Smith

Outside of his work at the White House, little is known about Smith, including his full name. 

In 1845, President James K. Polk hired Smith to tend the dozens of fireplaces throughout the White House to keep the Residence and its occupants warm.¹ A furnace was installed in 1837 to provide warmth, and President Polk ordered its enhancement, but fires in hearths remained essential for warmth in the Residence throughout the nineteenth century.² Smith lived in the White House to perform his duties around the clock. 

He worked at the White House until August 30, 1848, when he passed away from an illness in the middle of the night. On the day of Smith’s death, President Polk wrote in his diary: “I was surprised to learn, as soon as I rose this morning, from the servants that an old servant named Smith, a colored man whom I have hired & had in my employment as a fire-maker during my whole term, died in his room in the President’s House about 1 O’Clock this morning. He has been confined to his room by a chronic disease for some weeks past, but his immediate dissolution was not anticipated.” In the diary entry, Polk describes Smith: “He was a free man & a faithful old servant. During his illness he was waited on & all his wants supplied by the other servants. I directed my stewart [steward] to procure a coffin & see that he was decently & properly interred. He was interred late in the evening. The expenses, as the stewart [steward] reported, were twenty dollars, which I directed him to pay & he did so.”³ Polk did not specify his burial location. Little else is known about Smith at this point.