Ellen (Nellie) Pucell Unthank

Nellie Pucell was nine years old when the snow caught the Martin Handcart Company in Wyoming. Both her parents died on the trail that terrible autumn of 1856, and her feet froze. When the survivors reached Salt Lake, there was nothing to do for her ruined legs but take them off below the knee — without anesthetic, with a knife and a saw. She spent the rest of her life moving on the stubs. In Cedar City she married, bore six children, took in washing, and knitted stockings to sell, and kept a spotless home. She never stopped.

What the plaque says

Ellen (Nellie) Purcell was born November 6, 1846 in Tintwhistle, England. At 9 she, with her parents and sister Margaret (Maggie), 14, began the trek from Iowa to Salt Lake Valley in 1856 with the Edward Martin Handcart Company. Early snows overtook the company, both Nellie's parents died on the trail. Nellie's feet were frozen. On arrival in Salt Lake Valley, she was strapped to a board. No anesthetics were available. Both her legs were amputated just below the knee with a butcher's knife and carpenter's saw. For the rest of her life she moved about on the painful stubs of her legs. At 24 in Cedar City she became the plural wife of William Unthank. His income was small. Beginning as a wife in a one-room log house with a dirt floor, she kept her home spotless. Nellie took in washing, she knitted stockings to sell. She gave birth to 6 children. Her Bishop and Relief Society occasionally brought food to her family. To even the score, once a year she and her children cleaned the meeting house throughout. Nellie died at 68 in Cedar City -- A noble representative of the rank and file of Mormon Pioneers.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brian Head — 12 mi
  Utah's highest town — a ski-and-bike base camp at the top of Parowan Canyon
• Cedar Breaks National Monument — 13 mi
  A 2,000-foot-deep amphitheater of vivid orange and red rock
• Parowan Gap Petroglyphs — 13 mi
  An ancient rock art gallery hidden in a desert canyon
• Kolob Canyons — 17 mi
  The quiet, uncrowded back door to Zion National Park

More markers nearby

• Ward Hall — 0.5 mi
• Iron Pioneers Flag Pole — 0.6 mi
• The Old Iron Foundry — 0.7 mi
• Deseret Iron Works (2) Markers — 0.8 mi