Walter Huntington gets an education, 1870

“A Fast Youth.” Pittsburg Commercial [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] 29 November 1870; p. 4.

An Old Sensation Brought to Light—A Young Man From Winchester—What He Did While in the City.

An old sensation, which probably in a few months more would have been buried within the tomb of the forgotten past, was accidentally discovered by a reporter of the Commercial yesterday, and the affair is one of the most singular cases that has ever occurred in this or any other city. The facts in the case, as nearly as they can be ascertained at present writing, are about as follows:

Some three years ago one rainy afternoon a young man, giving his name as Walter Huntington, slightly built, and of feminine voice, called at a highly respectable boarding house kept by Mr. J. W. Wallace, No. 163 Wylie street, and wished to engage board. Terms were agreed upon and the young man obtained a comfortable second story room with two beds, the room being shared by another boarder. Everything passed along quietly for a few months, but the former occupant of the room, who was a painter by trade, found his companion remarkably reticent, and the two did not live on very intimate terms. However, the new comer appeared to be of unexceptionable conduct and was highly respected by all the occupants of the house. He retired early, appeared averse to dissipation, and although frequently attending political meetings with new found friends and visiting places of amusement, he never drank anything or appeared to enter very much into the amusements common to fast young men of the present time. He appeared to have no regular business, but paid all his bills regularly and obtained a place on the assessment roll of the ward, kept by Alderman Butler, as W. Huntington, gentleman, No. 163 Wylie street; paid taxes regularly and voted at the Seventh Ward elections. During the winter for one or two seasons he spent a good share of his time at a cigar store, corner of Wylie and Tunnel streets, and one winter condescended to act as a salesman of the fragrant weed.

Meantime his room mate, the painter, moved out and an employee at the Union Depot moved in, but the young man was as before very guarded in his coversation, and kept his own side of the room. Gradually, over a year ago, he began to be slightly delinquent in the matter of his board bill, and before the suspicions of the landlady were aroused had become her debtor to the amount of about two hundred dollars. He represented that he had wealthy relatives, expected money soon and would certainly pay.

Suddenly, however, strange revelations were made. Some of the relatives of the supposed young man made their appearance in the city sometime in April last, and the startling fact was revealed that the supposed young man was a young lady, who had left her home near Winchester, Virginia, and for some reason unknown to the maiden aunt, with whom she lived, had assumed the pantaloons and led a strange life for the past two years and a half. Nothing whatever is known against the character of the strange young girl, and in consequence of her youth and respectable relatives the name is suppressed. Many of the parties of the cigar store mentioned will doubtless remember her distinctly. She was about twenty-two years of age, small form, and had an effeminate voice, but still her disguise was so perfect that she successfully eluded detection until the arrival of her friends in the city. The painter and the young man from the Union depot, who occupied the same room with her for a long time discredited the story.

“The Fast Youth.” Pittsburg Commercial [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] 30 November 1870; p. 4.

The publication of the item in yesterday’s Commercial in regard to the young lady from Winchester who succeeded for three years in passing at a respectable boarding house for a young man, has brought to light a number of interesting circumstances connected with the affair. She is distinctly remembered by a large number of her companions in the city, who never dreamed of her sex while enjoying the pleasure of her acquaintance. The painter who roomed with her for several months is now employed at Seymour & Bros., Diamond alley near Wood street. Our reporter was informed yesterday upon reliable authority that the girl while at the boarding house made love to a highly respectable young lady, escorted her to church every evening, and finally entered into a matrimonial engagement to keep up the delusion. An ex-teacher at Duff’s Commercial College says that Walter Huntington (the distinguished young lady) went through a complete commercial course at that place, and graduated with honor, and while he often wondered at her girlish appearance, he always considered her as a very precocious boy. The story, as published yesterday, is undoubtedly true, and the half of it has probably not yet been told, although the unthinking may be inclined to doubt the old maxim that “Truth is stranger than fiction”—and a great deal more readable.