Jennie Hodgers "Albert D. J. Cashier"

Born:  December 25, 1843, Clogherhead, County Louth, Ireland

Died:  October 10, 1915, Saunemin, Illinois

Resting Place:  Sunny Slope Cemetery, Saunemin, Illinois

Brief History:  Even before the advent of the war, Hodgers adopted the identity of Albert Cashier in order to live independently. Sallie Hodgers, Cashier's mother, was known to have died prior to 1862, by which time her child had traveled as a stowaway to Belvidere, Illinois, and was working as a farmhand to a man named Avery. ashier first enlisted in July 1862 after President Lincoln's call for soldiers. As time passed, the need for soldiers only increased. On August 6, 1862, the eighteen-year-old enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry for a three-year term using the name "Albert D.J. Cashier" and was assigned to Company G. Cashier easily passed the medical examination because it consisted of showing one's hands and feet. During the Civil War, many soldiers were young boys. After being shipped out by steamer and rail to Confederate strongholds in Columbus, Kentucky and Jackson, Tennessee, the 95th was ordered to Grand Junction where the regiment became part of the Army of the Tennessee under General Ulysses S. Grant. After the war, Cashier returned to Belvidere, Illinois, for a time, working for Samuel Pepper and continuing to live as a man.

Settling in Saunemin, Illinois, in 1869, Cashier worked as a farmhand as well as performing odd jobs around the town, and can be found in the town payroll records. Cashier lived with employer Joshua Chesbro and his family in exchange for work, and had also slept for a time in the Cording Hardware store in exchange for labor. In 1911, Cashier, who was working for State Senator Ira Lish, was hit by the senator's car, resulting in a broken leg. A physician found out Cashier's secret in the hospital, but did not disclose the information. Attendants at the Watertown State Hospital discovered Cashier's sex, at which point Cashier was made to wear women's clothes again after presumably more than fifty years of dressing as male. In 1914, Cashier was investigated for fraud by the veterans' pension board; former comrades confirmed that Cashier was in fact the person who had fought in the Civil War and the board decided in February 1915 that payments should continue for life. Albert Cashier died on October 10, 1915, and was buried in uniform. The government supplied the typical small gravestone used to mark a veteran's resting place which was inscribed "Albert D. J. Cashier, Co. G, 95 Ill. Inf." Cashier was given an official Grand Army of the Republic funerary service, and was buried with full military honors.