishgenealogy.ie site as well. Could this be the Ellen Fortune listed above that was born in Belfast? The age doesn't quite fit; she would have been 11 on this date. However, looking at the full image of the death certificate (this requires a payment to see on the Northern Irelands records site, but thankfully the other site lets you view it for free), it states she is "Daughter of Albert Fortune, Soldier". Due to the father's name and the city being the same as the Nellie Fortune born in Belfast, I think we can safely assume this was her, and they just got the age slightly wrong on the death certificate. This therefore cannot be the Nellie Fortune who went to the United States.
Thus the only Ellen/Nellie Fortune whose birth date fits is the daughter of Arthur Fortune that was born on August 26 1906, as found on the irishgenealogy.ie site (this isn't on the Northern Ireland site, geni.nidirect.gov.uk, because of course Enniscorthy isn't part of Northern Ireland). This is therefore the only Ellen/Nellie Fortune registered as born in Ireland who would have been 20 years old in 1927. And if this is our Nellie Fortune, then that means The Menace made another inaccuracy in which it claims she was from Northern Ireland, when she was actually from regular Ireland... in fact, the southern portion of regular Ireland at that.
So, now that we've identified who she was, what happened with her after she returned to Ireland? According to irishgenealogy.ie, a "Nellie Fortune" married a William Gorman on February 12, 1929, about two years after she returned, as seen here. Notably, this is the only Nellie Fortune listed in the marriage records; all of the others are listed as Ellen Fortune. This gives additional credence to it being her, because we knew she was going by the Nellie nickname just a few years prior and may have continued with it here. Now, it does not list her age on the marriage record (it merely says "Fullage" for both her and William Gorman) so I cannot verify her identity that way. However, it lists her father as Patrick Fortune (the same name as the father of the Ellen Fortune born on August 26!) and also lists "Katie Fortune" as one of those in attendance (the same name--or at least nickname--as the mother of the same Ellen Fortune!). Based on the parentage, this was most definitely the Ellen Fortune that was born on August 29, 1906 (now apparently going by the name Nellie so commonly it is even on her marriage form), and we can be quite secure that this is the Nellie Fortune that this whole hubbub was about.
She actually does have an entry at ancestry.com, available at https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/77018914/person/38352734082/facts (you have to subscribe to see it, unfortunately). We know this is the one we have just discussed as the date of birth and identity of husband are the same (though using O'Gorman rather than Gorman for the last name). It does not list when her death was, but does mention that she had seven children.
Beyond that, I haven't been able to find out too much. I tried searching some Irish newspaper archives, but the problem is that there are a lot of names she could be listed under (Ellen or Nellie as first name; Fortune, Gorman, or O'Gorman as last names) and when I find matches, in many cases it does not give enough information to determine whether it is her or not. But I suppose at this point it's just gravy; it's been proven that she was not a nun, was not imprisoned, and returned to Ireland and got married with children later on in life.
However, if anyone else knows more about what happened to Nellie Fortune after her return to Ireland beyond the fact she got married and had children, I would be very interested in hearing about it.
But the bottom line is that the claims one sees about Nellie Fortune online (which, as noted, is mostly just copy/pasting the article that is attributed to The Menace) are simply inaccurate. So inaccurate, in fact, that if you do see someone trying to spread this story, you should be skeptical of similar claims they may make; if they pushed the Nellie Fortune story without reservation despite its major inaccuracies, how much should they be trusted on other "horror stories" they might have? Now, it is true that the resources I used to disprove it have not always been online. However, as I noted before, the only apparent source for the claim of her being a nun and imprisoned against her will is a sensationalist article attributed to a highly biased source, which should have given people reason for caution regarding it; if nothing else, the story should have been accompanied with a disclaimer about how it had not been verified by a more neutral source. My above analysis is merely confirmation of the attitude people should have already had about the Nellie Fortune article that is attributed to The Menace.
It is true that this was a lot of work and research to do just to check into one relatively minor thing. But time spent correcting any error isn't a waste of time (it may, arguably, be time that would be better spent on something else, but not a waste of time). Hopefully, this blog post may lead to future correction of this error.