Published March 18, 2024
By Iris Nelson
This stone was placed in 1915 when Albert Cashier Died (Courtesy of Find A Grave website)
This stone was placed in 1915 when Albert Cashier Died (Courtesy of Find A Grave website)
Albert Cashier’s regiment lost 289 men to battlefield death, wounds, and disease. The remaining men were mustered out on August 17, 1865 in Springfield, Illinois. Within a few days, Cashier had returned to Belvidere, the town of his enlistment. Jennie Hodgers had been gone a long time and as Albert Cashier had made the transition to civilian life without changing gender identity. He first became a nurseryman in Belvidere. Around 1869 Cashier moved to Saunemin, Illinois, 100 miles southwest of Chicago and lived there most of his life. He first found employment on the Chesebro farm, later at Cording’s Hardware Store. Eventually, Joshua Chesebro, bought a lot and built a one-room house for Cashier, where he kept primarily to himself and worked various jobs. Displayed among his sparse belongings was a shaving mug and brush. There was one thing that Cashier was able to do as a man that Jennie could not do as a woman: he could vote, and he did. Saunemin residents recalled Cashier casting many ballots.
In 1910, thirty-five years after the war’s end, Cashier became ill. His long-hidden gender identity was discovered. A neighbor, Mrs. P. H. Lannon, sent her nurse when she heard of Cashier’s illness. The nurse came running back to the Lannon house and yelled, “My Lord, Mrs. Lannon, he’s a full-fledged woman!” From an interview with Mrs. Lannon, it is known that she did not tell anyone.
That same year, however, Cashier was working as a chauffeur for State Senator Ira M. Lish and broke his leg in an accident. When the doctor set the fracture, he realized that Cashier was a woman. The injury incapacitated the veteran who by then was in her late sixties. The doctor and Senator Lish decided to have Cashier, weakened in mental health, admitted to the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home in Quincy, Illinois. An honorable discharge from the army was sufficient to be a resident. He was admitted on April 29, 1911.
The superintendent of the Soldiers’ Home, Colonel J. O. Anderson, was asked to keep Cashier’s gender confidential. Anderson gave Cashier more private accommodations but treated Cashier like any other resident. Nurses were also sworn to secrecy. Cashier enjoyed the company of the other veterans and is said to have delighted in recounting the activities of the 95th Illinois. After about a year, other physicians were consulted when Cashier was very ill. Again, Hodgers gender was not made public.
In February of 1913 Cashier was too senile to be cared for at the home. An order of application to “Try the Question of Insanity” had been filed a week earlier, and on February 26th two doctors concluded Cashier was insane. The Pension Bureau also started an investigation in March as part of a request for a raise in pension. At this point Cashier’s gender identity must have been revealed to the Federal Government. Rumors started, and by this time newspaper reporters had heard the suspicions about a woman who had been a soldier and tried to obtain information from Col. Anderson.
Soon the story broke! Page one headlines on the May 4th , 1913, Quincy Whig made the announcement, “WOMAN MASKED AS MAN FOUGHT IN CIVIL WAR: Identity of Sex of Albert D. J. Cashier, Now an Inmate of Quincy Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home Has Been Revealed by Superintendent Anderson.” Leroy Scott, a fellow veteran who gained Cashier’s confidence attempted to uncover her real name. Two weeks later the May 18th Quincy Whig headline stated, “CASHIER’S NAME MAY BE HODGES.” The story ran in numerous papers and continued into the spring. Some of the uncertainty in knowing Cashier’s identity evolves from the fact that he told various versions of his life.
The July 24, 1913 Quincy Daily Journal carried a flattering article about Cashier saying, “Since the sex of Albert Cashier became known at the Home, she has been a kind of ‘pet’ among the old comrades, who, instead of gazing at her curiously, have continued to make her one of their ‘cronies.’” The article continued in the same vein, implying that “Uncle Sam” would take care of her, describing her as “the grizzled little woman who went through the civil war disguised as a man….”
Cashier’s comrades remembered him and would visit the Home but were often unable to engage in conversation at this late time in his life. Newspaper reporters continued to be fascinated and tried to dig up more information about his life and service during the Civil War. By this time, Hodgers had passed as a man for over 50 years. The May 16, 1913 Quincy Daily Herald wrote, “To all she passed as a man, a quiet and reserved little man who did his duty as a soldier and had nothing to say of himself, even around the camp fire.”
On March 27, 1914, the Adams County Clerk issued a warrant for the commitment of Cashier to the Watertown State Hospital in East Moline, Illinois. By this time in Hodgers’ life, she was unable to recognize comrades and had continually wandered away from the home. Dementia was not recognized, and she was declared insane. A conservator who managed her finances referred to her as a “distracted person.” At Watertown she lived in the women’s ward, forced to wear a dress for the first time since her childhood. It was reported that the patient would pin a skirt together to make pants. She died a little over a year after she went to Watertown. A statement toward the close of her life may indicate the motivation in choosing to enlist, “Lots of boys enlisted under the wrong name. So did I. The country needed men, and I wanted excitement.”
Sources
“Cashier’s Name May Be Hodgers.” Quincy Whig, May 18, 1913.
“Little Late Locals.” Quincy Daily Herald, December 8, 1914, 5.
“Probate Court News.” Quincy Daily Journal, March 3, 1913, 7.
“Seeks To Revive Comrade-In-Arms.” Quincy Daily Herald, May 15, 1913, 4.
“Woman Kept Sex Secret.” Quincy Daily Herald, May 5, 1913, 6.
“Woman Masked As Man Fought In Civil War.” Quincy Whig, May 4, 1913.
“Woman Soldier Has Life Easy.” Quincy Daily Journal, July 24, 1913, 10.
“Woman Soldier Takes A Stroll.” Quincy Daily Journal, June 23, 1913,
This is the tombstone which was placed next to the original stone in 1970. It lists both Jennie Hodgers and Albert Cashier.
(Courtesy of Find a Grave website)
