Fanny Mills — “Ohio Big Foot Girl”
Wikimedia CommonsFanny Mills had Milroy’s Disease, which caused her feet to swell.
Born in England around 1860, Fanny Mills immigrated with her family to America at an early age. The family settled down in Ohio. And before long, Mills’ parents knew there was something unusual about their daughter.
As a girl, Mills’ feet started to grow — and grow, and grow. Though she was just 115 pounds, her feet stretched 19 inches long, and seven inches wide. She wore pillowcases as socks, and the skin of three goats as shoes.
Her rare condition was caused by Milroy’s Disease (so named in 1892), which causes swelling in the lower limbs of the body.
By 1885, Mills began to wonder if she could profit from her uncomfortable condition. With the help of a friend named Mary Brown, Mills set out to the East Coast in hopes of putting herself on display. Showmen eagerly accepted her offer and billed her as the “Ohio Big Foot Girl.”
To crowds, showmen described Fanny Mills as having the “biggest feet on Earth.” One circus ad even boasted, “the old woman that lived in a shoe would have rented out apartments if she had resided in one of Miss Mills.'”
Circus promoters also drew audiences by claiming that Mills’ father would pay any man willing to marry her $5,000. However, Mills’ father was, in fact, deceased, and Mills had married Mary Brown’s brother William in 1886.
For about seven years, Fanny Mills continued to display her feet to curious audiences. She could sometimes earn $150 a week. But her health suffered after a miscarriage in 1887, and Mills retired from freak show life in 1892.
She and her husband returned to Ohio, where Fanny Mills died at age 39.
