Charles Elmer, cigar seller, 1865

In 1865, cigar seller Charles Elmer briefly became a national sensation.

“State Items: A young ‘chap’ ” (from Hartford Courant [Hartford, Connecticut] 2 February 1865; p. 2)

A young “chap,” Charles Elmer, who has been engaged in the cigar business in Derby some time, proves to be a young woman in disguise. Her name is Clarissa L. Mosier, and she left her home in East Windsor several months ago in company with a man named Clark of Bridgeport. Her reasons for donning male attire are not stated. Suspicions concerning her sex was not excited until recently.—At one time she was engaged to be married to a young woman in Derby.

Apparently Elmer had lived as a man for two years.

“Gleanings: A curious bit of scandal” (from Hartford Times [Hartford, Connecticut]; reprinted in Buffalo Courier [Buffalo, New York] 6 February 1865; p. 2)

A curious bit of scandal has disturbed the quiet of Derby, Ct., lately. It appears that a young man who had lived there some two years, under the name of Charles Elmer, was discovered to be a woman. She was acting as agent for the sale of cigars furnished by Samuel Clark, of Bridgeport, and Mr. Clark found it necessary to visit his agent every week or two, to see that the business was not neglected. Charley joined heartily in all the merry-making of the young people, smoked his cigar and “smiled” with the lads, and was, altogether, a popular fellow. A number of matrons thought him a desirable person for a son-in-law, and some curious letters were found addressed to him on the subject. During the time of her residence in Derby, there was an interval of two or three months when Charley was absent in Oxford: the stories are that his cares and responsibilities were somewhat increased in the meantime. Finally an arrest was made in Derby, by an officer who suspected the truth, and Miss Clarissa L. Mosier, of East Windsor, was persuaded to don her appropriate attire. We don’t know what has become of her—perhaps she has been taken to the Retreat in Hartford, and perhaps she has established a cigar agency somewhere else.—Hartford Times.

(That Elmer was away from Derby for two or three months, during which Elmer’s “cares and responsibilities were somewhat increased” may be a hint that a pregnancy was involved.)

In the 1860 U. S. census for Windsor, Connecticut, seventeen-year-old Clarissa L. “Moshier” is listed as a factory operator living with E. A. Moshier (merchant; male aged 22; born in Ireland) and Mary Moshier (female aged 61; born in Connecticut). [See M653 roll #77; p. 131; house #60; family #83.]

Perhaps by moving to Derby Charles Elmer saw a chance at a more interesting life away from the factory at Windsor; perhaps Clarissa saw a chance to express an accurate identity away from the expectations of family. Whatever the background, Elmer isn’t mentioned again in American newspapers.