Albert Cashier House Update

(September 2010)

    In June of 2009 we retold the story of Albert D.J. Cashier and we traveled to Saunemin, one of our small Livingston County towns, where we hoped  to see his house and grave.  We found only a corner lot with the outline of a foundation and a nice sign, but no house.  When this article appeared on the front page of the newspaper the other day, we thought you, too, might like to see the progress on Albert’s new home.   Click here for our June 2009 article about Memorial Day and Albert, our woman warrior of the Civil War..

http://www.lexingtonillinoisfort.org/Articles/2009/June/MemorialDayRemembered.htm

Taken from The Daily Pantagraph  by M.K. Guetersloh  Friday, August 27, 2010 

SAUNEMIN — The restoration of Albert D.J. Cashier’s house and a festival that highlights the Civil War brings a lot of attention to a person who tried to be as private as possible.

        “I wonder if he is looking down on us and wondering what the heck we are doing here,” said Al Arnolts, who is helping restore the house. “But this is a unique story that needs to be told.”

        The story of Cashier — a woman who joined the Union Army as a man — and Civil War historians took center stage in August 2010 during Saunemin’s 12th annual Summer Celebration. It included a fishing derby, bean bag tournament, live music and fireworks.  Most of the events were at the Saunemin school athletic field or downtown.  Mayor Bob Bradford said the event is a way for Saunemin to show it is more than a “sleepy little town.” Saunemin, a town of about 450, is about 10 miles east of Pontiac.

Albert’s story:

        Cashier was born in 1844 in Ireland as Jennie Hodgers. She immigrated to the United States as a teen; in 1862, she changed her identity and enlisted in the Union Army as Albert D.J. Cashier.

        “He was a very private person so he probably wouldn’t like us talking about him,” Mayor Bradford said. “But we try to make his legacy as well known as possible.”

        Cashier’s house in the village of Saunemin was 12 by 22 feet, roughly the size of a modern-day one-car garage, and sits on a corner lot at Maple and Center streets. Its exterior restoration is almost done, Arnolts said, but the interior renovation may have to wait until next year.  The front is sided with original cedar salvaged from the rest of the home, Arnolts said. New cedar siding was added to the other three sides.

        Since the early 1980s, the house had been moved to several locations in Livingston County. It was returned to Saunemin in 2005, where the post-war Cashier had worked as a handyman, drawing an Army pension and participating in elections.

“Albert was voting long before women were allowed to,” Bradford added.

        Cashier was hit by a car in 1910 and his injuries eventually took him to the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home in Quincy. He died Oct. 10, 1915, at the Watertown State Hospital in East Moline. He is buried in Sunny Slope Cemetery in Saunemin, where his grave is marked with both his Army service and his name at birth.

        -- Bill Kemp, archivist/historian for McLean County Museum of History, contributed information for this story.

    More information about Albert and others can be found in the book Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War  by Richard Hall.  We have a copy at The Fort.

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