Albert Cashier

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Albert Cashier

Albert Cashier (née Jennie Irene Hodgers) (December 25, 1843-1915), was an Irish-born soldier in the Union Army during the United States Civil War. He was female-bodied, but lived as a man.^[1]

Hodgers was born in Clogherhead, County Louth, Ireland sometime around 1844. According to later investigation by the administrator of his estate, he was the daughter of Patrick and Sallie Hodgers. His later accounts of how he moved to USA and why he enlisted were contradictory; he was quite old at that time. In 1862 he was living in Belvidere, Illinois.

On August 3, 1862 Hodgers enlisted into the 95th Illinois Infantry regiment using the name Albert Cashier and was assigned to Company G. Regiment served in the army of Tennessee under Ulysses S. Grant and fought in 40 battles, including in the siege at Vicksburg, the Red River Campaign and the combat at Guntown, Mississippi where they suffered heavy casualties.

Cashier fought alongside his comrades in over 40 battles. Other soldiers thought that Cashier was just small and preferred to be alone, which was not that uncommon. He was once captured in battle but fled back to Union lines after overpowering a prison guard. Cashier fought in the regiment through the war until August 17, 1865 when all the soldiers were mustered out.

After the war Cashier continued to live as a man. He worked as a farmhand and settled in Saunemin, Illinois in 1869. His first employer, Joshua Chesebro built a one-room house for him. For over 40 years he lived in Saunemin and worked as a church janitor, cemetery worker and street lamplighter. He even voted in elections and later claimed a veteran's pension. In later years he would eat with neighboring Lannon family. A later tale tells that Lannons discovered his sex was female when they asked a nurse to look at him, but they didn't make their discovery public.

In November 1910 Cashier was hit by a car and broke his leg. A physician discovered his sex was female in the hospital but agreed to remain quiet for the time being and May 5, 1911 Cashier was moved to the Soldier and Sailors home in Quincy, Illinois. Cashier lived there until his mind deteriorated and he was moved to insane asylum in Watertown State Hospital for the Insane in March 1913. A couple of attendants there discovered his sex was female when they tried to give him a bath, and he was forced to wear a dress.

Albert Cashier died on October 10, 1915. He was buried in the uniform he had kept intact all those years and his tombstone was inscribed "Albert D. J. Cashier, Co. 6, 95 Ill. Inf."

It took W.J. Singleton (executor of Cashier's estate) nine years to track Cashier's identity back to Jennie Hodgers. None of the would-be-heirs convinced him and the $418.461 was deposited to the Adams County, Illinois, treasury.

Author and veteran Lon P. Dawson, who lived at the Illinois Veterans Home (formerly known as the Soldiers and Sailors Home) in Quincy, Illinois where Cashier lived has written a biography called Also Known As Albert D. J. Cashier: The Jennie Hodgers Story.

There are plans to restore the house that Cashier lived in for forty years.

The novel "The Last Skirt", by Lynda Durrant, is based on his life.