Albert Cashier

I want to talk about a figure from America’s past: Albert Cashier. I don’t generally like ascribing queer identities to people who haven’t personally identified themselves that way, but I would call Albert Cashier transgender. However, to be completely upfront and fair, we didn’t have that kind of language to describe gender identity yet. I can explain my reasons for making the assumption that Albert Cashier was transgender (and believe me, I will), but why don’t you read this and decide for yourself? Let’s get into it.

Albert Cashier was born in Ireland on December 25, circa 1843 to parents Sallie and Patrick Hodgers, who named their child Jennie Irene Hodgers. Details from his early life are a bit hit-or-miss, as Cashier did not like to talk about his early life (and mostly did so while elderly and disoriented). Most of Cashier’s accounts, however, state that he first gave himself the name Albert when his stepfather dressed him in boys clothing in order to put the child into the workforce.

By 1862, Cashier had stowed away to the United States and taken up residence in Belvidere, Illinois. It was in that year that Cashier enlisted in the Union Army, joining the 95th Illinois Infantry. The 95th fought in 40 battles during the Civil War. Among these was the siege at Vicksburg, during which Cashier was captured by Confederate soldiers. He managed to escape, on his own, and returned to his unit. The 95th continued fighting until shortly after the war ended — as news of the end of the war did not reach them for several days. On August 17, 1865 the regiment was disbanded and Cashier was honorably discharged. Cashier had managed to survive the Civil War, and did so without suffering any severe enough injuries that anyone discovered he was biologically female. Cashier had earned a reputation for running headlong into danger and escaping unscathed.

Cashier returned to Illinois. Over the next four decades, Cashier worked in Illinois at a number of jobs, mostly involving manual labor. He also began to collect his veteran’s pension, living a fairly uneventful life until 1911. It was at this point that, in the course of his job at the time, a car hit Cashier and broke his leg near the hip. When he was examined by a doctor, Cashier’s secret was discovered. Fortunately, his employer and his doctor agreed to keep the secret for Cashier. Unfortunately, the injury meant that Cashier could no longer work. He moved into the Soldiers and Sailors Home in Quincy, Illinois.

In 1913, Cashier’s secret was discovered again — and knowledge of it began to spread. It is a little unclear how exactly this happened — and whether it happened before or after Cashier was moved to a the Watertown State Hospital for the Insane. (And when I say a little unclear, I mean I’ve now read several different biographies all of which give very precise details and none of which seem to line up whatsoever.) At the mental institution, Cashier was forced to wear skirts and women’s clothing for the first time in over 50 years. Cashier insisted upon pinning the skirts up into make-shift pants, which offended some of the other residents of the hospital but was permitted by the staff.

With Cashier’s secret out, the state of Illinois pursued charges against him for falsely collecting a soldier’s pension. Every single surviving member of Cashier’s old unit, however, came to Cashier’s defense — describing his bravery in the field of battle and consistently describing Cashier as a man. The state was forced to drop the charges.

At some point in 1915, Cashier tripped on his skirt and broke a hip. The injury became infected, ultimately leading to Cashier’s death on October 10. At the insistence of those who had served with him, he received an official Grand Army of the Republic funeral and was buried in full military honors. His tombstone read “Albert D. J. Cashier, Co. G. 95th Ill. Inf.”, although this was partly because it took the executor of Cashier’s estate nine years to trace him back to the name Jennie Hodgers.

As I said earlier, because gender identity was truly not understood the way it is today, there’s a case to be made that Cashier wasn’t transgender. Personally, given the descriptions of his behavior after being forced into women’s clothes, I don’t think that case holds up. In any case, the people in Cashier’s life were overwhelmingly positive and supportive when the truth came out, which was remarkable for the time.

(Adapted from this Facebook post.)