The St Louis Republic newspaper published “Forty Three Women who have Posed as Men”, April 27 1902. Online.
For the Sunday Times of Perth, WA, it was “Strange Mysteries of Wedded Life: Women Who have posed as Husbands”. Online.
The opening paragraph: “Within a year six women have been discovered, in America alone, who have successfully masqueraded as men; have gone through a legal form of marriage and even posed as the fathers of families. Upwards of a score of similar cases have come to public attention recently in different parts of the world. There have been forty-three instances of women posing as husbands within the last ten years. One medical authority claims that one woman in every 3,000 is a victim of this peculiar mania.”
1 in 3,000 is of course much higher than the 1 in 100,000 that would be so uncritically repeated in the late 20th century.
It then goes on to give a list. When the writer knows the long unused female name he gives it. In the list below I give the male if I know it.
👉 William Howard of Canandaigua, New York, who died 33 March 1902 after forty years of legal marriage. He left three children.
👉George Green of Petersburg, Virginia, originally from England, died age 74. He lived as male for sixty years, and had been married for thirty-five, blessed by the Roman Catholic Church. He worked as a manual laborer, including in the mines in Pennsylvania.
👉 Murray Hall of New York who had died the previous year and whom we have discussed in detail. GVWW.
👉 Charles W Hall, originally of Massachusetts, was returning with his wife from Europe for New York, when he died on board ship from complications due to alcoholism. The writer does not give his male name. GVWW.
👉 The writer claims the Chevalier d’Eon as a woman passing as a man!
👉 Frank Wayne of the US Army killed in battle in 1862.
👉 Franklin Thompson a soldier in the Second Michigan regiment.
👉 Charles D Fuller of the Forty-sixth Pennsylvania during the US Civil War.
👉 A “Mrs L N Blaylock of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina”, also during the Civil War. The writer does not give Blaylock’s male name.
👉 Christian Canenagh with the British Army in the Netherlands. Canenagh fought a duel with a superior officer, and after being outed, remained with the regiment as a cook.
👉 James Barry, military surgeon. GVWW.
👉 John Taylor, said here to be a steward on a trans-Atlantic liner. Actually he was a cabin boy in the French and English navies in turn during the revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. GVWW.
👉 Christian Walsh, in English Army.
👉 Felix Francoine of the Hungarian Army, who despite being outed at death, was buried with full military honours.
👉 Countess Carlotta May of Austria (male name not given) was ‘notorious’ in the 1890s for male clothes and activities, and was engaged to marry a woman. But then dramatically reverted to womanhood, female clothing and married a Count.
👉 Tony Teesa who worked in a hat factory in Yonkers.
👉 A person who had recently died age 103, who had kept a tavern near London for 17 years until one day a pauper was brought in who recognized his long lost wife.
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👉George Green of Petersburg, Virginia, originally from England, died age 74. He lived as male for sixty years, and had been married for thirty-five, blessed by the Roman Catholic Church. He worked as a manual laborer, including in the mines in Pennsylvania.
👉 Murray Hall of New York who had died the previous year and whom we have discussed in detail. GVWW.
👉 Charles W Hall, originally of Massachusetts, was returning with his wife from Europe for New York, when he died on board ship from complications due to alcoholism. The writer does not give his male name. GVWW.
👉 The writer claims the Chevalier d’Eon as a woman passing as a man!
👉 Frank Wayne of the US Army killed in battle in 1862.
👉 Franklin Thompson a soldier in the Second Michigan regiment.
👉 Charles D Fuller of the Forty-sixth Pennsylvania during the US Civil War.
👉 A “Mrs L N Blaylock of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina”, also during the Civil War. The writer does not give Blaylock’s male name.
👉 Christian Canenagh with the British Army in the Netherlands. Canenagh fought a duel with a superior officer, and after being outed, remained with the regiment as a cook.
👉 James Barry, military surgeon. GVWW.
👉 John Taylor, said here to be a steward on a trans-Atlantic liner. Actually he was a cabin boy in the French and English navies in turn during the revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. GVWW.
👉 Christian Walsh, in English Army.
👉 Felix Francoine of the Hungarian Army, who despite being outed at death, was buried with full military honours.
👉 Countess Carlotta May of Austria (male name not given) was ‘notorious’ in the 1890s for male clothes and activities, and was engaged to marry a woman. But then dramatically reverted to womanhood, female clothing and married a Count.
👉 Tony Teesa who worked in a hat factory in Yonkers.
👉 A person who had recently died age 103, who had kept a tavern near London for 17 years until one day a pauper was brought in who recognized his long lost wife.
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However this does not add up to 43 – only 17 by my count.
I'm guessing that this happened way more than is told.
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