Levi Pomphrey

Levi Pomphrey was born in August 1792 in Prince George’s County, Maryland.¹ He was part of a well-to-do family who owned land and enslaved people in Maryland.² By 1824, Pomphrey was living in Washington, D.C.³ It is unclear when he began working at the White House but he first appears in President John Quincy Adams’s diary on October 19, 1826 and is identified as a coachman.⁴ As coachman, Pomphrey drove the carriages that President Adams and his family used to travel around Washington, D.C., and on their trips throughout the country. He also helped care for the horses used to pull the carriages. 

In October 1827, Pomphreys suffered an eye injury. On November 16, President Adams recorded in his diary: “Dr Wallace after dinner went and looked at Mr Pomphrey our Coachman’s eye, which he thinks not entirely lost. The ball however has broken, two Night’s since, after a severe and painful inflammation, with which he has been afflicted since our return from Baltimore [in October]. Dr Staughton who attends him pronounces the eye lost. Dr Huntt had doubts.”⁵ It is unknown whether Pomphrey lost his eye, but we do know he continued to work as a coachman at the White House after the injury. 

After Andrew Jackson entered the White House as president in March 1829, Pomphrey left his job. On March 30, 1829, Adams recorded in his diary: “Mr Pomphrey our Coachman left us, and thus one by one the members of our Presidential family, are departing, to leave us in the solitude of Retirement—”⁶ Pomphrey remained in Washington, D.C. and operated a stable and livery business located behind Gadsby’s Hotel.⁷ He passed away on September 23, 1858 and was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C.⁸