11. Harry Allen: The Tough Living Transgender Man of the American West
Nell Pickerell began to dress as a man at a young age. With a violent, alcoholic father, life was hard in the family, and so young Nell needed to find work. Boys always obtained the most lucrative jobs – so Nell began to dress in male clothing, using the name Harry Allen or occasionally Harry Livingston to help her get work. In his teens, Harry graduated from working as a farmhand to working on an ocean liner sailing between San Francisco and Sydney. The work was hard, but Harry enjoyed it. Back in America, Harry settled in various Midwest towns where he continued to live as a man.
Harry lived a tough life, making a living as a petty criminal and earning a reputation as a rabble-rouser. He got into drunken fights, once throwing a spittoon at a man in a saloon. He also became notorious for ‘seducing’ pretty girls. Harry served jail time for many of these crimes and misdemeanors, and when the media found out the “most handsome boy” was, in fact, a woman, they had a field day. The reports continually emphasized Harry’s ‘female’ identity- even though Harry himself regarded himself as male despite his designated female gender. Eventually, the pain of being so shamed and misunderstood took its toll. Harry began to depend increasingly on drugs and alcohol and in 1922 died aged 40.