Ria Brodell

Annie Morris aka Frank Blunt, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, left an abusive home at the age of thirteen with a younger brother, and lived as Frank Blunt for fifteen years before being arrested on larceny charges.

The following was published in The Badger State Banner of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, on January 18th, 1894:

 ANNA MORRIS GIVEN ONE YEAR

Anna Morris, alias Frank Blunt, the woman who has tried to be a man for the last fifteen years, was sentenced to the penitentiary for one year by Judge Gilson at Fond du Lac. She was arrested several months ago in Milwaukee charged with stealing $175 in Fond du Lac. It was then discovered that the prisoner was a woman, although she had worn masculine attire nearly all her life. A jury convicted her of larceny and a motion for a new trial was overruled. After the sentence had been passed Gertrude Field, a woman who claimed to have married the prisoner in Eau Claire, fell upon the neck of the prisoner and wept for half an hour. This woman has furnished all the money for Blunt’s defense, and now proposes to carry the case to the Supreme Court. 

Sources:

Katz, Jonathan. Gay American History: Lesbians And Gay Men In The U.S.A. New York: Crowell, 1976.

Lesy, Michael. Wisconsin Death Trip. New York: Pantheon 1973.

“She Posed as a Man.” The Aurora Daily Express 14 Jul. 1893: 2.

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