Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to

explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

Legendary individuals aren't usually born as legends.

They work hard and accomplish great things during their lifetime.

In other words, legends are made.

But while some might spend their lives earning their legendary status,

others find loopholes, workarounds, to cement their place in history.

People.

Sarah Emma Edmonds was born Sarah Edmondson in New Brunswick, Canada in the winter of 1841.

She lived on a farm with her parents, multiple sisters, and one brother.

Apparently her father had wanted another boy to help with the farm,

and so Sarah often bore the brunt of his abuse simply for being born a girl.

She passed the time by reading stories of fantasy and adventure, like those of Fannie Campbell,

the female pirate captain. Fanny was a fictional character who had set sail during the American

Revolution to save her

fiancé and wound up becoming the captain of a pirate ship. These stories swirled around in Sarah's

head as an escape from her daily life. But they also got her thinking, there must be something

better out there, away from her father. And so when she was 15 years old, she left home with her mother's

help, partly to get as far from her father as possible, and also because she was set to be married

soon. She then changed her last name to Edmonds and never looked back. Her dad eventually

...