Patrick Toomey
Cite this Page
"Patrick Toomey," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/337.
- Position
- Grounds Laborer
- Years in President's House
- circa 1855 – 1858
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Biography
- Patrick Toomey likely worked at the White House as a grounds laborer. He appears on the 1855 and 1857 registry of federal government employees, listed as a laborer for the public grounds in Washington, D.C., which included the White House Grounds, Lafayette Park, and the Capitol grounds. Toomey was listed alongside several other laborers who are confirmed to have worked at the White House under head gardener John Watt.1 It is unclear at this time if he worked in this role prior to 1855. Little else is known about Toomey at this time.2
- Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1855 (Washington: A.O.P. Nicholson, 1855), 95; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1857 (Washington: A.O.P. Nicholson, 1857), 97.
- There were at least two men from Ireland named Patrick Toomey living in Washington, D.C., in the 1850s. One was born in 1793 and passed away on July 3, 1858 and was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. The other was born around 1824 and passed away in D.C. on October 28, 1857. See “Patrick Toumey” in the U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-current, accessed via Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60525/records/132211875?tid=&pid=&queryId=9cf92c9f-8b82-4d15-9627-c7046ced16d6&_phsrc=KCT2600&_phstart=successSource, and the Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), October 29, 1857, pg. 3. It is unclear at this time which, if either, was the Toomey that worked as a grounds laborer.
- Birthplace
- Ireland
- Unclear from Context
- Related Worker
- John WattGardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, 1853 – 1861