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Female Civil War vet's house back in Saunemin
By M.K. Guetersloh
mkguetersloh@pantagraph.com
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SAUNEMIN -- Board by board, the house that once hid the identity of a Civil War veteran is being dismantled as Saunemin starts restoring the Albert Cashier house.

Volunteers from the village board brought the building back to Saunemin after it sat for years at Pontiac’s street department garage. The city moved the 12- by 22-foot house from Saunemin in 1986 in an effort to save it. But without money or a piece of land to locate the house, it sat in city storage and continued to deteriorate.

“From an historical perspective, it is great to have the house back in Saunemin,” said Mayor Mike Stoecklin. The village already owns a lot Stoecklin said is “just feet” from where the house originally stood.

The house has been back in Saunemin less than two weeks but already workers are dismantling it to catalogue each piece as part of a complete restoration.

Cashier joined the Union Army, and after fighting in the Civil War, ,relocated to Saunemin, a village about 12 miles east of Pontiac. There, Cashier worked as a handyman and drew an Army pension. It was not until a car accident in 1911 that Cashier’s identity as a woman was discovered. Cashier really was an Irish immigrant named Jennie Hodgers.

Despite many attempts, Pontiac could not get a project together to save the house.

Pontiac City Administrator Bob Karls said the city had two problems: Finding a site to display the house and coming up with the money for the restoration.

“We knew when we did the restoration, we knew we had to do it right,” Karls said.

Stoecklin said Saunemin now is a position to do a historically accurate restoration of the house.

The village is using some of the $85,000 it received for the sale of property at Illinois 116 and Illinois 47 to State Oil in Libertyville. With the gas station project underway, Stoecklin said the village has a little more time to look at taking on another project.

Bringing back a piece of the village’s history also gives Saunemin a more solid tie to Cashier and a tourist attraction.

“Last summer, we had Civil War re-enactors that frankly stopped in Saunemin because of that connection,” Stoecklin said. “We learned a lot about him (Cashier) from the re-enactors.”

Cashier died in October 1915 and was buried in a Union Army uniform at Saunemin’s Sunnyslope Cemetery.

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Reader comments on this story - 3 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Costanza wrote on Apr 25, 2007 4:14 PM:

" I love it when Saunemin is in the news! Go Eagles! "

1962 Grad Saunemin Kindergarten wrote on Apr 25, 2007 10:25 AM:

" Great news! No more hiding for Albert Cashier's home. "

Young Mr Tipsord wrote on Apr 25, 2007 9:41 AM:

" Glad to read Saunemin finally has her house back, look forward too seeing the restoration in progress. "
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