Ignatius Ruppert

Ignatius Ruppert was born in Germany in 1819.¹ In 1849, Ignatius replaced Henry Bowman as the steward in President Zachary Taylor’s White House.² President Taylor brought close to fifteen enslaved people with him to the White House.³ Ignatius oversaw four paid servants, three housemaids and one butler, as well as the enslaved household staff.⁴ After President Taylor’s death in 1850, Ignatius stayed on as steward for President Millard Fillmore and left the White House with Fillmore in 1853.⁵ 

Following his time at the White House, he worked as a messenger and then clerk for the Treasury Department.⁶ He died in 1880 and is buried at Saint Marys Catholic Cemetery.⁷ 

Thank you to Michael Cohen and Amy Larrabee Cotz, editors of the Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore papers, for providing research assistance with this biography.