A dressmaker, 1853
When a dressmaker died in Virginia in 1853, the death sparked a paragraph reprinted in newspapers across the U. S. The dressmaker was a transwoman who lived so successfully in her new life that until her death no one knew that she had been assigned male at birth.
“A Man in Disguise.” Virginia Herald [Fredericksburg, Virginia]; reprinted in Alexandria Gazette [Alexandria, Virginia] 24 May 1853; p. 4.
Last summer a (reputed) female was going the rounds, instructing ladies in the art of cutting dresses, &c., hailing from the North, we believe. We understand that this person recently died in one of the upper counties, when the discovery was made that the cutter of ladies’ garments was a man in disguise—one who had donned the petticoats for some unexplained reason, and passed for a female until after death.—Fred. Herald.
Things got confusing when the Albany Evening Journal picked up the story and appeared to state that the dressmaker had taught in New York.
There was. Albany Evening Journal [Albany, New York] 1 June 1853; p. 2.
There was, a year or two ago, a person in female attire, in this quarter of the world, teaching the art of cutting out ladies’ dresses. The teacher had a considerable number of lady pupils, who will be surprised to learn that the person was a man and not a woman;—a fact only ascertained at his decease in Fredericksburgh, Va., a few days since.
Perhaps the dressmaker did teach in New York; it might explain the “Northern” accent.
Who was the woman? Death records I’ve been able to consult include a tailor dying in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on 4 March 1853: James Lyon, age 72, born in Falmouth; I haven’t found him listed in the 1850 census. (See Virginia, Death Registers, 1853–1911. Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. [Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Death Registers, 1853-1911 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2022.] Lyon is on line 27.)
Lyon may have been the individual mentioned or may not. But certainly this person managed to live life as she understood herself, clear to the end.
previous: Emma Snodgrass goes viral, 1852-1853
next: Following the river, 1854
To “Nineteenth-Century American Children & What They Read”
Some of the children | Some of their books | Some of their magazines
Some works for adults, 1800-1872