Johnny Gardner gets along, 1870
Given that even a teenaged boy could earn more than a woman could, more than one individual with a female body put on men’s clothing and went out to work. Johnny Gardner supplemented income by stealing and became another of those persons later generations learn about only because an arrest record. Gardner’s story was reprinted in newspapers across the nation.
A discovery was made. Ashland Times [Ashland, Ohio] 11 August 1870; p. 3.
A discovery was made in our jail the other day. A boy prisoner, apparently about sixteen years of age, who was arrested for stealing $107 in Sullivan from a farmer there, was discovered to be a young woman of about twenty-three years of age. She has for the past three years successfully disguised herself, passing for a boy. For over a year, we understand, she was a bell-boy at the Burnett House, Cincinnati, and has worked on a farm in other parts of the State, always passing for a boy, and doing a good day’s work. How she has so successfully evaded discovery so long is a mystery. Her reason assigned for adopting male attire is, that a boy can get along through the world so much easier and better than a friendless girl. It is said she is good looking in female attire, and is smart. She assumed the name of Johnny Gardner.
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